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Vote For Her

When you say stupid, hateful, truly misogynistic things about a woman in a position of some power, she doesn't hear you. But your sister does - your wife does - your aunts and nieces do - your daughter does.

We don't always model the kind of exemplary behavior we want our kids to emulate. Lord knows I haven't. There have been many mistakes, and many regrets for not doing and being better.

Of course, we can't always be at our best when it comes to doing anything, let alone when we're trying to raise kids to be good and decent people, and it's all we can do just to get them through homework, and supper, and bath time, and bedtime one more night without murdering the little darlings.

But we can try. We can maybe hold back a little on our oh-so-clever, sharp-as-a-razor rhetorical wit, and remember 'little pitchers have big ears'. We can make some small effort to be more aware of the example we're setting.

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The dialog is a bit obvious and the acting isn't great, but why the fuck would I demand anything Oscar-worthy when women are dying?

And by the way, there are babies dying as well. The precious little bundles these fuckin' fanatics claim they care about are becoming casualties too.

I can't believe how stupidly we behave sometimes.

Shut the fuck up. Get your fat ass outa the way. And leave people alone.

Trump Is Broken

It's Rick Wilson - one of the GOP's better spin meisters - but there's more than just a bit of reality and honesty in this.

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Because she cares about veterans, and she understands families like yours.

The Bamboozlement Of Innocents

She was bargaining on Facebook.

She asked friends with dead relatives.

She scored some in parking lots.

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It's time to be a man - vote for a woman.

The Scope Of The Victory

It's on us. We have to deliver a win for Harris & Walz that - at the very least - can be spun as if it's the biggest thing since Reagan in '84.

And we have to gear up to watch what goes on around the polling places, and then what's happening from Nov 6 thru Jan 20.

This is a big lift. We need as many of us as possible.

Many hands make for light work.

Because Trump's goons are already going after the process, and they'll continue tearing at it until they put his blobby orange ass in the Oval Office again, or until we stomp them into a small greasy stain on the sidewalk (metaphorically, if at all possible - otherwise if necessary - don't fuck with me, MAGA).

We've pulled off 58 inaugurations in a row - from 1789 thru 2021. Let's not let some gang of lowlife political vandals fuck up the streak.

It's Time To Be A Man

... and vote for a woman.

Please - No

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The trick is to not reveal your own self-loathing while getting your audience to recognize theirs, and to give them the opportunity to turn it outward in order to project it onto whatever group or individual you've chosen as your next target.

When people are frustrated because they've been busting their butts and never seem to get ahead, they'll be looking for something or someone to blame it on.

If you have a good bunch of power, and if you're at least partly responsible for causing those problems, you damned sure better have something up your sleeve besides a sweaty armpit. You can't give the rubes any chance to figure out that you're the one been fuckin' 'em with their pants on this whole time.

Hate The Hate

... but love the hater? Yeah - I'm not at all sure that one's gonna fly.

It's an interesting thing to ponder though. Karl Popper didn't give us much guidance on it. He pulled up a little short - he said we shouldn't tolerate intolerance, but I don't know that he said much about any given intolerant douche nozzle.

The Open Society And Its Enemies --Karl Popper

Hate the Hate, Love the Hater - by Tom Krattenmaker - 2018

In Romans 12, Paul expresses a nice sentiment. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil,” he writes. “Do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Good thing he slipped in that practical proviso – “if it is possible” – to give us the free pass we seem to need for such a fractious time as ours. If ever there were a moment when peaceable living was not possible, wouldn’t it be now?

Getting Beyond Excuses

I mean, I can’t possibly live at peace with people who want to erase my neighbors’ identity or my own, can I? I can’t possibly extend courtesies to people who want to consign my allies or me to unequal treatment – even death – under the law, can I? I can’t possibly be civil to people who cheat and lie to win in political battle, can I?

Actually, I can. In the following ways:

Think first about what Paul’s teaching does not compel. Nothing in it suggests that people ought to withdraw from struggles for justice, to “just go along” with corrupt authorities or agendas. Indeed, Christians and all people of good will are called to do the opposite, knowing there can be no real and enduring peace until there is justice for all.

