Yikes Squared

Photo: www.brittanica.com

Yikes “Squared”

Fun Fact? Today was Donald Trump’s 1111^thday in office.

My post yesterday featured a photo of daffodil greens poking their heads up out of the ground a good three inches or so. The fact that those flowers are being coaxed to emerge from their cozy winter beds when it is only early February was troubling to me. It’s not their time yet.

Of course, I ended up writing about the Iowa Caucus, which was also in the process of earning its own well-deserved “Yikes.” In fact, as of just past midnight tonight, well over 24 hours after the end of the Iowa Caucus, we’re still operating with only about 62% of the precincts reporting. None of the candidates can safely claim victory or pretty much make any announcements upon which they might want to capitalize.

How incredibly frustrating must that be for those candidates?! They’ve been spending millions of dollars, focusing intense attention to this state, and practically living there, in some cases, for nearly a year – only to have the results of the single most important night, the culmination of all that hard work directed at this first opportunity for the people to speak bungled?!

Good grief.

Even Worse

But I have to tell you: I took a walk late this afternoon and had to stop. I cocked my head to get a better sense of where the sound was coming from and what I was actually hearing.

A chill ran through me. Yes. Those voices. I recognized them. It was peepers. It’s February 4^th, and I could hear peepers calling out and singing their springtime song as they emerged from the mud in the wooded wetlands near my home.

“But it’s February!” I yelled out loud. “Early February, at that!” Spartacus glanced back at me, startled by the sudden eruption of my voice and worried I’d caught him nibbling on something he shouldn’t.

And then there was the SOTU, the President’s State of the Union address, to listen to this evening. Many entreated me not to listen. And I’ll admit, I was tempted to just let it go. I probably should have, in fact. But I didn’t.

I can tell you that I’m not happy I did it (other than feeling a smidgen of satisfaction in having shown some archaic sense of respect for the office). There were so many lies, so many distortions of truth, and so many blatant moments of pandering and use of rhetoric specifically geared toward manipulating emotion (over issues he’s actually taken stances diametrically in opposition to) that it made me feel lost and all alone.

Back to Premature Peepers

Nope; while I want to express my dismay over their very early emergence, they’re just not giving me enough of a distraction, in spite of my worry over their welfare.

Tomorrow is the actual vote on removing DT from office. From everything that’s gone before, including his behavior following his other two SOTU addresses, he’s going to start tweeting – and tweeting hard. As soon as the Republicans (who literally chanted “Four more years!” at the SOTU, as if they were at a campaign rally) vote to acquit instead of convict and remove him from office, he is going to be off to the races.

Just as Rep. Adam Schiff argued, his power is going to proceed unchecked. He will think and feel and know (based on the Republican Senators’ error and party fealty) he has the powers of a despot. And given his penchant for revenge? Well, we’re already hearing some reports of what he intends to do to his enemies. And we should all be afraid.

Including the peepers who are making their premature entrance into the world.