Things to be Thanful for this Thamksgiving

Some of us have been totally bummed out for the past couple of weeks.

We thought that the election might be close, but we thought Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump in the end We all knew a few Trump-supporters. And, yes, Hillary had that problem with you private email server. Trump would get some votes, sure, but we could not imagine that his rude, brash, dishonest campaign would win against the well-organized efforts of the Democrats. If anybody had a right to hold a grudge against Hillary, it was Bernie Sanders, and he not only endorsed her, but actively campaigned for her. He pointed out what a disaster it would be if  Donald Trump won the election. The thought of Trump's being elected President of the United States seemed absolutely laughable. We laughed ourselves sick.

Than he won the election, and we now have a very good reason to be sick. And the shock does not go away. It stays with us, like a kind of post traumatic stress.

So, what do we have to be thankful for? We have a lot of wonderful things in our lives. Most of us have family and friends that we love and are very thankful for. We can and should be thankful for family and friends who have passed on. We are thankful for the positive impact these people have had on our lives. We can be thankful for our freedom. We are free to vote and campaign and to discuss our and criticize those at all levels of our government.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare!), about 20 million people have medical insurance who would otherwise not have it. Sure the plan is not perfect, being a compromise between hopeful Democrats and repressive Republicans, but the result is a step forward.

And you can keep in mind that nearly two million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump. We can thank the gerrymandering of  so many voting districts and the vagaries of the Electoral College for the fact that Trump will take office in 2017 and not the winner of the popular vote, Hillary Clinton.

(Please note: This is a sarcasm. This is not one of the things that you can really be thankful for. I'm getting to those. Please be patient.)

Be thankful that, in spite of post-election blues (or maybe because of them) you and the country are probably better off than you will be a year from now.

And, you will probably be better off a year from now than we will all be two years from now. This is because, with Trump as president and so many Republicans in the Congress and Senate, things will probably get worse for those of  us who are not very wealthy.

So, you think that I'm being sarcastic again, right? Maybe a little but, but I really mean what I say.

Thins will get worse for the country as a whole. Hopefully not so much worse that we can never recover. We can all hope and pray that the Trumpster keeps to his habit of 3:00 Tweets and doesn't upgrade to 3:00 AM nuclear strikes.

We can't stop things from getting worse, but we can hope that this general attacks on our economy and our civil liberties will get all of those who are most affected by the souring of the leadership of our nation to get out and vote for progressive candidates who will actually make things better. A lot of these people, who will be hurt the most by the increasing gap between rich and poor, didn't bother to vote at all. Many of them who did vote went for Trump, because they felt Obama didn't do enough for the middle class. Not that he didn't try, you understated. So, they voted Trump to make things better? They voted for the party that blocked Obama at every turn, every time he tried to make thing better for the poor and the middle class? This is tantamount to saying, "Wow, this aspirin didn't help my headache. I think I'll try these arsenic pellets. Let's see how they work." Or, "That new gasoline didn't stop my engine from knocking. I think I'll fill the tank with rock salt and sand. What can go wrong?"

I hope you know that a lot can go wrong. Even with the really motley minions he has started to fill his cabinet with, Trump's governing style is still very much an unknown.

Let's hope it is not as bad as it can be. But, let's be thankful that it will probably be bad enough to bring some folks who didn't vote back to their senses. Let's hope the voter's remorse gives some of the Trump voters pause, so they will vote for a major, positive change in the direction in which we are all headed.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. I really mean it!

Orange is the New Bleak

Progressives, liberals, reasonable moderates, many conservatives, and other people in this country and elsewhere who are afflicted with a condition known as sanity are waking up from their Trump-induced comas and asking themselves –

What the hell happened?

It feels like we were all hit by a great big bus – perhaps that Access Hollywood bus   where Donald Trump bragged about being able to grab women by their private parts.

We knew there was a possibility that Trump would be elected. After the RNC Convention, Michael Moore said, “He could win.” And, we all knew that was true.

