Speechless TBH

Hi friends. I haven’t written a newsletter in almost three weeks. Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because every time I started to write, some superseding insanity would occur, and my previously brilliant take would sound outdated and pointless. For example, remember when Jake Tapper wrote that book about Joe Biden being too old to run for President again and called it a Cover Up and everyone either got mad, agreed, or didn’t want to talk about it because the current president seems even less competent than Biden was at his stumbliest? That was just a couple of weeks ago.

Now, despite the very clear advice of Douglas MacArthur and Vizzini, we’re involved in another war in the Middle East.

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - the most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” - but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line”!’

By the way, I think we should absolutely be doing an autopsy on the Democratic Party’s failure to confront its ineffective elected leaders, whether they are 89 or 48. No one is entitled to be re-elected solely because they were elected in the prior go-around. Our elected officials’ fitness for duty should be scrutinized regularly. Did you know the last four members of Congress to die in office were Democrats? Their deaths widened the Republican House majority, making it (slightly) easier for the GOP to whip members to support their stupid bullshit legislation.

This weekend, The New York Times had an article (The D.N.C. Is in Chaos and Desperate for Cash) about how the Democratic National Committee is mired in discord, with people going on the record saying that David Hogg, a very effective fundraiser and organizer, should not hold ineffective electeds accountable. They will never ever learn, will they? Literally every Democrat wants effective leaders except the feckless consultant class that makes their money from the immovable objects in Congress.

Back to that war. I.CAN’T.EVEN. I remember so clearly when we invaded Iraq. I remember lying in bed, NPR on my old clock radio, listening to Colin Powell testify lie to Congress about Iraq having fuel rods or some such horseshit. I remember we had takeout from Le Cheval, and I realized as soon as I bit into the beef carpaccio that I wasn’t supposed to eat it because I had just found out I was pregnant. As I lamented my mistake, bombs were raining down on Baghdad. We watched on CNN and cursed the stupidity and venality of our Republican President. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, heh?

Now, I have two sons who are roughly the age their grandfathers were when faced with Vietnam. Neither of their grandfathers were drafted. Brook’s dad enlisted through ROTC and served in Germany when he wasn’t in school. My father was in the seminary, the oldest son, and a conscientious objector. He made triple sure not to sent to Vietnam. Thankfully, there’s no draft, so my kids won’t fight or die in another stupid war unless things go terribly awry. The problem is, so much is going terribly awry that the draft hardly seems impossible. It’s an especially scary time for young people, whose nihilism seems to be the main lingering symptom of COVID in the under-25 set.

[A quick aside: the Democrats would be very smart to stop their in-fighting and start telling everyone that they alone are the party who will never reinstate the draft “unlike the Republicans who are starting this war.” They could quickly win back young men if they could explain how they represent the interests of young people. That would require that they do so, however, and again, not much evidence of that.]

Geez, Andrea, do you have anything good to tell us about? Sure, here’s some cool things I’ve seen lately. The Routed West: Twentieth Century African-American Quilts in California show at BAMPFA is great, and not just because I am a quilter. Really wonderful history of western migration and the Bay Area, rooted in family histories and beautiful hand-crafted quilts. Really lovely.

I also went to the Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes From Art show at the Legion of Honor. It was cool to see how he interpreted (or stole from, as he put it) the works of other great artists. This has minimal cake paintings, which was a plus for me. His techniques and colors are well-suited to other subjects, especially portraits. It also inspired me to do some drawing over the weekend, which was a nice diversion from (waves hands around).

The other cool thing that I got was a Birdfy bird feeder, which has a wifi enabled video camera that lets me watch the birds eating at the bird feeder.

Not only can I look at cute birds, I can also see the view from our deck in Stinson Beach. In this way, I am happy to acquiesce to the surveillance state.

Hopefully it won’t be three weeks before I write again. If you really miss me, don’t forget that I post several times a week at The Pushback, where I similarly try not to get mired in the awfulness that surrounds us. Have a good week!