"Dad, do not worry. I will be fine for telling the truth."

I have to express my feelings re Lieutenant Vindman’s heart stopping testimony yesterday at the impeachment hearing.

My personal backdrop for yesterday is that it was a cosmic day for me: an important mile marker, my last every-three-months-for-two-years check-up with the gynecologic oncologist about my 2017 ovarian cancer. My last chemo was October of 2017, so it has now been two years and, so far, so miraculous: I’m fine! Everything looks great, and now we transition to me only going to the doctor every six months to get checked out (CA125 blood test, and check-up with the oncologist), for the next three years. I’m so grateful to be here!  As my mom would say, "Thank God we're this far!"

And so it was that, yesterday, instead of being at work as I normally would have been when the impeachment hearings got underway, I was at home, getting ready to go to the doctor (went to work after the appointment, never fear). I was able to catch just the very beginning of Lieutenant Vindman’s opening statement. As I stood up, reluctantly, to turn off the TV and head out the door, and walked up to the TV to put the remote down next to it, I was suddenly riveted in place by what he said as I did so. I froze, and my heart leapt into my throat. Tears came into my eyes.

Lieutenant Vindman came here as a toddler, when his 47-year-old dad made the decision to leave his home, his country, the Soviet Union, so that his children could live free. As I stood there, inches from the TV screen, about to turn it off, Lieutenant Vindman suddenly stopped my heart: “Dad,” he said, “you made the right decision coming here. Do not worry. I will be fine for telling the truth.”

Tears filled my eyes. As they do again just typing that: Dad, don’t worry. I will be fine for telling the truth.

He is now under extreme threat from 45’s despicable, cult-like, hateful, mob-mentality, McCarthyesque followers. I don’t even refer to them as “supporters” anymore.  No, as of this second, I only call them "followers":  they are blind, hateful followers. They don’t think for themselves. Whatever hateful, dehumanizing, violence-inciting dog whistle 45 and/or Fox News (a.k.a. 45’s propaganda arm) blow, they follow. They are definitely like a cult at this point. Voluntarily brainwashed.  The dog whistle gets blown, and they instantly bare their ugly fangs and attack.

Lieutenant Vindman is a patriot, who has dedicated his entire life to serving the United States of America. He has a purple heart. Yet he is being demonized by these rabid Trumpsters and threatened, as is the whistleblower, and other brave patriots. Lieutenant Vindman’s words, in the face of all that, to me, encompass everything about what we are going through as a country right now, and everything that we ARE as a country: "Do not worry, Dad. I will be fine for telling the truth."

And there you have what this whole thing is about.  There you have what is important, what is worth being brave for, what is worth standing up for, what America really is: our constitution, our rule of law. Lieutenant Vindman (and I) have faith in it. The constitution and the rule of law will win. Our republic, our democracy, will win.  The lawless fascist in the White House and his truly despicable followers will not. That said, I am scared of their hate. I’m scared for Lieutenant Vindman. I’m scared for Rachel Maddow. I’m scared for the Whistleblower. I’m scared for my dear Muslim co-worker and her family. I’m scared for myself when I sit in my liberal church on Sundays. We are in scary times, when the POTUS encourages, incites and leads with hate. But, do not worry, Dad. We’ll be fine for telling the truth. Though I am scared for brave individuals, and groups targeted by the disgusting POTUS and his perhaps even more terrifying followers, I have faith in our founders, and the wise, awesome and strong groundwork they laid.  I have faith that, as a country, in the end, we WILL be fine, Dad. We will be fine for telling the truth.

God bless you, Lieutenant Vindman, and all of the other brave, patriotic witnesses who complied with their subpoenas, showed up and told the truth, and will continue to do so.  America will indeed be fine, due to our constitution and rule of law, our free press, and courageous patriots like you and all of us who continue to stand up to this President, and for what America really is.

I'm #TooFarLeft Because...

I've been told since 1980 that I'm #TooFarLeft because:

1. I'm for single payer health care.

2. I know climate change is real and that solar employs while nuclear (and fossil fuel) destroys.

3. Speaking of nukes: I've also been shouting "NO NUKES!" since long about when "Chevy Van" was in the Top 40.

4. I believe in creative, non-violent resistance.

5. I believe that war is, at best, the very, very, very last resort.

6. I think everyone should pay their fair share of taxes.

7. I think there should be federally mandated and funded maternity and paternity leave required of all employers in this country.

8. I think there should be federally funded child care for all pre-school aged children.

9.  I think birth control should be FREE and readily accessible to anyone who goes to a health care provider (under the single payer health care system referenced above in #1) and requests it.

10. In general, I think that investment in our citizens, social safety net and social programs, education, our nation's infrastructure and the greening of same, and our environment, should take priority for where my taxes should go, and they should NOT go into tax cuts for the richest 1% of American individuals and corporations.

11. I think electric cars should be the norm and be affordable to the 99%, and there should be much stricter fuel economy regulation on fossil fuel burning cars, especially now that the technology is HERE to git 'er done.

12.  I believe in equal rights for all, regardless of race, creed, gender, physical challenge(s) or sexual orientation.

I left (<--no pun intended, but hey) a bunch of stuff out but yes, I am #TooFarLeft, as I've been told my whole life and now has been reiterated by Barack Obama today, and I am fierce and passionate about same: I shall remain #TooFarLeft FOREVER.

Questions? Concerns? There won't be a quiz later. Gotta save my energy to continue fighting to change the world.

