We’re just hearing that Roe vs Wade was indeed overturned by the Supreme Court in the USA, ending women’s right to abortion there. My 18 year old daughter’s reaction: the USA has become the worst Western country in the world along with it’s stupid gun culture and laws. We’re livid.
Maybe it’s time to pass a law on men’s bodies, I can think of a few…
Modified to add this…
This evening on TV we happened upon the Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park from 1981 (which sounds ancient now). I used to have the double album of that concert on LP records and listened to it all the time back then in the 1980s and 1990s.
After an awful news week were 19 young children and 2 teachers were killed in a senseless school shooting in Texas and there are no common sense laws in sight to ban assault weapons and initiate even basic screening for gun ownership, this soothing concert comes at exactly the right time. I picked Bridge Over Troubled Water to share here, as I have no words of my own that I am able to express at the sadness of this preventable tragedy and I think we can all use some comfort.
The whole concert can be watched here if you like. It’s good for the soul.
Let me lead with some personal good news before I write what I actually wanted to post about: both my kids have tested negative for Covid 19. Yay! They can go back to school again this week and pick up their outdoor sports again next week. It is all socially distanced and careful but it is something to do other than stay at home and that is a great relief for them.
In other news: is it just me, or is the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki just awesome? The way she rebutts and shuts down lies and conspiracy theories in such a clear, well informed and quick thinking way is just amazing to me.
Today I saw this…
I know nothing about this Major League Baseball thing but the way she rebuked the lie that Georgia voting law is the same as in Colorado is just awesome. She has been very clear about the new Georgia voting law before. That idiotic new law even made the news over here.
Even before all that I have been admiring the way she handles these kinds of conspiracy theories questions, like recently about some ‘secret report’…
I like how she politely rejects Trump era policies and she comments on the new administration not really thinking about Trump that much. They are focussed on policy rather than personal attacks.
And if there is agreement with a former Trump policy, she will admit it…
These rebuttals even have their own hashtag on Twitter, they are called a #PsakiBomb.
Other than these snippets I see of her I don’t know anything about her and maybe I only see the good bits but those good bits really are very good. I like how she calmly listens to all questions and asks for clarifications of unclear questions even if they are wacko and you just know that they try her patience. She takes every question seriously, answers to the best of her ability and won’t give credence to wild theories and ‘secret reports’. It really feels like competency is back at the White House again. Yes, it is always necessary to remain critical and no one will ever be perfect but it still feels like with this new administration I can worry a little bit less.
While The Netherlands is heading into stricter lockdown, with an evening curfew proposed to start this weekend, I can’t help but still feel joy and it’s all due to a new president of the USA! I feel a huge amount of relief that the White House will have some decency again. For me, it began yesterday evening with the touching memorial for the 400.000 who passed away due to Covid-19…
I watch the inauguration ceremony and I feel I can breathe again after the four years of terror a Trump presidency gave us.
On a side note, the Biden-Obama bromance still lives…
… and I love this Kamala Harris and Barack Obama first bump picture.
Kamala Harris was sworn in…
… as was Joe Biden…
… and for the first time in a long time I can look to the future again with some hope. I thought I’d be blubbering tears but really, my heart is just skipping with joy. Biden called for unity and truth in his inauguration speech just now and it’s just such a relief to hear a little sense coming out of a US president’s mouth again, delivered with heart and warmth. A Joe Biden presidency doesn’t only mean a lot to America but also to the world and he seems to realize that as well, going by his speech. I hope Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will do well and above all, do good, as they intend to.
… that I’ve been stuck to the screen watching US politics unfold in their congress. Last week the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win in congress was interrupted by the awful riot by Trump supporters on the Capitol. Today Donald Trump was impeached for the second time during his presidency for inciting that riot. Just like with all those Brexit debates and votes in the British parliament in 2019, I was glued to the screen this evening with the impeachment debate and subsequent vote in the US House of Representatives. (Good thing about watching these UK and US debates is that I learn a lot about how democracy is conducted there).
The US House of Representatives vote was 232 for and 197 members against impeachment and I wonder why 4 Republicans didn’t vote on such a monumental resolution. I took a screenshot of the moment the 10th Republican voted for impeachment…
I have to say, the arguments Republicans brought about ‘needing to unite and bring the country together’ felt very hypocritical to me after they only deepened the huge divide through repeated lies and spreading hatred during at least the past four years. Also, they didn’t seem to be able to keep their arguments to the point, citing the current president’s accomplishments and referring to Black Lives Matter protests that were violent. Yes, that violence was terrible too but those arguments didn’t seem pertinent to me to the issue at hand, namely that lies told for months on end and Trump’s speech on January 6th only emboldened his base to do what they ended up doing in that riot. The Republicans speak of healing, but healing can only begin if politicians start telling the truth and especially Republicans need to state at the very least the truth that there was no widespread election fraud. You can disagree on policies, you can’t disagree on the truth. Apparently 197 representatives don’t see it that way and continue to support a lying president. Thank goodness he’ll be gone next week when I’ll be stuck to the screen again, watching the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Images I have seen today of the National Guard having to rest in the Capitol to protect it from their own countrymen and women are extremely depressing, they don’t belong in a country which has always said it holds democratic values high.
A three week extension of our Covid lockdown here in The Netherlands until February 9th and the consideration of possibly even a curfew (as announced yesterday) is disheartening but almost feels like peanuts in comparison. US democracy is under siege and it’s heartbreaking to witness from the outside. I really hope the inauguration next week will remain peaceful!
The Book of Esther 