I'm not sure whether it's the right thing to read right now, or the exactly the wrong thing. You can't say it's uplifting, and there's little about what's going on right now to be uplifted about. But it's probably the most affective.
The book is called Evicted, and it won the Pulitzer Prize. Not hard to see why. It's a topic people don't want to face, but this man has faced it many times. It's not a lark. The author, Matthew Desmond, is an expert in it. He's done research beyond this writing and written lots of journal articles.
It's a work where you need to keep one finger back at the endnotes. They are sometimes long and intensely detailed. Desmond goes all the way back to Jacob Riis, the famous author/photographer, who detailed these kinds of live among mostly immigrants more than a hundred years ago, to make his points. The notes add a depth to the account that leaves you wondering about this lowly class of individuals, by no means all one color of skin.
It's the racket--and I don't use that word loosely--of the rental business in the inner city. He chose Milwaukee as the prime example, and after reading the work, I can see why.
Thing is, it's a ten-minute drive from where I live, relatively well, in a neighborhood that's well-to-do. A nice park is four blocks away. Removing the virus for a minute, businesses are literally a block away. There's money here; they'll come back. An excellent hospital takes a ten-minute walk. I don't live lavishly, but there is money at the end of the month. Economically, I have little to complain about.
In the world of Evicted, though, everybody lives on the edge. People can't meet their expenses. They work at menial jobs, rarely full-time, that don't pay well. When the first of the month comes, reckoning comes with it. Sometimes they try hard to live within their means, sometimes they just can't. Certain habits just catch up with them.
That's what Desmond does best: He explains the mentality behind poverty. And some of that explanation makes no sense to middle class people, who are used to saving some money for a rainy day. Every day is rainy to these people. They need to feel better right now, so they waste what they could pay for their rent for things like shoes, over-sized TV sets, and jewelry. They'll deal with tomorrow, tomorrow. Conservatives grind down on that thinking; liberals excuse and overlook it. Both are dehumanizing, Desmond says. Neither deals with the core issues.
Meanwhile, landlords cut every edge to gain the profits they believe they have coming to them, guided only by ceilings provided by law. Permission to stay a little longer, though owing money, is given capriciously. Sometimes people can work off their debts, but not always. Like elsewhere in the job market, there are only so many skills to go around to fit so many tasks. There is no standard on individual charity.
Landlords can be cruel and cutthroat. One was called back from a night at the casino; a fire had broken out in one of her properties. She saw the body of an eight-month-old infant carried away, but she had only two thoughts: Would she have to give back any of the monthly rent; and how much insurance money could she collect? Not a thought about the couple that had lost the child.
Government, at least government in Wisconsin, has had it with these people. If they really are evicted, they literally have no place to go with their things. They used to have them shrink-wrapped for storage and have to pay to pick them up. No more: The state has now eliminated that requirement. Their things are left on the curb if they haven't made earlier arrangements.
People scramble and scrape. They sheepishly approach relatives and friends. They call charitable organizations. They hustle. Some sell drugs. Some go into prostitution.
This is not a gateway to great self-esteem. When you can't work or get laid off, it's humiliating. Some people cover for it, some can't. Some are mentally challenged and need the kind of help that's stretched very thin.
Going to court is its own revelation. Knowing why someone can't meet their debt becomes irrelevant. Rubber stamps get busy; you hear them land on papers with the coldness of officialdom. Sometimes the renters show up, sometimes they don't. I didn't know this, but as opposed to flat-out criminal cases, renters don't have the right to procure legal defenses. (The Supreme Court said so in 1981; it may be time to revisit that.) So many go without, with predictable results. You can see why a renter subjected to this doesn't show up a second time. The landlord wants the money; the money's not there. It doesn't matter why. Nobody's interested in listening.
This living on the edge, this unending tension, creates a mentality of endless stress. Issues emerge that wouldn't with other folks. They get into fights and squabbles. Being nice sometimes backfires. You have to be a 'bitch' sometimes, or the system and the culture trample you.
No wonder they're seizing this opportunity, with the horrible police homicide of George Floyd, to demonstrate in the richer parts of some towns--in Buckhead, just outside of Atlanta, and in Whitefish Bay, a.k.a. White Folks Bay, just north of here, where I used to live. They're bringing their world into one that's quite divorced from it. They're saying, Look at us. Just look. We're here, too. This is still America. Deal with it.
That they aren't tearing businesses apart and exposing themselves to the brutality of maintaining order is a gift to these wealthier communities, and wise strategy (more on that later). But what can now be done? Unemployment is 13.3% this month, as just reported, and we know the numbers have been played with for appearances' sake. Much of that lands in service occupations and small businesses, comprised mostly of people of color. Some of them, some who would be able to meet their rent, will now be evicted. Where will they go? What will they do?
This puts tremendous pressure on--well, somebody in government. How many people will be sleeping on park benches now? Is this what Ayn Rand meant? Is the world meant to be this cruel? Are they supposed to be pulling themselves up by their bootstraps now? But in a slow-recovering economy, where are the jobs? And what about college graduates?
But it is good to know the world to which they return when the demonstrating's over. It is good to know why cops get cynical and racist, though they would individually tell you they don't like it. They, too, live on the edge; violence engendered by domestic abuse is never far away.
These are just a few of the problems poverty can cause. It can cause eviction, and it can be the other way around. Records are checked, and evicted people find it difficult to get decent-paying jobs. Desmond is mindful of chronicling the psychological damage all this causes.
What's to be done? Desmond suggests two things, working in tandem: First, housing vouchers to give renters a genuine choice; and rent control, to put a cap on exploitation by landlords. Working together, this should alleviated some of the anxiety about finding rental units. One example cited by Desmond found that, not inexplicably due to background, but a prospective renter had to call ninety landlords before finding a place--then was evicted because her son got the police to the residence because he had assaulted his teacher.
If you need to save yourself some time, pick up this book and just start at the Epilogue. The narrative is compelling enough--I could read only about twenty pages at at time, it's so depressing--but Demond's analysis is cogent, based on tremendous research, and hard-hitting.
I'll let two paragraphs, both written toward the end, be the final commentary. First:
Imagine if we didn't provide unemployment insurance or Social Security to most families who needed these benefits. Imagine if the vast majority of families who applied for food stamps were turned away hungry. And yet this is exactly how we treat most poor families seeking shelter.
And then, at the end of the Epilogue, which, now, is really why the marchers are now marching:
Whatever our way out of this mess, one thing is certain. This degree of inequality, this withdrawal of opportunity, this cold denial of basic needs, this endorsement of pointless suffering--by no American value is this situation justified. No moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching, can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Monday, June 8, 2020
Friday, June 5, 2020
From My Hometown, Too--One Hundred Thousand
It must have been quite the endeavor.
The New York Times printed the names, ages, and hometowns of a thousand victims of the Covid-19 virus in its Sunday edition two weekends ago. It added something unique about everyone's life in a single phrase.
