Mr. Brooks, This Is Where I Stand. Even In Diapers - (A Guest Post by CL)

 ("This Is Where I Stand")

I turn 23 today. Ok, 23 months but that is mere technicality.

This is my official request for David Brooks to stop the nonsense. "Conservative Radicalism". Historical perspective. Moving left here, right there. It is enough to make my young brain ache.

Is he incapable of making a simple declaratory statement? Maybe something like this: "Our democracy is in danger. All hands on deck."

I have only known one President in my lifetime but even I know a fascist when I see one.

There are not two sides to every issue Mr. Brooks. Some things are just plain wrong.

I have to end this letter now because I am going for my nap. But when I wake up I would like to read an Op Ed from Mr. Brooks that does not make him seem like both the smartest and dumbest person in the room. Call it an early second birthday present.

Mr. Brooks, this is where I stand. Even in diapers.

C.L.

The Attacks on Kamala Harris

 ("Her Voice? Her Name? G.O.P.'s Raw Personal Attacks on Kamala Harris") 

You indicate that the "Trump campaign struggled to launch a clear attack" against Ms. Harris but that is not accurate.Their's has always been a theme park filled with a basketful of different hatreds. And in Kamala Harris there are Republican riches to be mined.

Hatred of blacks

Hatred of women

Hatred of black women

Hatred of angry black women

Hatred of angry, powerful black women

Hatred of angry, powerful black women, born of immigrants

Hatred of angry, powerful black women who are not "really" black

Hatred of angry, powerful black women whose very name raises suspicion they are not true Americans

This is the Trump version of a campaign strategy and though you might perceive it as disjointed and disorganized it is anything but. 

Bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia all sell well.

America Is Dying

 This nation 

That feeds off its fear, not its hopes

That finds reasons to divide not multiply

That communicates so much but says so little

That has found selfishness, not selflessness, a virtue

That chooses not to open its heart but close its borders

That is far too comfortable living with lies rather than searching for truths

That is capable of  great compassion but instead abides its great cruelties 

That for some know no want, but for many know only profound pounding deficits

That treats freedom as a right to exploit, not a gift to be nourished and deeply cherished

That has lost sight of what is just and real and is blinded by charlatans and masquerades

This nation, our nation, is sick 

It is playing out on our televisions, our computers, in our hospitals and on crowded maskless streets, bars and restaurants,

It is in the votes that will not be counted, in the jobs that cannot be filled, in the classrooms that remain silent and vacant

It is living in the homes that have suffered great losses of spirit, of love of hope

It is etched on our faces and embedded in our souls

It is in our prisons and in our prejudices

It is a pandemic, a disease, that is destroying us

America, is dying

Easy Riders

('If We Get It, We Chose to Be Here'. Despite Virus, Thousands Converge on Sturgis for Huge Rally)

Governor Noem is hoping South Dakota will steal, with slight modification, the state motto of New Hampshire. Her version: "Live free and die."

Courting Mr. Trump and eyeing a national future, Ms. Noem is more than willing to bring 250,000 maskless motorcyclists into her state to demonstrate that stupidity indeed has a conservative bias.

After hosting Mr. Trump's July 4th Mt. Rushmore egothon, the Governor has upped her game, as she embraces those who come armed with nothing more than bravado against a deadly disease that is clearly not impressed nor deterred. 

A nation mourns the loss of its sanity. 

43 Years and Counting (Every Second)

I remember little of that day, mainly of my soon to be mother in law fixing my tie right before I walked down the aisle. Even then I was not a capable person.

The years since just happened. No grand plan, merely two people doing what needed to be done. Strike that, one person doing and the other, well, something far less.

I sent my wife an email yesterday, setting out the number of years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds since we exchanged I do's. I promised her that, if there was a God, her perseverance would be rewarded. But with her luck, who knows.

For those of you who continue to insist my inability is but performance art, that no one seemingly uncompromised person could possibly suffer such grave incapacity, I have one word in response: really?

I am what I am, or more accurately what I am not. 

And that means that most everything you can think of, I can't. Name a task. No, I can't perform that one. Try something simpler. No, even simpler. Still beyond my ken.

