Last Friday the sewer backed up and I was tied up searching for the clean-out to get it out of my house and then getting it unblocked. It would appear that at some point, for unknown reasons [like a possible official visitor], someone stuffed multiple plastic bags down their toilet and pushed them beyond the trap with a loofah. I know about the plastic bags and loofah because I was staring at the end of the affected sewer pipe when Roto-Rooter pushed the ‘blockage’ out of the line. I have been disinfecting and deodorizing ever since.

In a related note, the affluent effluent pooling in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has continued to display his lack of respect for veterans and the military since returning to the US from France. It is a short trip from the White House to Arlington National Cemetery, but Trump didn’t make the effort on Monday. The Department of Veterans Affairs is getting further behind and it doesn’t occur to this administration that filling the 45,000 vacancies at the VA might help clear the back log.

Trump still hasn’t visited any of the war zones, or even those he condemned to spend Thanksgiving in tents on the border.

The Oxford Dictionary has selected TOXIC as their word of 2018.

Among the many complaints Trump tweeted about the Mueller investigation today was the complaint that Mueller wasn’t confirmed by the Senate. Special counsels don’t need Senate confirmation, but Mueller was confirmed when he was appointed Director of the FBI. OTOH, Attorney Generals do need confirmation, and Whitaker has never been confirmed for any office. tsk, tsk.

For those, like Trump, who don’t know and are too lazy to look it up, the state of California owns 3% of the forests in the state, private companies and individuals own 40%, and the Federal government owns 57%. If the wild fires in California were caused by mismanagement of the forest it would be a Private/Federal problem. The reality is that these are brush fires, not forest fires, and they are caused by the Santa Ana winds which are getting worse because of climate change. All it takes is a spark of any kind with 50+ MPH winds, temperatures in the 90s, and humidity in single digits for a major disaster.