and it rained  25 years ago May 30, Pam and Jim were married…they say it’s good luck… they were to be married in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum…right above the “Rocky Steps”…we had rented trolley cars to bring our guests to the Buttonwood Square…it poured…Plan B…the ceremony held inside…then they scrambled to set up the tables and chairs…green tablecloths and beautiful white flowers…it was so beautiful…the only screw-up was not having a separate table for the wedding party…again scrambling for a place at a table…crazy…it was a beautiful affair…it was fun to see my Dad and son in tuxedos…we took a generation picture together…tonight we went to Ooka…the hibachi side…I forget how good it is…Barbara took us all out for dinner…although originally we would split it…she wanted to take us since Nancy and I had paid for the wedding…Pam and Jim have always had a low profile on their anniversary…we were supposed to go to Ooka for Jim’s birthday, his fiftieth last January…can’t remember why that fell through but it was cancelled…so in a way it was a celebration of Jim’s fiftieth and their Silver Anniversary…they picked me up…I entered the car asking my beautiful grandchildren if they were happy their Mom and Dad had gotten married…made them laugh and affirm it was a good thing…time does fly…hugs and kisses to the bride and groom…

so they are called the new French President the leader of the Free World…and Angela Merkel the leader of Europe…if you saw Sean Spicer this morning, the first briefing in two weeks…you would have seen the trump view of his first trip abroad…how great it was, retold with superlative adjectives like “historic”… “unprecedented”… “extraordinary”…and worst of all that his relationship with Angela Merkel was “fairly unbelievable”…that could go either way…”unbelievable” is true…since Merkel told us Germany does not need the U.S.’s intelligence help in their upcoming election…that Germany and Europe can no longer rely on donald trump’s America…that Europeans must take their destiny into their own hands…she said  “the times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days.”…trump has his own foggy view of his trip…not how most people saw it…but according to Sean it was the best ever of any president in the history of the world…not assuring our allies for the last 70 years…he ended the briefing…( it could be his last )…abruptly when the questions got to Jared Kushner and back channel to Russia bypassing our intelligence and security…John Kelly Secretary of Homeland Security and H.R. McMaster National Security Advisor both say back channels are okay…don’t worry about it…it’s normal…not addressing the fact that both Flynn and Kushner did not disclose these meetings on their security clearance forms…the White House and Sean not denying but bitching about “fake news” and don’t believe “undisclosed sources” but citing a Fox news report by one source saying Jared wasn’t the one who suggested the back channel…trump tweeting don’t believe the Post’s sources but believe Fox News’…trump as usual undercutting Sean…more expanding of the Russia questions with trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen and Boris Alexandrovich Epshteyn ( Russian-born American Republican political strategist who was on Bill Maher last week defending trump )…both being brought into the Russia investigation…just two more roads leading to Moscow…all the while Republicans doing business as usual… turning a blind eye and no outrage…they good thing happening is trump being consumed by the Russia question and not being able to do anything on his agenda…new headlines…Russia saves Obamacare…

