BREAKING THE MOLD

By Ruth A. Sheets

In a Substack piece, Robert Reich, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkley, wrote about getting voters to vote for candidates who have their interests at heart.  I started thinking about how hard that is going to be for Republicans, maybe some Democrats too.  This is what I came up with in response. 

Over the years, we Americans, and people of other nations too, have been carefully groomed by the rich and powerful to go for the loud-mouthed white male as having the "best" answers to every question of importance, the “mold.”  Those loud-mouthed white men decided what is natural among the beasts of the field and birds of the air and among human beings too.  They told us what to buy and what makes us beautiful/handsome.  They told us they knew how to rule and that it was right for loud-mouthed white men to rule the world.  Well, those same loud-mouthed white men took us into Holocaust, into endless wars, enhanced significantly the wealth gap, have blamed poor people for being poor, have used the taxes paid by working people all over the world to produce and buy war machines that have no other purpose than killing our fellow human beings and any other creatures that get in the way. 

Here, the Republican Party has made recruiting those loud-mouthed white men into their ranks critical, and put a lot of money behind them.  What those in charge of the party recruitment knew is that in the position of "president" you can put the not-so-loud and definitely not very competent, but behind them must be a loud-mouthed white man.  If you can't manage that, go with the loud-mouthed guy for president who can lie like a rug and the guys in charge can make the public believe every word. 

If one looks at Republicans say from 1960 onward, every victorious Republican presidential candidate has fit one of the molds or other.  Nixon could be a loud-mouth, but he depended on others like his VPs Lodge and Agnew to do the shouting while Nixon pretended he was just like a thoughtful judge.  Goldwater fit the mold perfectly, threatening all sorts of people and groups with American might.  Ford was the least like the mold, but he was only needed to pardon Nixon of his crimes.  He did it and was gone.  Reagan was portrayed as everyone's grandpa, but he had no clue.  His VP was rich and knew how to manipulate folks behind the scene and did, Bush,Sr.  As president Bush,Sr. had all the words, but also had racism and misogyny to keep him in favor.  Bush,Jr. was incompetent, but I think, wanted to do a good job, at least some of the time.  His VP Cheyney was the needed loud-mouth. 

Trump was the perfect creation that fit the mold sufficiently to be carefully shaped using Trump's own loud-mouthed white man tendencies to believe himself better than everyone else when in reality, he was not smart, a bad businessman, a cheat, a liar, a rapist, and more.  That could easily be covered by a lying media and his loud-mouthed hatred of everyone he chose to or was directed to hate.  With the Republican Party cheating in elections, Trump was elected, then re-elected.  He gives the rich white men in corporate power nearly everything they want while enriching his family (well, the corporations enrich them so their patriarch won't get out of line during the takeover of our democracy). 

Republican voters are drawn to this kind of loud-mouthed bullying that Trump portrayed so well before his dementia made it harder for him to know what is going on.  How do we convince Republican voters that they are focusing on the wrong hand.  The corporate magicians are doing them immense harm while they watch their Trumpian puppet lie his way through this corporate destruction machine.  It will be hard for them to break out because their loyalty has been so carefully groomed and tended.

On Saturday, March 28, 2026, people all over the country rallied to try to draw attention to and stop the loud-mouthed bully in the white house.  In our tristate area, the media practically ignored the whole day’s activities, giving no more than a minute to the event while covering Tiger Woods’ car crash in Florida for a far longer report.  That truly is what we are dealing with, a corporate media that props up an old man with dementia while ignoring the American people.

It’s time We the People work harder to “break the mold” and find more ways to get information to people who are stuck in their perceived need for loyalty to a party that left them behind long ago.  The people and corporations in power want to drain them of their will to act, and to distract them from making good decisions for their lives; it’s working.

I didn’t mention the Republicans who lost the presidency, except for Goldwater because for the most part, they were white men who did not fit the corporate/conservative uncaring mold:  Dole, McCain, and Romney.  And, they didn’t have the VP back-ups to counter their decency.  The Democrats who ran against them had ideas that were more powerful to capture Democratic voters.  Remember, when Democrats get out to vote in their greater numbers, unless there is  AI or media-based  fraud, Democrats win. 

