Their withdrawal speaks volumes!

When all four federal prosecutors in the case of Roger Stone withdraw from the case when Attorney General Barr presents a lower recommended sentence after Trump criticizes the prosecutors' higher recommendation, THIS SPEAKS VOLUMES! There is a huge injustice going on in this country...where the POTUS can now DICTATE outcomes of criminal proceedings beyond his pardon power! I put emphasis on DICTATE, because if you cannot see we are heading into a dictatorship in this country, you have your head in the sand!

Of course, when all is said and done, Trump is going to pardon his buddy Stone anyway!

And I will say it again...when it comes time, I do NOT see Trump leaving this office quietly! Things are getting dangerous, folks! Remember when the Right said that Obama would not give up the office? Obama never abused his power in the way Trump has, and this was said. Obama did not get clearance for his children and give them positions in the WH. Trump is setting his family up to take over rule of this country when he no longer can...after he forces changes that allow him to stay in office! If he loses the election this year, watch for him to call for a full investigation claiming voter fraud, and find a way to hold on to the office. If he wins the election (which we all hope will NOT happen), watch him try to come up a way to change the Constitutional provision that a single person cannot hold the presidency for more than two terms.

We are headed to dark times, folks!

Sadly, I don't think Sanders can beat Trump

As much as I can agree with a lot of Bernie's ideals and potential policies, I just don't see him beating Trump. In today's climate, if we are going to get Trump out of the WH, we need a candidate who is a bit more middle. Is that sacrificing that which I believe is good policy? Maybe, but right now, I'm more concerned about what is best for the country! We cannot survive another 4 years of Trump without irreparable damage! Now, the GOP is talking slashing Social Security and Medicare. Just this week, a Native American sacred burial ground was demolished to make room for the stupid border wall! National Park lands are being destroyed. Environmental policy reversed. Protections for pre-existing conditions being targeted. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class are screwed!

What we need is a candidate that is a little closer to middle that the independents and those to the right middle can get behind so that we can get Trump out of office! We also need to tip the balance in the Senate, and get McConnell out of the seat!

As much as I love what Bernie stands for, I think it is too much for right now. Who can beat Trump? Sadly, I think that person would be Biden, as much as I don't really like how wishy-washy he is on policy. However, I don't see Biden destroying the country like Trump, and could be the 4-year repreave we need to then get a candidate in office we need. Biden may be just enough to get the ball rolling on trying to reverse some of the damages done by policy, by putting back into place what Obama had. Biden is the kind of person who can ease relations with the other countries. We don't need a candidate who will enact drastic change at this point...we just need someone to start the healing. We must heal, first.

Double standards, much?!

Was reading today that GOP Senators want travel records for Hunter Biden during the time that his father was in office as VP. They want to see if he had an official detail, etc. to determine if US taxpayer dollars were used on Hunter's "business trips" in his dealing with the Ukraine and such.

Um...what about the Trump children? We already know for a fact that US taxpayer dollars have been spent on their "business trips" abroad!! It's okay if Trump's kids do it, but not okay if Hunter Biden did it?!

Note, I'm not saying it is okay either way. Regardless of if it was a Biden kid or a Trump kid, they should not be using tax dollars on their personal business trips! Just because "daddy" is in office doesn't mean that they have access to government coffers! What I am pointing out is the hypocrisy!! The Trump children have been using government resources right under the noses of the GOP for their personal dealings, and not a peep from the GOP. Yet, when it comes to trying to undermine the House impeachment (even AFTER acquitting Trump), they are all about finding out whether or not Hunter Biden traveled on the taxpayers' dime!

Coronavirus is NOT our biggest concern!

The coronavirus as of last count has killed 362 people since it has been discovered. In comparison for the same timeframe, influenza in the United States has killed over 2,000, for a total of over 10,000 killed so far this season!

While concern about the coronavirus and stopping it's spread is valid, people continue to ignore that which is the biggest danger right here at home. Folks going to work sick, going to grocery stores sick and coughing on all the food, etc. Nearly half of Americans will not get the flu vaccine, which can limit your risks of contracting the virus. The flu this year is set to exceed the number from a couple of years ago (one of the worst flu seasons in recorded history) of those infected and killed by the virus.

Yet, the population is freaking out over the coronavirus. What if they put the same energy in fighting the thing that has killed thousands of Americans in the past few months?!

Contemplate this!

