Un-Trump Summit, Cohen Flips: gagablog #168

As I write this the sun has come up over Colorado but you can't see it: the sky is grey and overcase all over and it's supposed to be cloudy all day. Meanwhile in Vietnam Trump is meeting with Kim Jong Un as I type this, and I'm eager to finish the Shirley Fairies spell, started here almost 23 months ago, on April 16th, 2017. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is scheduled to start his public testimony before Congress in about half an hour. Republicans are repeating a chorus of how dishonest he is and can't be trusted but the truth is he only stands to gain, and potentially redeem himself somewhat, by coming clean with the Truth about Trump, from one of his closest allies.

I hope Trump and Kim Jong Un make a declaration of Peace at their meeting: they apparently can't declare an actual Peace Treaty without China, as well - and maybe after coming through China the North Korean leader has that approval, somehow, but it seems like the very best to hope for would be the Declaration of Peace, starting the process to get that Treaty.

It's especially "timely" that even as Trump is at this summit Cohen will start testifying, possibly while Kim Jong Un and Trump are still meeting. It seems like "anything" is possible on a day like today, but I wanted to mention a few possibilities. There is so much bad news coming out all the time about Trump but it is coming even more intensely. In the last week these have included election fraud  - NOT "voter fraud" which doesn't exist - in North Carolina, reports of sexual abuse of kids who have been taken from their families at the border, reports that thousands of those kids will be "up for adoption" (kidnapped) after their parents were deported, and the Congress voting against Trump's national Emergency declaration.

Also in the last week there were two KKK-related stories that no one seemed to be putting the pieces together well in the way they reported it. One was an editor of a Alabama (Or Mississippi?) newspaper who wrote an article saying that the KKK should ride again through Washington D.C. and commit genocide to mass murder non-white people. He was fired and facebook posts gloated about how he had been replaced by a black woman (but who writes for that paper, anyway?) and NO mention of any kind of legal action against him for promoting terrorism, that I ever heard about. No one mentioned that he was arrested.

There was an arrest of a white nationalist terrorist, maybe on the exact same day or the next day. He worked in the Coast Guard, was amassing weapons and planning terrorist attacks, had planned ways to kill everyone on earth, and his goal was to start a race war to lead to a white nationalist state or form a white nationalist all-white Island or some shit. Trump absolutely refuses to speak out against him - yet he has time to tweet about the racist-homophobic attack on actor Jussie Smollet that the police reported they had decided was staged by the actor himself. This event took up a lot of media and social media attention and is tragic for many reasons but mostly because it gives "ammo" to all the racism-denying assholes who try to say it is "all fake".

But the important thing is this was a REAL attack being planned by a white nationalist terrorist but Trump refuses to speak out against it because he is also a white nationalist - and probably ordered the attack, himself, to try to get a "way out" of all the crimes and evil he has committed catching up to him. It reminds me of a meme I saw, recently, of Trump saying "You can't finish the indictments if I never stop committing crimes!"

Steve King was ostracized, and since my last gagablog the racist histories of Democratic Governor of Virginia, wearing blackface, was a huge media story - but they never carried the story over to the many obvious examples of Trump being actively KKK. To me, the lack of response to the white nationalist terrorist trying to start genocide and race war means only one of two things: Trump agrees with him and is sorry he was caught OR he actually personally ordered the attack and is sorry he was caught. Because otherwise he COULD say it was a good thing he was caught -or better yet, denounce all the things he has said, all along, that encourage racism in the first place.

Except that is his base AND the same white nationalism and racism IS the foundation of the Republican Party beliefs. Unfortunately the Democrats are too much "fake" opposition and allow the same racist system and policies to continue by putting up weak and ineffective opposition to it and promoting shoddy "alternatives" and cheap window dressing instead of fixing the problems of racism, sexism, and classism in the whole system.

A great example of that came on the radio last night when I was heading to a friend's house, all about investigations into the major banks loan practices. The figures they gave were from banks that had given tens of thousands of loans - the biggest bank in LA, I think - but had only given 3 loans to black folks and 11 to Latina folks. Out of like 14,000. And the same situation existed in Philly - a handful of loans to black and Latina folks out of thousands to white people. This is the same redlining, in practice, ever since the Fair Housing act, or whatever it was supposed to be, 50 years ago. These reports are coming out so that "everyone" is talking about them, the radio mentioned that Elizabeth Warren has added it to her campaign, to address this issue, so it will become even more well known. I'm grateful to her for that but the way she said it was "shocking" reminded me how this is news to White People but the fact that Black People couldn't get loans - well, they KNEW that without an investigation or report, it's something every one of them live with on a daily basis, for decades, and before that it was just more open. But it's still as prevalent and as racist and segregationist as ever.

To me Bernie Sanders has been addressing these issues all along and I'm really glad he is running again, and Tulsi, too - I have too much to say about this so I will save it for an upcoming gagablog, probably the one about Good Government I promised, months ago.

But just today, when it is only a few minutes away from Cohen's public testimony, I want to focus on these Evil Powers that have been "hanging over" all our heads that have been especially apparent under Trump - but have always been there.

