“When Religion Becomes Evil,” written by internationally recognized religion expert Charles Kimball, describes “The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion.”

“The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion”:
absolute truth claims; blind obedience; establishing the “Ideal Time”; the end justifies any means; declaring holy war. “..one or more of these five signs always precedes any instance of religiously sanctioned evil.”

Peter Gomes on the fallacy of a literalist approach to the Bible:
“Literalism is dangerous for two reasons. First, it indulges the reader in the fanciful notion that by virtue
of natural intelligence the text is apprehensible and therefore sensible. Despite genuflections to the notion
of original or authorial intent, meaning is determined by what the reader takes out of the text, and this
meaning the reader attributes to the author. Thus, what the reader thinks is there becomes not merely the
reader’s opinion, but the will of God, with all the moral consequences and authority that implies…The second
danger of literalism is that the power of private judgment may well obscure the meaning of a text by paying
attention only to what it says…Allegories, typologies, and symbolic interpretations are to be avoided in favor
of the pure and uncorrupted word. Literalism does not want the text held hostage to these devices, but literalism
itself is hostage to the 18th century illusion that truth and meaning are the same, and that they are fixed and
discernible by the application of the faculties of reason and common sense.” [meaning: literalists TELL you what
THEY think the “will of God” is; meaning”. They are NEVER wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

Kimball: “When missionary zeal is informed by absolute truth claims defining who is “saved” and what is acceptable, the propagation of religion frequently includes sinister dimensions.”

Kimball: “Authentic religion engages the intellect as people wrestle with the mystery of existence and the challenge of living in an imperfect world..Conversely, blind obedience is a sure sign of corrupt religion..When individual believers..become enslaved to particular ideas or teachings, religion can easily become the framework for violence and destruction.”

Kimball: “When the hoped-for ideal is tied to a particular religious worldview and those who wish to implement their vision become convinced they know what God wants for them and everyone else, you have a prescription for disaster.”

Pat Robertson: “For reconstructionists there is no neutral ground, no sphere of activity outside God’s rule. One is either following God in all aspects of life or not following God at all. One is either engaged in godly politics or is participating in the anti-God structures that now threaten the home, the school, and the church..”

Kimball: “Christian reconstructionists in America are only one step removed from their counterparts with a concrete, divinely ordained plan for an Islamic state or the reconstituted, expanded biblical state of Israel.”

Kimball: “When a key feature of religion is elevated and in effect becomes an end, some people within the religion become consumed with protecting or achieving that end..that component of religion functions like an absolute truth claim, and zealous believers become blind in their single-minded defense of it.”

From other sources:
-Paul Weyrich: “..it is war. It is a war of ideology..a war of ideas..a war of our way of life..to be fought with the same
intensity and dedication as ..a shooting war.”
-Pat Buchanan: “There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war..for the soul of America.”
-Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country.
We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.”

Because religion was one of the four main FEARS of the Founders, they included both a freedom of – and a freedom from, religion: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..” [meaning: NO state church; ALL religion is private]

Because extreme efforts have been made to destroy the “establishment clause,” America has been faced with decades of experience with WHEN RELIGION BECOMES EVIL. Zealots have conducted a HOLY WAR against the rest of America. “THE END JUSTIFIES ANY MEANS” has been demonstrated hundreds of times in physical violence, murder, corruption of the Constitution, hateful laws in the name of ‘God,’ corruption of what was the Supreme Court – now more accurately seen as the Stupid Court, the Stench Court, the Supreme Inquisition.

Justice Brandeis: “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”

“Absolute truth claims” are illustrated by zealots insisting people should NOT be able to control their own sex lives and reproductive choices; that gay people are somehow not real people. “Scripture” is quoted to “prove” all this.

Justice Fortas: “Government in our democracy..may not aid, foster, or promote one religion or religious theory against
another.” [“Epperson”]

The “pro-life” HOLY WAR against America is reaching a stage where some “Christians” are arming themselves, saying violence might be “necessary” to “save” America – on THEIR terms. Some of these people were very visible in ther January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. ABSOLUTE TRUTH CLAIMS.

Chief Justice Warren: “When the rights of any individual or group are chipped away, the freedom of all erodes.”

Since 1968, the “religious right” has worked to change how America’s legal system works. They worked to get “pro-life: judges installed [a violation of Article VI] – and have – with the help of one political party which sold its soul for power.
This plan has succeeded. Religious zealots now control the Supreme Court. Those 6 issued 3 un-Constitutional rulings in June, 2022 – cooking up radical right -wing “reasoning’ mumbo jumbo to justify. ‘THE END JUSTIFIES ANY MEANS.”

James Madison’s famous 1785 “Memorial and Remonstrance” contained this warning:
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of
all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in
exclusion of all other sects?”

The McConnell/Trump/Roberts Stupid Court has now accomplished this, with a series of rulings, one building on top of another; contrived reactionary think tank arguments providing for PRIVILEGED status of “conservative” fundamentalists. Taxpayers forced to subsidize religious schools; people with “sincerely held religious beliefs” allowed to discriminate against other Americans; religious dogma put into law [violating the text, intent, spirit of Amendment I as understood for 200 years].

The religious HOLY WAR on America is now reaching unprecedented levels in various “conservative” states. Not only abortion banned – in ALL circumstances, but efforts made to deny people legitimate medical prescriptions. Ongoing work on laws censoring people’s mail; controlling how people travel; suing people in OTHER states for what is done THERE. THE END JUSTIFIES ANY MEANS.

Rumors, hints, from the Stupid Court indicate the HOLY WAR will be enlarged to achieve other ABSOLUTE TRUTH CLAIMS on same-sex marriage, total abortion and contraception bans

The only question now: do the zealots with to take America back – to Puritan Massachusetts, circa 1692 – or – forward. – to “Gilead”???
Will we be “blessed” with a gentle theocracy of only scarlet letters {“A” for guilty of abortion, “C” for
guilty of contraception use, “G” for guilty of being gay????????}

Has the 10-year old pregnant Ohio girl tipped the hand of how far the zealots will go? Or – are they “only” planning on adult “handmaids”?

Will male vasectomies be banned? Will male masturbation be banned????????????

Will control of females by the state extend to clitoridectomies, birth quotas, gold-silver-bronze motherhood medals. “protective custody” while pregnant, miscarriage prosecution???????????????

1641 Massachusetts legal code based on three biblical books; 1692 Salem; Comstock laws; Prohibition; book bans; anti-abortion laws, anti-contraception laws, religious rights to deny service – all illustrated how far Puritans have been wanting to go.
Since THE END JUSTIFIES ANY MEANS while conducting a HOLY WAR, how far will the new Puritans go, knowing the McConnell/Trump/Roberts Stupid Court. will back them?

WHEN RELIGION BECOMES EVIL. – there is no “too far.”

l]. The McConnell/Trump/Roberts STUPID COURT has just made America a THEOCRACY. YOU are now REQUIRED to support 2 churches oppressing YOU, with YOUR tax dollars.
2] YOUR body now belongs to the state – just like in Nazi Germany.
3] The other half of the R-W goal, PLUTOCRATIC state, has been enabled by the STUPID COURT’S 70% “business-friendly” PATTERN, capped off with “West Virginia” – which could gut ALL regulations.

