Always Have A Plan B

And know when to work it.

Photo from Sky News, by AP

As I can't permanently retreat into gardening, photography, baking bread, playing guitar, doing the bookkeeping, this is all I have got, and I give it to you for whatever use it may be.

1. So far as I can read and recall, this moment is a first for the United States.  

2. It's not a first for other nations, but medieval Japan doesn't count as a model for here and now. 

3.  The best outcome - the sudden demise of the presumptive GOP candidate - shouldn't be expected.

4.  We are enduring a divided nation. One on side, people who live by the values of the Enlightenment. On the other side, people who live by the values of Anti-Intellectualism.  These cultures have been present since colonial times.  But this is the first time the anti-intellectuals have possessed airwaves, schoolboards, school funding, county and state officials, social media, a plan, and lots of money.   And what a United United States would be like after November I can not foresee, unless we are forced into another war. In which case, see my items 10. and 11. below. 

5. We are in a war in which each side fights with different weapons.  Our weapons - facts, laws, ethics, community, climate protection is humanity's protection - are not strong enough against fantasies, lies, fearmongering, belligerence. A lot of the public doesn't care about humanity.  The war's being planned by determined, scheming thinkers on both sides.  Both sides seek to understand and manipulate the psychology of the voters. The Voter is united on both sides by this one fact: We must have an inspiring and trustworthy Commander in Chief.  

6. If we don't have an inspiring and trustworthy Commander in Chief, we lose.  We just lost.

7. We can't register more Democratic voters without an inspiring and trustworthy Commander in Chief.

8. At this point, the harm and chaos that results from choosing a new nominee in Chicago is a very bad acid trip.  That's a given.  There's only one way I can see to win the minds of undecided voters in that event. That's to offer as a candidate an inspiring and trustworthy Commander in Chief.  Who also has policy chops and vigor.  And NOT a Woman for god's sake.  In the USA today, a woman Commander in Chief is Not Wanted by the majority.  

9. Only people I see being talked about as Democratic candidates are NOT inspiring and trustworthy Commanders in Chief.  Not women. Not Gavin Newsome.  

10. Only person who fits the role of inspiring and trustworthy Commander in Chief with some policy chops (about which so many people don't know or care) is Senator Mark Kelly.  

11.  I am serious.  He's 60.  He flew combat missions during the Gulf War.  He's a retired astronaut.  He's the Irish-American son of two police officers.  His brother Scott is also a retired astronaut.  He has the sympathetic story of his marriage to Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, shot while campaigning. He wrote a children's book.  He is a Moderate.  He is Pro-Choice, endorsed by Planned Parenthood.  He's in favor of gun control.  He speaks well and in favor of veterans. He’s a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights.

 So that's my Plan A.

12. My Plan B - have passport ready, a destination in mind, a community waiting, a bank account there.  And know what triggers the initiation of Plan B.  For example, when do we stop thinking the Bay Area is safe?  Or Brooklyn, Boston, Austin, Sedona, Portland east or Portland west?

 Now I'm going back to baking sourdough.