You Just Cannot Make This Stuff Up...Or Maybe You Can ~ Part Deux

BREAKING NEWS: SANTOS FESSES UP BUT DOES NOT RESIGN 

from the NY TIMES: George Santos Admits to Lying About College and Work History

When I wrote about Congressclown-Elect George Santos a week ago, barely anyone outside of Nassau County was talking about this clown. Now, he is all over the place. This guy gives Pinocchio a run for his nose, and it keeps getting longer with every utterance. Increasingly apparent is the concept that IF...better yet, WHEN it falls outta his mouth, it's not true. 

Several questions rise to the surface and none are being adequately addressed. In fact, there's so much blame-passing it's beginning to look like an oil spill in Alaska. 

The LI Herald published an article on December 22nd, 2022, quoting candidate Zimmerman himself:

"My campaign has been calling out George Santos' scams and lies about himself for several months," Zimmernan said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Really? And you're expecting us to believe this because...? Were you going for a Muppet-esque whispering campaign? How is it that News 12 Long Island didn't bother to pick it up? This is just their kinda story. 

Meanwhile, the GOP, running Nassau County since I was a kid, is suddenly being excoriated for not vetting this guy prior to nomination. Now you do this? How did they nominate someone for Congress without a simple HR check? A SECOND TIME!?!?! It's not like they didn't have time to vet the guy the first time. 

Jeet Heer of The Nation, a liberal magazine, published a rather explicit article, The Making of a Congressional Con Man (26DEC2022, 5:30 AM) damning the NYTimes and other news providers:

But the Times hardly covered itself with glory. For much of the last two years, its coverage of New York was slanted toward sensationalistic reporting on crime that only benefited the Republicans. Smaller local papers (notably The North Shore Leader and Newsday) did a better job covering Santos. Mark Chiusano, a member of the Newsday editorial board, did several important pieces that highlighted how sketchy Santos was about his background. But like a lot of local papers, The North Shore Leader and Newsday don’t have the reporting staff they possessed even a decade ago, when they could have pursued the story with vigor. The New York Times—which does have the staff—stayed away from the story until it was moot since Santos had already won.

He's spot on. This was real, hard news, and journalistic pundits at every level chose to ignore it. And if you're gonna choose not to investigate such incredibly disturbing leads, what is your purpose? Clearly, it has nothing to do with providing your readers with news they can use... or at least talk about at the luncheonette counter over a hard roll and coffee. 

Just put GEORGE SANTOS in the Google search box and go to NEWS. Here; let me do it for you. Click this: GEORGE SANTOS NEWS. Pick through the articles; they're all scary. 

Not scary on the level of Feckless Loser and his insurrection, but scary in a Manchurian Candidate sorta way. Not that Santos is an assassin, merely an asshole, but still, who is paying for this? 

And his marriage to Uadla Santos Vieira Santos? He's supposed to be gay. He's supposed to be married to some guy. Granted, divorce records in New Jersey (where the divorce was filed) are sealed, but still, the petition is still visible. And how did the GOP miss that he was married and divorced, and that no record of a second marriage exists?

This is a whole new kinda scam. While part of me believes that Santos thought this up because, after all, the GOP really doesn't vet anything at all (see Marjorie Taylor Green and Madison Cawthorn...oh, yeah...Feckless Loser to name a few,) and he trusted that no one would vet him either, I cannot believe there isn't an outside brain thinking this stuff up. I just don't think he's that smart, or that he can play this virtual chess game several moves ahead. However....

...and gee, isn't there alway a however? This was not the first time he ran for this seat. One would think someone would've noticed the stench the first time and checked into this guy a little more thoroughly, but clearly, no one did. If that is indeed the case, how did both parties manage to lose the ability to Google stuff over presumably 3-4 years of candidacy?  That no one checked on this guy's resumé in either run for office screams more than simple sloppy research, it screams intentionality.

When Tyler Kistner ran against Angie Craig the first time, he was an unknown quantity. He seemed honorable enough because he was an active duty Marine captain from 2011-2019, a status that is easily documented. He becomes a captain in the Marine Reserves when he leaves active military duty in 2019 and appears to still be in the reserve. Does he have another job, or was he looking to go to Congress for employment? I can't figure that out. Reservists serve part-time, but officers get paid about $50K in the reserves, so he has an income. 

During the 2020 campaign, he claimed to have led combat missions. He lied about that, then lied about lying, saying he never saw combat. You'd think the GOP would think twice about running him again. Nope. They did, and amazingly, Kistner went down the same Pinocchiroad a second time.  Minnesota Reformer detailed the issue. Even though there was ample hard proof he was aggrandizing his service as he veered off the Truth Trail, GOP chose to run him again, as if We, the People of MN2 didn't remember he lied about his military service the first time around.

