Weaver's Web

I only look white.

Ruddy complexion, curly auburn hair, now starting to grey. "What part of Ireland is your family from," isn't a rare question. Apparently I'm a LIBI - looks Irish, but isn't.

My minority identity is pretty strong. My family is Jewish, both sides. All 4 of my grandparents were emigrants & while they learned it as children, English was a second language for both my parents. Even I heard more than just English as a child. My family came here to escape European antisemitism. The States weren't devoid of antisemític sentiments. They just weren't what they were in Europe. Your prospects were much brighter here than there. The bulk of my father's family succeeded in coming over. Sadly, not the story for my mother's family. Particularly hard hit was my maternal grandmother's family. The town she was from was taken off the map by the Nazis. It no longer exists. The only two to survive were my grandmother and her eldest brother, the only two that were here in the states prior to the war.

Both my father and his brother wanted to become physicians. My uncle succeeded, although he was most of the way through a PhD program before he was able to get a seat in a medical school at the same midwestern public university. Despite graduating summa cum from Syracuse University with a dual major in political science and bio chemistry, my father wasn't able to gain entry to either medical or law school in this country in the early 1950s. Why did he go to Syracuse? Simple. They were one of the private universities willing to accept Jews in 1948. (Incidentally, Jerry Stiller was one of my father's fraternity brothers.)

Growing up in the safety of New York City's "melting pot" I never feared for my safety because of my ethnicity, the basic safety in numbers. However, after my grandfather's death, post a long battle with lung cancer in the summer of 1968, my parents took us on a road trip from New York to Florida. I was 13. We pulled off the interstate somewhere in the rural Georgia, to stop for gas and something to eat. Walking into a country diner, we sat and patiently waited for service. Though my mother is a blue-eyed blonde, Pop had the map of eastern Europe for a face & my youngest sister had a gold star of David hanging on her neck. After 20 minutes, a waitress sauntered over, leaned over to speak quietly to my mother, who was seated next to me. With a saccharine drawl over pursed lips she said, "we don't serve your kind here. I suggest you take your children and leave, before something untowards happens." With the nod of her head, she gestured over her shoulder towards two rather large men in overalls seated at the counter, both of whom glared menacingly in our direction. We left, leaving behind a piece of my innocence. Years later, I would read about lynchings of Jews, including one in outside of Atlanta in 1915 & feel much more comfortable with my parents move to retreat. .מאָדנע פרוכט (strange fruit.)

Most associate the KKK with the American south, but historically they've flexed their muscle in areas far flung. How about in Queens, New York in 1927? There was a march & with a riot that followed. Post riot, a number of people were arrested, including Fred Trump. That name familiar? It should be. He's the Donald's father. Perhaps this explains the president's tepid response condemning the recent events in Charlottesville, claiming both sides were to blame for the violence, where a young woman peacefully protesting was killed by a supremacist who plowed his van into the crowd, ala an ISIS inspired attack.

One of the Charlottesville synagogues had three white supremacists, armed with semi automatic rifles standing across the street while their congregation met for services Saturday morning. I guess simply being a person of color, or Jewish appears to be provocation. They got to listen to those man screaming for people to burn down the synagogue as the congregation stood there in worship. (A letter from the rabbi of my sister's congregation in New Jersey of her communication with the congregation in Charlottesville will be posted to follow this post. Please do read it.)

I am clearer now than ever that I am a minority person, who is not safe within the borders of my own country. That we have a president who cannot unequivocally and immediately condemn in no uncertain terms, racial and ethnic hatred as antithetical to everything this country stands for, gives me great pause. Reality is he is both a cause and a symptom of the pervasive underlying bigotry that still exists in a large portion of this country. There is no racial, ethnic, religious, or social minority within this country he is unwilling to throw under the bus, if it suits his needs & sadly enough, he has a like minded community to preach to.

We must work in coalition and unity to stand up for what is right. Jew must support Muslim, who must support Hispanic, who must support African-American, who must support LGBT, who must support women, who must support environmentalist, who must support Native American, and so on, and so on. We must speak with clarity when we speak truth to power. Anything less insures our failure, if not out right subjugation.

Forgive the hyperbole in the title for this post. I am deadly serious.

We are living in dangerous times right now. At the risk of offending some who supported him blindly, we have put the fox in charge of the henhouse and we may pay for it dearly. We need to be vigilant and carefully pay attention to forces that have likely been behind the scenes, engineering putting the fox in charge. I have often said in the past to understand why things are as they are, you have to follow the money. That dictum remains I think all too true.

Rachel Maddow is a major voice that needs to be heard and listened to. She brings to the airwaves a thirst for truth and examination. If you don't catch her on cable, I strongly suggest you subscribe to the podcast of her show. Specifically, listen this past Friday's show and then tell me you're not disturbed, perturbed, and asking for more information. The appointments of Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson and Wilbur Ross to the cabinet now make much more sense to me.

And I'm starting to have greater respect to some of the intelligence community.

Seriously, if you do nothing else today download Friday's podcast and listen to it!

Then join the resistance.

