Hope on Pope

Posted on April 24, 2025 | 3 comments

I’ve a checkered history with the Roman Catholic Church. Of course Dad signed off his parental rights as a Lutheran before my parents got married as Mom promised to raise us four kids Catholic. The first two she did, white gloves and hats and all, plus weekly CCD. But there was hope. She actually checked out the public and Catholic schools in our small village and thought that public school would provide me a better foundational education, coupled with religious ed after school every Wednesday taught by the nuns at St. Joe’s. Then she had the guts to go on the pill (I found them and asked) and her, and our, road to a Catholic heaven was tarnished forever.

I was destined for H*** anyway. The nuns hammered home that in distinguishing venial from mortal sin, taking an extra cookie from the jar vs. murdering my neighbor, I got that. Then they told me that missing Mass even once was a mortal sin from which one could never recover, no passing Go or collecting $200. Ever. Mom got the flu one week and we missed Mass. Dad the Lutheran spent Sunday mornings awaiting our return by making pancake breakfast so he was no help taking us to Mass. Seven years old and I was doomed.

Still, the Catholic church loomed large. Every Good Friday Mom read aloud the Passion. We went to Easter Mass and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After we moved to the big city of Washington, D.C. we attended mass less often, but my soul had a solid grounding in morality and shame due to Mass, catechism and parental teachings. Plus, I found out that Lutherans could actually sing on key and knew all the hymnal verses, not just the first two and the refrain, like us.

I chose a liberal arts school that was run by O.F.M., the Franciscans and still respect the lessons of St. Francis. I was very pleased that in the latest conclave the cardinals chose their first Latin American and Jesuit priest to be Pope. While he did not cement much new doctrine on the faith, I appreciate Pope Francis for identifying with the Common Man (and woman, and gay celebrant), dealing with the church’s shameful past in terms of child sexual abuse, and returning to Jesus’ most basic philosophies of tending to the world’s neediest in terms of food, health and housing.

In an age of glorification of personal wealth, extreme selfishness and cruelty to anyone deemed “other” for any reason, Pope Francis was a breath of fresh air. His death is a great loss felt around the world by the HRC church’s 1.3 billion adherents.

It is my fervent hope that the upcoming conclave will not succumb to the rightward shift our world politics (led by the USA) has taken, bringing us back to Medieval times by ultra-conservative priests and their acolytes, strengthened by “born-again Catholics” like JD Vance.

In college, I attended Mass seldom but, having gone through Vatican II in the sixties, I enjoyed the one Latin Mass in our small college city. I have retained respect for the priests and brothers, especially my Advisor, who spent summers with the Hopi and was best known for his killer Sociology lesson on Barbie. But I soured on the Catholic church mainly because of its attitudes towards women (and lack of meaningful power in the Church), marriage and sexuality.

I’ve actually found a Catholic church and a Mass this weekend in the tiny Trumpian town In which my husband and I are temporarily located, and will attend in honor and memory of the first Internet Pope, Francis as he is laid to rest outside St. Peter’s Basilica. A fitting honor to a pope of the people. And hope for the future of the world’s Catholics and all other living beings.

For the “christian” zealots who show only cruelty to the poor, sick, elderly, homeless and “others” the rule is not “do unto others before they can stick it to you” but “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31. Try to remember that and tell it to the Heritage Foundation, and Leonard Leo please.

As the small town priest will say when he dismisses us on Sunday morning, go in peace to love and serve the Lord. May peace be with you all. Dee

P.S. Sorry to be AWOL for a while. Part of the reason I’m temporarily relocated to TX is to help my m-i-l recover from hip replacement surgery (done and four weeks convalescence to go) and I’m now on my second bout of walking pneumonia which has really taken the get-up-and-go out of me. Much to do! d

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My Social Security

Posted on March 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

I’d just turned eleven when my youngest sister was born. Has nothing to do with anything but I used it to do more than just (unpaid) weekly chores from the Job Jar. I convinced my parents to hire me, as we were living ten miles outside of town, as their babysitter when they had to go to campus events. Fifty cents an hour to take care of my three year-old bro and the baby. Not bad as I was only getting fifty cents allowance per week!

At sixteen I got my working papers so I could get a real job during summers. Weeknights and weekends I was the neighborhood’s pre-eminent babysitter (having so many years valuable experience) and the price was now $1/hr. Now I was ready for big stuff, like teaching gymnastics and doing work for the college admissions office part-time. There was one part of my check receipt I didn’t understand. It was explained to me that by paying into this fund, when I was old I could get something called Social Security.