Closer to home. – YOU. The Roe reversal has upended American medicine – YOUR health. Below are SOME of the consequences that now exist for YOU, YOUR family, the practice of medicine”

-7/17/22: “Abortion laws spark profound changes in other care”: “..the art of medicine is lost and actually has been replaced by fear…”we watched her get sicker and sicker…severe complications..7 died within hours..patients seeking sterilization..denied medicine..” [L.Tanner; Assoc Press]
-7/6/22: “Without Roe, what’s IVF’s future?” [J.Hoffman; N.Y. Times]
– 7/10/22: “I’m Terrified for my patients”: “..could have required doctors to ‘reimplant an extopic pregnancy into the woman’s uterus,’ which is impossible..” [Hackney; N.Y. Times]
-7/l0/22: “Abuse victims trapped without abortion options”. [M.Iati; Wash Post]
-7/17/22: “Post-Roe maternal care in turmoil”: “..one Wisconsin woman bled for 10 days because emergency room staff wouldn’t remove fetal tissue..” [Sellers & Nirappil; Wash Post]
-5/6/22: “Pregnancy-related deaths could soar 20% [E.Weise; USA Today]
-7/7/22: “Abortion Bans Will Affect Both Rich and Poor Americans”: “..a crisis for all American women..men who think the ban won’t affect them are mistaken..will change the political economy..” [E.Spiers; N.Y. Times]
-6/27/22: “The Demise of Roe Brings a Return of Sexual Servitude”: “Mandatory, forced or compulsory pregnancy contravenes enumerated rights..what happened to Black women during slavery..” [M.Goodwin; N.Y. Times]
-6/25/22: “The Battle to End Roe Has Changed Democracy”: “..change the Republican Party and rules of campaign finance..elections are more expensive..major donors..” [Ziegler; N.Y. Times]
-12/15/21: “Supreme Court decision jeopardizes all of our constitutional rights”: “.. provided a road map..put in great jeopardy a basic legal principle that no one should have to violate a law in order to challenge its constitutionality..has severely undermined federal judiciary supremacy..” [E.Chemerinsky; L.A. Times]
-7/17/22: “Vasectomies on the rise after Roe is overturned’: “..urologist reported a 300-400% increase in vasectomy consultations..” [M.Vnkataramanan; Wash Post} **other reports say men doing it out of fear vasectomies will be outlawed
-6/26/22: “Patients and States Turn Focus to Pills”: “..19 states already had laws barring using telemedicine for abortion. Texas..enacted a law prohibiting sending abortion pills through..mail..” [P.Belluck; N.Y. Times}
– 6/30/22: “Brazil Law Sets A Black Market In Abortion Pills”: “..drug traffickers control most access to the pills..the police were monitoring a website..” [S.Nolen; N.Y. Times} ***the new “Prohibition”??? gangsters selling YOUR pills???
-7/10/22: “With Roe’s Reversal, A Brain Drain Looms”: women now calculating: do THEY wish to work in states banning abortion and contraception; businesses facing hiring and talent losses [G.Bellafante; N.Y. Times}
-7/17/22: “Data on rape cases is elusive”: “..estimated about 2.9 million women in the U.S. experienced a rape-related pregnancy during their lifetime..about 7 of 10 sexual assaults go unreported..1,410 abortions reported in girls under 15 in 2019..” [A.Rodriguez; USA Today]
-7/17/22: “Abortion Bans Leaving Young At Higher Risk”: “In 2017..the institute concluded there were 4,460 pregnancies among girls under 15..In Texas, state records show over 200 children aged 15 and younger received abortions in 2021..One was 11 or younger..30 were 12 or 13 years old.” [D.Goldstein & A.Sasani; N.Y. Timers]
– June, 2022: “Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 years.” [Population Connection]
-7/17/22: “We reported truth of girl’s rape story”: “..in 2020, there were 52 abortions among children 15 or younger in Ohio….The year before that, the number was 63. Before that, 54. Before that, 61..before that, 76.” [N. Carroll; USA Today]
-7/14/22: “Are we a country that makes rape victims give birth?” “We told you this would happen if Roe v. Wade was overturned. This is a tragedy we will..see again and again..What is to happen to those children if they are unlucky..to be raped in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio..that do now allow for an abortion even in cases of rape or incest/”. [C.Pierson; USA Today]

Bottom lines:
1] do You want YOUR private sex life and reproductive choices controlled by religious zealots?
2] “Are we a country that makes rape victims give birth????????????????????
3] are we a country that makes. CHILDREN. ages l0, ll, l2, l3, l4 give a forced birth to a rapist’s child???????????
4]. what kind of nation even has this debate??? How can a “civilized” nation even consider making a 10-year old a “mother”??????? Even in “Gilead” the “handmaids” are adult women. Thanks to Republicans, America has now exceeded the fictional cruelty of “Gilead” in real life, right here, in “America.”

How stupid are YOU????????
Keep electing Republicans – and – YOUR chances of getting shot. – anywhere. in. “America” will continue to increase; the chances of YOUR. daughter being a 10-year old rape victim FORCED to give birth. – will also increase

The madness, the frustration, of 2022 living in America for ordinary people – is. NOT. an accident. It is the result of a 50 year plan. now coming true. Is America “great again”? This is what living in a PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY. is like. The billionaires who funded it, the religious zealots who voted it, have won.

IT DID. HAPPEN. HERE.

*** Nothing in the Constitution allows a Supreme Court to unilaterally alter, neuter, destroy parts of it. Amending the
Constitution is done by Congress and the people.
***. Changing the Constitution is PRECISELY what the 2021022 Court has done to Amendments I and II.
***”Dobbs” alone is clear violation of Amendments I, II, IV, VIII, IX, and XIII.
***. By its 2005-2022 PATTERN, this Court has demonstrated how destructive and anti-democratic it is. It is now THE
#l threat to American democracy.
*** This Court, and the reactionary “think tanks” that feed it, have cooked up anti-historical LIES about what American
“tradition and history”. REALLY. are.
***. All this was PREDICTED, by John W. Dean”s 2007 “Broken Government. Chapter 3, “Third Branch” eerily says, with
close to 100% accuracy, exactly what has and is happening.
*** Perjury – or – prevarication? You decide. Multiple Senators said they were “misled” by one of the majority 6. Others
have, on the bench, contradicted themselves.
*** “Partisan political hacks” – or – judges? YOU. decide. Respecting 1787 – 2000. REAL. American legal norms, rules,
expectations, precedents – or – enacting a predetermined agenda? YOU decide.

By a series of decisions, this court attacked the “establishment clause” of Amendment I – reading “meanings” into it the Founders expressly OPPOSED. This court uses the “free exercise clause” to attack and weaken the “establishment clause.”
The Founders were ADAMANT they did NOT want any one or combination of churches to dictate how they ran their lives. WE have numerous speeches, some in Congress, many preceding the Constitutions on this. State constitutions, many preceding the Constitution, some of 1776, explicitly stated strict “separation of state and church.

The same people who wrote the Constitution also wrote state constitutions. Below is North Carolina, 1776, Articles XXXIV:
“That there shall be no establishment of anyone [sic] religious church or denomination in this State, in
preference to any other; neither shall any person, on any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend
any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judgment; nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase of
any glebe, or the building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry,
contrary to what he believes right”
THIS. is what “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..” REALLY MEANS.
The current “conservative” 6 majority has REPEATEDLY VIOLATED this explicit “original intent.” The culmination of a string of un-Constitutional decisions, “Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health,” imposes a specific RELIGIOUS ideology upon ALL Americans – regardless of THEIR own religious beliefs, or none at all.
“Dobbs” denies Americans a medical procedure, practiced around the world, that other religions have said THEIR faith allows. This is a blatant violation of the “free exercise clause.” No church can deny other faiths their practices.
“Dobbs,” dressed up in legal language, and selective historical opinion, is the culmination of a 50-year RELIGIOUS WAR by one religion, the one the 6 majority “justices” themselves belong to, to impose that religious view on ALL Americans.
All this is clearly, plainly, obviously, un-Constitutional, and, un-American.

“Dobbs” is a clear violation of Amendments I, III, IV, VIII, IX, XIII. The intent of Amendment III was people’s privacy in their home. Amendment IV: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons..” against unreasonable government violations of bodily integrity. “Dobbs” aids states in “mandatory motherhood” laws, which obviously violates Amendment VIII’s “..nor cruel & unusual punishments inflicted>. What is more cruel and unusual” than forcing a person to carry a possibly dying fetus to term – when that could mean the mother’s death, in addition to other harms? Amendment IX plainly states Americans have rights NOT enumerated in the Constitution. “Dobbs” violates Amendment XIII: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude..” “Dobbs” means an American is FORCED to become a slave of the state.

An attempt was made by the Court to paint this decision in legal and historical terms, a blatant attempt to obscure the driving force. Opposing abortion and contraception are. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. Religious zealots pushing this agenda justified refusing to give people LEGL contraceptive prescriptions because it “violated their religious beliefs.” The Court, in “Hobby Lobby,” in violation of corporate law principles, granted a “closely held” corporation the ability to deny employees LEGAL prescriptions because of the owners’ “religious beliefs.”
In “Dobbs,” the Court claimed the medical procedure in question was “not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” This. FALSE. Abortion and contraception are 2000 years old; practiced in virtually every human society; practiced in America before and after the Constitution. Anti-abortion laws were pushed by MALE doctors, to prevent FEMALE midwives from practicing their historical craft; an illustration of MALE discrimination “tradition.”

