Stephen Altschuler

thoughts on environment, politics, health, life issues

Human nature

How to Handle Trump (and other) Bullies

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In responding to a Trump bully on FB, I replied, “Ah, another Trump bully looking for a fight.” That, so far, has shut this bully up. But who knows. They do have a tendency to simmer for a while then raise their ugly heads again in toxic reply. Most of these Trump followers are either hardened cult members who’ve swallowed the Kool Aid and would effectively die for their fascist leader. Or perhaps they are politicians in the fetid mold of Marjorie Taylor Greene who back Trump as they would a deal with the devil that they bargain will get them reelected or at least prevent death threats to them or their families as never-Trump folks have experienced. Or perhaps they are Fox “News” viewers who are longing to be noticed and acknowledged in a society that is changing faster than you can say Jack Robinson, and, in fact, are increasingly looking like Jackie Robinson. They’re scared for their future and voted for Trump in an attempt to stem the rising tide of reality, the tide that raises even their resistant ships.

Whoever they are, their minds tend to harden and calcify over time, particularly as Trump doubles and triples down on his election and Joe Biden presidency lies. They are not necessarily white supremacists who are merely riding on Trump’s coattails with their own nefarious agenda, but they are also not necessarily those on the streets or in their Trump trucks carrying Trump placards. But many are ardent Facebookers who seem to be constantly monitoring the news feed for posts criticizing their heavyweight (or is it overweight?)champion. It’s almost like they hover over their computers in endless vigil like East German soldiers used to do at the Berlin Wall ready to shoot those trying to escape. Ultimately, like any bully, their aim is to perpetrate a fight, a virulent diatribe that devolves into a deeper and deeper rabbit hole of vitriol. So their initial foray is a direct spit in the eye, wanting to be sure to get the kind of response they are looking for.

It is, of course, tempting to spit back, thinking that will shut this bully up, but it doesn’t work that way. For that revs up the bully and gets his inner juices to acidify even more. He then gets even more personal, for he knows from experience that the more personal his attacks the more he will inflict an injury not on the body but on the ego which is even more apt to get a personal response. Once that response is accomplished, he’s off to the races knowing he’s enticed a probable liberal into the kind of confrontation he’s looking for. On the other hand, such a Trump bully would probably make a good ad man, getting people to buy products that they don’t particularly need or even want. But that’s another post.

So I would suggest to take a breath and not respond to the Trump bully’s first volley. This is after all a kind of cold war not a hot one. Check to see how their bullying comments makes you feel, both intellectually and viscerally. What’s your first reaction and what would you say back if you responded immediately. Would it be “an eye for an eye”? Would it be a “never again”? Would it be a “love thine enemy?” It’s always good to just observe that first reaction before any actual action. That’s puts the situation under your control and not the bully’s who expects you will act on your first reaction immediately. Bullies love gut reactions as they often lead to the fights they crave.

After that first wave hits the shore, see if you can come up with something that conveys your feelings without getting personal. That’s key, for as soon as you get into personal territory you bring out the bully’s claws. From the 8th grade through high school it was often obnoxious reference to one’s mother that got the cock fight going. But in adulthood it’s words like “insane” or “stupid” or “idiot” or “cult” or now, “Trump” that revs up the engines. One word of caution: bullies are quite adept at turning a dialogue into an out and out fight. Any reaction on your part is, in part, a victory for a bully, particularly a Trump bully. So remember, in a flight or fight scenario, flight is as good a reaction as any. That translates as instead of responding, forget and continue to scroll the news feed. That turns the boil to a simmer to an outright turning the flame off. But if you must respond, read on.

Whatever you come up with (and I do think you should consider my suggestion at the beginning of this piece), you’ll need to go back to the bully’s comment that got you to this point in the proceeding. Do you actually know what he is saying and why he is saying it (btw, the bully is almost always male!)? Is your comeback addressing what he is saying? If you were him, what would your reaction be to your return comment? That effectively passes your comment through a few filters, which offers no guarantees of success but at least more thoroughness on your part).

