Going broke because the wealthy want all the money, no help for the people / public

clay thatotherjean2 days ago

Defaulting would also slash the dollar (and our trade balance), jack up interest rates (putting the brakes on housing and infrastructure construction), and reduce our status as the largest free economy.

Gianni Chucktech2 days ago

Aside from the usual times he makes himself look and sound stupid in public, he has a magical way of doing that to himself in pics, too. Our Commander in Chief of all our armed forces actually saluted a Russian military official as if that was what needed to be done to show his abject subservience. Even the Russian would have settled for a handshake. He, along with all the other “felonies” attached to him, did so much to trash America’s prestige and standing in the world.

The farce of this whole thing

Shell accused of ‘profiteering bonanza’ after record first-quarter profits of $9.6bn

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/04/shell-makes-record-quarterly-profits-of-nearly-10bn

Just hear a republican say it was not record profits and price gouging causing inflation, but the government spending.  When asked about raising taxes on these record-breaking profits being made by corporations and the upper wealthy, the republican lied about how that was going to crash the economy and wouldn’t help the budget shortfalls.   The host never bushed back on the republicans lies, instead framing her questions in how unreasonable the democrats were being for not being willing to entertain all the cuts and economic hardships the republicans are demanding.   The republicans know what their cuts will do to the people, the harm to the poor, and wipe out every advance in policy that Biden managed to do.   They want this to happen, so they can campaign on that harm, hurt, and economic collapse, blaming Biden for it and saying he has not managed to pass anything to help the people.   It has nothing to do with the debt, it has to do with politics and trying to regain the Senate and White House, and keep the house.    Hugs

Figure easily beats predictions and comes despite fall in oil and gas price

Shell sing and stock graph in the backgroundShell will now offer shareholders $4bn in share buybacks after its record quarterly profit. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

 

Shell has been accused of a “profiteering bonanza” after it made record first-quarter profits of more than $9.6bn (£7.6bn) and showered shareholders with more than $6bn, even as oil and gas prices tumbled from last year’s highs.

The better than expected profits in the first three months of this year were well above the $7.96bn predicted by industry analysts, and topped Shell’s previous first-quarter record set last year at $9.1bn for the same period.

 

Europe’s biggest oil and gas company handed shareholders $2bn in dividend payments and bought back shares worth $4.3bn over the last quarter, and plans to offer its investors another $4bn in share buybacks over the next three months.

 
BP logo of BP is seen at a petrol station
BP’s profits labelled ‘heinous’ as calls grow for tougher windfall tax
Read more

The FTSE 100 company said profits increased despite higher taxes and lower sums paid on the market for the oil and gas it produces, thanks in part to its energy trading teams managing to mitigate against falling prices.

Global oil prices averaged $81.7 a barrel in the first quarter of this year, according to Shell, down from $102.2 a barrel in the same period a year earlier, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ignited a surge in oil and gas markets.

Shell has also had to pay higher taxes, reaching over $3bn globally for the last quarter. Its UK tax bill hit $134m last year after the government’s windfall energy profits levy was introduced in May. Shell expects to pay more than $500m to the Treasury this year after the levy was increased from January.

Shell’s bumper profits emerged two days after its smaller rival BP reported a profit of $4.96bn for the first quarter, down from $6.2bn in the same period last year, but well above the $4.3bn expected by analysts.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said both firms were “continuing the profiteering bonanza”, adding: “The scale of profiteering displayed today by Shell and earlier this week BP is one of the corporate scandals of our times. And this is practically untouched by Rishi Sunak’s so-called windfall tax.

“Not taking any action against ‘Big Oil’ means the profiteering plundering will continue without end.”

Charlie Kronick, of Greenpeace UK, said: “As temperatures soar from Madrid to Mogadishu, Shell is once again posting bumper profits while promising to keep extracting fossil fuels for years to come. Millions around the world are already feeling the effects of the climate crisis and it’s those who did the least to cause it who are paying the heaviest price.

“The UK government should stop issuing new oil and gas licences and force Shell and the rest of the industry to start using their obscene profits to pay for the damage that their fossil fuel habit is causing to lives and livelihoods around the world.”

Shell’s new chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the company had delivered “strong results and robust operational performance, against a backdrop of ongoing volatility”.

The company reported a record annual profit of $40bn for 2022 after posting better than expected profits in the final quarter of last year. The full-year profits were more than double what it reported in 2021 owing to rocketing oil and gas market prices last year, leading to calls for a windfall tax on the earnings.