Fast forward to two years ago and there were serious decisions to be made, as serious as where to go to college and whom to marry. Infinite choices involving Medicare, and luckily we had a referral to a great broker who saw us through the decision-making process. Then when to take Social Security and I decided on my 65th birthday, and it actually started a couple of months later.

Interestingly, when I was indeed eligible, I got to sign into a portal called My Social Security. How quaint. Finally being able to see what I’d been paying for all these years. Then Donald Trump was elected. He still said he wouldn’t touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, but I didn’t believe anything he said his first term (or as early as the 1980’s when I was in NYC’s real estate industry).

Now Elon Musk is taking his chainsaw to the federal government and calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme. The acting director of the Social Security Administration says if Musk’s Minions can’t get access to my work, salary and healthcare history and other personal data he’ll lock SSA employees out of the computer systems and checks will stop going out. And billionaire Commerce secretary Lutnick says if anyone who doesn’t get a check in the mail calls to ask whey, they’re a fraudster.

But I’ve only been on it for a little over a year! After I’m done with automatic deductions for Medicare parts A, B and D there are only a few hundred dollars that usually goes for dog food and care (even the new rescue) and some bills. Yes, I would miss the payments if they were not received, and no, I am not a criminal, just a long-term payer into MY Social Security.

Congress, stop sitting on your thumbs and do something! Trump won with 75 million votes. At least 72.5 million Americans are on Social Security. Get it? We vote.

Telling us we can’t arrange for Social Security benefits without coming into an office is fine. Just don’t shut down the offices and turn off the phones. Is that really too much to ask? You should be more concerned about fraudsters using SSA info to scam seniors out of their checks than internal fraud. And how about the Musk Minions let loose around our sensitive information at the SSA? They’re not vetted or trained. And they care not a whit about our privacy.

Today, it was reported that our VP, the heads of military and intelligence agencies conducted a clandestine attack and planned it not over secure government means, but on a private system that included a reporter! Battle plans and all from DOD’s Pete Hegseth. There’s an arrogance and ignorance here that is heart-stopping. National security, privacy and public records laws broken willy nilly. This entire charade must stop. Dee

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Audiences of One

Posted on March 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

They’re a dangerous thing. Remember in Trump I, let’s say a lawmaker introduced a bill to name a bridge or holiday after our Dear Leader. That was pandering to an Audience of One. Alternatively, when Trump I chose to be needlessly cruel to [insert minority group name here] he was just “pandering to his base.”

Yesterday a new monster arrived on scene in Trump II. VP “Divan” Vance began a cruel attack on an ally trying to save his people with our and many nations’ assistance from a dictator who illegally attacked it three years ago. It was a calculated smear, and being Trump, of course filmed in its entirety in the Oval Office. Beneath our Prez and VP? Perish the thought!

The attack on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine was designed for a new Audience of One, Russia’s top spy Vladimir Putin, who is vaingloriously attempting to reunite the USSR as his legacy.

There are 330 million of us in the United States of America. We’ve chosen someone to lead our country who has just made a 180 degree turn in our decades-long foreign policy in order to cozy up to dictators instead of stand steadfast with our democratic allies. On television, for all to see.

What to make of it? Is it all a ploy in “the art of the deal?” I think not. It is not a peaceful maneuver in any way, shape or form. I see dollar signs where Russia’s currently held Ukraine territory contains more rare earth minerals than the parts of Ukraine that Ukraine still possesses and believe that these these sharks smell both blood and money in the water, or land as it may be.

When the president of the United States floats an AI vision of Trump’s Gaza resort with a gold statue of Trump, Elon Musk eating (?), and Trump and Putin on lounge chairs in the sun, we’re seeing a pretty rosy retirement for Messrs. Trump and Putin.

Add billions more in the U.S. from the working poor and disabled currently utilizing Medicaid and the rich will get even richer. Why not go whole hog and decimate Social Security and Medicare as well to get your tax cut for billionaires? As it is, elected Republicans are getting their feelings hurt so are being advised not to hold town halls in their districts that feature the general unease, incredulity and sometimes genuine horror of their gerrymandered voters.

Presidents are supposed to represent we, the people, not foreign dictators. Until now, that wasn’t too much to ask of our highest elected official. Suing to get our country back is not enough. As one of we the people, I’m fed up. Dee

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MAGA Glee

Posted on February 28, 2025 | Leave a comment

OK, I understand celebration of a successful election. I get it, having worked on a few myself, mainly the un-sexy parts of addressing mailers, doing neighborhood “lit drops” and doing door-to-door canvassing the last few weeks of a campaign.

