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Call Me a “Swiftie”

Posted on September 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

I don’t know the music of Taylor Swift. I’m sure this 33 year-old phenomenon has a lovely voice but that’s not what this is about. On TV this past weekend I saw this attractive young woman at a KC Chiefs game whooping it up watching her perhaps new boyfriend, a Super Bowl champ, play the game he plays so well, while sitting with his mother.

What I witnessed was pure joy, fun and, yes, hope. And that brought a tear to my eyes. Then I heard the inevitable Republican backlash, that Taylor Swift may not like Donald Trump and that she may support the reproductive rights of women. Heavens to Betsy! And now, Travis Kelce may be “woke” because he supports vaccinations. Young people these days. What is the world coming to?

I say leave these two lovebirds alone. Does anyone remember what it’s like to be young and in love? I can tell you, in between healthy cheering at a football game and an after-dinner with the team (and his Mom, for heaven’s sake), Taylor and Travis have way more to talk about than Donald Trump or COVID. Let them.

You may not be able to remember the days when you awoke to the day and lived your life thinking about, well, your life and not who/what the political climate tells you to hate today.

Now I hear that with her mere presence and inspiration, young people are registering to vote like never before. That Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are encouraging our newest generation of adults to participate in our democracy as responsible citizens. Amen to that! I’m sure the GOP already has something negative to say about that, as it’s now “OK” to bemoan any new voters as anti-Republican and try to keep them from registering to vote or removing their polling locations or threatening to change the constitution so that only old farts like me are allowed to cast a ballot.

Or, how about this, to say they were indoctrinated by banned books and liberal teachers in school so they shouldn’t be allowed to vote until they’re 25. That’s you, presidential alternatives to Trump.

You were young and hopeful once. The world was your oyster. You were unstoppable and impervious to aches and pains. You were overjoyed at learning new things and understanding your new capabilities. You were happy. You envisioned a great future, and knew that you could change the world. I’ll turn 65 in a few weeks and I remember those days as if it was yesterday. Guess who reminded me? A jubilant young woman watching a fellow superstar play football in Kansas City. Be you, be kind, and keep voting! Dee

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Pup-Date

Posted on September 16, 2023 | Leave a comment

Hi, Lulu here, guest blogger. I thought Dee was getting a little too political talking about saving democracy and the like, so here’s the world as I see it. From the Aussie perspective.

That’s me, “helping.” I’m very helpful around the house despite constant complaints about barking at neighbors and leaving behind tumbling’ tumbleweed fur balls everywhere I go. I’m a herder so make sure my sheeple attend to my every need and get to bed on time every night so I can get my beauty sleep.

Let’s see. The other day my tummy was a bit off and I even turned down a frozen peanut butter Kong. Turns out I’m not supposed to eat pocket combs. It fell out of J’s pants while Dee was sorting laundry. What else was I supposed to do with it? Anyway, that’s over, and all without a trip to Dr. Becky.

The weather’s cooling down and it’s perfect for Chuck-It in the park. As usual there’s a whole new crop of friends so we’re going to have to start fine-tuning the invite list for Dee’s Blizzard Buddy group. It started during COVID, when people couldn’t socialize and Dee thought, why not allow our dogs to socialize in the inclement weather? So we entertain guests on certain nasty weather days, one at a time, for an hour. It’s enough time to get the zoomies out in order for canines and humans to get a good night’s sleep.

I’m an imperfect hostess but do my best to chase and be chased, ball or no ball. And I especially like the frozen Kongs we’re each offered mid-visit, like kids going down for a nap at school. It’s a good system and all a dog needs is a good personality (no biting or growling), to be clean, have already used the toilet facilities outdoors and have all their shots. A pretty low bar but it’s worked well for me.

Well, enough thinking for today. Time for a well-deserved nap. Here’s looking forward to dinnertime and park time! Lulu, in for Dee today (only?)

