Steve Dreams of Sushi

My “Eating Vicariously” series has recently taken me for daydreamed meals in Germany and South Africa and so this time around I want to turn my attention to sushi which is perhaps one of my favorite go to comfort foods both at home and when I am on the road.  Life happens, and sushi helps you get through it. 

If there is one dish I have missed over the past nine months of pandemic sheltering it is sushi.  It is not just something to eat; it is also an art form offering both visual and olfactory nuances in addition to its myriad textures and flavors.  All of my favorite sushi haunts both at home and on the road are closed during the pandemic, or only offering limited take-away menus.  Given the very nature of sushi and sashimi (we are talking raw fish after all), I have been hesitant to order it, and since I am not outfitted to prepare it properly at home, I have had to do without.  But this does not mean I don’t think and dream about it . . . a lot! 

I came late to sushi.  It was early in the 1980s in Manhattan when I met an old friend from my student days in Germany at a small basement sushi bar in the East Village.  I am Midwestern born and bred and I was pretty much a meat and potatoes guy until I traveled to Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s and began to expand my epicurean horizons.  Still, I had never tried sushi.  That first meal in New York was memorable as we shared a variety of offerings and not a few flasks – tokkuri - of warm sake.  I was sold.

This is not to say that I had never eaten raw fish before.  During my time in Europe I frequently enjoyed rollmops in northern Germany.  This is a pickled herring fillet rolled into a cylindrical shape around sliced onion and a small pickle (sometime a garlic clove or an olive slice), as well as matjes, a brined raw herring filet, in the Low Countries.  There was also gravlax, sliced cured salmon found throughout Scandinavia, and how can I forget the wonderful cerviche I had first sampled in the Bahamas and in Mexico.  All of these are prepared raw fish dishes.  Sushi, on the other hand, is mostly just raw fish; no seasonings, marinades or brines to speak of.

The raw fish used in the preparation of the various sushi offerings is high in protein and contains omega-3 fatty acids while low in saturated fats and cholesterol.  It is heart healthy and lowers blood pressure yet one should always be cautious when consuming raw fish.  It should never be eaten often or in large quantities (as tempting as that can sometimes be) due to the risk of parasites and chemical pollutants.  It is a delicacy after all, and it should be properly prepared and treated as such.

Here in the United States sushi has become a catch-all term for any number of preparations and presentations, yet it is used properly to refer to any dish made with cooked vinegared rice [sushi-meshi], seaweed [nori], raw fish (in some instances the fish is cooked, depending on what dish you order), and pieces of vegetable or avocado.  With makisushi, the contents are wrapped with the thin sheath of seaweed.  Uramakesushi is presented with the vinegared rices wrapped around the contents, including the seaweed.  Nigiri is a small, elongated portion of vinegared rice over which a thin sheath of seaweed and a slice of raw fish is laid.  The terms sushi and sashimi are frequently and improperly used interchangeably, but the two dishes are distinct and separate.  Sashimi is a thick slice of raw fish always served on its own without rice.   All of these offerings are served with pickled ginger slices to help cleanse the palate (it should never be eaten with the portion); wasabe paste, an anti-bacterial which is similar in many ways to horseradish although much spicier; and soy sauce.   All of these condiments used modestly can enrich the dish.

Although I have always preferred to eat sushi and sashimi using chop sticks – grasping or stabbing – it is perfectly acceptable to eat them with your fingers should you so choose.  These dishes were originally conceived in China as early as the 5th century BC as finger food [narezushi]  before they migrated to Japan where they were introduced to the world.  Sushi and sashimi are prepared by an itamae [master chef] or a shokunin [apprentice] and each piece should be eaten in one bite less you offend the preparer who has taken time and extreme care in it preparation and presentation.

