Lorraine Evanoff's Blog, page 11
January 25, 2022
Coping 101
In this email:
Can we talk?Coping 101Tai ChiMUST-SEE feel-good movie of 2021P.S. Full disclosure
Getting to know you 🎶
As you may know, I’m a finance exec-turned-author, feral cat fixer, who loves meditation.
What do we have in common? Besides being avid readers, that is.🖤
Five years ago I started meditating. Then, about two years ago I started using the @Calm app. Now I meditate every day.
I even started a Facebook support group and am pleasantly amazed by the blessing it has become.
It’s open to the public, so check it out.
What are your hobbies?
It only took me 40 years, but I finally started Tai Chi
classes with my old Chicago friend and expert in
Grandmaster Wai Lun Choi, Stirling Levine.
Take a FREE online trial class by contacting Stirling
and using the promo code: LOLO
NOTE: Beginners, please log in 30 minutes
before class for introductory lessons,
then stay for the warm-up. It’s the best!
WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE FILMS OF 2021?
Below are my ratings for the two films I watched since my last newsletter,
REWIND ← is good FAST FORWARD → is meh
King Richard (Will Smith): MUST SEE! If you have a daughter, granddaughter, goddaughter, niece, girlfriend, please give them this movie to watch.
I cried most of the film…in a good way. ← ← ← ← ←
The Tender Bar (Ben Affleck): Based on real events? Okay. →
COMING SOON…
The Harder They Fall (Idris Elba)
Dune (Timothée Chalamet)
Free Guy (Ryan Reynolds)
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch)
P.S. Did you know that I write political commentary?
P.S.S. Louise Moscow Book #1, FOLIAGE, is FREE on all digital platforms! Come on and take a FREE ride 🎶
FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
January 23, 2022
Saw This Coming A Mile Away
From the We-Saw-that-Coming-from-a-Mile Department, there is brand new damage, and newly discovered prior damage perpetrated by Republicans. First, after shunning Trump’s support to get elected, falsely pledging to restore trust in government, “No matter who you voted for,” literally hours after being sworn in as Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin signed 11 Trumptopian executive orders. They include ending masks in schools, ending vaccines for state workers, and ending compliance with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Youngkin also barred teaching Critical Race Theory in schools. Great job, Youngkin, you succeeded in ending lifesaving mandates, while also ending non-existent teaching practices.
Second, we are now learning the Trump administration’s meddling in the 2020 census was “unprecedented” and intended for Republican political gain. The 2020 census was a dismal failure. Some census users have complained they will not have access to normal data such as income, household sizes, education levels, occupations, commute times, head of household by gender and income. It will take another decade to find out this crucial information.
These Republican actions will not go unchallenged. Youngkin is facing a Democrat-controlled state Senate. The head of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said, “The war they have declared on Black history is dangerous.” Also, delegate Elizabeth Guzman stated, “Virginians will hold you accountable.”
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school is seeking to make details of the Trump administration’s 2020 Census plans for calculating the allotment of House seats public. Such plans included excluding non-citizens from population counts to leave an older whiter population base in states with larger immigrant populations.
The U.S. Constitution requires a census every 10 years and is a function of our democracy. Tampering with the census is an act of sedition. This newly disclosed memo describes political involvement in crucial aspects of the census. It must be made public and people like Wilbur Ross need to be held accountable.
January 18, 2022
You Should Be Outraged Over This
Remember in July 2006, when G.W. Bush signed the 25-year extension of provisions under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, with a GOP-controlled congress? Section 5 of the provisions required that nine (mostly southern) states with a long history of voting discrimination to submit any voting changes to the U.S. DOJ for approval before implementation. The vote was bipartisan with the House voting 390-22, and the Senate 98-0. How things have changed.
In 2013, Shelby County, in Alabama, sought to overturn Section 5, and under Chief John Roberts, SCOTUS agreed, ruling to end the voter protections. The day after the ruling, Texas announced strict voter ID laws – which the DOJ had previously blocked – followed by North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Justice Roberts also oversaw the SCOTUS ruling of Citizens United v. FEC (2010), reversing campaign finance restrictions, allowing dark money into our elections. The Republican power grab, through collusion with big money, and the disenfranchisement of eligible American voters, is clearly unconstitutional. And yet, these rightwing lawsuits dismantled our voter protections. Shockingly, Democrats now have to fight Republicans to restore voter protections.
In August 2021, House Democrats passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the Section 5 provisions. In March 2021, House Democrats passed the For the People Act, which seeks to end gerrymandering, set mandates for early and mail-in voting, and bring transparency to campaign financing. Almost all Republicans opposed both.
