Playlist: Civil Liberties for Lifelong Learners
Compiled By: Susan J. Cook
Commentaries, Sixty Second Moral Inquiries and 2 1/2 Minute Conspiracy Theories and more! Life long education to answer the question : What is a civil liberty anyway? In 2011, two Maine journalists, Matthew Gagnon, now working for Sinclair Broadcasting and one employed by the Press Herald, violated the civil liberties of a citizen testifying at a Redistricting Hearing and exercising her Freedom of Speech by calling the testimony " a personal attack " . The journalists never contacted or spoke to the woman who testified but rather talked to 2 men, both of whom chose to ignore the environmental devastation that prompted the woman's observation about the negligence of the elected... Show full description
And Always From Behind: Where Women Are Now
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:00
In 2024, the time is now for women to acknowledge how women are discredited by others. And yes women discredit women. All of this contributes to a character ceiling for women which lies much lower than the one men negotiate. The Election for President reminds that targeting women's character - demeaning it- draws no anger or distress from many many women in this country.
- Playing
- And Always From Behind: Where Women Are Now
- From
- Susan J. Cook
-Susan Cook-
Protecting the Children: American Sonnet 1098
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:03
It began as a necessity.
Protecting the Children
American Sonnet 1098
-Susan Cook-
Protecting the children began out of
necessity. They gave sustenance, bread
and water, like needed rain. No doubt love
entered in. They knew many dangers fed
the flow, the stream each, every small being
is placed into, as soon as the breathing
in, out begins. They are us, you, me in
one drop of water's fall, day's end leaving
a cascade of possible harm, behind.
But when the glass door slams, the father shouts
exploitation of innocence, the mind
of a desperate man. There is no way out.
The needed becomes brittle, not stronger,
cannot hold back broken any longer.
Hope Is Not the Thing With Feathers
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | :59
This Democracy brings us optimism, change and always, hope.
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- Hope Is Not the Thing With Feathers
- From
- Susan J. Cook
Hope is not the thing with feathers
-Susan Cook-
Hope is not the thing with feathers. It is
not like that at all. Its body is a
visible felt whole, slow, slipping within
you, starts the searching, tending with a
vigil for its passage back and forth, here
there, becoming solid, sculpted from mist
rising from marsh grass, water's murmur, mere
fluctuations, cast its shivering sheen.
There it is, a thousand drops of light splayed
out, that's all it takes, the weight of nature
waking, its thousand tons of motion staid
like minutes of fixation, ancient, pure.
Hope is not the thing with feathers, lies curled
within each being, thicker than the world.
The Violence of Denying Reproductive Rights
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:03
Media articles or Judicial discussions rarely if ever include the possibility of domestic abuse toward the child or the mother as risk factors which demand Reproductive choice.
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- The Violence of Denying Reproductive Rights
- From
- Susan J. Cook
The Violence of Denying Reproductive Rights
Published July 27, 2024 Portland (ME) Press Herald
In Maine, 49% of the homicides that took place between 2020 and 2023 were females who were victims of domestic violence (Biennial Report of the Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review panel). As this statistic is made public, we know there is transitory astonishment just as when the numbers of children dying from abuse or neglect surface from the Kids Count Data Center. Each of these murders- and those identified as consequent to domestic violence quickly fade from the public view and consciousness if not conscience.
Find me a media article or Judicial discussion of medical risk to a woman seeking to terminate pregnancy which describes suicidality as the outcome for some women denied reproductive choice. Find me one that points to the risk of murder of a woman or a child by domestic violence as a medical risk. Suicidality of the woman or a real risk that she or a child born out of an unwanted pregnancy will be targets of ongoing or emerging domestic violence are rarely if ever identified as medical risks. Being impregnated by an emotionally or physically abusive partner does not spontaneously prevent continuation of that abuse if a pregnancy is brought to term. An abusing relationship history does not evolve into non-abusive parenting spontaneously. Parenting development is complex. Some traverse the complexity. Some do not.
Numbers don't convey the compelling narrative of people's lives or bring the realization that anyone can become one of those numbers.
Women (and men) become helpless in violent and abusive relationships. They can feel utter hopelessness impregnated by a partner whose tendencies and history suggest a future as a negligent, abandoning, emotionally if not physically abusing parent.
The co-option of female choice means she imay be unwillingly forced to become complicit in society's failure to prevent violence- emotionally or physically- to her or children. Maine's homicide statistics analyzed another way reveal the number of children who have died because of abuse or neglect either before or after Child Protective Service involvement. In 2021, 34 children died from abuse or neglect, 31 in 2022 and 25 in 2023. Between 2021 and 2023, the rate of foster care placement per thousand minor-aged children ranged from 9.0 to 9.6 children . There were 2020 children in foster care in 2021, 2320 in 2022 , 2401 in 2023. These numbers from the Kids Count Data Center are after the fact of deep suffering, that has led to removal of child from high risk home and sometimes succeeds and sometimes does not succeed in preventing more suffering.
These numbers are never mentioned in Judicial discussions of the medical risk of denying reproductive rights. Despite the fawning of Amy Conant Barrett or Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito or any number claiming to value human beings, this society , Maine included, fails to protect child-bearing-age women and children far more often than we ever know. We only learn months and months later amid a pile of numbers. The numbers may include women denied reproductive choice who are in deep, irreversible despair . But that too we never know.
What Courage Wears to Bed
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | :53
The values of a democracy shared through verse not vitriol.
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- What Courage Wears to Bed
- From
- Susan J. Cook
What Courage Wears to Bed
-Susan Cook-
This is what courage wears to bed. In the
winter, her robe is thicker than she's known
to wear in spring. Yes, it's anathema
to my idea, resilience simply goes
without. So many times she's had to change
as temperatures are warming, almost hot.
She's watched when goodness turned its back, a strange
and unpredicted fear that almost caught
her but she's not one to fawn or confess.
There's nothing to confess to. She just sees
it through. She won't dismiss, hand off or dress
down good, as hopeless, circumstantially.
I want to be much more like her, the dress
she wears in fragile moods, her sulkiness.
An American Sonnet to a Fire Gone
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:20
Everything changes, if only we can see it.
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- An American Sonnet to a Fire Gone
- From
- Susan J. Cook
To a Fire Gone
Epilogue to "Breathing: American Sonnets"
"Reluctance”
-Robert Frost-
"Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?"
When was it less than treason? But what do
you mean, Mr. Frost? That’s for countries to
feel short-changed by. Loss happens to those who
see the passing on of days, years, one blue
time in life, one breaking, undoing a
treacherous rope they were holding onto,
its deep burn. In the coldest time of day
or night, fires started that you thought grew
larger instead were, licked back into their
own intensity, remained confined on
one small patch of earth. You did not see where
the fire, some time later, died. You were gone.
Big difference, see, between countries resigned
to losing, small unfed fires, gone in time.
Fake News and the Violation of Civil Liberties
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:55
Some years back, Maine Public Radio fired the host of a 30 year popular jazz program, The humble Farmer because he criticized the Iraq War. His criticism of Real News led to Maine Public Radio demanding he sign Guidelines to not make ‘political statements’ on air. He refused. Fast forward several years, and we now see Fake News displacing Real News. A Bangor Daily News reporter who was formerly the Communication Director for Sen. Susan Collins in one particularly outrageous example created his own Fake news to demean me. A complete untruth about Me! Period. Fake news is the scourge of the free press and free speech. But it only ends when ethical individuals call Communication Directors and reporters out on it. In the incident described, explaining the ethical problem in his reporting falls to me. I'll do it.
Fake News and the Violation of Civil Liberties: Political Retribution in the form of Fake News
-Susan Cook-
Some years ago, Maine Public Radio fired the host of a 30 year popular jazz program, The humble Farmer because he criticized the Iraq War started in retribution for -stop me if you already know this- the terrorist attacks of September 2001. His criticism of Real News led to Maine Public Radio demanding he sign Guidelines to not make ‘political statements’ on air. He refused. The Real News that emerged was that heavy Republican Donors populated the Maine Public Broadcasting Board of Trustees- 160000 dollar donors who then influenced humble‘s firing.
Fast forward many days, and Fake News is not only prevalent but a scourge of the free press and free speech. But it turns out Fake News has been around for quite a awhile.
Rewind to 2011 and we see Senator Susan Collins’ then Director of New Media Matthew Gagnon responding to my- yes, me- testimony during the congressional Redistricting Hearings. I made the statement that a Maine Legislator was disrespectful of constituents by recording constituent phone calls without their consent or knowledge. In small communities, that means people stop calling and thus have no voice representing them. An asphalt plant had been built on the shores of a pristine lake (and water aquifer feeder for the water source for the Legislator's home town). Mr. Gagnon in his Bangor Daily News column immediately started creating Fake News about me and what happened at the hearing. ‘Susan Cook is a Lunatic‘, he titled it. ‘A rambling, slurring‘ Susan Cook, he went on to say- garbage then and garbage now. Now Mr. Gagnon admires his Fake News so much that he not only put it on the Internet-it is still there- even after at least one phone call from a police officer and the Internet Service Provider. He was Senator Susan Collins’ hire, still on Susan Collins' payroll as her Director of New Media. He did not know me, was not at the hearing and in his anonymous long-distance Virginia home tapped out his Fake News. It took a certain amount of IT sophistication on my part to identify him, his location and his then- on-the-payroll position with the Fake News supporting Collins.
New Jersey’s US Attorney General indicted and convicted the staff of Governor Chris Christie because of their Fake News in the form of FakeTraffic Jam Creation. Political retribution violates civil liberties. The rights of those stuck for hours in Faked Traffic Jams were violated because Chris Christie wanted political retribution for a Mayor who criticized him.
The Fake News Mr. Gagnon created after my testimony at the Redistricting Hearing remains part of his media strategy. He later became a talk radio host and more recently tried very hard to generate Fake News about the suicide of a local meteorologist . Mr. Gagnon told the local newspaper that “the investigation of a sexual assault” that had not been shown linked to the suicide of the meteorologist was worth “some air time”. In other words, creating ‘fake news’ between 2 events that were not linked.
Suicides are always lonely situations. Mr. Gagnon's idea of air-time is to seize a one-sided circumstance- a suicide cannot speak after all- to inflate and amplify two situations with no factual basis. Fake News thrives on anonymity, loneliness and isolation.
Fake news creators like Mr. Gagnon, and the Chris Christies and Susan Collins of the political world who hire them support exploitation of anonymity to deceive. They also violate civil liberties.
We can hope Attorney Generals make the connection between Fake News and the Violation of Civil Liberties. But some Attorney Generals grasp- first and foremost- Fake News as a tool of political retribution . In states where Attorney Generals are elected- they too can ignore that Fake News violates civil liberties. But that's a true story for another day.
The Abuse of Power Department
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:12
A collection of observations from E.B. White, the Brooklin, Maine writer, has been culled by his granddaughter, Martha White. He was once described as a man who never "wrote a mean or careless sentence". That distinction falls to few in good times; during the Iraq War, more fell out of contention. Many saw the invasion of Iraq, as premised on a falsehood: that Weapons of Mass Destruction were hidden there, an evening of a political score tallied by one President, settled in the wrong country.
The enormous human suffering and sacrifice of Iraq will leave many granddaughters whose grandparents will never be known to them...
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- The Abuse of Power Department
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- Susan J. Cook
In the Aftermath: An American Sonnet
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:03
Joseph Biden withdraws from the Presidential race.
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- In the Aftermath: An American Sonnet
- From
- Susan J. Cook
In the aftermath, the fear's aftermath,
there is the settling, the drawing down
of a nectar of calm, now, buckling up wrath's
intensity, taken from the lost. Found
now, the consequential, the valued stuff
we always think might drift away like a
moth caught in the wind’s draft. It's just enough
to restore us all and finally find the
angle upon which the head can place
itself, find solace, as if the sun’s rays
shining shield us all now from cold, misplaced
night, we need not fear, in the bright of day.
When fear is put away, finally ended,
there, still, kindness, its garden well- tended.
The Cheap Shot in American Politics- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:26
We live in extremely violent times. Words can provoke aggression, insult and personal harm very quickly. Politicians spend much time trying to reassure us that they will protect our enormous bodily and psychological fragility with their policies and bravado. But the Cheap Shot gives it all away. And Bernie Sanders has quickly joined the fray- filling his pockets as best he can with what he hopes is political capital.
Then there’s, Donald Trump, who has used every form of cheap shot making known to polarize the electorate- i.e. ‘earn’ votes. He has nationalized cheap shot taking like we have never seen before. It kind of takes your breath away because there used to be a baseline assumption that overt disrespect was not silently accepted as kind of a political asthma we just had to get used to. It’s hard to find a one word slur he has not used to reduce his critics to objects- implying they are not worthy of any respect at all. ‘Pocahontas’ he called a tenured Harvard Law School Professor and United States Senator. As if the anonymity that word cast on Native American women for generations was deserved- they worthy of no mark of distinction or individuality for us to know who they are.
I am making a larger call is for us to stop the Cheap Shot making that now plagues American politics. Cheap shots always say more about the politician who makes them than they do about the person it’s tossed toward whether you are the Bernie Sanders supporter screaming them out at Hillary rallies or Sanders banking on the good will of American liberals to cover him while his rhetoric becomes increasingly hostile. Or Donald Trump banking on the limited attention span of the angry and cash strapped to ignore that the hostility he speaks of is generated by himself.
#Stopthecheapshots I say. Now.
#Stopthecheapshots I say. Now.
Political Vengeance and the Abuse of Power: Hannah Arendt's Guide to Totalitarian Behaviors
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:29
Understanding the abandonment of civil liberties in this country, means looking at behaviors we ignore, passive handouts of yet another fat government job, acting as if the abnormal is normal, banking- literally- on everyone's wish that it couldn't possible happen here. "This common sense disinclination to believe the monstrous is constantly strengthened by the totalitarian ruler himself , who makes sure that no reliable statistics, no controllable facts and figures are ever published, so that there are only subjective, uncontrollable, and unreliable reports about the living dead", Hannah Arendt, author of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" wrote.
Political Vengeance and the Abuse of Power:
Hannah Arendt's Guide to Totalitarian Behaviors
-Susan Cook-
As we watched resignation after resignation of Trump appointee, during that administration, maybe the letters of recommendation Presidential candidates have written for applicants for jobs eventually handed out as political favors would be a good character vetting process. Character vetting . How candidates view misjudgements when they recommend someone for the job also tells a lot about the recommender, maybe even more than about the job "applicant". Trump's administration demonstrated that we do not really know how to stop the abuse of power in political office for political vengeance. Despite Hannah Arendt's meticulous analysis in The Origins of Totalitarianism of the mindset demanded by the Third Reich, actions that feed totalitarianism prevail.
The permission to forget, blocking, barring, demonizing others as a means to an end is one way the Third Reich accomplished what it did.The public disbelief that anyone would deviate so far from the normal and expectable factored heavily in the Third Reich. No one believed they would do such a thing.
Remember Chris Christie. Chris Christie's recommendations about Bridget Ann Kelly, deputy Chief of Staff and Bill Baroni, the head of the New York Port Authority might help us understand his qualifications for higher office. He needed hired hands with shaky memories who if a Bridgegate-kind of scandal came up would forget. This is the one in which Ms. Kelly colluded with Mr. Baroni to lower the number of lanes feeding the George Washington Bridge. Massive traffic jams ensued. Emergency vehicles, children waiting at daycare, time-urgent travel was snarled. Fort Lee, New Jersey, whose mayor openly criticised Chris Christie, suffered the brunt of the consequence, his town the target for that reason.
One wonders what Presidential hopeful Chris Christie wrote to justify bringing Ms. Kelly on as his deputy chief of staff?
Hannah Arendt describes the beliefs that enhance totalitarianism. On page 436, she writes:
"For a considerable length of time, the normality of the normal world is the most efficient protection against disclosure of totalitarian mass crimes. "Normal men don't know that everything is possible"[and] refuse to believe their eyes and ears in the face of the monstrous just as the mass men did not trust theirs in the face of the normal reality in which no place was left for them. The reason why totalitarian regimes can get so far toward realizing a fictitious topsy-turvy world is that the outside nontotalitarian world which always comprises a great part of the population of the totalitarian country itself, indulges also in wishful thinking and shirks reality in the face of real insanity just as the masses do in the face of the normal world. This common sense disinclination to believe the monstrous is constantly stengthened by the totalitarian ruler himself , who makes sure that no reliable statistics, no controllable facts and figures are ever published, so that there are only subjective, uncontrollable, and unreliable reports about the living dead".
So, Arendt means writing recommendations for applicants for Communication Director positions whose history includes misquoting, exaggeration, exclusion is part and parcel of totalitaran technique. After all, in the Third Reich, "their real secret, the concentration camps,is shielded by the totalitarian regime, from the eyes of their own people as well as from all others." A Communication Director who masters obfuscation, adding one word which changes meaning, changing the numbers, say the number 3 to "several" so that "no reliable statistics" are available, all are behaviors that lead to totalitarianism.
All this happens before or sometimes in collusion with the exercise of the "police state", the banning of participation in public activities or from public places,government offices or to the false labelling of someone as a "threat" - those "yellow star" actions usually associated with a totalitarian, civil liberty abandoning government.
Saving civil liberties means looking at behaviors we ignore when we passively hand out yet another fat government job, acting as if the abnormal is normal, banking- literally- on everyone's wish that it couldn't possible happen here.
"What Do We Do # Me Too?" One For The Great American Wrongbook.
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:36
Exactly how does Mitch McConnell know what goes on inside a woman's body? For the Great American Wrongbook, possibly sung to the tune from "What'll I Do?", from Irving Berlin's Music Box Revue, performed from 1921 to 1924 at the Music Box Theatre in New York City.
In the Department of Poetic Justice
(and The Great American Wrongbook)
"What Do We Do, # Me Too?"
(sung to the tune of "What'll I Do?")
-Susan Cook-
How would he know,
he's in his Senate seat
and so he's not inside
the woman's body when she does not know
fertilization's arrived.
Mitch still thinks he's the one
who decides what
she does.
Mr. McConnell's gynecology
did not earn him degrees
nevertheless
his mind is focused on
a certain female body's recess
If we say where it is
Morning Edition
will not play that word.
So while we are on that topic
let us ask
just how it comes to this
GOP Senators and Congressmen
still give themselves access
To women's private parts
that Terry Gross can't
mention on Fresh air.
Mr. McConnell thinks that he knows best
just how the zygote fares
if it's in residue
from opiods
or something else she's used
I mean the woman
who was blanked one night
Steve Inskeep can't say it on air.
The man and woman made their bodies touch
McConnell says he knows
exactly if the woman can caretake
a child, or will Mitch care
when there's there's a birth
a new drug addict
neglected. It's just not fair
Will Mitch then just say,
Republicanly, "Oh, well, not mine to care?"
I shouldn't say
it's just Mitch McConnell,
Ted Cruz and Rubio
and Donald Trump- no surprise-
will control Planned Parenthood
as if they know-
what's good-
for a woman's body.
When will they lose their jobs
be fired too.
Their decisions grope
women's bodies
WE are their victims.
Hey wake up! Where are you?
No more groping.
Hash tag it's your turn
ME TOO!
Why Women Don't Tell, Part 4: What the Media Leaves Out
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 08:21
Exclusion by the Media of facts about the nature of the exploitation at the center of the Trump trial, and the $130,000 paid to an adult film actress, to silence her, leaves out the grooming she was subjected to, instead casting her as licentious.
Why Women Don't Tell, Part 4: What the Media Leaves Out
In the PBS Newshour Friday night left/right voice section, a substitute journalist, Eliana Johnson from the Washington, DC-based Free Beacon, sat in for the conservative David Brooks.
The moderator moved the topics along to the Trump Criminal trial. As almost an aside, Journalist Johnson observed that “Stormy Daniels was up there talking about things that are not appropriate to say on this network.”
And thus, she (Johnson, not Daniels) presented the perspective which most of the trial coverage has clung to and, by default, to what's been left out. For a second, I wondered if the “not appropriate” she referenced is Stormy Daniels' rape history, the time from age 9 to about 11, when she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a next door neighbor, who also raped her childhood best friend. When the friend finally disclosed to the school guidance counselor her rape experience, Stormy then known as Stephanie, told him the neighbor had assaulted her- repeatedly. The Guidance Counselor told her she was lying. She just said that, he said, because she wanted the attention her friend began to receive. Ms. Daniels' did not remember this incident until she was vabout 23. The amnesic relationship to abuse and the silencing of disclosure is not at all unusual, any trauma therapist would validate.
The posture of that Guidance Counselor uniquely and disturbingly parallels- no surprise- the defense attorneys' questioning of Ms. Daniels. It also parallels the trivialization of the sexual exploitation she experienced by the then 60 year old Donald Trump which Eliana Johnson presents- as does much of the media- as trivial- and sees as secondary to her occupation as a stripper and “adult” film actress , “adult” film director and producer. Add to this the designation as “the smart one”, which Trump applied to the then 27 year old Daniels as a pretense for his request to have dinner with her- communicated to her by Trump's body guard.
I read the “liberal” New York Times' supplied transcript of Ms. Daniels' testimony which motivated me to read her book “Full Disclosure”, her second more widely known effort to tell the truth.
I speculate but my guess is Eliana Johnson hasn't read it, what with the focus on the words that can't be said on Public broadcasting. Exclusion of the facts about what really happened to Stormy Daniels means that Eliana and the other journalists collude in ignoring “grooming”, the hallmark of a predator before the exploitation actually takes place. It shifts the focus to the teller's credibility, the teller's sexualization- your dirty mind- of what is taking place. After all, the predator grooming the object hasn't acted yet on his intention.
Exclusion of her childhood sexual assault, in this case, leaves Ms. Daniels' to be characterized as the one with the licentious sex life, ignoring Donald Trump's grooming of Ms. Daniels with the offer of a Celebrity Apprentice appearance. Sex as the outcome of her meeting him in his Penthouse Suite was not what she anticipated. After going to the restroom and finding Trump standing between her and the bedroom door, his bodyguard shielding the entry to the suite as he was when she arrived, she describes an episode of derealization. Look it up.
Eliana Johnson having a pat phrase to the signify the witness with the dirty mouth speaks to the rubric the media has taken on. Yes, the substitution of the word “adult film” actress for “porn star” mitigates the sullying. But it does nothing to tag Trump's grooming as predatory, his baiting with a Celebrity Apprentice appearance. Harvey Weinstein used similar tactics.
