Upset

I was talking, or rather ranting, this morning to a friend about the election.  My first vote I ever did cast was for George McGovern.  When Nixon won I was disappointed but I did not fear for the Republic.  When Bush, both 41 and 43, won I did not fear for the Republic.  This time, however, there is a whiff of grapeshot in the air as I do fear for our Republic. I recall as a teenager not wanting to stand for the national anthem as I was embarrassed by our role in the Vietnam War.  I feel the same embarrassment now.  Here's what I don't understand.  How can so many people vote against their own self interests.  Trump won on a platform of bringing jobs back but the truth of the matter is there is no longer a manufacturing sector that depends solely on the strong backs of laborers without a college degree.  Robotics and automation have taken the jobs, not NAFTA,  We live in a global economy now.  We live together on a planet and we are all in this together.  Anymore a college degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma.  Service sector jobs exist but the pay is crap and many studies has shown that men don't like and don't apply for these types of job.  Sure, if we can get a comprehensive infrastructure plan in place there will be jobs that are strictly speaking manual labor, but that is short term solution.  Just as we had universal free public education. Now we need to expand that to Colleges and Universities.  Twelve years of school might be a lifetime to some but to get better jobs a college degree is needed.  And whereas a BA or BS was sufficient before now you really need an advanced degree to achieve any economic security beyond the minimum wage.

Trump is a con man and a liar.  He promised jobs but what he is taking credit for, like the SoftBank/Sprint deal was in the works long before he on the scene.  The same is true of the Carrier deal and Ford Motor deal.  And his followers are gullible enough to belief him.  When he is called out on the deceptions and outright lies he like a lizard coated in Vaseline; it just slides off without any effect.  He promised to "drain the swamp" and outlaw pay for play but he has done just the opposite.  The swamp is now a cesspool and his major donors have prominent positions in his cabinet.

During the election I was being trolled on Face Book by Trump supporters, most notable Sophie's estranged grandson Tim.  Not so much now.  The trolling is getting less and less and I can only hope some folks are waking up to the fact that Trump is all smoke and mirrors.  If you are interested there is a pamphlet put together by former congressional aides entitled Indivisible.  Get your copy here by clicking this link. 

The big thing now is the Republicans trying to repeal the ACA, without putting anything in its place.  OMG, wait until the shit hits the fan when 20,000,000 are once again without insurance and the emergency rooms deal less with emergencies and more with people without insurance, which will really drive up the cost of health care and that we will all pay for.  Talk about reviving the Death Panels of years gone by.  Eliminate the clause for preexisting conditions and you doom a whole class of people to the scrapheap.  Single payer is the way to go, like the Medicare model.  Let's work on that!

The second big Republican agenda item is to reduce the debt by slashing Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security.  What the dummies don't realize, maybe because they get free health care and a lovely pension, is that you and I paid into these funds.  The monies are there for us to use...in fact it is my money.  It's not, strictly speaking, an entitlement.  The real welfare queens are in the House and Senate, working less that 150 days a year for a lovely salary, health benefits and retirement exclusive of what is available to you or I.

What I will propose to you is that we need a flat tax, say 10%.  EVERYBODY PAYS.  No loopholes, no excuses.  This is an idea that dates back to the 19th century, Henry George.  But it is a sound plan. This would pay for infrastructure, pay down the national debt, have universal college and health care.  10% isn't a great deal to me and I would be willing to pay a bigger share as long as The Donald pays his share, without pleading that he is being audited probably because he hasn't paid any taxes in year.  This great patriot who wants to make America great (and regressive) can't seem to pony up his fair share while we, the great unwashed, pay year in and out and get less bang for our buck.

Some days I am upset about the hatred that is Trump and his cesspool has unleashed, like a Pandora's box of hate.  Some days the stupidity of it all weighs the heaviest upon me.  It is time for my self-imposed mourning to end and to begin resisting with all I am worth the agenda being put forward by the Republicans.  Please get a copy of Indivisible. Resistance is not futile.  I am getting my sea legs back.  MSNBC here I come.

The thing is...

