This Ain't Funny

 I love comedy. When my classmates were swooning over the Beatles I was focusing on Red Skelton, Danny Kaye and Carol Burnett. I truly believe that laughter is the best medicine.

Politics has always provided great fodder for comedy and I have enjoyed the creativity of our current crop of comedians in their ability to bring laughter to what is, in my opinion, a very serious moment in our history. I believe that no other election outcome has ever been quite as important as the outcome of this midterm election. Why do I attribute THIS election with something that is traditionally a standard claim reserved for presidential elections?

Because, more than with any other election in my lifetime, the outcome of this election will confirm who WE THE PEOPLE are. It will proclaim to all of us what our moral standard is as a collective. It has ceased to be about political loyalties to a party but has crossed over to exposing what our collective character is as a nation.

I have many acquaintances who have continued to be loyal to the Republican party, even while saying, as if to establish their health while surrounded by illness, that they don’t agree with everything the party is endorsing, but that it is better than the alternative. Many have been posting a “copy and paste” narrative explaining why they continue to describe themselves as conservatives. It has 10 points, many of which are incontrovertible and both liberals and conservatives would probably agree in essence, if not in how to execute, that they are important tenets of our democracy.

But there is one of the points (and only one) that cites constitutional rights and it pertains to gun rights. I’ll leave the 2nd Amendment argument to another day, but I’d like to examine the loyalty to the Constitution as it pertains to so much of what is going on in national politics now.

If you can stand in-front of the ballot and look past the multiple infractions to our Constitution and provide support to those infractions by the party and the candidates on the ballot by casting your vote for them, you are part and parcel of the destruction of our Constitution and of the the rights that it bestows on us and has protected for over 250 years.

We do not need to conjecture about the goals of the MAGA movement. The goals have been outlined and executed openly and with total disregard for laws and Constitutional procedure. When people are collected from their homes, their jobs, their errands and perfunctorily transported to other locations without due process IT IS AGAINST THE LAW. And the scary part is, if we allow it to happen “to them” we are that much closer to having it happen “to us”. Those who are being affected may be here illegally, but that does not justify removing them illegally. What used to make us a superior nation was our adherence to the rule by law, not by bravado.

The treatment of immigrants is a flagrant example, easy to point at. But it is just one example. Take the destruction of the East wing, done against procedure, take the unorthodox authorities provided DOGE, take the refusal to adhere to procedure in the allocation of funds, take the military action in Iran done without Congressional approval, take the arbitrary imposition of tariffs, take the invasion of Venezuela, the bullying of Greenland and Canada, take the protection of the Epstein files, take the reflecting pool , take the …ohhhhh…the list goes on and on. So, if YOU cast your vote for any of the supporters of this travesty YOU have confirmed that our nation is not what we thought it was. And if we do not see a blue hand poised in the gesture of STOP there is no doubt as to the character of WE THE PEOPLE.

So, while I love comedy, this is not funny.

Are We Only in Remission?

 

Like many, I have been genuinely concerned about the future of our Democracy and the state of our nation. Witnessing the growing division and growth of partisan vitriol on both sides of any given issue was painful. The outcome of the election has produced an entirely different painful reaction. It feels like what a cancer patient must grapple with when they are informed that a new, experimental treatment can push their cancer into remission, but it could come back even more virulently. Do they rejoice and celebrate the good news or fear the possible return of the disease?

I have tried to understand how a large proportion of our citizens could overlook the obvious flaws of #45 and still endorse and embrace him. What could possibly prompt good people to decide that lying, cheating, bullying, abusing, manipulating, etc., etc., etc., were less important than (fill in the blank). I know many Trump supporters and I know they are not racist, misogynist, cheaters, liars, dishonest people. But they are willing to support someone who undeniably is. Why? What was so compelling that they looked the other way? What cancerous malaise invaded our population so that a man so narcissistic that he cannot recognize his own incompetence could not only aspire to the highest office in the land, but gain it?

I believe it was that very narcissism that clouded our ability to see beyond the boisterous braggadocio. We came to believe that it was about HIM. We failed to look behind the man, to excise his person from what his supporters think he represents for them. They did not vote for lying and cheating. They voted for what the lies promised them. Because his announcements were always about himself, about how great he is, how astounding his intelligence is, how respected he is, we failed to extract him from the lies and genuinely consider the reasons the lies resonated. Over 70 million people voted for a deeply flawed man AGAIN; that’s over 70 million people who wanted to believe the lies, KNOWING they are lies. If those who worked and prayed for an end to what was clearly a nightmare for us want to ensure that the cancer does not return, we must search for ways to treat the source of the cancer. We must root out the carcinogens that threaten our collective well-being. Those ranting, chanting hoards of rally goers are still out there. They still believe that government status quo ignores them. We better not.

