Shutdown May Be Postponed, Republicans Trying to Look Macho

With strong support from Democrats—which Republicans always claim they won’t permit—a continuing resolution (CR) for the budget has passed the House by 336-95, above the necessary 290 vote of two-thirds, and moved on to the Senate. In a “laddered” approach, the CR continues the existing budget until January 19 for four appropriation bills and February 2 for the other eight. Farm bill programs, including food stamps, are extended to September 30, 2024. A “clean” bill, it contains no amendments.

Two Democrats, Jake Auchincloss (MA) and Mike Quigley (IL), and 93 Republicans opposed the bill, and the Freedom Caucus complaining about the lack of spending cuts and restrict border policies. Freedom Caucus members are riled about the “clean” CR with the statement that “Republicans must stop negotiating against ourselves over fears of what the Senate may do with the phrase ‘roll over today and we’ll fight tomorrow.'” The group is calling for “bold change,” not a good sign for MAGA Mike as Speaker. Some Democrats want payback in passing the appropriation bills for their assistance to Republicans that followed the same process that ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

End Citizens United has filed an ethics complaint against Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) for failing to disclose gifts, overlooking blind spots in his spouse’s income, making “contradictory” financial statements relating to his work as an attorney for far-right groups, and other “inconsistencies.” The watchdog group is investigating any of Johnson’s financial conflicts of interest. One of the issues is that he discloses no banking accounts, savings, investments, or retirement accounts—plus failing to disclose sources of funding for travel.

Johnson did not report an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel in February 2020 paid for by the 12 Tribes Film Foundation and costing a total of $17,950. Congressional ethics reporting laws mandate reports of all travel costing over $415. His paid trip to Williamstown (KY) in 2022 by the young Earth creationist group Answers in Genesis also exceeded the $415 threshold. Income-producing Onward Christian Counseling Services, his wife’s business, has been active since 2017, but Johnson didn’t report it. According to federal law for statements submitted to government agencies, anyone who “falsifies, conceals, or covers up material facts [and] makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” could be fined and/or jailed for up to five years.

The Advocate, Louisiana’s most-read newspaper and Johnson’s hometown publication, is telling his home state how his draconian cuts would damage Louisiana. One third of the state’s budget is federal funding, making it the fourth least self-sufficient state in the U.S. The editorial states:

“That’s one reason why Louisiana does not need a new government shutdown, as is still threatened despite the ascension of north Louisiana U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson to the speaker’s chair.”

The editorial continues by criticizing Johnson’s attempt to connect an emergency measure to Israeli funding and IRS cuts, “as some anti-government Republicans want to do. That just adds to the deficit, as it lets more high-income tax cheats defeat the system; for most of us, it just means the IRS can’t hire enough people to answer the darn phone.” The newspaper’s editors get it even if Johnson doesn’t. According to the newspaper, a shutdown “almost always hurts Republicans politically, although the House GOP’s circular firing squad might still find that an attractive in-your-face gesture.” The editorial went on to lambast “throwing all sorts of unattainable sloganeering into budget bills? Even worse, in critical national security decisions?”

Ouch.

Speaking of “ouch,” Republicans are going beyond testy. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) accused former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) of elbowing him in the kidneys. McCarthy said he accidentally bumped into Burchett although he didn’t hit him in the kidneys. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) wasn’t present, but he’s still filing an ethics complaint against McCarthy. The former speaker has a history of physical anger: he shoulder-checked former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and almost fought Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in the bathroom during a recent address to Congress by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the Senate, Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) tried to start a physical fight with a committee witness, the president of the Teamsters Union, each daring the other to “stand your butt up.” Mullin called Sean O’Brien a “thug,” and O’Brien retaliated by saying Mullin was acting like “a schoolyard bully.” The insults follow earlier dueling posts on X. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) broke up the fight after Mullin stood up and advanced on O’Brien, but the two adversaries continued to squabble. (And senators thought that a dress code would bring them respect.)

Back in the House, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) told Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), wearing a blue suit and tie, that he looked “like a Smurf.” Comer had told the Fox audience that President Joe Biden was evading taxes by loaning his brother money, and Moskowitz pointed out that Comer had loaned his brother the same amount as Biden did. Interrupting Moskowitz and calling him a liar, Comer said he bought farmland from his brother to keep the property in the family after their father died. Using profanity, Comer accused Moskowitz of being “financially illiterate” and refused to allow Moskowitz to reclaim his time. Later, the Florida representative referenced the Smurfs’ villain in his post, “Gargamel [below left] was very angry today.”

A friend suggested that the water at the Capitol contains lead—or if some members of Congress didn’t have civility training in kindergarten. Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski commented, “Thanks to [T]rump. there’s an economy in farming rage and fundraising off it.” Approval of the Congress went down to 13 percent by last month.

Once again, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) lost, this time her impeachment resolution for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas because she didn’t like his handling the southern border. Eight Republicans joined Democrats, 209-201, to refer the resolution to the Homeland Security Committee, keeping it from a floor vote. The Republicans voting against Greene’s resolution: Patrick McHenry (NC), Tom McClintock (CA), John Duarte (CA), Virginia Foxx (NC), Darrell Issa (CA), Cliff Bentz (OR), Ken Buck (CO), and Mike Turner (OH). About the vote, Greene said, “I’m outraged” and added that she might make another try. Former President Grant’s Secretary of War William Belknap, accused of corruption, is the only Cabinet member ever impeached; he resigned before a Senate trial.

Expect Greene to become more outraged: Issa called her “hard-working” but added:  

“She, I believe, lacks the maturity and the experience to understand what she was asking for and how ill prepared we would have been to do it.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, again came out a loser in his latest attempt to bully local prosecutors into giving him information. After failing in his attempts to coerce Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Fulton County (GA) DA Fani Willis into providing him all their documents about Deposed Donald Trump’s (DDT) investigation, Jordan couldn’t get information from D.C. AG Brian Schwalb about his probe into Leonard Leo, the man behind the conservative judges and justices, into whether Leo abused nonprofit tax laws by using its funds for his for-profit ventures.

Jordan and Comer claim that Schwalb doesn’t have jurisdiction to investigate nonprofits and other entities incorporated outside Washington, D.C. Schwalb responded:

“No corporation, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, is exempt from the laws of a jurisdiction in which it chooses to be present and do business.”

Schwalb also stated that his office “is committed to the impartial pursuit of justice, without regard to political affiliation or motivation and without fear or favor.”