And what is success? For me, it would be what I experienced in my most recent skirmish: no response at all. Silence from the bully indicates that none of his criteria have been met for further battles. I submit you will never convince a Trump bully to acquiesce to your argument. He will never agree with you or even concede you have a point. His belief is ironclad, rigid, inflexible, and as hardened as an anvil, just like his leader Donald Trump. And as that attitudinal approach will be Trump’s downfall, as it has already led to his defeat in the 2020 election, it will ultimately and eventually lead to the bully giving up his campaign, much like the kid in the 8th grade who bullied me for a time back in the day, or this guy in FB who failed to return my “Ah, another Trump bully looking for fight.”

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A Happy, healthy, peaceful New Year, y’all!

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Three books of mine, all published in 2021, await your inspection and, perhaps, purchase on Amazon. They are The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life, Into the Woods…and Beyond, and Golf 360: For Current Players and Those Considering the Game. Thank you.

Death Threats

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Death threats have no place in a representative democracy, which, despite the right wing attacks, we still have in America. Death threats are a tool of the mafia, of totalitarian regimes, of street gangs, of impulsive crimes of passion, of white supremacists, of Trump Republicans, and, because Trump has never spoken out directly against it and instigated the January 6 insurrection, Trump himself. There is a deep hatred, a deep anger, that permeates this country, that soaks to its bones, that floods its mental and moral basements and alleyways. There’s a rot when anger and hatred smolder for too long, causing a festering like an infected finger from too much nail bitting (of which I experienced as an anxious child).

In America, that rot has festered since 1619 when the first slaves were brought here from Africa. We as a country have made impressive physical progress since then but we have been woefully bereft of spiritual, moral, and emotional progress, as evidenced by the way we’ve treated those freed from slavery, Native Americans whose land we stole from and whose treaties we’ve habitually broken, and many other minorities who we’ve discriminated against and disempowered over the decades. We have sunk to a new low with the foul smell of a slur an Oregon father stained on a TV broadcast the Bidens were holding for children during Christmas. You’ve all read about it. I needn’t repeat the curse words disguised as a well known internet code for a despicable curse phrase against our legally and honorably elected President near the end of an otherwise sweet event.

Yes, we are a country capable of great philanthropy, of great charity, of great perseverance, of great perspicacity, indeed, of great love for our families, our neighbors, and our communities. If only we could concentrate and expand on those virtues and not be mired in uncontrolled gun ownership, drug dealing, gang warfare, white supremacy, conspiracy theories, right wing fantasies and mythologies, and…death threats against good, public servants, lately including, yes, doctors in hospitals who stand up to patients and their families who demand being given unproven, unapproved anti-virals for their Covid-infected relatives, governors who put into place mandatory mask and vaccine requirement to try to preserve public health, judges who rule against challenges to those mandates, nurses who support those mandates and common sense measures–front line nurses and health care workers who were once cheered publicly and openly by an adoring public–congresspeople who care deeply about this country and the welfare of its citizens.

Now we’re even hearing that Steve Bannon, advisor to Donald Trump, has a podcast called The War Room, and is advocating for civil war. Right. Civil war. He want to go back to a so called golden age where all people are not created equal, entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No, that’s just for rich, whites who own property, just like the original constitution said. According to Bannon, Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Muslims, etc, are all of an inferior race and are meant to serve people like him, like the slaveholders in the South used to say while perpetuating and rationalizing the practice of slavery for 250 years, and then Jim Crow-slavery for another 150 years. Steve Bannon is hater extraordinaire, trying to reinstall his boss and Godfather Don Donald, the hater supreme who runs the whole nasty enterprise. Cult leader Trump has not uttered a single word to discourage the death threats surely lodged mostly by his followers, some of those 89 million who once followed him on his now-banned Twitter feed.

To his credit, Trump has now endorsed Covid vaccines after his extended silence has killed thousands (of mostly his followers). Of course, he has political motives as well as he tries to take full credit for the vaccines. But that’s Trump being Trump so we’ll allow him that indulgence. In addition, Trump has said nothing to deter his buddy Bannon from essentially calling for a civil war. Trump would embrace the Devil himself if the Devil expressed a liking for Trump.

So America is in the grips of the likes of Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, and Donald Trump and all his Republican minions who bow before him and kiss his ring. And the hatred, lies, and vitriol continue to project verbal vomit from his mouth. And many of his 89 million continue to believe his lies and emulate his angry and coarse ways and means.

