WHAT’S UP WITH REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS THESE DAYS?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Nearly every couple of days in the past few months, maybe way longer, news comes of another law being passed in a red state legislature and quickly signed by its governor that can and should be described as mean, even cruel.  I can’t help but wonder what is going on that red legislatures have become instruments of social warfare wielded by state governors with the state’s citizens the targets.

A lot of that social warfare has been going on in Florida where Gov. Ron DeSantis just has to nudge the state conservative legislators and it will be law, whatever DeSantis wants for his own personal vengeance, fear and hatred of the other, and some as yet, unidentified reasons.     These are not laws that are needed, as DeSantis claims.  They are laws of personal and political grievance.  The mostly white men among Florida’s conservative legislators don’t seem to have a problem with advancing the DeSantis fearmongering and hatred.

One would expect in a vulnerable state like Florida, the legislature’s attention would be on planning to cope with global warming, improving health care for the people of Florida, considering needed modifications to farming and fruit industries, preparing for the huge seaweed mat heading toward the coast, countering flooding challenges, or ending Florida’s food insecurity, the real problems facing the people of Florida.  Why would any legislature neglect the real problems to serve their governor’s whims?  That’s the question! 

I have been pondering for several years, since Trump was “elected” president, that any semblance of concern for the American people on the part of the Republican party seems to have drifted into oblivion.  It appears cleaving oneself to Donald Trump as leader requires sacrificing one’s moral compass, caring little or nothing for the people one is supposed to be serving, and finding ways to use cruelty to achieve questionable goals, goals which are rarely if ever stated, but must be present since so many Republicans have latched onto them.

The current targets of Republican legislatures, women of child-bearing age, the LGBTQ community and transgender youth in particular, Black citizens, asylum-seekers, public schools, and minority voters do not deserve this Republican vitriol.  I do wonder how Republican legislators get away with it and keep getting elected.  Here are a few potentials I am currently contemplating.

1. Voting suppression has been underway in the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabee states for a long time.  There is still a lot of resentment concerning the 1865 loss.  There is some kind of romance tied to the “Southern cause” that feeds a whole lot of ugly attitudes and behaviors.  Gotta still blame certain groups for the loss.

2. The current business world is obsessed with fascism, controlling other people,  making employees accept whatever pay bosses say is what workers deserve, and the unwillingness to pay their fair share of taxes.  This led to huge wealth in the hands of a few and many of them finance conservative white Republican legislators at all levels, as long as they do what the rich white guys want.

3. Evidence has shown that children are vulnerable to  indoctrination.  Republicans see that as an avenue for gaining power when they know the things they stand for are unpopular.  Go after the schools, public schools, of course, and dictate what is taught there under pain of dismissal, even arrest.  Few real teachers want to teach only what Republicans want taught if they have a choice. 

4. Book banning is a selling point for Republicans because one does not even have to have read the books they want to ban.  It just has to have a suggestive title, cover art, or author of color.  

5. Conservatives are obsessed with sex in all its forms.  Can’t teach sex and no discussions of menstruation for girls, I guess because ignorance for girls is bliss.  Getting teens pregnant works well for Republicans too.  Hey, in 13 years or so, those forced birth children can fill the factories of the legislators’ donors.

6. Evangelical and Roman Catholic Christianity in the United States has taken a turn toward support of fascism (which they call religion), claiming god tells them that people who don’t look like them, experience the world like them, and believe what they do are to be suppressed.  There is a history for them to follow.  1920s and 1930s Italy and Germany come quickly to mind.

7. Perhaps, when a political party chooses to follow a leader who has no moral compass, its leaders will see as acceptable, even valuable;  grabbing women’s bodies without consent; openly voicing racism and misogyny and expecting people to see it as normal; being uninformed and lying as often as possible, even tens of thousands of times, knowing they will rarely be challenged on the lies; inciting, supporting, or participating in an insurrection and 28 months later still not charged for it; stealing secret documents if you can get away with it, lying about having them, then claiming to have the right to them, expecting no charges.   It seems political bad behavior is the way to go to get power and attention and to avoid accountability, and Republicans are practicing every day. 

8. Red states have been heavily gerrymandered and the Supreme Court has said “OK, as long as it is political.”  (Gerrymandering is always political SC conservatives!)  So, the state legislatures have Republican supermajorities because the state’s people have been groomed to vote only “R” despite the fact those super majorities have done little to nothing to help them and have no intention of changing.

9. Hurting people works for a lot of folks as long as the targets are not themselves and their friends and families.  Since many white people in the red states have only white straight friends (or it seems that way), passing “bathroom” bills that force people to use the bathrooms of their birth gender, keeping trans girls from playing girls’ sports, denying care for transgender kids and youth, making drag shows illegal, keeping trans adults from getting care, taking over cities whose populations are mostly Black, make sense to them.  What happens when those targeted groups find ways to make the pain less, figure out how to get around Republican bullying?  Will Republican legislators move to inflict greater pain?  Will they trump up more crimes they can charge members of those “hated” groups with?  Richard Nixon and his team did it through their “war on drugs” aimed  at “Hippies and Black Americans” (part of his “Southern strategy”).

10. Hate, fear, anger, and resentment are powerful emotions that get adrenalin going.  Maybe people who have schooled themselves to feel very little can get high on those negative emotions.  To be truly effective, they need to be directed toward someone the person can convince himself/herself deserves their hatred.  Following up the hit of adrenalin, they can move to passing bills that will in some way hurt that target.  I suspect a broad smile lights up their faces as they enter their votes to inflict what the Republican legislators see as righteous pain.

11. Republican legislators, at least some of them know what they are doing is wrong, or at least they have a tiny twinge in the back of their mind that it is unamerican, unconstitutional, but they do it anyway.  When one of their target groups dares to challenge them, they will make the person(s) pay.  We saw that in Tennessee when the Assembly voted to expel 2 Black representatives for standing with protesters at the Assembly’s inaction related to gun violence after 6 gun deaths at a school not far from the state Capitol.  The Black legislators were reinstated by their cities.  Then, Montana did the same when the transgender representative dared to tell them their bad actions would cause harm to trans youth among whom there is already a high suicide rate.  She was silenced and is now suing because the action of the legislature is unconstitutional, first amendment, that free speech thing.

12. Our Federal government Republicans are also behaving badly, holding our economy hostage so they can seriously cut programs that serve disadvantaged people:  elderly, poor, disabled, American veterans.  That is shameful, but they are on a roll and will do as much damage as they can before the people stop them.  I just hope it isn’t so much damage that it cannot be repaired.   