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?" 

WHEN WILL ENOUGH BE ENOUGH?

By Ruth A. Sheets

I keep wondering when Republicans who claim to be patriotic Americans, are going to say "enough." 

• - It wasn’t enough when Trump pardoned all the January 6^th insurrectionists, people who threatened their own lives.  Trump and his handlers were just too lazy to determine who were the ones who had actually done the most violence, although that information was readily available.
• It clearly wasn't when Musk and his wrecking crew fired (without permission from anyone but Trump), thousands of the government workers who actually know how to make our government work and keep this nation safe. 
• It wasn't enough when Musk/Trump dismantled the USAID that helps protect the people of the world, including us from horrific diseases and to help people deal with war and poverty. 
• - It wasn't enough when the concept of a free public education for all children was maligned by Musk/Trump getting rid of about 50% of the Department of Education that provides funding and services for children with learning and functioning differences as well as scholarship money for college. 
• - It wasn't enough when Trump/Vance in tandem insulted President Zelensky of Ukraine and lied that Ukraine began the war, clearly started by Russia. 
• - It wasn't enough when the FAA was undermined and air travel was put at risk, now supposedly to be under the rule of Musk's Starlink or whatever other BS entity the ignorant greedy Musk illegally comes up with for his own benefit. 
• - It wasn't enough when Musk and his toddler troop began messing with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, programs that have worked tremendously well for nearly 90 years for Social Security and 60 for Medicare and Medicaid, programs we pay for from our first jobs onward.  They are closing local offices so people can't go directly to get help, while requiring them to go to local offices to register.  Then they started taking some people off the roles, claiming the people are actually dead when they are not. Musk, a super-rich recent citizen knows nothing about Social Security or any of the programs he is working to destroy for the benefit of himself and rich white people and corporations. 
• - It isn't enough now when our military under a rapist, misogynist, racist incompetent, Hegseth removes the courage of people of color and women from their websites, pretending only white men did anything to protect America, a massive lie, of course. 
• - It wasn’t enough when immigrants were grabbed off the street, people who hold green cards and have done nothing illegal, unlike Musk and Trump and disappeared, 200+ of them sent to a torture prison in El Salvador, others to countries they have not lived in since infancy, not knowing anyone or speaking the language.
• It wasn’t enough when Trump declared there is no climate crisis, global warming isn’t real, and that “drill baby drill” will be the chant instead.  That is happening while Republicans and their constituents are dealing with terrible storms, floods, and wildfires made far worse by global warming.  The Republican states are being hit worst with little to no way to manage without government help.  Yep, those people voted for this to happen to them because their racism and misogyny couldn’t let them do anything else.
• It wasn’t enough when Trump and his clown show threatened judges and our courts, you know, the ones that oppose the illegal things Trump and Kump are doing. 
•  
  
• It is truly shameful that I hear no Republicans and few Democrats standing up and yelling "stop."  It must be something pretty powerful that Trump is holding over Republicans in Congress these days to keep them either mouthing just what Trump’s handlers want them to say or remaining silent.  They need to stand up. 
•  
• At this point, it seems to me that it should not matter what Donald Trump and his Goon Troops have on anyone in Congress because the harms being done to this country will overshadow anything else Trump can make up about them.  It seems living without a spine or moral compass works for Republicans, MAGAs, and some Democrats and Independents too.  Shame on them all.  I do wish there were a way to remove Trump/Vance/Musk from office without violence because none of them should be in charge of anything and may only be in power because they found a way to cheat in this past election using secret cheating algorithms, in the "{swing states" of course, somehow just barely taking every single one of them.  That really does stretch credibility.

OPTIMISM? WELL MAYBE

By Ruth A. Sheets

I appreciate the need for optimism as we watch our nation sinking under the BS of the Republican Party, led by the "would-be-king/deity" Toddler-Trump and his goons, but it’s hard, and maybe they’re evil. 

