Peace of Cake

 The Donald has been a busy boy.  The latest "squirrel" his administration has concocted  to distract the press and the public from the shitstorm that is America today, is the big announcement of diplomatic normalization between Israel, the United Arab Emirate, and Bahrain.  Bibi Netanyahu, and the representatives of the UAE and Bahrain met in the White House for a photo opportunity.  A feather in the cap of Trump and his little elfin son-in-law. Jared.  Not hardly.

The three countries have simply formalized what had been normally occurring for years.   But both Trump and Bibi need this pomp and glitz to help them in their respective countries.  The Donald is pushing for a Nobel Peace Prize.  He has been nominated for, not one but two, Nobel Awards by a Scandinavian right-wing group.  Good luck with that.  All that it took to get these two Arab countries to sit still for for the signing was the promise to keep selling them sophisticated weapons and fighter jets.  That and their mutual hatred and distrust of Iran.

Before you get too excited over peace in the middle-east, lets have a closer look at what exactly this agreement insures.  The concessions from Israel?  None.  Netanyahu declared even before the inking of the agreement that "annexation is still on the table". He believes that because the UAE offered this olive branch for naught, just proves that Israel does not have to give up land for peace.  The Arab and Muslim  countries have had a long standing agreement since the "Arab Peace Initiative" was passed unanimously in 2002, which offered diplomatic normalizations with Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from the area seized in the 1967 war.  In doing so, Israel would have to abide by international law.  All the more of a stab in the back to the Palestinians by the UAE and Bahrain, and making it even more difficult to establish a two-state solution.  The US has lost all credibility in those negotiations.

The Arab Peace Initiative would have given Israel veto power over future Palestinian rights.  Israel not only rejected the proposal it has continued to bulldoze Palestinian homes to make room for more settlements.  The right-wing government of Bibi Netanyahu has continued to support the outright annexation of even more territory.  So, what does the signing of today's agreement mean?  Not much.  With a population of 1.4 million people for the UAE and 1.6 million for Bahrain, the break-away by these two countries is  hardly a consensus of the middle-east countries whose aggregate population is 423 million Arabs and 1.8 billion Muslims.

Needless to say, both Trump and Netanyahu are over the top delighted to have coerced these two Arab countries to the table, without any concessions by Israel.  But as the old saying goes; "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".  And now all three will have substantially greater fire-power to deter any advances by Iran.  And Trump he gets bragging rights, and the little elf, he gets a pat on the head from his wife the Trumpette.  But in fact, Trump getting these three together is like putting the Trump name on a hotel that is already built. 

And the distraction, well the great peace initiative has driven the pandemic, the wild fires and even the hurricane off the news for a while.  But they are still there, and Trump cannot hide for very long.  Americans are still dying at a rate of 1000 per day; forest fires are still raging in federal preserves that have been stripped of their funding under the Trump administration; and hurricane Sally is dallying just outside on the coast of Louisiana threatening to dump 3 feet of rain on already water-logged ground. And Trump has 'borrowed' the FEMA funds to give a pittance to those unemployed by the pandemic, for only six weeks before the money runs out.    

Things just keep getting worse,  Perhaps he can try his hand at getting Serbia and Kosovo to sign a peace agreement.  They were getting close until the ham-handed Trump administration stepped in and unraveled the negotiations by insisting that both countries move their embassies to Jerusalem.  That must be the work of the little elf.  Maybe his real estate holding company has some cheap property in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood that they are trying to unload. 

                                                                                I'm just sayin'

How Am I Doing Folks?

 There are some people, that no matter how bad the news is for Donald Trump they will not desert him.  Just this past week three books have come out detailing how really inept and dangerous to America this president truly is.  The reply from the faithful is; 'Well I may not always like what he does but look at what he has done for the country since he has become president.'  So lets look at what Donald promised back when he was running for president and what he has actually got done.

      1) Trump promised to build a wall. A beautiful wall, to keep out the criminals, rapists and murderers who are crossing the border daily.  It will be a two-thousand-mile wall.

As of today, exactly five miles of new wall have been built, approximately three hundred mile of wall have been refurbished.  I guess that counts.

      2) Mexico is going to pay for the wall.

