As I am sitting in the Acela Club at Penn Station, I am watching CNN, which is covering the arrival of the Pope. He landed at Joint Base Andrews and at this moment is arriving at the Diplomatic Mission of the Vatican in Washington, DC, on Massachusetts Avenue.
When Francis touched down, President and Michelle Obama and Vice President Biden were present to greet him, an unprecedented honor. He is waving to the crowd as he slips into the residence for a night of rest.
Tonight is Yom Kippur, the holiest of nights to Jews, and Pope Francis does not want to detract from that. Tens of thousands have been mobilized to keep him safe. The Secret Service sent a man to Rome to watch how Francis interacts with crowds so they might anticipate what they needed to do.
While waiting for Francis to address a Joint Session of Congress [a first], we are, once again, facing a shutdown of the government. The Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood and the Democrats are opposed to that. Somehow I fail to see why the Republicans are SO against Planned Parenthood.
My Republican respect keeps descending.
While all eyes are watching Francis and his movements, EU leaders have been meeting, working to decide how to handle the thousands of refugees and migrants. I found the information a little confused and oriented to dealing with the future rather than the present.
While the EU is determining what to do with the refugees there, Turkey and the US are working to figure out what Putin is up to in Syria. He intends to start bombing ASAP. They’re not sure who it is he will be bombing. Will it be IS as he says OR will it be the anti-Assad Syrian rebels who are also fighting IS? Turkey and the US fear it will be the latter as Putin and Assad have been playing footsie for decades.
I’m now on the train, heading north, on my right the Hudson River glides by with the setting sun glinting off its surface. It’s been mostly a grey day in New York but now the sun is bursting out from behind the clouds as it descends in the west.
All the way out west, in Burbank, CA, a 24 year-old man was taken into custody after he punched a 78 year-old in the face over Nutella Waffle Samples at a Costco. It seems like something that should be in “The Onion” and not real news. But it is real. The young man could face up to 11 years in prison.
There is a soft, golden glow in the west as we move north. The landscape is inescapably beautiful. I am closing down now for the night, wanting to enjoy the beauty around me before the sunset and we are gathered in the dark.
I am coming to the end of reading Steven Saylor’s Roman novels – at least all the ones he’s written so far. Another one is coming out in October. But they remind me that world has always been full of travail and that gives me hope that we will survive this time and find our own next future.
Letter from Claverack 11 07 2016 God help us, it is almost over…
November 8, 2016How could this not be a strange night? Tomorrow we will be voting [if we haven’t already] for the next President of the United States.
This has been the wildest, most contentious, most upsetting campaign I have ever witnessed in my life. It has been appalling.
Reading Steven Saylor’s mysteries set in ancient Rome, the democratic process then was even more horrible than now and maybe not by that much.
In some ways I have worked to insulate myself from the craziness. Returning home from New York after a quick round trip, I came into the cottage, turned on the floods over the creek and reveled in my home and the beauty that surrounds it. It is my anchor in this time of troubles.
While it is unbelievable to me, there is a path to victory for Trump. On Sunday, I lit a candle at church, praying that path would not be found.
Soft jazz is playing as I write this, another comfort in all of this.
Because I am having cataract surgery on Wednesday, I may go to bed not knowing who will be President. If that happens I will be afraid to open myself the next morning to the news. In the past week or two I wrote to a Republican friend of mine that I was terrified Trump would become President.
I have not heard from her since…
Apparently, his team has found a way to control his access to Twitter and has “cut him off.” No more Tweets from The Donald.
Several newspapers have reported that Ivanka Trump is attempting to distance herself from the campaign. On my way to lunch at Sarabeth’s at Lord & Taylor, I passed the Ivanka Trump Collection. No one there.
What I find horrible is that Trump’s supporters feel that even if loses, they win. He has given legitimacy to their radical views.
We have always been a flawed republic and I am just praying that we get through this most flawed moment successfully.
In the meantime, the jazz plays and will continue to play no matter who wins. No one will take that away from me in my lifetime.
Comey is, I suspect, on the coals after announcing today that the emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer amounted to nothing and so there will be no FBI movement against Hillary. The Daily News trumpeted: NOW you tell us.
The Dow jumped 371 points once Comey announced there was no reason to pursue Hillary Clinton.
I speculated that Comey is cooked, having lost the respect of nearly everyone.
Today, Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General, passed away. Sadly, I had almost forgotten her, though she weathered all the storms of the Bill Clinton administration.
Oklahoma suffered an earthquake today, linked, perhaps, to fracking.
And, really, can I make a request of the universe? Let’s end daylight saving time, okay. I am sorry. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I am discontented this year, as I am every season when it happens. Is there really a reason for this?
In New Delhi, the air is terrible and schools are closed. It is worse than Beijing.
As the Iraqis advance on Mosul they are finding mass graves with beheaded men and I have no idea how they justify their behavior. But they do.
It is not late and I am tired.
I am tired of this election season which has worn me beyond all reason and it will be over tomorrow, after which will come the next rancorous season and I will be here.
Commenting.
Thank you for reading.
I am honored.
Tags:Bill Clinto, Comey, Daily News, Dow, FBI, Hillary Clinton, Ivanka Trump, Janet Reno, Lord & Taylor, Oklahoma earthquakes, President of the United States, Sarabeth's, Steven Saylor, The Donald, Twitter
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