I’m still having trouble adjusting to the altitude in my New Mexico location, hence working on my bedroom closet like I’d planned is a no-go. Not enough air circulation, and I’m better off sitting down. Last thing I need is to pass out onto my surely unforgiving classic Saltillo tile floors. My critters need me, despite their adjusting to a new abode quite well.
It’s hard to focus on organizing or unpacking anyway, when my thoughts are with the brave, stalwart, and fierce folks participating in No Kings marches throughout the nation today. Wishing that I could join them, and knowing that current physical limitations as well as lack of familiarity with my surroundings prevent me from even attempting to participate in fighting the good fight against a most egregious and very real threat to our democracy.
It’s funny, except not, how much of this I’ve previously covered in my Other Worldly novels—including an extensive discussion of altitudes above four thousand feet in the book that started it all, Alienable Rights. When I wrote it I was living at the same altitude I once again am experiencing now, but I suppose it’s because I left that area in rural central Nevada six years ago that I’m not snapping right back into it. Maybe being a bit older and often exhausted isn’t helping either, but it’s still frustrating.
As is reading about what is happening in my nation, especially in California this week. The wholly overblown immigration issue was at the forefront of my snark in writing Alienable Rights, using inane human arguments against those who come to our country from other nations—dubiously dubbed aliens and ridiculously deemed illegal—to posit exactly how the same imbeciles (racist Republicans) would treat the extraterrestrial version of alien beings.
Those who’ve read my OW novels are aware that the US Marine Corps also plays a featured role in the ongoing saga of fighting for earthly alien rights, hence they wouldn’t be surprised at how I’m taking the news that Marines have foregone duty, honor, and remaining always faithful—per their motto Semper Fidelis—to upholding democracy in real life, instead embracing fascism in all its sordid violence, hatred, and heinously horrific treatment of fellow human beings in Los Angeles (so far).
What in the hell are you thinking, Marines? The USMC would do well to heed the glaring reality that everything the moronic monster in the White House controls, or is any way associated with, he ultimately destroys. Just as surely as this convicted felon is attempting to obliterate the rule of law and any semblance of human decency among US citizens and noncitizens.
The tiny-hands, sniveling and shriveling-mushroom-of-a-man who somehow sees himself as king may have already irrevocably tainted the image of the USMC, the US Army, and the National Guard, as they are all now indelibly diminished in my estimation.
Imagine cheering on a pathetic contemptible slob who called you worthless losers when he had his daddy lie about his nonexistent bone spurs so he could avoid military service. Devastating duplicity, to say the least, but it’s just one more DoD betrayal occurring since 9/11 and Jan 6 that is a bridge too damned far.
If you need some snarky relief from ongoing atrocities, I recommend getting Carl Hiaasen’s latest novel released last month, Fever Beach. As always, this adored iconic author does not disappoint, because in addition to his usual championing of environmental issues while eschewing Republican attempts to profit off the destruction of Florida’s ecosystems, he targets with some hilarity (though you can tell it wasn’t easy to write on this subject) the sick machinations of white supremacist neo Nazis.
And Carl pulls absolutely no punches, naming diabolical names from Alex Jones and Clarence Thomas to the dumbass dipshit serving in the current criminal administration, Dan Bongino. Sure, it’s literary fiction, and yet it really isn’t. Though outcomes are far more satisfying, especially with respect to Republican officials and their diabolical donors, than we are obtaining in real life.
Yet reading Hiaasen’s genius each night as I tumble into bed, exhausted, gives me hope. As do all of those fierce fighters out there today who actually understand the true meaning of patriotism, freedom, and giving a damn about others. Thank you. You are what makes America great.
No thanks to the United States Marine Corps, who no longer holds that distinction. WTF, over?