Something IS. “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions: “separation of church and state,” the right of citizens to practice their faith without government establishing an official, “established church” to dictate to them. This tradition goes back to 1636; was mentioned in 1776-1800 state constitutions. “Dobbs”. clearly VIOLATES this. It is “Dobbs” that violates American history and traditions, not the medical procedures it dislikes, for RELIGIOUS reasons.

This Court violated its own professed principles: not in the Constitution, not in American history and tradition, when it loosened controls on guns in public spaces.
This Court’s 2008, 2010, 2022 rulings are themselves RADICAL departures from ALL 1788-2007 American history and traditions controlling guns in public spaces.

In March, 2021, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “said restrictions on carrying guns in public except for hunting do NOT violate the Second Amendment”…Judge Jay Bybee, appoint4d by President George W. Bush, wrote for the majority. He said review of more than 700 years American and English law showed government has long had power to regulate arms in public spaces. “We have NEVER assumed..individuals have..unfettered right to carry weapons in public spaces..”

The justices could have researched “history and traditions” of “the Old West.” Cowboys were required to check guns with the town marshal at city limits.

The justices might have consulted with an /english teacher. She would have said “tradition” and rules of grammar, REQUIRE one obtains correct meaning of a sentence – the Second Amendment – by including ALL words, NOT just half of them.

The 6 “justice” majority violates its own test: “originalism” – things supposedly only possible by the 1787 document’s specific words. By the easily KNOWN Founders’ “original intent” this Court has failed on its own terms.
1]. there is nothing in the Constitution that allows a Court, by itself, to alter, neuter, destroy parts of it. No “established
church” means means 6 justices cannot impose THEIR religious beliefs on America. No violation of “free exercise
means 6 “justices” cannot violate religious beliefs of other Americans. Taking an oath to support the Constitution
means 6 “justices” cannot violate Amendments I, III, IV, VIII, IX, XIII.
2]. 700 years of history and tradition regulating guns in public spaces is proof enough of “original intent.” Nobody said
American towns banning cowboys from shooting up their towns violated Second Amendment rights; importantly,
no previous Supreme Court did either>
The “justices” ignored 1792 “Militia Acts,” which OBLIGATED free, white, able-bodied males, 18-45, to join a militia.
The “justices” forgot rules of grammar. How could literalists of “original intent” jurisprudence omit a basic “textual”
literalism: using 100% of the “text’s”. words??????????

The majority 6 “justices” compounded other illegalities by being accomplices in the FARCE of some state delegating governmental authority to religious vigilantes, allowing civilians t track down, then prosecute “abortion criminals.” Where do the vigilantes claim their $10,000 reward? Do they confront “criminals” in their homes, threaten to cart off vehicles, damage property. if the “criminals” don’t voluntarily hand over $10,000??? How does all this uphold the “justices'” Constitutional requirement to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility..promote the general Welfare”???
If one is threatened in their home by strangers in a “stand your ground” state, do they have rights to defend themselves??? How does censoring mail, preventing people leaving a state “for the wrong reasons,” prosecuting people in OTHER states uphold “history and tradition” of America???

Where is all of this in the Constitution??? What is the difference between Nazi “Brown Shirts” and American religious zealot vigilantes?????

“Dred Scott” led to Civil War.” Will “Dobbs”????? Having completed their “work,” do the 6 “conservative” Supreme Court majority members even care? One said they were ignoring what YOU thought. oo

Cynical reactionary politicos have settled on a strategy of blaming Joe Biden for inflation, something REAL economic experts KNOW is impossible. To begin, examine these commonly given causes for current inflation – then FACTUALLY determine how many Biden controls: COVID, Russia’a invasion of Ukraine, supply & demand, global warming crisis, supply chains, higher gas prices, income inequality, “just-in-time” business strategy, corporate GREED, private companies controlling product distribution.

Your FACTUAL survey just revealed this as just another Republican. BIG LIE. Which is why a number of Republicans and former Republicans have written books – such as “It Was All A Lie.”

Consider the following news items”
1] corporate GREED:
– 5/9/22: “As Hostess”s CEO told shareholders..”When all prices go up, it helps.” The head of research for the bank Barclay’s echoed this. “The longer inflation lasts and the more widespread it is, the more air cover it gives companies to raise prices.” [“Corporate Profiteering Is The Culprit for Inflation”; L.Owens; N.Y. Times]
– 4/28/22: “..last year, the aggregate profit margin of non-financial corporate businesses [was] the best performance in 70 years..”they’re passing on these costs to consumers..Because they can..” [P.Davidson; “Inflation may be cover for gouging”; USA Today]
– July-August, 2022: “..the Economic Policy Institute report..The overwhelmingly largest factors..surging corporate profits..[53.9%] of the rise in prices..analysis by “The Guardian”..median profits of the top 100 publicly traded companies surged by 49 percent…CEOs bragging..inflation was giving them cover to raise prices above costs..” [P. Longman; “It’s the Monopoly, Stupid”; Washington Monthly]
— 2/9/22: “Meat and poultry packing is a highly concentrated industry [4 companies control 81%]..” R-W excuses [“libertarian-leaning “law & economic’] led to less anti-trust enforcement. Consumers pay more, cattle ranchers struggle to break even. [E. Lotterman; “Meatpacker middlemen monopoly is a real beef”; Pioneer Press]
– February, 2022: read entire “The Hightower Lowdown” issue: “Corporate profiteers pandemic strategy: GOUGE CONSUMERS AND BLAME JOE BIDEN”]

2] higher gas prices:
– 5/2/22: “President Biden is stuck between a rock and a hard place on gas prices..he isn’t really to blame for them – political superstitions notwithstanding the president does not control the price of gasoline, which is affected by myriad factors in a global marketplace..” [National Review]
– 6/22/22: “How much people pay at the pump is the result of trading on a sprawling international market. Like many other facets of the global economy, it comes down to a matter of supply & demand.” [E. Koeze, C. Krause; “Why Are Gas Prices So High?”; N.Y. Times]
– 10/3l/21: “Restrictive output policies from both OPEC Plus and U.S. shale producers have kept global production consistently below consumption since June, 2020.” {J. Kemp; “High oil prices likely to remain”; Reuters]
– 2/7/22: “..energy prices are always inherently volatile..Oil’s latest surge is powered by the Russian move on Ukraine..global demand had outstripped supply..Gas fields in Texas and elsewhere – which weren’t weatherized for cold – froze up..” {m. Hughlett; “Why costs for gas, heating & electricity are rising”; Mpls. Star Tribune]

3] world wide problem:
– 6/3/22: “Inflation could reach 11% in Britain in the fall”. [Assoc. Press]
– 5/12/22: “Germany warns of Rising Interest Rates as Inflation Hits Second Consecutive High” [M. Eddy; N.Y. Times]
– 5/12/22: “A looming Crisis For Chinese Wheat”. [K. Bradsher; N.Y. Times]
– 5/23/22: “Due to inflation, Latin Americans struggle with necessities like corn” [F. Sanchez, M. Avarese, D. Politi: Assoc Press]
– 6/30/22: “Inflation Forces Central Bankers to Ponder a Global New Normal” [E. Nelson, J. Smialek; N.Y. Times]
– 7/1/22: “Food prices rise amid concern of global shortages: “Fertilizer costs soar as farmers cope with market forces like war” [P. Cooley; USA Today}