So, we redoubled our efforts. We donated money and time and effort. We talked to friends and relatives and strangers. We urged them to vote, and to vote wisely, to keep Trumpocalypse from happening. We voted. We participated in polls. We watched the news coverage and read the polls. We felt confident that Hilly Clinton would win. Our hope was that she would carry enough electoral votes to give her a clear mandate – so that those nay-sayers would think twice before blocking her path, as she and the rest of the people worked to make things better for the vast majority of Americans. We talked about paths to victory, all the ways that Hillary could exceed 270 electoral votes and how difficult it would be for Trump to come close to scoring enough of them to later complain that the election had been rigged against him. After all, how many Trump-supporters did you know? I could have counted those I knew personally one hand.

And then…

And then, we watched as the red began to overrun the electoral map, like blood soaking an undersized bandage on a wound that has begun to bleed much more copiously than we had anticipated.  

In just a few hours, it was all over for us. The Democrats will have less representation in national government than we have had in recent history. And, when Trump starts filling Supreme Court vacancies, well, never say, “It can’t get worse.”

We could have elected our first female president. Instead, we elected our first president without any governmental or military experience. We could have elected a president whose statements were mostly clear and verifiably true. Instead we elected a man who told lies in the debates and at his rallies, lies what could be easily shown to be lies, with even a cursory look at his past statements and record. We elected a misogynistic bigot, known for “Lock her up!” and “She’s such a nasty woman,” among other greatest hits.   

And you can’s blame Gary Johnson or Jill Stein. You can’t blame the Millennials, who turned out in number better than were expected by many.

Friends are telling me, well Trump won the election fair and square. He has made a nice acceptance speech, calling for unity. We have to give him a chance. He has earned a chance to be president.

I do not agree. I don’t think he has earned anything, except the just ire of about half the people. However, he has won a chance to lead, and we, who believe in the peaceful constitutional transition of power, will grant him that chance. It is all we can do.

Trump will take office next year. It appears at this time that the majority of Americans didn’t vote for him, but our electoral system, based as it is on the cutting-edge technology of the eighteenth century, still gives this man, the awesome power of the United States presidency. You can polish a turd only so much, but what you still have is a turd. And it and many more are poised to hit the fan in a little over two months.

I do not doubt that progress will continue to be made, perhaps not at the rate we had hoped, but we will continue to move forward in such causes reducing income inequality and climate change.

It would be so much easier if progress could be made with the help of our leaders in Washington, and not in spite of them.

Trump will get his chance. In the past decades, he has been all over the map, as far as the important issues that affect us all have gone. So, I suppose there is a chance, that he will a much better president than we had thought.

It could happen. We can hope.

And we can keep watch out for flying pigs, crashing into Trump’s wall on the Mexican border.

Weiner-Leaks and Comey-Confsusion

It was announced ten days ago, by FBI Director James Comey, that more than 600,000 email had been found on a laptop computer shared by top Clinton-Aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, and that some of these messages just might shed some light on the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server – that some of these email might give the FBI cause to re-open its investigation of Hillary, which had heretofore been pronounced closed for lack of evidence. Comey’s vague statements never made it clear that they had anything at all that might hurt Clinton or her reputation, just that they might have something, and that it would take some time to find out for sure. After all, being as Weiner seems to get such a kick out of distributing pictures of his Anthony across the Internet, it is hard to imagine that there were IT people just waiting in line to see what might be in those messages. I hope they were wearing gloves.

Then, yesterday, Comey announced, in another, almost equally vague statement, that there was nothing in the emails to implicate Hillary Clinton.

Whew. I’m glad that is over. No harm done, right?

Except that for nine days many pundits and Trump supporters choose to treat Comey’s first announcement as proof of new evidence of Clinton. Who knows how many early voters in how many states might have been swayed by – absolutely nothing, except a vague sense of unease that seemed to suddenly envelope the Clinton Campaign, like a patch of low-lying fog.

James Comey and the FBI have not hurt Hillary Clinton’s reputation at all. They have done tremendous harm to the reputation of the FBI, and possibly other agencies of the Federal Government. And that is very sad, indeed.