And through it all, stands my wife.  In some ways imperfect, for no one is without blemish. But in her willingness to shoulder the burden known as me for well over four decades, to perform the high wire act of life with no net, to get up each morning ready, willing and able to take on virtually every conceivable role of two people, she has been breathtaking.

I owe my wife much more than I have given her, much more than I will ever give her. But I am thankful every day that she has found the strength to persist in this endeavor, that she is willing to find adequate cause to carry on with a partner such as me.

I love her and my wish for her is that there is in fact a benevolent God.

43 years and counting.

Shakespeare On Baseball's Declining Health (Going, Going, Gone?)

Oh enemy most foul

For it be not fair that this sickness runs with abandon between these lines

How did this strike not one, not two but strike three

Out, out the cry piercing the air

And yet this disease steals our very breath

As we lay caught in its web

No safety found at home

Our protest in vain, our cry's bootless, a deaf ear turned to our fervent appeals

For if this be not a blow most mortal, it is nigh upon us

We are but walking shadow

Death waiting with grave intent at the top step

Our nation's heartbeat near extinguished

Fear rampant that the games we play today 

Will in all the tomorrow's to come be going, going gone

Anarchy in Portland

("Help Me Find Trump's 'Anarchists' in Portland")

Why are we not surprised by Donald Trump's characterization of the Portland protesters?

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best...They're sending people that have lots of problems... They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists" Donald Trump, presidential announcement speech, June 16, 2015

"There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down." Donald Trump, speaking about Muslims at a campaign rally, November, 2015

"But not all of those people were neo-Nazis believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee." Donald Trump on the Charlottesville, Virgina protesters who included Ku Klux Klan members, skinheads, many heavily armed and carrying Nazi flags- August, 2017

"Many Gang members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan...This is an invasion of our country and our military is waiting for you." Donald Trump tweet on the approaching "migrant caravan", October 29, 2018

All For One. Period.

("The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing America")

The mindset was evident from the first day of the campaign and has been a cornerstone ever since: "do unto others anything you can."

It was there in the call to build a Wall to keep those fleeing the worst of circumstances from "infecting us"; from the executive order making sure Muslims understood their suffering was not ours; from the refusal to even consider taking the smallest of steps in gun control in the wake of continuing mass tragedies; from the lack of remorse as little children lay terrified in cages.

It is not black lives matter or even white lives matter, but that your life alone matters. 

It is a selfishness and egocentricity that emanates from Mr. Trump and has literally poisoned a nation. The mask is off and what we have seen underneath makes me sick, and has left nearly 150,000 dead.

The age of inhumanity.

All for one. Period.

Remembering Five Words - In Order

("Democrats- Don't Take the Bait on Trump's Memory Test")

"Wall, Putin, Impeachment, Fascism, Coronavirus."

The Washington Football Team

("NFL- D.C. Adopts New Name 'The Washington Football Team'- For Now")

"The Washington Football Team."

What is their payroll? Wait, don't tell me. And they couldn't find anyone who could do better than this? Did they contact anyone at Mensa? Why not employ Watson, the computer, to sort through like a million possibilities? Or ask a group of first graders to make something up?

Here are a few options I would ask the team to consider:

1. The AC/DC's.

2. The Washington Debacle

3. The Team That Couldn't Name Themselves

4. The DC Dream (Of The Playoffs)

5. The Washington Wonder (If We Are Really This Bad)
6. The Washington Black and White (Skins)
7. The DC Lewisers (To honor John Lewis, of course)

8. The Washington (Weak) Constitution
9. The Washington 11
10. The Washington Impasse 

11. The Washington Post Route
12. The Washington Too Early To Call (.com)

They truly need more time to settle on a name? Why not just temporarily call themselves the "No Namers" or just plain "Washington"? Were they concerned we would think they were a baseball team if they stepped out on the field without this explanation in their title?

And we thought Donald Trump was the stupidest leader in the nation's capital? Move over and make room for Dan Snyder. 

PS-  I think the AC/DC's might actually work.