No Such Thing as a Free Netflix

 A day or two ago workers at Netflix walked off the job in protest of Netflix airing the Dave Chapelle show.  It is a monologue, supposedly funny, which featured jokes about transgender persons.  The strikers  considered it transphobic, I cannot say as I didn't see it.  Not because I don't consider Chapelle funny - which I don't - but because I don't subscribe to Netflix.

Netflix offered me three free months of their programming some time ago.  I accepted their gracious offer and in the ensuing three months I could not find one single thing that I felt was worth my time to watch.  At the end of the three months, I thanked them politely and cancelled the contract.  They seemed genuinely surprised, I would guess most folks just forget to cancel and keep paying the $8.95 a month forever.  And since these same folks never check their credit card statement except to find out what the minimum payment is, they don't realize it.  It keeps the folks at Netflix happy and it also keeps their teen and pre-teen children happy. 

But I digress.  What was so egregious about the Chapelle monologue as to cause a boycott at Netflix, in my opinion, cannot hold a candle to the South Korean series Squid Games.  It is without a doubt the biggest hit Netflix has had in years.  From what I have read, the series is set in a futuristic society where there is a monumental divide between social classes - the haves and the have-nots.  For entertainment purposes, the haves offer a life changing amount of money to the survivors of a children's game.  The losers are dispatched in various horrific ways; the viler and more gruesome the better.

Their biggest audience, teenagers.  Impressionable young adults who are becoming inured to these horrid acts.  They discuss the torture at school and over social media.  All this is done at a time when there is a trial of Nikolas Cruz happening.  Cruz pleaded guilty to murdering seventeen students and injuring seventeen others on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland Florida.  Perhaps we should ask the survivors of the shooting spree on that awful day what their opinion of the Squid Games is.

I am not belittling the feelings of transgender or cisgender people, I believe the feelings of disrespect are justified.   I am asking where is the moral indignation that should surround the Squid Games? Have we become so callous, so emotionally unfeeling, so insensitive that we can watch this depth of depravity and enjoy it with popcorn and a beer?  I am glad I walked away from Netflix when I did and I wish more people would join me.  Companies like Netflix respond more to the bottom line than to the picket line. 

                                                                I'm just sayin'

Lest We Foget

Deuteronomy4:9

However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, not let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children.

 On January 6, 2021 I sat down early in the day, turned on the television - which I never do before the five o'clock news - and with pen in hand I was prepared to watch the official end to the Trump era and to record my thoughts for this, my blog. 

  That morning the Congress was to meet and the Senate was to certify the votes and proclaim Joseph Biden the next president of the United States.  There was talk that certain Senators were going to object to certifying the votes from several states where Biden had won.  It was going to be an interesting morning.  The ceremony began with the clerk opening the sealed boxes and so the count began.  The count from the first state was read and a Senator stood to object. There were no grounds for the objection, just a procedural objection.  Pretty boring stuff, really.

The channel I was watching then cut away to Donald Trump making a speech in front of a large crowd.  He was giving it his all, and the crowd was enthusiastic in its response.  Trump was calling on the crowd to march down to the capitol, he would lead them, and they were to stop 'the steal' as he called it.

What followed next was inconceivable to me. Thousands of people were storming the Capitol Building, while their leader, Trump, was securely ensconced in the dining room at the White House watching the events unfold on television.

This past September we marked the twentieth anniversary of another momentous occurrence, September 11th.  I know people who still ask 'what were you doing when...' and its been twenty years on.  It supplanted the same question asked about November 22, 1963.

September 11th will enter the history books along-side November 11, December 7, and November 22.  These days have one thing in common, they involve a foreign force attacking our institution  of government.  But what occurred on January 6th, was home-grown.  We as a nation turned on ourselves. We became the ouroboro destroying ourselves.

I do remember feeling intense sadness when Kennedy was assassinated, and sadness mixed with horror when I watched the twin towers fall.  However, watching the assault on the Capitol filled me with overwhelming sadness, but also anger, and lastly a feeling of despair.  I have written this blog for several years now.  My next entry was to be about the official closure of the Trump presidency.  But I found I could not put pen to paper, could not sit at this computer and relate to you what I felt, there were no words to express what I felt.  