Some of the people achieved some general fame: John Prine, singer/songwriter, of which some celebration was made publicly, for instance; and Lee Konitz, a great jazz saxophonist. But nearly all of them were faces in a new crowd: Faces we wouldn't have known if not for the dreaded disease.
When the number of the dead reached one hundred thousand, the Times decided to run the names of just one percent of the victims. In small print, it took up page after page.
Anyone who read the list carefully, even for one of the pages, learned things that you wouldn't have learned: that there is an Aircraft Engineer Hall of Fame; that the Navajos wish to live 102 years; that you can survive the horrors of the Holocaust and still not survive the virus.
I also looked at the newspapers from which the Times had gleaned the obituaries. One caught my eye: Cedarburg News Graphic. I wrote for that one, putting in a column for 18 years. I bore down on the list of the deceased to find local names.
One victim, a man, was from Grafton, where I grew up. A woman was from Cedarburg, where I taught. Same last name, too. Maybe related? Maybe married (though the lady was five years older)? But then why was her name in the next column from his? Maybe related through marriage?
(Couldn't have been married. I found two people who were actually married and died on the same day, in Indiana, and were listed together. Is that sad? Or fortunate?)
The name was familiar; I had taught twins with that name. They had been freshmen, and as such, were fairly naive until they caught on to the school culture. Then they were a bit naughty. I won't name them. Odds were good they straightened out; they didn't seem permanently corruptible. Maybe they were grandchildren to the deceased.
There were teachers, too, and basketball coaches, one of which was described as "inspirational." He would never be as famous as John Wooden, but to those players, they'll never forget him.
I looked on. There was a fellow from Green Bay about whom it merely said, "A true free spirit." He was my age. They ranged all over, though leaning on the elderly. The youngest so far? Five. His name, too, was included. The oldest I found? 108.
The Times researchers say something nice about everyone, so you walk away wishing you could have known these people. They were as vibrant, clearly, and as alive as anyone you know. But now they're gone. We all have to die, but not like this, not strangling on body fluid, not caught by something you can't see or feel until it settles in for a while. Seems unworthy. Now they are equivalent in death. But they are effective reminders: This could catch up with anyone, and has.
No doubt that they all would have liked to have gone on with their lives and see what's going to happen when the coast clears. We keep saying that this will pass, that we will get through it. Yes, most of us will, but that's only for those lucky enough to dodge a sufficiently strong dose of this virus. Maybe this will solidify the adage that, for the most part, one makes their own breaks. But only for the most part; an unlucky liaison can mean trouble for the best of us. We dodge that six feet at a time--above ground, so that we aren't six feet beneath.
Science is gaining on all this and we know, now, more about how to better protect ourselves and give ourselves a good chance at survival. We also know a little more about what may be overreach, and to relax a little. But the challenge is ongoing, and one can only relax so much. When we don't know when the vaccine will arrive, how much longer can we keep this up? That may be part of the allure of 'opening up' one's state: It's time to start enjoying oneself again. Or is it?
To pull this off, we have to live in the moment yet keep our eyes on a horizon that has fuzzy goalposts. Misinformation, too, is an enemy; it robs us of hope and serves as a chimera. But research is busy and it catches up. Except not enough yet.
More than a hundred thousand have lost that chance, and counting each day. Better to be reminded of it. This causes stress and keeps the psychiatrists busy. It's not a 'new normal' as much as it is a temporary stall. But it doesn't feel temporary. It feels permanent. Governors put out positive reports of the dropping of fatalities and illnesses. Fine. But they're still happening. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett puts it clearly before restating his safe-at-home order: "This thing isn't over yet."
No, it isn't. No time to let up, either. You'll get just as sick now as you would have last month.
Be well, then. Be careful, then. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
The New York Times printed the names, ages, and hometowns of a thousand victims of the Covid-19 virus in its Sunday edition two weekends ago. It added something unique about everyone's life in a single phrase.
Some of the people achieved some general fame: John Prine, singer/songwriter, of which some celebration was made publicly, for instance; and Lee Konitz, a great jazz saxophonist. But nearly all of them were faces in a new crowd: Faces we wouldn't have known if not for the dreaded disease.
When the number of the dead reached one hundred thousand, the Times decided to run the names of just one percent of the victims. In small print, it took up page after page.
Anyone who read the list carefully, even for one of the pages, learned things that you wouldn't have learned: that there is an Aircraft Engineer Hall of Fame; that the Navajos wish to live 102 years; that you can survive the horrors of the Holocaust and still not survive the virus.
I also looked at the newspapers from which the Times had gleaned the obituaries. One caught my eye: Cedarburg News Graphic. I wrote for that one, putting in a column for 18 years. I bore down on the list of the deceased to find local names.
One victim, a man, was from Grafton, where I grew up. A woman was from Cedarburg, where I taught. Same last name, too. Maybe related? Maybe married (though the lady was five years older)? But then why was her name in the next column from his? Maybe related through marriage?
(Couldn't have been married. I found two people who were actually married and died on the same day, in Indiana, and were listed together. Is that sad? Or fortunate?)
The name was familiar; I had taught twins with that name. They had been freshmen, and as such, were fairly naive until they caught on to the school culture. Then they were a bit naughty. I won't name them. Odds were good they straightened out; they didn't seem permanently corruptible. Maybe they were grandchildren to the deceased.
There were teachers, too, and basketball coaches, one of which was described as "inspirational." He would never be as famous as John Wooden, but to those players, they'll never forget him.
I looked on. There was a fellow from Green Bay about whom it merely said, "A true free spirit." He was my age. They ranged all over, though leaning on the elderly. The youngest so far? Five. His name, too, was included. The oldest I found? 108.
The Times researchers say something nice about everyone, so you walk away wishing you could have known these people. They were as vibrant, clearly, and as alive as anyone you know. But now they're gone. We all have to die, but not like this, not strangling on body fluid, not caught by something you can't see or feel until it settles in for a while. Seems unworthy. Now they are equivalent in death. But they are effective reminders: This could catch up with anyone, and has.
No doubt that they all would have liked to have gone on with their lives and see what's going to happen when the coast clears. We keep saying that this will pass, that we will get through it. Yes, most of us will, but that's only for those lucky enough to dodge a sufficiently strong dose of this virus. Maybe this will solidify the adage that, for the most part, one makes their own breaks. But only for the most part; an unlucky liaison can mean trouble for the best of us. We dodge that six feet at a time--above ground, so that we aren't six feet beneath.
Science is gaining on all this and we know, now, more about how to better protect ourselves and give ourselves a good chance at survival. We also know a little more about what may be overreach, and to relax a little. But the challenge is ongoing, and one can only relax so much. When we don't know when the vaccine will arrive, how much longer can we keep this up? That may be part of the allure of 'opening up' one's state: It's time to start enjoying oneself again. Or is it?
