The Burrow

#TFG, as the Urban Dictionary puts it, is an  abbreviation most commonly used on Twitter to describe the disgraced, double impeached, 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump. It may be that TFG is losing his appeal.  The crazies are still all over the media, all over the Letters to the Editor page in the local paper, delighting the MSNBC talking heads by bloviating on Fox.  But on the ground (literally, on the ground) here in Tucson, things are changing. It's VOTE FOR ME time on the sidewalks and the median strips.  There are the usual MY NAME HERE signs and the THIS IS IMPORTANT SO VOTE YES signs.  There are family portraits (replacing the ominous black posters he started out with). And there used to be portraits of #TFG, like this one from Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, the one who wants to fire the administration , whatever that means. Since things started heating up down in Florida, since it became clear that #TFG was handling ...

Emily's List is dropping Senator Sinema.  Voting rights lead to civil rights which are women's rights and her recalcitrance regarding a filibuster carve out pushed them over the edge. I guess I wasn't the only one who was slightly pissed off. Did you know that a filibuster can be invoked just by sending an email of intention?  Not only has the requirement for standing and talking non-stop been eliminated, now you don't even have to be in the room. Senator Kelly spoke out today, saying just what I wanted to hear.  It shouldn't take more than half the Senate to move things forward.  He's not for making radical changes - that's not who he is - but for voting rights, he's up for dong what it takes to get things done. We have two Democratic Senators in Arizona.  Given the state of American politics, I suppose it's unusual to have even one of whom I can be proud.  But Arizona has been embarrassing me lately, and Senator Sinema is fitting nicely into that p...

Brenda Starr was hosting again.  She let another survivor friend and me into the call before anyone else was admitted; she wanted to be sure that the two of us made the cut - the call was wildly over-subscribed. I don't recall that problem coming up when Sen. McSally spoke to us last week.  Is that a sign?  I hope so. The three of us unmuted and turned on our video and chatted.  It was wonderful to share how long our hair has grown, what colors the others had chosen, how the hairdresser was a scary place to be right now.  Then, in the 4th box on the screen, appeared the candidate.... tying his tie. He usually wears black, mostly a form fitting t-shirt.  The man isn't very tall, but he is very well proportioned to wear a tight tee.  I'm just sayin'........... Once the others started filtering in, I began to smile.  There were Patsy and Jerry Ru..... and Bridget's iPad and Philips ipad ... all titles I'd seen beneath their faces on the previous Star...

Brenda Starr led a Zoom Editorial Board Endorsement Call on Monday with Senator Martha McSally. For those of you who are taken aback, surprised that our stealth Senator actually showed up and faced constituents, rest assured that I was too. She's declined the last invitation. There were at least 3 screens full of constituents; I was one of the few with live video.  I planned to submit a question and I wanted her to see my face as it was read. I asked her to explain why Universal Background Checks are not a good idea.  It took about 15 seconds before I began to melt down. Eyebrows up as she advocated for merging the various background check lists which exist throughout the bureaucracy, creating a National Watch List.  She voted against exactly such a measure in February, 2017. Such a list would have precluded the legal purchase of a firearm by my shooter.February, 2017.   Rep. McSally  despite sitting in the seat of former Congresswoman Gabrielle G...

I had another post planned for today, but evens go ahead of me and here I am, once again, bemoaning the sorry state of American politics. Jeff Flake, my junior Senator, is trading in complicity for..... hmmmmm..... a run for the Presidency in 2020?  His remarks on the Senate floor are worth reading in full , but here are some of the pieces I liked the best: I rise today with no small measure of regret. Regret, because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics, regret because of the indecency of our discourse, regret because of the coarseness of our leadership, regret for the compromise of our moral authority, and by our – all of our – complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. Well, you don't hear that every day. He called them all out for being complicit; it's every bit as powerful as SNL's Ivanka Trump perfume ad,...

