BAUMBLOG: THE FIRST ONE

June 24, 2020 THE FIRST ONE KEVIN TARRANT SONG-CATCHER January 14, 1969-May 4, 2020 I found out Muriel's son-in-law Kevin had died when I phoned her early one Tuesday morning about three weeks ago. I woke up with the thought, "I have to call Muriel!" Muriel and I met in 1985 at the Boston Women's Theater Festival when I shared a dressing room with her and her two sisters, who make up Spiderwoman Feminist Theater. Muriel and I became close friends after we ran into each other in Amsterdam. We had both moved there because we had fallen in love with Dutch women. Eventually we both returned to our homes -- me to San Francisco and Muriel to Brooklyn. Muriel, Native American and living in New York City, was much more at risk for COVID-19 than me. How had I forgotten to keep track of her? I was relieved to hear that Muriel was okay. When she told me that Kevin had died, we both started sobbing. Kevin was the son of Muriel's best friend. Muriel had known him from birth. Kevin and Muriel's daughter, Murielle, were childhood friends who ended up getting married. For me, this was the first death from COVID-19 of someone I knew. Kevin & Murielle with their daughter Josephine Kevin and Murielle in "Don't Feed the Indians: A Divine Comedy Pageant!" at La Mama in NYC When Kevin lived, he was very alive. He had a big, joyful presence. He was a musician who cherished Native music, founding drumming circles and creating singing events. My strongest memory of Kevin is a birthday party for Muriel that he arranged. It was at a little-known Spanish restaurant in the Village that specialized in lobster. You ordered it by the pound! And who knew what was the right weight to order?!? Not us! Kevin was the master of ceremonies as we all gorged ourselves on lobster and champagne. He rejoiced in creating so much pleasure for his family plus me. It was a glorious feast. I admit, I was a bit shocked when the bill came, but I have no regrets. I'll never forget that night. I want to share one of Kevin's obituaries: "As we carry his song forward, his footprints are ones that will be followed by many generations to come. The warmth Kevin gave radiated from his smile and he welcomed all with an embrace that would feel like “home." For in him, we saw “home," a place where a shared vision of inclusiveness existed. Never losing his optimism, he shined on and encouraged us Kevin & Friend Performing for a rooftop cemerony in Manhattan to forge ahead with love and dedication. Among Kevin’s many accomplishments, he was the Lead singer of SilverCloud Singers (named for his mother), Former Executive Director of the American Indian Community House (New York City), Panel-speaker, teacher, presenter, performer, and composer of numerous events, shows, and honoring ceremonies, to name a few. Creating a safe haven for community members to gather and compose their own songs and stories, his focus was always that of bringing the community together, wanting a harmonious song to be spoken between all. Kevin’s contributions are endless and he will not be forgotten." Don't Feed the Indians, Above & Below That beautiful obituary gives you a sense of what Kevin meant to his community. But it just begins to describe his artistic accomplishments. He and Murielle founded Safe Harbors, an Indigenous theater and performing arts collective, which created Don't Feed the Indians--A Divine Comedy Pageant. I highly recommend you click the link and sample some moments of this 3 1/2 hour extravaganza, as irreverent as its title. A great scene starts at 1:48. Kevin toured internationally and performed with such artists as David Amram and Savion Glover. In 2019, he composed and played percussion for the Broadway production and national tour of Ajijack on Turtle Island. His life ended just as he was finding a big place in the world for his art. Muriel talked of how Kevin had supported her in starting a group of women drummers -- a controversial idea in Indigenous culture, where the drum was sacred and belonged only to men. He offered to help the women drummers rehearse: "After all, you're my mother-in-law. I don't want you to embarrass me!" With a COVID-19 death, there is the tragedy of a life cut short, and the reverberating tragedy caused by the impossibility of performing all the healing rituals around death. In a