The Senate Rules Committee voted 9-7 along party lines to advance a resolution allowing a block confirmation of over more than 350 military promotions being held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). The resolution does not apply to nominees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff or commanders nominated to lead combatant commands. With the filibuster, the resolution requires nine Republicans to support it if all Democrats/independents vote for it. Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) supports the idea but voted against the resolution and claimed “productive discussions” about reaching a deal with Tuberville are “ongoing.” National security will suffer as long as GOP senators stick to the “nice guy” instead of supporting the military.

How evangelical “anti-woke” members of the military think: A military commander earlier faced the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) as an “evangelical Protestant who believes his first priority is to coerce anyone he works with, especially those of us lower in rank, to accept and become baptized into his Christian faith.”  He has already endangered his men with his beliefs. Recently, he decided to have a traditional “Puritan” Thanksgiving for his subordinates. All of them would dress in Pilgrim costumes—except for a Native American man who was told to wear his “best Indian clothes.”

In 2019, another “religious” commander demanded a Native American subordinate dress up as an Indian, but MRFF got that requirement canceled. Once the current requirement was rescinded, the commander muttered about his “woke” superior loudly enough that he was heard. The senior commander met with the commander privately who then “rather suddenly” put in for several days of leave, according to the Native American filing the complaint. The commander’s “Pilgrim attire” event was officially cancelled and replaced with another Thanksgiving meal handled by higher command with no “costumes” required.

November, Three Trials about Racism

Thanksgiving is over. Memories of the fights at the table are fading although Republicans are still manufacturing outrage from about VP Kamala Harris’ spending $500 of her own money in Paris on kitchen ware while remaining silent about taxpayers forced to pay $765,000 for golf cart rentals by now-Deposed Donald Trump (DDT). Rentals from DDT’s personally-owned resorts.

MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell, brought out fewer than 20 people at his protest against Fox outside its Manhattan headquarters because they haven’t uniformly spread the lie about election fraud. The Daily Beast was the only outlet present at the non-event, where even Lindell didn’t appear and thus failed in his promise to reveal names of plaintiffs in his non-existent filing to the Supreme Court. Lindell said he was crossing the U.S. to persuade state AGs to co-sign his election-fraud complaint. He followed the impotent protest with his “Thanks-a-thon,” the 96-hour marathon on his personal YouTube chаnnel which he claimed would reveal election fraud detail. It didn’t. Instead, he complained about AGs not following his lead and the Salem conservative Christian network, declaring he was pulling his ads. He still heavily advertises on Fox.

Three court trials, all dealing with racism, were part of the Thanksgiving conversation. Although the first decision was delivered the week before the holiday, the exoneration of Kyle Rittenhouse in the killing of two men and wounding of another one with the successful claim of self-defense increased the nation’s polarization between different ideologies. The wounded and murdered men were all white, but the protest in Kenosha (WI) concerned a police officer shooting an unarmed Black man in the back seven times, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and sustaining serious internal organ damage. The defense attorney even referenced this shooting in her closing statement: 

“Ladies and gentlemen, other people in this community have shot somebody seven times — and it’s been found to be OK. My client did it four times.”

Although Rittenhouse’s friendly judge and his $2 million for defense caused many people to expect him to get away with murder, the “self-defense” was laughable: he brought an AR-15, obtained illegally when he had barely shot before, across state lines and sought out people to shoot while falsely claiming to be a paramedic.

Rittenhouse’s far-right supporters, including congressional QAnon believers, have tried to make him into a hero. The nuttiest of representatives—Madison Cawthorn (NC), Matt Gaetz (FL), Paul Gosar (AZ)—have fought over which one of them gets him as an intern, and Lauren Boebert (CO) said she will challenge Cawthorn to a “sprint” to get Rittenhouse as an intern; Cawthorn is wheelchair-bound. Gaetz also wants to pass a national “stand your ground” law, something that the three wounded and dead men were doing. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) introduced a bill to give him a Congressional Gold Medal. It’s an uphill road for her. She needs co-sponsors from two-thirds of both House and Senate and presidential authorization.

DDT, who called Rittenhouse a “nice young man,” brought him to Mar-a-Lago for a photo shoot in front of a photograph of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

After showing his favoritism for Rittenhouse, the judge in the case treated the defendant like a pet, allowing him to select the final dozen jurors from a raffle drum that held the names of the original 18 who heard the case. In Wisconsin, the judge typically selects the numbers of remaining jurors, but he gave Rittenhouse that piece of theater. The judge rescinded MSNBC’s journalism privileges because a freelancer supposedly followed a juror van, but he approved of Fox’s Tucker Carlson filming the event for a documentary. The longest serving circuit judge in the state, the 75-year-old judge has been elected unopposed for seven six-year terms. His next election would be in 2026.  

A sweet-looking 18-year-old Rittenhouse cried on the stand, and the judge yelled, “Don’t get brazen with me!” at the prosecutor. The judge ordered the prosecutor to find an expert testifying that using the zoom on an image doesn’t distort it—“within minutes.” When a juror said he didn’t think he could be impartial, the judge stopped him from talking. In the Rittenhouse acquittal, citizen vigilantism won.

Almost 800 miles south of Kenosha, three White men ages 65, 35, and 32—also vigilantes—were convicted the day before Thanksgiving of chasing down 25-year-old Ahmand Arbery while he was jogging and murdering him. The jury, composed of nine White women, two White men, and one Black man, deliberated over 11 hours in two days after eight days of testimony with 23 witnesses. The verdicts. Travis McMichael, who fired the fatal shots, guilty of all charges – malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony. Gregory McMichael, Travis’ father who rode armed in the bed of his son’s pickup, guilty of all charges except malice murder. Neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr, who made the video that helped seal the verdicts, guilty of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony. He was cleared of the other charges.

The sentencing date for the men has not been made public. Prosecutors plan to seek sentences of life in prison with no parole. Gregory McMichael’s attorney said she was “floored with a capital F” and will appeal as will the attorney for his son. Another defense attorney maintained the McMichaels thought their actions were “the right thing to do” and is disappointed and saddened. The McMichaels, also indicted on federal hate crime charges, will go on trial in February—two years after the murder—for interference of rights and attempted kidnapping as well as a charge of using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Black, unarmed, and on foot, Arbery tried to elude the three armed white men in the vehicles pursuing him. They claimed they believed he had committed a crime. They said they conducted a citizen’s arrest and acted in self-defense, but the video shows no indication of that happening. After national notice of the murder over two months later, Bryan gave the video to a radio station. Supported by a district attorney, he thought it would exonerate the three men. Under oath, Travis admitted he had lied to the police when he said Arbery grabbed his shotgun and told Arbery he was making a citizen’s arrest. The law allowing citizen’s arrest in Georgia, now repealed, went into effect before the Civil War when slave patrollers used them to capture runaway slaves. Travis was the only one of the three to testify.

