Today is Monday, January 6, 2025. Let me state at the outset: this could be my last blog until next Monday, January 13, 2025, if we succeed in coming home from Columbus, Ohio. I haven’t mentioned until now our upcoming road trip with my son who is leaving the Sunshine State for Columbus, Ohio, the 14th-most populous city in the nation, the second-most populous city in the Midwest (after Chicago), and the third-most populous U.S. state capital (after Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas). (These facts are courtesy of Wikipedia.) “Joshua” informed me not too long ago that he had accepted an attractive offer as a Finance Director/Human Resources officer at another hotel chain in Columbus, Ohio, and that he wished Elliot and me to help him drive cross-country, starting in Florida and arriving in Ohio after several days of driving. Therefore, we’re flying down to Sarasota on Wednesday, January 8, and leaving on this mini-road trip the next day. I just hope the bad weather doesn’t accompany us on this motor adventure. We are staying overnight in various states so as to blunt the overwhelming driving duties, but there are three of us who are available to drive some part of the way, which should be a major aid to Joshua. We’re initially staying over in Tallahassee, Florida, on the first night: January 9 through the 10th. Then we bunk down in East Ridge, Tennessee, on the 10th and leaving the next morning. After that, it’s Lexington, Kentucky, for another night. Then we stay one night at Joshua’s hotel in downtown Columbus and then fly home on the next day, Monday, January 13. Hopefully! If there are no snags, we come home on Monday in the early afternoon. I’m sure we’ll be exhausted by then.

By the way, the driving distance from Florida to Columbus, I learned, is about 1,020.4 miles, give or take several miles.

The reason I might not be here tomorrow night either is that my gay men’s reading club is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. I’ve read the book, Speech Team, by Tim Murphy more than two weeks ago and I’ll need to scan the book tonight and tomorrow to familiarize myself with the novel once more. Even though I can say I wasn’t too impressed with the book; that was my initial reaction to reading the novel. I will be meeting my college friend “Harvey” for the third time, I believe, before the session. So I’m looking forward to the discussion since I’m curious to see what the other members think of the book. Afterward, a group of us walk over to Julius’s for drinks and victuals. I’m not sure if I’ll do this this time, even though we’re not leaving for Florida until 3:29 p.m. We’ll take a private car service to LaGuardia Airport around 1.

I would be remiss not to mention that today, January 6, is the fourth anniversary of Dump’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It’s unthinkable that not only is this Orange Demon has he not been charged with treason against the United States, he’s actually going to take the presidential oath of office in about two weeks. Where the hell did we go wrong? Is there something wrong here with this image?

The fourth anniversary of Chump’s supporters’ violent attack on the U.S. Capitol coincides, dismally, with the certification of the Orange Turd’s election win by Congress. The House January 6 Committee, which seems to have been sorely forgotten in history already, found that Dump incited the insurrection owing to his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. He amplified these baseless claims on social media and at a rally the day of the attack, where he directed his gullible followers to “fight like hell” or else they “wouldn’t have a country anymore.” The Committee also alleged that the principal insurrectionist had an elaborate “seven-point plan” to stay in power, which included the Capitol attack.

However, today marked a peaceful transition of power as Vice President Kamala Harris declared the bastard the winner of the 2024 presidential election. She must have been privately sobbing over this vice presidential duty. Against my better wishes and what I’ve promised to do, which is not to watch the news anymore, I did put on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC program The Last Word in which he showed a long clip of Harris certifying the election to the stupid applause of Republicans in the chamber. Boy, would I like to slap these people one smirking face at a time. She had to put on a cheerful face even though she must have been seething inside. I empathize with her very strongly.

Now I hear that the Orange Turd’s lawyers are trying to halt Friday’s hush money case sentencing while they appeal to block it. Aren’t all of us fucking totally exasperated over this bastard’s unrelenting efforts to avoid any accountability for every rotten thing he’s done in and out of office? It does appear that the justice system has not effectively put this monster in his place from the first time he did something illegal. The judge must sentence him, no matter what. It’s already been reported that this judge is NOT going to give the Orange Turd jail time, so why is he even trying to suspend the case altogether? No one – no one – who is not Donald J. Drumpf would have received this kind of preferential treatment if they were not privileged, white rich dudes. It’s too disgusting.

So like December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001, let us never forget the heinous event that transpired at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, a day of senseless violence that was fueled by the then-president of the United States. People died defending the Capitol. Let’s not forget them either.

Again, I don’t know if I’ll be here tomorrow. Let’s see how tomorrow pans out.

So have a safe and happy week if I’m not here until next Monday.

And so it went!