It’s Been Fifty Years…

There are not a lot of times that I can tell you, without some pondering or research, what I was doing fifty years ago that day. But today is one of them.

I was thirteen, living in my family's home, and we were all in the living room, crowded around the TV, waiting, and then watching, as Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. We then watched NASA simulations that showed us how the spacecraft would travel to lunar orbit, and how the LEM, or Lunar Excursion Module, would separate from the Command Module, and how it would land, and how Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would climb down its thin ladder to walk on the surface of the moon.

There was not much else to watch on television. All three commercial networks covered it non-stop.  I am glad that my family chose to watch the coverage of Walter Cronkite and the team at CBS News. Occasionally we flipped to NBC or ABC to see how they were telling the story, but CBS was our homebase. We trusted Walter and his people. He seemed to really care about the astronauts and the mission and how important the whole endeavor was to us. And I cannot over-emphasize what a big deal this was for the workers at NASA, the people of the United States of America, and, corny as it may sound to some, for the whole human race.  

During the hours and days after the successful launch, Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke were interviewed in the studio. I had just discovered who these authors were and had barely begun to read them at the time. CBS also chose to cut away to affiliates is every state – or, at least it seemed so at the time. Ordinary people in every corner of the country were shown and interviewed, to get a kind of group photo of the US at a special moment in time. We all knew that not everyone was in favor of the billions spent on the space program, but it seemed that the nation was united in wishing the astronauts well. We would not breath normally until Armstrong and Aldrin had left footprints on the glowing orb we looked up to at night, and they and Michael Collins had returned safely to earth.

The spacecraft took off on Wednesday, July 16, 1969, and the Eagle landed on Sunday, July 20. I must have slept for some of that time, but I don’t remember doing that. My most salient memories are of actions that occurred far away from me, sometimes hundreds of thousands of miles away. I know the Apollo capsule splashed down on July 24, in the North Pacific Ocean, and I imagine CBS and the other networks ceased the wall-to-wall coverage they had been doing and broadcast some other programming in the days between the liftoff from the moon and the return to earth, but I can’t tell you anything about it.

There were, of course, other moon missions – most of them successful – and the US and other nations have accomplished great things with manned and unmanned spacecraft in the decades since, I don’t think these great accomplishments brought us together and made our hearts beat in quite the synchrony that the Apollo 11 mission did.  

I do hope we will go back someday. I hope we will establish permanent colonies on the moon, maybe other planets as well. I hope I live to see some of that. But, I feel very fortunate to have witnessed all of that, even if only on television, and in the world of my imagination.

23 and we!

We Americans have an embarrassment of riches right now.

 23 (or is it 24?) men and women from various backgrounds are competing for the Democratic nomination -- and any of them would make a better president than the one we currently have. (Actually, you could just pick any American, 35 or older, off the street, and, chances are at least fair that person would be a better president than the current hairball in chief. That is how low the bar has been set.

We have some really good candidates vying for your attention, and 20 of them will debate Wednesday and Thursday nights. This is exciting. Let's all watch and pick our favorites, and be prepared to vote in the primaries and to support for whomever comes out on top, come November, 2020.

That Blue Wave – or the Red Tide

I have voted early, and I hope that you have also, or that you will vote on Tuesday.  I have done what I could to get others out to vote for the Dems.

If you are reading this, I think there is a good chance you will vote for Democrats. The promise of the Democratic party is a stronger middle class, the rich carrying their fair share of the burden I paying for things that we all need, improved health care, greater personal freedom for everyone, and other things that I feel anybody in his or her right mind out be for.

The republicans are the party of Trump. Trump’s message, at least at the current moment, seems to be fear. Fear of change. Fear of people who might be different that his ideal voter. And, fear of the great hordes of humanity that are headed to our southern border, known as the caravan of immigrants. This caravan – or maybe it’s actually two caravans – are made up of foreigners who, according to Trump, are coming for "…free health care, free welfare, free education, and for the right to vote."

How many individuals are headed this way? The number could be as high as seven or eight thousand. That means that, if you take the approximately 2,000 border patrol professionals on the job in the area, and add the 5,200 troops that is being deployed to the border, that’s about a ratio of one border agent or solder to every man, woman, child, and baby in this terrifying caravan.

The list of diseases said to be infecting these weary travelers includes everything from leprosy to smallpox. Yes, there could be some sickness traveling with the caravan people, but smallpox and other afflictions will be about as rare as the Middle Eastern terrorists that Trump claimed are hitching a ride – or a slow, thirsty walk – with the migrants.

Trump says that any migrant throwing a rock at the soldiers will be treated as though he or she had used deadly force, and fired upon. This is one of the problems with having a president who never served in the military or held an office or studied any history: he knows nothing of the Rules of Engagement followed by the professional men and women of our armed forces.

Trump acts like every man, woman, and stroller- or backpack-riding child in the caravan is either a terrorist or a freeloader. But, I would like you to think about something.

These men and women and families will have traveled over a thousand miles to reach our southern border. They had the sense to form a large group. It is safer that way. But we must not minimize the danger that these families face daily.

