#and fuck the electoral college. what an insane system i hate that we have it where i live too.

[melancholyfleurs]

anxious US mutuals and beloved followers, sending u a kiss on the cheek and a hug rn so if you feel comforted all of a sudden that was me

[unforth]

I keep seeing posts comparing this to 2004 or other past election losses and how this feels the same or similar to those past times.

As another Old who voted in 2004 (and I missed voting in 2000 by a month and was furious about it) I really can't even put into words how vehemently I disagree.

In 2008, I remember very earnestly sitting down with some friends and saying that if somehow McCain beat Obama, I'd have to join the fucking revolution, because I couldn't believe that this country would elect a Republican AGAIN after the previous 8 years of bullshit. I look back now and think how incredibly naive I was, but I also look back now and think, damn, why aren't I 25 NOW? I can't join the revolution now, I'm 41 and I own a house and have two young children and one old parent depending on me.

Because honestly, truly, as someone who has been studying American history since I was 7, as a Civil War buff with expertise on the years before the Civil War, as someone who has at least some memories of every election since 1988... guys, this isn't the same as 2004. I was furious then. Swift Boat bullshit I swear to fucking dog. And I was and still am fairly convinced that the 2000 election was deliberately stolen. But also I still had every reason then to believe in the rule of law.

In 2004, I still believed term limits would be respected.

In 2004, I still believed a person who wasn't elected would demure gracefully to the winner.

In 2004, I still trusted the courts.

In 2004, I still believed that we'd made progress on bigotry.

I could go on, and to be clear, my point isn't "I thought these institutions were ~good~" in literally any objective sense. Y'all are cynical but my generation was raised by, surrounded by, Vietnam vets and trust me, there was no way to be a kid, seeing what the 70s did to this country, and not come out as cynical and furious as the best of um. (My grandfather was a World War 2 vet, as were his close friends. My father and both his brothers are Vietnam vets, tho my dad didn't go overseas.) But I did believe that even corrupt institutions, even broken racist systems, even fucking Republicans, would follow basic norms of democracy. They said they believed in the constitution and I believed them. I believed that, like Nixon, truly getting caught doing something insane would at least force a mea culpa and turn public opinion. I believed...

Well, I guess it doesn't matter.

Because I no longer believe any of that.

I have watched the guard rails disappear over my lifetime. I have watched the party who once spent 2 years pursuing a guy over a BJ in the oval office elect a convicted rapist. I have watched and at times I've participated and I've voted and I've organized and I've protested and I've read the news more days than not and I've lived and I've grown and I've learned.

I have been an adult, legally, for almost 24 years now.

Guys... there are no norms remaining on the far right. The guard rails are gone. The Fascists control the White House, the senate, the Supreme Court, and things aren't looking promising for the House.

The bus has no brakes anymore. They think they have a mandate - and I can't blame them, as horrifying as this mandate is, because if things had gone the other way and Harris had gotten these results I'd also think it was a mandate.

Please sit with what this means: Trump and the Republican party said, "hand us the reins and we'll make everyone you hate hurt," and more than half the people who bothered to vote said "sure buddy, here goes." We don't have a usurper this time. This is the country that the majority of Americans said they wanted. Whether they come to regret that or not, they saw open Fascism and went "oh yes, count me in." And it wasn't because of the electoral college this time. It was because this country is so bigoted and misogynistic that they'd rather have this than a woman of color in the office.

I'm sick of "well she didn't run a good campaign." (Lie.) I'm sick of, "well we didn't get a primary." (Who cares?) I'm *extremely* sick of "well, Palestine." (Yes! Democrats actions have made the suffering there so much worse! It fucking sucks! You know what's about to suck so much worse?)

15 million people who showed up for Joe Biden couldn't be fussed to place a vote for Kamala Harris. Whatever their reason for not voting, we all knew the outcome if she lost. And seeing open fascism didn't fire them up enough to make the effort, and that's fucking pathetic. The consequences of the worst happening mattered so little to them that they couldn't be fucking bothered to make the minimum effort to stop it, and now millions of people will suffer as a result.

Because here we are: the huge swathe of the country who wanted a strongman now have one.

Look, I don't know what happens next. But I do know, and remember keenly: after 2016, Trump did, or at least tried to do, most of the things he said he'd do. When he was stopped, it was often because of career government employees: judges, bureaucrats, etc. And this time, he's said he's going to purge those people. I don't know if he'll succeed, but I certainly believe he'll try.

This is not 2004 again.

This is 2024. The Republicans have ripped the mask to shreds, shredded apart the book of political norms, and empowered hate, and they've been handed a governmental mandate for stamped "have at with our blessing!" in exchange.

And now they'll use that mandate to make everyone they hate suffer: people of color, queer people, trans people, immigrants, non-Christians.