close community like the one Kevin was part of, this was particularly agonizing. Kevin died without any loved ones nearby. His wife Murielle, also suffering from COVID-19, was left alone in her house to grieve. Finally their daughter, Josie, could stand it no longer and went to stay with her mother -- over the protests of everyone who feared that Josie might catch the virus too. THE STORY OF THE VIEWING: Muriel spoke of the agony of not being able to be there for her son-in-law's death or her daughter's grief. She finally decided that she had to go to the viewing of Kevin's body before it was cremated. She had to be there to support Murielle, who had recovered enough to attend. SHE HAD TO. Muriel's partner, Deborah, was not happy about that. But Muriel assured her that she'd keep her mask on, stay six feet away, etc. etc. Deborah said, "If you're going, I'm going." Deborah, who is not Native, has dedicated her life and considerable abilities as a stage manager to supporting Muriel's theater work and many other Native performances. Deborah is very much a member of this special community, the Indigenous people of New York City. Muriel and Deborah are a solid couple, deeply intertwined. They live and work together. From my outsider's viewpoint, they seem to fit together in a seamless and contented way. It is hard to imagine two people more different and more suited to each other. Deborah & Muriel at Muriel's 70th Birthday Party I think Deborah knew she had to go to the viewing if there was to be any chance of Muriel keeping six feet from all the people she loved. On the morning of the day of the viewing, Muriel got a phone call from an old friend who had just found out about Kevin. She told him she was going to the viewing of Kevin's body that day. Old Friend went ballistic: "How can you do that? You're too vulnerable! You're too old! How old are you?" Muriel is 83. He raged on: "The community needs you! You have an obligation to take care of yourself! You have no right to do this!" Old Friend screamed and Muriel sobbed. She got off the phone and told Deborah she was staying home. "But," she said, "I can't tell Murielle I'm afraid to go. I'll tell her my knee hurts too much today." She was recovering from knee surgery. Deborah: "I think you should tell her the truth." Muriel: "I can't tell her I'm too scared to come! How can I say that, after everything she's been through? I'm going to tell her my knee is too bad." So Muriel phoned her daughter and told her that her knee couldn't handle an outing that day. The phone call went well. Muriel hung up. "Thank goodness that's over." Deborah: "It's not right that you lied. This is too important! You have to tell Murielle the truth!" Muriel: "But she'll hate me for being too scared!" Deborah: "This is too important to lie about!" To me, it is fascinating that Deborah was willing to go along with whatever decision Muriel made about going to the viewing, which would have been a risk to both their lives. But she absolutely could not accept Muriel lying to her daughter about it. Muriel thought it over and decided Deborah was right. When she phoned Murielle, her daughter said, "Oh Ma, I know you can't come. It would be too risky. I can't afford to lose you too! Please stay home." Muriel and Deborah watched the viewing of Kevin's body on Zoom. The funeral home was supposed to only let in ten people at a time. But somehow everyone crowded in. In any case, people were too overwhelmed, with grief for Kevin and joy at seeing each other, to keep six feet apart. So it really was better that Muriel wasn't there, painful though it was. And so Kevin Tarrant, beloved of many, left the world. Kevin called himself a "song-catcher." He said in an interview: "It’s a gift…there’s a tree of life and every time a leaf falls, that’s a song. And every time that leaf comes down and hits the ground the song is no longer there. But some people are attuned to catch that song and I’m lucky enough to be one of those people.” Dear Kevin, I know you have found your Safe Harbor, you who were a safe harbor to so many. Thanks for all the music and the love... oh, and that glorious night of too much lobster. I love this photo of Kevin rehearsing a dance with Josie. He's holding his daughter with such delicacy. A young Kevin performing at an African Burial Grounds Ceremony

