tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362745132024-03-17T00:59:07.910-07:00The Red ElectricFrom 1915 to 1928, the interurban Red Electric train passed through Hillsdale, now part of Portland. The trip offered a chance for passengers to share their views. My Red Electric blog is a vehicle for web travelers to do the same.Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.comBlogger1299125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-24366708829617910902018-07-23T15:21:00.000-07:002018-07-23T15:21:23.324-07:00The risk to our security resides in the White House<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If anyone should have his security clearance lifted, it is Donald Trump.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Who in America's intelligence community can trust what might happen to highly classified information passed on to Trump?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Where do Trump's true loyalties lie? Do they extend beyond his own all-consuming ego??</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is he a captive of Putin and Russia's own intelligence apparatus?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">His behavior and mounting evidence point to the answers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">No, the Trump Oval Office should be quarantined as off-limits to US intelligence findings.</span><br />
<br />
<br />Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-77500041877913567812018-01-30T19:59:00.001-08:002018-01-31T04:35:22.861-08:00Titrating Trump<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I, like a multitude of others, chose not to watch tonight’s State of the Union address.<br /><br />Mine wasn’t a political protest as it was for many. Donald Trump, I have concluded, is not good for my health. To put it bluntly he literally makes me sick.<br /><br />And if he so unsettles me — and I’m pretty healthy — what does he do to thousands of others who are less healthy?<br /><br />I can still handle reading about him. I’m even OK with seeing his words in print, as disgusting and deceitful as they usually are. But if they — or he — get to be too much, I just avert my eyes, say a small prayer, take in the beauty of my surroundings or give thanks for the goodness in the world.<br /><br />A mental health counsellor I know says that I have learned to “<a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/titrate">titrate</a>” Trump. I'm told this is good. I take him in very, very small increments — drop by drop — until ... well, until I can’t tolerate any more.<br /><br />I tune him out if I feel my blood pressure rising ... if I begin to react with anger at the disgust ... if I’m creeping up on wanting to throw something at his televised image.<br /><br />Still photos of him even set me off.<br /><br />This man is not just divisive, he’s sickening. A poison. He’s a poisonous and poisoning president.<br /><br />And lest we forget, he is sickening even to himself. And that sets off another kind of sickness — melancholia, a sadness — for him.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-71105925867791856602017-06-17T07:53:00.000-07:002017-06-17T18:31:35.141-07:00Trump and the Apocalypse<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">From the beginning, the biggest problem with Donald Trump has been his deranged psychological state. <br /><br />As numerous psychologists will tell you, Trump is a textbook malignant narcissist.<br /><br />As noted repeatedly, but not enough, Trump’s existence is devoted to Trump, period.<br /><br />Trump suffers (and he clearly DOES suffer) from “narcissistic personality disorder” or NPD.<br /><br />Here are the manifestations of NPD. Judge for yourself whether they apply to Donald Trump:<br /><br />• a grandiose sense of self-importance<br />• a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love<br />• a belief in one’s specialness or uniqueness such that one can only be understood by associating with others of unique high status<br />• excessive self-admiration – arrogance and utter lack of humility.<br />• a sense of entitlement<br />• an exploitative personality <br />• a lack of empathy and unwillingness to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.<br /><br />Since he arrived in the White House, Trump as become even more obsessed with self. As he becomes threatened by his own frantic undoing and hubris, he grows ever more defensive, deceptive, unstable and angry. Growing paranoia is likely in the mix.<br /><br /> His response is to lash out at not only his perceived “enemies," but those around him, those who don’t bow and scrape before him.<br /><br />And so we anticipate more firings to come.<br /><br />If it weren’t for his fragile mental health, we might survive the demise of a merely incompetent Donald Trump. But with a deranged president faced with defeat and public humiliation, we are threatened with his power to take us all down in a fit of madness.<br /><br />And by “us” I mean humanity.<br /><br />Think no further than a mad man (in both senses of the word) who has a doomsday nuclear arsenal at his disposal.<br /><br />We can only hope that sane minds in the nation’s capital are thinking along these same lines. <br /><br />How could they NOT be?<br /><br />Trump, in a lesser, but still dangerous, scenario of madness and anger, could brandish presidential threats to protect his all-consuming ego by holding hostage the rule of law.<br /><br />We have yet to learn whether last year his arrogance played a direct role in undermining our elections.<br /><br />Some weeks back I wrote eight Republican senators who have been identified as possibly willing to put the nation (and humanity) before their partisan interests. I asked that they initiate the removal of Trump from office on the grounds of his mental instability.<br /><br />Only John McCain responded. His short letter was largely political boiler-plate that, predictably, avoided the question of Trump’s mental health.<br /><br />Since then, the president’s behavior has become all the more ominous.<br /><br />It is not alarmist to say that a mentally unstable Donald Trump is a threat to humankind. It’s time for Republicans and Democrats, for those closest to the president, for his family, for all of us, to insist on and force his resignation or impeachment.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-85979520622349810022017-04-14T12:01:00.002-07:002017-04-14T12:01:45.119-07:00MOAB hits home — mine and yours<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Just to make the power of the GBU-43, aka “Mother of All Bombs,” up close and personal…<br /><br />Dropped on our Portland neighborhood of HIllsdale, with 8,000 residents, the bomb obliterates every man, woman and child and all structures.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It would leave behind a wasteland.<br /><br />If this is “conventional,” as in “conventional weapon,” we better rethink our conventions…fast.<br /><br />A few other results from a search of the web. Two miles from where the bomb hits here in Southwest Portland, victims could be rendered deaf.