Politics Archives - Page 12 of 31

Death, politics, plus other happy topics

I don’t know about you, but I’m STILL recovering from the election. Oh, maybe it’s not just the election, maybe it was Leonard Cohen’s death, and Leon Russell’s and, interestingly enough, Gwen Ifill’s. When I heard the news about the PBS newswoman, I sobbed for twenty minutes, and I’m not even sure why.

Maybe it was because the electoral process often missed Gwen Ifill’s sagacity as she, mostly quietly, fought the cancer. Surely, it’s because, at 61, she was younger than I. Maybe it was seeing how her death affected others. Pete Williams, reporting on MSNBC, could barely get the words out without choking. Or maybe it was her calm in rough seas.

What I have noticed is that people before the vote had different points of view. But it has NEVER come out so vigorously, post-election. Some folks in my circle got into a bit of a Facebook tussle over Donald Trump, which was largely about how his family seemed to monetize everything in the transition, from “as seen on 60 Minutes” bling to the greatagain.GOV website seeming to hawk Trump businesses, to a potential conflict if his adult kids were to get security clearance.

As this quote from Hot Air notes:

If Trump has real estate in the UAE and the Trump kids discover that there’s a developing terrorist threat there, and they decide to sell that property because of it, they’ve used secret national intelligence made available to them by their father to avoid a financial loss for the family. It’s as far from a blind trust as you can get: Instead of the managers of Trump’s wealth being completely independent of him, they’d be exploiting him to see things on the global financial landscape that they otherwise never would have known. It’ll be a “superhuman-sight trust,” not a blind trust.

And even if they’re scrupulous somehow about keeping business and government separate, just by pure chance they may end up selling assets or buying assets in a place that later coincidentally turns out to be strongly affected by some Trump administration policy. The public will assume corruption even if it’s not there, which will damage Trump. For the sake of his own credibility, he should stick with a blind trust.

Of course, the request for clearance “never happened,” I’m told; I suspect it was a trial balloon. And “Trump isn’t taking a salary” though he ought to. And “the Clinton stole the silverware.” And it all got rather testy after that. But in years past, who we and they voted for just would not have come up. And, for the most part, it didn’t matter; one didn’t think less well of the other.

People being disenfranchised saddens me as much as it angers me. There’s hate mail, and a lot worse out there. This is interesting: in the same month the movie Loving, about a white man and a black woman winning a Supreme Court case about getting married, is being released, SMU is flooded with fliers titled “Why White Women Shouldn’t Date Black Men.” So maybe I’m mourning.

I shan’t mention the white nationalist champion the Prez-elect picked as his chief strategist or the climate science denier who’s heading his EPA transition team or his anti-gay potential SCOTUS pick or Rudy Guiliani.

The only things that make me happy, and only mildly, seem to involve Vice President-elect Mike Pence. He’s dealing with his own email controversy, ironically. Lots of people are donating to Planned Parenthood in his name, which I love! He’s leading a transition that may in discord, which, in the short term, might not be too bad for the country.

My favorite Barack and Joe meme actually involved Michelle and Jill asking why was it always the guys? “Male patriarchy.”

So I’m in a major funk. Even doing Chuck Miller’s quiz thing didn’t help:
Year given: 1986
Age: 33
Now: 63
Relationship status: Living with someone
Now: Married
Living in: Albany
Now: Albany
Pets: None
Now: Two cats
Was I happy?: There were elements of happiness. I had my 33 1/3 party in July because. I still have a copy of the invitation somewhere in the attic. Work at FantaCo was interesting because I was working on a comic book.
Now: Well, you WOULD ask AFTER the election
Kids: None
Kids now: One

I know others in similar, or worse, situations, and I feel for them. Oh, and I attended my cousin’s funeral last week.

You know what ELSE it is? It’s information and the fact that I can no longer trust much of what I read, a real pain for a librarian.

When I saw that jazz man Mose Allison had died, I didn’t believe it, not because, at 89, he couldn’t have passed away, but because I was unfamiliar with the source. It wasn’t until I read it in the New York Times that I was satisfied it was true. This is exhausting over time.

This list of False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical ‘News’ Sources is useful, but occasionally there are really useful insights in some of them, especially on the satirical sites. And it may be that the problem is the failing media who cut their budgets. The word of the year is post-truth; this suggests to me we’ll NEVER be able to talk with each other. This makes me terribly sad.