May 29th…today, John Kennedy would be 100 years old…today, was a beautiful day in Washington…Maria comes on Monday…rain or shine…holiday or no holiday…Doris counts on it…we all must be up in order for Maria to wash the sheets…as well as Doris’ laundry…clean her house and change the linen on the Murphy bed…getting it ready for the next guest…Sally in this case…she will be coming Thursday…so this morning I woke early…daylight streams into my living room bedroom…so I get up. go to the bathroom and hobble back to the sofa…didn’t have trouble falling asleep…thankful for that…look at my phone…it’s 6:27…two hours before Sunday Morning…let me get some shut eye…next time I open my eyes, it’s 10:27…no TV in sight to see the Moment in Nature…say hello to Maria…make my self coffee…decaf of course…take my pills and drink a glass of water… Doris is snoozing in her “happy chair”…so named by Jay as Doris is happy in her chair, she slept there after her operation a year ago December…Elissa up and ready to take a walk…I begin to pack…take a shower…generally get my act together and take it on the road…Doris also in the shower when my ends…I can hear her water running…she decides we will go to a restaurant down MacArthur Boulevard that she has been to before with Gina and Ed…they introduced it to her…she sends us home with chopped liver and a slice of blueberry ginger cake…our goody bag…we take two cars…I suggest Elissa go with Doris…it was a lovely ride…very green scenery down Clara Barton Parkway…across a one lane bridge over Cabin John Creek…the light is green for cars crossing one way… red for the cars on the other side…I never saw anything like that…it seems like a long way…but…it’s the apprehension getting somewhere you haven’t been before…Wild Tomatoes…the restaurant in a little strip mall next door to a Post Office…perfect for me…I bring the postcards I bought at the American Art Museum shop…Katy Perry as a cupcake for Julia and a portrait of Pedro Martinez, baseball legend for Ben…I never send postcards from D.C., but since I was on a roll for writing postcards, I decided to send them from D.C., they will have a postmark from Cabin John Maryland…I write them and walk a few steps to put them in the post box…loved the menu at Wild Tomatoes…I choose The Wedge Salad…I love the wedge and a hamburger…two favorite things to eat…Elissa goes for the veggie burger and Doris has the BBQ Chicken Salad…we all love our choice… next door is a soft serve in the deli…we go there and get ourselves a soft serve for dessert…Doris tells me there is always room for soft serve…I say that’s jello!…she replies it’s the same, I agree…we say goodbye and Doris heads home, we head to 495…Doris thought Wild Tomatoes was perfect for us to get onto 495…a little further down than I am used to but is familiar…no problem getting on 495 North, you have to follow the directions…we backtrack since the road is a divided road…works out just fine…we are smooth sailing until Delaware rest stop…I get gas and Elissa realizes she left her pink summer jacket at Wild Tomatoes…she says she paid for it on her credit card bill…she calls the restaurant and yes they have it…she would like them to send it to her at her expense…they will get back to her…didn’t happen all the way home…I’ll have to find out what happened…if they did call her back…traffic was slow after the rest stop until peeling off toward Wilmington…home by 6:00…and happy to be home…I watch All The President’s Men…wishing it were trump…no trump news today…we have a respite…I also watched Sully…saw it in the movies…what a good film…true story and of course Tom Hanks as Sully is great…Chesley Sullenberger’s January 15, 2009 emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, in which all 155 passengers and crew survived with only minor injuries, and the subsequent publicity and investigation…the miracle on the Hudson…so good…( it killed me to see that trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin was Executive Producer of Sully…( Mnuchin made billions foreclosing on residential properties among other things…buying California-based residential lender IndyMac renamed OneWest Bank, which had been in receivership by the FDIC and owned $23.5 billion in commercial loans, mortgages, and mortgage-backed securities. The purchase price was a $4.7 billion discount to its book value )…at home, not hungry after that great lunch…and happy to be home and happy to sleep in my own bed…it was a fun weekend…always good to spent time with Doris’… chalk up another Memorial Day…pray for our fallen soldiers who gave their lives and served our Country and Democracy…

from Clint Eastwood, the producer and director of Sully…he wrote Sully’s theme:

slept late even though the “sun” was pouring in…woke up early…but went back to sleep… then we chatted, had coffee and planned our day…we would go to lunch…a museum and dinner and a movie…it had rained earlier…as predicted…typical Memorial Day Doris says…Memorial Day…I drove by the Golden Gate National Cemetery where my uncle Albert is buried… took pictures of rows and rows of white headstones among green lawns and trees dotted here and there…when I was younger I could find his grave…I wonder if I could today…my sister told me that on Memorial Day ( remember when they called it Decoration Day?… Doris also reminded me )…there is a flag on every grave…must be a beautiful sight…I thought maybe there would be pictures on line…but no…however I could look up my uncle’s location and a picture of his headstone…I had no idea he was a Leo…born on August 18, 1925…Phillip’s birthday August 17…those things run in families…his middle name was Adolf…( he had that name in 1925 before we heard of Hitler )…I had always thought he was buried on my 13th birthday…it was actually on my 12th birthday…he died on February 23, 1955, the result of an auto accident…he was in the hospital in Los Angeles…my Mom and Grandfather when to see him…she came back thinking he was doing well but he died one or two days after their visit…he was only 29…the strange thing, their mother also died in an automobile accident at age 29…he was in the Navy as was my father…it was my uncle Albert who urged my Mom and Dad to come to San Francisco…my uncle with the ice cream parlor across the street that from where Nancy would live in San Francisco, years later…we had planned to go to the National Portrait Gallery after lunch…which for me was chili at Wagshall’s up the street from Doris’…she would go to lunch but stay back and rest while Elissa and I would go to the Museum…it see the exhibition which I had seen partially last April…The Face of Battle…I wrote about this exhibit back in April…Jay and I went to see it but only saw half of it then…it was high on my list to see…plus whatever else the American Art and National Portrait have to offer…this exhibit coincides with Memorial Day…I didn’t realize that back in April…these portraits concentrate on our soldiers from 9/11 to the present… the Afgan and Iraqi Wars…”The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now explores and assesses the human costs of ongoing wars through portraiture. The exhibition title is drawn from John Keegan’s classic military history, which reorients our view of war from questions of strategy and tactics to its personal and individual toll.”…it was very moving today for obvious reasons…six artists putting their art in remembrance of our fallen soldiers…a powerful exhibit…we also saw Down These Mean Streets: Community and Pklace in Urban Photography……latino artists photograph their surroundings and neighborhoods…”America’s urban streets have long inspired documentary photographers. After World War II, populations shifted from the city to the suburbs and newly built highways cut through thriving neighborhoods, leaving isolated pockets within major urban centers. As neighborhoods started to decline in the 1950s, the photographers in this exhibition found ways to call attention to changing cities and their residents. Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography explores the work of ten photographers—Manuel Acevedo, Oscar Castillo, Frank Espada, Anthony Hernandez, Perla de Leon, Hiram Maristany, Ruben Ochoa, John Valadez, Winston Vargas, and Camilo José Vergara—who were driven to document and reflect on the state of American cities during these transformative years.”…and finally a series of paintings by  Donald Sulton: The Disaster Paintings…in his own words…”The series speaks to the impermanence of all things. The largest cities, the biggest structures, the most powerful empires—everything dies. Man is inherently self-destructive, and whatever is built will eventually be destroyed. . . . That’s what the works talk about: life and death.”…beautiful paintings using industrial materials such as tar and Masonite tiles…run to see this man’s work…these are my favorite Museums in D.C…in two different wings of the same building…there is always something to see…or explore…it never disappoints…we make our way home to pick Doris up and make our way to the 6:50 showing of The Lovers…with Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as spouses running out of gas with their son coming home with his girlfriend…a wrenching “meet the parents”… written and directed by Azazel Jacobs…the plot…”A married couple looking to get divorced finds themselves unexpectedly falling in love again.”…twists and turns…we all agreed it’s a movie to see…not the usual happy ending we want to expect…Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 86% approval…to end this perfect day…on to Two Amys for pizza, the best in the land…yum!…home again jigity jig…the French Open starts today…what kind of security do you think happened there?…so, sleeping late, chili, rain and shine mild weather, wonderful exhibitions at the Museums, free, close parking, good movie and Two Amys’ pizza…no trump baloney…a perfect Day in D.C….