So while discussing the odd pledge the Donald has extracted from his blind followers adoring supporters where they were asked to raise their right hands and promise to vote for him in an upcoming primary, the discourse on MSNBC went like this:

Brian Williams: One supporter was seen holding up the right paw of his border collie.

Rachel Maddow: Not a German Shepherd?

Honestly, I find watching these rallies disturbing when Herr Drumpf (the family name Trump's grandfather carried on arrival to the US from Germany), when he calls for a protester or a reporter to be ejected from the rally and supporters physically manhandles the person roughly out the door. It reminds me all too clearly of Hitler's brown shirts.

As much as I dislike the man, I have no love for anyone in the Republican field. I suspect Trump is the Republican with the worst odds winning in November and ultimately I am praying to see The Republican party lose in November. Hopefully to Bernie Sanders, though I could live with Clinton.

Note to all: Go to Louis CK's website and read his letter about Trump. It's scathing.

Not happy this morning. Mourning would be an apter word. This country took a hard turn to the right last night & it ain't sitting well with me.

When I look across the country and see the results of the current inch last night, I'm disturbed. Even the sounds of Joni Ernst's laughter last night sounded Machiavellian to me.seeing the likes of Sam Brownback, Paul LePage, Rick Scott and Scott Walker all return to governorships was more than just disappointing; it borders on sickening. Mitch McConnell as the new Senate majority leader sends chills up my spine. With the current makeup how long will it be before some ultra conservative decide to it's time to impeach the president? I suspect Ted Cruz is salivating at the moment.

After seeing the midterm turnout at the polls, I'm reinforced my belief that yes, Democrats fall in love, while Republicans fall in line.

Well, at least in the spirit of Tip O'Neill's comments of all politics being local, I'm somewhat relieved with the returns here in my home state. The ballot initiatives hear that really needed to fail, all did so. Prop 46, put up of the trial lawyers & which would likely have had a major negative effect on my professional life, failed resoundingly. Good news indeed. People actually do have the ability to vote in their own interest. Most of our congressional delegation made it through unscathed, sadly though not including Dr. Bera from Sacramento.

After last night I am praying both Justices Bryer and Ginsberg stay strong and healthy.

I awoke this morning to my husband snuggling up to me. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I pulled off my cpap and stretched. It was 6:42, morning fog thick on our deck just outside the french doors.

"You're awake," he cooed softly.
"Somewhat."

One thing lead to another, as one by one, pillows fell off of the bed and bedsheets became even more rumpled. I finally exited our bed at 7:25, invigorated and fully awake. A nice way to face the day.

An hour later, munching some strawberries and my oatmeal, seated at the hospital computer, I checked first the inpatient patient list for new labs, and then went on to look at the daily news.

I usually start at electoral-vote.com, for what's happening in American politics. The country's predicted shift to the right in the upcoming Senate races discourages the hell outta me. Elections have consequences, none the least of which is the current composition of our US Supreme Court. We have the likes of Alito, Thomas, Roberts, and Scalia due to previous national elections, and given the health of at least 3 of those conservative men, we'll be feeling the results of those elections for years, if not decades to come. Now I'm not just talking about presidential elections. Yes, the person at the top of the ticket is extremely important. However, agendas are either pulled forward or stymied, by the composition of the Congress, and either segment can royally gum up the works for any resident of the White House.

Last night's final commercial, before I shut off the idiot box and went to sleep was one of the worst I have seen and it was on Al Jazeera, no less. An attractive young woman is talking to the camera about what appears at first to be her relationship going sour over the past 6 years. As she goes on, becoming more angry and firm in her words, the abused girlfriend no longer willing to put up with her man's promises and lies, it becomes clear the man is Barak Obama, and she is supposed to represent all disaffected female voters. I found it offensive, and last I looked, I'm not female.

Umm, yeah. Right.

The Republican party/conservatives/right wing is really digging deep here. Let's reduce women even further. Let's suggest woman are in bed with the Democratic administration. Meanwhile, every time Republicans take over power in a jurisdiction, instead of seeing a push for job creation and financial growth, instead we see a rolling back of family planning services and along with that, women's health services in general. Look at what's happening across the South and Midwest. No, women are not a monolithic voting block or at least shouldn't be, but when every time the right goes for an all out assault on your reproductive rights and time after time you are forced to address and re-address what most of us thought was settled law, it becomes much easier to turn people into single issue voters.

This swing to the right is scaring the crap out my my little minority heart. As much as I'm heartened by the change in how gay people are viewed and treated in this country, and as much as I marvel here on this electronic platform over the speed of the change, I'm tired of waiting for equality. I'm tired both of having to be at once guarded about my life and speech around strangers, yet simultaneously the feeling the need to be public. Who's business is it other than mine? Yet the memory of being a teenager at the time of Stonewall and the solace I felt knowing then I was not the only one, even though still the only roll models I saw, fit little more than stereotypes. I suppose stereotypes were better than invisibility, though not as much as 3 dimensional human beings.

