The Siren call of bigotry

       It is easy to live in a bubble in this country in this time.   The hard part is leaving your ideological cocoon and engaging with those who don't share your beliefs.   

       When I lived on Long Island nearly 20 years ago, I had an acquaintance.  We had daughters who were in the same grade and who became friends.  They played together and I met Tony many times when either dropping the daughter off or picking her up.  He and his wife are very good people and their evangelical fervor did not seem too radical at the time.  

      Fast forward to 2020.  Tony is still a facebook friend, but now he copies conspiracy sites vilifying democrats and is a member of LIFT (Long Islanders for Trump).   I'm sure Tony and his wife would never choose tRump as a friend.  He is pretty much the opposite of everything they believe in and stand for.  If  The Donald tried to join their church as a private citizen, I'm sure they would vote against it.   But, having lived in the Faux News bubble these many years, they only receive sanitized information about tRump and conspiracy theories about democrats.

      I have disagreed with several of his posts and was immediately flamed by many of his friends.  I am a moron with no morals, apparently.  Tony has not participated in this abuse, to his credit.  But, he lives in this bubble of hate for all things to do with the democratic party.   By the way, he is a retired union man whose standard of living can be traced back to democratic party policies.   Many, if not most of his friends are of a similar background.  Unless and until we pop these bubbles and get to know one another as people, the demonization of the other will continue.

Gardening in the Dog days of Summer

       I knew it was going to be that kind of weekend when I started sweating 10 minutes after I started harvesting for my CSA on Saturday morning.   Things didn't get better from that point.  The sun was relentless and Wednesday's 3 inches of rain already seemed like a distant memory as I slogged through a long day of harvesting, transplanting and weed control.   Sunday was a little better, but I had to neglect the garden in favor of mowing my newly revived lawns.  The crabgrass was especially lush.

     The garden has experienced more than its fair share of ups and downs this year.  The dry weather up until last week's deluge courtesy of tropical storm Isais set the tone and despite the heavy soil in most of my gardens germination was a continuing problem.  If I continue to do large scale gardening in the future, I will definitely invest in drip irrigation.  With climate change, the unpredictability of seasonal weather is going to be a major problem for gardeners and commercial growers.  

Not looking good

      For parents worried about their children attending school this fall and the hash non attendance will make of their child care arrangements, the situation looks bleak.   The experience of schools in the southern states, which traditionally open earlier than northern, is instructive.   A picture posted to social media by a student in a Georgia high school shows what in non pandemic times would be a perfectly normal between class scrum in the hallways.  The only hint things are not as they should be is the 10% or so of the students wearing masks.   Incidentally, the student who posted the pictures was suspended by the district.

     If these scenes are repeated in NY schools, the state is liable to see a surge in coronavirus cases unless something drastic is done to make sure that Georgia school's experience is not repeated here.   Meanwhile, many child care options for parents have been foreclosed by the economic chaos caused by the pandemic.  Many day care operations closed in the April have since gone out of business and those that remain have waiting lists.  Many who could not afford full time child care had ad hoc arrangements with parents and friends and are now loathe to put these people in danger, especially those with underlying conditions which would make a Covid 19 infection possibly life threatening.

   With less than a month to go before schools are scheduled to open, there has been little or no debate as to what the effects of child care arrangements will have on parents and the economy.   It is time to have those discussions, starting in Congress and extending to local districts.  Hiding our heads in the sand is not an option.

It is what it is

   Among the many disgusting and horrifying things tRump has spewed from his word hole this week, his reply to a question about the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic stands out as a prime example of sociopathic behavior.   Instead of offering sympathy to the survivors of the nearly 160,000 Americans who have perished of the disease in the last 6 months, all the president* could say to the reporter, Jonathan Swan  was "it is what it is".   And that is all you need to know about the man and the party he represents.