Which brings me back to Santos. 

My guess would be that honesty is not a policy for vetting candidates. I'm not suggesting that this is only a GOP problem; I am absolutely certain the Dems are guilty of the same sin of embellishment. Ilhan Omar is a good example of what not to do..or whom not to date. The optics were horrendous, but she married the guy. This time, she still managed to win the nomination in a rather heated field of Democrats, and then went on to retain her place in the House. That would indicate her ability to tell the truth is not a factor. The difference is that her inability to be honest with her constituency was exposed, examined, and intentionally set aside by the voters. Then it's their choice. But a candidate like George Santos who completely fabricates his educational, occupational, and marital resumé one might think the national party would hesitate at putting a liar of that magnitude in Congress. 

Or would they? 

If the journalist and news organs are supposed to serve the public by reporting accurately and honestly, how did they miss George Santos' lies twice? How is it not one single reporter went to city hall to check records? How is it that no one checked his yearbook for famous classmates? Hell's bells! The TV stations haul out the brother's-uncle's-cousin's-friend's-sister-in-law any time someone stubs a toe overseas. How is it that no one bothered to check on his family's Holocaust history? Everyone loves a heroic Holocaust story. Lots of votes to be had with that one. If what he had said was true, this was great human interest ratings-getters...but no one ran with that either. Why the hell not?

I replay this stuff in my brain over and over and over. There is something really fundamentally broken with Santos, and I cannot tell if it's him or the Nassau GOP that ran him. Years of living in the thumb of the county Republican Machine had taught me that it doesn't matter how corrupt or evil you are; if you're a big Republican in Nassau, no one can touch you. My cousin Ellis, a guy active in the Nassau County Democratic Party, assures me this is slowly changing; that Democrats have actually won a few local elections. Be that as it may, why didn't Zimmerman's campaign go after Santos for a House seat that woulda made a significant difference? What were they afraid of?  

Maybe that's the question no one is asking because they're afraid of the answer. Maybe it's time to ask the question before another election cycle starts in about a week. 

Happy secular New Year to all. May this one be a marked improvement over the last.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

The Vikings' win over the Giants on Saturday

will necessitate a cemetery run. 

Gotta make sure Ziggy hasn't clawed his way to the top.

You Just Cannot Make This Stuff Up

So instead of working on the blog like I'm supposed to on Mondays, I was looking for character illustrations for THE POMEGRANATE's look-book. I'd been struggling with an image for Eleanor of Aquitaine, aka Queen Eleanor, that wasn't from THE LION IN WINTER. Of course, it's 4:30p.m. in Flyover land, and JEOPARDY is in the background. One ear is listening to the clues while the mouth is answering the questions while I'm looking at every actress whoever played Eleanor, I hear Ken Jennings say something about getting King Louis for a husband "when she inherited the Aquitaine." 

The mouth moves and out comes, "Who is Eleanor?" 

Like duh. 

But it got me thinking about her in times of political uncertainty. In THE LION IN WINTER, James Goldman gives Eleanor this great speech after Prince John whines: "A knife! He's got a knife." His mother replies:

Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars. We carry it like syphilis inside. Dead bodies rot in field and stream because the living ones are rotten. 

Frankly, I do believe Goldman was right on the money. Granted, these are not her words, but if you've read a bit about her, they certainly could be. And they are equally correct in today's politics.  

Just last week Congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene, while speaking to a Young Republican group in New York, proved the point. 

Then Jan. 6 happens and next thing you know, I organized the whole thing along with Steve Bannon here. And I will tell you something: If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. 

Of course,  now she says everyone missed her sarcasm. I might have believed that if she had not added the last line:   

Not to mention, it would've been armed.

Sorry, Marjie...the last line clinches it for me. You meant exactly what you said. That was not simply dick waving. That was dick-n-balls waving. You want your audience to know that you are not going to stand down at all. And by extension, we should implicitly understand you are a danger to the Constitution of the United States, the same one you swore to uphold.

Then again, her Feckless Führer has already suggested we suspend the Constitution. What more can he possibly do or say that would further implicate him in chargeable acts of treason and sedition?

Oh, I dunno. Maybe add fraud to the list? I'm mean, who wouldn't rush right out to blow $99 a pop on invisible trading cards?

Feckless Loser wants us to collect the whole set and win valuable prizes. He tells us:

These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my life and career!

