Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

A Tale Of Two Sh*tties

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

Charles Dickens was truly a smither of words.

I think about those opening lines to A Tale of Two Cities often these days.  So much rings so true in speaking of where we find ourselves in the Fall of 2020.  I do, however, make one slight revision.

"It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times..."

There is no debating that we are all, regardless of which side of the aisle you cheer, in the worst of times.  We are still neck deep in a pandemic with no true path forward.  A newly installed Trump stooge, Scott Atlas, has suggested to the dyed dipshit in the oval what basically amounts to "Ehhhh, fuck it, let's all swap spit and get on with it."

I'm not kidding.  He has not a shred of experience in epidemiology, yet his big idea is to have everyone get COVID as fast as possible to try to create herd immunity.  Small problem there, Scott - millions will have to die in that scenario.  MILLIONS.  We have currently lost 187,707 people since the end of February.  We have charted well over 6 million positive cases, it has not left a single demographic untouched.  Yet this administration wants to sacrifice millions to their latest drink-bleach-eat-hydroxychloroquine-like-Skittles-shove-a grow-light-up-your-ass list of get sick quick schemes.

I'm not ready to volunteer as tribute.  You?

The web is filled with people trying to hide behind the CDC report that only 6% of those who have died from COVID have died purely of COVID.  The rest all had some comorbidity that these dullards want to blame - hypertension, pneumonia, obesity, diabetes, heart problems, Black skin...

Here's the thing about that - without COVID they would not have died from their underlying conditions.  OK, sure, someone would have had a heart attack.  Someone's inability to afford their insulin would have been their undoing.  But these people were not actively dying from their comorbidity until COVID comorbed them.

If you have cancer and get hit by a truck, your cancer did not end your life.  Get it?  High blood pressure and a crocodile drags you under in the swamp?  Cause of death?  Chomp-spin-drown, NOT your blood pressure.

So here we are firmly embedded in a crisis with winter just ahead.  Gentle reminder - in 1918, the second wave that hit took an estimated 200,000 lives in October alone.  But hey, enjoy your Labor Day parties.

That worst of times is being experienced by us all, regardless of locale, mask/no mask, school, no school.  COVID, like the Spanish flu 100 years ago, gives not shit uno.

But the "it was the worst of times, it was the worst of times" I mentioned is how we are all living the same timeline, but internalizing it wholly differently.  We are all seeing the very same things, yet processing, reacting, responding in diametrically opposed ways. Seriously, the vision of America is like that goddamned blue/white dress from a couple years ago.  And you saw the ruckus that simple frock caused.

In Trump's America, every Democratically led city is a hellscape.  They are filled with murderers, rapists, arsonists, people who spell their graffiti correctly.  Fittingly, in their viewing, the dress is WHITE.  White, white, whitewhitewhite.

In reality, where the dress is actually BLUE, we are marching for justice.  We are protesting for equality.  We are demanding accountability.  And the lion's share of the damage, the fires, the violence are being investigated and found to be done by Proud Boys, MAGAts, white nationalists trying to make the peaceful protests look like the 7th circle of hell.

In Trumpland, Kyle Rittenhouse is a poor, misunderstood teen who feared for his life when he killed two people and injured a third last week. 

In reality, Kyle Rittenhouse is a murderer who peaceful protesters tried to stop from shooting more people.  One man who bravely approached him had a skateboard.  Kyle had an AR-15.  Not exactly a fair fight, huh?

In Trump world, filled with righteous CRASStians, they have raised over 100 grand for the poor boy seen in pictures cleaning graffiti.

In our reality, he is also on video punching a girl repeatedly from behind.  And the people who broke it up and defended her?  A car full of Black youths.

Just a small aside as you MAGAts elevate him as a hero, send him your money, and love you some white boy victim bullshit - if this pasty choad walked into your kid's high school strapped up like a Rambo cosplayer, how would you view him then?  If another football coach tried to tackle him to stop him from shooting more people, would you be pouring money into a GoFundMe for this little incel mass shooter?

<insert crickets>

In Trump's view, which is also MAGA's view - kind of like wearing drunk goggles - the shooting victim in Portland was peaceful.  The one who shot him a raging Antifa. 

In our real world where Joe Biden speaks like, sounds like, feels like a real leader, we have condemned all the perpetrators.  But then that is a recurring theme - one of theirs commits an heinous act and they offer up a plethora of excuses.  One of "ours"?  HOLD. THEM. ACCOUNTABLE.

They love the whole flight manifests-Jeffrey Epstein-Bill Clinton thing.  They love to wave that in our faces.  Then they have no idea what to do when we say, "If he raped a child?  Lock him up.  Next question?"  They literally begin to drool as their small mind short circuits because their guy has over 23 sexual assault allegations against him, is on record bragging about grabbing the pussy and they spin like braindead tops to defend him.  

We are all watching the postal service be hamstrung by a political appointee who got his job by donating to the Trump campaign but has no idea how much mail costs.  We see this.  We know the traumas being caused as people go without checks, medication, as small businesses are threatened by being unable to adequately fill and deliver orders on time.

We know how bad it is.

These same things are being experienced in MAGAland, yet they refuse to see it, call it like it is.  Because that would require taking off the Trump goggles and holding their naked emperor accountable.

We are all seeing the same events transpire in the evenings as clashes happen, tear gas flies, paint and rubber bullets are shot, and death seems even more likely.

It is ALL worst.

But we see what is actually happening as Trump caravans, filled with armed mouthbreathers, flying Trump flags, purposely drive through peaceful protesters, salivating at the chance to run someone over, shoot them dead (or red with paint), throw a punch, instigate.

They look no different than the Taliban in their pickups, holding their guns, flying their flags.  This Trumpliban, or Y'all Qaeda as they are sometimes ribbed, have zero purpose driving into these areas other than they believe the vision laid out for them by an increasingly desperate loser and they are responding to his call to arms.  Trump is actively inciting these people.

Nowhere in their vision is Jacob Blake and the 7 bullet holes in his back.  George Floyd?  Meh.  Should have had a stronger neck.  Brianna Taylor was Black, so she got what she deserved.  How dare she be sleeping Black in her own home?

They literally do not see these things as the travesties, the horrors, the systemic racism that they are.

They just see us marching and demanding justice for people they do not see as worthy to begin with.  They see professional athletes peacefully protesting and are filled with the righteous indignation of HOW DARE THEY?!? instead of HOW DARE THEY - the they being the police who did this to begin with.  In their worst, Trump has them believing that their precious suburbs will be destroyed because Joe Biden will let Black people buy houses!  Pssst, asshat... Black people already live in the suburbs.  Just like transgender people have been using the Target toilets all along, too.

In our worst, we see the reality of the situation we are in.  We see how the Constitution is dying, how every check and balance, every norm, every law has zero meaning to this collection of power whores.  We see how close we are to losing everything that this country is about.  We see a rapidly spiraling man, desperate to stay in office to stay out of prison, surrounded by spineless, grifting, enabling Republicans.  We see the danger, we know how real it is.

They see a WHITE dress.  And Trump is the only one who can save them from the horrors he has caused.  Seriously, someone want to explain to me Make America Great Again, Again?

What the actual fuck?  He has been in charge the whole time.  Every bit of this worst is by his tiny hands.  He owns it all.  Joe Biden did not incite violence.  Joe Biden did not openly embrace white nationalism, racists, and Nazis.  Joe Biden had no part in banning Muslims, molesting children at the border, kidnapping them, banning transgender people from serving.  Joe Biden did not fail to call out bad policing, murderous policing.  Joe Biden did not call Nazis "fine people."  Joe Biden did not lie over 20,000 times.  Joe Biden has not averaged 28.6 lies per day since the COVID crisis began.  Joe Biden is not embracing a murderous punk in Kenosha.  And Joe Biden is not raping and pillaging this nation.

Trump is.  He owns all of this because he caused all of this.  

It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...

We are at once seeing the possibility while also gripping the reality.  We see the darkness for what it is, and we despair because of it.  We know should the outcome in November be the WHITE dress, all is truly lost.  We will have lost this great experiment to a demagogue, and joined every shithole country on this planet.  

We were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

We know the dangers, regardless of those who refuse to see reality, who thirst for a Trump induced rapture. 

This is truly a tale of two shitties.  No matter what you are seeing, it is unnerving, it is bleak, it is frightening.  But only one of these views is accurate.  Only one of these views is clear on the causes, clear on the path through, clear on the potential, clear on the way to strengthen this country for everyone.

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.  We must convince the nation to vote to stop this madness. We must convince them that the dress is BLUE, the goddamned dress is BLUE.   

Chadwick Boseman: An Iceberg Of A Man

The news hit the internet last evening.  Chadwick Boseman, actor, four years spent battling Stage III then IV colon cancer, dead at 43.

What?  Wait?  WHAT?

I was stuck in that loop for many long minutes.  This man, a cinema icon, a super hero force, strong, beautiful, a man filled with so much grace and kindness for others - gone.  Like so many around the world, I tried to do movie math in my head - four years, how many movies had I seen with him in them?  When was Black Panther?  Seriously, WHEN WAS BLACK PANTHER? 

2018.

That incredible movie was only two years ago.  Marshall - 2017.  Infinity War - 2018 - only two years ago.  21 Bridges - 2019.  Endgame - 2019 - Jesus, that was LAST YEAR.  And yes, I am factoring in production, filming, all of it.  He was battling cancer for four years, all the while what were we doing?  MARVELing at the films he was helping give us, the characters that touched us on deeper levels, completely oblivious to what else he was giving us.

That gift was not to come until last night.

As I sat on my bathroom floor, tears came.  Yes, for the tragedy of a man so young, taken too soon.  Yes, for the added injustice of this theft in a year that has been ten years long.  What I was crying for was more than that, however.

