TAXES AND THE VERY RICH

By Ruth A. Sheets

August 26, 2026

The word that came into my mind when years ago I read about Republican negative responses to paying their fair share of taxes, since Reagan days was "GREED"!  It seems that once one gets more money than he needs, he MUST keep accumulating just to think himself successful.  One house isn't enough, he must have more.  When he has no interest in sailing, he must still have a yacht.  He never has sufficient funds, and thinks his brilliance deserves a ton of children by acceptable women so he can produce a super race (Musk).  If he doesn't think his corporations have gotten to where he thinks they should be, he will bribe or threaten the Department of the Interior to let him take over and drill, mine, log, or otherwise steal our public lands.  He leaves messes for the rest of us to clean up, while his profits rise. 

It never ends, and taxes just get in the way.  It doesn't matter that the white male oligarch and his corporations use the roads, the air space, the utilities, and all the other services of a nation, he just doesn't see that he should have to pay more than a pittance for the peons. And, you know, those peons just demand too much, so we had better cut out the waste (the peons). 

That is still not enough, so those super rich white boys need a paramilitary force that can intimidate everyone into doing whatever those rich white guys want in their rich-boy paranoia targeting:  immigrants, protesters, women, medical folks who provide services to the peons, journalists, and anyone who gets in the way.  The oligarchs need distractions to cover their “bad” behavior, so threaten and lie about trans women, people on the Mall in DC who touch the Reflecting Pool (they must have vandalized it), and an assortment of groups they believe they can use to pacify their MAGA base.  Let’s be clear, it is the oligarchs’ MAGA base!  

Through ownership of our media platforms, those whiny rich white child-men lie, gaslight, misinform, and most of all, disinform everyone that somehow the people are ignorant and need to be ordered about by somewhat attractive men and women whose only talent seems to be that they can read what they are given to read, ask the questions they are told to ask.  The people don't need rights, they don't need to vote, they do need to pay taxes though.  Everyone who doesn't look like Whitelandia is evil or a criminal, depending on the race or gender.  History and science are what those ignorant rich white child-men say they are. 

As one would expect, those super rich guys and their “partners” are nearly all Republicans because that party is easiest to manipulate and keep in line with money and threats.  Republicans under the thumb of the super rich buy candidates and rig elections, while claiming the rigging is all on the part of the Democrats/Communists/left-wing terrorists (all the same thing as far as MAGA is led to believe). They order their purchased legislators to lower taxes for the oligarchs whenever they can get away with it. 

Republicans prodded by the oligarchy heavily promote the myth of wealth which lets ordinary people think they will be rich one day too.   Therefore, they should support those tax cuts for the very rich to make them even richer, because they will be them some day.  There is next to no chance of that, but the myth lives!  It serves those childish rich folks to have a bunch of those wealthy-wannabee peons waiting on them. 

We the People need to stop this insanity!  The question is, HOW?  You might guess I would have some ideas; I do.  Here are a few of them.

• Show less respect for the guys I think of as users.  They use everyone to get what they want and somehow are called “brilliant” for doing it; they’re not, they’re users or in other words, “the takers.”  Among them are Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Theil, Vought, and the owners and CEOs of the other huge media and tech corporations.  They, however, see themselves as “the givers.”

If we are to put those oligarchs in their place, we have to act.

