This cost too much

Our city is doing sewer separation to keep the storm run-off from filling the sewer pipes and overwhelming the water treatment plant in the event of a large storm. The main sewer line runs down the center of our street so we were told to expect the mess and disruption of the street getting torn up.
In a good cause, of course, because naturally none of us wants the sewer to back up and cause problems for homeowners and potentially Lake Erie as well. All homes built after 1971 were required to separate waste water and storm water. Nearly no houses in our pocket neighborhood were built after 1971. Until recently, many homes had a ditch out front that the gutters and other rainwater drained to.  So, progress. Good for Lake Erie. Good for the community.

Unfortunately, our city chose to contract the job to the cheapest contractor who then subcontracted some work to an even cheaper outfit. As a result, the city -because that is who is ultimately responsible here, no matter what the city engineer suggests- is complicit in the destruction of no fewer than five trees over the age of 20 and at least two that were about 200.
Our neighbors' 200-year-old oak, older than the city itself, had withstood centuries of "progress" only to be deemed in the way by the lazy contractor and eliminated.
This tree had survived the founding of the village, the building of the little vacation beach houses all around it, the piping of sewers, water and gas lines. Electricity came in and worked around it. The houses it shaded were built respecting its presence, The street was paved, first with gravel, then with blacktop and the tree was undisturbed.
But somehow, the lazy corner-cutting shits that are replacing the sewer under that very road had to have that venerable 150 foot tall, 200-year-old oak which was perfectly healthy, cut down. That irreplaceable tree now lays in pieces at the side of the road, a testament to the expediency at the cost of long-term value.

Interestingly, there is a board of municipal utilities in my city. And they are elected. I wonder if that idiot city engineer is elected too... .

Hill Yes!

Something amazing happened this past week. For the first time in the history of our nation -240 years, 12 generations- a woman has been nominated by one of the two major political parties as a candidate for president. A woman has a serious chance at becoming the President of the United States.
A woman. Finally.

But as fantastic as the breeching of that barrier feels, we're not done yet. It is obvious from the incessant attempts to deligitimize Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House that sexism holds strong. Not just the overt misogynistic sexism of Trumpeteers who think calling women the C-word is acceptable political discourse or the memes that mock her clothes and looks. That is easy to spot and will likely always be with us. We can only hope to marginalize it as much as possible. I'm actually referring to a couple more insidious brands of sexism.

1. The vague idea that Hillary is not qualified to be president. You see this from a remarkable number of women. "I don't really have a problem with her, but I don't think I can vote for her" A perfect example is Full Frontal's trip to the Mason Dixon county fair in which a female truck mechanic says that being told she can't do her job by a male truck driver is sexism, but cannot see that her refusal to vote for a female for president is sexism also. 
2. The Hillary is a liar/criminal/corrupt mantra we hear from both the far right and the far left. This is also sexism. It is a documented actual real fact that Hillary is NOT a liar or a criminal. There is a whole website dedicated to fact-checking politicians' statements. Politifact says that Hillary is fundamentally honest. The attempt to turn her work as Secretary of State into a criminal enterprise in which she deliberately exposed all State Department secrets to cyberspies, willfully deleted millions of classified emails and caused the death of 4 Americans abroad would be dismissed out of hand had she been a man. In fact, when Bush's administration did the same, it was dismissed. The unending investigations are a concerted effort to deligitimize her work. Not a single investigation has turned up a single shred of evidence of corruption. 

All we have learned in decades of excruciating examination is that, like all the rest of us, Hillary Clinton is an imperfect human. Yet she is being crucified online for her alleged failings. She is being dismissed as "crooked" for no legitimate reason. The next time you think you might not vote for Hillary because she's a liar. Stop. Because the REAL reason is because she's a woman.

Black Lives Matter

I haven't posted in ages. And I'm posting now, not because I have something profound to say, and not because others have not articulated this better or more thoroughly, but because I feel like if I don't post something, I'll explode.

