Recovery

 So... Monday I took a "mental health day." I still think the concept is ridiculous, but after a long weekend, and with all the hecticness of work and other things...well, I figured I needed it.  I guess it was good; I slept in, handled some correspondence and some banking, got my vaccine passport laminated (for free!), went home and took and nap...did some reading, too; finally finished the book on John Brown (revisionist history, especially as it was written in the 1930s).  All in all, it was good...while I didn;t get done all that I wanted to, most did happen, and I guess the rest was nice.'

Went through more of Mom's stuff today -- cleaned out the kitchen, pretty much.  This was a little rough for me, because...well, every Sunday I went there and we had brunch and chatted and whatnot, and therefore I handled a lot of the every time I was there... so a lot of it had memories, even if they were just the most quotidian -- dishes and containers for salad and leftovers, pots for stuff we made... and now, aside from a few pieces I saved, are going off to charity.  Mind you, I don't need a lot of this stuff, or a lot more of it, and these items can do well for someone else.  But every day, a little more of Mom is...gone, and it is no fun.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/trump-didnt-form-a-populist-coalition-he-was-the-result-of-one

Interesting. Largely true, I think; I have posted many a time about how the GOP (at its top) completely missed what its electorate wanted in 2016 (and before, obviously), with the result that the one guy who had a handle on this -- imperfect and flawed as he was -- won the nomination, and in the end it wasn't close. And, let's face it, just as a few more votes in a few more states would have cost him in 2016....it did so in 2020 as well; no COVID, I think, he wins. The question now, is, can the GOP find a candidate who can run the table with his voters while also getting back the ones lost in 2020.  I think yes...but 2024, and even 2022, is a long way away...

One thing about the Chauvin trial I am not sure about -- yes, I think he was guilty, and yes, I think he deserves the book thrown at him --was the decision for him not to testify.  I realize that he would have to be cross-examined and under that barrage the defense would probably had collapsed, but to tell the jury his side of the story...I think that was his only chance of an acquittal, even a partial one... unless he was setting up for an appeal on the cause of incompetent counsel...which would be ingenious.