President* Trump, Just before 5:00 this morning my brother texted me the following headline and urged me to read the piece: “How Trump Could Lose the Election—And Still Remain President” It’s a Newsweek editorial by Timothy Wirth (former US Senator from CO) and Tom Rogers (editor-at-large at Newsweek and founder of CNBC), neither of whom … Continue reading Wirth and Roger’s nightmare scenario
Politics
More dot connecting
President* Trump, What do the following three things have to do with each other? 1) The Friday night attempt to force US Attorney of the NY Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, to resign followed by his Saturday morning firing when he refused to play along; 2) having a 62-year old woman arrested as she knelt to … Continue reading More dot connecting
Righteous eventualities
“President” Trump, It’s been just over 1.2k days of writing to you and I’m finally done with the polite “Dear President Trump” salutation – you never deserved it, but for the longest time (a seriously very long time) I couldn’t bring myself to address these letters to you in any other way. I’m over it … Continue reading Righteous eventualities
Let’s stop playing follow the leader
Dear President Trump, Yesterday I told you about Brother Phap Luu’s encouragement to let go of blaming others for their roles in perpetuating injustice and climate degradation. What I forgot to include is that he also said we need to stop looking to or waiting for charismatic leaders to solve our problems. My sense is … Continue reading Let’s stop playing follow the leader
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!
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
I beg your pardon, but inequality is not a mere distraction
Dear President Trump, I have a hyper-local vignette and a bigger picture take for you for today. I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned this before, but pre-you, Laura and I played Scrabble most weeknights. However, once you were installed as POTUS, it wasn’t until covid-19 slowed everything down and eliminated my commute time that it … Continue reading I beg your pardon, but inequality is not a mere distraction
Leveraging lessons learned
Dear President Trump, It felt odd yesterday that there wasn’t some equivalent of a Town Crier cruising the streets at 5pm to announce the official start of our state’s shelter in place order. We tuned in to Representative Jayapal’s virtual 5pm Town Hall meeting so I suppose that was sort of similar, but still – … Continue reading Leveraging lessons learned
Give me liberty and give me and you and you and you death
Dear President Trump, The beginning of Lent (February 26th) slipped right by me this year and I don’t think I can blame it on covid-19 since I wasn’t yet fully aware that it was coming our way. I just checked our gmail history to see when our wonderful King County Council member, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, started … Continue reading Give me liberty and give me and you and you and you death
Local stars light the way
Dear President Trump, We got to watch Governor Inslee’s press conference this afternoon and Representative Jayapal’s virtual Town Hall this evening (we also tried to get into the one she is doing with Senator Warren right now, but all the lines were at capacity). As dire and awful as things are right now, and look … Continue reading Local stars light the way