MY BEST BOOKS READ IN 2025 PART I

By Ruth A. Sheets

I read a large number of books in 2025, around 400.  They are in a wide range of genre.  I love to read and will not complete a book if I don’t like it except when I get too far into the book to give up.  That rarely happens, so here goes.  They are not in any order except the order in which I read them.  I’d like to know if you have read any of these books or plan to read them.  I’d love to discuss them with you. 

1. Alabama v. King, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Criminal Trial That Launched the Civil Rights Movement by Dan Abrams & Fred D. Gray with David Fisher (I knew nothing of this trial which happened in 1956 related to the bus boycott in Montgomery AL after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to clear a row of seats for white riders.  Dr. King was accused of inciting an illegal boycott of the city’s buses.  He lost the case due to racism, but the case went to the Supreme Court where segregation on public transportation in this nation was declared unconstitutional.)

2. Shameless, Republicans’ Deliberate Disfunction, and the Battle to Preserve Democracy by Brian Tyler Cohen (This disturbing book looked at the Republican decisions to work to undermine our government and the efforts they used to do it, Trump only one of the many strategies.  Democrats and others need to develop more effective ways to get the message, the truth, out to people geared up for hearing only the most deplorable about the people they don’t care about or trust.)

3. Mena’s Matchbox, A Novel by Yoko Ogawa (a young girl whose father has died goes to stay with her cousin for a short time which turns out to be a year.  Mena is a unique child who has an extraordinary imagination and a weak constitution.  She collects matchboxes with pictures on them, then fills the inside of the boxes with stories of the pictures.  I really liked this one for its uniqueness.  There were no bad guys, not great adventures, just two young girls getting to know each other in a loving home.)

4. We the Poisoned, Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Coverup and the Poisoning of 100,000 People by Jordan Chariton (Every time I think I’ve read the most disturbing book ever, another one comes along.  This time it follows the saga of the Governor of Michigan forcing the town of Flint, mostly minority community, to get their water from the extremely polluted Flint River with none of the safeguards to keep the water from corroding pipelines.  The town was poisoned with lead and other heavy metals, then with Legionnaire’s Disease that killed over a hundred people.

5. Monarchs of the Sea, The Extraordinary 500-Million Year History of Cephalopods by Danna Staaf (I loved this book.  I know little about “cephs” but find them enormously interesting.  They live in all ocean waters and are quite diverse.  More and more fossil evidence is coming to light every year of the diversity and amazing abilities of octopuses, cuddle fish, Squid, nautilus, and the rest. 

6. The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambron (A parallel story of WWI and WWII, connecting people from both times, a love story that resumes in the second war and involves a daughter and the nephew of a German officer saved during WWI.  It takes place in Coventry where there was heavy bombing in November 1940.)

7. What the Tide Leaves Behind, A Novel of County Donegal by Malcolm McDowell Woods (On the death of his mother, Tom goes to her home village in Donegal and falls in love with the place where he finds friends, connections, and a new life and finds a dog companion.)

8. Friendship First, From New Sparks to Chosen Family, How Our Friends Pave the Way for Life-Long Happiness by Gyan Yankovich (We often either forget or don’t realize just how valuable friendships are.  After college, most people don’t make many new friendships.  The author encourages us all to do it for our physical and mental health.)

9. Stand Up Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim (Yumi is a child of immigrants whose big sister is a genius.  Her parents run a restaurant, but Yumi wants to be a comedian.  She accidentally goes into a comedy summer camp and assumes someone else’s identity.  She learns confidence as she negotiates the 2 weeks that summer.  Gr.4-7)

10. The Light Eaters, How the Unseen World of Plant intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoe’ Schlanger (I loved this refreshingly new to me look at plants and the ways they communicate with each other and the world.  This includes chemicals, bacteria, some kind of environmental intelligence, and more.  

11. The Algorithm, How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired, and Why We Need to Fight Back Now by Hilke Schellmann (This was a disturbing book about the ways businesses have allowed AI to infiltrate every aspect of the business world from hiring through one’s entire life at a company.  It should be illegal, but somehow it has been decided at some point in the past that corporations own us while we are working for them.  Some corporations even monitor what people are doing off hours, when there should be little to no contact. 