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Remembering 9/11

Posted on September 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

It was 4:03 p.m. when the neighbors started banging on our door, shouting “CNN! CNN!” We turned on the television after the first plane hit the World Trade Center and were transfixed for several days. We’d just been on a sailing trip in Greece for my father’s 70th birthday and he and I stopped by Florence, Italy for a few days before I was to fly home to California.

The Italian people were shocked and very supportive of the American tourists and ex-pats in their midst. On September 12, I joined the citta di Firenze in the main piazza where we held hands, over a thousand of us, and listened to the bells toll. Every day for the next week I started my day, after Dad and I cooked breakfast together, by visiting the U.S. Consulate to check on when the flight ban would be lifted, then the downtown office of my airline to see when I could catch a flight home.

Consul staff immediately invited me to a religious service to remember the dead, which was very moving. Every shop owner, waiter, everyone said how sorry they were for my (!) loss. And when I finally got a flight through Rome to LAX, the U.S. Customs Agent said one thing to me upon the end of a long flight, “Welcome home,” upon which I just broke into tears.

Back in California, everyone was talking about the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Because everyone was so open, and so raw from the knowledge that our world had been turned upside down, that I met my future husband that first week in October.

I don’t know what would have happened had I been in California at the time of the attacks, but doubt I would have been holding the hands of unknown foreigners in a town square or at a special Mass. But America did come together in those weeks and months while politicians decided how to deal with the issue and new regulations were implemented at airports ostensibly to protect us. Our President let us know we were all Americans, and Rudy Giuliani, then America’s Mayor, made us all feel safer in a way.

Nineteen years later, and we were hit with another catastrophe, one that cost the US over a million lives, and that’s COVID-19. Instead of urging us to come together, our President was more worried about his re-election, and created a divide between red and blue states, caring for one at the expense of the other.

The pandemic that should have been a call to arms for all Americans instead devolved into a war over “freedom” as evinced by face masks and school closures. Certain Americans are still trying to reap whatever benefits they seek to glean off perpetuating these differences. COVID became something China did to us and our stellar medical infrastructure of public health researchers, doctors and first responders are still being questioned over their recommendations and methods.

COVID hasn’t become something we collectively got together to fight and, in its persistence to infect worldwide, has since turned into a blame game with science itself being questioned.

Last time I was in Florence, the Consulate was locked up tight, under military guard, and no-one is allowed to walk within a block of the place. Very different from me walking in, greeting front desk staff by name, and being kidded about getting me back home through Canada but I’d have to stay, in summer dresses, in a chilly climate until flights were allowed into the US from Canada! And America’s Mayor, how far he’s fallen, now disbarred and begging for fund-raisers for exorbitant legal fees for his alleged misdeeds.

There is no way I want to go back to the 50’s to what some call the “good old days” when women and people of color and LGBTQ+ had no rights and there was a right-wing white male patriarchal solely “christian” country we now call home. It would be nice if we could be civil to each other, respect one another’s views and work together to solve the nation’s problems. If we did that, the next 9/11 or global pandemic might have us working together for the benefit of all. Wouldn’t that be terrific. Cheers! Dee

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Let Janet be Janet

Posted on September 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

Wisconsin elected a new liberal justice of the Supreme Court, Janet Protasciewicz, who was just sworn in and is expected to be impeached by the Republican State Assembly before she can even hear her first case. Why? Not because she committed high crimes and misdemeanors, but simply because she WON. By 11% of the vote or 200,000 votes. Wisconsin’s voters let the Governor and Legislature know our opinions and we gave them, by voting. Republicans want to keep gerrymandered maps and a 1849 law banning abortion so they want to impeach Judge Janet. They don’t have enough votes in the Senate to convict, but by impeaching her she’ll be sidelined from the bench, so it’ll go back to being a 3-3 court until the Democratic governor appoints another Judge, who the Assembly will impeach, and round and round we go.

