The Way Forward

Dems, don't be afraid.  Don't be disconsolate.  Be angry.  Be unified.  Defend our media and our elected officials.

The Trump crime family, with Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and of course Donald at the helm, have had 3 weeks to plan an attack to offset all the investigations. They are going after Dems in Congress and the media with renewed energy after the partisan and highly censored Barr "report." We need to be more outraged and energized than ever.

Don't just write to like-minded friends, send letters to the editor, contact the news media, and keep calling our elected officials. We got Paul Ryan convinced he needed to spend more time with family, we need to put the pressure on Graham and Scott. We need to keep saying the truth. We need to be unified and angry. Mueller knew Trump was trying to shut him down, so I believe he did what he did in order to keep the investigations going. Don't let Trump and his mafia discourage you.

Trump is going to play all his greatest hits at his rallies. So educating everyone you know about his lies is essential.

Lindsey Graham has gone from telling truth to power (when he was running against Trump) to being no more than his golf caddy. We need to keep at him about his own lies and hypocrisy.

Let no manipulation by the Trump minions go unchallenged.

I received an email from Kevin McCarthy yesterday, stewed about it for awhile, and then composed this letter for The State:

Yesterday I received an email from "Kevin McCarthy -- Republican Leader." In it he claims that the case is closed -- no collusion. He says that Democrats' behavior has been "irresponsible." Then he concludes that "For the good of the country, it is time we moved on."

This completely partisan missive was sent to me via House Communications email.

I believe most Americans are sick of these mean-spirited, divisive attacks. Our tax dollars are paying for what amounts to a 2020 campaign run from Congress and the White House; this is undemocratic and morally repugnant.

Lindsey Graham, who once spoke the truth about President Trump, has sold out for a standing invitation to Mara Lago. His hateful rhetoric mirrors that of Trump.

Attorney General Barr has kept his promise to protect the president by keeping most of the report hidden, and Mitch McConnell refuses to allow the Senate to vote to demand that the full report be made public.

While McCarthy is saying that "for the good of the country, it is time we moved on" Donald Trump is seeking revenge on Democrats in Congress. We just can't tolerate this hypocrisy and the threat to the citizens of our democracy that it represents.

Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott must insist that Attorney General Barr release the full Mueller Report immediately rather than be implicated in the obstruction of justice that has been going on for far too long.

Don't worry about how you say it, just say it. We know who the criminals are and what crimes they have brazenly committed. We don't have to be afraid. And we won't allow ourselves to be silenced.

Being outraged got us the House of Representatives in 2018. The people who stepped up and are now representing us reflected our own feelings: they were fearless and they were outraged. They believed in our country and they were not going to be distracted by fear of not winning. When they spoke what was on their minds, they found out that the majority of Americans felt the same way. We were just waiting for someone who wasn't going to hide in fear to say it.

So spread the word. Share my blog. It may be an example of passion over literary worth, but boy, it's how I am feeling.

I took this picture in DC on January 21, 2017. It couldn't have foretold better what was going to happen to our country after Donald Trump got his tiny, greedy hands on it. He goal is to control everything. My goal is to leave him with one last enterprise:

Trump Fatigue

Fewer people are reading my blog these days.  And I am signing fewer online petitions, and sending more political appeals to trash without opening them.  After all, how many $3 donations can one person make?

We have been overwhelmed since the day Donald Trump paid people to watch him ride down an escalator and begin to spew his bigotry and ignorance with an aim to becoming president.  We laughed at his ignorance, but we were also appalled, and like a car crash, the media couldn't stop filming and we couldn't take our eyes off him.

I can't watch him speak anymore.  I now assume it is totally unnecessary and a waste of whatever hours I have left of my life.  I safely assume that there will be far too much coverage of what he says, hours and hours of rerunning the same quotes and then analyzing those bon mots -- whose thoughts David Brooks has notably said amount to "six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar."  It is beyond disturbing that overnight we went from a president of strong values and intelligence as well as a great orator to a president with no moral compass, who is unable to face the nation without a teleprompter, whose words can be so obviously categorized as being ghost written or spewing from his own small and petty mind.  A president who chooses to communicate with the world through the safety of 140 characters.  A president who for-gods-sake "tweets."

His stupid phrases echo throughout our lives.  He faces world leaders who are intelligent and thoughtful with the same inane compliments, and shouts the same lame and angry promises -- and threats -- at his rallies.  A president who lives for his rallies, because his staunch supporters haven't noticed that it is not Mexico that will pay for his wall, but they themselves.

I was happy to hear that he is using the funds from his 2020 campaign to pay for his lawyers, lawyers who appear to be as stupid as he is, or maybe are just taking his money while not putting a lot of energy into a losing battle.  On the other hand, we seem to have tired of getting angry at the theft of America by the Trump family business; for the moment we are shocked that his cabinet members are following his lead by literally and figuratively flying first class on America's dime.  Eventually there will be a new horror uncovered and the excesses will continue.  Meanwhile, the ironically named "Department of Justice" and the excitable Attorney General Jefferson Sessions goes about the business of dismantling our individual rights.  Too many distractions, 24/7.