12. Dear Sister, A Memoir of Secrets, Survival and Unbreakable Bonds by Michelle Horton (The author’s sister shoots her partner after years of unspeakable abuse.  The court prosecutors twist the case to make it look like he was the abused one despite masses of evidence to the contrary.  The author cared for her children until finally she was released 7 years after she was arrested.)

13. Mockingbird Summer by Lynda Rutledge (Corky (Catherine) turned 13.  She likes playing softball for her church.  She meets a girl from literally, “the other side of the tracks.”  America can run extremely fast and is a natural at softball.  She is Black and some white men in the town don’t want her on the team or anywhere else.  The girls become friends but the friendship fades due to the problems of racism.)

14. The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris (This memoir gave a better account of who Kamala Harris is than any of the media coverage during the last 2 campaigns.  It still breaks my heart to realize that racism and misogyny let the American people vote for an ignorant, evil old man with dementia over an extremely talented, caring, competent woman of color.)   

15. The Nurse’s Secret by Amanda Skenandore (This was an excellent fictional portrait of a life in late 19^th Century New York City.  Una Kelly, a pick-pocket decides to enter a nursing school at Belview to escape a murder charge for a crime she did not commit.  She finds she likes nursing, not always the rules and the arrogant male doctors she works for.  This turns into a mystery even though that was not obvious from the beginning.) 

16. **26. White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo (This was a hard book to read, but essential.  I have discussed racism with my students frequently and acknowledged that I could make a racist comment or assumption, although I would do my best to avoid it.  The author says that is because we live in a society that is systemically racist.  Nearly every aspect of our society is steeped in the ideas of white superiority and the inferiority of everyone else.  Children drink this in from birth.  Pretending it is not real or that we are past it as John Roberts claimed in undermining the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is not honest.)

17. The Sisterhood by Helen Bryan (A convent in 16^th Century Spain is threatened with the inquisition, so sisters go to the new world and settle in the mountains of Peru.  In the early 1980s a child is rescued from a shipwreck who has a medal from that convent.  She is adopted by an American family.  She eventually goes to Spain to study an artist but connects with that original convent.  A unique feminist novel.)

18. Ruin their Crops on the Ground, The Politics of Food in the United States from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman (Just the title should make every American weep.  I had to stop reading this at times because of the utter cruelty and indifference described.  There is so much in this short book to make us all wonder again, what does it mean to be American and how do we change our priorities from  rich white men to inclusion and concern?)

19. Black Women Will Save the World, An Anthem by April Ryan (This White House reporter describes the challenges Black women have always had and that they are seen as lesser in most settings.  However, it has been Black women who have been the foot-soldiers of the Civil Rights and Women’s movements, generally unsung, often behind the lines, doing what has to be done.) 

20. The Small and the Mighty, 12 Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement by Sharon McMahon (This book is about people we rarely hear of, but who made a big positive difference in American History:  Gouverneer Morris wrote the preamble of the Constitution; Clara Brown cared for people who settled in the West; Virginia Randolph educated thousands of Black children at the turn of the 20^th Century, training the whole child; Katherine Lee Bates, educator, feminist, poet wrote “America the Beautiful”; Inez Mulhalland, activist for women’s rights; and Claudette Culvin, refused to give up her seat on the bus, for example)

21. Under the Eye of Power, How Fear of Secret Societies Shaped American Democracy by Colin Dickey (This was a history of America through the “eyes” of secret societies, conspiracy theories, and more, most of them racist, male, and anti-immigrant, but each had its own allure, including the Know-Nothings, the KKK, Free Masons, and Q-Anon.)

22. The Time is Now, A Call to Uncommon Courage by Joan Chittister (Sr. Joan tells us that just doing religious formulas and practices is not sufficient for this day.  We need to be prophets, calling out people who are not caring for those who are poor, left out, ignored, and those who use and abuse others, claiming it is in god’s name.  Even if one is not religious, this book can have meaning and be a guide to action.)