I reached out to a dear friend - yes, a Black friend - a woman I love so much, who I knew would let me try to express myself, however imperfectly it might come out.  I knew she would let me feel safe and make the comparison I needed to try to share out loud.  I messaged her:

Sitting on my bathroom floor crying. I know I’m just a white woman, but I also know through Toby the power of representation. Chadwick was a force and I can only imagine that what I saw as an amazing character and movie (Black Panther) was life changing, affirming for countless young people. I hope I am making sense.

I felt her hug across the miles, and she shared her hurt and pain with me.  A miasma of hurt and pain and fears from the world around us all, but felt so deep and at levels I cannot begin to touch.

Representation.  I am 54, and it is a word, a profound feeling that I did not fully understand until 5 years ago.  My son is transgender.  As a cishet white woman, I have lived my entire life drenched in, bathed in, drowning in representation everywhere I look. Magazine covers, movie relationships, sitcoms, commercials, billboards, flyers in the mail, radio ads, you name it.  I have grown up with the luxury of seeing myself everywhere I look.

And because of that, I did not "see" it.  It just was.  Just an ingrained assumption.  But when my child came out to me - T - a letter on the human spectrum so completely fraught with danger, misunderstood, maligned, demonized, and targeted - did I begin to understand the isolation, the loneliness, the uncertainty of living in a world where you never see your own reflection.

Where you never see who you know you are, not the cartoon society draws of you; not the stereotype that plays so well to bigots; not the caricature that distills you down to a single facet. 

I have had the gift of finally understanding my privilege, finally seeing how representation is powerful, transformative.  Because I have seen it in my own child.

I stress now, I do not pretend to know the life experiences of being a Black person in this tragically whitewashed society of ours.  I see it.  I hate it.  I try to be a good ally.  But at the end of each and every day, I still go to sleep a white person, cossetted by all the privileges and protections my accident of birth affords me, but not others.

Because my eyes had been opened wider by my son, I knew when I watched Black Panther that what I was enjoying as an incredible super hero movie, was providing so much more than mere entertainment.  I knew the significance of what was being shown.  An entire movie in which the fact that the majority of the cast are Black quickly faded away for me into it simply being a great film.  I was not watching a "Black" film, I was just watching an exciting, engaging, amazing film.  And in that moment that word looped through my head. 

REPRESENTATION.

If I was sitting there lost in the story, an older white woman just enjoying the characters and not giving a thought to color, how many young Black children would see that film, see Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther, and feel that profound moment of seeing themselves as they know themselves to be?  Intelligent, compassionate, powerful, aspiring, flawed, and normal.  Yes, Black, but for once not distilled down to that ONE thing.

I so hope I am making sense here.

The gift of that one character cannot ever be underestimated.  That the entire film was full of characters just as complex, who are also Black?  It will forever stand as a cornucopia of representation.  And it sent a powerful message to the film makers of this world - like the smaller scale Crazy Rich Asians - white people do not a lock on the movie dollar make.

So yes, Chadwick gave the gift of representation for ages to come.  But in my tears last night lay the other gift I spoke of above. 

The iceberg.

I have long stressed how people are like icebergs.  What we see completely belies the full picture of what is just under the surface.  In reality, a true iceberg reaches to depths we cannot appreciate from above.  Titanic was not doomed by what was above the water line, it was sunk by what was below.  In a human being, what we do not see goes even deeper.  We all try to present the highlight reel of our lives, all the while hiding our traumas, our fears, our realities, our struggles.  We do it for varying reasons - embarrassment, fear of how we will be perceived, accepted.  Will we be accepted?  And for some, to not be a burden, a charity case, an object of pity.  We present a calm surface to the world, smiling, working, moving forward, not complaining.  

Chadwick Boseman was an iceberg of a man.  That the world sits stunned today, trying to process this new piece of information about him - CANCER - speaks directly to the incredible struggles a fellow traveler may be engaged in that we may never see.

I think that is why it feels like the air has been sucked from the room.  That the universe punched a hole in our reality - as shitty as it is currently is - and stole from us.  It is selfish to say, but we were not ready.  We did not know, we did not have the time to process, to sympathize, to rail against the fates on his behalf.

Not that his, or any celebrity's private battles are our domain.  It's just that we typically know when something this big is up with someone, well, this big. 

That we did not is at once humbling and heartbreaking.  Humbling because as much as he was doing, we now know how much he was also shouldering.  Humbling because in the face of fighting for his very life, he was enriching ours.  Humbling because video after video exists of him giving.  Giving speeches, giving his time, giving his activism, giving his talent, giving his voice, giving his heart.

And what were we doing?  Happily taking it all.  Completely oblivious.

That is where the heartbreaking part comes in.  Not that any of us could have stopped the runaway train that cancer far too often is.  But maybe we would have appreciated even more the strength, grace, purity of soul, generosity of spirit, and unfailing kindness he displayed to others.

I did not know the man, obviously.  But I have often talked about how when someone you do know, or that you "know" dies - like David Bowie, Robin Williams, and now Chadwick - even if you have not thought about them daily, even monthly, hell, yearly, there is somehow suddenly a hole "out there" that you feel.  An empty spot where they should still be, anchoring us.

I watched Black Panther this morning.  I watched with eyes now opened to the reality, a heart that understands and appreciates even more the performance he gave, the gift of both representation and the reminder of the iceberg that we all are.

I know I am a white woman, but I promise I say this with gratitude, not appropriation...

Thank you, Chadwick Boseman, for the gifts we may rewatch endlessly, and for the gifts we all now feel deeper, endlessly. 

Wakanda Forever.

(Thank you also to Robin.  Thank you for providing me the space and safety to be imperfect in the incredible light of your heart and grace last night.  I love you.)

He's Looty and Disgrace, He's Mr. United Hates

It's over.  The Mr. United Hates Pageant 2020, better known as the RNC, culminated last night with a high level chicken pox party on the White House lawn, and the recrowning of Donald J Trump.  With chairs spaced 6 inches apart, 1,500 unmasked people crammed in, sweating on one another in the humid night air, breathing heavily, and then heartily congratulating one another after the final speech of the night.

But then, listening to them drone on all week, one would think COVID has gotten as bored with us as we have with it and moved on to a more attentive populace.  It has not.  That Trump stood there and had the balls to read the words, "We are focusing on the science, the facts, the data" to a crowd completely eschewing the science, the facts, the data?

The optics that came forth from last night were more than disturbing, but then they were also completely fitting for an administration that counts over 180,000 citizens dying on its watch as "a success."  And also fitting that those chairs may as well be tombstones, as we lost about that many people to COVID yesterday.

Coupled with the complete bastardization of the people's White House, the night was sickening in the extreme for anyone who actually loves this country.

Or law and order.

It is hilarious that the man who loves to flaunt himself as the "law and order president" has zero compunction about breaking them all right in front of us.

To his adoring MAGAts, I say this - these are not liberal tears, not us being snowflakes.  What we all witnessed last night was criminal.  It is literally against the law to use taxpayer resources to promote a campaign.  It was also the culmination of ignoring every single Hatch Act violation over the past three and half years, looking past every flouting of the emoluments clause.  As my mother always said, "Give them an inch, they take a mile."  When there are no repercussions other than strongly worded letters to the White Star line for years, what do we expect? 

We emboldened them.  We allowed it to get to this place.  Those we placed our power and faith in have done nothing to stop it.  Nothing with any teeth, nothing that would make any of these reprobates rethink any subsequent violations.  Congress has subpoena power.  Yet how many administration officials respond to requests to appear with a laugh and a middle finger?

So why would any of them balk at turning the grounds of the White House into a carnival attraction last night?  Yes, it absolutely makes a splendid backdrop for an incumbent, which is exactly why it has never happened.  Exactly why there are laws to prevent it from happening, prevent it from being used as a prop.

Imagine if President Obama had outfitted the lawn with everything but a Tilt-o-Whirl to accept the nomination for a second term?  What if he had opened it up to Hillary and Kaine when they were campaigning?  Sean Hannity would still be drooling down his chin from the stroke it would have caused. 

Yet for this heinous human for whom demagoguery is like breathing, the open embrace of his criminality is breathtaking.  If you listened closely last night, you could hear the urgent fapping of MAGAts across the land as he droned on about the pretend hellscape that is this nation, all the while criming and lying full speed ahead. (One of his videos from the RNC earlier this week showed fire-y footage purported to be from here in America to indict the protesting, but was found to actually be footage FROM SPAIN.)

But again, he has been allowed to do it unchallenged all along.  It has been how he operates his entire life.  That he has continued the grift into the presidency is not a surprise.  Lining his pockets daily, funneling campaign funds by the millions into his personal coffers, charging taxpayers "resort fees" as the Secret Service has no choice but to stay at his properties with him.

They like to whine about the Steel Dossier, even as so many pieces of it have been born out by facts, yet the one that should concern every American just as deeply is the Steal Dossier.  This morning, WaPo published another extensive investigative article breaking down the looting of this country by Trump and those who live to suckle at his spray tanned teats.

A probe has been launched into the allegations he cheated on his admissions tests into University of Pennsylvania.  Yes, his lying, conniving, cheating, grifting, and disregard for rules goes back that far. 

And it matters.

Or it should.

Again, had President Obama done ONE of these things - seriously, pick ONE out of the HUNDREDS of transgressions, violations, adultery, crimes committed by Trump and tell me you would have been cool with it.  Had a Black man with five children by three wives - all of whom he cheated on - dared to run for President, he would have never made it out of the gate.  Yet the open embrace of Trump, the walking embodiment of the seven deadly sins, is okey dokey to you.

