Let Them "Eat Cake"

After Obama's 52 year old mother was diagnosed with cancer, overwhelmed by medical bills, and died before she turned 53, his mission was to make healthcare affordable. Once in office, this was his priority. But any remaining Obamacare subsidies are set to expire this Dec 31, making our already unaffordable healthcare impossible.

        The current and continuing Congressional fight is over where money gets spent. Republicans comprise both the Senate and House. They propose reducing federal spending altogether instead of continuing healthcare subsidies for 90% of Americans. Simply put, because of this fight, Trump has threatened to stop instead of postpone SNAP food benefits to the poor although there are billions set aside to cover SNAP emergencies. (If it sounds illogical, it is.) In turn, 25 States are suing the administration. Meanwhile, over 30% of the population worries they won't have food in November.

        Congress is grandstanding, playing games while their constituents worry and suffer. It seems doubly unreasonable and cruel for Trump and his administration to increase the problem by threatening the poorest.

        The US has never had a real safety net like Nordic and European countries. It lacks their social benefits and income redistribution. But now in the US with wealth increasingly skewed to the top 10%, the imbalance is so great, something has to topple.

The Beautiful Landscape Was Radically Changed At His Orders

Unter den Linden, Germany's Grand Boulevard of Linden Trees: Hundreds of Linden trees, some as old as 250 years, were replaced with colonnades of flagpoles holding 45 foot red swastika banners. 1936

 

 

Hilarious Jackpod Podcast While Fascism Climbs

Birdcage's "dreamy Bob Dole" once said "The most dangerous place in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and the camera." That + Schumer's forever flip phone are part of Friday's hilarious Jackpod. (The initial segment is only 10-15 minutes, and if you need a laugh, it's worth a listen.)
    Meanwhile, today's Appeals Court allowing Trump's "determination to federalize the National Guard" to send to Portland is ominous. (See my Sept 27 post on Christopher Isherwood's decision to leave Berlin.) And Oregon of all places! I lived there and know it well. This won't be funny. 

Leonard Cohen's Spiritual Wellspring

"You must leave everything that you cannot control. It begins with your family but soon it comes round to your soul."

                                                                 -- Leonard Cohen 

      I heard him singing this in my thoughts this morning, in his deep older voice which was my favorite. I wanted to write about how his complex spiritual nature most resonated in his music. He wanted to be a novelist, to write longer profound work, but his divine gift - who he was - and what most moves most of us - is his music. The deep gravitas of his Jewish upbringing resonates through. But the discipline, the self-denial of Zen (which I find to be the most difficult buddhism) is there as well. I found an abstract that sums up some of what I was thinking: 

     "When Leonard Cohen, the singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist, died...the cultural world mourned the loss of a great artist -- and religious communities mourned the loss of a unique spiritual voice. Cohen was a Canadian Jew who channeled Christian themes in his work and lived for years as a Buddhist monk." Leonard Cohen's Theological Legacy: Fordham edu.

                       

Rufus Wainwright Describes Meeting Leonard Cohen & Sings "Everybody Knows"

Leonard Cohen - "Everybody Knows"

 

 

 

 

 

 My Painting "Hawk Protector" 

Peace Prize = Character, Contributions to Earth's Well-Being

In choosing Peace Prize recipients, the Nobel Committee looks for character and efforts to elevate humanity and the environment: not someone who calls the disabled and fallen and wounded soldiers "losers." Not someone who rewards the rich and ignores the many poor. Past winners include Wangari Maathai; Martin Luther King, Jr; Mother Teresa; Henry Dunant - human rights critics and activists, those who have the character and concern to make a difference. If the Committee chooses Trump, it will teach that bullying and boasting can be rewarded with the highest award. If they don't, how will he retaliate?  

        See my April 2024 Post: "Earth Week" about Wangari Maathai. Also my Martin Luther King posts💓

 

 

Gaza Riviera

Trump has already announced that he plans to build a Resort from the rubble: a Gaza Riviera. Netanyahu agrees "We're going to open possibilities that nobody has ever dreamed of." The majority of Israelis believe that Netanyahu has prolonged the war and contributed to the delay in releasing hostages to protect himself from the corruption trial that awaits him. At this point, Hamas will be the main Palestinian representative in the peace talks, and other Arab and Muslim States are in agreement with the US-Israeli plan. The latest conditions for Palestinian Statehood are tough and building them from rubble - nearly impossible. As soon as they're not met, the U.S. and Israel will move to build a commercial Palestine for Trump's resort. If this weren't so tragic, it would be funny.

Over 67,000 Palestinians killed; 169,000 wounded; Over 1,000 Children Amputees; Over 1,000 Children Traumatized for Life

 "Protesters flood the streets of Tel Aviv"(AP) Sept 9, 2024

"Who the Hell Invited the National Guard?"

New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a61398

Each day we make a difference in how we shop, how we eat, how we treat others, animals, our beautiful planet

 

“If you're in trouble or hurt or need–go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help–the only ones.”  John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath

Police and Paramilitary Guards were Suddenly Everywhere

In 1929, Christopher Isherwood, 25, was drawn to Berlin's decadence. He left abruptly in early 1933 amid drastic changes. His Berlin diaries, Goodbye to Berlin, would remain "diary sequences and sketches" (as he called them) and later become Cabaret. It is considered unlikely he would have survived if he had stayed in Berlin.

A Court Created To Be Above Bias

When three former Federal Reserve chairs have to warn the Supreme Court not to sanction Trump's attempts to fire Lisa Cook, the erosion of Constitutional checks and balances becomes troublingly clear. The Supreme Court is supposed to be objective - unpolitical, unbiased. But it isn't now.  

Governments Gain Power by Dividing the Populace

To separate is to have power over. It's unfortunately easy to make us hate each other. Governments know this well. As history is being eliminated, including monuments, pictures, evidence of slavery, we become disoriented. When groups are turned against other groups, they become distracted, angry while the government seizes power everywhere. 

        Why are we questioning the increase in political violence when the reasons are obvious? The hatred and turning against one another are increasing. And when people don't know what's going to happen next, and feel they're losing control, anxiety and rage result. We blame the other: not the source.

            It's like the Yeats' poem that came to me the morning after the election. The lyrics are on the upper left side of this blog's web version.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Watercolor: Favorite Time of Year