How to Stay Engaged When the World Gets Loud

Some weeks, the world feels too heavy to ignore—and too important to stay silent about. This post grew out of a talk Jean recently gave to her dinner conversation group, a gathering that has quietly become a lifeline for those of who still believe civic engagement matters. What follows isn’t a rant but a practical guide for anyone wondering how to push back, stay informed, and stay hopeful.  AI…...

It’s been thirteen weeks since I’ve written a political post, and if you’re not a fan of those, you might want to skip this one. But this isn’t a rant—it’s a road map for how to push back against the administration’s disregard for the rule of law. Most of what follows began as a speech I gave to my Tuesday night dinner conversation group, formerly known (tongue firmly in cheek) as the Secret Society for Liberal Ladies. We used that name until the resident in charge of our Social Committee here at my Continuum Care Campus pulled us aside. She didn’t think politics belonged in our “harmonious” community, so we backed down and changed our name. Sometimes pretending that all is right in the world is the only way you can get up and face the day.

We started the group because any time someone brought up something happening in the news, someone else would immediately shut the conversation down. (If only I had the power to shut down the endless discussions about college basketball and football. And it’s not just the men here who follow the games religiously.) My best friend since kindergarten recently moved into a CCC in New York, and I found it interesting that every morning they have an hour dedicated to discussing world events. She has no interest in joining. As I’ve said before, if you’re looking at CCCs, read their calendar and/or newsletter. We have game‑day viewing parties; she gets political conversation. My friend likes sports; I do not.

Anyway, last night it was my turn to give a presentation on a topic of my choice, and here is the text of my speech:

Now, I’m a writer, not a speaker, so forgive me for reading from my notes rather than pretend I’m capable of speaking off the cuff.

Every week we gather here, and most weeks we find ourselves talking about the same thing: how upset, shocked — or frankly disgusted — we are by the Trump administration’s ongoing abuses of power. And without fail, at some point [the Art Professor] asks the question that hangs over all of us: “What can we actually do to change things?” 

For my presentation today, I decided to take that question seriously and I researched the phrase: How do we fight back against an administration that shows such disregard for the rule of law?

I’ve put together a handout with practical actions we can take on one side, along with contact information on the other side to make those actions easier. I want to be clear: I’m not suggesting that each of us needs to do everything on the sheet. But imagine this — if each of us devoted just one hour a week to taking action on the issue that matters the most to each of us, we would feel far less hopeless and far less helpless. 

And let’s be honest: if we don’t fight back now, if we don’t use the tools we have to defend our democracy, then future generations — your children and grandchildren — will pay the price. 

On the handout, I’ve organized the most effective ways to push back into three key areas where we can make a difference:

1. We can support the groups challenging the administration in the courts.
On the front of your handout, you’ll see three organizations that have been especially effective, with several more organizations listed on the back.

For example, Democracy Forward has brought 150 lawsuits in 2025 and has already won 100 of them. If you saw Rachel last night she mentioned some of those recent wins. These groups are doing the heavy lifting in the legal system — and they rely on public support to keep going. Donate. If you can. Become a member. 

2. The second way we can help turn things around is to recognize the importance of the upcoming midterm elections.
If we can flip the House, we can restore meaningful oversight, change leadership, and use the power of the purse to block harmful parts of the administration’s agenda.

The most effective way we, as individuals, can help is by supporting candidates in high‑stakes districts — especially in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York. These are the places where small efforts can make a big difference. As we get closer to the election the Democrat Party will identify these high-stakes districts. 

3. The third way to push back is by taking part in public action — rallies, protests and especially rapid‑response alerts. 

Showing up matters.  And if you sign up for ‘Action Alerts’ from groups like Indivisible, you’ll get timely updates about who to call or email when something urgent comes up in Congress. Right now, for example, they’re calling for action related to ICE and Venezuela.
And there’s a major event coming up on January 20th, the First America Walkout. It’s going to be a call for impeachment. The idea is to leave the place you’re at and take to the streets at 2:00 local time, to “walk out on fascism.” 