There was another great meme/post I saw online, someone's tweet or post that while Trump was in Vietnam, and Pence is apparently in Colombia trying to orchestrate the coup in Venezuela, Republicans are afraid that Nancy Pelosi, who is the top leader actually IN America, now, will declare that "No Russian Agents" can come into America - blocking Trump and Pence from returning and taking power.

I don't even know if this is possible, or "just a joke" but the concept is amazing and hilarious - and fits in with my lover's theory that Trump will, ultimately, just try to escape, to run away from everything. I joked about this last night with my friend, that Trump could "drive off" in a white boat with Agents chasing him - or not. But as long as he runs away, if he escapes, and doesn't plague us anymore it would be for the best. If that happens while he is in Vietnam, just because of Cohen's testimony, he would be revealing he is a crook, admitting it - not that he really has any "face" to save. If Nancy Pelosi DID take over the Government, somehow, it would fit Trump's "agenda" better - it would leave his supporters "angry" at someone, which is what they all like, and it would leave the rest of the public thinking that "the government works" - instead of realizing where it is broken and rigged against most people so that we fix it.

As I typed those last two paragraphs the hearing started - I changed from Antenna TV when Dennis the Menace came on to watch it as I write. At the very beginning Republicans tried to postpone the hearing by saying new information came out overnight and they are due, by the rules, 24-hour advance of any new information, but Democrats overruled them and chose to lay aside the rule and continue the hearing. As they explained this one of the pundit / announcers from NBC - "would ya'll close that door please?" the congressman just said - the announcer said "if there is an impeachment of Trump this could be Day One" - but I wonder if enough WILL come out that Trump just doesn't want to come back, even if he has a Victory of a Peace with North Korea.

In all honesty, as Elijah Cummings says "it should be troubling to all Americans" in his opening statements, Trump deserves little credit for Peace in Korea - both Korean Leaders Moon and Kim were working all year, in 2018, to make peace. Both had agreed they wanted to officially end the war by the end of 2018 - but apparently its not up to them as much as it is to America and China - so if they had their way, there would already be Peace but it needs Trump's approval, and China's, and Trump is mostly making things more difficult. "Our lives begin to end when we become silent about things that truly matter" Cummings just quoted Martin Luther King - now the ranking Republican has his opening statement time and is using ALL of it to try and protect Trump and discredit Cohen - as if "because he lied, to protect Trump - which is what they are doing - he can't possibly tell the truth, now." When  - if everyone admits he was a liar, for Trump, he CAN have a chance to clear his name "fraudster, cheat, convicted felon" the Republican just called him, trying to say the whole thing is "staged" by the Clintons. And whoever Lanie Davis is. But he is saying Cohen "Will" lie, to get Trump in trouble, instead of recognizing what he himself said - that he lied - but his lies were to protect Trump. He's whining about rules, now, after yeilding the floor and realizing he forgot whatever point of order he wanted and he is all butthurt about that, too.

Cohen is swearing in. If he tells the truth and it is different than his lies before and it gets Trump in trouble, and helps clear his name, I think we will all know it is True - he just asked for protection for his family from Presidential Threats so it sure sounds like he will come clean - I will watch instead of "reporting" as I go, it will probably be too much information - he just said he regrets helping run a campaign of hate and intolerance - and how ashamed he is.

It's like a template for what ALL Trump supporters and enablers and defenders will be saying - and he "knows what Trump is, a racist, a con man, and a cheat." This is too good, the moment when he comes clean about everything. I want to introduce the notes I took, just now, as Cohen is saying what eveidence he will present and say he wants to start a path of redemption. "The Last time I came before Congress I came to Protect Trump" but this time he is coming to tell the truth about Trump.

He's busting Trump for lying about the real estate deals with Moscow and saying he did so because he never expected to win the election.

I want to introduce the notes I took on the Father's Knows Best episodes I watched while waiting for this to start, which I thought magically significant. But Cohen is TOO GOOD right now, I feel he WILL be redeemed by this, and I appreciate it - it's a condemnation of "naked ambition" itself, now, as he talks about how working with Trump "monopolized" his life then was brought into Trump's personal life and dealings. "he is capable of kindness, but he is not kind." "trump would often say 'this campiagn is going to be the greatest infomercial in history."

Here are the notes I took for Father Knows Best - the first was an episode where Cathy writes down what her father says about the mayor, signs his name to the letter and sends it to him.

The mayor is asking him about the letter in the final scene:

Since when is "cook" spelled with 2 K's (reference to the KKK in the White House, magically - as I type this in, live, to the notes I took earlier, Cohen is laying out how racist Trump is - "he once asked me if any country run by a black person is a shithole, said only black people can live in poverty and would never vote for him because they are too stupid"

Reading the letter the mayor says:- "Im a krook, I should be standing with a monkey and a hand organ, I'm imcmperant - I'm also a grafter - So Im a grafter, incompetent - the reason we have incompetent government is that the public doesn't hold them accounable"

Cohen is now saying he is sharing Trump's documents, how he inflates and deflates his assets, and proves he is a con man, or Krook.

