Carniceria

I love this colorful chicken on the corner of a Mexican market on the way to Sonoma. There is a vibrant Mexican community in a collection of small towns collectively called 'the Springs' and several businesses on the Sonoma Highway have vibrantly painted buildings. Some of Sonoma's more sedate residents, who themselves live in something of a historical monument, don't really approve of these buildings, but they make me smile every time we drive past them. And the ice cream store across the street has the best ice cream in the county.

We managed to avoid all sight, sound or mention of the president's address to the nation last night, choosing to watch a repeat of 'Vera' instead. The reporting in the paper this morning was mostly written before the speech was given, so I don't know what the Democratic response was, but I continue to wonder about the relative silence from that quarter.

I have occasionally had reason to think about somebody, a friend or acquaintance who is trying to deal with a neighbor or co-worker whose behavior is so toxic and anti-social that they are beyond the accepted norms of behavior and even established law just doesn't seem to apply to them. It's impossible to legislate human decency and attempts to do so often wind up to backfiring on the victims of the bullying.

I have a friend who was married to a Black man and lived next door to a racist man who hung a confederate flag in his front window, shouted taunts at them over the fence and threw dog poop on their front porch. The police couldn't/or wouldn't do anything, and they were advised that  a restraining order wouldn't do any good since he lived right next door.
They wound up moving....

This is exactly how I think all of us who didn't vote for Trump or Musk, or for that matter any of his feckless and unqualified cabinet members, and do not support him now are feeling about the bully who has hijacked our country. He makes up the narrative as he goes along with total disregard for the truth, the law or the constitution. He thinks the laws don't apply to  him and  he pays no attention to them, leaving the rest of us to pay the price, and feeling helpless to do anything about it.

No wonder quite a few of us have contemplated moving away...