THE PROBLEM WITH RON DESANTIS

Another bottom feeder polictician – grifter

I am sure Ron and Casey DeSantis are nice people away from the bright lights of politics, but I have many political questions for our governor. I wonder whether he respects the rights of children, if he understands the need for equality among “all the people” and whether he supports the sanctity of immigrants in America.

It would be too easy to spray the criticism that everything DeSantis has done as governor was only to further his national political ambitions. It appears that once he got the Governor job, he was living every moment to get another one… in Washington.

As the grandson of Italian immigrants, one would hope DeSantis had more empathy for the immigrant’s plight, but alas, it’s a case of, “We’re in, close the door behind us.” Florida is made up of immigrants and workers from everywhere. Why the constant condemnation of that class? DeSantis’ stunts and statements would have us believe he doesn’t care about what America stands for. Immigrants are people, not political punching bags.

Harassing large corporations that provide thousands of jobs is bad business, while giving another big donor exclusive rights to Covid shots reveals a payoff in the plan. Why did I have to drive four hundred miles to get my shot? Please stop bragging about how great you did. It was just okay.

We hear so much about respecting the rights of parents, but what about the rights of children? From banning Critical Race Theory, certain books and gender realization, DeSantis is kowtowing to the base, not protecting all the kids. One must ask, who decided that a child’s rights could be ignored, besmirched and ridiculed by the state? Will the governor and his wife attend funerals to comfort the parents mourning their trans or gay teen’s suicide due to constant bullying? Sadly, he will not be involved in the problem he exacerbated.

I’m puzzled by the DeSantis political family who rails against liberal elitism but sends their kids to private schools. I assume they think they are fixing education, but so far, they have created far more conflict, drama and fear than advances.

When the governor in his high-heeled cowboy boots rode his white horse into government, he was just a cheap imitator of Donald Trump. His actions, words and deeds since then have shown a man who truly doesn’t care about anyone else’s viewpoint. Florida doesn’t need a baby Trump; we’ve got the real one.

The facts are clear. Mr. DeSantis had no discussions with the families of LGBTQ kids before he handed Tallahassee his abominable bucket of hate: the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He also had no consultations with the communities of color that he cut up like chum on the beach to gerrymander his way to power. He just did it without the regard for the voters’ rights in those places. If only Ron was honest about it all.

The lack of respect for equality and the Voting Rights Act are just as bad as his ploughing through the policies in education that were meant as safeguards for equality. Getting rid of much of what the New College of Florida was all about, only to suggest that adding sports teams will bring people back to the institution, feels a lot like “Biff” from Back to the Future being put in charge of education. It’s sad that a graduate of Harvard and Yale would see public education as an evil force. Maybe he doesn’t care about kids.

The idea of a “woke ideology” coming to take your freedoms away is much like Chicken Little screaming, “The sky is falling!” I still have no idea what “woke” means, but it’s clearly Ron’s N-word.

The fundamental problems of Ron DeSantis are his obvious desire to rewrite history, control the future and force all citizens to adopt his way of life. If “freedom” is really your north star, Mr. Governor, then why do you keep telling us what to do, how our doctors will treat us and even who to love. The demeaning discrimination on display so far proves he’s a bad governor and would be a horrible president.

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Tattoo Detective: Our Last Hope for the Future

Imagine being able to time travel into the unknown. TATTOO DETECTIVE: Our Last Hope for the Future is a science fiction novel examining the world after all the guardrails of normal society have been dissolved.

The story follows two American tattoo detectives who are sent on a mission that changes them and their world. This dystopic look at the United States and the flaw in humankind is not a Pollyanna prognostication, it’s fundamentally close to our current reality and could be predictive of where we are headed. The opening chapter says it best, “…we could have done something, but we fell madly in love with technology, weapons and wealth.” For purchase or dowload, go here. Check out our author page on Amazon.

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HOW TO BEAT TRUMP

An Open Letter to the Challengers

Are you in it to win it? Do you think you have an actual chance? You have studied Donald Trump’s every speech, every putdown, every ridiculous conspiracy theory and off-the-cuff remark, yet you come off like an eleventh-grade debate class student, fearful and defensive. He will grab you, crush you, chew you up and split you out.

I hear your bland and stupid statement that the country deserves you and you will make things better, but those who are loyal to the golden calf will only yawn and then change the channel.

Go ahead and meet behind closed doors with your consultants, con-artists and co-conspirators to debate the words you will use when asked certain questions about the fat, orange guy. Tiptoe around him, because if you do otherwise, he will kick your ass.

Your advisors will tell you not to say what you really think, because that will turn off people who don’t believe in the truth. And whatever you do, don’t piss off “the base.” You may think they are the only folks who count because they have gigantic, aggressive online mouths and fingers to tear you a new one, but they’re more like a conglomeration of 14-year-old high school dropouts who have formed a bond based on hate, misinformation and an intense feeling of disenfranchisement. That subset of America has already cast their vote. Ignore them! You can’t win them over and you don’t need them, so stop being so damn timid about them.

So, how can a reasonable person beat Trump to the punch and garner some points in this presidential slugfest? When Marco Rubio ran against Trump in 2016, he based all his comments on a few carefully prepared paragraphs that he recited verbatim. “Little Marco” was up against it, so he decided to pull a “baby Trump” bit by commenting on the size of Donald’s hands. He went low, and Trump just bullied him into submission. If you genuinely want to beat Trump, you must not be afraid to upstage the villain. Yes, the clown carries a spray bottle full of battery acid and it’s your job to face and conquer the beast.