And so it remains and will remain unwritten.  One day when I can make sense of what is happening perhaps I can find the words.  Until then this remembrance will have to do.

Do not forget the things your eyes have seen...

                                                                         I'm just saying

What Any Fifth Grader Knows

 1/4 - 2/3 - 4/6 - 1/2 - 8/12: just a random series of numbers that seem totally unrelated, but back in fifth grade you learned something very important; you learned about common denominators.  The one thing that brought all these numbers together, they all had the same root the number twelve.  To add them, subtract them, or multiply them you must first find the common denominator.

Today, April 19, 2021, in three different United States cities, in three different states, at three different times, twelve people were murdered, and several more were injured.  Totally random unrelated killings until you look for the common denominator; a gun.  Since the beginning of this year, 2021, in less than four months, there have been 154 mass shootings, mass shootings defined as killing of four or more people.  In one hundred and ten days at least 616 people have been shot to death.

That number does not include other shooting victims and suicides with a gun; the most prevalent method of suicide.  And yet there are people who say it is their constitutional right to own a gun, to carry it on their person, in their car, in their house.  Some people own several guns, they hang them on the wall, display them like works of art.  They say that guns don't kill people, people kill people, I say, no, people with guns kill people.

In 2020, almost 19,380 people were killed by guns, excluding those who died of suicide with a gun, another 24,000.  And gun related injuries totaled 39,425.  Americans account for 393million guns, or 46%  of the world-wide privately held guns; there are 120 firearms for every 100 residents in the U.S.  So, if I own zero firearms, someone has enough fire power for a small army.  Why?!

The cost of this human carnage is staggering, but to look at it another way; the firearms impact on our health system is enormous.  The cost of fatalities and injuries caused by guns amount to $300 a year for each and every citizen.  You, I and every man, woman and child coughs up $300 a year to pay for the vanity of someone owning a gun.  These figures are compiled by independent groups because since 1966, when Congress passed the Dickey amendment, it has been illegal to use government funds to advocate for gun control.

But to combat the problem of out-of-control proliferation of firearms in this country, we need data, numbers, hard facts, and we need to spend more money to get that data than the advocates for gun ownership spend.  And we need up-to-date data bases and files on who has guns, how many, and for what use.  If  every person who kills a another person with a gun is mentally ill, I would say we have a lot of crazies walking the streets in America.

Let's take a look at our neighbor to the north, Canada.  Canada, the home of the rugged individual, where men are men and so are the women.  Canada has some common sense gun laws.  Americans would consider them draconian but they are middle of the road when compared with the rest of the world.  In Canada, firearms are classified; non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited.  To purchase and own a firearm you must have a government issued permit.  To get the permit, you must complete a firearms course given by the Canadian Mounted Police.  Fifteen hours of training with non-operative guns and blank ammunition.  To get a permit to fire the gun, you must attend an additional class.  Then you must fill out a four-page application of why you wish to own a gun; note: self-defense is not a valid reason for owning a gun and it will get your request denied.  At any point you may be denied a permit if the instructor feels you should not have a firearm.  After all this, you have to wait at least 28 days before getting the permit.  And you must renew the permit every five years.

In the latest figures available (2019), Canada had a population of 37-million people, 2,219,000 were permit holders, or about 35 guns per 100 people.  Their gun homicide rate was 249 that year.  The United States had a population of 327-million people and 13,958 gun homicides that year.   

It took me a very long time to write this piece, there have been thousands, no hundreds of thousands of words written on this subject.  I have had the facts and figures for several weeks, I was just hoping things would get better, but they are getting worse.  I don't have an answer to why my country stands alone in gun violence.  People say you can't get rid of all the guns in this country, really?  Stranger things have happened, but the people must be the ones to cry out for change.  In 1996, there was a terrible mass shooting in Australia, and a groundswell of Australians said 'enough'.  In twelve days the government enacted the strictest gun laws of any country, and they began a buy-back of firearms.  Over 700,000 guns were initially collected and destroyed and now the number is over one million.  Australia has not had another mass shooting since.

Yes I know one million guns is just a drop in the bucket in the United States, but it would be a start.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and the first step is always the hardest.