Cathy: "I'm sorry I said those things, you can't help it if you're a crook." Cathy is so sweet.

Cohen is bemoaning how, as Trump did these things, "yet I continued to work for him" and just said one of his greatest regrets was lying to First Lady Melania who he respects and says is actually good and kind.

In the second episode Bud tells the truth at his father's urging but has some bad consequences from it and decides Truth is NOT the best option, becomes cynical, at one point telling his sister "Take what you can get and it doesn't matter how you get it."

His dad says to his mom, after that: "I was afraid he'd react this way - we've got work to do." This is what we have to do, work, to overcome the negative effects of a racist and corrupt leader and the belief systems he stands for.

Cohen just pointed out, looking at the camera, that Trump lied to avoid the draft to Vietnam, but is currently in Vietnam. If I were him I wouldn't want to come back.

After I finish these notes, on what Cohen says, I will finish the notes on the fairies in Shirley, and the spell to end the threat of War -with Korea and everywhere - which could very esily coincide with the end of Trump's administration - AND ALL the evil it represents.

As Cohen points out Trump's mobster ways of threatening his family he looks at the Republican side of the chamber and says that on "both sides of the aisle" they should agree that intimidating witnesses is wrong. He concluded by saying that he wants to set an example, a good example, for his kids and to redeem himself in the eyes of History and the American people.

I don't know what the DEmocrats are going to ask him, other than to get more details, that can be any more damning than his opening statements - they are just getting it all laid out, now. But I can't even imagine what will happen when the Republicans get a chance to ask him - will they just dig their own graves deeper?

The Republican, Jordan, is taking his turn, now, saying his crimes are "not to protect Trump" and pointing them all out, all the other things he did, that weren't associated with Trump. It's all really pathetic that he is trying to "change the narrative" and everything he is saying reflects on HIM< too, for continuing to protect Trump - even now Cohen is saying he tried to preserve attorney client privilege, which the Republicans are claiming is being violated by the whole hearing. He just made himself seem crazy, as if Cohen was just bitter that he didn't get a WHite House Job - it sounds EXACTLY like he is in some Bully Club and trying to shame someone for leaving it, turning against it.

DWS just asked about Russia and this Republican Green asshole isn't asking anything, just bitching about what he can ask and saying he will only lie - "will do whatever he wants to accomplish his own personal goals" - which is what they do, for the Trump and KKK's goals. Because he isn't getting anything out of this other than redemption, he is still going to prison. He and his family SHOULD have protection even if he was going to continue protecting Trump.

It's going so badly for Trump it makes me wonder if he will have more pressure to declare as much peace as presidentially possible to try and make a news story to detract from this - but would they even cut away? It's too compelling, what Cohen is saying - but of course they would break in to report it, or run something at the bottom of the screen - it does make me think he will try to do as much Good as possible to mitigate how this is going for him - and since Cohen already laid out a lot against Trump the Democrats ARE getting more details, exposing more of the evil and nasty ways - but I still think the most important stuff, from here on out, will be how the Republicans try to "dismiss" this when they are guilty of the same, of worse for continuing to try and protect Trump even in the face of the truth.

This next Republican is doing the SAME thing the previous one did, now that it is Colier, he is also asking about Cohen's personal crimes and asking if he blames them on the President, which he doesn't but it's also not what anyone is interested in. But it's all they have - you have other crimes that don't compare with what you did for Trump AT ALL but if we focus on them we can make you feel bad and look bad - it's the same treatment for ANYONE who betrays the trust of an Evil Klan.

Holmes Norton is asking him about Trump's response to the release of the Access Hollywood video.

I feel like this will go on wth no breaks for some time, I should pick a smoke break - but also get my notes on Shirley fairies, too, and finish that project to complete the Peace Spell.

pg 6480 was my last note, so the next one is

Wait, this is good, the Republican Meadows saying he has talked with Trump 300 times but never heard him say something racist and challenging Cohen that some lady he helped get into the administration has also said that Trump is NOT racist - and she grew up in Alabama and says she would not work for a racist, how could he explain that? His response, the same way he could as the son of a Holocause survivor, shut the Congressman up on that line. And so he just tried getting mad and being far less charming than Cohen, claiming the record shows he is "not nice" which some unkindly looking lady behind the Congressasshole smiled at like it was such a great joke.

Now Clay is saying America is tried of being lied to, including the Congressional Republicans STILL trying to protect Trump and con America.

And Now "weve brought this committee to its knees in terms of credibility" Hice said. but the Democrat is calling the Republicans out for "running away from the truth" now asking about Moscow.

Now Jordan is complaining that Rosenstien wanted to remove Trump using the 25th Amendment  - which just sounds like a better and better idea as this goes on. "Ive never known a lawyer who will wait 3 years to get paid" - "I guess he thinks it's important."

Now Rep. Gosar is trying another Republican tactic, saying he basically betrayed their Klan. "This is MY time, when I ask a question I will ask for an answer" - You can tell Gosar's dad beat him. "America is watching, I get texts right and left saying how can we listen to him" and is suggesting it is for his Twitter following??? They are just terribly ridiculuous claiming that THEY believe in Truth and ven just sad "Liar liar pants on fire" like ANYONE can ever take him seriously - terrible brats.

