Bats in the Belfry

There was a definite scratching noise above our heads. It was in the attic, right above the bedroom. So, in February we called in a mouse and rat exterminator.

He climbed into the attic and looked around. No. No mice. No rats. We had bats. Bats in the attic.

He suggested a company that takes out bats since in NY there are laws. Only a certified person can take out bats. Bats are protected so they can’t be killed. Which is fine with me. I like bats. The two little guys who live in the barn do a great job of insect control on the summer. But bats in the house. Not so much.

So , after the covid subsided somewhat we called in the bat people. A three day job. As they explained it.

First, safely remove the bats. (As luck would have it the bats had already left, but the toxic droppings remained).

Second, remove all the bat droppings and all the insulation.

Fumigate to kill any residual bat remains.

Close up all the holes where the bats might have entered.

Replace the insulation with new insulation.

And then, voila, a bat free, toxic free attic.

We have bats in the attic of the nation. The Trump family bats. The Republican cowardly bats. Batshit crazy. Bat dangerous. And there is only one solution.

As of January 20 we will have removed the major infestation. It will be gone, hopefully never to return. But to make sure we need to do some more work. Because other bats remain.

We need to clean up the shit infested mess left by the bat family. Clean up and fumigate. Get rid of the mess. Throw it out. Take it to the dump.

We need to put down new insulation. Insulation against idiocy and alternative facts. Insulation from Fox and Newsmax. The insulation of science. A thick layer of science. The old insulation of science was stained and weakened by the bats. We need to renew.

Then we need to plug the holes. We need to close up the avenues by which batshit politicians can enter the house. Seal it up. Make it bat proof. But that depends on the voters.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have thrown out the bats. But the work is just beginning. Trump and his batshit family are still going to fly around and crawl back into the attic. His pack of batshit followers are still trying to dirty up the house. Where they can continue to do unseen damage to the house. Undermining democracy.

The bats need to be caged. Permanently. I don’t know how. But it needs to be done.

51 Elections

The Democrats are going upsy crazy over recent poll numbers. Everyone except GoGo the One Eyed Chimp is polling better than Donald Trump. Biden up by 10%. Warren up by 9%. Even Mayor Pete is up by 1%. So, this election is in the bag. Again.

Of course, the Democrats are best at shooting themselves in the foot. Perhaps that’s why they favor stricter gun control laws. Or may be they enjoy living in a fantasy land where the candidate with the most votes wins. In the USA, there is no such fantasy land. The candidate with the most votes does not always win.

Ask Al Gore. Ask Hillary Clinton. Better yet, ask the “geniuses” of the Democratic Party who gave such great advice to Gore and Clinton. The ones who told Gore to ignore his home state, which he lost, because it was in the bag. Or the ones who had Hillary traveling to Arizona, a solid red state, the last week before the election, instead of shoring up support in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The GOP figured it out years ago. They understood that grabbing control of state governments was the key. State governments could make voting laws. State governments could gerrymander the House districts. State governments could suppress the votes in certain areas. How? By limiting polling places. By setting up restrictions designed to disenfranchise minority and urban voters. Recall how Jeb Bush knocked thousands of voters off the voting rolls in 2000? He put his brother in office.

While the Dems were living in the Never Never Land of a the national popular vote election, the GOP understood that the election is not one election. It is 51 separate elections.

The GOP understood that the rules of the game are more important than any substance. On the national level they lose every argument. They lose every debate about policies. About foreign policy. About economics. But no matter. They control the rules of the game.

So, the Dems either need to understand the rules or once again be faced with a popular vote victory and an electoral vote defeat. They need political operatives who ignore the popular vote. Yes. IGNORE the national popular vote. It is meaningless.

Play the game by the rules that exist, not the rules you want to exist. The umpire determines where the strike zone is. The ref decides whether or not there was a foul. There is no videotape in politics. No slow motion replays. No mulligans.

There are probably 40-42 states that are already set as far as the electoral vote in concerned. Trump can do nothing to win NY or California. The Dems can do nothing to win Alabama or Mississippi or Kansas.

Have the Dems learned anything from the last two electoral defeats? We shall see. Focus on the states that are toss ups. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Michigan. North Carolina. Florida.

