Happy Thanksgiving

 

It is both troublesome and heartening. That 2020 Americans—perhaps the most contentious and divided US population ever—feel a powerful need to congregate and gather in one another's company this Thanksgiving.

Even at the risk of making our loved ones—and each other—sick.

Wow.

In one sense, it speaks to our humanity, something I thought we'd surrendered long ago. We are, after all, social creatures, given to seek company and connection. And judging by the network news reports, we are seeking that en masse.

In another, it speaks to our proclivity for panic. And our inability—or unwillingness—to process events too cataclysmic to conceive. A stealthy, invisible virus hopping from one body to another in ways we don't fully comprehend is simply too horrifying for us to imagine.

So we don't.

We seize on an imagined normal and cherry-pick evidence that supports this ideal. Or conjure up our teenaged selves, indomitable and resistant: “It won't happen to me!”

And it may not. COVID-19 reminds me of a tornado, a storm which rarely follows a predictable, linear path. It skips about, pulverizing one structure while leaving an adjacent one practically untouched.

It is a mystery, still.

Yet we appear to be on the cusp of a vaccine. But given the enormity of the world's population and the problematic issues of distribution and—in one case, storage—relief could be many, many months away. (I refuse to even consider those who will reject the vaccine based on some flimsy notion of religion or personal liberty.)

So I continue to lay low, as uncomfortable and unnatural as it is.

Whatever your take on the pandemic, I wish you and your loved ones well this Thanksgiving. I've no desire whatsoever to be proven “right” if a mounting pile of corpses is to be my proof.

Going Forward?

There is no joy. Only relief. With a diminished majority in the House and an undetermined alignment in the Senate, there is little worry Democrats will make any significant inroads into our legislative logjam over the next two years.

Joe Biden is mostly a paperweight. While the papers on the desk won't be scattered about the room by Trump-style bluster, they won't be put in order, either. In other words, while we won't be moving forward, the descent into chaos has been halted.

More concerning is the widespread support enjoyed by the most toxic, destructive and ignorant president the nation has ever endured. I heard time and time again “He kept his promises” as justification for casting a ballot for Mr. T.

Really? You mean the Rust Belt is awash with good-paying manufacturing jobs? 'Cause I missed that. He increased our consumption of coal, thereby restoring the economies of West Virginia and Wyoming? 'Cause I missed that, too.

(Residents of those states continued to act as battered wives, awarding the most-decisive pro-Trump percentages in the nation to Sir Lies-A-Lot despite the fact he did nothing whatsoever for their economies.)

Illegal immigration has been brought to a virtual standstill thanks to his stupendous wall—financed by Mexico—along our southern border? It has slowed, but that's because of the pandemic that isn't really a pandemic.

The brilliant health care package he's been promising for nearly four years is ready for implementation? His 'America first' policy has rejuvenated the country and we again enjoy a quality of life unparalleled anywhere in the world?

'Cause I missed those, too.

I mean, Trump did stuff, yeah. 

He awarded Walmart and Amazon and Exxon massive tax cuts. He awarded our raft of billionaires and millionaires with massive tax cuts as well. He packed our courts with right-wing conservatives. Lied, cheated and stole. Undermined our faith in the U.S. mail and in our elections.

Created more division and unrest in this country than any mob of radicalized socialists could ever hope to.

Trump entrenched racism and sexism and our political divide.

But his greatest hit was his manipulation of COVID-19 for political gain.

Caught with his pants down, Trump made lemons from lemonade in the most-grotesque sense of the word as he allowed COVID-19 to sweep throughout the United States practically unabated.

And when he wasn't allowing it, he was provoking it.

His politicization of face masks ensured the virus's spread as rabid conservatives, following their president's lead, repurposed them as symbols of liberal tyranny.

While I admit it's tempting to encourage conservative's denial and anti-mask phobia, it's clear that the Corona virus will infect any and all demographics. Translated, this means none of us are safe. Or, um, immune.

(Well, except that one guy. But you know he's passenger number-one on the crazy train, right?)

Now that the angry and the hateful have had their anti-government, anti-PC tantrum it will be interesting to see where we go from here. I tend to think it will be along the lines of the sequence depicted in It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey sees his hometown as if he had never existed.