This is interesting -what was the breaking point to start telling the Truth? "Helsinki, Charlottesville, the daily damage..."  - and Cohen REALLY go them by saying they Republicans are saying the the same things, doing the same things he used to do.

Cohen had already listed numerous Trump acts that SHOULD have caused him to quit, which implies he did have a conscience about those occasions but it wasn't enough to overcome his ambition or enamourment with Trump. Of course he was still working for and protecting Trump AFTER Helsinki and Charlottesville, too - but mentioning these suggest that they were turning points that STARTED to awaken his conscience to empower him to want to tell the truth. Helsinki refers to the meeting with Putin, when Trump said he believed Putin, not American intelligence agencies, showing he is in league with Putin - Cohen started to doubt when it led to Treason.

"The American people don't care about my taxes...not one question has been asked about Mr. Trump" - by the REpublicans, Cohen just said. "All of them depend on someone who has turned" and that is undone if you believe someone who has lied "can never tell the truth" - which is also an important fundamental belief, can people change or not? Can people be redeemed? It's "ironic" - part of the irony of their whole existence - that these False Christians, the Republicans, are the ones who claim to believe in Jesus and redemption but their actual belief, and actions, are based upon denying redemption, denying change itself. That point about "liars" never being able to tell the truth was made by a Democratic congressman, I missed his name.

Now Republican Massie is trying the same thing but kind of asking about Trump, asking if he was a good lawyer to him, and even throw in something like "if you have a conscience, which apparently YOU DO NOT" - I was thinking as he started talking how All the Republicans are basically like a Klan rally turning on their defecting member and the Democrats act like a Congress.

Another Republican, Higgins, just made a fool of himself asking about boxes, as if Cohen had held onto them, even after Cohen told them the authorities returned them to him to search, he keeps asking just to show he is a complete idiot.

It REALLY does show these Republicans as a Bully Klan Kulture, shows what is wrong with ALL such structures even if they aren't the very worst, the White Supremacist kind - like they are

Republican Cloud is repeating an earlier theme that since he wasn't in the campaign, or White House administration, Cohen was upset, like he was left out of Trump's inner circle, and is somehow seeking revenge.

A pundit, during the break, said that the Court/Congress doesn't pick the witness, the Criminal, Trump, picked the witness. Now, DEmocrat Raskin pointed out that the Republicans are not upset that Cohen is lying to Congress, they are upset that he STOPPED lying.

AOC is onscreen, while DEmocrat Rouda asks about connections with Seder, the Russian Mob, and the Kremlin - Seder having an office on the 26th Floor, Trump's Floor, rent-free. Now Cohen confirmed Trump lied under oath about their relationship, keeps saying "convicted Russian Mobster" to counteract how much the Republicans are trying to smear Cohen for being a crook. "Sater" is how his name is spelled, NBC was helpful enough to share a picture of.

Seeing AOC I must say how beautiful she is, I maybe could have left it out but now, in the corner over the shoulder of the Republican Amash there is a girl who looks like a vampire. He's asking why he hired him, how he knew trump's signalled wishes - and he said he understood his code - then he asked some strange questions - what Truth does he know that Trump fears most and he couldn't really answer. Now he's asking what principles he lived by and if they have changed and Cohen responded that it was a question that acknowledged redemption.

Now Republican Gibbs is "just an old country folk, not a lawyer" and JUST told him a "real man would serve his time and not make allegations" - just classic mobster, Klan talk. And he was about to cry when he said he was talking bad about Trump while Trump is overseas trying to make Peace, mad at the committee for even holding it today - reminding us they tried to postpone it at the start. Now they are complaining about his "lucrative deal" and 3 or 4 of them have asked him to say under oath that he won't profit from a book deal or movie or TV job - and when Oliver North took over the NRA and other criminals get influential positions, why do they care? Cohen just schooled him that he has known Trump for 10 years while he hasn't.

Now Jordan is sarcastically questioning him that Cohen didn't start his campaign.... and some minutes later Republican Miller is possibly sinking to the worst depths of crying over Trump, acting like it is a waste of time, asking no questions, until now - asking about a book deal, saying "wow" at the money, acting like HE is the one lying, merely because he questioned Trump - NOW she is claiming she would rather have hearings on separated families, when she is protecting Trump who separated the families! She is just the new stereotype for hypocrisy, I can't say she is worse than the others just her performance was absolutely awful and should make EVERY Republican embarassed to be associated with them.

Now Kelley (D) is asking about Trumps payements to Stormy Daniels and ended by pointing out he is going to prison for what Trump did - but after that Republican Armstrong is about to die or cry or lose his shit over "attorney client privilege" and how sacred it is, confirming that all they care about is protecting Trump any way they can.

The last Democrat, I missed her name, mentioned how Trump threatened his family and these mob tactics are illegal - but now the Republican, Chip Roy, asked a bunch of summary "Yes or no" questions then went off on a tirade about how it's "not important" compared to other things they could, took a few seconds to remember to say "I yield back" he got himself so worked up.