I set my alarm Thursday night…I had a doctor appointment at 10:00 Friday morning…a fasting appointment so they could draw blood…I never sleep well when I set the alarm… I had a lot of trouble falling asleep…listening to the TV…I have it on all night…I eventually did fall asleep…not quality time and eventually was awake with my eyes closed listening to Morning Joe…still tossing and turning…listening…Joe Scarborough made me open one eye and focus on the TV…”my party is going straight to hell!”….I took notice…for here is a guy who helped create trump…all of trump’s lies last year didn’t bother him…and subsequent tweets kept calling Scarborough of his “revisionism”…but lately I have noticed his “turning”…realizing trump lies constantly and it’s “getting” to him…here’s a guy that has been defending Republicans, his party, for a long time…and then this morning he says his party is going to hell in a hand basket…I open one eye and listen… here’s the scoop by Egberto Willies of ProgessiveLiberal:   “This Morning Joe’s segment was surreal as Joe Scarborough slammed his party for what it has become. He said the Republican Party is going straight to hell. But what he said after is damning.

Joe Scarborough got real on Morning Joe as he slammed his Republican Party for lying continuously and selling its soul to Donald Trump.

Joe Scarborough first played a clip of Donald Trump’s Budget Director Mick Mulvaney lying to Bernie Sanders in a Senate hearing. Mulvaney claimed the Trump budget does not cut Medicaid. That caused Morning Joe’s Scarborough to go off on an epic rant in this excerpted video that went further than he’s ever gone in his attack on his GOP.

“Did he say we don’t cut Medicaid?” an incredulous Scarborough asked. “That is just a lie. That is a certifiable lie. Now listen. You can debate the 23 Million number. You really can. You can debate, well maybe that’s people that choose not to be on it. I understand those arguments. I disagree with them. But I understand them. But, 850 billion dollars is real. Those are real cuts. Why does he keep lying? Why do the Republicans keep looking at the cameras and lie? Who do they think is stupid enough that you can’t read the numbers in the Wall Street Journal. It is very clear you are cutting 850 billion dollars in Medicaid, for the poorest of the poor. If you want to do it, embrace it. Don’t lie about it. Stop lying about it. We know you are lying about it. We are not stupid. And you Republicans in the House have been lying nonstop about what you are not going to cut and who is not going to lose health coverage. We are not dumb. I understand there has been a coarsening of political culture. I understand that Donald Trump lies all the time. And you are thinking; he got away with it. Right? So you can get away with lying. You can’t. Stop with the coarsening of political culture. Okay? You know what the meaning of ‘is’ is. And you know what $850 billion is. So do not go to Capitol Hill and lie through your teeth.”

But then Morning Joe’s Scarborough got to the core of what needed to be said. And he was not shy about it. He left it all out there in the denigration of his party.

“It is so maddening,” Joe said. “This is my party. My party is going straight to hell. Politically, they are going straight to hell.”

Scarborough then enumerated the changes in the party that made it unbearable for him and many other straight line Republicans.

