Between us, Jane and I can lift, plumb, kneel, shove, and whatnot—-and we replaced the kitchen water heater. Which is pretty good for a new hip and coming off chemo.
We’re being thankful this year for being here in one piece and making progress. Which in 2020, is a win, no qualifiers, eh?
My garbage disposer has started making funny noises. It’s almost 9 years old, I guess it’s time for a new, more powerful disposer.
I FINALLY got the ceiling light in my office installed by a professional electrician – HE didn’t fall through the ceiling, thankfully. He also installed a ceiling fan and light in my bedroom. Total cost was considerably less for the whole job than the other company estimated for just one room. (The first company never got back to me, either, even after 3 calls.)
Putting a garbage disposer up is a royal pain, since it’s a cramped space and it’s heavy and unwieldy and you’re trying to line up the couplings just right. Last year, I installed a disposer for a lady and had a lot of trouble, until I hit on the idea of using my car jack to hold the disposer and raise it up while I held it straight. Went together on the first try. (No, I’m not an engineer.) So, when I change out mine, I’ll use the same trick.
When I replaced the Insinkerator in our old condo, I wedged it up with a milk crate, so there is precedent! However, in the new house, although there was power for a disposall, I elected to use it for a dishwasher instead, and never looked back 🙂
My son and daughter-in-law (mostly the latter) replaced the ceiling fan that had been slowly dying for the last few years. It was a nice Christmas present if you ask me.
I finally got the ceiling light fixture installed that I was trying to install when I fell in August. The electrician also installed a ceiling fan in my bedroom, plus the box-and-brace in the attic. His total price for the whole job (both rooms) was about $55 less than the first electrician quoted for just one room. It makes a tremendous difference in the lighting in this room.
For my Mama’s Christmas present, I gave my middlest brother a pedicure. He can’t reach his feet to clean them, and can just barely get a pair of socks on. His children have finally bullied him in to going for medical care, and possibly replacement hips and knees. I think of that as his Christmas present to Mama.
Tommie, would one of those extra long shoehorns and a sock aid (https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Living-Sock-Stocking-Aids/b?node=3775801) be useful for your brother, until he gets his replacement operation?
Or maybe he’s got one already.
Mama has one that she’s going to give him. I gave him a foot scrubbing device that suctions to the floor of the shower. If only he will use them!
I just sent BCS a mess of cat and people supplies via Amazon; I will look into a prepaid phone for him. Being cut off with no real way to get hold of anyone, especially since he is disabled, must be terrible.
Ambrosia, salad!
Chondrite, I tried the Amazon route and it worked, though it needed the free trial of Amazon Prime to get to the grocery department. So I sent him some cat and people groceries too, as well as a quick handwritten note that I hope he can read – I can’t get to a printer (in the office) until next week, for a longer letter.
I hope that together it will be enough to hang on for another month, since a letter appears to take two weeks in one direction. So last century, such a time lag in communication!
Except I couldn’t find any bread? Cereal or oatmeal with blueberries or raisins for breakfast, soup and crackers for lunch might work instead of bread. What else do people in the US do for lunch?
And of course milk and fruit and fresh vegetables are only good for about a week, and the choice in canned vegetables is quite limited (I didn’t go for frozen veg, only a few meats, as I don’t know how much freezer space he has, and if the electricity hasn’t been shut off again).
Shopping this way for someone who’s tastes I don’t know, and for weeks at a time in an online store, is quite hard. We’re used to shopping locally, for at most a week at a time; some people shopped daily on the way home from work (before Covid), just for the day’s dinner/supper and what they’d need next day. I have no idea if I got the right things in the right amounts, but with an empty pantry I hope almost anything is better than nothing.
How US citizens tolerate this level of government neglect of their vulnerable fellow citizens is quite incomprehensible and shocking to me. And to do so while directing more and more money towards the richest few is unforgivable!
