Well she was just 17...

 A post flashing past in my Facebook feed by someone who was at Goddard College, in Plainfield, Vermont, just as I was at that moment, reminded me.  An aftershock rippled through me, 40 years later.

I remember that day, when I too was at Goddard.  I remember exactly how I found out that John Lennon was shot.  Exactly what was said.  Exactly where I was and how I felt and what happened afterward.

I also remember another, earlier, day at Goddard.  One of my first days there.  Dancing through the beautiful Vermont woods, on a halcyon day in September, with my best friend, and fellow Beatlefreak, Lisa.  We were singing.  Skipping and dancing down the dirt path.  Singing at the top of our lungs.  Two September babies, born ten days apart in the same year.  Both 17, about to turn 18.

"WELL SHE WAS JUST 17, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, AND THE WAY SHE LOOKED WAS WAY BEYOND COMPARE!  OH I'LL NEVER DANCE WITH ANOTHER, OOOOOOOO, SINCE I SAW HER STANDING THERE!"

Today, I'm remembering John Lennon, and giving thanks for him, the fab four, the magic of the Beatles and that halcyon day, many Septembers ago now, which was a year and 3 months before the December day exactly 40 years ago that took John from this world.  I choose to focus on the day we danced through the forest, singing, SHOUTING this song at the top of our lungs.  I choose to focus on the magic...

One, two, three, FOUR!

Treason is the Reason for 45's Last Act Season

I've been meaning to discuss this important bit of reporting (see linked video at bottom of blog post) by Rachel Maddow since it first aired a few days ago.

I mean, it's almost like 45 is carrying out the precise instructions of an enemy foreign power or something... hmmmm. It's almost like he's a treasonous traitor or something. It almost seems as if maybe he owes hundreds of millions of dollars to a murderous foreign dictator... or something.

In this chilling bit of journalism, Rachel Maddow details how 45 has pulled us out of the Open Skies Treaty, and commanded the dismantling of highly specialized aircraft we have that was was used for surveillance to protect our allies. Now, think about it: 45 is a sociopath and a malignant narcissist. He ONLY cares about himself. Pulling out of that treaty and dismantling those aircraft does not benefit him. It ONLY hurts the USA and our allies. So why would 45 waste precious time that he could be using to tweet that he's won the election, to watch "Fox & Friends", and/or to eat McDonald's Food by doing that instead? Let's think about who could have commanded him to do that in his last days in office. Who would want us to pull out of treaties that benefit us and our allies, and dismantle specialized surveillance aircraft? Who could it be?

Hmmmmm... who owns 45? Who is his puppet master? Probably Deutsche Bank knows.  Meanwhile, 45 just keeps committing treason and no one even bats an eye:

Rachel Maddow reports on 45 pulling us out of the Open Skies Treaty and dismantling highly specialized aircraft.

The 45 Administration: literally and figuratively sickening.

This is one of the more despicable moments in this despicable administration: Pence et al. of the 45 COVID-19 Task Force, on TV, talking about how hard and collaboratively they are working to roll out the vaccine and save lives, yet simultaneously refusing to allow the incoming President-Elect and Vice President-Elect to get any briefings or information, so that they can hit the ground running when they take office, potentially saving hundreds of thousands more lives than can be saved if the current administration continues to stonewall intentionally.

Them standing there (Pence, this means you), talking about how hard they are working to get the vaccine out and save lives is the height of lying hypocrisy and despicableness.

Whenever you think they can't go lower, they do. Whenever you think they couldn't possibly be more sickening--literally and figuratively--they are.

Shortest Blog Ever

 Doesn't it sometimes seem like everything was long ago, in a faraway land?

I'm Happiest for the Children

If I had to pick one thing I'm happiest about, happiest for, regarding voting the fascist out, it can be summed up succinctly in two words (even one word, but I'm splurging):

The children.

Now they have a good chance of growing up in a democracy, in an America I recognize. Hopefully, they will never know how close they came to fascism. 45 is a fascist and, under his reign of terror, my country perpetrated fascist acts (babies in cages) and thus truly was, at least partially, fascist itself. However, we weren't swallowed whole into the jaws of that beast. We wrested ourselves out.

Can we ever make right what our government did to those children and their families? No. Honestly, no. Even if we reunite all of the ones still orphaned with their families, in many cases, the damage is done to those children. Many of them don't speak. They were neglected and tortured, like the Romanian babies in orphanages under Ceausescu years ago. There is ZERO difference between Trump's family separation/babies in cages policy and what happened to those children, traumatized and deeply psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually damaged forever, in the Romanian orphanages under that other monster. Only our monster was even worse, as he intentionally kidnapped/separated the babies and children from their parents.

We cannot fix what was done under 45 in our names. All we can do, and now have done, is stop him from doing it to any more children. And stop him from taking us further down the road to fascism in any other way (and he already was, in multiple other ways), too.

And, by so doing, we also save our own children, the children of America. We just saved our country for them. Now they can grow up in a democracy. Now they can grow up looking up to their President and Vice President, and to their parents, for voting for such a world.

I'm so thankful. I haven't slept in four years, thinking of the children. The babies in cages, and all the children of America, today and tomorrow. Last night, I slept.

45's psychedelic Kool-Aid is no match for the reality of our constitution.

Well, I finally just saw part of 45's little declaration of victory, recorded in the wee hours of this morning, even though there are a tremendous number of votes still to be counted due to the huge turnout this year and the fact that we are in an epic, global pandemic, so many, many, many people voted by mail.