“They have embraced the coarsening of culture where the truth means absolutely nothing,” Joe said. “Conservative values mean absolutely nothing. Our traditional allies that have stood by us shoulder to shoulder, bleeding and dying, scaling the cliffs of Normandy to free a continent. That means nothing to these people. They would embrace Vladimir Putin and Russia if Donald Trump does. … Why do you sell your soul and not just your political soul? You are selling your soul if you just keep lying about things that you know are not true.”

Is there any doubt Joe Scarborough is mostly right? More Republicans need to speak up.”

so, I was pleased to hear this…waking up to this…wishing other Republicans would step up to the plate and voice this same opinion…to me, this same truth…those Republicans who stood by Greg Gianforte and his neanderthal persona…those same Republicans standing by trump because his base numbers have stayed the same…never mind about the other 64 or so percent of the rest of the country…as the last line in this article writes…is there any doubt Joe Scarborough is mostly right?…More Republicans need to speak up.”…Amen…

after having been poked with the needle in both arms, I told the girl to take blood from my hand…my veins are so visible on my hand….in the immortal words of George W. “mission accomplished”….she got the four vials of blood needed…and I was off to pick up Elissa and head to D.C…for the weekend…we got started at around 12:30…traffic sporatic…half hour at the Delaware rest stop for gas for the car and ourselves…Elissa goes for a salad and I go for Popeye’s…spicy chicken tenders, biscuit and cole slaw…Doris turned me on to Popeye’s and I only go to Popeye’s at the Delaware rest stop…usually on my way back from D.C….but since I am boycotting Burger King…I refuse to go there remembering the guy who was to be the Secretary of Labor who did not get confirmed because of his wife beating rather than his horrible, questionable labor practices… Andrew Puzder ( just like his name suggests…he is a putz ), the fast-food CEO with a track record of opposition to workplace regulations and protections, who withdrew after his wife beating came out…anyway, it took us four hours to get to Doris’…we arrived at 5:30…none the worst for wear…Doris is delightfully herself again…as she puts it…her optimism is back…we are so happy as are all her friends…we stayed in eating yummies she had bought at a new bakery in Georgetown…Bernice’s Rachel, her best friend from junior high’s husband’s…a delicious quiche and a pizza-like croque monsieur…a French grilled ham and cheese sandwich…delicious…( went on line to know how to spell croque monsieur and came upon this by DANIEL GRITZER, I like this story:  “I’ve heard a tale that the croque monsieur was discovered by French workmen who placed their lunch pails next to a radiator. When they sat down to eat, their ham and cheese sandwiches had melted from the heat, and the rest is history. Of all the world’s ridiculous food-creation myths, that has to be one of the worst. Are we really meant to believe that it took an accident like that to make the culinary geniuses of France realize how damned good a hot ham and cheese sandwich would be?”…doesn’t matter…a good story of a delicious ham and cheese sandwich )…too much trying to decide what to do…turned into watching MSNBC and the Kushner scandal and then for comic relief Sweet Home Alabama…please suspend disbelief…and disregard “the South will rise again baloney” and you can enjoy Reese Witherspoon, Dr. McDreamy Patrick Dempsey…Josh Lucas and Candice Bergen ( my sister was named after her ) as Patrick’s mayor of New York’s mother who is grooming Patrick to be President…all’s well that ends well…in bed by 2:00…we all slept late…getting ourselves together to go out for lunch at 3:00…originally going to the Whole Foods nearby which to our amazement was closed for renovations…on to The Social Safeway and salads…late lunch even though Doris had planned a dinner party called for 7:00…Ron and Michelle, and Gina and Ed…delicious salad of spinach, barley, oranges segments, avocado, and salmon tossed in an orange vinaigrette…yellow and green squash noodles a top anti-oxident asparagus… fabulous baguette brought by Gina and Ed and the finishing touch…dessert…a blueberry ginger bunt cake with blueberry sauce and whipped cream…yummmmm!…( I always have to say “it’s a bunt”…from My Big Fat Greek Wedding )…lots of laughs and celebration of Doris and a toast to her doctor…we are all so happy…congratulatory flowers from Gina and Ed and balloons from Ron and Michelle…we are all happy for our friend Doris…for the most part the only person Elissa and I know who still has dinner parties…glad to be here…glad to enjoy Doris’ hospitality and morning joe from her Kueric….

