MESSING WITH OUR HIGHER EDUCATION

 

By Ruth  A. Sheets

You have probably heard that the Trump Regime is asking nine U.S. universities to sign an agreement pledging to uphold the regime’s higher education priorities, or risk losing out on a range of grants and other financial assistance for the university’s research and other programs, and it is likely those are just the first.  That is a kind of blackmail and totally unacceptable. 

So far, 5 universities have said “”NO,” but 4 still have not responded.  I just learned Vanderbilt, my alma mater,  is one of those universities being “offered” this compact and has not responded.

The major stipulations are not items any government should be demanding of any educational institution at any level.

According to Wikipedia, Key Demands of the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education include:

• Capping international undergraduate students at 15% of the total student body.

• Freezing tuition rates for five years. (the only one that could be good)

• Adopting policies that prevent the belittling of conservative ideas and ensure First Amendment rights are upheld on campus.

• Implementing admissions practices that do not consider sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, or other similar factors.

View source at wikipedia.org …

I had heard, but not been able to confirm that Vanderbilt was talking about ditching their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in student acceptance.  I received an email from Chancellor Daniel Diermeier this evening.  Here is the final paragraph of that email.

Vanderbilt believes deeply in the power of constructive dialogue, particularly among people of differing views and perspectives. This is often how the greatest progress is made.  We look forward to continuing the conversation—on our campus and with leaders in government and higher education—as we work toward our shared goal of restoring public trust in higher education and ensuring that America’s universities remain the best in the world.  

It sounds to me as though compliance is in the offing.  The following is my response to the email.  
 

Hello Vanderbilt Administration” 

I noticed in this email that students were only mentioned at the very end along with parents and alumni as commenters.  It seems to me that there should be some students involved in the compact discussion.  I am sure you are aware that this is not a compact at all, but a desire of those who have no idea what they are doing, to force colleges and Universities to do the bidding of those who have no clue but want power over and compliance in advance from those institutions. 

I am sure you know this, so I don’t understand this talk about sharing different points of view.  When, in a democracy, one side wants to take over the universities, media, education in general and pretty much everything else, that is not differing points of view, that is “Truth” in the face of autocracy which is made up of lies, cheating, fraud, and dismissal of the thoughts, needs, and beliefs of others.  In this case, for this regime pumping out something as appalling as this “compact” the only folks worth listening to are rich, white, pseudochristian, “straight” men.  To the regime, the rest of us are irrelevant, worthy of only being bossed around by and made subservient to those rich white etc. men.  If you are not sure of that, this Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies and marches should have let you know. 

 I admit I will be very disappointed, perhaps even quite angry if Vanderbilt submits to this undemocratic, unamerican nonsense by Trump and his project 2025ers, all done for their own gains and the gains of their billionaire sponsors, and election buyers. 

Signed, Ruth Sheets, Vanderbilt 1975 & 1988         

 I don’t know if this will have an impact, I’m guessing not because it seems only the Administration and a few department heads will be making the decision.  I hope enough students, parents, and alums have told them we do not want compliance; We want defiance!

WHAT DEMOCRATS ARE UP AGAINST AND CAN DO!

By Ruth A. Sheets

Have you noticed that Trump is pumping up hatred even beyond what he has done in the past?  I suspect it is because he and his crew are recognizing that people are not supporting him 100%, even mocking him. 

Trump’s toddler pool of some of the worst of America: Steve Miller, Russell Vought, the incompetent cabinet, congressional AND STATE Republican LEGISLATORS, and the Supreme Court Roberts 6, are trying to steer this ship to fascism with them in charge. That way, they and their billionaire string-pullers can get even more power and money.  Unfortunately, they are proving they’ll do whatever it takes to get it (except actual work on their part).  One of their current weapons is using Trump's known hatreds to do actual harm to our nation’s Democratically run cities and states.

Trump’s “crew” is a cesspool of whiny white boys who must not have had enough bullying in their lives already and at a high enough level that they have to make sure they get a lot of practice for their Baby Donnie, a bully who like many bullies is a coward.

For the toddler pool, it's like playing a war video game with no actual risk to themselves. However as anyone who is paying attention can tell you, if it were a real video game, their character would be dead from incompetence.

In real life, the REGIME KEEPS on keeping on because they have a lot of MAGA sympathizers, people who choose ignorance, compliance, and subservience, to thinking, considering, and principles. OK, a moral compass is also missing and that is pretty important for navigating politics and well, life itself.

The old Democratic structure and practices will not work in the face of this onslaught.  We need a strong different, positive  approach with ideas and practices that will catch the attention of people who don’t like what is going on AND KNOW THEY DESERVE BETTER. 

• We will benefit from a shadow government with those “fired” federal experts, keeping track of what the Trump Klan does not want known.  These are enormously talented people who  could step in to monitor what is HAPPENING, with systems they previously USED.
• Follow court cases and provide information to those standing for clients against the regime. 
• There must be young people and some older folks too who know computer systems and can counter some of the damage being done to our government systems.  Get them involved!, 
• We will benefit from a powerful media online and over the airwaves who will get the truth out to people across the country, countering the constant lying of this regime.  We can use some catchy tunes promoting our democracy and scorning/MOCKING the regime. 
• We need more anti-MAGA artwork everywhere with a clear purpose.
• More people need to visit museums and historical sites that celebrate the people Trump and his Klan hate.   
• Teachers must tell students the truth carefully while encouraging the students to research and think for themselves when they hear something said then recognize the students’ efforts.
• Push civics lessons from kindergarten onward that teach about rights and responsibilities in a democracy using cartoons, movies, graphic and other novels, plays, books, art, and more, culminating in a high school course that ties together what has been learned throughout the public school years, MAKING IT INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT.
• Buy “banned” books and get reviews out everywhere of those books
• Show up next Saturday for the “No Kings” rally #2 wherever you are or are willing to go!  It is important.  Help others to get out there too.
• Keep going with the petitions, phone calls, in-person connections with representatives, and anything else that comes to mind to let folks know how we feel and what we think should be done.  Maybe post this list asking for additional ideas for things we can do.

We can do this if we have the will and choose to find people to provide the leadership (or step UP ourselves), and look for support at all levels.  The leaders are out here and they are of all ages and backgrounds!  We need you, “Come out come out wherever you are!”

WE MUST DO BETTER!

By Ruth A. Sheets

September 30, 2025

 It seems to me our Democratic leadership is not even playing on the same field as Republicans.  Perhaps, Democratic leaders are too much of the past to even imagine the EVIL that is the childish Donald Trump and the way he is being "helped along" by his sycophantic toddler pool, led by Steve Miller, Russell Vought, John Roberts, and some other ghouls hiding in the shadows.  The toddler pool has no guardrails on their behavior or their desire for supreme power.  They want to be victorious comic book bad guys while pretending they are the "saviors of mankind" and I do mean MANKIND. 

 This crew is delighted with its good fortune, having taken over most of our nation’s institutions after 5 decades of preparation and sometimes narrow escapes from detection.  They ran an insurrection on January 6, 2021, called by the incompetent president, and literally got  away with it.  Donald Trump was the perfect figurehead for their aims: 

• Trump is ignorant of most things unless specifically pertaining to himself
• He is well-known for being a “great businessman” when he was nothing of the kind
• he was a reality TV “star” whose acting was pathetic, but won the hearts of people who want to believe in fantasy, and love bullies
• he learned from an unscrupulous man, Roy Cohn, to bamboozle enough of the crowd they won’t notice what is really going on
• he has money, not nearly the amount he claims, but is desperate for more

 

The cadre of anti-Americans tried several names for their movement, the best-known to me were “The Tea party” and MAGA.  They saw their time had arrived when the United States elected Barack Obama, the first Black president.  They knew the level of racism in this country and were aware that they could rustle up even more support among their lily-white members, families, and friends. 

