Say The Words: Climate Change

The news this morning out of Kentucky, and all the states impacted by the tornadoes last night brings my heart to my throat.  The governor of Kentucky calls the tornadoes there "the worst storm in Kentucky's history".

As I see the devastation on my television set, and sit here in Florida, where we are in the path of hurricanes that grow more monstrous year by year, the words blaring in my mind, heart and soul are:  CLIMATE CHANGE.  Say the words, news reporters.  This is what climate change looks like.  This is what climate change is.

And while no one can say for sure whether any one given weather event is the direct result of climate change, surely any adult alive now, who is aware of the science (which has been warning us for DECADES) or not, knows that the climate is changing.  Some do not believe that climate change is induced by human activity.  Some don't believe climate change is happening at all.  Yet clearly it is.  And, for some reason, it is rarely mentioned when horrific news like what is all over cable news right now about last night's tornadoes is in progress.

Maybe the reporters feel it is too soon.  Maybe they feel that it would be disrespectful to the victims, to those in the path of the tornadoes last night, living and dead, to speak of climate change in their reporting right now.  But, to that, I say, NO:  it is disrespectful NOT to talk about it!  Saying it's too soon is exactly like the people who never want to talk about gun control after a mass shooting, who use the same excuse:  it's too soon.  NO:  it's too late!

It is very, very late days now with climate change.  Our climate is changing, our glaciers are melting, exponentially faster than even scientists had originally predicted.  And we'd better start saying it's name, and talking about it, when these things happen, and during all the time in between things happening.  And we'd better start changing our choices and behavior, right now.  All of us, from individual human beings, to huge corporations need to move off fossil fuels NOW.

Climate change is in progress.  Are we going to avoid even saying the words, or are we going to name it, talk about it, and actually change to try to turn it around to save ourselves, all the creatures of the earth, and our awesome environment itself?

The Health Care Shortage

I think I've hit a low in this whole (cue the Grateful Dead) "long strange trip" of job hunting.  My interview yesterday actually went great but their advertisement was false, stating that health insurance is a benefit.  Turns out:  no health insurance.  This is America.  You need health insurance through your employer.  Especially in states like mine that do not have a way for people with low or no income to get healthcare unless you can pay FULL PRICE for the ACA (which only has discounted rates for people who don't need discounted rates, because America--if you have low or no income, you are supposed to go onto Medicaid, but, if you are in Florida or 11 other states, you cannot do that, either, especially if you don't have a child, because why on earth would anyone without a child possibly need health care, per Republican logic).

So, even though the Deputy Director who interviewed me loved me, said "I can tell you, you are one of my top candidates", interviewed me for an hour and ten minutes, even though it was a preliminary interview and was only scheduled to last for 15 minutes, and told me that, as soon as she saw my resume, she said to herself (pointing to it as she said this to me), "that one", we hit it off amazingly, and the job sounds potentially awesome, I CAN'T TAKE A JOB WITH NO HEALTH INSURANCE WHAT THE ACTUAL H*LL.

The media just keeps insisting that there is a "labor shortage".  Really?  I think there is a health care shortage.  I think there is a wage shortage.  I think there is a shortage of sane policy in my beloved country.  I think, as hard as I look for work, I may never find a job again.  Because I have a shortage of ability to take a job without health benefits.  Because this is the United States of America, and your health insurance is tied to your employer.  The ACA is flawed and pathological and doesn't change anything that is fundamentally soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wrong and unsustainable and obscene and infuriating about our private-insurance-based, for-profit healthcare system.

I personally have a shortage of understanding of, and patience for, the fact that so many in my country still do not grasp that we need single payer healthcare, and it seems to me we will never get there.  Even my beloved Bernie only talks about Medicare for All anymore, and Medicare is not true single payer health care.  But I would be only too thrilled if America went to a Medicare for All system, as I think that is the absolute most we can hope for in this insane country-o-mine.  So, idealist though Bernie is, he's still more realistic than I, and thus he is only pushing for that, and he isn't even pushing hard for that anymore.  He's just trying to get Medicare to cover things like dental, he's not even pushing for lowering the age.  No one is.  Not anymore.  It's like, it's over.  They won't even lower the Medicare age, let alone expand it to cover all Americans.  They now might even take the ACA coverage gap fix out of the Build Back Better bill, because Manchin et al. are acting up again, and somehow saying that because Virginia went Red last night, that means it is the fault of progressives, so we (the Democratic Party) now must veer back to being Repug Lite.

Same old, same old.  And meanwhile, I don't have health insurance.  Or an income.  And there's a shortage of calling things what they really are.  A health care shortage is called a "labor shortage".  Up is down, black is white, war is peace, Orwell was right.

Why are things like this, in the richest country in the world?

Take one walk in nature and call me in the morning.

Cue my beloved Beatles:

"Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

Only make it a brush.

Anyway, I'm proud of myself this morning because even though I'm afraid right now, not to sugarcoat it:  it's pretty much abject fear, regarding no income (although I'm okay on that front for a while, but I don't want to be burning through my savings!!!) and no health insurance (ABJECT fear, 24/7), I got myself up and fed the pets, ate a super healthy breakfast (three ingredients, people:  one organic banana, organic plain yogurt, and organic cinnamon--woot!), and then went out and WALKED with my dear dog.