And Justice for All

 Part I of "As the Stomach Turns"

The issue that was under review in the Judiciary Committee really wasn’t about whether Dr. Blasy-Ford or Judge Kavanaugh is telling the truth. Without an investigation ANY accusation is reduced to he said, she said. We have been exposed to an accusation but with no evidence upon which to attach a TRUTH placard. Which one of the two you choose to believe comes down to which one rings true to you, which one do you want to believe, and which one did a better job of being credible and likable.

Those who watched the hearing did not see two people laying out evidence to substantiate their case. What we saw was how our government has been distorted and deformed, to the point where it is no longer a reflection of the lofty ideals that gave birth to our nation.

Both sides of the aisle are guilty of dismantling of our democracy. The left is fond of blaming all dystopian functions of government on the current administration. But it appears that this inexperienced, ill-prepared president is particularly guilty of being unwilling, unable or uninterested in playing the traditional game and in eschewing that role he has left the torpid winds of underhanded politics and politicians to wreak their damage, unchecked and even lauded and applauded.  The fury of the storm has stripped away the pretense that we have elected officials collaborating with each other for the benefit of their constituents.  With a leader who disdains civility and diplomacy and whose behavior garners applause and wild demonstrations of support the entire political scenario has shifted more dramatically toward disruption and destruction. But it is not just HIS disruption and destruction. It is his willingness to abandon the pretense that has laid bare the baser qualities of the American psyche, spreading the contagion that threatens our national health. That diseased body was on full display at the hearings and those who went beyond watching and actually SAW the performance should be dismayed.

Traditionally, under our Constitution, a person is innocent until proven guilty.  Prosecutors are charged with obtaining evidence of culpability and defenders with refuting the evidence and/or obtaining evidence to the contrary.  Dr. Blasy-Ford was correct in her request for an investigation. Evidence to support her claim can only be obtained by a professional investigation. It was embarrassing to witness a room full of seasoned lawyers (members of the Judiciary Committee no less) equating signed statements “under penalty of felony” to an investigation by the FBI. Riveting and painful as her testimony was it only presented a credible reason for the need of an investigation.  It did not present verifiable, substantiating evidence to support the accusation.

Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony presented two powerful pieces of evidence, each contradicting the other. On the one hand his uncanny ability to refer to calendars dating to the time in question seemed to present exculpatory evidence. But the veracity of the information in the calendar must be established through an investigation; the calendars mean nothing at face value. The second piece of evidence was his anger and partisan accusations of conspiratorial goals; not entirely without merit.  The final stages of the Judiciary Committee’s hearing were most certainly manipulated to cause as much delay as possible, with the obvious objective of maximizing the potential to have the final confirmation vote fall after the midterm elections. But his arrogant display of anger and disdain for the Senators also gave credence to the accusations of his sense of entitlement and the ease with which he sinks into bullying. Most telling was his repeated response to questions about possible alcohol abuse. He consistently responded with a recitation of his academic and athletic achievements. Aside from being a non-sequitur his response insinuates a belief that the sacrifice of hard work and success is justifiably rewarded with alcohol consumption, leaving the issue of its possible abuse as a shadowy appendage to the question, not worth answering. He never, categorically, stated that he had not had periods of blackout, failure to remember his actions while drinking or bouts of belligerence while under the influence of alcohol. Instead, in one instance he arrogantly turned the question around to the questioner.

The Republican entourage of lawyers and lawmakers bent on not letting the delay tactics of the Democrats achieve their intended goal decided it was better to torpedo justice than to risk the possibility of losing the chance to fill the Supreme Court seat with Judge Kavanaugh. The Democrats bet democracy against the lives and reputation of two people and lost everything. 

