So much has happened in the last couple of days, it’s hard to know where to start. But if you’re reading this, you already know what’s happened. The question really in need of asking is: what will the consequences be?

The Two Mikes went to Turkey and allegedly persuaded Erdogan to pause in the fighting to allow the Kurds to ‘escape’ the disputed area. Problem 1: nobody has stopped shooting. Problem 2: with held from Russian and Syrian government troops, the Kurds are not exactly motivated to leave – the fighters will stay and civilians will go – but go where?

There’s really nowhere to go for these women and children who have made their home in northeast Syria for the past five years – peacefully, I might add. Problem 3: all those freed ISIS fighters, formerly the enemy of these people who are supposed to be fleeing – where will they go and are they really the formidable fighting force talking heads have described? What if they are just young guys looking to make a few bucks and get a woman without having to take a bath or shave? Maybe they can be persuaded to – at least temporarily – help out the new group who aren’t just the Kurds any more. They’re the Russian/Isis/Syrian/Kurds – aha! They’re RISK! I like it!

It’s gonna get weirder. But I think the guy with all the cards right now is Mitch McConnell. He – likely for the first time since the 2016 election – holds DtheT/crazier’s short ones in his hands. I’m pretty sure he’d like to see Pence in there instead of the current occupant. Wouldn’t surprise me if Pence and McConnell make a quiet deal and Mitch persuades another 15 or so Republican Senators that they can successfully impeach DtheT/c and Pence the Pure will take over – and owe everything to Wily Coyote, AKA Mitch McConnell. And the plot thickens for SITWW (you know – Survivor in the West Wing)…

According to this morning’s Politico, the Republican Senators are now sucking Trump’s..uh..toes, again..No need for sanctions – Trump has sanctioned Turkey’s steel – you know, the commodity that represents 1/4 of 1% of all our imports and 7% of steel imports. In other words, no biggie..nothing to see here..move along.

Somehow I knew this plot line in Survivor in the West Wing, the current reality series we’re living in, would be a bust; we’ll move on to something new: how all these ‘windtalkers’ at the impeachment inquiry will be punished for their disloyalty. That got me thinking about something a little closer to home..the fact that Erik and I as retirees, collectively get a little less than half our retirement income from Social Security. What if that were to go away – how long could we last and what would we do?

These issues are addressed a bit in my second book of the pentalogy; the one called And Forbid Them Not. My protagonist is musing over a similar situation.

“Julia realized at once it was likely all the government’s departments were now putting out bogus information – and had been for months.  But she wasn’t going to talk about that with Nate – even though he was a friend.  She worried that her government pension checks might mysteriously go awry – and an investigation would likely take a long time .. if not forever.  She smiled at Nate as he was wrapping up her two hoses.  “Maybe things will get better.”

How many times have I heard my family and friends say that? Erik always references the 60’s and Viet Nam as a worse time in America. But we were young then, more worried about the draft then the fate of democracy. Joining a protest could get your head bashed in – or maybe get you shot & killed like at Kent State. But as youngsters, we didn’t take it too much to heart. Somehow we always knew things would get better.

But now we’re old and reliant on the government. If half our income could disappear – through changes in legislation or just plain snafu – then we need an escape plan. We could sell our house, but could we live on the proceeds in relative comfort for the rest of our lives? If Medicare went away, could we afford decent health care? Guess this harkens back to my previous post: there, but for fortune, go you or I. But fortune in the current regime could and is likely to disappear. When the growing deficit makes the rest of the world less likely to buy our debt – or worse, decide to sell it en masse, austerity would be forced on us. And the easiest cuts to make? Raid the Social Security trust fund and cut or eliminate Medicare. Since boomers are no longer the biggest voting block, who would push back on that? Certainly not millennials, who are keenly aware that by the time they reach retirement age, the fund will be bust.

So this could – and will likely – happen. Ouch. Children – we’re moving in with you. It’s payback time.