Don't assume the worst can't happen. I am a Jew, and I have a photo album full of black and white photos of dead people that constantly reminds me: the worst has happened and it can happen again.

Do not despair. Despair is enervating. Be furious. As we should be. These douche bags are repulsive. Be prepared to fight. Be prepared to flee. Be prepared to defend. Don't assume you simply can't do something. There's always something to do, and even the smallest act of defiance can help. There's never any knowing until after which acts of resistance will end up galvanizing the good and just out of their apathy. But that apathy is the enemy.

Because none of this is normal. None of this is "just like when..." Please stop saying it is.

And before anyone screams "privilege" at me, yes, I am in many ways. I'm white. I have access to some generational money even tho my own family lives paycheck to paycheck - we won't be rich but have enough of a support network to be comfortable. I live in a blue area of a blue state. But I'm also a woman (legally speaking, at least) married to another woman - since before Oberkfell, and yes I remember exactly what steps we had planned any time we wanted to leave our state. My wife has physical disabilities. We have two children. Both are biracial (half black). One is trans. We are caring for an elderly parent. I am Jewish and as my kids' birth parent, so are they. I own a publishing company that publishes the exact kinds of queer and kinky lit these people intend to ban. We tick so many boxes of what these people hate.

I know ya'll are scared. Trust me, I'm terrified. But fear is paralyzing. And that won't help. Whatever happens, don't lie down and take this shit.

When Gore lost I was one month shy of my 18th birthday and already in college. I have been fighting my entire adult life, and I'm exhausted. I'm much less able to fight now, much more tied down with responsibilities. But the fight isn't over. I'm checking our passports. I'm packing a go bag. I've convinced one vulnerable friend to move here and I have another who wants to and we're figuring out how to make that happen. I'm protecting who I can, starting with putting on my mask first. I don't know what will happen but if in the end all I can do is uproot my entire life to protect my children then I am preparing to do so. I can at least save them if no one else.

None of this is normal.

And I'm not sure, after Trump's in office, that anything will ever be normal again in the US. At least not the old normal. And there are ways that's a good thing, so many ways that the old normal sucked for so many people, and I'm optimistic that there's a bright future ahead, but man it looks far away right now. I don't want to go back to the old normal, and I want to be part of establishing a kinder, more just, more equal new normal, but we're a long way from there.

Whatever happens, we must endure. We must survive. We must support each other. We must find our allies and be prepared to compromise with them. Don't try to save everyone. You'll fail. Help even one person and you can change the world. Everyone things they can't do everything and so do nothing. That's insane. Do a single thing and it will be better than nothing. One phone call. One letter. One act of defiance. Very few people get the opportunity to grand gestures that matter, and the rest of us will die waiting for that moment. But the secret is that what makes those moments - the time when one person is in the right place at the right time for their action to matter - is built on millions of small moments by millions of people doing what little they can to make things slightly better. Think of every iconic photograph of a Sole Resistor you know of and think about every single tiny thing that had to happen for that moment to occur. Most of us will never me that one person, but that one person is a myth anyway. Countless tiny unseen moments create those myths. Doing literally anything is better than doing nothing.

And tooth and nail, quietly and loudly, in our homes and our towns and cities, during protests or when they come for our neighbors, we must fight.

[luckyladylily]

Gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering BAD

But also it's more complex than you think. Like we should absolutely do some of those laws to make it less obviously bad, but the problem with gerrymandering is that there are several potential end possibilities in getting rid of it and they all have major different effects.

Let's say there is a state with 4 congress seats and a 75R to 25D split (Utah, but a bit simplified). How do we determine what is fair?

There is the statistically representative district, which is the idea that every district is representative of the whole as much as possible. So every district is cut up so they have a 75/25 split. In this case, it will always mean R wins in every case, us progressive Utahns never get anything. But it also means that in a near 50/50 state every race is competitive.

Another model attempts to cut up districts such that the result will be a similar split in reps to the population. In Utah, that would be 1 dem, 3 rs. But this basically ruins the very concept of an election by rigging it in the first place, towards what some people might call a pre determined "fair" outcome. Elections become non competitive.

We could do it by obvious geographic boundaries, but that's a crap shoot on who it favors politically and who it screws over. It is pretty much certain that it won't be representative in the end no matter what, but at least it is based in something real.

So gerrymandering bad, but maybe the entire concept of Congressional districts is stupid as fuck and needs to be done away with for something that isn't inherently unfair trash.

I like the idea of congressmen being chosen state wide instead of by district via ranked vote, but that becomes a heavy cognitive burden for voters in large states with many people and congressmen.

So I don't have the answer except congressional districts as they exist are inherently shit. I presume other countries have tried other things. Maybe we can check that out.

