It is peaceful here in Edgartown, sitting watch a sailboat motor past my window. The harbor has been filling up with more boats each week that I have been here. The moorings are filling up with boats of all kinds, small and large. Far away, just outside the harbor sits a huge motor yacht. I think it’s been here every year I have.
Tomorrow, by this time, we should know if Britain has decided to “Brexit” or not and on Friday we will see how the markets respond. It will be, I am told in newspaper reports, a slow unwinding that will take at least two years. On the way home from the bookstore, I heard a report that those in Britain who would support Trump are those who support “Brexit.” They are older, rural, and less educated. The young in Britain support remaining but have a shabby record of voting.
It is too close to call.
Jo Cox, the British MP, murdered by a man shouting “Britain first!” as he killed her while she was campaigning against “Brexit” would have turned 42 today.
Right now, led by Representative John Lewis, Democrats are staging a Congressional “sit in” to push Republicans to do something about gun control after four separate bills on the subject failed to pass, blocked by Republicans. John Lewis is an older African American who cut his chops in the civil rights era and is taking what he learned there to literally the floor of Congress. Representative Joe Kennedy, a scion of that famous clan, is also on the floor with him. As is the New York Congressman just to the south of me, Sean Maloney, an openly gay man who lives with his husband and children in Rhinebeck.
Trump is stumping. He speechified and NPR annotated. Here is the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/us/politics/donald-trump-speech-highlights.html?_r=0
Worth reading…
Mr. Trump owns a golf course in Scotland. Locals have raised a Mexican flag in view of the course to articulate their displeasure with the man. He promised 6,000 jobs. He created 150.
Since last writing, Trump has said, “You’re fired!” to Corey Lewandowski who had been his campaign manager. Apparently, Trump’s family pressured him into it.
In Pakistan, the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Amjad Sabri, a Sufi Muslim singer, shot while heading to a performance, shortly after leaving home. The Pakistanis are outraged. The Taliban claimed his form of singing mystical Islamic poetry was “blasphemous.” Most thought it beautiful.
There are at least hundreds of thousands in the Federal Prison System. Inmate No. 47991-424 is Dennis Hastert, once Speaker of the House, now imprisoned because he lied about bank transfers that were being paid to cover up he had sexually abused a boy when he was a wrestling coach.
In disturbing news, it appears the Pentagon is not letting people know if Americans are being wounded or killed in Iraq and Syria as it would “not be helpful.” By the time the Mideast fiasco is finished we will have wasted five trillion dollars. Five trillion dollars…
There is a lavender light over the harbor, the water is peaceful. I am writing while watching the news with my friend Jeffrey as I slip into another almost bucolic evening in the Vineyard. Here it is peaceful, far from the madding world.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From Claverack 01 15 2017 Bemused but not amused…
January 15, 2017It is early evening in Claverack; the lights have been turned on over the creek and I have asked Alexa to play the “Pop Classical” station so music is filling the cottage. It is an idyllic night after a very nice day.
Waking before the alarm this morning, I cleared my email inboxes, showered and gathered things together for the food pantry at the church. Post church, I went to the Red Dot and then to Ca’Mea to meet Larry and Alicia and it was a pleasant country afternoon.
Against the backdrop of the pleasant country afternoon is a tension about the political scene.
One of my neighbors, who, when he met me was a bit uncomfortable with me and who has become a very good friend, asked me why the LGBTQ community was concerned about Trump. He voted for neither Hillary or The Donald, loathing them equally.
My response was that it wasn’t so much Trump’s views on gays but the views of the people who are around him. Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana until Friday, then Vice President of the United States, worked to enact strident laws that jeopardized the rights of gays in his state. Jeff Sessions, who is by all accounts is a gentleman of the first order in social situations, is homophobic, anti-immigration and anti some other important things.
My friend had no idea. And was concerned when he heard this.
Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a legendary figure in the Civil Rights movement, is not attending Trump’s inauguration because he does not feel Trump in a legitimate President. I find that unfortunate and counterproductive.
And I find unfortunate and counterproductive Donald Trump’s Twitter storm against Representative Lewis, demeaning his part in the Civil Rights movement. The man nearly lost his life on the bridge into Selma. To denigrate him as Trump has is unfortunate and not in keeping with someone who is about to enter the highest office in the land.
Stephen Colbert discussed “truthiness.” Donald Trump exercised a bit of it in his depiction of Representative Lewis’ district as crime ridden. In fact, he represents one of the most affluent areas of Atlanta.
There is a good part of me that is sitting back and watching what is happening unfold with a sense of wonder, a sense of OMG is this real? And it is…
Every time I turn around, I am astounded by our President Elect.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is going to be a Senior Advisor. Is there not something somewhere about nepotism? Ivanka may be the de facto First Lady as Melania seems to be content to remain in Trump Tower.
Who is this person?
Andy Borowitz, comedian and raconteur, described him as the “Kremlin Employee of the Month.”
The awful thing is that he MIGHT be.
The VERY unsubstantiated report about his actions with the Russians are, at one time, very amusing and incredibly disconcerting. It has spawned a cottage industry in defining “golden showers.”
Right now, I am sitting back and watching it unfold. Called me bemused, call me amused, call me frightened, call me whatever you like and I think we need to go back into the early 19th century to find anything similar.
Oh, wow!
And I will continue to watch with a carefully bemused eye that is also carefully turned on to what the new President might do as he needs, more than most Presidents, to be held accountable.
Please help with that. Please.
Tags:Alexa, Alicia Vergara, Andy Borowitz, Atlanta, Claverack, Donald Trump, Golden Showers, Hillary Clinton, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, John Lewis, Kremlin Employee of the Month, Larry Divney, LGBT, LGBTQ, Mike Pence, Selma, Stephen Colbert, The Donald
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