Last couple of days in Louisville before jetting of to FL and then the Caribbean. Maybe some cold golf today, then a quick trip to Mt Sterling tomorrow. It’s been busy – some cold weather, some nice weather, a couple of Cats games, a huge birthday party, visits with siblings, building a dry sauna for the basement, 24+ hours with a new puppy, and lots of time with the kids. Got to take grandson Jesse to his first basketball practice yesterday – that was a nice memory.

Meanwhile, the world continues to go to shit. Every day is a new list of atrocities – it’s become clear that America is breaking apart at the seams. 30-40% of the country could care less that our own government is attacking (and killing!) citizens on the streets and in their homes because they’re brown or Democrat or both. That same minority doesn’t mind that we’re unlawfully attacking Venezuela and seizing their property, the *exact* same playbook as Russia is running on Ukraine. Our corrupt autocracy is emulating Putin’s. And finally, that same minority doesn’t seem to care that all these atrocities are happening so that everyone will forget that the government is unlawfully holding/concealing the Epstein files, which undoubtedly show Convict Donny as a pedophile. It’s Wag the Dog in reality, on steroids. From Digby today;

Where are the Epstein files? A social media poster on Monday noted, “So when an ICE officer tells you to get out of the car, you’re supposed to get out of the car, what are you supposed to do when a judge tells you to release the Epstein files?”

Thus in the field failure to comply with orders barked by kitted-out and under-trained DHS enforcers merits a bullet to the head. Yet failure of AG Pam Bondi’s DOJ to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by Dear Leader, seems not to merit not even a slap on the wrist. Immediately after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the right claimed her death was the consequences of her own choices. 

Donald Trump’s “Great Again”: For my friends, a pardon; for my enemies, a bullet to the head. God bless America.

Some other tidbits from The Titanic the USA as it sinks:

• Convict Donny posted a picture of himself labelled “the acting King of Venezuela” on social media. Ugh.
• The EPA has announced it will stop including the cost of human life and illness in its calculations about how much to spend on pollution control.
• Our attacks on VZ ships turned out to have been launched by military aircraft disguised as commercial aircraft. So now we can add perfidy – a war crime – to the charges of murder.
• A Republican congressman introduced a bill to allow the US to annex Greenland as the 51st state.
• Both Jerome Powell and Senator Mark Kelly are fighting back hard against Convict Donny’s illegal actions against them. Good for them!

And this just in – a cruise ship leaving Florida yesterday is reporting a huge Norovirus outbreak, affecting at least 100 passengers and even more crew. Norovirus is nasty stuff and highly contagious. I’m really looking forward to getting on the cruise ship in Ft. Lauderdale and eating at the buffet. More seriously, I’m stocking up on hand sanitizer and plan to only eat hot fresh food (no salads, nothing sitting in warming trays) as much as possible. I hate cruises and only agreed to go on this one as a big favor to my spouse – her siblings and their spouses arranged the trip, so off we go to the southern Caribbean to be close to the action in VZ. Let’s hope it’s not a literal shitshow.

In better news, my Hermitage Farm thoroughbred syndicate just acquired another stellar broodmare at the January Keeneland auction – No Fault of Mine. She’s got a great lineage, a great track record (5 wins and 6 seconds in 16 starts!), and is beautiful to boot.