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That takes us from Hillsdale to the Willamette River to the east, and to the Portland-Beaverton border to the west.<br /><br />For several miles beyond that victims may suffer bleeding ears, to say nothing of trauma and the loss of family and friends.<br /><br />Five miles away from the blast, the ground would shake and windows be broken. Question: Could this bomb trigger a massive earthquake?<br /><br />Then there is the fiscal damage already being inflicted by the development and construction of this bomb. Each MOAB costs $16 million. That doesn’t include the cost of the planes needed to drop it.<br /><br />To put that number in perspective, Portland Public Schools estimates its budget shortfall for next year to be $18 million, resulting in a projected loss of 70 teachers.<br /><br />And what are the consequences of accepting the use of this weapon as “acceptable." The military-industrial complex, and our power-mad president, have at the ready so-call “tactical nuclear weapons.”</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Russian, by the way, has a similar "conventional" bomb, and we know about the nuclear weaponry of North Korea, whose leader is as unpredictable and crazed as Donald Trump.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-76548642049395073012017-03-29T08:35:00.000-07:002017-04-02T22:09:08.054-07:00Breaking News! The Pilgrims were undocumented aliens!<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Just a heads up.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Pilgrims were undocumented aliens.</span><br /><br />So were all the colonists. The very idea of a colony was alien. So too, property ownership.<br /><br />We might add to the list of “illegals,” all the Europeans who “settled” in the Americas bringing with them disease and violence.<br /><br />Most of us are the descendants of those undocumented intruders. What does that make us?<br /><br />When I recently shared this slice of history with a friend, he noted that all human beings who came to these American continents were undocumented aliens, including the “native people” who originated in Asia and, prior to that, in Africa.<br /><br />So when the “native people” arrived here, did anyone check in with the buffalo?<br /><br />And so it goes.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-81662907098542018572017-02-24T10:54:00.000-08:002017-02-24T10:54:32.599-08:00My Birthday Wish in a Time of Crisis<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was born 75 years ago on this date. Two and a half months before my birth, on Dec. 8, 1941, the President of the United States declared war, and my father enlisted to fight in it<br /><br />He became a flight surgeon on B-29s bombing Japanese targets is China.<br /><br />Among his duties was salvaging the charred remains of his buddies after their battered “Super-Fortresses” crash landed on their home runways. He watched as the planes exploded, burned and consumed his friends.<br /><br />Back in the States, I was a toddler, the approximate age of three of my four grandchildren today.<br /><br />Many years later, my mother told me my father came home from war “a different man.” “Not the man I married,” she said. Only on rare occasions did I see the man I presume she fell in love with.<br /><br />Today, the President of the United States has declared war on me, a journalist and a former teacher of journalism. He has declared me, my former students and my colleagues the “enemy of the American people.”<br /><br />He has also, in effect, declared war on millions of others far more vulnerable than we are.<br /><br />The battles in this war are already changing me … and you. We are already witnessing the flaming, hate-filled wreckage of his deeds.<br /><br />My own engagement certainly is not and will not be as an “enemy of the American people.” I seek to be the “enemy” of no fellow human, but I will fervently oppose the nefarious deeds of this deranged president.<br /><br />My father came home from war embittered and hardened. There are already days when I myself feel consumed by bitterness and even hatred. I must not surrender to these feelings if I am to help create a world of peace for my grandchildren.<br /><br />Today these children know me as the old man who reads and sings to them, who pushes their swings in the park and holds their hands firmly as we cross the street.<br /><br />I want to remain that man even as I fight to secure a future of promise for them, this nation and this planet.<br /><br />I want these and other children to remember me — and us — for hope and change, for joy and love.<br /><br />This is my birthday wish.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-75952962032738737332017-02-18T16:37:00.001-08:002017-02-26T07:51:25.333-08:00‘Enemy of the People’ wants to meet with Trump’s ‘finely tuned machine’<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At his press conference on Thursday, President Trump made two assertions. I want to test both.<br /><br />Assertion 1 was that my fellow journalists and I are “enemies of the people.”<br /><br />Assertion 2 was that his administration is running like a “finely tuned machine.”<br /><br />If the president believes that I am an enemy to the American people, I demand that his “finely tuned machine” immediately arrest me before I cause any irreparable damage to the my fellow Americans.<br /><br />If I am not arrested, or at least questioned, in the next week, perhaps some representative in the president’s finely tuned machine can tell me were I can turn myself in so that “the people” will be safe again.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mr. President, I look forward to talking with one of your representatives<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> about my allegedly criminal behavior.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will pack my toothbrush.<br /><br />If nothing happens in the next week, I will assume that both assertions are lies, and that, accordingly, the real enemy of the people is you, Mr. President<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">.<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> In which case, I demand that you turn yourself in<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Frankly, I'd settle for a simple </span>resignation.</span></span></span></span></span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-47643032234855514092017-02-13T14:51:00.003-08:002017-02-13T14:51:54.687-08:00Trump: Our Homework Assignment<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You can credit the President Trump for one thing: He's put us back to work...fighting him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If only we could bill the billionaire bilker and his plutocrat friends for our labors.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Unfortunately, we are paying taxes to him (He-who-does-not-pay)...and them. April 15 will be its own "Day of Infamy."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We should be sending the Trump and the plutocrats a bill in the form of steeply progressive taxes to correct the shameful inequality that is to blame for so many of our problems.