Winter is Coming.....

With all the time I have these days because of our sheltering in place at home, we are watching Game of Thrones again.  For me it is the third time for most of it; the second time for seasons 7 and 8.   Since television production is my stock and trade, I am repeatedly amazed at the scope and scale of this production.  For those of you who have not seen it, you really should take the time to watch it from the beginning.  It is perhaps the best television drama ever made, and I don’t say that lightly.

In the first several episodes in the 7^th season, Jon Snow, King of the North, travels to Dragonstone to meet aspiring Queen Denaerius Targaryen for the first time to try to persuade her and her armies to join him in preparing to fight the Army of the Dead, the White Walkers and the Night King north of the ‘Wall’.  Jon had faced them in Season 6, nearly dying in his efforts to escape the hordes of zombies who were led by the evil Night King.   He knows that all of Westeros and Essos are in danger from this existential threat.  But he must try to make Denaerius and her advisors understand the nature of the threat which is incomprehensible to them because they have no idea what this abstract threat is.  For those of you who know the series, you know what I am talking about.  Their minds are incapable of conceiving of the danger.

I can’t help being amused that Snow’s effort to convince skeptics of an incomprehensible peril is comparable to the insurmountable effort to persuade some people in this country that the Covid-19 pandemic we presently suffer from has a scientific basis and that the threat is real.  As I listen to the dialog between the characters as Jon tries to persuade Denaerius and her advisors that the threat is not an hallucination, I can actually substitute their words for some of the conversations I have had and listened to with people in 2020 as they consider their own safety and whether to act in the interest of their own survival and protection of their loved ones. 

If you listened to any of the interviews of the people who attended the Tulsa Trump rally, they just don’t care to be warned, they can’t wrap their minds around how dangerous it is, and some simply think it is a hoax.  And, of course, Trump does nothing to dissuade them of that notion, since his only motive is to feed his own ego and win re-election.

Multiple parts of our country are undergoing quantum rises in infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths as America’s death toll is projected to be over 200,000 by October 1.  And yet, a significant portion of our population doesn’t seem to care.  Personal gratification in the name of ‘freedom’ seems to be all that is important.  Why else would the CDC guidelines be completely ignored?  Bars and dance halls are open and social distancing is at the back of everyone’s mind attending these and other congregant events.  No one seems to care about wearing masks because, “we just don’t think it’s real!  And I am not worried about it!”, say the ignoramuses.

Is it any wonder then that infection rates in our country lead the world?  The rest of the globe looks on with amazement as we go blithely on, simply giving up on trying to control the infection rates.   I am just flabbergasted by our seeming disregard for the scientific truth.  I am sure that most of this is probably due to our leaders, specifically Republican governors, the president and Republican Congressman, whose only concern seems to be ‘opening up’ and goosing the economy.  Somehow these dolts won’t accept the premise that a healthy populace will goose the economy on its own.  If you examine what is happening in countries where they are serious about controlling the infection rates, places like the UK, France, Italy, China, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and others, they are successfully re-establishing their ‘new’ normal without taxing their health care systems and suffering staggering death and infection rates.

If I try to zero in on why exactly we have become the laughing stock of the world in our blasé marching into the face of this pandemic without a seeming care in the world, I am left with the only conclusion possible…..we are just selfish and stupid.  What else could be the reason?  As the most technologically sophisticated nation on earth, we have the power to mobilize our industry and brains to pound this threat into the ground with thoughtful leadership and planning.  Obviously, that is not as important to our leaders as their lust for money and power.  The people making decisions that steer our national course in managing this crisis are certainly not concerned with the general population’s safety.  Why else would the Trump administration simply ignore CDC guidelines, reject any responsibility for real federal leadership and encourage everyone not to care about mask wearing? 

