A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR 2022

By Ruth A. Sheets

Each week, Dr. Robert Reich former Department of Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton and Economics Professor, asks a challenging question for members of his Substack thread to answer.  On September 14, 2022, he asked why we thought Republicans had decided to push for a nation-wide abortion ban so close to the November election.   He posed a few possible answers for us to consider:  to respond to evangelical voters, to deflect attention from Trump, because GOP leaders are clueless, and because GOP leaders are misogynists.  One would have thought Lindsay Graham and his crew would have waited until after the upcoming election to push their national abortion ban bill, but they didn’t.  They are now saying aloud what was only implied before. They want our federal government to control women’s bodies. 

The following is my response to Dr. Reich’s question.  Note, Dr. Reich “liked” my comment and I hope you will too.

“My answer is, ‘ALL OF THE ABOVE’ plus, those Republicans are trying to look more powerful to their fundamentalist and Catholic male base. Those guys are so scared of women they will agree to just about anything to keep women out of their colleges and workplaces. They want women pregnant, barefoot, and silent in the home ready to take care of every need of their child-man husband/partner who wants to pretend we are still living in the Medieval days when men could rule at home, if nowhere else and could do whatever he wanted to do to his wife (woman) and kids.” 

“I recently heard a whine by Doug Mastriano running for Governor of PA. He said ‘bodily autonomy was a joke.’ He meant, and so does Lindsay Graham (the biggest misogynist in the Senate, well, maybe not the biggest) women’s bodily autonomy is a joke.” 

I continued, “I say it is time for equality. If men can control women's bodily autonomy, women should be able to control men's. Therefore, I have a modest proposal. 

1. After the birth of a man's 3rd child, he has 2 weeks to get to a doctor for a vasectomy. We are in a climate crisis which includes overpopulation. Women can go in hired groups to pick up the men who don't show up. The child's births can be DNA tested and the males identified. 

2. An honestly convicted rapist (proven by DNA and a reliable witness, not by his race, will be taken to a hospital or clinic and castrated immediately after the sentencing. His actual sentence might be reduced if his behavior and attitude are improved by the surgery. That would include men who rape other prisoners in jail. 

If men actually had some skin in the game and stopped putting the blame for their own bad behavior on women or trying to get people to ignore it altogether (Kavanaugh), bodily autonomy for all would be the law of the land and no Supreme Court conservative majority  could mess with it. Until then, we the people need to act. Scared white conservative men should not be able to control anyone's body but their own.” 

I heard from a few members of the thread that my “modest proposal” was a bit harsh.  Hmmm!  My response to them was  that women were potentially sacrificing more than those men would due to male anti-abortion laws,   even death.  I have never heard of a man dying of vasectomy or castration, but of many women dying due to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum complications.  I do believe my “modest proposal” is reasonable and fair.  

Now how do I get my proposal into law as quickly as Republican white men (and the women who love them) got their woman-hating laws passed in the Confederacy and confederate wannabee states after our Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade?  The Catholic conservative majority gave them a giant push, than they often reached back more than 150 years to scrape up laws that forbid abortions, from a time when men were so desperate to keep women/midwives out of medicine they passed laws they couldn’t     actually prosecute because most abortions were performed in secret and men, even doctors had no idea what women were doing for each other.  

The Arizona law they are chasing was passed before Arizona was even a state.  How is that even allowed?  So, white male misogynistic racists today will go after the women they fear and hate with ancient laws that were misogynistic at the time they were passed and are still.  They threaten violence for women who don’t submit to keeping a pregnancy they either don’t want or is dangerous to their health or the survival of the fetus.  They imprison pregnant women claiming “for the benefit of the ‘child.’”  They care nothing for the fetuses except that they can use them as a whining point supposedly showing their “love of life” while every other action of those folks’ lives points to anything but love and life, and no new laws have been passed in those states to help the host, the fetus, or the forced-birth baby.

Yep, we need my “modest proposal” to let those particular ignorant hateful white men who think they should be able to control women, feel something of what is like to have someone, not yourself, forcibly mess with your body and your reproduction.  Come on women and men who care, let’s get this done.