BUT now let's talk about the US senate. It's not gerrymandered in the classic sense, but the way it is put together is insane and completely unfair. I calculated it once, people from Wyoming have about seventy times as much voting power for the senate as people from California over what is, arguably, the single most important institution in our country. Controlling the senate is more powerful than controlling the presidency. And, effectively, a Californian gets 1 vote for it and a Wyoming resident gets 70. It is incredible bullshit that is literally ruining our country. If you thought the electoral college was bad imagine that jacked up to 11.

We can overcome the inherent system bias in selecting the president. It is impossible to overcome the inherent system bias in electing the senate. It is only because the US citizenry overwhelmingly favors the left that a deadlock tie is even possible. It might be possible to get one or two more seats for a slight majority that allows democrats to get something done.

The fact that the republicans aren't locking down the senate every single election despite their enormous technical advantage shows you how incompetent and hated they are by the average American. And yet they have the fucking audacity to claim that giving DC citizens senators is a democrat power grab and have instead purposed that the DC population be absorbed into a different senate group in order to ensure the overwhelming republican advantage remains in place. And they still can't win, so they try to rig it even further with voter suppression laws.

The worst voter suppression in the country doesn't happen in gerrymandered congress districts or at polling places. It's the very structure of the us senate.

[newagesispage]

                                                                JANUARY                                    2020

PAGE  RIB

 Lots of nominations are out. I do have some faves: The Grammy’s went crazy for Lizzo and Billie Eilish. The comedy recording noms went to Trevor Noah, Ellen, Aziz, Gaffigan and Dave Chappelle.**The Sag’s gave love to Leo and Brad for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Of course, Joaquin was nominated for Joker. Most noms went to JJ Rabbit, The Irishman and Bombshell.  In TV there was much ado about The Morning Show, The Crown, Barry, Big Little Lies, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Schitt’s Creek.** The Golden Globes which will air on Jan. 5 were full of great choices. Fingers crossed for Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips for Joker, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and Quentin and Brad and Leo, Knives Out, Kathy Bates, Jodie Comer, Olivia Coleman, Billy Porter, Bill Hader and Henry Winkler and Barry. I hope good things for The Crown, Succession, Patricia Arquette, Helena Bonham Carter, Brian Cox and Kieran Culkin. Ellen DeGeneres will get the Carol Burnett award and Tom Hanks will receive the Cecil B. DeMille award.

*****

And Hooray to Schitt’s Creek for their PSA at the end of an episode that was about a character coming out to his parents. The promo gave resources to turn to for help.**The crew met up recently at the Paley Fest after the end of the series.

*****

Finally.. The Pope has abolished pontifical secrecy. It’s 2020 and the church may finally stop protecting predators. The age of consent for their porn was raised from 14 to 18 to keep up with modern times.

*****

Days of our Lives has been renewed for another year. We are safe until September 2021.**I am really hating Kate right now. I wish Rolf would take them all down.  I am quite thru with the ‘acting’ of pushing buttons on phones and computers which leads us to read their messages on the screen. I do not like it in real life and I don’t want to watch it. Boring!!

*****

The Patriot act has been reauthorized.

*****

Sara Gilbert has separated from wife Linda Perry.

*****

Sharon Stone was blocked on Bumble because users thought it wasn’t really her, it was and her account was restored.

*****

The new film, Linda Ronstadt: the sound of my voice shows just how far her reach has been.

*****

Kudos to Eddie Murphy and company for the fab ‘Dolemite is my name.’

*****

I saw that the Bachelor is back. Is that horrid show still on?

*****

Steve Bullock is out.** Kamala Harris is out. Scary Clown tweeted: Too bad. We’ll miss you Kamala. She tweeted back: Don’t worry Mr. President, I’ll see you at your trial.** Biden is on the No Malarkey tour.

*****

Willie Nelson has reportedly quit smoking weed.

*****

Word is that Trump wears Switzerland’s Bronx face makeup for that orange glow.** Have you seen Rand Paul lately. He seems to have taken on a similar look to his President with the big white puffy eyes and that deranged look. What is going on with these people?

*****

Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux will star in a series about Watergate from the Veep team.

*****

Billy Dee Williams tells us that he identifies as male and female.

*****

About 1 million kids are getting thrown off lunch subsidies and other programs.** A recent Rolling Stone article explains the evangelical support of Trump.  An early campaign meeting with religious leaders promised to fuck with the rights of transgender folks, abortion rights and to leave climate change alone because of the belief that God will control that. So, with that thinking should we shut down the factories because those are man made? Should we all be Christian scientists and not practice medicine anymore? Word is that the big money donors for Trump are helping to prop up their institutions and charities. **Christianity Today magazine : Trump should be removed from office. To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, remember who you are and whom you serve. ** On Dec. 8, the President tweeted 108 times. So much time on his hands!

*****

Michael Moore has a new grass roots podcast called Rumble. He will discuss and digest the breaking political news of the day and suggest things that the rest of us can do. He is introducing the Emergency podcast system.

