Wyoming Legislature more interested in whinin' about Biden than in fixing state's budget woes

 The op-ed in Sunday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle had a lot to say about the State Legislature's priorities during this time of big budget shortfalls. I got through the paywall to read it and you might be able to here.

The sum it up, the authors wondered why the GOP-controlled Lege is spending so much time whining about Biden's proposed energy policies rather than the issue at hand: Wyoming is broke. You would think the budget and revenue-raising would be tops on the agenda. But they are not.

The GOP also is spending a lot of time and energy to censure Rep. Liz Cheney for her vote to impeach Trump for the second time. The Wyoming GOP, still trustworthy Trump cultists, slapped Cheney's hand for doing something about what we all saw on Jan. 6 -- an insurrection to stop the certification of the Electoral College results. Biden won, of course, and on that day in Congress, that vote would be certified. Despite efforts by QAnon and Trump and his MAGA acolytes, any doubt as to the reality of the election would be banished.

You saw what I saw. Rioters wearing camos and carrying Confederate flags, took over the U.S. Capitol Building. They sought out members of Congress they detest and were going to do Gods-knows-what to them (they had weapons and nooses) in the chaos. I didn't believe what I was seeing. I do believe that they were doing Trump's bidding. The man is a power-hungry fascist whose main goals are accumulating wealth and power.

We finally banished him to Mar-a-Lago. And now he's being impeached. Liz Cheney was one of ten Republicans who joined Democrats in the impeachment vote. A courageous move, as events of the past month show. The Trump cult is alive and well. Some even think they can come to D.C. and witness Trump's swearing-in ceremony on March 4. Pathetic.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have work to do. The pandemic ("a hoax," Trump said) still rages, people are out of work, hungry and sometimes homeless. Pres. Biden got right into solutions which the Republicans are doing their best to sabotage. Acting quickly and decisively is crucial. Yes, impeachment will be a distraction but it must be done. The next demagogue elected under the GOP banner may be even more devious and power-mad than Trump.

We need to get involved and stay involved to make sure that doesn't happen. Everyone must vote and make sure that the Wyoming GOP does not chip away at our access to the polls. On my right sidebar are some orgs that are in the fight. I will write more about them in future posts. The Wyoming Legislature site tracks bills under consideration and lists contact info for your legislators. 

Be active, be noisy, be Americans. 

Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep

Happy New Year.

We are glad to say goodbye to 2020, the Year of the Pandemic. It also was the year that a majority of voters and Electoral College tallies booted Trump from office.

But not soon enough.

He's done plenty of damage to our democratic republic since Nov. 3. Call it a massive temper tantrum or Trump's reveal of his fascist inner self. He always wanted to the Da Boss or Der Fuehrer, as if he could ever be a leader to those of us with a heart and soul. 

Interesting reading in the New Yorker about America's authoritarian tendencies. Adam Gopnick writes in "What we get wrong about America's crisis of democracy." His main point is that authoritarianism is always with us and it behooves all of us to battle it all of the time. 

The default condition of humankind, traced across thousands of years of history, is some sort of autocracy... America itself has never had a particularly settled commitment to democratic, rational government. 

He goes on to talk about demagogues such as Barry Goldwater and Joseph McCarthy. Roy Cohn even rears his ugly head, as he did in "Angels in America." Cohn counseled McCarthy "in all things conspiratorial" and, not surprisingly, was Donald Trump's mentor.

As Steven Stills wrote and Buffalo Springfield sang: 

Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. Get out of line, the men come and take you away.

You are not paranoid to see an autocrat behind every tree. In the Trump administration, they are political appointees in very important positions. They also are GOPers elected to Congress and, alas, to the Wyoming State Legislature. Although they talk about them a lot, they don't believe in democratic principles. They are always with us, Gopnick says. He notes this:

The temptation of anti-democratic cult politics is forever with us, and so is the work of fending it off.

Damn. Just as we thought that all of our work is done here. Biden is in, Trump is out. Depending on what happens next week in Georgia, Democrats may even control both houses of Congress. Can we now rest on our laurels, as bloated as they may be from 10 months sitting in easy chairs avoiding the plague?

No.