I ache to see these men (mostly) being executed based on racism and fear alone. But I feel so helpless to stop it. What can I do? Someone tell me, because all the letters and vigils and blog posts don't seem to be helping.I want this FIXED. NOW. I want to DO SOMETHING to make it stop. Philando Castile was killed in front of a child! For NO REASON. Just railing against the world seems so futile. 

I used these words last night before I went to bed. Then I woke up to news that five police officers were murdered while providing security for Black Lives Matter protests in Dallas. That is NOT the "DO SOMETHING" I had in mind. Violence begets more violence. Always. And it is an infinitely sadder world that we live in because of it.
The institutionalized racism in America needs to be addressed in a massive nationwide education campaign that will teach all of us (especially white men in positions of power) to see it. Because there are too many Americans who are unwilling to accept that the system is still rigged against people of color. It is. And we need to be told. Over and over again until we finally understand that poverty and racism are linked. And prisons and racism are linked. And extrajudicial murders and racism are linked. And the whole chain is holding all of America prisoner.

It's not okay

So with the protests and violence spilling over in Chicago and actually canceling a Trump rally there, Rachel Maddow did a piece (non-autoplay video link here) on Trump's escalating rhetoric and the relationship it has to this violence that we see at his rallies and no other candidate's.

"Anybody who tells you that there is no connection between the behavior of the mob at these events and the behavior of the man at the podium leading the mob at these events is not actually watching he's been saying from the podium. What he has been saying, and the way he has been egging it on, it has been escalating," Maddow said.

Back in Reconstruction South, the KKK exploited the fears of the poor white sharecroppers who were seeing freed slaves competing to take their jobs. The race-baiting led thousands of Southern (and some Northern) whites to lash out at blacks and institute Jim Crow laws in an attempt to maintain what they perceived as their superiority.
Hitler did a similar thing with the Jews of Germany (and later all of Europe) in convincing the poor, uneducated electorate that their economic predicament was due to "terrible" Jewish business practices.
Now we are seeing it with Donald Trump. He's whipping up fear of Mexicans and Muslims and dismissing blacks. He's tarring all protesters as thugs and encouraging (wink wink) his rabid followers to treat them as such. He offers to pay legal fees for anyone who "accidentally" roughs one up. He laments the era of "political correctness" which requires him to treat fellow human beings as human beings. He notes that back in the old days, it was okay to beat a protester and in the next breath expresses a wish to return to those halcyon days when white folks got to beat black folks at a whim.
And then he blames the protesters. And the media. And Bernie Sanders. And the Trumpbots parrot all that and add Obama and Bill Ayers and George Soros. In 1963 a lot of uneducated poor white people were saying it was all Martin Luther King, Jr.'s fault that 1200 Birmingham, Ala, students were arrested and hundreds injured when the police used water cannon and attack dogs to disperse the peaceful marchers. At Kristallnacht, many Germans believed the destruction of Jewish-owned businesses was something that the Jews had brought on themselves.
I don't know if Donald Trump believes even half the crap that comes out of his orange-tinted lips as he waves his stubby fingers about while ranting from his podium, but even if he doesn't, he's making it implicitly okay for others to act on their fear with violence and that will Make American Hate Again.

My case for HRC

I've read more than a few opinions in the past few days from other feminists defending their support for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Especially in the wake of comments made by Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright. (Although, in Albright's defense, she was just repeating a catchphrase that she's used for years -with awkward timing- that we, who haven't been paying attention, had not heard.)

Where I get annoyed is when the feminists try to argue that Bernie is a better feminist. Or that, feminism is not so important to them that they will support "just any" woman (as if Hillary Clinton is the same as any other woman off the street). I love the ones who argue that feminism gives them the right to choose. Yes. It does. But, and this is where women my age tend to differ from the younger generation, the gen-X feminist or Boomer feminist will look at two qualified candidates and choose the woman. Because she's a woman.

Yep. I said it. If there are two people applying for a job who are equally qualified --and no matter what your feelings personally, you have to agree that of all the candidates' job experience, Hillary Clinton is singularly qualified, but let's just say two people are equally qualified-- a feminist will always choose the woman. We need all the help we can get to even out the playing field. I fully admit to doing this on every ballot I've ever cast. All else-being equal, I always select the woman. For every job from city council to Supreme Court judge.