Senator Schumer vowed to bring the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act for a vote in the Senate before MLK Day January 17th. Also, Michelle Obama announced a push to register 1 million new voters ahead of the 2022 midterms.We must continue to fight the Republican erosion of democracy through legislation, as the Democrats are doing in Congress, and by getting voters to the polls, like Michelle Obama. Each one of us needs to vote, and also get at least 10 more people to vote.
January 8, 2022
The Rise of the Insurrection Index
One year after the insurrection, political analysts have come to shocking conclusions. 47 million Americans believe President Biden stole the election, and 21 million of them believe that use of force is justified to restore TFG to the Oval Office. But there’s also a shocking dichotomy to this rightwing radicalized base.
In her new memoire, former Trump advisor on Russia, Fiona Hill, who testified against him during the first impeachment hearings, makes the argument that the angry victims of the rapid deindustrialization era under Reagan and Thatcher make up the rightwing extremist base. Hill has a unique perspective, having grown up in a poor coal mining community in the UK, then earning degrees on Russian History in UK, Harvard, Brookings Institution, and other achievements. Hill once said, “Russia is America’s Ghost of Christmas Future.” Now these angry victims of deindustrialization have been weaponized to fuel the rise of the rightwing extremist movements of Putin, Trump, and Johnson, resulting in Brexit, and other chaos.
But, also, a high percentage of the base are mainstream white-collar professionals and the middle class. According to University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape, most of those who were arrested for the insurrection are white-collar mainstream business owners, managers, and such. This hasn’t occurred since the Ku Klux Klan founded by former Confederates and revived in the 1920s by high-level members of the community attacked our democracy.
The result, the small 1% making up violent white supremist extremists who normally remain silently in the shadows now have the backing of mainstream professionals and government officials. In places like Idaho, some of them are running for office and winning.
But today, the so-called “Insurrection Index” was announced. This index identifies all those who attempted to overturn our free and fair elections on January 6, 2021. Over 1,000 in official positions funded by taxpayer dollars have been identified. The index goes live on January 6, 2022. On January 5th, AG Garland vowed to hold these insurrectionists accountable. His timing was perfect.
January 2, 2022
Another One Bites The Dust
Humor is the shock absorber of life. Democrats have developed a wicked gallows humor as a defense mechanism against Republicans who take pride in triggering Democrats with their outrageous antics. In our efforts to remain sane in the face of Republican horrors, brilliant minds have provided levity in our darkest hours. “Karen” has become a meme theme for right-wing women behaving in an outrageous, entitled, sometimes violent manner. There is also a whole “Herman Cain Awards” sub-Reddit – in a nod to the Darwin Awards – that tracks the long list of anti-vaccine Republicans who have died from COVID.
One Twitterer was recently trending for unapologetically lumping the dying Covidiots into one homogenous blob. The replies are a plethora of gallows humor. My favorite, “Let’s Go Darwin” was a wink to the cruel prank played by Jared Schmeck. But seriously, are Republicans killing themselves off in numbers significant enough to change election outcomes?
The loss of over 800,000 lives from COVID hurts my heart, especially considering that, after the vaccine became available, 163,000 deaths could have been prevented since June 2021. Unvaccinated adults are more than three times likely to be Republican. And yet, Republican leaders insist on making sure the pandemic lasts. Possibly to hurt Biden’s re-election chances. It remains to be seen if the number of voter deaths effects the 2022 Midterms.
What about the potential loss of Senate seats? Washington state Republican senator Doug Ericksen died of COVID on December 17th after traveling to El Salvador. A staunch anti-vaxxer, Ericksen had repeatedly called for the resignation of Democratic Governor Jay Inslee and claimed the state was the “national leader in authoritarian government.”
Two questions come to mind. First, what was Ericksen doing in El Salvador? That is still unclear, but Ericksen was a lobbyist monitoring elections for oppressive regimes, including Cambodia. Second, who will replace this six-term Senator who served since 2010? Death is no laughing matter. But neither is our democracy. Ericksen’s seat will be on the ballot in November 2022. State Rep Sharon Shewmake (D-Bellingham) is running for that Senate seat.
December 28, 2021
The Stakes Are About To Get Higher
With Super Bowl LVI approaching, football is a fitting metaphor for Senator Joe Manchin’s offensive tactics. His false starts have destroyed his credibility, Democrats are throwing flags on his plays, and he should be thrown out of the game.
