Inauguration Day

Today was quite a day in America. Some of the same. Some very different. Some odd. And some strangely normal. Strangely normal is refreshing these days.

On the one hand, an old white guy was sworn in as the 46th President of these United States. So...same old same old. 43 old white guys. Then a young black guy. Then an old white clown. And now another old white guy. Not much difference there.

On the other hand, after a never-ending string of old white guys as the Vice President, today we watched a Vice President-elect take the oath of office...and it wasn't the same old same old. It was a young, part Black, part south Asian woman.

It's certainly too early to call it a trend, but for over 200 years we had a monotonous string of the same thing. And within the last 5 years, we have had people of color, and a female, in the highest offices in the land. So, it's a start. I'm not saying that every high office should be held by a woman or person of color, but it would be nice if things moving forward better reflected what America looks like. More than 50% of us are women. Something along the lines of a third of us aren't white. And I say this as an aging white guy......every politician shouldn't look like me. Because when I look around, at work, in my neighborhood, in my kids' schools, and in the community at large...not everyone looks like me. And that's a good thing. A great thing. Our representative democracy should look like that too. When the few rule over the great many, it's not a good thing. It's not right, and from a practical standpoint, it's not sustainable. Revolutions are born out of that kind of imbalance.

It's also nice to think that there are little girls and little kids of color who are growing up in an America where there have always been minorities and women in the White House. That has never happened before. Not for my kids, and certainly not for me.

Some things are odd. An inaugural ceremony with very few people present. A parade to the White House with lots of military and police but almost no spectators.

And then there are some strangely normal things. Strangely normal things that seem odd but shouldn't. A daily White House press briefing that (A) actually happened, and (B) gave truthful information and answered questions openly and honestly, even if the answer was "I don't know (or can't say) but we'll get back to you". There are times when different is good, and there are times like this when a return to normalcy is what is needed. We need this.

As I write this, I have been wandering in an out of my home office, watching bits and pieces of the inaugural concert that is being shown on all the networks. So a few random thoughts... Lin-Manuel Miranda is a national treasure. There are performers out there that you (or I) may not know, but should. Kamala Harris is impressive. Young girls and kids of color look like they have another role model to look up to. Most importantly, we need to believe in hope, and a better future. It might be difficult to achieve, but striving for anything less is...why bother.

There is also the recognition that as good as today feels, there is a lot of hard work ahead. Digging out of a huge hole that somebody else dug is hard work. But necessary.

As Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama just said on TV, the Biden administration's success is our success, so we work together for the greater good. I hope.

As a registered Republican but clearly a Democrat, I can say that when I look back at all of the modern-era former presidents (living or not), I can view all of them as good men regardless of their political affiliations and ideology. Carter was a largely ineffective president (much of this due to circumstances), but an absolutely wonderful human being. Bush the elder was a good man, a decorated veteran, and a patriot. Clinton might have been the brightest of the bunch, but had his flaws that undermined his successes. Bush the younger I generally strongly disagreed with while in office, but when viewed in his later years (without the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld distorting my view), has consistently stood on the side of that which is right and good regardless of political party. Removing the politics, he is unquestionably a good man, and has earned my respect. I liked Obama a lot (being a liberal Democrat and all that). You can disagree on political ideology and yet recognize that each legitimately believed they were doing the right thing, and respect them for that. You win the election, you call the shots for a while. That's how it works.

Conspicuously absent today was the former grifter-in-chief. Which was good. There isn't enough time that will pass or a large enough bottle of wine to ever make the last four years right.

To Presidents Carter, Bush the elder (posthumously), Clinton, Bush the younger, and Obama: thank you for your service.

To President Biden: good luck, you're gonna need it.

To Americans everywhere: Keep the faith. It's gonna get better.

It's a New Year...

...and yet in many ways, it still feels like the old year.

We mainly stay at home. We worry about the future. We wish things were different. Lots of things. Grace's remaining year and a half in high school. Julia's venturing out into the wide world. Not getting sick and dying. So for these days, pretty much the usual.

