Originally posted on Paul Scannell Photography :
Stories From Alaska Welcoming Committee How’s it goin? Oh, to be a McCarthy dawg. The town’s mutts roam ‘free range’. Highly prized and rarely preened, they snipe for fries, hump, sniff and snooze without human meddling. The pace and population of this remote Alaskan town ensures freedom to wander and build bonds. Packs form and frolic, poised and playful. It’s a medley of mock snarls, curling snouts and ever-shifting dominance. A sign, half way down the main dirt road, urges motorists to heed the pack’s unfettered movements. Opha-Mae, Snug as a Bug I watch them from the steps of the old hardware store. Alliances shift and ebb with each scuffle, until the next stick or bone is claimed and challenged. They duck, dive and dodge their playmates, with barks most usually worse then bites. Vicious outbursts give way to gentle tumbles. Through this tussle of teeth and tails, scores are settled and forgotten. It’s a dance; a wild canine theatre where dramas flair with spittle, butt-sniffing and high jinx.…

The other day I was on my walk back to the cabin, returning from town on the hour long commute. I saw a moose moving fast, parallel to me, just in the woods. He stopped to look at me and I snapped this quick pic with my phone. I should have perhaps thought more closely about why the moose was running fast but it was late and I was enjoying the walk. The moose kept going, at a fast jog and it wasn’t long before I learned why the moose was running. It was a grizzly. The bear seemed annoyed by me and did a few false charges. I had my bear spray but he left before things got serious. I didn’t have the nerve to try to snap the grizzly bear’s pic.

So Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) have been flirting on Twitter as regards the violation of a sacred, traditional taboo: the ban on Democrats working with Republicans. Will it get very far? Probably not. Or Democratic process of built to fail. A to party system limits cooperation among the parties and generates a psychology of enmity and distrust. It’s a frame of mind that most folks seen happy with, more or less, presumably because it gives them someone to blame and something to fight about.