2 CRUCIAL LINKS, 1 RUMINATION & A DELIGHTFUL PHOTO

JUNE 17, 2020 2 CRUCIAL LINKS, 1 RUMINATION & A DELIGHTFUL PHOTO TWO CRUCIAL LINKS 1. PROTECT THE RESULTS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION! As I mentioned recently, Trump has made it rather clear he will refuse to concede and pack his bags when he loses the Presidential election. (SEE VIDEO ABOVE.) INDIVISIBLE and STAND UP! have developed a brilliant strategy to derail that possibility. They have organized a campaign, PROTECT THE RESULTS, which will send a text to everyone on their list if the Incumbent has any intention to fail to respect the results of the election. Then it will be time to hit the streets. The brilliance of this strategy is that, if they do indeed enlist millions and millions of people all over the country, that could be a strong enough warning to prevent Trump from even attempting a coup in the first place! SO PLEASE JOIN "PROTECT THE RESULTS" BY CLICKING HERE OR ABOVE. PLEASE FORWARD THIS IMPORTANT LINK TO YOUR FRIENDS. You can read more about PROTECT THE RESULTS in Common Dreams, a daily online source of news and opinions that has become necessary to me. I urge you to subscribe, if you're interested in finding out what many of our brilliant thinkers (like Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky & Ralph Nader) have to say about what's going on. I cannot tell you what enormous relief I feel from knowing there is a simple, workable plan to prevent a political coup by the far right, ASSUMING we actually have a free and fair election. 2. SAVE THE POST OFFICE! And speaking of a free and fair election, how about that fun, funky, fusty and absolutely essential institution --- the United States Postal Service!! Even if you think snail mail is for dinosaurs, we absolutely MUST have it functioning so that people can vote by mail, en masse. We CANNOT risk a national debacle like we've seen in Wisconsin and Georgia. The current strategy to provide for the care and feeding of the USPS is to BUY STAMPS. Now, I know some of you rarely mail a letter anymore. But just think about it like this: HOW MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO DONATE TO SAVE YOUR DEMOCRACY? Spend a chunk of that on ORDERING STAMPS. I just spent $66 ordering three different sets of beautiful stamps, The Great Outdoors, Voices of the Harlem Renaissance, and American Gardens ...

"Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen, born Nellie Walker, was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand and Passing, and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries." (Wikipedia) I must admit, I love stamps, stationery, pens and especially POSTCARDS! Everyone close to me knows that. And let me tell you something: PEOPLE LOVE GETTING POSTCARDS! They really do! Especially now, because nobody sends them anymore. And people only have to wait a day before paper is covid-free. So I just lay my mail aside and read it a day late. And in fact I am actually involved in an envelope-to-envelope written correspondence with a close ex who has moved back to the Bay Area. So if you don't know what to do with whatever you buy from the USPS ..... SEND ALL YOUR STAMPS TO ME! (address below) ONE RUMINATION When I wrote my last blog, Taking the Train While Black, I felt great anxiety about tackling the issue of racism and saying anything beyond "Black Lives Matter!" I worried that people might be offended that I was appropriating the experience of Dee for my blog, that they might find unconscious racism in my words, that I might AGREE that I had been unconsciously racist. I had an enormous desire, at the end of the blog, to somehow apologize for/justify/contextualize my words. Make them more palatable. But I resisted that impulse because I have discovered that people do not like it when I apologize in advance. In fact, I don't like it when somebody else does it either! It's a bit cowardly, don't you think? If you can't stand behind what you say, then DON'T SAY IT! Ya gotta let the chips fall where they may. And if you have offended people, it's not the end of the world. Maybe you'll learn something from it. AT LONG LAST, THE PHOTO!

A human being discovers, for the first time, the voluptuous luscious reality of ..... CHOCOLATE! Thanks to Carolyn's grand-daughter Isla for following her bliss, even if it meant she had to chew through a box she couldn't open, and to Mica and Will for bringing such a stalwart and passionate person into the world. Bloggelinis, this photo makes me laugh every time I look at it. I couldn't wait to share it with you.