                                                                        I'm just sayin'

Who Are You Calling Old?

 With another birthday occurring the week past, I have been thinking just how old is old?  It has been several election cycles since I voted for a president older than I, and 2020 was no exception.  In recent days there has a hue and cry about the age of some persons in our government.  The President, Joseph Biden is the oldest man ever elected, but he is a spring chicken when compared to some Congresspersons.  For example:  Dianne Feinstein - 87, Charles Grassley - 87, Pat Leahy - 80, James Inhofe - 86, Bernie Sanders - 79.

Some of these people have been in Congress for decades; Bernie Sanders has spent 8 terms in the House and 3 terms in the Senate, Pat Leahy has been in the Senate since 1974, Charles Grassley has served 7 terms in the Senate, the rest have been in Congress between five and seven terms, terms which are 6 years long.  That is longer than the majority of Americans  have been alive.

You may ask what these septuagenarians have in common with the people they represent?  Most do not remember what it was like to put in forty hours for a pittance, and then cough up 25% of that for a health care plan that is marginal at best.  They don't remember fighting rush-hour traffic, standing in a line, washing and ironing, scrubbing floors and toilet bowls.  Yet they pass the laws that affect all our lives,  is it any wonder that there is a call for term limits for Congress.

The United States Constitution establishes the Congress in Article I.  I believe the framers felt that the congress would be the true representatives of the people and thus be the most important branch of government.  They, in fact make the laws that set the direction of the country.

Article I, Section 2 sets the qualifications for a member of the House of Representatives to wit; their term of office shall be for two years and they shall be at least 25 years of age at the time they are sworn in.

Article I, Section 3 sets the qualifications for the United States Senate to wit;  their term of office shall be for six years and a candidate must be 35 years of age at the time they are sworn in.

The House of Representatives, the larger of the two bodies, initiates laws and spending bills, but the Senate , that is thought to be the more deliberate of the two bodies, may revise those laws and spending bills and return them to the House for another vote.

The framers obviously thought that a maturation rate of ten years should give the Senate a more nuanced and pragmatic view of the world.  The Senate would be the cool debater to the heat of the House rhetoric.  Perhaps, when the life span was somewhat short of sixty years, ten years experience had more impact.  The framers gave credence to age and maturity.

I know I am not the person I was at age 35, and I dare to say neither are you, dear readers.  The passions that drove my actions then, are laughable now.  What I thought so important a half a lifetime ago, has been relegated to the dustbin of history.  But many of the things that I fought and marched for are still in the forefront today; civil rights, women's rights, health care.  They were were problems then and they remain unsolved yet today.

Cold wars have been replaced by hot wars in places I could not have located on a map back then.  The world is a much more complicated place now, the lines are blurred between friend and foe. We have had good presidents and truly bad presidents in the ensuing years,  We have always had gridlock in Congress before but I cannot remember it being this bad.  But I do think if you asked most people how their elected officials are doing, they would not or could not tell you.  I for one, being a resident of Wisconsin have more than enough call to say that I will work very hard to get rid of our Senator, Ron Johnson.  He is an embarrassment to our state, and yet he has a wide contingency that just loves him.

And that is why the same people keep returning to Congress year after year.  Because my Senator is really great and your Senator is real ass.  So the next time someone tells you there should be term limits on Senators and Representatives, tell there are.  It is written in the Constitution.

                                        I'm just sayin'

 

Mama Was Right, You Know

 We've all done it, I know I have and our daughter did it more times than I care to remember; dated a real loser.  You know the one; he dropped out of school or was doing so poorly that they were on the verge of expelling him.  His hair was greasy and unkept, his clothes were grubby and ill-fitting - before that was fashionable - his manners weren't just bad they were lacking entirely.  But none of this was his fault, no one understood him, they picked on him, he was his own man, he marched to his own drummer,

Mama reacted with horror when you brought him home, dad just grunted and buried his head in the newspaper.  Your brother laughed and your sister just stared, as your beau looked at his shoes and mumbled something unintelligible.  You were undeterred, and with a big smile off you went.  When your friends found out they were appalled.  Are you kidding they asked; he's nothing but trouble, he picks fights with everyone, he failed at school, and he can't hold a job. 

