President* Trump, It took me three days, but last night I finally made it all the way through the HP’s long (long) report on the myriad ways your administration has undermined, thwarted, hacked, misrepresented, and disappeared, the data that the US government needs to do its jobs properly (https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/index.html#credits). It was a huge effort (5 … Continue reading God save the data! Or else.
Journalism
Bon voyage dear POTUS?
President* Trump, Looks like I’m late to the party, or at least to the pre-funk where we get to savor the idea that you’ll make good on your threat to leave the country if you lose the election. Yesterday I got a Daily Kos notification about your quip during the super-spreader rally in Macon, Georgia … Continue reading Bon voyage dear POTUS?
Post-this-POTUS ~ to dig or not to dig….?
President* Trump, Was it just dumb luck or did you know from the get-go that it would be perversely helpful to you long about January 21st 2021 to have set it up so that your opposition is reluctant to look as though they’re being partisan in trying to hold you accountable for your crimes? Was … Continue reading Post-this-POTUS ~ to dig or not to dig….?
Women who betray other women
President* Trump, Now, I don’t for a minute think the real Amy Coney Barrett was abducted by her husband in cahoots with a band of wife-killer husbands and replaced with the butter-won’t-melt-in-my-mouth, perfectly poised non-committal woman who participated in the SCOTUS confirmation hearings this week. Nope, we can’t chalk her perfectly scripted responses up to … Continue reading Women who betray other women
Malign design
President* Trump, Even when they’re trashing you, editorialists don’t seem to be willing to push past the easy, semi-palatable gloss of chalking your misdeeds up to a lack of understanding or ignorance. The example I came across most recently (as in, I just finished reading it) is a WP op-ed by Garrett Graff entitled: The … Continue reading Malign design
No COVID protections and yet another quid pro quo
President* Trump, Now maybe Katie Shepherd (WP) isn’t relaying the following quote sufficiently and the White House spokesperson didn’t really indicate that a non-sentient entity (i.e., the White House) was being charged with keeping the POTUS, his family, and the WH staff safe, but I’m betting she did the best the could with what she … Continue reading No COVID protections and yet another quid pro quo
A one-man debacle for the ages
President* Trump, Fortunately Laura spotted the news that the Grand Jury transcripts in the inquiry into Breonna Taylor’s death are going to be released (see the LA Time article covering the story: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-09-30/grand-jury-transcripts-breonna-taylor-case-released). I’m not sure how she did it since all the news outlets I’ve popped in on this morning might as well have … Continue reading A one-man debacle for the ages
A good enough POTUS beats an evil one any day
President* Trump, Because it seems prudent to leave myself some space to comment on the debate later tonight, I’m just going to share a tiny two-part anecdote. Just now I read Dan Zak’s WP article entitled “November May Be The Darkest Month Americans Have Seen In A Long Time.” It’s sort of a mash-up between … Continue reading A good enough POTUS beats an evil one any day
Election subversion ~ how & when, not if
President* Trump, A few days ago Michael Gerson (WP editorialist) posited that your re-election strategy centers not on actually winning but rather on invalidating the election results (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-strategy-is-not-to-win-its-to-invalidate-the-election-results/2020/09/24/2b201d48-fe82-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html). Between your assault on the Postal Service and mail-in ballots and your rush to add to the conservative flank of the Supreme Court ahead of Election Day, … Continue reading Election subversion ~ how & when, not if
The ends and the means
President* Trump, Yesterday morning when I set out on my walk I didn’t have anything specific in mind to write to you about. I figured something would occur to me in my perusal of the news or in reaction to the day’s poem (which, by the way was incredible and can be read here: https://poets.org/poem/five-horses-doctor-ramon-emeterio-betances?mc_cid=2d4fec3e74&mc_eid=03fcdf422b). … Continue reading The ends and the means