Category: Sean Spicer

Beating about the Bush (Among the Bush?)

5/11/2017

From our 19th century historian Eudora Dickinson:

IIn the late-1800s, a distant relative of Donald Trump’s, Drittereich Drümpf, ran for governor of Ohio. One of his campaign promises was to build a wall around Cleveland. I wrote about this election HERE.

As the election neared, Drümpf was under investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Investigation (the OBI) for colluding with Michiganders to influence the outcome of the election because a great majority of Michiganders also wanted a wall built around Toledo, Ohio.

At one point, Drümpf suggested that the head of the OBI, James Goney, be fired. In response to Drümpf’s comments, his publicist Jonathan Müeller was unprepared for the onslaught of questions from the press, so he hid in a bank of bushes at the Great Serpent Mound near Portsmouth, Ohio. Later, though, Müeller insisted, “I wasn’t in the bushes. I was among the bushes.”

Pictured below left: A historical marker near Portsmouth, Ohio, shows where Drittereich Drümpf's publicist Jonathan Müeller hid "among the bushes."

Pictured below right: Drittereich Drümpf in a playful moment with his publicist Jonathan Müeller on the banks of Lake Erie.

Click the images to enlarge.

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) was present when reporters spotted Müeller “among the bushes,” and he wrote his now-classic poem “Could lie – did lie” (below on the left) about the incident. His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “Could live – did live” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Could lie – did lie –
Could hide – did hide –
I smiled upon the whole
With no faith in what he said,
I think he’s sold his soul.

It turned to scene peculiar
In his untraversed spot –
We scrutinized his journey
With a puzzled look –

We guessed he was among them,
Among the shrubs today –
Those who saw him hiding
Gave the Plant away!

By Emily Dickinson:

Could live – did live –
Could die – did die –
Could smile upon the whole
Through faith in one he met not,
To introduce his soul.

Could go from scene familiar
To an untraversed spot –
Could contemplate the journey
With unpuzzled heart –

Such trust had one among us,
Among us not today –
We who saw the launching
Never sailed the Bay!

Below: History repeated itself when Sean Spicer hid "among the bushes." Info is HERE.

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Traveling at the Speed of Lies

2/10/2017

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From our political correspondent, Dorothy “Lottie” Dawe:

When they go low, they go even lower. That reality was proven at the end of last week when Week 2 of the Trump administration out-sank Week 1, and now Week 3 has out-sunk them both:

Trump signed EOs he didn’t read – and many of them violated the constitution; he took credit for job growth which was a direct result of Obama’s policies (yet when he can, he and his staff members blame the lunacy of his chaos presidency on Obama); he delegitimized our judicial system; he undercut American values and said that we were the moral equivalent of Putin and Russia; he gutted regulations so that Wall Street nabobs can rake in millions; he went to Palm Beach, FL, for a weekend vacation after a botched military mission; and he and his family cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for second homes and pleasure trips.

Everything seems to be bass-ackwards. Trump and his so called press secretary heralded the failed military mission as a “great success”; a hastily-written unconstitutional ban was said to be “working marvelously”; a setback by the courts was professed to be an “easy win.”

The work of the GOP last week was just as appalling. In a scene straight out of the 1930s, the bigoted old white males of the Senate censored a white woman who was reading a letter from an African-American icon; yet in the previous week, the same curmudgeons yapped about protecting free speech for a neo-Nazi. They also approved a known racist to be the US Attorney General, and they awarded the Department of Education to a know-nothing anti-public-education billionaire who had funded all of their recent political campaigns.

In other developments, the First Lady looked for ways to cash in on million-dollar deals due to her new rank, Trump doubled the membership rates at his Mar-a-Lago golf club, and Kellyanne Conway hawked Ivanka’s fashions from the White House.

Let’s just say that Week 3 for the Trump administration was just as cray cray as Weeks 1 and 2 – and Week 4 isn’t shaping up to be any better (except that Rosie O’Donnell might be called upon to play Stave Bannon on SNL – after Melissa McCarthy knocked it out of the park last weekend when she played Sean Spicer – so that would be cool).

Oh, and then there were the lies: The Bowling Green Massacre. The attack in Atlanta. The voter fraud buses from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. The grossly exaggerated murder rate in the US. The "longest delay in the history of our country" concerning the approval of his cabinet. All of these are just the tip of the iceberg. The lies just keep on coming. One might say that the Trump administration is traveling at the speed of lies.

All of the lies and lunacy reminded us of Emmett Lee Dickinson's now-classic poem "They dropped their 'Facts'" (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "They dropped like Flakes" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

They dropped their “Facts” –
They dropped their Slurs –
Like Petals from a Rose –
When suddenly across the Globe
A Sense of tension – grows –

We’ll perish in their Foolish Ways –
No place to find to hide –
But Pain is seen in every face
For he’s – Unqualified.

By Emily Dickinson:

They dropped like Flakes –
They dropped like Stars –
Like Petals from a Rose –
When suddenly across the June
A wind with fingers – goes –

They perished in the Seamless Grass –
No eye could find the place –
But God can summon every face
Of his Repealless – List.

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White Lies Matter

1/22/2017

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From our master grammarian and resident logophile Angstrom Dickinson:

Come December, we'll start counting down the Words of the Year for 2017 (our 2016 countdown is HERE). Hmmm. Methinks we might have an early contender for the ultimate "Word of the Year" -- alternative fact -- "truth" told as lies by the Trump administration. Kellyanne Conway admitted as much on TV this morning saying Press Secretary Sean Spicer wasn't lying but rather was simply offering us "alternative facts."

This sleight of hand on the part of Trump, Conway, Spicer, and many others of Trump's clan reminded us of Emmett Lee Dickinson's now classic poem "Denial -- is the only fact" (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem with the same opening line (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Denial – is the only fact
Perceived by Donald Trump –
His Will – with numb significance –
The Day the Country cried

And all the Earth stood common ground –
Against his cunning Clan –
For Comfort is that Wisdom – is –
The spoiler of His Plan

By Emily Dickinson:

Denial – is the only fact
Perceived by the Denied –
Whose Will – a numb significance –
The Day the Heaven died –

And all the Earth strove common round –
Without Delight, or Beam –
What Comfort was it Wisdom – was –
The spoiler of Our Home?

Check back in December for our countdown -- HERE.

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A poetry log for the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in historic Washerst, Pennsylvania).

Beating about the Bush (Among the Bush?)

Traveling at the Speed of Lies

White Lies Matter

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