But you  were sure he wasn't that bad, he told you it was everyone else's fault.  So what if he a string of girlfriends before you, that only proved how popular he was.  He told you everyone was jealous of him.  He introduced you to his friends, they seemed to be just like him, drop-outs too, a few of them had been in trouble with the law.  How exciting!

You were all of sixteen and looking for someone who would take you away from the hum-drum existence of small-town life.  Get up, go to school, babysit on weekends, hang with your girlfriends gossip; nothing ever changed.  Here was someone who showed you the other side of life, who told you that the two of you were all that was needed to take on the world. 

Then one day you looked around and you saw what everyone else had seen all along,  Your hero was just a lying bum, and you dumped him.  Easier said than done, he hung around outside your house, until one day your dad  went out and had a little talk with him.  Then he wasn't so big and bad and he just went away.  But he didn't go far, he still hung around the schoolyard surrounded by the fawning crowd who basked in his reflected reputation.  Sad!

Sound familiar?  Yup, the world is full of lying bums.  Most don't go very far, but a few, those whose fathers substituted money for loving guidance, had a boost up the ladder.  They were no  better than the ne'er-do-wells who never had a dime, in fact, some don't even dress better.  The one thing they do have is daddy's name to trade on until they can go it alone.  There is a name for them in Arkansas; All hat, no cattle.

I, like so many others, had an excuse.  I was young and dumb and devoid of worldly acumen, even though everyone told me, I had to find out for myself.  I grew up, and got smarter, I found those who cared about me were right all along.  But that fellow, he never changed, his lies got bigger, I hear he is facing jail time, but the hangers-on; they are still there, hoping to profit from the crumbs he tosses them, still believing his lies because they are afraid not to believe.

America succumbed to a fast-talking grifter, who promised he would make her great again.  What he meant was that he would make her white again.  He would take America back to when white men ruled the world, and women and minorities knew their place.  Some people laughed at the thought of a snake-oil salesman pulling the wool over enough people's eyes to make a difference.  My family and friends cared enough to set me straight, but who fought for America?  Not the media, or the party, and America came close to losing her most precious possession - democracy.  

We are slowly stepping back from the precipice of destruction, but the followers who pushed us to that brink are still fighting, as incredible as it may seem.  Yes, some have seen the danger and have stood up to say that they were wrong.  And now they are being punished and shunned by the cowards who were afraid to face the evil before them.  Some still think they can control the monster; they think they have defanged him and he will play nice.  Wasn't it less than a year ago when they thought the same thing?

The menace was a long time in coming and it will not disappear in a few short months, not when the followers are so devoted. Speaker, Nancy Pelosi said it right, "the enemy is within".  Cults, like Q-Anon, have representatives in Congress now, and they are spreading their venomous lies unhindered.  They believe that America's 'values are being destroyed by socialism, multiculturalism, and pedophiles' and these things are destroying American society.  More than half of the GOP agree "traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that they may have to use force to save it".                              More than 40% say "a time will come when American Patriots will have to take the law into their own hands".                                                                                                                                                     57% of Republicans think of Democrats as enemies.                                                                                   More than 75% of the GOP rate the past four years as favorable and 60% want the ex-president to have a major role in the party.                                                                                                                                 And 91% of the people who voted for the ex-president would vote for him again, even after the insurrection of January 6th.

 What can be said in the face of such convoluted logic?  What terrible wrong can be done before more minds will change?  The death of six people, one was a police officer who died defending the lives of the people who later voted to set his murderer free, didn't do it.  The attempted violent overthrow  of the government had no effect.  There is only one thing more powerful than all of this - the vote!  We must keep up the fight, be ever vigilant, never again let complacency keep us from the polling place.  The other side will try, they will change the rules, make it even more difficult to cast our ballot.  But if they win; we will lose more than an election, we will lose America.

                                                                                                     I'm just sayin'                                                                                        

A Tale of Two Parties

 February 8, 2021

This morning came the news that George P. Shultz had died at age 100.  It is funny that he should pass just before the death knell of the party he represented so valiantly.  George Shultz is one of the last of the Republican lions, men who served the country, not themselves.  Men who believed in the ideals of the country and who felt duty bound to do their best for it out of love for America, not personal profit. 