To date not one peso has crossed over into to the US Treasury from Mexico.  In fact, the Mexican president has said, "We are not paying for any fucking wall."  I think that about says it all

      3) Trump said he would round up all the illegal immigrants and send them home to the shithole countries they came from.

In fact, Trump has stopped many asylum seekers from entering the country, and not allowing them to stay while there case is being decided.  He also separates them from their children and places the children in wire cages.  All this in hope of discouraging new refugees.  But the illegals who were here before, they're still here, picking your farm produce.

      4)  Trump promised to be the 'Law and Order' president.

So far, there have been riots and lawlessness increasing in many large and small cities.  Crime and gun violence has increased in the major cities.  But Trump is blaming all this on the incoming administration.  What will happen if it is him, god forbid, incoming then who will he blame?

      5) Trump vowed to always protect American lives.

So far over 190,000 people have died from a pandemic that he deliberately lied to the American people about.  He knew the severity but played it down for months, and he did it to keep the Stock Market from crashing.  The economy was the lynch pin to his reelection.

       6)  Trump promised to do away with the Affordable Care Act -ACA - know as Obama Care.

So far, the ACA is still protecting Americans with affordable insurance, though the Trump administration is in court suing to have it thrown out.  This in the middle of a pandemic.  Thank you John Mc Cain.  

       7)  Trump promised a cheaper and better medical plan to replace Obama Care.

To date there has been no new plan from the Trump administration, though he is still making that promise.  Maybe in the next four years?

       8) Trump had promised the greatest job creation ever.

This promise falls way short, Obama created more jobs in his last three years than did Trump  in his last three years and now there are 13-million people out of work and 8.5% unemployment, OK that's only partly his fault.  But had he acted sooner the figures would look a lot better.

       9)Trump promised to clean up Washington DC, he would 'Drain the Swamp' of the career politicians.

Well someone did because there have been eight people associated with the Trump campaign or his administration that have been charged or convicted of felony criminal offenses.  We're still counting.  

     10)Trump promised to nominate only conservative candidates to fill the judicial vacancies.

This has been a promise made and a promise kept.  But only with the help of the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnel. This court will not be know as Trumps court but as the McConnel court.

     11) This is the biggest farcical promise yet.  Donald Trump promised to always tell the truth to the American people.  

This one is no contest, and it's not even close.  As of this writing, Trump has told more than 20,000    lies.  

     12) Trump had promised to rebuild the county's infrastructure by building and/or repairing roads highways, and bridges.

Just another empty promise, not one dollar has been budgeted for infrastructure in the three years of Trumps presidency, despite it having  bi-partisan approval.

     13) Trump promised to cut taxes for the middle class.

Only if the middle class are those with incomes of $200 million or greater, but then again, maybe to Donald that is the middle class.

    14) Trump promised to reduce the $19-trillion debt.

In his first year, he added to the debt. And now this may not be all his fault, because of the pandemic the deficit is expected to be $35 trillion, equal to the nation's GDP by the end of the year if not sooner.

     15)  Trumps biggest boast was that he would end our trade deficits with other countries

Here he failed big time.  To Trump trade is a zero-sum game, and to that end he placed tariffs on friends, allies, and frenemies alike.  The result was disastrous to the nation's farmers and auto manufacturers. The treasury attempted to assuage the farmers at a cost to the taxpayers, just as they were being saddled with the tariffs from the other countries.  The result of all this trade manipulation, an increase in the trade deficit greater than the ones under the Obama administration.   

    16) Trump had promised to rebuild the military.

But instead of money going to the military that had already been allocated in the budget, Trump took the money from the military to build his beautiful wall.

     17)  And least but not anywhere last, was Trump promised that there would be peace between Israel and Palestine.

This is probably the most egregious lie of all.  Trump sent his idiot of a son-in-law to work a deal in the middle-east.  The result of which is greater tension between the two countries and the region in general.

This is by no means the only failures of the Trump administration but I am too depressed to continue.  So, let's see how Trump has done with his major promises.  Seventeen promises made and how many were kept?  Well we counted ONE.  that's it folks, one promise kept.    Still think he's working for you?

                                                                        I'm just sayin'    

This. Is. Not. Normal.

 In a normal election, we would be rubbing our hands gleefully and anticipating the harm to Trump among his patriotic base.  But this is not a normal election, his base is dismissing his disparaging words about the military as just so much 'fake news'.  And they are sticking with him as he tramples everything they claim to hold dear.  And the military brass stands beside him, closed mouth.

