Cabinetry for Dummies

So we’re a couple weeks out from the Big Reveal and I’m trying not to be bitter.

I said I’m trying… I didn’t say I was successful.

Now we’re at the “Holy Shit, He’s Really Gonna Do It” stage as he’s rolling out his cabinet nominees. Each one seems more heinous than the last. I mean, Gaetz for AG? That’s certainly putting the fox in the henhouse. I just hope there’s some way that the findings from the Congressional investigation into his sex abuse charges make their way public. Someone’s got to leak it. Dirt that good always finds the daylight, eventually.

RFK Jr in charge of  Health and Human Services? That’s like putting a Christian Scientist* in charge of the Food and Drug Administration. It’s not going to be pretty. In this case, people will likely die as a result of the new regime, especially if a new pathogen makes an appearance.

Elon Musk in charge of a new department dedicated to governmental efficiency? This guy forgot to keep some engineers on hand before decimating his Twitter staff.

I can’t wait to see what he throws MTG’s way… maybe she can be the head of NASA and build a defense system to use against those Jewish space lasers.

Perhaps he’ll name Lauren Boebert to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. She’s probably got all the research material she needs, right in her den.

These are all just preliminary nominations but I think they’re going to stick. There may be outside circumstances that do in one or another but it won’t come from Congress. After his big win, do you really think any Republican Senators are going to buck him? All TFG has to do is bark at them once and they’ll roll over and show him their bellies. They are not going to cross him, especially now when he’s got more power than ever and has free reign to legally torment anyone he chooses. These guys will be the rubberiest of rubber stamps.

I saw that President Biden met with him at the White House, a courtesy he never extended when the roles were reversed. I’ve seen people say that maybe he’ll learn something this time around for when it’s time for him to go.

First off, I don’t think he’ll ever just “go.” His nail marks will be on the door frames before he’s finally drug out of there unless it’s on a gurney. But more to the point, he won’t learn a damned thing because this is the way he thinks it’s supposed to be. People cater to him, he caters to no one. He sees such courtesies as a one-way street, always running in his direction.

The only solace I take from this sideshow is that so many of his nominees will be incompetent. His administration might as well be a homage to the Peter Principle, wherein everyone rises to their own level of incompetence. These fools won’t be able to get anything done because they’ll have fired all the people who knew how things worked.

Elon should feel right at home.

 Director’s DVD Commentary: I vacillated a bit on whether to include this explanation because I hate to explain jokes, but since these people aren’t in the headlines anymore, many may have forgotten about them or never knew.

The Christian Scientists were a slice of Christianity that didn’t believe in modern medicine. Whatever illness befell you was God’s will so the only remedy was prayer. Then if someone died, it was because they didn’t pray hard enough or were otherwise unworthy.

I first heard about them in a comedy bit by 60s satirist Tom Lehrer. When introducing a new song he mentioned that it’s been a nervous year and people were “beginning to feel like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis.”

90-Days to the Dark Ages

I still can’t get over how Muslims were moving over to voting Republican. This is even though TFG’s first move last time was to ban all immigration from Muslim countries. Well, except from Saudi Arabia. Even though they provided 19 of 20 9/11 attackers, he thought he could get a tower with his name on it built there. Money always wins out over prejudice with these guys.

Anyway, I was watching some more of those 90-Day shows last night when it all suddenly made sense.

Back in September, I wrote about getting hooked into the 90-Day Fiancé world. I even mentioned one storyline where a 41-year-old American woman was going to Jordan to marry her 22-year-old beau, who immediately began putting restrictions on her dress and behavior. (And somehow, despite the existence of the internet, she never saw coming.)

I’d only seen the first installment of their story when I wrote the post, but it’s continuing as one could foresee. The guy’s demands generate all kinds of conflict, while this woman who is old enough to be his mama is expected to do as he tells her and stop questioning him about it.

I told Sweetpea last night that they need to let me write her a speech to deliver. Something like, “Listen Anand, I was a 19-year-old woman on the day you were delivered screaming in your diapers and knew more about the world outside your insular little bubble than you’ll ever know. You did NOT gain superior wisdom by the mere happenstance of being born with a dick. Now treat me like a grown-ass modern woman or you can take that dick and find someone else for it to disappoint.”

Yes, I know she’s never say that, because she’s got “feelings” and shit about the guy, but I can dream.

There’s another storyline where a woman went to see her Arab boyfriend in South Africa for the first time but was so nervous about flying she brought her ex-boyfriend with her, which was an unbelievably stupid idea, guaranteed to cause a major fight. And it did, leading to the boyfriend storming off, shouting profanities, and wanting nothing further to do with her.

As it usually goes, they coaxed him back to talk with her, and they ironed out that little wrinkle with a heart-to-heart talk. But last night, she got to meet his friends, who immediately called her out for having bare arms and midriff and tattoos. They told her she’d be expected to become Muslim to continue to date the guy, which was not something that had previously been discussed. 

They always wait until they feel the woman is hooked before telling her about their primitive expectations.

So, now looping back to the election...

