November 11, 2020 Dear Editor, Today is all about relief. Not celebration, just relief. The world is still not a perfect place, and neither is our democracy. We are a divided country, and we will likely still be divided. But one thing is certain - no longer will we have a president who uses the bully pulpit to misinform, miseducate, and mislead the citizens of this country. So, Trump enthusiasts, you can keep claiming that Donald Trump is the only real alternative to socialist dictators. You can keep talking about how the election was rigged with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, other than the fact that the chosen candidate said so. You can keep talking about how COVID-19 is a left-wing hoax. You can keep believing that the President of the United States should have anything more than a small impact on our day-to-day lives. Social media will humor you, and allow you to indulge in such baseless pursuits with others who will boost your dopamine levels and make you feel smarter with every "like.” But thankfully, today is the day that our President will no longer be the reason why. And for that, we are all better off. Breathe normally now, An Anonymous Insider/New York City Dear Editor, A few thoughts about the past extraordinary week: I think that the days of having an election day may be gone. From now on, it will be election month. That makes a lot of sense--it encourages participation, reduces wait times overall, and is probably a good thing. I've been rather numb the past few days. With 60+% of the population claiming to be opposed to everything our President has done, I'm amazed, and somewhat disheartened by just how close the numbers are. A four million vote lead in the national tally seems like a lot, but I think it turns out to be 52% or 53%. I was hoping for much more than that. On the flip side, I'm very pleased with the overall participation. Democracy may not be dead after all. Today, the sense of relief around noon when Pennsylvania was called and put Biden over the top, was palpable. But at the same time, I'm also dismayed at the prospect of a Senate in Republican hands that won't cooperate on anything because of primary election fears. I'm guessing the next four years won't see things improve very much. Perhaps some national leadership on the COVID-19 response, and some coherent views on science in general will help, but I don't feel overly optimistic. On the other hand, it could have been so much worse. My wife, Robin, often says I'm too pessimistic, and sometimes she is correct :) I hope this is one of those times. I am very happy with the election results, although it clearly isn't over yet, and won't be for some time/ But I'm guessing (optimistically) that even a bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court can't overturn things the way they stand now I'll keep my fingers crossed and wait for January 20th. A postcript : Perhaps Trump can get the election results invalidated, leaving no winner at all. On January 20th at noon, we would have President Pelosi! Wouldn't that be an interesting start to the new decade? Take care, Neil Cohen/Herndon, Va. Neil Cohen has been married to Insider Robin Cohen for 42+ years.
They have 2 grown sons, Steven and Daniel Neil works as a computer scientist. For
the past 15 years, his job has mainly revolved around keeping
the Internet running. In his spare time, he enjoys reading,
Aikido, traveling, ballroom dancing and long walks with Robin and their dog Shira. Dear Editor, BIDEN AND HARRIS WIN!! Yes, I know that we still have a Republican-controlled Senate that will most likely operate in an obstructionist manner. And yes, I know that we still have a recalcitrant and delusional current President who refuses to concede. And yes, I know we still have troll farms spewing misinformation, a rise of white supremacy, an uncontrolled pandemic, Fox News, global warming that is contributing to unprecedented hurricanes and forest fires, warlike litigation against the election results. a skewed- to-the-right Supreme Court and a deeply divided nation. The list goes on and on. But right now, in this moment, as I see democracy work, I choose (and deeply need) to celebrate with relief, joy and hope. Electorally Yours, Robin Cohen/Herndon, Va. Robin Cohen has been married to Insider Neil Cohen for 42 years, with two grown sons, Daniel and Steven. Robin works as a clinical social worker specializing in couples’ therapy. She has been selected twice by the Washingtonian Magazine as “Top Couples Therapist.” Cohen was a former adjunct faculty at Virginia Tech’s Marriage and Family Therapy Program where she worked as a clinical supervisor and was part of two research teams. Her favorite quote comes from the British psychiatrist, John Bowlby. “All behavior makes sense given its context.” When not working, Robin enjoys playing the piano, reading, traveling and ballroom dancing with Neil.