But I am angry, I am sad, and I am thoroughly disgusted.  And I am tired of feeling this way.  I am so very tired of this knot in the pit of my stomach.  Tired of waking every morning to some other vile and foul utterance from this man.  Just when you think he cannot possibly stoop any lower, he surprises everyone with something even worse.  

The report in The Atlantic of Trumps attack on the military had hit too close to home for me.  My husband served in the Marine Corp in WWII.  He was not a loser and he was not a sucker.  He chose to enlist in the waning days of the war, when the number of eligible men had been exhausted, and no more able men could be found.  His mother reluctantly signed for him, and he spent his 18th birthday on Guadalcanal.  But because of his sacrifice, men like my father, much older, could stay home with his family.  And work for the war effort building military vehicles.

My husband never talked about his two years in the Marines, he had signed up for the duration and six months, all of it served in the Pacific.  There was a box, that I gave our son after my husband died.  It contained his medals and commendations.  As far as I know, my husband never looked at them. 

When the war in Viet Nam was raging, my brother, inspired by his brother-in-law, also joined the Marines.  He was in college and he had a deferment.  But three of his high school buddies enlisted, and so for what ever reason that boys go off to war, my brother felt he must go. He is not a loser; he is not a sucker. Of the four boys who went off together, two never came home.  Their names are on the Memorial Wall.  A third boy came home with one leg and one arm.  And my brother?  Well to look at him he survived just fine.  But if you look closely, you can see something is gone from his eyes.

My brother was a sweet, shy, innocent kid who never even had a date until I fixed him up for his senior prom.  He excelled in math and science, and the Marines sent him to electronics school, and trained him to repair the Hueys and fighter jets.  He was assigned to an air base inside the DMZ.  He worked all day, and paced the barracks floor all night praying that the constant shelling that rained down on the base, would not level his barracks as it had the barracks around him.  While he was in Nam, our mother died and he could not get home until weeks after the service.  With the exception of those two weeks,  He spent 46 months in that hellhole.  He mustered out, alone, in San Diego.  The Marines gave him his medals and put him on a train home to Chicago.

For months, he awoke screaming, in a cold sweat, every night.  In the fall he returned to college but his demons only got worse, and he turned to drugs.  Finally he joined a VA group and they helped him.  He managed to finish his BS and went on to get a MS and a PHD in plant genetics.  But Viet Nam never left him.  It destroyed his first marriage.  To this day, loud noises make his heart race, and the fourth of July festivities fill him with dread.  He suffers with intestinal problems associated with the chemicals used in the war zones.  Yes, he came home in one piece physically, but the sweet boy who went to war never returned.  In his place is a broken human being, who was finally declared 95% disabled five years ago.  It allows the VA to treat him for his depression and myriad of physical problems.  But if you ask him, he will tell you he is not a loser. 

I cannot imagine how the families feel whose sons, brothers, and fathers never came home.  To have them called losers and suckers must be like losing them all over again.  And yet there are some who still defend this monster of a human being.  Those who chose not to believe what they hear with their own ears.  His denigration of John McCain, his berating of the military men who served in his cabinet and were unceremoniously dismissed.  His hounding of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman - a decorated veteran who served valiantly - the man who testified to what he heard the president say on the phone.  And most egregious of all, using the US military like toy soldiers, as though they are his personal army, to play with.   

This is a man who is bent on destroying our democracy to retain his hold on the presidency.  He is sowing the seeds of doubt in our election process that has served us since the founding of the country.  There have been printed ballots since 1888, Trump has voted by mail in the last four election cycles at least.  And if Trump can convince enough people that the election is fraudulent, he can send it into the courts.  But the Constitution says if there is no elected President and Vice-president, by noon on January 20th, the Speaker of the House becomes President.  Can you say Madam President Pelosi?

                                                              I'm just sayin'  

The American Dream

 It has been three days since the end of the greatest freak show on television, the RNC, the Republican National Convention.  It has taken me this long to get over the feeling of dread and apprehension, and fear for my beloved country.  Fact checkers from newspapers all around the world were busy scribbling as fast as they could to catch all the lies.  Yes, I said lies.  Look it up, the definition of falsehood is 'LIE'.  For what ever reason the media likes to whitewash them, there were over 21 lies in the seventy-minute tirade called the acceptance speech.  That amounts to one lie every two and a half minutes.  Incredible!   They were reiterations of the lies that were told over and over again during the three previous days. 

