MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE SEVENTY- FOUR MILLION

by Ruth A. Sheets

I want to wish each of the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump this year a merry Christmas, and Notice, I did say Christmas.  I suspect you all are feeling pretty bad right now because your boy lost, but you should be really angry right now.  It seems Mr. Trump is turning out to be, exactly what his opponents claimed he was 4 years ago to the present, and for all of you to see.  He has tried to show you,  his entire for years in the white house, but alas, you refused to see or to believe what you were seeing. 

I remember hearing obligatory Trump supporter interviews on NPR and a variety of cable networks and late-night TV.  The best any of you could say for him and your support was that “He’s doing the things I like.”  When pressed for an explanation of what that included, responses were rare and nearly incoherent or so vague “well, I don’t like people coming into my country illegally,” or “Things are out of control and Trump can fix it – he’s going to drain the swamp,” or some other similar comment. 

There was no depth because you couldn’t speak aloud why you really support Trump.  Unless you are speaking to someone on Fox News or one of the other right-wing networks, it doesn’t work well, you think, to tell the truth.  Maybe some of the following are the real truth.  I suspect each of you can say “aye” to at least one.

1. Trump surrounds himself with pretty women so I can tell he likes women, and they have important jobs.

2. Trump is a great businessman.  Of course he avoids paying taxes, but I do that too and I don’t want to have to pay taxes at all if I can get away with it.

3. Trump likes playing golf and so do I.  I am now rich enough to play.

4. Trump loves Israel and wants to get rid of the Palestinians who are just a headache for Israel anyway.

5. Those dirty people coming into this country from Mexico and those sh**h*le countries should keep their people out of our country.

6. I like strong men and men who are loud prove their strength the way they so easily put down their opponents.

7. Those Black Lives Matter people are asking too much.  We give them everything and they just keep taking, wanting more, you know, welfare, food stamps, and all that.  I work so hard I shouldn’t have to pay for them.

8. They want to defund the police.  I need my police.  They keep me safe from the bad guys.  The only reason they go after Blacks and Hispanics is because they are drug users and thieves.   

9. He comes to rallies where we live and tells it like it is.

10. If Trump doesn’t want to wear a mask, I shouldn’t have to no matter what my mayor, governor, or anyone else says.  COVID is a hoax anyway.

Are any of these resonating with you?  If you say “no,” you are not being honest.  I keep hearing that there were people who held their nose and voted for Trump this time.  Now, why would that be?  Which of the above caused you to press your fingers to your proboscis so you could vote for someone you knew full well is an appalling human being who should never be in charge of anyone or anything.

Let’s look at the items above to see how Donald Trump has actually done and is still doing.

1. Donald Trump was a womanizer who felt he had to pay off prostitutes he visited even while his wife was pregnant.  The women he has around him may be attractive, but they do not have the interest of this nation in mind as they act on his behalf.

2. Trump avoids paying taxes and pushed for a huge tax break for the rich while claiming the break was for everyone.  For most people it was so small they didn’t even notice.  Everyone needs to pay taxes because that money supports the many goods and services people need and want, including you.

3. Yes, Trump plays golf, more days off than any other president.

4. Trump claims to love Israel, but could never find it on a map unless it was pointed out to him.  Israel was carved out of Palestine, essentially taking their land, kind of like the way Europeans took US land from the people who already lived here.

5. The people at our southern border are seeking asylum or are refugees, legally seeking entry here.  They are not animals as Trump claims, but they are people he is allowing to be treated worse than animals.

6. A big mouth that spews insults and lies does not indicate strength as anyone who studies human nature can tell you.  Trump is a weak person who has been allowed to have power solely because he claims to have a lot of money.  A man who has never sacrificed himself for anything calling those who have, “suckers” and “losers” is not strong.

7. I know it is scary for white people who don’t think they are racist that Black Lives Matter groups have a point and are in the right.  Their anger may cause some violence, but in this year’s actions, white right-wingers caused a lot of the violence.  Oh wait, they have been doing that through the entire four years of Trump’s reign.

8. Yes, Donald Trump, the “law and order” president who stands with the police no matter what they do to those they are sworn to protect, is the man who is pardoning murderers, liars, and cheaters, those who are related to him or who helped him in his illegal behavior while in office.  We are waiting for him to pardon himself from crimes he won’t name.  Uh-huh, the law and order president!

9. OMG, Trump tells it like it is?  He has lied more than 22,000 times in public since the day he took office.  Who can lie that often and still be believed by 74 million Americans?  And now, he screams out every day that he really won the election, another lie every time he says it.  Then, those rallies of his that never stopped after he won in 2016, this past year have been super-spreader events for COVID-19.  Trump has treated COVID-19 as an insignificant event that he had nothing to do with.  Yes, he tells it like it is! 

10. I get it.  Many of you 74 million don’t like masks, as if anyone does, but of course, you mistake your rights as being the ability to do whatever you want.  Well, that’s not how rights work.  Your rights end where mine begin.  You don’t have the right to spread to me a deadly disease, just as I don’t have the right to pass it to you.  Therefore, I wear a mask when I am near other people, and I try to social distance.  Oh yes, I almost forgot, you don’t have the right to threaten public officials who report the truth about COVID, order people to wear masks, and stop large indoor activities. 

Now, if you got this far, are you still glad or at least satisfied you voted for Donald Trump again or for the first time?  I suspect you still are and that you are sad this racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, pseudo-Christian fool was not re-elected.  Well, when your relief check does not come because your hero vetoed it or you get to breathe more polluted air, or your house burns down due to unaddressed global warming, or someone you love gets COVID, thank Donald Trump and continue to believe in Trump’s ridiculous conspiracies, his lies, his inaction, and the fact that he dragged you and the Republican Party down with him, and have a Merry Christmas. 

THE ART OF TRASHING

by Ruth A. Sheets

I just finished reading the book Ms Gloria Steinem, A Life by Winifred Conkling.  It presents an amazing worker in the field of women’s rights.  Gloria Steinem has been a hero of mine for decades.  She spoke and wrote about issues I felt were the essence of what women needed, or at least, what we thought women wanted.  Ms. Conkling reminded me of the trashing that Ms. Steinem and her colleagues faced because they stood for those needs.  Due to the misinterpreted media concept of equal time, the trashers got enormous coverage that expanded an anti-feminist movement that was really pretty small at its beginning.  As time went on, it became larger and more personal, virulent, and nasty, although not a majority.   

Trashers become disgruntled that a minority is demanding rights the trasher believes are either unnecessary or undeserved, or might make life different for themselves.  “You don’t need that.  You’re being treated just fine, I know.”  The trasher takes up a position against what many people might think are fair demands.  In order to make such a stand work, however, reality must be manipulated.

Trashers from the trashed group (in this case women), need to be recruited as the spokespersons against the demands.  It would not work as well to have men speaking against women since that is not particularly unusual and would not get much attention.  The anti-Women’s movement hero had to be a woman, tried in the crucible of hate, in her case, anti-Communism, Phyllis Schlafly.  Ms. Schlafly was opposite of what she wanted women to be, but she worked to convince women they wanted what she said they did, like  The right to not work outside the home.  They also didn’t need access to reproductive health services, fair treatment on the job (if they dared to step away from their sphere), or anything but what they already had.  How very white middle-class!  She encouraged conservative women to feel ostracized by those horrible women’s libbers. 

Trashees must always be kept on the defensive, rarely getting to present their message fairly for the general public.  The media orchestrates this by pitting them against the trashers on a one-to-one as though their positions had equal support in the broader society and were equally valid.  The entire interview was spent trying to answer the charges of the trasher egged on by the interviewer.  The trasher’s trumped-up anger (or at least indignation) was seen as justified while the one being trashed was seen as an angry b***h.

The true art comes in when the trasher gets to pin labels, a descriptive term to evoke negative images for the trashee and positive ones for themselves (like “baby killers, man-haters, bra-burners” while for themselves, “pro-life).  The label “pro-life” has lasted as has baby-killer even though neither label is accurate, at least not for the ones to whom it has been pinned.  Listening to the “pro-life”er speeches on the National Mall every January on the anniversary of Rowe v. Wade,  it is clear their “pro-life” stance stops at “pro-birth” or actually,  “pro-forced-birth.”  And, no feminist I know has ever killed a baby, but not wanting to financially support those children forced to be born has led to deaths..