In addition to cat supplies, I sent canned tuna and chicken, which can be eaten without further ado, and don’t need refrigeration. In a pinch, the cats can eat them too, although I think BCS should eat the people food and feed the cats the cat food 🙂
I just had a thought: pasta! If BCS has a heat source, he can make noodles of assorted types and mix in veggies or canned meat. Fast and easy, and will probably be good for at least 24 hours without refrigeration. eta: BCS said he was going through his pantry and using up stores of beans, rice, and noodles, so he can cook, and if his stove works (unless he is on gas), his refrigerator will work.
Maybe if I send another shipment, I should include vitamins 🙂
He said he still had pasta, rice and pinto beans (2 weeks ago), so I sent a bag of potatoes for variety but no rice or pasta. I did send several cans and jars of pasta sauce and diced tomatoes, to use with his pasta, and 5-6 days of fresh vegetables and fruit (apples and pears and kiwis, at 1 a day enough for 2 weeks – yeah I thought about the vitamins too) as well as tinned (but not enough for the whole month I fear, as the 4-packs of corn, peas and green beans were refused and turned into single cans during checkout). A packet of frozen chicken, hamburger patties and small sausages, so I hope his freezer works. A week’s worth of canned soup for lunch with some crackers. Oatmeal with raisins and some sugar for breakfast (I hope he likes oatmeal porridge, I do in winter, with a bit of cinnamon which I forgot), but only a gallon of milk – after that he’ll have to make it with water, as I’m not sure if US milk gallons have longer expiration dates; our pasteurised milk cartons are only good for a week. Some cookies and chocolate too, even though Christmas is past and they might not arrive till January 6th.
Also wet and dry cat and kitten food, cat litter and some household stuff he might be running low on.
I wish he’d included a shopping list in his update letter, but I guess he didn’t want to ask too explicitly for monetary help.
I cannot keep a second household going indefinitely from so far away, but for a month or so it’s something I can do to help someone I know who’s in an awful situation. If the appartment manager can finally get him signed up to some sort of disability assistance and/or Covid relief, it might be enough to tide him over.
Understood; even everyone pitching in food can’t support a whole ‘nother household for too long. re: milk, you can get ultrapasteurized milk in sealed cartons; they can be stored at room temperature, but it’s an expensive option. We shouldn’t forget canned milk and dry milk powder. I rarely use milk except in my coffee or the very occasional cereal (or oatmeal 🙂 ) Cheese, OTOH…
BCS did send a ‘most urgently needed’ list in a second letter that just got here, so I covered about 80% of that. I also got him a cell phone that says it will work in his area, with 1200 prepaid minutes. I hope he can set it up.
Weirdly, Amazon food is split among “Warehouse”, “Amazon Fresh”, and “Whole Foods”. I think “Warehouse” is for non-perishable things. Fresh has bread; I’ve been eating it for months.
Amazon Prime will also give you access to videos. I strongly suggest The Expanse.
Chondrite and Hanneke, Thank you for what you’ve done to try and help BCS. I too have worried. I know he requires extra patience, but he has a good heart and a very difficult life. We provide most of the monetary support for my disabled brother; his is a physical illness; without family, he would never be able to stay in his little house. If there is some little bit I could do to help BCS, please let me know. I am not on his “communications” list etc., but there might be something I could add to the “care list”? Please let me know what you think I might do, and thank you for caring.
Walt, I’m thinking of rejoining Amazon Prime just so I can get all of The Expanse!
We’ve been following The Expanse all along, and the new season is dropping in the New Year, so we are happy. It’s worth watching, and we’ve been picking it up on DVD; we acquire a lot of series we like in ‘hard copy’ because we’ve been bit by series that stop being available via streaming without warning.
I’ll review the list BCS sent and see if there’s anything else others might send that would be useful. Amazon seems to be the easiest way to send anything; moreso if you have Prime. I’ll see if I can set up a public list of needs that anyone can look at.
I have created a list of BCS’ needs on Amazon for people to look at and will be populating it with his requests over the next day or two.
