Well, I was thinking of wrapping up the week, as I have the past few, with a recipe, but the little voice in my head asks, is that what people come here for? So I’ll listen to that voice and just post a link to the most fantastic summery salad – three ingredients and a super easy dressing – that I had great success with this week. If asparagus, tomatoes and avocados sound good to you (in a light Dijon/olive oil dressing) – this is your go-to! The link is below.
 
This week has been like a year’s worth of news. Yesterday’s drama on the eve of the CPC convention, Maxime Bernier’s defection to start his own party, was like the icing on the cake and came just when I thought I couldn’t take one more bite. What a week!
 
As I was prepping that salad I mentioned for a small dinner party, I had CNN blasting away with the Tuesday news bombs of both Paul Manafort’s and Michael Cohen’s legal takedowns. While I’m anxiously awaiting developments that will see this nightmare below us come to an end, there are so many other intangibles that you almost feel as if you have to duck and cover. Like, what if Mike Pence moved up into the big chair? Why did Paul Manafort insist on Pence being VP to Trump’s P? That’s just one of the questions that swirl through my head.
 
Then there’s Trump’s telling comment on Faux News yesterday that flipping should be, like, illegal. (He’s not talking about buying places and selling them at a profit; I’m pretty sure he thinks that’s one of the Ten Commandments, if he knew them.) No, he was saying that turning from ally, to witness against him, should be a crime. Doesn’t that sound like something Tony Soprano would say?
 
Yes, I’m a Canadian through and through and I follow what’s happening here, of course, but I can’t help watching what’s going on south of the border and some of it has to do with the fact that I hate a liar. More than anything, I hate a liar. And that’s what Trump has been from Day One. The frequency and audacity of his lies have increased exponentially from the day he was sworn in and it seems that everyone in his party – save for a few who are leaving soon anyway – is turning a blind eye so that they can get all of their policies and wishes in place before the supposed Blue Wave that is coming in November. 
 
I reached out to author Linwood Barclay on Twitter this week (his book A Noise Downstairs is a great summer read) after he commented on the goings on in DC and asked him, “What do you say when people tell you to mind your own business as a Canadian?” and he responded simply: “I ignore them.” I’ve had just a few tweets directed at me with that tone, most of them without punctuation but lots of MAGA in their bios, and I just block the senders right away.
 
When someone called me cowardly for blocking instead of engaging, I simply thought to myself, Why would you argue with someone who gets their “facts” from Fox? There’s no reasoning with a person (or bot, for that matter) who refuses even to consider the truth.
 
And as for someone who posted on my FB page a while back when I made a comment about Trump and Alcatraz that I used to be so careful not to offend any listeners during my CHFI days, and wondered what had come over me, I say this: for many years, I was given the honour of using a public platform that was not my own. I treated that responsibility with care and respect; my aim was never to lose a listener.
 
Another person said, “Why don’t you worry about Trudeau?” I told her that I have a mind wide enough to take in more than one story and more than one situation and consider them simultaneously. Imagine! And then I asked who poses more of a risk to the world right now, anyway? Someone else posted that she hoped there was room at Alcatraz for the prime minister. I asked what crimes he had committed. She said, “How he treats Canadians.” Oh, okay. That seems solid.
 
What I’m getting to is this: here – in my journal, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – I am allowed to be who I am and share with whomever cares to visit what I feel about something that’s going on. Whether it’s a baby’s sound machine or Baby Boss in the Oval Office. Right now I’m furious – have been since the day he was elected. What’s happening to our very close neighbo(u)rs is unprecedented in their history and if you’re not concerned, you’re not paying attention.
 
That’s entirely your right! After a lifetime of trying to keep up with everything going on, so as to digest events with accuracy for listeners, it’s impossible to unplug. And I wouldn’t miss the takedown of this cheating liar for the world. 
 
So now I’m going to go out and walk along the ocean, peering across to where our neighbouring American islands are, and hoping that a clear horizon emerges from our steady blanket of smoke over the past few weeks. A metaphor for what I anticipate is happening as that long red tie continues to get caught up in the slow turning wheels of justice? Perhaps. 
 
I wish you a lovely summer weekend and here’s that recipe I mentioned above.