Personal – Page 54 – Politics Plus

“Polls Don’t Vote, People Do”

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:16 pm Monthly Report, Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 132023

This article is from John Pavlovitz, the Evangelical Christian pastor who was kicked out by his congregation for preaching Christianity (he’s not the only one but may be the best known.)

I’m going to be leaning on random articles for a while, and not every day at that. This one is kind of a companion to Freya’s newest Sound Off!, but looking forward. (It had also occurred to me that we might build on these election successes, so dependent on turnout all) with variations on “See now? That wasn’t so bad/difficult/painful to vote/ We can keep doing it,” but I digress.) John’s points too are important.

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Polls don’t vote. People Do.

By John Pavlovitz

Friends,

Last week was a reminder that elections aren’t won by the media, they’re won by voters.

You’d think we’d have figured this out by now, watching an antiquated process that has proven over and over again in recent years to be less and less reliable in measuring the actual intentions of the electorate. In both terrible and wonderful ways, we’ve all watched the results of contests roll in and defy the prevailing narrative that ushered them in.

And it isn’t simply the faulty nature of the assessment tools that’s a problem, it’s the emotional impact of them on ordinary people; of the toll of these tools on the voting population—in the hands of mainstream media outlets that in an ever-crowded landscape, strain to command the attention of the nation the way they once did.

Simply put: sound, rational leadership, the kind offered by President Biden and the Democrats, is boring.

Competence is boring.

Emotional maturity is boring.

Thoughtful discussion of complex ideas is boring.

Consensus and compromise are boring.

And boring is bad for business.

These things don’t move the needle of mass attention, they don’t garner hits and clicks and trend. They can’t be leveraged to drive engagement and lure eyeballs and sustain urgency.

For that, the media requires chaos.

For that, they need the sideshow.

For that, they need the sh*show.

For that, they want Donald Trump and his cadre of content creators.

The Republican Party is a giant human car crash: a headline-generating monstrosity that daily traffics in manufactured emergencies, culture war histrionics, unhinged rants, and abhorrent behavior. It is a regular creator of the laughably horrible that is honestly tragic for our nation’s government but riveting as performance art.

What this all means, is that because we now exist in perpetually-flooded inboxes and timelines, the mainstream media will never lead with a story that is based on reasoned responses, on measured conversations, on sound policies. In these days, the steady, mature leadership of President Biden and the Democrats isn’t profitable.

And ultimately what this means for us is that we need to ignore all the polls other than the ones we marshal people to, the ones we enter on those pivotal Tuesdays, the ones we collectively flip the script in.

If we continue to work toward those polls, we will prevail. We will create a nation that is slowly weaned from needing its politics to entertain and become a place where terrifying crises and unnecessary drama are relegated to fiction.

Last week, We the People need to remember that although we face legislative threats and Conservative assaults, for now, our voices and our choices determine our fate.

And if good people organize and work and show up, we can still be the difference in the day.

It can be boring but beautiful.

Be encouraged.

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GBS (George Bernard Shaw) and GKC (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) were British intellectuals of the early (roughly first quarter of the) 20th century. Shaw was an atheist, Chesterton a convert too Roman Catholicism. There’s a story that once they encountered eaxh other and Chesterton said, “Shaw, anyone who saw you might think there was a famine in England,” and Shaw replied, “And anyone looking at you might think he had found the cause of it. Shaw was a lifelong bachelor, Cwesterton a devoted husband. Clearly they had little in common. But there was one thing (at least) on which they agreed.

Personal Update November 10, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 9:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 102023

Nameless asked me in an email whether I had an idea of goals toward discharge, and whether I was being unexpectedly moved around and returned to my room (as his Mom was after hip surgery and found annoying.) Well, his Mom (and others who felt the same) must have impacted the standards of care.

Yesterday, here is the printout schedule I received (abbreviated):
OT 7:15-8:15 patient room
OT 8:15-8:45 patient room
PT 10:00-11:00 Gym (This was a sitdown lecture/roundtable on avoiding future falls)
PT 11:30-12:00 Gym
It all adds up to 3 hours, so I know it’s the full schedule – they have promised me three hours a day and no more (it may even be only 5 days a week.)

