Category: Health / Healthcare / Illness / Vaccines

Peace & Justice History for 4/7

April 7, 1979
Thousands protested against the nuclear industry in Sydney, Australia. The country is by far the world’s largest exporter of uranium (and thorium ores and concentrates), the radioactive heavy metal necessary for the power generation and weapons industries.
The marchers were from groups concerned about many related issues: the link between the uranium industry and weapons proliferation; the environmental destructiveness of nuclear power; the impact of uranium mining on Aborigines and workers in the industry; weapons testing in the Pacific, and the secret history of the British nuclear weapons tests in the region; and the Cold War nuclear arms spiral and Australia’s contribution to it through the hosting of U.S. military bases, allowing nuclear warships to use Australian ports through the ANZUS alliance (among Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.); weapons testing in the Pacific, and the secret history of the British nuclear weapons tests in the region.

Sydney anti-uranium protest, Photo: Paul Keig
Today’s Australian Nuclear Free Alliance 
April 7, 1994
Genocide in Rwanda began. Over the following 90 days at least a half million people were killed by their countrymen, principally Hutus killing Tutsis.
This day is commemorated annually with prayer vigils in Rwanda.
Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Rwanda, a tiny African nation formerly a Belgian colony, had warned of impending slaughter, but was ordered not to attempt to intervene.

PBS interview with General Dallaire, what he knew and what he watched happen
  

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april7

Peace & Justice History for 4/5

Hands Off Day!

April 5, 1910
Emil Seidel was elected mayor of Milwaukee and became the first socialist mayor of a major city in the United States. During his administration the first public works department was established, the first fire and police commissions were organized, and a city park system came into being.
In 1912, the Socialist Party nominated Emil Seidel as their vice presidential candidate to run with Eugene Debs.

Emil Seidel
Read more about Emil Seidel 
Milwaukee’s Socialist Era 
April 5, 1930
Mohandas Gandhi and his followers reached the end of their 400 km (240 mile) march to the Indian Ocean coast at Dandi. He had left his ashram with 78 satyagrahis (“soldiers” of peaceful resistance), but the procession grew over the 23 days of traveling on foot until it stretched more than 3 km (2 miles).
When they arrived at the seaside, Gandhi made salt by allowing seawater to evaporate. This simple task was an act of civil disobedience because the British Raj, the governing colonial authority, had made salt-making a monopoly and a crime for others; additionally, there was a tax on salt, a necessary element of the Indian diet.

Gandhi picking up salt.
Gandhi had chosen this issue to demonstrate how British control affected all Indians, regardless of ethnicity, religion or caste. The nature of this “crime” allowed him to resist that power without violence. And the British were faced with potentially arresting millions who might now be willing to flout the Salt Laws.
He had written to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, a month earlier:
“Dear Friend, I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings, even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine. Whilst, therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend to harm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have in India . . . .”
Read Gandhi’s letter 
April 5, 1972
The Harrisburg Seven case ended in mistrial after 11 weeks.The Seven were charged with plotting to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among other alleged crimes. The defense attorney, recent former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, asked by the presiding judge to call his first witness said, “Your Honor, the defendants shall always seek peace. They continue to proclaim their innocence.

Elizabeth McAllister and Philip Berrigan, two of the Harrisburg Seven
The defense rests.” Only Philip Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth McAllister were declared guilty—of smuggling letters in and out of prison. They later married, co-founding Baltimore’s Jonah House.
Visit Jonah House 
April 5, 1977
Demonstrations and sit-ins began at regional offices of the U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare (HEW, now Department of Health & Human Services) urging HEW Secretary Joseph Califano to implement an extension of civil rights that included the disabled. Since non-discrimination protection had been part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the department had failed to agree to regulations (under Section 504) that would give the law practical effect in the lives of those it intended to protect. Discrimination on the basis of disability was to be illegal in any program which received federal funds.
At all the offices the demonstrators left at the end of the working day, except two: Washington, DC and the San Francisco regional headquarters.
Though negotiations were continuing between the Carter administration and the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, those in San Francisco, led by Judith Heumann, held their ground until Califano signed the Sec. 504 regulations on April 28. It had been the longest sit-in of a federal office in history.
Judith Heumann, Advisor for Disability and Development.

