Oct. 13, 2020: VP DEBATE & LINKS

 

October 9, 2020 VP DEBATE THOUGHTS & LINKS PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. Here's the link to the Google Doc so you can do some campaign work! Write letters! It's very satisfying! And it works! VOTEFWD.ORG letters get mailed on Oct. 17!

Somehow I could not find a photo that captured how WHITE Pence looked, compared to Harris. He is NOT ruddy. He is the whitest white man you could ever imagine, who's not an albino. Harris looked so great compared to him on the divided close-up. First: Of course Harris "won." She was intelligent and articulate. Pence is smug, pompous and a liar, because he has to be to have anything to stand on at all. Second: As we already know, debating is not Harris's strong point. After starting off in the lead in the primary, she dropped out early because people weren't thrilled by her debate performances. To me, it's because she seems too cagey, like she's triangulating on issues so that she'll alienate the fewest people. That's how I felt Wednesday night. When I've seen her interviewed, when she gave a prepared speech at the Convention, I saw a real person there. In this debate, I saw a politician who perhaps had been told she should smile a lot so that people wouldn't think she's PUSHY. (Funny how men are never ever, no matter what they do, pushy. That word is reserved for women.) Of course, Harris is burdened with an ENORMOUS handicap, as A WOMAN. Goddess forbid she should remind anyone of Hilary Clinton! (Who would have been an outstanding President to have during the pandemic, by the way) A woman has to be strong but not too strong, assertive but not aggressive. That's why a politician like Bella Abzug was so exciting. She didn't give a shit about any of those boundaries. Talk about PUSHY -- Bella BULLDOZED her way through the world! There was no hope of containing her within the cage of femininity. Of course, Harris is also BLACK, and trails behind her all the stereotypes about Black women. Damn. That's a LOT of stereotypes, combined with the whole woman thing. In fact, black women have come up with a word that exemplifies the double burden they carry when they seek power in the world: misogynoir. That is, a combo of the word for hating women and the French word for black. Very nice. Even elegant. So Kamala. Hard not to just use her first name, which is so beautiful and distinctive. When I think of the extreme tension of the occasion and the difficult path she as a black woman had to negotiate, I find it difficult to pass judgment on her. She was fine. But frankly, I was a tad disappointed in her passionate and repeated emphasis that "Biden will not end fracking!" Hello?!? Kam & Joe?! What about that Global Warming thingie??? Are there really that many voters so deeply attached to fracking that the Dems cannot risk the possibility of alienating them? For me, with the Democrats, it always comes down to half a loaf being better than none. The difference THIS time is that the half a loaf is unbelievably precious. Third, A Serious Missed Opportunity: The most important moment of the Biden/Trump debate the week before was when the moderator AND Biden held Trump's feet to the fire about whether he supported white supremacist groups or not. The fact that Trump could not disavow them and even ENCOURAGED them was very important information to the voters. A similar moment was set up by the moderator when she asked what the V.P. candidates would do if Der Toddler loses and refuses to concede. This was a time for Harris to let her outrage FLY! This is an unprecedented situation in our history and, if it happens, could be the end of our democracy. Harris in no way reflected the drastic nature of this question in her response. In fact, she NORMALIZED it by dealing with it as if it were an issue equivalent with immigration or raising taxes, ending up urging everyone to vote, as she smiled that damn smile. Neither the moderator nor Harris in any way forced Pence to say what he would do if Trump refuses to go. They allowed him to blather on about a supposedly flawed electoral process. That was a great disappointment to me. Oh well. Harris has no more debates in her future until she runs for re-election four years from now. LINKS THE HISTORY OF TRUMP & COVID I found this 30-minute video very helpful. I've been overwhelmed with facts, outrage, grief, insanity. This gave me a clear understanding of what actually has happened in the past 7 months and how it all fits together. Thirty minutes well-spent. ROY ZIMMERMAN: MY VOTE, MY VOICE, MY RIGHT The creator of "THE LIAR TWEEETS TONIGHT" has come up with another hit. By the way, I highly recommend ANY of Zimmerman's CD's. He's a brilliant political parodist and has been touring for many years. I've seen him perform live twice. Just so FUNNY and right-on. A gem. ANOTHER GREAT SATIRIST DISCOVERED! Marina Hyde, who writes for the Guardian in England, describes Trump as "this hideous link in the arc of history." Mmmm... Words to savor. She's fabulously funny and slashing. Please tell me if you can't open this because you don't subscribe. I think you can subscribe to the Guardian for a small amount. I pay $9/month. Carolyn loves their "Photos of the Day" feature, Bloggelinis: I apologize for being so tardy with my response to the VP debate. I kinda went down the rabbit hole of sloth and despair. Some days are good and some not so good. I actually wrote this four days ago. But somehow I was going to make it more.... more... I was going to make it more SOMETHING, that's for sure, but I cannot remember now what that "something" was. Well, off it goes now! Terry