By John Rolfe As I apply my quivering quill to parchment, the 2020 presidential election has been called ,but Joe Biden’s victory is being disputed by President Trump and will be for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, a few thoughts on the past four years of Trump’s reign: To me, Donald Trump is the personification of the classic Ugly American, commonly defined as “loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric.” He's a reflection of a society that slavishly reveres fame, wealth and self-worship, often mistaking them as signs of virtue. So I’m not surprised that Trump is adored by millions, some of whom see him as an exemplar of the American Dream. A pathological liar who rode to fame on the myth of being a self-made man and artful dealmaker, Trump is the ultimate president for a society that has long been in love with illusion: movies, scripted “reality” TV, video games, medical procedures to mask telltale signs of age, and going into debt while creating the appearance of wealth. It’s fitting that in 2018, the Guggenheim Museum offered to lend his White House a gold toilet, the ultimate metaphor of what Trump represents: opulence on the outside and crap inside. I never fully appreciated a president’s influence on people’s behavior until Trump moved into the Oval Office. He’s fostered a kind of mass insanity in which people will argue one point and then the polar opposite with no sense of the absurdity of what they are doing. I’ve been stunned and disgusted by how the many people I thought were rational and decent have excused or hailed his incessant, painfully obvious lying, often comical ignorance, racism, and Machiavellian ways. They say things like, “He may be a bully but he’s our bully” or “His lying is why I like him. He’ll do anything to get things done.” Or, as one of my neighbors put it, “Tell your kids to hurry and have kids. We need more white people or the minorities will take over and ruin the country.” Despair is all I feel about a president who continually makes wild, baseless accusations, such as widespread voter fraud, that encourage violence. It boggles my mind that he’s been allowed to do it without providing proof or even evidence in many cases. “The Next Hitler” accusation is as stale as last month’s gruel and has been heaved at presidents from both parties for decades based on behavior or remarks that now seem quaint. But one similarity haunts me: “The words [Hitler] uttered, the thoughts he expressed, often seemed to me ridiculous, but that week in Nuremberg I began to comprehend that it did not matter much what he said but how he said it,” William L. Shirer wrote in The Nightmare Years, his account of living in Germany in the 1930s. “Hitler’s communication with his audiences was uncanny. He established a rapport almost immediately and deepened and intensified it as he went on speaking, holding them completely in his spell. In such a state, it seemed to me, they easily believed anything he said, even the most foolish nonsense. Over the years, as I listened to scores of Hitler’s major speeches, I would pause in my own mind to exclaim, ‘What utter rubbish! What brazen lies!’ Then I would look around at the audience. His German listeners were lapping up every word as the utter truth.” Trump encourages in his supporters a refusal to acknowledge unflattering or unpleasant realities, such as the demands and toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. For good measure, he’s welcomed the lunatic fringe into the mainstream as part of his base. Perhaps the most alarming example is the QAnon movement, which now has supporters in Congress (Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert), leading me to believe Trump is behind a vast, sinister conspiracy to banish the use of the mind in America. People in my daily life are now confirming my suspicions with things like claims that Bill Gates and George Soros actively control the weather. “In our land of opportunity, you could grow up to be president!” is one of the great American verities we feed to kids. Well, Trump has certainly proved that anyone can be president without even really having grown up, or having a shred of knowledge about government or a minimal interest in how it works and the rules it is supposed to follow. The Ultimate Ugly American has made intelligence, knowledge, honesty, integrity, decency, civility, compassion, respect for differences, responsibility, and even coherence optional in politics and life in general for that matter. All that matters is getting what you want by any means necessary. The popular Trump follower’s slogan “F**k Your Feelings” says it all. I’m surprised the President hasn’t added it to the American flag by now. A lot of people would salute. John Rolfe is a former senior editor for Sports Illustrated for Kids, a longtime columnist for the Poughkeepsie Journal/USA Today Network, and author of The Goose in the Bathroom: Stirring Tales of Family Life. His school bus drivin’ blog “Hellions, Mayhem and Brake Failure” is parked on his website Celestialchuckle.com (https://celestialchuckle.com) with the meter running.

