Are Airport Demonstrations Useful?

Some I know have given up on political demonstrations, which is their right. 

When our politics change, it’s hard to assign credit. Did the massive demonstrations in Washington City gradually turn the American voters against the Vietnam War? Maybe. I was there, but I can’t prove anything. Did massive demonstrations against the second war against Iraq prevent the war? No. But they did help gradually turn public opinion around, which contributed to Obama’s primary defeat of Clinton. (Back then we prudently  nominated candidates the voters liked.)

At this moment there are huge crowds at airports protesting Minority President Trump's executive order banning entry to people from seven largely Moslem nations. Trump, a malignant narcissist, is trying to keep his loony pledge to ban Moslems in general.  So far the narcissist has quickly released everyone in our airports that his stooges have detained. I’d say that that has happened in part because of the airport protests around the country—and also because even spineless politicians like Sen. Schumer have denounced the bans and because  lawsuits have been filed and because a few Republicans, braver than the gutless Schumer,  have spoken up and so on. Many things contribute, and protests do matter at times, apparently. 

Willie Nelson

One of the following guitar players was the biggest influence on the playing of Willie Nelson, Highwayman. 

!. Jimi Hendrix, rock legend
2. Sharon Isben, classical guitar legend
3. Chet Atkins, country music legend
4. Django Reinhardt, French-Gypsy jazz legend


Yeah, it was the French Gypsy, according to Nelson. Reinhardt famously played at the Hot Club of France about 75 years ago. 

How To Win

The first chance progressives have to block Trump will be to win the House in 2018. The Senate may be out of reach. Also many Democratic senators lack spines and rely on propping up by Wall Street.

If you live in a congressional district that is safely Democratic, as I do, you should focus on the nearest swing district. To find out where that is, google "swing left." 

Debating Slavery

My granddaughter is ten. In her classroom, the teacher, well intended, divided the children into two groups to debate the pros and cons of slavery. This was apparently an attempt to bring history to life and to teach children how to structure an argument. My granddaughter, however, objected that there was no pro side to argue in favor of slavery. She had a point. Arguing the pros and cons of slavery or of the Holocaust is not for ten-year-olds. 

These might be topics for adults interested in mental pathologies. The strange ability of some people in the American South to defend slavery and later to defend Jim Crow and the New Jim Crow and today to defend the disenfranchisement of people of color is interesting. The warping of brains needed to defend bigotry probably carries over into other areas. That's why the South can accept a man who assaults women as President and reject global warming no matter what science tells them. The paths of electricity in their brains keep doubling back and flipping around in their heads like stranded fish. 

Replacing Opioids

Our county’s Committee for Healthcare Improvement has issued a set of guidelines for doctors to use in prescribing opioids. Some of the guidelines encourage shifting pain patients off of opioids and onto non-drug approaches. Instead of prescribing pain killing drugs:

1. Doctors can teach their patients “to think of something else, maybe a new sailboat.”
2. If that doesn’t work, doctors might slap the patient in the face 12 times while reciting, “I’ll show you what pain is.”
3. If that doesn’t work, a nearly certain non-drug cure for pain is death.  

The Return of Torture?

Trump's pick to head the CIA is Mike Pompeo, a troll who is open to bringing back legal torture. Rand Paul is the only Republican to vote against him. Thank you, Rand Paul. Below is a list of Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo.

Joe Donnelly of Indiana

Dianne Feinstein of California

Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota

Tim Kaine of Virginia

Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota

Joe Manchin of West Virginia

Claire McCaskill of Missouri

Jack Reed of Rhode Island

Brian Schatz of Hawaii

Chuck Schumer of New York

Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Mark Warner of Virginia

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island

This was a test of whether the Senate Democrats led by Schumer will function as a united opposition to the barbarism of Trump. The answer is that the Senate Democrats are not united and will do little. If you oppose torture, you have no major party in the Senate to support you.

We Protest Minority-President Creamsicle

I got in my van in the rain and set out from near Montgomery Village. I immediately saw a group of  women, men, children and dogs walking toward city hall, three miles away. People were streaming toward the center of town wearing pink hats, heading toward a march for women's rights.

