The Ther Thursday in Book Six: Trying to Hold On 2019

Our big Child Case is out of the news cycle this morning as another Northeast Iowa Mother, Cheyanne Harris, grabs headlines for being convicted in the death of her son, Sterling Koehn, who died of malnutrition, dehydration and infection and was found dead in his mechanical swing weighing less than 7 pounds in a diaper filled with feces and maggots. In Ms. Harris’ case, she is a 21 year old White Woman whose baby daddy is 29 and the baby is interracial. In our case, Defendant is a 40 year old White Woman not biologically the mother, baby Daddy is a 30 year old White Man, and child is interracial. I am hoping the child’s race in both cases is a mere detail and not a motivating factor. And as much as I want our defendant to spend life in jail without the possibility of parole… I find myself pitying Cheyanne Harris a bit. In our case, the woman is 40 and was specifically told “If you don’t want to raise this child, DHS can intervene.” The Defendant instead refused DHS services and tortured the boy, claiming she was following medical and DHS recommendations. So… you’re old enough to know better… you’re rejecting help… you’re torturing your child… and you are claiming that such torture was advised to you. Get your ass to jail. But a 21 year old woman who deeply neglected her child? I don’t know. Imagine you are a new mom and 21… imagine your “man” is a truck driver and never home… imagine you are overwhelmed by crippling postpartum depression.... the mother should CERTAINLY go to jail and face consequences for her actions… but sentencing her to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole? In this case it just feels a little harsh. Maybe I’m a pushover.

The drive in to work today would have been fine but for Old Man in a Hat driving on winter roads. Translation… with no ability to pass him, I was stuck behind a guy going 20 MPH in a 55 MPH zone because he was too afraid of the falling snow. Frustrating. I got to work about 20 minutes late*! But it is okay because my schedule was wiped clean for today since we thought Boss would be in Jury Trial so I’d have to be in A Felony Trial. Boss got his jury trials cleared and, due to road conditions, A Felony Trial doesn’t start up again until 10:30 a.m.

So… I do my morning checks.
E-Mail? Nothing in Work E-Mail, nothing in Hotmail, nothing in Yahoo, nothing in GMail. I take the opportunity to write to our Best Buy Home Theater guy to ask a quick set up question. I hop over to Facebook to see what is shaking. A video pops up showing Deborah Ann Woll. I never really watched True Blood (my wife was obsessed) but find Deborah Ann Woll to be incredibly attractive. The video was her promoting a new show she created with Geek & Sundry that mixes a game of Dungeons and Dragons with Objet Macabre. I love the idea but of course it is me so I have a negative reaction buried under the positive. Positive Reaction: Awesome, sounds cool, could be worth checking out. Negative Reaction: So hot and sexy women like DnD and Nerd Activities but I was rejected for being a nerd… either I needed to find where these damned people were or I was rejected (not for being a nerd but) for reasons dealing with me being undesirable or since Nerd is Pop Culture now, we’re seeing more and more people claim nerdhood in an attempt to profit.

Then I get a report by Sheriff’s Department. Someone broke the law but they have an excuse… should we charge them? YES… if they have a legally acceptable excuse or sympathetic reason for their unlawful behavior, we’ll take that into consideration during plea negotiations and sentencing. But if a law is broken, yeah… act as if the law was broken, lol.

Onto reading the 3 New Cracked Articles. THIS one… I won’t remark upon. If you know me, you know my STRONG feelings on this subject. If you don’t know me? Stick around, you will. I may even re-post some of my Intellectual Debates about some things that will REALLY show you where I am.

