I have found it very difficult to write a blog since I returned from vacation. On vacation I could write about beautiful countryside and pleasant, sometimes funny, experiences. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been unable to escape the constant reminders that an ignorant, incompetent, adolescent twit of a Tweeter in Chief is in the White House. An adolescent who trades junior-high barbs with an equally adolescent and unbalanced head of North Korea, bringing our world closer to nuclear destruction than it has been in sixty years.

A Tweeter in Chief whose election was aided by a homicidal dictator, Putin. A dictator whose regime has also aided other efforts to weaken western civilization—Brexit, Marin le Pen’s Front National, Germany’s far right Alternative for Germany, etc. The collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian influence through social media is becoming clearer every day. (Yes I watch Rachel Maddow, but her research is impeccable.)

A Tweeter in Chief whose supporters continually live up to his comment in January of 2016 that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and his supporters would still support him. In a recent poll 49% of Trump supporters would support him after such an act, only 29% would not, and 26% are confused. http://www.newsweek.com/trump-voters-republicans-overall-actually-dont-care-president-shoots-someone-638462 I think than anyone with a brain who still supports Trump must be confused or living in a fact-free bubble. Such people consider real facts fake news.

Three category 5 hurricanes have devastated Huston, Florida, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other Caribbean islands. Category 5 hurricanes supposedly have a 1 in 500 chance of occurring in one year. Three in one year, and the year’s not over. While global warming can’t be blamed for the initiation of hurricanes, the increased temperature of the ocean adds to their intensity. After years of drought, wildfires flourish in the west. Yet, 180 Republicans in Congress deny climate change and/or the effect that human activity, burning fossil fuels, has on that change. Billions of dollars in damage from these hurricanes and fires—and the Republicans are concerned that any effort to slow down global warming will be too detrimental to the economy. https://thinkprogress.org/115th-congress-climate-denier-caucus-65fb825b3963/

My own Congressman, a man who has some trouble keeping track of what funds he is allowed to use for his personal expenses, has called for a preemptive strike against North Korea. One would think that a combat veteran would think twice before suggesting a move that could lead to a nuclear explosion that could do more damage than all the bombs in all the wars of the last 20 years combined.

Even though the planet is in its sixth major extinction event, caused by too many people using too much stuff and destroying habitat, and even though San Diego County has more endangered species than any other county in the USA, several General Plan Amendment projects, including the zombie Merriam Mountain (now Newland Sierra) project are making their way through the county’s planning process. These developments will devastate hundreds of acres of natural habitat leading to more extinction. The notion that these developments, with houses that will start in the half-million dollar price range, will add to affordable housing is ludicrous.

And then there’s the Escondido City Council, where Mayor Sam Abed, Councilmen Ed Gallo and John Masson would have you believe that outsourcing the library service for Escondido’s remaining library would be an important step in solving Escondido’s multi-million dollar unfunded pension obligation. But that’s another story, for another blog.

Usually writing (I suspect this qualifies as ranting) eases my angst a bit. Not sure it’s working now—too much idiocy going on.