It will be coarse, confrontational and crude. Largely bereft of things like civility and kindness. This path is somehow more "real" and more "genuine" to addled Republican males for whom Lord of the Flies is a societal ideal.

Fearful of a world where white men no longer wield absolute power, they cling ever more desperately to ever more desperate models of power and control.

I've never been able to puzzle-out exactly what voting Republican did for working-class conservatives, except perhaps to validate their ethnic, religious, sexual and gender biases. Even at the cost of their own well-being.

But what the hell do I know?

All in all, I feel fortunate to be the age I am. I see a world emerging that is rife with hatred, distrust and manipulated endlessly by social media. Our out-sized egos have grown equally destructive, to the point where any leader who doesn't “look like us” is illegitimate.

This is at the forefront of our descent into tribalism.

Even aided by the necessary technology, I see a world unable to unite in the commonality necessary to stem global warming.

While we have temporarily beat back the Trump-styled darkness, it will retreat, reconfigure and reemerge until it has the necessary components to succeed.

Knowledge is both a burden and a responsibility. We know what we have to do to resist it.

The question is, will we? 

 

Sweet Relief

 

Thank God.

 

Thank God.

 

Thank God. 

 

The Dark Ages are over.

 

Oh thank God. 

Pssst. Are You Ready for Some Good News?

I have it on the word of two Republicant relatives that COVID-19—also known as the Corona virus—will end today.

It's true.

So throw away your masks! Stand next to a stranger and expectorate without inhibition!

We're free!

Democrats? Vote Hard!

Fatigue. Anxiety. Depression. Rage.

For many of us, these are the words that characterize 2020. We've watched a radical conservative toss the one-percent (the one-percent!) a trillion-dollar tax break under the guise of a—wait for it—jobs act.

Watched him sneer as his servile lead bitch upends protocol and paves the way for Sir Lies-A-Lot to appoint three Supreme Court justices in a single term. We've watched him eliminate any and all constraints on business at the cost of the air we breathe and the water we drink.

We've watched him insult and disparage allies and befriend autocratic terrorists like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. Witnessed his winking approval of white supremacy and voter suppression. And relentlessly provoked chaos because it amuses him.

That it destabilizes nearly every element of life in the United States just adds to the fun.

We've witnessed him gut the post office's ability to sort and deliver mail in anticipation of a dramatic upswing in vote by mail. Seen him plunder his own charity, get convicted, fined and watched the lightly reported story disappear without a trace.

We've seen him blithely delete a much-heralded center for pandemic research merely because it had Obama's fingerprints on it. And besides, what ever goes wrong with cookware, anyway?

Even as the same continues to undermines his precious “fabulously beautiful” economy.

Cause and effect, Don. Cause and effect. Ever hear of it?

Most recently, we've heard him threaten to destroy Social Security and Medicare. Why? Because they fall into his hazy definition of socialism. And then there's the ongoing effort to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional—in the middle of a pandemic.

Crazy Don lies like the rest of us draw breath. He's a supremely manipulative fraud who has succeeded in convincing banks, Congress and a sizeable chunk of the American populace he's the guy to loan money to. Shape policy with. And above all, blindly follow.

And when the Trump-whore isn't lying or self-promoting, he morphs into Whiny Don. The fake news media. Liberal hoaxes. The deep state. Tell me Poor Poor Pitiful Me isn't the number-one most-played song on his Spotify playlist!

Funny how the Indomitable One can stand in front of the hypnotized and let that smarmy smile creep across his face. But alone and minus the adulation, he cowers in the dark with his phone and issues a torrent of blind criticisms, unfounded—even paranoid—accusations and juvenile rants.

Can I add Needy Don to the repertoire?

A Republicant told me in 2016 he thought Trump would “shake things up.”

As we wonder when our kids can again resume their full-fledged educations and when (and if) we'll get our jobs back and how long we can stave off increasingly impatient landlords and when we'll be able to attend a ballgame or go out to dinner or a night club and when will there be a vaccine and when will life in general return to normal I must ask: are you suitably shaken?

We Democrats are a funny bunch. By nature we're diverse and have many agendas. Like our president, we also get a bit peevish when things don't go our way.

We must stop that.

For the time being, we must act like Republicants and become a herd. A bovine mass completely unaware of free will. We must ignore the polls (remember 2016?), the early returns (be they good or bad) and not focus on anything that isn't physically casting a vote against Donald J. Trump.

