April 22, 2017

A dinner conversation that's still bothering me.

We were dining out with friends tonight. One of them has been paying attention to media coverage focused on the "why" of white, low-income people who voted for >redacted<.

She told the story of a Louisiana >redacted< voter who was spending time in Yerp, where they don't have "real" news, like, yanno, Faux. And most of what they have is in furrin' language, so her only choice for teevee news was, apparently, the Yerpeen CNN service.

The >redacted< voter had just never seen anything like it. That Christiane Amanpour woman was doing a segment on the famine in Africa. She had a little African kid, rake-skinny, bloat-bellied, dull-eyed, sitting next to her while she recounted the terrible conditions in the famine zones and how many Africans were affected.

The >redacted< voter's take on this?

That Christiane Amanpour was trying to make HER, the >redacted< voter, FEEL GUILTY about the famine. Like the famine was somehow on HER, the >redacted< voter, and it was somehow up to HER, the >redacted< voter, to feel bad and do something about it, with HER hard-earned money that she needed to help HER family and HER relatives who were terribly victimized by the bad unfair system in America that only helps undeserving welfare people and not people like her and her family.

And this friend, the one who was recounting this to me, said that the coverage she'd seen of people like this woman, and the terrible economic conditions in Louisiana, and their 'unique' culture, and the generational poverty they struggle with, and the devastation of their environment and everything, well... it doesn't EXCUSE their woolhat assholery, but it kinda made it, yanno, understandable.

And that just pushed my button.

"Look," I said, "my Dad's family were 'Cadian. Sure, Minnesota French Canuck, but that's 'Cadian, we had oyster stew for Christmas dinner and frog leg fries for 4th of July, and my Dad's Gran'mere spoke 'Becoise more than English. Don't tell me it's the culture.

And we were poor. After he got out of the Marines my Dad had a hard time holding a good job. We scraped. My Mom had to work, in an era when women didn't do that much.

We wore hand-me-downs. We had "cowboy hash" for dinner all too often (Mom used to call leftovers baked in a casserole with lima beans and tomato soup "cowboy hash" to get us to eat it.) We got socks and coloring books for Christmas some years, not the cool toys. We brought sack lunches of baloney or peanut butter, or went home to eat canned soup for lunch.

But here's the thing. Each one of us kids was given a piggy bank. And there was a bigger piggy bank on the sideboard. The 'rents put their spare change in that one. We were supposed to put at least a nickel from every allowance in ours, plus "found" pennies and any other money we could.

And a couple of times a year, we'd empty those piggy banks, and send the money to help kids who were... wait for it... yep, starving in Africa.

So, no. It's not understandable to me."

And it's still not.

But it makes me wonder: When did that stuff change? And how? At what level, did it stop being important for good parents to teach their kids about compassion, empathy, and connection with other parts of the world?

WTF?

uncomprehendingly,
Bright

April 8, 2017

That Awkward Moment When You Realize YOU are Now the "Conservative."

Here's the basic definition via Merriam Webster, excluding the ones about being a member of the British Conservative Party or being a Conservative Jew:

a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional conservative policies
b : marked by moderation or caution a conservative estimate
c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners a conservative suit a conservative architectural style

I sat staring at that, and my world, my identity went fluid, morphing, disorienting me profoundly.

I want to conserve the institutions of a representative democratic government-- the right of a President, for example, to appoint a Supreme Court justice, even in the final year of their term.

And the established institution of an independent Civil Service that functions, not at the whim of patronage or loyalty to a party, but based on competence, skill, and dedication to impartial service under established Federal laws and regulations.

I want to conserve the institutional rights of workers to organize, the official rights of LGBTQ individuals to marry, the established rights of women to make decisions over their own bodies and access safe and legal abortion as needed.

I want to conserve the institution of municipalities that may declare themselves sanctuaries for immigrants and refuguees, the institution of states' rights to refuse to permit fracking, the institution of school districts providing meals to hungry children and in-school health clinics to their students.

I want to conserve the reputation of America as a nation that strives after equity as well as justice, that is willing to learn from our mistakes, and that respects international law and the efforts of nations to settle differences through negotiation rather than warfare.

I want to conserve the institution of law and justice administered not by private for-profit contractors but by dedicated independent civil service employees under the scrutiny of elected officials and an independent judiciary.