There’s an abundance of history-making Trump insanity — impeached twice and indicted twice, with surely more to come from the overzealous prosecutors in the land. Although this martyr routine appears to be working for the makeup-wearing tough guy, it’s time you find a way to forcefully cut through that.

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, believes he must go to the right of Trump and promises to be a new kind of Trump who can win and get things done. Being twenty-five points behind, however, proves he’s just another baby Trump. As long as voters can get the real deal, why would DeSantis think he can win by selling his bag of lukewarm fascism to America?

The one thing I remember from my early sports playing days was a rough and tumble coach standing before us and not only challenging our strength but asking us that all-important question, “Boys, do you really want to win?” Today I stand before most of you asking that same question.

The only current challenger who is acting as if he really wants to defeat Donald Trump is Chris Christie. He’s telling the truth and he’s not trying to please Trump voters at all. I’m sure there are experts, statisticians and soothsayers telling him this is the wrong approach but, seriously, what other path to beating Trump exists?

If the rest of you want to beat Trump, you will have to talk louder and more directly in ways that might be uncomfortable. I’m looking at you, Mike Pence. You cannot bring yourself to say that Trump was not a good president even though he cajoled his fans to see you in a bad light and threaten your safety. I get the “turn the other cheek” Biblical stance, but really Mike, if you cannot stand up to Trump how are you going to deal with a real dictator like Vladimir Putin? Your pussyfooting will get you nowhere.

The question of whether a challenger, if elected president, would pardon Trump is revealing. If one says they will pardon him, that is the wrong answer. It means they feel what he did wasn’t wrong or it was wrong, but they want to “heal” the country. There’s only one answer to that pardon question that makes any sense, “NO.” Trump is not above the law, and he should be held accountable. Your ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue does not have PARDON HIM printed on it.

There is probably more dirt to dig up on the Donald, but don’t think you are going to convince his loyal fans he’s bad for them. However, you must criticize him openly, directly and by name. You must point out our critical need for someone we can trust in the White House. Trump’s biggest flaw as a potential president is he’s a liar. He doesn’t know right from wrong or truth from a lie. Get right up to the microphone and say, “This man is clinically ill and cannot be trusted to run the greatest country in the world” Lay it out directly or get the hell out of the way of someone who will. The fundamental goal is branding Trump as a LIAR!

Stop wasting our time with your lack of clarity and deflections. Trump is a bad human being and should not be reelected. If you cannot say that, then you are not really running for president. You don’t want to win. You are just masturbating in public and wasting jet fuel flying around the country playing the fool.

Why are you not going after Trump? Are you going to admit to the coach you really don’t want to win the game? Stop being so damn weak!

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Has CNN become Fox News?

Just when you thought it was over it starts again, and many feel that CNN just pooped the bed. But let’s be more civil and analytical, if such is possible in today’s world.

I understand television programming and its various justifications for reasons of ratings and revenue, but CNN broke some rules last night when they put the orange devil on the air for nearly ninety minutes in prime time. According to the American Press Institute, journalism’s first obligation is telling the truth. Good decision making depends on people having reliable, accurate facts placed in meaningful contexts.

The second rule in TV news is never let the interviewee play you. Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite turned in their graves last night. Why did CNN allow the former President to lie about the 2020 election? Why didn’t they confront him live, in real time, and tell him to his face that he’s still lying and ask him why he needs to constantly do so? Why not make it personal? Trump certainly does.

Any interviewer would have their hands full with Donald Trump, but a noble journalist must elicit truth. Kaitlan Collins asked Donald Trump some great questions, but she didn’t get him to admit anything. She was a facilitator for his lies. No matter how many panels CNN puts on for the rest of the week whining about Trump, some people will continue to believe his mendacities. It’s impossible for a journalist to create a clear vision when their primary source is a pathological liar, so why did CNN put him on?

This “town hall“ did not provide any insight into a lying candidate. It was just another network elevating Trump, giving him more oxygen and free airtime for his continuous deceit. How is this good for America?

Trump is an idiot on foreign relations and the current cultural realities of an ever-growing browner and more diverse America. He stopped absorbing and thinking in 1956.

The Donald couldn’t call Putin a war criminal, but in the very next sentence he described the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, unable to connect the dots that it’s his buddy Vlad who is doing the killing. I would have asked him, right at that moment, “What makes you so afraid of Putin?” Instead, we got more of the same bullshit, deception and tap dancing so fundamental to Donald Trump.

Chris Wallace is on the CNN payroll, but I’m sure Trump would never have agreed to a sit down with him. Instead, the network brought out their morning show tryout who asked penetrating questions but didn’t adequately rebut the responses. The entire affair became lost in the dust of Trump’s repetitive, nonsensical crap. Had he been properly grilled, I’m sure Trump would have walked off the stage, which would have been far more illuminating.

And what was up with that audience? It’s clear they were not properly vetted or managed, which obliterated the newsworthiness of the whole event. Instead of having a hall full of dimwits laughing and clapping at a fat, orange monkey, why not have an audience of journalists with each getting to pose one short, pointed question?

If TV news is to survive, it must have a certain gravity and gravitas based on truth. The CNN debacle showcased our drunken uncle babbling away about matters well beyond his comprehension. He couldn’t even pull off looking prepared, statesmanlike or normal. He just blathered put-downs and platitudes with the overarching theme of how screwed up America is. Why would we give this blowhard four more years to do what he couldn’t do in the four years he was president?

