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Fighting the Good Fight
Like most of you, I move from rage at the outcome of this election, to enormous sadness to find our country where it has arrived. 
These major shifts of emotions are not only debilitating to my sanity (what there is left of it), but unhelpful to the country. I am so impressed with the strategies for investigating the fraud of the election processes that many people have developed, and the ways we can fight back against the election injustices. But we can’t allow ourselves to be buried in investigations and not find a way beyond the results of this election. We must deal with the hard truth. These are my next steps.
- Acknowledge my outrage at the corruption, fraud and lack of allegiance to the success of this country. I have never been so invested in an election, nor have I ever feared for our future as much as I do now. At the same time, I refuse to let myself be buried under the ugliness and duplicity that has occurred. I must find a way to balance the truth with new opportunities for moving forward. This effort will be so very difficult, but I know this is the only way I can find my way out of this morass.
- Encourage and support every investigation of the processes and outcomes of this election. No stone should be left unturned. We should look at every state we can, study data and procedures, including those that worked well (such as several in Florida) and those that were disasters. We must find a way to shine a light on all the deplorable actions that those in charge took, whether they turned their heads away from the corruption or encouraged it. People should be solicited to report every illegal action that they witnessed, providing evidence whenever possible. And findings should be placed in the hands of the courts.
- Identify every weakness in every system in every state. Prioritize them in the order of most exploitative and least impactful. Since every violation might not be able to be addressed, prioritizing will be important.
- Develop a plan to change the election process that addresses the findings of the investigation; identify which changes would be permissible under the Constitution for the Federal government to institute, and which changes must be left with the states. Build-in processes that will ensure the integrity of the system and minimize fraud. Determine the person or governmental body that is most likely to take the investigation seriously, in terms of publicizing the results and making changes to the system. Find new and creative ways to make sure that people know the results.
- Acknowledge that even if there is ample evidence that the election results were significantly fraudulent, the systems in place may very well prevent changes to be made. We can fight to the end for the truth to win out, for integrity to reign, but in the current environment, we may ultimately lose.
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The 1797 mutiny aboard HMS Hermione was the most violent in the history of the British Royal Navy. The ship’s officers and senior warrant officers were butchered. Worse, the crew turned the ship over to the Spanish, a nation with which Great Britain was then at war. The mutiny became the stuff of legend.
President Trump, in delivering on the 2016 Republican Party platform, on his promises, actually produced the legitimate change in voter behavior that Republicans, including Reagan, had long dismissed as pie in the sky. Black and Hispanic voters apparently turned out for President Trump, outperforming previous Republican presidential campaigns, because of what he actually delivered for them. They were apparently met with a brazen level of organized ballot box stuffing fraud never seen before in this country. So, now we have an entire electorate, a full citizenry that is either saying “voter suppression” or “election fraud.” We must make elections great again, for the sake of our republic and the possibility of preserving a civil society.
For years I’ve listened to and agreed with the diatribes about the feckless Republican party. Republicans were known for being cooperative, reasonable, even polite in their interactions with Democrats. They would also whine and complain endlessly about lying and cheating they faced, but nothing seemed to change.
Yesterday, I was in a state of high anxiety as I worried about the outcomes of the election. Fortunately, I was commenting on a post and expressed my concern, and the suggestions, comfort, and humor that were shared were such a great relief for me and for others. We laughed and made fun of each other in the most caring way.
In keeping with the approaching season, I offer an early post, a playlist of songs about thanks. Turn that frown upside down and let your toes start tapping through the madness of the moment. Feel free to add to the list in the comment section.
One of the most contentious political battles of the 2020 election cycle involves the Illinois 
If you caught sight of an Orthodox woman running quickly through the streets in Israel, you’d probably look for her pursuer. Especially since she would be dressed in the traditional garb of a knee-length skirt, three-quarter-length sleeve blouse, and her hair covered. But the only person running would be Beatie Deutsch, a religious Jewish woman with five children, who is chasing her hopes to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games. 
“When human beings try to become more than human, they become less than human.” –Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Millions of words have been written about the current state of the country. Those of us who write (and those who follow our work) have been analyzing how we got to this vicious and primitive time. One key point that has been overlooked is that we have given up our commitment to the individual and free speech, and are now pandering to a New Tribe. I’d like to suggest one idea that came out of my own pondering of our circumstances and see what you think. By the way, this applies to the greater society as well as specifically Congress.
Space has been through several periods of rapid growth alternating with stagnation. Sputnik I through Apollo 11 was a rocket ride, figuratively as well as literally. The rest of the 1970s was flat, followed by growth spurts and flat spells during the Shuttle and ISS programs. Since the Shuttle stopped flying, until this year space seemed stuck on stop. Suddenly things are moving again, rapidly.
“As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.”
This morning I was nearly spitting teeth when I saw the