May 25, 2022

I woke up way too early this morning to read that the Russians had attacked innocent children and adults in an elementary school, killing 19 children and two adults. Putin once again demonstrated that he is a war criminal, and deserves to be put on trial. His inhumanity and heartlessness are breathtaking. Oops…my bad. It wasn’t a brutal killing in Ukraine. It was Texas.

I know. Gun regulation is a slippery slope, but it is made slippery by the grease that gun manufacturers and the NRA apply to the palms of Republican legislators. I have written about guns and gun control before so I would like to not repeat myself. I don’t want to talk about bogus Second Amendment rights, false narratives about mental health, good guys with guns, and so on. Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people.

Ironically, if we could only ship all the guns in Texas to Ukraine, we could solve two problems at once.

May 23, 2022

We recently had a nice visit from my cousin and his wife, who live in a Congressional district in Georgia next to Marjorie Taylor Greene. We commiserated about some of the crazy stuff that has been coming out of Georgia recently. MTG, David Perdue, and Herschel Walker were all part of the Georgia clown car. Georgia has passed legislation to make voting more restrictive, and it is poised to virtually eliminate a women’s right to choose. Republican state legislators in Georgia, as many as 44% per the New York Times, have continued to support Stop the Steal efforts.

I made the statement that one of the nice things about living in Massachusetts is that our Republicans are not as crazy as Georgia’s Republicans. We are, after all, the state of Volpe, Sargent, Weld, Brooke, and Baker. And then, after they left, I read about the state Republican convention just completed in Springfield that shattered all my illusions. The headline in the Sunday Republican read, “Trump’s Spirit Runs Through Convention.” They want the party to be pro-life, and overturn Roe vs. Wade. They want to fight for their god-given right to play golf during a pandemic. They will “fight to the death” to make sure that critical race theory doesn’t find its way into our schools.

The state Republican Party seems to be on a death march. Many of us were comfortable voting for moderate Republicans like Charlie Baker, but that may become a historical footnote.

May 15, 2022

What do Buffalo, NY and Australia have in common? They once again reminded us of the evil that Donald Trump released on the United States. He opened the Pandora’s Box of hate, fear, disinformation, and mistrust, and we are still suffering the consequences.

In Buffalo, an 18 year old man/boy went on a racist-fueled rampage, killing ten, innocent people, most of whom were black. The shooter was filled with hate from white supremacist websites, and crazy conspiracy theories. Forget the Second Amendment issues. It was Trump, who said it was okay to vilify black people and people of color. He said that we should send certain Congressmen back to the shit hole countries that they came from. In Trump’s world, black lives don’t matter. It was AntiFa that stormed the Capitol, not the Proud Boys.

Likewise, in a recent story, it was reported that Australia had 1/10th the per capita death rate from COVID as the United States despite similar demographics. Dozens of interviews pointed to a lifesaving trait that Australians displayed and that Americans lacked, namely trust in science, institutions, and in one another. No other person was more responsible for dismissing science than Trump. He ignored the experts while at the same time advocating bleach, hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and UV light as possible cures. He trashed the reputations of the CDC, the NIH, Dr. Fauci, and the media. Lastly, and more importantly, he set Americans against each other. This resulted in 1,000,000 deaths, 900,000 of which were unnecessary based on the Australian experience.

May 13, 2022

An international team of astronomers led by scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian produced a much-anticipated glimpse of a black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Unlike the mythical Bermuda Triangle, this one is very real. It is where time gets warped, and where gravity is so strong that nothing escapes. In a lot of ways, it is like Congress and the Supreme Court.

Republicans in both branches of government are set on turning back time. They want women to rewind the clock by fifty years, and give back their rights to privacy. They want Americans of color to go back to a time when voting rights were not protected. They want the environment to pretend that time is not inevitably moving forward. They want to make America great again, but it is not clear which time frame they are referring to. I guess they will just leave it to Beaver.

Congress lacks gravity, but it is still where the important issues facing the country go to die. Issues are raised and bills are proposed, but the black hole created by Mitch McConnell sucks them in never to be seen again. Democrats tried to call a vote to codify abortion, but it never saw the light of day. Build Back Better died in the man-made black hole called the filibuster. Bills to address voting rights abuses and gerrymanders got sucked into oblivion.

The photos taken of the black hole in our Milky Way are a scientific achievement. The sight of the black hole that is Washington is an eyesore.

May 12, 2022

I usually didn’t wake up in the morning thinking about the Supreme Court, at least not until recently. I am not sure if I am an institutionalist, but I haven’t been in favor of monkeying around with the Supreme Court, at least not until recently. I haven’t turned my back on the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court has turned its back on me.

Mitch McConnell stole one seat, and jammed another one through, putting two, undistinguished jurists on the court, who passed the abortion litmus test. Clarence Thomas’ wife, Gianni, was active in attempts to overturn a legal election. Thomas clearly knew about it, and did nothing. Now we have Samuel Alito, who is prepared to turn the clock back fifty years on women’s rights.

Democrats face overwhelming odds because of the geographic apportionment of their supporters, Democrats can win 51% of the votes in the 2022 and 2024 elections and still lose eight Senate seats. Minorities who don’t reflect the overwhelming majority of the American people have the ability to control the Senate, the House, and the Presidency, and, now, the Supreme Court.

In this politicized environment, an expanded Supreme Court, to reflect a much larger country, and term limits, to reflect much longer life spans, are now on the table. I didn’t want to go there, but you made me do it. Republicans should be very careful. In the words of a Wall Street slogan, “Bulls make money, bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered.”