Our nation, held aloft on the righteous columns of “justice for all”, demonstrated to the American people that we can no longer aspire to that promise. We the people have elected representatives to Congress, within both parties, who do not defend the constitution, who do not pursue justice, who do not revere the uniqueness of the government structure set in place by intellectual giants. They created a functioning system created to thwart monarchical tendencies, to limit the abuses of privilege and defeat injustice. Years of malfeasance have undone their carefully crafted and robust system, injecting and infecting it with a fragility that threatens to leave us with nothing to pledge allegiance to. The most recent victim is Dr. Blasy-Ford, but this time the perpetrator is not Judge Kavanaugh; it is the collective. We the people are rewarding the manipulators and the pretenders. It is not they who are as naked as the emperor, but we! We have been stripped of a functioning government, we have been fed a crock of lies and we have gleefully complimented the chef and asked for seconds.

The Force of Evil

In 1960 my family moved to a small suburb north of Paris, France. In an effort to spear our learning of French our parents enrolled my brother and me in the local public school for our first year there. We were immediately immersed in all things French; learning that paper tissues were frowned on, that teachers expected us to bow our heads when we passed in front of them, that the preferred doneness for steak was nearly raw and that only 15 years prior there had been a terrible war that changed the lives of everyone around us. I was 12 years old and I suspect that I became aware of the pains of war and the hatred that perpetuates man’s cruelty to others a lot sooner and a lot more vividly that most of my compatriot American school children living on the mainland.

To add another dimension, we had moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana where we relocated after living three years in Cuba. So, when we started saying “Oui” instead of “Si” I had already witnessed a revolution in Cuba and had felt the racial inequality of Louisiana; confusing my youthful mind. To me, racism was obviously wrong but here I was in a place where doing wrong was supported and approved by many, either tacitly or directly. Why were so many people around me oblivious to the obvious?

In France there were constant reminders surrounding us of the battles and inhumanities that had only recently been perpetrated there. Fifteen years after the end of the war there were still bombed out shells of buildings as testament to the ravages of war. At a very early age I began to ponder the question of evil; of the force that can influence and motivate mankind to engage in and perpetuate bad behavior. It is easier to understand how one person can be evil than how that one person can entice others to join in the evil. Hence, an early preoccupation with the phenomenon of Hitler. How was it possible, I would wonder, that so many people followed this man? How could it be that everyday people who were engaged in earning a living, cooking food, raising children, taking care of aging parents, enjoying a soft breeze and stealing kisses from loved ones could allow, even promote, the institutionalization of evil? Eventually, I concluded that Hitler and his success was proof that a quantifiable force of evil DOES exist and that it is capable of entrapping, ensnaring and deviating the human soul, en masse. Some would call this force the Devil. I also believed that whatever the force was that deviated the souls of so many during WWII it would never again invade humanity because the world had seen the Devil incarnate, had witnessed the power of evil and had suffered the consequences of allowing evil to wield its power. Mankind would never be so guileless as to allow their collective souls to become entranced and misled again.

But I was wrong. It is happening again. Multitudes of everyday people are once again embracing inhumanity. Behavior and tactics that are blatantly immoral and improper are now cheered and supported by hundreds of thousands of people who only a short time ago would have rejected, forthright, even an insinuation of accepting such behavior. Once again decent people have been lulled into accepting abuse and cruelty as the norm, malfeasance as a logical strategy to success, and mistrust and lies have overtaken confidence in authority and reverence for the truth. How does one do battle against a force of evil? How does one help lift the veil of confusion that has engulfed so many and led them to forego the values they have been raised to revere and respect?

As history repeats itself and we witness the gradual destruction of decency one cannot help but mourn the demise of the ideal that gave birth to our nation. The desire to ensure strong national borders is valid, commendable and even necessary. But there is a right way, a humane way, a way that sustains the belief that the United States is the beacon of hope and the defender of human rights. And there is a wrong way. A way that manipulates the truth and abuses the vulnerability of the least of us. A way that saddens the soul and confirms that THIS iteration of evil has so twisted the hearts and minds of those it has grasped that many angels will be required to bring it under control. Lord, have mercy on us.

It Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Lady Sings!

The outcome of the recent election has left me in a mood... like much of the country. No matter if the ‘mood’ is a product of feeling uplifted because Trump won or depressed for the same reason, it’s a ‘mood’. I suspect that few of us are untouched, un moved or unaware that something major has shifted, something important has happened in our country.

Why was Trump successful? If our system has elected a person with little or no qualifications for the office and a plethora of reasons why he is NOT qualified we must ask ourselves what is wrong with the system? He warned us that the system was rigged and we failed to believe him, we failed to recognize that he has been a part of the rigging of the system for so long that he knows how to use the failings of it to cloud his own failings. So, let’s look at that system.