October 7, 2020: Dad

 

October 7, 2020 DAD PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. Here's the link to the Google Doc so you can do some campaign work! Write letters! It's very satisfying! And it works! I have 83 letters to mail so far. VOTEFWD.ORG letters get mailed on Oct. 17!

I was making one of those efforts to get rid of unnecessary papers the other night. You know, tossing out warranties for refrigerators that went to the dump years ago and suchlike.. I came upon a file of old correspondence about home repairs -- retaining walls, crumbling porches and plumbing, always plumbing. Keeping the water out that's supposed to be out and the water in that's supposed to be in -- that is an ongoing project in a wooden house built in 1908. Until 2011, my parents were the official owners of Douglass St., so I was often in communication with my father about it. And I found a letter

from him: "11 Jan 98. Hi, Terry -- Re 545, I think I can start the year off on a positive note, reporting that I think we finally see a light at the end of the drainpipe." Reading that sentence brought my father fully back to me. It's been fifteen years since he died. I took the photo above around the time of this letter. He's holding a picture of his mother and grandmother. He was 79. (In fact, that wasn't the light at the end of ANYTHING. I had a huge flood two years ago and had to tear out and rebuild both bathrooms. But I digress.) There followed the numbing plumbing details: "... downspout is positioned tightly... a piece of wire got stuck... draining the neighbors' water into OUR drainpipe..." Finally he's done with the plumbing and moves on to the family: "Sue is doing o.k. We were marketing and she put a 4-pack of toilet paper in the cart. I put in another 4-pack, remarking we knew we'd be buying more, so why not try to reduce the number of trips. No, she explained, we buy 4 now, because when we need the next 4, it may be on sale or she might have a coupon. "How do you think you got so rich?", she demanded." There you have it: My mother's sense of humor and passion for bargains, my father's good humor with my mother's ways, and my father taking the trouble to report the mundane details of a shopping trip to me. How many people my age got chatty letters from their father? Macy Baum was an unusual man for his generation. He was open and sensitive and communicative -- and funny, always funny. Everyone loved him. He had a small but successful advertising agency, and I think the combination of worldly success and sensitivity was particularly unusual and cherished by other men. Dad grew up in Omaha, Nebraska in a poor and close-knit Jewish community. Both his parents emigrated from little Jewish villages (shtetls) in the Pale of Settlement, the territories of the Russian empire where Jews were allowed to live. When my father was young, Jascha Heifetz, a Russian Jewish violin prodigy, was a huge sensation and every Jewish parent dreamed of their little boy following in his footsteps. There's a kind of worship of musicians in Jewish culture. I saw that with my first boyfriend Jon, the piano player who saved me from drowning (see BE NICE & DIE). Jon's family idolized him simply because he could play the piano! Not just his parents, but the whole extended family! It was very weird and not such a good preparation for life, as you might imagine. Anyhow, all the Jewish families, poor as they were, bought violins and paid for lessons for their boys, and one of these boys was Macy Baum. My worried Bubie famously asked my Zadie, as they listened to my dad practicing, "Do you think Macy will ever be able to make a living playing the violin?" To which my Zadie replied, "Let's hope he never has to." You see, Dad was tone-deaf. You cannot play the violin unless you have a good ear. It must have been agony in the Omaha ghetto, with all those little boys --many with no musical ability -- practicing their violins.

