I strenuously object to the end of fact-checking for Facebook and Instagram because I’m afraid it will lead to an even greater spread of mis/disinformation.
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays and/or Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/08/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-8th-stop-following-me/
In late December/early January, many people look back over the year, reflect on its highs and lows, or create some kind of tally.
Sometimes, tallies are created for us, such as Words With Friends, which I have played for 13 years, helpfully telling me I made 8,875 moves in 2024. In my early years of WordPress blogging, they would send us each an annual wrap-up, which I enjoyed. Theoretically, I could put some stats together myself, but I don’t have the wherewithal to manage it.
Some of my poet/writer friends would tally their publications – and rejections – for the year. Given how 2024 went for me, the lists of both would be short, as would the list of completed poems, although I am very grateful that I managed to attend the Boiler House Poets Collective week-long residency at The Studios at MASS MoCA.
My 2024 was mostly taken up with personal and family health issues and my spouse B preparing for his retirement from IBM, which has now happened.
We begin 2025 in uncertainty. With daughter T and I still struggling to find full diagnoses and treatment, what we had imagined B’s retirement to look like is not going to be enacted, at least, not right away.
None of this is helped by the huge uncertainty about what will unfold when DT becomes US president again on Jan.20.
My father used to say “One day at a time” a lot. I am, though, by nature a planner, so I had trouble with the concept.
Now, sometimes, I feel that things are moment-to-moment or that time is somehow suspended or irrelevant.
So, yeah, 2025.
Guess I’ll strive for one day at a time…
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/07/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-7th-2025/
Vote for Democracy #24
Under the United States Constitution, January 6th is the date that Congress meets in joint session to certify the electoral college votes for president and vice president that took place the prior November.
Today, this certification happened smoothly and quickly, marking the peaceful transfer of power that had been the norm in the US until it was shattered on January 6, 2021, when a mob violently stormed the Capitol after weeks of unfounded claims by Donald Trump and his team that the election had been stolen from him, even though government officials around the country had certified that the election results were fair and valid and dozens of court cases challenging the results had failed.
Members of Congress had to be evacuated to safer locations, but about 140 police officers were wounded in the assault, with five deaths being attributed to the attack and its aftermath. Donald Trump waited for hours to ask his supporters to leave the Capitol. When Congress re-convened later that night, there were still 147 Republicans who voted against certifying all the electors, which was unconscionable, given the threat that the riot had posed to them and their colleagues. (To read the most comprehensive report about the January 6th, 2021 attack, please visit this link, which has the full report from the House Select Committee plus supporting materials, such as court documents, videos, interviews, and depositions.)
Despite all of this, Donald Trump managed to convince enough voters that the attack didn’t happen at all, that it was a “day of love,” and that the people who had been convicted at trial or had pleaded guilty in the attack planning or execution were political prisoners, that he won the 2024 election which was certified today.
Trump has indicated that he may pardon all or most of the convicted after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20th. He has threatened to arrest the people in Congress and the Justice Department who investigated the attack and his role in it.
I will continue to be part of the millions of Americans who believe in the truth, the Constitution, and the rule of law. Trump and his Republican gang cannot erase the mountain of evidence against them. Bizarrely, one of the things that Trump is claiming the members of the House Select Committee did was to destroy all the evidence; the link above shows that they instead made the evidence public.
Don’t fall for Trump’s lies about January 6th, 2021 or anything else. Look at the evidence. Find the truth and proclaim it.
We are going to need to do it a lot to get through these next four years with our democracy functioning.
*****
Join us for Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/06/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-6th-2025/
I loved this piece about a “poetry pharmacy” that I saw this morning. Enjoy!
(I wish there was one near me.)
*****
Join us for Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/05/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-5th-2025/
If I looked back through my ten plus years of posts here, I’m sure I would find plenty that talk about my being behind on posting and lots of other things.
Even though I’ve tried to pair down on my commitments, I never seem to be caught up.
Dealing with my health over these last ten months, things have gotten way worse. I feel like I am only handling about a third of what I used to do – and, some days, not even that.