Senate Republicans voted for some pretty despicable people to run our critical departments and agencies.  They supposedly interviewed and questioned each candidate, but clearly they didn’t care about the nominee’s past, biases, personal vendettas, lack of competence or qualifications.  One can’t help but wonder why.  I suspect it has something to do with Toddler-Trump’s desire to be a MAFIA Don who collects information on everyone around him to use against them, blackmail, you know.  In addition, those in office will owe their toddler-boss for a job they clearly didn’t deserve.  Among the worst:  

• - an absolute fool, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to run our department of health and human services - he knows nothing about medicine, research, or just about anything else, but he does have a lot of ridiculous ideas about vaccines, medicine in general, and how the Department should be run, all without knowledge or experience;
• - a personal lawyer for Toddler-Trump, Pam Bondi,  as Attorney General - a woman who has her own “hit list” to nurse, mostly people who legally opposed Trump;
• - an accused rapist, incompetent manager, you know, criminal, Pete Hegseth, with minimal experience of the Department of Defense, but a lot of vengeance in his heart and hatred for anyone who is not rich, white, “straight,” and male, a minority in our military;
• - a Putin "mole," Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our intelligence service – enough said;
• - an empty suit, Marco Rubio, to be our Secretary of State – He has traveled a bit, so knows what he needs to do, right;
• - an ignoramus, Sean Duffy at Transportation– already 7 aircraft “accidents” since Toddler-Trump took office;
• A hateful vindictive sycophant of ?Toddler-Trump, Kash Patel to run the FBI – he maintains an “enemies list of people he plans to go after.

  Then there's Toddler-Musk and his child-hackers tearing through our government's tech to see how much damage the richest man in the world, supposedly, can do to many of the poorest.  The Senate didn’t even get to vote on these kids - They were not vetted or even required to fill out an employment application, but can steal our personal information and fire people whose jobs they neither understand nor care about.

Toddler-Trump moving deeper into dementia has now decided to betray an ally and turn his love toward Putin of Russia.  That should be seen as treason since he is betraying an ally for an adversary while that adversary is conducting a war it began for its own purposes. Trump now lies that Ukraine started the war which was actually a Putin/Russian invasion to annex Ukraine.  Is it Trump’s dementia or Putin conducting some blackmail on our current president?  Hmmm!

I am working on staying at least somewhat optimistic.  I think one must be optimistic if a teacher and if I believe in our nation and working toward making it a more perfect union. 

Optimism comes from people using their courage to stand up and say “no.”  The most recent example was Governor Mills of Maine who told Trump trans athletes would be able to play sports in Maine because they have rights in the Maine Constitution.  Trump threatened to cut off funding for the state of Maine if they did let those athletes compete.  She said “then, I’ll see you in court.”  I was hoping the other governors would have stood up to support her, but nope.  She did show people how to stand up to a toddler-man who thinks he can control everything and everyone because all his life, the people around him regularly bow and kiss something for him on request.  Not everyone will do that.  That is where I have optimism, real hope!

In any case, we need to stand together against this coup mastermind by The Heritage Foundation and corporate America, a right-wing collection of white supremacists and pseudo-christians who want to stop anyone and anything that does not promote rich white maledom.  Well, they are a minority and we need to let them know that as often as possible. 

We can do something.  Don’t forget the 24-hour boycott over February 27-28^th, and the Amazon boycott from March 7-14.  If you need to buy something, go local!

WHAT IS THEIR GOAL? PART 2

Ruth A. Sheets

It has been a really hard 16 days since Toddler-Trump returned to office.  This time, he has brought with him an even deeper  bench of misfits, anti-American slobs, trouble-makers (and not the good kind), and just plain toddler-adults who care only for themselves and what they can rob the American people of.

So far, they have invaded the US Treasury to steal private information from  the American people, halted the USAID program which provides masses of aid to poor and struggling peoples around the world, and gotten approved a bunch of incompetent losers whose task as far as anyone can tell is to wreck our government while they steal from us our money, our dignity as a nation, and our will to stop them (or at least they are trying to do the latter.

