Day 276…
As much as I enjoy shopping for Christmas presents, the feeling of getting all of my family’s stuff wrapped, boxed and into the mail is exactly the same one that I experience in April when our taxes are finally done and filed.
I woke up this morning alone and freezing. I crawled out of bed and went straight to the Post Office with all my boxes before it got too crowded. It's done.
The second that Michael left yesterday, all of the radiators were turned off and the windows opened.
Last night, it was perfect. The cat was curled up tightly against me. He was so warm and comfortable this morning that he was actually a little reticent about getting up to be fed.
Like many apartments in the city, we have steam heat from a giant boiler in the basement that looks like a component from a spaceship in one of the Alien movies. You can turn the radiators on, or you can turn them off, but you can’t regulate the temperature. It’s almost always too hot for me.
So much heat comes up from the apartments below that, except on the coldest days, the apartment is usually warm even when everything is off. We spend all summer trying to get the apartment to a comfortable 68 degrees. I don’t understand why that shouldn’t be the same goal in the winter. Apparently, some feel that it is completely acceptable for the apartment to get up well into the 70’s when it’s cold outside.
Not this weekend!
Unsurprisingly, the Supreme Court has rejected Texas’ suit to overthrow the results of the election. The case that the President has been referring to as the “Big One” was thrown out as having no merit.
The President’s supporters are making much of the fact that Justices Alito and Thomas seemed to indicate that they’d be willing to hear the case. That is absolutely not what they said.
Alito’s statement, that Thomas supported said that under the idea of “original jurisdiction”, they believe that the court should be willing to hear such disputes between states in general, but not this particular one. “I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.” They have put forth this same idea several times before.
Under whatever circumstances these Justices got to the bench and regardless of who appointed them, they are sending the clear message that they aren’t puppets. While they all have biases they are, nonetheless, following the rule of law.
I take some comfort in that. Their biases come into play when they are adjudicating finer points, but they don’t appear to feel beholden to the people who appointed them.
We still have forty-some-odd days left before the transition of power. The President is going to continue to try and throw the results out, but this case really does seem to mark the end of his chances to do that through the courts. The single case that he did win was over a minor procedural matter that had no bearing on the election results.
I think that we can look forward to some other attempts on the Republican’s part before January 20th, but they are likely to be even further outside of the box than this latest one was.
This morning the President renewed his attacks against the Attorney General. Today’s complaint is that the Attorney General did not provide information about the investigation into the President-elect’s son, Hunter, to congressional Republicans before the election. “Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls!"
The truth of the matter is that there really doesn’t seem to be anything there to provide. Some of the focus of the investigation is on Hunter Biden’s past work in China and whether or not he properly reported any income he might have received from that. The GOP had latched onto some allegations of money laundering, but the FBI has not found any evidence of that.
The President has done everything in his power to make Hunter Biden seem like a criminal but, as of now, there doesn’t appear to be any actual evidence of either his criminality or what that criminality might even be. At the moment, it’s smoke and mirrors. A distraction.
While the President rants and raves and digs in his heels, the First Lady has been overseeing the packing up of their personal furniture and belongings and the shipping of them down to Florida. He might be fighting to stay, but she’s clearly believes that they are on their way out. His foolish supporters might believe what he’s saying, but despite giving lip service from the sidelines to what he’s screaming about, she seems to be moving on.
There is less than a month left before the Senate runoffs in Georgia.
If both Democratic contenders win those seats, then the Senate will be equally balanced between the two parties leaving Vice President-elect Harris as the person who will cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie. If even one of those seats goes Republican, then control of the Senate goes to the GOP and the current Senate Majority Leader continues to be able to obstruct any and all new legislation.
The Republicans are, unfortunately, somewhat favored to win, but it isn’t, by any means, a sure thing. The President’s continued undermining of the election results have somewhat muddied the issue.
It’s proving to be difficult for the right to convince people that their vote is the only thing keeping the country from drowning in a wave of socialism, when they think that their guy won. Adding to that is the fact that there are Republican lawmakers who are urging voters NOT to vote because they believe the system is rigged.
On the other side of the aisle, there are Democrats like Stacey Abrams who are firing up people to get out and vote. She has been lauded as somewhat of a hero for her efforts in the main election which helped turn the state of Georgia blue. The hope is that she will be able to help that happen again on January 4.
Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina has been making his own baseless claims that Stacey Abrams conned Georgia election officials that led to President-elect Biden flipping the state.
The GOP have now even dragged in Sarah Palin to campaign. As I am writing this, she’s in the middle of a photo op with elderly supporters somewhere in Georgia.
She’s not wearing a mask, and neither are they. They are all happily shaking hands and posing with their arms around each other. Big smiles. What could possibly go wrong?
It is dark and gloomy outside but it’s perfect inside.
Our new remote-control candles are each set to ‘flicker’ and the Christmas tree lights are on. Having gotten the family’s presents out, I can now clean up the apartment before Michael gets home. I think I’m still a couple of hours away from actually missing him, but I wouldn’t mind hearing his voice on the phone right about now.
Now that I’m up, the cat is sleeping next to the kitchen sink. There is a hot water pipe right underneath the floor there that makes a warm spot. He can tell that there is some kitchen activity about to start.
For the first time since I was in quarantine, I’m going to have to make my own breakfast. I think I am going to make a kind of egg scramble based on the ones that Bea Bea’s on Pass Ave in Burbank makes. Bea Bea’s might be my favorite breakfast place on the planet.
We often stay at the hotel right across the street from it. I just googled them, and I am happy to see that they seem to still be open.
For the moment, we appear to be moving in the right direction. Tomorrow? Who knows?
Thus far, today, the machinery of our society appears to be working and lurching us ever so slightly forward.
All any of us can really do these days is hang in there.
So, let’s do that.
Hang in there.
❤️I heard “he” refused to come out of his bedroom....and I am not referring to Ziggy.... and so what will you make for lunch?
I can hang in here, in fact
I’m dancing 💃