There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

 

The full quote — “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” — has been attributed to Mark Twain, who himself attributed it to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who might never have said it in the first place.  In 2020's America, this phrase takes on even more meaning with the misinformation circulating in "conservative" information bubbles.  False information is being spread by certain "Newscasters" in order to keep pliable masses supporting people who don't give a damn about their welfare.

- - - - - -

Recently, I watched a YouTube video by Steve Shives featuring a political candidate who spoke the GOP's "quiet parts out loud."   Sadly, this fictional candidate's speech is too close to the truth for comfort.  For example, I was once "defriended" by a transgender woman who stated that New York's abortion law protected abortions up to and including the 9th month of pregnancy. There is a certain ignorance and suspension of reality in such a belief.  If a woman carries a fetus into the 9th month of pregnancy, she likely wants the baby to be born.  If there is an abortion, it is likely to be to save the life of the mother.  The same type of misinformation was said when the GOP bashed Obamacare - most people kept doing to their doctors of choice, and it reduced costs for the states that expanded Medicaid. Worst of all was our 45th president claiming that "secret evidence" proved that he won the election. People died in the January 6th 2021 assault on the Capitol building because of this man's lies, and yet, he still walks free.

The "Religious Right" has lost many of the cultural battles it has fought recently, and they are now focusing on Transgender people as convenient targets.  How does it hurt people to amend birth certificates when Gender Corrective Surgery is performed?  Yet, in some states, this change is banned, leaving many transgender people in a state of legal limbo.  What about transgender medical care, preventing TG youth from having an incorrect puberty?  Does this hurt the larger society?  Even going to the restroom can be a problem, as many states have passed "Bathroom Bills" which restrict people to use only those restrooms associated with the gender people were associated with at birth.  Being transgender, I can't risk seeing friends in Texas because of laws like this.

We must be on the alert when false information is being spread about us.  Even if we are in stealth mode, we must always speak out against the lies spread by our enemies.  Although it is a small segment of America which is out to attack us, it holds disproportionate influence over one of our two major political parties.  We can't let that one party win while radicals hold control of that party, as it is an existential threat to us.

Truth doesn't always win out.  People who believe in the truth must fight lies whenever their seed reaches fertile ground.  Take on the fight, and fight hard - our lives depend on it!

 

 

A year ago, things were so different.....

 

A year ago, things were very different than they are now.  For example, in the back of my mind I still had hope of getting together again with my ex girlfriend.  Today, I'd have to think long, hard, and carefully if that option were to present itself to me.  But that's the least of things I can mention today. My father was still alive, and I had no idea that he'd be one of the over 400,000 (and counting) Americans who'd die of the coronavirus over the next 12 months.

Both as individuals and as a culture, we would have to ask questions posed by a once popular song:

Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we?
Could we?

Most of us thought that the good times we experienced prior to 2020 would last forever.  As the virus taught us, they were only fleeting things.  

- - - - - -

I spent most of 2020 employed at the census as Marian.  Recently, I applied for and accepted a job, working as Marian again.  Although this would have been a job better suited for Mario, I figured that I wanted to see how I would do in private industry without the official protections of a government bureaucracy.  Is this the job I really wanted?  No.  But it will have to do when there are 75 people (or more, in many cases) applying for jobs in both public and private sectors.

If things had progressed as most of us had expected, most of us would have gone on our usual vacations, not really noticing what they did for us as people.  Now that we've been largely isolated from others for a year, many of us feel it's time to get out in the world again, even if we are taking big risks in doing so.  I look forward to taking my Hawaiian cruise when cruising opens up again.  But I will not give the cruise lines a penny more than I have to for their products.

Travel and work are not the only things affected by the pandemic. Our nation's political future was affected as well.  Many of us gave our former present better than an even chance of being reelected because of the then "booming" economy.  The pandemic put an end to that, as the then president made light of the virus when people were more concerned about their lives than whether they had jobs or not.  How many of you think that our current president could have won the election if things were as they were in 2019?  I certainly don't think he'd have had much of a chance, as people usually vote with their wallets.  This time, they voted as if their lives depended on their votes - which they did.

 

- - - - - - 

2021 looks like it will be a better year for many of us.  Hard-line Evangelical "Christians"  are no longer able to use the federal government as a tool to attack transgender people.  We are on target to see most Americans have access to a Coronavirus vaccine shot by some time this summer. And we will soon be able to resume outdoor socialization when Spring comes.  We will be entering a time where a "New Normal" is evolving, a period where growth starts anew for both individuals and for society as a whole.  I look forward to this future.

 

Politics can be toxic, and today I expected to see a lot of toxicity.

 

As I write this, the electoral college's ballots have started to be read in a joint session of congress, and evidence of Trump's disastrous effects on American politics is evident in what should be another boring session of congress.  All 50 states have confirmed their ballots, and some GOP congressmen and senators are challenging the ballots of the battleground states to show their loyalty to our (thankfully) outgoing president.

In another forum, one of my Facebook friends and I have an occasional discussion regarding Trump.  She has drunk all of the Kool-Aid in her glass, and still desires more.  I find it amazing how she tries to defend Trump (and the GOP) against anything that makes them look bad and the Democratic party look good.  But then, people who have been successfully scammed try to defend the scam, lest they feel like fools in front of others. This is human nature at its worst.

We are seeing the beginning of what could be the breakup of America along political lines, or the beginning of a healing process for this country.  If the latter, many of the people who served to enable Trump and his attacks on our democratic institutions will also need to call out the extremists in their party, and finally hold the populists in check.  And I see that the some of the GOP leadership is being forced to do just this.  Will they be successful?  Only time will tell.