And then there is Congress.  We are tired of having to yell at republicans for their slimy attempts to placate their wealthy donors with bills that will take away the safety nets of most Americans.  They keep saying that their truly ugly bills to repeal Obamacare are really a need to fill campaign promises; what has become clear is that those promises were to their wealthy donors who are threatening to throw them out of office if they don't repeal.  Which explains why town halls and ground level approval ratings have been ignored.

And I am exhausted whenever I hear a Democrat or someone in the media refer to the latest planned heist as "tax reform."  There is nothing reformative about tearing down our social institutions in order to add more billions to the billionaire class.  Maybe we need to put David Brooks on the job to find a more fitting phrase, one that would alert Americans to what is really behind the tax cut plan that has Mick Mulvaney and Paul Ryan salivating.

I worry that we are so tired of fighting this unfair fight that we have turned back to the day-to-day things that really matter:  our families and our homes.  We made time to march, and to call out legislators at town halls, but we have jobs to go to.  And this is what Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham count on.  This is why they continue to try to pass the noxious bill that would destroy health care for millions.  Donald Trump is not a brilliant thinker, but he has wealth and a lifetime of being a successful con artist.  He knows that government can be manipulated, and he has a cabinet that has spent their careers doing it with great success.

Will we be able to bring forth the energy and outrage we had in January to fill our statehouses and Congress with people who represent us and not the wealthy and powerful?  Will we be able to spread the word to those who barely have time to care for their children and get to work on time?  Will we get out to vote and be able to convince those even more exhausted than we are to do the same?

I call it PTTD:  Post Traumatic Trump Disorder.  The trauma was the election, but the effects are the aftershocks that never stop.  Trump fatigue, Trump anxiety.  We feel discouraged; we don't believe we can win against the tsunami of hate and corruption.

But we have won an amazing number of victories.  We have won local elections across the country in once red districts.  We have stopped, and stopped again, the repeal of Obamacare.  We have turned the tide on the repeal of DACA and the Muslim ban.  We have, by our numbers of peaceful counter-protesters, halted the march of the white supremacists.

We are allowed our exhaustion.  We need our time with our families and we need our time to laugh as well as to cry.  We need to keep talking to each other.

We can't make all the phone calls or fight all the battles, but when we feel that spark of outrage we can use it to fight, and we can support those who are fighting other battles.  If we do this, we can reach inside and find the energy to drain the swamp -- no, the sewer -- that Donald Trump has brought to our government.  More important, we can clean out the Congress that since the election of Barack Obama has eroded the integrity of the legislature and the trust of the American people.  It took a dirty Congress to create the atmosphere that spewed forth a Donald Trump, but we the people can clean it out.  We have done it before.

Yes, our country has survived ugly times before.  We will do it again.  I believe that Trump fatigue is a treatable disease.

George W. Bush didn't last forever.  Even Hitler didn't last forever.  And our democracy is strong, with millions fighting all in our own way.  When we come back from this, we will come back stronger still. 

The Method and Madness of Trumpcare

We should not be surprised that after all the protests, phone calls and town halls, and the first attempt at jamming the AHCA through the House, the bill was resuscitated, bribes were bribed, and it was forced through successfully last week.

We should have known that each and every time a snarky remark was made by a liberal about his failing first 100 days, Trump's determination to win grew.  Much as the truly clever and funny jabs that Obama made in 2011 at the White House Correspondent's Dinner set in concrete Donald's determination to run and win the presidency.

It is said that Donald Trump has no understanding of the complexities of health care... by Donald himself in fact.  And he really does not care, any more than he cares about refugees or American workers.  He wants to be liked, and he wants to win.  He would rather be liked by rich and powerful people than by disgruntled Americans, but if the latter can help him do the bidding of the former, he will say whatever he needs to say to get there.

One of the groups of peons that Trump has courted successfully is the republican Congress.  Don't laugh.  They may be a lot richer than the rest of us, but they aren't in the same league as the Kochs or Vladimir Putin.  They are just rich enough to be insecure about keeping that wealth.  They are just rich enough to know that losing could be just around the corner.  In other words, except for the money, they are a lot like the middle class Trump supporter.

Ryan and McConnell and their cronies want nothing more than to be in the club, and Donald Trump can smell that vulnerability.  When he bused all those senators to the White House for that meeting on North Korea, it had all the makings of a Trump sales pitch.  Inviting a group of powerful people to "his" house is to Trump like inviting the Chinese president to share his delicious chocolate cake at Mar-a-Lago.  It puts the power in his hands.

Imagine his surprise when even republican senators were unimpressed.

Donald Trump is a man of limited intellect but a craving for attention and approval that has created a finely-honed instinct for manipulating others.  Of course, he couldn't have done it without his father's wealth and influence, but what he developed has worked quite well for him in his businesses -- even when he lost he made sure he won, regardless of who he had to throw under the bus to do it.

What looks like erratic behavior is really a pattern of responses that is coming to be fairly predictable:  assumption of success; disbelief followed by rage -- insults and attacks; withdrawing briefly to regroup; followed by approach and flattery; and then the deal.