In closing:
I’ve only highlighted a few ways we can help save our country. I hope you read the handout when you have time. We don’t have to do everything. But we each should and could do something. One hour. One issue a week that pushes back against the abuses of power going on every day in our country. If we each commit to that, we will not only feel less helpless — we will actually make a difference. Thank you. 

The ladies seemed to like my presentation and appreciate my handouts. In the end, what keeps me from going postal over what is going on in our country is belief that ordinary people like me, you and my Tuesday night group, can still make a difference. We may not be marching in the streets every week, but we’re paying attention, staying informed, and refusing to let silence become complicity. If that’s all we can manage on some days, it’s enough. And on the days when we can do more, we will. ©

P.S. In full disclosure I used AI to help me identify those three key ways to push back and to compile my contacts list on my handout. 

 GOVERNMENT CONTACTS

WHITE HOUSE
Comments Line: 202‑456‑1111
Switchboard: 202‑456‑1414
Address:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Find your Senators here:   https://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm

Find your Representative here: https://www.lcv.org/blog/how-to-call-your-members-of-congress-in-3-easy-steps/

KEY LEGAL & CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

Democracy Forward
Email: info@democracyforward.org
Press: press@democracyforward.org
Phone: 202‑448‑9090
Address:
P.O. Box 34553
Washington, D.C. 20043
Website: democracyforward.org

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Phone: 212‑549‑2500
Membership: 888‑567‑2258
Address:
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
Website: aclu.org

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)
Washington, D.C. Office:
700 14th Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202‑682‑1300

Website: naacpldf.org

Sierra Club

Focus: Environmental protection, climate policy
Website: sierraclub.org

Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC)

Focus: Human rights & environmental issues in border regions
Website: southernborder.org

Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC)

Focus: Constitutional law & separation of powers
Website: theusconstitution.org

Dispatches from the Department of War and the Woke Resistance

When President Trump declared Portland a “war-ravaged city” and sent troops and helicopters to monitor peaceful protests, it wasn’t just political theater—it was a dress rehearsal for authoritarianism. His speech at Quantico, flanked by Pete Hegseth and 800 stone-faced Joint Chiefs, landed with all the warmth of a lead balloon. Meanwhile, in at least one independent living facility, resistance is brewing—not with rifles, but with paperclips. This essay traces the absurdity of militarized rhetoric, the rise of meme warfare, and the quiet defiance of everyday Americans who know that fascism doesn’t always arrive with jackboots. Sometimes, it shows up in speeches about kombucha and fat generals. AI….


According to Google the idiom, ‘Always waiting for the other shoe to drop’ means we are  “anticipating an inevitable, usually negative, event after a prior one has occurred, similar to hearing one shoe hit the floor in an apartment and expecting the second to follow.” A deeper dive brought the explanation that the expression got its start from old Vaudeville routine where a comedian would say: “A man comes home late to his room in a crowded boarding house. As he gets ready for bed, he removes and drops a shoe with a thump on the floor. Remembering that his downstairs neighbor often complains of late-night noise, he takes off the other shoe and places it gently on the floor. After he settles under the covers, an irritated voice from the room below shouts, ‘When are you going to drop the other shoe?’”  

Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon

Ever since Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War—take your pick) delivered his speech before the 800 stone-faced Joint Chiefs at Quantico September 30th coupled with the president declaring Portland, Oregon, to be “a war-ravaged city and a threat to our national security” I’ve felt like the other shoe is finally going to drop. Trump not only deployed the National Guard against the governor’s wishes, he has helicopters circling the skies above the city to keep track of an “insurrection” that city and state officials say is just citizens peacefully exercising their rights to free speech. 

“There is no insurrection,” Oregon Governor. Tina Kotek said on Saturday. Portland officials think Trump is watching footage from 2020 when there was protests in Portland against George Floyd’s murder. Remember the “I can’t breathe!” cries he made while a police officer held him down with a knee to his neck for nine minutes, 29 seconds?