Out of all the sickening things 45 has said in the last four years, this particular little Lie and Incitement Fest was was one of the most sickening, and I had to turn off the video as he was introducing Pence because, having to listen to that complicit Yes Marionette, after just listening to a POTUS trying to up-end the integrity of a US election and incite violence if he loses, would definitely have put me into the hospital. And we don't want that, especially since I have no health insurance at the moment (thanks, country o mine).

45 actually said, we want all vote counting stopped, we don't want them finding ballots at four in the morning. Well: 45, even though you've been enabled your entire life and thus have a very deluded sense of entitlement, that delusion is about to smack up against the reality of the CONSTITUTION. You see, the states decide when their voting deadline is, not your little, teeny tiny self. And, if voters get their ballots in to their state by that state's deadline, THEIR BALLOT IS GOING TO COUNT.

Are you with me so far, because I can slow down if you need me to, 45. Are you following me so far?

All the votes are going to be counted, no matter how many times you say that you've won, and that there is a great fraud being perpetrated. You, non-sir, are the great fraud. You are the great affront on our democracy.

Like I said, your delusions, and those of your Fox-News-brainwashed cult followers, are about to bump up against a not-so-little thing I like to call REALITY. Finally. It took four years, and you have gone around pouring all your followers round after round of the wildest, most psychedelic Kool-Aid I've ever heard of, and they've gone around consuming it and being drunk as skunks on it, but, if you lose this election--and it is looking like you HAVE, and once all the votes are counted we'll see--you and every member of your despicable cult are going to wake up with the most real of hangovers you've ever had.

And you'd better take some B-12 and tomato juice or something when you do wake up and find yourself in that reality hangover, because you need to be focused and sober when they come to take you to jail to await trial for your many and varied crimes, since you are a flight risk.

Who will the "very fine people" come for next?

I'm scared.

45's response to the incident reported in the article linked below was to tweet out, in all caps no less, his approval (I don't read his tweets but news reports say that he tweeted "I LOVE TEXAS!" in response).

45 is a schoolyard bully, and his supporters are the kids on the playground who cheer the bully on. I have always found this dynamic terrifying, and now it is writ large. Again: 45 is nothing more than a small, mean little bully, and his followers are those who feel powerful when engaging in a mob mentality. This has been what has fueled 45 from the beginning, when he promised to ban all Muslims from entering our country (which was an unconstitutional proposal, and the RNC could have prevented all of this by disqualifying 45 from their primary field in 2016, due to his promise to violate the constitution if elected, but they chose to look the other way, perhaps not taking his candidacy seriously... they should have taken it seriously, as now he is bringing down their party). 45 and his supporters are just like all bullies, small little people fueled by fear, who, again, feel empowered by a mob mentality. It's all about "us and them". They are xenophobic and want to ban everyone who isn't just like them, and build "big, beautiful walls" to keep them out, and take their babies and throw them into cages.

Who will be next? Who will the "very fine people" come for next?
You? Me?

If you haven't voted yet, vote.

Click here to read a HuffPost article from yesterday (10/31/2020), re: Trump Supporters Swarm Biden Campaign Bus on Texas Highway

Do not be afraid to speak up against 45.

I have been shouting about what a despicable sociopath 45 is since some time in 2015. However, after his little photo-op last night, in which he absolutely needlessly endangered the lives of the secret service agents and driver in the hermetically sealed car he decided to ride around the grounds of the Bethesda Naval Hospital (a.k.a., Walter Reed) waving at his supporters from, and now this latest thing I'm about to rant--or, actually, I'm already mid-rant--about, it bears saying yet again: 45 is a despicable sociopath!

He just tweeted out that we should not be afraid of COVID-19.

We can't all get monoclonal antibodies, 45. In fact, none of us can.
We can't all get airlifted to the finest hospital on earth, at the drop of a hat, 45. We don't even all have health insurance, 45, and, if we do, most Americans have huge deductibles and co-pays. COVID-19 has, to date, killed over 210 thousand Americans, 45. Over 210 thousand lives. Over 210 thousand families devastated. And many more Americans, who have survived COVID-19, are experiencing ongoing symptoms and physical challenges.

So it is offensive, disrespectful and oblivious for you to say, don't be afraid of a little COVID-19. Being afraid of COVID-19 is the only healthy response to it. Being afraid enough of it, and being in reality enough about it, to don a mask when we are indoors, and in any crowded situation, and to physically distance ourselves from each other, are the only tools we have to protect ourselves. Nature gave us fear as a functional emotion in certain situations, just as nature gave us feeling pain if we touch a hot stove: so that we will yank our hand up immediately from it, before we get burned. If you were God, 45--and, by the way, this apparently may come as news to you, but you are not--you would tell people: don't be afraid to touch a hot stove, and to leave your hand there.

I'm glad you're not God, 45, and it is only too bad that your supporters believe every single word you say, including that they should not fear this lethal, highly contagious virus.

45, we're going to vote you out. Some of us have already cast our votes. Don't be afraid to leave peacefully.

Cosmic Purr

BREAKING: I can hear my darling cat, Kioko, purring in the cardboard box lid with a towel in it, all the way across the room from me. It's amazing that, no matter how stressed I am, the sound of a cat purring always makes me feel better.

My two favorite sounds in this world are: ocean waves breaking on the shore, and cats purring. You just can't beat the latter. There's something about it ("What is the frequency, Kenneth?") that taps into a frequency perfectly in tune with the cosmos and, when a human hears it, helps tune us in to that, too.


