Time for Change is here
So many people have vested interests in maintaining the status quo that change is difficult at best. Depending on the magnitude of the change, it can be nearly impossible. Take, for instance, America’s body politic before Trump.
Our government had, for all intents and purposes, ceased fulfilling its mission: the governing of its people. The interaction of its two warring factions had ground all progress to a halt. One side, in pursuit of equity and fairness, became mired in its own status quo and did not see what was happening. The threatening neoliberal economics, pursued by the other side, was intent on small government and less regulation.
A similar disfunction occurred in America during the 1920s, culminating with the stock market crash of 1929. The ensuing global economic ruin was so catastrophic, so completely shattering the status quo, its instability caused World War II. The election of FDR began 50 years of unprecedented progress of, by, and for the people of America. Rebuilding in the aftermath of WWII produced Europe today. Never, in the history of the world, has there been a time where the needs of the many outweighed the wants of a few.
The gridlock in our system has produced Trump, the epitome of unrestrained capitalism with utter disregard for wealth disparities. He is breaking our governmental status quo with a wrecking ball. Moneyed interests are crushing liberal ideals aimed at equality and inclusion. Momentous change, in America, is at hand.
Never let a crisis go to waste
No one knows exactly what lies before us. There is both hope and dread where we stand. In the 1900s, under the stress of egregious wealth, we economically wandered into disaster. This time great wealth is intentionally, knowingly, imploding the status quo while ignoring history’s tendency to repeat itself. We are heading toward economic catastrophe.
It took the forces of greed 5 decades to recover from their last debacle. The elections of Reagan and Thatcher started the neoliberal revolution culminating with Trump, Vought, and Project 2025.
The current wholesale destruction of the status quo may still avoid complete economic failure, if we manage to stop the Trump Regime in time. We prepare for the window of change and transformation that is at hand. If Trump is stopped before complete financial collapse, Europe will survive the destabilization emanating from us, and America can break away from the neoliberal economics that dominates us.
Unlike 100 years ago, we already possess monetary tools proven to work. These tools kept England from complete failure in WWI and provided the framework for governments in America and Europe that better meet the needs of the many. The successful economic policies of John Maynard Keynes can be summed up in one phrase: government must do what private enterprise will not.
Capitalism, by its nature, creates profitable ventures. It will not provide economic stability, will not stop inflation, will not stop boom and bust economic cycles, will not control market forces, will not provide equality of opportunity, will not deal with racism, will not care for those in need, will not employ everyone. Its single-minded focus on profit will not allow it.
This is what we must do
There is a singular solution for all the things capitalism will not do. FDR tried and failed to enact this. It has been successfully, but temporarily, tried by India and Argentina. It has been proposed as a solution many times, most recently by Pramila Jaypal in 2020. It is a solution that will beat back the forces of oligarchy and greed: A Federal Job Guarantee.
It is the road not taken like the one conceived by Robert Frost, published in August 1915.
It is time to embrace the ‘road not taken.’ It is time to make a difference. It is time for a Federal Job Guarantee.
Election 2024 is at hand
Last November I posted “The Visibility Initiative Project” that pointed out Hitler’s rise to power in Germany as the result of good people being silent and invisible. Since then, Donald Trump has threatened to corral immigrants in concentration camps like vermin and promised to be dictator on day one of a second term while denying he had read Mein Kampf, the source of these talking points.
As Trump supporters go about their daily lives, everywhere they look, they see only MAGA hats and shirts and yard signs. To them this confirms what they saw today on Fox News: They are the voting majority in the United States and election 2020 was stolen.
They are visible! Meanwhile, resistance to the rise of Hitlerian fascism in America remains invisible outside the media.
Democracy is on the Ballot…
A vote for any Republican is a vote for a Trump fascist government, a national abortion ban, and an end to progress on Climate Change. There will not be a box to select that says “democracy.” There will only be names of candidates and ballot initiatives. Choose wisely.
Being visible is a key part of not allowing us to slip into that authoritarian government. My site, BlueWavePolitcs, is one of a multitude of sites that can provide you with apparel and kitsch so you can be seen. Stand up. Stand out. Be visible.
New designs on my site can help you speak volumes without saying a word. In your everyday comings and goings people will notice and say they like your sweatshirt or tote bag. That idea will be planted. It will germinate and bear democratic fruit for the coming election!
Here are innovative designs that scream “democracy” now available on sweatshirts and tote bags:
There is a slim possibility that Democrats will make a clean sweep in November capturing both the Senate and House of Representatives… but not if we remain invisible!
If you have ideas for designs or would like to help with this project, contact me.
Men: who we are, what we have done… and women
Have you watched Tosh.0 on Comedy Central? Every episode starts with a person doing something incredibly stupid like trying to jump over a garage on a skateboard. The opening endeavor always goes sideways. Broken bones ensue. That person? Invariably male, never female. That says a lot about us men. We are aggressive, impulsive, strong, and fearless.
It is also indicative of how homo sapiens has arrived at this moment in time on this tiny blue marble on the outskirts of a remote galaxy. We live in complex houses, wear clothing, have built magnificent cities. We invented machines that fly and others that roll on the ground to get us from one place to another. Most things we need to survive are supplied by someone other than me… or you. Our fundamental needs are built, manufactured, and grown by other people, then traded globally, using something as imaginary as elves: money.
We humans read, write, and communicate with one another wirelessly around the globe. We have been to outer space, to the bottom of the ocean, and lifted our species out of the dirt to unimaginable heights. We are singular among the animal kingdom in the civilization we have created.
Although women and others have significantly contributed to the creation of civilization, it is the males of the species, skateboards in tow, who have driven us forward to where we are now. If you do not believe this, ask any man.
