Dear Joe Cunningham...

Dear Joe,

You know how tickled we all were when you were elected to serve in Congress.  We Dems fought hard for you, even those like me who do not live in your district (I was gerrymandered out).  You ran a great campaign, and your stand on the issues was stellar.  You did not back off on any of those issues Dems in the past have tiptoed around, like women's reproductive rights and gun control.

The only time you blinked was when you caved to the republican's "Operation Nancy Pelosi."  I'm thinking that in the heat of the campaign, you may not have realized that people like Donald Trump are playing with you.  They want you to think opposing Pelosi is your idea, when it is truly what they want you to do more than anything in the world.

You're young and you may not know the history behind the demonizing of Nancy Pelosi, so let me give you a little background.  Back in 2010, Michael Steele, then chairman of the Republican Party (before they threw him under the bus), was the genius behind the "Fire Pelosi" campaign.  It happened after she got Obamacare passed by one vote; given the narcissism and back-biting that was going on it was amazing that she could herd that bunch of cats.  It scared the bejeezus out of republicans.

So Steele decided to create a campaign that turned Nancy Pelosi into the spawn of Satan, i.e., a liberal.  They were the RNC, the Republican National Committee, and they did a bus tour and everything.  Most important, all the republicans got on board, if not the bus, the strategy.  It was the same unified voice that you hear when they talk about Pelosi today.  Because they didn't get rid of her, but they got lots of press, and they taught their base to equate Pelosi with a dirty word.  Of course, it had no basis in fact; they didn't need any.  It worked brilliantly.

It worked so well that Mark Sanford decided it would be more advantageous to run against Pelosi in a 2013 special election than against his real-life opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch.  He still reeked from the Appalachian Trail bullshit that he wore when he left the governor's office.  Colbert Busch was smart and sound on the issues.  He could not have beat her.  But Sanford always has a gimmick up his sleeve, and those good ole boys enjoyed the gag.  So he beat Pelosi, or, the republicans' caricature of her.

Joe, I was taken aback when I saw the campaign ad in which you had a white male stereotype say that he was a republican but because you were against Pelosi he was voting for you.  I imagine you -- and a number of Dems that I know -- believe you could not have won if you hadn't thrown Nancy under the bus.  But I believe you were the butt of Michael Steele's scam, the one that has been working on Dems all these years.

A few weeks ago, around the time you and a bunch of young  Dems, mostly men, signed that ridiculous letter urging Pelosi not to run for leadership, Michael Steele was interviewed on AM Joy.  When Reid asked him why his Pelosi strategy worked so well on Democrats he laughed and said, "I don't know; I'm trying to figure that out myself."  Please take two minutes and listen to the video.  It is indeed an eye-opener.

This strategy has worked before.  Mitch McConnell would not be spreading his evil today if Alison Lundergan Grimes had not decided to run from Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act.  Lord knows, Trump could never have beaten Hillary if she hadn't had thirty years of republicans building her into the kind of evil genius that could do anything; anything, that is except win the presidency.

And they can't -- THEY CAN'T -- do it without the help of Democrats.

Right now, Nancy Pelosi is the nightmare that keeps the republican party -- and Donald Trump -- up at night.  She is smart and masterful.  She believes in the same causes and issues that you believe in.  She will fight, and win, when she is Speaker.  It's not a fantasy.  It is Pelosi's resume.

Stephen Lynch was one of the Dems who signed that silly letter.  He met with Pelosi, and changed his mind.  If that doesn't give you pause, you are not the reasonable man I think you are.

Trump will go down with his wall because he believes that is what gave him his victory.  He doesn't have the capacity to look around and see that he isn't the president of a rally.  He can't put together all the factors that got him to the White House.

Opposing Nancy Pelosi did not win your election, Joe.  Being on the right side of the issues against a woman who was both mean and dumb was what did it.  Oh, and as much as I hate to say it, if she were a mean, dumb white man instead of a woman he would have won.

But the time is right for progressive ideas, and you transported enough people to put you in Congress.  Fight for those progressive ideas, and be sure to make headlines letting us know what you are doing for us.  Keep an eye on Pelosi, because she will teach you how to win, again and again, against all odds.

And Joe, you will need those skills.  Mark Sanford isn't going anywhere.  All he knows how to do is be on the public dole.  We couldn't believe it when he went from disgrace in the governor's office to win back a House seat.  But that is what he does.  He has not stopped running.  He will be there in 2020.  If you don't proudly own being a progressive Democrat, you will just be seen as a watered down republican.  If you throw Nancy Pelosi under the bus, if you fight her on key issues instead of standing by her and helping her win, I can guarantee you will have a short life in Congress.  And that would be a shame.

We had the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.  We lost Congress because we wouldn't stand together.  Republicans have the bluster, but we have the causes.  The economy, our standing in the world, our treatment of children, democracy itself for gods' sake, there is no issue we should not stand for proudly.  I can't say enough how important it is -- to the electorate -- to see you all stand together, in strength.  Going up against the most powerful Democratic leader ever is not a good way to start.  So I urge you to do the right thing.  Admit that now that you have seen Pelosi in action, up close, you will be supporting her.

You may have won because just enough republicans voted for you, but if you lose the enthusiasm we Dems felt for you in 2018, you don't have a chance.

Best of luck in your new job.

Sincerely,
The Ironic Cherry

Creepy Congress

Corrupt, sleazy liars.  We could all go on and on.  It has reached a point these days, between sexual harassment and blatantly stealing from the American people to add millions to their donors' wealth, that words fail me and I have had to resort to verbal emoticons:

Ugh.  Yuch.  Blech.  Euwww.

