Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Pandemic Relief - Enriching the Rich

It's irritating to me when businesses, and people who didn't suffer any real adverse affects from the pandemic, and even CORPORATIONS took that money - that it was even offered to them - and then media turned around and blamed all of our economic woes on people who lost their minimum wage job because a company didn't take precautions to protect their workers, got closed down as a health hazard, and then took pandemic payments to further enrich themselves. 

That was a self imposed hardship for them! They were well rewarded for irresponsible behavior. I don't remember EVER being rewarded for doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Getting rewarded for NOT doing what you should be doing is the height of irresponsibility on the part of the rewarder and the rewardee. 

Pandemic relief shouldn't have been offered to anyone above the poverty threshold! And a responsible citizen would have refused the disbursment.

But it's hard for me to blame them for it. If anyone walked up to me on the street offering $100 bills I'd absolutely take it! So, the same applies to the pandemic relief. If it was offered, I'd expect everyone to take it. But not everyone was adversely, monetarily affected by the pandemic and absolutely should not have been taking taxpayer money for no reason at all!
  
Furthermore, media turned around when it was safe to go back to work and said no one wanted to work because they got used to "all of that free money". That right there is horse pucky! I knew A LOT of people looking for work that simply wasn't available in my area. And I DARE ANYONE to live on nothing more than what those relief checks amounted to over the same period of time they were dispensed. It cannot be done, least wise with any quality of life and security! (Maybe in a tent on the side of a ditch if the cops didn't swarm you thinking you were baking meth, siting you for trespass, and making you relocate - presumably so they could find you and site you again!). 

I am so very over disinformation coming from the left AND the right. No one knows what they're talking about or they're gaslighting. I tend to lean toward the latter since imperialism/capitalism can only function the way it's designed (that EVERYTHING goes to the top) if it can produce a scare and a scapegoat to blame everything on. Remember, that is precisely what Hitler did - he blamed all of Germany's problems on Jews, with narry a thought about the sanctions placed on them over WW1.

Now, the threat posed by capital, and both capitalist party's to one degree or another - is Latino's, POC, and the working poor - fascism is raising it's ugly head again.

I'm getting too old, sick, and tired to scream at the sky about this shit anymore. My journey is nearing its end. And I'll be leaving around 8 billion people to suffer the mess mankind has visited upon itself.

My empathy over this is now my greatest frustration. 

Saturday, July 15, 2023

My Home is My Castle

As much as I despise authority, I have the final word here at my home, on my property. I have earned that.


Know up front that I am neither democrat nor republican. I am an anarchist. But I absolutely loathe DJT TFG (The Former Guy). I don't even like to say his fucking name. I had a music recording contract with him in the late '80s. He was a dick then and he's a dick now. And his acolytes have lost their collective fucking minds, too. They believe outright lies when the truth is staring them in their faces. Call it cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, or sheer stupidity. I don’t care. It is actively refusing to acknowledge facts as they unfold before their very eyes. And, to me, that’s just stupid.


Furthermore, all politicians, need to get the fuck out of people's homes and bedrooms and quit fucking with peoples' right to choose anything that doesn't interfere with the rights of other living, breathing people, and get back to the bargaining table and the business of governing... I mean, if that's what everyone wants. And that means abortions, marriage, marijuana and its derivatives, and even some other natural substances such as natural hallucinogens. That’s not a comprehensive list of my personal gripes about the government intruding on personal choice.


Personally, I think capitalism is the root of all of society's ills - and the governments which prop it up. Capitalism's engine operates on the backs of slaves. Always has and always will. That’s how it’s fucking designed! Currently, since it’s illegal to own people outright, they’ve managed to turn everyone into slaves to debt. That’s what the lie called Wall St. is all about. They buy and sell debt and tell all the rubes that the economy is only doing well if there are lots and lots of debt being bought and sold. 


That shit is people’s homes, futures, retirement, healthcare, etc. - you know, the shit that everyone needs and should be basic human rights. But every day the worker drones just get up and go do it again so that they can have the luxury of having a place to sleep, food to eat, and a fucking job so they can pay the bankers their interest before they even begin paying on the principal of the loan, all for people who do absolutely nothing to add value to any of it. They just stick it in the pockets, planes, or offshore banks so they don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes that are supposed to pay for the infrastructure these worthless fucks get rich relying on for the slavery engine to continue to function! 


That’s another thing that gets me riled up. Those filthy rich mother fuckers won’t even pay their fair share to ensure that our infrastructure doesn’t crumble as it is. To them, that’s on the worker drone slaves to pay for. That, my friend, is socialism for the rich! Not only does our infrastructure suffer - so does education, healthcare,... the general well being of the public at large.