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here in our part of Portland, a rapidly growing volunteer group has set out to help maintain stability in our public schools. There, thousands of immigrant and minority students (and their families) are vulnerable to Federal arrest, possible deportation and/or worse.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I fear we are but one terrorist attack, or Bannon-inspired agent provocateur attack, away Armageddon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Meanwhile, back in the world of the old "normalcy," these same students are expected to put fear aside and do their own work: Homework.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the new Trumpian world, we have our own "homework" to do. Our "home" is a shambles. Frankly, it has been for years. We have been grossly neglectful.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A reminder: when were you ever paid for homework? The price you pay is for not doing it or doing it poorly.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And the payment for cleaning our house of Trump and his ilk, is called FREEDOM. The price, as always, is sacrifice.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-8410943386424960122017-01-24T17:24:00.000-08:002017-01-24T17:24:09.310-08:00Trump's delusions are non-partisan grounds for impeaching him.<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today I concluded that the <u>only</u> way we can avoid catastrophe here and abroad is to impeach Donald Trump on the grounds that he is unfit for the office of the presidency.<br /><br />This is not a partisan issue. Forget Trump's conflicts of interests etc.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And forget your own worthy causes, even the ones Trump supports.<br /><br />Trump's unfitness is caused by mental illness, plain and simple. He is, in a word, delusional (to say nothing of being a pathological narcissist, sexual predator and liar).<br /><br />His delusions have spread to his enabling closest advisers, whose moral immune systems have been suppressed by their own lust for power.<br /><br />I wish I could say this were a metaphor, but it is literally true, Alas, there are no Trumpian “alternative” truths. Ask any mental health professional.<br /><br />Regardless of where we stand on the issues, we have a patriotic duty to be laser focused on impeaching a President dangerously unfit for office by virtue of his mental illness.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-88888172879185068722017-01-08T07:55:00.001-08:002017-01-08T07:55:42.087-08:00My quest for sane adults in Congress<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In this time of national need, I have recently embarked on a search for sane adults in Congress.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The logical place to look seemed to be among the dozens of Congressional caucuses.<br /><br />In particular I was looking for a few legislators devoted to adult, sane, non-partisan behavior.<br /><br />The Senate, I have learned, has no caucuses at all. In the upper house, gatherings of like-minded solons are called “coalitions.”<br /><br />So let’s mine the lode of caucuses in the “People’s Chamber” in our quest for sane adult nuggets.<br /><br />The Wikipedia entries were instructive but not particularly reassuring. Vis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucuses_of_the_United_States_Congress<br /><br />There were the predictable “single-issue” caucuses. So we have “The Atlantic Offshore Energy Caucus,” and the “Carbonated and Non-alcoholic Caucus,” the “Direct Selling Caucus,” the “Electromagnetic Caucus,” the “Cut Flower Caucus” and the “Hockey Caucus.” There’s even a “Baby Caucus,” which is bracketed alphabetically by the “Azerbaijan Caucus” and the “Bangladesh Caucus,” which itself is followed “The Baseball Caucus” and “The Battlefield Caucus.”<br /><br />As Dave Barry would say, I am NOT making this up.<br /><br />If this swarm of caucuses are anything more than accounts for campaign contributions. it’s a wonder that Congress gets anything done at all.<br /><br />Here’s the closest I could come to a caucus for adult sanity:<br /><br />Congress has three mental health caucuses. The generic “Mental Health Caucus,” the “Men’s Mental Health Caucus” (particularly useful in weighing Trump cabinet nominees and Trump himself) and the “Military Mental Health Caucus” (also known to insensitive, politically incorrect wags as the “Catch-22 Caucus.”)<br /><br />There is also the timely “Sexual Assault Prevention Caucus” and the “Caucus to End Bullying.” In a just, sane and adult world, much needed presidential impeachment initiatives would emerge from these groups.<br /><br />Other promising groups are the “Problem Solvers Caucus” “the Peacekeeping Caucus,” “the Innovation and Human Condition Caucus,” (“innovative” hacking alert!} and, the “Invasive Species Caucus” including, one would hope, invasive species of the human kind.<br /><br />One obvious problem exposed by my research is a lack of focus. Accordingly I’m recommending an emergency consolidation of some of these groups into the “Sane, adult legislators caucus.”<br /><br />I predict it will be a small group, but you have to begin somewhere — and FAST!</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-59938229393789304402017-01-07T16:40:00.000-08:002017-01-07T16:42:30.342-08:00Was Trump involved in Russian hacking?<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The news of the last week has been dominated by Russia and Putin’s influencing the presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.<br /><br />The news all seems to be about Putin, Russian intelligence and collaborating pro-russian trolls.<br /><br />But very little has been said about Trump himself. Was Russia’s support of Trump part of a two-way deal? Does Putin’s animosity for Hillary Clinton fully explain why the he would devote so many resources on behalf of Trump?<br /><br />Who is the “Hillary” in Germany and France, where the Russians are using the same methods of deception and hacking? Are there quid pro quos between the insurgent right-wing leaders and the Russians?<br /><br />What’s needed from the US intelligence community and the Senate hearings are answers regarding Trump’s own possible direct involvement and cooperation with Putin and his regime.<br /><br />Beyond possible political manipulations is still another world worth investigating — the criminal underworld is rife in Russia.<br /><br />Does Trump have US and possibly Russian links to organized crime? One doesn’t conduct business on a Trumpian scale without dealing with underworld forces wherever they might be…and Trump’s involvements span the globe.<br /><br />In Friday’s Washington Post, opinion writer Kathleen Parker made a start to prying open some of the unanswered and politically incorrect questions.<br /><br />Under the headline reading, “If Obama is a Muslim, is Trump a Russian Spy?” she raises the question of whether Trump himself could be a treasonous spy and concludes: “…when the president-elect persists in a state of denial, siding with the enemy against his own country’s best interests, one is forced to consider that Trump himself poses a threat to national security…In Russia, they’d just call it treason.”