He has done this with each of his primary opponents, with the media, with foreign leaders, and now with Congress.

But he is finding that he is playing in a different league these days.  Even psycho leaders like Duterte of the Philippines are offering fairly lame excuses to avoid looking like they want to be seen associating with our own psycho leader.  And he was brushed off by the inaptly named Freedom Caucus, the group formerly known as the Tea Party, when he tried to prod them into the original AHCA bill.

Like a rat learning to press the lever to get another rice krispie, however, Trump is a good learner.  He knew how to get Paul Ryan to be his House lapdog, and it didn't take that much more wheeling and dealing to sell the really bad health insurance bill to the people that were actually looking for really bad health insurance to pawn off on the American people.

But that group of people in Congress who are just insecure enough that they will work with Trump to get what they need don't mind throwing him under the bus either.  So what we all tried to call "RyanCare" is now "TrumpCare."  And the republicans who have been at the art of the political dirty deal far longer than Trump, have laid the ground work for laying the blame on him AND gotten their nasty piece of legislation passed.

There are a couple of important factors here, things we need to keep front and center as we watch -- and even try to influence -- the outcome of this struggle.

First of all, we need to stop pretending that the Senate is that much more grown up and responsible than the House.  They are mostly smarter, and definitely shrewder, than their wacky counterparts, but they are still rabid about success, and equally insecure about their futures.  They are in the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, but because they can't count on guaranteed gerrymandered districts, they have to pretend to be listening to and working for all their constituents.

We in South Carolina have learned the hard way to never make the mistake of assuming that Lindsey Graham is on our side.  He is on Lindsey Graham's side, the side of the right wing, whether it be religious or corporate.  He was tickled that he could vote Neil Gorsuch onto the Supreme Court, and did whatever mental maneuvers were necessary to defend his desires.  This is true of Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and all the other folks that have been bought by corporate money.

And that leads us back to Trumpcare.  It is a truly egregious scheme, a tax cut for the really wealthy that takes health care away from pregnant women, cancer patients and sick children.  But in that, it is not much different than what has been happening to workers and education since the 80's, and what will be happening to our environment.  Every piece of which will make us sicker, less able to care for ourselves and our families, and less able to fight the plutocratic oligarchy that has managed to lie, cheat and steal their way into Washington.

The irony is, you can call it Trumpcare, but Trump doesn't care.  Ryan and the rest of the right-wingnuts are looking for continued wealth and security.  But the joke is on them.  The only ones Trump cares about are Trumps.  And every single damn thing he has done since he came into office has profited the Trumps.  That is the other thing we need to keep remembering to keep our eyes on.

Talk about the art of your deal made in hell.

Scapegoating KellyAnne

Far be it from me to come to the defense of KellyAnne Conway as she finds herself in a major shitstorm over her sales pitch for Ivanka’s clothing line.  Conway is a mean bitch who hungers for power in a man’s world, and will tell any lie to prove her loyalty.  Her enthusiastic promotion for her boss’s daughter was just that, a stupid misstep in a world where she has been able to say anything without penalty.

But come on, is this really worth a headline in the New York Times?  Is this anything more than a quick laugh on a late night show?

After all, this has been the most corrupt presidency in the history of the country.  What we got when we elected a failing businessman and reality show star was a con man who proceeded to show us in no uncertain terms how he came to his wealth and fame.

This is the president who became, on January 20, his own landlord, violating federal law.  Where, at the Trump Hotel, he trades rooms for favors to world leaders at a profit.

This is the president who pretends to have separated his business affairs from affairs of state, while no one really believes he does not talk freely with daughter and sons about both.  And while the US government – read, your tax dollars – pay for Eric’s security detail when he travels abroad to develop more Trump enterprises, enterprises that now come with the US president's seal of approval.

This is the president who has just named his Mar-a-Lago Resort the “winter White House,” where he can hide from the press and public as he had when he was a private criminal and entitled to hide.  Where he has just doubled the resort’s initiation fees.  Where it is estimated that his weekend jaunts will cost taxpayers $3million.  And where he feels at home making his shady deals.

And Melania, who has wisely chosen to keep her distance from her husband’s swamp, will be staying at Trump Tower, a place she likes to call “home,” with son Barron.  The estimated cost to taxpayers:  $2 million/day.  Not to mention the disruption and cost to the City of New York and its other residents.

But let us not dwell on money.  Let’s talk security violations. Beginning with use of unsecured phones and right on to meeting at a public place with a foreign leader while they talked about security issues regarding North Korea’s latest blast.  Tweets about Ivanka and Nordstrom during a security briefing for gods’ sake.  Flagrant violations of security protocols by Trump and his cast of characters occur daily, so many that the press struggles to keep up with leaks, videos and selfies.