The trial was notable for two major racial highlights. The defense attorney complained about Al Sharpton sitting with Arbery’s family and said he didn’t want any more “black pastors” in the courtroom. Another defense attorney criticized the jury because it didn’t have enough “Bubbas,” meaning White men over 40 years old who were born in the South and had no four-year college degrees.

Attention to the murder was stalled for over two months because assistants in the office of Brunswick (GA) district attorney, Jackie Johnson, told police that the three men should not be arrested. The assistants did indicate a conflict of interest: Gregory McMichaels worked in the DA’s office for over 30 years and called her shortly after the shooting. Johnson then immediately contacted George Barnhill, DA for Georgia’s Waycross Judicial Circuit, who watched Bryan’s video and stated that the three men could chase and kill Arbery in self-defense. Johnson recused herself, and Georgia’s AG Christopher Carr appointed Barnhill to prosecute the case. After five weeks, Barnhill finally admitted a conflict of interest but repeated his “self-defense” ruling in a letter to the Glynn police department. Another DA was appointed to prosecute the case.

Because a local journalist, Larry Hobbs, stayed on the story, the outrage against the Glynn police department, already being investigated for corruption, went national 61 days after the murder. A week later, Bryan went public with the video, believing it would exonerate him. State officers arrested the three men, and the case was moved to Atlanta, 270 miles from the killing in Brunswick.

A grand jury indicted Jackson for violating her oath of office and obstructing police, using her position to discourage the arrest of the McMichaels. The indictment also states Jackson favored Gregory McMichaels. 

Charlottesville (VA) hosted a third trial about racism in November, this one a civil lawsuit against five white nationalist organizations and 12 individual defendants responsible for the murder and other violence in August 2017 in the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally. The defendants are to pay over $25 million in damages to the nine plaintiffs suffering physical or emotional injuries, including over $12 million for the death of Heather Heyer, deliberately run down by a self-declared neo-Nazi. He is already sentenced to life in prison for his murder conviction. 

The verdicts in these three trials raise questions. Would Kyle Rittenhouse be acquitted without a $2-million defense and a sympathetic judge? Would Ahmaud Arbery’s three killers be convicted without the video that one of the three men made public because of advice from Georgia’s elected officials? Or without an intrepid journalist pursuing the story? And would the white supremacists in the Charlottesville lost if they had competent defense instead of their own egotistical and racist testimony?

DDT: Week 201 – A Time of Contrasts

In a CNN op-ed on Thanksgiving Day, President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill, in a CNN op-ed, thanked people who keep the nation functioning during the pandemic:

“We are grateful for the frontline workers who have never stopped showing up over these long and confusing months, making sure our food is harvested and shipped, keeping our grocery stores stocked, picking up our trash, and keeping our cities and towns safe.

“We are grateful for the health care workers who put in long shifts and isolate themselves from their loved ones, the nurses who comfort and help people say one last goodbye, and the doctors who fight for every breath.

“We are grateful for the educators who learned to teach in virtual classrooms almost overnight, who did extra work to reach families without technology, or who took late-night phone calls from parents on the verge of tears.

“We are grateful for the parents who have carried their families through the chaos, working or searching for a job, navigating childcare and remote learning.

“We are grateful for the researchers and scientists who have spent this year learning everything they can to understand how to fight this pandemic and working tirelessly to find a vaccine and therapeutics.”

On Thanksgiving Day, in the midst of ranting tweets, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) held a press conference, the first time he has taken questions since his defeat. He claimed proof for election fraud is people voting for Biden. Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked DDT if he would concede to Biden, and DDT shouted, “Don’t talk to me that way! I’m the president of the United States.” For the first time, he declared he would leave the White House if the Electoral College selects Biden.

DDT paid Wisconsin $3 million for recounts in two counties. One of them, Milwaukee, announced Biden picked up another 132 votes in the recount. About 65 percent finished, Dane County will be done by the state’s certification of ten electoral votes for Biden on Tuesday. DDT still wants to throw out over 238,000 ballots in the two counties.

Unable to win lawsuits to stop voting and certification, DDT tries to decertify existing certifications. He failed in Pennsylvania this morning when a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court rejected the case, writing, “Calling an election unfair does not make it so.” Like the other almost 40 rejections to DDT’s arguments, the ruling determined lawyers had no “specific allegations and … proof.” A DDT-appointed judge wrote the opinion. Jenna Ellis, DDT’s lawyer, wrote, “On to SCOTUS!” Biden won the state’s 20 electoral votes by an 80,000 majority.

A Commonwealth court uncertified Pennsylvania’s certified votes until an evidentiary hearing in the case. The same court has rejected GOP arguments two other times. GOP Rep. Mike Kelly challenged 2.5 million mail-in ballots, accusing the state legislature of constitutionally expanding the process. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman pointed out that lack of certification would eliminate “down-ballot elections”:  

“If [votes are] not certified, we don’t have a House or have our state Senate, and those are controlled by Republicans. So they’re literally trying to make the argument that there was fraud with Joe Biden’s race but my race, there was no fraud in that race. So there’s absolutely no basis in reality, but that’s never stopped them from lying.”

Fetterman said Pennsylvania found only two cases of voter fraud, both from Republicans who tried “to vote for Trump with their relatives, whether they were dead or living.” The Pennsylvania GOP legislature approved mail-in voting over a year ago, but no one objected because they thought it could favor the Republicans.

With QAnon queen Sidney Powell as lawyer, Michigan electors and local GOP officials are using her conspiracy theories against Biden in a federal court case. On Monday, Michigan certified the win for Biden. and Powell’s arguments have already been ruled “not credible” by a Wayne County judge. The lawsuit also demands voting machine and software be impounded for inspection. Powell, dropped by DDT’s campaign, also filed a wacko lawsuit in Georgia with both filings marked by inaccurate spelling. Losing in Pennsylvania, she’s heading to Arizona with allegations already rejected in a court case there.  

Rudy Giuliani receives $20,000 a day for his inept lawyering, but Powell asks for the checks to be made out to her personally. She set up her website on November 11, the day after she appeared on Fox’s Lou Dobbs Show.

DDT had a busy week, at least for him, with two major appearances last Tuesday—each about a minute. One of them was the pardoning of the National Thanksgiving Turkeys, this year named Corn and Cob. Hailing from Iowa, the turkeys are returning to their home state after a time in a luxury hotel. He was kinder to these than Carrot two years ago when he ridiculed Carrots for losing the count and refusing to “concede.” Matt Flegenheimer and Maggie Haberman have a great piece on how DDT had expected his time in the Oval Office to be “a rolling turkey pardon.”

