April 26, 2021 at 9:43 pm (Links, postaday, Surprises)
Tags: COVID watching, elections, happiness, Joe Biden, memories, Mondays, politics, US history
From Nancy Merrill, host of the Photo a Week Challenge:
Last year, when Covid-19 first struck the United States, my friend’s daughter got married. It wasn’t the wedding she had started planning when she got engaged in November, but it was a beautiful celebration of love and joy. I was one of twenty-five people who were able to attend the sweet backyard ceremony. It was fun to not only take photos but to help with the decorations and food and just overall doing what we could to make the bride and groom happy.
IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) OF HOW YOU HAVE CELEBRATED DURING THE PANDEMIC.
Along with the rest of America, self watched the inauguration of #46, Joseph R. Biden, on live TV.
The marchers (except for one) are wearing masks! Funny, she never stopped to think about that until she started looking at pictures for this week’s Photo a Week Challenge.
Also a first: that she watched the events unfold on Fox News!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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March 16, 2021 at 7:11 am (Books, Memoirs)
Tags: COVID Reading, Obama, politics, reading lists, Trump, US history
44 remembers the exact date.
It was Feb. 10, 2011, during Trump’s speech at the CPAC convention that year.
p. 675, Trump at CPAC:
- “our current President came out of nowhere . . . The people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who it is. It’s crazy.”
It’s not like 44 goes around dropping exact dates of when this or that person said something negative about him. And the book ends at 705 pages. Yes, Obama did indeed serve up this nugget, a mere 30 pages from the end.
You don’t think 44 has a score to settle? Self thinks he has a score to settle.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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March 14, 2021 at 4:39 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: COVID Reading, favorites, Obama, politics, reading lists, US history
- “In front of me, at least, McChrystal and the other generals dutifully . . . “ — A Promised Land, p. 438
Only 260 pages more, dear blog readers!
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March 14, 2021 at 1:36 am (Books, Memoirs)
Tags: COVID Reading, humor, Obama, reading lists, Saturdays, US history
Self only has 300 pages to go!
Sentence of the Day shows 44 at his most charming and self-deprecating:
One thing felt certain: A pretty big chunk of the American people, including some of the very folks I was trying to help, didn’t trust a word I said.
— A Promised Land, p. 406
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March 12, 2021 at 11:58 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, Fridays, Obama, politics, reading lists, US history
Such arguments had nothing to do with facts. They were impervious to analysis. They went deeper, into the realm of myth, redefining what was fair, reassigning victimhood . . .
— A Promised Land, p. 274
Keep reading: p. 276 says this became the “template for Fox News and conservative radio . . . “
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March 11, 2021 at 10:04 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Conversations, Memoirs, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, humor, politics, reading lists, US history
A Promised Land, p. 248:
McConnell: “I can’t tell you there’s much of an appetite for what you’re proposing, Mr. President-Elect,” McConnell said, “but you’re welcome to come to our weekly luncheon to make your case.”
Translation: You must be under the mistaken impression that I care.
Take that, McConnell! And that! And that! And that! And thank you very much but here’s another one! Oh, you can’t duck! Well, see whether you can write better than 44!
A writer always has the last word.
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March 11, 2021 at 8:45 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Recommended, television)
Tags: "The View", autobiography, complaints, COVID Reading, Obama, politics, US history
Obama explains it all for you on p. 244 of A Promised Land (Amazing: 44 explains the filibuster on p. 244 — Quelle synchronicité!). Those of you about to expire from boredom because self quotes 44 every day, know that she has barreled through 1/3 of the book in 8 days. She usually picks up her reading pace towards the end, so give her another week or so. All right?
- This piece of legislative foolishness “isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. Instead, it came into being by happenstance.”
It’s all the fault of Vice-President Aaron Burr, who wasn’t very smart.