Wondering where all those Congress creeps who targeted Hillary Clinton for the same use of a private email server that had been done by her predecessors?  You know, the partisan witch hunt by Representative Jason Chaffetz, who vowed to impeach Clinton the day she became president.  And South Carolina’s own Trey Gowdy, who never knew when he was embarrassing himself over his obsession over Benghazi.  And by the way, I wonder if he has noticed the disastrous raid in Yemen, the one that was impulsively planned during dinner in an attempt to out-bin Laden our outgoing president.  The one that cost an American life and several others wounded, not to mention deaths and injury to innocent Yemenis.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and head weasel of the Senate Mitch McConnell have been pretty quiet as this third world dictator destroys our standing in the world.  Could it be because they are busy dismantling Americans’ social safety net and programs that would protect us from corporate greed?  Or maybe they are even relieved that the shitstorm is taking attention away from their dirty deeds, like setting up rules to make their ugly laws permanent, dismantling healthcare and environmental and financial protections while shoving through bills that would deny Americans their Constitutional freedoms.

I chuckled when I heard that Ryan gave his seal of approval to the firing of Michael Flynn.  I’ll bet he was nervously waiting for the news that the president had made his decision so he could publicly announce that it was a good one, whatever it was.  Of course he does not endorse any further investigation of ties to Russia because, well, gee, what you find under that rock might interfere with the victory party they are having in Congress.

But KellyAnne, she appears to be fair game.  It sounds like her head may be on the chopping block for her impulsive sales pitch for Ivanka.  Even Ivanka may be pissed off at her.  The “White House,” which I assume means Trump, is angry about it.  Some republican members of Congress may even be stirring out of their mid-orgy lethargy to speak out about “ethics violations.”

And this is where I wonder, like Elizabeth Warren who was last week told to sit down and shut up for insulting the eminent Jeff Sessions, if KellyAnne is fair game because she is the woman on the team.

Like Elizabeth Warren, KellyAnne is really, really smart.  Unlike Warren, she has absolutely no moral compass.  She will say anything about anyone if it suits her purpose.  And she is driven, not to do the right thing as is Warren, but to get ahead.

I am looking forward to all hell breaking loose if Trump decides to let her go.  It may be that fear of the wrath of KellyAnne may be her job security, but if he is advised that seeing her head roll is the way to distract from other far more severe breaches, I will be on the sidelines cheering her on.

Save Yourself!

I am proud to be part of a group of the most empathic, caring, generous people in the country.  They are my friends and my political allies.  They have been on guard with me since November 9 as our country became a radical, right-wing dictatorship run by a madman.

We have put aside our personal pleasures and responsibilities to try to slow the tide of hatred and power mongering that has completely altered our country's path in just one short week.  We worry, we have trouble sleeping, we feel anxiety and outright fear for ourselves, our loved ones, and those who are more vulnerable than we are.

From time to time, we enjoy the feeling of unity that comes when we march, when we speak out, when those of us who are on the inside of this now closed group of leaders leak information about those who hold the power, when those with voices more powerful than ours speak publicly.

But then we return to the reality of the rights that are being taken away from us all every day -- every moment -- of this corrupt presidency.  We have seen a Congress that has blocked progress for eight years and has salivated at the thought of complete control jump into lawmaking with a vengeance, and stand silent as the appointed leader of the country makes insane claims followed by bizarre and totally undemocratic executive orders.  He damaged our country's image and stoked fear throughout America and the world before he took office; since then he has confirmed our worst fears.

Yet we continue to reach out to each other as we attempt to persuade our leaders to stop this insanity, all the while trying to ease the fears of our children and calm our own anxieties.

What we need right now is to learn ways to survive this nightmare.  We need to regain our faith in ourselves, we need to find again some joy in our lives.

In December, overwhelmed, I went incommunicado for two weeks.  Up until then I hadn't been able to turn off the news; I woke in the middle of the night with obsessive thoughts of what was happening to our country; it had been difficult for this voracious reader to sit and read with pleasure or even concentration.  Those two weeks may not have changed reality, but they brought me back to myself.

As we try to fight what may be the greatest evil we have seen in our country's short history and in our even shorter lives, we need to walk away from time to time.  We need to shift our perspectives and rethink our goals.  Here are a few ways to accomplish that.

Let's all accept that we cannot fight all the battles.  We can support all the groups that are under attack without signing every petition and reading every link we are sent.

Take some time to focus on what is most important to you.  If you are most worried about Trump's immigration decrees, stay on top of that and make it the focus of your energies.

Learn what you can about what is happening in the areas you are most concerned about.  And let others know what you learn.

Unite.  Don't stay home and worry.  Use social media, form lunch groups, get together and protest.

Play to your strengths.  If what you do (what I do) is write, then write:  blog, email, letters to the editor, letters to congress.  If you find it easier to call, call your local TV station, call your representatives.  When you can't reach the White House comment line, follow Bernie Sanders' direction and contact one of Trump's hotels.  If you like the idea of confronting your member of congress face to face, do it, and if you can, do it with a friend or a group.  Don't get angry at yourself for not doing it all.

On the other hand, try something new.  I went on my first march since 1969 last week, thanks to the invitation and urging of a good friend in Maryland.  Others have described that wonderful experience far better than I could.  In short, it gave me energy and hope.  Phone calls may not be as difficult as you think.  I have learned in the past couple of years that it is far easier to talk to politicians than I once feared.  Do it, and whether you decide to do it again or not, feel good about it.