But there is a solution to all this, you know. There is a way out, and a way back to a strong democracy the world honors, appreciates, and cooperates with. It’s to open the curtain and expose all these jokers as the weak incompetents that they are. Trump and Bannon are 12-year old bullies in older, adult bodies. And what’s the best way to deal with a bully? Anyone have an answer to that? Who among you has ever been bullied? I’ll bet quite a few. I have, and I’ll tell you it did no good to try to avoid them, to try to wish them away. The boy had a group of his cult members with him as he ordered me to hold the Junior High School door open for him every morning. One day, I didn’t and he hit me hard in the stomach with the others laughing behind him. It doubled me over as I struggled by my locker. At that point, another boy, a Black fellow I didn’t know came over and asked if I was OK, and told me he had my back. The next day I again did not hold the door open for the bully. And you know what? He never bothered me again. Bulliess are essentially weak and insecure.

That’s what we need to do with the likes of Trump and Bannon. Continue not to hold the figurative door open for them. Continue to do our jobs in the face of death threats and vicious fascist attacks on our Capitol. Continue to speak out against the voices of right wing extremism. Continue to oppose the hatred and anger and lies and false prophets.

We are a country founded on the principles of equality of all, of governance of the people, for the people, by the people, of a government that cares about its people. One person, one vote, encouraged, allowed, by law, by history, by destiny. Never forget who we are as Americans. Never cease to oppose those who want to redefine who we are to fit their distorted, self-serving, and, yes, evil minds.

Thank you for your attention, and if you have the inclination, please pass this post on to others.

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In my ongoing efforts to spread some good news and perhaps lay out a blueprint for how society can live in more harmony each other and with our Earth, please check out my book, The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life, available at Amazon. Thanks.

Time to Show Your Cards, JB: Modifying the Filibuster

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McConnell did it to push through three Trump nominees to the supreme court to make it Trump’s Court, which is a threat to our democracy, our Bill of Rights, as well as life on Earth. Failing to pass the two federal voting rights bill will also threaten our democracy, progress on climate change, and pave the way for Trump or one of his surrogates to run for, and perhaps win, the presidency in ’24. And the only way to pass those bills is to carve out a way to hobble the GOP abuse of the filibuster. No amount of political donations will accomplish this. No amount of rhetoric will accomplish this. No amount of speechifying will accomplish this. No amount of street demonstrations will accomplish this. Only political arm twisting and jawboning and deal making and quid pro quo-ing, like Lyndon Johnson used to do, will accomplish that. Even Powder Milk Biscuits won’t accomplish that. Just good hard-nosed politicking is what’s needed and I just haven’t seen it among the current crop of politicians in Washington. Certainly the Republicans are lily-livered wusses. I’ve come to expect that among that sorrowful crew. But I expect more of the Dems.

I’ve known for years there’d be trouble between the moderates and the progressives. A progressive golf bud of mine told me in ’16 that he hadn’t voted for Clinton because Bernie wasn’t nominated, so he just didn’t vote. That was essentially a vote for Trump. I don’t play golf with that asshole anymore. With progressives it’s either their way or the highway, I’m sad to say. There’s no middle ground, as they are essentially a third political party: DINOs, or Democrats in Name Only. With their slogans of Defund the Police and Erase College Debt and Medicare for All, they are, to a large extent, responsible for the Democrats losing a number of key seats in the House of Representatives, giving them the very slim majority margin they currently have and putting the Dems in extreme danger of losing their House majority altogether in ’22.

The Dems also have another kind of DINO in the Senate. Manchin and Sinema. And because of their stubborn stances against the key policies of Joe Biden, they are actually shamelessly attracting substantial right wing money, which is despicable. Their motivation? Money, of course, but the power they think they’ll accumulate by playing to their supposed bases in Arizona and West Virginia. These two may do more harm to our country than those Trump hordes did on January 6. At least many of those were sent packing, prosecuted, and imprisoned. Sinema continues to flit around the Senate chambers pretending to be a righteous power broker. And Manchin prances around like a desert camel with his head up in the clouds somewhere, thinking he has to model the late Sen.Robert Byrd to impress his base back home. Just a couple more true Democratic senators hopefully added in 22, then those two will be permanently stalled at the end of the runway. But for now, they’re in the control tower.