I like that analogy…hear it on MSNBC…also, drip, drip, drip…every day there’s “breaking news”…who can keep up?…I try…so the Russia investigation goes on with new revelations every day…almost every hour…a leap from trump’s campaign to official in White House as person of interest…”someone close to the president”…that person becomes Kushner… leap and bound from campaign to the While house…Jared Kushner…son-in-law to trump and trusted senior aide of trump…in charge of world peace…and better relations with Russia…it comes out Jared had undisclosed contacts with Russia’s ambassador…secret meetings and calls to Russian Ambassador Kislyak and with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov,  the bank being sanctioned by the Feds…then The Washington Post reports “Jared may have discussed creating a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin” circumventing our intelligence…a Watergate procecutor Jill Wine-Banks draws parallels with RussiaGate and Watergate to Ari Melber in for Rachel Maddow…the big difference being the Internet…and social media…news travels fast today…’Nixon re-engaged the Middle East as the first president to visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia…Nixon out of town, photo-op in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza with Anwar Sadat, that was on June 12, 1974 ( a couple of months later on August 8 Nixon resigns in disgrace )…as this lastest shoe drops, trump out of town at photo-op at NATO’s new headquarters…is it wishful thinking that by August trump will be resigning?…Nixon’s presidency over after his vist to Israel and Saudi Arabia…maybe that’s the sign…trump’s first trip abroad…and first of all, (geography not his strongest subject )…trump thought he had left the Middle East when he was in Israel…at any rate Jared Kushner and Ivanka came home recently to this dropping shoe…trump only comment was to congradulate Gianforte’s win in Montana…Gianforte comes out of hiding with his win…so contrite…admits he made a mistake…what he did was wrong…a woman in the audience playing the “pope” says “you’re forgiven”…he apologizes to Ben Jacobs ( just like Paul Ryan thought he should so he would welcome him to the House with open arms, Montana has spoken )…does not apologize for lying in his statement about the altercation…Fox News Alicia Acuna and two other crew corroborate Ben Jacobs account…from an article by Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress tells the story:

my hope is, beside Gianforte’s day in court on the misdemeanor charge, that Ben Jacobs litigate for the lie they spread about him and for assault and battery…drain Gianforte’s swamp…

woke up this morning and I’m on the internet…my land line works…I cancel my appointment for Comcast to come…recreated my blog from last night, I wrote on my phone…didn’t know it would not publish…I’m happy that I’m back on line…still down on Comcast…it was grey day…wet outside…made myself a smoothie…bananas and very berry yogurt, ice and a splash of fat free half and half…delicious…good for the diet… started packing…watching MSNBC…all about Gianforte’s “body slamming” Ben Jacobs and his lying statement issued by his campaign…and Jared Kushner is under scrutiny by the FBI…yes…why is he meeting with the Russian Ambassador in trump tower back in December?…and the Russian having been sneaked in by the back door…plus Kushner not disclosing those meetings on his security clearance papers…as did Attorney General Jeff Sessions…so many of trump’s associates getting in bed with the Russians…I really like Chris Matthews…he asks the questions I want to ask…today asked why they are not sending the subpoenas out already?…what are they waiting for?…and it’s so obvious Kushner is talking to the Russians about m-o-n-e-y…he’s not talking to them about ballet…in the meantime, trump not giving assurances for Article 5 of the NATO agreement…”a strike against one is a strick against all”…Sean Spicer says he is 100% behind Article 5…trump never said it…and as an aside, Ben Carson our HUD Secretary in an interview said “poverty is a state of mind”…for a smart man he’s dumb…Nicolle Wallace interviewing Joe Lieberman who withdrew from consideration…Nancy and I met with Senator Lieberman through Sandy…who was originally from Connecticut and I believe her Mom knew him…we went to his office and he couldn’t be bothered with us… probably not interested in us because we were not from his state…Democrat turned Independent…hummmm…Elissa calls, did I want to go to the school’s art show…the end of the year show…I have gone the past few years…she will pick me up at 6:30…I pull myself together…it raining…it’s thundering…we get to the entrance of my development and it is pouring…can’t see in front of us…we decide not to go…she turns around…my street is a small river…go back upstairs and put on MSNBC…look at my email from the Hiway…they are showing BACK TO THE FUTURE at 7:30…it’s a little before 7:00…it’s not raining so much anymore…decide to go…race over to the Hiway…there is a pretty nice crowd…and enjoy the movie…written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis ( who also directed )…from Wikipedia:  “Writer and producer Bob Gale conceived the idea after he visited his parents in St. Louis, Missouri after the release of Used Cars. Searching their basement, Gale found his father’s high school yearbook and discovered he was president of his graduating class. Gale thought about the president of his own graduating class, who was someone he had nothing to do with. Gale wondered whether he would have been friends with his father if they went to high school together. When he returned to California, he told Robert Zemeckis his new concept. Zemeckis subsequently thought of a mother claiming she never kissed a boy at school when, in fact, she was highly promiscuous. The two took the project to Columbia Pictures, and made a development deal for a script in September 1980.”…Michael J. Fox was first choice for playing Marty McFly…but he was unavailable due to Family Ties…Eric Stoltz was cast and after four weeks of shooting it became clear he was miscast…Fox was the perfect actor to be Marty…he eventually got the part…Family Ties letting him go but only if Back to the Future would take back seat to filming Family Ties…Christopher Lloyd was cast as Doc Brown after John Lithgow became unavailable…a chimp was changed to a dog…Einstein was his name…Lea Thompson…Marty’s mother became Lorraine instead of Meg…it’s interesting the back story of Back To The Future…it was clever and funny and Michael J. Fox was so perfect…and cleverly written…who can forget the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance and Marvin Beery’s band The Starlighters ( a fictional band )…glad I went to see the film…it was fun and a few young children in the audience who laughed along with me at the appropriate funny parts…didn’t remember the off-color language…not so bad but for 1985…this film’s budget ( 4 million added when they switched from Stoltz to Fox) was 19 million…it made 381 million, the highest grossing film of 1985 and spawned 2 more films…not as successful money wise but became the Back To The Future Franchise…but became games, theme park rides and a musical…in 2007 the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry…could it be the perfect storm for the perfect movie?…yes…and the cast… perfect…we all know the flux capacitor makes time travel possible…