As far as goals toward getting out, that iis largely what they are working on shaping for me. The first PT workout Tuesday was exhausting, but it gave me a very clear idea of what they want me to be able to do. Some of it I can do now but need repetition to build strength and stamina – like walking with a walker around the gym. Tuesday I did it and it didn’t affect my oxygen but it skyrocketed my pulse. Yesterday I did it much more easily. (Interestingly, Tuesday also made it clear that my pulse going up presents as shortness of breath. But I digress.) Other tasks I can do but not in the target time frame. Still others – mostly those involving balance – not in this universe at this time (It’s not the fall – I have had balance issues my whole life. Of course the upside of that is that I have a pretty good idea of my limitations.) So specific goals are being formed, and I haven’t looked, but it would not surprise me if they are being slipped into the binder they gave me. And if not, I can probably request a copy. Also, at my leisure, the center’s TV system has about a dozen treatment-related videos, including one about what to expect on the discharge day.

I hope no one else here will ever need to go to rehab. But if you do, I hope this will help you have an idea what to expect, and mitigate any fear or nervousness. And the staff have been great (sure, some are better than others,and sure, some of them, being demanding is their job, so they are not going to seem as warm as others. But they are good at what they do.)

This is all for today, other than reading and rating comments (and responding to a few.) Today But rest assured I’m feeling good for the circumstances and getting better.

Today is the Marine Corps Birthday. Trinette has the day free after a long hard week of training and will be able to visit in daylight even in standard time. I shan’t be idle.

Click the picture for a guided tour

p. s. They also have an in-house psychologist! We just met, and I don’t think I’ll need her, but then I didn’t have surgery, so no mind numbing anesthesia, and besides I have Trinette and you all.

“Cultural Genocide”- November 8, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 2:21 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 082023

Just a short rant today based on what I have been watching on PBS (having nothing better to do).

Cultural genocide is something of which we and Canada are both guilty. We largely used boarding schools and techniques like washing kids’ mouths out with soap should one, God forbid, breathe a Native American word. Canada mostly used breaking up families by adoption into different cultures, doing all they could to avoid siblings ever meeting again. (If you want your heart broken, a dramatization called “Little Bird” addresses just one of these stories – PBS aired it but it was not made for them and may well be available to stream for free if you search.)

You probably know some of this. You may know all of it. You may even know what I didn’t but learned from an elderly Di’neh on one of the shows whose mouth survived the soap – That as we were doing this to them, we told them we were doing it because “Tradition is the enemy of progress.” Yes, you read that right. One of the most unprogressive populations in history, patriarchal white Americans, justified themselves to their victims by citing “progress.”

And now, pleading before the Supreme Court of the US, y are arguing in a 2A case that a DV abuser should be allowed to have guns because “tradition.”

Someone needs to tell them that

“TRADITION IS THE ENEMY OF PROGRESS!”

JD update by JD:

Yes, I moved to rehab yesterday, just before sunset. Until an hour before it happened, I had excected just to move up one floor, but the plan changed so fast I had to move in a gown. Trinette (my Wendy) was in work training And I did NOT want to interrupt, but after the long day I reached her and she brought me two complete outfits and other comforts.
I am now in the care of Encompass Health (719) 630-8000) in Room 227. It is a double but I know not whether there is an A/B. I had initial PT/OT eval today which was mostly exhausting physical tests, some downright scary, and I’m very tired, but I have found on line (and have a date with) the opera local PBS cheated me out of because God forbid some innocent child might hear a gay word. But I’ll leave you with a picture of Trinette in one of the first sweaters I have made for her – and pick up my knitting (one of the other comforts she brought last night) and keep my opera date.