To call you MAGAts rubes is generous.  What you are goes beyond willfully ignorant, happily uninformed.  You are accomplices.  Every single one of you is driving the getaway car as he commits his crimes, as he rapes and pillages this nation, as he moves onto bigger and more daring escapades.  

I have news for you.  He is not Danny Ocean.  And you are not costarring in Ocean's 62 million. 

You are complicit in, and enabling, a crime spree, cheering on the very same behaviors you would demand justice over in a Dem, and that makes you just as guilty as Trump and his bumbling coven.

Being led by a heathen who openly incites violence by lying about conditions in cities across this country, you are also responsible for the murders committed by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha.  He worships at the same filthy altar as do you, drinking in the same lies and rhetoric, and what happened is what you own.  To put it in Bible terms you profess to love - this is called reaping what you sow.

Earlier this week you all cheered as he elevated to the national stage two horrors from St. Louis, famous in your circles for waving their guns at protesters who dared to walk down their street.  They openly endangered the lives of every one of those people, yet their behavior was normalized by Trump and lapped up by you and people like Kyle.  They gained fame, so why would Kyle and all the other vigilantes think they are not deserving of the same?

Well, Kyle has his fame now.  And you have embraced him as your new hero.  Just as has Trump and his operatives.  You literally are all over the internet defending the murders, making up your own narratives that have zero to do with the truth in every single video, and even touting "Kyle for President!"

HE. MURDERED. TWO. INNOCENT. PEOPLE.  People who were protesting the horrific shooting of Jacob Blake - a shooting that should be horrific to every American.  But then you people are special, right?  Just like Trump.  The rules don't apply to you, just to other people, especially Black people.

Jacob Blake is paralyzed.  That he has survived being shot in the back seven times is a miracle.  Yet the ones who shot him walk free, and he lies handcuffed to a hospital bed.  Yes, you insipid mental midgets, he cannot move, but he is handcuffed to his bed.

Trumpism enables all of it.  The cruelty that oozes from him and attracts you all like flies to the huge piece of shit he is, is not a bug, but a feature.  The cruelty is what excites him, what excites you.  Being able to openly target and hate others is the operating system of Donald J. Trump.  He is the virus that has corrupted your own operating systems.

This morning, a real virus has claimed 185,149 people, yet you do not care any more than does he.  It has not gone away despite the party he threw last night.  And the sad fact is, that like Herman Cain, there are people who attended who will be dead by the end of September.  There are people who did not attend, yet who will be infected by those who did, who will be dead by the end of September.

It, and he, and you, are all a disgrace.  You do not believe in "one nation, under God" any more than Trump does.  You believe in one nation under Trump, God need not apply.  Nowhere in your idolatry of him, in his idolatry of himself, is there room for any god of any kind.

I said it last week, I will say it again, you do not believe in God.  Trump does not believe in God.  Your every breath, every behavior - his every breath and behavior - is all about indulging the vileness that exists inside.  There is nothing beatific about it, nothing holy, exalted.  Trumpism is about creating the United Hates of America.

What happened last night was a travesty, and I don't mean Melania's green screen dress.  It was also a crime.  That it will be allowed to simply fade into the next escalation?  That his total raping of every norm and law we have in place is embraced?  This nation deserves so much better than this Law and Order SVU criminal.

VOTE.

the green screen dress that keeps on giving: @colbertlateshow edition pic.twitter.com/aC1PSTHDHE

— Staci D Kramer (@sdkstl) August 28, 2020

MAGAt Infestation

Maggots.  They are the Welcome Wagon of an exposed dead body's final phase.  Within 24 hours of the last breath, roughly 250 eggs are deposited by a single blowfly (working in teams) in the decaying environment.   They hatch quickly and begin feeding on the moldering corpse.  They feast, they fatten, they molt,  they break down the surroundings, corrupting what was once a vibrant being.  They are repugnant, the sight of them enough to bring a seasoned coroner to dry heaves.

Left to their entire lifecycle in the deathcycle, they eventually morph into the blowfly from whence they came, lay eggs, die, and then lather, rinse, repeat, as it were.

Unsettling description?  Yes, and for that I apologize.  But the work of the maggots on a body and the work of the MAGAts feasting on the body politic in this country are eerily familiar.  And disgusting in the extreme.

Since the weekend, there have been so many breaking news stories of their devastation and decay that it is hard to keep up with.

The weekend kicked off with lead White House MAGAt, Kellyanne Conway, announcing to the world that she was going to leave said house of ill repute and focus on her family.  Her husband, the flip side of a long suspicious coin, declared the same.  Their grift hiatus brought on by their 15 year old daughter Claudia repeatedly calling them out (mostly Kellyanne) on social media.  Claudia has for months made no secret of how miserable is her life, how despicable she finds her mother's alliance with mango Mesphistopheles, and that she was going to be filing for emancipation in order to get away from it all.

Their joint departure from public life can be read many ways, but the most likely is that none of this was casting them in a decent light, and a decent light is necessary should they (especially KaC) aspire to a life beyond the expiration date of the Donald.

Whatever the reason, I hope their children get the attention and nurturing they need, and that Claudia is able to move forward in this world, and ultimately molt into a new life not corrupted by being born to a blowfly like Kellyanne Conway, who incidentally deserves nothing but public derision the rest of her lifecycle.

Moving quickly into Monday, the MAGAts fully descended and began chewing the land, the scenery, the bodies, the Constitution, and the truth via the RNC.  Contrasted to last week's virtual DNC which was, despite the seriousness of message about what is at stake, a celebration of the spectrum of our humanity, even the briefest of viewing of RNC speakers showed the party for what it is - maggoty and MAGAty - white, flaccid message, intent on feasting on everything in their way until the resources are exhausted and they must find a new host for their rapaciousness.

Characters like Kimberley Gargoyle Guilfoyle and Junior, looking higher than kites in a windstorm, warmed to their theme of decay and destruction.  Nikki Haley, a woman of Indian descent who literally changed her name to make it more palatable to this racist nation, declared that there is no racism.  Um, ok, Nimrata.  Last night we saw Pam Bondi deride Joe Biden and Hunter - nepotism is bad! - as the chyron below her literally teased the upcoming speakers - Tiffany Trump, Eric Trump, Melania Trump.

I guess like real maggots, these MAGAts cannot hear themselves either.

That was completely evident when the Queen MAGAt, having destroyed the Rose Garden in which she was to feast, and looking like a Project Runway model in a Fidel Castro challenge, began lecturing us all on the glory that is her fetid husband, MAGAtus Corpulentus, Donald J. Trump.  It was like watching a horde of blowflies lay eggs on the body of this country's integrity and truth, and allowing them to fester, feast, devour, and destroy.

This morning, aided by a media more concerned with ratings and making headlines itself than with calling out bullshit, we got to listen as they all lauded her "tone," how she sympathized with COVID victims and families, how she remade her husband's image.

Sorry, no.  She is an opportunistic, gold digging grifter and BIRTHER.  Haltingly reading a prepared speech does not make her more than what she is - a MAGAt intent on feasting on this country's decaying corpse until real maggots take over and begin feeding on her elderly, decomposing gourd of a spouse.

In Christian MAGAt news - we have all gotten a new chapter in the Jackie Collins trash novel that has been the Jerry Falwell, Jr. marriage.  If you have been paying any attention, the pool boy story has been out there for some time now.  And while it never made any sense that a supposedly stalwart example of Christiandom would tell his flock of evangelicals to embrace a thrice married, philandering, criminal hedonist like Trump - this past week brought into sharp relief why he did it.

Attempting to get ahead of the coming storm of blackmail and graphic details from both Michael Cohen and the poolboy himself, Giancarlo Granda, Falwell threw his wife beneath the bus of public exposure and offered up her "affair".  Uh huh.  Enter Giancarlo with details aplenty about that "affair" - more of a cucking arrangement in which he would diddle the wife and Jerry would sit and watch from a corner.

Now there's a dead career and reputation ripe for maggoty infestation.  But oddly, not MAGAty devourment.  MAGAts will turn themselves inside out to excuse any inconvenience, write off any salaciousness that occurs in their body of decay.

Falwell was shown the door by Liberty University, but that departure was made more palatable by a 10 million dollar severance package.

Now, for the record, I do not give a tinker's damn what kink comforts his rod and staff.  I do not care that he walks through the valley of the shadow of his closet whilst Mrs. Falwell fears no evil in the bedroom.  To each his/her/their own.  By the same token, I do not care that the first results on Google when typing in Melania's name bring up ALL of Melania.  So she did nude modeling, soft core porn photoshoots, and lesbian titillation - her choices. 

I do care about the rampant hypocrisy at play.  

At Liberty University, Jerry routinely policed skirts, shorts, curfews, expelling any student who slipped up, wasn't right with the Lord.  All the while he was being blackmailed and indulging in some sins of Biblical proportions.  And Melania?  The very same MAGAts who gorged themselves to a tryptrophanic hypocrisy coma over pictures of Michelle Obama in a sleeveless dress, refer to Melania as the "classiest first lady ever everevereverever".

Like their milky white counterparts, the putrescence of their specious engorgement is rank.

Yet onward they feast.  And we are left aghast at their destruction.

But nowhere is the MAGAt annihilation of this country's body more evident than in the repetitive ruination meted out on yet another Black man.

Protests spurred on by George Floyd's murder at the knees of police earlier this year are still ongoing.  That's what is meant by "this is not a moment, it's a movement."  The sea change brought on by that horrific, taped execution touched the very souls of decent society at every age, color, religion, creed.  Ongoing protests, people maimed by rubber bullets, eyes filled with tear gas, kidnapped by unlabeled stormtroopers - yet the marches continue to this day.

The media may have moved the klieg lights, the tangerine toddler gotten bored with targeting a specific city, but nightly, people are still demanding change.