Last night it all made sense. This is why the Muslim vote is migrating to the Republicans. They’re not just a “socially conservative” society, but one that would gravitate to the kind of medieval society Republican bible-thumpers are pushing. They want women on their backs and failing that, in the kitchen. They want them docile, obedient, pliant, and unquestioning, like a pet retriever. One who lives to serve the man. They certainly weren’t going to vote for one for president.

I’m sure they also like the persecution of gays, heretics, and liberals as well; anything that cements the notion of male superiority. However, they probably underestimate the degree to which they will never fit in with the MAGAs. Even if they agree with all the policy points, they’ll never be anything more to MAGA than another raghead to deport.

“Thanks for the vote, though!”

Dark Times Ahead

Well, this one was a real kick in the sac. I think I’d rather have had the presidency stolen than accept that a majority of the country voted for a self-proclaimed Day One Dictator.

In 2016 I wrote this following that election:

November 8th, 2016 will go down in history as the day we stood up and declared that we are a small, fearful people, who would rather literally build walls than solve philosophical and economic problems.  It’s the day we rejected calm, well-reasoned decision-making for a carnival sideshow of bluster and bravado.

Why is it always the people who wrap themselves in the flag and venerate the Constitution are the ones who want to completely undo the very freedoms the Constitution provides?  They “love America,” but want to change her basic nature.

This time, it’s going to be worse because he will be surrounded by yes men, with nary a grownup to be seen in the room. There may be no stopping the damage he’s prepared to do to this country in pursuit of his own glorification and vengeance.

I know I had a bad feeling early on while watching the numbers come in. They kept saying to wait for more of the votes to be counted, but even where she was cruising, she always lagged behind Biden’s numbers. The longer it went on, the more dread amassed in my guts.

I kept waiting for that lifeline to appear, while all the peeps on my Twitter feed were saying, “Just wait, this is where we were last time and the late votes save us. But it never happened.

I went to bed around 12:30, right around the time they were saying that TFG’s lead in PA was more than they had votes left to count in Philly.

Director’s DVD Commentary: I guess I’m going to have to adopt a new non-name for “him.” For the moment, I’ll continue to use “TFG” only the F will mean something else.

Everyone’s asking the same thing, “How did this happen?” I know a lot has been written about this already, in the mere two days since Election Day. I intended to write my follow-up post on Wednesday, but I just didn’t have the heart to do it. Additionally, it doesn’t much matter now, does it? It’s done.

But here we are and I feel like I should put something out there, just to put an ending on it.

Here’s what I think happened.

The media delivered this victory to the GOP’s doorstep, by the constant sanitizing (or sane-washing) of TFG’s speeches and messaging. They never called a spade a spade and while propping up this maniac, demanded that his opponent be practically perfect, or at least cleave to the version of perfection they wanted.

Plus, the Right Wing Media outlets like Fox “News” were doing their thing to trumpet every perceived fault, blame everything bad on Democrats, and whitewash the bilge coming from their guy. These were military-grade persuasion techniques used on people who desperately wanted to believe their message. I spoke with people over the weekend, GOP supporters, who insisted that the economy was in the toilet and only TFG could fix it, all evidence to the contrary. Every argument he provided was straight off the Fox list of talking points.

They created the image of her as “Border Czar,” a position that never existed and a responsibility she never had, and spent her entire campaign attacking her for it.

They also worked hard to make people forget what a cluster-fuck his first term was, culminating in the deaths of over one million Americans due to his botched handling of COVID. By the time Fox was done, people actually believed those were the “good old days.”

Misplaced anger over the war in Gaza probably lost Michigan for the Dems, even though the next administration will be even worse for them. TFG doesn’t give a shit about people in Gaza. He’ll give the Israelis all the support they want.

Abortion wasn’t the factor we all hoped it would be and I called that out months ago, when the Red States were passing reproductive freedom guarantees. I said at the time, “There’s a big difference between voting for a single, stand-alone issue versus a name with a D beside it. You can vote for an issue without crossing a party line but not for a lousy Socialist Liberal Commie Democrat.” Modern team politics dictates that, as evidenced by seeing people pass abortion guarantees while electing the very people from whom those rights need protection.

I will never understand the women who just voted to reduce their own standing in society, giving up the right to determine the use of their own bodies.

Latino men moving en masse to TFG is incomprehensible to me. I see all the analysis about how they come from a socially conservative culture but you’d think self-preservation might weigh heavier when the guy they’re supporting wants mass deportations. Do they think voting Republican somehow spares them? They’d better have their documentation stapled to their underwear when the troops start rounding up all the brown guys. I don’t think they’ll be too particular about who they detain. I’m envisioning a “pick’em all up now and sort’em out later” kind of vibe. But this feeds what I think is the primary issue.

Too many people won’t vote for a woman for president, especially a woman of color. You can see it in the results. She kept coming in below Biden’s numbers. She was his GD vice president! They make up the same Administration. Sure there are some minor differences but considering the opponent, how important were they?

The biggest difference was that of gender and there are too many people for whom that’s a deal breaker. I’m sure that was a factor in the Latino shift. In addition to being socially conservative, the ethos is patriarchal, so I’m betting that a lot of these guys feel that voting for a woman would make them less of a man. Less of a caveman, anyway.