I just don't understand all this hate that has been bubbling to the surface in the last fifteen months or so.  The Anti-Semitic rhetoric, the gay bashing, Islamophobia, outright racial animus.  All bad.  I just just don't understand this.  I have often said, as many before me have said, your rights end at my nose and my end at yours.  That said I think people should be free to go about their business without fear of getting beat up, harassed or otherwise enraged.  I don't understand homophobia.  So what if someone is gay; really, what's it to you and what business do you have legislating against it?  So what if someone is a Jew, a Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Taoist and I can go on and on.  What's it you?  Why does Ted Cruz (a man who looks like he is taking a perpetual leak (alright, not a nice thing to say in a rant about accepting people but I digress)) wants to push for a law called the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which would basically permit discrimination based on your religious beliefs.  In other works if I am a baker and you are gay and want a wedding cake I can refuse, legally, to make one for you.  It's all discrimination whatever you cloak it in.  I use the gay example as I can think of no better example of irrational hatred.  What is it to you if I am gay?  What I am doing so evil that you must legislate me away?  You can force your heterosexual agenda on me, but if I try to assert my rights, and I do have them still, then I am make out to be the bane of your existence, as if you can't abide seeing someone else happy in their relationship.  And Jews, we don't proselytize, we are not in your face, yet we are hated for our beliefs and really, WHAT'S IT TO YOU?  People of color...WHAT'S IT TO YOU?  Why is it that some are not allowed to go about their business in peace.

So, what if the shoe is on the other foot.  What if you are a white nationalist?  Fine and dandy, just remember your right to hate me stops at my threshold.  Hate all you want but leave me be.  When hate takes action that is where I have issues.  Take Whitefish, Montana, aptly named apparently.  The "Alt-Right" man of distinction, Richard Spencer, of the National Policy Institute, wants a Neo-Nazi sponsored armed march against Jews in Whitefish (who knew there were even Jews in Montana) because of some slight he perceived that his mother received at the hands of the Jewish Cabal in Whitefish.  Armed march with Skinheads bused in from the Bay Area.  (Yes, this is factual and not Face Book fake news).  The hate is real.

Have your hate and eat it, too.  March and show your white pride.  But an armed march meant to intimidate a community should not be tolerated.  I am a card carrying member of the ACLU and they once protected the rights of Neo-Nazis to march in the predominately Jewish city of Skokie, Illinois.  That is their right...in a free society (didn't we used to be free?) everyone is entitled to their own brand of love and/or hate.  But stop inflicting your views on me.  Stop with the hate.  Stop with the guns.  Also, while you are at it, stop legislating moralities and ideologies. Hands off my body and my mind.  The FADA (oh, we are back to that are we?) is nothing more than legalized hate.  I see the bands of white nationalists seething with hate at all these groups and I wonder what kind of world they want their children to inherit.  Hate is a destructive thing, a corrosive thing.  Hope is a thing with feathers...according to Emily Dickinson.  Hope is optimism and hate is the essence of a pessimistic soul, a soul full of darkness.  

So, since the election (oh, God, is that what this is all about?) I have seen so much hate stream out of the body politic.  Why aren't more people upset that Steve Bannon, of the Pepe meme fame, has the ear of the president-elect?  Why aren't more people outraged about what is happening in Whitefish, Montana?  Why?  And, more importantly, why haven't I mentioned Sophie and her ilk since the election?  Well, since I have this platform and I obviously think some will even read this, I am putting my outrage out there.  

On January 21st there is a march on Washington, D.C. and if you can't make that there is one here is Lansing, Michigan.  Lansing March details. 

Make a positive difference.  In other words, you thought I was a nasty woman before...better buckle up, buttercup!!!

It's been a long time

Yes, indeed, I have been strangely silent of late, still in shock from the hacked election.  I can't believe what has transpire in the last six weeks.  Yes, just six weeks.  And as I was reading my trivia calendar for the day the question was: According to one study, what professional position has the most psychopaths working in it?  The answer is CEOs.  That's Agent Orange.  Is it any wonder we are in a shit storm right now. 

