I took advantage of cold temperatures yesterday to prune our fruit trees. We hardly have an

orchard---just a couple apple trees, some peaches, a couple cherries and an apricot. I enjoy making the numerous decisions as to what will stay and what needs to be cut away for the good of the tree.

Obviously, broken or damaged limbs need to be removed. Dead wood can serve as a starting point for all sorts of pests or plant diseases or blights. But, much of what gets cut away is new vigorous growth.

Some of it is headed in toward the tree's center and the center must be kept open to permit good ventilation so molds and mildew don't have a sheltered place to prosper unnoticed.

Some of it is growing at an angle that will produce a weak joint that will likely break when tested by a storm.

Some limbs have grown across another and, if ignored, will abrade it and produce a "bleeding" open wound in the bark that will draw all sorts of insects to feed on the sweet sap.

Nature provides many lessons to those who pay attention. I wonder if there aren't a few lives---or maybe even a political party---that could benefit from a good "pruning".

So, is there a Nikki Haley weathervane on the market yet? "Just askin'!" nt

In a written statement released simultaneously to all media outlets, the Board of Hostages of

the Republican Party announced that, after much deliberation, the wording of their 2024 campaign motto---called by some their "war cry"--- has been finalized.

In response to the volume of negative news reports about the GOP's tawdry behavior and vile plans to eliminate long-established social programs and anticipated tough questions by the Liberal Media, every Republican involved in the 2024 campaign will be chanting "I'm rubber; you're glue! Bounces off me and sticks to you!"

Candidates will have discretion to preface the above "war cry" with a loud enunciation of "Neener-neener". Sticking out one's tongue post-chant is an option which will be reserved for only the most hostile reporters.

Watch this space.

Ken Paxton is to jurisprudence what Sarah Palin is to eloquence, what Lauren Boebert is to

education, what Marjie Greene is to civility, what Matt Gaetz is to affability and what Donald Trump is to truthful patriotism.

And they call US "snowflakes"?

I have read several accounts of books being removed from libraries or discussions of historical FACTS being prohibited because someone of the MAGA persuasion felt---(can you believe this crap?)---"OFFENDED"! Not slandered; not threatened; not deceived or lied to---"offended".

I LIVE to offend such invertebrate lying "cupcakes" and resisting the temptation to spit on them in public is about as "civil" as I plan to be should I encounter one.

We have seen mean-spirited screamers like these small-minded nannies before. Some wore swastikas, some wore white hoods and many just hid behind the Christian crosses which they profaned by brandishing them. All of them flourished ONLY until they were trod upon by the decent majority who eventually came to understand how vile they were.

Today, they wear "Made In China" red caps and I already understand how vile they are.

You?

As the old song asks, "Are They Gonna Make Us Outlaws Again?"

Would you obey a law that prohibited any criticism of your governor or Congressman or President?

Will you refuse to drive your niece to another state to get an abortion if your state makes that a felony?

Will you burn your copy of "Black Boy" if possession of it is made a crime?

Will you go unvaccinated and unmasked during a deadly pandemic if the vaccine is outlawed and mask wearing is a criminal offense?

These are decisions some of us may be forced to make if the fascist wave continues.

I've already decided that being an outlaw is sometimes required if we want to live moral lives.

I'm sorry--- I really am---really, but the number of folks who actually appear to believe that the

very truncated sliver of the Georgia Special Grand Jury Report means that "Trump will not be indicted" is just discouraging as hell!

That is what Trump is saying, but the fact that our own are believing it just really sucks!

Sheesh!

Trump's four years in the White House were an "Imperfect Storm" in which numerous aberrant

political malignancies combined to---at the very least---deeply wound and permanently scar America's 247 year old democracy. Many assorted traitors, fascists and thugs were involved and the crimes and outrages were numerous, but I think the nature of the vile yet nearly successful coup attempt can be stated succinctly.

An American citizen whose shameless greed, dishonesty and mental illness was simply beyond any malfeasance that the Founders could have imagined asked for and received the help of one of our major international adversaries and, thereby, gained the presidency of the United States. AND, THEN,-----

---that traitorous and amoral president was gleefully supported, defended and USED by the overwhelming majority of his captured party of cowards. These despicable skulkers twice saved him from being convicted in two separate transparently justified and proven Articles of Impeachment trials in the Senate they then controlled. Worse even than that, they crammed through the approvals of scores of incompetent, unqualified and ethically compromised federal judges whose sole "qualification" was loyalty to the extreme right's ideology.

Never been in a courtroom? Squeaked through law school? Published support for extreme views on issues bound to be addressed in federal courts? No problem! If you oppose abortion, hate gay people, love guns and big corporations and will "dance with them what brung you" once in a robe, you too can be a GOP-approved judge.

THAT aberrant POTUS and THOSE treacherous Congress members appointed three justices to the SCOTUS and over twenty dozen of their faithful to the federal bench.

THAT is the "imperfect storm" responsible for the fact that our "ship of state" is taking on water, listing hard right and may not be able to right itself.

Maybe---just maybe---we are about to begin to start commencing to

get ready to proceed with the initiation of criminal charges against Trump.

But, then again---------

Anyone ever sip absinthe? nt