tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27729563687524333262024-03-18T14:20:21.211-04:00Ramona's VoicesRise up, voices! Speak truth to power. Bark orders to justice. Sing praises to the good. Beg alms for the poor.
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comBlogger491125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-666139702501437762021-01-20T12:35:00.011-05:002022-02-07T08:27:29.697-05:00A New Beginning, and a Time to End What I Started Here So Long Ago<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8pP3BC8NFEYp7WO9b4bCtHb2oRcISUB-urHN33PeysTDC0M3kHG__POfzovZ-Mrwz-lE0KgZPefCBzi8PazJ8RN2rgus1u7IiE2xjusFDGvEaOBXeA67vBIF6YTbD4yEOlIwsV7GNw1m5/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8pP3BC8NFEYp7WO9b4bCtHb2oRcISUB-urHN33PeysTDC0M3kHG__POfzovZ-Mrwz-lE0KgZPefCBzi8PazJ8RN2rgus1u7IiE2xjusFDGvEaOBXeA67vBIF6YTbD4yEOlIwsV7GNw1m5/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Twelve years ago, on this very date, on another Inauguration Day, I started this blog on a note of hope and change. Barack Obama was being sworn in as president for the first time and it was a day so overwhelming I felt as if I might burst if I didn't put my thoughts to good use. </p><p>We had come away from what seemed like an awful eight years, brought to us by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. They took us into an unnecessary, deadly war. They took a huge surplus left by Bill Clinton and turned it into a massive deficit. They lied so often it became commonplace, and too many people accepted the lies and turned against the best of our programs. Ordinary people didn't have a chance.</p><p> It seemed as if, with Obama, we were being rescued.</p><p>I needed to be a part of that, if only as an unknown witness, an observer, a chronicler. I look back on the pieces I wrote during those 12 years sometimes with joy and sometimes with sorrow. I didn't chronicle everything. I picked and chose whatever struck me and I didn't keep a schedule. I saw it as a blog and not a job. It was my place and I loved having it here.</p><p>I built a sidebar that showcased other writers doing meaningful and wonderful work. Most of them are still there, thankfully. They did see it as a job, and they never gave up. (<i>The sidebar is still there, still up to date, still there for you to use.)</i></p><p>You'll notice I dropped out often after Trump was 'elected'. The heart went out of my political writing. I didn't realize as it was happening how broken-hearted I was. For four solid years I felt as if my country, our country, was barely surviving under the clutches of an abuser. I felt powerless. I <i>was</i> powerless. But I should have had more faith in my country's absolute requirement that democracy must prevail.</p><p>History will view Donald Trump's presidency as a warning that, as a democracy, we were far more fragile than we could have imagined. Those of us who warned against him early on couldn't imagine that a president of the United States could go that rogue. Trump was always an incorrigible liar and a crook. He was always a narcissist and a sociopath. What we didn't expect was the help he would get from a political party sworn to preserve the republic and to protect us from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.</p><p>I don't need to regurgitate Trump's four years here. In fact, I refuse. But as I write this, Joseph R. Biden Jr. was just sworn in as the 46th President of these United States. Kamala Devi Harris was just sworn is as the first Female of Color to ever advance to the Vice Presidency. The Democrats have a tenuous hold on both the House and the Senate, and Biden's cabinet is already at work to begin the healing and take us to a far different place.</p><p>And I see today, this very moment, as the perfect time to end this blog and move on. I love what I've done here, but the truth is, almost nobody sees it. <b>I've lost the ability to allow comments</b> and I haven't been able to figure out how to change that. It's not a community without comments. We need to have a conversation. Or at least I do. </p><p>So I've moved to Substack, to newsletter country, and I hope I'll see you there. My general blog/newsletter is called <a href="https://ramonagrigg.substack.com/" target="_blank">Constant Commoner</a>. It's a continuation of the things I write here and at <a href="https://ramonagrigg.medium.com/" target="_blank">Medium</a>.</p><p>The second newsletter, <a href="https://writereverlasting.substack.com/">Writer Everlasting</a>, is geared toward writers and writing. Both are public and can be read at any time without a paywall. </p><p> You can also find me at <a href="https://twitter.com/RamonaGrigg" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. I spend a lot of time there, no apologies. I love that community. <a href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2019/10/twitter-essential-battleground-for.html" target="_blank">This is why.</a></p><p>This blog will always be here, as long as Blogger allows it. The posts I've written will be available as an archive. And do keep an eye on the posts under "Necessary Voices", at the sidebar to the right. They won't disappoint.</p><p>2020 was a dreadful year for most of us. 2021 brings us new hope. I want to be there with you as we fight to make it right. But right now I want to enjoy this day. Let's all enjoy this day.</p><p>And wasn't <a href="https://youtu.be/PCEEafXcFiQ" target="_blank">Lady Gaga amazing</a>?</p><p>_____________________________</p><p><i>No, seriously, I've just moved; I'm not going away. I still have much to say, just in another neighborhood. I'm over at Substack most of the time now, though I still have a page at <a href="https://ramonagrigg.medium.com/" target="_blank">Medium</a>. I've moved <a href="https://ramonagrigg.substack.com/" target="_blank">Constant Commoner</a> to Substack, and I've added a blog called <a href="https://writereverlasting.substack.com/" target="_blank">Writer Everlasting</a>. (Geared to writers, though anyone can read it.)</i></p><p><i>I have an author's page. Sort of. <a href="https://ramonagrigg.com/" target="_blank">It's all here</a>. The doors are always open and I'm always ready for company.</i></p>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-87995910923483644442020-11-13T11:33:00.002-05:002021-05-30T10:54:05.167-04:00We Have a New President But The Nightmare Isn't Over<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcx6Lt4uRHzYvNyFZicAKAQDV72U8SRh9LFl494bzJ8FHW2Cw_q7um1pL248v2_g-NukU4U4iogHptUo8vNmxbt2t6QbWfqqE0dsVha4r9W5Ar4_IQ3hOBOyBajsXgnqDBiTP8y5YzFq82/s576/Biden+wins.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="576" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcx6Lt4uRHzYvNyFZicAKAQDV72U8SRh9LFl494bzJ8FHW2Cw_q7um1pL248v2_g-NukU4U4iogHptUo8vNmxbt2t6QbWfqqE0dsVha4r9W5Ar4_IQ3hOBOyBajsXgnqDBiTP8y5YzFq82/w400-h225/Biden+wins.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo Credit: Sky News</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="85de" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">On Saturday, November 7, just before Noon, four days after Election Day, after Pennsylvania’s votes put him over the 270 mark, the election was finally called by both the AP and CNN : Former Vice President Joe Biden beat out the incumbent, Donald Trump, to become President-Elect Joe Biden.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="38a3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t have to tell you that I was ecstatic. It appeared all week that this would be the outcome but with every passing day the doubts grew. Not that the count would be wrong but that the Trump regime would figure out a way to delegitimize the people’s choice.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e2f0" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Ari Berman <a class="bx jt" href="https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1325118398213328897" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;">wrote on Twitter</a>:</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5a80" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><em class="ju" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They gutted the Voting Rights Act. They sabotaged the Postal Service. They closed polling places, purged voter rolls, attacked mail voting, tried to throw out ballots. And yet voters turned out in record numbers to overcome these barriers & make their voices heard.</span></em></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1ac4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So here we are, sure it has happened, but on tenterhooks because the Big Baby in the White House refuses to accept that his tantrums haven’t worked and he’s on a time-out with no end date.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4f20" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning we woke up to the news that Arizona has finally called it for Joe Biden. That puts him at 290 electoral votes, well over the 270 needed for a win. Five million more voters checked the box next to Joe’s name than they did for Trump. <a class="bx jt" href="https://www.dw.com/en/us-election-officials-no-evidence-of-voter-fraud/a-55584309" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;">Top election officials said yesterday</a>, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history”. Yet Donald Trump refuses to concede and all but a handful of Republican Party leaders are unconscionably silent. If they’ve congratulated Joe Biden at all, they’ve done it secretly, passing the message along to a Democrat who then passes it along to Joe Biden.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1058" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Republicans are miserable cowards, held captive by a man who is wholly unworthy, increasingly unhinged, and a danger to the security of the country. In refusing to acknowledge the inevitable they’ve prevented the Biden team from beginning the all-important transition to the presidency. Biden should be receiving daily intelligence briefings by now. He needs to know before he takes over just what in the world he’ll have to deal with. He’s being shut out and nobody can predict when or even if he’ll be let in.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5295" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the kind of third-world stuff tin pot dictators try to foist off on their country. We keep saying we’re not that country but where’s the proof? We’re looking more and more like it.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cb67" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For all intents, Donald Trump has given up all pretense of leadership, wobbly and wacky as it was. He’s holed up in the White House, grieving, no doubt, and, if he has any sense at all, scared out of his mind. In two months he’ll lose the protection of the presidency and become a private citizen. Justice is waiting for him. So are his creditors. There appears to be nothing but ruination ahead. His bombast, his lies, may finally let him down.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="900a" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He botched the coronavirus pandemic so badly we’re counting deaths in the hundreds of thousands, the cases in the multi-millions. Early in the year he bragged about being in complete control of the virus and he would never let anything bad happen. It happened and he refuses to take the blame.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bb1c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But we expect this from Trump. He’s incorrigible. He’ll never change. The blame now is on the Republicans. They’ve had the power to control this scourge for the entire four years this obviously unfit pretender has been in office. They have the power to insist on getting intelligence briefings to President-Elect Biden. They have the power to legitimize the election and begin a smooth transition. They have the power to force Trump to concede. They could put into action their notorious unity — to a person — and end this travesty today.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="812f" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why won’t they? Is it their fear of losing their power? What good is that power if they refuse to use it for the good of the country? Are they hiding secrets? If so, do they really think they can hide them forever? Are they afraid of Trump’s rabid base? Do they know if they give in to them they become <em class="ju" style="box-sizing: inherit;">their</em> base? They’ll have to pander to them forever.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0a3f" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trump’s bad guys with the big guns are <a class="bx jt" href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/11/12/saturdays-pro-trump-events-in-dc-have-a-very-real-potential-to-turn-violent-according-to-experts-who-track-extremism/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;">rallying at the National Mall in DC tomorrow </a>— armed militias, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, all gathering to scare the country into believing that their president has been wronged and the illegitimate Democrats are fomenting civil war. This is the climate Trump encourages. He lives for this.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="63be" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So nobody believes the fairy tale that calm will be upon us on January 20. Nothing magical will happen, even if the Democrats should win the two Senate seats still up in the air in Georgia. The Biden administration, the Democrats, will still be fighting against Trump’s citizen troops, knowing that every win for them will further enrage a massive frothing crowd that will never believe their administration won fair and square.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0434" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m all for celebrating our victories, but I can’t yet celebrate a return to any kind of normalcy. Biden, et al, will inherit a mess. They know that. WE know that. And while they’re working to get a pandemic under control, to slow nature’s move toward destroying us, to force our weakened courts to practice justice, to create good paying jobs and rebuild a strong middle class, they’ll be fighting against those forces still convinced they can create a theocratic oligarchy, intent on keeping the masses controlled and subservient.</span></p><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a3a8" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And through it all the specter of Donald Trump will haunt us. He’s not finished with us yet. This is our history now and it’s one for the books</span></p><div><p class="ix iy fi iz b gg ja jb jc gj jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js fa cs" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a3a8" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/we-have-a-new-president-c8a3807b9976?sk=0853cbafe46e76394e2fd0979f3a1bd7" target="_blank">Indelible Ink/Medium</a>)</span></p></div>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-90848836373500261442020-10-26T15:50:00.000-04:002020-10-26T15:50:10.310-04:00The Trump Regime's Fatal Flaw: They Don't Understand Americans<h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c540"><img class="graf-image" data-height="270" data-image-id="0*zPktDTeemgEu5Af8.png" data-is-featured="true" data-width="460" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/880/0*zPktDTeemgEu5Af8.png" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="dba8">When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, I was four years old. Some of my earliest memories are as an activist child during wartime. We had entered World War II and my job was as Chief Tin Can Inspector. I washed cans and crushed them flat. I bought Savings Stamps at school and pasted them into albums<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://u-s-history.com/pages/h1682.html" href="https://u-s-history.com/pages/h1682.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank"> to convert into War Bonds.</a></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="1704">The war was a constant backdrop and my parents were among millions who took the war effort seriously. The propaganda of the day was heavily into duty and obligation — every American citizen was called into service. We couldn’t allow one man, one regime, to win his war against humanity.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="06f5">It marked us, and we were never the same. Our country grew more and more precious as the war years went on. The more lives that were lost protecting us, the more we persevered — for them. And when the war was over and we grew strong again, our pride grew even stronger. We did it! We won!</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b4d9">Generations of us grew up believing we had an obligation to our country. When JFK said, in his 1961 Inaugural Address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, it wasn’t a demand, it was a reminder. This is what Americans do.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="07b4">We’re in a different century now — 20 years into a different century — and if you cancel out the noise you’ll find the majority of Americans still believe in some sort of obligatory service. Our obligation is to keep our country strong, not by strong-arming the government, but by strengthening its core principles. By voting as if voting is a serious matter. By entering into public service, not as glory-seekers, but as true public servants. By working to ease the lives of those who are vulnerable and less fortunate. By recognizing that threats like global warming and raging pandemics are our burdens, our responsibility. Our survival is in our hands.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="fa99">We are a nation of laws, of regulations, of justice and reckoning. We reject greed and corruption and frown on nepotism. We demand equality, we celebrate diversity, we recognize our enemies, both foreign and home-grown.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ac3e">And if you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering which rock I’ve just crawled out from under. This is not the America you’re seeing. Not even close.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="8920">But consider this:</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5160">Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, wasn’t even on the radar mere months ago. He was laughed at, vilified, virtually written off. He was ‘establishment’, an anachronism, an ancient workhorse destined to be put out to pasture. But, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?469740-1/representative-jim-clyburn-endorses-joe-biden" href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?469740-1/representative-jim-clyburn-endorses-joe-biden" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rep. Jim Clyburn’s eloquent endorsement</a> aside, maybe Biden’s victory was inevitable. Many of us listened to Clyburn’s call to decency, to obligation, to duty, and recognized his message as wholly, unequivocally American. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5160">This is who we are. We are Americans, first and foremost.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="170a">We’ve made grievous mistakes and haven’t always been proud of our actions, but the promise of the United States is ‘to form a more perfect union’. Nothing has changed. We’re still working at it, but we can’t do it by going backward. We have to move forward, but we have to win first.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="96f0">The past four years will be seen as an anomaly, an experiment gone horribly wrong. We’ll learn from it, but the price, the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives lost to a pandemic ravaging through our country, largely due to government incompetence, is far too high. The experimentation has to stop. It didn’t work. We have to get back to our promised obligation —to build a strong government designed to take care of our citizens.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="6d53">We will come out of this. Joe Biden has begun gathering a phalanx of experts who are already working on programs and plans so they can start on Day One in January. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Cohorts and novices need not apply.</em>) They’re going to need cheerleaders, and that’s where we come in. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="6d53">The thing I remember most about my childhood during World War II is the optimism. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="85b6">Were my parents afraid? They must have been terrified. They lived through the Great Depression only to watch Hitler’s Nazism spread throughout historic European strongholds. One man held entire countries hostage; he bent them and broke them. How could it happen?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ed09">Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and suddenly it was hitting too close to home. Between a mandatory draft and a concerted need to protect our shores, millions of young men and women signed up to serve our country. Everything changed. And, except for the few predictable slackers, scam artists, and profiteers, we changed, too.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="074d"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">We became our country’s biggest allies.</strong> We retooled our factories, gave up luxuries, rationed necessities, pulled on our caring cloaks, found we cared deeply, and went to work as one country against a common enemy.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e5f1">We did that. For more than four years we did that.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f800">And let nobody ever tell you we can’t do it again.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f800">_______________</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f800">(Cross-posted at <a href="https://ramonagrigg.medium.com/the-trump-regimes-fatal-flaw-2feafe242e72?sk=fffe8f8b94db1eb2039bf0ea350b1f61" target="_blank">Medium/Indelible Ink</a>)</p>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-54579266892100772962020-10-20T08:32:00.004-04:002021-04-25T08:41:18.900-04:00My Years With Joe Biden: I Didn't Vote For Joe but I've Always Loved Him<div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="a03b" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></figure></div><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="605b"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwT0G96epV5ly-DP8nE-tziJY3SLCCQa6JLYVyJ8niecrJwBolUHrkXRMhqkOayz7rUfQ0nqyJTxGULQEvoGMEzobH1N5cPwAX4PAzhfJVgGqhWFCJHOw9CUo4wUehaWBkxweInYmB5__k/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="720" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwT0G96epV5ly-DP8nE-tziJY3SLCCQa6JLYVyJ8niecrJwBolUHrkXRMhqkOayz7rUfQ0nqyJTxGULQEvoGMEzobH1N5cPwAX4PAzhfJVgGqhWFCJHOw9CUo4wUehaWBkxweInYmB5__k/w400-h266/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="228b">We’re exactly two weeks away from the election of our lives and I’m getting nervous. I keep thinking I’ve said all I can say to convince everyone to vote for Joe Biden. Apparently I haven’t gotten through yet. Let me give it one more try.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="d773">Some of you may remember that I didn’t vote for Joe during the primaries, and wasn’t all that thrilled about him even being in the race. Then Rep. Jim Clyburn gave a speech in South Carolina and <a href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2020/03/i-cried-when-warren-left-but-now-its.html" target="_blank">I changed my mind</a>.</p><div class="graf graf--mixtapeEmbed" name="9391"><a class="js-mixtapeImage mixtapeImage u-ignoreBlock" data-media-id="1d5b03e52f47513cec492abd682402d1" data-thumbnail-img-id="1*-ioSNBVtTr2Ri4CvoM4tYQ.jpeg" href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/i-cried-when-warren-left-but-now-its-biden-here-s-why-ccf98a60846e" style="background-image: url(https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/144/144/1*-ioSNBVtTr2Ri4CvoM4tYQ.jpeg);"></a></div><p class="graf graf--p" name="a115">I’ve known Joe for a while now — not personally, of course, but I’ve been watching him for years. On January 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president, I started my political blog, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Ramona’s Voices</a>. Over the years I’ve mentioned Joe Biden many times, and even devoted entire posts to him, including one post I wrote in 2012 called, ‘<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2012/05/i-love-joe-biden-i-mean-it-i-love-joe.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2012/05/i-love-joe-biden-i-mean-it-i-love-joe.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I Love Joe Biden. I Mean It. I LOVE Joe Biden</a>’. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">In case you had any doubt.</em>) I wrote it after Joe stood before a group of military families who had lost loved ones and talked to them about the raw pain of grieving. I was crying as I wrote it, and maybe it shows.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="bc5c">Before that, in March, 2011, I wrote about him in my weekly feature, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2011/03/friday-follies-on-legendary-liz-cute.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2011/03/friday-follies-on-legendary-liz-cute.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Friday Follies</a>. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Included in case there are</em> <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">those who still think Biden is faking his pro-union stance.