Time to Make History

You are living through the History of tomorrow!

 A thought like that will get a “duh” from some and a “wow” from others and a blank stare from the rest of the audience. You can decide on the proportions.

 Students at all levels and grades of education will learn that 2020 was the year of COVID-19. Or, perhaps that it was the first year of COVID, since it probably won’t be over for most of us until sometime in 2021. At least we hope it will.

 They will also learn of the pivotal elections of 2016 and 2020. I am hoping that these elections will mark the years when Donald Trump was voted into office and when he was booted out, respectively.

 As of today, that 2020 outcome has not been decided yet. It will be decided by the people of our country.

 This includes you.

 With your vote, you will be part of history which will not only be studied for decades to come, but will have an impact on determining the quality of life for the vast majority of Americans for those same decades to come. This is it. This is not a drill. This is for real.

 If you have already voted, thank you. If you voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, thank you very much. If you voted for all the Democrats downballot, then a third, hearty thank you. If you are going to do that, then thank you in advance.

 Downballot races are also very important. Biden cannot do the positive things we need him to do if we don’t give him a House and Senate that will pass needed legislation. 

 But, the ballot goes much deeper into the grass than just House and Senate. Your state’s governor and legislature helps to draw the map that apportions the Congressional districts. At this time, much of the country is so Gerrymandered, that we endure a situation where candidates pick their voters. It is supposed to be the other way around!

 I find it interesting that, in this election, the standard procedure for Democrats is to get everyone out to vote, let all voices be heard, let all ballots be counted. This is what I am trying to do now, with this post. 

 The scheme of the Republican party seems to be reduce and restrict the vote. Here are some examples of how they have tried to do so:

 ✔ Reduce the number of polling places and dates of early voting.

 ✔ Reduce the number of ballot drop-off sites to one per county – as they did in Texas.

 ✔ Hobble the Post Office so that it cannot perform its mission of delivering ballots to be counted. If this happens to slow down other mail – greeting cards, medical prescriptions, business correspondence that can’t take place on the Internet, not to mention that blanket you ordered from the Etsy shop someone started after they lost their job to the pandemic – then, well, that is just too bad.

 ✔ Organizing armed groups of “poll-watchers” to intimidate voters as they come to the polls to exercise their constitutional right and duty to vote.

 ✔ A bunch of pickup trucks and other vehicles, flying Trump flags, clustered around  a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a Texas highway. At least one truck moved in front of the bus, forcing the bus to slow down. Harris and Biden were not on board the bus, but I wonder how many of the drivers thought they were, and thought they were intimidating the candidates.

 ✔ Two years ago, Floridians overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, which grants voting rights to those who have been convicted of nonviolent felonies and who have served their sentences. Or, it would have done so, except that Republican-appointed judges have not allowed for the act to take affect for most of these disenfranchised citizens. They have decided that these sentences include the payment of fines and costs before the felons are allowed to vote. This is tantamount to enacting a poll tax – which should be considered illegal – and, to make matters worse, they make finding out how much is owed and to whom very difficult or impossible for most of these unfortunate would-be voters.

 There are so many other examples I could give you, but I don’t think that is necessary, but you get the picture.

 Donald Trump has done everything he can to turn the United States into his dictatorship, and I don’t expect that to stop if he happens to finable another four years.

 So, the moral of the story is: vote! If you have voted, then encourage others to do so.

 This country needs Joe Biden as president and the White House needs a good cleaning before Joe Biden moves in.  

 

RIP, RGB

 Never say to yourself, things can't get any worse.

 Because they can.

 I just saw the news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away at 87 years of age, and I am just sick about it.

 This is a tragedy. Not only has her family and the country and the world lost a wonderful human being, but, this great lady was one of our last hopes for the country. There is now a much greater chance that Trump will be able to select another right-wing judge to the Supreme Court, furthering its balance toward totalitarian extremism, the destruction of our fragile environment, the erosion of individual liberties, and increased power for corporations.

 May Ruth Bader Ginsburg rest in peace. May our people do everything in our power to turn the Senate and replace Donald Trump.

