Donny Trump - Big Popular Vote LOSER!

Donnie asked us not to use any unflattering photos (heh, heh)

You can go and check the facts on the 2 million plus popular vote loss. He should have hosted "The Biggest Loser" rather than "The Apprentice."  Not that it matters much in this evil time when truth is a short commodity as marketing lies are bought and sold to make the rich and powerful more so.

There was this great analysis of the recent election and the PEOTUS that when I find again I will link in here. It's not the only one, however, as many have noted the authoritarian strain of Trumpism. But the essence was that America is divided into two "families." One is the authoritarian that appeals to bullies, fundamentalists, the Donny, and a lot of blue-collar males (some women, too). The other is the collaborative that believes that its members are all in this together and can work out their differences through the power of their diversity. Guess which family or America I want to belong to?

West Coast Boy

James Island, La Push, Washington. (c) Larry K. Vaughn (my dad)

A friend at work complimented me yesterday saying that I was definitely of a West-Coast mentality. That matches well with a serendipitous discovery in family history materials recently obtained from my mom. In a sporadic journal she kept in the 1970s, she copied a poem I had written after my family moved from the Seattle suburbs to Wyoming. That was quite a culture shock for this West-Coast Boy in my junior year of high school.

I have no independent memory of this poem but I do remember I was writing some poetry in those days. (West-Coast Mentality). I share it here:

"Not Gonna Waste My Shot!"

I signed this letter along with a few thousand others. We do what we can.

Letter from Attorneys Opposing Stephen Bannon's Appointment as White House Chief Strategist to the President

[The below letter will be circulated to current and incoming members of Congress. With appropriate modifications in phrasing it will also be sent to the President-elect.]
Dear [Leaders]:

South Wales

On my key chain - To remember . . . .

Checking through the interwebs and iTunes to add to my collection of Welsh Music, I came across this modern classic:

Pit shaft wheels turn for the last time
In the Rhondda tonight
The Davey lamps that shone so brightly
There's no more need for their light
As the last piece of coal is cut
From the belly of the black seamed hole
A man walks home alone
Past a church full of mourning souls
Throughout his lifetime he has fought
He has given his life
In tears the congregation sing
Cwm Rhondda, Oh my Lord!

Great is the rape of the fair country
To Botany Bay for my Great Grandfathers
Deportation sailed

Great so great is the fair country
GREAT IS THE NEED FOR A NEW SOUTH WALES!

Hey, Dad! -- A Message to Republicans (Guest Post)

One of my children just sent me the following. I post it here as a guest post for your consideration:

Hey Dad,

This was the best way I felt I could express my feelings. It isn't anything super eloquent or exciting, but it is what I believe and how I feel. If you want to publish this on your blog I give you full permission. I don't plan on publicly sharing this, unless it is through your blog, but I am probably going to send it to a few others that I know and who I feel would appreciate what I have to say.

Love you,

I’ve been pretty quiet about what’s happened since the election. I don’t feel that I’ve had my thoughts together enough to express what I’m feeling about everything. But now I think I’m ready.

To my Republican friends and family-Please stop defending Trump, and trying to make us support and rally around him. He has not once demonstrated that he is a man that can be trusted. He has shown that he is a racist and a bigot. First of all, how many of you even once did the same for Obama? I’m pretty sure that number is close to 0. In fact, I sat back for 8 years and let your words roll off my back when you would make fun of Obama or criticize him or make rude comments about him and his amazing family. It was your right to do so. But now that there are people who suddenly criticize YOUR President-Elect, you suddenly feel the need to stranglehold us and accuse us of being hypocrites. If anything, we’re being JUST LIKE YOU, not hypocrites. I saw a post that I liked, that it’s not about us not accepting the results of the election, but rather it is about us making our voices heard that we are frustrated with everything that is happening in our communities since Trump was elected. And to those of you who keep saying ‘These things were happening before this’, yes, you are correct, but you’re also more wrong than you realize. These things have been increasingly more prevalent ever since Trump became the nominee. When he won the presidency, the amount of people being harassed and abused has skyrocketed. And if you can’t see that, check out Buzzfeed’s ongoing list of reports since the election. It isn’t even all the things that happened, and it is an enormous list already, and keeps growing.

The Workers' Struggle: A Book Report

Roman Amphitheater, Caerleon, Newport, Wales. 16 July 2016

Distancing myself from current politics into the old country and times past, I am rereading the historical novels of Alexander Cordel now that I have been to more of the places and learned a little better how they connect to my family.

Rape of the Fair Country carries the reader through a passionate narrative of the sorrows and joys of the working and non-working Welsh to the Chartist March on Newport. A foreshadowing is presented when the families of Garndyrus (where my Third-Great-Grandfather worked) had a holiday in Newport for a singing competition. It's a fictional account. The later march on Newport was not.

I don't know if my family was involved in the Chartist Rising of 1839. Even if they were, and apparently survived, they would not have mentioned it to anyone as it carried a penalty of death or transportation to Australia or Van Diemen's land [that's for my Tasmanian friends].

Post Election Post

Today has been a passage through the stages of grief, although the anger stage seems to keep circling back.

I went to work and did what I had too. Well, after my boss brought me out of my closed door and tried to cheer me up, finally getting there when he asked, "What do I have to do? Wrestle you to the floor and tickle you?"

He gave some optimistic perspective that this was a populist election, not a new, conservative President. He is right that this is a problem of the elites and populism can help us reform that. Of course, no one, probably not even the donald knows what he is going to do. Talk of Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior is enough to gag me without a spoon.

The Washington cesspool does need some cleaning up. But I see it more as the fancy-pants lawyers and lobbyists of K Street than the wonderful family  in the White House, completely free of scandal. And yes, the Democratic Party blew it big time. At least we won't have Bill Clinton to kick around anymore. Yes, the Democrats need some serious reforming. The Republicans, a lost cause. Let them attempt to govern in their bubble of ignorance, prejudice, and fear for a couple years and see how it goes.

Live-Blogging Election Returns 2016

Why the heck not? We'll see how long I can keep this up. I'm home from work, unHatched. I started off on twitter but let's switch it back here.

Grant L. Vaughn ‏@Whistlestar_PMM  4m

1. 4 minutes ago

   Anderson Cooper needs to stop playing with his maps. Blitzer even more boring. I'm sticking with MSNBC (until the Dems shake up FOX)

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2.  You Retweeted

   FEMWOC ‏@femwoc  8m8 minutes ago

   

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For All Flesh

Norman Rockwell's, The Right to Know

On this election eve, there was a typically provocative tweet from a certain Ms. Coulter that if only those whose four Grandparents were born in the United States were allowed to vote, the vote would be a landslide for Donald Trump. My father would not be able to vote under this rule as his Grandfather was born in Britain.

I responded on Facebook and Twitter, and I repeat here.

This is what needs to change tomorrow. A multi-cultural majority nation will take the place of a White, Anglo-Saxon, Christian dominated nation. The Constitutional principles were intended for the universe of mankind. We can do this. Go, Latino Citizens! And ALL of us! WE the PEOPLE!

Yes, we elected a President eight years ago of mixed-race. Part of his ancestry went back to the European immigrants to this country. His father was from Kenya. The President was born in the State of Hawaii. His wife and daughters are the descendants of Slaves brought to this country by force.