23. The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (This book in the Mazie Dobbs series is set in 1945 just at the end of WWII.  Mazie finds some “squatters” in a house a friend owns and finds they were trained to fight if the Germans had invaded Britain.  She also finds the son of a friend who had been killed in 1914.)

24. I Saw Death Coming, A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction by Kidada E. Williams (This was a heart-braking, infuriating book to read, but something any white American in a position of power should have to read.  When people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump with their toddler friends try to erase the history of anyone but whites and a few others whom whites approve of, it should be remembered just how horrific white men have been to Black Americans, as emphasized in this book about Reconstruction.)

25. The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard (A desperate American woman runs away, ending up In Costa Rica, at a hotel where she connects with a hotel owner who leaves the hotel to her.  Through ups and downs, she runs the hotel, cares for the people who help her, and comes to love the place as her home. 

26. Falsehoods Fly, Why Misinformation Spreads and How to Stop It by Paul Thagard (This was a terrific book about lies told in a variety of media and how to counter them.  The author uses highly recognizable examples like COVID 19 and vaccines, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Climate change.) 

27. More To the Story by Hena Kahn (Jamira lives in Atlanta with a close family.  They often frustrate her.  She wants to be a writer and writes for the school newspaper.  Her life changes when her father goes abroad for work and her little sister is diagnosed with cancer.  Gr.4-8) 

28. Life as We Know It Can Be, Stories of People, Climates, and Hope in a Changing World by Bill Weir (An excellent book in the form of a letter to the author’s son about how the world is changing and not necessarily in a good way, and things we can do to make life better for all of us.)

29. I Thought it Was Only Me, But it Isn’t!  Making the Journey from What Will People Think to I am Enough, Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame by Brené Brown (Everyone I know has felt shame, usually done to us deliberately or triggered by others.  Brown offers some different ways of looking at shame and how to respond when it is being pushed on us.  Everyone should read this one because men get shamed too, though for them it is usually about being seen as weak.

30. The Bletchley Riddle by Rta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin (This was a great combination mystery and historical fiction.  It takes place in Britain at the start of WWII.  Jacob, a young man and his 14-year-old sister Lizzy are puzzle wizards and work at Bletchley, the code-breaking spot outside London. Gr.5 and older)

31. Threads of Life, A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle by Clare Hunter (This was a fascinating collection of stories of the ways needlework has been used to decorate, communicate, entertain, and challenge people over time, both the folks who did the work (mostly but not exclusively women). 

32. Magic Enough, Poems by Tara M. Stringfellow (I loved this collection of poems by an African-American poet who sees struggle all around for Black women, but finds ways to see magic in the world in Black women through all of it.  Best book of poetry I read this year, well, maybe 2 years.  Even her Acknowledgements section was like a poem.)

33. The Clockwork Universe, Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick (Who would have thought I would have loved a book about 17^th and early 18^th Century scientists, but I did.  The author presents these geniuses as human beings with considerable talent.  Their rivalries and discoveries are fun to read about, and shock, I understood most of their ideas when presented in basic terms for us mere mortals.)

34. The Winds Knows My Name by Isabel Allende (Two stories of children separated from parents come together.  The first is a boy sent to England to get out of Germany.  The other is a girl separated from her mother at the border in 2018.  They ultimately become family for each other.)

35. In Sunshine or In Shadow by Rhys Bowen (In this Molly Murphy Mystery, molly goes to visit her mother-in-law to escape typhoid in NYC.  She makes a side visit to the women’s community where her friends Sid and Gus are spending the summer.  Sid’s family home is not far away, so they go to visit.  While there, a murder is committed.  Molly leads the search for the killer.

36. Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (Cooper, a 5^th grader, the only Black student in her class until near the end of the year, moves through the year learning about friendship, forgiveness, sisterhood, family, and more.  The story is told through verse.  Gr.3-6 and older)

37. Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders (This is a fictional account of the Black women of the WAC that went to Britain in 1944 to sort mail for the service personnel and their families.  They faced discrimination but also appreciation for their amazing work.  The book follows 6 women, one of them the commanding officer Col. Adams.) 

