Castro

In the weeks that followed Fidel Castro’s successful revolution in Cuba, I saw, for the first time, real people being executed on television. Castro had, I as I recall, about 400 to 500 of his prisoners shot. I remember one black prisoner, an impressive young officer, who looked his firing squad in the eyes with defiance. He’d been bound tightly to a post and slumped when killed. 

By then I’d read Albert Camus and opposed the death penalty, but that alone would not have turned me against Castro. I supported the very few American governors who commuted all death sentences, but politicians like that have been rare. I voted at times for candidates lacking balls who reluctantly “followed the law” and sent prisoners to their deaths. I wasn’t a one issue voter. But I was a democrat, and Castro was a dictator. I didn't support him (or his assassination).  

Castro wasn’t always wrong. Democracies aren’t always right—in my life I’ve seen Presidents elected who were paranoid or senile. We just elected a minority President who is a narcissistic sociopath. But he can’t be a dictator, much to his and his voters disappointment. 

Identity Politics vs. Class Struggle

The Left is arguing quite nastily about whether to pursue identity politics or class politics. If you bring up the working class, you will be attacked for abandoning African-Americans in favor of white workers. I’ve been screamed at that “class struggle” is code for racist views. What may be most absurd is that class politics is actually a form of identity politics—but for some it seems too inclusive. 

The term “identity politics” originated back in the 1960s among feminists. Then, as now, there formed black identity groups that excluded or expelled white members. The basic idea was that an oppressed people should band together as a group with a shared identity and work to change society. To oversimplify, you get together with people like yourself and set out to succeed in our godforsaken country.

The argument against identity politics has been that it divides people, excludes people, and sets one group to fighting against another. In the recent primary elections, for example, lesbians tended to unite for Hillary (because she is a woman),while socialists supported Bernie. Lesbian socialists had a tough decision. 

Another argument against identity groups is that black lesbians (for example) are not identical. Differences get lost. And so on, the arguments go back and forth. It might be that identity politics is unavoidable. George Lakoff is telling us that we need to make connections to people at the level of basic values that transcend class and identity issues. That’s what works, he says. People engaged in politics don’t listen to him, but he’s probably right. 

The Wooden Stick

As the official (but not sole) scrubber of dishes in the family, one of my tasks is to keep track of which kitchen tools my wife is using most. That item has turned out to be a wooden stick that she insists not be put in the dishwasher, which I use as a rinser. This stick is shaped vaguely like a giant spoon. I typically wash by hand, then rinse in the machine. My wife insists that her wooden stick would be damaged if rinsed in hot water. I have to set it aside and eventually rinse the stick by hand in hot water. (I keep remembering when we were living and working on Long Island, where we had a fireplace.)

Extortion

I heard a thoughtful conservative (not someone from the radical right or a Nazi) say that the core problem with the Groping Grifter (our President-Elect) is his extortion of foreign governments. According to the speaker, it has already begun.

President-Elect Grifter has investments in many nations, and as President he has some of those nations under his tiny thumb. Expect to see them visit, hat in hand, and begin booking rooms in Trump hotels. The Grifter is already squeezing out concessions and special deals for his companies. That is hard for a President to do in this country--there are laws against it--but few foreign countries are prepared to deal with an American extortionist. And business is business.

(also on FB)

The Grabbing Grifter

President Obama has asked us to give the Grabbing Grifter a chance. Is there an option? Haven’t we already given the Grifter and his family a four-year opportunity to loot around the world?

Meanwhile, as someone has pointed out, the Grabbing Grifter will not be paying much attention to what anyone has to say, except for those who live in NYC. That’s his home town. He actually wants to be liked and respected in NYC, which is why he reacted so quickly when the audience at “Hamilton” booed Mike Pence. They were really booing the Grifter. He wants to be honored in New York, but it’s not apt to happen. 

Corruption and Treason

Trump won’t be the first crooked President in my lifetime. Niixon was so crooked he had to be pardoned by Ford to stay out of prison. But Nixon’s crimes were committed to gain power, not wealth. We understand that. Politicians cross that line from time to time, Trump is different. He’s a grifter. He’s spent his life cheating people for money, and the Trump administration is going to enrich his family and accomplices in ways new to American Presidential history. That history has seen administration scandal before—Teapot Dome, for example—but this time, for the first time, the head grifter will be seated at Lincoln’s desk in the White House. 

Trump has already brought in a lobbyist for foreign governments to serve as his chief defense advisor. The probability of corruption there is built in. His daughter and son-in-law, the Ivanka Kushners, are going to get security clearances. They will also be in charge of Trump’s many foreign investments--with Trump whispering in their ears. Ivanka is already peddling hideous jewelry on television. That’s just a sideline, but why miss an opportunity? 

