From Erik Hoffer’s The True Believer: Thought on the Nature of Mass Movements: “nationalist movements revive or invent memories of past greatness”! “Make America great again!”  Oh my god!  Can you believe this?  Trumpism or what?

I vow to disengage from this Trump nonsense, then something happens or someone says something and, like a dumb catfish, I grab the bait.

In a May 8 call to former staffers, President Obama called President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic “an absolute chaotic disaster.” Responding, Presidential Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany calls “President Trump’s coronavirus response . . . unprecedented and saved American lives.”

I’m reminded that on Feb. 28, after two months’ warnings, President Trump underscored his concern for COVID 19 by famously predicting, “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Today, May 10, with 1.3 million COVID 19 cases and 77,000 American lives lost, Trump’s concern and response, Ms McEnany, is indeed and tragically unprecedented!

Hairy chested,
beer drinkin’,
meat eatin’,
gun totin’,
white skinned,
men and women.

 

Bears repeating:

“History will treat me kindly, for I shall write it.”
Winston Churchill

Today will treat me kindly, for I shall live it kindly.

A time to remember:

Whatever happens I will create no more problems; I will create no more pain for myself.    The Power of Now
   Eckhart Tolle

If we don’t look into hope and fear, seeing a thought arise, seeing the chain reaction that follows, if we don’t train ourselves to sit with that energy without getting snared by the drama, then we are always going to be afraid.
   When Things Fall Apart
   Pema Chodron

Practicing mindfulness I can recognize what is happening in the present without grasping or aversion. I can practice mere recognition of what is going on within me and around me without judgment or reactions. This helps me to keep stability and freedom alive within myself.
Touching the Earth
   Thich Nhat Hanh

The goal of psychoanalysis is to make unconscious process conscious.
Sigmund Freud

Never give up
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
. . .
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends but
to everyone, be compassionate
Work for peace in your heart and in
the world
Work for peace, and I say again
Never give up
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama