Tag Archives: news

Just Plane Grift

Posted on May 12, 2025 | Leave a comment

I think we’re overloading our courts these days with much unconstitutional stream of consciousness from the White House disguised as executive “laws.” Normally there is an office of ethics attached to the Oval Office and an inspector general in most departments, if not all. They try to keep things on an even keel, but no, in this administration they’ve all been conveniently fired.

Accepting a $400 million plane from a foreign country for the president’s exclusive use, then GIVING it to him as a “golden parachute” to use for the rest of his life, with probably another couple hundred million upgrades tacked on for DOD/Secret Service must-haves, is just ludicrous. Illegal as hell, and criminally stupid.

Is this why Trump campaigned on “no tax on tips?” Four hundred million is a heck of a tip, Mr. President.

There are other reasons not to accept this bribe from Qatar, mainly involving national security. I’m sure Mr. Trump has never been a devotee of ancient myth or even Aesop’s fables, lest he take the morals of the stories to heart. You see, there was something called a Trojan horse. It was given as a beautiful gift, only to have the enemy’s army spill out from it’s insides and seize the day surreptitiously.

America decides how its president will get from place to place and with what security precautions, because safe leaders make for a safer country. I don’t know what security measures are on Air Force One, because I’m not supposed to know. ‘Nuff said. We don’t allow foreign nationals, royal families, to provide us with secure transportation for our president. That’s our job.

Acceptance of this gift would pose a severe ethical problem. I disagree with SCOTUS in its decision to allow and encourage dark money in elections as I believe all donors should be open and above board in public elections for publicly held office. That’s the reason we have FOIA and Open Meetings laws. What’s necessary now is for Congress to beef up transparency of money in politics, adding to the law provisions for self-funded presidential transition operations, inaugural committees and presidential libraries.

Why is the cabinet stuffed with billionaires who know nothing about the subject matter of their agencies? Grift, access to power and rolling back regulations on their individual industries. Look what Elon Musk’s several months slashing and burning government agencies has gotten him in terms of preferential treatment, his businesses are taking government contracts and easing regulations. His initial Trumpian investment of $200 million for the 2024 general election will be repaid in spades.

Forget about draining the swamp. The White House and this particular administration is the swampiest ever, with “mistakes” of having ethical people on board for Trump I conspicuously absent for the constant grift present in Trump II.

As to Qatar, thanks for the offer, but should be just a plane “no” from the White House. Oh, and Congressional leadership, you’d better wake up and start doing your job soon, or you won’t have one to come back to. Just a thought. Register to vote, and sign up everyone you know. Sanity and ethics must prevail. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

The Price of Eggs

Posted on January 26, 2025 | 1 comment

Since Trump II began less than a week ago, have you heard anything about lowering the price of eggs from inside the Beltway (Washington D.C. insiders, natch)? I’ve only heard rumblings from fellow shoppers, and my m-i-l when I told her that the brown, cage-free eggs were $1.50 less than the regular eggs. Shocking, indeed!

Instead we’ve had over 1,500 criminals let loose, persons who attacked police officers during an attempt to thwart Constitutionally mandated procedure of certifying votes of the Electoral College in 2020, and those who’ve physically harmed women and others from entering abortion clinics. Oh, and raids that scooped up legal and legal immigrants, American citizens and military personnel just to sort them out as to official status later. Oopsie!

I thought Trump II was about lowering prices and easing the lives of everyday Americans, like the campaign pledged to do On Day One. Yet all I hear about are about how excited we should be to have a drunk, sexual offender who mismanages small veterans’ organization budgets as our DOD chief.

If MAGA=GOP=Party Of The People, why is Rep. Andy Barr (R.. KY) demanding that his constituents, instead of getting cheaper eggs, get better tax treatment for depreciation of racehorses?

Now, I know that’s a valid concern for a majority of Americans. After all, if I can’t depreciate my racehorses fast enough, I might have to resort to polo again, and put off the Learjet upgrade I had my heart set on.

If you don’t think this is an oligarchy, with Elon Musk now peeing inside the tent rather than outside (inside he has access to all government data on all Americans, and perhaps other countries as well, that is not classified) I’ve a bridge to sell you.

Who wins in the end? Certainly not rural farmers counting on the CDC to let them know what’s happening with bird flu and their chickens, as well as potential spread of the virus to people. Not hushing it up like Trump I tried in vain to do with COVID.

The winners of this Trump specialty, the Zero Sum Billionaire Tax Cut Game, will certainly not help the working poor who already live in healthcare deserts and will now not have Medicaid. Or Seniors who depend on Social Security and Medicare. Or Veterans, for that matter, quitcher complainin’, all you did was lose your leg in the military action. It wasn’t a war, and also burn pits are nothing serious. Promise.

Wake up, America. It’s up to us to fix this mess. I don’t want a king in the White House. I certainly don’t want Donald Trump to have a third term handed to him on a silver platter. Congress might help a little if they realize that when their districts lose the Biden infrastructure funds they voted against but have taken credit for, their seats aren’t safe anymore. Ditto when Senators vote for completely inept leaders of key government institutions and a disaster strikes, as it inevitably will (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition), and their response is unsurprisingly insppropriate… you get the picture.

Strap on your work boots (thought I was going to say gun, didn’t you?) and get involved. It’s now or never, folks. Nearly fifty years ago when my US/Canada family celebrated July 4, 1976, I never would have thought we could end up with our favorite pastime being hating other Americans or immigrants who want what we, as immigrants ourselves, have today. Hating people for worshipping another God or loving someone the hater deems “wrong.” Get involved. Tens of millions of eligible Americans are not registered to vote. That’s something positive to do. Register, and vote! Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , ,

Dignity

Posted on December 30, 2024 | Leave a comment

It can’t be bought, or legislated. If you’re luckier, you know it when you see it. Better yet, you might actually have it! It’s not something easily put on, but it is incredibly easy to lose with even one misstep.

I can name one person today who had it, for one hundred years. Jimmy Carter. Our lives will be poorer for our loss, but richer for having “known” him. Yes, many of us who grew up with him feel like we knew him even though we never met the man. Oh, the Camp David Accord, that was him? Yep. Also the Iranian POW debacle where Iran released the prisoners under brand new president Reagan just to snub the former president. I remember that. I also remember odd and even days to buy gasoline, living just outside the Beltway, even though it would be years until I would be old enough to drive.

In Carter’s “retirement” he accomplished more than most people do in their entire career. He nearly eradicated Guinea Worm, an amazing and little-known fact. Helped spread democracy and fair elections, and hammered more nails for Habitat for Humanity than most grade schoolers could even count.

Yesterday was a sad day, the end of an era. But I literally broke down in tears when I saw the Mike Luckovich cartoon entitled “Eternal Reunion,” where, at the pearly gates, Rosalynn Carter rushes out calling “Jimmy!” to her long-time love, her husband for over 77 years as he rushed into her waiting arms.

Theirs was (is?) a partnership for the ages, based on love, trust, faith and, yes, dignity. I didn’t know until today that Jimmy Carter met his wife literally on the day she was born. If Hallmark is looking for a love-at-first-sight premise that spans a century, here ’tis. Don’t thank me, the info has been sitting out there for decades.

Clara Jeffery wrote an incredible piece in Mother Jones yesterday entitled “Of Misogyny, Musk, and Men” in which she states that women are not fine with the recent presidential election, “we’re furious.” I believe I know why.

By overturning Roe, Trump and SCOTUS not only removed a constitutional right from women, the entire MAGA playbook is centered on removing womens’ dignity. These MAGA voters and those who went along for the Trump II roller coaster ride pride themselves on putting women back “in their place.” Your body. My choice. Forever. Really? In 2024?

I’m a college-educated, white woman in my 60’s who got her first period the same year Roe was decided in 1973. When I was in charge of talent transport for a major cultural entity, I sentenced my misogynistic cousin to a two-hour airport ride with one of my drivers and guest lecturer Betty Friedan. I wish I was a fly on the wall for that conversation.

I simply cannot understand how women can vote to remove rights from other women, and there’s more to come, including a war on mifepristone, contraception and no-fault divorce. Do women really want to see other women die in hospital parking lots? Abandon Texas babies in dumpsters because of the $10,000 bounty law? Be beaten to death by husbands they’re not allowed to divorce?

As a woman of a certain age, I am childless not by choice but circumstance. That said, I do not see the only path for grandmothers as being permanent free childcare for their children’s offspring. Having grandma around is not an excuse for lack of available/affordable child care, child tax credits, free school lunches, equal pay for equal work and other government laws and applicable safety nets. All so that billionaires can get richer off our labor.

Women are not empty vessels, and empty-headed ones at that, whose only role in life is carrying babies and feeding husbands. I’m in a partnership, nearly 25 years now (22 married) where we both bring talents to the table. He’s tall, he reaches the high shelves, I get the low ones. We both write, the other edits. A partnership based on trust, love, faith and dignity.

You can’t take away my rights without a fight. And whatever you say or do, you will not take away my dignity. Generations of women fought for our freedoms. We cannot afford to let them slip away. If I have the hammer, my husband will hand me the nails, same as Rosalynn and Jimmy. Not nearly the same, but they have certainly been an inspiration. Rest in peace, and thank you for sharing your lives with the nation. Yours in dignity, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Sky is Falling?

Posted on December 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

Imagine a hungry person steals a loaf of bread. Then someone who has no interest in the store, the bread or the thief demands immediate death by firing squad otherwise the town’s entire police department will be sacked. That’s what Elon Musk just did to the U.S. House of Representatives and its leader, Speaker Mike Johnson. Donald Trump isn’t even president yet, and Elon Musk is throwing his weight around, publicly calling out fellow Republican members and saying he’ll pay for primary challenges against anyone who doesn’t do his bidding.

Elon Musk didn’t get a single vote for president this year. He cannot, because he is South African. But he of billions of U.S. government contracts and companies regulated by the federal government, is dictating to Congress how to vote and whom to hire in the Trump administration. And Trump is letting him get away with it.

The federal workers who create cancer cures, predict the weather, or protect regular folks from financial scams are now the “deep state” but Donald Trump wants U.S. policy to be set by unelected billionaires who wouldn’t know how to find their way around a grocery store or how to put that nozzle in the gas tank of one of their luxury vehicles they’ve never driven because they have drivers and chefs for those menial tasks that are a part of our everyday lives.

President-elect Trump is using private emails (remember when he tried to put Hillary in jail for that?) and not allowing FBI background checks, so that prior to taking office, he is negotiating with foreign leaders on non-secure phones with potential staff who we don’t even know will pass necessary security clearances.

There is only one president at a time, and for the next several weeks that is Joe Biden. But Elon Musk has just endorsed a pro-Nazi political group in Germany, and wants to put as much as $100 million into an extreme right wing party in the UK to control the politics over there as well. Is this official U.S. policy? Is it Trump’s policy? Or is Elon just throwing his weight around because he can.

Like the supposed, alleged bread thief, the shop owner might have seen the criminal and describe the theft to the police. Or the police might have witnesses and begin an investigation, that may result in an indictment, hiring of counsel, a trial and potential conviction. People don’t just get the firing squad in the parking lot, with or without the evidence, the aforementioned loaf of bread.

If Elon Musk starts threatening to fund primaries with the first piece of legislation that comes up, before Trump is even president, what’s he going to threaten next? Sounds a lot like the sky is falling. There’s strength in numbers, Congresspeople. You have a job to do for your constituents. If you do it to their satisfaction, they might vote you back in no matter how much money Elon Musk throws at your opponent. Show some backbone. You get paid to fix your constituents’ problems. Do it. You’ve been able to just say no to Democrats for years. That’s easy. Governing is hard.

Step back and think. Does the average Trump voter have any idea yet that he’s going to strip us of our Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, reignite inflation and cost us enough in lost benefits and higher prices that will make the Biden years look positively Edenic.

The news will settle in slowly, but it might actually “take” this time, because these tariffs and tax cuts for the ultra-rich will impact all of us 99% in different ways. In rural areas where Trump support runs strong, cuts to health care and public education, combined with repercussions of trade wars, will hit especially hard. As an added bonus, the deficit will grow by trillions leaving our kids with the burden and a federal government staffed by Boss Tweed’s toadies will have to be remedied by a future administration, if there ever is one.

The best places for apolitical professionals are our military, our professional administrative agency staff, and most importantly our judges. After all, these mistakes have been made before, and historically things do not end well when democracies turn into broligarchies. And if you think Elon Musk incapable of the duties of POTUS, as a neophyte who doesn’t even know how a bill becomes a law, try adding the UK and Germany concurrently to his dictatorships and see what happens. Ah, isn’t politics fun? Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Positive Solutions

Posted on November 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

The time for crying and blame are over. It’s time to plan for the future and save our precious democracy. We have a major birthday (250) coming up and don’t want to let down our founders.

Much will change in our country due to the perceived economic circumstances that re-elected Donald Trump. When all the votes are counted, he will not win the popular vote by more than 2% so this is NOT any type of mandate.

I’m going to use my age and wisdom garnered over a lifetime of work and living to think positive thoughts and solve problems with pro-active solutions. Here are two thoughts.

To the United States Senate:

Do your job. Read your oath of office. Honor it. The founders made you alone responsible for advice and consent to the president’s cabinet and other picks. Use it. Do not let Donald Trump skip background checks and public hearings for these critical staff positions.

Why would I, a longtime Democrat, tell you this? It looks like Trump will make good on his worst campaign promises. As a woman, that really bothers me. As a woman with a brain who was as good or better than any man I ever worked alongside, the incoming president’s plans to blow up our government from the inside and make us vulnerable to attacks from foreign enemies and even our own military, there is much about which to be fearful.

Trump was elected to bring down the price of eggs (and bacon), keep the border safe and to make white men feel better about themselves not being “replaced.” When his voters realize, very soon, that tax cuts are only going to the rich, and none of us will have health insurance, vaccines, and that inflation will go through the roof, they’re not gonna be happy with the bait and switch we dems warned them about.

If you, Senators, allow these ludicrous picks for AG, DOD. HHS and National Security go through without vetting or public scrutiny of any kind, you will bear the brunt of that anger and will not be re-elected. Advise and consent was a good idea for 250 years, as was FBI background checks. If these folks can’t get a job at a local McDonalds, they shouldn’t be in charge of nearly three million soldiers, for example.

Just do your job and let the chips fall where they may. Some may pass public scrutiny, others may not. Let the people know what you’re doing and don’t skip town and call it recess. Same with the House. Let the Ethics Committee’s report out, and don’t help Trump engineer a recess so he can dupe the American people yet again. You have to run every two years and midterms have already started.

To Disillusioned Young Men:

I’m an older woman who was in my teens and twenties from 1975 to 1985. It was a chaotic time but I grew up OK and don’t remember any horrific things that scarred me for life. That said, I do not know the realities you are facing in today’s world with omnipresent social media and anonymous judgements that can hurt young hearts and souls.

I would ask you to look to your own father, perhaps grandfather or uncle, for inspiration as to what kind of man you’d like to be. If those are not inspiring choices, look to a teacher, coach or religious leader as a mentor. Often a busy person will make time to help mold a young mind and help you get started on your life’s journey. If you’re concerned about your life’s work, the library is a great choice. Reading helped me understand a lot about the world and my place in it.

That said, I’ve always abided by the golden rule of doing unto others. Be interested in the world around you. Put down your phone and smell the roses. If you have dangerous thoughts, talk to an adult and get help. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

###

Positive thoughts. We must try to hold on to our rights with tenacity, vigor, steadfastness and belief that we’re doing what we need to do to save our nation. That means also being there for disillusioned Trump voters who will soon realize that he only wanted the job for power, to stay out of prison and to reward his rich friends and punish his enemies. There is no thought given to seniors on Social Security and Medicare, the poor on Medicaid and food stamps, or especially women who miscarry and are blithely left to die in hospital parking lots. There’s a lot to do and moping and finger-pointing are useless at this point. We all need to work together and be useful to get out of this mess. Cheers! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Legacy or Malevolence?

Posted on November 7, 2024 | Leave a comment

‘Tis a sad week for backers of the U.S. Constition and rule of law. Depending on the House results Trump may be blessed with a trifecta plus SCOTUS, all of whom clearly care more for Dear Leader than their oaths or constituency. SCOTUS no longer opines for the ages, but for one man. All I can say is, it’s our own da** fault, voters. Apparently, this is what the American people want. At least until the spotlight turns its evil eye upon them, which it certainly will. Beware what you signed up for, Elon Musk.

As Kamala Harris said, there remain stars in our upcoming dark world. Let me share a few of them.

First of all, Donald Trump is swayed by attention (good or bad, apparently) and popularity (crowd size, anyone?) He’s already about to get the biggest gift of his presidency, a get-out-of-jail-free card. Phew. He could possibly be convinced that burning down the house may not be best for his precious legacy. Of course he’ll still deport a slew of immigrants (but not nearly as many as he promised, remember the wall?) and treat all women like second-class citizens. But he may be dissuaded from following his evangelical base to the nth degree on reproductive rights. Why? Because he can’t run again, and if he wants to build a legacy he can’t have half the nation marching against him every week of his presidency.

Then I could be wrong. I certainly was wrong to even dare to bask in the brief glimmer of hope brought to us by Joe Biden for over three years and Kamala Harris for 107 days.

Even if the House and Senate go Republican, these folks still have to run for re-election and can’t afford to indulge the most evil of Trump’s whims. As soon as he publicly tries to disenfranchise half the population because we have wombs, or tanks the economy through his precious and scattershot tariffs, he could be held in check by realists on both sides of the aisle. Why do you think Congress never bit the third rail for fifty years and enshrined abortion rights into law? We wouldn’t be in this mess today if, in the 1970’s, Congress did one brave act that was made “OK” by prior SCOTUS intervention. Then again, Congress never adopts a budget either, waiting for the last minute to stave off catastrophe again again as in the Perils of Pauline.

Those of us with grand thoughts about protecting our nation through its Constitution and rule of law, we have a lot to do over the next two years to turn Congress and State houses. Let’s not let malaise set in, and instead roll up our sleeves, corral our neighbors and friends and get to work.

All I can say for now is let’s hope Trump lives another four years, more if it’s possible for him to actually pay for some of the myriad crimes he’s committed. Why? Trump’s merely a useful idiot, a dim bulb with motivation only to enrich himself. J.D. Vance, on the other hand, is smart and has drunk a ton of Theocracy Tea. Add to that, he truly despises women (wonder what Usha thinks of that, or is she really a Stepford Wife?) and then we’d be even worse off.

Keep your spirits up, once more into the breach, ladies! Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Dear Billionaires

Posted on October 31, 2024 | Leave a comment

To the newspaper owners who chickened out of endorsements in the 2024 Presidential election:

No, I’m not one of you. I am a customer who reads your content or buys whatever you sell. I’ve been an Amazon Prime member for ages. I’m also a taxpayer who pays for the government contracts you’re afraid of losing if Donald Trump wins the presidency.

If yours was a reasoned decision arrived at a year ago, that’s one thing. But waiting until a week before the election and weaseling out is so incredibly cowardly and it defies any other description.

I think of Shay Moss and Ruby Freeman who have feared for their lives for the past four years since Donald Trump singled them out for simply doing their election jobs in Georgia. They had guts and a heck of a lot to lose.

With such a cruel and ephemeral temper as has one Donald Trump, even sucking up to him now doesn’t guarantee for one minute that you won’t be next on his hit list. At least you have excess material wealth to fall back on. Most of the rest of us don’t.

Just because Kamala Harris will uphold the Constitution and rule of law, doesn’t mean that this doesn’t sting. No, she won’t shut down the free press or single you out for retribution, but that’s no reason to be an ultimate weenie. I might go to prison for all the reasoned, anti-Trump posts I’ve penned but I still write of the wrongs Mr. Trump has done and the more he can inflict from the Oval Office toward women, immigrants and other enemies from within.

I stand behind the red, white and blue. Your flag seems only to be green. Given a choice between 250 years of democracy or a new autocracy led by a cruel, inhumane idiot surrounded by sycophants I’ll choose democracy every day and twice on Sunday.

The economy will burst under the grand tariff plan and Trump’s daily mood swings will lead to the polar opposite of economic stability. Thanks for that. Staying on the fence gets awfully uncomfortable. Enjoy it. I voted for democracy and hope others will as well. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,