By Andy Borowitz November 4, 2020 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Hinting darkly that “there’s something going on,” Donald J. Trump has asked the United States Supreme Court to rule that Wisconsin is not a state. “I’ve been hearing strange things coming out of Wisconsin, which is a rigged hoax claiming to be a state,” Trump told reporters. “I think it’s disgraceful.” When asked by a reporter to explain Wisconsin’s admission to the Union, in 1848, Trump said, “Show me one person who saw that happen. You can’t, because they’re all dead. That’s very convenient and very cute.” Trump also said that Wisconsin had no right to call itself “the Badger State.” “First of all, it’s not a state,” Trump said. “Second of all, there are no badgers there. I’ve been there many, many times and have never seen a badger. Wisconsin should apologize to the entire badger race.” Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile inThe New York Timeson August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."

Jeffrey D. Sachs | October 26, 2020 |  CNN.com Editor's Note: Jeffrey Sachs is a professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author; view more opinion articles on CNN. (CNN) The Trump administration has announced its unconditional surrender to the Covid-19 pandemic. "We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas," White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday. Donald Trump has surrendered without ever joining the battle. I have no doubt he will be remembered as the greatest presidential failure in American history. Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, has said he has no principles and only wants to appeal to his base. Yet his lack of principles is perhaps not the main reason for his surrender today. His remarkable and seemingly boundless stupidity is more likely the main cause. As Bob Woodward's tapes made perfectly clear, Trump actually knew the extreme dangers of an epidemic that has so far claimed 230,000 US deaths ― a toll that rises by around 1,000 each day of Trump's inaction. Trump's stupidity came in his false belief that the choice before the country was to let the epidemic rage or to shut down the economy. For many reasons, perhaps including the Trump Organization's heavy indebtedness, Trump chose at every moment the economy over trying to stop the spread of the virus. Yet Trump's whole premise was deadly wrong. The correct choice was not to stop the economy, but instead to introduce basic public health policies that stop transmission of the virus without shutting the economy and without waiting for vaccines and therapeutics (as desirable as they will be when they arrive). The basic public health policies are known by any first-year public health student, and certainly by the Centers for Disease Control, which Trump's team disregarded and suppressed. In fact, the basic policies are so well known that they have a name, Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI's). They include rapid testing, contact tracing, safe isolation, face masks, and safe workplace practices. Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Vietnam have all largely suppressed the pandemic without ongoing shutdowns. Trump surrounded himself with fools and knaves who echoed his false belief that the choice was Covid versus the economy. This includes three types of advisers who led Trump to his likely imminent political demise and to our nation's mass suffering. The first group were the evangelical preachers who were more interested in packing their pews than in saving their parishioners who caught the disease in their megachurches. This is a key part of Trump's base. Its leaders helped lead Trump to calamity. The second group was the Murdoch media empire with the "thought leadership" ― if one can call it that ― of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and the nihilism of Fox News. What is incredible about the Wall Street Journal editorial board is that they were so fixated against closing the economy that they failed to give serious consideration to NPIs, despite their proven success in the Asia-Pacific. As a result, the Journal's editors overlooked the most effective policy approach and thereby helped steer Trump to disaster. The third group was those who would stand up and oppose the overwhelming scientific consensus on NPI's, thereby bolstering Trump in his conviction to do nothing. The recent pseudo-scientific advice of Dr. Scott Atlas, from Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institution, provided the simulacrum of academic approval to the White House do-nothing position by calling it "herd immunity," a position roundly rejected by the public health community. Trump may have surrendered, but the overwhelming majority of Americans have not. We'd rather apply the spirit of Winston Churchill's wartime determination to our battle against the virus, declaring that we will fight the pandemic "on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." We are ready to wear face masks, to be tested, to socially distance, to self-isolate when necessary, to keep our offices and shops safe for the public. We want to save our parents, siblings, children, friends, and fellow Americans from a killer disease that not only claims lives but can lead to long-term grave disabilities, including cognitive disorders, for many who survive the infections. God help us to vote and to count the ballots honestly. If Americans turn out in large numbers and vote based on the attitudes they are expressing daily to pollsters, we will have a new President and a new lease on life very soon. In the interim, our governors and mayors should step up their efforts to suppress the virus until a decent, sane, and competent federal government arrives under Joe Biden's leadership on January 20. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/25/opinions/pandemic-covid-19-shutdown-meadows-sachs/index.html