Now Democrat Plaskett has mentioned possible charges against other Congressmen for trying to intimidate or threaten Cohen out of testifying. Republicans just continued to be the worst and now it's going to a break, for an hour, so I will smoke a bowl and find my DS copy of Shirley.

Oh and twice they mentioned Prague and whether or not he has been there, like some secret side story line or mystery that no one actually knows about.

During the break they are mentioning a Tweet from Don Jr. that "only democrats could hate someone so much that they would ... (disrespect? Sabatoge?) ... nuclear peace talks"  - but of course they were GOING to have this hearing on my birthday, Feb 7th, but it got postponed due to Trump and his supporters threatening and intimidating Cohen.

After the 2 hour break Ro Khanna (D) is questioning him about the payments - I haven't been able to find my DS with the books in it though I looked for most of the break so I will continue with impressions of this hearing while it is on. Now Khanna is laying it out that there are "garden variety" financial conspiracy crimes committed by Trump, Don Jr, and another one - and Cohen is the only one facing charges for it - so far. This seems to me to be a signal to Don Jr to get out while he can and for Trump to stay in Vietnam or flee from there, but not come back.

Now another Democrat gets a turn, Gomez, even though up until now it always alternated between D and R - he is asking about taxes and whether or not he is being blackmailed by Putin or a foreign government.

Now Meadows is reading tweets from people who claim Cohen really wanted an apointment in the Trump administration, as if that is important.

AOC asked about insurance fraud and got some names to investigate further. She did a great job and stayed on target, now the next Democrat, Pressley, is using her first minute to justify the entire proceedings, striking back against the Republicans dismissing it - she did a great job highlighting the racism at the end, too.

Now Tlaib is doing a great job summing it all up, saying how out of touch the Republicans are for trying to dismiss it, saying Trump only cares about himself and is hurting the country to enrich himself and his brand - when Meadows threw a hissy fit and tried to have her comment that mentioned using a black woman as a prop, which he did, is racist be stricken from te record - he mentioned that "not many people know his niece and nephew are 'of color'" - which makes you wonder, WHY don't many people know that, he is a public figure! Why the "family secret" - because of racism?

They "cleared it up" so he recalled the request to have it stricken from the record - but not before calling HER a racist, which seemed to be his complaint in the first place, that a "personal attack" broke some sort of rule, but he was fine being the white man calling the "person of color" a racist a few seconds later, as if THAT doesn't break the same rule: Republican hypocrisy at EVERY turn.... and the proceedings seemed to end on those "fireworks" and a whimper.

All the TV stations, NBC, FOX, and ABC, just quit any broadcast after the break so we saw the end on CBS - but even CBS cut off the end and we watched it online. Cohen's closing remarks were amazing, poignent, and even caled out Trump, directly. Then that Jordan asshole tried to make it all about "lying" and pointing out various minor things they try to interpret he said as "wrong" - just the weakest attempt ever.

Thanks to CNN online stream we got to see these closing remarks and so far, half of Elijah Cummings final remarks, reloading to see the second half, now.

I got to see the second half, still missed what Cummings "tells his kids" - but it was good, I'm glad I watched it all. I wrote all of the above yesterday and was going to finish this when I found my DS book and could finally conclude the Shirley Fairies spell - but I never found the DS "100 Classic Books" game so I couldn't do it - the notes are all based on page numbers for that format, to begin with. So maybe I will get another copy, or write it when I finally find it.

So last night, before I had any further news, before I went to sleep, I thought I would just finish this off with my speculation that Trump would go for whatever Peace Deal he could get with Kim Jong Un and try to have some sort of Victory in the face of Cohen's testimony revealing some more of how terrible he is. But the other option we talked about was that he could come back with no deal and blame the hearings for "distracting" him or whatever - just whine about it and pretend that it is keeping him from doing good things, that it is NOT the result of his actions and natural consequences catching up with it.

But we also speculated that he would be using the trip to Vietnam to escape, just to run away from America and all the things he has done. Now, waking up this afternoon, I see that Trump is going with Plan B -no peace deal, no "victory" but blame the Democrats and Cohen, I'm afraid that means he came back. But before I know for sure I wanted to publish this, as I almost did last night, saying that if he HASN'T come back to America yet I think Trump could STILL be "getting a head start" and running away from all of this - I hope so, good riddance.

The only other news story I saw was about Netenyahu being arrested  - I hope, at least subject to charges - for corruption. I made a comment how all fascists and Nazis should be arrested, because we have a lot of them running our country, too. Someone tried to "argue" with me - that's all I will say about that, for now - but it was good news to wake up to, makes me look forward to the arrests or other deserved ends for Trump and his cronies and enablers - including every one of the Republican congresspeople who "interviewed" Cohen yesterday -

In EVERY way it was EXACTLY like if the Klan or Mob was trying to discredit and shame a defector, every time the Rape-ublikkkans took a turn. They just revealed themselves with their words and faces. They didn't need the hoods, you could see them.