Cue another horrific attempt at adding to the body count.

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday night, Jacob Blake was shot seven times, in the back, by police, in front of his three children.  Another example of the disparity of how a Black life is treated vs a white life when police are in the mix.  Jacob, no weapon in his hands, walking away, gunned down, now paralyzed in a hospital.  Dylan Roof shot 9 people dead and was treated to a bullet proof vest and Burger King by police when he was gently taken into custody.

That video was taken of the encounter is just as necessary as was the video of the killing of George Floyd.  It is hard to argue with the facts when they are in your face.  That Jacob is alive is also decidedly inconvenient for the officers who did this. 

Outcry was immediate, as it should be.  But what happened next was as predictable as it is heartbreaking.  Another Black mother, another Black sister, another Black father, filled with pain, fear for their loved one's life, being the bigger people, speaking in civil tones, demanding justice, yes, but asking, beseeching for peace from the public.   

"They shot my son 7 times. 7 times. Like he didn't matter. But my son matters. He's a human being, and he matters," Jacob Blake Sr. says in Kenosha, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/yl680vN2U4

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 25, 2020

It should not fall on them to counsel the shocked public.  In their time of unspeakable shock, grief and horror, all they should be doing is holding vigil at a bedside, praying, comforting one another.  Instead, like countless Black families before them, they stand up at a microphone, they give interviews to the news, they manage to find a well of grace so deep within and draw from it - a grace not deserved by the police who did this, the officers who stood by, the officials who should hold their people accountable, nor the MAGAts who immediately begin to feast on the rhetoric of victim blaming.  A grace I do not believe I would look for, let alone find, were it my child.  

But then, I'm white.  I'm allowed to rage on and no one would blink, everyone would feel sorry for me.  I'm allowed to be confrontational and not die for it.

So his family stoically stood and asked for peace.  They were articulate, heartfelt, and gave far too much of themselves to a process that has yet to hold anyone accountable.

The public has done what we are all moved to do now.  They have been out protesting, demanding answers, demanding accountability.  Not only Black people for whom every single fucking day in this country is a question mark of survival from sun up to sun down.  But, as seen in the wake of George Floyd's murder, outcry from all ages, colors, creeds.

Pain is evident.  As it should be.  And no, I am not defending property destruction, but like the famous Chris Rock line, "I'm not saying it's right ... but I understand."  BUT, let me make something perfectly clear:    Property destruction, curfew violation, exercising a first amendment right to assemble - none of those things is punishable by death.

Just like walking away from a cop and leaning into a car where your frightened children are is not punishable by death.  Telling a police officer to fuck all the way off?  Not punishable by death.  Hurting his/her ego?  Not punishable by death.

Yet the MAGAts feasting on the body of this travesty believe death is the consequence for a Black person doing any of those things. 

Enter the ripest MAGAts, the self inflated, gorged-on-the-constant-rhetoric preached by Trump - the Proud Boys, the gun lovers, the Nazis, the vigilantes too cowardly to enlist, yet stuffed on their own hubris and hiding behind an AK.

Last night saw them again descend on Kenosha, all hyped up on their own fantasies of owning the libtards with bullets, pretending to give shit 1 about protecting property, and moving around freely as the police expressed appreciation for their attendance.  They had even asked to be deputized.  Seriously...

Not making that up.  Cops are caught every time at these protests, giving affirmation to these doughy, deadly cosplayers, allowing them to pass, nodding their direction, giving them cover.  Last night they were caught on video providing these vigilantes with water bottles, thanking them, forcing protesters towards them.  One is caught on video saying, “We appreciate you guys. We really do.”

And in their rank ranks was a 17 year old strapped up with an AR-15, wearing rubber gloves.  A twitchy fuck who drove across state lines for this excitement, to join the other MAGAts in feasting on their depravity and delusion.  Like the pathetic others with whom he met up, he was radicalized online, in Facebook groups, and via InfoWars.  His own FB page was an homage to Blue Lives Matter and the faux machismo of belonging to a militia. His face found front and center at a Trump rally marinating in the hate.

This babyfat faced little fuck killed two people last night.  Because of the tacit approval of the police in attendance - he literally walked right past them as people shouted that he had just killed someone - because of the encouragement and fomenting of violence by the head MAGAt, Trump.

He was caught on video from many angles.  Voice after voice hollering at police to grab him, people desperately pointing at him.  Was he apprehended?  Of course not.  He drove back across the state line to his home in Illinois.  He was finally tracked to his parent's home this morning where he was taken into custody, not shot in his back.

Slight offramp here, but this punk is 17 and lives at home.  Where did his parents think he was?  Any idea?  This self important teenager and his metal phallus?  I realize that more often than not, the ignorant MAGAt does not fall far from the equally stupid blowfly, but we're talking murder here.  We're talking a kid who openly espoused belonging to a militia, who unabashedly worshipped the police, who bragged online about protecting property and defending himself.  New flash, Kyle - you drove across the state line, strapped up like a cheap Rambo cosplayer, intent on finding trouble so you could defend yourself.  You wanted to defend yourself so bad.

And now two people are dead.

And as those bodies lie lifeless, the MAGAts gorge themselves on their deaths, on the lies they tell themselves to vindicate their own desire to kill strangers, on the emotional boners they get from their self importance, egos, and impotent rage.  Oh, and the older cowards of Kenosha with whom he met up?  They are doing their damndest to disassociate themselves from this kid they helped encourage and incite.

Our country is in a ditch, bludgeoned by Trumpism, infested with MAGAts who are feasting on the carcass.  We cannot afford four more years of this carnage.  Hell, we cannot afford the less than 70 days till the election.  The MAGAts do not even understand that their lifecycle has an end.  Real world maggots do not live forever, eventually the body is gone, and they must evolve, move on, and die off.  And like them, red hat MAGAts will be run off, will die off, too.  Sure, they will crawl back to the underbelly where they will continue to feast on their own depravity, venality, and delusions of grandeur.  They will spit out new eggs and raise them on a diet of ignorant decomposition, on the bacteria of hatred.

But we outnumber them.  And we have this one chance to resuscitate the body politic, breath new life into the body of our nation. 

This MAGAt infestation has to end.

God Is Not A Timeshare

I don't "do" religion.

Come here for any length of time and you will eventually run across a past entry on the subject or a new one, like today.

I am comfortable with my position.  I do not need anyone's permission or forgiveness, or concern for the state of my eternal life, should that actually end up part of the great reveal beyond the final breath we each take.

Organized activity simply is not part of my process.  I exercise alone, shop alone, am happy with my own company and that of a very small circle around me, and I commune with this universe on my terms.  Like John Lennon, I routinely "imagine no religion"  - no certitude of the divine separating us all.

All that being said, I defend the choices of others for whom larger gatherings work, especially organized religion.  I have often typed that at its best, it provides comfort, community, purpose, an outlet for grief, joy, charity.  If it adds to your life, not insisting on compromises along the way, I think that is great for you. 

Basically, if the pew fits, wear it.  

By the same token, if nothing about it works for you, awesome.  This world is filled with so very many people - GOOD people - of all faiths, of no faiths, just good people who choose looking ahead over looking up.

This past week, the DNC was chockablock full of those good people.  It spoke to the large umbrella of the party.  The acceptance, the home where all can find a place.  Faith based, atheists, agnostics, every letter of the rainbow spectrum, every color of the humanity spectrum - we are all here.

Yet despite the party's nominee being a man of deep faith, abiding faith, visible faith, faith that has sustained him through more horrors than any cathedral full of people should ever shoulder - the RNC, led by the least holy dementor ever to grace their party, is hellbent on painting Joe Biden and the Democrats as hedonistic, satanic, and out to destroy God.

That bothers me.  A lot.

Foremost because it is laughably, provably, demonstrably false.  Their spray painted succubus was again tweeting this morning about this topic.  This time flat out lying about a certain aspect of the convention last week:

At no point was "under God" removed from the pledge during the week of the convention. 

Here is all four nights of the DNC when "Under God" was said during the Pledge of Allegiance. pic.twitter.com/iCIfp3V4Y6

— Ted Corcoran (Red T Raccoon) (@RedTRaccoon) August 22, 2020

Again, immediately, easily proven as the desperate lie it is.

What concerns me even more than the continued ramblings of the pants-on-fire potus are those numbers under the tweet.  56,000+ have retweeted and commented on his bullshit.  Worse still, over 150,000 have liked the tweet.

The audaciousness of his tweeting is not surprising.  As he continues to unravel, as those closest to him continue to be arrested and/or revealed as the criminals they are, as his poll numbers continue to circle the receding waters of the shit throne, of course Maybelline Von MysticTan is going to up the ante.

What continues to surprise, however, is how his sickophants cling to his every word, and continue to champion him as the Christ-sent answer to this world's problems.  179,613 people are dead because this "savior" doesn't give a shit about humanity to begin with.  We are now on track to see that number reach 300,000 by election day.  And no, MAGAts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Don won't be raising them from the dead.

Something I have written before is something I believe to be truer every single day as I watch them.  They do not believe in God.  They believe in abusing the notion of a god.  They believe it buys them a heavenly hallpass for bad behavior.  They believe in using Him like a condo timeshare when it is convenient to their schedule, their needs.  They believe that the answer to anything that doesn't seem quite right is "God", but they certainly do not believe in Him.

Any Christian who is a true adherent to the Word, to the teachings, to the man around whom their entire system revolves - Jesus - would be scared shitless and witless to behave in this way.  Their open embrace of everything Jesus was against; their giddy delight as entire swaths of His people are targeted and harmed; and their elevation of the embodiment, in one man, of every single sin on the tablets - well, if they truly believed in the Biblical endgame, they would fear every single second of their participation in Trump's hellscape.