Just as heated political debate, religion - which, if you think about it, talks of being free throughout (while also instructing slaves to obey their masters) but it is really just fairy tales that promote self-imposed slavery - you know, that invisible prison guard in your imagination that tells you what you can and can’t do. News Flash: non-believers the world over get up every day and treat other people with love and kindness. However, at least religion has some purpose, regardless of how weak - for those who don't have enough faith in themselves to behave with humanity - so long as extremists don't start trying to shove it down the throats of everyone who doesn’t seem to look, act, or talk like them - and also can act with humanity and compassion without the threat of eternal damnation looming over them. And that could be fixed with honest, proper education. 


Actually, the early church didn't have the concept of hell that modern religion does. That all came from a comedy written in the early 1800's. They also believed in reincarnation until 553ad. But those stories are for another post. It just goes to show that what you think about religion has not always been so. Religion is simply a tool that early homo-sapiens used to organize and control early society.


Moving on, did you know that there was a previous time in the history of this nation when the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Dupont, Heinz, Goodyear, Goodrich, Standard Oil, and other titans of industry banded together and attempted to recruit the most decorated Marine in history to gather an army of veterans and oust a sitting president so they could install a literal dictator? Of course, you didn’t. They don’t teach that shit in school. Look up a fellow named General Smedley Butler and read about the conspiracy. He even wrote a book after he retired, named “War is a Racket", where he described himself as a highly paid mercenary for American corporations. Dole was one of his greatest dislikes. It’s all on Wikipedia. You simply have to know what you’re looking for to find some of the United States' deepest, darkest, open secrets.


I even have a gigantic ebook, in pdf form, called “Amoral America” which simply lists every country in the world that is or ever was alphabetically and describes in detail just exactly how the United States of America fucked that country and its’ people. Read even pieces of it and you’ll begin to understand why the whole world hates or deeply distrusts the United States. Just be sure you want to know. Knowledge is power. It’s also an extremely heavy weight to bear.


What you do in your home or with your friends is absolutely none of anyone else's business so long as it isn't directly causing harm or injury to another LIVING BREATHING PERSON. And the book that the American Taliban uses to infringe on a woman's right to choose, the Bible, says exactly when a person is a person. And that is when they leave the womb and God “breaths life into their nostrils”. That’s simply not debatable unless that’s one of those parts that fascists like to ignore and pretend is not in there (there’s a lot of shit like that in that book). And there are a few mandates by "Sky Daddy" to actually perform abortions. There are more that anyone who insists that everything in that book is literal could see if they weren't blinded by cognitive bias.


Also, another pet peve of mine is that Islam is a son of Abraham, too. Cousins to Judaism and therefore Christianity. Islam is well aware of this. They don’t only study the Koran - they also carry and study the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses. Through the child of Hagar, Abraham's wife's handmaid came Islam. 


Sarah couldn't trust God's word that he would provide them with the child whom He promised them would be a father of nations and the couple was severely chastised by God for doubting Him. Hannah and her baby were sent into exile and Abraham was concerned for their welfare - the child was, after all, his. God assured him that this child, while not to be the father of God's Chosen People (whatever the fuck that means) would be a protected by God himself, prosper, and be a father of nations. THAT is Islam.


All that being said, I am a non-deist Buddhist. But it really comes in handy to have a ready knowledge of what that book, and the Koran, actually DO say. However, most minds who are exposed to these truths will object. Many around here will say, "Yeah, but Jeebus!" Well, that dude said all of those old laws that the Christian Taliban want to enforce were done away with through his new covenant. And if you point out that shit about abortion, THAT'S when these dickheads want to say, "Yeah, but Jeebus made that one go away. These others make me feel better about attacking others so I can feel better about myself." 


Enough religion. Please don't debate me on either religion nor politics in my safe space, my home. If you wish to know more about just about any religion, I'll be happy to share what I've learned over the years in many branches of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Jainism, or just about any other ism you can think of. And I'll photo copy pages from any and all holy books I own - which is many - and even Google it for you.

But, like politics, I will not debate anyone who has their minds already made up, at my home nor anyplace else. I'll be glad to teach and show you how to find facts and truths for yourself - you won't get that from your government, schools, nor places of worship! But I know what I know and I’m not going to argue about it, let alone lay my life down for it! 


And Politics? I'm an Anarcho-communist! Yes, I hate TFG. But not because he's an R. But because he's an unprincipled, unscrupulous, lying, thieving, cheat, a petty tyrant, insurrectionist, a seditionist, and a disgrace to criminals everywhere. I am still a Marine, despite my anti-capitalist, anarcho-communism. These are some of my own biases.

That fucker stole and shared nuclear secrets and defense strategy contingencies! He shared them outside a skiff to people with no clearance that we know of. We also know for a fact that he hates NATO and the majority of nations we love to use for battle fields - because, for some strange reason WE DON'T WANT TO FIGHT OUR WARS on US soil.

He NEVER EVER DOES ANYTHING for anyone else’s benefit but his own. Remember, I’ve met and interacted with some of his closest people. He's best buds with some of the most dastardly crooks, strongmen, dictators, and murderers in the world! He took that shit so he would have leverage over our country which gave his daddy, who bankrolled him, the opportunity and infrastructure to get rich and squander it all.

