Patricia Garry

The Election / The Polls / My Pendulums

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Hillary has been losing ground and The Donald has been gaining. I think this must mean the entire country is going berserk. My mind cannot understand why this is so otherwise.

The chances, on fivethirtyeight.com, which so accurately called the 2012 election, are still more than 59% that Hillary will win, which is a good thing. And my pendulums, whether at the office or here at home, or in the car, are all enthusiastically saying that Hillary will take it. I just checked with the meterorite pendulum in my desk drawer here at home, and it speeds up in favor of yes, bouncing as it replies in the positive.

So my positivity is suggesting I just relax, and await those good results. I’m going to practice that as I head to the neighborhood meditation, City Silence, in a few minutes. And I’m going to watch the debate on Monday night with those folks, too. All good karma. : >

DNC Scandal Just Before Convention

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I found that I was so disturbed about the Wikileaks hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee – just before the Convention – that I did not sleep well last night. Practically unheard of in my life. Sometime just before dawn, I began to untangle it in my mind.

First off, these are Democrats. As a flaming liberal myself, I hold Democrats to a much higher standard. My experience of Republicans is that they are so inflamed about money – not wanting to spend a penny of their own – that they can look past any amount of human misery and only see dollar signs.

Mainly, though, these emails criticizing Bernie Sanders go against the rules of fair play. The long primary campaign required that the DNC support equally and neutrally both candidates in their races. Lists of voters, lots of data, perhaps graphic design and TV buy help, all should be supplied equally to both. DNC folk are not working for a particular campaign, but are supporting the national effort, the national party.

Young Democrats by the hundreds of thousands were becoming involved in the party. A cause for celebration. Were DNC staffers so afraid of Hillary being beaten that they had to assist in undermining Bernie? I am a Hillary supporter, and will donate, work for and vote for her. And she is going to win. But this basic unfairness, and even downright negativity and nastiness, casts her in a bad light, even though it seems she was not involved.

Full disclosure: I was a strong Barack Obama supporter in 2008 – which amazed all my friends, who assumed as a feminist, Hillary would be my pick. I knew Barack was going to win, and that he was what we needed in that year. Even though I knew it was going to be a very hard 8 years.

Another factor I untangled is that I also hold Jewish people to a higher standard. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the DNC until the end of this week (she has decided to resign after the convention) is Jewish, as is Bernie Sanders. I have not read all the stories, but clearly the leadership did not set the highest standard and tone for the organization this primary season. And was likely actively working to sabotage the Sanders campaign. Amazingly awful.

More full disclosure: I am not amazed when my fellow Irish-Americans become wild-eyed conservatives and even bigots. Plenty of those in the Republican party these days.

Additionally, it is clear that Bernie’s campaign has been very helpful in pushing the agenda to the left, and that we will get single-payer health care, free community college tuition, and better financial regulations much more quickly – years, rather than decades – because of Bernie’s efforts.

All will turn out well, but I hate this particular bump in the road to the White House.

A First Look at Donald vs Hillary – Kluska Workshop

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Cincinnati Astrologer Ed Kluska gave a workshop this afternoon: Trump vs. Hillary ? A First Look

These lines are my interpretation of Ed?s discussion: Given the overall planetary action, there will be plenty of surprises / shifts / confusion in these next few months ? the world will keep evolving and being weird, and not just in politics.

Astrologically, The Donald, a Gemini, is more complex than Hillary. And it is really hard to be more complex than a Scorpio, particularly a double Scorpio. Donald has his sun in Gemini, his moon in Sagittarius, and his rising sign in Leo. (Sun, moon and rising are the big three in astrology.) He knows how to use the media, needs lots of attention, has great verbal skills, connects easily and well with people ? creating and running The Apprentice was the perfect place for him.
He?s creative and curious, an extrovert, not very reflective, as excited as a little kid. He loves his kids, his home, his family. On the other side – he?s impulsive, volcanic in sudden urges, needs to be more careful about honesty, his timing is often off, and, with very little earth in his chart, he has likely not accomplished a lot of what he excitedly planned to do. (I can see such a news story coming up soon.) His mind can wander, he can be foggy.