so I called Customer Service…my bill was $234.29…for years my bill has been hovering around $200.00…when you call Customer Service they ask you if you are willing to answer a survey after your call is done…Quentin in Harrisburg was unable to bring my bill down…I kept cutting things down…part of my package was a sports thing…I never use it and don’t need it…I only really watch HBO and Showtime and Stars…still my bill would be around $196.00 before taxes and other charges that they put on my bill…they don’t really tell you what they are…Bundled Services 184.99…Additional TV Services 9.95… Add’l Products, Services & Equipment 10.00…Other Charges & Credits 16.11 and Taxes, Surcharges & Fees 13.24…ka ching…$234.29…I’m one person with 2 TVs…in the meantime my internet and phone was not working…after talking to Quentin and getting no satisfaction he switched me over to Juls in The Philippines…she was unable to get me back on-line…my phone just had a buzz…no dial tone…and it’s annoying that I have to talk to someone that far away…The Philippines…and difficult to understand…she kept telling me that she would “try” to send someone to my apartment but not until Friday… this is Wednesday…I not going to be here…how about Saturday?…I’m not going to be here…okay she would put in for Thursday emergency but she needed a backup appointment…okay…next Tuesday…I’m watching MSNBC…they report Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for the single Montana House of Representative seat body slammed The Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs…Jacobs was asking him about the CBO score for the House passed trumpcare…apparently Gianforte has been skirting his position on trumpcare…not giving his view but he has said that he was happy that it was passed…not granting interviews…and being stressed by the election…which should have been a slam dunk for the Republicans…Ben Jacobs had audio of what happened…Gianforte yelling “I’m sick and tired of this”…”get the hell out”…and scuffle…Gianforte’s campaign blamed Jacobs…said he was aggressive and shoved a microphone in Gianforte’s face…that Jacobs grabbed his wrist and swung around ending in both on the ground…and how unfortunate that this liberal reporter did this at a campaign BBQ…meanwhile Jacobs was taken by ambulance after he called the police…his glasses were also broken…so in sharp contrast the audio contradicts the campaign’s statement as well as Alicia Acuna of Fox News witnessed the assault…she said that Gianforte grabbed Jacobs around the throat with both hands…slammed them both to the floor and was punching him all the while screaming…and in no way was Jacobs the aggressor…Gianforte cancelled interviews including one with Chuck Todd of Meet the Press…and laying low today…the bad news…the three newspapers in Montana rescinded their endorsement of Gianforte…but most voters have already voted…and this is the state that doesn’t have money for this special election, they proposed just having a mail-in ballot, saving the State thousands of dollars…Republicans blocked that proposal saying it would give the Democrats an advantage…more people would vote…so we will have to see what happens in this election…so, after all this I received the follow-up call from Comcast…a robo-call…they thanked me for taking the survey…on a scale from 1-5…5 being highly satisfied…and 1 being highly dissatisfied…how would I rate my customer service call…I press 1…the survey ends…that’s it…”don’t bring me no bad news”…they don’t care if you’re dissatisfied…I wrote my blog on my phone…thinking it would be okay…but true to form, with no internet, it did not publish…hence the calls from Pam and Doris…Pam calls and asks if I’m okay?…also saying if I don’t blog I must be dead…Doris too, have I been blogging?…thank you for your concern…forever blogging…xxoo