</em>):</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="768f">Did I ever tell you I LOVE Joe Biden? I do. Yes, he can be slightly wacky at times but in a good way. A cute way. He’s fluffy tough and the reason the word “gaffe” was invented. But the other day <a class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" data-href="http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/biden-labor-activists-youre-keeping-b" href="http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/biden-labor-activists-youre-keeping-b" rel="noopener" target="_blank">he spoke to union activists</a> and every word was a keeper. Try parsing THIS, Faux News! Ha!</blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="20bd"><em class="markup--em markup--blockquote-em">“You guys built the middle class,” said Biden in a virtual town hall conversation hosted by the AFL-CIO. “I would just emphasize what Hilda [Solis] said and say it slightly different:</em><strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--blockquote-em"> We don’t see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining. Let’s get something straight: The only people who have the capacity — organizational capacity and muscle — to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor. And make no mistake about it, the guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open. And we know that too.”</em></strong></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="1a52">In <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2012/05/women-gays-and-barack-obamas-ear.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2012/05/women-gays-and-barack-obamas-ear.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">‘Women, Gays, and Obama’s Ear’</a>, Joe got taken to the woodshed for seeming to go against Obama. They called it a ‘gaffe’, of course, but couldn’t make anything stick. I wrote, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Note to Joe: It’s far better to be gaffe-prone than to be mean-prone. So far, you’re okay, man. </em>Because I thought what he did was admirable, and Obama could do worse than learn from it.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f165">And in September, 2015, when we were waiting to see who was going to run for president in 2016, I wrote <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2015/09/pleasejoe-dont-run.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2015/09/pleasejoe-dont-run.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">‘Please, Joe, Don’t Run’</a>. I did it for his own good. I wanted him to take care of himself.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a702">But somewhere between Hillary’s loss to Trump and the beginning of the 2020 Democratic primary season, I lost interest in Joe Biden as president. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/a-government-of-the-women-by-the-women-for-the-people-daed59e7e604" href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/a-government-of-the-women-by-the-women-for-the-people-daed59e7e604" target="_blank">I wanted a woman in the White House</a>, and, thankfully, there were plenty of good women to choose from. Joe was so far down my list I barely remembered he was there. I voted for Elizabeth Warren and I was devastated when she couldn’t get to that place.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4674"> Now we’re easing into the end of October and I’m thrilled that Joe Biden is the candidate. Yes, thrilled. As Trump spirals out of control, Biden is building the greatest coalition of good guys and experts I’ve ever seen. What it tells me is that if we can pull this election off, barring all roadblocks coming from the other side, we will have a central government that can be trusted to begin the rebuilding after so much destruction. They will work as if our lives depended on it.</p><p class="graf graf--p graf--startsWithSingleQuote" name="76c4">‘Of the people, by the people, for the people’ will no longer be quaint wishful thinking, it’ll be the way we are. It wasn’t always the way we were, but if the Trump regime’s bulldozing of our government has taught us anything, it’s that we really don’t want such drastic relief from big government. We need big government, we know that now, but we have to make it better.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7c76">Except for a few holdouts, the Democrats are coming together as a formidable bloc, getting behind Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the top jobs and supporting and donating to the Democratic candidates down the ballot. Some of them are raising more campaign funds than they could ever even dream about. Every time Trump and his Republican cohorts do something awful in these final days, the funds roll in for the Democrats.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="32fc">All signs point to a Biden win, but we Democrats are still shell-shocked over 2016. We tell ourselves we don’t dare jump the gun this time, and there’s some truth to that, but Donald Trump is a known entity now. He’s still a novice, still knows nothing about government, and it shows.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="1b06">Trump has made some deadly decisions based on nothing more than how they’ll make him look. His mismanagement of the COVID pandemic has raised America’s death tolls to horrific levels not seen anywhere else in the world.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ea6a">He has alienated everyone the world over, but thinks if he plays to his base everything will be all right. He doesn’t know it yet, but most of America has moved past him. As a leader he’s a disaster; as a chaos agent he thinks he’s not done yet. But the country has grown tired of his antics and Joe Biden looks like the necessary antidote. We’re watching the two of them in public and the differences couldn’t be more stark.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="fada">Joe Biden has to win but he has to win in a landslide. The Democrats have to win in a landslide. It looks imminent, but it’ll take each of us working to get out the vote. This may be our last chance to get it right.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="fada">(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/my-years-with-joe-biden-d169f922f84d?source=friends_link&sk=1a9bb528826d5c30fbece98a782ef638" target="_blank">Medium/Indelible Ink</a>)</p>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-84077126149968589642020-10-06T21:45:00.002-04:002020-10-06T21:45:58.040-04:00Will Trump Get a Sympathy Surge? Or Is America Finally Horrified Enough?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizI1OXxXeoHaClPdRqgkBuHgy9GMz61X-UBYE1F8hErDCN76TArQSloGwk-1bCBklmgtsbjgpMmm-C0dP9RLuFUPXRM-tGdt5hi4B7ZIrNdi_4ecUC6179VkWSF_QN-ldVhXgA7AjTxTH4/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="720" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizI1OXxXeoHaClPdRqgkBuHgy9GMz61X-UBYE1F8hErDCN76TArQSloGwk-1bCBklmgtsbjgpMmm-C0dP9RLuFUPXRM-tGdt5hi4B7ZIrNdi_4ecUC6179VkWSF_QN-ldVhXgA7AjTxTH4/w400-h266/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Donald Trump has COVID-19. I know you know that. It’s big news. The biggest. We can’t get a break from the drama of Donald Trump having COVID. We watched with some interest as the president’s helicopter, Marine One, eased onto the White House lawn, loaded their precious cargo, and airlifted the president* to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, some 8 1/2 miles away.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="22fc">Once there, Donald Trump wanted to go home. He at least wanted his visit to seem as unlike a hospital stay as he could. He was at a desk! He was still working! Don’t worry! He recorded two videos, supposedly two days apart, but discovered by the techies to have been filmed within an interval of around a half hour. He was still wearing a suit jacket, still wearing cuff links. How bad could it be?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="9020">Outside on the street, within Trump’s view, crowds of his admirers gathered, waving Trump and blue line flags, honking horns, blowing whistles, and the man inside, already high on steroids, it would appear, was elated. His people! He had to get to them, to let them know how happy he was that they were there! Nobody knows yet how it happened, but Trump appeared on camera again, giddy with a happy secret that would be revealed within minutes — so stay tuned, America. And again we were glued.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="9a71">Then, minutes later, there was real breaking news: The President of the United States, a COVID patient sick enough to have been airlifted to the hospital just two days before, was heading out the door, was getting into a black SUV, was masked but clearly joyful to be out of there, was waving and thumbs-upping to his fans — so, see? If there was a living, breathing Superman Donald Trump was it. What a moment!</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ba10">And then it was over. The SUV drove through the crowd and headed back to the hospital, where Trump got out on his own, climbed the steps and went back inside. Every medical expert was and is horrified. Trump, an active COVID patient, deliberately, recklessly exposed the Secret Service members inside the hermetically sealed van to possible COVID because he couldn’t stand the thought of being inside, quarantined, away from his beloved cameras.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="8ac2">At this writing, he’s still high on steroids and talking crazy. He’s invincible! He beat it! “Don’t let it dominate you”, Trump tells a country still in the throes of a pandemic.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b64b">On his victorious return to the White House, he stood on a balcony, clearly breathless, but, ever the actor, with thumbs up, shoulders back, maskless. Tough guy. He went inside to greet his masked staff, who, if they had any sense about them, must have been terrified. They should have been outfitted in PPP gear, but they weren’t. Their masks were their only defense against that lunging, spewing germ factory.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e304">The thing Donald Trump cared the most about, after his release (clearly against the hospital’s warnings), was the positioning of the cameras. They had to make him look good, the picture of health. His first thought as he entered the White House was to make a video designed to let his public know he was all right. He, Donald Trump, got through this. Everything was going to be all right.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="49f3">So this morning we woke up to what might be considered his most bizarre video if there hadn’t been so many that came before. (The video is out there. It’s bizarre enough. But here are the words. Donald Trump’s words.)</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="86bf">From <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-covid-19-updates-monday/h_d2cc463535fb71bb3b480be6b07690a5" href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-covid-19-updates-monday/h_d2cc463535fb71bb3b480be6b07690a5" rel="noopener" target="_blank">CNN</a>:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="b767">“We’re going back. We’re going back to work. We’re gonna be out front. As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there’s danger to it but I had to do it,” Trump said in the highly produced video, which he taped after reporters left the South Lawn.</blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="f846">“I stood out front. I led. Nobody that’s a leader would not do what I did. I know there’s a risk, there’s a danger. That’s okay. And now I’m better and maybe I’m immune? I don’t know. But don’t let it dominate your lives. Get out there, be careful,” he said in the video, which was filmed within close proximity of White House staffers all without wearing a mask.</blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="d357">Of his battle with Covid-19, Trump said, “I learned so much about coronavirus. And one thing that’s for certain. Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. We’re gonna beat it. We have the best medical equipment, best medicines.”</blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="bc26">“I didn’t feel so good. Two days ago- I could have left two days ago. Two days ago, I felt great. Like better than I have in a long time… I said better than 20 years ago. Don’t let it dominate. Don’t let it take over your lives. “</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="4398">There is nothing normal about what Trump, still under the influence of steroids known to cause mental fog and feelings of invincibility, said there. It was a reckless performance, worrisome enough coming from an ordinary patient, but Donald Trump is, at least until January, 2021, the President of the United States. He must relinquish his hold on the presidency until he is well. But he won’t do it. We know he won’t. Mike Pence, along with members of Congress, are in a position to demand that the president temporarily step down, but they won’t do it, either.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ad65">Section 4 of the 25th Amendment:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="5177"><strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong">Section 4</strong>. Whenever the Vice President and a <a class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" data-href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority" href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="Majority">majority</a> of either the principal officers of the <a class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" data-href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_executive_departments" href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_executive_departments" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="United States federal executive departments">executive departments</a> or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="b593">So it’s up to the people now. Is Trump well enough to assume the duties of the presidency? (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Okay, I’ll say it. Elephant in the room: He never was.</em>) Have we had enough of this shit show or is it just too fascinating, too delicious, too crazy to let go of it now?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2949">Trump, as his doctors have warned, is not out of the woods yet. His fans will get louder and more rabid as his illness progresses. The noise will not stop. Will it give him a boost among voters?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7b97">Anything can happen between now and November 3, but at this moment, Donald Trump is clearly not able to run this country. Nobody could have predicted that the president would be hopped up on steroids, telling the country to ignore a deadly virus that HE exacerbated, that HE tried to hide, that HE literally worked against fighting, that has infected many millions and has killed an unconscionable number of Americans.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5f79">Millions of us, along with the ghosts of more than 210,000 victims, say “enough”. Will it finally be enough?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5f79">__________________</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5f79">(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/will-trump-get-a-sympathy-surge-ec4ee757c67?source=friends_link&sk=f716230e130d0e4fa5bb6af36ebc40b5" target="_blank">Indelible Ink/Medium</a>)</p>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-13673673053913059262020-10-01T08:04:00.002-04:002020-10-01T08:22:37.971-04:00As Shitshows Go, Trump's Presidency Tops Them All<h3 style="text-align: left;">But that first debate was right up there.</h3><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c54d"><img class="graf-image" data-height="360" data-image-id="0*fg_jhS_4tH6znKi4" data-is-featured="true" data-width="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/880/0*fg_jhS_4tH6znKi4" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">Source: UPI</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="4edb">I pride myself on not watching political debates — I’ve never seen one yet that was an actual debate and not a choreographed linguistic wrestling match— but I watched Tuesday’s ‘debate’ between Donald Trump and Joe Biden just to see if Trump was going to show the country how presidential he could be when push came to shove.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="3cc2">A day or two before the debate Trump was asked what he was doing to prepare for it. When he said he didn’t have to prep, I knew he was planning to do exactly what he did, which is exactly what he does every time he gets before the cameras. There’s a specific script in his brain and he never deviates. I wrote this <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://twitter.com/RamonaGrigg" href="https://twitter.com/RamonaGrigg" rel="noopener" target="_blank">on Twitter</a>:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="a53d"><i>Donald Trump announces he’s not prepping for the debate tonight. And why would he? It’ll be:</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="d90d"><i>Insult Joe — check</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="d382"><i>Fake news — check</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="e5f3"><i>Blue states are bad — check</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="739c"><i>Great job on COVID — check</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="d72c"><i>Stock mkt booming — check</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="966b"><i>I’m the greatest — check</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="8118"><i>I beat Hillary — check</i></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="279d">I missed ‘<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Biden kept me from paying taxes</em>’ and ‘<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Shout-out to Proud Boys</em>’ — and I really didn’t see <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">‘Reduce</em> <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Chris Wallace to frazzled Kindergarten teacher’ </em>coming, but I fully expected Trump to dominate the night by attacking and interrupting and muttering and grimacing, all in place of any real policy discussions — which he clearly, woefully cannot do.</p><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="71a1"><b>There was a president up on that stage but it wasn’t Donald Trump.</b></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="57f3">Trump loves the trappings, the power, the attention, the title, but when it comes to actual presidenting, that’s not his thing. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Remember during the campaign when he said he’d be choosing a veep who could run things since he’d be out there being Good Will Ambassador, rallying Americans to, I don’t know, be </em>Americans<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">? He was never going to take the job seriously.</em>)</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5b02">Joe Biden will make a far better president, and never was that more apparent than on Tuesday, when, for 90 minutes, Donald Trump couldn’t even play one, even after Joe showed him how to do it. Trump’s idea of presidential power is in building up his already gimongous ego, in demanding loyalty, in extracting revenge when he doesn’t get it. He’ll lie and deny and think he aced it. He’ll blame anyone but himself for the bad stuff but take full credit for anything good — even when it happened long before he was ‘president’.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="3bf1">Trump is a thug. Everything he does is thuggish and ugly. Except for his nail-biting sycophants and his dwindling MAGA followers, the country is sick to death of his antics. He’s done. He’s toast. But dammit, he’s still our problem. What are we going to do about him? It’s a question for justice now. Will he or won’t he get away with it?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="438f">As I watched him at what was supposed to pass for a debate, I saw a man who knows he’s already lost, and his performance, sickening as it was, took on new meaning. It was pathetic. A last hurrah. His empire is crumbling, he’s a laughing stock, there’s a chance he has put everyone around him, including his own children, in jeopardy by grabbing at power he never deserved, history will make mincemeat of him, and he’s furious.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a10b">That’s what we saw before us. We saw Trump’s raw fury on display, and he’s past caring. I’ve never seen anything like it. And, for the first time in months, I slept well. Come January 20, Donald Trump will no longer be president. He may still be our residual problem, but he’ll no longer have to power to hurt us.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b4d0">That thought alone gives me peace.</p>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-69305095930154467172020-09-27T13:25:00.005-04:002023-06-09T09:08:02.841-04:00Donald Trump Will Not Win<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Insulting America isn't the way you do it, buddy.</span></h3><figure class="hw hx hy hz ia ib ek el paragraph-image" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><figcaption class="iq ir em ek el is it at au av aw ax" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDA_FXPVheQd5j7iPmwV9RTGwe1VziLmeeBS3pShTggSS2HK_1NXXRtNc1_AZQWSRHcz8OQMZeV7BCIcHlKgov2EUEruGs0o2STRXjH_V9wqxB_jWY5T5HBK3ors0BHybwZStHyQBf25WB/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="576" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDA_FXPVheQd5j7iPmwV9RTGwe1VziLmeeBS3pShTggSS2HK_1NXXRtNc1_AZQWSRHcz8OQMZeV7BCIcHlKgov2EUEruGs0o2STRXjH_V9wqxB_jWY5T5HBK3ors0BHybwZStHyQBf25WB/w450-h253/image.png" width="450" /></a></div><br /><br /></figcaption></figure><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="536d" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I know what you’re thinking: Wasn’t I one of those people who thought Hillary couldn’t lose? Yup, I was. I seriously, sincerely couldn’t see how Donald Trump, that loathsome clown whose life was completely antithetical to the norms of common decency, that shady businessman without an ounce of knowledge about how government works, would EVER become America’s president.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0b9b" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Hahahahahahaha.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e06c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">That was me. And probably you. And almost four years later we’re still shocked. I can’t go into how it happened. I don’t KNOW how it happened, and neither does anyone else. We’re all just guessing. But here we are, and Trump was, and is, far, far worse than we could ever have imagined. We imagined he would be as stubbornly stupid, as bombastic, as ridiculously full of himself as he turned out to be. What we didn’t count on was the Republican Party’s willing capitulation to a moron and a monster.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6aa5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Trump, it turns out, was a dream come true for them. He didn’t CARE how they did it before. His job was to make the rich richer (including and especially him), and, by God, he did it.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="09f1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">His job, as he saw it — thanks to some friendly nudging from his pal, former KGB expert and president-for-life, Vladimir Putin — was to sow chaos and create division, and he did that.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ea58" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">His job (and he especially enjoyed this part ) was to bring the media to its knees in order to float above any criminal exposure or criticism — and the press rewarded him with some of the silliest whataboutism I’ve ever seen.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b1a9" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">But along the way Trump has made some dreadful blunders. I mean, <em class="jn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">terrible</em>. He’s a happy despot, momentarily, but he’s alienated every sane military, scientific, medical, social services, and educational expert in the country.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1127" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">He has his fans and followers, and it’s true they’re louder and more obnoxious than the rest of us, but they’re not the majority. Every legitimate poll shows that far more Americans go against Trump's cockamamie decision than agree with them. Every one.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge jx iy iz gh jy jb jc jd jz gm jf jg ka gp ji jj kb gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="45ea" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 3.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Pollsters are giving Joe Biden a bigger and bigger edge, and we’re a little more than a month from the election. (Okay. Remind me again about pollsters and Hillary Clinton and how that all went down, but (<em class="jn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">perfunctory cliché ahead</em>) that was then and this is now.)</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="025e" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">More than 200,000 COVID deaths, most of them completely avoidable but for Trump’s stubborn pretense that his giant brain is far superior to every scientist and epidemiologist in the land.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="dbad" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Kids in cages. They’re still crying, their parents are still crying, we’re still crying.