4]. supply chains:
– 2/21/22: “Not Enough Bottles for Beer”. “The prices for many of the essential elements of beer making and selling have surged in the past two years as a global supply chain struggles to untangle itself from the late-pandemic buying frenzy..widespread reliance on ‘just-in-time’ manufacturing collapsed..”COVID just destroyed the model people built.” [B. Johnson; Mpls Star Tribune]
– 9/6/21″ “Car prices expected to stay high”: “The global parts shortage involves not just computer chips. Automakers are starting to see shortages of wiring harnesses, plastics and glass,..beyond autos, vital components for goods ranging from farm equipment to sportswear and kitchen accessories are also bottled up.” [T. Krisher; Assoc Press]
– 11/10/21: “Even as supply woes spark voter angst, the private companies responsible for the ports, trucks, terminals and trains that make up the nation’s goods pipeline operate beyond easy federal direction.” [D. Lynch; “White House takes aim at supply chain”; Washington Post]
-6/10/22: “Lessons From Henry Ford About the Supply Chain Mess”: “..he was especially distrustful of his suppliers..he warned..demands of investors for short-term gains could threaten long-term resilience .. “We are against the kind of banker who regards a business as a melon to be cut.”..Chip companies have catered heavily to their investors by limiting their capacity..” [P. S. Goodman; N.Y. Times]
– 11/15/21: “We send back 30% of what we buy online How this alters the supply chain”: About 25% of online products returned are thrown away. “The current supply chain crisis is exposing more and more inefficiencies..” [G. Allon; L.A. Times]

5]. political point scoring:
– 6/3/22: “it was never about just money. Inflation hysteria is always class war of one kind or another, waged on behalf of the asset-holders against perceived forces f “social destabilization. It’s about the wrong kind of people getting too much stuff,: said Michael O’Malley, George Mason University prof. “..the austerity of the 1980s and beyond was offered as a technocratic fix..Paul Volcker.. hiked up interest rates, allowing bankers to make a killing and stalling the economy.” [J. Rosenberg; “Inflation The Hidden Meaning of hard-money politics”; Mother Jones – July-August , 2022 issue]
– 6/3/22: “Voters blame presidents for things no president can control” [P. Krugman; “The Perverse Politics of Inflation”; N.Y. Times]
– 6/10/22: “But the reality the White House faces is a hard one: There is little politicians can do to quickly bring prices to heal..”For a president, inflation is the problem from hell – you can’t win.” [Kanno-Youngs, Smialek; “A Hesitation to Discuss Inflation”; N.Y. Times]

6]. income inequality”
– 12/2/21: “Gasoline prices are not the problem The Problem is rising inequality of income and wealth”: “In today’s dollars, gas prices averaged more than $5 per gallon in the middle of 2008..focusing on the price of gasoline obscures the larger social issue. The economic problem here is rising inequality of income and wealth, which makes everything harder to afford..What should be addressed is the everything-affordability crisis for people being left behind in the U.S. economy..” [S. Borenstein; Bloomberg Opinion]
– see also, for much greater detail:
– Wilkinson & Pickett: “The Spirit Level”. [international bestseller; thus, criticized by “the usual suspects’]
– Joe Stiglitz: “The Price of Inequality”. [a Nobel Prize winner}
– D.C. Johnston: “Divided The Perils of Our Growing Inequality”. [a Pulitzer Prize winner]

In the end – this, like ALL. other post-1980 issues – the problem for a truthful accounting of what is REALLY happening, comes down to the same thing: massive Republican/Right-Wing. LYING.
The rich and the corporations they control have funded a MASSIVE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN. on. EVERYTHING, because the factual TRUTH. would destroy them.
The post-1980 world is still dealing with the consequences of “the Reagan revolution,” itself based on FRAUD. [“trickle-down tax cuts for the rich will help YOU; “welfare queens” stealing your money; “government is the problem”]
YOU can do your own research – real research: examine unspun pre-1980 and post-1980. IRS, GAO, CBO. data for taxes and income. It’ll reveal ordinary people [YOU] have been ROBBED by “the Reagan revolution” – less income, less government services, less security, more fear, more job loss, more disinformation.
The entire inflation-gas prices campaign is just ONE example – YOU have been CONNED ever since 1980. The Repubs/R-Ws have played on your fears, lied to you, screwed YOU over in many ways – AND MADE. YOU. LIKE. IT.

The radically reactionary McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court” has finished its demolition of the Constitution and traditional American legal standards, norms, interpretations – for now.
this “court” has now, perhaps forever, discredited what Americans, 1789-2000, had understood to be an “independent’ body. The far-right’s 1968 – planning has now proved successful. They’ve created perhaps an almost perfect “kangaroo court.”. A “court” like ones in Putin’s Russia, communist China, Nazi Germany, that reach predetermined decisions.

As JohnDean predicted [2007], they’ve dressed it up in mumbo jumbo “making it all seem very logical, reasonable, consistent.” A BIG. SNOW. JOB.

Every patriotic American should read John Dean’s “Broken Government How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches.” On the Supreme Court, don’t just read pages 119-174, MEMORIZE THEM. Why? Because Dean’s and others predictions have become true.

Begin with this: “..if you show me an appellate judge who says he or she never lets his or her politics or personal beliefs influence their decision making, I will show you a judge who is either a liar or without sufficient intelligence to be on a higher bench.” [120]

Chief Justice C.E. Hughes: “90% of judicial decisions are based on bias, prejudices, and personal and political motivations, and the other 10% is based on the law.” [123]

Page 126: “Nixon’s Politicalization of Supreme Court Appointees”
Page 130: “Reagan further politicized the third branch by seeking to place solid conservatives throughout the federal judiciary, in courts high and low, in an effort to tilt the entire federal judiciary to the hard right.”

Pages 134-37: “It has remained a disquieting fact that Rehnquist perjured himself to become chief justice, not once but several times…There were other matters he clearly lied about as well..”

Pages 137-43: Robert Bork: “Bork, whom Reagan’s own staff had described as a “right -wing zealot,” was chosen to please the right-wing base…Conservatives who share Bork’s views do not want to see themselves as extremists, so they need a good tribal myth to explain his rejection.”

Pages 146-53: Clarence Thomas: “Lee Lieberman..a cofounder of the Federalist Society..believed with Thomas they had a “Black Bork.”
“..because he was consistently untruthful. Most memorable..because it was so unbelievable – was his claim to Senator Patrick Leahy..that he had no position on Roe v. Wade..and that. he had never discussed the case with anyone..So unbelievable was Thomas’ position about Roe that even his foremost supporter was ready to abandon him. Paul Weyrich..”remembered that Thomas had expressed an opinion on..abortion in prior meetings with him. He found Thomas’s lack of candor “disingenuous’ and “nauseating’…Weyrich seriously considered withdrawing his support of Thomas.” Pages 149-53 corroboration of Anita Hill, by 4 witnesses going back to l981-82.

Pages 160-61: Roberts and Alito: “..a former Supreme Court law clerk…Which leaves our friends Roberts and Alito. I am quite torn on them. There is a strong argument that both of these guys are ‘closet fundamentalists’ who use the rhetoric of conservative minimalism..my gut tells me both of them are closer to Scalia and Thomas than we may think..I fear they are fundamentalist true believers who have behaved s moderates to move up the ladder…four fundamentalists..almost always reaching the same results but dressing their decisions up in the language of conservative minimalism.”

Pages 160-61: quoting Martin Garbus.. a chilling picture f where he believes the current conservative justices will take the law: “Imagine the effect on our lives if workplace standards for health and safety were severely cut back. If abortions were banned, no exceptions; if minimum-hour and wage laws were so reduced as to be meaningless; if child labor laws were abolished or weakened; if there were no gun control at all..if the law abolished equal rights..if the state took money from public schools and gave it to parochial schools; if regulatory agencies..were so gutted or handcuffed..if Congress’ ability to pass needed social legislation ended. All this and more are the declared goals of the Radical Right who now dominate the Republican Party on matters related to the judiciary.”
This statement was made in 2007 – look how much the M-T-R “court” has already done!!!!!

Dean’s predictions, 2007, pages 163-74, if American law was radicalized by a fundamentalist Supreme Court. “Judicial fundamentalists are more likely to effect changes in the law by selecting and resolving particular cases and controversies and working slowly and steadily to implement their radical transformation of existing jurisprudence, making it all seem very logical, reasonable, and consistent.”