Trump talked about his greatest accomplishments; - 300 miles of border wall that Mexico will pay for, in fact only 5 miles of new wall have been built at great cost to the US taxpayer, and not one peso from Mexico, - taking credit for the VA choice bill, when in fact Obama signed the bill in 2016, - taking credit for creating 9-million jobs, after losing 24-million jobs the month before, - promising insurance to cover pre-existing conditions, when Obama care already does that, and Trump is in court suing to eliminate the ADA.  I could go on, but the people who need to hear this, will not listen. 

In large sections of America, people live in an alternate universe, where facts and reality no longer exist.  There are no such things as facts anymore, belief has taken the place of fact.  Or as Ms. Kellyanne Conway calls the 'alternate facts'.  

If the Republicans are to win again, they must do two things; they must change Trump's image, and they must denigrate Joe Biden's reputation.  To win, a wild-eyed alternate reality must be created, and the Republicans are betting that the electorate is so uninformed, so gullible, and so dumb as to swallow their story.  During the convention - or as I like to call it the 'The All Trump Show' - speaker after speaker, many of them Black, many of them women spoke of the President as a soft-hearted soul, empathetic, and a champion of racial diversity and women.  A man who wears his heart on his sleeve.  Or as Ivanka Trump said; "I've been with my father and I've seen the pain in his eyes when he receives updates on the lives that have been stolen by this plague." I would imagine he is thinking whether the count will affect the Market.

During this 'firehose' of misinformation, one speaker said that this is a man who revers the presidency, and who cares not for himself, but only for America.  The voice-over in the video introducing Trump, said he has 'accomplished more in four years than any other president in history'.  Take a backseat Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, etc.    You've been trumped!

So much for the reinvention of the person. Now the Republicans must change the events of the past seven months.  Pandemic;  gone.  The economy; the Market is better than before.  And the racial unrest; all the fault of the Democratic mayors. 

As for Joe Biden, he is a Trojan Horse for the socialists and radical left.  He will abolish the police departments, tear down the wall, and destroy the suburbs.  No one will be safe in Biden's America.  Biden will take away your Social Security and bring in socialized medicine. And Biden will shut down the government again.  As Trump says; "His shutdown will inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our children, families and citizens of all backgrounds."   

Republicans attack harder in elections than do Democrats, and lately have been very successful at it.  From the dog-whistle, states-rights campaign of Richard Nixon, to the 'Swiftboat" smear against John Kerry.  And who can forget the picture of Dukakis in the tank trying to look tough after bungling his answer to his wife being raped. What the Democrats need to do is resurrect the political machines of yesteryear.  Richard J. Daley of Chicago knew how to win an election.  He could cut an opponent off at the knees, and if that didn't work, he would hold back the election results until he knew how many votes were needed to win, and then he would deliver them.  

I think the Democrats should unleash the vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.  Something tells me she was selected to be the attack dog to Biden's 'mister nice guy' persona.  I cannot wait to see her in the debate against Pence.  She will have is lunch.  That is if 'Mother' will allow Pence to be on stage alone with a woman.  One can only guess.

Trump's agenda for the next four years is broad, sweeping and delusionary.  He pledged to put a man on Mars - perhaps with the help of Elon Musk and SpaceX - , create 10-million jobs in the next 10 months. expand the tax cuts, take on China, and most importantly, restore Law and Order - after his campaign broke more than 20 laws just on day five of the convention.

Trump has declared that America is 'the torch that enlightens the entire world.'  What the world fears is that Trump is the torch that will burn down the entire world.  

A sample of rhetoric from the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail opinion page tells it all.  "Mr. Trump...is perhaps the least suitable candidate for high office in the entire United States - a petulant, insecure man-child, so wholly lacking in intelligence, competence, integrity and emotional stability as to be disqualified in most states from driving a bus, let alone leading what was once the most powerful country on earth."    I wonder what they have against bus drivers.

Undaunted, Trump promises that the 'American Dream' will be realized like never before.  Bringing to mind George Carlin's line; "That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."