*****

The last democratic debates of the year were here and again there was not enough time for Andrew Yang. He did well when he got the time and got to promote his book without that sounding too bad after he was asked whet gift he might give another candidate. Warren made a sound bite with her “wine cave” crack which just made her look petty. Biden and Bernie sounded the same as always. Amy Klobuchar had the best night. She was not shaky and seemed so confident.  Trevor Noah seemed thrilled that he was mentioned. The sound on the microphones was a bit prickly.

*****

I really hate advertising for the most part and try to avoid them if at all possible. But it seems these Peyton/ Brad ads are everywhere and they are the most annoying things I have ever seen. Please make them go away.

*****

Hooray for Kansas City for being the first major city in the country to offer free public transportation.

*****

The Giuliani’s are divorced.

*****

Ok.. I’ll hand it to Dolly Parton. She has been putting her story songs on the screen in Heartstrings. They are a little “Hallmarky” so they wouldn’t really be my thing but it’s Dolly so sure I’ll give it a go. They celebrate all kinds of love which is a beautiful thing . One story had a beautiful performance b Gerald McRaney.

*****

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally, the broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you. –L.R. Knost

*****

I was so hoping that Greta Thunberg would be the person of the year for Time.  Hooray!!

*****

Rep. Van Drew is switching from the democrats to the republicans. Um..ok.. what timing.

*****

Check out Jack’s grandson, Duke Nicholson. He is all the buzz!

*****

The President was impeached on Dec 18. There were plenty of objections and rants from the republicans like they were children. The idiocy that comes out of their mouths is astonishing. Doug Collins, Deb Lasko and Louie Gohmert just seem insane. I don’t understand why there was not more push back when they kept up their mantra about nothing in the Mueller report when we can all see that there was. We are not all stupid. In the end some sort of consequence was finally brought to the man who has been accused of so much in his life. In formal impeachment proceedings there is no executive privilege. Pelosi is mulling over when to send the case to the senate. It is probably a good idea to let POTUS stew over the holidays.

*****

If impeachment would overturn the will of 63 million voters and that’s unconstitutional, then what is the electoral college overturning the will of 65 million voters. –Adam Parkhomenko

*****

Trump fans were upset when Canada broadcast Home Alone 2 with their President cut out. They called it political but it was found that it had been cut for ad time long before his campaign even began.

R.I.P. Irving Burgie, Williams Rucklehouse, victims of the multiple military shooting, Ron Leibman, Marie Fredriksson, the Jersey City , Portland and New Zealand victims, Don Imus, victims of the Vegas fires, Jerry Herman, Alley Willis, Carol Spinney, Danny Aiello, Syd Mead and Neil Innes.

[hellsbellschime]

This whole SCOTUS shit just reminds me that if not for the archaic electoral college we would actually have had a democratic president for the last like 2 decades and wouldn’t be here fighting for women’s rights and potentially lgbtq+ equality etc. Yes, fuck all those who didn’t vote Hillary, but also fuck this insane system that should have been abolished decades ago. Our country shouldn’t be held hostage by swing states. Like Florida should not get to decide who is president when the popular vote went to someone else.

Yes agreed completely, but it's by design and it's doing exactly what it's meant to and has always been meant to. The Electoral College was designed to take advantage of marginalized people and give the minority more power, and it has been successfully doing that for its entire existence. It's complete nonsense and completely undemocratic because one vote should equal one vote across the board, but we can all see exactly why conservatives will make this their hill to die on no matter what. I absolutely agree that we shouldn't be held hostage by any of these fucking lunatics but why wouldn't they do everything they can to hold on to their power and ensure that they can keep holding the people they hate hostage? It fucking sucks and it's so frustrating, like given where I am I know I'm basically never going to be personally affected by it, and it's horrible because it's only the people who are in the most desperate of places and situations who are going to be punished by these psychopaths.

[americanbackyard]

Our Rise, Our Fall

One of the most focal things we have been shown in trumpland is his followers, his fans. There is a difference between supporters and fans in that a supporter can be shown reasons why not to support someone or something and there is a possibility that they might change their mind. A fan is much harder to convince that the object of their affection is not worthy of their time or emotions. Trump is one of a million to hold some kind of shine to people and become an icon in the culture of America. Or at least part of America. Not the good part...

A unique thing has happened in the case of trump's popularity in that we can now clearly see that many Americans do not pay attention to anything beyond tabloid type information, regardless of the nearly unlimited amount of real information available at no cost to them. We can now plainly see that there are many stubborn and selfish people out there who refuse to look into things for themselves and choose to join mobs of others who act and react the same way. These are the rabid fans. In the case of donald trump and what they believe him to be, they show us that their lives are not their own, even if they claim to want to be left alone by government and those who are not like them, ie; white christian republicans. The amount of hypocrisy is astounding with these people and there is no way to convince them of the ridiculousness of their ways. Yet they function in society somehow. Amazing how the human psyche works. This is the survival instinct that we see in homeless people who appear to have lost their minds yet still build a shelter of discarded objects and scrounge for food. Rabid fans build a shelter of twisted ideals and scrounge for justification of what really boils down to bigotry and stupidity.