On the plus side, despite the very significant challenges we are facing, our federal government will soon be led by an adult, and not...whatever it is we have had for the past four years. Misogynistic, narcissistic, psychopathic, racist, fascist, incompetent grifter. But I digress...

Amp has gotten her first dose of the Moderna vaccine as a frontline healthcare worker. Grace may be able to get vaccinated soon as a part time worker in a retirement community (one of the vaccines is age 16 and up). We believe in vaccines. We don't believe that the vaccines will give the government the ability to mind-control us. They already have super-duper super-top-secret military satellites for that...

In the meantime, I work. Lots of extra hours, which is the down side of a semi-permanent work at home arrangement. My office is now never more than about 50 feet from anywhere in the house...

I'm painting some. I'll share more on my recent attempts soon, but in the meantime, I ordered some frames from Jerry's Artarama and had Amp pick the paintings she wanted to use the frames on.

So we have three small 8 by 10 paintings in the entry hall near the front door (two acrylics and one oil), and one 16 by 20 in the basement.

Three 8 by 10's

They look nice framed, and it feels kinda nice to have something I created hanging on the walls of my home.

A 16 by 20

If nothing else, it gives me some motivation to try to create something better...

Stay safe, and be well.

Another Win for Democracy

Another day, another bunch of Tr#$%/Republican lawsuits unceremoniously thrown out of court. For those of you keeping score at home, that is 1 for 51, give or take. [And the 1 was allowing observers to move from 10 feet away from ballot counting to within 6 feet of ballot counting...]

SCOTUS says F#$% off

This was a big one, though. This evening, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected Orange Hit#$r's bid to turn the USA into an autocracy. In a ruling that only took a handful of words, the highest court in the land basically said "go away and don't come back." And this is a Court that is 6-3 conservative, and has 3 members installed by Tr#$%.

America remains a place where democracy is in significant danger these days, but at least we live to fight another day.

Serendipity, and a Long Road Ahead

A bit of serendipity... At 11:26am Saturday morning, major news outlets began a cascading series of declarations that Joe Biden had won the presidency. Not twenty minutes later, we had a knock on our door. There was a package on the front porch. It seems that a sign we had ordered as a fundraising donation 3 weeks prior had finally arrived. From China, ironically. A 12 inch by 18 inch lawn sign.

Delco, baby!

A little bit of gloating aside (this sign is resting comfortably in the flower bed outside my front door), the Biden transition team is going to face an uphill battle ahead. Our outgoing toddler seems intent on burning the house down on his way out the door. Predictable. Unfortunate, but predictable. Anyone who thought otherwise hasn't been paying attention for the last 4 years. No transition funding from the GSA. No access to security briefings. And Republican leadership sits idly by. There are 52 Republican senators. 4 have called to congratulate president elect Biden. Shameful.

The toddler will continue firing people from important positions, jeopardizing our national security. Secretary of Defense, the most important of all such positions was today, via Tweet of course. Other critical positions will follow. The toddler will no doubt soon begin pardoning every crooked friend in sight. The capstone of this, I am predicting, is that for the first time in American history, a President will preemptively pardon himself. The upside to all of this is that presidential pardons only protect one from federal prosecution. States can still do whatever they want...

On the bright side, Biden announced a Covid advisory board packed with eminent scientists and medical experts. So that's a ray of hope. And to give backhanded credit to our departing toddler, the focus on nothing Covid-related except a vaccine will probably have some benefit. Vaccines are important. Obviously. But so are masks, social distancing and everything else in the meantime. And under a rational administration, I will be willing to believe that science and not political gain will be the determining factor in declaring a vaccine safe and effective. If and when the Biden administration says that a vaccine is safe and effective, I will be first in line. And if it has limited shelf life, I will be first in line for all of my booster shots. Because I believe that a Biden administration endorsement will be for my benefit, and not just for theirs. In Fauci I trust.