An outcome of this trial could be that the 60-something Trumps of the world- along with the Harvey Weinsteins- would be more easily held accountable. A higher paying job, a good paycheck, a reliable living for someone like Daniels who grew up with a single mother who had to work more than one minimum wage job at a time is- even Eliana Johnson might agree- motivation. For the adolescent Daniels, a Baton Rouge , Louisiana Ballet dancer, and dressage horsewoman who taught riding lessons to handicapped children, her foray as a teenager into “exotic dancer” stripping meant she tripled her income. She testified that her whole life she had supported herself financially. Women earn 84 cents to a man's dollar, which was far lower the early 2000s.
Left out of the narrative, as well, has been the threat leveled by an anonymous stranger in 2016 in a parking lot to Daniels and her child. This was ultimately what led her to speak about the encounter with Trump, lest her family or she herself be physically harmed.
An outcome might galvanize the always tenuous feminist collective which the Elianas splice open, often. In “Full Disclosure” and in her testimony, Daniels refers – over and over- to her coworkers- other strippers- as “girls”, no matter how old. There's truth in that too. The Club owners are called men, generally, a reminder of who holds power in the world- those with money or masculinity. Both have been tools to re-assert that power, in the Trump trial, to silence the truth about sexual exploitation under the guise of principled indignation, and they continue to be reasons why Women Don't Tell, but - not for Stephanie aka “Stormy” Daniels- now.
Non-verbal Political Commentary for the Speechless! A How-to Citizen's Guide!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:53
In speechless times, a practice to express how your world looks now.
- Playing
- Non-verbal Political Commentary for the ...
- From
- Susan J. Cook
Political Commentary for the Speechless! A Citizen's Guide
-Susan Cook-
Since approximately June of 2016, mental health professionals have been trying to diagnose a certain someone! Stop!It is unethical to diagnose someone you have never met! Diagnosing yourself given the events that have transpired around a certain someone is more acceptable. People do it all the time- punishingly at times. So a little less punishing approach might be to let yourself sit down by the sandbox and - go ahead - give us a representation of what the world looks like now.
Play therapists tell us that symbolic representation through a sandbox configration can be very very therapeutic if not a source of profound insight.
Ok, here's an example of what one configuration might look like.
Out comes the Prince, the Queen (ok, it's Ezmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame- no matter- a Queen's a queen) . Next comes the lizard- whoa, whoa, no, no wait- it's the chameleon! Spotty. Goes over to the Prince- is one color. Goes over to the Queen! Another color! (Sharpie inflicted color changes!) Goes back over and rolls around in the sand a little. Gets up. Shakes himself off- hokey-pokey style. Another color. All of this is happening quickly. As if the chameleon has.......Time Magazine cover's diagnostic speciality! -Attention Deficit Hypereactivity Disorder!!!! Chameleon here! Chameleon there! Intensely focussed on one topic! For a minute! Switches to another topic! Different color! Different spots! Entering the sandbox configuration! The BBBBBBarbies!!! Fully clothed. OK. the skirts are very very very short and very very very tight. And the Chameleon is there! On it. Next! Different Barbie! Barbies gone. Sand piled over them quickly, quickly. quickly. Out comes the dog. Digging, digging, digging. Chameleon- late, late, late at night, dozes off. Orange-ish, yellow-ish. Stays that color until the next morning.
See what I mean? Way better tha arm chair diagnosis. Way better.
Don't Diagnose! Go Wth the Play Therapy ! A Citizen's Guide
-Susan Cook-
Since approximately June of 2016, mental health professionals have been trying to diagnose a certain someone! Stop!It is unethical to diagnose someone you have never met! Diagnosing yourself given the events that have transpired around a certain someone is more acceptable. People do it all the time- punishingly at times. So a little less punishing approach might be to let yourself sit down by the sandbox and - go ahead - give us a representation of what the world looks like now.
As a play therapist, I believe symbolic representation through a sandbox configration can be very very therapeutic if not a source of profound insight.
Ok, here's an example of what one configuration might look like.
Out comes the Prince, the Queen (ok, it's Ezmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame- no matter- a Queen's a queen) . Next comes the lizard- whoa, whoa, no, no wait- it's the chameleon! Spotty. Goes over to the Prince- is one color. Goes over to the Queen! Another color! (Sharpie inflicted color changes!) Goes back over and rolls around in the sand a little. Gets up. Shakes himself off- hokey-pokey style. Another color. All of this is happening quickly. As if the chameleon has.......Time Magazine cover's diagnostic speciality! -Attention Deficit Hypereactivity Disorder!!!! Chameleon here! Chameleon there! Intensely focussed on one topic! For a minute! Switches to another topic! Different color! Different spots! Entering the sandbox configuration! The BBBBBBarbies!!! Fully clothed. OK. the skirts are very very very short and very very very tight. And the Chameleon is there! On it. Next! Different Barbie! Barbies gone. Sand piled over them quickly, quickly. quickly. Out comes the dog. Digging, digging, digging. Chameleon- late, late, late at night, dozes off. Orange-ish, yellow-ish. Stays that color until the next morning.
See what I mean? Way better than arm chair diagnosis. Way better.
"You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours" In the Dept. Of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:08
In the Department of Poetic Justice, we offer a poetic tribute to the complex topic of hiring candidates for government jobs who carry heavy political indebtedness. Might be sung to the tune of "Love and Marriage" which was written for a 1955 production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town".
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning) with lyrics for
the Great American Wrongbook!
‘You Scratch My Back, I’ll Scratch Your Back’which could be sung
To the tune from "Love and Marriage"
from a 1955 production of Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’
-Susan Cook-
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back
Julius Caesar didn’t take the right tack,
Handing out some big jobs might
Help Brutus fix the numbers and do the math right.
One for you and one for me, I guess
It’s kindness, a certain specialty,
political repayment
In the form of six figure paycheck improvement.
You did my way, I did your way,
Surprise, surprise, I’m ready for my payday,
Call me clever, greedy,
Pick me, I suddenly feel needy.
Just remember, when you cover
my butt, I certainly will re-consider
yours when you’re caught lying,
vote trading, need some good denying .
Exculpation, exoneration
Pardoning in any situation,
You for me, no matter
Who else gets nailed- My checkbook fatter.
This is not Ukraine, or Moscow,
Putin territory, where you might go
Hoping for some bribing
In Maine, it’s done through legal hiring.
Advocacy, conspiracy,
Cover my butt, six figures should do that nicely,
I’ll advocate so publicly,
for your job with the DEP or chairing public utilities.
There are people, who will be skilled
negotiating jurisprudence until
they're ready to retire. Lifetime
appointments if you hire
Them just after you take office.
Let's see what knowledge of the law can offer
Maybe not pronto, tout-de-suite
your law firm partners will gladly wait for their seat.
Let's be honest. Take the high road
Facilitating, as you take on that load
Chairing this and chairing that
But don't forget the itchy spot on your own back.
Permission-er, Commission-er,
Half-a-dozen, six of one. I have heard
Put your eggs in one basket.
Rewarded depending on who gets elected.
Chief of staff, hey, turn your back, hey,
I got you covered, every night and day.
I know you and you know me,
Composting dirt on any adversary.
Let's see now, the best advisor,
find a million dollar salaried devisor
of perfect plans, utilities
Last time I checked that's where the money's hiding.
Don't forget the sons and daughters
hoping waitressing will soon be fodder,
now compost paper resume
The new job? Highly Paid Superior Aide.
Looking for someone to okay
a multi-billion dollar forested way?
Put some shiny towers up!
Power binging instead of watching Netflix!
Or instead of Ben and Jerry's
Multi-nationally Christmas stockings
filling up with pristine Maine.
The moose, deer, beaver never in the fast lane.
Not like David, Ben or who's
the other one- Goliath, all big men
who made their mark in history
ignoring little people just like Maine's, see
Multi-million dollar dealers
have always taken more than they de-served
Before they found what their paycheck lacked
the lubrication from scratching someone's itchy back.
Waiting for the Mockingbird: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting the Credibility of Those Who Speak Out
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:23
The possibility that we can all take part in finding out what is true, just by speaking up, can become very uncertain and maybe one day disappear because no one bothers to protect it anymore.
Waiting for the Mockingbird
-Susan Cook-
When spring comes, northern mockingbirds used to arrive at a marsh near my house. Sometimes in the night, I could hear one of them singing. They are called Mockingbirds for good reason: first, he’s a robin, then he’s a red-winged blackbird, then he’s a song sparrow. It's hard to tell what his own song is, he has so many that he has heard from others. I don’t know where he goes in the winter but every year I wondered if he'd come back and sure enough, he has not.
Maybe the sonar activity of the world's fifth largest weapons producer which abuts the Marsh has something to do with it. I often thought, someone he was waking up would kill him if he didn't stop. Some are very mean when they are woken up.
You could plant your seedlings according to the arrival of the red-winged blackbirds out there. The northern mockingbird seemed much less predictable, more vulnerable and now he's gone .
A bird can be gone like that but when people hear things they don’t like, the slow withering of the credibility of those who speak out begins. “The inaccuracies in what she said...”, “it is only a small group of loud complainers that are saying these things,”- “he’s just mad because he believes he can do whatever he wants”- all the statements start that gradually, over time, deplete the replenishing of the urge to speak, draining the nourishment we receive when we say words we believe are true, about a wrong we want righted, an injustice that has taken something away from us. It is not a mockingbird that’s gone. The possibility that we can all take part in finding out what is true, just by speaking up, becomes uncertain and is one day gone because no one bothers anymore. No one likes to have their credibility attacked and if someone else is the prime manufacturer of what the truth is, why do it?
It's a dangerous situation. Not too long ago, in my town, the Children's Librarian was fired by the Public Library Director, who knows why. The public outrage about it placed the Library in peril because people did not retreat from finding out the truth both because of the shared ownership of their respect for this gifted children’s librarian and their value of the library. A Mediation agreement to solve the community unrest followed. The Director who did the firing didn't follow it. What is troublesome is that she had a version of the truth that she felt was better than that of anyone else. It happens all the time.
The Northern Mockingbird is gone now, I think. Doing everything possible to disregard other voices, raises an instinctual fear of extinction of voice and credibility. It is not a matter of where one sits on the right to left continuum. Those who manage to enter positions of responsibility in the Democratic party or the Republican party or any staff position of leadership may be just as likely to justify their own actions by disregarding Truth tellers and attacking their credibility (“She doesn't have any proof”). I criticized a Senator recently and compared one staffer's maintenance of a List of Twitter/Facebook users who criticized the Senator to Richard Nixon's Enemies List and McCarthy-ism. The newspaper's Opinion Page (which has a committee vetting process) hasn't published any of the letters I've submitted since. The legal system is only one venue in which the credibility of Truth tellers is protected. Each of us plays a part in valuing the skill the Northern Mockingbird knows. Those who stumble into positions of influence then exercise every option to destroy the credibility of Truth tellers raise the real possibility that those who spoke out will not be back again.
"I see Trees Standing in Deep Water" From The Department of Poetic Justice (and Poetic Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:49
The town of Brunswick, Maine is set to remove 2/3 of the trees on Maine Street because it is too expensive to work around them as they install new sidewalks. Thus, an American Sonnet about the oxygen trees create as they breath.
Here, An American Sonnet.
Sonnet 1081
-Susan Cook-
I see trees standing in deep water, their
roots, saturated. They have never had
an immersion like this and now they bear
vulnerability, standing as they have
since growth's inception, since the first seed grew,
waiting for just the right temperature, heat
seeping in to warm the earth. All we knew
of fear changed just then, fundamental needs
provided for, the breath of trees to take
their careful measure of air we deplete,
trees breathing out, the oxygen they make,
inextricably tied to fates we meet.
The trees don’t know we need them. We depend
as they do on breath, theirs, world without end.
It's Not What You're Given, It's What You Do: A Parenting Guide to Understanding Presidentialism
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:52
Human Growth and Development textbooks may be the ‘go to’ reference to explain ‘what the hell is going on’ as the new Republican opponent apparent, Mr. Trump has said, in his newest Presidential race.
You may remember from your Human Growth and Development class the different kinds of parenting power and decision-making that Gerald Lesser, Diana Baumrind, Carolyn Newberger and others have identified. There’s the egalitarian parent’s power- the child has more influence in decision-making than the parent. Then there’s the democratic parent’s approach to power- decisions are made collaboratively. Finally, entering the room via the gold escalators, just to remind you who brings the bacon home, there’s the absolute authoritarian parent- What Dad says goes. Dad makes all the decisions. If Dad says we’re building a wall, we’re building a wall. Dad divys out praise or shame or warmth depending on whether Dad thinks you need it. Dad’s power, after all, controls the resources- financial, emotional and physical . If Dad thinks public humiliation and shaming is in order- well, this is just what Dad has to do. He doesn‘t have to apologize for injustice, crudeness or even the psychological violence of what he says or does. He is Dad.
Dad Donald- A Parenting Guide to the 2016 Presidential Race -Susan Cook- Human Growth and Development textbooks may be the ‘go to’ reference to explain ‘what the hell is going on’ as the new Republican opponent apparent, Mr. Trump has said, in this 2016 Presidential race. You may remember from your Human Growth and Development class the different kinds of parenting power and decision-making that Gerald Lesser, Diana Baumrind, Carolyn Newberger and others have identified. There’s the egalitarian parent’s power- the child has more influence in decision-making than the parent. Then there’s the democratic parent’s approach to power- decisions are made collaboratively. Finally, entering the room via the gold escalators, just to remind you who brings the bacon home, there’s the absolute authoritarian parent- What Dad says goes. Dad makes all the decisions. If Dad says we’re building a wall, we’re building a wall. Dad divys out praise or shame or warmth depending on whether Dad thinks you need it. Dad’s power, after all, controls the resources- financial, emotional and physical . If Dad thinks public humiliation and shaming is in order- well, this is just what Dad has to do. He doesn‘t have to apologize for injustice, crudeness or even the psychological violence of what he says or does. He is Dad. In this and many cultures , The Dad persona- and the person assuming it- is given broad license to do what Dad will. Parenting is an innate, developmentally and culturally defined mindset. I wrote an entire Masters’ Thesis about its intricacies. When someone subtly or overtly begins to play ‘the parental power card’ and exercise parental power over you, it’s hard to immediately recognize because - well, we all there at one time. None of us become our own parents- or parents ourselves- until we grow up or had to. Which is part of the reason it has been so hard to hear what Mr. Trump has been doing. He will parent us, or treat us and the problems of this country as if is he were the authoritarian parent yielding his absolute power like authoritarian parents do. And those of us who never rebelled - whether our parents liked it or not- and became our own parents can really be kowtowed. A turning point in human development is telling Dad- up front- “You can’t tell me what to do. “ Or some variation of questioning Dad’s omniscience. That power shift forever more changes human development. This is Donald Dad Trump. He doles out humiliation as needed- he threatens to take the car keys or build a wall- and once he comes down the gold escalator- Dad built that-you know-he will tell Mr. Cruz he’s smart. He will tell Reince Pribus what a big boy he is doing his job as Republican Party chair. And on and on. Great dads are a wonder to behold. My father was a great father. He held leadership positions of influence. He was the President of the Automobile Dealers Association in the state I grew up in the 1950’s- the automobile’s heyday. He knew parenting is also about knowing what you don’t know- and respecting that every child- every child- has something to teach a parent about how to be a parent. And to be President you have to listen to the economist , the defense and state department , the Supreme Court, and the Congress children. And I do not believe Dad Donald gets that not doing that is the end of the house of Dad Donald’s power. Many a three year old has told a shocked parent, ‘You’re not the boss of me.‘ Dad Donald doesn’t remember that .
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Shouldn't Facebook Be Accountable for their Exploitation of Anonymity - the Faceless- by FacebookTrolling?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:35
Shouldn't Facebook also be held accountable for their moral indifference to the human consequence of Facebook trolling that the platform's anonymity has helped flourish?
"It's A Grand Night for Bailing!" In the Department of Poetic Justice (some Lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook) !
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:42
In The Department of Poetic Justice (with lyrics for The Great American Wrongbook ) , remembering another moment of ex, um disclosure!
Sunshine Week Is Coming! Public Record Access and the Freedom of Information
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:22
March brings us Sunshine Week, an annual honoring of the ethical and legal obligation for Transparency of Public Records and the Freedom of Information Act which sustains it. The impeachment trial immersed us in avoidance of transparancy, if not efforts to make invisible the public records of the US government. How are we doing here in Maine?
Sunshine Week: March 8 - March 15, 2020.
Honoring Freedom of Information
-Susan Cook
The Center for Public Integrity celebrates Sunshine Week to honor Citizens' Right to Know what Government Is Doing (Federal and State) through the Freedom of Information Act and Maine's Public Access Law. The cluster of Maine Democratic Party-affiliated appointees (Governor Janet Mills' appointed staffers, Jeremy Kennedy, former executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, now appointed Chief of Staff, Mills' Communication Director Scott Ogden, former Communication Director of the Maine Democratic Party and others, for example, Speaker Sara Gideon's Director of Communications, former Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party, Mary Erin Casale, and Jonathen Asen, Speaker Gideon's Chief of Staff) all are required by law to hold allegiance to. Of course, Sara Gideon's attorney of choice during a recent ethics committee complaint against her for campaign contribution problems was Ben Grant, former chair of the Maine Democratc Party when now Governor Janet Mills was the party's Vice-Chair.
I recently tried to exercise the state law called The Maine Public Access law (modeled after the federal Freedom of Information Act) which allows the public access to documents generated in doing state business. Invisibility/ transparency distinctions seem, let's say, fuzzy, at least in Speaker Gideon's office. Maine laws exist to clarify the invisibility/transparency distinction and uphold Democracy.
In February 2018 , I sent a Freedom of Access (FOIA) request to the Maine Office of Information Technology. General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works had presented a bill asking for a 60 million dollar tax break. Will the money cover retirement and/or bonuses funding? Who among you believes that BIW would depend on the vagaries of the Maine Legislature for essential funding?
To look at bill development, I requested the email communication from prior Director of Communications Jody Quintera to the newly appointed Mary Erin Casale.
The first response from Chief of Staff, Jonathan Asen said I was confusing the federal documents under the Freedom of Information Act with Maine public documents. I sent him the documentation that Maine has a Public Access laws too, and said I limited my request to the period between October 31, 2017 and January 31, 2018 and exclusively to email communication.
In May 2018, Speaker Gideon's Chief of Staff replied that the Office of Information technology had pulled 12978 documents from the 93 day period which included the emails of only the Director of Communications. That's about 140 emails sent each day by Ms. Casale each or 17 each hour of an 8 hour day, every single day of those 93 days, including holidays. Mr. Asen said I would have to send him a $3000 downpayment to cover the cost for he and Mary Erin Casale to redact "personal" information and that each page would have to be printed in order to do that at a cost of $.25 per page.
Doesn't transparency become invisibility when names are deleted off email copies? Not in this case. The parchment would be scratched out, Harry Potter-style. In May, I did not say print them. I asked only for electronic copies. The law says the fee is $15 per hour after the first hour of staff time. Transparency, the law's intent, is affordable not exorbitant cost.
August 13, 2018, Mr. Asen received my letter limiting my request to Director of Communication emails between October 31, 2017 and January 31, 2018. He replied only after I queried the FOIA ombudsperson about my request.
November 5, 2018 (Election Day eve), Mr. Asen wrote that he wouldn't provide redacted electronic copies . To receive the documents , I would pay $.25 a page for printing. The cost including the $615 for the cost for Mary Erin Casale to go through redacting printed documents, Mr. Asen nearby, would be over $2000. He now signed his letters "Jonny".
FOIA and Maine Public Access laws mandate transparency. Real transparency among those newly hired by Governor Mills and Legislative leadership makes for better government. If Sunshine Week got by them/, maybe their employers will give them a workshop to make sure they don't confuse invisibility and transparency. Even Harry Potter gets that.
Stop Guessing Just Whose Financing was Used... In the Department of Poetic Justice (and for The Great American Wrongbook)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:01
A musical tribute to a certain one hundred and thirty thousand dollars which it turns out a very special You-Know-Who-It-Is did reimburse his lawyer for which had nothing to do with a certain National election in 2016.
In the Department of Poetic Justice: Stop Guessing Just Whose Financing was Used...
(and in The Great American Wrongbook)
which could be sung to the melody from "New York, New York"
Stop guessing just whose
financing was used
to pay a certain woman a fee
she thought she was due.
Because now Rudy blows the cover
Michael Cohen discovered,
Sarah Sanders, new news for you?
Maybe he forgot
a bargain he thought
he got or maybe that's the only
checkbook he ever lost
when he hoped we'd elect
him, president, neglect to inspect
check memos: "This one's for sex."
Now Sarah must spin
the spot he is in. Did Rudy call her first
to explain the logic she will bring
to speaking nationwide
saying he never lied.
You know how lawyers
keep clients' hands tied.
The only thing worse
than Mike Cohen's curse
if his client spoke up
said, Yes he had re-imbursed
one hundred thirty thousand bucks,
because sometimes his lucks
run out or he forgets who he...
Start spreading the news.
Embarassed V. 2.
But Mr. Trump will say at least he's telling the truth.
Unlike the White House Correspondents
host, Ms. Wolf made comments
embarassed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights too.
Sarah Sanders might
get her turn next time
while Michelle Wolf is exiled,
excommunicated too
and next year's Nobel Prize
for fiction, Sarah Sanders wins one.
She'll be the Nobel Board's new P.R. hire.
A Citizen's Guide to Government Officials Swallowing Uncomfortably and the Chi of Democracy
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:10
FBI Director James Comey is being queried about whether President Donald Trump asked him to drop the investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael ‘Mike’ Flynn and his contact with Russians to influence the 2016 election. Like the Watergate Hearings and President Bill Clinton's Impeachment Hearing, many find these events uncomfortable. Good feelings may also arise in watching them. It is the flow of the chi of Democracy.
