Letter From New York 03 04 2016 Far from Damascus…

Chet Baker’s “Jazz in Paris” plays while I am typing, courtesy of Amazon Prime, the service I am learning it is hard to live without.  It pays for itself with free shipping around Christmas not to mention being able to find things there I can’t find easily in stores.  I mean it seems like everything is there.  They have just released a new device, Amazon Tap, that works with their Echo.  Have to learn more about that…

When I woke this morning, it was chill but bright and light speckled on the creek as I looked out the window waiting for my electric kettle to boil the water for my tea.

It was an easy day.  I spent the morning in the annual great American adventure, preparing information for my taxes for the accountant who does both my business and my personal returns.  Finishing that, I went to Hudson and had lunch with my friend Dena Moran, who has moved her shop, Olde Hudson, into larger digs.  Afterwards, I had my oil changed and then came home and gathered the piles of receipts and prepared for them to be stored away.

While we were at lunch, Dena and I both checked out what Mitt Romney said about Donald Trump.  While I was doing taxes, Mitt was skewering The Donald, calling him a “phony,” “a fraud” and many other things.  Good for Mitt… It’s the most I have respected him in years.

Trump responded in The Donald’s way.  He looked back on 2012 when he said Mitt would have dropped to his knees to have The Donald’s endorsement.  That’s not a pretty picture…  According to The Donald, Mitt’s a failed candidate and the only person who “chokes” more than Mitt is Marco Rubio.

Does anyone get tired of this?

Shockingly, among Muslims who vote Republican, he’s the most popular candidate.  What?  Not something I understand but it’s real.  It seems they think once elected, he’ll become pragmatic and work on economic issues, which is their greatest concern, and forgot all the anti-Muslim rhetoric.  There is a part of me that suspects they are delusional, rather like Jews who couldn’t really believe Hitler was serious.

Caitlyn Jenner is supporting Ted Cruz, which seems as crazy to me as Muslims supporting The Donald.

In other happy news, Kim Jong Un of North Korea has ordered his military to be ready to use nuclear weapons at any time.  Perhaps preemptively, as the UN voted in the most severe sanctions in twenty years against his country.  The pudgy young man is determined, desperately determined, the world give him respect.  I suspect bad parenting.

In Syria, the fragile truce has given some respite to the desperate inhabitants of that poor country.  Thinking about them helped me realize how grateful I am to be here, poised above the Claverack Creek where sun speckles in the morning on the water, where I can listen to jazz and think about the issues of the world while not dodging mortar fire or bombs from above.

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