They want to come here. Those who are allowed to apply for and who achieve refugee status, will almost certainly work hard to stay here. They have the potential to become good Americans. Do you think most of those MAGA-hat wearing haters, who still think it’s the height of decorum and ingenuity to shout “Lock her up!” every time Trump mentions Hillary Clinton would be willing to walk a thousand miles across formidable desert  landscape to keep their right to vote for the deranged orangutan in chief? I don’t think so either.

Anyway, we have gotten off the subject of the subject of why it is so important for you to vote in the midterm election – especially this midterm election. Come to think of it, maybe we haven’t strayed that far off the topic after all.

Everybody says this is the most important midterm in recent history. We say that every time, don’t we? Well, this time it is the truth. This is the time to vote for the Dems and only the Dems. Green Party, Libertarians, Unicorn Party, writing in the name of your maternal grandmother – let’s save these “protest votes” and whimsical ballots for another time. And, I am not saying that your maternal grandmother might make a much better president than the one we have. We’re just not voting for that office this time.

So, you gotta vote! If you haven’t cast a mail-in or early-voting ballot, do so on Tuesday, November 6!

That’s just for Democrats. Because voting is expected to be so popular this election, Republicans are asked to show up to vote on Wednesday, November 8.

Ha ha ha ha!  That was a joke!

You can’t afford to lose your sense of humor during times like these.

We need to try for that blue wave! We don’t want to see the red tide. Floridians especially have seen enough of that. It smells terrible and makes our beautiful beaches undesirable.

Will we settle for a purple rain?

We’ll live with what we get, but this is time to look for the best possible outcome and to work to make it happen.

Kava-not!

Like a new, September TV daytime soap opera, people are tuning in to see the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Trump and the republicans thought this would be an easy appointment. But then a California psychologist and professor named Christine Blasie Ford emerged on the scene with a claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago. At first, Dr. Ford did not want to testify. It appears that she has decided to do her civic duty and, against her own fear of flying and fear of the death-threats she has received, she decided to tell her story before the Senate Committee and everyone watching the national coverage.

And, good for her, because, unlike a television serial, these hearings really are important.

I did see all of Christine Blasie Ford's testimony in which she claims she was assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, and I happen to believe her. I don't know that that matters, but I do. And I think a lot of others do, also.

Dr. Ford has not been caught in a single lie, but we know that Kavanaugh has told at least one: that remark he make about Donald Trump's having consulted with more people from more backgrounds than any other president before choosing him as a candidate for the Supreme Court is a complete fabrication. Kavanaugh's name came from a list submitted by right-wing organizations, among them, the Federalist Society.

I do not think Kavanaugh should be appointed to the Supreme Court, no matter what the FBI may or may not learn about his past. His rich boy, prep school, presumption that he is deserving of the appointment, and his whining over how his family has been destroyed over this, makes me sick.

I know that people who are accused of crimes are presumed innocent until proved guilty, but he is not on trial for a crime here. These supreme court hearings are a job interview, and he does not have a right to a position on the Supreme Court. I believe he has totally disqualified himself, based on his petulant grousing alone. Then there is his ranting about this being the work of the Clintons and some kind of left-wing conspiracy? No way. It looks like poor little rich boy Brett didn’t get the memo about the work of judges taking place in a realm outside of politics. Or maybe he got the memo and read it on a day when he had too many beers, and just blacked that out of his mind.

Time to hit the old Eject button.This is not the behavior of someone we want on the Supreme Court for the next several decades.

If you still fell sorry for Kavanaugh, I would not worry. He will be fine. He can resume his position as a judge in whatever federal court he now serves. Its time for Trump to move down to the next conservative candidate on the list.

But, why is Trump so reluctant to give up on appointing Kavanaugh? Maybe it is because Kavanaugh is the only candidate on the list who has made statements to the effect that he feels sitting presidents should not be indicted for crimes committed while in office. Funny thing how Kavanaugh won't comment on so many other things – they are are "hypotheticals" in his vernacular – but he has made this one opinion quite clear.

Maybe that is makes him the favorite of another entitled prep school rich boy, Donald Trump. Just because Trump is absolutely unqualified to hold the position now occupies does not mean that the country needs to do it again with another very high office.

The Feckless and the Clueless

I was so happy to check my DVR and find a new episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Thank you TBS for not listening to our rotting pumpkinguts for brains president and canceling her show.

I realize that she might have overstepped a line with her comment about Ivanka Trump. She got herself compared to Rosanne and her wee-hours, racist tweet. These two things are not the same. Rosanne's comment was just mean. Samantha's comment was at least accurate, if crudely stated.

If Ivanka really does have the president's ear, they why hasn't she done more to moderate some of his more hateful policies – such as removing children from parents when those parents cross the border, even with done totally legally.

Samantha called Ivanka feckless and then used a word that I have heard emphasized as C-U-Next-Thursday. The second word was inaccurate. Sam Bee's show is on Wednesdays, and if she had used a an acronym for C-U-Next-Wednesday, she would have been accurate on both counts. Samantha has apologized to her viewers, and that is a good thing, lest the news cycle focus totally on her, and not on the injustice that she seeks to change.

Thank you TBS for not giving into our feckless twit of a president.

Yeah, I used the T-word.