DDT’s bad relationship with birds doesn’t seem to have improved since before his inauguration. Over five years ago, Time’s cover story, “The Donald Has Landed,” featured a photo of him and “Uncle Sam” who evidently didn’t approve of bigots and demagogues. Footage for the photo shoot.

Before Michael Flynn’s ruling, DDT pardoned him. DDT fired Flynn for lying to VP Mike Pence, and Flynn pled guilty to lying twice to the FBI about promising Russia in secret conversations before the inauguration that DDT would remove Russian sanctions. Flynn also secretly worked with Turkey. QAnon members are upset because the pardon means “guilt” when they want “exoneration.”

Still struggling to win by disenfranchising millions of voters, DDT called an informal meeting of Pennsylvania legislators at Gettysburg (PA) despite the state’s formal certification of 20 electoral votes. DDT originally meant to appear in person, but his legal team leader, Rudy Giuliani has again been exposed to COVID-19. Giuliani appeared with the group, most of them not wearing masks.

DDT’s conservative Supreme Court increased the rate of infections and deaths from COVID-19 by agreeing with New York religious organizations claiming they were illegally targeted by virus restrictions. In the 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the three progressive justices, writing:

“It is a significant matter to override determinations made by public health officials concerning what is necessary for public safety in the midst of a deadly pandemic.”

Roberts also noted restrictions were already eased, eliminating the need for court intervention. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg was alive, Roberts’ vote created a majority to treat religious groups the same as others. Justice Sonia Sotomayor added the state treated churches equally or more favorably when compared with other groups; thus it did not discriminate. Cuomo increased restrictions because some religious groups turned areas into “hot spots” of spiking coronavirus cases. Changes were temporary, based on numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

In a tweet, Joyce Vance, a federal prosecutor for 25 years, addressed the majority of justices who elevated Christian and Jewish beliefs over public health officials and state laws for other groups:

“Your religious views now give you the right to withhold the services of your business from people whose ‘lifestyle’ you disagree with, withhold healthcare from women & attend superspreader events that let you infect your neighbors with a deadly virus.”

After DDT demanded churches open last summer, the virus surged across areas in which religious groups refused to take precautions. The disease hits not only the people within the church but also others throughout the community as church members become superspreaders. For example, 12 deaths and 213 cases are connected to events at the Charlotte (NC) United House of Prayer for All People earlier this year, and 11 buses brought people for another superspreader event two weeks ago to further spread disease. 

War in the Middle East could add to DDT’s death toll. For the third time in 18 months, he sent several heavy bombers to the Middle East threatening Iran after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s secret meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salam. Pompeo was supposedly on a diplomatic mission. The last threat was when DDT used an airstrike to assassinate top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. DDT’s “maximum pressure” against Iran led to more nuclear material at higher levels of enrichment. Within the next 54 days before he leaves the Oval Office, DDT plans far more sanctions and “covert actions” against Iran to sabotage Biden’s efforts to rejoin the anti-nuclear deal.

DDT may have killed 33 unaccompanied Guatemalan children by deporting them after a judge ordered them to stop a deportation. Agency officials claimed they didn’t know about the order until the plane landed in Guatemala, but they didn’t bring them back. DDT’s administration claims it’s protecting the public during the pandemic, but the permission for unlimited church gatherings shows no protection from the virus. Coronavirus cases and deaths per capita in Guatemala are far fewer than in the U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has lost another member, Lamar Alexander (TN) to a COVID-19 infection, but McConnell keeps punishing people. He plans a pay freeze for all civilian federal workers in the spending package required to keep the government open after December 11.

Gratitude on Thanksgiving 2020

Today is Thanksgiving, created in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln and now a traditional time for giving thanks. Gratitude—at least a small part of it—I feel today:

• I have a home and food with enough money to keep the status quo.
• I have wonderful friends and a loving partner who share my life.
• I am healthy and hope that my caution continues to keep me safe.
• I have a new president-elect and vice president-elect (I hope!) who will bring back democracy and sanity to our country.
• I am looking forward to the possibility of a successful vaccine. 

I hope you have the same advantages and are willing to keep them through sharing responsibilities and preserving the rights of all, not just a few.

Indifference from the current U.S. leadership has caused tremendous suffering for people. Over 70 million claims for unemployment have been filed in 2020; another 12 million may be forced to file before the end of the year. Of the 50 million people who face food-insecurity, 17 million are children. With long waiting lines, food banks run out of food in a few hours. Twenty-one percent of small businesses are closed, up from 16 percent in June. On January 1, the current administration plans to cut food-stamp benefits to over 8,000 poor senior citizens who live in supportive living facilities because Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue decided they don’t qualify. (Perdue is the brother of Georgia’s senatorial candidate, David Perdue.) The 20-year-old program allows facilities to pool food-stamp benefits and purchase food on the behalf of elderly and disabled residents who cannot get to the grocery stores. Denying these 8,000 people food stamps would save the U.S. less than $25 million a year—about eight trips to Mar-a-Lago for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT).

But DDT leaves the White House in 55 days, and his selfish ignorant Cabinet members will most likely also be gone.

Emily Murphy has tentatively moved forward President-elect Joe Biden’s transition with reluctant permission for a slow start. White House chief of staff and others have given contact positions to a few DDT loyalists, permitting them to talk with Biden’s transition team although all others are blocked from speaking to the “other side.” Next Monday, Biden may begin receiving White House briefings although they may be extremely “brief” because White House aides are accustomed to providing one or two pages with illustrations because DDT dislikes reading. DDT refuses to concede, and some employees are afraid to work with the transition team.

Last Tuesday, however, saw at least 20 meetings between Biden aides and DDT officials in every federal agency for active discussions. Secure facilities for the transition team has been set up in Washington D.C. and Wilmington (DE). The government is finally giving Biden government-mandated $6.3 million for the transition which Murphy denied him for over two weeks. During the delay, donors gave Biden almost $7 million.

Also made available to the team are new email addresses and a website domain linked to the federal government. Members have updates on budgets, upcoming protects, and potential regulations, and the FBI will start background checks on Biden’s nominees. Biden’s team also communicated with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert earmarked for Biden’s coronavirus task force.

Biden’s new appointees briefly spoke after Biden introduced them in a television presentation, driving some Republicans into rage-filled disapproval. Considering the level of GOP incompetence, their anger bodes well for Biden’s selections. Instead of the mandatory obeisance DDT demanded from his Cabinet in all meetings, Biden’s team talked about what they would do for the people of the United States.