It is really inconceivable that Mitch McConnell has been able to get away with bending and breaking rules so flagrantly.  But it is happening.  Congress is now made up of salivating dogs that haven't even swallowed their tax cuts and are already sniffing for the next meals, Social Security and Medicare.

Gross.  Disgusting.  Sick.

And as if raping our country wasn't enough to turn our insides, we have lately been forced to confront what every-damn-body knows about men's scorn for women.  And Democrats, no surprise, are complicit.

So let me just vent a little about what we have all known as acceptable behavior until now, and just how STUPID it is.

Men continue to treat women nursing babies as though they are committing a dirty act, and don't allow it in public.  That asshole contaminating our White House actually made a point of being grossed out because Hillary needed a bathroom break during a debate.  But apparently it is a THING for men to lounge around their offices without their pants on.  After all, LBJ lowered that bar by insisting that staff talk to him while he was on the toilet, with the door opened.  Although, to my knowledge, it was just male staff to whom he was giving the benefit of his full perspective.

What the fuck are they thinking?

It's funny -- not haha funny but sad, pathetic funny -- that I heard no one during the debates about John Conyers and his need to allow his private parts to breathe, wonder why the hell he didn't lock his damn door.

African Americans have known all along that white folk behaved as though they were inconsequential, invisible.  And that that behavior was intended to put them in their place.  Women, we need to recognize that men have been doing that to us.

From the coining of the words mansplaining to manspreading, the younger generation of women has been letting us know that they have caught on.  Panels of old white men making laws about our genitals and reproductive systems is obscene.  More important, it reinforces the message that they know better than us, and reminds us in no uncertain terms that they are in charge.

So it really shouldn't have come as a surprise that Trent Franks had asked female staff about inseminating them, offering money for the service.  What IS surprising is that it was only when the women were concerned that he was talking about sex, not artificial insemination, that they decided to go to the House Ethics Committee.  Because, after all, asking a member of your staff to impregnate themselves for you without sex would have been okay.

What the #MeToo movement has done is shown in more ways than we could have ever comprehended, how not just overtly sexual but also ridiculously inappropriate behaviors have shamed and stifled women.

We have indeed only scratched the surface of the sexism that kept Hillary out of the White House.  I am glad that the accusations of sexual harassment by creepy Matt Lauer led to us all taking a second long look at his condescension and bullying of Hillary Clinton during a candidates' forum.  But what of Chuck Todd, who could not say a critical word about Donald Trump without stating that Trump and Hillary were the most disliked candidates in history; of course, much of the distrust of Hillary came not from any proof ("I don't know why; I just don't trust her") but from comments like those of Chuck Todd.

And, women, we have to stop making excuses.

I had a really hard time with Al Franken.  My excuse: the incident happened before he was senator, and his whole schtick had been pushing the edge.  In fact, Leeann Tweeden accepted Franken's apology as sincere and stated it had not been her wish to have him removed from office.  And, except for the stupid and gross behavior that he sees as comic and women see as, well, stupid and gross, he is an amazing progressive senator who has stood strong for women's rights.

That's where all this gets tough.  We have lost Franken in the Senate and may well end up with the homophobic pervert Roy Moore.  And let us not forget the sexual predator that is contaminating the White House.

So I suggest that:

1.  We keep talking.  There are no right and wrong answers.  Not yet.  There will always be fuzzy lines, but there can be a lot more clarity, as long as we keep insisting on being heard.  As long as we are not afraid to argue; the differences will lead to clarity in time.

2.  We learn to say NO.  The saddest thing about Leeann Tweeden's experience was that a professional woman was unable to immediately and unequivocally tell Franken to knock it off.  Women need to learn to do it.  And we need to make sure our daughters are able to do it.  Without fear of repercussion.

3.  We insist on real consequences.  Right this very minute, while Paul Ryan is having wet dreams at the thought of killing Social Security and Medicare, Mitch McConnell is chuckling over the fact that the Dems have lost two strong progressive voices in Congress and he is about to gain one demented sexual predator, who, like the other one he supported, will endorse any piece of shit bill the republicans push through.  And, for that matter, it is time to get rid of the Congressional slush fund that pays, through our tax dollars, for findings of misconduct.

Yes, that's right.  Congress has its own special deal with the US Treasury that fines levied due to findings of misconduct will be paid with tax dollars.  WHAT THE HELL IS THAT???

A few weeks ago, Saturday Night Live had an hilarious sketch featuring "Claire from HR."  Laugh your ass off, and then listen to it again, because, absurdly, this is reality.

There is so much misogyny in all workplaces, yet it seems fitting that we begin by shining the light on the swamp creatures in Congress.  After all, by being charged with making the laws that we live by, they have come to see themselves as above the law.  Their behavior has become more egregious, their stated intent to ignore our needs more blatant, as this sick Trump administration blunders forward.

It is fitting that on January 21, women led the way to resistance, and we will continue to fight for what is right.  Respect for women should be our top priority.

Because as Hillary Clinton said, "Women's rights are human rights."   

The Thing About Health Care

First of all, let me just say that “health care” and “health insurance” are two different things.  But somewhere along the way, we have started to call health insurance, health care.

I remember the days when a health insurance plan did not necessarily provide a person with health care.  There were abominable deductibles and co-pays, and lots and lots of health care that just wasn’t covered.  Remember that?  It wasn’t so long ago.