Before you abandon this essay as ‘just another misogynistic rant,’ consider where we really are. The water we drink and air we breathe is so polluted it kills 9 million of us annually. In our zeal to achieve, we have screwed up the climate for the entire planet. Weather events that once occurred every 100 years manifest somewhere annually wiping out another 5 million. By 2050 more than 25% of all species that exist today will become extinct. How long can we continue our current trajectory without joining them in oblivion? How hot does it have to get before someone with the proper codes loses his mind (yes, his) and ends climate change with a nuclear winter bang wiping out most of humanity?
We have named the present geologic age the Anthropocene. “Anthro” for man because we have changed this planet more than all the geologic events in the last 4 billion years… combined. We, homo sapiens, are the most destructive event this planet has experienced since life emerged.
If we men take credit for our present amazing existence, then, it is only fair that we bear responsibility for the rest of it as well. The question that begs asking is, “What lunatic put us in charge?” The answer is easy: we did. We just took over subjugating or eliminating any opposition.
We may have driven humanity to build this civilization, fuel it, and launch it to a great height, but now, we collectively are headed into the mouth of the abyss. Meanwhile the richest people on earth (men… again!) continue squabbling over who has the biggest rocket.
In a recent visit to celebrate my sister’s-in-law birthday, my wife, sister-in-law, a mutual female friend, and I were in her living room. They were discussing cataracts. I say they because I was not part of the conversation.
It occurred to me that being in the same room where a scintillating conversation is happening and being invisible is how we men have treated women throughout history unless they broke a dish, put too much salt in the stew, or the after-dinner coffee was not hot enough: as slaves or property.
While we, by male self-proclamation, have dubbed ourselves homo sapiens, chosen by God/selected by evolution as the be all and end all of the known universe, it is women who have given birth to and nurtured every human life on this planet.
This may come as a complete shock to some of you men, but women are at least as smart as we are, smarter. Marilyn von Savant is in the Guiness Book of World Records, with the highest IQ ever recorded. Where do you think calling someone a savant comes from? The contributions that women have made to our civilization are many. Without Florence Nightingale, there would be no sanitation in hospitals. Had not Dorothea Dix intervened, the mentally ill would still be in brutal, abusive asylums. Smallpox would still be killing millions annually without Mary Wortley Montagu’s bold experiments. Clara Barton started the American Red Cross. Harriet Tubman was freeing slaves 11 years before the Civil War. Susan B. Anthony, despite formidable male opposition, spearheaded the right to vote for women. In the face of while male opposition, Rosa Parks was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in America. Rachael Carson planted the seeds for Earth Day and our fight against climate change. These are but a few of the women that have moved us toward a more equal and just society. Please note there is not a ‘skateboard’ or ‘garage’ among their accomplishments.
There is only one animal on this planet that rivals homo sapiens for building civilization: ants. They have been farming, ranching, and making alcohol for over 100 million years without destroying the planet. They are, except to procreate, all females.
The female of our species cannot wreak as much havoc on our planet as men have. Isn’t it time they were in charge?
We, the Unchosen
We did not grow up to be the President. We did not become pro sports legends, movie stars or astronauts. We have not won Nobel Prizes. Those dreams of greatness faded with adulthood and responsibilities. We chose families and the work-a-day life. We are the Unchosen. We are America.
My father belonged to the Greatest Generation, the one that saved the world from totalitarian rule by defeating Hitler and the Nazis. World War II claimed the lives of 419,000 Americans (60 million worldwide). All but a sliver of those were also Unchosen.
The perilous threats we face today overshadow those of my father’s generation. The global cost of worsening Climate Change, in lives and property, continues to mount. American oligarchs like Charles Koch are lining the pockets of Trump Republicans to make certain their income streams are uninterrupted by mitigation measures. Other oligarchs, likewise, make similar investments to avoid being taxed, thereby, assuring government coffers are too empty to take effective action on this extinction level event that is climate change.
The conservative U.S. Supreme Court, having diminished women’s control over their own bodies, blunted government efforts to allay our climate crisis, reduced efforts to control deadly weapons, and opened a breach in the wall between church and state, are prepared to vacate rights to contraception and same sex marriage, while allowing wholesale discrimination against certain minorities.
A re-elected Trump would hold Putin and Xi in such high esteem that, one could easily imagine him ceding Ukraine to the Russians and gifting Taiwan to China in exchange for one-third of the world pie, the triumvirate of nuclear nations, crushing democracies and ousting tinhorn dictators around the world along the way.
In November of 2020, we, the Unchosen, manned the polling ramparts and turned out in record numbers to fight for our seat at the table. We carried the day and took our seat.
Again, the forces of darkness are amassing for the next battle, armed with legalities and loopholes meant to strike down as many of our voting numbers as possible, while scaring up more opposing voters with inflation, immigration, and socialism.
Whenever Trump endorsed candidates declare that the 2020 election was stolen, they are not promoting the Big Lie. They are sounding a dog whistle to publicly acknowledge their ongoing seditious conspiracy and commit to installing Trump or a protégé as President following election 2024, by whatever means necessary. If his candidates are elected this November, they will be poised to install their candidate regardless of the outcome at the polls. If they succeed, 2024 will be the last free election in America.
We must defeat them all, even if it means escalating the civil war that may have already begun.
If we are victorious in this November’s election, we will further advance the transformation that will save us all. If we persist, triumph after triumph in election after election, through the darkness in the decades to come, we will reach the dawn of that better day, a democratic America, having averted the climate catastrophe. We, the Unchosen, will be hailed as the Greatest Generations to have ever lived.
If we fail, there will be no one left alive to notice.
We, the Unchosen, are the only heroes we have. We the are the heroes we need! You may not be a Democrat. You may not like what the Democrats stand for, but this November, they, alone, stand between us and the abyss. Choose wisely.
Vote!