In addition, and maybe most important, the trasher makes trashees appear less than human for even daring to make any demands let alone the particular ones being trashed.  Those feminists were really all lesbians so didn’t deserve even to be heard – they’re not real women anyway.  

Trashing has been used against people for a very long time, possibly as long as humans have been around.  The description of trashing above can be applied to any group that has tried to gain rights:  Blacks, Indigenous persons, LGBTQ persons, Latinex and disabled persons, and so forth.  Just because it has been done forever does not mean we should be participating in it in the 21st century. 

The “Trasher in Chief” is trashing everyone he can before he leaves office next month, keeping up his trashing pace.  His usual targets:  immigrants, people of color, Democrats, women, scientists, people who don’t agree with him, anyone who is not utterly loyal to him.  We know he is trashing people, yet his every tweet, his every rally speech is covered, the excuse, “well, he is the president.”  His followers rarely choose to hear the position of the persons being trashed, but don’t worry, they would do nothing even if they did.  Their trasher must know something that lets him do his trashing, Right?  Wrong!  The truth is he will manufacture a reason so he can practice his art, probably the only thing he is good at (except whining, perhaps).

I admit I have done a little trashing myself now and then, lately directed toward Mr. Trump and the people who choose to follow after him rather than think for themselves.  I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t want to get good at the art of trashing.  I don’t want to call my Trump-loving acquaintances something nasty, short, and crushing.  It is hard sometimes when I find myself with a full trash can cocked hearing one more Trump supporter yelling that the vote was a fraud, even in the face of the truth that this was the most secure election in history, or their complaining that a vaccine can’t be trusted because those evil scientists are going to kill us, when that science is what will ultimately save us from the pandemic.  I mostly hold on to it, but, let’s face it, sometimes trashing is fun.  Being the trashee is not.  It seems to me, there is room in this world for everyone to have basic rights and that those who don’t have the rights need to be heard and believed.  We should be going for rights over restrictions, but weighing both in light of what is best for those who have been denied the rights of full citizenship or even humanity for centuries and more.  

I believe we can do that, but we will need a lot of help.  We need to do away with false equivalencies.  All arguments are not of equal value and some are simply not true.  The media in all forms need to step up on this one and stop putting the trash out there for people to pick through than fling. 

Voters need to hold their representatives accountable when they choose to trash someone with a lie rather than give an honest answer.

I keep wondering what Phyllis Schlafly got from trashing feminists who wanted more options for women.  She did get a lot of attention and a lot of women to support her trashing project.  And here we are  50 years later and women still lack rights that would make life better for most, but Gloria Steinem is still standing up to the trashers.

We don’t need any more trash artists unless it really is an artist who makes awesome things from the trash they find (or hear), changing it into something special that lets us see people as beautiful, worthy of our respect. 

THE POWER OF MISINFORMATION TO HARM

by Ruth A. Sheets

NPR’s Morning Edition again presented a report about the “urban-rural divide.”  The implication is that everyone except Donald Trump has forgotten the rural people.  Only Republicans have done anything for those folks.  Even Democrats are now ruminating over this supposed fact. 

Where does this set of beliefs come from?  Well, first of all, it does not come from reality.  Donald Trump has expressed distaste for his supporters.  He installed tariffs against China claiming China would pay, but it was the rural farmers who mostly paid, then he used taxpayer money, mostly contributed by those urban people he hates, to pay off those farmers so they would vote for him, a bribe, but the message he presented to rural America in their distress was that he is the only one who cares about them and they believed. 

Rural people, over time have been forced to embrace coal mining and oil and gas extraction.  These are not healthy, even deadly occupations, but they paid well over the past 50 years or so.  Due to global warming, those occupations are going away.  Hilary Clinton proposed that those losing their jobs due to the move to renewables would receive government assistance to develop new jobs and skills.  She in no way spoke disparagingly about those workers, but the Republican message, Clinton will take away your jobs and leave you with nothing, resonated.  That message got out, and I heard it over and over on mainstream media as well as in political ads.  Why?  It wasn’t true but it was a powerful message of supposed discrimination and fed their feeling of being abused by the city folk.

How is it Democrats can’t get out the message that most of the progress made in and for rural communities has come from programs proposed and passed by Democrats?  Electrification, farm subsidies, SNAP, health care, and so much more were Democratic programs, and, the Democrats have proposals out there to get good internet service to every American.   That is among the programs Mitch McConnell, the man who would be president has blocked without a hearing or vote in the Senate.  How is it Republicans like McConnell, from rural areas are not held responsible for that? 

The rural interviewees keep claiming Donald Trump is their hope.  On what do they base that?  None of the interviewers ever ask.  Perhaps if they do, the response is left on the “cutting-room floor.” Then the interviewees chosen are from the “white states.”  These are the states Sarah Palin claimed were the “real Americans.”  Well, perhaps so.  They are white.  They are rural or small town.  They are uninformed.  They are easily misled.  They can’t even name one thing Trump did for them besides the bail-out welfare check Trump gave them to win their votes.  They can’t even acknowledge that it was Trump who caused the hardship that brought down their businesses in the first place.

How is it that NPR, the most balanced of the news media is OK with pumping out this nonsense with no follow-up.  It is the thing, to interview Trump supporters as though there is something more we can learn from them.  I think we have learned all we can.  They aren’t interested in truth.  They seem to care only for the information that tells them over and over they have been mistreated, ignored, while those awful city people (code for Black people) are getting everything. 

They choose to “stand up for their rights” by not wearing masks or social distancing while their hospitals (the few that there are) are filling up and having to pass their sick neighbors on to cities for care.  The lack of hospitals is not a Democratic thing either.  These rural citizens are also not eager to consider getting a vaccine for COVID-19 because it comes from cities or some other such nonsense. 

Factory owners in rural and small town areas care little for the health of their workers because that is forcing regulations on them that they should not have to follow; it gets in the way of their profit or whatever.  Where is the outrage among rural communities related to this abuse of their people?  The Democrats did not do this.  It is the Trump administration that has been working very hard to ditch regulations employers don’t like no matter the impact on people’s health and lives.

I used to be one of those liberals who believe truth could persuade anyone to do the right thing.  I no longer believe that.   What I do believe is that we need to put the truth out there, stand for the right, and keep trying, but when I hear those rural white people whining that they have it worse than anyone else and that Democrats are the cause, I shrug and acknowledge I can persuade them of nothing.  I don’t have the bluster and ability to lie and misinform as Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Laura Ingram, Donald Trump, and the rest of Republicandom do, and I don’t want to.  If the rural people continue in their foolish cleaving to lies, disinformation (deliberately put out there to generate chaos and distrust), and conspiracy theories, I can’t stop them, but I don’t have to listen.  For my own mental health, I will turn off the radio every time one of those ridiculous interviews comes along, and they happen several times a week, and have for nearly five years. 

The racism and misogyny that  put people into a place where they would choose misinformation over thinking can only be cured by the misinformed denying THEMSELVES of the poison that is crippling their communities, their families, their lives.  I am OK with providing aid when it’s needed, but I just don’t need to be caught up in hearing about their chosen lack of vision. 

I used to want to blame teachers for the stifled condition of deliberately misinformed people, but I suspect their history and science books were similar enough to mine, that is if they attended public schools.  They learned about the scientific method.  They read some of the good and bad parts of U.S. history.  They learned to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.  They mostly know how to read (unless perhaps they have a disability).  There is no excuse.  If they wanted the truth, they could find it, but the misinformers have found entry points and keep plugging in, feeding dissatisfaction and hatred like electric current.  The negative emotions produced seem real and righteous but are manufactured by those who manipulate folks for their own often nefarious purposes.

I don’t want to imply that urban and suburban people have a lock on truth.  We don’t, but we, at least some of the time, try to look for it, by choice. 

So, all of us need to stand against the deliberate misinformation (disinformation) and promote what is true as much as we can and try to avoid the poison of misinformation either giving or receiving it.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

by Ruth A. Sheets

There are a lot of things I don’t understand:  how most things work, how the universe is organized, why I like certain books and don’t like others, etc.  These days, however,  most of my non-understanding involves politics.  Politics has come to consume our nation and nearly everything has become politicized.  OK, everything might always have been political, but lately, we have it smeared in our faces so we can’t miss it. 