But the one thing that gives me a modicum of hope is that a LOT of people seem really stirred up to engage in activism. As the Rev. William J. Barber II noted, A Dying Mule Always Kicks the Hardest. “Why Donald Trump’s election means ‘we must work together for a Third Reconstruction in America.'”

Listen to Mose Allison. Your Mind Is On Vacation and Monsters of the Id.

And from Sharon Jones, who ALSO died (dammit), Stranger to My Happiness and Retreat, which she did not.

Political polarization exhausts me

In deciding to vote for Hillary Clinton, I find myself defending myself from not only the Trump supporters, but the Jill Stein folks.

Arthur, optimistic being that he is, has set out to fix America’s broken politics. And his first recommendation is: “Stop using social media to get political information!”

But I think it’s worse than that. In reading I’m with stupid: The entire 2016 election has been an insult to our intelligence, I realized yet again that we can’t have a real conversation, real consensus about much of anything because we cannot agree on the facts.

Or as the New York Times puts it, Your facts or mine? The political polarization is more acute than ever. And, of course, there are the fake news sites and their ‘B.S. stories’ that are as reliable as a Ouiji board.

Here’s Today’s Electoral Map.

Is Benghazi as noteworthy as portrayed, given that other Presidents have lost diplomats, or was it a smear to derail Hillary’s campaign?

Is it voter fraud or voter suppression we need to worry about? Or both?

The Washington Times says Hillary Clinton laughs as woman removes ‘under God’ from Pledge of Allegiance, yet Snopes explains the actual context of the situation.

The 1975 rape case Hillary was assigned to, which Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway alluded to AGAIN on ABC This Week, has generated many non-truths about Hillary.

Is Hillary in trouble over the last email “scandal,” or is FBI Director Comey trying to sabotage her campaign? Or did he find it necessary to report to Congress based on a previous agreement? And what do they have on Trump? (This Is Not the First Time the FBI Has Interfered with a Presidential Election.)

Were Oregon militia members found not guilty as a result of racial bias or did the government fail to make its case?

Given time, I could come up with dozens more: climate change as a hoax for scientists to get government money, or videos of all the Muslims cheering on 9/11 in New Jersey.

Yet, another optimist, Doug Muder of the Weekly Sift, wonders Why so frustrated, America? He believes that there is common ground among us:
No one wants millions of people to keep living in the United States without legal status
No one wants to keep anticipating the next government shutdown (well, maybe Ted Cruz does…)

I realize why I’m so tired and grumpy this political season. Four years ago, I hardly mentioned Mitt Romney at all, except for how he was doing in the polls. The worst thing I wrote was that he was wishy-washy; in the same post, I named Donald Trump as the person who most needs to give away all his money.

The last time I posted a bunch of links about Trump, someone told me they disagreed with most of them, even the factual ones, such as Trump’s companies destroying or hiding documents in defiance of court orders. That’s fine, since I find virtually all his pro-Trump and anti-Clinton posts spurious, especially when Trump accuses Hillary of the very things he does himself.

I’m afraid I’ve pretty much given up trying to understand Trump supporters. I am in agreement with the New South Wales, Australia upper house, which officially condemned Donald J. Trump as “a revolting slug unfit for office.”

This Quora question intrigued me: “The more left-wingers double down on ‘Trump is dangerous’ and other arguments, the less I believe them. Am I desensitized or just skeptical?” There were about 30 answers, a few of whom identified themselves as conservatives and/or Republicans, and they laid out the case – a case I thought was self-evident, but apparently not – why DJT is singularly unprepared for the office he is seeking. I have about 30 more articles explaining that, but I know that, at this point, they won’t convince anyone.

At the same time, in deciding to vote for Hillary Clinton, I find myself defending myself from not only the Trump supporters, but the Jill Stein folks. A couple of months ago, Mother Jones made the progressive case for Hillary, and I think it’s mostly right.

I do admit there’s a part of me who is voting for her because of a lot of the BS that’s been lodged against her. A friend’s rant addresses this. Also, the fact that she’s a woman plays into the calculation. (Then why not vote for Stein? Because she hasn’t had to deal with anywhere near the level of crap Hillary has.)

When I read women are not to have authority over men, that’ll tweak me in HRC’s favor. She is now a 69-year-old woman, and there’s inherent sexism/ageism from people dealing with her over that fact, even though her primary opponent is older.