I’m going to briefly step aside here to inject a Tweet of someone who says it better, the former President’s niece, Mary L. Trump, “I’m furious…. CNN is anti-American. In less than an hour, they allowed an authoritarian wannabe to lie constantly while an audience full of his followers applauded. This was not a town hall; it was a rally. Donald bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. He claimed—unchallenged—that Democrats allow babies to be murdered after they’re born. He bragged about his intention to pardon convicted insurrectionists. He advocated for the United States to default on its debt which would destroy the world economy. And he showed, once again, why a jury of his peers found him liable for sexual assault and defamation. But Donald Trump cannot destroy our country by himself. That requires allies. He already has the Republican party in his pocket. And now, he has CNN on his side. Tonight’s CNN fiasco was a tragedy for American democracy.”

Mary Trump clearly is just as appalled as I and many others are. CNN will have to work awfully hard to restore its credibility with me but, then again, like many my age I am starting to think that it’s all just bullshit. We can’t trust Congress. We can’t trust the Supreme Court and we certainly cannot trust CNN, or Fox, or MSNBC, or any news outlet that hides behind the bright lights of showbiz while leaving honest reporting and penetrating journalism splat on the sidewalk.

Think about all the major news stories that have broken in the last ten years and realize they resulted from the arduous work of journalists at the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Pro-Publica and other outlets. The talking heads on TV just read the words. They spend more time on their hair and makeup than pounding out the truth on a keyboard.

It’s embarrassing. Recently I heard one of the talking heads actually say, “Well, I haven’t read the whole document yet, but this could be either real good, or real bad for Donald Trump.” WTF!

Sorry, but if you attempt to be “fair and balanced” with Donald John Trump, you will merely make him President again and that would be the end of journalism and, oh yeah, DEMOCRACY!

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GRAND OLD PHOBIA

Uniting the bigots

Those who believe in God, know that he/she/it doesn’t make mistakes. To be a card-carrying member of the “god club,” one must believe the omnipresent deity is perfect and that he/she/it made ALL PEOPLE, everyone, no exceptions.

In my local paper there is an article about Florida Republicans uniting around a notion that Trans and Gay Americans are unmistakably a second-class group that must be controlled, and eventually eliminated. You might think those last three words are a bit much, but if you put it to many voters, they would tell you that boys who become girls, in their minds and bodies, must be stopped from using the restroom of their chosen gender and blocked from competing in any sport where they could have an advantage over females. I have not heard anyone say that a woman who transitions to a man should be barred from competing in male sports, but hey, this is fresh territory for many people and perhaps it’s only a matter of time.

I once had a business partner who announced to the world he was suffering from gender dysphoria and desired a transition to his true persona. Jay became Jaye as she started the process of becoming a woman. At first, I was confused and needed to learn more about this concept and discovered it has existed throughout history. It’s not some sort of aberrant modern misalignment.

Many of us laughed at Sergeant Klinger, Jamie Farr’s character in the TV show M*A*S*H who wore women’s clothing. The reason he dressed as a lady wasn’t a desire to be a transvestite, but rather a desperate attempt to get out of military service. It was funny… until it wasn’t. According to many sources, Jamie Farr chose to gradually phase out Klinger’s recurring joke of wearing women’s clothes because he didn’t want his children, who were young at the time, being teased about it while growing up. In a sense, the actor and producers decided the gag was no longer funny.

On my long and winding road of becoming a man, I worked at a theater during my college years. What I experienced there provided a profound education, not only in entertainment but also people. Some actors got so deeply into their character during a production that they “became” that imaginary person. Once the show was over, these folks reverted to their true selves.

During my time in the theater, I interfaced with a considerable number of gay men and learned that, contrary to popular Republican beliefs, one doesn’t “become” Gay or Trans simply by being around people of those persuasions. In fact, the use of the term “persuasion” is a trick. It connotes that one is under the influence of a conversion scheme and once that drunken moment passes the person will magically return to “themself.” Should this myth surprise anyone? Homophobes work lies into truth at every turn.

One doesn’t “become convinced” to become Gay or Trans. It’s a process of discovering themself along life’s path and then feeling better when admitting to themselves who they are. If one cannot be honest with themself, then they are living a lie.

Words matter, so let me insert some definitions here. A transvestite is a person who dresses in clothes primarily associated with the other sex, usually a man who feels comfortable in women’s clothing and style. According to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, a person experiencing Gender dysphoria has “a sense of unease because of what they perceive to be a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity. This sense of unease or dissatisfaction may be so intense it can lead to depression and anxiety and have a harmful impact on daily life.” These two may appear to be the same to small-minded people, but they are not.

As our children develop, we adults can either be helpful and encouraging or we can attempt to impose our views, values and vistas on them. Some parents groom their kids to become what they want, rather than allowing their children to find their own ways into happiness. I had a high school buddy whose parents demanded he go into the priesthood. When he saw no way out of his pre-ordained path, he made one. He committed suicide. That has nothing to do with sexual orientation but makes the point that too much parental pressure is not good.

Why would the governor of a state of 22 million people create a law that, in a sense, transforms LGBTQ kids into second class citizens? Is he so politically ambitious that he is willing to put his foot on the necks of thousands of kids trying to find their ways through life? The so-called, “Don’t say Gay” bill screams to every one of these kids they are not equal to others and won’t be empowered in any way. Everything Ron DeSantis does is a quest to quench his thirst for power. He is against women deciding what they should do with their bodies, against Black kids learning about their history and against Gay children feeling comfortable in themselves. He’s even against Disney, one of the largest employers in his state. Obviously, he’s fucking goofy.

Exploitation is not a pretty word. The action of treating someone unfairly to benefit from their work, culture or status was a hallmark of slavery. I find it embarrassing that here in 2023 we have a two-bit politician belittling, demonizing and, in a sense, terrorizing young people. When someone is just learning about who they might be we need to help them, not summon the neighborhood bully to beat the shit out them.

