@Snode Thanks, but that's what I was getting at by mentioning the "Pied Piper Strategy." They pushed for Trump to be their opponent, instructed their toadies in the media to 'take him seriously', etc. No doubt thinking, 'who couldn't beat Trump?' Well, now they know.

Good preach. First sorry to hear about your med problems. I'm near the same age and going through some stuff too, so.... Second, become as much of an expert on your disease as your docs, even more so. Use the same intelligence you use to research your blogs on your real enemy. Save the political stuff. You have that down pat.

The one thing you didn't mention about HER is that she wanted to go up against Trump. She just didn't fathom the depth of dislike people had for her. If only arrogance were fatal.

@gulfgal98 Very nice to hear from you. Thank you for the kind words. Hope you are well.

And I am so grateful that you share it with us here. Thank you so very much for always being a beacon of clarity, regardless of the forum you have posted upon. This essay is a prime example of that clear eyed vision you have and share with us.

I, too, am very saddened by your health problems. I am in the same age group as you, well, a little older, but definitely not wiser than you, my friend. I am sending all good karma your way, especially in the area of you health.

@enhydra lutris Thanks. Always great to see you, e-l.

about your ills. So, first of all, take care of yourself.

Thanks for this great column, summarizing and recapitulating so muc. Thanks also for all your great columns and tireless work over the years.

It's funny, but I once gave a speech from the Sproul Hall Steps at Cal that started with the words "This government is not your friend". Looking back, it is obvious that I erred in saying "this" instead of "the" and I love seeing that reflected in your second bullet point. The first 9 points have, in my lifetime, come to take on the aura of eternal verities, to which I must say right on, brother. They won't change until the system changes, until, as you note, we have a revolution.

So, yeah, right on brother, great to read you again. Love ya.

As always - power to the people especially the power to be true to their conscience. Hillary lost because she couldn't fool enough people enough of the time, for once we didn't --

@divineorder Thanks, that's cool. I remain stubbornly optimistic myself, at least on good days. I learned long ago that when hope is all you've got, don't let go. Great to see you, d-o.

Thanks for this essay.

Needed to be said.

And nobody does it bettah~!

"Keeps me from runnin', but just keep it comin' ......"

Hey, have you seen the following before?

At least the dood is optimistic about the US after the fall...

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d7ykxx/us-power-will-decline-...

Galtung is not pessimistic about his forecasts, though. Having always seen the collapse of the "US empire" as inevitable—much like the collapse of the Soviet empire—he argues that there is real opportunity for a revitalization of the "American republic."

The American republic is characterised by its dynamism, its support for the ideals of freedom and liberty, its productivity and creativity, and its cosmopolitanism toward the 'other.'

Right on.

@The Aspie Corner Well put. When you'd rather lose to Trump than win with Bernie, you just might be phucked in the head.

They're more than happy to play Washington Generals to the Repigs' Harlem Globetrotters. Trumpy Boy is the biggest ruse the Gentricratic Party ever pulled on its own voters. Sure, the cappie class may not think he's ideal but they've certainly had little trouble making his shit policies and erratic behavior work for them.

@LeChienHarry Thanks much for the kind and positive words. And for giving my little hippie book as presents.

I look at the state of our planet, and feel my own health challenges are nothing more than a reflection or piece of the unbalanced state of our personal and global ecology.

To our best efforts, we must write and communicate for peers and especially those coming to take our places. They are more hurt than they may know. They have real fights on their hands.

It won't be easy, but maybe if we give them the gift of roads travelled that didn't pan out, we can save them some un necessary trial. They will need all the energy and fight in the right directions.

Thanks for showing up; thanks for sharing.

@Linda Wood I have found art, both making and consuming it to be a fairly good to excellent antidote. We have art so that we won't die of reality, someone said.

Beautiful essay, and a real resource. Thank you for all that work and for saying it so clearly. Thank you especially for the Martin Luther King image and quote. You are making a difference even, and maybe even especially, when you're taking care of yourself and staying away from the stress of dealing with this nightmare.

My only way of staying sane and healthy, at an age slightly older than you, is to stay away from mainstream media. I find out about it secondarily, here and at other sites that give me hope. It is cowardly, I admit, but me screaming at my television or throwing it out the window won't make it easier for me to deal with what they're saying. I hope you will read the resources that give you hope and confidence in a sane future. Believing it's possible is part of the way to get there.