 They knew they couldn’t get power without someone like Donald Trump, a blow-hard who could bit by bit be shaped into just the kind of guy they could use while letting him continue to believe that he was the one running things.  They are obsessed with their ability to control so much of this nation, Donald Trump too, and so far, with minimal interference. Why, they even got him elected a second time, OMG! 

 The Democratic Party has been trying hard to play by the rules of our Constitution and our laws and mostly did a commendable job.  Then, some Democrats were taken in by the same oligarchs who commandeered Trump and have bought Senate and House as well as state legislative seats.  It becomes harder and harder to see where one’s loyalties lie when elections are purchased for them with enormous donations that are “perfectly legal,” thanks to Johnny Roberts and his cons in Citizens United.  The "old Dem leaders are too willing to capitulate and pretend it is bipartisanship; it isn't. 

 I, like many others understand it is time for new Democratic leadership.  We need younger, more progressive voices.  When polled, it is issues the progressives champion that are most popular with the American people:  universal healthcare, affordable housing for all, bodily autonomy for everyone, massive moves to stop climate change and make renewable energy available everywhere, sensible gun control, DEI for all, etc. 

 A great thing, we do have Democratic leaders ready to move into top positions.  I am thinking of:  Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), Jamie Raskin, Jasmine Crockett, Tim Walls, Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Pritzker, Katie Porter, Wes Moor, John Osoff, and many more.  They will need the guidance of Bernie Sanders and others who are excellent mentors too.  All of the above are fighters who know the truth and are willing to stand up against the Trump toddler pool to get things done. 

 Democrats need solid planks that every single rally or protest will include and every candidate will pledge to stand on.  In addition to the popular items listed above, we must have:   a strong emphasis on freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and protest (the First Amendment rights); equal justice under law (the words above the Supreme Court building but ignored by the Roberts 6) and due process; forbidding our military to be used against people living in this country, right nopw, Portland,, OR, a progressive Democratic city; climate justice and renewable energy; a fair tax code where the wealthy pay at least as high a percentage as other Americans or higher; an easier path to citizenship; a high-quality public education priority for all students, uninfected with religious or political propaganda requirements and no banning of books; improved farming practices and sufficient food for all; improved international aid wherever it is needed; tariffs dumped.  You get the idea. 

 I think a 10 to 12-point set of platform planks would work and number them so the crowds will get it and know that they are the major issues for ALL Democrats with specifics for each state and district.  This will work if we are in it together. 

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH WORDS?

By Ruth A. Sheets

September 22, 2025

Language and how it is used is really important.  Lately, we are dealing with a bunch of folks who understand the power of words and their value for themselves.  Because the very rich own so much of our media at all levels, they have been spreading negativities about people they despise and attach their hate to particular words so their followers will know who to hate and what to call them.

  The first big word was “woke.”  It was used at one time, as I understand it, in the black community to mean people coming awake to the challenges they face and how they can deal with them.  The “conservatives” (or ultra-right), attached “woke” to anyone left of themselves who is educated and believes in human rights for all people.  (I am guessing right-wingers don’t believe in those rights for anyone else.) 

The “woke” are being identified as “Communists, socialists, unpatriotic, etc., reprehensible to all Americans.  Those calling names have no clue what Communism and Socialism are, but they know they have negative connotations maybe from history.  For them, unpatriotic means the “woke” don’t wrap themselves in the flag and practically worship it as the Ult-right does.   

I remember the insult a person who cared about the environment got from the right-wingers a couple of decades ago, “tree-huggers.”  Many adopted the term and still smile when someone dredges up that title and flings it at them.  Some on the Left have been calling themselves “Democratic-Socialists,” embracing the term “socialist,”  while others own the term “woke.”  The “word” used now most frequently by Trump is ANTIFA which is not really a word but a movement for rights and against Fascism.

Our current government is trying to make certain words seem disgusting, like “educated and elite.”  That’s ironic and hypocritical when one realizes that most of them attended and graduated from Ivy League and other “elite” colleges and universities, afforded with their wealth.  They tell us they are for working people.  Uh-huh!

The Trumpers have told park rangers, for example, not to use the term biodiversity, too difficult a word for the Ult-right?  Science has become a bad word and vaccines kill people.  Refugees, asylum-seekers, immigrants, and Venezuelan gangs now mean to them, pretty much the same thing.  In addition to dumping certain words, they want us to take on their concept of which words to use and which to drop, hoping to put word and thought police wherever they can.

DEI has for the ult-right become the boogyman and they are determined to stamp it out.  They know it refers to Black people and other people of color, women, disabled persons, LGBTQ folks, and a few other groups.  They can’t imagine white people being in DEI, because white men have privilege in this society that the right claim white men don’t have.  Those  white men are trying hard to “get back” that privilege they of course, don’t have, and are sure they can’t do it if DEI is around.

We are not supposed to use words like Latine, feminist, indigenous persons, etc.  However, our Constitution provides for “free speech” in the 1^st Amendment.  The limits on that “free speech” are extreme threats, yelling fire in a crowded place, and similar very dangerous language.  Yet, the right-wing that should know better with their elite education, is trying to silence use of words they don’t like, any criticism of their “dear leader, and whatever else comes to their narrow minds. 

That is why we must all defy them at every turn, call out their fear of terminology they can't define, identify for them their fear of everyone they don't understand, tell them we know when they are lying.  We must make up chants, rhymes, and slogans to use in protests and rallies to let them know we will not be defeated.  We must together point out to people on the Right we see their racism, their hatred of women, and their fear of immigrants, activists, and LGBTQ persons (even drag performers), refusing to use the words those groups prefer for themselves.  In short, we must say to MAGAs “we see you and what you are doing to this country and we won’t have it.”  We want them with us in this struggle because they are impacted too, and this language insanity isn't helping them.  it is primarily the work of the guy in the white house and his minions, perhaps some of them even standing for things against their faith, their patriotism, their communities, and this nation.  We can do this if we don’t give up or give in!

WHAT LITTLE TYRANTS CAN GET AWAY WITH

By Ruth A. Sheets

The genocide being conducted by Israel in Gaza is beyond appalling, but it seems our leadership is doing little to nothing to stop it.  Israel is our ally perpetrating these murderous actions.  Though we are much larger and the major provider of war material for Israel, somehow, we can’t/won’t stop their barbarism. 

I recently read a comment that mentioned similarities between what is being done to Gaza by Israel and the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust.  It is important to me that others have come to see this connection too.  I noticed it nearly from the beginning when the people were shuffled around Gaza for no logical reason other than so Israel could bomb the areas the people were being forced to leave, being enclosed in smaller and smaller areas.  The Israeli "guards" became like the Ghetto and concentration camp guards, killing at will, laughing at the horrors.  There seems little difference between what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza and what the Nazis did to Jewish and other people during the Holocaust.  It is on a smaller scale as there are fewer Gazans, but the basic excuses for the horrific behavior are the same:  those people are just animals; they are a threat to us; they are vermin and need to be destroyed.  Essentially, Gaza is a large ghetto and the prisons where Palestinians are being held are concentration camps where violence, torture, starvation, and more are the sadistic tools of guards who have lost any semblance of decency they might once have had.  Sound familiar?

Netanyahu has made pathetic excuses for what Israel is doing in Gaza, and Trump wants to build a resort there when the Palestinians are gone. It is clear Netanyahu ordered the genocide, supposedly to destroy Hamas.  The Israeli soldiers have gone along with it, Now, readying for a gigantic invasion using military reserves and weapons supplied by the US. 

As an American, I am ashamed that again we are participating in genocide. It seems when a nation commits genocide once (against indigenous Americans), it is easier the next time.

It also seems "never again" means only Jewish people not facing another holocaust, not that Israel couldn’t perpetrate one on its neighbors. Netanyahu is also OK permitting illegal settlers in the West Bank to steal land, homes, and possessions from the Palestinian people.  Murder of Palestinians is a pretty regular event there too. 

Palestinians as everyone should know have been in the land that is now Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank as long as the Jewish people have been there, so, it should be time Israel and Palestine find ways to work together instead of committing atrocities. 