What a beautiful morning in St. Petersburg, Florida!  I thought it was going to be too hot already, as the sun coming in through the windows was already intense at around 8:55 a.m.  But no, though it was sunny, it was also still mercifully cool and there was a blissfully refreshing, cool sea breeze coming in from the Gulf, if I'm not mistaken about the wind direction.

The star jasmine is in wonderfully fragrant bloom throughout my neighborhood, including on my own little fence between the front and back yard, and Hurley and I got refreshingly oxygenated with fresh air, infused with jasmine.  I noticed that a jacaranda tree was also in lavender bloom, and so many other plants and trees are flowering away.

I highly recommend getting outside and walking as the best anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, anti-fear, empowering tonic available!

The jasmine, the jacaranda, the sea breeze, all were saying, in their way, a line from a song that I can't stand EXCEPT when nature says it to me:  "Don't worry, be happy."  When nature says it, I believe it.  "Be here now," it followed with.  And I was able to.  And I'm grateful.

A Little Jab'll Do Ya

40,000 children under the age of 18 in the United States have now lost *at least* one parent to COVID-19.

All:  get vaccinated.  For yourself, to be here for your children (and/or fur children!), and literally for all of humanity.  It will take most of us getting vaccinated to stop this thing.  The two mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) have proven to be very, very (amazingly) effective and safe.

I personally, while definitely NOT an "anti-vaxxer", am a critical consumer of vaccines, as well as of all pharmaceuticals.  I am not on ANY prescriptions, which is highly unusual (sad to say, since it shouldn't be!) for an American, period, let alone for an American over age 40.  Because I ask questions and I say no to things.  I don't even usually get a flu shot, because I take elderberry, strategically, during flu season.  So I'm not one to just blindly jump on a vaccine bandwagon and ride, Sally, ride.  But on the COVID-19 vaccines, YES, I am 100% gung ho.

Why?  Because if we don't box this thing in, giving it nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, we will never get out of THIS.  As in, this last year-plus that we've all lived through.  We will never get back to anything resembling, as I heard someone so poetically and poignantly put it a while back, "The Before Times".

Twitter version:  get your COVID-19 vaccination, for goodness sake.  I've got one dose of Pfizer on board and cannot wait for my second (but I will wait, and get it at the 21-day mark).  I don't have human children, much to my own sadness.  But I was still first in line the nanosecond I became eligible.  For ALL the children of the world!  If one has children of one's own, I can't imagine that one hesitating for a moment, as two little jabs in the arm (one, with J & J, but personally, I'd go--and did/am going--with Pfizer...but I digress) will ensure that you are here for them.

Cherry Blossoms

When I was a child
We’d go downtown
To see the cherry blossoms
It was a rite of Spring
Beautiful pale pink blossoms
Against the true blue sky
Reflecting in the water
We’d walk around all the monuments to democracy
To solving things non-violently
To freedom
To the rule of law
We’d walk all around the Tidal Basin
In my hometown
Washington, DC
Celebrating freedom
Today, on this beautiful Spring day
I felt lighter than I have in years
And more relaxed
Until I turned on the news
This afternoon

When I was a child
The cherry blossoms were so beautiful
In my hometown
This afternoon
I turned on the TV
And my Spring went away
My lightness left
My heart sank
Police tape surrounding
A cherry blossom tree
Police tape everywhere
A car, hazard lights flashing mutely
Driven into a barrier
Driven into Capitol Police Officers
A man with a knife
What are they saying?
What happened?
It is with a heavy heart
Said the grieving soul with a mask
The Acting Capitol Police Chief
That I tell you
One officer has succumbed
My heart went to my throat
We used to walk around the cherry blossom trees
We, the people
The children
No barriers, no fear of our fellow countrymen and women
We surrounded the cherry blossom trees
Not police tape
And grieving people
In shock
In Washington, DC
Washington’s at its best in Spring, my mom would say
With the cherry blossoms
Let’s go see them
Let’s go
To the impossibly pink blossoms
And sky
And Tidal Basin
And monuments to democracy
Can we go there?
Please?

What Am I, Chopped Liver?

For me, so much has changed in my life in the last few years.  I think this is true for so many of us even just in the last year, with the pandemic.  It's changed everything in just the space of a year, with some of us impacted more than others, but all of us impacted.

Today, I went to Jo-El's Kosher Deli.  As far as I know, they are still the only kosher deli in all of St. Petersburg, Florida (and possibly all of Pinellas County).  There is a much smaller Jewish population here in Florida than in the Washington, DC burbs where I grew up, and certainly than in NYC, where my mom hailed from.  Jo-El's really serves a critical need in this community, especially for observant Jews (the term used for Jews who try to follow all the laws/commandments of the Torah--there are 613!--strictly), as it is very important to them to keep kosher.  Everything at Jo-El's is kosher, so this is a vital resource for the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish population as, like I said, it is the only kosher deli and store in this entire area.  Beyond that, though, for all Jewish people in this area, and even just for those with Jewish heritage/roots, Jo-El's is a place to go to feel less "homesick" for all of the above.

I'm Unitarian Universalist and Jewish (it's complicated--but really not:  it's only complicated to anyone who doesn't want to listen to my personal roots/history and understand; it isn't complicated at all to me anymore, though it used to feel that way.  But now I embrace the complexity and am grateful that nothing in the two conflict, they only complement each other and make me a deeper, better, more interesting person--or so I hope 🙂).  Anyway, like I said, when I go to Jo-El's, which I have not done in years due to I was always at work when they are open on weekdays, and never seemed to make it over there on my busy Sunday day off, I instantly feel less homesick for my Jewish people, culture and FOOD (<--last but not least *lol*).