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/0Jb6fKu?ref_=wl_share
This is a starting point; if someone thinks of other things, feel free to add them (I think I set it up for that.)
chondrite, thank you for setting up that link for BCS, I’ll see how I can help a bit. I hear you on “hard copies”; we have poor internet despite being halfway between NYC and Philadelphia, and really can’t buy better; the major providers seem to think this small town not worthy … streaming is difficult/impossible. On the other hand, in making room for hubby’s new giant TV we disposed of a big box of VHS hard copies, and one of DVDs that will no longer work, and I have 3 boxes of business CD records that will no longer work either. Saved 2 precious memory VHS tapes we’ll pay to have converted to other formats. Blessings for the New Year for everyone 🙂
Best wishes to CJ and Jane, BCS, and everyone else for a better 2021!
(Perhaps someone could start a GoFundMe for BCS?)
Here’s something cheerful for New Year – Robots Dancing 🙂
The latest advances in robotics technology are stunning.
WOW! That is insane! I was especially impressed by the biped balancing on one foot and raising the other leg and arms high. Also the quadruped dancing with it’s feet crossed!
Don’t read the comments if you want to retain your faith in humanity — they just demonstrate people’s capacity for ignorance and xenophobia. I vote to call the 4-legged one a Pierson’s Puppeteer, and the wheeled one made me think of MST3K’s Gypsy (or perhaps an ostrich) 🙂
Hanneke, you are probably the regular poster here closest to 2021, so Happy New Year! and Happy New Year to all the other salads as well!
fun ‘bots! Happy new year, salads.
Happy new year to all our salads, near and far!
A happy new year to everyone. Here is hoping that it doesn’t try and make look back fondly on 2020.
Y’know, Wal-mart delivers. If we knew the name and address, we could do that for fresh food.
Tommie, Chondrite and others who want to help BCS for a bit, I’ve been thinking it would be useful to set up some kind of digital coördination between us, in a safe way, without spilling personal information onto the open web. Just so he doesn’t get too much of one thing and nothing of something else essential.
I’m putting my interrupted address here; if you take out all the spaces and dashes and put in the correct sign you can mail me, and I’ll just have to hope the bots can’t do the same h.nieuw— en —huijzen at sign heer- hugo –waard. nl
If you search for the combined name after the sign you should get my town in North Holland, just so you know you’ve got it right.
Maybe we can use a WhatsApp group for this, once we’ve made contact by mail? It’s based on your mobile phone number (including country code for international connections) but the messages are sent over the internet for free, and are encrypted. So it only costs the use of your wifi or internet connection, no phone minutes or SMS counts, and is relatively safe.
That would take this discusdion out of this public forum where it doesn’t really belong, too.
But I’ve heard WhatsApp isn’t widely used in the US, so maybe you have better ideas.
I don’t think he has enough friends or online followers to get Patreon or a Go-fund-me to work, and also don’t think anyone should set up something like that without his knowledge and permission.
Got it, dollface!
That’s not a bad idea Tommie, but I’d like to run it by BCS before making his address readily available.
Hanneke, WhatsApp has been used widely (or at least spoofed) by spammers and scammers in the US, so it’s not frequently used. I agree that we should try to take the discussion off this board. Maybe someone could try to set up a temporary board elsewhere for talking about BCS support.
I can be contacted at oracle at jediknight dot com; please put BCS in the header so I know you aren’t a spammer trying to sell me erectile dysfunction pills 😀
I was brushing Junior this morning and he nipped me to tell me he’d had enough; not a serious bite at all (I barely felt it), but my skin has gotten thin enough that I looked down and was astonished at how much I bled from barely a graze. Yikes!
Happy new year to everyone here!
I hope 2021 will be better for everyone who had a difficult time in 2020.
We had a quiet New Year’s Eve here, with a lot less fireworks and firework-related injuries than usual.
(Usually it’s a chaotic loud and smoky mess all over town, mostly between midnight and 1 o’clock).
We’re in lockdown, and setting off fireworks at home for New Year was forbidden, so there were a lot less loud bangs in the weeks before (when it’s always forbidden, but teens who like to startle people do so anyway, with some imported illegal grenade-level bangs to blow up public wastebaskets as well as the smaller legal firecrackers – every town has to deal with a few of those vandals each December), and only a few colorful fireworks at 12 o’clock. The cats didn’t even get scared, just a few short startles for the 3 or 4 grenade-level bangs in the surrounding streets in the last week or so. Serious checks for illegal imported fireworks at the borders, after the government decided at the beginning of December that there would be no fireworks allowed, clearly stopped most too-powerful illegal imports from getting through to the few neighborhood young hooligans.
