The Talking Dog

April 25, 2018, What'd I miss?

As those of you intrepid (or curious) enough to keep checking back in here are aware, there was an "account suspended" message up for a couple of weeks, while you pondered "Has the talking dog gone the way of oh so many of those other old blogs?" The answer was "maybe," but is now a resounding "hell no." We have resolved our technical issues, and are back, preaching to our millions thousands hundreds dozens of loyal readers.

Preaching what? Damned if I know. It's once again way too late in spring coming, and my vegetable garden is not installed (although last week afforded ONE DAY during which I could at least clear last year's overgrowth, though it did not afford a SECOND DAY for seed planting or compost installation). Oh, and we're over 15 months into... you know what For those who think that Mr. Mueller,or perhaps the likely Democratic Congressional majorities, will "save us," just color me highly skeptical. Anyway, enough about the macro: what happens to the affairs of state is likely beyond our individual control, sadly.

What IS within our individual control are our own actions. I am trying to devote myself to "immigrant friendly" activities. I am trying to write letters, visit persons in immigration detention (btw, OUTSTANDING NPR piece on that subject for those interested), and trying to help new arrivals with their English. Baby steps: we can't fix the world. We can certainly hope that the courts help us, and take heart when we see such eents such as our old friend Judge John Bates of Washington. D.C. shoving DACA up you know who's you know what, and the Supreme Court will take up Travel Ban 3 in argument (and the pundits feel it will uphold it..sigh...).

Well... enough about what's beyond our control. Try to find some way that you can help. Little things count-- maybe more than big things, because the big money guns are out there trying to take credit for the big things, while the little things desperately need to get done.

What can I tell you... anyway. FWIW... I'm back...

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April 1, 2018, Happy Easter


And A zissen Pesach to those who understand. April Fool's Day had been one of the cherished days here at TTD. The all-time most viewed post was our interview with Donald Rumsfeld in 2007; other such 1st of April interviews included Dick "go fuck yourself" Cheney, and of course, the current (ahem) so-called President. It's as every bit relevant today as it was when first posted in 2016.

But it's now 14 months and 11 days or so into our national nightmare, with no end in sight (apologies to Mr. Mueller, but I just don't see this ending before January of 2021, or even 2025 if Hillary won't actually drop out), and so, when the country (even via the atavistic disaster known as the "electoral college," which structurally empowers people who didn't go to college) decides that a bullshit-spewing sexual predator unnaturally-connected-to-the Russian-mob gameshow host who has never held any public office (or even a job employed by someone not named "Trump") is superior to a woman- any woman- even one who has served as a Senator and Secretary of State, no matter what her flaws might have been, I have to concede that parody or irony or even humor itself just doesn't pack the punch it once did.

So, I kind of don't really know what to do with this spot. Most of my satiric creative energy has been devoted to helping my good friend Donald J. Putin over on Twitter, which seems to have captured the zeitgeist by limiting discourse to 140 280 characters, and you can at least be snarky in that confined space. I had hoped to put up more interviews, and hopefully I will, but by and large, the long-form anything format is getting harder and harder to do in a world where "news" is what an emotionally and intellectually challenged 71 year old man spews forth at 3 a.m. while fighting constipation brought on by a diet of aspertame-ridden soda, McDonald's "cuisine," burnt steak and vanilla ice cream... as I said... irony, if not dead, clearly on life-support.

I don't know. Maybe, like that miraculous event-- a betrayal, a death and a resurrection-- celebrated by Christians today-- maybe public discourse (and, please God, the American experiment) will rise above the worst elements to which they are presently subjected again. But I do think it might take a miracle.

In the meantime, I still think the Rumsfeld thing is pretty funny.

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