Thank you, Kioko. I needed to hear your purr right now.

There is no one but us to form a human barrier between our cherished country and 45's fascist takeover of it.

All: we need to circle the wagons around our Postal Service, period.

I've already called my elected representatives (congressional switchboard phone number: 202-224-3121) and strongly urged them to stand up for our Postal Service, and against 45's fascist ruination attempt of it. And, I swear here in writing, if somehow I am near the stand-alone mailbox nearest to my home, and anyone tries to take it away, as was done in other states but, thanks to a hue and cry, that has been stopped--for the moment--I will physically place my body between all comers and that box and they will have to take me with the box to wherever they are taking the box, while I am videoing them with my phone and simultaneously figuring out how to livestream.

We are living in the midst of a fascist takeover attempt. We've already had babies in cages in for-profit concentration camps, kidnapped from their parents illegally, tortured and traumatized, in actual violation of international, let alone national, law. We've already had the complicit Republican Senate turn a blind eye to abuse of power and treason by 45 and rule that he is above the law/constitution. We've already had so much more that I could list but you know. You know. And now we have the same POTUS responsible for all that actively trying to ruin the United States Postal Service, which--if he is successful--will hurt all American citizens and our country, and he is openly stating that he is doing it to SUBVERT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION--to suppress the vote, to stop American citizens from voting: he has stated this. This is treason. This is abuse of power. Call your Senators and Congressional Representatives now and demand that they stand up to it/to 45. Tragically and sickeningly, the majority party will not. They are complicit traitors. Therefore it is up to us (but CALL THEM anyway and demand that they do something, even though most of the Republicans will not):

If they won't impeach, convict and remove this treasonous traitor, we have to remove him ourselves: request a mail-in ballot if you have not done so yet, so that you can safely vote in the upcoming November election. When you get the mail-in ballot, VOTE, vote, VOTE like you've never voted before! I'm talking VOTE. Then either mail your ballot in immediately, same day you get it and vote it, or take your ballot to a secure drop-off location.

Don't stop there. Continue to call, write and show up at your elected representatives' offices and town halls--demand that they protect our Postal Service and fully FUND it. DEMAND that the sorting machines that 45 has had removed in his bid for fascism be put back immediately. Volunteer as a poll worker if you are healthy and have no pre-existing conditions, as many poll volunteers are seniors and may not feel safe volunteering this year. Offer to help your friends, neighbors and co-workers--everyone you know--to register to vote, request mail-in ballots if they want to vote by mail (and we all really should be this year, given the pandemic), or to give them a ride to the polls by if they want/need that.

We may need to form human circles around mailboxes in the near future. This is no joke. This is a President of the United States attempting to move us from the transition to fascism which, I have news for you all, we are deep in the midst of, thanks to him, to being a fully fascist country.

There is no one but us to stop this man, and his complicit band of traitors. There is no one but we, the people, to do it. We have to rise to this occasion. We are enough, if we choose to be. We can, and must, do this. The constitution and our laws are powerful but only if we continuously fight for them. We are their fuel. The most powerful and well-designed car on earth cannot run without fuel.

When 45 comes for mailboxes, you know he is closing in on crossing the finish line to fascism. We have to form a human barrier of we, the people, between him and said line. NOW.

Read this link (to an excellent Facebook post by a US Postal Service worker):  We must save our Postal Service

TREASON!

"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

Treason is giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States. But what do you call a President of the United States who actually, openly, IS that enemy? He's treasonous and even beyond treason because he not only gives aid and comfort to an enemy foreign power (Russia, if you're listening...), he's also the enemy himself:  he's now openly attempting to ruin the United States Postal Service, disrupt the mail, and thereby violate/hurt every American citizen, the functioning of our country, and, oh yeah, also the sanctity and function of the upcoming election, in the middle of a lethal pandemic in which going to the polls in person is deadly.

At what point will the COMPLICIT Republican Senate finally stop turning a blind eye and, to use phrases harking back to Nazi Germany, being "good German citizens", and "just following orders"? At what bleeping point will the entire Senate finally stand up and shout "TREASON!", and impeach, convict and remove this utterly corrupt, power-abusing, constitution-flouting, enemy of the United States of America?

I know it is only a few months until the election. Still: it's the principle and the reality of the thing: he must be removed. And, since the complicit Republican Senators apparently have NO limit to their blind eye turning, from babies in cages, to being in bed with Putin, to Emoluments Clause violations to now openly trying to bring down the United States Postal Service and thus openly trying to disrupt the upcoming election and currently in process primary season (I just mailed in my local primary ballot this week--I wonder if it will get there), we, the people, must remove this treasonous traitor in November. PERIOD.

Wake up, before we slip surreptitiously into fascism.

My fellow Americans: we have no President. If we are going to stop COVID-19, *we* have to stop COVID-19.

All: here's what we are faced with, and here's what we need to do:

First, we must realize that we have no President. If we are going to stop the COVID-19 virus, *we* are going to have to stop the COVID-19 virus.