• We need to be aware of where the worst of them operate from, then boycott their operations as much as possible.  We make that boycott public so everyone will know who is being targeted this week/month/year.
• We must laugh at their antics as though they are little spoiled bratty children trying to rule the playground.  We must find ways to avoid revering them.
• Point out loudly, whenever possible, when the truth of their shenanigans has been revealed, that they need to feel shame for what they have done and/or are doing and stop it!  Maybe some strategically-placed signs or billboards would work.
• Journalists should dig more deeply into the activities of the whiny white boy oligarchs.  When the truth is known about their encroachment on people’s rights, or stealing of our public lands, or abuse of people in their prisons comes out, make it more than a one-day news item.  Then say things like, “we give them tax breaks and look what they do to us.”
• Get Congress to clean up the tax law, close rich white boy loopholes, and significantly raise the taxes on everyone whose income is say $10 million and above in a progressive manner as in the past.  Begin with Social Security which should be calculated on all income.  Even tax income that which comes from trading stocks and interest, EVERYTHING.  Maybe, if they have to pay a lot more in taxes, they might be willing to be more careful how they do business. Nah, but we will have more money for critical programs!
• Install a one-time say 5% wealth tax, call it something clever like dignity tax on all income over $2 billion, to be renewed in the future as needed to work down our debt and reestablish the programs Americans need.

These are a few suggestions for dealing with the insanity of people in power.  Whether in politics or business, they think the rest of us are either dust on their shoes or obstacles they need to kick out of the way.  We should not be willing to accept either role.  We need to  work together to end their bullying, then push or vote them out of power.  We have been victims of wealth abuse for a long time.  It’s time now to have enough courage to stand up and say “I’m not going to take it anymore,” and mean it!

A POSSIBLE DEMOCRATIC STRATEGY

By Ruth A. Sheets

There is an enormous amount of lying, cheating, theft, corruption, assault, and disregarding of our laws these days, and it is not done by the people we have been told all our lives are the criminals.  Who is doing this vast damage to our nation?  I call it Trumplandia! 

Many supporters of Trumplandia just want their cut of the spoils.  That is not likely to happen when one considers the level of greed involved with the members of Trumplandia.  Their goal is to rule the United States of America so they can continue to accumulate the wealth and power they crave.  Everyone else is just a pawn in their game or a minion to be used and abused at will.  All of this is clearly an abuse of the American people.  Trumplandia with all its oligarchic support and influence works really hard to hide as much of it as possible behind more lies, insults, blaming, incompetence, and whatever money can buy.  Since these folks pay as little in taxes as they can get away with while stealing government contracts and collecting interest on our national debt,, they have a lot.

I hope we can keep the Trumplican misuse of the American people in the forefront of this midterm election.  It is critical.  We must name names when we have them to let the people know who is orchestrating this appalling attack on our democracy:  Trump, Miller, Vance, Vought, Musk, Bannon, the members of Trump’s cabinet, Republicans in Congress, the Roberts 6 on the Supreme Court, state governors and legislators.  Trump is mostly in the background due to his dementia, but he is trotted out when Trumplandia has something they need him to say:  the war is over; we will obliterate Iran; I got Roberts to OK my ballroom and it is going to be the best . . . .; those criminals wrecked the beautiful reflecting pool,” for example. 

Republicans and a few Democrats in Congress, rubber-stamp the prescribed actions on behalf of Trump and the others.  I suspect they don’t even read the bills they are agreeing to because that might make their fractured moral compass start to nudge them a teensy bit.  Can’t have that!

They all want power and money and think their oligarchic buddies will let them in on the haul.  None of them realize that this insanity/EVIL has been in the works for a half-century and more and it has pushed deep into our lives. 

Back in the ‘70s, it only involved a few power-hungry rich white men, a small number compared to the number of people on board now.

It is essential we expose this Trumplican mess to the American people throughout the entire nation.  Democratic candidates across the country in every level election can get the ball rolling, really fast if they try the approach used by Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Abdul el Said of Michigan. 

Those two and some others have taken to the offense rather than trying to defend themselves against the ridiculous lies and disinformation Trumplandia is tossing out, hoping some will stick.  The most important part is that Democrats must have a united plan  of aggressive action that all candidates will use, adapted for the local and state needs. 

Some of Trumplandia’s most appalling lies are tied to attacks on Muslim candidates with VP J.D. Vance throwing out insults and Nancy Mace saying that every Muslim including candidates is a terrorist.  How does one defend against that insanity?  One stands up proudly and claims Islam as their faith and moves right on, as Omar, Mamdani,  and el Said have been doing.  Then, they hit their opponents hard, with the truth about our economy in stories of peoples’ actual struggles compared to what the “poor” abused oligarchs and their rich friends whine that they are going through.