Out of a feeling of guilt or just to make money, over the years, The US has given Israel free rein to do as much harm to Palestinians and others as it chooses.  I just read of an incident I had forgotten about.  Israel attacked an American ship during Israel’s “6-Day-War” in June 1967, killing at least 34 sailors and injuring many more.  The US declared itself neutral in Israel’s “war,” and the ship was well-marked as American, flying our flag clearly and moving slowly through the international waters of the Mediterranean.  The American survivors were informed they would be imprisoned if they told the truth of Israel’s unprovoked assault, so it took more than 20 years for information about the attack to get out. 

The USS Liberty should not have been attacked from the air and on the sea and it is not clear why Israel chose to do it and why the US under President Johnson didn’t respond.  We were supposedly their ally and we gave them a pass, just as we are doing right now.  

For the sake of the whole Middle East, the killing and famine in Gaza must stop, blaming Hamas for acts of Israeli violence must also end. Getting food and medicines to the people of Gaza is critical, and in sufficient quantities to actually make a difference, not the tiny trickle Netanyahu and his cronies have permitted so far, while Israeli soldiers shot down people who came to collect food for their starving families.

What Israel is doing and has been doing for years is EVIL! There is no other word that comes close to describing it, except Holocaust. The insanity must stop and the Israeli people be fully informed as to what their own government is doing in Gaza and the West Bank.  It must be called genocide done in the name of the Israeli people. 

I am still wondering when people will publicly ask how it was that Israel/Netanyahu was so completely caught off-guard on October 7^th when they had been warned that Hamas was planning a major attack, a year ahead.  How fortunate for Hamas that Israel’s intelligence was “off-line” that particular day.  One might think that Netanyahu had known the time of the attack and wanted something big to happen so he could go all-out against Gaza and the Palestinians in general, now, 64,000 dead and counting.  Like many, I have noted what has happened in the past couple of years.  It is pretty obvious something was up when Israel got no warning while there is surveillance everywhere in Gaza.  I am thinking the reason “no one knows what really happened” is that Israeli citizens might not be OK with the idea of sacrificing their loved ones for the Gaza takeover plans of Netanyahu. 

The United States needs to withdraw from support of Israel, knowing Israel will do whatever they wish to whomever they wish if they think it will send their message.”  We do not need that in our lives, so there must be a lot more pressure from the American people to stop the genocide and our donations of weapons to Israel.  If more of us realized we are being used by a would-be dictator of a little country, to boost the influence of our own would-be dictator, more people might step up to demand Congress stop the insanity.  It could happen.

 

TRUMP AND THE TODDLER POOL, EVIL AWAKENED

By Ruth A. Sheets

 

What Trump and his toddler pool have been doing for the past 7+ months is immoral, but it is also mostly illegal.  We can't forget that.  We have laws which make it possible for us to live together in this nation in peace.  Trump and crew break laws at every turn hoping it will get them something they want, either power or money or both. 

Trump does not want peace nor do the billionaire oligarchs (Trumplandia in the White House).  This collection of anti-democracy folks includes the nominees approved by Senate Republicans for high office in our government plus Republican legislators throughout the country.  I think their ultimate goal is world domination by oligarchy, with them on top!  They want action as long as they get to order it, getting others to do their dirty work.  They claim to be victims, but have no idea what victims experience because none of them is a victim of anything but their own greed, ignorance, dismissal of the truth, narcissism, contempt for everyone not them. 

The most significant emotions they possess are fear and anger, with a heaping helping of hatred.  They are afraid of not getting away with their coup and they toss that fear out on everyone else, spreading it like a plague, to make all of us comply.  They are furious that anyone dares question their actions because they think they are and should be masters of the universe even though they are not even masters of themselves, you know, like adult toddlers. 

It is critical that we are going to have to stand tall against them and get low when necessary because these mostly white men and their female surrogates know no depth to which they will not go.   They don’t realize they are not worthy of respect beyond that due any human being.

In my way of thinking, this is EVIL!  There is no concern for anyone who will be impacted by their senseless rulings, pronouncements, search for old laws they can reimpose on this nation, imposition of military rule, and more.  The Trump pool knows their fearful leader, the guy they pretend to bow and scrape to is mentally and physically failing, but they are positioning themselves to be the guy who takes over.  The American people do not like any of them, but it won’t matter because Vought, Musk, Thiel, Bessent, or one of the other too-rich fools will try to jump in, hoping the ground has been properly laid for them to take over when the time comes.  In the meantime, they are trying to get Trump to do as much damage as possible so it will be easier for them to breeze in and strike the final blow. 

The EVIL ones are friends of Putin of Russia, Orban of Hungary, and any other dictator in the world they can find and convince to join them in the takeover.  Those guys are all super rich and can appreciate the superrich of this current swarm of a-holes, all cut from the same greedy narcissistic cloth.

Their current efforts involve targeting everyone who is not them.  They are distracting us by having masked thugs kidnap people, supposed immigrants off our streets, claiming they are criminals despite the fact that most of them contribute more to the nation than the oligarchs who are primarily “takers.”  They have also targeted trans persons and their parents, Black Americans, Democrats of any background, and of course women, something that really feels especially wrong on this 105th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment.  They are working hard to create a throw-back woman, “trad wife” who will stay at home, make their house perfect for their hubby and the many kids they are supposed to have, white kids of course.  Those rich white men who will never be pregnant want to be sure that every woman who gets pregnant, particularly if they are raped, must carry that fetus to term.  Every piece of this effort is EVIL, but it keeps the MAGAs thinking they are not in the Trumpers’ sights, when they are right there with the rest of us, waiting for the right moment to be targeted!

I have read one way to deal with this EVIL is to mock them in a wide variety of ways:  their specific actions, their character, their greed, their inability to handle the truth even when it is right in front of them.    We need cartoonists, influencers, late-night hosts, editorials, Substack and other platforms, journalists, and pretty much everyone else to, without defaming anyone, mock the crap out of them, showing them and everyone else how unworthy of holding any position of authority they are and that their ideas for the rest of us are childish and unacceptable!  We must name this as EVIL and point out as often and in as many ways as possible just how they are dividing us for their own benefit. We don’t have to take it!

REWRITING AMERICAN HISTORY WITH REPUBLICAN CONSENT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Trump proves daily that he is an ignorant would-be tyrant, and he is well on the way to achieving that goal.  He knows nothing of history, yet wants to dictate what it should include.

Russell Vought of “Project 2025” fame, knows nothing of history either.  He’s just  a whiny white boy who is too rich for anyone's good and who has been sponsored and coddled by a bunch of racist, misogynistic cowards at the Heritage Foundation who are too scared of anyone who is not rich white and male.  OK, they are terrified of them too; they could turn on him and his kind in an instant.  It has happened throughout history.  So, Vought, Miller, Bessent, and a collected crowd of scared white men and the women who love them want to get their Baby Donnie to  make history less scary, less filled with ways white men have oppressed and abused people, less information about outstanding women, and people of color, and white men who don't buy the scared white male BS.  The Trumpers are not a large group, but want everyone to think they are all-powerful, so we will be cowed into submission. 

Trump’s next target is the Smithsonian Institution, often fondly referred to as “our nation’s attic.”  Trump and his buddies who know nothing of history, science, art, and this nation, want to have oversight for all exhibitions, displays, etc.  What!  They would be lost in the jargon of science, history, art, and the rest.  Those whiny rich boys would bring nothing positive to the museums or anywhere else they plan to try to control, just lies, inaccuracies, and their personal fears, resentments, and ignorance, none of which anyone in this country needs or wants on display in an honored institution. 

Smithsonian Secretary Bunch and the rest of the amazing people you work with, don't give in!  Ask the American people to help to support your work more now that Trump and his fascist crew are trying so hard to rewrite American history, and thus a part of the history of the world. 