First Democrats went along with Manchin’s demands to carve out the now-passed infrastructure bill from Build Back Better, which, as it turns out, includes climate legislation that Manchin opposes. Then Manchin had committed to Build Back Better if certain extensions of existing relief were limited, only to turn around and declare those same concessions to be deal-breakers. He keeps moving the goal posts, leaving democrats once again looking like Charlie Brown with Lucy pulling away the football. Ugh!
But Democrats also have more tricks in their playbook. Over decades of conservative offensive attacks, Democrats have proven a strong defense. For example, the Affordable Care Act, which has withstood incessant body slams from the right, still stands. BBB will likely be further cut into smaller parts before passing. Democrats may have to take the hit and end up with a scaled down version, but Manchin could still vote for BBB.
Also, like in 2018 and 2020, Democrats are on the offense, using a rush play to gain even two Senate seats to increase their majority in the 2022 midterms. The brilliant Stacey Abrams has announced her run for Governor of Georgia, giving a boost to Sen. Warnock (D-Ga), while four Republican Senators, Pat Toomey (PA), Richard Burr (NC), Roy Blunt (MI), and Rob Portman (OH), are not seeking re-election, and Ron Johnson (WI) is still undecided.
Finally, with the January 6th Select Committee public hearings coming in early 2022, more Republicans could drop out of the running due to damaging evidence or even indictments. There are also several ongoing investigations with indictments expected just in time to deliver a body blow to Trump Republicans, hurting the GOP’s chances of taking back the Senate.
December 15, 2021
This is What Winning Looks Like
Republicans love to weaponize words. They will say anything to keep the steady stream of lies feeding the flames of their delusional base to stay in power. Pundits on the right and left fuel the fire with doomsday narratives about how Democrats aren’t doing anything. That’s absurd. No president has done more in the first year than Biden, using executive orders, and working with Congress – after Democrats pulled off a win to gain a slim majority in the Senate – to pass massive bipartisan COVID relief and infrastructure packages, which have put the economy and the country back on course.
But Republicans continue their subversive tactics toward the destruction of democracy. They are on the verge of gutting Roe v Wade in a dozen states with their so-called pro-life rhetoric, while fueling gun violence and domestic terrorism.
California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom announced several moves that have the left giddy with excitement. But while Newsom’s tactics may provide some much-needed positivity for Democrats, it will not stem the GOP red tide of destruction. The governor plans to enact anti-gun legislation in California modeled on the very language of the Texas abortion law, making it easier for private citizens to sue people who sell assault rifles and parts for untraceable ghost funs. Newsom also announced that California will be a sanctuary for women with unplanned pregnancies who live in red states.
Newsom has proven masterful in combatting Republican attacks, having navigated a terrifying recall attempt earlier this year. If a Republican governor had won that recall, California would likely have begun anti-abortion, pro-gun, and voter disenfranchisement legislation. Instead, Newsom rallied Democrats nationally to spread the word and get voters to the polls resulting in a decisive win.
But we must push back om mainstream media for misrepresenting the efforts by Democrats. Not making the news was the Texas judge who ruled that the abortion bill allowing citizens to enforce the law as unconstitutional. Also not in the news is VP Kamala Harris’ milestone tiebreaking votes in the Senate.
We are righting the ship with Biden and the Democrats at the helm. But we must tune out the mainstream media doom and gloom and stay the course. We must expand our majority in the Senate and hold the House. There is much hard work to be done and there are no magic wands.
December 8, 2021
Republicans in Disarray
After a string of January 6th Committee subpoenas, the arrest of Steve Bannon, and subsequent cooperation by Meadows, and panic moves by Clark and Eastman, the Republican Party is showing signs of panic and disarray.
On the one hand, the GOP appears to have succeeded in making the U.S. Supreme Court fully partisan and on the verge of gutting Roe v Wade. In a recent piece, I discussed the GOP’s decades-long power-grabbing strategy through misinformation and fear mongering by hijacking the Southern Baptist movement. In addition to making the 2nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms their cause célèbre, they weaponized a crucial women’s health issue to strike fear and demoralize their base.
This tactic was incredibly effective. Thirty years ago, KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov’s warned America that the demoralization of an entire population through decades of “ideological subversion” or “active measures” is nearly irreversible. Our only hope is educating new generations. Democrats have consistently fought back with the message of hope, winning back the presidency and Congress and restoring integrity to the DOJ, for the time being.
SCOTUS deliberating on Roe v Wade notwithstanding, there are signs of deterioration among the GOP ranks due to steady pressure of legal proceedings bringing the truth out. Republican governor Charlie Baker announced he will not seek reelection in 2022. Boebert and Greene are attacking their fellow legislators. Liz Cheney has openly warned Trump about lying to the January 6th Committee.