Maintaining his positive demeanor, Biden spoke with NBC’s Lester Holt:

“I think we’re going to not be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past. There’s a lot of immediate discussion, and I must say the outreach has been sincere. [It] has not been begrudging so far, and I don’t expect it to be.”

Discussing his foreign policy and national security team, Biden said:

“America is back. Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again to sit at the head of the table. Ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s appointment for ambassador to the United Nations, had earlier given the same message:

“My fellow career diplomats and public servants around the world, I want to say to you: America is back, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back.”

Biden has said that he is willing to meet with DDT, but DDT’s attitude makes that unlikely.

Big business has decided Biden will be president even if DDT is still in denial. GM pulled its name off DDT’s lawsuit to take California’s right to set stricter statewide fuel standards and suggested Toyota and Fiat Chrysler do the same. Mary Barra, GM’s CEO, agrees with Biden “that we can own the 21st century car market again by moving to electric vehicles.” By now almost all world leaders have agreed Biden is the president-elect. The only major holdout is Russian President Vladimir Putin who has said, like DDT, he is waiting for the votes from the electoral college. 

What Biden can immediately do:

• Listen to career officials—even before he gets his own installed—instead of firing them the way that DDT consistently does. For example, Nancy Messonnier warned Congress about COVID-19 nine months ago, and DDT immediately got rid of her.
• Reinstate trust in CDC.
• Resume regular media briefings with information instead of the self-glorification coming from DDT.
• Pay attention to daily White House briefings.
• Restore stability at the Pentagon and overhaul the DHS.

British approval of DDT’s leadership had fallen to 15 percent, two percent lower than that of Russia’s leadership. The UK’s Labour Party leadership called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to condemn DDT’s refusal to concede the election in another example of support for Biden. After rejoicing about Biden’s election, world leaders and international corporations are back to pre-DDT normal. Bank trade groups met with Biden aides about regulation differences; foreign diplomats have shifted their agendas to previous times; and corporate executives say they want the transition to move forward after Biden was “fairly elected as our next president,” according to CVS Health CEO Larry Merlo. Only DDT’s supporters loved his instability and chaos. Business leaders are even trying to persuade DDT to concede.

When Biden’s win was announced on November 7, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel said on MSNBC:

“As the results came through tonight, I started to watch the reaction coming in around the world, and people were reacting like the United States had overthrown a dictator, that democracy has been saved, that America’s reputation had been saved…. [In the wake of Trump’s electoral defeat,] the impression of American democracy, through this experience is actually going to be reinforced. I think the impression of the United States as a believer in democracy will be stronger coming, well, starting right now.”

Geopolitics are shifting for both democracies and autocracies such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China. Biden stated he will host a “Summit for Democracy” soon after he takes office in a 180-degree turn from favoring demagogues. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be concerned about where he will fit into the new administration after controlling DDT as will Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The new president has support from over 80 million voters, the largest number for any president.

[Note: Originally I put DDT instead of Biden as the leader of the free world–so sorry!]  Even without being inaugurated, Biden has become the leader of the free world, something the president of the United States never achieved in almost four years. DDT alienated democratic allies, destroyed U.S. intelligence morale, fired respected people, and assisted foreign enemies, even providing them with classified information. Biden’s initial appointments, although not universally approved by the far left, bring experience and leadership. Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary, in particular, has already participated in saving the U.S. people from another recession caused by another U.S. president.

As DDT’s lawsuits continue, ad infinitum, I still worry, but I feel much lighter this Thanksgiving Day than I have for the last four, when DDT’s election brought a darkness to our world.

The Completion of Thanksgiving

For several weeks, the media has obsessed about Thanksgiving dinner—specifically how to get along with people gathering around the groaning board. Culture since the election of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) has made this an all-consuming issue.

With his typical cruelty, DDT’s son Donald Trump Jr has this recommendation: “trigger a liberal” at Thankgiving dinner with the goal of encouraging fights among families at the family gathering. He tweeted, “Trigger a liberal thanksgiving” and offered an autographed copy of his book for winners who send him photos or videos of “something/someone triggered maybe with my book.” Jr is listed as author of Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us:

“This is the book that the leftist elites don’t want you to read — Donald Trump, Jr., exposes all the tricks that the left uses to smear conservatives and push them out of the public square, from…”

Triggered became a best seller after the RNC and the Trump Organizations spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase copies of the book that promotes lies through conspiracy theories and encourages Jr’s social media followers to engage in bad behavior. Conservatives, however, may be more “triggered” by a discussion of the facts and their lack of defense for their beloved leader.

On Thanksgiving Day, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) unexpectedly visited troops in Afghanistan after pardoning three war criminals who were blamed of their crimes by their Navy Seal colleagues. Once again DDT created chaos by announcing peace talks with the Taliban, after dumping the idea just two months ago after a period of negotiations, and demanding a cease-fire that negotiators had already rejected and that the U.S. has no leverage to enact. DDT claimed that the Taliban wants a ceasefire, but he also claimed that Turkey wouldn’t kill the Kurds. The Taliban negotiating team was surprised at DDT’s statements. A member said, “Our positions remain the same.” With DDT removing troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. has even less leverage than earlier.

Since he was inaugurated almost three years ago, DDT had previously made no trips to Afghanistan and only one to a war zone, a secretive trip to Iraq almost a year ago. That time, plane spotters saw Air Force One crossing Britain; this time, he took a military plane with only five people, including Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY). DDT ate with Barrasso and a commander based at Bagram.

DDT demonstrated his obsession with impeachment during the traditional ceremony of pardoning a turkey. The two fowl, Bread and Butter, will not reside on a table but instead safely live out their natural lives because of the selection. DDT’s statement:

“Thankfully, Bread and Butter have been specially raised by the Jacksons to remain calm under any condition, which will be very important because they’ve already received subpoenas to appear in Adam Schiff’s basement on Thursday. It seems the Democrats are accusing me of being too soft on turkey, but Bread and Butter — I should note that, unlike previous witnesses, you and I have actually met.”

DDT added that the news media would find the pardon “very popular” because “turkeys are closely related to vultures.”

Although both turkeys were saved, only Butter received a “pardon.” One joke was that Butter received the pardon because Bread got more votes.

Although the DDT base may have found humor in the comments about impeachment, satirist Andy Borowitz gave another perspective about the pardon in his humor column, “Trump Refuses to Pardon White House Turkey After Accusing It of Working for Soros”:

“In a startling break with Thanksgiving tradition, Donald J. Trump refused to pardon the White House turkey after claiming that it was working as a secret operative of the billionaire George Soros.