The voters of Wisconsin elected Joe Biden president and, together with the legislature Donald Trump has made our lives miserable trying to steal the state back to his column. Today, I took the time to write our Assembly Speaker, to wit:

Letter to Robin Vos, Assembly Speaker, State of Wisconsin

I moved to Wisconsin, to a small Milwaukee apartment with rented furniture, for three months. That was twelve years ago. Having grown up off Lake Erie, it’s interesting to find myself late in life looking out my windows onto Lake Michigan. As a little girl I knew when the Bills missed out on the Playoffs, I always rooted for the Packers because they’re just like us!

Not so much. Never has my vote meant so little as here in Wisconsin…. I’m used to casting a balllot, having it tallied and waking up the next morning to find out who my next elected officials would be, except when I was working on a campaign and stayed up late at HQ to find out.

The Big Lie changed all that, and I’ve read that Donald Trump had been calling you regularly to get you to re-install him as president, however one “re-installs” a public official. Thanks for not doing it. Now it appears you have the chance to impeach Judge Janet Protasciewicz before she even hears a case. 

Judge Janet can be impeached by you and your Republican colleagues, but according to my reading, only for official misconduct, high crimes and treason. I don’t call being duly elected by the people of Wisconsin with a 200,000 vote margin any of those things.

I rarely offer Republicans advice, but here goes. Your people, which now includes me like it or not, have been in limbo since the 2020 election with fake electors (as yet unpunished) running around and any number of schemes to thwart a free and fair presidential election. Haven’t we been through enough? I would simply urge you to remember the oath you took and to try to see the world through the eyes of all your constituents, not just those who live in the red counties.

Do not take this unwise step  to dismiss the concerns of the State’s voters without even a whiff of impeachable offenses. Let this play out, it’s the grown-up thing to do. The maps may be drawn more fairly for everyone, and  a 1849 abortion law may be changed to one that more of your living citizens can approve.

When I used to write laws for the State of New York, I always came at it from a point of consensus. It was never “we’re gonna get them” because then when they’re in charge, all they’ll want to do is change it so it only benefits them, and my parents always taught me two wrongs don’t make a right. Please, sir, err on the side of reason and let the Supreme Court stand as elected by the people. Otherwise, who knows what will happen to Wisconsin in 2024 and beyond if the voters are not respected as your constituents.

That’s all for today, folks. Oh, please read the letter from the Presidential Libraries/Centers on Democracy, issued yesterday. Be a good citizen, vote and get involved! Dee

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He Went To Paris

Posted on September 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

For decades, that’s been my favorite Jimmy Buffett song. It’s so poignant and with age, I understand it even better now. Farewell to an American music icon who was so much more that Margaritaville.

I loved his more hillbilly songs like Great Filling Station Holdup and Peanut Butter Conspiracy, before he went all island-y and was more in the Jerry Jeff Walker camp.

In the songwriter’s own words “some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I had a good life all the way.”

You will be missed. Fins way up! Dee

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Do Unto Others

Posted on September 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

I’d like to mix that with something I heard last week from former VP Mike Pence at the Republican debate about leadership not including compromise. Yes, I worked for the government and with/against governmental policies for ten years, writing and justifying new laws so have some experience in that realm, combined with common sense learned over a lifetime.


Politically, most American voters are in the middle, I’d guess about fifty percent around the center could agree on nearly anything. Our government works as a three-legged stool, remove one and the others will not stand. Same with going against most of the people, most of the time. It doesn’t work. Please the liberals all the time or the conservatives, doesn’t matter, the middle gets sick of it and puts things back on an even keel.

Leadership in a democracy always includes compromise. Try being a tourist not speaking a foreign language while trying to buy something, let’s say an Italian leather bag at an outdoor market that should cost about $50. The seller wants $75, I want to pay $25, so we find a fair price together and I go home with my beautiful leather bag. If I don’t compromise, I either pay the $75 or end up with nothing. That’s how things work inside the Beltway. I need a new bridge in my district, you need a Pentagon project to keep building widgets in yours. Deal.