There appears to be a phenomenon called Hillary Hatred Derangement Syndrome, and oddly, it makes me MORE inclined to support her. If, for instance, she curses in private, but not in public, that’s not proving she’s not “genuine”, merely publicly polite. But if Trump says the words of a disgusting thug in public, well, he’s more “real,” rather than the vulgarian I find him to be.

I believe that Bernie Sanders, who I voted for in the primary, has pushed the Democratic party platform to the left of what it would have been otherwise, on issues from college tuition to the TPP. A Hillary presidency would be easier to push for a progressive agenda, at least domestically, than a scattershot Trump administration.

But I do think Donald Trump WAS correct about Hillary Clinton, once upon a time.

I’m voting for her because I’d like to see Trump buried in a landslide. I don’t see it happening anymore. But, for this old poli sci major, I’ve nothing more to say before election day, except that one should vote, and not just for President.

Oh, here’s an offer for FREE Progressive Christian Voter’s Guide.

P is for 45th President of the US

I will be voting in the election for our 45th President. I ALWAYS vote.

As you’ve might have heard, the American voter will be electing the 45th President of the United States on November 8. Well, sort of.

Most of the states, 48 of them (except for Nebraska and Maine), are winner-take-all contests, where one candidate or another gets all of what are called electoral votes, which Parade magazine attempts to explain, as does Wikipedia.

Basically, the number of members of the House of Representatives (based on population) plus the number of US Senators (2 per state) equals the number of electoral votes a state gets. The District of Columbia, where the nation’s capital, Washington, is (as opposed to the western state of Washington), also gets three electoral votes.

The candidate with more than 270 electoral votes (538 total electoral votes divided by two, plus one) becomes President. Getting on the ballot on each state is fairly routine for the Democratic Party (candidate is Hillary Clinton) and the Republican Party (Donald Trump). Only one other candidate is on the ballot in all 50 states, the Libertarian Party candidate, Gary Johnson. Jill Stein of the Green Party is running in over 40 states. Here’s a list of other minor party candidates.

The winner in November will be either the Democrat or the Republican. Not since 1860, when Abraham Lincoln won, running on the nascent Republican party, won the election. The Progressive Party ran former President Teddy Roosevelt against the Republican incumbent (and former TR Vice-President) William Howard Taft. Teddy came in second, and received 88 of 531 electoral votes. But Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected.

1968 was the most recent time at third party candidate won electoral votes, George Wallace of the American Independent Party, who garnered 46 of 538 electoral votes. “The last third party candidate to win more than 5.0% of the vote was Ross Perot, who ran as an independent and as the standard-bearer of the Reform Party in 1992 and 1996, respectively.” Read more about third parties here.

[Blue is Democratic; red is Republican.]

Each state has its own rules about voting. The deadlines for registering to vote vary. Some allow early voting, before November 8, while others do not. The hours the polls are open are not the same. This is is the nature of federalism, which allows the states to maintain control of certain aspects of the process.

I will be voting in the election for our 45th President. I ALWAYS vote.

That’s enough for now – I worked on this piece before and it died when my computer whacked out – but if you have questions about the process, this old poli sci major will try to answer your questions.

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

Mansplaining and other forms of communication

There are lots of terms just alienate some people. Black Lives Matter. White privilege. Institutional racism.

Arthur, the executive producer of the vast AmeriNZ empire wonders:

How do you reconcile agreeing philosophically with people, yet being #@$%*! annoyed with them? I’m thinking of political activists, religious people, whatever. Generally speaking, do you tend to focus on the agreement and ignore what annoys you, or does your annoyance prevent you from acknowledging the agreement?

I used to have this brother-in-law. Back in 1977, my gypsy year, I crashed on his and my sister’s sofa during the summer. They lived in Queens, but he and I occasionally went into Manhattan on the subway. He was all into renewable energy, the kind of ideas President Jimmy Carter was talking about – and America largely rejected. But BIL was a sanctimonious pain, who would point out the foibles of other people – “No one is talking to each other” – while oblivious to his own.

I have found that period to be useful training in dealing with political activists this season, especially the Jill Stein for President people. Not that I can’t get a little irritable. I was asked if I really thought Clinton would do the litany of things she said, and I said yes, she’d make the effort, on the domestic front. Then I was told why I was wrong. Hey, do you want my opinion, which you asked for, or not? I got an apology out of that, shocking in the Facebook era.

Hey, I understand voting for the Green Party. I voted for Nader, twice, for President. I voted Green Party for governor at least thrice because New York State has this peculiar provision that, in order to have people registered in the party, the gubernatorial candidate has to get a certain threshold of votes. So don’t get all “you’re a sellout” on me.