On a personal level, Covid is knocking on our door, much like it is knocking on everyone's. People in the high school. People related to the band. People at Grace's work. Everywhere. Record bad numbers every day. Europe is shutting down again. The pain, suffering and tragedy goes on and on, and those least able to protect themselves from it suffer the worst.

It will be a long road ahead, and a dark Covid winter.

But we shall overcome.

We have no choice.

It's Morning in America

A new day has dawned at my home, in Pennsylvania, and in America. Bright sun. Blue skies. Unseasonably warm temperatures. A beautiful autumn day. The nicest day we have had around here in quite a while.

At 11:26am eastern time Saturday morning my most fervent hope became a reality. After 4+ excruciating days the state of Pennsylvania was called by the Associated Press, and within moments, by almost every major news organization in the United States. And with it the US Presidential election was called. After an all-too-expected delay, even Fox News called it.

Joseph R Biden Jr will be the 46th President of the United States of America.

Cities across the United States erupted in joyous celebration. Dancing in the streets. Music. Masked (but not socially-distanced enough) spontaneous gatherings spread throughout the land. Well, at least in the cities...

World leaders sent their congratulations. And if there was any question of the importance of this election on America's standing on the world stage...

Fireworks exploded over London.

Church bells were rung throughout Paris.

And Germany...

In 1950, the city of Philadelphia gave Berlin a bell that they called the "Freedom Bell." It rests in the Rathaus Schoneberg in West Berlin. They usually only ring the Freedom Bell at noon on Christmas Eve, and again on New Year's Eve. They rang it today.

As a proud lifelong Delco resident (Delaware County, in suburban Philadelphia PENNSYLVANIA), a Flyers hockey fan, and a Game of Thrones fan, I can only say:

Philadelphia Freedom

[Credits to Brother Dave on the Gritty image. I have spent the last day or more being texted dozens of amazing images....this was not yet one of them!!]

The Democratic Process

Obviously, based on prior posts, I am against the Fourth Reich in America. That being said, I am heartened by what I have been watching gut-wrenchingly unfold over the course of the last few days. Not just the results, but more so the process.

Tuesday night I went to bed ready to cry, and slept maybe a few minutes here and there. Wednesday looked better as the Democratic-leaning mail-in and early ballots began to be counted. Including my family's. Thursday.....waiting. Hopeful but still scared. And I suspect we will go to bed scared.

Vegas odds are 92% to 8%, or better (from my point of view). None of that matters until all the votes are counted and we are done.

Win, Lose or Draw, the democratic process in America has been unfolding exactly as it is supposed to do. Based on applicable and wildly varying state law with regards to filing dates, postmarked dates, received-by dates, and all other technicalities, each state is adjudicating and counting ballots exactly as it is supposed to do.

That is as it should be.

The good guys may win. The good guys may lose. But come what may, and regardless of the amount of time the whole world is left twisting in the wind waiting for an outcome, this is how democracy works in America. Especially given the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the huge amounts of mail-in ballots cast this year, credit should be given to the countless thousands of workers volunteering their time to make sure things unfold as they should. Vote counters. Poll watchers. On all sides.

I hope for the best, for both myself and my wife and kids. For all of us, whether some of us know it or not.

If no more proof is needed on who deserves to be President and try to lead us out of this pandemic and all its related complications, I would refer those people to the respective public addresses by the two candidates earlier this evening. Biden gave an inclusive, thoughtful, wait-and-see, and dare I say "presidential" short speech about being patient and letting our democratic process play out. And then our current occupant of the White House gave a rambling, disjointed, and lie-filled temper tantrum based on some alternate reality, doing his best to undercut the legitimacy of our democracy. Par for the course, but exactly what was expected: a three-year old jumping up and down, screaming and spinning in circles, flinging poop in every direction.

An encapsulation of everything you need to know.

He needs to go. Go to jail. Go to Russia. Go to the non-extradition jurisdictions of Argentina or wherever else. I don't know. I don't care. Just go. And take his spawn with him.

Win the election and unleash the dogs of the Southern District of New York.