And then, to republicans’ great consternation, Obamacare required minimum standards that were actually standards and not rip-offs.  The complaint from the right-wing was not at all about quality of care, it was about… freedom of choice.  That’s right.  The government was telling you that you would no longer be allowed to buy a sub-standard health insurance plan.

Shortly after the ACA became a real thing, I heard a guy at the optometrist’s office complaining to the receptionist about his Obamacare.  “I do get more stuff covered,” he admitted, grudgingly.

But now the good old days are coming back.  We consumers will once again have freedom of choice, by which I mean freedom to choose health insurance that you can afford even if it doesn’t really provide adequate health care, and even the freedom to be uninsured.  "Boy howdy!" as Rachel Maddow would exclaim.

And then there is the current big debate among the majority lawmakers over tax credits.  What tax credits mean is that when you pay your taxes, you will get a credit for a certain amount to go towards payment for health insurance.  So, if your health insurance costs $3,000 a year, you would have to pay $3,000 less in taxes.  Sounds good, right?

But suppose your income is so low that you only owe $1,000 in taxes?  What happens to that other $2,000 of health insurance cost?  That, friend, is what our lawmakers are bickering about.  The less evil among them believe the government should pick up the other $2,000, while the Ted Cruzes and Paul Ryans -- we know who you are -- believe we should just go suck eggs.

Until the ACA came along, Medicaid covered low-income seniors, children and the disabled.  If you were an adult working, say, at McDonald's, and you were most likely not earning a living wage, you most likely couldn't afford health insurance and you did not qualify for Medicaid.  For much of the country, Obama's Medicaid expansion changed that, providing federal dollars to cover those whose earnings put them somewhere between a rock and a hard place.

Republicans saw the injustice in providing health insurance to the working poor, however, and got the Supremes to agree that governors could decide whether or not they would take the free money.  And some of those anti-tax governors just could not go along with taking tax dollars, especially if they weren't going to benefit big corporations.  Here in South Carolina, where Nikki Haley refused to accept the Medicaid expansion, that meant you qualified if you earned less than $12,000 a year, and had less than $7,300 in savings.  So I am thinking (and this whole thing is about as clear as earwax) that if you are a low-income worker in SC, the good news is you may be no worse off after Congress and Trump get done with health insurance.

Sadly, that will be true for a whole lot more Americans.  And for those of us whose income qualified them for health insurance through the ACA, tax credits will mean a lot more of us will be falling through the cracks.  The good news about this, though, is that those fools will probably also repeal the mandate, so if you can't afford health insurance, you won't get fined for not being able to buy it.

The republican congress did not show up much in the eight years of Obama's presidency.  Mostly they were there to block any proposals made by the president and congressional Democrats.  That meant filling their time with lots of votes to repeal Obamacare.  These days I have heard more than once that they are like the dog that caught the car.  And I am really proud to say that, beginning with the Woman's March on January 21, we have been a big part of their problem.

We have shown up at town halls, made phone calls, protested, marched, written letters to the editor, and pretty much kept legislators awake nights wondering how they can sneak this travesty by us while we are watching their every move.

Apparently, even the Americans who voted R have finally woken up to see that something they need badly is being snatched out of their hands.

There is a lot of crap flying these days.  We are trying to fight as much of it as we can.  There are bad things that will happen.  For awhile, corporations will be having a big party, overindulging and then throwing up all over our country.  The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer, until those of us who have been buying the stuff that make the plutocrats fat can't afford it anymore.  It happened in 2008.

But this time we anticipated it, and we didn't just let it get reported in the news.  We took to the streets, and we are fighting it.  I don't know if the republicans are going to be able to turn health care into the tragedy it was before the ACA, or if they will just mangle it beyond recognition.  I do know that their decision will take them down.

And then we get to build it again.

Searching for the Democratic Party

If you haven't thrown your hat in the ring for the position of Chair of the Democratic Party, apparently it is not too late.  Yesterday I saw yet another candidate being interviewed on MSNBC and I yelled at the television, "And who the hell are YOU?"

While puppet Donald Trump is turning our government over to Vladimir Putin and Steve Bannon, while Americans are protesting the horrors of the promised anti-immigration decrees, our Democratic Party is still debating who will run it.

You may not recall that in Florida, the National Democratic Party last year chose not to waste its time throwing support behind Patrick Murphy, even though Marco Rubio had been scalded during his run for president, and Murphy was a solid candidate.  Had they put some energy into that campaign, it might have given us another senator; it might also have helped Hillary win Florida.  Just sayin'.

Then, after the election, when the country was shocked at the "victory" of Donald Trump and looking for a way out, the Democrats were nowhere to be found in Louisiana's December runoff for Senate between republican John Kennedy and Democrat Foster Campbell.  Unlike a game of Where's Waldo? the Democratic Party wasn't even hiding in the crowd; meanwhile both Trump and Pence were out stumping for what was pretty much an assured win.  Here's the thing:  it may not have resulted in a win for Campbell, but it would have proven that the Democratic Party wasn't going down without a fight.  BECAUSE IT WAS JUST THAT IMPORTANT.

And in Georgia, we now have Rep. Tom Price who is likely to be confirmed for Secretary of Health and Human Services on Tuesday.  Two issues here:  Price is an animal.  He is a physician who wants physicians and pharmaceutical companies to be able to set prices for services under Medicare until, that is, he takes down Medicare.  And by the way, he is determined to rid us of the Affordable Care Act once and for all.  With Donald Trump's blessing he will fulfill the dream of Speaker Paul Ryan.  Number two is that he is leaving an opening on the House of Representatives.