The authoritarian Goldwater said something about eternal vigilance. That's what we have to be -- eternally vigilant. No rest for the weary, those of us whop have been involved in progressive politics most of our lives. We work hard to get Democrats elected and then relax. While we're at play, the bad guys are marshaling their forces, raising money, and forming PACs and think tanks to capture the next election cycle. Scary news this morning: Trump is the GOP front-runner for 2024. He will be merely 78 at election time, the same age President-elect Biden is now. If Trump wins (God forbid) he will be 82 when he gets impeached in 2028, the same age Generalissimo Francisco Franco was when he died in 1975 just in time to be a buzz-phrase on SNL: 

And this just in -- Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!

After a year such as this one, it's painful to hear that our work is not done but just beginning. We can never let up. Retirees such as me cannot go to Florida and play pickleball all day. We can go to Florida but, the first thing to do after buying up all the sunscreen in Walgreen's is seek out fellow Democrats and get involved. Voting is important but just a tiny piece of this. Work for candidates. Volunteer for good causes. Attend city council meetings and, when necessary, speak up on behalf of accountability. Write biting letters to the editor and use humor when appropriate -- this will make friends among progressives and befuddle authoritarians such as Trump who were born with no sense of humor. 

Democracy is not easy. If it were, everyone would have it.

Blessed are the righteous as they win elections

On Saturday morning, Nov. 7, we learned that Joe Biden was our new president and Kamala Harris was our new vice president. I was elated. Chris danced around the living room. Millions breathed a sigh of relief. Millions more wept tears of anger. I know how it feels to be on either side. I didn't weep when Trump claimed victory four years ago. Stunned, for sure. Despondent, yes. Fearful for the fate of my country.

I was right to be afraid. 

What about the 71 million Americans who voted for Trump in 2020? That's 8 million more than voted for him in 2016. It's a good thing that Democrats and never-Trump Republicans spent the past year in GOTV efforts. We needed all of those 75 million-plus to elect Biden/Harris. We especially needed them in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

So half of the country liked what the Democratic candidate had to say and half sided with Trump. There is no easy explanation. I know that some Republicans liked the expression of the T-shirt, "Make Liberals Cry Again," a clever twist on Trump's MAGA motto. They liked Trump because he hated the same people he did: liberals, experts, people of color, immigrants. That's not all of it. He made many people feel like they had a guy in charge who stood up for their interests when, in fact, he was doing the exact opposite. Evangelicals and conservative Catholics approved of his turning back the clock on abortion, the LBGTQ community, women. I don't attend church but I bet there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the pews on Sunday. Many Christians seemed content to support a leader who regularly practices the Seven Deadly Sins, who wipes his dirty feet on the Beatitudes.

I know that President-elect Biden tells us to have mercy on those who did not vote for him. I don't know if that's possible. Humility is at the heart of many of Jesus's teachings. Trump hasn't a humble bone in his body. He ridicules the meek, he lampoons the disabled. He shows no signs of empathy. His daily dealings give no evidence that he has ever heard of Jesus. The Old Testament of obedience and vengeance is more his style. That's why conservative religionists like him so much. They prefer to smite their enemies with a sword rather than work with them to make a better America. 

The past four years have been a trial for me and fellow liberals. The next four will be a different kind of trial. Some Democrats might want to do some smiting of their own. When the oppressed depose a dictator, they often turn out to be authoritarians of a different stripe. The guillotine was made for such times. So much easier to say "Off with their heads" than to negotiate with that head while it still has a body. Maybe in our speeded-up lives we no longer have the patience to deal with those different from us. Social media make judging so easy. 

I have no secret plans to share with Biden. He and his advisors will make some decisions that piss me off. We saw no negotiating in the last four years. It was Trump's way or the highway. When that changes, it will be a shock to us. But negotiation and compromise are American traditions. Let's embrace them again but be ready to stand fast on principles. Or, as Teddy said, "speak softly but carry a big stick."

What will the future think of us?

Wyoming has seen a huge Covid-19 upsurge in recent weeks. Wyo shows up regularly in the New York Times pandemic tracker. It shows those states with surges, represented by a tiny arrow pointing up. We're right up there with both of the Dakotas, Alaska and Iowa.

WyoFile's week 33 summary Friday said this: 

The White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator visited Wyoming this week as the state cemented its status as one of the nation's hotspots for Covid-19 spread. 

As a press conference, Dr. Deborah Birx, wearing a mask, seated next to Gov. Mark Gordon, also wearing a mask, "emphasized the importance of mask use, widespread testing and limited gatherings" to beat the virus. As of Friday, Gov. Gordon had yet to issue a mandatory mask directive. 