“A group of fourth graders from Bethesda, Maryland, who had gathered on the White House lawn for the annual turkey-pardoning ceremony appeared unprepared for the anti-Soros outburst that Trump unleashed on the Thanksgiving bird.

“’That turkey was sent by Soros to spy on me,’ Trump said, angrily turning on the fowl. ‘A lot of people are saying this.’

“While the oblivious turkey pecked desultorily at the ground, an increasingly enraged Trump spewed a stream of conspiracy theories linking the feathered animal to global élites, election fraud in Florida, and Jim Acosta.

“Trump attempted to lead the fourth-grade class in a chant of ‘Lock It Up,’ apparently directed at the Thanksgiving delicacy, but the students slowly backed away from him in silence.

“Tracy Klugian, one of the children who witnessed Trump’s meltdown, said that he found it ‘sad.’

“’I get that he’s upset about Mueller and the midterms, but he shouldn’t take it out on a turkey,’ he said.”

Background on the turkey pardon: residents of the White House typically ate the donated turkeys until 1989 with the exception of Abraham Lincoln giving the turkey in 1863 to his son Tad and President Kennedy’s refusal to eat the turkey in 1961. Richard Nixon freed the turkey but gave no pardon. George H.W. Bush began the official presidential turkey pardon tradition. The pardon got attention in 2007 when the turkey found back during the ceremony of H.W.’s son, W.

As my vegetarian friend said, maybe next year’s turkey could be named “Tofu.”

And now the conservative Christians can launch into their mythical persecution and their fantasy of the “war on Christmas.” If you get together with conservatives at the winter holiday dinner, here are some talking points. Just change the title.

DDT: Week 96 – New ‘Normal’ for Thanksgiving

Between tweets and personal appearances, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) spent much of his “working” time early Thanksgiving week trying to deflect attention about real issues.

• Issue: Investigating acting AG Matthew Whitaker; response, reference to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), new Intelligence Committee chairman, as “little Adam Schitt” while DDT’s wife continues her program against cyber bullying.
• Issue: Concerns from retired Adm. Bill McRaven, the former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, about DDT’s attack on the free press; response, false claim that McRaven is a “Hillary Clinton fan” and didn’t capture Osama bin Ladin in a timely fashion.
• Issue: The deadliest fire in California history; response, lies about “gross mismanagement of the forests” because they didn’t rake the forest as Finland does. (Fact: Finland has an early warning system, aerial surveillance system, and an extensive network of forest roads; the country also pays local aviation clubs to fly over the most threatened areas of forest so that fires will be found before they go out of control. California is also much warmer and drier than Finland and has vegetation much likelier to catch on fire. During his visit to Paradise, DDT also called the town “Pleasure”—twice.) Next DDT lie: fire mitigation raises 2019 budget by $500,000. Didn’t happen and none of his officials or members of Congress know anything about this.
• Issue: climate change; response, “I want great climate.”
• Issue: GOP midterm election losses; response, after claiming that the election was a referendum on him, “I didn’t run. I wasn’t running. My name wasn’t on the ballot.”
• Issue: Not going to Arlington on Veterans Day; response, “I was extremely busy on calls for the country…. I should have and I did last year.” (DDT had nothing on his schedule, he sent a large number of tweets accusing Florida of rigging the election and Democrats for dropping the stock market, and he was in Asia on Veterans Day 2017.)

Maybe Saudi’s Crown Prince did torture and dismember a U.S. journalist in its Turkish embassy, DDT said, but he’s not going to do anything about the murder. Saudi Arabia is a “great spectacular ally,” according to DDT, meaning that they give DDT lots of money for his personal use and nothing will change in the U.S.-Saudi relationship. DDT also lied about Saudi Arabia investing $450 billion dollars in the U.S. economy, about Saudi’s war in Yemen in response to Iranian intervention, about hundreds of thousands of jobs, and about right-wing smear that the murdered Jamal Khashoggi was a “member of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Facts: Only $14.5 billion in military purchases have been confirmed, and the number of jobs is under 17,500 for a full $110 billion in sales possible. Khashoggi was not part of the Muslim brotherhood. The end of the statement was DDT’s support for a foreign murdering dictator over his own nation’s intelligence that concluded Mohammed bin Salam ordered Khashoggi’s dismemberment and assassination. “It’s a shame, but it is what it is,” DDT said on his way to Mar-a-Lago today.

DDT’s message: He’ll overlook murder if somebody pays him.

DDT continued last Sunday with his long list of lies in an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox: his White House runs “like a well-oiled machine”; he “did well in France”; he didn’t know the deputy national security advisor who Melania Trump fired but “she was with me for a long time”; he didn’t know that his new acting AG Matthew Whitaker had any “views on the Mueller investigation” but Whitaker was right in “no collusion”; he won’t meet Robert Mueller as promised and he won’t give written answers about obstruction of justice as promised; he’s not responsible for Democrats elected to the House but did cause Republican elections to the Senate; and he has an “A+” for his presidential ranking.

DDT also said he refuses to hear the Jamal Khashoggi tape while he was tortured and dismembered because it’s a “suffering” tape.

Thanksgiving messages from DDT:

Criticism of a court ruling: “Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster.” (Followed by his holiday greetings to the armed forces: “We get a lot of bad court decisions from the Ninth Circuit.”)

Khashoggi’s murder: “It’s a mean & nasty world out there, the Middle East in particular.” (Followed in person by “Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place.”)

Four minutes later: “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!”

DDT’s fury with the 9^th Circuit Court came from Judge Jon S.Tigar, not a member of the 9th Circuit Court, who temporarily blocked DDT’s plan to keep asylum seekers out of the United States. Tigar wrote, “Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.” DDT accused Tigar of being an “Obama” judge although he’s kept silent about his own appointments who ruled twice against him in the last week.

DDT’s failure in this attempt follows others when court injunctions blocked his executive orders for punishment of “sanctuary cities,” denial of DACA protections to Dreamers, and “zero tolerance” separating migrant parents and their children. Other DDT losses include the Keystone XL Pipeline, press access to the White House, and the Emoluments Clause.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (D-IA), 85, may be developing memory loss. In response to Chief Justice John Roberts’ rebuke of DDT for denouncing the 9^th Circuit Court, Grassley said that he doesn’t remember Roberts’ criticizing President Obama for his statement that the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United would open the floodgates of wealthy and foreign interests through donations. Roberts praised the “independent judiciary, but President Obama was right in his statements. Roberts did express “concern” for the former’s president’s comments. DDT snapped back at Roberts to claim that there are “Obama” judges; he’s ignoring the recent “Trump justice” who stated a partisan position under oath in a hearing.