sign from the campaign
Short film about the sit-in (“Recalling an invigorating act of civil disobedience”)
How Section 504 became law and how its supporters prevailed
April 5, 1982
Dublin, Ireland, declared itself a nuclear-free zone by vote of its City Council.
April 5, 1985
Columbia University students occupied Hamilton Hall to demand divestment by the university of its assets invested in companies doing business with South Africa. The selling off was intended to pressure the racially separatist government to eliminate its racially separatist policy of apartheid.
April 5, 1989
Solidarity (Solidarnosc in Polish) became the first independent labor union given legal status in Poland.

It started out as a strike committee among shipyard workers advocating democratic reforms during the summer of 1980 in Gdansk (FKA Danzig). A very high percentage of the Polish workers, a broad representation of the political and social opposition to the communist military regime, became members despite the union’s having been declared illegal in October of 1982.
Solidarity’s legacy 
April 5, 1992
The March for Women’s Lives, in support of women’s reproductive rights and equality, drew several hundred thousand people to Washington, D.C. There were students representing 600 college campuses.

Part of the huge turnout taking part in the March for Women’s Lives

One of the largest protests ever in the nation’s capital, the pro-choice rally occurred as the U.S. Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania law that limited access to abortions. Many abortion-rights advocates feared that the high court, with its conservative majority, might find the Pennsylvania law constitutional,
or even overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal. 
Read more about this march 
April 5, 1996
54 were arrested in a Good Friday protest at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in California.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april5

Ron’s health and doogie questions.

Hi everyone.  I did this video around 11:50 AM this morning.  It took about as long as it is to record, give or take the sudden breaking of the video by the program.  I do have to change that setting.  Then I had to merge the two videos something I have become really good at, and because I am not adding stuff at that point I can save and “export it”  Ok if I was willing to give Cyberlink access to all my YouTube channel then the video would automatically upload to my YouTube to my channel.   Instead because I don’t agree to give Cyberlink the rights to everything I post and watch, I prefer to make my own video of the original file.  That took more time.  About 40 minutes maybe less.   

What took almost another 40 minutes is the settings I used to put my HD filmed videos to YouTube in HD on YouTube had now disappeared.  Now my program only allowed me to load it up as either 400 something P or 2K.  WTF!  

What took all the time was I started uploading it and after it was nearly 17% I had to change VPN spots, and the entire upload stopped.  I waited an hour and it did not restart.  I then closed everything, restarted, reset the VPN and came pack up.  But each place I tried with or without the VPN.  The speeds were dirt slow.  So I again closed everything, this time I shut the modem and the router down.  Then I restarted it all again.  

So now before I tried to upload the video to YouTube I checked speeds … not for downloads but upload speeds.  I found one that was 10 MPS and stayed with it.  It was the highest I had.  I clicked upload on the video again.   Nearly 3 hours.   Oh I could do that it as midday but I had the time … except I did not.   

Ron and I had taken out a couple bags that were to be wings and drumsticks to fry for supper.  Yet the one bag had one drumstick and the other bag had two and all the rest were wings.  Ok, but the instructions were only to bake, not fry.  So we had to find our own way.  I tried a batch at 3:30 minutes and Ron said they were cooked.  I tried a batch at 3 minutes but he did not like the skin on them.  He wanted the skins crispy.  So I did the rest at 3:30 and cooked the fries while he ate his fill.   Then he noticed I had not eaten yet, so said he would take over as I had already cooked the wings and there was only one more hopper of fries to do.  I had a few wings too tired to really eat, and then he told me he tried a few back in the fryer longer but it did not crisp the skin any.  I could have told him that.  But OK.  So then I went back and finished my video at well after 7 pm.  I am so tired having gotten up at 3 am, and trying to nap during the day but only laying there resting.  So here is the video, I hope you enjoy.  I will be going to bed.   At this rate of uploading I will need to make the videos two days before they get posted.  Hugs