As I typed these final paragraphs there was a Benson on where he is his own lawyer, defending himself against a robber who is suing him because Benson caught him after the robbery and broke his arm. There were, of course, many magical echoes, in this 80's TV rerun that happened to be on, but one of the best ones was the robber's lawyer - who had that classic "I'm just a country lawyer" Louisiana accent that numerous Republicans used, yesterday. It's just like Preachers have certain verbal "traditions" all Klan Lawyers talk like Foghorn Leghorn, apparently.

It's just the lawyer of the Krookk, spelled with THREE Ks, not just two, Cathy, - the defenders of the Krookk and the Krookked system will ALWAYS resort to the same lies of Shame, Diversion, Distrust, and Discredit - one of their major tactics has literally been, for years, to get dumbasses to accept a flat earth and deny climate change - it's the only way to keep people stupid enough to remain divided and fearful of each other, to prop up their racist system.

I came across a facebook post I made a year or two ago: "Violent revolutions are SO 19th (20th??) century - they don't work. Bad Governments just fall, stop propping them up!" - something like that.

You could see in every comment by every republican, yesterday, that they are all propping up an evil system. The Democrats certainly presented an actual agenda, to get to the Truth of Trump's crimes, but of course anything looks aggressive compared to a dead fish lying there not even rotting fast enough.

But if they just STOP propping it up, come clean, stop lying, stop defending racism - like Cohen just did - we can change the system without any "extreme measures" - just get the bad folks to wake up and feel the natural shame of their evils.

Even Trump himself could just Turn, seek redemption - it doesn't seem likely but at least Cohen set HIM a good example.

Before I close this i remembered one more point I made talking with my lover last night about how they "questioned" Cohen yeserday:

If they thought he was lying about Trump, now, if they believe he is lying, wouldn't they try to ask him questions to trip him up - ask him questions about those "lies" to trip him up - but they NEVER asked him about that - why? Because they KNOW it is all true.

If they thought he was lying, they would have asked him about it. They KNOW what he is saying is true. And yet they defend him.

The republican with the Most Evil look was a tight contest - but it was probably Jordan. He just looked so evil. And today, on facebook, he has drawn enough attention to himself that the story is going around how much he knew, when, about kids being sexually abused, I believe on a wrestling team. So he will have charges coming against him, too, soon, and we can see how much he squirms and whines on his OWN behalf compared to for his KKK master.

The rest of them - the sherriff who arrests hundreds of people but can't realize that the authorities RETURNED the boxes to Cohen, the guy whose "people of color" relatives are so secret he has to wear his glasses on the end of his nose - I was literally seeing images of all of these evil people before I went to sleep last night and thought they would haunt my dreams, give me nightmares - but the nightmare is here, when we wake up.

Sexism "then" and "Now": Gagablog 167

Some media magic last week prompted me to write this, another interlude, this one short, before getting back on "the right track" with this gagablog. It was two things I saw and heard, maybe a day apart, that prompted me to write.

The first was an episode of "Leave it to Beaver" that was probably from 1959 or so. In it Wally is going to a dance but his only way to get there is if his date, a girl, drives. This is totally unacceptable to him, being driven by a girl, and he fears it will make him a social outcast. Lumpy does try to get the other guys to harass him for it and everyone seems to understand why he is upset about it and the way they all talk about it - except his date - shows that this is "the way everyone thinks" that it is embarrassing for a boy to be driven by a girl.

But of course watching this 60 years later it seems so archaic, such an ancient and outdated way to think, that a woman can't drive a man. I speculated there are still people, today, who think this way -maybe they request male drivers on their Uber apps, or are shocked if a female driver arrives and orders another Uber. But it seems unlikely, as if only one in a hundred people would do that, today.

But in the 50's, apparently, by the way everyone acted, it was completely horrifying to a boy to be driven by a girl. Even in the episode, filmed in the late 50's or early 60's, the girl Wally is dating makes the comment that "Wally won't mind - he's not like the other boys, he's different."

This "difference" wasn't being "mature," in those days - Ward, Wally's dad, certainly understood his concern and could relate, had not aged out of this concern, in that culture. She was saying Wally was different because he was not influenced by those concerns, that he was more advanced than his "era" not just more advanced for his "age."

She was wrong - he was embarrassed and had to be told to keep the date when he was throwing a fit an refusing to go  - but he did learn, through the course of the episode and standing up to Lumpy, and ends up breaking spades on "letting girls drive" as a group of other kids end up riding with her, too.

She thinks Wally is "woke" and even though he isn't he starts to wake up, and wakes up other kids in the community with his example. The best thing about the episode, to me, was that she could assume he was better than the other boys, that he was Good where the others were faulty. This went against the current, that "everyone" thought boys should always drive girls, not the other way around. Even in the 50's there were some people who recognized injustice and KNEW, intuitively (in their hearts, where Justice originates) that girls and boys should be equal, and will be equal.

I find it easiest to say that this Good Future, that will be, is just what we all know, deep down, will happen. It makes it easier to think that way, to believe that way, but takes forever to talk that way because we aren't trained to use language like that, backwards from the future. That's why it's fun to find these moments in time where "past" and "future" meet, which happens all the time but we can notice it when the past shows us how far we've come - while we remember how far we still have to go.