Again, OPOL, thank you and BRAVO!

@HenryAWallace Gracias.

I agree on some things, am to your left on other things and I still don't know what to make of Sanders, but I appreciate your essay.

@Lookout TYVM.

When we speak truth to power, there is power in our words. Thanks for sharing the power of your words and images...never doubt the effect of our ripples.

@JtC Thanks for all you do, for this forum and for still having me. Deeply appreciated.

stay strong, we need your voice, hell, the world needs your voice.

Thank you Saseong.

@thanatokephaloides lol - that's funny. Maybe I should post it at dkos just to watch the heads explode.

And recovery from your health issues!

There are perfectly good reasons to hate HRC that don't include any falsehoods, conspiracy theories or Russian propaganda
If you hate war, fracking, and shameless self-enrichment, you have reason to at least strongly disapprove of HRC
HRC is objectively a horrible human being and absolutely the worst candidate the democratic party could have attempted to foist on the American people

Yeah. This.

Please don't be such a stranger as before. We need you here.

n.b.: Although the temptation is great to have you post this over on kos, please don't. I fear actual carnage would result.

@UntimelyRippd I know.

[comment:body]

@Wink Thanks. You right.

good to see you,
my friend, as always!
2016 took its toll on many of us, and the Only good thing to come out of it was Hillary wasn't elected. To watch the Birchers and other Wingers dismantle this country before our very eyes is disheartening to say the very least. And if we don't soon get ourselves in the streets we're then going to watch the results on CSPAN instead: "The resolution has passed. The bill to totally fuck the 99% and rape and pillage what's left of the country goes to the president to be signed into law... "
Take good care my friend!

@thanatokephaloides Right the fuck on.

@Urban Hillbilly You're awesome. Thank you.

OMG! OPOL! long time no hear brother, soo glad you have checked in, as for the rest, my prayers and positive energy is flowing to you, ALL the White light I have is your's it's been 2 yrs since I heard from you, dkmich crossed posted to reddit on a sub I moderate, prwsag52 was my handle on DKOS, anyway come over to reddit /r/KossacksforSanders and drop a line, you are an "Elder Statesman" and most welcomed there!God bless my friend!

@ChezJfrey Much appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Read through and your bullet points are spot on. The essay was perfect.

@smiley7 Thanks very much, smiley. Nice to see you, brother. I love that video.

clear, peace-loving thoughts and uplifting guidance; fortunate in having you around as often as circumstances allow.

Sending love, hugs, smiles and positive healing spirits!

calling from the heart...

@2andfro Thanks very much. I appreciate the kind comment.

You brightened my days before the ban hammer fell at dkos. After that Boss Kos edict, I joined the hordes that left. I was an early member here, but in time found myself drifting to the reddit Way of the Bern sub, and that's where I learned that you were back with more heart and truth (https://caucus99percent.com/content/reality-its-thing).

As usual, I can't argue with a word you wrote. As a Stein voter largely for the reasons you expressed, here's my comment on Election 2016: I'm glad Clinton lost but sorry Trump won.

Your ending resonates particularly:

"So if you blame Trump on people who didn't vote for HRC, or if you blame Trump on anyone other than Bill and/or Hillary Clinton and the DNC, then you are information challenged, to put it kindly. If you're a person who still loves HRC or wants to swallow a pack of lies or cling to some bogus version of reality because it feels better than the real thing (which is admittedly messy and awful), don't expect me to argue with you or try to explain anything further to you. I have lost all desire to engage with such ignorance and lack of respect for truth or reality. You are responsible for what's in your own head."

Peace, and health, be with you. It is MOST EXCELLENT to be gifted a glimpse of your fighting spirit once again.

@DonMidwest Thanks, Don. That's really interesting stuff. Great to see you, hope you are well.

Well, to be myself is to recommend a book. This is a novel with trees as characters.

From an interview

RICHARD POWERS: If anything, the intervening dozen years have deepened my desire to close the gap between people and other living things. The Echo Maker dealt in the strange intelligence of birds, an intelligence deep and foreign enough to be invisible to many of us. But it was also a story of forgotten kinship with creatures who have stunning navigational and problem-solving skills, who keep a complex and shared calendar, who gather in great communities and dance together and mate for life and sacrifice themselves for their young.