He's STILL begging his rubes for money. AND THEY'RE STILL FUCKING GIVING IT TO HIM! Poor people, pensioners, disabled. And he, like just about any church or politician - or your fucking neighbor, for fucks sake - doesn’t give two fucks about taking it from them… You know, the folk that Jeebus said you should help. 45 is the literal definition of a nazi fascist. (And many more unarguably horrible characteristics of evil throughout history).


He checks every single box of how you are to recognize the antichrist in the white christian nationalist fairy tail handbook, that collection of pseudo instructions they claim to live for and by. And considering that not one word of it was ever put pen to paper for centuries after the events occurred, and the fact that it contradicts itself many times and wasn't canonized for 2-3 centuries after their "savior" died, and that even then certain many books allegedly from actual witnesses who may have actually been there, were rejected because they didn't fit the narrative that the politicians brewing up this "opiate to the masses" designed to take away the freewill, it's almost understandable that they're confused, bamboozled, and hoodwinked. Because they gave up freewill the minute they bought in to any part of it. 

Even as, ESPECIALLY as, an ancom, I oppose fascism in any form, anywhere, by anyone, at the same time I have to beware of my own biases. I don't want to talk TFG with anyone around my home in the bible belt. It's a herd mentality and no amount of factual proof or evidence will change it. I don't really know nor care what you believe as it doesn't affect me in any way. I’m just saying that if you want to come to my hunk of dirt, that’s fine. 

However, you should understand how strongly I feel about my convictions and don’t intend to suffer fools and disharmony here. I didn’t just call anyone in particular a fool. I’m speaking in broad terms about how I feel about what I will tolerate in my space. That is all. I’m not a tyrant. You are more than welcome to have your own beliefs and convictions just as I have. You may even express your beliefs to me. But I WILL NOT entertain any heated debate about any subject on which neither of us intends to budge. It’s simply not of any benefit to anyone involved.

I also get miffed at all of this Blame Biden shit. TFG denied, downplayed, and ignored the worst pandemic in a century. Hundreds of thousands of people died because of all of the misinformation that began with, “It’s just like the flu and will be gone in a couple of weeks,” and escalated to, “Take this cow dewormer. It’s a miracle cure!” And IDIOTS actually took the shit with catastrophic consequences in some cases! But did that fuck get called to account? Hell no! The morons started comparing him to Jesus! I just shake my fucking head in disgust.

A measly few thousand died in the world trade center on 9/11 and we went to war in multiple countries, for what turned out to be the longest war in American history with catastrophic loss of blood and treasure (yet our bridges and roads are crumbling and millions have no healthcare, although it is the LAW to have insurance) - and that’s ignoring the fact that the USA has been at war with someone for almost its entire existence! But where is the outrage at the lives lost in the war started by Bush Jr. - who also failed at everything he ever tried, except when they made him get sober so they could prop him up as next in line for the Bush Dynasty - he succeeded in sobriety. 

However, yes, Biden is a flawed man. Very flawed! You really have to be a little screwed up in the head to even want that fucking job. But he inherited a fractured society who couldn't even agree on a REAL TRUE FACT staring them in the face! 

For instance, the husband of a friend of mine diedof COVID sitting right beside her! She was hospitalized! And I think I heard she even got it a second time. And she still won’t get vaxxed nor wear a mask! The excuse of allergy to it is a non-starter. It’s not made the same way previous vaccinations were made. Bad reactions are rare or the overreactions of pussies who don’t care about themselves or their elders. You just can’t fix stupid. 

No, I’m not necessarily calling her stupid. I’m saying that her unwillingness to protect me, her family, HER GRANDBABY (for fucks sake!), is. At the very least it is uncaring, disrespectful, and irresponsible. Yes, that action or inaction, however you wish to view it, is in my opinion stupid, reckless, careless, and ignorant. 

I remember the mid 60's when my dad worked for the health department there was a HUGE vaccination drive for polio, rubella, measles, diphtheria, and several other crippling or deadly childhood diseases and responsible citizens all over the country were THANKFUL that science had actually saved children the world over and stood in line to get all of those jabs! Somewhere between Baby Boomers and millennials our society turned into the biggest fucking pussies in the world! Even some old fuckheads who lived through that world saving scientific breakthrough and are still alive, probably because of it, are refusing to take the new jab!

Fuck, if you, him, her, or anyone else wants to kill themselves with a rope, knife, gun, biological agent, whatever the fuck, I’m sorry anyone would feel that way. I would even make a reasonable effort to dissuade that course of action. But if one's mind is made up, and as long as they don’t darken my doorstep with it, carpe diem! I’ve already done my stupid. I got it out of my system when I was young. And I’m still paying for it. But I make every possible effort not to do stupid shit these days.

