Tag Archives: conservatism

November 8, 2025 · 11:40 AM

Absolutely No One!

Revelers at Trump’s “Gatsby” gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate

“Wait…why are over 40 million people on SNAP? It’s not the 1930s.  We’re not in a depression.  I have a hard time believing that many people actually need food assistance in America.”

Glenn Beck, commenting about food benefits amid the government shutdown

Nothing says classy like helping a disabled person navigating a grocery store aisle.  Nothing says trashy like one of the wealthiest people in the country throwing a lavish party while others are struggling to pay for food.

That’s the message inherent in Donald Trump’s recent Halloween bash at his Mar-a-Lago estate.  In the richest nation on Earth, the president of the United States is wallowing in his own ego and greed, as literally millions of average citizens wonder how they’re going to pay their bills and provide for their families.

As of this writing, the ongoing government shutdown has become the longest in U.S. history.  The chaos hasn’t affected me personally yet, but I remain leery and concerned.  The last shutdown in 2018 did impact the government agency for which my company does a great deal of contract work.  The present mess, though, is already upset the livelihoods of millions of people who have been furloughed from their jobs and others – such as air traffic controllers – who have been forced to work without pay. 

The latter is an obscene contradiction in that members of Congress are still getting paid.  Yes, the political elite are receiving their salaries, while doing no work.  Some federal employees are working, but not receiving their pay.  Please tell me I’m not the only one realizes how screwed up this is.

Trump’s “Gatsby” festival is not just a true indication of the President’s own arrogance and disrespect for humanity, but the growing economic disparities in the U.S.  This is a nation that boasts that someone like Jeff Bezos can grow a business from a garage operation into multi-billion dollar conglomerate; yet allows a foreign-born oligarch like Elon Musk to dictate how the U.S. government should function.

Glenn Beck’s comment regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food benefits, is yet another hallmark of how disconnected the self-appointed elite – left or right – is with reality.  Conservative extremists like Beck are quick to condemn those who reach out for public assistance, but ignore the systems that create those needs.  Meanwhile radical liberals denounce corporations and business leaders, but don’t seem to understand personal responsibility is more than a Republican catchphrase.

I had to go on food and energy assistance a few years ago.  The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out what money I’d earned over nearly a decade of freelance and contract work.  I’d been on unemployment insurance before, but I knew I’d paid into that.  Help to buy food and pay my energy bills was a different creature.  I’m gainfully employed now, with full health benefits and a retirement plan.  I’m making a good living and satisfied with how my life is going.

But I understand completely how upset millions of Americans are with none of those things.  As the current morass continues, I wonder how this is happening.  How is the wealthiest country on Earth mired in such a serious financial crisis?  How is it that so many people – literally millions – are struggling just to live?  While Trump and his family and their minions party like the world is theirs and only theirs.

If this is such an affluent nation, absolutely no one should have to rely upon food, housing and energy assistance!  Not everyone needs to earn a six- or seven-figure salary or live in a multi-room mansion in a gated community.  Indeed, able-bodied and able-minded people should be accountable for their own actions.  But why do some people have to decide whether to pay the light bill or buy food?

Shortly after the turn of the century I joined a Dallas-area Toastmasters group.  I had met one of the co-founders, and he convinced me at least to visit.  I did and instantly felt a connection to this group of intellectuals who, like me, had something important to say.  Sadly, I became disillusioned with the group and left in the spring of 2004.  But, before I found a position with an engineering company in November 2002, that cofounder and I engaged in a rather tense discussion about economics and self-reliance.  Even though I definitely don’t consider myself conservative, that man insisted I belonged on the Republican side of things.  He was a devoted acolyte of Ronald Reagan and strongly supported then-President George W. Bush.  He was a small business owner, Jewish and openly queer.  He shocked me one time, however, when he said he didn’t really care what his fellow conservatives thought about either his ethnicity or his sexuality.  He was more concerned about the overall welfare of society.

A few months before I found that full-time job, he remarked that I “only represent a small percentage” of people across the country – in a sense mocking my lack of full employment.  Later he had commented that business owners should be allowed to discriminate against people strictly on the basis of race or gender; that anyone on the wrong end of that bigotry can just find another place to give their business. 

“Yeah,” I responded, “just like Hitler did.”

Ever see someone’s face overwhelmed with that proverbial deer-in-the-headlights expression?  His consternation was obvious enough for the blind to see.

But that, in essence, is the problem with our political leaders.  Remember they’re still earning their salaries – while doing no work.  When does the madness end?  And where’s the justice?

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August 1, 2025 · 11:02 PM

CB Saps

The CBS television network is one of the most storied media outlets here in the U.S.  It officially launched in September of 1927 as a radio network – a major news source at the time – before transitioning in 1941 into the new medium of TV.  The assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963 led CBS to expand their weekly evening news broadcasts from 15 to 30 minutes, which remains a staple of mainstream news outlets.

In 1960 a young journalist named Dan Rather joined CBS, and in 1981, he took over the helm of the network’s nightly evening news broadcast from another legend, Walter Cronkite.  Rather had already established himself as a premier journalist.  From his live coverage of Hurricane Carla in 1961 to the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the horrors of 9/11, Rather had few equals.  But, in the fall of 2004, he encountered his final nemesis – and perhaps one of the most unlikely: a conservative Republican political figure with a fragile ego, incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush.  After five lackluster years as Texas governor, Bush ran for president in 2000 – and won in a controversial decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  He became only the second U.S. president to follow his father into that esteemed role.  One issue that arose early in Bush’s presidential campaign was his decision to join the Texas National Guard upon graduating from Harvard in 1968.  He reenlisted four years later and then – allegedly – transferred to Alabama to work on the presidential campaign of George C. Wallace, a renowned segregationist.  Whether or not Bush completed his second stint in the National Guard has never been resolved.  He served at a time when the Vietnam War was raging and positions in any state’s national guard were highly valued for draft-age men.

The same conundrum befell Bill Clinton when he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 1991.  Conservatives were quick to denounce Clinton as a “draft dodger”, but held off criticism of Bush years later.  But when Dan Rather began his quest to determine the exact nature of Bush’s so-called military service, right-wing hound dogs quickly pounced.  How dare Rather question the integrity of their contemporary savior!  After Bush won the 2004 election (in contrast to 2000, when it was strictly an electoral college victory), the pseudo-Texan’s anger manifested quietly and nondescriptly in Rather’s termination from CBS.

The move pleased conservatives, but outraged liberals.  It mirrored a similar move by CBS against Rather’s colleagues, Connie Chung, a decade earlier.  Chung began her journalism career with CBS as a Washington, D.C., correspondent in the 1970s.  In 1993, she became only the second woman and the first Asian-American to headline a major network news broadcast, when she became Rather’s co-anchor on the CBS Evening News.  Two years later, however, her stint with the network crashed after interview with the parents of another conservative Republican with a fragile ego.

In November 1994, Republicans gained control of both Houses of the U.S. Congress for the first time since 1954.  And they didn’t just win – they won a super-majority in each chamber.  There were at least 3 factors: Clinton’s attempt at a national healthcare program, a ten-year ban on assault-style weapons and queers in the military.  All three were anathemic to American conservatives, and the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, stood at the helm of their angst.  A Pennsylvania native and Ronald Reagan acolyte, Gingrich first arrived in the U.S. Congress in 1979.  When Bill Clinton became president, Gingrich led the loud, yet unofficial call, to slaughter the former Arkansas governor’s reputation.

In the spring of 1995, Connie Chung traveled to Georgia to interview Gingrich’s parents.  His mother, Kathleen, sitting in her kitchen, chain-smoking and speaking barely above a stage whisper, noted her son’s disdain for the Clintons – not just the President, but also First Lady Hillary.  When pressed by Chung, Kathleen Gingrich said Newt had called Hillary Clinton a “bitch”.  Chung chuckled and seemingly expressed surprise.

The interview rocketed across the news spectrum like a lightning bolt.  Newt Gingrich openly announced his rage (and refused to acknowledge whether or not he’d described Hillary Clinton as a “bitch”).  Nonetheless, he accused Chung of taking advantage of people who weren’t “media savvy”.  In response, Chung asked how “media savvy” does someone need to be when they’ve welcomed a national news figure into their home and have three cameras and several studio lights set up around them.  CBS severed Chung’s contract.

Now, some two decades later, CBS has bowed to the ego of yet another conservative Republican: President Donald Trump.  They recently announced the cancelation of the long-running “The Late Show”, which will officially end in May 2026.  Comedian Stephen Colbert has hosted the show since 2015 and has been one of Trump’s most prominent critics.  This announcement comes as a surprise, but in reality, shouldn’t be.  Previous host David Letterman frequently mocked President George W. Bush – and never shied away from his barbs.  Every political figure in the U.S. has been the subject of disdain and caricature.  Anyone who enters American politics with a thin skin normally fries in the broth of farcical verbiage.  But it sort of comes with the territory.

Yet I can’t help but notice that attacks on journalism and popular culture have come from the conservative wing.  The right-wing fringe that once openly-mocked diversity and inclusion now seems to bristle at the sound of tawdry jokes and comical jibes.  And liberals are the wimps?

Spare me the anxiety!

Personally I was the subject of extensive bullying throughout my school years and even into young adulthood.  But I survived the maelstrom and I’m still here.  In a nation that values free speech and a free press, it’s frustrating to know that journalists and comedians are ostracized for criticizing or questioning anyone – least of all political figures.  In fact it pisses me off and makes me wonder what’s next.  The U.S. currently has a president who insulted a large number of people and deliberately fomented a physical assault on our government.  Threatening physical violence and slandering someone’s reputation are actually illegal.  But, in the current, political climate, personal fragility is obviously subjective.

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April 18, 2025 · 10:14 PM

Words

Several years ago actress turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot found herself in legal trouble with French authorities.  The former screen siren openly condemned the Islamic practice of animal slaughter during the Aid al-Kabir holiday. She’d been in such a predicament before – several times.  French law doesn’t actually forbid disparaging religious ideology, but it looks down sharply upon it, as it can be considered slander or worse, a conduit to hate-obsessed violence.

It’s surprising, considering France fought hard against Nazi occupation during World War II.  One tenet of Nazism is that anyone who speaks out against the government is deemed a traitor.  But, short of slander or threats of violence, criticism of governing bodies and religion is free speech.  Imprisoning anyone, or even threatening to levy a monetary penalty for such views, runs counter to that.

All of it strikes hard for me – and other writers and artists – here in the U.S., as we witness ongoing assaults on various forms of free speech.  Book bans remain a primary source of concern.  And with Republicans in charge of the White House and both houses of Congress, the attacks continue.  Social extremists have always been opposed to any viewpoint that doesn’t conform to their standards – whether it’s coming from the left or the right.  The voices of moderates seem to get lost in the chaos.

Recently the U.S. government – under pressure from the Trump administration – compiled and presented a list of words that are forbidden on federal web sites and other documentation.  They include such terms as “biologically male”, “clean energy”, “inequality”, and “woman”.  This is real!  I have a tendency towards creating outrageous stories, but I’m not intoxicated or deranged.  Well…not yet.

Regardless, the list definitely isn’t a manifestation of liberal outrage at the most right-wing president in decades.  It’s a result of years of conservative ideology designed to put people and institutions in categories and re-enshrine bigotry and hatred into the American conscience.  The leftward shift in culture and politics in the U.S. beginning in the late 1950s eventually met the hostility of Reaganesque antipathy towards anything viewed as different or the other.  The Trump era is the culmination of it all.

Those in formerly marginalized groups who also voted for Trump and his ilk shouldn’t be surprised – but they are.  For example, Cuban-Americans voted overwhelmingly for Trump, as they often have for the Republican Party.  As Cuba has been under communist rule since 1959, those fleeing the country have been given special protection from American law.  The same luxury hasn’t been granted to people fleeing war and violence in other Latin American nations, such as El Salvador and Guatemala.  However, the Trump Administration’s efforts to reform immigration law have started to impact thousands of Cuban immigrants.  Now, Cuban-Americans have the audacity to be horrified at the betrayal.  Remember the adage: be careful what you wish for; you might just get it.

We also need to recall the words of Martin Niemöller:

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Trump and his cronies appear to be going after anyone who doesn’t fit the narrow definition of who he is.  His hypocrisy is glaring.  He never outwardly espoused any religious fervor until he first ran for president, but now says Christian ideology should be taught in schools.  If he believes in true biblical content, then consider the Christian Bible’s 7th commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14.

There are others.

“I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” Genesis 23:4

“The sinless one among you, go first. Throw the stone.” John 8:6-11

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

I’m sure this would be too much for him to handle.  It’s too much even for some devout Christians to handle!

Whatever words someone wants to use, they shouldn’t be frightened into compliance.  Russia, Iran and North Korea do that.  No truly democratic society wants to echo such autocratic leadership.

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November 8, 2024 · 8:47 PM

Self-Inflicted

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

Sinclair Lewis, 1935

I had a certain sensation deep inside of me; the same kind of feeling when I know something dramatic – either good or bad – is about to happen.  This time it was bad, and I almost felt sick.  Donald Trump has been reelected to the U.S. presidency.  He becomes only the second president in U.S. history to win a second term that didn’t immediately follow the first.  He also has the dubious distinction of being the first indicted criminal to be elected.  Little could be stranger or sadder for the American people.  I suppose, though, that too many people drank that proverbial Kool-Aid offered by the Republican despot; a man who openly admires the likes of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un; who has advocated violence against others; who has threatened to imprison anyone who disagrees with him; who incited a riot nearly four years ago; and who has demonstrated no true respect for average, working Americans.

I am embarrassed by and disgusted with many of my fellow Americans who helped put Trump into office.  The Democratic Party, however, really has no one but themselves to blame for this chaos.  Their leadership stood by as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2020.  With all due respect to those two gentlemen, their time had come and gone.  The window to run for and win the U.S. presidency is small.  I felt Biden and Sanders would have better served the country by giving speeches and writing books about the value and importance of democracy and how people like Trump pose the worst threat to our constitutional freedoms.

For the Democrats, the 2020 presidential race began with the most diverse slate of candidates – and ended with the same tired old figures that traditionally represented both parties: old White men.  Now understand I’m a mostly White male and have no qualms about it.  But this nation boasts too varied a population to rely upon the same types of people to lead us.

And it’s not that the U.S. isn’t ready for a female president.  We’re way past ready.  It’s just that the Democrats (and the Republicans for that matter) have never chosen the right women to lead them.  I’ve always said Hillary Clinton was too divisive a figure.  While I loved Bill “Who’s Your Daddy” Clinton, I personally never cared for Hillary.  And, although Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first female vice-president in U.S. history, she didn’t do enough to separate herself from Biden.

In 1993 Canada elected its first female prime minister, Kim Campbell, and highly patriarchal and staunchly Roman Catholic México just elected its first female (and Jewish) president, Claudia Scheinbaum.  Thus far, eighteen other women either have been elected or ascended to the highest office in their respective countries in the Western Hemisphere:

Jeanine Áñez, Bolivia, 2019-20

Rosalía Arteaga, Ecuador, 1997

Michelle Bachelet, Chile, 2006-10 and 2014-18

Dina Boluarte, Peru, since 2022

Sylvanie Burton, Dominica, since 2023

Xiomara Castro, Honduras, since 2022

Violeta Chamorro, Nicaragua, 1990-97

Eugenia Charles, Dominican Republic, 1980-95

Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica, 2010-14

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina, 2007-15

Lidia Gueiler Tejadam, Bolivia, 1979-80

Mireya Moscoso, Panama, 1999-2004

Mia Mottley, Barbados, since 2018

Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, Haiti, 1990-91 (acting president)

Michèle Pierre-Louis, Haiti, 2008-09

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil, 2014-16

Portia Simpson-Miller, Jamaica, 2006-07 and 2012-16

Claudette Werleigh, Haiti, 1995-96

Trump does not represent me – never has and never will.  He has proclaimed total disrespect for people who aren’t exactly like him.  And I’m certainly not like him.  I’m not a wealthy, full-blooded Caucasian womanizer who cheated on his taxes and has disdain for the American military.  I feel that he’s a genuine threat to free speech and the right to vote, but – like most conservatives – has the full support of gun rights advocates.  This latter band of extremists has always placed the value of firearms above free speech and the right to vote – and certainly above the lives of human beings.

One of my concerns with Trump’s return to the White House is that he will implement the so-called Project 2025 – a federal policy agenda created by the Heritage Foundation, a far-right conservative outfit that is a borderline hate group.  Many officials in Trump’s first administration took part in the project’s creation, which demands a complete overhaul of the government based on staunchly conservative ideology.  That philosophy features opposition to the usual causes: abortion and reproductive freedom and queer rights, but also immigration and racial equity.  Moreover, Project 2025 calls for unwarranted surveillance on specific individuals; using force to quell protestors; and targeting journalists who they deem enemies of the state.  This might sound familiar to those schooled in global political history.  They’re the same kind of tactics the Nazis and the former Soviet Union used on its own civilians.  Argentina pursued the same agenda during its “Dirty War”, and North Korea is doing it now.

I don’t know what’s next for America, but I see nothing good on the horizon.  I’m certain my conservative friends and relatives will assume I’m being paranoid, even hysterical.  Yet I felt similar sensations of foreboding when George W. Bush became president in 2000.  And I was right.  The U.S. ended up both in war and a recession.

I’m almost certain it will happen again.

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July 27, 2024 · 7:14 PM

Maelstrom

Donald Trump gets shot at an outdoor rally; Joe Biden ends his presidential campaign; and the 2024 Summer Olympics launch in Paris with opening ceremonies conducted down the Seine and Lady Gaga greeting crowds in French (when has an American ever visited a foreign country and spoken the local language?).

Oh and this summer in the Northern Hemisphere is already smashing temperature records, plus we’re experiencing a COVID resurgence.  I thought 2020 was chaotic (and it truly was), but 2024 has proven even more unusual.  When I saw news that Trump had been shot by a would-be assassin, I simply responded the same way conservatives have reacted to school shootings: I offered my thoughts and prayers.  At least Trump survived.

Vice-President Kamala Harris has scooped up the embers of the Democratic torch and hurtled forwards towards November 5, Election Day here in the U.S. (and my 61st birthday).  A good birthday present for me would be a completely different candidate to win the race, but I’m smart enough to realize that just won’t happen.  I may go rogue and vote Green Party, as I did in 2016.  If enough people followed suit, it could probably cost Harris the election, but it could also cost Trump.  Die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters blamed folks like me for siphoning votes from her and essentially handing them to Trump.  No, I told them!  I didn’t cost Clinton the election.  She cost herself the election!

But that was almost an entire decade ago, and – unlike many social conservatives – time marches onward.  Harris made history when she became the first female and first non-White Vice-President.  For many women, the U.S. presidency is the ultimate glass ceiling.  But I have to note that, in this country, only men have to register for Selective Service and we have no law that bans male circumcision.  So what constitutes gender equity?  Many liberals and some moderates have already invested a lot of hope in Harris to save democracy from the hands of the despotic Trump.

Right-wing extremists have already painted Trump as a martyr for surviving the assassination attempt.  Tears fell from the eyes of some at the Republican National Convention last week, as their beloved self-anointed prophet recounted the sting of what might have been a fragment of glass that struck his right ear instead of an actual bullet.  Meanwhile, congressional hearings are still trying to determine how a geeky 20-year-old managed to climb atop the roof of a building within firing range of the former president – and why.  The latter question may speak to the sensitive issue of mental instability, but also attests to the pernicious gun culture in the United States.  But at least Democrats in Congress are expressing their collective shock at the assassination attempt, unlike their Republican counterparts who dismissed the riots of January 6, 2021 as “trespassing” and, of course, extend those ubiquitous “thoughts and prayers” after each mass shooting.

Thus, the political pandemonium that is American democracy continues.  I only hope none of it contains any firearms.

Image: Gary Larson, © 1988

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December 16, 2023 · 10:13 PM

In Force

Once again my home state of Texas has proven that it’s run by a pack of extremist right-wing morons.  In the latest attack on individual rights from the gang that claims to cherish personal freedom, State Attorney General Ken Paxton has demanded that a woman named Kate Cox must go through with her current pregnancy – a pregnancy her own doctor has already said could be detrimental to her health.  The fetus already has a confirmed disorder, and proceeding with the pregnancy could render Cox infertile.  More frightening, though, is that it could kill her.  She’s been to a local emergency room more than once over the past several weeks.  Now she’s left the state to have the abortion her doctor recommended.  Her whereabouts remain unknown – and for good reason.

When they first established these medieval abortion laws over a year ago, the self-righteous Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared they would prosecute both any woman who had an abortion that didn’t meet their limited approval guidelines and anyone who aided in the procedure.  That means anyone who so much as gave a ride to a woman to an abortion clinic or funded the procedure could be fined imprisoned.  Yes!  I’m not making up this shit!  Someone please remind me what century we’re in right now.

Cox was so desperate she filed an appeal to the Texas State Supreme Court.  But, of course, that all-Republican body denied her request.  Once again, the woman’s life was in danger.  Her doctor said as much!  But these sanctimonious politicians have announced clearly they think they know better.  They fully believe their comprehension of the law transfers to the medical arena.

I honestly feel they’re suffering from perception delusion – a genuine psychological disorder in which an individual believes their perception of the world around them is real and authentic; that they – and only they – understand what’s going on and everyone else is unaware of the truth.  It’s akin to schizophrenia.

Let me put it in the more common vernacular: they’re fucked up.

It’s absolutely appalling these people think they know better about someone’s health and medical condition than that individual’s physician.  Many medical practitioners are already leaving the state of Texas because of the abortion issue.  Not just abortion providers!  Many obstetricians and gynecologists, as well as those in other disciplines, don’t want to take the chance their medical expertise will be questioned and vilified.

Quite frankly, if I had the money, I would have funded both Cox’s voyage out of Texas and her procedure.  I would have even funded her legal defense should the state come after her, as if she was a drug trafficker – which I’m sure they will!

In the 1960s, a group of women calling themselves the “The Jane Collective” established an underground network of abortion providers in the U.S.  Operating much like the “Underground Railroad” of the 19th century, the “Janes” worked with known abortionists throughout the nation to help women in the midst of distressed pregnancies.  In the spring of 1969, I was 5 years old, and my parents introduced me to a young woman named Carla*.  I remember her as a petite, strawberry blonde who told me, at one point, that – if she ever had a little boy – she hoped he’d be like me.  She stayed with us for a couple of days before she inexplicable (to me) disappeared.  We lived in a two-bedroom apartment above a garage behind a house owned by my father’s older sister and her husband.  It was where I grew up, until we moved to suburban Dallas at the end of 1972.  I was about 12 or 13 when I remembered Carla and asked my mother about her.  Who was she and why was she there?  My mother – who never held back the truth – told me everything.  Carla was about 18 and she was pregnant – and she didn’t want her parents to know.  One of my mother’s female colleagues was part of the “Jane” group, and my very progressive mother – a woman who once slapped a Roman Catholic nun who had slapped her younger brother and told a priest she would NOT have a bunch of children per the Church’s directive – agreed to help.  She had to talk my father into it.  Carla stayed with us for a couple of days before she was spirited away.  We never saw her again and never knew what became of her.

Around the turn of the century, when I was in my 30s, I was having lunch with my parents one Sunday afternoon, when the subject of abortion arose.  I brought up Carla again.  This time my father was in the room and substantiated my mother’s recounting of the events that spring so long ago.  They both wondered what had happened to Carla, and so did I.  I can only hope she was able to get her life in order and go on to have the family she might have wanted.

No one has the right to dictate what someone does with their own body and health.  That’s why I’m so opposed to male circumcision, for example, which is a similar issue.  Everyone has the right to the dignity of determining their own fate in life.  Neither politics nor religion should ever interfere with that.

*Name changed.

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October 28, 2023 · 5:44 PM

X Matters

The U.S. Supreme Court commenced its latest term October 2, and after the previous two years of drama and shocking decisions, the American populace is wondering what’s next.  Among the upcoming decisions:

Lindke v. Freed – A case in which the Court will decide whether a public official’s social media activity can constitute state action only if the official used the account to perform a governmental duty or under the authority of his or her office.

Murray v. UBS Securities LLC – A case in which the Court will decide whether, under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a whistleblower must prove his employer acted with a “retaliatory intent” as part of his case in chief to succeed on a retaliation claim.

Rudisill v. McDonough – A case in which the Court will decide whether a veteran who has served two separate and distinct periods of qualifying service is entitled to receive all of the education benefits at once from programs associated with both periods of service.

United States v. Rahimi – A case in which the Court will decide whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, violates the Second Amendment.  (Both domestic violence experts and gun rights supporters are closely watching this particular case.)

Vidal v. Elster – A case in which the Court will decide whether the refusal to register a trademark under 15 U.S.C. § 1052(c) violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment when the mark contains criticism of a government official or public figure.

The 2022 Dobbs decision upended the long-standing belief the High Court always moves the nation forward.  It wasn’t akin to the 1954 Brown decision, which reversed the 1896 Plessy ruling.  It was such a regressive move that even legal scholars remain stunned.  Afterwards, Justice Clarence Thomas – the longest-serving member of the Court and a conservative darling – declared the Dobbs decision opened the possibility for reversals of other cases, such as Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage.  Curiously he said nothing of the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case that legalized interracial marriage.  (Thomas is currently married to a White chick.)

As upsetting as the Dobbs decision was, I know the case that will galvanize Americans; that is, the decision that – if reversed – will incite a revolution.  It is the one case that will drive Americans into the voting booth more than abortion, education, guns, queers or voting itself – Miller v. California, the 1972 decision that technically legalized pornography.  (Also see United States v. Reidel.) Yes, among all the sentient issues plaguing our modern society, denying people the right to view sexual activity will culminate in a revolution that could rival the collapse of the Roman Empire.  In the mid-1980s, President Ronald Reagan – perhaps still angry about the Miller decision – launched a war on pornography.  His then-Attorney General, Edwin Meese, commissioned associates to investigate the adult film industry under the guise of protecting children, which is indeed a noble effort.  But in reality, Reagan’s self-righteous demeanor drove his efforts to limit free speech; to stifle those who dared to disagree with him.  We saw much of the same two decades ago as critics of President George W. Bush were assailed.  Both extremist conservatives and liberals just don’t like when people have something negative to say about their lifestyles.  The same groups don’t have any problem, though, dictating what’s appropriate for others.  Conservatives, in particular, don’t like anything sexual.  It sends them into epileptic fits.

Regardless I can assure everyone that any U.S. Supreme Court assault on pornography will be taken seriously.  It has a lot to do with finances.  As of 2022, the adult film industry in the U.S. profited about $97 billion.  And that kind of money buys a certain amount of power.

The Reagan Administration failed to shut down pornography in the U.S.  Despite the AIDS epidemic, the adult film industry forged ahead in the 1980s and continued growing.  And I can assure even the most ardent of conservatives can’t stop it.  Then again, many of those same conservatives often view pornographic material – they just won’t admit it.  They really can’t because it would undermine their own limited credibility.

No matter what happens with the High Court, I doubt few other matters will resonate with voters as the X factor.  There are few things more obscene to me than war and unfettered censorship.

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July 22, 2023 · 10:08 PM

History Wash

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Maya Angelou

Last November, when he won reelection by a large margin, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared that “Florida is where woke comes to die.”  I still don’t know who created the term “woke”, much less why or when.  But it’s become the latest toy in the diaspora of political angst.  If “woke” means historically accurate or aware, then those of us with at least half a brain are more than fully “woke”.  I can’t say the same for the conservative mindset.

In the latest salvo against historical accuracy, the state of Florida’s education board approved a spate of standards in teach African-American history.  The new measures require lessons on race to be taught in an “objective” manner that doesn’t “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view”.  Excuse me?  Objective?  Indoctrinate?  Only social conservatives in the Deep South would view solid history studies as indoctrination.