DDT displayed more anger at the courts on Friday when a justice from the New York Supreme Court denied his request to dismiss the lawsuit against himself and the Trump Foundation alleging that the so-called charitable foundation violated both state and federal laws for “more than a decade.” The suit claims illegal actions such as improper political activity, “self-dealing transactions,” and refusal to “implement even elementary corporate formalities required by law.”  Justice Saliann Scarpulla rejected the arguments that “a sitting president may not be sued” and that the state court lacks jurisdiction over the president in this case. Her decision means that the case can proceed and may help other cases against DDT in New York and other states, including a defamation case from Summer Zervos.

DDT proved that he controls the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA). The featured speaker for its annual dinner on 4/27/19 is Ron Chernow, biographer of founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. Gone are the comedians: DDT didn’t like them. The question is whether anyone else can crack jokes. Another question is how the press will continue to cave. Having gotten rid of the featured comedian at the dinner, DDT said that he might go to the dinner this year, but someone should tell him that the planned speaker called him a “demagogue.”

DDT made $4.2 million for his private businesses from GOP campaign events.

Next week, business as usual. DDT offered to keep the government from shutting down if Congress gives him a wall. Then he went golfing.

DDT kept the Senate in the recent midterm elections, but a conservative publication predicts a substantially slowing economy in the next two years. Goldman Sachs projected the GDP down to 1.8 percent and 1.6 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2019.

After avoiding service members for 96 weeks, DDT might want to pay them a little visit. His support has fallen in the past two years over two points to under 44 percent while those disapproving of him have gone from 37 percent to over 43 percent. Female service members have a 28 percent approval rating of DDT while males have 47 percent.

This past week, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a safety alert about dangerous E. coli bacteria in romaine lettuce, calling on grocery stores to remove all the produce and restaurants to discard it. Earlier this year, five people died in 210 cases in 36 states.

Thanksgiving is a time to say what you are thankful for, and I always say, “My friends.” Most commanders in chief praise service members in harm’s way; DDT said, “I made a tremendous difference in our country.” In a Coast Guard station, he posed for pictures and told officials that he would give them $100 if they could break par at his golf course. It’s the new normal.

Traditions for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day can be a time of traditions. Each year, for example, friends visit and celebrate their partnership anniversary with us. We talked about anniversaries last evening. I commented that even though my partner and I married at the beginning of October this year that I’ll always think of my anniversary as the day that my partner and I selected 44 years ago to celebrate.

Traditions also change. For many Thanksgiving days, the four of us listened to Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” starting exactly at noon on our public radio station. If you haven’t heard it, I heartily recommend the experience. This year, however, the programming changed, eliminating the airing of the performance. We briefly mourned. Eating, parades, football, and shopping are other Thanksgiving traditions that have changed over the years.

Some of the history:

Much as people like to think that Pilgrims held the “first” Thanksgiving, its tradition began before that event. The Thanksgiving feast is a harvest festival; thus other cultures celebrated this season, sometimes with thankful offerings to gods. Some claim that the first feast in North America between foreigners—like the Pilgrims—and natives was in 1541 when Francisco de Coronado and his expedition broke bread with the natives at Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle. Other historians prefer the one in Florida with French Huguenots celebrating on June 30th of 1564 or the one celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565. There were also ones at the Jamestown colony in 1609 and Roanoke in 1586, and Ponce de Leon had one near St. Petersburg (FL) in 1513.

The Plymouth feast took three days. Both Pilgrims and American Indians contributed, but turkey wasn’t served. Colonist Edward Winslow reported that “wild fowl” was on the menu, which could have been duck or geese. The celebrants did eat venison, shellfish, and lobster as well as nuts, wheat flour, pumpkins, squashes, carrots, and peas. Images of clothing provided to school children are also wrong. Because buckles were too expensive, Pilgrims’ clothing used buttons and laces for fastening. The misunderstanding came from nineteenth-century illustrators who used clothing popular among fashionable Englishmen in the 1600s.

Although conservatives like to think that the founding fathers made Thanksgiving a national holiday—and George Washington wanted it to be so—Thomas Jefferson thought the idea was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. The official proclamation of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November didn’t occur until 1863, after 40 years of Sarah Josepha Hale’s letter-campaign to five presidents. Southern states, which had already seceded from the Union, opposed the holiday because they thought it was a “New England” holiday. Even 150 years ago, conservatives fought the government on the simplest concepts. No nationwide Thanksgiving date existed until the 1870s.

In 1939, President F.D. Roosevelt proclaimed that the day for Thanksgiving would be changed to the fourth Thursday in November to help the economy by lengthening the Christmas shopping season. Republicans opposed the change and called it Democrat Thanksgiving or “Franksgiving.” They celebrated their own Republican Thanksgiving the next Thursday. Two years later, Congress confirmed Roosevelt’s day by passing a law which Roosevelt signed.

“Black Friday” started over 50 years ago in Philadelphia. The term was named after the mass of shoppers that came to the malls causing heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and the name stuck. After retailers failed to change the nickname, they defined the term as the day of the year that puts retailers into the “black.” That might be true for smaller retailers, but large retail chains like Wal-Mart start with a positive net income on January 1. Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds and annual reports of assaults, shootings, and throngs of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal before supplies run out.

The day after Thanksgiving is also the biggest day for bar and liquor sales. Some people guess that it’s caused by the long holiday weekend and being around family.

Conservatives might also be distressed by the origination of the word “turkey,” corrupted from the Hebrew tukki. Columbus’ Jewish interpreter, Luis de Torres, called the wild birds tukki because they looked like peacocks to him. Other linguists think that turkey originated from tuka, the Tamil word for peacock.

Every year, since Abraham Lincoln, the president has pardoned two turkeys for Thanksgiving. (This year’s winner is Popcorn, with Caramel the runner-up. Both turkeys will live.) The tradition began accidentally when Lincoln informally pardoned his son Tad’s pet, Jack the Turkey. Pardoning occurred sporadically until 1947 when Harry Truman made it official. For a while, the pardoned turkeys retired to Disneyland’s Big Thunder Ranch (CA); the location moved in 2010 to George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Last year, about 254 million turkeys were raised the U.S. A myth surrounding them is that the tryptophan in the meat makes people sleepy. It’s not really enough to make any different. Scientists guess that it’s alcohol, or excessive food, or just relaxing with good company.

Yale and Princeton started the football tradition when they played their first game in 1876. The NFL joined in 1934 when the Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears. Detroit has played every year since then except during World War II. The Dallas Cowboys added another game in 1966. This year, the Lions play the Green Bay Packers while the Cowboys play the Raiders. A third game is the Jacksonville Jaguars facing the Baltimore Ravens. High school games are called “Turkey Bowls.”

