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Cold War

There's an old expression: 
    Never under-estimate the ability of the Democratic party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

   Well it's about to happen again. But this time what's at stake is not just the rise or fall of a political party. Because of the candidates running on the Republican ticket this year, a defeat could really be a defeat for millions of people: education standards subsumed by religious dogma, higher education unattainable for all but the most wealthy, abandonment of our infrastructure, institutionalized persecution of minorities, turning away from perfectly viable clean energy in favor of dirty fuels, letting our last chance to mitigate the global warming disaster slip away… maybe even world war.
   And democrats are sniping at each other.

   When George Bush was elected (selected) I was disappointed but I said "How bad can it be? Some bad policies will get enacted, but tides tend to go out and come back in. We'll survive."
   And there was an economic melt-down, a roll-back of the clean air and water standards that were finally making a difference, narrowing of reproductive rights, the validation of "faith-based science"… and oh yeah: the war.
   The war that cost trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, tens of thousands injured and traumatized, and destabilized an already volatile region and directly contributed to the ongoing disaster that is the Middle east: Syria, ISIS and the collapse of the once proud, educated nation of Iraq into a heap of burning rubble.

   Then the tide began to turn and Obama was elected. Despite a congress that declared that their primary job from day 1 would be to deny him a second term by whatever means necessary, he dragged the nation into a slow, wide turn back the other way. Despite  daily calls for drug testing poor people and making children work in exchange for a free lunch and turning victim-blaming into a lofty moral perch: despite people who cheered at the idea of letting people die of treatable conditions if their boss doesn't want to give them health insurance… changes were made. Some small but splashy- some quietly splendid.
   It's far from perfect. Things still aren't great. When faced with only hard choices, bad compromises were made.
   But while a really loud, entitled minority continue to scream that they are being oppressed every time they simply aren't allowed to make other people live their way, overall the attitude of the nation has turned toward progress, toward negotiation over confrontation.
Toward tolerance and common sense.

   And now another election has come. This has been called Silly season, but silly is too benign a word for what is going on.
   The Republican candidates, by and large, consist of idiots, bullies and the crinimally insane. They validate every angry, hateful, exclusionary resentment that people frightened of change can harbor. Religous concentration camps? Just the suggestion takes the breath away.
   The democrats have 2 candidates with a lot of experience and strong, forward-looking ideas. Great!
    The devil is in the details.

   I have a candidate that I prefer and plan to vote for, but who it is doesn't really matter. Because I-  a political junkie, don't feel like I can talk about either candidate on social media. It's like jumping in the middle of a family feud- a really nast one.
   A large portion of the democrats have formed a circular firing squad and have begun blasting.
   I can't even stand to scroll my Facebook wall because of the near constant barrage of bitter, accusatory, locked-and-loaded sniping going on from both sides.
   I long ago learned not to try to push back against any of the extreme (and often inaccurate or thoroughly debunked) postings, to suggest a more reasonable (fact-based) interpretation. I know I will be jumped on and accused of being blind, of being ill-informed, of not caring about Issue X.
   And now I cannot even join in a conversation on a reasonable post by a reasonable friend without *their* friends going on the attack-  "Oh trust me- the other side is the one doing this!", "typical corporatist defender"  "You must be a troll!"
   This candidate once said this! Yeah- well that candidate has a supporter who said that! She took money from them! He voted against that!

   Sheesh. Can we just agree that both candidate have strengths and weaknesses, and that we, with our different outlooks, have different priorities in what we are willing to overlook? Can we respect that other people probably have read and considered the same issues,and respect their decision?
    No. We can't. Charges and counter-charges– she rigged the system! He keeps lying abouut who supports him! How can you not see it?!? Here's a hint: if someone makes a request to tone down the general incivility out there and you counter with I'm happy to get along- it's the other candidate whose supporters are out of bounds but what can you expect from people that support him/her…  then yeah, you are exactly who they were talking about.
.  
   It's World War Bernillary out there, and I can't stand it. Now I don't even read anything that anyone posts about either candidate– I see "Bernie Sanders" or "Hillary Clinton" and I just scroll on past. Honestly, I move away even faster than I do with the bizarre "Type Amen and god will bless you with money!' religious posts, because commenting, or even investing the energy to read it is just as useless.

