Month: June 2023

#FridayThoughts: Basics.

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It seems there is a pervasive piece of propaganda circulating among liberal circles. Somehow people have gotten the idea that term limits for Supreme Court justices are not only possible, they are the best solution for the current kangaroo Court.

In contrast, expanding the court is somehow radical and impossible.

This is completely false on so many levels, and term limits could prove far more harmful than good but, that’s irrelevant because we would never get there.

Let me say this again: we would never get to term limits.

Why? Lifetime terms for SCOTUS justices are enshrined in the Constitution.

Well, say you, it doesn’t SAY “lifetime appointment” in those words, it says “holding offices during good behaviour.” Take one little guess as to who will ultimately decide what those words mean?

Just the one guess?

Oh yes, there you go, those very justices whose terms would be limited. Right.

In order to change the Constitution, it has to be amended, which requires the agreement of 2/3rds of Congress and ratification by 3/4ths of the states. So.

Expansion of the Court is not new. When the Court was established, there were six Justices. Since then, the size of SCOTUS has changed six times. All that is required is an act of Congress, and it actually makes sense to do.

Personally I believe that taking of lavish gifts, vacations and money is not “good behaviour,” but Republicans would never impeach the very people they’ve spent decades and billions putting into place. I also can’t help but wonder if it’s criminal as it sure looks like bribery to me.

But that is not something over which we have control. What we can do is advocate for the most reasonable solution–expansion–and make sure we elect enough Democrats to make it happen.

Because I can promise it will be the first act of a Republican Congress under a Republican president.

Have a good Friday and a nice weekend, if possible.

#ThursdayThoughts #ThursdayTen ten word photo prompt: Sunrise

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Photo by Heiner on Pexels.com

It’s THURSDAY! And that means our #ThursdayTen!

This week I’m doing something a little different and I may see if the AI will write a ten word story.

I suspect not one of us should hold our breath.

Except for the AI, who, I assume, doesn’t need to breathe.

ANYWAY, using the image above as a prompt, write a ten word story.

EXACTLY ten words.

Ready?

Here’s mine:

Trailing fireflies, she greeted the dawn for the first time.

Here’s the AI’s:

Well it was ten words! And I don’t know, it’s not terrible.

#WednesdayWisdom: Everything into piles.

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It looks like a thick fog outside, but it isn’t, it’s smoke from the wildfires in Canada, and our air quality is exceptionally bad today. On top of that, this weekend there will be a NASCAR street race in Chicago. I don’t know whose brilliant idea that was, but that’s not going to help with the pollution.

My mood matches the air quality, but not in any specific, identifiable way. Maybe because only stretched this morning, I didn’t want to get back into working out too quickly and risk being in that awful state again.

Much better avoided. I’ll put reinjury in that “avoid” pile.

Life is so much sorting, everything into piles. Things you have to deal with because there is no alternative; things you should deal with but don’t want to; things you will give a wide, wide berth and pretend they do not exist.

We can organize them, label them, put them in boxes on shelves, but the shelves are endless and so is the jumble in which they arrive. Eventually it’s exhausting.

Eventually you just want to shove all of them into a mental zone called “under the bed” and ignore everything.

That’s not an option.

That’s not an option, right?

It’s been a series of thing after thing after thing, and I guess what I’m realizing right in this moment as I type this is I’m tired.

Aren’t we all.

I guess there’s no summable wisdom today, only my thoughts about as clear as the air outside. I hope you can break through the haze to something that serves you.

Have a great Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#TuesdayThoughts: Suspended

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First, #ChatTuesday, “Brittle again.” And now Tuesday.

Somehow I got a three day suspension on Twitter for spamming. It didn’t explain why or what violated the policy, only that my activities would be restricted. And right on my tweet about it, I got yet another crypto spam reply.

Ironic.

So this week, since I will still be suspended on Thursday, I won’t post the #ThursdayTen link to twitter. It would be impossible to manage the replies.

Speaking of which, I didn’t see I had notifications on Spoutible, and that made me miss a bunch so I will be going through them, slowly. It’s also where I’ll post the Thursday Ten.

That’s the housekeeping out of the way. I noticed there is now an AI assistant. What will the AI assistant do for my blog? I asked it:

“As an AI assistant, I can help you with a variety of tasks on your blog or website. Some of the things I can do include editing content, generating new content, optimizing your site for search engines, improving your site’s speed, and helping with social media marketing. Just let me know what you need help with, and I’ll do my best to assist you!”

Well that’s interesting. I wonder if you all could tell if it wrote my content for me. And what would be the point of that? Reading content no one actually wrote? Also it said the responses may not be factually correct so maybe it can’t really do any of these things?

I think we can agree I’m having a weird technology day. I hope yours is smoother.

Have a great Tuesday (and I wrote this myself).

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: Fired up.

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Bigots are bigoting about Chicago’s Pride Parade, which, if they really even live in this city, has been here far longer than they have. They act like they own everything.

They don’t own everything.

That’s what makes them mad because they think they should. Also who cares what they think?

Who cares what they say?

Who are they, anyway?

You should ask them when you see them why they think anyone cares, who they are in the world that their opinions on other people’s lives matter. Call out bigotry.

This guy acted like other people’s human rights are his to dole out and take away. What a piece of garbage.

Of all the things I’m sick of, I am so sick of bigots. All kinds of bigots. Bigots who think how other people live should be up to them, who think the value of other people’s lives should be up to them when they themselves have zero value.

Zero. Value.

I am sick of media pretending that bigotry is a point of view, of letting bigots say horrible, bigoted things and not holding them to account for them, letting them wriggle away like worms they are.

They should be shamed, deeply shamed, societally shamed and ostracized. It’s enough.

