Category: government

Vote for Democracy #15

presidential debate wrap-up

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Last night was the first – and perhaps only – debate between US presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

The two had never met in-person and Harris made a point of walking over to Trump to introduce herself and shake hands. She introduced herself by name, which was interesting in that Trump frequently mispronounces it. She had to cross over to his side of the stage as Trump made no move to meet in the middle for a handshake as is customary for presidential debates.

Harris proceeded to answer questions and explain her policy ideas while also correcting some of Trump’s erroneous assertions.

Trump had a lot of trouble staying on topic and lied about a bunch of things. When either the moderators or Harris corrected him, he often doubled down on the lies. For example, he said that immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets in a certain city, which is not true at all according to the police and government officials there. For Trump to claim such an outlandish thing in a presidential debate is just absurd and out of touch with reality.

Trump spent most of the debate looking glum. Harris sometimes looked at Trump with pity, sometimes with incredulity.

Harris came across as an intelligent, experienced leader, while Trump appeared to be confused and combative. Trump’s mode of thought and expression reminded me uncomfortably of some family members when they were developing Alzheimer’s. This is particularly concerning because Trump’s father suffered from Alzheimer’s disease at a similar age and it tends to run in families.

To learn more about Kamala Harris’s positions on issues and proposals for her presidency, visit the issues page on her website here. There are numerous drop-down sections with specific policies. By contrast, Donald Trump’s Agenda 47 page is more a series of statements than an explanation of how he might implement them.

There is not currently an agreement for a second debate. I can’t imagine the Trump campaign wanting him to try this again.

Presidential Debate Bingo

NETWORK, a social justice lobbying organization founded over fifty years ago by a group of Catholic sisters, is currently embarked on their Nuns on the bus & Friends tour in the run-up to the November election.

They have provided a non-partisan tool to use during the September 10th presidential debate to keep track of which issues are mentioned during the debate. It’s a bingo card!

The page above puts it this way:

The 2024 election poses a critical choice to our country: will we choose a future where everyone thrives? You can use the bingo card to help you track what the candidates have to say on the issues, and discern how your vote will protect and expand a flourishing, multiracial, multi-faith democracy for all.

I know that many of us, whether or not we follow a faith tradition, want to see everyone thrive. Please feel free to use and share this bingo card and NETWORK’s Equally Sacred Multi-Issue Voter Checklist to help guide deliberations in choosing for whom to vote at all levels of government.

SoCS: time

“Tick-tock. Time’s a-wasting.”

I remember that saying from when I was young, although I haven’t heard it for a long time now.

But, yeah, time is rushing by with so much pressure these days.

My inbox is filled with urgent messages about the upcoming election, the climate crisis, closing submission calls for poetry and manuscripts, important meetings and webinars, pleas for donations. (I probably should have said inboxes, as I have several email addresses that I have to maintain.)

And I have very limited energy to respond.

While we continue to rule out reasons for my health issues, we haven’t been able to track down the underlying cause. We are addressing the symptoms that we can but the most upsetting ones, the fatigue and brain fog, aren’t able to be improved at this point. I’m working around them as best I can by listening to my body and trying to be gentle with myself.

But, tick-tock, time is rushing by with all its demands and things that can’t/won’t wait.

And I’m only able to do a sliver of what I wish I could.

I do try to remind myself that I’m only a very, very, very tiny entity in this world and in all these efforts and that others are taking up the slack. It won’t be my fault if the election goes to the Republicans and they crash the country and trash the climate (except that I know I share the guilt of social sin, but I can’t stream-of-consciousness an explanation of Catholic social justice doctrine and our responsibilities to humanity and the world. And you’re welcome that I’m not trying to.)

The more personal side of dealing with my health right now is that I have a ton of work to do with my poetry and it is taking a loooong time to do it, if I can do it at all. There is also the sinking feeling that it isn’t as good as it could/should be. There is also the fear that I won’t be able to recover fully from this and will face yet another instance in my life where I set aside my own work to deal with other pressing concerns and then lost the ability to go back to it. I am content with those past choices I made and would not change them, but this feels different because it is my own health that is the obstacle this time.

The biggest regret, though, is that another family member is dealing with a bigger health issue and I’m not as able to help as I would like to be.

Tick-tock. Time’s a-wasting…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “tack/tech/tick/tock/tuck.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/09/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-7-2024/

Vote for Democracy #14

your vote and gun safety

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

It’s another sad “day after” here in the United States.

Yesterday, a 14-year-old student, just a few weeks into his high school years, opened fire at Apalachee High School in Georgia with an AR-style assault weapon, killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others. The school resource officer (police officer assigned to the school) confronted him and he surrendered and was arrested. It’s already been announced that he will be tried as an adult.

Only in America.

It’s telling that I have already written about guns and violence three times in the prior 13 posts, after the mass shooting at Donald Trump’s rally, on Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declaring firearm violence a public health crisis, and on political violence.

It was good that during the Biden presidency there was a bipartisan gun safety bill passed and signed into law, but there is much more to be done that has widespread public support. Stronger universal background checks. Age restrictions for gun ownership. Safe storage rules. Red flag laws, which remove firearms from places where there is a risk of violence or mental health difficulties. Stronger laws against gun trafficking. Banning ghost guns which do not have serial numbers. Restrictions on carrying guns in public, both openly and under concealment. Banning military-style assault weapons, such as the AR-15, which are designed to kill people as quickly and brutally as possible. Banning bump stocks and large-capacity magazines. These laws need to be national to avoid what we have now, where guns, gun accesories, and ammunition get into a state with stricter gun laws from neighboring states with more lax laws. For example, my state, New York, has much stricter gun laws than our neighbor, Pennsylvania. The teen-aged perpetrator in the Buffalo supermarket mass murder, who lived in my county, purchsed large clips of ammunition from Pennsylvania becuase New York only allows clips up to ten rounds.

