I’m a little over 300 pages into “The Dark Hours.” This novel, by Michael Connelly, is mainly about Detective Renee Ballard, with assistance by Harry Bosch. We’re kept busy as Ballard investigates a double murder, and tag-team serial rapists, while finding a firehouse love interest and getting a new dog.

Let me say that I have not read much, for pleasure, throughout my lifetime. I definitely wasn’t interested in reading police/detective fiction, but I did watch a bunch of the British murder mysteries. Poirot, Agatha Christie, Midsomer Murders, etc. And, I’m not sure I’ve ever read any Stephen King novels, although I am a fan of the TV movies that were made from his books. Until recently I had never read any of the Connelly Bosch novels. But, now I am into my 4th Harry Bosch novel. I started to read one of the Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) novels, but just a page or two into it I realized I really had no interest, so I stopped and found another Bosch novel. *I do like the Lincoln Lawyer movies & series. I’ve enjoyed the Bosch series, but I have no desire to go back and revisit Harry and J. Edgar in their exploits. I’m coming to the point as I guess Connelly is too that life, after LAPD, for Harry Bosch is actively concluding. 

I started to write this entry because earlier this evening I found myself, on the toilet (where I read), having defended Ballard’s & the LAPD’s actions regarding the rape case in the novel. Now, I think this is an acknowledgement of Connelly’s writing skills, in that I took the time to rehearse the police procedures written in the story, and their justification regarding the tag-team rapists.

I also find it comforting regarding how Connelly writes about the January 6th attack on the Capitol. 

I’ve never thought that Donald Trump should be running for, or being voted for the President of the United States. I didn’t think that Hillary Clinton was any better choice, so in 2016 I did not vote for either candidate for President. 

I didn’t make that mistake again in 2020, and voted early, and voted for Joe Biden. I now think he is too old to run for a second term, but if Donald Trump is once again the Republican candidate for President, I will vote for Biden again. ”I would vote for a dead Joe Biden, rather than vote for a live Donald Trump.” Trump brought a great deal of angst to American society, and we don’t need that again. He was definitely the wrong Leader during the Covid Crisis. He found it difficult to “bad mouth” Putin. He kicked some of our “long-time” allies in the teeth. He was going to “drain the swamp,” but quite often he didn’t have a better plan. But, he always said “I have a better plan.” And what might be even more frustrating was that, a bunch of seemingly intelligent Republicans refused to see how wrong he was for America. He wasn’t going to be able to “Make America Great Again,” because his image of a Great America didn’t include the Democratic half of our society. As Democratic led cities had burning in their streets, President Donald Trump admitted that he couldn’t make those cities great because of the Democratic leadership.

Nepotism isn’t the way to go, but Trump frustrated more loyal Republicans who in turn stepped up to serve America, and repeatedly became frustrated, because of Trump’s chaotic leadership style, and left service. But, I guess when enough loyal, old-school Republicans leave, you are left with Capitol Attacking shit who think it’s okay to try to overthrow a valid election. Just because Donald Trump wouldn’t admit that he was defeated fairly a bunch of time and effort was wasted proving that the last Election was fair. After all these years, now all of a sudden, Democrats are so wiley that they can cheat their way to victory. And what is more insidious than a President disparaging the American Electoral System. The worst damned Communist couldn’t do more damage than an American President telling the public that we can’t trust our system for electing a President. But this same man told his constituents to “not listen to the Media, come to me for your news.” When I heard this, early in the Trump Term, I thought to myself, “this must be how it was with Adolph Hitler.” 

It just doesn’t make good sense to choose one source for your news, one man?! I would prefer to listen to multiple sources, and normally truth will be told in enough and in different ways for you to determine what is a good approximation of the truth actually is. 

Donald Trump is a blight on the American System. America is under attack, and America could very well be brought down to nada under Trump’s leadership. Wake Up America!

For Republicans who believe that Democrats are smart enough to “steal the Election.” The only election stealer I heard about was a Republican from Bladen County that was harvesting absentee ballots and before he could be tried and convicted of that crime, he came down with Cancer and died. If you want an example of an election stealer, you have to look first at that Republican.

---