In addition, rarely mention Trump’s name, but allude to him often as the contrast to the people’s actual issues.  Use phrases like, “You’ll notice that the guy in the white house blames everyone for what he has done while the American people work hard, care for their families, and try to live our democracy while experiencing the results of our Republican congressional inaction or actions designed to do harm to us all.

Then, with humor and empathy,  describe a list of a few of the presidential, congressional, judicial, and oligarchic injustices against the American people and give specific, easy-to-follow examples and the names of those who are participating, particularly those at local, state, or federal-level that people will recognize.  Ask a lot of rhetorical questions:  What do you think of a man  who would leave department heads and journalists on a decoy plane while he took a woman with no credentials, Natalie Harp with him on the "escape plane?"  A few more such questions might be:

• what kind of ‘commander-in-Chief’ would leave sailors in a ship for 9 months without relief on the open ocean, living in appalling conditions, then tell us all that wasn’t long enough;
• why are Republicans so worried about the Epstein Files that they won’t force the DOJ to release all of them as ordered by the courts, Congress, and the president’s signature, and won’t continue investigating Epstein’s collaborators who did enormous damage to the lives of many women and girls;
• who is Natalie Harp and what right does she have to be so close to Trump and advising him when she was never vetted or passed a security check – could she be a plant for a foreign or corporate entity;
• y were Republicans OK with DOGE invading our government and wrecking departments whose job it is to keep us safe, like the Food and Drug Administration that used to inspect for parasites and bacteria on our food;
• why is a paramilitary, ICE allowed to roam our streets, masked and heavily armed to murder, kidnap, separate people from their families and jobs, and run concentration camp prisons for innocent immigrants of color? 

Add, “Inquiring minds want to know!”

You get the idea.  With all the current issues, candidates can find which work best with which audiences.  Iin short videos on YouTube and  social media, in interviews on MS-Now and Substack, and on billboards, flyers, bumper stickers, etc., make comparisons, point out the injustices, the racism, the misogyny, the xenophobia, the homo/transphobia and how those are being used to divide our nation by the representatives of Trumplandia, for their own purposes of course, you know, the old “divide and conquer” tactic.

Our Democratic candidates as a whole must stand up for all of us, not just their donors and rich, white, men as Trumplandia’s candidates do.  Find out the voting record of opponents, then show where the candidate stands on the critical issues and how you know. 

Because we deserve better than what we have running our country with almost no limits on their corruption, Democratic candidates must step up and be their kind, decent, empathetic, competent, intelligent selves, who do honestly want the best for their constituents and this nation, no fakes.  We did that with Manchin and Synema and this time we need to try to keep such self-interested people out of office if we can, although at this point, it is really a bit too late.  Next time, though . . . .

We Democrats do have weapons; it is time our Democratic candidates ignore the "oligarchic quid pro quo donors' wishes" and tell the truth and stand for what is right.  Most of all they must hold the American people, our democracy, and our constitution as paramount, all the time!  IT’s doable!

IS THERE A LINE REPUBLICANS WON’T CROSS?

By Ruth A. Sheets

I can't help but wonder, nearly every day, where is the line that Republicans won't allow their Baby Donnie to cross, and will stop him? 

- One would have thought it would have been when Musk's DOGErs ransacked our government offices and agencies, or when they stopped nearly all government aid to the desperate people around the world who are suffering from treatable diseases as well as severe hunger. 

- It might have been when Trump demanded that they put in place massive cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and other critical programs. 

- It could have been when Trump put massive tariffs on our allies as well as others for no honest reason. 

- Maybe it could have been when Trump started a war, completely for personal reasons which has cost probably at least $100 billion and killed and wounded thousands in Iran and who knows how many of our own military personnel. 