Reaffirm your family and friends.  It may take energy you don't think you have to make that phone call or go to a movie.  Don't think too much about it; just pick up the phone or put on your coat and do it.  If you are concerned about someone who seems to have become more isolated, reach out.  Call, email, get together.  And next week, do it again.

For gods' sake, remember how to laugh.  When I am close to the edge, humor is what brings me back to life.  We owe a debt to our country's comedians, from Alec Baldwin to John Oliver to the great Samantha Bee.  But we also need to laugh with our family and friends.  Silly things are still happening.  And our government is now funnier than it has ever been.  Minimize the power it has over you by laughing at the ignorance.  The Orwellian creepiness of "alternative facts" was diffused not just because it was wrong, but because it was hysterically funny.  As funny as KellyAnne's inauguration dress.

And, by the way, since KellyAnne told us about those "alternative facts," Orwell's 1984 is back on the best-seller list.  And since Trump went all ballistic on the media that day after the inauguration, even people like Chuck Todd (not my idea of an objective and righteous reporter) finally confronted the newspeak we have been hearing from Trump and his minions for two years.

Which brings me to my last thought.  We need to hold on to what is right and good.  The things that make us smile and laugh.  By all means talk to your kids about the things that are going on that are wrong, but make sure to step away from it all and play a game or watch a movie.  Have a glass of wine with friends and get silly.

They can't take that away from me.

Speaking of which, watch some Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers.



Or go out dancing.

And if there is anything that will put this shitshow in perspective, it is a few words of wisdom from Monty Python.





Writing this has picked me up a bit.  I hope it helps you as well.  We need to be there for each other, and we need to remember why this fight is so important.

America has been in some bad places in the past, and we have come back and gone forward, as recently as 2008.  We may not have wanted to fight those fights again, but here we are, and we aren't going to back down.  And whenever we can, we are going to enjoy this fight, and especially the victories.

Make America Sick Again

When Paul Ryan was a teen, he fell in love with Ayn Rand.  It appealed to his narcissism, as it did mine at that age.  The difference between us is that I grew up and recognized the reality of the world around me.  Paul Ryan still obsessively believes that if you got it, you deserve it.  And if you don't, it's your own fault.

That spunky can do attitude defies the reality of living in capitalist America, where if you got it, you get more, and if you don't, it has gotten increasingly less likely that you ever will.

But Ryan is surrounded by like-minded haves, and like so many of our current members of Congress, just doesn't have any patience with the whiners and the takers who think they deserve things like housing and health care.  To that end, he is determined to prove that what we all need is tough love, forcing us to choose whether we are going to survive.  That philosophy has been echoed "bigly" by our incoming moron-in-chief, who believes he made it on his own, by virtue of his big brain and not his wealthy father and Vladimir Putin.

Republicans in the House have been chomping at the bit to get rid of Obamacare, and since they have been back in session they have shown a greater work ethic than they have for some years.  They have detailed plans on how they can do away with the Affordable Care Act, in conjunction with the Senate and the Orange-Haired Idiot, who babbled at his press conference about how the bill would be repeal and replace, at the same time, maybe within a month, maybe within a week, maybe within the hour, maybe time traveling to 2010, you get the gist.

Way back in 2009, at the end of the last era in which Americans hung their hopes on an idiot with a clever and duplicitous campaign, the state of health care was shameful.  To the point where Keith Olbermann, on MSNBC, had been highlighting and fundraising for Free Health Care Clinics.  I recall my horror that so many were uninsured that -- in America -- they waited in hours-long lines to see a doctor.  That so many diseases that could have been easily treated were left to fester, so many people made sicker and even left to die out of the greed and neglect that the wealthy and the corporate powers exercised.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard some privileged cretin (a republican member of Congress) talk about how we were just spoiled by being able to get health care whenever we needed it, because we never had to face the cost.  He told the harrowing tale of his son falling and hurting his arm, and he and his wife deciding they would just ice the injury and wait a day to see if they needed to bring him to a doctor.  What a guy.

A guy who has never had to watch a loved one get sicker, hoping that the tide will turn and they will get well without the exorbitant costs of medical care.  A guy who is pretty damned out of touch with the extent of out of pocket costs involved with health care today.  A guy who could get really fine medical care the next day if he chooses to wait to get his son looked at.

For that matter, there is a myth regarding all of us great mass of unwashed Americans that says that we demand to see a doctor whenever we feel a windchill.  That we have nothing we would love to do more than wait in a waiting room at a doctor's office or a hospital, so we can suck up medical expenses.  That it is our self-indulgence, and not the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, the mismanagement of our hospitals, the fact that many of us are forced to wait until a common condition becomes an expensive medical emergency, that has caused health care costs to skyrocket.

And people like Paul Ryan have swallowed the lies and distortions in order to continue to live in the pockets of their corporate donors.

Meanwhile, as Ryan and the right wingnuts work to take away health care from millions of Americans, they continue to carry the best taxpayer funded health insurance the country has to offer.