Meanwhile American border guards refused entry to the United States to some Canadians who admitted they didn't care for Minority-President Creamsicle and wanted to join a protest. 

My brother and his wife, our cousin and his wife and I reached the city hall area and found a crowd about four times the size of the largest protest march I'd ever seen in Santa Rosa. I looked for the Healdsburg Peace Project, but finding someone was hopeless. We couldn't get close enough to see the speakers. We heard a little girl sing a protest song into a microphone, and we joined in. We ended up having lunch at Mary's Pizza Shack. 

(Note: Never tell a border guard in any nation anything useful. Be totally colorless.)

I have no idea why I cannot change the size of the type above.

Devolution

Henry Adams, the son of a speaker of the house, grandson of a President and great grandson of a President, knew some things about politics. In his autobiography, one of the best American autobiographies, Adams wrote that a friend in power was a friend lost. Harry Truman said that if you wanted a friend in Washington, get a dog.

Another great autobiography was written by Ulysses S. Grant. I don’t really remember what Adams thought of Grant, but I believe  Adams held President Grant in low regard. Grant had not been to Harvard. It was from Adams that I learned the term “devolution,” as in the devolution of the Presidency from Washington, trending downward, to Nixon, Bush and now Minority-President Golden Shower.

Anyway, I’ve had a number of friends who went on to do good things in politics and who were lost as friends, not for a bad reason but because political life becomes all consuming. Either you are working with them daily, a productive member of the political team, or you fall away and live your own life, which can be sweet.

(also on Facebook) 

THE TWO MARCHES

Not My President: Sonoma County Inauguration Day Protest
Friday, January 20, marching at 5:00 PM (see details)
This event is being planned by the Community Action Coalition of Sonoma County. The Protest will take place on Inauguration Day. 3-5PM- Assemble, build community, make art. Meet in the SRJC quad for a time to: make connections with local political, social, and environmental justice organizations, make a sign or other art to carry in the march, and gather together as we prepare to step off together in resistance of Donald Trump, his cabinet and the whole damn system. 
5PM- MARCH ON DOWNTOWN
Departing as one from the SRJC front lawn we will make our way downtown and make our voices heard! Please check back for more details or visit the Community Action Coalition FB page to ask questions or to find out how to get involved. https://www.facebook.com/events/677892999044299/
Santa Rosa Junior College - 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa


Sonoma County Stands Together for Women
Saturday, January 21, Noon
We will unite in front of City Hall for a non-violent rally in support of the Women’s March on Washington. We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families -- recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country. All are welcome and wanted: women, men, girls and boys.
For those unable to attend in the march in DC, please join us to stand in unity. This is an INCLUSIVE rally giving us the opportunity to stand peacefully together for love, respect, and inclusion. HEAR OUR VOICES! For more info: www.facebook.com/events/1749972928661468/
Santa Rosa City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Ave, Santa RosaThke Two Marches

Leakers

Stephan Colbert commented last night on Minority-President-Elect Trump's outrage when President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning's prison term. Whatever happened to Trump's affection for leakers? 

The Detention Industry

As you may remember, one of the fears of America’s racists was that President Obama would detain them in gulags and torture them until they agreed to same-sex marriages. That turned out to be wrong. We do have Obama gulags now, but they are for families of Latinos who crossed the border without permission. These families are placed in for-profit prisons called family detention centers. Our economic system has found a way to turn a healthy profit on jailing brown-skinned one-year-olds. At last. Thanks, Obama.

The First Step

Adam Gopnik, reviewing a book on Montaigne recently in THE NEW YORKER, wrote, “The first step in dealing with the madness of the political world is not to let it make you crazy.”

I will add, "Our parents or grandparents had to cope with Hitler." 

Chuck Todd Strikes Ratings Gold

Chuck Todd, on MSNBC, interviewing the ancient John Lewis, once beaten nearly to death by the police for supporting voting rights for black people:

Todd: Congressman Lewis, you have stated that you will not go to the President’s inauguration. Why is that?

Lewis: I don’t consider Trump a legitimate President. I won’t attend his inauguration . 

