First Think, THEN Ink.

Before I explain the above headline, let me explain my credentials.

I am a person who has worked as a fundraiser for such organizations as Planned Parenthood and EMILY's List. I have also fundraised for the Democratic National Committee and participated in both of Barack Obama's presidential runs, first as a volunteer phone banker and organizer in 2008, then as a fundraiser in 2012, who personally raised over four-hundred thousand dollars for the campaign. And finally, I briefly served as part of the fundraising team for Hillary Clinton, as she became the first woman of a major party atop a presidential ticket.

While others may have more expertise than me, I believe I have a unique and accurate perspective on the 2020 election, and I want state this as clearly as I can, with no sarcasm, no humor and no doubt: donald trump will win a second term and return to the White House.

As you might guess, based on my history, I am not pleased about making this statement. But I am stating it now because I don't want another scene that occurred at the Javits Center on the evening of Tuesday November 8, 2016. The shock and the grief of that moment nearly four years ago, with all of Hillary's supporters gathered together was among the most difficult to witness and that has only extended, based on what has occurred in the ensuing administration.

Here, I will make the case to explain why trump's return to DC isn't just likely, it's inevitable, and why you shouldn't be as shocked as Secretary Clinton's team was when it happened two hundred and six weeks ago.

Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Everything turns on whatever the circumstances are. Currently, the president has seemingly beat COVID-19 in just a few days, suggesting that the medical professionals that warned Americans to stay at home, wear masks and social distance were overzealous. It also makes the Democratic Governors who issued tough restrictions for their states appear to be strangling their own economies for no reason.

Additionally, many view COVID as something no one could have done anything about, so any blame that might have been placed on trump is tempered because this wasn't created by him.

Also, there is the small matter of a new Supreme Court justice. The Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett, trump's latest SCOTUS pick, as he continues to pack the court with the most conservative judges he can.

Between laying the blame of the economy on state and city level Democrats, and the promise of a Supreme Court that will tighten restrictions on what some perceive as preposterous behavior by liberal thinking Americans, trump is getting a bit of a boost right now in certain circles.

Also, the fact that Stephen Breyer, Bill Clinton's second Supreme Court selection, turned 82 this past summer, means that trump, if returned to the White House, might actually get a fourth seat to fill on the Judicial side. That thought likely has conservatives on Cloud 9 justices.

But we also need to look back, both to weed through the history of what occurred and to digest the basics of how people think to completely understand why trump is about to win again.

The first thing to note is the Electoral College.

A lot of people don't quite get the intricacies of the Electoral College. And many want to dismantle it. I'm of a somewhat different mindset.

Here's how the process generally works. Every state acts as a separate entity. Every voting district in each state counts toward your total in that state. Win just one voting district more than your opponent and you win the state and all of that state's Electoral Votes. The object is to get to 270 Electoral Votes and win.

It used to be counties - or parishes in Louisiana - not "voting districts." But that's because gerrymandering, the process of redrawing the map so one side or other can win areas, has been done by Republican legislators since George W. Bush. With gerrymandering, Republicans get a major boost because they manipulate the lines so more and more areas are set to vote Red. It's an easy fix.

Prior to the 2016 election, I suggested a couple of problems with the Electoral system, putting aside the gerrymandering issue. The first was simply the numbers.

There are six states and the District of Columbia that have three Electoral Votes. Wyoming is the smallest in population - approximately 578,000 residents. Montana has nearly twice the population, at over one million residents, but the same number of electoral votes as Wyoming. That seems odd.

Then, when you compare the vote totals to the larger states, it seems even more wacky. Using Montana's three votes per million residents, not even Wyoming's population count, a state like California would receive 117 Electoral Votes, based on the more than 39 million residents in that state. Currently, California has fifty-five Electoral Votes. So the state counts aren't fair.

But there is an even bigger issue that no one wants to address.

Every state has their allotment of Electoral Votes. And those votes are cast, no matter how many (or few) people voted in the general election. If only fifty percent of the population voted, why are one hundred percent of the Electoral Votes being given? Think about it. Votes are being handed to candidates based on NOTHING. What should be happening is a percentage of the Electoral Votes are awarded, based on the total of ballots cast by the percentage of legal voting age population.

Now, suddenly, we are getting an accurate assessment of what each state thinks. And this has the added benefit of eliminating voter suppression, forever. In this case, you want everyone, including supporters of your political rival to vote, so the state's winner would get all of the Electoral Votes, not a fraction.

So, even with keeping the Electoral College, we can use some tweaks and make it accurate, based on how many people live in a particular area and more representative of what's actually happening with the so-called "popular vote."

Admittedly, though, none of that is the issue right now. The issue is sexism.

I'm the first person to admit it. We got President Barack Obama, at least in part, because of sexism. Obama had one major challenger in the 2008 Democratic primaries - Senator Hillary Clinton. And when he won the nomination, his opponent was John McCain, who was in questionable health at the time, and his running mate was former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin.

While the 2008 result was far closer than 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro ran with Walter Mondale to a landslide defeat, it wasn't close.

As I mentioned above, I have worked for the DNC, speaking to big money donors all over the country. And when I briefly was involved with Hillary's campaign, speaking exclusively to Democrats, mind you, I was taken aback by the number of people who said some variation of "I don't think we're ready for a 'woman president.'"