Dad's family was Orthodox, and he was the Golden Boy, the first in his family to graduate from college. He was supposed to become a rabbi (since a music career was out), but when the rabbi called him in to talk about it, Dad confessed that he didn't believe in God. So that was the end of THAT!

Dad with his Parents on Graduation Day Dad's passion was always journalism. He was editor of the college newspaper, and chief of the debate team. When the whole family moved to Los Angeles during the Depression, he got a job on the LA Times selling ads, which led to a job offer from a small advertising agency. It was the Depression, and he was thrilled to have a well-paying job. He met my Mom at a Valentine's Day Dance, sponsored by Hadassah, the Jewish women's organization. His girlfriend Loretta had insisted he come, even though she was one of the organizers and would have no time to spend with him. Not a good strategy, if Loretta wanted to keep Macy for herself. So Sue and Macy met on Valentine's Day 1941 and got married on August 5. (I'm hoping I've got the year right. Everyone I could consult is dead.) It was an intimate affair in the rabbi's study. The sanctity of the occasion was compromised by my mother's uncle who was a real joker and wore a too-big hat that kept falling down beneath his eyes, making everyone snort with laughter.

Soon Dad enlisted in the army. This beautiful painting was done by one of the soldiers he served with. I don't know how the artist painted this in the midst of a war. But Dad returning home with it rolled up. He fought in the Pacific and saw a LOT of action. One day on some small unnamed island, Dad led a patrol with seven men to reconnoiter. They were following a map, assuming the area they would explore was safe. But the map was wrong. They came around

a bend in the trail, and were met with a hail of bullets. All seven men accompanying my father were killed. He ran until he came to a river and walked down that river for three days, always fearing he would be shot by his own side. Finally he came to his own camp. In fact, Macy was famous for getting shot at. If you were at the front, you could not get a promotion to officer status unless you actually engaged with the enemy. There was one soldier complaining that he SO deserved to be promoted, and it wasn't happening because of that stupid rule. Another soldier asked, "Why don't you just go out on patrol with Macy Baum?" To which the complainer replied, "I don't want to become an officer THAT bad!" BACK TO THE DRAINPIPE LETTER. The toilet paper incident is followed by: "Which reminds me -- you recall how I was dithering about when to sell my Vanguard index shares..." Of course I did NOT recall. My father was always trying to teach us about stocks and bonds. My sister Nancy and I would sit there with glazed eyes, pretending to absorb the information. I found out later that Nancy thought I DID absorb the info, and SHE was the only incompetent in the room! Dad goes on: "I'll not bore you with how many stocks went thru the roof after I'd sold out. Or the time 50 yrs ago when I ordered 100 shares of Desilu, and the broker sent me 100 shares of Disney by mistake. I indignantly demanded my Desilus as ordered, which was my mistake." Okay, the golden boy lost a golden opportunity. But at least it makes a good story, and that's worth something! "It's late, and I've got to go to school in the morning, at West L.A. Community College, in Culver City: 9:30: Computer Science (Word and Excel); 11:00: American History Since the Civil War. Mondays & Wednesdays." So this was how Dad was going to handle his retirement. He had decided to close his business a year earlier, when he lost his biggest client. He was 79 and he couldn't figure out what to do with himself, so he started college again. It turned out he loved it. The other students called him "Pops," which delighted him. And he made the Dean's List! I wish I still had the certificate, which he kept prominently displayed on his bulletin board. His last words in the letter are: "Movie tip: As Good As It Gets." It was midnight when I read those words. I had never seen that movie, and I wasn't sleepy, so I live-streamed it on Youtube and watched it until two in the morning. Helen Hunt is unbelievably luminous and wonderful in it. So glad I saw it. I felt like I had spent the whole evening with my Dad. He died in 2005. It's been so long since we spent time together. Miss you, Dad. Well, Bloggelinis, it's nice to have a little break from the insanity/drama/chaos swirling around us, no? Terry

Oct. 5: May Der Toddler Die B4 He Murders More!

