MountainMornings

It’s a famous movie quote, when Jack Nicholson curls up his face in a courtroom and shouts, “You can’t handle the truth!”

And it’s what Mr T would like us to believe, that he didn’t warn the American people about the coronavirus in February, that he downplayed its threat, because he didn’t want us to panic… Underneath the infantilizing nature of that phrase, is contempt, is patriarchy. And when it became obvious that Black and Brown people were suffering and dying to a greater degree, Mr T’s mishandling, his ignorance became more racist. More terrifying.

We are Brutal Truth Tellers over here. Bob has always said it’s just easier to tell the truth than to get caught in a lie. We had a family rule when the kids were little – if you tell us the truth, you may not get in trouble. BUT, if you lie to us, there will be hell to pay! You might say that parenthood is like the FBI, you NEVER lie to the FBI.

According to the Washington Post, Mr T has LIED or “Made False Claims” over 20,000 times! https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/

He must think the American people are really dumb.

We have 50 days until the election. Does anyone think our votes will be secure? With social media espousing conspiracy theories right and left, mail boxes disappearing and Mr T telling people to VOTE TWICE (which btw you cannot do), it’s a wonder anyone has faith in our electoral system. And then, I read this morning about a young woman, a patriot, named Reality Winner.

Oh, you never heard about this Air Force vet, former translator for the NSA, Millennial woman with a weird name who had the courage to leak (she was actually a whistleblower) ONE document in 2017 to the press who is serving five years and three months in prison? She is currently in a federal medical center facility in TX and has tested positive for Covid-19. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/21/reality-winner-coronavirus/

“Winner spends most of life in de facto solitary confinement, barred from going outdoors, limited to one trip to the cafeteria, and served two meals in her cell (bologna sandwiches) that, as a kosher vegan, she cannot eat.”

So because Winner thought we need to know that the Russia government was spear phishing, actively interfering and hacking its way into our voting infrastructure, and because she told the truth and took a plea deal, she just celebrated her 28th birthday behind bars.

Yet Paul Manafort received a compassionate release from prison after lying about his meetings with Russians in the run-up to the 2016 election. It would seem that one golden rule, about telling the truth, has no place in this president’s politics. Ask any T-rumper about anything, and all they can say is, “You liberals lie!”

I #StandWithReality

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I know there is an election, and a lot of news about Mr T courtesy of Bob Woodward’s new book: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/us/politics/woodward-trump-rage-takeaways.html

But did you know there was a horrific fire this week in a refugee camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece? 13,000 people were living in squalor before the fire, and now 10 EU countries have accepted some 400 unaccompanied Moria children. While I was reading this article I couldn’t help but think of that ship of Jewish refugees during the holocaust – neither Cuba nor the United States would give them safe harbor.

They were sent back to Germany to be killed.

The Rocker called us yesterday while he was walking our granddog Leo. Even though the wildfires are hundreds of miles from LA, he told us the air was pink and orange and you could taste the smoke in the back of your mouth. Temperatures out there reached 115 degrees last week. Bob told him that our sunsets were supposed to be spectacular now because of the wind carrying that air all the way to Nashville.

Did you know that every fire has its own name? https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/california-fire-map/ Just in September California has had the ElDorado, the Valley Fire, the Oak Fire, the Willow Fire and of course the Creek Fire. Not to mention the 17 fires that started in July and August! One supposedly by the pyrotechnics at a “Gender Reveal Party?” Isn’t having a baby shower enough; why must couples go to extremes about the X or Y chromosome?

Today is a solemn day. Sometimes I forget September 11th. I look at the calendar and fill in all the “Christmas Party” birthdays – my two Brides, my sister. I leave the porch door open in the morning because there’s a chill in the air. I deliver tiny apple pie snacks to the L’il Pumpkin because he’s finally going to IRL (in real life) Kindergarten.

But I remember that acrid smell when I visited my sister in NYC to celebrate our birthdays nineteen years ago. It’s a smell like no other. I remember that strange sky, and the firemen dusted in grey crowding into Irish bars for lunch. Their big, black boots on the brass footstool. Working on “the pile,” recovering the remains of lives lost.

I remember trying to shop for the Bride’s birthday that year, the year she graduated from Duke. She was in DC at her first job in a government building; would planes still fly? I roamed around an empty store, feeling numb. Looking at other eyes devoid of feeling. I decided on a sweater to keep her warm, I would FedEx her gift.

In the Torah, if a wedding and a funeral procession meet on a street, the funeral must stop for the wedding – because life takes precedence, always.