A Citizen’s Guide to Government Officials Swallowing Uncomfortably and the Chi of Democracy -Susan Cook- We seem to be returning in this country to what we will euphemistically call ‘Government Officials Swallowing Uncomfortably’. I am, referring to the many visual opportunities to observe this during televised and live streamed testimony from fired FBI Director James Comey. He is being queried about whether President Donald Trump asked him to drop the investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael ‘Mike’ Flynn and his contact with Russians to influence the 2016 election. Now, here at The River Is Wide, we sometimes write a feature called the ’Two and One-half Minute Conspiracy Theory’. But those testifying and all those listening are doing a pretty good job of that themselves. So today we focus on ‘the good feeling’ one might get from watching the Comey testimony. I say this having had such good feelings while witnessing the Watergate Hearings before the US Senate and later the impeachment process of President Bill Clinton for perjury about his extramarital affair with a White House intern. The stirring of the conscience one gets from watching the swallowing discomfort of government officials- elected or appointed- comes from this. It carries the tactile sensation, the neurological motion that indicates that we live in a democracy while a slow, delicate, tender tune up is taking place. This is not unlike the flow of "c-h-i"- the actual spelling is "c-h-i" but the English pronunciation is like the word "Gee" - during Acupuncture. I remembered the chi of democracy stirred when Speaker Newt Gingrich passed in his gavel during President Clinton’s Impeachment Hearings because his marital infidelity was revealed which was soon followed by Robert Livingston's election and rapid resignation as Speaker because of his marital infidelity which led to the rapid rise of the perception of Dennis Hastert as the best candidate for Speaker of the House and his rapid election. Mr. Hastert's past eluded the fact-checkers who, if you were old enough to read newspapers then, were working days, nights and weekends for weeks on end during that Speaker of the House election season. President Clinton was acquitted but the hearings brought disclosure of the marital philandering of many other prominent Republican members of Congress, all of whom voted for impeachment. Publisher Larry Flynt offered a reward for such information. Dennis Hastert was elected Speaker of the House. He now serves jail time for using campaign funds as hush money given to a man who alleged Hastert had repeatedly molested during his wrestling coach career. Some people swallow with difficulty just thinking about acupuncture because of the insertion of thin, thin, thin needles at points in the human body called meridians or "acupuncture points". But those razor-sharp points reach the special point which provokes and smoothes the flow of "c-h-i". And in this case, once the chi of democracy begins to flow, that swallowing difficulty indicates a good thing will begin soon. The opened flow of energy and intention which in a democracy means fairness and justice finding their way.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: What's Wrong With the Many Chimneys, One Smokestack Approach to Legislating
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:25
Elected representatives have taken a new approach to legislating. Only their own district or cell or voting area can receive information from there! Otherwise- blocked on Twitter!! Banned from videotaping for the local Public Access Television Channel! What's wrong with legislation created chimney be chimney?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry:
What's wrong with A Many Chimneys, One Smokestack approach to Legislation?
-Susan Cook-
If elected representatives act as if their only concern is just their district or area or cell where people vote for them, doesn't that mean that democracy's voice or smoke is isolated, segmented chimney by chimney. When each chimney funneling into one big smoke stack is isolated- will each of the representatives for each of those cells not see the big picture or what's coming out of the big smoke stack each of those individual chimneys feed into? And isn't that the way the big smoke stack carries out plans those individual chimneys just can't see or know about? Especially if the big smoke stack panders or bribes or strokes those individual chimneys one by one or threatens them if they don't go along with the big smoke stack plan? And isn't that how you end up with no democracy at all because then only the big smokestack really knows what's going on and everyone else gets blocked on Twitter or thrown out of the meeting?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: What's Wrong With the Many Chimneys, One Smokestack Approach to Legislating
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:25
Elected representatives have taken a new approach to legislating. Only their own district or cell or voting area can receive information from there! Otherwise- blocked on Twitter!! Banned from videotaping for the local Public Access Television Channel! What's wrong with legislation created chimney be chimney?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry:
What's wrong with A Many Chimneys, One Smokestack approach to Legislation?
-Susan Cook-
If elected representatives act as if their only concern is just their district or area or cell where people vote for them, doesn't that mean that democracy's voice or smoke is isolated, segmented chimney by chimney. When each chimney funneling into one big smoke stack is isolated- will each of the representatives for each of those cells not see the big picture or what's coming out of the big smoke stack each of those individual chimneys feed into? And isn't that the way the big smoke stack carries out plans those individual chimneys just can't see or know about? Especially if the big smoke stack panders or bribes or strokes those individual chimneys one by one or threatens them if they don't go along with the big smoke stack plan? And isn't that how you end up with no democracy at all because then only the big smokestack really knows what's going on and everyone else gets blocked on Twitter or thrown out of the meeting?
In the Department of Poetic Justice: You Don't Know This But Your Civil Rights Are Violated
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:43
From The Great American Wrongbook and In Today's Department of Poetic Justice, a poetic tribute to the question: what's wrong with violating the civil rights of citizens who go to public hearings to testify. Could be sung to the tune from The Sound of Music, "You Are 16, Going On 17".
In the Department of Poetic Justice: You Don't Know This but Your Civil Rights
(and the Great American Wrongbook which could be sung to the tune "You are 16 Going On 17"
from "The Sound of Music")
-Susan Cook-
on the Internet,
can be reduced
to mush and you can't say
or even make a guess
they will not tell you.
Their IP numbers
lead you in circles
out on the World Wide Web.
Politicians and their staffers
think that their job includes
negative, hostile
demeaning, caustic
words they will aim at you.
Lunatic for criticizing,
exposing you could say,
electeds who don't know
why the voters
should have something to say.
Staffers can be good at lying
And maybe you should know,
Erhlichman, John Dean,
Haldeman, that scene,
dirty and just obscene
Politicians, dirty staffers
sometimes go hand-in-hand.
And in this Nation,
From DC to Maine
some often do slip through.
They will spend their time in the State House
trying to discredit you,
on your tax dollar,
Privacy Guarded, on sites
they've come to know
Where they'll post demeaning comments
Democrats do it too
While their Communication
Director pretends
she just doesn't know.
When it's time for applications
for jobs at the State House
misogynistic, fascist,
or sexist, oh well,
hide email notes?
Call the other party's staffer
try to get him on board.
Proxy, so toxic,
civil rights blocks it
when people file suit
Since the limitations
of the statute are not met
Solar pronouncements
liberal announcements
don't allow or defend
Violating civil rights,
the Director doth approve,
legal, illegal, law school achievers
might help prevent abuse.
Maybe yes or maybe no. Depends
if where they'd like to end
elected to Congress,
where they won't confess
their civil rights offense.
Pump it up and put it out,
the environmental news
sent to the press
now would be hard-pressed
to find out his real past.
If the Speaker brings corruption
into their messaging
there goes the free press,
Antidotally keeps
Democracy different
From some fascist dictator
who believes the public blames
who she decides
will ruin her game plan,
public jobs, personal gain.
Human rights, their violators
aren't just in one party,
Democrats,
GOP staff,
ignoring your civil liberties.
When they decide they will take
the b-i-t-ch out to the woodshed,
law school, a small school
compared to the
leadership's big decree.
bigger than Africa,
Ukraine, Rwanda,
where leaders still launder
human rights they've squandered
Are in danger of repeating
just what they've done before
violate people who
speak at a hearing.
We have seen all of this before.
Fake News Creation and the Abuse of Power- Local Style: A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:54
This American Life recently reminded us that the Democratic Party doesn't seem to get who it is anymore. Is it the Political Gamesmanship that's done it? Or their own creation as, yes, Donald Trump, says of fake news.
As an episode of This American Life pointed out recently, the distinction between the 2 parties has gotten lost. Democrats do not know how to say- out loud- big girl like- what they stand for. In Maine- often- Political Gamesmanship, Political favor- trading and vengeance toward people who say things they don't like- are at the front of the party line. Using Montreal, Quebec-based IP numbers as website hosts to spread untruths or upload items to the "Cloud", difficult to trace back to the party staffer hacking away on an I-phone. Or simply finally paying off their collaborators with the bigger Communications Director or Chief of Staff job.
Fake news creation is about as passive aggressive as it gets. Slightly genomed up, it places at risk, an ethical free press because even the party Communications Director may not telling you fact. Without an ethical press, the opportunity for anybody to rise to the top job, based on merit, trustworthiness, skill is in danger.
Killing The Red Pines in Charlotte: The Private Time Line of Environmental Contamination
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:45
I’ve been asking for about 9 years now why Red Pines that have thrived for hundreds of years would die. Not that I knew 9 years ago they would die. But I did know something would happen because as close as 160 feet from the upper perimeter of their hillside cemetery location, a Connecticut-based company- Lane Construction- began to expand gravel mining. I was thinking about pollution to the water aquifer under the mining operation, the noise level driving migratory birds away, the destabilization of the landscape which with enough rain could easily cave in, hundreds of caskets falling into some giant sinkhole. Google Earth clarifies exactly what those Red Pines were up against.
A Citizen's Guide to Acupuncture
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:54
Acupuncture is an ancient intervention for helping
raise "chi"- pronounced "GEE" in English. For those for whom acupuncture treatments have enhanced the "Gee", whose pain is freed, who feel better when their energy finally runs true, what a discovery! Well, re-discovery because it's been around 5000 years. But, once they try it, reality seems clearer! And who is not made better by a genuine, legitimate, valid check with reality?
- Playing
- A Citizen's Guide to Acupuncture
- From
- Susan J. Cook
A Citizen's Guide to the Petty and Small-minded
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:29
As the dust settles from the Iowa Caucuses , it is time to sniff, dig and if necessary chew and swallow pettiness and small-mindedness where found. How to distinguish the petty and small-minded from the profound and truly significant? And yes, I am taking a lead from the dogs in creating this Citizen's Guide, specifically as they explore the yard.
If Power Is An Aphrodisiac Than Unethical Staff Are Surgeons
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:30
Deception is something we need to claim as what we do not like in politics and political life. This is not claiming the moral high ground. This is seeking to return politics and politicians to a respectable level of credibility with the public. But their staff members have to be equally accountable.
If Power Is An Aphrodisiac, Unethical Staff Are Surgical Implants
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:39
The Presidency and being Presidential staff are not power pills that work their way out in sweat and perspiration after swallowing. They are power pills that cause genetic and believe it or not historical mutations. How do we remind ourselves and the public that the newly Powerful may give themselves permission to deceive? How do we hold a new President and his staff accountable?
-Susan Cook-
You may remember a Democrat who got into a compromising (or rather compromised, re-negotiated, compromised again and finally blackmailed) circumstance and lied, distorted and had his staff lie for him. That would be former Presidential candidate John Edwards and his circumstance with videographer Rielle Hunter. His staff's deception in personal , professional and public relationships, however, zoom us to another level in viewing the journey of that substance called power through the human body. As Donald Trump takes The Oath, his staff’s willingness to lie for him must also be a focus of our concern.
Whatever happened to that other White House luminary who said "I cannot tell a lie" whose food must have had a really tough journey through his body because he only had wooden teeth to chew it. I'm talking about George Washington.
People are not just players in a lie, however elaborate. They are not a means to an end. They are the end. Deception is something we need to claim as what we do not like in political life. This is not claiming the moral high ground. This is taking our vitamins, believing they work and hoping they do.
A Citizen's Advanced Guide to Political Hostage Taking
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:49
Seldom do citizens witness the workings of that Refinery known as Political Hostage Taking. There is much to learn from the John Edwards' trial about how to recognize Political Hostage Taking when it is happening. There is hope that this Refinery in which what goes in at the beginning comes out at the end, cruder, dirtier and more likely to cause disease will be shut out of politics some day.
Credibility in Business Casual: Sexism Wears a New Outfit
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:46
The Republican attack on women, a not- so thinly veiled attack on credibility, the females, that is, is not new. Women, you may remember, require more “proof” that they are telling the truth than men do. Women’s credibility remains the non-credentialed, not appropriately dressed, inarticulate sweetspot where, when hit just right, sexism implants its tendrils and goes viral, its derision entitled, origin unknown, because we are talking about women.
Much is heard about the "new" Republican attack on women, a not so thinly veiled attack on credibility, the females’, that is. Women, you may remember require more “proof” that they are telling the truth than men do. Women’s credibility remains the non-credentialed, not appropriately dressed, inarticulate sweetspot where, when hit just right, sexism implants its tendrils and goes viral, its derision entitled, origin unknown, because we are talking abut women.
Many women don’t realize that today’s war on women’s credibility is like that faced by Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearing either because they now have credentials that they hope protect their credibility or they were not old enough or not allowed to watch that spectacle as it unfolded on national television in the early 1990’s. During the hearings to admit Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, Anita Hill, an African-American attorney was subpoenaed to testify about the sexual harassment she endured at his hands at his previous job.
I still have my “I Believe Anita Hill” button. Many women don’t. Many men never got one in the first place. The smug confidence that Clarence Thomas evinced during those hearings has metastasized into complete silence, as he now sits on the Court. He perhaps now believes he doesn’t have to say anything to have credibility as he has not said or asked any questions during the oral arguments for something like 6 years.
Some believe that blatantly different standards for male and female credibility have gone away. We need go no further than the recent trial of John Edwards for federal campaign law violations for “proof” that sexism’s new business casual dress does not mean standards have changed.
Criminal law trials are about credibility. The “designer” proof presented by John Edwards that he was telling the truth was this: A video of his nationally-televised appearance lauded as his moment of truth-telling, the “tell-all” in which he stated that he had a brief affair with Rielle Hunter but it had ended and his unethical staffer had fathered her child.
This “truth telling” explique was presented to the jury as evidence that the man before them was really not telling the truth then, even though he said he was before a national television audience, but he was telling the truth now. This, strategized his defense team, was, yes, a wardrobe failure in credibility that would now be restored with that ever-trustworthy safety pin- the fact that John Edwards is a man. They knew that would hold up better than the fact that Edwards is a lawyer. One word captures how a woman engaging in such tactics would be characterized: Flighty!
The Credibility dress standard is not the same for men and women. Credibility remains an icon of sexism that presumes that women have to meet different standards of proof than men do. There are cultural and social questions that we all must ask about the different standards for “proof” that apply to men and women, that are as unfair and unequal now as they were when Anita Hill was subpoenaed to testify about Clarence Thomas.
When we ask for proof from men and women, do we ask each of them, equally, no matter what the context, no matter who has been privileged with the presumptive “truth-teller” status? When the ” court of public opinion” is courted, really deep down, don't you think you can overlook what she says is true? That what everybody else thinks is better proof? That any other truth that she might offer is really just her reaching for a safety pin- when really- there isn’t one big enough to fill the gap?
A Citizens' Guide to The Brand: Democracy By Fear and Branding
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:55
The Constitution does not say "We, the Brand Consumer". It says "We, the... thinking , questioning, remembering, mind-changing, advocating and yes, voting... People". We are Constituents. But The Brand has become the new approach to getting a candidate elected.
Getting The Brand off the ballot, and the Candidate back on, is what we the People do simply by doing what we do: asking, questioning, remembering, trusting our perceptions, telling the truth and yes, voting.
Here, There and Everywhere: Locally Upholding Human Rights
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:28
In this season of gratitude, speak. Uphold civil liberties, the human rights that we have, that others will travel thousands of miles for, and when you see them violated, no matter what the justification others may offer, speak up. Here, there and everywhere.
Here, There and Everywhere: Locally Upholding Human Rights "Civil Liberties is a product delivered locally", page 49 of my American Civil Liberties Union copy of the Constitution of the United States. These are our human rights. We do not need to travel far to find countries where winning an election holds priority over upholding Civil Liberties. The New York Times tells about a Russian political critic Leonid Razvozzhayev- of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. who last week traveled to Ukraine seeking political asylum, “somewhere in the West” for a lawyer to file on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He was tracked, stalked, finally abducted and is now in jail. A political critic of Vladimir Putin- not a terrorist. No one in this country- here, there and everywhere- should have to live in fear that they will be intimidated, derided when they exercise the right to free speech because of Amendment 1 which says "Congress shall make no law ...prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of people to peacably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” No one in this country- here, there and everywhere- should have to live in fear that they will be subject to surveillance, search or intrusive "background checks" because "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searchs and seizures shall not be violated." Held together in the mind at the same time, this means: no one anywhere in this country should live in fear that if they speak freely in a peacably assembled group, they will have their privacy invaded by tracking, intrusive background checks, be intimidated, have the freedom of the press of this country harnessed to publicly invite others to embarrass or deride them or cast the person or their human rights as throw-aways". That goes for the people you disagree with, for people who like what a Governor says and does, for the people who don't like what he says and does, for his staff and the public who attend any of his events, here, there and everywhere, in this country. People enrolled in a particular party want their candidate to win. I say never at the expense of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. In this season of gratitude, speak. Uphold civil liberties, the human rights that we have, that others will travel thousands of miles for, and when you see them violated, no matter what the "entitled" justification of others, speak up. Here, there and everywhere.
Where Mean Spiritedness Hides- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:48
Spirits are invisible, never caught in the flesh, imaginary presence usually. Children think they hide under the bed, in dark places, the darkness a perfect place for mean spiritedness to hide. Unseen, mean spiritedness is accountable to no one.
The Maine Sniff Test
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:36
Let us pause and pine for those deeply scented pine-tree shaped air fresheners that hung from the rear view mirror, just small enough to avoid obstruction of the view but large enough to lend a rich aroma to the roomiest vehicle. One deep breath and you were transported to a clean, crisp, true Maine. They were a portable, pocket-sized IPOD of Maine goodness for all who speak, see or smell, the authentic Maine sniff test.
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Civil Liberties for Sexists: The Purity Ball and Prostitution Laws
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:45
Recently, a man convicted of aiding the prostitution of a young woman who was exploited by over 150 men, was given a 3 week sentence. This sentence from a female judge, on her toes not to appear you-know-what, invites men to pimp. Like the right wing conservative Family Research Council director who promotes "Purity Balls" where fathers sign virginity protection clauses with their daughters, the pimp's sentence devalues women's sexuality and their worth. Women, with all their glorious advancement, are still there for the dirtying, still there for male credibility to prevail when big decisions must be made, that is defining what a women is really worth and whether she can credibly make her own decisions, about her body or anything else.
For many women, in the world, in this country and in this state, their worth still lies not when they lean in, but when they lean back.
Where D'ya Get That Hatred?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:13
Great affirmation of human purpose is the victory for those who watch the runners and wheelchairs racers come in at the Boston Marathon. They are all in it together because they chose to race. The world grieves the terrorization of that event. They question the "radicalization" of two brothers- the older maybe blocking the younger’s escape route for any hesitation the younger might have had.
Where did all that hatred come from?
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Where Have You Been My Blue-Eyed Son: The Problem With Term Limits
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:46
Mandated term limits for Congressional members gets batted around now and then as a possible solution for gridlock which some say is driven by the entitlement of power- not money- a perennially electable Congress acquires. Ok, maybe money, too.
In my state, term limits for the State Legislature and Constitutional officers, elected by the Legislators, were passed by an independently funded referendum in the early 90's. Two Legislative staff had been convicted of climbing through a State House window to deposit completed ballots in voting boxes during a special election for Legislative seats to keep their party in power. They were convicted and served jail terms. If power corrupts, absolute power will do whatever it has to, to stay where it is.
A major argument against term limits is that those who become the most influential in the law-making process are Legislative employees and paid officials and lobbyists.
So, how's it going?
A Citizen's Guide to Updating Your Truth
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:07
"Updating your truth" is a term not much used these days. We read that somebody "denied", "vetoed", "denounced", "maintained", "refused to consider", "filibustered", "opposed", "fended off", or "attacked". But we never hear that someone has "upgraded their truth".
"Updating the truth" might lead us all to be in better service to the truth, less frightened of the real information that presents itself and says "Give this some real consideration". We know that currently, people often don't seriously consider new information because there is no safe way for them to change their mind. In psychotherapy, its called "resistance". In developmental psychology, "updating your truth" is what children and adolescents do, profoundly, albeit with subtlety, when they reach 2, 5, 8, 10, 13, 18,- whenever a great developmental epoch begins or ends. Isn't "updating your truth" what human experience is anyway?
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A Citizen's Guide to Freedom
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:58
The parades and camaraderie of the Fourth of July celebrate freedom.
This nation-wide celebration doesn't mean that the freedoms we have can’t be corrupted. Just this week, the Supreme Court eliminated laws originally intended to prevent states from interfering with the right to vote that has been broadly criticized as a corruption of our freedom to vote. What are the freedoms and rights of citizens?
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The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: How You Can Tell If a Government Is Becoming Corrupt
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:02
Remember the sixty second moral inquiry asks questions about what is the right thing to do. Today, we ask "How can you tell If a government is becoming corrupt? Let us ponder Illinois, the political corruption hotspot. Let us imagine that each now jailed politician stood and said loud and clear, "I only have one rule and that is if you have to cry, go outside." And several at the meeting jumped up and said, "No. You have the rules in the Bill of Rights, in Civil liberties, in the Constitution, Federal and State laws. Are you following those rules?" Which no one asked or did. So, what are questions of moral inquiry when it comes to government corruption?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: How To Tell The Difference Between Mudslinging and a Reality Check
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:01
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right. Thinking about what is right sometimes means finding the question that needs to be asked. Today's moral inquiry asks: How do you the tell the difference between mud-slinging and a reality check when criticizing a politician's' actions? Daily, political life begs this question, and certainly former Congressman Weiner's cyber-sex (that's what it is called) activities do. So, what questions might we ask in our moral inquiry?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: How Do We Know What Human Rights Are?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:00
Sometmes exploring what is right means finding the right question to ask. Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks the question: how do we know what human rights are.
A Citizen's Guide to Civility
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:36
To understand what civility is these days in times of tweets, smart phones, blogs and Facebook, we first have to look at "uncivil" and how "uncivil" comes to be.
There are three ways :
There's uncivil by you, yourself; uncivil by Chief of Staff or staff and Uncivil by Lawyer.
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The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: How Can You Tell If You're Being Disrespected?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:08
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about how to know right and wrong. Today's question: How can you tell if you are being treated disrespectfully?
Mean-spirited Is A Political Issue
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:13
The mid-term elections are almost upon us. Now that Obama care is working, what political issues might be nearby? What will help us make good choices among Republicans, Democrats and those trendy Independents? What issue cuts across the political landscape and party lines, not already written into party platforms or any independent's desperate attempt to sketch a silhouette starkly differentiating themselves from their partisan opponents?
Well, how about whether the candidate is or has been mean spirited in carrying out their political agenda?
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The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Why Not Mangle the Information If You Can?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:04
The Sixty-Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right and wrong. Today's Sixty-Second Moral Inquiry asks: Why not mangle,`distort the information, if you can? If we all have the ability to think, isn't it each person's responsibility to find out for themselves? Why not pick and choose the facts you like and the facts you don't, selectively leaving out the ones you don't?