When I worked for the Smithsonian, I loved working with the designers of exhibitions and giving tours of their fine work.  I can't imagine what a tour of Trump's history would sound like, a lot of lies, disinformation, and would not be worth the effort.  I am trying to imagine Trump as a tour guide of his brand of history and realize he wouldn't get past the first display because he wouldn't have a clue what was there.  He and his buddies like to whine about whites being discriminated against when that is so rare as to be nearly invisible, but Trump wants that insignificance to be more than visible, actually prominent, even if they have to make it up. 

The Smithsonian crew are going to have to be very creative to get around the ignoramuses of Trumplandia.  The residents of Trumplandia, toddler men and a few women know so little it is embarrassing.  Their ignorance is the reason only fools and the incompetent, serve as secretaries and department heads in our current government.  For Trump, ignorance is bliss.

However, Republicans in Congress, mostly white men, like the Trump takeover of our national entities like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian, and say "sure, Mr. Sir, whatever you want, we care nothing for this nation, our oath of office,  and the people who elected us, just the money we can collect in gifts (bribes) and we are getting a lot right now, so, it’s all good,  whatever you want, we’re behind you, can you feel our presence back there?" 

THE EPA HAS DECIDED CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT REAL. WHAT!

By Ruth A. Sheets

Yo!  Lee Zeldin,  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, wake up!  Your future also depends on the decisions you make now.  At this moment, you are not on a good track in the decision-making department.  Check this out and maybe you’ll decide to do better.

Let's face it, no matter what those like you, who are ignorant of a subject, put into positions you know nothing about think, science is real and so is global warming/climate change.  I do wonder why so many Trump/Republican appointees have decided lying about reality is a good thing; it isn't, it is just ignorance made manifest!  

I communicate with you as a concerned citizen to implore you to uphold your Agency's Endangerment Findings and maintain vital climate standards.  That's the intelligent thing to do, but it is not clear where in the current EPA leadership intelligence lies if it is present there at all.  What do you think?

The Endangerment Finding is an assessment of the challenges faced by the people and environment caused by human activity:  fossil fuel burning, power plant emissions, harmful chemicals, and more.  Revoking the Endangerment Finding would ignore overwhelming science and endanger public health. In addition, this set of proposals you are championing undoes the vehicle emissions standards. Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution and these standards are critical to limiting dangerous heat-trapping emissions.  Is there someone intelligent there to understand this?  I am not sure.  Either way, do you care!

From the beginning in the early 1970s, the EPA’s duty has been to base decisions on science and to protect the public from dangerous pollution, just as Nixon and his scientists expected.  What you are proposing now advances polluter interests, not the EPA’s mission.  Why would you permit this? 

Have you considered that this means the polluters are also lacking in  basic thinking skills (I guess greed does that to you). They will be physically impacted by the extra pollution, just like we, the  expendable peons, even if they/you can't see it.  Greenhouse and other gases are invisible, but they allow for heating of our world.  The visible pollution is also dangerous because it can cause cancer and other lovely medical conditions and you rich folks get those too.

I am hoping there is a spark of intelligence left at EPA that will cause you to uphold the Endangerment Finding and keep strong climate protections in place.  Stop listening to the demands of the folks who will want you all to take the blame when storms, floods, wildfires get worse and start killing even more people, not to mention the wildlife. 

Do the right thing for a change.  Get the word out that the rules will stay in place for now until you "study" the situation, then keep “studying” over and over until people in the white house forget.  Do you have the courage to do that or are you just a lacky whose intelligence was left behind when coming to work for an administration for whom intelligence is a liability? 

DEI, NOT A BLOW AGAINST WHITE MEN

By Ruth A. Sheets

It seems Donald Trump and his handlers are obsessed with DEI.  They toss the letters out as though cursing in anger.  Trump would have no idea what the letters he is blurting out mean if asked by a member of the White House press corps, which is why none of them ever ask him when he tosses the swear word at them.

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is the term used to identify efforts to make businesses, workplaces, education, and other entities more inclusive of the variety of people living in this country.  It used to be called “Affirmative Action” until the Supreme Court said educational entities could no longer accept students through Affirmative Action, even though it was not clear the justices even understood it beyond their thinking that it meant letting Black students in.  Their wrong understanding was that white students would be kept out and replaced by Black students of lesser ability.  That was not Affirmative Action, but it didn’t matter because the word of the Supreme Court is law, right?

 

Colleges and Universities were looking for a positive way to make their student bodies, faculties, and programs more inclusive, but it seems the majority white Supreme Court conservative justices (including Thomas the white wannabee) just couldn’t have that, a white man who might not get in where he wanted to attend because an inferior woman or Black man got in instead.  So Affirmative Action was labeled by right-wingers as baaaad!

 

Women and people of color were not going to be stopped, so a new title for such inclusive education and institutions was needed.  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was the name settled on.  This title has served to recruit and keep thousands of students so student bodies could be more diverse not only by race and gender, but also by experience, talents/skills, and region. 

 

The new right-wing trope from white men is that they are being excluded by those less-educated, less qualified inferiors.  It is true that white males will no longer automatically be accepted over everyone else, but competition is good if without prejudice. Whether the cry of male exclusion is untrue doesn’t matter because it sounds good to groups like the MAGAs.  They take as gospel whatever is tossed out to them either by their Toddler-Trump or that shows up on Fox Not Nearly News, mostly white men, with a few white women hired to be the female faces of male aggression and claimed superiority.  Viewers came to believe that what the right-wing media presented must be true, no evidence required. 

 

I was commenting on a Substack thread this morning and one of the participants tried to say that DEI discriminates against white men.  I had to reread that one several times to get the gist of his words.  I challenged him saying that he as a white man has privilege just for being white and male.  He claims he does not have any such privilege because his life has been hard.  He couldn’t get the idea that it is likely that had he been a woman or person of color, his life would most likely have been even more difficult. 

 

I am amazed at the inability of some white men to get it that they are consider the default human in many parts of the world, including here.  They seem to want to wallow in the injustices done to themselves and their white male buddies.  They believe they have never discriminated against anyone and that every single job or opportunity that came to them was due to their own personal abilities, skills, and superior thinking and education.  That may be true, but it may equally be due to their male whiteness.  They will never know because white privilege means people will always see them first. 

 

One important thing to remember is that this is not really the fault of white men in general.  Those living now didn’t set up the system, devise ways to be sure that everyone not white and male would be kept in place below men.  Today’s white males didn’t skew laws to favor white men and nor did they institute slavery and the other systems that kept white men on top.  However, it is white men with some support that keep those practices in place.

 

That being said, today’s white men of privilege can learn to understand their privilege and can move toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion if they choose. 

• They can take time to look at their situation and that of other white men they know and see how the system has worked for them. 
• - They can listen to women and people of color and note the critique that could change the ways white men relate to the people around them. 
• - They can ask questions of themselves:  do I objectify women by their looks; do I assume everyone else is less qualified or coming after what I have; do I vote for white men even if I have doubts because I can’t envision a woman or person of color in that job/position; do I treat a white male boss differently from any other boss?  These are just a few of the questions white men can ask themselves.  They are questions all of us can ask ourselves too because white men did not get their privileged position on their own.  Women provided the early education that promoted that stance.  People of color just as white men and women, have hierarchies of who they see as superior and inferior.

 

DEI is just a tool to help us appreciate the diversity of humanity on this planet and to realize that each individual and group has something important to offer the whole and that no group is better than the rest in everything.  DEI gives a framework for business, education, the workplace, communities and nations to start to notice others and the gifts they bring to the table.  It helps us to develop those gifts for the benefit of all. 

 

trump and his white male cadre of sycophants do not want self-examination.  They want things the way they were at some mythical time in the past when straight white men ruled in every sphere of life.  That time will not come again, so it is up to all of us, including white males to embrace DEI (whatever it ends up being called), and demand its use everywhere for the benefit of all.  Then challenge when Trump or anyone else tosses out the term DEI as a slur or curse.  Such contempt proves they have no clue.