                                                                                  I'm just sayin' 

I've Got a Bridge to Sell You

 Tomorrow the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powel, is scheduled to release to the public some inkling of what the Federal Reserve decided after their meeting this week.  It will not be the full report, that will be coming out at their next meeting.  But Chairman Powel is expected to say that the Fed will encourage the core inflation rate to overshoot the targeted 2%.  The current rate of 1.5% has been stagnant for the past three years, despite the Feds attempts to bring it to the target rate of 2%.  That leaves the Federal Reserve very little room for corrections.  This move signals that the benchmark interest rate will remain low for the rest of 2020 and 2021.  The Fed was expecting the Congress to pass another stimulus package in the vicinity of $3 trillion, to ensure that the economy does not enter into a double dip recession. Instead the Congress adjourned and went home. 

One of the reasons for the stalemate over the pandemic aid package is it size. The Democrats proposed a $3 trillion package, before agreeing to cut a trillion dollars from it.  The Republican's main objection was that some of the money was going to cash-strapped states - mostly Democratic led states - to help them balance budgets that have for years been running a deficit.  In a fit of pique, Mitch McConnel adjourned the Senate and they are now in recess.  Meanwhile, the unemployment supplements had run out at the end of July, and people are really hurting.

Due to the tax cut pushed thru by Trump and the Congress early in the administration plus the usual budget overruns, the United States was $17 trillion in debt at the end of 2019 - roughly 80% of the country's GDP.  At that point analysts predicted the debt would approach 100% by the year 2030.  However, by the end of June of this year, the debt had reached $20.5 trillion.  Or roughly 106% of the GDP.  The debt figures don't include the trillions of dollars the government owes itself in bonds held by Social Security  and Medicare.  And  now Trump is suggesting a tax holiday until the end of the year on these payments, saying the government will pay the deficit out of the general fund in 2021.

As levels of debt held by rich nations, and the US is one of them, have climbed steadily in recent decades, the interest rates have tumbled.  For years the theory had been that the circular form of fiscal finance - where one arm of the government creates the money needed to fund the arm of the government that taxes and spends - would lead to inflation, and loss of confidence in their currency, have been proven false.  It has been replaced with what has been called Modern Monetary Theory.   It  holds that countries which control their own currencies have more leeway to run up deficits without driving up interest rates.

Analysts believe that the United States economy still has some room for another fiscal aid package, even though it is anticipated that Congress will need to borrow an additional $1 trillion before the end of the year.  But instead of freaking out, financial markets are looking at this bottomless need to borrow, with calm assurance.  The interest on the 10-year T-Note, is 0.7%, far below where it was last year, when it was 2%.  And the markets are on target to reach new highs.

The QE program of the United States has been one of the worlds most aggressive, And it has only increased since the 2008 crisis.  Critics said it would lead to disaster and set off a surge of inflation.  But as we know, inflation has stayed well below the benchmark 2%.  This is not to say, it will be this way in the long term.  Look at the price of gold, which investors turn to as a hedge against inflation, it has reached an all-time high of $2000 an ounce, and the dollar has dropped against all major currencies.    

Some studies have shown that high levels of debt -particularly debt-to-GDP ratios - are associated with lower economic growth. But other analysts believe that may not be true.  What is not needed at this time is slower economic growth, as if it could get slower than zero.

But fiscal constraints are not what they were once thought to be.  Apparently, when you have a central bank essentially printing money to fund these deficits, you can take on debt to much higher levels.  Let's hope that they are right.   

                                                            I'm just sayin'        

We Deliver for You

 A few years back, while on our way to Idaho, we were driving thru Montana on I90.  A more desolate road I had never seen.  Miles and miles of nothing but pronghorn antelope and an occasional road sign warning of cattle on the road.  Now and then there would be a driveway that seemed to lead to nowhere.  as far back as you could see on the flat prairie there was nothing, but where the driveway met the highway, there was a mailbox.

When we stopped for lunch, I made mention of that to our waitress.  She gave me the strangest look.  "How would folks get their mail elsewise?"  she replied. "there's no post office 'cept in town twenty miles away."  We were surprised to say the least.

At the time a stamp probably cost thirty-two cents.  That meant I could drop a letter in my mailbox on the street corner in Chicago, and someone would deliver it to a mailbox on I90 in the middle of nowhere.  That was a real bargain, and it still is even though the cost a stamp has gone up twenty cents.