Dean’s specific areas of what the McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court would likely do:
1]. unilateral and unitary presidentialism – few restrictions on presidential powers
2] elimination of campaign finance restrictions – CHECKED OFF!!!
3]. restricting congressional powers. – started under Rehnquist [“the least deferential of any in the history of the U.S.
Supreme Court”]
4] business will have a friendly court – CHECKED OFF!!! [most business-friendly since 1945!!!]
5]. direct impact of judicial fundamentalism on individuals”
a] abortion – “either overturned or so limited as to be meaningless” – CHECKED OFF
b] affirmative action – on the M-T-R docket for 2023
c] Bill of Rights – “Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito are dead set against the application of many Bill of Rights
amendments against the states.”
d] civil rights – “Civil rights are not favored by judicial fundamentalists..do not believe that equal protection of the
14th Amendment even applies to women, so gov’t can discriminate women as it sees fit.”
e]. cruel and unusual punishment – “Fundamentalists fully embrace the death penalty.”
f] environmental protection – “Fundamentalists believe there is no constitutional foundation for a federal E.P.A.”
partially done in 2022!!!!!
g] free speech – far less protection for free speech [unless you claim “religious rights” – see 2022]
h]. gay rights – Scalia fumed at “Lawrence” promoting “immoral and destructive’ conduct
i]. guns – fundamentalists believe gun control is unConstitutional – partially CHECKED OFF
j] habeas corpus – fundamentalists want to restrict this – already partially done
k]. religion – fundamentalists want to destroy the “wall of separation of church & state” – largely CHECKED OFF
l]. sex – judicial fundamentalists want to reverse “permissiveness that has been tolerated. “Under a fundamentalist ..
Court there will be substantially more prosecutions..for sex-related offenses, even..consenting adults.”
m]. standing to sue – fundamentalists “have consistently refined such procedural matters to make it increasingly
difficult for plaintiffs to use federal courts..” – already begun!!!
n]. voting – “Judge Bork..has called the one-person, one-vote doctrine a “fiasco.” The M-T-R “court” has already
declined to stop gerrymandering

Page 173, paraphrasing Sunstein: “Fundamentalists read the Constitution not to fit original understanding [the doctrine they claim to embrace] but the views of the extreme wing of the Republican Party.”

After the May, 2022, lea of Alito’s draft overturning “Roe”, a law professor said virtually the same thing. At least one book [Marcosson’s “OriginalSin”] has been written documenting how Scalia and Thomas were “originalists” when it suited, not when it didn’t. A 2022 Supreme Court dissent said similar things.

All the above is just the BEGINNING. A book shelf has been written DOCUMENTING how, since 1968, Republicans and their right-wing funders have been shifting American “law’ to the right. that the M-T-R “court” is THE most “business-friendly” since 1945 is NOT an accident. The complete plan is to bring America back to pre-1933 in everything, if not to pre-1900.

The Founders had 4 major fears: corruption, slavery, religion, mobs. 1980-2022 America has now revealed their fears to be very real. the Republican destruction of American government is part of the plan – is OCCURRING RIGHT IN. FRONT. OF. YOU. This too is documented [MacLean’s “Democracy in chains”]

The sensational part of the far right plan to create PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY is dramatized by the 4th investigation of the monumentally CORRUPT Trump regime. The much quieter, much longer, much more successful, plan to CHANGE THE RULES OF AMERICA has been going on for 50 years – in the Supreme Court.

JohnDean predicted almost all of this- in 2007.

“The Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms. may sink through the mutiny of those on board.”
[President Grover Cleveland. 1894]

“Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue” [Psalm 12:02] o

I’m confused.

I’m told the Founder of “Christian” religion told his followers what his #l principle was: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [John 13: 34}

But, I’m confused, as we read the following:
– Robert Jeffress, pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas, has called gays “miserable,” “Filthy,” “degrading.” “What a lot of people miss is, America is not a church where everyone should be welcome regardless of race and background.” “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew.” In a 2011 sermon, he called the Catholic Church a corrupt version of Christianity that sprang from ancient Babylonian cults.
– Reverend Pat Robertson: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.” [700 Club]
– journalist Katherine Stewart attended a “conservative” Protestant conference, went to a seminar called “Understanding and Reaching Out to the Hispanic Child,” where the leader “Devotes the bulk of the seminar addressing the problem of how to subvert Catholic teachings and practices so subtly that Catholic-born students won’t alert their parents…”They call themselves Christians..being Catholics doesn’t mean they are the RIGHT kind of Christians..”
[“The Good News Club”; page 55]

So, I’m confused.

I’m told the Christian Bible has some 2-3,000 references to the poor and duty to help them.
But – we study the reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for the rich and corporations passed by a Party that claims to be upholding “Christian,” “family values.” The 2017 tax cut phased out middle class tax cuts, but those for the rich and corporations are permanent.
But – America has the #37 best “health care” system; medical bills are the #1 cause of ordinary people declaring bankruptcy. Many ordinary people are severely handicapped by college debts. We have a growing homeless problem. We have increasing numbers of people who are “food insecure.” Ordinary workers” income has dropped by about $10,000 annually compared to money earned before 1980.
But – we are told the 2022 Supreme Court. “Dobbs”. decision that removed Constitutional projections for women’s health consequences will fall disproportionally on the poor and powerless. Six “justices” who were all raised in one fundamentalist “Christian” church made that decision.

So, I’m confused.

Looking for guidance, I searched for books. In “What Jesus Meant,” Gary Wills stated: “..the key test for a disciple – treating the poor, the thirsty, the hungry, the naked as if. they were Jesus.” Inside book jacket: “Gary Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that..It is only by dodges and evasions, Wills reminds us, that people blunt what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the lower class, the working class, and he spoke to and for that class.”

So, I’m confused.

Because, some have made the claim America was founded aa “a Christian nation.” Research reveals”
– “Roger Williams, founder of Baptist tradition in America, was a dissident in Puritan Massachusetts who was expelled from the colony in 1636 and went to Rhode Island to form a religiously tolerant society..the notion of religious disestablishment, the absence of a state church.” [Randall Balmer; “Thy Kingdom Come”]
– “As colonists from several different religions and faiths arrived..the Baptist model of religious disestablishment and liberty of conscience looked increasingly attractive…Quakers, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, and others – took up Baptist arguments for religious liberty.” [Balmer]
– “James Madison wrote his famous 1785 ‘Memorial and Remonstrance’ to argue against any state endorsement of Christianity. “Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects.” {Balmer]

So, I’m confused.

Other research led to Edwin Gaustad’s “Faith of the Founders.” Appendix B, pages 133-145, provides 1776-1800 state constitutions. One learns that 4 states prohibited a “religious test for office” [Article VI]; that 8 states banned an active minister from serving in their government; that virtually ALL had language that IS in Amendment One banning an “established church.” One can also learn 11 of the original 13 states HAD established churches; by 1830- ALL. are gone. The inescapable message: the Founding generations believed whatever YOUR faith was, or none at all, it was a PRIVATE affair.

So, I’m. confused.

More historical research leads to Stacy Schiff’s “The Witches,” about the events of 1692 Salem. 19 innocent people were executed for “witchcraft.” All but one of the prosecutors were ministers. O page 66, we learn the 1641 Massachusetts legal code was based on 3 books from the Christian Bible: Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. The first capital crime was idolatry, the second witchcraft, the third blasphemy [murder was only #4]

We also learn some current “conservative’ fundamentalist groups envision a society where government posts would be reserved for the “righteous,” so long as they are male. There would be thousands of executions yearly, with stoning preferred because it would turn deaths into “community projects.” “Sinners” marked for death would include adulterous women, women who lied bout virginity, blasphemers, witches, children who struck parents, gay men. Eliminated: unions, Social Security, public schools, unemployment benefits, environmental laws, secular government.

So, I’m. confused.

It seems some “Christians” want to return to 1692. Does this mean they want to make the fictional kingdom of “Gilead” are reality?

I’m confused……….

The Founder of Christianity seems to be saying one thing. His 21st century “followers seem to be saying other things. Much of His message is based around love and compassion. Much of His current “followers” seemed to be concerned with hate and eliminating “enemies.”

So, I’m. confused.

One of the biggest groups of “Christians” is also THE most heavily armed with guns of all sorts. Guns kill people – that is their purpose. The “Christians’ claim they only own guns to “protect their family.” But – if we ALL lived up to the Founder of Christianity”s #1. principle – love. – there’d be no need for guns.

So, I’m. confused.

I do NOT know what it means to be a “Christian.”

