My amazing niece & nephew helped me make a paper chain to count down the days until the inauguration.
Each day, I will tear one off and post a message about the damage Trump has done to the nation & the presidency — acts I hope we never see again from a POTUS /1
Bonus post from yesterday (waiting for the glitter glue to dry):
With 57 days until the inauguration, I hope we never again have a president who belittles the service and sacrifice of our intelligence officers. /2
Today, with 56 days until the inauguration, a word about how conservatism used to embrace conservation of the natural splendor of America, and how I hope our future presidents remember we are shaped by our wilderness, not merely the conquest of it /3
PAPER CHAIN DAY 55: Recalling Trump’s first thanksgiving lazily handing out a box of last-minute chips and sandwiches at a coast guard station next to Mar-a-lago, I hope never to see another POTUS who so thoroughly does not understand what it means to SERVE this nation
PAPER CHAIN DAY 54: I will never forget the mortifying scene in the Oval Office where Trump joked about “Senator Pocahontas” in front of Navajo WWII code talkers he was supposed to be celebrating. I hope never to see another POTUS so humiliate veterans or Native Americans.
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I was feeling oddly nostalgic for the totally bizarre regional sub-diet of the Cincinnati Germans, so I made a deviled ham salad sandwich the same way my grandmother used to make them for us when we were little — with 2 generous layers of cool ranch Doritos (“the new flavor”)
My grandmother, of course, would never deign eat a flavored corn chip. But she was stuck with us for a few weeks. She asked the deli guy where she was buying the ham salad salad if kids liked it.
Not really, he said. Maybe bribe them with chips.
He recommended “the new flavor”
The “new flavor” was cool ranch — the first non-original flavored Doritos.
I would not say I like this flavor. It’s so weird.
But it was a big gesture from my grandmother to get them. They weren’t good alone. Neither was the deviled ham salad. But mashed together — genius.
LTG became Ambassador in Liberia when I was working there. Pretty much the 1st thing she did was walk outside the gates of the (spectacular) embassy compound — startling the Marine guards to no end — and start picking up the trash that lined the road. She viewed it as her job /1
She approached everything from a practical perspective — always an American thrilled and honored to be on this adventure, always aware of what she represented and what she carried with her. She was in the community as much as possible. She broke down many barriers. /2
She always understood the importance of getting outside the walls, of doing the hard and unglamorous work. Always with a smile and a story. She was a remarkable diplomat in a tough environment during a critical transition period. It’s hard to overstate how essential this was /3
My new essay on the tidal movements of disinformation, how it shape the decision-making of POTUS, and how it all reminds me of the Insane Clown Posse telling everyone not to be crazy.
Lies and disinformation have tidal effects, and we need to understand that the president is being led by disinformation as much as he is driving it. /2
Manipulative information environments don’t just move in one direction. It’s more like a river with strong tidal influence, carrying narrative out to sea and back up the river where their impact on behavior and communities is more apparent and measurable /3
My dad is cooking dinner for a lady friend tonight (I know — ooooooooooooo)
My mother was a self-taught chef. So this whole “cooking” thing is new to him. But I introduced him to the simple-yet-fancy, easy-to-follow recipes of @inagarten, and he’s giving it a go.
So far...
...He’s learned to make a beet & orange salad, like a champ! He asks hilarious questions. Thank god for FaceTime. Explaining zesting is hard.
Btw he has ordered like all 12 Ina Garten cookbooks, because dad
Today he’s trying to do her famous filet Mignon with mushrooms/mustard
Today’s FaceTime questions so far:
- Which skillet to use? Skillet runway show, hilarious
- is this the right mushroom?
- which pan goes in the oven?
- how do I turn the oven on?
- are you sure it’s on?
- how do I turn it off?
- do the shallots have to go in the fridge?
POTUS has nothing else on sched today but is nonetheless late to Arlington National Cemetery to honor veterans on Veterans Day, keeping decorated veterans, their families, and others waiting in the rain, not understanding the significance of the day, hour, minute of commemoration