The classic line from Captain Renault in Casablanca, just before he collects his gambling winnings, is a perfect lead in to today’s latest news from the Orange Asshat in Washington, D.C.

Trump today announced that he is firing the director of the Office of Government Ethics, a man who was confirmed by the US Senate in November 2024 and sworn in December 16, 2024 for a five year term - a term that would have lasted completely through Trump’s second term. See the attached news article:

As a card carrying member of the ACLU, I regularly get communications from them. Yes, many of those are asking for money to support their programs, but many others are asking for me to sign a petition or to reach out to my Congressman or Senator. They also send out communications regularly to help keep members informed.

I received this one today………

https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trumps-executive-orde...

And in between being disgusted to the point of wanting to throw up, and being outraged to the point of wanting to throw something at the TV, I found this article online. As the author stated, his list by no means contains all of the possible ways to fight back against the atrocities the Trump administration is inflicting on this country, but it is a good place to start - and if we don’t fight back, we might as well just roll over and die.

https://apple.news/AhmwcjeGdRvO79gB7zBSjOA

But some things just really chap my ass, and sometimes you just have to stand up and do something.

Isaac Asimov said, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” Although his intent was clear, in that the incompetent resort to violence as they can think of no other action to take, he is inherently wrong. The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 attempted to outlaw war as an act of national policy, but it has obviously failed. The simple fact is that throughout history, war has been much more the norm than peace.

The last few days have not been great for me. My spouse managed to ruin my holidays - something she has always been very adept at over the nearly forty years we have been married. Yesterday, the mail arrived as I was walking past our front door. You see, in my neighborhood, the mail carrier walks from house to house delivering incoming mail and picking up outgoing mail.

Fake It Till You Make It, and the main character, Holly, expressed how thankful she was on her first Thanksgiving as her real self. It made me cry, and it made me think of all the things I have to be thankful for.

I truly have much to be thankful for, as I expect most of us do if we think about it for a moment.

Yeah, 39 years……… probably 38 more than I deserve, lol.

I fully expected that my marriage was over a decade ago when my spouse and I had our first discussion about my gender dysphoria. And then again multiple times after that, but especially when I told her I was going to transition.

We had gone through a lot, between my time in the service and the ensuing issues it left, to my civilian career which kept me away from home about 75 to 80% of the time, and then eventually due to my gender issues.

Recently, Willow Dancer posted a blog reminding us all of the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of Elsbeth, a much loved author on this site. Like many, I followed her work religiously - especially her stories The Lost Queen and Frejya’s Daughters.

Four years ago this week was her last posting. During the height of Covid, while many of us were stuck at home living vicariously through her wonderful writing, she was still hard at work. Until she wasn’t.

I am so sick of the stupidity being spouted by Donald Trump and his cult of morons - it just gets worse and worse.

Their latest claim is that the Transgender community purposely scheduled Transgender Day of Visibility on the same day as Easter in order to mock Christians. That is total bullshit, and what’s more it is intended solely to stir up hate against the LGBT community.

My day started out very well. The weather was gorgeous - sunny and warm, with just a light breeze blowing; much nicer than February should be in upstate NY. I actually had a reasonably decent night’s sleep the night before, which has not been a given for me since I was a teen and especially moreso over the past few decades.

Is anyone else having problems with Patreon? I have been trying to update my credit card info for two days as my bank issued me a new card due to a fraudulent charge on my card.

When I attempt to change the card, it will not allow me to. It will not even allow me to add a card. For two days it has been saying “Unable to add card at this time. Please try again later.”

In just a few days, it is going to try to charge my old card and it will not go through. Yet it will not allow me to update or add a new card.

“If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.

My wife and I had a nice dinner out this evening - December 25th is my youngest son’s fiancés birthday, so we all got together and surprised her with a dinner for her birthday at a nice local brew pub, Hank Hudson’s. We finally got to meet her parents (a very, very nice couple), and had a truly wonderful time. After, the two of us stopped and got a coffee, and then took a nice ride to look at all of the Christmas decorations - an annual tradition for us.

Without meaning to brag, the people at our house did a really spectacular job, lol.

Maybe it’s just my perception, but it appears to me that recently there have been more stories on this site which seem to revolve around forced fem, rape, and other objectionable topics and actions.