I talk about a recent event with Ron’s memory. I also talk a lot about doogie (my name for Musk’s actions in the US government) Where is the money they claim to have saved as it has already been put in those agencies budgets. Hugs

A Reblog From Barry-

Listening differently

Peace & Justice History for 4/2 (& 4/1)

When I went to Peace buttons Monday night, their site was down, or something, so no P&J 4/1 morning. However, keep scrolling; it’ll be after 4/2! -A

April 2, 1917

Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, took her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first woman ever elected to Congress, she became the only member to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars.
Rankin lost her seat in the next election but was re-elected twenty years later when she opposed entry into World War II. She again served just one term.
Though American women weren’t guaranteed the right to vote for three more years with passage of the 19th amendment, women in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Washington had full voting rights even before statehood.
Rankin was instrumental in passing laws that made married women citizens in their own right.
Jeannette Rankin biography 
April 2, 1966
One hundred thousand Vietnamese demonstrated in DaNang against both the U.S. and their South Vietnamese governments. Civil unrest spread also to Hue and the capital, Saigon.
April 2, 1970
Massachusetts, in the midst of the Vietnam war, enacted a law which exempted its citizens from having to fight in an undeclared war.
The U.S. Congress had never formally declared war on North Vietnam as required by Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.

April 1, 1841

Brook Farm, perhaps history’s most well-known utopian community, was founded by George and Sophia Ripley near West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Its primary appeal was to young Bostonians who were uncomfortable with the materialism of American life, and the community was a refuge for dozens of transcendentalists, including authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Following four days of demonstrations against the Military Services Act that devolved into rioting in Quebec City, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden sent in troops from Ontario to stop the violence. Orders from the soldiers were read only in English to the mostly Francophone demonstrators, and when the they didn’t disperse, the troops fired, killing four and wounding 70.
[see March 28, 1918]

A memorial in Quebec to those who died protesting conscription into World War I
More about Brook Farm 
April 1, 1932
500 schoolchildren, in the depth of the Depression, paraded through Chicago’s downtown section to the Board of Education offices, demanding that the school system provide them with food.
April 1, 1955
The African National Congress had called on parents to withdraw their children by this day from South African schools in resistance to the Bantu Education Act. That 1953 law transferred education of the Bantu (blacks) from religious missions to state-controlled schools. Mission education, argued then-Minister of Bantu Education Dr. H.F. Verwoerd, not only tended to create “false expectations” amongst the natives, but was also in direct conflict with South Africa’s racially separatist apartheid policies.
Whites, who were in complete control of government and society, comprised only 14% of South Africa’s population. Verwoerd presented to Parliament:
“When I have control of native education, I will reform it so that natives will be taught from childhood to realize that equality with Europeans is not for them. There is no place for him (the black child) in European society above the level of certain forms of labour…What is the use of teaching a Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice?”
April 1, 1983
Tens of thousands in the United Kingdom formed a “peace chain” 22.5 kilometers (14 miles) long to express their opposition to nuclear weapons. The chain started at the American airbase at Greenham Common, passed the Aldermaston nuclear research center, and ended at the ordnance factory in Burghfield.

At the same time 15,000 people took part in the first of a series of anti-nuclear marches in West Germany. They were protesting the siting of American cruise missiles on West German territory.
Contemporaneous coverage of the Peace Chain 
April 1, 1985
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered an end to the dumping of sludge off the New Jersey coast into the Atlantic Ocean.
21st century sludge 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april2

Eyebrow Raising

to say the least … 🤨 😠

Big Banks accept a Catastrophic 5.4º F. Temperature Rise, Hope to sell People more Air Conditioners

Juan Cole 04/01/2025

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Corbin Hiar reports at the Scientific American that the big banks are now banking on a 5.4º F. (3º Celsius) rise in global temperatures above the pre-industrial average.

