October 21, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

You can feel it coming. Many people have voted already, there is electricity in the air.
We have learned so much, about ourselves and about each other. Those of us who have fought against this administration, in ways big and small, have wondered where his support comes from. The evil is so obvious to us. A third of the population see Trump when they look in their own mirrors. They are as lost as he is.

He reads the polls, and the closer we get to the election, the more desperate he is becoming. What he did yesterday on Fox, demanding his A/G arrest his political opponents, has implications that are as ugly as they are obvious. His mob mentality both binds and blinds him.

The news that he maintains a bank account in China, and pays taxes there, is unsurprising.

Hold those dear to you close,

God save the Republic.

October 17, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

There is just over two weeks to go, thank God. Joe is on his game, it amazes me how much info he can process. Trump is trying to put a good face on the fact that his campaign is disintegrating, staff is either down with the plague, or heading for the exits.. He is a drug addled mess, and whatever happens, it's not going to be pretty.

The Senate. It all hinges on the Senate. It has the power to stop any movement towards dealing with this crises. It's going to take a nationwide, coordinated effort to deal with the plague. Once it is dealt with, the economy will come back, probably come roaring back. Which is the very last thing a republican controlled Senate is going to want to see happen. They wouldn't let it happen under a Trump administration, thinking they'll let it happen under a Biden administration is delusional.

Lets stop pretending that the republicans are patriots acting in good faith. They are not. They will actively sabotage any and all efforts to put things back on track. We MUST take the Senate, please contribute to one of the tight races if possible.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic.

October 8, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

We are in the final stretch, and people are paying attention. Everyone, finally. Here is my take from recent events, short and sweet.

A republican Senator, Lee, said out loud what they try not to. Democracy no longer works for them, and shouldn't be the end goal.

Ok, let's go there. If you want to know what their end goal is, think South Africa about a generation ago. Minority rule, enforced by a brutal police state. That's what they want. It's not what I want. Their purpose is as ugly as their souls.

This election, distilled down, is about whether or not this democracy lives another day.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic

September 30, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

As many of you know, I spent ten years driving very happy tourists around the wineries of Napa and Sonoma. It was a delightful way to make a good living, I was able to meet people from all over the world. The wineries, and the staff who worked them, were a delight. I retired the year before the first of the great fires that have ravaged this area. I could list wineries that have burned just in the last twenty four hours, but I can't do it. It's devastating. In these busy times I would still take a few moments to assuage the grief I feel in my heart.

I don't know that I can watch the debate tonight. Trump offends me on a level that I just can't cope with. My faith in Joe is as solid as it was in PBO. I trust him to keep his calm and deliver what the citizens of this great nation so desperately want. Leadership.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic.

September 22, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

My hopes and fears for the coming election wax and wane with events, and I'm starting to get whiplash. Those emotions combined with the helplessness I feel because of how we are dealing with the plague is sparking an outrage that wants to come out.

I don't feel this for myself so much, I'm a few months shy of seventy, and wasn't planning on living forever. The outrage I feel is for the twenty something version of myself. This guy is expecting to have a life. A job. A family. How we are dealing with the plague is robbing him of all that. It's unconscionable, it's unfair, and that guy is pissed off big time.

So vote, vote for that guy, for yourself, and for your grand kids. Help someone else to vote. This nation needs all of you.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic.

September 21, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

The death of the great Justice Ginsburg has added fuel to the already raging political fire. Looked at from the perspective of recent history, the party in power should delay any movement toward replacing her. We all know they probably won't, which illustrates my next point.

The current administration hasn't just spent the last four years abusing the public trust and the constitution, they have been abusing the public itself. And if I may be bold enough to say so, as a member of the public, I'm pissed.
If the republican controlled Senate proceeds with this, then when Schumer gains control, God willing, I EXPECT him to take some action. Such as, goodbye filibuster. Hello D.C. and P.R. as states. Two new seats on the supreme court. Maybe a hundred new federal judge ships.

There is so much that needs to be set to rights. Retribution for all the abuse is at the top of my list.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic

September 18, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

It would seem like this year has been a perfect storm. The horror of the great fires. The red dawn of a week ago Wednesday will long be remembered. The great forests of the west are burning, and the smoke has reached Europe.

An inland hurricane smashes the mid-west, my home town of Cedar Rapids taking the brunt. An event that tried to blow them away while putting them firmly on the map.

The plague. This must take a coordinated national effort, and it's delay is crushing us. Millions of lives disrupted, jobs gone, death and destruction. No action will be taken until a new administration is in place, God willing.

We are racing towards the election of our lives. The Republic will stand or fall in a few short months.

“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods”

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic

September 9, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

Let's call this one the Armageddon edition, because that's what it looks like outside. It's after ten in the morning, and it's still dark out here in SF. The sky has been an interesting shade of ocher for two days now, but today was special, no dawn. People, needless to say, are freaking out. The weather guy on TV said he has never seen anything like it. W/T/F next?

The election is fast approaching, and it can't be soon enough. The current edition of our Executive Branch is doing all in their power to wreck the Republic. Why? Do they know they are going down and want to leave scorched earth? It's all too reminiscent of Hitler's last days, and it's creepy. If you can phone bank or contribute any money, especially to Senatorial candidates, now is the time.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic

September 4, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

I'm wondering if people realize how many new skills they've gained since being confined, more or less. I have learned two new skills, gardening and baking. The first is good for my sanity and soul, the second is fun but not helpful in the fight against an expanding waist line. Learning to make pastry dough was a bit of a trick, but I got it. I've been making pastries with home made apple butter, and they are so good.

That was the fun part of todays rant. Trump being Trump, and reports surfacing of the vile things he has said about the military, make things a bit easier for Joe. What I'd like to see for the rest of the campaign is for Trump to keep stepping in big piles of his own shit, and for Joe to stay safe from the plague.

I don't want us to lose focus on the plague. The election is important, but the plague is death and despair. I'm dealing with the after effects, and it's been very painful. People need to understand that surviving the initial infection is just the beginning, that message isn't getting across.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic

August 29, 2020

The View from the Tenderloin

The View from the Tenderloin

Everyday, every way I can think of, on platforms social and news, I do what I can to raise people awareness on the upcoming general election. Why, I ask myself, do I do it. I'm sure a few of you ask the same thing, I know people get tired of hearing it. This nation has so much potential, it shines through, waiting. If we get the right team in place, magic will happen. It is desperately important that we do this, there are people dying of plague, of racism, and there is fear and rage in the streets. And I can never forget the pictures of children in cages, at the mercy of people with the morals of prison camp guards, God help them.

If we lose, if enough people decide to sit this one out like they did the last one, the type of regime that will be cemented in place will be incredibly difficult to dislodge, and our descendants will suffer. They will not thank us.
We must brace ourselves to our duty, as Mr. Churchill once said, in another desperate time.

Hold those dear to you close

God save the Republic