A Citizen's Guide to Political Gamesmanship and Environmental Contamination
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:50
Winning is the short view of Political gamesmanship.Fake news creation is part and parcel of it. Environmental contamination is the long view when environmental policy is on the table. In many environmental policy decisions, the environment takes a back seat to the political gamesmanship at play, including creation of fake news. Recently 2 examples of environmental issues tainted by fake news in Maine showed up.
A Citizen's Guide to Passion and Political Gamesmanship in Democracies
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:47
The protesters in Ukraine are showing us on a very public stage that criticism free from harassment and ridicule of the actions of public elected officials is or should be what a democracy allows. The protesters in Ukraine, those who we memorialize for their passion and those who stand and testify through their actions remind us that what we have in this country is always up for grabs- if not from foreign threat but from each other. We really do not know how democracy sustains itself here. Speaking up is dismissed as “passion”. Passion is the code word for somebody who doesn’t know that the preferred approach is Political gamesmanship even as it erodes- day in, day out, as we see in Congress and state governments the democracy we live in.
A Citizen's Guide to the Civil Liberty Called Freedom of the Press
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:36
The civil liberties of the Constitution are wholesome, pure, and good. They sometimes require holding two ideas in the mind at the same time, not easy some days. And they can be exploited. Freedom of the press, our reliable civil liberties vacuum for the unseemly and dirty then placed on public display can be exploited very easily. The exploitation is non-partisan, can come from either side because civil liberties are non-partisan.
Even the venerable newspaper editor Abe Rosenthal at the even more venerable New York Times distorted facts about the iconic example of urban social decay, the Kitty Genovese murder, by claiming that more than a dozen passive bystanders listened for a very long time to her screams and did not call the police. In fact, there were only two, who thought it was a domestic dispute, a man beating a woman, which was not then and yes even to this day is often not- considered an entirely atrocious act calling for police intervention.
Here in Maine, what does the civil liberty "freedom of the press" mean in the wake of revelations that the upper echelons of state government with held and then shredded public information about the rating system for giving out "Healthy Maine Partnership" fund. Shall we soon expect some chest-thumping about which party civil liberties truly belong to?
Telling the Truth With Twigs and Baling Wire
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:50
I am a great admirer of bird nests and those who build them. They make them with twigs, string, down. You find them sometimes nestled inside the angle a piece of twisted baling wire makes found in a pasture or barn. You can see when you find one that it's labor intensive. I heard someone say recently that she collected bird nests but "only ones that had made it through the winter." Of course, that means that bird - if she made it through the winter-who comes back to look for the nest will have to start all over again.
Telling the truth is like that. There are those who build it from twigs and baling wire and no matter how hard someone tries to say that it's critical for survival, somebody will come along and take it down and you have to start all over again.
A Citizen's Guide to Entitled Derision
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:04
When politicians talk about "working across the aisle", they talk about it as if they are endorsing a great ethic. But working across the aisle is not an ethic. It's a carpentry essential. Its absence contributes to a structural failure of the institutional structure . We witness how badly the legislative process in Congress now sags.
But if working across the aisle isn’t an ethic, where are the real ethics in contemporary politics? When did entitled derision - the disrespectful messaging politicians daily speak- written for them by their Communications Directors and Directors of New Media- replace an ethic of respect?
Of course you might ask "What's wrong with entitled derision?" “Doesn‘t it“, as I heard one party hack say, a law school student nodding her head in agreement- "depend on what they did." Entitled derision is - after all- the belief that you are entitled to demean, insult or degrade the other because of what the person believes, says, does or votes. Distinguished candidates, senators and representatives using the language their Communication Directors and Directors of New Media write for them do it. Just taking part in the democratic process, in someone else’s view, justifies entitled derision and justifies making the candidate or the other legislator a target.
We see it in state, local and national government and politics. At all levels. We have also seen it in Northern Ireland, in Cambodia, in Tibet, in Vietnam, at Abu Grabh, and yes we saw it in Nazi Germany because someone convinced someone else the insulted, demeaned, derided "deserved" it. Entitled derision.
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-Susan Cook-
domestic violence so I know empirical studies show race and social class strongly influence who is or is not believed and thus identified when a patient tells a health care professional about abuse. So there were no studies. Rather, that week, a State Senator used her ‘entitled derision’ to demean domestic violence workers.
A Citizen's Guide to Silence
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 10:07
Legislative ethics exist to put the brakes on political gamesmanship- whether it’s trading votes to pass a bill, get a fat salaried new Federal job, or for financial gain, all placed ahead of making good governance. But they didn’t work in this case. Congress is at its lowest public approval rating ever. Congressional candidates flaunt “working across the aisle” as a goal. But really they mean “political gamesmanship.” This is not a mystery buried right next to the Gnostic Gospels beside the Tigris River. Just read the daily newspaper.
What is the price of political gamesmanship by legislators and Congressional Representatives and Senators? Five years ago, I - one person- tried to engage legislators in finding proof that a rural asphalt plant would harm the migratory bird population- and the environment because of the noise and pollutants it creates. Let us- now 5 years later - go the migratory bird site. It does not take many years before migrating birds go elsewhere or die because they can‘t find another place. Birds must hear each other to breed and survive. This is why the music of birdsong evolved. It kept them alive. Without them, and citizens who can voice their concern, there is silence. Here is one citizen's guide to that silence.
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Legislative ethics exist to put the brakes on political gamesmanship- whether it’s trading votes to pass a bill, get a fat federal job, or for financial gain placed ahead of making good governance. But they didn’t work in this case.
Congress is at its lowest public approval rating ever. Congressional candidates flaunt “working across the aisle” as a goal. But really they mean “political gamesmanship.” This is not a mystery buried beside the Tigris River. Just read the daily newspaper.
A Citizen's Guide to the Shallow and Inconsiderate in American Public Political Discourse
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:21
The public officials and the political candidates who shape public discourse through the impulsive and shallow convey far more about their ethics than any policy platform could. When their messaging offends and its shallowness is revealed, recognizing it is a first step in returning some level of trust in public officials and political process. Come to think of it, the shallow, the quick, the inconsiderate may have a lot to do with the depletion of trust in our government structures that we currently live with. Thus, this citizen's guide.
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What the Truth Costs : A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:23
The cost of the truth is not tied to inflation. It’s tied to tolerance, inversely. The more tolerance that exists, the lower the price paid for the truth. In places where there is little tolerance, the price of the truth is very, very high, impossibly high at times. Witness the beheading of James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, whose exclusive purpose was to bear witness to the truth where it lives. The truth can be our moral antidote, a medicine, the vitamin that- yes, keeps us alive and human.
The truth remains very, very powerful. It can be exploited, spun, distorted and taken away . No truth is self-evident . These fallen journalists were its witness and prover, its protector, its deeply aggrieved mourner because someone was trying to diminish it and yes, we too are all of things.
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What the Truth Costs: An Advanced Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 11:09
When we see the tools of discrediting the truth happily taken on, now or in history- we might say this. The cost of the truth is, it turns out, the truth.
I attended a conference recently about “Exploring Women’s Testimony: Genocide, War, revolution, The Holocaust and Human Rights”. After hearing how those things might be connected, it occurred to me hat maybe an advanced Citizens Guide to what the truth costs would be helpful. The truth comes at a high cost but the cost exacted varies from culture to culture, person to person, time, and context. The cost can be measured by its consequence. It can be measured by the intricacy, the arduous effort put into discrediting the speaker. This is what the conference was about.
I attended a conference recently about “Exploring Women’s Testimony: Genocide, War, revolution, The Holocaust and Human Rights”. After hearing how those things might be connected, it occurred to me hat maybe an advanced Citizens Guide to what the truth costs would be helpful. The truth comes at a high cost but the cost exacted varies from culture to culture, person to person, time, and context. The cost can be measured by its consequence. It can be measured by the intricacy, the arduous effort put into discrediting the speaker. This is what the conerence was about.
A Citizen's Guide to the Difference Between the Truth and "Gotcha" in "Gotcha politics"
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:45
If Woodward and Bernstein and Ben Bradlee had gone for the “gotcha” instead of the truth, the cost would have been the truth. The integrity that Watergate returned to American politics might never happened. There’s no “gotcha” in that. That’s history and the story of the disappearance of candidates with integrity who fall by the wayside because of a Director of New Media, short-sighted journalist or political party operative who are best versed in the “gotcha” and not in the integrity that the truth bring. Let' us pay a little more attention to the difference between the truth and the “gotcha” in “gotcha” politics.
A Citizen's Guide to the "Fear of Gotcha" in American Political Life
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:04
In the 1950’s and 1960’s American citizens and the stalwart among them who were brave enough to run for political office had to learn to live with the “red scare”. The “red scare” was a manufactured and sometimes elaborately embellished accusation that a politician or a citizen was a communist. In a word that meant “horrible” and willing to sacrifice every liberty and freedom we enjoyed. These days, “red scare-ing” has been replaced in political life by “gotcha” and “fear of gotcha” ”Gotcha” you may remember is the “fruit” of the intensive effort in politics to identify -hey, in the information age, “information” about a candidate or officeholder or political operative that can be cast as dirty, nefarious, some tiny window into the heart of darkness that beats inside an individual previously seen as pure and good who also happens to be in or running for office or working for someone who is. Usually, the “gotcha” obtained has nothing to do with or is irrelevant to the tasks or dignity and respect involved in holding political office.
Red-scare-ing changed the political landscape and turned political life into far more of a looking over one’s shoulder activity than was necessary or productive or useful on the taxpayer’s dollar. These days “gotcha” or rather “fear of gotcha” threatens to do the same thing- if it has not already.
What remains most important is how the officeholders do the job, their respect for this democracy and their constituents and their ability to resist the temptations of power- i.e. the abuse of it.
Referendums on Arrogance- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:14
In politics, arrogance can be hired, purchased or -in volunteer organizations- a gratuity that comes with volunteer labor.- or elected. In Maine , the incumbent Governor who was re-elected on Tuesday certainly had very public moments of arrogance. But voters decided - on Tuesday-alongside their bond referendums- who had less arrogance. They decided he had less- 48 to 44%.
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The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: How Can You Tell When Political and Moral Ground Are Too Different From Each Other?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:04
With the election season over, the next phase of elected politics has settled on our plates like a bowl of jello. How can you tell when the age-old moral question “What is right or wrong- civil liberties-style-?” is still high on the legislative agenda? When it’s camouflaged under a political party claim “You are us and we are you and…“ thus leaving you to complete in your own mind the sentence the party wants you to fill in without you first asking “How so?“
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: What's Wrong With Targeting Individuals?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:40
In many parts of the world, torture, harassment and persecution are used to target individuals who criticize , believe, have secrets or religions (like Tibetan Buddhism by the Chinese ) disliked by those in power. It happens everywhere even in this country. Thus the Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks: What’s wrong with targeting individuals because of what the individual criticizes or believes?
A Citizen's Guide to the Difference Between Telling the Truth and an Attack
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:51
I heard Jill Abramson , the former executive editor of the New York Times say recently that since the George W. Bush administration, there have been no less than eight lawsuits against members of the press for disclosing truth from information held in government documents.
Because the truth can change people’s beliefs, we are now in a time when telling it has been raised to the “orange alert” stage- the now unused system for alerting the public to danger. Fourth grade girls knew the truth is threatening in this way all along anyway. But as citizens, we have to ask what we lose when telling the truth is called an attack, something to prevent at all costs and thus beyond the reach of our beliefs because the powers that be don’t want us to hear it. The inner fourth grade girl in all of us is silenced and we are left with whatever the real consequences of the abuse of power are- which getting back to the outcomes history has displayed are often far worse, more damaging because the observers and the people in power who could have stopped those dangers did not have truth on their side or chose to ignore it or pretend that truth telling was an attack rather than act of protection.
A Citizen's Guide to the Surgical Inoperability of Self-interest from the Political Body
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:04
The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that Arizona’s 2000 law which created an Independent Commission to determine Congressional Re-districting boundaries is constitutional. Arizona ‘s Legislature wanted it the old way: elected legislators deciding who would be in the pool of voters who elect them by defining the boundaries of voting districts.
The attorneys for the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission argued that returning redistricting to the legislature would be “the loss of the last great hope for addressing partisan gerrymandering.” The attorneys who wanted re-districting to return to the Legislature wrote that “Plenty of options remain for addressing partisan gerrymandering with the ultimate backstop being the ability to vote the gerrymanderers out.” The last great hope in this case is that respect for constituents- citizens- not the injured Arizona Legislature- is what the Supreme Court would protect and they did.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: What's Wrong With Politicians Placing Political Gamesmanship Above Honoring the Public Trust?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:19
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right and what is wrong. Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks what is wrong with politicians placing political gamesmanship above honoring the public's trust? When did political gamesmanship become more important to Senators, Congressional representatives and state legislators than respecting the public trust? Is it wrong, as Gallup polls tell us has happened, to destroy the public trust just so the “politicians” will be winner of the day at political gamesmanship?
-Susan Cook-
"I Wonder Whose Pocket She's In" (The song and dance genre): A Lyrical Tribute to Corporate Influence on Elected Officials
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:46
Well, in my state we have a remarkable example of corporations having their way with state legislators to pass a bill that- in the long run did nothing but pay the corporation millions in cashed-in tax breaks. And the two legislators (one from each party) who sponsored the bill got nothing but $16,000 in donations to their personal PACS. This has sparked wonder and awe and inspired a lyrical tribute "I Wonder Whose Pocket She's In" which can be sung to the melody of the 1909 hit song "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now", if you like a good song instead of a bracing lyrical poem.
In the Department of Poetic Justice: We'll Give You A Job (The song and dance genre)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:47
In the Department of Poetic Justice, as we say "Sayonara" to Tom Price, government jobs distributed as they may be, a poetic tribute called "We'll Give You A Job" which might be sung to the tune "Home on the Range".
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Poetic Reckoning)
-Susan Cook-
where the fat salaries are
and the pay is the highest you've had,
where seldom is heard, your skills being what they are,
what's required to get hired for this?
if you do what I want when I say.
That may entail, never saying my name,
making sure our connection not clear.
where rewards will be dear
for your silence. Don't mention my name,
and the rest of your friends, we know what they will do
but remember they didn't tell you.
because I'm at the top of my game
and you and I won't get caught with our hand in the pot.
It's your friends who are busy all day.
I forget what job you did, before you
rose up on my radar screen.
Since you did just what I said, my involvement well hid,
You did landscaping, now I recall.
where the fat salaries are
and the pay is the highest you've had,
where seldom is heard, since your skills are what they are,
is he minimally qualified for this?
In the Department of Poetic Justice "What Do I Owe You? I Thought I Already Paid"
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:45
Reconciling one man's self-defined Free Trade Agreements (Eeew) is hard to do. A Poetic Tribute to the lyrical dilemma of paying $130000 for something you don't think you should have to pay for because you are fabulous but you are trying to buy someone's silence so you can be elected to a high public office with the support of Evangelical Christians.
(The Great American Wrongbook)
to tune of "Getting to Know You"
from "The King and I"
-Susan Cook-
I thought I already paid.
What do I owe you?
I do not like to be made
into a shyster.
Your rates were far above
my financial free trade
agreement. My private codeword
for what I should not have to get
a bill for. That's not fair trade.
I did not enjoy time with you
I guess I neglected
to ask the same question of you.
For a couple of hours
(was it longer than that?)
for which I paid, did you realize
that I am a senior- AARP- as well,
discounts qualify. Couldn't you tell?
fifty-five plus you begin
to charge by the hour
instead of counting item by item.
"Je ne c'est pas"
how your bottom line fares.
I just know when I did real estate
finishing the deal
no matter how long it takes
one price from start till the end.
don't take this wrong but it seems
one hundred thirty thousand, well,
No, you didn't tell me-
there is a difference between
older fellows who last
I guess you could say. Than those on rapid lunch breaks.
Just like our country, you defer payment
for debt. Who carries that kind of cash?
I just don't get it.
President Clinton you know,
notoriously went out
at lunch time for his quick runs
in Little Rock. I am guessing he thought
money would cheapen deep love he had,
He made sure no cash would ever changed hands
No paying it forward,
he a liberal man.
I'm not a liberal but
I believe there are times
when paying it forward
helps cover the bottom line.
Eventually, the past
may bring up incidents
when changing the spelling of your name
would help avoid future repayment claims.
You weren't there. Cash was for your doppelgang
In the Department Of Poetic Justice: "I Want a Leak Just Like the Leak that Richard Nixon Had..."
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:13
Drawing from The Great American Wrongbook, in the Department of Poetic Justice, which could be sung to "I want a Girl Just Like the Girl..."
" I want a leak just like the leak that Richard Nixon had."
(To the tune of "I want a girl just lie the girl who married.." )
A real eye-opener with special news,
Liddy, Watergate-ish and then he blew a fuse.
I want a leak just like the leak that Richard Nixon had.
I want to see lab results from a strand of someone's hair,
or clippings when he gets his toenails cut,
fingernais engrained with who knows what.
I want to see lab results from a strand of someone's hair.
I want to see behavioral comparisons each day.
Please check the weekdays close to the weekend.
Thursday, Friday, right near the week's end.
I want to see behavioral comparisons each day.
Where are the officials who monitor him day-by-day?
It's not like these are minor infractions,
Western civilization gone during his binge.
Where are the officials who monitor him day-by-day?
Kelly, Sarah Huckabee, even Mr. Tillotsen,
could give him a pat on his shoulder pads,
whoops, coinicidentally, happen to snag,
one strand with the follicle, answering what we have asked.
I want a leak just like the leak that Richard Nixon had.
A real eye-opener with special news,
Liddy, Watergate-ish. He might blow a fuse.
I want a leak just like the leak that Richard Nixon had.
Birthing the Newest Political Hypocrites- The Two 1/2 Minute Conspiracy Theory
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:08
This week the United States Senate voted to overrule the intention of the Founding Fathers and disregard the process that give minority membership voice.They invoked the 'nuclear option' to stop the filibuster of the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. But what did the United States Senate really do. Today's Two and One-half Minute Conspiracy Theory offers, well, a conspiracy theory.
-Susan Cook-
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry:In the First Place, Why Would A Corporation Let a Veteran Legislator/Franchiser have Huge Debt?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:15
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about right and wrong in sixty seconds about pressing matters of the day. Because the Maine legislature now debates rules to oversee mining including open pit mining which relies on machines not human beings to get the job done, today we ask why a major gas station corporation whose brother corporation seeks to build an open pit mine would allow a veteran legislator and franchisee of one of their gas stations to build up $250000 in debt in the first place?
Like A Bird on the Wire: Human Rights and the Asylum Network
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:40
There is always, someone, somewhere who "like a bird on the wire" from Leonard Cohen's song, is trying “in [his or her] way to be free“.
Since 1989, Nobel Peace Prize winner Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has provided to asylum seekers medical and psychological assessment of injuries from past victimization and its persistent symptoms. Asylum seekers are those in the U.S. with temporary legal documentation who have a well-founded fear of scorn and harm through any number of methods, including torture, if sent home. The culturally, if not government endorsed, perception that they are of no use to anyone gives tacit if not explicit permission to harm, an entitled stance taken on by their adversaries in their country of origin. PHR's Asylum Network of volunteer health care providers then write affidavits to accompany lawyers' presentation of the Asylum Seeker's request to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or the Dept. of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review. It is a long and complex process.
We- yes, we- do not understand that in many countries, political activism is a privilege not a right. I cringe when I see individuals- on both sides of the aisle- here in Maine and now in a Donald Trump administration turn political activism back into a privilege- not a right. The LePage plan and the Donald Trump immigration stance that withholds basic food and shelter from asylum seekers kicks in the shins this protection of political activism for its own sake and treats it like a special privilege that only those who can run fast enough to get away deserve. Our entire country exists by virtue of and to protect that right. It’s how Mr. Lepage and Donald Trump got where they are- through the right of political activism that did not lead to their persecution, arrest, sexual assault, starvation, homelessness or the disappearance or murder of friends or family.
In Memory of Leonard Cohen
-Susan Cook-
Here, we assume that individuals won't be publicly scorned or physically or mentally harmed for criticizing government leaders or by belonging to a religion, race, gender, political party or social group fallen from favor. Asylum from sanctioned harm is what our ancestors emigrated toward. In their countries of origin, they were often candidates for persecution that leadership felt entitled to bestow.
Persecution comes in many forms, as the following excerpt from an asylum seeker's de-identified PHR affidavit validates. S states that his work as a journalist in Iran has led to his alleged arrests and detention...In 2000, S was ordered by the Iranian Ministry of Information to engage in no further publishing of any newspapers or magazines...In 2001, he published an article about a reformist Mullah who resigned from the government in protest, despite warning from the National Security Council that he could not print this article. In summer of 2002, the Iranian government shut down his newspaper. S also gave a BBC Persia interview about the shutdown of the paper...[He was subsequently detained 4 times where he was repeatedly tortured.] In February 2012, Iranian colleagues (an Iranian human rights activist living in the US) asked S to attend and report on an opposition rally planned by...a reformist group. S did publish an anonymous account...S was arrested again… He was severely beaten and told to confess to the authorship of his articles...He refused to confess, and in fact, denied that he had written the articles...After the beatings, [the interrogator] threw him in the hallway...and called his family...who took him to the hospital...[The interrogator] and another official came to his bedside to warn S that if he kept writing, he would be referred to a higher-ranking prosecutor who would tie him up and cause him further pain and suffering." (pp. 85-87. "Aiding Survivors of Torture and other Human Rights Abuses: Physical and Psychological Documentation of Individuals Seeking Humanitarian Protection in the United States", Physicians for Human Rights' Asylum Program, Boston, MA., March 2012.)
A Citizen’s Guide to Small-minded Denigration: A Sixty Second Moral Inquiry, Two and ½ Minute Conspiracy Theory presented in a Sonnet for The Department of Poetic Justice
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:34
In honor of the upcoming Presidential race, The River Is Wide presents a melding of our favorite features. A Citizen's Guide, A Sixty Second Moral Inquiry and Two and 1/2 Minute Conspiracy Theory presented in a Sonnet to place In the Department of Poetic Justice. Random The River Is Wide Series is not.
The topic:
A Citizen’s Guide to Small-minded Denigration (or a Conspiracy to Throw the Ethical Female Presidential Candidate Under the Bus for what She has Never Done).
A Sixty Second Moral Inquiry, Two and ½ Minute Conspiracy Theory presented in a Sonnet for The Department of Poetic Justice
women. Intelligently, insightful,
reliable, prestigious, humanly
accomplished, with sound judgment? Delightful!
