Friday, the second of February

A wintery look, if not quite wintery feel for an end of week morning coffee muses.

It’s cool, the north wind is blustery, the sun barely makes a bright spot through low, heavy clouds. It looks like February.

The bird life is hunkered down out of the wind. They can be heard, but not seen moving about.

The predominant sound for the morning is the wind in the pines. It’s not a roar, not a whistle, more like the sound of waves at the beach. Gently adding a background sound to the basic quietness.

The prognosticators are foretelling that the day will just like this for it’s entirety. Then it will get cooler overnight. And I’m still watching the forecast for next week, trying to pick a day for a road trip.

My fingers are feeling the chill, I’m heading in…

The news is playing, not the same as the natural quiet outside. Now I’m out in the real world where little girls are preyed upon by monsters, kids are shot in school, and our country is being split apart by an immoral President.

Yesterday one of my cousins posted a Facebook screed about how disrespectful Democrats were for not standing up for President Trump’s guests at the State of the Union. It didn’t take long for someone to comment that every Democrat was treasonous. This is the atmosphere in America after over two decades of Fox News driven Tea Party conservatism. A splintering of comity in this country. An inability to compromise, to speak to each other.

Our President called for America to come together. But he has never modeled the call. His every action, every tweet, every speech causes division, creates controversy… And that’s what his base wants. The Mueller investigation has him obstructing the rule of law, using his propaganda arm, Fox News, to spread the real fake news that he is being persecuted… Fake News. The only real story about “our” President is… for the first time in his life, Donald Trump is being Herald to the same laws that the rest of us are held to… And the big bully doesn’t like it.

Republicans in Congress spent eight years trying to attach the label of treason to the Democrats. You obstructed everything Democrats at every turn. You called the Democratic President a liar during a State of the Union address. And yet you folks are appalled when your President is treated in the same way… Really… Really.

I’ve had enough for the day. Your audacity continuously amazes me.