So it’s time to show your cards, Joe. Time, that great taskmaster, is running out. Nineteen Republican-controlled state legislatures have stacked the deck with laws that will guarantee elections on all levels will go their way. You can’t play Democracy with a stacked deck, Joe. You gotta have at least two to tango for a Democracy to have any kind of validity and trustworthiness. Otherwise, people stop voting, permitting the fascists to fill the vacuum. That’s the Trump GOP plan. A bloodless coup that the people don’t realize happened until after the election. How’d they do that? the Dems will scream. That’s not fair, but when they go to court to make their challenges, the judges will hit the gavel, declaring the states have a right to set their election rules, and you had the right to challenge them before the election but didn’t. Rule for the Defendant. Case closed. Country screwed!

Think about it, dear readers. There’s still time to act. Call or email your Democratic senator to put pressure on Joe Biden to put pressure on Manchin and Sinema to change the filibuster rules to allow a majority vote on these voting rights bills, currently stalled by GOP obstructionists, which will essentially disempower those Jim Crow-like voting laws signed into law by key Republican states.

Our democracy, our country, our planet are on the line.

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Check out Sacajawea Press offerings in memoir, nature, self-development, and sports categories at www.stephenaltschuler.com.

I am not so much an American as…a Citizen of Planet Earth

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With early Neanderthals and homo sapiens, there were no countries, no states, no cities, not even villages. They were simply inhabitants of Earth, living lives that satisfied their immediate needs while caring for the resources they were dependent upon for their survival. That eventually changed and people did band together into cities and countries, with allegiances to those places. They began to identify themselves with whatever city they lived in to such a degree that they would war against other cities they felt were against the interests of their city. As we know now those cities organized into countries and the wars grew more intense. There was some limited cooperation between countries but some became long time enemies involved in cold and/or hot wars. A couple of those wars were world wars where millions perished.

Nature knows of no such nationalistic boundaries or wars. When tundra swans fly from the Arctic to Washington state they have no awareness of the place name where they land, only that it is a place of warmer climate, more fresh water, and abundant food. When caribou cross over from Canada to Alaska they pass through no checkpoints or border crossings. And the swallows know not if they are in South America or Capistrano. Yes, we have seven continents on Earth, but it was only people who divided them into countries and states, and then chose common languages, customs, laws, and mission statements to unify them.

Well, few of these divisions have worked. Twenty five hundred years ago the Buddha preached to his followers that human beings were primarily motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion, and that’s pretty much the case today, resulting in war, fear, suspicion, and human-caused despoiling of Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, rivers, forests, and air. As I write people on this planet are dying of hunger, thirst, and oppression from authoritarian governments. Greed, hatred and delusion still fuel the engines of ignorance and lies.

So, yes, I am an American, but my Jewish maternal grandparents came here from Russia in the early 20th century, giving up their identity with that country to come to another place, with courage, faith, and determination, where they could live in peace and raise a family. My Jewish paternal grandparents came from Russia and Germany for the same reasons just before WWI broke out. They perhaps heard of a place that proclaimed in their founding documents, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution…” They wanted what their birth countries couldn’t and wouldn’t give them.

Now, I too, possessing the genes of my grandparents, want something of life that my birth country, the United States, has tried but couldn’t and wouldn’t give me: a national commitment to insure justice for all, a democracy that encourages all eligible to vote and not suppress that right to vote, domestic tranquillity that controls guns as well or better than it controls cars, civil rights as the Constitution dictates, reparations for the progeny of those abused and defamed in the slavery era, including Blacks and native Americans, thus securing the blessings of liberty, and…turning away from excessive profits to heal the natural environment of this planet that we have so degraded. A military-industrial complex that Eisenhower so wisely warned us of. McCarthyism. The assassinations of JFK and RFK and MLK. Corporate greed and power. The present-day aftermath of slavery still staining our nation in the form of white supremacy. The threat of nuclear war or meltdowns. Systemic racism. Gun violence. Anti-maskers and anti-vaxers and anti-honest educators. The obstructionist Mitch McConnell. The obstructionists Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The toxic insanity of QAnon. The hypocrisy of Mark Zuckerberg. The fake news of Fox News. Donald Trump and his Minions of insurrectionists, cultists, and, yes, ingenuous House and Senate GOP representatives. An ultra-conservative Supreme Court, made that way by Trump and McConnell. We are spinning, faster and faster, down a rabbit hole of no-return. Caught in a black hole of misinformation, myths, and lies, all of our own doing.