May 20, 2019

After several decades of civil strife and legal litigation, the Supreme Court, by a five to four majority, has ruled that mandatory abortion is legal. It is now the law of the land. The government may make abortion mandatory if it determined that there is an overwhelming societal interest in doing so. It would be up to individual states to determine what that interest was. The decision cited China’s “one couple, one child” policy.

The state can mandate that a woman terminate a pregnancy whenever it sees fit. The reasoning from the court came from previous case law where it was determined that the state could control a women’s reproductive system. In the opinion of experts, it was only a matter of time until the courts would use these precedents to say that, if the state could mandate a woman to give birth, it could also mandate that a woman not give birth.

Apparently, the right-to-lifers got hoist by their own petard. They now need to consider what their next move will be. Sources say that they may argue that the state has no right to infringe on the privacy and reproductive rights of women in any circumstance. This would not be ideal, but at least women would be free to have babies when they wanted to, or not have them. In other words, women would control their own bodies. Sadly, it may be too late.

May 8, 2022

I am an illegal alien. That makes me sound like an extraterrestrial, which I may be to many people. I like to think of myself as an undocumented worker. I say avocado, you say avocado. I get up early every morning, get in my car, and drive to my job where I cut your lawn, trim your hedges, and take care of your children. And that seems to be where the controversy starts.

My car is unregistered, I have no insurance, I have never had driver education, and I don’t have a license. I know this bad, but what choice do I have? I am here illegally after all. Some legislators want me to get a valid drivers license, register my car, take drivers ed, buy insurance, and pay excise taxes. I am all for that, but it makes other legislators uneasy. They see a valid drivers license as a gateway drug to illegal voting. They suggest that my drivers license clearly show that I am here illegally.

That all sounds all well and good, but why in the world would I want to advertise to the world my immigration status? I don’t know what the answer is. I just want to keep getting up in the morning, getting in my car, and going to my job cutting your lawn, trimming your hedges, and taking care of your children. You guys figure it out.

May 6, 2022

If you truly believe that abortion is the taking of a life, which I don’t, then you cannot allow any exceptions. Women who have been raped by a family member or a stranger are out of luck. That fetus is a human being. Any women whose health is jeopardized by a pregnancy is out of luck. The state gets to decide who lives and who dies. Women are pitted against themselves. Any fetus diagnosed with life-threatening and life-altering disabilities must soldier on, and pray there is a social safety net to catch them. If you believe otherwise, you are not being ethically consistent, and we all know what consistency is.

To take it another, logical step forward as the state of Louisiana is doing, anyone who aborts a fetus is guilty of murder. Anyone, who abets an abortion by driving the getaway car, is also culpable. Planned Parenthood becomes a terrorist organization, and members may find themselves on a no-fly list. These acts of domestic terrorism would allow the government to enact “Marshall” law. Your fellow citizens will be deputized to turn you in. Everyone becomes a Barney Fife. We will have to refund the police so they can go after these violent offenders. “Hands up, and hand over your uterus.”

Morning after pills would have to be considered lethal weapons. They would have to be regulated by the ATF, and not the FDA. As soon as the fertilized egg started mitosis, it would be too late. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that Roe was really a decision about the right of doctors to exercise their judgment about a patient’s best interest without risking prosecution and prison. Too bad. We will have to release non-violent offenders to make room for criminal doctors and women. We will have to expand the ability of hospitals to recruit even more doctors from overseas. Doctors from Ireland need not apply.

The uteri of women will be subject to search and seizure laws. The only question will be if the government has to knock first. Hospital admissions will have to involve an administrator and a government oversight official. Men with guns don’t kill people. Women with contraceptives do. Men who pass these laws should be subject to condomnation.

May 4, 2022

One of the secrets to cheating in three card monte is for either the dealer or a shill to distract the mark. Well before the mark catches on, the dealer and his associates are long gone. Today’s Republican Party is the dealer, and the Democratic Party is the mark. While the Dem’s are being distracted by ginned up issues like critical race theory, book banning, pedophilia, LBGTQ rights, the big steal and the big lie, insurrections, and voter restrictions, the Republican Party has hidden the abortion pea under one of its cups, and the Democrats have no chance of finding it. The fear of many is that Progressives have little bandwidth left to deal with the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe vs. Wade. Women may be on their own.

I have had the pleasure of personally knowing Sally Blackmun, daughter of Supreme Court Justice, Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion on Roe vs. Wade. Blackmun was appointed by Richard Nixon. The case was decided 7 to 2. She would tell stories of drive by shootings at her home after the case was decided. She discussed her personal, painful experience that led her to Planned Parenthood. I wish more people could hear her story. If they did, they would have second thoughts about what is coming. In the meantime, focus people!

May 2, 2022

As the war in Ukraine drags on, Russian oligarchs find themselves in more peril than Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Two oligarchs recently committed “suicide” after murdering other members of their families. This should not be surprising to anyone familiar with Bill Browder’s work in getting the Magnitzky Act passed. Today, we learn that another oligarch, who was critical of Putin online, was forced to “sell” his company when he received an offer he couldn’t refuse. It is difficult, however, to feel any sympathy for these people.

Now, in the United States, we have various government officials trying to punish people and companies who dare criticize their policies. The most obvious example is Ron DeSantis’ Mickey Mouse action to strip Disney of its special status for taking exception to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Previously, DeSantis imposed fines on small business owners, who dared to enforce mask mandates on their customers. J.D Vance, Senate candidate in Ohio, wants to seize the assets of the Ford Foundation and other NGO’s. He also wants to impose special taxes on companies who voice concerns about efforts to restrict voting. Texas and other states look to punish women and their enablers for exercising their Constitutional right to abortion. The list goes on.

It is no wonder that Putin finds sympathizers on Fox and other conservative outlets.