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<sigh>

 I spent more time this year working for political change than since I was in my 20s.   In January & February I canvassed door to door for Warren.   don’t wanna think how many miles I walked going door to door.   I just remember my ankles telling me, “this had better be worth it.”  After lockdown, there was phone banking.   I’ve always been a believer that politics is local and that my action needs to be local.   I no longer hold to that.   Not since my rights were stepped on during Prop 8, when forces from outside California funded the most vicious ads on our airwaves to deny not only the rights of my community to marry, but to undo my own already existent marriage.   How dare you tell lies about me.

In September & October, I journeyed virtually to Pennsylvania, spending day after day phone banking in the get out the vote effort there.   Vote Save America sponsored an adopt a state program and I opted for Pennsylvania. The adage tgat the state is Philadelphia in the East, Pittsburgh in the West, with Alabama in between isn’t all that far off.   Remember the Mason Dixon line is the boarder between Pennsylvania with Maryland & W, Virginia.   All this month, I moved my efforts to virtual, near daily travel to Georgia, in the get out the vote effort there for the Senate runoffs, jointing  NextGen, Fair Fight & the New Georgia Project.  

Personally, while I was unsurprised of the outcome in November in Pennsylvania given all the positive conversations I had in the 7 weeks prior to Election Day, I still feel the effort I put in, along with volunteers from all over the country, helped the cause significantly.   Similarly, the last month in Georgia, the determination I heard from the Metro areas of Altanta, Macon, Savannah, & Columbus, kept me calling.   I felt good about making sure folks knew, where and how to register, when to get their votes posted by mail or dropped off, and how to find their polling place.   I cannot tell you how any times I got told, “we have to get this done!”   At times I was unsure who was bolstering who I this effort. Yes, there were plenty of “please stop calling me”, but almost as many offered their thanks for what I was doing. 

Went to bed last night relieved, Warnock having been declared the winner by the AP, and Ossoff holding a 3,600 vote lead with the majority of the outstanding ballots predominantly from Democratic urban bastions.  Again I was unshocked, but deeply grateful.   In September, I had felt confident the Senate would flip; I thought a minimum of 4 seats would change.   I was dashed after the election, certain that although Biden wound take the White House, that McConnell would prevent and significant change in the new Senate and quash any attempt for progress in DC.   Early on, I had serious doubts Georgia would flip the Senate.   I went to sleep with incredible relief.  

Today started with great hope, thinking last night’s Georgia news would be the main news story of the day.   The staged drama in the House & Senate of objections to the acceptance of the ballots cast in the Electoral College might come in a close second.   Instead, the news story of the day was a riot incited by the President.  I’m incredulous.   Protesters breeched the Capital, while both the House & Senate were in session no less.   Someone died in the course of the protests, a woman shot inside the Capital.   They smashed windows and there are photos of them closing in on and chasing solitary capital policemen. I was struck that many of the police were people of color; I saw no protestors they were not white.   Not one.   I was also struck the difference in the police response to white conservative protesters, in comparison to say how the protesters were treated the day the President decided to hold up a Bible in front of a church near the White House. 

The insanity promoted by this charlatan in the White House cannot be over soon enough.  I pray the state of NY is ready to indict him January 21.
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So I woke up this morning, opened the news on my phone and found nothing yet announced.   After 20 minutes or so, I got outta bed & trotted off to the kitchen to make b’fast for us both. I turned on a podcast and went about my business. Didn’t see my husband’s text, a few minutes after I started with the dishes from last night, as the coffee pot started to drip out this morning’s dose of caffeine.   Nor did my husband say anything when I walked in with the b’fast tray.  


An hour and a quarter after the AP called the election for Biden, after declaring he had successfully taken Pennsylvania, LJ remarked, “my friend just texted from New York that people are out celebrating and dancing in the streets. Oh and it’s 70° there.“ I countered with, “why? And what the hell, it’s 70°!“

 
“Apparently you didn’t see my text.“
“What text?“
“Um,  they’ve called the election. Biden has won.”