    Following that disastrous interview, tRump fled back to the friendly confines of the Faux News bubble he normally inhabits.  There he is subjected to questions along the line of commenting on how un-American the "democrat" party is and how Joe Biden is suffering from a lack of enthusiasm among his partisans.  You could imagine him relaxing as the Fox and Friends hosts bombarded him with softball questions.  

    Meanwhile, the scandal of the Turnberry ask, wherein our president* pressured the US ambassador to the UK to request the Open championship be moved to a resort he owns has come roaring back with another Inspector General resigning without explanation.   Also, it was revealed Deutsche Bank has complied with a subpoena from the Manhattan D.A.'s office for tRump financial records.  It is beginning to look like the October Surprise could be the indictment of a sitting president by a district attorney who Bill Barr doesn't control!   Oh well, it is what it is.

Playing the system

     If there is one thing republicans know it's how to game the system.   Dating back to the election of 1968 when Nixon's "southern strategy" appealed to racist democrats who detested the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson, the GOP decided it would become the party of white grievance.  Working class whites then began to vote against their own economic interests because they didn't want "those people" to get the benefits of economic equality.
     The completion of this game came with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and specifically with the firing of air traffic controllers and the throttling of their union.  Reagan's terms ushered in an era of stagnating wages and interracial strife.   The crime and bankruptcy bills passed during Bill Clinton's presidency exacerbated the situation and the Great Recession under the Shrub completed the evisceration of the middle class.  Slow growth in the Obama years due in large part to republican obstruction has brought us the tRump presidency*.
     At this point, any pretext of racial sympathy is gone.  Republicans have now decided voter suppression, gerrymandering and the Senate's overwhelming tilt toward rural states with outsize representation are the only ways to keep themselves in power.  Racist dogwhistles are now foghorns and the wealth and power of the 1% are arrayed against any programs designed to help the majority of Americans.   This is the America we are bequeathing to our children.
     There is still hope, but the coming election will be more important than any in our history in determining if we are still a democracy or if we will slide into oligarchy and  a society of haves and have nots.   it is still our choice to make.

All the best people

      Using a loophole in the Vacancies Act, president* tRump appointed Anthony Tata to an unspecified job in the Pentagon which allows him to do the job for which the Senate denied his confirmation.   This has happened hundreds of times in the last 3 years.  While I might agree that 2600 jobs requiring Senate confirmation amounts to an enormous staffing problem for any administration, the appointment of an anti-Islamist and racist to the number 3 job in the DOD should require rigorous vetting.
      Tata's appointment is of a piece with this administration's lawless approach to governance.  The president* and his top advisors set the tone and it trickles all the way down to the approach of CBP and ICE officers in the performance of their various duties.   If you believe that racism and disregard for the law is smiled upon, then the rule of law is compromised.   When the next administration takes office it will have to deal with the fallout this behavior has caused and will continue to make us a less democratic nation.

Worst Nightmares

        Scanning the NYT and Washington Post for something to comment on, I read a couple of articles which seemed to encapsulate my worst fears about the coming election.
       In a long meandering story about a primary for county sheriff in a southern Georgia county centered around a town named Cairo, the reporter set out to try and get the meaning of the contest among three men.   The incumbent sheriff, a good ole boy named Harry expressed worry that he might not win the GOP primary which in that county is tantamount to election.  His competition in the majority white county were two deputies, one white and one black.   The reporter focused on the black man, who considered himself a democrat, but was running as a republican to reassure white voters.   This may have been a tactical error, since black turnout was about 15% of normal in heavily black areas and virtually all white voters endorsed his competitors.   Harry and the other deputy will participate in a runoff election.  The black deputy received too few votes to participate.
     A story in the NYT sets the stage for democratic nightmares in November.  It describes the plight of the local boards of elections in the face of tens of thousands of uncounted mail in ballots, many of which are being disqualified for minor issues or the failure of the post office to postmark the prepaid return envelopes containing many ballots.  You may consider this a dress rehearsal for the November elections, or the lead up to an epic fail.   In my present mood, I am inclined to the latter.