I'm going to vote Yes on Prop.  123. I am going against all my principles.  I don't give in to bullies.  I do not accept the basic premise of the Proposition.  They are not making any more land; once it's gone, it's gone.  The voters spoke and the Governor and his lackey Legislature refused to act on the electorate's mandate and instead gave us this awful Sophie's Choice.  This is not a long term solution; there is no promise for the future. But, then there are these real life people. The teacher who will get a bonus this summer.... and summer starts on Friday in our District. The principal who watches her teachers dig into their own pockets, pay more for their health insurance, look worn down by the lack of respect shown their profession by those who think that privatizing education is the perfect solution. The translator who knows that his relationship with the Somali and Sudanese 5 and 6 and 7 year old students can continue in the fall. And s...

I ranted and I raved and I was right.  Voting for this Proposition will be giving in to bullies.  The voters demanded funds for education; the governor denied those funds and presented this in its place. There are triggers and there are caveats and there's the whole thing about the State Land Trust and mortgaging the future for today. But..... I spent the morning at Prince Elementary School.  I watched the teacher struggle to maintain order with 27 wily 5 and 6 year olds doing their best to thwart her.  I saw her name on the books in her Library.... her name, not the classroom number or the school's identifier.  She paid for The Little White Duck  and The Sense of Smell  and several other well loved paperbacks in the bucket on our table.  The District didn't pay for those books.  She did, and she will take them with her when she moves out of Kindergarten and up to a 4th grade class next Fall.  They'll stay stored away, in case she de...

Are you watching The Last Man on Earth? It airs on Fox on Sunday nights and it's absolutely delightful.  I've just deleted three sentences because they were filled with spoilers.  You can find it On Demand, and in reruns; be sure to start at the beginning when you binge watch the season. It's more than comedy, though.  It raises real questions about the rules . Do you stop at stop signs if there are no other humans around? Do you drive on the wrong side of the divided interstate, just because you can? Are the formalized institutions of civilization anachronistic or that which holds us together?  Does marriage matter? The characters come to grips with these issues, as they learn to dispose of sewage and create meals reminiscent of those containing meat.  Raisins, it turns out, are a poor substitute. House of Cards  bumps up against the rules, too.  The consequences are a bit more glaring; murder, scandal, disgrace, divorce follow in Francis ...

Brenda Starr and I walked some more of the Rillito Park Path this morning.  We wore tee shirts. The wildflowers are blooming, and my yard is ablaze with random, disorganized color. I spent the afternoon re-potting and installing and pruning and straightening and cleaning the containers. It wasn't too cold to be in the shade in the courtyard nor was it too hot to be potting roses in the sunshine out back. I have a stack of large print mysteries on the bookshelf, books that my library always seems to have on hand.  I can drive twenty-some minutes and be on campus for a class or a lecture or an exhibit or a recital or downtown for a concert or a great meal..... and there's always parking and it's usually free. Did I mention that I was outside all day today?  Did I tell you the part about the tee shirt? I have to keep focusing on these things, denizens, because this state is in the hands of people who are turning it into something unrecognizable, something which...

They were all sworn in today - the new governor and secretary of state and treasurer and superintendent of schools.  I probably should have capitalized all those positions, but I am going to have the officials earn those big letters before I award them here in The Burrow.  It's a small statement, but one I can get my heart around. In this state, that's a big deal. The outgoing Superintendent of Schools, John Huppenthal, took a small man's revenge on a big city's school district.  Friday, his last work day in office, Huppenthal filed papers alleging that the Tucson Unified School District was not in compliance with the court's ruling on their ethnic studies program's revisions.  Never mind that his attack on the MAPS program was a small minded attempt to keep culturally relevant instruction out of the classroom; the courts ordered a change and TUSD complied.... or thought it had complied until rumblings from Huppenthal's office last week led to an exchang...

