Janet's Smiles

F is For Freedom Over Fascism

Posted on April 7, 2026 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

My theme for this year’s A to Z challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It’s my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.

Freedom	Fascism
The absence of necessity, coercion or constraint in choice or action. Unrestricted ease. Ability to make your own choices. Liberation A right or liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.	Puts nation and sometimes race above the individual. Autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. Characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.

I know I am much happier when I have the ability to make my own choices about what I can read, where I can go, what religion I choose (or don’t choose) to follow and even what I can write on this blog.

Old #47 has made it his mission to try to suppress (Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel) and even take revenge on his opposition (going after Leticia James, Jack Smith, etc).

Leaving it at this today. As we all know the guy threatened to demolish Iran tonight so we’ll see what happens.

Side note: I did get a comment from someone who felt that I was attacking them personally with my opinions here. I left the comment and my response. Perhaps I haven’t made myself clear enough. NEVER have I said that all Democrats are perfect. Never have I said that ALL Republicans are bad. NEVER have I said that my opinions are anything other than my opinions. I really believe that part of the reason we are in the mess we are in is that Democrats didn’t do enough after the assault on the Capital in January 2021. I believe that our system needs work to make it more just for all. Perhaps we will get the opportunity to make that happen. I certainly hope so.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2026, fascism, freedom | 6 Comments

Economic Opportunity Over Extremism

Posted on April 6, 2026 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

My theme for this year’s A to Z is democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It’s my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.

E is for Economic Opportunity Over Extremism

Economic Opportunity	Extremism
Education Employment Financial Resources Health Federal Assistance	Uncompromising Outside the mainstream attitudes of society Zealous Out of control

I don’t have to do much research on this one. Opportunity Economy was one of the cornerstones of Kamala Harris’ platform when she was running for president. Her vision of assisting new businesses to get started, a tax break for first time homebuyers and cancelling out of control student debt would certainly lead to a better future for most people. Oh how I wish!

I have been very fortunate to be able to work from home for the last 28 years and being able to claim a home office deduction on my taxes has been a huge help. The sale of the stock we had through my husband’s employer allowed us to get the downpayment for our home. Because he was subsequently disabled, the loans we had to take for our daughter to go to college were forgiven by the Department of Education. All of those things have really made a difference in our lives.

And now look at the extreme plunge the stock market has taken, the overzealous use of tariffs and most recently the war with Iran with no actual planning or foresight. Our retirement funds fluctuate, general prices are continuing to rise and #47 is off playing golf saying that he “doesn’t care” about the situation. Great. According to him, “We can’t pay for childcare. Our primary focus is the military.” He is truly out of control.

As always, thanks to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries for giving me the basis for this year’s challenge. Last year I made it through the letter E before I had to stop. Starting tomorrow the posts will be fresh from the oven – LOL.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2026, democracy, Economic Opportunity, Extremism | 12 Comments

D is for Democracy Over Demogogue

Posted on April 4, 2026 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

D is for Democracy Over Demogogue

Democracy	Demagogue
Power in the hands of the people Guaranteed civil liberties and human rights. Free and fair elections.	Political leader who seeks support by manipulating and appealing to the prejudices of others. One man has power.

One of the ways #47 gained power again was by telling everyone lies, lies and more lies. He manipulated the truth so many times and was never called on it. He also railed and railed about things like immigration, which admittedly needs to be reformed and adjusted but by no means is it as bad as he made it out to be. People were not eating dogs. He made big promises about deporting people who were in this country illegally and that appealed to the prejudices of a lot of folks. However, as we can see now, he is not doing the deportations in a democratic way. There has been no due process and a few US citizens have been taken from their homes and families unlawfully.

He (I refuse to write his name) had said several times on the campaign trail that he didn’t need votes or only “vote this one last time and you won’t need to vote again.” Now he is talking about running for a third term, which is against the constitution. He believes the rules do not apply to him. He is also desperately trying to have congress pass the SAVE America act which will limit mail-in voting and require a lot of additional documentation needed to register to vote. I’ll talk more about that in a future post.

I want to live in a country where I can vote and have a say in who our leaders are and I want there to be secure guidelines about what those leaders can and cannot do. I am lucky, for now, that I am a white woman and there is less of a chance that immigration officers will come knocking at my door. Who knows if those rules will change at the drop of a golf club? Maybe someone will see these posts and think I need to be silenced. (LOL I wish I had that readership).

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress.

