2023: An Uphill Battle

2023 was a year of challenges that tested my patience and perseverance.  It was the year that got away from me.

Last year, I was second-guessing the point of writing a weekly personal journal AND writing anything for my blog.  My weekly journal was just for me and was originally meant as a spiritual exercise -- to remind myself why I'm grateful and to release any negative energy that I had about personal or political issues that cropped up.  I decided to continue the journaling but to not be rigid about it.   I still needed to practice writing.

For my blog, I wondered "Who is the audience?  Do they even read this?" The blog was meant to be a tool to express my opinions so my conversations don't become tiresome.  I figured that all the deep-dive reading and research that I do would be committed to writing the blog and it would end there.  I'm not sure how effective I've been.  I still have so much pent-up energy. I still bore people on many occasions.  I'm still on the fence about continuing with this blog. Consider this one of those annoying newsletters we often get during the holidays.

I vowed, last year, to watch less news but it was almost impossible given the shenanigans coming from Congress and the indictments, court motions and appeals of Trump. On a personal level, I injured my knee halfway through the year and found that the affliction really sapped my energy and changed any plans for a productive day.

POLITICS

You might wonder why I bother recapping the news each year.  National and global politics impact our lives and to ignore it is folly.  While I didn't pry myself away from watching national political news every day as I had promised myself, I didn't watch hours of pundits opining on the intricacies of each trial or bill.    If I was to describe the politics of 2023, I'd use the word "dysfunction."  There wasn't much news to hang a positive spin. 

Congress Drama

The November 2022 elections changed the make-up of the House of Representatives to a majority Republican rule.  This meant that January 2023 was slated to elect the presumptive front-runner, Kevin McCarthy, as Speaker of the House.  After an embarrassing 15-ballot election, Kevin McCarthy did become Speaker of the House but not without exposing the divisions among the Republican Representatives. 

In May (and, again, in October), after months of pounding his chest about spending cuts (which is normally a separate negotiation), McCarthy finally struck a deal with President Biden on raising the debt ceiling to avert a government shutdown.  These decisions outraged Republican conservatives who forced McCarthy's ouster, the first time a Speaker has been removed via the motion to vacate.  For three weeks, the House was unable to conduct any business while the Republicans voted in the next Speaker, bringing the country once again to the brink of a shutdown.  After considering the House's majority leader, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the majority whip, the Republicans finally settled on Mike Johnson to take over as speaker.  By the end of the year, McCarthy announced he would be resigning from Congress, shrinking the narrow Republican majority. 

In September, Senator Bob Menendez, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee was indicted on federal bribery charges that involved Qatar and Egypt.  He stepped down as chairman but refused to resign from the Senate and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, despite calls to resign from numerous state and congressional Democrats, including 30 of his Senate colleagues.

In December, Representative George Santos became the sixth lawmaker ever to be expelled from Congress.  Shortly after he was elected in November 2022, reports emerged that he had fabricated a number of stories about his background (a career on Wall Street, his academic credentials, Hollywood roles, racial heritage, being the descendant of Holocaust survivors, losing his mother to the 9/11 attack and losing employees in the 2016 Orlando shooting at a gay nightclub).  Santos remained defiant of calls for his resignation.  In May, however, federal prosecutors charged him of wire fraud, money laundering and false statements on his tax returns.  A month later, the House Ethics panel released a report which found "substantial wrongdoing" by Santos, charging that he "blatantly stole from his campaign" and "reported fictitious loans to his political committees to induce donors and party committees to make further contributions to his campaign".  (These loans, it was found, financed lavish trips, Botox and spa treatments, expensive clothing and payments to OnlyFans.)  This report ultimately motivated enough Republicans to expel Santos from the House. 

All of this resulted in a year where the Congress enacted only 27 bills, the lowest number since the Great Depression.  What's worse is the majority of these bills were uncontroversial or were passed either by unanimous consent and minimal opposition (including multiple measures to rename  Veteran Affairs clinics and another to mint a coin to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps).  Even during the Clinton and Obama administrations, where the Republicans controlled one or both chambers, Congress passed 70-73 laws!

Trump's Legal Woes

Trump was indicted so many times last year that it was almost comical -- if it wasn't so appalling!  He was hit with four major criminal indictments, including two federal cases in 2023. 

