We’re on a roll! It’s March 1st and we started things  – our closing month here – with uncommon gusto. After an early morning breakfast at Palmetto Bay Sunrise Café (where the clatter and chatter and bustling activity reflected the island’s atmosphere of buoyancy on this sunny cloudless day) we stopped at Publix, got a few things, then headed home over the newly paved roads to our winter cottage at Lands End on Braddock Cove. But not before having diverted to Zips Car Wash where in addition to a summary wash we also vacuumed the car and sprayed and wiped the interior (as well as dusting the dash). All of which is to say, an ideal outing on a brilliant Saturday morning.

At breakfast, just after having finished eating, we briefly exchanged pleasantries with two ladies seated at a table across the aisle.  They were from Ohio but lived here now, retired.  The most talkative woman of the two explained that her parents formerly lived on the island at Shipyard Golf Club and that she (the daughter) had regularly visited here for the past 30 years. When I directly asked what it was like living here, she interestingly responded with a degree of hesitation.  She confessed the beauty of the place, the beach and the sea, but acknowledged the unbearable summer heat and tourist traffic. I echoed the observations, including the one summer visit we had flettingly endured en route from a similarly mistaken voyage to Fort Lauderdale on July 4th weekend. Otherwise we appeared to be of one accord.  As we prepared to leave, the woman apologized for America’s embarrassing conduct.

The historic vacillation and political turmoil did not however quell this morning’s clarity of mind and application. In particular we welcomed a subtraction from the day by enjoying cake and coffee at home. It certainly doesn’t reflect our normal invention but it most certainly worked its magic, reminiscent of the French proclivity for morning sweets. Once again, a singularly effective element of the perfect day!

The incremental novelty and pleasure of our stay here this year naturally beckons reflection upon the future. On the one hand we’ve discussed never returning, that this is our swan song here so to speak; alternatively, we’ve accepted that we may think differently upon our return to Canada. But what perpetuates itself is a growing discomfort with the political atmosphere in the United States of America, this in spite of the Democratic contrast and aversion. But corporate America has clearly bent to the freakish persuasion of Trump, whom we Canadians (and many others in the world) consider a poor demonstration of what we thought to be American talent and model of behaviour.  However, as someone remarked in a political discussion  last evening, perhaps Americans are only now awakening to their true inclinations, preoccupied with money and supremacy (both nationally and internationally, most recently reflected in Trump’s and JD Vance’s extraordinarily inept display of social manners with Ukrainian president Zelensky). Considering Trump’s complete ignorance of need and domination, his treatment of the Ukrainian president (who has endured catastrophic losses) was nothing short of staggering and inhumane. Trump’s sole devotion to transactional success (“getting what you want”) is unforgivable. It seems too that the American majority is starting to resile from this posture of arrogance and dominance. While we all admit there is backroom discussion prior to public display, uniting the two in such open and patently David-and-Goliath imagery is dangerous on all accounts; and there seems to be a very good chance that the act will fail as the fable related. There is far too much growing opposition to whatever it is that Trump is secreting following his triumphant return to power, metaphorically captured in the ape-like jumping of Elon Musk whose own immigrant background is paradoxically working against him and his family. This of course is further diminished by Trump’s incontrovertible alliance with Russia, a diplomatic turn which far surpasses collegiality but instead wanders threateningly into the depths of unrestrained violence and supremacy manifested by Vladimir Putin. Escaping that blemish, as Trump pretends to do, by calling for peace and ceasefire, is a gross misrepresentation of the Russian ambition. As many American pundits have responded, Trump’s conduct threatens not only Ukraine but also Europe, NATO and the United States of America.

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler.

The continued controversy surrounding peculiar Republican devotees such as Matt Gaetz, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Pete Hegseth et al. has forever tarnished the face of the Republican party in particular and America in general. It continues to be impossible to excuse the reluctance of Republican leaders to denounce the conspiracy theorists and election deniers; and, the willingness of the American public to vote accordingly. The danger is far more immediate than we might imagine it to be.