We’ve been having an ongoing discussion for years, about not allowing everybody to set off their own fireworks this one day a year. Support for that has been slowly growing, and opposition slowly eroding for years. Seeing this lockdown and forbidding saved several hundred accidents this year (1 instead of 10-20 eye injuries, 1 hand blown off and 3 people with burns instead of 100-200 burns and maimings), and made lots of pet owners happy for their unscared pets, might finally get the politicians to get a move on with making that into law. I’d be happy with that.
Next year, with Covid dealt with, the councils could organise professional fireworks shows or public music parties for people who want to party. Let’s make that the new normal, instead of getting all the smoke, air pollution and loud scary noise everywhere, and so many people injured (mostly youngsters playing with illegal too-powerful firecrackers to impress their friends, but also some innocent bystanders).
There were some fireworks in my neighborhood: mostly, I think, someone going up and down a few blocks with firecrackers, but a few louder bangs. Not nearly like last June, when there was a lot more every night for several weeks!
About normal here, but seeming all safe and sound, and very ready for a “normal” year without all the political chaos and drama! Just watching all the bridges being burned in the last days. 😉 Waiting for Phase 1B vaccinations to start.
The steristrips came off and the Moh’s surgery for the small squamous cell carcinoma above my left eyebros is well healed, though when the round excision was sewed up in a line, there were a couple puckers buried.
It may stay weird for a while but will relax as it heals. (After three surgeries in three years, I’ve learned some about healing.)
A Much Happier New Year to All! (That’s what my spouse & I have decided to wish everyone.)
Paul, glad to hear that the surgery went well.
It was still quite small, because I have no qualms about consulting a doctor, unlike many men, especially a dermatologist. Men tend to be outside more, so should more!
I was born & raised in LA, at 34°N. With the Earth rocking 24.5° through the year, that means the Sun was less than 10° from zenith in high summer, when we’re on the beaches. I was blonde, and tended to wear hats a lot, nevertheless…
Glad to hear you’re taking good care of yourself, Paul, and that you could get the operation without delays for the Covid overload.
In Dutch we’d say “Beterschap!”, I don’t think there’s such a universal short word in English to wish you a speedy return to health, just “get well soon!”.
My brother’s field of work had him outside a lot (not necessarily *in* fields, but frequently), so it wasn’t too big a surprise, back in about the 90s, when he got a melanoma. It got treated and he hasn’t had trouble since – though he wears hats with brims outside.
My Dad was a surveyor and spent his career in the sun of SoCal as well. He had melanomas removed twice yearly for the last 20 years of his life. I wear a hat when I go out.
Same here. Treated myself to a Tilley hat several years ago, well worth the cost.
I’ve been in a reading fog this whole weekend, reading “The hands of the emperor” by Victoria Goddard. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43525897-the-hands-of-the-emperor
I think this is a book that many here would enjoy.
I rarely post book reviews as I’m no good at it – whatever I say tends to turn people off. But this time I was so blown away that I posted this on Kobo.
“A truly extraordinary book, full of interesting people, developing friendships and family dynamics, in an unusual world. The rich worldbuilding appears based on pacific islander culture rather than the usual vaguely medieval European fantasy setting, for the hero’s homeworld, while other cultures clash in the governmental capital. The unusual hero is a superbly competent (but sometimes underestimated) organiser and bureaucrat, trying to set the world to rights in the aftermath of a great cataclysm. No fighting and destruction, wars and mayhem – instead a gradual building up to a better world, both personally and for the world as a whole. Nothing bad happens!
It may sound boring from this description, but it’s spellbinding storytelling which I can heartily recommend to anyone who enjoys long character-focused tales of personal growth with a positive taste.”
Here’s a link to Rachel Neumeier’s blog, who’s recommendation led me to buy and read the book. Maybe her and the Goodreads reviews can convince some of you to try it too; I’m so glad I did!
This comment got me to buy it, and I’ve enjoyed reading it. Now I want to know if the Emperor found his successor and got to retire to Kip’s house.