Second, we must realize: we have three tools at our disposal. Those three tools are as follows: practicing extreme physical distancing ideally or at least good physical distancing, washing our hands with hot water and soap, and wearing masks. Let's look briefly at each of these three tools:

1. Practicing physical distancing: stay *at least* 6 feet away from other humans. Easier said than done, but do your level best. For me, as an essential worker who thus has been reporting to work full-time throughout this thing, the hardest part is dealing with the percentage of people who are one or both of two things: actively hostile to this whole thing, and/or utterly ignorant/oblivious about it. Those are the challenging people to keep your distance from, as no matter how gentle and gracious you may be in attempting to distance from them, they can and do get hostile, offended and/or they often come barreling right up to you even as you are FLEEING in the opposite direction. All I can say is: do your best. Do your best and look at it like being a defensive driver: you always want to keep space, a buffer zone, between you/your car and others on the road. Sometimes you have cars driven by road-ragey drivers, sometimes you have cars driven by whatever type(s) of wackadoodles, but you just have to do your best to keep yourself and others safe. Keep that buffer zone, whenever, wherever and however you can.

2. Washing your hands with HOT water and soap. COVID-19 has a thin, easily destroyed lipid (fat) layer on it. Soap makes short work of destroying it, thereby disabling the virus. You want to wash your hands any and every time you think you may possibly have come into contact with COVID-19 with hot water and soap (any kind of soap--I use a cheap, mild coconut shampoo actually as a hand soap at home--it's got the same ingredient as "soap").

3. Wearing a mask. Folks, let me tell you something: I literally can't stand doing this, but I've come to understand that, what with the whole aforementioned no President thing, it's the most powerful tool, along with physical distancing which is my personal fave (but then, I'm an INFJ, so I'm quite possibly biased :) ), that we have. I hasten to add at the outset that I am very aware and sensitive to the fact that there are people out there with physical challenges who really cannot wear a mask. There are burn victims, there are people who just had surgery (next week, I'm getting a mole that came back as abnormal after a biopsy removed and will need stitches on my cheek, and I'm worried that I might have trouble with wearing a mask for a week or two after that, as I am required to at work), and there are people like me with structural ENT issues wherein they can't breathe with a mask on, and there are people with asthma, etc. So most thoughtful, sensible, humane and sane mask ordinances, such as the one that our thoughtful, sensible, humane and sane mayor here in St. Petersburg, Rick Kriseman, implemented, have provisions that make allowances for people who truly would suffer some type(s) of physical distress from wearing a mask. But for the vast majority of us, including myself who *does* have a physical problem due to a severe ENT situation that I won't get into here, but suffice it to say that it is very hard, to impossible at times, for me to breathe with the mask on, need to suck it up, buttercup, and don the damn thing. Why? Because if all of those of us who can wear one, do wear one every time we are in shared indoor spaces (and crowded outdoor spaces), for even just a couple of months, we could knock this virus into submission. Stop it in its tracks.

So that's where we are: we have no President, or worse, actually, we have a treasonous sociopath for a President--so it's way worse than if we had no one at the helm, and when it comes to COVID-19, he's basically abdicated all responsibility as a leader, become the Denier in Chief, and also decided to take on the role of Super Spreader Events Planner. That leaves us to do the three things--use the three tools--discussed above to stop COVID-19. Are we up for it? Or will it take another 136,000 Americans to die, the equivalent of more than two entire Vietnam Wars, in terms of American casualties?

It's up to us.

America Still Has a Heartbeat...

I'm awed.

The scenes out of my hometown (DC) right now are impressive. The streets are filled with caring, empassioned, righteous, brave Americans of all different colors, ages and backgrounds. Recently, I've felt like giving up. Giving up on social change in America (and the world), which is basically what I've been about my entire life. Everything has felt completely dark.

But today I'm seeing candles. Thousands upon thousands of candles in the street. And just as the first Women's March (which I participated in, thank God, as it honestly was the hope and inspiration that got me through the subsequent first three years of the 45 administration) heartened me and gave me strength to go on, now these utterly beautiful, engaged, caring, protesters in the streets all over our country (and even in other countries on our behalf), but especially in DC, are bringing tears to my eyes. Heartened tears. Tears of hope.

I thought America ended on February 5th. Murdered by the complicit Republican Senate, which ruled that the current and and all future POTUS are above the law. I thought: that's it. Everything that so many sacrificed so much for, and worked so hard for, for our entire history, is over. Because they've killed the constitution now. The constitution, which I was raised by my beloved momma to think was/is everything. The foundation that this country is built on.

But you know what? It's powerful, but, at the end of the day, it's a document with words in it. It's the people that gave it life, and it's the people who give our laws, our checks and balances, and our entire everything that is "America"--the highest ideals of, and idea of, and reality of, America--life. Or death. And I'm realizing something, as tears fill my eyes: the Senate didn't kill America. They dealt a blow to the constitution. That's all. And that's not nothing. But that's not everything. We ain't dead yet, folks! And why? Because of WE, THE PEOPLE.

We are still here. And as long as we rise, and as long as we march, and as long as we make our voices heard, and, as my hero, Bernie Sanders always says: stand together, there is nothing we can't do. Including SAVING THIS COUNTRY.

My God, we're not dead yet. America still has a pulse! And all of these protesters, lighting one candle instead of cursing the darkness, have lit up my darkness. And given me hope. Maybe this truly is the proverbial darkness before the dawn. If we, the people, usher in the dawn, it will come. If we all keep lighting candles.

America still has a heartbeat! It's us, y'all! The constitution is beautiful but it isn't the heartbeat. That's in all of us, we, the people. <3

Thank you, Bernie

Thank you, Bernie

Thank you for being the first political figure in my lifetime who truly represents me, everything I stand for, and everything I dream in my wildest dreams for my country and the world.

Thank you for changing the conversation in this country.