They would know what awaits them in that afterlife they profess to be rapturously chasing.

Joe Biden has been an open, practicing, deeply faithful Catholic his entire life.  Finding proof of that is a simple Google away.  Finding proof of Trump being a follower of anything remotely Christ-like is a fool's errand.  It does not exist.  At no point in his upbringing, at no time in his adult life, has he been found on his knees in prayer, expressing faithful devotion, or using a church for anything but a photo op.

And that is fine.  Again, I literally have zero issue with eschewing church, religion, any and all storybooks therein.  But that's not the point here, is it?

Trump's entire path of destruction, hedonism, philandering, stealing, adultering, lying, usury, and abuse is also a simple Google away.  Tape after tape exists of him openly bragging to Howard Stern about his exploits.  An entire courtroom can be filled with the women who have credibly accused him of molestation and rape.  He was just ordered to pay a porn star's court costs.

Yet evangelicals, MAGAts with "Christian" prominently listed in their profiles, faith leaders in the conservative party all prop him up as the Second Coming.  And buy into his assertions that Joe Biden is "against God."  Earlier this month in Cleveland, President Two Corinthians told a crowd that Biden will "Hurt the Bible.  Hurt God."

Whoa.  That Biden guy is powerful, huh?

That this type of rhetoric is lapped up by his base is laughable.  Seriously, all you uber Christians in Mango Messiah's army, just how weak is this god of yours?  It's been a while since I warmed a pew, but in my memories He is always touted as all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, mighty, oh, and vengeful.

That last one should worry you.  The God of your Bible, loving though He may be, doesn't suffer fools lightly.  And elevating a mere mortal to equal status or higher than He, especially one who all but has a forked tail and cloven hooves, seems the perfect recipe for a little Hellbound vacay.  Seriously, I would pack light.  And bring some sunscreen.

Joe Biden, like President Obama before him, is a man of faith.  Not opportunistic, take my picture holding a Bible upside down after I gassed people to clear the path, faith either.  They are churchgoers, lifelong.  They were raised in religion, they practice their religion.  It informs who they are.  How they move through this world. 

Trump is a man of indulgence, of immediate gratification.  He is not found in church on Sundays.  He is found on the golf course.  He cannot quote a scripture because he has no use for them.  He is a user of religion, and all those who prop him up are his marks. 

The Democrats are not the threat to your god, to anyone's god.  The Democrats have not removed "under God" from the Pledge, where incidentally, it has not always resided.  The original Pledge of Allegiance did not contain those words.  They were added in 1954 after a powerful lobbying force of capitalists and super right wing Christians sought to use "God" as a cudgel.  It worked.

Frankly, it really has zero business being in the words we learn to show allegiance to our country.  This land is composed of all religions, no religions - that is part of the inherent beauty, hell, part of the reason we were founded to begin with.  So this constant litmus test of godliness in politics is, frankly, gross.

Religion really has no place in secular governance, especially a government that is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people, because the people are not all of one mind.  Especially when it comes to deities.

My eschewing of religion does not make me less of a citizen.  My ability to morally govern myself does not make me less than someone who sits in a pew on Sundays and cheats on his wife M-F.  My choice to live decently towards others without that cudgel threatening me does not make my vote count less. 

Frankly, given today's constant examples of religious certitude, Trump exhaltism, and pulpit directed hate, I would argue my solo stance of treating people decorously, seeing their humanity that makes us one, makes me more of a Christian than those who claim to be.  Hell, these so-called Christians would have me cast out my child for simply being who he is. 

I have news for you - that is not the Christ I was taught about during those endless hours in the pew and the CCD classroom.  Yes, hypocrisy of the people chased me away from religion, but the message remained. 

And the message here is clear - Democrats are not your problem, and Democrats are not out to erase your God.  God is not a commodity you own.  And your belief that you can timeshare Him, using Him when convenient?  

That is your problem.  God help you.

How Far We Have Fallen: Are We Able To Once Again Rise Up?

It's not like we don't already know this, but if this past week of nightly uplifting speeches and performances via the DNC has done anything, it is remind us of what we can be, and how very far we have fallen.

Kamala Harris made herstory as the first Black woman to accept the nomination of a major national party.  Her words were strong, hopeful, challenging, direct, and I believe every young girl watching felt the thrill of representation, and the bone deep conviction that yes, we can do it.

That she may well be the next VP of this country is exciting.  And President beyond that?  As much as I try to caution my heart about the whole cart-horse thing, well, THAT is truly an exhilarating thought.  No, not because Kamala is a woman, although it is long past time for that to happen.  But because Kamala Harris is qualified, dignified, and brings us into rarified air when she speaks.  

Much like the man who spoke before her.  The man who is secure enough that he asked to speak before her, not in the coveted final spot of the evening.  The man whose voice is like balm for an aching, weary, pained national heart.

Last night, the familiar, strong, intelligent, compassionate, and passionate leader that this nation actually got sleep under, spoke to us all.  President Barack Obama, at his most direct, unabashed, compelling, spoke to the heart and soul of this country.

Standing in the Museum of the American Revolution, in Philadelphia, the city where the Constitution came to be, the import of his words was clear:  We are in grave danger and have one chance to correct this course.

I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come.

That is not hyperbole on his part.  That is literally where we are, the weight on our shoulders, the consequences that await either our action or inaction. 

The one Constitutional office elected by all of the people is the presidency. So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us -- regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have -- or who we voted for.

We have known from the beginning when Trump slithered down his escalator that he did not care for the populace, had zero grasp of governance, and had no intention of representing all of us.  Anyone paying any attention since the 80s knew what he was - an opportunist, a user, a sexual criminal, a grifter, someone who always looked for the easy way forward.  He has never had an altruistic bone in his body, and his children have learned that so well that neither he, nor they, are ever allowed to run a charity again.  Thieves all.

Yet here we are.  In the grip of an ongoing pandemic, an economy that is only working for the richest who worship the market, watching as the squalid squatter in our White House grows more erratic, more dangerous, more emboldened to tear it all down before our eyes.

I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

 

But he never did. For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

 

Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't.

The weight of these words, the probity with which they were spoken, cannot be stressed enough.  This is a former US President openly taking to task the sitting president.  It is not something this man, a Constitutional scholar, knowing (hat tip to Hamilton) that history has its eyes on him, took lightly.  There is no rule, no law against the former being openly critical of the current, but it is pretty much unprecedented in our history.

And he is right.  At no point has this dimbulb shown any intellectual curiosity, his briefings have been distilled down to colorful pictures and copies of favorable tweets, and his most consistent efforts as POTUS have been in keeping up his golf game at the literal expense of the taxpayers.  And do not try the Well, he donates his whole paycheck garbage.  That $400K he foregoes is completely dwarfed by the millions he has spent on golf trips, lodging, Secret Service cart rentals, and the further millions he has raked in through violating the emoluments clause.

We have lost 176,791 citizens since March.  We are losing over 1,000 a day as COVID rages on unchallenged because this monumental failure simply does not care.  Instead of listening to experts and following their guidance, he consults with the My Pillow guy about doling out oleander - a plant that is poisonous to humans.

The only numbers he cares about are his ratings.  Not the 5,720,376 cases of coronavirus this nation has reported.  And for the record, while we account for only 4% of the world's population, we have 25% of all COVID cases globally.  The same for deaths.  So there you go, MAGAts, wave yer hat and shout We're #1!

Democracy was never meant to be transactional -- you give me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability -- to embrace your own responsibility as citizens -- to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.  Because that's what at stake right now. Our democracy.

Not transactional.  That is hugely important.  Trump's entire being is about the quid pro quo, the what will you do for me, the what do I get?  He is not about you, unless you wear his stupid red hat, and even then you are a means to an end, nothing more.  If you still think this man who has golden toilets would actually break bread with you?  Well, you deserve to be one of the rubes bilked by his former campaign manager/lackey, Steve Bannon, who was arrested this morning on a yacht.

Yes, you easily led hateriots - all that money you willingly donated to help build the wall your hero promised would be paid for by Mexico?  Funneled into his pockets and those of three of his fellow grifters to buy SUVs, get plastic surgery, pay their bills, enjoy a fat cat lifestyle.  All the while laughing at what stupid, easy marks you are.

And for those who refuse to admit you hitched your wagon to an outhouse, not a star, here is where your emotional investment stands: 

Rick Gates - convicted
Paul Manafort - convicted
George Papadopoulus - convicted
Mike Flynn - convicted
Roger Stone - convicted
Steve Bannon - arrested
Donald Trump, Individual 1 - impeached

Very fine people, all, huh?

That's not Deep State, that's criminal activity being called to account.  Your hero is not playing multi level chess here.  He is not even good at checkers.  He is what he has surrounded himself with - a criminal.  Out to make hay while the sun shines.

To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better -- in so many ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it's a given -- a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions.

 

You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient -- the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed.

You can take it to a better place.  He was speaking to our young people, but the message is one for us all.  We must come together and have our own Hamilton moment when we...

Rise up
When you're living on your knees, you rise up
Tell your brother that he's gotta rise up
Tell your sister that she's gotta rise up

The contrast between President Obama's words of challenge, heart, energy, caution, and warning and Trump standing at a podium yesterday embracing the Qanon crazies is stark.  One man sounding the alarm, calling us to action, committing to the fight for our country, and the reassurance we can do this.  The other, emboldening a coven of conspiracy loons who believe Chrissy Teigan and Tom Hanks mainline adrenochrome from the scared shitless veins of abducted children.  One man reminding us who we are, what we can be, breathing hope into our airless lives.  The other whining to the Supreme Court to let him block critics on Twitter.