This has gone too far. The willy-nilly purging of the federal administration as a “cover” for a multi-trillion dollar tax cut for the rich is not only illegal, it’s downright ugly. In order to demonstrate the evil-ness of federal workers and undocumented foreigners, the Trump administration has to liken them to Satan-worshippers or pet-eaters. And document everything in ICE reality shows with Kristi Noem or Phil Donahue. How about a gauntlet for fired employees at the exit of the federal building where they worked fifteen minutes ago, with whips and chains and video cameras to document everything?

Being fired is horrible. Being purposely made “other” by the purported Trump “waste-cutters” is outright wrong. Belittling federal workers as absent, do-nothings who don’t deserve a paycheck is mean. Imagine that you’re fired from your job. Do you want people on the streets and in print and video saying you deserved it for trying to cure Alzheimers, predicting what types of flu need to be protected against in next year’s vaccine, or how the weather might conspire to create massive hurricanes, droughts or wildfires in the future?

Imagine if it were cancer, instead of losing one’s job. Would you and your friends gather round and cheer that Jerry has cancer! Yea! He deserved it. Why? He borrowed one of my rakes fifteen years ago and when he brought it back it was bent. So he doesn’t deserve to live. Who cares about his wife and kids?

I don’t know many federal employees, but the ones I interact with most frequently are postal workers, at the main or satellite offices, or more often in the neighborhood delivering mail. Over the years they’ve all been very kind to me, even though I was nearly always walking a dog at the time of our encounters. And if I didn’t trust my own judgment of them, I do trust that of a dog. Dogs just know. My dogs have always loved our mail carriers, and have even sought them out on the street away from our home just to say hello.

[On a related note I believe it essential to have a dog to suss out your kid’s friends, and especially first dates as a teen, because they know who can be trusted and who cannot! Well, my last dog had one flaw in that regard. We were living 1/4 mile from downtown Houston with a great view of the skyline so there were always groups of foreign tourists milling around taking photos. She didn’t like people who walked with no immediate sense of purpose, amblers. Nope. But other than that, she was spot-on!]

Cheering the misfortune of fired federal workers is un-American. So please stop. They’re just regular people going about their jobs, which they deserve to get paid to perform. There is no “deep state” but there are laws that must be followed in order to fire certain workers and this politicized scattershot effort is not it, sending out form letters telling every probationary employee that their work is sub-par, sometimes not even addressed by name. Even after receiving awards and stellar reviews, probationary employees have all received the same form letter criticizing their performance and making it nearly impossible for them to gain future employment anywhere.

That’s not US, the United States. We don’t do that to people who take lower salaries in order to serve the public. You won the election. The time for gloating is over, and for blaming Joe Biden for everything that happens between sunup and sundown every day forward. The hard work of governing begins now (I’m talking about YOU, Congress, with the power of the purse that you’re not even pretending to defend). With great power comes great responsibility. Only if the Republicans are in the minority can they just say a big fat “NO” to every potential solution to America’s problems, like reducing the price of eggs. Get to work, and address the real needs of the American people, not just being fawning members of the Musk/Trump Retribution Tour’s Official Fan Club. Dee

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What Did I Do Last Week?

Posted on February 24, 2025 | 1 comment

Published regarding what really matters and all the things the Trump administration is doing wrong

Wrote to the city clerk where we married to make sure that if the Republicans pass new voter registration laws I’ll still be able to vote because my birth certificate has a different name than my passport and drivers license

Wrote my senators and congressman urging continued support of RSVP, the Seniors portion of AmeriCorps

Researched grant opportunities, analyzed organizational materials for RSVP

Participated in an “all hands on deck” activity at the ranch, actively helping save the life of a baby calf.

# # #

Let’s see. Most of those tasks were related to the federal government. I don’t work for the federal government! As a matter of fact, I don’t work for anyone! I’m retired.

I’m exhausted just trying to make sure that we don’t get killed in mid-air collisions, die of typhoid or scarlet fever, wake up to our military in our streets arresting us for exercising our first amendment rights, and assuring the continued right of married women who use their husband’s name, to vote.

I didn’t used to have to think about that stuff while booking a flight, exposing myself unwittingly to germs and unvaccinated people, crossing the town square to meet a friend or go to my regular polling place. We shouldn’t HAVE to think about that stuff every day, because that’s why we pay taxes!

