All this laughing through tears isn’t going to get our grandchildren a better world in which to live. Some serious bad stuff is going down and somebody somewhere is going to have to take a stand to stop it.
The first step involves naming. It’s not just Fox News or CNN, it’s corporate lying. It’s not just quirky candidates, it’s pathological narcissism and limitless greed. Rather that a little deal, it’s a big mess, and the costs to clean it up will prove staggering.
Serious people used to be valued, at least in certain positions. Now everybody has to be entertaining first and then maybe capable of taking action when conditions are right, but you can’t blame them too harshly because doing the right thing can sometimes be a tough call. In general, there’s a general feeling of impotence and hopelessness that has trickled down from top to bottom. Facts don’t matter as much as beliefs. Judge me on my intentions, not my actions. Cut me some slack!
It’s amazing what some people were able to accomplish back before foolishness and whimsy became a way of life for most public figures. Now everybody’s a comedian and nothing good seems to be coming down the pike. I’d like to believe that we haven’t all turned into characters from a Seth Rogan comedy, but maybe I’m fooling myself.Maybe we really are all self-absorbed dimwits and will get exactly what we deserve.
geezersabroad 
Thanks, Dan, for yr thoughts. I’ve been reading you off and on for years, and I can say I believe you did the right thing by getting the hell out of here. I have little chance, being wedded to Teresa, since she will not retire I believe until I’m 78. A figure which seems somewhat impossible now that I’m already 9 years past my triple bypass, and 20 years past my MI. I don’t really believe sane people would live in Iowa, actually, without the homestead act, and the 19th century necessity of being on the land to actually work it, and raise cattle etc. Now, the towns are here, and you can live inside and drive everywhere…insane.
Anyway, I sincerely hope you are okay, and happy as you sound. I am making do I guess you could say. Doing what I need to do, every day, to live somewhere I don’t really care to live, and in the scariest political mess I ever remember. The one thing I can’t get over, is that pundits here seem to think the fifties nostalgia, and a yearning for a comforting dumb ass like Reagan got us to this pass? I hardly think so. I can’t imagine what people will do when they begin to discern the lineaments of the actual plan that is at work here, and what the consequences will be.
Oh, I’m me! er, Tom Smith.
and my blog is not off the ground yet, still recovering from the demise of the lives of kitty daddy thing I attempted awhile back.