Yes, the Russians hacked our elections and we have a puppet of Putin (that has a lovely ring, don't you think?) as supreme leader.  I have been reminded this week of the Dunning Kruger phenomena, wherein the dumber one person is the more they overestimate their intelligence.  Yes, you can look that up.  Explains a great deal about this Trumpian nightmare we are in the midst of.  Generals to the right of me, fools to the left, stuck in the middle. 

The Alt-Right, alright, let's just call them what they are: White Nationalists.  And the Men's Rights Movement thrown in for good measure.  What they call being political correct, which is anathema to them, I call being civil.  What I see as trending to greater equality, they see as a loss of their inherent rights as white males.  And let's not forget the 53% of white women who voted for Agent Orange or Carrot Top, or what you will.  But really everyone who voted for him, save for the 1% he has installed in cabinet level positions, voted against their own best interests.  The workers who saw in him a savior who would "drain the swamp" has to see that he is not the savior.  The deal with Carrier and all the tweets about the United Steel Workers Union not serving the workers well is the stuff of true hubris. 

Vanity Fair had a great article about the Trump Grill(e) in the Trump Tower in NYC.  They slammed it as being "...worse restaurant in America", calling it a poor man's vision of being rich.  I can't help but to think of Jay Gatsby when I see the gilded Trump Tower Penthouse, him lusting after Daisy and the Old Money while he is a Vulgarian of the nouveau riche.  Agent Orange, in his most diligent manner, starting Tweeting about Vanity Fair.  Very mature.  Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair has called Trump a "short fingered vulgarian" to which Agent Orange began sending Carter photos of himself with his fingers circled and the tag  "see, not so short".  So another shot of Twitter and we are off on a Tweet Storm. 

Still I can't believe people actually voted for the short fingered vulgarian, or The Vulgarian.  This all has a vague existential feel to it, a bit of the surreal.  I have no idea if the Russian hijacking our election will play out after Obama leaves office.  Will there be a Benghazi like commission investigating this or will this all be part of the national nightmare we call The Vulgarian?  There needs to be a bipartisan investigation with full transparency.  And the Democrats, who are so far in the woods they have the look of the Donner Party, need to grow a pair and obstruct The Vulgarian the way the Republicans obstructed Obama.  Where is the outrage over the rigged election?  The Vulgarian is calling it sour grapes but if the whine be sour then it should be ingested.

Everyday I see more and more the pendulum swing to the right, the hard right.  KellyAnne Conway recently said that to call out Trump's pussy grabbing is sexist, and that is a rationalization that no one in their right mind could make.  I almost believe the whole of the Trump Organization is psychopathetic.  My new word.  The whole of Trump's family, like a royal court, holds forth from Trump Tower.  His son, Donnie Jr.  picked the Secretary of the Interior for daddy because they went hunting together. Nothing like taking pot shots at the environment for the Secretary of the Interior.  Big Donnie takes his daughter to work day and she will have the FLOTUS office in the East Wing of the White House, as the real FLOTUS stays in NYC so Barron, the next in line for the throne, can have as little disruption to his sheltered life as possible.  Poor boy.

So all of this constitutes a rant of the first order.  I need to awaken from this apoplectic reality.  I am re-reading Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, which rings very true today.  We must stand our ground where it comes to Him Who Shan't Be Named.  Grow a pair, come in from the woods.  Stand up to this bully of a short fingered vulgarian with an equally short fuse.  I truly hope Trump Googles himself daily and finds this rant and starts a Tweet-Shit-Storm over me.  The barbarians are at the gate and we must resist.

My parents

Are most likely rotating in their collective graves as I have been joining various left of center organizations they warned me never to affiliate myself.  They came of age during the years of the Holocaust when it was ever so dangerous to be a Jew in any country and also during the McCarthy Era in the 1950s when it was just dangerous to be anyone with an opinion.  They warned me not to let my politics be known.  Too late, parental units, I have been busy being politically proactive to save my sanity.  I think my parents were constantly worried that the Holocaust would never end so if they wanted to go to a "restricted" restaurant in say, St. Clair Shores, they made a reservation in a gentile sounding name, like Lee.  To me if I am not wanted I am not going to give that business my money.  My folks just wanted to belong and be Americans, not tied to the Old Country of their parents.  I think that pendulum has swung back the other way with me as I very much identify as Jewish and have joined a synagogue and participate.