So why not insist that members of Congress be forced to accept whatever plan they chisel out of their rigid dogmatic principles?  Of all of us, they can certainly better afford it.  It may be a challenge to their fact-free ideology, and it might be tough for them to be living in the trenches having to make some of the same decisions the rest of us live with on a daily basis.  But getting in touch with the unbearably high cost of private insurance just might convince them that the "r" word they are looking for is not "repeal" but "regulate."

If you have Obamacare, or insurance from the health care exchange, or from the Affordable Care Act, you may not know that they are all the same.  This was one of many of those sleights of hand that republicans managed to pull off, while Democrats thought getting the work done for the people would be enough.  I will assume that if you are reading my blog, you know these are all the same thing.  But there are an awful lot of people out there who do not.  And they will be tragically surprised to learn that the guys they voted for have taken away their health care.  Right now, one of our tasks is simply to spread the word that whatever they call it, they are going to lose their affordable health insurance.  Unless they speak up.  And those rate hikes that incredibly happened just before the election?  Democrats never let them know that it was a much smaller increase than we have seen before the ACA.  Ooops.

In fact, this could be a great time to let people know how much better and cheaper single payer health insurance would be.  If the Democrats would only.  Because as long as the republicans are offering "repeal and replace" the thing to do is to offer Americans a "replace" that would work.  Of course, it won't happen while the party of profit and destruction is running things, but if they heard some enthusiasm building up for a single payer plan, maybe backing off on the "repeal" wouldn't seem like such a bad idea.

How to Fight a Shitstorm

One of Trump's successful ploys is to throw so much shit at the fan that no one -- not the media, not the politicians, not we the American people -- can know where to begin to clean it up.  So if you are feeling overwhelmed, welcome to 2017.

But the worst thing we can do is ignore and avoid.  The quality of our lives will be far worse than we have seen before.  I have been refreshing myself by reading Joe Conason's biography of post-presidential Bill Clinton.  While I have been happily surprised at just how much good he has done (and again dismayed at how the right wing conspiracy has created doubt in Clinton's actions and motives), the book also is a narrative of Clinton trying to do good against the shitstorm that was the Bush presidency.  In my anger I am also finding some inspiration.

I don't do resolutions, but since the new year I have asked myself what would I like to accomplish, and answered with some actual practical goals.

First, I need to continue to educate myself.  While I was away, nothing changed, but the momentum of our enemies has grown.  I would be no happier if I did not know that right now the truly evil Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was following through on his plan to rid millions of Americans of their health care.  I need to know that Trump has continued to move on his plan to move Jared Kushner right into the White House so that he and Steve Bannon can each have one of his ears.  And I need to be aware of how the media is covering all this, as well as anytime a Democrat pops out of hiding to take a stand.

Second, I will do my best to pass on what I have learned.  Knowledge is going to be the way we arm ourselves in these days when the Trump Swamp is twisting the meaning of things like "fake news" as soon as we have grasped the fact that it exists.  We need to share what we know as quickly and widely as possible.  We need to find ways to share our knowledge with people with whom we don't normally communicate, and in a way that they are willing to hear us.

That does not mean that we should back away from the Democratic values we held during the presidential campaign.  When we try to compromise by giving up any part of what we believe, we fail.  That is what has given the right-wing power.  Rather, we need to recognize, as did Bernie, that most of us have the same concerns -- job security, health care, safety -- and we need to find ways to persuade others that we are all in this together.  That when the rich get richer, we all get poorer.  That when a woman's right to reproductive health care is taken away, men and children also suffer.  That when we attack someone because they are different, we jeopardize all our rights to pursue freedom and happiness.  So, my third goal is to persuade.

To that end, I am not going to beat on myself for not making phone calls, or going to demonstrations, or visiting my representative, or running for office.  These are really important jobs and we need lots more people to take them on.  And there are people out there who will, and some that have not yet but would do it with some information and encouragement.  Because we definitely need people to do all those things.  What I am going to do is continue to write.  I am going to blog, and post on Facebook, send letters to the editor, and learn how to more effectively use Twitter.

There is still a lot of shit hitting the fan, because Trump is a disorganized personality, and a bully, and now he has not just wealth but the power of the presidency.  He has loaded his cabinet and his staff with truly deplorable people, and his media contacts from Fox News to the National Enquirer will continue to paint false pictures of what is going on in Washington.  But we all can keep on top of this.  There may be multi-million dollar media corporations and members of Congress who can be bought with Trump's infamous combination of threats and flattery.  But if we really believe in democracy (and I do) we the people outnumber all them.  We can't change the mind of the angry or truly stupid Trump supporter, but there are a lot of them that were lulled into believing a master con artist, and they will soon recognize the con and be looking to understand what happened and looking for alternatives.  And if we do this right, progressives and Democrats will be there to offer a better choice.

ACLU -- Now More Than Ever

On October 3, I wrote about the American Civil Liberties Union, and their upcoming visit to Charleston County Democratic Women.  Then along came Hurricane Matthew, and the meeting was postponed.  And then, along came the presidential election, and the world truly shifted.  So that the rescheduled presentation by the ACLU at CCDW seems even more relevant than it was two short months ago.

