On the down-side, I lost all my avatars and have to rebuild them. Alas.

Forgot my wife's birthday
OR SO I THOUGHT
But then the present I ordered for her MONTHS AGO with a fixed delivery date arrived right on time. We're gonna be 100% ok.

Max does not die this day.

Been gone a while. What's going on? How's everyone holding up?

Come zealots and fascists
Come spread your hate
Serve the Muslims and homos
A really big plate
Of shut the fuck up
Let them know it's too late
And their marriages aren't worth saving
And we don't want their kind in the United States
For the times they aren't a-changing

Come women and girls
Who don't have your man
And get to one soon
Catch him while you still can
You ain't gettin' no younger
And your body's not yours
Better choose while you can do the choosing
For the ones without menfolk will have no recourse
Cause the times aren't a-changing

Come senators, congressmen
Please eat your fill
Let oil men bribe you
And do what they will
For the people with money
Needen't care who they kill
Prosecution's for negroes and peasants
And the workers who die are the grist for your mill
For the times aren't a-changing

Come scientists and journalists
Learn what you can say
Your political officer
Is on the way
As protections and learning
Should not obstruct pay
So your agencies will be dismantled
The parks are now parcels to be given away
Cause the times aren't a-changing

Come gather you voters
wherever you roam
And reap the fear sprung
from the seeds you have sown
And accept it that soon
You'll be broke and alone
The effects of your tantrums are ranging
So you better start saving for when you lose your home
For the times aren't a-changing

Reminded of this by a post someone else made: In December 2016 I updated the Dylan lyrics to "The Times, They Aren't A-Changing" and almost everyone told me to chill out and that I was way over-reacting and totally wrong.
Three years later there's only one major area (one verse) that hasn't actually been accurate... and that's working its way through the courts now

If everyone, and I mean everyone, gets out and votes AND takes this seriously, then there's a shot at a sequel. But that's it.

We're not on a slippery slope, we're not even in the part of the novel where the climactic battle happens. We had a war most people never even knew we were fighting, and America lost. This is all aftermath, this is the closing credits.

There's not a single person in that room, republican or democrat or camera operator who does not fully understand what the president did, when he did it, what he was after. And yet fully half are ready to lie, to sell their souls to defend him in the name of this dismantling of America, and even if they somehow by some miracle remove him from office (they won't), they're still there dedicated to their core to this ignominious path.

Our credibility is destroyed and unrecoverable, and our economy is hanging by a thread and on the verge of total collapse, and all of this is by design. We are witnessing, right now, a collapse on the level of the Romans, and I have no idea what's going to fill its place.

These hearings have confirmed for me that the United States as we knew it is well and truly over. The separation of powers and checks and balances system have been dismantled and there's no chance whatsoever we're going back to it. Our power and influence worldwide have been dismantled completely and we are never going back to it.

I am no longer in Malta. I am no longer in France. I'm home. While I missed my bed and my shower, I will miss France and Malta a lot too.

Congress: "You are hereby served with this subpoena, you must come testify."
Whoever: "Nah."
Congress: "Well he's got us there. Nothing we can do about that!"

Every form of modern government looks good on paper. Communism looked great on paper. Constitutional monarchy looks pretty good on paper. Parliamentary systems look fantastic on paper.

The problem with all of them is that they are by humans, and there's no system that can be made proof against humans acting in bad faith and intentionally subverting the system.

Once you introduce evil humans acting in bad faith, there is no form of government that is inherently superior to another.

small victories:
I just made the payment that takes the remaining balance on our mortgage from six digits to five

Anyway that's the update for the two or three people who've asked me where I've been for the last while. I have no idea if I'll go back to regular posting or my normal "Find a way to make everything about comics or Latin" ways. Nothing feels normal, nothing is right.
Hug the people you love. Talk to you later.