I want to conserve the institutions long-established to promote citizens' health and well-being through public investment in environmental protection and public health.

I want to conserve the established role of government in regulating trade, markets, and currency in order to prevent catastrophic economic disruption.

I want to conserve the expectation that those elected to the highest offices and gravest, most consequential duties of governance will accept the responsibility to enact those offices and duties with restraint, equity, gravitas, and respect even for those whose opinions and ideologies differ from theirs.

I have not abandoned the mission of progressive change. I still want universal health care, and an economy built on ensuring the broadest possible distribution of both benefits and opportunities. I still value the greatest possible access to quality education, and I'm still committed to the government's role in ensuring a livable planet for our grandchildren. I still believe in all of those progressive doctrines that look to a better future.

And I know that some of those things can't necessarily be accomplished only by "building on" what is already established. Some changes will be, must be, more profound.

But I also know that in the face of an existential threat to our Republic and its people, change that is to endure and provide long-term benefits must be achieved by people working with a sense of possibility, building on hope, from a positive conviction of shared good. Not, as we are seeing now, by the heedless, smash-it-all-up iconoclasm of DickBro nihilistic greed.

And so it becomes imperative to focus on conserving the bedrock institutions we've already fought to establish over America's long march of history and justice. It becomes imperative to conserve the wisdom that has come with making the most hideous and costly errors, and learning from them. It becomes imperative to focus on conserving the core values of equity and justice, and meeting threats not with fear and hate, but with courage, love, and humility.

Guess that makes me the real conservative.

Who ever would have imagined?

introspectively,
Bright

April 2, 2017

Why I Want [Redacted] to Finish a Full Term Through 2020

Here's why; it's simple.

There is NO, repeat NO established Constitutional or legal method for bypassing the line of succession established by the Constitution itself, and the Presidential Succession Act which was last amended in 1947. Read up on it, it's all very interesting. But the point is, there is a line of succession, it's written into law, and there is no way to bypass it.

So, if >>Redacted<< gets his ass impeached prior to January of 2021, here's what happens:

Pence becomes President. Pence scares me even more than >>Redacted<< because Pence KNOWS what he wants: The Rapture, and he KNOWS how to make it happen.

Okay, let's say we find Pence's hand up the Matryushka dolly too, and he's out. Here's what happens:

Paul Ryan becomes President. You want that? Srsly? Because I don't. OK, let's say he's out for some reason, probably involving orange jumpsuits. Then what happens?

Orrin Hatch becomes President. Are you cool with that? You don't know Orrin very well, do you? Alrighty, let's say he croaks before being sworn in. Could happen, he's a mean old cuss. Who's next?

Rex Tillerson becomes President. Fer realz. And may anything divine that happens to have a sense of mercy protect us. Let's say Rex decides he just wouldn't have enough time to spend with his family, and he passes. Who do we get?

Steve Mnuchin. No comment.

And then we'd get James "Mad Dog" Mattis. Or (in definitely descending order) JeffyBeau Sessions, or Ryan Zinke.

Now, if ANY of these individuals succeeded >>Redacted<< they would have the option of nominating a Veeper of their own, just as Ford nominated.... anyone remember? Anyone?

Nelson Rockefeller, that red-hot flaming radical leftist socialist liberal.

Well, by today's GOP standards, anyway.

Any odds on whether one of these pricks would nominate someone who's already on the Administrative staff? Ivanka? Bannon? Priebus?

Or even one of the nutjobs from the HFC?

Or someone else Uncle Vladdy suggests?

So, I don't see ANY good paths, post->>Redacted<<-removal.

I want his bloated cheesy posterior glued to that chair behind the Resolute desk for FOUR WHOLE YEARS, suffering humiliations galore.

While Americans vote out GOP state legislatures, and turn as many Gooberships as possible over to Democrats.

While Senate Democrats form a solid bloc devoted to preventing as much damage as possible.

While the GOP eats itself in a bloody, messy, terrifying spectacle.

While America elects a Democratic House Majority in 2018, with the mandate of fixing campaign financing, fixing electoral gerrymandering, and fixing voter suppression.

While the Democratic Party listens to voters and comes up with a strategy to unify behind a strong candidate for the 2020 election.

So, no.

I'm not in favor of impeachment and removal.

And that's why.

informatively,
Bright