Access to national intelligence can mean billions, depending on your business model. Influence peddling in the oval office can generate more billions. With our elected President as grifter-in-charge, we are in for some fascinating tales of treason and corruption. (But I'm the guy who thought most white women would defend their dignity by voting against Trump, and I could not have been more mistaken.) 

Who Wants to Lead the Democratic Party?

For some reason, I can only type in caps today.  (i am not shouting.)

There are three candidates to head the Democratic National committee, which is currently led by Donna Brazile, known mostly for moral lapses during the presidential campaigns.  Until recently she worked for CNN, but they had to fire her.

the first candidate is Keith ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the first Muslim-American ever elected to congress. He's the lefty.

next there is Howard dean, once a governor of Vermont and a party rebel. Today he and newt Gingrich work for Dentons, a gigantic lobbying firm that supports the drug industry. Dean argues that Medicare should not be able to negotiate for lower drug prices.

And we have a third candidate,  a registered lobbyist who has worked for Wal-mart. I am trying to forget his name. I have succeeded. 

Andy Borowitz explains the election to his young daughter without scaring her

When my daughter came home, I sat her down at the kitchen table, gave her a Kit Kat from her hoard of Halloween candy, and offered this explanation of the election: “Imagine the stupidest thing you could ever do, like peeing on a stack of pancakes. Now, imagine that the United States is a stack of pancakes. Millions of grownups just peed on it.”

She started giggling. This explanation made sense to her. As she ran off to play, I was relieved, and grateful for the alacrity with which children laugh at their elders. But I am still waiting for someone to explain the election to me.

The Moron

Batja Cates sent me the following:  

H.L. Mencken (born 1880 - died 1956) was a journalist, satirist, critic, cynic and Democrat.  He wrote this editorial while working for the Baltimore Evening Sun, which appeared in the July 26, 1920 edition.

 "As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete moron."

The Young Messiah

Today I watched nearly one-third of a 2016 movie called "The Young Messiah." It's not nearly as funny as "Young Frankenstein," and why did they cast Sean Bean as Jesus?  Bean is a fine actor, but he's too old to play an eight-year-old Boy. 

In its favor the film has suspense. Will the little Jesus, his parents and cousins make it back to wherever from Egypt? How many birds will He bring back to life? How will it all end? Who knows? I didn't see the conclusion.  Even if I had, I wouldn't give anything away. I hate it when reviewers do that. 

Walking Old Red

Last night I joined my first demonstration against Trumpismo.  A small group of people of all ages, with half from the junior college, walked along the Old Redwood Highway chanting and holding up signs. 

I started, 60 years ago, with informational picketing. I did a little of that back when the NAACP was the cutting edge. During the Vietnam Era, I joined gigantic marches. In the army I'd gotten tear gas training--that proved useful. Before and during the loony Iraq War Two, I joined the Healdsburg Peace Project vigil. I protest when nothing else is working. It's not clear that protesting works, either, but a demonstration shows that there's fight left in us. We fail again and again. We keep going.

Who Saw It Coming?

Why didn’t we see it coming?  At the time the polls began to close, the supporters of Clinton and Trump believed Clinton would win. They were wrong. Most of us were wrong. We got to watch the truth dawn on our TV commentators and the political establishment. Hillary’s win vanished like a stone thrown in a pond. 

The American people elected—to lead the nation and the world—a snorting, vulgar, mental anti-Christ. 

We didn’t see it coming because the East Coast political establishments (both parties), their organizers, their expert pundits and their funders, all drink filtered water from the same pool. They attended the same prep schools and universities, studied the same profound texts and ended up repeating identical insights to one another. They lack intellectual diversity.

In the process they lost touch with how mere voters feel about things. A few outsiders warned them. Michael Moore tried to warn them. But who was he compared to the standard elite thinkers they had consulted over the last 40 years? Had he studied the great minds at Princeton, Harvard or Yale?  Or even Williams or Tufts? 

(Moore dropped out of the University of Michigan-Flint, if you must know. This campus has yet to field even one varsity intercollegiate basketball team. What could Moore possibly know?)

Greetings from California

Greetings from California. Given who has been chosen to lead America and the world, I have adopted the strategy of being a Californian. I'll have to find a Bear Flag store.

Meanwhile some of my well-intended friends are saying that we must learn to understand the Trump voters and meet their needs and so on. I'm still processing what they did, not ready yet to meet racists, misogynists, Islamaphobes and all-purpose sociopaths half-way--while seeking compromise.

Redecorating the White House

A friend recently asked how Mrs. Trump would be redecorating the White House. We know that she’s named Newt Gingrich to head the committee, and he’s reported that she wants the front porch enlarged. “What sticks out in front is what people admire,” she told him. “I learned that when I came to America. The front needs to be much bigger and higher and painted turquoise blue the way Donald likes them.”