The moment or so later I felt a single tear snaking its way down my right cheek and disappearing into my beard.   I had thought of many ways I’d react to the news of Trump’s loss. I hadn’t expected a single tear today to be my actual response.

I am feeling a profound sense of relief, not that we as a country don’t have a tremendous amount of work to do. This is just the beginning. Our polarization as a nation is far from over. While it appears there is a growing acceptance that the nightmare of a Trump presidency is now about to end, the undoing of all the damage that he has wrought to our government and our nation still remains to be addressed.
 
Moreover, I am sitting here watching people in T-shirts & tank tops out celebrating in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, while thinking it’s November. 70° in New York City is markedly abnormal for this time of year. I’m sitting in the heart of what’s supposed to be a temperate rainforest, one where the rains should have begun 2 to 3 weeks ago, yet we remain dry. My heart is lighter now than in much of the last 4 years. Though I see people out in the streets celebrating, I cannot help but focus on the reality of what we have done to this climate and how much worse it has gotten under the stewardship of this interloper, that’s about to get evicted from the People’s house.  I’ll let others go out to celebrate for me and not begrudge them. Somehow, I’m not much in the mood to celebrate at the moment.
 
It still will be 2 1/2 months, before this man, this scourge, this sad excuse for a human being, is actually out of a position of power.  Like a wounded creature, I have fear over what further damage he might wreak in that time left. Who will he pardon? What will he steal?  What new norms will he break? How will he attempt to impede the new administration coming in? What will his enabler‘s do to support him?
 
If you’ll forgive the metaphor, how I feel at the moment is best described as someone who has had an enormous boil lanced. The immediate pressure is relieved and the poisonous debris is finally streaming out. For the moment, I’m feeling better, though I know the healing process is far from over. There will be pain to come; part of the healing process. But just like an abscess, it must be tended to to be certain it heals properly, so not close prematurely and thus recur.  
 


 

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I remain both dumbfounded and incredulous. I am not at all surprised that we are moving to an impeachment of the president. What does still astound me is that there is such a wide gulf in acceptance of the president’s overt corruption, which breaks along strict political lines.

With organizations that masquerade as news in this country (Breitbart/Fox News/Sinclair), it really is a case where the public has to decide between “alternative facts” as presented by public media.

I can except that individuals may have their own perspective which will color their own judgment as to the truth, but those biases are poisoning this country. In evidence I point to what happened in Speaker of the house,Nancy Pelosi’s press conference this morning, where as she was exiting the room, she was asked by a journalist if she hated the president. That shouted question stopped her in her tracks & brought her back to the mic where she excoriated that man journalist saying, “that as a good Catholic, she prays daily for the president, with love in her heart.“ That journalist was from Sinclair broadcast, an organization that by my assessment stands to the right of Fox News and perhaps even Breitbart.

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” (Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan), comes to mind. That Trump attempted to extort The president of the Ukraine into giving him a political advantage over a rival is patently obvious. He publicly asked for Russia to interfere in the 2016 election on national TV &He has already requested publicly that China start an investigation on the Bidens. If that isn’t an abuse of power and his office, I cannot imagine what it is. Not that Fox News/Sinclair broadcast/Breitbart want us to see it that way. Hence, the need for questions publicly like “does Nancy Pelosi hate the president“.

An aside, I just found out an interesting fact; anybody care to guess who the first two members of Congress were to endorse Donald Trump and his run for the White House in 2016? Answer: Representative Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California. If those names are familiar then you’ve probably been paying attention to the news representative Collins was convicted of insider trading, has been removed from his house seat and is going to jail. Duncan Hunter recently pled guilty to using campaign funds to pay for personal household expenses, is resigning from Congress and is awaiting sentencing along with his wife, who has also pled guilty. Corrupt recognizes corrupt.

I will admit to schadenfreude. I am grateful to see both Collins and Hunter out of Congress. They were cancers on this political body. I will be even more grateful to see the malignancy-in-chief out of power, though I have a little hope impeachment will remove him. Impeachment is a necessity as a check on presidential malfeasance, even though it is likely to fail in his removal, given tribal politics that put party before country. For the sake of the safety of this country and this world, next November he must NOT be returned to office for another term.
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My heart is screaming this morning. It’s a combination of fear, anger, dread, shame and disgust. I’m trying to convince myself we haven’t been transported to Germany of the 1930’s. I’m fighting with myself that white people aren’t bloody dangerous. I must not paint America’s white, Christian community with a broad brush, but at this moment, my adrenalin level is far too high.