I know, I know, it’s a lot, but, picking from the 200 or so books from the first half of the year was not easy.  Happy New Year!  I will send the second cluster of best books later this week.  Thanks for reading.

 

THE PLAY’S THE THING

 

By Ruth A. Sheets

December 16, 2025

Watching the news, on TV or online lets us all into a crazy world of folks in power roles in a giant game.  There is a kind of outline, but no script, “Project 2025.”  They have a kind of goal in mind but don’t seem to know what it should look like when finished.  The cast includes a set of players who think they know what their roles should be, but the rest of the cast is not necessarily in agreement.   

A challenge is that no one is clear just who the director is.  There are several candidates, but none of them has the needed skills or talent, but are all jockeying for position. 

In some ways, this is like a role-playing game in which all of us are involved in a quest related to our democracy?  The main characters are rich, white, racist, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, mostly male, and want a society where only folks like themselves have full citizenship, making all decisions, ruling families, the workplace, communities, and governments at all levels.  They have permission from no one, caring nothing for the skills, abilities, knowledge, talents of anyone unless they can use them.  For them, it’s about wealth and power.  The vast majority of the American people are supposed to be NPCs (non-player characters, to be seen and not heard, pawns to be dragged around with the party.  However, the NPCs have one tool or skill they can use when needed, which scares the leads in the cast.

So, meet the cast at this point in the production:

• Cheeto-Cheeks:  He wants to be king.  His brain is slowly drifting away through dementia, but no one around him can mention it on pain of being fired or worse.  He has no talents beyond grifting, but a lot of ambition, and no positive work ethic.
• Little Elon:  a toddler-adult who wants to rule the world.  He has far fewer skills and talents than he thinks, but has an enormous amount of money due to inheritance (rarely mentioned), and the results of investments and other ways he feeds his addiction to money and power. 
• The Unjolly Miller:  He wants to be the Lord High Inquisitor and Public Executioner too.   His hatreds are astronomical.  He shows little facial expression, no concern for anyone (as that would show weakness).  One can imagine him as the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp.
• Whitey Vought:  His partner is The Unjolly Miller although they are often found treading on each other’s territory, trying to outdo each other in the cruelties they perpetrate on others. (Both want to be director.)
• Noem Dog:  she spends a lot of time trying to prove her manhood; it isn’t working, so must do photo ops at every opportunity, which may slow the party.  She has no skills, no talent, but knows how to dress for an occasion.

• Wanton Warrior:  He likes renaming things and spends time doing that instead of actually learning his job, supposedly defending this nation, but prefers committing war crimes.

• Suzie-Q:  She is a manipulator, the whisperer for the party.  She can tell them to do things and they will just do them because they know she has information on them they don’t want shared.  She can quietly order Cheeto around when no one else can.
• Marco Little:  the appointed diplomat who found going along with Cheeto’s expectations is better than real diplomacy.
• Bonded Woman:  She is attached through an umbilical cord to Cheeto Cheeks and is certain she must do everything to protect her baby, kind of like his pseudomommy.  She too has little experience, less skill, but is so excited she gets to do as much harm to the “kingdom” as she can with impunity while Her Baby Cheeto has immunity.
• Mikey Wimp:  His job is to get things done in the party, but alas, he can’t figure out how to do that because he is incompetent and does not realize he is just the guy to be blamed when he is unsuccessful, which is constant.
• Johnny Kingmaker:  He and his band of 5 hoods want to force all the NPCs to obey, no matter what stupid thing they demand or proclaim.  The six of them make up rules, then pronounce them throughout the land.  They decide who will win no matter what is legal.

 Can you imagine this band of misfits on any kind of quest on behalf of this nation?  Any quest is entirely for themselves and those whose incompetence, hatred, ignorance are as powerful as their own. 

 They often forget us NPCs, so if we are careful, strategic, intelligent (which we are), we can stop them.  We need to give them a dungeon to survive so they won’t bother the rest of us as we work to undo the damage they have done and put in place new guardrails to keep a party with actions like theirs from forming again in America.