We are reminded every day there are two sides to each story and they must be of equal value because the two sides are covered with near equal intensity, or were until Donald Trump was defeated in the November 3^rd election.  While Trump is president, the media have felt obligated to report on nearly everything Trump tweets or yells at his constant rallies even if they didn’t reproduce those tirades word for word.  Those word for word accounts were always available somewhere that people could check out in case there was doubt the media had adequately covered Trump for his supporters and enablers.  How is it people don’t get it that there is such a thing as false equivalency?

- I don’t understand why it took so long to call a lie a lie.  From the golden escalator onward, Trump’s words were permitted to stand unchallenged until some newspapers said it might be OK to say something Trump said was false or unproven, or unsupported. Those are the words now used.  I am sorry, but falsehood does not have the same punch as “lie,” and much of what Trump tweets or yells are LIES, not “falsehoods, unproven, unsupported, etc.  Not stating the lies as lies (except occasionally on MSNBC), keeps people from seeing Trump’s claims as the lies they are.  And, according to our major newspapers, Trump has lied in public more than 22,000 times and his followers lie as much as they can get away with, for example, Lindsay Graham.

- I don’t understand how people can sacrifice their integrity and personal values to support someone who has neither.  Trump has appointed people whose task was to do their best to bring down our government so Trump and friends could pick up the pieces.  They did a pretty good job and are still diligently at it.  It is clear that during the Trump transition, folks were out there hunting down the least caring, the most racist and misogynistic, the least qualified people that could be found who would blindly support Trump and his destructive actions.  Even then, bunches of them were fired for lack of loyalty or not destroying enough.

- I don’t understand how elected officials in Congress could approve of a president who, with lots of help, committed atrocities that at any other time would demand removal from office.  In case memory is not strong after all the stuff that has been going on with the election: 

- They imposed a Muslim ban of people coming from many countries that have in the past been our allies claiming they were all terrorists.

- They separated children from their parents at the US southern border, deporting children alone or parents without their children, or just simply lost the parents or the children.

- They permitted ICE, a racist fascist organization to invade people’s homes hunting “illegals” at will, even demanding that local governments assist them, deporting people who have lived and worked here for decades, serving our economic machine with little reward.

  - They permitted foreign entities to interfere in our election to elect Donald Trump, then refused to let the American people know just how extensive the interference was.

  - They worked exceedingly hard to override or negate any achievement of the Obama administration, then claimed they had done more for Blacks and “Latinos” than any other administration, and a bunch of people believed it.

  - They disbanded the pandemic task force that could have helped protect us from the COVID- invasion, then ignored scientific input related to how to stop the pandemic, and nearly a quarter million Americans have died, yet  10 million more people voted for Trump this year than four years ago.

  - They have worked to reduce environmental regulations, I suppose, thinking it won’t impact them because they aren’t Black or Hispanic living in the at-risk pollution areas.

  - They have lied about global warming, blaming the forestry service for the California fires and Nature for the intense storms.

- I don’t understand how anyone accepts the extreme incompetence of this administration.  They know how to destroy and cause harm, but have no clue how to fix anything

- I don’t understand how the Senate of the United States, an august body, we are told, could allow a man like Mitch McConnell from a small racist state to act as president and Congress all wrapped up together.  He is a partisan, racist white guy who cares only for power and money (despite being the husband of a woman of Chinese background).  It proves racism can be pretty complex.  And, voters have decided he should stay in power just doing his obstruction thing while blaming Democrats for something (not stopping him, perhaps).

- I don’t understand how so many people can go about not wearing masks.  I get it that Donald Trump doesn’t wear one.  It might smudge his make-up, but the rest of us don’t have to worry too much about that.  This virus is deadly even though a lot of white people don’t think so.

- I don’t understand how Republicans or anyone else can stand by when police brutalize peaceful protesters, when a governor is threatened with kidnapping and death, when a gun toting out-of-town teen kills 2  protesters and wounds a third, when poll workers and vote counters’ lives are threatened, when right-wingers threaten civil war, when to many, Black Lives do not Matter, when our Supreme Court, supposedly fair and impartial, allows votes to be suppressed and others to be discarded at the will of Republican officials – I DON’T UNDERSTAND!  

- I don’t understand how white America keeps falling for the racist “Willie Horton” style political ads that tell white women they have to be scared of Black home invaders.  Those ads in the Philadelphia area got some Republicans elected, not because those Republicans were competent, honest, or anything else positive, but because white people, men in particular, were scared the Democrats would defund the police, implying no more police, so who would keep their women safe from Black predators.  More than  30 years later and those ads still work.  That is racism, just in case scared white men want to claim something else.

- I’ve read a lot about the way our brains work and how easily certain emotions can be played upon.  However, I don’t understand why we can’t stand up to our emotions, at least some of the time and know that some things are just wrong and those who perpetrate them don’t deserve to hold any kind of public office.  I want to be hopeful about the coming Biden-Harris administration, but McConnell is still in power and so, nothing will get done until our nation falls even further behind.  Then Republicans will be voted into all the highest positions again, maybe, even Trump, and we will continue our decline until global warming takes us all out.  Democrats get about  2 weeks to fix the mess Republicans took more than  4 years to make.  It was like that in 2009 when Obama took office.  He didn’t even get the 2 weeks to try to fix the worst recession since the Great Depression and end 2 wars George W. Bush had started.  It is amazing he got anything done with all the obstruction by Republicans even though Democrats had the majority in both houses of Congress at first. 

- I don’t understand why we Americans don’t stop the insanity and demand more of our elected personnel.  Maybe we will this time because we are facing 3 massive problems:  global warming, COVID-19, and whether truth will survive in a land where Lying And cheating have reigned in one of the political parties for nearly 50 years.  We’ll see.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “WE THE PEOPLE” AS TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION ENDS?

by Ruth A. Sheets

Nearly a week ago, it was clear Donald Trump had been defeated for a second term as president.  Six days later, he has not been able to bring himself to acknowledge this defeat nor to stop his bullying of the Republican Party and the American people in general.  Claiming all kinds of unsubstantiated voter fraud, he has stirred his base into believing Trump must be right, must know something they don’t know but have suspected, must really have won the election.

The hardest part of this lying is that it clearly does not match with what actually happened in this election.  Despite the Biden victory, Republicans made large gains in many state and local races.  So, Trump actually won?  Does that mean that those other races were losses for Republicans because those same people who voted for Biden also voted for Republicans down-ballot?  It seems logic counts for little.  It’s about what feels right, and what feels right is that Donald Trump, their beloved leader won. 

I noticed during the final month of the election season that Republican TV ads became more and more vicious.  Lies tripped out of the mouths of mostly woman narrators with their “skeptical” voices proclaiming that Democratic candidates would in various ways bring down our nation:  get rid of police so rich white women would be unprotected in their homes; would destroy the local economies in various ways; would release all criminals from prisons, and so much more.  These were all lies, but so what!  Freedom of speech allows candidates and their PACs to say on air whatever comes to their heads that can instill fear and distrust in a significant portion of the population, the base we have heard so much about.

I can’t help but wonder about this base.  Who are they and what do they stand for?  Why are they so scared of everyone and everything?  Why are they so easily triggered into decisions that are so bad for them, then defend that bad decision indefinitely?

According to Tim Lott of “the Guardian,” “Fury has become our lingua franca: because we are afraid and we are becoming more afraid, and we do not wish to admit that we are afraid. For to do so is to acknowledge that our beliefs are not as cast iron as we wish they were.”  He was referring to the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris in 2015, but I suspect this fury and fear maintain Mr. Trump’s base today too.  Trump’s enablers know this and use this knowledge to keep the anger and fear fires burning to cause as much destruction as possible while they bide their time, hoping to hijack democracy in the wake of the chaos.  

Where does this intense fear, almost terror come from?  I think it has many origins.  When all your life you are compared economically with previous generations it sets up a kind of hysteria to achieve.  We are regularly rated, as a society,  on whether our children are doing better than their parents.  Unfortunately, we have tied that almost entirely to economics.  If we are not earning more than our parents, living in houses that are bigger and better, don’t have more things than our parents, our society is failing.  Because we allow economics to be the determiner of social success, we are unable to safely weather emotionally or physically, the down times that are inevitable. 