A survey commissioned by Christian Aid, an international development charity, found nearly four in five UK adults agreed it was wrong for oil and gas companies to make record profits without taking responsibility for their role in causing the climate crisis. More than six in 10 of those surveyed said the government should tax fossil fuel profits to help pay compensation to communities that faced the impacts of the climate crisis.

Sawan succeeded Shell’s previous chief executive Ben van Beurden in January after the company moved its headquarters to London from the Hague and abolished its dual listing in the Netherlands.

He is now preparing to lead a capital markets day next month where he is expected to set out an updated strategy for the oil company. It is expected to include an exit from the UK’s home energy supply market after a little over five years by selling off Shell Energy.

Sawan told journalists the home energy business had been “very, very challenging” owing to significant government intervention to support the market.

“On balance, what we have found is that it’s not the sort of area where we can potentially outcompete others,” he said. “We’re looking at all options, everything is being considered, and I hope to have an update in the coming weeks.”

 

Liberal Redneck – Conservative Cancel Culture Outta Control

The right continues on their cancel culture crusade this week as two more companies have incurred their wrath. Why are they so sensitive?

Florida teacher allegedly investigated for showing students film Strange World

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/13/florida-teacher-allegedly-investigated-for-showing-students-film-strange-world

This is an important article and I hope everyone takes a minute to read it.   Then think about what happened.   A teacher had permission slips to show Disney catalog of movies to her students, and every parent said yes they were OK with their children seeing the Disney movies.   Then this movie Strange World was show and one parent freaked out and filed a complaint against the teacher.   Think of it, again one maga right winger maybe highly religious parent gets to derail the public education of all students to push their rabid right wing agenda.   

So what was in the movie that could be that offensive, you ask?  I did ask that, so Ron and I bought the movie for 20 dollars off Amazon Prime.   Almost from the start, I saw what these MAGA right-winger republican types would hate.   The parents were a loving couple who loved to smooch and kiss as they made breakfast, all very clean and not sexual / porn, just mom and dad quick cute kisses.  So what is offensive about that to the maga?   Well if you have seen the trailer you know that the mom is black and the dad is white.   Which leads to the next maga issue.  

The son, Ethan Clade, is a mixed race drawn with darker skin tone openly gay boy who is accepted by his family and his friends.   In the opening get to meet the characters part of the movie, Ethan’s friends show up with some kind of game cards.  With them is a boy Ethan has a crush on and the movie plays out letting us know in a funny sweet way of Ethan being shy around the boy.  But the movie also makes it clear that the boy Ethan has a crush on likes Ethan as well along with all the friends being OK / happy with the boys being gay and liking each other.   That is when the dad interrupts them and does the dad meeting his son’s boyfriend stating to Ethan how he likes the boy, saying something like he can see why Ethan likes him.   I thought the movie was cute at this part, as most teenagers are embarrassed of their parents around their friends and to meet the one they have a crush on.   

Which leads us to the the last part I think the maga people get angry at.  Remember I have only gotten about a 1/4 of the way into the movie but in the movie the mother, who is black remember, is the outgoing adventurous one who manages to swoop in and save the flying ship.   Imagine the maga people going crazy that a black woman acts to save everyone while the white people cling to the ship trying to hang on.   Oh and also the women in the movie so far are more the adventurers and seeming more capable than the main white man character so far.  Another thing I guess makes maga right-winger upset, the movie destroys their gender role stereotypes.   

In all I like the movie so far.  It is inclusive in a way that real life is.  It is drawn and colored in bright vivid colors.  The dialog and action is fun to watch.  I have not watched a lot of movies in the last few years and I have not watched any animated ones.    But I am really enjoying this one.    But I can see why the republican right winger maga want to destroy Disney and take over what kinds of shows / movies they produce.   This movie is a very far place from the stereotypical gender role models and public social standards of the 1950s that the maga are desperate to return the country to.   Hugs

 

 

Purported investigation after screening of Disney animated movie comes amid governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators

DeSantis at podium with sign reading freedom from indoctrination

DeSantis has claimed, without evidence, that there is ‘indoctrination in our schools’. Photograph: Daniel A Varela/AP


Florida education officials allegedly told a school teacher that she was under a misconduct investigation after, her friend claimed, she showed students the Disney animated film Strange World.

The purported investigation following this alleged showing of Strange World comes amid rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators that include book censorship and limitations on discussions of race and sex as he jockeys for his party’s presidential nomination with “anti-woke” talking points.