In a district where Donald Trump won by only one percent, there will be a special election for a House seat.

As a Democrat I can barely conceal my excitement.  This is an opportunity we surely can't pass up.  Can we?

At a time in our country when Americans are more dissatisfied and suspicious of their president then they have been since the end of the Nixon years, and for good reason, the Democratic Party should be front and center of this fight.  Instead, I heard one Democrat saying that the people were taking care of things with their protests.  WHAT???

Democrats RIGHT NOW have the opportunity to save the country.  They should be educating and confronting the media constantly about the freedoms that are at stake in the abomination that is called the Trump administration.  There should not be a day when there is not a pronouncement by members of the Democratic Party in our major newspapers and our nightly news.

This is not a time to try to appear reasonable.  There are enough reasons for outrage over the actions of this illegitimate president.  The author of that uncompromising assessment, John Lewis, is a true leader of the party and the country.  But after his comments about Trump's legitimacy, he was invited to meet with Trump.  As he answered questions about that upcoming meeting, I was horrified to hear caution instead of outrage, if not actual walking back, a measured, "we'll see."  Which, by the way, is how the Trump power game works.

I don't believe I have ever had a criticism about Elizabeth Warren, until now.  Apparently, being incompetent is not a reason for a no vote for a cabinet position.  She defended her vote for idiot savant Ben Carson in something that sounded like, "at least he hasn't said he wants to get rid of the department he has been appointed to lead."  She didn't actually say that, but I am hearing what I've never heard from Warren, compromise and a willingness to accept the low bar of the Trump administration.

Again, to all the Democrats that are trying to appear reasonable by voting for Trump appointees that are not total Nazis:  it is not about whether they could be trusted to not destroy the department they will be heading.  It is not even about competence.  It is about the fact that they are being appointed by a president who is indeed illegitimate.

At this time, Democrats should be refusing to cooperate with republicans until there is "extreme vetting" of this clown president and his minions.  Steve Bannon is now running the Oval Office.  And in the latest move to privatize and take over the White House, Trump has given Bannon the power to reorganize the National Security Council.  The first of these measures will be to remove the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, from NSC meetings. The excuses given are the intention to reduce the bloated council and to free up principals' time.  We can also look at it as the logical conclusion by a man who gets bored at Daily Briefings.  But this actually represents the consolidating of control of Trump's White House under Steve Bannon, the brains behind the bully.  And the exclusion of any members of the security team that might present arguments or opposing views.  Or who might feel the need to inform members of Congress or the American people when something is going very wrong.

Democrats, it is absurd that you are still fighting over control of the party when our democratic process is being dismantled.  Now is the time to get in the face of the republican Congress and challenge them to investigate -- immediately -- if not impeach -- Trump.  This is the time to hound the media constantly about what is going on behind closed doors.

Members of Congress have taken to leaving their mailboxes full and sneaking away from angry constituents.  Bernie Sanders, who is no longer a Democrat but an Independent, has sent out the following message:


If you're getting a full voice mailbox when calling your senator or congressman, Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to know about it. His office is tracking these, as it appears that some of these full mailboxes remain that way intentionally. Reach his D.C. office at 202-224-5141.

Why are the Democrats not all over this?  Perhaps it is because they are still spinning over what is wrong with the Party?  Let me suggest that this, in fact, is the answer.

Know Your Enemy

The Ironic Cherry reads...

Trump Revealed

by Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher

In its wisdom, The Charleston County Library acquired Trump Revealed one week before the election.  I was first on the waiting list, but happy to see that they had at least ordered several copies.  It is an easy read.  As it turns out, there is absolutely nothing about Donald Trump that is complicated.  But it was still hard for me to swallow, so I paced myself at thirty pages a day, after which I still felt I needed a shower.

Then came election day, and I decided to set it aside, and finish it after a few days, when the need was no longer so pressing.  As if.

Please, please, please read this book.  It is written by two Washington Post journalists, with the contributions of many more Post writers.  Each took a topic from Trump's life and thoroughly researched it.  So we have good insights and information on Trump's father, Fred, and his immigration to America through his real estate career.  Donald at his side, learning the family business, and then to military academy, and then branching off into his own career.

Though we have learned a great deal of Trump history over the past year and a half there is detail in this book that adds much important information, both in understanding the personality and in all the controversies we have heard about.

It was Donald Trump's father that went through the Depression, but Trump retains that penny-pinching need to accrue ever greater wealth that we associate with survivors of that depression.  The authors describe the Spy Magazine prank in which they sent celebrities checks for miniscule amounts to see who would cash them -- Trump cashed a check for 13 cents.  On a grander scale, it explains his lack of charitable giving, and his use of Trump Foundation funds for personal acquisitions.

On the other hand, while he is truly cheap, Trump has a strong need to be perceived as "rich."  He has sued publications for asserting that he is not as wealthy as he claims.  His denials of help from his father are vehement, and false.

Which leads to his lies.  And Donald Trump is a compulsive liar.  He lies even when he has nothing to gain from it.  He lies unflinchingly when he senses opportunity, either to win someone over or knock someone down.

The authors describe an aspect of Trump's manipulation of people that I found particularly interesting and clarifying.  If he perceives someone as threatening to him (and yes, we all know about his thin skin), he will attack.  Attack with insults, threats and lawsuits.  But quite often, after some time has passed, he will reach out to that person, complimenting him for example on what a talented individual he is, and inviting him to partner with him.