Children living in their parents’ basements is the indicator that millennials are somehow inferior, unable to succeed.  Then, we follow with the question, whose fault is it?  Our beliefs often provide the answer.  If we are white, have a high school education, are male, and live outside cities, we say it’s the liberals’ fault.  They are “tax and spenders” who can’t balance a budget like “we the real Americans” do in our personal lives, an inaccurate comparison, but truth is not part of this, just feeling. 

 If we are people of color, live in or near cities, have a college education, we are likely to blame Republicans and conservatives who claim to value frugality while spending more even than liberals but on different priorities:  the military, corporate welfare, and drug wars and incarceration. 

These are not equivalent despite what political ads, tweets, and posts might proclaim.  The fear and fury of Mr. Trump’s base spring from a mythic past of pastures of plenty in which their forebears had enough and more because of their own hard work and frugality.  They believe their diminishing wealth and standards and having their offspring living in their basement are due to government regulations restricting what they and businesses can do.  They have ignored (or been helped to ignore) the diminishment of workers and unions, the increase of outsourcing, the absorption of small entities into huge conglomerates, the decrease of taxes paid by the wealthy and corporations. 

Why does Trump’s base do this?  It is not entirely their fault.  The Trump base is very male dominated, feeling that if a man is loud and bullying, he must be strong.  They do let a few women have some power in their circles (31 Republican women will be in Congress this coming term and a misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic woman has joined the Supreme Court), but those women must toe the line or be put back in their place.  Those women know exactly what is required, keep the fear and fury burning high and it is working.

Men like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones pump out the testosterone along with the fear and fury and the base clings to these as their salvation from the encroachment of a world they don’t understand and are terrified of.  Mitch McConnell and his Senate obstructers get re-elected so they can continue to obstruct while blaming Democrats for nothing getting done.  These men know just how to manipulate their unnecessarily scared followers into supporting just about anything if “socialism” and Democrats” can be somehow tied to their unamerican opponents, no matter how harmful those politicians are to our nation.

It seems all of us would benefit from checking out the Preamble of our Constitution to understand the purpose of our government, perhaps to dispel some of the anger and fear.  It starts with “We the People of the United States,” not just we the Republicans/conservatives or we the Democrats and liberals.  We need to pay special attention to the following lines.

- “in order to form a more perfect union” means we are not there yet. 

- “to establish justice” not just for the ones who believe the way we do, but for everyone (are you listening Supreme and all other courts, police departments, ICE?). 

- “to insure domestic tranquility” does not mean quell protests, particularly if it means people are speaking truths we don’t like.  Trump’s base does not have to fear “Black Lives Matter,” but they do.  They don’t have to fear “defunding the police” but they do.  They don’t have to fear immigrants, but they do.  They are sure all of these groups will mar their domestic tranquility, but they won’t, most of the time.

- “to provide for the common defense” does not mean defend ourselves from people we don’t like, often our neighbors and political adversaries.  It means to defend our democracy from those who would threaten or bring it down from without and within.

- “to promote the general welfare” is not just welfare to the poor and folks among us with various disadvantages, although it is that to a great extent.  It includes improving the well-being of all Americans and trying to lessen the impacts of the fearmongering and excessive anger that keep We the People from thriving.  It is not OK for just some, with the right thoughts, beliefs, and amount of money,  to thrive.  It means we must actively promote the well-being of all.

- The last piece of the Preamble is “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”  This is probably the hardest one of all to work with because it means we can’t focus just on ourselves and what we need and want.  We need to work to insure that the opportunities we now have are expanded and will include those who come after.  Claiming climate change (global warming), is a hoax, for example, is a betrayal of our posterity and probably should be framed that way by politicians, candidates, the media, and all Americans. 

We the People are all the people.  Allowing ourselves to believe WE are the only people who really care about this nation, are the only “true” Americans is a betrayal of the ideals the founders espoused even if they could not manage to live up to them themselves. 

Right now, the many sides of our nation’s people may not yet be able to talk together but that should be our goal.  Freedom of speech is essential to our democracy, but screaming lies over the airwaves and social media is like wrongly yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre.  People are getting hurt and disenfranchised by such fire-lying and perhaps, for a time it needs to be curbed somewhat to allow our fellow citizens to recover from the fury and fear that is smothering them.  Let’s push the incoming administration under Biden and Harris, the Congress, and the Courts to honestly do their best to lead us into a new time of inclusion, caring, appreciation, and true cooperation that will let We the People survive and thrive without fury and fear.

ABORTION, THE PSEUDO-ISSUE

by Ruth Sheets

Election Day is past and many people are pleased while others are angry, ranting that Donald Trump really won except for voter fraud (which of course is not happening). It was Biden vs. Trump, the unifier vs. the misogynist, white supremacist in the words of my bias.

When I hear Donald Trump ranting against nearly everyone, I wonder how anyone supports him. But, 70 million did, just as he said 5 years ago, “I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and I wouldn’t lose a supporter.” Unfortunately, I know he’s right. I suspect there are issues those supporters care about. It seems though, anything can be forgiven if the candidate claims to hold a particular position on an issue. The issue most prominent for moderates and liberals is human rights. The conservative issue, abortion. Nearly a quarter of a billion people have died of COVID-19 under Donald Trump’s watch, yet his supporters are not only staunchly with him, but kept many of his Congressional enablers in office. When interviewed, several Trump supporters said that Trump was against abortion. That was the issue? Really?

I understand moving toward insuring human rights for all people, but Why should something as minor as abortion be the issue? It seems to me that if women were being recognized as adults who have the capacity to make important decisions for their own lives, abortion would just be one more medical procedure to improve human life, safe, legal, and available when needed.

That is why I see abortion as a pseudo issue. It is the surface thing that can be pointed at to demonstrate one’s credentials as a good conservative, probably conservative Christian. The real issue is that women are seen by men in general as subordinates who should have only a minor place outside the home, in the "public sphere." Many men in power are scared of women because most women can do an amazing job in the work world and still raise kids and run a household, often without men. I suspect most men would be hard-pressed to do that. Now, when they attempt it, they are seen as superheroes. Men have been sure about their role and how important they are to everyone, assuming superiority to women, people of color, children, disabled persons, non-Christians. That leaves a very small "elite" group of white men who think they deserve to rule, make all decisions for the world, and be the moral police, except for themselves, of course. They can lie, cheat, do violence, plan wars and force others to fight them, and more and they want no opposition.

Women, people of color, and children often do stand up to men with varying degrees of success. A few are allowed in their circle, but only those who espouse the male majority viewpoint (Phyllis Schlafly, Kelly Ann Conway, Martha McSally, and Amy Coney Barrett, for example), the devoted surrogates.

Abortion is just one tool wielded by scared white men (and their surrogates) to keep women out of the way, too poor or wrapped up with kids they are no threat.

So, abortion is the conservative pseudo-issue. It is not enough to try to ban abortion because most women don’t have one, many conservatives oppose birth control too, and many women depend on that. That means women have no control over their reproduction. Men get their pleasure while women bear the burden and responsibility for whatever happens. It’s a weapon men have come to embrace and to force, shame, or coax many women into using against women too.

Since most religions are patriarchal, it is easy to slip anti-abortion and anti-birth control into the doctrine even if the sacred books do not mention it or give it short shrift among many dos and don’ts that today’s people mostly ignore.

Another proof of this pseudo issue status of abortion is the way pregnant women are often treated in the workplace and society in general. In many workplaces, few if any accommodations are made. Often there is no maternity leave, paid or unpaid. We push paternity leave before all women who have borne the struggle for 9 months get paid maternity leave. Then, of course, there’s the loss of wages, expensive day care, and shortened careers for women who take time to “raise” their kids at home.

The thing that amazes me most is how many women support this insanity. Misogyny is alive and well among men, but also among women. Why women are willing to accept their second-class status is unclear to me no matter how many times women have tried to explain it. The fallback for so many, “It’s God’s will.” When I point out that any mention of birth control in “scripture” is cursory, they ignore that and say “it’s what the Church teaches.” The media are on board too, constantly finding women willing to speak out against other women, making claims that are irrelevant to the discussion, but harmful to women in general. Their cry of “Right to Life” is merely a demand of forced birth. Not sure? Where are the conservative proponents of significant financial help for families after the child is born through age 18?