Panic at the Shit-Show

Most of us have heard the tapes fames reporter Bob Woodward made of his conversations with Donald Trump.

 (All right, they probably weren’t tapes. They were probably digital recording of some sort. But people are calling them tapes, so we will stick with that word. Hey maybe Woodward is an old school guy, with boxes of cassettes or even reels labeled “Trump1” and “Trump 2” and so on.)   

 Now that you have heard Trump say that the Coronavirus was much worse than even the most “strenuous” flues, and that young  people are quite susceptible to it, we have to admit that Trump lied to us all about this very important topic.

 He said he didn’t want to cause aa panic. Let’s face it, Trump’s not wanting to reveal how bad he knew the COVID-19 virus really was is a bit like your doctor’s not telling you about a very treatable cancer in its early stages, because he doesn’t want to worry you. After all, if you get worried, you might select a different doctor or you might not be able to do your job as well as before, and you might not be able to pay the doctor’s bill.

 The principle of Freedom of Speech does not cover shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater – unless there really is a fire. Catch that theater fire early, when it is small. Dump your five-dollar Coke on it if you have to. Get people out of there and out of harm’s way.

 Trump did none of those things. We now knew that he knew about the fire, and let it rage out of control. Trump said he did not want to cause a panic.

 But Trump has shown that he isn’t all that opposed to causing a panic. He tried to cause a panic about the massive caravan of brown people who were going to storm our southern border. Now, he wants you to panic because Black Lives Matter and Antifa are going to burn down your city. Or, worse yet, they want you to panic because black and brown people might want to buy houses in your neighborhood and – you guess it – live next to you.

 Panic and fear can be very useful if they get you to the polls to vote for another four years of terrible and erratic leadership. Panic is bad when it might alter people’s behavior, cause them to wear masks, cause them to socially distance from others for a time, in order to eliminate the threat. That might hurt the Stock Market and make the Sociopath in Chief appear weak.

 There is no need for panic. Follow safety guidelines, keep your hands clean, and make sure you have a plan to vote Trump and his House and Senate panderers out of office.

A Reasonable Proposal

People who oppose changing gun laws like to point out simple but irrelevant truths.

If you took away all of the guns, you would still have some killings. We know that and it is beside the point.

Airplanes and cars and loads of fertilizer all can be dangerous in the wrong hands. We know this, also. But we also know that all of these things have purposes that do not involve killing a large number of people very quickly. We have restrictions on who can fly a plane, who can drive a car, and, I imagine there are usually some restrictions on purchasing large amounts of certain fertilizers.

The terrible events of 9/11 caused some real changes in airport security for everyone.

Yet, there are those among us who think they should be allowed to buy and own assault-style weapons whose only purpose is killing large numbers of humans very quickly. To take away their right to own such slaughter-weapons is somehow against their constitutional rights.

So much for a load of fertilizer.

All rights have limits. My favorite is the First Amendment, the one from which all other freedoms flow. But, I know that even that is not absolute. The First Amendment does not give you the right to incite violence, to spread certain kinds of false information, to slander the innocent, and so on. We accept those limitations and realize they do little or nothing to make the First Amendment less meaningful and effective.

The Second Amendment is vague and poorly written and was created in a time when there was no standing army, when rifles fired one shot before reloading, and when one of the things that a militia might need to be called up to mitigate would be a slave uprising.

It should likewise have limits. I am sure there are those who think they should be allowed to have nuclear weapons or stockpile nerve gas in their basements if they so choose because: Second Amendment. Most of us see that as crazy. So we know the line needs to be drawn somewhere.

If we are going to draw a line, how about drawing it here: Let properly background- checked civilians own the pistols and rifles they need for hunting and home protection, and even for target shooting. But draw the line between them and the properly qualified and trained military, who would be the only people with automatic rifles, grenade launchers, and missiles.

I don't think that what I am proposing would infringe on anyone’s Constitutional right to protect themselves. I don't think this is hard to figure out. Let's treat the couplet of mass-shootings that took place last weekend the way we did 9/11.

Let's make some real changes to the gun laws of this land, and let’s do it soon.