WE ARE ALL KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA

Subscribe to My Blog! APRIL 19, 2025 WE ARE ALL KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA. PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. PODCASTS, EVENTS, INFO, POSTERS: LilithTheater.com Below: My front Window (I live in a storefront). Below the words is a photo of Kilmar Garcia's wife, speaking to protesters demanding he be returned rom the Salvadoran prison where he was illegally sent. He was legally living in the U.S.

When I was thinking about the wording of my window sign, I didn't mean it as a statement of solidarity with Kilmar Garcia, who has been kidnapped by the U.S. government and sent to a horrible prison. I mean: If he can be put on a plane to El Salvador without any due process, with no means of returning home ---- then I can too! What happened to Kilmar Abrego Garcia can happen to ME. And you and you and you. It can happen to any person within the borders of the United States. Trump admited it was an "administrative error." But what an incredibly USEFUL error, what a weapon of fear in Trump's arsenal. Of COURSE he refuses to bring Garcia back! As long as Garcia remains in that Salvadoran prison, Trump gets to flaunt his absolute power over every single person in this country. Oh, it's worth defying the Supreme Court for THAT. When you think about it, Garcia's imprisonment is much MORE frightening BECAUSE it was a mistake. There is a random element to the threat. "Oops! I didn't really mean to deport you to El Salvador! My bad. But, now that you've ended up there -- You ain't coming back. I LIKE you being there!" Shades of Kafka's The Trial. It does seem like Trump's world is Kafka's world. Of course in times like this, I can't help but reassure myself that I personally would not be illegally and randomly deported -- because I'm white. And that comfort will last until the first white person is randomly swept up and cast out of the country. Then I'll probably reassure myself that I won't be grabbed becasue I'm old. I think human beings put a lot of energy into figuring out why the bad things that happen to others won't happen to THEM. But deep down inside, I feel less safe since I heard about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I have a fear I didn't have before. And I know that makes Trump happy. But, and it is a BIG but.... Resistance is building! Below is Robert Reich's latest column. I like him because he's always trying to figure out what we should DO. This column was titled "What We Must Do Now." "If the Trump regime can dictate what the universities of America teach or research or publish, or what students can learn or say, no university is safe. Not even the truth is safe. If the Trump regime can revoke student visas because students exercise their freedom of speech on a university campus, freedom of speech is not secure for any of us. If the Trump regime can abduct a permanent resident of the United States and send him to a torture prison in El Salvador, without any criminal charges, no American is safe. What do we do about this? We stand up to it. We resist it. We denounce it. We boldly and fearlessly reject it —regardless of the cost, regardless of the threats. As columnist David Brooks writes in his column yesterday (I’m hardly in the habit of quoting David Brooks): It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power. But what does a national civic uprising look like? It may look like a general strike — a strike in which tens of millions of Americans refuse to work, refuse to buy, refuse to engage in anything other than a mass demonstration against the regime. And not just one general strike, but a repeating general strike — a strike whose numbers continue to grow and whose outrage, resistance, and solidarity continue to spread across the land. You know that things are REALLY BAD if David Brooks, a rather conservative columnist is calling for a "national civic uprising." I urge all of you to start preparing now for such a series of general strikes. I will inform you of what I learn about who is doing what. (One possible place to begin is here.)" I myself clicked on there "here" button and signed up to get a "Strike card." I've been been hoping for some kind of BIG resistance. For those who read my last blog, you know I thought everyone should go to D.C. But not one Bloggelini thought that was a good idea. This country is too damn BIG to bring everyone together in one place to shut it down. But a General Strike would involve millions protesting throughout the country. The planners say they need almost 11 million strikers, for the strike to have an effect. Right now they're at 333,000 who have made a commitment. Bloggellinis, drastic measures are called for. We're being led by a madman surrounded by fawning idiots. Please klick here and read about the plan of building up to a general strike. Sign up and get a Strike Card! I'm pretty excited about this idea of a general strike. The planners are very thoughtful. Terry

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JON'S TRIUMPH, OUR TRAGEDY

 

Subscribe to My Blog! APRIL 8, 2025 JON'S TRIUMPH, OUR TRAGEDY PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. PODCASTS, EVENTS, INFO, POSTERS: LilithTheater.com

