If you are considering voting for Trump, read this first:

1. Trump led an insurrection against the United States government.
2. Trump claims to be a “law and order” president — but he sat on his hands and did nothing while six capitol police officers were killed, and the mob that he incited called for his vice president to be hanged.
3. Trump throws his own country under the bus on the international stage time and again.  Do you remember when he stood next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, and said, in complete contradiction to his own team of US intelligence agents, that he sees no reason why Russia would have interfered with our election? And Trump wrote in September 2023 that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
4. Trump doesn’t seem to know what’s going on in his administration.  The Chairman’s phone call referenced above was, in fact, explicitly authorized by his administration officials.
5. Trump believes the election results are what he says they are, and tried to fabricate votes (“find me 11,780 votes“) to create the illusion of a win in Georgia.  If you think this is OK, then you do not really believe in democracy.
6. Trump’s track record is unimpressive.  Trump did some good things while in office, e.g., he established the US Space Force (a military branch dedicated to protecting US military assets in space), took out terrorists (ISIS), and compensated a Native American tribe that lost its lands to intentional flooding to build a federal dam (over 100 years ago).  But he handled Covid abysmally poorly, and the border policy of taking kids from their parents without tracking for later reunification is horrific on several levels.
7. it is difficult to have confidence in his character because his track record does not inspire confidence in good or patriotic decision-making: draft dodging, barring blacks from renting in  his buildings, serially sexually assaulting women, bragging that he grabs women by *****, and multiple bankruptcy filings where workers went unpaid.
8. Trump has no plan for dealing with climate change.  The modern GOP may not care that we are leaving sullied and damaged ecosystems for our children and grandchildren to inherit (sad, given that the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency was a GOP-led initiative), but you would think the GOP would care that the effects of climate change are incredibly expensive.  It is difficult-to-impossible to buy insurance in parts of California and Florida now as a result of the effects of climate change.
9. Trump does not seem to support the idea of multiple parties, promoting the idea that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat”.  This forcible suppression of opposition is one of the hallmarks of fascism. A dictatorial leader is another. Ultranationalism is another. Belief in a natural social hierarchy is another (remember when white supremacists marched in Charlottesville and Trump said there were “very good people on both sides”?  This is why Biden ran for office.)
10. Trump has little respect for the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.   His picks for Supreme Court Justice seem to think that everyone should practice Catholicism.  If they want women to “choose life”, they need to let them choose.

This is a simple tried and true recipe, and the pancakes are delicious.

1 1/2 c flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 c milk

3 tbsp melted butter

1 egg

 

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  
Put a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk, melted butter and egg.

Mix until combined.

Makes 6 pancakes.

230 calories each.

Credit to allrecipes.com.

Notes:  I mix wet ingredients together first to leave a few lumps for fluffiness. You might want to add a little bit more milk if the batter is too thick.  Even at medium heat, beware you don’t let your griddle get too hot. I have to pull mine off the heat periodically for a minute to cool it down slightly so the pancakes come out golden.

The great outdoors in Mille-Isles, Quebec is… following a dirt road twisting upward into fresh mountain air, quiet and sweet with pine; witnessing a star-spangled night sky so reflected in the still lake that you can’t sort out the fireflies from the cosmic twinkles; losing yourself in leafy woods all busy with birds; breathing in deep the scents of dirt and mushrooms and wood returning to the earth, comforting the ancient primal core of your innermost self; hearing a lone loon call early in the morning, and at twilight, the sounds of bullfrogs and the snap and crackle of a campfire.  That it’s far away from anywhere else makes it hard to get to, which is the whole point.  The earthy abode that awaits you can be viewed at Cottage in Quebec on this site.  

6 Life Hacks for Working Parents summarizes only the best advice I've collected over my first 10 years of parenting while also pursing my passions in other areas.