Dearest Fellow Humanoids,
Greetings and welcome to the first installment of my biweekly (as in twice a month) newsletter. If you don’t want to hit the delete key two extra times a month please write me back and tell me to screw, as they used to say in Boston. I promise not to pout, at least not for long. No death threats please — remember, we are fellow travelers!
Note that the new TerrallCorp/NamasteMofo! website (benterrall.com) is looking pretty darn good thanks to my ace webmeister, who did everything but the content providing (formerly known as writing). The site is still a work in progress, thanks to my putting off starting the damn project until the last possible minute, but bear with us. These dispatches will be archived there, for better or worse. Back issues of N, MF! will be available as soon as I finish setting up the Square (I love product placement!) virtual cash register account. There will be new stuff from me and likely from some others as time goes by — not to quote phrases from old Bogart movies, like the one that just flew by you.
I know you’re all wondering how I’m doing this week. Well, the ankle I fractured in three places in early September after bicycling over a muni rail at a bad angle (en route to an anti-ICE rally — ironic given that for the following month people kept reminding me to put ice on said ankle) is no longer hurting much. Like most of us, I’m a bit of a wreck over the state of our nation. Jack, my former roommate and current Namaste, Motherfucker! peddler for Denmark, pretty much nailed it last week. Jack emailed, “This run-up to the election is crazy, I think the whole country (world actually) is going to have a nervous breakdown. God help us. Pray for a blue tidal wave. I am not watching coverage that night, I can’t take it.”
I was relieved to hear that even someone as hyper-competent and on the ball as Masha Gessen, author of several very smart books including the recent Surviving Autocracy, concedes (in an excellent interview with Anand Giridharadas, author of the scorching Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World), that lately the Gessen attention span is not what it used to be. That’s music to my ears: I’m as scattered as a mofo lately, unable to even focus on a 70 minute Joan Blondell pre-code crime movie.
Yes, the power plays of the Trump Crime Family and its devotees can be a bit wearing on one’s psyche. Henry Wallace, vice president under FDR, wrote in The New YorkTimes in 1944, “American fascism will not be really dangerous, until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.” Sound familiar?
But in one of her recent almost-daily news commentaries the astute historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote, “Convincing people the game is over is one of the key ways dictators take power. Scholars warn never to consent in advance to what you anticipate an autocrat will demand. If democracy were already gone, there would be no need for Trump and his people to lie and cheat and try to steal this election.” And in the interview I mentioned above, Gessen, says, “Hope is a necessity of survival and a moral imperative. I hope because I have to, because a better future is possible and the first, the foundational requirement for it is hope.”
It’s not over yet. At the bottom of this page are links for action that will help avert those sinking feelings of fear and powerlessness that tend to plague too many of us these days. If you’re confident there’s no way the dark forces can prevail, remember that there’s no harm in erring on the side of caution. Furthermore, as my old friend Luis Kemnitzer used to say, principled struggle keeps you regular.
Of course at times trying to help create a swell that will contribute to a Blue Wave can try one’s patience. I did a fair amount of text banking (I put away a lot of text in my bank account, most of it consisting of diatribes against bankers. Don’t all laugh at once) to voters in swing states, stating the obvious danger of having a megalomaniac president who tells people to shrug off a pandemic, then asking the question “Can we count on you to vote for Biden/Harris?” (Others would call the supporters later to remind them to vote, etc.) Since I wasn’t only contacting Democrats, there were plenty of scary responses (also, not surprisingly, hilarious ones, including “No way. Are you crazy.[SIC] Why would I vote for two people set on destroying healthcare?”). But the hardest part of that entire bout of volunteering was in not texting back to the guy who responded, “You can count on me meeting you in the parking lot.” I so wanted to type “I’m sorry, but I’m really not interested in random sex with strangers” at him. Am I a lesser person for not having done so? Perhaps.
The whole postcardstovoters.org thing is on hold until after the election; even without an evil kleptocrat’s minions messing with it the U.S. mail isn’t speedy enough to guarantee one day deliver. So I’m going to join many others and call some Democrats to get them off their couches and into a polling place. If that activity appeals to you, check out the campaign organized by National Nurses United (link is also below).
I got my mitts on some unexpected moolah this week, and even though I’m out of work now I’ve heard (people tell me) that the economy has bounced back in a big way, so once my damn ankle heals enough for me to walk to BART I’m sure I’ll be able snag some plum gainful employment. It’s a sure thing, say those people that tell me that! Hence I’m giving money to some groups while we’re still able to avert the end of the world as we know it. You might want to as well. See deserving outfits below if you are in need of such contact info.
As I wind this up, let me assure you that in future T.Corp Dipatches I will try to be a little less prescriptive. Also, I will include only minimal doses of preachy moralizing and stern/presumptuous directives re what must be done. At least this time I didn’t tell you to eat your vegetables!
I do acknowledge that we need to pace ourselves, so although this newsletter includes enough links to keep you glued to the internet for hours, if not days, don’t forget to get away from your screens and walk outdoors, even if your neighborhood is as boring as mine. Revel in the idiotic behavior of your fellow citizens. Take a deep breath and be glad you’re not smelling dog shit. Try to find cheap laughs wherever you can. Eat your vegetables.
Onward Despite the Smog,
Ben
Links for action:
- https://nurses-for-biden-phone-banking.youcanbook.me/
- https://protectthevote.net/
- https://www.seedthevote.org/
- https://togetherfor2020.org/vote-protection-actions/
- https://swingleft.org/
Biden/Harris seem to have boatloads of cashola (or is that fake news?) but there are lots of other campaigns to support.
- The Movement for Black Lives
- Act Blue
- Given every one of her policy positions, I’m sure you all will be shocked to find out who my favorite current member of Congress is. Hint: not a fascist or a misogynist or a science denier, and the best organizer of a cohort of righteous lefties. Give up? https://www.ocasiocortez.com/
Lastly, here’s some mood music for the week which Yannis has been thoughtful enough to curate:
https://www.yannisc.org