But in fact the Post Office is not in the business of making money, although contrary to popular opinion it does pay its operating expenses.  But due to a ridiculous law imposed by Congress in 2006, the Post Office has to pay into a $72 billion fund for post-retirement health care 75 years into the future.  No other organization, public or private has to meet such a requirement.

There are over 630,000 employees at the United States Postal Service (USPS), and they handle over 146-billion pieces of mail every year.  If you look at the USPS as a retail operation, it is larger than McDonalds and Walmart combined.  Their network stretches across the country from New York City to a mailbox in the Alaskan backcountry, and Hawaii too.

Of all the government agencies the Post Office ranks highest in approval ratings. 91% of Americans approve of the job that it does.  But numbered among its fans is not the president, Donald J. Trump.  Trump's dislike of the Post Office borders on obsession.  it all begins with his dislike of Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post.  Can't make the connection ?   Well, one of the largest users of the postal service is Amazon.   Amazon's CEO is Jeff Bezos, the company has made Bezos the richest man in the world.

Donald Trump despises anyone who is a genius with business acumen, the one thing he said he was, and the one thing that he surely is not.  To say nothing of the Post's unrelenting criticism of Trump's presidency.  To assuage Trump's ego, aides told him that the reason that Amazon is doing so well, is that Bezos made a sweetheart deal with the Post Office.  With no data to back up that allegation, Trump demanded that the Post Office double its rates.  When he was told that he would need Congress to approve that, and that regardless, the contract with Amazon would still stand, Trump began his backdoor attack on the USPS.  

Trump badgered the Postmaster General, Megan Brennan - who began her career as a mail carrier and was the first woman to hold that position - until she announced her resignation. Trump then appointed Louis DeJoy to her position.  DeJoy's greatest qualification for the job was that he had contributed over two million dollars to the GOP since 2016. 

On the premise of streamlining the USPS, and increasing profits, DeJoy began dismantling it.  Guess no one told him that the Post Office was a service of the US government and not a business.  DeJoy began replacing the top executives who had been with the service for years and who knew how to oversee the day-to-day operations.  He reduced or restricted overtime hours, removed postal drop boxes, and was about to begin dismantling a number of the giant mail sorting machines.  Mail carriers were also instructed to leave excess mail at the distribution centers.    An unintended consequence to crippling Amazon deliveries, was Trumps other bug-a-boo, mail-in voting.

For whatever reason, Trump feels that stopping or massively slowing down of absentee ballots will give him a better chance of winning in November.  I guess Republicans only vote in person.  Many of the primary elections this spring exposed the problems of in-person voting during the pandemic.  Many people were afraid of going to the polls, and many of the polls, especially those in predominantly black and poor neighborhoods were closed causing long lines that prohibited social distancing.  Consequently, many people turned to mail-in ballots.  

When the Post Office Centers began sending letters to several states saying that there would be a delay in processing absentee ballots, there was a hue and cry and not just by folks who wanted to vote by mail, but from ordinary citizens who depend on the postal service for delivery of their medications, and Social Security checks.  The VA sends meds, via the mail, to veterans who desperately need those prescriptions.  And wonder of wonders the administration decided that perhaps this wasn't the time to cut services.  Even Trump felt the blow back.   

And now lets go one step further, in addition to protecting the integrity of the Post office, let's expand the USPS mandate.  Let's consider resurrecting postal banking.  Until 1967, the Post office offered limited banking services.  I can remember buying 'war stamps' at the post office, I believe they were twenty-five cents and when you filled your book with stamps you could turn it in for a 'War Bond'.

The Post office offered a savings program also, but the greatest asset to Postal Banking is there will be no need for the predatory "payday lenders".  There are more than 17,000 post offices where there are only one, or no, branch bank locations.  This would give people who currently do not have a bank account, access to banking services; such as direct deposit of their Social Security checks and check cashing capabilities. Today, many countries including France and New Zealand offer postal banking services.  Let's face it, the Post office is the US government's best functioning agency, I think it's time to expand on it.