Reminder. 2016. Liberal minded voters. Not sure about a woman in charge. As tough as that was to hear, it clearly was worse on the conservative side. There are a number of Americans who firmly believe that women should be barred from the military. You can imagine what they think of a female Commander-in-Chief.

Flash ahead four years. Now it's not just sexism, it's racism. Senator Kamala Harris isn't just a woman a Joe Biden heartbeat from the Oval Office, she is a minority woman. And we have not gotten past either sexism or racism in this country - in fact, we haven't properly discussed those issues, even now. And if we haven't even talked about them, we are far from resolving them.

This combination of elements, a fearful population of a possible Madam President, those that are happy with (or are unaffected by) trump's statements and actions, and this almost insatiable need by Republicans not to just have their way, but to be practically punitive with Democrats, has created a nation on the brink of a new kind of civil war.

My points about changing things for future elections may be moot. That's because when trump gets his second term, suddenly, he doesn't have to answer to anybody, not even his base. He will be completely free to do anything he wants, including finding a way to stay in power beyond 2024. After all, things are so much more peaceful when the rabble rousers have nothing to promote.

But I stated that trump's re-election might be a good thing. A great thing, not a good thing. Let me briefly paint that picture.

Any doubt about the dysfunction of the United States is gone. But what to do about it is unclear. If Biden wins, we'll start to head back towards what we think of as "normalcy."

But we have outgrown that normal. The problem is many Americans still don't understand what the complaints are all about. They need trump to destroy government as it is before they finally get it.

So, when trump attempts to dismantle the Constitution, when he exerts his absolute power, when he aligns with foreign dictators and shuns our allies, promotes chaos and divisive thought and when he manipulates every advantage to circumnavigate our laws to stay beyond eight years, and when it will eventually end, and yes, despite all, it will eventually end, we, like the Original Founders, will have to create a new government from the wreckage and the carnage.

Hopefully, this time, we will consider ALL Americans as we build a new form of government, one that protects us from, not promotes, people like trump, and one that serves the people, not just those with wealth and power.

Melania Trump, the current First Lady of the United States, has a platform she claims to support: Anti-Bullying. It makes sense. As a immigrant to this country, arriving in New York in her mid-twenties, she could have been, and likely was, exposed to abuse of varying sorts by people who didn't like her for who she was. The US has a history of characterizing immigrants as "less than" throughout history, this, despite the fact that the white population of the country were all immigrants.

But another irony springs up when discussing the concept of Mrs. Trump's Anti-Bullying stance: she is married to the biggest bully in the history of the White House.

I'm not talking out of turn here. There is a list of what are called "Bullying Tactics." And, when we examine how Trump behaves, he basically uses ALL of these as his standard actions. Just look at this list!

http://www.workplacebullying.org/top-25/

He is not just a bully, he's the number one bully, certainly in the history of the White House, but maybe also in America.

But what do we do about a bully? A bully who holds the highest office in the land?

The problem seems to be that Trump wants to believe himself, being in that highest office, above reproach. That's also why the Mueller Investigation has him worried. He keeps wanting to claim it is over at every step, He has said, written or tweeted the phrase "No Collusion" more often than he has said the name of his Vice President.

Would standard techniques work in dealing with this bully? Presumably yes, but since he has all the power in this circumstance, isn't he more like the Billy Mumy character from that episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "It's A Good Life"?

How does one deal with a man/child that neither reads nor listens to reason? Who doesn't want to hear criticism, only praise? Who doesn't want to be wrong, who will never apologize, even when faced with the fact that he is wrong and whose main concern is himself?

This is the puzzle we have provided ourselves. Will anyone solve it? Melania?

Yesterday, there was this video clip:



The father of three victims of that Olympic Doctor who molested all those athletes reacted to him.

A friend asked about why this kind of anger and response wasn't there at the very start, and it took all of these people coming forward to share their harrowing tales of abuse to finally bring about this reaction. After giving it a bit of thought, here's what I came up with...

Expectations.

I think, as a starting point, we have certain expectations about what our lives are all about, how things function, and who the people we encounter are. We also have an expectation that the people in our lives, most especially professionals, always behave in an ethical manner. After all, they have worked to get to the place where they are. They wouldn't jeopardize that position by doing something that might take everything they had done, away.

So, when we begin looking at a circumstance like the one where we have a doctor sexually molesting how many? Over one-hundred and fifty (and counting) young athletes, women and girls, the first thought is that this doctor isn't going to do that. That goes against logic and reason.

Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Roy Moore and this guy, among a bunch of men that were admired for so very long are the people of that sort in question. And, at first glance, our society just couldn't quite believe that these guys would do anything like that. Their personalities away from these accusations fell within the spectrum of normal, even friendly and affable. And they were at the top of their fields.

This way of thinking, this expectation of "how things work" comes into play in a lot of ways in our society. It allows us to believe that the police are always correct in whatever action they take during any routine traffic stop. It permits us to say that a political leader would never place his personal interests ahead of the nation he has sworn to protect. And it definitely affects our view of these people, like all of the Catholic Priests who were accused of molesting altar boys, who were then reassigned to other parishes in other states to avoid the scandal.