Hillary is a Scorpio, a double ? her sun is in Scorpio and so is her rising sign. As Ed said, the perfect set up for a politician or a lawyer ? and she is both. Her moon is in Pisces. Both of them have Mars in Leo – gives them lots of strength, motivation, energy. Where Donald is outward, Hillary is inward. Where he is not reflective, does not think about what he does, she is always thinking, planning, seeking understanding. Where he speaks without thinking, she is deliberate, and doesn?t speak out until ready.

She is in many ways Donald?s opposite ? she has willpower, strength, tenacity, devotion, perseverance.

Neither party?s convention will be particularly explosive ? so I?m thinking Bernie will have found a way to make nice. Hillary will be full of confidence, she will like and appreciate the attention and the support, signs are all very good for her there.

And the Republicans are not likely going to suddenly support another candidate, or start a third party. Donald wants power and they will give it to him.

Between now and the election there are very few bumps in Hillary?s way ? some problems in February, not now. Donald, on the other hand, has a chart with challenges in it now through mid-September. And again right after the election.

Ed is not ready to look at the actual election until vice presidential choices are made and that data is gathered. Plus there are other details he wants to look at more closely.

I, on the other hand, called it months ago, and will say it again. Hillary is walking away with this one. And she will, now or later, get the love and support she needs. In return, she will give us all her energy and devotion ? and be an excellent Democratic president, caring for us, the people of her beloved country.

Brian Got the Most Bang for the Campaign Buck

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So the primary election for the Ohio District 31 seat – and all the other seats, but that was the only one that mattered : > – was held last Tuesday the 15th – today is March 21. Brigid Kelly, another fine young Irish American, who had worked hard for over two years, won with 1/3 of the vote. The guy who came in second spent about $125,000 – and beat Brian, who spent a lot less than that, by not very much. So Brian did a great job in getting the most bank for the buck.

He also had a great team, shared the campaign office with the local Bernie Sanders campaign, had great literature – and was very impressive in not winning.

He was also great in staying reality based. Right after the polls closed, a group of us went to Mazunte’s for dinner (nothing like Mexican comfort food after a long day). Several of us were very hopeful – but Brian calmly analyzed the race, described what the outcome would be, talked about what he had done well and what needed to be done better, and stayed comfortable throughout the evening – as events turned out just as he had predicted.

I was very impressed with my smart and hardworking son for a great campaign – and even prouder about his understanding and analysis of the race. And most of all, proud of his values and beliefs, which led him into the race in the first place.

Brian Garry’s Campaign for the State Legislature

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Brian has been working hard for the last year, and now the campaign is drawing to a close. Because District 31 has been drawn so tightly, to include as many Democrats as possible (and to create many more safe Republican districts), whichever Democratic candidate wins this primary on March 15, will definitely win in November. So this is the de facto election.

So it’s all hands on deck until the last votes are cast at 7:30 p m on Tuesday, March 15. And be sure YOU don’t forget to vote!

Me? I voted by mail two weeks ago.

Watching A Republican Debate

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I had not watched any of the debates – not Republican or Democratic. The Democratic debates, given the character of the participants, were always going to be more discussion and less screaming, more about fairly minor differences, with details and directions not too separate from one another. It has been fun, though, to watch those kids feeling The Bern, having nearly as much fun as we had in the 60s and 70s, and again in 2008 with Barack.

Hillary has clearly been learning and adapting with each debate, indeed each campaign appearance. I prefer Hillary (last time it was Barack all the way for me), but will definitely and happily vote for Bernie if he is the nominee.

But the lack of truthiness, the low quality insults, the noise and chaos of the Republican debates did not appeal. What was the point? To be bored by overwrought white guys for 2+ hours? Plus the quietness and calm of Dr. Carson, who seldom seems to have a point of view that is understandable. (I saw him years ago at an Uptown Consortium event – very hard to understand what he believed, but he seemed to be blaming the victim.)

