It does NOT matter how good or bad a leader is at every other aaspect of their job. If they fail to condemn lies, bad acts, and even atrocities committed in their name, they are themselves in the wrong.

There is no morality balance sheet when it comes to choosing leaders. Good deeds do not balance out bad once.

If you say, "Yes, but_____" (for example, "Yes, that's bad, but it isn't him doing it, and sure he isn't coming out against it, but he's done this good thing or that good thing...") you are accepting the YES part. It's on you.

So if you say, "Yes, but Trump isn't a dangerous rabble-rousing, racist bigot just because some people who follow him are, he's a good businessman, and he's done great things for foreign policy..."

I won't argue with you. Imma look you straight in the eye and remind you that Hitler loved dogs and Mussolini made the trains run on time and you're deliberately supporting a bad moral position with a bad faith argument and a bad debate tactic, and doing so means you aren't interested in listening, only denying.

And then Imma avoid you on the internet until February or so. (That's assuming you don't unfriend & block me, which is probably optimistic, but I'm Sunshine Care Bear I guess?)

There are millions who welcomed this presidential circus in '16 and want it to continue, and they're seriously fucked up and not worth engaging.

Now I figure about 20 million are suffering from deadly cases of sunk-cost fallacy, and another 20 million are so fond of the misinformation the've been given that they would glue the scales right back onto their eyes if God themself appeared on the road to reveal the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

Bottom line, I see no point in engaging with anyone from those groups. I love a good, meaty political discussion, but online, I bring steaks to the grill and get handed soy burgers for my plate. No, thank you.

ANYway.

I'm feeling grouchy today.

Tired of watching misinformed people full of the arrogance of their ignorance harass people who are trying to save them. We've reached a point in this out-of-control-again pandemic in which people are dying with COVID-19 denials on their lips instead of prayers.

It didn't have to be this way. It isn't this way anywhere else on Earth, not even in the other worst-hit developed countries.
(Except maybe Great Britain, with Trump-lite? And possibly Sweden? LOOK UP THE STATS YOURSELF I BET I'M RIGHT THIS IS JUST MY BLOG THINKING HERE KTHXBAI.)

In any case, for sure the numbers are public and the comparisons are painful. COVID-19 is a scary disease, but what's really deadly is 'Murica.

But that's another post. I digressed again. ANYway.

Here's the happy thing: SOMEONE WROTE FAN FICTION in the Rough Passages world.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found this out a little while ago, but I'm gonna keep sitting in that bright happy-happy spot for a good, long time. This was an Author Achievement Trophy I didn't expect to unlock for...ever, tbh.

I've updated my Achievement Trophies page on the site here and got another happy surprise. I've collected almost all the trophies I set out to unlock when I started this whole publishing game. You know what that means?

I've leveled up!

I shall put on my thinking cap & come up with a new set of trophies to unlock. Ideas welcomed. I may not USE any of them, but I love reading clever ideas.

And lastly, a weekly status report:

Sharp Edge of Yesterday is ~5/6 of the way done now, and I should finish the last of the pt 5 revisions this weekend. I've laid in one extra plot development scene and expanded a second, and I'm going to skip the remaining planned one because...I don't know that this story needs it? Sure, it would develop that character, but she isn't the protag, and it would slow down pacing just at the point I'm trying to push events faster. So unless feedback really thinks it needs to be 'on screen' so to speak, I'm saving moving onwards to other stuff. Squishy, angsty aftermath stuff that will set up later stories.

<cue evil laughter>

That's all the all until later.

Except for this cute pupper picture. Click it & you might end up on my Bookshop.org page where you could look at my growing collection of book lists & perhaps even get some gift ideas.