Then a turn to my CNN feed. I should start this by saying there is something in the SOTU speech I should have ranted about more but decided against it as, I was hoping, every news outlet would beat this point into the ground. They have not. Trump mentioned multiple times in his SOTU address that the investigations against him should stop. Not only is this even more “Obstruction” shit (veiled threats count), it is a direct play out of the Richard Nixon playbook! Step One: Do something illegal; Step Two: Do something MORE illegal to try to cover up the first act; Step Three: Watch friends and allies get arrested, successfully indicted, and convicted of illegal activities; Step Four: Use the SOTU Address to Warn The House to stop investigations; Step Five: Investigations continue and turn up more and more damning stuff; Step Six: Resign with an understanding that your replacement will pardon you of all criminal conduct charges. Now there are three specific things that make these events different from those events. (1) The political division in the country is insane and has led to a true cult of Trump. He isn’t wrong. He could be videotaped shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager in Central Park and his base would say, “What? What’s so wrong with that?!” (2) The people in government are far less principled and morally minded than they were. In the first half of the 1970s, massive corruption and open law breaking were met with investigations and a real threat of impeachment. Right now? We couldn’t even get Mitch McConnell to re-open the government without Trump’s permission… our Check/Balance power got reeeeeeal broken. (3) Nixon could go on TV, radio, give interviews to magazines and newspapers… but at each step there were editors and other professionals that could fact check as/before/after each statement. Trump’s biggest weapon is twitter. He can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to, speaking directly to ANYONE who will listen, and he puts out so much (and so much of it is legitimately insane) that it is impossible to undo the misinformation and damage.
ONE Possibility I do see, though? Trump knows his wealthy friend Roger Stone idolizes Richard Nixon. If Trump can be just like Nixon, then after everything is said and done… Trump can rely on Stone for more friendship and financial support.
Articles Read: 1, 2, 3.

Then to the BBC. 1

Strange. I rarely get cold. Ever. But I’ve suddenly come over feeling very cold. I look out my window and see the snow coming down, being blown about in strong gusts of wind. One would expect that being in-doors would protect against that. Right now the city’s temperature (8f) is set to be tomorrow’s expected high temperature. As the cold creeps into my office and wraps itself around me, I can feel my back and legs stiffen and start to ache. I rub my arms and legs a bit and switch to reading Prosebox. I didn’t note the way I normally would. IN a perfect world, I’d leave a little note or something encouraging for everyone. But the reality is I typically only note when I feel like I have something to say that might be of any worth and on days where I can literally feel the pain crawling up my thighs and spinal column… I tend to get a bit distracted, I guess you could say. So I don’t think I even left one note (at this point). Forgive me?

District Court Judge just called: Due to the worsening weather, A Felony Trial is cancelled for the day. So.... what we have here is… an Assistant whose day was cleared in order to help in a Felony Trial that has now been cancelled. OR… my primary plan was aborted, my secondary plan was deemed no longer relevant, and my tertiary plan was just cancelled. I don’t make more than 3 plans because if 3 things fall down back to back to back… that just means something has happened that is nigh unacceptable. Pushing a high profile, high importance trial date out due to weather just feels… unfortunate.

As I stop to think about what I should do, I am engulfed in a large wave of sleepiness. This profound desire to fall asleep. I convince myself that I can’t fall asleep, I’m at work, I need to at least look busy… and suddenly I find that the 311 song “Beautiful Disaster” is stuck in my head!

Today seems like a good day to burn a bridge or two
The one with old wood creaking that would burn away right on cue
I try to be not like that but some people really suck
Some people need to get the axing chalk it up to bad luck

I know a drugstore cowgirl so afraid of getting bored
She’s always running from something so many things ignored
I might do that stuff if it didn’t make me feel like shit
I’m on some old reality tip so many trips in it

Beautiful disaster
Flyin’ down the street again
I tried to keep up
You wore me out and left me ate up
Now I wish you all the luck
You’re a butterfly in the wind without a care
A pretty train crash to me and I can’t care
I do I don’t whatever

I know a drugstore cowgirl so afraid of getting bored
She’s always running from something so many things ignored
I try to be not like this but I thought it’d make a good song
There’s nothing to see shows over people just move along

I’m a weird dude. I have so many damned video games I own and haven’t played and really want to play!! Yet, there are two Bandai/Namco games either out right now or coming soon that I really want to add to my Video Game Library… as well as… you better believe I’m going to pre-order Mortal Kombat 11. I was going to do it almost no matter what… but when that fucking “Shaggy for MK” thing was going around… if that actually became real and he was put into the BASE game… yeah. I would have waited for some kind of “Ultimate MK 11XL Edition or something.” But… I really want to pick up My Hero One and Jump Force.