I want this all over. I want the Supreme Court to deal with this now. As in today. Yesterday would be even better. I want this ruled on before (G-d forbid) something happens to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, because given the swing I think we're now likely to see in the Senate, I shudder to think the battle royal there will be to find a suitable replacement for her seat on the court. G-d forbid we have Republicans in control in both the Senate and the House. Every last person in this country who wants a better future needs to remember that elections, even mid-terms, have consequences, and we ignore that to our own peril.

Carl Sciortino, Jr. who's in Massachusetts' legislature is running for Ed Markey's old seat. Have to admit I love this ad. In an interview on MSNBC with his father, the younger Carl admits it was harder coming out to his father as a progressive, than as gay.

So, before I left for work yesterday, I saw a banner headline on MSNBC; Michelle Bachmann will not run again for congress in 2014. (Say amen!) Then last night before leaving work, my NY Times app announced she's being investigated for misuse of campaign funds from her unsuccessful bid last year for the Republican nomination for President. (Say AMEN!!)

Rachel Maddow had a segment about her last night which featured a series of Bachmann misstating facts on the floor of Congress and in front of news cameras, which would be pretty funny, were she not such a lightening rod for the far right. (Picture Glenn Beck in a bra, a wig & a string of pearls, on the floor of the House.) At one point she went off about the "Hoot-Smalley" Act, enacted under Roosevelt, how awful a government overreach it was, and how wonderful it was finally gotten rid of. (How about Smoot-Hawley, Michelle, enacted under Hoover?) Frankly, I'm not so certain that the current globalization of our economy is serving the American worker all that well, given the amount of manufacturing that was once done here in the US and is now off-shored. Today, the American worker competes with labor costs in the third world, while factories here are shuttered and our workers wind up on the dole. But I digress.

Last night, I dreamt of a scene from the Wizard of Oz with hundreds munchkins singing gleefully the wicked witch is dead, except the house that had been dropped on her had the Capital dome on in, and it was Mrs Bachmann that laid under it, striped stockings, ruby slippers and all.

Now, if only that scene could be re-enacted, but with Reps. Steve King, Louis Gomert, as well as Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Not that I wish them ill. I just wish them out of positions of power. Legislatively emasculated, so to speak. *sigh*

I will readily admit, I am a left of center, dyed in the wool liberal. (This is the beginning of a quasi-political essay, so if you have no interest in American politics, tab on forward.)

Yesterday marked a very sad day in the history of the American labor movement; Michigan became the 24th 'right-to-work' state in the union. Why is this important? 'Right-to-work' states have over all lower wages and lower benefits for most workers. After the rather decisive election the Republican-controlled legislature in Michigan realizing that they were going to be significantly less Republican after the first of the year, very rapidly pushed through this right-to-work legislation to get it to the Republican governor tout suite for his signature. "It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs," is the Republican mantra. The governor states he's trying to keep jobs from moving to Indiana.

As I watched the coverage on this last night, on Rachel Maddow, I found myself scratching my head. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and even Ohio went rather solidly for Barack Obama at the polls last month. Why is there such a staunch Republican control in their state legislatures, and for that matter their executive branches? As a Californian, this makes very little sense to me. It turns out there has been significant gerrymandering in all of these states, not to mention elsewhere. Sadly, it got significantly worse after the 2010 census. As Democrats, we did not show up to the polls as we needed to in 2010. Democrats as you may recall, lost control of the house at that point. This was also however the year of the census, which has brought about subsequent redistricting in much of this country due to shifts in our population. Republicans have been extremely adroit in redistricting making it so there are lines drawn concentrating Democrats in just a handful of places, and splintering remaining populations so that Republicans are favored. This is led to some very surprising results for those of us who thought we were on a level playing field. When you look at the total number of registered Republican versus Democratic voters, to see state delegations that are so lopsidedly Republican, when the number of registered voters are not is disturbing to say the least. According to statistics that Rachel Maddow quoted last night, it takes roughly 2 1/2 registered Democrats to equal the voting power of one registered Republican.

California underwent redistricting last year, done by a nonpartisan commission, as opposed to many other states where the party in power in 2010, had the ability to redraw the districts. Further in our primary system it's now the top two vote getters that will face each other at the election, no matter their party. This led to districts where two people of the same party actually faced each other in November. It is also interesting to note that post redistricting, Democrats now hold a super-majority in both our state senate and house. Further, in all the years that I have lived in California I've never had it take more than 20 min. to be able to vote. I look at the reports from Florida and Ohio where voters spent hours upon hours in lines waiting to cast their ballots, and for the life of me, I do not understand why this is the case in this country in 2012.

This strikes me as being about control of power, nothing more. In a representative democracy, one that holds itself up to be a model for the remainder of our world to follow, how is this the current state of affairs within this country?

For the first time in weeks, polls are showing both Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin and Elizabeth Warren in Mass. ahead of their Republican rivals.

For those who don't know, Baldwin has been out of the closet since prior to being elected to congress 14 years ago. Her politics are progressive and I think warrant support, so I donated again today to her campaign. She is exactly the kind of voice our community needs in the Senate, so if any of you have a few bucks to spare, please think of sending them to her campaign.