The Overstory may present an even greater challenge to the sense of exceptionalism we humans carry around inside us. It’s the story of immense, long-lived creatures whom many people think of as little more than simple automatons, but who, in fact, communicate and synchronize with each other both over the air and through complex underground networks, who trade with and protect and sustain their own and other species. It’s about immensely social beings with memory and agency who migrate and transform the soil and regulate the weather and create a breathable atmosphere. As the great Le Guin put it, the word for world is forest.

Our kinship with trees seems, at face value, much more distant and abstract, but we share a considerable amount of our genes with them, and they (trees come from many different families in their own right) represent several large branches of the single, ramifying experiment called life on earth, a big-boled thing on which we humans occupy just one small and remote branch. Trees exhibit a flexibility in the face of change and challenge that we used to think was exclusively animal in nature. We have depended on trees not just for the invention of civilization but for our very existence. Without them, no us .....

Here’s to Unsuicide: An Interview with Richard Powers

and a second article and interview

To what degree (if any) do you consider your work to be a moral or didactic project? Am I mistaken in feeling that The Overstory isn’t just a novel, but maybe a blueprint for being inducted into the “shimmering council” of the trees—something like a viable evangelism? Or does this idea just piss you off?

Goodness—what better way to start an interview than plunging into one of the most highly charged questions in the history of literature! Centuries of great writers have filled volumes exploring the proper position of the literary author along the spectrum of moral detachment and commitment. In the mid-19th century, the warring camps had their spokespeople in Tolstoy, who advocated for fiction that would raise consciousness and make readers into better people, and in Flaubert, who preached a moral detachment, urging writers to be like a remote, objective, hands-off God—“present everywhere and visible nowhere.”

In the last century, when I was growing up, the American version of this war was playing out between John Gardner and Gore Vidal. Vidal was the champion of aesthetic, belletristic freedom—the author who was above the fray, committed only to the free play of exploration and possibility. Gardner, in his controversial and influential book On Moral Fiction, wrote that fiction ought “to test human values, not for the purpose of preaching or peddling a particular ideology, but in a truly honest and open-minded effort to find out which best promotes human fulfillment.” Here’s the interesting thing: Don’t both these positions sound attractive and defensible?

If I were to name the prevailing aesthetic of the present concerning literary fiction, I’d say it leans toward the belletristic. Moral passion hasn’t been cool for some time; much better to gird yourself in irony and fatalistic detachment. Or to put it more sympathetically, contemporary literary fiction strives for the dialogical, where the conflicting moral positions of all the characters in the story are both defensible and flawed. But look at the standout books—the great war novels and postcolonial novels and novels of politics, social showdown and human abuse—and you’ll see a different story. These books know what’s wrong with the world and what it would take to better minister to the human condition.

RICHARD POWERS The biggest questions in literature

There is a fairly long section printed in a environmental publication. Some people read it thinking it was about real characters and were a little pissed that it was fiction.

I have thought about you often over the years and thank you for the efforts on DK which showed us the corruption of the dem party and the apologists there.

@Dallasdoc It's so great to hear from you. I've thought about you so many times and wondered how you were. So it's a delight to see your comment. Daniel is in Romania after having toured through Morocco. He loved that but really loves Bucharest. Yes, figuring out where to shelter from all that's coming is a challenge, to say the least. Please let me know what you decide or where you're considering, and please stay in touch. You sound happy and I'm very pleased for you. Take care, brother.

Funny thing, I just started looking in at this site again yesterday, and here you show up today. It's SOOOO good to see you writing again, my brother! I'm very sorry to read about your health troubles, and am glad you're focusing inward on caring for yourself.

I've started thinking more about retirement lately, although it'll probably still be 3-4 years away. Hubby and I are still actively pondering where we want to retire, to find possible respite from hellaceous climate and politics. A surprisingly hard question to answer. But we'll make a choice and find a place to grow old together -- health and texting drivers willing.

I've withdrawn from political activity after the faceplant the Democratic party took once they screwed Bernie and all of us over. I too voted for Stein, and I've never regretted it for a day. Hillary would be just as tragic a clusterfuck as Trump, just probably with more war and almost as much lying. Voting for Stein was the only way for me to say "a plague on both your houses." I still feel that way, and don't suspect my mind will change. Maybe the Kidz like your wonderful son will change my mind and give me hope again -- I'm too old, tired and cynical to do it anymore.

Be well, take care of yourself, and live in the love that fills your heart.