 October 5, 2020

May Der Toddler Die B4 He Murders More!

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Write letters! It's very satisfying! And it works!

VOTEFWD.ORG letters get mailed on Oct. 17!

Here's what a rational doctor said about Trump's little car ride yesterday:

(CNN) Dr. Leana Wen, an ER physician and CNN medical analyst, tweeted that if Trump were her patient, "in unstable condition + contagious illness, & he suddenly left the hospital to go for a car ride that endangers himself & others: I'd call security to restrain him then perform a psychiatric evaluation to examine his decision-making capacity."

Here's the whole article:

(CNN) Pacing the well-appointed presidential suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center between intravenous doses of remdesivir and near-hourly checks of his vitals, President Donald Trump has told more than one well-wisher he's desperate to fly the coop.

So on Sunday he did. Just past 5 p.m. ET, a combination of boredom, agitation and yearning for adulation while convalescing from coronavirus brought the President to the rear seat of a black Chevy Suburban, waving frantically as he rode at a crawl down Rockville Pike while two US Secret Service agents, dressed in medical gowns, respirator masks and eye protection, stared stoically ahead.

It was an image concocted by the President himself and the very tight group of aides who have accompanied him to Walter Reed, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and social media adviser Dan Scavino, a person familiar with the matter said. They hoped it might reassure Americans that Trump remains both hale and in command after what he deemed exaggerated news coverage of his condition and -- in particular -- outsized prognostications he planned to transfer power to Vice President Mike Pence.

But his seconds-long parade only underscored the relaxed attitude toward transmission that appear to have landed Trump in the hospital to begin with.

The contained space inside the presidential limousine hardly allowed for social distancing from the driver and agent. While Trump wore a mask, his status as a Covid-positive hospital patient precluded him from falling within anyone's recommendations for a public appearance.

Afterward, members of the Secret Service voiced escalating concern at what many of the agency's personnel have determined is total disregard for their well-being amid a deadly and highly contagious pandemic. Agents have tested positive for the virus while traveling for the President's political rallies, which he insisted on maintaining even against federal health guidelines. As employees self-quarantine or isolate in place, others have been forced to work longer hours to fill the void.

It's a situation that has prompted growing and more vocal concern.

"That should never have happened," one current Secret Service agent who works on the presidential and first family detail said after Trump's drive-by, adding that those agents who went along for the ride would now be required to quarantine.

"I mean, I wouldn't want to be around them," the agent said, expressing a view that multiple people at the Secret Service also voiced in the wake of Sunday's appearance. "The frustration with how we're treated when it comes to decisions on this illness goes back before this though. We're not disposable."

Another veteran Secret Service agent also expressed deep dismay at the Walter Reed ride, though was sympathetic for those around the President given the difficulty in pushing back on the commander-in-chief.

"You can't say no," the agent said.

While agents in the Secret Service have the power to say no to activities that could put a president in danger, they can't say no in situations that could put themselves in danger.

A third agent told CNN: "It was simply reckless." But another sought to downplay the concern.

"I've watched some of the news today and it's ridiculous to say the President is trying to kill off his detail," said another current agent on Sunday. "He's unconventional, but we get the job done."

In a statement, the White House insisted measures were taken to protect others in the car with Trump.

"Appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the President and all those supporting it, including (personal protective equipment). The movement was cleared by the medical team as safe to do," deputy press secretary Judd Deere said.

Medical experts and physicians said the episode appeared anything but safe.

"That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack," Dr. James P. Phillips, who is affiliated with Walter Reed, tweeted. "The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play."

Dr. Leana Wen, an ER physician and CNN medical analyst, tweeted that if Trump were her patient, "in unstable condition + contagious illness, & he suddenly left the hospital to go for a car ride that endangers himself & others: I'd call security to restrain him then perform a psychiatric evaluation to examine his decision-making capacity."

