Dear President Trump, You’ve probably seen them too – the pictures of people hanging out on Florida beaches seem to be everywhere. They’re typically accompanied by ‘tsk, tsk’ captions about people not honoring physical distancing guidelines and not wearing masks out in public. Those pictures are concerning, but holy moly do they not hold a … Continue reading Beach parties R-Us….sadly
Gaslighting
A sign of the times
Dear President Trump, Early last week on a long-ish walk I saw a sign affixed next to someone’s front door. It’s not one of the sweet homemade signs thanking essential workers or encouraging passersby to hang in or spread love. Nope. It’s pretty much the antithesis of those sorts of signs as it’s a purchased … Continue reading A sign of the times
“Fixing” curves and bringing history into focus
Dear President Trump, This morning I had nada for you. All I could muster was the date and the salutation – I was so blank I thought I’d probably end up just writing a haiku. Well, you’re in luck because that was the then but now I have not one thing to tell you about, … Continue reading “Fixing” curves and bringing history into focus
Oh, Mitch — here we go!
Dear President Trump, One public admission does not signal that a tidal wave of same is coming, but it does open the door for more of same and thus I bet the news bit that’s got you the most tightly wound this morning is this statement from Mitch McConnell (HP article by Nick Visser): “I … Continue reading Oh, Mitch — here we go!
Different sorts of mothers and warriors
Dear President Trump, In her WP editorial, Margaret Sullivan warns the media not to buy into your propaganda aimed at normalizing the covid-19 death toll, first outlining the false dichotomy between a closed economy being bad and an open economy being good before she goes on to say: “Then there’s Trump’s latest trope: “We have … Continue reading Different sorts of mothers and warriors
Covid charades and “The Betrayals”
Dear President Trump, I know you have (and take) plenty of opportunity to look in the mirror, whether directly at yourself or at one of your surrogates, but I thought we’d start the day with yet another (from the WP’s coronavirus updates): “Although the rate of infection shows no sign of slowing, Vice President Pence … Continue reading Covid charades and “The Betrayals”
The Betrayal
Dear President Trump, Yesterday as I was grappling with the infuriating, sickening (literally) betrayals by you and other elite members of the GOP (and at least one Democratic governor – Jared Polis, CO) I drafted a sentence about how scared I am that we are seeing the beginning of another holocaust that could end up … Continue reading The Betrayal
An especially long, hard letter
Dear President Trump, I read the following three WP articles today in this order (and please note, I’m almost certain that earlier today the first one actually had the word “Government” in place of “Draft” in the headline). “Draft Report Predicts Covid-19 Cases Will Reach 200,000 A Day By June 1” “The Coronavirus Pandemic is … Continue reading An especially long, hard letter
Another essential element: empathy
Dear President Trump, I’ve got another essential element for our post-covid-19, post-you, better-culture-for-all; empathy. However, before I unpack it (again), I want to do something I don’t do very often (ever?), which is to thank you for being such an incredible foil. Most of the time it would make no sense whatsoever for me to … Continue reading Another essential element: empathy
A self-own killing machine
Dear President Trump, Do you feel it too? That time is super wonky these days? We are about to leave the longest April ever, which followed the longest March ever and precedes what will almost certainly be the longest May ever. This morning feels like it was a week ago. Over the course of this … Continue reading A self-own killing machine