Apparently those of us who actually believe the ‘science’ are going to have to watch powerlessly as those in control who have basically given up trying to manage the threat walk into the clouds of virus with blinders on with not a concern in the world for their compatriot’s health.  Not until we have leadership elected by those of us with half a brain, will we emerge from this pandemic.  Until then, all of us who care about what will be left at the end of this nightmare will have to shelter in place.  The only thing to do at this point is pray for November 3 to come as fast as possible, or that the scientists develop a vaccine to stop this destroyer.  Maybe the scientists should try to include some 'dragonglass' in the vaccine!

I wonder if the anti-vaccination idiots will protest against a vaccine when it finally arrives?  That would, of course, be what I would expect!

Unprecedented

The papers and media are filled with individual examples of the damage being done to our country every day.  It is a death by a thousand cuts.  We are a country that is being badly governed.

As we hold our breaths until we have the opportunity to vote the destroyers out of office in November, there seems to be nothing we can do to mitigate each of the injuries that have piled up in the past 4 years.  As I think back on Trump and his stooges’ actions over that time, the following is just the beginning of a list that chronicles their ‘unprecedented’ misdeeds and destruction :

-the White House has shut down the transparency website Open.gov and open.whitehouse.gov

-the White House has removed 40,000+ data sites from data.gov

-Trump has removed our participation in the World Health Organization, The World Climate

Agreement, the Iran Nuclear Agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership.  He has insulted and decried most of our overseas allies.

-Trump has removed regulations on clean air, clean water, drilling for oil and coal

-Trump has stopped releasing all records of visitors to the White House

-Trump has systematically removed inspectors general from key governmental agencies, creating a cloak of secrecy on his stooges’ actions.

-Trump has stopped collecting information on energy efficiency, police weaponry, labor-law violations, lending discrimination and discrimination in school discipline

 -Trump has refused to disclose his tax returns, and has illegally withheld documents and witnesses from Congress during his impeachment.

-Trump has illegally subverted funds from Congressional appropriations for building his ‘Wall’

-Trump is doubling the annual budget deficit and running up federal debt to the highest levels since World War II

-Trump has systematically made a mockery of the Rule of Law

-Trump has failed to lead a national effort to mitigate the pandemic; has in fact de-legitimized the CDC.

-Trump is still attempting to assassinate the Affordable Care Act and leave millions unprotected.  He has provided no replacement plan.

…and the list goes on and on.

During the past three or four months we have seen the incompetence laid bare. Trump is gaslighting and misleading us in full view without reservation.  Even now as he pushes relentlessly ahead with his ‘rally’ in Tulsa, he lies to us that the pandemic is over, even as Tulsa statistics on Covid-19 show a surge in cases and hospitalizations!  His VP Pence extolls Trump’s ‘leadership’ during the pandemic.  A leadership that has earned us the notorious distinction of having the most cases worldwide with the most deaths per capita of any nation.  Pence says we should celebrate!  Celebrate what—the 200,000 dead Americans the virus will have killed as of October 1? 

Even yesterday, Trump stated again that the virus will ‘just disappear’.   Do you believe that?

I hate the word ‘unprecedented’.  We have used it endlessly to describe the actions taken by our leaders over the past 4 years.  However, we have an unprecedented situation in our country right now.  Over the past 242 years we have suffered through bad actors in the White House, but at least the other branches of government have been able to mitigate the damage through our system of checks and balances written into our Constitution.

Not today.

We have a Congress that is neutered because of a Republican majority that is unwilling to act responsibly, violating their oaths of office in the Senate.  They have simply sat there for the past 4 years—mute—as their party standard bearer has violated his oath of office and cowered them into paralysis with fear of opposing them in their primaries if they don’t show blind allegiance to his dictates.  We have a Supreme Court that has been stacked with 2 Trump appointed judges, one of them confirmed illegally by Moscow Mitch and his legions in the Senate. 