<br /><br />A side note: I’ve often thought that Trump’s trademark red caps should really read: “Trump. Make RUSSIA great again!” because that seems to be where his presidency is headed. Another version might carry the words: “Trump: From Russia with Love!”</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-47508804886547881232016-12-13T08:36:00.000-08:002016-12-13T08:36:14.112-08:00Trump's 'Gifts' to America could spell impeachment<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One great “gift” that Donald Trump has given "We the People" forces us to break the mold on how we think about political divisions in this country.<br /><br />In the weeks ahead we will forget Republicans and Democrats and the seemingly rigid divide between the two, particularly in Congress.<br /><br />We will forget Liberals and Conservatives.<br /><br />And yes, with time, we will even be able to put aside “Red” and “Blue” states.<br /><br />The last to fall will be our growing class, racial and educational divisions although our history tells us that those will be a long, long time coming.<br /><br />(Note in passing: we have already forgotten Hillary Clinton. That clears the air and leaves Trump to be judged free of Clinton baggage and fake news “distractions.” )<br /><br />So what will end these divisions?<br /><br />Two words: Donald Trump — but not in the dictatorial way he would imagine.<br /><br />The answer to the question brings us to Trump’s greatest gift. The realignment is going to be over the values of Trump (if they can be called that) versus the bed-rock values of the large majority of Americans.<br /><br />Trump and initially his Russian friends are forcing us to rediscover and defend our values.<br /><br />Welcome to a world divided into pro-Trump versus pro-democracy. Pro-dictatorship versus Pro-Freedom.<br /><br />And finally: Pro-Lies and pro-Truth.<br /><br />The first place the divide will become obvious will be in the confirmation hearings in the Senate. The Senate is packed with people with very large egos who have been deeply and personally offended by the President-elect. One does not forget insults to one’s military service, to one’s wife or father or the size of one’s privates.<br /><br />Those senators, all of them Republicans, have not forgotten.<br /><br />And so we have Lindsay Graham and John McCain stepping up. Can Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio be far behind? If they and a few of others join in, initially on concerns about national security and Russian subterfuge, we suddenly have an anti-Trump majority in the Senate.<br /><br />Knowing Trump, he will proceed with further ad hominem attacks. Expect the anti-Trump Senate majority to grow and solidify, possibly killing the whole Trump agenda and rejecting virtually all of his cabinet nominees.<br /><br />That will only infuriate the self-obsessed Trump more. He will dig his hole deeper and deeper.<br /><br />Did anyone say “Impeachment”?</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-59412579341242077862016-12-06T16:31:00.000-08:002016-12-07T22:00:35.277-08:00Trump, Postman, Orwell and Huxley<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the introduction to Neil Postman’s classic “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” the author draws several distinctions between the dystopia of George Orwell in “1984” and that of Aldous Huxley in “Brave New World.”<br /><br />As Postman described it, Orwell’s vision was of an oppressive dictatorial mind control that “flipped” human values. Vis. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”<br /><br />Huxley, on the other hand, described a world in which we ourselves choose to escape through drug-induced fantasies. “…most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”<br /><br />On the status of truth, Postman wrote: “Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”<br /><br />There’s more that Postman contrasted and it’s well worth reading, but at the end of his introduction, he concluded: “This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”<br /><br />Looking at the 2016 election and the on-going Trumpian transition to power, I conclude that both Huxley and Orwell were right…but there is much, much more going on.<br /><br />Certainly Orwell’s fear of truth being concealed from us is true and has been throughout our history. But, likewise, as Huxley predicted, truth has become “drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”<br /><br />Indeed truth itself seems irrelevant, not because it is concealed, but because what passes as truth is fabricated and, even after being unmasked, still manages to retain its power.<br /><br />So we have “fake news.” We are dizzily forced to tease reality from “reality.” Fact from fiction. If we have the time or inclination for it….<br /><br />The consequences are clear and dangerous beyond the results of the election.<br /><br />Yesterday’s news of the armed “self-investigator” set upon threatening a pizza parlor is a case in point. The pizza establishment had been falsely portrayed by trolls as being at the center of child sex ring operated by none other than Hillary Clinton. The gunman bought the lie.<br /><br />Such rampant lies result from financial as well as political incentives.<br /><br />Witness the entertainment business. Entertainment, much of it violent and outlandish, is richly rewarding. That has been true for decades, but, amplified by new technologies, it has escalated in brutality.<br /><br />Society and civility are far the worse for it.<br /><br />And so we have the president of CBS, Les Moonves, confessing during Trump’s profane, violence-prompting, news cycle-grabbing campaign. "It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”<br /><br />Solitary trolls have made small fortunes concocting “fake news” (ie. lies) to attract internet “clicks” and hence money on Facebook and other sites.<br /><br />In such an amoral environment, lying overwhelms truth in the marketplace of “ideas.”<br /><br />Just as “truth will set us free,” today’s rewards <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for</span> lying have doomed us to enslavement.<br /><br />So who was right? Huxley or Orwell?<br /><br />While I wouldn’t wish our predicament upon Postman (who died in 2003), Orwell or Huxley, I yearn to put the question to them.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-5052980421850557402016-11-12T13:22:00.000-08:002016-11-12T14:41:47.947-08:00Needed: An Administration of National Unity<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Given the close results of the 2016 presidential election, in which the president-elect won the electoral college but lost the popular vote, We the People desperately need an “Administration of National Unity.”<br /><br />President-elect Trump should appoint an administration that reflects a range of views and is dedicated to finding common ground and unifying the country.<br /><br />The administration should coalesce around the reasons people voted for the president-elect. It should also address the reasons the popular majority voted against him.