Thank you for giving eloquent, clear and inspiring voice to everything I’ve believed since I was 19 years old and had long since given up on a presidential candidate ever actually fighting for.

Thank you for the validation that came from learning, when I was 19 years old, that the new mayor of Burlington, Vermont was a democratic socialist, just like I had only months earlier realized I was, after discovering it on a college group study trip to Europe. You were the only person in America, let alone the only politician in America, who even knew what I was talking about, let alone shared that world view with me and identified as such.

Thank you for making “single payer healthcare” a kitchen table topic that doesn’t instantly get laughed out of the room.

Thank you for being a true social change activist, and a successful one, dedicating your entire life to effecting social change and trying to bring America to economic and ethical health.

Times may—hell, they do—seem very, very dark right now. It may seem like we will never get to the America you and I, and so many, many others (I know now that there are many of us, thanks to you and our movement), want and understand that we desperately need to get to for the aforementioned economic and ethical health of our country. But you know the old truism: it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Bernie, you have started something that no one can now stop. You have inspired people and gotten people to think, you’ve put ideas out there and sparked people’s imaginations. No one can undo that. And now we go on. Not me, us. From the deepest, most idealistic, imaginative and hopeful depths of my heart and soul, I thank you, Bernie.

"Not me, us!"

Hopeful thought for fellow Berners: no matter what happens in 2020, in 2024, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be old enough to be the first woman President. Let that sink in. Think about how much we (Bernie and all of us) have changed the dialog in our country. We have already done that, no one can undo it, and, no matter what, our movement will go forward. Hopefully, we win the nomination and the Presidency in 2020. America desperately needs that. But even if we don't: we have US. We have brilliant, passionate, eloquent young leaders like AOC. And, whether it happens in 2020 or later, one day, our platform will be America's reality.*

( * Unless it's too late by then and we lapse into total fascism and oligarchy, which we're pretty close to at this very moment, but this was supposed to be a hopeful thought/musing! I'm just saying: whether we win or not-so-much this year, in some ways, we truly have already won, because we've really started a movement and, no matter what, it, and we, will GO ON.)

A Rose By Any Other Name Still Smells As Sweet

As an ardent Bernie Sanders supporter who has many friends among my fellow Democrats who are not, I find it very dismaying, upsetting and ironic to read posts and comments on social media mischaracterizing Bernie and we who support him. Bernie Sanders is the most decent, classy person and campaigner I’ve ever witnessed. In 2016, journalists and debate moderators were constantly trying to bait him to personally attack his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and he would not. For example, he refused to entertain questions on the whole email server thing, and said he wanted to stick to the issues. He constantly said, throughout 2016, that he hoped the debate between candidates for the nomination would be substantive, stick to the issues, and avoid personal attacks. And he stuck to that and ran a beautiful campaign.

His entire life’s work, platform, choices and actions, up to and including his 2020 campaign for the Democratic nomination for President have all been about INCLUSION, respect, civil rights, social justice, economic fairness and a society that invests in and is for and about all the people, not just the wealthiest individuals and corporations. At every campaign rally, from 2016 through the present, he talks about how “we cannot allow anyone to divide us up. When we stick together, black and white, straight and gay, men and women, old and young, there is nothing we cannot do.”

Most of us who support Bernie, do so precisely because of the decency of both the man and his platform, period. I, and every other actual Bernie supporter I know, are kind, fair-minded, loving human beings. So it hurts to see us constantly mischaracterized on cable news networks and on social media as being the opposite, and I won’t even give the specific words that are being used ANY oxygen.

What is so ironic is, I see and hear all this commentary about how terrible Bernie and, particularly, us Bernie supporters are. Yet, from our perspective as Bernie supporters, it sure seems like WE are the ones taking a lot of incoming missiles and being generalized about.

Perhaps if people would actually take the time, and make the effort, to listen to what Bernie himself actually says, and what is actually in his platform, and his life’s choices and actions, instead of believing what is said *about* Bernie and those of us who support him, by the media and those who aim to take down his campaign, they would realize that Bernie stands for respect, tolerance, pluralism, civil rights, social justice, economic justice and inclusion. There is zero way, if you actually LISTEN to what Bernie says, that anyone could misconstrue it as being--as the media and those who oppose Bernie are working very, very hard to have you believe, and are clearly having success at getting you to believe--the opposite.

Democratic Party: Embrace Your Base!

I'm trying to figure out why the political party I've been a member of my entire life (since age 17--I think I somehow registered at 17, so in 1979, but if it wasn't at 17, it was 18, 1980, okay--suffice it to say, dinosaurs still roamed the earth), and that I have been a consistently loyal, voting member of, ta boot, is treating the only presidential candidate in my entire life's history who actually represents me as a mortal threat to the party and our country.

The only other presidential candidate I have ever been this excited about, this passionately FOR, was my beloved Al Gore. But even Al, who is, obviously, great on climate change, and a great human being and leader, did not represent ME--my exact platform and exact world view in virtually every single way, on every single issue, and as a WHOLE--like Bernie Sanders does. His platform is my platform (except he's for open primaries and I'm not, but there had to be SOMETHING--some small issue--we disagree on). He's a democratic socialist, I'm a democratic socialist. His heart is in Vermont and my heart is in Vermont. He's for all the things I've been fighting for my entire, entire, ENTIRE life: peace, protecting the environment, single payer health care/universal health care, federally mandated maternity and paternity leave for workers, federally funded child care, everyone paying their fair share of taxes. I mean, I could go on, but the man is MY candidate. His platform represents me. Me, a lifelong Democrat. Me, whose lifelong party is now acting like, if this truly great candidate wins our nomination due to the will of the Democratic voters, it would be the end of the world.