I never wanted Donald Trump to occupy every facet of American life yet again, and I certainly didn’t invite Elon Musk to threaten my social security, medicare and overall privacy. Enough is enough!

Oh, Elon, I got in the assignment before midnight tonight, even though I didn’t know where to send it because I’m my own boss!!! Does that mean I get to live another day to face yet another federal crisis? Makes me wish mom and dad were still alive, so I could whine “is it four years yet?” Dee

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“169”

Posted on February 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

Mom! Mom! Oh wow what a day! You wouldn’t believe what happened to me! Oh, hi, Aunts. I guess I’ll have to start at the beginning now. You see, I was in this nice cozy place for ten months until three days ago….

Not that, silly, said one of the Aunts, we all welcomed you to the world last weekend. What happened today?

OK, well Mama was drinking from the pond and I went with her to check it out. I slipped in the mud and then fell through the ice. First of all since I was born it’s been hovering around ten degrees at night and all y’all told me that was cold for Texas, but this ice water was something else!

Next thing I know this alien picks me up and dumps me in the back of something called a green side by side and next thing I knew two aliens were rubbing me dry with towels. They put me in a really warm place inside the nicest barn I’ve ever seen but I was still shivering for hours.

They stuck a tube down my throat with formula, not near as good as milk, Ma. This wolf stepped on me and sniffed me all over, several tmes, then it lay down a few feet away and went to sleep. I couldn’t sleep at all, just trying to get warm.

Later they stuck another tube in me with something they called Gatorade. Something about electrolytes. Then a third alien put a leash on me and took me outdoors to “do business,” whatever that is. Then the old alien hurt my ear and told the other aliens that I was now tagged “169.” That was confusing and it hurt but just for a second. After a while of sniffing around outside, they put me back in the green thing with my feet tied together and dropped me off here. Thanks for the milk, Ma, I’m feeling better already!

I know y’all told me it was a good life here and aliens providing us with grass, hay, and grain all the time but it’s awfully cold. Can I go back inside now, Ma? No? Why not? It was good enough for ten months, why can’t I go back in?

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This is Dee. Thanks, 169. Not bad for a first post! Keep in touch. All the best to you as you grow and thrive and have baby calves of your own.

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What REALLY Matters

Posted on February 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

It was ten degrees last night. That doesn’t normally happen in Texas. This morning a three day-old calf followed her mama to get water at the nearest pool. The baby calf fell through the ice. Luckily my f-i-l was out feeding this morning, found her, scooped her up and brought her home.

We dried her roughly with towels, placed her on clean “dog” towels that Princess Lulu unconsciously lent, put new towels under and on top of her and surrounded her with hot water bottles. We had juice bottles left over from Sara’s early winter days in her first dog house (a Dewalt tool box, outfitted with old rugs) so filled them with hot water. The baby calf was then fed warm formula, and is still alive an hour later, nestled by the hearth and an incredibly warm fire in the wood stove.

My father-in-law has had forty baby calves from the herd so far this season. Hopefully this little black icicle will make it. She just stopped shivering, which is a good sign, and she doesn’t have diarrhea, which could kill her for lack of fluids. Next up is electrolytes, probably gatorade with a few extra additions like raw egg.

Makes you think twice when a life is at stake. A lot still matters in my life, like whether I’ll get a second year of Social Security (which I use) and Medicare (which I have yet to use, ever). But lately Americans have been focused on the wrong things, especially in our nation’s capitol.

Here’s my prescription:

Instead of grudges, grievance and retribution, work with Congress to reduce. the price of eggs.

Realize that only a small portion of the population is rich, white and male. Stop catering to them exclusively.

Retaliatory tariffs are a recipe for disaster. Joe Biden left us a good economy. Try not to blow it.

Hatred of people who are different in color, gender or religion are not evil by nature is futile, especially in a country of immigrants. Chances are you have a mother and grandmother, see? Plus hating all women is counterproductive. You probably work with a gay person, and have a Black neighbor. They’re all cool, so what’s the problem?

DEI reinforces anti-discrimination laws on the books for generations. The laws haven’t changed, you’d have to ask Congress to do that and you know it’ll never happen. The laws don’t say you have to lease an apartment or give a job to a differently abled person, just that if such a person is qualified for the job or apartment, they’re in the pool to select them on merit. Get a grip and realize that we ARE a multicultural differently-gendered and -abled society.

Reproduction. Get out of our bedrooms. It’s none of your GD business who we sleep with or if and when we decide to have children. Unless it’s rape or sexual harassment, there are criminal laws to deal with that.