You’ve got to love the internet and the creativity of Americans. No sooner did the troops arrive in Portland than the memes started showing up on Facebook. Memes written in the same tone and gravitas as soldiers wrote back home during the Civil War. “Dearest Mother, I write to you from the front lines of the Great Portland Conflict of ‘25 where our battalion bravely holds a line between the artisan kombucha stand and the vegan co-op….” 

That’s one end of the spectrum of reactions to what happened but on the other end—the end that makes me think the tide if finally turning against Trump’s administration—is a lot of high ranging military men are posting articles about how the military will not follow UNLAWFUL orders from a president. These were in response to Trump’s speech at Quantico before the generals and admirals, where he said the military should use Democratic-led cities as training grounds on what he characterized as “a war from within.” The road to fascism isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s paved with speeches like these two delivered at Quantico with rhetoric aimed at turning citizens against one another.

Trump started his speech out by noting how no one applauded Hegseth’s speech just before he took the stage, “You’re allowed to do that, you know.” He paused, expecting them to applaud.They still didn’t, so the president said, "If you don't like what I have to say you can walk out and kiss your careers and pensions goodbye." And if you read the full transcript you’ll understand why they didn’t applaud. One thing Hegseth said was “Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations...and seeing fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.” And that was the least offensive thing he said. As one pundit put it, "Hegseth called them all fat, gay losers."

Hegseth also said he was once again going to “empower drill sergeants to instill a healthy fear into new recruits. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.” He’s going to unweasonize—his word not mine—words like bullying, hazing and toxic in the military. It’s another brick in the road to fascism when leaders celebrate fear over respect coupled with ignoring governors, by-passing Congress and breaking as many norms as the current administration does. It's eroding our Democracy—all actions that are the very hallmarks of authoritarianism. 

Trump’s entire speech was mostly his usual word salad of his Ten Greatest Hits: Tariffs. How he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Sleepy Joe Biden. And how he hates autopens. (Trump went on and on about how he’d like to sign things in pure gold but it takes a certain kind of paper.) He talked about how his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico makes sense “because we own 92% of the frontage.” And of course, he talked about his renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. He said, everyone loves it because it’s no longer woke. A renaming that from all accounts he can’t do without congressional approval which didn’t stop him from getting new signage put up along side of the old as well as renaming the website, The Department of War which reflects militaristic values formerly only valued in communist and fascist regimes. 

Back at Home

Closer to home someone in our Tuesday Night Conversation Group (otherwise known as the Secret Society of Liberal Ladies) passed around an article about The Paperclip Project and so we’ve all be wearing one attached to our collars or sleeves as a sign of our resistance against fascism. It’s a small act of pushing back, and it feels empowering when you see someone else in solidarity wearing one. Another member of the group hosted a happy hour to introduce us to a local democratic candidate for Mayor. She had a turn out of 15+ people—all from our independent living apartments—and most of us were wearing our paperclips. 

It’s a little thing—copied from what the Norwegians did during the WWII Nazi occupation to signal unity. Here, the only reaction so far came from a MAGA supporter who asked about the paper clip. When told it was a symbol of resistance against fascism, he scoffed: “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.” That idiom, by the way, dates back to 1546. 

History teaches us many things and one lesson we must not forget: the road to fascism is paved with apathy. Trump isn't building a mole hill, he’s constructed a mountain. History also does not forgive or forget those who look away when it’s time to fight back. So this is your call to action. Do something to help sound the alarm. It can be anything from going to the 'No Kings Protest' coming up later this month to wearing a paperclip then sharing your concerns when asked about it to supporting public figures who are in the trenches already. Find a way to make your voice be heard. We can’t wait for the other boot to fall. © 

I've spent more time than I care to admit trying to make live links of to the transcripts to both Trump's and Hegeth's speeches but something keeps going wrong. If you are interested in reading them you'll have to google them yourself. Hegeth's is a master class on how to demoralize our troops and worth reading. They flew in every single high ranging military personal from all the branches of the government from all over the world to sit in that room. Judging by the way the Joint Chiefs reacted to these speeches I'm hoping that history will judge them as the beginning of the end. But which ending? The ending of Trump's power or the ending of our Democracy? 