Have a wonderful Easter and hope to see you back on Monday!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged democracy, demogogue | 9 Comments

C is for Constitution over Cult

Posted on April 3, 2026 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Welcome to my A to Z this year where I am covering the theme of democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It’s my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.

C is for Constitution over Cult

Constitution	Cult
We the People Freedom Rights Rule of Law Separation of powers	Great devotion to a person or idea. Worship Extreme Beliefs Psychological Manipulation Brainwashing

It is true that our constitution was written many years ago and has had to have a few revisions over time but the basic principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have always been at the core. We the People is a powerful phrase. It signifies that we work together as a collective and not just blindly following one person or ideal. We have a say in what those changes need to be and we vote to make them happen.

If there is any question about whether a cult has now invaded the country, these words from Representative Troy Nehls shortly after Trump won reelection are pretty cult-like. He said, “If Donald Trump says jump 3-feet high and scratch your head, we should all jump 3-feet high and scratch our head.” And have you heard any of the cabinet meetings? Every single one of the cabinet members continue to heap praise on #47 and tell him what wonderful things he is doing.

I don’t know how many times I have heard the phrase, “they drank the Kool-aid.” Granted, people who were closely involved with the Jonestown massacre probably don’t appreciate being reminded of that disaster but it is a common statement which clearly applies to a lot of the people surrounding #47. So many times the Republicans who are in office have bowed to his wishes when clearly “We the people” do not agree with the policies. It truly is as if they have no minds of their own.

I don’t think there will be too many pictures in this A to Z but I did come across something that I think perfectly fits here. I was on my way to visit my daughter who lives in the area around the Facebook/Meta buildings. This is one of the street signs:

I know which direction I’m going.

If you want to see Speaker Hakeem Jeffries’ speech which is where I got the idea for this year’s challenge, you can see it here. Also make sure to visit some of the other participants in this alphabetical endeavor. See you tomorrow!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged constitution, cult, democracy, Hakeem Jeffries | 6 Comments

A to Z Challenge 2026 – Benevolence over Bigotry

Posted on April 2, 2026 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

This year for the A to Z I am writing about the differences between democracy and the other things. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It’s my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry.

Benevolence	Bigotry
Kindness GoodWill Charity Compassion Volunteering Social Conscience Generosity	Narrow Mindedness Prejudice Injustice Intolerance Racism Homophobia Discrimination

Now I am not saying that ALL Democrats are benevolent. And I am not saying that ALL Republicans are bigots. Let me make that clear. It just seems to me that the policies and laws that each party wants to make are so vastly different.

Take the new budget. Why in heaven would you want to take away funding from cancer research or giving food to children just to give tax breaks to the wealthy and fund a larger military presence?

Does the color of one’s skin or the fact that two men or women love each other change the fact that they are human beings?

And as we can see from what has happened in the last year, the situation has gotten much worse. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” did pass and funding for things like cancer research, public broadcasting and the like is gone. The aid we give to other countries has been stopped as well. The problem is in doing that we have made our country less stable.

Is it so hard to care about someone other than yourself? I just don’t get it.

The basis for this year’s A to Z has been taken from the speech that Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, delivered on the opening of the 218th congress, which was the least productive congress in history up to that time. This congress may be worse!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2026, Benevolence, Bigotry, democracy, Hakeem Jeffries | 9 Comments

A to Z Challenge 2026 – American Values vs Autocracy

Posted on April 1, 2026 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

I really wasn’t sure if I was going to do the A to Z this year and I didn’t do a theme reveal. I don’t know if you remember but last year at this time I had to stop after the letter D to take care of my MIL. This year I don’t have any big life things going on until next month when hubby and I go on our first cruise…(maybe I’ll do an A to Z on that sometime!). I haven’t been blogging much at all lately but I do still have all the info I gathered for last year so maybe I will give it a shot. If I make it past the letter D, I’ll consider it a win. Here we go.

My theme is Democracy and I am taking the basis from the speech given by House Representative Hakeem Jeffries when opening the 218th congress in 2023. I will admit that I have lost a little of my admiration for Rep. Jeffries as I think that he and Senator Schumer could/should do more to try to prevent the awful things that are happening to our country and at the same time, I realize that there isn’t much they can do given that they are the minority, for now.

As I begin, let me get this out of the way…I am a Democrat but MORE IMPORTANTLY, I am a firm believer in democracy and the rule of law. If there was a Republican who was doing something good for our country, stood for something closer to my beliefs than a Democrat running for the same office, I might vote for the Republican. So far I am not seeing any of that. With the exception of Liz Chaney and Adam Kinzinger who both chose country over party, I can’t think of another Republican who was willing to turn his back on the dysfunctional group we have in control right now. Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t count. Too little, too late in my opinion.