Then one Saturday night – I wanted to watch a debate, and a friend invited me over. So I went. It was the day Justice Scalia died. (He was one of the main reasons that I no longer trust the entire American justice system – so clearly political, so clearly negative and narrow. An Italian Puritan.)

It was fun to watch Jeb finally stand up and take on The Donald. But most of the evening was watching Marco and Ted Cruz screaming at DJT and at each other. And occasionally John Kasich making sure we knew he was the grownup in the room. (Living in Kasich’s state, I can tell you that he is nearly – not quite – as negative and totally right winged as any of them. Don’t trust him.) It was good to be watching with a room full of liberals, thank heaven.

Then, when it was over, the network went back to eulogizing Scalia, who was totally destructive in my book, and I found that I simply could not stay and watch. So I left within 5 minutes of the debate being over. And that is all the Republican side of the aisle I intend to watch. Period. Bang. End of story.

Talking about Charlie – Charles P. Taft II

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What fun! During the 1970s, I worked as Legislative Aide to Cincinnati City Council Member Charlie Taft, on City Council for over 30 years, Mayor for 2 years in the late 1950s. And I got to relive those days a week ago, talking about those memories at the William Howard Taft National Park on Auburn Avenue in Mt. Auburn.

Charlie was the son of William Howard Taft, younger by 10 years than his brother, Mr. Republican, Ohio Senator and father of former Governor Robert A. Taft, Jr. Charlie was Charles P. Taft II, named after his uncle, William Howard Taft’s brother, who owned and lived in what is now the Taft Museum here in Cincinnati. That brother married Anna Sinton, whose father gave them a wedding gift of the Taft home. Which is how the original Charles P. Taft came to have enough money to support his brother, the President and Chief Justice, whose public service salaries never matched the family’s needs.

Charlie spent more time in the White House when Teddy Roosevelt was president, with his best friend Quentin Roosevelt. By the time his own father was president, he was at the Taft School in Connecticut (his Uncle Horace’ school) and then on to Yale. After stint in World War I (where Quentin was killed), Charlie came back to Yale for Law School, and then to Cincinnati, the family’s home, though he had never lived here.

He helped create the Charter Party here, to rid Cincinnati of bossism, and then, during and after World War II, worked hard in Washington DC on implementing the Marshall Plan – the reconstruction of Europe. Once he was back here, he ran for City Council as a Charterite, wrote a book about Charter, wrote and read a several times a week column for WNOP – the jazz station, Radio Free Newport, practiced law (he was the original Taft in Taft, Stettinius and Hollister), and headed up the National Council of Churches for a number of years.

He also kept a canoe on top of his car – in case he should suddenly take a notion to go fishing, usually in the Little Miami River.

Charlie lived – and really enjoyed – a great life. What a privilege – and what fun – it was to share a part of that long and beautiful life with him.

Book Review: Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong

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The full title of Karen Armstrong’s most recent book, published in 2014, is Fields of Blood – Religion and the History of Violence.

She is perhaps the best known and deepest thinker about religion in our era – and I do mean religion, not spirituality. A former Anglican nun, she has written about the ancient roots of the Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, about fundamentalism in all of them, about Jerusalem – One City, Three Faiths. Many, many wonderful books, including The Bible – The Biography. All are very readable, very broad in their scope, enlightening in a very real sense.

My argument with her is that she negates the 100,000 years of the history of when The Goddess ruled the earth (and cities were not walled), and promotes this relatively late coming patriarchy – only about 8,000 years. But I just read her books with that in mind, and do fairly well.

She has written one breathtaking book outside that list of her usual topics. Buddha is the story of the life of Siddhartha, The Buddha, and is incredibly powerful, so beautiful, resonating with Truth. An Aaaahhhhh! book.

I would not normally read a book titled Fields of Blood. But since one of my shock sayings is to mention, when Christianity is the topic, that Christians are the biggest mass murderers in history (which actually can be said for all three of those Abrahamic faiths), I thought I should connect with Karen’s thinking on the topic. Obviously, she has heard something similar from others – good to know I’m not alone in that thinking.