This legislative violence started out with the goal of doing harm to the groups they planned to target.  Some groups were added later, like trans kids, but the writing, as they say was on the wall.  Each law has ancestors which took away bits of citizens’ rights.  Legislatures required Black drug users greater sentences than white ones using the same drugs; they put all kinds of conditions on abortion, who could get one, how long they would have to wait, the kind of invasive procedures would have to be done to the woman first, what kind of facility could house abortion providers, parental consent, etc.  Despite the Constitution giving every citizen the right to vote at age 18 and up, states began chipping away at those voting rights:  need I.D.s the Republican legislators would approve, voting locations limited in districts that are heavily minority or Democratic, permitting only specific people to use mail-in or absentee ballots and somehow those privileged people would have to deliver the ballots themselves, gerrymandering became very precise, surgically cutting up districts to give Republicans advantages they did not deserve, you get the idea.  

These ancestor laws have morphed into what is going on in the red states.  Texas and a couple of other states are incentivizing citizens to rat on people they think are getting or helping someone to get abortions and some state legislatures want to execute women for having abortions (sound like Russia, China, North Korea)!  They are also threatening anyone who crosses state lines to get an abortion.  (can we say “obsessed?”)  For those same red states, being transgender is a crime and parents who help their desperate children get trans care are abusers, criminals.

Colleges and universities are not allowed to make their fragile white students uncomfortable learning about diversity because, let’s see, white people want to pretend they are the only people on Earth who matter?   Everyone else is a potential servant or slave? 

I think, as I have for a long time now that conservative white people are scared, scared all the time.  They know in their “heart of hearts” they are no better than anyone else, which is why they have to keep feeding themselves with the Fox Not Nearly News lies.  They need to hang together in legislatures and pass appalling laws that will hurt those people they know are just as good as they are.  They warp Christianity to fit their equally warped world view, essentially creating god in their own image. 

All this effort by bigots like DeSantis and the other conservative white legislators and governors have one slight upside.  Democrats and independents are starting to wake up to the fascist laws that are descending on us.  People are talking to each other trying to figure out how to do an intervention to treat Republican insanity. 

Republicans no longer can be considered a worthy political party.  They lost that position when they let their racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, pseudo-Christianity take over their thoughts and actions.  I can honestly say, “these are not good people, even if they themselves don’t realize it.”  I hope a lot more Americans will come to see that and vote them out of office.  We all must do whatever is necessary to get registered to vote and swear an oath to ourselves that we will vote in every election and vote for people who care about us and this nation.  That would be a start.  There are lots of people out here to help.  Call out Uncle John or Aunt Mary when they make racist, sexist or other unkind remarks and remind them that we’re all people of equal value, even them.  We can make things better.  In fact, we have to before global warming makes us all irrelevant.

APRIL IN AMERICA

By Ruth A. Sheets

In recent years, when I have been in a group of colleagues and one or more is a Black man, the topic of The Police inevitably comes up; something always seems to slide us into that discussion.  They almost casually mention that they actually feel fear when they see flashing blue lights behind them.  My former boss told me that even though he was not a very regular churchgoer, he would pray first, that they were not planning to stop him and second that if they did stop him, he would come out of the encounter alive.  I think my first thought would be, “what did we do? Or What do they think we did, not, will I come out alive.  I have read police officer comments as to why they shot a Black person at a traffic stop and the defense I have noted most often, “he was reaching for his gun” or “I was afraid for my life.    

It seems many White men, and some white women in America are scared, scared all the time and in some way perhaps, are angry that Black people have caused their fear.  Those particular white folks may just be afraid that if more people of color and women enter their space, they might not have the privilege they won't even admit they have.  They are afraid everyone will know what everyone already knows, they are no smarter, wiser, more worthy than people of other "racial" groups.  That is a hard pill to swallow.  For some, such “equality” might seem inferiority. 

Throughout history, at least since the 15th century, we have as a society let white men believe in their own supremacy and have reinforced their beliefs.  We women have been right there supporting them, sometimes to get along, sometimes to survive, sometimes to get a taste of the power the men have by virtue of their being white men.  

During the “Age of Discovery,” white men went to places they had never been and encountered people who looked different from themselves, not as civilized, you know.  To many of those white “explorers,” the people they met were ripe for exploitation in their quest for “god, gold, and glory.”  They hardly hesitated at all to enslave as many of the people as they could.  When those they found first didn’t function well in slavery, they looked elsewhere for people they could make do the heavy lifting while the white guys got rich and so did their kings.  Slavery was not new to landed white men.  It was practiced all over Europe.  The enslaved persons were called serfs, peasants, and other terms, and those rich landed white men knew just how to work them.   

When money is pouring in, few in authority will question the practices that bring in the bucks.  Sound familiar?  All sorts of cruelties were perpetrated on the enslaved persons who could do little if anything to stop it because they were enslaved for life unless freed or escaped.  The law sustained the enslavers, not the enslaved.  That continued long after the end of slavery in this country. 

When Black persons were declared full citizens through our Constitution, by 1870, white men continued their cruelties and were rarely, OK, almost never held accountable. Our troops didn't intervene when the government of Wilmington, NC was forced out by white men because it was mixed racially. No one was held accountable for the thousands of lynchings "at the hands of persons unknown," even when the persons were known, often the legal authorities themselves.  The massacres in Tulsa, East St. Louis, Rosewood, and other communities were dismissed as “there was violence on both sides.”  Sound familiar?  

No one at this late date is going to prosecute the white descendants of the murderers of Black Americans from the past, so how is it the white fear is still so intense, even greater than decades ago?  Many have speculated that electing a Black President, Barack Obama, could have launched us into a post-racial America, but in fact, reignited the fear and a bunch of white supremacists stoked the flames.  One of the most prominent “stokers” was Donald Trump.  Trump portrayed himself as a super-rich white guy, man of the people, neither of which was true.  His public persona attracted a lot of interest from other rich scared white  men who knew just how to use him to get power, ultimately they got the White House, Supreme Court, and Congress, and a whole lot of money changed hands, and a whole lot of damage was done to our rights.  Those rich white mostly men knew Black people and other people of color really scared conservative, evangelical “Christians” and used their fear to build a movement with a crude, ignorant, lying, cheating old man at the center. 

A lot of the Trump supporters grew up during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and witnessed daily, the myriad of incivilities perpetrated against Black Americans and actively participated.  Their families made it clear they didn’t want to live near Black people, worship with them, work beside them, swim in the same pools, go to the same schools, and the rest.  The relatives of the current white supremacists carefully nurtured their fear and hatred as their parents before them had done far into the past, blaming Black Americans, Jews, and other people of color for any obstacles they faced in procuring “the American Dream.”  The fear and hatred of the others became habit and it will require serious thought and positive action to change such habits, if white men even want to change.   

Today, people of color including Black men are finding positions of significance in our society, and that terrifies some white men, making them angry and scared, resentful that someone they don't like and feel is inferior to them has something they don't have.  Those scared white men and a few women attacked our Capitol on January 6, 2021 and have participated in mass shootings as the gun wielders.  Some have been held accountable, but for far shorter sentences than what I suspect men of color would have been given.