A friend of mine has been rhapsodizing of late about this wonderful chopped liver he discovered, and the first time he did so, I interrupted with "Was it from Jo-El's?!"  Indeed it was, which I somehow knew the minute he started rhapsodizing.  Ever since he called it to mind, I've been pining for some classic, proper, wonderful, delectable chopped liver from Jo-El's.  So, even though I've been jobless since September (zero income, as I resigned, so I didn't even apply for unemployment), and I'm super worried about money, I realized that sometimes doing something wonderful for yourself is every bit as important and necessary as paying your mortgage, electric bill, etc.  And I further realized that half a pound of chopped liver (and half a pound of whitefish salad!!!) was not going to be the difference between remaining okay or financial ruin.  So I decided to take a break from all my fretting and adulting and job hunting, and drive over to Jo-El's, with, as it turns out perfectly, the Beach Boys blasting on my cell phone.

Jo-El's is kind of off the beaten path, just a bit (the beaten path is only a block away, yet it seems farther, once you turn onto the little road where Jo-El's is).  It's kind of on a weird little road, on which you think "this is a weird little road".  Your first time going there, you further think "this can't be right".  But once you are a seasoned Jo-El goer toer, you know it is right.  Then, when you get to the building, you further think "Is that it?  That can't be it."  But it is.  The whole location adds to the "hidden gem" effect and impact.

Anyway:  I didn't realize how much I not only needed some CHOPPED LIVER (that part I realized!!!), but how much I needed to go somewhere that has been there longer than I've been in St. Pete (and I've been here 27 years now).  Before the pandemic.  Before all the stuff that I've been through in the last four years.  Before all that our country has been through in that same time.  Before, before, before:  there was Jo-El's.  And I didn't realize how hard it would hit me (in a good way), when I pulled into the little parking lot, and laid eyes on the building that doesn't seem like it could be a kosher deli and store, yet I know it is, and especially when I walked inside and saw Ellen, one of the owners, who was there, just where she was last time I was in the store:  before, before, before, and when I was greeted with a bellowing "Hello!" from all the way behind the deli counter (how did the young guy who bellowed that out know immediately that's where I was headed?), that I so, so, SO needed SOMETHING to be "the same".  The same as it was the last time I was there, before any of the last, surreal yet so real, four years happened.

Ellen was at the cash register, the chopped liver and whitefish were in the deli case, just waiting for me to walk in.  There were little signs and symbols about proudly exclaiming support for Israel, which I appreciate, as so many are so down on Israel, and don't really understand the history, complexity and importance of this tiny country.  It was nice to be somewhere where people do know, and do get it, and do support it.  It was nice to be with my people, just for a fleeting minute.  I wanted to buy a cap that had "Oy Vey" embroidered on it, but it's one thing to get the importance of treating yourself to a little chopped liver, and another to blow ten bucks on a cap you don't need and that would look terrible on you, so I decided, when I get a job, I'll come back for that cap.  And more.

For today, though, it meant a surprising amount to me, that little, seemingly ordinary errand to Jo-El's for some much-pined for chopped liver.  I got so much more than chopped liver (and whitefish salad--let's not forget the whitefish salad).  I got a little fix, a little infusion, of being around my people.  And a little reminder that some important things have somehow survived the last four years.  And so have I.

Thank you, Jo-El's.

Video about Jo-El's

The ACA "Coverage Gap" is all too real and I'm living smack-dab in the middle of it.

All:

I gotta run--ironically, in light of what this post is about--to get my annual blood work ahead of my check-up, all of which will be paid for entirely out of pocket this year, since I have no health insurance--but I really, really want to post this first.  It's important, please, please read this article (linked).

I can't tell you how many well-meaning friends (mostly who are ensconced in Blue states, so they have no clue about this, which is understandable), keep arguing with me and insisting that surely I am incorrect about not being eligible for ANY discounts on premiums on the ACA (Obamacare), now that I am between jobs ever since October (my insurance from work ended at the end of September).  These well-meaning, caring friends, keep INSISTING, quite vociferously, that surely I am not understanding the complexities of the ACA, and surely I'm eligible for a discount on the rates, as are most people, especially since my income is ZERO.

Those well-meaning friends are all wrong, and I'm, frankly, so tired of having to argue the point, because the whole situation is terribly upsetting and downright terrifying, and I don't want to have to keep talking about it, or one of these days I just might burst into tears, and then where will we be?

So I will (briefly, I promise) summarize the situation again, but this time I brought back-up:  the linked article.

The situation is this, and I have learned all of this since becoming jobless and attempting to ascertain what discounts I qualify for on the ACA's website, and learning that the answer is:  BUPKUS:  the ACA was conceived and planned to work in tandem with Medicaid.  That means that, people earning a high income would pay full price, people earning a middle or lower income would be eligible for discounts, and people--like me right now--who have ZERO income, would be referred by the ACA website to their state's Medicaid sites, and would get on Medicaid, at either no cost or a very, very low cost.  However, FLORIDA (which I love, but in this case:  😠), which is one of only 13 states, initially--now down to 12--that did this, decided to TURN DOWN something called "Medicaid Expansion", that Obama provided to the states to expand their Medicaid programs to work in tandem with the ACA.  Florida did this because it is run by rabid Republicans who, at the time and likely still to this day, couldn't stand President Obama and tried to obstruct anything and everything the man did at every turn, particularly the ACA.

