Overturned

Because this election matters to all of us here on this blog.

Every election matters.

Why Support Donald Trump

Dear Evangelicals,

Many people have asked you over the past four years why you support Donald Trump, knowing just how morally flawed he is. Overwhelmingly, your answer has been that he’s anti-abortion and he will put justices on the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe-vs-Wade.  While I’m not sure he’s really anti-abortion, he has kept the promise and installed three justices during his tenure who have expressed their disapproval of abortion rights in our country.  Okay, he kept his promise but now I have other questions.

Why do you continue to support him?

Why do you support a man who raped his first wife?

Why do you support a man who has had at least twenty-six other women accuse him of sexual assault?  Do you think they’re all lying? In at least one case, he could easily absolve himself by a simple DNA test and yet he refuses to take one.

Why do you support a man who has split up families and locked the children in cages?  Whose agencies didn’t keep accurate records so now over 500 children remain in custody while no one knows where they belong?

Why do you support a man who tells lies as easily as he breathes? A man who has broken more business contracts than I can count just because he could and it was monetarily advantageous for him?  A man who inflates the value of his properties when he wants to get a loan but then deflates the value for tax purposes?

Why do you support a man who is a serial cheater?  He was having sex with his second wife (even declared it the best he’d ever had) while still married to his first.  He continued the trend by being in a sexual relationship with is third wife while married to his second. And to complete the trifecta, he had sex with Stormy Daniels shortly after Melania gave birth to their son. Is this really okay with you?

Why do you support a man who believes he is better than God?  The first commandment is to “have no other gods before me”. In July, 2106 he said “I alone can fix it.” referring to all the problems he perceived in the United States.  God can’t fix it but Donald Trump can?  If he is better than God, why hasn’t he made the world a better place? 

Why do you support a man who carelessly let over a quarter of a million people die when he had the means available to stem the tide of the Covid-19 virus years ago? The Obama administration left him with all the tools necessary to tackle this plague. They gave him a fully functioning Department of Heath and Human Services.  They left the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention full of virologists, epidemiologists, and other knowledgeable persons who had experience with pandemics. They even wrote it all down and left a manual on how to handle such an outbreak.  And yet Donald (I’m-Better-Than-God) Trump decided that none of that was necessary. There was no national leadership. He left it all to the individual states and then hampered their efforts to get the equipment they need. Even after he, allegedly, contracted the virus himself, he’s done nothing to help get this illness under control.

Why do you support a man who denies the proven science of climate change?  Genesis 1:26 states: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  Do you honestly believe He meant for us to “rule over” in such a way that the earth becomes inhabitable and the fish, birds and land animals are all destroyed?

Why do you support a man who thinks that Neo-Nazi and White Nationalist groups are “very fine people”? Admittedly he has made a few public statements condemning certain groups. He’s also said that he condemns violence, hatred and racism. But he’s done nothing about it. He’s sent armed forces to break up peaceful demonstrations. He’s not called for a Judiciary Department investigation into any one of these well known organizations.  Didn’t even give a “job well done” to the FBI who uncovered a plot to kidnap Michigan’s Governor.  Rachel Maddow likes to say “Watch what they do, not what they say.”  Or as my mother would have said, “Actions speak louder than words” and his actions (or lack thereof) have made his true feelings perfectly clear.

Finally, why do you support a man who exhibits none of the knowledge even young (and young in their faith) Christians have? Ignoring all of the above, look at his life.  He has no history of ever attending any Church. Having armed forces clear a path through peaceful protestors so he can stand in front of St. John’s Church and hold a Bible doesn’t count. By his own admission, he’s never asked for God’s forgiveness for anything. He’s demonstrated no knowledge of any of the Bible’s text; can’t even come up with “Jesus wept” let alone something more complex as “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son”. And Paul’s admonition from Ephesians, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” is clearly beyond him.

You got what you said you wanted, a Supreme Court that will likely erode Roe-vs-Wade until we’re back to where we were before 1973.  Why do you continue to support such a morally flawed man whose life is in such conflict with the teachings of the Bible?

Ritual of Calm Turns to Confusion

I was given a chance through Tryazon's Tryabox program to look at the The Ritual of Dao Small Gift Box. I thought this might be a good chance to see if I could find a product that would make a good gift for some family or close friends since one of the shops that sells it, Ulta, is less than a mile from my house. It is always a bit of a risk for me to try out skin and hair care products because of my allergies and very sensitive skin. However, the Dao set is supposed to promote calmness and

The product is supposed to have white lotus and yi yi ren (an herb) but the scent was very light for every one of the products that I tried. I tried them over the course of three days to see if it caused any negative reactions in my skin or hair, to see if my family or close friends noticed, and to see if it affected my mood. Let's look at each product separately.

