Stephen Altschuler

thoughts on environment, politics, health, life issues

Human nature

America’s Moral Compass

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Everyone’s got a moral compass, though everyone may not realize it. From the Christian evangelical to Ron Reagan’s atheism everyone adheres to a moral code in some way or another. Even the prisoners I used to counsel at Walpole Prison in Massachusetts had such a compass, though the glass broke from time to time. One even took meticulous care of all the stray cats in nearby Norfolk Prison. And the suspected Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, whom I met, made jewelry which he sold in the prison store under the label Chokers by the Boston Stranger, revealing, I suppose, his own moral compass, tinged with a sense of humor (BTW, Albert was never convicted of being the Strangler, and to this day, to my knowledge, the case remains unsolved. He was murdered in prison in a drug deal gone wrong.).

Abraham Lincoln had a moral compass, and thank goodness he did, for it helped him win a Civil War that seemed hopeless at times. Lincoln got his bearings from the Declaration of Independence ironically written by Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father and slaveholder from Virginia, one of the states that seceded from the Union. “All men are created equal,’ wrote Jefferson, “entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It was a relatively new and revolutionary concept at the time and became the basis of a form of government, of, by, and for the people, called democracy. And to this day, until recently at least, it remains the basis of our country’s moral compass and the legacy of Jefferson and Lincoln.

Distressingly, this moral compass is now under serious attack by the likes of Donald Trump and his supporters. Thankfully, that attack is being resisted by those who uphold the sacrifices that Lincoln and millions of soldiers in many wars paid in defending democracy from authoritarian regimes over the decades. In our country the fight continues against the bloviated extremists on the far right who are intent to push their fascist and racist ideas onto the entire country and change our moral compass to an immoral one.

Now we are faced with yet another foreign leader also intent on attacking the basic values of democracy and the right of an independent country to choose its own way. Vladimir Putin of Russia is, as I write, waging an invasion of neighboring Ukraine for no valid reason except to protect Russia from unsubstantiated threats from this much smaller country. He knows he can act with relative impunity since Ukraine is not aligned to NATO and so has no treaty assurances that other democratic countries in Europe will come to their assistance militarily. And Putin continues to pummel innocent, peace-loving people with missiles, bombs, tanks, and about 190,000 soldiers in an effort to bring this country to its knees, “demilitarizing and denazificationing” it, as Putin puts it. But, like his ally Trump, it’s Putin who is displacing what is needed to himself onto others.

I propose the U.S., now under the leadership of Joe Biden, change its essentially non-interventionist policy, to one that is more in line with Lincoln’s moral compass, which was to protect the viability and sanctity of democracy wherever it may be. And precedents for this change are already in place. The U.S. is not sending troops into Ukraine because it is not a NATO nation. But the U.S. has and will defend other countries in the world not protected by treaty such as Taiwan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and perhaps Finland and Sweden who are not in NATO, but could be attacked by a Hitler-infused Putin.

It’s too late to defend Ukraine militarily (although air support could still be considered, as they have requested of the EU), but perhaps Biden should consider a Democracy Doctrine where the U.S. will defend militarily any democratic country from attack by another expansionist-minded country. This would give potential invaders cause to reconsider their intentions and pull back. The Doctrine would of course contain operational and conditional details and would make it clear that actions, such as the present unwarranted invasion of Ukraine would well be met with military intervention by the United States and other willing allies. If such a doctrine had been in effect in 1939, Hitler’s invasion of Poland which started WWII could have been averted, possibly saving millions of lives.

Of course, my proposal will be opposed as the decision to fight Germany was opposed by ultra-conservatives in the U.S. Congress at that time. These were similar to the America Firsters around today–isolationists who wanted to keep America out of any foreign fights. But in this highly complicated and dangerous world of today, such a doctrine would be a strong deterrent against any potential Hitler, as Putin now represents. Ours is a world seeing an alarming rise of authoritarian leaders who have solidified their power through fear, intimidation, violence, and apathy. This includes Putin, of course, but also Xi, Un, Erdigan, Orban, Lukashenko, Castro, Bolsonaro, Duarte, the military junta in Myanmar, Palestinian Hamas, and the ayatollahs of Iran, among others in Africa and South and Central America.