The rogue Supreme Court has even further weaponized white folks by gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and overturning Roe v. Wade so those white men in red state legislatures could wreak havoc on the Black community, particularly women.  The Court also told states they can't control gun possession and whether a man can carry a gun in public (only white men, of course).  Police all over the country have been given free rein to do harm to Black people through qualified immunity.   

Every night on the local news, the first 10 minutes or so is about the latest shootings in the city and surrounding area.  It seems to be set up to look like what Republicans are claiming, that Black crime is up in cities, implying that white fear is reasonable.  Alas, scared white people, crime rates in red states and communities are higher in general than in blue areas.  I suspect they have an explanation for that too.  There has to be an explanation because the truth does not fit with the scared white male world view.  And, that warped world view is carefully shaped by the Republican lying machine which is pumped up to keep white people on edge and to influence the Trump-hypnotized to talk, plan, and do violence to others, especially if they can do it with no accountability or can just blame Democrats. 

One of the figures who has been an important source of the generated white fear, Tucker Carlson, was fired from Fox (Not Nearly News) on April 24th.  It was not because he regularly lied to his viewers, spewed racism and misogyny,  or because he spread conspiracy theories, rumors, and “encouraged” violence, not on your life!  It was because he had become a liability.  It came out that he didn’t believe most of what he was saying on air and people found out.  Then, there were the sexual harassment reports which could lead to more suits.  Yep, it was the threat of losing money that Rupert Murdoch, Carlson’s boss couldn’t stomach.  I am sure someone else will be coming to replace Tucker who will be just as disgusting and fearmongering, maybe he’ll believe the lies he is telling.  The viewers certainly will.

It is time We the People start to ween white men off the milk of superiority.  They need to stand on their own two feet without people they see as inferior constantly being forced to tell them how wonderful they are when all they are is white.  Those scared white men can learn from the many many secure white men who don’t get their value from keeping others down.   They don’t need others’ suffering to ease the fear that has been manufactured for them by other white men who only want to use the energy fear, hatred, and anger produce.  We the People need to begin this process because the scared white men are even more dangerous now as they try to turn our country into a dictatorship run by rich scared white men with everyone else as inferiors to be used and abused at their whim.  We had better immediately be about the work of curbing the tendencies of scared white men if we would save our society and our planet in time.

TRUMP IS RUNNING! BESIDES GROANING, WHAT CAN WE DO?

by Ruth Sheets

Here we go again!  Trump announced a couple of months ago he is running for president in 2024.  to tens of millions of Americans, that sounds like a good idea and they can’t wait to vote for him, again.  

This is despite, even because of Trump’s being charged in a New York Court for financial crimes following a grand jury’s investigation.  Trump’s fan club, OK, cultlike collection of followers want to blame New York DA Alvin Bragg for charging their hero or, doing his job.  Bragg is Black (something I didn’t know until the day Trump was actually charged in New York City).  Trump supporters have sent DA Bragg death threats, maybe part of their 2024 intimidation strategy.  Racism, though, is definitely a major element of the cult’s anger with DA Bragg, though they can’t quite admit it, but seem to embrace it.  

Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio is trying to interfere with the legal process, wanting to challenge the state court’s work.  Jordan, you’ll remember was one of the guys who made questionable deals with Kevin McCarthy so Kevvy could be elected Speaker of the House back in January (15th vote).  Jordan gets to lead at least one major committee in the House, not because he is qualified or talented, or cares about the truth and finding it, but because it gives him power and was part of the “deal.”  He thinks he can use his position to undermine DA Bragg and get charges Trump has earned, dismissed.  

Jordan, like so many Republicans in Congress clings to Trump’s coat tails because he sees a path to his own higher ambitions.  Remember, part of that ambition involves holding our economy and that of the world hostage by not raising the debt ceiling.  Then, there’s destroying or seriously injuring Social Security, Medicare, and any programs that support those who are not wealthy in our society, who don’t have the wealth Jordan and his cronies have.  Those guys know ditching social programs is not popular, but they think that? Trump will help them do it.  They have come to believe that because while president, Trump did encourage and eventually sign a huge tax cut for the very wealthy which has raised the national debt and kept many of the most wealthy from paying their fair share of taxes.  As president, Trump could do that again and Jordan et al can help him. 

I can understand that rich white men want another Trump administration.  They benefited from the many large and small alterations in the regulations dropped and manipulated by the various governmental agencies under Trump.  The tax cuts added to their personal and corporate wealth too.  What I, and many others have not understood is the ordinary Trump cult members’ fascination for their guy.  Even when the cult members are asked about their support, they have trouble articulating their reasons.   To those of us outside the cult/Republican Party, Trump shows little to no concern for this nation, for our democracy, for the American people. He is totally wrapped up in himself and his fantasy world, where he can do whatever he wants without question and with impunity, a toddler's world where the parents are so fascinated with their child they can't bring themselves to discipline him, a dysfunctional family.  I would think that no person who cares about their quality of life wants to live in such a world.  I am clearly wrong about that.  I must be missing something. 

From the outside, it appears Republicans/Trump loyalists have sculpted their cult into a group of desperate whiners who can see no solution to their supposed trials and tribulations that does not involve bowing to a damaged toddler-man who promises to take away all their suffering and grievances.  He hints that he will do that by destroying those who supposedly caused their pain and lack of wealth. How is it the mainstream Trump faithful cannot see that if they keep worshipping this toddler-man and force him upon the rest of this nation, what they will get is far more suffering than they can ever imagine. The survivors of the Holocaust could explain it to them, but since they have been trained not to listen to anyone but Trump and his crew of right-wing media, some of whom believe the Holocaust either didn’t happen or was justified, they will neither hear the words of warning nor the words of truth.  

A main source of information for the Trump cult is Fox “News.”  It is clear from emails and memos that the on-air and management Fox crews do not like Trump, but lie regularly for him to viewers, with no qualms about doing it.  Fox advertisers are OK with the lying too and keep pushing their products to the Fox-enchanted viewers because it brings in the bucks.  When money is involved, truth can become irrelevant.  The cult will never believe the scope of the lying at Fox and the other ultra-right media outlets.  And, Trump will remain a hero for them, one who was wrongly charged by a “racist” DA who hates white people.  

Fox “News” continues to lie to viewers that the January 6th insurrection was just a peaceful tourist visit to the Capitol and emphasizes that Trump’s illegal activities never happened.  The Fox manipulators still tell folks that Trump won the 2020 election.  They neglect to report that the 2020 election was most likely the safest, best run election in history, at least in the swing and blue states where everyone was carefully watching, and Trump lost.  Fox “News” is being sued not only because of their incessant lying and gaslighting, but because that deception put a corporation and its products at risk, Dominion Voting Machines.  Why would so many Americans want to stand behind such a despicable media source and any candidate Fox “News” endorses?

