AND He's Better Looking

The attack on Jews worshipping at their Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh underscores what no American Jew, including this one, ever wants to admit: we're not safe in our own neighborhood, or in our own country for that matter. Who can we thank for this miserable predicament? Why our very own president, Donald Trump, of course, along with his gel slicked spawn, Don Jr. They have both been shamelessly flogging anti-Semitic tropes since the 2016 presidential campaign, spreading virulent hatred to activate their (i.e, the Republicans') "base."

Predictably, Republican party "leaders" have taken one of two tacts. They've either run for cover, complicit, even while they continue to cosign the rhetoric and actions of this amoral bloated gasbag of a president who famously described neo-Nazis as "very fine people." Or, alternatively, they have puffed up and assumed an even more sanctimonious pose, as if that were even possible, and insisted that all sides tone down the rhetoric and return to civil dialogue.

They assume this same pose while mouthing the platitudes about our nation being a tolerant one, and then, just like Trump, quickly return to vilifying people of color, immigrants, women or whomever they need to demonize to mobilize their base of six-fingered, knuckle-dragging, tea-bagging, sister-shagging, false flagging moral degenerates. Meanwhile, while we all fume and sputter at the audacity of it all, they go right back to their real mission - to populate the judiciary with as many racist, fascist judges who will institutionalize white minority rule for generations to come.

So what if a few Jews get massacred in in the process? Nothing will get in their way of achieving the Republican solution to the slow, steady colorization and resultant diversification of our society. Solution, eh? Where have I heard that one before...? I'm sure the "Fake Jews" in the Trump family -  Jared, Ivanka and their brood - aren't sweating it...They'll just hop in their private jet and skip town while the rest of us are left in this seething cesspool of antisemitism that is America.

Oh, the Horror!

In a few evenings, all the little buckaroos in our neighborhood will be turning up on our front porch for some Grade A sugar bombs, packaged and marketed oh so lovingly by the humanitarians at Big Agriculture. I'll certainly be glad to do my part to feed these kids' budding (raging?) sugar addiction.

Meanwhile, the 24/7 Horror Show that is the Trump Administration doesn't need a single, special day in the year set aside for scaring and terrorizing Americans. With Donald Trump, every day is Halloween. For our dear friends on the right of the political spectrum, it's a nonstop, year-round binge. Every time they say their boy, bellowing and braying at his enemies, real or imagined (mostly imagined), they gobble down that strychnine-laced white supremacism he feeds them, hoping his next empty, spiteful act will satisfy their craving for the ultimate white rage high.

For my brothers and sisters on the left, it's another anxiety-filled day, wondering when the nightmare will ever end. All too understandably distracted by the daily geyser of white hatred, they fail to see that much of what Trump is clumsily rushing to do - rollback of civil rights for people of color and LGBTQ folks; demonization of immigrants and asylum seekers; dismantling of environmental, worker and consumer safety regulatory frameworks; and the degradation of the basic norms of our democratic institutions - is part and parcel of a process that began long, long ago.

Fredrick Douglas told us that power concedes nothing without a demand but he may not have realized just how quickly power lashes back against any progress - however incremental or just it might have been - once it has been accomplished. That's what I've experienced in my lifetime. I was born too late to witness the major gains of the 1960s' liberation movements; instead, over the past 50 plus years, I've watched the power elites plot and carry out their slow, steady claw back. Sure, it's scary. Yes it's hurting and even killing people, innocent people, but let's not fool ourselves. It's nothing new, and it's unlikely to stop anytime soon, and certainly not with the election of scary clowns from the other side of the aisle.

On that note, the best way to overcome our fears is to laugh at them. Here's my contribution. Enjoy the 'toon!

Wake Up, Little Susie, Wake the BLEEP Up!

"Whoa, Nellie! And it's Barf Throwitup as our newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court in a 'Squi-ker!'"

By just a few votes, cast by a handful of particularly spineless Senators, the Republicans were able to ram the Kavanaugh nomination through the Senate on a collision course with the U.S. Supreme Court. I was going to write something about the Supreme Court being the last pillar standing in our democracy, but that really isn't or has been true. Whatever institutional integrity the place might have still had was jettisoned long ago with the infamous Bush v. Gore ruling. The best democracy (Republican) money can buy, yessiree Bob (Corker)!

It's with some reluctance that this week's rant 'n' rave is reserved for Susan Collins. While I don't want to single her out, I'm gonna single her out. For the men who fell in line, I'm not at all surprised - gender equality and gender equity are probably #4,391 on the list they actually give a hoot about. They'll simply bumble along with the rest of their white, entitled lives in utter, blissful ignorance of how much harm they just caused the nation with their scruple-less act of misogynistic white supremacy.

Back to Susie Q. As has been written much more eloquently, Senator Collins sold out her gender and her soul. For what exactly I'm not sure. Is she such a loyal patriarchy-loving fool that she simply fell in after a good solid mansplaining from the triple-chinned blunder, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? Was she offered a carrot - maybe a cabinet position, a committee chair or some campaign financial assistance to counter the likely avalanche of contributions her 2020 opponent will receive? Was she threatened with a stick - the denial of all of the above?

I guess I'm asking for a little help here. One thing is for sure. Women, people of color, recently arrived immigrants - legal and undocumented, non-evangelical Christians, people living with disabilities, and yes, you too - "blue collar" working class folks - we're all in for world of pain and suffering. Unless, of course, we stop focusing on what separates us and instead on what will bring us together.

Let's all try to have some patience with each other and realize that all of us are traumatized by living in this savage, winner-take-all society, the "leaders" of which are always multiple steps ahead in their centuries' old strategy of divide and rule. Whatever Alex de Tocqueville might have thought he saw here almost 200 years ago is now only hanging on for dear life. Time for all of us to start doing some serious non-rapey CPR on our social fabric so that we can restore bonds of mutual tolerance, acceptance, trust and, dare I say it, love. Our nation's survival depends on it. And yeah, Donald "Pop a Couple of Tic Tacs" Trump is hereby banned from this collective exercise, unless Susan Collins is still looking for her big fat wet sloppy "thank you" kiss.