The GOP is using children as steppingstones to their power grab. Ron DeSantis is clearly homophobic and perhaps a little conveniently racist, but he claims to be a true “man of God.” Actually, he’s just another money changer working outside the temple with the sole interest of “changing” the location of wealth from your pockets to his. He wants to be the master, and we all must obey, or get the 39 lashes. Ask Disney if Ron DeSantis truly cares about children and their dreams. He’s not uniting all the people, only the bigots.

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Tattoo Detective: Our Last Hope for the Future

An Open Letter To Chief Justice Roberts

If you agree, write a letter:

Supreme Court, United States
1 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20543

Telephone: 202-479-3000

Dear Chief Justice:

I have to believe you are aware of what has happened in Tennessee. The sad part of that tragedy is it’s the result of those in an ivory tower who demand respect by wearing black robes, making them appear as if they are pious preachers, but alas, they are only humans who make grave mistakes in logic and judgement. Just today, I read that Justice Thomas admitted to taking $400,000 in “gifts” that he didn’t declare. How can the America public possibly believe that one of the country’s most important institutions is not for sale?

We’re told that laws are based on facts and traditions to attain and maintain justice for all, but now we have racism out of the closet and in the streets and legislatures. You cannot rewrite every state law involving gerrymandering and voting schemes to give one party more power and advantage. And your observation that we’ve come along far enough to not need voter protections for people of color in this country is naïve and incorrect. Between declaring a corporation is a person and your decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ended women’s rights to decide their own medical care, your legacy is in tatters.

You and the other justices have little respect for what came before, and it’s clear that Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett lied during their confirmation hearings about Roe vs. Wade. That should disturb you greatly. Your court’s removal of a law that was on the books for more than fifty years was a dismal miscalculation that has sullied the institution FOREVER.

Our Supreme Court has divided us more than we were before these decisions. Taking away rights from minorities, women and the disadvantaged is not what your legislative body is supposed to do. You might want to spend some time with African Americans who cannot find a job.

I hope you read this, but if not, it’s simply proof of how your isolation has warped your judgement to the detriment of this great land. Chief Justice Roberts, corporations are not people, the Second Amendment doesn’t give anyone the right to kill school children, and it’s well past time the Supreme Court starts seeing the world through the eyes of common men and women.

How about the courtesy of a response to this taxpayer?

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Tattoo Detective: Our Last Hope for the Future

WRONG WORDS, WRONG TIME

The price we pay for freedom

You know, people say stupid things. It happens frequently. Many folks on social media are ready to attack those who tweet, text or talk Second Amendment smack after a mass shooting, and so today’s coverage begins.

Late last year, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles sent out a holiday card with his entire family holding guns. The caption read, “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” When asked about that photo in light of three kids and three adults being gunned down in a school in his city, he refused to apologize for his tasteless holiday P.R. Why? Perhaps he fears an expression of sorrow and grief would expose him to be less than the manly man he conjures for his brand and image.

Oh, Ogles did say he was, “devastated by the tragedy,” but like 99% of the Republicans in office, he will do absolutely nothing to protect the rights of “life, liberty and happiness” of the very people he represents, but he’s only one of many misguided guys who believe a gun is part of the “American dream.”

Another trope that rolls out of the mouths of the protectors of the amendment they like is a notion that mass shootings demonstrate that “freedom is not free,” and when people die at the hands of a lunatic it’s simply “the cost of freedom.” I find myself screaming that sounds exactly like a notorious domestic terrorist, Timothy McVie, who was put to death by the state.

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVie planted a bomb at the Oklahoma City Federal Building and killed more than 168 people, including nineteen children. When asked about the kids lost in his retribution for the Waco siege two years before, McVie uttered the immortal line, “They were just collateral damage.” Now, we have far-right members of Congress blaming the Nashville shooting on transexual procedures and illicit drugs, ignoring the real problem. The alleged shooter was being treated for a mental disorder.

There was no law in Oklahoma that prevented anyone from buying enormous amounts of the fertilizer McVie needed for his bomb, and obviously there are no red flag laws in Tennessee that would have prevented the shooter from legally buying seven guns. Audrey Hale’s parents didn’t think she should own guns, but she was a 28-year-old adult who could own as many guns as she wanted.

Tim Burchett, another braindead Congressman from Tennessee, declared, “We’re not gonna fix school shootings.” He even went so far to say that he doesn’t think the government has a role to play in stopping mass shootings. This guy, along with Andy Ogles, should be thrown out of Congress. If they cannot even believe a solution is feasible then they are part of THE PROBLEM.

Intellectually, I don’t care if you own one or four hundred guns, but if the purpose of your weaponry is casting fear over the neighborhood, you are misguided. If your reason for ownership is sport and hunting, I must ask what happened to using a rifle to bring down a deer or bird? Why would you destroy the very meat that is the object of your quest? Most police departments don’t have the firepower of their local gun clubs but, when protecting blue lives, pro-gun fans never seem to remember that cops are often outgunned by those with the automatic weaponry that Democrats want to ban.

Maybe I am naïve about the protection aspect of having weapons in the home. I get that you want to protect your family, but protect them from what? If an average gun lunatic wanted to off your whole family, all they would need is a loaded AR-15 and you would be helpless with your little 9mm handgun. It’s just a teddy bear for a nervous person, bringing comfort but no real protection.

Another aspect of our ongoing struggle with the plague of lunatic shooters is this concept of congratulating the police on how fast they responded. That’s all well and good, but in the end it’s not the quick response to the 911 call but the lack of concern about mental health challenges, red flags laws and dismal gun ownership record keeping. We truly have no idea about who owns guns and how many. Maybe we just don’t care.