Yeah? I don't recall seeing astronaut, Superhero, Cowboy, or Top Gun fighter pilot on his resume. To give credit where credit is due, one card is a golfer who bears no resemblance to photos of Feckless on the links.

Gotta admit, on top of everything else, the timing is just plain weird. On the eve of the Justice Department making serious decisions on whether or not this guy is a criminal, he launches this scheme? Really? Aren't NFTs under enough scrutiny right now? And it keeps getting shadier.

The NYT reports the following: 

NT L.L.C., was founded in February in Delaware, according to public records. The trading card website lists a company address that corresponds to a mailbox in a UPS Store in Park City, Utah.

 

On the site, the company notes that it is “not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump” and says that it uses his name, likeness and image “under paid license” from a company called CIC Digital L.L.C., which was formed in April 2021 at an address that matches the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to public records. Public records show that a company called CIC Ventures LLC, founded in 2021, has Nick Luna, a former assistant to Mr. Trump, and John Marion, one of the former president’s lawyers, as directors.

You cannot make this stuff up. Like if you read this in a thriller, you'd be going, "Nah, I don't think so." 

And if you think this kind of crazy is just limited to Feckless Loser and his crowd, get a load of this guy from Long Island. The NYT published this article on December 19, that is a day shy of 6 weeks since election day. 

Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Résumé May Be Largely Fiction.

Mr. Santos, a Republican from New York, says he’s the “embodiment of the American dream.” But he seems to have misrepresented a number of his career highlights.

Turns out, nothing on his resume can be vetted or verified. Nothing. Not his jobs, his college degrees. Not even the animal welfare charity he supposedly founded.

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms on Mr. Santos’s campaign biography, told The Times they had no record of his ever working there. Officials at Baruch College, which Mr. Santos has said he graduated from in 2010, could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.

How did this go unchecked in the MONTHS leading up to election day? How was it that not even one, single news outlet ever checked on this guy? 

Optics. 

George Santos

It was all about optics. They saw a nice looking young man who appeared to be the product of the American dream. Gay, part Jewish, child of immigrants, kinda self-made...except it wasn't the kind of self-made people actually want in government. George Santos claimed to be a non-observant Jew and a Catholic at various times. He seems to align himself with Feckless Loser and prefers no access to abortion whatsoever. He's a pretty face with a bit of charisma tossed in, but he's fiction, not fact. The Senior Son suggested he was a plant...maybe for organized crime. I suggested a foreign government. We laughed. And then we didn't.

No one really ever vetted Feckless Loser because if they had, he never woulda passed the sniff test. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once she was flying her sedition banner, should've been resounding rejected by her constituency. That she wasn't is really is a cause for grave concern. 

And now Mr. Santos. Who is this guy and how did he escape any scrutiny for this long? Folks, not even the DNC or the local Democrats caught this one. Shame on them. 

Think about that as Congress prepares to be seated for the next year. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you cannot stand the smell of frying stuff permeating the house,

Trader Joe's makes really good latkes you can do in the oven.

They even get crispy!

חג אורים שמח

Happy Hanukkah to all!

and 

a special birthday shout-out:

! יום הולדת שמח, צ'אק

PERFORMATIVE ACTIVISM: The art and craft of pretending you care

I learned a new buzz phrase the other day: performative activism. I'd never heard it before, but decided I wanted to know what it really meant because new phrases used on the interweb are rarely used correctly, if not totally co-opted. Wikipedia defines performative activism as:             

activism done to increase one's social capital rather than because of one's devotion to a cause. It is often associated with surface-level activism, referred to as slacktivism.

I kinda like slacktivism, too. That gets an even bigger definition:

...the practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions,
characterized as involving very little effort or commitment. Additional forms of slacktivism include engaging in online activities such as "liking," "sharing," or "tweeting" about a cause on social media, signing an Internet petition, copying and pasting a status or message in support of the cause, sharing specific hashtags associated with the cause, or altering one's profile photo or avatar on social network services to indicate solidarity.

I get why "likes" are good for blogs and posts and stuff like that. I know I want to know if people like something I wrote. I'm okay with that stuff. But what I'm no longer okay with is symbolic bull-oney on profile/avatar pictures, copy-n-paste-this "I know who my friends are if you repost this" nonsense, and other assorted labels. I mean, it's really, really meaningless, dontcha think, to put a WE LOVE MONKEES frame around your profile picture when one of them dies? The only thing you're saying is that you're stuck in some other decade and that maybe you liked the Monkees when you were 8.

Yeah, I'll admit I used to do that. I had a Charlie Hebdo support profile pic after the massacre. I had the red equal sign for a same-sex marriage. Looking back, however, I realize I was preaching to my own choir while doing nothing other than making myself feel better. I suspect it's a not-so-new version of masturbation; no one feels better after the act except me.