The rhetoric of our president is horrific. Divisive. Inflammatory. This is the man leading the country, and rather than speaking to the best in each of us, instead he fans the flames of tribalism and hate, accepting neither responsibility nor even acknowledgement he is doing so. The message remains to everyone not Caucasian, Christian, heterosexual, or a native English speaker; you are lesser than & do not deserve the privilege reserved for “true Americans”. To his base, he is saying, “you have been wronged. These other people are robbing you of your birthright.”

The result? Charlottesville. The Unite the Right march last year where white men, outraged by their perceived loss of privilege & power, marched carrying tiki torches, chanting, “Jews will not replace us!!” The news carried word of the counter protester who was run over and killed, but there was very little coverage of the armed protesters outside one of Charlottesville synagogue, during Saturday morning services. This week, a rightwing ideologue felt justified to send pipe bombs to 15 people on the president’s boogeyman list. They were all prominent folks identified with the left, predominantly either people of color or Jewish. This morning there’s been a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue during Saturday morning services that left between 8 &10 people dead.

Our president’s first comment in front of the press suggested the outcome would have been different had there been an armed guard on duty. WTF? An armed guard would have prevented this from happening? Not an examination of mental health services in this country, nor a tightening of gun laws here & certainly not a reformation of the rhetoric used by voices on the right, the president himself chief amongst them. Come, one and all, to your places of worship, replete with firearms, so you can worship the divine in peace. I can think of no greater evidence of the giant rent in the social fabric of our nation.

Trump has a bully pulpit. He could be using it to pour oil onto troubled waters. Instead he continues to stir the pot of discontent. We have seen this tactic before, Germany of the 1930’s. My little minority heart has to ask, “what do I do? Is it time for me to leave?” I never met the bulk of my mother’s family. They died in the holocaust. They did not have the wherewithal to get out of Europe and so, they perished. Before the holocaust Grandma was the youngest of 10. After, she was one of two, the two who were here.

There was a Brit Milah going on at the synagogue this morning when the shooting happened. A infant was being circumcised and more importantly, being named, welcomed into the congregation. Among the Ashkenazic Jews, children traditionally are named for the dead. That little boy now bears the name of a beloved grandparent or cousin, someone who was important to one or perhaps both of his parents. It’s a way to keep that person’s memory alive. I was named for Grandma’s father, as was my sister. This morning’s act of hatred and terror has left at least 8 more families with names to use for other children.
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Sitting doing a slow burn this morning.

Mississippi is opening a civil rights museum. Trump is going and as a result, several icons of the civil rights movement, Rep. John Lewis among them, are opting to not be there. The irony of this is not lost on me. John Lewis put his life on the line throughout the 50s and 60s & has never walked away from the battle for equality. If anyone should be at the opening of this civil rights museum, it is him. Instead, the man who would be Führer will be there instead, a man fined for refusing to rent housing to people of color, a man who refused to denounce David Duke when he endorsed him, a man who after neo-Nazis invaded Charlottesville this past year, and murdered a woman protesting their presence by running her over, said there were “fine people on both sides”. Armed neo-Nazis marched back and forth infront of a Charlottesville synagogue during Saturday morning services during that protest. Congregants were advised to leave via the back door for their own safety that morning. Good people on both sides you say, Mr. President?

The civil rights museum memorializes the 1955 murder of 14 y/o Emmet Till, a teen, a mere child, lynched after being beaten beyond recognition for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Instead of an icon of the civil rights movement being in attendance, a man who publicly called for the death penalty for 5 innocent young black men, the Central Park 5, less than thirty years ago, will be. Will you ever stop fanning the fires of hate and division, Donnie? How about starting with an apology to our last president for questioning his citizenship, when you damn well knew that was an open faced lie?