When you view these guys, when you consider their position, and assume they must have behaved ethically to get as far as they did, that's where the veil is pulled across our eyes. Surely THEY aren't going to behave that way. So, the issue must be with the accuser. The accusers are not powerful people with clout in the community. They aren't people who have lived as long and may not understand just what they are suggesting with their statements, or they might misread signals they received from their encounter with this person. So, either the accuser simply made a mistake, or it wasn't as bad as described, or it was a false accusation as a prank, or a false accusation to be malicious. Because, if it's none of those things?

We want our world to make sense.

We want our world to make sense.

But, if someone we know and like, a family friend, a trusted confidant, a professional that is noted for their exemplary work... does... this?

It doesn't make sense.

And that's how blaming the victim becomes a thing. We just want the world to make sense and we will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Eventually, however, the ostriches must lift their heads from the sand, and usually that means looking at a world that is far worse than if they had dealt with the situation when it was first noticed.

I hope we can continue to move forward, that there can be some true healing for everyone harmed because of these events, that the perpetrators can feel some empathy for their victims and can understand the affect they have had by their selfish and unwanted actions. I hope there can be forgiveness, because holding anger, pain and rage only harms the person who feels that even more. And I hope there can be a sense of closure for everyone affected.

But most of all, I'm hoping that we won't make the assumption that just because someone has reached a certain stature in life, doesn't mean they could not or would not be the perpetrator of a heinous act.

Our ostrich days are over.

ETA: Uma Thurman's story about Weinstein, which appears in the Feburary 4, 2018 issue of The New York Times also echoes the point I made here; Ms. Thurman states the following:

“The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was,” she told me one recent night, looking anguished in her elegant apartment in River House on Manhattan’s East Side, as she vaped tobacco, sipped white wine and fed empty pizza boxes into the fireplace.

“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of ‘Kill Bill,’ a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”

Thurman stresses that Creative Artists Agency, her former agency, was connected to Weinstein’s predatory behavior. It has since issued a public apology. “I stand as both a person who was subjected to it and a person who was then also part of the cloud cover, so that’s a super weird split to have,” she says.

Maureen Dowd's interview with Uma Thurman is up on The Times Website

Some thoughts as we begin the New Year...

1. 2017 wasn't a bad year. Granted, things may have happened that you personally didn't like or want, or things happened to you personally that were hurtful or harmful. But, for at least some people, possibly the majority of people, things went okay or well or even better than they could have hoped. There are always winners, every year, no matter what.

2. Most societal and interpersonal issues are created by a "missed communication" element. Please! If you can only understand one thing this year, let it be this: the gap between a message being sent and how it is being heard can create a huge problem that can lead to hurt feelings, incorrect assumptions, reactions of anger or revenge, hypersensitivity, mental. physical or sexual abuse, even death in extreme cases. Look closely at situations where people are having a problem speaking and/or listening to each other. See if you can understand what all sides are stating and why they are reacting as they do. This will help you with both language skills and with empathy.

3. Are we fatalistic? As I just pointed out, the bulk of our problems stem from a communication gap between each other. Yet we, as humans, speak many different languages, almost as if we wanted to create such a gap! When people seem to intentionally mishear a message, they may be actively choosing to do that because it is to their own benefit Keep an eye out for examples of this.

4. Finally, always remember not to rely on someone else for your happiness. If you expect a person to come and turn your life wonderful, you are giving that same person permission to take it all away in a capricious moment. Retain your responsibility for your own self care. Don't leave that to anyone else, no matter how well meaning they are or how trustworthy you feel them to be. Life is unpredictable, so hold your own reins and travel at your own gallop or cantor or trot.

Good wishes for a great 2018!

Back when I was interviewing LJ users for my little project I called talk_show, one of my interviewees was a guy named Ryan Estrada. He had just started drawing his "Frank the Goat" comic at that time, which was gaining popularity. Frank the Goat, if you didn't know, was the long time mascot of LiveJournal so having a comic based on the character was both a natural fit and a boon to both the site and the artist.

When the site was bought outright by the Russians, in the wake of the SixApart debacle, Estrada discontinued his comic, and I presume, like many, left the site. But more recently he came back and posted a new comic speaking directly to the issues of freedom of speech, of rights for LGBTQ members and supporters and of why a so-called long form blogging site has rules in place that do not permit opinions of specific sorts.

Thanks to tamar for calling my attention to this, even though it occurred in July, so a full season ago. Still, it's a topical take on what's happening around here and is worthy of consideration as we continue to move forward on a platform that feels like a raft made of very thick cardboard on a very troubled sea.

The article about Ryan's action is posted HERE, but here's the comic.



For the record, the comic above is still available on the frankthecomic account.


And if you want to go more in depth about this, there's the website listed at the bottom of the comic:

https://gimletmedia.com/episode/100-friends-blasphemers/

That allows you the choice of listening to a podcast or just reading the transcript to delve more deeply into this topic. Just to give you an overview of what this podcast/transcript is: they go into more detail about how Russia was angry about the criticism of their government by their own citizenry and by some in the west and how they actively sought to shut down the criticism by buying LiveJournal. It's a fascinating report and one that will send you reeling if you didn't know the details.

Still, for my sense about it, the facts are pretty clear: there is no "western" division of LiveJournal. Previously, there was a board that worked in concert with the Russian element. That hasn't been true in years, as far as I can tell, possibly dating back as far as when other talk_show interviewee marta, who acted as a liaison between the Non Cyrillic and Cyrillic sides, left her position with LJ, about 2011 or 12.