You take care now. Your Blogmistress reminds you: WEAR A MASK and KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! Terry

BAUMBLOG: TAKING THE TRAIN WHILE BLACK

JUNE 15, 2020 TAKING THE TRAIN WHILE BLACK DEAR BLOGGELINIS: If you would like to continue receiving in your inbox the entire BaumBlog as an email RATHER THAN a link to Blogspot, then please reply to this email with your preference. I will be posting the blog in two places: as an email and also on Blogspot. Thank you for your patience with my half-assed transition. Your friendly neighborhood BlogMistress, Terry Today I want to write about an incident of racism I experienced when I took the train with Dee, an African-American woman who ended up living with me for a year. I think it's an important story BECAUSE it doesn't involve a Black MAN, but rather a small, very well-spoken, very charming Black WOMAN. In other words, these are the kinds of experiences that happen to EVERY SINGLE Black person, no matter their gender or size or demeanor. The Train Incident: For those who don't remember or weren't reading BaumBlog in March 2019, I met Dee on the train going from Denver to San Francisco, a three-day journey. When I wrote then, I didn't share the fact that Dee was taking the train because the doctor had told her that she had stage four kidney failure and if she didn't start dialysis immediately, she would die. Dee had an aversion to dialysis and decided to fling herself on the mercy of the cosmos for one last adventure and bought a ticket on the California Zephyr from Denver to San Francisco. So she was not well, although she was easily walking around at that point. (In fact, the doctor was wrong. While Dee's health has gotten worse since we met, it's been a slow decline. She's now living with her mom in Colorado Springs.) I had what they call a roomette, a very tiny sleeper. Because Dee was ill, I went to the conductor and bought a roomette for her, so she'd have a private place to rest and sleep. The train had a long stop in Reno, Nevada. Dee and I were sitting in the observation car chatting when a man walked up to us. He said, "Excuse me, ladies, I'm a Deputy Sheriff here in Reno" -- he wasn't wearing a uniform, but flashed his badge at us -- "and I'm looking for two women. There's been a report of some suspicious activity on the train." I, naive idiot that I was (and probably still am), thought "Oh! I have to help this nice deputy find these two suspicious women!" Then he said, "May I see your ID?" Snug in my blanket of white privilege, I still didn't get that I was one of the suspicious women, so I cheerfully got out my drivers license. Dee didn't have her purse with her, which meant that I would have to go back to her compartment to get it. Dee was not up to rushing back and forth. I started to get up to get Dee's purse, when the middle-aged white woman sitting across from us stood and confronted the deputy. "Why are you bothering them? They haven't done anything! Why should they have to show you their IDs?" I mean this woman was really gutsy. At this point, the deputy changed his mind about needing Dee's driver's license. "That's alright, ladies. I don't need the other ID. Thank you for your cooperation," and he left. Dee and I sat there in silence. I was completely nonplussed. Had the deputy taken a look at us and decided that we couldn't possibly be criminals? Did our brave fellow passenger scare him away? I never even thanked her for standing up for us. Finally Dee said, "It was probably because I'm Black." I replied, "Maybe so." I didn't have the heart to agree with Dee's "probably." I didn't know what to say. Dee and I had only known each other for two days. Should we talk about this? I never had a moment of worry during this strange encounter. What had Dee felt? Was she angry? Scared? Was she embarrassed? Should we just pretend it never happened? There were several signs on the train, "If you see something, say something." Obviously, someone thought Dee and I were "something." Was it the conductor I bought Dee's roomette ticket from? It cannot be that I was the first person in AMTRAK history to meet someone on the train and buy a roomette for them! Did someone think we were drug dealers? A 72-year-old white woman and a small fragile black woman, both of us completely middle-class in our speech and manner? If we were drug dealers or involved in some nefarious plot, surely I would have bought her roomette in advance! Dee hadn't been nervous on the train. She was having a ball meeting people and chatting with them. Dee wasn't just charming. She had charisma. People were drawn to her. Did one of those people report us? It was impossible to think of anything about either Dee or me that would make people suspicious, make them think we were "something." Except the color of Dee's skin. Maybe a charismatic black person is automatically "something." It was too disturbing to think about. I hardly knew Dee. She wasn't saying anything. So I decided to pretend it hadn't happened. And when I wrote a long blog about the trip, I didn't mention the deputy sheriff. In the year that Dee lived with me, of course we got to know each other. She shared her thoughts on her identity. And she had thought deeply. She said, "Don't call me black. Look at my skin. Look!" She held out her arm. "My skin's not black." Indeed her skin was dark mahogany, NOT black. "And I'm not an African-American, either. I don't know anything about Africa and I'm not interested in Africa. Where did YOUR people come from?" I answered, "Poland." "Well," she said, "Do you call yourself a Polish-American? And my people came here hundreds of years before your people! I am A DESCENDANT. I am an American who is a DESCENDANT of people who were enslaved. THAT is who I am, those are my roots. And the greatest crime of slavery was the tearing apart of our families. Can you imagine what your people, the Jews, would be like if their families had been torn apart for hundreds of years? We still haven't recovered from that." Living with this Descendant, I saw the world in new ways. She shared with Carolyn and me her encounters with racism as they happened -- in a LYFT, in SF General Hospital. I felt ashamed of my city. Suffice it to say that one of the reasons Dee decided to leave San Francisco was that she found the health care system here more racist than the the one in Denver. I think about Dee often these days. We're not in contact anymore. I'm grateful that she shared some of her understanding of the world with me. I wish, when we'd gotten to know each other better, I had talked with her about the train incident. But truly, I repressed it myself. Only recently did it pop into my mind, now that the whole nation is openly struggling with its racism. Well, Bloggelinis, that's all for now. I will try to be more bloggy in the future. I've been up and down, with so much happening, both good and bad. Terry