A workable system would be national gun registration and a database entry required for weapon merchants and accessible by law enforcement. We need to keep an eye on those who buy “too many” guns or “too much” ammunition and messages posted on social media presenting clues to a crazy person’s intent. Yell to the ACLU all you like, but the print clearly states, “a well-regulated militia.”

Let me get real here. When dishonest politicians, TV talking heads and far-right scum on the internet claim the ravaged, dead bodies of nine-year-old children is just “collateral damage” or the “price of freedom,” I want to screech, “If you cannot do something to protect our children and make America better then SHUT UP!”

I don’t care if you are a Republican or Democrat, if you don’t do something about this crisis you will go to hell. According to Axios, “At least 57 people have died in 38 mass shootings in the US this month alone, with another 133 injured.” With seven hundred people taken from the earth each year by senseless mass shootings, we must address it. We first must admit it happened, then agree it’s a scourge and decide what we will do to prevent it. If not, we are not much more advanced than Neanderthals, who didn’t have guns.

Security at every door, metal detectors, teachers with guns, students with guns, more resource officers, more weapons, more religious resistance to a Second Amendment update will only kill more. We are at the tipping point and maybe it’s too late. It’s certainly too late for the 57 people who were taken from us this month by firepower, but it’s not too late to take back some guns, limit who can own them and convince America that inaction by those in power is careless, reckless and intentional disregard. In a court of law that’s called “negligence.”

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Tattoo Detective: Our Last Hope for the Future

WHAT I LEARNED FROM WHOOPI

Things are different than what you think

Several years ago, I watched Bill Maher’s talk/comedy show Real Time on HBO. One of Bill’s guests was Margaret Cho, an exceptionally talented comedian who has always pushed the envelope. This night the panelists were discussing America’s many wars, conflicts and global interventions. Margaret declared that President George W. Bush should be charged for war crimes because he used US military force under false pretenses to topple Saddam Hussein, which also killed innocent people. One of the other guests retorted, “You are a comedian. You don’t have the right to say that. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bill broke up the fight, but I was taken aback. Does one have to meet certain qualifications or carry a particular pedigree before commenting on a subject? With the power of social media these days, many unqualified people have platforms far more powerful than their intellect.

Another night, Maher used the “N word,” and some powerful African Americans appeared on his show the following week to explain why he can’t use that word, even in a joke. For Maher, being contrite was not only out of character, but outside his brand of libertarian free speech and being politically incorrect to make a point.

When basketball player LeBron James commented about politics a few years ago, Laura Ingraham was quick to call him out by saying, “Shut up and dribble.” I guess that conservative washrag believes professional athletes don’t have the same valuable citizen rights declared in the First Amendment. Now we’re hearing it about Whoopi Goldberg. One commentator on a cable “news” network actually said, “Whoopi was added to the show to do humor, not engage in serious conversations.”

By now, everyone knows what Whoopi said and there are some coming to her defense, but it’s an argument no one will win with those who are most deeply affected by Hitler and the Holocaust. This is a situation like what ABC went through years ago with Roseanne Barr, who failed to comprehend the hate in her social media comments. For Ms. Goldberg, it’s a suspension and, of course, a “learning” moment. I have learned also.

Hitler and the Holocaust cannot be approached in a strictly historical or scholarly etymological way. Words, no matter how much we massage or defend them, must be understood in context of the emotional vibrations they impart. I’ll use the word, “uptight” as an example. When Stevie Wonder sang, “Everything is alright, uptight, out of sight,” we joyously sang along. Several years later, being “uptight” was no longer a good thing. And few would have commented on the irony of a blind man singing the words, “out of sight.”

Pop psychologists decided the word “uptight” meant to be filled with stress. There’s no way to go back to the older, original meaning. Words change and morph throughout history and as a meaning changes a different feeling can be elicited when the word is used. It would be a futile exercise to debate the derivation of the word, “race” and apply that to a defense of Whoopi Goldberg’s statement.

Here’s what I learned quite swiftly. Just like no white person can truly know what it’s like to be black, no non-Jewish person can accurately know the pain, the sorrow, and the struggle felt by those who saw the numbers tattooed on the arms of their loved ones. The Jewish community has a right to bristle when hearing an uncentered debate between TV talking heads about the Holocaust and Hitler’s demonic theories and actions. Those wielding opinions on such a powerful platform need to figure out which topics are outside their range of knowledge and simply not comment on them. I’m sure Whoopi is smart, but she’s not an expert with Jewish emotions or knowledge, but as we have seen many times before, anyone has the right to make a mistake, so long as they have the cognizance to own it.

I am the son of a soldier who was there right after those death camps in Europe were liberated, and even I can’t comprehend how that affects the families involved. I do know that my father was deeply depressed by what he saw and spent the rest of his life trying to find solace in his church and with his God. I don’t need to be told how I felt when I looked at the photographs in the History of WWII books that were in our home. This is why Emmett Till’s casket was open in the church, to make everyone know what happened.

Hitler was quick to declare who was part of the “Aryan race” and who was not. Had he kept his stupid theories to himself, we wouldn’t be talking about this and six million people would not have been murdered. Some might use the word, “died” in that sentence, but doing so would be wrong. Human beings were murdered. This is a perfect example of the challenge people face when communicating. They sometimes say stupid things or slightly change the meaning to win an argument only to lose a friend.