This anarchy, and its instigator are despicable!
Yes, I really do feel bad about what’s happening in Portland, too.
We’re not going to solve this by demonizing one another. We are all together on this space station Earth and we need each other, even the ones that look dangerous or crazy. Believe me when I say that each side looks crazy to the other.
There is no equivalence between the two sides, and it’s disingenuous to imply there is.
Pandering to lies, prejudice, violence, and delusions is not the answer.
This is all on Tump and his supporters.
This has been a scary day in the US capital. This evening, I’ve been listening to US Senators speak and watching them vote on the states’ electoral ballots, and most of them seem very shaken by the violence that surged at them. A number of senators were ardent Trump campaign supporters yet still are saying that the votes of the people and peaceful transition of power must be followed. I’m cautiously hopeful that democracy here will survive.
Where they been the last four years. huh? I find their “battlefield conversion” unconvincing. I believe the legal term is “aiding and abetting”. They fed the beast. Now they want clean hands? Not that easy. This beast ain’t gonna slink back in its cave anytime soon!
One thing about being an Aspie, by and large we’re not social joiners. My testing in college showed I could apply for Mensa, but I’m an Aspie; social organizations are unappealing. So I make no political commitments either.
But I do believe in the Longer Rope Theory. It looks to be long enough.
No one should be surprised. This is what happens when you let far right extremists take over a political party. I have no issues at all with conservatives. But there is a big difference between the far right and conservatives.
Yes, this! Especially in a two party system with ‘first past the post’/winner takes all voting…
We need people advocating for fiscal responsibility, reining in any tendencies towards excessive government interference, promoting business and capital, and standing for traditions as a counterweight to the innovators; just as much as we need people advocating for caring for those who need it, collectively organising for basic needs, and standing up for workers.
And those people all need to be willing to work together and reach compromises for the good of the country.
Alas, since the takeover of the Republican party by the extremists conservative voters haven’t had a real alternative they could, and would be willing to, vote for. So they get dragged along, and the divide deepens.
Tin soldiers and trumpers coming.
We’re finally at our own.
This winter I hear them drumming.
Four dead in Washington.
The events at the Capitol were shocking but not surprising, given years of lies, propaganda, and incitement.
But, as an outsider, I think US democracy is easily strong and resilient enough to handle this.
One thing that struck me was the lack of seriousness of the rioters, as if it was just a game. Wandering around taking selfies and posing on the Speaker’s dais? These are idiots and vandals, not serious revolutionaries with real grievances and a real purpose. They are disconnected from the real world. That’s why they won’t achieve anything except random violence.
That describes their leader, a disciple of Norman Vincent Peale, famed for “The Power of Positive Thinking”, which leads one to think what is not true. (And while you may be describing some of these rioters, his support of any extremism that could be a tool {Do his supporters realize they’re just tools?} to reinforce his power, has allowed much more serious groups to organize. No, Pandora’s Box has been opened.)
True, the Wright brothers thought they could fly, but they didn’t stop there and climb to the top of the nearest skyscraper! They constructed one of the first wind-tunnels in the world and did extensive research on airfoils and propeller shapes. Y’ gotta do the WORK!
True, there will not be a succesful (armed or not) revolution at this point, as
1) they do not have a large part of the military hierarchy supporting their goal of abolishing democracy, and nor do the lower ranks want to rebel en masse against their commanders, even though some in the military are as much Trump supporters as any civilian. No spontaneous ‘militia’ or armed gang has the weapons and the numbers to stand up against the US military.
2) The GOP politicians, their backers and ideologues don’t need an open revolution to cement their power. They have still managed to mostly hold on to power, in states and on a national level, through gerrymandered districts, the electoral college, and the filibuster in the Senate, even while often losing the popular vote in the last decades. With a 50-50 senate, in which some ‘blue dog’ Democrats often vote with the Republicans but it’s very rare for a Republican not to vote the party line (unless he’s retiring) and the filibuster and 60-vote threshold cannot be abolished, you can be sure that Biden, who is quite ‘centrist’ himself and likes to compromise, will not be able to get any great reforms through. The GOP is quite likely to still get most of what they want, in return for some very minimal concessions to some Democratic wishes. So why risk the sustained violence and upheaval necessary to finish a succesful coup that starts this way?
