Perhaps This is How Ordinary Germans felt during Hitler's Reign

 I don't want to see US military troops in American cities.  As an AWFUL woman writing this, I am opening myself up to intimidation and reprisals which are happening all over the United States if you dare to disagree with this presidential administration.  Of course, this President is  blatantly breaking the law over and over again.  He, and his family, make the Tea Pot dome scandals of Harding's administration look like nickel and dime fraud.  

Check and balances which the general public has relied on for over 200 years is now a joke.  The courts are packed from the Supreme Count on down through the Appellate Courts.  Mitchell McConnell, former Senate Republican leader, blocked a hearing for a Supreme Court judge for over a year as well as dragging his feet on other judicial appointments. The Justice Department has been systematically stripped of lawyers who were assigned to any investigation into the shenanigans of the current administration.  If you do dissent, expect to be the target of lawsuits aimed at punishing and intimidating opposing views.  

Now, we are expected to not believe our own eyes.  I've looked at as many videos as I can find about the claim Good (the woman in Minnesota who was killed while unarmed) hit an ICE agent with her car.  Didn't happen.  The ICE agent's response was way, way out of proportion to the situation.  This is just another example of intimidation now directed toward not just dissenters but specifically female dissenters.  If that isn't bad enough, news outlets owned by Trump sympathizers, are putting out stories about supposed 'internal bleeding' of the ICE agent.  Blatantly false.  Look for yourself.  

When you have a chief executive convicted of sexual assault in a department store dressing room (how tacky), as well using disgusting insults against women whenever it suits him; a strong case can be made this administration is misogynistic.  Now, a woman has been killed who dared to protest against the administration's immigration policies.  Those same policies are becoming more and more unsavory to more and more Americans.  The National Guard has been called out over and over in Democrat led states without their presence being requested.  Once again, it's taken judicial rulings to force removal of the soldiers in those states.  And, how do you like the ICE agents in their masks?  I don't.  Not one bit.  

Congressionally approved funding has been frozen.  For example, it took another lawsuit to unfreeze funds directed for programs, including food, for POOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.   Now, there are illegal military orders to bomb boats in international waters, and to depose a foreign President.  International intimidation is being used to steamroll over Denmark and other European countries who oppose the idea of the US taking over Greenland.  Was Congress consulted in any of these illegal activities?  Nope.  Contrary to this President's belief, US Presidents are not supposed to have unlimited power.    

This President has already led an insurrection trying to block national election results.   He has pardoned drug dealers; people convicted of fraud; and the true domestic terrorists who participated in the January 6th insurrection.   He has personally enriched himself and his family to a shocking extent according to a US congressional committee report:  New Report Exposes the Trump Family’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Crypto Empire, Fueled by Self-Dealing and Corrupt Foreign Interests | U.S. House Judiciary Committee Democrats.  

I've always considered myself a good citizen, but I'm just ordinary with no 'power'.  I keep up trying to ascertain the truth about issues from multiple sources.  I vote in all elections.   I understand the Constitution and how government is supposed to work.  I have a major in American history, so I know my country's history.  Never have I seen democracy so continually, and systematically challenged - and I lived through the Watergate era.  The current executive branch's intimidation methods and unlawful extension of power is frightening, alarming and is the path toward fascism.    

New York Holiday

 Spending Christmas with a family you love and treasure is a wonderful experience.  You've surmised we had a lovely 2025 Christmas complete with a Hyper Marble Track and a Pirate Playhouse.  Santa was a big hit this year with the 7 yr old and the 3 yr old.  Our daughter made a Cajun turkey dinner for Christmas day.  We ate too much, laid around, listened to the marbles go down the gigantic three foot high track, and said "Arg" a lot - the 3 yr old is entranced with pirates, and that's the clue she's a pirate when you hear that.  We played some of the new games, read some books, and were glad to collapse into the silence of our hotel room!  

New York City is always packed with people coming to enjoy the abundant holiday decorations and the specialty performances.  We went to one of the most iconic celebrations:  The 100th Anniversary of the New York City Radio Music Hall Rockettes Christmas Extravaganza.  Sorry there are no pictures, but the audience was asked not to photograph the performance.  Here's a stock photo which captures the costume of the marching soldier, a Rockette favorite.

Everybody had a great time, not only at this performance, but for the entire holiday thanks to all the pre-planning by our daughter.  

I was also very excited to find three excellent exhibitions at my three favorite museums.  First, the Metropolitan has a great exhibition called "Divine Egypt" which was less about mummies and more about the Egyptian gods and their interrelationships.  I walked away with a much better understanding of the ancient Egyptian gods, and the realization the organization of the mythic Greek gods are actually modeled on the Egyptian gods.  As a double bonus, we also saw a Sargent exhibition as well as my favorite Christmas tree in all of New York City.