TRUMP’S “MAKE AMERICA GAG AGAIN” TOUR

By Ruth A. Sheets

I recently heard someone reconfigure MAGA from Trump’s words to “Make America Gag Again” ( and now, I just can’t hear MAGA any other way.  Donald Trump and his cult love being referred to as MAGAs but might not if we the people started publicly calling it “Make America Gag Again.”  And gag is what so many of us do when we recall Donald Trump’s speeches and tweets. 

Last week, I received a list of some of Trump’s best-known contributions to the collection of American quotes, and have decided to comment on them with what comes to my mind when I read them, remembering the past 7 years of the torture we have endured with him in the news every day whether he had something of value to contribute to our society or not, and it is usually not. 

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." – This is probably Trump’s best known quote which is funny since he is a coward and wouldn’t have the nerve to shoot anyone.  He prefers insulting people and setting his sycophantic doggies on the people he doesn’t like and getting them to do the “shooting.”.

“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."  What a joke!  He would have a hard time even finding the southern border on a map and has no idea what is involved in building a wall.  And, there is no way a country poorer than ours would be able to afford it if they even wanted a wall.  I marked his words and dismissed them as ignorance.

When asked if he believed in punishment for abortion, he responded incoherently, of course.  By the way, he just couldn’t give a yes or no answer.  “The answer is there has to be some form of punishment.” (for the woman?) “Yeah, there has to be some form.”  He clearly had no idea what he was talking about, but that was and is his modus operandi.

“Kim Jong-Un speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”  And who are “my people” for Trump?  His cult already does that.  If you are not sure, look at Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz.  The rest of us will never do that.

“In life you have to rely on the past, and that’s called history.”  One can marvel at Trump’s brilliance, but shouldn’t!

“I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”  Of course Trump won’t be taking care of the kids or taking them anywhere.  He is too self-absorbed for that.  Besides they were too young to be used effectively.  Thirty-five years old or so works much better.  Besides responsibility just isn’t Trump’s thing.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries coming here?”  Oh my, Donnie, your racism is showing, but you don’t care, do you!  You know there are enough racists in your cult that they will love you no matter what you call those countries and their people.

“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me - consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected."  Like so many men, Trump thinks he is god’s gift to womankind.  I have news for you Donnie, if they flirted with you at all and that is not likely, they were hoping to get some of your money and influence that can come from them knowing you. 

“Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault."  OK, one can tell when a person has gone off the deep end when he feels he has to boast of intelligence he doesn’t actually have.  The “gift” he does have is the ability to lie about anything, including intelligence.  The media claimed that Trump lied in public more than 30,000 times while in office.  Not everyone can lie that often and still have people believe him, and he does have a strong cult following. 

“Just tried watching Modern Family - written by a moron, really boring. Writer has the mind of a very dumb and backward child. Sorry Danny!"  Wow!  It takes one to know one, right, Donnie!  It seems you can recognize a fellow childish guy.  Sorry Donnie!

“While @BetteMidler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always insist on being politically correct."  OK, Politically correct is something Donald Trump will never be.  Hey Donald, your misogyny is showing.  You don’t know what that means?  Get one of your lawyers to look it up for you.  Isn’t that what you pay them for, or one of the things?

"@arianahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man - he made a good decision."  And you would know anything about relationships Donnie?

“[John McCain is]... not a war hero. He's a war hero - he's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I Like people that weren't captured, OK, I hate to tell you."  It is interesting that a coward would have the nerve to criticize someone who survived years as a POW in Vietnam when Trump didn’t serve due to bone spurs or some other rich man’s condition.  No shame?

“I'm the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody's ever been more successful than me. I'm the most successful person ever to run. Ross Perot isn't successful like me. Romney - I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney."  Can we say oblivious?  Naturally, Trump can’t name what he is actually successful with – bankruptcy, marriages, gold toilets, what?  He is comparing himself to Perot and Romney, not exactly the best presidential candidates, and they didn’t win the popular vote either. 

“If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?"  Oh Donnie, you think satisfying one’s partner makes one able to satisfy the nation.  That definitely explains why you were not reelected.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."  No comment here would do Trump’s ignorant statement justice.

“Stand back and stand by (to the Proud Boys and other insurrectionists).  Yes an insurrectionist who needs to be indicted for it.  Republicans in the Senate were too cowardly to convict Trump, but the courts should do better.

“Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way."  Oh Donnie, you think just because you weigh more than Biden, you could take him down?  You definitely lie better than he does, though, and remember, Donnie, courage is not your best thing.

These are only a few of the appalling statements made by a president of the United States.  He received around 74 million votes in the 2020 election.  He incited an insurrection, stole documents that belong to the American people, tried to steal elections and claimed other people were committing fraud, and is simply, a despicable person.

After reading the above quotes how could anyone believe this guy? It takes a lot of dodging reality to continue supporting a man who is so unaware of everyone but himself, and I suspect his self-awareness isn’t strong either.  The man who gave me the quotes wrote he would go on an Apology Tour if he had voted for Trump.  There are a lot of Republicans who should be on such an apology tour for putting that amoral man, Donald Trump in the most prestigious job in our country.

NOTE:  Quotes compiled by Keith Olson, Thank you!

WHO ARE THE HEROES?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Last evening, I finished reading a book called Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown.  The book was filled with heroes who would have been heroes had they just suffered the imprisonment and insults done to them by the American government and people all over this country, but they did far more.  Who are these particular heroes?  They are the between 110 and 120thousand Japanese-Americans who after Pearl Harbor, were imprisoned in “internment camps” (really concentration camps) in the most god-awful places that could be found in the United States.

Why were they “interned,” you might ask?  A couple of military guys decided it would be a way to get rid of Japanese men, women, and children from the West Coast because the Japanese had attacked our naval base in Hawaii.  With absolutely no evidence whatsoever, they accused people of Japanese descent of being a threat to our nation’s security, working for Japan to bring down our country.  In short, they made it up and even got President Roosevelt and Governor Earl Warren of California to go along with the ruse.  In 1944, even the Supreme Court shamefully agreed the “internment” was OK.

Men, women, and children, even disabled orphans, were forced from their homes into holding pens (race tracks and other public places) until the camps could be readied.  They were forced to sell what they could to white neighbors who offered pennies for valuable household items, even homes and businesses were sold cheap.  The people were permitted to take only what they could carry and were sent by bus and train to deserts, mountainous wastelands, swamps, and other nasty places those military guys located as quickly as possible. 

When the people, most of whom were American citizens, arrived, they were met with barbed wire enclosing rows of hastily constructed barracks with tar paper roofs that barely kept out the weather.  Each family had a number and was forced to live in a small section of one of those barracks, to wait hours in line for almost inedible food, shower and use the bathroom with no privacy, and have machine guns pointed at them 24 hours a day, every day as though they were criminals.  A couple of men who couldn’t take it anymore, tried to leave one of the camps and were shot down.

I describe this because I knew nothing about these concentration camps in my own country until I was out of college.  Somehow, even my class on World War II never covered the “internment.”  I learned about it through a movie.  I thought it was fiction.  My country as bad as it could be would never have done that to citizens!  I had been told the reason they wouldn’t allow Black people to be citizens was because then they couldn’t be enslaved.  That’s what I thought until I read an article about one family’s experience of the camps, around 1977. 

I knew about the Japanese-American troops that fought in Italy.  There was even a “McHale’s Navy” episode about them.  I thought they were Japanese-American soldiers who just happened to make up a unit.  When I finally found out that many of them were from the camps, I was shocked!  Why would anyone treated so badly even consider fighting for the country that did it?  Well, that’s what I mean about doing more.  Many of the imprisoned Japanese men volunteered to join the army when the opportunity came.  They usually said they wanted a chance to prove they were truly Americans.  Japanese Hawaiians had not been interned for the most part, so didn’t know what their mainland brothers had suffered until they met in basic training.  Some men from the camps who did not agree to join were imprisoned in jails or at the worst of the camps for refusing.

Training took place in Mississippi, an environment very different from anything the recruits had experienced previously.  They put up with the bugs, mud, alligators, and racism of Mississippi and developed into an incredible fighting force.  When they got to Italy, they experienced some of the worst fighting of the war.  They famously saved a Texas regiment, used stealth to sneak up on entrenched German soldiers, climbed mountains in the dark to destroy artillery placements, helped liberate German concentration camps, and far more.  Their casualties were high.

Despite all that, their actions were only fully recognized in 2012 when President Obama gave 20 additional Congressional Medals of Honor to members of the 442nd regiment (one such medal had been awarded during the war).  They were the most highly decorated unit in US history.  The men who had been treated like criminals, who saw their families, even parents treated like animals, how were they able to have experienced all this, yet put their lives on the line for the United States? 

