Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by and tell us about your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper. Newcomers may notice that many who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
Reading the news leads to anxiety these days. Major anxiety. We fear for our country and the world. I think everyone is feeling it… Good results in the November elections will go a long way toward salving raw feelings. But until then, we all need to take care of ourselves — and each other.
My thoughts have drifted to fantasy sometimes. What can sway people without conscience? People like the current Occupant of the White House, for example? Charles Dickens did write the classic tale about changing the heart of a cold-hearted, unkind miser to someone who could care, A Christmas Carol, in which Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley. Marley wishes to spare Scrooge the fate that he himself is suffering in the afterlife, where all his mean deeds have manifested into heavy chains he must drag everywhere. So he sets up a night of visits from three ghosts to show Scrooge the error of his ways. We all know the story.
But don't we also know that the White House is haunted?
Okay, okay, okay… Which of the dead Presidents could shift a certain someone to a change of heart? Or to develop any heart at all? To guide him. If you could pick three of them, who would they be? Hmmmm….Christmas in July? Why not? Off the top of my head, my picks to visit the Occupant would be…
Teddy Roosevelt — famous Republican who had a reputation for busting trusts and who wrestled bears, figuratively, anyway. He had a reputation for toughness.
Eisenhower — a 5 Star General who warned us all...maybe he even saw this mess coming. He would have a few choice words to say about Russia, too.
Nixon — He left the office in disgrace! What better Ghost of Christmas Future to point a bony finger?
Please come in, be comfortable, and share your day, your weekend plans, your menus. Oh, and tell us your picks for haunting the White House! Indulge yourself in a fantasy. This is an open thread.