To pull this off, we have to live in the moment yet keep our eyes on a horizon that has fuzzy goalposts. Misinformation, too, is an enemy; it robs us of hope and serves as a chimera. But research is busy and it catches up. Except not enough yet.
More than a hundred thousand have lost that chance, and counting each day. Better to be reminded of it. This causes stress and keeps the psychiatrists busy. It's not a 'new normal' as much as it is a temporary stall. But it doesn't feel temporary. It feels permanent. Governors put out positive reports of the dropping of fatalities and illnesses. Fine. But they're still happening. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett puts it clearly before restating his safe-at-home order: "This thing isn't over yet."
No, it isn't. No time to let up, either. You'll get just as sick now as you would have last month.
Be well, then. Be careful, then. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Real Brave. He's Trying to Suffocate Us. Real Tough Guy.
President Useless has struck again. It's a situation tailor-made for him to pretend to take control. He likes to suffocate people. He's trying to do so again.
He evoked all the hot buttons for his base in his Rose Garden ranting: "an offense against God (yeah, right, as if he'd know)," protecting the Second Amendment (whatever any of this has to do with any of that), challenging the state governors to step up and get tough (even though a far greater majority of the protesters are peaceful), and threatening to use the U.S. military to restore order, even if not requested (constitutional, but overplaying the hand). Then he had the police clear the street in front of the White House as he was speaking, scattering people who committed no violence, for full dramatic effect.
What drama. What nonsense.
Then he went over to the church where he never goes, and holds up a Bible. Real brave. Real decisive. We know the people to whom he was showing it. Sorry, but they're twisted, too.
Takes absolutely no courage for someone to do your dirty work so you can pose for holy pictures. The Secret Service took him to a more secure place last night so he could hide from his people. This posing was just another hiding in plain sight.
With all that, absolutely no mention of what the protestors, now in over 140 cities, are actually demonstrating about: The senseless police homicide of a black man who, granted, probably committed a crime.
But people are supposed to be taken into custody without dying. They aren't supposed to have the life choked out of them by someone's bended knee. There's supposed to be a Constitution to protect them, even though they aren't exactly the flower of our society.
People are supposed to have the right to assemble to voice grievances. It's mentioned in the First Amendment which, last I recall, is every bit as important as the Second, to which none of this situation applies.
Really? This protest isn't legitimate? The uncalled-for death of a black individual in police custody, a scene repeated way too many times recently, isn't a reason to get out in the streets and raise a little hell?
He never mentioned that. It's clear he's past it now. It's clear he doesn't care. "The best friend of peaceful protestors?" No. That's a lie. If he was, he would have walked right through the folks who were protesting just off Lafayette Square yesterday, without fear, and in fact would have embraced them.
No, no. This is a time for a tough guy. And he's a real tough guy. "No Mr. Nice Guy," his campaign ads say. Well, you bet. He'll take over. He's a take-charge guy when it's for show.
Except he can't. If the crowds are dispersed in downtown areas, they will re-assemble elsewhere in town, in other neighborhoods, and outrun whatever force approaches. That's the problem with a knucklehead running this show: He doesn't get it. There aren't enough law enforcement people anywhere who can keep up with this by themselves; in the end, they need cooperation and acquiescence. They're simply outnumbered.
That's why it was so important, at the end of the Civil War, for Lee to surrender his entire army and for Grant to simply allow them to go back home. A guerrilla war fought piecemeal by angry Confederates would have lasted decades. (Besides, they came back and won Reconstruction.) If these people aren't allowed to say what they need to say, they will resist for weeks. And, since many of them are unemployed now, they can do it.
I have news for him: If after seven nights the protests haven't subsided, no strong-arm tactics are going to create civic peace. Something like peace may be evident on the surface, but post-surface tension will remain. The army, called out under so-called 'extraordinary' circumstances, will have to stay put and we will be the police state we've always feared.
The message has been delivered. Now it's a matter of getting someone to take action to indicate that the message has been heard: laws passed, court rulings, etc. No guarantees of that, if anyone's been studying history. Domestic tranquility will have to happen from within the populace itself. In fact, there's a good chance that all this will backfire and cause more violence, not less.
Calling out the army and applying martial law to increase the drama so someone pays attention to you accomplishes only that. This tragedy is only being doubled down by the week. George Will is right: He should be removed and his Republican enablers, too. That's a tall order. But we have to do both.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
He evoked all the hot buttons for his base in his Rose Garden ranting: "an offense against God (yeah, right, as if he'd know)," protecting the Second Amendment (whatever any of this has to do with any of that), challenging the state governors to step up and get tough (even though a far greater majority of the protesters are peaceful), and threatening to use the U.S. military to restore order, even if not requested (constitutional, but overplaying the hand). Then he had the police clear the street in front of the White House as he was speaking, scattering people who committed no violence, for full dramatic effect.
What drama. What nonsense.
Then he went over to the church where he never goes, and holds up a Bible. Real brave. Real decisive. We know the people to whom he was showing it. Sorry, but they're twisted, too.
Takes absolutely no courage for someone to do your dirty work so you can pose for holy pictures. The Secret Service took him to a more secure place last night so he could hide from his people. This posing was just another hiding in plain sight.
With all that, absolutely no mention of what the protestors, now in over 140 cities, are actually demonstrating about: The senseless police homicide of a black man who, granted, probably committed a crime.
But people are supposed to be taken into custody without dying. They aren't supposed to have the life choked out of them by someone's bended knee. There's supposed to be a Constitution to protect them, even though they aren't exactly the flower of our society.
People are supposed to have the right to assemble to voice grievances. It's mentioned in the First Amendment which, last I recall, is every bit as important as the Second, to which none of this situation applies.
Really? This protest isn't legitimate? The uncalled-for death of a black individual in police custody, a scene repeated way too many times recently, isn't a reason to get out in the streets and raise a little hell?
He never mentioned that. It's clear he's past it now. It's clear he doesn't care. "The best friend of peaceful protestors?" No. That's a lie. If he was, he would have walked right through the folks who were protesting just off Lafayette Square yesterday, without fear, and in fact would have embraced them.
No, no. This is a time for a tough guy. And he's a real tough guy. "No Mr. Nice Guy," his campaign ads say. Well, you bet. He'll take over. He's a take-charge guy when it's for show.
Except he can't. If the crowds are dispersed in downtown areas, they will re-assemble elsewhere in town, in other neighborhoods, and outrun whatever force approaches. That's the problem with a knucklehead running this show: He doesn't get it. There aren't enough law enforcement people anywhere who can keep up with this by themselves; in the end, they need cooperation and acquiescence. They're simply outnumbered.
That's why it was so important, at the end of the Civil War, for Lee to surrender his entire army and for Grant to simply allow them to go back home. A guerrilla war fought piecemeal by angry Confederates would have lasted decades. (Besides, they came back and won Reconstruction.) If these people aren't allowed to say what they need to say, they will resist for weeks. And, since many of them are unemployed now, they can do it.