Such a Democracy Doctrine, backed by the world’s most powerful military, would establish the United States as the unquestioned champion of Democracy, which we have been until the Republican Party turned into a bunch of racist, insurrectionist sycophants. Bipartisanship has been tried by Biden and, once again, rejected by, ironically, the former party of Lincoln. It’s time for President Biden to take a significant tack against the winds of authoritarianism both here and abroad.

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I’ve recently written and published three books (I’ve been productive during the pandemic’s sheltering in place!) which may be of interest to you. They are Into the Woods…and Beyond, The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life, and Golf 360: For Current Players and Those Considering the Game. You can read reviews of each at my website, stephenaltschuler.com. They are all available at online sources, including Amazon. Thanks.

Learning From Lincoln

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Joe Biden and Abraham Lincoln have a number of things in common. They both lost dear relatives, especially beloved sons. They both struggled to get their party’s nomination to run for president. They both won their bid for the presidency by winning a few key states. They both entered office with considerable opposition among the public. They both had huge crises on their plate the first day into the frey: Lincoln the Civil War; Biden the global pandemic, an insurrection, and a predecessor who wouldn’t concede the election’s results, wouldn’t comply with the standard peaceful transfer of power, and who even instigated the insurrection. Lincoln went on to free the slaves, helping him to win the war and protect the Union and its democracy from white supremacist insurrectionists. And Biden…well we don’t know yet how Biden will do to protect the Union and defend the country against its militias of white supremacists and Trump-infused Republicans.

With Lincoln, it took tremendous courage, fortitude, and intelligence to accomplish what he did in the relative short amount of time he had before an assassin’s bullet put an end to his continued good and justice for “all men created equal.” As the Civil War dragged on, Lincoln was increasingly known for his focus and ability to see a solution through until he began to see the results he was looking for. He, like Biden, had members of his own party oppose him every inch of the way. But he had allies too, and he used those allies to help mold public opinion and bend the public to his way of thinking: mainly that slavery was an evil that must be stopped in its vile tracks.

I don’t see Biden using his domestic allies in quite the same way. Despite his economic successes and ability to put money in the hands of those who most need it, the public, thanks to Republican propaganda, gives him relatively low popularity ratings. He obviously doesn’t have the cognitive, oratory, and persuasive skills Lincoln had. Both men also retained key figures in their administration whom they trusted to take appropriate action in their departments. With Lincoln, it was Gen. McClellan who was agonizingly slow to attack when he had the opportunity. With Biden it is Attorney General Merrick Garland who has failed to act decisively to investigate the senior perpetrators and instigators of the January 6 insurrection–that stain on our country that almost brought down our democracy in one violent day.

Lincoln eventually replaced McClellan, after several other failures, with a more focused and effective Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. And that decision was key in finally winning that devastating war. Biden may not realize it but we are in a cold Civil War that requires the insight and courage of a Lincoln to assess the realities of the enemy and take the necessary action–though much different from the politics of yesterday–to put Trump and his surrogates down, and put them down hard.

The political atmosphere today is not that much different than during Lincoln’s time. Slavery, in the form of white supremacy and voter suppression laws, is still with us. Blacks are still denigrated and undermined and discriminated against. We’ve made some progress but not enough. There have been too many conservative operatives that have impeded social progress and civil rights. Every time we advanced several steps with Democrats–although not always perfect–unprincipled Republicans take us right back to the Jim Crow era.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, announced during the Civil War, was not popular among his cabinet members, the opposition party, and even members of his own party, but he was a man who acted on principles. He followed the dictates of the Declaration of Independence, the guiding set of moral laws on which our country is based. Our current Supreme Court could do just as well; as could the many state legislatures who voted in voter suppression laws; as could Republican members of Congress who continually kiss Trump’s ring and lean dangerously to a white supremacist platform that many in our country have followed since the end of the Civil War.