I find this abuse of women and our autonomy disgraceful, but until women who are more than half the population take our place in the circles of power, pseudo issues like abortion will hover over us and keep us from moving on to the important issues of saving our planet, providing food, shelter, and a decent living for everyone including children, and correcting the wrongs of racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, agism, ableism, and more. There will be 31 Republican women in the House of Representatives starting in January. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the needs of women.

So, sisters and brothers of all political leanings, in the future, vote for people who do value women for more than the children they bear. See women as partners, as people who can make their own decisions about their own bodies and reproduction. Stop hiding behind abortion and birth control. We need to move on to put our focus on the real issues.

POLICE, COMMUNITY SERVANTS?

by Ruth A. Sheets

I just read a piece from the organization “Win Without War” that claims the police of the District of Columbia and other police departments are stockpiling weapons of war, probably for use against the citizens of the United States.  I don’t know personally if this stockpiling of more advanced weapons is real, but I do know they already have an armory of various types of tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, pepper sprays, and all kinds of “riot gear.”  We saw it in use back in June when Donald Trump needed a photo op at a church across from the white house.  Trump ordered the protesters driven away and the police obliged with tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray (used up close and personal) against the peaceful protesters.  Mr. Trump crossed the street and held up a Bible and smiled for the cameras, then walked back across the street. 

I wonder if Mr. Trump even noticed the smell of the tear gas and pepper spray lingering in the air.  Or, did he revel in it’s scent, believing it was righteously used against folks who don’t like him very much, and thus were worthy of whatever was used to get them out of the way?

We have come to the place where police departments can stockpile and use weapons of war, weapons that are supposedly not permitted on battlefields,  against American citizens.  It is outrageous.  I suspect this weaponization is the product of the “wars” on crime, drugs, and immigrants that politicians of the '80s and ''90s were fooled into believing were necessary and so made real.  Sadly, the victims of these “wars” were predominantly people of color,  and our democracy. 

Over the years, police departments became ever more powerful, usurping people’s rights for supposed safety.  Who were the police making more safe?  Predominantly white middle and upper class people.  Due to a range of factors, often set up by governmental and financial actions, communities of color became more segregated and poorer in relation to white communities.  Throw in drugs and lack of economic opportunity, and a disaster was created.  It wasn’t that those disadvantaged communities were using drugs more but that they were perceived to be using them more and more violence was arising from such use.  The job of the police, stop the drug use and violence and arrest as many as possible and “put them away.”  Three strikes and you’re out!   

 Even caring people and politicians were convinced that the crime rate was beyond impossible and something drastic had to be done.  I find it fascinating that correcting the wrongs of segregation, lack of resources, poorly resourced schools, and many other induced factors were rarely taken into account.  The myth of laziness and criminality grew in popularity.  Police were given all kinds of permission to step on people’s rights, mostly people of color, of course.  Police powers grew and police officers and many conservative  officials convinced themselves that this police intrusion into people’s rights caused the massive drop in crime of the 1990s.  They had no evidence for this, but it sounded good.  It fit with their political message that poor mostly people of color deserved their poverty because they had no ambition and didn’t take advantage of opportunities offered to them.  They were just takers and the white people in charge were the givers, constantly sacrificing for the takers.  (Remember Mitt Romney’s comments in 2012?) 

 This was, of course, a lie, but when many in the media bought into it, it became difficult to oppose.  From fear and frustration, people in the poor communities reluctantly agreed too, sealing the fate of millions of Americans who could easily be blamed for their circumstances AND INCARCERATED.  And, police just kept increasing their power and presence, not as community workers hired to protect and serve, but as  enforcers on behalf of the white and more wealthy members of society. 

 It was determined that if police were “scared for their lives” they could kill someone with impunity (qualified immunity).  The police got away with this for a long time because it was their word against the dead victim or “unreliable” witnesses.  Cell phones and police cams changed the playing field and police were being caught killing, beating, harassing, and otherwise intimidating citizens, but still not held accountable. 

 Calls for reform have brought about little positive change in many communities because police still believe and claim they are the righteous preservers of the American way, at least for the “givers.” (Who cares about the “takers?”)

 We saw this in relation to the protesters of police violence this past spring and summer.  People stand against the police killing of Black people.  The police respond in riot gear firing off rubber bullets at close range, releasing tear gas (in a pandemic with a disease that primarily attacks the lungs), clubbing people to the ground, arresting peaceful protesters while ignoring the white instigators of violence, and more.  That is police out of control. 

 Without major intervention, I do not see that any positive changes will happen.  Police programs everywhere in this nation need to be reworked from the bottom up and the top down, from the uniforms they wear or don't wear to the training, to the weapons they are permitted to use, to the actions they are allowed to take, to the ways they can patrol and whom they can stop, and on and on.  What we call them needs to change too.  The word “police” has such negative feelings correctly attached to it. Republicans are posting scare ads in this election season that white women won’t have police protection if Black people get their way and defund police.  That’s utter nonsense, but those who have never been the victim of police targeting can’t imagine why anyone would have problems with what the police  are doing.   

 Fraternal Order of Police “unions” make demands for more power and money and communities feel unable to resist.  Police "unions" need to decide whether they are unions or fraternal organizations.  They can't be both and should never have been allowed to be both.  If they are unions, they can negotiate with communities in good faith.  As fraternal organizations they can't negotiate anything beyond where they will have their fraternity house. 

 New Community service organizations must have a range of talented, skilled, caring people to respond to the variety of emergencies occurring on a daily basis. Each city, town, and other entity will have to investigate to understand what is needed, then design its program to address those needs.  Community members must have a say in what the program will look like at all levels of planning and implementation.  Training will also be more extensive and fully financed for those accepted into the service program.  Perhaps, most important of all, community servants will be held accountable for their actions and will be supported in their interactions with the community.      

 OK, I know it’s currently a fantasy, but it is doable if we have the will.  It's time.  We deserve better than what we have been dealt.  If we all stand together, we can get better so we can do better. 

REPUBLICANS LEGISLATE FOR THEIR OWN COMFORT

I am amazed at the ways Republicans claim extreme patriotism.  I suppose if they claim it loudly enough their fans will keep believing it despite all evidence to the contrary.  Patriotism really does require more than parades and giant military budgets.

What is true?  The evidence seems to point to an understanding that Republicans believe in themselves alone.  They stand for what makes them feel good, important, powerful, comfortable.  And, they have very clever ad men and a few women who can craft ads and statements that make this self-centered approach to government seem right.  The problem with this form of governing is that a lot of people have gotten and are getting hurt.  Republican lack of true patriotism is blatant and painful to see.

- IF Republicans (and conservatives) don't want to wear a mask to protect others from COVID-19, well, then, you shouldn’t have to.  Demanding that you wear one is against your rights and no one else’s rights not to get sick count.

-   If you don't like the idea of abortion, or rather don’t like the independence the right to choose gives women, well, then, no woman should be able to have an abortion (unless, of course, the Republican woman (or wife or girlfriend of a Republican official needs one). 

- You Republicans don't want to pay taxes, no problem, pass a giant tax cut for yourselves and your rich friends and do it after midnight so it will be done before anyone or anyone who matters notices. 

- You want straight white men to rule everything like they used to in the "good ol' days,” no problem, pack the Supreme Court and other federal courts with judges who will work really hard to see that rich straight white men and their corporations win the most important cases (not all of them, though, because people might notice and stop them). 

- Christian Republicans don't want their religious beliefs to be challenged, no problem, get the Congress and courts to let conservative Christian groups get all kinds of privileges that let them look holy and righteous, following “God’s will.”  You don’t want to bake a cake for a gay wedding, well, you don’t have to because such a simple act will defy God (or some other nonsense, as though God is so easily offended.  Hey, if you don’t want women to have access to birth control, claim God hates birth control – easy as pie when you have the courts packed and standing behind you.  And, more important, those religious claims only work for conservative Christians and perhaps some Jews, not Muslims,  Buddhists, Hindus, or atheists, of course.

- Republicans really don't want to be acknowledged for the racists they often actually are.  No problem here either, when asked about Black Lives Matter, you talk about the “looting and violence perpetrated in the cities” (often caused by police and whites trying to incite trouble).  You deny the actions of white supremacists, claim they are “fine people” and essentially ignore their threats as so much less than what those NTIFA people are doing.  You are even given words to defend whites who were plotting to kidnap a governor, and you speak them aloud.  Very patriotic! 

