Month: February 2017

Excoriate

Excoriate is one of those wonderful words that comes close to being onomatopoeic, at least in my mind.


One cannot say excoriate without making the harsh, almost abrasive sound reminiscent of sandpaper on wood. The word is one I find myself using often these days, more for its secondary definition than its primary; although, I can make both work in this poem.

                          EXCORIATE

Come clean, down to the brass tacks with steel wool, superfine grit sandpaper, and elbow

Grease. We hold these truths to be self evident, you elitist bastards, that ALL humans

Equally created have an irrefutable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Try as you might you cannot scrub these words from the collective memory of this country.

Snapshot #117

I have it on good authority that these charming little blossoms are celebrities, and apparently might be repelled by garlic and direct sunlight…. I couldn’t have come up with a better title than the one on its tag: “Calibrachoa Mini Famous, Vampire and Compact.”

OMG! The United States is going to hell in a hand basket!

Thanks to cornfedcontessa.com.

cornfedcontessa

Week 15: Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.

published February 25, 2017

This week had two themes. The first wasTrump’s lack of empathy — the cruelty and heartlessness towards Americans not white, straight, Christian and male. Trump and his regime continued to target the defenseless, including transgender individuals, Native Americans and people of color. The second theme was Russia: ties between the Trump regime and Russia are continuing to pour out — meanwhile, the regime is actively seeking to suppress information.

  1. Despite Trump saying he would not enter any new overseas deals once he took office, Donald Jr. and Eric announced the opening of a Trump-branded golf course in Dubia. US taxpayers continue to pay the cost for the security detail that covers Trump’s sons on such trips.
  2. At Trump’s campaign rally in Florida, he referenced a Swedish terrorist attack that never…

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Traveling to Trumpland

Good heavens! Here’s another reason not to visit the US.

A lot from Lydia

Henry Rousso, French Jewish Holocaust era Historian was detained by US immigration officials in Houston’s George Busch International Airport this past Wednesday for more than 10 hours.
Rousso, one of France’s preeminent scholars and public intellectuals, was en route from Paris to lecture at an academic symposium at at Texas A&M University’s Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.

The Egyptian-born French citizen, who authored “The Vichy Syndrome”, was deemed an illegal alien, and awaited deportation to France when the university received notice and intervened.

The incident was blamed on an inexperienced customs officer, but other than the fact that someone successfully intervened on Rousso’s behalf, his experience is not unique. It is not unusual for a foreign passport holder to be detained by customs for hours, and it only takes one overzealous U.S. Customs officer to result in a visitor’s removal from the country.

Perhaps the confusion stems from the vagaries…

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