Our country is rife with racism, to put it bluntly. And with racism comes its offspring: authoritarianism. The crude and criminal Trump has extracted racist dogwhistles to the surface, and, yes, like Hitler, has carefully plotted his coup and takeover. The 14th Amendment, enacted after Lincoln’s murder, was aimed at Confederate leaders to prevent them ever holding public office again. But it was wisely inclusive of any and all insurrectionists for time immemorial. If Biden has the motivation, intent, courage, and wisdom he will push Merrick Garland to apply this Amendment to Donald Trump and prevent this bully from ever again holding any office from President to Animal Control Officer.

Jailing the rioters who invaded Congress on Jan. 6 is not enough. Garland, with Biden’s tacit support, must investigate and, if warranted, prosecute the big fish involved if our country and our democracy are to be protected and sustained.

***

The Midwest Review of Books has written an excellent review of my new book, The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life (Sacajawea Press, Vancouver WA, 2021). Check it out at stephenaltschuler.com.

How much more of Trump do we need to hear about before…we stop him cold!!

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Donald Trump is a con man supreme and those who follow and kiss his ring are just as bad. Most of us know that but still this joker still manages to get himself off the hook. Teflon Don I call him, much like we called Reagan Teflon Ron in the 80s. Part of the problem is that not enough key people are committed to going after him. These include Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director and Trump appointee Christopher Wray, and head honcho Joe Biden, himself. For whatever reason, they have avoided investigation and prosecution of this obvious and chronic criminal, and in doing so, create the possibility of his running and winning reelection in 2024 as president or even as a backbencher Representative from his Florida district where he could be elected Majority leader or even Speaker of the House. It also creates the possibility and probability of the Republicans taking back majorities in the House and Senate in 2022, which in turn will hobble Biden’s presidency and further enable Trump (or one of his surrogates) to win in ’24.

Biden and Garland are living in bubbles, unable to see the realities of the present political climate. I hate to say that because in some respects Biden has done a commendable job given all that he had on his plate when he assumed office. He’s a good man, a moral man, an ethical man, a man I’m happy to have replaced Trump, the opposite of the above traits. But he is wedded to the past way of doing things in Congress. Unlike it used to be, Republicans have created an atmosphere of contention and anti-cooperation with Democrats. And that seems to be their only policy statement: oppose everything Democrats propose regardless of how good those proposals may be for the country. Biden is invested in bipartisanship. Manchin and Sinema, whatever their true motives, also preach bipartisanship. And Merrick Garland? I just think he’s a bit of a wimp unwilling to take on Trump and his death-threatening cultists.

I say all this not to be a wiseguy, as Biden might call me, but to sound the alarm bell of danger if Trump is allowed to continue riding roughshod over our democracy. For if he returns to political office, in any form, our country will soon cease to be recognized as the fully democratic power that it is. It will quickly devolve into an autocracy in the mold of Putin, Xi, and Un–all Trump chums. So go ahead and try and convict him court, but his father taught him all the dodging tactics he needs to avoid that. I say a better bet would be to use the 14th Amendment and stop this insurrectionist cold!

In the meantime, what can we do to block this devolution towards destruction? Well, as I’ve said before, we, as voters, need to make a statement in the 2022 election. And that statement needs to read, “Dems Score Landslide Win in Midterms. Increase Majorities in Both Houses!”

As Danny Kaye once said, I believe in the Court Jester: “Get it? Got it! Good!