Biden also inherited a withdrawal date from Afghanistan that was set by TFG and signed onto an agreement that has been a template for foreign forces for millennia called a SOFA Agreement (Status of Armed Forces) which is a legally binding contract between two sovereign nations and that the Afghanis were never included in. So, 45 made no agreement with Afghanistan - he just said we're out of here. FU.

It was poorly executed. That’s because Americans and our allies (traitors to their own nation) had been being warned for months to get the fuck out! But way too many “special contractors” - (read, mostly CIA and private mercenary groups) were still raping that nation for everything they could steal. Biden even extended the exodus by months yet alleged US citizens and NGO's - also read CIA and special ops - yet the idiots refused to heed the warning. Americans and Afghanis died as a result of this uncoordinated getaway. When the time was up, time was up. However, all of that leads directly back to TFG. But Biden was blamed.


I don’t say this to too many people. It sounds pompous and conceited. I always say that I was in data processing while in the Marines. But that’s just a piece of the truth. Another part of the truth is that I worked on a computer at Fleet Marine Force Atlantic Headquarters, G-2. If you’re unfamiliar with that last bit, G2 is military intelligence. I was what eventually became known as an intelligence analyst. There were only FOUR of us who worked on that special computer system in the entire USMC. We didn’t even have an official MOS (Military Occupational Specialty - a number that designated your job. I began as a 4034, computer operator. But since our job was brand new and there were only 4 of us, we were the only Marines alive to have letters in our MOS - 40xy). 

I had access to and learned way more than I ever wanted about the government, the military, the world, and myself. The access to information at the tips of my fingers would allow you to ask me how deep the water was at any port or inlet in the world at this very moment and if there were rats or whores on shore there. I’m just giving you a silly example. But there was much, much more that I could answer almost immediately. We could feed in intel gathered from various sources about everything possible - and I do mean everything - and the computer would chart out HUGE fucking maps with all variables available giving instructions on how the Generals should proceed. Yes, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was right next door and made decisions based on the work we did. 

I prepared many briefings for the highest echelons of all of the branches of the United States military - and the leaders of our allies. I worked with spooks, spies, and all manner of dickheads. Most were stone-cold killers in the employ of covert fascists working within the highest echelons of the government. 

So, yes. I have a very unique view of our world that most are spared. Ignorance is bliss. I was told in ‘82 that I could never divulge anything I saw. Most of the stuff I’ve described of my experience is 4 decades old and probably declassified because it has changed so much that exactly what I experienced no longer exists in that form. Plus, I no longer give much of a shit. A turd is a turd. And America has always been a nazi turd.

Now, see how braggadocious that all sounds. That’s why I never talk about it. Not because they said not to, but because I feel it reflects poorly on my character.

And, blame Biden for the economy? FFS! COVID did that! Well, and TFG’s abysmal response to it. I stopped by a local grocer. I got a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. I knew prices had skyrocketed everywhere on everything. My purchase came to almost $10. I only meant to make light of an untenable and unsustainable situation that is taxing everyone regardless of race color or creed. I said, “I’d say, Jesus Christ! But I know he didn’t have anything to do with it.” But this hillbilly broad who might have a high school diploma, but is probably lucky if she got a GED, parroted what she hears all of these local hicks spouting, “Blame it on Biden!” I say "parroted" because most white nationalist Nazis can't even reason for their selves, because they gave up free will and free thought long ago and can't produce an original thought anymore - they can only parrot what their Nazi handlers tell them. And it's always short phrases, insults, and name calling and never with any evidence. And, as is so often in my experience, from strangers who no one had addressed. 

Don’t get me wrong! I’m proud of those who pursue a GED if they couldn’t finish high school for whatever reason. Hell, I TAUGHT GED classes for years! And I was told frequently that I was an excellent teacher, which made me proud.

But when I got home I called the DEEP SOUTH (read Hispanic) southerner who owns that store now and can barely understand plain English. I explained to him what had just happened. I gave him a crash course in macroeconomics and supply-side economics and how TFG was the one who gave pandemic relief money to people who were actually middle and upper class and  whose only real problem during the pandemic was who was going to raise their children for them. 

And they used that money that was DESPERATELY needed by lower-income and poor people to simply survive, to buy couches, TVs, appliances, and new trucks (complete with truck nuts!) while lower-income people were being kicked out of their homes because, guess what, you can’t pay your rent if your employer lays you off because of a factory virus outbreak, or inability to get the supplies they need to stay open due to supply chain issues. And that all of these unnecessary purchases were clogging up ports of entry so that much-needed shit that could get people back to work couldn’t get through. And the worker shortages on docks, on the railways, in warehousing, and in the trucking industry only exacerbated all of these problems. 

And, no, not even TFG could fix that, no matter how many times he gassed peaceful protesters who WERE already evacuating the area, albeit not fast enough for his high ass, I mean highness, just so he could stand in front of a church with a book he’s never read, holding it upside down in his hand for a fucking photo op. (I’m still describing how I schooled the southern grocer.)