I approached a sensitive matter and learned a valuable lesson: don’t over-analyze, try to justify or allude to understanding another’s pain. Was slavery bad? Yes. Were African Americans killed? Yes, but I cannot use the knowledge of my race in a discussion about someone else’s race. Why should white board of education members get to tell Black people how it was? It’s never an exact fit when you force your viewpoints or try to pervert the truth. Doing so might make the other person feel you don’t care, or worse, that you don’t understand.

There was a time in Scottish history when the powers of Great Britain declared my descendants were an inferior “race,” and that allowed the English government to wield ridiculous power over people, who were the same as Brits, humans. Back in that day, there was a common law known as The Lord’s Right, also called jus primae noctis, which loosely translates to “the right of the first night.” This rule allowed feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women on their wedding nights. They used the force of their army to take the women away from the village. Imagine if the governor of your state took your daughter on her wedding day. I certainly didn’t need to debate whether I was a “subordinate race” to feel anger and resentment toward any government that would allow such a barbaric practice. If you don’t want to take the time to read about it, just go watch the movies Brave Heart or Rob Roy.

The final lesson for today, but never forever, is we must always remember the horrendous things people do to people. It always starts when they declare you are an “other.” They can steal your name, they can steal your family, they can steal the very meaning of words for their own purposes, but it’s impossible to erase the blood stain by arguing about words. You must know the feeling, the pain and, of course, the reality of today. There are still Nazis in America. Those same evil people we thought we eliminated continue to live amongst us. Don’t waste time discussing words when the problem is still alive.

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THE CULTURE OF CONTEMPT

Repetition Makes Lies Sound True

I am sick and tired of people on TV, in print and in videos telling me how divided we are. The line is, “After all is said and done…” oh, who are you trying to kid? It’s never all said and the B.S. is never done. So, let’s talk about our culture of contempt and see if you agree of disagree that we can or cannot agree.

I’ll start with common values. What are those? Did we never have them or are we so lame and stupid we cannot comprehend what they could possibly be? Okay, that is a contemptible statement, but even if true it’s still a way to show contempt. Not in the contempt of court sense, but more the everyday variety of contempt for a person. The definition of contempt is clear: the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn. Why is scorn such a major part of life these days?

Consider this phrase from a famous document, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We know that human life can be detected by a pulse. Liberty is pretty much whatever floats our boat. Conflict happens when my neighbor is happy firing guns in his backyard at 11PM while this guy next door wants to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep isn’t the only thing on my happiness list.

I don’t like certain people who become powerful, run for political office, get elected and then tell me what should make me happy. Should I disagree, then I am accused of being a bad person. When I try to find shared values to keep open communication between us, I am told there are none. Okay, that’s a hell of a place to start.

I hear people say they would like things to go back to the way they were, but when exactly was that, the 1950s, 60s, 70s, or pre-Civil War? If you’re going to say “things used to be so much better when….” please fill in the blank. A democracy never stays the same, and it certainly cannot go back to the days where the government allowed factories to dump poisons in our rivers, endorsed cigarette smoking and persecuted Gays and African Americans, because, well, that’s the way we did things back then.

While the far-right lunatics are acting like spoiled children at board of education meetings across the country, not one of them can explain exactly what Critical Race Theory is. It’s like the child needing to have the light on because of the boogieman in the closet. When you cannot convince the child nothing’s there, you compromise and leave the light on. You might shut up the racist parent by promising not to teach C.R.T., but then you’re perpetrating the myth that our founder fathers looked the other way about slavery because they were “good guys.”

A major story in the Washington Post today lays out the truth. “More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people.” It’s too late to ignore the truth and for those who shudder when they hear the term “white privilege” or “Black Lives Matter,” I have one question. Have we gone too far? As much as you might hate the term “defund the police,” it inspired many communities to investigate their expenditures. In the small town of Fort Wayne, Indiana, a taxpayer might ask, “Do we really need a tank?” but that is only one question in a sea of disagreements in America. Black people get shot by cops more than white people, but research clearly shows that Black communities say they need cops.

Media spends much time drumming on about January 6^th and Donald Trump. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it, but it’s keeping us from moving on. Had Congress convicted him during one of his two impeachment hearings, then voted he may never hold office again, the Republican party may have been motivated to clean up its act. However, that would not have changed anything regarding progress. Between two self-serving Democrats and the entire Republican party there is no desire to talk about common values. This is where we must start.

I would think clean water is a common value. I live in Florida and I won’t drink the water here. I recycle tons of plastic bottles every month because the water from the county is unsafe for drinking and cooking. Why aren’t those screaming lunatics at the school board meetings attending the public hearings on water? When fracking was being done in rural areas one could light tap water on fire. In cities like Flint, Michigan, children acquired mental health issues from drinking water the government said was safe. The governor of Michigan got away with harming kids in his state.

The culture of contempt is everywhere. A public servant who doesn’t testify before Congress, especially one who took a large paycheck bankrolled by us taxpayers, should be thrown in jail. It shouldn’t be done through a long court case where they get to spread lies to the public and not undergo an oath to force truthfulness. I have no respect when the presidential pardon is used for political purposes and I have no idea how to change it. My contempt for those who shun the law, get off scot-free and then make things worse is palpable.

When the lopsided media and social media constantly repeat that something is confusing, or that somehow January 6^th wasn’t an insurrection, in many small minds that blather becomes the truth. And when misguided souls act on the that false news and repeated lies, what should we do? We can’t arrest everyone to set minds straight, but when our system arrests more than 700 people it’s working backwards. What we should be doing is finding the people who have promoted this contempt and make them admit publicly, over and over, that they were wrong. Make them become the focus point for the rath of their own mob. Boy, that would make great TV!

