Groundhogs

It's sometimes very daunting to try to take care of the stray cats in my yard. I feel like an inept weirdo most of the time, especially when the neighbors yell at me. But then I visit YouTube and peruse the animal videos there. It's amazin how many people are helping animals and posting videos of that. And it's not just cats and dogs - many help birds and other wild creatures.

One of the most amusing videos of this type I've seen is of a guy whose garden was being consumed by groundhogs :) ...

Never forget

I won't forget, and it's not the only thing I won't forget. I won't forget that after all this death and every other terrible thing Trump has wrought during his presidency, Republicans worship him. At CPAC, they can now even genuflect before his golden-calf statue.

And with their worship they lie. They lie about Trump losing the election, lie about January 6th, lie about the virus, lie about Democrats, lie about legislation, lie about who they are, what they value.

The Republicans are knowingly destroying any chance of our two parties respecting each other, working together, even with our disagreements. They are salting the earth. All that will be left is hate.

Trump rape

- E. Jean Carroll (and her husband) with Trump ... the woman Trump falsely claimed he had "never met in his life".

In the news: Trump may soon have to answer rape allegations under oath

(Reuters) - During a December visit to New York City, writer E. Jean Carroll says she went shopping with a fashion consultant to find the “best outfit” for one of the most important days of her life - when she’ll sit face-to-face with the man she accuses of raping her decades ago, former President Donald Trump.

The author and journalist hopes that day will come this year. Her lawyers are seeking to depose Trump in a defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed against the former president in November 2019 after he denied her accusation that he raped her at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump said he never knew Carroll and accused her of lying to sell her new book, adding: “She’s not my type.”

She plans to be there if Trump is deposed ....

Now that Trump is no longer president and doesn't have William Barr's justice department running interference for him, he may finally be legally liable for many of the bad things he perpetrated in the past. One of those things is rape. I can't wait for the deposition under oath - Trump cannot emit a single sentence without lying.

This is one of the many reasons I can't forgive Trump voters. They did and still do want Trump to be president, not in spite of the fact that he is a horrible person, but because of that.

Crazy Yoda

Crazy little Yoda is in a mood, flipping around on her cat furniture like a fish on a deck while she dares me to try and pet her while still retaining all my fingers ...

She's been like this lately because she still isn't been spayed. She has a breathing problem so I haven't been able to take her to the cheapie SPCA spay/neuter clinic, and the regular vet has been too expensive (like 10 times more than the clinic). But if I get a stimulus check from the government, I can finally take her to the vet. No more nightly howlings. Yay!

Worries

Everything feels so stressful lately.

First, of course, there's the deadly global pandemic. Even though vaccines are being rolled out, we are in a race to try to get most people vaccinated before mutant versions of the virus, versions that may be increasingly immune to the present vaccines, become predominant ...



My sister and brother-in-law and I were able to get the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week, they from Blue Cross and me from the teaching hospital I go to for health care. Yet a friend who works at a grocery store, an essential worker, is still not able to get vaccinated. I'm not sure what the protocols are here in CA and I wouldn't have known I was eligible if I hadn't gotten an email from the hospital telling me to make an appointment, but I feel guilty for being able to do this when others still can't.

Greenland

This week's movie rental was Greenland ...

a 2020 American disaster film directed by Ric Roman Waugh .... The film stars Gerard Butler (who also co-produced), Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn, David Denman, and Hope Davis. The film follows a family who must fight for survival as a planet-destroying comet races to Earth.

I'm kind of fascinated by disaster movies and I like Gerard Butler and Scott Glenn, so I signed up for the movie. Here's a trailer ...



It actually got fairly decent reviews ...

Greenland’: Comet threatens Earth in disaster movie that’s more than just chaos

Even in mindless action fare such as “Den of Thieves” and and “Hunter Killer” and “Angel Has Fallen” and “London Has Fallen” and “Olympus Has Fallen” and that’s a lot of falling, Gerard Butler retains a screen-captivating, grim-faced presence with a burning intensity who leaps giant plot holes in a single bound, usually with a gun in his hand and some sort of dark cloud haunting him. At 51, Butler is firmly in the Bruce Willis/Liam Neeson Zone, with a particular set of skills well-suited to glossy B-movie thriller fare ...