Although apparently nothing will slap sense into the GOP’s zombie base, not even a deadly pandemic harming them most, or a decisive loss of the presidency and the Senate, the January 6th committee continues to tighten the screws. It will be interesting to see which cooler Republican heads prevail and flip on fellow traitors to save their own hides.
Thirty years from now, I hope the world will look back on this era of the GOP the way it regards the hysteria behind the McMartin case of 1987. Speaking of hysteria, crybaby and credibly accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh, during the hearings on the Mississippi case, said SCOTUS should “leave it to the states.” WRONG. Congress must pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and codify women’s health protections into Federal law to protect all the women of this nation.
November 30, 2021
This Is A Crucial Week
Elections have consequences. One of the all-time worst consequences came after the death of human rights trailblazer Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with a third conservative Trump appointee to the Supreme Court. Take that in. “Three conservative Trump appointees” is the nightmare scenario many of us dreaded when Trump was installed to the US presidency.
Going back further, since John Roberts became chief justice in 2005, one could argue he has done more damage than anyone to our democracy using his incremental approach. Whether the federal Voting Rights Act, organized labor laws, or restrictions on political spending by corporations, Roberts had gutted protections using a series of cases to chip away at precedent.
Under the first President Bush, in the 1991 Rust v. Sullivan case, then deputy US solicitor general Roberts signed a brief that asserted Roe v. Wade lacked support in the Constitution’s text and history. SCOTUS ruled in the Bush administration’s favor letting the government forbid abortion-related counseling at federally funded clinics, but declined to review Roe.
It is no accident that the current SCOTUS with the 6-3 conservative majority will hear a case that could cripple Row v Wade, if not completely defeat it. Prior to the 6-3 conservative majority, SCOTUS had consistently refused to hear cases over a pre-viability abortion ban. But now Roberts and the Supreme Court are set to make possibly their most consequential decision yet, in the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Things are looking bleak.
But in September, Roberts broke with the conservatives when the majority refused to temporarily halt the Texas ban on abortions after six weeks. Roberts has also been trying to shore up public confidence in the Supreme Court’s impartiality. Roberts steers the court and assigns the opinion. That means our voices still matter to Roberts. The court will take up the Mississippi case this week. If you’re in DC on Wednesday, December 1st, the Women’s March and the ACLU are organizing. Please join in the demonstrations.
November 15, 2021
Nice try, but this is not a “major blow”
Journalism is not just Who, What, When, Where, and Why. According to the American Press Institute, journalism’s obligations are to the truth, to the citizens, to independence from those they cover, and it must serve as independent monitors of power.
But who monitors journalism? The mainstream media (MSM) trend is negative clickbait headlines, but for some readers that is a turn-off. When I received my daily summary email from the Washington Post, the second headline caught my eye: “Federal appeals courts halts Biden Administration’s vaccine requirement, delivering major blow.” Having recently canceled my WaPo subscription, I Googled and found a USA Today piece explaining this decision is NOT a “major blow.” It is just the beginning of the process that will work its way to the Supreme Court, which has repeatedly turned away appeals seeking to block vaccine mandates. That is why WaPo’s headline turned me off.
Yesterday, NPR’s Here & Now covered rising inflation. Wapo’s congressional reporter Paul Kane was troubled by the recent number of employees quitting jobs, while Yamiche Alcindor countered it is a result of people needing to keep their jobs during COVID and now being able to leave for better jobs. Alcindor also pointed out the GOP are great at misrepresenting Democrats as the tax and spend party, despite ample proof that Democrats are better for the economy. Still, the GOP are blaming inflation on Biden’s spending packages. But under Trump, the GOP voted for huge stimulus payments and could be blamed for this inflation.
Another example is CNN headline, “History says Biden and Democrats probably won’t recover by the midterms.” Normally I might not click because of its gloom-and-doom nature toward Democrats. But the piece was very informative. The average net drop in presidential approval rating is 13 points, because ratings tend to revert to the point where half the population likes and half dislikes someone.
As we head into the midterms, Democrats find themselves in the similar position to the recent Virginia governor’s race, where history was against a Democrat winning. We came within 2 points of winning Virginia and if MSM had been less doom-and-gloom and more informative about Republican Youngkin, we might have closed that gap.
So, who holds the press accountable? We do. When they use scare tactics against Democrats, turn the channel, or cancel your subscription. Before sharing a piece on social media, copy and paste one salient point with it. To win the midterms, we must take control of our messaging.
