Affogato it all

Affogato. It's a noun, an adjective, or a verb; it means "drowned." We could conjugate it here, like with Tiramisu back in the day, but wordreference.com does a better job.

Speaking of a better job, I could be doing a better job of keeping things like milk in my fridge or I wouldn't be sitting here at 0630 on a Sunday having ice cream in my coffee and making breakfast puns. We'll get to who else could be doing a better job in a minute. But first:

Photo: http://www.foodnetwork.com

- Ho dimenticato di comprare il latte, ma non ho dimenticato di aquistare vino e caffe`. 

 -- I forgot to buy milk, but sure as shit had no problem remembering to buy wine and coffee. 

OR

  - Affogato buy milk, but not wine and coffee. 

Eh hem. I'd show myself out but it's my damned porch where I'm sitting here with a double shot of espresso over ice cream. My Italian teacher would be cringing by now.

Since I really wanted something creamy in my coffee and couldn't be bothered to stop at the grocery store a mile from the house, I trolled the freezer for options. Of course I had no issue driving south four miles to my favourite coffee roaster for beans, before driving north another 18 miles to my favourite wine purveyor for Austrian goodies for on online webinar. Priorities.

You may recall that affogoto is also a drink where a scoop if ice cream is "drowned" in a shot of espresso. Meanwhile, I recall having gelato schmeared between the halves of a buttery pastry in Sicily ... for breakfast! Thus we conclude the discussion on any need to justify - or conjugate - having ice cream for breakfast. Remember this? Good gawd.

RANT ALERT: (Haven't had one of these - or ice cream for breakfast - in a while.)

Although I do feel the need to vent into the blogosphere, as affogato can also mean "to be swamped with" or "overwhelmed by." How ironic, because affogato is how I feel right now. I'm absolutely suffocating with stifled, primal blood curdling screams of what the holy hell is going on?!

I'm not here to publicly sling mud. I don't belong to either political party, nor do I want to be associated with "sides." But the ignorance, rudeness and inconsiderate behaviour of people today is just disheartening. It was a problem before we elected a mentally unstable, incoherent narcissist with no experience, diplomacy skills, self-control, class, or dignity. And it's an overwhelming problem now. Sadly, we have an elected leader who is right in the middle of the fray.

Oops, mud. Slung. Affogato I wasn't going to do that, but I'm simply drowning in absolute disbelief. My liver has never been tested more than my patience like it has these last five months. So a little bit of mud needs to be slung.

Mr. "I alone can fix it" needs to fucking fix it. One person caters to less than half the country because they stroke his ego and hang their economic hopes on his promises. One person should act on behalf of the entire country, and, while we're at it, the world. One person who should NOT be slinging mud at 65% of American citizens, the media, the other - much more dignified or experienced - world leaders, while at the same time enabling and embracing thugs.

One person should be standing up for Americans - ALL Americans - even if they disagree with his policies. It would be nice if that one person could capably deliver a message of hope, not carnage and insults. One person should be setting an example with strength and class, not tyrannical rants and twitter tantrums. We need strength and personal discipline to rise above the negative chatter and trolls, not whining to college graduates on THEIR day about how unfairly he thinks HE's being treated. One person needs to quit making everything about said person and look at the bigger picture.

Look, I served in the military under five presidents. Some of them I liked, some of them made me choke on oaths, but I swallowed the idea of respecting the office even if the person sitting in that office was a national embarrassment. I went to war in three different decades, saluted smartly, kept my smart mouth shut (for the most part), and did as I was told.

But what I never rarely had to do was wake up, put on the uniform, and wonder what stupid shit the Commander in Chief (CINC) tweeted over night. Was trust ever compromised? Yes. However, I believed checks and balances were in place, I believed in my country, and I believed no matter how big a buffoon our CINC was, honesty would prevail and I would continue doing the right thing. I have friends who continue to do so; I salute them and honor them for it.

Those who serve remember - as our president should remember - there is legal authority and earned respect. Legal authority comes with the office. We got that. However, earned respect comes from being a true leader, where people will follow you because you've set a positive example, showed integrity, a vision, compassion, discipline, and have motivated people to come on board with you.

Just a thought here, and I'm the least politically correct person I know, but ranting, name-calling, threats, and thoughtlessness toward other political parties and Americans is not how one garners respect from the masses. The attacking of each other online is just tacky. Both sides? Both, in my opinion, are just as wrong. I'm guilty of sending a few stinging barbs at our president's behaviour. It's become a joke. Ironically, the jokes have become comedy gold and the straw through which I'm breathing while submerged in mud. It's either laugh or stop breathing. That said, some of the comedy has gone way too far this past week. I'm sorry, but we. don't. do. that. here. Class, people. Have some.

I don't care who anyone voted for; that's a personal decision. We weren't left with particularly optimal choices in terms of character; I blame both parties for letting that shit happen. Yet, I do care about waking up every day in a world where our leader is being laughed at on the world stage because of, simply, the way he acts. His standard of behaviour, and that of many of the people he chooses to surround himself with, needs to be much higher. He should be held to a higher standard, just as those are who wear the uniform.

Where is the honor? Where is the leadership? Where are the speech writers with the "best words" that we so desperately need to hear right now?
 
We, as a people, should demand it. Whether you back this president or not, we should all back our country. As a minimum we should all demand our leader act with some semblance of dignity, honor, on our behalf, and be respectful in order to earn respect. Our president - any president - must use words a little lot more wisely - even when he's raging inside as presidents before him have. We should be able to respect the person in the White House, even when he doesn't believe as we do, if only because he can respond with consideration, reasoning, and like a rational adult.

We should also demand more of ourselves. Educate ourselves about how the government works and the constitution, read from credible sources, demand more honesty and fairness from ALL of the media and their sources, recognize bias in sources and in ourselves, and stop attacking other sides because we don't believe the same things. That's never going to change. Somewhere, someone's life and community has gotten so bad or desperate that they truly believe our current president represents hope for them. This doesn't condone racist, ignorant, vitriolic, hateful tantrums, however. We need to be better than this.

What has to change is our ability to think critically, think for ourselves, behave rationally, and stop subscribing to the cult-like, trashy behaviour. Speaking of cults, don't get me started on congress. Go here for more information on how that all works. We, as a nation, really need to better educate ourselves on which representatives are bought-and-paid-for whores who vote the way they do because of donor dollars. There's good news here: we can fire them all! In fact, I'd submit that we all pay a little more attention to what congress is up to beyond the news. Seriously. This is where the worst deeds are being done under our noses, in our name, on our dime, and under the radar of the veritable shit storm swirling around a chaotic White House.

So back to the affogato. Personally, I'm drowning in bourbon like this scoop of ice cream in a daily deluge of unmitigated stupidity from what appears to be a delusional dictator wannabe (espresso is kicking in now). This is not OK, it's not normal for rational adults to behave this way in positions of leadership, and we as a nation need to get a grip.

END RANT

And I need to get a grip on another cup of coffee and get to some other writing assignments. Probably should get to the grocery store so I'm not sitting here tomorrow talking about drinking bourbon punch for breakfast. Because there are days i just want to say affogato it all...

Thanks for listening. Just being able to write about the ridiculousness of it all somewhat quells my hot, steaming desire to scream, "FOR FUCK'S SAKE, GROW UP AND QUIT ACTING LIKE A GOD DAMNED LUNATIC!" every, single, wine-drenched day. And I hope we can all find a way to be kind to each other going forward - even when our "leaders" fail us.