Wake Up, Trumpsters: 45 is 100% Owned By Putin

Unlike the role he PLAYED on "The Apprentice", the real 45 was and is a terrible businessperson. No bank would give him a loan to bail him out of his many bankruptcies. Yet he mysteriously kept getting money--substantial sums, vasts sums, of money--and now won't show his tax returns. Let me spell this out for anyone who has not been dialed in to the actual news for the past few years as I have (if you were, for example, if you watch The Rachel Maddow Show, you would know all the substantive evidence out there on this that is the size of Mount Everest): Putin put money into 45, correctly pegging him as a useful idiot. Putin owns 45. 45 is doing Putin's bidding in the White House, NOT what is in the best interest of the United States of America.

For example, this whole Ukraine thing that has led to the House finally starting long overdue impeachment proceedings was, I'm 100% convinced, orchestrated by Vlad. 45 didn't come up with this on his own. Pressuring Ukraine, of all countries, to go on mike and say that Russia didn't interfere in the 2016 elections (the news media is not focusing on THAT part of the ask enough: yes, 45 also illegally held up money approved by Congress for Ukraine on the condition that Ukraine go on mike and say that they are investigating a political opponent of 45, but he asked them to state that Russia didn't interfere in the 2016 election. Who benefits from him getting Ukraine to say that lie? Is that in the best security interests of the USA? To deny the fact that our election integrity was interfered with by an enemy foreign power? Whose PR interest is getting Ukraine to say that in? Whose interest has it been in for 45 to consistently deny Russian interference in the 2016 election ever since it happened? Certainly not ours.
No: RUSSIA'S.

This is all Putin. The entire Trumpocalypse, all of it, this whole almost-three-years: it's all Vlad. Except for the incitement of xenophobia and hate. That's the only part that comes naturally to 45. Everything else he does is as a puppet, the strings of which are controlled by the fascist, murderous head of a fascist, oligarchic, enemy country.

Somehow, the Republicans are okay with this. All my life, they shouted "I'd rather be dead than red!" and jeered at all of us on the left, calling us "commies". To this day, they are trying to elicit old, cold war and post-cold war scare tactics toward Bernie Sanders and those of us who support him by calling us "socialists" and conveniently leavings out the "democratic" ahead of that. "Socialist", when screamed by the Right in the USA, is code for "communist": Soviet-style communism.

Yet it is 45, The Republicans' chosen one, who actually IS a puppet of ex-KGB and current fascist head of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Follow the money. Follow 45's actions. Connect all the plethora of dots that are out there and that have already formed themselves into a clearly pixelated picture.

Twitter version: PUTIN OWNS TRUMP. The sooner those of you who haven't figured that out yet do, the better for our republic. And for those of you who have, yet turn a blind eye to him for whatever disgusting reason(s) you have, you are complicit. Complicit with treason. Complicit with a POTUS who kidnaps babies and puts them in cages in for-profit concentration camps. Complicit with a POTUS who is lawless and incites hate and violence on a daily basis. I could go on but I'll just say you are COMPLICIT.

Wake up, Trumpsters. Wake the bleep up. Before it is too late for our country.

Bernie Exists

I'm sitting here watching the pundits on "Inside Politics", live on CNN right now, attempt to make Bernie invisible. How? Well, they keep showing a poll that has Warren first, Bernie SECOND, and Buttigieg 3rd. Buttigieg is BEHIND Bernie by 1 percentage point. Okay, so bear that in mind when I say:

Jeff Zeleny just said "The primary is shaping up as a race between Warren and Buttigieg."

WHAT? Do you not see Bernie Sanders in that poll you just had up on the screen, in 2nd place? Buttigieg is in third place in that particular poll. So how do you conclude that the primary is now between Warren and Buttigieg?  Then the host echoed that, saying, yes, it really is. And on and on they went.

Do they really think that by not mentioning Bernie, he and WE, will just go away? They tried that strategy with the Fukushima nuclear meltdown and, guess what? It's still epic and it is still going on and it is still news and they still never mention it. Yet they can't make it go away.

I hate to compare Bernie and those of us who support him with a nuclear meltdown, but I'm just saying: not mentioning something or someone does not make that thing or person go away.

The mainstream news media is funded by corporate interests, so I guess they are trying the elementary school playground strategy of pretending they can't hear someone when it comes to Bernie, who is taking on all those monied interests of their sponsors. They see that Bernie is an inspiring, eloquent, authentic leader with a platform that would lead to real change that their corporate sponsors are afraid of, so their strategy in reporting on him as a candidate, and on the yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, inspired, passionate, hopeful groundswell of support he has engendered and enjoyed since 2016 when he first ran, is NOT to. Not to report it. Pretend Bernie, Bernie's campaign, and Bernie's supporters do not exist. The corporate-sponsored, mainstream news media simply covers their ears and says "La la la la la la la, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

*shrug* Okay then. Don't report on us. Don't report on Bernie. Put a poll up on the screen and then act like you don't even see who is in second place in said poll that you are supposedly reporting on. We'll still be here when you stop pretending. Just like 45's actions will still be impeachable when Fox News stops pretending. Facts matter.

If you put a poll up on the screen as a topic of discussion, don't leave out the person in second place, and state that the race is now between the person in first place and the person in third place. Surely those of us who are ardent Bernie supporters cannot be your only viewers who are noticing that inaccurate and downright daft reporting. Get it together, CNN. And don't even get me started on how MSNBC covers--and doesn't cover--Bernie. Come on, guys.