One, a man of resolve, intellect, heart and humanity.  The other an empty, fetid shell who knows the clock is ticking, who will gladly watch another 200,000 of us die if he can make money while it happens.

I realize not everyone reads and watches news like I do.  I do not expect that you spend your insomnia hours the way I do, absorbing every morsel I can find.  But you need to pay attention to some things:

The Postal Service is hamstrung.  It does not matter that public outcry led to DeJoy saying he will halt, for now, all the ridiculous, hampering measures he had underway.  What matters more is that he refuses to undo any of the steps already taken that have led to such a dramatic slowdown, to people desperate for their medications, to live animals dying in postal oblivion, to sorting facilities filled with rotting food as the cold packs melt and the food spoils.  And as the mechanisms for speedily handling mail in ballots sits destroyed out behind the buildings.

COVID has not gone away.  It is unnerving how so many have simply grown tired of it.  I assure you, it has not grown tired of us.  A quick refresh - 177,201 dead.  535 out of every million citizens gone.  One month ago that number was 432.

We literally are not welcome outside our borders.  We are called, and rightfully so, the United Plague States of America.  And why would any country want to allow us in?  Here's a snap shot of deaths in a 24 hour period yesterday:

Spain: 24
France: 17
Japan: 16
Canada: 13
UK: 12
Germany: 9
United States: 1,358

To really bring those numbers home, all those countries combined have 426 million citizens.  We have just shy of 330 million.  We have no plan, no national testing strategy, no clear and precise directives.  We are watching as school after school, college after college attempts to re-open only to be shut down within days when COVID is discovered to also be enrolled on campus.

We know how far we have fallen.  It is why we don't sleep well.  It is why depression and anxiety have taken hold of so many.  It is why we are cut off from the world, why regard for our nation is the equivalent of a pitiable joke.  It is why we must harbor all our resources, all our resolve, all our love of this country and one another and use the next 75 days to work together as never before.

That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up -- by pouring all our effort into these 76 days, and by voting like never before -- for Joe and Kamala, and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country we love stands for -- today and for all our days to come.

 

Next week the RNC will put on its own show of what it stands for, who stands with it.  It will be virulent, it will be ugly.  It will promote hate, lies, racism.  They will speak of family values while lauding a thrice married ghoul who cheated on every wife, including the current one; an admitted molester credibly accused of rape by multiple women; a man whose only use for church and God is to work the rubes into a rapture.  In their stable of supporters they have an embarrassment of bitches riches to choose from like Lindsey "Lady G" Graham, Marco "Insert Scripture Here" Rubio, Rafael "Insult My Wife, PLEASE!" Cruz, Scott Baio, James Woods, the demon sperm doctor, Mr. My Pillow, Ted Nugent, and Kid Rock. 

 

The contrast will again be stark.  The choice clear.

 

Either you stand on the side of this beautiful rainbow of humanity that wants to elevate us all, strive to be a better nation for all, or you stand on the side that embraces the darkest, baser instincts of the gutter.  The side that says it's ok to have a leader who doesn't lead and is never called to account.  The side cheering about children snatched from their parents.  The side calling 170,000+ deaths a "success." 

 

It seems the choicer is a no-brainer.  But then that it how we got here to begin with - no brainers embracing a no-brainer.

 

It simply cannot happen again.  We must rise up.

 

 

It's In The Words Unspoken

Marriage, when at its best, is a lifelong commitment to honor, uplift, protect, nurture, and repeatedly fall in love with another person.

That's what makes it wonderful.  And that's what makes it hard.

Rudy and I are coming up on 30 years since saying our vows.  Vows we have renewed three times along the way.  In our early years, we were like every other young couple - we labored under the delusion that married life was supposed to be like a Hallmark card.  Sparkly, romantic always, a poem come to life.  Easy, like breathing.  That love just happens, continues to happen with little to no effort because, well, LOVE.

And like pretty much every young couple, we soon discovered that it was about figuring it out, suffering growing pains, pushing, pulling, fighting for our space, being insecure, fighting for where we ultimately would fit in the other's life. 

That is where so many relationships begin to break apart.  What do you mean we have to work at it?  What happened to that white hot heat that carried us to the altar?  The fear that effort translates to it not being real is what dooms so many new marriages.

In our early years we had our trials by fire.  Based on the Holmes and Rahe scale of life stressors, we were ticking them off pretty fast.  Moving to a new place.  I left behind a job I loved to follow him, not knowing the identity crisis I would encounter.  We got married.  We got pregnant.  We lost that pregnancy.  We got pregnant again.  We lost everything in a natural disaster.  We were displaced to a new city, living in a hotel room with a baby for months.

Turmoil.  Emotional upheaval.  Learning that we all grieve differently.  Allowing someone to see us at our lowest moments.  Seeing someone at theirs.

I will never forget the moment I knew something deeper was actually keeping us tethered.   Regardless of surface tension, misunderstandings, fears - we were out together at a food street fair in Dallas.  Having been uprooted from a tiny island, large gatherings were still a bit unnerving to us both.  People everywhere, chaotic, and without a word, our hands found each other.  No words, just the unspoken gesture of I'm here with you, you're ok. 

That reaching for one another has never stopped.  No matter what is happening in our lives.  No matter who is unhappy with who, what tension might be in play, regardless of where we are, who we are around - that simple reach for the other, especially when we are out, feeling exposed, has never stopped.

Through the years others have commented on it often to us, some have poked fun at us for it, others have asked our children if we are always like that - the whole touching thing.  I like to think that behind their feigned disgust when they huff out "yessss" is the same sense of security and love being spoken with no words between their father and I.

Watching the Bidens last night, and viewing how Kamala and Doug touch so easily, I know what I am seeing.  Not just love, although make no mistake, it is deeply, deeply there.  But the touch is easy, second nature, it just happens.  It is nurturing, it is reassuring, it is full of pride that they are the one getting to reach out and embrace this other amazing person.

It is desperately what is needed in the leadership of this country.  Gentleness.  Compassion.  Understanding.  Warmth.  Security.  Strength.

We know we have been missing it, yet have not truly been able to put it into words.  At least I could not until last night. 

Regardless of how you viewed Barack and Michelle, there was no denying they are two people deeply in love with, deeply in respect for, one another.  They touch easily, they speak about one another with no effort.  Their spoken words as organic as their reach for one another.  And there was always something about knowing our leader was at ease in his most important relationship, was supported, was adored, was respected, that translated to the care of this country.  That his adulation of her was completely obvious only cemented that further in the national conscience.

We were in good hands.  Steady hands.  Secure hands.  Strong hands.  The national family was able to sleep at night.

What we have been dealing with the past 3 1/2 years is the polar opposite.  A man for whom women are commodities, pussies to be grabbed.  A man for whom casting them aside for newer models (literally) is second nature.  A cheater, a grifter, a serial molester.  And a woman who saw the golden toilets and wanted in.  There is no warmth between the Trumps.  No easy conversation, no lingering looks, no playful flirtations, and never the hand reaching out for the unspoken reassurance of the other.

Ever.

We see the prop hand routinely shooed away.  We catch the glowering face when she thinks the cameras are not watching.  We see a business arrangement, not a happy, committed, anchored-in-love marriage.

I honestly cannot envision holding that office and all of the demands therein without a trusted partner.  Without the one person who is bedrock, security, solace, sanctuary, everything.

Last night we got to listen to Dr. Jill Biden talk about her life with Joe and their sons, "I fell in love with a man and two little boys standing in the wreckage of unthinkable loss, mourning a wife and mother, a daughter and sister."

She was only 26 when they met, when they found one another, when she fell in love with them all, when their life built on enduring love, connection, support began.  She saw someone at his absolute lowest, lost in a grief none of us want to imagine, and their connection saved him, them, her.

We found that love holds a family together. Love makes us flexible and resilient. It allows us to become more than ourselves, together, and though it can’t protect us from the sorrows of life, it gives us refuge, a home. How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole: with love and understanding and with small acts of kindness. With bravery, with unwavering faith. We show up for each other in big ways and small ones again and again.

This. Love.  Resilience.  And I mean this in the most admirable way - they reek of it.

They have endured apart, they have endured together.  They have been tested, bent, stretched to breaking by life's curveballs, life's cruelest thefts.  They have been forged.  And they have come out the other side stronger, bonded at the deepest levels, experts at the unspoken words, the reach.

As she finished her speech, he appeared, reaching for the familiar touch, the reassurance, the easy love that simply flows.  She leaned into his embrace.  Naturally, comfortably, into the arms that for her translate safety, security, home.  And as only a proud, secure man would do, he introduced himself as "Jill Biden's husband."

As much as you may roll your eyes, these things matter.  They matter in the measure of a man, a woman.  They matter in how they relate to the world around them, the empathy they are able to display for others, the ease with which they cajole, communicate, comfort friends, family, complete strangers. 

When you are secure, you are unafraid of investing in other people, taking on their troubles, working for solutions that may have zero bearing on your own life, but may mean the world to another person.

Kamala and her husband Doug display this ease, this nurturing, this admiration, and adoration to one another.  Though still in the halcyon days of early marriage, what they have built together is meaningful.  In public, she reaches for his touch as easily as he reaches for hers.  In it they find reassurance, that unspoken message of I'm here with you, you're ok. 

These four people display decency, hope, faith, and love with each interaction between them, with each hand reaching out to others. 

They are everything Trump is not, everything his marriage is not, everything his leadership is not.  In him there is only hubris, self importance, ego, narcissism, insecurity, jealousy, and emptiness.  It is why our national family is adrift, afraid, dying by the thousands.  Because those meant to lead us, inspire us, make us feel secure are not leaders, are not inspiring, are not secure themselves.

