I’m frankly tired of being angry and afraid. The stress of this whole < gestures widely toward this general overall situation > is certainly still there, and festering, but I suspect I’ve just become inured to the constant pressure of all these stressors. It’s not quite numbness, but it’s getting there.

I’d like to think it’s entirely that I’ve made the conscious choice to no longer let the things I can’t control bother me, found serenity and wisdom and all that, but I’m pretty sure I’m just tired.

The weirdness up in Washington this last week has provided equal parts laughs and tears. The whole battle plans over unsecured group chat business is laughable (and created some great memes), though as someone who’s got a clearance and is required to take all kinds of OpSec training every year as part of my job, it’s deeply concerning. First, if I did something even one percent as serious as Secretary WhiskeyLeaks did, I’d simply be “disappeared.” Secondly, given that they’re having that conversation over unsecured channels, what the hell else are they talking about out in the open? It’s grossly incompetent and certainly dangerous.

What’s got me more concerned is the fact that given the numerous instances of edging up against defying court orders by playing “oopsie, too late” about immigration flights, I (and numerous supposedly serious journalists) are honestly concerned that an Andrew Jackson moment is only days or weeks away, and this time, the executive branch won’t just say they won’t act if directed, they’re just going to blatantly flaunt it, and if current patterns hold, I kind of expect that the other two branches will just roll over and accept it.

I mean, if the rest of this hasn’t been a bridge too far, I struggle to believe that throwing the middle finger to the courts is going to be. Once again, the historian in me is fearful of the parallels, and it’s not even necessary to invoke Godwin’s Law.

And finally, and perhaps less to do with oligarchy and authoritarianism (but still at least a little), and more McKinley than Jackson, the threatened 25% tariffs on automobiles is going to hit personally, as just this week I put a reserve deposit down on a vehicle (since I’m selling one of the old ones to one of my kids) from a Japanese manufacturer that’s currently being assembled from parts sourced largely from Japan, Canada, and Mexico, so I’m hoping the really good price we discussed doesn’t jump by $9000 by the time it arrives at the dealership in a few weeks.

So I guess I still am thinking mostly about this whole < gestures widely toward this general overall situation >, but at least I’m not cracking every other day like I was a few weeks back.

I did distract myself for an hour or two with the latest episodes of DareDevil: Born Again, which is proving to be really good, catching some of the same tone of the Netflix version, but working better with a leaner episode count. Also, to continue the “unpopular opinions” from last week, I (unlike a lot of the chatterers online) really, really liked the bottle episode slotted in at episode five, which did a good job of presenting some good character development and connections while being a largely standalone 45 minute adventure that felt like some of the best fill-in stories from the editor’s drawer to plug a gap created by the regular story-driven issue is running behind publishing dates.

Anyway, we’ve got a few things on the agenda this weekend, but mostly just the usual chores, a medical appointment, some outside time, and attending a birthday celebration for our friend Jeff (7-0!) where we’re looking forward to tasting some interesting bourbon folks brought back from a recent trip to Kentucky.

So this is also Friday, so there will, as always, be tunes. In an effort at self-care, I had the algorithm generate a “relaxing mix” playlist based on my “liked” songs and listening history. What it presented is the following, largely composed of lots of guitar-based classic rock and indie falling in at under 65bpm, which is fine. There’s some great stuff here, though, in particular #s 8, 10, and 12 (which is pretty much as perfect a composition as I’ve ever heard):

1. “Walk On the Wild Side” – Lou Reed
2. “The Fool On The Hill” – The Beatles
3. “My Hometown (live)” – Bruce Springsteen
4. “Golden State (live)” – Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines
5. “Six Blade Knife” – Dire Straits
6. “Coming Back To Life” – Pink Floyd
7. “Ode To My Family” – The Cranberries
8. “If We Were Vampires” – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
9. “Follow You Follow Me” – Genesis
10. “In Your Eyes (live)” – Jeffrey Gaines
11. “Everybody Hurts” – R.E.M.
12. “Watermelon In Easter Hay” – Frank Zappa