That all leads us to the inevitable questions: "what does it mean?" and "what does it matter?"

For the first question, keep in mind, if the folks running the Russian servers of LJ are determined to disallow us from making certain kinds of statements, they can. We signed their ToS and they have every right to shut us down without any notice and without any recourse. You have to know and understand that when you're examining this situation. Will they shut us down? It's unlikely, because they have other things far more important than the blog entries of some westerners that probably have nothing to do with them. But we know that when it came to the dissidents within their homeland, they definitely cracked down on those posts and perhaps used LJ as a method of locating the people responsible to bring them to "justice." We don't know all the details because we never will.

This, to me, is why I feel unsafe remaining on LiveJournal. No western influence, Russian servers and a proven track record of abuse based on their standards. Will everything remain the same? It might, but we can't, with any kind of certainty, say yes.

To the second question, the most accurate answer I can muster is it depends on what you're willing to accept. We have a documented record of what has already taken place. To simply ignore that record and continue as if nothing has happened? That seems very shortsighted.

Based on what we know about the history of how Russia views LiveJournal, we know two things:

1. The Russians will never let LiveJournal out of their control.

They see LJ as a potential threat to their power and will not release it to some other entity at any time. They worked very hard to get LJ and to prevent people from using it as a platform to air their grievances against the Russian government. There is no price that would permit anyone from buying it back now. LiveJournal, now and forever, is a Russian entity.

2. The Russians could literally pull the plug on LJ at any moment.

Granted, it doesn't seem imminent, nor is it likely to be, but there is nothing that states that, just as they arbitrarily threw up that ToS for all of us westerners to sign ten months ago, they won't just shut down and destroy LiveJournal if some Russian government figure thinks that would be the best choice.

I'm trying to envision a scenario where it makes sense to remain on LiveJournal, knowing these facts. If you think of any, let me know.

For a moment, let’s forget everything we know (and let’s definitely forget everything we DON’T know) about the 2016 United States Presidential Election. Let’s forget the people chosen to be cabinet members of this administration. Let’s forget the inane and sometimes seriously flawed tweets, the blatant attacks against the press, the awkward meetings with heads of state that are our allies, the inexplicable meetings with heads of state that are our adversaries, the policies that clearly are not in the spirit of our country. Let’s forget the maxims and slogans that are meaningless, let’s not think about the continual weekends away from DC, the lack of knowledge of basic geography, basic diplomacy, basic government policy, or the revolving door of White House staffers that is spinning like a merry-go-round powered by a warp drive engine. Forget. It. All.

We are left with Number Forty-Five. And without all of the negative banter, the attempts to control everything around him, the continual contradictory statements, the constant demands for loyalty, we can now clearly see one fact that is crystal clear:

Donald J. Trump is a terrible president.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, if you’re a supporter of Trump. You’re thinking, this is another “libtard,” “sore loser” commentary coming from a “snowflake” about how you “can’t get over” the fact that he “beat” Hillary and you just won’t shut up and let him “run the country” the way he wants. You’re also probably thinking that “this kind of commentary” is “dividing the country” and that we “can’t move forward” if you aren’t willing to accept “President Trump” for what he is, the guy who is going to “Make America Great Again.”

But, here’s the crux of the issue when we are talking about Trump’s presidency to date. During the election, people are generally divided along party lines: Democrats and Republicans mostly, though certainly Libertarians and Independents were heard from as well. However, when the election is over, the winner must become President of the United States, not President of the People Who Voted For Him.

The problem isn’t that Liberals are “cry babies,” it’s that the President has chosen to ignore anyone who doesn’t agree with his policies and rhetoric. In other words, he is still playing to his base and ignoring everybody who isn’t already in his camp.

Donald Trump candidly admitted that he really didn’t know or understand what being President was all about before he started to run for the office. That’s usually a dangerous indicator, especially in a job that has so many moving parts and is so very important for both the image of our country with the rest of the world (as the most visible representation of the nation, POTUS is the filter through which the rest of the citizenry is viewed by people in other locales). But, it’s also a problem for those that live here. The policies, the concepts, the elements of knowing what to do are crucial in maintaining a sense of control, of steadiness, of caring, of expertise.

The issue is Trump has never stopped being the Republican Nominee. Everything he has planned, everything he has said, everything he has done was to the liking of the GOP, and nothing of any kind to even attempt to reach out to the Democrats, who, despite all of the conservative talk suggesting otherwise, are still intelligent minded citizens of this country.

Again, this is a demonstration of how little Mr. Trump knows about how government works. Those people that didn’t vote for him are not expected to suddenly be supportive of everything the president says and does, just because he took the oath of office. It is up to him to reach out in word and deed and act like he cares about the entirety of the country.

That’s why there are constant outcries from the liberal side of things over just about everything Trump is doing. When we say “He’s Not My President,” that’s really because of what the man, himself, is saying or trying to accomplish. The phrase, more accurately stated, is “He’s Not BEING My President.”

Every candidate has to pivot, at least a little bit, toward the center when they become the president, if they intend to include all citizens. And the president really must include all citizens if that person intends to govern properly. There is no way around it. President Obama did not dismantle the NRA or hand out Reparations to African American families, as many conservative commenters all over the internet were anxious about during his tenure in office. In fact, President Obama had a rather moderate term, not doing anything so far left it would create some angered response from conservatives. But then again, for most of Obama’s term, he had a Republican Congress to deal with, and they were not about to give him any bills that he actually wanted to sign.

