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.