Another Civil War in America? Possibly but not Probably

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Civil War in America in the 2020s? Well…We’re not talking about a North versus South like war in the 1860s. There’s no chance of that, for sure. But we are talking about–and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger has warned us about a current national emergency to that effect in his interview with CNNs Wolf Blitzer–a series of violent episodes in a number of cities instigated by certain conservative leaders and billionaires as a kind of race war to scare suburbanites into voting Republican in the next election so as to return Republican majorities to the House and Senate thereby paving the way for Trump to run again in 2024. These race riots are indeed possible but, I believe, not probable. Why? Because we are a consumer society, so dependent upon the ability to shop that we base our very existence–soulless as it may be–on buying things, whether they be necessities or luxuries. And the pandemic has made this even more so, which has led to union-less Amazon growing into one of the most profitable companies of all time. So imagine if political violence in our streets led to the suspension of Amazon vans making deliveries to our doorsteps. Imagine if FedEx were faced with the same delays. And the USPS was unable to meet daily deliveries of mail with its social security checks, IRS rebates, business licenses and such, days, weeks, even months behind schedule.

There would still be the same political polarities as now but violence in the streets would not be tolerated by any of us–Trumpsters or liberals, QAnon-ers or pro vaxers–if we were not able to consume the way we are used to consuming. Like babies at their mother’s breast, we are happily addicted to such consumption and will not allow civil war violence in the streets to obstruct the engines of consumption, Trump or no Trump, Biden or no Biden, Pence or no Pence, Pelosi or no Pelosi, Cheney or no Cheney. All of those folks become irrelevant in the face of collective consumption, the one aspect of our society that binds us all together, that solidifies our needs and desires, that makes us one United States. Black, white, red, yellow, Jew, Christian, Moslem, young, old, middle aged, rich, poor, middle class, yes, even white supremacists: We all to a person consume every day of our lives. We eat. We play. We rest. And…we buy. And none of us can do without buying. It’s too ingrained in our heritage, our history, our national psyche.

The pandemic led to many jobs being lost. So why is it that we’ve set a new record for jobs gained? The reason is clear. People, all people, need money to buy things for their personal comfort, happiness, contentment, security, and survival. They may collect unemployment for a time but usually it’s not enough to fulfill our needs and wants. They may be making minimum wage for a time but often they decide they want and need more, so they get more schooling or training or self employment: anything to make more to get more. Buying a home or living in a nice apartment in a nice neighborhood? You can’t get those on unemployment or working at lousy wages with lousy benefits for a lousy boss who treats you like you know what.

So who’s going to tolerate or support rampant and indiscriminate violence breaking out in the streets, spawned by anti vax mandaters, or the Trump lie of a stolen election, or a mask mandate for school children? Trump Republicans? Progressives? Truckers in Canada? Youth? Aged? Blacks? Whites? Who? Such violence and what it will mean for ordinary citizens and their daily lives will hit home quickly as they see the economy grind to a halt, and all the delivery trucks come to a stop and brick and mortar companies close down.

Then perhaps the civil warriors will be exposed on the streets, like the king with no clothes, and rounded up, arrested, prosecuted, and jailed, along with those in authority who managed, encouraged, organized, and instigated them (as on January 6 in D.C.). Perhaps then some good might come from such civil disturbances, and we can finally wipe the slate clean of such destructive elements of our society, cleaning out the entire pipeline instead of just the muck in the drain.

Ticking Time

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We are a society rather obsessed with time. We run out of it. We see it fly by. We don’t know where it went. We watch it flow through the hourglass. We cheer it as a ball drops in “Time Square.” In summary, we say, “It’s about time.” Yes, indeed, it is certainly about time. And yes, we are running out of it in relation to the 2022 election. Merrick Garland may be thinking, “I’ve got all the time in the world,” but he’d be dead wrong, for “there’s never enough time.” And Joe Biden’s hoping “a stitch in time saves nine”, wondering how he salvages his legislative agenda after the GOP, along with Manchin and Sinema, scuttled it. Donald Trump is right on Joe’s heels, stalking his shadow, like he once did with Hillary, “biding his time,” and never missing “a beat in time” to vilify his opponents and/or his friends. And Trump Republicans wish “to go back in time” when white Christians were in the majority and and it was “time out” for Blacks and women and Moslems and Jews and Asians, whose “time was over”, when they stayed in their places, and voters wouldn’t “waste their time” reading up on the candidates and make informed choices. The exception is Mike Pence who finally came out and told Trump “times up,” you’re wrong, bud!