On Friday, the Wyoming Department of Health reported 431 new lab-confirmed cases, a new single-day record. Nineteen deaths were reported last week, more deaths than in any week since the pandemic began. 

The Laramie County Health Department has mandated that everyone wear a mask starting Monday. If the past 33 weeks of plague shows us anything, many Wyomingites will ignore the mask mandate. Enforcement is being left up to businesses and individuals. At our hospital, you can't enter with a mask and getting your temp taken. Not sure how small businesses will treat the order. I don't go out without a mask. But I'm a Democrat and I believe in science.

I write this with the idea that someone in the future will read this and wonder about the Americans of 2020. As I researched a novel set in 1919, I read a lot of personal stories and small-town-newspaper articles about the 1918 flu pandemic. Some wore masks; others refused. Many died. Young people were vulnerable. In fact, they often died when older family members survived. It was brutal. I can look back from 2020 and wonder why everyone didn't wear a damn mask. I ask that today. I also ask: will anyone read 21st-century blogs 100 years from now?

A President Joe Biden can't halt the pandemic overnight. But he does have a plan. He will have to bring Americans together on a common goal. We beat the Great Depression, licked the Nazis and went to the moon. With real leadership, we can overcome Covid-19.

This is another problem that has to be remedied. We've learned the hard way that millions of Americans love a bully. They love Trump because he hates the same people he does: liberals, atheists, African-Americans, Hispanic immigrants, urban dwellers, and college professors, just to name a few. They want to marginalize, possibly even eliminate, us. Many are evangelicals who spend a lot of time talking about the Bible although they've paid little attention to lessons in the New Testament. They are a hateful bunch who revel in Trump's cruelty. 

What will they do on election day? Trump has given them carte blanche to disrupt the electoral process. It's naive to think they would not answer Trump's dog whistles. They could also be a factor if Trump loses. They are angry and well-armed. Their esteemed leader has been deposed and someone must pay!

Post-apocalyptic novels, movies and TV shows have been on the rise for some time. They have dealt with plagues, asteroids, environmental catastrophes, space aliens, and outside interference from foreign enemies, mainly commies. Nuclear war used to be a big thing. I can't think if many that deal with a Narcissist as president who tries to remake America in his image and who gets plenty of help from collaborators in the G.O.P. Was it beyond imagining?

I once wrote an post-Apocalyptic novel about a future war in Florida. The Cubans invaded, battles ensued and (spoiler alert!) the good guys won. It was a mess of a novel and a copy gathers dust in my bottom desk drawer, the place where all unpublished first novels belong. As it turns out, I only had to wait a few decades to find out that The End could proceed in the light of day right before our eyes. 

It may not come to that. We'll talk after election day.  

Recalling Obama's big night at Denver's Mile High Stadium in the summer of 2008

As I watched President Obama's speech Wednesday night, I thought back to that late-August night in 2008 when he made his acceptance speech at the DNCC in Denver's Mile High Stadium. 

I was part of a capacity crowd that celebrated Obama's first major step along the way to the presidency. I was the embedded blogger with the Wyoming delegation, We sat at the 30-yard-line on Invesco Field, a field where the Denver Broncos would host their home opener in just a few weeks. On Sept. 14, the Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers 39-38 with a two-point conversion at 29 seconds left. Quarterback Jay Cutler had what might have been his best game as a Bronco. After an 8-8 season, the Broncos fired the old coach, hired a new coach and traded Cutler to Chicago. The team was not in the playoffs on the week of Jan. 20 when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president. In the ensuing 11 years, the Broncos would get a new quarterback, lose one Super Bowl and win another. Obama won reelection in 2012 and experienced much drama in his eight years courtesy of the Know Nothing Republicans and Fox News.

But that Aug. 28 night at Mile High was glorious. More than 75,000 packed the stadium. That may be more than attended Trump's inauguration but that number could vary on whether you're listening to Trump's fever dreams or to reality.

I have never returned to that field of play, now named after Empower Retirement which was called Sports Authority Field before that. Naming rights are tricky things. Companies come and go, fortunes rise and fall. Empower was created with a merger between Great West Life and another insurance company. Great West insured my family during my career with the State of Wyoming. Great West was OK but battled us on payments related to drug and alcohol treatment and mental health care. Its replacement, Cigna, is much more accommodating. In the U.S. version of free-market capitalism, you never know upon what field you stand. The groomed turf can be pulled out from under you at any time. There's a metaphor in there somewhere. 