Morgan Stanley let the conclusion slip in a report on air conditioner sales, which it expects to double, what with the extra heat. Hiar says that especially after the election of Trump, the banks accept that that is just the way it is going to be.

The stupidity hurts my brain.

Freakin’ air conditioners?

I’d like to direct readers (and any bankers among them) to a free book on what science tells us about a 3º Celsius world. It is Klaus Wiegandt, ed., 3 Degrees More: The Impending Hot Season and How Nature Can Help Us Prevent It (Springer Nature, 2024). It is a pretty horrifying prospect.

Air conditioners run on electricity, and reliable electricity may be a problem if the average temperature of the earth’s surface skyrockets 5.4º F.

Remember, that is an average increase. In some places it may be 10º or 15º F. That’s not going to be a pretty picture in Phoenix, Az., Miami, Fl. or for that matter Orlando, Fresno, Ca. and a bunch of other cities that are already sweltering in the summer

I’ve lived a lot of my life in hot places. I was in Cairo once in the summer and there was an article in the Arabic newspaper al-Ahram [The Pyramids] about the heat in Aswan in Upper Egypt, where it was about 115º F. The article said that there was a big electricity outage because the insulation of the electrical wires melted.

There are lots of ways ambient heat can interfere with the transmission wires. It can melt the insulation, or it can overheat components, it can cause oxidation. And here’s the thing. Hot wire shows more electrical resistance, which reduces its efficiency.

Moreover, overheated wires or components can cause fires. California is a big tinderbox at certain times of year, with dry forests, which overheated electrical wires can set off. The smart thing to do will be to bury all the electrical wires, but that is an expense the power companies do not want to bear. Another possibility is that people will put up solar panels and use home batteries, and disconnect from the grid.

Hot river water causes nuclear plants to go offline because they can’t cool the rods. Heat and droughts reduce hydro-electric production. Just generating electricity for the air conditioners can be a challenge. Your best bet will be solar panels, an industry Trump is trying to crush, and the banks are happy to help because of their fossil fuel investments and their willingness to kowtow to Trump’s diktats.

Then there is the air conditioner itself. It isn’t magic. AC’s don’t function well at over 100º F. They may break down. They may not be able to displace the heat outside. Cooling down things by more than 26º F. is a challenge. So if it is 120º F. out, don’t count an getting lower than the 90s inside.

In fact, it has recently been discovered that a combination of 122º F. and 80 percent humidity will just kill you dead right there.

All this is not to mention the massive hurricanes that will repeatedly knock down the electricity poles. Already, Duke Energy filed with the state of Florida for $1.1 billion in compensation for all the grid repair work it had to do after the 2024 hurricane season. What if the costs rise so much that the state can’t bear them, and Duke Energy goes bankrupt? I mean, these are little dinky storms compared to the ones we’ll be having if temperatures rise another couple degrees Fahrenheit. Some scientists argue that the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which only goes up to 5, is increasingly inadequate, and that we are already seeing sixes. Can force 7 hurricanes be far off?

Duke’s press release says, “Given the severity of these three storms, the filing covers a range of costs, such as deploying hundreds of Duke Energy crews from the entire span of the company’s service territories and acquiring significant mutual assistance from across the country and even Canada; standing up staging sites, basecamps and temporary lodging, while also providing meals for thousands of lineworkers and field personnel; and repairing, rebuilding and replacing critical infrastructure, including poles, wires and transformers, that were damaged and/or destroyed by catastrophic storm surge and wind.”

I don’t think they’re going to be getting that help from Canada anymore. And this is just the beginning.

Hurricanes are caused by warm ocean water. The oceans off Florida are already getting up to 100º F. in the summer. That kind of temperature whips up a lot of wind. It is now clear in the data that the intensity of hurricanes is increasing because we are burning so much coal, fossil gas and petroleum.

Not only will the hurricanes be fiercer, damaging homes and businesses and knocking down those made of wood, but they will dump more and more water, causing massive flooding.