I have news for him: If after seven nights the protests haven't subsided, no strong-arm tactics are going to create civic peace. Something like peace may be evident on the surface, but post-surface tension will remain. The army, called out under so-called 'extraordinary' circumstances, will have to stay put and we will be the police state we've always feared.
The message has been delivered. Now it's a matter of getting someone to take action to indicate that the message has been heard: laws passed, court rulings, etc. No guarantees of that, if anyone's been studying history. Domestic tranquility will have to happen from within the populace itself. In fact, there's a good chance that all this will backfire and cause more violence, not less.
Calling out the army and applying martial law to increase the drama so someone pays attention to you accomplishes only that. This tragedy is only being doubled down by the week. George Will is right: He should be removed and his Republican enablers, too. That's a tall order. But we have to do both.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Monday, June 1, 2020
Ignore Him. He's Useless.
What good does our president do us?
Please tell me, because I'm having a hard time figuring that out. I really can't see it.
Does he lead? Well, you could say he leads the people who cling to his every word, regardless of accuracy.
But his words mean nothing, except to him. They are vague, rambling, and meant to distract or insult, depending upon his mood. That's about it. His staff has tried to cover for him, but even they have given up. When's the last time you heard them try to do that without being corrected or challenged?
He has the pulpit. Due to a backdoor exception that's happened a few times (first one in 1876, by the way), we've given it to him. He uses it to diminish his enemies, the number of which has grown significantly the last three years.
He gets to say things about the rule of law because of his position. But he doesn't live by his lofty words. If he did, he'd be removed from office by now. In fact, he wouldn't have run to gain power for its own sake.
He plays both victim and bully. But neither does us any good. Neither is the kind of person we want to lead us. Neither can provide anything akin to true leadership.
Does he provide us with useful information? No, he doesn't. He makes promises he can't keep. The latest is to say that we'll have a vaccine "very soon." He likes to say that things will happen "very soon" because he's lying. In fact, he knows very well that a vaccine isn't in the offing for at least a year at the very soonest.
Living one day at a time for another year is going to be an enormous challenge for people who are truly paying attention, because they're feeling pretty left out by those who aren't. The latter won't all get sick, but enough of them will. They just don't get sick right away.
On Lawrence O'Donnell's show "The Last Word" on MSNBC, he had on a communicative disease expert (I forget her name). She said that a useable, distributive vaccine is three years away.
That means that masks must be worn for three years. It means that you have to watch yourself for three years. It means that someone near you could have the virus for three years.
But a vaccine will be coming "very soon." We know he can't level with us. We know that as soon as he says anything, it'll be fact-checked into irrelevance.
So he can't be relied on to tell us any factual thing, either. Can he introduce legislation that will guide us out of here?
No, he can't. Or, at least he won't. He hasn't to this point. He's waiting for Congress to act, but Mitch McConnell has already slowed down any additional help to a public that's suffering with the greatest unemployment since the Great Depression.
It hasn't caught up with us yet. But it will. Meat-packing workers are getting sick by the thousands. That will start to slow down any day now. People will get it, and start to hoard meat. That will be the start.
People will run out of money. At least, more people than already have. They will fill the streets. They will start panhandling. I haven't seen any of it yet. But it will get here.
He could stop it tomorrow. He could lock the country back down. He could demand that Congress passes legislation to grant more people some money to get by. People who aren't listening would listen. But he won't.
Instead, he'll divert, or try to divert, attention to the country's growing problems by condemning Twitter for putting a fact-check on him. It has every right to do so. He claims he can shut down social media; I have news for him. His freedom of speech is not curtailed; it is a right we all have. He just doesn't like it when one of his major conduits interrupts him to remind him that he doesn't have carte blanche, like nobody else has, either, to write whatever he wants without being fact-checked.
Again, he's useless. He won't write what's accurate. He only wants to suit himself.
He will blame certain governors, whether they've done a good job or not. Death and illness are now widespread so that he can simply point at one of them and say he or she hasn't done well. How would he know? He hasn't done anything.
He closed flights from China, but waited a whole month to take any more action. Then it was too late. This needs to be repeated as time goes on.
What good is he? Has he made us feel better with any words? No. Will he? He didn't before the virus. Why would he now?
Let me repeat the question: What good is he? He's useless.
Nobody else has used that word to describe him so far. Let me be the first: He's useless.
And deserves to be ignored. Nothing else, just ignored. He spreads useless rumors of murders because he wants people to steer away from critics. He's only done it to one person because he doesn't have anything on anyone else right now. But it's all a lie. The press has to report it. But you don't need to pay any attention to it. It's useless.
Do the thing he can't stand: To be ignored. To be dismissed. He's a crackpot and liar. Why would you pay any attention to that in your regular, daily life? You wouldn't. So ignore him.
Pay attention to your governor; he or she has the ability (or not, as in Wisconsin) to guide you through this awful time. As the numbers of the ill start climbing again--as they already have in Arkansas and North Carolina--it will be an additional alarm to buckle down and stand down.
But pay no attention to 45. He's useless. Keep that word in the front of your mind: Useless. Make me stand corrected, and you'll see it here. But not until then.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Please tell me, because I'm having a hard time figuring that out. I really can't see it.
Does he lead? Well, you could say he leads the people who cling to his every word, regardless of accuracy.
But his words mean nothing, except to him. They are vague, rambling, and meant to distract or insult, depending upon his mood. That's about it. His staff has tried to cover for him, but even they have given up. When's the last time you heard them try to do that without being corrected or challenged?
He has the pulpit. Due to a backdoor exception that's happened a few times (first one in 1876, by the way), we've given it to him. He uses it to diminish his enemies, the number of which has grown significantly the last three years.
He gets to say things about the rule of law because of his position. But he doesn't live by his lofty words. If he did, he'd be removed from office by now. In fact, he wouldn't have run to gain power for its own sake.
He plays both victim and bully. But neither does us any good. Neither is the kind of person we want to lead us. Neither can provide anything akin to true leadership.
Does he provide us with useful information? No, he doesn't. He makes promises he can't keep. The latest is to say that we'll have a vaccine "very soon." He likes to say that things will happen "very soon" because he's lying. In fact, he knows very well that a vaccine isn't in the offing for at least a year at the very soonest.
Living one day at a time for another year is going to be an enormous challenge for people who are truly paying attention, because they're feeling pretty left out by those who aren't. The latter won't all get sick, but enough of them will. They just don't get sick right away.
On Lawrence O'Donnell's show "The Last Word" on MSNBC, he had on a communicative disease expert (I forget her name). She said that a useable, distributive vaccine is three years away.
That means that masks must be worn for three years. It means that you have to watch yourself for three years. It means that someone near you could have the virus for three years.
But a vaccine will be coming "very soon." We know he can't level with us. We know that as soon as he says anything, it'll be fact-checked into irrelevance.
So he can't be relied on to tell us any factual thing, either. Can he introduce legislation that will guide us out of here?