We look on in puzzled horror as Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and all the other spineless members of the republican party have caved.  Trump has perfected this type of manipulation in his life in business, and weak-kneed politicians who are concerned only with self-preservation are proving to be easily sucked in.

He is NOT smart, but he has the narcissistic fine tuning of the successful bully that picks up weaknesses, twists arguments, throws his weight around, pits people against each other to his advantage, and when the time is right, uses sweet talk to seal the deal.

I am watching the manipulations with members of Congress unfold, and while it is not rocket science, Trump's tactics work.

Our liberal defenders need to understand what is happening.  And we need to understand as well, because we are the ones who will be in a position to explain to other Americans what is happening.  The better to defend ourselves from the onslaught of the what Paul Ryan yesterday gleefully referred to as the unified republican party.

So please make time to read this important book...

...even if you can only stomach a few pages at a time.  And even if you have to set it face down -- as I did -- when you aren't reading.

Being Invisible

It was comical after Wednesday's Democratic debate, to watch MSNBC political hosts and pundits dance around the fact that Bernie Sanders has more supporters than Hillary.  They have mostly been ignoring his growing and extremely enthusiastic followers despite huge crowds and numbers -- and amounts -- of donations to his campaign.  They have been ignoring this despite the fact that he is accomplishing this without the celebrity and fortune of Donald Trump.

So when several focus groups agreed that after the debate they would support Bernie over Hillary, the media continued to report Hillary as "the winner" of the debate.  I heard a pundit rationalize that just because people in focus groups say they support someone it doesn't mean they will go out and vote for them.  Okay, I guess that could be said for all the brouhaha about Donald Trump as well as his sidekick, idiot savant Ben Carson.

But look who has noticed Bernie Sanders.  Donald Trump, the following day, called him a "maniac" that is forcing "poor Hillary" to the left -- "this socialist-slash-communist."  And, by the way, this maniac that is pushing Hillary around is just not the "tough, strong leader" that we need.

While we might not call Trump logical or rational, what he does have is a very sharp awareness of threat, and a subsequent instinct about how to attack and manipulate that threat.  Call it his cutthroat business sense, or maybe just his success at being a bully.  So when Trump takes notice and begins to attack Bernie Sanders, it is safe to assume that he recognizes the threat.

When is the media going to get it?  Time and again we have seen the media snowed by the loudest voice, the predominant story, the words of the powerful and/or the wealthy.  Take their focus on candidate Trump.  How many times did we watch segments wherein the media couldn't believe all the attention Donald Trump was getting from the media?  They have their story and by gods they are sticking by it, regardless of the facts.

The facts being that Bernie gets the largest crowds, the greatest number of donations, the most hits on Twitter, the loudest cheers of all the Democratic candidates.  That pundits were reporting Hillary as the winner of the debate after hearing the audience response (remember the old applause meter?) meant that they may have been hearing but they sure weren't listening.

Speaking of applause meters, back in 1980, I would watch Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  As the presidential election approached, each night he would ask the audience to clap if they were voting for Carter, and then if they were voting for Reagan.  The applause was always, always far louder for Reagan.  And Carson would look astonished and chuckle.

The media is doing that now for Donald Trump, and I am not finding it all that funny.  My own sense of self-preservation and denial kick in and I think, "Well, that doesn't mean they are going to get out and vote for him."  Yes, sadly, the idiots that can find their way to the town halls and the stadiums to cheer for his hate-filled nonsense can -- and will -- find their way to the polls.  But I am hoping that there is a lot more noise than substance, that those republicans who are embarrassed by Trump are many, and they are not seeking attention.  And that when a strong candidate presents on the other side, all those wackos will stay home and watch Trump and Fox News on TV.

On the other hand, we Democrats aren't comfortable welcoming success to our house.  I have talked with far too many who say they like Bernie but can't vote for him because he can't win.  And yet the enthusiasm among younger voters is very much like that for Barack Obama in 2008.  Are we really willing to reject a candidate we like, refuse to see the groundswell of support he is getting because it does not match our expectations?

When Obama won in 2008, with an increase in the majority of both House and Senate, Democrats were smug in their assumption that the republicans had been put down.  Oh we did laugh when John Boehner said "Hell, no you can't!" in his opposition to the health care bill.  And we were amazed at the gall when Mitch McConnell in the Senate said that the number one goal of the republican party should be to see that Obama did not get a second term.  Well, Obama did not back down on health care, although too many Democrats in Congress did, and the result was that Obama won his second term and became stronger, and the Democrats in Congress were left in the dust.  Not surprisingly the ones most likely to get dumped were the ones most afraid to stand tall as Democrats.

So here's the thing about Bernie.  I'm fine with him being ignored by the media, but he has shown himself to be quite capable of handling the inevitable attacks on his "socialism."  The people know he's out there, and a lot of us are behind him.  Hillary is a fine candidate and would make a fine president, but Bernie is that much better for not ever having to be tempted to be beholding to Wall Street and corporate donors.  He has made it farther than any of us, including himself, thought possible, so who are we to jump to conclusions about the likelihood of his success?

I am 100 percent for Bernie Sanders.  He has as much chance as anyone to win the nomination, and more so if those of us who are worried about whether he can make it stop worrying and vote for him.

If he does not win the nomination, I will throw my support behind Hillary with no reservations.  But until then, I believe that Bernie Sanders is our best possible candidate, and that he can win both the nomination and the election (my god, look who he would be running against!).  And, as Obama did in 2008, Bernie will help us get back a Democratic Congress.