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO WATCH JON STEWART'S MONOLOG JOHN STEWART'S MONOLOG Jon Stewart was particularly brilliant last night. This hilarious and deeply sane man captured the absurdity of what is happening. And what IS happening? The most powerful man in the world is completely detached from reality and is dragging us all toward catastrophe. Jon made me laugh about it all. Oh, that felt good. I'm always happy when I'm laughing. Comedy gives us that gift of happiness -- at the same time that it gives us the gift of insight. Thank you, Jon -- and everyone else involved in creating his monolog -- for helping me grasp the true insanity of what is going on, while giving me the pleasure of laughter. But the most memorable moment for me wasn't very funny. It took place on Air Force One, when Trump was flying home from his golf tournament. Having purged all actual journalists, he felt comfortable taking questions from the subservient few that were left. Fawning Reporter: “Mr. President, How was the golf tournament?” The Most Powerful Man in the World: “Very good. Because I won. It’s good to win. You heard I won, right? Did you hear I won?” Jon riffing: “Mom, Mom! I won! I won the tournament, Mom! I’m a good boy!" Of course Jon was mocking Trump, and I laughed. But Jon also has great humanity, and he was capturing how truly pathetic Trump is. I could not forget the scene on the airplane. I was deeply saddened by this man who is happy to have pleased his mommy while he's devoting himself to pulling down the world around his ears. How did we get here? I remember in 2016, when Trump came to California to campaign. I read a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about Trump meeting with a group of farmers. They asked him what he was going to do about the drought and the resulting problems with the distribution of the limited amount of water. Trump's reply: "Forget about the drought. Don't worry about it. The drought is taken care of. There won't be any more drought." I thought, with great satisfaction, "Well that does it for Trump with the farmers. What a ridiculous thing to say to them! These people have to be reality-based. They deal with weather, insects that eat their crops, so many real-world factors. How the hell could Trump just END the drought?!? It's really an insulting thing to say to a bunch of farmers." And then I read in the next morning's Chronicle that the farmers had voted to endorse Trump. I was completely shocked. And then in 2024, he told the Arabs in Michigan that he was going to end the war in Gaza, and they BELIEVED him -- just like the farmers! Why did they believe him? This man who is anti-Islam and who certainly considers Gaza a "shithole country." Why? I think Trump, being detached from reality, feels a deep certainty about his pronouncements that is very comforting to people. "Ah, this person absolutely KNOWS he can solve our problems! How nice. I believe him!" In other words, a more rational, mentally healthy politician would be less compelling. Well, we're all trying to figure out how we got here. The above is one of my attempts to understand it. A more important issue now is.... WHAT DO WE DO NOW? I think we all have to go to Washington. I mean masses and masses of us. And not just for one huge demonstration, and then we go home. We have to keep demonstrating until things change -- either Trump is impeached or the Congress takes back its power. A fundamental change. That's what the South Koreans just did. Their President declared martial law and tried to orchestrate a military takeover. In response to that, the people hit the streets and just wouldn't quit. AND THEY WON! Former President Yoon has just been impeached. Admittedly, it is a lot easier for South Korea to do that. It's a much smaller country. But I don't think we can wait until 2026, in the hopes that we can elect different people to Congress who will then control Trump. Things are moving too fast. In order to make Trump/Musk take their hands off, we need to put our feet on the ground in Washington, D.C. What do you think, Bloggelinis? What should we do?

Lilith Women's Theater | 547 Douglass St. | San Francisco, CA 94114 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice

STOP THE TRUMP-MUSK COUP (plus a treat)

 

Subscribe to My Blog! February 5, 2025 STOP THE TRUMP-MUSK COUP! (plus a treat) PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. PODCASTS, EVENTS, INFO, POSTERS: LilithTheater.com Folks, the wheels seem to be coming off. Elon Must has been given access to the financial information of the entire population of the United States, to do with what he will. AND the Insane Malignant Narcissist, who happens to be the most powerful person in the world, has announced that the U.S. will take over Gaza, and send the entire population... well, somewhere else (but certainly NOT the United States). Then he will make the bombed out rubble that was home to two million people into a lovely seaside resort! Shall I say, the wheels HAVE come off and we've got to do everything we can to get them back on, and FAST? Those of us who have not drunk the Koolaid MUST do what we can! I am writing you to suggest that INDIVISIBLE.ORG is the best place to start. If you feel compelled to click this link above and forget about reading the rest of the blog, that's fine with me. INDIVISIBLE is organizing people to visit or contact their Democratic U.S. Senators and demand that they publicly and noisily vote against ALL Trump's Cabinet nominees, because all the nominees have pledged fealty to the Insane Malignant Narcissist. I point towards INDIVISIBLE after watching Amy Goodman's DEMOCRACY NOW. Her guest was Walid Shaheed, Democratic strategist and former adviser to Reps. Ocasio Cortez and Jamaal Bowman. In brief, he said that giving Musk the keys to the Treasury information is equivalent to a coup. "The Democratic Party in Washington is asleep at the wheel. They're acting as if they're a librarian shushing noise in a crowded room. They are not putting forward an opposition message because they still believe that what Musk and Trump are doing is just a libertarian reform of the government and not an oligarchic takeover of a private billionaire. That's why it's so important right now for concerned citizens across the country to twist the arm of their Senate Democrat. Go to their office. If you go to INDIVISIBLE.ORG today, you can join your local chapter." Below is the webpage for the San Francisco chapter. And now, for the treat: LB, a San Francisco native, took me to visit an old family friend, who is now 91. He has lived a wonderful, creative life and is now ensconced in a house stuffed with silly and delightful objects. It's all watched over by Sonny Boy, the world's largest and sweetest bulldog. I hope to do a blog on this man, soon. Dear Bloggellinis: Do something! And then do something else! This is no time to pretend that things are normal, or will go back to normal without your active participation! Terry