That Aug. 28 night 12 years ago is forever embedded in Mile High Stadium. The team brags about the fact that it's the only NFL football stadiums in which a presidential candidate made his acceptance speech and later went to to two terms as president. 

This year, the Dems' presidential candidate made his acceptance speech in an empty convention room. The Year of Coronavirus. The Broncos will play in an empty stadium. That will be eerie. Mile High has a reputation as one of the loudest and rowdiest in the NFL. Not sure if the Broncos will follow baseball with cardboard cutout fans and, in some cases, projections of fans filmed in earlier seasons. The team has quite an imagination so why not?

During the next sixty-some days in 2008, I worked hard to get Obama elected. I walked neighborhoods and called registered voters in Wyoming, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, I worked for Dems jockeying for Wyoming House and Senate candidates. I watched a lot of football too. Obama won, of course, over the late John McCain. Obama fielded a well-oiled machine that delivered votes from some unexpected places (not Wyoming, alas). Obama repeated in 2012 over Mitt Romney. A presidential two-peat is like back-to-back Super Bowl wins. The Broncos did that under John Elway who we don't talk about much because he is such a Trump ass-kisser. Looking back, McCain and Romney were moderates. Republicans grew sick of losing with qualified moderates so turned to a billionaire and white supremacist and reality show host, Donald Trump. They were helped by decades of GOP voter suppression and gerrymandering. And voter apathy, can't forget that. 

So, the democrats held their pep rally this past week and are fired up and ready to go. The GOP Hatefest will light up the airwaves next week. We can look forward to rousing speeches by The My Pillow Guy and Scott Baio. It will finish off with a stemwinder by Donald Trump which will be filled with the cruelty and hatred he has specialized in during the past four years.

Damn. You'd think that the more qualified and more talented team -- the Democrats -- could breeze over the crooks and liars of The Trump Team. A lopsided win, like the Team Formerly Known as the R*dskins over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII or the Seattle Seahawks over the bumbling Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. You'd think that unless you didn't know history and the vagaries of human nature. Demagogues have subverted democracies before. If Trump wins, we can forget about our democratic republic. It will be nostalgia, just like the rousing cheers for Obama in Mile High Stadium in the summer of 2008. 

Middle class revolutionaries on the march

I've been a card-carrying member of America's middle class all my life. I suppose my "card" is that wrinkled old original Social Security card I carry in my wallet. All of us have one of these, from the homeless man crashing at the local shelter to crazy ol' rich guy Bernie Madoff. But most of us are middle class, like it or not.

There was a time that we artsy types wanted to distance ourselves from suburbia. "Middle class" was a putdown among '50s beats and '60s hippies (and hippie wannabes). Odd thing is, the most vocal critics tended to be offspring of the upper classes rather than the sons of daughters of carpenters and insurance salesmen. Middle-class kids like me were raised to strive for better lives that our parents'. Most of us seemed to want that, too, although life has a way of playing tricks on your aspirations.

My father was an accountant and my mother, a nurse. My father was the first college graduate in his family, courtesy of the G.I. Bill. My mother's nurse's training was paid for by the U.S. Navy, although World War II ended before she could serve in the military. My parents' first house came through a no-down-payment, low-interest loan through the V.A. It was in Aurora, Colo., Denver's burgeoning eastern suburb. We lived just down the street from Fitzsimons Army Medical Center where Ike recovered from one of his heart attacks. Pres. Ike was married to Mamie, a middle-class girl from Denver.

My parents and millions like them made up the middle class. Their ungrateful kids wanted something else, something better, something....who the hell knows. Most of us claimed territory in our parents' socio-economic cadre, whether we wanted to or not. In the 1980s -- that "Me Decade" when TV's "Thirty-something" was all the rage -- we didn't grasp the fact that forces energized by the so-called Reagan Revolution were on a search-and-destroy mission. Target: me and my neighbors. Those forces took steroids during the Dubya Administration.

But now the Reagan/Bush/Bush tide is ebbing.