A list of my favorite sushi restaurants is far too long to go into here, so I will mention just a very few as they are special for one reason or another.  I list them here in no particular order other than to say that my favorite place here in the Washington, DC area is Sushi AOI located at 1100 New York Avenue, NW.  Being a regular customer at Haad Thai next door [http://lookingtowardportugal.blogspot.com/search?q=Haad+thai] during the latter half of the 1990s and into the first decade of

the new century (until my retirement), I could not help but notice when this modest sushi restaurant opened next door.  I wandered in one day to see what it had to offer, and what struck me immediately beyond the same ambiance I had discovered next door was many of the same familiar and friendly faces.  It turned out that the owner of Haad Thai is part owner of Sushi AOI and both restaurants serve wonderful dishes with great service and friendly hospitality squeezed into such a small space.  Sushi AOI quickly became my regular sushi stop in downtown Washington, usually on my way home from work when I would enjoy the de rigeur miso soup and the very reasonably priced sushi and sashimi offerings washed down with a tokkuri of hot sake and a variety of Japanese beers.

Wok and Roll, at 604 H Street, NW in Washington’s Chinatown,

takes up the ground floor of Mary Surratt’s former boarding house where she and her fellow conspirators met to plan the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 at Ford’s Theater just a few blocks away.  The sushi and sashimi offering are first rate, but what I like most about this place is the fact that it also offers a full Chinese menu.  It’s an idea place to eat if some in your party can’t wrap their heads around raw fish.  It is a standout among the numerous Chinese establishments found along this short stretch of H. Street.

Love Sushi, at 9031 Gaither Road in Gaitherburg, Maryland, is

a small, narrow storefront joint in a suburban strip mall.  There are just a handful of tables but the place is always hopping during the lunch hour.  It is a great place to grab a quick bite.  Our son, who is a lover of all things Japanese and the only one of us who has been to Japan, used to work just a short distance away and we would frequently meet him here for lunch.  It has a very extensive menu for such a small place and the service is always quick and friendly. 

When it comes to sushi joints I tend to find ones I like where I can trust the quality of the fish being served.  Ambiance is always important, but the place does not have to be fancy.  If I like the food and service, I’ll keep coming back.  This does mean that I do not try out new places.  I do, especially when I am traveling and find one that comes well recommended.  One of these is Sushi Ichiban in Gainesville, Florida.  It started out

as another small, strip mall restaurant but with more seating than one would expect and a nice sushi bar where one can sit and watch the shokunin at work.  Recently it has moved to a much larger stand alone location nearby at 4928 NW 39th Avenue, but the quality of the food and the service have not suffered.  Whenever I am in town I like to sneak off for a relaxed lunch of über-fresh sashimi and tuna maki rolls served with miso soup, warm sake and Kirin beer on draft.

There is no competition when it comes to the most memorable meal; an elegant presentation of uramakesushi, nigiri and sashimi served on an open air porch high above the mingling of the South Atlantic and Indian oceans at the Cape of Good Hope

at the bottom of Africa.  But you get the idea.  Two Oceans Restaurant at Cape Point – just 43 gorgeous miles of rolling

green hills and valleys, precipitous cliffs, breathtaking bays and seascapes and beaches with penguins south of Cape Town. The restaurant overlooks False Bay, the actual dividing line between the two oceans 45 miles to the east between here and Cape Agulhas) and the views are as good as the food . . . hosts of seabirds on the wing and baboons on the surrounding rocks who demonstrate no compunction to making off with your meal if allowed.  Thankfully the lovely staff has found safe and humane ways to keep them at bay.  The weather was glorious the day we were there.

The restaurant had a wonderful selection of seafood dishes but I was immediately drawn to the sushi bar.  Although various

mixed platters were offered I decide to do something I had yet to do in a sushi restaurant.  I ordered omakase, leaving the choice entirely up to the itamae.  Doing so one is likely to be treated to the best fish and ingredients available on that day.  This can be a more expensive option but given the very favorable US$ - South African Rand exchange rate, one could hardly go wrong.  I was well rewarded for being adventurous - rolled salmon sashimi topped with a thin sliver of avocado and dressing and

topped with salmon roe; red snapper sashimi; maki topped with edamame; an interesting presentation of salmon nigiri; and uramake topped with masago [capelin roe].  This and the stunning views made this a most memorable meal.