Like many others, I’m not sure what I will do with this space. This political intrigue and coverage over the last decade has been a grind. Maybe I’ll do like my pal Hackwhacker and lay low for a while. Or maybe I’ll find something else to write about. Like the rest of us, I will have to figure it out as we go. We’ve got two months of sanity remaining.

See you on the other side.

Apocalypse Eve?

Welp, here we are on another precipice. Tomorrow night we’ll get a good look at what our future may bring, if not certainty. We’ll get to see who’s been right all along and who’s full of shit. Are the polls right and this will be a photo-finish horse race? Will the Libs be correct that large pockets of undeclared Blue Voters have been keeping their leanings to themselves? Or will the MAGAs be right (shudder) and their guy wins in a landslide?

And if the Left is right, how far will TFG guy go to overturn the election, and can such an effort possibly be successful?

Last week, Martin Longman at Progress Pond wrote one of the scariest “What-ifs” I’ve seen to date, outlining the most likely chain of events that would lead to The Former Guy becoming The Returning Guy.

The basic idea is that the Republicans win the House and then with voter fraud accusations being thrown around (by themselves and their proxies) stall on electing a speaker. We KNOW they won’t have a problem with that, given how long it took them to come up with a Speaker under ordinary circumstances. If they can stall until January 20^th, when the current administration expires, there will be no president or vice president in office. Then they elect TFG as Speaker and the chain of succession elevates him to the presidency. (There are other sub-factors, like having to win some court battles, but that’s the gist of it.)

I find this scenario terrifying, not only because it follows established law, but the GOP would have no qualms about seizing power this way. The one giant snag here is that they have to win the House and that’s a big IF. I’d be surprised if the Dems hold the Senate, but the House seems attainable. Over the past two years the gap has narrowed so it won’t take that many flipped seats to change the control. And because every House seat is up for renewal every year, there can be big turnover when there’s a major change to the status quo, like the Dodd decision.

Suffice it to say that every seat is important in this election. Every win will be huge and every loss, devastating.

I don’t know what more there is to say about it; we just have to wait to see if sanity will reign or we’ll be plunged back into chaos.

I expect that I’ll have another post out on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how and when things shake out. Although in fair warning, if TFG wins, my post won’t be anything more than withering profanity and guttural howling.

See you on the other side…

 

Final Arguments

Early voting is going strong, and we’re only eight days from Election Day (as of this writing), so we’re down to the nitty-gritty. Several weeks ago, I voted via drop-off box and have been notified that my vote has been counted. That’s how it works in a state where they want everyone to vote.

If you’re reading this now, you’re probably not in need of persuasion to vote a straight blue ticket, but it will make me feel better if I can provide some hardcore truths about this race. Maybe it will help if you convince someone you know who is undecided and uninformed.

·         TFG is a hypocrite who criticizes his opponents for things he does himself all the time.

·    The Republican candidate lies like it’s his job. They reported that he unleashed over 30,000 lies during his administration and probably 30,000 more in the following years. Some of them cost people their lives, during the COVID crisis and January 6th. Others are just his way of doing business.

·       TFG and his people have unleashed the most terrifying plan for the country since it began, one that will lead to the disenfranchisement of millions, separation of families, consolidation of power and capital under a small cluster of rich white men, and the effective end of the republic, and the plan is called Project 2025.

·       The orange phony is the least intelligent, least qualified, least curious person to ever seek or hold this office. It’s rich that he and his people call his opponent stupid. Listen to each of them speak for a minute or so and it’s clear who is smart and who is an ass-clown with the 4^th-grade vocabulary. Forty out of forty-four of his own former cabinet members plus his Vice President think he’s unqualified for the job and a danger to the country and have said so in public. That is unheard of in modern politics.

·       He intends to empower those who would devalue and enslave women, treating them as breeding property rather than sentient, self-determining beings, under the myth that they are preserving “life.” They preach “small government,” but their idea of government reaches into your bedroom and even your uterus. His people (and judges) are also coming for birth control, same-sex marriage, and possibly women’s suffrage.

·       Dolt 45 has no plan to bring down inflation. His two plans of action, levying wide tariffs and deporting immigrants would cause prices to soar. VP Harris supports a plan to fight price gouging and he and the rest of the Republicans went crazy fighting it, as they do any plan that helps average Americans. Big-moneyed Republican donors want high prices and low wages. That’s the best-case scenario for “them,” and not “us.”

·       TFG and his enablers are already planning on how to steal the election. He will claim victory on Election Night and set loose an army of lawyers and hooligans to intimidate election workers and state government officials. They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Maryland’s lone GOP US Representative thinks they should award TFG some North Carolina Electoral College votes before the election because a hurricane might have made it hard for his supporters to vote.

·       He is in bed with the worst kind of people, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, racists, sexists, and many other “ists.” These are people interested in keeping governmental (and monetary control with wealthy, white, (pseudo)Christian, males. The racism isn’t even hidden anymore. Did you see his show at MSG? The racism was the marquee event.