This election is looking closer, day by day, and that is a frightening thought to anyone who realizes just how totally damaging a Trump presidency would be to this country.

We progressives have always considered one candidate to be superior to the other. In this space four years ago, I was very quick to point out what a terrible choice Mitt Romney would be for the presidency and how much better a choice was Obama. Mitt Romney was, at least, an honorable man, running in a race that pitted ideals against ideals. A President Romney would not have put the country into the peril that the election of the orange dumpster-fire of a Trump presidency threatens to do.

It needs to be noted that Mitt Romney, honorable man that he is, has not endorsed Trump, and neither has any of the five living former US presidents – of both parties, mind you.

So, I hope FBI Director James Comey’s ineptitude has not upset the balance of this election in any meaningful way.

I also hope that, if you have not already cast your vote, you will do so tomorrow, and that you will cast it for the imperfect candidate we have by the name Hillary Clinton, and not the horrendous disaster threatening to rain down on us, like a glowing orange lake of incompetent, misogynistic, xenophobic, bigoted, egomaniacal, volcanic lava that would be a Trump presidency.

A Tisket, a Taxket, Deplorables in a Basket

Hillary Clinton said it.

We all heard her. 

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it.”

…And the media went wild.

Now, she was trying to make the point that not all Trump supporters fall into this disagreeable category. She went on to say that the rest of the Trumpsters are just people who’s lives have gotten worse or who are frustrated because they feel left out of the political process.

But, you would have thought that she had just declared National Flag-Burning Day, or drowned a puppy on live TV,  or declared that Michael Bolton is the real King of Rock and Roll.

No, she made that statement about those who are supporting her opponent.

People are used to Donald Trump’s making all kinds of flamboyantly asinine declarations, and then taking them back, sometimes denying that he even made them, and then making them again. It’s a seemingly neverending waterfall of bigoted, dangerous, nonsense that many of us have just come to take in stride.

But, when Hillary Clinton, the sensible one, goes a little of the chain, people start pinching themselves to make sure they are really awake.

Why was this remark so troubling to Hillary’s supporters and foes alike?

Was it an issue of timing?  To be more specific, with the season?  Baskets are for Easter and Springtime. We are getting ready to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. Would she have done better to say "a Jack-o-lantern of jerks," or "a Trick-or-Treat bag of boneheads,” or even "a cornucopia of creeps?"

By the way, I’ll bet there is an aspiring punk band out there that had been in search of a name and has just seized upon “Basket of Deplorables” as their moniker.

But, back to the real issue – I think what has gotten everyone in such a lather is the statement that half of Trump’s supporters fall into this nasty category.

Those of us who realize that Donald Trump’s candidacy is one of the most dangerous hazards to befall this county, are shocked that he is doing as well as he is in the polls.

The fact that so many Americans are actually seriously considering voting for him is an embarrassment to the rest of us.  What kind of people would consider taking the Ship of State into such vile and turbulent waters?  What is wrong with them?

Those of us who have decided to support Hillary like her and her policies to a greater or lesser extent. 

We like her as a person to a greater or lesser extent. Some of us love her; some of us are ardently supporting her because we see Donald Trump as absolutely unqualified for any public office, let alone the Presidency of the United States!

She later said she regretted using the word “half.” You decide. Is the amount larger or smaller? One-fourth, one-third, two-thirds?  What do you think?

I’m not sure, but I do have my suspicions.

To paraphrase a line from a summer blockbuster film from a few decades ago: “You’re gonna need a bigger basket.”

An Open Letter to those Still Feeling the Bern

Still feeling that Bern?

I know I am. And it still hurts.

I have been waiting for a candidate that I could support and vote for, not just as lesser of two evils, but as someone whose views and dreams very closely mirrored my own.

Along came Bernie Sanders, and I knew that this was the man I wanted to be president of my country. I was sure of that before he even declared his candidacy.

Once he threw his hat into the ring, allowing his hair to blow about freely in the breeze, I began my support. I donated to his campaign. I made phone calls for him via the Bernie Dialer. I talked to friends and relatives in hopes of convincing them to support him for president.