In reading about the Electoral College and the reasons that prompted the founding fathers to institute a separation between the voting public and the final vote I was somewhat surprised to learn that historians attribute this to their mistrust of the voter. Apparently, our founding fathers had discerned that it could be too easy to sway the voter with irrelevant, false and self-serving temptations. They felt that the Electoral College would be a protection against the misuse and abuse of this newfangled, untried and unproven system of government; Democracy. Let’s remember that Democracy was a pretty radical idea at the time. Europe was an amalgamation of separate monarchies (arguably Venice might have been considered a Republic but operated as a mixed government with monarchical trends) and the founding fathers were distinctly elite. They were educated men of means whose lofty ideals of equality and giving power to the people were tempered by their belief that not everyone was as prepared as they were to choose wisely and to actually govern themselves without the aid of those more prepared by education and reason. Hence, they slipped in the Electoral College; a layer of separation which would allow men of preparation to right the wrongs of voters who were misled by ignorance, graft, collusion or corruption. But this elitist attitude meant to provide "wiser" men the option of using Democracy more correctly than the poor, unprepared masses has actually provided a means to correct itself.

Over 50% of our voters selected a candidate other than the one our Electoral College THINKS it has to vote for based on a formula created in 1787 to protect the national interests from the ignorance of the voter. It is entirely constitutional and morally correct for the Electors to base their vote on the qualifications and preparation of the candidate to hold office PARTICULARLY IF THAT CANDIDATE GARNERED MORE VOTES IN THE POPULAR VOTE. While it breaks with tradition there is no legal reason they cannot recognize the popular vote and therefore, cast their vote for the winner of the NATIONAL popular vote.(There are two exceptions...two states would require the Electors to pay a small fine if they chose to take this path.) The actual election of the President has not taken place. The Electors will cast their votes on December 19, 2016. Let’s not gather in the streets to protest Trump’s election…let’s gather in the streets to impress on the Electoral College that they should respect the will of the people of 2016, not 1787.

Alexander Hamilton believed that the Electoral College would ensure that the President would be chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”

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The Wounds of Battle

To tell the truth I am scared. No matter how the election turns out I am scared for my country and for my sanity.

Having lived outside of the Continental US for most of my adult life I guess I had an idealized and unrealistic image of the basic principles of our country. I firmly believed that our collective sense of justice and respect for human rights placed us, as a nation and as multiple communities just a wee bit closer to Heaven and God than many countries and peoples were privileged to achieve. Acknowledging that humility was not one of our characteristics since American arrogance is a globally recognized phenomenon I was wont to shake my head in disdain for our inability to be respectful of others but understood that our unique reality of being a great nation with great opportunities and great successes isolated from others by our great size was responsible for our abundance of hubris.

And then came the Trump effect. I have watched in horror as a man who started out as a joke, a stand-up comedian’s dream come true, an icon of excess and bully mentality, an image of orange brutality and abusive behavior, a bold-faced liar and decrier of basic human decency, a power grabbing blow hard has stripped our society of pretense and bathed us in his brand of sulfuric effluence. And my horror has increased as I watch multitudes of citizens ignoring the obvious, defending his lies, explaining away his ludicrous behavior and accepting his demagogic behavior with the chant of making America great again. Where is the greatness in lying? Where is the greatness in using money and strength to commit atrocities on the vulnerable? Where is the greatness in living under delusions? It isn't as much an issue of who HE is but what he has bared to the world of who WE are. But it's done. No matter who wins we can't erase what he has done to US. From now on we will have to live with the understanding that we have embraced division and the seeding of hatred in our midst and that many, many of us have joined in his hymn of dissension and fabricated conflict.

I pray that he does not win, but America has already lost by the effect that he has had on our nation. Our wounds will outlast our bruises; our hurt will leave us with a wall dividing us within.  His platform and the thousands who chant at his side have proven that the principles of equality, fairness, justice and truth are what we gave lost. Only by renewing our faith in those principles can we make America Great Again and Trump is certainly NOT the champion of those traits.

Franklin Roosevelt said it well…"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely."

Fear of Lying

There is an old joke which used to appear frequently on plaques, bumper stickers and T Shirts. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they really aren't out to get you." In today's political environment there are all kinds of adaptations that could be made to that old one-liner. "Just because you're a liar doesn't mean you never tell the truth" might be one iteration that could apply to Donald Trump. One of the most effective ways a pathological liar achieves both success and a perceived authorization to continue lying is to mix a degree of truth in with the blatant lies so that where one begins and the other ends becomes muddled and difficult to extricate. As people begin to show their willingness to endorse the lie because it is hidden within the truth the liar becomes emboldened to lie even more.

