My solace is found in the poetry of Don Marquis- and my thanks to Warty for reminding me.

LEADER no more, be judged of us!
Hailed Chief, and loved, of yore—
Youth, and the faith of youth, cry out:
Leader and Chief no more!

  We dreamed a Prophet, flushed with faith,
Content to toil in pain
If that his sacrifice might be,
Somehow, his people’s gain.

  We saw a vision, and our blood
Beat red and hot and strong:
“Lead us (we cried) to war against
Some foul, embattled wrong!”

  We dreamed a Warrior whose sword
Was edged for sham and shame;
We dreamed a Statesman far above
The vulgar lust for fame.

  We were not cynics, and we dreamed
A Man who made no truce
With lies nor ancient privilege
Nor old, entrenched abuse.

  We dreamed … we dreamed … Youth dreamed
a dream!
And even you forgot
Yourself, one moment, and dreamed, too—
Struck, while your mood was hot!

  Struck three or four good blows … and then
Turned back to easier things:
The cheap applause, the blatant mob,
The praise of underlings!

  Praise … praise … was ever man so filled,
So avid still, of praise?
So hungry for the crowd’s acclaim,
The sycophantic phrase?

  O you whom Greatness beckoned to …
O swollen Littleness
Who turned from Immortality
To fawn upon Success!

  O blind with love of self, who led
Youth’s vision to defeat,
Bawling and brawling for rewards,
Loud, in the common street!

  O you who were so quick to judge—
Leader, and loved, of yore—
Hear now the judgment of our youth:
Leader and Chief no more!

And some more news to depress follows.

 

Fire in a New York skyscraper, and yes, the rabid mobs have found a way to politicize even that, and of course in the stupidest ways. Read the comments and despair of humanity.

 

Is Syria a shithole or a real shithole? They report, you decide. We need to be as far away as we can be.

Syria has called the allegations of a chemical attack a “fabrication” – as has its main ally, Russia.

I fucking hate people.

 

It’s guys like this who give my character a bad name. But I have to admit being a tiny bit amused by the denoument.

KOKH reported that he approached a woman while she swept the floor of the establishment and handed her $10. When she told him that employees were not allowed to take tips, he grabbed her crotch and her backside before telling her he’d like to see her in some red lingerie that was hanging from a stand in the store. He was 82 at the time of the alleged offenses and turned 83 in February, when charges were filed against him in connection with the incident.

 

What should the US role be in an Iran-Israel war? Answer: absolutely nothing, other than to sell weapons. For cash. But that wouldn’t have filled the article. Ah, well.

 

This is… astonishing. Just astonishing. I’ve really never seen such unawareness and derp packed into one piece.

The solution for the people of California was to reconfigure the political landscape and shift a supermajority of citizens — and by extension their elected officials — under the Democratic Party’s big tent. The natural continuum of more progressive to more moderate solutions then got worked out within the context of the only remaining functioning party. The California Democrats actually cared about average citizens, embraced the inevitable diversity of 21st-century society, weren’t afraid of real innovation, and were ready to start solving the many challenges of our time, including climate change.

 

My only other solace today is Old Guy Music, in this case a performer I love but sadly never got to see. Insane trumpet, John the Baptist to Clifford Brown’s Jesus.