Am I being harsh? Probably.

If you're posting symbols like this, chances are you're in your own little bubble and preaching to your own little choir. Your sentiments are nice, but meaningless. You are doing nothing to stand up against anything. Sure, you feel like you've made a statement but really? Have you contributed anything meaningful to your cause? Do you honestly believe posting these things will impact the hate of an antisemite, or change the mind of a white supremacist? 

If you look a little more closely at this "status," you'll see it's from 2018. This has been such a successful campaign that acts of antisemitism have increased substantially. In fact, the ADL created a graphic that illustrates that point quite well. 

You can see that in 2012, prior to the legitimization of Feckless Loser's MAGA movement, incidents were under about 1000 per year. But look at the jump in 2016...and now, 2021. Data for the year 2022 is not yet available,  but it's expected to look much like 2021. With celebrities touting their hatred in very public forums, the receptive audience for those attacks grows every month. Ignoring the upswing is not an option. Standing around moaning about it is not an option. Putting up status boxes with statement circles is pointless. At some point stands must be taken and they must be truly activist. 

Alongside those status boxes, by the way, are the ribbons and the tie-ins. Buying something because it has a pink ribbon on it does not do anything for people with breast cancer. Better you should sign up to be a chemo buddy or bring meals to those who are fighting the disease.

Truth is, no matter what the cause, you have to put your money where your mouth is, and put your mouth in the public arena. Mass demonstrations have their place in activist society, but turning up at town halls, school and library board meetings, and even sitting at information tables is where your cause needs your body just as much as your checkbook. If you're not a public person, there are envelopes to stuff, articles and letters to the editor to be written, PSAs and visual art to be created. The list is endless. 

Buying milk with pink ribbons on the carton is not on that list.

All those winter nights chanting and waving protest signs at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza taught me many things. not the least of which were these:

• Wear a hat when it's cold. (Thank you, Dr. Heschel)
• Persistence is good even if your action doesn't yield instant results.
• Participate any way you can.
• BEING PRESENT IS EVERYTHING.

Seriously. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

COVID is not a thing of the past. 

It's all around and people are still getting sick.

Do yourself and those around you a favor:

wear a mask when you go out in public.

It really does make a difference. 

I'm Not Gonna Say It

Back in early April 2016, as my mother lay dying, she glanced up at the news on the TV and saw Feckless Candidate ranting away and said, "Isn't he dead yet? Why hasn't anyone put us out of our misery?"

I chuckled, thanked G-d Dad wasn't alive to see this, and said, thinking of Thomas à Becket,  "Who are you? Henry the Second?" 

She turned toward me and deadpanned, "No, Eleanor of Aquitaine," then smiled that beatific smile she used for sarcasm. Think THE LION IN WINTER here. 

Jeez. I miss my mom, But I digress. 

One might have thought We, the People, woulda caught on to Feckless Loser's machinations and ignored him into invisibility. Would that actually happened, but it has not. Back in the days of the first campaign, I wrote about what I saw as the dangers of Feckless in office. Lots of people poo-pooed me, saying I was an alarmist and that time would prove me wrong. I would answer by saying, "Your mouth to G-d's ear." Clearly, no one had Her ear. 

In 2017, I wrote an episode called Fast, Faster, Fasting With A Side of Razzle-Dazzle. You don't have to read the whole thing, just being at the point where I talk about Wesley Balk and the concept of less is more. Presciently, I think I nailed it when I wrote:

If you are unwilling to allow a coup d'etat to be attempted, now is the time to begin watching who does what to whom. Get them all center stage. Light the single light. Keep 'em all where you can see 'em.  

 

Knowledge is light...and light is the enemy of this White House. Keep those lights turned toward Washington.

And some of that light sorta, kinda stayed focused on D.C., but not enough. On December 7th, 2020, all the signs were there, and I duly reported this:

I am really tired of writing about this stuff, but you, readers, urge me to continue to blow the whistle, sound the horn, and keep calling the emperor naked. I am preaching to the choir. On the other hand, if people keep saying, "this is real, this is a possibility," then perhaps we will be better prepared to fight back. 

I do not know if a coup d'etat will eventually take place. All the signs are there. People who have lived through them in other countries are screaming that this is a warning and we cannot ignore it. We must prepare ourselves for the possibility of civil unrest if not a full blown civil war. 

Make no mistake: the lack of measures to stem the pandemic are NOT unrelated to this. And to that end, we can only hope and pray for evolution in action: the demise of the galactically stupid who refuse to mask up and practice safe socializing.