Blast! Lost another day somewhere along the line..you’d think I’d still be able to count at my age, but alas, apparently not.

I have reconnected with another old friend from the past – her name is Susan Z, and we were friends in 7th grade. My neighborhood got rezoned to another junior high for 8th grade and we lost touch. Sue, as she is now called, was a wonderful friend and a genuinely good person. I think she has kept those attributes into adulthood, which is nice to see, but I have to recount a story from that era that I vividly recall.

My family was supposed to move to Ocala where Dad was running my deceased maternal grandfather’s beer distributing business. Sue threw a going away, surprise party for me – only one of two surprise parties I ever had in my ife. Sadly, my mother forgot about it, and my sister and I went off on a trip with my paternal grandfather. So there was a party – but no me. I was horrified to find out about it when we returned.

Well, Sue, if you’re reading this, that was the story..but we never moved to Ocala. My father ran the beer business into insolvency with his grandiose plans that were a trifle shady. My mother found out he was having an affair with his secretary (tacky, eh?) and they got a divorce. Our subsequent life was one of cover-up and deception, as we were dead broke. Dear old dad failed to provide much if any form of support and mom found more solace in vodka and dating married men than in finding a job. But I was fortunate to find that my brother’s best friend liked me. We got married, put each other through school and both became civil engineers. We had good careers and provided a decent, stable life for our three children. After fifty one years, we’re still together and happy.

But I never forgot about that party that didn’t include me. Thank you,Sue, for being a good friend and hopefully not getting mad about my not being there.

Yesterday we had a picnic over at Jopie’s apartment complex by the intracoastal. Kiernan played in the water for hours, barely stopping to have a drink and a bite. Not sure she ever even ate dinner..couple of kids there to play with, so she was in heaven.

Speaking of heaven, Martha Backer nee Kaplan and I have been talking about the books over Facebook Messenger…she is a most insightful gal..I wish I’d known her better in high school. She made the point that she figured people would kill their children in order to be free of them to continue their dysfunctional lifestyle with opioids and such. Instead, I’ve depicted infanticide as an act of love, induced by a cult leader’s, for lack of a better word, brainwashing. But the idea of a person like my main character in book 1 meeting an unholy death trying to warn people about the evils of cult leaders was a raw deal. I agreed with her.

We talk about how the system is rigged against people who are referred to as the ‘lower classes’, but frankly, that could be any of us; there but for fortune, which in time may run out. The leader of the cult, aided and abetted by evangelical preachers, often with mendacious motive, convinced frightened people to do the unthinkable.

Rather that the Sunday school version of the quote from Matthew 19, where Jesus likes to pat kids on the head, next to the lambs and baby goats, the evangelical slant is quite different. The notion is that only innocent children can enter heaven, because adults are too corrupted unless they sell everything and follow him. But time has run out to do that. So to spare their children from being corrupted – and killed as a result of climate change – their parents give them a sleeping death with opioids and

antifreeze. Tell me that could never happen here? Time will tell.

The Survivor in the West Wing series is coming along nicely; the writers are working feverishly on the Senate Sanctions part of the plot; talking heads are exploding and we’re all getting so engrossed in it, we forget important things: things like Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is always a big holiday around here..we try to gather as much family as possible – even friends – and put together an exhaustive menu that we can never quite pull off. So each year, afterward, I say, “Next year we’ll simply the thing.” But we never do. So once again, I say: this year the menu will be simpler. Here’s a first cut at it:

Boar’s Head Appetizer Platter

Julia Child’s Turkey and Dressing

Homemade (ahead) Cranberry Sauce

Leg of Lamb, cooked on a new ceramic grill (the two standard gas grills we have are completely worn out)

Mashed Potatoes with Giblet Gravy without the Giblets (nobody likes ’em – and of course the mashed potatoes are home made – none of this pre-packaged stuff that tastes like paste)

Caesar Salad with homemade dressing and croutons (that always goes first and Jamie likes it)

Green Bean Casserole made with canned green beans (I’ve tried blanching fresh & making white sauce, but you can’t tell the difference from canned and immersion in Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup..I’ll just add some sauteed fresh mushrooms..remember, simplify!)