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b2e2" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Attacks on women, minorities, the disabled, and the disenfranchised.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d030" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Name-calling and childish insults, laughable word-salad adlibs thrown in to speeches written by Stephen Miller, as if despots were still in vogue and this wasn’t America.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8d1e" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">And now Trump, always so insanely inappropriate for the highest job in the land, has the chance to select a <em class="jn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">third</em> Right Wing Supreme Court nominee and get her in place before the election.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ac85" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">And he's not done yet.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6c21" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">To the delight of his followers, and, let’s face it, the press, Trump is impishly pretending he might not leave office if Joe Biden should, by some slim off-chance, <em class="jn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">win</em>. But he <em class="jn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">will</em> leave, and we even know the date: January 20, 2021.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6c21" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Donald Trump will not win this election. Joe Biden will.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6c21" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Has Joe Biden made mistakes? Uh huh. Will he go on making mistakes? Uh huh. But, when it comes to mistakes, Joe is a piker compared to Donald. Trump holds the world’s record for the most hilarious, the most egregious mistakes ever made by a U.S president. Nobody comes even close. And if we’re lucky, nobody ever will again.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="de60" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">So I rest my case. Donald Trump should not, cannot, will not win this election. We’re going to make sure he doesn’t. Joe Biden will win in a landslide, the likes of which we’ve never seen. (<em class="jn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Yes, I stole that from Donald.</em>)</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1362" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">He will not steal our pride, our legacy, our heritage, our privileges, our rights.</span></p><p class="iu iv fl iw b ge ix iy iz gh ja jb jc jd je gm jf jg jh gp ji jj jk gs jl jm fd cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a827" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">He will not.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-61008723534656610102020-09-26T17:41:00.003-04:002020-09-29T09:24:00.562-04:00How to Write Opinions When You're At Your Wit's End<h3 style="text-align: left;"> Political writers are America’s witnesses to history. It’s up to us to tell this story</h3><section class="section section--body" name="95b6"><div class="section-content"><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn"><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="3539"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2666" data-image-id="0*BoCfj4yHdqfgWZws" data-is-featured="true" data-unsplash-photo-id="jOkfw6YfRGs" data-width="3999" height="266" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/880/0*BoCfj4yHdqfgWZws" width="400" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://unsplash.com/@markuswinkler?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" href="https://unsplash.com/@markuswinkler?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-creator noopener noopener" target="_blank">Markus Winkler</a> on <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-source noopener noopener" target="_blank">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="2386"><br /></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2386">I don’t have to tell you we’re at a level of chaos most of us have never seen in our lifetimes. Every day it’s something new and dire and dangerous, and every day we have to set aside yesterday’s news to try and process this new thing that sickens us and scares us and makes us want to take to our beds.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="289e">Every day we watch people give up. They can’t take it anymore. They concede we’re doomed and that’s just the way it is. And who can blame them? It feels doom-like out there. Everything is going against us.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b369">Here in the United States we’ve passed the 200,000 mark in deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, with no end in sight.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="90d9">The earth is roiling, showing her irritation at our recklessness, and she’s threatening to destroy humanity before we can do any more damage.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c1d4">And, for the first time in America’s history, we’re dealing with a rogue government run by a demagogic flim-flam man who sees the presidency as the authoritarian power trip of his dreams, and is already threatening not to give it up.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4cd6">And there’s more. Much, much more.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="83c8">This is where the writers come in. We are the witnesses, the trained observers. We watch, we listen, we analyze, we record. It’s what we do. Those of us who write opinions knew going in we would never convince everyone. Our opinions aren’t necessarily everyone’s opinions, so — you might have noticed — we have a tendency to piss some people off.</p><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="6c0d">But we slog on.</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="c379">It’s our hearts that spur us on, and, because our hearts are flopping around on the outside for everyone to see, we make ourselves vulnerable. Deliberately. Why? Because we care so deeply about what we believe in we can’t keep it to ourselves. We see it as a duty to try and make readers understand. And we wonder why everyone doesn’t do it.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="82f8">That’s where you come in, you writers out there who feel that same anxiety and don’t know how to express it. Do I need to say, ‘there’s nothing to fear but fear itself’? What are you afraid of, really? That your feelings will be hurt? They will be. That someone will make fun of you? Someone will. That you won’t get it right and might have to reassess? That could happen. But we need courage now, and before you can advocate for it, you have to feel it.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="d126">Our country needs us — every one of us — and our voices together will make a formidable blockade to the lies and propaganda threatening to destroy our message. We have the tools and the talent to make a difference in these next weeks before the election, but we have to get serious NOW.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="462b">Whatever you have to say doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be honest. Write from your heart and let your heart guide you. The country needs to know how we feel about the events unfolding before us. We’re not writing for the critics, we’re writing for the people.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ac60">As the owner/editor of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink" href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink" target="_blank">Indelible Ink</a>, I’ve taken steps to convert my creative non-fiction publication to <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">all politics, all the time </em>— at least until this all-important election is over. I’m looking for writers and I want you to consider getting your equally all-important voice out there. I’ll help you.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="d8e1">As I say in our <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/submission-guidelines-6a378e4feef7" href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/submission-guidelines-6a378e4feef7" target="_blank">Submission Guidelines</a>:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="ebc7"><i>We’ll be a political publication practicing the politics of hope, but with our eyes wide open. Be honest about your fears, your hopes, your ideas for a better future. Challenge us with your thoughts about better governing. Name names.</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="6e2b"><i>Talk about your own life, your childhood, your parents and your grandparents, if you’d like. Whatever is on your mind, whatever is keeping you awake at night, whatever is needing an outlet so you’re not screaming into pillows all day and all night.</i></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="9813"><i>Let’s build a fortress here made up of the ghosts of America’s past. Who are we? Where did we come from? How did we get to this place?</i></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="4ab3">But you don't have to write for me. Writers everywhere are gathering in war rooms, ready to do battle. We can do it, we can spread the word, we can build a community and we can help each other.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="bcd4">We’re almost out of time. November is looming. We’re sending the call out to writers with the skills to help us witness, to chronicle not just the events but the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">feelings</em>. We’ve never been here before. With Hera’s help we’ll never be here again.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0cb0">This is a time like no other, and the noisemakers are winning. Our voices won’t get lost if there are enough of us sounding alarms, reminding Americans of our heritage, defending our need to build a country that reflects all of us, and not just some of us.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="3838">Opinion writing isn’t for everyone, but if you feel the calling, go with it. The need is great right now. If you have something to say, say it. As Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, used to say: Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.</p></div></div></section><section class="section section--body" name="6454"><div class="section-divider"><hr class="section-divider" /></div><div class="section-content"><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn"><p class="graf graf--p" name="a589"><br /></p></div></div></section>Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-14088924489327108552020-08-19T14:24:00.001-04:002020-08-22T10:21:31.934-04:00Ramona's Quotes for Posterity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img alt="White book page with words, hypothetical dialogue Stock Photo - 127529298" src="https://us.123rf.com/450wm/vicgin/vicgin1907/vicgin190700024/127529298-white-book-page-with-words-hypothetical-dialogue.jpg?ver=6" /></div>
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I always wanted to be famous enough to have my quotes immortalized on sites like <a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/" target="_blank">BrainyQuote</a> or <a href="https://www.quotegarden.com/" target="_blank">Quote Garden</a>, those places you can go to grab someone else's quote to make it seem as if it's YOU who is that smart or clever or impossibly witty. I love those places! But time's running out and it looks like it's not going to happen. Unless I do something, my brilliant quotes will go unnoticed, unread, ungrabbed, lost for all eternity. I see now I'll have to do it myself.<br />
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Not long ago (but not soon enough) I wrote a short thing on Twitter and it seemed so awesome, I thought, Damn! That's quotable! So I saved it to a file. Then I began pasting other Tweets into that file, and soon I had a bunch of quotes I really, really liked. (Note that writers sometimes like things they've written. It's okay. If we didn't like enough of our own stuff we'd stop writing and we couldn't call ourselves writers.)<br />
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I had this file I called "Ramona's Quotes" and I kept adding to it, and every time I did I'd read it again and I'd say, sometimes out loud, "Who wrote that? That is so good!"<br />
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And here it is. I'll be adding to it from time to time, so don't think this is the end of it. Feel free to share any of them but be sure to spell my name right. Okay?<br />
(R-a-m-o-n-a G-r-i-g-g. Thank you.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyeZ0S-VNqQxWqsfmbCmpus8iB3dzZb5_0iNso-bTyNqYGVsNSfcB7DEMnA5j0pU9UH1pgUlkIUadiC0Lhl3ipJL9LfXs2eBRGbzdvke0xd4-tTDFGhKUC-jAhnQaosITz4ifQfnC6tqMt/s1600/divider+swirls+and+dots.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="51" data-original-width="500" height="20" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyeZ0S-VNqQxWqsfmbCmpus8iB3dzZb5_0iNso-bTyNqYGVsNSfcB7DEMnA5j0pU9UH1pgUlkIUadiC0Lhl3ipJL9LfXs2eBRGbzdvke0xd4-tTDFGhKUC-jAhnQaosITz4ifQfnC6tqMt/s200/divider+swirls+and+dots.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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The media can mold any story, any campaign, any election. Don’t ever think they can’t. And don’t ever let up on calling them out when they ignore their obligations to bring us the truth. They are the witnesses, not the jury.<br />
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Democrats on Democrats: It’s like being on a battlefield with your allies, thinking the way to fight the enemy is to find fault with the guys fighting by your side. There! That’ll show ‘em!</div>
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Vote as if your country is in grave danger and you’ve seen the enemy. It can't hurt.</div>
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Every time one of Trump’s insiders waits until it’s convenient for them to spill the beans instead of doing the right thing the moment they have concerns, the message to the country is, be afraid, be very afraid. Courage comes when you have more to lose than to gain. (<i>On John Kelly’s revelations on Trump, long after his testimony might have helped to take him down.</i>)</div>
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Change your shame to pride and it’ll give you the energy to fight against this madness. It’s not our country I’m ashamed of or appalled by, it’s the leaders — and they’re always temporary. The only way we’ll change things is if we go in believing we’re worth the effort.</div>
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Trump’s sycophants and followers are afraid to admit it’s that bad. They’ll go to great lengths to defend Trump, against all evidence to the contrary for one reason only: Reality would mean they might be complicit.</div>
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The worst offenders are the ones who voted for Trump but have now disengaged and won’t talk politics because ‘it’s boring’ or they ‘can’t stand all that garbage’. It’s like walking away from their own hit-and-run. No matter how far they run or how much time passes, it will always be their problem.</div>
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I know words and I know ‘inhabitant’ is clearly not the same thing as ‘citizen’. The Census counts inhabitants. The law doesn’t require that only citizens should be counted. We want to know how many people live in this country for many reasons and none of them are political.</div>
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The worst thing that ever happened to the United States is our slide toward capitalism without tempering it with equal parts of socialism. We should know by now what a disaster it is to run an entire country as an oligarchy, but it looks like we really are slow learners.</div>
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Trump is Trump and always has been. He’s incorrigible, irredeemable, and only plays at being president. He should never have been given a moment of power. There, American press, now build on that. For god’s sake.</div>
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“Kids in cages”, “Black Lives Matter”, or “Women helping Women”, is like this: When my kids were growing to adulthood my rule was, whoever needs the most help at the moment gets the most attention. It doesn’t mean the others aren’t important or aren’t loved. </div>
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And, bless them, they all understood.</div>
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Reagan’s reign was the beginning of the end of our middle class. It’s maddening that he’s treated like an American hero when his first and foremost legacy is the destruction of an economy that favored all classes, not just the upper class. Trickle-down was and is a scam.</div>
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Funny how ‘bigotry’ has so many meanings these days. It’s almost as if real bigots have no idea what that word means.</div>
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John Lewis set the tone. He won the day by peacefully protesting with words, with empathy, with courage, showing us how we can be fearless in our righteous battles, even when winning is a long way off. It was, after all, ‘good trouble’.</div>
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Democracies fall, not because wannabe dictators are out there — they’re always out there — but because there are enough citizens who are willing to pave the way for their particular brand of fascism. It’s those citizens who worry me the most.</div>
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We’re not just heading toward a totalitarian government, we’re in the midst of it. We have to first admit the extent of our powerlessness before we can figure out how to change it. They’ve won and they’ve put us all in extreme danger. We can’t pretend otherwise.</div>
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Whenever anyone says we have to stop being ‘partisan’ what they mean is ‘Democrats, give in’. The Republicans have no intention of working together. They drew the battle lines. Let the battle begin.</div>
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The press is still using polite language when the times require brutal honesty. Racists, misogynists, bigots, etc., don’t deserve to be treated as anything less than what they are. They are not society’s norm, they’re abominations.</div>
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(To be continued. I'm thinking, I'm thinking!)<br />
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<br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-89856968912285639972020-07-23T09:39:00.000-04:002020-07-23T09:39:37.691-04:00Medicare and Obamacare: Same Old Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYqIRzEBU8JMl41-CjVoQ38tJbjIRbbhJZjju9Fn5aTLQB8PXyOOwLUtUWKBmSQxGe4FDch2EVCDNUYoiNK6D3XCBbkH4JNjgxrSHc332rZ6FuPAiDce06010YKH2bcayg5Wtghb_Ubwm/s1600/June-1966-Consumer-Reports-Magazine-Lawn-Mowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYqIRzEBU8JMl41-CjVoQ38tJbjIRbbhJZjju9Fn5aTLQB8PXyOOwLUtUWKBmSQxGe4FDch2EVCDNUYoiNK6D3XCBbkH4JNjgxrSHc332rZ6FuPAiDce06010YKH2bcayg5Wtghb_Ubwm/s400/June-1966-Consumer-Reports-Magazine-Lawn-Mowers.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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(Note: <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="background-color: transparent;">When the fur was flying over the ACA (Obamacare) more than seven years ago, I found an early story about the fur flying over Medicare in 1966. I wrote about it for the late Alan Colmes and his website, Liberaland. This is the story as it was published at <a href="https://www.alancolmes.com/2013/10/22/medicare-and-obamacare-same-old-story/" target="_blank">Alan.com</a>, October 22, 2013.</em><span style="background-color: transparent;">)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUJ2h34KB0f_PhXyHcA5I3vqvOHAsbLnqbbnKMzbC3IwFCC02JAi8HpbsxKwg0IWxLin3qEe3yukAFf-xkhZkwfqIwactTPw9ErxEZ8DYO4NSA6V6xqGyKcjDSF3WnAzvZVbPjXKiakrB8/s1600/divider+swirls+and+dots.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="51" data-original-width="500" height="20" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUJ2h34KB0f_PhXyHcA5I3vqvOHAsbLnqbbnKMzbC3IwFCC02JAi8HpbsxKwg0IWxLin3qEe3yukAFf-xkhZkwfqIwactTPw9ErxEZ8DYO4NSA6V6xqGyKcjDSF3WnAzvZVbPjXKiakrB8/s200/divider+swirls+and+dots.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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In the next town over from us the recycling station is in a huge semi-trailer. You have to climb six narrow metal steps to get up into it, but there is an aisle you can walk down and there are huge open boxes in which to throw your stuff. </div>
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The beauty of it is that while I’m dropping off my own recyclables, I can dig through the newspaper and magazine bins to see what’s there for the taking. Through the years we’ve found some fascinating reading, some of it as current as yesterday, but last week we found a treasure trove: Seventeen Consumer Reports magazines, ranging from1965 to 1980.<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><br />What struck me as I read through them was how much actual watchdogging went on within those pages and to what lengths they went to explain their findings. Page after page of small print, as if they actually anticipated that their readers would want to take the time to read it all. (No internet, no cable. I get it. But still. . .)</div>
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Back in June, 1966, their headline story was about the new Medicare law taking effect in July. The law was complicated. Every aspect of health insurance, hospitalizations, physician and pharmacy services, and medical goods had to be considered. Nothing like it had ever been done on such a large scale before. The Government was pouring an estimated $3 billion plus into it during the first year alone. Who would pay for what? Who would gain the most? Who would lose the most? (<i>Sound familiar?</i>)</div>
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There were worries about overcrowding of existing facilities. All of those sick folks who had never been eligible for insurance due to their pre-existing condition (old age) would now be bursting through the doors looking for a chance to live longer.</div>
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There were worries about elderly patients not wanting to leave their hospital beds, now that the money worries had been eased. There were worries about relatives scheming to leave their kin in those happy places rather than to have to take care of them at home.</div>
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There were worries about understaffing. They would need some 20,000 more doctors and more than 70,000 nurses, with a need for another 200,000 nurses by 1970.</div>
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But they were nothing compared to the worries keeping the insurance providers, the pharmaceutical companies, the heads of hospitals, and the Hippocratic doctors up at night. The threat of socialized medicine was upon them. This was it!</div>
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So let’s take a trip in the way-back machine–all the way back to the year 1961 when one Ronald Reagan agreed to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs" style="background: transparent; color: #01015f; line-height: inherit;" target="_blank">make a 10 minute LP record </a>sponsored by the AMA as part of <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/How-AMA-Coffeecup-gave-Reagan-a-boost-3228367.php" style="background: transparent; color: #01015f; line-height: inherit;" target="_blank">Operation Coffee Cup</a>, the supposed grass-roots plan to keep medicine out of the hands of the Government.</div>
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They called it “RONALD REAGAN speaks out against <i style="line-height: inherit;">SOCIALIZED MEDICINE”.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxoXprJPsI8-GV3DHRCGWm5tddn40DOt4U2z4MZ5Eh4ZR_nKup1qyQgdRyShOBlggd0iT9rcOwsaVWvWjp8iAix7ZdeNyHV5t6e1zeS2M1EuNxHUy3zLrIb1DQSV1dQv9Az7DqwHumUsr/s1600/Reagan+speaks+out+against+socialized+medicine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="494" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxoXprJPsI8-GV3DHRCGWm5tddn40DOt4U2z4MZ5Eh4ZR_nKup1qyQgdRyShOBlggd0iT9rcOwsaVWvWjp8iAix7ZdeNyHV5t6e1zeS2M1EuNxHUy3zLrIb1DQSV1dQv9Az7DqwHumUsr/s400/Reagan+speaks+out+against+socialized+medicine.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This was the same Ronald Reagan who, as president, pretty much kept his paws off Medicare, that dread portal to full-blown Socialism. I'm guessing the Heritage Foundation, much as they adore The Man, would just as soon forget the time The Best President in the Whole Wide World <a href="http://www.reagansheritage.org/html/reagan_edwards12.shtml" style="background: transparent; color: #01015f; line-height: inherit;" target="_blank">caved to the forces of the “politically pop</a><a href="http://www.reagansheritage.org/html/reagan_edwards12.shtml" style="background: transparent; color: #01015f; line-height: inherit;" target="_blank">ular” Medicare program</a> and began talking up adding <i style="line-height: inherit;">catastrophic acute care provisions for the elderly!</i></div>
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Such was the evolution of a hated, perennially doomed social program. Which brings us to the Affordable Care Act.</div>