It was only 161 votes which separated Ron Barber, Democrat and fellow January 8th shootee, from his opponent in November's election, Martha McSally.  That's two hundred doorbells rung or not, 200 family members and friends who remained unconvinced, a block or two of  un-contacted voters.  That's what happens when a Congressional District is gerrymandered into equal thirds - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. My little piece of heaven, Arizona's Legislative District 9, is sending two Democrats to Phoenix for the next session of the House.  Ethan Orr lost by 132 votes to Dr. Randall Friese, another January 8th friend. He'll join Victoria Steele in trying to make Arizona a more human-friendly place, one that cares about education and gun safety; he's already crafting legislation, or so his wife told me last week when we met at Pilates. I am trading a personal relationship in Washington, D.C. for one in Arizona's State House.  If, as Tip O'Neill ...

That's the only way to describe how I feel today.... disconnected.  It's an awkward, uncomfortable, unhappy place to be. I love Arizona.  Even though I almost died here, I love Arizona.  It's a Wild West culture, where Stetson clad sheriffs tote imposing side arms. It's the home of "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" ... although I think that 1968's ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater would be considered too liberal by the Tea Partiers who've taken over his Republican Party.  It's where the streets of Tombstone are boardwalks and dust, just as they were in the late 1800's.  The aura in Sedona is life-changing.  It's unlike anyplace I've ever lived, which may account for the sense of dislocation I'm feeling today. The election results are in.  They do not reflect my ballot.... not hardly at all.  The bond to build an animal shelter passed, as I'd hoped it would.  The Budget Override for the Amphi School District passe...

Granted, it's not like Pennsylvania in 1865.  There is only a war of words, not bullets and bayonets. No one is dying, except, perhaps, a small piece of myself... the piece that believes in the process.  Right now, the process stinks. Martha McSally, the Republican, Tea Party supported candidate for the seat once held by Gabby Giffords, is using our former congresswoman's name and image in her ads.  There is a little old lady saying that "Gabby was independent ... and so is Martha ... and that's where my vote will be cast."  There are three sheriffs who appeared in an ad for Gabby's last run, who are now voting for McSally because the incumbent, Gabby's former director of community relations and her hand picked candidate in 2012, "is no Gabby Giffords."  A third ad reminds me that "Gabby Giffords supported border security measures," before it goes off on a rampage against our current Congressman. I scream every time one of those ads...

The conservative Attorney General of the State of Arizona has given up the fight.  No longer willing to tilt against the prevailing tide of judicial and public opinion, he agreed that the Circuit Court's ruling on laws similar to Arizona's left him with no choice - same sex marriage will now be legal in my state. That's a statement which brings a smile to my face, given how I spent the beginning of my vacation. There were simple centerpieces  and there was carrot cake  because the blonde bride loves carrot cake. Little Cuter told me that. They've been friends since they were 8.  Their friendship spanned six or seven soccer teams. It included tennis camps and camping trips and family ski vacations. There are inside jokes - Little Cuter telling us to SHUT UP I'M SLEEPING when her snoring was the reason the rest of us in the tent were awake - and fond memories of pumpkin patching on the first Saturday in October for years and year...

Is your neighborhood covered with them?  Mine is.  Every corner is awash in cardboard.  I can't see if there's on-coming traffic because Ethan Orr has decided that getting reelected takes precedence over my ability to drive safely.  It's election time, and the posters are everywhere. TBG pointed out last month that it is impossible to tell who belongs to which party.  Except for my friend,  Randy Friese , everyone has his or her own take on red, white, and blue.  There is an occasional elephant on the bottom line, barely visible unless you're stopped in front of the sign itself and looking for an identifier.  I suppose that the lack of labels is a good thing.  We are trying to raise children who see beyond affiliation and into character. Unable to reflexively attach Mr. Orr to either party, I'm free to rail at him as an individual as I inch out of my neighborhood, gingerly placing myself in danger so that he can exercise his right to...