- It might have been when Trump had a significant part of the white house that he thinks he owns demolished for a gaudy unnecessary ballroom and used our taxpayer money to "decorate" the white house.

- It should have been when Trump and Miller unleashed an army of thugs called ICE on our communities allowing them to commit murder, to run concentration camps, and force innocent immigrants of color to die in custody because, I guess it is fun for those naziesque bratty toddler-men  

- It should have been when Trump tore up a lot of the grounds near the white house and beyond for his personal birthday party and used the mall for a sham "state fair," then wrecked our reflecting pool. 

- It could have been when Trump and his personal DOJ/FBI stole documents from Fulton County, GA and threatened other states and cities too, Democratic of course.

- It could be now that our service men and women are being treated like dispensables who should still serve who knows how much longer on ships that are in terrible condition. 

- Maybe now it will be when Trump tries to deny American citizens the right to vote, ignoring our constitution as he tried to do by getting rid of birthright citizenship which is clearly the first sentence of the 14th Amendment. 

- And, it could also be now when Trump is trying to turn his crypto scam into an official bank. 

Does anyone think any of this will be the stopping point for Republicans?  Not likely!  They have known for many years that Trump is suffering from dementia and that on top of his inability to think clearly and reason, they pushed that he be able to run for office after committing insurrection.  It seems the only way to stop this insanity is to get Democrats, Republicans who care, and Independents to vote in huge numbers this November, so many that if there is AI interference as in 2024, it will be found out and countered. 

Republicans can't or rather won't stop their Baby Donnie because they are getting a whole lot by staying in his corner, probably mostly from the oligarchic donors.  Thank you Johnny Roberts and your Supreme 6 for ignoring our Constitution and giving an utter fool immunity so he could commit his collection of crimes against this nation.  You all are complicit along with the entire Republican Party!  

OUTLANDISH ATTACKS ON THE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

By Ruth A. Sheets

Last Tuesday’s column by Heather Cox Richardson on Substack was difficult to read because it presented many false claims about the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History (NMAH), stated by Trump and his minions.  I worked 4 years at the Smithsonian, and found it to be a remarkable place, fairly trying to present an honest overview of our past.  I served as a volunteer weekend docent at the Museum of Natural History.  I guess Trumplandia hasn't gotten to that museum yet; they describe evolution there!  (OMG!  How can they stand knowing the truth!  Oh wait, they can’t!) 

It is clear the truth about American history is not what Trumplandia, in its ignorance and fear of reality wish to know.  If NMAH were telling the full truth about White America, and had enough space to do it, those whiny white boys and girls of Trumplandia would learn of some real horrors. 

• the tortures and murders committed from the beginning, against Native peoples because white men wanted their land and shaped the law to do whatever they could to get it, even driving whole communities from their land and holding massacres regularly. 

• The museum would show enslavement as a business proposition with torture chambers for any enslaved persons who didn't do exactly as their "masters/owners demanded, including amputations, beatings, and tortures that my brain just can't contemplate and my fingers can’t type here. 

• It would show the massive rapes committed by white men on enslaved women, Native women, and nearly any other women white men could get hold of without being accused of rape, even their own wives. 

• The museum would show the white male use of religion as a cudgel against women and poor folks to make them believe that being treated like slaves, like dirt or ignored altogether was god's will and tolerating it would get them into Heaven, along with their abusers, of course. 

• They would see how the people of Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and other locations were beaten into submission and white men put in charge of those people's lives.  Now Cuba is being blamed for American unrest?  Are you kidding me! 

• No, the United States was not where the beginnings of the end of slavery happened; it was Britain, then Spain.  Brazil kept enslavement after us, but we only had it "officially" dumped after a horrific war led by white men, half of whom thought slavery was god's will and doing massive harm to Black and Native people somehow drove out their savagery or something.    Whitelandia still can’t all agree that people of color are worthy American citizens.