·       TFG desperately wants the Religious Right’s votes but doesn’t give a fig about what they stand for. And now, neither do they. Republicans have managed to turn people who worship a man who preached about accepting foreigners, not throwing stones, giving money to the poor, and not judging, into supporting a party that practices the antithesis of every one of those points.

·       I would vote for a brick before this guy because a brick would do less damage to the nation. Luckily we can vote for a highly qualified, smart, tough, empathetic woman instead. She makes lucid points, speaks in complete sentences, has tangible plans for the country which are easy to locate, and that’s a very low bar that the other guy can’t even think of getting under. In any rational culture, she’d be polling at 90%. If you’re rich, racist, sexist, homophobic, evangelical, or nationalist, vote Republican. If not, there’s only one sane alternative.

Director’s DVD commentary: These are only the first points off the top of my head. There are dozens of other reasons why he shouldn’t be president, like sexual harassment and rape charges/convictions, hush money, business fraud, being a Russian operative/stooge, leaking security secrets, blackmailing other countries for personal gain, violating the Emoluments Clause, raking in taxpayer dollars by staying at his own properties and charging the government for his staff and security detail to stay there, and… well, it never ends. But this post has to.

Identifying a Hit Piece

Mainstream media is letting the country down in a big way, by abandoning their traditional roles of truth-tellers in favor of exhibiting favoritism. And I don’t mean leaning one way or another in editorials; I mean writing most stories (outside the sports page) with bias, either cheerleading or condemning as their side would have it.

The most obvious symptom is the sanewashing of TFG, whose daily ravings get reformatted by news editors into something that might make sense. Offensive or off-putting material is ignored or translated, leaving readers and viewers with a vastly different view from what was actually said.

Just over the weekend, TFG decided to make the late Arnie Palmer’s dick into headline news. Sure, we’ve all heard about it not, but not until after the New York Times posted about the appearance and cleaned up the reference, before indirectly mentioning the reference, before the leaked word of mouth eventually caused them to report on what was said. In other words, they had to be dragged into doing their jobs.

This is going on with multiple media outlets day after day. If any one of these word salad ramblings had come from the President or Vice President, it would have been the top story for several news cycles. But because A) they want a horserace and B) the ownership and publishers want their thumb on the scale for the Republicans (which benefits their massive corporate operations) they reshape the news to deprive independent and undecided people of information that may influence them to vote Democratic.

I have another example from the front page of Saturday’s Baltimore Sun. While it’s not focusing on the presidential race, it’s taking shots at the sitting Democratic governor, Wes Moore and it uses many of the same biased techniques we find in the presidential coverage.

You know it’s going to be a hit piece when Fox 45 appears in the byline. They’re a local Fox affiliate that specializes in ambush TV journalism, popping up out of nowhere to pepper local pols with questions while on their way to their cars and then running the most flustered responses.

The point of the article is that Governor Moore is out campaigning while juvenile crime happens.

This is a classic construction, “How can they do ‘this’ while ‘this other thing’ is happening? The details don’t matter, you can fill in the blanks. It’s like, “How can we send money to Ukraine while there are homeless veterans? or How can you talk about mass transit when housing prices are so high?” The answer is usually, “We can do two things at once,” but that seems to be beyond the reach of these “content providers.”

No public official actively works on a single problem 24/7/365. And solving “youth crime” is like solving homelessness or poverty. It ain’t happening by anyone any time soon. And it’s not like there wasn’t youth crime during the previous (Republican) administration. Youth crime doesn’t get solved until there are enough other ways to make enough money to compete with gang or drug life. These guys aren’t going to start working at Arby’s or picking crabs down on the shore, so any solution would need to be massive and grassroots, just like the kind of proposal Republicans always shoot down as too expensive. But that former governor is running for Senator so they want to dirty up his Democratic successor.

So it goes on to say that the Governor’s Administration “broke its silence” on the issue. Watch out for that phrase wherever you see it. That is almost always a false construction. Breaking one’s silence assumes there is an actual, willful silence to begin with, which is different than merely not having said anything yet. I’m just “breaking my silence” on youth crime today. Did I have a silence before? Nope, I just haven’t talked about it yet. If anyone would have asked earlier, I’d have been happy to discuss it. It’s hardly a groundbreaking event.

So, where is the Administration’s statement? We don’t know yet. Next, they go to some critic who wants to add his own two cents. This guy, they breathlessly point out, is a Democrat who wants to speak negatively on the subject. All the complaining and snide inferences are on the front page column. The Governor’s actual statement is buried on the last page of the front section, after the furniture ads.

This is what the media has come to. As a former J-school student, I’m pained by what passes for news coverage today. Unfortunately, I don’t see it improving in the near or distant future. Like almost every other commodity in the 2000s, the news is monetized to the max. There is no point if it doesn’t make money or accumulate power. And with the continued contraction of every industry into no more than several major players, all the news will be bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated to convince you that what’s best for the biggest corporations just happens to be the same as what’s best for you.

It’s just that they’ll be raking in the money and we won’t.