Meanwhile, isn't it wild being the party of the people, fearless and moving forward?

Failing Our Daughters

Imagine a teenage girl having sex.  I know, I know, she's had sex ed and been told not to.  Which has been proven to be as effective as the legal drinking age of 21.  So, as so many of us have done, she waits anxiously for her period, and it doesn't come.  Either she can or she can't tell her parents.  Or she can but she doesn't know that.

She doesn't say anything, except maybe to her boyfriend, who suddenly starts avoiding her.

If she goes to her guidance counselor, her parents will find out.

She can't go to a doctor, because the doctor would insist on telling her parents.

There was once a time, or should have been a time, or should currently be, clinics where teens can get accurate information about pregnancy, and told objectively about the options.  But that doesn't exist.

She tells a friend, who tells another friend, and, as Kurt Vonnegut might have said, so it goes.  The friends try to piece information together.  Somebody has heard that drugs for animals can cause abortions.  Another friend has heard of someone who swallowed lye.  Someone else suggested that she throw herself down the stairs.  They all agreed that she should wait and see; sometimes you just miss a period.

When there is absolutely no doubt that she is pregnant, she looks up some family clinic phone numbers.

At this point, when she turns the problem over to the adults, there is still no certainty that she will end up with accurate information and an objective counselor to go over her options.  If she is determined to have an abortion, she may not have the money.  She may end up talking to anti-abortion counselors who give her bad information.  She may not be able to get to an abortion provider.  Or she may end up, in desperation, swallowing lye.

Meanwhile, she has been depressed, distracted.  She may have continued to go to classes, but her grades have suffered.

Perhaps at some point her parents figure it out.  Recriminations followed by an insistence that she has the baby:  you got yourself into this.  She tries to believe this is the best thing.  Her mother is supportive one minute, angry the next.  Her father says she can stay at home with the baby, but then complains that he will have to take care of her and her kid.

If staying with her parents is intolerable, she may decide to go out on her own.  In some states, there is no health care available, or it is minimal and hard to find.  She can't get housing or food stamps.  There is no child care.  She takes what welfare she can, but it is hard to figure out where to go and how to apply.  When she does get assistance, it is not anywhere near enough to survive.  She doesn't eat well, she doesn't sleep well, she has never learned how to budget and has no resources to help her.  And she surely has no idea how to take care of a baby.

Lindsey Graham sent out an email yesterday bragging on the upcoming "fast-tracked" abortion ban vote.  This is part of an all-out blitzkrieg on women's reproductive rights in conjunction with voting to defund Planned Parenthood.  Once again, holding the government hostage by threatening a shutdown if Planned Parenthood is not defunded.  A Sophie's choice of which most desperately needed programs are going to be killed.

After Wednesday's republican debate, the media heralded Carly Fiorina as the "winner," because she was poised and spoke in complete sentences.  Women cheered her on for confronting Donald Trump for his crack about her face.  On the other hand, her comments about Planned Parenthood were complete fabrications.  Which fact-checking has gone pretty much unnoticed.

In this fictional right-wing world, it is all about saving "lives."  The government should be small and we should all celebrate our "freedom."  Unless we are women, or obstetricians.  Or teenage girls.

Accurate information and objective reporting or counseling has no place in 2015 America.

Here in South Carolina, where our legislature has finally passed a bill requiring accurate sex education be taught in the schools, the same determination is going into thwarting that law as that which went into civil rights laws integrating schools.  Charleston County, which is supposed to be a shining star in the redneck firmament which is South Carolina, has been outstanding in its efforts to avoid telling the truth to our teens regarding their bodies.

So that girl who makes the mistake of having unprotected sex is easily forgiven.  She is living in a world of denial and of falsehood.  She has nowhere that she knows she can turn because anyone that might help her find her way is threatened with firing or defunding.

Our choice.  Not hers. 

Just a Night's Escape

I know someone who has worked at Wal-Mart for some 18 years.  She works hard; along with back and knee pain she has recently been suffering from a heel spur.  She refuses to get a cortisone shot because the doctor refuses to write her an excuse to get three days off work so that she can stay off her feet while the shot is taking effect.

After 18 years, she makes about $17 an hour.  She will never make a penny more.  Her pay is capped, so that regardless of glowing evaluations, on which pay raises are based, she is not eligible for a raise.  Rather, she figures they are waiting for her to retire so that someone will do her job for much lower pay.

My friend doesn't live big.  She doesn't go away on vacation, she and her husband do their own home and car repairs when possible, and they live well within their means.  But every few months, they head out to Foxwoods Casino and spend a little money on the slots.  They budget how much they are going to spend and assume they will play and mostly lose, but they enjoy the night out.

This time at Foxwoods, they had an amazing night.  Early on, she won $400 and he won $800.  An hour later, she had won another $100 and he had won $400 more.  As they cashed in, they looked like two cats that had both swallowed canaries.

They made their way up to their room, trying very hard not to let others see their excitement, but when they got to their room, they burst into giggles, took pictures, exclaimed over and over how this had never happened before.

Then they hid the winnings.

Not too long after that, they became serious.  They began to talk about what they would do with the windfall.  They decided they were going to do a long awaited car repair and fix the floor in the kitchen.

This is the way it goes for most of us.  Those windfalls these days don't go towards a vacation or even a new car.  We plan to pay down the mortgage, to get that dental work done, to stash the money in a college account for the kids (and hope we don't need to take it out for an emergency).  People who spend too much money gambling or on the lottery are mostly dreaming of a life without burdensome bills and the fear of financial crisis, a life they will never have otherwise.