Play the game or lose again.

The Blue Wave?

In 2018 the American people had a choice. Stick with President Trump and the GOP or return the Dems to power. The results are in. Almost.

In some districts in NY and California they are still counting ballots. Many were submitted by mail and have yet to be tallied. It is taking  a while. And the Republic still stands.

Which is an aside. Why not just have all paper ballots? It takes a little longer to count, but so what. We have an election in early November and the new Congress takes office in early January. That is almost 60 days. Plenty of time .

Paper ballots are not subject to computer fraud or machine error. They cannot be hacked by the Russians or the Chinese. Large numbers of votes can’t be “accidentally” or intentionally switched. The safest, most reliable form of voting. But I digress.

The results of the 2018 elections:

Governors: 20 Republicans won; 16 Dems won. The GOP holds 27 states, mostly in the south and plains. The Dems hold 23, mostly in the far west, the upper Midwest and the east. More significant is that Alaska switched from the Independent to the GOP, while Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Maine switched from the GOP to Dems. 45 million voted for Dem governors while 42 million voted for GOP governors.

Senate: Dems won 21 seats plus 2 (Vermont and Maine) that caucus with the Dems. GOP won 11 seats. A final total of 23-11. On the Senate elections 55.6 million Americans voted Democratic, while 34.4 million voted GOP. Pretty decisive.

The House of Representatives: Dems won 234 seats, the GOP won 198 with three seats yet to be decided. The GOP leads in 2 (NY 27 and NC-9) while the Dems lead in 1 (CA-21). Total votes for GOP candidates was 49.6 million and for Dems was 56.1 million). Pretty decisive.

Two things are obvious. It was a major Democratic wave election  and the country is still rigidly divided as far as political party voting is concerned.

The people voted fairly decisively for Democratic candidates and Democratic  policies. Again. Mr Trump went around to a few states and did a good job of rallying his base (except in Montana). But the Democrats, without a true national leader, did a better job of speaking to the issues and getting out the vote. A lesson for future elections.

Voting Should Easy For All

I went to vote this morning at my very rural polling place. It was very easy.

At the polls were only 2 people other than my wife and I. Which is typical. Here in the rural areas it is very easy to vote. We actually chatted about our dogs with the poll worker, who also happens to be a vet. Also chatted with the other poll workers. No rush. No lines. No problem.

I have been voting since 1972. Usually in small towns and rural areas. I have never had to wait more than 15 minutes or so. And even that wait time has been rare. The polls are open from 6 AM to 9 PM. Plenty of time to vote.

So, it is somewhat disturbing to see areas of the country where lines are long. Where citizens have to wait for hours to take part in democracy. Where polls are sometimes intentionally place in difficult to reach areas , as in the Dodge City, Kansas case this year. Voting should be easy.

In some of these cases the Republican party, which runs the state elections, intentionally seeks to keep urban dwellers from voting. Why? Because urban dwellers are statistically more likely to vote for liberals. As are young people. Which is why some states try to prevent college students from voting. It makes sense if you don’t believe in democracy

In Kentucky the polls close at 6 PM. 6PM !! Doesn’t that prevent many working people from getting to the polls, especially single mothers and single fathers. If you don’t want working people to vote, that makes sense.

In North Dakota the Republican state leadership has intentionally tried to prevent Native Americans from voting. They passed a voter ID law that requires a specific address. Even though the Native Americans on reservations do not have specific addresses and use PO Boxes instead. Why? They tend to vote liberal. I mean, how can anyone claim that NATIVE AMERICANS , of all people, are ILLEGAL immigrants who don’t live in the USA? LOL

It makes sense if you do not believe in democracy.

It makes sense if you don’t want the people to decide who leads them.

We should have a voting holiday. Like so many other holidays, voting day should be a national holiday. A tribute to democracy. We should have a national voter ID that gets sent to every citizen when they reach the age of 18. A specific, unique number, like your social security number. Free of charge.

You don’t have to register to go to church. You don’t have to register to write a letter to a newspaper or write a blog. Or to assemble to ask for a change in a law. There is no national (or in some states any) registration to own a gun. Why not? Because these are your rights.  But the powers that control the various states demand a special, sometimes complicated processes to allow you to exercise another right. The right to vote.