October 26, 2020 Jeffrey D. Sachs | Project Syndicate The long history of America’s state-sponsored racism will draw to an end in the coming generation. Yet the damage that Trump’s brand of white nationalism could still cause to the US and the world if he wins a second term makes the election easily the most important in modern American history. NEW YORK – The ferocity of the 2020 presidential election in the United States is not about Donald Trump per se, but about what he represents: the racist structures of power that have persisted in America for centuries, though sometimes in mutated form. The long history of America’s state-sponsored racism will draw to an end in the coming generation, which is why Trump is so strikingly reactionary in his attempts to prolong it. Yet the damage that Trump’s brand of white nationalism could still cause to the US and the world if he wins a second term makes the election easily the most important in modern American history. Racism was hard-wired into the US from the founding of the American colonies, with their economies built on the enslavement of Africans and the slaughter and dispossession of Native Americans. Slavery became so deeply enmeshed in American society that only a bloody civil war ended it, in contrast to most other countries, where the African slave trade and slave holding ended peacefully. When the US Civil War ended, a brief period of African-American emancipation during the Reconstruction era (1865-76) gave way to a renewed system of racist repression so encompassing and systematic that it was, in effect, an American apartheid system. The legal racism of Jim Crow in the US South is well known, but the repression and segregation in the North and West, including segregated housing, flagrant job discrimination, poor or no schooling, and systemic failures of justice, were similarly noxious. In his brilliant and eloquent book The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein examines how federal, state, and local governments, in collaboration with vigilante white violence, created and perpetuated African-American ghettos across the country, while underwriting and promoting the spread of segregated, all-white suburbs. Much overtly racist legislation was eventually eliminated by Congress or overturned by the federal courts by the end of the 1960s. Yet racism continued, reflected in police brutality, the mass incarceration of black young people starting in the 1970s, ongoing suppression of black votes, and pervasive employment discrimination. And most of America’s segregated suburbs remained nearly all white. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s produced deep and lasting changes. Yet it also fueled a political backlash among white conservatives, especially in the South and Midwest. Working-class and evangelical whites who had long been part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition switched their allegiance to the Republican Party, which promised to resist further desegregation and to support policies promoted by social conservatives. This “Southern Strategy” helped to put Richard Nixon in the White House in 1968, and then Ronald Reagan in 1980. The same white, evangelical rural and suburban base helped to elect George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Trump. Today, however, younger Americans are far more supportive of racial diversity – and are far more racially diverse themselves. They are also better educated. Because college campuses bring together Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds, they foster a lived environment of diversity, thereby nurturing greater racial tolerance. According to a recent Pew Research Center opinion survey, young voters aged 18-29 are breaking 59% for Joe Biden to 29% for Trump, who also garners little support among college-educated voters. Voters with a Bachelor’s degree favor Biden over Trump by a margin of 57% to 37%. For voters with advanced degrees, Biden’s margin is even wider, 68% to 28%. Trump’s base is concentrated among older, white, and lesser-educated Protestants, many of whom moved to segregated suburbs decades ago precisely to avoid integration. In 2016, the swing voters were white working-class voters in the Midwest who had lost jobs to automation and trade. Many had previously voted Democratic. Trump wooed them by promising to stop immigrants and minorities competing for their jobs and housing. He promised to restore vast numbers of manufacturing jobs by getting tough on China. That message sold. This year, however, swing voters are likely to break for Biden. Trump’s disdain for public health has allowed COVID-19 to run amok. Together with the weak economy, the lack of jobs returning from China, the overall loss of manufacturing employment since the start of Trump’s presidency, and Biden’s convincing proposals to create millions of jobs by investing in clean and green infrastructure, Trump’s message no longer resonates with many of these voters. With US demographics and cultural attitudes changing, older, white pro-segregation voters may recognize that this election is their last stand. Trump’s remaining stratagem is voter suppression, including dark threats of vigilante violence if he is defeated. He has repeatedly declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, and has ominously called on white supremacists to “stand back and stand by” pending the electoral results. As his electoral defeat has become increasingly likely, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric to fever pitch. The chaos of an artificially contested vote count is Trump’s main shot at retaining power. The most heartening words from Trump during this whole campaign was his recent musing that if he loses, “Maybe I’ll have to leave the country.” More likely, after a lifetime of tax dodging and financial fraud, justice will catch up with him. If Trump somehow holds on to power, the domestic and global consequences of an openly repressive racist US regime could be deadly. At home, unleashed and unhinged white supremacist groups could spur a descent into open violence. On the global stage, Trump’s evangelical base has a frenzied desire for a cold war with China, one that plays to these voters’ xenophobia, anti-Chinese racism, and historical ignorance. All of this means that the coming weeks will be fraught with peril. America and the world will not be safe until Trump is gone. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-last-stand-for-racist-america-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2020-10

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile inThe New York Timeson August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."