In March, the Manhattan District Attorney indicted Trump for falsifying business records related to the Stormy Daniels hush money pay-out during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.   Michael Cohen was already found guilty while Trump was in office and served prison time but the other part of the story was how Trump had directed the value of his assets to be increased or decreased based on what he needed for loans or insurance.

In June, Trump was charged with 37 felonies related to mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.  Since he left office, there were appeals from the Archive Library to return the classified documents that he had kept.  He sent some of them back but kept others (and, possibly, lied to his lawyers about keeping them).  Then, a second notice was given which Trump ignored.  Finally, a search and seizure was performed where boxes and boxes of classified documents were found.  Some of them were stored in boxes on a stage, some in the bathroom.  There was no security at all.  Also, apparently, he was having his aides move boxes from room to room and to cart around his "special" boxes when he traveled. He lied about having these special boxes and about trying to hide them.  Finally, he settled on an argument that the materials were declassified before he took them. 

In August, Trump was indicted twice: in federal court in Washington, D.C. and in Fulton County, Georgia.  Both were related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump, his attorneys and advisors were indicted with a federal conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding (certifying the vote count) and defraud the public. 

Later in August,  Trump and 19 other co-defendants were indicted with racketeering related to Georgia's 2020 presidential election.  The indictment included phone calls to various Secretary of States, fake electors, seizing voting machines and disseminating the information to Trump's team.  What was most significant was that this was a state indictment which meant that Trump, should he get elected again, will not be able to grant pardons to himself or his friends.  By the end of the year, some of the co-defendants pled guilty and a couple requested their trial be severed from Trump's.  

It might be noted here that the bulk of the Save America PAC money (which was initially created to fund Trump's campaign) went to law firms that have defended Trump against these series of criminal charges or in civil lawsuits.  Other attorneys paid with the contributions worked on behalf of Trump’s businesses, his children, former White House aides and employees of the ex-president but, in the Georgia case, most of the co-defendants were not covered.  In all, over $50 million was spent on more than 60 lawyers and individuals since 2022 -- more than half of the money collected.

Supreme Court

2023 was the year that the Supreme Court generally split along the 6-to-3 conservative line. Here are the major decisions of the year, how the makeup of the Court impacted them and whether the decisions positively or negatively changed precedent.

Government Authority:  The Supreme Court ruled (in a 6-3 decision) that the Secretary of Education lacked the authority under the HEROES Act "to rewrite [the student-debt statute] to the extent of canceling $430 billion of student loan principal." Negative

Free Speech/Anti-Discrimination Laws:  The Supreme Court ruled (in a 6-3 decision) that the First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees (in this case, a same-sex wedding that the designer is religiously opposed to supporting). Negative

Affirmative Action:  The Supreme Court ruled (in a 6-3 decision) that the use of affirmative action in admissions programs was unconstitutional and that institutions of higher education cannot use race as a factor in their student admissions process.  Negative

Gerrymandering:  The Supreme Court ruled (in a 6-3 decision) that the Constitution's Elections Clause does not give exclusive and independent authority in state legislatures to set the rules regarding federal elections.  This was in response to North Carolina state lawmakers voting to have final approval over their own redistricting map.  The court also affirmed (in a 5-4 decision) that Alabama's 2021 redistricting plan for its seven districts in the U.S. House of Representatives conflicts with the Voting Rights Act which banned racial discrimination in voting policies.  Positive (Unfortunately, Alabama chose to draw a redistricting plan that again showed racial discrimination. Now the question is what are the consequences of ignoring the Supreme Court decision?)

Immigration:  The Supreme Court ruled (in an 8-1 decision) that Texas and Louisiana did not have the authority to challenge the Biden administration's immigration enforcement policy.  Positive (Texas chose to ignore the Supreme Court decision and continue with their plans of immigration enforcement. Again, now what?)

Tribal Rights:  The Supreme Court ruled (in a 5-4 decision) on a dispute between the Navajo Nation and several states about water rights for the Colorado River.  It decided that the 1868 treaty establishing the Navajo Reservation reserved necessary water to accomplish the purpose of the Navajo Reservation but did not require the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Tribe.  Neither Positive or Negative

World Tensions

Russia's invasion of Ukraine continued throughout 2023 and polarized international relations.   NATO was strengthened by new members Finland and Sweden, and the E.U. opened a membership process for Ukraine.  As a result, tensions remained high between the U.S. and China throughout the year.  While the relations between the U.S. and China slightly improved by the last quarter, new conflicts sprung up in other parts of the world. 