Stefan Rahmstorf writes, “our planet’s current coastlines are home to more than 130 cities larger than a million inhabitants, plus other infrastructure such as ports, airports, and some 200 nuclear power plants with seawater cooling (such as Sizewell B on the British North Sea coast). Even 1 m [3 feet] of sea rise would be a disaster.”

Those banks that see a 5.4º F. temperature increase as an opportunity to sell more consumer goods such as air conditioners are not reckoning with the likelihood of climate chaos and climate breakdown at that level, of a sort that will make maintaining current levels of civilization challenging. We’ll survive it. We’re unlikely to survive it in style.

And the billionaires who think that they can sell us gasoline and coal and gas for another century and just protect their families with big mansions in the mountains or on islands are fooling themselves. The mansions will slide down the side of the mountain in a massive downpour, and the seas will swallow up the ones on islands with storm surges.

No Foolin’-Sen. Booker’s Doin’ Something With Substance!

(Plus more Dem Senators pitchin’ in! Go see-video below)

Cory Booker Holding Senate Floor All Night Long (All Night), All Night Long (All Night) by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Washington Post takes pains to tell us it’s not REALLY a filibuster. Read on Substack

Since 7 p.m. Eastern yesterday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) has held the Senate floor, speaking out against what Donald Trump and his evil coconspirators are doing to America. He was still going when we started this piece at 8:30 this morning, and we expect he’ll still be going when we click “Publish.”

Booker began the all-night speech by making his intentions clear:

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.

“In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy. These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”

While we were writing this piece, Booker was every bit as impassioned as he condemned the Republican budget plan that would slash Medicaid and the social safety net so billionaires and corporations could have (more) huge tax cuts, adding trillions to the US debt, asking, “If you’re a Christian conservative, how can you hurt the weak to benefit the rich and powerful? The people of the United States have to stand up and say ‘NO!’”

This man does not look like he’s been speaking for more than 14 hours. Here’s the AP’s live feed. Watching this, we’re even feeling some hope — especially if other senators follow up with marathon speeches of their own.

(And it’s still running! -A)

Also too, we’re going to go ahead and call this a filibuster anyway, if only because the Washington Post went out of its way to explain in its subhead (archive link) that it’s not actually a filibuster because Booker isn’t delaying a vote on legislation. Just seems like the sort of nitpick best saved for the body of the article, which is where all the other outlets have placed it. So why did we mention it in our subhed? Because fuck WaPo is why.

Booker received help throughout the night — and still, this morning — from other senators, because he is allowed to take questions, which tend to come in the form of brief speeches ending with a question mark. But it’s not just a tactic to help him preserve his voice; it’s also a chance for fellow Democrats to show their unity, with multiple voices pointing out how completely not normal the last two months have been. Booker and other senators called out Trump and co-president Elon Musk for multiple assaults on democracy, like their attempts to shut down federal agencies created by Congress, to cancel spending authorized by Congress, to withhold grants to nonprofits that were already awarded, to fire large segments of the federal workforce without regard to worker protections, and to effectively dissolve America’s alliances by siding with Russia against Ukraine and our European allies. And much more.

We should also note that, unlike the longest talking filibuster on record, old racist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond’s 25-hour filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights bill, Mr. Booker doesn’t have the opportunity to take restroom breaks. Now that’s impressive.

During the speech, Booker repeatedly reminded Republicans — for any good it might do — that many of them saw who Donald Trump was, and why he was no good for America. He spoke with genuine affection about John McCain, who had the courage to shut down Trump’s attempt to end Obamacare:

“Senator McCain, I know you wouldn’t sanction this, I know you would be screaming, I’ve seen how angry you can get, John McCain. I’ve seen you tear people apart on this floor, Democrat and Republican, for doing the same stupid thing over and over again. Listen to John McCain explain why he voted ‘no’ the last time the Republican Party tried to unite and tear down health care with no idea how to fix it, threatening to put millions of Americans in financial crisis and health care crisis. I can’t believe we are here again.”