I've liked Gerard Butler since he was in the science fiction film Timeline, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. Here Butler is from that film, with Paul Walker ...



But anyway, while the movie was ertertaining, it didn't dwell much on science ... how can an extinction-level event allow for a happy ending? So it's not near the top of my disaster movie list, which includes The Day After Tomorrow and World War Z.

Trump: terrorist

So, while this was the most bipartisan impeachment vote/verdict ever (7 Republicans voted to impeach), Trump was still acquitted.

Mitch McConnell gave a speech after the vote, explaining that though he voted to acquitt, he thought Trump was indeed guilty of inciting the riot ...



And though Trump got off, history will now have a detailed record of what Trump did, thanks to the House impeachment managers.

Trump, after the acquital, promised ominously that his movement ‘has only just begun’.

It is time we acknowledged something: the former president of the United States is now, for all intents and purposes, the leader of a terrorist organization composed of armed militias, white supremacist groups, QAnon, etc. Trump will use that organization to try to regain political power. This isn't the end, this is the beginning.

"Well, Kevin ..."

I'm shocked, shocked I say, to learn that Trump knew exactly how terrible and dangerous the riot was as it took place, yet instead of calling it off, appeared gleeful about the situation. It's not news that Trump is an effing sociopath. The question is - are most of the Republicans in the Senate sociopaths too?

The cops

Trump pretended to be the "law & order" prseident. And his zombie horde of followers pretended that as well. But few things have made this lie more obvious than what happened to the Capitol police and DC Metropolitan police on January 6th.

A harrowing example: the view from the bodycam of a policeman being dragged down and beaten by Trump's crazed followers ...



Trump has got to be held accountable for all this.

Day 2

I'm now watching the second day of Trump's second impeachment trial. The arguments by the House managers are very well organized and probative. They are using video clips to show evidence of Trump's words, as well as evidence of his followers' actions, not just on January 6th, but for the months before that.

There are two things that stand out to me as I watch the presentation .... Trump's evil intent, and the brutality and ignorance of his followers.

If Republican senators do not vote to impeach, it will be proof of their utter self-interest and cowardice.

Not a cat

Lawyer tells judge 'I'm not a cat' after a Zoom filter mishap in virtual court hearing

:)

Impeachment #2

Today in Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate, the House managers showed a video describing the events of January 6th - the riot at the Capitol and the Trump rally leading up to that ...



And here are the personal remarks made by House manager Jamie Raskin, after his presentation ...



Trump was the proximate cause of this riot ... a riot that led to five deaths and injuries to scores of police officers, a riot that howled for the hanging of Mike Pence, a riot meant to overturn a valid election, making Trump America's first dictator. Trump should be held accountable. The Republicans of the Senate will not do so. History will judge them as craven traitors.

Network Effect

My latest kindle book from the public library is Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel (The Murderbot Diaries Book 5) by Martha Wells.

Here's the beginning of a review of the book by NPR ...

Murderbot Makes A Triumphant (And Cranky) Return In 'Network Effect'

The name just rolls off the tongue, like a mascot for a sadistic intergalactic sports team. And if you've been reading author Martha Wells' award-winning Murderbot Diaries novellas, you have been cheering on the titular Murderbot from the sidelines for four, bite-sized adventures so far.

[...]

Murderbot is a rogue Security Unit robot (SecUnit for short) that hacked itself to become free. It's Johnny 5 from Short Circuit but without the lightning strike; a Terminator without the time travel; and little bit of Star Trek's Lt. Commander Data, without the need — or even want — to become more human. In fact Murderbot (which named itself, following a bloody incident in its past) already has a lot of human qualities — as well as some organic parts — but it doesn't really like most humans all that much. It'd much rather be left alone to watch its favorite TV shows in peace and silence. (A relatable trait if there ever was one.) ....

I like the series a lot. It's hard to describe, but well worth a read.

Riot aftermath

This is a clip from a longer video post by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about her experience during the Capitol riot ...



And tonight the Capitol policeman killed in the riot, Brian Sicknick, lies in honor at the Capitol Rotunda ...



It is obscene that Republican lawmakers want us to "move on" from this without any accountability for the person who incited the riot, all for his personal gain - Trump.