writing about not writing

Instead, it's like driving through Nebraska -- everything flat and green in all directions and a highway that reaches string-straight-ish to the horizon, though with several 90-degree turns to accommodate the property lines around massive farms... this is the way it has been of late when it comes to writing, that almost-lifelong habit that has stalled. There are ideas, as ever, but they insert themselves sotto voce ... no big deal, more of the same, however bloody and unjust.

Yesterday, for example, seven years of Republican carping about the health care Barack Obama shepherded through Washington -- the Republicans promised to repeal and replace it if elected ... which they were -- came crashing to a halt when two Republican senators withdrew their support from a Republican health care bill meant to replace Obamacare. The current president, Donald Trump had promised in his campaign to get rid of Obamacare. Republicans cheered. But then Trump backed away from his promise when it became apparent his version of healthcare was to give the wealthy more wealth and deprive the needy even further. That, and the fact that something more than 20 million might be caught without healthcare. The Republican bill flopped yesterday and any minute now I expect the Schlockmeister, Trump, to find a way to elude responsibility for failing to deliver on his campaign promise.

For seven years, the Republicans bitched. And now, with both houses of Congress and the presidency in their hip pocket, they can't accomplish anything. Democrats, meanwhile, can't find a message to counter Republican ineptness. Perhaps they are too wrapped up in their gloating.

The effect is wearing. Or anyway it seems like a fog ... like driving through Nebraska.

Simultaneously on the healthcare front, Reuters reports that rural hospitals are closing down and pose increasing health risks.

In Somalia, the internet came back after a three-week absence.

Officials and internet providers attributed the problem to a commercial ship that they said cut an undersea cable.
Major companies reported millions of dollars in revenue losses. University studies were disrupted.
The internet outage also complicated efforts to combat a nationwide drought that has half of the country’s 12 million people in need of assistance.

One single cable and an entire country is thrown into disarray. One single healthcare policy and the gridlock that has described Washington over the last few years is even further gridlocked.

And as I write about all this -- partly as a nod towards an old habit that has been losing steam -- I reckon someone will figure things out ... sort of ... maybe ... but writing about it is strictly a pissing-into-the-wind activity.

OK ... today I have decided to see if I can make potato salad, an endeavor I have failed at in the past (it never came out as lip-smacking good as I wanted) but will try once again. It's got a lot of wicked stuff I like ... potatoes, mayonnaise, hard-boiled eggs, vinegar, mustard ... at my age, dolorous warnings about cholesterol simply cannot compete with a tasty wickedness.

Beats the diaphanous satisfactions of writing all to hell.