On the other hand, the groups shouting hardest about their second amendment rights, and waving about most of the guns, seem to be mostly aligned with the party that has been in power for the last 4 years, and that effectively blocked Obama in the Senate from doing most of what he wanted for the 6 years before that, as well as hanging on to power in state legislatures even when not backed by the najority of those voters, and packing the courts for years, both at the federal level and in ‘red’ states (even when the balance of the voters in those states is shifting, or has shifted, to blue).
The system is clearly set up to treat the party in power in rural and less populated areas preferentially – it’s not a level playing field.
This has enabled an ever-further shift toward minority rule: an ever-smaller rural minority is forcing their rule on an increasing urban majority. That is, in and of itself, undemocratic.
Congress has not been acting as a fair and balanced power check on the executive branch. It is itself badly out of balance with the voters – both through the Electoral College, the votes for empty land instead of people, the gerrymandered districts and voter suppression, as well as the undue influence bought by campaign donations from the richest people and corporations. They have no will to change to a fairer representation, as the present system keeps them in their seats of power (or they take the revolving door into lobbying for a while).
They have packed the judiciary branch with partisans. They have given more and more power into the hands of the executive branch, then refuse to coöperate in their job of lawmaking when the opposition holds that post, and refuse to hold their own president to account, even for the most blatant excesses.
They inch towards an authoritarian state, in which only those who think and look like them have rights, and have already gone quite far towards reaching that goal.
Still, the MAGA and GOP and right wing media people are constantly talking about how they are under threat, how all the Dems are radical socialists and will take your money, your guns and your rights away.
Most Dems don’t want to do that, and the few who do won’t ever get anything like that past Congress, even if that should go full blue: there are way too many corporatist, centrist democratic politicians.
Still the right-wing media and politicians promote this fearmongering, conspiracy theories and violence, then say “it’s not my fault” when some take them at their word and commit atrocities.
They are also used to mostly getting away with it.
That makes it scary.
Those armed right-wing white supremacist groups could easily target anyone who has caught their eye and been labeled an enemy, and hurt or kill them before they are caught and stopped. Then like that 17 year old murderer, who took an illegal gun across state lines expressly to kill black people, they get labeled a hero in the right-wing media to encourage others to do the same.
This is fascist territory: everything for the dear leader, groups of violent brownshirts intimidating people, and the media normalising both the violence (as long as it’s from the right) and the encouragement the dear leader and his coterie give to this, as well as their open disdain for equality under the rules. Of course dear leader can break all the rules without punishment! Of course his friends (and those who can buy influence) can too! But anyone who opposes them should be punished harshly, even if they didn’t break the law – belonging to an out-group is enough.
That is why it will not be an armed revolution now. There is a slow political revolution going on, hollowing out the US democracy from the inside, and it’s gone quite far already.
I’m not sure the US has the will to see the facts clearly, and to do something about them effectively. Too many in power and in positions to do something about this are in it for their own benefit, power and money. Both they and their base have been lied to and stuffed full of propaganda for so long (40 years of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have radicalised so many, so that they are now almost completely divorced from reality on many issues) that for many it has become unthinkable to change their world-view to conform to the facts.
Even after the MAGA mob was cleared out of the Capitol, a lot of House members and half of the Senators who originally co-signed the baseless objections against the electoral votes in the swing states, still argued and voted for those objections, knowing they have been proved baseless in all the 60-100 cases that have been adjudicated, mostly by republican-appointed judges (the shame of that needing to be mentioned! That a judge is no longer appointed as an impartial best person to make judgements, but that party affiliation trumps all for these people!). These congresspeople are still, even after this demonstration before their own eyes of the power of such lies, not willing to stand up for the truth, as it might make them less popular with their base.
This does not make me optimistic that they will find enough backbone and spirit to stand up for the future of the USA as a democratic country, to enact reforms that will ensure that – they appear to be quite content in their places on the coattails of an authoritarian trying to head for a fascist regime.