What will have nothing to do with the job
she will do is the employee who lacked
judgment and chose a sick ex-husband, robbed
sense. The staffer, small-minded, at the back
of the bus, the Opponent now sinks to
say, should be used to run out the admired
Woman, who should be President, linked to
small mindeds just because of who she hired.
Hostile cruel minds Either sex can be numb.
Formidable President? She’s the one.
Disguising Hatred- The ACLU Lawsuit Against Torture
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:10
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against two psychologists who developed a program to pair torture with interrogation of “suspected” terrorists held in the CIA’s Afghanistan prison, code named COBALT. The psychologist defendants created practices that intricately examined every aspect of human suffering , then made a program to pair torture with interrogation.The practice of Psychology is premised on compassion, not hatred. The discovery of human tools to sustain compassion in the face of atrocity, is one of its accomplishments. The ethics of the field are, as always, a work in progress because the actions human beings come up with to deny compassion and manifest hatred change all the time .The violations cited by the ACLU suggest that the professional guilds of psychology have not been vigilant or vociferous enough in rejecting exploitation of psychology’s mantle to mask political intentions. Hatred manifests differently all the time. And there is no question that finding sustenance for compassion in time of great violation is very difficult to do. But hatred disguised as compassion is still hatred. I am a psychologist who provides intervention. If psychology and its professional guilds cannot provide sustenance for compassion- in the face of great human atrocities- then we should all just go home and get different jobs. Because understanding why people disguise hatred is an ethical use of psychology. Making up and selling techniques up to do it is not anything other than more hatred.
Disguising Hatred- The ACLU Lawsuit Against Torture -Susan Cook- The practice of Psychology is premised on compassion, not hatred. The discovery of human tools to sustain compassion in the face of atrocity, is one of its accomplishments. The ethics of the field are, as always, a work in progress because the actions human beings come up with to deny compassion and manifest hatred change all the time . Internet harassment, for example, is not a kind of hatred we witnessed 20 years ago. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against two psychologists who developed a program to pair torture with interrogation of “suspected” terrorists held in the CIA’s Afghanistan prison, code named COBALT, during the post-911 terrorist vendetta. The psychologist defendants created practices that intricately examined every aspect of human suffering , then made a program to pair torture with interrogation, waterboarding, for example, an experience in which the victim is lead to believe he will drown. The CIA spent 81 million dollars to fund these atrocities to extort “truth” from the 3 plaintiffs in the ACLU case, detained at COBALT. All 3, Suleiman Abdullah Salam, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud and Gul Rahman (who died because of the hypothermia caused by the torture), were later proven to have no affiliation with Al -Qa’ida. Psychology has always The atrocities described are like those of any setting where war , prejudice and indifference are seen as justification for suppression of compassion. The activities explicitly violate the American Psychological Association Ethics Code which mandates respect for others, non-discrimination, avoidance of harm, or misuse of influence , avoidance of exploitive relationships, research competently conducted with due concern for the dignity and welfare of participants and then there is the larger mandate to first do no harm. Psychological inquiry and intervention is completely undermined by any subversion of the intent to understand human beings for the betterment of all. Martin Seligman the psychologist who developed the theory of learned helplessness did so to grasp how people become dis-empowered. The CIA psychologists exploited the term to claim that science justified their cruel tactics to make prisoners completely powerless. The violations cited by the ACLU suggest that the professional guilds of psychology have not been vigilant or vociferous enough in rejecting exploitation of psychology’s mantle to mask political intentions. Hatred manifests differently all the time. And there is no question that finding sustenance for compassion in time of great violation is very difficult to do. But hatred disguised as compassion is still hatred. I am a psychologist who provides intervention. If psychology and its professional guilds cannot provide sustenance for compassion- in the face of great human atrocities- then we should all just go home and get different jobs. Because understanding why people disguise hatred is an ethical use of psychology. Making up and selling techniques up to do it is not anything other than more hatred.
Sexism at the Five-and-Dime: Discrediting Women for a Dollar or A Dime
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:42
In my state, this week, leaping off the lower right hand corner of the Front Page of the state’s largest newspaper was this “Educator who won one million dollars denies stealing $14.99 blouse“.
One of the state’s most gifted educators who against many, many odds started her own successful school, has written textbook ‘best-sellers’ on teaching children the literary arts went to the local expanded Five and Dime store to return a blouse. Having done so, the sales associate told her to go to the clothing rack and take another one to replace the one she returned. She did.
End of the story? No. The security personnel, who were watching, saw her take the replacement and put it in her bag. Immediately alerted, the ‘guard’ called the local police chief who came over and watched the store’s security camera and, unable to identify the woman in the film, placed the picture on the department’s Facebook page. Within an hour, the gifted educator called the police department and explained the situation. End of story? Believe her? No. She was charged with a misdemeanor crime and given a court date. The exchange with the clerk who took the returned item was not on the camera. End of story? No. The Portland Press Herald deemed it worthy of Front Page lower right hand corner announcement.
The school spokesperson said it is a misunderstanding.
Why does this “misunderstanding” not get resolved by the woman who just received a one million dollar prize presenting her proof that she was not shoplifting a $14.99 blouse? The story tells us - once again- that sexism is alive and when a woman’s credibility is questioned the first and primary place the media, this culture, lawyers and yes, many women go, is that her proof is not good enough and there just might possible be something wrong with her to have committed whatever it is she committed.
Sexism at the Five and Dime: Discrediting Women For a Dollar or a Dime -Susan Cook In my state, this week, leaping off the lower right hand corner of the Front Page of the state’s largest newspaper was this “Educator who won one million dollars denies stealing $14.99 blouse“. Whew. Front Page. Lower right hand corner. One of the state’s most gifted educators who against many, many odds started her own successful school, has written textbook ‘best-sellers’ on teaching children the literary arts went to the local expanded Five and Dime store to return a blouse. Having done so, the sales associate told her to go to the clothing rack and take another one to replace the one she returned. She did. End of the story?. No. The security personnel, who were watching, saw her take the replacement and put it in her bag. Immediately alerted, the ‘guard’ called the local police chief who came over and watched the store’s security camera and, unable to identify the woman in the film, placed the picture on the department’s Facebook page. Within an hour, the gifted educator called the police department and explained the situation. End of story? Believe her? No. She was charged with a misdemeanor crime and given a court date. The exchange with the clerk who took the returned item was not on the camera. End of story? No. The Portland Press Herald deemed it worthy of Front Page lower right hand corner announcement. The school spokesperson said it is a misunderstanding. Why does this “misunderstanding” not get resolved by the woman who just received a one million dollar prize presenting her proof that she was not shoplifting a $14.99 blouse? Because sexism is alive and when a woman’s credibility is questioned the first and primary place the media, this culture, lawyers and yes, many women go, is that her proof is not good enough and there just might possible be something wrong with her to have committed whatever it is she committed. No filter. No impulse control. Under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Suffering from a deep irreversible character disorder that must have showed up earlier in life. Or maybe she - you know women- spent the one million already. Please bear in mind that even a woman claiming sexist treatment since men were made more aware of sexism thanks to the Gloria Steinems of the world- is also often considered suspect . Her proof is not good enough. She is making excuses. Thus a misdemeanor charge which should not have been placed in the first place is made. Because her proof was disregarded- readily available- but disregarded -despite all the evidence in the world- in this case literally- that her character, exceptional intelligence and gifts and reputation are sterling. And why discredit her proof without even questioning the recklessness of the police chief charging her? Because she is a woman and the reputation on the line is that of a man or men who failed to ask if the practice in this store was followed. “Go get another one from the rack“ the clerk says. What might be left to do? Well, I suppose a civil liberties numb lawyer now as prosecutor could do whatever could be done to tarnish her reputation further by investigating deeply to see if this remarkably gifted educator had some hidden character flaw or secret substance abuse problem rearing ugly blemishes now as shoplifting. Or maybe the man whose reputation is on the line could hire a communications person- a new young one who knows Twitter and New Media to tarnish her further. Or dig around in the community. Outlandish? Unheard of for a man whose unethical if not criminal activity because his reputation is on the line would go to such lengths? No. Because sexism is alive and well, and the first ‘read’ of this situation will not be - repeat not be- to question the man’s credibility. The suspect is a woman. And even a Senator- even the girl ones- remain oblivious to the corrupting influence of that particular variation of sexism. The proof is right there on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the state. If you care to read it.
Letter from New Jersey: Civil Liberties New Jersey-style
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:50
Coming through the transom today, a letter from New Jersey to share. Civil Liberties: New Jersey-style!! How are they taken? Oh, I guess they mean Civil Liberties -the noun..
And They'll Clear It With You: In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning), Political Appointees!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:07
A musical tribute to political appointees (at the cost of the Public trust) with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook! which could be sung to the tune from "The Nearness of You".
"And They'll Clear It With You"
In the Department of Justice (and Reckoning)
and for The Great American Wrongbook
to the tune of "The Nearness of You"
A Musical Tribute to Political Appointees
It's not your old feats. When
you worked them
Your backstabbing to defend them,
Oh no. It's your new appointment.
Now that you're hired,
can't be fired,
job secure, nice checks when you retire.
Let's see. What else could I have you try?
You keep your mouth closed.
Hold your nose just so.
When I tell you, ok, now just let it go,
In New Jersey, they made the traffic go slow.
We won't conspire.
We're such good liars.
Selectively, we'll go much higher.
Punish those who interefered with my re-hire.
You know it's now our state.
We've got a mandate.
Now we can legislate. That is my take.
Slander and libel, we can always update.
So now don't go write
on a world wide website
you can just sit tight
when the time is right, you'll get hired.
I am not saying it's illegal
I'm just saying save your speil gal,
keep it quiet
Don't tell The New York Times.
In your new job, you can make sure,
your friends stay brushed up
forget the public's trust,
It's History, and you'll clear it with me.
It's not your old feats. When
you worked them
Your backstabbing to defend them,
Oh no. It's the nearness of you.
In the Department of Poetic Justice: Someone Must Have Planted
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:55
Musical tribute to the Mueller investigation, sung if you like to the tune from "Some Enchanted Evening..", "Someone must have planted...."
In the Department of Poetic Justice
(and the Great American Wrongbook)
"Someone must have planted..."
(which could be sung to the tune from "Some Enchanted Evening")
-Susan Cook-
Someone must have planted
something in our laptops
or in our valises. How could they ever know?
Democracies don't
mean for sure, they won't
do whatever they can to get at the truth.
Yes, I was trying to find some friends
down there in DC,
hoping I would win.
I had never been there,
to the Oval Office
except in my day dreams
I thought that I could show
the management staff
how they could improve
the heating and cooling systems
since I know
which ones are better,
lowering the rate
for heat expenses.
I sell real estate.
Who knew Jared Kushner
went to all those meetings,
here and there a sandwich
with people who would know
the best banks to use
for funding just whose
mortgages, leases
I never quite knew.
I was quite busy
working at Trump Tower,
Mar-a-largo into
the wee hours.
So I guess I'll tell you
on my I-phone I have
gotten emails from some women I never knew.
And now I must ask,
is that where they hacked
when I exchanged messages, yes, I sent back.
Yes, they were women,
Russian what they said,
"Hot and excited"
Some wanting to bed.."
Sometime in the future
after the election
when I had some spare time,
of course, I never knew,
the first selection
for President then
would be yours truly. Even I was surprised.
Then I had no time to email back
President Trump.
They'd think their
laptops hacked.
It turns out I should have
had them all deleted
when I took a chance on
clicking the email line.
Now Mueller believes
that real estate deals
were on my mind. Does he forget my first rule?
If there are women,
looking for some fun,
shapely and pretty,
I'll get the deal done!
Someone must have planted
something in our emails,
in plants on the desk top
or in the office where
yes, when I was bored,
I'd go through the more
than 10,000 emails from Russians,
well, whores.
Now the FBI,
sent their guys too,
I bet they open
those hot emails too.
Someone must have planted
something in our laptops
or in our valises. How could they ever know?
Democracies don't
mean for sure, they won't
do whatever they can
to get at the truth.
Yes, I was trying to find some friends
down there in DC,
guess what yes, I won.
Anonymous Used To Be a Woman
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:52
In the not so distant past, Anonymous was usually a woman. a woman composer, artist, author, musician, writer unless she was an accused criminal, an adulterer or a witch. A NYTimes editorial raises the specter that the machinations of power have truly shifted in this country to stifle freedom of speech, a civil liberty which keeps citizens visible and named. Is it possible men now need Anonymity to speak their mind?
- Playing
- Anonymous Used To Be a Woman
- From
- Susan J. Cook
Anonymous Was A Woman
-Susan Cook-
As a regular New York Times reader, I always am very disappointed when I miss a "must read'" as I did when Anonymous published a disturbing analysis of President Trump.
In the not so distant past, Anonymous was usually a woman. a woman composer, artist, author, musician, writer unless she was an accused criminal, an adulterer or a witch.
That's not to say there is something regal and righteous about anonymous authorship. The NYTimes editorial raises the specter that the machinations of power have truly shifted in this country to stifle freedom of speech, a civil liberty which keeps citizens visible and named. Is it possible men now need Anonymity to speak their mind?
I had the pleasure of being the object of an Anonymous editorial first appearing through the anonymous machinations of the local journalism power brokers in my town that the tactless Downeast Magazine editor- a Republican- re-published I don't think the statute of limitations for libel have run out but basically, I testitified at the 2011 Congressional District re-districting hearing and I criticized recent actions by the Other party. I then said, completely misquoted later by a journalist who was emailed the inaccurate quotation by Who Knows Which party staffer- that the consequence of the other party actions could very easily be voter intimidation. Preface - please- by remembering that creating circumstance that will intimidate voters is a lot different than having the capacity to recognize that what you do intimidates voters. There are legislators that " all the live long day"like the tired working class song goes- engage in acts the consequence of which they will never, ever, ever, ever grasp- because of what ever set of blinders they bring to the position. Use whatever adverb or adjective you like. They don't get consequence. I gave three examples of these actions: moving 350,000 voters to a collectively newly configured district, eliminating same-day voter registration and a Senate President recording voter phone calls ( possibly as a courtesy to another shared user of the same phone then on the Other Party's National Committee) . Each of these examples require the further cognitive perambulation to recognize that some voters- witnessing these actions- may say "I can't participate in voting or voicing my opinion (paradoxically)." Some legislators and policy makers may just not have je-ne sais quoi- the recognizing that consequence thing down. Kind of like, some members of the current administration might not get around to recognizing the consequence of having an out-of-control President.
My criticism led to an anonymous editorial written by Who Knows, pushed through by Who Knows supplying the proper email addresses to Who Knows, facilitated by the Insider Track of Who Knows. Susan Cover now of the Kennebec Journal misquoted me. Who sent her "the misquotation" as if it it was what I actually said is another Who Knows. Sometimes, it takes a whole village to create spinelessness. Think Flint, Michigan.
My original observation of the legislator began with me calling about an act of environmental devastation which- several years later- sure enough- is now a fait accomplis.
When the machinations of power lead to those who speak out being targetted, publicly harassed, leading to the need to editorialize anonymously, very dark, entitled and priviliged permission-giving taking place in the inner circles of authority. If the anonymous editorial is based on inaccuracy and misquotation, as it was in my case, - very dark, entitled and privileged permission-giving taking place in the inner circles of authority.
I bet there are Democrats and Republicans in my state who are bloated with pride about the publication of an anonymous editorial factually condemning this President. The use of anonymity is also a functional MRI of a power structure gone very bad indeed- possibly revealing endemic spinelessness and, in that, a corruption of freedom of speech.
By the way the anonymous condemnation of me, misquoting my re-districting testimony about- paradoxically- intimidation of citizen voice is also an MRI of sorts- of a spinelessness- based on power abused not to correct the problem but to keep the jobs of the powerholders in place or find them new ones.
You Say Tomato, I'll Say Tomato! In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:41
Recently, diplomacy has evolved to a new - let's say species! Poetic justice and reckoning all in one tune! Trump, Putin, Crimea and golf! After all Dan Scavino, Jr. former manager of a Westchester golf course owned by a Certain Someone (and golf caddy for that special Golfer) is now Director of Social Media, i.e. International Relations, with an office right next door to You Know Who.
- Playing
- You Say Tomato, I'll Say Tomato! In the ...
- From
- Susan J. Cook
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
"You Say Potato, I'll Say Potato"
(and for The Great American Wrongbook, sung to the tune of
"You say Tomah-to, I say Tomay-to")
-Susan Cook-
You say potay-to, I'll say potay-to.
You say tomay-to, I'll say tomay-to.
You say Nukes are good for me.
I say, "Hey, Pal, yes, I see."
Potayto, Potayto,
Tomayto, Tomayto,
Some new Nukes, some cute Nukes,
Forget all the old nukes.
I say you don't know a thing.
You say, "Nyet-ski, Who would think!
Fixed elections, me-oh-my!"
I know that you're on my side!
Inflated! Mutated! The vote count debated!
And Putin disputin'
fake news they've been making'!
When I say you're innocent,
Det-ka, you are heaven sent!
Let's say potato, let's say tomato!
Putin refutin'! Donald disputin'!
Let's go out and hit the limks!
Commie-shmommy! I like pink!
Let's sink one! A pink one! We make a great twosome!
We're solvin' by golfin' ,
dissolvin' , resolvin'!
Mar-a-lago Crimea! Golf goes red!
That's my idea!
Idea! Crimea! The links where I'll see ya'!
Might be a resolver, the tee shots we're solvin'!
Nyet-ski! Det-ka! My little dove!
Can't believe we fell in love!
The Life-long Appointment of Trauma: The Silence of Trauma and the Credibility of a Supreme Court Nominee
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:00
Psychotherapists and trauma researchers can contribute to the understanding of how and why sexual assault victims remain silent and why that silence does not mean the event did not happen. Those contemplating the question of taking a recent allegation against Brett Kavanaugh very seriously could have been informed by recent research on why assault survivors remain silent sometimes for years after the event.
A Life Long Appointment: The Silence of Trauma and the Credibility of a Supreme Court Justice
-Susan Cook-
Christine Blasey Ford has done something that many psychotherapists not only perceive as credible but observe frequently. Because profound trauma has a life long appointment in the emotional, cognitive, and self-blame armanetarium of the conscience, individuals who experience it very often remain silent about trauma for a very long time if not for an entire lifetime.
The Michael Klahr Holocaust and Human Rights Center in Maine, recently recognized a man who was one of the first Marines to arrive on the day prisoners were liberated from a Nazi Concentration camp. After returning Stateside, he never told anyone about his experience of bearing witness to the consequences prisoners suffered during their interment. His wife of many years did not learn of his role until the day the Klahr Cnter staff called to announce his receipt of the award. His silence did not mean it did not happen.
Trauma not only does enters the person's life at the time it is experienced. The communion with humanity that might validate the deeply disturbing nature of what has happened is also taken away from the experiencer. Shame, humiliation and self blame are very precisely elevated to mediator status between civilized and uncivilized human tendencies- Freud first explicated that many years ago in his delineation of the place of the Superego or Conscience. In the instance of trauma, that mediator status keeps the vitim silent. To speak out means the civilized world might turn on the speaker as uncivilized. We have seen this many times. Anita Hill was ravaged by the defenders of then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
The silence of the victim, for many, many years sometimes, does not mean the event did not happen. The traumatic event is laced in and through the person's emotional status all the same, manifest in different individuals differently, on a continuum of mental status, which can present as highly stable resilient functioning or debilitated internal and external chaos. Resilient stability can descend into chaos , substance abuse, anti-social pathology if the pinions asecure life offers come loose. Internal and external chaos can find anchors once the place of penetration of the trauma is identified and healed.
This brings us to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court and his recent accuser- Christine Blassie Ford. As we brace for the onslaught of either a mass migration toward not believing her or a tenuous fragile dismissal of her allegation as too old to count, the voice of psychotherapists who treat trauma victims needs to be included.
Discrediting Dr. Ford because she has not spoken out sooner about Judge Kavanaugh's alleged assault, does not mean it did not happen. Minimizing the impact of the event because she has not spoken out does not mean it was not traumatic. Any number of psychotherapists would confirm that without treatment, sexual assault places a long sustained restraint on human potential, in subtle or overt, more or fewer restrictive ways. The treatment itself often can only begin once disclosure takes place. That can be to one therapist, for the first time, ever, many, many years later. None of that means the memory is specious. The False Memory Syndrome, you will remember, is an invention of the legal system, copping legitimate sounding diagnostic terminology for a leg-up on the witness stand. As the peculiarities of a traumatic event, yes, become vague or distorted: the position of the assaulter, the presence of passive bystanders, it is important to remember that at the moment when the adrenaline system's fight or flight response is thwarted- which is the hallmark- of a post-traumatic stress disorder event- the executive planning of the frontal lobes shuts down. Bessel Van Der Kolk says in the aftermath of trauma someone else needs to be our frontal lobes for us: to tell us "Here's how you get to the subway station." "Get your phone and call your parents." Lock the door." Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies have depicted trauma as remembered in imagery not precise verbal sequencing suitable for grand jury or Senate Judicial Committee testifying. An adolescent girl's life is shaped irreversibly by sexual assault. Many first time disclosures of these events which precede onset of treatment only take place years after the event.
Trauma creates its own life-time appointment.It is usually left to each of us to cull and then extract its distortions. This time the legislative pinions are being tested as to whether they can withstand, like a trauma survivor has to, the truth. I fear they cannot and will run like New Yorkers on 9/11 from an unfathomable event that actually happened.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Shouldn't Questions About Effects on Memory Be Tailored for His Memory and Hers?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:12
Testimony about an accuser of a Supreme Court Nominee will take place before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Today's Sixty Second Moral inquiry asks shouldn't effects on his memory- alcohol, in his case- and hers- trauma and the passage of time- both be part of the questioner's inquiry?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Shouldn't Questions About Effects On Memory Be Tailored for His Memory and Hers? Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks, in questioning a Supreme Court nominee and an accuser who reports an episode of sexual assault during his high school and college years, isn't asking about all the factors that might effect memory the right thing to do? If alcohol is used to excess, isn't it important to ask if the nominee used alcohol to excess? Because the effect of alcohol on memory is known and memory blackout, a known consequence, isn't asking about the nominee's experience of alcohol induced blackout important? If the nominee claims to not remember, isn't asking about his use of alcohol part of finding out if alcoholic blackout took place? If sexual assault trauma effects the memory of an accuser and alcohol effects memory blackouts, isn't asking about the nominee's use of alcohol the fair and right thing to do?
