COACH'S POST-SHELLACKING SPEECH

OK, everyone, let's face it. We were f***ing shellacked yesterday!
And why is that? A number of reasons. First, because of all of you so-called 'progressives' who somehow never made it to the polls yesterday!!
For cryin' out loud, thirty-seven percent of yesterday's voters were senior citizens! Millennials, where the hell were you yesterday?! Having a picnic in the park with whatever small change you can spare from your already starvation-level wages?! For which you can thank those same Repiglicans?!?!?
And women: don't you get it yet that the Repiglicans actually mean to force you back into the 1950s?! That they don't want to pay you equally for comparable work and that they actually get off themselves by sticking their long uncomfortable hypocritical noses into your private lives?!
And to my brethren of color: I think your case actually awakens a smidgen or two of sympathy in me--but don't push it! I know some of you have consciously voted since you became old enough because you haven't forgotten what that right means. Kudos to y'all for that.
On the other hand, my anger towards those of you who haven't voted is mitigated by the bitter truth that many of you have consistently voted, yet seen little to nothing change, at least not for the better, when so dam' much needs to change that way! But without those consistent votes, nothing will change for the better. So, with my humble thanks as I don't know if I could do likewise in your places, you need to continue to soldier on and add more to those seasoned, serrated ranks, as a poet once wrote.
And at this level, I think I'm angriest at all the unimaginative schoolmarms, male and female, and the 'little' lambkins in their oh-so-civil classrooms! This past cycle we needed to do quite a lot differently--and we didn't. We didn't even throw every LIE manufactured by the Repiglicans back into their teeth the way we shoul;d be doing!! Why?! Because too many of you can't bring yourselves to f***ing TAKE OFF THE GLOVES and fight bare-knuckle?! 'Cuz that's what we need to do--that and STOP being apologetic about what we know and believe! We need to not only VIGOROUSLY defend but go on offensive, big time and TO HELL with ANYONE'S 'hurt feelings'!!!
And that leads me to the 'leadership': with the truly laudable exceptions of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who else is putting out a real program which real people can get behind and support? What are other Democrats advocating in the way of bread-and-butter issues other than an increase in the minimum wage? How many of us are going around on the Blue Dog's hamster-wheel?
We need more than that! We need to forcibly make the point that there are no jobs on a dead planet; greening our economy and pushing renewable energy forms is the way to both greater economic and defense security (no more wars for oil!), that it is only just to mind our own business as to who marries who and that too much income disparity is FATAL to democracy! Maybe we need to ask very starkly as to which way our fellow-citizens want to go in that respect, although I'll be glad to hear from others about that.
Finally: please don't tell yourself, "Aw, this or that can't happen here; that's too crazy." You're right about that; it IS crazy. But remember: the inmates now run the asylum. Get it? Therefore, legislative lunacy CAN happen. It may be about to unless we block it, in some cases with our own bodies!
And think about under-the-radar, write-in campaigns. Let's see what the law allows and maybe we can jar the MSM and the power-structure generally two years hence. Don't tire of spreading the message and engaging, or re-engaging, the politically disengaged. And next time, YOU also get the hell out and VOTE!!!!!!

A RUBIK'S CUBE

'Palestine' and 'Palestinian' are presented as whole cloths, good or bad, by both friends and enemies alike but it seems to me that this concept resembles a Rubik's Cube much more than anything flatter.
If we start with the oldest aspect, that would have to be the Hebrew, if not Jewish, DNA that, according to Tsvi Misinai, is shared by 90 percent of the Israeli Arab/Palestinian population. Which indicates, under the radically different acculturations, they and Israel ARE brethren, however abhorrent both sides find this idea.
Such acculturations, beginning probably with Hadrian's bringing in non-Jews to settle in the land he renamed Syria-Palestina, going through overt and/or covert coercions to convert, first to Christianity and later to Islam, the Arabization accompanying the latter and the denuding and desertification of the land that went with that through the last pre-return 'resettlement' of the land around 1840 after a local rebellion, obviously complicate the recognition of this, maybe more than anything else.
But there's more: during the Mandate, slightly more Arabs than Jews entered 'Palestine' and they had, and have, lots of surnames indicating origin elsewhere--Egypt, Arabia, Hijaz, Syria, Levant, Iraq, etc.
These are, presumably, the people with Hebrew DNA markers on their genes. Makes me wonder if improved job prospects was just the tipping point for something in their unconscious--or something!
And you also have people like Zahir Muhsein, a top PLO official, admitting to an interviewer that 'there is no difference between us and the rest of Syria' and that the 'Palestinian people' is just the current strategic jive--or at least for the leadership. On the other hand, we have someone like Dean Obeidallah (who I personally respect) writing how his father spoke of 'Palestine in the heart' which points to, at least for some, a genuine attachment for that particular land.
I have a question myself: if the Israeli Arabs and Palestinians were to, as it were, re-Hebraicize themselves and bring themselves culturally into the 21st century, wouldn't they be effectively DE-colonizing themselves? To what extent is their Islam and the Arabization accompanying it a product of Arab imperialism? Maybe they, and Israel too, need to think hard about that?