It is 11:00 now. The snow still comes down, still blows.. there is one hour until lunch and 5.5 hours until the end of the day. I switch back to reading whatever catches my interest.

I have finished reading the plot/character summaries for Shingeki No Kyojin. I have satisfied myself with the knowledge of Titans and understand the lore and myth better… that is the biggest thing for me. I want to know the rules of the world my mind is occupying. Now I am left to understand the character motivations. Most importantly- the ones that don’t make any sense. The Manga is still being published; the latest chapter was only released 29 days ago. I have my suspicions but… this is something that Wife doesn’t understand and certainly doesn’t appreciate. She isn’t happy that I wanted to “read ahead” beyond where her Colossal Edition ends and/or past where the Anime left off. But I am all about story and character… in order to focus on that, I need to know the rules. And yes, part of Attack on Titan is excellent because the characters are learning about the world at the same time as the audience. But in a world with Monsters, I have an overriding need to learn or understand the mythology. Consistent, well thought out mythology will make me forgive any poor product that involves Monsters. If you present to me a weak story about Vampires, but you create an interesting, original, consistent, well detailed mythology… I’ll certainly be interested.

As the minutes drag past and the snow whips past my windows, I contemplate my plans for the day: today and tomorrow, anyway. Where to eat food, what exercises to do, how to keep my body from falling apart too much, what things still need to be finished in the basement before I’m satisfied that the lower level is complete. The trivialities, really, but for now… that is what we possess.

As my mind dances through the particulars and the trivialities, I find it returning to Wife and her current life issues. She wants more than to just be “stuck in the house” doing laundry and watching television and cleaning the kitchen. I get it. I really do. But as far as giving her a purpose… a job.... a hobby… a reason to get out of the house.. anything? I’ve done everything I am able to do. At some point, she needs to do some of this for herself. So while I certainly feel bad for her; it is in her hands.

FOOD TIME

Took lunch, returned to no new e-mails or phone calls. Did receive an alert that schools would be letting out at a Half Day today due to weather.

Meanwhile, I found out that Human Polyp Ann Coulter had stated something to the affect of “If the only people allowed to vote were people with 4 grandparents born in the United States; then Trump would win everything in a landslide.” HEAD:DESK because of such simplistic, nationalist, ill-informed stupidity. Ms. Coulter is an avowed racist and Alt Right Darling who took credit for convincing Trump to shut down the government. HERE are three reasons she be stupid as hell with that statement
(1) Donald Trump’s Trump grandparents were born in Kalstadt, Germany. Donald Trump’s mother was born in Tong, Lewis, Scotland. Donald Trump’s children? Are already excluded due to GrandMummy Trump’s Scottish birth; but even more… Erik, Ivanka, and Don Jr… their mother was born in Zlín, Moravia, Czechoslovakia.... Baron Trump’s mother was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. The only Trump child whose Mother was not foreign born is Tiffany Trump! And by Ann’s “Grandparents” rule… Tiffany isn’t eligible because of GrandMummy Trump’s Scottish birth. So, dumb.
(2) For a pro-white, gleefully racist who graduated from University of Michigan Law School… she doesn’t know her history. A lot of white people would not be able to vote under the Grandparents Rule. Do you know who would be allowed to vote? A lot of Black Voters! It would likely be difficult for many to prove their ancestry, even if only back by a few generations. However, Slavery dates to 1865… 154 years ago. If we do stupid math and divide 154 by 3.... we get a rough average of 51 years. SO… if a child was born IN 1865, waited to have a kid for 51 years, and THAT kid waited until they were 51 to have a kid… then the 51 year old black voter walking around most DEFINITELY had his grandparents born here. So… sure… your attempt at a racial rule preventing “dirty immigrants” from voting might result in a larger portion of the Black Population voting.
(3) Her stupid dumbass idea would often prevent the very people she wants voting to vote. Not just the Trump’s but “wealthy white people. I am not going to vote for ANY candidate Coulter supports (likely) but my father ABSOLUTELY WOULD! My father’s grandmother was born in Bermuda. So my father would not be allowed to vote as he would only be 2nd Generation American Born.