No, he can't. Or, at least he won't. He hasn't to this point. He's waiting for Congress to act, but Mitch McConnell has already slowed down any additional help to a public that's suffering with the greatest unemployment since the Great Depression.
It hasn't caught up with us yet. But it will. Meat-packing workers are getting sick by the thousands. That will start to slow down any day now. People will get it, and start to hoard meat. That will be the start.
People will run out of money. At least, more people than already have. They will fill the streets. They will start panhandling. I haven't seen any of it yet. But it will get here.
He could stop it tomorrow. He could lock the country back down. He could demand that Congress passes legislation to grant more people some money to get by. People who aren't listening would listen. But he won't.
Instead, he'll divert, or try to divert, attention to the country's growing problems by condemning Twitter for putting a fact-check on him. It has every right to do so. He claims he can shut down social media; I have news for him. His freedom of speech is not curtailed; it is a right we all have. He just doesn't like it when one of his major conduits interrupts him to remind him that he doesn't have carte blanche, like nobody else has, either, to write whatever he wants without being fact-checked.
Again, he's useless. He won't write what's accurate. He only wants to suit himself.
He will blame certain governors, whether they've done a good job or not. Death and illness are now widespread so that he can simply point at one of them and say he or she hasn't done well. How would he know? He hasn't done anything.
He closed flights from China, but waited a whole month to take any more action. Then it was too late. This needs to be repeated as time goes on.
What good is he? Has he made us feel better with any words? No. Will he? He didn't before the virus. Why would he now?
Let me repeat the question: What good is he? He's useless.
Nobody else has used that word to describe him so far. Let me be the first: He's useless.
And deserves to be ignored. Nothing else, just ignored. He spreads useless rumors of murders because he wants people to steer away from critics. He's only done it to one person because he doesn't have anything on anyone else right now. But it's all a lie. The press has to report it. But you don't need to pay any attention to it. It's useless.
Do the thing he can't stand: To be ignored. To be dismissed. He's a crackpot and liar. Why would you pay any attention to that in your regular, daily life? You wouldn't. So ignore him.
Pay attention to your governor; he or she has the ability (or not, as in Wisconsin) to guide you through this awful time. As the numbers of the ill start climbing again--as they already have in Arkansas and North Carolina--it will be an additional alarm to buckle down and stand down.
But pay no attention to 45. He's useless. Keep that word in the front of your mind: Useless. Make me stand corrected, and you'll see it here. But not until then.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Saturday, May 30, 2020
On Razor's Edge: 30 Cities and Counting
Here we are, on a razor's edge. You feel it, don't you?
Well, maybe not. Maybe you're in the middle of Montana or something. But I do.
I'm on Milwaukee's east side, where stuff like we're watching isn't supposed to happen. Some folks demonstrated yesterday, blocking the freeway for a while. Good protest. Got someone's attention, but wasn't violent.
Maybe that'll be it. But don't count on it.
Among the other cities that have had demonstrations so far are Denver, Louisville, Atlanta, Los Angeles. There's been some violence, too. I thought it was just a few, but then I saw today's New York Times. There have been protests in thirty cities, at least, in the last two days.
All this is a few text messages and/or phone calls from being coordinated. It might make what happened in the '60s look like child's play. And the baby boomers remember how ugly that was.
The violence in Minneapolis has left the governor with no choice: He's called out the National Guard. I have family in it. It's tense. But what else can he do? They haven't stopped setting fires.
45, in his infinite wisdom and a nice bit of rhyming, said that with looting comes shooting. There. That fixed that. And then he's mustered the military police, to support the National Guard. Nothing like preaching calm to the troubled masses. Meanwhile, a disproportionate number of people of color list amongst the more than 100,000 to die of the virus.
All this is, of course, a band-aid and tearing it off to expose the horrible scars beneath. Inequality and racism have always been with us. The unjustifiable (though no doubt lawyers will try to prove otherwise) death of George Floyd has happened at the worst possible time--when a very contagious disease seems to be hitting the black community at a horrifying rate, and one which will probably accentuate the distance whites will be inclined to keep from them, anyway.
People (read: whites) will now look at blacks (read: people) twice, wondering whether they're both diseased or trouble-makers. How could it be otherwise? But how long can someone keep the resentment bottled up?
We are paying, yet again, for what we have never successfully addressed: the inequality of our
society. Education, jobs, housing: Here we go again. Lights will be shined upon them. Hands will be
wrung.
How much do you think will happen? How deep is this imbedded? How exceptional do you think we really are?
Milwaukee is supposed to be the most segregated city in America. And maybe it is. Minneapolis, no
doubt, is close. If there's a good thing coming out of this, it's that Minneapolis is so far north that no
one can claim that somehow, Southern influence has been brought to bear.
But then, in the '60s, Martin Luther King said that he never saw mobs as hateful as those in Chicago. And those remembering the open housing marches led by Father Groppi in Milwaukee also remember the pushback against them. All that went away, and newspaper stories ran and columnists wrote and we all said we cared so much.
Then I went to a college for mostly rich kids (I certainly wasn't, but they gave me non-scholarship
financial support to play football) that went out of its way to introduce black students. Except they lived with each other, and we didn't see them all that much. They rebelled, too. And some of us wrung our hands and some of us objected. I wonder what was done. At the time, some concessions were made. But attitudes remained.
I remember going up there once, to second floor Plantz Hall, just to visit. I knew a couple well enough. And I said to myself: What's the big deal here? Why aren't black students living with white students? It had to be just as big an adjustment for them as for us. Wasn't that the point? What attitude won out, really?
Then, more than 40 years ago, bussed desegregation of schools was tried in places like Boston and Milwaukee. In Boston, it was resisted strongly; in Milwaukee, it was undermined with 'white flight.' Hence the condition noted above. Hence the re-hardening of stances with no one there to push back.
Now this, and piled upon other police murders in other places. It's a big country, and stuff like this doesn't happen everywhere, so it looks isolated. But we all know it isn't. Because it could happen anywhere.
The problems are systemic. The only way they will be overcome is if a majority of the country becomes people of color. And, in fact, that's due to happen. But few of my age will see it.
Hang on tight, everybody. This ride could get rougher. Promises have been broken for too long.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Well, maybe not. Maybe you're in the middle of Montana or something. But I do.
I'm on Milwaukee's east side, where stuff like we're watching isn't supposed to happen. Some folks demonstrated yesterday, blocking the freeway for a while. Good protest. Got someone's attention, but wasn't violent.
Maybe that'll be it. But don't count on it.
Among the other cities that have had demonstrations so far are Denver, Louisville, Atlanta, Los Angeles. There's been some violence, too. I thought it was just a few, but then I saw today's New York Times. There have been protests in thirty cities, at least, in the last two days.
All this is a few text messages and/or phone calls from being coordinated. It might make what happened in the '60s look like child's play. And the baby boomers remember how ugly that was.