ON THE TIGHTROPE

Been ruminating quite a bit on the tension between having to protect one's self and people and remaining true to their 'mission'.
As I wade in, let me begin with this question: is there or has there been any other army, anywhere, anytime, that has taken as much care as the IDF has and still does to avoid civilian casualties? Not us; we are SO out of the running it's not even funny. UK? France? Ditto. Canada? Nasty things are now coming out about Canada's record with its First Nations and it don't look too good. Don't know about Anzacs, though.
And I'm not talking about what most Western soldiers are taught nowadays; I'm talking in-the-field experience. Any other army hardly even merits mentioning here. Anyone who wants to differ; you'd better have examples at the ready!
Countries as well as individuals have straws which break the camel's back. I'd say the kidnapping and murder of the three yeshiva boys qualifies. Time will tell whether Bibi & co. were waiting for just such a straw and I'm not going into that right now. So, all you brainless weepers, what, then, should Israel have done this time? Especially when Hamas uses its own people as shields for its cowardly murderers?
And let us be thankful Israel had had enough when it did. That is, unless more dead Jews are kind of your 'thing'--and in which case I'll be only too glad to push you off a cliff if we ever meet!
I can hardly blame Israelis for despairing of the peace process over the last twenty years. Time and again the PA has been offered settlements with 95% of what they asked for and they've turned them all down. On one such occasion, then-Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah of Saudi Arabia threw up his hands and told Abbas, "You turned this deal down?! That's it! We can't support you anymore, you're on your own!"
However, Israelis are not the only ones despairing of it. I am told that among ordinary Palestinians, dissatisfaction with both Fatah and Hamas is rife. Maybe it's time to give the real Gandhis among them (and they do exist) more of a chance. Ditto the Israelis who want to, and do, work for real peace and whose numbers, once acquainted with their Arab counterparts, are likely to grow mightily.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, whom I largely respect, has written of his broken heart and how Israel is killing his Judaism. Let's take a look at that supposition.
I suggest it is, or ought to be, a given that Jews holding temporal power in their hands once more after at least a millennium and a half of being essentially powerless, will change and is changing Judaism. Judaism is also quite pluralistic, although some (including me) work on expanding that further. It may be trite, boring and just plain OLD to repeat that, so long as that powerlessness persisted, Jews could afford a sort of ethereal purity. That is no longer the case, nor should it be as it'd get them all killed today and only the Devil's servants want that!
In the 1930s, many if not most Jews were either indifferent or downright hostile to Zionism. In that respect, the Shoah was the last straw after 15 centuries which convinced many that they couldn't afford NOT to be Zionists. Never again, truly!
But for whom, the Left asks (as it should)? Shouldn't that apply to everyone and not only Jews? Of course it SHOULD, you omadhauns! (Gaelic for lunkheads) And I do agree with the good rabbi that Jews do have a charge to be out in front in that respect. The ideas of a common morality for all of common humanity are from God through Israel and Israel deserves our respect for being the first prism for that light!
We also live in a world where many HATE those ideas and want more than anything to banish them from our minds. In such a world, the first conveyors of such ideas will be in serious danger at least now and again! And because we all have a part of us which also hates those strictures and/or fears to go against the darkness-motivated mobs, can we be sure we'll help them when they need help? Need I remind my readers how dismally nearly all of us FAILED that test a mere seventy years ago?!
Under such conditions, the state of Israel is still only too necessary for Jews. Europe today is only underlining that uncomfortable fact!
"If I am not for myself, who will be? But if I am for myself only, what am I?" Hillel said and wrote it two millennia ago and it is as true now as then. And it's also true that Am Yisrael is still the pilot group in walking that tightrope, with the rest of us following with wildly different degrees of willingness and skill.