Until the roadblocks to voting are pulled down we will continue to have a government elected by a minority. Which tells me that those who power do not really believe in democracy.

Trump Wins Popular Vote !!!

It is now official.

Donald Trump has won not only the votes of the electoral college, but the popular vote as well.

I know this because the president-elect himself has tweeted it.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Over 3,000,000  illegal aliens voted for  Hillary Clinton, giving her the 2,500,000 lead in popular vote totals with 500,000 voted to spare. It is simple math. All you do is subtract the 3,000,000 illegal votes and VOILA! Trump  wins the popular vote ! Any third grader can do  the math.

Despite the fact that there is no evidence. Anywhere. None. Zilch. No evidence that any illegals voted,  we know now that over 3,000,000 DID,  in fact,  vote.  But we don’t need evidence. Facts are not the issue. The issue is tweets. And we have tweets!

So now we know that  3,000,000 illegals voted and we know exactly who they voted for! Hillary. Hillary lost.. A loser.  Trump is a winner. BIG TIME !

So, we can put to rest any illusions that 2,500,000  more Americans supported Hillary Clinton than supported Donald Trump.  REAL Americans voted for Trump. Illegals voted for Hillary. The tweet is clear. The tweet is all we need.

We don’t need evidence, we have the tweet of the Donald. He won. People LOVED him.  He is the “bestest” president-elect ever president -elected. He tweets it, so it must be true.

Next tweet: How Donald won the Vietnam War.  I can’t wait !

 

The Trump Scream

Edvard Munch created  a painting in 1893. A strange painting. A powerful painting. Titled “The Scream”.

 

http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collections_and_research/our_collections/edvard_munch_in_the_national_museum/The+Scream,+1893.b7C_wljU1a.ips

This painting depicts how I feel whenever I think of the possibility. The remote possibility that Donald Trump could actually be President of the United States.

I would not suggest that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, is perfect. Far from it.She is flawed. Anyone who has been in public life for over 30 years is going to make a lot of mistakes. Unless the person sits on their butt, does nothing, and gets re-elected. But those who want to change things will create enemies. And make mistakes.

But no matter how flawed Clinton might be, she has actually done the work. As First Lady.  As Senator. As Secretary of State. To paraphrase from the musical “Hamilton”…”She has been in the room where it happens. Where decisions are taken. Where the sausage is made.”

Then I look at the “career” of Donald Trump. Given a few million. Blew it. Bankruptcy. Bankruptcy. Bankruptcy. Bankruptcy. Loans from Russian oligarchs.Tax dodger. TV personality. Blatant liar. Racist. Nativist. Anti-Muslim. Misogynistic. Crude. Vulgar. Shallow. As Bloomberg, the former millionaire mayor of NY said at the convention: “I  am from New York and I know a conman when I see one”. So am I and so do I.

I feel like the non-gender specific person in the painting. Horror and wonder. Disbelief. Astonishment.

Horror at Trump, to be sure. But also horror at the 39-42% of the American people who plan to vote for him. The wonder that so many of my fellow citizens are either racist, or nativist, easily conned or just not paying attention.

Over 14,000,000 Republicans voted for a man who regularly and gleefully insulted other Republican candidates. “Little Marco”Rubio, . “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz,  Jeb Bush “the loser”, Kasich’s eating habits  are “disgusting”, Carly Fiorina “look at that face”, Carson cannot be “cured”, Rand Paul as a genetically defective son of Ron, Lindsey Graham is “one of the dumbest human beings” and so on and so on.

And that was just his fellow Republicans. The list is too long to for this essay.

14,000,000 Republicans said, with their votes, that this crude, vulgar conman should be President of the United States.

And in November, millions more will go into voting booths from Maine to Iowa to California to Hawaii and cast a ballot for Donald Trump. Millions. They would put the nuclear capacity of the US in his hands. They would put diplomacy in his hands.  They would put the power of the executive branch is the hands of a pathological liar and practiced conman.

When I look at the Munch painting I feel as though I am in it. Win or lose. It is not Donald Trump that causes me to scream. Win or lose.  It is not really the idea of a Trump president that causes me to scream. After all, we have seen his type of conman before.