This book is meticulously researched, as is all her work. And she is a wonderful, skilled writer, carrying us along on her thinking journey. But really, in the end, her basic premise seems to be that governments have always been mass murderers and carriers out of violent acts against their peoples, as well. She doesn’t deny the atrocities of Christians and others, acting in the names of their faiths. She just says – they do it, too.

Along the way, we learn so much about the early societies, and their prediliction for preserving the past rather than risking the future. We learn that being a scapegoat is way better than being the goat that is sacrificed. And why taking care of the poor is a pious notion seldom achieved in any society throughout time. We also learn what a gifted politician Mohammed was – which leads me to believe the Middle East would be in much better shape if his words were actually followed by his followers. And, of course, that could also be said about all religions.

She describes the fields of blood in full, fairly graphically. We learn who, what, where, when and why. The Afterword in the book is powerful and compelling. “We are all, religious and secularist alike, responsible for the current predicament of the world.” “Somehow we have to find ways of doing what religion – at its best – has done for centuries: build a sense of global community, cultivate a sense of reverence and ‘equanimity’ for all, and take responsibility for the suffering we see in the world.”

My translation of those heavy words: we need to forgive and forget all that blood, let go of our fear (and I of my anger at the atrocities committed against the Irish), look at the world and love what we see, express our gratitude and joy daily, and choose to truly live in peace as we move toward justice.

Book Review: The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

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We are lucky enough, here in Cincinnati, to have the Mercantile Library, founded in 1835, where Harriet Beecher Stowe actually spoke about the writing of her world-changing book, Uncle Tom?s Cabin. And this year, we were lucky to be able to hear Michelle Alexander in conversation with the Library?s President, Paul De Marco, after he presented her with the inaugural Harriet Beecher Stowe Freedom Writer Award.

This book is a magnificent achievement in laying out exactly what is going on in our culture ? why the number of those in prison has grown by 5 fold in less than 30 years time, why most of those prisoners are in for non-violent drug crimes ? and why most of them are black and brown.

Here are the most shocking things I learned: the size of the prison industry, and the amount of money that supports it ? when we purport not to have dollars for pre-school and excellent education. The stories of single moms and many others snatched from their homes and lives, when they cannot make bail or pay court costs or tickets. (My reaction – in reality, they are held in debtors? prisons, which have been illegal since the time of Charles Dickens.) Or ? a new industry having sprung up ? collections agencies buy these debts from courts, and thus those who have paid their debt to society are made to pay high interest for years, and almost never get out of it. The truth about what a felony record does to your entire life ? once you have to check that box on an employment form. The shame and the despair from being randomly selected by the police for a pat down. (My reaction ? which really becomes a shakedown, worse than a lightning bolt in its effect.) How many of our police departments and jails are supported by these policies? Ferguson, MO is not the only place to run on money supplied by the poorest among us.

Michelle is amazingly able to tell us this story straight, without mind-numbing statistics, and in a coherent, follow-the-trail of what is really happening here way. During slavery, the South needed the labor of the slaves. After the Civil War, the need was for control ? using fear and terror to control the lowest paid workers, who really never had a chance, even when they moved North. (My reaction – and now our culture does not believe it needs the labor of this rung of the ladder, but have found another way to monetize black and brown men, while destroying communities and ruining the lives of children.)

Those of us who are white can drive with a broken taillight. Those of us who are black or brown may have their lives destroyed by attracting the attention of the authorities this way, as one domino follows another. Don?t pay the ticket, the cost doubles. Found guilty of a broken tail light, can?t pay the court costs. Can?t make bail, stay in jail. Lose your job, maybe lose your kids. And if you live in the wrong state and marijuana is involved, the entire mess becomes a felony, meaning a life-long sentence as far as having a normal healthy American life is concerned. This is what we put poor people through.

It does not make sense at the macro or micro level. Our appetite for punishment seems to be enormous. Our appetite for compassion often seems non-existent. Mercy and justice should work together, be partners. But mostly not, so far in 21st century America.