My husband contends Trump should be at the museum opening, not as a speaker, but as an exhibit, a glaring example of the contemporary face of American racism.

I am ashamed that this man is my president. I am horrified he has a base in this day and age to preach his hate to, nuanced enough the talking white heads at Fox News are able to talk past it and ignore it. Those of us who recognize lack of privilege, because we’re not white, not Christian, not heterosexual, not male, not native English speakers, or not born to significant wealth, stand in opposition to Mr. Trump and have to wonder when the bulk of his populist supporters will wake up & recognize exactly who Mr Trump is working for. To non-college educated white working class in this country, NEWSFLASH - it’s not you.
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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.
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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.
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I'm angry. I'm angry at the turn of events in this country which feel incredibly hostile to anyone identified as "the other". As much as it pains me to say it, it feels to me right this moment if you are not white, Anglo, heterosexual, cis-gendered, Christian, & a native English speaker, the United States has become incredibly unwelcoming, if not out right hostile. Is it being driven by our current president, or is he simply a symptom of a larger malaise within this country?

With the change in the administrations, we have gone from 'class' to crass, from the audacity of hope, to simple audacity, from a society that was moving towards inclusivity, to one now turning it's back & embracing exclusivity. The more I watch Donald Trump, the more I ask how in the name of Sam Hill did this man get elected? He seems to vary from bigot, to buffoon, to bully all within the space of a single paragraph. My response to almost everything I hear him say is either to cringe, shake my head, or want to throw something. It's painful when I respect the office and yet hold no respect for the man who currently holds it.

As I alluded earlier, that I keep hearing people support him, & actually cheering his actions on, doesn't just sadden and disappoint me, it scares the bejeezus out of me. I may be white, but I'm neither a Christian,l nor heterosexual, and while an American citizen, I'm the child of an immigrant family. Having lost the bulk of my mother's family during the holocaust, as they did not have the wherewithal to get out, I find myself asking if this new president is a harbinger of still worse to come? Will we as nation rise up and fight back, or is it time for people like me to start thinking about getting out?
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...crowds.

I cannot honestly take credit for that statement l. It was given voice by a BBC reporter this morning. My G-d, how apt!

All one needs to do is to look at arial photos done of his Inauguration Day crowds and compare them to photos from either of the two previous inaugurations. You know the two. They were for the illegitimate Kenyan the Donald railed against for 8 years.

Moreover, from arial photos taken just 24 hours later, estimates are the women's march brought 5-600,000 people protesting Trump and his ilk. The administration's response? Send a bellicose press secretary out to yell at the press, accuse them of lying to the American public and with that he turned on his heel and marched out, allowing not a single question. WTF!?!

You may be entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own set of facts.
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Meryl Streep was given the lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. Well deserved, if you ask me. She is an amazing talent, a virtual chameleon, with an enormous body of work stretching back to the 70's.

She criticized the president elect last night from the pulpit the Globes gave her, again spot on criticism that was well deserved if you ask me. I'd recommend watching her comments in their entirety and judge for yourselves if she isn't spot on in her take.

https://youtu.be/NxyGmyEby40

Of course this morning, the president elect struck back on his favorite platform, Twitter.

Fasten your seatbelt friends; the next 4 years are gonna be a very bumpy ride.
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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.

Bombastic

Nov. 3rd, 2015 09:02 am
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—adjective

1. (of speech, writing, etc.) high-sounding; high-flown; inflated; pretentious.

syn.: Trump-like

Origin: 1695–1705; bombast + -ic


Mexico is going to pay for a border wall? Really?

You're going to win the Hispanic vote? No one has better relations with the Hispanics than you do? You really do live on Planet Trump, don't you?

First of all, the moment you define any racial/ethnic group with a "the" you imply they're one monolithic group. What you show us is how little you really understand true diversity, or worse, how little the people you're working to appeal to, do. Secondly, governing means building consensus, finding solutions that meet community needs, not actively pushing wedges between communities playing people against one another. Lastly, elections are about meeting societal needs and goals, not entertainment. They're for defining & shaping our future.

Your vision sir, both offends & frightens me.

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