There are two things going on right now. First is a trend away from democracy, which I believe has to be stopped at all costs. Second is “cheating” to get what one wants in the immediate future without considering long-term consequences. We don’t write laws for one person, we can’t do that. Firing a state or federal prosecutor or eliminating their office budget/individual salary is ridiculous and an offense to the rule of law, which has ways of weeding out particularly bad prosecutors and unethical lawyers. But today, it seems that political power for power’s sake is the only thing that matters, damn the Constitution, full speed ahead.

What legislators don’t understand is that the minute the opposition party takes office, and the pendulum is always swinging, they’ve set a precedent or written a law that enables the entire side to be wiped out for mere political reasons.

When a democrat won the governorship in my state, a nearly-bulletproof gerrymandered republican majority voted weeks before he took office to remove a number of gubernatorial powers and give them to the legislature. Why? Because they didn’t like that they lost. When that goes around, it’ll come around, and one can only hope it will be righted by putting those powers back where they belong and not by going overboard because, as we tell our kids, two wrongs don’t make a right.
The majority in our Supreme Court changed earlier this year and the new Justice was just sworn in. The first thing the Legislature plans to do is impeach her, before she even rules on a case. That’s bad sportsmanship taken to a ludicrous level.


When I see politicians acting stupid, and many do, their actions can often be equated to those of errant children. Our moral upbringing shows that we know this and teach our children not to lie or cheat or treat people badly, but some adults choose to do it anyway.


Do you want to ban Muslims from entering this country? Substitute the word Muslim for your religion or ethnicity and see if you still feel the same way. There are comparatively few transgender people in our society, even fewer elite transgender athletes, so how can I come to any harm if we just all go on living our lives? If you don’t want your kids to read certain literature, fine. But you’ve no right to tell me what my kid can read or take To Kill A Mockingbird away from the school or town library or even bookstores.

Our Constitution planned for give and take, push and pull, and crafted a document that helps us negotiate through difficulties if we all stay in our lanes (legislators make laws, administrations administer said laws, courts adjudge). We need to respect it, the rule of law, and the role of public service in a democracy. A life of public service, military or civilian, is a noble cause, not something to be sneered at. Public servants have families, too, and do their apolitical and specialized jobs very well. Who else is going test the new wonder drug to cure cancer? Or accurately predict severe weather to minimize deaths? Or when I turn 65, put my social security check in the mail on time?


The bottom line is to respect each other and try to see the reason in another’s opinion before automatically coming to the conclusion that the person who disagrees with you on policy is an idiot, evil or a lifelong enemy. Your kids are still on the same soccer team, after all, and they’re expected to respect each other, and their parents. Give peace a chance! Dee

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Indicted for Whom, Exactly?

Posted on August 25, 2023 | 2 comments

Donald Trump, opting to play martyr, keeps saying that he’s being indicted for you, because “they” are really after you but he’s willing to take the accusations (not the blame or consequences, mind you) to protect you.

Have you ever declared bankruptcy six times? Been impeached (twice)? Committed sexual assault ($5 million verdict)? Created a fake university ($25 million verdict) or charity ($2 million verdict) to line your own pockets? I’m gonna guess the answer is probably no. That or you’re in prison with no access to the outside world to be able to answer this question.

Georgia prisoner #PO1135809, presidential candidate, is now facing 91 federal accounts that include running a criminal enterprise to overturn a free and fair election, according to over sixty court verdicts. Also purloining confidential documents that pose a danger to our nation’s intelligence operations. But he did nothing wrong.

And that’s why our legal system exists, to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Everyone, including Donald Trump, is assumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of his peers. It would behoove us, as citizens, to allow the justice system to do its thing, slowly as always, and see how things shake out.

IMHO, I think it’s unfair and unwise for Donald Trump to compare himself to Jesus Christ just because he’s been accused of a crime. I also find it unseemly for the House Judiciary Committee and Georgia legislators to try to short-cut justice by interfering into ongoing investigations and attempting to fire the prosecutors for doing their jobs. And if Donald Trump is convicted of knowingly and willingly conspiring to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, those six of eight wanna-be’s who appeared at a “debate” the other night who indicated they would pardon him, should be ineligible under the U.S. Constitution for running for dogcatcher.