Many of these same senators and representatives were in office during the time Clinton was (we really do need term limits)! Their argument is that even IF Trump used his position to try to coerce officials of another country to dig up dirt on his opponent in the upcoming election, this is not an impeachable offense! So, receiving sexual favors in the White House and lying about it is impeachable...according to the GOP...but nothing Trump has done is?!

Their narrative is setting a very, very dangerous precedent which opens the door for dictatorship! Anyone who doesn't see this...regardless of party...is totally blind!

Take note...

...of ANY senator that votes against witnesses in the impeachment trial! This isn't a party issue. All evidence must be heard! Making a decision without hearing all of the evidence is irresponsible, and against everything our justice system stands for! You may try to argue that an impeachment proceeding is not related to our justice system, but it is...it is a trial. If the senate is allowed to acquit the President without hearing all of the evidence, what message does that send to lower courts?

Iran Situation

I've been reading a lot in the last couple of days about the situation in the Middle East after the assassination of Solimani. One argument I keep seeing over and over by conservatives is that Iran started hostilities against the US back in 1979 when it stormed a US Embasy, taking American hostages.

This is NOT the whole story, and this is NOT when the problem started. The rest of the story is that in 1953 the US CIA helped the British stage a coup against the then DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED leader of Iran. The reason for this was due to the leader wanting to nationalize their oil fields...oil fields that Britain controlled. Yes, you read that right...it really is all about oil! After helping to overthrow the leader of Iran, the US backed the monarch. This new leader was quite the authoritarian.   The Shah exiled those who opposed him...including Ayatollah Khomeini (if you were around in the 80's, you are very familiar with this name).

In 1979, the Shah fell out of power due to revolution. The country was united in it's distrust of the US, after the US did what it did in 1953. At this point, Khomeini returned to Iran. Later in 1979, the US allowed the Shah to come here for medical treatment. Iran demanded the extradition of the Shah due to what they perceived as crimes against the Iranian people, but the US refused. THIS resulted in the storming of the 1979 storming of the US Embassy!

So, while it may look like Iran was the initial aggressor in all of this when you fail to note all parts of history, the actual truth is that the US was the initial aggressor...by sticking it's nose in stuff that was not their business...all over some oil!

Add to all of this that Iraq saw it's own revolution that eventually lead to the Saddam taking power in 1979. During much of the 80's, the US played both sides of the Iraq/Iran conflict...backing Iraq, while selling weapons to Iran (Iran-Contra affair ring a bell)!! That is, until Saddam invaded Kuwait, which forced the US to stand by it's Gulf allies (again, all about the oil, baby)! After Saddam was overthrown, Iran still viewed Iraq as an enemy, which, well, the US was trying to help rebuild.

Learn your history!!

When Dance Is No Longer Fun

Let me start out saying, I'm not quitting dance. I've simply changed course. I discovered a teacher who is really teaching me...not throwing choreo at me and expecting me to master it in 55 minutes. I've gone to the basics...things I've never learned before. This new teacher doesn't hesitate to correct me, with either verbal or physical queues. She will put my arms in the correct position, turn my hips the right way, etc. She explains the muscles involved, and where I should be concentrating for various skills. It is a long process for me, but I'm slowly getting it!

I had to go outside of my "home" studio to find this. Sadly, my home studio stopped being "fun". This is what led me to re-evaluating...I mean, what did I really want from dance, and what kind of dancer did I want to be? If I was no longer having fun, if I was no longer FEELING dance, what had changed?

After reflecting, I realized that there were a few key things I wasn't getting from my studio.

First of all, I wasn't feeling the music selections and choreo any longer. The instructors were moving more and more toward "sexy" dancing to songs that I truly didn't like! (Sorry, I just don't see what Cardi B has to offer in terms of music, and there is no real musicality to her stuff.) I get it...this brings people to class, because it attracts a broader group of skills (from no skills who just want to learn things for the club to higher skilled dancers just wanting fun routines). But I wanted to be a BETTER dancer. I wasn't just there to have fun! Twerking isn't my thing at all...I personally don't see why so many think it looks sexy, because I actually think it looks stupid...but I digress.

Next, there have been new folks coming to the studio who do not get the concept of "dance under yourself". This actually does a lot to ruin the experience! When I'm trying to learn choreo, I don't want to have to be worried about avoiding people who simply are too into it to realize they need to use a smaller space in a full class. I know how to dance under myself when I need to, and I expect others (especially folks who claim to have been in high school dance squads and such) to know how to stay in their own space. It ruins the experience for me if I'm spending more time avoiding people than actually dancing.