A DICTATOR DICTATES - WE DO NOT HAVE TO COMPLY!

by Ruth A. Sheets

Yesterday was World AIDS Day.  You probably didn’t know that and were not reminded because Donald Trump decided the United States was not going to commemorate it, as though it doesn’t exist.  I was surprised Trump even knew there was such a thing as World AIDS Day (he probably didn’t).  The cadre of hateful folks around him, Trump’s Toddler Pool spends their time finding ways to get their “boss” to demonstrate their hatreds and his.  Folks like Steve Miller, Russell Vought, JD Vance, mostly rich white men want us to think of AIDS as the gay disease that was around in the 1980s and nothing more. 

Donald Trump and the Pool also want to rewrite American history, science, and medicine to place white men at the center of everything, to dismiss everyone else as just burdens white men have to bear.  They decide which laws they will follow and ignore the rest.  They threaten to “hang” Democrats who remind our military and intelligence communities they are required not to follow illegal orders.  They blast small boats out of the water in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific supposedly because they are transporting drugs (with no proof), even killing survivors, all of which are against American and international law.  The Pool and its “leader” desperately want to be seen as powerful enough to dictate everything to the people of this nation, even what is truth.

Their super rich “friends” like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and a few others have bought up our media, online, in print, and on air and have been working hard to shape it to whatever story Trump and the Pool want told and with the language they will approve.  Clearly these media owners are getting something for sacrificing their integrity (if they ever had any).  I think it is being “in the room where it happens,” or rather making sure they have a hand in what happens in that room.  For that “presence, they will cover only what Trump (and the Pool want covered, a win-win for them and a lose-lose for the rest of the American people. 

They have dictated that climate change (global warming) is a hoax and threatened Republican members of Congress that they must vote for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” even though there is nothing positive in it for their constituents.  They told Republicans in Congress to cut funding for public broadcasting, libraries, museums, infrastructure programs, mitigation of climate change, and more, whose funding congress had already approved.  In short, I can’t think of a single thing Trump and the Toddler Pool have done since gaining office nearly a year ago.

We the People are not helpless.  We can communicate our opposition to our representatives at all levels and vote for those who have our interests in mind.  We have participated in significant protests, the most recent “No Kings” event brought 7 million people out to say “no” to the dictator would-be-king.  Conservative school boards around the country have been replaced with boards that do not want their curricula and practices dictated by people who are ignorant of nearly everything.  The uninvolved have stepped up to protest cuts in SNAP, Medicaid, unaffordable healthcare, issues which have touched them personally. 

People in our cities have been standing in the way of ICE as the illegal law-enforcement troop drags people from their homes, cars, and off the street  and disappears them into appalling prisons and concentration camps.  People are standing with and for neighbors they didn’t know before.

Workers are demanding unions and not accepting the treatment that current bosses are dishing out.  Young people are demanding better on the job and off.

People of many faiths, ages,  and backgrounds voted for a young mayor, Mamdani,  for NYC, and plan to work for the issues he stands on.  The idea that there could be housing, child care, and public transportation for everyone is spreading.

We must find ways to reach out to people who see the world differently from us and hear about their needs, their dreams, and what keeps them supporting a group of folks who care nothing for them and prove it on a daily basis.  We can’t impact the world view of people if we don’t  understand them, and with understanding, we can encourage them to fight with us for things we have in common, our nation for example!

FOR WHAT AM I GRATEFUL?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Thanksgiving is less than 2 days from now.  It comes every year, but as I grow older, I find myself contemplating Thanksgiving’s meaning for our nation (that has made Thanksgiving a national holiday), and for me. 

It is hard to get a sense of what our nation is grateful for because there are so many different understandings of what is worthy of gratitude.  Here are a few I think with which most would agree.