When you look at everything that Donald Trump wants to do, it slams Democrats/Liberals in a way that makes them seem like he views them as “the enemy.” While that might delight everyone who voted GOP, who are still pushing the partisan agenda, who are still trying to trash and bash Hillary, that does not endear him to the rest of the nation who are feeling as if this is turning into a game of “Keep Away.” And the fact that this seems like it’s being treated like a game itself is problematic.

Worse yet, The Donald was partially responsible for the atmosphere that we are currently in: as his suggestion that Barack Obama perhaps was not born on United States soil meant that maybe he should not be the president at all, and that maybe all of the bills he signed into law should be considered void. With his constant comments and calls for President Obama’s Birth Certificate, Trump definitely helped to divide the nation and to became the darling of conservative commentators around the country, eventually leading to his candidacy, the Anti-Obama crusader.

And conservative commentators also make a mint from tapping into a portion of the population all too eager to hear and believe what they are saying. People using political speak for personal gain don’t understand how that creates a rift in the country because they remain unaffected. They won’t be harmed by the policies this administration pushes forward, so to them, it’s that previously referred to game, a chance to whip up the ire of their viewers or listeners for clickbait on websites or commercial sponsors on TV or radio programming. Ka-ching.

During President Obama’s time in office, we know that a small group of Republicans broke off and formed what they called the “Tea Party,” an offshoot of the GOP that was determined to undermine President Obama at every possible opportunity. And this group grew and blossomed, just like a weed, feeding off of other disgruntled conservatives, spouting negative commentary and just like Breitbart, which also began as a website around that same time, wanted to do as much as they could to characterize Obama as being a negative influence on the country and to rally support for all things conservative.

When Donald Trump took the oath of office, it was time for The Closer to take over. Just one problem: being POTUS is not the same as running a corporation. You don’t get to boss everyone around and do things your own way. You don’t get to act unilaterally. And as Trump himself should have known, just from his own constant tweets about Barack Obama, you don’t get to avoid criticism from the people who do not agree with your policies and decisions.

But all of these things are being used as reasons why he hasn’t accomplished more of his agenda, this though he has a friendly Congress, a conservative Supreme Court and pens aplenty to sign his Executive Orders.

Still, Trump remains unapologetic in his complete and utter disregard for anyone that was not a supporter of his during the election and seems intent on working exclusively for those that were. Certainly, his appointment to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, is a blatant example of that. Where Barack Obama nominated a slightly right leaning judge, Merrick Garland, a person most Republicans suggested would be a good or at least reasonable selection to their liking, Trump’s appointment was as far right as possible, again, supporting his base and thumbing his nose at the left.

The hate is the element that overwhelms – hate of the party that does something different from what you like. While conservatives may be inconvenienced by policies introduced by liberals, more taxes, programs that benefit other groups, liberals are often threatened directly by policies introduced by conservatives: defunding Planned Parenthood, repealing laws permitting gay people to marry as a couple of examples that may do legitimate harm to people, either through economics or the appearance of segmenting our country into groups that deserve fair treatment and others who do not.

Ultimately, the President of the United States is there to set a tone, to frame some parameters. POTUS helps to point out what is important, what we should be thinking about. The president is like a scoutmaster, constantly showing us what we need to do, and what we need to avoid. Unless he's so self-interested that you don't know what that is.

If there is any positive from Trump’s presidency, it’s that people are starting to come together and organize. Indivisible, a group created specifically to fight against the policies and agendas that Trump has been pushing has been slowly gathering support since the election and now numbers nearly six thousand separate affiliate organizations across the country. Their website is chock full of information about contacting local representatives, how to set up peaceful protests and has information about events, news about successes achieved through these grass roots efforts and updates you with info about bills up for debate that can have an impact on your local legislatures among a very extensive list of useful facts. It is worth a bookmark.

The fact is, politicians are here to work for us, not the other way around. And they are here to work for ALL of us, not just the ones with the big bank accounts or the ones that already agree with the people elected. It is up to us, the constituents, to hold their feet to the fire and make sure they do what we want, because that is their role. And if they don’t perform their role properly, it is up to us, the constituents, to vote them out of office, because that is our role.

The 2018 Midterm elections are fifteen months away.

//

This thinkpost was written for LJ Idol using the prompt: Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you

Steve Scalise Among 4 Shot at Baseball Field; Suspect Is Dead - The New York Times Wednesday June 14, 2017

Partisan politics commentary where people of a differing political stance have chosen to call each other “selfish,” “stupid,” “insane” or worse. Much worse. It's difficult not to see the above event as possibly a result of such responses. And it's something we have to address.

If we are to understand where the United States is, politically, we have to go back in time and examine where we were. Let’s turn back the clock and go for a trip to a previous USA, all the way back to the mid twentieth century!

( The world of politics during the Eisenhower era... )

The things that entertain us, as a collective audience, have changed drastically over time. I personally never attended a Minstrel Show, but I understand they were beloved by many in their day. Radio was a very popular element of people's lives, and I guess there are still some that listen to certain forms of radio broadcasts, but it's definitely not the crucial source it once was...

And even television has flattened and thinned and has been redefined to go to areas beyond the device itself, with websites producing programming, and our collective ability to watch programs on our computers and phones is more than proof of that.

