Today is Monday, January 5, 2025, one day before the fifth anniversary of January 6, 2021. As I wrote on Saturday, I was absent here yesterday since Elliot and I spent an exhausting day out visiting our friends “Peter” and “Ted” in Highland, New York. We left the house around 8:30 or so and came home 12 hours later. We had a very nice visit, but it was quite taxing, as I said. We generally visit a day or two but because of Peter’s health situation, it was recommended that we not stay over this time.

We took the subway down to Grand Central Terminal where we bought tickets on the Metro-North line. Luckily for us, we got to the station when we did because we found out that the earliest train leaving for Highland left at 9:56 a.m., not 10:20 as we thought. We also had a little time to have coffee and a croissant at Zaro’s Bakery. Then we rushed to Platform 34 where we took our train upstate.

I was expecting to read my new book, The Golem of Brooklyn, but I was distracted by a couple who sat in front of Elliot and me on their way to Troy. Elliot sat away from me – he was sitting at the window to my left and he began talking to the husband, whose name was Richard. His wife faced me so it was the two of us who chatted with one another all the way up to Highland. What was funny about this long conversation – the ride was close to 2 hours – was that I failed to hear her for most of the time because of the ambient noise in the background and of her soft voice. So a lot of the time I just nodded my head in agreement over whatever she was saying.

At the station, we were met by “Ted” who drove us to their snow-covered garden complex. Inside we hugged and kissed Peter who didn’t go to the station to meet us. Thus we spent several hours with these friends discussing our respective childhoods and discovered some things we didn’t know about the two of them. Instead of going out, we were treated to a lovely lunch consisting of homemade macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, and coleslaw. We brought dessert that I bought at Martha’s Country Bakery on Saturday in Williamsburg.

In a blink of an eye, it was time to drive us back to the Metro-North station. We bid Peter adieu and left to return to the city. This time there wasn’t anyone to talk to on the train, so I had time to read my new book, The Golem of Brooklyn.

This is a wild ride through Jewish folklore, as the novel chronicles the creation of a golem – a mythical creature usually made of clay or mud designed to protect the Jewish people from its enemies – during Dump’s first terrible term at the hands of a Brooklyn art teacher named Len Bronstein who creates the hulking figure in a stoned stupor. It was generally rabbis who create such a creature, but in the America of 2016, this act of creation was done by a secular art teacher instead. Soon the golem receives a new directive by which to protect the Jewish people from a new threat, and that new threat is white supremacists who have been emboldened by their racist president. The novel is written by Adam Mansbach, and it’s very funny.

Donald Dump’s true psychotic character came through in his description of his watching the latest incursion into a sovereign country executed on Saturday, January 3. And it’s Fox News viewers who are angry with this despot over the Venezuelan invasion from an Irish Star article entitled “Fox News viewers furious as Donald Trump calls Venezuelan attack ‘an amazing thing.'” So even Fox News watchers are finally getting angry at this failing leader.

Thus it was viewers of the conservative right-wing media outlet who have slammed Demented Don as he boasted about America’s large-scale strike against the South American country.

The pathological liar appeared on Fox & Friends on Saturday, January 3, via a phone call. When he was asked about his “busy evening,” this is when he launched into a crazy chronicle of how he was watching the operation like a gleeful child obsessed with how amazing it all was. This is the same kind of viewing, we must be reminded, of how he viewed the spectacle of January 6, 2021, over the attack against the Capitol and was so mesmerized by it all, he did nothing for hours!! Just read what he said and just cringe over his infantile response to people dying, for all it’s worth: “I mean, I watched it literally I like I was watching a television show. If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence, you know, they say that, the speed, the violence, they used that term, it was just an amazing thing.” Huh! The statement is just as rambling as everything else he utters. He is reveling in the violence and it’s plain disgusting!

Fox News viewers finally left disparaging remarks about their president’s sickening response to the Venezuelan strike, as one commented, “He really thinks war is an episode of his favorite tv show.” While another echoed, “He treats everything like a tv show.” Someone else warned, “When your POTUS speaks gleefully of violence, you should be very concerned.”

Another person said, “Just like he watched J6 on TV. Wow.” This is exactly what I said before. We all should be concerned that this subhuman finds such violence gleeful, especially when he’s not in harm’s way. He’s just a fucking coward!

As for this unlawful assault on a sovereign nation, other countries condemned the attack. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticized the U.S. attack on neighboring Venezuela and the seizure of Maduro, saying the strikes “crossed an unacceptable line” and set a “dangerous precedent.”

Other regional powers, including Chile and Mexico, echoed strong condemnation. Mexico called the strikes a violation of the U.N. Charter and urged an immediate halt to acts of aggression. Dump has even hinted about doing something in Mexico with this comment, “Something is gonna have to be done with Mexico” after stating that Mexico is run by drug cartels.

Again, this situation is hugely alarming, and what the American people must realize is that this power-hungry despot will not stop only with Venezuela. There are other nations to invade and Congress or international law be damned!

Tomorrow is my gay men’s reading club meeting where we will be discussing Family Meal, by Bryan Washington. I actually didn’t like this one because of the sparse writing and the unformed characters. Everyone seems so aimless just like the prose. But I still enjoy going to hear what other members have to say. I’ll see you on Wednesday then.

Remember tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of Dump’s insurrection. Let’s see how this will be erased from memory by this fascistic regime.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

And so it went!