The Burrow

I'm surprised that I'm surprised.  Actually,  royally pissed off is closer to my current state of mind.  Once again, the Lying Liar has escaped the fate reserved for mere mortals like you and me.  I leapt past furious when I heard the news; typing this hours later has left me with steam coming out of my ears. Without explanation, the NYState Appeals Court cut the bond to a mere $175 million.   Try that the next time you're arrested for a crime.  Stay out on the street on your own recognizance.  Appeal the judgement because you just really really can't raise the exorbitant amount required by that very mean judge.  Get a reprieve at the next to the last minute - less money out and more time to find it. There was no explanation attached to the ruling.  Apparently (note irony), that's not necessary.   Someone's offering $3 billion for Truth Social.  The judge in his criminal trial told him to shut up, citing his behavior surro...

 As Laura said of me , From Bill Barr's mouth to God's ear. Bill Barr is another spineless sycophant, swirling around the vortex, creating chaos (cf his misrepresentation of the Mueller Report) and advancing his own version of the narrative.  That version reflects what's palatable to what he thinks is the winning-at-the-moment side. I suppose, then, that I should be glad that Barr went on Fox this weekend and said that if the DOJ can prove even one of the crimes in the indictment brought against the lying liar, He's toast. I'm not sure it will be hard to do. The indictment starts by pointing out that just because you once worked there doesn't mean that you get to keep the stuff you read there. (Charges 4 and 37)  And it certainly doesn't mean that you can take that stuff home to your bathroom (no matter how ornate the chandelier - Charge 28). https://tinyurl.com/yc3smnw4 nor leave boxes of it, unattended, on a stage. (Charge 25) It's against the law. ht...

First of all, dereliction is a lovely word. Vocabulary.com was concise:   a word for neglecting responsibilities. Oxford Learner's Dictionary gave me this:  the fact of deliberately not doing what you ought to do, especially when it is part of your job. Merriam Webster came a bit closer to what I had in mind with this:    intentional or conscious neglect. Bu t my favorite, the one that resonated most with me, came straight up from Google:  the shameful failure to fulfill one's obligations. Emphasis on the shameful, if the man could feel shame.   Duty, something else our former President has taken great pains to avoid (cf Pvt. Bone Spur), is  a moral or legal obligation; a responsibility; a task or action that someone is required to perform, according to Google. The moral obligation part is what's missing from DJT, because, as far as I can tell, he has no morals (cf. the Access Hollywood tape).   Cambridge  English Dictionary pu...

Get rid of the f'ing mags.  They're not here to hurt me .  (Trump on his comfort level with the weaponry carried by the Jan 6th rally attendees) Mark, you need to pay attention to this. (Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to the Chief of Staff, after telling him that those armed Trumpies were about to storm the Capitol) Anything else?  (Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, from his office couch, without looking up) He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.  (Meadows on Trump's opinion of the above) It was un-patriotic.  It was un-American. (Hutchinson on the above) THAT'S MY COUCH (Mick Mulvaney on Meadow's perch while glued to his phone during the above) Only the last one made me laugh.  We came so very close to losing it all.

I'm obsessed.  I'll admit it.  I'm organizing my week around it.  I'm furiously crocheting as I sit in front of the television for hours, watching the attempted destruction of our democracy.  I'm yelling at the screen,  I'm weeping, I'm fantasizing about DJT answering for his crimes. Yes, crimes.  He's on tape.  He tweeted.  Objectively speaking, he did bad things and he must be punished.   But we don't live in an objective world.  We live in a world where strangers can bust into a grandma's house looking for an election official and a volunteer - her daughter and granddaughter - to make a citizens' arrest.  The President of the United States had convinced them that the two women had conspired to steal the election.  The USB drive that they supposedly shared?  Listen to the daughter:  This is a ginger mint.   The Committee is drawing a direct line, at every turn, to the former President of the United St...