Macy’s first Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924, called “The Christmas Parade,” used live animals from the Central Park Zoo and was billed as “The Christmas Parade.” Three years later, Goodyear added a giant balloon of Felix the Cat. For the next six years, balloons just floated off into the sky at the end of the parade, and Macy’s gave everyone who found a deflated balloon $100. Snoopy, who joined the parade in 1968 and showed up another six times, has the record for the most appearances. In 1946, the parade route moved to its current starting point at 77^th and Central Park West, and in 1947, it was first nationally televised. Macy’s thought about cancelling the parade 50 years after the Kennedy assassination, but then decided to continue the tradition. About 3.5 million watch the parade on New York streets with another 50 million seeing it on television.

Native Hawaiians celebrate Makahiki, their own “Thanksgiving” festival, dedicated to the agriculture and fertility god, Lono. Starting in late October, the Hawaiians suspended all war for four months as they feasted, played games, danced, and generally made merry with Lono was in charge. They carried a tiki of Lono, trimmed with ferns and feathers, around each island to mark the start of the makahiki season. When Ku took over again at the end of the lunar calendar of January, they set adrift a canoe with offerings to Lono.

Since 1975, following the 17-month occupation of Alcatraz Island by the American Indian Movement in 1969, the International Indian Treaty Council has an annual “Unthanksgiving Day.” A sunrise ceremony commemorates the struggles of the indigenous native people.

If you enjoy Thanksgiving, thank your progressive presidents and lawmakers who overcame conservative opposition to bring this holiday to the people in the United States. And if you like shopping, be careful that some desperate person doesn’t accidentally kill you tomorrow.

Thanks to T. Steelman for some of the above information and a list of sources:

• A Taste of Thanksgiving: Curious Facts About America’s Holiday by Christopher Forest
• Ancient Ways: Reclaiming Pagan Traditions by Pauline Campanelli and Dan Campanelli
• Hawaiian Mythology by Martha Warren Beckwith

My Thanks for 2012

Thanksgiving is a time that I express gratitude for the people around me, family and friends, who enrich my life. One special joy is the couple who comes from the city to celebrate their anniversary with us. Because the country and our state don’t have marriage equality, they, like us, are not legally married, but we still have our traditions. This year, as several times in the past, another friend came with her pies, and a local friend dropped by after her dinner with other friends.

This year, however, my gratitude goes far beyond my immediate family. The recent election, in which the majority of people voted for the president, Senate members, and House members, has given hope for the betterment of the United States. Because of gerrymandering in the “red states,” the House still has a majority of Republicans, but I take comfort in knowing that more people in the country voted for progressives than regressives.

Thanks to this recent vote, the country will not rush off to start wars the way it might have if  Mitt Romney’s hawkish advisers got their way. The military will not be forced to take an extra $2 trillion that they believe they don’t need. Dick Cheney won’t be back.

For another four years the Supreme Court is safely split between conservatives and liberals with one moderate (in the past a conservative) making most of the decisions. The Affordable Care Act is now the law of the land, and abortion will stay legal although conservatives will do everything they can to prevent it. Women will be able to get free contraception for their personal family planning.

Money won’t be taken from the poor and middle class to go to the wealthy, and the safety net will remain for people who don’t have the advantages that the rest of us do. The Dream Act stays in place; young people who were brought here illegally as children will not be forced into deportation.

LGBT rights will move forward instead of backward, possibly even evolving into marriage equality. The Departments of Energy and Education and Housing and all the others that conservatives wanted to eliminate will remain.

Unions can keep struggling on, and religion won’t overtake the country in the next four years. During that time, the demonization of teachers and other government workers may be reversed.

The Tea Party is weaker than ever. Their determination to dig themselves deeper into their holes may result in a cave-in of hate. This year’s election proved that money does not buy everything. Eighty percent of super PAC money went to conservative candidates, but most of those supported by the conservative PACs lost. People like Joe Walsh and Allen West will not be on Capitol Hill in January.

I’m grateful that there is one house in the United States that Romney cannot buy.

Grover Norquist, who blackmailed almost all Republican Congresspeople into signing a pledge of no new taxes under any circumstances, is losing his clout. A dozen newly elected House Republicans refused to sign the anti-tax pledge during their campaigns, and another handful of returning Republicans have disavowed their allegiance to the written commitment. In addition Democrats picked up eight seats. Fewer than the 218 members needed for a majority vote are now Grover followers. The Senate has the same non-Grover majority with only 39 pledge signers. In the 112^th Congress, the House had 238 Grover followers and the Senate had 41.

I am grateful for all the people willing to stand in line, sometimes up to eight hours and sometimes in freezing temperatures, who refuse to be told that they can’t vote. And I appreciate the people who found open polls despite the conservatives’ misinformation about where and when voters could cast their ballots.

Equal marriage rights made huge gains in the country during the past year with the first popular vote in favor of same-sex marriage in not just one but three states. The one-year study on the effects of gays and lesbians openly serving in the military was very positive, showing no difficulties. I give thanks to people willing to vote for LGBT people and issue, to recognize these as part of the community at large.

Voters alsorejected anti-woman candidates such as Todd Akins (“legitimate rape”) and Richard Mourdock (“gift of rape”) and racist candidates such as Scott Brown who tried to destroy his opponent, Elizabeth Warren, by painting her as a liar about her Native American heritage, meanwhile ridiculing it.

I am grateful to the man who was elected president and his courage in the face of racist lies and threats. In the end, he won—and decisively–over the man who sneered at 47 percent of the people in the United States–the poor and disadvantaged–not only before the election but also after it. Because of the 53 percent of the people in the country who voted for Barack Obama, we will not spend four years with a president who started as a bully in his prep school and continued the practice during much of his life.

This year, perhaps more than any other, the choice was truly one of vision. The country is at a turning point: it can go forward or self-destruct. Thanks to all the people who understood this and voted, we can now move forward.

Today is Thanksgiving Day 2012. Tomorrow, November 23, is Native American Heritage Day, designated by President Obama in 2009 “to honor the contributions, achievements, sacrifices, and cultural and historical legacy of the original inhabitants of what is now the United States and their descendants: the American Indian and Alaska Native people.” I am grateful to the indigenous peoples of the United States who helped the immigrants four centuries ago to survive. The Presidential Proclamation identifies the entire month of November as a time to celebrate and honor Native Americans while never forgetting that there are “parts of our shared history that have been marred by violence and tragic mistreatment” and that “for centuries, Native Americans faced cruelty, injustice, and broken promises.”

“Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.” – Winston Churchill