I am so sick of this sanctimonious "GET WELL" crap. Of course I understand why Regular Joe says it. He's such a softy, he probably even FEELS it. But Stephen Colbert?!? He went on and on about how we must separate Trump the person from the Presidency -- and because the President is sick, the whole country is in danger! Oh yes! The greatest danger to the U.S. is that some other country might bomb us now because we're WEAK! Riiiiight.

Colbert said, looking me straight in the eye, "I know we all wish for his speedy recovery," or some such saintly goop. Don't tell me what I wish.

Oh Stephen, Stephen, how the mighty have fallen. You seemed so wise and brilliant, but now you tell me there's something sacred about the Presidency.

"Oh mein Fuhrer, thank God you survived that assassination attempt! Germany would have been a total mess without you!"

Trump is evil. Our President is evil. He is a mentally ill narcissist. And the greatest threat to this country, and the whole world, is not his current and hopefully fatal bout with Covid-19, but the fact that he can use his power to attack another country with a nuclear bomb if he feels like it.

That is assuming that the people in the chain of command are as disgustingly compliant as the doctors at Walter Reed.

"Well, we HAD to obey! He's our Commander-in-Chief!"

Funny, I thought doctors took an oath to do no harm. Silly me. I guess it's "Do no harm unless the PRESIDENT tells you to do it!"

I mean he's

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

HE'S PRECIOUS, SO WE HAVE A SPECIAL

COURAGEOUS GROUP OF HUMAN BEINGS

GUARD HIM WITH THEIR LIVES!

You know, I never thought about the Secret Service before. Maybe I'm not even SUPPOSED to think about them. They're SECRET, after all. Now I'm thinking....

You're the best of the best, the strongest, the smartest, you're a sharpshooter and you've got a black belt and a B.A. in Criminology, and you apply and pass all the physical tests and all the mental tests and all the security tests, and you want so much to have the honor of guarding your President -- even unto dying for the President --- because you truly love this damn wonderful country, and you... get the job! You do! You YOU have been chosen to make $36,356/year (according to Google) for the privilege of being a member of that elite team, the Secret Service!

And then DONALD TRUMP becomes President.

Major bummer.

You have made a commitment to give your life guarding this asshole who doesn't give a rat's ass about YOU or anyone else in the world. He is perfectly happy to endanger your life by demanding that you drive him on a little jaunt WHEN HE IS SICK WITH A DEADLY CONTAGIOUS VIRUS.

So now, besides the tens of thousands of deaths Der Toddler is already responsible for -- the two Secret Service men who drove him might be added to the count. At least THEY would have had the honor of getting the virus PERSONALLY from the President!

So no, I don't wish Trump a speedy recovery. I wish a speedy end to his suffering. Because the only thing I can imagine that is more horrible than having Donald Trump as President is BEING Donald Trump. Better luck next incarnation, baby!

P.S. I hear there's a NEW conspiracy theory coming down the pike. A very discerning woman has been trying to figure out why ONLY REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS ARE GETTING COVID-19! The answer is way obvious, don't you agree? There are NO DEPTHS to which the Democrats won't sink! (Is the grammar correct in that last sentence?)

Okay, so after Trump is gone, we still have to deal with the mass psychosis in this country.

Well, Bloggelinis, it's kinda scary and cathartic to write all this. But what's a Blogmistress to do? I hope you're down with it. But if not-- not!