The men’s families were not idle at the camps.  They created gardens to grow fresh food; set up baseball diamonds, football fields, basketball courts, and formed teams; opened schools for the children and held classes for adults who wanted to add to their skills; produced all kinds of art; taught dancing; worked on farms miles away just to get out of the camps for a while; in short, created community where there had been nothing.  They were heroes who made a life for themselves and their children under appalling conditions.    

I know a bunch of scared white folks would like this part of our history forgotten just as they want their ancestors’ treatment of Black Americans, our indigenous peoples, Hispanic citizens, and immigrants wiped from the history books.  I suspect that if they knew about it, they would want Mr. Brown’s book banned along with the many others that cover aspects of those shameful years.  Well, they can ban all they want, but their “precious” not so fragile kids will learn about these things because whether the parents want to acknowledge it or not, they are part of the larger community that is the United States of America, not the white states of America.  Maybe, it is time the children should lead them.  Hey kids, we need some heroes.  You could be the ones we need, the ones who will lead your scared parents into the light of knowledge and freedom from conservatives who would prefer them to remain ignorant.  Help them to see that you are not fragile and want to know about the many different people who make up this country.  Girls and boys, you’ve got this!

THE RELIGIOUS WHITE RIGHT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Republicans today want power!  They want money too, and they want whiteness to be supreme (Jesus was white, you know, or so they believe). 

Many Republican leaders who still claim to be Christian, have bought into a "prosperity gospel" which tells them if they are rich and powerful, they deserve it; god did it for them.  They aren’t concerned with how they got there, because they believe they are truly in God’s favor, God was guiding them through their business life, their legal duties, their use of family riches, etc., so if they “sneaked” a bit from someone or didn’t pay employees what they earned a few times, or skipped taxes, or lied about an opponent, God knew and it was OK because God had forgiven them, right?  Isn’t it interesting that with this kind of “prosperity gospel,” God seems to only forgive them for their deeds, not others involved in the same practices?  And, whatever they don’t like is disliked by God, and therefore, a sin to be opposed at every opportunity. 

The new prosperity gospelers don’t really care what traditional Christianity believes or does because they regularly get revelations from God and anyone who gets in their way is a sinner, the enemy.  Not in the Bible?  Of course it is, you just have to read it right! 

The “Christian” white right’s efforts are moving toward making sure their beliefs become the law of the land.  That’s what they want to believe is God’s will, and they will get to be in charge of “god’s will.” 

Currently, we have at least 4 members of the Supreme Court and numerous members of Congress and even more members of state legislatures on board with this effort.  Theirs is a fanatical religious evolution that took about 45 years to fully develop.  Republicans and conservatives were having trouble getting traction for their message after Watergate, so needed something to motivate themselves and others of their kind:  white, straight, male, “Christians.”  The one issue that had potential was the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade.  Abortion!  What a great idea!  Claim abortion was a horrific sin, murdering a baby in the womb.  How dare those sluts do something so terrible.  I bet God doesn’t like that.  They also knew they had to get some loud-mouthed women on board or a lot of women would have ignored the men.  Phyllis Schlafly was perfect for the job.  And, as a power-obsessed lawyer, she knew just how to reach and manipulate vulnerable women who were scared of the changes feminism was bringing about.  All these years later, the pieces were in place.  

The Conservatives on the Supreme Court this year just knew this was the time to dump Roe v. Wade despite precedent, despite a majority of Americans not wanting it overturned, despite having no real argument to support the decision, they said “OK states, do your best,” and they did.  There is now chaos throughout the Confederacy and the confederate wannabee states.  The most the conservative court under the pen of Justice Alito  could do was claim abortion wasn’t in the Constitution, so it wasn’t protected by it.  That, of course is nonsense, especially when the only sources for Alito’s argument were Medieval white men who were misogynists, just like the Court’s conservatives.  Neat, huh! 