The reach.  The touch.  The security and strength they convey.  It matters every single day in my life with Rudy.  And I see every single day the transformative effect it has on me, on him, on our children, our friends, our family, his employees and colleagues.  When you know you are invested in, valued, cherished, it is easy to invest in, value, and cherish others.  It simply becomes who you are.

And it is in the unspoken words that I see the transformative effect Joe, Jill, Kamala, and Doug can have on a nation.

There's Something Happening Here...

For many months now as we have all watched and/or participated in the protests that have spanned our country, the opening lines to Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth have played on a loop in my head.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear

That last night's Democratic convention ended with Billy Porter and Steven Stills performing it, only cemented in my mind that this song, written in 1967 and inspired by the curfew protests in Los Angeles, is a song for the times we now find ourselves living through.

This country, straining under the provocations, outrages, crimes, and negligent homicides by the tens of thousands being committed by this administration, is experiencing a sea change.  Call it the Blue Wave, call it a tsunami of decency - you can feel it coming.  And so can they - the ones who know their time in power is quickly Tik Toking down.

There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware...

They were outnumbered in 2016.  It was our electoral college coupled with outside subterfuge that led us to this dark place.  A craven reality TV host whose entire ethos is about his "ratings."  Children torn from their parents.  Immigrants sexually assaulted in our border facilities.  Tiny ones held for weeks in hotels.  Peaceful protesters being brutally attacked, tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets.  A postal system that is being dismantled from within. And all of us mired in a pandemic with no end in sight, still losing over 1,000 citizens daily.  Our dead now number 174,257.  This picture is AT&T Stadium in Texas where the Cowboys play.  It holds 80,000 people on game day.  We have now filled it twice with 14,000 overflow lying dead in the parking lot.

We know without a doubt that we are on our own. 

Testing for COVID-19 is down 17% nationally at a time when every expert is urging ramped up testing.  Reporting of states' data is hamstrung by governors who are in bed with a reprobate who believes if you don't test, it will magically disappear.  His supporters still cry about their freedumbs, they endanger every person they pass unmasked.  College students ignore the peril, gathering by the hundreds to party, all the while insuring their dorms will become quarantined, or worse, they will be sent back home to experience their first year virtually.  Notre Dame is just the latest college to shut down and send all the students back to virtual learning after 146 students came up positive just 8 days after beginning the semester.

First night back at University of North Georgia in Dahlonega. 😳😳 pic.twitter.com/VAmZ2TLvuz

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) August 16, 2020

School after school that opened the past two weeks - thousands quarantined across the country as pupils and teachers come up positive.

All because we have had no steady hand at the helm since this began.  We are a ship without a captain, a rudder, a sail.  Tom Hanks and Wilson had a better conveyance across the waves of their desperation.

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

The battle lines in this country are stark.  On one side you have what we saw last night.  Representation, humanity, decency, inclusion.  From the opening featuring a multi cultural choir singing our National Anthem via Zoom to speaker after speaker representing all political stripes to brutal truths being told one after another - the message is clear - we must prevail in order to right this ship, to save this nation, to restore all that which has been perverted, stolen, ripped away.

On the other side, you have a collection of power hungry grifters, 15 minutes of fame opportunists, D listers desperate for one last gasp of relevance, all worshipping an orange tumor and urging it to metastasize completely.   Their convention will feature such notable figures as Mark & Patricia McCloskey, the Karen-Chad couple from St. Louis who brandished their guns at peaceful protesters, and Nick Sandmann, the smartassed kid from Kentucky who went viral for taunting a Native American during a demonstration in 2019.

Given who he attracts do not be surprised if Diamond and Silk, Scott Baio, and the My Pillow Guy show up, complete with Ted Nugent and Kid Rock dry humping the Constitution.

Stark.  One side represents this country in all its shades, every letter on the rainbow spectrum, all religions, no religions, embracing all cultures.  The other side represents racists, bigots, Nazis, misogynists, phobes of all ilk, religious zealots, criminals, science deniers, conspiracy mongers, Qanon crazies, and confederate flag waving dullards.

We have seen it in the protests across the country.  Young, old, black, white, brown, you name it - marching together demanding justice, reform, that more perfect union written about so very long ago. 

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

 

"The heat" caught over and over brutalizing those exercising their First Amendment rights.  Beating them, kidnapping them, violating them repeatedly.  The protests continue nightly, whether they are covered on the news or not.  Justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey, the soul of this nation.

Then you have Proud Boys, torch carriers, white supremacists all menacing as they demand the status quo that has served them so well.  Those too selfish to understand the risks of COVID in this country treated with kid gloves as they show up armed at capitols, as they gather and march for their access to sports bars and nail salons.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep

We are mired in a time when the truth is at once too big and too simple for too many.  A pandemic killing thousands.  A "president" colluding with foreign powers repeatedly.  A self admitted molester credibly accused of sexual improprieties from walking into teen dressing rooms to the rape of a 13 year old.  Yet as straight forward as these things are, Occam's Razor proves too much for them to handle so they coalesce around whispers of JFK Jr, pizza parlors, adrenochrome, and Wayfair cabinets filled with abducted children.

It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

The GOP's lifeblood is that of mainlining fear to their followers.  Keep them constantly worried about invisible threats, bogeymen, and bullshit.  Point at someone or something as the object of the threat - like Obama's cummin' fer yer guns!  now rewritten as Kamala's cummin' fer yer guns!  And then keep them agitated.  Fear is exciting.  Victimhood a heady drug.

It is why right wing blowhards like Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh have endured.  They figured out long ago how to monetize fear.  They are abrasive, crude, and shout the loudest ergo they must be telling the truth.  But the truth stops at abrasive and crude as illustrated this past week when Limbaugh referred to the Democratic ticket as Joe and the Hoe. 

I'm not kidding. 

This affront to humanity, who has forever ruined the Medal of Freedom, ranted at length repeatedly calling Kamala Harris a ho as in whore, and referred to her as a "mattress" as well, insinuating she slept her way into power.

This is what exists on the other side of the aisle.  This is what is embraced by them.  Trump's brother dies and both Biden and Harris send condolences.  In return, Harris is called a whore and the putrid papaya repurposes his birtherism garbage questioning her citizenship and legitimacy to run for office. 

She was born in Oakland, California.

This morning, after teasing a big reveal last night on Air Force One, Trump declared he was granting a full pardon to Susan B. Anthony.  Honestly, when I first saw it on Twitter, I did not believe it.  It had to be a joke.  I went looking for more sources and sure enough, New York Times had reported on it.  This Grab Them By The Pussy m-effer really thinks the way to a woman's heart is to just wave around another woman? 

Anthony was arrested for illegally voting back in 1872 when women were not allowed to vote at all.  She was fined $100.  She was proud of her arrest.  She was what Trump would refer to these days as "nasty."  Yet in his world where pandering is everything, someone in the brain trust of advisors convinced him that on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote, this was a surefire strategy to win over the ladies.

It is not hard to imagine Ivanka bursting in, her purse Bible again held aloft and screaming, "Daddy!  I have another GREAT idea!"

I have news for him - cranking the pandering up to 11 is obvious, pathetic, and seen for what it is - desperate.

And it in no way erases last night's memory of Michelle Obama growing, in real time, a verbal shade tree over his entire being. 

I honestly thought the most powerful piece was Bruce Springsteen's The Rising being brought forward from 9/11 to showcase where we are today, until she spoke.

For 18 incredible, passionate, intelligent, forceful minutes, the former First Lady spoke from the heart and soul to the heart and soul of this nation. 

I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency. And let me once again tell you this: the job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.

A president's words have the power to move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake your way through this job.

That line - you simply cannot fake your way through this job.  We are here because the charlatan put into office has never done anything but fake his way through this job, through his entire life.  174,636 people have died because he has tried to fake his way through a pandemic.  Their deaths are real.  By tomorrow, another 1,000 people will have died as a result of his fakery.

Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy.</p

Empathy: that's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else's shoes; the recognition that someone else's experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don't stand in judgment. We reach out because, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." It is not a hard concept to grasp. It's what we teach our children.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.  Hell, his own brother lay dying and the man went golfing.  The last time a brother lay dying, he went to a movie.  He does not feel anyone else's pain, fears, desperation.  He is nothing but a being of immediate gratification and focus on what's in it for him. 

Listen up - he does not care if you die.  He will never know if you do,.  He will never know your name, much less speak it at your funeral.

So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

That is the cold, hard, brutal truth we face.  All of us, not just those on the left who have called him out for years, who have known he is a worthless piece of garbage for decades.  I do not care if you have a Trump flag flying off the back of your boat, a yard sign, a red hat, or a bumper sticker for the man - your life is just as worthless to him as is mine.

Whatever the addiction to him is, you must face up to that fact.  I know you love the thrill of watching him target and hurt those you have been told to fear, those who you blame for your own piss poor choices and lot in life.  I know that admitting you have been wrong all this time is a hard pill to swallow.  But the noose is tightening.  We are now up to 527 people out of every million dying from coronavirus.  And it does not care what color your hat is.  Chances are, it has come close enough to you that you know someone personally who has contracted it.  Perhaps you have lost someone along the way.  For that I am sorry.  As Kristin Urquiza put it last night about her father, a staunch Trump supporter who lost his battle with COVID, "My dad was a healthy 65 year old.  His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life."

It is not too late to open your eyes, accept that you have supported a malignant narcissist who has been an utter failure for this nation, and work to make things right.  You have the opportunity to take back some of the humanity he has stolen from you, vote for decency, vote for a better tomorrow.

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There is something happening here.  You can be a part of it. Or you can be drowned in the wake of it.  It is your choice.  And history will remember accordingly.