I am stunned, shocked and disgusted with my party's centrist spokespeeps right about now. You've got James Carville, for example, running around saying he's "terrified" and that Bernie's platform is a ...wait for it...this was last night on MSNBC..."utopian fantasy". You've got basically the entire party running around talking about: how do we STOP SANDERS?!!!

My question to my party, after I have spent a LIFETIME shouting into the intense wind that the party needs to stop trying to be "Right Lite" and to woo Republicans and Independents, and instead needs to  EMBRACE THE BASE, stand for progressive/liberal issues and be a true ALTERNATIVE to the Right, show some backbone, and GROW THE BASE, is:  why, when someone (Bernie!!! 💜) comes along and does that, inspires entire new generations (Millennials, Gen Z and beyond) of young people, brings them, enthusiastically into the party, fired up, and with a substantive, LIBERAL/progressive platform to get behind, WHY, WHY, WHY are you trying to "stop" him?!!!

Isn't this what we WANT? Don't we want to bring massive numbers of young people into our base, our party? Don't we want to have a fired up, impassioned grassroots base, people who VOTE, people who go out in the deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep snow and knock on doors, a candidate who casts off corporate lobbyists and is funded solely by said grassroots? Isn't this all amazing, inspiring, breathtaking, heartening, and, in a word, GOOD?

What is your ever-lovin' problem, James Carville et al.? Quit your disparaging and realize that YOU are what the party should be terrified of: pundits and party spokespeeps who show shocking levels of overt disdain and outright, inexplicable anger over a beautiful grassroots influx of young people, your beautiful long-suffering grassroots of not-as-young-as-we-used-to-be liberal Democrats who have been putting up with YOUR ruining of our party since 1984, to be precise, when you decided we needed to be Reagan Lite and, face it, you've never gotten over that misguided decision. And now you are finally being forced to HEAR US: your ACTUAL base. You know: LIBERALS. PROGRESSIVES. We are who you should embrace, not be terrified of!

EMBRACE YOUR BASE!

BERNIE 2020! It's a GOOD thing!

I've Been Waiting for Today My Entire Life

Long ago (1980), in a galaxy far, far away, known as “Vermont”, there was an idealistic young college student. She wanted to change the world and believed that her generation was the one to do it. She was concerned about climate change (then referred to as “global warming” and/or “The Greenhouse Effect”). She was concerned about The Cold War/nuclear weapons. She was concerned about social justice.

In this remote galaxy of Vermont, this idealistic student went to a tiny, idealistic, experimental college called Goddard. It was full of idealistic, creative, imaginative students and teachers. At one point, she went on a group Independent Study trip to Europe (mainly Germany) for four weeks. Of course, she ended up in an alternative record shop, rifling through some political buttons they had. One had a beautiful sunflower on it, kind of like a Georgia O’Keefe painting, and it said something in German, like “Alternative die Grunen”. The girl asked around, “What does this button say?” She started asking questions about it. Thus she learned about the European Green Party at that time, and about social democracy/democratic socialism. And about how the European Greens were all about the environment, just like she was.

On that trip, the girl was studying European preschools and comparing them to American preschools, and she got to go and observe several preschools throughout Germany, Denmark, Holland and a few other countries. All of this led to the girl learning all about countries that value and invest in their children, and how, in Democratic Socialism/Social Democracy, there is federally funded early childhood education, and maternity and paternity leave, and “single payer health care”, wherein everyone is covered, it comes out of taxes just like our public schools do, and that’s that. No in-network and out-of-network (not that that was a thing yet in the states—most people had indemnity insurance back then), no being afraid to leave your job because you would lose your health insurance, no deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance or premiums. Health care is paid for by taxes, and everyone has it. Early childhood education is also available to everyone, and VALUED. Federal maternity and paternity leave is a thing. WOW! I’m a democratic socialist, she realized! (She also thought, at the time—1980--that she wanted to join the Green Party but, much to her sadness and frustration at the time, upon returning to the States, she learned that it didn’t even exist yet here, which is fine, as now—2020--she detests the American Green Party, so we’ll skip past that part of our tale—she remained a Democrat, as she already was, and still is to this day.)

The girl returned to Vermont, energized to the hilt re social democracy, which NO ONE was talking about at the time. ZERO humans in America. And she learned, when she brought it up excitedly to everyone she knew, that it was “too idealistic” and/or a commie pinko idea that only a naïve, young hippie-type would possibly have/entertain. Still: this is me, she knew: this is my heart, these are my priorities for my country and politics and the world. This is what makes sense. She so wished that there was an American equivalent to the European Greens, or that her own party would be so concerned about the environment, and want to change America’s investment priorities so that we would invest in PEOPLE, and not the military-industrial complex and tax cuts for the very rich. But her country was going the EXACT OTHER WAY: Reagan had just come to power in the 1980 election, her first election, at age 18 (she voted for CARTER, just for the record). Her country went the exact opposite direction from ALL of her beliefs, and would remain on that horrendous track for her entire adult life. But, back to 1980 for a moment…

Just a year later, this young college student in the galaxy known as “Vermont" started to hear about a young mayor over in Burlington, who also was for single payer health care. Wait—someone else in my country is talking about single payer health care?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, yes, and guess what: HE’S A DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! TRUE STORY! Guess what else? He cares about the environment, and the nuclear arms race, and maternity and paternity leave, and child care. He cares about social justice. His name is Bernie Sanders and he basically had me at ALL OF THAT!