• We have made it nearly 250 years from the time we declared our Independence from Britain and despite some flaws and moves in the direction of authoritarianism, we are still here.
• Our nation is strong and can defend itself from any foreign invaders.  We are not so sure, though about domestic ones.
• Social Security is still available to those who have earned it as is Medicare, although there are efforts to subvert both and hand them over to private entities, not the intent of those who founded them.
• Freedom of speech, religion, the press, assembly, and to petition for redress of grievances are still mostly honored, even though some in power or who want to be in power are working hard to trample those First Amendment rights for everyone, except for themselves, of course.  
• We have the right to vote, although some are trying to deny the vote to all but rich white men.  Not happening!
• Most of us have clean drinking water, safe food, and some kind of shelter, although the government agencies that supervise those things are being gutted to benefit rich corporations.

You get the idea.  We are grateful for many things, but jumping in to stifle that gratitude are forces that want that gratitude turned toward themselves, the ones who will render those “blessings” if we comply and do whatever they tell us to do.  Americans don’t seem to want that.  Many participate in protests and push for legal interventions on behalf of the American people.

What we individuals are grateful for is quite a different set of items because each of us lives life in a much narrower setting, more specific to ourselves.  I suspect though, that We the People share many of those points of thanksgiving.

• I am grateful for an incredible family that has lots of challenges, even flaws, but individually and collectively we have tried to make the world a better place, even if only in small ways.  I have musical sisters and other family members who share their music with audiences where they live, for churches, for historical events, at school, or just for fun at home.  Every member works over and above whatever is required on the job, respects co-workers, and values skill and competence.  Remarkable right? 
• I am grateful I have held so many different jobs in my life, most of them interesting and where I could be creative even within the bounds of the job’s requirements, with friends to share the work.
• I am about to complete 30 years living in my apartment complex, more than half the time the complex has been in existence, and I have no plans to move.
• I am able to contribute financially to organizations I value and to family members and others in need now, something I couldn’t do when I was younger.
• I have remarkable sisters who will help me to get where I need to go and only complain on occasion, when they should complain every time (it can be boring).
• I love to read and appreciate that I have people I can share those books with.   
• I have friends who have been part of my life for decades, special folks who have helped me to become who I am.

So you see, I have a lot to be grateful for as part of our nation and individually.  I hope you will find a time to consider the gratitudes in your life too.  It’s a great balm for the day’s news.

INTO THE FUTURE?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Recently when I was reading comments on Robert Reich’s Substack, I read a note from someone I often respond to, I just  had to jump in.  Below is her comment and my response.  I think I commented as I did because I am so frustrated with Democrats these days going after other Democrats, whining that Dems are doing nothing, are weak, and on and on.  It is rather disgusting and very Republican, but I suspect as human beings, those attributes can be present no matter the political party.  The difference, Democrats even in squabbling and blaming have more ideas for the benefit of this nation and world than Republicans have had in more than a century and that is not an exaggeration! 

Comment:

“My MAGA family says that "it was Democrats winning only Blue States last Tuesday. Haha! Big deal." I told them that I hope they keep thinking that way. And I do. That way, they won't be ready when we have even more forward momentum. This win has to be something that gives us more courage and strength. We can't use it as an excuse to sit back and put up our feet.”

Here's my response. 

Donna, you are so right.  Because Democrats have not acted like major bullies, wrecking balls, and terrorists as Republicans have, we are seen to be weak, while it is we who are holding things together in communities, states, and beyond.  It is we who will do our best to see that even Republicans on SNAP and Medicaid get their funds restarted.  It is we Democrats that will stand by our schools and the education even of Republican children when their religious voucher school kicks their child out because he/she is just not the right kind of person.  We will stand by science and research that will make life better for many, in the face of manufactured fear.  We will push local governments to step up when the Republicans that were elected betray those who elected them. 

In conclusion:

We will have to call out the lies that come from the Repubs in power every single day, over and over.  We need to be energized so we can stand the fallout from scared Republicans and others who have no clue what is really going on because their faces and brains have been stuck to Fox and the rest of the right-wing media whose mission is to wreck our democracy in favor of who knows what.  They do know what Trump and his handlers are, so, it is anti-American that they keep pumping out the lies on their behalf.  We need to be on this case all the time and not let the ignorance/ignorants win.