Fast forward to Edna going onto the ACA site a few months ago and learning that I do not qualify for ANY discounts, and that I needed to proceed on to the link they provided for Medicaid.  At which point I learned that I don't qualify for Medicaid in Florida at all, which is somehow apparently due to the fact that, even though I have ZERO income (hello, what is wrong with this state?), because I am childless, I am somehow not a person who it matters if I live or die, is my takeaway, and therefore NO MEDICAID FOR YOU!  NEXT!

That is the truth.  No matter how much my friends in regular states (and some here in Florida who are from Blue states) insist I must be wrong, I'm shockingly, incredibly and infuriatingly not.  And, again, I can't stand arguing about this because it makes me want to simultaneously punch a wall and burst into tears.  So, please, read this article, and stop telling me that surely I'm missing something and I should hurry up and get onto the ACA.  I wish I could get onto the ACA, but I can't.  Witness:

Link: Please, please read this article about "The Coverage Gap"

Here, There and Everywhere

 I'm scared this morning.

As a person of Jewish descent (and not just descent, but who identifies as Jewish, though I'm also Unitarian Universalist:  it's complex, but it's who I am, and really the two fit together synergistically and form a beautiful theological/spiritual/religious complementary whole for me, but I digress), I'm scared.  As a liberal, with brazenly liberal bumper stickers adorning the entire back of my little hippie car, I'm scared.  As a student of the Holocaust, I'm scared.  As an American citizen who loves and cherishes all the best of what my country stands for, I'm scared.  As a loving, kind human being, I'm scared.

I don't even know exactly how to begin, how to write this, how to express this fear to you.  But I've been paying attention, for four years.  I've been seeing an arsonist in the White House, for four years, lighting bonfires of hate.  I thought, when he left, we could heal.  I still hope, and know, that it is possible.  That we can.  Yet it is literally sickening and terrifying to see:  we also might not.  Things might get worse, as those fires didn't just go out when 45 left Washington, DC on that plane.  The fires of hate are now burning out of control.  The fires he set.  For four years.  Before saying that he will "be back, in some form”.

I have zero fear of him coming back in 2024 as a presidential candidate.  Zero.  Not going to happen.  But I’m very afraid of all the hate he, over four years, summoned forth, blew dog whistles for and to, and told: it is okay to come out and play.  Now the haters are out and proud.  Now the haters are scary and loud.  And the scariest thing, as survivors of the Holocaust always warned, the scariest thing, is not the loudest voices of hate but those who enable them.  Those who are complicit.  Those who do not speak out against them, while there is still time. 

And that is why I’m so scared this morning:  because of the so-called “leaders” in the Republican party who aren’t even just silent and complicit, which would be terrible enough, but who are encouraging the loud, hateful, violence-inciting voices, and actively attacking and threatening anyone within their own party who does have the courage to stand up to it.  Q-Anon, specifically, is very anti-Semitic, using old tropes (such as the classic "rich Jews are controlling the media and the entire world"--their new code language for this is “George Soros” and “global elite”) and even the “blood libel” (new code:  their whole nightmarishly fantastical, delusional thing about rings of pedophiles drinking the blood of children, etc.--it is so bizarre that I literally find it too sickening to even write about, but it’s all just plain, old anti-Semitism, dressed up in new garb, new code words, which anyone who has a terrifying, chilling understanding of history can see directly and clearly right through).

Anti-semitism is on the rise, racism is on the rise, xenophobia is on the rise, hate is on the rise.  Hate is bringing weapons and confederate flags into the Capitol, and killing six people, trying to overthrow a democratic election.  Are the Republicans doing anything about this sedition and treason?  No, in fact, they are calling the impeachment, which is a constitutional imperative and necessary to uphold the rule of law, quote:  “vindictive”.  They say we should just let it go, for the sake of “unity”.  What are we uniting around, lawlessness?  Violence?  Sedition?  Treason?  Hate?

There’s a Q-Anon member of congress now.  She says the Parkland shooting was a “false flag operation” staged by none other than, you guessed it, George Soros. He really gets around, doesn’t he, controlling-the-world-wise? I mean, he also supposedly staged the entire original Women's March in 2016, which I participated in. I never got a check from George Soros, amazingly.  She (the Q-Anon member of congress) bullies and harasses teenage victims of said mass shooting.  She says that Jews started the wildfires in California via lasers from space.  Are the leaders of her party standing up and condemning all this, in the strongest language possible?  No, they are putting her on an education committee.  Let that one sink in:  the person who harasses Parkland victims was put on an education committee.

The Republican "leaders" say we should just not be “vindictive” about a violent, treasonous coup attempt incited by the then POTUS.  Just let it go, they say. That was, what, three weeks ago? Don't be stuck in the past! They think they should be allowed to carry guns into Congress, and not wear masks in Congress during a lethal airborne pandemic.  They think Q-Anon members should be put on education committees.  They don’t stand for the rule of law, or up against hate.

