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!

LETTER TO MY REPUBLICAN SENATOR

Dear Sen. McCormick,

Below is a copy of the repeated email I have received from your office every time I have asked you to reconsider a nomination by Donald Trump for high office in our government.  You call these nominees "disrupters" when in reality, they are for the most part incompetent, inappropriate for the job they are nominated for, and many are accused of serious crimes.  It seems to me they are people who are being approved to serve the coup Donald Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk are conducting against the American people and our nation.  Yet, you keep mouthing that Trump should get his picks.  When or in what condition will our nation have to be in before you actually show concern for the people of Pennsylvania or anywhere else?  Or, is there even a point at which you will stand with and/or for us? 

I get it you only ran in Pennsylvania to get more power than your current at the time money could provide for you.  You did, however take an oath to defend our Constitution and I am not seeing any evidence of that.  What does an oath mean to you?  I hope something positive, but who knows! 

You should know that Kash Patel, nominated to head our FBI  is not a "disrupter" unless you consider a criminal who wants to use the FBI to attack American citizens as Pam Bondi as AG is proving to want to use the DOJ for, is a disrupter.  I am guessing you have been ordered to vote him in.  Now, here is the question, will your integrity permit you to vote for this entirely anti-American enemies lister as head of the FBI or will you comply with your orders from Trump and Musk, your actual leaders rather than the people of Pennsylvania?  Will you consider your Christian command to love your neighbor as yourself as including loving the people of this nation and vote against a man who wants to work to destroy people's lives for his own benefit and the benefit of those who care nothing for things and people beyond the money and power they can accumulate?  I am guessing you have neither courage nor integrity.  I wish you would prove me wrong, but I know, I know, it's not likely.

R.Sheets

Here is a copy of the original letter I have received several of the times I wrote to McCormick about the various nominees.  This is the most recent.

February 14, 2025

Dear Ruth,

Thank you for contacting me regarding President Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Your feedback is important to me as we work together to shape policies that benefit Pennsylvania and our country.

As I have said, President Trump has nominated a team of disrupters to deliver on his promise of change, and historically Presidents of both parties have tended to get their preferred teams in place. At the same time, as a United States Senator, I take seriously my constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent on the President’s nominees. 

I have had one-on-one meetings with most of the President’s Cabinet nominees to discuss their qualifications and to raise issues important to Pennsylvanians. I have also questioned the nominees who have appeared before the committees on which I serve and reviewed the hearings of others.

President Trump deserves to have a strong team in place to make America safer and more prosperous. Please know that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate works through the confirmation process for each of these nominees.  Following these confirmations, I will continue to engage with members of the Cabinet on what is best for Pennsylvania.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve our great Commonwealth in the United States Senate. I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this important matter. I am always grateful to hear from my constituents. 

Sincerely

Dave McCormick

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.”