For decades trump has been in the B-level news as if he were the only person with money, surrounded by women and golden objects and living in a towering palace and blah blah blah. Anyone who took a few minutes here and there over the years and actually read anything at all about the man could have seen that this is not the case. What we are able to see now about his history, regardless of seeing his taxes shows that he is a dime-a-dozen developer with no peers and no friends, a multiple bankruptcy failure, a man with dreams but only of himself, which he is unable to make come true due to his own lack of intellect or determination, a con man and a grifter, plus a racist. There is nothing at all to like about this man and nothing to worship as some do.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions...” - 2 Timothy 4:3 (1)

Even those who call themselves Christians who are fans of trump obviously have not read or begun to comprehend the scripture on which their supposed faith is from. Besides the religious aspect of The Bible there are many practicle warnings to heed and advice to be taken. Rabid trump fans do not take advice nor do they heed warnings. If they did, they would not be rabid trump fans. As we have seen for decades this is nothing new though, as televangelists and now trump's “spiritual advisor”, herself a complete fraud, screw over their flocks every second of every sermon... Why are people so gullible? Why are they so desperate? Could it be the same thing that causes people to worship deities that promise a better “life” after death? Try living in the now for God's sake, so to speak.

For some reason, people are able to overlook things like racism, perversion, fraud, lies, and other acts of diminished ethics if what they see is a shiny extension of the worst part of themselves that makes them feel better about being shitty, for lack of better words. I'd imagine they were raised to be that way as they likely did not learn that as an adult, at work, or in college or church, although looking at the messages of some churches, like the Westboro Baptist Church, or various colleges like Liberty University, it is possible but people were attracted to those places for some reason in the first place, and look at some of the fine people they churn out. Also there are many people in history that are beloved but had things about them that would make a normal person cringe. Historical figures today that are relished, and I don't just mean with confederate statues, which is a fine example of praising the wrong people, but popular politicians, athletes, entertainers or religious figures that were racist, child molesters, rapists, or a variety of other things that if your neighbor were one, you would want to kick their ass halfway to New Zealand.

What it comes down to is that people need to look at the reality of other people around them and understand what is real and what it not and how their own lives and the lives of those around them are more important than the lives of who they are fans of, and how they all connect. It's called “getting fucking real”, something that many forget. “Celebrities are fascinating because they live in a parallel universe—one that looks and feels just like ours yet is light-years beyond our reach. Stars cry to Diane Sawyer about their problems—failed marriages, hardscrabble upbringings, bad career decisions—and we can relate. The paparazzi catch them in wet hair and a stained T-shirt, and we're thrilled. They're ordinary folks, just like us. And yet… Stars live in another world entirely, one that makes our lives seem woefully dull by comparison. ” (2) Again, get a fucking life... But they are unable. Why? And how can we help them to help themselves and not affect us all and the whole planet really by not making stupid decisions based on falsehoods and unreality and believing in people like donald trump, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Paula White, Pat Robertson, Ronald Reagan, Adolf Hitler, etc. We cannot. BUT we outnumber them. SO why are we not coming out in droves to defeat the insanity which enables them to continue in their relentlessness path of destruction and jeopardizes all of humanity on a daily basis? Sounds intense but let's face it, the more folks let politics and religion rule their world the more the corporations and pontiffs will take advantage of them. History tells of this over and over and over again. It's nothing new folks...

We are beyond the two party system at this point. It is now a puppet show in front of us while we have become a mob of idiots versus a huge living room of couch potatoes. We let in the interlopers and the freaks and some of us gladly accept them based on their excuses or shiny false badges of honor while others of us say “whatever” and go about dong nothing to stop the inflow of assholes into the system that we trust to run things while we are running the rat race. There are herds of people who are fired up over things that they are told affect them when they absolutely do not, yet they fall for it hook line and stinker singly based upon the emotions and simplicities of their personalities that their new heroes have honed in on to get what they want from them. “...why do people repose blind faith in leaders or ideologies? How is it that otherwise sane and sensible people become moronically incapable of grasping reality? The culprit: our brain. Still evolving and still primitive, it readily sacrifices rational evidence-based conclusions in favor of primal ones. And so conformism trumps individual judgement.” (3) So is it because we are still primitive? Racists have their own ideas about who is primitive but let's face it, the worst degrees of thought in this country are coming from the rightwing white pseudo christians, who pretty much measure up, or down actually, in evolutionary thought when it comes to primal instincts.

Then there are those who won't vote, or get up and stand up.