The anti-semites, the racists, the xenophobes, the "us and them"ers, the haters, were emboldened for four years.  Now the bonfire is burning out of control.  And the Republicans aren't speaking out against it now. They are adding kindling.  And gasoline.  And I think of Germany, before I was born.  Really not too long before, in the entire span of human history.  It seemed like “so long ago”, when I first learned of it.  History.  Something traumatizingly terrible even to learn about, yet it could never happen here in America, thank goodness, thought I as a child.  Thank God I’m in America.  Thank God that happened a long time ago.  How could the German people let that happen?  We would never let that happen here.  That’s what I thought I knew as a child, when I learned of the horror of the Holocaust.  Anne Frank never, ever thought what happened in Germany would happen either.  She was German.  And Germany was a civilized country.  Why would her fellow Germans turn on her? It never crossed her mind, until it happened. The German Jews were proud Germans, going back many generations in many cases.  Just as my German Jewish family did there.  My family that I’ll never know.  Because it did happen there.  And it could happen here.  Or anywhere.  If people don’t stand up, and speak up, in time.

Radical Coziness

I can't say the following thing with 100% surety, as I know there are many, many, many, many, many other people who, like me, love Bernie Sanders with every fiber of their being.  Yet I can say that it is *likely* there is no one, but his own family, who loves Bernie as much as I do.  I love what he stands for--both policy-wise and character-wise, what he has courageously fought for his entire life, how he's not afraid to stand alone, yet always reaching out a hand to bring others along.  I could go, and have often gone, on and on about Bernie, Bernie's platform, and why I love Bernie.  Suffice it to say here, though, for the purposes of this post, just to recap for anyone who has only known me for two seconds:  I love Bernie Sanders.  He is one of my handful of true heroes.

So it is funny that I, of all people, somehow missed this whole Bernie-mitten-meme viral phenomenon this week, yet I all but did.  I say "all but", because I kept hearing snippets, fragments, little laughs and smiles and references on the news, to Bernie and Bernie's mittens and some Bernie meme, and I kept thinking:  okay, what are they talking about?  I don't know why I didn't follow up earlier by checking into it, but I didn't.

Today, though, one of my friends had a photo of Bernie in homemade mittens as her profile photo, and it hit me:  oh, that's Bernie, apparently at the inauguration.  Apparently, to people who never lived in Vermont, it is hilarious that he would wear mittens to the inauguration.  But to Vermonters, it's like:  hey, they're WARM, okay?  What's the big?  They're warm, they're cozy, they're even cuddly, none of those are bad things.  You've heard of bringing sexy back, right?  Well, now Bernie's bringing cozy and cuddly back!

If you ask me, our country could use a healthy dose of cozy and cuddly right now--let's hear it for radical coziness!!!

What's bugging me is the projecting going on that, oh, he looks "grumpy".  During the 2016 and 2020 campaign seasons, anti-Bernie people kept trying to create the false narrative that he was always "angry"--which is totally not anything resembling what or who or how Bernie actually is or acts, and now it is "grumpy" because he actually was practicing good physical distancing in the midst of a pandemic.  I myself have been attacked--nothing short of that--for gently keeping six feet of physical distance from people who apparently didn't get the memo and/or didn't understand the memo, simple memo that it is, and/or are in denial about the truth of the memo, re:  we are in the middle of a lethal, highly airborne, global pandemic.  Keeping six feet of distance is the opposite of "grumpy":  it is LOVING.

So, let's review, Bernie is LOVING, and his mittens are cozy and cuddly.  I think those are three things that we need desperately right now and I hope, and have confidence, that Joe Biden will work with Bernie to weave a lot of love, coziness and cuddliness into the fabric of all the policies of the Biden administration!  So long live Bernie and his inaugural fashion and seating choices, and this photo/meme!

We need a little Bernie, right this very minute...

The cavalry is here.

I'm fighting a lot of anxiety, and some depression trying to creep in around the edges, due to how long I've been without a job/income now (4 months), BUT, even with that going on simultaneously--and, first thing in the morning is usually the worst, laying there in the stillness with no distractions from REALITY--wasn't it wonderful and awesome to wake up this morning and realize that you didn't have to RUN to the television to turn it on and see, after bracing yourself all the way there, what horrendous thing(s) 45 did overnight?  He's really gone.  I find that to be a very peace-bestowing realization that keeps hitting me over and over again in waves.

Instead of having to brace for the latest 45 Horror Show, when I turned on the news this morning, they were saying that the Biden team, before dawn today, released their COVID-19 vaccine response plan, and that it turns out that 45 didn't have any.  As in, zero plan for vaccine distribution.  Recall that 45 would not allow the President-Elect's team access to important information, including national security briefings (which I'm pretty sure amounts to TREASON yet again, yet no one but me ever mentions that in regard to this, so moving along...) prior to 45 leaving the White House.  At a certain point, I think he did allow some national security briefings, but withheld information on, and access to, so much else, such as this--the COVID-19 response plan.  So, over the next days, weeks, and likely beyond, the Biden team and we are going to learn just how bad things really are.  No plan on COVID-19 is only going to be one of the shocking and despicable things we discover, trust me.  For example, the recent and, apparently, still ongoing cybersecurity attack is extremely serious and I believe it is going to come out that the 45 administration aided and abetted that, as 45 installed key people in positions in defense and cybersecurity, inexplicably, with just weeks to go in office, just before that happened.  Why would he do that?  Because he's Putin's puppet and Vlad told him to, that's why.  I'm just waiting for all that, and so much more, to come out.  So this (no COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan whatsoever) is the tip of the horrific discoveries iceberg, but the great news is that, whatever damage 45 has done, whatever ruins he has left, he can't do any more, and the cavalry is here.  The cavalry is here.  Thank God, the cavalry is here!