thousands gathered in Belgium to protest trump who called Belgium a “hellhole”…and the CBO score says that 24 million will be out of healthcare…Republicans poo pooing the score…they only want to rob the poor and give to the rich…it’s disgusting…everyday more comes out with the trump-Russia connection…they must have such stuff on him…he does not speak ill of Putin and Russia who clearly interfered with our Election…the worst… trump not giving assurances to the other Natio leaders that we have their back and never mentioning Russia…also, beside the cruelty of trumpcare…I hear about Sean Spicer, a devout Catholic, was not given the opportunity of meeting the Pope…he, as Press Secretary should have been in there…but he has trump’s disfavor…and Sean should get ready for the bottom of the bus…I also read Lewandowsky may come back, so Reince may be on his way out…they didn’t get along…Lewandowsky had said “let trump be trump”…Reince should get ready for the bus bottom also…trump chiding the other NATO leaders for not doing their fair share…and as the ugly American…the ugly American president pushing his way to the front of the line, pushing Dusko Markovic, the Prime Minister from Montenegro ( the newest member of NATO at the end of the week ) out of the way to get to the front of a photo op….boar comes to mind…I hope you see the video of this…smug…

(it comes out that Paul Ryan’s House fund has given Gianforte 250,000 dollars from his Republican pact, trump, Jr. came…Pence came and trump robo-called what a great guy Gianforte is )…Paul Ryan says let the people of Montana speak…he has the power to not seat Gianforte…what do you think the chances are of that happening if he wins?…the Republican pact spent millions on this race…and then many Republicans not distancing themselves from Gianforte almost blaming the Press…they are disgusting…including Paul Ryan…we’ll have to watch this election…come on Montana do the right thing…they didn’t elect Gianforte to the governorship this past election in 2016…I hope that’s a good sign…Gianforte clearly not fit to be in the House…”if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen”…

my internet was down…it’s what I was blogging about…Comcast…I guess they took their revenge…both Doris and Pam called me this morning…wondering if I was alive…because I didn’t blog…so yes, I am alive and will try to recreate my blog on Comcast…and trump and Greg Gianforte in Montana and his assaulting Ben Jacobs of The Guardian…sending love and kisses…

I’ve been looking forward to The Voice Finale…my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning…I did not set it…I fell asleep with the light on in the bathroom and on my night stand…turned them off when I woke up ( abruptly ) at 6:30…went back to sleep…and finally got up when Doris called…she had a great time visiting Beth in Atlanta…I took and shower and went the the DMV to get my picture taken and get my new driver’s license… took longer than I thought…it took about an hour and a half…I was a half hour late for volunteering at The Shop…dinner at Pam’s, Taco Tuesday…Elissa came…she is a working girl…working back at School a couple of days a week…making some pocket change… lunch money…home again…watching MSNBC waiting for The Voice to be over…they watch so I can whiz through the commercials…Trey Gowdy’s questioning of former CIA Director John Brennan blew up in his face…what a hypocrite!…trying to defend his president, but backfired…from an article by Aaron Rupar:  “Brennan was responding to a question from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) about evidence of collusion that seemed intended to highlight that no such evidence exists. His effort backfired. During House Intelligence Committee hearing about the Russia probe, Gowdy has repeatedly tried to change the topic froml collusion involving the Trump campaign to leaks.”…Trey Gowdy was relentless going after Hillary…not so trump…who is more crooked than Hillary…Gowdy’s endless trial of his Benghazi Committee…twenty months and spending over 5 million and getting nothing…but pie on his face…Hillary came out on top and “Gowdy looked defensive…and at times, desperate”…her poll numbers went up and Gowdy was supposed to put the nail in Hillary coffin in regard to her presidential bid…when in the hell are the Republicans going to turn on trump…when are they going to listen to and join Lindsay Graham and McCain…when?…

what a Show!…I love this Show…the great leveler…music speaks to everyone…heart and soul…I’m going to miss watching The Voice…Monday and Tuesday will not be the same…until the next season…I grew up listening to the radio…I’m old enough to remember when there was no TV…so the radio was our only entertainment…it was the center of entertainment…we would lie on the floor, in pecking order, in front of the radio…I’ve written about this before…my Mom listened to all kinds of music…she was an original bobby-soxer in Colorado…she told me, she and her cousin Maggie would run to hear Frank Sinatra on the radio…she collected records… those old kunky 78’s, we had an upright, blonde mahogany combination radio and record player…we had 45’s later… Elvis…Don’t Be Cruel on one side and Hound Dog on the other…I still have those 45’s…do you think they are worth anything?…the first record I ever bought was Johnny Mathis’ Wonderful, Wonderful…I would play it over and over…the finale was great…lots of guest singers…Gladys Knight…Rascal Flatts…Usher…Miley Cyrus…it just was a fabulous finale…dragged out…but we love it…and in the end…Chris Blue…you just knew he would be the winner…Alicia Keys guy…he was the last one to sing in the blind auditions… everyone else had their teams full…only Alicia had a space…and it paid off…she held out for someone great and he delivered…just an amazing presence on stage…great moves and singing…