But my politics have always been at odds with my parents who were Goldwater Republicans.  I have been more liberal in my world views.  So in addition to joining the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, read the NY Times and Mother Jones.  If the McCarthy Era ever becomes fashionable again I want to be with my conscience and not my fears.  Fear is what has given us our current environment.  Fear of becoming a minority in a nation of immigrants.  Fear of being the wrong religion at the wrong time.  Southern Poverty Law Center, B'nai Brith.  Oh, they will come for me, those Agents of Orange.  Planned Parenthood, Emily's List...and so on.  Get the point? Basically my year end bonus has gone to financing my beliefs and the felt need of opposition to Agent Orange and his Minions.  And they are not the cute one eyed yellow Minions.  No, these are dangerous ones; the one like Steve Bannon who doesn't want his kids going to school with whiny Jews.  Those like Betsy De Vos who believes in school vouchers and schools of choice, which would basically kill public schools and create ghettos of them.  I am surprised, well, so far, that he hasn't made Ms. Palin head of the EPA only to have her disband the agency and let ecological havoc reign supreme.  Jefferson Sessions as Attorney General...might as well write off any proactive voter of civil rights adjudications.

The fact that Agent Orange has told his supporters to treat people with respect, he has opened a Pandora's box brimming with hatred for people of color, people of non-christian beliefs, of people believing that political correctness has no place in civil discourse.  He really can't unring that bell.  Hence I want to be really upfront with my politics.

I was scared.  I still am to some extent but the joinings have strengthened me to the point that I can read a newspaper, read news magazines (and thanks to whoever sent me a subscription to The Week...nice!) and watch the news again.  And I am heartened by the fact that the restaurant in Washington, D.C. that did not know what event it was hosting (It was the NPI holding a whites only rally) donated the proceeds of that evening to the ADL. Kudos to Maggiano's Little Italy for doing this.

It is time to remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller.

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me."

It is time to speak out and speak loudly. 

Finding a voice

Made a decision to subscribe to the New York Times (Sunday only) and joined the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Every step I take I am taking to empower myself to withstand the onslaught of Trumpiness and make sure that the singular voice I do have is heard.  Education, read and support with be my first act of Civil Disobedience.  I re-read Thoreau's classic essay on the subject and rather than continue to feel stuck and sullen over the turn of events I am choosing to radicalize myself and support the kind of organizations my parents warned me about.  I understand there will be a march on the Michigan's state capitol on the 21st of January from 1-3 to coincide with the Million Woman March on Washington. 

All this said I am encouraging all of you to take steps to "radicalize" yourselves.  Sure, wear a safety pin, but more to the point educate yourself.  Read Thoreau.  Read.  Just read.  Read a newspaper, read several.  Talk among yourselves.  Join organizations Your Parents warned You about.  Read, Radicalize and Resist.  I encourage you to take up books and papers.  Read.  Read histories.  As George Santayana (among others) has said "Those you forget the past are condemned to repeat it".  So very true.  I cannot recall an election that has had me this disillusioned about the course America is to take.  Certainly I was disappointed with Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes.  But none of them put me in fear of the sanctity that has been the American Dream, co-opted now by the Alt-Right and this demonic vision of a resurgent white dominated culture.

My three Rs are not reduce, reuse and recycle.  No, they are Read, Radicalize and Resist.  Read a paper, read a book.  The Trumpians are not.  They will not know what has hit them when they run into an educated class in this country who refuse to repeat the mistakes of the past.

And that, my friends, is the lesson of the day.

I lost my voice

Yes, I have lost my voice as this country has lost its collective mind.  Agent Orange, aka the Orange Ogre, has taken over.  And I am scared.  And I am not doing too well in accepting this new reality.  What I have done is join the ACLU.  I sent money to Planned Parenthood in honor of that great egalitarian Mike Pence.  I have retained my membership in the local Democratic Party. Save for these actions I have been in a stupor.  I still can't believe how stupid this country is to elect someone who hasn't taken a basic civics course and doesn't know the meaning of the word nepotism.  But he probably knows depotism. 