By Andy Borowitz October 27, 2020 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an opinion that sparked controversy in legal circles, Brett Kavanaugh wrote that there should be a cutoff for vote-counting but not for drinking. The Supreme Court Justice wrote that, while ballots received after midnight on Election Night should not be counted, drink orders placed after closing time at a bar should always be honored. “While the Constitution does not guarantee the right to vote, it clearly enshrines the right to drink,” Kavanaugh wrote. “If a patron is seated at a bar at midnight, drinking should be allowed to continue for hours, if not days, until drinking has been completed.” Kavanaugh added that there is “no scenario in which it would be right to cut a drinker off.” “If, for example, a drinker is at a bar after a UB40 concert and some other dudes start dissing UB40, and the dude—the first one—starts punching the other dudes, cutting off that dude would be bogus,” he wrote, adding, “UB40 is the best band evahhhh!” Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

By Alan Resnick I live in Michigan, the Great Lakes State. It truly is a beautiful state and a place where one gets to experience all four seasons, although spring and fall seem to last for days rather than months. And it also provides the opportunity to experience life in a Third World country whenever one ventures out for a drive on our crumbling, pothole-filled roads. But, boy, for the last couple of months, I sure wish that I was living somewhere like Hawaii or South Dakota. Even though the votes have yet to be counted, all agree that the outcome of the presidential election in Hawaii or South Dakota is a certainty: Joe Biden and Donald Trump, respectively. But Michigan, along with Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have been identified as prized battleground or swing states, meaning that the outcome of the election remains unclear. And, with November 3rd being less than one week away, candidate stumping, political lawn signs, and political advertising have become overwhelming here. We were besieged with nine major campaign visits the week beginning October 25th. three for the Democrats and six for the Republicans, Kamala Harris was here on Sunday, Jill Biden on Thursday, and her husband Joe will be trick or treating with President Obama on Saturday. All three events were held with an eye toward social distancing and keeping both campaigners and attendees safe. Not very flashy events, unless your idea of demonstrating unbridled enthusiasm is sitting in your car and honking your horn. On Monday, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr. slithered into town and held an indoor rally before what was reported to be 500 supporters. On Tuesday, his father decided to advance his herd immunity strategy by holding a super-spreader event in Lansing, the state capital and residence of Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the target of a recently thwarted right-wing kidnapping attempt. No doubt, the location was pure coincidence. And Wednesday brought Vice President Mike Pence to our state, with his middle finger held high toward both the scientific community and the citizens of Michigan. Just four days earlier, five of his senior aides, including Marc Short, his chief of staff, tested positive for the coronavirus. Yet there Pence was, not bothering to quarantine for 14 days, after one of his press aides, not a member of the White House medical unit, announced that Pence would “maintain his schedule in accordance with the CDC. guidelines for essential personnel.” What exactly is essential about obfuscation and sycophancy? Thursday gave us Eric and Tiffany Trump, each working different parts of the state. And Friday brought the return of their dad, this time to the county in which my family resides. This is far too close for my tastes and health. Fortunately, the lawn signs in my neighborhood have been tolerable. The vast majority of homes have no signs at all on their front lawns. Most homes that do display signs typically have only one or two, and, even then, they tend to be for candidates of down-ballot races such as local school board or county sheriff. Perhaps most of my neighbors feel that it is best to refrain from publicly demonstrating support for either presidential candidate during such a polarized, contentious election. Of course, there are a few homes that are littered with signs. At one point, my neighbor, Jimmy, had 21 signs planted on his front lawn, five of which read “Dump Trump.’ Jimmy also had about ten such signs stacked up against a large landscape boulder, as if making them available for curbside pickup by anyone interested in taking them. But what really has me wishing that I was living elsewhere right now is the bombardment of political advertising on television. It is not unusual to have two to three minutes of consecutive political ads before returning to programming. Even worse, an ad will run in support of a particular candidate, immediately followed by an ad in opposition to that candidate. Joe Biden promises to have affordable healthcare for all. Nope. Joe Biden wants to take away your healthcare. Donald Trump has brought automotive jobs back to Michigan. Scratch that. Multiple automotive factories have closed since Donald Trump became president. It is an assault on the eyes, the ears and on logic. I wish for a simpler time, one where I could watch ads that informed me about afflictions and ailments I never knew existed and medications I could not pronounce. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear the narrator read at warp speed a lengthy list of possible side effects from a drug? My ears and eyes ache for infomercials like the one for the Navage Nasal Care Saline Nasal Irrigation Kit, a contraption purported to flush out the sinuses. I could again watch in wonder as a woman demonstrates how to operate the apparatus, placing in each nostril a tube attached to what looks like a small plastic dehumidifier, turn the unit on and wash away congestion. (It is available for about $100 in case you are on the lookout for holiday gifts and there are YouTube reviews available should you desire more information. And no, I am not a compensated spokesperson.) Heck, I even could go for seeing an ad from a local company hawking carpeting, gutter guards, or replacement windows. But I fear that I am going to pull out whatever little hair remains on my head out if I hear one more “I’m so and so and I approve this message.” This is particularly true for the ads either approved by John James or sponsored by the political action committees (PACs) supporting his candidacy. By way of background, John James is the Republican candidate running for the position of U. S. Senator against Democrat Gary Peters, a first-term incumbent. James ran against Michigan’s other senator, Debbie Stabenow, in 2018 and lost. Reportedly, he then was considered for the position of Ambassador to the United Nations, but he lost out to Heather Nauert, a former Fox News television personality (that had to sting), before she withdrew her name from consideration. This is what I knew about Mr. James from his 2018 run for office: he achieved the rank of Captain in the Army; he joined his father’s company, the James Group, a global chain management service company, after leaving the military and now runs the company; he is a well-known DeVos family puppet; he is supported by Donald Trump, and he wanted to abolish the Affordable Care Act. And here’s what I’ve learned about him from his current advertising campaign: he has three young sons, one of whom is asthmatic; his wife thinks he has a big smile; he can help others scale a wall on an obstacle course; he doesn’t need this job; his 91 year-old grandmother, Annie Nicks, believes that “John-John” will protect all senior citizens because he respects and protects her; and he wants to protect preexisting conditions in any changes to healthcare legislation. That’s all I know about where John James stands on key issues based on his television ads. Everything else is either glittering generalities (“I believe that elected officials shouldn’t receive preferential treatment”) or attacks on Peters, his rival. James has said nothing about education, nothing about gun control, nothing about a women’s right to choose, nothing about climate change, and nothing about the pandemic. And he’s awfully slippery in describing his level of support for Donald Trump (“I will support any President who does good things for the state of Michigan”). At this point, I’d be thrilled if he would go out on a limb and let the citizenry know his feelings about pancakes versus waffles. My head hurts from all these political ads, and I fear that I am losing my ability to reason and to critically evaluate information. If I can only hold on for a few more days, I will again be able to sit on my couch watching the little red bear dance and sing “my hiney’s clean” for Charmin Ultra Strong bathroom tissue. We all need a North Star to keep us going. Alan Resnick is an industrial psychologist with over 40 years of professional experience. He and his wife are sheltering at home in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He is passing the time by cooking, exercising, catching up on friends’ recommendations of must-see TV and writing.