Open Thread October 29, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 292023

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Le Comte Ory” by Giacchino Rossini (I could be wrong, but I always figured “Giacchino” was a diminutive of “Giacomo”, which, if so, would make him “Jimmy.” But names translate unpredictably.) You may be wondering why an Italian composer wrote an opera which is obviously in French. And the obvious answer is that he was attempting to build an international reputation, as did many Italian composers in the 19th century. My guess on this one is that it may have been a bit too risque for Italy. It’a about a young count, young enough not to have been expected to go fight in the crusades, who spends the opera doing his durnedest to seduce the faithful wife of another noble who did go off to fight in the crusades. She’s not interested, at least not in him – his page (a “trouser role”) does catch her eye. The count does manage, in Act II, to get into her castle by dressing (himself and all his knights) as nuns (supposedly seeking refuge from horny knights.) He even, in the final scene, gets into her bedroom (and her bed) by faking being terrified, as one does (in Hallowe’en movies.) But the page is there too. I can imagine all kinds of suggestive stage business for this scene – but have never seen any, as modern American audiences are not much like 19th century French ones. In any case – Rossini never let anyone down musically – and that includes Bugs Bunny and the Lone Ranger.

Cartoon –
Short Takes –

Atlanta Black Star – ‘I’m Just In Shock!’:Chaos Erupts on School Bus As Two Florida Moms Tussle Over a Toy While Children ‘Cower In Fear’
Quote – As the bus pulled up to the stop on Parkland Circle and U.S. 192, the parents could hear the youngsters going back and forth. Instead of de-escalating the conflict between the children, the video shows the two moms taking it to the next level, forcing their way onto the bus to where the kids are seated. The clip shows the women, whom authorities have not named, throwing fists at each other and boxing each other in the aisle and then later on the blue seats. The students scream loudly, with one child saying, “Mommy, no!” A bus attendant was seen making the students get out of the way and move toward the back of the bus. At the same time, the bus driver and another adult attempted to separate the women. The fight was brutal, with footage showing one of the “ladies” being placed in a headlock. The altercation lasted for approximately 15 minutes.
Click through for full story. Of course, it’s tempting to sggest the whole story is in the word “Florida” – but I’m thinking the wors “Karen” is more to the point – and they are everywhere (and all genders.) And these are the “Won’t somebody think of the children” creeps.

The Root – Sacramento Police Mistake an 8-Year-Old Black Boy for a Teenage Felon?!
Quote – The latest example occurred two weeks ago, when Shanice Stewart, a pregnant Black woman, was driving her 8-year-old son Brandon to football practice late in the afternoon, according to KCRA. Then out of nowhere, Sacramento police officers pulled them over, asking her to throw her keys out of the window and exit the car slowly with her hands in the air. KCRA reported that it wasn’t because Stewart made a lane violation or her tags were out of date. It’s because they thought that her 8-year-old son fit the description of a suspect who’s wanted on two felonies, one being gun possession.
Click through for details, including the detail that Mom is pregnant. I hope she doesn’t miscarry… but,, if she does, I hope she sues them hard (and in any case, I hope she wins therapy costs). A six-year age difference – well, I’m 78, and I would not be hurt to be mistaken for 84. But generally, the difference between 8 and 14 involves puberty. So much is wrong here – not the least being the difference between equality and equity. And don’t even get me started on qualified immunity.

Food For Thought
manly

Open Thread October 28, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 282023

Yesterday, the mass shooting in Maine reached some other news outlets, including Wonkette. I heard about it a couple of days ago from Joyce Vance. I wanted more detail before passing it on, but her take did inspire me to make today’s cartoon, and bump a different one (which I hadn’t finished anyway). Also, I received the email that my ballot has been counted. I can now display the “I voted” sticker, which was thoughtfully included in the envelope with the blank ballot. And I came across today’s Food for Thought, which is clearly a Public Service Announcement, so by all means pass it on.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette (Substack) – Search Continues For Whichever Antifa Biden Lib Forced Maine Shooter To Pretend To Be A Right-Winger
Quote – America is picking its way through the aftermath of yet another mass shooting, this time in Lewiston, Maine, where at least 18 people died and at least 13 others were wounded … when another previously law abiding gun owner stopped abiding the law and shot up a bowling alley and a restaurant. The reported casualty numbers … have varied widely, and may well rise. The suspected shooter is still at large as we write this, as law enforcement from all over join in searching for the shooter or perhaps his body and cable news fills time with expert opinion. People in the area have been told to shelter in place until the shooter is found. Businesses and schools are closed in Lewiston and several other locations around the state.
Click through for details – not that they aren’t much like every other details from every other mass shooting ever. Only the names and the numbers seem to change.