That being said, this is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or cruising. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It’s my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.

Here we go then.

American Values	Autocracy
Community Independence Right to make our own choices Equality Rule of Law	Centralized power Strict control Unquestioning obedience Limited participation One person rule

It seems like common sense to me that a person would want to be able to make their own choices and live their life without having someone tell them what to do every step of the way or restricting access to things. Other than when raising a child, and even then most of the time it is a shared experience, I can’t think of any reason for one person to have total control over someone else. Even with parenting there comes a point where the child should be able to make some of their own choices, as long as it will not hurt them or others. I can remember letting my daughter choose her own outfits for school even though a) they were not things that I felt would go together or b) she was without a jacket when I thought it was a little chilly. If it made her feel good to dress this way then she would be more apt to able to focus on learning.

We should be able to question the people governing us and to express our opinions without fear of being retaliated against. We should have the ability to choose our leaders and hold them accountable when their decisions are detrimental to our country and safety. We should be able to read whatever books we want, practice religion or not and love who we want.

Live and let live is my core value. It is not my business to tell you how to live your life and no one’s business to tell me how to live mine. I believe we can be stronger as a community if we share our ideas and cooperate together. We may have different beliefs or ideas but mine are not necessarily better than yours and vice versa. Our uniqueness is what gives us strength when we work together.

In the year since I wrote that, look how much closer we have gotten to the autocracy side of things and farther away from the American Values side!

One down, 25 to go. Happy April Fool’s Day!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2026, American values, Autocracy, democracy, Hakeem Jeffries | 11 Comments

Oh My Gosh, It’s October!

Posted on October 28, 2025 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Well I’m trying to post here to see if it will go through with my pictures. I am almost at capacity and I really don’t want to pay for more space. I’ve already deleted a lot of photos so who knows what my past posts look like. So time consuming to check them.

Anyway, did a fun thing with my daughter and her fiance recently. We have a really historic mansion with some gorgeous gardens about 20 minutes down the road from us and I have never been there before so when I saw an ad for an event they were having I thought it would be the perfect time to go check it out. You may have heard of the place. It’s called Filoli Gardens and in 2023 President Biden took a walk around the gardens with Chinese President Xi.

A while ago I read that there was a troll exhibit in the garden and it looked intriguing. Then I read that they were having a Halloween event called Nightfall. Then I knew I had to go.

We got there just before the sun set and were greeted by the first troll, Ranja Redeye. There were TONS of carved pumpkins all in the field. Then we walked through a gate to get to the trail. There we met Sofus Lotus, the Listening Troll. That is my husband standing next to her. I think he’s whispering in her ear, “How did I get trapped into this?” LOL. Truthfully, it was a little hard on him because there was a lot of walking on uneven ground which is not good for his back or legs. He made it through though. There was a group of scarecrows standing in a field. Reminded me of the movie “Children of the Corn.” There were colored lights on the trees and as the night got darker it really started to come alive. There was a huge pumpkin decorated ring that you walk through to get to the main area. Once it got dark it almost looked like a ring of fire.

We came across a group of banana slugs. It looked so cool. There were a lot of other scenes too, including a forest of mushrooms all lit up. Those reminded me of the display in Golden Gate Park that I saw when I did the Illuminate SF A to Z. There was a spot to get a beverage and sit down for a spell by some fire pits if you wanted. It was there that we came across my Spirit Troll, Kamma Can, the Treasure Troll. She can see the potential in any little scrap to turn it into something beautiful! We ended up back at the main entrance and it was spectacular. It was a great evening and lots of folks were there with their kids dressed up for Halloween.

After I got home I looked up the trolls and it seems that we missed one because we only saw 5 and there are 6! I guess I will not see it because the trolls are going away on November 11 and I don’t think we can get down there again before that. I know my hubby won’t go because it took him a day or two to recover from this visit. Poor guy.

I know that Filoli (which stands for Fight, Love, Live) has a Christmas display as well so I think my daughter and I will check that one out because we didn’t go into the mansion on this visit at all and it was decorated too. I was feeling bad for my husband so we stopped once we had made it back to the main area.

Well it looks like I’m able to get this post through without hitting the wall. Thank goodness. Have you heard of the Filoli Gardens? Have anything fun like that in your neck of the woods? Happy Tuesday!