ICE Fishing in Portland

The California Wildfires and Crazy-Ass Men

Satellite Image of Los Angles on fire

As I walked the underground route to the other building where the cafe` is located in my independent living facility I was thinking, What am I going to blog about this week? It's about a half a block walk in between the elevators to building one and building two and along the way, every so often, are red letters stenciled on the walls proclaiming, "two hour fire barrier." I've often wondered exactly what that means. Can we safely hide in the underground parking area for two hours before a fire would get to us, or does it mean a fire would have to be out of control in the area two hours before it would burn through to the apartments above? As I got off the elevator my line of sight set me on a course toward the lobby's fireplace to warm up before heading to the cafe`. The underground route is kept at 50 degrees but I was still cold. I'm always cold. 

While I was warming up I decided I should write about the terrible wildfires in California but it's such an over-whelming disaster that I didn't know where I'd begin. It's heartbreaking and sad to see so many people's lives torn apart with years of hardships ahead of them to rebuild what they've lost. Not just homes but entire neighborhoods, business districts, churches, schools and jobs. Just finding temporary shelter would be over-whelming. Then comes dealing with insurance companies---if half those people even have fire insurance. A lot of companies quit selling and even revoked existing polices in California that cover fires. And there's sure to be studies, meetings and endless fights over new zoning and building regulations and new land use restrictions. Many people won't be able to afford to rebuild and will end up selling their ash-filled property to developers.

And while the fires are still out of control and raging we have the president-elect not offering words of support or comfort, not pledging disaster relief help but rather he's playing the blame game to renew an old feud with California's Democrat governor who he blames for everything. 45/47 could be asking his de facto V-P, the richest man on earth, to pledge some his "pocket change" to help rebuild the infrastructure in the effected areas. But he won't and I'm guessing Elon wouldn't do it anyway. Neither one of these man-boys have a philanthropic bone in their bodies. Elon Musk is too busy blaming the fires not on hurricane force winds in an area that hasn't seen rain since last May nor on climate changes. He's blaming the fire departments for, "prioritizing DEI over saving lives and homes." In other words he thinks having women and people of color working in the fire departments are the cause of not getting the fires under control. Both these man-boys are masters at spreading disinformation.

And I don't know who started the bitching about having over 900 incarcerated prisoners working among the 7,500 California firefighters, but it wouldn't surprise me if these two clowns had a hand in that as well. Granted, the 30 inmate fire camps in the state to train prisoners to fight fires have been controversial since their inception a few years ago but still, I don't get the timing of the critics bringing the controversy back up now, while those inmates are actively putting their lives on the line. On one side of the issue is Kim Kardashian who is advocating to pay the prisoners more than the $1 an hour they are paid now and on the other side of the issue are the people who think the prisoners are taking jobs away from other people and/or are putting the communities in danger while they are not behind bars "where they belong."

I also don't get why governor Newsom's is being vivified by the incoming president and not getting any credit for building up the state's aerial firefighting fleet so that it's the largest in the world, has nearly doubled the number firefighters on the ground since 2018 and has vastly expanded the program to do controlled, low intensity burns to keep the forest floors free of under-grown in over 400,000 acres annually. California's fire response here and here.

 

A few years back I was invited to hike in a Michigan park where a several weeks earlier the fire department had done one of these fires. It was eerie walking through the area because it wasn't until after we'd finished the trail that we learned that it was a controlled burn---we'd started at the end instead of the beginning where they had a notice posted. The objective is to get rid of dried leaves and dead wood on the forest floor that fuels the wildfires---the very stuff 45/47 STILL claims Newsom should have been "raking up." Sure, then what? Bury the stuff? Not that California or any other state is going to do controlled burns in neighborhoods like what we see burning on TV. My point in bringing it up, is I'm upset over ALL the finger pointing while lives are still in danger and fire fighters are working around the clock and fire-displaced Americans have to search for shelter and food. There will be plenty of time for finger pointing later on when all the facts and factors have been investigated and studied. I'm upset---but not a bit surprised---that our president-elect is showing his true colors once again. He's an agent of chaos. Always has been, always will be. 