I have a friend who’s aggravated by the imperfection of a certain religious institution in terms of inclusiveness, though it’s trying hard to meet that ideal. She’s frustrated; I’m of the opinion that it’s heading in the right direction, but the entity is made up of flawed, imperfect people – aren’t we all? – wanting to do the correct thing.

So it is situationally dependent. I’m fine with the Stein people – I don’t tell them they’re really voting for Trump. But they need to allow me the same courtesy. And religious people who, for reasons of goodwill, do the wrong thing, I sigh and say, “OK, did you know why someone might find that offensive?” But I don’t give up the ship, or the fight, or whatever analogy I’m going for.

We often hear about “mansplaining“, when a man, usually arrogantly, “explains” things to a woman. I recently also heard “whitesplaning” to describe white people “explaining” to black people what the nature of racism is, Black Lives Matter, etc. In your opinion, is there such a thing as “blacksplaining”?

[LAUGHS HEARTILY.] Oh, yeah, and I’ve heard it all my life, long before the term existed. And it comes from all political stripes, including people on the left who tell me X is racist when I just don’t see it.

Oh, and I don’t think “splaining” is always arrogant. Patronizing, sure.

And, are all these “splaining” names useful for understanding and exposing bias, or are they attempts to shut down debate? Are they used to intimidate people into silence, or are they merely a way to get people to see their own blind spots and arrogance?

Yes, it can be all of the above.

I got into some FB conversation with a guy I’ve known only online. Some woman accused him of mansplaining, and I thought she was correct. He did not, and went back and forth with the woman, and a bit from me.

By the end of the conversation, I was willing to concede, as he wanted, that maybe he wasn’t mansplaining, but he was just being, in his words, “an arrogant prick.” Hey, you win.

There are lots of terms that just alienate some people. Black Lives Matter. White privilege. Institutional racism. Racist, which, according to more than a few, only applies to people who wear white robes and hoods. So person T can’t be racist because he knows some black people, and some of them even endorse him for President.

Some days, I think calling someone a racist is unproductive, not because it’s untrue, but because it defines the totality of who they are, and they get their hackles up. (Random thought: What IS a hackle?)

Occasionally I find it easier to talk about racist acts because that’s more manageable. Of course, then they start quoting Avenue Q. They compare a verbal gaffe with excluding minorities from housing units, and shrug, “Well, everyone’s a little racist,” as though they were at all equivalent.

Sigh.

October rambling #1: Thoughts and Prayers App

Ronald McDonald Is Laying Low

Explaining Progressive Christianity (Otherwise Known as “Christianity”)

He was tortured by the U.S. and held without charge. Suleiman Abdullah Salim is still haunted by the prison he calls “The Darkness”

Misogyny defied: Michelle Obama’s New Hampshire speech (start at 25:00) and Dear Men from Amy Biancolli

Time to Own the Legacies of Others

Five myths about Russia

John Oliver: Police Accountability

Racist Social Media Users Have A New Code To Avoid Censorship

Yes, Preschool Teachers Really Do Treat Black And White Children Totally Differently

Confessions of a former neo-Confederate – Who believes slavery wasn’t really that bad? I did

6 million citizens blocked from voting because of felonies

The ‘Green Book’ Was a Travel Guide Just for Black Motorists, which I wrote about here, plus a PDF of the 1949 iteration

How Evan McMullin Could Win Utah And The Presidency – It’s unlikely, but far from impossible

Robin Williams’ Widow Writes A Devastating Account Of His Final Year

The Ross Perot myth

Thoughts and Prayers App

Elena Ferrante published her books anonymously, but recently, the NY Review of Books published a piece that exposed her true identity. As friend Dan notes: “None of it was relevant; I would go so far as to say it was unnecessary.” One of many critics of the unmasking

950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings

Bill Warren, R.I.P.

NOT a parody: Ronald McDonald Is Laying Low Until the Clown Craze Is Over

Racer disqualified for using ChapStick?

Professor and student interaction

All Of America’s Science Nobel Prizes This Year Were Won By Immigrants

PBS’ American Experience: Tesla premieres October 18

THE FANTASTIC URSULA K. LE GUIN – The literary mainstream once relegated her work to the margins. Then she transformed the mainstream.

How to memorize scripts, part 1 and part 2

Learning YouTube tricks

Now I Know: Baby, Not Bored

Audrey Munson, the first supermodel