While the wealthy are stashing money offshore or on Wall Street where they don't have to pay the same taxes we do on our earnings, most of us are just trying to handle our financial obligations.  Our entertainments are modest, as are our plans for the next week, the next month, the next year.

It's just insulting to hear the wealthy and their paid representatives in Congress, most of whom have wealth and job guarantees that we will never dream of having, talk about how we need to pull in our belts.  The taxes they don't pay, that would turn our country around from what has thus far been an inexorable plunge to third world status, the profits they hoard, these fortunes are intended for their own children.  Who don't live by the same standards they expect our children to live by -- it's understood that they should not in their lives have to worry or even work to get by.

And here we are, in the twenty-first century, bad roads, mediocre education, being told we are lucky to live in this great country, with all this opportunity.  Where Exxon can hike the price of gas as high as it likes, but the government won't raise taxes for roads.  Where we are made to believe that we have to choose between jobs and environment.  Where big business controls us with groups like A.L.E.C. while they systematically get rid of our own unions.  And where those big corporate groups and politicians keep us fighting among ourselves over our right to medical privacy and religious freedom while they rape and plunder our country.

And all our hard work leaves us little time, energy or desire to fight for our rights.  So much to lose, and yet so little.   

Firing Up the Anti-Abortionist

Our Supreme Court once again today made it that much easier for anti-abortion fanatics to harass and endanger the welfare of persons entering and leaving abortion clinics.  To my dismay, but no longer my surprise, all nine justices agreed that a state cannot make legal a buffer zone around a clinic.

Obviously, these justices have not had the unique experience of attempting to walk through protesters to get into a medical facility that performs abortions.  If they had, they might understand that the claim that protesters merely "sought to have quiet conversations" with women entering the clinics was either purely fabrication or a mental break with reality.  Derisive shouts, cries of "murderer," pictures of bloody fetuses that misrepresent the actual procedure, all unwanted malicious harassment.  Were we to walk down the street window-shopping or on our way to lunch and be accosted by such a crowd, we would surely have the right to have the harassment stopped.  But pregnant women at a medical clinic have no such rights.  They are vulnerable, and they are the true victims.  Clinic workers have also been victimized:  attacked, even murdered, by fanatics who see it as their right and duty to stop those who perform abortions.  In fact, the Massachusetts law creating a buffer zone came to be because of harassment and violence at abortion clinics, including shootings.

The Supreme Court seems to think highly of freedom of speech.  In fact, the headless corporate beast with many and deep pockets has over recent years been given the right to free speech.  And here we have not just free speech, but the right to approach, uninvited, women who apparently do not have the right to not have to listen.  Just as the Westboro Baptist Church was allowed to defile the funerals of members of our military with their anti-gay obscenities, there is a line wherein freedom of speech becomes abuse of others.

Here's the hypocrisy:

Nowhere do our Supreme Court justices go where they are forced to be assaulted, or even approached, by unknown members of the public, not even for the purpose of seeking "to have a quiet conversation" with the justice.  Our members of Congress (supporters of gun rights who nonetheless approve of security checkpoints that disallow guns in Congress) even have a separate entrance to the halls of Congress so that they do not have to risk being approached by the commoner who would like to share an opinion.  When our presidents speak to us, dissenters have the right to protest -- in a cordoned off area far, far away from where they might be seen or heard.

I would like to suggest that our justices and our elected leaders follow the same rules that they inflict on we the people.  Whether it is making guns accessible or allowing protesters access, they should experience first-hand the effects of the laws and rulings that they make from their ivory towers.

Meanwhile, today's ruling is sure to fan the flames of psychotic rage that gives this small but tireless group of anti-abortionists  their raison d'etre.  And sadly, at some point, the words, vile enough on their own, will morph into acts of violence.  

Here's to the New Year, Just Like the Old Year

Don't be afraid to leave your laptops and TV's for awhile; nothing's going to change.  Just as before the holidays, our president is imploring our Congress to do the right thing by the long-term unemployed, and extend their benefits.  And Congress is being the stern daddy, saying we aren't going to give them a thing unless somebody pays for it.

I think that's a great idea.  And I think we should start with Congress.  They don't work too many more hours than a part-time Walmart employee, so we could start there.  Do you know just how many dollars it costs to support a member of Congress?  They have aides and aids so they don't have to read bills and follow the news; we give them time off so they can take care of their "families;" i.e. their political campaigns.  We pay for their meals and health care, their transportation -- limos and drivers, their communications and communications staff, and if you don't believe their time on the golf course is coming out of our pockets, well, you're probably going to vote them back into office in November.  Of 2014.

Imagine if a McDonald's worker, going to school or raising a family, had all those benefits.  Our communities would thrive because they'd be spending that money on good things like college and food and clothing.  They surely wouldn't be putting it into financial assets (whatever they are) that employ no one but some 25-year-old cocky Harvard MBA who gets paid even more than the Congressman he sets up financially.

And how about that farm bill those yahoos in Washington are still fighting over?  It's not that they can't see the relationship between growing food and being able to afford to buy food.  It's just that they don't see Big Agriculture as food, and that's because it isn't.  Those big farms don't grow food for people.  They grow corn for fuel because that's where the big bucks are.  The fields are deteriorating because of lack of diversity and overfertilizing, but that's because it's all about profit.  They sells seeds that can't be reproduced in the fruit that they produce because there is less profit if a farmer can collect seeds for next season.  If it can't be thrown out, if it can be reused, it's just not profitable.