Which is why we need these swing states (including mine) to come through and quash this nonsense for once and for all. Otherwise, four years from now, we might not have a democracy left...

Dark Days for America

My parents were registered Republicans. So when the time came to register for voting many years ago, I registered as a Republican. I'm still registered as a Republican. And I have absolutely no idea why.

I'm not sure when the Republican party became the party of gleeful willful ignorance, but that's what they have become. Science doesn't matter. The human impact on global warming is a fraud. Math and science and education are overrated. The Covid-19 pandemic is going away on its own. We're doing a great job. All of it.

This occupant of the White House has made it OK to bring your racism out of the closet and proudly wave the flag of the 1950s. I don't get it. I don't get it in the slightest.

People voted for ... that person ... in 2016 in part in support of the idea of the Washington outsider who was going to come in and shake things up. The successful businessman who would bring that experience to the Presidency.

What we have seen instead is a man whose only business experience is in taking advantage of bankruptcy laws, and how to run a tax-avoidance shell game between dozens of failing business entities, passing debt from one to the other to the other. Whose only interest is in getting reelected for the stroking of his ego. Whose only interest is getting elected to the job, but who has no interest in actually doing the job. The self-proclaimed President of the 47% of the American people who voted for him. The rest of us are scum. His words.

Anyway...

Back to my original point. Disgust with the Republican party, of which I am theoretically one. When did we become the party of voter suppression? News story after story after story come out about someone taking someone to court with the express goal of invalidating legally cast ballots, or trying to put laws and procedures and processes in place that make it harder to vote. In the cities. Among the poorer populations. The people who are far more likely to vote Democrat. And it is ALWAYS Republican efforts to do this.

What are Republicans afraid of?

Well, that's easy. Republicans see the world turning brown around them, and it scares them to death. If every American who was eligible to vote did vote, the Republican party as it is constituted at this moment, would basically cease to exist as a relevant political party. Every position they hold is a minority position in the popular vote. That's what scares them. And so they have no choice but to suppress the vote.

Unfortunately, this is an all-too-easy card to play in the divided America of today. Fear the brown people. As a result, you get swarms of Trump-supporting pickup trucks, American flags waving, trying to drive a Biden/Harris campaign bus off the road in Texas. And on and on. Why are we Republicans always on the wrong side of what is right these days?

I have 12 American flags and you only have 10. I'm more patriotic than you.

We are better than this. We have to be.

Let the people vote. All the people. And let the cards fall where they may.

That's the American way.

And as someone who lives in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, I can only hope that we atone for our sins of 2016 and contribute to giving this narcissistic racist fraud the drubbing he deserves.

My prediction of what will happen tomorrow?

Regardless of what is happening in the real world, Trump will declare himself the winner. Which of course means nothing.

States will commit to counting all legally and legitimately cast ballots, as per their state laws, regardless of the time it takes.

The Republicans will ignite a firestorm of lawsuits attempting one last time to suppress the vote.

These lawsuits will be rejected by a variety of local jurisdictions, state supreme courts, and federal district courts, as they have rejected the dozens of similar lawsuits already filed around the country by Republicans in just the past few days.

Votes will be counted. All the votes.

The will of the people will be done.

Eventually.

I just hope that more Americans believe in what Democrats believe than believe in what Republicans seem to believe.

Either way, I'm changing my voter registration.

Sad but True

 That about sums it up.

What Racism Sounds Like

This is exactly what racism sounds like. It's what racism sounded like in the 1950's, and the '60's, and the '70's, and the '80's...and right on up until this past weekend.

"I think the women from the suburbs are looking for a couple of things. One of them is safety. One of them is good, strong security. And one of them is they don't want to have low-income housing built next to their house. And you know who makes up 30% of your suburbs? Minorities. African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, minorities. Okay?"

This was the current occupant of the White House in Carson City, Nevada on Sunday.

Disgraceful beyond words.

He wants you to believe that minorities are coming to the suburbs to defile your women and eat your babies for breakfast.