Note: as always, what would a “reasonable person” think? A person not captive of a partisan “echo chamber’: a person from Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, south Korea; the “man from Mars”? A person who knew American basic principles, 1775 forward?

In their latest attack on the Constitution and basic American principles, “justices” Alito & Thomas pushed another reactionary- billionaire funded crackpot, made up “legal” theory”. rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution had to be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.”

Their first problem is Amendment IX: “The enumeration of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

The entire reason for the “Bill of Rights” was to guarantee basic rights implicit in human dignity beyond the reach of government. Future authoritarians like Alito & Thomas were NOT to be THE judges of what those rights are.
– Alexander Hamilton [1775]: “the sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments
or musty records. They are written as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of
the divinity itself.”
– James Madison, 1792 essay on “property”: the “larger and juster meaning of the term. It “embraces every thing
to which a man may attach value and have a right.”….in the broader sense it meant “a man has property, in his
opinions…property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person..in the free use of his faculties..In a
word..he may equally said to have a property in his rights.”

Alito & Thomas have selective, faulty, destructive, cruel, “historical” “memories” of “this Nation’s history and traditions.”

1] The first, and worst, is their concept of “religious freedom.” That American tradition goes back to Roger Williams being exiled from Puritan Massachusetts [1636], finding refuge among Narragansett Indians, founding the Rhode Island colony. That government was based on consent of settlers and complete freedom of religion.
Anne Hutchinson was ordered to leave Massachusetts in 1637, expelled by the church in 1638. Her crime: she interpreted church teachings in ways Puritan leaders considered “dangerous.”
Prior to 1787, numerous Baptist and Evangelical leaders and citizens petitioned governments and spoke in favor of NOT having an “established church.” State constitutions of 1776-1800 repeatedly said: “..nor, under any pretence [sic] whatsoever..” should citizens be compelled to attend a church they didn’t want to, nor support it with ANY fees, tithes, taxes.

“Deeply rooted” American history is that 6 Supreme Court “justices” cannot put their fundamentalist church”s religious dogma into American law – as they did with “Dobbs” and other 2005-2022 decisions. “Deeply rooted” American Constitutional LAW is that [Article VI], 6 “pro-life” judges DON’T get appointed to the Supreme Court.

Abortion and contraception are at least 2,000 years old in human history and tradition, practiced in virtually every human society. Abortion and contraception were practiced in America BEFORE 1776.
Laws criminalizing abortion in mid-19th century America were instigated by MALE doctors, trying to prohibit FEMALE midwives from their traditional practices. By mid-20th century, American medicine was moving to reconsider those laws – it affected their practices of reproductive health
Opposition to legalizing contraception and abortion was/is led by one fundamentalist religion: the Roman Catholic Church. They have been joined in this for admitted, documented, cynical political reasons by other fundamentalist churches and politicians.
Not only freedom from an “established church,” but also rights of “free exercise thereof” were, until June, 2022, considered bedrock American HISTORICAL rights. Several non-Christian leaders, other Christian leaders, have said THEIR. religious rights include THEIR people may choose contraception and abortion.

2] A second, egregious, twisting of American tradition and law is the McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court” legislation on guns. They have violated numerous 1787-2007 American traditions and laws.
– March, 2021: the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: “restrictions on carrying guns in public except for hunting do not violate the Second Amendment.” Judge Jay Bybee, appointed by President G.W. Bush, wrote for the 7-4 majority. He said a review of more than 700 years of American and English law showed government has long had the power to regulate arms in public spaces. “We have never assumed..individuals have..unfettered right to carry weapons in public spaces..” [M.Dolan; 3/25/21; L.A. Times}
– ignorance of history and traditions of the “Old West.” Cowboys were required to check their guns with the town marshal at city limits. Town residents were tired of having their towns shot up by drunken cowboys>
– ignorance of 1792 Militia Acts [passed 5 months after Amendment II], May 8: REQUIRING every free able-bodied white male, 18-45, to be enrolled in the militia.
– ignorance of grammar rules. A sentence – the Second Amendment, divided by a comma, MUST include ALL. words considered for correct meaning. One CANOT ignore HALF the words for correct meaning.
– blissful, incredible, ignorance of what is now a weekly, if not daily occurrence, on American streets, in theaters, schools, malls, churches, businesses – mass murder by guns; often military grade weapons. No other nation, claiming to be civilized, allows this carnage and cruelty.
– ignorance of requirements of ANY American government in the Constitution’s Preamble: to ensure domestic Tranquility, to promote the general Welfare. their 2008, 2010, 2022 INVENTED. ‘rights”. have done NOTHING to accomplish Tranquility or promote the general Welfare. [not getting shot while walking, etc.]

3] A third, egregious, sinister, violation of American history and tradition is the McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court’s” WAR. against government regulations – the latest against the E.P.A.’s ability to fight climate crisis. By word parsing they’re reducing general principles to single words.
– Chief Justice Marshall [“Bank’]: “A Constitution, from its nature, deals in generals, not in detail. Its framers cannot perceive minute distinctions which arise in the progress of the nation, and therefore confine it to the establishment of broad and general principles.”
– James Wilson, 1787 Philadelphia: “..we are providing a Constitution for future generations, not merely for the peculiar circumstances of the moment.” [DIRECT refutation of whacko “originalism”!!!!!!!!!]

American legal history and tradition has long said government, to protect people, would enact restrictions on what businesses and citizen could do. We have criminal law, business law, environmental law to carry out basic governmental functions and duties.
American tradition, from the very beginning. The 1773 “Boston Tea Party” was a revolt against special treatment for an English corporation. “Corporation’ is not in the Constitution. Corporate “rights” have been manufactured and GIVEN corporations by various “business-friendly’ Supreme Courts
A major corporate, far-right, goal has been eliminate law restricting their profits. The 2022 “West Virginia” decision is a MAJOR win for big business, a MAJOR defeat for 331 million Americans. McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court’ history is they will build on this, using this faulty, fraudulent “scholarship” to justify what they WANT to do. This 2005-2022 “court” was already THE most “business-friendly” court since 1945. Worse will come.

4] A fourth, egregiously anti-democratic characteristic of the McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court’ is their attack on American democracy itself. The ultimate goal of the reactionary billionaires funding the “conservative judicial revolution” since 1970 is to create an American plutocratic theocracy.
– this “court’ has refused to prevent gerrymandering, which currently favors the political party that put them in office.
– this “court” has undermined bipartisan Voting Rights laws, some 60 years old. The sophomoric “reasoning” of the 2013 “Shelby County” violation is embarrassing. Texas made the Chief Justice look the fool within 24 hours, others followed [negating what he had just said]. Voter suppression laws now the “norm” in previously strained states.
– with “Citizens United” and similar rulings – this “court” has enabled legal money laundering; amounts of hidden “dark money” now double before. Tis ‘court’ says all forms of “election spending” are “free speech.” Ignoring the fact, in reality, some citizens – the rich – have more “free speech.”
– all levels of American government now subject to waves of political “free speech” dark money, often hidden behind shell companies. Lobbyists often write bills.
– numerous laws written by Congress were, until this “court,” part of American legal history and tradition to prevent corruption. Many after major scandals. This “court” thinks it is smarter, more knowledgable, than Congress.

For perspective on all this – please, do YOURSELF a favor – research [seriously] these 6 Republican “justices.” Their backgrounds, pre-court careers, public statements, the “reasoning’ of 2005-2022 decisions. Find out WHO these people REALLY are.
Then – mandatory – research [seriously] right-wing legal groups giving them crackpot, cooked-up, legal “theories. Especially, research the “Federalist Society” – which all 6 Repub “justices’ have been members. Find out how this network started, WHO funded it, WHY it was started.
Especially read Amanda Hollis-Brusky’s “Ideas With Consequences.” Find her discussion and diagrams of specific major ideological 2005-2015 decisions. YOU will find the Federalist Society is well represented in the conveyor belt of “justice’ that led to many 2005-2015 MAJOR decisions: lawyers bring cases, law clerks, “justices.”
Research the “law and economics’ movement, in universities and legal field. It ran various “institutes” for federal judges. About 40% of federal judges attended training sessions.
Research the “Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment” which also ran “training programs” for judges, professors and others. “FREE’s effect on the judiciary is HUGE. Since the early 1990s, about 25% of federal court chief judges attended a program – which involves “free market solutions” and opposition to the “takings clause.” Ethical questions exist when corporations bring cases into courts of judges, who were “trained” at sessions they sponsored.
Research also penetration of universities by these far-right groups in funding programs and buildings to promote their reactionary anti-tax, anti-regulatory, anti-government “legal theories.” Many major top universities have been infected with these reactionary programs and theories

5] Fifth – do the serious research on recent, 1970-2022, “legal theories’ created by the far right to justify federal court decisions. How many of THESE. – will stand the test of Alito & Thomas: that they are “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition”??? How can theories cooked up since 1980 be “deeply rooted”??????????
As Justice Kagan pointed out, THIUS. “court” for the first time in all 1787-2022 history announces a major decision based on the “major questions doctrine.” Which far-right “think tank” cooked this up??? [ last month?]