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The ACA start-up costs may well be expensive to the point of mind-boggle, but, just as with Medicare, it’s a plan that is essential and long overdue. It’ll be full of jitters and glitches and adjustments, just as Medicare was. The full effect will be maddeningly slow, there will be a multitude of reasons to doubt it, and the opponents–those same opponents who have spent years trying to kill Social Security and Medicare–will never give up. (Forbes <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/10/14/obamacares-website-is-crashing-because-it-doesnt-want-you-to-know-health-plans-true-costs/" style="background: transparent; color: #01015f; line-height: inherit;" target="_blank">is claiming</a> the ACA website is crashing on purpose because “they” don’t want us to know how costly the plans really are. It’s also claiming a rise in insurance premiums by 99% for men and 62% for women–<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/10/01/15-myths-the-media-should-ignore-during-obamaca/196181" style="background: transparent; color: #01015f; line-height: inherit;" target="_blank">a claim already disputed and put to rest</a>.)</div>
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But here’s the thing about the opposition: When they showed their willingness to spend many millions on <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-healthcare-ads/conservative-groups-pouring-millions-of-dollars-into-ad-war-against-obamacare-idUSL1N0IJ1ZQ20131030" target="_blank">a Tea-Party-sanctioned hissy-fit against it</a> that went nowhere and benefited no one, they lost any chance to have a voice in the discussion about essential, low-cost Government-sponsored health care.</div>
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It will happen, with or without them. And years from now their cheering audiences will be shouting, “Hands off my Obamacare!”</div>
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-36532675033320130782020-07-13T14:56:00.002-04:002020-07-13T19:00:36.285-04:00When There's a Monster in Our Midst it Ain't About Tiddlywinks<div class="separator">
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Let's say there are two villages within yelling distance of each other. They almost never get along, what with cattle rustling and wife stealing and fence moving and all, but now there's a monster in their midst. Village Number Two hates the monster and is afraid of it but thinks it's best to go along with it against Village Number One because, you know, they did those THINGS.<br />
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Village Number One sees the writing on the wall or the smoke in the distance or something lost now to the mists of story, and calls on Village Number Two to join them in vanquishing the monster. Imagine their surprise when Village Number Two says, "Only if you admit you were wrong that time you took our Yahtzee table and turned it into a Tiddlywinks board. You know you did it!"</div>
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"Seriously?" says Village Number One. "We've got a monster breathing down on us and you want an apology??"</div>
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And Village Number Two, really incensed now, says, "And while we're at it, we don't like your village leaders. Get rid of them and put our guys in place or no deal."</div>
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So Village Number One, thinking only about the monster and not about hurt feelings, put a collective foot in mouth, and Hera help them, they <i>laughed out loud at Village Number Two</i>. They said, again, "Seriously?? There's a monster out there!"</div>
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Big mistake. Village Number Two said, "Forget it, we're not helping you", and the monster, seeing his chance, ate Village Number One whole.</div>
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For a while, Village Number Two (<i>a misnomer, since Village Number One no longer existed, but for the sake of clarity, since I'm not finished yet, let's still call them Number Two</i>) kept a wobbly peace with the monster. The monster grew bigger while they grew smaller and, while some of the villagers stayed awake nights worrying about it, the others chastised them for being such downers when they still had sunsets to watch and cute kittens to giggle over, and so what if they couldn't get coffee or pineapples or couldn't afford whale oil for their lamps? It wasn't perfect but it wasn't sure death, either. </div>
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But, as monsters are wont, this one demanded too much. The Number Twos couldn't keep up, couldn't make him happy, couldn't even feed themselves or keep roofs over their heads.<br />
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They decided they had to fight that thing.<br />
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It was a monster!</div>
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But they were only one small village. There was nobody else to help them. They never had a chance. The monster, disgusted with their constant whining, outraged over their inability to grow the size of their rallies, and realizing there was no more money to be made off of them, ate them whole.</div>
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The moral of the story is that if Village Number Two had only forgiven their differences and worked together with Village Number One they might have had enough resources to take on the monster, destroy him for good, and live relatively happily ever after. </div>
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By the time they decided Village Number One wasn't so bad, the monster in their midst had taken matters into his own claws and there was no turning back.</div>
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If only they had understood that thing Lady Hillary had tried to teach them: </div>
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It does, indeed, take a village.<br />
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(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/when-theres-a-monster-in-our-midst-it-ain-t-about-tiddlywinks-9fc164d6716e" target="_blank">Indelible Ink/Medium</a>)</div>
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Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-44562090152903788042020-06-03T09:40:00.000-04:002020-06-06T18:47:05.908-04:00The Politics of Emotion<h3>
We’re scared, we’re confused, we’re enraged — and that’s the way they want it</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This last week has been a doozy. An entire thesaurus of emotions bombard us every day, every night, and we’re at the point now where those of us who think, who care, who take the burdens of the world personally, are on sensory overload, dangerously close to imploding. Exploding. Doing ourselves no favors by feeling emotions so raw, so painful they render us, in the end, helpless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The catalyst this time? Another Black man’s senseless death at the hands of the police — say his name: George Floyd— and it’s almost more than we can bear. The Minneapolis cop who killed him did it in front of us, in broad daylight, gloating, smiling for the cameras, his knee pressing harder against George’s neck as George pleaded for his life, called for his mother, said I CAN’T BREATHE.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Three other cops stood watch over the killing. According to witnesses, at least one of them helped to hold George down. The crowd around them pleaded for the cop to stop but he didn’t move, didn’t ease the pressure, didn’t consider the minutes it took for the life to seep out of George Floyd’s bones. There were nine of them. Nine minutes. Two of them were probably a waste of time. At seven minutes George was already beyond help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As reports of George’s death began to surface, sorrow turned to rage. And rage turned to helplessness. It happened again. We couldn’t stop it. That portion of our nation who feels these things sat back and cried. Some of us did it in public, in front of the cameras, as we tried to grapple with emotions so out of control we couldn’t put words to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We watched as people who built their reputations on giving us the words that eased us, motivated us, energized us, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/28/bakari-sellers-george-floyd-death-newday-vpx.cnn" href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/28/bakari-sellers-george-floyd-death-newday-vpx.cnn" rel="noopener" target="_blank">fell apart before our eyes</a>, reduced to weeping out of sheer frustration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And Donald Trump, seeing us as pitiful, as vulnerable, as easy marks, grabbed at the chance to twist the knife and make it worse. The president-in-name-only didn’t rise to help a nation get through this, didn’t give the speech that would comfort or settle us or make us believe justice would be served. No, he took to Twitter and instigated. He teased, he taunted, he threatened. (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-minneapolis-protesters-thugs-flagged-twitter/" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-minneapolis-protesters-thugs-flagged-twitter/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">“When looting starts, the shooting starts.”</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Inevitably, the outrage took over and the protests devolved to riots in the streets across the country. Stores looted and burned. Some would say emotions blew it all up; others saw it as rank opportunism. Whatever it was, fire lit the skies, entire buildings were reduced to rubble, and we were left to<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> feel</em>. What the hell is <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">happening</em>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After a few days we were back to protesting for the right reasons — because George Floyd was dead and because black lives have to matter. Thousands of us marched peacefully, without incident, and the rest of us, watching from home, rejoiced at the numbers, at our unity, our solidarity, our humanity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But Donald Trump wasn’t done with us. He spent the riot days hiding in a bunker beneath the White House. We got wind of it and we let off some steam by making fun of him. So he put on his “I’ll show them” face and upstaged us by marching a few hundred yards, in broad daylight, looking for all the world like a tinpot dictator, a coterie of sycophants marching a few steps behind him, along a route lined with armed guards, to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where rioters had done some damage, and where he then stood, unannounced (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.14news.com/2020/06/01/dc-episcopal-bishop-i-am-outraged-by-trump-church-visit/" href="https://www.14news.com/2020/06/01/dc-episcopal-bishop-i-am-outraged-by-trump-church-visit/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">and unwelcome, it turns out</a>), muttered a few unintelligible words, held a bible over his head, and walked back to the White House.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It took maybe 20 minutes, but in order for Trump to make that walk, the crowds lining that street had to first be dispersed. Nobody knew it was coming. Suddenly the police came from out of nowhere and began forcing the crowds away, pushing, shoving, spraying them with tear gas, spattering them with rubber bullets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those of us watching in real time at home were horrified. It made no sense. They were more than a half hour from curfew. They were protesting peaceably. They had the right to be there. And uniformed men in riot gear came at them as if they were mad, snarling dogs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our hearts were in our throats. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Was this it then? Was this the battle we’d long been afraid of? Would we now be fighting for our very lives?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">No. It was just that Donald Trump wanted to make a show of walking those few yards because we made fun of him hiding in a bunker and because a damaged church made the perfect backdrop for his phony piety in these times of crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or something.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And we come away from this scared, confused, exhausted, wondering how many times we can go through this without just coming apart or just giving up. Knowing that’s what they want. They want us to come apart. They want us to give up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And we can’t. When our emotions get the best of us we have to stop a moment and rewind. We owe it to ourselves. But quit? Can we? You know we can’t. Because this is who we are. And that’s who they are. And it’s either us or them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/@ramonagrigg/the-politics-of-emotion-98314e8acce6?sk=8f67deac58a98070a45a499a31d2a18f" target="_blank">Medium</a>)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-91149995044784433222020-05-29T15:02:00.001-04:002020-06-14T08:14:03.951-04:00I Have No Power<h3 class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And I'm powerless to change that.</h3>
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Photo by <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://unsplash.com/@cristian_newman?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-creator noopener noopener" target="_blank">Cristian Newman</a> on <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-source noopener noopener" target="_blank">Unsplash</a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b>The pain I feel these days is existential. It’s not about the crunching in my knees or the flatiron pressed against my chest as I breathe, it’s harsher than that. It’s the pain behind knowing the world around me is a dangerous place and, as hard as I might try, I can do nothing to make it better.<br />
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This is new for me. I am the resident Pollyanna, the believer in great things coming from ordinary people, the pusher of positivity when everyone else sees darkness ahead.</div>
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People come to me looking for answers, and if I don’t have the answers I think I can at least comfort them with my positivity. As if all it takes are a few sunny words accompanied by a knowing smile. As if those few moments of respite will solve anything.</div>
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What bullshit.</div>
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I was a picky eater and when my mom told me about starving kids in China who would give anything for even a bite of what I was refusing, I would cry just thinking about them, their poor, wasted bodies — skin and bones. But I still wouldn’t eat it. And when lunch was over I skipped away, on to something else.</div>
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Later, when I had my own kids, I did the same thing, only it was poor starving kids in Africa. It was a lousy way to teach about awareness — as if filling their bellies was all it would take to remove the awful images of wholesale, planned starvation and death.</div>
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I came into this world thinking I could save it with sympathy and empathy. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t feeling sorry about something I had no control over. But feeling sorry can’t take the place of actually doing something. It’s why we’re so sick of “thoughts and prayers”. It’s too easy. It’s a brush-off. It’s “Oh, poor you! Here — let me hand you a posy. Feel better now? I know I do.”</div>
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I wanted to do more. I threatened to do more. I <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">promised</em> to do more. I did what I did and it wasn’t nearly enough.</div>
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I’ve been a liberal activist for more than 60 years, calling, marching, protesting, singing, writing — all without once feeling violated or threatened. Throughout my long years of what I called ‘activism’ I was never in any danger. I’m not saying this out of guilt. I’m saying it because now I’m aware. I chose activism over complacency, but if I had been active enough I would have, at some point, felt the sting of fear. I never did.</div>
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No matter how incensed or enraged I become when I find out about terrible actions against individual or groups, I can’t begin to understand how it must feel to be in the middle of those danger zones. How it is to have to live with it throughout my entire life. I’m not there. I’ve never been there. I never will be there.</div>
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I’ve been a writer for more than 30 years, much of it dwelling on rights issues, but I’ve been safe there, too. For the last 10 years I’ve focused on writing to change minds, but that hasn’t happened. All the while I’m writing to make a difference, I’m marveling at the writers who get it. Those writers who spoke to us so vividly, so masterfully they made us gasp at the majesty of their words. Surely <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">this</em> would do it. This, this amazing piece of writing would change the world, or at least our country, or at least… But it didn’t. It doesn’t. They couldn’t do it, either.</div>
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I’m writing this now because yesterday <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/28/bakari-sellers-george-floyd-death-newday-vpx.cnn" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I saw Bakari Sellers break down and cry on CNN</a>. This man who sought to change us, to make us aware, to use his often brilliant prose to bring us to attention and DO SOMETHING, broke down out of a feeling of frustration and pure, agonizing helplessness.</div>
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The catalyst was yet another murder of an innocent black man, in broad daylight, with cameras rolling. The killer was a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. He put a knee to George Floyd’s neck and kept it there for nine minutes, as George pleaded for his life, called for his mother, said he was in pain, said “I CAN’T BREATHE”.</div>
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Other police officers stood there for those nine minutes and did nothing. They could have saved George Floyd, who wasn’t resisting, was crying out, was barely breathing after a few minutes of that pressure on his neck, but they didn’t.</div>
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Once again, the police officer wasn’t put in handcuffs immediately, wasn’t taken into custody for murdering a black man. We were assured that he would be fired. The authorities would look into it. They would ‘look into’ an incident that was witnessed by dozens of people, was filmed and sent out to the airwaves, was clearly, without a doubt, without provocation, a deliberate killing of an innocent man.</div>
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And Bakari Sellers wants to know how he’s going to explain this to his son. How does he keep his boy from being afraid when this same horrible scene happens over and over and over?</div>
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“There’s just so much pain,” Sellers said, sobbing, “I get so tired.”</div>
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Add Bakari Sellers to the long, long list of activists who work so hard, who try so hard, and who, when another tragedy happens, end up having to acknowledge how little they can actually do.</div>
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Then there are the rest of us. We have no power. The reality of our powerlessness is hard to take. All we can do is howl.</div>
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(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/@ramonagrigg/i-have-no-power-927db5dcdc3d" target="_blank">Medium</a>)</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-43284928371755740152020-04-26T18:05:00.003-04:002021-02-28T14:54:43.640-05:00What Happened Between Joe Biden and Tara Reade?<h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="20db">
Nobody really knows. And that’s the problem.</h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWzeSH1aUfK0lmWUqrDJy5ssvPJj_xKQ8OsFs88swOXhKxI-OviJ8KFDdg9mCMBnTTjvPjTcz187j3LunUmoLNS2Fj1yOa7ei5o0aCjWigMiReDe5jqdhvBbVxJLrPSKDQQ3K_FEvstxD7/s1600/Joe+Biden+embraces+hurricane+victim.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="1024" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWzeSH1aUfK0lmWUqrDJy5ssvPJj_xKQ8OsFs88swOXhKxI-OviJ8KFDdg9mCMBnTTjvPjTcz187j3LunUmoLNS2Fj1yOa7ei5o0aCjWigMiReDe5jqdhvBbVxJLrPSKDQQ3K_FEvstxD7/s400/Joe+Biden+embraces+hurricane+victim.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo: Liz Roll, FEMA. VP Biden consoling hurricane victim</i></td></tr>
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I consider myself a feminist. I support the Me-Too Movement. I’ve written about women’s issues for decades. I was a charter Ms Magazine member, joining up before the first issue was even printed in 1972, and it was as if Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, was written just for me.<br />
<br />
I hated what <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2014/05/monica-bill-and-vast-right-wing.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2014/05/monica-bill-and-vast-right-wing.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Bill Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky</a> and I said so.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0b18">
I hated what Anthony Weiner and so many other powerful men have done, sex-wise, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2011/06/men-power-reckless-sex-why-what-are-we.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2011/06/men-power-reckless-sex-why-what-are-we.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">and I’ve said so</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b9ac">
Still, much to the consternation of many of my friends, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2017/11/al-franken-shouldnt-resign.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2017/11/al-franken-shouldnt-resign.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I defended Al Franken</a>. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Full disclosure, no shame.</em>)<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f7e2">
I’ve spent most of my writing life <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2009/02/diogenes-and-me-on-road-again.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2009/02/diogenes-and-me-on-road-again.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">looking for an honest man</a> and constantly being disappointed. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Don’t even get me started on the Republicans.</em>)<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="bffe">
I worked hard to get Hillary Clinton elected in 2016, and I’m not over the trauma of the outcome yet. Before I kick off, I want to see a woman sitting at the Resolute Desk, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">owning</em> the Oval Office. This year I wanted it to be Elizabeth Warren.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b858">
I voted for Warren in this year’s primary and hated how badly she lost her chance at the presidency. Joe Biden wasn’t even in the running for me. But, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/i-cried-when-warren-left-but-now-its-biden-here-s-why-ccf98a60846e" href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/i-cried-when-warren-left-but-now-its-biden-here-s-why-ccf98a60846e" target="_blank">as I wrote after she dropped out</a>, I’m going all out for Joe now.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="aa2a">
There are things about Biden that bother me, but there were things that bothered me about each of the candidates, including Warren. That’s as it should be in a country where we still have free thought and are allowed our opinions. In a profession like politics — where ideas are a dime a dozen and purity is in short supply — a certain amount of tolerance is a necessity. The way we get things done is by working on them from the inside, not the outside.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5be4">
We don’t fall in love with politicians. Giving full and absolute loyalty to a single person who may ultimately hold power over us is anathema to most Americans. Most of us look at people and issues with our eyes wide open and react based on their performance, not — I’m just going to say it — on their likability.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1e31">
So about Joe Biden: Joe can be likable. Millions of Americans like him and those who know him well like him a lot. Still, he’s a public figure, so we’ve seen, too, that he can be silly, irritating, confused, and confusing. But we’re in troubled times now and what I see in a Biden presidency is the kind of calmness, experience, and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">sanity</em> we’re craving. And — here’s where we may part ways — I see an innate sense of decency.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e38a">