• The museum would have the myriad of inventions by Black Americans, examples of the architecture designed and build by Black Americans, the foods that came from the creativity of Black women trying to figure out how to use everything they could to survive.  There would be the evidence that often white men claimed those inventions and innovations as their own.  It would also show the effective Native farmers’ use of the land in contrast to the ways white farmers along with drought caused the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. 

Some of this information is in the Museum of African-American History and the Museum of the American Indian.  I am guessing the Museum of American History for Trumplandia is supposed to be the white male museum.  Well, white male American history is incomplete, violent, sometimes has some courage, some invention, some creativity, but a whole lot of violence and dismissal of everyone who is not rich, white, and male, pretending that white men did everything by themselves; of course, they didn't and the "supporters" were not just enslaved persons, handmaids, and apprentices.  They were full actors in the history of America!

I thank Historian, Heather Cox Richardson for spotlighting this.  It took a long time for me to read the disgusting lies being told about NMAH’s curator/director who knows far more about America's history then the entire Klan of Trumplandia combined.  Then Republican Reps. Mace and Boebert had to prove their anti-woman Bonafides to please their master, Donald Trump.  The writers of the ridiculous anti-Smithsonian report got all the buzzwords in:  slavery, transgender, founders (about whom they know nothing), and demonstrated their racism, misogyny , xenophobia (all of which they protest the museum shows when it is they who exhibit them every day).  These are trigger words for the ignorant MAGAs who want so badly to believe they are superior to everyone else when they are just mediocre whiny white people who have privilege but can't stand anyone else having anything.      

Signs are being produced that will be posted outside the National Museum of American History.  They will tell everyone to go to other museums to get “the truth.”  I hope the employees and visitors to NMAH will look at those signs and be reminded of the utter ignorance, power-grubbing nature of those who forced them to be posted.  I hope people will just laugh out loud when they see them.  That might be the best way to handle this childish toddleresque sign-posting.  JUST LAUGH OUT LOUD IN FRONT OF THOSE SIGNS, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!, EVERY DAY, then march right into the museum to learn about us, the American people! 

PURSUING A HERO

By Ruth A. Sheets

In the years since COVID, Trump, Senate Republicans, and others have been trying to prove some kind of criminal activity on the part of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long-time head of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.  His service to our government spanned 54 years in both Democratic and Republican administrations.  It seems, just as one might expect from today’s Republicans, they would prefer to ignore science and truth in favor of their chosen beliefs in conspiracy theories while they perpetrate their own conspiracies.

Anthony Fauci is a true American hero, although he would not say that about himself.  In his half-century of service to this nation and the world, he helped to save hundreds of thousands of lives, probably far more than that.  I can't think of one Republican in office who is now trying so hard to smear Fauci's name who has saved even one life, and has most likely been assisting in the deaths of many: 

• allowing US-AID to be dismantled (by a troop of unelected DOGErs), an organization whose loss is probably responsible for 700,000+ lives lost in the past 18 months;
• supporting utterly unnecessary but destructive wars in the Middle East -at least 4 in the past 37 years;
• sitting back while our military blows up small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 200, claiming they were running drugs, with no proof;
• permitting a masked, heavily armed paramilitary force, ICE to terrorize our communities causing havoc, disruption, and murder, dragging off the streets, people who have lived here often for decades, and just gave that poorly trained bunch of thugs  a huge financial injection of money to do more;
• keeping concentration camp prisons operating in the United States where the imprisoned, nearly all innocent victims are being treated far worse than decent people would treat animals, where they die of torture, beatings, and lack of medical attention;
• permitting a bunch of sex traffickers who hung out with Jeffrey Epstein to have their names concealed while outing and dyssing their victims leading to more than one suicide;
• encouraging American families not to be vaccinated for horrific diseases because a total ignoramus RFK,Jr. was approved by Republicans in our Senate to be in charge of medical research and vaccines. 