It is the millions of Americans who will vote for this guy.Millions of Americans who will consciously choose to select this man as their leader. Someone  for their kids to “look up to”. The millionaire conman  who they think will help them.

Millions will vote for him.Let that sink in.

Now that is a reason to scream. AAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Here’s an Idea…Let Citizens Vote !

There have been a slew of voter suppression laws in many GOP held states since the last election.  While on the surface many of these laws seem to be innocuous enough, the devil is always in the details.  Behind this attempt at disenfranchisement is the myth that millions of illegals are somehow managing to vote, and they all vote Democratic. Oh well. Sigh.

The reforms sound reasonable enough. Take Kansas, for example. The new law (in force since 2013) says that in order to vote you must have proof of citizenship.  A photo ID.  But that does cost money. And the list of acceptable documents needed to obtain the proper ID all cost money. The state website says that you can apply for a FREE birth certificate…uh…except it costs $15 to apply for the FREE birth certificate.  Tantamount to a poll tax.  If you want to vote, you pay. And lost in the details (remember  that is where the “devil” resides) is an interesting clause.

In Kansas folks who have voted in the past do NOT need new ID. Nor do they need to prove  US citizenship !  What ? Yes. The Kansas law seems to apply ONLY to new voters. Those registered before January 1, 2013 do not have to comply. But…if there has been wide scale voter fraud in Kansas (the purpose for the law) doesn’t that mean that voters “in the past” have been illegal ? Let the ILLEGAL voters continue to vote ?  Defies logic. But it makes sense if your goal is to suppress a certain segment of the population from voting. Young voters.  New voters. Poor voters.  Groups which tend to lean Democratic. Reminiscent of the very effective “grandfather clause” of the old south.

Other states, like Ohio, have changed their voting laws to make it more difficult for working people to vote. Actually, Ohio has pretty good laws. They allow early voting.  And voting on weekends right before the election. Very popular. Especially with working folks. And voting in the evenings the weeks before the election. This allows working folks a chance to get to the polls. Well, it did. But they discovered that African-American voters (largely Democratic) voted early and on Sunday. And since the working poor had jobs, the evening voting was attractive to them. Not good for the GOP.  This year the Ohio GOP government changed those voting times. Too many working people being able to make it to the polls has never been good for the GOP.

And Florida has made registering new voters much more difficult by ,for the first time, establishing very strict time restrictions on the process.
Just three examples, there are more.

All the while, these GOP controlled state governments insist that they want citizens to have the right to vote.  They WANT citizens to vote. They want all citizens to be part of the process.

OK. Let’s call their bluff. Let’s see if the GOP would join us in the following solutions.

First. Every person should be given a free national ID voter/citizenship card at the age of 18. Can’t do it? Of course we can.  Every male in the US is obligated to register for Selective Service upon reaching the age of 18.  Each one is sent proof of registration. They are put in the system. They are identified. A similar system could be used to register every male and female as voters. You get a card. Like a Social Security card. It proves you have the right to vote. You present the card at your polling place. Only citizens get these cards. End of problem.

Second. Mandate that any other forms of ID required to vote must be free. No application fees. Free. If any state requires ID beyond the Voter registration card the state must provide those forms of ID  for nothing.

Third. Voter week. Every state will open voting for one full week , ending on Tuesday, election day. And each state will provide polls to be open until 9 PM each day of the voting week. This will make it easier for citizens to vote. Make it easier for the working class to vote. Something the GOP SAYS it wants to do.

Fourth. Any illegal immigrant attempting to vote will face immediate deportation.

Fifth. The voter tax rebate. Every citizen who votes in the national election will be given a tax rebate of $100. Just send it in with your next year’s tax return. A reward for good citizenship.

I am sure there are other, better ideas for encouraging voting. Maybe a national voter registration week ? Or making Election Day itself a national holiday?

If the GOP is serious about citizens voting there are plenty of ways to encourage that. Of course, if EVERYBODY votes, the GOP has real political problems. And they know it.

So, despite the posturing about “citizens” and “waving the flag” and “honoring America”,  don’t expect any action soon from the GOP.  Do expect voter suppression laws to continue to become more focused and more restrictive. Otherwise it would look too much like they were encouraging democracy. And we all know where that will lead.