The Committee members repeated it, over and over again.  Donald Trump knew  that Mike Pence could not refuse to certify the electors.  Donald Trump knew that there was no credible evidence that the tally was rigged. I don't think so. I think it's true to say that the information was conveyed to him.  I think it is true that the words were said and read to him many times.  I don't believe that he was capable of internalizing them, much less acting upon them. I don't think he's capable of considering the fact that he lost, and that he lost so publicly.  Mary Trump's expose of their family dynamics says it all in the title:   Too Much and Never Enough .  Failure is just not an option in TrumpWorld, especially in the brain of Donald J Trump himself.   That's not an excuse for his behavior, past and present.  I'm totally diagnosing him from afar.  But I've said all along that you can't fix crazy, and these delusions are just t...

That's how Comcast's Guide  function identifies tonight's Select Committee hearing.  There are going to be a bunch of them.  The first one was great tv and real history and if Officer Caroline Edwards' testimony didn't leave you in tears then maybe you needed to be in a life and death situation like that to feel how honest, how raw, how necessary it was for her to tell that story. Over and over again, she'll tell that story.  Over time, I hope, it will fade into the background, although I know full well how hard it is to contain everything associated with encountering those who wish to do you bodily harm.  The reluctant film maker, dressed in formal Casual Friday, was at the front of he-didn't-know-what when he found himself filming the mob assaulting Capitol Police Officer Edwards. The Committee laid the ground work, presented catchy videos (cf Bill Barr calling bullshit, Ivanka saying Daddy was wrong), and then hit us in the gut, in the heartstrings, in th...

Republicans can't get elected the franchise is expanded.  Therefore, all measures must be taken to limit access to the voting booth. Voter Suppression seems to be the policy of the Republican Party.  Not one of the policies, or the primary policy, the  policy.  It's an interesting pole around which to wrap an organization representing, according to Gallup, 25% of Americans.   That's almost 83 million humans. 83 million people who identify with a cult of personality determined to limit the most basic of civil rights.   Did you see the golden statue of the former President at CPAC?  I'm not sure if it was meant to be ironic (probably not) or exalting (like the golden calf) or reminiscent of their leader's golden locks, but all it brought to my mind was his golden toilet. Seriously.  Would you pose next to a toilet?   As I watch these poorly dressed, poorly groomed, poorly grounded in reality white men pay homage to their idol, I ...

Amidst the deluge of information dribbling out of Washington today, Vice President Mike Pence's conversation with the Ukrainian President received a brief mention. Should Trump fall, and take Pence with him (a girl can dream, can't she?), the first female POTUS will be Nancy Pelosi.  (Go with me here.)  She's the perfect person to step into that situation.  She understands the system and that's just the kind of knowledge we'd need to recover after these attacks on our system. (And yes, I do think that our system is weakened by the actions of this administration.)  She has an Italian grandmother's tolerance for nonsense - which is none - and a wealth of institutional memory which will serve her well. She should serve out Trump's term and leave public service with her legacy complete. In the meantime, Democracy has a chance to score a big win. The Democrats are already having a grand debate, considering the future of the party and the country.  We ar...

And now we come to Trump.  Sunday was Michael Isikoff , David Corn , Craig Unge r, and  Michael McFaul  in the morning, talking about Russian Impulses.  Ambassador McFaul took a picture of us as we were taking pictures of us, before Jim Nintzel, the editor of Tucson's free weekly  and the session's moderator, began the panel to serious applause with this statement about the state of our union:  " It's like a Tom Clancy novel, only more terrifying." Here are some nuggets from all of them.  There were so many good ones I forgot to attribute some of the quotes to the speakers.  They didn't really disagree; I think they'll be okay with my mashup. (Unger) The Russian Mob is a state operator.  There was $1.3 Trillion in assets sent out of Russia when Putin came to power.  That needed to be laundered.... and Trump sold 1300 condos. A dozen guys in Russia hacked one guy in the US, and they changed the course of the election. Deep Fake ...