- You are OK with the way Donald Trump and his crew have handled COVID-19 because you are not on the front lines.  You do not live in the neighborhoods where the heavy pollution infests everything every day.  Your kids don’t attend schools that are poorly maintained due to lack of funds, so there is no effective ventilation.  You do not experience the stress of race and poverty every day of your life so your body is changed, making you more susceptible to the disease.      Therefore, you cry out that your kids NEED to be back in school.  Every store, restaurant, bar, salon, sports venue, etc. that you want to patronize should be open waiting for you, no matter the risk to the others in your community. 

- You have good healthcare, so anyone who doesn’t, it’s their own fault for not working as hard as you work.  You say nothing when your president and your attorney general bring a case through the courts to destroy the health program that is sustaining more than 20 million of your fellow citizens.  How is this patriotism?  Remind me!

- You are afraid you might lose an election and might not be able to stay permanently in power.  Well, you’ve got that sewed up too.  You have a myriad of ways to suppress the votes of people you don’t like and whose vote you want to deny your opponents:  cut the number of polling places, try to stop vote-by-mail or make it really difficult – even during a pandemic, make anyone who has committed a crime pay all kinds of impossible fees and charges before they can vote even though the people of your state voted to give them back the vote, purge the voter rolls of as many people as you can get away with mostly people of color and young people, require voter I.D. even though ID fraud is very rare, make everyone voting by mail use 2 envelopes for their ballot or it will be discarded, work to destroy the post office when more people will vote by mail than ever before, and more.  Voting is the critical aspect of a democracy, so what does voter suppression say about the people who are doing it?

- You don’t like immigrants or fear they are too Democratic for your taste.  OK, just sabotage the census, counting only the people who look and act like you, who share your specific values (whatever those are).  Who cares what the US Constitution says!  You can also take kids away from their parents and toss them in cages to cause the greatest pain possible.  Oh wait!  you can force asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico where they fall prey to abusers.  You can keep believing a wall on the border will do something for you.  How is this patriotic, or do you care?

How is any of the above patriotic.  Patriotism is so much more than parades, flag waving, standing with your hand over your heart for the National Anthem.  Those are the easy things that prove nothing. 

So, ?again I say, I am amazed at the way Republicans/conservatives claim extreme patriotism.  There is nothing patriotic about the direction you Republicans have been driving our nation during the past 40 years or so.  You clearly have good PR, though.   

If you Republicans want to get back a small measure of your patriotism, well, you need to step up and do what you should have done back in May when the House passed the Heroes Act; Stand face to face (socially distanced) with Mitch McConnell and demand  hearings on the bill and vote on it.  Mutiny if you have to.  You need to skip the packing of the Supreme Court.  The people neither want nor need another rights denying Supreme Court justice.  We already have at least 3.  Spend the rest of Donald Trump’s term in office working for the people of this nation.  Pass the stimulus package to help even your constituents. 

I hear some Republicans and Donald Trump say they want to do a little something just before the election, perhaps to try to win over the gullible folks who can easily forget what you have done to them.  These are the ones you expect to believe your lies and ignore your cheating to maintain power.  I suspect those people are already snugly with you Republicans and their Donnie no matter what, no matter how much they are harmed by what you legislators have done.  After all, there’s always someone else to blame, a long-running Republican strategy.  

So, since you can ultimately blame someone else, do the patriotic thing for a change.  I know you've forgotten what that is since you haven't done it for so long, but I suspect if you ask a few Democrats and others who care about this country and its people, you could learn or relearn how to do it. 

SUPREME COURT NOMINEE, A BAD CONSEQUENCE

 by Ruth A. Sheets

I find it interesting the way Republicans just change the rules to fit whatever they want to do.  It reminds me of the old "Truth or Consequences" game.  Contestants were supposed to answer a question correctly or face the consequences.  The questions were outrageous, of course, but if a contestant guessed the right answer, another question would be added, then another until they could no longer answer correctly because the question had no answer, SO they faced the consequences, usually a silly game or stunt.  That was OK for a TV game show, but not for real life.  Republicans don't like the “truth” part, so they change the question so we, the contestants will face the “consequences.

Republican Senate leaders now get to approve a lifetime appointment supreme court justice who is really not qualified but has proven she  is amenable to whatever Republicans want her to do, and, just a few weeks before a presidential election. 

The question to Mitch McConnell and his club, why will you not give Merrick Garland a hearing to replace Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court?  The answer, “because it is an election year.  OK, possibly true, so, there is a next question which came an hour after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Why are you planning to approve a nominee for the Supreme Court when it is only weeks until the election, in an election year.  The answer because we can.  That’s the wrong answer, so we get the consequences, ultimately , loss of our right to choose, loss of health care, expulsion of immigrants, and so much more.  

Those consequences also immediately involve a Senate procedure the American people don't want.  It turns out though, Democrats can’t even claim it’s unconstitutional because, as “newsman” Jake Tapper pointed out.  The displeasure of the American people is only a poll and those in power can do pretty much whatever they want since they were elected and it’s not exactly in the Constitution.

So, before Justice Ginsburg was even in her grave, Republicans were working to continue their packing of the Supreme Court.  I thought it interesting that during the Vice-Presidential debate on October 7^th, Kamala Harris was asked about Biden and packing the Court when it was Pence, Trump, McConnell and their Republican allies who were already in the process of doing it.  Yep, that was pretty brazen!

These Republican moves are   Hypocrisy, of course, but hypocrisy has become the currency of the Republican Party.  Its other denominations are lying, corruption, and deceit.  They now do all of these right out in the open.  For example, Attorney General William Barr has no trouble investigating those who focused attention on Republican cheating and corruption, hoping to find something to blame Democrats and others for, dragging issues through the courts hoping to get something to stick, to distract the people from the consequences of Republican practices, like a rushed Supreme Court appointment.

The Trump nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney, Barrett, has been on the Republican radar for quite a while, after all, she was seen as fit to serve on a lower court by the Federalist Society, the conservative court packing clearing house and had no opposition from Republican senators. 

One might wonder why she was and is such a good fit for Republicans.  Well,

- She is a woman who has a record of dismissing women and their needs, an avowed pro-lifer.  She does not believe women should be allowed to make their own decisions as to their bodies and their reproduction, no matter what the law says.  CHECK!

- She has learned to hide her personal beliefs and opinions behind “the law” and makes it sound as though if you don’t go along with her, you don’t know the law.  PERFECT!

- She is easily manipulated by men, forming her opinions to fit their wants through her religion.  She formed basic opinions under Antonin Scalia, a justice who also hid his comfort zone behind the law.  She learned well and can be counted on to do her Republican duty.  YESSSS  PERFECT AGAIN!

- She has ruled against desperate immigrants in her current position.  She has the right view of immigrants and since the Constitution doesn’t say much about immigrants except that they can become citizens and should have full rights of citizenship, she can and will do everything she can to exclude as many as possible.  HURRAY!  RIGHT AGAIN!

- She has seven kids.  That is great because that makes her look like the perfect mom.  One wonders how she managed her law career while raising 7 kids.  Is she supermom or one who had sufficient money and resources to have lots of help.  She clearly didn’t think birth control was worth her time or perhaps thought it was a sin, who knows which, but it matters which, but not to Republicans.  ALL GOOD SO FAR!

- She doesn’t think the Affordable Care Act should be legal even though she claims to believe the Courts should not be legislating and that that should be done through the Congress and executive branch.  The ACA meets both those criteria, passed by elected persons in Congress and signed by the president.  But, as with her former and current bosses, she doesn’t care because it isn’t what she likes, so she will make sure the law fits what she likes.  THAT WAS EASY!

How do We the People deal with this?  Well, it is unlikely Republican Senators beyond the two who have already declared they will not approve Ms. Barrett, can find their backbone in time to stop this sham appointment.  So, I am thinking the only honest way to address  this problem is to expand the Supreme Court, (and possibly other courts)  to balance the Court toward more fairness.  On the Supreme Court, we will need at least 4 new justices who actually care about the needs of the American people, not just the anti-woman, anti-people of color, anti-LGBTQ, forced birthers, immigrant haters, corporations, and planet destroyers for the money.  We need people who are not ideologues whose views can be twisted into denying people their rights, using the law to justify their inexplicable rulings.  They’re out there, those fair, qualified people. 