It is obvious that during the upcoming administration, the only people whose rights will not be violated are those of the Trump family.  Now, don't get me wrong, Mike Pence is the religious right's version of Dick Cheney, and he deserves whatever he gets.  But I am betting he has had to compromise every day since he has accepted that unholy deal for power.

There is already a line of supplicants who have or are in the process of being humiliated by Trump.  In true godfather fashion, he publicly banished Chris Christie as a favor to the hideous Jared Kushner, his son-in-law.  He has forced Rudy Giuliani to scrape and bow while keeping him in the wings waiting for the announcement regarding his choice for secretary of state.  And the media is all over the rumor that Mitt Romney will have to publicly apologized to Trump for his (truly justified) attacks during the campaign.

But those are his friends, those with political power and status, ethically questionable though it may be.

Trump loves to push the powerful around.  But he also has a special place for the rest of us.  Donald Trump likes us to be there to work for him, to flatter him, to need him, to be at his mercy.  He doesn't see us as individuals, not even the ones who stood out at his rallies: "Look at my African-American over there."  Of course he usually has a hard time distinguishing all but our dominant characteristics, so at another rally he called another black supporter a "thug" and had him thrown out.

Donald Trump will go after pretty much all of us in the end.  We once, just a couple of months ago, could talk about groups that are getting discriminated against and vilified.  In this new America, there is not anyone outside of the Trump family that is not at risk.  I have been losing sleep over the thought of mass deportations and internment camps, journalists and Hillary Clinton being imprisoned for being considered threats.  I have worried about workers who will lose their admittedly shaky claim to wages and benefits, and those who have been covered by Obamacare, as well as the poor who have relied on what little Medicaid had to offer.  I have thought about the increased risk that union leaders and peaceful protesters will now face.  I have worried about those whose skin is darker, who already feared walking down the street or wearing a hijab, those whose sexual identities make them vulnerable to bullying and violence.

Last night, though, I lost sleep because I heard that Paul Ryan is salivating at the thought of putting social security and medicare on the chopping block.

So, we are all truly in this mess together.

Yes, there are more of us.  But the others have power, and money, and too often even the law and lawyers on their side.  Before Trump, cops killed innocent people with impunity, and resented having their actions called into question, even if more often than not, they were not made to pay.  And Trump has bragged that he will be "the law and order president."

What we need right now are the organizations who have stood by us in the past, and fought for us.  Groups like the ACLU.

On Thursday, Executive Director Shaundra Scott and Legal Director Susan Dunn will be the speakers at the Charleston County Democratic Women monthly meeting.  It will be held at the  Riverview Holiday Inn at 6:00.  The cost of the dinner buffet is $20.  If you can, please donate to both the ACLU and Charleston County Democratic Women.  These organizations will continue to exist and be strong as long as we stand behind them.

I am looking forward to this meeting, even more than I was in October.  I hope to see you there.

(RSVP to Jan Leonard janleonard08@gmail.com, or at the Charleston County Democratic Women Facebook page, under events.)

      

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.

Silver Lining

It occurs to me that Silver Lining is the color of the roofing tiles I am having installed this very minute, with great noise and fanfare, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.  There have been a few Hispanic men hammering away since minutes after seven, no coffee break, no stopping to talk, just hard, physical work.  I don't know if they are legal immigrants or not, and, honestly, nobody really cares if it keeps the price of their new roof lower.  All the protests are bullshit and dog whistles, shamefully attacking and victimizing good people.

But other than the coincidental title of this post, that is not what I need to talk about today.  Today I'm not quite through my period of mourning, for Hillary, for our country, for all the mean and ignorant or just naive and foolish voters who hammered their own nails into all our coffins on Tuesday.  But I have been commiserating with friends, and posting on facebook, and talking to my kids, and just as with George W. Bush in 2000, there is a day after this one too.

In fact, I have started to compile a list of all the things we have to look forward to during the "presidency" of He-Who-Just-Cannot-Be-Named.

For one thing, once they have worked through their own mourning, our wonderful comedians will have far better fuel than they would have had with Hillary in the White House.  I imagine Samantha Bee has only just been getting warmed up during the election season.  And Alec Baldwin, after working so hard to nail Trump, surely will be willing to show up (or call in) to SNL from time to time.  After all, we did miss Tina Fey's Sarah Palin once we didn't have the original around anymore.

I am also thinking that, given Trump's failure to grasp economics and his need to continue to be adored by those undereducated and underpaid workers, it is just possible that those of us liberals who work hard for too little will also reap the benefits, at least till the crash.  And as long as Donald doesn't insist on an ideological test for us white Americans, I should be okay for awhile.  It occurs to me with some relief that when the Bush years started I was on the low end of the wage scale, so when they ended I hadn't lost anything.  And now that I am attempting to live on Paul Ryan's social security, it seems not that much has changed.