I’ve cut out a lot of tasks, assuming I would get back to them when I was better.
Now, I wonder if these cuts will be permanent…
At some point, if I re-define what I should be doing, maybe I won’t be behind anymore.
That would be novel…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “in front/behind.” This post also is part of Just Jot It January. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/03/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2025-daily-prompt-for-jan-4th/
Following up from yesterday’s post, my specialist appointment is resulting in an order for the next step toward diagnosis, an angiogram to evaluate the blood vessels in my neck.
I’m not sure how long it will take to get on the schedule but I’ll let you know when I have more information.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/03/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-3rd-2025/
So, despite all odds, I’m making another run at posting every day in January, courtesy of Linda’s Just Jot It January or #JusJoJan.
This is the 11th year Linda has hosted this initiative. I participated for the first time in 2015. While it’s not required to post every day, I usually manage it.
I admit that I try to stash away a few posts to throw in when I don’t have time and/or brain on a given day.
I have an appointment with a vascular neurologist later today, which may or may not help with the brain part of the equation.
Linda does offer prompts for the day on her blog, which many people find useful. I tend to do my own thing, other than her continuing One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday series.
Please join us, once, twice, or up to 31 times!
*****
To join Just Jot It January, visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/02/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-2nd-2025/
Linda G. Hill of Life in Progress is bringing us Just Jot It January for the 11th year and you are all invited to join by linking your January posts to her blog each day!
To participate in One-Liner Wednesday and/or Just Jot It January, visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/01/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-1st-happy-new-year/
(Photo credit: The Carter Center, 2015)
Jimmy Carter died on Sunday, December 29, 2024 at the age of 100. He was United States president from 1977-1981. After his term ended, he was active as a peacemaker, author, and humanitarian well into his nineties. Much of his work was accomplished in partnership with his wife, Rosalynn, who predeceased him last year after 77 years of marriage.
Carter was president during a formative time in my life, late in high school going into my early years at Smith College, and there are things from that time that have had lasting impact on my life.
Carter’s actions on renewable energy, energy conservation, and environmental protection were formative for me. Because of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, oil and gasoline were high-priced and in short supply. We lived in a very rural area at the time. Reaching our high school, supermarkets, stores, doctor’s office, etc. involved at least a twenty-mile drive, so fuel efficiency became even more crucial for us. Being very aware of the efficiency of our vehicles is something that B and I have retained. The first car we bought after our marriage was a small, fuel-efficient compact; we assumed that our next car would be electric, given the emphasis that had been placed on them by Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, that was all derailed by Reagan and the fossil fuel industry and we didn’t get our first electric car until 2017.
We also continued to take home energy efficiency seriously. B and I were talking recently about how we never got into large, lighted Christmas displays for our yard, choosing instead to just put our Christmas tree, now with super-efficient LED lights, near our front window. That all started back in the Carter administration with its emphasis on energy conservation. Carter, who was an engineer, installed solar panels on the White House roof to heat water; Reagan later removed them. I’m proud to say that our home and most of our transportation are powered by solar energy. We have very efficient heat pumps for hot water and heating and cooling our home. We are also well-insulated and choose appliances and lighting carefully with our eyes on efficiency. The appalling thing is that, while President Carter saw clearly what we needed to do as a country to address environmental/climate protection and energy security long-term and set us on that path, subsequent political and corporate leaders abandoned those efforts with grave planetary consequences. We would not be in such dire circumstances around the globe if we had tackled these issues around renewable energy and environmental/climate protection back then.
I appreciate Carter’s example of living out his faith. He set out to serve humanity, especially those who are most vulnerable. He was long active with Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for people experiencing poverty. Through the Carter Center, he spearheaded a massive effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease in Africa and Asia. In 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases; in 2023, under 20 human cases were reported.
Carter was also a champion for human rights. As president, he appointed people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and many women to executive and judicial branch posts. He created the Department of Education, which had previously been part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, to help promote excellence in education regardless of race or economic circumstances. He also created the Department of Energy to spearhead reforms.