 

45/47 will be the president in a few days but he spends more time on his crazy-ass ideas to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal than the wildfires crisis at hand. His nasty-ass attitude has also resulted in a serious threat from Argentina to revoke our air force's privilege to use one of their bases as a stop-over. He's fighting with other world leaders when he should be getting a team ready to hit the ground running to help California. But, no, he sent an envoy to Greenland to mess with them instead! Heaven help us, as my mom used to say. If I was into investing money I'd buy stock in a company that makes blood pressure medications. I suspect they'll be a lot of it sold over the next four years.

Until Next Wednesday. ©

 

A Political Pollster Finally Called Me!

I promised myself I wouldn't write another political post anytime soon but here I am four weeks after the last one and I'm breaking my word. Don't worry, I promise it's not going to be a rant type post that will burn your eyeballs out if you support the Republican ticket. A telephone call from a pollster made me change my mind. At first I thought, Hell no! I'm not taking part in a political poll. But then I remembered how many times I've wondered, who are these people that take those polls? The media loves quoting them.  

Edited to add: The poll itself was taken the morning of the last day of the convention, before Trump's speech and the Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan performances. And this post was written two days before Biden dropped out of the race.

I must say the pollster was very professional. She didn't try to lead me in any particular direction and she didn't react in any way to my answers. It was a long poll taking over 25 minutes. The questions started with the basics: my age, sex, level of education, income, marital status and race. She asked who I voted for in the last election, how likely am I to vote in the next. Did I belong to a union? What are my views on abortion? Then it got down to the nitty-gritty of the call. Did I see any of the Republican convention? "Yes, most of it." Did I see any of the coverage of Trump getting shot? "Yes." Did it make you more likely or less likely to vote for him or no change? "No change." How much do you know about J.D. Vance? And she listed some multi-choice answers. I picked the one that I'd never heard of him before Trump picked him for his Vice President. 

She asked me what two things about the convention stood out the most. I wanted to joke that all the people wearing sympathy patches on their ears cracked me up. Oops, they call them solidarity patches.

But I replied that I thought Sarah Hunkleabee Sanders did a good job fulfilling her mission. The pollster followed up by asking what I meant and I told her Sanders's speech was intended soften Trump's image for women voters, make him seem more likable to that demo-graph as did the speech given by Trump's 17 year old grand-daughter. I had to repeat my answer a couple of times so the pollster could write my answer down word for word. The most genuine smile I've ever seen on Mr Trump's face came after that young girl finished. It made me wonder where has that guy has been all these years. I didn't mention that during to poll.

My answer about my second take-away from the convention was about how much I hated seeing Nikki Haley's speech. That I used to like her and thought she's was a good person to have in government, but her reversal in now kissing Trump's butt after months of saying he's unfit for office proves her values and moral compass can be bought off. (I've since learned that Vance did the same, exact thing.) What I didn’t tell the pollster is the night that J.D. Vance spoke I sat down to watch the convention and I fell asleep while he was on! So there may have been other, more noteworthy take-aways for me if I hadn't slept through his appearance. I did catch some of the highlights later that night but I've been watching both the Republican and Democratic conventions with every election since they've been televised so I felt bad about missing an important part of this one.