I’ve heard all of the reasons why Joe can’t be trusted with the presidency: Plagiarism, Centrism, Anita Hill, voting for wars and corporate livelihoods, riding on coattails, cozying up to the GOP, senility, flagrant linguistic sloppiness, goofiness, handsiness— and now sexual accusations.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="bfc6">
The oppo stuff is typical — build a case against your rival by exaggerating the things that might make him look bad and ignore any good he’s done. But sexual accusations are something new. These we have to take seriously.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="417b">
Which brings me to Joe Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade. I’ve read both sides and I don’t know what to believe. I should be able to concede that she believes Joe thrust his fingers into her vagina when she was interning for him in 1993, but I’m going to be honest here: I’m not even close to that point yet.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9338">
Most women I know — me included — want to believe every woman. We desperately want to make up for all the times women<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> weren’t</em> believed, and give full support to the women who<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> aren’t</em> believed. But the truth is, women <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">have</em> lied about being raped. We know it happens. Our gender does not prevent us from lying, even about something as serious as rape.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="00db">
I went along with “Believe all women” for a time, because our goal was to make a point: There were too many men who got away with serial sexual abuse because for too long women were led to believe they couldn’t win by telling the truth. One by one, we watched big men fall — Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein — and the length and breadth of their abuse was stunning. It was as if they knew there was no chance the woman would be believed. And why would they worry? Women <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">weren’t</em> believed.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0f55">
But this story has an odor to it. It didn’t come out until after Joe Biden became the presumptive nominee, and it’s being pushed hard by factions known to be hostile to Democrats and the Biden team. The latest, thrown out there as a ‘bombshell’, is that Tara Reade’s mother called into the Larry King Show in 1993 and told the whole story. Except she didn’t. The caller, an unidentified woman, complained that a certain nameless senator was causing unspecified problems for her unnamed daughter and she wanted to know who she could contact in the Senate to complain about it. That was the extent of it. There is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=bBTwwOHV6vQ" target="_blank">video of the call</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="960e">
In <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://theintercept.com/2020/04/24/new-evidence-tara-reade-joe-biden/" href="https://theintercept.com/2020/04/24/new-evidence-tara-reade-joe-biden/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">an article in the Intercept</a>, disingenuously entitled, “New Evidence Supporting Tara Reade’s Allegations Against Joe Biden Emerges”, Ryan Grim manages to prove just the opposite — that there is no supporting evidence — then soldiers on, working up to the burden being on Joe Biden to prove his innocence:</div>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="8024">
<i>In interviews with The Intercept, Reade also mentioned that her mother had made a phone call to “Larry King Live” on CNN, during which she made reference to her daughter’s experience on Capitol Hill. Reade told The Intercept that her mother called in asking for advice after Reade, then in her 20s, left Biden’s office. “I remember it being an anonymous call and her saying my daughter was sexually harassed and retaliated against and fired, where can she go for help? I was mortified,” Reade told me.</i></blockquote>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b343">
Later in the article, Grim shows clearly that the King Show transcript says no such thing.</div>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="ab07">
<i>Congressional records list August 1993 as Reade’s last month of employment with Biden’s Senate office, and, according to property records, Reade’s mother, Jeanette Altimus, was living in San Luis Obispo County. Here is the transcript of the beginning of the call:</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="f1bd">
<i>KING: San Luis Obispo, California, hello.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="f96c">
<i>CALLER: Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="d96b">
<i>KING: In other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="463a">
<i>CALLER: That’s true.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="f54b">
<i>King’s panel of guests offered no suggestions, and instead the conversation veered into a discussion of whether any of the men on set would leak damaging personal information about a rival to the press.</i></blockquote>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="6adb">
There is nothing there that I can see. Still, it’s being used as proof that Biden has a lot to answer for. There are no Senate records showing that Reade filed a formal complaint; there is no evidence that the attack took place, no witnesses, yet the internet is awash with hashtags accusing the Democratic nominee of being a rapist.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b867">
I’ve thrown my full support behind Joe Biden for reasons I’ve already described and won’t go into again. I’ve made no bones about it on Facebook and on Twitter, and the response, not just from Republicans, but from purported Democrats as well, is wearying to say the least. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been shouted down after being told that I’m supporting a sexual predator.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4044">
So, as I defend his public record, or give the reasons why we have to go with Joe (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">to keep Trump from winning and to bring bona fide expertise into his administration</em>), more often than not anything I have to say has no validity because “Joe Biden is a rapist”. End of story.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="db04">
But it’s <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">not</em> the end of the story. The story is the accusation. That’s all we have. He’s the Democratic candidate for the presidency and there is an accusation of rape hanging over him. I don’t know whether or not it’s true. Nobody does except the two people involved, and they’re telling different stories.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1bad">
Is it likely? I find it hard to believe, but anything is likely. Who would have believed Dr. Huxtable would be capable of truly sickening sexual assaults?<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b2a8">
Rape accusations are, of necessity, highly sensitive. Physical evidence is rare, witnesses are even rarer, and the accusations can surface long after the alleged attack. Most often it’s the woman who has to do the proving.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2f9b">
I’m keenly aware of all of it, and my heart goes out to every woman faced with having to deal with the reactions to any accusation of a sexual nature. But the fact is, we just can’t destroy a reputation if there isn’t enough to go on. And right now there isn’t enough to go on.<br />
<br />
________________________________<br />
<br />
(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/what-happened-between-joe-biden-and-tara-reade-616944805168" target="_blank">Medium</a>)</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-8944324459759369202020-04-01T10:21:00.002-04:002020-04-10T20:04:51.500-04:00It's a Pandemic. You'll Have To Change The Way You Do Things.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7-5Hrfnyp0CCxHgOL2L35PsZljA6RLtEa-j3sltjQsTeieae4SzEFqcvKUg07dumqDUc7WcJSboyo15TArp44j5ISy63j97DqMfiw82Va79J477IBaItxDMF5uSW8sbg0tvpWrkF-wS8/s1600/Flag+and+pine+trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="665" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7-5Hrfnyp0CCxHgOL2L35PsZljA6RLtEa-j3sltjQsTeieae4SzEFqcvKUg07dumqDUc7WcJSboyo15TArp44j5ISy63j97DqMfiw82Va79J477IBaItxDMF5uSW8sbg0tvpWrkF-wS8/s640/Flag+and+pine+trees.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b7bc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t have to tell you we’re in the midst of a near-total shut-down, trying to save as many citizens as possible during an already deadly pandemic. People who aren’t sick yet are hurting, too, trying to maintain their lives, trying to stay safe. Workers are out of jobs and struggling to stay afloat. Businesses are suffering, many of them already in their death throes. They may not survive this. Our unemployment rates are pointing toward astronomical. This recession may turn into a full-blown depression. And the worst part: People are suffering and dying in numbers that grow exponentially, without signs of slowing. We’re all terrified, and I’m not making it better by reminding you of just how much.</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2acf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But here’s the thing: We have a chance now to show the country who we are in a crisis. It’s our make-or-break moment and it’s up to each of us to rise to the challenge. We’ve done it before. This is all sounding familiar.</span></div>
<figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="km kn ca ko ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 300ms; transition-property: transform; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 100%; z-index: auto;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="600" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/28/0*CKKqGkleYU5u6_XR.jpg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="800" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="600" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/665/0*CKKqGkleYU5u6_XR.jpg" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="800" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><a class="cd fe le lf lg lh" href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/naomi-parker-fraley-real-rosie-riveter-has-died-96-180967935/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-image: url(&quot; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; data: image/svg+xml; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg&quot; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We Can Do It” — National Museum of American History</span></a></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I lived through rationing during World War II. I know — I was only a kid — but I remember things. I was in charge of collecting and cleaning bottles and tin cans. I peeled off labels, washed them, cut off the can bottoms, stuffed them inside the cans and stomped them flat. (<em class="lw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">That was the best part.</em>) I bundled newspapers and cardboard and listened to my parents complain when there wasn’t enough coffee. (<em class="lw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">They were allowed one pound once a month for each of them. I didn’t count as a person yet.</em>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We kids brought our dimes to school and bought War Stamps and pasted them into books. My parents bought Victory bonds when they could.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="1024" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/20/0*8LxeNJvGkoPFp8V3.jpg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="721" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="1024" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/665/0*8LxeNJvGkoPFp8V3.jpg" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="721" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikimedia</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea of rationing was to make sure everyone had just enough, but not too much. The problem with rationing — just as now — was that they never figured how to stop greed. We were warned against black marketeers almost as often as we were against ‘loose lips sinking ships’.</span></div>
<figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="km kn ca ko ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 300ms; transition-property: transform; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 100%; z-index: auto;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="961" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/22/0*k5es4hr67rom8F6G?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="729" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="961" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/665/0*k5es4hr67rom8F6G" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="729" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hennepin County Library — <a class="cd fe le lf lg lh" href="https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/p17208coll3/id/121/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-image: url(&quot; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; data: image/svg+xml; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg&quot; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">with permission</a></span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="dq dr mb" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 650px;">
<div class="kt r ca ku" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); box-sizing: inherit; display: block; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: auto; position: relative;">
<div class="mc r" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; padding-bottom: 127.53%;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="829" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/23/0*4Y-6JYexXD0kjsKk?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="650" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="829" role="presentation" sizes="650px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/617/0*4Y-6JYexXD0kjsKk" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="650" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikimedia Commons</span></figcaption></figure><br />
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="226d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We saved grease and took it to the butcher because it could be used for explosives. In some parts they collected garbage to feed hogs. People grew Victory Gardens and shared what they grew.</span></div>
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<figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="dq dr md" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 320px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="452" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/20/0*tYUmzqsKjgG9kVkE?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="320" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="452" role="presentation" sizes="320px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/304/0*tYUmzqsKjgG9kVkE" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="320" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">National Archives</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We stopped traveling when gas was rationed, and rubber tires were as valuable as gold. Our giddy idea of wealth was a spare tire and a patching kit. </span></div>
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<figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="dq dr mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 314px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="400" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/23/0*yy7MchfTk6OmxsPh.jpg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="314" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="640" role="presentation" sizes="314px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/298/0*yy7MchfTk6OmxsPh.jpg" style="background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="502" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Library of Congress</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Nylon became a commodity used for parachutes, women took to wearing leg makeup and drawing fake seam lines down the backs of their legs. (<em class="lw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Because working women were required to wear skirts and ‘hose’ at all times.</em>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="575" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/24/0*3HMAGCkQY23dqEt4.jpg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="475" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="575" role="presentation" sizes="475px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/451/0*3HMAGCkQY23dqEt4.jpg" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="475" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Source: Smithsonian</span></figcaption></figure><figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="km kn ca ko ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 300ms; transition-property: transform; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 100%; z-index: auto;">
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<span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="1758" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/23/0*NYF23xU5D1gpUCeH?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="1400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/665/0*NYF23xU5D1gpUCeH" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poster source: <a class="cd fe le lf lg lh" href="https://fee.org/articles/the-two-price-system-us-rationing-during-world-war-ii/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-image: url(&quot; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; data: image/svg+xml; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg&quot; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Foundation for Economic Education</a></span></span></figcaption></figure><br />
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0038" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were posters on walls and in magazines reminding us that our days of being wasteful were behind us. We had to be good citizens or Hitler and Tojo would win. And we didn’t want that, did we?</span></div>
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<figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="km kn ca ko ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 300ms; transition-property: transform; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 100%; z-index: auto;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="480" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/21/0*MVMt8_lzi9C5qzyd.jpg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="352" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="480" role="presentation" sizes="352px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/334/0*MVMt8_lzi9C5qzyd.jpg" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="352" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">National Archives</span></figcaption></figure><br />
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7664" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, much of it was propaganda meant to scare us, but it did the job: We were scared. It was our government at work, doing everything they could to keep the armies of the world safe and efficient against our common enemies, and, as good citizens, we were required to help.</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0b33" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notice a pattern in these posters? It was all about <em class="lw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">shaming</em>. It was all about <em class="lw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">being proud to be an American</em>. You want to be a good citizen? Then do what you can to keep our boys alive. Let’s win this thing!</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="de50" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we did. There is no question that too many Americans died in that war, but we did what we had to do to keep even more Americans from dying. And we felt good about it. That was key. We weren’t sitting on our hands waiting for something to happen, we were a <em class="lw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">force</em>. We had it in us to make simple sacrifices that ultimately made the difference.</span></div>
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<figure class="kg kh ki kj kk kl dq dr paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 56px auto 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="dq dr mn" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 400px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="s t u kq ai kw kx be qh" height="280" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/28/0*wkPCjL32KBY45Shv.jpg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 100%; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition-delay: 400ms; transition-duration: 0ms; transition-property: visibility; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 100%;" width="400" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img class="ot pv s t u kq ai ky" height="280" role="presentation" sizes="400px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/380/0*wkPCjL32KBY45Shv.jpg" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: inherit; height: 100%; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: ease; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="bl by kz la lb gz dq dr lc ld bg ft" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikimedia</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here we are again. We’re being asked to take stock and see what we can do to help. If it takes shaming, I’m all for it. If it takes constant reminders about what you can do for your country, remind me. Constantly.</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d66a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what if we could do this by just thinking about it and doing the right thing?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cea4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if we didn’t hoard?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fdad" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if we didn’t gather in crowds?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="152b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if we learned new ways of doing things?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="efca" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if we conserved food so others could eat, too?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1299" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if we came together in hundreds of thousands of communities and looked out for each other?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6823" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And what if, when this is over, we kept it up?</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="83fb" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every life lost is a tragedy. Everyone is in danger. If we can do even a little to help the cause, we must do it. If we can do more, we must do more. We’re citizens of the world and the world is hurting. It really is up to us now.</span></div>
<div class="li lj ap bh lk b iu ll iw lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt fv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="83fb" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/@ramonagrigg/its-a-pandemic-you-ll-have-to-change-the-way-you-do-things-431f78b0fba2?source=friends_link&sk=92de2aab3cd820ab9750f3d0bd795800" target="_blank">Medium</a>)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-45290297947003813292020-03-07T14:12:00.000-05:002020-03-07T20:47:00.723-05:00I Cried When Warren left, but Now It’s Biden. Here’s Why.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ku-OhomtCB5MgqNhlbYFzIJuNsr0H67-y5_bImY7eWAtos1fAHNMNhfmQBcIkZi2drVACMhrY9uL8wyFFCwY2d8U_MMPVV4NdGKmqqEBljg4Lj1kCrxWyk37ZHro6SIIauOXYoqRgHEW/s1600/Joe+Biden+praying+hands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1000" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ku-OhomtCB5MgqNhlbYFzIJuNsr0H67-y5_bImY7eWAtos1fAHNMNhfmQBcIkZi2drVACMhrY9uL8wyFFCwY2d8U_MMPVV4NdGKmqqEBljg4Lj1kCrxWyk37ZHro6SIIauOXYoqRgHEW/s400/Joe+Biden+praying+hands.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Joe Biden - Flickr public domain</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="488b">
On Friday, March 6, the morning after Elizabeth Warren invited Rachel Maddow into her home for a live interview to discuss her withdrawal from the presidential race, her thoughts about the plans she put forward, and her hopes for the future, I watched two brilliant women talk for an hour without notes, without scripts, without guile — just putting it all out there — and I felt sorrow. Abject sorrow. And I knew I wasn't alone.</div>
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But when the hour was over, after they helped me send sorrow packing and replaced it with hope and pride, I knew where I would transfer my allegiance. It would go to the candidate with the greatest chance of building alliances and winning.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2155">