Let's be honest, Donald Trump is a hoot.  He is every bit as stupid as W., but without the charm.  I am looking forward to those 365 day calendars of Trumpisms, and for a couple of reasons.  Not only were those idiotic gems ("More of our imports come from overseas.") something to brighten the dark days, but at the end of the Bush years I had stacks of scrap paper, perfect for phone messages and grocery lists.  And I am running low.

The younger generation, those we have been falsely accusing of being disinterested in politics, are infuriated.  They have truly had it with people trying to legislate their bodies, and sexual and marital choices.  They are sick to death of big corporations getting handouts from the government while they are spending their young lives trying to pay back student loans while failing to get a job that pays what they are worth.  They are not going to tolerate intolerance of race or religious choice.  The riots and protests over racism aren't going to stop, and women are not going to be forced to choose between an unwanted  pregnancy or a backroom abortion.  My son, who could be safely ensconced in his Ph.D. program, has told me that as he has become an activist, he knows he may someday be arrested, and it is a risk he is willing to take, a sentiment that fills me with pride even more than fear.

It will be fun to see the reaction of Trump supporters when Congress finally succeeds in repealing Obamacare.  They apparently had forgotten that before the ACA insurance premiums rose precipitously each year.  That will be a happy thing to watch, for me anyway.  As long as the Democrats are ready to yell loud and long when the right wingnuts try to blame it on Obama -- and probably Hillary as well.

And while they are targeting others for their failures, let us also remember that our new "president" gets bored with people when they have outlived their usefulness.  I can only imagine that it won't take long for the smugly pious Mike Pence to get under Donald's skin.  Imagine the name calling, followed eventually by the inevitable tweets.  And wouldn't it be fun at some point to hear that Pence has been "fired."

Of course, once Pence is gone it will be safe to impeach Trump.  And wasn't that clever of whichever brains-behind-the-boss manipulated Trump into choosing the white-haired Satan for his running mate?  Anyway, point being, nothing lasts forever in Trumpworld.

Along the way, it isn't going to take long for these characters to put the economy into the toilet.  And once it is there, I would say by 2018, the voters will be ready to appeal to a Democratic Congress to get us out of the toilet.

Again, though, let us not forget the Bush years.  And Trump's reigning philosophy.  When some lose, others win.  For a couple of years I had been able to afford amazing timeshare rental vacations, weeklong getaways at resorts for $500 a week, the cost of the annual maintenance fee for those who needed to recoup the cost more than take the vacation.  That ended with the resurgence of the economy (thanks, Obama).  Now, the vacations that went for $60 a night are up over $300 a night.  But when the economy tanks, and until they take away my social security, I'll be able to get in on a couple of weeks a year of vacations on the beach once again.

I honestly can't believe that here we are, doing the Bush years over again.  But our electorate truly does have a short memory.  And they are gullible, easily manipulated.  It takes the pain of an interminable war and the tanking of the economy to the point of loss of jobs and homes before they realize that those sugar-spun fantasies of cutting taxes in order to make us rich are just fantasies.

On Tuesday afternoon, before the end, it occurred to me that this race was more like Nixon than Bush.  The Trump crowd that adopted "lying Hillary" as their mantra and made excuses for Trump's blatantly illegal and immoral behaviors could have been the same hardhats that chanted that they would rather have a crook in the White House than Hubert Humphrey.

It is hilarious that in retrospect, Nixon doesn't look that bad.  It is criminal though, that our memories have been so thoroughly wiped of all the damage done in the Reagan years that Democratic and republican politicians alike would no sooner fail to mention Ronald Reagan than walk onto a stage without a flag pin.

And then there were the Bush years, as we went from a growing economy to the brink of disaster.  Bad choices made by a gullible president at the behest of the evil Dick Cheney.  And surrounded by a cabinet of ideological idiots.

And finally, here we are again, with a growing economy, a strong military, better foreign relations than we have had for quite a while, more jobs and even wages slowly rising.   Instead of Bill Clinton, we have the most admirable couple to grace the White House maybe in my memory.  And instead of Al Gore, we have Hillary Clinton.

Instead of the evil capitalist Dick Cheney behind the wheel, we have the evil religious fanatic Mike Pence.  And then we have the proposed cabinet of deplorables:  Chris Christie, the guy who claims he didn't know about "bridge-gate;" Newt Gingrich, the man who ended his marriage at his wife's hospital bed, and last but truly least, Rudy Giuliani, whose contact with reality is so completely shot that he believes the US was not attacked on George W. Bush's watch.  That same Giuliani by the way, who giggled like a madman a couple of weeks ago when he alluded to his knowledge of the FBI re-opening the investigation into Hillary's emails as another surprise.  Yeah, he's going to be the next attorney general.

So, lots of reasons to weep, and hopefully lots of comedy potential as well.  And lots of reasons to get fired up to fight.  It is true that we will be fighting two branches of government rather than just congress.  But with a cast of characters as shady and corrupt as this bunch, as long as we fight as fearlessly as did Bernie and Hillary for what is right, as long as we don't let the bullies intimidate us, we can not only survive but win this thing.  And by "this thing" I pretty much mean our country and our freedoms.