Lunch

I slept in this morning, which was awfully nice.  I really needed some extra rest.  The time has been flying by, though, and I haven't done anything on my "to do" list.  Wish I had someone to give a "honey-do" list! 

I've been wasting time following the coverage of (Republican) Congressional leaders' plans to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. They're looking pretty foolish.  Saying they need a couple of years when they've already had six.

Now I'm watching our president, Barack Obama, being honored by the military and giving his farewell address to them as Commander-in-Chief.  It is hard for me to hold back tears each time he speaks to any constituency for the last time.

How easy is it to forget that it was this president who brought 115,000 men and women home from war, who sent the military to Africa to fight Ebola and to rescue hostages from Somali pirates.  Who ordered all combat positions open to women and repealed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' enabling gays to serve openly.

He reminded us that "we must not give into the illusion of false isolationism, because in this dangerous time oceans will not protect us and the world still needs our leadership as the one indispensable nation. We must remember that our military must be ready for a full spectrum of threats, conventional and unconventional, from 20th century-style aggression to 21st century-style cyber threats. And when we do go to war, we have to hold ourselves to high standards and do everything in our power to prevent the loss of innocent lives, because that's what we stand for - that's what we should  stand for.   We have to remember that as we meet the threats of our times, we cannot sacrifice our values or our way of life, the rule of law and openness and tolerance that defines us as Americans.  That is our greatest strength and makes us a beacon to the world.  We cannot sacrifice the very freedoms we are fighting for..."

As a contrast, today our president-elect threw our intelligence community under the bus and took Julian Assange's word for it that "Russia didn't do it."  God help us.