After the questions about the Republicans the pollster started in on Biden. She didn't ask me if I thought he should drop out of the race and that omission seemed telling to me. A hint about who contracted the poll? I asked that question but the pollster she said they are not given that information. She did ask me about six other Democrats going up against Trump and how I would vote. For example if the election was between Harris and Trump which one would I pick? If you're a long time reader of this blog you'll know I wouldn't vote for Trump if he was running for the county dog catcher. Which reminds me there was a funny meme on Facebook about Babydog, the bulldog that the governor of West Virginia was pulling around the convention floor in a cart. The meme said something about him keeping the dog away from Kristi Noem, the woman who was on Trump's short list for V.P. She's the North Dakota governor who bragged in her autobiography about how she shot the family's 18 month old puppy in a gravel pit because "he was untrainable." She thought it made her look like she was strong enough to make the tough decisions but it just made her look thickheaded for not taking the advice of her editor and others telling her not to include it. Even after they pointed out the uproar that Mitt Romney caused when a photo surfaced of him on vacation with the family dog in a cage strapped on top of his station wagon, she wouldn't back down about putting the puppy killing in her book. Killing that dog also made her look cold-hearted for not re-homing it to someone who just wanted a family pet and not a hunting dog.

There was only one question I refused to answer and the pollster came back to it three times before giving up. It was the one about do you think the country is headed in the right direction. I've always hated that question because 'the right direction' is too ambiguous. If you answer 'no' they assume you are not happy with the party currently in power. But I think you can say 'no' meaning you're not happy with how the government in general has become so Tribal and how 'compromise' has become a dirty word. We've been on that trend since 2010 when Mitch McConnell announced to the world that his job as senate minority leader was to make sure that Obama was a one term president. That's when the party quit representing the people who elected them and the Cult of Personality was born in the Republican Party.  ©

Until Next Wednesday.... 

No matter how you vote, you've got to admit this meme is funny, given the fact that both Trump and Vance have immigrant wives

 

 

 

 

  

 

Sick to my Stomach Over the Debate!

By the time this post goes live the first presidential debate for the 2024 Biden vs Trump election will have been hashed over and dissected everywhere except maybe in outer space where it's still not known if there are little green creatures living there and if they are, have they 'cracked' our language enough to understand how seriously flawed this debate was? What is for certain is the 51 million people on earth watched that hour and an half Hot Mess in what CNN is saying was "both the highest-rated program and largest livestream event in CNN history." But like I've said many times in the past I often write to help me sort out my emotions so let this be a warning to anyone who is sick to dead of this topic, you may want skip reading this post. But I hope you don't.

There is no way around it, Biden (81) came out looking fragile and very early on he delivered a word salad at the end of a sentence and he never recovered from that faux pas, even though he stuck to the format of the debate and actually tried to answer the moderator's questions where Trump (78) employed an underhanded and nasty debate technique called The Gish Gallop. Wikipedia defines the Gish Gallop like this: "The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm their opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments ...with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments." I used to be on a debate team in college and I have no clue how anyone could ever successfully combat the number of lies and insults Trump threw out at a such a fast pace and usually with no relationship to the questions the moderator asked of Trump, leaving Biden looking befuddled and at a loss for words. Who wouldn't be?

CNN didn't live fact-check the debate because, they said, it was up to the candidates to call each other out on misleading and false stuff. The day after, however, Fact Checkers were going at it all over the place including at NPR that reported Trump's claim that food costs have "double, tripled and quadrupled" under Biden when it actually only increased 21%. NPR also said of Biden's claim that Trump's tariff proposal would drive consumer costs up $2,500 per household that it would actually range from $1,700 to $2,500 per year.

I could be here all day if I repeated all the false claims Trump made so I'll jump on the two most outrageous. 1) He denied that the Charlottesville march with the Proud Boys wearing swastikas and carrying tiki torches while chatting Nazi slogans ever took place, and 2) he claimed that the January Sixth Insurrection only "involved a relatively small number of people who where escorted in by the Capital Police." How on earth he gets his followers to believe lies like these when those events were both live on TV and documented on film by a wide number of trusted media sources is beyond understanding. It's scary that we live with so many low information people who believe the crap coming out of his mouth or worse yet, they don't care that he lies and insults his way through life.