Booker returned again and again to that theme: Why on earth are we allowing this madness to happen? How on earth are we in a situation where a US president is threatening to invade our allies and help our adversaries?

As we wrap up here, Booker’s voice is beginning to get a little raspy, but his overall energy isn’t flagging so far. At the moment, he’s having a colloquy with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) about the importance of US foreign assistance, which Trump and musk have unconstitutionally slashed. Coons called attention to how those cuts have left us unable to provide help to the victims of the earthquake in Myanmar — and Booker immediately pointed out that by wrecking America’s soft power, Trump has handed all that influence to China.

We hope Booker keeps going a couple more hours. And that as many of his Democratic colleagues follow his example with filibusters of their own. (snip)

Amazing and True!

Just in case you are confused

Good Commentary Here

This was linked in a substack I was reading, I found it worthy of sharing, and also of the author getting the clicks on their own page.

(Also Not April Fools. I’m gettin’ to it! Probably.)

It’s Time for a Republican Sickout

If you can’t find the strength to take a stand, at least lie down.

Ali Davis March 31, 2025

Hello, Congressional Republicans who still care about the republic! I know you’re out there because I kept hearing how differently Trump’s cabinet confirmations would have gone if only the votes have been secret.

We have reached a crisis point. We have reached so many crisis points. We reached like three new crisis points between me starting and finishing this article.

We have flipped our foreign policy so radically that we are now the villain of the world. All decision on that end seems to have been handed over to Putin and a bunch of preening technofascists. Our economy is crashing toward a depression and the only trick the Trump Administration pony has is more insane tariffs. High-level cabinet members endangered the lives of our servicemembers by discussing classified information on the already-hacked Signal app, and that doesn’t even cover gloating over civilian deaths, adding a journalist to the group text, and further damaging our relationship with Europe. The Trump administration is trying to start wars with freaking Denmark and Canada. DENMARK AND CANADA, for chrissakes.

And the most insane thing is that this is an abridged list. There are paragraphs and paragraphs of human rights horrors that I have skipped.

This is it. You are a part of an authoritarian government, a twisted and vile parody of what we once had. Elon Musk is stripping it for parts and awarding himself lucrative contracts while Donald Trump threatens Republican judges and lobs all of our state secrets straight to Putin.

The window for stopping this is small and vanishing. The most patriotic thing you could do is stand up and impeach Donald Trump, but, whether it’s due to a fear of Trump or fear of his zealots, you’re not doing that. The second most patriotic thing you could do is resign and leave your seat open to a flip by the Democrats. But you don’t seem to be doing that either. So here it is: The third most patriotic thing you can do, your last option for saving your beloved country from falling completely into authoritarianism: Get sick.

Get terribly sick and refuse to discuss your personal health information during this challenging time. Or get just a little bit sick and keep insisting that you’ll be as right as rain in a week or two. Have a family emergency. Or just take some dearly needed personal time.

Just drop out for a while. Hole up at home or get out of the country if you need to and let some trusted Democrats know that they’ll have the majority for a while and the time and leeway to move. (BE SURE YOU KNOW WHO IS ON THE SIGNAL CHAT.)

But what if someone is blackmailing me?

No offense, but this is bigger than you. Putin wants to break the United States. And he wants to break the United States so that he can roll over Western Europe. Do you really want to go to your grave knowing that you held onto your secret at the expense of Permanent Global Fascism? For that matter, do you really think complying now will stop them from burning you with it when you become inconvenient later?

Let’s be honest: A lot of us are already kind of assuming that you’re being blackmailed. And the fact that you’ve abandonedyour principles when the stakes are so high is making people think that the thing you’re being blackmailed over is much worse than what it probably really is. If Matt Gaetz can brazen it out, what on earth must you be hiding?

The good news is that there is nothing better for blowing your blackmail material straight out of the news cycle than a fiery Presidential impeachment that the nation can’t stop watching. There’s no better time to get out from under someone’s thumb.