Meanwhile. continue to follow the rules. Don't think it can't happen to you, and don't think it can't happen here. BOTH can.  You've been apprised.

Okay, so it was an attempted coup. In practice, it failed, but did it fail in theory? I don't think so. In fact, I think it shored up the whole mechanism like tech rehearsal. There's a great superstition about dress/tech rehearsals: when they go well, things are gonna get ugly when the real audience shows up. 

Meanwhile, back at his new platform, TRUTH SOCIAL,  Feckless Loser posted this on Saturday, December 3rd, 2022:

and for the record, there were over 10,000 comments
unreadable unless you join TRUTH. And I wasn't doing that. 

Granted, the post is seditious at best, treason at worst, but that's not what necessarily concerns me; it's the number of reposts, likes, and comments. In the scheme of mass media, these are not really significant numbers when many Insta influencers have over a million followers. But if you manage to visit the public face of the website (and be aware, there are lots of cookies you can't turn off,) what's posted there is scary even if you can't see the comments.

No matter how you want to look at it, storm clouds are gathering. Mock me some more if you want, but I am not alone in believing there is a civil war fomenting on the sidelines. No longer content behind the scenes, these guys are openly advocating for the overthrow of the Constitution and, subsequently, the government of these here United States. 

Back in January of 2021, Dan Simon wrote an article for The Nation: Who Voted For Hitler  where he discussed the book of the same name written by Richard Hamilton in the 1982. Simon lays out the progression of the Nazi Party:

In 1928, the National Socialists—the Nazis—were a negligible, declining splinter party. Out of his disappointment with his party’s electoral ineffectualness that year, Hitler defied conventional wisdom and changed direction, throwing his organizational muscle to the countryside instead of the cities. Two years later, in the parliamentary elections of 1930, the Nazis suddenly emerged as a force with just over 18 percent of the vote. And in 1932 they reached just over 37 percent of the vote nationally, their high-water mark, prompting Hitler to call on President Hindenburg to name him chancellor.

Instead, Hindenburg called for another election; this time, the Nazis were soundly defeated. Still, believing the Nazis were now declawed, Hindenburg named Hitler as Chancellor anyway. In February of 1933, the Reichstag was burned. Whether the Nazis set the fire or the Communists who were then rounded up and blamed actually did is unimportant. 

What followed with almost blinding speed was the consolidation of power by Hitler, the building of a war machine, and then the start of [the] Second World War itself. Within just a few months, the Nazis had asserted complete control over industrial output, finance, labor, the military, and politics in Germany. 

One cannot lose sight of the fact that when the 1932 election was held, the National Socialist Party received only 37% of the vote.

37% is a whole lot less than Feckless Loser got in 2020. 

This episode will post before we know whether or not Georgia's run-off election...or is that erection...is really for the people. We can hope the sane people of that state won't send a concussed idiot to the highest legislative chamber of the land, but then again, they just might fool us all and send that lame excuse for a human being to congress. 

Wanna know what I wanna know? Whatever happened to all those family values the GOP touted as important to their party? Oh, wait. This is the party that places the emphasis on automatic weapon ownership, denying healthcare to those below the poverty line, and defunding public schools instead of investing in the health and safety of their constituency. 

Never mind. Silly me. And no, I'm not gonna say I told you so. So there. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Must give this one to playwright/author/blogger Jenna Zark. 

Crooked Lines: A Single Mom’s Jewish Journey

This insightful book is for anyone navigating the waters 

of both traditional and non-traditional single parenting. 

Jenna's challenges are universal.

And this is especially good for the grandparents. 

Break time is over… back on your head

The bridge at Anacapa Island

I am sitting in SoCal…Southern California, really close to the Pacific Ocean, as in right across the street. Salt water is always a balm for my soul and spirit. Salt air is something I miss every day living in Flyover Land. Seriously. So spending this past week walking near the water, being on the water, or even thinking about the closeness of the water has been a real treat.

Assiduously avoiding the news, I focused on the adventure at hand, blissfully unaware of three mass shootings in the days before the holiday. Then I made the mistake of glancing at the Washington Post homepage. 

What is wrong with a country that sits down for a meal based in some fantasy feast that never occurred while the colonists were already bent on the destruction of the Indigenous People of the east coast and then marks that day by allowing (and I do mean allowing) people to arm themselves so they can shoot up clubs and stores? Oh, wait. Shooting up stuff fits right into the first Thanksgiving, doesn’t it?

What does it say about this country other than We, the People seem to love guns more than we love our kids and our families?

