Monday, July 9, 2018

Supreme Injustice

My father, Leonard “Red” Balaban, was an “interesting” character. When he died five years ago, we mourned the loss of a father and husband and a jazzman who loved to fish and follow baseball stats. But what is on our minds today is that we also lost an important voice in the progressive movement. 

Red Balaban wrote brilliantly about politics, government and history. He wrote with a wit, historical perspective and clarity that helped us see more clearly and left us wanting more. 

Today, we always ask what dad would be saying about this or that. We say he’s got to be rolling in his grave. 

And today, he walked out of his resting place and right into my psyche. What would dad say about who Donald J. Trump is, what he’s doing to our country and how we can Make America Kind, Respected, Admired and Sane Again.

If you never had the chance to read any of his writing, you can find them in the blog archivel.

What would Red say?

In the history of this experiment in democracy, America has never been perfect.  But we have always aimed toward perfection.  The ideals of this nation have always been; freedom, equality(for most) and the chance to make a buck.  

But her emails? What about his hypocrisy?

An election that Hillary had in the bag, certainly affected by and possibly determined by Macedonian troll farms carrying out Putins orders.  He never expected to win.  He wasn’t ready to win and hell, he didn’t even want to win.  But he won.  And we lost. And we are living in the steamy pile he dumped on us.

Behind the reality show presidency is the money of the Koch Brothers, the complicity of the spineless GOP congress and obstruction started by Mitch McConnell the day Barack Obama was sworn in.  McConnell's concern for party over country spanned the 8 years of the Obama administration and peaked with his stealing the supreme court seat ultimately filled by Trump with Gorsuch.

He has no shame. Today we witnessed one of the boldest displays of hypocrisy ever witnessed when McConnell stood in the senate chamber with a straight face and just took to the Senate floor to decry Democrats' "unfair tactics" in seeking to block a SCOTUS nominee.


All of this is historic. Expect a battle for the ages. We can call on our elected leaders to hold firm and hope for the best that a single Republican senator with a soul and a conscious is courageous enough to save our nation from itself. Either that or pray to be saved by Robert Mueller exposing the 45th president of the United States for what he is.....and then make sure the Dems take back the house and the senate.