The Price of Admission

What amazes me about the MAGA movement is how they got 40% of the population to believe in verifiable nonsense. I mean, if you don’t tow the Company Line on whatever their leadership spouts off on a given day, you’re out of the club. Look what they make you believe:

Donald Trump won the 2020 election and the January 6^th gathering was a peaceful meeting of civic-minded citizens who merely wanted to support the president. Yes, despite 60 failed court cases, reams of evidence produced before Congress, and our own eyes that saw the violence and damage done live on TV, they still think that somehow evil Democrats skewed the election results across a dozen states including those run by Republicans, left no evidence, and didn’t bother to include Democratic Congressional or Gubernatorial races. No sane person can believe that, putting this article of faith on par with turning water into Jack Daniels.

Democrats can and do control the weather so that hurricanes are sent to red states. I never thought this would get picked up by the MAGAs and Q-tards (because it wasn’t TFG who said it) but there it was last week on my Facebook feed; a bunch of conspiracy drivel forwarded from a MAGA acquaintance, crowing about how this was just proven correct (and naturally all their other batshit theories were correct too). MT Greene needs to take a refresher high school science class before she is allowed back into the Capitol. Or to stand in front of a microphone.

Republicans only push for voter ID to safeguard elections. Yes, for themselves. This would only be plausible if they weren’t using what the North Carolina State Supreme Court described as “surgical precision” to limit acceptable forms of ID that their opponents were deemed least likely to have. But they were, as their internal emails to each other described in detail.

Republicans are better for the economy than Democrats. This is false now and has been since the 60s. Every spike in our economic numbers has come after a Democratic administration stepped in to fix a Recession left by Republicans. Right now, inflation is down, Wall Street is hitting record numbers every other week, joblessness is down, and wages are up. Unfortunately, price gouging is still up, given the recent record corporate profits. When the Dems proposed limits on price gouging, Republicans went nuts fighting against it. Why do you think that is? It’s because their benefactors are the ones doing the gouging. Letting them back in charge of the economy only guarantees that the gouging continues.

JD Vance had a chance recently to address the insane cost of child care by offering a Republican plan:

Republicans have no plan to reduce the cost of child care, housing, groceries, or anything else.

Immigrants are criminals. It doesn’t really matter to Republicans if immigrants are legal or not; they don’t want the brown ones around. So whenever an immigrant commits some terrible crime, it’s trumpeted all over the right-wing media echo chamber, while dozens of similar crimes committed by dumbass white men aren’t addressed at all. They’re all about demonizing immigrants even though statistics show that they are far less likely to commit crimes here than the natives. It’s like they’re fighting for our rights to only be killed by white American men.

They had a chance to address immigration in a real way but torpedoed that in favor of bitching about the status quo as a campaign issue. This daily comic from last week’s paper nailed it completely:

So does this one:

Democrats are controlled by billionaire George Soros, who they say bankrolls every group and social justice program they don’t like. Republicans have dozens, if not hundreds of Soroses bankrolling everything they do, from creating disinformation campaigns to buying Supreme Court judgeships. Those who fund the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society are far more threatening to the union than a single do-gooder whose money is spent on issues that may end up costing him money from his fortune. The difference is that he does it for the benefit of society and these other rich fucks do it to increase and safeguard their own fortunes. I saw this in the paper last week and included it here for one reason; the best F.U. I’ve seen in print in years.

This is another Baltimore Sun article provided by Fox 45/Sinclair Broadcasting. They’re trying to do a hit piece on Soros and whatever group he’s bankrolling here. I don’t really care about that, but look what the group’s spokesman told the reporter: “Sinclair is not a serious media organization…I am only choosing to engage you because I wanted you to know directly how little regard I have for you all professionally.”

Game, set, match.

The “liberal media” is still a thing. After all the mergers and takeovers left the nation’s media in the hands of only a few giant corporate entities, the notion that the media skews liberal is laughable. Just look at how TFG is covered. No one is even touching on the dangerous drivel that comes out of his pursed mouth. They call it sanewashing now, as in leaving out the more bizarre and threatening language and printing what they think he means. There are no doubt still some liberal reporters and writers, but the direction of newspapers and newsrooms is determined far above the reporter position, in the boardroom. They order the direction and it’s up to everyone else to make it so.

Democrats want to raise your taxes. No, Democrats want to raise taxes on the rich, which is something left out of every Republican anti-tax ad. Dems propose raising taxes on those making more than $400k. And the notion of taxing unrealized capital gains applies to an even smaller percentage:

Republicans don’t want to highlight that distinction, they’d rather make you think the liberals are coming for YOU, which is all the better for THEM.

Donald Trump cares about the working man. I would love to see an example of TFG doing something for the average citizen that doesn’t somehow benefit himself. To him, we’re all just commodities to be programmed to vote for him and feed his ego. Last week, Taylor Swift donated five million bucks for hurricane victim assistance. Dolly Parton donated two million.  Have you heard of any equitable donations from big Republican figures? Of course not… there’s nothing in it for them. They might not even get votes out of it if they can’t get their infrastructure together by Election Day. They’d much rather campaign on blaming Democrats for whatever modern problems arise. That’s all they’ve got.