Truth: Much of our population is confused and fearful of the upsurge in attacks by avowed radical Islamists.

Lie: The recent attacker in Orlando, Florida was part of a worldwide, organized plot to attack Americans.

While the details concerning the background of the attacker are still emerging it seems pretty clear that this man was mentally unstable and his attraction to a movement that couples hate with violence was a manifestation of his mental illness rather than an ideological choice or conviction. His claim to be a member or supporter of organizations that are actually enemies of each other furthers the understanding that in his incoherent derangement he grasped at ways to justify his abhorrent actions. See THIS ARTICLE from the Washington Post for more detail.

So, what does Donald Trump do? He makes an impassioned speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, lauded by Trumpsters, defending his desire to ban Muslims from entering the United States. FACT ALERT: The Orlando attacker was born in New York. Does he plan on making his ban retro-active? Are we looking at another bout with internment camps, as in World War II? How else would his proposed ban affect the likes of this most recent attacker? Many pundits have drawn parallels between the presumptive Republican candidate for President and Adolf Hitler...if that statement alone isn't enough to sober the reader, contemplate the 8th demand of Hitler's Nazi Party, published February 24, 1920:

8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who entered Germany after 2 August 1914 shall be required to leave the Reich forthwith.

Mr. Trump uses the truth of our fear of irrational and violent behavior from proponents of ISIS and radical Islam to support bigotry. Ignoring the threat of unbridled and unmatched terrorism, no matter the source, is not a sane course of action, but equally; fanning the flames of fear and hatred toward a body of people based solely on the religion they profess is insanity and not what the United States stands for.

Level the playing field. Let's draw a correlation here. On June 17, 2015 a white male from Charleston, North Carolina committed an act of "domestic terrorism" and was later charged with hate crimes for the murder of nine church members during Bible study. He admitted to hoping that his actions would incite a race war. He was an avowed supporter of white supremacist groups and had been in direct contact, via the Internet, with several of these organizations. He is quoted as having said something vaguely similar to Mr. Trump's inflammatory remarks against Mexicans before shooting his victims,  "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."  Should we, following Mr. Trump's logic, begin to round up all the white supremacists we can locate in our country? Should we consider that their connection to any organization that espouses anti-social behavior makes them suspect and therefore appropriate for incarceration until their intentions can be clearly established? Or does the presumptive Republican candidate suggest that white supremacists should be deported to the countries from where their ancestors immigrated? According to Ancestry.com that would make the perpetrator more than likely headed for Germany.

Radicalized Christians? Christian Americans have been responsible for a large number of crimes against clinics and individuals that provide abortions. Cases of abduction, murder, arson, anthrax threats and bombings have consistently plagued abortion related individuals and locations. Perpetrators claim devotion to their understanding of Christian doctrine as justification for these actions to protect the lives and souls of unborn babies. Just as radicalized Muslims believe they are defending the tenants of their interpretation of Islam, these radicalized Christians are CONVINCED of the righteousness of their actions. Again, following the logic of the fear mongerer some sort of control mechanism should certainly be mandated. Let's start monitoring Fundamentalist churches, perhaps we could put phone taps on any communication device used by the pastors and their activist supporters? Anyone wearing a cross or bearing a tattoo of Jesus Christ would need to be watched and placed on an FBI list warranting possible internment and deportation to the country of origin of their ancestors.

We are taught, from our earliest years, that lying is a very bad thing. Children lie for many reasons; to avoid punishment, to embellish accomplishments, to seek recognition, to gain favor, and just because. Maturity is supposed to lead us away from this childish behavior; to learn that as we enter adulthood we can no longer rely on the winking away of our transgressions and that if we ignore this mandate there will be consequences. Mr. Trump constantly and consistently mixes slight truth with great lies, uses opinion in the place of facts and willfully misleads with misinformation. And yet, the consequence he faces is election to the highest office of the nation. This is the FEAR OF LYING...that his ability to mesmerize a population will be successful. His need to avoid punishment for his past frauds, to embellish his own achievements, to seek unending recognition, to gain favor with the voting public that is already fearful is leading kind and thoughtful people toward division, bigotry and division.