Buddhists and other meditators know there’s “no time like the present.” While evangelicals obsess on the “End Times.” And the 1/6 insurrectionists tried to capture “time in a bottle,” but they dropped that bottle and it shattered all over the Capitol tiles leading to their arrests and prosecutions and “jail time.”

Then there’s white supremacists, anti-vaxers, anti-maskers, QAnon-ers, and pro-lifers, and Trump-appointed SCOTUS jokers who are still riding on Teflon Don’s coattails screaming “our time is now.” They live in a Back to the Future world where they’re “running out of time,” like history fading into “the annals of time.”

Well, as I “race against time”, having gotten out of bed way too late this weekend morning, I’ll end this “time-limited” screed and bid you a “see you next time.” It’s “high time” I move on to Saturday errands and such, complying with my wife’s “time-honored” honey-do’s, and thus blithely continue with “the time of my life.”

“Time to beat a hasty retreat,” lest the “time that waits for no man” is like the airplane within which “time flies.”

I know. I know. “Time to get the hell outta here!” “Time to get with it and get off that place where the sun don’t shine!”

And finally From Pink Floyd’s song, “Time”:

“Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say”

***

One of the times of my life happened when I took time out and lived in a remote cabin in the northern woods for almost four years. You can read all about my adventures and my love affair with nature and getting around mostly on my own two legs, “most of the time”, in my recent memoir Into the Woods…and Beyond, available via Amazon. I think you’ll “have a good time” enjoying it. OK, now I’m serious: Time’s Up!

The War Against Democracy is On!

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The war against democracy in the country that has most championed it is now being waged as definitively as when Germany invaded Poland in ’39 or Japan invaded Pearl Harbor in ’41, specifically now by Republicans in Congress and some 19 Republican-led State legislatures, along with two turncoat Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, and, Oh yes, still Whiner in Chief, Donald John Trump. That’s a long sentence for a short headline, I know, but anything shorter and I might have lost your attention. And at this point, what with the pandemic inall, lost attention might result in a critical lost battle which Republicans would certainly seize upon to their strategic advantage.

And in a time of war, unity is only an issue if either side is disunited in their resolve to win. The Republicans, Trumpian to their rotten core, are indeed united. They could care less about democracy, a form of government that is anathema to their basic values of power, fear, greed, and intimidation. Those are values inherent in authoritarianism, in dictatorship, in oligarchies, in fascism. Democrats, excepting for the two previously mentioned, are for democracy, in full. Its values are governance by, for, and of the people–all the people, equally. They are in favor of a federal government using its financial resources to benefit the people via external and internal infrastructures. They are in favor of an open and healthy unobstructed debate of the issues of the day, hoping, even insisting, to come to consensus–that paragon of democracy that holds a country together, no matter how diverse its population. For without democracy, a country, as we have seen time after time, will lapse into the dregs of one-party rule which leads to dictatorship. And the world has rarely seen a benign and righteous dictator.

A time of war is a tense time, one of uncertainty as to how the outcome will manifest. Who will win? And what changes will unfold? And will the country survive as we’ve known it? It is a political war, yes, but it happens during a war on a lethal worldwide pandemic that should have drawn this world together but that has a further divided it. And to further complicate things, we are also at war with a rapidly changing climate that, because of human intransigence, ignorance, and greed, is rearing its head like the Buddhist realm of the hungry ghost with its figurative huge belly and an impossibly rope-thin neck that can never satisfy that chronically huge stomach. Forever starving; never satiated.

With all these rampant, out of control hungry ghosts, the prognosis for the health of humanity and the health of our Mother Earth is guarded, to say the very least.