I know he may not be Elizabeth’s choice or Rachel’s choice, but Joe Biden is now my choice. It’s no secret I wanted a woman president. I stopped even considering a man when I saw there were women who could not only do the job, but far surpass many of the male candidates. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren — it’s tough to watch them fail when they’re so damned qualified — but something happened, I honestly don’t know what, and they didn’t make it to the end.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2155">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="dd62">
I built what I’ve written here as <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://twitter.com/RamonaGrigg/status/1235923196098068480" href="https://twitter.com/RamonaGrigg/status/1235923196098068480" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a Twitter thread</a>, but I thought I could use this format to make it more accessible. I hope I can convince more voters that there are valid reasons to vote for Joe Biden. These are just some of them:</div>
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<br />
<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="811c"><img class="graf-image" data-height="283" data-image-id="1*UuP6pyt2g0XEjI9T18XuWA.png" data-width="599" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*UuP6pyt2g0XEjI9T18XuWA.png" /></figure><br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="6d9b">
Watching Warren on <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://twitter.com/maddow" href="https://twitter.com/maddow" rel="noopener" target="_blank">@Maddow</a> last night with anger, sadness, and pride. She didn’t make this run but she has a plan. She’s not done, and neither are we. I’m going with Biden now and I’m at peace with that, not because I think he isn’t flawed — he is. But here’s the thing:</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="6d9b">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="fe77">
Joe will disappoint me, he’ll infuriate me, he’ll embarrass me, but he won’t do anything to deliberately hurt me. People who know him intimately — including his colleagues in DC — talk about his big heart. He gives his cell phone # to people who tell him their painful stories.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ce21">
He has the support of people like<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/politics/jim-clyburn-endorses-joe-biden/index.html" target="_blank"> Jim Clyburn</a>, a man with more integrity in his little finger than all of the Trumps put together. Joe understands the necessity of a Big Tent and when he says we’re all welcome, he means it. The people around him mean it. And I need that.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ce21">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e580">
He’ll build a cabinet of people who respect their positions and understand the work ahead. The pros will start in on Day one, the only drama being the enormity of their tasks. I won’t have to wonder if they know what they’re doing. I won’t have to question their motives.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e580">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e91b">
Every Democrat already working in the halls of Congress, in the halls of justice, will get behind Joe, steering him, encouraging him, and he will listen. He will brainstorm. He will understand that the country comes first. He will work hard for us — and he will make mistakes.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e91b">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="acd2">
Joe Biden has made plenty of mistakes, almost all of them mistakes we’ve hashed over for years. Anita Hill, plagiarism, the Iraq War vote — so many others soon to be fodder for both the left and the right in the coming months ahead. I make no excuses for Joe’s past blunders.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="acd2">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="8673">
But I’ll support him now, without equivocation, because, of the three old men that are my only choices, (not that Trump is even remotely my choice) he is by far the best to lead us out of this mess. It’s not because he’ll work miracles. He won’t. He’ll be far from perfect.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="8673">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7ecc">
But he’ll bring with him the best of the best. The proven workers from inside and out. The established pros who are already working tirelessly to take down the Republicans threatening whole segments of our citizenry day after day after day. Social programs will be safe.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7ecc">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="50f6">
He’ll have a powerhouse behind him, already in place, already keenly aware, and deeply embedded in the process of removing the very real threats coming from the White House, from Congress, and from the courts. They know the secrets. All they need now is the unobstructed power.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="50f6">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e7f2">
The transition, if Joe Biden is nominated, will be smooth and seamless. They know Joe and Joe knows them. They are the ‘establishment’, and that’s to our advantage. They’ve seen up close and personal the damage the Trump regime has caused. They’re positioned. They’re ready.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e7f2">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7a8f">
But, until we’re in that place where we’re the decision-makers, we’re mere voices in the wind. We’re hurting but we’re not shattered. We have the means to build again, together. The enemy isn’t us, it’s them.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="7a8f">
***</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7a8f">
(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/@ramonagrigg/i-cried-when-warren-left-but-now-its-biden-here-s-why-ccf98a60846e?sk=2535cff6b3dbabe024c316e1703abff0" target="_blank">Medium</a>)</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--empty" name="f926">
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></div>
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-9327384885038238572020-02-29T09:16:00.001-05:002020-06-14T08:17:31.107-04:00I Am That Liberal You Think You Know<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg35X9gmp19CxlxjlvecjZbBDsSGkffaC82HYebo49Cs0QX83mtEPN8kFJAwkoKNoTDMJFKWSCwN_7LqoXwtK8KYEoKQRfiVzx0mE2WkN1uznjXljPJNmPXy7ad5zyeUn14QQWZ8L-_qYoG/s1600/constitution+and+we+the+people.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1300" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg35X9gmp19CxlxjlvecjZbBDsSGkffaC82HYebo49Cs0QX83mtEPN8kFJAwkoKNoTDMJFKWSCwN_7LqoXwtK8KYEoKQRfiVzx0mE2WkN1uznjXljPJNmPXy7ad5zyeUn14QQWZ8L-_qYoG/s400/constitution+and+we+the+people.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I’m a Liberal Democrat, capital L, capital D. I’ve been a Liberal Democrat my entire adult life. I’ve never been ashamed of being either one. Why would I be? We Liberal Democrats have a long history of public service in the best sense of the words. We’ve been the caretakers while the Republicans have traditionally fought against any thought of taking care of all citizens. Emphasis on ALL citizens.<br />
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="8ec7">
We work at being inclusive while the Republicans pride themselves on their exclusivity. <b>While we’re trying to build a country they’re building a club.</b></div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="fa54">
So here’s a radical thought: Let the Liberals do it. Give us a chance to show how it could be done.<br />
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Liberals, you like to remind us, are the classic political nerds, not good for anything but maybe wedgies or noogies. Quaint naïve little do-gooders lost in a world of ruthless cruelty without weapons adequate enough to bruise a flea.<br />
<br />
In the 1980s, around about the time the actor Ronald Reagan, friendly Midwestern Liberal turned hard-hearted California conservative, was enshrined as The Teflon POTUS, the word went out that Liberals — those ridiculous “for the people” gadflies — were ruining the country by helping too many undeserving and impoverished leeches, by welcoming foreigners, by insisting that workers be represented by hard-nosed unions, by pushing the toxic notion that health care shouldn’t be for-profit, and by tightening, enforcing, or inventing regulations that were or would be anathema to the gold-plated entities they targeted.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="fa54">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2595">
It wasn’t hard to convince the many millions that health, wealth, and happiness could only come from a government without teeth, from the benevolence of ridiculously powerful corporations, and, if all else failed, from that venerable standby, Old Testament God.<br />
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All that stood in the way were those insufferable Liberals.<br />
<br />
Liberals became such pariahs an entire bloc jumped ship and took on a new name: Progressives. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">I would describe them for you here, but I admit I don’t know the difference. So far they’ve been relatively friendly. Don’t look to me to rock that boat.</em>)<br />
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But what we Liberals are known for are hearts that gush blood whenever injustice rears its massive, ugly head. We see a bleeding heart as a badge of honor. The same with tears. We cry when things move us, and we don’t hide from our emotions. Our anger stems from compassion, our outrage roars at cruelty. We wear our hearts on our sleeves and it’s not meant as a fashion statement.<br />
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Liberals have a long history of getting things done. We pulled the entire country out of a great depression by hiring our citizens to do meaningful busy-work, by using our charitable might, by giving dignity and hope back to a country mired in poverty and hopelessness.<br />
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We built the unions and gave workers a voice. We put an end to child labor. We fought to give every adult citizen the right to vote, no matter their gender or color. We helped the poor and the elderly by creating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Clean Air act, and the Clean Water Act. We ended a recession that nearly destroyed the middle class.<br />
<br />
We did all that and more against the wishes — and the might — of fat cats and right wingers who sorely wanted what we’re heading for today: a country ruled by non-contributing despots whose only interests are power, greed, and self-preservation.<br />
<br />
We are not that country and we never will be. The Trump phenomenon is an anomaly, destined as a vivid warning in our history books, a long chapter on how close we came to letting our democracy die. We’re still a majority of the good and, thankfully, most of us aren’t ashamed to show it. It’s our time now and there’s much to do. They’re out there waiting for us and they have heavy weapons. </div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2595">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2595">
The truth-tellers are under barrage and the liars appear to be winning. Not in any honest way — that’s not their MO — but they’ve built a formidable army with thugs in both the House and the Senate, corrupt judges with life-long positions and no former experience, rules and laws that favor the wealthy and crush the poor, shady dealings with foreign dictators, and, if all else fails, voting machines spewing out questionable tallies.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="037c">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b5fa">
We can’t afford to get it wrong this time. We are a country on the brink and this is no time to dismiss anyone working to change this mess. Do we need labels to tell us apart? Not as much as we might think. It’s enough that we’re on the same team. Not everyone on the team comes from the same background, but everyone should have the same goal. To win.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b5fa">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3319">
Come November, 2020, we have to win. There is no other acceptable outcome. So I’ll be <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">That Liberal</em> and you be…<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">you</em>. But let’s work at winning together. It's only our entire country that's at stake.<br />
<br />
(A version of this appears <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/i-am-that-liberal-you-think-you-know-443140ddce55" target="_blank">at Medium</a>)</div>
</div>
<br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-31812334243957087122020-02-28T08:08:00.000-05:002020-02-28T08:08:03.929-05:00Bernie Lost This FDR Liberal and It's His Fault, Not MIne<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZBdlaMLaTq1qSd4dOEwTDzgngqUAupIYHRTpf2qqRUXyIaGwTpTlU8diDl4NdYsiGPQ75TZIOYInwouvK4LyyuuxvnbgtU8G_LKf2_kiVuIey_KPuIutbmzTupCIfFSEJGf1SkVZPf4G/s1600/Bernie+Sanders+Forbes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZBdlaMLaTq1qSd4dOEwTDzgngqUAupIYHRTpf2qqRUXyIaGwTpTlU8diDl4NdYsiGPQ75TZIOYInwouvK4LyyuuxvnbgtU8G_LKf2_kiVuIey_KPuIutbmzTupCIfFSEJGf1SkVZPf4G/s400/Bernie+Sanders+Forbes.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Forbes</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
I’m a liberal and Bernie Sanders is a Democratic Socialist. Both of us have our roots in good old FDR blue collar pragmatism. I thought, way back in 2011, when <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2011/06/stop-search-diogenes-we-found-him-its.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2011/06/stop-search-diogenes-we-found-him-its.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I wrote glowingly about him</a>, that if he ever decided to run for president I would be first in line to cheer him on.<br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c325">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5e32">
I wrote:</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="cebf">
<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont, held the senate floor for 90 minutes yesterday, talking directly to President Obama, pleading, cajoling, scolding — begging the president to take the lead on obvious things like lifting the poor and the downtrodden out of the depths, protecting them from any more grief, and demanding that the rich pay their fair share of U.S. taxes.</em></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="cebf">
<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"><br />
</em></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9ce7">
He was voicing everything I believed and he was one of the very few. I wanted to go on liking him. I wanted it so much, I went on pretending, long after I had grown squeamish about what I was seeing from him.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9ce7">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e97a">
I wanted to believe his shouting and his finger-wagging were simply signs that he was immersed in wanting to do the right thing, but he smirked. He smirked a lot. And it was his haughty, knowing grin whenever his audience reacted to his many anti-Democrat accusations that convinced me this was not someone calling for solidarity.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e97a">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e4e2">
In time it became clear that his idea of doing the right thing was to build himself up by attacking any Democrat who wasn’t willing to go along. He latched onto “establishment Democrats”, “corporate Democrats”, and encouraged the term “neo-libs”. He kept it up long after the 2016 primaries, when he should have been joining the Dems in supporting not only Hillary Clinton but every Democrat working to get elected in every city, county, state, or federal battleground.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e4e2">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1330">
He didn’t do that. He balked at everything, including handing the primary vote over to Hillary when it was clearly long past time. He talked up “revolution”, pushing his followers to stick with him long after the space between the primaries and the general election had closed behind him. He tolerated chaos from his own ranks when what we needed desperately was unity. His was a mission unto himself and the Democrats he refused to join up with had no place in it.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1330">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0007">
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2016/05/bernie-sanders-ugly-break-up-with-party.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2016/05/bernie-sanders-ugly-break-up-with-party.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I wrote this about Bernie</a> in May, 2016:</div>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="a422">
It comes down to this: Bernie is my first choice as revolutionary leader. As revolutionary leaders go, Bernie ranks right up there at the top. But if Bernie should win the presidency, his days as a radical revolutionary leader are over. He wouldn’t in a million years be able to accomplish as much as he might if he stays on the outside pressing for the goals he has outlined during his campaign…<br />
<br />
…A president has to be all things to all people. The leader of a revolution has to stay focused on the cause. Bernie, if he wins, won’t be able to do that and he’ll disappoint the people who are counting on him to make radical change. They’ll start a revolution without him, or in spite of him, or against him.</blockquote>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c905">
I haven’t changed my mind. Donald Trump may have shown us what the true Dark Side looks like when it gains ultimate power, but the Democratic presidential candidate can’t be a frothing revolutionary. Some would like to think we’ve moved that far to the left, but we haven’t. And we shouldn’t.<br />
<br />
Bernie cemented it when he brought in known haters like Cenk Uyger, Michael Moore, David Sirota, Nina Turner, and Susan Sarandon. They went on the attack against Democrats, almost as if Donald Trump and the entire GOP were not the real threat.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c905">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e614">
I’ve never been convinced that Democrats shine as a party when they move away from wanting to be allies to <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">all</em> Americans, and not just <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">some</em> Americans. We’re not the party of dividers. We’re at our best when we’re lifting each other up, not dragging each other down.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e614">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="a6f6">
I submit that Barack Obama’s popularity stayed constant mainly because he refused to get down in the mud. He refused to attack his allies or to get vicious when he was going after his enemies. He understood — and admired — the honor and the obligations of his office, and he’ll be remembered for that, long after Donald Trump disappears into the twilight.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="a6f6">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5184">
I am a Democrat. I’ve been a Democrat for more than 60 years and, no matter how frustrated or disappointed I am in my political family, I’ll never be anything else. I will always vote the party.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="bbcf">
I can say that, knowing there are entire factions out there still promoting a “hold your nose” policy when it comes to Democrats, or worse, a lean toward, “No other Democrat is good enough so it has to be <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">fill in the blank, or else.</em>”</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="bbcf">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5b09">
There are ways of doing battle without digging in the dirt. The Democrats must always take the high road. It doesn’t make us weak, it makes us right. We take the high road by showing what we’ve learned over the years — that we can and must help others while helping ourselves. We don’t see kindness as weakness. We can be revolutionaries without losing our way. Our eyes are on the prize and our prize is a country working toward the common good.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5b09">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="02c0">
Bernie Sanders never became that Democrat. He relished the chaos in 2016 and did nothing to calm the waters. His talking points never became action. His talk of being a champion of women or people of color, for example, is still more fluff than substance.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="02c0">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="eb54">
His followers have built a long-lasting cult around him, and he’s using them again to rise to the top. I sincerely hoped he wouldn’t do that, but since he has, I’m out. I've already cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren, who shares many of the same visions, but without feeling the need to divide us into camps based on our loyalty to her causes. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">If he wins the primaries, I’ll deal with it and support him. Because that’s what Democrats have to do.</em>)</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="eb54">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0ec4">
The defeat of Donald Trump is essential if we’re ever going to get those programs that both the left and the moderates agree need fixing. We can only defeat him if we work together. When Bernie shows signs of wanting to work together, I’ll come back and write a different story. But until then, this one will have to stand.<br />
<br />
(A version of this <a href="https://medium.com/@ramonagrigg/i-didnt-leave-bernie-he-left-me-471ae677b9f0" target="_blank">appears in Medium</a>)</div>