The violence in Minneapolis has left the governor with no choice: He's called out the National Guard. I have family in it. It's tense. But what else can he do? They haven't stopped setting fires.
45, in his infinite wisdom and a nice bit of rhyming, said that with looting comes shooting. There. That fixed that. And then he's mustered the military police, to support the National Guard. Nothing like preaching calm to the troubled masses. Meanwhile, a disproportionate number of people of color list amongst the more than 100,000 to die of the virus.
All this is, of course, a band-aid and tearing it off to expose the horrible scars beneath. Inequality and racism have always been with us. The unjustifiable (though no doubt lawyers will try to prove otherwise) death of George Floyd has happened at the worst possible time--when a very contagious disease seems to be hitting the black community at a horrifying rate, and one which will probably accentuate the distance whites will be inclined to keep from them, anyway.
People (read: whites) will now look at blacks (read: people) twice, wondering whether they're both diseased or trouble-makers. How could it be otherwise? But how long can someone keep the resentment bottled up?
We are paying, yet again, for what we have never successfully addressed: the inequality of our
society. Education, jobs, housing: Here we go again. Lights will be shined upon them. Hands will be
wrung.
How much do you think will happen? How deep is this imbedded? How exceptional do you think we really are?
Milwaukee is supposed to be the most segregated city in America. And maybe it is. Minneapolis, no
doubt, is close. If there's a good thing coming out of this, it's that Minneapolis is so far north that no
one can claim that somehow, Southern influence has been brought to bear.
But then, in the '60s, Martin Luther King said that he never saw mobs as hateful as those in Chicago. And those remembering the open housing marches led by Father Groppi in Milwaukee also remember the pushback against them. All that went away, and newspaper stories ran and columnists wrote and we all said we cared so much.
Then I went to a college for mostly rich kids (I certainly wasn't, but they gave me non-scholarship
financial support to play football) that went out of its way to introduce black students. Except they lived with each other, and we didn't see them all that much. They rebelled, too. And some of us wrung our hands and some of us objected. I wonder what was done. At the time, some concessions were made. But attitudes remained.
I remember going up there once, to second floor Plantz Hall, just to visit. I knew a couple well enough. And I said to myself: What's the big deal here? Why aren't black students living with white students? It had to be just as big an adjustment for them as for us. Wasn't that the point? What attitude won out, really?
Then, more than 40 years ago, bussed desegregation of schools was tried in places like Boston and Milwaukee. In Boston, it was resisted strongly; in Milwaukee, it was undermined with 'white flight.' Hence the condition noted above. Hence the re-hardening of stances with no one there to push back.
Now this, and piled upon other police murders in other places. It's a big country, and stuff like this doesn't happen everywhere, so it looks isolated. But we all know it isn't. Because it could happen anywhere.
The problems are systemic. The only way they will be overcome is if a majority of the country becomes people of color. And, in fact, that's due to happen. But few of my age will see it.
Hang on tight, everybody. This ride could get rougher. Promises have been broken for too long.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Friday, May 29, 2020
Frederick Douglass: Indefatigible, Brilliant, Intimidating
When I read a biography, I intend to learn things about that person and the time in which they lived that I didn't know. There are always things to learn and nobody knows everything about everything, and that, and the fact that I once taught history, is why I read stuff like that.
So here's what I've learned about Frederick Douglass, the famed speaker, writer, and abolitionist, from David Blight's book about him, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, in the first half alone. You might find it interesting:
So here's what I've learned about Frederick Douglass, the famed speaker, writer, and abolitionist, from David Blight's book about him, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, in the first half alone. You might find it interesting:
- As already noted elsewhere, he was a pal of John Brown, the violent, murderous abolitionist. For a moment, Douglass considered getting in with him at Harpers' Ferry, where of course Brown was wounded, captured, tried and executed for treason. He passed on that opportunity, but still had to flee to England for a while (actually, a second time since he'd had to go there because he had earlier published his autobiography, admitting his slave status, including his owner's name, and the fugitive slave laws made it much easier for him to be recaptured and returned to his owner; friends bought him off so he could return) when he learned that the state of Virginia was looking for him. He returned via Canada, still before the Civil War, but the issue of secession in Virginia was too far down the road for the state to legitimize bringing him to justice;
- A month after Lincoln had written the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, he invited black leaders to the White House and asked them to consider recolonizing in South America. They said they'd get back to him, meaning that they didn't want to refuse to his face. Douglass was understandably outraged by such a suggestion. But go figure, since Lincoln was one Union victory away from issuing the proclamation, which he got in September--a month after he made the above suggestion--at Antietam;
- Two years later, Lincoln, very afraid of losing the next election, asked Douglass to come up with a plan to do basically what Brown had tried to do--rally the slaves to come north to emancipation. Before he could do so, though, the war had again intervened with Sherman's taking of Atlanta and his embarking on the March to the Sea and Admiral Farragut's ('Damn the torpedoes--full speed ahead!') victory at Mobile Bay, which convinced enough voters that the war had broken out of stalemate and would be won;
- Two of Douglass' sons joined the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the one depicted in the movie Glory. One of them was held back by illness, but one of them fought in the famous battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, in which the 54th was thrown against impregnable barricades in an almost suicidal charge, and broke through before finally being thrown back with horrendous losses. Douglass' son survived the battle, amazingly, though badly wounded; and
- Douglass met a German woman, Ottilie Assing, during his time in England and probably (though no notes exist that specify it) had an affair with her, sometimes staying for up to a week at her place in Hoboken, New Jersey. She became obsessed with him and had followed him back to the States, even staying at his home with his wife there. She clearly had designs on getting him to divorce and marry her, but he did not follow up. Yet, she was received at their home in Rochester, New York, every time she visited and stayed. She provided Douglass with the intellectual mate that his simple wife could not provide. Amazingly, the marriage stayed together. No writings between the two lovers survive; Assing had his letters to her destroyed upon her death.
It's an exhaustive book, a masterpiece of research and written in dramatic style. It's harder to keep up with after emancipation, since that's Douglass' focus and goal, but he did a lot of living after that, too. Blight must have gotten access to letters and papers that no one else has. There are other works on Douglass, and good ones, but this one is a tour de force. I doubt that anyone can write a more definitive study of this indefatigable, brilliant, intimidating person.
His voice was a deep baritone, which gave even deeper meaning to his stunning rhetoric. He challenged people's beliefs and sometimes upset them to the point of being run out of town. But in a time in which even free blacks were a distinctly lower class and often lived obscure lives out of the mainstream, Douglass never flinched from testifying to his experience as a slave. He began his speaking career in the shadow of William Lloyd Garrison, but separated from him when he became too independent, going it alone. It had to take incredible courage to do that.
But he never backed off. Whites needed to accept blacks as true equals or freedom from slavery would mean little. That was rough stuff in those days, and Northern whites didn't always like it, either. Douglass liked to poke the eyes of Northeners, exposing their hypocrisy. He wasn't an Uncle Tom. He didn't go along to get along, though he sometimes had to play politics with his preferences.