Homemade pickles and mushrooms (made ahead – not together)

Parker House rolls (popovers take too hot an oven; crescent rolls never seem to get sufficiently done…simplify, simplify..OK, maybe Sister Schubert’s frozen parker house rolls instead of generic brown & serve in the paper container)

Pumpkin Pie

Lemon Acorn Cakes with Vanilla Sauce and Strawberries on the Side (Kiernan will make this)

Apple Pie & Madeleines (Emily’s specialty)

All that seems perfectly doable – with everyone’s help…?

There are so many things going on, it’s hard to choose just one to write about. Rudy’s boys got themselves arrested, but he thinks Omerta will save him..and he may have a point if the money they’re throwing around came from the Russians. They have a bad habit of balancing the books – with very poisonous pens.

But instead, let’s talk about DtheT/Crazier giving the green light to Erdogan to venture into northern Syria to wipe out the Kurds. They’ve tried that in the past, even before our boys were present, and they got their butts kicked. They’ve come back with a vengeance this time, so they won’t make that mistake again. But there are several flies in the outmeal. One fly is 10,000 Isis prisoners being held captive in an area current being shelled. The prison has already been hit once; another couple of rounds, and they’ll be running all over the landscape like an escaped flea circus. Another fly is Turkish artillerymen’s bad aim with their heavy guns; they nearly hit the ‘pulled back’ American SF troops that were not in the designated area. Bad move, boys. Finally, there’s the question of whether anyone else will help the Kurds. How about the Iraqis? They’ve been making nice with the Kurds lately..but they’ve got their own problems and don’t need to get involved. Russia? They want to be everybody’s favorite country to deal with, including Turkey’s. But maybe a deal can be made between Turkey, Assad and the Kurds that makes everybody happy, and makes Putin look like a statesman. I’d be willing to bet on that outcome. But how many Kurds will have to die before he steps in with the magic solution? Enough to make it look real. Remember, people, we’re all just living in a reality TV series, so we need some … wait for it … DRAMATIC TENSION! …to increase the ratings.

And will the Republican Senate slap serious sanctions on Turkey? That plot line needs work, so put the writers in the room for a while to make it even more interesting to us viewers of this episode of Survivor in the West Wing.

The kids are off from school today – in the middle of the week? Yes, it’s Yom Kippur, even tho’ they don’t call it the Yom Kippur holiday on the school calendar. But if Christians can have Christmas off, then Jewish kids can have Yom Kippur off. Anyway, I’m going to get Emily to finish up the illustrations for Let Them Come Unto Me so I can get it shipped off to Amazon and start on my really challenging book entitled Clemmie. More on that later.

The thing I hate most about writing is marketing; it feels like shilling when I tell people about my books. I guess that’s why professional writers hire agents and PR people; you’re either good at it or you’re not and I am decidedly NOT…good at it.

Having gotten that off my chest, I guess it’s time to talk about current events again. So the question is: has he lost whatever mind he used to have or are his latest pronouncements just another round of what he always does – trying to scare his critics into backing down? It reminds me of a movie I will likely watch every time it’s on: The Fifth Element. If you recall the plot, there’s evil, eviler and evilest. Everybody has somebody calling the shots for them that is Richter scale more dastardly. It’s the President for Korben Dallas; it’s Gary Oldman’s character Zorg for the President; and it’s some other, unnamed evil creature that scares poor Zorg so that he bleeds chocolate out of his hairline. Now that’s evilest!