   I want to shake people. I want to make them understand: it's not just "a democrat in the White House" we're talking about in 2016. We're talking about the Supreme Court, and all the ways they can harm- or help America. It's a possible rollback on freedom of speech, of religion, and of the basic idea that a government by the people and for the people should help take care of the people. 
   SO much is at stake, damnit, and half of the progressive population is alienating the other half, and both sides are aliienating the moderates. The majority of America wants to move forward, and if we just walk together we can continue this imperfect, erratic but important progress we have begun.
   Or not. Or fucking not. We can remain strident and inflexible. We can keep talking about write-ins and third party runs to keep your  precious damn ideology pure and unsullied from condoning his lack of a coherant plan here or her hawkish friends there. We can attack and destroy both candidates before the Republicans even turn their sights on them. 
    I hope that zealots purity gives you comfort in the long days ahead, so that when President Trump or President Cruz plunges us into another dark ages, as climate-driven storms sweep the globe, the sniping, uncompromising, my-way-or-the-highway democrats can look around proudly and say 
   "Hey, WE built that!"

 

HELL AWAITS

hillbots

 

Posted by Tracy on Feb 11th 2016 | Filed in General,The Daily Rant | Comments (0)

Silent Passage

The wind does not howl.
In silence it hurries to tomorrow
outrunning all regrets.

Grass hisses annoyance at its passing
Dead leaves chatter and call to one another
of where the wind has been.
Windows and shingles shudder and gasp
and demure that they do not dance.

The wind does not howl.
It is the trees who wail for mercy,
who groan and beg for release.
But is their wish for stillness?
As they grasp after its disappearing form,
do they cry out for the journey,
entreat the wind to pull them loose
and set them free at last?

windy-tree

Posted by Tracy on Feb 5th 2016 | Filed in The Daily Rant | Comments (0)

Don’t You Feel Ashamed?

A few years ago, during the height of the Iraq war, I wrote a song that said:
          How can you just stand there?
          Don't you feel ashamed?

   I keep thinking of those words now because I am feeling the same head-banging, gut-tightening frustration, anger and shame I felt then about people cheering for torture and death. This week the source is the reaction of so much of America to the idea of the U.S. accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees- – a reaction encouraged on by the fear-mongering of the GOP presidential candidates.

    Governor John Kasich, who just recently said that he would welcome the refugees, now says no. No to a few dozen Syrians, mostly widows with children and orphans screened for months by the State department, because they're a danger to Ohio.
    Widows.  And orphans.  To Kasich, simply being born in a part of the world where terrorists are– even though they hate the terrorists more than we do!-  makes them all too dangerous to be allowed into America, the home of the brave.
    Please. Ohioans are in more danger from the guns people bring to Walmart and drop on the floor or leave in the public bathroom!
    And oh by the way, he also wants, as president, to create a new government department of Judeo-Christian values, to spread our superior morality to the world. I assume those values he brags about include sending widows and orphans back to refugee camps in a war zone?

refugees2                                                    dangerous refugees! 

    Former governor and candidate Mike Huckabee, after working himself in a tizzy about the danger that the America-hater Obama is putting us in by bringing over his 'Muslim friends', tried to bury the racism of his remarks by pointing out in fake concern that those middle eastern people have different customs and habits, and how could they ever feel comfortable and  blend in?
     "People who come from a desert environment" would have their lives disrupted if they were sent to some place like Minnesota!
    Because coats are not a thing for immigrants. And because fleeing from a bombed-out country while being chased by madmen with guns is far less disruptive than trying to find your way around in a new country.

syria2                                       Why don't they just stay in their own country?

    Marco Rubio compared not saying the magical words "Radical Islam" to not calling Nazi's Nazis. And of course "Just say NO to Syrians" is his advice too.

    Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush think we should be only allowing Christian refugees in… because only Muslims cause problems. No seriously- Cruz says to keep the Muslims away but claims there is 'no significant danger' from letting Christian refugees in. Well, perhaps the death and destruction caused here by Christian shooters and bombers is somehow kinder and gentler than the Muslim variety.
    And it's not as if the Constitution has anything to say about discriminating based on religion anyway. So please- continue your bid for the presidency under a constitution you obviously don't believe in.

    Chris Christie of New Jersey says his state will not even take orphans under the age of 5 because "nits grow up and become lice". Well ok- actually that is what the US military said of native American children when ordering soldiers to kill the babies too, but the sentiment is apparently still alive and well in New Jersey.

    Donald Trump not only doesn't want those terrorist refugees in here, he thinks we need to close mosques in America, because 'so much strong hatred is coming from there'. Really? The strong hatred I see seems to be coming from the Republican party. Oh say, now that only the "good", Trump-approved houses of worship get to stay open in America, can we close down the Unitarians too? They show up at an awful lot of peace rallys. And those Episcopalians keep ordaining gays and making Jesus cry.

    Not to be outdone in the competition to see who can slam the door the loudest, a lawmaker in the Tennessee GOP has come forward and said that not only will Tennessee  mobilize the National Guard to keep out any new refugees (er, actually, states legally cannot do this) but he wants them to round up any who have already settled there, throw them on a bus and take them back to immigration.
   Because we learned absolutely fucking nothing from the Japanese-America internment shame of WW2, when so many hard-working citizens were dragged away from their homes and locked up like criminals- for the crime of having a particular ancestry.

7487732_orig

    And because that whole "melting pot" thing doesn't apply any more. The only good Muslim/Syrian/dark skinned person is one that isn't here.
    Time to take the big green statue down and ship her back to France because we don't want her kind of liberal, America-hating tripe polluting our country.

    I am horrified and ashamed that so many people are so afraid of difference that they would send refugees back to face death… and then bitch because a clerk at a store said "Happy Holiday" instead of Merry Christmas to them.
    Because Jesus is Soooooo important to them that they're ready to abandon not only the constitution but everything Jesus actually said about refugees and welcoming strangers  in order to make sure that only people who look and think and pray like them are allowed in Jesus's country of America.

    I know that the brave lawmakers who are willing to defy the President, the constitution and basic human decency to protect the Mighty U.S.of A. from some refugees imagine themselves to be Gandalf, heroically standing up to the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad dum, howling~ 
                              "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!"

A gandalf

    But really, they are just George Wallace at the schoohouse door, facing down a couple of kids who wanted to go to school and vowing "SEGREGATION FOREVER!!"

a wallace

Posted by Tracy on Nov 18th 2015 | Filed in The Daily Rant | Comments (0)

Pink it and Shrink It

Last night I got myself a new backpack. And…. it's pink. >eyeroll<

Ted has been telling me for years that my old pack is the wrong size, which didn't make much sense to me, since the pack has adjustable straps all over the place. But we went to REI after dinner (20% off!) and a great guy named Corey measured me and pulled out an Osprey pack that he said was the right size and capacity.

But it was pink. Yeah… I don't do pink.
But it comes in teal too, he said. (So if it's a women's pack it has to come in girl colors? Double eyeroll)  I said we should at least see if the pack was right and he fitted it to me, and then loaded it up with 15 lbs of weight distributed correctly.
Wow. Ok, my old pack really WAS the wrong size. This was a lot more comfortable!
But it was pink. Well, raspberry, maybe. With mauvish tendencies.

As he looked on his computer, he commented that, once upon a time, the retail motto for selling an item to women was "Pink it and Shrink it" but nowadays manufacturers were finding that more and more women don't feel the need to have everything pink, so some were moving away from that. I thought of the pink 'girl' Legos, and the pink Bic pens "for Her" and how much grief the manufacturers got for assuming that women wouldn't use things that were… "boy" colors.
Corey found a single teal pack available… in Texas or somewhere. And it was a xsmall/small, whereas the one he had fitted to beautifully to me was small/med. We tried adjusting a men's size small (in a nice green)  but it just wasn't as comfortable. He offered another brand in a tealy blue, but Irejected it almost immediately because it was the same price and not as well made.