According to the Washington Post, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the US this year, 50 in November. How is it that a large segment of our population continues to believe  guns coupled with the ease of access to automatic and semi-automatic weaponry is NOT a problem. That absolutely nothing has changed in the decade since first graders and their teachers were gunned down at Sandy Hook. 

So while I stand on a beach and watch surfers, I have no doubt in my mind that someone else is standing at a counter buying an AR-15-style weapon and hundreds of rounds of ammo before he goes off to shoot up a shopping mall decked out for Christmas. Kinda like one of them shooting galleries at the local fair, dontcha think? I don’t think too many of us have to wonder real hard about the prize.

Meanwhile, a variety of sources claim the GOP-led House of Representatives will be focused on investigating Hunter Biden and proving President Biden is an influence peddler. Compared to Feckless Loser, he’s not even a piker,  but anything the GOP can do to stop Congress from functioning appears to be open game. Which really begs the question: who are these people working for if not We, the People, and why are they totally disinterested in anything that benefits real working folk? 

One might want to understand why the GOP is bent on the absolute deconstruction of the American economy. One would think their constituency is concerned about what’s gonna happen to Grandma if they repeal/cut back Social Security. Or how they’re gonna pay for doctor bills if the ACA is repealed since the GOP has yet to provide any clues about substitute plans. Let’s not even talk about planes, trains, or trucks if the roads, rails, and airports continue to degrade with use and no maintenance. Or maybe that’s just me.

And lest we forget, Feckless Candidate had a dinner party with fine people Kanye West and Rick Fuentes the other night. Of course, Fuentes has already turned on FC, calling for a more right-wing candidate to “outflank” the man he most recently embraced. In case you’re wondering why this shit matters, it’s because he’s one of the guys who is warning Jews to leave the US. Do not, for one New York minute, think he is alone in his hatred. 

Rumor has it it’s gonna snow on Tuesday as I am winging my way homeward. Not thrilled by that concept at all. 

The WP's Tip o'the Week

An iPad is handy, but it ain't perfect.

You Gotta Sing Loud

Well, it's comin' up on Thanksgiving and in my world, no Thanksgiving is complete without a rendition of ALICE'S RESTAURANT. Ziggy and I always sang it in the kitchen...whether it was at the Rodney in Surfside or our house. And I had the great pleasure of introducing him to Arlo when he played in town. You see, I'd known him in another life, the one where I was occasionally waiting tables at Cafe Lena (very badly) and even more occasionally singing (before the face break.) The year we lived in Poughkeepsie, we meant to make the pilgrimage to Stockbridge but didn't get around to it. I remedied that this summer when I was in Connecticut.

I'd like to say that I'm not flooded with memories of Arlo and Jackie (z"l) or dancing in the kitchen with Ziggy while I prepped a turkey. But I am. Thanksgiving here is hard without him.  Instead, I'm masking up and heading to SoCal to soak up some Pacific rays and visit one of my oldest (since the day I was born) friends. I'm so looking forward to a break from the cold weather. 

Shabbat at the Rodney

It kinda reminds me of the old days, when we would all schlep to Flah-rida for the annual Schwaidelson Thanksgiving Beach-a-Ganza. Those were exceptionally fine times as we occupied a row of apartments and shared a progressive Thanksgiving...when we weren't playing Scrabble on the beach or having French Toast Cook-offs. There are so many hysterical stories that go with those trips...like the Senior Son was a souvenir of the first one, and that the Junior Son gave up diapers upon arrival one year so he could get the BIG, BIG, BIG PESENT. (Yes, that is spelled correctly.) And, sweetest of all, beach-shabbat with the fam. 

But that was then and this is now. The war eventually ended, but there are new battles to fight. Even though there wasn't a red wave, there wasn't a blue one either. So, as Arlo says: if you wanna end the war and stuff, you gotta sing loud. 

Tomorrow morning I will head to my happy place...MSP...to board a flight to LAX. I'm hoping for a devilishly handsome man to sit beside in first class and NOT call me Grandma!

Wishing you all a truly happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

The WP's Tip o'the Week

Be thankful for what you have,

share what you can with others,

and never forget

Indigenous Peoples of North America

were here first. 

Now That The Party Is Over...Sorta...Kinda...Not Really

Well, in an odd turn of events, MAGA Secretaries of State candidates in all but one state, Indiana, were defeated. There was no red wave, no resounding shofar call for the crazies who think a shofar will herald certain victory [see Pennsylvania GOP,] and no real opportunity...for the moment...to upend the democratic process. The election deniers will not have a chance to deny the election outcomes for the next cycle. That does not mean, however, that attempt to hijack the democratic process is over. Not by any stretch of the imagination. 