I attended a webinar this week about the importance to humans of belonging.  It occurred to me that a major part of the Trump attraction may not be Trump per se, but the need of the cult members to belong to something that lets them feel important.  They have created a community in which they can comfortably air their grievances, be as anti-“liberal” ideas as they wish and find others who share their feelings, be as white-exclusive as they choose, knowing in their heart of hearts that people of color are just not nearly as worthy as white people are.  For them, standing with a loud-mouthed, rich white man who insults people, lies incessantly, cheats on his taxes, blames everyone for everything, etc. can feel exciting, and may let them feel special in ways the rest of their life doesn’t.  At least some of them truly believe Trump is telling the truth, when they think of truth at all.  They bask in Trump’s diatribes and are grateful Trump’s rants are not directed at themselves, but at people and institutions the cult would also like to malign.      

We the People have participated in what I consider, insanity because we never held Trump and his entourage accountable for anything they have done.  Some of Trump’s cronies were sentenced for their crimes, but Trump pardoned them.  Trump was impeached twice, but Republicans just couldn’t manage to acknowledge his guilt which was obvious, even to them.  So, our courts are the only path remaining for this nation to keep alive the idea that everyone is equal under the law, and many of our courts have been stacked with Trumpers and Trumpettes who regularly try to rewrite the Constitution in Trump’s favor.  

Trump cult members think they will again take charge in 2024 and will be able to do whatever they want to whomever they want, particularly those “woke” people who want some kind of equity in our society. They may be right, but We the People may decide we want something different and start acting that way.  

There are some things we can do starting right now to bring about a better outcome than we got after the 2016 election.  We must:

- - elect good people who actually care, regularly asking candidates at all levels questions about where they stand on important issues and how we can know they are being honest with their answers;

- - get off our butts and vote in every single election, researching candidates and their positions, making sure we are properly registered to vote, know our voting location, and are aware of any questions on the ballot; 

- call out liars and haters on a regular basis – through letters to the editor, signing petitions, , challenging media when reports are inaccurate, deceptive, or not fair or balanced;

- support media that will keep printing, posting, and broadcasting the truth; 

- - sue or otherwise challenge the defamers who are trying not only to destroy our democracy, but also the lives of their fellow citizens, something not permitted in our Constitution’s “free speech” provision;

- above all, don’t give up hope that we can make a positive difference for our nation – lately, it seems Republicans want to toss out so many attacks on our society that We the People will lose heart and give up, but we don’t have to.  

The upcoming local and national elections will let us see what We the People have decided to do or not do.  Will we give up and not vote because we don’t believe anything will get better or will we vote in huge numbers, defeating those who would work to end our democracy?  Will we give Trump another chance to bring down our nation in favor of the guys he feigns to love:  Kim of North Korea, Putin of Russia, and Orbán of Hungary (I think Trump is not quite so enamored of Xi of China these days, but who knows!);

I have faith that if we all decide we want better for everyone, even the Trump cult, we will vote in some amazing young as well as older people to office and reject Trump and the Trump wannabees.  Now we must figure out how to make more people know that belonging to the “woke” folk is more nourishing and positive than belonging to the Trump cult.   

WHAT WE GET USED TO

By Ruth A. Sheets

I am always fascinated at the kinds of things we can get used to.  And, it often does not take much time for it to happen. 

I thought about this as I was reading a book, Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro.  It is about a group of students in a high school in Oakland, California.  The students attend an old, poorly maintained school in a working-class neighborhood.  Students had only worn-out textbooks and other materials unless teachers purchased things for their classes with their own funds.  Random locker searches are introduced as well as dangerous metal-detectors.

Students and teachers in the school have gotten used to bad lighting, broken-down furniture, broken lockers (kids have to rent lockers that actually work), and stained and missing ceiling panels.  Students doubt there is much they can do because the administration is used to things just as they are, (the kids need to be controlled, you know).  The district cares only about test scores, giving money only to raising those scores (or at least that is what they claim).  The police show up in riot gear with weapons to terrorize students for planning a walk-out to protest what is going on at the school.  They kill a student and injure others.  A protest against the treatment of the students is met with violence and another murder of a student because that is what police are used to doing, and with impunity.

I am thinking about what our society has gotten used to over  time and how little we even notice, unless personally impacted, it’s pointed out to us, or as activists we’re trying to change it.  Consider these  things we have gotten used to, most of which media promote, but probably shouldn’t. 

• - Helicopter parents today control nearly every activity of their children.  Even colleges and universities have become used to dealing with the constant parental interference.
• - Hospitals move out of cities into suburbs where there aren’t so many poor people
• - Guns are ubiquitous and “good” people have guns to take out the “bad” guys, right?  Tens of thousands of people die by guns every year.
• - Warm, almost non-existent winters occur every couple of years, and once-in-a-century storms and wildfires every few years too.  
• - Food from all over the world is available in stores all year round.  
• - White men are in power nearly everywhere and the fact that few women or men of color head big corporations is confirmation of white male superiority.  White male is the default setting for most decisions related to technology, medicine, science in general, industry, personal rights.
• - Oil is used for everything so will be around for a long time.
• - What is good for drivers supersedes what pedestrians or cyclists need.
• - Regulations are dismissed by Congress to soothe members’ donors.
• - Our media cover an ignorant, insulting, racist, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, xenophobic former president more than they cover the current president.
• - Gerrymandering in elections is just what happens and people in power won’t call it what it is, “cheating.”
• - People of color are regularly insulted, dismissed, belittled, excluded, treated like they aren’t really Americans.
• - Christian Evangelicals and Roman Catholics are a team that works to undermine the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons, claiming it’s god’s will.

- Rich mostly men are able to do whatever they want, with impunity because they have the sympathy and envy of the people they are hurting most.

- Unions are portrayed as irrelevant because businesses really have their workers at heart and unions spoil the relationship.

- Environmentalists are portrayed as ruining our economy because they are asking us to change too quickly, and just like destroying jobs and making trouble.

- Police act with little training, often letting their personal biases determine how they will respond to trouble, usually with few consequences if any.

- People won’t vote unless pushed into it because “it’s all crap anyway” or “nothing will ever change” or “they all do it.”

- Women will always have to fight for our rights:  bodily autonomy, equal pay, work accommodations, and just being included in our Constitution.

- Donald Trump will never be held accountable for anything he has done.  That goes for the rest of the Republicans who helped plan the January 6^th insurrection, lie about nearly everything, and threaten other elected officials.

- Blue and red states are so different the people have nothing in common.  Hate is inevitable. 

Just the way it is, right?  The question for me is how we came to accept the above, even though we complain about it at times.  

Social media, Fox Not Nearly News, and other media have distorted accounts of events and people for decades. Many followers of these media don’t realize that so much of what they have come to accept, was engineered to distract them, keep them from thinking about or challenging what was happening.  