WHAT'S REAL TO US AND TO THEM

More of us seem to understand what the REAL bare necessities are: clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and with which to cook, wash and irrigate. Unfracked land which can be worked and built upon and doesn't shake alarmingly at the least little tremor and to keep healthy so that we can enjoy these things!
Then there comes the need to put our contribution into the common pot and to be able to MORE than earn a mere living--to be able to make a LIFE by both giving and receiving with our talents and knowledge. Friends and family; living creatures and/or people to love and care about and who care about us. To be able to freely honor the God in each of our hearts and to respect how others honor God but also to assert that in NO case can God be honored by murder, rape, suppression of anyone, or religious coercion or heedless destruction of the natural world. We seem to see more of the world's colors, perhaps in more ways than one.
They don't. What they see boils down to a set of questions, to which I'll return in a bit. But first, let me say these things: they make a great but hollow show of religious devotion regardless of their 'religious' labels and they're all the louder for their emptiness but the god to whom they are truly devoted is known either as Ba'al, Mammon or just Moo-Lah.
Even so they are loud and hollow about their devotion to Family but what they really want is to preserve an iron and UNGODLY hierarchy of power (NOT love) within their families and the relatively freewheeling culture of today has them TERRIFIED of losing that. Which is probably why they seem to include a growing number of ammosexuals as well.
And here's where I return to the questions that seem to sum up how they see the world.
1) What you got to trade? What's your currency and how much?
2) Does it match mine and/or do I want it? (If not, it and you are both worthless to Me)
3)If I want it, how much is it? (Usually 'too much', whatever that might be)
4) Since I don't want to pay for it but I want it, how can I steal it without him/her knowing it? (This is where race-baiting comes in; see what LBJ had to say about it)
5) What can I get for me and mine RIGHT NOW? So long as it's legal, I don't care who or what else is hurt by it. It's a dog-eat-dog world and it's not my responsibility to make it better.
Go back far enough and almost everyone's narrative involves some oppression. One thing which does NOT come under that heading, however, is the humbling of those who had been oppressors. Right now, Europeans are who most of us think of first. But this narrative has also been played out in the Orient, in Africa and even in the native American cultures (anyone remember how the Tlaxcalans helped Cortez because they were fed up with their sacrificial tribute to the Aztecs?) and is now also seen in the Middle East where Jacob has rightly humbled Ishmael,who is still furious and who still doesn't really want peace.
Let's just be clear about THAT before I wind things up by mentioning that we accept the reality of how others see things, including ourselves, and at least make efforts, however mortifyingly laughable they may be, to integrate or at least make connections between our different stories and outlooks. They don't. To them, it's their way or the highway. Anyone like that, be they Dominionist or Islamist or Randian, is dangerous to democracy and should be pointed out as such. We strive for clarity; they seek to fog up and confuse. So insist on 'plain' speech, brothers and sisters!
I hope this rather rambling post helps at least some of you out in the field during this election year. Maybe this summing-up is better: we are the ones closest to the real basics, who recognize we can be wrong and others can see things differently than we. We are inclusive; they are exclusive. They acknowledge no errors on their parts and see money as the only REAL measure of anyone and never mind how it's obtained!
Clear enough, brothers and sisters? Then let's go!!

TIME TO USE 'WRITE-IN' CAMPAIGNS?

