Shut Down

 Our national politics are so fuhkahked, I've truly stopped paying much attention. I'm old enough to recall Nixon and Watergate, and I assumed THAT would be the low point in my life. Ha. Here came the extremists, both MAGA and SQUAD, and said, essentially: "Hold my latte."

So I concern myself only when events affect my family, close friends, or me. As far as finances -- hell -- as the family member always "counting his beans," as D2 loves to joke about me -- these are heady times. Our portfolio is doing pretty, pretty, pretty well, with often daily gains that exceed the salary I yearly earned as a lawyer for the first 5 years of practice.

A lot of it, of course, will be "generational wealth," as Paul loves to call it. And Paul has taught me that once you make and invest a certain amount, generational wealth is required. The Ds would agree...

As a proud Zionist, I'm hopeful that maybe The Donald is nearing bringing the Gaza situation to an end. He gets that what the terrorists did on 10/7/23 is like TEN 9/11s to the US -- losing 1200 in a nation of 10M would be like losing 40K here. Japan bombed us on December 7, 1941. We ended the war with them with sort of a disproportionate amount of killing with mushroom clouds in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Awful, but most clear thinkers saw it was essential. And yet Israel is committing "genocide?" If the IDF was genocidal, Gaza would have been over 2 years ago -- instead of trying to kill only Hamas thugs. Oh well, as the late Tom Lehrer said in "National Brotherhood Week," "everyone hates the Jews." And so it is -- but unlike prewar Europe, now there's a very strong homeland. My Dad was also so proud of that...

Anyway, of course I can't stand much about The Donald and what is still called the GOP. And now there's a government shutdown since 6 Dem senators won't vote to re-fund.

I understand why -- they're holding out for better health care funding for poor folks. But the Dems are missing a major reality -- they LOST -- and yugely, as The Donald would say, and need to accept that. It's kind of like when an NFL team gets to like 0-12 -- better to just tank for a better draft pick than futilely fight on.

So if I were Schumer and company, I would get the votes to re-open the government, and work like hell to try to win in '26 (though that's probably a lost cause, too) and certainly '28, with a centrist, re-tooled Democratic Party that appeals to young people and workers -- sort of the way things were before they let The Squad and company take over.

Hopefully the coming disaster in NYC with the mayor who's going to win and probably Havana-ize the world's greatest city will help. Maybe the members of the Party of my grandparents, parents, and until recently myself will finally be shocked back to reality -- as the schools start to fail, crime soars as police are de-funded, and more rich people flee to Florida and Texas.

But back to how all politics is local. I used to think Tip O'Neil said that, but I think it was Daniel Moynihan. And that brings us to Wifey and me.

We're off to Maine on Monday, and federales we sort of need to get from MIA to D.C to Portland will be a week into working for no salary. They'll get back paid, eventually, but I know if I was headed to work knowing it was for no pay at the time, I might well be inclined to take some sick days.

As a result, I'm expecting a cluster at all 3 airports -- probably worse next Saturday night when we try to make our way home -- scheduled through Charlotte.

Wifey is a bit concerned. I told her, as the sunny optimist I am -- there are far worse ways to leave this planet than a plane crash. If it's imminent, she'll pepper me with tons of questions -- what's happening (she knows I'm an expert since I've watched most episodes of "MayDay --Air Disasters" on Smithsonian), what should we do, what does this mean?, etc...I'd calmly tell her ( I tend to be very calm in disasters) to relax, think of our grandkids and grandkids hopefully to come, and that will, as they say, be that.

Plus, in the generational wealth Department -- even more for the kids and grandkids via a claim against AA and others... So there's always a bright side.

I didn't make her feel any better. But truth is, I still figure the trip is pretty safe, albeit likely much more annoying. I guess we'll see.

So I hope Congress gets its act together and re-funds the government, lets the GOP have its fun, and a return to normalcy before the decade is out.

If not -- well -- we'll make the best of it. In the immediate future: Go Canes!