How do we break up this collection of things we have gotten used to as “the way it is” and lessen the power of those who are undermining our society?  How do we ignite a fire under folks to get us all to stand up and say, “unacceptable!  this is not fair or just!”  How do we challenge our media platforms to do better, report more honestly.  What about our nation’s purpose “to form a more perfect union?”

We the People are not helpless if we choose not to be.  However, we need to come together to determine how to address the problems of what we have gotten used to.  We can change the “just the way it is” attitude when individuals, groups, communities, religious organizations, elected officials, and the rest of us stand up and say “I/We was/were wrong to go along with this.  It needs to be fixed.”  Then we all have to take our citizenship in this country seriously and fulfill its most important requirements:  investigating what candidates for public office stand for, voting in every single election, holding our elected officials to account for what they do in our name, and securing the rights of all Americans, not just the rich, white, straight male ones.  That’s a lot, but certainly doable.  Some additional things we might try could include:

1. Question what we see anywhere in the media.  When something comes up that seems either too good to be true or just nonsensical, find sources to either confirm or reject it other than the place we found it first.  Be slow to believe what we hear and read.

2. Contact our representatives often to let them know what we think, and expect them to listen.  We need to demand they set aside their personal biases when pushed to limit people’s rights.  Citizens’ rights and needs should have priority over corporate, religious, political, or other factors.

3. Keep ourselves up on what is going on in our communities.  It is harder now that so many local newspapers have been closed or absorbed into corporations that care nothing for local news, but it can be done.  Attend town/city/borough council as well as school board meetings and listen to what the officials are saying and how the community is responding.  Speak our piece if we feel moved to do so. 

4. A few things we should keep in mind when communicating are

 a. Be well-informed about the topic before speaking at a gathering. 

  b. Don’t insult anyone or call names. 

  c. If challenging a person’s position, restate the position and then respond to it, point by point why there is disagreement, even problems with the person’s position.

  d. Don’t let lies just slip by.  A lot of lying is unchallenged and sometimes becomes what a whole lot of folks come to see as the truth.

  e. When responding to online comments, be informed, civil, and to the point, as much as possible.

  f. Just because we like a candidate or official, don’t assume he/she is always right, cares about our needs, or doesn’t need our interference.  We can reevaluate.

  g. When there is a conflict, go with science.  It usually is more accurate than our feelings.  Check out scientific reports too, find the information in more than 1 reputable place.

  h. Fox “News” has admitted its pundits and others regularly lie to viewers and do it knowingly, almost gleefully.  Don’t get important information from them.

  i. Some people believe poor people are poor because of their own actions and that rich people are just so great they did it by themselves.  Both views are wrong, so don’t bring it up. 

Well, that’s a start!  Just because we’ve become used to something does not mean it is right or just.  We can do better!  Every one of us has the power to improve life, not just to make ourselves more comfortable, but to increase the quality of life for our neighbors and beyond too.

SOME SCARY SIMILARITIES

By Ruth Sheets

Lately, things in the good old US of A are getting a bit scary, and that is on purpose.  One of our political parties, Republicans, has decided that democracy might not be what they want for America.  The party and its corporate managers want something else.  It is not clear just what that would be, but they are throwing spaghetti ideas against the wall to see which stick. 

OK, calling what Republican leaders are throwing against the wall, “ideas,” is probably inaccurate, but the truth is, what they are tossing with the greatest arm strength are ways to ignore our Constitution, how to lie incessantly and break laws with impunity, models for cheating the American people of our rights, while gaslighting their supporters and the rest of us that they are doing no such thing.  You’ll probably remember that gaslighting comes from the movie “Gaslight” in which a husband tries to drive his wife mad by changing lighting levels and other things around the house and either pretending he doesn’t notice the changes, so they must be all in her head or that she must have made the changes herself and doesn’t remember. 

Republicans no longer hide their racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, or xenophobia.  These have been integral to the party for decades but what used to be said behind closed doors is now spoken openly, while practitioners claim “I don’t have a racist/sexist bone in my body” or other inaccuracies.  Then, We the People are told we really didn’t hear what we heard, see what we saw, and aren’t being threatened the way we are being threatened.  The Republican in Chief brags of violence erupting if he is indicted on charges for crimes he actually committed.  He doesn’t admit the crimes or simply claims he had the right to do them by virtue of him being president or just being Trump).

We’ve seen some of the Republican-inspired violence at Charlottesville in 2017, the attack on the US Capitol in 2021, and smaller outbreaks all over the country.  Now, Democrats and anyone who does not go along with the Republican playbook of lies, hatred, targeting, and dehumanization of women and non-white people, often receive death threats and warnings. Trump himself warns that if he is elected president again, he will take revenge on all of those terrible people who crossed him.

To me, this is sounding an awful lot like Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  The economy was bad after World War I and the people’s anger and frustration were carefully funneled into blaming and hatred of Jews, despite the fact that Jews had fought on Germany’s side during the war, were making significant scientific advancements for their country, and were integrated into nearly every part of German life. 

When the fires of hatred had been sufficiently stoked by Hitler and his band of thugs, they moved on to maligning political figures who opposed the newly powerful Nazi Party.  When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, he had those political leaders rounded up and thrown into prison camps, those who were not killed.  Once Jews were safely on the nation’s hit list, the Nazis needed more groups to hate, so the net expanded to include:  Communists; the Roma people; Jehovah’s Witnesses; “homosexuals,” then, disabled persons as burdens on society.  The thought must have been that everyone in Germany would find at least one group among the many targets they could hate sufficiently to permit harm to be done to them.  

The horrors the Nazis and their allies perpetrated on the people named above did not begin all at once.  Those in power had to do it a bit at a time so the German public could get used to seeing Jews and others, men, women, and children, at first humiliated, then beaten, then murdered in the streets.  When the trains rattled toward the concentration camps filled with those Germany had decided had little or no right to live, neighbors might notice some folks missing, but they could lie to themselves they had just left the country for somewhere else.  And, the freight trains were carrying trash, right?  It seems we humans can convince ourselves of just about anything with the right motivation.  Hitler et al could not have done what they did without a whole lot of community participation.  Many Germans after the war said they didn’t know what was happening.  I suppose they thought it made their post-war suffering seem undeserved, even righteous.  They may not have known the details, but they knew enough. 

Our current position is at the top of the slippery slope toward some kind of autocracy or oligarchy (it is uncertain which Republicans and their rich puppeteers are hoping for).  Either type of government would be disastrous for this nation.  Loud-mouthed Trump painted a picture of revenge that soothes the hearts of people who believe they are entitled to something they don’t yet have.  Clearly if they don’t have everything they want like the rich men they admire, someone must have kept them from it, sounding similar to the propaganda that was ubiquitous in 1930s Germany.  In both cases, the leader claims to be the only one who can save them from this horror. 