A woman-resenting woman like Barrett is just like the Black persons-resenting Clarence Thomas.  They'll make a great pair working together to try to set our nation back a century, back into a time when women only get the rights white men allow them and Black people, except for a few sports and entertainment figures. go back to the ghetto poverty of the past.  Yes, a great team!

We need to stop this if we can, but expand the court if we can't.  Limiting terms on the court would also help.  I like John Paul Stevens' idea of 18 years on the Supreme Court, then move to one of the other federal courts for the rest of their lives.  The court has just too much power for a lifetime appointment.  The founders did not anticipate that.  So much for originalism, a bogus concept that people who are extreme conservatives drag out to support their ridiculous rights-denying pronouncements.  Justice Scalia was a master of the bogus originalism.  Now his former clerk wants to do the women's side of it, the new Phyllis Schlafly.  Shame on any senator who votes for her.  She is neither qualified as a fair judge nor appropriate for the court.  Her appointment is a bad consequence for most of us. 

REPUBLICANS LEGISLATE FOR THEIR OWN COMFORT

I am amazed at the ways Republicans claim extreme patriotism.  I suppose if they claim it loudly enough their fans will keep believing it despite all evidence to the contrary.  Patriotism really does require more than parades and giant military budgets.

What is true?  The evidence seems to point to an understanding that Republicans believe in themselves alone.  They stand for what makes them feel good, important, powerful, comfortable.  And, they have very clever ad men and a few women who can craft ads and statements that make this self-centered approach to government seem right.  The problem with this form of governing is that a lot of people have gotten and are getting hurt.   

- IF Republicans (and conservatives) don't want to wear a mask to protect others from COVID-19, well, then, you feel you don't have to.  Demanding that you wear one is against your rights and no one else’s rights not to get sick count.

-   If you don't like the idea of abortion, or rather don’t like the independence the right to choose gives women, well, then, no woman should be able to have an abortion (unless, of course, the Republican woman (or wife or girlfriend of a Republican official needs one). 

- You Republicans don't want to pay taxes, no problem, pass a giant tax cut for yourselves and your rich friends and do it after midnight so it will be done before anyone or anyone who matters notices. 

- You want straight white men to rule everything like they used to in the "good ol' days,” no problem, pack the Supreme Court and other federal courts with judges who will work really hard to see that rich straight white men and their corporations win the most important cases (not all of them because people might notice and stop them). 

- Christian Republicans don't want their religious beliefs to be challenged, no problem, get the Congress and courts to let conservative Christian groups get all kinds of privileges that let them look holy, following “God’s will.”  You don’t want to bake a cake for a gay wedding, well, you don’t have to because such a simple act will defy God (or some other nonsense, as though God is so easily offended.  Hey, if you don’t want women to have access to birth control, claim God hates birth control – easy as pie when you have the courts packed and standing behind you.  And, more important, those religious claims only work for conservative Christians and perhaps some Jews, not Muslims,  Buddhists, or atheists, of course.

- Republicans really don't want to be acknowledged for the racists they often actually are.  No problem here either, when asked about Black Lives Matter, you talk about the “looting and violence perpetrated in the cities” (often caused by police and whites trying to incite trouble).  You deny the actions of white supremacists, claim they are “fine people” and essentially ignore their threats as so much less than what those NTIFA people are doing.  You are even given words to defend whites who were plotting to kidnap a governor, and you speak them aloud.

- You are OK with the way Donald Trump and his crew have handled COVID-19 because you are not on the front lines.  You do not live in the neighborhoods where the heavy pollution infests everything every day.  Your kids don’t attend schools that are poorly maintained due to lack of funds, so there is no effective ventilation.  You do not experience the stress of race and poverty every day of your life so your body is changed, making you more susceptible to the disease.      Therefore, you cry out that your kids NEED to be back in school.  Every store, restaurant, bar, salon, sports venue, etc. that you want to patronize should be open waiting for you, no matter the risk to the others in your community. 

- You have good healthcare, so anyone who doesn’t, it’s their own fault for not working as hard as you work.  You say nothing when your president and your attorney general bring a case through the courts to destroy the health program that is sustaining more than 20 million of your fellow citizens.

- You are afraid you might lose an election and might not be able to stay permanently in power.  Well, you’ve got that sewed up too.  You have a myriad of ways to suppress the votes of people you don’t like and whose vote you want to deny your opponents:  cut the number of polling places, try to stop vote-by-mail or make it really difficult – even during a pandemic, make anyone who has committed a crime pay all kinds of impossible fees and charges before they can vote even though the people of your state voted to give them back the vote, purge the voter rolls of as many people as you can get away with mostly people of color and young people, require voter I.D. even though ID fraud is very rare, make everyone voting by mail use 2 envelopes for their ballot or it will be discarded, work to destroy the post office when more people will vote by mail than ever before, and more.  

- You don’t like immigrants or fear they are too Democratic for your taste.  OK, just sabotage the census, counting only the people who look and act like you, who share your specific values (whatever those are).  Who cares what the US Constitution says!  You can also take kids away from their parents and toss them in cages to cause the greatest pain possible.  Oh wait!  you can force asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico where they fall prey to abusers.  You can keep believing a wall on the border will do something for you.

How is any of the above patriotic.  Patriotism is so much more than parades, flag waving, standing with your hand over your heart for the National Anthem.  Those are the easy things that prove nothing. 

So, ?again I say, I am amazed at the way Republicans/conservatives claim extreme patriotism.  There is nothing patriotic about the direction you Republicans have been driving our nation during the past 40 years or so.  You clearly have good PR, though.   

If you Republicans want to get back a small measure of your patriotism, well, you need to step up and do what you should have done back in May when the House passed the Heroes Act; Stand face to face (socially distanced) with Mitch McConnell and demand  hearings on the bill and vote on it.  Mutiny if you have to.  You need to skip the packing of the Supreme Court.  The people neither want nor need another rights denying Supreme Court justice.  We already have at least 3.  Spend the rest of Donald Trump’s term in office working for the people of this nation.  Pass the stimulus package to help even your constituents. 

I hear some Republicans and Donald Trump say they want to do a little something just before the election, perhaps to try to win over the gullible folks who can easily forget what you have done to them.  These are the ones you expect to believe your lies and ignore your cheating to maintain power.  I suspect those people are already snugly with you Republicans and their Donnie no matter what and no matter how much they are harmed by what you legislators have done.  After all, there’s always someone else to blame, a current Republican strategy.  

So, since it won't matter to your crowd, do the right thing for a change.  I know you've forgotten what that is since you haven't done it for so long, but I suspect if you ask a few Democrats and others who actually do care about this country and its people, you could learn or relearn how to do it. 

WHO DOES THAT!

by Ruth A. Sheets

Lately, I find myself gritting my teeth and muttering  or shouting aloud a 3-word phrase.  The phrase, “who does that!” or its sister “who says that!” tumbles out before I have time to acknowledge that I already know, and it is nearly always one of 3 men who are in the news every day on nearly every newscast.

The three men, as if you have not already guessed are Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and, currently, Lindsay Graham (or one of their surrogates).  These 3 men have no curb on their tongues and feel entitled to say whatever comes to their mind at the moment.  Their white male privilege allows this and pretty much forces us to listen to their brain dumps presented by our media, because they are currently in positions of power, and the media are enthralled, they might miss one of the lies, perhaps hoping for a profound statement?

None of the three displays significant intellectual thought.  They have latched onto an ideology that sees themselves at the top of everything while everyone else is a minion who must do as they say or should be forced to.  They are among the “ruling elite” in the United States right now, but have little or no sense of the needs of the American people.  They are nearly completely obsessed with what they want and what they will do to retain power, even to dismissing any integrity they might once have had. 

They have the privilege of lying and cheating at will.  They can insult people, even citizens of this nation and international leaders with impunity.  Most people know this, but one aspect of male privilege in general and white male privilege in particular is they believe they have the right to say what they want, free speech of course.  In the United States, we have the right to free speech, but the “Three” want that right only for themselves.  They insult and never apologize while they demand apologies of anyone who even slightly questions their actions?  WHO DOES THAT! 

they can cheat, getting all kinds of taxpayer money for their pet projects  (hotels, contractors, campaign money), often for themselves, but want others who do that or are even accused of that, “locked up.”  WHO DOES THAT!