But if the Democrats are smart, they’ll remove Johnson and prosecute Vance for the Signal debacle. That means a Democratic President will be in. I’ll lose some of my own power. What about that?

More real talk: Donald Trump has screwed the Republican party’s chances for decades at a minimum. You are now the party that let the Nazis in. You are the party that closed the national parks and tried to put Grandma out on the street. You are the party that kneecapped scientific research right when it looked like there might be a cure for pancreatic cancer. You are the party that crashed the stock market, the party that made us hated by the world, the party that let Musk and Putin take the reins. You are the party that just came out as pro-measles and made room for polio. The Republican Party is going the way of the Know-Nothings. You’re going to have to scrap it and start over.

And that’s if we ever have real elections again.

The only hope of you, personally, ever coming back into power is if Trump gets impeached and you become a zealous reformer. Toss out everyone who helped Trump, Musk, Thiel and Putin, support real jail time, and legislate us back out of Citizens United. Throw the bastards out and keep on throwing or you are surely getting tossed out yourself.

You can start right now, of course. That would be ideal. But you can also start after you take a little break to let the Democrats get the ball rolling.

Can’t I just keep my head down and appease Trump until things are magically better?

No. If you have read this far instead of screaming about George Soros and fake Venezuelan gang members, you are a Republican who thoughtcrimes against Trump. He and his barrel of vipers who the nonbelievers are. You won’t make it.

Fascists always need a villain to rail against. They always have a list. It is not a question of whether you are on the list, it’s a question of how far down you are. Right now, it’s foreign students and random brown people with innocent tattoos, but Trump is going to crave new meat and fresh news stories soon. You know that he needs to ritually humiliate and cast out a Republican every so often to reassert his dominance. You’re higher up the list than you think.

And if we hit the era of No Real Elections, which is more likely every day, there is no way you are keeping your elected position. Only perfect toadying cult members will make it through, and there is no way you can tap dance fast enough to make up for the past.

Besides: Is “enthusiastic supporter of the fascist regime” the way you want your grandchildren to remember you?

If you aren’t moved by the idea of saving the democratic republic we’ve all grown fond of, think about the fact that your only path to staying in your elected office is to get Trump out of his, and your chance to do that is slipping away.

It’s time to come down with a severe but undefined and conveniently curable medical issue. Play hooky. Go AWOL. Bunk out. Chuck a sickie. But do it quickly.

If you can’t bring yourself to impeach Donald Trump, you need to get the hell out of the way so someone else can. (snip)

Crazy Republican stuff from Joe My God

I was going through Joe My God for news and memes.  I found these stories either outrageous enough or so crazy I felt I should share them.  Hugs.  

Not much to say about the RFK ones.

CDC Ordered Staff Not To Release Measles Warning

The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations#Measleshttps://www.propublica.org/article/measles-vaccine-rfk-cdc-report

— Gail Waldby (@gailwaldby.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T21:18:30.238Z
WSJ: “Our Worst Fears About RFK Are Coming True”

So much for cutting fraud, waste, and inefficacies.  Hugs

US Spent $40 Million To Jail 400 Migrants At Gitmo

The U.S. has spent $40 million to jail about 400 migrants at Guantanamo BayEarly costs of the enterprise emerged over the weekend along with a statement from five senators who toured the base Friday and urged the Trump administration to “immediately cease this misguided mission.”