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OUR FIRST HERO

 

Subscribe to My Blog! January 25, 2025 OUR FIRST HERO PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. PODCASTS, EVENTS, INFO, POSTERS: LilithTheater.com  President Donald Trump, left, watches as Rev. Mariann Budde, second right, arrives at the national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) In case you've been hiding under a rock since that terrifying Inauguration day -- and if you have, who can blame you? -- this is what Episcopal Bishop Mariann E. Budde said to President Trump's face on Tuesday, January 21 in Washington Cathedral:   “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen” And a storm of praise and hatred, gratitude for the Bishop's courage, and death threats against her, followed on the internet. Bishop Budde was interviewed by the New York Times:   "I had a feeling that there were people watching what was happening and wondering, 'Was anyone going to say anything? Was anyone going to say anything about the turn the country's taking? To plea for mercy is actually a very humbling thing to do. I wasn't demanding anything of him. I was pleading with him, like, can you see the humanity of these people? Can you acknowledge that there are people in this country (who) are scared?...If not him, if not the president, could others? Maybe this was naive on my part. When I decided to plea to the president I thought it would be taken differently, because it was an acknowledgement of his position, his power now, and the millions of people who put him there." She continued, "These are things I say all the time. But publicly, people aren't paying attention." In the pulpit, she said, "you can never really predict how things will land." No shit, Sherlock. You know that old joke, "A President and a Bishop walk into a cathedral...." You see, they were in the same actual physical space. That's proven by the photo above. And it was her space. He could not silence her. He could not throw her out. And people would be watching. The press would be there. She had an opportunity to speak the truth to the face of the malevolent narcissist who happens to be the most powerful person in the world. And Bishop Budde had the courage to grab that opportunity. Does she have a 24-hour bodyguard yet? I wonder. Episcopal Churches around the country have removed staff directories from their websites. All the workers have been instructed to send any death threats they receive to a particular person who has been assigned to deal with them. The New York Times again:   On Wednesday, Representative Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, said Bishop Budde should be "added to the deportation list." Others said her gender itself undercut any claim to spiritual authority. "Female bishop is all you needed to know how it was going to turn out," Kristan Hawkins, a Catholic anti-abortion activist, wrote on X. Us damn women. If we're not demanding to control our own bodies, we're out gallivanting around pretending to lead churches. When are we going to get back to good old-fashioned "barefoot and pregnant"? The battle has begun. Gee, wouldn't it be great if those of us who believe in compassion, the rule of law and government accountability had a political party with the courage to speak up loudly, passionately and constantly for us?  Wouldn't that be just super? All for now, Bloggelinis. Terry

The Good Man of Altadena

 