Maybe, maybe this will energise enough grass-roots political activism to take out the present tainted and unprincipled politicians, starting from the local and state level. But the GOP won in many states this year, so gets to set the gerrymandered voting districts for the next decade, ensuring ever stronger their hold on minority rule, including the power to keep packing the judiciary. It’ll take a lot to start to shift that. Maybe by 2030 those who want fair and democratic elections, where one voter’s voice counts as much as another’s, can grow to power in some state houses, and set new and fairer election maps and rules. I’m not holding my breath.
Hanneke, thank you for your interpretation of the ills of this country, but until you have lived in the US you cannot feel in your gut, what each side of the divide feels. I agree that there are problems, but each side feels disenfranchised. It’s like I tell people, Marriage is a 60/40 proposition. If you give in what you perceive to be 60 percent and your spouse gives in what they perceive as 60 percent, you actually approach being equitable.
One of the great protections instituted by our forefathers was the Electoral College to prevent rule by the masses rather than protection for all including minorities. Until you understand the difference because you have seen minorities run over roughshod you will not understand why the protesters/rioters grievances are important too. Admittedly, they were manipulated by a sociopath who should not ever have held office, but they have a legitimate right to be heard. The bad actors, the racists, the far right and the far left have equal rights to be heard civilly and respectfully. The respect is what is missing. You can’t convince someone that he/she is wrong by yelling at them, only by listening and coming up with compromise.
Sorry for exceeding my ten lines.
Sorry about ranting too long, I forgot that rule. I’ll try to keep it both short and respectful.
Everyone who is behaving reasonably and respectfully needs to be heard, reasonably and respectfully.
People yelling, unmasked, at store employees that wearing a mask in a store to avoid infecting others is a heinous infringement of their rights, or ranting and spitting at a train conductor to infect her with Covid (of which she died, leaving an orphaned teenage daughter) – no, those are not people who have to be listened to respectfully.
Nor is it reasonable to expect logical and reasonable people to compromise with people who act that aggressively and unreasonable.
The republican voters have been heard, respectfully, just like the democratic voters: their votes were all counted, recounted and certified equally, often by republican officials doing a good job. The system is set up to favor them, as you agree with (you think that’s a good thing, I don’t, but we both accept that it’s a fact), and still they promulgate conspiracy theories and storm the Capitol when they don’t get what they want. In a democracy power needs to be shared. If one side believes or acts as if power is only legitimate when it is wielded by their own side, it is hard to have a functioning democracy.
As you say, both sides feel disenfranchised, but is that feeling equally realistic, or in some part a product of indoctrination and manipulation? If the latter, is pandering to those manipulated grievances better than pointing out the truth?
That people have been lied to and manipulated does not mean that people who accept the facts need to compromise with the other side’s false beliefs. Pointing out that lies aren’t true doesn’t mean one is being disrespectful or yelling at people.
Your Democrats have been compromising with your Republicans for so long, with the Republicans not giving back an inch, that your whole political spectrum has shifted far to the right: almost the whole left wing is missing, even Bernie Sanders would be only a moderate leftist for the rest of the world, and centrist Democrats are definitely right-wing anywhere else.
Continuing to insist that further compromises should keep coming from the left, no matter how false the rightwing assertions are, just keeps exacerbating that pull towards the extreme right.
That is not leading your country in a good direction, not for anyone who isn’t part of the top 1%.
Ready4more, you say “The bad actors, the racists… have equal rights to be heard civilly and respectfully.”
Sorry, but that is absolute bullshit.
You might as well say that if only people had ‘listened respectfully’ to Hitler and compromised with him, all would have been peace and harmony 1930s Europe. And don’t talk to me about Godwin’s law. Yes, it’s a more extreme example than the US, but it’s justified because your argument is moving in the same direction.
In most radical changes of governments, the winners take out their revenge which breeds new grievances on the other side. This eye-for-an-eye-and-tooth-for-a-tooth mentality leads to reprisals and more grievances and soon, no one has eyes or teeth. As everyone spends all their time seeking out vengeance, there is no calm or unity.
At the end of the Apartheid era in South Africa, however, the new ANC government set up a committee to hear the grievances of all parties. After hearing the horrendous stories they were put into the record. Both sides listened to the pain and learned their part in it.