The Rocker left high school that day to watch the smoke from the Towers drift over the bay at Sandy Hook. It was the most glorious sky that morning, a Tiffany blue with no clouds. We wondered how could a small plane hit the World Trade Center on such a beautiful morning, until we saw the second plane.

Climate extremes and gender reveal parties aside, today the refugee crisis in Greece is directly related to us, to what happened to us on 9/11. Most of the migrants there were fleeing Afghanistan. We are trapped in Dante’s circle.

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Happy Labor Day everyone. You know the old saying, “A woman’s work is never done?” Well, why is that? It’s actually from an old couplet – “A man can work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.” And in fact, even today, research shows that women do carry the lion’s share of unpaid childcare and housework.

In 2019, more than 72% of women with children under the age of 18 were working outside the home. Even though gender norms have started to change, and some fathers are staying home with young children, it seems that in a pinch – when the school calls, or a child is sick – it’s the mom who steps up.

Of course, in a pandemic everything changes.

Parents are expected to work from home and help their children manage online school. This week, for instance, our L’il Pumpkin will actually get to go to the old brick and mortar school for half-day Kindergarten, but his sister will have to stay behind on Zoom calls. The Groom has gone back to the Medical ICU, and the Bride is back in the ER, so this next week will take a bit of juggling.

On this weekend we celebrate the workforce, unions, and all those essential workers who are keeping this economy running. The Bride and Groom’s garage has turned back into a red zone where they can decontaminate before walking into their house. They just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on their front porch with take-out and a tiny wait staff!

Lately I’ve been lost in my Ancestry profile. I figured out how to put pictures in the icons and I’ve poured over very old census records. Please, please let the census workers finish their jobs! In the past women would have, or at least my Irish ancestors would have 10-20 children! So it’s no wonder they would list “Keeping House” as their job on a 1910 census.

Then I came across my paternal Great Grandfather, the one who sailed over here from Ireland in 1854. The man who started out as a laborer and eventually made his fortune dealing cattle, bought a farm of over 200 acres in Pennsylvania and opened a butcher store. His obituary read:

” (insert his name), a well known farmer and huckster!

My immediate thought was oh NO, am I descended from a mercenary, con man Like Mr T? Doesn’t it imply something illegal or dishonest? But it turns out the historical definition of huckster is actually to sell small things, so instead of selling cows I guess my Great Grandfather was selling cuts of meat.

“It has been with us for over 800 years, and it derives from the Middle Dutch word hokester, which in turn comes from the verb hoeken, meaning “to peddle.” “Peddler” (or “pedlar”) was first attested in the 14th century, and this sense of “hawker” has only been appearing in English texts since the early 1500s.“

Whatever your career choice, today is a day to lay back and barbeque at home, in the comfort of our lawns, with no more than 10 socially distanced friends or family. Or maybe even order in? I personally think any kind of childcare is essential, but we can let the dishes soak.

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Did we learn anything new about Mr T’s psyche in the Atlantic article, “Trump: Americans who Died in Wars are Losers and Suckers,” by Jeffrey Goldberg? We knew how he treated John McCain, the things he said about Gold Star families, his obsession with his hair. But put it all together in one short essay and we are shocked still. His contempt for our military is palpable.

T started losing veterans in June when he pulled his bible thumping stunt at a church in Lafayette Square, and General Mark Milley later apologized for participating in his camos; claiming ignorance. He didn’t know that peaceful protesters had been gassed so that T could have a photo-op.

But ignorance is not an excuse:

“As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched, and I am not immune,” Milley said.

“As many of you saw the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there,” Milley continued.

“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”

I wonder if we have learned anything from the shooting yesterday of Michael Reinoehl. He was an Army veteran, the father of two children, and he was suspected of shooting a “Patriot Prayer” boy (ie a far-right, white supremacist T supporter) – Aaron Danielson last Saturday in Portland. Reinoehl had claimed self-defense, saying he thought he and his friend were going to be stabbed.

But there is no video of the “fugitive task force” of Federal Marshalls and FBI agents gunning him down in a parking lot yesterday. They said this avowed far-left Antifa supporter had a gun, yet none of the agents were injured. Reinoehl was first shot in his car, and then in the back while trying to flee. We don’t even know how many shots were fired.

It’s been three years since we moved here from Charlottesville, VA. Three years since Heather Hyer was killed. It feels like the wind before a storm – anti-immigrant, antisemitic and racist forces are swirling around a president who talks “Law and Order” but despises war heroes.

Great Grandpa Hudson went to Okinawa. My brothers went to Vietnam, one an Army Intelligence officer (Dr Jim below in our Zoom call) and the other a Med-Evac helicopter pilot. They know a sucker when they see one. #VeteransAgainstTrump

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