I watching trump meeting the Pope…do you think trump is telling him to mind his own business…trump as only trump can allienate anyone said “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful”…”No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.”…lashing out because the Pope questions trump’s border wall…the Pope said that he should build bridges not walls…and they differ sharply on climate change…Melania and Ivanka wearing black like they are at a funeral…but covering their heads…not so in Saudi Arabia…what’s the difference…heard Reince and Bannon came back to the U.S…maybe they thought lightning would strike them dead…

several tributes to the fallen children at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester…pray for them and their families…The Voice winner Chris Blue and Usher sang so beautifully and soulfully, REM’s Everybody Hurts:

When your day is long
And the night
The night is yours alone
When you’re sure you’ve had enough
Of this life
Well hang on
Don’t let yourself go
‘Cause everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it’s time to sing along
When your day is night alone (hold on)
(Hold on) if you feel like letting go (hold on)
If you think you’ve had too much
Of this life
Well, hang on

‘Cause everybody hurts
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts
Don’t throw your hand
Oh, no
Don’t throw your hand
If you feel like you’re alone
No, no, no, you’re not alone

If you’re on your own
In this life
The days and nights are long
When you think you’ve had too much
Of this life
To hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes
So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on

Everybody hurts

You are not alone

Written by Bill Berry, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Michael Mills • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group

we landed at 9:00, a few minutes ahead of schedule…left sunny California to arrive in rainy Pennsylvania…in sharp contrast…texted Elissa…she is picking me up…texted my sister and Pam to let them know I was on terra firma…Pam was just about to jump in the shower…she plays mah jong on Mondays…when I saw her later she said she won…Elissa was in the cell phone lot…waiting…asked the kid with the Superman shirt on how to spell his name…Praneet…I’ve been taking Superman pictures since 2011…started in Barcelona, I saw a kid in the Modern Museum…later on I saw him outside…asked him if I could take his picture and he gave me the pose…strike a pose…made my way off the plane…carry-ons in hand…it was quite a hike to the baggage claim…by the time I got there my bag was there…very little people had checked their bag…the airlines force us not to check their bag…called Elissa, told her I had my bag and I was at Terminal B across from the Marriott Hotel at the airport…she came fairly quickly and off we went into the rain…because of all the rain the past few weeks, the landscape was lush and green…so beautiful…got home… my plan was to unpack…and go sit on the sofa and snooze before my ultra sound appointment at 2:30…I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to make that appointment in retrospect…but I snoozed, got up at 1:30 to get to the Blair Mill Road offices of Abington Hospital…of course they had no record…finally found out I was in the wrong place…typical for clueless me…headed back where I came from…and the woman called ahead to tell them I would be late…but got there at 2:40…my appointment was for 3:00…I just remembered I was to get there at 2:30…do paperwork and give them my supplemental insurance information…the lump is gone…but they did it anyway…I was in there for about a half hour…made my way to the Acme…buy some provisions… and head to Pam’s to give them their daily bread…let’s hear it for sour dough bread!…Ben was sleeping and Julia not home…going there for dinner…Taco Tuesday… tomorrow… looking forward to that…came home. put the groceries away…and went back to my spot on the sofa and snoozed again…woke up to the horror at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England…nineteen people lost their lives and many hurt…just a sad state of affairs…I pray for those…watched Rachel Maddow and Malcolm Nance, retired as a Navy Officer and now commentator on international terrorism, intelligence, insurgency and torture…what can we do?…we can’t be intimidated… although how can we not be afraid… which is what they want…suicide bomber?…I don’t understand that…to kill yourself in the name of hate…I just don’t get it…takes our mind off of trump for a second…Flynn taking the Fifth…not giving over subpoenaed records… more out that he’s lied all along, and security clearance investigations…trump sticking by his man…”lock him up”…trump now lawyering up they say…he has no respect for the rule of law…thinks he is above the law…Republicans still sticking by their crooked president…makes me sick…makes me angry…more obstruction!…”I never mentioned the word or name of Israel” talking to the Russians…oh, an by the way, ” Comey is a nut job”…and his proposed budget…cuts for those entitlements benefiting the poor people who voted for him thinking he’s on their side… war on the poor…for one, $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade ( Trump promised not to touch Medicaid , doesn’t matter what he says. he just lies like a rug )…”programs like food stamps (SNAP), Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy families (TANF) will face sharp cuts”… assuming his “savings” from the passage of the trump health care…so let’s take from the poor and give to the rich…disgusting…

tomorrow is the finale of The Voice…the final four singing their hearts out tonight…2 from Blake’s team, fifteen year old Aliyah Molden and Lauren Duski…1 from Adam’s, Jesse Larson and 1 from Alicia’s, Chris Blue…I am a sucker for blue and I think Alicia’s guy Chris Blue will win..we’ll find out tomorrow night…