Remove unqualified, un-vetted kids and uber nerd Elon Musk from our personal data at the IRS, SSA, DOH and health agencies. invading personal privacy is gonna come back and get you, especially when you use it solely to target perceived personal enemies of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

If you thought the left was hell-bent on euphemisms and cancel culture, take a look in the mirror and see what the right is doing with the First Amendment. ‘Nuff said.

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Send your thoughts to Icy The Baby Calf, let’s hope she makes it back to Mama in a day or two and in time provides the ranch with 5-6 babies of her own! Cheers, Dee

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Big Sisters

Posted on February 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

Some folks like to characterize families by familiar stereotypes. Of course she did, she’s an only child. He’s acting out because his older sibling got all the attention. Of course she’s spoiled, she’s the baby. You’ve heard it all, I’m certain.

I’m the eldest. Yes, the most responsible. For everyone. Brought up by strict, I would say Teutonic because my father was German/Swiss, rules.

At first I always wanted an older brother, to protect me from bullies of course. But most of my life what I’ve missed is a big sister, someone I could go to for non-parental advice, someone who’s seen a bit more of life than I and could relate useful experiences.

When I got out in the working world, the real one after college (babysitting and summer gigs don’t count) there were no female mentors that I knew of. After a few years I finally got the best boss of my life, a woman, who let me actually do my job and grow in it. That was short-lived, however, and was followed by the absolute worst boss I ever had, a power-hungry megalomaniacal micro-manager who made my life a living Hell. She was female, as well.

Now that I’m all grown up and retired, I think of what my life would have been like with a sister as mentor in life and at work. I certainly would have made fewer mistakes, that’s a given. Perhaps I could have been a better mentor to my young colleagues if I’d had one myself.

Interestingly, I see it in the animal kingdom as well. For the past few months, we’ve been “adopted” by a discarded pup who has had some serious setbacks. She was abused and dumped here, afraid of human touch, ribs protruding with hunger, she craved affection but didn’t know how to get it. We think she was about nine months old as she came into heat a couple of months later.

Named Sara now, she is still an outdoor dog but does have a warm place to go on winter nights. I’d take “Princess” Lulu, my mini-Aussie apartment dog out for a walk on leash and Sara would copy everything Lulu did. I petted Lulu while she was standing still relieving herself and said “good girl” so that Sara would know that human touch and voices could be kind.

Sara was attacked on New Years’ Day by a big dog and the bites became infected immediately. She went through a horrible month of home-based ICU (Nurse Dee, here) and rehabilitation. She’s out and about now and we’re like proud parents watching her progress. She ate sitting up! She ate standing up for the first time! She walked, and the swelling is going down. Today, for example, she patrolled the house for the first time since her injuries. This is a major step, though she’s still dragging the leg quite a bit.

When she first came, in July, she started mimicking Lulu and would pee a few feet away, expecting verbal praise and petting for doing so. Same with #2. After the mauling and ICU (the dreaded wee wee pads) when she took her first steps she remembered that. Makes it easier for me to clean up, just one bag!

Similarly when Lulu was eight weeks old we had our first vet visit within 72 hours of buying her from the breeder 1,500 miles away. There were several stairs outside the vet’s office. Lulu learned to go up the stairs but there was an old dachshund about to leave the vet and go down the stairs. I asked the owner if we could watch. Downstairs went the Doxy, followed by little Lulu. How much time would it have taken me to explain it to her? All she needed was a mentor and she learned in a matter of seconds!

Mentors are so important. I’m getting more into volunteering in senior programs now and look forward to providing sought-after guidance for fellow volunteers given my decade of relevant experience. An important item to remember is not to over-share or be intrusive with advice that might be construed by the recipient as an intrusion. It’s important to be a good mentor, whether it be to siblings, colleagues or fellow volunteers. So be one! It’s gratifying to see a young person learn to fly and successfully solo! Cheers! Dee

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Eliminating “Overhead”

Posted on February 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

Surprise, surprise. The NIH lost billions this week in research funding because grants include overhead. So forget cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and the myriad diseases for which the world’s foremost researchers are trying to cure. We have to keep computers, support staff and most importantly pencils and paper out of the hands of our top medical researchers. Heavens, they might have an idea in the middle of the night to save the lives of millions! We wouldn’t want them to easily write it down.

Years ago I had a client, a tiny (in monetary size, not ambition or talent) repertory theatre and negotiated the funding process with numerous institutional donors. All wanted program-only funding. Let me tell you what that does.

