Archive for Uncategorized – Page 44

Nashville: Skyline and All

“If you’re travelin’ in the north country fair

Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline

Remember me to one who lived there

For she was once a true love of mine.”

Both Bob Dylan and the Nashville skyline have changed since he wrote those words for the Nashville Skyline album in 1969. I loved the record (yes, it was a record in those days), and I loved his surprising shift from folk-protest to traditional country music including an off-pitch duet with Johnny Cash. Beyond that I didn’t know much about the city except that it was the home of the Grand Ole Opry. I had never been there and neither had M, but a chance meeting with a young couple at a Peter Cetera concert in Seattle got us thinking about a visit to their hometown. So, on impulse, with an Alaska Airlines companion ticket to burn, we booked the flight as just the right destination for an escape from our long wet winter in Seattle. read more

Commander-in-Thief

There’s no other way to say it… I’m worn down and disheartened by what’s happening in Washington. I still believe that fairness, goodness, generosity, cooperation, and compassion are core values to most Americans, but when the President and his surrogates lie to us, when reporters are jailed (W. VA), body slammed (MT), or referred to as “enemies of the state” (POTUS) for simply asking questions, when Russia is praised and courted and NATO snubbed and denigrated, when legislation is crafted to harm the poor and enrich the wealthy it’s obvious that our core values are under siege. But keep reading… I have a theory. read more

Gutless Wonders…

The political mysteries of the moment are:

  • Why did only half the eligible voters think our presidential election was worth turning out for?
  • How did such an ill-informed unfit candidate become President of the United States?
  • How did the Russians manage to meddle so effectively in our electoral process?
  • Why doesn’t a Republican Congress that distrusts or at the least feels ambivalent about its President fully embrace an investigation into his possible collusion with the Russians?

American democratic traditions and institutions are under attack. The vultures are circling. Why haven’t our elected officials come together to thwart the attack and bring the nation together?

Last week, after four months of Congressional foot dragging, during which we watched the President fire all of the nation’s serving US Attorneys, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and FBI director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein decided to take the investigation of criminal wrongdoing away from a partisan, gutless Congress and appointed an independent Special Council. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s charge is to look into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election. read more

Venus is Retrograde and Other Chaos Theories…

It’s often easier to see the flaws in others than to see our own, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to find I had given myself a pass on one of my own. I realize, despite the lip service I had paid it, that I had never really given gender equality the consideration it deserved. I didn’t have to. As an older white male, I had a regular seat at the table.

So, last week when President Trump was shown in the rose garden of the White House with a group of grinning, back-slapping, white men and a case of Bud Light to celebrate passage of the House of Representative’s newest Obamacare replacement it was a gut check and stunning throwback to an earlier time. That picture was worth a thousand words. read more

The Flabby Truth…

  • Stop mourning – it’s a done deal, he’s our President
  • Stop being confused and bewildered – get over it and get to work
  • Stop looking for meaning, strategy, coherence – they’re missing
  • Stop reading his Tweets – it’s part of his shiny object gambit
  • Stop thinking he will change – he never has
  • Stop believing he will become presidential – he doesn’t know how
  • Stop thinking he’ll divest himself of conflicts – he’s too greedy
  • Stop thinking Congress will stop him – they’re gutless

NOW IT’S UP TO US!

Yes, I’ve been beating the drum against Trump’s ignorance, arrogance, bigotry, misogyny, and bluster since before the election. His faults were so obvious and well documented; he was an easy target. But, now he’s the Commander-in-Chief with the nuclear codes at his stubby little fingertips. We need to focus. It’s time to end this charade and call him out for trying to hijack our democracy. He and his feckless, reckless, clueless posse have put American democracy in peril. We now have an uninformed, unread, impulsive, petulant, narcissist as the 45th President of the United States. And, it’s not just America that’s concerned; his ignorance of world affairs is scaring other world leaders too. read more