Which Side Are You On?

PROTEST HAS COME TO NOE VALLEY!

I certainly would have gone to this 

if I hadn't been on my silent retreat.

1.  ABOUT MOVING BAUMBLOG FROM GMAIL TO BLOGGER

2.  GOOD NEWS ABOUT RACIAL ISSUES

3.  GOOD NEWS ABOUT TRUMP'S FUTURE AS OUR DICTATOR

4.  EXCELLENT LINKS

1.  MOVING BAUMBLOG FROM GMAIL TO BLOGGER

Dear Bloggelinis:  Welcome to my official blog.  I've been writing here since 2013. If you have any complaints about this change, please tell me.    I moved my current blog from my gmail account for two reasons:

1.  I'm hoping to get new subscribers by being out in the blog world.  In fact, even with very few actual subscribers on this site, I'm listed 75th in the top 100 LGBT blogs in the universe!!  Lesley, my wonderful business manager made that happen.  She doesn't know what she did to accomplish this amazing feat, but she did a lot of things and one of them put BaumBlog on a list that we never knew existed.

2.  I think visually it will be much more pleasing, because the format of emails takes up a lot of everyone's computer screen, and that makes the size of the photos limited. Since photos are a very important part of what I'm doing, that's frustrating.  

You can make a comment on this blog at the bottom of the blog, and all who read the blog will see it and can respond.  Or if you want to reply to me personally, which I have greatly enjoyed, you can email me.

2.  GOOD NEWS ABOUT RACIAL ISSUES

I went away from the world for three of the most tumultuous days we've ever experienced.   Of course, there's a lot of bad news, like the fact that the U.S. is totally fucked and has been since we enshrined slavery in the Constitution.

But the GOOD NEWS is that some people who I never thought would get it ARE GETTING IT:

Robert E. Lee Statue in Richmond, VA

• All  over the South, mayors and governors are ringing the death knell for statues honoring Confederate "heroes" who defended that "peculiar institution," as it was so quaintly known -- human slavery.  Of course the White Supremacists are fighting back to preserve "history," otherwise known as the good old days when whites never ever ever worried about killing black people.  A judge, whose great-grandfather erected the Richmond equestrian statue of Lee, has delayed the removal on a technicality.  Actually, the horse, the renowned Traveller, never did anything wrong.  How about sawing off Lee and leaving Traveller there?  Now THAT would be an excellent historical reminder!

