A DICTATOR DICTATES - WE DO NOT HAVE TO COMPLY!

by Ruth A. Sheets

Yesterday was World AIDS Day.  You probably didn’t know that and were not reminded because Donald Trump decided the United States was not going to commemorate it, as though it doesn’t exist.  I was surprised Trump even knew there was such a thing as World AIDS Day (he probably didn’t).  The cadre of hateful folks around him, Trump’s Toddler Pool spends their time finding ways to get their “boss” to demonstrate their hatreds and his.  Folks like Steve Miller, Russell Vought, JD Vance, mostly rich white men want us to think of AIDS as the gay disease that was around in the 1980s and nothing more. 

Donald Trump and the Pool also want to rewrite American history, science, and medicine to place white men at the center of everything, to dismiss everyone else as just burdens white men have to bear.  They decide which laws they will follow and ignore the rest.  They threaten to “hang” Democrats who remind our military and intelligence communities they are required not to follow illegal orders.  They blast small boats out of the water in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific supposedly because they are transporting drugs (with no proof), even killing survivors, all of which are against American and international law.  The Pool and its “leader” desperately want to be seen as powerful enough to dictate everything to the people of this nation, even what is truth.

Their super rich “friends” like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and a few others have bought up our media, online, in print, and on air and have been working hard to shape it to whatever story Trump and the Pool want told and with the language they will approve.  Clearly these media owners are getting something for sacrificing their integrity (if they ever had any).  I think it is being “in the room where it happens,” or rather making sure they have a hand in what happens in that room.  For that “presence, they will cover only what Trump (and the Pool want covered, a win-win for them and a lose-lose for the rest of the American people. 

They have dictated that climate change (global warming) is a hoax and threatened Republican members of Congress that they must vote for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” even though there is nothing positive in it for their constituents.  They told Republicans in Congress to cut funding for public broadcasting, libraries, museums, infrastructure programs, mitigation of climate change, and more, whose funding congress had already approved.  In short, I can’t think of a single thing Trump and the Toddler Pool have done since gaining office nearly a year ago.

We the People are not helpless.  We can communicate our opposition to our representatives at all levels and vote for those who have our interests in mind.  We have participated in significant protests, the most recent “No Kings” event brought 7 million people out to say “no” to the dictator would-be-king.  Conservative school boards around the country have been replaced with boards that do not want their curricula and practices dictated by people who are ignorant of nearly everything.  The uninvolved have stepped up to protest cuts in SNAP, Medicaid, unaffordable healthcare, issues which have touched them personally. 

People in our cities have been standing in the way of ICE as the illegal law-enforcement troop drags people from their homes, cars, and off the street  and disappears them into appalling prisons and concentration camps.  People are standing with and for neighbors they didn’t know before.

Workers are demanding unions and not accepting the treatment that current bosses are dishing out.  Young people are demanding better on the job and off.

People of many faiths, ages,  and backgrounds voted for a young mayor, Mamdani,  for NYC, and plan to work for the issues he stands on.  The idea that there could be housing, child care, and public transportation for everyone is spreading.

We must find ways to reach out to people who see the world differently from us and hear about their needs, their dreams, and what keeps them supporting a group of folks who care nothing for them and prove it on a daily basis.  We can’t impact the world view of people if we don’t  understand them, and with understanding, we can encourage them to fight with us for things we have in common, our nation for example!

OBVIOUS DETERIORATION – DOES IT MATTER?

By Ruth A. Sheets

The polls keep going up and down, but tell us Trump is leading or tied with Harris.  I am sorry so many Americans have decided they would choose a fumbling, deteriorating, old, fascist, bad businessman to be their presidential candidate and a whiny inexperienced white boy Vance for VP.  What are those people missing in their lives?  Is it they like having a man like Trump giving them targets for their frustration, even hatred?  Is it that Trump’s supporters are furious they don't have everything they could possibly want, while others have a little, but not what they think they deserve? 

Donald Trump and crew now spew racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia  with no apologies because they know they don’t need any.  Their "Jim Crow" style of name-calling, blaming, intimidating, threatening, terrorizing, is designed to do as much arm as possible while hardly getting their hands dirty. And they are getting help.  Over 150 years after Black men and 100 years after women got the right to vote, in so many states of the former confederacy and among confederate wannabees, those votes are regularly challenged, even suppressed by Republican legislatures and governors, on behalf of a man and political party that are falling apart, incapable of governing themselves, let alone this nation. 

White Americans are reminded over and over of their superiority which works well for a lot of frightened white folks and their families and friends.  Encouraging people to believe they have some kind of innate superiority should be unacceptable to everyone, but alas, in 2016, more than half of white women voted for a misogynistic man who was sure he had the right to grab women “wherever.”  I heard some women, white of course, say they would let Trump grab them wherever he wanted.  Why? 

Trump gives Whitedom targets:  women, people of color, and immigrants to malign, blame, fear, even hate.  Such rhetoric should be seen as despicable by everyone, but alas, many cleave to it, and their child-man Donnie Trump is loving the attention.  I bet Trump now has little sense of what he is saying in general, but loves that the crowds (small though they be) are cheering for his offering of the usual mix of lies, whining, and sidetracks.

I continue to wonder if Trump is wearing an earpiece at rallies and interviews, being prompted with the usual targets, the expected vocabulary, taunts, and insults.  I suspect Steve Miller and a pit crew of expert liars who manage Trump’s rallies.  They transmit the necessary/expected lies and misinformation on Trump’s rants.  The “handlers” know well how easy it is to get Trump to spout what they need spouted plus whatever comes into Trump’s mind at any moment.  The recent anti-FEMA rants of late come to mind.  Trump had no clue what he was talking about, but spewed it anyway and the crowds loved it despite that at least some of them may have had homes or property in the storm zones. 

Trump supporters just can't see that that rambling whining toddler-man cares nothing for them or anyone else and it is not he that is running the show.  It is people like Steve Miller, the other Steves, and a bunch of power-hungry privileged mostly white men who have only their own interests and vengeance as guides, as well as their desire to do harm to those who don't bow to them or do it quickly enough. 

Then, there's our mainstream media whom we should be able to depend on for integrity and non-partisan coverage.  We have not seen that non-partisanship in our media for decades.  For some reason, they have cleaved to Trump and his cronies and can't let go even though Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have more productive plans for this nation as Hillary Clinton had in 2016.  We need to find a way to spotlight the corporate-driven assault on our democracy in our media and beyond.  We could start by demanding our media call out the corporations trying to buy our candidates and elections, make it clear that our Supreme Court is responsible for allowing, even encouraging unlimited money in elections (Citizens United 2010), and vote and encourage everyone we know to vote for Harris-Walz and all Democrats on the ballot.  They are the ones who actually do care about us all and stand against the hate, fear, and assault on our democracy.  We have less than 3 weeks.  We could make this election an event for the whole American family to participate in and a chance to really make this nation a better place to live for all of us.  We could!

THE RELIGIOUS WHITE RIGHT

By Ruth A. Sheets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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