The next day both men were at rallies hashing over the debate and Biden was a totally different person who looked and sounded strong and energetic. I truly wish that Biden had shown up at the debate. A couple of sources said he was fighting a cold the night before but I find it hard to believe a night's sleep would make that much difference unless he'd taken something for the cold before the debate. He admitted he isn't the debater he used to be or as young as he used to be but, he said, "I know right from wrong and how to tell the truth and how to get things done. When you get knocked down, you get back up!"

Obama put out a Facebook post after the debate that said much the same things. "Bad debate nights happen," he wrote. "Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November." 

I have to confess that watching the debate made me sick to my stomach. There's talk among the party big wigs about replacing the top of the ticket and there is still time to do that, but that process is messy. Here's what Reuters reported was said by Elaine Kamarck, from the Brookings Institute and a ranking member of the DNC. "He will not be nominated officially until later this summer, so there is still time to make a change and a handful of scenarios to enact one: Biden could decide himself to step aside before he is nominated; he could be challenged by others who try to win over the delegates he has accrued; or he could withdraw after the Democratic convention in Chicago in August, leaving the Democratic National Committee to elect someone to run against Trump in his place." Doing it after the convention would be less messy and would present a more united front. Governor Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg or Governor Gretchen Whitmer are mentioned by most sources as the most likely to get voted in at the top of the ticket. This all makes me feel better that we aren't locked into running the Biden who showed up at the debate, should he show up more often in the next few weeks. 

But I'll be perfectly honest here, I'd prefer it if Biden stepped down but if he doesn't I will vote for him over Trump even if Joe is in a coma. Our Democracy is at stake and that is NOT hyperbolic. Trump's a dangerous threat to our entire system of government. Especially now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the president has "absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts, even if done corruptly or in violation of the criminal laws," as Chief Justice Robert wrote in the majority ruling.

Trump plans to gut the FBI, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue, do away with the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, undo all the climate control protocols set in place, not to mention how he'll continue to destroy women's reproductive rights. All that and his allegiance to the NRA, Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation that has already made serious inroads into watering down our Supreme Court will fundamentally change the character of our country from a Democracy to Authoritarian government at best, or a Dictatorship at its worst. And let's not forget that the next president also will get to appoint two Supreme Court justices because Thomas and Alito want to retire. 

This election is the most important one in our lifetime. We all need to stay informed and help people understand that we must go to the polls this fall if for no other reason than for the down-ballot people. Which party controls the House and Senate are is going to be crucial no matter who is elected our 47th president.

Until Next Wednesday. ©

Footnote: I just saw this posted on Facebook by Kati Berg: "I have fond memories of the last time Trump was in office ….. refrigerator trucks full of bodies.”about 100,000. Food shortages, people fighting over toilet paper. And essential workers, being sacrificed. Isolation. School shootings . Good times. "

From Barbie-Pink Gloves to the Proud Boys and The Cult

Sitting at my computer I was racking my brain for a topic to write about when down the road came an 18-wheeler flatbed with six U-Boxes and a Donkey on top. The giant U-Haul rig parked directly across from my windows. And before I get any farther along I should explain to anyone who might be confused that the Donkey was the four wheeler kind, not the four legged kind. In other words a Donkey brand forklift was attached to the back of the rig extending the normal 72 feet length of an 18-wheeler out another 5-6 feet.

I've see moving vans and trucks of all sizes and descriptions parked across from my windows. It's one of the few downsides of having a main floor apartment near a building's entry door. But like many other things this can be a two-sided coin. It's an advantage to, say, a gossipy-type person who loves to see other people's possessions paraded by her windows or it could be a disadvantage to a person who likes the tranquil view of the woods on the other side of the road and green space that, on occasions, gets blocked by a wall of metal and rubber. 

