Nothing to see

 

    
      My granddaughter lives within walking distance of the White House, and Monday we took a break from cooing over her to stroll our little lozenge of concentrated cuteness over to eyeball the place for the first time since the East Wing was torn off.

      You can't see anything. Which itself is odd, because typically this administration is too arrogant and dumb to be ashamed of the bad it's doing. In truth, the careful concealment was more worrisome than any glimpse of ripped up architecture. Because it is a reminder that, as awful as what we know of the current administration certainly is, imagine what is going on out of sight. Not just the self-dealing, the corrupt practices — those are also pretty plain, though there must be more and worse that will someday be revealed. Beyond that, think about those ICE detention facilities. We see how ICE behaves in public, with upstanding members of the public whose only crime is exercising their Constitutional rights. What is going on with zero oversight nor accountability? When the facts come out — and they always do — it'll make the recent tempest over abrupt removal of part of the people's house seem silly.
    It was very sad to see the White House. Usually I thrill to consider the greatness that once occupied it. Now it's hard to think past the evil therein, the excrescence occupying it, tearing it apart, and our country too. 
   At least we can still speak out. Free speech hasn't been cast as obstruction of justice, yet, though ICE is halfway there, hassling Americans for taking videos in a Sam's Club parking lot. There were protestors in LaFayette Park. They seemed to be having fun, and I thought I'd amplify their messages in my own small way.