The Founders of our country probably never imagined the scenario we have now.  They believed that the fundamental motive of fairness and the Rule of Law would guide our republic in its growth and development.  Because they were so damaged and raw from their experience winning independence from the British in 1776, they couldn’t even imagine a Congress filled with the people’s representatives who did nothing to represent their constituencies.  They couldn’t see the effect that 200 years of allegiance to money and power would have on their ‘experiment’.  Our current Republican legislators have forgotten why they are there.  They apparently only exist to be re-elected.  Why else would so little get done by so many?

If we can hold out, just endure while we mitigate the damage just a little longer, maybe we can reclaim our legacy.  Our elections are the ultimate safety valve in the American people’s ability to self-govern.  See now how important it is to preserve that right unfettered?  See now how there are those who will stop at nothing to corrupt that right and deny us the power as citizens to choose our own government?  See now how essential it is that we do all we can to make sure that this upcoming election is fair and true?

If we don’t, we will have re-defined the word ‘unprecedented’ in a new and ‘unprecedented’ way.

Protecting the Vote

We have a serious problem ahead.  The voting experience in Georgia and several other states yesterday is an ominous warning as to the prospect of an electoral catastrophe in November.  What we saw were lines, especially in minority precincts, that were 2-5 hours in length.  Election officials rolled out new voting machines purposefully at the last minute and the predictable result was non-functioning machines; shortages of ballots; insufficient personnel support because of the Covid-19 emergency. 

Governor Kemp (formerly Sec. of State Kemp who was responsible for voting in Georgia while he was running for Governor in 2018) has done all he can to frustrate voting, especially in minority districts in Georgia, even going so far as to purge over 500,000 voters from predominantly African American districts from the voting rolls prior to the election in 2018.

In Iowa, last week’s primary was a huge success due mostly to the use of absentee ballots.  The state took the initiative to spearhead an effort to make voting efficient and easy at a time when the Corona virus and the George Floyd demonstrations would have made it incredibly difficult to have in-person balloting. The Secretary of State in Iowa send out applications for absentee ballots to all citizens.  That was the reason they had the best turnout of voters ever in Iowa.  No hitches.   No problems.  

Less than a week later, Republicans in the Iowa legislature had drafted a bill to never permit that kind of voting again.  They apparently believe that making voting easy and efficient is a practice that MUST BE STOPPED!   The Republican Party is intent on making voting as difficult as possible for all Iowans.  So, the Republicans in Iowa, who are afraid that if everyone can vote they will lose elections, decided that they must do everything they can to keep Iowans from voting.  Why else would they agressively oppose a system that made their election smoothly efficient?

The President spends a lot of time decrying mail-in balloting in his tweets and pronouncements.  His Press Secretary, his advisors, AG Barr and others in his administration are coming out aggressively with warnings that mail in balloting doesn’t work, isn’t fair, is prone to fraud, and is just not good.  And, of course, all these people have voted by mail repeatedly without any problems.  

Even worse, Republicans nationwide have allocated over $20M to oppose efforts to make voting easier.  They anticipate recruiting over 50,000 volunteers to ‘monitor’ polling places; create a media campaign to suppress efforts to pass vote by mail initiatives—all supported by the Trump administration.

It is clear to many that only if the Republicans can thwart the democratic process by making it as hard as possible for all to vote will they be able to hold on to power in a free and fair election.

We must do everything we can to stop them.

What can we do?  Well, for starters, every one of us must write or call each of our Congressmen and Senators from our state and demand that they support vote-by-mail initiatives.  Then we need to find out who is our municipal or county Supervisor of Elections and tell them that we will not stand for any suppression of voting rights.  Badger them to make sure that all the voting machines and polling places are ready for voting and are tested and prepared in advance of Election Day.  Make sure that they understand that if they do not support vote-by-mail initiatives that we will do everything in our power to rally citizens to make sure that they are thrown out of office or fired from their jobs.  I think that ultimately this is a local issue.  With pressure on local officials, we can make sure that in our little corner of the world we are doing everything we can to support free and fair elections.