On October 7th, Hamas' attacks and kidnapping of civilians kicked off Israel's war against Hamas.  In the U.S., protests about the war pitted pro-Israelis against pro-Palestinians -- particularly, when Israel ramped up the war which caused mass casualties in Gaza. 

The Houthi rebels attacked ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait of the Red Sea, which resulted in many major shipping firms redirecting their container-ships around the continent of Africa. 

PERSONAL

Because my husband and I were fully retired, we settled into a comfortable morning routine.  We walked and fed our dog, ate breakfast, Tai Chi, read inspirational and informative books together and discussed.  All of this was upended when I injured my knee.

In February, I began complaining about how much my knee hurt.  I began wearing a compression knee brace but it never really helped.  Finally, just before Memorial Day, I tore my meniscus doing an innocent action: sliding a small piece of furniture with my foot.  After I went to Urgent Care, it took over a week to get a referral for an MRI.  Weeks later, my MRI results confirmed that, yes, I did have meniscus and cartilage damage.  Another couple weeks went by.  I was wearing a very aggressive, stiff knee brace and was very immobile until I met my knee doctor who prescribed physical therapy.  During the wait to see my knee doctor, my husband did everything for me -- making sure I was medicated when I needed it, keeping me hydrated, cooking all the meals, and the laundry, let alone helping me put on my clothes.  I wasn't sure how much weight I could put on my knee or how much activity I should be able to do until I talked to him.  My first physical therapy session was almost three months later!  By the time I finished the sessions (and did my prescribed exercises at home for six weeks), I thought I'd be better but, even still, I walk with a limp and I cannot descend stairs faster than a snail. 

Early last year, I had a scary incident at a restaurant.  While I was dining, a few minutes elapsed where I had no consciousness.  It could have been a stomach flu, the heat, the spicy food, how thirsty I was or the very strong margarita that I gulped down to quench my thirst.  I felt queasy and clammy, and was trying to figure out a way to leave for the bathroom.  Then, I was gone. We still don't know what happened but my doctor referred me to a cardiologist to check my heart.  Several tests and several months later, they found nothing.

I am so thankful that my husband cares as deeply as he does.  He never complained and he tried to anticipate what I needed every day.  I was so happy when I was given a green light to be more active than just resting on the bed.  When I became more mobile, we returned to our "date nights" of movies, concerts and even another cooking class. He's been so good at really listening and expressing himself as well.  Our conversations are often lively, intelligent and humorous.  We, also, fine-tune our opinions so they're less strident and more reflective -- particularly, after listening to a well-thought reaction.  Our daily morning sessions are really important to me, and to our ever-growing relationship.  We both feel heard and appreciated.

FRIENDS

My knee injury really restricted me from walking around; hence, my monthly lunches with my friends were canceled for quite a while.  I'm not one to text, email or call regularly so, when I did, it was an effort on my part to keep the friendship going.  Luckily, I have great friends who were also busy but wanted to keep in touch so the minimum effort was appreciated. 

One of my friends, who lives close by, had a knee replacement surgery and, for the last quarter of the year, I visited her almost daily to help her with her household tasks and to take her to her physical therapy sessions.  Right around the holidays, she was sick with COVID so I delivered medicine and groceries to help her out.  We talked about everything, made each other laugh and cry, and really deepened our friendship.

I get so much from my friends that our monthly lunches have resumed.  I will continue to make an effort to keep our friendships tight.

Our neighborhood also changed.  We had two new neighbors move in.  We were sad to see our next-door neighbor move away but, surprisingly, we saw them almost as much as before!  Our new neighbors turned out to be friendly people and we were happy to help them become acclimated to their new city.  I had such good feelings about our neighborhood that I made goodies baskets to distribute over the holidays -- something I have always wanted to do.  It was a big "warm and fuzzy" moment for me! 