Subscribe to My Blog! January 21st, 2025 The Good Man of Altadena PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. PODCASTS, EVENTS, INFO, POSTERS: LilithTheater.com LB and I were driving back from the Palm Springs International Film Festival. We were going to visit friends in Los Angeles, my hometown, on the way back. But we changed our plans because of the apocalyptic fires. Our friends agreed that was a good idea. One of them had a whole family of fire refugees moving into her house on the day we'd planned to get together. So we were going to drive straight through to San Francisco. At a certain point, we had to get off the freeway and find somewhere to pee. It happened to be Altadena. We found a cafe that seemed open. People were bustling inside. A woman came to the door. "We're not open," she said. "We're cleaning up. But are you okay? Do you need anything?" What?!? Did I need anything? Why was she asking? Then we understood that, even though nothing around us had been burned, we were near the pathway of the fire. Three women were bustling around cleaning up the cafe. The whole place stank inside of smoke, even though the immediate area had been untouched by flames. She warmly invited us in to use their bathroom. It was only when I came out that I noticed the sign "WE LOVE YOU ALTADENA & PASADENA" next to the cafe -- and all the boxes of clothes and water bottles. The evidence of disaster, and of people coming together to help each other, was painfully clear. That was Tuesday, January 14th. I came home to a pile of unread New York Times. I sat down to riffle through the pages, to see if anything caught my eye that I absolutely had to read. I came upon this story, published on January 13th. I read it over several times. And on this auspicious and terrifying day, the first full day of Trump's Presidency, I choose to focus on Anthony Mitchell, who lost his life when the Eaton fire consumed his home. I don't want to talk about the tragedy of Mr. Mitchell's death or whether it could have been prevented. I want to celebrate the life of The Good Man of Altadena. According to Claire Fahy, who wrote this article for the New York Times:   "Altadena, though minutes away from a large city, had a small-town feel, Mitchell's surviving son, Anthony Jr., said. The neighborhood was full of families whose homes had been passed down through generations. It had been a magnet for Black families in particular. The houses were in a picturesque spot, surrounded by hills and forest on three sides, but they were still affordable. Mr. Mitchell lived on Terrace Street in Altadena with two sons, both in their 30s. It was a modest white house wth a green front gate and green trim. Trees towered above the home's carefully tended garden. The edge of the woods climbing into the San Gabriel Mountains was just 10 blocks away. Mr. Mitchell used a wheelchair after his leg was amputated last year, a complication of his diabetes. One of his sons, Justin, was born with cerebral palsy and was 'bedridden,' according to Mr. Mitchell's daughter, Hajime White. Ms. White, 50, said that her father was 17 years old when she was born, the child of two high school sweethearts. Ms. White's mother moved to Arkansas not long after she found out that she was pregnant, but Mr. Mitchell always kept in contact with his daughter while she was growing up. 'He would call me a lot of times, and he would ask me, Baby, what do you want for Christmas?' Ms White recalled. 'He would sometimes start in June and July.' Her father would ask around about what the latest trends were. Big boxes of presents would then show up on Ms. White's doorstep, filled with the latest fashionable clothes and in-demand items, such as Air Jordan shoes, Reeboks and, once, a keyboard." My eyes, mind and heart were stopped in their tracks. A 17-year-old boy stays connected with the daughter he fathered who he had never seen. She lives across the country. And yet he showered her with Christmas gifts to remind her that he loved her and was always thinking of her. How many 17-year-olds would do that? Quite frankly, if I were in that young boy's shoes, I really don't think that I would. Mr. Mitchell was an extraordinarily loving man, even as a teenager. Loving and responsible.   " Ms. White first visited Altadena when she was 10 years old, in 1986, the first time she met her father and the extended family in person. It felt like home, she said. 'The first time that I laid eyes on my dad, it was the most happiest moment of my life,' Ms. White said." I savor that moment of reunion in my imagination. For 10 years, Mr. Mitchell expressed his love for his daughter in the only way he could -- with loads of Christmas presents. How amazing for the two of them to be able to actually touch. I imagine they hugged for a very long time. I imagine they could not stop smiling and laughing and holding on to each other, for the whole visit.   "Ms. White said that her children had called him 'Fafa' instead of 'Papa' because they lived far away from him in Arkansas. But though they were far, they stayed in close touch. In November, they had all gathered for Mr. Mitchell's 68th birthday. Mr. Mitchell was a fixture in the community -- always checking in with the neighborhood children to see how they were getting on in school and giving them advice, his family said. 'My dad was just one of those people, you would meet him and he would make friends with you real quick,' his oldest son Anthony Jr., 46, said. 'He was an old-school guy.' He worked in sales at Radio Shack and then studied to become a respiratory therapist. But the work was sad -- many of his patients, including children and older people, died. He quit and went back to sales." There's that tender heart again. I imagine Mr. Mitchell felt he could study to enter a profession -- to help people breathe! Of course it sounds wonderful. What could be more loving than helping people breathe? But many people who need that help must be close to death. And some of them do die. A respiratory therapist must want to love people by helping them to breathe. But he must also find a way to handle the deaths of some of these people. No, Mr. Mitchell was not the man for that job. Certainly, in his work, he went out of his way to befriend every patient, just like he befriended his neighbors on Terrace Avenue in Altadena. Mr. Mitchell was not going to distance himself from his patients. And so the grief piled up. He had to go back to sales.   "In his neighborhood, Mr. Mitchell was known for his skills at the barbecue and was often recruited to cook for a crowd. In the charred remains of his backyard , next to several blackened cars, were the tools of Mr. Mitchell's craft -- a gas grill, a charcoal grill and a smoker. His son Justin loved to read, particularly books ordered from Amazon. Whenever someone asked if he wanted a present, he answered simply, 'Amazon.' But he also liked reading the newspaper with Mr. Mitchell. 'They would both sit there, reading the paper,' Ms. White said. 'My brother was phenomenal, too, just like my dad.' 'He wasn't going to leave my brother,' Anthony Mitchell Jr., said. He would never leave his kids. We were his legacy. We were his diamonds.'" Thanks to reporter Claire Fahy, for bringing us a glimpse into the life of this beautiful man. I grieve the death of Anthony Mitchell, who regarded his children as precious jewels, and was a master of the barbecue and too soft-hearted to be a respiratory therapist. And I grieve the death of his son, Justin, who was devoted to reading the paper and books from Amazon. But most especially I celebrate the great heart and loving life of Anthony Mitchell, The Good Man of Altadena.

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