I’ve had a case of blogger’s block lately, at least in part because I’ve been trying to avoid posting about politics since the Republican menagerie was sworn into the U.S. Senate. But a story today about Marjorie Taylor Greene was such low hanging fruit, I couldn’t resist posting about it. Headline:
Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘Attacked’
by Woman While at Restaurant
Green was quoted in Newsweek as saying, that a woman and her son started shouting at her like “demons” while she was working with her staff on Monday evening, saying that the two of them were “completely out of control.” In referring to her tormentors, she went on to say, They are self-righteous, insane and completely out of control. People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone. This from the shrew who recently heckled the president of the United State during his State of the Union address. I wonder if MTG could possibly see the Irony of her statement. I doubt if she even knows the meaning of the word. She will say anything to get in the news because news coverage means attention and attention means contributions from the MAGA right. The phrase Taste of your own Medicine comes to mind.
Perhaps it is time for Democrats to take the gloves off and treat these people the way they treat others. Yeah, I know. We don’t gain anything by stooping to their level. Well, except for some satisfaction.
When I was in grammar school (shortly after the dinosaurs disappeared from the earth), I regularly heard the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree. As the story goes, when George was 6 years old, he received a hatchet for his birthday. Apparently, there was no Consumer Product Safety Commission back then to advise what gifts were safe for kids. George took his new toy out and chopped down a cherry tree which happened to be his father’s favorite. Furious, George’s father, Augustine, confronted the boy, demanding to know who had cut it down. George, already showing the integrity that would be a hallmark of his life, responded, Father, I cannot tell a lie. It was I. Legend has it that Augustine was so pleased with his son’s truthful response that he praised the boy and forgave his mistake. There is no real evidence that this story in in fact true. but it was very popular with teachers and parents to teach children the importance of telling the truth. 
Election Day should be a showplace for America democracy, the end of long political campaigns during which each candidate makes their best pitch to the voters then retires to campaign headquarters to await the results of the vote count. Winners thank their constituents and promise to represent all citizens. Losers hold out as long as they can then thank their supporters and grudgingly concede. Some promises are kept, some forgotten … and we find out if our choices were good ones, always knowing that in two years, we get to choose again. Democracy goes on. That’s how it should be. How it used to be when being a democracy was more important than partisan politics. 
This morning I found an article on the Washington Post that claims 5.1 million Americans have security clearances, which amounts to 1.5% of the population. It occurs to me that is why so many people seem to think that a former president taking huge amounts of classified material to his home is OK. They’ve never seen what ordinary Americans who work with security clearances have to do every day to work with sensitive information. I have worked for 60 years on defense systems, mostly sensor systems that keep track of the vessels and vehicles of countries that might mean us harm. I have held clearances at most of the levels mentioned in the affidavit justifying the search of Mira Lago … Confidential, Secret, Top Secret and special access. At each step, I was trained in the rules for handling classified documents at that level. I had a safe in my office where I kept any classified documents in my possession. 
One of the books I read a page from (almost) every morning is 
Older Eyes 