lest we forget
It’s raining heartily on the farm as it has been for the past five days, and is predicted to for the next five. It is more welcome than usual. We typically have our autumn rains end our dry summers in mid-September. Our micro-hydro system is humming again, although it’s not as productive as usual because we need to replace some parts in our Pelton turbine. And so it goes.
Jude and I are still breathing a gale of relief from the mid-terms. Sure, Trump continues to trundle along, elevating Jim Jordan to replace Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. Jordan has a pugnaciousness similar to Pete Hegseth’s, but he developed it as a champion NCAA wrestler, not as a military jock. Johnson, I assume, will serve Jesus in some other capacity. Aging Orange will continue to sail on his sea of delusion until Satan cries “Hold, enough!”
But let us not forget the importance of this day. Days, really. Yesterday was the 251st anniversary of the first recruitment of Marines, at Tun’s Tavern in Philadelphia. So I am hoisting a beer for my Leatherneck buddy Eddie Weekfall. I had hoped we would drain some after we returned to civilian life, but he was killed in ‘nam. I still miss ya, Bub.
Hegseth managed to bespoil Veterans Day when someone in a group he was in laughed at Arlington National Cemetery, prompting the Army sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to reprimand them. This was horrible timing, at the most solemn place in America on the most solemn day, but it won’t move any needles.
The real hill to die on is the opposition to the memorial arch Trump wants to build in D.C. Numerous military groups and the Kennedy family are opposing it, but Donny Jay and his bottomless ego relentlessly presses on. The ballroom, a new golf course and a leaky reflecting pool are simply not enough for him. I can’t let go of the fact that the millions it would cost could provide food, shelter and health care for the masses.
This just in: Democrat Scott Colum has won a Senate seat in Mississippi, becoming the first Black person to win a statewide office there since Reconstruction. He beat out other-protein-promoter Cindy Hyde-Smith, giving the Dems their 55th Senate seat.