• The NFL  -- that's right the National FOOTBALL League -- has come around!  Commissioner Roger Goodell has "admitted we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.  We, the National Football League believe black lives matter."  Who knew?  And it only took George Floyd's murder and over a week of protests and police rioting throughout the entire nation for Goodell to figure this out.  That's what I call a fast learner.  I'd love to see him take a knee with Kaepernick.
•  
• Most important, the protests continue and grow.  One protester was quoted as saying, "This feels different.  This feels like... like HOME."  I only wish I could join them, but I'm afraid of catching the virus, and I'm very worried about THEM getting sick.  But the truth is THESE YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE -- ALL OF THEM, OF EVERY RACE.  It's parallel to the position of young people in Hong Kong.  They KNOW they're risking their lives.  They've chosen to keep on keeping on.

At this point, I must suggest this MSNBC interview with Cornel West.  I don't agree with West on all issues, but here he is channeling the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.  It's a sermon rather than a talk.    West moved me in his description of the fork in the road that we are facing.

3.  GOOD NEWS ABOUT TRUMP'S FUTURE AS A DICTATOR

Quite frankly, from the time he became a candidate, I never thought that Trump would willingly leave the White House.  After all, what future would he face?  He'd be charged up and down the wazoo with crimes.  He might never go to prison, but he'd never get out of court.  That is, unless he escaped to find sanctuary in some congenial full-blown dictatorship -- say... oh... Russia for instance.  I was wondering when would be the appropriate time to acknowledge my fears to my Bloggelinis.  

My greatest concern was where the military would land if Trump attempted a coup.  Because if they backed him, we would be well and truly screwed.  We would face two choices:

1.  Living in a dictatorship 

or 

2.  All-out civil war, with the government having both the army and the great majority of armed civilians on its side. 

Definitely not what I'm wishing for my old age and retirement, should either of those ever arrive.  

 Upper Headline:  Mattis Delivers Blistering Criticism of Trump as a Divider

Lower Headline:  In Break With President, Esper Calls Use of Military "A Matter of Last Resort"

And now  Jim Mattis, Trump's former Secretary of Defense, is speaking out against using the army against civilian protesters!  It turns out that former Marine (!) General Mattis is the most respected military man alive -- worshiped by the Marines and deeply honored by everyone else in the Army!  And he believes in the right of citizens to protest, even if the fringe contains some anarchists and looters!  I tell ya, you can't make this stuff up.

Could it be that there is enough goodness in the souls of enough individual Americans that, when it's all combined, it will be enough save this nation?  

And then there's current Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who accompanied Trump on his ill-fated and idiotic Bible-flaunting photo-op.  Esper is now walking himself back from his own disastrous handling of the D.C. protesters and calling the use of the military "a matter of last resort."  

So maybe we won't have civil war after all.  Maybe the push is finally coming to shove and the American people are saying 

NO to Trump and 

YES to looking racism and injustice in the face.

4.  EXCELLENT LINKS

I have found that the late-night comics/commentators are quite visionary and instructive.  Each person says at least one thing that helps me understand the situation more deeply.  Their talks empower me.  And of course, they're entertaining.

Steven Colbert:  CITIZENS WILL NOT BE SILENCED

Trevor Noah:  PROTESTS SWEEP ACROSS AMERICA

Now, John Oliver is a bit of a mixed bag.  But he's absolutely brilliant and a deep, radical thinker.  His show is only once a week.  That gives him time to create a brief documentary on that week's subject. He does sometimes have a very juvenile sense of humor, which I CAN'T STAND.  But he's also hilarious and very serious.  This week's subject is, very simply:  POLICE.

WELL, BLOGGELINIS, I THINK THIS NEW FORMAT WILL EVENTUALLY WORK OUT.  IT'S BEEN A BIT ROUGH THIS FIRST TIME.  BUT I'VE FIGURED OUT HOW I CAN RETURN TO THE BEAUTIFUL AQUA PAPYRUS FONT NEXT TIME, WHICH I FIND SO PLEASING AND I KNOW YOU ENJOY TOO.