It's also pretty safe to say that a woman's right to reproductive autonomy drove the voting this year. Several states had abortion on the ballot itself. The New York Times reported the following:

California, Michigan and Vermont will ask voters whether to add explicit protections to bolster abortion access, especially in Michigan, where a ban on the procedure is blocked in court. Kentucky will ask voters whether to reject protections, opening the door to further restrictions.  

Montana’s ballot measure is unlike the others. If approved, it would criminalize health care providers who do not attempt life-saving care when an abortion results in a live birth, a very rare circumstance.

The voters of California (the State Constitution would be amended to protect a person’s reproductive freedom “in their most intimate decisions,” including the right to abortion and contraceptives,) Michigan (the proposal would create a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom, including decisions “about all matters relating to pregnancy,” such as abortion and contraception,) and Vermont (the proposal would create a constitutional right to personal reproductive autonomy) all passed with significant margins. 

Montana's referendum was complicated but was soundly defeated.

the measure would enact a law making any infant “born alive” at any gestational age a legal person, a protection that already exists under a federal law passed 20 years ago. It would criminalize health care providers who do not make every effort to save the life of an infant “born during an attempted abortion” or after labor or C-section. Doctors say they are concerned that the law will limit palliative care for infants who are born but will not survive. 

But my favorite brain-twisting language came from Kentucky, and all things considered this should surprise no one:

An amendment would state there is no right to abortion, or any requirement to fund abortion, in the State Constitution.

I had to think this one through a bit. Voting YES means there is no right to an abortion but voting NO means there is. Language like this is purposefully meant to deceive voters. But hey! This is Kentucky, the state that brings you Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. Deceiving voters is their stock-in-trade. It's just what they do.

But here's the thing: MAGA unleashed a wave of hate in the US that in our naïveté We, the People, did not believe could or would happen here. But it did. And it will continue to writhe between the sheets of this comfy little bed we've created for ourselves. That's because we are, to be blunt, a nation of ostriches; our heads remain firmly in the sand. Just like the nice Germans who drew the drapes, we think if we can't see it it can't hurt us, but it can and it will. Pretending the bullet we dodged in this midterm election will last is just plain poppycock. If you believe it's all over, well, it's not. 

Of course, we will have to wait a few days to see what Feckless Toddler decides to do. There was no small amount of repudiation last week, but was it enough to make him go away? Probably not. The right wing loyalists will continue to gather in dive bars and elegant halls to whisper plans. Hey! Not all of this cabal hangs out in seedy pubs; we know a fair number of them drift through the halls of the capitals of every state. There isn't a city without a hidden cadre waiting for orders from somewhere up that food chain. Face it, they had a dry run with the insurrection. They now have a better understanding of the weakness and pressure points of the Capitol itself. Trust me; notes were taken and passed along. These things don't wither and die; they hunker down, self-nourishing and waiting for the right moment to emerge. And it will be a slow process, so slow you might not even notice it in your neighborhood. But it's there.

While the GOP party scoopers are congratulating themselves on their teeny-tiny victories and whispering that it might be time to sidle away from their current position, I don't see them making any moves toward an interest in We, the People. In all the years since the 2016 election, I've yet to see one viable health care proposal offered. In this last cycle, they bitched about inflation, but did anyone see anything that looked like a sane counter proposal from them about how to repair the problem without enriching their own pockets? The real problem is not just the oligarchical puppeteers hovering in the background...it's that the rest of the GOP has yet to devise or present a program that positively impacts all of America, including the stewardship of the planet. Their continued ability to place the entire human race in harm's way is rather alarming. 

The short story is that they have lost the ability to govern a country. The GOP no longer sees itself as for the people, it's more like buy the people. And evidenced by the Georgia run-off between Warnock and that paragon of intelligence and manhood, Herschel Walker, it's clear they want no dissent from within, no thinking human who might put the good and welfare of Americans ahead of their self-interest. 

As Arne Carlson, former Republican governor of Minnesota, posted Monday on his Facebook page:

They do not have an agenda that goes beyond self service. Have they moved away from supporting tax cuts to the rich or imposing laws designed to suppress the vote of minorities? Have they suddenly decided to respect the rights of women or adopt policies that will expand the middle class?  

No, their love of self is far greater than service to the general good.