In this political war, which, in a sense, is the keystone for the fighting of the other wars, we will see how resilient our democracy is. We are witnessing a kind of D-Day where the forces for democracy–the Commission to Investigate the January 6 insurrection, President Biden, the Attorney General, Stacy Abrams and her Fair Fight, most of the Democratic Party including its legislators and its voters, liberals, along with many anti-Trump Republicans and Independents–are massing its forces on the front lines to challenge the forces of fascism, or the governance by the few at the expense of the many. The fascist forces, which include Trump Republican legislators and election officials on local, state, and national levels, white supremacy gangs, QAnon crazies, anti-vaxers, anti-maskers, anti-mandaters, anti-Semites, anti-Moslems, our highly partisan Supreme Court, many white Christian evangelicals, and cult Trumpsters throughout the country, have fortified their armies with misinformation, conspiracy theories, ancient phony myths, Trump lies, false rationalizations, using social media, Fox “News”, extremist right wing radio shows, and Trump appointed federal judges.

Truth be known, the leading fascists are adept at manipulating facts to support their cause. They recruit their gullible minions then brainwash them to the point of their readiness to drink the proverbial Kool Aid. That’s when the minions get radical, as they are now, trained to threaten those they perceive as against their view of reality. It’s been happening like that for centuries. And the false thinking and intimidating behaviors from the time of Jesus when a Jew who preached peace and love for all was falsely accused and put to death, to the bloody and cultist middle ages when the end of times, called Armageddon, believed and feared by millions, was actually predicted to take place September 1, 1492, to present times when evangelicals still believe in the coming Armageddon when their Christ will return to Jerusalem, hence the only reason the Jews of Israel are at all tolerated, and lead the faithful to heaven while others who fail to convert, like Jews and Moslems, will burn in hell. Things really haven’t changed much.

So I say to fascists who forever pop up their heads like wack a mole puppets, I predict democracy will win this war. It won’t be easy but our motivation is extremely high. We have fought off attacks previously in our history: The Revolutionary War, The Civil War, World Wars I and II, The Depression, McCarthyism, and the Donald Trump presidency and its ugly aftermath. But the pandemic may be our most formidable enemy and we only have the Democrats fighting that. Unvaccinated mostly Republicans are, like cult members, apparently willing to die to make Joe Biden look bad. Very sad and very deplorable, indeed.

We still have time to mount that D-Day, though time is running out. The Commission on Jan. 6, Garland and the DOJ, cases against Trump are all moving along but at a snail’s pace. The 2022 elections and its Republican promise of voter suppression, gerrymandered districts, and partisan vote counting will ultimately tell the tale as to where we are headed as a democracy. And as I stand on the edge of the cliff looking out at a broad expansive sea, I have only a hope and a prayer that the country will do the right thing increasing Democrat majorities in both Houses of Congress thus allowing President Biden to continue making the progress he has already made.

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

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In 1864, East Tennessee native Admiral David Farragut shouted those words as his ships were stalled in Mobile Bay by Confederate torpedoes. Here’s how Ned Jilton II of the Times News described the dramatic and critical battle in a feature piece on 8/13/20.

“Early on the morning of Aug. 5, 1864, Farragut’s fleet began to advance. The monitors and the forts started to exchange fire. To better evaluate the battle, the admiral climbed up into the rigging of his flagship as officers and sailors took up positions to relay his orders to the crew.

As the fleet entered the bay, the lead monitor, the USS Tecumseh, began to turn to engage the CSS Tennessee when an explosion ripped through its hull. The monitor had struck a torpedo and quickly sank with most of her crew.

The ships behind Tecumseh, fearing more torpedoes, slowed and nearly stopped as the vessel sank, forcing the ships behind them to slow. The fleet bunched up, giving the big guns of the forts easy, slow moving targets. The admiral’s plan was quickly falling apart.

Farragut shouted through a trumpet to the USS Brooklyn ahead, “What’s the trouble?” To which he received the reply, “Torpedoes.”

Farragut gave the legendary reply, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”

Spurred on by those words, the fleet began to move forward again and into the bay. There they attacked the Rebel fleet until the only ship left fighting was the CSS Tennessee. Farragut’s fleet converged on the mighty Confederate ironclad and pounded it with cannons and then resorted to repeatedly ramming the vessel before it finally surrendered.”