I also told him that pandemic relief was also given to businesses in order to reward front-line workers and abate some supply chain issues. I told him that he need neither confirm nor deny that HE received pandemic relief for HIS workers because I know already that he did, but rather than reward his employees for putting their very lives in danger so that he could continue to turn a profit he instead opted to put in gas pumps, one of the stupidest ideas since screen doors in submarines. 

I informed him that NO convenience store, or gas station operator makes anything on gas. It’s impossible. ROAD TAXES on fuel (that are supposed to help maintain our crumbling infrastructure that is NOT taking place) make it impossible. The only profit he will continue to make is the markup on items inside the store he has decided not to continue within the tradition that the former owners had enshrined in the deal they made with the first dickheads they sold it to, who bailed and sold it to him. And that NO ONE is going to travel 2-3 miles off the main highway that passes through for his gas when they can more easily wait for a full truck stop right on the highway just a few miles down and the convenience store a few miles up, and that his only customers will be the poor folk who live within a very few miles around him. 

I then told him that if a lesson in politics and or religion from a redneck hillbilly who barely has an education comes with every sale I, for one, will never set foot in his store again. And I hung up.

So, yes, I feel very strongly about my convictions. I know that of which I speak. I have no intention of debating them with anyone, especially in my sacred space - my home. I don’t carry my beliefs to anyone else at their homes or places of business unless they ask, or confront me. I also feel very strongly that public spaces and businesses should be free of such nonsense. Unless their “Christian belief” allows them to badger a customer trying to purchase necessities to survive, of course.

For Christ’s sake! Feed me when I’m hungry, visit me when I’m ill or in prison… all of that nifty shit goes right out the window with these assholes who insist that though the 2nd Amendment “shall not be infringed” (let us all go buy tanks!), the 1st Amendment only means you can say any stupid shit you want, to anyone, under any circumstances. 


But that Establishment clause that enshrines freedom of speech and  religion also means freedom FROM religion and religious tyranny. And it is the very foundation for the separation of church and state. You can’t just pick and choose which parts of the constitution you want to adhere to at your convenience any more than you can cherry pick the "kill them all" verses while ignoring the "turn the other cheek" and"thou shalt not kill" verses in their white nationalist handbook! It IS the Constitution of the United States of America. And if people want to love this country, they have to love what made it.

Do you see how I'm pointing out that people only read the parts of religious texts and the constitution that support their self-righteous positions? That is cognitive dissonance. You simply can't cherry pick the truths that suit you and discard the rest.

I realize that I definitely live in the wrong part of the country to espouse these beliefs - and TRUTHS as I have come to understand them through experiences and education that not many folks have had the opportunity - or even need, apparently (only 0.727% serve in the armed forces) - to experience and see for themselves. 

I used to marvel at the idea that my grandfather never lived more than half a mile from where he was born. And he rarely traveled anywhere. His longest trip was to help build a military airstrip in Mississippi! And he hated being away from home but it was his contribution to the "war effort". There’s that nasty word again. I personally know scores of locals whose lives haven't taken them as far away as even my grandfather went.

So, my rule at my home is no political or religious debate. We’re all adults and know how to treat other adults with mutual respect regardless of each other's beliefs. I’ll share if asked, reluctantly. You share, if asked. But we shall not disagree in anger on anything. We can always agree to disagree in peace and harmony.

If that's too much for you, then fuck off and stay gone. 


Thursday, July 6, 2017

Fighting AIDS in the Time of Trump

This June marked 36 years since the first cases of AIDS were recorded in the medical literature. As a result of the work of medical professionals, researchers, public heath officials, and brave and dedicated activists who fought for treatment and against stigmatization, life-saving drugs have been developed, and HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. (HIV is the name of the virus that causes AIDS.) In fact, there is no reason that AIDS could not be eliminated—except for the obscene social and economic conditions in the United States and worldwide. Trump and his administration will greatly expand the already devastating toll that HIV/AIDS is having both in the U.S. and worldwide, perhaps causing over one million additional deaths and untold suffering.

A Genocidal Epidemic
While there has been progress in AIDS treatment and prevention in the U.S., HIV/AIDS is taking a devastating toll among certain sections of the population, especially Black gay and bi-sexual men and those who live in states in the deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas).

Rates of HIV Diagnosis per 100,000 people

Credit: Twitter/ @DCReportMedia

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that if current rates continue, one in two African-American gay and bisexual men will be infected with the virus. Commenting on this, an article in the New York Times Magazine noted, “To offer more perspective: Swaziland, a tiny African nation, has the world’s highest rate of H.I.V., at 28.8 percent of the population. If gay and bisexual African-American men made up a country, its rate would surpass that of this impoverished African nation—and all other nations.” (“America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa, June 6, 2017)

In Jackson, Mississippi, 40 percent of all gay and bisexual men are living with the HIV virus, according to the Times article. In a time where there are life-saving drugs that can prevent almost all AIDS-related deaths, 2,952 people in the Deep South died with HIV as an underlying cause in 2014, according to an analysis from Duke University. Among Black men in this region, the HIV-related death rate was seven times as high as that of the U.S. population at large.