And most of all I am scared of that anti-Semite Steve Bannon, who the Orange Ogre has made his senior adviser.  I am scared for all the Jews, Muslims, Latinos, African Americans, LGBT community...basically all Americans who comprise the diversity this truly is this country and not the hatred of the banal citizenry who have spoken.  Fully 50% of Americans didn't vote in this election.  Fully more of them voted for Hillary but she lost the electoral college.  The electoral college was designed by the framers of the constitution to prevent this type of demagogue from attaining power.

We must remain vigilant in the face of this incipient fascism that is lurking in the shadows. And what, pray tell, happens when the promises of the The Wall and Jobs do not materialize?   I suspect the followers will follow others and move more to the right.  I am scared. 

This country is not a business.  It cannot be run on the model of a business. 

And just when I think things can't get worse they do.  With each new appointment I shudder.  Sessions, a  racist of the first order, is Attorney General.  That's what made me join the ACLU.  I don't think the Democrats will grow a pair and oppose the new regime with the full force of the constitution.  It is up to organizations like the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the media to watchdog and safeguard us.  We must use critical thinking and call out the racists, the homophobe, the Islamaphobe, the anti-Semite.  But truly we are all targets of a regime that has the impetus towards fascism. 

The media, which gave rise to Agent Orange, must make him accountable for his actions and make sure he abides the laws of this country.  We must be vigilant and not vigilantes.  I am sick unto death.  I am scared. 

I have been strangely silent

Blame it on sitting shiva for our country as Agent Orange (Thanks Green Tuna) has somehow been elected.  In spite, or maybe because of, his racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogyny and other less than "politically correct" attributes, he managed to get elected by people who wanted an outsider with no political expertise, no restraint (yes, they have re-opened his Twitter account) and a VP who is slightly to the right of, well, everyone.  It is no wonder that some have taken to the streets to protest this foolish election.  I have been clinically depressed since Tuesday night.  In spite of running a positive campaign, winning all the debates, and not grabbing any pussy, Hillary managed to lose to a egotist who really only wanted to prove he could win and now doesn't have a clue as to what to do, other than to make American great again while Pence handles the political agenda.  It seems to matter not that Wiki-Leaks and Russian intelligent has tainted our election, with Putin already reaching out to U.S. to establish friendlier ties. 

So that said, I cannot bear to watch my beloved MSNBC, Bill Maher and SNL this week.  I have on sack cloth and ashes, my mirrors covered.  How, I wonder, can so many vote against their own self-interest and elect such a moron?  Here is someone who won't raise the minimum wage, will use the old gem of trickle down economics (which is what put us in a recession in the first place, in addition to stupid trickle-down wars) to bolster the wealthy while the middle class continues to get squeezed.  Yes, this was a knee jerk reaction to having an African American President.  They want to take their country back (all the way to the 1950s it seems), before feminism, before civil rights, before the voting rights act, before marriage equality, before Roe v. Wade.  Here we have the genial Mike Pence with his Religious Restoration Act which basically guarantees the right to discriminate based on one's religious bent. 

I fear for out nation.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  How can I make sense of all of this?  The Pandora's Box of racism, antisemitism, homophobia and xenophobia has been opened and will not get closed any time soon.  I am waiting for the mass deportations, the Muslim ban, THE WALL.  Will this shit actually happen?  God only knows.  And God only knows what the hell will happen in the next four years.  This is like the Brexit Vote, where people didn't understand really what they voted for.  All they wanted was "change".  Wait until the ACA is repealed and the uninsured want their medical insurance back.  The damn insurance companies who dropped out of the program because, guess what, profits were down and basically killed the program.  No one should make a profit on health care.  We need a single payer system, like Medicare, only that ain't gonna happen, but people are going to be clamoring for help.  Who will champion the underclass?  The Millennials who voted or didn't vote will suffer with more student debt.  The great unwashed won a Pyrrhic victory that will be short lived. 

I am saddened by all this and can't deal with the truth...that we have elected Agent Orange and he will be just a deadly for the country as the chemical bearing its name.  So, those of you who voted your conscience, be careful of what you wish for...you just might get it.