“I believe the place is more than thirty-five years old and wrinkled-looking,” she added. “The back end is starting to droop a little. Donald can prop that up. We have chemicals to stiffen the exterior, and cranes can pull the rest of the white paint job smooth again and freeze it in place.  We plan to visit there, you know, and I should have the house camera ready within the first hundred days."

The Next Move

I'm wavering between despair and rage, neither of which is a solution. I suggest everyone take a look at The Intercept. Google it. I don't agree with The Intercept half the time, but the people there make sense. See what they say about our next move. Michael Moore isn't bad, either.

We Lose

Congratulations to @DebFudge, one candle burning in the darkness. 

My best to Sonoma's corporate ruling class and its newspaper--they have retained control of the county board of supervisors by backing yet another fake Democrat.

On the national level we have elected a sociopathic, racist, illiterate, misogynistic confidence man to lead our country and the world. This admirer of dictators owns the nuclear arsenal. Our first lady has her boobs on display on the internet. The voters prevailed. We're set for the next four years.

I could not have been more wrong in predicting the election results. (We were warned by Michael Moore and the single national poll that got it right, the one by the LA Times that had the Trump ahead from start to finish.) 

In my lifetime our political system has survived a crooked President (Nixon), a senile President (Reagan) and a doltish and murderous President (George W. Bush). Now, we will be ruled by a brainless brute. You'll pardon me if I start to back away. 

Mom Vs. Dad

George Lakoff came up with the idea that the way your original family was constructed often has an impact on how you vote. In our family my mother was the most intelligent, loving, empathic and strongest among us, and my father was a bigot. For me the choice between mom and dad in the current election was easy. 

Of course, many people rebel against their early family structure. 

I loved my parents. Living with my mother was not always easy for the rest of us, and it had some negative implications. My father’s bigotry seldom resulted in overt behavior. He was a solid man we could depend on. It would not make sense to compare him to an orange pig with tiny hands, for instance.

What strikes me most about the current election is Donald Trump’s  sociopathic racism. Nothing could be more obvious; yet more than 40% of the country is going to vote for him. You can’t vote for an obvious racist without being a racist, no matter who you are. You are a person who votes for racism. This is daunting--as ancient as I am, after a lifetime of opposing racism, I remain ignorant. Until this election I had no idea how powerfully racist this country still is, although that is what people of color have kept saying. 

Also on Facebook

The Enthusiasm Gap

The news on my TV has a crawl (day after day) that claims that there is, among black voters, an "enthusiasm gap."  Yet if you look at who is going to the polls these days, a higher percentage of African-Americans vote than white people vote. If you divide people by race, African-Americans are the group most likely to vote. So where is the "enthusiasm gap"? 

Ignoring the Damsels

Our Santa Rosa newspaper, the Corporate Democrat, seldom prints an intelligent letter. It prefers to publish propaganda from the hirelings of the rich or downright idiocy from the alt.right. One letter today caught my interest. It was from a male who believed that we could limit abortions if we appointed a committee composed of 50 grandmothers, 50 mothers and 50 maidens to settle the issues involved. 

For me this begged a question, what do 50 losing race horses (of either sex) have to do with medical ethics?

My wife claimed that the letter writer was talking about women, not horses of either sex, and that he was probably 600 years old and spoke Proto German. For him “maiden” meant something like “servant” or “unmarried person.” She pointed to the traditions of archaic masculinity. I retorted that I doubted if he was a day over 90, and that if we are going to raise a committee “to significantly reduce the pregnancies terminated in the United States,” it should be diverse. If the proposed committee was to have 50 maidens, why leave out the colleens, the damsels, the bimbos and doxies? I’m just saying. 

Landslide?

I'm a great believer in averaging polls, the kind of thing Nate Silver does. I have no interest in the single polls so many TV hosts dwell on in trembling excitement. But this is a strange year. I look at the averaged polls and wonder why the women of America haven't decided to vote against Trump in bigger numbers.

Some of you may have seen Lawrence O'Donnell last night discussing a special poll. An outfit managed to poll voters in Florida who have already cast their ballots. What that poll showed was that 28% of Republicans had voted for Clinton. If accurate that would indicate a Clinton landslide, no doubt driven by women. But no one seems to buy that outcome. Or are the polls missing something?

Instead the experts talk about enthusiasm among the voters, finding Trumplettes to be the most enthusiastic. The claim must be that if you vote enthusiastically, the vote counts double, but isn't this election sure to have the most unenthusiastic votes cast in modern history?

Trump Sandwich

a friend found this in NYC--