We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The Overhead Press (aka Military Press) stresses your shoulder muscles and your triceps, and stresses your abs for stabilization. I can not do these because of an old shoulder injury (skiing accident). I can do them on a machine with light weights, though, but even then it is painful.
What is left is the reality that the Democratic Party has been propped up by the personal likability of President Obama that pushed them past the finish line in 2008 and 2012. Now they are grappling with what is next in a post-Obama landscape.
I follow orders from distant galaxies, from the President, from my dead mother. The orders come from a barking dog. The TV. Email
That’s the low-grade stuff. I’m probably somewhat paranoid, a little on guard and on edge, at all times. Perhaps once a week (the tea invitation and the cocktail party) I experience paranoia severe enough that I make a note of it in my journal.
What exactly is the Democratic criticism so far of Trumpism? That he is jawboning companies not to lay off thousands of workers and leave the country? That he is barring revolving-door lobbying for five years? That he raised and spent too little on his amateurish campaign, had too few bundlers, and did not hire enough professional handlers? That he met with the press too much and mouthed off on the record? That too many working-class people voted for him and not enough of their supposed Silicon Valley, Wall Street, beltway, and Hollywood betters did? That conservative pundits had their columns fact-checked and researched by the Trump campaign? That the Republican party sabotaged his primary competitors to give him the nomination? Or that he wants impoverished miners to work again and export coal?
It only takes a couple of minutes to fix up some fresh cranberry sauce for chicken or game. Before stores run out, grab a few bags and just pack them in the freezer.
Throw a few handfuls of frozen berries in your Saturday morning pancake mix too. Dynamite.
Amusing piece about the class component of the recent election. I think Fred overstates it though, because Trump did collect the bulk of the Republican base everywhere. Admittedly, many country club Repubs held their noses and voted Trump. Holding one's nose is a normal part of voting.
"Budgeting" money, though - what's that? Today we have credit cards so we can get whatever we want whenever we want. Budgeting and living within one's means is obsolete, same as with government.
Among other things, one thing this past election year or two seems to have shown is a rejection of family political dynasties. I haven't seen that discussed much.
Insofar as it may have played a subliminal role, it was a good thing. Clintons, Bushes, Bayhs - good bye. Time for fresh blood.
The Hidden Work of Keeping an Office Running - Debra Leonard-Porch, an administrative professional for over 35 years, reflects on her career and the pride she finds her work. These are the people who make the world work. Generally they have good computer trouble-shooting skills. In my experience, they are well-paid, but not overpaid, for the job.
Around here, an experienced high-energy office manager can be paid between 100-170,000 with annual raises or bonuses and excellent benefits. Often paid more than the junior professionals in business offices.
... in modern Western science, the whole concept of life is so mechanical that, if you look closely, not even people are supposed to be anthropomorphized. Emotional, holistic terms such as love, sorrow, and concern have no place in an impoverished language of chemical transactions at the micro level and selection pressures at the macro. Not that chemical transactions and selection pressures are not essential influences, because of course they are — but from our current knowledge of them, they are acutely inadequate to describing the subtleties of lived experience.
This framework goes back to Descartes, whose dualistic universe of absolute mind at one end and absolute matter at the other admitted nothing in between. Indeed, Descartes reasoned that since animals are not rational, they are not conscious, and since they are not conscious, they cannot even be aware of pain; their piteous howls during the horrible experiments he conducted on them were to him mere reflex, the unfelt expression of material reactions akin to the shrieking of a teakettle.
Planning for retirement? 
It only takes a couple of minutes to fix up some fresh cranberry sauce for chicken or game. Before stores run out, grab a few bags and just pack them in the freezer.