Greg Millett, a senior scientist for the CDC for 14 years, now vice president and director of public policy at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, described to the New York Times how the actions of the U.S. government, especially during the administration of George W. Bush, contributed to this new stage of the epidemic: “It is no coincidence that new rates of HIV infection among gay men, especially gay black men, began to spike sharply from 2000 on, because of an anti-science campaign that allowed for little or nothing to be done for a maligned community simply due to ideology and bigotry.”

Millett told the Times that he is not optimistic about the prospects for Black men who are living with HIV/AIDS: “We are going to eventually end AIDS in the United States, but I fear it’s not going to happen for black M.S.M.,” he said, referring to men who have sex with men. “We have waited too long. With so many black gay men already infected, the horse is already out of the barn.”

On June 16, six members of the President’s Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS publicly resigned from the committee and published an op-ed in Newsweek titled, “Trump Doesn’t Care About HIV. We’re Outta Here.” They said in their article, “The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and—most concerning—pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.”

Citing the fact that 60 percent of people living with HIV in the United States are still unable to access the life-saving medications that have been available for more than 20 years, the former officials pointed to several of Trump’s actions as a huge step backward in fighting the epidemic:
During his campaign for President, Trump refused to meet with HIV advocates.
Trump took down the Office of National AIDS Policy website the day he took office, and there has been no replacement for this website.

Trump has not appointed anyone to lead the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. This means no one is tasked with regularly bringing issues related to the HIV/AIDS crisis to the attention of the government.

Making the Epidemic Exponentially Worse

In fact, it isn’t just that Trump and his administration don’t care. By fanning racism, anti-gay, and anti-scientific attitudes, by cutting funds for research and treatment, the epidemic is being made exponentially worse.


  • Stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and the LGBT community as a whole is already widespread and is viciously promoted by Trump and others. This stigma contributes to people not being tested for HIV. This has real implications. More than 20 percent of Black gay men infected with HIV have AIDS (meaning that they are very sick) by the time they receive their diagnosis. Early diagnosis is a key factor in effective treatment, which reduces viral loads thereby reducing HIV transmission.
  • Trump and Pence have called for legal and legislative actions that allow discrimination against LGBT people in the name of “protecting religious liberty.” Before becoming vice president, Pence was known as the most anti-LGBT senator. In 2006 he said that banning gay marriage is enforcing “god’s idea.” Pence is also a supporter of conversion therapy, dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • In 2002, Pence, backing the abstinence-only educational policies of the Bush administration, promoted the lie that condoms were not effective in preventing transmission of HIV and that he considers condoms “too modern, liberal.” 
  • Intravenous drug use (shooting up) is one of the ways that HIV spreads. Trump seems to favor a “war on drugs” approach, which has proven to be cruel, racist, and ineffective. In May, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price spoke against opioid replacement therapy, such as methadone and buprenorphine, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that these are among the most effective treatments.
  • Trump’s proposed budget includes a $186 million cut in the CDC’s funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and support services. Speaking of these cuts, Carl Schmid, deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute said,”We would have probably a million fewer HIV tests because of that and we don’t know how many more people will become [HIV] positive and not get the messages.” 
  • As part of huge cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the Trump regime aims to slash research in HIV and AIDS by $550 million.
  • The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides a comprehensive system of care that includes primary medical care and essential support services for people living with HIV who are uninsured or underinsured. Trump’s budget proposes a $59 million cut to the program
  • Cuts to Medicaid proposed by Trump would deny services to many of the most in need: 40 percent of HIV-positive people rely on Medicaid. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program reported more than 9,000 people in the U.S. on a waiting list to get medication to treat HIV, primarily Black and gay men in the Deep South, where Medicaid expansion was blocked. As one AIDS activist in Mississippi said of the situation if the Medicaid expansion is phased out, “The entire country becomes Mississippi.”

Phill Wilson, chief executive and president of the Black AIDS Institute, told the New York Times, “For the most vulnerable, do we end up back in a time when people had only emergency care or no care and were literally dying on the streets? We don’t know yet, but we have to think about it.”
Can all of this be described as anything other than genocide (defined by Webster as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group”)?

The Global Pandemic

HIV/AIDS is a global nightmare, and the failure to address this is a major crime of the capitalist-imperialist system worldwide; 35 million people have died since the start of the epidemic. According to an article in the British medical journal Lancet (7/19/16), as of 2015, 38.8 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide (and this number is steadily increasing), there are 2.6 million new infections annually, and 1.2 million people died in that year.

Of the people infected with HIV, 69 percent live in the poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and 91 percent of HIV-positive children are in Africa. Only about half of those infected with HIV worldwide receive life-saving drugs.

