Thank you. You express what so many of us would like to but don't have your extraordinary "wordsmith" skills. You are 100% correct. Hope you are feeling better every day and sending heartfelt wishes for improved health.

Well said, Ronnie. You are a formidable fighter in all aspects. I hope many Americans take heed.
From north of the 49th...

PS For the sake of clarity ... 1) "righteous" in the sense of "YOU'RE SO RIGHT" and not in the sense of "sanctimonious"! 2) I DO agree, I DO understand, I AM scared ...less, too

Well, I am afraid I have to agree and since I have grandchildren, I have pain. The main stream media seems to be moderating their news, but they still focus on tweets of a compromised man instead of issues and talking to experts. Congress, with a few exceptions, is our burden because we put them in office.

I was so happy to see TGB turn up in my email! It's obvious that you are feeling a bit better. Sets my day up beautifully!

Well expressed. I call and send e-mails and sign petitions and mail post cards and feel all my efforts have limited impact. I appreciate your continued writing and I am sending healing thoughts and energy your direction.

Grand to see you hitting your stride again, Ronni.
To mix metaphors, you knocked one out of the park today.

My heart aches for all generations as long as this .... person ... remains in office.

I think when we face or own mortality we want to believe that the world will be in a better place after we're gone than it was before we came along, that individually and collectively we've made a difference in propelling civilization to a higher plane. The state that our world and nation are in right now makes it's harder to take pride and comfort in the individual and collective contributions we've made. That's the kind of dark acceptance and anger I'm seeing in your post today, Ronni, and that's okay. Focus on getting well for now. The good fight will still be there when you can see the positive as well as the negative forces at work.

Thanks for adding perspective to my angst at what is happening in our country Ronni... we need your wisdom, and Salinda's and Margaret's. (And everyone here!)

Yesterday I couldn't post to my IG account because I couldn't figure out how to say I love my country but hate the US government, am embarrassed by it. And today someone else posted just that...

Continued peace, love, and light to you. Am so honored to be part of Team Ronni! ✨💃🏻✨

Keep on keeping on, Ronni! What you say somehow reminds me of a purported parable by the Buddha that appeared recently on my Zen desk calendar:

"A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled and the tiger pursued him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

"Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!"

Thank you! I can't stand watching the news or trump. I haven't watched since 2011 when we got rid of TV. I do listen to NPR and occasionally read headlines on a few papers. We're in a world of hurt, that's for certain.
Sending good thoughts and wishes your way!

Ever since this thing hit you, I have wondered how you could handle it all AND continue to pay attention to what is happening elsewhere in the world. In our world. I know what you think of dt et al.; I think the same. And I hoped that as you grew stronger again, you would be back to address what affects ALL of us, whether as Americans or from elsewhere.

Yes, I heed Buddha's thinking - yes, I have friends whose method of avoiding dt et al. at all costs involves their thinking about the buttercup and the universe, a wonderful image. But I have been around long enough on your blog to know full well that you are a child of this world, also of this country which is in such a terrible mess.

So, no matter how depressing any reminder is of the insane politics around us, I for one am thrilled to have you back into political analysis. Engaging in the turmoil around us, analyzing where possible, sharing such valuable and helpful thoughts and arguments. Enlivening and involving us -- and at the same time, I hope, strengthening yourself.

More power to you, Ronni. We all have to find our peace with the world, whether the dt world which is so terrifying, or our own inner world. But between you and your trenchant words and the magnificent comments that keep pouring in, I just feel enriched. And want to hold on to that feeling.

Keep getting stronger. Keep engaging! Ruth-Ellen

Like many others I'm a senior activist. But after 6 months of weekly walking with my walker-it's too crowded to just use a cane, one been pushed over more than once. I'm in the "I give up" track.
The media loved every vile word baby T spewed when he was running for the office. It sold advertisement. It amazes me that the constant bickering baby T and the 4th estate engage in doesn't accomplish anything.
I think we have seen the end of a liberal caring America. The planet is sick and little effort to make it well occurs lately. War is " good for the economy" and thousands of innocent civilians are displaced and homeless.
I try to appreciate what I have daily and think my grand kids are going to be mature adults in a very different world.
I don't have a lot of years left I suppose but there's nothing any of us can do about that.
Ronni you hit my mood right in the nailhead.
Hoping your recovery moves along well.
Can I come visit you?
Elle

Catching the cancer when they did, the doctors have given you a reprieve and you will have a longer time to continue living. I would suggest you do that living by filling your days with whatever you want to do.