The Root – Freddie Krueger Who? Karen is the Real Face of Terror For Black America
Quote – In a world where law enforcement violence against Black Americans is far too common, where stereotypes still abound, the true face of terror is not Chucky or the Nun. It’s Karen…. Doesn’t matter if the Black person in question is a man or a woman. Doesn’t matter if they are strong or weak. Doesn’t matter if they are an adult or a child. Karen can get them. She can still drag them to hell.
Click through for story. Heaven knows people of any hue can find Karens annoying. But white people tend not to think of them as weapons of war. We need to look harder – and deeper. This goes back at leeast to the antebellum south and the character of “Miss Ann.” And it has been, and still can be, deadly.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 27, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 272023

Yesterday, I was reminded that crazy isn’t always a bad thing. Sure, there’s crazy like Republcans – and that is always bad. But there’s also crazy like your batty old Hungarian vampire Granny, which is – delightful (and especially to raise money for a good cause.) I never tire of good crazy. Is everyone ready for Hallowe’en? I hope everyone will have a lot of fun. Everything doesn’t always have to be fun – but like with no fun at all really isn’t worth living.

Also yesterdayI got the email telling me my ballot has been received. About d*** time. If I hadn’t received that today, i was going to look into a replacement ballot – since it was mailed more than a week ago.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – The real reason Biden isn’t getting credit
Quote – One theory is that Trump and Fox News have poisoned their minds…. Which brings me to the second theory about why Biden isn’t getting credit: Biden is terrible at “messaging.”… His speeches aren’t electrifying, to be sure. But he says what needs to be said. He’s truthful. He doesn’t exaggerate. He’s compassionate…. This raises a third theory: Biden doesn’t communicate in ways that today’s media and much of the public are able to hear. I think there’s a lot to this.
Click through for full opinion. Biden probably cannot, and certainly should not, attempt to change his own style, IMO. But his “surrogates” – withpoout pressuring rational people to adopt an emotional style, it’s probably possible to bring on some “surrogate” who already have an emotional style, who are not afraid to use it, and who can send an emotional message. (In this connection, today is the day I’m sharing the last version of the emotional cartoon I’ve been working on, and I hope to get feedback on which packs the biggest punch (or whether combining elements from more than one would pack a bigger one.)

The Good in Us – The Quiet One
Quote – Also, because there is literally no such thing as a moderate Republican in Congress, it would have to be either be an extremist or an ultra-extremist. Once Republicans made it clear that having voted to certify the 2020 election was disqualifying (Tom Emmer, we hardly knew you), it would have to be the latter. Besides, Johnson looks and acts the part—he’s a bespectacled, suit-jacketed, quiet, and respectful back-bencher who, according to The New York Times, has a “gentle style.”… And suddenly having a Speaker of the House feels infinitely worse and more dangerous than not having one.
Click through for details. Mary Trump has done the deep dive into Mike Johnson so that you and I don’t have to. Unfortunately, it isn’t pretty.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 26, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 262023

Yesterday, Mike Johnson was elected Speaker, ending 22 days of one kind of chaos (and probably beginning a slightly different kind.) I figured that out a couple of seconds before I saw the actual email announcing it – because a slightly later email (and I read down) announced that Colorado’s GOP delegation of three all supported him, and, as you know from yesterday (if you didn’t know it already,) our delegation contains 3 reps, none of whom plays well with others, including each other. I figured if they could all get it together, the whole GOP would be a cinch. Apparently that was a good bet. That doesn’t mean he will be a good Speaker, or even a minimally competent one. Andy Borowitz suggests that “Johnson Promises to Be Greatest Speaker of the Seventeenth Century.” (I note that that century includes the year 1609.) Also, I got an email from Pat, who is down in the dumps because her physical included a diagnosis of short term memory loss. She authorized me to share that, so I am. (She didn’t mention how severe they said it was. I certainly would nbnever have guessed.)

On the plus side, a late night email from Margaret Atwood came with a video – she promised all her subscribers a post-op tap dance. I wish I had ber energy!