I still have the question, what is their goal?  I have been reading books about the Supreme Court and “Republican” attempts and success in taking over the SC, but in all of that, I have seen no overarching goal.  They let corporations contribute as much money as they want to candidates (essentially buying them) with “Citizens United”; killed much of the unanimously-passed by Congress, Voting Rights Act of 1965; overturned Roe v. Wade, essentially turning women’s right to choose over to states run by old white men who will never be pregnant; and have given an incompetent president near complete immunity for the things he does as president.  What is their end game? 

The Supreme Court “conservatives” clearly love corporations and have been richly rewarded for their patronage, but besides their personal corporate gifts, what?  When corporations have destroyed the planet, what will they do?  When women figure out how to perform abortions for their friends and neighbors with hoarded medications and medical skill, who will care about Roe? 

It is true Toddler-Trump wants to keep from going to jail, but he is now so wrapped up in his own megalomania, that is no longer on his radar.  He wants to put hotels in an ethnically cleansed Gaza, paid for with funds stolen from the American people supervised by Toddler-Musk who is about as ignorant at most things as Toddler-Trump himself is.  He also wants to steal other people’s lands like the Panama Canal, Greenland, and Canada.  Insanity would be anyone’s diagnosis, but a third of our population knew something was wrong with Toddler-Trump but voted for him anyway.

I still don’t know the extent of the goals of “Republicans” and their handlers, but suspect those goals will change as they take over more of our government operations for the purposes of corporate owners and CEOs.  I do wonder what will happen though when the American people can’t or don’t want to afford their products and services anymore.

We the People  can do things to let “Republicans,” Democrats, and people in positions of authority know of our dissatisfaction.  We can, of course sign petitions and email our representatives at every level.  Probably more effective might be calling our Representatives as well as senators and making demands of them as they are still our employees. 

• The main Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121.  
• - The Line for comments at the White House is 202-456-1111

I have called about important issues to all of them.  I am hoping that if a lot of people call, they will clog the phone lines and emails to make a difference for the people around the world who are now suffering because a bunch of toddlers have invaded our government under the guise of an elected president and what should be qualified government employees.

Then we must support independent media that are not owned by those same corporate entities who are OK with the destruction that is now being perpetrated on the American people.  Local newspapers and news sources are a good start as are online services that have a strong reputation for honest reporting.  We all need to work together to stop this or, as Ben Franklin once supposedly said, “We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

HYPOCRICANS NOW ARE A PARTY

by Ruth A. Sheets

This morning, I heard a snippet Of Trump’s speech to the Black community at Temple Univ. yesterday.  My response, what a hypocrite!  It takes gall for a convicted criminal to lie about crime in Philadelphia.  I remember having written a blog about hypocrisy a while back, called “hypocricans.”  I thought I had written it about 5 or 6 years ago.  I looked back through my more than 13 years of blogs.  It turned out I actually wrote the blog a bit over 11 years ago.  I find it interesting, perhaps a little amusing that I remember a particular blog from so long ago, then I read it and realized it is at least as relevant now as back then.  I pass it on to you here.  I have updated it in a few places, but, I have left it intact.  I have italicized the updates.  I would love to know what you think and if there is anything we can do about this blatant rarely reported hypocrisy on the part of trump and friends. 

Whenever an election season comes around, folks begin talking about third parties.  I want to get a head start.  I have a modest proposal for a third party, or rather, a second and a half party.  I would call them the “Hypocricans.”   Iin the past 11 years, I have come to see that we don’t need a third party when the “Republican” Party has taken over the Hypocrican role.  That works because they need their position clearly articulated.

In order to be a member of this party, one must meet a variety of rather strict criteria.  But, these criteria are DOABLE and I suspect that there are a great many people who could join tomorrow.  OK, about 70 million of them are already members in “good” standing.

1. A member must want only to associate with people who believe the same things he does.  This is very important because it can make a person uncomfortable to have any beliefs challenged, and God knows a lot of folks can’t bear to be challenged on anything, especially related to their cherished beliefs. 

2. Members must not have an original thought.  Original thoughts can alienate those one would like to emulate.  It might make others think a person is too smart (elite) to be included in their set, and that would be a tragedy.