Weeks into the pandemic, when restaurants started to close and take away was the only real option, I decided to give sushi a wide berth for the time being.   As much as I love it, take away sushi has never been in my gastronomic lexicon.  I also considered the possibility that raw fish is not the most reliable choice during a viral pandemic.  That said, I promised myself that once my favorite restaurants finally reopen, I would not at all be surprised if my first outing would be to one of these favorite sushi joints in search after a well-crafted roll, the freshest sashimi available, all served with a cold Japanese beer and a porcelain tokkuri filled to the brim with warm sake as I considered the joy of each tiny morsel of piscine nirvana.

But kismet intervened.  A couple weeks ago my wife and I ventured out one morning to deliver a load of books to a second-hand store and found ourselves just around the corner from Love Sushi at lunchtime.  We thought long and hard and decided what the hell.  We ordered some uramake rolls which we savored while sitting in our car out front.   No beer or sake, but no complaints.  It was the first sushi I had eaten in over a year.  Perhaps we took an unnecessary risk, but two weeks later we are still here and no worse for wear.

It will probably be some time before I am able to enjoy sushi the way it is meant to be served and consumed.  In the meantime, I can think back on many wonderful outings in the past and dream about what I will order next time around.
 

Hammerin' Hank - RIP

Henry “Hank” Aaron, who passed away today just a couple weeks before he would have celebrated his 87 birthday, was one of my heroes when I was just a young lad in Wisconsin and he played in the outfield for my Milwaukee Braves.

I was in the stands in Milwaukee’s old County Stadium in September 1957 when he hit a two run walk off homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 and give the Braves the National League pennant with a record of 95-59, eight games ahead of St. Louis (this was before there were pennant playoff series).  The Braves would go on to best the defending champion New York Yankees four games to three to win the 1957 World Series, the only one the Braves would win while the team was based in Milwaukee and before is stole away in the night to Atlanta after the 1965 season.

The Hammer played for the Braves organization for 21 seasons.   And even through the  team was dead to me after it headed south, Hank Aaron would always remain a favorite.  He was a home run hitting machine and he always seemed to hit them with style and when they were needed most.

Toward the end of the 1973 season The Hammer was closing in on Babe Ruth’s all time  record of 714 dingers.  Aaron hit #713 with just one game left in the season and I hoped he would surpass, or at least tie the record.  It was not to be.  When the 1974 season opened there was talk of benching Aaron for the opening games on the road in Cincinnati in the hope he might break the record at home in Atlanta.  He suited up for opening day, and he tied Ruth’s record on the first pitch of his first at bat of the new season.  The Braves returned to Atlanta for a home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 8, 1974.  I was sitting in a saloon watching the game on TV.  #715 went over the fence in the fourth inning and the rest is history.

Hammerin’ Hank returned to Milwaukee and County Stadium where it all started in 1955 for his final two season with the Brewers.  He hit his last home run – #755 – on July 20, 1976 at home.  That record would stand for 33 years until it was broken by Gary Bonds in 2007.  Bonds later admitted to taking steroids and as far as I am concerned Aaron still holds the crown.  He won it fair and square.

There may never be another like Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.  What a joy it was to watch him play.  May he rest in peace.

Rage Against the Light - The End of a Four Year Nightmare

I can no longer recall who posted this cartoon but it captures what it has felt like to live in Trump’s America (and especially here in Washington, DC) since the November election . . . perhaps even before that when it became clear that should he lose the election he would not be going gently into that good night.  Despite the fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won the popular and the electoral vote with a comfortable margin, the candidate who clearly lost refused to accept the results or to concede the election.  He chose instead to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”  Of course Dylan Thomas was writing about confronting death which none of us can escape when the time comes.  Still his words capture the essence of a president who could not bring himself to face the obvious, of a four year nightmare that just would not end.