The sun can't make up its mind, and neither can I. Ten years ago next weekend, my pixilated Obama T-shirt arrived just in time for his inauguration. Today, I wonder if we've elected an agent of a foreign government to the Presidency. Follow the money  has never been more relevant than with this Presidency. Trump's inability to get American financing and the Russian Oligarchs need to launder their ill-gotten gains created a perfect storm, with Vladimir Putin holding the wind machine.  He's Russian, he's not impatient.  He's always understood Trump's bottomless ego, and of the opportunities it presented. We're on tenterhooks, if the talking heads are to be believed.  We're W aiting for Mueller , and the conversation is like listening to Vladimir and Estragon.  We keep getting beaten, and we keep going back.   So, I'm stuck.  Do I remember and revel in the sunshine and that once we did elect a good man to represent us well or do I...

Dr.  Ramani Durvasula  was the first speaker at TedX/Sedona this year.  A therapist, a professor, an author, an all around interesting human wrapped in a delightful exterior, Dr. Durvasula accomplished a miracle - she spoke about DJT for 18 minutes, and she never mentioned his name. Her talk was about narcissism.  It was terrifying and uplifting at the same time.  Her book,  Should I Stay or Should I Go , posits a question TBG and I have been asking ourselves lately.  How bad does America have to get before we seriously consider relocating to British Columbia?  Last Tuesday's election results have eased the pressure somewhat, but Dr. Durvasula told us that second chances only give permission . It's as hard to think about as a country as it is in a personal relationship.  The stakes are just as high. The more she talked, the more she drew us in.  Here's some of what she said, and what it meant to me. Narcissism is characterized by c...

We've read all of Bob Woodward's books, finding them compelling and accurate and intimate pictures of the people and events in the headlines.  We lived in D.C. during Watergate; the Washington Post was our hometown paper.  Reading about it in Woodward's series of books brought us deeper into the minutia.  Then, as now, we reveled in the details. So, when TBG asked me to reserve a copy of Fear  at our neighborhood Barnes and Opal, I didn't give it a second thought.  I picked it up the day it was revealed.  This is what I was given I had to ask for a bag. I couldn't have that man, that face, staring at me, sharing my space, in my car.    I certainly couldn't have him in my home.   We took off the dust cover, but the binding was rough and TBG uses the inside flap as a bookmark.  I could have made one out of a paper bag, or wrapping paper, but my bookshelves offered many better options. Has it come to this?  Too ...

I was 18 when I joined the Mobilization Against the War in the March on Washington, D.C.  Four of us drove from Ithaca to the home of a professor friend of a friend who welcomed a dozen or more of us, strangers in need of a free bed, into his huge home.  We sat in his backyard, under the stars, and tried to articulate our need to be there. Because it was a need.  Our friends were being drafted when their grades fell.  We played cards with a friend who ate next to nothing, avoiding a 1-A classification by being too thin.  Bombs were being dropped on innocents and Communists alike, awful bombs raining napalm and Agent Orange on a country that wasn't threatening us for any reason other than we were there, threatening them. There were some principled legislators, elected officials who made a difference.  I was in the audience when Sen. Frank Church spoke out about the war, making a case I could understand and repeat to Daddooooo, who took the other side. ...

This morning, I thanked Little Cuter for sharing her family with us last night  and before I could finish she sighed and said she understood, that she walked into her house and took a deep cleansing breath,, leaving Recent Events outside. It was easier for me to do that when FlapJilly and SIR and my daughter were there to distract me. ***** Valerie Plame Wilson , one of my heroes,  posted this on Facebook, citing @CelesteHeadlee : Want to make sure you all saw this photo. It's the line of people in Durham waiting to turn themselves in for toppling the Confed statue. Only 9 of them were answering warrants, the rest were channeling Bible stories... you know... I am Spartacus! ... I am Spartacus!.... I am Spartacus. ***** Neither Robert E. Lee then nor Robert E. Lee V now, neither the great-great-something grandsons of Stonewall Jackson nor the direct descendants of Jefferson Davis think the statues of their relatives should remain standing in public spaces. ...