Note that in his exhortations to the fledgling Roman church Paul is calling on the people to live at peace with everyone, not everything. There is no prohibition against Christ followers opposing harmful ideas and bad practices.In truth, we know they must fight against that which is evil and harmful – through their power as citizens and the example they set as individuals and church communities.

As citizens of 21st-century America, we can understand this concept better, and start to visualize its implementation, by unpacking an often misunderstood and poorly practiced principle at the heart of our most rancorous political differences: the principle of tolerance and inclusion.

How Many Chairs?

One way of understanding our present political dynamic is to examine citizens’ divergent responses to the growing inclusion we see in American society. The table was once reserved for men, largely – men who were white, straight, and Christian. They ran the show and reaped the rewards. But in recent decades, different people have been showing up and rightfully expecting to be seated: people of color, people from other countries, female people, LGBTQ people, Muslim people, nonreligious people, and so on.

Do you embrace that social change? A person’s answer goes a long way toward revealing which side he or she is on in today’s culture battle.

But putting this in practice is no easy task. To hear it from many conservatives, liberals are nothing but hypocrites when it comes to tolerance and inclusion. This is made gallingly apparent, the critics charge, the moment that tolerance promoters encounter anyone who disagrees with them on gay rights or equal treatment of women, for instance.

It’s true that the champions of tolerance mangle their cherished principle when they condemn, as a person, the baker who won’t bake or the photographer who won’t photograph for a gay wedding. Or when progressives demand the shunning of anyone who, at some point in the recent or not so recent past, has done or said something offensive against a group that has been too long excluded.

But overreactions of this sort do not change the larger truth. Tolerance is a worthy principle that should remain at the heart of the progressive creed. To blithely ignore or accept acts of exclusion would make a mockery of this commitment. Those committed to tolerance cannot abide racist acts committed by their leaders and political foes. They cannot stay quiet about sexual abuse committed by men who misuse their positions of power and authority, or accept any other acts of exclusion and dehumanization. These are in the category of what should not be tolerated: that which constitutes intolerance.

Shunning Ideas, Not People

But how then are advocates of tolerance supposed to treat the people who commit acts of hate and exclusion?

I suggest we build on the kernel of wisdom found in a popular aphorism that evangelical Christians are known to use, one that finds its origins in Augustine: “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” as it’s popularly phrased. Though its credibility was damaged years ago by abuse by Christian Right political figures, the insight it carries remains potent: Instead of reflexively shunning people with whom we disagree on important and divisive issues, we can shun harmful ideas. Instead of automatically condemning those with different positions and philosophies, we can reserve scorn for bad actions, bad behavior.

We can hate the hate, but love the hater.

Space must always be left open for “offenders” to join the community of inclusion, the community of philanthropic love and acceptance. The redemptive potential of simple human encounter has to be respected, protected, risked. It’s not as impossible, not as naïve, as it sounds.

Crossing the Border

Consider the African-American blues musician who has made it his life’s work to engage with, and befriend, members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dubbed the “KKK whisperer” by CNN, Daryl Davis has been talking with – mainly listening to – Klansmen for decades. He was at it again last August in Charlottesville, during the ugly, convulsive weekend of white supremacist rallies. The driving force behind Davis’ idealistic initiative is a question he’s been putting to racists for decades: “Why do you hate me? You don’t even know me.”1

Daryl Davis has a closet full of Ku Klux Klan robes. They were given to him by Klansmen who quit the imperial order after their encounters with him.

In his interactions with those Klansmen, the “KKK whisperer” hated the hate, but not the hater. And in more than a few instances, the interaction changed those men, changed the equation.

Not all of us have the constitution for this kind of radical border crossing. Some will deem it unsafe. A straight white writer (like yours truly) should not deign to tell people from embattled groups how to engage their oppressors.

Yet we can all be moved by the insight and inspiration. We can all appreciate the exemplars in history who refused to hate their haters. Martin Luther King Jr. propagated this insight. So did Jesus. If we truly want to break our present impasse, we can each find our own border to cross.

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The little gulp at the end is perfect.

It's Time

We have to step up and meet this moment.

Joe Biden's Wikipedia Page:

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who is the 46th and current president of the United States since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama and represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009.