Instead the former president sent his lawyers forth to contest the election results in courts across the nation while claiming that the election was from the outset rigged against him and that he had won a landslide victory without providing a shred of evidence to support his claim.  All but one of these court challenges failed.  Still he would not concede.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

When all else failed the former president (how wonderful these two words sound) called upon his Republican allies in the US Congress to stand in his defense; to question the reliability and veracity of the electoral process and to refuse to certify the votes of the Electoral College.  Over a quarter of the members of the US House of Representatives and thirteen US Senators rose in support of this challenge.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

On January 6, the day of the certification vote at the Capitol, the former president spoke to his supporters at his “Save America” rally on the Ellipse outside the White House and he urged them to march on the Capitol to support the vice president and those Republicans he believed were willing to challenge the results of the election.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

We must stop the steal and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again, can never be allowed to happen again, but we’re going forward. We’ll take care of going forward. We got to take care of going back. Don’t let them talk . . . As this enormous crowd shows, we have truth and justice on our side. We have a deep and enduring love for America in our hearts. We love our country. We have overwhelming pride in this great country, and we have it deep in our souls. Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

We’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

And so these supporters marched on the Capitol while the former president retreated to the warmth of the White House to watch on TV what he had wrought.  The crowd confronted and fought the assembled law enforcement officers responsible for protecting the building. They broke down doors and smashed windows.  They shouted obscenities.  They wore clothing with racist and anti-Semitic messages.  They beat police officers with American flags.  They roamed the halls of the Capitol leaving behind graffiti, puddles of piss and piles of shit.  They breached and trashed the Senate chambers, the offices of the Speaker of the House and others.  They looted.  And five people died.  The former president could have stopped all of this had he chosen to do so. He could have called up the National Guard to restore order.  He refused.  Instead he told the terrorists he had been wronged and that he loved them.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

For over a week downtown Washington, DC was a virtual ghost town as businesses shuttered and streets were closed to all but authorized traffic.  The National Mall was sealed off and closed to the public.  Over 20,000 heavily armed National Guard troops were deployed throughout this city.  Helicopters cris-crossed the skies.  They were  there not to fend  off a foreign threat but to protect our democratic institutions from organized domestic terrorists bent on sedition and treason.  Most of us have longed for the end of a four year nightmare. We did not imagine it would end like this.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Thankfully the terrorists were subdued.  Many have been arrested and will be called upon to answer for their crimes.  True to form, the former president took no responsibility for what he had wrought and he has been impeached a second time.  His supporters vowed to continue to fight yet the new administration assumed office yesterday without any further rancor or violence.  Like all bullies, the former president and his enablers and sycophantic supporters are bullies who do not have the courage of their convictions. 

It was not the dying of the light the former president was actually raging against for his interregnum was not enlightened but cloaked in a darkness, in an iniquity and an immorality engendered by ignorance and greed and resulting in chaos and debasement.  There was no good night for him to go into.  In the end, there was nothing left to rage against.   His time was up, his power gone.  He is an empty shell with nothing left to do or say.  A hollow man.  A broken and lost soul.  A hollow sham.  A straw man who failed to destroy the institutions of the American democracy.

Instead of Dylan Thomas’s poem perhaps T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” captures the pith of this nightmare’s end.  His hollow men fail to do what they promised and there is nothing left for them to say or do.  To paraphrase Eliot:  This is the way his world ends.  This is the way his world ends.  This is the way his world ends.  Not with a bang but a whimper.