<br /><br />Those who voted against him did so primarily because of his public personality, statements and behavior and because of his unpredictability, seeming instability and blatant disregard for the truth.<br /><br />Others <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ignored</span> the president-elect's personal weaknesses and voted FOR him primarily because of his pledge to strengthen the economy — an economy that has left them desperate for change.<br /><br />It should be noted that the Democratic Party’s candidates throughout the primaries all sought the same goal of economic growth and job creation. Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure was one of the few areas of agreement between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.<br /><br />Trump and both parties also agree on the urgent need for unity and tranquility following this bitter election.<br /><br />Trump himself is already backing away from several of his divisive, broad-brush positions. (It is amazing what Trump's 90-minute, "reality check" with President Obama did!)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Now Trump should appoint (and even pair off) leaders from both parties and elsewhere. He should demand consensus from them all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He should give the entire nation reason for hope.<br /><br />The president-elect should demonstrate not just bi-partisanship but non-partisanship. That is evidenced in his own political history. He should demonstrate magnanimity and inclusion.<br /><br />We know Donald Trump is a striver who yearns to succeed. He should be fully aware that the failure to unite this country will doom the Trump presidency and result in personal failure for one Donald Trump.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-82246024721575468452016-11-06T22:19:00.000-08:002016-11-06T22:19:34.529-08:00The Election and Fox's 'Ocean of Light and Love'<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">On the eve of this frightening election, words spoken more than 350 years ago have helped me.<br /><br />They come from George Fox, who founded the Quakers.<br /><br />England was in the throes of a tumultuous, bloody civil war at the time. Fox was a young, uneducated, deeply troubled man. He was literally adrift in the war-torn country, and searching for “Truth.” He could not find it anywhere. Not among the “professors” (read “pastors”) nor in the Bible.<br /><br />Nonetheless, in this time of peril, he had a vision (one among many) of an “Ocean of Darkness and Death” being covered by an “infinite Ocean of Light and Love.”<br /><br />He continues in his journal that the “darkness" compelled him to learn the “conditions" of all so that he could speak to them. From this darkness, the Light leads him, and us, to “openings” — leads us to love.<br /><br />This 2016 political campaign, terrible as it has been, terrible as its outcome could be regardless as who wins, may be the “opening” we all need.<br /><br />Strangely, many, perhaps a majority, of us are united in voting not <i>for</i> one candidate but <i>against</i> the other — the lesser of two “evils” as we see it.<br /><br />For there to be reconciliation, it’s not helpful to argue over which candidate is which. Our pain in the darkness of negativity is shared regardless of how we voted.<br /><br />If we can move beyond finger-pointing and blame, yes beyond hate, we have the opportunity to draw closer together, to find unity and even agreement on the nation’s needed course.<br /><br />Clearly we all suffer from our “bubble” lives….from our isolating “conditions” as Fox described them. His vision tells us that Light will lead us to explore our differing “conditions” and find healing in understanding and love.<br /><br />It’s worth reading the “Ocean of Light” passage in his journal: If it helps, you can embrace, or merely accept or read past Fox’s religiosity.<br /><br />Here is the passage:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"I cried unto the Lord, saying, “Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit these evils?” and the Lord answered that it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions? and in this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings….” 1652</span></i></span></span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-15044125840997197432016-10-23T09:10:00.001-07:002016-10-23T09:10:30.850-07:00Sibling vote deal amended! Hillary gets my vote<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This just in!<br /><br />My previous post was about how my sister, a North Carolina resident and avid Bernie Sander’s backer, was strongly considering writing in Bernie’s name on her North Carolina ballot.<br /><br />I offered a swap. The deal was that she’d vote in the Tar Heel State, a crucial “swing state,” for Hillary if I would write in Bernie here in Oregon, a solid Blue state, on her behalf. I was previously intending to vote for Hillary here.<br /><br />But events of the past week, including Trump’s saying he may not accept the results of the November 8 election, have convinced her that the strongest anti-Trump message needs to be sent at the polls — everywhere.<br /><br />My sister and I have agreed that Hillary Clinton, for all her weaknesses, should receive every vote possible, including hers and mine.<br /><br />In short, I just mailed in my Oregon ballot, casting my vote for Hillary. My sister vows to vote for Hillary too.<br /><br />Note to Hillary: Never again do I want to find myself voting primarily AGAINST a candidate, rather than FOR one. Four years hence, Hillary, give us more — many more — reasons to vote for you than the fact that your opponent is deranged, dangerous demagogue.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-37708514233568548822016-10-16T17:59:00.000-07:002016-10-16T17:59:46.168-07:00This Oregonian is voting for Hillary in North Carolina<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Want to defeat Trump but not vote for Clinton?<br /><br />Consider the deal I struck up with my sister Kate.<br /><br />I’m a resident of Oregon; she lives and votes in North Carolina.<br /><br />We were both avid Bernie Sander’s supporters during the primaries, but after Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination, I decided to swallow hard and back Clinton.<br /><br />(I’m the little-known founder of “Nose-holders for Hillary.”<br /><br />My sister is a die-hard Sanders backer. The other day she told me she was writing in Bernie’s name on her North Carolina ballot. (I have a cousin in Washington state who has taken the same vow.)<br /><br />Add to this electoral equation my sister’s learning recently that her step-son, who also lives in North Carolina, is voting for Trump.<br /><br />She and I had a little back and forth on the phone recently exploring the political landscape and our “consciences.”<br /><br />She asserted that in all “good conscience” she can’t vote for Hillary. I asserted that in all “good conscience” I couldn’t see how she would pass by cancelling out her stepson’s Trump vote.<br /><br />We agreed that True Blue Oregon is going for Hillary and that North Carolina is still a question mark.