Republicans, following the orders of an old fool with dementia should be ashamed of themselves for targeting Dr. Fauci.  I do know that one of the qualities necessary for anyone in this administration who has any authority is that they MUST do whatever their ignoramus of a leader, Donald Trump and his white house toddler pool of Vance, Vought, Miller, Musk, Bannon, and the rest tell them to do.  Actual logical thinking or rather thinking in general is not permitted.   

I had the honor of hearing Dr. Fauci speak about HIV/AIDS nearly 40 years ago at a conference and to briefly meet him.  He and his colleagues were working hard to understand the disease and find ways to fight it.  He listened to people living with HIV/AIDS and his team around the world worked with them to get a better idea of what the disease was and how to serve those living with HIV/AIDS.  Their efforts have led to medications that keep people with the disease living full lives, well, except in places where US-AID is no longer present and neither are the drugs the people need to live. 

We have medical men in Congress who are Republicans, yet they have done nothing to stop the white house assault on universities, medical research, and you know, the truth.

Last week, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky led a witch hunt trial against Fauci.  They called it a hearing, but the lies Paul and the other Republicans on the committee who have no clue, spewed,  were  about Fauci’s handling of the COVID pandemic and developing a vaccine, THE VACCINE THEY NOW SCORN WHILE SOME PEOPLE STILL GET SICK AND DIE.  The COVID vaccine was developed more quickly than anyone should have expected due to massive research on similar vaccines for 2 decades and Fauci was involved with that among many other TALENTED RESEARCHERS.  The utter ignorance AND HATE displayed by the Republicans at that “hearing” just proved that Trump and his fan Klub were trying to find someone they could use to distract the nation from Trump’s massive failures.  Those Repubs came off sounding like a bunch of bratty toddlers trying to bully someone they knew was better than they are. 

I have some advice to Senators and other Republicans who see Fauci as a worthy target of their ignorance and hate.  Drop your attacks!  Leave Anthony Fauci alone unless you plan to honor his incredible service to this nation and the world.   Then, work a teensy bit harder to become decent human beings yourselves.  That will take all the time you would otherwise use to pursue this ridiculous action against a real hero.  In the meantime, growing up would help too.

JOY IN THE MOMENT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Life is tough right now for so many and with little improvement on the horizon.  In this moment, it is critical that we all find moments, hours, events of joy where it occurs and not ignore it when it shows up for us.  I just finished the book "Joyful Anyway" by Kate Bowler.  She is a cancer survivor who has had numerous difficulties in her life and had to teach herself to take in joy where it is, often unexpected, unprepared for, and startling. 

I have been trying to do that and it truly helps since I plan to stay connected with what this ignorant, heartless, blustering, hateful, disgusting Trumplandia is doing to us, our communities, our nation, and the world and respond to it wherever I can.  I admit that sometimes I find joy in responding to their toddleresque behavior with comments about them being rich white toddler-men with a few toddler-women on the side.  They have nothing positive to offer anyone and seem to get their "joy" from hurting others, particularly vulnerable people, people of color and women.  That’s just what one should expect of whiny bratty rich white toddler-adults who somehow never had to grow up. 

The reality is that if people who don't pay attention hadn't given them far more power than they deserve, they would be nothing, just small men pushing people around locally and seen for what they are, nobodies who deserve no power. 

When I need a lift, I imagine Miller, Vought, Mullins, Musk, Vance, and the flavor of the moment in one of the concentration camp prisons they have cobbled together to destroy immigrants of color and our communities.  (I don’t imagine Trump there only because of his serious illnesses and dementia.)  Republicans' backbones have been melted down to create Trumplandia.  The Pathetic Republican members of Congress have no place there because they are just fodder for those whose goal in life is to use people and to gain as much of everything as they can, and at everyone else's expense, even Congressional and state legislature Republicans and the MAGAs.  They prove this every single day.