The light was not there yesterday morning at Joint Base Andrews as the former president and his entourage slipped away almost unnoticed.  The real light was to be found a few miles away, on the same steps of the Capitol where the former president’s terrorists brought shame on this country.  It was found in the words of Amanda Gorman, a 22 year old poet from Los Angeles who asked:  “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?”  We found the answer as the true face of America shone forth as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oaths of their offices . . .  “when the day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”

We Must Build the Dikes of Courage

Today is Martin Luther King Day, an annual national holiday to commemorate his life (1929-1968) and legacy and to raise this country’s awareness of Reverend Dr. King’s efforts to insure that the United States of America lives up to its founding ideals. “It’s a reminder of how much work still remains to be done,” wrote Olivia B. Walkman, a Time Magazine Staff Writer, “especially as the nation is reeling from the January 6 mob attack on the US Capitol; as racial justice protests that started after George Floyd’s death continue to take place daily nationwide; and as Inauguration Day marks the transition of a new administration.”

Let Reverend King’s wisdom and words guide us as this country navigates this time when the American people seem more divided than ever before in recent history.  “We must build the dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”  Reverend King reminded us that we should never be silent . . . that we should stand up for what we believe in and speak out against injustice in every guise. "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." As we observe the transition of power in Washington this week, we should not look at it as the end of what was corrupt and depraved, but as a clarion call to rise up and speak out for what we believe in.  We will not be intimidated. "In the end," Reverend King warned, "we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."  Don’t let this happen!

Fifty years ago this country appeared to be coming apart at the seams. Our cities were burning and we were divided over a war so many of us opposed. It was a time when some of us found our own voices for the first time and finally stood up to say we would not be dictated to. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”  We fought to take our country back and put it on a path on which we could all enjoy peace and the pursuit of happiness. Today we find ourselves divided again.  "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people,"  It is a time to stand up for what this country has long stood for.  Let your voices be strong and clear.

The Writing Was on the Wall

Last week’s attempted coup d’etat incited by the President of the United States and his henchmen - his eldest son and Rudy Giuliani come immediately to mind – was inevitable.  I was shocked by the events on Capitol Hill on January 6th (a day that will live in infamy), but I cannot say I was surprised.  The rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017, and the President’s lackluster condemnation of that rabble, should have warned us that this attempted coup by the President and his supporters was inevitable.

The fuse was already lit on January 20, 2017, when the newly inaugurated president stood on the steps of the US Capitol, the same steps his supporters seized and occupied on January 6, and reminded his audience - “Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power.”  So it has been since the found of our republic 241 years earlier.  “The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.” That statement was perhaps the first of the countless thousands of lies he would tell the American people over the next four years.  It is an oath he has violated with impunity almost daily since then.  “What truly matters is not which party controls our government . . . .”   Another bold faced lie.  From the very outset the president and his administration, and his Republican enablers in Congress, demonized their Democratic party colleagues and characterized those who voted for them as unpatriotic, un-American socialists.  “We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.”  Another lie.  It quickly became evident that the president’s allegiance was only to those among his base who swore their personal allegiance to him.  The country and what it stands for be damned. Inaction and complaining became hallmarks of his administration and his rhetoric and behavior became more delusional and unhinged as time passed.

Looking past the palaver of his first public statement on the direction his administration would take, his populist demeanor took on a more decided nationalistic bent verging quickly into aid and succor to the white supremacist elements of the population who until then had functioned on the outermost fringes of public discourse.  At his inauguration the president told us that when “you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.” Another lie.  Look to Charlottesville in 2017.  Those assembled there were not unprejudiced patriots.  Those the president increasing called patriots and who rallied to his call for “America First” represent the darkest side of American reality.

The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on August 11-12, 2017, just seven months into the new administration, was organized ostensibly to protest the decision by the city council to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a public city park.   It quickly turned into much more than that; an assembly of white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, American neo-Nazis, as well as various fascist groups and militias dressed in paramilitary gear and carrying Confederate and Nazi flags and banners bearing racial and anti-Semitic symbols and messages.  And who will forget the White Power torchlight parade and the chant “The Jews Will Not Replace Us”?