These are the conditions BEFORE Trump. “At least one million people will die in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, researchers and advocates said on Tuesday, if funding cuts proposed by the Trump administration to global public health programs are enacted,” the New York Times recently reported (5/23/17).

Trump has proposed cutting $800 million from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), programs that address the AIDS pandemic. According to data compiled by amfAR, among the effects these cuts in 2018 will be:

  • 62,057 new sexual transmission of HIV
  • 836,038 treatment interruptions among adults leading to 131,388 deaths and 258,742 children becoming orphans
  • 57,639 interruptions to treatments to prevent mother-to-child transmission leading to 7,730 children being born with HIV and 3,865 children dying before the age of two
  • 164,649 children experiencing treatment interruptions leading to 10,5611 deaths


Cuts to international aid are not the only way that Trump will deepen the worldwide AIDS crisis. One of Trump’s first actions on taking office was to re-institute and make even stricter the Global Gag Rule, which denies U.S. funding to any organization that even mentions abortion to women seeking health services. This means that clinics that treat women with HIV would lose any funding if they discussed abortion as an option, even though almost all physicians would consider such a discussion necessary to inform a woman of her choices.

What Are YOU Going to Do?

Think about what all this means. Up to one million deaths worldwide. In the U.S., up to 50 percent of Black gay men becoming HIV positive, and many being denied treatment. This is not acceptable! We cannot remain silent in the face of these horrors. We need to drive out the Trump/Pence regime!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

New Orleans mayor denounces 'false narrative of our history' in speech defending Confederate monument removal

The last of four major Confederate monuments in New Orleans came down on Friday, the final step of a campaign launched in 2015 by Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

While construction workers were taking down the enormous statue of Robert E. Lee, Landrieu delivered a powerful speech about Confederate monuments, the reason they were erected —and why they must come down.

The SPLC joined a number of grassroots organizers including Take 'Em Down NOLA and filed an amicus brief supporting the removal of the monuments. The SPLC has also catalogued the number of publicly supported symbols of the Confederacy around the country and the number of symbols removed since the Charleston massacre. 

Landrieu's speech is, as David Menschel said, "one of the most honest speeches given by a Southern politician." We've printed it in full below:

Watch Mayor Mitch Landrieu deliver his speech here. 

Thank you for coming.

The soul of our beloved city is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way—for both good and for ill. It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans—the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Colorix, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese, and so many more.

You see, New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures. There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum: out of many we are one. But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market, a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were bought, sold, and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor, of misery, of rape, of torture. America was the place where nearly 4000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined “separate but equal”; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp. So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well, what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.

And it immediately begs the questions, why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans. So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission. There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it.

For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth. As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.” So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other. So, let's start with the facts.

The historic record is clear: The Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This “cult” had one goal—through monuments and through other means—to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity. First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy. It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America. They fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots. These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for.

After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone's lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city. Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, made it clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining slavery and white supremacy. He said in his now famous “corner-stone speech” that the Confederacy's “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a false narrative of our history that I think weakens us, and make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago. We can more closely connect with integrity to the founding principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter path toward a better city and a more perfect union.

Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments about the need to contextualize and remember all our history. He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it. President Obama said, “Consider what this artifact tells us about history. … On a stone where day after day for years, men and women … bound and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as history with a plaque, were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men.”

A piece of stone—one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored. As clear as it is for me today … for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family's long proud history of fighting for civil rights … I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought. So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race.

I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes. Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth-grade daughter who Robert E. Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city. Can you do it? Can you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too? We all know the answer to these very simple questions. When you look into this child's eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right and what we must do. We can't walk away from this truth.

And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics. This is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naive quest to solve all our problems at once.

This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong. Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division and, yes, with violence.

To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past. It is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future. History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.

And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans—or anyone else—to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd. Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place. Here is the essential truth: We are better together than we are apart.

Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that the people of New Orleans have given to the world? We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz, the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages from different cultures. Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God, just think.

All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity. We are proof that out of many we are one—and better for it! Out of many we are one—and we really do love it! And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words. “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”

We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say, “Wait, not so fast.” But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Wait has almost always meant never.” We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now.

No more waiting. This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain. While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts; not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.

Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful daughters at their side. Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity.

He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride … it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don't respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.” Yes, Terence, it is. And it is long overdue. Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and Robin’s remarkable footsteps.

A message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond: Let us not miss this opportunity, New Orleans, and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this the City we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.

We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves: At this point in our history—after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe and after the tornado—if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces, would these monuments be what we want the world to see? Is this really our story?

We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations. And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people. In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals. We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That is what really makes America great and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America. Because we are one nation, not two; indivisible with liberty and justice for all, not some. We all are part of one nation, all pledging allegiance to one flag, the flag of the United States of America. And New Orleanians are in … all of the way. It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes. Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy, we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans, and set the tone for the next 300 years.

After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6–1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments, in accordance with the law, have been removed. So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become.

Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned, and now universally loved Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid. “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.” So before we part let us again state the truth clearly.

The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered. As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history.

Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause. Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one people when he said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Sunday, December 11, 2016

The Christian Left Needs You now More Than Ever

Wikipedia says this about The Christian Left:

“In the United States, the Christian Left does not seem to be so well-organized or publicized as its right-wing counterpart. Opponents state this is because it is less numerous. Supporters contend that it is actually more numerous but composed predominantly of persons less willing to voice political views. Further, supporters contend that the Christian Left has had relatively little success securing widespread corporate, political, and major media patronage compared to the Right.”

Isn’t it time for this to change? It’s time we stand up as a community and express our political views. Look what happens when we don’t. We can’t depend on outside support. We have to support ourselves from within. We can’t let The “Christian” Right speak for us any longer. The results have been catastrophic.

God makes it abundantly clear through the OT Prophets, through Jesus and through many New Testament writers like James (brother of Jesus) that we are to defend the weak and the oppressed. We are to speak up for those with no voice. We are to care for the poor, the sick, the homeless, the hungry, the oppressed, the incarcerated, and basically anyone who lacks fundamental necessities or rights. These are not instructions intended only for individuals. God gets very upset with nations, city-states and kings who ignore these requirements throughout the OT.

As a country we are about to throw all of the people God demanded we protect under the bus. The programs these people rely on to survive are about to be handed to Wall Street or gutted and decimated. All of this will be thanks to Republican party policy. We're about to hand rich oppressors big rewards and tell the least of these they are on their own. If anything ever brings the wrath of God down on our nation it will be this. We’ve been warned by history so many times, and yet we always seem to re-build the golden calf.

You would think Christians would be gearing up to stand in the way of all this. Such is not the case. Sadly, purveyors of deceit have managed to equate Christianity and right-wing ideology as one and the same in a majority of “Christian” minds. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will now operate at the speed of light to get their agenda pushed through. It is now more important than ever for this ministry and this community to survive and thrive. We must remain a lighthouse on a hill as the perfect storm gathers.

This week a top House Republican introduced a bill to gut Social Security. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, said he wants to privatize Medicare. Republicans want to 'Block Grant' Medicaid to the states, which would dramatically reduce health care for the poor. They say they want to erase Obamacare on day 1. All of Trump's cabinet picks want to destroy the very thing they would be in charge of.

This is a wholesale abandonment of the least of these and a massive sell-off of the government to Wall Street. Trump will do whatever gains him the most praise from those who surround him, which will be far-right henchmen.

Who is going to speak up about any of this? The alleged "Christians" in this country won't. They're cheering all this on. It looks like we have to step up. If we don't, who will? We should all view this opportunity as a blessing. We get to  have the privilege of engaging in the Lord's work!

Now is the time to stand strong, with a new resolve, or it will get much worse. Now that right-wing extremism has grown stronger we must all stand in the gap, especially given that most “Christians” now accept it as their core ideology. In the present darkness, we must increase the light. We must speak up now more than ever: Right-wing ideology and the teachings of Jesus are opposite in nature. They can’t be reconciled on any level.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

In Memorium

Those who died senselessly in Orlando.

Stanley Almodovar III, 23
Amanda Alvear, 25
Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26
Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33
Antonio Davon Brown, 29
Darryl Roman Burt II, 29
Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28
Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25
Luis Daniel Conde, 39
Cory James Connell, 21
Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25
Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32
Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31
Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25
Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26
Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22
Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22
Paul Terrell Henry, 41
Frank Hernandez, 27
Miguel Angel Honorato, 30
Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40
Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19
Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30
Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25
Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32
Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49
Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25
Kimberly Morris, 37
Akyra Monet Murray, 18
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20
Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25
Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36
Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32
Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35
Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25
Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27
Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35
Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24
Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24
Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34
Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33
Martin Benitez Torres, 33
Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24
Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37
Luis S. Vielma, 22
Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50
Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37
Jerald Arthur Wright, 31
 

Thursday, March 17, 2016

A Note Of Encouragement From David McReynolds

Friends, comrades, we all are depressed about Trump - and with good reason. An egomaniac, a pathological liar, a bully, a really bad example of how little taste people with "new money" can be.
We can't believe people are voting for him. But do not give up hope.

This country has survived decades during which women could not vote and slavery was legal. We lived through the jailing of people because they would not serve in the military, or because they had the wrong (which is to say "left") politics. We survived McCarthy.

Most of you remember the massive Civil Rights movement with the death and violence. And you can remember the heartbreak of the Vietnam War, the men sent to prison or into exile. The veterans who came home, broken and needed our support.

We survived. There are a lot of really good people in this country.
Our job is not just to struggle against the insanity of Trump, but not to give up hope. To remember the songs and music we had in past years. Do not let Trump (or the GOP, which had opened the door for Trump) get you down. March on with good humor, songs, and remembering that what makes us what we are is not  that we are certain of victory, but that we will not give up. Not now. Not ever.