The Thickness of the Moral Skin of the US Senate: To Be the Catcher in the Rye
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 08:19
The thickness of moral skin is sometimes measured in the willingness of its inhabitants to take on the risk of being the catcher in the rye- the one who protects the children running toward danger. The US Senate during the hearings to vet a Supreme Court nominee stepped aside- almost to a one. The spectacle was almost like watching the ingenuousness of Holden Caulfield falling away after encountering the world's indifference- this time right in front of us.
The Thickness of the Moral Skin of the US Senate: To Be the Catcher in the Rye
"You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye? I'd like-"
"It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye'!" old Phoebe said. "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."
"I know it's a poem by Robert Burns."
She was right, though. It is "If a body meet a body coming through the rye." I didn't know it then, though.
"I thought it was "If a body catch a body'," I said."Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch eveybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."
After Holden Caulfield has this conversation with his little sister, in his sojourn before entering a psychiatric hospital, he calls up Mr. Antolini, the Pencey Prep teacher . "He's the one that finally picked up that boy that jumped out the window I told you about, James Castle. Old Mr. Antolini felt his pulse and all, and then he took off his coat and put it over James Castle and carried him all the way over to the infirmary. He didn't even give a damn if his coat got all bloody."
In the aftermath of the confirmation hearing of a prep school alumnus who left a trail of nightmares and unresolved trauma in the emotional web of one 15 year old, the thickness of the moral skin of US Senate members comes to mind. I'll talk about the 2 from my state since I know most about their moments of moral cowering.
In 2007, I was interviewed and quoted by a reporter for Current.org , a public broadcasting newspaper. Susan Collins had contributed mightly to the firing of a popular Friday night jazz host who had criticized the Iraq War- in a genial, understated. way Turns out that the Maine public broadcasting Board of Trustees was comprised of members who together gave over $160,000 to the Republican party. I said (look it up) that Mainers would work hard to defeat Susan Collins in her next go-round she being someone who engages in activities that usually get legislators thrown out of Washington. Now, Senator Collins does not like anyone making reference to her pre-marital relationships in her first 50 years of dating eligibility or recreational activities. That off-sides view that Susan Collins endorses about her own past, may explain her minimizing the testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's sexually assaulted victim. Indecent exposure is also illegal. Instead, she insisted his distortions, lies and beligerence toward his 2018 Senate questioners had nothing to do with his judicial temperament. By Collins' side, as she announced her choice, was Maine's recent failed GOP gubernatorial candidate, former DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew whose cost-cutting adminstration co-occurred with an almost unparalled number of deaths of children at the hands of their foster, biological or step-parents.(https://www.pressherald.com/2018/05/14/letter-to-the-editor-mayhews-dhhs-neglected-maines-children/)
Senator Collins usually hires out her thin moral skin and backlash toward those who threaten. Her one-time Director of New Media Matthew Gagnon was a player on the Maine political commentator scene whose willingness to bully has been documented on the front page of Maine's largest newspaper.
Then there's Maine's other Senator Angus King who ires quickly when anyone calls him out on his - ahem- purchase - when he was governor- of a state-owned oceanfront parcel of land abutting one of Maine's pristine ocean-side state parks. I even a wrote some lyrics sung to the tune from "America the Beautiful" which his purchase decidely was not.The purchase was documented in the Times Record and noted there was no "public bidding" on a piece of property that any one knew would do nothing but increase in value. It is now worth many times what he paid for it by encouraging the right state employee .
"Oh beautiful for spacious me, for land I'd like to buy,
that borders on state property in Georgetown or nearby,
that suddenly the state of Maine would like to sell to me,
the ocean deep, the price real cheap, what better guy than me?"
The morally thin skin of US Senators created a Brett Kavanaugh nomination and hearing that has left millions of sexual assault survivors in this country with a deep sense of moral betrayal. While survivors are compromised because of the emotional fissures trauma creates, many have stepped forward to disclose, despite the insistent cacophony of shame and the self-doubt that the assault is their own fault. Withstanding that self-blame requires morally thick skin which the moral imperative of the Kavanaugh hearing creates.
I do not trust Senator Collins or our other Senators- to be- we all hope they might- the catcher in the rye. Only one came to Holden Caulfield's mind- the teacher who carried the suiciding adolescent boy and didn't even care if he got blood on his jacket. Senator Collins and her GOP Senators minimized the belligerance, hostility and denial of his past of a Supreme Court nominee accused - not in a trial- but a job interview. In the wake of that dismissal, many, many sexual assault survivors who the equally morally thin-skinned Lindsay Graham said "have a problem"( hint: are flawed, damaged, mentally ill) will go home and direct the damage toward themselves- in self-harm, self-mutilation, if not suicidality.
Not one of these Senators can be trusted to be the catcher in the rye- nor can this Supreme Court nominee-. They are far too frightened of getting blood on their jackets or their morally thin skin.
Dept. Of Poetic Justice time! "Oh, They Did Shed Light on His Conduct Back At Home"
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:25
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning) with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook and sung to the tune (Traditional) from "My Old Kentucky Home") a musical tribute to the decision by Sen. Collins and Sen. McConnell to ignore the #MeToo movement. Senator Collins also decided
to discredit women who have been sexually assaulted because - hold on- Senator Collins is the person to decide who the assaulter is - not the victim's decision. Susan Collins's call.
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook
"Oh, They Did Shed Light on His Conduct Back at Home"
which could be sung to the tune from "My Old Kentucky Home"
Oh, they did shed light on his conduct back at home.
Was it when his Mom was out of town?
Did it make Mitch think that as long as no one found
a dead body he had found his man?
Susan Collins thinks that the first rule to uphold
is her favorite "Don't bring up the past."
If you do, she'll get Mary Mayhew at her side,
the expert at leaving out the facts.
Oh, when the Senator goes out around the town,
Mitch is the one man that she's ever found
who told her she is his only saving grace,
a pound of wet leather has more gravitas.
And when Mitch said, "Hey, remember our first rule?
I will not bring up the past. If you vote for this
embarassment of mine, we will try
to get your reputation back.
Mitch and Susan don't remember the new rule.
Harvey Weinstein, even Catholic priests,
spend their time thinking, 'Gee, I wish I only knew
female fierceness. Now there is #MeToo.
Monkey business used to mean the man got caught,
no indictment. Time for divorce court.
Mitch McConnell doesn't realize that Me Too's
Betrayed women are getting their fair due.
Let's hope Susan Collins likes retirement,
playing golf or maybe she'll be caught
in recycling her betrayals of days old,
Instant messaging with Gary Hart.
Chorus:
Oh, they did shed light on his conduct back at home.
Was it when his Mom was out of town?
Did it make Mitch think that as long as no one found
a dead body he had found his man?
The Generic Election 2018 Senate Candidate Anthem: In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:19
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning) , a generic anthem for each and every Election 2018 Senate candidate.
The Generic 2018 Election Senate Candidate Anthem
-Susan Cook
Oh beautiful, for spacious me, I am a profound man
So don't keep asking me to say for what it is I stand.
My friend Big Grouchy told me, "Just say you do not know
which Senators agree with you. Voters don't have to know.
" Oh beautiful, for spacious me, Big Grouchy meant to say
Don't tell them how you'll vote until they really have to pay.
Friday before Election Day, when Silver's polls are up,
Their vote will be your Hostage! Kavenaugh the final wedge!
Oh beautiful for spacious me. Big Grouchy says I can
hide all the facts about my past, my voting history.
I'm not anonymous you know. But Grouchy gets real mad
if someone tells the truth and he can't find out who they are.
Oh beautiful, for spacious me. Big Grouchy also said
Make sure you scan the Internet and pay some overhead
to Google every minute to tell you if they post
the facts you know, so they won't blow the cover off of you.
Oh beautiful for spacious me. Big Grouchy says he will
send out subpoenas rapidly when Truth's anonymous.
It's not that he's a liar. It’s public image work.
He says just show them what I want. The rest they can forget.
Oh beautiful for spacious me. My only problem is
because I have said things outloud, it’s not anonymous.
I mean the public record. It’s out there on the web.
Maybe Big Grouchy’s next lawsuit will ban the Internet.
Oh beautiful for spacious me, I know that I can win.
I've got them all so nervous. I think it is a cinch!
The most important thing to me is getting to D.C.!
Constituents? What's that? The issue's loyalty to me.
Oh beautiful for spacious me, I don't know what Brie is.
Food you know is not my thing. It doesn't go ka-ching!
My checkbook always needs me: I round up every sum.
The difference goes to charity, Guess what ! Lowers the tax for me!
Oh beautiful, for spacious me, I don't do sacrifice.
The Senators earn 100 thou. I don't plan to be one of them.
There is a difference, I'll tell you, no, I don't think I can.
I don't want citizens to think they are the ones I'm better than.
Oh beautiful for spacious me, I give to charity.
It comes to point zero zero one of my salary.
My supporters don't do math. Plus I am not a Mormon.
They give their ten percent away. No way I'll outdo them.
Oh beautiful, for spacious me, I won't let wages rise.
A dollar here, some quarters there. What do poor people buy?
I 'm not that big a spender, except for my TV,
It's part of my economy. Don't ask me: "So, tax-free?"
Oh beautiful, for spacious me, a trillion dollar gap,
would not be my problem when I am down there in DC.
It's not something I started . It wasn't on my time.
Too bad for you. you've got enough to pay me on your dime.
And yes, environmentally, contamination might
happen somewhere, the EPA has problems keeping sight
of chemicals and stuff like that. My votes will all be right
Don't start inventing reasons for me to take on your gripes.
Oh beautiful for spacious me. There are times when I'm wrong.
It doesn't really matter though, because I know I'm right.
It shows that I'm a leader. I will do what I want.
Do not forget I have to fend for my financ..um.. political life.
Oh beautiful for spacious me. I'm not a hypocrite.
Computers are for everyone and helps them feel they fit
into the world of cyberspace. Who knew they’d be Anonymous
and spread the truth about my past while I'm in politics.
Oh beautiful, for spacious me, I 'm so glad that I found
the time that I will really need to make my way around
to donors who will help me run my Senate race for free:
Make sure the check's signed properly "For More Money...For me."
They Ran For Congress! In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:39
Sailing toward the Midterm election, lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook sung to a seafaring tune.
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Poetic Reckoning)
with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook
"They Ran for Congress..."
(could be sung to the tune from the 1936 "We Saw the Sea")
-Susan Cook-
They ran for Congress so they could finally
get rid of gridlock eventually.
Now don't tell voters they didn't end it
Instead They liked it eventually.
When they got down there, they found that gridlock
is not what you'd call a two-way street
since they would caucus with the like-minded
the ones with whom they all agreed.
They'd tap them on their padded shoulders
and say "Hey, bro, you want to chat?"
Then Mitch McConnell stared at them blankly,
said "All the Democrats sit in the back,"
It hurt their feelings but there was no way.
At least, they tried.You might as well,
know now they're grateful since they have realized
at least their a--s--- did not get fried.
Bailing, bailing, not for them!
And leave their big fat salaries.
Short work days, their cup of tea
Remember! Vote and send them back to DC!
They thought they'd find out intricate details,
how they could fix things that aren't broken.
They read their pamphlets and their instructions.
Of course, they also like to win.
They couldn't manage to fix the problems,
the ones that aren't cracked. You'd think they could
at least make up for all the gridlock.
Turns out they only made things worse.
They heard Commissioners down there in DC
are very nice and know their jobs.
The only problem's they never saw them,
I guess no GPS for Ms. DeVos.
They heard in Congress, they'd make decisions
and more decisions on policy.
The only problem is they'd be thinking
they got it right but no one else agreed.
Bailing, bailing, not for them!
And leave their big fat salaries.
Influence their cup of tea!
Just remember! Send them back to DC!
Dept. of Poetic Justice tune: "Nate Silver's Been Counting All the Numbers..." sung to "It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas..."
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:20
A musical tribute to polling before Election Day! In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning) with lyrics for "The Great American Wrongbook" sung to the 1951 "It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas"
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and reckoning) with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook
"Nate Silver's been counting all the numbers..."
(sung to the tune from the 1951 "Its beginning to look alot like Christmas"
Nate Silver's been counting all the numbers.
Every poll you see.
Time for Nate Silver to put down
his wizard wand, take off the gown.
The Dumbledore one, his disguise.
We are worried because we still remember
Just two years ago his quirks
acting like his numbers reversed ,
somehow knew the future first.
Didn't call Ellen Langer or channel Stephen Jay Gould first.
I hope he has finally come to realize
he is not at the race track.
The numbers he likes to trace
are events that all took place
when respondents picked up phone lines.
Or answered the caller on the cell phone
and said "Yes, I soon will vote."
Heads up, Nate, what that answer is
is what the person said just then
at that moment not two weeks hence.
A person responding to a question
is just the same as you or me
when we enter a voting booth
and record that moment's truth:
when we vote things up or down.
Maybe Hogwarts Online could help him
understand time difference
as they say over in Par-ee
Hier ce n'est pas aujourdhui
C'est difference. They're different days.
Hogwarts alumni have ongoing
seminars in wizardry.
And reassert all the time
prediction is not their game.
They do their magic in real time.
Nate Silver could sign up for the course
on wizardry for those in math.
Statistic anomalies still won't
change a basic fact:
elections won't turn Nate's clock back.
The day of the polling he was using
to predict who'd win or lose
He denies it with all his might
but he was hoping he was right
his Wizard hat perched way up high.
Over his favorite Dumbledore robe.
Don't you wish he'd just fess up
math has models that don't explain
future happenings which aren't the same
as what is counted when polls are made.
There are racetracks that run the horses daily
They like their polling geeks
since there's money on the table
picking ponies a good gig.
when Nate retires. Is that next week?
We Won't Take That Away From You! In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:51
A musical tribute to a special soon-to-be-retiring Government Elected! George Gershwin might not mind if you sing this to his 1937 "They Can't Take That Away From Me!" New lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook!
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning) with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook
which could be sung to the 1937 George Gershwin tune
"They Can't Take That Away From Me...'
-Susan Cook-
INTRO: Your Bromance didn't help you start to launch it,
Donald Trump the guy you taunted,
hoping for that big job you wanted.
Soon you're gone.. Now we'll solve all the problems still remaining
All the memories we'll remember as you fly south to leave...
The way you just forgot
the way you seemed to toss
the vulnerable, the lost
under the largest rock that you could find.
The cost to feed the kids,
Somali immi-grants,
You said all those food stamps did
was pay strippers after they had stripped.
The scratch tickets poor people bought
instead of eating. Who'd have thought
the little kids that you had caught
gambling watching women oh so hot..
The way you used your words,
when your bills didn't get two-thirds
of Legislative votes
sustaining vetoes. So you made things worse
Got on your telephone,
voicemailed the legislator at his home,
It wasn't just your tone,
No, you sounded like a homo-ophobe..
You know it sometimes seemed
like that's the way you leaned
Did you really believe
civil discourse includes vaseline?
And then there's Veto- ville,
the place you liked to fill.
with legislation you tried to kill
After you melted down in hissy fits.
Oh, we won't take that away from you.
Then there's your vengeful side,
You didn't try to hide,
a tax on newspapers,
the ones poor people used to like to buy
To maybe get behind
the facts you tried to hide
They thought he's lost his mind
Yes, you did that take away from them
Then there's the cut-down trees
so when the snowstorm's breezez
blows drifts across the road, freeze
cars right there, stuck in snow.
I-95 a mess, no pine trees there to slow
accumulating falling snow.
And that's another thing before you go
that we will never take away from you.
Refrain:
Climate change will make Florida much hotter,
Don't forget the seashore rising
ever more so rapidly.
If you start to think Maine's nicer,
cold and all, you a little older after all,
Remember? No such thing as Governor recall.
So now we're back on track
Medicaid 's coming ,
Hey! compassion's coming fast!
Now people know we've got their back.
Oh you'll never take that away from us.
In the Department of Poetic Justice: All They Want Is Their Bonus Checks
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:56
From the Great American Wrongbook, in the Department of Poetic Justice, a musical tribute to the Maine Legislature's recent corporate welfare giving 3 million dollars annually- to build sonar-equipped warships- all the while helping the Right Whale become extinct.
(and sung to the tune from The Great American Wrongbook:
'Wouldn't It Be Lover-ly?)
"All They Want Are Their Bonus Checks.."
General Dynamics to re-invest
into retirement from
money Mainers give to them.
helped to pass, 3 million greenbacks
in tax repayment. My goodness
Maine is such a wealthy state!
They forgot minor aged
children who survive by the grace
of God. Oh well let's make sure
Jon Fitzgerald gets his bonus paid.
from taxpayers. You'd think they'd know
that sonar-equipped warships
also decimate the whales.
managers. General Dynamics got
their cast of go-to suckups.
Maine legislators don't ask much
BIW. Right whales that are now deceased
don't vote. Democrats will say
whales are not in their district.
aren't their problem. The statistics
indicate right whales never signed
a clean elections check.
mind their business
who knows just what that is.
Maine legislators don't. Jobs are their priority.
Deny they're suck-ups on a good day.
Year end bonuses they'll give away
to multi-national corporate
lobbyists willing to pay
Maine's Statehouse. They don't realize
3 million dollars won't add
to their pay a single dime.
Legislators who like to be sucked up
by lobbyists. When will they
start to see things globally?
of right whales, a legislative proclamtion
to Maine's House legislators selling out,
for mayonnaise, mayonaise, mayonaise, More Mayo please.
No Reason Two: Asking Questions About Gun Access for a HCFA-1500 Form
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:55
We cannot expect care providers to intervene with individuals who intend to use a gun to harm others or themselves unless we do everything we can to make sure providers ask the questions in the first place. Do you own a gun? How many guns? These questions are the point of entry for prevention. On a HCFA-1500 form, that required data begins to answer the questions about conditions we all second-guess later. Did the individual have a mental health diagnosis or a physical health problem? Had they been treated for it before? What was the treatment the provider offered? If the Billing specialist who must complete the HCFA-1500 form in order to avoid rejected payment requests, is the person insisting that the care provider remember to ask questions about gun access, so be it.
No Reason Two: Asking Questions about Gun Access for a HCFA-1500 Form
In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting, many suggestions have been made about changing gun access. In order to effect access, we first have to know who has access, either legally or illegally. One way to do this would be to require every health care provider to answer on the HCFA-1500: Does this patient own or have access to a gun? How many guns? You could even ask what kind.
HCFA-1500 stands for Health Insurance Claim Form.It is regularly revised by the Center for Medical Services. It is the universally required form that any health care provider, from your podiatrist to your opthamologist, must complete in order to bill Medicare, Medicaid, and any health insurance company for payment.
Any information on a HCFA-1500 form is HIPPA protected. The Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act prevents any of the information on a HCFA-1500 form from disclosure- unless subpoenaed by a legal authority or with the patient's permission.
The HCFA-1500 includes the patient's name, age, employer's name, diagnosis,the date the illness or injury started, the procedure code for the service or supplies the health care provider gave, the dates of service, prior hospitalizations for the illness, if the service is the result of a disability, car accident or work-related injury, similar injury treatment, marital status, school enrollment,employment, other lab services and all insurance-related information- a prior authorization number from the insurer, plan name.
There is even an empty space "reserved for local use" that could now be used to enter gun ownership information.
Why do this? Because we cannot expect care providers to intervene with individuals who intend to use a gun to harm others or themselves unless we do everything we can to make sure providers ask the questions in the first place. Do you own a gun? How many guns? These questions are the point of entry for prevention. On a HCFA-1500 form, that required data begins to answer the questions about conditions we all second-guess later. Did the individual have a mental health diagnosis or a physical health problem? Had they been treated for it before? What was the treatment the provider offered?
No health care provider gets paid without a properly completed HCFA-1500 form. If the right spaces aren't completed, the bill is rejected. And if it is the billing specialist who is insisting that the health care provider ask the questions so the HCFA-1500 form is not repeatedly rejected- so be it.
There is no reason not to use this required and widely used tool to document that an individual has access to a gun or many guns. The data gathered- which is HIPAA protected- will answer many questions that we speculate about – later.
A Citizen's Guide to Cynicism
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:04
Thirteen plus years or so after I posted the first commentary for The River is Wide series, this remains true: Speaking and seeking the truth is not cynical.
- Playing
- A Citizen's Guide to Cynicism
- From
- Susan J. Cook
And I Cleared It With You! You-Know-Who's Personal Attorney Speaks to Congress! Lyrics, too!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:09
In the Dept. of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning) with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook!
A Citizen's Guide to What to Eat During a Government Shutdown
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:02
Citizens are being reminded these days of everything they don't have control over. Any nutritionist will tell you that the one thing you always have control over is the food you put into your mouth. Times like these require food with substance and comfort.You would be surprised at the comfort and substance found in the grocery store (as long there were not federal dollars involved in getting it there because of the You-Know-What.) A Citizen's Guide is here today about what to eat during a government shutdown.
Who Rules The World and Why It Matters
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:00
Boys' State is an experiment in Democracy that a select group of high school boys attend in Maine this week. We can hope they will learn about the dangers of the cooption of the democratic process. The current administration leaves us all wondering what do they do down there in Washington, sometimes. Using political party membership as a sledgehammer to force agreement just one questionable technique. A democratic process stolen by a small number of Senators or Representatives or Presidential executive order - those who want their opinion to count more than anyone else's matters enormously.
This incident described happened about 12 years ago but it raises some of the same questions about the Democratic process the new administration does . So we re-visit: Who Rules the World and Why It Matters.
- Playing
- Who Rules The World and Why It Matters
- From
- Susan J. Cook
In the Country of Facebook. Hey, Wait a Minute. Facebook Is Not a Country!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 08:21
On the Fresh Air episode, "For Facebook Content Moderators, Traumatizing Material is a Job Hazard", a Silicon Valley journalist plumbed Facebook's nascent acknowledgement of its product's dangers. And its efforts to be more ethically astute. Hmmm... Which part?
In the Country of Facebook- Hey, Wait a Minute- Facebook is Not a Country
Facebook is not a country. The exponential math of the internet that creates its expansive unlimited access to anonymous individuals makes it seem like one at times. It is a corporation, that lives or dies by the money it makes. Just like corporations that made products that later were identified as dangerous like agent Orange, Thalidomide, the Corvair, or DDT, Facebook has been slow to acknowledge the damage of its product. Mark Zuckerberg hinted at that evasion during the 2016 Election season when, as questions arose about deceptive Facebook political messaging, he went Live posting Himself smoking a goat on his patio. Get it?