George Shultz was a Captain in the Marine Corps and served in World War II.  He earned a PHD in economics when he returned home.  He was only one of two men who held four different cabinet positions under various presidents.  Shultz worked for Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan in one capacity or another.  But his greatest accomplishments came as Reagan's Secretary of State.  It was then that he convinced Reagan that the United States could work with the new leader of Russia, Mikhail Gorbachev.  That was the beginning of the end of the cold war.  

Shultz wasn't a great orator, but when he did speak people listened, unlike the empty vessels who make the rounds of the Sunday talk shows today. He had the ear of every president he worked with, and he spoke truth to power.  Compare that to the politicians of today. 

Tomorrow the Congress is going to begin the impeachment trial, for the second time in a year, of ex-president Trump.  There was in recent memory, another Republican president who was going to be impeached, and for wrong doing no where near as as odious as the Trump presidency.  The difference, the Republican members  of Congress knew their duty to the country and the Constitution and they were willing to find Richard M. Nixon guilty.  Three prominent Republican leaders, Hugh Scott, Barry Goldwater, and John Rhodes, went to the White House and told Nixon he had lost the support of his party.  In the end, Nixon did what was right for the country and he resigned.

Donald J. Trump ran a campaign based on the premise that his re-election was going to be stolen from him and was illegal and corrupt if he did not win.  During the debates he signaled to those followers on the far right, including The Proud Boys, "to stand down and stand by".  That was the beginning, in speech after speech he told the crowd that the far-left was going to steal the election from them.  On the night of the election he proclaimed victory, and everyday after that.  Trump refused to admit he lost the election, he filed court case after court case - sixty-four of them - losing all but one.  He demanded recounts and then recounts of the recounts.  And when all the states had certified the election results, he called the Secretary of State in Georgia and cajoled and threatened him to change the vote tally.

Faced with certain loss if the Electoral College met and counted the votes, Trump rallied his supporters by saying come to Washington DC "it will be wild". The day before the count Trump threatened the Vice-President, Mike Pence, to throw out the ballots and declare him the winner.  Pence refused.  Trump did all of this out in the open, so certain was he that the Republicans would back him, and he was right.

On the day of the counting of the ballots, Trump addressed a mob of thousands of his minions, he told them that Pence was a traitor, he said Pelosi had to go, he whipped them up into a frenzy saying he would lead them, and then he directed them down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, while he slunk away, to much a coward to actually lead them.

Yes, the mob attacked the Capitol, searching for Mike Pence, shouting, "hang Pence" and looking for Nancy Pelosi to 'put a bullet in her brain'.  Congressmen hid in their offices, barricaded against the invaders, cowered on the floor of the House chamber, called their families to say good-bye.  After the insurrectionists had been beaten back, many Republican denounced the President for his speech.  But of course, cooler heads now prevail.

With the threat of imminent danger behind them, the Republicans now say that it wasn't Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol, but maybe it was antifa.  Trumps speech had no bearing on the crowd.  It was no more fiery than any other political speech.  It's over, it's time to move on, nothing to see here.   

The Democrats and ten Republicans signed onto an impeachment document charging Donald Trump with 'inciting an insurrection', and the trial begins tomorrow.  The defense will say first that it is unconstitutional to impeach a man who is no longer in office, when in fact he was impeached while he was president, this is just the trial, the impeachment is a done deal.  Failing that, the defense will say that Trump actually believed that he won the election and was only saying what he believed to be true.  Failing that, the defense will say that the crowd acted on its own and not at the urging of the president.

So, the first argument is this trial is a sham, and if it isn't a sham then he didn't do it, and if he did do it, it isn't his fault.  Wow, that's a stretch, millions of people saw, on live television what was occurring, in fact half the world saw it also.   And make no mistake the world will be watching tomorrow also.  Our allies and our enemies are already saying that America has given up the moral high ground.  We cannot dictate to others what is democratic when we cannot uphold our own democracy.

