"Just because it's Christmas and at Christmas you tell the truth" from Love Actually
1.When Hillary lost the election.
For me I can pinpoint her lose to the day. It wasn't about the emails or the FBI and director Comey. It was the day she became the Democratic nominee. The day she pocketed enough votes to be the party's contender for the President of the United States. It was the day Bernie Sanders decided not to acknowledge her triumph and not to bow out gracefully the way Hillary did in 2008. He had the ability to turn his thousands of followers into enthusiastic supporters but ego got in the way. He'd accomplished his initial goal: to have an impact on the platform but it wasn't enough. Instead he chose to fight on and by doing that he disenfranchised thousands of voters, voters who didn't turn out and are now standing on the outside looking at their future as dismal and powerless. The real agent of change was more the woman who lost than the man who was too weak to do the right thing.
2.Gun control
On June 12th a gunman walked into an Orlando nightclub and murdered fifty people using an arsenal of firearms. There was such sadness and outrage and demand for legislation but as each day passed those national and local legislators' turned deaf ignoring the pleas of their constituents and only listening to the dollars and clout of the NRA. Gay groups organized. The parents of the kids killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School raised their voices but those voices weren't even a whispers in the ears of those with the ability to make a difference. We're a nation numb to gun violence even when it's children.
3.My 2016 word of the year.
"Mandate". If I hear the Donald or any of his minions use this word in relation to the election I'm calling Merriam-Webster and Funk & Wagnalls and demand a recall on its definition. How someone who can lose a popular vote by almost three million votes and still say they have a 'mandate" defies all laws of mathematics. No-no, that ain't no mandate
4.Wisconsin: We should have seen this coming
Lets go all the way back to 2010, the year of the census and the State's gerrymandering, when the Republican majority locked themselves in a room without bi-partisan involvement and cut up the state so the Republican party could guarantee their party's majority in state government for at least the next ten years. It should have been a sign foreshadowing what would be the year of hypocrisy in 2016 when Wisconsin went through a heated Supreme Court election where the Republican candidate and winner had written articles calling AIDS patients and gays degenerates, compared abortion to the Holocaust and slavery and stated that women play a role in date rape and are partially to blame. All of this under an umbrella of conservative religiosity held by another Republican candidate for the presidency, Ted Cruz. I mean come on, what happened to the Wisconsin of Gaylord Nelson and William Proxmire. I know that shows my age but look it up. I used to be so proud to tell people I was from Wisconsin...not so much any more.
5.How I could see myself becoming the tiniest bit religious
His name is Pope Francis. Where previous Popes have been steeped in oppressive doctrine holding social issues in antiquated reverence and then turning a blind eye to their own corruption and inappropriate behavior while waltzing around in ruby red slippers and bejeweled gowns this Pope has chosen a much different path. He rides in a Fiat, shuns the robes of royalty, acknowledges the plight of our planet and global warming and dines with the homeless rather than elite. Most world leaders should be taking notes.
6.Michelle and Barrack
Their legislative legacy may not last the length of time it will take to swear in the next President but their moral compass, their impeccable style will always be remembered as America's second Camelot.
7.The best joke of 2016 curtsey of John Stewart
An airplane was about to crash. There were four passengers on board, but only three parachutes. The first passenger said, "I'm Steph Curry, the best NBA basketball player. The Warriors and my millions of fans need me, and I can't afford to die." So he took the first pack and left the plane.
The second passenger, Donald Trump, said, "I'm the newly-elected U.S. President, and I am the smartest President in American history, so my people don't want me to die." He took the second pack and jumped out of the plane.
The third passenger, the Pope, said to the fourth passenger, a ten year old schoolboy, "My son, I am old and don't have many years left, you have more years ahead so I will sacrifice my life and let you have the last parachute."
The little boy said, "That's okay, Your Holiness, there's a parachute left for you. America's smartest President took my schoolbag."
Rick has always reprimanded me for going off course on the blog and taking its content away from design or issues of style but following the lead of Love Actually at Christmas you have to tell the truth.
THE GALLERY
New Year's Eve, Grand Central Station, 1969
Leomard Freed, photographer
Represented by Clark Gallery, Brooklyn
You hit every nail on the head. Instead of buying Christmas magazines, I have been buying commemorative issues on the Obamas to keep my mind off the new reality. And I think it's always worth being real on our blogs. Sometimes you just can't ignore what's going on in the world around us.
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