I was feeling smug about the "progress" we have made, in 60 years, that it seems silly, now, to worry about a girl driving a boy in a car. But within 24 hours I heard another story, on the radio, that made me realize how far we have to go, how we really haven't changed at all, deep down, compared to the changes we need to make, to reach the Future.

There was an interview on the BBC radio with Glen Close who starred in the movie "Wife" that came on the next night. They mentioned that it had taken 14 years to make the movie because they could not find an actor to be a supporting actor to Glen Close, the lead. The interviewer seemed astounded by this, couldn't believe it, and mentioned how famous Glen Close was and how many awards she had won. When asked why they turned down the role Glen said basically "ego." She also mentioned how the business is still designed and people's perceptions are such that it's not good "business" to be the supporting male actor to the female lead and noted that the actor who did agree to do it did a fantastic job but was overlooked in awards even though she and the movie are nominated - it's apparently a great movie. And she says he is a great actor but it's true I did not recognize his name, Gregory Price maybe - but I can think of dozens or hundreds of other "lead male actors" who are more famous - and must have turned down the role.

Of course they didn't ask EVERY male actor but if you imagine that they DID ask numerous "Big Name" actors - and ALL of them turned it down, over the course of 14 years you know they weren't "busy" the whole time. The reason was the sexism of the business, of the culture, that makes it "not a good idea, professionally" - and the egotism and built-in sexism of each individual actor.

They didn't name names but if you imagine who they would have approached to be in a movie with Glen Close you can imagine all sorts of famous actors and know that at least some of those, and others, turned this movie down. For 14 years.

Why?

It's the exact same principle as 60 years ago, on "Leave it to Beaver" and accepted in "Golden Age America" - as so many morons see it.

It's the same things as a boy not wanting a girl to drive him in a car. In 1959.

The Boy Stars didn't want a Girl Star driving them in a movie. Until 2019.

And even now Price is the first Star to do it, like Wally was the first one to break this taboo in his school.

So in 60 years we went from Boys not letting Girls drive them in a car to Boys riding in Girl-driven cars - but not letting Girls be the lead in a movie.

Wally is a Good Kid, well-intentioned, fairly nice and raised to be respectful and kind - but still suffers from the sexism of the times he lives in though that Goodness helps him overcome it. His dad is even "better", as a person, but is still a product of such a sexist age he never challenges Wally on the sexism of his situation but accepts that this is how the kids are about "these things."

But Wally, as a character, DOES come to see things differently, to awaken and help others out of these bad ideas.

The movie stars of Hollywood and the world aren't "just characters" - they are famous, rich, powerful, influential people, some of the most influential people on the planet, potentially. And they even enjoy a reputation for being "liberal." And yet, today, it still took 14 years to get one of them to take a supporting role - to Glen Close! You would think, if they weren't just being egotistical, they would know that being in a movie with her as the star would give them a lot of attention and consideration for awards - unless they know that "it doesn't work that way" - due to sexism. Still, keeping things this way instead of being the one to change it is ALWAYS wrong.

It's wrong for Wally, who is "just a character" - because he is supposed to be good and become better in the show. He's a Good Guy, basically. But all of these boy actors are wrong to refuse to support a girl lead in a movie, too. And they are "more wrong" because Wally is just "some schmuck" by comparison, a likeable enough kid in school but not particularly powerful or influential. But all these stars KNOW they are the ones holding back gender equality and just live being wrong and thereby increasing and prolonging wrongness.

The stars aren't just holding back the movie by refusing to make it - for fourteen years. They are holding back the moment of "breaking through", of being the first male star to play a supporting role to a female lead actor. I like the word actress, by the way, for the same reason I call myself a witch even though I'm a two-spirit boy.

And actors, movie makers, are some of the strongest influencers and creators of culture.

That episode of "Leave it to Beaver" was designed, at that time, to change these sexist attitudes, to modify them slightly at least, and was intended to change behavior of the sexist population who accepted that "no boy would be seen being driven by a girl" - at least for driving. By comparison I recently saw an episode of the Partridge Family that addressed "Women's Liberation" "head-on": it must have been a decade or two later and brought up some ideas but was really awfully "neutral" in a lot of ways and contained "warnings" about taking it too far.

The Movie Stars know that they create, craft, and steer culture and the ideas we live by - we still refer to levels of Gay Acceptance in society as "pre-Ellen" and Post-Ellen, for example. And they know that if they are the first one to star supporting a female lead it will make it easier for future actors to make that decision, too - the only way to end the sexism in the system is to start working against it.

And I'm not writing this to condemn modern movie stars as "nowhere near as liberal as they need to be" - it's about recognizing how deep these ideas and attitudes go, how persistent they are.

I was feeling smug, for humanity, that in 60 years we can look back and see refusing to ride with a girl as being silly. But a quarter of that time, 14 years, we still didn't have an actual movie star in the real, Modern and "more progressive, tolerant" world who would be in "Wife" with Glen Close. (As I type that Loni Anderson is doing a commercial for WKRP In Cincinnati and it reminds me she is the Only reason most people probably ever saw that show.)