Terry

October 2, 2020 SO GLAD HE'S GOT IT! & GOOD PEOPLE PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. Here's the link to the Google Doc so you can do some campaign work! Only 15 more days to write letters! SO GLAD HE'S GOT IT! I am so very very happy that Trump tested positive for Covid! Not that I want him to suffer! Oh no no no. I would never glory in the suffering of another human being, no matter how much evil he has done. (Oh, by the way, I've got a bridge I can sell you...) But I'm pretty sure that Der Toddler being positive is a positive thing for this country and in the end will lead to fewer Americans testing positive for the virus. This is because Der Toddler's continued refusal to mask, or to stop shaking hands, or to social distance WITHOUT catching Covid -- all of this was evidence to millions that the whole thing was fake news invented to trouble Trump's glorious Presidency. Now, admittedly, those incomprehensible Trumpers very well might STILL find reason not to believe that this dangerous virus exists. But then again, maybe they will finally surrender to the reality of wearing a mask. We shall see. Call me a starry-eyed optimist, but I cannot see how Trump getting Covid could be a bad thing for the future of civilization. It's just nice to get a bit of good news. GOOD PEOPLE This was the subject I was going to blog about before Carolyn told me about Trump's test. The New York Times has done a great job of creating portraits of the people battling Covid -- both the patients and the workers. The truth is that we human beings can feel more compassion for one person than for 200,000. We can be moved by one or two valiant front-line workers far more than a whole hospital-full. This week, the Times did a big article on Brooklyn Hospital Center. The photos were taken during the grueling first wave of the pandemic. The words are the people now looking back and reflecting on their experience. I chose three of the many moving stories to share with you. The interviews are by Victor J. Blue, Sheri Fink and Catrin Einhorn. Photographs are by Victor J. Blue.

ALEXIS GOMEZ PATIENT TRANSPORTER The first day that I went into that truck, I went home and cried for about two hours. I say I'm the cab driver inside the hospital. I move people by bed, stretcher or wheelchair. I knock on their door, introduce myself, and try to crack a joke or something so they could smile, because they're probably not having the best day if they're in the hospital. With Covid, I became a mortician at the same time as a transporter. The amount of bodies that we had to move -- it was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. My job would be to clock in, probably do one or two calls, and then get suited up to move about 15 bodies into a freezer truck, every single day. Dead weight is probably the heaviest thing that you could ever feel. The scary part is the next day, I was desensitized. I put my suit on. I sat down. I took a deep breath and just said, "Let's go." This was my time to be called to do this, you understand? I'm beyond proud.

t

MARIBEL SANCHEZ HOUSEKEEPER There was one day I cleaned ten beds, and from those ten beds, six patients died. I clean the beds when the patient leaves, transfers or suddenly passes away. I work for the I.C.U. units: Mop the floor, take out the garbage, pick up a little piece here and there, fill up the paper towels, the soap sanitizer and all that stuff. My favorite part of my job is cleaning the bed, because as soon as I begin a bed I think in my mind, one of my family could be there or it could be me, so I have to do it right, like no cut corners. The hardest part during the pandemic was cleaning all those beds and you know those patients didn't transfer, they died. It was hard for me because I never saw in one day so many people die.  I see life differently. it's short. You love your family more than before, because you don't know if you're going to see them again or not. My mother in Boston is 77 years old, and she has dementia. I want to see her before she forgets about everybody.

DR. VASAMTHA KONDAMUCI CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER You're right in the middle of the storm and you don't know whether you'll get to the other side. It was a very intense moment for me. You couldn't stop people from dying. Everything we were before is one story. Covid taught us. It taught me how to be a vulnerable leader and resilient. When the peak came I had to reassure my front line, I had to deal with them in the tent, in the emergency department, in the intensive care unit, talking to the nurses, talking to the doctors, making rounds when we didn't have enough P.P.E. We had to be very innovative. For a week we had to all wear garbage bags. The guidance changed every week. This pandemic, nobody knows anything. It's brand new for  everybody, for the entire world. Today is good for me. I can look back and say, "Really, did we go through that?" But in that time when that happened you needed to have a lot of strength and courage and hope and faith that you would get out of it.

Thanks to the NYT for sharing these beautiful stories and portraits with us. I will never forget Alexis the Transporter who said "I'm beyond proud." I will never forget Maribel the Housekeeper who never cuts corners when she cleans the bed. And I will never forget a whole hospital wearing garbage bags for a week.

Well, Bloggelinis, I have found out since I started this blog that many think Trump's positive test might not be true and is a ruse that he will use to his advantage. But I don't want to go there, I don't want to think about the possible uses he could make of this. I just want to be happy that he's sick with the virus he caused so many others to suffer and die from. So don't harsh my mellow, okay? Terry 

Sept. 30, 2020: Turn Off His Microphone -- Duh!