Alternately, feminist Bernie supporters argue how similar their positions are to Bernie's and how terrible Hillary is ("Corporate shill" they rant while sipping on their Starbucks macchiatos.)
But they fail to note two things.

First, Hillary's positions are not drastically different from Bernie's; they are just more modest. Hillary wants to subsidize college education to make it more affordable. Bernie wants to make it free. Hillary wants to improve on the framework of Obamacare to move it more toward a single-payer gradually. Bernie wants to overturn it with single-payer.
And all that corporate money collected by the DNC? Does Bernie give it back if he gets the nomination? Will it sully his candidacy? No? Only Hillary's? Hmm.

Secondly, all of the arguments against Hillary are based on over two decades of sexism played out in the media. We have a psychic image of Hillary as sleazy, or underhanded, or vicious, or Machiavellian all because of public partisan attacks that have added up to a giant NOTHING of wrongdoing but have somehow sullied her in our eyes. The people that supported Hillary back in 1993, still support her. Because she's smart and competent and not the evil incarnate that some people in the past have suggested. But unfortunately, because she is a woman who was subjected to endless media scrutiny from the time Bill entered the presidential race in 1992, we have no collective memory of her as a decent, remarkable person.

As and example, we see her time on the Board of Directors for Walmart as a black mark because of the pariah Walmart has become but fail to remember that 25 years ago, Walmart was not seen as an evil empire and Hillary's work on their board forced them to promote women to management positions that those women would not have gotten without her advocacy.

Most of the millennial women who are so fervently supporting Bernie Sanders are aware of Hillary Clinton only through the lens of the sexism and politics she's been forced to wade through. She has a sheen of grime from all she had endured and that is being held against her still. She didn't come to the race with only a voting record in the Senate and a strong tenure as Secretary of State. Those alone qualify her for the job of president. The fact that she mastered them as a woman makes her the better choice for feminists.

If you consider yourself a feminist, but prefer to support Bernie, that's fine. I can understand voters of either gender finding his message appealing and feminists come in all stripes and colors. But if you want to argue that feminism is very important to you, that it defines you, you ought to put your ballot where your mouth is. You can't purport to be a hard-core feminist and dismiss a candidate as competent and intelligent as Hillary Clinton.

Yes, it is about race

Last night a grand jury announced the decision NOT to indict two police officers in the execution death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice citing that in the bizarroworld in which they live, it is "reasonable" that a couple of ostensibly trained, purportedly mature police officers were "justified" in driving a police car into a park, leaping from the vehicle, and shooting a boy sitting and playing with a toy.
The "justification" comes from the fact that the toy was a gun that appeared to be real from a distance. And that a 12-year-old black boy appears to be an adult to white cops.
The "reasonable" choice in a situation in which an unknown black male of undetermined (young) age appears to have a gun in a public place in a state where it is legal to carry a gun, is to shoot first. And render no first aid once the black male is incapacitated.

The shame and horror I have in being a Clevelander right now is reasonable and justified.

Black Lives Matter

Between the inflammatory rhetoric of Donald Trump (and friends) and the disturbingly regular deaths of minorities at the hands of police, you would have to live in a wealthy insular exurb to not be aware of the fact that racism in America is alive and a serious issue. For all of us. (Even the white ones.)
Sure, being white comes with the privilege of not having to be outraged at the excessive violence in our country when its victims have skin that is browner than spaghetti. But the fact that we share this country, this planet, with people who live under the oppression of racism which carries with it -as we have seen- the real threat of injury and death, means that as human beings we live under the same oppression. We just don't recognize it from where we're sitting: On top of the oppressed.

Just stop

I'm disheartened and ashamed of the hatred I see everywhere for the poor refugees who are fleeing all they have ever known with only what they can carry to escape the evils of the IS terrorists only to come headfirst into our bigotry.

