Dear President Biden, I’m not sure I can muster even a decent haiku under the current circumstances, but here goes: Inside my cocoonI feel safe. And powerless.But out is scary. Indeed. The sky is blue, the wind is calm, the traffic is quiet this morning but we are a world of mounting, creeping, lurching, hurtling …
Conspi-racist candidates and middle names
Dear President Biden, Maybe it was because of the heretofore unusual pairing of “conspiracist” and “candidates” in the WP Editorial Board’s piece “A Weird Story Out of Colorado Shows the Dangers U.S. Democracy Faces”, but when I first read it, I parsed “conspiracist” as “conspi-racist.” Here’s the full sentence: “Across the country, conspiracist candidates are …
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Circus-like excrement
Dear President Biden, I’m reading Alyssa Rosenberg’s WP editorial about how many of us are apt to engage in highly problematic hero worship when it comes to elected officials. So far she’s already taken apart the ‘Cuomosexual’ phenomenon, which I’m grateful to say I somehow completely missed, as well as the Ruth Bader Ginsberg ‘Notorious …
Voting rights ~ a round we can’t afford to lose
Dear President Biden, Happy August, a day late. I hope you had a good weekend and that you’re feeling refreshed and ready to defend democracy. It sounds like a few of the tears in your cape maybe got some attention on Friday when you met with Pelosi and Schumer about the need for an all …
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We need a plan
Dear President Biden, Rousing, righteous speeches can be terrific catalysts, and lines like “I’m not saying this to alarm you. I’m saying this because you should be alarmed.” are clever and catchy. Such lines might just give some people the poke they need to move out of the “I’m not sure how bad these GOP …
The Greatest (not)
Dear President Biden, Although not everything you all are doing feels righteous and ethical, it was mostly good to read this morning about your “back door” efforts to shore up various US supply and manufacturing lines. However, the part about making sure we’re able to produce high capacity storage lithium batteries from start to finish …
Proposing a select Congressional fieldtrip out West
Dear President Biden, I learned yesterday that the handgrip thing above the passenger side door in most cars is actually a “passenger assist” and it’s designed to allow one to do a bit of a hoist out of or a more controlled plop into the car. Apparently it’s not for holding onto while sitting idly …
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Are we in hell?
Dear President Biden, It’s still way, way too hot in way, way too many places but yesterday Seattle was overcast and the high was somewhere in the mid-70’s (it was comfortable enough and I was busy enough with work that I didn’t check my NWS app at all). I actually cooked dinner last night and …
Some extreme heat lessons
Dear President Biden, I hope today is the last day I feel compelled to give you a read out on the previous day’s high temperature – we’ll see. Today’s forecast is for 91 and this morning’s cool-feeling, breezy-ish 74 nearly brought both Laura and I to tears. After finally topping out at 108 yesterday, I …
A squirrel missive
Dear President Biden, Congratulations on the (still theoretical) bipartisan agreement on the hard infrastructure package. Hopefully Mitch McConnell won’t find a way to torpedo it and hopefully all of the Democrats will hold together to support it. I know there’s a lot more sausage making that’s going to happen on this agreement as well as …