<br /><br />So we struck a deal. She’s voting for Hillary “for me” in North Carolina; I’m writing in Bernie “for her” in Oregon.<br /><br />Sound interesting? Do you fit into a similar scenario? Are you looking for a vote swapping partner?<br /><br />There’s an app that can help you find one.<br /><br />Its web site is http://apps.trimian.com/nevertrump<br /><br />For Republicans who want to block Trump but can’t stomach voting for Clinton, there’s help here:<br /><br />http://www.r4c16.org/steps-1-1-1/<br /><br />Both help you vote without violating your conscience.<br /><br />Yes, you can defeat Trump without voting for Clinton.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-27297338078083102762016-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:002016-10-13T10:02:26.233-07:00From the Heart: The wellspring to action<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Last Sunday in silent Quaker worship, I was obsessed by a “monkey mind” dominated by this absurdist presidential campaign. <br /><br />Finally, I concluded, I simply had to let go. But how?<br /><br />Then I realized the chaos was in my mind.<br /><br />What if I moved all of that “stuff” to my heart?<br /><br />It was surprisingly easy. I simply refocused on my heart.<br /><br />I immediately felt peace move to my chest and then wash over me.<br /><br />My mental churning vanished.<br /><br />The hard turmoil in my mind had melted to a balm</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> in my heart.<br /><br />The energy was still there, but I was different.<br /><br />Everything had changed.<br /><br /> • • •<br /><br /><i>Could it be that we sometimes are “using” the wrong part of ourselves as we face life’s challenges?</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Do some things require heart while others call on reason? Or is there a sequence of heart/mind or, more often, mind/heart that we should follow.<br /><br />Quakers speak of “leadings.” Being led, almost compelled, to act. In the past, Friends have been led to women’s suffrage, the emancipation of slaves, civil rights, conscientious objection, prison reform. The list is long.<br /><br />Thinking about those leadings, I see they have taken shape in both mind and heart, but ultimately heart spurs us to action.<br /><br />The wellspring of leadings is in the heart.</i></span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-33763451316786500172016-10-11T11:44:00.002-07:002016-10-11T11:44:44.987-07:00A post-election, populist coalition must find common ground<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A red swath of Trumpism still winds a lazy “S” curve from Idaho and Montana down across the nation’s “Heartland” to the Deep South to Georgia and South Carolina. Add in the “islands” of Alaska, Indiana and West Virginia.<br /><br />How could this be in light of revelations in the past few days (and, really, weeks) about the sickening pathology of Donald Trump?<br /><br />The answer lies in what these states have in common. They are largely rural, they are grounded in a strong sense of individualism and White nativism. Several feed on a history of racism and xenophobia.<br /><br />Their economies remain stagnant or threatened or both. Several are economically dependent on the maintenance and expansion of a toxic fossil fuel industry.<br /><br />They are grounded in a “gun culture” and swayed by media-hyped fear and machismo.<br /><br />We can safely surmise that “locker room talk” like Trumps is more likely to occur here.<br /><br />For all of this, most proclaim themselves Christians. That’s one reason I’ve concluded that the last thing a returning Jesus, a Jew, would do is convert to Christianity. The biblical table tossing of Jerusalem will be child’s play compared to Jesus’ fury in the “Prosperity Gospel” mega-churches. <br /><br />Whether Trump’s predatory behavior toward women is more common in these Red states is an open question. But in such rural settings, the role of women has been relatively frozen for decades. It is vital but uncelebrated in the culture. (The children know better! Thank you, Mom!)<br /><br />Community celebrations are saved for Friday night high school football games, preceded by adolescent “locker room talk,” which may or may not take the form of an absurdist prayer for victory. God is my quarterback etc…)<br /><br />You would think that Trump’s behavior to women alone would shift these states to purple.<br /><br />It hasn’t.<br /><br />Apparently the “girls” accept letting the “boys” be boys…even when they are no longer boys.<br /><br />So what else is going on in the sweeping Red “S”? Why does Trump still run so strongly in the Red “S”?<br /><br />One explanation stands out.<br /><br />On November 8, Hillary Clinton will not win the election; Trump will lose it. Our next president will be a non-loser, not a winner.<br /><br />Clinton’s “victory” will have mostly to do with Trump’s scrambled, depraved and dangerous mental state.<br /><br />But Trump did stake out several spot-on positions that the Red S took to heart, and rightly so. Who, for instance, would deny that political and economic elites are in league and “run the country”? NB: Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address.<br /><br />Several of those positions, by the way, were shared by Bernie Sanders, but more thoughtfully and civilly.<br /><br />Sadly, they are already forgotten amid the campaign chaos. Clinton’s base support is among the economic elites and the military establishment. They are the real winners of this election. The rest of her campaign support has come from folks, like me, left with no other realistic candidate to turn to.<br /><br />My guess is that events of the next four years will revive these “Populist” issues.<br /><br />After this election, we need to pivot and rethink what we are about. We need to think about who “we” really are. “We” need to listen and get to know each other.<br /><br />That “we” is a coalition of the disaffected in the Red states and those in the Blue states who voted for Sanders in the primaries. Minorities of color need to be welcomed and recruited to join the coalition. <br /><br />The Red State legions being victimized by political and financial elites must shake off the misplaced and false fears of racism, sexism and immigration. Reformers on both sides must coalesce, not around hate, but justice for all. Those “Christians” must search their souls and live in the way Jesus commanded them to.<br /><br />After November 8, we must find a common ground that defines the political landscape of 2020.</span><br />Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-60468224499397375372016-10-05T08:51:00.000-07:002016-10-05T08:51:19.047-07:00Stop the cross talk and interruptions in the debates<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Note to the Commission on Presidential Debates:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When candidates talk over and interrupt each other, the whole purpose of the debate — to communicate and inform — is utterly lost.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What the audience hears is verbal static. What it witnesses is rude behavior. Interruptions are like throwing spit wads in the classroom.