A WEEK OF THOUGHTS ABOUT DEMOCRACY’S STRUGGLES

By Ruth A. Sheets

July 14, 2025

In response to a poll on Robert Reich’s Substack thread I chose Victor Orban as the dictator Donald Trump is trying hardest to emulate.  Victor Orban came into power in Hungary under false pretenses just as Trump did.  He was popular because of nothing in particular he had done, but made massive promises the people bought and swallowed whole.  Now he rules an entire country that at one time actually stood up to the Soviet Union.  A difference is that Hungary had a history of dictatorship over many years and the United States does not, which might bring us a bit of hope. 

 

Some people have noted that Trump's welcome is starting to wear off, and for a significant number, it has already worn thin.  The Republican Party or Trumplandia as I like to think of the GOP, beyond giving Trump, their leader, everything he wants is useless if anyone thinks they will stand for or with our democracy.  For years, they have done nothing to help anyone but rich mostly white men who need no help.  In 8 years, W. Bush for example did one positive thing I could recall, create and develop an HIV/AIDS program for people suffering in Africa, which I suspect is disbanded with Trump’s illegal executive order shutting down any programs that actually help people in other nations, OK, in this nation too. 

 

I think there was one positive action in Trump’s first term, well it started out that way.  He pushed the final phases of the COVID vaccine.  Unfortunately, he promoted drugs that were not helpful for people suffering with COVID, hinted people should take bleach internally because if it works to kill germs outside the body . . . .  Even though he was a victim of COVID, he didn’t understand the efforts the medical staff at the hospital went through to save him, while he pretended he wasn’t really very sick; he lied.

 

This term, Trump is trying to hold court over a Trump-created selfish nation that has little to offer anyone.  Who wants to come here to college when if their skin is not pure as the driven they will not be welcome?  Who wants to travel here to visit when they could be arrested and thrown into a concentration camp by masked goons just for existing?  Who will want to trade with a country that puts enormous taxes on all their products so people in the US won't be able to afford them?

 

Trump and his cadre of sycophants don’t really care about any of this because the folks they are doing this destruction for are super rich and expect to jump in to pick up the pieces, taking over the nation for their benefit while they work to take over the rest of the world too so they and their super rich friends can rape the planet even more horribly than they have already done.  They think they will survive global warming because of their wealth, but like most people who do not think past the moment, they don’t consider the extreme wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and other disasters inevitable with global warming.  They only want science involved when it lets them become more wealthy.   

 

This may end up a paradise for the very rich, but not for anyone else.  Therefore, a step we must take if we do not want this dystopia is for anyone who has a platform and a mouth that can speak should be telling folks that right now, they are being pushed around by a toddler pool of white men and a few sycophantic white women who care nothing for them, only the money they can wring out of the people to enrich themselves even further, in short, endless wanting, like whiny toddlers.  We need in a variety of ways, to inform people of how we are being used, and that Trump is one of the biggest users around and loves that honor.  We have to learn and help each other to learn how to defy rather than to comply  with what is going on.  We need to help folks drop their racism, even though it may be a cherished family tradition.  It is keeping them from seeing what is really going on so they can say “no.”  The same is with stopping misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia.  Those are all hatreds fanned by people who want to control others, to control us for their own purposes.  No one should want to be owned and that is what the rich folks want to do to us.

 

I heard Trump's pathetic speech in Texas when he was trying to pretend he cared about the people lost to the flood, but it came off as disinterest, then a rant against someone who asked about the late response from FEMA and the government because Homeland Security Secretary Noem couldn't be bothered.  Trump’s over the top reaction was par for Trump's course because that is the way he always responds to people who challenge him.  He wants to be the bully in charge who accepts no questions of his motives or decisions, not much of a leader, but with the ?Supreme Court six cons supporting him as well as his entire political party, it is going to be hard to dislodge him from his position of power.  We can do it, though if we have the will and the unity it will require.  OK, it is going to require strength, courage, knowledge, persistence, and more too, but together we have that. 

RUMINATIONS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

By Ruth A. Sheets

July 5, 2025

 On this July 4th I sit here thinking how depressing it is that over and over again throughout our history, a bunch of white men have worked to change this nation, not really caring or even thinking about the impact on the rest of the people.  In 1776, it was breaking away from Britain.  During the westward movement, it was to steal land from indigenous peoples to acquire more wealth and prestige for the investors and to take as much gold as possible.  In 1861 it was white men wanting to protect the 200+ year economy of enslavement from which they gained a lot and the enslaved, little to nothing.  Then, there were the labor and anti-labor movements, the wars, the Great Depression, all orchestrated by white men often at others' expense to gain more wealth and power.  And, here we go again.  White men are now an even smaller minority, yet we continue to pretend they are better, smarter, more innovative, more everything than anyone else.  The anti-DEIers claim without actually saying the words that the only reason any woman or person of color holds an important position was that a "better-qualified" white man was passed over in favor of THAT less competent person.  Lying is now the medium of exchange for this current group of white men who believe they are better than anyone else, and they don't have to have evidence of their superiority, just their mouths moving.  On this Independence Day, we who are not rich white men trying to control everyone else need to declare our independence of their rule, lies, abuse, incivility, desperation to hurt anyone they can.  We can make a better nation and world, but we are going to have to set those particular whiny white men, down a few pegs.  Teaching young white boys they are not better than the rest of the kids will be a challenge, but it is essential to help them grow into responsible adults who can work and play with others without trying to dominate them. 

 

All of this is not to say that white men have done nothing.  After all, we are an independent nation for nearly 250 years.  We have a labor movement that is still alive more than a century later.  We have tech that allows us to do a lot, often due to white male inventors and developers.  However, it is clear that white men have always had a cadre of women, young people, and people of color to help with and often advance the invention and development, sometimes the actual inventor. 

 

On this July 4th, we need to remember that it was We the People the Constitution was designed to support, only a few years after our war for independence.  The Constitution may have been a document written by and for white men, but that is not the language used, which means the rest of us have become included over time.  The "originalists" whine that they have to read the Constitution as it was written and rule that way, but they are lying to the American people and to themselves.  There is no such thing as originalism in reality because the founders did not envision that.  For them, our Constitution was to be a living document that was fleshed out over time through use and adaptation.  And, the white boys now                     in power are certainly trying hard to warp our document to make it support the evils they are doing to our nation and the world, while claiming some kind of originalism.  We the People need to stop this sacrilege.   

 

As I ruminated, I responded to a comment by Susanna on Heather Cox Richardson’s thread, July 3, 2025 about people needing a purpose or cause for our lives. 

Susanna, yes, we all do need a purpose.  It is just so sad that many people's purpose is to control, conquer, or do harm in general to others, sometimes marked or targeted for them, sometimes not.  I am sorry the internet which was set up to be a good connecter has turned out for many to be a divider, a source for developing the hate, distrust, and other negativities that can lead to what this nation is experiencing and perpetrating right now.  Get a bunch of rich white mostly men and their wannabees together in one place to ruminate and what they come up with is often not something good for humanity, just as the Heritage Foundation and similar richly funded organizations have proven.  It  would be great if we could redirect some of this inhumanity toward actually helping people by raising wages and salaries, building quality affordable housing for people, encouraging more cooperation, cutting the hate speech, particularly the lying, even from our "leaders."  I am not sure how we do this, but maybe instead of competition to see who can be the richest man in the world, ignore that BS and make a huge deal of the number of homes a corporation has built and donated, the number of non-white citizens a person or corporation has sponsored, companies that offer discounts for people who are struggling to make ends meet, opening, staffing, and supporting free clinics in struggling neighborhoods, donations to global organizations to stop HIV and other diseases, all with no strings attached.  We could have giant billboards praising those individuals and corporations with proof that they have done what they claim and maybe have billboards too that name and describe the Representatives and Senators that voted to defund resources the people need like Planned Parenthood, PBS/NPR, Medicaid, SNAP, etc., using phrases, try for a change, voting instead  for someone who actually cares that you have what you need.  OK, I am still a bit of an idealist, but I do think we didn't believe the evil would settle here again, so ignored most of the bad behavior of conservatives/Republicans for the past half century, occasionally trying to fight it, but still thinking Republicans had the interests of at least most of the people at heart and still believed in our democracy.  We were wrong!

