President* Trump, evil (adjective): profoundly immoral and wicked incarnate (adjective): embodied in flesh; in human form evil incarnate (example): If you encounter someone who pulls off butterflies' wings for fun, you might describe that person as “evil incarnate.” I didn’t come up with the example above – it’s what Vocabulary.com has to say about the … Continue reading Evil incarnate through and through
Truth
How about we don’t just live with this?
President* Trump, So I swear that the WP article drilling down on how the numbers of covid-19-related deaths and hospitalizations are only temporarily lagging behind the surging case numbers came out overnight, after I wrote yesterday’s letter to you (WP title: “Coronavirus Deaths Lag Behind Surging Infections But May Catch Up Soon”). As you can … Continue reading How about we don’t just live with this?
What the hell?
President* Trump, I’m not quite sure how to make sense of the Worldometer’s numbers for the US and my reaction to them. As has been in the headlines for over a week now, the number of new cases each day has jumped precipitously from a horrifying average level of about 20k to a staggeringly high … Continue reading What the hell?
Let’s stop helping maintain the status quo
President* Trump, I don’t think it’s that I’m especially sensitized to it, though I can’t completely rule out the possibility, but I think I’ve been hearing even more of the following lately: “Hey guys, let’s go ahead and get started.” “Thanks guys, this is great.” “What do you guys think?” “Hi guys, how’s it going?” … Continue reading Let’s stop helping maintain the status quo
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
Words matter, a lot
President* Trump, Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I realized that I closed out yesterday’s letter to you in a highly problematic way, one that betrays my implicit racial biases that, unfortunately, run parallel to the WP editors I called out earlier in the week. Here is the offending text: “This tree … Continue reading Words matter, a lot
Nurse log
President* Trump, How about it? Why don’t you confuse the shit out of everyone, like Gorsuch did this week in coming out (ha!) in favor of LGBTQ employment rights, and declare June 19th – Juneteenth – a federal holiday? Seriously, you don’t have anything of any real value to lose at this point and it … Continue reading Nurse log
Why now?
President* Trump, I’m 95% certain I’ve told you about this tree before – it’s the ancient chestnut tree a few houses North of the original 21st Buddha and I’ve walked past it at least once a week for about 10-ish years now. Because it’s sited at the end of the block its massive canopy shades … Continue reading Why now?
Segregation and bootstraps
President* Trump, This afternoon Laura and I watched Sarah Cooper’s latest Trumpian lip-sync on YouTube – “How to Lincoln.” Although Cooper portrayed you brilliantly, it was an especially vile 24 seconds of Trump-speech and when it was over, all I could think to say was that you are loathsome. You truly are. Fortunately, though, this … Continue reading Segregation and bootstraps
Good hard conversations
President* Trump, Have you seen pictures of the gorgeous BLM street mural that’s on East Pine in Capitol Hill here in Seattle? It’s in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (the CHAZ) and stretches an entire city block. The one in your almost-front yard is really striking – I like the bold yellow and the fact … Continue reading Good hard conversations