All three are excellent gloaters.  They  cheat and lie to get something they want, like the huge tax cut for the very rich and for corporations, then they brag that they pulled off this wonderful assistance for our workers.  WHO DOES THAT!

Their racism kicks in regularly as when President Obama was not permitted to nominate a Supreme Court justice after Justice Scalia passed away, yet gloat now that when another justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, has died, their rules then, (which of course were a lie) are now changed so a new justice will be nominated before Justice Ginsberg is in her grave and less than 40 days until the election.  Last time they whined about 9 months being too short.  WHO DOES THAT! 

And, of course, they must slap women in the face by nominating a woman who dismisses other women, does not feel women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, does not feel people have a right to health care, and on and on.  Just as Justice Clarence Thomas was a slap in the face to African-Americans when he was nominated to replace Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights icon, Amy Barrett is a slap in the face to women as she is nominated to replace an icon of Women’s rights. WHO DOES THAT!

We have been hit with a pandemic.  Scientists know what a pandemic is and basically how we could have protected ourselves from the worst of it, but our “three” could not care less.  “It will be over soon, like a miracle” Donald chirped and Mitch decided that poor people were just getting too much money so the Senate simply couldn’t pass more rescue bills.  “It doesn’t matter if you wear a mask.  All kids better go back to schools or they’ll lose their money.”  WHO DOES THAT! 

The “Three” and their crew blame the current economy on everything and everyone but their own incompetent, thoughtless management of the pandemic, and a lot of their poor followers believe it and so are OK with hating Asian Americans and people who are not suffering as much as they are.  The “Three” just love the divisions this causes and are trying to use it to their advantage with the election coming up.  WHO DOES THAT!

Voting by mail is extremely safe and has had over these past few years almost no voter fraud instances (except some Republican ones), but the Three, on every possible occasion preach that this way of voting is horrible and will give the wrong side the election because of fraud.  In reality, the “Three” are cheating through voter suppression and lying about the safety of vote by mail, then they undermine the US Post Office to be sure there are problems with mail-in ballots.  They sue states who have mail-in ballots on demand using our tax money again.  WHO DOES THAT!

I am sure you get the picture.  The “Three” are not people who should be in charge of anything, but they are loud, rich, white, and male and the media bends over backward to listen to them and make sure they are in front of us every day, even when they are not doing anything worth mentioning.  Their courage comes from their positions of power and their willingness to drag everyone who works with them in their party down to their level, and they go, with nary a peep.  WHO DOES THAT! 

Election day is nearly upon us.  We need to stand up against the “Three” and demand better.  Our climate is changing so rapidly we are only beginning to face its effects and we need leaders who will care about that, but “Climate change is a hoax.” WHO SAYS THAT!

We are finally looking at our systemic racism and crying out for something better while the “Three” call protests riots and dismiss police brutality AND nonaccountability as nonsense.  WHO DOES THAT!

Our economy can no longer sustain the huge corporations who manipulate our representatives for their own gains.  We need better, but we see the EPA and Department of Interior changing regulations to allow more pollution, give breaks to fossil fuel corporations, continue the gap between employers/owners and workers.    WHO DOES THAT!

We need to reestablish our relations with the other nations of the world as equals facing the world’s challenges together, yet, the Saudi dictator is permitted to kill a US journalist with no response, Russia is allowed to interfere in our elections, and Russia and others are paying bounties to Afghan insurgents to kill Americans and no official protests are made. WHO DOES THAT? 

Alas, the “Three” are just too busy soaking in their own money, whiteness, and power to see any of the needs even though occasionally they may brag that they are the “best president on the economy, have done more for Black people and other groups than any other president,” and other equally ridiculous lies.  WHO SAYS THAT! 

It’s time the “Three” and their followers be made to step down through our votes.  WHO DOES THAT!  We do, We the People!  It’s time!  

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

A few days ago, my sister reminded me of something our dad used to say “You have to listen to the people on the other side of an issue if you are going to get anything done.”  That is exceptional advice that I have sometimes forgotten, especially in this 5 year political morass that is the Trump era.

As a blind person, I depend on listening to learn what I need to know.  I get no visual cues from any of the political or scientific figures of the time.  I don’t see Donald Trump and whatever physical characteristics are drawing people to him.  I did not see Hillary Clinton’s supposed boringness.  I don’t see “Sleepy Joe” as Donald ?Trump calls Joe Biden.  I do not see the expressions on the faces of the enthralled Trump supporters at rallies who always seem to be looking for a new 3-word chant (I hope that is not all their attention spans can handle (- OK, that was snarky, but it is my response to the vitriol I hear in every rally snippet I can tolerate listening to.  One can stand only so much hatred.  Why do those people like participating in the anger, fear and hatred? 

Yet, recalling my dad’s advice, listening to the other side is critical for understanding.  The biggest difficulty I have with this is that I know very few Trump supporters personally.  Those I do know are colleagues and we rarely mention politics in our work together as teachers.  I only know their politics because they wore Trump T-shirts the day after the election in 2016.  I was shocked, I must admit, but  have worked hard and been successful in not changing my opinion of them and their work because of this new knowledge.  What I know is that they are good teachers who care deeply for the kids they teach.

I listen to interviews with Trump supporters, a regular feature on NPR programs (my major news source) since 2015.  The Trump supporters come mostly from the “purple” states, usually from small town or rural communities.  They are nearly always white which makes sense since that is the vast majority of the Republican party.  They are sometimes asked why they support Donald Trump, but that is often the last adult question they are asked, and their childlike answers like “He understands me” or “He cares about my business,” are not expanded upon.   

The interviewed supporters go on and on about how their life was so bad under Obama and that even though it is bad now, Mr. Trump is going to make it better.  “Look at the stock market,” I heard one say.  The interviewer never asked how that impacted their life nor if that person was in the stock market.  It might be important to hear how these Americans get their information about the economy and what they think should happen related to themselves.  What will they do when they retire if Social Security is eliminated as many Republicans would like to do, for example.   

The interviewees are permitted to get away with saying things like “Well, I believe climate change is a hoax” with rarely a request for an explanation of how they know this or where they got such information. It could be helpful to know how they came to that understanding of what is happening in the world related to climate. What do they think will happen to them and their families as storms and floods become more intense as they will continue to do?  

Trump supporters are all against abortion, or that’s what they say.  They are not asked about this position, they just get to declare it.  They are not asked if it is a problem for them that rich White women will always be able to get an abortion, but what they are fighting for is to keep that procedure from poor people.  Such a question and response would help us pro-choice women to understand something of their thinking.  We know what the anti-choice leaders think because they are loud and often pretty obnoxious, but do their followers hold the same beliefs for the same reasons and in all situations? 

The Trump supporters interviewed are assumed to be conservatives, and they will say “I’m pretty conservative,” but they are not pressed as to what that means to them.  What is their understanding of who “conservatives” are and what they believe.  What do they think “liberals” are/believe?  

It is as though despite their screaming and chanting in Trump’s rallies, his supporters are actually delicate people who can’t be talked to as adults that can form their own arguments and present their own positions.  This is not the way to “listen” to the other side.  This is the way women and people of color have been treated throughout history.  White people, men in particular are the ones with the knowledge and the worthy opinions while the rest of the world is expected to parrot whatever those mostly men say, and to believe it in whole.  “That is the way to get along in this unequal world.” 

Well, it needs to stop. The media needs to do better.  It is through examining our beliefs that we learn if these are actually our own thoughts or those of someone else.  If no one who differs in world view from ourselves ever challenges us, we may not get the chance to truly develop our understanding of where we stand on the important issues that impact our lives.  We can become extremely angry with where we are in life.  If we aren’t expected to know who we are and what we ourselves believe, we can blame others for our “misfortunes.”

I will not tell you this is easy, but it is worth the trouble.  Listening to people who are honestly discussing where they stand is not the same as listening to political ads that claim to be presenting “real” people.  Those are paid actors who are spouting a script given to them.  Journalists, if careful and diligent, can make a difference and can empower all kinds of people to have more personal agency. 

So, journalists, get to work and interview adults who can communicate their thinking.  They will do better if you can push them into explanations that will lead to understanding, theirs and ours.  Stop treating Trump supporters like children.  That is insulting and does not contribute to understanding.  It does not help us to know what we don’t know.