 

So, now we move into the 250^th year of our nation with no certainty that we will continue as a democracy, even until next July 4^th.  We must never lose hope, though because the forces of evil count onus doing that as has happened elsewhere.  Thomas Paine reminds us that like 249 years ago, “These are the times that try men’s (our) souls . . . Those who stand it now deserve the thanks of men and women.”  So we must be the ones who stand it now and work with and for reason, persistence, and truth. 

249 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING?

By Ruth A. Sheets

July 3, 2025

 

July 4^th is nearly here and I can’t help but remember past Independence Days with fireworks, crowds, music, and so much more. 

 

My first July 4^th memory was in 1959 when we welcomed Alaska and Hawaii into the union.  I didn’t exactly know what that meant, but I heard a lot of people yelling for Alaska and Hawaii and saying there were now 50 states.  That was special because Shredded Wheat, the breakfast cereal I loved had little metal flags my sisters and I could collect in each box.  Somehow we didn’t get too many over time, but it was fun looking for them.

 

In 1964, my dad, my sisters, and I went to Elmwood Park for a band concert.  The temperature was over 100 degrees but we stayed as long as the band played, then walked home.  After that, I measured each 4^th of July temperature by that 103 number and saw it as a kind of badge of dedication, maybe love of music too.

 

The best Celebration was in 1976 when my sisters and I went to Valley Forge.  A wagon train had parked there after its weeks long journey from the west.  On the 4^th, despite the heavy fog, President Ford’s helicopter landed and he signed the order to make Valley Forge a National Park.  We met people from all over the country and had so much fun as we walked around in Colonial-style clothing.  We had just gotten past a case of presidential corruption and resignation and thought our nation was rising out of the muck of that time.

 

Here we are 49 years later and We the People are in a crisis.  That crisis was set in motion by a bunch of men and a couple of women who don’t like democracy, where people can think for ourselves, speak freely, vote because we are 18 years of age or older.  They want those privileges only for themselves and those who look and believe as they do.  The intent seems to be to crown a fool moving into dementia as king of America and all his minions crowned princes and princesses who will bow to him whenever he demands it and of course, he will demand it often.  That king, of course, is Donald Trump, and his jester, JD Vance who isn’t even the least bit funny and neither has anything positive to offer anyone.

 

By July 4^th, that man who wants to be king demands that Republicans in Congress pass an appalling bill that has nothing good to offer anyone but the already-far-far-too-rich millionaires and billionaires.  It seems Republicans are about to do that because their king is threatening or bribing them (both illegal) with “offers they can’t refuse.”  If the bill passes in its current form, many Americans and immigrant residents here will suffer and king Donnie (Toddler-Trump) will gloat that he owns them and they are useless anyway, spoken by a man who has not actually worked a day in his life.

 

So folks, back in 1976 I would never have guessed we would be facing a fascist takeover 49 years later, but that is where we are.  We need to ask ourselves and each other, “is that where we want this nation to go?”  Do we trust Trump and his minions to do right by anyone but rich mostly white men?”  I say “no.”  I say, “billionaires and millionaires are rich enough; our kids are precious and deserve better than going to bed hungry and getting a poor education because funds are cut; immigrants are immensely valuable to this nation while ICE is not; no one should be losing health care.” 

 

Let us celebrate Independence Day and remember what people have sacrificed that we have a nation that can grow, learn, develop, and become more inclusive and welcoming.  We do not have to settle for the Toddler-Trump formula of threats, lies, gaslighting, fearmongering, hatreds, resentments, targeting groups for violence and dismissal.  We can do better.  We can plan, rally, protest, march, strike, vote, demand our elections are held fairly, demand better of our courts, vote out senators and representatives who have decided they don’t care what We the People want.  Let’s stand together for the sake of our children, our nation, our dreams, immigrants who help make us who we are, and principles that matter.  We can make this better!

POLLUTION PERMISSION!

By Ruth A. Sheets

This is a note I sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to their intention to drop the pollution regulations on coal-burning power plants.  The impetus for this response was from “Moms Clean Air Force” (www.momscleanairforce.org ).

Dear EPA Director;

What is going on with you at EPA?  Why are we the people having to beg, I mean BEG you to do your job to protect our children and the rest of our population?  Where is your humanity?  As a teacher and human being concerned with children’s health, I’m writing to  strongly oppose EPA’s efforts to roll back the recent updates to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Now, let's see, why would you even think of doing that?  Are you thinking it won't impact your family since you are rich, so who cares; it won’t get us!  Is there no moral code of value among Trump's appointees to our critical agencies?  Where did you leave your moral compass and why won't you go and pick it back up and use it?  Are you scared of Trump?

If you were truly a scientist worthy of the office you hold, you would know that no amount of mercury exposure is safe for a child’s brain, NONE! We must keep mercury and other dangerous pollutants from spewing out of coal-fired power plants and ending up in our air, water, soil, and food.  In fact, we need no coal-powered plants, despite what coal miners supposedly want, according to Donald Trump (but that’s probably not true).  We will all suffer for your ignorance and unwillingness to do the right thing!  Why would you choose to do that to yourselves and the rest of us too?

Over the last decade, mercury protections have had significant public health benefits.  You would know that if you cared one wit! Last year, the EPA under President Biden strengthened these safeguards even further to address gaps that were allowing coal plants to continue to emit dangerous quantities of hazardous air pollution, which has been illegal for some time, but, ah well, if the polluters were not caught, no problem, right?  Now you want to just let them go back and pollute to their heart's content.  Who does that, what kind of person would put kids at risk that way?  If you looked, you would see that the recently strengthened regulation improvements offer serious benefits:

- 70% reduction in the emissions limit for mercury from existing lignite-fired plants,

- the strengthening of protections from non-mercury toxics such as lead, arsenic, and chromium, 

- the reduction in emissions from other health-harming air pollutants, including fine particle pollution, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide

- the requirement that coal plants continually monitor their emissions.  

(from the Mom’s Clean Air Force report)

These safeguards are critical for everyone, but particularly for the communities most impacted by pollution from coal plants, and I wonder who those vulnerable people are.  Oh yes, mostly Black and Indigenous people and other poor folks of all races who generally get no voice with rich folks like you all who just can't manage to care. Those communities  for example, rely on fishing as a primary food source, for cultural identity, and for local economics, and that fish is often contaminated with those pollutants.  This contamination impacts many vulnerable people, particularly children.

So, as you can see, regulating power plant pollution of all kinds  is critical for infants and children, whose developing brains can be permanently impacted by mercury exposure, leading to developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and birth defects.  Are you OK with that?  Is that what you are hoping will happen so there will be an impacted class of workers you and your rich buddies can exploit? That is EVIL!  Are you?

So, I say to you, do not roll back the recent updates to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.  Instead, expand the regulations to include other toxic waste that none of us should be breathing, eating, or drinking.  That is the right thing to do in case you didn't know.  There are real scientists out here who can help you understand this pollution danger, but I bet you will not consult them or do anything to stop this backsliding on pollution because money and executive threats are more important than the health of your fellow Americans and the climate crisis that stalks all of us.  Terribly sad!  R.Sheets

WHITE MALE HISTORY SUPREMACY! NOT HERE!

 By Ruth A. Sheets

June 19, 2025

 

The organization “Free Speech for People” asked folks to sign a petition to reps and senators about the attempts of Trump and his cronies to erase famous people (not white men) from our history, our libraries, schools, monuments, and museums.  This was my contribution.  I think it pretty much sums up my feeling about scared white men trying to erase the history of everyone else.