They know what they are doing, they care, and they are already hard at work to fix what's broken and help us heal, holistically, in many and all ways.  The sun sure is bright, warm and beautiful this fine a.m.

To a more perfect union!

I'm listening to one of the greatest speeches in American history.  Beautiful, perfect speech by the perfect President (Joe Biden is the President--whew!) for this moment, this time in our history, our present, and for our future.

I am overcome with awe, and gratitude for the wisdom our founders weaved into the constitution, and for we, the people, now, who are engaged and voted and kept the republic, as Benjamin Franklin would have phrased it.  We voted and, I believe, saved our democracy.  But, as I wrote earlier today, we have a lot to heal.  We can do it.  Here's to our beautiful America and to a more perfect union!

"My whole soul is in it."  - President Joe Biden -

Never doubt that your vote matters! Happy Inauguration Day!

GOOD MORNING!

HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY!

Today is the day that the sociopathic, treasonous, traitor fascist leaves office!  By hook or by crook, the clear and present danger will be out of there by high noon.

I want to say something to all my buds:  don't ever, ever, ever think, let alone say, that your vote doesn't matter.  We just saved our country.  We saved our democracy.  It just went through a four-year, as the Rolling Stones might phrase it, "cross-fire hurricane", combined with a major earthquake.  Buildings fell.  But the foundation held.  THIS COUNTRY IS GREAT!

We all just went through a four-year, firsthand course on the awesome strengths of our constitution and our laws, and also we learned where we need some shoring up.  We have a lot of work and a lot of healing to do as a country, and not just from the last four years, but from a lot of what was already there, that they exposed.

Today, though, is a day of celebration and thanksgiving.  We've had four years of nothing short of evil in the White House.  It departs at noon, and the perfect antidote is moving in:  Joseph R. Biden, a man of deep empathy, authenticity, love for our country and our people, wisdom, experience and ability.  And we have Kamala Harris, too, a bright star, shining her light into the mix.  If we can make it to noon today, we're going to be okay.  And do you know why?  It's because you and I voted.  That's why.  Never, ever forget how profoundly much your vote matters.  45 was so scared of it that he literally took mailboxes out of the ground and sorting machines out of the post offices.  But you and I voted anyway.  And we accomplished nothing short of saving our country.

Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, upon his emergence from the constitutional convention in 1787, "What do we have, a republic or a monarchy?"

Franklin replied:  "A republic, if you can keep it."

It's up to us.  We sure came through a terrible storm this time.  Today is a day of thanksgiving.

Comments

Wolves

I'm from Bethesda, Maryland.  All of us from there consider ourselves from there, but also we consider ourselves from DC.  Bethesda is right next to Washington, DC.  It's one big metro area.

Seeing the siege on the Capitol, the horrendous mob that violently forced their way in there, murdered a Capitol police officer, had zip ties and weapons and wanted to attack and possibly kidnap (what were the zip ties for?) and/or kill elected representatives, and stop the democratic process, the election, stop the votes from being counted, stop our constitution and our democracy itself, seeing all that, and seeing that many of them also had adorned themselves in symbols that, as Don Lemon pointed out last night very strenuously, had zero to do with their belief in the utter lie created by 45 that the election was "stolen", and everything to do with white nationalism:  confederate flags, teeshirts about Auschwitz and saying horrifying, chilling anti-semitic things that I won't even give oxygen to, really not only sickened me as a human being, and as an American who cherishes our constitution and democracy, and as a person with Jewish heritage, but also as a person from DC.

And now I'm seeing my hometown full of National Guard troops sleeping in huge piles of Guard troops on floors (WHY are they not in HOTELS, why do they have to sleep on the floor and all crowded together in a pandemic?  They don't even have cots.  All the terrorists are sleeping in beds, even the ones in jail, why are the guard troops on the cold floor?).  I'm seeing fencing all around the Capitol and a huge area of DC.  I'm seeing news reports of an intelligence community that is extremely alarmed and concerned about the level of "chatter" regarding more attacks.  I'm scared for my country and my hometown.  I'm scared for myself and for my car, with all my Bernie and Biden and ACLU and other bumper stickers.  I have to drive (with the only pet of my four pets who is not calm in the car like the other three--she gets hysterical, the entire way) one hour each way to the vet on Saturday and I'm scared, in case I get some Q Anon Trumpster behind me at a light that decides to ram my bumper.  I'm scared of all out civil war.

I think it is heartening and so vitally important to the health of our constitution and democracy, and rule of law, that 45 was impeached (again) yesterday, and I hope he will be convicted, as what we truly need to do, in order to have the "unity" that the pro-45 contingent of elected reps is insisting we can only have by letting 45 off the hook with no consequences for his lawlessness and treason, is to unify around the constitution and rule of law.  The only way we do that is for all these seditious traitors, including the head one, 45, to face constitutional consequences.  So the impeachment yesterday was heartening.  The 10 Republicans who voted yes are heartening.  The big businesses yanking their business from 45 is heartening.  NYC ending all contracts with 45 is heartening.