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight! (4)

On the other hand many are prone to apathy and burnout, due in large part to the overexposure of the right's flock of sheep and the constant pressing of their presence by the wolves that lead them into their dens. “We use voting as a tool to transmit to others who we are,” explains Eyal Winter. An economist, he works at the University of Leicester in England and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. (5) So while the crazies identify with each other and go out and do what they can to make themselves known, others are simply distressed or depressed by it enough to give up and not take the same initiative to go make a difference and fight the powers that suck.

Let's face it though, which party is the one using the Electoral College to silence over three million voters and give trump the win? Which party is guilty of voter suppression in over a dozen cities, that we known of? Which party is guilty of vote tampering, voter intimidation, poll violations, and supports racism while arguing to abolish immigrants, even legal ones, and who holds children in cages, separates them from their parents forever, allows them to be raped, become sick, or die, and then traffics them out? It's all happening., and we let it.

When will it become unacceptable? When it becomes inconvenient? The easy way out of a major confrontation is to get out there and vote and let your voice be heard. The numbers will speak and cannot be overturned. Not yet at least. Unless we let it. We can easily see the wrongdoing of the right wingers in the discrimination of those who the right hates the most. The GOP is not christian by any means, nor or they civil servants, nor are they compassionate, ethical, scrupulous, professional, or on anyone's side besides their own. They are not the lesser of two evils, they are the evil. The lesser may be the only thing we have to curb them but we can work on that and turn it around. It all starts now, or it never starts, and the end is already here. Will those in the position to make positive change refuse to do so? Forget those who are fooled by it, this is about you, the ones who can make  the difference.

Perhaps both sides choose the path of least resistance. But who controls the controlling factors introducing us to our supposed paths?  That choice is ours alone. Common sense might dictate which side we take but in the end we should all be on the same side. And politics and religion are constantly used to keep us from doing that, so that they benefit and not us, even though we put them in charge, willingly, when we vote for them to “represent” us.

In the end what is it going to be? Are we all on our own? Is it survival of the fittest? Or of the most privileged? Will the meek inherit the Earth, or will the corporate enterprises destroy it? And will we let them? This is why it is imperative at this point to get things straight and not allow the absurd to flourish and to take command of the things that matter rather than allow the power mad to run amok. It's happening all over the world and has been for a very long time. Is it just human destiny then to drive itself into the ground? Perhaps. But if we are to get to the next level of a civil society then we have a lot of work to do.  We ourselves and our fellow humans need to make things work, and not just rely on some suit wearing zombies with a political label. A progressive party is not just a partisan party but one for all, to do what? PROGRESS. There is an entire side that does not get this yet but might learn from example. OUR example. And again, if they won't learn, it does'nt matter if we make our numbers count. They will survive and even thrive, even if they may never accept who helped them do it. That's okay though because that is what a civil society does. It sees a problem, diagnoses it, and urges those around them to try to figure out a solution together without doing further damage or taking the easy way out.

Maybe we are dealing with cognitive dissonance. Or maybe some people are just fucking stupid. I like  to think that nurture plays just as important a role as nature though, and that perhaps one can keep learning throughout life to see the big picture and utilize common sense, or at least common decency. Of course, that can only be taught. Or can it? Altruistic behavior is believed by some to be hereditary in many species, so hope is not be abandoned. As easily as hope may be offered up in the form of security and salvation in sensible terms, it can be sold too as something entirely different than what it actually is defined as, something redefined and repackaged by untruths and lust for power. Thus, the rabid trump fans. The ultra right wingers. The fanatical conservatives. The crazy republicans. Not all people on the right are evil, many just conveniently go along with their dimensions which they find themselves lazily confined in. We need to agree on a middle ground of decency and intelligence, of fairness and unity, and only voting and voicing will present that to those who cannot or will not see it. They won't change their minds and we can't change it for them, so we have to change ours and let them see what we can do together.

For once in my life I've got something to say I wanna say it now for now is today A love has been given so why not enjoy So let's all grab and let's all enjoy!

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

Just take a look around you What do you see? Kids with feelings Like you and me Understand him, he'll understand you For you are him, and he is you

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

I don't want to be rejected I don't want to be denied Then its not my misfortune That I've opened up your eyes

Freedom is given Speak how you feel I have no freedom How do you feel?

They can lie to my face But not to my heart If we all stand together It will just be the start

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided (6)

(1) The Bible

(2) Psychology Today, Carlin Flora, July 1, 2004

(3) DAWN, Peter Hoodbhoy, August 8, 2015

(4) Bob Marley, Get Up Stand Up, 1973

(5) Science News For Students, Bethany Brookshire, November 7, 2016

(6) Sham 69, If The Kids Are United, 1978

[kcrabb88]

@aflamethatneverdies replied to your text post: the "Donald Trump will fix all the foreign policy issues" makes me facepalm so much. :P

The rest of the world is like wtf America. Though most of us didn’t vote for him, our system just. Sucks. I hate the electoral college right about now.