Working together to build better after we have removed these appalling examples of humanity from our government is a strong source of joy, hope, and well-being, as are the commentors I follow like Prof. Robert Reich on Substack.  A couple of years ago, I attended online each week Prof. Reich's "last class" at Berkley on the economy, and learned a lot to add to what I had already learned from an amazing economics professor back in undergrad days.  It gives me joy to remember Prof. Shirley Newton, an extraordinary woman who believed and taught that the government and our economy should work for the people not just for the lucky and the rich. 

In these difficult times, for the sake of our mental and physical health, let's all go find joy; it's out there just waiting for us!  Oh wait, we can help to create it for others too!

It is critical that we all find moments, hours, events of joy where it occurs and not ignore it when it shows up for us.  I just finished the book "Joyful Anyway" by Kate Bowler.  She is a cancer survivor who has had numerous difficulties in her life and had to teach herself to take in joy where it is, often unexpected, unprepared for, and startling. 

I have been trying to do that and it truly helps because I plan to stay connected with what this ignorant, heartless, blustering, hateful, disgusting Trumplandia is doing to us, our communities, our nation, and the world.  I admit that sometimes I find joy in responding to their toddleresque behavior with comments about them being rich white toddler-men with a few toddler-women on the side.  They have nothing positive to offer anyone and seem to get their "joy" from hurting others, particularly vulnerable people, people of color and women.  The reality is that if people who don't pay attention hadn't given them far more power than they deserve, they would be nothing, just small men pushing people around locally and seen for what they are, nobodies who deserve no power. 

When I need a lift, I imagine Miller, Vought, Mullins, Musk, Vance, and the flavor of the moment in one of the concentration camp prisons they have cobbled together because Republicans' backbones have been melted down to create Trumplandia.  That is where those pathetic Republican members of Congress have no place because they are just fodder for those whose goal in life is to use people and to gain as much of everything as they can, and at everyone else's expense, even the MAGAs.  They prove this every single day.

Working together to build better after we have removed these appalling examples of humanity from our government is a potential source of joy and well-being, as are the commentors I follow like Prof. Reich.  I attended online each week of Prof. Reich's "last class" at Berkley and learned a lot to add to what I had already learned from an amazing economics professor back in undergrad days.  It gives me joy to remember Prof. Shirley Newton, an extraordinary woman who believed and taught that the government and our economy should work for the people not just for the lucky and the rich. 

Let's all go find joy; it's out there waiting for us!  Oh wait, we can help to create it for others too!

WHITE HISTORY - WHY

By Ruth A. Sheets

Way back in the 1950s, I faced a challenge.  I started kindergarten and thought I was just like other kids until some of my classmates started calling me “Four Eyes.”  I had no idea what that meant until one of my friends told me “you know, your glasses.”  I still didn’t get it.  My parents explained that this was an insult.  I didn’t get it  because my glasses let me see stuff better.  Over time, though I got it.

I was carefully put in my place as inferior.  I was supposed to stay out of everyone else’s way because I couldn’t see as well as they could, so shouldn’t try for anything more than what I was given, sometimes sitting in front of the class to see the board.

History is filled with people being told covertly or brazenly that those doing the speaking were superior and that the receiver of the comments, insults, dismissal was inferior and worthy of what the superior chose to say or do to them.  The inferior is never supposed to object, try to escape the judgment, or go beyond what is expected/permitted as Black people, indigenous persons, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY, WOMEN, and others HAVE DONE AT VARIOUS TIMES THROUGHOUT HISTORY.  All of our groups have been targeted at one point or other by those “conservative” white men, some white women and a very few token others.

There are a lot of markers in society to divide people:  race, gender, ethnicity, language, religion, education level, wealth, job, parentage, place of origin, height, weight, physical ability, disability, intelligence, and more.  There are supposed superiors and inferiors in each of these categories.  ?Who determines who is which?  In our society from the beginning, it has been mostly white men in power. They like having this power.  It has enabled them to decide who belongs here in the good old USA, who can live in certain parts of town, who can shop, and where, who can walk on this sidewalk, who can own a home or car, who can attend quality schools, who can serve in certain offices. 