So, yes, I am American, but I am more a citizen of Earth and owe my allegiance to Earth, and devote all my remaining energies to the healing and preservation of Earth and all its oppressed people and abused environment. For the governing mission of Earth is to live and let live; to treat others–plants, wildlife, natural resources, and people–as we would like to be treated; to not judge, for in the same way we judge others, we will be judged; to find in every adversity the seed of an equal or greater benefit; to love our neighbors as we love ourselves; to truly consider the lilies of the field, and how they grow.

I declare myself an citizen of Earth, ready to call out those who degrade it. Care to join me?

Democracy

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I’ve come to believe that the polarities in our country have less to do with political parties then with being in favor of or against democracy. And it may be a pretty even break. Since we have a representative democracy where we elect leaders to represent us on Federal, State, and Local levels, the actions of those representatives reflect the mood, temperament, and wishes of the voters of their district. So when all of the Republicans in the House vote against a bill that all the Dems voted for, you’ve got a good picture of the country as a whole. And when you have a routine measure like the debt limit voted on the other day, the picture becomes crystal clear. The debt limit was protected against partisan manipulation back in 1868 when the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, and it hasn’t been an issue since…until now.

What’s more, the debt limit does not relate to current spending but to the previous spending of the prior administration, in this case the 7.8 trillion that Trump spent  to add to the deficit. That means that all the Republicans in the House voted against the ability of the government to pay for the money their dear leader Trump borrowed, and they approved, in the last part of his presidency. Their purpose? To seek political revenge against the Democrats, while hurting the country at large. That is not how a democracy is supposed to work. It’s not an adolescent game of tit for tat, of if you do that to me, I’ll do this to you, of, as a Mafiosa boss might say, play ball with me or you’re toast!(except the Godfather doesn’t represent anyone but himself and “his family”).

Of course the main thing a democracy guarantees is the right to vote, and the 14th Amendment took care of that for all male citizens, black or white, though not yet for women. That didn’t come until 1920 with the 19th Amendment. And the 14th insured there would be no abridgment of the right to vote, which included voter suppression laws that are now presently in effect in some 17 Republican controlled states. My question now is why hasn’t the present Justice Department under Merrick Garland challenged those laws on the basis of the 14th Amendment? What’s he waiting for? The ’22 election is too important to allow those laws to go unchallenged, and the DOJ is the only viable agency to do so. So wake up Mr. Garland and do your job!

Democracy’s been around since the 5th century B.C., starting in Athens, Greece when that town was itself a city-state. It started as a direct democracy like they have in Switzerland today, but evolved into different forms such our representative form and Britain’s Parliamentary form. But you may not have known that at the very beginning of our country, there was a strong anti-democracy movement, similar to what we see today with Trump and the Republican party. This was spearheaded by the aristocracy who were mostly elites and slave holders in the Deep South and in Appalachia. They were blatantly and openly white supremacists who believed the “Negro” race as well as poor whites should be subservient and enslaved to the rich who alone were civilized and cultured enough to set the standards for society. They used all sorts of rationales, including the Bible and the pseudo-science of the day to eventually convince even poor whites from the South and midlands to fight a Civil War to preserve slavery and the positions of the wealthy plantation owners throughout the Deep South. That foul air of white supremacy lingers to this day in the policies of the Republican Party, Donald Trump and his cult followers who would like to see him back in power, not as a president but, this time, as an oligarch and, perhaps, worse.

So, yes, we’ve seen this before–with Native Americans, with black slaves from Africa, with Irish Catholics from Ireland, with Jews from Eastern Europe, with Hispanics, with Moslems, with Chinese immigrants, with gays and lesbians, with the disabled, with Black American citizens. Have I missed other fringe groups? Probably. We have not been a particularly tolerant and compassionate country. And we needn’t look any farther than today to the actions of the Trump Republican Party to  see examples of this intolerance and obstructionist policy.

But now they see a real opening to bury this ancient blot on aristocracy called democracy with a Napolean called Donald Trump. So they rally round this charlatan and drape him in praise and gold. They explain away his obvious lies. We all saw the January 6th insurrection with our own eyes. We saw Trump incite the crowd beforehand. We saw the Trump infused animals storm the Capitol, harm officers, put our legislators in fear for their lives, smash TV equipment, even kill one officer, Brian Sicknick. We saw how they desecrated and tried to overturn the workings of democracy, without remorse, without shame. And now Republicans are trying to pass this off as an anomaly, as just one day, as something Trump had no part in.