The Republicans will acquit Donald Trump, and not because he didn't commit the crime of inciting insurrection, but because they are spineless cowards who are afraid to stand up to a dictator.  And when they do acquit, they will have put an end to the Republican Party.  Shame on them!  I believe George Shultz would rather have died then to watch what he gave his live effort to, turn to dust.

                            I'm just sayin'

Justice!

 "Esi mola tarda dei, verum molit minutim"  The mills of the gods are late to grind, but they grind small.

The wheels are in motion at last, Monday this, the House of Representatives transported the article of impeachment to the US Senate.  The trial is set to begin in two weeks.  It is expected to be over rather quickly.  After all most of the Senators and most of America and half of the world were watching the events  of January 6, 2021as they took place, live, on television.  There doesn't appear to be any question of what occurred, or is there?

The ex-president is being charged with 'incitement of insurrection', there is only one charge against Trump.  There needs to be only one charge.  Trump gathered a crowd, called them to Washington DC told them to 'Be there, it will be wild", addressed them using inflammatory language,  and he told them to go down to the Capitol. And even after they stormed the Capitol, Trump did nothing to stop it.  When he did again address the crowd, he told the 'they were special and he loved them".

Now the Republicans are saying that there is no need to punish Trump, he is out of office and it is time to move on.  Any more action against the ex-president will only cause a deeper division in the country.  What they mean is that it will cause a deeper division in the Republican Party.  Marco Rubio said impeachment would be "like pouring gasoline on a fire".  But not impeaching Trump is like letting the arsonist go unpunished because his friends would be unhappy if he were prosecuted.

Donald Trump is a cancer in the Republican Party, a malignancy that is destroying the party from within.  But he is not doing it alone.  he is abetted by half of the  GOP Congressmen, and the other half are too afraid to stand up and say Trump must go, so they sit in silence.  Their fear; the party will split in two and the Republicans will never win another election.  They fear that Trump will leave and take what...two million people with him?  But how many people will return to the party of small government and fiscal responsibility if Trump is gone?

   When Trump was running in 2016, the party members called him out.  They could see what kind of person he was and they spoke out.  A two-bit flim-flam man, a snake oil salesman, a television personality, Trump was no Republican and he surely was no conservative.  From the beginning Trump showed his true colors; the chants of 'lock her up', his assertions that the election was a fraud, his lies, one on top of another, Trump was showing us who he was, why didn't we believe him? Was it because no one thought he could ever win, is that why the press followed him relentlessly?  It is said that Trump got over a billion dollars in free press coverage by his outrageous behavior.

  And when Trump was impeached the first time, the Senators simply stuck their collective heads in the sand, or up their butts, and refused to even consider the evidence before finding Trump not guilty.  Susan Collins said that "he has learned his lesson".  True, he did.  The lesson he learned was that he could do whatever he wanted; he had a 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' signed by every member of the Republican Party.

Trump went on to make a mockery of the United States Presidency, and the Republican Party.  He broke every convention and rule of decorum.  He was like a spoiled brat having a tantrum.  An op-ed in the Toronto Newspaper said that: "Canada feels like its shackled to a Meth-head on a bender". The Republican convention became the Trump convention, featuring the whole family.  It was like watching The Beverly Hillbillies or Duck Dynasty, one didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  The Republican Party didn't even have the guts to write a platform, they just bowed to whatever Trump wanted.  To use one of Trumps own phrase: SAD!

And now when the time has come again to show their true colors, the Senators are flashing, not red, but yellow.  They have been spineless for the past four years, and in his final act Trump has castrated them.  They excuse themselves by saying it is to unify the country, but there can be no unity if there is no justice.  There must be accountability for the destruction of the nation's Capitol, and there must be punishment for the deaths of five people.

All that is left is a festering wound, it will be painful to debride it, but it must be done or the infection will continue to spread.  The antiseptic is the truth, and it is time that the Republicans own up to it.  We had a free and fair election and they backed a loser, and if they continue to back him, they will never be free from his tyranny.

                                           Swift footed is the approach of fate,                                                                                                              And none can justice violate.                                                                                                                       But feels its stern hand,                                                                                                                                   Soon or late.                                                                                                                                                                             Aeschylus

                                                                                    I'm just sayin'