<br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-21801609965343922952020-02-20T10:22:00.000-05:002020-03-01T13:12:02.486-05:00Let Democrats Be Democrats: It’s not chaos, it’s Democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKB79pqUrEY8EzU4ADyBV3zHuPWkudvMrZNg8AESKrAzv1ZpGPkN-rPT3lVy1scFatc8_fx9am8j5k7cPFPNwBQ2DgCDmYr5eY0HuxjPLScyZFBX3KiEzml0konH9EWKxRQ4PJAKjN8xx/s1600/Democratic+donkey+on+American+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKB79pqUrEY8EzU4ADyBV3zHuPWkudvMrZNg8AESKrAzv1ZpGPkN-rPT3lVy1scFatc8_fx9am8j5k7cPFPNwBQ2DgCDmYr5eY0HuxjPLScyZFBX3KiEzml0konH9EWKxRQ4PJAKjN8xx/s320/Democratic+donkey+on+American+flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've just come away from the sham impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. Everything we predicted about the trial once it got to the Senate has come true. All but one Republican (Mitt Romney) overlooked every crime, every attack on the constitution and the rule of law, and gave Trump yet another free pass.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Democrats put up a good fight--often a brilliant fight--but it wasn't good enough. The fix was in even before they entered the room and, predictably, they lost. That will be the takeaway. The Democrats lost.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Iowa Caucuses happened. Big screw-up and it took weeks to get the results. The takeaway: Who lost in Iowa? The Democrats. Of course. If they can't even get their act together in Iowa, blah blah blah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The circus came to town at the House of Representatives as the Clown-in Charge performed Politics Porn before a captive audience in what was billed as a State of the Union speech. It was, as expected, a campaign speech, an "Impeachment, hell" speech, a pack of provable lies. Rush Limbaugh was awarded the Medal of Freedom during that hour and a half. RUSH LIMBAUGH. When it was over, Nancy Pelosi, the Mom-in-Charge whose House the clown had just trashed, tore up his speech in a display of total disgust. And who was attacked the next day? Nancy Pelosi. The Democrat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The New Hampshire primary came and went and the press fell all over themselves deciding which of the Democrats no longer had a chance. (All of them except Sanders and Buttigieg. Show's over, folks. Exit at the rear.) Never mind that actual party members might have other ideas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The mainstream punditry has a nasty habit of talking down to Democrats, treating us like underdogs while openly admiring the bullies who hold all the power.The media narrative has to change and it's not on the Democrats to do that. It's on the media.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am a Democrat, capital D. My loyalty goes way back, long before I could cast my first presidential vote — for JFK, when I was 23. I remember cheering in somebody’s living room when Truman won over Dewey in 1948. I remember crying in my classroom when the teacher announced the news that FDR, our beloved president, had died. I’ve lived my entire life as a Democrat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5398">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I love my party, warts and all. Through thick and thin. Just as I love my country. Warts and all. Through thick and thin. My loyalty demands that I endorse and support both my party and my country. We’re in crisis now. What would it make me if, after all we’ve been through together, this was the moment I chose to abandon either one?</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f5bc">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="dcbd">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can’t. And I won’t.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b7f5">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We Democrats have always prided ourselves on our diversity. We ought to think it’s funny that people think we should be anything but what we are. Instead, we’re guilty of the worst case of inferiority complex the world has ever seen.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ff71">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I use that word “guilty” advisedly, since we tend to want to latch onto it every chance we get, but if we’re guilty of anything it’s that we tend to half-believe every rotten accusation against us, no matter how outlandish.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ff71">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0b18">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Will Rogers said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat”, it wasn’t an insult, it was a compliment. And when he said, “Democrats never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they’d be Republicans”, I took that to mean, “The Republicans are sheep.”</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0b18">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d1de">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Democrats are a Big Tent party, more inclined to accept our differences than to shun them. Democrats in public offices across the country are out there working for the disadvantaged, the disabled, the disenfranchised. We have to work harder to protect them now, because too many people have bought into the Republican/Right Wing lie that the simple act of pulling up imaginary bootstraps is the answer to everything.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d1de">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f655">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It isn’t, of course. Everybody needs a helping hand, even those people who pretend they actually have bootstraps — or even know what they are.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f655">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1dfb">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We’re inclusive and we’re proud of it. Our very brand is inclusivity — we invented the damn Melting Pot — but we’re not fools. Try to imagine the Democratic Party embracing Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Mike Pompeo, Bill Barr, Steve Mnuchin, Brett Cavanaugh, Betsy DeVos, Mitch McConnell, Jared Kushner, Donald Jr., Eric, or Ivanka Trump, and putting any of them in positions of power over our people and our country. </span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1dfb">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="793e">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We’re in the fight for our lives this year and only the Democrats can save us. That’s a fact.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="793e">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="5127">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The Democrats” are members of the Democratic Party. That’s a fact.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="5127">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="df49">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you detest everything about the Democratic Party, that’s not just your problem, that’s <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">our</em> problem. You make it harder for the Democrats to win in November, and the Democrats have to win in November. That’s a fact.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="df49">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4d0f">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So who are the candidates who have the best chance of helping the down-ballot Democratic candidates needing to win in the House, the Senate, and in state, county, city, and village races? They’re the candidates who already work to get the job done. The candidates with the best track records for working consistently to bring equality, equity, and good government to the people, and who do it from within the Democratic Party.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4d0f">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="934c">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of the party candidates left, only Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar have the experience, the know-how, and the willingness to keep the party strong enough to withstand the dirty fighting ahead. They can do it without mobs or popularity contests. They can do it by being healers and fixers — and their experience shows they can do it. (Yes, I'm aware that I left Bernie Sanders out. even though he has experience. I wish with all my might that <a href="https://medium.com/@ramonagrigg/i-didnt-leave-bernie-he-left-me-471ae677b9f0?source=friends_link&sk=55fa6359b560ef4252114bcd2eca6977" target="_blank">Bernie would stop trying to divide my party.</a> Until he does I don't consider him a Democrat.)</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="934c">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b79e">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The GOP will pull out all the stops to keep Trump in the White House — and themselves in the catbird seats. Their attacks are specifically against Democrats. And the Democrats have to win.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4148">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We lost some good fighters when Democrats like Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke and Eric Swalwell were forced to drop out. We could have had Sherrod Brown and Stacey Abrams in the race if we had given them the encouragement and the funding they needed. We should have worked harder for them. Every one of them deserved it.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4148">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9061">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But we still have a chance if we ignore the noise from within and without, if we remember who we were and who we are, and if we rise up as a party — as the Democratic Party — to take the enemy down.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9061">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9ca6">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because the enemy isn’t us. It’s them.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-58589826368881806292019-12-04T15:16:00.001-05:002020-02-29T10:12:54.379-05:00A Government Of the Women, By the Women, For the People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="b340" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1824" data-image-id="0*SKHaR6sH-9shtHlH" data-is-featured="true" data-unsplash-photo-id="0aMMMUjiiEQ" data-width="2736" height="265" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/873/0*SKHaR6sH-9shtHlH" width="400" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>Photo by <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://unsplash.com/@v_well?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" href="https://unsplash.com/@v_well?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-creator noopener noopener" target="_blank">Vonecia Carswell</a> on <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-source noopener noopener" target="_blank">Unsplash</a></i></figcaption></figure><br />
<br />
<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="a827">
I want women in the highest offices in the land. It’s long past time.</h4>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="465a">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Note</strong>: When I started this essay, Kamala Harris was still one of the three candidates figuring into my story about wanting a woman in the White House. Now I have to revise this, because yesterday afternoon word came that she was dropping out. The money just wasn’t there. She might have had the support but without the money she couldn’t go on. (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Meanwhile, two male billionaires will be able to stay in as long as they want, never mind that neither of them has a chance in hell of winning the nomination.To say our election process is kerflooey is an understatement.</em>)</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="465a">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2462">
So instead of the three women I thought I could highlight, I’m now down to two. But I’ll go on:</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2462">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--hasDropCapModel graf--hasDropCap" name="eacf">
<span class="graf-dropCap">U</span>ntil now I’ve been on the fence about Democratic presidential candidates, but a couple of nights ago, in the wee hours, it came to me that what I really want is for a woman to win. I’m down now to either Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--hasDropCapModel graf--hasDropCap" name="eacf">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="70ef">
I want a woman in the White House, I want female majorities in the House, in the Senate, and, if we could ever pull it off, in the Supreme Court. I want those women to be Democrats, but I’d give Independents a hard look. I can’t think of a single female Republican I would trust with those jobs, and if that sounds harsh, too bad. They’ve brought it on themselves.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="70ef">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="dac8">
But back to my two:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="340b"><img class="graf-image" data-height="240" data-image-id="1*1a0gSbSxGEcB6HdN2CWmzQ.jpeg" data-width="540" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/873/1*1a0gSbSxGEcB6HdN2CWmzQ.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>Photo: Kathleen Gilligan — Detroit Free Press</i></figcaption></figure></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4ae9">
Both women are smart, qualified, and are working on plans as we speak. Neither of them are novices. They’re seasoned politicos who know the system. They might look for compromise, even when compromise is seen as weak and namby-pamby (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">and kind of girly</em>), but they’re both strong enough (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">and seasoned enough</em>) to see past the BS and get what they want.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4ae9">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9215">
They’d both work well with Nancy Pelosi.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9215">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ce59">
They’re tough cookies you never have to be afraid of — unless you’re on the other side. Their own unique assets are their weapons, but they never have to hit below the belt. They’re not hiding anything. They don’t think they’re God’s gift to humankind.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ce59">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ff8d">
They’re not men.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ff8d">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4764">
Senator Elizabeth Warren is from academia and is smart about a whole lot of things, but her strongest asset is that Wall Street sees her as their most formidable enemy. They’ll do everything they can to make sure she doesn’t win because they know she’ll be working even harder to take away their power. They’ve had <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-wall-street.html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-wall-street.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">run-ins with her before</a>. A sorry spectacle.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4764">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f1e7">
She exudes a kind of scholarly wisdom, but in a way that’s sort of down-home friendly. She doesn’t brag, she doesn’t talk down, she gets <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/12/02/election-2020-elizabeth-warren-shares-emotional-moment-young-supporter/2587930001/" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/12/02/election-2020-elizabeth-warren-shares-emotional-moment-young-supporter/2587930001/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">up close and personal.</a> She’s savvy enough to to know how to get under Trump’s skin, and she’ll always come out on top. When he resorts to silly name-calling, she’ll resort to plain facts. And she won’t let up. She won’t back down.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f1e7">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3f30">
Amy Klobuchar is a rock-solid Midwesterner with a blue-collar background. She’s a former prosecutor and a senator who announced her campaign entry while standing outside in a raging blizzard. She’s no white-bread sissy, so you can get that out of your head. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2019/10/a-most-sublime-presidency-what-if-amy.html" href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2019/10/a-most-sublime-presidency-what-if-amy.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I wrote about Amy a while back</a> — musing about my own need for her kind of strength and comfort — and she’s still growing on me. I could see her dealing with our adversaries, both at home and abroad, and coming out smiling. Nothing seems to trigger her. She’s unflappable.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3f30">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0ec0">
And now a word about Kamala Harris. I’m sorry she had to drop out. I know her campaign had problems, and maybe she didn’t strike that chord — whatever that chord is — but there’s no doubt she could have done the job. If she had won the primary I would have worked hard for her. She would have brought a refreshing take-no-prisoners toughness to the White House while caring deeply for children and the underclass. But she’s still a senator and a damned good one. Her time will come. I have no doubt.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0ec0">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="a3d4">
I want a woman to be president in 2020. My choices now are either Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar. I don’t care about their histories, their ancestry, their flaws, or their “likability”. I care about their hearts, their minds, their vision, and their ability to do the job.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="a3d4">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c140">
I know for a fact that each of them would choose cabinets reflecting the needs of a country battered and exhausted by an authoritarian regime bent on creating America’s first dictator. When Donald Trump is gone, when the Republican cowards who enabled him are gone, I want a leader who can start the healing process and bring us back to that place where we don’t have to hide in shame. I want a leader who is a government insider who understands the constitution and the rule of law. I want a leader who sees no problem with nurturing the sick, the poor, and the miserable. I want the next president to be a woman.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c140">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="237c">
We formed the presidency in 1787. That’s 232 years without a single woman as president. It’s time. It’s long past time. And if it doesn’t happen in 2020, it’ll be because of a concerted effort to makes sure it’s always men in charge. It won’t be because the female candidate wasn’t worthy. That’s not going to wash this time.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="237c">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4717">
(<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">My apologies to Julián Castro. If it wasn’t for my very real need for a woman in the White House this time, you would be right up there on the list. I really am sorry. You’re one of the good guys and it’s a shame, but even you have to admit a country having been established for more than two centuries without once electing a female president is really pretty ridiculous.</em>)<br />
<br />
<i>(<b>Update</b>: Michigan's primary is on March 10. I've cast my absentee ballot for Elizabeth Warren.)</i></div>
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-63658649486492260382019-11-23T08:49:00.000-05:002020-01-30T11:18:53.124-05:00I Would Make a Better President Than Donald Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EaH7jOxF_EJs6T2KmD6bNqhRsIEIbkeJIl1lIDKxdpTUGUHD8exiEj36yiXEw-8snM9Dz7OhrXg17bLzGpY1uTjo-c22KD7lJElM2epeXsZrKKLmvO2SSZsgUoyPUkc-_-gFJBzZBT0e/s1600/White+House+pink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1024" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EaH7jOxF_EJs6T2KmD6bNqhRsIEIbkeJIl1lIDKxdpTUGUHD8exiEj36yiXEw-8snM9Dz7OhrXg17bLzGpY1uTjo-c22KD7lJElM2epeXsZrKKLmvO2SSZsgUoyPUkc-_-gFJBzZBT0e/s640/White+House+pink.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 class="ki kj dt ar kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="224e" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.004em; line-height: 1.58; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></h3>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="224e">
Man, that guy in the White House is quite the amateur, isn’t he? What a screw-up! Hire professionals, I always say, especially when the job is the absolute highest in the whole damn land.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="224e">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1c2b">
But if you just can’t bring yourself to trust a seasoned, professional politician, next time try me.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1c2b">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f3ab">
First off, if I came to the White House through some fluke (<i class="markup--em markup--p-em">which is how it would have to be</i>), I would know, without anyone having to tell me, that I was an amateur. I would be looking to the experts even before I went out into the Rose Garden to congratulate myself for getting to that place women hardly ever even dream of anymore.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f3ab">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f9bf">
I would admit that, at 82, I may be missing a few marbles, but not to worry — my BS-Meter is still working overtime. I would take a few questions, and if I didn’t know the answer, I would say, truthfully, “I don’t know.”</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f9bf">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ccd4">
I’m not good at small talk or bullshitting but I would make a few jokes, just to get the press corps laughing again. (<i class="markup--em markup--p-em">Because, lord knows…</i>) They would be self -deprecating, but not so awful that I look really bad. Then, when someone gave me the secret signal to wrap things up, I would toddle off, waving, promising it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life…</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ccd4">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="58e9">
Right after lunch (<i class="markup--em markup--p-em">in the White House!!!</i>) I would call my cabinet together and we would get to work. My cabinet would be mostly made up of experts in their field, but might include both Jon Stewart and George Takei. That’s still up in the air, but I feel like I’ll need them.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="58e9">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0e9e">
I would take my cue from FDR and hire people who wouldn’t shrink from the words “constitution” or “common good” as if they were inscribed on wooden stakes aimed directly at their hearts.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="81a5">
If I didn’t understand them, I would say, “I don’t understand. Can you talk down to me, please?”, and they would, because, as I’ve said, I know nothing.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="81a5">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="152a">
I would leave the big money talk to the experts, and if they couldn’t agree among themselves, I would call in Robert Reich to settle the matter.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="152a">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="fe76">
I would ask Rachel Maddow to become my Chief of Staff, and anything else she wanted to be.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="50c8">
I would hire Lawrence O’Donnell to be my speech writer.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="50c8">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c211">
Dan Rather would be in charge of Communications.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c211">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ad8a">
We would reinstate the press briefings and Connie Schultz would be Press Secretary. Jim Acosta and April Ryan would get reserved front row seats.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ad8a">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b6ea">
I would make Chelsea Clinton our Good Will Ambassador.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b6ea">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d6f8">
I would ask Christiane Amanpour to be my Secretary of State.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d6f8">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="be84">
Merrick Garland would be Attorney General.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="be84">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7c9e">
The Secretary of Education would be a public school educator.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7c9e">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7fd5">
The Secretary of the Interior would be an environmentalist.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7fd5">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1335">
The Secretary of Commerce would send shivers through big business.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1335">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2cdc">
I would beg Dolores Huerta to be my Secretary of Labor.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2cdc">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="461d">
Malcolm Nance would head Homeland Security.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="461d">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0758">
I would put Beto O’Rourke in charge of gun control.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0758">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9ba2">
I would reopen every closed Planned Parenthood clinic and make plans to open more.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9ba2">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5f57">
Jacob Soboroff would take over the investigation into the refugee crisis on the border. Heads would roll down there until those families are reunited.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5f57">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="20ce">
I would create a Citizen’s Committee on Congressional Oversight and put Maya Wiley in charge of it.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="20ce">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="196c">
I would make few demands, but one of them would be that Ruth Bader Ginsburg must live forever.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="196c">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="72ae">
And lastly, I would never, ever do anything to make Nancy Pelosi mad at me.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="72ae">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="6fc1">
(<i class="markup--em markup--p-em">Did I forget to say Maxine Waters would be my Vice President?</i>)</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="6fc1">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b6a7">
So now that you’ve seen my hypotheticals, I hope you’ll think about them. Think hard. But don’t, whatever you do, write me in as a candidate! I mean it! Don’t do it! Don’t you dare write in R-a-m-o-n-a G-r-i-g-g.<br />
<br />
<br />
(Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/i-would-make-a-better-president-than-donald-trump-691e6c7bc626" target="_blank">Medium/Indelible Ink</a>.) <br />
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_____________________________<br />
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<b>Please Note</b>: <i>There is no comment section until I can figure out what went wrong. If you would like to comment, you can do it at the cross-posted link or write me at ramonasvoices@gmail.com. Thanks.</i> </div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="b6a7">
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Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-39792159000617536322019-11-22T09:03:00.000-05:002019-11-23T08:09:36.081-05:00What If We Can't Fix This?<span style="font-size: large;">Is Dystopia All There Is?</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKNp_XkjDLG5DA3ptYzpGsIfcQKsR2ABBURxVMfQaVJcHtAT_gl-VZGHSZzBQZMqJOk4w2aBBDNxo__F2coIOcY7Eiv3LdeJgabq1Wsf0zA4qxTgg1db1kUGiAg6vVO1ISH-bW6DjS4uv/s1600/Statue+of+Liberty+dystopia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1053" data-original-width="1600" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKNp_XkjDLG5DA3ptYzpGsIfcQKsR2ABBURxVMfQaVJcHtAT_gl-VZGHSZzBQZMqJOk4w2aBBDNxo__F2coIOcY7Eiv3LdeJgabq1Wsf0zA4qxTgg1db1kUGiAg6vVO1ISH-bW6DjS4uv/s640/Statue+of+Liberty+dystopia.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Image by Enrique Meseguer for Pixabay</b></td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