———————————————————————————
 
 
Two women and a man in separate portraits
‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws
———————————————————————————
 

“My friend showed Disney’s Strange World in a Florida classroom and one student reported it to their parents. Now she’s under investigation by the state,” Carl Zee tweeted on 11 May. “Florida is not safe for teachers, DO NOT MOVE HERE.”

The film involves a group of explorers who try saving a “mysterious land from losing its vital energy source”, per Variety. It also has a prominent gay character – a rarity in children’s animation.

Zee included a photo of a letter from the Florida department of education, stating that “following receipt of a receipt of a complaint, this office has determined an investigation is warranted into allegations that you engaged in inappropriate conduct”.

“If you have evidentiary witnesses or documents pertinent to the case, send them to this office no later than two weeks from receipt of this letter,” the alleged missive continues. CBR.com first reported on Zee’s Tweet.

The alleged letter does not state specific allegations against this teacher. The Florida department of education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In response to a Twitter user who said that teachers who break the law find themselves under investigation, Zee wrote: “She has signed permission from every parent in the classroom to show Disney & Dreamworks movies in class, even offering lines to specify specific movies parents didn’t want shown. Not one exception was written down, so no she didn’t break the law. Try again, doofus.”

News of the alleged investigation is in keeping with Florida teachers’ concerns that they are being stymied and intimidated by new legislation championed by DeSantis. He has claimed, without evidence, that there is “indoctrination in our schools” and allowed his press secretary to claim that teachers are “grooming” pupils.

A new Florida law has effectively resulted in book bans, with classrooms and libraries removing books over concerns they contain “inappropriate” content.

One high school English teacher in Palm Bay, Florida, told the Guardian that a librarian took away a third of the books in his classroom – among them a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poems, which was not on her list of green-lighted books.

DeSantis has also assailed Disney as a company after the entertainment titan pushed back against his “don’t say gay” legislation. He hit back at Disney by signing a bill that took away Disney’s status as a self-governing special district near Orlando.

Disney fought back against DeSantis, filing a federal lawsuit contending that he retaliated against the company for expressing its first amendment right to free speech. In the suit, Disney is asking to stop the governor’s attempted takeover of the special district.

 

Thumbnail

But the teacher wuz trying to turn his students into gays!!! 🙀

Thumbnail
 

Tell the teacher to show the kids Song Of The South and all will be forgiven. It’s hard to find since Disney threw it in the vault and ate the key, but the DeSantis crowd will love him/her for it.

I’ll bet that teachers and medical professionals will also be leaving, as well as high school graduates who want a real college education. It’s a crime what republicans are doing.

Yep, my daughter’s teacher friend from Florida already packed it in and moved away to a blue state where she gets paid a LOT more and has more freedom to teach. She is urging her fellow teachers stuck in that hell hole to get the fuck out now.

There won’t be a teacher left in FL.

They’ve already got a plan in place to hire less-than-honorably-discharged ex-military and rogue cops to teach the kids. They will be armed at all times so the kids will be totally safe.

So, there literally is a war against one of the most popular companies in the world right there in Florida. Evangelicals can literally destroy anything.

Them Disney folk are witches, we gunna dunk them deep into the ocean to see if they die, it they die then maybe they not witches.

Investigating a teacher for showing a Disney film? Migrant workers are leaving your state in droves, which will affect construction projects, the gathering of crops, the hotel and hospitality sector of tourism, and God knows what else, and you’re still trying to stomp on Disney by going after a teacher for showing a film? Lord love a duck, just how stupid are you, Ron?

Don’t forget that the SEAWEED MONSTER has come to destroy their beaches and recreational tourism, but let’s focus on a fricken kids animated movie that might have a gay cartoon character in it.

I find it so ironic that Republicans think that all this banning of everything is “freedom.”

The party of “limited government” strikes again.

So, signed a permission slip and still complaining? Dishonorable creep.

One parent complained. ONE. So nobody gets to watch it. That sure sounds like cancel culture to me. I’ll bet the parent who complained didn’t even have any children in the school.