Our country’s been in tough spots before. Our Constitution was created to help us through, and it has done a pretty good job for over two centuries. Let’s give it a chance. Let the wheels of justice do their thing and, while we wait, and after the dust settles, let’s act like we believe we live in the greatest country on earth.

Personally, I am relatively certain, 99.9%, that “they,” whoever “they” are, are not after me. I even use the crosswalks and always pick up my dog’s poop. I don’t believe there is a two-tiered justice system, except that ours has normally given rich, white people the benefit of the doubt, even now.

I don’t want to go back to the fifties with its back alley abortions and Jim Crow. I wouldn’t mind, however, if our representatives were reminded from time that they are elected, by us, to solve our problems. Not to see who can get most likes on X or say the cruelest thing in order to be booked on tonight’s Fox TV. It all comes back to we, the people. Our politicians, and our judges, will only be as good as we demand them to be, and that starts at the ballot box. Stand up for America! Dee

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On It or In It

Posted on August 18, 2023 | 1 comment

Never been a fan of “reality” TV shows, save two. Whenever I was able to get Bravo on my cable line-up, I watched Top Chef, and I’ve seen enough Iron Chef episodes to know who I like to watch best (Morimoto making anything).

So it looks like I’ll be on upcoming Season 21 of Top Chef. As a contestant? No way. A guest judge? Heaven help us. A food maven imparting words of wisdom? Not a chance.

I just happened to be in the produce department of my local Whole Foods Market when a phalanx of black-clad crew showed up with cameras. Away from them by the lettuces, I was approached by a woman with a clipboard asking for my signature on a release form. Before signing it, I asked if they got a shot of my butt. In my 20’s I met my family in Zurich to tour Germany, Austria and Switzerland and in my excitement to see everything, I was always at the head of the pack so all their photos included my backside. That was well before cell phones and selfies.

She said, no, the back of your head. I signed. because I’m really glad they’re showcasing the food bounty that is the State of Wisconsin, my temporary adopted state that is rich in dairy and apples and more. Home to Cheeseheads and die-hard Packers fans. So yes, I’m on it, ever so peripherally, but not in it as a participant.

I still enjoy cooking and the knowledge gained from professional cooking school nearly 35 years ago, but my motto is KISS, keep it simple. This year I’m growing tomatoes and herbs in containers on the balcony near the kitchen, and only yellow and white pansies and impatiens, and orange manzanilla off my husband’s office. Summer is time for marinades though not for grilling this year, as there are no more grills allowed on balconies and the shared terrace with mega-grills is under construction all summer, having been inundated by floods this year. C’est la vie.

This summer’s speciality is rosemary focaccia, excellent with a cold dinner, dipped in seasoned olive oil or even my quick black bean dip. I’m trying to keep it healthy with lots of fruits and veggies.

Back to school and work will pick up again after Labor Day, so enjoy your summer! Look forward to the new season of Top Chef and pay no attention to the behind you see in the produce section of Whole Foods. No, I didn’t wave to the camera, didn’t even know it was there! Keep cooking! Dee

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Finally

Posted on August 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

I was five and it was the first day of first grade (I was ahead) and was so pleased to come home and recite my newly-learned lesson of that morning, the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course we learned it by rote, and I hadn’t a clue to its meaning. When I ended with “liver tea and just us for all,” my parents had some ‘splainin’ to do. Plus, it seemed right to end it with “Amen” so I also got a lesson on the separation of church and state that day.

After a series of silly jobs (selling tickets and cocoa on a golf course for XC skiers in winter, correcting college scholarship applications) for a few months after graduation from college, I got my first real job as a policy analyst for the state Assembly’s speaker’s office. The first committee of my own was focused on the operation of government (legislative ethics, reapportionment, veterans and the state National Guard, Native American land claims…) and many sundry unrelated issues. This was the deep end, and I was swimming in it without a life vest.