Not to be outdone on the ignorance scale, an Oklahoma education official, Ryan Walters, has declared that the notorious 1921 Tulsa race massacre – which resulted in the bloody deaths of some 300 African-Americans – wasn’t actually about race and that teachers should not “say that the skin color determined it”.  The 1921 Tulsa event remains one of the most sanguineous racial events in U.S. history.  It’s similar to a 1923 slaughter in Rosewood, Florida.  But, in the eyes of social (and mostly White) conservatives, they apparently were just really bad days.

Not surprisingly, these changes in teaching regimens have generated controversy – and anger.  In response to Walters’ claim, Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, stated, “How are you going to talk about a race massacre as if race isn’t part of the very cause of the incident?”

In response to the recent Florida measures, the Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers union, denounced the new policy as a “big step backward.”  Andrew Spar, president of the association, issued a press release asking, “How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from? Florida’s students deserve a world-class education that equips them to be successful adults who can help heal our nation’s divisions rather than deepen them.”

This is why we progressives view conservatism with disdain.  To us, conservative ideology is often regressive; holding onto false narratives of life’s events and who people are.  It’s also an improper revision of what happened way back when.  In 2015, controversy erupted when one of the biggest publishers of school textbooks, McGraw-Hill presented a tome that deemed African slaves as “immigrant workers”.  The caption accompanied a map of the United States in a section about immigration and read: “The Atlantic Slave Trade between the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.”

The verbiage had gone unnoticed until the mother of a 15-year-old high school student raised hell over it.  McGraw-Hill promptly recalled the book and issued a public apology.

And that is what people have to do now when they encounter something so outrageous.  Ignorance is not education.  Just as the truth always comes to light, so does history.  Revising it to fit a particular narrative won’t change the facts.

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July 30, 2022 · 10:50 PM

Worst Quotes of the Week – July 30, 2022

“Those who play with fire will perish by it.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping, to President Joe Biden, regarding Taiwan’s independence

The comment comes after news that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan soon.

“This is why we have always fought: We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race.”

Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, who is scheduled to speak in Dallas next week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, urging his fellow Europeans not to marry non-White immigrants

Orbán also appeared to make light of the Nazi Holocaust while discussing plans to reduce natural-gas demand in Europe: “I do not see how it will be enforced – although, as I understand it, the past shows us German know-how on that.”

“You degenerate pagans and atheists and non-believers went way too far with the COVID nonsense, with shutting down our churches and forcing our kids to be masked, and forcing us to get vaccinated with some mystery goop in order to keep our jobs and provide for our families.  You pushed us too far, and now we’re going to take dominion of this country, of our culture, of news, of entertainment, of technology, of education, of everything for the glory of Jesus Christ, our king. It’s just that simple.”

Andrew Torba, a far-right Christian nationalist preacher, in a speech supporting fellow right-wing nationalist Doug Mastriano

“Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 09/11 unfortunately, and they should have.”

Former President Donald Trump, as his country club prepare to host several officials from Saudi Arabia for a golf tournament

Trump’s Bedminster Club is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.  Several families of 9/11 victims have expressed outrage over the event.  Of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia.

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July 30, 2022 · 10:36 PM

Best Quotes of the Week – July 30, 2022

“I do not believe that we made any progress. In fact, I think the party got worse.”

Dale Carpenter, former president of Log Cabin Republicans, a GLBT political group, expressing disappointment about their acceptance within overall Republican Party

For years LCR has tried – and repeatedly failed – to garner the attention of Texas’ Republican Party.

I’ve known a few queer conservatives over the years and was always stunned at how they idolized Ronald Reagan and voted for the likes of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, despite the GOP’s hostility towards them.  So to know that a former LCR operative has essentially admitted defeat is somewhat of a vindication for me.

“Look, we pursue justice without fear or favor.”

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, to NBC News’ Lester Holt, about the possibility former President Donald Trump could be criminally prosecuted for his role in the Capitol Hill riot of January 6, 2021

Garland added, “We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding January 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable.  That’s what we do.”

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