 

Subscribe to My Blog! September 30, 2020 TURN OFF HIS MICROPHONE-- DUH! PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. Here's the link to the Google Doc so you can do some campaign work! Only 17 more days to write letters! There is a very simple way to deal with time-and-space-hogging BULLIES in a debate: TURN OFF THEIR FUCKING MICROPHONE! As they say, it ain't rocket science. The organizers can make it a policy to only turn on a debater's mic when it is his turn to speak. That's it! When I ran for Mayor of San Francisco and spoke at so many forums, sometimes we were told that our mic would be turned off if we went over our allotted time. Not that we were ever uncivil. It is very easy to have a lively debate within the bounds of civility. But often candidates would try to go on longer than they were entitled to talk. Carolyn and I had planned to watch the debate in our separate flats and then get together on Zoom to discuss it. She phoned me very early on in that chaotic travesty and said she couldn't bear it and was turning off the TV. I'm sure I would have too, if I didn't feel a responsibility as Blogmistress to witness it all. I chose the photo above because it shows Biden speaking directly to the audience, which he did often and Trump never did. Biden was always very effective when he looked us in the eye, usually reminding us of what we already know about the difference between him and Trump. Yes, Biden stumbled and misspoke often. He was spirited and combative but not fluent. I wish he hadn't returned Trump's insults with his own insults. But how can I criticize what he did in this nightmarish situation, in which First Bully was going all-out to create chaos? Of course Trump lied lied lied lied, bringing up "scandals" that had evaporated long ago, like Bidden's son's activities in the Ukraine. What would have been the ideal response for Biden to give to Trump's insanity? I have an idea, having been in a similar situation years ago. Not that the stakes were quite as high as last night. I was performing WAITING FOR THE PODIATRIST at Venue 9 in San Francisco in 2003. When we were in the final stages of rehearsal, we were chortling over what a winner the play was going to be! Sometimes you know when you've got a hit on your hands. And sometimes you just THINK you've got a hit on your hands. For whatever reason, the audiences were miniscule. TINY! Very disheartening. What one does in situations like that is paper the house, which means giving away tickets to people who are unlikely to pay to attend -- and in this case that was anybody. Our producer chose to give away a block of tickets to the neighborhood halfway house for recovering drug addicts. I don't blame the halfway house residents who came. They were probably ordered to attend this play with puppets and songs about a middle-aged Jewish lesbian visiting the intensive care unit where the father puppet lies in a coma. It is possible they had never been to a play before and were unfamiliar with theatre etiquette, which requires one to sit in one's seat and SHUT UP. It turned out that -- despite the wonderfullness of this production, the wit, the charming songs, the pathos, the whatever -- these particular audience members were not thrilled with PODIATRIST, and they wanted me to know. It also turned out that they were homophobic AND antisemitic and wanted me to know that too. It was a horrible experience, both for me and the rest of the audience, as I kept grinding away through the performance. It's not a good thing for the audience to feel sorry, not for your character, but for YOU the performer. I also felt sorry for me and didn't know what to do except to soldier on until it was over. Unfortunately, there was an important critic in the audience that night, and her review reflected the dreariness of the experience, without mentioning the source of the dreariness. Sometimes you can't lose for losing. But all artists know that. ANYHOW, afterwards, I asked myself.. What could I have done differently? And I decided that I could have simply dropped my character and spoken directly to the troublemakers and asked/told them to leave -- which I'm certain they would have been thrilled to do. I would not have gone on with the play until they were gone. And then I could have graciously apologized to the remaining few denizens of those oh-so-many chairs and cheerfully returned to playing Alex, who had a very dicey relationship with the Mother puppet. I would have had to refuse to go on with the play while these audience members were misbehaving. That would have been the appropriate thing to do. And that's what Biden should have done. He should have said to that ludicrously wimpy moderator, "I'm sorry, but this is not a debate. This is (as one commentator described it) a brawl. If you cannot do something to control President Trump, we cannot continue." Sometimes the show SHOULD NOT go on. Not until some changes are instituted. But of COURSE I don't blame Biden for not thinking of that, just as I don't blame MYSELF for not thinking of stopping the show. Trump wasn't there to debate. He was out to psychology destroy Biden, to shred him. He did not succeed in that. For whatever the glitches were, I admire Joe Biden for refusing to be knocked over. ONE FOR YOU, JOE! TWO MORE TO GO!