Yet, I do want to admit to rooting for one Republican in this year's fiesta: Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. The guy is a hero in my view. He stood up for free and fair elections when he was pressured directly by the Toddler in Chief and his cabal to "find" 11,000 votes. Yeah, I know he's anti-choice and supported Georgia's more restrictive voting laws, but there will always be disagreement on some issues. That's why we have a democracy. But the guy stood up for the election and that was, at the moment, a brave thing to do. The Torah tells us Noah was a good guy in his time....implying that had he lived in the time of guys like Abraham or Moses, maybe not so good. In the moment that mattered, Raffensperger stood up for America, and I will always be thankful that he did. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

In case you didn't know, THE POMEGRANATE is getting great reviews and doing well on Amazon Kindle's best sellers list in Jewish Historical Fiction. Plus, there is a pitch deck in progress with an eye toward a limited series. Yeah, it's a long shot, I know, but I'm getting a lot of encouragement from knowledgeable sources to do this. If you haven't read the book, you should. If you know someone in the industry, please send me an email.

The WP's Tip o'the Week

Looking for books as gifts? 

You can't go wrong with books about 

strong women in tough circumstances:

THE POMEGRANATE, 

 DREAM DANCER, or

(my sentimental favorite.)

 LINGUA GALACTICA 

The Only Election That Matters

Grandma, dat boy, & me

My maternal grandmother was neither an educated nor an erudite woman. She had a knack for saying stuff from far left field. She was great at sage advice, some of which still holds up today...like never believe a butcher when he tells you it's a glatt kosher chicken...there is no such thing. Her best statement outta the blue ever was, "You're gonna marry dat boy." (I did.)

Her own world view came from surviving pogroms in Odessa and young widowhood. She was a practicalist of the first order. Over the years, she imparted some pretty strange and some pretty sage wisdom, and one of the best things she ever told me was something along the lines of never believe what the politicians tell you; they have a secret plan and they're not gonna tell you what it is. They talk out of three sides of their mouths.

The healthy dose of skepticism she instilled in me has served me well, and right now, it's like she handed me the key to understanding the 2022 midterm elections. I'd been dancing around the feeling that I was missing something in the big pictures. Lying in bed before dawn this morning, I was thinking about the arc of the elections and what really mattered. Since the GOP has declared their only goal is to stop anything the Biden administration wants, whether or not it is good for We, the People and the country, what difference is there if Congress is blue or red? Some Democrats act like Republicans anyway, so there's never a winner, only some form of stalemate. 

Governors are the same thing. Their legislators are going to play games with any agenda because there is no super-majority to get anything done. This midterm is a waste of money. It doesn't matter who wins or who loses. 

Or does it?

There is only one office that will make a difference. In 27 states, the office of Secretary of State is on the ballot. In at least 13 of those states, an avowed election denier is running for office. 

These are the only elections that matter at this moment in time. 

In case you don't understand this low-level, seemingly insignificant officer, let me explain what the Secretary of State does on the state level: this office serves as the state's Chief Elections Officer; implementing electronic filing and Internet disclosure of campaign and lobbyist financial information. Maintaining business filings.

That means the Secretary of State controls how the election is run. It means the secretary of state has great influence in the matter of how balloting is executed, what ballots are accepted, and how financial information is disclosed to the public. 

If the Secretary of State is an election denier, there is a chance they can refuse to certify an election with an outcome that does not jive with their political beliefs. 

Kim Crockett is running for Secretary of State here in Minnesota. She is a 2020 election denier. When asked if she accepted the 2020 outcome, her reply was:

I don't think we'll ever know precisely what happened. What I can tell you is that Minnesota laws were not followed.

That has repeatedly been proven to be untrue, yet, she still has refused to say whether or not she would accept election outcomes. During a debate with incumbent Steve Simon hosted by CBS affiliate, WCCO Radio, she was asked by moderator Blois Olson if she would accept the results of the election. Her reply was a little terrifying:

I think that's kind of an odd question. We aren't there yet. We're weeks out. And we'll just have to see what happens between now and the certification of the election.

Magnify Kim Crockett with 27 states, and suddenly you have more than half the states in the US with election certifiers who may be unwilling to uphold the law and the Constitution. 

The following states are voting for Secretary of State:

Alabama	Indiana	North Dakota
Arizona	Iowa	Ohio
Arkansas	Kansas	Rhode Island
California	Massachusetts	South Carolina
Colorado	Michigan	South Dakota
Connecticut	Minnesota	Vermont
Georgia	Nebraska	Washington
Idaho	Nevada	Wisconsin
Illinois	New Mexico	Wyoming

Watch these states for the lower level results. Secretary of State is the lynchpin. The other one you want to keep an eye on is Attorney General. Working in concert, those two offices on the state level can change the trajectory of a nation.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Tomorrow, while you're watching the election results come in, 

keep in mind that this may be the last time We, The People, 

have anything close to a free and fair election.