Stop. Stop letting irrational fear dictate your responses. Stop letting the terror induced by these despicable individuals color your impressions of all. Stop the hate. No religion preaches hate. Stop.

Piss poor

We drove out to the East side (Cleveland Heights, specifically) for a special dinner tonight and took Superior from MLK. This is not the scenic route. Sadly, it goes through some decidedly bad neighborhoods.
And as the Punkinhead noted during the drive, as a Clevelander, as an American, it's embarrassing that we allow -in most cases, force- our fellow human beings to live in squalor. There is literally no excuse for our apathy. We should be ashamed of ourselves, America.

I don't tell you what doctors to see

The posturing of old white males and their undying quest to deny women the right to make our own medical decisions is so infuriating that I can't even try to be witty about it. Do these neanderthals think that they are valiantly leading the charge to defund a vital health service provider in order to protect us? From what? It's the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, guys! Let us decide what to do with our lady-parts!!! Goddammit!

Votes for Women!

It's the 95th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. That's right, 50 years --one half century-- AFTER freed (male) slaves got the vote, women were deemed human enough to cast a ballot.
Two things:

1. Why did we throw it away on a doucheticket like Warren Harding?
2. Why do we share this momentous anniversary with 'National Dog Day'?

voting is for the dogs women

All I'm saying about that man

I've been tempted to write about Trump recently, but have held back simply because too many people are talking about him. So I'm just going to say this: 
The fact that this arrogant, ignorant asshat is the front-runner in the race for the GOP nomination for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is so horrifying and desperately sad, that I fear for my country. Seriously.
If the racist jerks who feared an Obama presidency felt even ONE QUARTER of the trepidation and revulsion I feel for "the Donald" then I empathize. The difference being, Obama wasn't an incompetent buffoon who made our nation a laughing stock, whereas --even before the election-- by virtue of his leading in the polls, Trump has managed to elicit the scorn of every civilized country on Earth.
Enough. Please.

Two things

Took a couple days off. Because.
Now I'm back. Two things:
1. Changing my avatar on Facebook to a rainbowed thing, is not an insult to LGBT people. Some hard-core activists are throwing shade at the rainbow avatars because they feel all the allies who are posting them aren't "invested" enough and don't deserve the right to rainbow. These whiners fail to understand that most of us are just celebrating the recognition that gay and lesbian people have *gasp* the same fundamental rights as every other American. As a hard-core feminist, I celebrate whenever human rights are validated. Yes, I am not gay. Yes, I have not ever filed an amicus brief with the court on behalf of LGBT rights. Yes, I recognize that we have a way to go. But for some to call the celebration "slacktivism" misses the whole point of the rainbows.
2. When the media spends nearly no time reporting on the arsons of historic black churches in the South, the point of whether there were 5 churches burned down by arsonists or 3 churches burned down by arsonists loses the thread. Outrage that there is ONE black church destroyed by arson is appropriate. Reporting that focuses on the two that were "likely" electrical or lightning, is just a palliative to our white guilt. We will cling to the two church fires that weren't arson, so we don't have to confront the truth of systemic racism and work to counter its effects.
That's it for now. Thanks.

Freedom to be a dick

If I want to treat you as less of a human being because my religion says you don't have the same rights as everyone else, I should be allowed to do so without legal repercussions. And if you make me treat everyone the same, that is coercing me to disregard deeply-held religious tenets which could harm me irreparably.
My deeply-held religious beliefs tell me that I must refer to all men as "Useless Asses." I must address all men as Useless or Ass or Useless Ass. If I do not do this, I risk angering my Goddess-mother She-Ra. I cannot ever be fired for referring to any of my male employees as a Useless Ass because I could bring a religious discrimination suit.
In fact all the men who work for me are required, by my religion to always have an erection. I should be able to control the bodies of my employees, the Useless Asses, because my religion says so. And if you don't like it, you can go work for Hobby Lobby where they only control their female employees' bodies.

In a secular nation (we are still a secular nation, right?) when did it become standard to argue that discriminating against others (women and gays, really) is okay because Jesus would have wanted it that way?