                                                             I'm just sayin'  

Another day, Another meeting

 Yesterday I had a meeting, it matters not where or about what, because they all start  the same.  Five or six people sitting around a large table, wearing an assortment of masks and observing our social distancing .  This, at least, is better than the usual Zoom meetings of late.  Though both start pretty much the same way.  In days past, and if I try hard, I can remember those days, conversations usually started with a comment about the weather, or the traffic, for lack of anything new to talk about.  Not now!  I miss those days. I miss a lot of things, and that brought up a whole new topic.  What do you miss in these days of COVID-19?

I miss going to the airport, well not actually going to the airport, I miss being able to fly somewhere, anywhere, I don't care where.  If only there were somewhere where I could go. I don't care where.  Somewhere where they would let me in, where they would welcome my money like they used to. But there is nowhere.

I miss going to the door and going out and doing stuff , you know just stuff.  Going without thinking about my mask and my hand sanitizer and my Clorox wipes, and whether this trip is actually necessary. Just what is necessary anyway?  Is saving my sanity necessary?  It didn't have to be necessary before this, I could just go out and then come back, and then go out again.

I miss planning, planning next week, next month, next year.  Writing dates and things to do on my desk calendar, in my phone, on my tablet, and jotting a note in my old fashioned personal date book.  We were so naive when there was a future, when today didn't look like yesterday and yesterday look like tomorrow.  Next year I'm going to.....

I miss elevators, I never take elevators unless my destination is over five flights.  I don't like elevators, I don't like sharing a closed space with strangers, now the thought terrifies me.  If I were on the elevator and some one else got on, would they feel bad if I got off?  What if I were on the tenth floor?  What if there were no empty elevators?  Would I be like Charlie on the MTA?  Unable to ever go home again? Maybe I don't miss elevators.  

I miss public transportation; I don't ride public transportation anymore.  I used to ride it every day.  But if I had to ride it again, I would miss it.  I would miss being jammed in a train, or the 'L' or the bus and not having a seat, and having my nose five inches from the armpit of strap-hanger next to me.  I would miss the groping hands of some pervert whose face I cannot see, just a disembodied hand reaching out to touch someone.

I miss climate change; oh, climate change is still here but no one talks about it anymore.  I miss commiserating on how hot it is, or why we don't get ten feet of snow every winter anymore, or why the butterflies are gone, or why the polar bears don't have enough to eat.  I used to worry about climate change, I miss that. I can't worry about climate change anymore, I don't have time to worry about it, even though all I have is time.

I miss buffets, even though I never went to buffets.  The food looks so good in the ads. But buffets are giant petri dishes of germination, growing bacteria here-to-for never know to man.  I think COVID-19 was hatched, not in the live market, but in a Chinese buffet.  The hot salads are warm, and the cold salads are warmer, and they never tell you what kind of meat is in the casserole.  I don't think buffets will ever come back and I shall miss them.

I miss the time when shopping at the mall was not a safari into unknown territory, and infection and disease weren't lurking in the changing rooms.  Changing rooms were bad enough before, when you risked picking-up a fungus when taking off your shoes to try on a pair of jeans.  I miss not thinking about keying in my pin number after that suspicious looking woman keyed in hers.  When was the last time she washed her hands?

I miss the grocery store where I am always going the wrong way down the aisle, like a salmon swimming upstream.  Why do grocery store now have to have one-way aisles?  I miss smelling the produce to see if it smells like strawberries or smells like cardboard.  You can't smell anything thru a mask.  I miss buying one lemon, instead six in a bag, who needs six lemons?  I miss talking to the checker face to face, but she can't see me smile because I am wearing a mask, and standing on my 'X' six feet away. 

I miss sitting in a bar, not three stools away from anyone, not sharing a laugh, because nothing is funny anymore.  And no one else is allowed in because there are already 25 people in the bar. I miss not checking my glass for spots but then I drink my beer from the bottle, no missing that.  I miss picking a restaurant for the menu and the food, instead of picking one with outside seating.

I miss hugs, at least hugs from family and from friends, and celebratory hugs when your team scores the winning run.  I miss hugs where I don't have to think about who was last hugged by this person.  I never was a hugger, everyone who knows me knows that, but now I miss something that I always took for granted

I miss so much I took for granted, I miss my old life, I miss school, I miss travel, I miss days without a mask, I miss all the little things that made life so beautiful.  But I know one thing, if this horrid thing ever goes away, and life comes back to normal I won't miss a thing.  Until I do.

                                                             I'm just sayin'