At this particular theatre, the founders were a retired couple. He received no salary as managing director and she received a modest stipend as artistic director. Program-only would mean that they couldn’t pay the artistic or managing directors for keeping the books or selecting the annual season of plays. They probably couldn’t buy the five scripts they needed for the actors to prepare, or pay to license the play for performances. They couldn’t pay the rent on the shop for the set decorator, or for the tools he needed to design and make the sets. Or the audio equipment. Or the box office manager to create, print and sell tickets to the performances. They couldn’t hire actors or rehearse. They couldn’t raise funds or rent a tiny office for the development director and business manager. They only wanted to pay for the five performances, 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. on show nights, plus one matinee.

If they wanted to get the money down to next to nothing, audience members could go to the library, see if it had the play to lend out, and read it for themselves. But Shakespeare was meant to be seen, heard and experienced, live and in person. Ditto Neil Simon, David Mamet, Tom Stoppard and so many other brilliant playwrights.

It takes a village to put on a play, just ask Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in practically every movie they made together. “Let’s put on a show!” Just as it takes a university and top-notch talent to run a medical research institution. Does the university president have a hands-on presence in medical research funded by the NIH? No, but his/her presence at the institution is needed.

If Tesla had no need for “overhead” or administrative funding, then why is Elon Musk’s salary $101 BILLION dollars this year? Think about it. Some administration is needed if we are to cure cancer. Again, scalpel, not cudgel.

Work with the agencies and Congress to trim budgets fairly. With a common cause and buy-in by those involved, it’s amazing what can be accomplished. Elon Musk has a huge conflict of interest in his role here, and superseding existing law and constitutional demands is not right and must be corrected before it does too much damage to our democracy.

One thing most presidents know already is that with great power comes great responsibility. What one can do with a company, large or small, owned by one person is vastly different than dealing with a democracy with three branches of government. They’re all useful and should be balanced, and no, I don’t believe for a moment in a unitary executive who rules the legislature and judiciary. That’s not what Americans signed up for. Read the Constitution. Onward and upward, Dee

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It’s Not ABOUT You!

Posted on February 10, 2025 | Leave a comment

Yes, Congressman. Yes, Senator who votes for every unqualified Trump candidate because you’re afraid that Elon Musk will fund a primary candidate against you next election. Democracy is about elections, not about permanent “safe” seats. You should want to fight for your right to represent the people. Then, when elected the most important things to remember at all costs are your oath to the Constitution of the United States of America, and your constituency. The Constitution gave you Article I and you’re throwing it away, and all your constituents, because you cower in awe and fear of two seriously flawed men.

It’s not ABOUT you, Mr. President, as you use the biggest bully pulpit (for now) the world has to offer as just that, a bully. You use a cudgel when a scalpel would suffice, annihilating entire departments that were created by the Article I Congress, not an Article II president, simply because you have a beef with them, or Elon Musk does in the case of USAID. You will die and your policies will only be remembered in history as the epitome of a cautionary tale, if we survive the next four years.

This is not cost-cutting at all, it’s vengeance at its most venal, and it must be stopped. Where are all these salaries going to go? Instead of stopping foreign wars our new president wants to start them in Panama, Canada, Mexico and anywhere else he thinks he can cow into submission. It’s all going into the Oligarchy Bro’s Tax Cut, we know. But he also wants a gilt-covered ballroom in the White House for $100 million dollars. How much food , clean water and AIDS protection can that alone buy in Africa?

Perhaps the courts can help. Perhaps the new administration will just say no, even to the Supreme Court. This entire debacle, however, is about us, and the price of eggs, and getting our social security checks on time. We’re the reason Donald Trump was elected and is breaking the federal government and serving up the tasty spoils to himself (family first, according to VP Vance) and his billionaire partners in crime. It’s up to us to do something about it.

Senators and Congresspeople, when the people rise up because we can’t afford food and medical care you will no longer be afraid of Elon Musk and his elf lords, because if our own president hasn’t unilaterally taken away the right of Americans to vote with Supreme Court acquiescence, we will vote and in numbers “like you’ve never seen before (to quote Trump).” And it won’t be for today’s spineless politicians who kissed the King’s jewel-encrusted ring and served him up a taxpayer-funded ermine-collared robe so he could perch upon and issue unequivocal diktats from his gaudy, Mar-a-Lago gilt throne.

It’s about US, WE THE PEOPLE! Let’s all be mugwumps, shall we? Look it up, 1884, Republican sect vehemently anti government corruption. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Dee

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