So where’s the connection with DtheT/crazy(er? not est yet?) and current events? It’s this. For 95% of the movie, the bad guys are definitely winning. The poor monk (Ian Holm – great as ever) and his little assistant with the yamaka on his head are terrified, but keep buggering on. Ruby Rhod starts out brash but he, too, soon becomes terrified. Everything depends on Korben and orange-haired and outfitted Leeloo to fix everything. But, as a point of fact, all their machinations would have been for naught had it not been for yamaka boy blowing on the element for wind. That one tiny little sigh saved the world. And so it will be with all this – one tiny little whistleblower may be the thing that finally ends the reign of terror aka the Trump Administration. I wonder if this whistler wears a yamaka too?

And how long will it be – and how many more disasters will he be able to create – before the Republican Senate wakes up and sees that this is really a golden opportunity? Answer: we’ve still got at least another 30% of this bad movie to go before it’s over. So fasten your seatbelts; we’re in for a blustery ride.

Kiernan is helping me write this post. Kiernan: what do you want to say? Kiernan says she wants to help animals. How can she do this? Do you have any ideas? Let’s talk about animals.

Kiernan says do not throw trash on the beach and in the forest. She added don’t throw trash in the ocean – it already has enough as it is. Kiernan says you should help animals when they’re in danger. I just read a story about a dog rescue group that used a drone to find a dog trapped in the rubble in the Bahamas. They moved the rubble, and found the dog, barely alive. They took it back to their animal rescue center, and it is doing OK. That is an example of what Kiernan wants all of us to do: help animals when they’re in danger!

Kiernan says that’s all she wants to say about animals.

What are each of us capable of doing? Theft; assault; even murder under the right conditions? Those are the boundaries I’ve been exploring in my writing, and current events simply reinforce these questions.

One thing the internet has given us is the perception of anonymity. With that perception, we say things to one another we would never even think of saying to someone’s face.

Internet trolls just picked up that thread and ran with it, further pushing back the boundaries of what is considered civil discourse online. But now that phenomenon has begun to intrude into our ordinary lives. Road rage is so common now it’s barely reported by the media. The frequency of using violence to fix a simple problem is now legion: don’t get a divorce; murder your wife and kids so you can be with Amber, Bambi or Brittney and start over again.

My latest writing concerns itself with mass psychosis fueled by fear of climate change. It’s a theme I’ve explored before with a play I wrote called Fear of the Sixth Extinction. It ended with civilization effectively destroying itself because people act irrationally when they are caught up in a fearful situation together. The instinct for self or family preservation comes to the fore, and violence is used to fix a simple problem. But that play ended with a note of hope – an Adam and Eve scenario – so we can start over again.

So there’s the connection. Are we all so unhappy with our current lives that we’re driven to extreme behavior in the belief that it will let us have a new and better life? I think so. My current series – a pentalogy (5 part series) is called Suffer the Children, from Matthew 19 in the New Testament. The headings are biblical, and I formatted it that way for a reason. Let me explain.

The Apostles believed that the second coming of Christ would occur in their lifetime, and it would mean the destruction of the world, as detailed in John’s Book of Revelation. Christians everywhere are still seeking this second coming, believing their faith will spare them from John’s prognosticated painful end. So I started the first and most of the second books’ chapter headings with quotes from the Old Testament, the New Testament for most of book 3, with the final chapter in Book 3 quoting from the Koran. Book 4 will have quotes from the Koran until the last Chapter; then Book 5 – tentatively titled Karma, will quote from the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu spiritual book. Why am I doing this? Because I am telling the story of the end – not of the world, but of the United States.

What is the point of my story? Depending on how you see it, it’s either a prognostication – like John’s – of what will happen to us; or a warning of what will happen if nothing changes. Only time will tell which it is. But the underlying notion for it? DISSOLUTION. Definition: the closing down or dismissal of an assembly, partnership or official body. In this case, that official body is the United States of America. But the other definition of DISSOLUTION is relevant here: debauched living; dissipation. Dissipation: the squandering of money, energy or resources. If that isn’t America in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

I’ve finished the first three books; Book 4 will be finished by Thanksgiving and Book 5 with an Epilogue will be my Christmas gift to the world. Don’t thank me yet; wait until you’ve read it…and be afraid..be very afraid.