LOOKING AT MONEY, LIES, AND GOD

By Ruth A. Sheets

November 6, 2025

I just finished reading an important book by Katherine Stewart, Money, Lies, and God.  The author describes 4 Key steps necessary to indoctrinate a population of disempowered and aggrieved people into believing the “Big Lie.”  The “Lie” has several parts including:  America is being run by anti-God left-wingers out to take away their rights to worship as they wish; forcing women to “kill babies in their mommy’s tummy;” and whatever threat the “Christian Nationalists” come up with to blame “the godless.  Stewart says that without such indoctrination, no “lie” can take hold.  Lies, it seems, are the coin of the realm for those rich mostly white men in charge, who want to energize the group of desperate angry white people, often not more than a paycheck away from disaster.  

1. “Build an information bubble within which supporters can be maintained in a state of ‘fact-denial,’” a safe, comfortable  space for conservatives.  “Right-wing media” are easily co-opted and skew data and coverage to those in the bubble.  For example, they ignored Trump’s “problems” which should have been seen as unacceptable behavior, while emphasizing Hillary Clinton’s emails, Biden’s age, and Kamala Harris’s supposed “left-wing” positions.  Christian ministers spew those ideas from their pulpits.  Other right-wing organizations target specific groups:  mothers, Latinas, and faith leaders.   
2.  The message must push the idea that the people should expect an “imminent cataclysmic event that will threaten its identity and everything it values.”  The message must blame someone for this upcoming event, in this case, “the bad guys look like liberals.”
3. “Transfer the perceived source of political legitimacy from democratic processes like elections and law-enforcement mechanisms to ‘higher’ authorities that allegedly represent the true spirit of the nation.”  This approach lets people come to believe that a minority (those rich white guys pushing the message) has “a providential role in ruling the whole.”  That coalition they build “will govern for 100 years,” as Steve Bannon bragged in a Virginia rally in 2021.  
4. “Undermine at every opportunity, public confidence in the democratic process.  Trump got his part of the process going when in 2016 and in a debate in 2020, he indicated he would not necessarily accept the result  of the election.  He continues to claim with no evidence, the election results in 2020 were corrupted.  Lying is Trump’s modus operandi. 

 

Stewart says the worst part of the sewing of distrust by Trump and his team is that it  is “aimed squarely at those parts of the population that already have some reason to distrust the system.” 

 

Since the January 6^th coup attempt, the “christian nationalists” have been reworking their response related to those who went to the capital, were peaceful, were good guys standing for our democracy,  were victims of a Democrat plot to keep the National Guard away letting ANTIFA rioters get out of control.  There seems to be no stopping this swarm of Jan. 6^th lies from the “right,” hoping to rewrite history here.  As  with their other attempts, it is failing so far because the truth of what happened is in the world, at least for now, for all to read/view, if those caught up in the big lie  choose to check it out.   The problem, “christian nationalist leaders “continue to prime the base for the next ‘Big Lie,’” and they want to be sure those folks are ready. 

 

Rich Catholics and evangelicals, as well as others want to get in on the “power” game.  They have a lot at risk - their wealth.

 

Stewart believes there is room for hope.  She points out this is not the first time America has faced this “pro-authoritarian rodeo.”  In the past, justice has prevailed against the robber barons, the Jim Crow domination, and others, although imperfectly.  She hopes, as I do, these anti-American movers and shakers will disappear into the pages of history as the “religious” pro-fascists have done in the past.  She points out some important facts we can respond to.