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My reaction is to walk away from the whole thing. Thousands of others likely have the same reaction. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And that is exactly what the Commission wants to avoid.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The solution to the problem is obvious: classroom management.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The moderator should have the power to warn and admonish an interrupter/cross talker. If the warning is disregarded, the moderator should be empowered to deduct time from the interrupter’s time to speak.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Those rules should be agreed to in advance by the participants and their campaigns. Agreement is for the good of all: the participants, the Commission and the viewing public.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For the record, the two biggest offenders in the debates so far have been Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine.</span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Finally, I can find no way to communicate with the Commission to press my concern and share my solution. The Commission’s web site http:// www.debates.org/ has no “contact” link.
That too is a barrier to communication that Commission must address — for the good of all.</span></i>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-4227738359271080932016-09-24T10:25:00.001-07:002016-09-26T15:26:09.213-07:00The Debate in your Living Room<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">During the Vietnam War, New Yorker television critic Michael Arlen coined the phrase “Living Room War” to help readers understand television’s role in shaping the public’s “experience” and perception of the disastrous conflict.<br /><br />Hillary Clinton and her advisors seem unaware of Arlen’s perceptive analysis.<br /><br />When candidates speak, be it in a debate or in a convention hall, their primary and overwhelmingly largest audiences sit in the comfort of their homes. In essence, the public has invited these strangers into their living rooms.<br /><br />As our “guests,” they should act accordingly. The best candidates do that. Their tone is polite, congenial, informative, respectfully challenging and conversational.<br /><br />Think of television-age candidates whom the public has felt “most comfortable” having in its living rooms. Kennedy, Reagan and Obama come to mind.<br /><br />And whom are you inclined to invite to leave? Do Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton come to mind?<br /><br />And why might that be? With Trump, the answer is obvious. Trump is an egotistical raver/ranter. He offends most who see and hear him. He appeals to the worst in us and, in our heart of hearts, we know it.<br /><br />Will he be able to modify his “gut” reactions and impulses in Monday night’s first presidential debate? It’s unlikely. He seems addicted to the adrenaline rush of hatred and self-aggrandizement.<br /><br />As for Clinton, her problem is that she relates to those she sees but is oblivious to the living-room multitudes she can’t see.<br /><br />Witness her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. She began calmly enough but she soon forgot about her unseen TV audience. Instead she directed herself to the convention crowd. The result was a routine, haranguing stump speech in millions of living rooms.<br /><br />Clinton should be smart enough to change her approach. She certainly knows how to relate one-on-one to people. Trump relates one-on-one only with Number One, himself.<br /><br />But if Clinton and Trump engage in a brawl, I for one will treat their behavior as disrespectful of my home. I will invite these two less-than-desirable candidates to “take it outside.”<br /><br />In other words, I’ll hit the off button.<br /><br />If Clinton gently and forcefully calls Trump on his behavior without being condescending and scolding and without insulting his followers, I may hang around.<br /><br />Then again, my viewing habits might well be hopelessly old-fashioned. Television is entertainment. Increasingly mass audiences invite and even encourage the medium in its various forms to bring into their living rooms “entertainment” which we would never allow to actually take place there.<br /><br />And therein lies the problem. Audiences have substituted the reality of the living room with “reality” as defined by media. Clinton and particularly Trump have fallen prey to it. They play to that substitute, artificial world.<br /><br />The question is this: whose “reality,” as presented in our living rooms, best describes and speaks to our reality, its future and to our lives and values.<br /><br />My hope is that the “winner” of Monday night’s debate will be the candidate I would welcome back to my living room to learn more. And there is so much more to learn….</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-13700298910239136772016-09-22T07:55:00.001-07:002016-09-22T07:56:17.450-07:00Nose-holders for Hillary<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It’s pretty clear that the fate of the Republic, and perhaps the world, rests in the hands of one group of people who have yet to organize.<br /><br />Their main barrier is that they lack an identity, a name that conveys a conflicted message.<br /><br />The group, mostly Bernie Sanders supporters, is hyper-conflicted about Hillary Clinton.<br /><br />They desperately want to vote their consciences, but they know in their heart of hearts that they don’t have that option.<br /><br />They know that voting “for someone else” puts Donald Trump, a megalomaniac, in the White House.<br /><br />Now there’s a REAL weight on the conscience!<br /><br />So this disaffected, conflicted group needs a way to signal that while they don’t like (read: "have serious reservations about," "are suspicious of," "flat-out distrust") Hillary, they are voting for her to keep a mad man out of the White House.<br /><br />Welcome to….</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Nose-holders for Hillary!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />And, yes, you guessed it. I’m one of them. Even enthusiastically!<br /><br />Bring on bumper stickers, yard signs and banners!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Spread the word. Nose-holders, unite!</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-53928765847533167812016-09-17T15:10:00.000-07:002016-09-17T15:12:10.890-07:00Mental Health Assessment of Donald Trump<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have just received the following self-leaked mental health assessment for one Donald John Trump, candidate for the presidency of the United States of America.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mental Health Assessment:</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Patient/Client: Donald John Trump<br />
<br />
General description: Caucasian, exceedingly wealthy American male of privilege and executive status.<br />
<br />
Mr. Trump is at the extreme range of personality traits frequently associated with this cohort.<br />
<br />
