Dear Diary . .

Wednesday, March 14: I woke up feeling quite happy having cleared my schedule of any To-Dos on my plate in order to be ready for a matinee theatre performance this afternoon. My daughter and I picked up my granddaughter from school and headed out to watch “Shen-Yun,” a Chinese-American production. On the way, my granddaughter informed us that she had joined her 17-Minutes-School-Walk-Out in memory of the 17 people massacred at Parkland School in Florida. Not all the kids participated, however, she had chosen to do so making me and her mother very proud. As for the play: the costumes and dancing were really lovely, the special effects and stage backdrops were beautiful, and the little skits sung and danced by the actors depicting aspects of Chinese culture were charming. However, I thought that inserting the Falun Gong version of Christianity and its not-so-subtle evangelizing message was unnecessary and overdone, specifically, because Chinese Christianity plays such an insignificant role in the overall Chinese culture. Hmm?!

Thursday, March 15: Gym! How refreshing! My hour of Zen! News of the poisoned ex-spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England overtook the air waves, with the Iron-Lady-Thatcher-Wanna-Be, Theresa May, getting her knickers all in a twist! Foul weather ahead! This, as news of US Tariff Wars and skyrocketing Debt, which are oftentimes precursors to a war somewhere, is another chilling omen! How is it that every time we wonder how much worse it can get, it does! Terrible!

Friday, March 16: Back from the Gym to find that my granddaughter’s hamster, who lives in a corner of my kitchen, has not been playing on his wheel as usual; not eating as much; he seems lethargic. We are all in a dither! Out I go to the pet store and buy him the best packet of natural hamster food pellets thinking they might make him feel better. Of course, he decides that he wants nothing to do with any organic stuff! Oh, dear! The world is going to hell, and here we are worried about a tiny hamster! It’s truly a schizophrenic life, isn’t it? Louise Slaughter, after serving 18 years in our Legislature passed away today at the age of 88. I had never heard of this woman before. I do not know anything about her. May she rest in peace. However, why are 88 year olds like herself and so many others in the Congress and Senate still clinging to their damn seats? They really should vacate them and retire, the sooner the better, and take away with them all of their corruption and self-serving laws! We need new and honest blood. Enough deceit!

Saturday, March 17: After an hour of Zen at the Gym, back to the inane news and McCabe’s firing, Trump’s Tweets and Russia!! Brouhaha 24/7 regarding all that! Anyway who can read the coffee cup of this President? I doubt that even the savviest of forecasters is able to discern his thinking. What unpredictable times! And is the heartbreaking exodus from Syria ever going to stop? How much more distressing can it get before the dirty politics is done? Dubya Bush said that he wanted to revert the Middle East back to the Stone Age. Between him and the arch-criminal Netanyahu they are succeeding! So very painful!

P.S. The hamster is still lethargic!

Sunday, March 18: It was busy at the Gym this morning! Nevertheless, I walked my two miles! Lovely! In the afternoon I watched a DVD: “Thank You for Your Service” about three friends who returned from their stint in the Iraq War, their personal traumas, experiences and lives after that war. It was a moving account of what a difficult journey it is for the young military men and women while on the battlefield, as well as upon re-entering into civilian life and seeing how dismally they are treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the government that sent them to a senseless war. How is it that we haven’t yet fixed the problems of that Department? Do any of our politicians realize the agony that they are causing to these individuals with many committing suicide daily and countless others living with nightmares and distress? This, plus the anguish that they are causing to all the civilians suffering in the Middle East? Tragic!

P.S. Hamster is still unhappy!

Monday, March 19: Back from the Gym to find that Facebook is in deep shit! The story about Cambridge Analytica and how Facebook facilitated their collection of information about all of us who use that platform broke out! Good Morning, America for just finding this out! Bottom line: all of us should be very careful about All social media platforms and how they can use our information for evil doings and to manipulate and brainwash the unwitting. Let’s face it, at one time or another, we all make the ignorant mistake of falling for their traps. Pretty disconcerting to feel so out of control. Must be extra diligent!!

P.S. The hamster is doing better! Phew!

Tuesday, March 20: Another school shooting greets me as soon as I switch the TV on! This time at Great Mills High School, MD. Again and again we prove our Exceptionalism as the only country in the Western World to sit on its corrupt ass while its children are being slaughtered! No Gym today! Too damn depressing!

Wednesday, March 21: A beautiful looking snow blankets our backyard, dressing the trees with a breathtaking scene! Dentist appointment, lunch date and book club meeting: all canceled! Looking forward to settling in with my favorite prerecorded shows this afternoon: Law & Order, SVU (to feed my paranoia); Criminal Minds (to spook my already spooked self even more); Judge Judy (for sheer amusement); Hardtalk with the civilized Stephen Sachur and Dateline London. And do our corrupt, shrieking television hosts even know how to conduct refined talk shows like these? Far from it! They are truly such low-class, unprincipled, biased, yelling show-offs! Pretty shameful! No Gym again!

Thursday, March 22: Quiet snow day. Staying in again! I heard more: Russia! Russia! And I thought of a recent talk show discussing how “unfair” Russia’s elections were. I gulped! Unfair, they dared say? Our 2016 US elections went even further than unfair and undemocratic. The Democrats trashed Bernie Sanders, cheated and lied in order to marginalize him. They refused to allow Jill Stein – who leads a legitimate, lawful party – to participate in Any debates, or get Any exposure. They wouldn’t allow Any Other Party in order to keep the election between Republicans and Democrats only: two peas in a pod, one and the same! The arrogance of our political class blinds them to their own unfairness and corruption while they point dishonest fingers at everyone else! Are we that dumb to believe them? The sad thing is that too many of us are! Disgusting!

The hamster is improving!

Friday, March 23: John Bolton? Really, Trump? Really? You need and want a war? This is a terrible choice! The despicable, war-mongering, Israeli-Government-supporting crowd have been back in force on the airwaves pushing, as they did during the preamble to the Iraq War, for strong measures to be taken against Russia, North Korea and Iran – specifically Iran in order to satisfy Israel – and, once again, knowingly and maliciously setting the stage for another military venture. This time, if they succeed, it will not be without even more dire consequences! Senseless! Tragic!

All this is occurring as we observe the date of the “Shock and Awe” blitzkrieg that heralded the start of the invasive, cruel and malicious war on Iraq. And the MSM are calling it “Anniversary?” In my mind Anniversaries are Happy Affairs, not Mournful Observances as the Iraq War is to almost all Arabs. The weather is cooperating as I am getting ready to go to lunch with some friends, where, of course, politics will be a subject. Looking forward to that!

Saturday, March 24: “March for Our Lives” to support the “Never Again” Millennial Movement across the nation. Watching it on C-Span! It seemed from the videos that the whole country is marching in support of our children. Rightfully so! This carnage has to stop! It is so very barbaric! I wonder, though, how many of those marching and protesting think of those other children that our US bombs, lethal weaponry and drones are annihilating on a daily basis? Perhaps they have been brainwashed so well that all “other” children are okay to slaughter? My heart feels heavy!

P.S. Keeping this diary reminded me of the ones I kept when I was a teenager! It was a great therapeutic tool then. Maybe I should take this up again in order to preserve my sanity as our world sinks even deeper into pure evil, corruption and opportunism.

The hamster is okay! At least this is good news!