3. Members must be male or hold to the “honored” tradition that white men are superior to everyone else.  We know that a lot of women, and a few people of color have this essential value, so, for a while at least, there will be a strong pool to draw from.  It is not clear why anyone not white and male would want to be a Hypocrican, but I bet it has something to do with preferring to be a big fish in a small pool (the small pool being the number of prominent women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ persons in the Party.  Not much competition!

4. Members must despise, distrust, and/or fear women.  Passing legislation that limits women’s rights and ability to choose helps to keep the female gender in its place and to keep males dominant.  Effective propaganda makes even many women fall wholeheartedly into line.  That is not enough, though.  it is necessary for these women to condemn their sisters who value choice and won’t march to their beat.

5. Members must be Christian, assuming that our founding fathers were all Christian (no matter the actual religious faith of George, Thomas, Benjamin, and the others).  Only Christians truly have God’s ear and know exactly what God wants everyone in America to do.  In their heart of hearts, they must know that God has ordained them to be His army on earth.  I call these folks “pseudo-christians,” because they follow few if any of the basic Christian principles.

6. Members must hate “Big Government.”  That hatred, however must only extend to programs that help people who are poor, struggling, aging, disabled, unemployed, uninsured, and children.  The role of “Big Government” is to enforce the values of the hypocricans:  big military, Big Money, Big Brother in the bedroom, Big Security watching everyone everywhere (if you’re doing the right thing, you won’t care who sees you doing it).  Of course, there’s no problem with “cop cams” that just happen to be off when they shoot a Black man)

7. Members must hold forgiveness in high esteem.  That forgiveness, though can only come after tearful, if not too sincere apologies for infidelity, extortion, embezzlement, influence peddling, insider trading . . .  And, this forgiveness wipes out all previous offenses, but only for members and their supporters, the true believers.  

8. Members must LOVE guns.  Despite all evidence to the contrary, members must KNOW that guns are the only way they can be safe.  Members will adhere to the “keep and bear arms” clause of the second amendment, but carefully forget the “well-regulated” or “militia” parts of the same amendment.  And, it is OK to have bump stocks, assault-style weapons, and to openly carry, unless you’re Black, of course.

9. Members must believe that science is a hoax and that nothing science or scientists have to say can be counted as true unless it directly helps the military, provides drugs to improve members’ lives, or contributes to members’ comfort and convenience.  NO VACCINES!

10. Members must know how to make mountains out of mole hills when minor problems arise within the opposition administration:  Ben Gazi, IRS targeting a few right-wing organizations to be sure they really are “Social welfare” not political, tapping phones of a few journalists.  They must also know how to make mole hills out of mountains when they are being held accountable:  outing CIA agents, starting wars due to a series of lies (so what if more than 4,000 Americans died, it was for the security of America), not showing up to help minority victims of a natural disaster, remember Katrina and Puerto Rico.

In short, Hypocricans must value hypocrisy above all virtues but not admit to it.  There are a whole lot of people who would make terrific members.  I nominate Sara Palin, Mitch McConnell, John Boener, Michele Bachman, and Marco Rubio (as the token minority figure along with Ted Cruz and Tim Scott).  I also nominate Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and the other 4 conservative Supreme Court justices who lie regularly, make up laws, accept cases they should never hear, take good care of businesses rightly accused of criminal behavior, yet claim impartiality.  Then, there’s Donald Trump and his family!  I’m guessing Karl Rove, Roger Stone, the Steves, and the Heritage Foundation with its “Project 25” will design their platform for them.  Rove’s had a lot of experience and anyway,  he is a charter member.    

It is obvious we have only moved deeper into Republican hypocrisy over these past 11 years.  When I wrote this originally, I was reminded that I should not be name-calling.  I have decided that might have been good advice back then, but when a man is running for president who regularly breaks the law, is a convicted criminal, and only avoids standing trial for other even more serious crimes because of “friendly” judges, yet claims to be a “law and order” candidate, the party he leads is “Hypocrican.”   This former president, while in office, pardoned criminals who helped him commit the crimes, has established lying as a critical criterion for being a leader in his “Hypocrican” Party, it is essential to call a thing what it is, and Republicans are hypocrites, so renaming the party is fair!  Besides, “Republicans” are no longer in favor of maintaining our Republic.