Hmmm. I looked back at the pink one. The one that was now professionally adjusted to fit me just right.

And anyway, I thought… it will be behind me. It's not like I"ll have to look at a stupid pink backpack all day, right? That's Ted's burden to bear. 
"It doesn't even really look pink to me" he said. (Nice try. It's pink.)

And so it came to pass that I will be hiking up the mountain with a pink…ish… backpack. If you see me, don't laugh. Just admire how well it fits!

its pink

Posted by Tracy on Sep 15th 2015 | Filed in The Daily Rant | Comments (0)

5 Victims and Counting

I am as staring-at-a-train-wreck fascinated as the next person by the unfolding story of molestation and cover-up in the Duggar (“18 Kids and Counting”) family, but I don’t want to indulge in the prurient allure of gossiping about this *awful* situation. And there is other stuff going on in the world!
Still I think it is valid to examine the facts we know and what they mean. There are lessons here beyond  what happened in what is being said now, both by the family and their legion of defenders.

FACT: Josh Duggar fondled multiple minor girls, at least some of whom were his sisters, on multiple occasions, including after having been caught and chastised about it.

FACT: At some point Josh was taken by his father to a state trooper friend whom we are told gave him a ‘stern lecture’ about his behavior. This sounds better than it is: said law enforcement official was later sentenced to 56 years in prison for CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.

FACT: At some point Josh was sent for ‘treatment” to a Christian ‘training’ center where he got prayed over. The founder himself faced multiple accusations of sexually intimidating and molesting girls who were under his authority. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)
So- treatment? Not so much. To our knowledge this boy (who was just a boy, but old enough to know that incest is wrong!) was never given any real, professional (ie. licensed psychiatrist) treatment.

FACT: the Duggar family used, as part of their homeschool curriculum, a lesson plan that taught that abused children should ask themselves “Why has God allowed this to happen?” and then offers several ways in which THE ABUSED CHILD MIGHT BE TO BLAME for the abuse, including “immodest clothing” and “evil friends”.

They also are part of a religious community that teaches children and women that what happens is God’s plan, and that authority figures are placed over them by God. If you are unhappy with what authority figures say or do, it tells them, then you are unhappy with God’s plan! The answer to your discontent is to pray for the blessing of more complete submission to God’s word.

THIS IS A BLUEPRINT FOR CHILD ABUSE.

Any system that teaches children that they may not complain or even question authority is a perfect feeding ground for abusers. Cults and very fundamentalist religions are rife with such abuse, not because all of the members are abusers, but because their very structure protects the abusers among them from discovery and when discovered, shields them from punishment, for the good of the group.

FACT: After this was supposedly all resolved (without any professional therapy) the Duggars enteres into a very lucrative agreement with TLC for their TV show. They  paraded themselves before America, week after week for years as examples of good Christian morals, all the while those molested children were living with their predator brother and smiling for the camera.

FACT: When the Oprah Winfrey Show heard rumors about the molestations, they reported it, and the Springdale police investigated. Mr. And Mrs Duggar assured police that Josh had gotten ‘therapy’ but later admitted that what they meant by that was they sent him to work for a friend doing remodeling work for a few months- ‘idle hands’ and all that.
Jim Bob Duggar at this time refused to allow Josh to be interviewed by police. they wrote up a report and  eventually dropped the case because the statute of limitations had expired by then.

FACT: an Arkansas judge just had Josh’s entire case record DESTROYED. Law enforcement admits that this is highly unusual. So  we will never know what else was in there. The judge explained this as “protecting the victims, one of whom is still a minor”. This would mean, since this abuse is alleged to have ended over a decade ago, this child was very, very young when it happened!
We can all understand wanting to respect the privacy of an abused minor child. But these records were not simply sealed- they were destroyed. Why?