The major “theory” of the far-right “constitutional” theorists for 40 years has been “originalism/textualism”: the PREPOSTEROUS theory ALL major American rights, doctrines, policies must be sen as if we were back in 1787-1791. Even more RIDICULOUS , anything not specifically. [word for word!!!!!] listed therein doesn’t exist [like sex, marriage, children, God]

As Justice Kagan also says, this too has been elastic; “The current Court is textualist only when being so suits it. When that method would frustrate broader goals, special canons like the “major questions doctrine” magically appear as get-out-of-text-free cards.”

What does all this mean? In simple terms; the current McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court’ is LYING; the major ideological goals-become-decisions are FRAUDULENT INVENTIONS; this reactionary 6-“justice” majority is REWRITING HISTORY. – the same “history” they CLAIM to be following.
Legal professors are now also saying what Justice Kagan said – some decisions look more like Republican Party platforms than the Constitution. Many are now saying this “court” may have dealt a fatal blow, forever, in how the American people view the Court in terms of equal justice for all.

The Founding Fathers had four major fears: corruption, slavery, religion, mobs. Look very closely at the McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court,” 2005-2022, PATTERN of “winners” and “losers.” YOU’ll see why the Founders had these fears.

Consider also these statements:
“It is an inadmissibly narrow conception of American constitutional law to confine it to the words of the Constitution
and to disregard the gloss which life has written on them.” [Justice Felix Frankfurter]

“Power corrupts, and unrestricted power will tempt Supreme Court justices just as history tells us it has tempted
other judges. For, unfortunately, judges have not ben immune to the seductive influences of power, and given
absolute or near absolute power, judges may exercise it to bring about changes that are inimical to freedom and
good government.” {Justice Hugo Black]

Samuel Alito – January 9, 2006 – opening statement of his senate confirmation hearing ;
“A judge can’t have any agenda. A judge can’t have any preferred outcome
in any particular case. And a judge certainly doesn’t have a client.”

– June, 2022: “For decades, Alito Had a Goal to Overturn Roe” [Charlie Savage; New York Times}: in l985. Mr. Alito applied for another position in the Justice Department, citing his role in devising a strategy for those cases. “I personally believe very strongly,” he wrote in an application, that “the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion.”…how he slowly and patiently sought to chip away at abortion rights throughout his career before demolishing them in the majority opinion on Friday.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, from “Justice on the Brink” [Linda Greenhouse], page 4: “The loss of a reliable conservative majority would have doomed two projects which Roberts, with Scalia as a reliable ally, was making steady progress. One involved race, the other religion. Roberts’s long term plan was to change how the Constitution understood both, and now, with Donald Trump having filled the Scalia and Kennedy vacancies, he was in a position to achieve his goal.”

Amy Coney Barrett, 2017 essay in “Constitutional Commentary” journal:
“..the measure of a court is its fair-minded application of the rule of law,
which means going where the law leads. By this measure, it is illegiti-
mate for the court to distort either the Constitution or a statute to
achieve what it deems a preferable result.”
– September 26, 2020, at her introduction as Trump’s Supreme Court nominee:
A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policy-makers,
and they must be resolute in setting any policy views they might have.”

– “What was unusual was the public dimension to Barrett’s Catholicism..her willingness during her pre-judicial career to attest to her adherence to Catholic doctrine on matters of public concern, abortion prominently among them.” In 20l3, she signed a “pro-life” University Faculty for Life statement. In 2012, she signed a statement criticizing the Obama administration’s inclusion of contraception coverage in employer-sponsored health plans. She signed a 2015 letter of “fidelity to and gratitude for the doctrines of the Catholic church.” In 2016, she was part of a unanimous condemnation of Joe Biden getting the Laetare Medal. [Greenhouse; “Justice on the Brink”]

Clarence Thomas….”At the EEOC, he eased the pressure on corporations to comply with Court orders…ended use of class action suits…[AARP] accused Thomas of neglecting to stop discrimination against the elderly…Although Roe v. Wade was decided while Thomas was a law student..he knew one of the primary reasons for his appointment was his opposition to it, when asked..whether he had ever had a discussion of the Roe decision..”the answer to that is no, Senator..He denied to having an opinion on Roe “this day.” Long after the hearings, it came out he had extensive discussions about the case long before the hearing and stated flatly he was against it.” [Martin Garbus; “Courting Disaster”]

Brett Kavanaugh… “Kavanaugh repeatedly told the senators under grilling from Democrats and Republicans that the women’s right to an abortion has been affirmed…Yet during this week’s court hearing Kavanaugh read from a long list of court cases that have upturned past precedents and questioned why the court couldn’t now do the same with abortion.” [Lisa Mascaro; “Justices’ assurances on “Roe” now look doubtful”; 12/4/21; Assoc. Press]

Professor Erwin Chemerinsky: “The draft of Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe..is right-wing Republican politics masquerading as law…Unless the court is going to repudiate all of the other privacy rights, it is impossible to deny that laws prohibiting abortion also intrude on a woman’s liberty.” [5/8/22; “Brazenly political court shows it will strike down abortion rights”]

Justice William Brennan: “I took an oath to obey and enforce the Constitution…therefore, when there is a conflict between a principle of my faith and the constitutional principle, I have to decide the case as the Constitution requires.”

Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: “It is a misfortune if a judge reads his conscious or unconscious sympathy with one side of the other prematurely into the law, and forgets that what seems to him to be first principles are believe3d by half his fellow men to be wrong.”

Amendment One: “Congress shall make no law respecting n establishment of religion…”

Justice Hugo Black: “Power corrupts, and unrestricted power will tempt Supreme Court justices just as history tells us it tempted other judges. For, unfortunately, judges have not been immune to the seductive influences of power, and given the absolute or near absolute power, judges may exercise it to bring changes that are inimical to freedom and good government.”

New Jersey Constitution, 1776, Article XVIII: “That no person shall ever..be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; nor, under any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship, contrary to his own faith and judgment; nor shall any person..ever be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates, for the purpose of building or repairing any church or churches..or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right..” Article XIX: “that there be no establishment of any one religious sect..in preference to another.”

“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies
with sincerity.” [Andre Gide]

“Sex” isn’t in the Constitution, according to Alito & Thomas: YOU can’t have it.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the aw respectable.”

“Marriage” isn’t in the Constitution, according to Alito & Thomas: YOU can’t have it.

St. Augustine: “An unjust law is no law at all.”

“Children” are not in the Constitution, according to Alito & Thomas: YOU cannot have any.

Roy Cohn: “I don’t want to know what the law is. I want to know who the judge is.”

“God” is not in the Constitution, according to Alito & Thomas” God doesn’t exist.

Chief Justice John Marshall {Bank}: “A Constitution, from its nature, deals in generals, not in detail. Its framers cannot conceive minute distinctions which arise in the progress of the nation, and therefore confine it to the establishment of broad and general principles.”

The internet, TV, A/C, cares, jet planes, flush toilets, YOUR smartphone, etc. are NOT in the Constitution, according to Alito & Thomas, therefore they don’t exist – and if they did – YOU can’t have them.

REAL historian Gary Wills [“A Necessary Evil”]: “We interpret the Constitution in terms of concepts and words..not in the document. Nowhere does the Constitution mention checks, or balances, or separation of powers, or co-equal branches [or even branches] of government, or states rights [or any rights in the original, unamended document].”

