This is a fabulous morning! I have to attribute part of my emotional zeitgeist to the snow, of course. This causes all sorts of contrary thoughts. I was a snow kid growing up. In Michigan, the snow came around Thanksgiving and was with us until the beginning of April. Depending on what the weekend might hold, we would cheer the white blanket or curse it, depending on how far we had to drive to get to it.

Virginia is certainly a capable place for all manner of clever things, some of them good. Snow is not one of them. We aren’t used to it, and hence even decent preparation falls short. That was my thought, sneaking out on the back deck for the first smoke of the day. The deck crunched at me as I stepped, and a look around indicated I was not the first to walk there. The pawprints were about big enough for the feral cat who shares the property, but also would fit several of the other resident mammals.

The white stuff had kept me abed. I used the extra time to peruse the stack of e-messages on the tablet before venturing into the winter wild. The cold was only moderate but sufficiently low to allow the white stuff to accumulate. Maybe that visceral reminder of the way of the world works was enough to slow me down a bit. I had been incorporating some of the information in the pile of executive orders issued by the new White House. It is quite extraordinary in scope. I would have to insert all the new footnotes they require here but won’t bother right now. It is still snowing. For the record, the poll of the editorial staff indicates our complete support for all them, since there is nothing to be done about them in a constructive manner.

We have been around the rosebush on all this before, so I won’t belabor the point. CNN reports our new President has signed out 42 Executive Orders on a whole bunch of things. One that popped up this morning included speedier regulatory powers for the Executive Branch, bypassing Congress. They are apparently really busy right now. That reminded me of the way snow accumulates, but without Spring coming in 48 days. I am hoping for more to come. Franklin Roosevelt is an example. He had more time on the job and a couple actual “crises” to deal with. He did 3,728 Executive Orders. So, there is likely more excitement to come. Unless he doesn’t expect to be in office that long and needs to act now.

A pal out West laid a snare for me the other day, asking me my opinion on a lady of some current fame. I didn’t know the name, so I immediately Googled it up. The reference had been to Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the 14th Congressional district in Georgia.

Apparently she is one of the rising stars in the Republican heavens. I don’t know if she intends to carry a pistol on the floor of Congress, since most of the news was old. Apparently she is influenced by Qanon, an important source of conspiracy news. One of the older theories she seems to hold is that American Airlines Fight 77 didn’t impact the Pentagon. I have a lot of pals who drive S. Washington Boulevard past the building, moving at the usual four or five miles an hour. Two of them say they saw the plane go over them. I believe them, and I dismiss claims to the contrary as tomfoolery. There was something in the article about Greene and space lasers, too, but that theory appears equally bogus and tinged with something icky. I am just glad I don’t live in the 14th District.

Then I realized that mentioning Greene was a test of my commitment to truth and transparency. You know, like that FBI lawyer who altered a document to provide to the FISA Court to justify monitoring some guy’s phone calls. I was pretty amazed by that one. Over time, I interviewed our pal Mac who helped set up the FISA structure in the post-Nixon years. It was serious then. Now? The FBI lawyer got probation instead of jail time and a whopping 400 hours of community service. To lie to a court to enable indirect monitoring of a Presidential campaign is pretty bold work, and naturally the editorial panel supports it.

Anyway, I am going back to watching the snow. The process is the same as politics, only cleaner. The difference is that the political stuff melts only as fast as the FISA court. I think Mac would laugh.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsoctra.com