 

Why it Matters – I Liked You More When You Drank. By Randy

I live in Michigan, so I am allowed to make this statement:  The Lions have demonstrated an ability to consistently disappoint their fans to a level only surpassed, maybe, by the Cleveland Browns.  And yet, my uncle was not only a great fan of the Lions team but wouldn’t miss a game on tv.  Picture1 That, my friends, is the mark of a true fan:  it isn’t the fact that the product is the best in quality, best in performance, best in taste, it’s the fact that a fan is a fan for no better reason than he has chosen to be a fan.  Thereby lives a love of heartbreak, ridicule, and a test of loyalty sufficient to scar any soul forever.   I of course come from much better stock:  I am a fan of the Chicago Bears.  Da Bears!   If you’ve not solved this puzzle by now, this is not about the Lions.  Don’t get me wrong, they will forever disappoint – Sorry Uncle Bob – but  this post regards how a beer company has received backlash for sending beer to someone who is an internet influencer.  Now, there are few things in this world that I purposely choose not to pay attention to, and among those are the Lions and things that republicans and rednecks have chosen to cancel in their anti-cancel-culture rants.  Yes, that’s confusing.  It makes more sense if you drink a lot of low-quality beer and believe what Tucker Calson tells you.

Loyalty trumps Competence, as the saying goes.  And, while there are those who believe Bud Light cheated on them, I expect to find all of those who have made a Picture2lifetime commitment with their Bud Light beer that has weathered two marriages, four kids, eight teeth and 29-stories that start with “dude, hold my beer…” will be drinking again like nothing happened.   In time they will forget why they were mad at a beer – because let’s face it, who gets mad at beer?  And, those of us watching from the sidelines, even as reluctantly as I, will remember that this was never about the beer, never about the internet influencer, but was ultimately about the homo- and the trans-phobic prejudice and hate that was so easily stirred to cause the easily led to put down their favorite beer.

I, for one, am going to continue to buy Bud Light.  Mainly because it’s very drinkable – as the joke goes it’s much like sex in a canoe.    What I would like to hear them ask these detractors is why they are so against someone being who they are? Picture3 Who are they to not only disparage the character of that person, but to speak as if a beer company deserves to be shot for treating a person as a living and worthwhile person?  Each of us in America is born with the freedom to voice our opinion.  It bothers me that so many have chosen to use this freedom to be so manipulated as to only be able to speak hate and so weak as to give up a beer they appear to love for the affront of giving another citizen simple respect.  What are they truly angry or afraid of?

I love Randy’s writing.   He has a way of getting his heartfelt ideas across with words that few can manage.  I am glad he has offered to add his voice here.  When Randy was talking with me on this post, he mentioned it might help people understand how stupid this unwarranted hate response was if people could see the video that these bigots are responding to.   Also remember that these cans of beer with Dylan Mulvaney’s picture on them were not mass-produced, were never for sale to the public.   These few cans were just a promotional gimmick and were not intended for putting in stores.   This was not a national commercial but only on social media.    If the bigots and haters had ignored it, then very few would even have known of the entire thing.   But the haters managed to gin this up using a fake outrage over something not happening and getting people who drink a mediocre mass-produced beer to question their own manhood.  That was what this was about, men fearing a beer that had let a trans woman promote it made them less than a man if they drank it, made them less masculine, maybe others would question the size of their penis by the beer they drank because a few cans had a trans woman on them.   That is what this is really about, look at how the men reacted in destroying the cans of beer, with displays of macho destruction while yelling about how manly they are.   In fact most hate of trans people is about fear of measuring up to some mythical stereotypical standards for what is masculine or feminine.     Below is the social media promotion by Dylan Mulvaney.   Hugs

*** it was hard to find just the video with no commentary added.  The comments are the YouTube page constantly cisgender Dylan as he and calling her a gay man.  Dylan Mulvaney identifies as a trans woman, and she is proud to be a woman.   Hugs

Insufferable TikToker Thinks Making Colorful Shirts For Kids Is Grooming (?????????????)

It has progressed to crazy town the rights’ obsession with gender stereotypes.    Don’t they get that kids don’t care about what people in the 1950s were forced to endure in gender roles?  Kids like bright colors and manufactures like to use the same patterns for each gender as it saves them money.  These people have to get over the idea that somehow putting a 2 year old in a pink onesie is going to make them gay or trans.  This is taking the culture gender war to extremes and a really weird place.    Hugs

Florida Construction Sites And Farm Fields Empty Of Workers Due To Impending Anti-Migrant Bill [VIDEO]

This post is for those who claim the US doesn’t need immigrants, documented and undocumented.   The US has a worker shortage, especially in the hardest to do jobs.   The US has a need for younger people to support the aging population.   Immigrants want to fill these needs, they are coming here to work and raise families.    Yet because they have darker skin tones, the right fights hard to prevent them coming into the country.     Hugs

They tried this in Alabama 14 years ago. Construction and farming came to a screeching halt. There was no one to build houses and what was a 6 month to 8 month build went to 12 to 14 months.

it almost destroyed farmers, all immigrants fled to georgia and florida.