But the Auschwitz shirts, the confederate flags, the chatter alarming the experts on line, all that is still going strong, too.  When I was 18, I perceived something ugly starting, taking root, and I thought Reaganism started it.  I thought that for decades.  But now I'm older and wiser, with a sense of history that extends back before I came of age.  And I see that the people with the Auschwitz shirts and confederate flags and chatter about more terrorist attacks have always been here (even before Auschwitz happened).  It didn't start with the rise of ugly nationalism during the Reagan years.  Or, I should say, ugly nationalism didn't start during the Reagan years.  It just came out to play after a brief respite.  But it was there when I was a tiny child and MLK was assassinated, and JFK.  It was there when young black and Jewish civil rights activists were murdered in the south.  It was there when crosses were burned.  It was there in the Civil War.  It was there, all the way back, all the way back, back, back, where it started:  in slavery.  Our country is still reeling and reacting to slavery.  And, as Don Lemon pointed out last night:  what the storming of the Capitol was about last week was not "politics", as he put it (not the election or 45 himself), and what many 45 supporters love about 45 is not Republican policy such as tax cuts (which is basically their entire policy, other than investing all our remaining money that's left over, after obscene tax cuts for the rich, into the war machine), it's white nationalism.

That's what I noticed, rising around me, in 1980, but I didn't name it.  July 4, 1980.  I was 18.  I was on the National Mall.  The Beach Boys were playing.  It was supposed to be a beautiful 4th of July celebration.  But there was this ugly atmosphere.  People smashing bottles of alcohol and screaming, and a young person, my age, wearing a "F*ck Iran" teeshirt.  That is burned into my brain.  Because, before that, when I was a child and tween, I naively thought that, when my generation grew up and took over the reigns, we would end war.  We would end the nuclear arms race.  We would end fossil fuel and go to solar energy.  We would all be wearing tie-dyed teeshirts and Birkenstocks and holding hands, all races, all colors, all creeds, all ages, all sexual orientations, everyone:  we'd just all be singing kumbaya and living in solar A-frames in Vermont.  That's what I thought.  Before Reagan.  Before the smashing glass on the National Mall on that 4th of July, when I was 18 years old.  Before I saw a kid, my age, smashing glass, yelling "Wuuuuuuuuuuuu!  USA!", with his "F*ck Iran" teeshirt on.

What is this, I thought.  What is this.  This is not peace, love and kumbaya.  This is ugly.  That kid is not a hippie.  What is he?  Who are these people?  I told my boyfriend, let's get out of here.  After that, they canceled the Beach Boys for future years.  No more rock and roll.  Because rock and roll, they surmised, was the problem.  Ever since then, it's been classical music on the mall on the 4th of July.  They even call it "A Classical 4th", I think, since then.  If only not having the Beach Boys play music could fix this.  But this goes back, back, back.  Probably even before slavery.  Before the United States.  Folks:  the terrifying thing is, this is part of the human potential.  It's always been there.  It's always been here.  In all of us.  Just like the good potential.  The potential to love, the potential for tolerance, respect, understanding and peace.  And, as the native American parable goes, regarding which wolf will win, the good wolf or the bad wolf:  it depends which one you feed.

Keep your eyes on the arc of the moral universe...

 I just wrote the following, as a comment on a friend's Facebook page.  I realize that it really at least begins to sum up my feelings about last week's seditious, treasonous coup attempt.  I've been so beyond-all-description/words-upset about it ever since.  But in this that I just wrote, I realize that there is a candle of hope, a flame of light, to hold on to.  Is it the rainbow light spectrum in Theodore Parker's arc of the moral universe, bending toward justice?  I hope so.  Here's what I wrote:

45's supporters are a hate-filled, now amped-up cult. They're not going to stop. All we can do is be fact-based in the face of all the disinformation and lies, apply the rule of law, and realize that all of their hate and ugliness and violence and headline grabbing doesn't change the fact that, on that same day of the insurrection, an African-American who has MLK's old pulpit, and a young Jewish man, won Senate seats in Georgia. As Van Jones said, some good "is trying to happen". These scared, mostly white people are really reacting to their gut knowledge that America is becoming more and more diverse. They don't like that. 45 has played into their desire to blame "the other" for everything wrong in their lives (instead of blaming people like 45 who don't pay taxes and don't want to invest in people and green jobs and infrastructure and health care and child care and education, ETC., and just want massive tax cuts for the rich, which is all the repug party stands for, other than xenophobia). He's convinced them that any news they hear is "fake" unless it comes from him. They are a cult and they are radicalized now. And the ones who engaged in what we witnessed on Wednesday are treasonous terrorists.

I will add: in the year 2000, I believed (and still believe) that the election was stolen from Al Gore. Unlike with these people, who think the 2020 election was "rigged" based solely on 45's constant lying about it even before the election took place, in 2000, the Republicans would not allow the recount that was called for by Florida law to proceed fully, and, long story short, the election really was either stolen or the integrity of it was stolen, as either way, we didn't truly know who won (Gore did--but ANYWAY, moving along to my point). Many of us voters, particularly ardent Gore supporters such as myself, and ardent supporters of election integrity such as myself, were very, very aggrieved.

Some protested. But did we storm with capitol with zip ties and molotov cocktails, attack and kill police officers, and try to get to elected representatives to, apparently, at the very least, attack them? No we did not. Because we are not terrorists. We live by the rule of law. The Supreme Court ruled that the recount could not proceed. Bush won. We hated it. We thought (and still KNOW) it was not fair or proper or right.