Great Puzzle, Great Cause

Pre-pandemic, Beetlejuice was being performed at the Winter Garden Theater in NYC. At that time, they had a contest for artists to design the new Playbill cover for the show. Our son, Toby, was a finalist.

Then the world went to shit, and Broadway went dark.

Last week, he was approached by the team from Beetlejuice asking for his permission for his piece to be used in a Beetlejuice puzzle to raise money for The Actors Fund, helping those who have been thrown out of work by COVID.

I am very proud to share the link to the Beetlejuice Broadway store and the puzzle showcasing the final 16. Toby's is in the bottom row, second from the right.

If your pandemic plans include puzzle time, this is a great one for a great cause.

As always, completely proud and blown away by his talent.  Follow him on IG at TobyJamesSharp. 

Complete puzzle:

Mailing It In

Gather 'round children.  It's time for school.

I try whenever I sit down at this keyboard to either enlighten, instruct, elucidate, or educate.  I research, I read, I fact check, I find more than one source, more than two sources.  And I do not begin tapping away until I know I have a grasp on the subject matter.

Today is a case in point, so I hope you will pay attention and come away understanding more the workings of a central piece of our country's operation.  And why you must be paying attention.

For months now, the United States Postal Service has been circling the spotlight.  Today it is under the bright, hot light.  And it matters to you, it matters to every single person in this country regardless of where you live - urban townhouse, a farm on the back 40, efficiency apartment, or a house in suburbia - this affects YOU.

Those of us who ingest the news as soon as it happens have been aware for some time now that the naked emperor in the oval was sowing the seeds of distrust in terms of the mail.  Specifically, he has been undermining the effective and proven safe process of being able to cast a vote by mail.  The reason is simple - the easier it is to vote, the more people who will vote, and the better chance his ass will be permanently cast out of power and out of our collective nightmare.

All the while his sycophants warmed to the theme that mail in ballots were unsafe, subject to fraud, not to be trusted, it took very shallow digging to reveal that he, his children, his Press Secretary, pretty much all those around him, have routinely voted by mail in past elections.

Hypocrites?  Of course.  But we know that.  It's their lifeblood.  Reason they have availed themselves of the process?  Because it is easy, safe, secure and allows you to participate in the election process when you cannot stand in line in person.  Whether you call it absentee voting or mail in voting - it is all the same process.  You receive your ballot, you fill it out, you mail it back in to be counted. 

Again, safe.  In fact, this is how our service members stationed overseas always vote.

Yet now, as poll after poll shows Trump eating the festering ass out of a dead rhino in terms of re-election, it is suddenly not to be relied upon.

Oops, they then realized their easily led base was listening to him as polls started to show MAGAts were not planning on voting by mail because the Fanta colored farce told them it was bad.  Cue the quiet campaign emails sent to them urging them to sign up to vote by mail.

Again, hypocrisy writ large.

So they gathered round the campfire again and found a way to fuck with the system from the inside.

Enter Trump big dollar donor ($2 million since 2016, $210,600 to the Trump Victory PAC this past February), Louis DeJoy, appointed to the job of Postmaster General.  Note - it has been DECADES - until DeJoy, that someone has been elevated to the post who has not also been a letter carrier and long time employee of the service.  But hey, who needs experience or understanding of the system when you have money to buy your way in?  And heavy investments in competing delivery services.

His appointment and holdings set off red lights and Senator Chuck Schumer wrote to the Postal Service board of governors, “His financial interests in companies that have business ties with the Postal Service, as well as his extensive campaign fundraising efforts, also raise concerns regarding whether and how legal prohibitions on his ethical conflicts of interest and partisan political activity as a federal employee will be addressed.” 

Also notable, DeJoy is the RNC finance chair.  Nothing like some good old conflicts of interest, not that they matter in this age of open corruption and graft.

DeJoy and his wife, Aldona Wos, the ambassador-nominee to Canada, have between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in USPS competitors or contractors.

Since being installed, his changes and efforts to hamstring the system have been fast and furious.  Perhaps you have begun to notice that your mail delivery has been anything but fast, and you are getting furious. 

Within the first month, he told letter carriers that they were not to return to pick up mail that had to be left on the factory floor. If they couldn’t make it all in one trip, they were just to leave it there. You make your one scheduled delivery and if stuff doesn’t fit on the truck, too bad, we get it the next day.  These changes have resulted in massive backlogs in mail that are undermining people’s faith in the Postal Service’s ability to do its basic job. - Jordan Weissman, Slate

Sorting machines have been stripped from facilities.  Overtime is banned.  23 executives resigned or were replaced.  And now ballots will be handled as third class mail instead of first class.  That means they have the same priority as your grocery store papers and junk mail.

In 34 states, you don’t just have to have your absentee ballot postmarked by Election Day, it must be received by Election Day.  So I'll just mail it really early, you think.  Good idea, but the problem is bigger than that.  The problem, as seen during the Michigan primary, is that you may not receive your ballot until a day before the election.

It's not like those in DC did not see this coming.  “His only qualification is that he will do whatever Trump wants,” Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) said back in May when DeJoy was first announced.

As DeJoy has worked to grind things to an almost halt inside the service - and it IS a service.  There is a reason is it not called a business.  It is a service, a service relied upon by every citizen - people across the country have begun to feel the effects.  Perhaps you notice your mailbox empty a couple days a week.  Maybe you have been tracking a package only to see it criss crossing the country in search of a central sorting facility.  Or you sent a birthday card to your grandchild a month ago, their birthday has come and gone - and he/she still has not received it.

Americans everywhere are being hit with late charges as payments they mail to pay bills are not getting there in time.  Small businesses that rely upon the USPS are taking a hit as their customers cannot rely on normally prompt delivery.  And medications needed to keep countless citizens alive and reasonably healthy are going lost, late, undelivered. 

That last one is deadly.  It is not bad enough that we are firmly in the grips of a pandemic in which over 1,000 people are still dying daily (yesterday we hit a number not seen since May - 1,499 people died).  People with compromised immune systems trying desperately to stay away from businesses and gatherings, are now finding they must venture out in the hopes that their doctors and pharmacists can help tide them over with "bridge" prescriptions till their mail arrives.  (And that is not easy.  Most insurance companies will not cover this, leaving people to come up with hundreds of dollars, and monthly prescriptions are only covered by them within a certain time frame so you cannot order or fill early.  Example - I have one that can only be refilled at the 21st day of the monthly cycle.)

Congress is being besieged with stories from desperate constituents who cannot obtain their prescriptions that typically arrive like clockwork via the USPS.  People rationing what meds they have left on hand, taking half, skipping doses.  Vets are especially being hit hard as the vast majority of VA prescriptions are delivered via the USPS.

From an interview at ConnectingVets.com: Veterans and their caregivers told Connecting Vets they've faced wait times that have doubled, tripled or worse. Some reported wait times as long as three weeks or more for prescriptions that previously took a few days. Others said medical equipment deliveries were also delayed. Many expressed concerns about going to VA in person to retrieve medications during the pandemic. 

Again, if this is how fast and loose Trump and his cabal are willing to play with the literal lives of our vets, do you actually think they give a shit about the timeliness of ballots?  That is the entire upshot of this disruption.  That life saving medications are being held up is just collateral damage and proof to them that what they are doing is working, and will work come election time.

Think I am over reacting?  Making shit up?  Think again.

Back in March, the fetid fuhrer literally let out the real reason he opposes expanded voting by mail in the 2020 election. Referring to provisions in the Democrats’ coronavirus stimulus bill to vastly increase funding for voting by mail, he said on Fox News that the bill had “levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

That was March.

Fast forward to August.  The leather skinned loser said the quiet part out loud this morning when talking to FOX's Maria Bartiromo.

“Now they need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” he said. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.”

And there is nothing Congress can do. 

I want to stress that part.  Congress is paying attention, they are.  But as Representative Ted Lieu explained this morning, "House does not have the power to stop voter suppression by the Post Office without the consent of the POTUS." 

So the very person who is suppressing the vote, has the power to do so unopposed.  Translation:  We are fucked.  Yes, they can drag his corpulent ass through impeachment proceedings again, but it won't make a difference with an election just over 80 days away and a Senate full of on-their-knees GOPers who live to teabag his saggy sac.

Rep. Lieu urged people to understand that given the current logistics it is imperative that all mail in ballots be in the system by October 22.  Even then, it is uncertain what will happen with them.  Those sorting machines that are being shut down / removed without any explanation?  Those are the very machines that will be vital in processing mail in ballots.

As for classification?  Postal officials advised the nation’s secretaries of state to use high-priority first-class postage, which costs 55 cents an item, on election mail rather than the third-class, or bulk, rate of 20 cents typically used.  (Yes, even though the postage has been 20 cents, postal employees have always treated ballots with the speed and care of first class mail.  As they should.)

You do the math.  They are doing everything possible from slowing it down, to raising the rates, to closing polling places, to pushing Kanye West onto the ballots in order to game the system for their wholly un-re-electable candidate.

We have a powerful ticket in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  There is experience, wisdom, true understanding of governance, empathy, equality, the desire to better this country for all.  I do not care if they were not your first choice, your ideal pairing.  Get over it.  Your purity tests, feet stomping and third party histrionics only serve you, and actively hurt others. 

We now have a chance to right this horrific wrong of the past three and a half years.  But it will take every single one of us.  We must be willing to stand in lines, to help others to the polls, to use drop boxes where available, to pressure our Congress and Senate to work for us, to protect us, and above all, to be mindful of giving ourselves WEEKS of leeway if using the USPS for a ballot. 

Anything less is just mailing it in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In COVID news, 5,377,008 cases, 169,433 deaths - a number that is estimated to actually be over 200,000 by experts.  1 person dying every 80 seconds, 512 of every million gone.