It doesn’t fly, does it. It just doesn’t bloody fly. Our eyes told our brains the truth. And as long as the truth stands tall and true, democracy will endure. These wee radical right wing, white supremacist Trump politicians can’t destroy it. It has endured since the 5th century B.C.

Oh, and btw, another provision of the 14th Amendment put forth, in case the GOP and Fox News didn’t tell you: In its later sections, the 14th Amendment authorized the federal government to punish states that violated or abridged their citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing the states’ representation in Congress, and mandated that anyone who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States could not hold civil, military or elected office (without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate).” Perhaps Donald Trump and company weren’t aware of that provision…nor apparently is Merrick Garland.

As for democracy’s essence and prophecy, Lincoln said it simply and best: ” this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

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My new book The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life is now available via Amazon. It’s a gently stated book, published by my own Sacajawea Press, that will enrich and enliven your life. I hope you purchase it and enjoy it. I mean, sheez, it’s 99 cents, for God’s sake! Thanks, y’all.

A Sense of Urgency

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I believe we are at a crossroads in our journey as a country requiring radical action to preserve our “one nation…with liberty and justice for all.” Voting rights suppression, racial injustice, women’s rights, religious persecution, Supreme Court politicians, Donald Trump and his cult following are all on the table and active. Biden and his administration is certainly better than Trump’s but he is slow to act to preserve our union. The Republicans who oppose him, as they opposed Obama, have little concern for this country and its people. They are divisive and polarizing, wanting only to obstruct and serve only themselves and their political futures. Trump craves power and will do anything to return to the White House and establish an autocracy much like his friend Vladimir Putin. Mitch McConnell is essentially a traitor, willing to sacrifice the welfare of our people to score political points. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, and their ilk should be banished from Congress permanently. They are stains on the integrity of that august body. Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone and their followers should be imprisoned for treason. White supremacy groups need to be infiltrated by the FBI and investigated for endangering public security and summarily disbanded. The Supreme Court needs to have three more liberal-oriented justices added to the court, which can be legally done, although to be perfectly honest, I’m not confident who Biden would appoint. He seems to live in another era of bipartisanship. This Republican Party, and virtually all its members are very far from that ideal. As they did with Obama, they are opposing Joe Biden and his life enhancing policies every step of the way. Consequently, the Senate filibuster needs to be modified or eliminated to permit the passage of the two voter rights bills now stalled and the comprehensive $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill also stalled. These bills will insure the voting rights in all of our states and set the country on the road to recovery and prosperity for every American. And finally, the room where the electoral ballots were counted on 1/6/21 should be consecrated and renamed the Brian Sicknick Room. Brian was an American Hero who gave his life helping to save our republic. He needs to be aptly acknowledged and honored.

I know these are controversial measures. I know each will have its blowback. But the resultant good they will do for our country is worth their enactment. Our country is deeply polarized to the point of some calling for armed insurrection. It was also such in the late 1850s just before the Civil War. The South wanted to retain slavery, the use and defining of Black human beings as chattel property, that sustained and fed their wealth and greed. The North opposed slavery and the degradation and vilification of human beings. The two sides were irreconcilable and went to war to decide the fate of the union. We all know what followed, and in some ways, that sad war is still being fought today under the banner of white supremacy. It’s sickening.

Some will call me a fiery radical for these proposals. Some will call me an extreme left winger. Some will call me a Socialist or even a Communist. I am none of the above. I am a deeply concerned American–an American whose ancestors came from Russia and Germany to find some peace of mind, some solace and relief from persecution, a safe and welcoming place to raise their families and perhaps even to prosper. I am here, alive today, because our country permitted their entry, offering a sanctuary from oppression and fear. Here was a country where they could practice their religion without obstacles. Here was a country where, at least on paper, everyone was treated equally and offered the opportunities of education, employment, and a decent place to live.

But it was also a country unwilling to face the harsh realities of its past: its treatment of black Africans who were and are now African Americans, first as slaves and later as second class citizens; its treatment of Native American Indians, whose people were massacred to pave the way to steal their ancestral lands and destroy their ancient cultures and practices; its treatment of Chinese and Japanese and Hispanic and Indo Chinese members of society with discrimination and even internment; its treatment of Jews, Moslems, and Catholics often denied full entry into society and lacking full protection under the law.