But with all of these changes over time, there was one constant: The Circus. And by "The Circus," I mean THE Circus: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

A Legendary "Combined" show The Ringling Brothers originally had their own circus, P.T. Barnum, the ultimate impresario, had exhibits which he would display and tour and James A. Bailey teamed up with him. Together these three entities would help carry this particular form of entertainment that has been a staple in the American fabric for nearly a century and a half.

Before television, before filmed newsreels even, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus brought audiences into a world they never would have seen, otherwise. Animals from other continents right in front of your nose to watch perform... unique acts that would amaze, from aerialists that did multi somersaults, mid-air, to the big cat tamers that risked their lives in a cage with twenty tigers.

And then, there are the clowns, the heart of the show, there to bring a smile, a tear, and maybe even a thought about humanity as we go.

The term "Sensory Overload" could have been coined for this three ring monstrosity, that demanded you look everywhere at once to see everything going on! It was organized chaos and confounded and delighted millions throughout time.

So, we have heard the news:

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is closing in May.

Perhaps the writing was on the wall as of a couple of years ago, when New York's boutique show, The Big Apple Circus, shut down. A beloved part of the scene for decades with its single ring and intimate setting, even it couldn't withstand a difficult economy and an era where most people simply didn't care as much about the tradition of this kind of entertainment.

When I was a kid, the Ringling show would come to town and camped out at Madison Square Garden for an unbelievable thirteen weeks... practically every school in the tri-state area took a trip to see the show during the spring, getting the requisite box of popcorn, the cotton candy, and the tiny flashlight on a string that you would swing over your head during a show "blackout" as the Ringmaster would announce the next performers.

The Circus is a throwback to the past, an historic relic of the way things were. Most people had no way of seeing animals like zebras or elephants up close until the circus came through town back in the 1940s and 50s

And that is, of course, part of the problem. As people understood the elements of what it meant for animals to live and perform on a traveling show, there was a constant outcry over the conditions for them. No matter your feelings on this issue, the protests that occurred had an impact on the way the show functioned and how it progressed.

And even with improvements that helped to support the care and raising of these wonderful creatures, eventually the call for change meant not just an adjustment in what was appropriate, but a complete overhaul and eventual dismantling of that element of the circus.

Certainly with alternate, but similar forms of entertainment, with zoos and aquariums becoming more common across the country, and with theme parks starting to be available in every state, suddenly the interest in a show like this wasn't quite the same, either... and even the Feld family, who have been the producers of this show for decades, had also been creating other, similar entertainment, like ice shows, that perhaps had, in their way, cut into the profit of the tentpole itself.

Maybe you were a person who attended a Ringling performance every year, going when you were a kid, maybe taking your kids to see it when you had a family. Or maybe you didn't attend, but liked the concept of what a circus meant. There's a sort of mystical, magical element to a show, people working together, traveling the countryside, performing, bringing a smile, a laugh, a thrill, some positive elements to the lives of others before they move on to the next town - the addition of some excitement and color to an otherwise average existence. That's why the concept of "running away with the circus" held so much romance and charm... you could leave your life as it was and become a part of something that made life brighter, brassier, better.

The collective history of what was known as "The Greatest Show on Earth" had its share of tragedy. Jumbo the Elephant, The Hartford Circus Fire and more recently, some of our community were remembering the deadly Ringling Train Derailment of 1994 which was January 13th of that year, twenty-three years ago now.

There was also some positive inspirational elements too, as the film "The Greatest Show on Earth" won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1952. There was the Broadway show Barnum which won a Tony Award for Jim Dale. And now, almost as a final coda, we have a new film, titled "The Greatest Showman" with Hugh Jackman in the role of Phineas Taylor Barnum, due for a Christmas 2017 release.

Personally, Ringling changed my life forever. I might have remained in a stale retail sales job. Being a manager for a department store seemed to be my life's direction until I got the call to go to Clown College. Because of that, I got some wonderful skills which I still use frequently. I got some fascinating jobs over time which took me to some pretty interesting places. And most importantly of all, I got a wonderful collection of friends and I became a part of a family of sorts. There are less than two thousand people who completed Ringling's Clown College course over the nearly thirty year history of that institution, making this a very exclusive group. I'm both pleased and honored to be among those ranks.

Recently, clowns have gotten a worse than usual name because of the actions of a few. But despite bad publicity, various protests and other elements, circuses haven't gone away completely. There are still some out there touring, and even some in residence in particular locations, so we can't quite say the art form is dead, but this is a very big and very notable milestone that is imminent. This is the loss of a part of our collective family tree.

At the end of every performance, the ringmaster of the Ringling show would make a seven word statement to the crowd as they gathered their belongings, their family members, their souvenirs and their memories of what they just witnessed. It was a way of holding the concept of what the show was about to the hearts of those who attended. I can't think of any other way to conclude but by offering them again, now.

"May All Your Days Be Circus Days."

2016 is not a year we are soon to forget. The choices that were made this year will have some long ranging effects on what the next several years ahead will be. First The United Kingdom voted to remove itself from the European Union, and then there was the small matter of the United States Presidential Election, who would succeed Barack Obama as the 45th President?