Todd: That means a lot, coming from a Civil Rights icon. Would you go to church and sit next to Trump?

Lewis: I would not.

Todd: Would you invite him to your home for tea cakes?

Lewis: No.

Todd: If you were leaving town for a week, would you ask him to feed your dogs?

Lewis: Of course not.

Todd: if  you had him on speed dial and you fell down in the kitchen, would you call him for help?

Lewis: I’d die first.

Todd: If you were locked in a  cell with Trump for life, would you join him in mutual masterbation?  Or would you agree to pee on him?

Lewis: Not  even once.

Todd: If Trump was cold, would you take off your sweaty  socks and let Trump wear them?

and so on, with more to come later in the show!

A Victory of Sorts

“I got through eight years of Obama," he told me. “Black Lives Matter never found where I or any of my friends buried our guns. They never caught us and made us transgender, and now Obama has to return to Africa as a failure.” 

Tillerson

I haven’t been watching the congressional hearings on nominees for cabinet positions, but I have seen a few short bits of their performances on comedy shows. I saw Tillerson yesterday, Exxon’s pick for Secretary of State, our second or third most important political position. There was something troubling about him. His eyes weren’t human. It took me a few minutes to figure out the reason: Tillerson is dead. 

I don’t know when he died, probably as a child. Somehow he remains animated, so he can move around, but look into his mean and moneyed eyes. What you will see is Tillerson’s tight focus on eating your delicious brains.

Trump In Midstream

Am I reading the news correctly?--there seems to be an unverified rumor that Minority President-Elect Trump has developed an interest in the collection of Russian female urine. We all understand that urine collection is sometimes sponsored by The Center for Disease Control or the CDC National Center for Health Statistics. What worries me is that Minority Donald may not be trained in clean-catch midstream void collection. A contaminated catch will make the voids void. 

Moving On From The Clintons

The attempt to recruit Hillary Clinton to run for mayor of New York seems to be fading, which brings me to this. Can we move on from the Clintons?  Can we look for fresh leadership? I voted for Bill twice and Hillary once for President, although I never for a finger of time considered either one of them a progressive. They are careerist politicians who have made a hundred million personal dollars by organizing the Democratic party around themselves and moving it into the tight embrace of money-grubbers. In the end even Donald Trump could beat them. It’s time to change them out for someone younger. But the Clinton machine remains in place, still pumping out sludge. 

At the moment the Clinton machine is attacking journalist Glenn Greenwald, because he has been less than luke-warm on the claim that Russia hacked the Democrats' email. The Clinton machine wants to blame someone else for Hillary’s loss. They cry that FBI Director Comey did it or Julian Assange did it. Greenwald, of course, has not claimed that the Russians are innocent or that Julian Assange is a reputable publisher. What he has done is ask for concrete evidence that the Russians are guilty. That makes him a skeptical journalist, someone unwilling to trust the CIA, not a traitor. I believe that the Russians did hack into the Democratic email. Again, Greenwald’s point of view, which differs from mine, does not make him disloyal or a supporter of Wikileaks or deranged. It does indicate that Greenwald is not part of the powerful if losing Clinton machine. We need more Greenwalds.   

Intertarsals

THE ONION reminded us that there are still parts of the female body Republican men have not regulated. One example is the gaps between female toes. They drive conservative men mad, and who can blame them? Female intertarsals should be kept covered when in public, according to minority-president-elect Donny Trump, who plans to introduce legislation banning sandals on ladies on Inauguration Day. Women will be required to wear army boots. Critics have responded that he should be more concerned about regulating the photos of the First Lady’s bare bottom and bosom floating around on the Internet, but the minority-president-elect has pointed out that no parallel exists. The photographs were taken, sold and distributed with her father’s consent. 

A Different March against Trumpismo, this one on the 20th

This is a notice for a different planned demonstration against Trumpismo, this one for the actual inauguration day, the 20th. Below is the notice I received. The actual march seems planned to go at 5 PM.

 (Note: the first march I wrote about a few days back forms the day after inauguration at Santa Rosa, California, city hall at noon on the 21st. It might be connected with the women's march on Washington, also set for that day. I'm planning to attend the city hall march on the 21st at noon, where I will eat a candy bar.) 