And then GA did this after AL and it had the same outcome. Agro and construction stopped. GA lost 300 million that one year and lost a decent percentage of their migrant workers for years after.

Even legal immigrants left the state

and a lot of tax revenue…

I suspect Latinos with green cards or citizenship also faced a lot of bigotry as well. Not surprised they would want to leave.

 

Looking forward to Meal Team 6 stepping forward to take these desperately needed jobs.

Thumbnail
 

And when they tried to use prison labor it failed spectacularly.

So, all those idiots who screamed, “They’re taking our jobs!” can get back to work now, right?

conservatives never fucking learn. You can’t have the labor without the laborers. They’re a goddamn package deal.

So where, oh where, are all the Reuplicans that were claiming illegal immigrants were taking their jobs away from them? Surely there must’ve been a LOT of white Republicans looking for field and construction work, right?

Once the public schools are shut down there will be plenty of cheap labor!

 

Some news stuff I have been reading over the last few days

ND Gov Signs Bill Ordering Outing Of Trans Students

Texas Mass Shooter Posted Praise Of Libs Of TikTok

BeccaM17 hours ago

Republicans hate democracy and free-and-fair elections because they and their vile policies cannot win majority popular support.

So they have to rig and cheat.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/desantis-florida-trump-education-politics.html

The governor’s office also pointed to a “PBS Newshour” feature on parents’ support for various gender care treatments including puberty blockers, a gay character in “Work It Out Wombats” which airs on OETA, PBS Kids’ “Clifford the Big Red Dog” introducing LGBTQ characters “Oklahoma taxpayers are going, ‘Hey, hang on, time out for just a second. That’s not my values,’” Stitt said. “I’m just tired of using taxpayer dollars for some person’s agenda. I represent the taxpayers.”

tbj521 hours ago

“Stop using taxpayer values to push an agenda!” the bigoted governor screeched, as he used taxpayer dollars to push his agenda on everyone in the state.

Dave B21 hours ago edited

Stitt said. “I’m just tired of using taxpayer dollars for some person’s agenda. I represent the taxpayers.”

Who the fuck are LGBTQA+ people and their families if not fucking tax payers?

Thorn Spike Dave B21 hours ago

And he’s using their tax dollars to push his own agenda. Irony still dead.

MrRobotoLA Dave B21 hours ago

LGBTQIA+ Oklahomans need to start demanding their tax dollars back.

Elagabalus MrRobotoLA20 hours ago

That’s the problem with being a minority which represents roughly 5% of the population (except in larger cities with large gay populations). Unless the majority of citizens stand with you, which they usually don’t, you’re on your own.

Darreth Dave B20 hours ago edited

And that’s the bottom line. Not that they’re taxpayers but rather the fact that that evangelical governor doesn’t see them as citizens, taxpayers, or as a demographic worth even bothering with; by acknowledging who and what they are.

Thus, he’s worse than evil. He literally can’t see LGBT people as a thing. His religion has rotted his forebrain.

Houndentenor Dave B17 hours ago

Yes, queer people are taxpayers, but they don’t consider us citizens with rights.

Frank McCormick Dave B2 hours ago

He reminds me of the Chicago aldermen that insisted that no gay people lived in their ward during the debate over gay rights.

Gregory In Seattle21 hours ago

No, sweetie, you represent a very narrow, exceedingly bigoted minority of taxpayers hell-bent on forcing the rest of the country to kowtow to your twisted views of morality.

The_Wretcheda day ago

“the [white male] ones that are blamed for any social ills”

Feel free to look at the office holders for the Republican (and some D) party. Pretty much white male. Also old, rich and christian. So yes, it’s entirely fair to put all the crap at their feet. it’s their show in a large part of the USA.

Nic Peterson2 days ago

When you don’t have a Benghazi but need one, you do this.

They Voted to Eat their Young

Why it Matters,  They Voted to Eat their Young.  By Randy

  Picture1  Jakuniku-kyoushoku.  “It’s the year 2022, and the population has risen to a third of a billion for the United States.  Pollution, catastrophic climate change and blind greed-based taxation has caused severe shortages of food, water and housing nationwide while the military budget grows beyond the ability of the nation.  Only the wealthy can afford health care.  The environment is oppressively hot and humid thanks to the out-of-control greenhouse effect.  Corporate America has taken on the role of feeding most of the nation’s population with tasteless processed foods, over-preserved and under scrutinized, while nutritional and safety factors are the new cost of repeatedly underfunded government overwatch programs and an overworked populace repeatedly asked to sacrifice more and more so the wealthiest may receive favorable tax breaks.  The Soylent Corporation produces their wonder food called Soylent Green…” (edited quote of Soylent Green film summary, 1973).