@cheesethesecond replied to your text post: My mom's the same way. Thankfully the rest of my Trump voting family has seem to go pretty silent, but my mom sees that as her opportunity to FUCKING DOUBLE DOWN I guess.

Dude SAME my family is defending him at every.single.turn because they can’t be caught being grievously wrong, I guess. ...which is one, among many reasons, we are not currently speaking. Hugs friend, I feel your pain. 

@chiefoftherevolution replied to your text post: I remember a ton of protesting against Obama... its weird that people forget so easily =P

Yeah there was and McConnell was like “the American people won’t tolerate holding up Supreme Court nominations” and I’m like ...did you seriously just. Say that. You, who have been obstructing said nominations for a year.

@thecoffeetragedy replied to your text post: People have such short memories... Like, they will find ways to hate the current leader/politician THE MOST, no matter what they actually do (just because), and will screw up picking someone to follow them because of that. They don't care about history or remember what was before, like Bush, or the reasons that made them vote for Obama in the first place, or - anything besides what they read on fake facebook news yesterday, apparently. :( it's awful. I'm so sorry...

They really do! It’s so maddening. It’s insane to think that I would welcome Bush at this point, but that’s where we are, I guess. Wonder what they’ll do when there is no Obama to blame? 

[kindabraveandlittlestupid]

There is a clarifying question you can ask yourself and others to help you identify where they stand in regards to their feelings on women and women in power which is “Do you think women should be in Politics?” My response is “Yes” but in my head, I also think “ONLY smart women (and for that matter people in general) should be in politics and not every woman in politics is smart.” The spectrum of dumb knows no gender or race when it comes to politics, white men certainly have a corner on the market but in the past thirty years of politics, we have seen some strong contenders from the fairer sex. 

Today we will go by the current numbers in regards to women in politics, examples of their best and worst candidates, (brace yourself, my conservative readers, you have some really dumb women among your ranks) and lastly how I would like to see the US political system in regards to sex and race.

By The Numbers

As we approach the 2018 midterm we hopefully going to have a blue wave so we might be able to fight the Trump Administration and its no holds barred approach to trying to fuck minorities, women, the environment and the LGTBQ community in the United States. It’s clear the Republicans have little to no backbone in stopping the President by why would they? He can take all the media attention off them while they work to give tax cuts to the wealthy and undermine social programs that take care of the sick, old, women and kids. I am getting off on the wrong tangent here. The point is in this election we see the most women running for political office in US history and while I hate chants “Down with Patriarchy” I do like the idea of “Rise of the Matriarchy” which is in my mind a more positive message for young women looking to join politics. 

So here are the numbers as they stand in 2018 before the election and how representative our political landscape is for females in politics.

Governors - Only 6 Female Governers (2 Democrat and 4 Republican) which means they make up 12% of the Governers in the US. Mayors - Only 297 Female Mayors out of 1,365 municipal districts (with a population over 30,000 people) which mean they make up 21.8%. US Senators - Only 23 women out of the 100 seats available in the Senate.  US Congresswomen - Only 84 women of the 435 chairs in the House of Representatives. Which equals 19.3% of all seats. Supreme Court - Only 3 of the 9 Justices are female. This is reflective of the lower courts which is also 33%. US Presidents - Of course, 0 women have been elected the office of President (at least according to the Electoral College and not the popular vote).

Just by crunching the numbers it's easy to see men still have a firm grasp on all the brass rings of power within the United States political landscape. Hopefully, in our lifetime, we will see those number grow and balance out the scales to something more equal (or slightly more than equal with women making up 51% of the population).

Champions and Fools

So we visited the current numbers and with hope, the coming election will shift that spectrum into something more balanced but I wouldn't hold my breath on the changes being dramatic, we will likely see incremental shifts in former male held positions turning female and that is good enough for the moment.

While we are on this subject I want to make the case for women in politics who do a good job and should be noted if only to identify the desired qualities for a candidate in political office. I will also point out female candidates who while bolstering the ‘numbers’ of women in office, are particularly bad at their jobs (once again plenty of stupid men in office as well).

The Champions

Barbara Lee (D A champion of minorities being both part of the Asian Pacific Caucus and  Congressional Black Caucus. She also is a supporter of the LGBTQ community being from the Bay Area (Woot woot). She represents her constituents well and is making headway to become a democratic leader herself. Above all else, I love to see more women with her attitude rise in the ranks of politics. 

Elizabeth Warren (D Among the women listed above, she remains one of the most vocal sniping at conservative policies and being one of the sharpest roasters when dealing with administration nominations for the Trump White House. Don’t be too surprised if you see her name on a political ticket in 2020 because she is one of the few people who isn't afraid to talk truth to power in regards to President Trump.