                     NOTICE OF MARCH ON THE 20th

 There will be tabling from 3-5 at the JC before the march.  If you are interested in tabling please contact the community action coalition of sonoma county on Facebook.  The address is at the end of this message.  

OUT OF YOUR HOMES AND INTO THE STREES!

Are you concerned with the incoming president and administration? Are you ready to be a part of the resistance? On January 20th the North Bay will stand in solidarity with our comrades in Oakland, Sacramento, DC and everywhere in between to build coalitions and show our dissent. See the time table below to get involved. 

3-5PM- Assemble, build community, make art.
Meet in the SRJC quad for a time to: make connections with local political, social, and environmental justice organizations, make a sign or other art to carry in the march, and gather together as we prepare to step off together in resistance of Donald Trump, his cabinet and the whole damn system. 

5PM- MARCH ON DOWNTOWN
Departing as one from the SRJC front lawn we will make our way downtown and make our voices heard!
.
.
.
This event is being planned by the Community Action Coalition of Sonoma County. Please check back for more details as Inauguration Day approaches or visit the Community Action Coalition FB page to ask questions or to find out how to get involved.

https://www.facebook.com/actioncoalitionofsonomacounty/

The Worst Movie Ever

Experts used to say that the worst movie ever made was GLEN OR GLENDA, but when we became gender neutral, the title of worst movie shifted to BIRDEMIC, a serious but loony tribute to Hitchcock. BIRDEMIC contains immortal dialogue. When one character asks another where his girl friend went, the reply is, "She's taking a shit." Caught in a squat in a field, the girl's being pecked to death by stuffed birds.

But here's a category many might not have considered. Critics agree that the worst film made by a genius is Antonioni's ZABRISKIE POINT, which we watched last night. This film is an Italian attempt to portray American student radicals in the 1960s, badly written by Sam Shepherd and poorly acted by nonprofessionals but with an explosive ending. The lead male in this film went to prison a few years later for robbing a bank in an attempt to fund another movie. In prison he died in a weight-lifting accident. The lead female married and divorced Dennis Hopper and then became a psychologist.  

I was active in the sixties, and I can say that the issues raised by this ancient anti-system film are almost exactly the issues of today, including the argument that African-Americans should lead the progressive movement. I'm looking at history repeating itself. 

The disputes are the same. The anger and misunderstandings are the same. As time passes, our brains run on biases, apparently, while we believe our fuel is reason. That's how we are built. That's why we spin in circles.

Is Trump Right For Once?

What if Trump is right about the Russian hacking scandal? It’s not that I give a damn what a narcissistic con man says. I don’t really doubt that Putin authorized hacking the Democratic party and worked with Wikileaks to defeat the Hillary Clinton that Putin and Julian Assange hate. But interference in the elections of another nation seems fairly common in recent history (and something our own government has done). That sort of interference deserves a good punch in the shoulder but not a nuclear war.

More troubling is the recent ruckus over a charge that Russian hackers had penetrated the American electricity grid through a utility in Vermont. According to Glenn Greenwald (for God’s sake, people, stop spelling Glen with two n’s—it should be Glennnn), “A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.” American news media went nuts with this news. Yet, Greenwald points out, it never happened. Burlington Electric, not the government, managed to put out the correction. The malware had been found on one company laptop that was not connected to the grid. There was no connection to Russia except that the Russians had invented the original malware, much as they had invented the Kalashnikov ak47, which does not mean, as someone wrote, that every time you find someone murdered with a Kalashnikov, the Russians did it.

Greenwald—here I differ—seems to believe that hard proof must be presented to the public by the CIA each time they make a claim. We have a representative system. In other words, we elect people we trust (theoretically) and they consult experts and devote their lives (theoretically) to making informed judgments. I don’t know what our foreign policy in the Balkans ought to be like. And so on. I did trust President Obama to get things right in most cases. Of course, I have no reason to trust Trump with our national treasury, but at least he seems loathe to attack Russia. Putin is a nasty killer, but he’s hatching 7,000 nukes. America will have to outlive him.