Ours is not a culture of contempt, it’s just a few assholes with too much power who lie and cheat and steal. Unlike Arab lands where one loses a hand when they steal, or a tongue when they lie, we are a civil land but slow to justice. I can see why so many people are lost in their own misconceptions. We need to bring forth change, and a good starting point would be teaching our kids a truthful history and not sugar coat those who have committed sins. God was always fast on the draw when it came to retribution, well, at least in the Old Testament. As for those of you who want to go back to the old days, be careful about what you ask. Those weren’t all good times.

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CONGRESS IS THE REAL PROBLEM

Reading is mandatory — logic, not so much

If you thought that just because an individual is elected to Congress, they have a certain level of intelligence, you would be incredibly incorrect. It has become vividly clear that anyone who has enough money, an intriguing rap, the gift of gab or a reasonably lackluster competitor can get elected.

I’ve never looked at popularity polls to determine how well a given Congressperson was doing, but there does come a time when it becomes necessary to judge the work of an elected representative. Unfortunately, we have to wait way too long to do something about electing the wrong person. Thus, the name of this very blog. Yes, we can vote every two years on Representatives and every six years on Senators, but that’s not fast enough in today’s sped-up reality and news cycles. Six years is a wait much too long for undoing a bad Senator.

Recent polling is not good for Congress. Last month, a Gallup Organization survey found that only 28% of those researched approved of the job the House and Senate are doing, while 69% disapproved. And I might add that 3% had no opinion. Who are those people?

2001 set the highest mark in the ongoing Gallup polls. That’s when Congress was voting to go to war in Afghanistan and invade Iraq due to trumped up lies about weapons of mass destruction. This underscores the reality that even when we like them, Congress is often doing the wrong things for the right reasons.

And that brings us to the politics of it all. No member of Congress wants the United States government to default. Any member who does should be arrested and charged with treason, but there’s a word that has lost its power and seriousness. When the former president was told that that some of his allies and administration officials had broken the law, he simply pardoned them. There are members of Congress who think investigating the insurrection of January 6^th is bad for America. Truth is, Republicans fear becoming tarnished should the public come to fully understand their involvement in Donald Trump’s effort to “Stop the Steal.” Really?

Congressional grifters use information gained from subcommittees and intelligence briefings to shape their investments and give themselves an advantage in preserving and increasing their wealth. Sure, they add rules and polices to help their tribe along the way, but they have never passed legislation that makes it hard or impossible for them to profit from their positions in Congress. If they were serious about making America better, they would pass potent regulations about financial disclosure, term-limits and the amount of political campaign contributions they can personally use. The true reason Donald Trump hasn’t declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election is to avoid disclosure of the cash in his campaign coffers. He’s a grifter.

When a member of a party, especially a leader or whip, tells his or her caucus how they are going to vote on a bill before it’s even debated, they are no better than the political bosses of the 1940s and 1950s who manipulated their members and thwarted any discussion on the merits of proposed legislation. Have we really grown from there?

Making law requires intense labor and demands tons of reading. When I was working with a local Little League group in Atlanta years ago, I volunteered to revise and publish the rules of the games. What a mistake! First of all, there were different rules for each level of play and all the rules had to be in-sync with the national rules from headquarters in Williamsport, PA. That project ended up as four packets of fifty pages each.

Well, imagine having to go through 1,500 pages over a weekend. That would be like reading three 500-page books. It’s most likely that the average Congressperson never reads an entire budget bill. They direct their staffs to find the things they ardently object too, or the things that are really good for them. The underlying words and meanings no longer have objective analysis until laws are passed. And this playing with the economic status of the country you claim to love just to shit on the other guy’s party, how many US citizens approve of that?

The demonizing of Joe Biden will happen no matter what he does or says. The media seems to like kickin’ old Joe to the ground right now. Sure, his numbers are down but anyone who says the economy is bad is ignoring three major realities.

First, under Donald Trump, Congress passed a major tax cut by restricting the ways corporations house their money. The corporate tax rate was changed from a tiered tax rate ranging from 15% to as high as 39%, depending on taxable income, to a flat 21%. At the same time, some related business deductions and credits were reduced or eliminated. Yes, stocks soared, and corporations bought back stock, but the disparity between the wealthy 1% and the rest of us grew. Yay, score another one for the rich people!

Second, Trump blew the federal response to Covid-19. It was his “Katrina,” only on a national level. His advisers can take some of the blame, but the more he told us it was nothing, more and more of us realized it was truly something, and that something was really, really bad. You can’t go to a restaurant that is closed, and a restaurant without enough employees provides an unpleasant experience. Just like Obama inherited the financial crisis, Biden was handed the challenge of righting a post-coronavirus tanked economy. Sadly, far-right saboteurs think fighting against the vaccine is good for their political gains even while their opinions are killing us.

Third, forced errors like the Afghanistan evacuation, the rising conflict at the southern border and our selling submarines to Australia are front and center. We need to remember that Trump pulled out of northern Syria and 130,000 Kurds, our allies in the fight against ISIS, were forced to flee their homes and hundreds of them were killed. Trump wanted to invite the Talban to negotiate a peace treaty, but he excluded the legit government of Afghanistan. Why were we so surprised when the Taliban took over?

While all the pontificators and pundits are overanalyzing the “Biden Doctrine,” it might make more sense to keep the government open and pay our bills. Why are we tolerating Republican actions to make America weak? It’s just a budget bill, and not any different than Trump shutting down the government because he thought it would hurt the Democrats. He even called it the “Schumer Shutdown.” Let’s see, how did that work out for him? Oh yeah, he’s not the president anymore.