On Friday, Pres. Obama signed an executive order forming a Working Families Middle Class Task Force. Point man is Veep Joe Biden. Here's what he had to say:

"America’s middle class is hurting. Trillions of dollars in home equity and retirement savings and college savings are gone. And every day, more and more Americans are losing their jobs. President Obama and I are determined to change this. Quite simply, a strong middle class equals a strong America. We can’t have one without the other. This Task Force will be an important vehicle to assess new and existing policies across the board and determine if they are helping or hurting the middle class. It is our charge to get the middle class – the backbone of this country – up and running again."

Who would have thought there would come a time when being middle class was revolutionary?

The task force's first meeting will be in Philadelphia Feb. 27. I would have preferred a place closer to Middle America. Aurora, Colo., for instance. Or possibly Cheyenne, Wyo., or Omaha or Wichita. I formally invite the task force to Cheyenne. The Veep can stay in my guest room.

One thing that's encouraging -- you can submit your ideas to the task force here.

My sister at Joe Biden rally in Florida

My sister Molly (with red hair and wearing Obama T-shirt) gets up-close-and-personal with Democratic Party V.P. candidate Joe Biden at a rally in Tallahassee, Florida. Molly is probably the only one of my eight siblings (all Floridians) casting her vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. Go Molly! Gobama! (Who are all those guys in the dark glasses?)

Collegians (and at least one 66-year-old bald guy) pack Biden rally in Greeley

My buddy Bob from Fort Collins drove over to the rally for Sen. Joe Biden today at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. Bob's semi-retired, a lifelong Republican, but he's voting for Obama/Biden this time. On Monday, Bob drove down I-25 to catch the Sarah Palin rally at the Budweiser Events Center near Loveland. He said that the crowd at the Palin rally was bigger than Biden's, but Palin said the same old blah-blah-blah we've been hearing for months. As Bob said, Obama and Biden are in a much different league than McCain/Palin. Yeah, the Dems are in the Bigs and the Repubs are cellar-dwellers in the minors.

Bob wasn't interviewed by the press at the UNC rally. But here's the beginning of the story that's up now at the Greeley Tribune site:

Saying he speaks to their generation, environmental concerns and modern-day issues, college students gave Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden raves at the University of Northern Colorado on Tuesday. A crowd of about 3,500 packed the floor of Butler-Hancock gymnasium for the hour-long rally, most of them college students.

“It’s a historic year. It’s one of those historic elections you want to be a part of,” said Mike Donovan, a Colorado State University student who drove to Greeley for the rally.

Donovan, a senior, wore a white cap emblazoned with “Clean Coal.”

“I feel like this year’s Democratic ticket is the step into the 21st century,” he said. “… Environmentalism isn’t a dirty word anymore, and that’s something I like.”

Dems meet Tuesday, prep for Veep debates

The monthly meeting of the Laramie County Democrats will be held at the Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m. All attendees at the meeting will receive an English-Palin dictionary in order to really understand what she will be saying at the Thursday evening Veep debates with Sen Joe Biden. While on any given night Biden can make mincemeat out of a poser like Palin, his job is made tougher by the fact that she speaks in an unknown tongue -- when she's allowed to speak by Big Daddy John McCain.

Palinspeak was spoofed on Saturday Night Live's opening sketch this past weekend. Katie Couric (played by Amy Poehler) asks Gov. Palin (Tiny Fey) about the bailout (this excerpt from Crooks and Liars blog):

“PALIN”: “Like every American I’m speaking with, we are ill about this. We’re saying, ‘Hey, why bail out Fanny and Freddie and not me?’ But ultimately, what the bailout does is, help those that are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy to help, uhhh, it’s gotta be all about job creation too. Also, too, shoring up our economy and putting Fannie and Freddie back on the right track, and so health care reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending… 'cause Barack Obama, ya know, has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans, also, having a dollar value meal at restaurants. That’s gonna help. But 1 in 5 jobs being created today under the umbrella of job creation. That, you know. Also…..”

The blog Orange Crate Art compares Palin, Orwell and the English language. Truly scary.

As George Orwell points out in “Politics and the English Language,” one need not take on the responsibility of thinking when composing sentences:

You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connexion between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

So, not only will debate watchers need a translation key, they also will need to bone up on their George Orwell. This will also help as you watch John McCain speak. And George Bush? I doubt if even Orwell could have conjured such a mangler of language.

Local Dems will gather for the Biden-Palin event on Thursday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m., at Applebee’s on Dell Range Blvd., in Cheyenne.