David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a former Republican member of the Louisiana state legislature, and a convicted felon who served time in a federal correctional institution, endorsed the president’s campaign as early as 2015 and he urged his followers to vote Republican.  To do otherwise would be “treason to your heritage."  Duke played a very visible role at the Charlottesville rally.  “We’re going to fulfill the promise of Donald Trump. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he say’s he’s going to take our country back.”   But for whom?  Duke personally thanked the president for being honest and courageous for not doing or saying anything to distance himself or his administration from the core message of the rally.  That message ended with the death of a young woman protesting against hate, and two police officers trying to maintain law and order at the rally.

The president’s response to events in Charlottesville was lukewarm at best, saying only that there were many fine people among the fascist and white supremacist protestors just as there were among the counter-protestors.  No there were not!  Look at the crowd that besieged the Capitol building during last week’s coup attempt.   Some might call them patriots for wanting to take their country back from some perceived domestic threat.   Others, including myself, look upon them as domestic terrorists who were not there to protest, but to destroy a cherished institution while threatening bodily harm on our elected representatives, including a threat to hang the vice president.  I think it is quite obvious who these individuals are and what they wanted.  There is a message presently going viral on Facebook:

I have found that in times of political confusion, particularly when emotions are running high and creating tunnel vision, the presence of Nazis can be an extremely helpful indicator.  If I am attending a local demonstration or event and I see Nazis…neo-Nazis, casual Nazis, master race Nazis, or the latest-whatever-uber-mythology-Nazis, I figure out which side they are on. And if they are on my side of the demonstration?  I am on the wrong side.

There is something wrong if someone who claims to be an American patriot can’t figure out this no-brainer.

The sight of Nazi flags and banners at the Charlottesville rally sickened me just as they have at countless fascist protests around this country since then. The fact the president viewed these fascist thugs as “fine people” sickens me even more.  I spent a 32-year professional career investigating and prosecuting individuals residing in the United States who actively supported and assisted the Nazi government of Germany in its wholesale extermination of the Europeans Jews and other peoples they deemed undesirable.  My father, as a 20 year old man from rural Michigan, fought his way across Europe in order to destroy the Nazis and what they represented.  He was awarded for his bravery. His unit assisted in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp and he saw up close and personal what the Nazis had done and planned to continue had they been victorious.  He had to live the remainder of his life with the memories of the horrors he had witnessed.  I’m sure he would have been revolted by what he saw in Charlottesville, and again by what transpired on the steps of the Capitol building last week.

A Proud Boy thug wore a ‘Camp Auschwitz” hoodie complete with a death’s head and “Work Brings Freedom” message, a clear reference to “Arbeit macht frei” posted over the entrance to Nazi concentration camps where one’s only freedom was gained through the smokestacks of the overworked crematoria.  Or another Proud Boy thug wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “6MWE” - six million weren’t enough.  I need not share these images here; they are revolting and I’m sure you have all seen them by now.  These are American patriots???  The president must think so because, just like at Charlottesville, he could not bring himself to condemn their message and the violence they perpetrated.  He released a short video calling for the terrorists to leave.  Nothing more.  His statement was peppered with sympathy, telling these thugs "We love you, you're very special." 

It is tough to argue moral equivalence when I am standing next to a Nazi.  Look to my right.  Is there a guy wearing a 6MWE t-shirt?  I am on the wrong side.  Look to my left.  If that guy is wearing a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt?  Wrong side.  Are speakers being applauded for referring to things that Hitler got right?  Wrong side.

The President of the United States looked around and opted for the wrong side and he incited a coup d’etat in Washington, DC, the cradle of our democracy.  His soldiers are fascist haters, race baiters and anti-Semites who use what they perceive as their freedom to do and say what they please to actively undermine and destroy the democracy that gave them those very freedoms they abuse.  Not long ago, while visiting Arlington, a National Cemetery like many others where true American patriots like my father are buried with honor, the president turned to an aide.  “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”   The president showed contempt for the casualties of war, and in doing so, for all men and women who served this country in uniform.  A year or so earlier, he decided against visiting the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris.  “Why should I go to that cemetery?  It’s filled with losers.”  In a separate conversation on the same trip, he referred to marines killed during World War I as “suckers” for getting killed.  So we know what the president considers patriotic.  It’s hard for me to say this, but I am glad my dad did not live to see what this country is becoming.  I can only imagine the great psychic wound it would have inflicted on him and his fellow comrades-in-arms.  They do not deserve this.  None of us deserve this.   But here we are.