- - - - - -

With the above being said, I can say that I have faith in this country and most of its people. On an individual level, most people are kind and decent people.  However, the human instinct to identify with a family, a tribe, and a nation can cause good people to do evil things.  That is why we need a representative government who will respond to the peoples' needs, but will take the time to think things out.  Today, we're seeing the reasons why America needs a government with built in "circuit breakers", because we will occasionally need a political reset when a major system failure is imminent.

Today's political debates are a perfect example of the need for a reset.  Four years ago, Trump won a hotly contested election.  Many people in New York City and in the global banking community knew him to be a self-centered crook. But people outside these community saw him as a successful businessman, due to his former TV show.  They were bamboozled by the glitzy image he liked to show the public. With untruths running free across the internet, and people choosing to see "news" which only supports their own biases, there was no way a competent political insider could win the 2016 presidential election.  Four years later, after Trump applied a wrecking ball to our government and its political norms, it was time for a change.  And yet, we have two political tribes that are as polarized as ever.  So, we have the need for a reset.

I expect that the next four years will be that political reset.  Biden will likely be the president whose most important priority will be to cool off the passions of the public, so that the 2024 election will be more of a traditional choice of candidates.  Yet, this will not go as far as we need it to go - we need a government that can get needed things done.  America won't be able to heal unless we fix the underlying problems of government. And that means that political gridlock must not be tolerated.  

In 2017-2019, we saw what could happen when radicals from one political party controlled the levers of government. Once the House changed hands in the 2018 election, there was a check and balance on the party in control of government. In the 2020 election, we saw the public throw out a corrupt president.  Yet, they also voted to check the excesses of the party in charge of the House.  We're seeing something good - America as a whole wants moderation in government, and we may just be edging in that direction.

- - - - - -

When I started this entry, I didn't know what was about to happen.  No one, save for security people, should have needed to be prepared for the mob which stormed the capitol building.  These people are criminals, and should be treated as such.  But then, we have a criminal for a president.  And it's time that he be impeached and convicted for removal from office, or that the 25th amendment be used to remove him from office.  Yet, this doesn't address the underlying illness we have in this country - 75% of the GOP loyalists believe Trump's lies.  It will take at least a full generation to deal with this social sickness.

- - - - - -

Why am I writing about politics today?  Well, we are affected by the machinations of those people who we elect to represent us.  The Trump administration has not been friendly to Transgender people, and has acted to take away our rights and privileges.  How many of us remember that it was Trump who acted to expel Transgender people from the military?  How many of us remember his Education department's attacks on Transgender rights?  What about his administration's attack on the census collecting data on the LGBTIQ community?  We must remember the recent past, lest we allow an ignorant populist to get power again, harming us in his/her pursuit of power.

 

 

 

 

 

Aftermath of an election.

 

By the time you read this entry, the presidential election will have ended for us in New York State. We are lucky to be a state where the results will likely not be contested, as I'd hate for us to have our own version of Florida's screwed up 2000 election.  This doesn't mean that the election will be over for this country.  I expect that GOP operatives will contest the vote in most of the "Battleground States", and that we'll have a daily dose of agita from upsetting news being reported about these states' elections.

The final results of this election will affect our community. If Trump/Pence is declared the winner, I expect a full assault on the rights of the LGBTIQ community.  At first, malevolent actions at the Federal level may not affect us in the "Blue States". However, as court cases are brought to the Supreme Court, we may see Federal cases affect rights recognized at the State level.  Since Abortion is the most visible target, I expect that we will be the first target the social conservatives plan to aim for.  Transgender people will likely be at the top of the list, as many of us are relatively easy to spot, given years of "testosterone poisoning".  Even with plastic surgery to make our bodies look more feminine, our bone structure will often give us away.  Once we have lost our rights, I expect that they will go after the gay/lesbian community. Although gays/lesbians can hide in the woodwork, they will not be able to play the "don't ask / don't tell" game for long.  Only after the LGBTIQ community has lost its rights will the "conservatives" go after women as a whole, first going after a woman's right to control her own body, and then taking away many of the rights women have gained in the past 100 years. If you don't think this can happen, look at what happened in Qatar when a dead baby was found in their airport's women's room - at least 10 women were held for a forced "medical" exam to verify that none of these women was the mother of the abandoned corpse. Hardly any coverage of this took place in the mainstream press.  Could you imagine how you'd feel if it was your daughter that had to go through this humiliating process?  Of course, our current president had nothing to say about this event.

I expect that this will be a heatedly contested election.  We've already seen groups of Trump supporters in their trucks blocking people on line (in California) from getting to their polling place.  Since this is a district which tends to support Republicans, they are likely harming their own cause. Although both sides perceive threats to their ways of life, it seems like Trump's supporters have more to lose emotionally.  I find it interesting that these people are flying the biggest flags, performing the most annoying stunts (such as blocking the Westbound Tappan Zee Bridge), and doing the most dangerous things (such as running their powerboats in an unsafe manner, causing some to capsize in the wake of bigger boats) - all to gain the attention of people who might otherwise ignore their feelings.  They bask in the reflected glow of their "fearless" leader.  And they fear that they may have been duped by this con man.  So they shout "look at me, I have something important to say too" - even when they have nothing worthwhile to say.  It reminds me of the old Jerry Springer show, where an inarticulate person is bested by someone more articulate (not saying much about either person, given the show) and gives up saying "whatever." Unfortunately, Trump supporters will not go quietly into the night the way Springer's guests often went.

Hopefully, we will have a peaceful transfer of power in January.  If not, I feel sorry for our country.  I plan to make sure that I know how to use firearms just in case....