Bernie supporters were proud of our candidate and we worked hard for him, and we were proud of our efforts on his behalf.

Alas, it is not going to happen. Bernie Sanders will not be the Democratic candidate for President of the United States and he will not hold that office.

Why will he not be our nominee?

He doesn’t have the electoral votes. Part of the reason he does not have the electoral votes is that the Democratic Party uses a strange little device called superdelegates. Most of these superdelegates were pledged to Hillary Clinton and remained that way. Not a pretty thing in my book, but it was within the rules of the party and within the law.

Another reason he was not nominated may have to do with some collusion and skullduggery within the leadership of the Democratic Party. It appears that DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz wanted Hillary to be the nominee and was willing to put her thumb on the scale to get Hillary nominated.

Anyway, Wasserman Schultz has been relieved of duty as DNC Chairperson, but the damage was done and the brandname has been tarnished.

Are superdelegates and skullduggery the reasons Hillary won the nomination? Probably not. The vote might have been closer, but it looks like she would have won anyway. And I still say, well that’s too bad. Bernie could have done so much for this country, and has a better chance of beating Donald Trump than Hillary does.

But, it is not to be. We Bernie Sanders supporters pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, staunch any heavy bleeding, and move on in a new, slightly different direction. As long as we are moving away from that out-of-control landfill-fire known as Trump, we are moving in a good direction.

So, there is a pledge to not support Hillary Clinton, under any circumstances. It has been taken by Bernie supporters and by those who support the GOP. For the Republicans to sign on makes sense, or as much sense as Republicans usually make. For those who supported Bernie, I think this "pledge" is a mistake – politically, ethically, morally, pragmatically. Especially when Bernie himself has asked you to support her, when he has in fact moved to make her the DNC nominee – even if he didn’t seem to be enjoying the act of doing so. He did it because it was the right thing to do.

Still thinking about sticking with #bernieorbust or #neverhillary?  Let me use an analogy. You discover that you really like a kind of beer. We’ll call it Bernie Beer. It is wonderful, the best IPA you have ever had.  You go to your favorite supermarket to pick up a twelvepack, only to find it out of stock. You demand to see the manager, who informs you that he didn’t stock the Bernie Beer because it was no as popular as this longtime favorite, Hillary Beer. He also admits, sheepishly, that there may have been a bit of collusion and skullduggery between the distributor and the store manager, but you didn’t hear it from him. Anyway, he tells you, Hillary Beer is almost as good as Bernie Beer.

You tell that son of a bitch of a manager that you don’t like Hillary Beer. It tastes like a light version of Bernie Beer. And, just to prove your point, you run over to the Garden department and quickly drink a gallon of Trump Concentrated Weed Killer!

(My apologies to any actual beer that may be Branded Hillary or any actual Trump brand of herbicide. I understand there is an actual Bernie Beer, and this little fable is in no way meant to cast aspersions on what I am sure is a fine brand.)

Consider these facts. Your support and my support of Bernie Sanders has not been in vain. Hillary will know that a lot of Democrats and independents (and more than a few Republicans) felt the Bern, and she will have to move to the left in order to keep us all reasonably happy. She knows this.

It has already happened. She has already slid into the progressive track on several issues. And, once that happens, it is very hard for a candidate to go back. We will be watching her.

The DNC Party Platform has definite Bern-marks on it, including a $15.00 per hour minimum wage for all Americans. That is progress.

The only way to support Bernie and his ideals is to go out and support every Democrat who makes it to the ballot. It would not matter whether Bernie or Hillary made the nomination and became president if that president did not have the down-ballot support of the Senate and the House. Don’t forget your gubernatorial, legislative, city council, and mayorial (or their equivalent) races.  

Go back, now and then and take a look at this ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nwRiuh1Cug

I think it is the greatest, most moving political ad I have ever seen, and it brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it, and it still does. You have your favorite ads, speeches, moments, and memories too. Go back and savor them, every so often, and remember how it was when we dared to dream that large.

And keep dreaming. Keep working.

Never stop feeling the Bern!