Politics

The woman who let her middle finger do the talking

Juli Briskman had the last laugh

Now and then, the Cosmos gets it right, and people get their just desserts. Sometimes after centuries of waiting. Sometimes in the blink of an eye.

It does happen.

Here's an example from recent history.

In October 2017, Juli Briskman, like many of us, had had enough of Donald Trump. The president's decision to suspend DACA made her angry. So did his cavalier treatment of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of their hurricane.

Remember when he threw paper towels? It seems so long ago, but it’s important to remember the awfulness of the Trump presidency. We can’t let it happen again.

Like many of us, Briskman spoke to the orange man living inside her head. She said,

Health care doesn’t pass but you try to dismantle it from the inside. Five hundred people get shot in Las Vegas; you’re doing nothing about it. You know, white supremacists have this big march and hurt a bunch of people down in Charlottesville and you call them good people.

As she cycled up Lowes Island Boulevard by Trump’s golf course in Virginia, Briskman, saw Trump’s motorcade on the left. He was on his way home from a day of golf. Her frustrations welled up, and she made the infamous gesture. With both arms raised in the air. A double salute.

Little did she know a photographer snapped the photo. Within a few hours, it was all over the internet.

The shit was about to hit the fan, but Briskman was no shrinking violet. She had worked at embassies in countries Trump had probably never heard of — Riga, Latvia and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The part-time yoga instructor and Sunday school teacher had led an eventful life. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 during Briskman's internship with the Kuwait Times, she escaped to Saudi Arabia.

During her infamous encounter with Trump's motorcade, Briskman was a marketing analyst for Akima, a defense contracting firm. Akima said the notoriety of that middle finger could cost them government contracts. They fired her even though the photo did not identify her as an Akima employee.

Briskman cried foul. Part of her job was to keep an eye on the company’s social media presence. When a senior director called someone a "fucking libtard” for supporting BLM, she flagged it, but he was allowed to take down the post and keep his job. Akima did not give Briskman that option, so she took them to court.

What followed? A descent into poverty? Nope. The Cosmos got it at least partially correct. Briskman lost her court case, but a judge awarded her full severance pay.

More importantly, Briskman joined a historic wave of women who ran for political office in response to Trump's shenanigans. Women like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Katie Porter. They have been strong opponents of Trump's policies. We need them now.

Briskman won a seat on the Louden County Board of Supervisors.

Meanwhile, Trump faces a myriad of criminal charges. And the kicker is that the Louden County Board of Supervisors oversees the Trump golf course, the one he was returning from when Briskman flipped him off.

I don’t imagine there’s going to be very much coming across my desk relating to his golf course, but I take a little bit of enjoyment from that, of course.

The last laugh.