I must now admit- I never liked the Duggars or their little “See what great Christians we are!” show. Their belief system and way of life seem weird and wrong to me.
BUT…. unlike the Duggars and their Dominionist theology, I do not believe that just because someone’s life seems bizarre to me means they shouldn’t be allowed to live it! I wouldn’t try to have a law passed making them less than full citizens, or to permit restaurants and bakeries to refuse to serve them because I think they’re perverts.

So the whole story came out this week and Josh quickly lost his job with the FRC, where he was gainfully employed campaigning against the sexual immorality of gay people… because irony, like ragweed, is in full bloom. (His mother said that homosexuals, if given equal rights, will ‘molest your children’. Really.)

Then  Josh issued his little fauxpology, and according to the rapture-right, led by Mike Huckabee, we are now supposed to forget the whole thing and move on. I would like to unpack Josh’s words a bit.

After saying that yes, in his childhood he had made ‘a mistake’ Josh said,
          “I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation.” 
You confessed it after you got told on, Josh. One of your victims told on you. And you “addressed tthe situation”? You mean the fact that you were molesting younger children who are your sisters is just a “situatio
n” to you? Nobody addressed it for at least a year as far as we can tell, and the attacks continued.

 “We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing,”
That is not true. THEY spoke to authorities. Your parents refused to ever let you speak with the people who investigated.

“… and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling.” 
Those affected by your actions? You mean YOUR SISTERS? Are they not even people to you? 
    Sending you to do home remodeling work and then to stay with a known sexual harasser is hardly ‘counseling’ as the rest of civilization understands it. Teens who are sexually abusing younger children need intense and immediate therapy by professionals if they are ever to get better, and so do their victims.

I understood that if I were to continue down this wrong road that it would end up ruining my life.”

  And there it is. It would ruin YOUR life.
It’s all about you, isn’t it Josh? Even now, at 28 years of age and with 4 children of your own, you can’t see this in any terms but your own. You didn’t come to see that what you did was hideously wrong, abusive and selfish. You came to see that it wouldn’t be good for YOU.

   I have tried to avoid being too judgmental of Josh Duggar as a person and focused on his actions, because I am not unbiased. Nor am I perfect. But with those words he confirms for me that he is a thoroughly self-centered person who has no empathy at all for the pain of others.
    Sir this “apology” of yours is bullshit.

This whole sordid mess makes me sad. And angry.

It makes me angry because Josh Duggar was never given any REAL help when he was young and desperately needed it. The ‘help” his family gave him was like faith healing for a child with diabetes. Worse! When he needed treatment, they took him to other abusers, for crying out loud!

I am angry because, to our knowledge, his victims never got any help either. The family says he apologized to them- good. That’s a step. But we also know his sisters were raised to believe that sometimes abuse is the fault of the victim! In that environment, how healed can they ever be?

I feel angry because of all the people rushing to defend these parents.
Let’s not sugar-coat this. Mom and Pop Duggar abused these children by not getting them the help they needed! All those years, they had to live with their abuser right there, like a wolf in the fold, probably always wondering if he would do it again.
Look- I totally understand a parent not wanting their child to go to jail- but to not even get him a therapist? What they did meets the legal definition of Child Neglect- a fact Jim Bob Duggar should well know because, when he was an elected representative, he voted for a bill that defined it very clearly.
Every step of this sad story points to people who were protecting their belief system and TV contract first, their son second, and their daughters? They never even mentioned the girls in their public statements except to say that “Josh was forgiven”. Of course he was. The girls have been taght that to withhold forgiveness when God has granted it is to defy God!
If they never helped or protected their daughters from the predator in their home, who knows what other ways the kids are still being emotionally abused today?

I’m incredibly angry because of statements from supporters and friends saying “This was an issue between family members and they’ve come to terms with it. Move on”
Yeah… not so much.
If Josh had stolen money from family members and they had dealt with it and forgiven him- fair enough! Let’s move on. I wouldn’t hire him as an accountant, but whatever.

But what Josh did was commit a sex crime. Not a violent one, to be sure, but one that is taboo in almost every society on earth. And he did it repeatedly, with multiple victims. And he was never treated or counseled about it- EXCEPT BY OTHER ABUSERS AND PEDOPHILES!!!