 

OK, scared white people, isn't it about time you all grow up!  I am specifically addressing the MAGAs because white folks with confidence and courage don't need the history of non-white people, women, LGBTQ+ persons, and immigrants' histories erased because we know how important diversity is to this nation.  White folks in power who know they don't deserve to be there are the ones who have decided only their history, you know, white males, “the only actors in American history who have done anything that counts. 

 

Well, they are wrong and they need to grow up and start acting like adults for a change.  No one wants their/your jobs, nor your animals to eat, nor your homes.  People want a fair deal in America, the right to vote if they are a citizen over age 18 as the Constitution requires, and not to live in fear of the thugs of ICE and others that scared white people choose to sick on us.

 

So, I’m writing to my senators as a concerned constituent. I’ve learned that over the past few months, the Trump administration has been trying to scrub the records of Black, Native, and queer American heroes. People like Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman, Marsha P. Johnson, and the Navajo code talkers, all of them as brave as or braver than the white folks acting at those times in history.  Why are white men so scared of everyone?  They whine about DEI and those “non-whites who are being honored too much as though no one  else’s history matters.  Cowardice seems to be the correct explanation.  Well, grow up and see that a whole lot of great people of all backgrounds  contributed to this nation's development as well as some real jerks, (often white men) ones who have committed insurrection to protect slavery, killed Native people just because they thought it made them look manly or something, folks who lied about the need for wars that a whole lot of people were killed in, many of them not white men (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and in the past, Cuba, Mexico, and the Philippines to name a few.  

As one who believes that we should know our country’s full history this deeply troubles me because it is clearly another Republican lie of the many thousands we have been fed in the past say, half-century or so.

 

White Americans must understand, we are not going silent into that stupidity.  We will do everything we can to keep our history alive as so many in the past have done here and abroad to pass down our cultures and history.  Trump's ridiculous crusade will not last because too many families have more than white males in them, including J.D. Vance's, and despite what whiny toddler-men want, they are playing a losing game and should drop it and try to learn about the breadth of our history and our continuing attempt to "form a more-perfect union."

 

I would ask that white men commit to teaching and sharing our country’s full history by standing up for it and not allowing the Trump Administration to continue erasing our history, but if one is a MAGA, I know that is a foolish request, so I will just say, “I hope you white MAGAs will grow up soon and come to appreciate our real history, not just what you pretend is yours, and in your actions, claim should be ours too.”

 

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND

 By Ruth A. Sheets

I have wondered most of my life where and how one acquires the hatred that permits things like slavery; concentration, internment, and death camps; beating up people trying to cross a bridge to march for rights those with the clubs and weapons refuse to permit them; Destroying whole villages because one can (It’s war you know); killing protesters; kneeling on the neck of a man on the ground for more than 9 minutes and no one intervening; stopping food from getting to people in desperate need, even killing people as they move to collect the needed supplies; separating children from their parents with no record of who those children’s parents are; throwing to the ground and handcuffing a US senator for properly asking a question of a public official; attempting to erase the history of everyone but those currently in charge. 

The excuses for the bad behavior, the various levels of atrocity have come down to us over time including such favorites as:  they aren’t really human and don’t feel pain the way WE do; they don't deserve any better  because they are cheats, takers  (today's Republicans in Congress); they killed Christ (a Christian cry through the ages which is false because it was Rome, according to Christian scriptures); they are a threat so we need to keep them out or where we can see what they are doing (this one is frequent from Japanese internment during WWII to Gaza, to torture prisons to police surveillance and more); they don't belong in a nice neighborhood like ours, it will bring property value down. 

Yes, we have seen it all our lives.  The excuses keep on coming and somehow we buy them.  There are folks whose job it is to  come up with acceptable excuses as to why the deed was necessary or couldn’t be helped or one bad apple or an accident or something.  The goal seems to be to normalize or make the act acceptable or to control those, you know, the ones not like us or who would change our way of life.  I am guessing those who believe those excuses need a way to understand what is going on and to think they are not responsible for the cruelties, the evil that is perpetrated against folks they know are human beings, often in their name.

I see 4 emotions that move human beings into committing atrocities:  anger, resentment, fear, and hatred.  There are others like greed, feelings of superiority, indifference, and contempt, all enhanced and encouraged by the four emotions, hatred being the most potent, generally necessary for most of the cruelty.  

We need to find ways of stopping the hate before it festers into something deadly and destructive.  People do a lot of hating.  It is a kind of wall that keeps us from even trying to understand people and situations different from our own, a kind of comfort food.  It can let us “know” who is out to get us or who deserves to be a target of our hate.  The folks who push the hatred have their own reasons/needs:  taking over their land, keeping communities free of their kind, keeping people poor so wealth can accumulate for the already-too-rich, fear that they may be as good as I am even though they are different from me, competition.  There are an untold number of reasons emotions can lead to hatred, stoked by others or home-grown within ourselves.

Is there a way to reach through the screens often deliberately set up between us and them?  I think so, but it is going to have to be done at many levels at the same time. 

• Our media need to present all kinds of people working successfully together at simple as well as complex tasks.
• - History classes and courses need to show the atrocities as well as those who stood against them at the times they were occurring.  There have always been protesters, just often their acts were covered up.  In recent years, many books have been written to describe the work of the many resistance groups in Europe during the Nazi regime through the Holocaust.  Americans protested the removals of Indigenous people here, but their acts of courage were dismissed because they didn’t fit the mission.
• - People opposed slavery even from the early years.  Those protesters, abolitionists were often imprisoned, killed, and villainized by the slavery industry, with government assistance.
• Americans have protested every war and the war machine that promotes war while the supporters of the wars were claiming it is necessary in all instances.  Some of the conflicts/wars did help to protect this nation and our allies, but others protected private interests of industry and other entities.
• - People have stood with immigrants throughout our history, noting their massive contributions to every aspect of our lives, trying to stop the lies “stealing American jobs” (only the immigrants of color, of course).

We have seen the pain, destruction and death lies have caused over time around the world:  Ruanda, Nazism, government-sanctioned torture, police brutality, made-up excuses for war as in Iraq, are only a few of the horrors generated by people who should have known better, but drummed up the anger, fear of the other, resentment, leading to hatred that are responsible for millions of deaths just in the past few decades, and hundreds of millions in the 20th century.  

It is difficult to set hatred toward others aside when the presidents of the United States and other nations are pumping out hatred for their own purposes and people are picking it up and running with it like a football, hoping to make a touchdown.  We the People here and elsewhere could stop a lot of this by considering what the accusations against others really are and who is making and benefiting from them.

• We can examine our religion/faith to see if the hatreds being spewed match our faith – if one is Christian, hatred is not a Christlike act no matter how one colors that hatred.
• - Stop watching, scrolling, listening to hatred being pumped out by folks who clearly have a resentment toward others.
• - Think before speaking something that accuses others of crimes it is not likely they could or would have committed (running a pedophile ring in the basement of a Pizza shop).
• - Stop hating people you don’t understand:  LGBTQ persons, women who make family decisions different from your own, people who don’t share your color or ethnicity or gender, as a start.

Dropping the instant knee-jerk hate response can be a whole lot healthier for us all then clutching hate and the other negative emotions to one’s breast as though they are sacred and godsent; they’re not.  We can do this if we have the desire to shut down our willingness to buy into the hate feast that is constantly being dished out to us by despicable people in power as well as ordinary people who forgot that hatred is like a cancer that can metastasize and eventually kill or destroy.  We can do this if we do it in solidarity with others, each doing our part!

A GATHERING OF EVIL

By Ruth A. Sheets

My birthday has rolled around again.  This year my age is a square times a cube, one of the few ages that can happen without using the #1.