For many years to come, Bernie remained our little secret, up in Vermont. I remember, in 2004, talking with some fellow Al Gore aficionados, as we were all crestfallen at the realization that Gore was NOT going to run in 2004. Who did we want to run? Who was our dream/ideal candidate? Some names were bandied about, and then I—by the way, I’m the girl in this story, if you haven’t figured that out yet—said, you know, I REALLY wish Bernie Sanders, who is a great Senator up in Vermont, would run. About 85% of people in that conversation had no clue who he was. The other 15% said that would be great but, one, it will never happen. And, two, “you’re too idealistic, Edna. No one would ever vote for Bernie.” Too idealistic. Too idealistic.

WELL: I meant to post this early this morning, long before now, late afternoon, but I’ve been too busy at my grueling job. The young girl is all grown up now, with a really stressful job and boss, which, among other things that unfolded in her life, resulting in the aforementioned “growing up”, you would think might have resulted in all the idealism, spirit and hope being ground clean out of her. But NO!!! I’m still the idealistic, democratic socialist environmentalist HIPPIE FREAK FLOWERCHILD THAT APPARENTLY TERRIFIES THE JAMES CARVILLE’S OF THIS WORLD only now: there are so many more of me!

I am so gratefully glad and gladly grateful that I lived to see this day, 2/11/2020, the 2020 New Hampshire primary and BERNIE SANDERS is the FRONTRUNNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, our country may have ended last week but I still have an ember of hope, and its name is BERNIE…and us. “Not me, us!”

GO, New Hampshire, vote, vote, vote!

I've been waiting for this moment my whole life.

Goodnight Moon

I'm dreading tomorrow. I don't want my country to end.

The senate is about to set two terrible, America-altering precedents that POTUSes are above the rule of law, and that it is perfectly fine for POTUSes to obstruct Congress and thus they (the Senate) are about to end the separation of powers, in addition to the rule of law.

I don't want to go to bed tonight, as maybe somehow that will prevent tomorrow from coming.

I'm exhausted and can't believe everything going on all at once in our country in just the last few days and upcoming days. I feel shell shocked on so many fronts. No clue how I'm going to function at my demanding, stressful job tomorrow. Barely made it on time today after the Iowa Caucus situation went into the wee hours and beyond yesterday. And now here I am up way too late again. If you sleep, you miss something epic in America right now.

Yet, if you don't sleep, that is a bad thing. So...good night, moon, and all. Good night, America as I know it, this is maybe the last time I can say that.

The End of America

America is in dire distress today. Within hours, America as I recognize, know and love it, will be over, if the Senate votes to acquit 45. Precedents will have been set that effectively end the separation of powers, and end the rule of law. The current POTUS, and future presidents, will have free reign to be lawless. They also will not be subject to congressional oversight. Our country, the heart and soul of which are the rule of law and the separation of powers, will be effectively ended.

The great American experiment will be over. We had a good run. We had a beautiful run. We had a lot of ugliness and wrong in our history but also a LOT of awesome goodness, high ideals, and much that was so beautiful.

So many gave so much, in so many ways, to envision, create, and continue to try to make America a more perfect union. In minutes, to hours, that will be over.

We will still be in the same physical place. The same beautiful, breathtaking land. We will still be called The United States of America. But it will all be over.

Just like that: no war. No guns. Just like that. Goodbye, my beautiful, beloved country. I'm so sorry we couldn't save you.

Brave New World

In response to me posting last night on Facebook that I feel I’m watching the end of my country, watching Mitch McConnell and the complicit Republican-controlled Senate refuse to allow witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial, several friends said we need to focus on November. Focus on the 2020 presidential election, they encourage and urge. I started to write a response to them on Facebook, but it turned into this blog entry instead:

By November, long before November, nothing will matter, attempting-to-save-America-wise, if 45 isn’t removed from office by the Senate in the impeachment trial. It breaks my heart to write that, but it is true. Oh, you can be d*mn sure I’ll lovingly cast my primary vote in March for my hero, Bernie Sanders. And you can be (fairly) sure that I will also cast my vote in the November general election, as I have done in every single election since I came of age in 1980. But for the first time, I will agree with people who have always previously infuriated me by saying: “It doesn’t matter”. They always previously infuriated me by saying that because it always previously DID matter. It mattered very, very, very much. Anyone who doesn’t see that now, never will. But by November, it likely actually won’t matter anymore. Because, if 45 is not removed by the Senate, if the senate impeachment trial is just a complicit, rigged exercise in suppression of evidence, our constitution will have been crushed, and we will have no rule of law in this country. A terrible precedent will have been set, that we can never unset: we will go from being a representative democracy to being a dictatorship, in which an American President does not have to follow the constitution or any laws. He or she can do whatever he or she wants. That is called a dictatorship. Let that sink in.

I was lying in bed, in the dead of night last night, realizing that, very soon, by the end of the Senate impeachment trial, we will know if we still have a country, a recognizable America. And, if we don’t, if our country as we know it is about to be gone, that “future” is coming up, as I said, very soon. It hit me: in just days, I could be living in a dictatorship. Right now, it’s still a possibility that might happen “in the future”, yet that future is now just days away! I could, and it is looking like I likely will, wake up one morning very soon and find myself not in my beloved America, but in a dictatorship.

