Border Wall . A Story About Women and Justice

Border Wall

“Officer, my daughter is 10 years old," I say.

“Yes, ma’am.”

And I’m 56…” I say … “I haven’t had … I haven’t been fertile for … years.”

“I understand, ma’am … and you understand I’m not allowed to take your word for that.”

“About which?” I say….

“Either,” they say. “It’s a requirement ... I think you know that…”

“10 years old, officer…”

“Yes ma’am … Is this gonna a problem? Do you want to pull out of line so we can process the motorists behind you?”

“I want my child to see her grandmother before she dies.”

“Understood,” the officer says … “The shortest route to that is both of you taking the test.”

“I’m 56 … she’s 10….”

“Understood,” the officer says, and, “Do you want pull out of line?”

“No … I … How does this work?”

“You may use your own kit if I watch you open it —“

“You’re going to watch me?”

“I have to watch you open the kit — if you use your own — so I can scan the number before you enter the testing area.”

“I don’t believe this,” I say … “I’m fif — this is not the country I grew up in….”

“If you prefer, I’ll provide kits and charge your debit or credit card.”

“What if I don’t have a card?”

“There’s a turnout ahead, so you can return the way you came.”

“Well, we don’t have ‘kits’ do we … why would we?”

“Two kits, then, ma’am. Pick any lane ahead and enter the test area … Entering the test area constitutes your permission to be observed via infrared camera. Follow the instructions on the kit. After placing your samples in the reader, pull forward to the holding area until your number comes up — either Green or Red — then follow the signs. Do you understand?”

“Yes … I — do you? … officer? understand?”

“Ma’am … It’s your right to use the turnout lane and go back the way you came.”

“This is law enforcement now? Seriously?”

“Serious as a pregnancy test, ma’am.”

I realize my daughter has been pulling at my sleeve. "Can we just go back?" she whispers.

"Baby, I don’t know," I say … "I don’t know if it’s that simple."

maybe men *should* just stay home

Hey man, if we can’t vote for Harris, maybe we should just stay home.

Cuz think about it: We won’t be insulting — or whadatheycallit? *retraumatizing?* — our wives, and girlfriends, and daughters, and lesbian neices as much.

And at Thanksgiving we can say we decided to sit this one out for conscience’s sake (Man, that a-hole ruined things for everyone, didn’t he?).

AND, we can still break out the "Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for her" tees later … so … win/win….

Teach Your Parents Well . 2024 Election Edition

 “This is who fathers, with daughters, are voting for.”

“When your father who has 6

daughters and 4 granddaughters who is also a men's pastor is voting for this man again. It's honestly a

slap in our face.”

https://www.dailydot.com/memes/trump-hollywood-access-tiktok-reactions/

Lying Liars . The Hypocrisy of Elon Musk

 

Oh my gosh! The hypocrisy! Elon Musk was an illegal immigrant.

https://wapo.st/4e0PdyI

We Have Been Warned . Hamilton to Washington

 

Alexander Hamilton to President Washington . 18 August 1792

The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion. Tired at length of anarchy, or want of government, they may take shelter in the arms of monarchy for repose and security.

Those then, who resist a confirmation of public order, are the true [mechanics*] of monarchy—not that this is the intention of the generality of them. Yet it would not be difficult to lay the finger upon some of their party who may justly be suspected. When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

* Hamilton used the word Artificers here, a British military term for a skilled mechanic. 

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-12-02-0184-0002, from The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 12, July 1792 – October 1792, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967, pp. 229–258. [h/t Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow in the Washington Post Outlook . October 18, 2019] 

What would *you* say I should do?

I’m thinking tonight of friends with hispanic surnames, after listening to a former government appointee loudly promising on TV that he means to return to government to facilitate the largest deportation in US history, starting asap after January 20, 2025. 