Recently, as I note my age and the coming years, I have been contemplating evil and what it does to people.  I have read a lot of books and articles about the Holocaust, a horrific manifestation of evil, wondering if there were points at which it could have been stopped.  The people in Germany in the early 1930s were suffering under a depression as was most of the world.  Someone came along and told them he could solve their problems, make Germany great again, and they bought it sight unseen.  The man took over the government, surrounded himself with people who would do his bidding, men who got off on doing harm to others, particularly those they were jealous of (or that is how it seems).  The new leader identified people the Germans could blame for all their suffering:  the political opposition, Communists, and worst of all, Jews.  The people rallied and jumped on board with the hatred, at least enough of them did that they didn’t mind concentration camps being set up to imprison those awful people.  If some of them were killed, well, they must have deserved it.  If their neighbors they had thought they liked disappeared, “ah well, they must have run away or done something to anger the new leader.”

Why were the people so willing to hop abord the train powered by anger, fear, resentment, and hatred?  That’s a question that has haunted me since I first learned about the Holocaust in 8^th grade when I read Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.  The people in hiding with her were rather annoying at times, but worthy of being dragged away and killed?  I learned only Anne’s father survived.  It has made me wonder what kind of nation Germany would have been had Hitler stuck to remaking just his own country and not been defeated.  What would have happened when/if the Jewish people had all been killed or kicked out?  What about the disabled persons killed in nursing homes, hospitals, and mental institutions?  What would have happened when the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma people, and homosexuals were extinguished?  Could that crew of sadists have stopped there?  Who would have been next?  Was invading Germany’s neighbors critical to the evil enterprise?

There are a lot of folks now comparing what is going on in this nation to Nazi Germany, and with good reason.  Evil has raised its head here and has been welcomed by Americans who are not doing well, or rather are not doing well in relation to the people they envy.  They listen to hatred being spewed over their radios, TVs, and internet and are angry that they are missing the wealth, the American dream that is supposed to be theirs.   They vote for candidates who promise them some kind of magical relief from their “suffering” but have never shown evidence of willingness to work to make that magic happen.  Those candidates have a cadre of folks to blame for the suffering of their constituents (not those elected officials, of course) and make sure those groups are vilified at every turn.  People of color in general are at the top of the list because, they always have been on that list in this nation.  They add women who are too uppity and LGBTQ+ persons for “living in sin” or whatever else they come up with.  Women who choose abortion are now called murderers and states are trying to put laws on their books to charge them.  Recently, immigrants take the place at the front of the line, well not the white ones, of course.  They are called gang members, criminals, immoral, and whatever the guys in power decide will rouse their “supporters” to OK immigrants being deported without due process, a right since Magna Carta (1215 AD).” 

A rich white businessman came along who had no moral compass, no concern for anyone but himself beyond wanting vengeance on anyone who didn’t agree with him, got in his way, or didn’t see him as a genius.  A group of really rich white men saw Trump as an opportunity to take over this nation for their own benefit and began influencing the media, even buying media platforms to groom the “suffering masses” into believing this man would fix things for them and “make America great again.”  Of course, his intention was to make himself “great” so he could enrich himself as much as possible from his time in power.  He collected around himself a host of mostly white men and some female surrogates who would go along with the project to wreck this nation so the superrich white men could rule, eventually taking over the world because they are just so brilliant (in their own minds), but in reality, addicted to money and power.  They’re also racist, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, antisemitic, xenophobic when it suits their purposes.

Hitler wanted power and comfort and the ability to hurt anyone he didn’t like.  Trump wants money and the servitude of everyone else.  His handlers want to use him, their orange fool to do as much harm to the American people and nation as possible.  We know what happened in 1930s Germany when evil took over.  The question now for us is, Will we allow the evil that is brewing in this nation to destroy us or will We the People stop it?  I hope it’s the latter. 

My birthday candle wish would be that the enthralled MAGA folks would wake up and decide they want more in their lives than anger, resentment, fear, and hatred and don’t want a king, a dictator, a tyrant as president of this country, ever.  I hope the MAGAs or near-MAGAs won’t want rich white folks who have been elected to nothing acting as puppeteers directing a man who will do their bidding at everyone else’s expense, until they can take over.  I hope we as Americans will act together to stop evil that has already infected state legislatures, our Congress, and some courts, before it grows in volume and scope and people feel the pain more than they already do.

WHO IS QUALIFIED?  ANYONE?

By Ruth A. Sheets

A member of Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack thread asked on May 20^th if anyone in Trump’s cabinet were qualified.  I had to take a crack at an answer.  This was my response. 

As you and most of us know, the answer to cabinet members being qualified is none are qualified, which is why they were shoved through our Senate with little to no honest thought.  Trump may have recommended a couple of them, but the Project 2025ers came up with the slate.  I am sure Kristi Noem was considered when the 2025ers heard she had killed her dog and thrown her into a quarry, proud of it enough to write about it.  That is the temperament for Homeland Security, of course. 

Then, RFK,Jr.'s brain worm made him the perfect nominee for HHS because, well, he knew he had a brain somewhere and it had a dead worm in it and . . .   And, there's Hegseth, he could do crappy interviews for Fox whose only standards involve their "hosts" being ignorant, basically incompetent and somewhat attractive so they could repeat lies and do gaslighting without questioning it, the perfect set of skills to head our Department of Defense!  The rest of the team is just like that, each in their own way pathetic and unqualified but somehow, worthy of Republican support. 

Even some Democrats went along with the BS, all of them voting for Marco Rubio with no evidence that he could really fairly represent this nation abroad (he is a white wannabee who despises anyone not white and will buy into the BS of any country that will give him and Baby Donnie some kind of money, promise, or something which Rubio should know is illegal according to our Constitution.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Rubio and the rest of the cabinet don't care about our ?Constitution either.  Amazing! 

So, I responded the best I could in a short readable paragraph, but it does not really begin to address the challenges we will be facing, possibly indefinitely.  Republicans have saddled us with an incredibly incompetent crew and a House of Representatives and Senate that will do Donald Trump’s bidding and that of folks like Musk, Vought, Theil, and the rest of the superrich because they are being threatened with something really powerful or promised something unbelievable for their efforts, no matter how illegal or improper.  

When questioned about any of their positions or what is happening in their department, they do one or more of 3 things.  These were offered by a member of Prof. Robert Reich’s thread on May 22^{nd and also presented by Jay Kuo in his column}.  They are the Three C method of avoiding answering truthfully, “gaslighting.”

#1...Cluelessness: "I don't know... I wasn't aware of that...I only just heard about this... I don't have the numbers, etc. and so on and so forth. They do this ALL THE TIME and it's infuriating, also usually a lie.

#2...Chaos: the deliberately created chaos within their departments cause those people they are supposed to be helping or serving to get frustrated with the mistakes wait times, etc. the end result is people just end up giving up and accepting the absence of real help and then the Republicans can claim that the department should be eradicated since it isn't doing what it is supposed to.  This is an old fall-back trick for the Republicans in power who want to see the government destroyed.

#3...Contempt: This is a tactic of answering with arrogance or twisting the answer and using it to attack the questioner. Again a frequent tactic of Republicans, it was particularly evident in Rubio's arrogant answer to Senator Van Hollen, "If you regret your confirmation of me, I must be doing my job..." said with contemptuous twist, arrogant and rude, but certainly just what Trump expects of his minions."  The members of the committees, Democrats alone if Republicans won’t participate must at the very least, continue to ask good relevant questions, When the questioned person talks over the questioner, that persons should say, “Mr. (Ms.) Chair Person, stop my time here until he/she is finished bamboozling us, then I will resume my time at this point.”  If the chair won’t agree, then the questioner must stand up and tell the questioned person to shut up and just answer the question yes or no unless asked for  clarification. 

We all need to review our Constitution and start calling out the current insanity for what it is, an insurrection by the rich and powerful with Trump as the figurehead for a bunch of scared greedy privileged white boys and their female surrogates with the task of wrecking our democracy, our government so they will just HAVE to take over.  We must find every way possible to stop them.  They are trampling our rights, denying the services we are entitled to, and throwing their money into elections they have no right to influence, despite what Johnny Roberts and his Supreme Court cons said about 15 years ago, their decision made out of their own greed and desire to do harm to the American people, well, at least the middle and working classes.  We don’t have to take it and should not!  We must stay involved!