The Christmas Tree, & Jan, age 75

The base of the tree is decorated with 
antique creches

The tree decorations are
19th century porcelain angels

The Egypt exhibition was full of descriptions of of the individual gods and their relationships.  Of course, there were beautiful examples.  This chart is a genealogy of the Egyptian gods.  If you read the small print, you can see the same type of themes which flow through all the religions of the world.  (Creator - of air, water, earth, sky)

The major Egyptian gods represented by their animal heads on human bodies descend from the four gods at the bottom of the chart.

Hathor

Horus (left) - son of Isis

Neit

Serpent god

Feline God

Isis with the infant Horus

As always, there are more photos of the Egyptian exhibition.  You can click on the link to see them:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Ms2H2QuA21jJDz66

As an added bonus, the MET has acquired several additional paintings from the John Sargent family.  Once again, a very talented artist has languished in obscurity because of gender.  John Sargent, a widely acclaimed portrait painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, had a very unusual upbringing.  John and Emily (his sister) were both born in Florence, Italy, and traveled Europe with their expatriate parents studying art and learning how to create art.  John burst onto the art scene in Europe as a very young man while his sister, Emily, equally talented in creating watercolors, was relegated to the background and her artistic endeavors never surfaced during her lifetime.  Instead, she promoted John's work.  Neither ever married, and they have a much younger sister, Violet.  John died in 1925; Emily in 1936; and Violet in 1952.  The MET has acquired additional paintings by both John and Emily.  Here are two examples:

Watercolor, Emily Sargent

Oil Painting, John Sargent {Violet in the hat, Emily painting, mother in background}

There are more of these paintings at the end of the previous link. 

Let's move onto another famous NYC Museum - the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).  The MOMA used to be difficult to see.  They own legions of famous paintings and sculptures which used to be scattered all over the place.  When they remodeled a few years ago, they reassembled their permanent collection into four floors of art sorted by date.  There are easily accessed by escalators as well as elevators and stairs.  This freed up two floors for the 'exhibitions' which come and leave.

I was so excited to see a Ruth Asawa exhibition - a large retrospective of her work.  I first saw her art in North Carolina.  She mainly works in 'wire'.  She's a Japanese/American woman who was interred as a child in a camp in Arkansas.  She learned to draw while being held prisoner during her late childhood and teens.  When the Japanese were released, they faced extreme prejudice from their fellow Americans.  (Reminds you of how we treat Muslim/Americans, doesn't it?)  She was rejected from all the Fine Arts schools she applied to because she was Japanese. 

 A small college outside of Ashville, North Caroline - the Black Mountain College accepted her, and boy, what a jackpot for them.  She went on to become very famous in the art world.  In addition to her individual work in wire, paint and lithographs, she has done major outdoor fountains and monuments in California.  Here are examples of her work:

These are made out of wire

Here's a closer look

When she accepted commissions to do large projects which used casting in bronze, she experimented with dipping her wire sculptures in wax and then casting them.  Here's an example:

One of her famous fountains is the Mermaids and Babies Fountain in Ghirardelli Square.

Sorry about the picture quality - this is actually a film about the fountain

 

Here's a little better picture: 

She did this work in the late 1960's.  She also created a wall of memory for the Japanese from California who were interred.  

I find her work interesting, identifiable, and if you don't know her work, I'm pleased to introduce you to it.

The second artist I was excited to see at the MOMA is a Cuban artist, Wilfred Lam, who worked from the 1920's to the 1970's.  He's considered one of the great Cuban artists.  I think his work reflects the time he lived.  This picture is considered his most famous.

"The Jungle" by Wilfred Lam

I took pictures, pictures, pictures of Ruth Asawa, Wilfred Lam as well as some famous pictures which I snapped as we walked past them.  

Here's the link:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/vVXDmNArdAh8A8tZA

If you haven't had enough art, pull up your socks, and let's do one more:  The Brooklyn Museum of Art has a wonderful exhibition called 'Monet in Venice'.  Monet and his wife traveled to Venice at the beginning of the 20th century, and he painted over thirty pictures while he was there.  The exhibition has not only a big number of these pictures, but also a Givenchy bridge picture - in Spring, and his work is contrasted with Canaletto one of the first artists to master perspective.  Venice was also one of his favorite places to paint.  There is also a fabulous Thomas Moran picture of Venice with an awesome treatment of the light.   There's even a John Sargent picture.  Here's a little sample of this exhibition:

Monet - Canal scene

Canaletto - St. Mark's from the canal 

Monet - Givenchy Bridge in Spring
 

Thomas Moran - Venice

If you want to see the Brooklyn Museum pictures, click on the link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/J4fxUnPgzjVG3wLP8

And, yes, everything hurt after spending hours walking around and looking at pictures and sculptures, but I didn't care.  It was exciting to be able to see so many new pieces, and to learn so much about Ruth Asawa.  The train up and back from Virginia to New York is definitely the way to travel over a major holiday.  Happy New Year!