There was a book/movement that was once going around stating “Liberalism is a mental disease” because the premise was that being a liberal defied all intellectual logic. I am looking at folks like Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, and the President’s Administration and thinking “Alt Right is a mental disease” because it requires such a level of mental contortion to attempt to punish all the people they hate… we hate any Non White Non Wealthy Non-English-Speaking Non-Christian Non-Conservative Non-Trumpian whose entire family line wasn’t born in the United States.... except for Trump… and his kids… and any Incel Alt Right Neo Nazi who doesn’t fit into a pre-stated category. ::eye roll!::

This is almost not a concern. Some Trumpians shout “Whatever happened to ‘political gaffes’?! When an idiot politician said something stupid, people just said it was a gaffe and it wasn’t the lead story on the news for a week!” Well, nameless person shouting foolish things… a gaffe is a misstatement that the speaker either knows to be a mistake or comes to learn and admit was a mistake. One famous Political Gaffe came from Sarah Palin who, in an interview, made so many Gaffes that the SNL skit mocking it was mostly actual quotes with Tina Fey supplying simply “Oh yeah, mhmms” kind of things. In that interview, Palin was unable to think of any Supreme Court decisions other than Roe v. Wade and after saying she gets a lot of her news from newspapers and magazines, was unable to name a single one she reads, simply saying she reads “all of ‘em, any of ‘em”. That is a political gaffe. What Trump typically does is (1) invent information that is not true; (2) demand that the information is true; (3) repeat the information; (4) suggest policy using that information; and (5) attack anyone who can prove the claim false. That isn’t a gaffe so much as it is a mentally disturbed man with little to no grip on reality. THAT BEING SAID today at the National Prayer Breakfast… Trump may have given us a legitimate, honest to goodness, political gaffe.

Since the founding of our nation, many of our greatest strides, from gaining our independence to abolition of civil rights, to extending the vote for women, have been led by people of faith and started in prayer,” the president said on Thursday. “When we open our hearts to faith we fill our hearts with love.”

the establishment of Civil Rights would have been the proper statement. To abolish Civil Rights? The Neo Nazis that vote for Trump would certainly like to see that happen. Every dictator and tyrant that has ever been in power would love to see that happen. And Trump may have even MEANT “abolish” because he genuinely wants to consolidate so much power and influence that he can piss (even more so) on the Constitution. But… I’m not going to just assume he said what he meant there. “Establishment” is a 4 syllable word. “Abolition” is a 4 syllable word. For a man who prefers to speak in ONE syllable words; I’m just going to assume he has no idea what he said.

Then it was back to reading aaaaaaaaand I decided to at least mildly tidy my desk. Papers in stacks instead of piles tidy, true. But tidy in a way.

As I tidy, I contemplate next month’s Trial Schedule. How there are just… two stupid fucking cases that should go away! And how the best option I have if the attorney would let me would be to directly appeal to the defendant. Basically say, “I know you don’t know me from Adam. You’ve had so many different prosecutors on this case, I’m sure you don’t care. But I only like charging what I have adequate reason to believe actually happened. The original charges on this case? I disagree with them. So right there, at the very beginning, you and I agree on something. As to what happened to your home, I can certainly understand your position. There is a remedy you can pursue in Civil Court and you may be able to collect some money by doing that. But all that matters right now is the criminal case before us. I want to get rid of almost all of these charges. I don’t like them. I think most of these charges are a little much for what happened. All I want from you is to admit to the items located with YOUR stuff. That’s it. We don’t want your money, we don’t want you in jail. Plead to the items WITH YOUR STUFF and we all go home.” That is what I want to tell this guy who seems hell bent on taking out HIS dissatisfaction with life on everybody else. Frustrating.

And again, I return to reading. My Hero Academia has had 3 seasons on Anime. The anime stops around Chapter 124. There are presently 216 chapters available. Websites allow for the reading of the manga quite clearly. A part of me feels… bad… for spending my time like this. But, honestly, it is as I’ve said. If you prepare and plan and strategize so that a Trial Day is not interfered with or interrupted… if by weather or schedule or judge that trial is still cancelled or postponed… then it is, in a sense, a wasted day.