I normally don't care what is loaded or unloaded outside my windows unless it's a person into an ambulance. But the driver of this particular rig caught and held my attention. She was a petite thing with a bouncing blonde ponytail and as she jumped down from the driver's seat and walked back to the Donkey she pulled on a pair of Barbie Pink work gloves that made me smile from ear to ear. And in no time at all she had that Donkey down on the ground and whipped it around to unload one of the U-Boxes. I held my breath thinking if she didn't turn her load just right she'd end up backing into my windows but my fear was short-lived. She was good---no, she was great at her job. She handled herself with the confidence of a tattooed, biker-bar bouncer and she parked that U-Box in the designated space with the ease and precision of a Victorian era maid setting a table for high tea. And like the Amazon drivers do after delivering a package to our mail room, she took a photo of her delivered U-Box, then she drove the Donkey back to its hookup brackets and straps and she was back on the road in less than six minutes from when she arrived.

It hit me that what I was seeing was the results of the second wave of the Feminism Movement that I was a part of back in '60s and '70s. We have equal opportunities for women in the labor force now that we didn't have back then, but not without getting some societal stretchmarks from people like The Proud Boys who feel they are being left behind or out-shined by women. That's an over simplification, of course, because the Proud Boys don't just hate women. They also hate transgenders, Muslims, immigrants and they are hardcore White Supremacists. Wouldn't it be nice if they died out for lack of breeding opportunities. I can't imagine a woman as capable and confident as my Barbie U-Haul Driver being attracted to a guy who spends his weekends playing soldier in the woods and planning for an Armageddon.

Still, social anthropologists who study hate groups like this say the danger is thinking that all hardcore racists are contained in these pocket groups that can be tracked. I, for one, have a hard time taking them seriously because their very name says they are proud that they haven't matured into fully functioning men---men who take responsibility for their own life choices instead of blaming go-getters like Ms Barbie Pink Gloves and so-called 'woke' people and others who don't look like them. In the meantime we forget that the Proud Boys have aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents and other family members who have the same agenda of hate, but they keep a low profile. They are quietly running for offices on school boards, in townships and counties all over the country. They might not wear labels like the Proud Boys or even think of themselves as racists, but they are also in this culture war, while those of us on the other side are blissfully and willfully ignoring them as if they are as insignificant as a fly bussing around a family picnic table.

According to a website that tracks the Proud Boys we should be afraid of them and their extended orbit if Trump gets re-elected. Even though the January Sixth Insurrection decentralized the group when many of their leaders ended up with long prison terms, Trump is now promising to pardon them all if he's re-elected. In other words he's blowing his dog whistle again for them to stand back and stand by. 

Because the Proud Boys are equal opportunists when it comes to hating others, their members belong to a wide variety of other, more targeted hate groups as well and that's one of the main factors that helped coordinate activities that resulted in our first Insurrection at the Capital. I say "first" because it will happen again if Trump doesn't win our next election. Maybe the mobs won't be as big or maybe they're bring bigger weapons or both. But hopefully, the powers that be will be ready this time. 

<Rant On> Those of us who value democracy cannot stay complacent. We cannot stay silent! We must do what we can, while we still can, to get people to tune into what is at stake with the coming election. All the gains we've made in Equal Opportunities for women and people of color in the last 50 years will be undermined if the Democrats lose. Not to mention reproductive freedom is at stake. All the strides we've made towards cleaning up the planet will be turned back, and Trump is promising to throw out the Affordable Health Care Act along with getting rid of the regulatory agencies that protect our water, food chain and medical supplies. His plans to round up immigrants is literally right out of the 1930's Nazi handbook.

Biden may have made mistakes but he's a moral man of honor who we can trust to surround himself with good people should he die in office. Where Trump is a man with no moral compass who the first time around surrounded himself with people who are now either sitting in prison or who have come out against ever letting Trump near the Oval Office again. The polls all say that these two men are running neck to neck and that means too many people are turning a blind eye to the dangers of another Trump term. So those of us who aren't under the spell of the Trump Cult need to step up to the plate and help them see we're on the Crazy Train headed toward Fascism. We do that by speaking up whenever we are given the opportunity. We can, we must be willing to have some uncomfortable conversations with the goal of helping our Democracy to survive. The world does not need another immoral dictator. <Rant Off> 

Until Next Wednesday.  ©