Assessment of behavior: Like many others in this group, Mr. Trump is self-centered, isolated and detached from reality. He is prone to be insensitive to and manipulative of others.<br />
<br />
He has sexist tendencies and acts out his sexual insecurities with “macho,” “conquest” behavior that is disrespectful of women and threatening to men, women and children.<br />
<br />
As a physically imposing man, he can be intimidating. He is habitually impulsive and demeaning in word and gesture. As a public figure he encourages violent behavior among his followers.<br />
<br />
Because of his insecurity, he seeks nearly constant affirmation and deference from those around him. His ambition is entirely self-serving and self-centered.<br />
<br />
Mr. Trump fits the textbook descriptions of a pathological narcissist. He has demonstrated sociopathic traits.<br />
<br />
In part because of his television acting career and fiction-based celebrity status, he has confused artifice with reality. This and the above-mentioned character traits, explain his compulsive contradictory statements and disregard for truth in general.<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion:</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> Mr. Trump has a dysfunctional, delusional personality. He is not mentally or socially fit for military service of any kind. In possession of presidential power, including the power to wage conventional and nuclear war, he would pose an extreme security risk not just to the nation but to the world.</span></b>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-89025679013356210752016-08-09T17:30:00.001-07:002016-08-10T11:42:09.343-07:00ENOUGH!<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The question facing Republicans is no longer whether or not to support Donald Trump's candidacy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Today in North Carolina, the ante was raised. Trump obliquely suggested that "Second Amendment people" might take matters into their own hands to <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">end</span> Hillary Clinton's <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">presidency</span>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">His inflammatory comments <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">pose</span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">a whole new</span> question: Should the Republican Party<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and its leaders</span> demand that Trump<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> s<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">tep down as the party's nominee</span>?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Further, the Secret Service ought to be looking into whether Trump's remarks constitute incitement to commit a crime. Positing the notion of assassination before a crowd that includes rabid gun zealots <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">may meet the test of <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">dangerously </span>yelling </span>"fire" in a crowded movie theater.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is a restraining order called for? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Here's what Trump said with regard to gun possession, <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Clinton court appointees</span> and the Second Amendment: “If she gets to pick her judges,<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span>nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I
don’t know.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Oh yes he does know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The remark can be paired with one he made during the primary campaign. </span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and
shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?" Those are the kind of voters Trump was speaking to today. That is the kind of behavior he condones. He's do<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ne so <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">on numerous other occasions as well.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With Trump, referring to violence is simply another macho rhetorical device. It is time he face the potential consequences of his words. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So where are you on this, Republicans<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">?</span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Will you call for <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Trump's resignation</span> as nominee of your party</span>?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The answer should be clear. It's time to get the hook out <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to</span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">yank</span> this <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">dangerous</span> fanatic off the <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">political stage<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">before someone gets killed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36274513.post-71346294798297958272016-08-09T08:34:00.002-07:002016-08-09T08:34:56.296-07:00 "White House" Slavery and homelessness<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For many the most searing line in the speeches given at either political convention was delivered by First Lady Michelle Obama when she said, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.”<br /><br />In another way, she and all of us are enslaved in this “White House” called America. We are, in a sense, our own slaves to a history and culture of slavery.<br /><br />We are slaves to debt, slaves to war, slaves to consumerist desires, slaves to ignorance, slaves of an economy destroying the planet, slaves to wealthy elites, slaves to false, unquestioned values.<br /><br />That was my extended take-away from the Obama speech until, without giving it much thought, I shared my heady little exposition with John Brown.<br /><br />John is the homeless Street Roots newspaper vendor who sells the advocacy tabloid in front of the Food Front grocery in Hillsdale.<br /><br />John is homeless because of crippling disability.<br /><br />He is also whippet smart. The man is encyclopedic in his knowledge of the arts and literature. He recites Shakespeare with ease and affection. It’s as though he is on first name terms with The Bard, whom he calls “Willie the Shake.”<br /><br />So I am rambling on with my boundless thoughts about the First Lady’s speech with John when I get to the part waking up in a house built by slaves.<br /><br />Suddenly I am confronted with the fact that John doesn’t wake up in a house at all.<br /><br />Nor do his fellow Street Roots vendors and the hundreds for whom the Street Roots publication speaks so powerfully.<br /><br />They are slaves to extreme poverty on our streets, in our parks and under our bridges.<br /><br />Their plight today is another “White House” disgrace. Each day, with our eyes wide open, we witness their plight…and do nothing.</span>Rick Seiferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11249323390100558270noreply@blogger.com0