This is similar to Germany in the 1930’s, which was a modern, western country in which, for example, the German Jewish population was very, very, very well integrated. They, rightly, absolutely considered themselves to be Germans. They (and the “they” here is very personal for me, as it includes my Mom’s side of my own family—we are directly descended from German Jews…my Grandma grew up speaking English and German) went back many, many generations in Germany. But suddenly they were “other” and they were the scapegoats, along with political dissidents, homosexuals, artists and other minorities (but Hitler’s main target was Jews). How safe will any of us be in our “new” America, the day after the Senate acquits Donald J. Trump?

I’m scared of waking up the day after. I’m scared of the new America and I’m already heartbroken for my beautiful country. I’m already starting to mourn the America I recognize and cherish with all my heart and soul, which is taking its dying breaths right now, as we speak. The dying breaths are Adam Schiff, heroically arguing on the Senate floor, and the other Democratic impeachment managers doing the same. The dying breaths are us, we, the people, calling our Senators and begging for a fair trial, with witnesses and documents. The dying breathes are us, daring to hope for the 2020 election, when the reality is, it will all be OVER at that point if there is not a fair Senate impeachment trial right now, and if 45 is not removed from office.

Over. No “war”. No battlefield. Just a useful idiot with a dangerous psychiatric makeup, a foreign enemy with very sophisticated methods to pull said idiot’s--and all of our--strings, a decimated government, now populated with a few brave patriots trying to save it but being overpowered by a lot of complicit stooges, placed in key roles, who are now poised on the brink of laying waste to our constitution, our rule of law, our separation of powers, our free press, and the power of we, the people, to resist. And those things I just listed that are being laid to waste as we speak? Those are the whole enchilada, people: those ARE America, those are what make our country our country.

I lay there last night and all of this really hit me. This is happening. Now. America is dying, being murdered in front of my very eyes. We are all witnessing the murder of a loved one. And, we will likely wake up one morning very soon, and our loved one will be gone. Just like that. And we will be left here, in a Brave New World.

I Feel I'm Watching The End of My Country

McConnell is refusing to allow witnesses and documents. And the Republican Senators are complicit. I feel I'm watching the end of my country.

Bending Toward Justice

Tomorrow is a national holiday to honor the life, work and accomplishments, and teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., who is one of just a handful of people I call a hero of mine.

I have been working since the 1980's, so since before there was a federal holiday honoring Dr. King. In all these years, decades, of my working life, which include all the years that have had a federal holiday for MLK, I have never worked for one organization that gave that day off as a company holiday. To me, that is but one small sign, among many, many signs, small and huge, that we still have much work to do, re bringing to reality the totality of MLK's dream. No, he didn't dream of a day to honor him, but of a country that lived by his (which are really our, as a nation's, highest) ideals. And such a country, in my opinion, would have more workplaces that actually closed manana to honor him. Anyway:

Tomorrow is the first MLK Day that I happen to be taking the day off. I have a dentist appointment early in the a.m., and I hope to be done in time to make it to meet up with members of my church, who will be departing from my church to head over to the city's MLK Day Parade! I've never gone to one before. It's about time.

Martin, America is in dire trouble right now. So many of us, though, so many of us who were the black children and white children you spoke about in your "I Have a Dream" speech at the time, are carrying on your work and trying to make the dream come all the way true. Much has happened that you dreamed of, maybe even some that you didn't even think possible, yet so much more is still yet to heal, yet to get to that mountaintop. But tomorrow, those black children and white children, all grown up now, will indeed join hands as you dreamed for us in 1963, when we were just babies, and we will commit ourselves anew to fighting for justice for all, and we will sing together, with the children of today, let freedom ring.

Praying for Tikkun Olam

They (Iran) are being reasonable and measured in their response (see CNN article linked at bottom of this blog entry) to 45's provocative, unconstitutional action last week. They also sent a very clear communique afterward, stating that we can let this be the end of it, they don't want war.

I pray that 45 will not do what he previously threatened, namely striking 52 targets if they retaliate for what he did. If he does, they have now said they will strike targets in other nations, such as Haifa, Israel. I fear, if that happens, not only will we be at war with Iran, we will be witnessing the opening salvos of World War III.

On a personal note, my heritage on my Mom's side of the family is Jewish. The Israeli people are my people. I have been to Haifa (it is actually my favorite city in Israel...that is probably how you can tell I was not raised Jewish, as most people who were would immediately say Jerusalem, if asked which city is their favorite in Israel). My heart stops in its tracks when I hear that Iran has said it will strike Haifa.

I remember how I felt when Iraq sent SCUD missiles into Israel. Indescribable feeling, like the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, only magnified a thousandfold. I'm American to the core, yet also Jewish (and Unitarian--hey, it's complicated...and wonderful...many Americans are individual melting pots unto themselves), so today I feel concern for both of my people: my American people, and my Jewish people in Israel. I also feel concern for the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Palestinians, and everyone in the region and, frankly, our world.

I know 45 is a sociopath, a mercenary, and a Russian asset on top of all that, so he doesn't care. There is absolutely no point in anyone attempting to appeal to his humanity or his "better angel", as he has neither. We don't have a President. We have the three items I just listed in sentence number one of this paragraph. No one sane or moral is steering our powerful ship of state right now. And I'm seeing something far more dangerous than an iceberg (which sounds so peaceful and beautiful compared to what we are looking at here) ahead.

I pray for tikkun olam (Hebrew for: to mend, heal and repair the world).

CNN: Some administration officials believe Iran intentionally missed areas with Americans