STRENGTH & KINDNESS TO YOU ALL.         Terry

Thanks to Rosalia Stamatakos for the links.

6/5/20: TAKING A BREAK

June 5, 2020 TAKING A BREAK PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. My dear Bloggelinis: I have been in a Buddhist practice period, online, for the past six weeks. It culminated in a silent retreat which began Wednesday night and extends through Saturday night. Part of the retreat is refraining from reading or writing anything. I haven't read a newspaper or email since it started. Technically of course I shouldn't be writing THIS email. But it seems too strange to be silent during these tumultuous days without telling you why. Your Blogmistress will be back on Monday. Terry P.S. The photo an earlier peaceful moment at Dolores Park.

6/2/20: It's Come to This

TRUMP'S BIBLE PHOTO OP JUNE 2, 2020 IT'S COME TO THIS. PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. DONALD TRUMP SAID THESE WORDS AT HIS PRESS CONFERENCE YESTERDAY: "If the city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residence, then I WILL DEPLOY THE UNITED STATES MILITARY AND QUICKLY SOLVE THE PROBLEM FOR THEM. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capital, Washington, DC. What happened in the city last night was a total disgrace. As we speak, I AM DISPATCHING THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF HEAVILY ARMED SOLDIERS, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property." THEN, AFTER THE POLICE HAD CLEARED HIS PATH BY TEARGASSING PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS, HE WALKED OVER TO THE NEARBY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, STOOD IN FRONT OF IT AND HELD A BIBLE -- VERY AWKWARDLY . "The president of the United States tear-gassed peaceful protestors in order to clear the way for a useless photo-op outside the White House—just after vowing to activate the military against our own people. Lives and our democracy are in danger." —Senator Elizabeth Warren "President Donald Trump's pledge Monday evening to deploy the full force of the U.S. military against demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd—and the president's authorization of police violence against peaceful protesters to clear the way for a photo-op—amounted in the eyes of lawmakers, rights groups, and commentators to "declaration of war" against the U.S. public that must result in Trump's removal from office." -----Jake Johnson, Common Dreams "This is the moment we've been dreading since that escalator ride down Trump Tower five years ago this month—that's been slowly building brick by brick as Donald Trump tore down the rule of law, abused the presidency to enrich himself, and grabbed the bully pulpit of the White House to divide America with racism, sexism and xenophobia. Backed into a corner after his incompetence and distrust in science was trampled by a virus that's killed 105,000 Americans, compounded by 40 million unemployed, and now massive, chaotic protests over the police brutality and racism that he has nurtured instead of combating, the president of the United States declared war on the American people. Donald Trump needs to go, and we can't wait until even November 3, let alone January 20, 2021." -- Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer "The fascist speech Donald Trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against American citizens. I fear for our country tonight and will not stop defending America against Trump’s assault." --- Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon) "Trump just had peaceful demonstrators viciously attacked. No, Mr. President. This is not a dictatorship. This is the United States of America. Our citizens have a constitutional right to peacefully protest. It's called the First Amendment." -- Senator Bernie Sanders “Going to the church, not going in it, not meeting with any clergy, holding up a Bible, but not quoting any scripture, after an authoritarian speech, was about using the religious symbolism for his ends, It was a signal to the people that embrace the idea of a Christian nation, that he will defend Christianity in the public sphere,” He said he’ll make America safe. That raised the question, for whom? It’s largely for white, mostly Protestant people." ---- Andrew Whitehead, sociologist WELL OF COURSE TRUMP DIDN'T WANT THE CATHOLICS TO FEEL LEFT OUT SO TODAY, TUESDAY, HE VISITED A CATHOLIC SHRINE.

STAY TUNED, BLOGGELINIS, TO FIND OUT WHAT FIRST TODDLER DOES TOMORROW! Terry