Now, even in these present times, elements refuse to accept a fair, democratically contested election, refuse to acknowledge the traitors that attacked Congress to try to overthrow our government, refuse to acknowledge, still, their innate racist thoughts and actions, refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our justly elected President and Vice President, refuse to acknowledge the courage and bravery of police officers who defended the Capitol against insurrectionists (Trump has still refused to pay his respects to the family of murdered officer Brian Sicknick),refuse to acknowledge the pandemic that is raging across our country and the world by grossly refusing the simple solutions of wearing protective masks and taking scientifically proven vaccines,refuse to acknowledge a climate crisis that is human created and that can be human solved–a crisis that is putting the planet and its people at risk of destruction. Again, it’s sickening.

So in this hour of urgency, what can we, as citizens, do? One thing is do whatever we can to prevent the GOP from taking back one or both Houses of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections. In fact, we need to help strengthen Democrat numbers in both Houses, especially the Senate in order to disempower Joe Manchin and his wolf in sheep’s clothing so-called moderate agenda. Manchin, acting more Republican than Democrat, is of no help in protecting our democracy. His only aim in reelection in a Trump state, and protection of Big Coal. Joe Manchin has no moral compass. He too is sickening.

Donald Trump and those who seem to worship him, are symptoms of a virulent cancer that must somehow be arrested and stopped. He is a tumor that must be removed, and must be removed by any and all legal means. Biden does not seem to be up to that task. Nor does Merrick Garland. I don’t know who, but someone must endeavor to put Donald Trump behind bars and end his reign of terror. Yes, Trump is as much or more a terrorist than ISIS or al Queda. He is a political terrorist who has amassed a cult following in this country. He is dangerous man, as his own niece Mary Trump has asserted.

The entire Republican Party has devolved into an obstructionist, extreme right wing entity, essentially an enemy of democracy, decency, and decorum–its members in Congress marching in lockstep, or should I say goose-step, to the Hitlerian rantings of Donald Trump. And yet, millions of dollars continue to pour into their coffers. And millions contemplate voting to put these people back into power. Again, this is sickening that those millions would support and encourage such people.

Social media has become a platform for insane conspiracy theories that undermine people’s faith in our government, our scientists, our teachers, and our reasonable leaders. Elements using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are damaging the health of our young people. These media know this yet do nothing to remedy this gross disregard for what their administrators allow, apparently in order to keep the billions rolling in. Like Pandora’s Box, when social media opened to the masses, some good came of it, but much toxicity also followed. The solution? More government regulation to quiet the poison that emits from social media every minute of the day, ad infinitum.

Yes, I’m angry and concerned. Many of us are asleep at the wheel, battered and downtrodden by a pandemic that has changed life as we knew it. I get that. But we must awaken to the danger of a beast like Donald Trump. He is a con man through and through, caring nothing for our country but only for his personal aggrandizement and power. He wants to change the very fabric of our democracy and transform it into something out of the novel 1984. We must stop him, his cronies, and his followers. The fate of our country is at hand. The reality and sense of urgency is upon us.

Thank you.

The Gabby Petito Murder: A Breakable News Investigation of the Investigation

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Breakable News, the news you love to hate to love, has examined the ongoing investigation of the now confirmed murder of 22 year old Gabby Petito and has some key questions which the mainstream press and let rush over the waterfall. Here we go:

  • To the FBI investigators who searched the Laundrie house in North Port, Florida and who then brought the parents of Brian Laundrie “inside for questioning,” as CNN put it. A common sense first question they might ask the parents would be when Brian came home driving the van which belonged to Gabby, did you ask him, “Where’s Gabby?” We would expect such as a question since Gabby was well liked by the family including Brian’s sister who lauded Gabby for the close relationship she had with Brian’s young nephews who liked the affable young woman very much. If you did ask that question, how did the parents reply to what Brian said at that point? How did he seem when you asked that question? How did he look? How did he behave? What exactly did he do after you asked that question?
  • Now after that question was asked, assuming it was asked, (for if it was not asked, why was it not asked), did you then inquire as to the whereabouts and well being of Gabby (another logical question a parent might ask of their son’s fiancé)? If so, how did he reply, verbally and behaviorally? Did he seem different than usual? By the way, what time did he arrive, and how did he seem physically and emotionally when you first saw him? Were you both present when he arrived? Was anyone else in the house?
  • How long did he stay with you before he left for the nature reserve? At any time during his stay with you, did you ask of the whereabouts and well being of Gabby? If so, what did he say? If not, why did you not ask him this?
  • At any time after he arrived, did you call the home of Gabby’s parents? You surely knew them since they were childhood friends for many years, true? Did you know Gabby’s parents? Did Brian or you try to call Gabby’s parents to see if Gabby got in touch with them and see if they of her whereabouts and whether she was OK?