Hillary Clinton (D Love her or hate her, she was easily the most qualified person to ever run for the Presidency ever about the only other thing she could have done was serve in the armed forces in some way before running. She believed that the American people would not be baited by populism so easily and Democrats failed their party but setting her up to be the next nominee back in 2012. This gave Conservatives 4 years to fashion a Benghazi noose for her inevitable 2016 run. What is a shame is she could have continued to improve on the foundation of Obama’s 8-year term and had the diplomatic know how to strength diplomacy with our allies. I would give up a literal arm to put her in office over Trump... really I would.

Susan Collins (R It’s important to understand that not all conservatives are villains. Susan Collins while holding some Republican beliefs has always stood up against her party when they try to revoke woman's rights or try to remove healthcare from her constituents. This means she breaks rank in her party and becomes that flip vote but that's what I like about her, she votes on her principals and not what the conservatives try and tell her to do.

It should be noted these are far from the only worthwhile women in politics. There are various women who do their job on a local level and take it very seriously with very little acknowledgment for their works.

UPDATE: Sadly Collins has voted to put Brett Kavanaugh into the US Supreme Court. With his history of being against the environment, net neutrality, disability rights, women's health issues (IE Abortion Rights) and being alleged (credible) sexual predator she has proven the above statement to untrue.

The Fools

Betsy DeVos (R It’s a strange scenario to have a woman run the education department while not believing in public education. She doesn't seem to care about minority students, schools that are dealing with poverty, or special education programs. What makes it worse is she has a personal interest in shifting education from public schools to private schools. She would profit from this directly and that kind sickens me that she could lack so much decency as a human being.

Michelle Bachmann (R Where DeVos represented the corporate interest in politics basically twisting institutes to line their pocket with gold or the various least their friends. Palin represents the say anything, know nothing sort of politician of the modern era. Michelle represents the zealots of the religious right. She like so many other conservative politicians believe that God had chosen them for a divine purpose and that any crazy thought that comes thru their head is god inspired. She represents a real danger to the country (along with men and women like her) who want to see this country as a Christian nation expelling all atheists and any other non-christian faiths.

Sarah Palin (R What was scary about Sarah Palin was she was quite possibly going to be second in line from the President had McCain won the election in 2008. At the same time she is probably the Ice Burg that sunk the McCain Presidency in the first place with all the crazy things she said. She has remained a talking head for the far right politics that exist in the US and even throws her support behind the current President. Like Trump, she represented the all talk no substance (or intelligence) sort of politician that now seems to dominate the right end of the spectrum presently. 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R While she is only a press secretary she represents the good little soldier in politics who will do as she told and lie when she is told to lie. Michelle Wolfe made a crack at her make-up choice. The punchline wasn't her looks but the fact she breathed lies almost as quick as the Command in Chief. She would be the kind of women to do something terrible and after it was all said in done she would say “I was just following orders” to justify her actions.

It should be noted that while there are dumb women in politics and there are even MORE dumb men. While I encourage us to push our thumb to the scale and balance it more towards women, I would personally vote for another male then risk a bad female politician from stepping into office. I say this only because I have encountered (as rare as they are) a few women who feel that female politicians should always be voted for regardless of policy or views. That is insane to me but I know they are outliers, so I can at least rest assured that most women don't carry that viewpoint.

The Future of US Politics

Countries with more women in politics tend to do better with social programs, education, trade, and diplomacy. Generally, women have more empathy and patience towards these fields but conservative politics has shown us quite clear that those traits are not a constant among ALL women. Naturally, I think we would be better off with more progressive politicians, those who stand up for women's rights and can fight back from the male-dominated political field that constantly tries to undermine women's health care/benefits.  I am clearly advocating for more women in politics but with that caveat of ONLY the smartest women filling the ranks. Those who care about democracy and don’t fall into entrenched views the way that some male politicians have sacrificing honor and loyalty to the country in exchange for party support and allowing Presidents like Trump to be held unaccountable.

I also feel that the political system would be strengthened with a more diverse set of views beyond that of sex. I hope we see more transgender, gay, and lesbian politicians to have a broader view of the ever-changing spectrum of gender orientation and preference. I hope to see more Latinos, African, Asian and Middle Eastern politicians among the seats in the house. I am a white male myself and one day might try my hand at politics but I have no problem in saying there should be less white men involved even if that hurts my own chances in the future.

I admit its a  strange thing to say because I don't think we should vote on skin color or sex (like I said Smart and hopefull Progressive Candidates) but if I was to go toe to toe with a woman who is a different race than me but politically aligned on all the same views as me. I am perfectly ok with losing that hypothetical election because she brings a set of experiences lacking in politics and she might better serve those who might be underrepresented in the US. As always thanks for reading and leave any thoughts you might have in the notes.

Regards Michael California