Bigots for Intolerance

How many gay-hating wedding photographers in Indiana need their "right" to treat fellow human beings like vermin protected by a law? How is being hired to cater a gay wedding infringing on your "deeply held" religious beliefs?
I thought that Republican Jesus™'s number one priority was making money. Here is a perfect opportunity to make a load of swag off the very sinners you assure us are be damned for eternity. I would think you would take advantage of this situation and snag some homo-cash. But if you're afraid the queer-cooties will taint the rest of your money, I suppose you need a law to protect you when the rest of humanity tries to make you behave like Jesus actually would.

Happy hour fail

I get sitting at the bar when you are alone. Or even with one --two at the max--  friend. But to try to have a socially interactive happy hour with a group of seven friends all strung out in a line of bar stools is as conducive to conversation as a nineteenth century dinner party at Downton Abbey.  Just chatting with someone one person away becomes an exercise in acrobatics as you lean forward and back in the seat just to exchange a few sentences. Why? Why do people insist on staying at the bar?

Fearmongering is Israel's top export

So, the (in)famous Bibi Netanyahu spoke to a joint session of Congress today. I am not Jewish so I don't have a special affinity for Israel, as such, beyond the fact that they are -by far- the most stable and most friendly country to the U.S. in an area of the world that is openly hostile to America. But that counts for a lot.
And I get that they feel surrounded. Because they are. It has to be hard to live in a neighborhood where everyone wants to see you disappear, one way or another. Every time Bob across the street fired up his weedwacker, I'd be skittish. And don't even get into Jeff and his chainsaw. Sure, he says it's for cutting up that downed tree, but how do I know for real?
So yeah, America gets it.
But we sure as hell didn't need a man who garnered the votes of 23% of Israel's 6.1 million Jews to come over here and publicly undermine the foreign policy of his closest ally, condescending to tell us how dangerous Iran is (as if the United States can't recall the decades of hostility). And it was physically sickening to watch our elected representatives fawn over what basically amounted to a call to war.

Been there. Done that. You want to fight Iran, Bibi? Do it yourself. 

Anyone can see it's blue.

Oh holy god! How is this even a thing? It is "trending" on Tumblr, and Facebook. (For all I know it's all over MySpace too --who even goes there?)
A million youth are in a tizzy over the effing color of an effing dress. Seriously. They can't be bothered to vote for their elected representatives or donate to homeless veterans, but they will spend an entire day trying to determine the COLOR OF A STUPID DRESS.

It's days like this I grieve for our future.

A shot in the arm

The news keeps referring to concentrated areas where parents have refused to vaccinate their children against preventable deadly diseases as "pockets where families tend to be highly-educated and  wealthy"
But really, how well-educated can they be if they believe a single discredited and falsified study published in 1998 and then publicly repudiated in the Lancet in 2010 imagining a link between ONE vaccine (in combination) and autism based on a sample size slightly smaller than my graduating class with not a single corroborating study and championed only by a doctor who had his medical license revoked and a kooky Hollywood starlet.
I actually read a comment from one of these anti-vaxxers that argued that at its peek, measles only killed about 450 kids a year, so it's less dangerous than car accidents. That's it. That was the whole comment. As if those 450 deaths are acceptable because a completely unrelated thing also causes deaths.
All you poor kids suffering from measles because mommy and daddy thought you might go autistic after the shot or they didn't want to "pollute" your sacred corporeal temple with long chemical words that, while they are harmless for hundreds of millions of children around the world, surely would have upset the delicate balance of kale and quinoa in your system: I'm sorry. I hope you overcome this nasty illness, get yourself vaccinated and tell your parents they're idiots.

Rich white trash.

Why do we, as a nation, allow people like Kim Kardashian, or Paris Hilton or any number of talentless, brainless, twits whose only accomplishment is being born wealthy, to become famous? Why do we, as a nation, pay any attention at all to them? Stop. If everyone stops giving a rat's ass about Kim-ye's photoshopped butt, it will go away. And I for one, will be a happier person.