So why do I bring this up at this time? News reports these days are full of scary predictions of how Republicans will more than likely retake the House and possibly the Senate in the ’22 midterm elections. Despite every sign, every indication that Trump-led Republicans have become the party of No, of obstruction, of blocking all Democratic initiatives despite their obvious benefit to ordinary Americans struggling with the realities of a deadly pandemic and its effect on employment, the world economy, action against the climate crisis, and of supporting a megalomaniac autocrat who instigated, and possibly organized, a coup against our government, voters are still ready and poised to turn the Congress over to this party of do-nothings and death threats. It’s discouraging, to say the least, and causes me to lose hope in the efficacy, wisdom, common sense, and even sanity of our country.

My only hope is the battle cry of Admiral Farragut, which I’ll paraphrase here: Damn the predictions. Full speed ahead! Often in our country when we hear a prediction of a sure-thing defeat, the underdogs get inspired and show the pundits a thing or three. We’ve seen it in sports many times, witness the ’69 Mets, witness Jack Fleck beating Ben Hogan in the U.S Open in ’55, witness the “Miracle on Ice” when the men’s U.S. hockey team beat the Soviets at Lake Placid in the gold medal game in 1980. And we’ve seen it in politics. Witness Lincoln beating Douglas in 1860, witness Truman beating Dewey in ’48, witness Kennedy beating Nixon in ’60, witness Clinton beating Bush in ’92, witness Obama beating McCain in ’08, witness Biden beating Trump in ’20, and witness two unknown Democrats beating shoe-in incumbent Republicans in the crucial Georgia U.S. Senate races in ’21.

What happens in both sports and politics is that people get inspired, and when people get inspired all bets are off. It’s Katy bar the door! And I think that could well happen in 2022. The constant barrage of media prognostications of Republican victories will scare the pants off Democratic voters nationwide, not only retaining the Democrats’ control of Congress but widening the party’s majorities, giving Joe Biden a tremendous victory and restoring the country’s forward movement under his leadership. The case against Trump’s seditious acts will continue, leading to a ruling that, if not landing him in prison, will deny him the opportunity of ever running for public office again, from dog catcher to president.

How about it Dems? Isn’t that enough to get you out of your pandemic malaise and get to the polls this November? Let’s show the bastards something they never figured: a Democratic landslide significantly increasing Democratic majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. That’ll put the nail in the political coffins of such spineless cowards and traitors as McCarthy, McConnell, Hawley, Taylor Greene, Jordan, Cawthorne, Brooks, and, yes, Donald Trump. It also relegates DINO’s Manchin and Sinema to the back benches where they belong. It lets Joe Biden proceed with an agenda that will reenergize this country in ways we haven’t seen since FDR got us on the path out of the Great Depression, or JFK had us believing in Camelot for the coming 60s.

All because Dems came out in droves and voted in such numbers in 2022 that no amount of Republican voter suppression or partisan Trump-infused election officials or even the toxified Trump Supreme Court could reverse. It’s all in your hands, my hands, our hands.

Just do it as Admiral Farragut did it, and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

***

Two new books of mine will give you further insight into my thinking and may inspire you further in dealing with the challenges our present world presents. They are Into the Woods…and Beyond, and The Valley Spirit, both available at Amazon. Thank you.