He didn't shy away from controversy, either. When his black first wife died, he got the white mistress to go away and married another white woman more than twenty years his junior. That got people's attention: Congress even stopped to glance at him when he and the new missus came to sit in the gallery.
Ironically, one of his main life goals was to be appointed to a government position. That happened twice; he was made a marshal of the District of Columbia, and minister to Haiti. He also assisted in a mission to try to make part of the Dominican Republic subservient to U.S. interests, which failed. He also found himself taking the Haitian government's position in its conflicts with the U.S., which had designs on the coal in the region to fuel its growing navy. That led to his resignation just a year and a half after taking over.
That didn't stop two continuous themes from playing themselves out after the war: That he was honored as a wise sage and solicited to speak anywhere and everywhere; and Jim-Crowed, at times, when he went south to do so. Nonetheless, he honored numerous requests to speak throughout the country, gaining a sobriquet, Old Man Eloquent. Having paved the way for Lincoln to free the slaves, he launched an attack upon the South, which had caved to the Redeemers; and what logically followed in their path, white supremacy with the disenfranchisement of the blacks. Worse, it brought on the horrible practice of lynching, quite evident well into the 20th Century.
He was considered a godfather of sorts of future adherents such as Ida B. Wells and James Weldon Johnson, appearing with them to give them initial ballast for their passions. He published two newspapers, wrote letters and comments and made personal appearances right up to his death, at age 78, in 1895. W. E. B. DuBois heard him speak in Boston in 1892; Blight believes he was inspired by Douglass.
That Douglass couldn't conquer white supremacy cannot be laid on his doorstep. We are still fighting those vestiges today, witness the recent death of a black man at the hands of white cops in Minneapolis. The year after his death, in fact, the Supreme Court caved to those attitudes with its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, in which "separate but equal" was ruled to be legally acceptable in public facilities. It took more than half a century for that to be reasonably reversed in Brown v. Board, except school boards, city councils, and state legislatures searched for and often found ways to get around that ruling almost from its outset.
But Douglass' achievements cannot be overstressed. Son of a raped woman (he never found out who his real father was), having escaped slavery and taking the incredible risk of writing his autobiography and putting himself into danger of being re-sold back into bondage, fleeing to England twice to escape predators, he strove on to become one of the nation's greatest orators. This enormous work (764 pages) is as complete an account of his life as has been published, and the author does his best to keep placing you into context. It'll take you some time, but this is stirring history, and well worth it.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
He didn't shy away from controversy, either. When his black first wife died, he got the white mistress to go away and married another white woman more than twenty years his junior. That got people's attention: Congress even stopped to glance at him when he and the new missus came to sit in the gallery.
Ironically, one of his main life goals was to be appointed to a government position. That happened twice; he was made a marshal of the District of Columbia, and minister to Haiti. He also assisted in a mission to try to make part of the Dominican Republic subservient to U.S. interests, which failed. He also found himself taking the Haitian government's position in its conflicts with the U.S., which had designs on the coal in the region to fuel its growing navy. That led to his resignation just a year and a half after taking over.
That didn't stop two continuous themes from playing themselves out after the war: That he was honored as a wise sage and solicited to speak anywhere and everywhere; and Jim-Crowed, at times, when he went south to do so. Nonetheless, he honored numerous requests to speak throughout the country, gaining a sobriquet, Old Man Eloquent. Having paved the way for Lincoln to free the slaves, he launched an attack upon the South, which had caved to the Redeemers; and what logically followed in their path, white supremacy with the disenfranchisement of the blacks. Worse, it brought on the horrible practice of lynching, quite evident well into the 20th Century.
He was considered a godfather of sorts of future adherents such as Ida B. Wells and James Weldon Johnson, appearing with them to give them initial ballast for their passions. He published two newspapers, wrote letters and comments and made personal appearances right up to his death, at age 78, in 1895. W. E. B. DuBois heard him speak in Boston in 1892; Blight believes he was inspired by Douglass.
That Douglass couldn't conquer white supremacy cannot be laid on his doorstep. We are still fighting those vestiges today, witness the recent death of a black man at the hands of white cops in Minneapolis. The year after his death, in fact, the Supreme Court caved to those attitudes with its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, in which "separate but equal" was ruled to be legally acceptable in public facilities. It took more than half a century for that to be reasonably reversed in Brown v. Board, except school boards, city councils, and state legislatures searched for and often found ways to get around that ruling almost from its outset.
But Douglass' achievements cannot be overstressed. Son of a raped woman (he never found out who his real father was), having escaped slavery and taking the incredible risk of writing his autobiography and putting himself into danger of being re-sold back into bondage, fleeing to England twice to escape predators, he strove on to become one of the nation's greatest orators. This enormous work (764 pages) is as complete an account of his life as has been published, and the author does his best to keep placing you into context. It'll take you some time, but this is stirring history, and well worth it.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Dear Joe: Going Forward, If You Really Want To
To Joe Biden:
Dear Joe: Congratulations, at least so far, on being the Democratic standard-bearer. It looks as though it's your election to lose. Of course, that's what happened last time, and nobody sat Hillary down and really talked to her. Might not have done any good, but we saw what happened.
In any event, here you are and leading our terrible president by some eleven points right now, if that poll means anything, which the last ones really didn't until it was too late. But let's assume it does mean something.
It means that there's a lot of unhappiness out there now, and if there wasn't, it would be amazing. 45 has 39% support. That's just one percent above the 38% that I keep insisting will be his base, like it or not. In other words, he's hit pretty near the bottom and won't go much farther down, incredible though it may seem. Remember, those 38% are the people who believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, which means they're fairly close if not completely adherent to the Book of Genesis--which, as geological research, is just plain baloney.
They've bought into 45 utterly because their clergy has, too. So they're unrecoverable. Write them off silently, not like Mitt Romney did in 2012, when he got caught saying that 47% of the electorate will vote Democratic, anyhow. Oh, you need to be reminded of that. You've already put your foot in your mouth. More below.
But that means you have a lot to work with, and a lot to blow. And you're doing a decent job of that right now, dude. Once again, you've said something dumb about black people, and if there's a solid phalanx of support in these crazy days, it's always been that. Yes, you've apologized, and yes, you appeared humble. Good for you.
Now, stop it. Say only positive things about someone regardless of the question. Our president can't, unless he says it with his 100-word vocabulary of exaggerations and sales pitches that many of us are very tired of. You have a tremendous advantage there, or unless someone writes it out for him. Pivot and work with it.
Besides, there's so much negative news about the virus. There's no plan, even four months since this thing hit us. Come up with a plan. You'll get so far out in front of 45 that he'll wonder where everybody went. Some semblance of a plan, some semblance of hope to get us out of this ditch, will be incredibly welcome.