These efforts are actions that we must take NOW!  If we allow those who seek to suppress the vote of a free democratic people to succeed, then we are the ones who will have surrendered our democracy to the forces of autocracy and authoritarianism.

The Camera Doesn't Lie

I-phone camera technology has finally opened our eyes to the reality of what it means to see our first amendment rights disappear.  If you are watching the myriad of moments captured over the past 11 days you can’t help but be horrified by the instances of police brutality and simple cruelty that are on display in the locations where citizens have the courage to record what law enforcement is perpetrating on their fellow citizens.  From Buffalo to Washington to Lousiville to Los Angeles, what we are witnessing are examples of what blacks have been telling us has been happening for decades.  But now it is happening to a mixed crowd of whites, blacks, latinos, Asians, and of all ages, including children!

As each of these recorded instances are rebutted by the authorities, law enforcement agencies and police unions, we see how they have tried to ‘gaslight’ us into believing alternative explanations that they concoct. 

The camera does not lie.

That’s why the demonstrations are only getting larger, not smaller.  We are all seeing the duplicity.  When that 75 year-old man was pushed to the pavement in Buffalo and seriously injured, and we watched the uniformed police simply walk by him and not offer aid, it brought it all home, didn’t it?  The Mayor of Buffalo was on TV the next night to answer to the incident and the best he could do was utter a flaccid response that it was disturbing and unfortunate.  He is clearly under the thumb of the police union.  The net result of that action was that the two officers were suspended without pay.  Really?  They should be fired and charged with criminal action.  And as far as the 57 officers in that unit that resigned in sympathy to the two officers from the unit—they should be summarily fired and their union abolished….good riddance!  Get new humans that have empathy.  What we witnessed there was simply an exercise of naked power with cruelty and without humanity from people who have Napoleonic complexes.

The recorded moments are telling the story of where we have landed as a society being led by an autocrat.  But even more than that we now see how imperative it is for citizens to rise up and change the equation at the local level.  The local law enforcement paradigm needs to shift.  Police unions need to be de-fanged and abolished.  Communities need to come together and restructure their police forces, establishing new training protocols and ridding the departments of any officers that have complaints against them for unlawful use of force or questionable tactics.

To be sure, the police in these demonstration situations are only human, and probably fear the actions of those who criminally assault them, but for the most part those criminals are few while mostly all these demonstrations are peaceful; and the police are the ones that take the initial unprovoked action.  They are the ones swinging the billy clubs and batons; the ones firing tear gas and flash-bang devices; the ones firing rubber bullets at unarmed citizens; the ones pushing old men, women, children out of the way with cruel intent.  It is sickening, and we are seeing it for the first time in a way that could only happen as a result of the ubiquitous presence of the I-phone camera.

But there is something else happening in our country that has not happened before.  The Baby Boomer generation is giving way to the Millenial and Gen-Z generations who will finally perhaps be able to salvage our future.  It is clear that our leaders, who are almost all white men from the Baby Boomer generation, have lost their way.  They have forgotten what the American Experiment is all about.  It is time to purge the Congress of members of their generation who are mute at the rise of autocracy and dictatorship.   It is the younger generations who are the reformers; who are filled with an energy for renewal of our American ideals.  We saw the first wave of that action in the 2018 midterm elections and hopefully we will see a subsequent, more powerful wave this year.

With the increasing public outcry over the dictator-like tactics of the Trump administration and the gathering awareness of just how perilously vulnerable our democracy is becoming, the momentum for change is increasing.  The façade of support provided to Trump by mute Republicans and most especially by our military leaders is slowly cracking apart.  The fracturing of the compact between our apolitical military and American society is the first tell-tale indicator that change is coming.  Our most revered and honorable military leaders want no part of what Trump/Barr et al. are attempting to do to our country.  They see the threat to our democracy and the undermining of our Constitution by these people and are calling them out….finally!  Let’s hope their clarion call comes soon enough to matter.