Do you see why Breakable launched our investigation of the investigation? It’s looking like another Keystone Kops episode, kind of like those involving Tiger Woods and Donald Trump. We got most of our questions from watching detective shows on TV so we’re not talking about any genius needed here to know what to ask. And there’d really be no reason to withhold the parent’s answers from the press. Did mainstream reporters not ask the questions we are asking? If so, we may be in deeper hot water than we think since that would undermine the reliability of the mainstream press which is very problematic for an already teetering democratic society.

Breakable News is “just saying.” We’ll keep you updated, based on more insights and questions we obtain from our subscription to BritBox. And…our hearts do go out to the family of Gabby Petito.

Trump’s Running Again? Bring it On!

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The only way we’re going to put the nails in a coffin that keeps opening from within is to defeat Trump and all of the Trump endorsed candidates at the polls. Unless Trump is indicted, which he should be, he has a right to run for office. If he does run as he is threatening, he will continue to spout whatever lies he figures will dupe and defraud the electorate. That’s fine. That’s Trump being Trump. That’s how Trump, the snake oil salesman, extorts money from his sheep. The only thing that will stop him, as it did in 2020, is a defeat at the polls. Of course even defeat will not shut him up completely, but it will go a long way in disempowering him and his supporters, especially if those supporters too can be defeated.

His running for reelection will enliven a Democratic majority that is, sorry to say, downtrodden, deadened, and slightly depressed from the events of the past two years. On Facebook, people respond more to puzzles and pets than politics. On Twitter, there’s a lot of nastiness in general. Same with Instagram. With Trump leading the way over the past four years, social media has become a cesspool of human disparagement. The country is deeply divided. Latest polls show that at least half of people who voted for Trump in 2020 are unvaccinated, with many of those making up the majority of those down with Covid and quickly filling up ICU hospital beds in hotbed red states. In essence, many people will chance death rather than appear they are against Donald Trump. This is insanity’s colloquial definition (usually attributed to Albert Einstein): “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Similar divisions around slavery led to the Civil War. It’s unlikely that such a war will repeat itself, but there could be increased incidents of violence as we saw on January 6 at the Capitol.  There’s been a spike in the purchase of guns. The rhetoric is getting more virulent. There’s been an increase in hate crimes and incidents. Trump even praised Robert E. Lee and criticized the removal of his statue in Richmond, Virginia. That kind of toxicity from a former president will embolden white supremacist groups as his actions encouraged the attack on 1/6. Republicans in Congress are blocking all Democratic legislation, continuing their lockstep support of Trump. They’re even calling on Biden to resign, claiming that he botched a withdrawal from Afghanistan which Trump laid the groundwork for. Even the Democrats in Congress are divided, possibly leading to the failure of key infrastructure and voting rights bills, a failure that would be disastrous for the country and could eventually lead to a collapse of our democratic system.

Amidst this disarray and chaos, the 2022 midterm election looms like a dark figure emerging from a dense nighttime forest.. Some 13 Republican-controlled states have enacted legislation restricting the right to vote, legislation blatantly aimed at African American Democrats. This will almost assuredly return the House of Representatives to Republican control and effectively block Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda for two critical years. Again, this will embolden Trump even more to make another run in 2024.

Our only hope lies with the vote and the determination of Democrats to vote regardless of any roadblocks Republicans erect, as they just did in California. This will take redirected anger, grit, and perseverance. It will take courage. It will take vigilance. It will take a rededication to the values our country was built upon. It will take staying awake on all levels of our humanity. It will take suspending the opiate of social media and focusing on a political process that, at its core, gives power to the people–if only the people know it and exercise that power.

Trump and his cronies and puppets are running again, and his cult members are willing to take the Covid Kool Aid for him? I’ve never seen a cult that doesn’t eventually dissolve. In America, political extremism eventually falters and fails. We’re not stupid. Bring it on!