 German media played classical music while regularly breaking in to spew lies, both the positives the leaders were supposedly doing and the negatives about the targeted groups.  All day into the late evening it played.  One could be fined for not having the radio on.  That’s kind of like Fox for many Republicans, twisted/alternate facts, all day, all the time, (no good music, though).

 Our media, owned by rich corporations rather than a corrupt government as in Germany, is failing our people as the media of Nazi Germany failed the German people.  Our media claims to be “fair and balanced” even when it gives as much coverage to an extremely minor, unsupported viewpoint as to a viewpoint that has a strong majority, even scientific support.  Whatever Donald Trump, an ex, twice-impeached president does or says is covered extensively by the media, often with no indication as to whether what he has said is the truth or what he has done is legal, a continuation of a practice for the past 8 years. 

By the mid-1930s, the German courts no longer even pretended to hand down justice, just the rulings Hitler and his crew wanted.  Our courts are acting in similar ways.  They care little to nothing for what the American people want or need, mostly what matches their personal beliefs and their corporate donors’ desires.  One might think the Supreme Court, having lifetime appointments and decent salaries wouldn’t get donations, but alas, there are plenty of corporations, in exchange for judgments on their behalf that will donate.  Who can call them out on it since there is no standard of ethics for the Supremes?

Last year, the media spent more time worrying over who leaked the Alito draft of the anti-woman, anti-Roe BS at the Supreme Court than what pain the decision would cause women in the poorest states with the least ability to withstand forced birth.  It was clearly Alito who leaked the anti-Roe draft to his family or friends.  He was just so proud of his poorly reasoned, ignorant draft he just couldn't stop himself.  His targets, women of reproductive age.  The Alitos in our society are still going after women and our right to bodily autonomy.  They hope this will all be taken care of soon and women will be properly cowed.  Like the Germans, once one group is dealt with, move on to the next target to keep the people off-balance fearful they might be next.  Scared people can be manipulated. 

Trump and Kump’s next target is the LGBTQ community, trans children and youth in particular, vulnerable young people who often require some medical intervention and counseling to manage their gender dysphoria.  Through laws passed by mostly ignorant, pseudo-Christian legislators, families and doctors are threatened with severe fines and imprisonment if they treat trans young people.  Women protested after Roe fell and are trying to find ways to get around the rabid red state white legislatures.  Some people are standing with trans youth, but who will help get those young people what they need when basic medically proven treatments become illegal and unavailable?  We have seen the “drag” community targeted in several states as though “drag” is a new thing.  The Germans didn’t like “drag” much either and stomped on that too.

We have seen the police brutalize communities, kill young Black men just because, break up peaceful protests, and other tactics used by the German police 90 years ago.  Back then, people who spoke up were often silenced while the police became more and more powerful and unethical.  Sound familiar?   

The really scary part for me is, what’s next?  Which states will begin the killing?  Imprisoning folks for almost nothing, including inability to come up with bail, is already going on.  White men (only) are encouraged to have guns and the laws in many places now let them open carry with no permit or background check.  All they have to do, just as the police have been doing, is say, "I feared for my life," when they shoot someone they don't like or approve of.  Children are murdered in schools, but somehow Republicans just can’t manage to outlaw military-type weapons in the civilian community. 

Some members of our congress are insurrectionists who claim the various elections have been stolen when they are clearly lying.  A representative, albeit from a backwater part of Georgia, says she wants a civil war and with others, is trying to get things going.  The House of Representatives has as Speaker, a fool, Kevin McCarthy who wanted the Speaker title more than he cared about our Constitution and our nation and proves it every day in office.  The media seemed mostly OK with this.  Congressional Republicans were OK with McCarthy’s handing over classified materials to an insurrectionist media madman.  How is this acceptable?  This too parallels the Nazi rule. 

German corporations weren't too concerned about what Hitler was doing as long as they were bringing in the bucks.  Heck, they even got the slave labor of Jews and the other hated groups to keep them going while "the boys were at war."  If fascism happens here as some Republicans would like, would our corporations be right there, thinking up ways to use their fellow American citizens for their corporate profit and other benefits?

We the People need to find ways to stop a repeat of the suffering of 1930s Germany here.  We can't wait and hope things will blow over.  There are already a bunch of scared white people who believe they deserve power over those they think of as “non-humans.”  Why, they should be able to make them servants (slaves maybe, or dead).  I am guessing many of the MAGAs would be happy to participate in harming, mass-imprisoning those people, a few at first, then more and more of them over time to get even, for something they wouldn't have to name. 

Many conservatives/Republicans don’t want students or really, anyone to study the holocaust.  Probably, it’s because if we study it, we will start to notice the scary similarities between what happened to get the horrors going in Germany and the taking away of citizen rights here and now, , the rights to:  vote, bodily autonomy, medical care, be LGBTQ or whatever we are meant to be, affordable housing, seek asylum, learn the full flow of American history, read books we choose, have dependable media, know the truth without the lies and gaslighting  by Republican politicians.  It's time for the downward slide into ignorance and cruelty to stop!  We can’t pretend we don’t know what’s going on!

A NOTE TO AMERICAN PROSECUTORS

By Ruth A. Sheets

The Roberts Supreme Court conservatives did a lot of damage to this nation when they overturned the 50-year precedent Roe v. Wade last summer.  They knowingly let Americans see that the Court conservatives care nothing for precedent, will go after any rights they don’t personally or ideologically care for, and put many women’s lives at risk.  Women, particularly poor women and women of color of reproductive age are vulnerable to the whims of old white men who dominate the legislatures in the former Confederacy and confederate wannabee states.  By declaring that there is no constitutional protection for abortion the SC conservatives could depend on those old white red-state guys and their surrogates to do their dirty work of taking away women’s rights.  The SC conservatives, if asked, could lie, ”It wasn’t us, the states decided to outlaw abortions!”

Alito and friends were well aware of the make-up of red state legislatures as he/they “researched” and wrote their pathetic decision.  I suspect Alito, and possibly the other conservative justices gloated silently when Alito leaked (“accidentally” let someone, maybe his wife, get hold of the draft) nearly 2 months before the actual ruling came down.  The final document was nearly identical to the draft, which means Justice Alito and his crew didn’t even have to clean up the poorly-reasoned, poorly-written draft.  Why, because Alito had succeeded in informing the red states of what was coming so they could be armed and ready with legislation, and they were.  In reality, he and the other SC conservatives just didn’t care about quality.  Only their supposed victory over abortion mattered.  The mostly male and one female justices had little concern for the havoc their ruling would cause so many women and families.  They dismissed the fact that a majority of  American people do not agree with the decision.  That’s a lot of not caring!

This is Women’s History Month when women are supposedly celebrated.  Most women are not feeling celebrated this year.  More states are targeting women’s right to bodily autonomy, mothers are threatened for providing help for their trans and non-binary children, and trans people and drag queens are being criminalized.  Women still face harassment at work and in the public sphere, earn less than men, and very often live the double role they have been expected to live if they choose to work outside the home. 