And instead of Mother Nature's frightening elements, it was man-made terrorism that became more commonplace this past year. Driving heavy trucks through crowds in Nice, France and Berlin, Germany. Bombs set off in Brussels, Belgium. Gunning down a nightclub full of people in Orlando, Florida. We really need to take stock of what's going on in the world, that there are those intent on causing mayhem and death. Where is this going? Are we headed into a world of anarchy or will there be some semblance of redemption? With refugees fleeing their homelands, trying to find a safe place to be, the question we sincerely have to ask is: does such a place exist?

Along the way, we lost a lot of really famous folks to boot. In just about every discipline there was a giant or two who fell. From the poet of the Sweet Science, Muhammad Ali to the Poet of Brokenness, Leonard Cohen... From the Creator of a Space Oddity, David Bowie to the last of the Original 7 NASA Astronauts, John Glenn... From First Lady, Nancy Reagan to Identical Cousin, Patty Duke... From "Life in the Fast Lane" co-writer, Glenn Frey to "Little Red Corvette" driver, Prince... From the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro to the head of "Arnie's Army," Arnold Palmer... From Brady matriarch, Florence Henderson to Wonka patriarch, Gene Wilder... From The Beatles' George Martin to Wham!'s George Michael, from Attorney General Janet Reno to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, From Holocaust survivor and author, Elie Weisel to To Kill a Mockingbird scribe, Harper Lee, and the daughter and mother movie icons, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds... to name just a few of the people who aren't joining us in 2017.

Back around LJ, the terrific low_delta and cynnerth were visiting NYC and they were nice enough to invite me along for a little get together where they treated me to dinner at Highlands, an authentic Scottish restaurant. Extremely tasty and the Whisky only added to the greatness of it! I got to return the favor, a little, by taking them to Serendipity3 for Frrrozen Hot Chocolates during an unseasonably cool and breezy May evening.

I actually had my busiest travel year since I started this journal in 2001. I got to Dallas in June, where I braved the under construction highways, visited the Texas Book Depository (O.A.A.), Got to see a Rangers game before they move into a newer swankier ballpark and caught a glimpse of the massive UFO that is referred to as AT&T Stadium. I didn't get to live out my "Lidsville" dreams, but I did at least see Six Flags Over Texas from my rental car windshield.

Then in September-October, I got to travel to the West Coast where I met up with several LJ users, including the always wonderful serendipity when I was in the Bay area, next the joyous and patient theda when I made my first ever stop in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle, where I suggested we each write an entry on each other's journals, and a person who has since become very much in demand, marieoroumania while I attended TwitchCon in San Diego. She's one of the top people over at Snopes.com and since my visit has dealt with a lot of "fake news" and personal attacks from people that want to claim Snopes is playing partisan with facts. Wish her all the luck you can for this year!

Meanwhile, I managed to squeeze in 4 more baseball games at four different venues, AT&T Park (not to be confused with the sprawling Texas sports venue) in San Francisco, Safeco Field, where there were 10 Blue Jays fans for every Mariner fan for that game in Seattle, Dodger Stadium, where it was Vin Scully's retirement night, and then Petco Park in San Diego, where it was Dick Enberg's retirement night. I got to attend several TV show tapings including "The Late Late Show with James Corden," "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "The Price Is Right." And I took a writing seminar at UCLA that I feel is really useful to my understanding of creating better and more compelling stories.

Speaking of writing, we're finally coming back to the issue at hand, my entries here in LiveJournal during the past year.

The third most popular entry was titled Terrorism, and Why It Never Works on July 11. Admittedly, this made the list primarily because of a back and forth I had with herwonderfulday who blasted me for being nonsensical and idealistic and for offering up no solution to what clearly is something that needs a solid response. My point of bringing it up at all (this was in the wake of the Orlando shootings a month earlier and just three days before the Nice truck attack) was in suggesting that terrorism never accomplishes what it hopes to do, so why is it still happening? It's still a question worth asking, maybe now more than ever.

At number 2, it was Twitter Expansion from January 7. Another compare and contrast LiveJournal to a different (and currently more popular) social media site, in this case, twitter. My thinking was that if there was more traffic, if more people are using the service, that would safeguard all of our journals on the internet to cherish and enjoy for as long as the internet is the way to do such stuff. Just as sure as music recordings went from cylinders, to 78s, to LP records, to 8 Tracks and audio cassettes, to CDs to MP3s and to the cloud which hosts everything, it's possible that we won't be working from computer screens and keyboards someday. Will we still be able to access what we want from our past lives via our Online Journals?

And this year's Number One Entry was a special case: it was LJ Idol X - Week [0] - Meeting The New Boss on November 9. Now, normally I exempt all entries that are associated with therealljidol because I feel that is a somewhat separate entity from the norm. But I allowed this for two reasons. First, this was a "pre Idol" entry, written the week before the competition began, and second, it fit a typical thinkpost, and I probably would have written this with or without Idol.

I often say that thinkpost entries aren't "know-posts." In fact, I really changed my assessment about the key factor in the election after letting some time pass and looking carefully at both the results and the history: Hillary is a woman and she lost states where "women's roles" are not as free as they are in other locations. I welcome a debate if you don't agree, but as far as I can see, the biggest determining element in how the vote went had nothing to do with the alleged "Crooked" acts that Hillary was accused of, or the health crisis that was getting a lot of play during the summer, or even the Russian hack. No. It was the fact that a brilliant woman still isn't good enough to beat the most flawed man we may have seen in any Presidential race in states that swung the election the other way.