On the Fresh Air episode, "For Facebook Content Moderators, Traumatizing Material is a Job Hazard", a Silicon Valley journalist plumbed Facebook's nascent acknowledgement of its product's dangers. They have hired $15.00 an hour Quality Analysts to delete unacceptable posts. having noticed that, yes, human beings use words and images to verbally abuse and exploit others and posture power. It is almost like they now enter into Moral Sensibility Media. Of course, limiting abusive content posts is only part of the problem. Passive bystanders who see the post, absorb the image or words, are part of the damage Facebook creates. The passive bystander murderers in Myanmar , remember, were perpetrators Facebook could not control because looking does not create a digital stamp that tells you which individual's awareness was invaded by the post. The boundaries of hearing, receiving are not addressed by merely making decisions about good or bad posts and those analysts are not being veted as "universal moral arbiters". The power of Third Reich that drove the Holocast also came from the proliferation of anti-Jewish messages paraded in front of passive bystanders who when they received it, were effected and/or damaged by it.
Now they play catch-up. Their sea of minimum wage-earning auditors are tasked with - what in another breath- Facebook suggests requires "Supreme Court-like" profound thinking . The journalist said "...While we pay these folks as if the work is low-skill labor.. it [requires] very high-skilled labor because they are making these very nuanced judgemnts about the boundaries of speech in the Internet..." . The journalist said " Not all of [the content] is benign though] because it turns out, "[For the content reviewers] there is something traumatizing about vewing these images. .." "There is no policy that can account for every imaginable variation.. [of a violent, pornographic, and hate-speech laden Facebook posts]. " "My hope is...by devolving some of the power these tech companies have back to the people,,,we can bring some semblance of democracy to what will always remain private companies..." .." And here is the kicker "I think we're really kind of having one of the great reckonings over free speech globally that we've had in a long time. And there isn't one great answer. it's always a question of, how are you going to manage all of the trade-offs?'
Identifying "freedom of speech" as the liberty on the line ignores the abusive impact on the passive bystander. People have suicided after reading Facebook posts targetted at them, not only because they read it but because of awareness that a large bystander group anonymous to them sees it too and they are powerless to shut it down .
Pre-meditation might have led them to use their technology (they have it) to let every user know exactly who the members of the universe are who would see their post and then make an informed choice about whether or not to post. They did this ineffectively- not restricting friends of friends' access to posts let alone public posts. Just as Dow Chemical Company de-emphasized the impact on just one Vietnam veteran of Agent Orange exposure , DDT makers did not pre-meditate how one nesting Bald Eagle could be the perpetrator who crushes the shell of an unhatched nestling, Facebook has minimized "the one person"who sends in a complaint and recieves the "this doesn't reach the level of our standard of abuse" automatic reply and the passive bystander- the Facebook voyeur- replicating that damage. Even while they act to limit the damage of their "unlimited access" product, Facebook still are tries to keep hidden abuses of their product they uncover. Even now, the newly hired content reviewers must sign "non-disclosure agreements."
A marker at a private school I walk by memorializes a 14 year old boy who suicided . It reads, "There should be a way so that everybody could know everybody." Knowing each other and knowing who your posts are reaching might solve some of the damage Facebook's unlimited access creates. It is not one that minimum wage Quality Analyst hiring solves, even as Fresh Air tells us, Facebook is considering a Supreme Court- like Content Advisory Board to make final judgement on content decisions. Remember, even Supreme Court decisions often give weight to one plaintiff in deference to a repeatedly tested document- the Constitution.
So Independence Day in our real country celebrates our measure of democracy which includes everyone, a happenstance of place offering humane protection through a Bill of Rights for every single one of us. One way to assess whether a society is just is see whether those at the top of the social hierarchy are treated with the same dignity and fairness as those at the bottom. Facebook has not figured out how to do that- even as exploitation of anonymity and unlimited access are exploited NOT just by those posting but by the passive unidentified bystanders too who use it to gain power over others.
"Irrelevant!" For You Know Who! In the Dept of Poetic Justice, with lyrics for The Great American Wrongbook
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:21
Attention Evangelicals! What if Jesus holds the Second Coming down in San Joaquin- you all stuck on the other side of the W--- that You Know Who just had to build?
Irrelevant!
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
with lyrics for The Great American Wrongbook
(could be sung to the tune from "Unforgettable!)
-Susan Cook-
Irrelevant!
Mr. President! How you'd become so irrelevant!
I only say this since you now forget
Democracy's genetic
inheritance-
one nation free . That's what the founders meant.
It's not for you to decide who is relevant.
Irrelevant.
This is how you got to be so irrelevant?
Even alt-right wingers start to see
six billion dollars quite
excessive. See,
you could be buying ammo
for the army, navy, you know, militarily?
It's better spent
in ways that aren't quite so
irrelevant.
Mr. President, you could buy some more
fries and burgers
feed the NFL some more .
At least free tickets
when you're shown the door?
Spending our last cent
on burgers a little closer to what
Ben Franklin meant
When he signed the Constitution,
Oh, McDonald's
had not been invented yet.
But you can bet
burgers are more relevant.
Evangelicals
think there's something more angel-ical
Steel slats, see through,
What if Jesus means
to hold the Second Coming
down in San Joaquin,
Even Ted Cruz can not intervene
and he'll miss out on the biggest scene?
Irrelevant!
How'd you end up
so irrelevant?
When the alt-right chose you as President
more ammo coming. You were heaven-sent.
Is Home Depot,
Lowe's your new constituent?
Big boxes making us irrelevant?
Mitch McConnell too,
at Home Depot somewhere
down near aisle two
cannot find where steel slats are on view,
looking for the large post diggers too,
Waiting for the clerk to
help him find
wall stuff. Is this a waste of Mitch's precious time?
Irrelevant.
Now tell us, Mitch, are we irrelevant?
Please don't tell us that you do not care
If Home Depot signed up for
some new welfare
six billion dollars because of You Know Who?
And you still waiting there
Customer assistance? Not for you?
Even Scarramouchi knows
-since he's not working he's been down at Lowe's
checking prices on their wall supply-
noticing they're getting high.
Kelly Ann and Sarah Huckabee
he's seen them down near aisle twenty three
six billion dollars for a wall would be
a lot of gift cards- yes, those would be free-
but still no ammo for their constituency.
Even Scarramouchi here
could help you out. He'd warn you not to smear
with words the New York Times will have for lunch
on paper plates recycled from their private hunch
that you are sexist, racist, the whole bunch
of alt-right buzz words.
which will be relevant
and make you more irrelevant.
Irrelevant!
Now we find out that he never meant
to lead this country
like Abe Lincoln did
or FDR. Yes, we know, those guys are dead
but Principles live on in what they said,
The Girl Scouts get it
Just like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
When You Wish Upon Bill Barr! Lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook!.In Dept.of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:08
As Mr. Mueller testifies before Congressional Committees, a look back and forward to Democracy's dimming light.
"When You Wish..."
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning)
with lyrics for The Great American Wrongbook
- sung to the tune of "When You Wish Upon a Star"
When you wish upon Bill Barr
to give you the lowdown are
you prepared to notice when his judgement is not up to par?
When it comes to coming clean
filling in the blanks. You've seen
all the places where he just pushed the tab "delete"?
Now, he's passed the torch along,
Mr. Mueller takes it on,
tells the rest of us
if Trump should also now be gone.
It's exciting, don't you think?
Finding out what seemed to sink
in the sand when Mr. Barr saw all the links
(Let's be honest) just recall
the last Presidential fall
was a chat with Russians, Nixon;s last phone call?
Donald Trump just wanted spin
Jared, Junior, Ivanka in
real estate you know
their loans, the debt they're in.
Could be helped by Russian banks
financing before their business tanks,
making calls to Russians offering their thanks.
Surprise! Donald Trump went on and won
Innocent phone calls were done.
Democrats so negative they're trying to come
Down on Donald. What is new?
Democrats think the other shoe
soon will drop. (Don't hold your breath!) on You-Know-Who?
Mr. Mueller now will start
redacting, a special art,
painting with a broader brush, The Truth, His Part.
Testifying, pumpkin spice
latte, waiting, his small vice,
after he come clean, Congress picks off the lice.
Many think are living there-
the convictions that now bared
Manafort the others' dirty underwear.
Thirty Four indictments is
quite a lot. If innocence
still the same concept we all think it is.
Miss Redactor, who is she,
or is it in fact a he
Today, we find out what only Sharpies see.
Putting down the velvet tip,
indictments, just who has skipped
walking through grand juries, where Dick Nixon tripped.
Co-conspirator who thought,
Yes, a President who's caught
breaking legal rules, leaving our country lost.
Co-conspirators! Who thought
Yes, a President was caught
breaking legal rules at our country's cost.
What we lost on William Barr
disappears- so good, so far
Stay tuned. Mueller's turn to raise Democracy's bar.
Tell me now, what do you think?
Did you hear the President
focusing on You Know Who. Is he on the brink?
On impeachment, well, so far,
Trump seems like he missed the part
about Russians voting, changing our vote's part.
Should we let Russians decide
which President is on our side
Donald's ego kisses that concern goodbye.
Lost Intention: Even at a Maine Vigil for Gun Violence Victims
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:46
Sustaining intention for good means we understand that permission for violence makes a gun what it is: a creator of violence. At a Maine vigil, the lost intention of honoring the tragedy of victims stood right across the street with a pistol in a holster on his belt loop.
Lost Intention: Even at a Maine vigil for Gun Violence Victims
In Maine, I went to a vigil for the gun victims at El Paso and Dayton the Saturday night following the weekend of those horrible events. There were maybe 125, maybe 140 people there in front of the Governor's mansion in the state capital. There, the newspapers said, to hold vigil for those who had died the prior weekend at the hands of the guns held by shooters who had no justification other than the gun they held that allowed each of them to shoot in how many seconds? 24? 5?
The vigil was, I thought, surprisingly underattended. I have met many people who have been affected by the shootings at a gut level. It is too innocently complacent - people going to Wal-mart or to a bar to socialize- to begin to grasp how such disregard of the humanity of others comes to be.
There were a few speakers- hard to hear sometimes- the one non-office holding candidate for the United States Senate seat now held by Susan Collins spoke loudly, forecfully. The other patted herself on the back for voting for background checks, reminding us that the former Governor of the State vetoed the bill. You bet current office holders are patting themselves on the back, in the wake of these shootings. One man standing across the street held a Veterans for Peace banner, his co-holder having left. As he held his vigil, an overweight young man took a place behind him on the left. The speakers were getting harder to hear so of the organizers turned on a portable generator to power a microphone and speakers which made it even harder for the vigil keepers at the fringe- as I was- to hear.
I crossed the street to join the Veteran . "Want to hold a sign?" he said. "Of course," I said, taking the "The NRA is Dead Wrong" placard.
As we talked, a police officer came over and began to speak to the overweight twenty-something young man standing behind us.
"He has pistol in a holster on his belt," the Veteran said to me. "He's been video-taping people at the vigil and texting people on his phone."
As I turned my head to look, I could see the holster at his side and hear the police officer talking to him. Reaching out his hand, the police officer introduced himself, as the pistol holster holder responded with his name. "I parked on this side of the street," the pistol holster holder said. "Those people over there wouldn't listen to anything I'd have to say anyway." The police officer was taking notes, as they talked.
There was absolutely nothing at the vigil that called for a pistol- for safety, for reassurance, for protection. Unless its holder was fearful. And this overweight, baby-faced young man, grinning at the police officer, did not appear to be.
Of course, I don't know if he was. Or why he felt a need to carry a gun or who he was texting and sending his video recordings to. It was a serenely calm August in Maine evening, when the streets of the Capital were so deserted I had begun to think that maybe the vigil was being held on a different night.
What happens inside someone's mind and emotional landscape is not easily known. And he could have turned into a panic struck psychotic, delusions telling him, as the El Paso shooter said he had, that he was doing what President Trump wanted him to.
The fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock has just been celebrated, an event in which a half a million young people gathered and not one person was shot, not one gun confiscated. "They went with good intentions," one documentary producer said.
Good intention is being lost to Americans- displaced by hatred and permission to marshall fear and act on it. Guns give permission for violence that human intention alone cannot. Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and his Vice President for Social Good tell us, promotes good. Both of them believe the world is- at its core- is made up of Harvard and Stanford undergraduates- so happy for a way to talk to many without the encumberance of email address identification. They are profoundly ignorant of the impact of exponential math which leaves out this overweight twenty-ish boy with a pistol visible in its holster- hanging from his belt, texting on his Facebook Page and inciting more hatred. And who knows what paranoia and fear simmers inside his mind, in his communications with his gun holding texting friends, his targetted videos that slightly amped up could lead to yet another mass shooting.
I left while the police officer was still speaking to him. My breath had already been taken away that- here in Maine- a man with a gun in his belt-looped holster would come to a vigil to celebrate human tragedy- and somehow think his intention was in keeping with that of the vigil.
In Maine, we are not all of the same mind. And we still do not understand what has changed since 1969. That, "goodness of intention " even at a vigil about loss, could not hold its own.
As American as Apple Pie: Domestic Violence and The Abuse of Power to Tarnish Victims' Credibility
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 09:31
An exhibit at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center in Maine called "Finding Our Voices: Ending the Silence of Domestic Abuse" opened just before Domestic Violence Awareness month. From the halls of the US Senate to a poetry reading, readiness to silence the credibility of the accuser persists.
As American as Apple Pie: Domestic Violence and The Abuse of Power to Tarnish Victims' Credibility
-Susan Cook-
The other day on a radio call-in program, Susan Collins, Maine's Senator, justified her vote for Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court because (she said this) even though she thought something awful happened to PhD Holder and Academic Scholar Christine Blasey-Ford, Susan Collins didn't think it was Brett Kavanaugh who did it. In other words, Susan Collins just can't bring herself to grant Dr Ford credibility. Playing both ends against the middle, this time with Dr Ford's credibility, like she has in the US Senate. At the same time, Susan Collins said that to believe Dr. Ford threatens the entire judicial standard of innocent until proven guilty. What she didn't say is that by automatically granting credibility to a Job Applicant over his accusing victim, she replicates an abuse of power that keeps victims silent.
Two of the most agonizing moments for assault victims are when it happens and when the victim discloses. For women, credibility is immediately questioned- with or without professional accomplishment, with or without the scrutiny of a large audience.
On men's side, and on the side of Susan Collins who has gained longevity by playing the middle against both ends, is Power and the fact that men require less Proof to back up their statements than women do. We have seen the backwash from men finally held accountable for their abuse of power in the #Me too movement. Many of those men remain "miffed" or staunch in their refusal to take responsibility for the abuse of that discrepancy - financially, culturally, physically, in professional hierarchies ( 80.7 cents for women for every dollar men make). Indeed, many fall back on their reverence for "Power" to justify the reluctance to continue to fight #Me too.
The Public Radio host whose host public radio organization distanced themselves rapidly finally published his NOT "Mea Culpa" column, advising the reader to "look what happened to me" over a "harmless flirtation". Discrepancy of power places whoever was on the receiving end of the "harmless flirtation", in a subjugated position. Power interferes with saying "No", further undermined when, as the Pubic Radio host said, "she worked for me but it never happened in the office." He called upon his concern for the powerlessness of children in the NOT "Mea Culpa" piece to explain how he has managed to water down his anger toward #Me too which remember "Look what it did" to him. A negligent out not unlike Susan Collins claiming herself the better judge of what happened to Christine Blasey Ford. The magnitude of the discrepancy in physical power of adolescent boys and adolescent girls is not that hard to fathom.
This call-in program preceded the opening of an exhibit called "Finding Our Voices: Breaking the Silence of Domestic Abuse" at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center in Maine, encouraged by Patrisha Mclean, the ex-wife of the singer Don McLean of "Bye, bye, Miss American Pie". He was convicted 3 years ago of domestic violence criminal threatening, criminal mischief and criminal restraint.
One of the women in the exhibit, the wife of a man named "Charlie" who took out a gun and threatened to shoot her after she told him she had almost suicided, did not speak for years of the domestic abuse in her marriage. She left, still not disclosing until two years after she left, at 65, 43 years into the marriage. Had she disclosed before, her credibility would be on the line.
Many years ago, I was a colleague of the man who physically assaulted his wife for those 43 years. With 3 other Professors, we flew to a northern Maine University to teach graduate students. I taught life span development, always including sections on childhood sexual abuse, abusive relationships and abusive parenting. Those were topics that I had a deep commitment to, and still do. In one of the videos I always showed in the class, the victim said "Sexual abuse is about power. The abuse of power." Thirty three years ago, the reality of incest was not broadly acknowledged. Nor was wife battering or domestic violence. Or child abuse. Or parents who gave themselves license to terrorize or abuse. The college where I taught was sexist. I complained about the job inequities of assigning me to teach 4 courses I had never taught before and The "Dean" clearly made a mental checkmark against me for speaking out about that.
No one would have guessed that this quiet man had his own private target when his power was challenged. His wife. And to this day, abuse of power to keep victims quiet persists. The Edna St Vincent Millay Poetry and Arts Festival began a day or so after Susan Collins' radio appearance. It included a Poetry Slam and reading held at night at a local bar. The organizers felt compelled to include a Caveat to poets and artists taking part.
"Please be advised. As participants will include people of all ages, please be sensitive to content and language that might be of concern, scare children or trigger trauma."
No one wants to scare children or trigger trauma. The accusatory nature of the statement was inflated and not necessary in this context. Even when that was pointed out, the organizer still would not take it off the website.
And with it, the perpetrating "Charlies" and the adolescent "Kavanaughs" go about exercising their power. Yet, one more time, those who have experienced trauma will question if they have the power to speak about it or will say it "right" or won't "upset" anyone. Even at a Poetry and Arts Festival. The contributions to the power that diminishes women's credibility are many and varied. From the US Senate, to the dimly lit bar at night, credibility of the victim takes second place to the protective tidings of the powerful. I noticed that a person featured in that video many years ago had signed up for the poetry slam. I made the decision not to take part. I don't know if the person who appeared in the video 33 years ago did.
"Walking These (Impeachment) Articles Back Home.." For The Great American Wrongbook
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:51
As Nancy Pelosi gets ready to hand-deliver the Articles of Impeachment to Mitch McConnell in Kentucky at his home when she gets there from her home in San Francisco ...walking ... some lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook.
Who Rules the World and Why It Matters, At Age 18
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:10
Censorship of anti-war statements is now and always has been a threat to our nation's stability and the world's safety.
Who Rules The World and Why It Matters, At Age 18.
Maine Public has begun celebrating Maine's 200th anniversary with little short pieces about Maine's history. Closing out the pieces with “Happy Birthday, Maine” is the voice of Charles Beck, the Vice President for Programming.
Charles Beck revoiced coincides with the very disturbing possibility of war with Iran again and renewed conflict with Iraq. There are many who will never have another birthday because of the Iraq War. Forty five hundred Americans have died, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and others.
It also reminds us that as the Iraq War began 14 years ago, Beck fired The humble Farmer- a 30 year jazz program producer for a thinly veiled criticism of Republican President George W. Bush beginning the Iraq War. The first sentence was “I don't care for war.” Beck played no small part in suppressing the anti-Iraq war message on Maine Public radio, along with the Maine Public Board of Trustees, half of whom had donated over $160,000 to Republican candidates.
Right around the time Beck censored the producer, I had the opportunity to swing on a hammock with my two young grandnephews, one five and the other a summer away from turning 4. They had gathered up from the sandpits two or three Power Rangers, two R2-D2s and several 3 inch tall good and bad guys and placed them in the hammock's webbing so we could all ride together.
After a moment or two, the five year old leaned back in the hammock's arch and gazed up at the canopy of oak leaves. He asked "Who rules the world?"
That summer day, with the Power Rangers, the R2-D2s, the good and bad guys up on the hammock with us, I sensed the gravity of his question. I asked, "Well, who do you think rules the world?"
"Queens and kings and presidents and the news," he said.
On a warm day, to listen to the honest musings of a five year old about the world is to be reminded that everyone's opinion matters, that we all have a responsibility to protect this opinion sharing, to protect what matters.
How did he know that already? Did he know how intensely kings, queens, presidents and the "news" go about trying to rule the world? More than all the Power Rangers, R2-D 2s, the good guys and the bad guys combined, let alone what happens when Darth Vader rises out of the sand pile to once more have a go of it?
That day comes to mind now that the real threat of young men and women being sacrificed at the feet of War supporters, the Jared Kushners carrying out Israel's vendetta, the Donald Trumps pursuing re-election. It's why as it did then censorship matters.
The five year old who I have always called “Who Rules the World One” just turned 18. Eligible to be drafted, if there is one. Eligible to sign himself up for the Army Reserves, which he frequently says he'd like to do. The financial incentives for an 18 year old whose knows money is hard to come by is very hard to resist. It makes the kid eligible for the tuition Pot of Gold at the other end of deployment- if there is one- after a deployment.
Back then, many, many Mainers were distressed that an anti-war view would be censored by a Republican-laden Maine Public Board of Trustees. I started a website called “freethehumblefarmer.com” which- everyday until Obama was elected, I updated, wrote new material, got out my sixth grade book reports to post when I was running out of material, sprung for the monthly web server fee. No, I didn't identify myself openly as the website writer, domain holder, refresher. Yes, in this country, at that time, identifying oneself as the critic of public broadcasting censorship of anti-war statements can make you a target too. I still was a little taken back when – ego is also powerful force- the independent producer of 'The humble Farmer," told the writer for another small publication “Discover Maine” that he- the independent producer had written, updated and created the website that I was fully responsible for. I corrected both of them.
To this day, censorship of anti-war statements on public radio remains fiercely relevant. Censorship means five year olds and three year olds grow up with no reminders that the price of war is death and devastation. No message that war has and always will put an end to birthdays for those “anonymous” nobodies somewhere. But then there's Maine Public, still appointing Charles Beck to offer “Happy Birthday” wishes to Maine or maybe he appointed himself with no audible protest to be heard.
Dept of Poetic Justice! Nate Silver's Still Counting All the Numbers! Extra Golf Strokes!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:10
No False Equivalence here! The Pandemic. Trillions of Dollars of National Debt! And You Know Whose Extra Golf Strokes! Counting Every One!
Nate Silver's Still Counting All the Numbers"
In the Department of Poetic Justice and Reckoning
(With lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook to the tune from
'It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas'
Nate Silver's still counting all the numbers.
It's that time. It's what he does
like post offices sorting mail,
delivering snow, sleet or hail.
Nate Silver's on it. Never fail.
We're hoping he's got more time to focus.
