November 20, 2020

Another photo lesson!

flamin lib is truly helping me conquer Paint Shop Pro. This photo was originally taken in 2018 and today we worked on making the craters sharper.

I hope all of you enjoy!

November 15, 2020

If you need to laugh--Steve Lopez of the LA Times on Trump voters:

By Steve Lopez Columnist
Nov. 14, 2020
7 AM

As the tally of COVID-19 cases and deaths surged across the United States over the last week, President Trump seemed not to notice because he was too busy insisting he had won reelection. And through it all, Trump’s Jim Jones-like cult of true believers remained as loyal as ever.

I know this because some of them reached out to me.

“I hope you die a miserable death very soon!” wrote a reader named David.

A bit harsh, perhaps, but like Trump himself, his acolytes across the land insist he has been robbed, and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president-elect. They claim there was widespread cheating in places like Philadelphia and Atlanta. And they beat me like a punching bag for not buying Trump’s view of things.

But that’s the way it ought to work. I took my shots at Trump last week in a column titled “Good riddance, Mr. President.” So, in the interest of fairness, I will now air the other side, from my readers who continue to stand by their man.

All of it at the link: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-14/column-i-hope-you-die-a-miserable-death-and-other-words-of-encouragement-from-my-readers

November 12, 2020

Photo Lesson #3

flamin lib has very kindly offered to tutor me on the joys of Paint Shop Pro; today was our third lesson! The learning curve is like Mt. Everest but I am progressing. It is getting easier, thank goodness.

Hope you enjoy these photos! I do prefer my revised version, obviously.

November 9, 2020

Today's moon, waning crescent!

November 7, 2020

On The Beach

November 6, 2020

Still Life with Lemons

November 5, 2020

An autocratic breakthrough by tRump, per the New Yorker, today.

By Masha Gessen

The President of the United States has called the election a fraud. He has declared victory without basis, tweeting on Wednesday, “We have claimed” Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and perhaps Michigan—all states that were still counting votes. Donald Trump, who has been engaged in an autocratic attempt for the last four years, is now trying to stage an autocratic breakthrough.

I have borrowed the term “autocratic attempt” from the work of Bálint Magyar, a Hungarian sociologist who set out to develop analytical tools for understanding the turn away from democracy in many Eastern and Central European countries. I have found Magyar’s ideas surprisingly illuminating when applied to the United States.

Magyar divides the autocrat’s journey into three stages: autocratic attempt, autocratic breakthrough, and autocratic consolidation. The attempt is a period when autocracy is still preventable, or reversible, by electoral means. When it is no longer possible to reverse autocracy peacefully, the autocratic breakthrough has occurred, because the very structures of government have been transformed and can no longer protect themselves. These changes usually include packing the constitutional court (the Supreme Court, in the case of the U.S.) with judges loyal to the autocrat; packing and weakening the courts in general; appointing a chief prosecutor (the Attorney General) who is loyal to the autocrat and will enforce the law selectively on his behalf; changing the rules on the appointment of civil servants; weakening local governments; unilaterally changing electoral rules (to accommodate gerrymandering, for instance); and changing the Constitution to expand the powers of the executive.

For all the apparent flailing and incompetence of the Trump Administration, his autocratic attempt checks most of the boxes. He has appointed three Supreme Court Justices and a record number of federal judges. The Justice Department, under William Barr, acts like Trump’s pocket law-enforcement agency and personal law firm. Trump’s army of “acting” officials, some of them carrying out their duties in violation of relevant federal regulations, have made mincemeat of the rules and norms of federal appointments. Trump has preëmptively declared the election rigged; has incited voter intimidation and encouraged voter suppression; has mobilized his armed supporters to prevent votes from being counted; and has explicitly stated that he is changing the rules of the election. “We want all voting to stop,” he said on Wednesday morning, and vowed to take his case to the Supreme Court.

All of it at the link: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/by-declaring-victory-donald-trump-is-attempting-an-autocratic-breakthrough?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_110520&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5df969e7954fcf1853569dd0&cndid=59415923&hasha=e6d99470f2be9f1757ca234d98420b03&hashb=4ad9e8e0e66f39f3aa67c60b0216b8709ae176b1&hashc=eda1a2e8c8a89ffa7bed84dc538fe3993f6ca3351d3bfdea44755e42f843a2c9&esrc=Auto_Subs&utm_term=TNY_Daily

November 4, 2020

I have some thoughts on why tRump did as well as he did. Bear with me!

A narcissistic psychopath. That's tRump in a nutshell.

It looks as though he increased his base this time around. How and why?

My husband pointed out that some Black voters turned towards him because he's macho. And they want to be macho too, so they emulate him. And then they vote for him.

More generally, we've described him as a petulant 5 year old, always yelling, always wanting to get his way, and never accepting responsibility for his actions.

I'm thinking that there are a lot of people who want to be like that, and he has enabled them, encouraged them and generally inspired them to imitate him.

We know there are the proud boys, the white supremacists and others like them who have been validated by him. Now that validation has spread to the general population, who then vote for him.

There's probably more to this than I've pointed out, but I think this is where it starts. And I'm not sure how to combat it.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

November 4, 2020

Montana has been on my mind...

So far, Bullock is ahead. This is good news! Daines is the incumbent.


Steve Bullock 50.3% 158,150

Steve Daines * 49.7% 156,308

November 4, 2020

I'm following election results on the NY Times :

The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/2020-election