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.