I have decided that no one is going to stop our current president. Even his wife and children are not planning to change the way he behaves. I remember being told by the children of a narcissist, "that's just the way she is, you cannot change her." This is a semi-family member. I decided to walk away from this part of the family and have no more to do with them. That's how I'm dealing with the current occupant of the White House. I'm refusing to pay him any attention.

Of course, I know that bad things are going to happen because no one is stopping that man just as bad things happened because no one stopped that other woman. Unfortunately, the bad things this time will affect the world, not just a small part of a community.

I would suggest you do what you can to build your strength so you will be able to handle what is still to come.

Delaine

All we parents can do is teach our children love and respect for the earth and all living things thereon in a world that is now so troubled by divisive bigots and greedy old white men.

WE can only hope fervently that they will not leave the same mess of unemployed and under-educated people that we have in our generation right now that is a direct cause of someone like T##ump and his ilk. He and his cronies are the result of the lack of ability to see what a problem was being created by the rapid rise of technology and the blindness and/or lack of foresight of our governments, from local to national, that has created nearly a full generation of people unprepared for the swift and deadly lack of preparation or repair and re-training and the resulting chaos among most of our population that were left behind -- out of work, unable to do any other kind of job, 50+ years old, starving and uninsured. Those are the voters we created. Now there is no one around who can take charge and hope to make any corrections in this deadly slide our world is in!

If I sound bitter it's because I am. I'm originally from West Virginia and many of us from that area have seen this coming, but did not realize it would happen this quickly !!

The Orange Apparition (TOA) continues to be a travesty and a mockery of the high office that an outmoded system bestowed upon him. Honestly, deplorables notwithstanding, I still find it difficult to accept that he actually got elected. I said I'd stop watching the news if that happened; it did and I mostly have. Even if the TV is on, I mute the sound and pay little attention to it. I truly detest TOA and despise the Repugs in general, so what's to watch?

I think some members of the press are valiantly trying to do their job, but we have to face the fact that we have a "Twitter President"--a narcissistic bully with a bird brain who thinks in 140 characters or less. O-M-G!

Best wishes for your amazing recovery, Ronni.

All so true! I feel this foreboding deep in my bones and so very many are so oblivious to it all and maybe they just don't care. Everything has a season and maybe this is the winter of man. Ignorance and apathy...two of the most dangerous signs.

Most of your blog followers, being older,I bet have had a rich (not in dollars), full interesting life and have touched many people. That is what we can all be grateful for and appreciate how lucky WE are to have lived when we did and in our country no matter how long we each have left. The baton will pass on to future generations and we can only hope man's decency and selflessness will somehow prevail. My thoughts are with you and keep on keeping.

The tweets ARE all the negative descriptors that come to mind. Their existence and content are, I believe, a harbinger of the decimation of democracy as we have known it. We must keep standing up - all by ourselves each day just a few minutes with a sign - about health care, clean air & water, equal justice - to name a few. We can do this.

Hello Ronnie -- You are a good person and have lived a good life. You are not responsible for the current situation. Other people will carry forward the ideas that you and I and your devoted followers share. You care and will always continue to hope for a different outcome. Right now, there is a major inquiry (Mueller) which will probably not lead to an impeachment but it will weaken him. Short of the vague allusions which people you spoke to this summer hinted at, and which would be disastrous, he is there for the duration. I don't think anyone is giving up or rolling over by realizing that this is the situation. We have the courts (EPA ruling yesterday), and the press (I agree they made his freak candidacy a viable national issue) is not actually rolling over, although they are trying not to inflame the situation. Among my unfortunate familial connections are multiple Trumpian and Ayn Randian in-laws (no one on my side, I swear). They are the hidden voices that Nixon spoke about, they are here and they are not going away. This is going to be a long, cold, civil war, but the health care issue will not go away and Obama laid the foundations that the Republicans cannot, in the long run, deal with. It will be a long struggle (and in retrospect, I have to say that Hillary was not the right person this year, although of course I supported her and thought it was "her turn") but in 15 years there will be something like universal health coverage. My major hopes for the future are that I can live long enough to support my AZ husband, my deranged sibling (whom I pay to keep off the street, and who will not claim any govt support -- because he is deranged) and that my adopted high school graduate son is able to hold onto a job that pays something a bit above minimum wage. It's not really about us anymore, it's about them.

Bravo......you are my hero!

Who ever would have believed that a wrestling and beuaty pageant impresario, a reality-TV actor, a demented narcissist whose major media backing was the National Enquirer and their ilk could become President of the United States?