Look your kids in the eye and tell them this is OK. I dare you.

This is NOT what America is supposed to be about.

A Mary Poppins Moment

Super

Callous

Fragile

Racist

Sexist

Nazi

POTUS.

...

We deserve better. Vote early and often! OK...just early.

Dereliction of Duty

Political rant warning. Feel free to click away now...

It's the 4th of July weekend, one of the centerpieces of an American summer. Independence Day. Beaches and barbecues. Hot dogs and hamburgers. Swimming pools and fireworks. Beer and wine and family and friends. Group gatherings.

In normal times. But these aren't normal times. Or even close.

The rampant a$#holery coming out of the White House never ceases, or even slows down. In a couple of national speeches (thinly veiled white supremacist political rallies) this weekend that only sought to further divide us, the current occupant of the White House assured the American people that 99% of Covid-19 infections are "totally harmless". A direct quote. "Totally harmless". An odd statement, one might characterize it, given that we have 129,000+ dead and 2.874 million confirmed cases. So...if you round the numbers to make them slightly better, we have a death rate of 4.4% of confirmed infections. 4.49% actually (or 4.5% to round it mathematically). To say nothing of the other people who get sick and stay sick for a couple weeks or more, some of whom require hospitalization. So I guess that "99% harmless", compared to the actual number of less than 80% "harmless" is..what?...a rounding error? A$#holery.

So we get white supremacist political rally speeches in lieu of Presidential holiday addresses. And we  get flyover parades of military might that would make the Kremlin and North Korea proud. The only thing missing were the convoys of truck-mounted missile launchers trundling down Pennsylvania Avenue to the accompaniment of goose stepping soldiers. Which, to be accurate, the current occupant of the White House has previously stated his desire for. The tanks and armored vehicles anyway. Fortunately, the mayor of Washington DC didn't want her streets chewed up by tank treads.

We have a self-proclaimed "wartime president" who has surrendered and left the battlefield, leaving us all to fend for ourselves. He can say some of the stupidest and most irresponsible things ever uttered by an American Pre$#. And the public health officials won't call him on it because if they do they will get fired. Which is part of the reason we are where we are.

Pravda over on the Fox News Channel barely even recognizes that Covid-19 exists anymore. I'm sure they have more important things to do, like continue to dig into the critical current issue of Hilary Clinton's email servers, or trying to answer the age-old question "why do Democrats hate America so much?"

Large population states with republican governors, eager to appease this person and toe the party line, ignored the science. Florida. Texas. Arizona. They are now paying the price, setting records for new infections every day. Hospitals are at or nearing capacity. To be fair, there are blue states like California that are also going backwards. People need their SoCal beaches, bars and restaurants in the summer after all. We have freedoms.

The rest of the world must be looking on in horror as we spiral out of control. I would say that they are laughing at us, but pity is probably more accurate. Europe is opening up, but not to Americans. Not that I can blame them.

Almost all states are going backwards at this point. A lot of that is driven by pretty much no states meeting the federal guidelines for reopening, but we are reopening anyway. Or we were until just recently, when more and more states have started clamping down again. It's July. We should be reflecting on all the good things we did to flatten the curve and get this under control. Celebrating the sacrifices we made, and the positive impact they had. Instead, we are looking at another round of shutdowns. We are back where we were in March. Although, to be accurate, we are in worse shape as a country than we were in March. Did we do all that for nothing? The numbers say probably, yeah. We made all the sacrifices and reaped little of the intended longterm benefit. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong.

I get that people are tired of this. I'm tired of this. More than I can express. But this Covid-exhaustion has made us complacent (if you believed that this wasn't a democratic hoax in the first place). I get it. The only social thing I have done since March 12 is to sit on someones's deck one time with 4 other people, wearing masks and seated many feet apart from each other as we discussed what the marching band season might look like in the Fall. This Covid weariness puts us in a bad spot as much as anything.

Ugh.

Happy birthday, America. Land of the free.