Self doesn’t have time to explain what Burr did in 1805, but here’s the money paragraph:
- It didn’t take long for Senators to figure out that without a formal way to end debate, any of them could bring Senate business to a halt — and thereby extract all sorts of concessions from frustrated colleagues — simply by talking endlessly and refusing to surrender the floor. In 1917, the Senate curbed the practice by adopting “cloture,” allowing a vote of two-thirds of senators present to end a filibuster. For the next fifty years the filibuster was used only sparingly — most notably by Southern Democrats attempting to block anti-lynching and fair-employment bills or other legislation that threatened to shake up Jim Crow. Gradually, though, the filibuster became more routinized and easier to maintain, making it a more potent weapon, a means for the minority party to get its way. The mere threat of a filibuster was often enough to derail a piece of legislation. By the 1990s, as battle lines between Republicans and Democrats hardened, whichever party was in the minority could — and would — block any bill not to their liking, so long as they remained unified and had at least the 41 votes needed to keep a filibuster from being overriden.
The filibuster is the reason why we have legislators like Hawley, Cruz, Nunes and so forth performing shenanigans all over the place and getting away with it. Nevertheless, self is pretty hopeful after listening to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer telling the ladies of The View this morning that, every Monday night, he meets with Democratic party leadership (He mentioned Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Manchin and a few others) and they discuss what needs to be done to get a piece of legislation passed; it’s a cordial group and he has no doubt they will be able to stay united because they are all intelligent and principled people who have the best interests of the country at heart!
In other news:
TODAY WAS MERRICK GARLAND’s FIRST DAY OF WORK AS US ATTORNEY GENERAL.
Woo Hoo! Confetti! Streamers! Mad Clapping!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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March 11, 2021 at 12:04 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, favorites, humor, Obama, politics, superstition, US history
A Promised Land, p. 190:
- I’m not by nature a superstitious person. As a kid, I didn’t have a lucky number or own a rabbit’s foot. I didn’t believe in ghosts or leprechauns, and while I might have made a wish when blowing out birthday candles or tossing a penny into a fountain, my mother had always been quick to remind me that there’s a direct link between doing your work and having your wishes come true.
A mere two paragraphs later:
- My assortment of charms grew steadily: a miniature Buddha, an Ohio buckeye, a laminated four-leaf clover, a tiny bronze likeness of Hanuman the monkey god, all manner of angels, rosary beads, crystals, and rocks. Each morning I made a habit of choosing five or six of them and putting them in my pocket, half consciously keeping track of which ones I had with me on a particularly good day.
LOL
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March 10, 2021 at 9:45 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Recommended)
Tags: Biden, COVID Reading, favorites, inspiration, Obama, politics, reading lists, US history
In honor of International Women’s Day 2021 (which was two days ago), and since self is reading 44’s A Promised Land, here is the fabulous Michelle Obama with her man at the Biden Inauguration:
And here’s another fabulous lady who is mentioned in A Promised Land, FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden! Also with her man at his inauguration.
Woo hoo! So incredibly happy to have these two as role models for our young women.
Self is about a fourth of the way through A Promised Land. Please don’t rush her, she is having such a blast reading.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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March 9, 2021 at 3:32 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Lists, Memoirs, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, elections, Hillary Clinton, Mondays, Obama, politics, reading lists, US history
Self is on p. 88.
- 44 is a very, very good writer. But dear blog readers knew that already.
- The parts with Michelle are some of the best parts of A Promised Land. She is 44’s biggest ace in the hole.
- Self loves that 44 is always questioning his motives. When the idea of running for President starts being broached, he is honest about his fears. But, in the end, he writes, “I had to know how this thing played out.” (p. 78)
- After he announces his candidacy, he describes campaigning this way: “sleeping in a Hampton Inn or a Holiday Inn or an Americ Inn or a Super 8. I’d wake up after five or six hours . . . It was a life of not glamour but monotony, and the prospect of eighteen continuous months of it quickly wore down my spirit.”
- But there’s also his singular dedication: “I was learning a lot and quickly. I spent hours dutifully poring over the fat briefing books prepared by my staff, inhaling the latest studies on the value of early childhood education, new developments in battery technology that would make clean energy more accessible, and China’s manipulation of its currency to boost its exports.” Contrast that with 45! Self heard that when Biden’s transition team was finally given access to the daily briefings, they were surprised at the extent to which the daily briefings seemed to have been tailored to 45’s inclinations, because they’d been whittled down to about two pages.
- RE Bill and Hillary: He “admired” Bill, but was “more sympathetic” to Hillary because he saw in her what his “mother and grandmother had gone through . . . “
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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