That, and a full-speed sprint towards Fascism.

The Long Game

 Earlier in September I wrote about the crap-TV shows I can’t stop watching, the 90-Day Fiancé franchise. I mentioned how I chafe at the storylines involving American women marrying Arab/Muslim/African men who expect obedience, subservience, and second-class citizenship. Describing the storyline that’s just developing this season, I wrote:

“There is a couple this season, where the 40ish American woman is going to Jordan to marry her 22–year–old beau on the very day she arrives because his religion won’t permit them to be alone together in a room. This story is just getting underway and she has no idea what he will expect of her. This is basically a “boy” who told the cameras he wants her to always obey his wishes and not question him as the man of the house. And he needs her to cover up with loose clothing

I think she ought to spank his 22-year-old ass and send him to his room without dinner. These stories always seem to end up the same way, with the American women taking a powder either before or shortly after the wedding.”

Well, they did, indeed, get married the day she arrived and as expected, she’s chafing at the new rules about which she’s just now finding out.

To me, it’s beyond comprehension that someone intending to marry into this (or any) foreign culture didn’t take five minutes or so to Google what it’s like for a woman to live in Jordan (or wherever.) The guy always seems to hold back on the details of his expectations until after it’s too late. In last night’s show, the woman reacted harshly after finding out the rules her boy-husband gave her did not apply to him.

She was upset because

·         She was told she couldn’t hug or shake her long-time (male) friend’s hand, yet he shook her hairdresser’s hand immediately after.

·         He criticized her outfit as being too revealing (there was the faintest hint of cleavage) while his shirt was unbuttoned to his midsection.

·         He wouldn’t listen to her concerns.

·         He occupied their room getting himself dressed, (meaning she couldn’t because he had his friends there), and was then furious because he had to wait for her to change.

·         He insisted she be covered to his approved level wherever she went, whether in Jordan or back in the US. But he can wear whatever he wants.

He was upset because:

·         Her clothes were too revealing, and when they did conceal what he wanted, they were too tight.

·         She insisted on sitting up front in the car with him, while his brother had to sit in the back.

·         She questioned him about his “rules,” rather than happily accepting them.

·         She was not swayed by his and his brother’s default explanations, “But I’m the man.”

Meanwhile, I’m left yelling at the television, saying, “Honey, what the hell do you expect? How did you not check this out beforehand? How it is possible that no one you know told you this might happen?”

I mean, for Pete’s sake, take some initiative and responsibility.

At least, I take some comfort in knowing this is one set of people and there were probably side issues regarding the creation of TV episodes, with which I’m not familiar. You can’t take everything at face value with these shows. They want you to get all worked up about it.

But it got me thinking about how this dynamic is exactly what our modern conservatives are trying to recreate in this country. Every new law or movement that restricts the rights of women, no matter how small or isolated in scope, is a chip away from the fading standard of gender equality. It’s a bedrock principle of the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society types. They want women out of the workplace and back in the kitchen with babies on each hip, leaving men to remain free to make all the important decisions, so they don’t have to worry their pretty little heads.

I recall our Democratic presidential nominee once asking a prospective Supreme Court Justice/Bro, “Can you name any laws that place restrictions on what a man can do with his own body?”

The Republican gambit is that if you control the health care, you control the women. Hence Sen. Vance (SS/OH) is resurfacing this old tactic:

This is why you can’t believe them when they say, “But we’re not after birth control.” Yes, they are. Just watch their actions. Plus, one of the SCOTUS Bros has already made it clear they want to go after Griswald.

Constrict health care.

Limit birth control.

Ban abortions.

Limit post-natal aid, child care, SNAP.

Attack women’s very right to vote.

Attack breast-feeding in public.

How long before they try to repeal the laws that gave women the right to hold property, get loans, or credit cards? How long before they start selling petticoats and bloomers at Forever 21?

These things add up to putting women under duress, in a state where all they can do is fight to survive, unless, of course, they can find a man to take care of them.

And there it is… The Incel’s wet dream… to rescue a woman who must then submit to his control.

This is where the GOP is taking us… to a place not so far from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or Iran, as far as how they treat their female citizens. Well, maybe not citizens… more like pleasant-smelling property.

The Republicans are playing the long game. They started immediately after the Roe decision and never let up until it was reversed. It took over 50 years but they kept at it, collecting enough state legislatures, governorships, and occasional presidencies until they had a willing Supreme Court. They created “news” outlets to radiate their toxic point of view, be it with misdirection, propaganda, or outright lies.

And because they’re playing a long game, they’re counting on young people growing up with abortion restrictions being seen as commonplace, while those who remember winning reproductive freedoms are dying off. Eventually, the whole struggle will be limited to history books, and we know what they do with those when they include history the Right doesn’t care to remember.

And here we are. They’re not done and neither should we be done resisting, for as long as it takes. The very fate of our mothers, sisters, and daughters is riding on it.