The problem for conservative men is that women are everywhere and are chafing at their assigned roles which are usually seen as less valuable than the work men do.  Women run the households:  care for the children and the spouse if there is one, care for older parents, do the shopping and meal preparation, clean the home, and on and on.  These tasks are not so hard, right?  And, why should a woman need or want more?

However, in addition to all that, our economy depends on women holding down jobs:  teaching in our schools, nursing in our hospitals, doing the grunt work for businessmen, the jobs women were permitted gradually over time.  They did this while men did whatever it was men did. 

What a blessing that women were not satisfied to stay in the roles men and their female helpers laid out for them.  From ancient times, some women ignored the narrative and acted for themselves, their families  and their communities, often putting their lives at risk. 

In American history, how many know of Ida Wells Barnette, Antoinette Brown, Alice Paul, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, Phyllis Wheatly, Deborah Sampson, the Grimke sisters, Edith Wilson, Ella Baker?  These women were pioneers in moving into the male world, doing what men do.  We don’t know the names of the millions who were doing the same kinds of tasks as these amazing women with little or no recognition:  taking care of pregnant women, growing herbs to soothe those who were ill, fighting for civil rights, spying for and serving in this nation’s military, protecting their neighbors, rescuing people from danger, and leading from behind and beside the throne.  I think these women’s consistent actions scared and continue to scare men and some women, especially those in power.  If women can help each other plan and end pregnancies, limit family size, and support their children in positive ways to grow into the adults they are meant to be, they may not be as easily controlled and manipulated as in the past.  Can’t have that! 

Since last June, I have been frustrated that there have not been larger, more vocal protests from women to the uncaring, misogynistic, racist, homo/transphobic, pseudo-Christian actions taken by our Supreme Court’s and state legislatures’ mostly white male conservatives.  When I finally stopped to think about it, I realized what a monumental task it is for women just to balance all the components of their lives.  Where would the energy come from to participate in the high-level protests for bodily autonomy that are needed?  Unfortunately, the anti-abortion crowd has the momentum at this moment, draining the energy of a significant portion of the population, those striving to put out all the fires right-wing ideologues have started. 

Therefore, women of child-bearing age are going to need a whole lot of allies among older women, men, and people in power to carry a lot of the weight.  The media will be of minimal help because of their warped “balancing act,” trying to cover as many anti-abortion figures as pro-choice persons even though there are many more pro-choice, even pro-abortion Americans than anti’s.

That’s where local prosecutors can really help.  You all can quietly dismiss cases where the people who bring the suit or complaint have no standing (not directly involved with the women they are accusing).  You don’t need to shout what you are doing to the heavens because there are a lot of haters out there who will go after you, bring even harsher laws against women, and force you to act against them even when you know it is wrong to do so.  The old white men who are legislating want to keep women down as far as possible.  You need not help them. 

Let’s be honest, those old men are ignorant of women’s lives.  They will never know the hell of being forced to carry a fetus that is seriously impaired or dying.  They will never feel the pain of carrying the fetus of a rapist or incestor.  They will never have to face needing an abortion because their own life is at risk and their doctor fears treating them.  They will never be denied medication for a chronic condition because the medication might end a pregnancy.  They will never know the pain of trying to figure out how they will manage to care for one more child when they already have 3 or more.  They won’t have to try to figure out how they can afford the prenatal care and birth of the baby when they have no medical insurance.  They will not find their education or career in jeopardy because they are pregnant.  Those who are passing these outrageous laws have no clue, and don’t want one.

We need you prosecutors to help to nullify the Supreme Court ruling which should never have happened in the first place.  We need to stop these self-righteous a-holes who had the gall to cite Medieval and 17th century bigots who were OK with killing women as witches to affirm their decision to take away a woman's right to bodily autonomy.  That is insane but what can one expect from old white guys who hate women, a Black guy who was put on the SC as a slap in the face to African-Americans and a misogynistic white woman whose appointment was shoved through to squeeze her in before the 2020 election to stir up the base?  On the current Court, there's a credibly accused sexual offender and a sexual harasser, a chief justice who cares nothing for the law he claims to know so well and convinced so many people he did.  (I guess a pretty white boy can convince nearly anyone of anything.)  The wives of Roberts and Thomas are activists against policies that one would consider democratic.  There is more, but you all get the point.  These right-wing justices do not represent the American people, just a minority, the ones  who are closed-minded, hate science unless it is specifically helping them or their family, think the Constitution can be twisted to say whatever they want it to say while claiming they are “originalists” who know the Founder’s minds, believe in witches and outrageous conspiracy theories, and see women only as baby factories to be controlled.  

So, prosecutors, there was no pressing need that led to the anti-Roe ruling as there should have been if a precedent was going to be overturned.  Nothing had changed recently except that the majority in the SC became super conservative.  And at least 3 of the justices lied to Congress about their responsibility to precedents.  The Court’s anti-Roe decision represents the prejudices of 6 justices who think they are holier than anyone else.  You know they’re not, so prosecutors, be an ally to women in general and pregnant women in particular.  Abortion should be a woman’s decision with the scientifically-based advice from their doctor and other medical personnel.  You all could make a difficult life a lot easier by stopping the Republican war on women and our bodily autonomy.

Prosecute violence and vigilantism against women while ignoring the tattle-tailing and vengeance-seeking and hatred of women that could fill your community's courts if you permit it. 

You prosecutors could be the bulwark standing against the anti-woman nonsense the Republicans are pushing like a drug these days.  I guess fighting meth, heroine, and their other favorite drugs just wasn't enough excitement for Republicans/conservatives.  Don't prosecute women for seeking the healthcare they want and need.  Then, fight for your right to support them. 

We the People will be watching to see which of you actually cares about women (and human beings in general), by what you and other local officials choose to do or not do. 

Yo, Prosecutors, we need some heroes right now and we’re looking to you!   

CORPORATE GREED AND WHAT IT DOES TO US

By Ruth A. Sheets

Back in the 1980s, corporations noticed that their friend, Ronald Reagan would give them pretty much whatever they wanted, with little accountability.  Reagan didn’t start it, but really pushed  deregulation and the offshoring of manufacturing and other work to get poor foreign workers to do the corporation’s work for a pittance.  Too bad for us!    Corporations even got tax breaks for their trouble and for hurting American workers, although once moved overseas, they did not have to think of the American workers at all.

Jobs here were kept as lo paying as possible and regulations began dropping off, benefiting the corporations, but sometimes endangering workers, customers, and others touched by the operation or product.  We were told over and over, it was all for America and if workers wanted a job, they would have to take what was offered.  Unions began falling out of favor, being blamed for disrupting the “march of progress.”  Ronald Reagan and his Republican followers smiled at their success in making the rich richer and the middle and working-classes poorer.  They didn’t care much about the truly poor because, they were all welfare cheats, right?