Sept. 29, 2020: Election Volunteer Info & Linky Pleasures & A Photo

September 29, 2020 Get Out The Vote Info & Linky Pleasures & A Photo PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. GOTV INFO: HERE IS THE LINK TO A GOOGLE DOC WITH LOTS OF INFO ABOUT WHERE TO VOLUNTEER TO PHONE BANK OR WRITE LETTERS. SAVE THIS DOC TO YOUR DESKTOP: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_jOSEprNT-7_Y9WP9cxdbKRExW75UuCMO_aubW7TxH4/edit?usp=sharing PLEASE SEND ME MORE INFO ABOUT OTHER WAYS TO VOLUNTEER AND I'LL ADD IT TO THE DOC.

I wrote five letters so far today. That's really my favorite. I was downloading 20 letters at VOTE FORWARD, https://votefwd.org/. But that made me feel overwhelmed. You can also choose to just download five at a time, so that's what I'm doing right now. This is my basket of letters so far. Tonight is the debate. Of course we're all in a tizzy about it. Carolyn and I are going to Zoom afterwards, so we can talk about it together. I need that, good or bad, I need to talk.

I've been getting amazing responses to my last blog. It's interesting: The more I worry that I might have gone too far in being too personal, the more people respond to it. I would say that my secret power is that I know that I am ordinary -- that is, I know that every single thing I think and feel is also thought and felt by many others. I could say that I'm extra-ordinary, because I'm a bit of an exhibitionist and get pleasure in sharing those thoughts and feelings with a large public. I tell my own secrets with the deep-down security that they are everyone's secrets. I have to say that horrendous selfie I took makes me laugh hysterically every single time I look at it. Linky Pleasures A LINK TO RELAX & DELIGHT YOU: An amazing video, A Murmuration of Starlings. Thanks, Gail Lynch for this. A LINK TO MAKE YOU LAUGH: Andy Borowitz is a great -- and very succinct -- satirist with the Washington Post. You can subscribe to his column. This column is about Trump's concerns that Americans are taking over the elections. A LINK TO MAKE YOU THINK: Tara Ayres turned me on to this podcast, Our Plague Year, the thoughts and voice of one Joseph Fink. I had to make it through a rackety rap beginning before Whatever You Do Next made me sit up straight when Fink said, "If an 87-year-old woman dying of cancer puts us in this terrible position -- let's face it: We've been in this terrible position for quite a while." He said that our dearly beloved political system, by giving disproportionate political power to the rich few, is operating exactly as it was intended by the Founders. Oy vey! I see a People's Constitutional Convention in our future! We need to redo the whole things, folks! A LINK FOR LESBIANS: I'm not saying you're REQUIRED to be a lesbian to listen to Dykapella, The Gates of Heaven. But I think there's quite a lot of extra joy there for women of the dykely persuasion. I love the build to what should be a sapphic classic, "Sit on My Face." Again, thanks to Tara. A Photo

I saw "Sylvia Loves Eve" this morning at the local playground, where I went throw the ball for the pups. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. Maybe it was written by adults, and maybe it was written by young girls. Whoever wrote it saw no reason to hide the fact that two women/girls loved each other. Isn't it nice that such things can happen? I remember long ago when I was visiting my sister Nancy, and her four-year-old daughter Rose announced that she and her friend Lucy were going to get married when they grew up. Nancy's response? A very nonchalant "That's nice, dear."

Rose is 31 now, and didn't turn out to be a lesbian. But even then Nancy had no fear of it. Some things really have gotten better. Almost time for the debate, Bloggelinis! I'll write you again soon! Terry