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden moved with his family to Delaware in 1953. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 before earning his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and to the U.S. Senate in 1972. As a senator, Biden drafted and led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. He also oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Biden ran unsuccessfully for the 1988 and 2008 Democratic presidential nominations. In 2008, Obama chose Biden as his running mate, and he was a close counselor to Obama during his two terms as vice president. In the 2020 presidential election, Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate and defeated incumbent Donald Trump. He is the oldest president in U.S. history and the first to have a female vice president.

As president, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. He signed bipartisan bills on infrastructure and manufacturing. He proposed the Build Back Better Act, which failed in Congress, but aspects of which were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act that he signed into law in 2022. Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. He worked with congressional Republicans to resolve the 2023 debt-ceiling crisis by negotiating a deal to raise the debt ceiling. In foreign policy, Biden restored America's membership in the Paris Agreement. He oversaw the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that ended the war in Afghanistan, leading to the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban seizing control. He responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing civilian and military aid to Ukraine. During the Israel–Hamas war, Biden condemned the actions of Hamas as terrorism, announced military support for Israel and sent limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

I've said before that I've never been a Joe Biden fan.

I've also said I don't have to like the guy to agree with him, and to work with him.

And that's very much what politics has to be about.

I'm not looking to date the guy - we're not gonna take long soapy showers together, or pick out some nice matching furniture for the living room, or go for a walk on the beach in the moonlight holding hands.

• Does he wanna do some of the things I think government should do?
• Does he know enough about how you get those things done?
• Is he a good and decent guy?
• Will he tell me as much of the truth as possible without compromising security?
• Do I think I can trust him enough to have the honor and the integrity to put it all down and walk away when it's time to do that?

Biden was faced with his George Washington test, and he rose to the occasion.

We know there are still some Republicans who would do the same - who have done the same - but either they're already out of office, or they're on their way out. If there are any left in seats of power, but they're not willing to risk their own positions to do what's right, then they're worthy of nothing but scorn. Let 'em rot.

Joe Biden's a better man than any of them ever dreamed of being.

Trump Is Counting On You

... to believe it won't happen.

Yes, it sounds a bit hyperbolic and melodramatic, but ask yourself:

8 years ago, what did you believe wouldn't happen?

• Muslim ban?
• Damaging tariffs & a trade war?
• Threatening to withholding pandemic funding for political purposes?
• Attempting to extort Zelensky?
• Adding $8 trillion to the national debt in one term?
• Tax cuts aimed at benefiting the top 3%, and slashing revenue that would normally be spent on schools and infrastructure?
• A CinC calling dead soldiers "losers and suckers"?
• Appointing 3 SCOTUS justices who lied in their confirmation hearings?
• Jan6?

There's a lot of shitty things Trump did - is doing, and intends to do - take your pick.

Nothing is out of the question.

King Joe Speaks

Not the fire I was hoping for, but he hit the most important theme -

HONOR, MOTHERFUCKER

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It's hard for me to go along with "We need the GOP". Have you seen what's been going on with those guys for the last 35 years?

I think maybe the Democrats have a major faction or two they could split off to form a new opposition party. Let's try that instead.

I do see their point - we need to get the plutocrats and the crazies and the MAGAdicks outa there - but there's a very high probability that's it too late to fix it, so my default setting still has to be:

We have to stomp on the Republican party until

there's nothing left but a greasy spot on the rug.

But yeah, if we could get a GOP that was more Eisenhower and Teddy Roosevelt, and a lot less Ted Cruz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, maybe I'd be a little more amenable to the idea.

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It's a little hard to believe MAGA would say they want to vote in favor of a little dictatorship. But then I look at some of those dopes, and it gets a lot easier.

Anyway - women can save us. And pretty much all we have to do is stay the fuck outa their way.

The Bidening Continues

Plenty more to do. This is not when we just sit back and enjoy the ride. The things Biden and the Dems have put in motion can be easily torpedoed by dog-ass Republicans in Congress, to the point where it'll be like none of this good stuff ever happened.

This is when we send Biden more help, so he can get more done for us.

Let's not fuck this up

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