— Carol Rosenberg (@carolrosenbergnyt.bsky.social) 2025-03-31T19:26:19.913Z

CRT and DEI hate from the right is all about racism and bigotry.  It is so clear that to them a mediocre white male is better than the most talented gifted woman, person of color, or anyone LGBTQ+.  It doesn’t matter to them how good and educated anyone is if they are not a white male they are inferior to any white man.  These people, these Nazi wannabees in charge of our government are desperate to enshrine in the law that white males are always better than anyone else.  Why do they feel so inferior that they need to get rid of any attempts to allow others the same opportunities they have, to have shows and movies that represent the entirety of the population / society?  What are they afraid of.   Hugs 

FCC Chairman Threatens ABC’s Broadcast Licenses

Talk about corruption much?  The last voter give away he ran he first called it a lottery that anyone voting for a republican could win.  But when he was taken to court because that was illegal he admitted that it was all a preplanned scam.  Musk had already picked the winner which was some GOP insider.  Seems he did the same thing here.  Yet maga cult falls for it all the time.  Hugs

Musk’s $1M “Winner” Happens To Be GOP Group Chair

Gee tRump is banning refugees from most other countries, trying hard to close the Southern border, revoking the visas and green cards of legal non-white residents … yet opening the door to white South Africans.  Begging the white people who formerly keep the black people as impoverished near slaves in their own country to move here.  tRump influenced by the South African immigrant currently screwing up every department of the government maybe, you know the guy that gave the Nazi salute?  Or self avowed white supremacist Stephen Miller?  The reason given is the South African government is being mean to white people and taking their land.  That is not what the law says.  The fact is that the whites took the farm land from the blacks and they couldn’t legally own it.  The law seeks to balance that ownership out fairly.  The law has safeguards for the white owners.  The law says … expropriate land from private parties if it’s in the public interest and allows for expropriation without compensation, but only if negotiations for a reasonable settlement have failed, the government says.  It says it does not allow land to be taken arbitrarily.   Hugs

US Opens Refugee Centers For White South Africans

Gee, and here I thought these Nazi-racist-clowns claimed that it was wrong to use race as a basis for any decision-making; that they don't see race as a basis for admissions anywhere. ‘Mission South Africa’: How Trump Is Offering White Afrikaners Refugee Status http://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/u…

— (@theunderminer.bsky.social) 2025-03-30T21:19:47.591Z

So much for lowering prices on … groceries.  You know that word that seemed to fascinate tRump.  Guess cars are not eggs.  And yes why would billionaires and millionaires care if prices rise and the lower incomes can’t afford to live, it won’t stop them from eating, from having homes, from driving nice cars.   Hugs

Trump “Couldn’t Care Less” If Tariffs Spike Car Prices

Why not let the Department Of Defense, the upper ranks and people who understand the military and its equipment / abilities.  Why farm the work out to a political regressive think tank that wants desperately wants a 1950s world.  From the article … It outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama Canal. Hugs

Heritage Wrote Hegseth’s Secret Memo On China

In the land of the free where we are supposed to have freedom of speech and the right to protest.  But anyone that says anything supporting the Palestinians being exterminated and going through a genocide done by Israel.  Any acknowledgment of what Israel is doing the administration now claims is an antisemitic attack on Jewish people.   That is wrong!  It is a gross lie and crazy misinformation made to vilify the people who are correct.  Oh I have a post cued up to make about the father shipped by mistake to El Salvador but PINO tRump refuses to bring him back.  After all he is brown you know.  The real reason these people are being targeted is some are brown and others are Muslim, or both Hugs

ICE Is Secretly Revoking Students’ Immigration Status

Some of the students don't appear to have been activists or even op-ed writers; they're seemingly being targeted for being from a Mideast or Muslim country.SCOOP: ICE Revoking Students’ Immigration Statuses Without Their or the University’s Knowledge zeteo.com/p/ice-manual…

— Barry Deutsch (@barrydeutsch.bsky.social) 2025-03-30T03:01:28.359Z

I think the constitution is very clear.  After this term he can’t serve as either president or vice president.  The 22nd forbids more than two terms, and the 12th forbids anyone who can not be president from being the vice president.  Plus with his mental decline so clear he soon will be sitting in a corner talking to the wall where he thinks there are people listening to him.  The way he eats and his health he will be lucky if he doesn’t have a health emergency before the end of the year much less by 2028.  I wonder if he says this stuff just for distraction?  He does think he is entitled to anything he wants and always has.  Hugs

Trump: “There Are Methods” For Me To Get Third Term