Wondering on Wednesday (v156)

There was mourning, and retrospection, and celebration today, as we paused, for a couple of hours, for the state funeral of President George Herbert Walker Bush, #41. And there was also wondering, it being a Wednesday.

I found much of the funeral very moving, but I was struck more by the comments of his pastor than I was by those of President George W. Bush. I think I tend to be more shocked by deeply personal comments from someone who has an 'official' role than I am by a family member, where it would be more shocking if those comments were missing.

As to any wondering about today's events, I do have to wonder why the medial seems so stuck on talking about president Trump and how he managed to sit next to President and Mrs. Obama without there being some kind of incident. I can only surmise that they missed the antagonistic tweets they're accustomed to seeing all day long.

Also on the wondering today? USA Gymnastics has filed for bankruptcy, apparently to protect their finances in a way that they never protected the hundreds of girls and young women who were victimized by Larry Nassar. According to Kathryn Carson, the chair of the organization's board,

Our organization is a financially solid going concern but for the hundred lawsuits that we do have out there. That is the primary reason that we made the filing, to use the Chapter 11 process as a vehicle for resolving those claims.

The organization's official statement noted, in part,

This filing will enable USA Gymnastics to continue to support its athletes, to fully operate and meet its responsibilities to the entire membership and to expeditiously resolve the claims made by the survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar.  

We owe it to the survivors to resolve, fully and finally, claims based on the horrific acts of the past and, through this process, seek to expedite resolution and help them move forward... 

I honestly wonder whether this will be better for the victims, who truly deserve to have these cases resolved once and for all, or if it will be better for USA Gymnastics.  I'm hoping it's the former.

Democracy is collapsing in Wisconsin - again - as the Republican majority passed legislation in the wee hours of the morning that limit the incoming Democratic governor. You know, that whole "will of the people" thing that Republicans have no problem ignoring when it suits them. Just ask Merrick Garland, right?

Among the changes they approved, and that lame duck gov Scott Walker has said he'll sign, are a cut in the early voting time period. I have to wonder why it is that those pesky Dems take so darn long to vote.

Why are they doing all of this?

We do not believe that any one individual should be able to come in and with the stroke of a pen eliminate things that went through the legislative process as a result of listening to the people of Wisconsin.

Those people of Wisconsin, they can apparently only be listened to once, it seems. So I wonder, why did they even bother having an election?

There's more wondering out there, of course -- but we'll have to save it for another Wednesday.