They talk about taking “their” country back, well it’s OUR country and we shouldn’t let them forget it. They don’t like the glorious diversity of America?

Let THEM leave.

Whew.

Have a good Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: Repetitive.

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Getting upgraded service from the cable company, and the new system has this setup music. It’s “calming.”

And consists of about 2 phrases, over and over and OVER.

And over.

But this is a good change. Upgrades are good, right?

I also got a slipcover for my sofa. Change in all directions. The slipcover is working surprisingly well, though I need better tools to keep it in place. Next step. Still, it’s almost like having a new one, especially because I got a support that goes under the cushions.

The appointment took longer than I expected, but now I am a citizen of the second fifth of the 21st century. That’s a weird way to put it, but descriptive I guess.

It’s really sunny today and I had the window open until I started sneezing and checked the air quality. It’s pretty poor today. So very strange that that’s a consideration. Yet here we are, with the “fresh” air on the inside.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week, I hope you have an amazing Friday and a perfect weekend.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ThursdayThoughts #ThursdayTen ten word photo prompt: Arrangement.

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Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

It’s THURSDAY! And that means time for our #ThursdayTen!

Using the image above as a prompt, write a ten word story.

EXACTLY ten words!!

Why not? It’s all for fun anyway. Good, bad, brilliant, not brilliant.

They’re all welcome here!

Ready? Here’s mine:

Will distilled all the universe into a set of dominoes.

#WednesdayWisdom: No one notices that.

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It’s sunny today with a haze, most likely of pollution, the air quality is poor. It feels very Fringe to have to check the air quality regularly, but here we are.

Here we are.

Depressing, and somehow the onus has been pushed to individuals, while the real issue is industry. But I think we aren’t supposed to stay that aloud.

So many things we aren’t supposed to say aloud.

Cigna eventually responded to my tweet about the insurance, wanting me to contact them directly and I can’t shake the feeling that doing so will make it worse, that somehow they will find a way to increase the cost or alter my coverage or…something. No money-making enterprise should have this much control over our literal lives and deaths.

The reality is the relationship is and feels adversarial.

It’s a wide, weird world and it’s not always easy to tell who or what is on your side. Even the services we pay for often try to give us the least they can for the most they can charge.

Value used to have…value.

But I am in a state of very reduced energy, still trying to recharge after that whole ordeal with my mom and her eventual death, with this strange health situation I still can’t pinpoint to a specific cause, though I have suspicions.

Among the many, many, many battles to wage, I have to be selective. Too much attention in any particular direction and my shaky house of cards will tumble. So I will think about it.

It’s strange how rare help really is in this new, cold world. Small things, big things. It takes a lot of energy to do everything yourself.

So if you are a person who has to plod through, each step a step you and only you have to take, today I commend you.

Today I see you.

It’s not easy, and no one notices that.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, you’re doing great.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#TuesdayThoughts: A little ragey.

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First, #ChatTuesday, “We don’t yet know.” And now Tuesday.

I am having much fun with my health insurance, and while I vowed not to complain in Chat Tuesday, I make no such promises here. First Cigna said the ER I visited was out of network. The customer service agent insisted and insisted it wasn’t in network.

So I told him to look up the hospitals I could go to. “Oh,” he said.

Then I got a revised explanation of benefits calling all of the payments that were “my responsibility” co-pays so they did not count toward the deductible. Out of $1550 in charges, roughly, only $250 counts toward the deductible.

And they are listing a physician as “out of network” despite a law that requires them to treat such physicians as in-network for ER visits, as I certainly had no control. I also never actually saw a physician.

So I complained about all of this on Twitter and customer service told me I could email them so they can explain to me my benefits. Like the problem with this situation is my comprehension and not their ability to shapeshift costs so that they pay none of them.

I guess I saved up a lot of complaints.

American healthcare is A NIGHTMARE. If you are in a country that has public healthcare, do not allow them to take it from you. This is a system no one wants, aside from the insurers who make money from it, and no one should have to have.

It is in their interest to collect premiums and pay nothing on them. They do not care about our health, only about the money. And our health costs them money.

Anyway, that rant is it for me today. Have a less enraged Tuesday than I am.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: 2.5 YEARS.

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With Juneteenth, our nation now acknowledges that, in Texas, enslaved people toiled for two-and-half years after they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Hostages still held by enslavers, many of whom fought to the death maintain that institution, were finally told they were free by Union soldiers after the Civil War had ended.

Never believe the Civil War wasn’t about forced enslaved labor.

And never underestimate the ability of certain people to assume they are above the law, beyond the law, and still cry bitter, angry tears when the law catches up to them.

I am glad that Juneteenth is now commemorated with a federal holiday, apparently due to the hard work of Ms. Opal Lee, because we learn about the things we make federal holidays until rote, until they are ingrained inside us.

Image of Ms. Opal Lee holding a signed copy of the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Because this is something everyone should know by heart. That people who never should have been enslaved were free, but enslavers imprisoned them for 2.5 years, with no intention of following the law.

You’ll note I haven’t said “Happy Juneteenth,” and that’s because I’m not sure it’s my greeting to give.

Because the part I get stuck in with this holiday is those 2.5 years. The part I get stuck in is the monolith of time before that when people decided it was OK to kidnap and torture and abuse and treat people like property, even when others AT THE TIME knew it was abhorrent.

Others. AT THE TIME.

I think for many of us, this day should mark a reflection on the depths of evil in the human spirit, on how people find ways to justify it, to excuse it, to twistedly claim it’s “moral.” What happened before can happen again, and there is only us to stop it. All the wrongs of the past have not been righted.

Take a moment today to pay honor to all the souls who spent their lives in terrible bondage. To condemn the people who put them there and kept them there.

Especially for those 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.