And who do they mean to deport? It would begin with (*will* begin with, if they think they can get away with it) good Americans I know with family names like Acosta … Aguilar … Cano … Carranza … Cisneros … Contreras … Delgado …Del Rio … Diaz … Duran … Elias … Escalante … Esperanza … Guzman … Hinojosa … Leys … Llama … Lopez … Mejia … Montalvo … Montoya … Morales … Nava … Navarro … Ramos … Reyes … Rodriquez … Sanchez … Santos — and more whose names sound like they *could* fit the bill.

And I’m thinking, If I want to stop government agents from coming for these friends and their children next year, asking about their associates and extended family, and demanding to see their papers, and investigating them, or taking them away for processing if they’re not satisfied with the papers they produce — I’m thinking what should I be doing *this* year – in *the next three weeks* — to keep that from happening….

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It, Donald

Donald Trump‘s only tool is a hammer. So, to him, every problem looks like a nail.

Thus, Donald Trump may support the Project 2025 proposal to commercialize vital National Weather Service forecasting…

But AccuWeather explicitly does not.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/press/accuweather-does-not-support-project-2025-plan-to-fully-commercializing-nws-operations-noaa-has-critical-role-in-american-weather-enterprise/1670156

What I’m Voting For...

These are things I’m voting for in 2024…

• The rule of law and the future of American Democracy

• Full legal protection for American women, beginning with health care

• Equal justice before the law for LGBTQ+ people in America

• Equal justice before the law for black and brown Americans

• Sensible, comprehensive immigration law and policy reform

• Evidence based climate responsibility and care

• Continuing leadership in the rules based international order

• Fair taxation at every income level

• Responsible infrastructure maintenance, upgrades, and innovation

• The future of Social Security and Medicare

• Accountability for convicted January 6 criminals

• The American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act

• The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act

So I’m voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

How do you talk to young voters?

A colleague asked how I talk to young voters about this election.

Mostly, I’m trying to center questions like:

Given that you won't find perfection in any person or party, on the evidence...

• Who do you believe is thinking about you and the people you care about? 

• Who do you expect will ensure your access to the medical care you need? 

• Who will protect the right to equal protection under law for your brown and black friends and family? 

• Who will ensure equal protection under law for your friends and family who are immigrants to this country?

• Who will work proactively to protect the environment and reverse the human causes of climate change? 

• Who will work to assure the place of our nation *alongside* our allies around the globe rather than in opposition to them or seeking to dominate them? 

• Who shows the will to resist oppressors on the world stage without fear or favor?

• Who do you anticipate will work to improve the wages of people who work for a living? 

• Who appears to understand your contribution to the real economy — as someone whose work contributes to the gross domestic product … as someone who circulates a large percentage of your income in ways that support jobs in the real economy of housing, goods and services,.. as someone who, at a minimum, pays sales taxes that support significant state and local government services….

• Who has expressed a committment and a plan for fairer access to safe and more affordable housing? 

• Who shows a readiness to curb the impulses of irresponsible capitalists who don't care who pays the price for their obsession with producing more wealth for the already wealthy — including their willingess to continually punch holes in the economic future of the US for the short term benefit of financial elites? 

• Who has shown a willingness to protect you from the ravages of unregulated gun violence? 

and so on….

How do *you* talk to young voters about this election?

Video . Georgia’s former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan endorses Kamala Harris

Apparently, the Fox News Channel did not air the speeches of Republicans who spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

Here’s Georgia’s former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan speaking to the nation at the Democratic National Convention, August 21, 2024.

The presidency might be one of those *Black jobs*

 Read it yourself . Michelle Obama’s remarkable address to the nation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago . August 21 2024

https://time.com/7013289/michelle-obama-2024-dnc-speech-full-transcript/

the quiet part out loud

"All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that's gonna destroy our country."

— Donald Trump . 08.25.24 https://x.com/amconmag/status/1824203483567817189

Saying the quiet part out loud … how dumb does he think you/we are?