March 21, 2022

Hearings begin today in the Senate regarding Kentanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court. I am sure it will be noble affair, demonstrating what’s right about the approval process (not.) Republicans are rounding up their attack lines, and looking for revenge for the Kavanaugh hearings while they disregard the civil proceedings surrounding the Gorsuch nomination, which was stolen from Merrick Garland, and the Amy Coney Barrett hearings, which were rushed through in a record short time.

What is interesting about KBJ is her background as a public defender. She will bring a perspective about how the law actually affects real people. “No other lawyers in the system are seeing the law from the perspective of public defenders. Public defenders are the system’s check on governmental overreach, on police misconduct, on legal misconduct, on all of these different parts of the system.” What the current conservatives on the Court lack is a sense as to how their decisions reverberate in the real world.

This court rolled back protections for voting rights. Right wing legislatures immediately started putting in restrictive voting laws, and putting in administrators, who are hostile to the current systems for counting votes. This will affect millions of voters. This court looked the other way as Texas and now other states have rolled back protections for women seeking abortions. This will affect hundreds of thousands of women if not more. Women are now forced to go out of state under great emotional and financial stress. This court eliminated restrictions on campaign contributions, opening the door for millions of dollars of dark money to pollute the election process.

In all these cases, the Supreme Court ignored the real world consequences of its decisions. Hopefully, KBJ, rather than being constrained by constitutional originality or religious politics, will see that Justices shouldn’t live in ivory towers, but, rather, should be aware of what is happening on the streets of America.

March 18, 2022

I hate it when politics contaminates golf. It came to a head when the “Commander- in-Cheat” started directing official business to his golf properties, and tried to steer a G-7 meeting to Trump Doral with a hidden agenda to invite Vladimir Putin. The Trump children have publicly admitted that they rely on Russian oligarchs to finance their golf properties. I am sure the money is very clean by the time it winds up in Trump’s bank account.

Today, the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour announced its schedule for 2023. Not surprisingly, Trump Bedminster was selected as one of the locations. Trump has still not condemned the assassination of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of murderers deployed by MBS, and is apparently being rewarded for his acquiescence. What concerns me more because it is local is that the The International golf club in Bolton, MA has also signed on. This can’t go well. I will vote with my feet and my wallet and stay home, or I will attend a little event at The Country Club called the US Open. I think a lot of people will be more active and outspoken. I suspect picketers and demonstrators will create a scene that will be viewed all over the world. At least, I hope so.

March 17, 2022

What’s worse than teaching children about Critical Race Theory and threatening those teachers who do? Not having any teachers at all. Because of fake controversies, physical threats, hijacked school boards, COVID restrictions, school shootings, lack of respect, lack of resources and low pay, teachers are leaving the profession in droves. “The statistics are sobering. There has been a net loss of 600,000 educators in the U.S. since January of 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in a recent survey by the National Education Association, the country’s largest union representing about 3 million educators, 55 percent of teachers said they are planning to leave the field,” per The Harvard Gazette. Teachers are burnt out, yet school boards, pushed by angry parents and political opportunists, mandate curricula that is antithetical to the educational process.

Why would teachers or future teachers want to teach in an environment where “Don’t Say Gay” is a thing like it is in Florida? Why would teachers want to teach in a system where books by authors like Toni Morrison are under constant scrutiny? Why would teachers want to teach students, who are being conditioned to report every infraction, real and imagined? Why would teachers want to teach where shooter drills have to take their place next to math skills?

I think parents should be careful about unintended consequences unless they are okay with home schooling.

March 16, 2022

There was a recent story in the New York Times that should make us all feel good. Republicans and Democrats in Washington were coming together in a way not seen in years in their support of Ukraine . Both sides had to give up for now on key pieces of their agendas. Democrats have had to compromise on their desire to cut back on fossil fuels, to reduce military expenditures, and to spend more money on COVID relief. Republicans have had to recalibrate their support for Vladimir Putin and their antipathy towards Ukraine.

It’s a wonderful thing when you can see our lawmakers work together, especially when most Americans believe that Congress is dysfunctional. And you certainly don’t want to criticize this kumbaya moment in the middle of an international crisis. However, I have to ask, “Is this fair and balanced?” I think it points out the bankruptcy of the Republican platform that doesn’t exist. Apparently there are no initiatives that they have to walk back. They are cutting back on is what is left of Trump’s Realpolitik.

Democrats are forced to moderate their desires to deal with real world issues. Fossil fuels need to be replaced to both control climate change and limit Russia’s influence over energy supplies. Eventually, support for the military will need to be cutback as we focus more of our resources on infrastructure and human needs. Lastly, I am sure the COVID virus didn’t get the memo about the need to cut back in a crisis.

I still feel good, but I could certainly feel a heckuva lot better.