Translating the Headlines

As you may remember, my local paper, the Baltimore Sun, was purchased by the owner of Sinclair Broadcasting, a powerful conservative network of local TV affiliates. The change in editorial stance was noticeable and immediate. While they still run some stories from their sister newspapers like the LA Times and NY Times, there are more and more articles credited to the Sinclair National Desk and Fox 45 (our local Fox News outlet.) These latter two almost always support the Republican company line, although it’s not always obvious.

As I read my daily paper, I’ve been taking some snapshots of the headlines and stories to dissect later. And here we are.

This is a “Sun Investigation” story, which is their favorite way to stir up trouble for political opponents. In this case, they’re working as a shill for Republican Senate candidate Larry Hogan, who they will doubtlessly endorse come November. So we have a first page, above-the-fold story about how fees and taxes have risen in the face of budget deficits that apparently “loom.”

Then, in a story directly under that, there is an article about how Candidate Hogan is attacking fees and taxes. Do you possibly think these two stories are related? Of course, even without noting that the same writer published both stories.  

Fox “News” has been doing this for years… their talking heads start yammering about some ridiculous point and then their news guys get on there and say, “People are talking about this ridiculous point…”

I don’t mind when news outlets do investigative journalism. But I do mind when they only investigate one side. For example, there is a newer dirt-flinging story about how Hogan’s opponent, Angela Alsobrooks, claimed some tax credits she shouldn’t have. The paper touts the story as dirty pool, she says it was a mistake that’s been fixed, and now it’s fodder for Hogan attack ads.

I’m just wondering when they’re going to examine Larry Hogan’s financial dealings. OK, I’m not wondering. I know they won’t because they are no longer independent journalists, they’re mouthpieces for the Republican Party.

Here’s a story credited to Fox 45:

It’s basically a nothing-burger. There were two minor incidents involving voting drop boxes from elections gone by, neither of which resulted in a security lapse, so they weren’t mentioned in a summary report. The headline makes it look like a security breach, but the story explains the details that far fewer people will read. This goes to the Republican dogma on how anything but direct voting is a scandal. They continue to claim that it’s really all about election security but every once in a while, someone forgets and says the quiet part out loud:

Just remember, when you’re faced with someone going on with great sincerity about how it should be no big deal to have proof of eligibility to vote, that Republicans also go to extreme lengths to control what constitutes that proof and only use items that are the hardest for their opponents to obtain. (Driver’s Licenses, in. WIC cards, out.) It’s not at all about security, it’s 100% about vote suppression.

Look what they’re doing in Georgia:

The Republican legislature is requiring that all votes be recounted by hand. That means opening the sealed boxes and having teams of people handling the ballots, which in that very act, adds more opportunities for error. And that’s what they want! They are lighting the fire and then screaming about why the fire hasn’t put out yet. They want as much doubt as possible introduced so that when TFG loses, they can claim foul play. And they only need enough doubt to get a case to SCOTUS, where the fix will be in.

Onward, here’s a dishonest cartoon:

President Biden supports killing a merger that would have a Japanese steel company purchase US Steel, and keep it in American hands. Isn’t that the kind of “Buy American” shit Republicans love to trumpet? But when a Democrat puts his money where his mouth is on the subject, they turn on a dime to slam him for it. Republicans have no principles other than criticizing whatever their opponents do.

Here’s another one where Republican bias leaks in:

Their opening line is “Thirty-five percent of college graduates regret their college major.” Couldn’t it as well read “Sixty-five percent of college graduates are happy with their college major?” But no, the Sinclair story wants to skew it negatively because they dislike higher education (or really, any education but trade schools.) Republicans leap at every chance to interfere with public education, from banning books to forcing the inclusion of religious doctrine in place of facts. They want a population smart enough to fix their cars, boats, and mansions, but not smart enough to see through the Republican platform of screwing the average citizen to benefit the wealthy.

Like with their stance against student loan forgiveness, which they always portray as people running out on their debts, rather than being the victims of unscrupulous financial institutions that the Bush Republicans empowered to fleece their customers. 

Perhaps Sinclair should hire some better-educated staff, then maybe they would be less likely to become a public embarrassment.

“Hey guys, we gotsa fire the editer and get a nother one hoo knows werds n stuff…”

It looks like we’ve moved into the Post Pet-Eating Era with the recent reports that it was all a big misunderstanding.

The person who first reported the story on Facebook said she lied.

JD Vance admits he created false stories, but he’s allowed because… (it’s never wrong with a Republican does it.)

I’m just glad that I got to see this cartoon to put a lid on the whole thing.

(If you know, you know.)

 

Director’s DVD Commentary: I also had a Sinclair story to show Republican dislike for electric cars and an editorial written by the Sun’s minority-share owner about how awful it is if someone goes outside and smells pot, but I cut them for brevity’s sake. Thank you for suffering along with me this long.

This is a Tough One

I lost an uncle today, my Uncle Ange. I knew he had been in rough shape but it didn’t really hit home until he couldn’t attend our family reunion last month. He rarely missed a chance to hang out with family. After my Grandpa passed, and then my dad, Uncle Ange became the reigning family patriarch. The last time I saw him, I thought he looked frail, and that’s the last word I ever thought I’d use to describe a man like him.