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Trump Says Only Jesus Christ Could Be Elected House Speaker
Quote – Twenty days after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House—and with House Republicans once again starting from scratch to find a new leader—former President Donald Trump declared on Monday that there was just one candidate who could win enough support. “There’s only one person that can do it all the way,” Trump said before a New Hampshire rally. “You know who that is? Jesus Christ. If Jesus came down and said, ‘I want to be Speaker,’ he would do it. Other than that, I haven’t seen anybody that can guarantee it.”
Click through for details. Jesus Christ would not get a single vote. Democrats would not vote for him because we believe in church-state separation. Republicans would not vote for him because he is brown, he is woke, he does not speak English, and he was not born in America. Not. one. single. vote.

The 19th – U.S. Mint announces final 5 women as it finishes its quarters program in 2025
Quote – The program began in 2022 as a result of legislation introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat. “I wanted to make sure that women would be honored, and their images and names be lifted up on our coins. I mean, it’s outrageous that we haven’t,” Lee said when the program was first unveiled in 2021. “Hopefully the public really delves into who these women were, because these women have made such a contribution to our country in so many ways.” Lee began drafting legislation on the coin program with help from Rosa Rios, the Treasury official who oversaw the United States Mint under former President Barack Obama. She introduced her bill, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act, with two Republicans, Reps. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and Deb Fischer of Nebraska. It was signed into law in 2020.
Click through for story. I don’t think I have handled cash since the start of the pandemic … so this went over my head. Which is a pity – because these are all remarkab;e and truly diverse women, and while I knew of some, I don’t think I knew as many as half.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 25, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:10 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 252023

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo shared a link to an opinion piece on what has happened to Ken Buck – a topic which has had my brain running around in circles for a few months. The explanation is not completely satisfying, but it’s the most convincing I have seen. If anyone else cares (and I certainly wouldn’t blame you if you don’t), here’s the link. It is on Substack so there will be a popup to click. Since this was from Substack, and I had noted two other Substack articles – all from very different -authors – I decided to just go ahead and use all of them on the same day. So do remember the popups, and that when the screen darkens slightly, you may have to scroll down.
And today Margaret Atwood is getting a pacemaker. I realize what I’m about to share may have limited interest (although many of us were interested, to put it mildly, in The Handmaid’s Tale) but if even one person is interested, I think I should share it, because my sharing is the only way you are going to find it. On September 30, Ms. Atwood joined the Theater of War at the Toronto International Festival of Authors for a program “Patient and Impatient Griselda” which included both a dramatic reading – with professional actors – of Boccacio’s story Patient Griselda, and then Ms. Atwood reading her own story Impatient Griselda, narrated to a group of humans in quarantine by an alien which looks like an octopus. A complete video is now available here. Ms. Atwood starts at 34:01 (and I’ve set the YouTube link to start there), and when she finishes there is a lengthy group discussion, you dont need to continue. In case you haven’t guessed, all this is in aid of a domestic violence project.
Finally, Tom Emmer dropped out of the race for Speaker barelly four hours after he won the nomination. He is the majority whip so at least has a tiny bit of experience – which is more than the rest of them do. Sigh. But by 8:30 mountain hehad been replaced by Mike Johnson.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette – Dollar General’s Creepy Pre-Employment Medical Exams Cost Them $1 Million
Quote – According to the lawsuit, the medical examination included the “taking of vital signs, the completion of a drug test, a vision test, a medical and health history questionnaire, a review of current medications, and a physical examination, including, in some instances, genital examination of job applicants.” It is hard to imagine what job, other than “porn star,” a genital examination might be necessary for, but God help us all if it’s “working at a Dollar General warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.”
Click through for details. Creepy is certainly the mot juste. I can’t help wondering who they think they are. (The Dollar General stores are creepy to me, too

Robert Reich – Thirty years later
Quote – I was in the White House Rose Garden in September 1993, when Bill Clinton hosted the now iconic handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat after they signed the Israeli-PLO peace accord. We were so optimistic, 30 years ago. Coincidentally, last night I had a reunion with about 60 members of my top team at the Department of Labor to mark 30 years since we came together. They’d been assistant secretaries, deputy assistant secretaries, other political appointees, and senior career professionals.
Click through for article. They must have been quite a team. And yet – “we couldn’t stop the storm.” I know – I feel it too – it makes one want to wash one’s hands of the entire human race sometimes.

Food For Thought

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