By Merrill Lynn Hansen The 2020. election is just days away, and I'm angry.  In all the years that I have voted in presidential elections, I never worried that my vote wouldn't be counted.  But Trump is doing everything possible, legal or otherwise, to prevent votes from being counted, because he's certain that they are votes for Joe Biden. There is no limit to what Trump and his enablers will do, including having his newly appointed mega-donor Postmaster General Louise DeJoy orchestrate mail delays in Michigan and cities in other key states to prevent mail-in ballots from being delivered on time  To be certain that my vote for Joe Biden will be counted, I went to the Clerk's Office in the township where I live; filled out my ballot, and personally handed it to one of the clerks there.  Hopefully, my vote will make a difference in the presidential race, and I will make Donald Trump as angry as he has made me. There is hardly a day that goes by when I'm not fearful that Trump will be reelected.  I hate him. I tried to add the recent confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to my "How Do I Hate Him? Let Me Count The Ways" list, but my arthritic fingers locked up because I was pounding too hard on my laptop keyboard. I can't help but hate Donald Trump. But the other side of that coin is I love Joe Biden. Here’s my saga: I'm Jewish, and unlike Trump, I know there is no such thing as a "very fine" Nazi.  Trump looked at a crowd of Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Va., carrying signs with Nazi symbols and slogans, and saw "very fine people on both sides".  He made it sound like a parody lyric from a Joni Mitchell song--"I've looked at crowds from both sides now.”  Well, I didn't see "crowd’s illusions...I saw Neo-Nazis.  Trump has an affinity for  them, as well as white supremacists, and QAnon conspiracy theorists, even though Christopher Wray, the head of our FBI, informed Congress  that they are our country's greatest domestic terrorist threat.  But they love Trump, and Trump loves every hate group  and conspiracy theorist who loves him back. I'm not only a Jewish Democrat, I am something worse than that in Trump's world.  I am an intelligent woman.  Trump has no respect for women, and he despises intelligent women.  He has bragged about grabbing women by their ...um (I can't even bring myself to write what he said). If he had ever tried to grab me like that, I would have left him with at least one permanent injury, and unable to procreate.  It would have been worth it to hear him say, "I never touched her, because she's too ugly to be my type,” if our country would have been spared Ivanka, Don Jr.  and Eric. But aside from being an intelligent Jewish woman, who voted for Joe Biden on October 17, I live in Michigan. Trump is trailing Joe Biden in the polls here, in no small part because Trump hates our Democratic Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, an attractive, intelligent and courageous woman, not so fondly referred to by Trump as "That Woman".  When COVID-19 was spiking in Michigan, Governor Whitmer made the difficult decisions Trump refused to make. She fought to get all of the needed equipment,  and saved people's lives by closing down certain businesses; issuing orders for people to shelter at home when at all possible; wear masks, and limit crowds.  There were a number of controversial orders, but they were necessary to stop the spiking of the virus. Trump, on the other hand, had—and still has- no national plan. Our hospitals were filled  to capacity; our doctors and nurses needed masks and other protective equipment, and there was a shortage of ventilators. I hate Trump, because when I myself had COVID-19, and was too sick to get out of bed, I watched and heard Trump tell his supporters  to defy Governor Whitmer's emergency orders, and storm our state Capitol, to "liberate Michigan.” It wasn't long before Trump's "army" showed up, unmasked, with their assault weapons, to storm the Capitol and defend what Trump had convinced them was their constitutional right to cough and sneeze on all the fresh fruit and vegetables in the grocery stores, and on every man, woman and child in the entire state.  It's no surprise that Trump has downplayed one right-wing extremist group's plan to kidnap Governor Whitmer; blow up federal property; put her on trial, and possibly kill her. After all, in Trump's mind, there's nothing wrong with people having a little fun in a state where he is trailing in the polls, and the governor he despises has a higher job approval rating than he does. In addition to my numerous other grievances against Trump (I hate him!), there is one that I think of every day.  I am a Stage IV cancer survivor, whose life has been extended beyond the best prognosis, because of science. medicine and research, including a stem cell transplant.  