The Nourishing Shampoo had no directions so I started with a quarter sized amount in my hand. It sudsed up well but since this gift box did not come with conditioner, I was careful in how I applied it. I have curly hair that can tangle easily so since I turned 40, I've been needing conditioner when I shampoo my hair to make it more manageable. I wasn't sure if I should leave it in my hair or rinse it right away so I treated as I do all my shampooing and left it in while I did a full set of my arm exercises that I have to do 2-4 times every day. The scent is so light that I barely picked up on it but that did make me calm because I could focus on my arms and not on overpowering fragrance. The shampoo rinsed out well. However, by day two, my hair was feeling a bit rougher than normal and it was tangling more easily so I didn't try it a third day.

I washed my body first with my regular body foam to make sure I was applying the Balancing Foaming Shower Gel to clear skin the first time I used it; after that I tried it as I would my regular product to all but my intimate parts. The canister can with no directions so I managed as best I could based on previous experience with bath gels and foams. A lot of the gel came out at first because it was tricky to figure out how to press the top, it was down and back not just straight down. The gel started to foam as soon as it touched my skin as you can see in the photo to the left. It made a lot of foam, actually a bit too much all three days that I used it. Weirdly, the gel let the foam out in tiny amounts after I removed it from the shower to a dry place even when the cap was put back on after being dried off each day. The result is that I worried about how much of the product was being wasted even though I was trying to be careful. However, this worked well on my skin and caused no negative reactions. The very light scent was pleasing to me and my partners.

Lotions and creams are a bit problem for me normally because they can clog my skin, triggering not only allergic reactions but pore problems. Again, this tube had no directions so I used it as I thought was appropriate. I applied the Be Kind to Your Skin Body Cream as sparingly as I could on an selective body parts -- my cheeks on my face and on my left arm only. This way I could compare arms to see if there was difference. This scent is the one that lingered the longest of these first three products that I tried out. It did leave my skin feeling smooth each day that I used it and caused no negative reactions. However, I could definitely feel it on my skin over the course of the day so it isn't as light as I prefer. The amount you see in the photo to the right is enough to cover my entire arm so this product would last a couple of weeks for me, at least.

Finally, the Calming Shower Oil was the newest type of products for me since I've never used shower or bath oils. Luckily this bottle did have directions on how to use it though I had to get out a magnifier to read it. Since it said it could make the shower floor slippery I used it on the days that I knew I'd be washing out our tubs. How calming would it be if I had to add more household to use this product? The amount you can see, two drops on my wet arm covered my entire forearm. This left my skin feeling smoother than the body cream did but the scent was lighter. This didn't cause any negative reactions on my skin. Which would I use? Cream or oil? I'm still not sure since I feel like the cream is completely used when I apply it but I believe the oil partly falls off my body otherwise why woudl there be a risk of my slipping when I apply it?

Confusion came about when I looked for the product to review online and found they did not match.

I was sent the following in a off-cream colored gift box: Balancing Foaming Shower Gel, Nourishing Shampoo, Be Kind to Your Skin Body cream, and Calming Shower Oil. However when I visited the link to review the box on Ulta, the products inside the green gift box included: Foaming Shower Gel, Magic Touch Body Cream, Caring Shower Oil, and Softening Rice Scrub.

The medium gift box's product sizes listed on the Ulta site, meant what I was sent had to be the small.

I looked for the product elsewhere and found a small Ritual of Dao gift box on Amazon and Jet but they matched the Ulta description, not what I was sent. Luckily, Tryazon and Rituals quickly addressed this issue and I was able to review the individual products fairly online where they are sold.

If you want the gift box that I wrote about above, you'll need to visit the Rituals shop online and use this link to get the same product, called THE RITUAL OF DAO Calming Treat. You can find the individual products at Macy's, Ulta, and Lord & Taylor stores.

Check out the video unboxing below if you like, too.

No! Voting Isn't the Minimum Voters Can Do!

Note: This started as a rant on FB then expanded as I worked through why belittlement of voting in the USA pisses me off so much.
To the folks saying that voting is the minimum and we need to expect more all the time from American citizens.

Your Privilege is Showing!

Some American adults struggle to find time to go vote. They might be juggling multiple jobs. They might have bosses who threaten their jobs if they want to take off time to vote. They may struggle to find transportation to voting polls. They may struggle to find childcare so that they can rush from the polls to work. Sometimes the lines are so long to vote that not everyone can take those hours off to just wait even if they could do it over a lunch break (giving up their lunch that day in the process). Going early? Some folks have long commutes or rely on mass transit that has a set schedule, they might not be able to get their early or right before the polls close.

Some American adults are misinformed about their rights to vote. Some of this is on purpose like giving people the wrong dates, times, and locations. Schools cut education programs about how government works so it is easier and easier to be misinformed. Not understanding how government works or the parts of government on the local, county, state, and federal level, it is easy to overlook the impact it has on their lives.