And finally, the instructors who actually taught skills have left the studio, and no one does this any more. I don't feel like anyone is actually trying to make anyone better. They obviously have favorites (and sadly, I've always felt this), and these same people get all of the attention. As my new teacher said, "...and you give them your money!" I think that is when I started re-evaluating things! It was about 3 classes in when I was telling her what I've been getting from her class (i.e., the correction and explanation of how to actually do things correctly), and how I wasn't getting that from the studio I had been at for years..."...and you give them your money!" That hit me hard!! I was paying these people twice as much per month as this new teacher for them to not really TEACH!

So I haven't lost my passion for dance, I've just decided what kind of dancer I want to be. I don't want to be that twerking club dancer. I don't want to be that person who is always positioned at the back of the stage for performances because I'm not as skilled as the others (and EVERYONE who wants to perform gets to perform). I'd rather not perform at all and take the time for someone to teach me, than just be thrown on a stage with no real feedback, and lackluster choreo...because the instructor "dumbs down" the choreo so everyone gets it. I WANT TO DANCE!

People are not asking for "free" stuff!

I saw this posted by my son the other day:

I didn't respond to his post, because, well, our relationship is strained already for various reasons (as you can guess, I'm suspicious that my view on certain things are part of it). My first reaction to seeing him post this was anger. Why?

1) I'm paying on a parent-student loan of over $30k for 1 year of college which he goofed off and then quit after. He has not offered to help pay this at all.

2) Right after my divorce from my ex-husband (my son's legal father), my son moved friends into my home. At this time my son was 20/21 years old! Neither he nor his friends paid me a single cent in rent or toward utilities. The whole while, he was bringing home nearly $1000/month. At the time, between mortgage, utilities (which were high for that house), and my bills, I was struggling. Instead of helping, he and his friends would complain when I had to make cut backs like turning the thermostat up in the summer. During this time, he and his friends also would keep my home a total mess, and would not help with yard work. I sold the house and got an apartment on my own...forcing my son to get his own place. This didn't help on the strain of our relationship.

You can see why I didn't respond to him! Once my anger subsided a bit, and I read this again, I started to develop a new reaction, which I will go into details here.

1. Free Tuition - No, people are not asking for FREE tuition...they want affordable tuition! People want a level playing field so that someone coming from a low income family can also have the opportunity at an education to better themselves...thus, allowing them to break the cycle of poverty and have a chance at a good job, without being buckled down by thousands upon thousands of dollars in student loan debt (or their parents).

2. Free Healthcare - Again, people want AFFORDABLE healthcare!! We live in a time where pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and healthcare providers are allowed to arbitrarily set their prices without justification. Many cannot afford the medications they need. Insurance companies continue to raise rates leaving folks to take lesser coverage just to afford insurance (in many cases, people are paying for policies they cannot use, because their deductibles are so high). Medical costs are rising out of control. What the people want is for government to start putting some regulations in place so that these providers and such are required to justify their pricing!

3. Free Abortions - People do not want free abortions. What people want is their CHOICE protected!

4. Free Housing - This is another one of those that all the people are asking for is affordability...NOT free! Housing costs continue to rise, while incomes are not. Where I live, the average rent on a 2-bedroom place is $1400/month. When you consider a family still needs to pay for utilities, food, INSURANCE, etc., it is easy to see that your average low to lower middle income family cannot afford this price! Instead of affordable housing, more and more expensive condos and luxury apartments are built. To be able to afford a $1400/month place, the first $5.83 of the households' hourly income goes to rent. Current minimum wage is $7.25! In order to be able to afford all the other necessities, minimum wage needs to be at least twice what it is...and that is simply to afford the BARE necessities!

So, no...people do not want free this and that. And to correct...

Life (to be healthy enough to work and take care of your family)
Liberty (to have to right to make your own choices)
Pursuit of Happiness (have the opportunities to reach your goals, rather than everyone wanting to put up walls to stop you)

Need to rant a bit

This one isn't a political rant or anything like that. No, I need to rant about the "renovation" project at my apartment complex.

So, my complex decided they needed to repaint all of the buildings. I guess they are having a problem attracting tenants. They sent out a schedule of this project, showing the dates each step would happen on each building. Well, first of all...they start my building late...but this isn't what bugs me.