Let’s focus on just one fact. Joe Biden’s approval rating is 43% while that of Congress is 28%. Who is the fairest in the land?

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POPULISM & PANDEMICS

Political Beliefs Can Kill You

I and a group of friends took part in a “Ridin’ with Biden” campaign event last October in Florida. We came across a group of Trump supporters camped out in front of an early voting location and I put my large megaphone out the window of the car and yelled, “He’s going to kill you! He’s going to kill you!” The trumpers were oblivious to the way Trump’s Covid-19 policies were hurting and killing us. I get it, they love him and trust him with their grandmother’s lives. Why? It’s all part of a populism religion they decided to follow.

This sectarian concept has overtaken large portions of our country and our elected representatives. Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups often related to their form of government. Prejudice, discrimination or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo and which group holds more power within the government. One of the worst parts of America’s current populism is a constant war on science. By denigrating experts, big, strong-man populist leader Donald Trump first gets the attention of the downtrodden workers and eventually entices them to seek his advice rather than that of credentialed, knowledgeable experts.

Fareed Zakaria wrote in the Washington Post in March of 2020, “Trump, for his part, fuels fears by constantly talking about how the disease came from China and how he heroically saved American lives because he ‘closed the borders to China’ in late January, 2020. Thank goodness he doesn’t seem to know that the H1N1 virus was first detected in Mexico. If he did, he might close the border with Mexico, just to be safe.” Donald Trump has never trusted any opinion that is opposed to his own viewpoint.

Zakaria came back to that discussion on his CNN show yesterday morning. His experts were fair to point out that not all populist leaders in the world denied the danger of Covid, but they often tend to rebuke experts, disconnect from science and make decisions based on what they think their followers will swallow, rather than the truth. In the beginning of the pandemic, Indian’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rather draconian with the lockdown and those polices kept the virus at bay. Then, he made the same mistake Trump did by pushing to reopen the country too soon. This caused a crisis of pain and death that will probably destroy his political career.

Brazil has a leader who was in total denial of the coronavirus and mingled with people at rallies, shook hands and called Covid-19, “just a little flu,” until he got it himself. He then softened his misdirection but continued to blame everyone else for what was happening in his country. The more people listened to him the more people died. He repeatedly fired his national health directors and appointed replacements, believing mismanagement was causing the spread of the virus.

At this point, Brazil has more than 14.7 million people infected and more than 400,000 have died. Right now, India has more than 350,000 new cases each day and a total of 19.5 million infections with more than 215,000 deaths. We don’t know how many people have died in China or Russia, where dictators make policies. Some say that China, where the virus originated, has only 4,636 deaths. In a country of 1.4 billion that’s a totally unbelievable number.

Some sources say that Russia has 109,000 deaths, which makes more sense than the China statistic. Remember, Russia has a population of 145 million people. We know the case counts of democracies are more accurate. We also know that overzealous populist leaders, irresponsible state governors and state-run media have cooked the books on Covid-19. But as the World Health Organization puts more pressure on nations to cough up current statistics, we learn more about the effect of this virus on the planet.

The democracies of the U.K. and Israel had some rough coronavirus moments, but also amazing accomplishments. The U.K. was on the edge of disaster and Prime Minister Boris Johnson came down with a wicked case of Covid-19. In the U.K. currently, more than 34 million people have had a first vaccine dose and over 14 million have had a second. An average of 415,000 second doses are now being given daily. The National Health Service in the U.K. is very organized and thorough. For example, 98% of the people over age 50 in Scotland have received at least one vaccination already. The lowest percentage in that same category is London, with 87%.

Israel has done a fantastic job with vaccinations. As of May 2, 2021, Israel had fully vaccinated 87.3% of its population. Even with 900,000 people who contracted coronavirus in the country, they had only 6,363 known deaths. That is a particularly good outcome in a country of 9 million. Perhaps their general population has more awareness of science and medicine.

Populism attracts people who often reject things based on status or labels. If an intellectual in medicine is presented as an elitist by a populous leader, their followers tend to adopt the simple lie rather than the complicated realities of math, science and medicine. It’s interesting to note that a person doesn’t have to be less educated to take on a belief counter to well-known and proven facts. Steve Jobs denied conventional medical wisdom and it killed him. The word we should focus on is “wisdom.”

We all want our leaders to apply a sense of experience, knowledge and good judgment to their actions or decisions, but in some cases, they may not have enough knowledge or experience to act effectively. Where they lack knowledge, they must trust and depend on others for facts and guidance. If they don’t have good judgement, they might take advice from people who are totally full of shit. The quality of judgement is evaluated after the fact. Leaders talk of using their “best” judgement, but they cannot say it’s good judgement until their action bears fruit.

India’s populist leader Narendra Modi made good choices in the beginning, but since the country was organized around a strict caste system the first wave of Covid-19 hit the lower classes and then slowed. When Modi began believing his own press, he opened the country to political rallies and large religious events, which was not only bad judgement but fatal to thousands.

Bad choices and ignoring science have consequences. This from Reuters, “The incumbent chief minister’s party in India’s West Bengal state has defeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in a state election held as the coronavirus pandemic surged to crisis levels. Modi has been criticized for focusing on the elections instead of making the pandemic his top priority.” So, there’s another populist who cares more about power than people. Bye, Bye!

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Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs: If you only read one chapter of this book, try “Take a Knee for America” and think about our never-ending conflicts between minorities and the police. I’m not asking you to take a stand but having a deep and honest conversation about why some people think the way they do would be productive. This is a book for the moment which seeks to start a conversation about peace. And if you are worried about social media, you really should check out the chapter called “Social Media Menace.”

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