Those “superior white guys” have made a lot of money, influenced a lot of people, and done enormous harm because of their supposed superiority.  They have used their wiles and privilege to gain control throughout our government.  They think it is what the American people want because no one has actually stopped them yet.   

Now, and for decades, those rich white boys think it is not enough to decide who is superior and inferior throughout the society and broadcast it everywhere, they want to “alter” our history with what they are calling “the Real American History.”  They want that history to be white and male, kind of what it was when I first started learning history in 3^rd grade, 65 years ago.  Their expressed reason, so white children won’t feel uncomfortable!

That of course is a lie.  It is not their kiddies they are worried about because it is likely they have already indoctrinated them into whatever stories of history their white dads want to push on them.  This is about the white men feeling uncomfortable and they just can’t stand it.  They might be related to those white men who perpetrated enormous crimes throughout our history.

I am reading two books right now that make this pretty clear.  The first is Mother Emmanuel, Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church by Kevin Sack.  The second is The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers.  In the first book, a horrific crime was committed 11 years ago when a young white man killed parishioners in a Black church, Mother Emmanuel A.M.E. in Charlston, SC.  The author describes the history of the work and struggles of the church, its members, and the segregation, lynchings, and other violence perpetrated on Black residents of the city, until very recently with no accountability.  The murderer of the members, who had invited them into their Bible Study,  had no remorse, claiming those he killed deserved it.  This is not even ancient history.  Where did the killer’s intense hate come from?  Hmmm!

White male relations with the various indigenous populations of North America have been fraught at best. If white men wanted land the people inhabited, too bad for the people because they would be driven out, murdered, or imprisoned so those white men could get hold of the land and its resources, Again, no accountability, even today. 

People were horrified when Custer’s troops were killed at the Little Big Horn, but those troops were out to murder as many of the Lakota as they could, assuming their superiority would give them automatic victory. That was in 1876.  Fourteen years later, other white troops massacred some old men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, for nothing, just because they could.  They imprisoned Native children and people with disabilities in horrible schools where the children were used and abused which should have been shocking, well, maybe they wouldn’t.  For all the cruelties done over time, they made up excuses, and  still do, just check out ICE and its attacks on immigrants of color, again with impunity!    As has often  happened, the military leader who ordered the massacre at Wounded Knee has been made a hero.

Yep, that’s how it has gone throughout history.  White men have raped and murdered women while blaming those women for “making them do it.”  They shoot LGBTQ+ people, leaving them to die, not because the person did anything to them, just because they exist.

The problem for rich and other conservative white men is that they are scared everyone else will learn the truth that they are just scared children who have learned to use privilege, money, and power to keep themselves from the knowledge that they are not superior, in fact, like everyone else, just ordinary.  They can’t have that, so they must rewrite history to suit their desperate need to be superior and have everyone around them under their heel.

Yo Conservative white men, we know who and what you are!  You are only fooling yourselves.  You forget that we the vast majority, have had to live with you forever.  We know!  You don’t need to white wash history because there will always be people who know the truth no matter how much you try to escape it.

This is not a condemnation of white men in general, just a chance to let those white supremacists who want to do harm to everyone who is not them, know that we a are not going to take it anymore.  We will be calling you out on your childish narcissistic need for recognition you don’t deserve. 

And, women, teachers, mothers, aunts, and grandmothers of white boys, do your best to keep those boys from developing the ego that puts all of us at risk, even themselves.  Help them develop a strong positive moral compass and encourage them to ask questions, Listen to others, communicate with and respect people different from themselves, and read them all sorts of stories, poems, and articles about or written by members of those groups.  The earlier you begin, the better.

I did learn I was different, but my family and friends will say that I didn’t let it stop me and nor should our differences stop anyone else from being the person you need to be, doing the things you need to do.  Then, we need to find ways to, as often as possible, remind the “superior” white boys they aren’t superior to us, no matter how hard they wish it to be true.