1. We are still the majority. – the “christian nationalists are not, and do not speak for us.  We must work to keep our “Big Tent” together and mobilize.
2. They are divided.  A group of unlike-minded people are wrapped in a bundle of incompatible beliefs, relying on the money of a few rich folks who have power and privilege, who prey on those they are courting.  This set of weaknesses must be exploited by the rest of us!  Keep in mind that the “have nothings” are not leading this set of actions; it is the “have everythings.”  
3. Separation of church and state is a good idea that should be tried.  The religious leaders involved in the anti-democracy movement (whatever they choose to call it) are getting benefits from our government as it ignores the money they take in, without taxes, while espousing anti-American language through political campaigns in their “houses of worship.”  That is not “freedom of religion!”  
4. Extreme levels of material inequality are eroding democracy. The tax system is letting the already-too-rich continue to accumulate over everyone else.  This does not make them smarter, just able to exploit a flawed system.
5. Knowledge is power.  The pro-democracy movement must promote and support public education that is “accountable to the public and truth.”  The anti-democratic movement wants to keep people from questioning them and their allegiance to the idea that “market forces will solve all their problems.”  Those in power in that movement are scared by a student body educated to think for themselves.  They prefer us to think ignorance is preferable to having a “free people.”  The media wants to believe it is being “balanced” when in reality, it is “breathing air into the bellows of anti-democratic propaganda,” and sharing lies and misinformation, free of charge!           
6. Organization matters.  The success of the theocrats and other anti-democracy groups is a product of their ability to organize and invest their money in “the people and infrastructure of an anti-democratic shadow party.” To counter, we need to use some of their strategies:

1. Think long-term – we cannot correct this in one election, so plan ahead too.
2. Invest in organizations and people who can get things done.
3. Build coalitions – skip the “purity cliques and connect across previously held lines even if all beliefs are not shared.
4. Go Local.  This is beginning, but must be expanded.  Support local schools, community-improvement groups.  Bring your faith community to stand on the side of justice and democracy.  Join with others working on local causes:  voting, reaching out to non-voters to get them involved; run for office; work for improved conditions in the community. 

 

We all must be active standing for the common good, not for the good of those who would prefer us to be their minions, their subjects with no power.  

The Art of the Con

By Ruth A. Sheets

I support several threads on the Substack platform and regularly respond to people’s comments.  I responded to a recent comment by Mary Trump on her Substack thread “The Good In Us,” about people being conned into supporting Donald Trump, who has no clue.  I wrote the following (with a few updates).

It is truly sad so many Americans would prefer to blindly follow an old man with dementia than stop to think  then ask, why.  Trump has been a con artist all his life, nothing new. 

I suppose the conning art has been with us from the beginnings of humanity.  We learn about it over time through actions we would consider ridiculous.  But, the cons got more sophisticated over the centuries, or rather  the artists procured more assistants who can modify the message to suit the tastes of whoever is being targeted.  Right now, Trump’s targets are vulnerable people being used by corporations, men of wealth, and a political system that promotes grift that catches people in its nets set out here to snare those who have grievances. 

The “catch” happens often when power resides in the hands of totally unqualified folks who have been supported and popularized by men who have an agenda that includes power for themselves.  Those folks want an ignorant con artist, Donald Trump, to procure what they want.  Today's actors include the members of Trump's "cabinet," none of whom is qualified for the job they hold and none have the interests of the American people in mind.  Joined with them are the Steves, Miller and Bannon, JD Vance, and the rich fools:  Theil, Vought, Musk, and a bunch of other billionaires who believe themselves entitled because of some kind of brilliance they believe they have, also wanting a gigantic slice of the American pie. 

With so much control of our media held by wealthy corporate America, that vulnerable crowd can be courted hour after hour, with lies, disinformation, and gaslit to the Con's heart's content.  Those folks have been permitted to gain far too much wealth for their own good and ours.  They buy seats in Congress often for ignorant or inexperienced white folks who will do the bidding of the far too rich.  They have even gotten their supporters on our courts since there are no real qualifications for seats in our critical judiciary system or anything else related to our government.  Heck, they don't even have to know our Constitution, something we see proven daily.  

I wrote this response, wondering if there were anything we could do to cut the reach and power of the wealth being used against the American people for the benefit of some kind of oligarchic system that lets rich white men rule.  Such a system should be acceptable to no one!  However, over time, we have been courted with a host of programs glorifying rich folks, even their criminal behavior as though it were an entertainment in real life as in our media. We are not amused! (or entertained) 

Happy Halloween!  We certainly do have “evil” ghouls and goblins haunting our congress and nearly every part of our government right now.  It’s too bad we can’t just exorcize them!