Gore got up and told everyone to accept the Supreme Court decision. Gore did that for the sake of the democracy and rule of law. And we all, though our hearts were broken and STILL are to this day, trust me--I'm not over it--accepted the decision. Like I said, some protested it. No one stormed the Capitol.

So don't tell me I have to listen to these hateful, entitled, violent, lawless 45 supporters. I'm so indescribably over listening to them. I've been forced to listen to them and live under the hegemony of their beliefs for 40 years, ever since Reagan. I thought this strain of ugliness in our country started in 1980, coincidentally the year I came of age. I'm older and wiser now, with more perspective and understanding of history. I see now that it has always been here. When I was a tiny tot in the early 1960's, these were the people unleashing dogs on the civil rights protesters and burning crosses and killing young black and Jewish activists in the south. And last week, we had an African-American and a young Jewish man WIN Senate seats in the south. So that is progress. And these ugly, ugly terrorists may be able to stun us all and grab the headlines for a while, steal the headlines from that, but they can't change it.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Theodore Parker (Unitarian Minister), and famously quoted by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -

We lit a candle in the dark last week when MLK's successor won a seat in the Senate from Georgia, and a young Jewish man did, too. That candle's flame still glows, though the darkness is thick around it.

25 45

For four years, I have shouted from the rooftop that 45 is a clear and present danger to our country (and the world).  For four years I have also become hoarse shouting that, given his particular psychological combo platter of factors, he is going to become increasingly dangerous when he perceives the walls closing in.  I first shouted that the RNC should disqualify him from their field of primary candidates for 2016, after he announced flatly that he vowed to violate the constitution if elected POTUS:  he announced that he would ban all Muslims from entering the USA.  That's a violation of our constitution.  A POTUS is sworn to uphold our constitution.  If a person is telling you they are going to violate their sworn oath if elected, you need to disqualify that person from your field of candidates.

That didn't happen.  The RNC didn't take 45's candidacy seriously and/or they didn't believe him when he told them what he would do (as the quotable quote goes:  when someone tells you who they are, believe them).  Or they are just as xenophobic and constitution-flouting as he is, thus they didn't care.  Whatever the reason, the RNC chose to leave a candidate in their field who was vowing to violate the constitution if he were elected.

He got elected.  Ever since then, I've been screaming at the top of my lungs that he is a clear and present danger.  I have zillions of posts on Facebook saying that exact thing, all of the above.

And now here we are.  The complicit Republican Senate chose to condone his lawlessness and set a terrible constitutional precedent by not convicting and removing him from office on February 5, 2020.  That was a dark day for our country.  Darker, in a way, than yesterday, if that is possible.  Because, yesterday, our democracy proceeded even after what happened.  The peoples' vote was accepted.  And also, totally overshadowed, two Georgia senate seats turned Blue and, as Van Jones so eloquently put it, since one went to an African-American who has MLK's former pulpit and one went to "a young Jewish kid", "something beautiful is trying to happen."

Something beautiful IS trying to happen.  Remember that, if the absolute ugliness we saw play out at the capitol yesterday dismays you, as it should.  Remember the something beautiful that is trying to happen.  And will happen.  And is happening.  Those who are seditious and trying to stage a coup will not win.  The something beautiful will.  If we keep "woke" and engaged and voting and fighting for it.  Look what we did, we flipped the senate.  Look what we did, the people's business went on last night, even after the horror that unfolded in that very chamber moments earlier.  Even though our elected representatives had their lives threatened and were shaken up--traumatized--they came BACK to the scene of the crime and they carried on.  Because that's what America really is.  Something beautiful is trying to happen.

Meanwhile:  25 45.  Now.  He should have been disqualified in 2016.  He should have been convicted and removed on February 5, 2020.  He absolutely MUST be Article 25'ed immediately.  There is literally no telling what he could do in the next few days if we don't get him out of there.  Now.

Thank you, Georgia, you're a peach.

A not-so-cautious WU HUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! We WON.

I don't wu hu as a Democratic, large D, partisan, though I am (though my lifetime party often makes me feel like an outsider--I'm still a Democrat, large D). I wu hu for democracy, small d. I wu hu as an American patriot.

Now we will have a congress that can get things done for the overall, holistic health of our country, our people and the world. We will have a congress of good will, instead of an obstructionist bunch of bleeps, not to put too fine a point on it. I mean, if a party whose every policy I disagree with wins, and therefore a bunch of stuff I disagree with gets passed through congress, that's dismaying, yet that's democracy. I've dealt with that my entire adult life, which has been overshadowed by REAGANISM, REAGANONMICS, and all things figgin' REAGAN, which we are seeing the horrific end potential of playing out as we speak in what the Republican Party has become. But if a party actually refuses to participate in the democratic process, which is what the Republican party has become now, and simply chooses to obstruct everything, and also, oh by the way, to be complicit with lawlessness and treason and, probably today, complicit *and participatory* in sedition, then it is truly terrible and tragic, and that is why my wu hu is in all caps above: we have defeated the obstructionism, the complicity and the TREASON. Those complicit with treason ARE treason(ous).

I am so very thankful to all that is good in this universe, and specifically to each and every Democratic voter (and probably a few democratic, small d, voters who are not in my party, but who voted for the Democratic candidates because they are patriots and they understand that our constitution is under attack) for doing nothing less than saving our country in this election. Thank you, Georgia. Each and every one of you who turned the Senate Blue is a peach. <3