I’m grateful that President Biden will still be in office for the state funeral for Jimmy Carter on January 9th. The then-young Senator Biden was an early endorser of Carter’s run for the Democratic nomination in 1976 and the two have been friends for decades. While Biden and Carter are both one-term Democratic presidents who were largely derailed by high inflation rates, what is more striking to me is that they are both dedicated public servants, motivated by love of country and their faith, Carter as a Baptist and Biden as a Catholic. Both celebrated the diversity and pluralism of the United States and tried to protect and preserve our environment.
I am worried that the incoming Trump administration will try to dismantle the gains made under President Biden in the same way that Reagan undid many of Carter’s initiatives.
A hallmark of Jimmy Carter’s life was always telling the truth, even when that truth was difficult to hear. Donald Trump is known for lying, thousands of times in his first term and thousands more since. It would have been distressing to have Trump overseeing the plans for Carter’s state funeral.
After the funeral and observances in Atlanta where the Carter Center is located, Jimmy Carter will be laid to rest beside Rosalynn under a willow tree near their long-time home in Plains, Georgia. There is a comfort in that for me – to think of them as reunited after such a long and fruitful partnership on earth. Both his longevity and the length of their marriage set records among US presidents, records that may well stand for as long as the United States endures.
Let’s all work to uphold the ideals that Jimmy Carter espoused so that the United States will become a “more perfect union” and grow as a democracy, not devolve into oligarchy or autocracy.
MAGA versus DOGE
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
The transition to the Trump administration is a mess.
The ethics document for the transition was signed belatedly and is very weak regarding conflicts of interest. Many of Trump’s nominees for high level positions are openly hostile to the departments that they are slated to head. Some have no experience leading large organizations. A disturbing number are most well-known as media personalities rather than subject area experts. Several have had serious allegations against them that would raise red flags in a thorough background check. Many are extremely wealthy. Some of these nominees, such as Cabinet secretaries, require Senate confirmation and it remains unclear if enough Republican senators will oppose problematic nominees or not.
There is also the bizarre creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), co-chaired by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite its name, it is not an executive branch department, which would require an act of Congress to establish. Its apparent aim is to cut $2 trillion from the budget, even though this would mean cutting benefits for the public, such as Social Security and Medicare. However, they seem dedicated to extending tax cuts for wealthy people and corporations.
The whole enterprise seems dedicated to strengthening American oligarchy rather than democracy.
In recent days, though, there is a major, public battle going on between DOGE and MAGA over the topic of immigration. (For those who might not know, MAGA stands for “Make America Great Again” and is shorthand for the populist, anti-immigrant, sometimes Christian nationalist, base that follows Trump.)
Musk and Ramaswamy, along with other rich, high-tech executives, some of whom gave major amounts of money to elect Trump and many of whom are, like Musk, immigrants themselves, favor raising the number of H-1B visas offered by the US. These visas are given to highly skilled foreign workers. They are controversial because some employers have used them to bring in lower-waged foreign workers rather than hiring, training, and/or retaining US workers.
Those who speak for MAGA oppose all immigration and want the H-1B program to end.
A war of words has broken out between DOGE and MAGA; Heather Cox Richardson published a helpful recap. A lot of it happened on Elon Musk’s platform X, formerly Twitter. (I used to cross-post from Top of JC’s Mind to Twitter/X but no longer do so.)
To have this level of in-fighting before we even get to inauguration day on January 20th does not bode well for the functionality of the incoming administration.
The differences between the rich, powerful DOGE faction and the large, non-wealthy, populist MAGA faction extend to other areas of endeavor. For example, DOGE is talking about cutting earned benefit programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, as well as social safety net programs, such as SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Many MAGA households rely on these programs to make ends meet. The House Republicans haven’t been able to get their act together this last term and their majority in the next term is even smaller.
I don’t know if we will have a largely dysfunctional government or one in which Trump attempts to concentrate all power in the executive branch, trying to govern by executive order and intimidation rather than legislation.
I’m scared but trying to listen to trusted voices and organizations that are preparing for all eventualities.
We need our diverse, pluralistic democracy to prevail.
Joanne Corey 