Sarah Garrecht Gassen called them out on Thursday .  Writing her weekly, bylined, column in the Arizona Daily Star, she laid the responsibility - dare I say blame? - for the sorry state of Arizona politics at the feet of mainstream Republican voters. They don't turn out to cast their ballots. Instead, they allow gubernatorial candidates like Christine Jones and Scott Smith and Doug Ducey to pledge No New Taxes and promise to Permanently Seal the Border and Send Obama the Bill. Candidates like Ken Bennett, with real records to stand upon and real plans for the future, are ignored in the more media-friendly outpouring of vitriol. Who wants to listen to detail when there's screaming all around? For the details on Arizona, click through to the link .  My interest in the article was less geographic-specific and more global.  Why would anyone opt out of the process? Perhaps it is generational.  I was 19 when the 26th Amendment was ratified; my college friends wer...

"Do you want to tell me about being on television? The teacher told me to ask you about it." "Not really......" She's always at the studio, amusing herself while her mom exercises.  Dressed to the nines, with hair accessories matching her outfits, her smile as big as the sky.  She dances to the rest room, streaking past our sweating bodies, trying to become invisible.  That is impossible; her personality fills the room. Not wanting to be too pushy, I left the conversation at that.  I'd done what I'd been asked to do; I posed the query.  We were both satisfied, but her maternal unit was having none of it.  Pressured by her parent, she relented. "I was on that bus in Oracle, on my way to camp." That bus .... the yellow school bus GOP Congressional candidate Adam Kwasman and his fellow protestors were trying to block ... the one that they feared was carrying disease ridden, gang prone, undocumented children.... children who were terrifi...

When we decided to move to Tucson, it was trending purple.  Honest.  I'm not lying. We had a Jewish, Democrat, woman in the House and John McCain, the maverick, in the Senate, and a woman in the governor's chair, not for the first time, either. Then, President Obama stole Janet for Homeland Security and John McCain decided Sarah Palin was fit to be one 71 year old heartbeat away from the presidency and instead of Gabby in the Senate I have Jeff Flake.  Sometimes it's a little bit of an embarrassment to admit that I'm from Arizona. On Sunday, Sgt. Lois and I were surrounded by a house full of like-minded, pro-choice, Democrats, at Arizona List's fete honoring Pam Simon, a fellow January 8th shootee, for her quiet determination and hard work on the issue of sensible gun legislation  It was muggy and close quarters and it filled my heart with joy. The Assistant Leader of the Democratic Caucus of the Arizona Senate was there, telling us that three women now lead t...

Well, as a recent citizen of Texas, I experienced what they called "gun day" last weekend. The legislature voted to let college students carry weapons in classrooms, amended the state constitution to ensure no one could ever deny them assault weapons, and above all make sure no one could ever run a background check. I lament my vote may never count for anything during my time here. It also makes me deeply regret my commitment to live here. So wrote, Meg, a blogosphere friend , in the comments last week. She left her comfort zone in Boston last year, and relocated with her family to Texas... which is about as far from Boston as Long Island is from Tucson.   She's trying her best, really, she is, but sometimes the culture shock is too great.   She went from living near Bunker Hill to visiting the Texas book Depository .  She's called ma'am. She's  trying to adjust, but it is not easy. I feel her pain. When we moved from California to Arizona,...

Just when I think that I can take a deep breath and enjoy the view, I open the newspaper and find this: Bill signed preventing Tucson from destroying 'buyback' guns . Who signed this bill?  Here she is, our governor, Jan Brewer. I want you to have the visual as you read and weep.  For weep you surely shall, even if your political leanings tell you that big government is bad, that the individual's rights are supreme, that local control is a self-evident good. I've written about the background on this bill before.  I'll reward regular readers by resisting the urge to regurgitate the facts.  As a quick reminder, here's how I described it in March: This bill will require ALL police departments in the state to sell to gun dealers, and put back on the street, ANY and ALL GUNS acquired by the departments including those surrendered or voluntarily turned in.  Yes, I know.  Guns have feelings, too.  There's no reason I can think of other than that t...