Book Review: The Bully Pulpit

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The Bully Pulpit – Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, published in 2013, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. It is a monumental work, 752 pages of text, 910 pages total.

I was drawn to the book for a lot of reasons – one being that I was legislative aide to Cincinnati City Council Member Charlie Taft, son of William Howard, back in the 70s, and heard every now and then stories of that era.

Another is that I love the art of politics, and this book is full of fascinating political minutiae. And then the fact that I have loved journalism since being editor of my high school newspaper and yearbook, back in the day. The Muckrakers – one of a number of names they were called – are highly featured, including their major impact in creating the reformist mood of the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, often called the Golden Age of Journalism.

Cincinnati itself, and a number of its prominent citizens, are also featured. And we get a real sidelight into transportation, communication, regional differences across the country, and the two political parties in that era. We don’t learn much about Democrats, though – they didn’t have much success in that time period – until the Roosevelt – Taft fight made Woodrow Wilson’s win possible.

It was interesting to learn that Republicans then, as now, were very much the rich man’s party – using the word man advisedly, since women did not have the vote and were not in many discussions. Except that Teddy and Big Bill both took heed of their wives’ advice – Big Bill in particular.

Teddy, with the Muckrakers, was able to push through lots of bills and new regulations that assisted the common man, and still do. He was an outlier Republican in many ways, where Taft was more measured, and indeed was always judicial in his behavior and opinions. Teddy would go nuclear fairly frequently, where Taft would go read the reports, the legislation, the opinions of the courts.

And yet these two were best friends, partners in solving problems and fixing inequities for many years. Between the extroverted Teddy and Taft’s ambitious wife, Nellie, Taft was often pushed into positions he probably would not have taken otherwise. He always wanted to be on the Supreme Court, and yet turned down offers several times, to make Nellie or Teddy happy.

Another job he totally loved was as Governor General of the Phillipines. During those years, he began the process of creating a thriving democracy across those many islands. His fairness, openness and geniality won over the people. Roosevelt had appointed him to that job – it took a lot of pressure to get Taft to give it up and return to DC to be Roosevelt’s Secretary of War – and in practice, chief cabinet officer.

Roosevelt pushed Taft into the presidency, and then left the country – for an African safari – for a year, to give Taft room. Which turned out to be a fatal mistake. Taft was too indecisive about who to keep from Teddy’s cabinet in his own – and about many other issues as well. Taft’s biggest problem came when he put the next-in-line conservative politician / bureaucrat, Richard Ballinger, as Interior Secretary, rather than Roosevelt’s favorite conservation crusader, Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot. Actually, this has done us harm to this day, as Ballinger put much Western land back up for development by the private sector, that Roosevelt / Pinchot had withdrawn. That single act set up dominos of problems that shocked many Roosevelt supporters, and began Taft’s downfall. The rupture between Taft and Roosevelt broke many ties, and really caused suffering for both men. Goodwin’s writing really brings out the pain it caused for both men – and the fallout for the country.

Taft won the Republican nomination in 1912 – but Roosevelt then ran as an independent – for the Bull Moose party. And Wilson, the Democrat, carried the day. Which I, as a Democrat, might normally cheer. I would rather, in many ways, that Roosevelt’s policies of regulation and protecting the public, had continued.

It was six years later, May 26, 1918, that Taft and Roosevelt first spoke to each other after that. And become close friends all over again. January 6, 1919, Roosevelt died in his sleep. And on October 3,1921, Taft was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the job he had always wanted, by President Warren Harding. He streamlined court procedure, sped up and improved the delivery of justice, and improved the whole system of federal courts. He left the bench early in 1930, and on March 8, 1930, Taft died.

This book really brings us into the politics and machinations, the big sweeping changes to the country, of that fateful time – as well as the warm personal family stories of Taft and Roosevelt. History, it turns out, can be discerned through the big picture – and the small daily decisions that come directly out of our characters, as we react to the big picture tumult. I found this book to be excellent – and very sad.