The day before any work was to actually start, they send out an email to clear our patios for the work. This email says that the entire process will take 2-3 weeks, and that we need to keep our patios clear until the building is done. Now, our apartments in this building are not that big. This is a building full of 1-bedroom units with the largest being 600 sq ft. As you can imagine, many of us use our patios as a kind of living space. Some have patio furniture (I have a chair out on mine that I like to curl up in on rainy days to read), those of us with bikes have to store them on our patios, and several of us have plants or some other type of patio garden. Yes...ALL of that has to be brought in. The issues I have are:

1. My living space is cramped.

2. My plants require a couple of hours a day fo DIRECT sun, which means I have to block my patio door with my plant tables.

3. Because I have to have my blinds open during the warmest part of the day to try to get my plants enough light, my A/C runs non-stop in the afternoon, which increases my utility bill.

So, the work began Friday, 6/28. That day saw 1 painter on a lift with a power sprayer painting a majority of the siding. Monday, most of the day saw only that 1 lonely painter on the lift again, until after lunch. At that point, the rest of the crew showed up to prep the court yard portion of the building to have the walls/siding painted (covering the floor, covering all the fixtures on the doors and apartment numbers, etc.). At this point, I was basically confined to my apartment with the painting going on right outside my door, and the locks on my door covered on the outside, so that I could not lock my apartment if I left.

Tuesday, the painters show back up at 8 a.m., but sit around their van for a hour eating their breakfast. When they finally do start working, they spend some 2 hours covering all the windows on the patios. I take this to mean that they will start painting the patios. Yay...maybe I can soon move my stuff back out! I then hear a bunch of banging around out there, a little spraying, and after a full day of this, I leave the apartment to see them closing shop for the day. The only work completed was a small part fo the court yard paint that needed completing, the trim on 4 windows (yes...only 4), and the trim around the doors and windows on only 3 patios spray primed (yes, sprayed, which means it took them maybe 5 minutes per patio). They definitely did not complete 8 hours worth of work!

So, Wednesday comes around...the day before the July 4th holiday. The lone painter that runs the lift returns to take the lift away. I don't see any sign of the painters the rest of the day. I figure their supervisor gave them an extra day for the holiday, and they took the lift off of the property as to not have it messed with the 5-day weekend. I expect them back Monday.

Monday was yesterday! Guess what...no painters! I had to pick up a package in the office, and mention that we haven't seen the painters at our building since Tuesday afternoon, and wondered when they were going to return to finish. They stay they thought the building was done, which I assured them it definitely wasn't, and was looking in a sad state! I later get a call from the office staff. She said she called the supervisor, and was told they have to let the paint dry for a couple of days, and why they let the paint dry, they work on another building. The next two buildings on the list are within sight of my windows, and the painters surely were not there. I also told her that didn't make any sense, because it has been 6 days thanks to the holiday and weekend...plenty of time for the paint to dry.

NOTE HERE: I have owned a house, and painted said house...and you only need to give exterior paint about 4 hours in the sun to dry before applying the next coat!

I suspected the supervisor was giving our office staff a BS story...that he probably sent his painters off on another job to make some money, since he cannot collect on this job until the contract is done (and it's not scheduled to be done until September). Keep in mind, this is a large construction company apparently, and I'm sure there are multiple crews working multiple jobs. I drive around the complex before heading to the store, and see a group power washing a building that isn't even scheduled to be starting until late August. Additionally, another building that shouldn't have even been touched until August has an entire side painted. However, there are no sign of the actual painters...just a bunch handful of power washers. Looks to me that the crew dropped off the power washers (as all the equipment was in a pile in the grass and none of their vehicles were around), and then took off to another job!

So, either the office staff is dumb enough to believe the supervisor's bullshit story, or they are trying to bullshit me. Seriously, I don't care if they decide there isn't enough shade around my building to work on it during the hottest month of the year...and they decide to skip down the schedule and work on other buildings to come back to mine. I seriously just want some damn communication!!! If that is what they are going to do, tell us...so we can put our stuff back on our patios and quit being cramped in our apartments unable to even use the square footage of the patios we pay for! I have no problem pulling the stuff back in at a later date! I just want some communication as to what is going on! No way in hell will I be okay with this current situation for months because they can't communicate when they will return to finish our building!