   I am quite fascinated by movies, books and articles detailing the expected world of my current life, like the above movie synopsis.  I read 1984 and thought it was Oracular. Picture2 My father kept Popular Mechanics magazines from the 1950’s and 1960’s that tell me I should be flying my car by now.  Shortly after I was born American men were walking on the moon, stepping out of the nation’s boundaries as explorers and architects of a new future.  During that time, a generation fought against itself – one side imagining the heights we could go if we only dreamed, if we only loved one-another, if we only gave more than lip service to the idea of freedom, while others suffered a nightmare of bullets in jungles they didn’t know existed but a short time before.  Men of Peace, men of hope, men like John Lennon died to bullets, and it seemed like the generation had made its choice.  The fall of Jimmy Carter, the rise of Trickle-Down politics and Glory of Greed, Iran/Contra-gate, a new war in the land of sand and oil, and a new rising NRA became the Siren’s Song spelling the end to the hope of Lennon and King. 

  In ‘Men in Black’, Tommy Lee Jones asked Will Smith ‘They are beautiful, aren’t they…Picture3the stars…I never look at them anymore’.  Have we lost the hope that seemed to infect America when I was young, when cars were shaped after rocket ships and kids would look to the stars and dream of following in Buzz Aldren’s steps?  It is no wonder to me why people long for the world to be like it was in the ‘60’s.  Life was simpler back then, provided you weren’t drafted, a woman, a minority or poor.  Marjory Taylor Greene has called for a new America, a new Civil War, a new Hitlerian dystopia where we must declare our votes.  She wants to void criminal charges for a national secrets leak because it was originated by someone who was white, Christian and anti-war.  Lauren Bobert says that babies are being murdered after birth for the convenience of a late abortionist.  Our most recent president is in court for Rape, Tax Fraud, and his followers are going to Jail for Sedition and Violence in efforts to Overthrow the Government, but that’s all “fake news”.  Fox News pays $787,500,000 to avoid justice, Governor DeSantis kidnaps destitute families and declares gay people to no longer exist in Florida, and “Good Guys with Guns” stood by and watched babies be shot.  Across The Land of the Free, men are being accused of horrible crimes for telling stories to children and their parents in public libraries.  The religious right has declared the liar, the glutton, adulterer, the jealous, the proud, the lazy and the wrath filled to be saintly.

   I don’t think anyone really cares what Marjory Taylor Greene really believes since the idea that she would be called upon to seriously debate a moral standard in anyPicture4 capacity beyond a cautionary one is surely pure comedy.  She is surely not the cause of our troubles, only the parasite that feeds on our weakened flesh.  She is a result of a country that gains their beliefs from news anchors and pundits, like rags flapping in a breeze that the ill-considered salute unquestioningly.  I understand; I’m a Chicago Cubs fan, and I could respond to any challenge with “We’ll get them next year”.  Then one year they somehow kept winning and the joke became real. 

  The ’Trump in Politics’ era, which coincided quite conveniently with the ”No” era of the republicans brought about a fracture in what was respectable public speech. Picture5 I was raised that it is the obligation of every man to those who follow behind to make a world better than he found it so that his children may live their life without war, famine, disease, poverty.  But suddenly there was a black man in the White House and the era of fear and denial was upon us.  Now we are strangled by guns, anger, lies and false reality.  The preeminent focus is not what is best for our youth, our country, but what will regain the lost power of the ’50’s for those longing for a world gone by.

  What happened to love? Picture6 What happened to my neighbor?  What happened to those Sunday School lessons?  Have we lost already the promise of our fathers, the charge of those who came before?  We are meant to be a country of builders.   I feel anger and despair in those around me as they are denied their reality, denied their choice, denied their identity. 

  I would propose a new law, a new rule:  When finally that long line in the cold of November on that blustery Tuesday, alongside the ballot of new candidates and propositions, tax law and millages, sets a screen.  On that screen flip pictures of the voter’s family, his friends, his loved ones.  And, then, maybe his vote isn’t one designed to enact vengeance and fear but hope for those who come after.  Maybe then the vote is for the ones who truly matter in all that we do:  Those who will inherit the decision about to be made.