The prosperity gospelers claim the 1^st Amendment gives them the right to force their Christian beliefs on this country because the founders wanted it to be a Christian nation.  These folks have no idea, nor care, what the founders intended regarding religion.  Even if they knew that many of the founders were Deists or held religious beliefs they didn't share publicly is irrelevant to them.  The Bill of Rights declares no establishment of religion in the first amendment, but folks like Justice Barrett see all that as just words she doesn't have to follow because she has god's ear (or some other irrelevance) and her super-Catholic cult lets her know what God wants for this country, prosperity gospel Christianity where the haves have because God likes them better than God likes the have-nots.  Conservative Christian faith does not include folks who don't believe what they do, rather childish, but just what one might expect.  One’s personal religion shouldn’t be involved in any decision-making by our courts, but alas, the conservative justices don’t care about the oath they swore, it was just their way into a lucrative job for life.

I just read an article by Dennis Prager in “townhall.com, (a very right-wing site), called “Why Are So Many Young Americans Irreligious?  The Secular Brainwashing is the First Reason.”  As you can imagine, the article is full of the usual anti-left stuff regularly pumped out by conservatives:  “can’t say ‘Merry Christmas (happy holidays), can’t have Christmas parties or Christmas break” (holiday party, winter break).  Young people have abandoned religion because of the anti-religion stance “the power of the dominant secular culture, the failure of faithful Christians (and Jews) to properly explain their religion to the young, and every public institution has been made ‘god-free.’”  Ridiculous! 

The author whines on that schools don’t refer to god and the Bible and actually hold both in contempt.  (I must have mist that one.)  He claims also with no evidence that religion is held by public schools to be an impediment to children’s learning.  The article continues on in that vein claiming it is brainwashing on the left that has turned young people from religion.  In schools mentioning other faiths is permitted, but not Christianity (of course, not true).  He whines that inside and outside home, religion is disparaged, again with no evidence, just his personal feeling or the claim of his church.

He wraps the article up saying that this “post-Christian age” has been “the bloodiest” in history.  This man has no clue.  Most Nazis were Christian and Stalin and Mao were Communists.  Together they were responsible for more deaths than anything since.  Unfortunately, Prager has folks out there who believe his manufactured “truths,” and will try to use them to push religious fundamentalism on our country.  Prager said young people aren’t religious, so in his new order, are they supposed to be forced into religion?  If so, who is going to do that?  And, what about the people who are Christian or not Christian who don’t want religion thrown in their faces every day?

Besides, young people from all backgrounds have been witness lately, to a whole lot of bad behavior on the part of conservative Christians in power.  They have seen women losing bodily autonomy, just because.  They have seen LGBTQ persons threatened with the loss of their human rights.  They saw an insurgency by white Christians who tried to take over our government on behalf of a non-religious man.  They have seen hospitals refuse to treat women in crisis because a fetus is seen as more valuable than the woman carrying it.  They have seen white Christian police officers shoot down or suffocate Black men.  They have experienced the presidency of a man those conservative Christians revere who cheats, lied over 30,000 times in public while in office, then stole secret documents from the White House while he was leaving.  In short, if that is Christianity, what would entice young people to want a part of it? 

I am a person of faith and do believe the Christianity of the social gospel has something to offer young people, but it is not my role to force anyone to choose or reject Christianity or any other religion. 

People of faith need to stand more forcefully for church and state being separate strands in life, maybe, each supporting but not dominating the other.  We need to talk about it more and why the separation is essential. 

There is a move in some more liberal churches to go back to some kind of heavier embrace of scripture, I guess to prove our faith is as real as Justice Barrett’s seems to be.  I do not approve.  The scriptures of any religion can give guidance, but they have definite limitations, particularly when they are nit-picked to glean pearls to “cast before swine.”  

I and many others are  advocates for a social gospel that is inclusive, accepting, and requires us to increase people's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of opportunity.  What I believe guides my life but I don't need other people to believe what I do as Justice Barrett, the other conservatives on the Supreme Court, and their ilk do.  We who are for separation need to speak up often and clearly that we don’t want public religious demonstrations when they are coercive and just for show as that school coach’s 50 yard line BS was.  When we see that nonsense, we need to interrupt with more positive activities, like maybe a drum circle or a quick concert of love songs that will drown out their stuff.  They will still be able to do their thing as Justice Barrett and her kin want, but it will be positively challenged by the much larger coalition of people who value religious freedom, that is freedom to believe or not believe and even more important, freedom not to be dictated to by an extreme Supreme Court or anyone else.