The “All About Me” Years

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The 1920s were the Roaring 20s. The 30s were the We’re all in this together years. The 40s were the Uncle Sam Needs You Years. The 50s were the I Like Ike Years. The 60s, after JFK’s murder, were the Ask What Your Country Did to You Years. The 70s were the Me Decade. And now, jumping to the 2020s, it’s the “All About Me” Years, on steroids via social media and Donald Trumpoids. As the rollicking and over the top vodka commercial says, “Sometimes you just gotta give the people what they want!” And what about half the population wants is no masks, no vaccines, no shutdowns, no facts, no science, no reality, and well, apparently, no democracy, which includes very little government intervention even when faced with a worldwide pandemic. What’s next? No traffic lights, smoking allowed everywhere, cell phones and video games allowed when driving, relieving oneself anywhere and anytime, resisting police guarding our government buildings like our U.S Capitol, and, yelling fire in a movie theater even when there is no fire, and many other examples of a no holds barred freedom of speech that some 1/6 rioters are using as their absurd defense. No restrictions. Total freedom to do anything an individual wants and chooses to do. No mandates and…well, no laws because aren’t laws just more mandates? Guns? Sure, anytime, anywhere. Even kids can bring them into schools because well, to forbid it would be a mandate that would restrict a kid’s freedom. Kids could also curse out their teachers, bully other kids, and spout out lies and falsehoods when answering questions, just as they hear their country’s leader, Donald Trump, do on Truth, his social media platform, where anything but Truth will be presented. And rampant death threats on anyone and anytime? Sure. Why not. There are no consequences. Politicians rarely speak out against them. So good people resign from important job to save them themselves and their family against this tyranny. It’s all despicable and unconscionable.

Democracy? “We don’t need no stinkin’ democracy!” Trump and the All About Me-rs, scream. That’s just something the Democrats invented to steal elections and keep Trump out of power. Voting? Just more government bullshit! We don’t need no stinkin’ voting. And one party, the Republican one, will do just fine. In the All About Me years, people do what they damn well want to do, fuc*k the consequences because there are no consequences. White power? Sounds good, like in the old days, say the Trumpsters on the street, in the bars, in the stadiums, in the diners, and on the roads.

That’s the America we saw on January 6, 2021 at our nation’s Capitol building, with its writing continuing to be on the wall, as the saying goes. Trump, Carlson, Hannity, McConnell, Cruz, Taylor Greene, and the cult followers have continued to lay the groundwork of their own fascist infrastructure since the reign of Donald the Small. Battleground states have established new voting procedures where traditional Democrat voters–Blacks, urban poor, students, youth–will have a harder time casting their ballots; voting districts have been gerrymandered to rig elections in favor of Republican candidates; and those tallying and approving vote counts will be partisans loyal to Donald Trump and company. All signed, sealed, collected and delivered, to the governors of 19 states controlled by their Republican legislatures. Merrick Garland says there’s really nothing much he can do about it until the Congress enacts the two voting rights bills. But Congress is stymied because no Republican senators will have the courage and wisdom to vote for the bills, including Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, and two Democratic senators, Manchin from West Virginia and Sinema from Arizona refuse to back a carving out of the filibuster to get those bills to the floor (as McConnell did to push through three ultra-conservative Trump nominees to the Supreme Court).

So there you have it, America. The GOP, after years of searching, has finally found its Viking leader who will figuratively rape and pillage the U.S. Constitution to drop this pesky Democracy and opt for a Trumpian strongman government where White Christian super rich men rule, where lies are labeled truths, profit is holy, and the climate crisis is a hoax fading into the fog of memory. The American experiment with “all men are created equal” will be over, along with one person, one vote, due process, and “give me your tired, your poor.”

If you want a model for how it will all pan out, that’s easy: Just look at Xi Jinping and China today; and Putin’s Russia; and Belarus, Hungry, Syria, Turkey, and other authoritarian one-party regimes. Is this what we want for our country?

So you choose, America. In 1861, a war was fought to save our Union. Lincoln and many Americans stood up to Southern slaveholding secessionists and the duped country boys who fought for them. Democracy won that time, at great cost to human life and limb. What now? Will we stand up to Trump and his “All About Me” Viking hordes as we did in the 1860s and 1960s for civil rights and the principles of equality this country stood, and still stands, for?

I hope so. I truly hope so.

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For a break with politics, pandemics, and pets on FB, check out my latest book, The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life, available at Amazon. It gives some vital guidance on finding balance in life during these troubled times. Thank you.