We need to listen to each other and stop trying to exact revenge. Both sides have committed atrocities and both sides feel they have reason to continue. But if we listen, truly listen, we can learn to compromise again.
Noble sentiments, HRHSpence, but unfortunately misguided.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission worked in South Africa because there was general agreement about the facts, and there was general agreement about what was right and what was wrong.
In America there isn’t.
The real problem in the US is that many Americans have lived such sheltered lives that they don’t recognize propaganda when they see it.
Fox News and its allies are as much propaganda media as Pravda was in the USSR, and Xinhua and Global Times are in China today. Not state propaganda in the US, but special interest propaganda. And unfortunately enough Americans have bought into that propaganda to cause the problems we’re seeing today.
In the US, the right has a deluded version of facts and reality, and there can be no equivalence between truth and lies. Understanding lies, prejudices, and false grievances better doesn’t lead to harmony. There can be no ‘truth and reconciliation’ with people who promote lies, not truth, and want power, not reconciliation.
No, both sides have not “committed atrocities”. Only one side has.
HRH, this isn’t liberals vs conservatives. It’s right wing zealots and people who believe in insane conspiracy theories vs everyone else. And they have support in high places.
I’m a liberal and have absolutely no problem with conservatives. But someone who believes in secret bases on Mars to turn people gay isn’t a conservative. There are way too many people who aren’t connected to reality running around and in positions of power and influence. Bring back the old school conservatives.
I’ll do my best to stop talking politics now on this blog except to answer direct questions.
I wish to say this politely and I will refrain from ad hominem attacks. I agree that many on the Right of the US Political spectrum are indeed fanatics with an almost unhinged view of reality. I also must point out that there are many on the opposite end of the spectrum that are equally unhinged.
For much of 2020, we have seen riots and destruction of property by parties as far left as those who attacked the capitol on the 6th were on the right. It did not seem that those in power on the Left would ever condemn “their” radicals. There were even sitting members of the House of Representatives whose rhetoric seemed to encourage continued riots.
So, forgive me when I see much of what is coming from the US congress as quite hypocritical.
The issue is the lust for power. It has become so that anything is excused by winning. How you play the game makes you a chump. You probably recognize those sentiments. It’s been quite pervasive for longer though.
I will say, the riots in this indigo city were very much exacerbated when Trump sent in federal forces, unasked and unwelcomed. When they were pulled out the conflict subsided.
There is an old Zen koan, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
No, ‘bothsidesism’ won’t fly.
Good article:
The striking parallels between the assaults on Charlottesville and the Capitol
The whole article is worth reading.
If you are talking about the BLM protesters and riots in general there were two separate groups involved. During the day there were peaceful protests with whole families coming out to protest societies treatment of black people. At night a different (possibly overlapping group to some extent) group of people who came into the city to loot.
Most of the people protesting during the day were locals. Many of the looters at night came from out of state.
The left wing news sources I watched differentiated between the two groups and supported the peaceful protests during the day and condemned the violent looting at night.
Most of the people who showed up at the capital didn’t want to use violence but there was a significant minority who came there with the intention of using violence to get what they want and that must be stopped. The media’s complaints are against the people who stormed the capital building and beat to death a policeman and the people openly promoting violence. Not the people in the back row peacefully protesting.
Yes, it’s the extremists that we should unitedly decry. We, on both sides of the center, should unite and never allow the extremists in office. Personally, I am rather libertarian and want both major parties to reign in their loonies.
She published a novella about the start of his search for Christmas (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56392665-the-return-of-fitzroy-angursell), and is said to be working on a sequel.
The novella has a different flavor, more fantasy and picaresque adventure, and there’s also a short story about the young not-yet-emperor’s time in ‘The tower at the end of the world’.
Edited to add: Sorry, this is in answer to PJ Evans remark about Victoria Goddard ‘s book The hands of the Emperor, above. I put it in the wrong reply box and can’t shift it.
Sold! (Or more accurately, Bought!)
There’s a book coming sometime, “At the Feet of the Sun”, that’s going to be more about Kip…and who knows what else.