The shooting in Georgia is even more tragic in that it could have been prevented. As an eigthth-grader, the student had allegedly threatened a school shooting online and there was an investigation but no action. More immediately, that morning, there was a telephone threat received of a series of five school shootings, beginning with Apalachee. This child was suffering from mental illness and did not receive treatment that would have helped him and prevented him from gaining access to his father’s gun and killing and injuring people.

I do not agree with the decision to try a 14-year-old as an adult. Adolescents, especially young adolescents, do not have the brain development and judgement of adults. They also aren’t as able to recognize changes that may be symptoms of mental health problems. Yes, this is a horrible crime, but it was carried out by a mentally ill child. Charging and trying him as an adult does not make him one.

After these tragedies, there are always calls for “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and affected communities. There are often calls for action in terms of legislation, but these seldom make it through legislatures.

This post is part of my Vote for Democrary ’24 series to remind all eligible US voters to look at local, state, and national candidates’ position on firearms and public safety and only vote for those who will stand up for protecting public health and safety. While we certainly want to prevent murder, we also want to protect people from taking their own lives, which is the most prevalent kind of gun death. The vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, want these protections in place.

Vote as if your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it.

It may literally be true.

One-Liner Wednesday: Project 2025 and taxes

Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year and which mirrors Trump’s Agenda 47 and the Republican party platform, would raise middle class taxes by thousands of dollars per year per household while lowering taxes by over a million dollars per year per household for those making over $10 million.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/09/04/one-liner-wednesday-whee/

Summer ’24 COVID wave

(COVID Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash)

It’s become more difficult to keep track of COVID-19 cases here in the United States, as less data is being collected and shared with the public.

We do know that this summer’s wave has been substantial, mostly due to the Omicron subvariants known as FLiRT. While death rates have been lower than in previous waves, they have still been ranging in the 400s-700s per week this summer, which is upsetting. These figures may also be lower than the actual count because reporting is less robust than it was under the public health emergency protocols.

Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines based on the KP.2 variant, one of the FLiRT family. Doses are already available from some pharmacies and are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older. While some people will choose to wait until later in the fall to have the strongest protection possible going into the expected winter wave, I will be getting mine in mid-September so that my immunity will be strong when I go to North Adams for the annual Boiler House Poets Collective residency at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts). It looks as though the vaccine will be a good match for the strains that will likely be dominant in the coming months.

The FDA is also expected to approve the Novavax vaccine in the coming weeks. It is a more traditional protein-based vaccine rather than an mRNA one. Some people prefer it because it can cause fewer side effects.

Many people are choosing to ignore any news about COVID and vaccines but it is still a serious problem, here in the US and around the world. This is a reminder that some people are still getting very sick and dying from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Updated vaccines are known to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, so please get one if they are available to you. (Contact your health care provider for any special recommendations that may apply.)

Other measures can also help reduce your chances of getting COVID. Wearing a high quality mask, especially in crowded, indoor areas, dramatically decreases the rate of infection. Increasing indoor ventilation and air filtration and holding events outdoors are helpful in preventing the spread of COVID and other viruses. If you are sick, stay home and take precautions against spreading your illness to others in your household. Get adequate rest and nutrition to keep your immune system strong.

COVID-19 has not settled into a pattern like we see with flu and is still much more serious in terms of hospitalizations and deaths. It also impacts more systems in the body and can cause symptoms over a longer period of time, such as we see in cases of long COVID. Some people are willing to risk their own health but please remember that you are also putting your family and vulnerable community members at risk if you spread the illness to them.

Wishing everyone good health in the coming months.

One-Liner Wednesday: superseding indictment

After presenting evidence to a new grand jury, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed this superseding indictment against Donald Trump in the 2020 election interference case before Judge Tanya Chutkan, charging Trump as a candidate in conspiracy with other private citizens, thus avoiding any evidence that could be thought of as part of his “official duties” after the controversial Supreme Court decision bestowing broad presidential immunity for official acts and evidence related to executive branch communications, including the Department of Justice.

This post brought to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/08/28/one-liner-wednesday-take-a-guess/

Runza!

Inspired by Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s video of a campaign stop in Nebraska where he grew up, spouse B made runza for the first time.

He chose a classic beef and cabbage filling and made his own bread dough because that’s how he rolls!


They were delicious!

Thanks, Tim Walz, for introducing us to a Nebraska specialty and for your support of local businesses as you tour the country on the campaign trail!

One-Liner Wednesday: no CO2 fracking in NY!

On the first day of the New York State Fair, we call on Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the bill adding carbon dioxide to our state’s fracking ban for the good of our health, environment, and climate.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/08/21/one-liner-wednesday-are-you-allergic-to-anything/

One-Liner Wednesday: Project 2025 and mifepristone

Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year and which mirrors Trump’s Agenda 47 and the Republican party platform, would direct the FDA to reverse the current approvals of mifepristone nation-wide, restricting medication abortion, miscarriage care, and other uses, even though the medication has proven to be safe and effective. (p. 458)

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/08/14/one-liner-wednesday-closed-for-the-season/