While I enjoy portraying him as a feckless clown, the damage he has wrought is considerable. Much of it will outlast him. He is the obedient servant of a selfish and extremely wealthy minority interested only in cementing and sustaining its power and its wealth at the expense of us.

They must be stopped. Shattered—like a ceramic figurine.

We can be the hammer. But we must vote hard. And with a vengeance.

And if you can't vote for Joe Biden can you at least vote against Donald Trump? And the party of Mitch McConnell? And of Lindsey Graham?

Given the amorality displayed by this moneyed minority, it's likely more-urgent than we even realize.

 

The Fair Tax Proposition

Here in Illinois, our governor is desperately seeking to stem the flow of red ink on state ledgers. One idea is to change the methodology used to compute our income taxes.

Illinois is one of just nine states to use what is called a flat tax. Under a flat tax, everyone pays the same percentage of their income to the state. So whether you're a struggling waitress who brought home eighteen-thousand or a professional athlete who made eighteen-million, each of you will forfeit 4.95% of your income to the state in income tax.

Governor Pritzker has proposed a 'fair tax'—an income tax with a sliding, income-based scale similar to that used by the federal government.

Predictably, Republicants loathe the idea on principle alone. But their attacks haven't ended there. As is their wont, oceans of misinformation are being distributed via any media capable of doing so.

And it's hardly a surprise that fear is weapon number-one. One hysterical ad alleges Pritzker's proposal will give Democrats new powers to levy taxes, even though the state legislature—composed of both Democrats and Republicants—already has that power.

I wonder if the Trump zombies even realize this. Probably not.

Furthermore, I'm wondering how many takes it took for the guy doing the voice-over to get through the script without soiling himself. I mean, he sounds profoundly and deeply perturbed.

Get some shut-eye, big guy!

Even more interesting than the fear-laden lies being disseminated over the airwaves is who is paying for them.

And guess what? It's the guys with the most to lose. The same guys Sir Lies-A-Lot gifted with a trillion-dollar tax break under the (cough) Tax Cuts and Jobs Act back in 2017. And not only did those guys get a big break on their personal taxes, but their businesses did as well.

Crazy Don not only sucked, he swallowed, too.

Ah. But I digress.

So after receiving this mountain of largesse, it must be a terrible shock to see one's tax bill threatening to swell rather than shrink. Don't we know who you are?

Illinois' most-prominent billionaire is a venture-fund capitalist by the name of Ken Griffin. He buys eight-figure penthouse properties like you and I do tube socks at Target. Which is another way to say yeah, he's loaded.

And to preserve that condition, Griffin is fighting tooth and nail against Pritzker's proposal. He'll tell you anything. Just don't let that proposal pass!

Now, if the fair tax proposal weren't aimed (as Pritzker claims) at the one-percent, why is Griffin pouring fifty-five million dollars of his own money into an effort to stop this thing?

Is he worried about our taxes? Nah. The folk who have essentially bought our government and steered a bevy of billionaire-friendly legislation through it have shown repeatedly they aren't terribly concerned about us. We're just profit-sucking rabble.

Nope. They're worried about staying rich and powerful. And getting richer. And more-powerful.

While I see the truth in Griffin's frenzied spending, I'm betting Illinois Republicants only see the threat of a tax increase and go into the same kind of lockstep stupor they do when they hear the words 'gun control' and will vote en masse to derail this.

Even if the only people affected are people far wealthier than themselves.

And battered, tax-fatigued Democrats may well do the same.

Out of all of this comes a strange and somewhat sickening realization. In our unthinking and knee-jerk distrust of politicians we unwittingly caress the hand crushing our larynx.

When you vote 'no' on the Fair Tax proposition, don't forget to raise a fist and shout “Save the billionaires!”

Truth.

The Undecideds

At this point in the run-up to the presidential election, we're hearing lots and lots about the undecideds. But who are they? At a time when the political divide is as great as its ever been, how do these folk remain betwixt and between in a race featuring two such starkly different candidates?

Do they see something we don't? Or are they only more confused?

I mean, even as a Democrat I don't embrace everything espoused by progressives. Here are some examples.