March 11, 2020

The party of “Q” has become the party of Quislings. In the middle of what could be WW III punctuated by nuclear warfare, the Republican Party has decided that it is going to make the price of gas an issue. While President Biden is successfully holding together the western world and NATO in its fight against Russian aggression, the GOP is displaying its patriotism by ginning up anger over higher gas prices. This is the kind of divisiveness that Putin hopes to take advantage of.

Gas prices were going up before Russia invaded Ukraine and have continued to rise as we try to choke off Russia’s exports, but the Republican narrative has it all wrong. They want you to believe that stimulus checks and the cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline project are the culprits. They are correct when they say that we were net energy exporters under Trump, but Trump just happened to be in the right place at the right time because we were heading in that direction anyway going back to Bush and Obama. When COVID hit, the price of a barrel of oil cratered to the mid-thirties, causing many producers to shut down production, which led to today’s shortages. Producers are still playing catch-up as demand has surged with a vengeance, leading to higher prices. OPEC and our “friends,” the Saudis, have refused to pump more oil to mitigate prices.

Republican Party Quacks should just be Quiet, and Quit carping about gas prices. There will be plenty of time for their false claims once Putin is, hopefully, Quickly defeated.

March 8, 2022

To paraphrase Edvard Munch, “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ukraine.” After all these years, it is amazing and discouraging how little has changed. History moves slowly, and sometimes it moves backwards. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been eviscerated as states all over the country try to install impediments to free, fair, and convenient elections. The Environmental Protection Act of 1970 is still searching for a coalition that takes it seriously while we watch Rome burn. The 1973 Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade to protect a women’s right to choose is under attack, and will likely be overturned. Between 1963 and 1968, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were killed by guns. And now, the Russian threat that many of us first experienced in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and knew existed despite what some leaders wanted to tell us, is there in Ukraine for all to see.

Hopefully, the inevitable tide of history will be allowed to move on. Citizens will be allowed to vote without impediments, and their votes will be counted. The United States will take dramatic actions to combat climate change. The Supreme Court will stay out of our bedrooms and women’s bodies. Congress will pass meaningful gun safety measures. And Russia will stay out of Ukraine, give up on the idea of a Russian empire, and focus on its own citizens. Until then, it is okay to scream.

February 28, 2022

President Biden decided that Donald Trump was correct about sending “peacekeepers” to Mexico to solve the immigration issue and stem the tide of drugs coming over the border. After amassing 150,000 troops on the Texas border, dispatching the US Navy to the Gulf of Mexico, and putting the United States Air Force on alert throughout the South, Biden gave orders to commence a cyberwar against Mexico. He disseminated a hit list of Mexican political officials. He jailed American politicians, who objected to his actions. He was tough and ruthless.

Fox News and Donald Trump immediately accused Biden of having lost his marbles, and being cognitively impaired. “He doesn’t know where he is,” they said. “He thinks he is in Russia.” They said we shouldn’t be waging wars in foreign countries. “America First” they said. Trump said it wasn’t savvy or brilliant to be sending our troops into a foreign country. When he was asked what about Putin, he said that Putin had a right to go into Ukraine. We have no right going into Mexico.

Upon hearing this, Biden jammed the Fox News signal, bombed the station, took over the network, and jailed Ingraham, Hannity and Carlson. He sent the CIA to Mar-a-Lago to put the former President and his family under house arrest. When asked why he did this, he said it is what Putin would have done.

February 25, 2022

The Italian word for whore is “puttana.” One of your favorite, spicy Italian dishes might be a puttanesca. I know it is a little bit of a stretch, but it sounds a lot like “Putin.” I could go with “poutine,” which is a dish of French fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds. It is a guaranteed death sentence. Either way, Vladimir Putin is a whore and a killer.

By some estimates, Putin has appropriated 80% of Russia’s GDP for the benefit of Russian oligarchs. I won’t be crude about what he and his whore cronies are doing to the Russian people. They are stealing the people’s money, and depositing it overseas in places like expensive, New York City apartments and golf course developments. Now he is literally killing the Ukrainian people. In the same way that Hitler needed more land to feed his people and his megalomania, Putin needs more resources to feed his unbridled greed. When he is done strip mining the Ukraine, he will move on.

Fox News and Donald Trump have cast themselves as appeasers. Neville Chamberlain was dealing with the unknown. Fox News and Trump don’t have that excuse.

February 24, 2020

Hopefully, you had fun with yesterday’s Wordle. Here is another one…with hints.

1. Who worked to undermine the U.S. presidential election?

2. Who wanted to undermine NATO?

3. Who thought it was brilliant to attack Ukraine with “peacekeepers.”

4. Who thought it was a good idea to withhold military resources from Ukraine?

5. Who denied Russian involvement in U.S. politics in Helsinki?

This Wordle has two possible solutions.

T-R-U-M-P

P-U-T-I-N