If there’s one thing we know about sexual predators (and this boy preyed on his sisters!) it is that THEY DON’T JUST MAGICALLY GET BETTER BECAUSE THEY WANT TO. They need treatment to have any chance at all! Otherwise they remain a danger to people around them.
And yet we’re supposed to be unconcerned about it and ‘forgive’ him because he was ‘honest’ about it and repented and ‘got right with God’. Poof. All better. Pay no attention to that sex crime behind the curtain- it’s between Josh and God.

Except he was *not* honest with the American public watching his damn TV show, from which he and his family made a ton of money, was he? Or with the families of the other children he was allowed to be around.
And God may indeed have forgiven him, but would you ever want to allow an UNTREATED sex offender to be a teacher, or youth minister, or let your kids have slumber parties at his house?

I feel angry because his repentance is seen by so many as all the penance that’s needed. As if his weird belief system makes what would be a terrible crime for you and me, ok for him! As if faith alone is a magic shield that keeps bad things from happening when clearly, if an abundance of religious fervor was all that was needed, this would never have happened in the first place.
As if Jesus is a “Get-out-of-Consequences-Free” card for his followers.

And oh yeah- I feel scared, because Josh Duggar now HAS YOUNG CHILDREN OF HIS OWN.
I feel very sad and scared for those little ones. Even if their father never ever lays a hand on them, it’s a safe bet that if one of his sons starts getting grabby with his own sisters, Papa Josh is NOT going to take that child in for actual treatment! Not for that or for anything else that might happen, from drug use to bulimia.
Too much depends on secrecy, on his “look, Jesus fixed me and I’m pure now!” image.
After all this, he is going to cover his hyper-spawning ass, and whatever problems are in his family (and most families have ’em) will be buried as deep as he can dig.

Religious liberty IS important. It is also a two-edged sword.

I’m pretty sure that if this case involved a family of Muslims or hippie atheists, the Duggars and their friends would point to this as proof that heathens have no morals, that a house without Jesus is full of evil and children must be raised as pure Christians to protect them.
Yet Duggerpologists and Christplainers out there (and they are legion!) see any negative reaction we (heathens) have in this case as proof that Christians are persecuted. Bring on the nails and crosses!

Still, we mustn’t swing the other way and start seeing the Duggars as proof that all Christians are perverts.
Nor, as tempting as it is, to think that people shouldn’t have a right to raise their kids differently. I think that their faith model of unquestioning submission to authority is sick and wrong, but I’m sure they think that much of what I believe is wrong.
And I don’t want to let my understandable anger that they would dare to call homosexuals “unnatural” while this is going on in their own house rule the day and allow me to think I have a right to tell them how to live, the way they try to tell ME how to live.

Their religion is not our business.
But abuse of children IS.

So how do we try to deal with this situation, and these at-risk kids all over America, silenced by their parents ‘faith’? You can’t legislate religious beliefs- even crazy ones!
…until they hurt other people.

We have to focus on the actions, not the belief system. We can’t, as much as we would like to, ride in and force all kids into public schools where they learn actual science and how to ask questions and that they do not have to become who their parents want them to be.
But I think we can insist on better requirements for parochial and homeschool curricula, and thorough yearly PROFESSIONAL assessments.

And the first thing I would like to see is NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR CHILD MOLESTATION OR ABUSE.
None. EVER.
50 years after the act- if we find out about it, we can go after you. And if you covered it up for someone else- we can go after you too.

So I feel no gloating satisfaction, of “Aha I always knew that much religion was a sickness” validation in this tragedy- and it is a tragedy. One that is still on-going in many ways.

In my very humble opinion, after understandable horror and curiosity, we should try to make some concrete sensible changes.
We will never be able to prevent all emotional or physical abuse of others:by cults or by any non-religious groups or individuals.

The best we can do is keep watch.

Posted by Tracy on May 26th 2015 | Filed in The Daily Rant | Comments (0)

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