The cancel culture? Nope. My hesitation reached critical mass when the idea was floated that John Muir, the esteemed naturalist who provided the impetus to develop the national park system lest these jewels be forever despoiled by runaway capitalism, be castigated and denounced as a racist.

Okay. Does that mean we pull the plug on our national parks system as well, since the idea is inevitably tainted since it sprung from the mind of a racist? And what of Thomas Edison and the cornucopia of inventions that originated from his (presumably) racist mind?

Do we renounce both the man and his contributions? I mean, how far do we take this?

And what of democracy itself? Since it was shaped in part by slave owners, do we renounce not only those who took part but democracy itself? Do we comb the history of medicine and renounce not only the discoveries, inventions and vaccines of anything fouled with the whiff of racism but their creators as well?

Do we scour the classical music repertoire and forbid pieces composed by anyone with a trace of any kind of “ism” to be recorded or performed?

I could go and and on. You probably could as well. Like so many well-intentioned thoughts, this is an idea that should have stayed an idea and never, ever made it to thing-hood.

Defunding the police? My first response was are you serious? You mean we're all grown-ups and/or are ably provided with that which we need to exist and contribute to the greater good without that irksome distraction of poverty?

Sadly, we are not even close to either ideal. And interpretations of this policy are as widespread as our political spectrum.

They range from Ariel Atkins' pathetic justification that the looting of Chicago's Michigan Avenue merchants last May and August meant that her people were going to “get paid.” You mean none of those folk are employed or receiving any kind of aid whatsoever, Ariel? Because several had the wherewithal to rent U-Haul trucks to stash those pilfered goods from Gucci and Cartier and Tiffany. 

Adding that the police needed to be destroyed to your mindless diatribe contrasts greatly with more-reasoned constructs that perhaps instead of endlessly arming our police with more and more weaponry, we need to better enable those institutions which cope with mental health, addiction and homelessness and would likely lessen the load on police.

Hmmm. Okay. I can sign-off on that.

And before I move on, let me make one crazy, wild and stupidly-naive suggestion: beat cops. You know, cops on foot patrolling a neighborhood. People we recognize. Get to know. And who recognize and get to know us. People we have a relationship with.

Which is pretty much the opposite of 'stranger'. Which is the relationship we currently have with cops. And which cops currently have with us.

And we all know how easy it is to demonize/threaten/hate on/stigmatize strangers, right?

Like I said, just a suggestion.

Finally, let me toss one more issue out there: sanctuary cities.

I empathize mightily with the plight of the immigrant. Especially those seeking to escape violent hell-holes like Honduras or El Salvador. Providing them with asylum is nothing less than the fulfillment of our highest ideals.

And yet, not every immigrant is a political refugee, are they? Many are here illegally. And be they an asshole who lives in a white house and wears red ties or someone sleeping in an abandoned car while they attempt to find work unloading a produce truck at 3 AM, I am not especially fond of law-breakers.

And sanctuary cities essentially seem to be a reward for not being caught. And I'm not very fond of that, either.

The United States of America has a very schizophrenic relationship with immigrants, and the faster we can develop a holistic, comprehensive policy regarding them the better off we'll be. The extreme capitalism so many labor under is only serving the marketplace, and I thought we were better than that.

Aren't we?

So yeah, I'm not as knee-jerk a Democrat as the folk in the DNC would like.

But my skin begins to crawl when I consider the options. Libertarians? We already have one, thank you very much. The "official" party of Trump? Pence? McConnell? Graham? Barr? Barrett? Are you fucking serious?

Repulsed by two parties, mildly enthused by another. So it seems destined to be.

As Republicants so well know, we often vote out of fear. I fear Crazy Don and his plans to delete Medicare and Social Security and speed our decent into a hybrid mix of feudalism and oligarchy. The lies. The chaos. The ignorance.

At his willingness to destroy and manipulate anything to remain in power, and the brain-damaged folk who applaud this.

Huh?

This is our law and order president? Really?

Speaking for myself, despite my party affiliation I am voting against Donald Trump and not for Joe Biden. My contempt for Trump overwhelms any certainty I could possess that Biden is the best choice going forward.

Most importantly at this juncture, he's not the worst.

Perhaps the undecided are people not interested in voting against a candidate, but people looking to vote out of hope.

Which might be why they're having such a tough time.