Day: April 27, 2019

Slam Dunk

Fandango8 Comments

7AFBD860-DCD0-4D12-AD96-61CBB3588695Kenneth stood at the back of the empty courtroom and welcomed the respite as the jury adjourned to begin deliberations. It had been a long and grueling trial, at times lackluster and at other times quite spirited. But it was now out of his hands.

When he was assigned the case by the district attorney, Kenneth thought it was nearly identical to a case he had successfully prosecuted a few decades earlier when he was a young attorney. But once the trial began, he knew that his co-counsel, Cheryl, was right when she warned him that there’s a storm brewing.

“I’ve never heard so many lies come from the mouths of so many witnesses as I heard at this trial,” Cheryl told Kenneth.

“And for that reason, it should be a slam dunk,” Kenneth said. “But we’ll find out when the jury comes back if they bought the lies or if they find him guilty of obstruction of justice.”

Written for Teresa’s Story Starter Challenge where the line is, “There’s a storm brewing.” Also for Teresa’s Genre Writing Challenge where the genre is “legal thriller” using the above image from David Mark @ Pixabay.com.

And for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (respite), Word of the Day Challenge (lackluster), Ragtag Daily Prompt (identical), and Your Daily Word Prompt (lies).

Weekend Writing Prompt — Vulnerable

Fandango5 Comments

43A715BB-C3E8-4320-A5E9-B46D18F6F3BEI never thought I’d see the day when America would be vulnerable to becoming an autocracy.

Then along came Donald Trump.

(21 words)

35CBBA8C-02CC-40E2-8249-E6BB3707BA14Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where we are challenged to write a poem or piece of prose using the word “vulnerable” in exactly 21 words. Photo credit: Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post.

X is for Xenophobe

Fandango34 Comments

4F6BB380-E9BD-4736-9808-50345B95CBA7Let’s see. There’s xylophone. Nah. There’s Xerox. Nope, I did that last year. How about xfinity? No, that’s a made up word that serves as the brand name for Comcast’s cable and internet service.

Oh wait. I know. Donald Trump.

I know what you’re thinking. Donald Trump doesn’t start with the letter X. Actually, though, Donald Trump is America’s Xenophobe-in-Chief.

A xenophobe is a person who fears or hates foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers. And based upon what Donald Trump says and does, he is definitely a xenophobe.

He wants to spend billions of dollars to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico because, according to Trump, Mexicans “have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. They’re killing us at the border and they’re killing us on jobs and trade.”

And it’s not just Mexicans that Donald Trump hates. He hates people from what he calls “shithole” countries. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he wants to know.

Shithole countries in Africa, like Nigeria, or island nations like Haiti. Trump said that Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts,” and that Haitians “all have aids.” “Why do we need more Haitians?” Trump asked. “Take them out.”

Instead of people from Central America with brown skins or from Africa with black skins, Trump spoke of taking in immigrants from “great European countries like Norway.” Could skin color have anything to do with that. Well, that would be racist, wouldn’t it? And for the purpose of this post, I don’t want to talk about Trump the racist, even though he is one.

Nope. This post is exclusively about Trump the xenophobe.

Previous A to Z Challenge 2019 posts:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

SoCS —Expectations

Fandango10 Comments

c21f1f19-72c6-4526-a1d1-92be03a02891.jpegFor this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has instructed us to use “xp” as a word, or to find a word with “xp”in it. When I first saw “xp,” what came to mind was the Microsoft Windows operating system, Windows XP.

I’m no expert in Windows operating systems, but I do know that Windows XP was released in 2001 to replace Windows 2000. Windows XP delivered a more stable operating system with significantly improved performance over previous Windows operating systems, which were notoriously buggy and prone to crashing. 96CC72BC-B0B7-4522-87E7-5859A060ECE1Which of you hasn’t had your heart stop when the blue screen of death showed up on your monitor or laptop?

Microsoft introduced Windows 7 in 2009 and Windows 8 in 2013 as replacements for Windows XP, although the company I worked for continued to run its PCs and laptops on XP until it ultimately migrated to Windows 10 in 2015.

My two-year old Dell laptop has Windows 10 installed on it, but the truth is, I hardly use my laptop anymore. Most of what I would need a computer for these days, including blogging on WordPress, I do on my iPhone.2FE7DDE4-8ABC-415F-A414-A07FEC896D42On a totally unrelated topic, I get monthly credit bureau rating reports from Experian, as well as from Equifax and TransUnion, the three major credit reporting bureaus. I’m pleased to say that I have an excellent credit rating!

But seriously, would you have expected anything else from Fandango?

FOWC with Fandango — Respite

Fandango26 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 27, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “respite.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.