Donald Trump doesn't believe in science, medicine and  research,  and  I can't imagine living ten minutes, yet alone years, if my medical experts were Scott Atlas, Trump's MRI doctor who promotes herd immunity; Houston physician Stella Immanuel, the doctor he praises because she promotes the use of hydroxychloroquine (and  writes about the dangers of having sex with the Devil in your dreams)  and Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who has the same medical degree that Mattel's Barbie doll has. As much as I hate Donald Trump, I love Joe Biden. I trust him. He is a mensch; a kind and decent man. I know that he will not only bring calm, to replace the chaos we have been living in for the past four years, but he will immediately do everything he can to contain COVID-19, until there is a safe vaccine available to every American citizen. Our allies will breathe a sigh of relief, because they will once again have a partner who will deal with them respectfully, and our military will have a Commander-In-Chief who will have their backs as if they were his own children. I'm sure hostile leaders aren't rooting for Joe Biden, and if he got a love letter from Kim Jong-un, he'd probably write back, "Hey, man, I don't want to date you. Just give up your nuclear weapons and we can be pals." I started to fall in love with Joe Biden in 1986, when I first got cable TV. While my friends were taping All My Children and General Hospital to watch at night, I was taping C-Span. I watched Biden in various committee hearings and interviews and was impressed by how personable and well informed he was. He could also be a little feisty, which made him seem like a real guy, who if pushed by a bully, would be willing to settle a dispute "outside", to teach him some respect. I found myself drawn to him, and started reading about his personal life and background. The more I read about him, the more genuine I believed he was. I liked his gaffes and knew he had overcome a stuttering problem when he was younger. When I thought he had hair plugs, I didn't laugh; I hoped they'd eventually grow in. I missed him when he had two aneurysms and didn't return to the Senate for weeks. I talked about him so often, my then- husband, a Republican, once asked me if I'd ever met him. I answered, "No, but I'd have his baby if he'd ask me to." ("Hey kids, wouldn't it be nice to have a little sister or brother whose father is a Democrat?") I love Joe Biden because he is a compassionate man. He has empathy for people and understands their pain. He has suffered the greatest losses a man can suffer--the tragic death of his wife and young baby in a car accident, and years later, the death of his eldest son, who even though he was an adult, was still his father's baby. When I was struggling with cancer, I was scared witless every night while my family was sleeping, because I didn't know what would happen to them without me. To this day, I believe that if Joe Biden had known I was ill and frightened, I would have gotten a phone call one of those nights, and he would have said, "Hi, Marilynn...it's Joe Biden. I know you're going through a tough time, and I was wondering if you feel like talking." He's that kind of guy. When several women complained that Biden made them uncomfortable, because he was a hugger, I was irritated. I had seen hundreds of photos of Biden hugging families of fallen soldiers; parents of school shooting victims, and people who had lost loved ones to cancer. His hugs were comforting. If Joe Biden ever gave me a hug, I wouldn't call an attorney, or complain to the press. I'd hug him back! I love Joe Biden because he is cool. I enjoyed watching the video of Colin Powell and Joe drag racing in their Corvettes; two older men, who were having as much fun as if they were teenagers. I'm sure Biden would have loved to ask Colin Powell to stand guard while he let the air out of the tires on Trump's motorcade. I'm not the only one who loves Joe Biden. Former President Barak Obama loves him. He has often said they are "brothers,” and that he chose him to be his Vice-President because of his decency, and wealth of knowledge about our country and foreign policy. Obama is having a blast while he campaigns on behalf of Biden, and I can't stop smiling when I watch and listen to him finally let loose on Trump. It brings back memories of the Obama/Biden memes when Trump was the President-elect, and they were still in the White House: Biden: I showed Trump the "drone controls" you have in your top desk drawer. Obama: That's an Etch A Sketch. Biden: Yup. I am looking forward to the day after the final election results are announced, and President-elect Biden pays a surprise visit to Donald Trump at the White House, to give him a hug. ("I feel your pain, man, and you can always reach me here, if you feel like talking."). Merrill Hansen is a legal assistant, living in West Bloomfield, Michigan. She describes herself as a frustrated writer, who wishes she could be Nora Ephron (when she was alive), if only for a day. She is a news-, political- and FB-junkie, a combination that requires a constant reminder that she needs to take deep cleansing breaths when responding to people who don't agree with her.