Yet there are real farmers in this country and sadly, they also tend to oppose "handouts" for food stamps.  They work hard, they don't make the fortunes that the big corporate farms make, they are honest and believe in their work.  But many are also willing to use undocumented workers so they can pay them less.  You might say they need to do this to compete with corporate farms, and it is so.  But they are fighting the wrong battle.  Easier to pay desperate hard-working people lower wages than fight Monsanto and ConAgra, who will easily wipe out your farm with their lawyers.

And that takes us back to Congress and food stamps.  As long as they can get us fighting about those folks that can't afford to put food on the table without assistance, they not only have friends for life in the world of big agriculture, but they can pretend to be sticking up for the struggling local farmer.  Which local farmers would not be struggling without government throwing its weight behind the gigantic agricultural corporations.  And the other thing about keeping this "debate" about food stamps going, is that those folks we elected to serve us don't have to.  Serve us, I mean.

And that brings me back to the argument that we need to lower costs in the federal budget before we can fund food stamps.  Not including big agra, which is too big and powerful to defund.  So again, I say that the place to cut is Congress.  Not just the subsidized cafeteria, but the salaries that are frankly too big for someone who claims to represent the people.  We need a special committee to look at all the perks our members of Congress receive and start slashing them.  No perk is too small, because there are lots of them, and they add up.

Considering the way Congress whined in the spring over the inconvenience of closed and cutback airport services after their self-imposed sequestration, and the way certain of them talk about how those folks on food stamps have the easy life, I'd like to see how, say, Paul Ryan would deal with having to take a lunch hour and clock out and go buy a lunch that he doesn't have time to sit down and eat.  Granted it's not like having to skip a meal, but not having a staffer to fetch for him and not being able to take a couple hours to entertain wealthy constituents at lunch just might bring him to his knees.  And I would pay to see that.

Which is another way we can fund government services for the poor. 

Seriously Pro-Life? How About Some Gun Control?

Checking the headlines today:

A shooting death, possibly a drive-by, in Mount Pleasant, just reported.

And if that kind of gun violence doesn't bother you anymore, how about the six people shot in what appears to be a murder-suicide in Greenwood County?

For those of us who are truly pro-life, gun violence is the problem, not abortion.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found themselves avoiding the issue out of helplessness and horror.

But we are nearing the holiday season once again, that time of high stress and emotional lows.  We are nearing the anniversary of the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that on December 14, 2012 resulted in the killing of 20 children and six adults.

Yet our legislators continue to spout nonsense about God and being pro-life, while they have refused to make any but absurd contributions -- like allowing more guns in public places -- to the gun control effort.  They have shook the hands of Newtown parents and promised to do whatever they can to help, and then the majority have gone on to vote against ANY meaningful legislation.

I am writing about this today because despite my desire to ignore the horrific situation of our state and federal legislators helping to put guns in the hands of potential killers, we have to keep the issue alive.

As of yesterday, two more children in South Carolina are dead because an apparently depressed and disturbed individual had a gun.  How many more?

Pope Frank

When a priest in Italy tried to convince my imprisoned father to fight for Mussolini, he quit the Catholic Church.  My own break with the Church was far less dramatic and had to do with my father's insistence that I attend Mass even though he refused, and my unwillingness to get up early on Sunday morning.  I was also becoming more conscious of the hypocrisy that works its way through just about every aspect of the Church, most obviously the conspicuous wealth and power that seems to bang right up against the teachings of Jesus Christ at every turn.

The aspect of the Catholic Church that I am most proud of in fact is the ability of so many practitioners to reject what makes no sense.  Birth control?  Homosexuality?  Racial equality and integration?  The Church has been wrong before, and will be wrong again.  I think I'll deal with this on my own, thanks anyway.

So much to my surprise and wonder, this most conservative group of men select a pope that is very nearly an anti-pope.  The world -- my cynical self included -- is enthralled with this pope who does not just preach peace and love but walks the walk.  Fellow atheist Bill Maher fondly calls him "Pope Frank."

In a world in which reaching out is seen as weakness, inclusion as the work of the devil, and the poor and meek merely deserving of their bad fortunes, Pope Francis humbly disagrees.  He reminds us that he is not God, but attempts to represent God; perhaps the Church is infallible, but the man who represents the Church should not be one to judge.

So this new world leader rolls out some amazing comments.  Not only the predictable ones about the poor and war, but about gays and abortion.

That said, let me not appear unrealistically optimistic.  Pope Francis will not be likely to ever support a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy.  But he will not presume to support laws punishing women for having an abortion.  He will not be likely to condemn gay men and women for marrying but won't in the near future offer to perform the ceremony.

In fact, hot off the presses, the Pope has just excommunicated a priest for advocating gay marriage and female clergy.  Apparently the wheels of the Catholic Church move slowly and this has been in the works for years.  Even so, he's the Pope, he could have figured out how to put the brakes on this.  But he's said he was fallible, so maybe this is the proof.  I don't know, this is a little too much like Obama not being willing to run up against the bad boys in Congress.

So here we are, lapsed and intact Catholics all excited about having a Pope who seems to really care about people and not just perpetuating the power and the holdings of the Vatican.  I'm going to keep my eye on him though.  The most difficult job he is likely to have will be retraining those who work under him.  Centuries of greed and narcissism don't evolve easily into, well, Christianity.