Thinking again about campaigning and ways to avoid going hat in hand to millionaires and billionaires. Also thinking about 1) the ambivalence (at best) many people have about real change. A lot of people are worried about what they MAY need to give up and 2) those of us who want real change but don't see a vigorous enough attempt to deal with the things coming down the pike directly towards us!
Allow me to ask the first set of people (you know who you are) this question: can you tell that, whether we want them to or not, things (with the climate first and last) will change, yea are changing before our very eyes? If you can't see it, refuse to acknowledge it or are preparing to be 'raptured' and, thus, don't care--then I ain't talking to you! Stick your heads back into the sand (or back up your hinder end) and stay there. But know this: having your heads stuck up your other end does put you in the most convenient position to kiss your a** goodbye, as the old poster from the 70s instructed!
To those who CAN tell and do know, let me ask you this: are you ready to do what needs doing NOW or will you palm it off on your children and/or grandkids? If you're a 'palmer', you also have no business as a free citizen of a democracy but need to go somewhere which will welcome docile subjects, because that's what you really are!
For those ready to act but still ambivalent: you want to do right by posterity, right? You say that's the most important thing to you? Well, pardners, now's the time to step up to the plate and walk the walk: support what looks most likely to ensure that posterity the best type of life we can leave them--and don't be sloppy about doing your 'homework' in checking that out!
Last but possibly most important, I speak to my fellows who are impatient with the pace of change: in the primaries last month, I wrote in my own name to be a committeeperson, just because. Then, lo and behold, I'm told I've won a spot!
I think, in those areas where progressives are 'shut out' by the apparatus of major parties, maybe encouraging 'write-in' campaigns might help. Either find people who we know to favor real, noticeable change or, if not, write our own names in and ask our friends to do so. We badly need, and I still hope for, an all-levels progressive tsunami this fall. Nor can we expect, and I for one feel we shouldn't solicit, large-scale donations but find out whatever we can do WITHOUT big money!!
I suspect not many of us, myself included, are ready to enter the goldfish bowls and/or snake pits that public life and governmental assemblies have become, but if we don't, how will they become any less of those things?
It really is up to us to do whatever we can. Even if we mostly lose, at least this is a start. We're rolling a snowball and time will tell how big it gets and how quickly. We can only do our own parts--so let's step up and do whatever we can right here, right now!

ONE AGGRESSIVELY LOW-BUDGET CAMPAIGN IDEA

Lately I've been exploring what might be ways to stage and run aggressively low-budget campaigns not only where I live but nationwide and I think I have something.
It starts with the truth, everyone enjoys eating. And most of us like potluck suppers. Well, why not use that as a way to not only energize but expand the base? That is, draw in(or draw back) progressively more people who are and/or have been disenchanted with the whole business? Considering how deplorably, yea abysmally, low the turnout is for even presidential, let alone midterm, elections I say we want to aim our pitches at drawing back the disenchanted rather than catering to the biped Morrises called 'independents'. There are PLENTY more disenchanteds than 'independents'! So, make sure to have plenty of registration forms at the potlucks, which should be held at free or low-cost venues such as churches or synagogues or, maybe, fire halls and the like. Ask for small ($5-10) contributions from those who don't bring anything, but ASK. Let's try not to compel if we can get away with it.
And KEEP HAVING THEM across the district, borough or whatever the election unit might be. Ask for volunteers to help with them. Maybe volunteer to help organize them.
And as the weather warms, they can become potluck picnics--but, again, ask for food contributions, be they snacks, grillable meats, salads or whatever from those who'll come. We want to encourage a feeling of everyone doing what they can--of a wide number of contributors. Which, in turn, can work AGAINST the numbing feeling which the Repiglicans have been spreading: the feeling that YOUR vote doesn't matter and there's nothing you can do. We MUST make the point to a widening number of in-kind contributors that YES, what they do, whether they vote and for whom DOES make a difference for not only them but for all of us, for the whole country!
And we need to keep repeating it, which might be the toughest thing of all for some of us. I know repetition can bore ME pretty quickly but we need to keep at it in order to 1) show ourselves and our base that, at least from the congressional level on down, we CAN nullify big money's influence and yet win and 2) to have our points sink in for a widening base!
Such potlucks and picnics should end with a question/answer session between the candidate(s) and the audience, and maybe with an appropriate song or two. I write songs; all anyone need do is ask and I'll share. Another point about potlucks and picnics: attendees could be asked if they're registered to vote. If not, then they can be directed to a table where the registration forms will be. Even if they refuse to register, still make them welcome.
One thing about which I'm not too sure is to have 'C' and 'S' stamps for the attendees' hands. 'C' would indicate 'citizen', meaning someone civically engaged to varying degrees. The opt-outers would be stamped with 'S', indicating 'subject'.
Actually, I'm not sure potlucks or picnics as so far imagined are the right place for that as it might get more of a discussion going which might obscure the question/answer time with the candidates. However, why not also have potlucks where such a discussion would be at least part of the after-meal agenda?
Such a thing could also provide some raw data as to what needs to be done in which communities in order to variously build, rebuild, maintain and/or strengthen what can be called the civic sense--that is, the feeling of both freedom and responsibility that comes with 'citizen consciousness'. I hope I'm making myself understood here, so weigh in, y'all.
Let's go, people. Let's WIN this election with the first wave of a progressive tsunami and tell the anti-democracy billionaire crowd where they can stick it!!!