You made a nice show on Memorial Day, going to the memorial for Delaware vets. That alone was a great photo op. So were the masks that you and Jill wore. When you appear, don't fall for the macho crap that 45 puts out there, and wear the mask. Tell everyone that it isn't safe without it, because it isn't. If people don't believe you, they either soon will because they'll get sick, or they're in that 38% which denies science and are irreparable.
Have you noted that you've gained your lead while mostly staying at home? Yup. 45 just keeps digging deeper. He appears when people are tired of him. The only thing he has going is that he's big and appears presidential. Otherwise, he's completely useless. Yes, useless. He would be much better off staying home, but he can't help himself.
Until the convention, at least, copy that. Don't go out there unless there's a specific celebration or reason, something to specifically address. Some of the pundits think you're unnecessarily tied up by the pandemic; I think it's just the opposite. This is the opportunity for the public to see just how useless 45 is, just how pathetic he looks.
July 4 will be the next chance for you to appear. Wait until then. You can't change much until then anyhow. If things get better, you can't help that. If things get worse--and wait for food shortages; they're coming due to sickness on the production line that hasn't been adequately addressed--you'll be able to discuss it once or twice. That's all you'll need. Otherwise, lay low in June. We will see what opening up brings. I don't think it'll be pretty.
Basically, in this campaign, less is more until the convention. No more fighting to be done. No more inside campaigning--except for oh, yeah, your vice-presidential pick:
You still have time to vet. Your professed need for a woman won't backfire on you: The Democrats have a great bench. That's the good part. Do you need a black woman? James Clyborn is right: You don't. You need the best woman. But a black woman might be best after all.
Has your foolish comment about blacks forced your hand? Good question. Don't know how to answer that one without internal polling, which, if you're smart, you're busy doing. All I can tell you are my impressions:
Dear Joe: Congratulations, at least so far, on being the Democratic standard-bearer. It looks as though it's your election to lose. Of course, that's what happened last time, and nobody sat Hillary down and really talked to her. Might not have done any good, but we saw what happened.
In any event, here you are and leading our terrible president by some eleven points right now, if that poll means anything, which the last ones really didn't until it was too late. But let's assume it does mean something.
It means that there's a lot of unhappiness out there now, and if there wasn't, it would be amazing. 45 has 39% support. That's just one percent above the 38% that I keep insisting will be his base, like it or not. In other words, he's hit pretty near the bottom and won't go much farther down, incredible though it may seem. Remember, those 38% are the people who believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, which means they're fairly close if not completely adherent to the Book of Genesis--which, as geological research, is just plain baloney.
They've bought into 45 utterly because their clergy has, too. So they're unrecoverable. Write them off silently, not like Mitt Romney did in 2012, when he got caught saying that 47% of the electorate will vote Democratic, anyhow. Oh, you need to be reminded of that. You've already put your foot in your mouth. More below.
But that means you have a lot to work with, and a lot to blow. And you're doing a decent job of that right now, dude. Once again, you've said something dumb about black people, and if there's a solid phalanx of support in these crazy days, it's always been that. Yes, you've apologized, and yes, you appeared humble. Good for you.
Now, stop it. Say only positive things about someone regardless of the question. Our president can't, unless he says it with his 100-word vocabulary of exaggerations and sales pitches that many of us are very tired of. You have a tremendous advantage there, or unless someone writes it out for him. Pivot and work with it.
Besides, there's so much negative news about the virus. There's no plan, even four months since this thing hit us. Come up with a plan. You'll get so far out in front of 45 that he'll wonder where everybody went. Some semblance of a plan, some semblance of hope to get us out of this ditch, will be incredibly welcome.
You made a nice show on Memorial Day, going to the memorial for Delaware vets. That alone was a great photo op. So were the masks that you and Jill wore. When you appear, don't fall for the macho crap that 45 puts out there, and wear the mask. Tell everyone that it isn't safe without it, because it isn't. If people don't believe you, they either soon will because they'll get sick, or they're in that 38% which denies science and are irreparable.
Have you noted that you've gained your lead while mostly staying at home? Yup. 45 just keeps digging deeper. He appears when people are tired of him. The only thing he has going is that he's big and appears presidential. Otherwise, he's completely useless. Yes, useless. He would be much better off staying home, but he can't help himself.
Until the convention, at least, copy that. Don't go out there unless there's a specific celebration or reason, something to specifically address. Some of the pundits think you're unnecessarily tied up by the pandemic; I think it's just the opposite. This is the opportunity for the public to see just how useless 45 is, just how pathetic he looks.
July 4 will be the next chance for you to appear. Wait until then. You can't change much until then anyhow. If things get better, you can't help that. If things get worse--and wait for food shortages; they're coming due to sickness on the production line that hasn't been adequately addressed--you'll be able to discuss it once or twice. That's all you'll need. Otherwise, lay low in June. We will see what opening up brings. I don't think it'll be pretty.
Basically, in this campaign, less is more until the convention. No more fighting to be done. No more inside campaigning--except for oh, yeah, your vice-presidential pick:
You still have time to vet. Your professed need for a woman won't backfire on you: The Democrats have a great bench. That's the good part. Do you need a black woman? James Clyborn is right: You don't. You need the best woman. But a black woman might be best after all.
Has your foolish comment about blacks forced your hand? Good question. Don't know how to answer that one without internal polling, which, if you're smart, you're busy doing. All I can tell you are my impressions:
- If black--Harris, Rice, Demings: All good choices. Harris is articulate, attractive, and gained much chops in the Kavanaugh hearing. She has to be a top candidate and is already warmed up nationally. Rice has her national security background, but is an unknown on the trail. Demings is a great sleeper. She's smart, she's attractive, her background is in law enforcement, she's part of the impeachment team, she's from Florida, a swing state, she's low on baggage. I would not be unhappy with her. She's underrated, but wouldn't stay that way.
- If not black--Warren, I believe, though tough and qualified, is too old. Save her for the Senate, the Supreme Court (not the first time I've said that; she truly belongs there, as a former law professor), or the Cabinet. Klobuchar is a better campaigner than she's been given credit for and is from Minnesota, which the ticket needs. Baldwin is a superb campaigner, calm and sturdy, and won by a near-landslide in that most purple of states, Wisconsin. She has transcended her lesbianism, though there will be predictable smears. Whitmer really does sound like she doesn't want the job, though if she said or hinted so, I think you'd be crazy not to take her in a heartbeat.
There are others who might be good, too. I don't know where your head is on this, and you've been appropriately quiet about it. So good luck with that.
You know 45 will try to tweet-smear anyone you take, so there's always that, but he's got enough problems right now. Your goal is to tamp down anything he's saying about you and China by making him the incompetent boob who's not acting in the country's best interests. You have his hesitancy to deal with the virus all during February, which if you don't take advantage of it, you deserve what you get. But do we?
You have this one chance to save our country from what's clearly its demise. It is sliding downhill faster by the day. You've got to get it right, Joe. Everything's banking on it. Here's hoping you do.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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