Dreary, outside a bit of waiting-for-the storm weather this mid-day Wednesday on California’s north coast — the sky a deep and seemingly up-close ash-white, dusted with blustering winds, slashed on occasion by rapid-fire drizzle-droplets, heavy with anticipation.
Yet the air cuddled within a pleasant warmth — all ominous ingredients for a bigly disturbance a-coming.
Reportedly, decent rain and high winds starting today and into tomorrow for the entire region — heavier shit inland, though, more rainfall totals, more everything, bad-weather-wise.

Maybe-apparently in sequence with that art illustration above (Pablo Picasso’s ‘Les Deux Saltimbanques: l’Arlequin et Sa Compagne‘ found here), we’re sad and depressed about something, or everything. And dogs seeking a walk don’t help, though I keep telling them it’s freaking-fucking raining outside, they don’t give a shit.

Just a few minutes ago, they barked without any kind of growl preamble, a deafening noise which instantly-shocks the system, makes me jump, even sitting down. After cursing them soundly on the required-need for a growl or something before cranking into full-blown bark, I stood and glanced out front on the sidewalk — a young woman with two bulldog-looking dogs, one tiny, the other fairly large. In appearances, the little one had just shit on our grass, and as I watched surreptitious just above the dining room curtains, the lady, not looking around at all, pulled out a plastic bag, stuck her hand inside it, scooped up the mess.
And without missing a beat, put the baggy in a bigger bag and hurried her dogs down the sidewalk. I could see her lips moving, probably also throwing some curse words on the dogs.

And I suddenly felt a sense of happy. Standing there and staring out, I’d witnessed somebody perform a normal routine, just the decent action of any urban pet owner. Yet in the thing, an obvious sense of hope.
Serendipitously, original topic for this post was Nancy Pelosi and the burn she’d put on the T-Rump this morning about the State of the Union speech scheduled for later this month. Witnessing the lady picking up her dog’s shit just reinforced expectations.

Pelosi used a constitutional requirement against the T-Rump — Vanity Fair this afternoon has the story:

On Wednesday, with the federal government still shut down, Pelosi flexed that power by rescinding the invitation.
“Since the start of modern budgeting in Fiscal Year 1977, a State of the Union address has never been delivered during a government shutdown,” she wrote icily, noting that the agencies needed to secure the event—the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security chief among them—have not been funded.
“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th.”
Pelosi’s use of the word “suggest” is misleading.
In effect, the State of the Union has been suspended, pending an agreement to reopen the government.
“The speaker is the one who invites the president to speak at the joint session, and she has said as long as government is shut down we’re not going to be doing business as usual,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer confirmed to CNN.
Legally, Congress has no obligation to host Trump for a State of the Union address.
According to House procedural rules, even if Trump were to barge in, Pelosi and the House sergeant-at-arms could literally remove him from the floor.
There is, Hoyer concluded, nothing Trump can do: “The State of the Union is off.”
At least until the shutdown is over, anyway.
This undoubtedly comes as a blow to the president, whose speechwriting team, led by Stephen Miller, had reportedly been hard at work for weeks, and planned to center the address around the government shutdown.
Pelosi must know that stripping the pageantry from the State of the Union not only blunts Trump’s messaging around the border wall and visibly ups the stakes in the government shutdown, but robs the president of the chance to star in the sort of elaborate televised extravaganza he loves best.

And, too: ‘Just in case you missed that message, Pelosi delivered it again in an interview with CNN’s Ashley Killough.
“This is a housekeeping matter in the Congress of the United States, so we can honor the responsibility of the invitation we extended to the President,” said Pelosi.
“He can make it from the Oval Office if he wants.“‘

Hope burns eternal, or something like that…