The day started with the best business people dropping out of Councils that had been disbanded because who wants to host a party that no one will attend? I watched Nicole Wallace, Communications Director for George Bush and McCain/Palin, wonder who resigns over this ? I found out that there is a uniform for white supremacists: a white polo shirt, tan khaki pants, and a red ball cap, aping Donald Trump's leisure wear.  I found out that the Nazis and the Klan (and the other groups whose names and websites I don't want to know about or promote) are recruiting on college campuses, looking for clean cut youngsters who are willing to climb into the clown car. I began to compose this ad: WANTED Very Nice People who participated in the Unite The Right rally in C'ville.   You know, the one whose poster featured all those white nationalists, Klansmen, Nazis. (Added bonus if you can articulate a nice reason for associating with assholes.) My President tells me that...

I thought there was one thing everyone could agree upon - Nazis have no place in the USofA. It seemed like a gimme, a simple thing, say Nazis are Bad and move on. Instead, our President invented an entire movement and accused them of attacking those peacefully protesting white guys who really really cared about a statute of Robert E. Lee. I'm waiting for the Republican Party to disassociate itself from this man.  I'm wondering what the Kushners' rabbi has to say about all this.  I wonder how my Breitbart reading friend can justify the false moral equivalencies his President draws. But mostly, I was really confused about the whole alt-left thing, never having been asked to join and wondering who amongst us had the secret password to this hitherto unknown cohort.  All became clear when Big Cuter shared this tweet from @Scott_Gilmore Alt-left, violently coming at the alt-right, circa 1944. 'Nuf said.

Fire and Fury . That's what our President is threatening.   Fire and Fury ..... 45's version of Shock and Awe?   This is my nightmare scenario.  Two unstable, egomaniacal, powerful leaders tossing the threat of nuclear war around like they are calling out a death metal band. Miniaturized nuclear weapons... and I don't care how well they can be aimed because almost counts in horse-shoes and in atomic blasts. When President Kennedy took to the black and white tv in the living room to warn us of an imminent danger just 90 miles off the coast of Florida, I locked myself in my parents' stall shower.  I stood there, writing my will in the fog on the walls, thinking that I might never take another shower because the world would be blown to bits. I'm having those same worries right now. I'm going to take a bath.  Do you think Epsom Salts can cure what ails me?

Thanks, Little Cheese, for alerting me to the fact that this had yet to appear! I've tried to come up with an explanation, but I can't.   It's a question no one has asked. Believe me, between the New York Times and the Washington Post and the various  on-line  aggregators I bring to the table, and the televised talking heads of all descriptions who are TBG's companions most of the day, we hear and see it all.  What we miss generationally, Big Cuter is happy to provide. Still, I seem to be the only person who is wondering, and that makes me wonder why I'm wondering... and why they are not... and who are they, anyway. Obviously, Mr. Trump knew that he'd be seated next to Mrs. Abe; he brought a Japanese/English translator to the G-20 dinner at the center of the latest kerfuffle.  Didn't anyone wonder about the rest of the seating arrangements? Who decided that it would be a good idea to put Melania Trump next to Vladimir Putin? There ar...

Remember DJT's 400 pound guy sitting on his couch?   The one who hacked the DNC emails and tampered with our elections? Maybe he wasn't made up out of the candidate's imagination after all Maybe The Donalds were sharing a laugh about the guy from the Miss Universe pageant who was offering up information on Hilary. As I type this, no one knows what The President knew and when he knew it. In this bizarro world, it's easy to believe that Rob Goldstone was exactly the character DJT had in mind. http://www.businessinsider.com/rob-goldstone-amazing-social-media-trump-russia-2017-7 .