Some is cultural misinformation like jokes and memes belittling democracies and elections. False comparisons about parties or too loose use of or nitpicking about language used to describe the system of governance makes it all seem like an entity beyond them. It can feel overwhelming or tiring or frustrating to try and sort it all out.

Some American adults are targeted and made afraid to vote. They walk out to their car in the morning to discover flyers "warning" them about police being at the polls. Some of them find graffiti on their property sending silent but clear messages that they are being watched. Some of them have seen neighbors with guns at their sides right outside their polling locations. Those Americans may feel like choosing to vote is risking their lives.

Some American adults have been targeted at the polls. They have had to bring extra paperwork or get a Party advocate to speak up for them. Their neighborhoods have lost polls sites or those sites have been moved into areas where they are made to feel unsafe either on purpose or by the surroundings. It gets tiring fast to feel afraid when you go vote.

Beyond having numerous voting sites, where they are and how they are laid out matters. Just because your eyesight is weak, or you can't hear, or you have difficulty moving doesn't mean you've lost your right to vote but for some American adults it sure makes it a challenge to vote.

Some American adults have been led to believe it doesn't matter. They are constantly bombarded by the idea of the lesser of two evils, or that the corporations run everything, or that democracy is dead, or that it is too gerrymandered to matter where they live. They are told that if they vote this way someone else will vote the opposite so the votes will just cancel anyway. Some of these messages are passed from friend to friend or parent to child, but a lot is shown via mass media. Campaign spend tons of money to spread misinformation about others and to clean up their own messages. Yes, all that information can feel like too much to deal with.

Some American adults get turned off by all the "politics" that they associate with yelling and screaming or greed. They've never heard from nor seen a government official except when it was about taxes.

Some American adults have been raised to think that they must hold out for the "best" or someone who agrees with them 100%. Others are raised to focus on one or two single issues and to ignore any evidence that a candidate might be the worse or best choice on the other dozens of issues out there.

Perhaps as many as 25% of the eligible voting population is NOT even registered (I found different numbers but all were around that national level). We barely get a majority of registered voters out in the Federal presidential elections every four years. Don't get me started on the low turnout for "off-season" elections.

It turns out that for sizable numbers of American adults, voting is not easy, it is not the minimum that they can do because it is a challenge to even do once.

Those of us who do vote in every election... hurray for us! What are we doing to empower our sister and brother Americans?

Those of us who can do more like protest, contact our elected officials, run for office, donate money, help out a campaign, or aid a group that does these things... hurray for us!

But if we turn around and belittle the struggle of our sisters and brothers who also have the right to vote but feel like they can't, we also become the ones standing in their way.

So when I'm asking folks to vote, reminding people to vote, I'm also out there helping get people to the polls. I'm out their contacting my government officials about voting rights. I'm out there weighing voting rights in my decisions about who to vote for.

I'm not asking for the minimum activity from the non-voters.

I'm reminding us with enough privilege that we can and do vote regularly to remember to keep encouraging, keep empowering, and keep fighting for the our sister and brother Americans right to vote, too.

You First!

Donald Trump has said that anyone who doesn’t like living in the United States should leave.  Well, Mr. Trump, I say, “You First!”

What’s that you say? You love America? You wouldn’t want to live anywhere else?  Bullshit!

If you were so happy here, you wouldn’t be changing so many things to fit your view of a perfect America.

You wouldn’t have nominated sycophants like Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court so you can have a majority of justices who will deem unconstitutional those laws that you don’t like or that you don’t benefit from.

You wouldn’t have thousands of immigrants, including babies as young as four months old locked in cages, and treated worse than animals in facilities which are making a huge profit for your campaign contributors.

You wouldn’t be dismantling the agencies that prevent the rape of our natural resources because they get in the way of profit for your friends.  

If you were happy here, you’d embrace the entire country and understand that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have just as much right to disaster relief as Texas or Louisiana.

And you certainly wouldn’t be taking advice from the likes of Kim Jong Un and Vladamir Putin because you’d know that a democracy is as different from a dictatorship as chalk is from cheese.

Mr. Trump, I love my country.  I haven’t liked it as much as I did before you swore an oath to defend the constitution (which, by the way, you obviously lied about).  But I do love her.  Several years ago I visited Fort McHenry and watched the film presentation about the history of that famous battle which gave us our national anthem.  And when those first few notes played, and the curtains opened to show the flag of this country proudly waving in the breeze, I got a lump in my throat and tears welled in my eyes.  Some might say that means I’m corny and they may be right.  I think it means I have a far greater regard for this land than you will ever have.  

And even if I don’t like the country as much as I did prior to January 20, 2017, I have no desire to leave because I know that you and your kind won’t last forever.  Sooner or later the tide will turn because people like me will stick around and make it turn.  No sir, we’re not going anywhere but you should.