I want to remain optimistic.  I want to believe that once this scourge, this undemocratic nemesis is finally cast out, every possible step will be taken to insure that this regrettably stormy transition of power results in a quick return to sanity and proper and reliable governance.  We must all work together to heal the divisions that will continue to infect  this once great nation.  We will have to rebuild confidence in our democratic institutions and to demonstrate to ourselves and to the world at large that we truly are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

American Carnage - Living on the Edge of Anarchy

Yesterday, as we watched on television the anarchy of an attempted coup staged by a fascist mob at the behest of the President of the United States, we were thankfully safe at home in Mount Rainier, Maryland, a National Register Historic District situated just five miles from the Capitol.  Our town shares a border with the District of Columbia, and while the Capitol Police, reinforced by Metropolitan DC Police and elements of the DC, Maryland and Virginia National Guards, tried to restored order following the mob’s  breaching of the Capitol grounds and building, our local town police were put on alert as a 6pm curfew went into effect throughout the District of Columbia.   Local police personnel were deployed on all streets with direct access to DC should the violence spread in our direction.  We were asked to remain indoors, something we have grown accustomed to over the past nine months.  Thankfully the violence was contained mostly to Capitol Hill and it subsided once the curfew went into effect and the police arrested violators. 

Let’s be perfectly clear.  Trump incited his supporters at a midday rally outside the White House, stating that he would “never concede” and voicing his hope that Vice President Pence would intervene to reverse the electoral college results which the president  continued to claim were rigged in favor of President-Elect Biden.  He urged the mob to march on the Capitol and take the country back.  And so they marched, attacking the Capitol Police and forcing their way through security barricades.  They stormed the steps of the Capitol, smashing doors, breaking windows, and scaling walls to access the upper levels  of the building.  Once inside they ranged freely throughout the hallways and offices, including the Rotunda.  They further breached the Senate Chamber only after the debate over Republican objections to the Electoral College results was temporarily adjourned and Senators,  Representatives, and the Electoral College votes from each state were whisked to a secure location.  The mob carried Confederate and Trump flags, ripped down US flags, destroyed and looted furniture, broke into offices and rummaged through desks and rifled and defaced files.  Federal authorities, including the Secret Service, prevented a breaching of the House of Representatives with guns drawn.  One of the terrorists was shot and killed.

Eventually peace was restored and the debate was allowed to continue as Republican objections to the final vote tally fizzled and sputtered in light of the Trump inspired coup attempt.  Vice President Pence (R-IN), one of Trump’s most loyal allies, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), one of his key enablers, broke with the president, calling for a confirmation and certification of the Electoral College votes.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also stated that he hoped that Congress will change for the better.  “The violence, destruction and chaos we saw earlier was unacceptable, undemocratic and un-American.”  There were still a few hardcore stand outs who continued to raise their objections, but the President Elect was finally confirmed in the wee hours of this morning. 

Little did we know at the time of Trump’s inauguration almost four years ago, when he promised to end “American carnage” right here and right now that he was about to unleash an unprecedented nightmare assault on American democracy marked by staggering mismanagement; his unethical activities that lined his and his family’s pockets with taxpayer dollars while also using his office to illegally gain information from a foreign power on his political enemies for which he was impeached; his destroying of old alliances while getting cozy with tin pot dictators and authoritarian governments; his withdrawing from important treaties and global institutions; and his constant insulting of anybody and everybody who did not toady to his epic narcissism.  Add to these his authorization and support for programs and policies that qualify as crimes against humanity.  Finally, he denied the dangers of a worldwide pandemic, initially calling it a hoax, To date it has claimed at least 361,000 lives in this country with no end in sight.   And to top it all off, he incites his followers who continue to believe his long litany of pathological lies to attempt a coup d’etat in the hope of staying in power after losing the general election in November.  His entire term in office has been the epitome of American carnage.