Question: IF the Founders intended the Constitution to be inscribed in stone, never to be changed or modified, WHY did they include an amendment process???

Question: IF the Founders intended the Constitution to be final, to have listed ALL “rights,” WHY did the Ninth Amendment read: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”????? This ALONE destroys Alito’s preposterous argument.

“Corporation” is not in the Constitution, but, beginning with “Santa Clara” the Supreme Court has. GIVEN corporations “rights” – including declaring them to be “people,” GIVING them “free speech” rights [to launder money & corrupt gov’t], GIVEN them “religious rights” [violating corporate principles!], etc. So, the Supreme Court itself, by its own fraudulent conduct, has illustrated it CAN “find” “Constitutional rights” IF it WANTS TO.

The Alito-Thomas “court” has now said abortion has no Constitutional rights. “Dobbs’. will now stand with “Dred Scott” in Supreme Court INFAMY. Both were decided for “originalism” reasons. Both will prove destructive. One part of a chain of events leading to civil political war; one could be part of a chain of events leading to civil religious war.

Chief Justice Roger Taney, in “Dred Scott”: The Framers did not intend for Blacks to be citizens, and the Constitution “must be construed now as it was understood at the time of its adoption.” [the “not-in-the-Constitution theory]

“Justice’ Barrett famously said her Court was not a bunch of partisan political hacks. YOU decide, on the basis of the 2022 “supreme court’s” decisions, on the basis of the McConnell/Trump/Roberts “court’s” 2005-2022. PATTERN. The corporate “win” rate, before 2022 was 70%. The “religious right” “win” rate was 90% BEFORE 2022. Are they “partisan political hacks”? YOU. decide – on the basis of their own track record.

Anti-abortionism, the “pro-life” agenda is RELIGIOUS DOGMA. Putting RELIGIOUS DOGMA into American law is un-Constitutional.: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion..” An “established religion” is an official or state church – on which YOU are compelled to support financially and legally.

The appointing of “pro-life” judges in un-Constitutional. Article VI: “no religious Test shall ever be required as aQualification to any Office or Public Trust under the United States.”
It has been Republican policy since 1980 to appoint “pro-life” judges. Republican judicial nominees are “screened” by “social conservatives” to make SURE they are “pro-life.” ALL six current Republican Supreme Court “justices” were raised in one specific fundamentalist church. YOU decide – was this an “accident”?

Criminalizing abortion attacks a century of Supreme Court rulings on privacy, marriage, child bearing.

Justice Brandeis [“Olmstead”]; the most important 4th Amendment point was the spirit behind theAmendment, which was to ensure privacy: “The makers of our Constitution undertook..to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions, and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men..The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
“…the right to be let alone.. most valued by civilized men…. insidious encroachments by men of zeal…”

Amendment IV: “The right of the people to be secure i their persons…” Would a ‘reasonable person” interpret this to mean the he or she had 100% control over their body – and NOT some government , or some church ?

Amendment XIII: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States..”
Would a person, sentenced to mandatory motherhood, be considered a slave – of the state? Are “we” in 2lst century America going to sentence pregnant persons to, first, 9 months of pregnancy, then l8 years of child care against their wishes?

Can a church YOU don’t attend, may even despise, make laws over YOUR life and YOUR body? Is ANYTHING more cruel, more arrogant, more un-American, more un-Constitutional. than THIS????? If a church, or a group of churches, USING. “government”, can control YOUR. life, control. YOUR. sex and reproductive life – what “rights” do. YOU. have???

If THIS. “supreme court”. can do this to YOU, what else will they do?????

• 6/24/2022, “The Guardian” [P. Olterman]: “Germany has abolished a Nazi-era law that criminalizes doctors who provide information about abortion procedures…Paragraph 219a which dates to May, 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler assumed fll powers of Nazi Germany..”
  
  – Peter Padfield, “Himmler,” page 185: “Abortion and homosexuality concerned him particularly; in a speech over the radio in January, 1937, he put these two topics high on the list of his ‘tasks for the future’.. “We have already set out to tackle these abominations rigorously and with deep seriousness, in the bitter knowledge that a growth or even just a continuance of these two epidemics must bring any Volk to the abyss.”
  
  – Padfield, page 196: describes some badges required in Nazi concentration camps: “pink for homosexuals..”
  
  – Padfield, page 185: Himmler: “There were homosexuals..who considered what they did was their private affair..This was not so. Nothing in the sphere of sex was a private affair..but concerned the life and death of a Volk and its prospects for world mastery.”
  
  – Claudia Koonz: “Mothers in the Fatherland,” page 3: “From the earliest beginnings of his Party, Hitler promised to..expel women from public influence…Nazi social policy..relegated women to becoming bearers of children and poorly paid workers in the lowest jobs..Nazi contempt for women was so blatant from the beginning..[6]..deprived them of birth control..[196] “The BDM prepared girls for a lifetime membership in the second sex.”
  
  – “14 Points common to previous fascist governments”: disdain for human rights; rampant sexism; religion and the ruling class tied together. ALL of this is apparent and rampant in 1980-2022 Republican and right-wing rhetoric, actions, and policies.
  
  – May, 2021: Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs Texas anti-abortion law. It authorizes “any private citizen” to enforce the law. Parallels between Nazi “Brown Shirts” and Texas vigilantes are obvious.
  
  – Republican-led anti-abortion states are working on censoring YOUR mail to see if YOU’RE getting legal medical prescriptions; are working on preventing YOU from traveling to another state “for the wrong reasons”; are working on how to sue YOU for these things. This is exactly the kind of intense surveillance and control the Nazi Gestapo secret police performed – over people’s private lives.
  
  – the Nazis had laws for marriages. YOU could be in trouble if YOU married “the wrong person.” “Pro-lifers” want to prevent YOU from marrying “the wrong person.”
  
  – Ingo Muller, “Hitler’s Justice,’ chapter 9: “Nazi Jurisprudence”: “An essential role in the decline of law during the Third Reich was played by law professors at German universities. They provided a philosophical cloak…’certain limits must be imposed’ on the autonomy of the courts..we seek an obligation which is more reliable’…A judger should therefore approach a case with ‘healthy prejudice’ and ‘make value judgments which correspond to the National Socialist legal order and the will of the political leadership.” For comparisons, consider the following:
  – in post-1980 Republican/right-wing circles this means the appointment of “pro-life” judges who’ve been screened by reactionary legal groups and “social conservatives
  – the current McConnell/Roberts “court” had a 90% “win” rate for cases brought by “religious rights” plaintiffs BEFORE the infamous 2022 “decisions’; a 70% “win” rate for big business
  – given the fact current Republican/right-wing t. mantra on “their” judges is “no ore Souters,” “no more “O’Connors” – would a “reasonable person” – given the McConnell/Roberts “court” track record – conclude a very open attempt had been made to “fix” the Court???
  
  – there is one difference between Nazis and modern “pro-lifers.” The Nazis enforced political doctrine. American “pro=lifers” seek to enforce RELIGIOUS DOGMA, which by 1789-2000 Founder intent and language of state and federal documents was subsequently seen as un-Constitutional.
  
  for perspective, read Charles Kimball’s “When Religion Becomes Evil.” Think on his “The Five Warning signs of Corruption of Religion”: “absolute truth claims; blind obedience; establishing the ‘ideal’ time; the end justifies any means; declaring holy war.
  Elementary knowledge of post-1973 “pro-life” rhetoric and actions makes one aware “pro-lifers” have done these things – and may more, like murder and arson – to carry out their “holy war.”
  
  The McConnell/Roberts “court” has now re-written the Constitution – just like Nazi judges re-wrote German law. Many legal experts have commented on this, some even saying the McConnell/Roberts “court” wasn’t following the Constitution, but WAS following the Republican Party platform.
  
  Mussolini: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
  
  Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.”
  
  Nothing is more un-American, more un-Constitutional, more cruel, more arrogant, more destructive, than the “pro-life” agenda.
  Why should a church YOU don’t attend have ANY say on how YOU run YOUR life???
  
  ALL this, and much more is why: “pro-life” is Nazism. – Nazism resurrected in a nation that worked to defeat it with blood and treason, worked to eradicate it with war crimes trials. /