Uncle Ange was my dad’s brother-in-law. He was an immense, broad-shouldered, giant of a man who looked like an extra from The Sopranos. But he was really just a big teddy bear; always so happy and easy-going with everyone and full of love for his family. Unless you showed up at the house intending to date one of his daughters, in which case he was known to have you wash his car first. I don’t know that he was serious about that, but I’m told the prospective dates didn’t want to risk it.

He’d play ball with us, talk Pittsburgh sports, and always ensure we had enough to eat and drink.

Ange: Did you get enough spaghetti?  How about another sausage? Here, have a cookie. Hey, your wine glass is empty, pass it over and I’ll fill it up…

Bluz: I’m good, Uncle Ange, I gotta stay clear-headed for my spelling test tomorrow.

At our 2022 reunion, he appeared in my favorite family picture of all time. It looked like a high-level mob meeting.

From left to right:

Uncle Ange: What are we gonna do about that guy?

Cousin Denny: You mean that guy back there?

My Mom: Whack’em.

I remember the last time I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle when I was in town for a reunion. I used to stay with them before I met Sweetpea. Uncle Ange and I were the last two still up and found ourselves in a long, serious conversation that ranged from political to philosophical. He told me, to my amazement, that he no longer believed in God or had any use for religion, a point with which I heartily agreed. He said that no just God would ever allow the tragedy that had befallen his family, (decades ago, but still keenly felt today). I was surprised because this corner of my family carried the banner of Catholicism long after I’d abandoned it. It was something we didn’t really discuss. I don’t know if he ever told anyone else about it but I felt honored that he told me. Maybe he knew I’d be receptive.

I know I once caused a rift with my Aunt, who at a ceremonial family mass to celebrate my grandparents’ anniversary, wanted each of us cousins to bring up the “gifts” to the altar, and I refused. I was a young adult by then, lived on my own, and wanted nothing to do with participating in a rite that I found to be patently ridiculous. I was sorry for hurting feelings, but I was done with doing things for appearance's sake. I went to the mass; that was a big enough ask for me.

My family used to get asked to do that a lot, back when we went to church. There were five items to be ceremoniously brought up to the altar during mass, and there were five in our family. The church people put their hooks into us all the time. I’d always say I wasn’t going to do it. Then my dad would say, “Yes you are so,” and that would be that. It wasn’t a mountain I cared to die on. But I digress…

It’s ironic that we ever had such a conversation. After all, I chose him as a confirmation sponsor, back when I was in junior high. The confirmation is a Catholic rite that’s kind of like a baptism for kids who are old enough to participate in choosing to follow Catholicism. As if my little 7th-grade ass had any real choice. I was just going along with what was expected of me. I wouldn’t start developing my heathen views until at least high school. But it was fun that I got to choose my sponsor and that was Uncle Ange. This is us, on Confirmation Day:

I just wish someone would have confirmed to me that those were god-awful pants. Not to mention wearing a striped tie with plaid pants. I can't believe my parents let me out of the house looking like that. The 70s definitely had its fashion problems.

It’s strange now, getting to the age where the people you always looked up to are suddenly vulnerable. I suppose that’s the natural order of things. But when you still essentially think of yourself as 40 years younger than you really are, it can be jarring.

I used to jar Uncle Ange all the time, usually when he would mention how old all his nieces and nephews were getting. I was the oldest of my crop of cousins, the first-born of two first-borns. So I’d go, “You know how old I am? I’m 40 now… (or whatever.) He’d always wince in alarm at how the time flew. I’m sure he still remembered me as the little boy who was the ring bearer at his wedding.

I was five, but I took my job very seriously and hit all my marks. I was rewarded with cake, afterward, but I suspect that might have been for everyone.

I remember at one reunion in the 80s, I wore a (Pittsburgh's own) Donnie Iris concert tee shirt to the picnic. Uncle Ange said, “Donny Iris? I know Donnie Iris. We used to be roommates at Slippery Rock (University). He was kind of a strange cat.”

I said, “How come you never told me that before? I could have name-dropped you to try and get backstage to meet him.”

I’m not sure how well that might have worked though. Donny could have thought I was sent there to break his legs.

For the longest time, whenever I went back to Pittsburgh for an event… reunion, wedding, funeral, Steelers game, we’d always end up over at their place. My aunt would bring out enough food to feed an army and Uncle Ange would pour the wine. In his later years, he was making his own wine too. We’d be eating and laughing and drinking wine and just about when it felt like we should be done, he’d come out of the cellar with two more bottles. It could certainly make for a rough drive home the next day.

So, tonight, I think I may have a little wine with dinner, and pour one for Uncle Ange. He was a great man and one of my favorite people. I just hope he knew how warmly and deeply he was loved. I know that whenever we assemble back in The Burgh, I will always feel a giant hole where his immense warmth, kindness, and generosity used to be.

Salut!

Director’s DVD Commentary: I wrote about my three uncles back in 2013, as I contemplated my own role as an uncle at which I was just getting started, hoping I was doing them justice. I’ve been fortunate to have such outstanding role models to show me how it’s done.