What a shameful day yesterday was in our nation’s history as a beacon of hope and democracy.  And to think this all happened right on our doorstep.  We should all pause and reflect on what we have just witnessed. It’s time for this madness, this “American carnage,” to end right here and right now! 

An Attempted Coup d'Etat in Washington?

Today Congress meets in the Capitol Building to certify the Electoral College votes.  Normally this is pro forma and happens under the radar.

But today is different.  Much of downtown DC is closed.  Businesses are shuttered and boarded up.  Many hotels in the restricted area where automotive traffic is barred are closed and streets have been sealed off by sanitation trucks, snow plows, and police cars. 

The DC National Guard has been called up and it and the Metropolitan Police are on alert for fear of armed violence by fanatical Trump supporters who wish to overturn the legal outcome of the November election.  They claim it was stolen yet have not been able to present any certifiable evidence to support this claim.  They are supported in this effort by a handful of renegade Republican senators and a few dozen Republican representatives who are clearly guilty of sedition while ignoring their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.  And all of this is happening here in America that this president promised to make great again.  Instead we have lived through a four year nightmare that just does not want to end despite our best hopes and efforts.  This is beyond shameful.  When will this all end?

A New Year or Just a New Version of the Old One?

 I found this cartoon on counterpoint.com this morning and it pretty much says it all.  I am not quite certain why, but we stayed up to watch the ball drop above a largely empty Time Square.  It was just plain sad.  The only ones permitted to attend were the entertainers, the crew, security, and a small, select group of first responders and medical personnel who have been on the front lines in battling the COVID-19 pandemic in the Big Apple.  There they were masked and corralled into socially distanced pens.  And probably freezing their asses off to boot.  Celebrants have always frozen their asses off; it’s late December in New York after all.  Yet spirits were always high and there was a sense of community as they welcomed a new year.  Just like the rest of us, I am sure the folks in Time Square were all happy to see the south end of 2020 headed north, but is there really anything to celebrate about the advent of 2021?

I would like to think that we are heading into 2021 with a renewed sense of hope and energy to face the hard tasks that still lie before us.  The T**** interregnum is leaving this country in shambles and we have a lot to do just to dig our way out of the wreckage.  In just three weeks Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be in the White House.  But not before T*** plays out his post-election temper tantrum and the Republicans make one last ditch effort to annul the national election and the state certified votes of the Electoral College.  Just one more step in their attempt to destroy American democracy and the Constitution they swore to uphold and protect.  Four days from now we will witness two all important run-off elections in Georgia that will determine whether Biden/Harris will have a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress, or whether Mitch McConnell and his Republican Senate cohorts will continue to run roughshod over the Constitution and all efforts to counteract what T**** and his minions have wrought over the past four years.

And then there is the pandemic that is far from over even with the unfortunately slow roll out of the new vaccines.  One of the first news stories I read this morning was a report that the United States has now surpassed 20 million total recorded COVID-19 cases (6% of the USA population) after posting a record number of hospitalizations for the past four straight days.  The experts are saying that the worse is yet to come while predicting that more than 80,000 new deaths in the country throughout January.  Add to this the new and highly infectious variant of COVID-19 first discovered recently in the United Kingdom.  It has already reached this country and cases are reported in three states since Christmas and more are expected.  Most of those infected have no travel history meaning the spreaders are out there and infecting others.  Even the most optimistic reports say that COVID-19 will be with us for several more months at the very least.  

While you are celebrating the end of a disastrous 2020 and toasting the New Year, let me remind everyone to not let your guard down.   Stay safe and healthy and wear your mask.  It seems a small price to pay to insure that you, those you love, and the rest of us are around to ring in 2022.