But my smugness was gone a day later when I realized the Boys still won't let the girls drive the movies. And I knew that, anecdotally, from the way people have pointed it out more in recent years and from my own lifelong sensitivity to sexism. But I was still shocked to hear that it took 14 years to make "Wife" because they couldn't find an actor to do it.

It's just that we haven't actually changed, deep down, haven't changed enough - we still have far to go.

We can see the perfect examples of everything wrong with us in Trump: sexism, racism, and unscrupulous greed and abuse of "power" required to maintain such an unhealthy system. But we have to root it out of the deepest parts of Ourselves, not just the highest offices of government - we need to become our best selves to do EVERYTHING that needs to be done to save the world, we can't rest on thinking "I'm Woke, I let a girl drive me and only threw a fit for a day, first."

As I typed this, wanting to keep it short, there was an episode of "Wagon Train" on and it caught my eye because June Lockheart was the "mother" in it and I'd spent many hours as a kid with her as my TV mom watching Lassie. The episode was intense, she had been raped by an Indian while her husband was on an Indian-scaring raid with his racist friend who believed Indians had killed his dad and driven his mom to silence so he was stoking up anti-Indian sentiment all the time. She was pregnant and her husband insisted she give the baby to the Indians to raise because the society would be against the kid. He made some poignant comments about how it was okay to be alone when they were on the frontier, when "no one else lived there" but it was terrible to be alone with other people around, people who wouldn't talk to him. He tried to keep his friend, or anyone, from knowing about the baby but the hero - from the Wagon Train - got the midwife, his friend's wife, against the man's wishes. And when they find out the baby is Indian the racism takes over and they shun them. The Hero kicks the man out of his house for abusing his wife, threatening to take the child when she will fight him to keep it, and she thanks him. Then he goes to get the friend, they have a fist fight and the blood shocks the racist man's mom out of her stupor. She reveals that the Indians did not kill his dad and destroy their farm, it was a White man. Then the racist checks himself and apologizes, to the Hero, then to his friend and explains to him "You know how I had to hate all Indians because one Indian killed my pa? Well now I have to figure out how to hate all white people because that's who it really was, a white man."

Of course he is being "sarcastic" in a way but it points out the insanity of racism, how it just doesn't make any sense. The husband makes it make all kinds of sense why they can't keep the baby - recognizing the racism of the town and even says, if they take the Wagon Train, they still have to give the baby away because "people are the same all over" and no one will accept them.

But when his friend realizes how wrong he was he has a change of heart and it changes the whole town, around him. This is how it has to work, the wrongest of us needs to wake up to the wrongness - but we all have that "wrongest" part in us that needs to wake up, the "town" in the show, or America in the news, is an analogy for what is wrong within each of us.

I wrote months, years ago, that Trump was a Troll but as such, a useful tool for overcoming our own ego - because Ego is the problem, blocking our access to the Heart.

The end of the Wagon Train episode has the racist family visiting the new baby and when their little girl says "That's an Indian baby! I guess I shouldn't have touched it" and they all seem embarrassed - though the parents were saying far worse an hour before  - June Lockheart sums it up by saying something like "They learn to hate and love what we teach them and the younger they are the faster they learn." No one says anything beyond that to correct the little girl, June just looks at her baby - almost to say "well that 7-year-old has already learned racism pretty well, better focus on this new one."

Of course, the Parents, the Husband - all of them are New to not being racist after decades of practicing it and teaching it - but they were not beyond redemption and neither is their little girl. Still, they have to be redeemed, to transform - and we all need that, at any age.

That final scene, like the whole episode, was emblematic of looking fearfully at the past versus looking hopefully for the future, but also knowing that we are all on the frontier of it. We all have a role to play to make the future happen - some of us need to change who we are, overcome evil ideas, and others need to live out the goodness we know about ourselves and become even better.

The best thing about that show, to me, was emphasizing how this baby was innocent  - the definition of innocence, a baby - but was subject to the evils of people and their wrong ideas of Justice. Racism makes people say some people are "guilty" or its worth it to punish innocent people if some people who are "like them" are deemed "guilty" - but everyone is innocent like that baby, just born to be who they are and introducing the judgment of "guilty" on people you don't even know is the source of the Evil, the cause of the evil, that gets perpetuated throughout society.

We just need to Cut It Out, all of it, and we can grow, evolve, into paradise, the best dreams for humanity. We need to cut it out of our government and that seems tough since it is so entrenched.

But we CAN do it, magically, if we believe that we have SOME to cut out of ourselves, too, and seek to find that and remove it - that quest will have magical effects and teach us magical lessons about how to do it in the "Outside" world, too.

Dreams are from our hearts and for Everyone, they bring us all together - give them a chance, give up on the things that hold us all back, let's learn to love and trust each other!

Thanks for reading, sharing, and doing something! Paws up, Gaga, I love you forever!

PS: My spellcheck doesn't recognize "Uber" but also doesn't recognize "Wagon". Also it was racist but when Red Hawk's wife came to take the baby she said "I take care" to reassure the mother and when she gave him back she said "You be Very Happy Now"