There's no football. All that fuss
is finally put on hold
so we are hoping we'll be told
what voters will actually do.
We're taking a moment to remind him
like we did two years ago
to call Ellen Langer right up, try
a seance, maybe two with Stephen
Jay Gould. They both know.
When voters pick up the cell phone ringing
and they're asked who they will choose
the next thing he must require
is this answer. Yes, it's dire.
Will they be mailing in their vote?
Kelly Ann Conway has decided
a good way to sabotage
the abundance of dislike now
for You Know What he's called.
He lives in Washington D.C.
Cheryl Sandberg creates the conscience
for Facebook. Yes, she's not an app
but she and Mark Zuckerberg
decided to make Truth their act
Just click Like on a Facebook Page.
Just in case you haven't noticed
how she and Mark just said "Ok"
to posting lies left and right, on Facebook pages,
What's the gripe with Russians
sharing Voting plans?
So what if they're not really voters?
Remember US citizens
have always had to enroll, prove they live here,
Zuckerberg, Cheryl Sandberg,
look it up!
Nate Silver, I guess, did not have Facebook
on his radar, plus Russian hack-
ers would not answer calls,
"Are you voting in the Fall?"
Til' Paul Manafort said"Hi, it's me."
When You Know Who's not on a golf course
spoiling for those who admire
the skill of hitting the ball,
the little white one so it will fall
into a hole with a big flag.
One of the most disturbing shortfalls
of this man's abilities
is when he picks up the stick
tries to reach it back to hit
the little ball off of the tee,
There are probably house flies in the suburbs
who are thinking while they laugh
along with the PGA
and Sunday Hackers who would say
"Maybe his fly swatter works best?"
For accomplishing something that eludes him.
In this case, to hit the ball.
Mitch McConnell likely regrets
Not just the trillion dollar debts
but Trump's golfing embarassment.
Displaying ridiculous ineptness.
We're not talking when adhoc
he starts making things up to say
in press conferences. No, it is the way
he pretends he's playing golf.
To get back to Nate Silver's special forte
accuracy, counting skill
Though statistics cannot predict
Election outcomes that will stick
because the ballots must arrive.
Nate Silver learned that the hard way.
We know now he's on his game.
Maybe lovers of golf can save
admiration for this game
and hire Nate to clarify
Exactly how many strokes are taken
by You Know Who after he shakes
his golf club above the tee,
tries to give it the old heave-
Ho to make it move toward that small hole.
Nate Silver can finally help them realize
the cost the country now must bear.
The Pandemic has taken more
lives than several major wars.
And then there's Donald fake golf scores.
The country has got to hope there's something
left when- Syonara- he is gone.
Yes, I mean living human beings
but don't forget the viewers seein'
the mockery he's made of golf.
We're not making falsely equiva-
lent. The Pandemic is far worse
but give us a little break
for Sunday hackers now trying to take
socially distant honest strokes.
It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.
Don't hold your breath. Just check your mail.
The golfers in every town want Nate
counting extra golf strokes You Know Who takes!
Something Russians cannot hide!
In the Department of Poetic Justice: The Bills Are Alive to Get Rid of Healthcare (The song and dance genre)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:00
Congress has taken on eliminating affordable health insurance coverage for all citizens. For many, this year is 'anno horribilis'. In the Department of Poetic Justice, we observe possible outcomes of the proposed plans- still in flux- and explore the implications.
Nate Silver Does Not Believe In Santa! In the Dept. Of Poetic Justice!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:18
Polls do not predict the future. Remember the poll that really counts most always is the vote you cast. To the tune from "It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas!" With lyrics for The Great American Wrongbook!
In the Department of Poetic Justice
for calculating variance.
Does Nate Silver somehow believe he'd predict
gone the way of Hillary.
out on South Dakota Plains or Colorado's grazing range
in South Dakota where they'd roam
"So-called experts" now would say
they've preserved their DNA in Kristi Noem, the Governor.
I'm not talking about who's in the White House.
Bannon, Santa Claus and all that in The Dept. of Poetic Justice
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:00
A lyrical tribute from one Special Viewer observing the 2020 Republican National Convention and a certain Pardon being given by You Know Who!
One thing in the jail cell
would not come my way.
Still A Fried Mosquito and a Black-Eyed Pea: Froggy Still A-courting To Take the Affordable Health Care Act Down, But Froggy has Become Greedier, Less Compassionate
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:40
The US Senate and House Healthcare Bills hold no intention for the government to feed the whole crowd, like those in the song "Froggy Went A'Courtin''. In their proposed bills, the government is running fast and furiously from paying insurance coverage for anybody. The Senate and House bills propose that insurance premiums can be bought for a Fried Mosquito and a Black-eyed Pea. They’ll just be catastrophic plans with high deductibles. In this world view, all the hoarded, stockpiled Fried Mosquitoes and Black-eyed Peas will be used to pay off the huge medical bills the insurance will no longer cover.
But Froggy has Become Greedier, Less Compassionate and Still Doesn’t Get That Insurance Premiums Cost Too Much
And People Don’t Have the Money to Pay Upfront
-Susan Cook-
Oh yes and the reimbursement for those fried mosquitos paid out on insurance premiums will be in the form of tax credits which will be paid, no surprise here either, in real American dollars directly to insurance companies. All of the Obamacare efforts to give insurance companies their fair- repeat- fair share was not enough. United Health Care, for example, with 11 billion dollars in profits last year- just has to pull out of the Community Health Exchanges because they aren’t making enough money. In 2017, filling pockets- insurance companies pockets comes at the expense of providing healthcare, covered by reasonably priced - affordable premiums.
In 2017, all of Maine’s children are insured through Mainecare.
I can’t get rid of the image of Mr. Rat shaking his fat sides just like in “Froggy Went A-courting” along with the insurance companies who still claim deficits- while we all sit with a fried mosquito and a black-eyed pea. The US Senate and House Healthcare Bills - if they pass- will make that just a little bit of cornbread sitting on the shelf just like the song says.
Privacy Rape, the Right to Be Free from Exploitation and Facebook
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:28
A recent Fresh Air interview with Heidi Schreck about the Supreme Court recognition of privacy as the premise for a woman's right to control her own body reminds me of a word I've been thinking about. "Privacy Rape".
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Privacy Rape, Facebook and the Right to Be Free From Exploitation
-Susan Cook-
I was listening to Heidi Schreck, the playwright whose Broadway production "What the Constitution Means To Me" discusses "How Women Have Been Profoundly Left Out of the Constitution", as the Fresh Air Heading says. Ms. Schreck talked us through the long arduous constitutional journey from the 1965 Supreme Court Ruling that finally legalized birth control for married women, to legalization of birth control for unmarried women to legalization of abortion in Roe vs. Wade. All 3 of those, decided by Supreme Court justices, all white men, whose premise is that the Constitution protects Privacy.
Ms. Schrek brought to mind a term I have been thinking about for some time. "Privacy Rape".
It's very clear that the public still doesn't get or perhaps laws and the Constitution still fail to protect Privacy: privacy of personal information, the privacy of the person, the privacy of what people do in their lives.
The casual oblivion to matters of privacy was exemplified in a message posted on Facebook by an Executive Director of a major political party directed to a significantly influential political organizer who previously was single-handedly responsible for the election and re-election of hundreds of Democrats from the largest Legislative district to the state Legislation. "We noticed you signed up to volunteer for GOTV. As you know, we've asked you not to volunteer with us anymore. That has not changed. Please don't come into our offices for GOTV." This a post ignoring Privacy violation to publicly shame let alone damage Reputation by an Executive Director giving herself permission to communicate using Facebook.
Privacy is and has been better acknowledged by other politicians, Senator Ted Kennedy in particular. He significantly influenced passage of the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act which insures that patients are told about the limitations of information sharing, when the patient has not signed a Consent to Release. HIPPA specifically states that psychotherapy notes are off-limits to those seeking to access HIPPA-protected information, their exclusion hopefully the strength of Kevlar.
But the use of Facebook to casually exploit privacy (and abuse) is reflected in ongoing public permission to minimize privacy. The platform, after all, has repeatedly failed to legitimize complaints from users about personal abuses and the intrusions Facebook used to capitalize on private material as revenue.
Date Rape only became fully acknowledged form of sexual assault after it was given a name. The familiar, the seemingly socially solicitious becoming the sexual perpetrator. The guise of innocence is similarly postured by Facebook users who go onto engage in Privacy Rape or stand passively by as others engage in it too.
On Frontline recently, the Vice-President of Social Good at Facebook Naomi Gleit repeated the company's mission in the wake of the company now beginning to own up to the abuse and violence the platform's unique chemical mixture of anonymity and mathmatical exponents. "Bringing the world closer together" by doing good, she said, is the company's mission. Is it all in the past?
The quest for closeness through sharing information and listening to others is a human magnet for psychological intimacy. It is a magnet that can spiral into voyeurism and Privacy Rape much as physical touch can descend into Date Rape.
That Mark Zuckerberg's team, the company's beatific Vice President of Social Good and others did not consider that something called Privacy Rape could evolve out of anonymous , mathematical exponent-driven information sharing perplexes. History explains that human exploitation is preceded by social shaming, stigma creation and anonymous permission to ostracize. The isolation of Jews in pograms and ghettos came after generations of social stigmata, all of which gave way to exportation to concentration camps. The same could be said of Native Americans and their forced emigration to Reservations . Well-educated, privileged Facebook executives did not- and probably still don't grasp that their mission to create human connection does not undo the power of anonymity and math exponents. as lubricants of abuse.
Like generations before the Supreme Court privacy rulings, Facebook has ignored how their users posts might- and have evolved into- Privacy Rape. Their many, many "This post does not reach the level of abuse" automated replies to complaints echo- the sanctioning of violations of women's privacy- violations of a woman's bodies- violation of the right to privacy.
Despite repeated legal volleys- the Supreme Court has not backtracked on the Constitutional right to privacy. The surreptitious succoring of private information that Facebook freely engaged - like generations before them- says the temptations to transgress in secrecy - abusively- persists among the most privileged and innovative. And in the Facebook users who passively stand by as Privacy Rape continues without posting one word to stop it.
Shaming and Humiliating By Choice: Roe v. Wade and Denying Consequence
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:13
As 6 Supreme Court Justices end Roe v. Wade, shaming and humiliating Pro-Choice advocates becomes the anti-choice strategy.
Reproductive choice supporters know each of these circumstances has precipitated many female suicides.
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning): 'To an Itsy Bitsy Spider'
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:50
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning), The River Is Wide offers a poem that could be sung to the tune from a tune in the public domain, of course, The Itsy Bitsy Spider. With lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook, "To an Itsy Bitsy Spider" is a reflection.
In the Department of Poetic Justice (and reckoning) with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook To an Itsy Bitsy Spider -Susan Cook- To an Itsy Bitsy Spider The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Once he was up there no one could get him out. So they chose him for governor. Now they’re sorry Itsy sits up there cause the itsy bitsy spider keeps having little fits. The itsy bitsy spider doesn’t like the income tax He had an itsy fitsy when his bill could not get passed So the itsy bitsy spider went looking for revenge And itsy said he’ll never sign another bill again. The itsy bitsy spider wanted to reduce The government budget. Itsy doesn’t have no use For asylum seekers coming here who’d like to be like the itsy-bitsy spider, enjoying liberty. The itsy bitsy spider forgot it’s not just him creating legislation. Itsy doesn’t seem to know he’s not the most important legislator who's around, so he vetoes everything and tells them no, no, no, no no. The itsy bitsy spider seems like he's inflated his own self- importance which is a little over-rated. It’s a problem that is treated with some sure de-levitators. That is heading to the State House to deal with Legislators. The itsy bitsy spider can have a real hard time. Just like Nikita Khrushchev sometimes you think he’ll pound his sneaker on the table when he gets very mad. Whoops! That’s the part we fantasized. Has itsy had past lives? The itsy bitsy spider did not come out of nowhere. His message is so simple. You wonder where he found the voters who believed him. Voters sometimes can be the sucker now they’re left to try and find a way to impeach… the itsy bitsy spider! …went up the water spout... 
Clean Elections and the Credibility of History
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:44
Clean elections protect constituent rights so wealthy individuals or self-serving personal interests or six-figure job candidates don’t exploit the election process - and constituents- to influence elections.This month, on Election Day, voters in Maine will vote on a Clean Elections referendum to fund campaigns of legislative candidates.
If those now speaking out about Clean Elections, don’t understand how clean elections protect civil liberties or are communicating out of both sides of the mouth, by disrespecting constituents while making up cute phrases about clean elections, well, that ‘s the historical track record- spoken , written, and available on-line. That does not add credibility to arguments for clean elections and all we're left with to understand why constituents are or are not respected by clean elections legislation is history- which it turns out- is often the most credible of all.
A Clean Elections referendum to fund campaigns of candidates for public office will be on Maine ballots this month. Both sides have spokespeople who some years back led a fierce negative media campaign against a constituent criticizing a legislator for disrespect of constituents. Spokespeople whose track records don’t respect constituents in the first place doesn’t legitimize clean elections.
On August 23, 2011, I testified before Maine’s Congressional Re-districting Commission. There were big stakes. The chair of the Redistricting Committee was up for a six figure politically appointed job as head of the Small Business Administration New England Region. The ousted Democratic attorney general wanted a Democrat legislative majority the next year to re-elect her. The Legislature’s partisan staffers and the Chief of Staff for the Second District Congressional District wanted to keep their jobs. None of them wanted districts redrawn so Republican voters held majorities. The usual gerrymandering of redistricting was replaced by fat salary jobmandering.
There was little or no focus on constituents.
My testimony protested the Republican proposal to move the first congressional representative out of her own district and Maine’s climate of disregard for constituents - a referendum to eliminate same-day voter registration and a State Senate President who recorded constituents calling him.
Civil liberties protect critics of public officials from being deemed enemies of the state. All the government-paid job seekers and holders became angry that my “irritation” of the Republican party leader might make the other side less cooperative or create election losses two years later. The party chair gave permission to coordinate a negative media campaign against me for criticizing the legislator. I was defending constituents.
In 2015, a Clean Elections referendum is here. Supporters say this is not welfare for legislators but fairness for constituents. But the spokesperson for clean elections supporters, Liz Reinholt told the media following my 2011 testimony that I had no proof for my criticism of the legislator, circulated high-tech like that my testimony was an ‘antic‘. Now, she never asked me about my proof- an important Republican warning me that calling the aforesaid legislator about local environmental pollution would result in a recorded phone call- after- I already made that observation. Freedom of the press is helpless to protect civil liberties if the media is not told the truth.
Then there’s the new spokesperson for the Maine Heritage Foundation. On August 23, 2011, still on Senator Susan Collins’ payroll but just two weeks after leaving his job as her Director of New Media, Matthew Gagnon wrote on his website Pinetreepolitics.com, a series of lies, slandering me about my two minutes of testimony defending constituents. ’She’s a lunatic’ he wrote on his blog. ’Rambling, slurring’… he wrote about my testimony defending constituents on his website. Lies. Not a word from him about constituent respect.
Last week, the Maine Sunday Telegram quoted Matthew Gagnon as complaining that Clean Election supporters are hypocrites because they take money from the outside sources the referendum will forbid.
The problem here is not hypocrisy- the problem is no respect for constituents and the civil liberties that aim to protect them- the right to criticize government officials without enduring harassment or public slander as an enemy of the state. Mr. Gagnon’s record of constituent disrespect when constituents exercise civil liberties is there for the reading.
Clean elections protect constituent rights so wealthy individuals or self-serving personal interests or six-figure job candidates don’t exploit the election process - and constituents. But targeting government critics because someone wants the fat government salaried job does what clean elections are supposed to prevent. It exploits constituents one person at a time.
If those now speaking about Clean Elections, don’t understand how clean elections protect civil liberties or are communicating out of both sides of the mouth, by disrespecting constituents while making up cute phrases about clean elections, well, that ‘s the track record- spoken , written, and available on-line. That is history which is often the most credible of all.
A Citizen's Guide to Voter Fraud
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:22
Well, we have an enigmatic scandal brewing in my state. Twenty-one ballots- all for a state Senate Republican candidate surfaced inside a sealed ballot box during a recount. In which- before the recount - the Democrat held a slight edge. Now a committee convened by the Republican majority State Senate is to determine if voter fraud happened and who should hold the seat. The naïve assume that only a Republican could do the ballot box stuffing since the ballots would give the Republican a victory. But reality says that winning that one Republican seat would not change the party with the Senate majority and thus leadership power.
Perhaps the committee will consider that this is another favored Democratic strategy- or at least one that’s been used before- called immunization- trying to introduce tarnishing- that can be useful later on.- a strategy at least one Democratic lawyer thought “brilliant.” Republican ballots could have just as easily been placed -post election- in the ballot box by Democrats gloved fingers, to embarrass Republicans by making it look like those old anti-voter fraud Republicans were doing it themselves.
It would not be the first time a political party used deception to create the opposite pubic perception of what has actually happened. In other words, Democrats creating voter fraud to make it look like the kind of voter fraud only Republicans would commit- since the phony votes would make a Republican win. Some things are more important than winning.
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A Sonnet for Negative Ads
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | :57
Sometimes, there is an ineffable quality to the offensiveness of negative campaign ads. We turn here to the sonnet to express deep concern about negative political ads. Thus, for this 2014 Election Campaign season, "A Sonnet for Negative Ads".
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Why Women Don't Tell, Part 3: The Cultural Anomie that Keeps Violence Toward Women Hidden in Broad Daylight
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 08:36
The arrest of a Fifth Avenue architect as the alleged serial murderer of several women brings up the question of whether anyone over that long period of time knew of the man's aggressive and violent underworld life. Did they know and just not tell? Is this yet another example of Not Telling about Violence Toward Women, about the cultural anomie about disclosure- "a lack of moral standards" a "lawlessness" about disclosing about violence toward women?
Why Women Don't Tell Part 3
The Cultural Anomie that Keeps Violence Toward Women Hidden in Broad Daylight
In the 15 or so years since the first woman was murdered by the alleged perpetrator, the now- indicted and arrested Fifth Avenue Architect, didn't anyone suspect or even know this man had violent tendencies? Aggression toward women? Was there no speculation that his wife and children periodically left because of a recurrent aggression no longer suppressed? Some recurrent resurfacing of a pathology? Did no one suspect or even witness events that raised doubts about violence and aggression in the man's life?
The deaths of these women described only as “prostitutes” as if there was nothing else to say about them, renews fears that this culture's anomie about violence toward women has not gone away or is at least quietly accepted. Anomie, Google says, means “a lack of moral standards, or a sense of lawlessness, or sometimes the anxiety that comes from being in a lawless place.”
Then there is the Anomie about Telling What We Know about someone else's violence and aggression. The arrest of this particular alleged perpetrator hiding in plain sight raises renewed anxiety that cultural acceptance of failing to Tell What We Know persists-Why Women Don't Tell. Surely, someone must have known or suspected this alleged perpetrator's violent side. The Tarrasoff Law would dictate that even healthcare providers disclose to authorities threats of known violence or homicide or committed ones.
Sometimes, the most fiercely internalized moral lessons come from witnessing in ourselves or in others the horrible aftermath of moral atrocities. The next step is to speak out but we know too well that if you see something you very often do not say something. Telling, comes at a cost- a well known cost that many avoid. Our internalized evolutionary tool for bettering the human race by telling- our sensitivity to human pain and suffering betrays us. There is no telling. The secret is kept.
I am a psychotherapist who for many years has studied and continues to study and provide Trauma intervention. Knowing itself- witnessing- violence- the discovery of the dark truth can be all by itself traumatic. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V acknowledges hearing about and witnessing violence, atrocious events can lead to post traumatic stress disorder. The frontal lobes- where we plan, decide, our executive skills which lead us through our lives, go offline, as Bessel Van der Kolk writes. Psychotherapist Sebern Fisher notes the neurobiology of a response to trauma may bring fight or flight, tonic immobility, collapsed immobility, an orienting freeze, or loss of consciousness or fainting (the vasovagal response) The human abilities through which we function are hijacked or shutdown completely. All reasons why others don't tell what they have seen, heard or know.
There is also plenty of exposure to culturally sanctioned punishment for Telling by the discloser. A shameful example of that punishment if not assassination for telling is best exemplified by a Washington Post Pulitzer Prize toting- columnist who reviewed in 1997 “The Kiss”, Kathryn Harrison's telling about her father's incestuous acts with her. The words in the book synchronize almost with precision the torturous emotional sequalae of the act of telling about incest and the incest itself. So precise as to bring chills which they did on my first, second and third reading. The real topic of the Washington Post reviewer Jonathan Yardley is given away by the article's title: “Daddy's Girl Cashes In”. His review explicates how to take down the girl who tells the truth about being the object of violence- physical or sexual- or fearful that violation or victimization has taken or is about to take place. The visual metaphor of Yardley's stance is that of him standing with his heel on the back of Kathryn Harrison's neck- pushing her face, the mind with which she eloquently and painfully found the words to disclose and the lips that mouthed them in mud. “Slimy, repellent, meretricious, cynical”, he wrote. “His seduction of the not-unwilling her. Its essential elements are not graphic sex -- in that department Harrison is coy rather than revealing -- but a revolting mixture of self-pity and narcissism“. “The real act of dishonesty is this shameful book, which exploits the private life of the author's family -- if, by the way, anything herein actually happened as she claims it did...” As if telling about sexual violence is exploiting “family privacy”.
Jonathan Yardley could have served as Consultant for anyone hoping to suppress suspicions about the now DNA-verified suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders. He reminds any perpetrator how to irreducibly discredit Anyone who might Tell the Truth of what they have seen, heard or observed. Yardley even refers to the same geographic area, the “polygon” of the alleged murderer's route writing that salaciousness rather than the atrocity of Harrison's sexual abuse drew readers. “The chattering classes of Manhattan and the Hamptons have homed in on it with the unerring instinct of swine slopping in swill. It is the Flavor of the Month.”
If the response to the trauma of hearing the atrocious does not bring shut down, freeze, a loss of conscious willingness to know what we know, our ethical core can be part of the making sense. There's a chance here that the Cultural anomie of Telling about Violence toward women will be uncovered- if it's held up to the light here- broad daylight where it has been hiding all along.
"It's A Grand Night for Bailing, Updated" in the Dept. of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning). Lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:39
We've been humming the tune from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "State Fair", again! "It's a Grand Night for Bailing, Updated! The Evangelical version" which could be sung to the tune from "It's a Grand Night for Singing!"