I’ve been dreaming about lost children. In one, I’m in a tall building looking down at a lone child on a beach, a child around six or seven walking slowly along the water’s edge, up and down, up and down, looking over at our building, possibly looking at me, or looking for me. It’s getting dark and I’m worried. I run to the door, and suddenly I’m on the sand, but the child is gone. Nowhere to be seen. I wake up.<br />
<br />
<br />
In another there’s a child scurrying among garbage cans in an alley. In this one, it’s a little girl, no more than three. I’m at the entrance of the alley. Lights are shining behind me but it’s dark in the alley except for a single light above a door illuminating the spot where I see her. She disappears and reappears, disappears and reappears, but she doesn’t seem to see me. I call out but she doesn’t turn her head. I’m moving slowly toward her, willing my feet to move faster. She’s looking for something, throwing trash aside, until finally she stops, sits on the ground, lowers her head into her arms and wails. I rush toward her. And I wake up<br />
<br />
<br />
During my waking hours I worry, too. I worry about the lost children everywhere, but now I'm an American living in a country that forcibly takes children away from their parents. <br />
<br />
Did you read <a href="https://www.ramonasvoices.com/2018/06/the-children-are-lost-and-someone-needs.html" target="_blank">the piece I wrote in June, 2018</a> called “The Children are Lost and Someone Must Pay”? No, I’m sure you didn’t. I cried as I wrote it. I cried because the story horrified me, but I cried, too, because I knew no matter what I said, no matter how terrible it was, life for most Americans would go on while life for those refugee families would be intolerable. <br />
<br />
<br />
I wrote:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>No other way to put this: our government has been kidnapping refugee children and hiding them all across the country.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>They move them in the dead of night and won’t say where they’ve gone.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>They refuse to open detention center doors to concerned government officials — the ones who haven’t gone over to the dark side and show no signs of budging.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>They won’t allow outside cameras or recording devices, releasing instead their own sanitized versions of nice places to incarcerate terrified children.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>They hang “Dear Leader” posters on the walls, showing a smirking Donald Trump alongside a bizarre, irrelevant quote from his book, “The Art of the Deal”. (“Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war”, in both English and Spanish.)</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEMe_POR0mWWQIVxgsTrAZ9RqQsOK91eAyZ-Jslt1Tt-jmT2pLtHM1gxweCa9jF-r-T2xzUH2DZVSGFmCyB61_5FT6ATyiuu4OnOLCvnaJgR-gkb0UpAMc-bpMKLO9VYMNx3_Xx6-YN0x/s1600/Trump+poster+in+detention+center.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEMe_POR0mWWQIVxgsTrAZ9RqQsOK91eAyZ-Jslt1Tt-jmT2pLtHM1gxweCa9jF-r-T2xzUH2DZVSGFmCyB61_5FT6ATyiuu4OnOLCvnaJgR-gkb0UpAMc-bpMKLO9VYMNx3_Xx6-YN0x/s640/Trump+poster+in+detention+center.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
And this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>It’s as if the plan to forcibly remove children from their refugee parents ended at “forcibly remove”, followed by TO BE DETERMINED... </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>It’s as if they thought nothing bad would happen if they forcibly removed small, helpless human beings from the people who love them and care for them.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>It’s as if they thought…</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>You know where I’m going with this, right?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>They didn’t think.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>They didn’t keep accurate records. They know where some of the children are, but not all of them. They sent them off to dozens of locations across the country without a fool-proof paper trail or electronic trail or any other kind of trail, and now that the cockamamie plan to steal kids away from their parents has been whomped to bits by millions of furious, vocal Americans, along with hundreds of members of the press, the clergy, and by God, Congress — all clamoring to know where the kids are — they’ve been forced to admit they just don’t know.</i></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Nothing has changed. The children are still missing. For each child they reunite — to much fanfare — dozens more have disappeared. They’re gone.<br />
<br />
The children they’re still holding are crying out, begging to be heard. We know hundreds if not thousands of them are being abused. We know this for a fact, but most Americans refuse to believe it.<br />
<br />
We know their parents will never stop looking for them, and if that doesn’t break hearts, nothing ever will.<br />
<br />
<br />
We’re at a point, as a country, where we either choose democracy and the rule of law or we give in to fascistic authoritarianism. We still have a choice. But we have to ask ourselves hard questions:<br />
<br />
What if nobody goes to jail for kidnapping refugee children?<br />
<br />
What if we never find those missing children?<br />
<br />
What if we can’t bring drug prices and health costs down?<br />
<br />
What if we never come up with the money to help Puerto Rico?<br />
<br />
What if Flint never has clean water?<br />
<br />
What if bigger and bigger guns kill more and more Americans?<br />
<br />
What if abortions become illegal and contraceptives become contraband?<br />
<br />
What if “The Handmaid’s Tale” becomes a handbook for certain powerful men?<br />
<br />
What if the LGBT community never achieves equality?<br />
<br />
What if people of color are in even more danger?<br />
<br />
What if those promoting a corrupted version of Christianity get to make our nation’s moral rules?<br />
<br />
What if Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting join together and become state TV?<br />
<br />
What if public education disappears and an unregulated, agenda-driven charter school system becomes our only route to learning?<br />
<br />
What if Right Wing judges with terms for life keep taking away our freedoms? <br />
<br />
What if certain corrupt leaders dissolve our government and form their own?<br />
<br />
What if the Russians win?<br />
<br />
What if, when we all wake up and pay attention, it’s too late?<br />
<br />
I’m a casual student of history but I’ve studied it enough to understand what happens to human beings under authoritarian, fascistic regimes. I understand that the transition from a democratic society to a dictatorship comes, not because of weakness or ignorance, but because it’s far easier to be oblivious and complacent.<br />
<br />
The power-mongers take advantage of our insistence that it can’t happen here. They seduce us with personalities and entertainment, with audacity, with promises to take away the regulatory power of government and let us live our own lives.<br />
<br />
And when we believe their promises and give them power, when they do the things they said they wouldn’t do — the things every expert in political history warned us they would do — we can’t bring ourselves to believe we were hoodwinked.<br />
<br />
Nobody could be that bad. Nothing could be that terrible. Not here in America.<br />
<br />
Too many of us still don’t believe it’s happening. But ask anyone who comes from an authoritarian society and they’ll tell you this is how it happens. It happens slowly, with disbelief at first that a demagogue is on the rise, then it changes to belief that the entire legitimate government is against us and one person has the power to save us.<br />
<br />
The demagogue takes over the airwaves, denounces the press, demands allegiance, expects subservience, insists that self-serving lies are the truth, and rises to power, even in places where attributes like intelligence and decency are celebrated.<br />
<br />
No demagogue, no dictator has ever done it alone. He has accomplices in high places who have their own agendas, who see riding on the coattails of someone with that much power as a journey they’re willing to take in order to feel even a touch of that kind of exaltation.<br />
<br />
And always, in every instance, there is money to be made.<br />
<br />
The demagogue is admired for getting there, for battling the forces trying to vanquish him, for winning. It makes him a hero, even when those forces against him are forces for good.<br />
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And once the demagogue becomes dictator he makes the rules. He throws out constitutions. He packs the courts with his own accomplices. He holds mock elections where only he can win.<br />
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And always, in every instance, the masses suffer.<br />
<br />
But the dictator reigns for life, or until a coup takes him down. And democracy becomes that quaint thing, that grandiose experiment that never could have worked forever.<br />
<br />
That’s how it happens in other places.<br />
<br />
How long before it happens here?Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-73912359094266619602019-11-04T18:24:00.000-05:002019-11-05T06:38:22.191-05:00Stop the Madness! Sign this Petition!<br />
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<img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfCy06BwyVcOTePSNkjBwjmR-l81dU3O7UGSGwpySRMBeqAJnd5TqOdnMlJYCI0saCOHFTItzqGGn0jJWxhhpJHIQ1J6BEMdoyiR24YCzfnpQ1tBnp6jSd171g_k5hp2pUk1HASYH2YnR/s400/heystopthat.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<br />
Hello, fellow outraged citizen. Are you as outraged as we are? Have you had enough? Are you one of those astute, sentient, breathing persons who has noticed that things are all topsy-turvy and upside down and going over a cliff and getting really bad? <br />
<br />
They would like you to think that they've won and there is no hope and you're just a little pea in a pumpkin patch, but you're not! NO, YOU'RE NOT!! You can do something about it!! Yes, you!<br />
<br />
Please sign petition to let everybody know you've we've had enough!! This kind of thing can't go on!!! Together we can make this happen!!!! We can slap the snot out of those monsters!!! Maybe not literally, but by tapping the keyboard really hard RIGHT NOW, we can get ourselves all het up and--who knows?--maybe even virtually yell loud enough to get through to those crazy characters, who will pretend they can't hear us and will virtually yell back, "I can't hear you!"<br />
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But we will have spoken. Yes, WE. Because we can do this!<br />
<br />
After you've typed your name and have checked to make sure it has magically appeared on a line provided for just that purpose, you'll be directed to another page where you can cement your outrage for all time by putting your money where your mouth is.<br />
<br />
Here, even though you don't know us from a hill of beans, you will give us your real name, your real address, your real phone number, your real credit card number, the amount you would like to donate to our cause (<i>don't be chintzy now, we know who you are</i>), and proof of citizenship (<i>See Below</i>).<br />
<br />
(<b>Below</b>) Proof of citizenship requires these three things: An apple pie recipe (<i>no strudel!</i>), a notarized letter from your particular Pastor Person stating he/she has seen you in a place of worship at least 52 times in the past year, and John Wayne's real name, place of birth, and secret location of body mole.<br />
<br />
<br />
***Sign here if you agree that things can't go on this way and firmly believe in your heart of hearts that you can actually change those things that can't go on by signing your name to an internet petition and giving us money so we can serve you even better by creating more petitions. (<i>Be assured that we will save your name, address, phone number and credit card information for future petitions, saving you all kinds of time when you come back. You're welcome.</i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
X___________________________________________________ (<i>Your honest and true signature, okay?</i>)<br />
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<img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcLShwMxgNAsUmWlEw_4c6bxDsF-yOp9QrP0_93QamJYCzFXd9-ln4i0L7WgDUSniGFYDw6P-dy1rx7Zceqw5qBj-jOQUotaKKYSizgdZRtfeiIL3M9DIhJhrwtsOiNhU1wl448wktnEGv/s400/genghis+khan+bottom+banner.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
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(<i>NOTE: Astute readers may feel they've seen this before. They would be right. I wrote this more than seven years ago. It's been calling to me. What can I say?</i>)</div>
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-77719774825288090482019-10-17T19:23:00.001-04:002019-10-17T19:23:23.880-04:00A Most Sublime Presidency: What If Amy Klobuchar Should Win?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJBB2ZPd1tQ6HWCA1feabthF46Nzo1j562jzZ6CPrTQ95XZ1Vt5VCd5esP7YpdBKUhK6ArIt_SdRkcwOmkRvkaz-z3ocRa4EEb7sVYfLKq8JoU5KmRc5Lngz0GHC3vbMek2gquAEUPN_RC/s1600/Amy+Klobuchar+in+the+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="620" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJBB2ZPd1tQ6HWCA1feabthF46Nzo1j562jzZ6CPrTQ95XZ1Vt5VCd5esP7YpdBKUhK6ArIt_SdRkcwOmkRvkaz-z3ocRa4EEb7sVYfLKq8JoU5KmRc5Lngz0GHC3vbMek2gquAEUPN_RC/s400/Amy+Klobuchar+in+the+snow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="bf8f">
I’ll start this off by saying though I’m leaning toward someone who isn’t Amy Klobuchar, I’m not endorsing anyone for the 2020 presidential election yet. It’s way too early for me. But I’ve been watching Sen. Klobuchar and what I’m seeing is a compassionate, pragmatic Midwesterner wearing her decency on her sleeve. </div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="bf8f">
She’s quiet-spoken and without guile. She’s uncomfortable bragging about her own accomplishments but doesn’t hesitate to share her resumé when it’s necessary to remind people of her bona fides. She lurks and waits and then pounces with surprisingly tough precision whenever she sees an opening. She’s a force. Not a tornado, but a steady wind driving us toward safety.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="8032">
I like her. I really, really like her. I like many of the other candidates, too, but Klobuchar eases my heart. I relax when she speaks. I calm down. I hear what she’s saying and I can picture her in the Oval Office, sitting at the Resolute desk, speaking the plain truth with ease and clarity.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="1b2a">
She’s funny the way Barack Obama is funny. Her sense of humor doesn’t lean toward snark. If she uses it to skewer she wraps it in velvet first. I could be comfortable with Amy in the White House, and right now comfort is not a word that readily comes up in politics.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="4768">
I know, even as I write this, that there will be pushback to what I’m saying here. Someone will dig up a quote or an action that will attempt to prove me wrong. So here — I’ll save them the trouble on this one point: I didn’t like what she did to Al Franken. He was her Senate colleague in Minnesota and she knew him as well as anybody, but, when the time came, she joined the others and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/amyklobuchar/posts/10154793376616191" href="https://www.facebook.com/amyklobuchar/posts/10154793376616191" rel="noopener" target="_blank">urged him to “do the right thing”</a> and resign.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9ce4">
Her rush to tell him to resign was infuriating, considering they were supposed friends, and considering his entire female staff came to his defense. I didn’t think I would ever forgive her for that. But I have. She made me forgive her. She has that ability.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="c104">
So, yes, I could see Amy Klobuchar as the antidote to Donald Trump. She is everything he is not. But how would she be with foreign policy? With the Republicans who won’t be happy when Donald loses? With the aggrieved Trumpsters who will see her as a weak woman they can easily topple? With the fake churchies who thought they were on their way to a theocracy, if not the rapture?</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="8b96">
She’d be just fine. She would surround herself with experts and with people who care about this country’s mental and physical health as much as we all do. She would recruit the best of the best and she would listen. She wouldn’t embarrass us in her trips abroad and she would NEVER shove another world leader out of the way in order to get up front. (Not that any of the others would, either. They wouldn’t.)</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="caad">
But don’t let her Minnesota Nice fool you. She was a prosecutor once. She grew up blue collar tough.Her staff says she can be fearsome. She’s been known to make some of them cry. (Okay, I’m not okay with that. Just so you know.) But there’s something about her that says, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this. We’re going to be okay.”</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="c044">
Look, I’m tired. We’re all tired. And this is just thinking out loud — maybe this is what we’re going to need after the madness. But who knows? By the time you read this she may have already dropped out. She’s not all that high on the Popular list. Here’s all I’m saying: With Klobuchar there would be no unnecessary drama. It wouldn’t get personal. Chaos would give in to calm. She’s steady. As a rock. She’s forthright. She would hold us together. When this Trump thing is finally over she would work at healing us. I might even sleep the whole night through. That would be nice.</div>
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_____________________________</div>
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(<i>Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/a-most-sublime-presidency-efc4aaba88e4" target="_blank">Medium/Indelible Ink</a>.</i>)</div>
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-91391876044573727752019-10-11T08:27:00.000-04:002019-10-11T08:27:15.477-04:00Elizabeth Warren was Fired for Being Pregnant<h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="3ca3">
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<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="5146">
It was common practice to punish women for being mothers while holding a job. It still is.</h4>
<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="a7cd"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3456" data-image-id="0*qtKwkLTAmxuSmv6m" data-is-featured="true" data-unsplash-photo-id="8r1hxU8OfXA" data-width="5184" height="265" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/873/0*qtKwkLTAmxuSmv6m" width="400" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">Photo by <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://unsplash.com/@ryanmfranco?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" href="https://unsplash.com/@ryanmfranco?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-creator noopener noopener" target="_blank">Ryan Franco</a> on <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="photo-source noopener noopener" target="_blank">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><div class="graf graf--p" name="debc">
Because we’re the only gender with wombs, women hold an odd place, even in modern-day culture. We’re expected, if not required, to bring children into the world above all else, even when pregnancy isn’t wanted, is inconvenient, or is dangerous. But once we’re pregnant, or mothers — or even women of child-bearing age — we become suspect in the workplace.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="8dad">
Suppose we have children whose needs might come first? What then? How does that jibe in a profit-motivated system where worker bees are required to work their asses off in order for their employers to make buckets full of money? What has to come first, the job or the kid? In this system, it’s the job. It’s always been the job.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="8ce8">
I have no idea if Elizabeth Warren planned her pregnancy way back when she was a teacher, but I do know for a fact that she could be fired once her pregnancy began to show. I also know for a fact the reason for the firing would never be listed on paper as “pregnancy”.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="c063">
The ignorance of those GOP “fact-checkers” looking for a record of Sen. Warren’s claims — that she was fired for having a child — is astounding. There is no record. Of course there is no record.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="2a26">
When I was a kid in school in the 1940s and 1950s, our female teachers were always known as “Miss”. If they were married, we couldn’t know it. If they became pregnant, we couldn’t know it. Why not? Because, while male teachers could have families and could even talk about them, female teachers had to appear asexual. No one wanted impressionable children to be thinking about female teachers having sex.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="2cd1">
They had dress codes. They were walking, talking text books with no life outside the classroom. When one of them suddenly disappeared in the middle of a semester, we weren’t told they were on maternity leave, we were simply told a new teacher would be taking their place.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="92fd">
When I was in high school in the early 1950s, two of our teachers were married to each other. That was so unheard of we never stopped talking about it. To us it was kind of…delicious. And subversive.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="4f31">
But it wasn’t just teachers. Women with children were discriminated against in every work place. Women with children were a liability. Their loyalties would never lie with their jobs as long as there were children at home. Children get sick, they need care, they need nurturing. They are a distraction when the clock is ticking, the work piles up, and their employer makes demands that require a <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Hobson's%20choice" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Hobson%27s%20choice" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Hobson’s choice</a>.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4f31">
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="fd8d">
It’s never easy for mothers to put their best into outside jobs. Women with good paying jobs can afford good child care. Women with crap jobs paying too little aren’t so lucky. But every mother faces those days when their jobs demand their attention but their children need them even more.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="16b4">
Women need to be mothers first. That’s a fact. It’s also the excuse employers make to keep women down. Women have always been behind men in work pay, and the reason, often spoken out loud, is because women can’t devote as much time or attention to their jobs. Never mind that not all women are mothers, or that not all women still have children at home. They’re shoved into the same box because it’s convenient — because god forbid men ever have to acquiesce to the notion that women might be their equals.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="16b4">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d0bf">
You may have noticed that no woman has ever been President. It’s a big deal every time a woman wins a job over a man, no matter the title. Being a woman in a “man’s job” is a liability that we should have gotten over long ago, but there are still far fewer women in government than there are men. That isn’t going to change until attitudes change, and as long as the GOP holds the cards, that’s not likely.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d0bf">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="8ce9">
When it comes to motherhood, America is a bastion of hypocrisy. Half the people in our country think there’s nothing wrong with forcing women to carry a fetus to term, sending the message loud and clear that their own ambitions will always have to take a back seat to motherhood.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="72af">
At the same time, there are forces working inside our government to take away any protections families, including single mothers, might need to care for their children. Cuts in everything from health care to food stamps to housing allowances makes the children of those struggling families vulnerable. Our government refuses to take care of the children born to women who have few or no resources. Our government refuses to even see them.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="1891">
But that will all change if a woman becomes President. Can Elizabeth Warren break that glass ceiling? Or Kamala Harris? Or Amy Klobuchar? The question now is, are we ready for a woman president?</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="38c5">
I know. It’s a silly question. Of course we’re ready. We’re long past ready.</div>
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<b>~ ~ ~ </b></div>
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(<i>Cross-posted at <a href="https://medium.com/indelible-ink/elizabeth-warren-was-fired-for-being-pregnant-ca4cea1e7e9e?source=friends_link&sk=f3cdadb9cb45ec7101eb91af4b3b8dd8" target="_blank">Medium/Indelible Ink</a></i>) </div>
Ramona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.com0