FAMILY

My sister, her daughter and I took a trip to Colorado to visit Dad for his birthday.  A snow storm had just passed and Colorado was very snowy.  Driving was slow but my niece really enjoyed the challenge.  For 93 years old, my Dad really surprised me.  His hearing is awful and conversations are difficult but he is active and otherwise healthy.  He enjoyed our visit and was very happy that we made the trip.  We girls realized that we're a good band -- that we can travel together well and that our bond is solid.

Our relationship with my husband's family continued to grow stronger.  While we had less visits after the knee surgery, as soon as I was mobile, the trips to Burbank continued.  My husband and his brother, also, took a "bro-cation" in Newport Beach last year to bond even more.  This will become a regular event for them.  Our niece graduated from University of Riverside and was finally able to "walk" the graduation ceremony.  Then, she went to Hawaii (without her family) to join a good family friend on their trip.  She had been working on her high level of anxiety since her sister had died and the trip was a big step towards recovery.

This was a year of surgeries, rescheduled surgeries and canceled surgeries for the family.  My sister, first, had surgery to remove a cyst from her finger.  It took a while to heal since she had to use her hands, typing at work.  Then, she had breast surgery to remove a "wart" (intraductal papilloma).  It did not go well initially and she had to immediately return to the operations room to stop the bleeding.  By the end of the year, her scar was healing but the doctor did a real hack job stitching her up. 

Her daughter had breast reduction surgery which had been something she had wanted to do all her adult life.  That surgery went very well and she is happier and healthier.  We actually noticed that her posture changed. By the end of the year, she had healed enough to join her husband in London to chaperone the kids in a high school band to perform at the London New Year's Parade.  This was such a significant event for them and, because they are so simpatico and work well together, they met every chaperoning obstacle well.   

My sister-in-law's knee replacement surgery was re-scheduled at first because she had to have a root canal.  It turned out that she had to return to the dentist to fix the first root canal and get another.  Then, she caught COVID and, again, the surgery was re-scheduled.  Since then, she has been trying to figure out her breathing problems. The surgery has not been re-scheduled until that dilemma has been solved. 

My nephew and his wife came over for a short visit before their annual trip to a desert festival.  They rented an RV and stayed at our place for a few days.  We loved their company and enjoyed our conversations.  Our relationship with both of them is a wonderful surprise.

Sometime last year, I discovered our old camcorder and Super 8 tapes taken of my sister's daughter's childhood and the trips we all took together.  These are such treasures!  This year, I hope to edit them into something that can be shared with her and the rest of our family. 

MY LITTLE FAMILY

My husband loved retirement as I knew he would.  He continued to rehearse in a band of music teachers and ex-students.  They even held concerts again this year!  He continued to go to his woodworking classes and made beautiful nested trays and cutting boards.  He even constructed a wood caddy for the garage -- from scratch!  And he was hired to assist the band director of a local high school.  Working with young, naïve musicians was something he loved doing when he was a woodwinds teacher before the pandemic.  With this new position, he was also able to see the fruits of his efforts.  He is truly talented and makes a big difference with young people. 

We continued to take our dog to the local college grounds to play ball but we also added a weekly walk at a nearby outside mall last year.  We had hoped that she would become more socialized and figure out how to walk among people and other dogs.  That tactic worked.  She has become more comfortable around people (although, she still scares anyone who comes to our door) and she has adjusted her behavior when she see dogs across the street.  We're still working on her reactions to the dogs on the same side.  We've even taken her on slightly longer jaunts in the car to acclimate her to travelling.  Our goal is to take her on a vacation with us someday.

Being retired on a fixed income was insightful.  The day-to-day expenses were somewhat covered.  All year, we both felt the price hikes -- particularly with groceries and, in my husband's case, with wood costs.  News that inflation had dipped deeply did not translate to lower costs for us. It still resulted in a huge reduction of our emergency account.  Perhaps it's not better economic trends but corporate greed?

WHAT'S NEXT

I made little progress last year in what I set out to do.  It was an uphill battle of physical limitations and lack of motivation. I hope that this year I can restart my plans to get more active (maybe more time on a recumbent bike?  Tai Chi again?), healthier (less sugar), more creative (art projects, home projects) and more organized (video/photos, home inventory, shredding old papers, etc.)  I have a great infrastructure of relationships to help motivate and inspire me. I am still very, very grateful!