Before I end this blog, let me just offer a word of thanks to all of you who witnessed and participated in the last blog.  What we saw here over the past several days was an example of the single-minded rejection of evidence and the twisting of events and facts to support something that, frankly, is unsupportable.  Being able to see other’s points of view is essential if we are to find common ground.  But claiming that plainly visible evidence of actions and attitudes by the Trump Administration are ‘lies’ without any substantive proof cannot be tolerated.   Institutional racism is present in America, and it has been here for a long, long time.  Those who want to turn a blind eye to it by blaming the victims are perpetrators of the worst kind.

Last Exit Before the Toll.....

In all my years,  I have never felt as anxious about the future of my country as I do today.  After 3 years and 4 months of Donald Trump as President it is certainly remarkable how deeply our country has become riven with despair, confusion and hate.  Trump has fanned the flames of hate and violence while at the same time maliciously, purposefully deconstructing our democracy.  Yesterday he approached the final step toward dictatorship by warning our governors that he will send in federal troops to ‘dominate’ America’s streets which he and his Defense Secretary called the ‘battlespace’.  He wants to use our military on the American citizenry.

If you have been watching the videos of how some police and national guard troops have responded with cruelty and unnecessary force, it is hard not to compare our America with countries like China, Russia, Turkey, Iran or Syria or other autocracies where the objective is to subdue and dominate the citizens.  We have arrived at the brink of something I never thought I would see in the United States of America.  We are on the edge of descending into civil war, brought about over the past many decades by the white majority subjugating the black and brown members of our society.  The grievances of the protestors, who for the most part are demonstrating peacefully, have been ignored and rejected for the past 100 years.   The proverbial pigeons have come home to roost.  The litany of white supremacist behaviors on the part of police has grown too long.  Trump will try to persuade us that Antifa is behind all of it...we know better.  True enough that there are criminals using these protests as a 'screen' for their incitement to violence, but that is only a symptom and result of where Trump's administration has led us up to this point.

When you mix this brew of hateful behavior with economic injustice and inequality, and stir in a pandemic that has left hundreds of thousands of citizens (especially the black, latino and minority communities) sick, dead and unemployed, you have conditions that are ripe for riots, violence and national instability.  This toxic mélange has been fertile ground for the hateful rise of the kind of leadership epitomized by Donald Trump.  But he is not the root cause of all that we are suffering from.

The conscious and willful subjugation of the rule of law and our founding principles of government by the Republican party over the past several decades is perhaps the root cause of where we find ourselves today.  This is actually surprising since the Republican Party used to be associated with conservative government and strict Constitutional adherence.  Somehow, they all lost their way because of their greed and hunger for power.  Now we have a Republican Party that is lost; that remains mute at the bastardization of the system they used to so vocally support.  It’s breathtaking actually!

And Trump marches on…..swinging the bludgeon of our military at the citizens he is supposed to care for.  He is the ‘strongman’ we always said was the antithesis of what we believed in; what we have fought world wars to bring down; what we have left our blood and treasure in the sands of foreign countries to avoid having here in our homeland.  If you think I am an alarmist, how do you reconcile the image of Donald Trump holding up a bible as a prop in front of a church he expropriated for his photo op by scattering peaceful demonstrators with tear gas, armed troops shooting rubber bullets and ‘flash- bangs’ while helicopters, at his direction, hovered at rooftop level over the crowd to frighten and intimidate them so he could walk across LaFayette Park to get his photo.  There is a similar picture of Hitler doing the same thing.

Events are getting away from us, my friends.  There is precious little time remaining before we pass the point of no return.  I am not sure what any of us can do individually, but collectively we must use the only thing remaining in our arsenal: the vote.  Protect it as best you can.  Support all efforts to insure the vote to ALL citizens.  The last exit before the toll is ahead in November….Turn on your blinker!!