I learned quickly about policies and politics, gerrymandering et al. I’ve always had a strong moral code about the conduct of elections and of public officials, elected, appointed and everyone from DMV workers to the state fire commissioner (who actually preferred to remain addressing our committee than responding to a fire alarm in the building, a rash decision we were able to talk him out of).

When public service had run its course, I moved on to representing a real estate organization in NYC on legislative and regulatory issues of interest. That was the 1980’s when I became aware of an up-and-coming developer named Trump. At first I wondered why he was such a pariah in the industry, and now I know.

In 2016 when candidate Trump replied that he’d have to see if he would accept the results of the presidential election, a little bell rang. It’s not a presidential thing to say. When he said it again in 2020 the bell grew louder, clanging now.

In my new state (there have been several over the years), I read a blurb about fake electors and thought even Trump wouldn’t do that. Our state is one of the most gerrymandered in the nation and we survived having our duly elected president, Joe Biden, lose the election by one vote on the State Supreme Court. Until a few months ago, Donald Trump was still calling our Republican state senators to get them to throw out the Electoral College designation, replace Biden with Trump and immediately “install” him as POTUS.

I’ve a bone to pick with Donald Trump. There’s been a veritable pit in my stomach since the 2020 presidential election was called for Joe Biden, and the loser, Donald Trump, initiated his multi-pronged assault on a free and fair election. Now, nearly three years later, longer as some of these tactics, like denigrating mail-in ballots, began months before the election, our justice system has finally caught up.

There has been a cloud under which our nation has been for the past two years, and it’s been more difficult in the seven swing states that voted for Biden and have been under exhaustive attacks by Trump and his enablers, including our US Senator, Ron Johnson who tried to deliver fake elector slates of Michigan and Wisconsin to former VP Mike Pence on the afternoon of January 6, 2021. They wanted our legislature to delete all Wisconsin’s 3.3 million votes and give them all to Trump.

I believe in our Constitution and have chosen, since I learned the Pledge of Allegiance, that I like living in a democracy and will not give it up for ANY dictator’s authoritarian regime. I only hope my fellow Americans agree with me, read Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment, support the jury’s decision and vote for democracy. I’m proud to be an American and to support one person, one vote. Televise the trial, 150 million voters, crime victims all, deserve to see it live and from the horse’s mouth. Dee

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USA! USA!

Posted on July 24, 2023 | Leave a comment

Gotta love that chant at soccer games, and at the Olympics, where we shout to the world that we’re the greatest. If only we shared that same enthusiasm for our nation here at home. We’ve always touted our “new” form of government that’s lasted nearly 250 years as a beacon to the world. Now we’re about to toss it all away without even wondering why.

We are a government of the people. We’re a team. We elect legislators to represent our views and vote for programs and funding for them, that we wish them to pass. We elect a president to implement these laws on our behalf, and to nominate judges to interpret these laws. The judges are supposed to use their wisdom and knowledge of our Constitution to rule on these laws for the betterment of the people and nation.

Right now we have part of a legislature that wants to run the administration, and an over-reaching SCOTUS trying to legislate from the bench. And if a certain former president gets re-elected next year, he has promised to be the administration with limitless power, the congress with its power of the purse, and the courts.

Our founders wanted governing to be a team effort on behalf of we, the people. There are checks and balances and three separate branches of government for a reason. And they made it clear by George Washington deciding not to be named a king, that THERE IS NO I IN TEAM!

So I say read your constitution. If a legislator is not voting as you wish them to, kick the bum out at the next election. Consider whether you want a dictator or a president. Vote accordingly. Because once we have a dictator, it’s hard to go back to a democracy. Even if you like the dictator, he/she will change and you might not like the results and be unable to change it because you won’t have a vote. For anything.

Think about where this country is headed and vote accordingly. Go USA! Dee

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