In politics, sexism is even stronger and more powerful than racism, or at least that's the conclusion I came to after living with the results for a while. After all, black men were granted the vote in 1870. That's a half-century before the first woman could legally cast a ballot, just as one piece of evidence to demonstrate how women are viewed in this area.

Still, we are underway with 2017! We are going to stay as focused on what we need to do. We are going to work on the elements that will help us accomplish what we want. We are going to be supportive, be kind, be responsive, because we can... and even if we might have to quickly abandon LJ for Dreamwidth, that shouldn't change anything except the URL.

Have your best 2017, ever!!

This is the Closing Ceremony for our look at Jona Olsson's Detour Spotting. The conclusion is, in fact, the beginning. Here is Ms. Olsson's final statement:

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Once identified, behaviors like those above are possible to change. The patterns are repeated less often. We re-educate and re-tool ourselves to take more potent anti-racist action. Each anti-racist action we take brings new challenges and learning, propels us forward smarter, more confident, better prepared and most importantly, more effective. Every experience takes us deeper into new territory and the complexities of racism, expanding our vision of the possibilities of a future without racism. Each turn brings us face to face with another set of potential detours and reversals. Like traveling unmarked roads, staying on the right track demands constant attention and intention.

Racism oppresses and exploits people of color. While it grants white people undeniable advantages and benefits, racism also robs each of us of our full humanity. We didn’t construct racism; we inherited it. But the unchallenged perpetuation of racism is our responsibility. Racism continues in the name of all white people.

People of color will continue to demand their rights, opportunities and full personhood. But racism in North America won’t end because people of color demand it. Racism will only end when a significant number of white people of conscience, the people who can wield systemic privilege and power with integrity, find the will and take the action to dismantle it. That won’t happen until white people find racism in our daily consciousness as often as people of color do. For now we have to drag racism into our consciousness intentionally, for unlike our sisters and brothers of color, the most present daily manifestation of our white privilege is the possibility of forgetting about racism.

We cannot.

While there is nothing about racism to celebrate, there is much to celebrate in a life lived in the pursuit of justice. It is the work of a lifetime.

Here is what we need to remember always: we are all human beings. We deserve a certain level of respect when we talk with each other. We need to listen to each other, to really hear what is being said, not what we think we heard. And we need to back off of ego, to not react to the statements out of our personal desire to be right or to claim harm, but to comprehend the truth of what is said.

Racism is more than just hating someone because of how they look. We have seen how the socioeconomic elements have what could be a devastating impact on the choices people make when it comes to race in America. We always have to keep in mind that this is a lot more complex than it is usually characterized. We are all trying to live good lives. Racism clearly is having an impact on a segment of the population and has created a lot of the issues we are seeing. Justice is severely lacking.

Helping to support all of our citizens rather than criticizing them for what they do, based on the limited choices they have, is just one aspect of this. And it's through helping that we can improve things. It is reliant on those with power to step up and help those without. So, just as we shouldn't kick someone when they are down, we also shouldn't ridicule someone for not succeeding. We need to help them succeed because that benefits ourselves, our country and our world.

As we have stated, a big stumbling block are those white people who aren't economically well off. They are more likely to be the perpetrators of (or the victims of) the thoughts that People of Color are the reason why they aren't successful. As long as those beliefs are held, we will continue on the path of no progress. Breaking that mindset and helping people reach an understanding is crucial as we move forward.

But this demonstrates just how complicated this situation is. It's psychological. It's sociologicial. It's moral. It's personal. It involves the things we were taught as children to the myths we were given by the media. It incorporates all of the elements we think of as facts. We are not always so quick to release what our parents and grandparents told us was true. We aren't always willing to deny a story when it's from a news source we trust.

We need to stay focused. But we can't be too patient, not anymore. 2019 will mark the four-hundredth anniversary of slaves arriving in North America. The fact that we are still dealing with racism in America, almost four centuries after this hideous and heinous crime was perpetrated against humanity on this soil proves that patience has nearly run out. We need to resolve this before we get very far into the fifth century, for our collective sake.



Previous thinkposts in this series:


1. Day One - I'm Colorblind
2. Day Two - Bootstrap Theory
3. Day Three - Reverse Racism
4. Day Four - Blame The Victim
5. Day Five - The White Knight
6. Day Six - Lighten Up
7. Day Seven - Don't Blame Me
8. Day Eight - BWAME
9. Day Nine - We Have Overcome
10. Day Ten - The End Run
11. Day Eleven - Due Process
12. Day Twelve - By Association
13. Day Thirteen - The Penitent
14. Day Fourteen - White Wash
15. Day Fifteen - Not Here

XX. Intermission

16. Day Sixteen - Former Life
17. Day 17 - Straightening Up
18. Day 18 - The Isolationist
19. Day 19 - Blackwards
20. Day 20 - Teach Me
21. Day 21 - White on White
22. Day 22 - Smoke and Mirrors
23. Day 23 - Personal Work
24. Day 24 - Whites Only
25. Day 25 - The Accountant
26. Day 26 - Innocence
27. Day 27 - Silence
28. Day 28 - Exhaustion

A reminder: because of the sensitive nature of the subject, comments directly to this and all previous essays in this series are screened. Thank you.