The “good” jobs, supposedly being created from deregulation often paid poorly.  At least two salaries were needed to support a household, often more than two. 

As corporations, their owners, and CEOs became wealthier due to tax rates coming down and regulations going away, they began to see new ways to manipulate the economy and our government.   Their wealth let them support candidates in elections at every level.  When they found that to be very profitable, they began looking elsewhere to see what they could do using their money and the power that arose from it. 

The tech revolution happened while deregulation was ramping up.  Those new corporations were owned and operated by young white guys who got an idea, dropped out of college, and foisted their new ideas onto people who were looking for something new and got it.  They also got something old too, white men wanting to run their corporations with no oversight and no taxes, while demanding a nearly impossible work life from their employees.  The jobs usually paid pretty well, so workers sacrificed almost everything to meet the hyperactive CEOs requirements.   

Over time, Rich men and corporations looked to gain complete mastery of Wealth World.  They looked around again and realized they must be sure to win all legal cases brought against them and their negligent practices.  Deregulation was simply not enough.  They began subtlely buying judges, justices, and members of our Department of Justice so corporate cases would be regularly ruled in favor of the corporations.  Donations to The Federalist Society and other right-wing organizations let universities train young lawyers to be the puppets the corporations needed, some of those institutions, Ivy League, yep, the universities supposed to be educating quality lawyers who actually believe in the rule of law.  The training these future corporate lawyers received taught them to twist the law to make it say whatever their corporate masters wanted it to say.  They got really good at it. 

Those newly minted conservative lawyers rose in the corporate order and some became Federal judges, then justices of our Supreme Court under Republican presidents.  They did not suddenly become fair judges/justices who actually listened and ruled on the constitutionality of the case, but ones who bowed to corporate desires at nearly every turn, Constitution be damned!

Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court case that called corporations persons and said money is speech was their masterpiece.  The conservative SC justices claim to be originalists, but, we all know that’s nonsense.  There is no way any modern human being could possibly know what the Founders were thinking.  And, one thing for certain, none of our Founders would have thought a corporation (company) could be a person and would never have seen money as speech. 

Corporations wanted money to be speech so they could more easily pump money into buying more candidates.  Chief Justice Roberts and his Klan complied by contorting the First Amendment so it would look like the Constitution allowed something beyond ridiculous.

Under W. Bush, during the “Great Recession,” (2008-09), members  of both parties, approved a “bail-out for banks and other large corporations (too big to fail).  That money should have gone to mortgage owners so they could pay back what they borrowed instead of paying the banks who had caused the recession.  The banks and other collection agencies had no idea of what to do with all the foreclosed properties they now owned.  The ignorance of all concerned led to the destruction of neighborhoods and people’s lives.  A whole crew of hedge fund-type corporations came on the scene, contributing to the chaos, and are still around and guess what, doing chaos. 

Democrats did not pay sufficient attention.  There was only mild protest at the time and Democrats did little to counter what Republicans and their corporate owners were doing to our economy and our society.  With the courts’ blessing, Republicans began undermining the Voting Rights Act and passing all kinds of voter suppression laws beginning in the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabee states; allowing insurrectionists to hold office despite the Constitution forbidding it; corporate price gouging with impunity; corporations refusing to pay taxes, making all kinds of excuses for why they shouldn’t have to pay taxes; tech corporations permitting on their platforms, lying and misinformation that endangers people’s lives; American citizens being targeted for actions that should be no business either of corporations or our government and so much more.  Lately, Republicans have steered the corporate ship through the waters making sure it didn't matter what the ship ran into, it would have legal smooth sailing, and it mostly has. 

Our environment is in danger, mostly due to the actions of corporations, but corporations have found ways to evade the blows of responsibility.  They have picked up and mostly adopted a language of caring about the needs of the people and how they are ready to help (lies, of course).  They speak of equity and diversity and how important these are while still harboring toxic workplaces that are seldom challenged.  

Corporate officials mention "climate change" but only when they have to.  They encouraged avoiding the term “global warming” (which describes what is really going on), in favor of “climate change,” (which sounds softer and less scary). 

The corporations most involved are predominantly white-owned, white-CEOed, and white lawyered.  Despite their public words, they care as little as possible about the environment (since most of the people currently impacted are people of color and poor white folks).  Ocean rise, stronger storms, wildfires, and any of that climate change stuff, they erroneously believe won’t touch them because their wealth will keep them safe.  Wealth World will be protected for a while, but not as long as they think.  Their money, a lot of it is invisible and dependent on economies functioning.  Right now most economies that matter to American corporations are functioning, although closer to the edge than they have been for a while.  How often can one clean up after wildfires and hurricanes and for how long and still maintain a semblance of economic functioning?  Republicans have been complicit in letting corporations believe they are invulnerable (unless another bigger corporation wants to take them over). 

But, Republicans live in a fantasyland where members of the House of Representatives can lie about nearly everything with impunity.  Their Speaker can whine about all kinds of things that really don't matter in the long run because they meant nothing in the first place (Hunter Biden's laptop).  Congress Republicans can essentially ignore what corporations are doing and continue to do despite the damage to the planet.  Corporations are convinced they can't do anything to stop what they are doing  if they are to survive in their cut-throat world (which of course, they helped to create). 

We the People need to do a better job of educating the public about what is going on and what we as a people are investing in.  We need to show people just how precarious our climate situation is with real images and stop saying "we don't know if this disaster is just a 'normal' part of weather in this area or climate change."  It's all climate change/global warming now.  We need to remind parents, particularly white ones that if they want a positive healthy future for their precious children they have to start voting for people who actually care about them.  Having an "R" behind one's name is nearly a guarantee the person will not be someone who will stand with or fight for them.  Those “Rs” will most likely give even more advantages to the corporations who will do nothing until forced.  Money and power are their addictions both corporate and Republican, so it is hard to see how We the People can break through. 

We do have to try though, for the sake of those who come after us, the ones from whom we have borrowed this planet.  

Maybe it will take just one or two large corporations to stand up and ignore what other corporations are doing, and go in a better direction.  Someone needs to start it, though.  I would like to see pharmaceutical corporations stand up to the courts and keep selling and distributing abortion pills since we all know they are safe and effective, despite what a bunch of conservative white male judges/justices claim. 

Yo Democrats!  You could propose bills that would give incentives to corporations who actually do work to save our environment and want and value diversity in their corporate leadership and in our society.  We need a group within our government who can identify those corporations and note the advances they have actually made in those areas, not just what they have said and written in their reports which are often full of lies and unmet intentions.  It could work to move our nation toward properly regulating corporations and stopping the pathetic idea of corporation personhood and money-speech.  We could move toward corporate sanity.  Please, at least try it!