***”Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.” [Grover Cleveland, 1905]

Her name was Ruth, “The young college student was walking to her car. The man catcalled her. She ignored him. What happened next could have been lifted from any woman’s most vivid nightmare” The man..followed the 19-year-old student..as she entered the parking garage..He followed her from behind and put her into a chokehold.. ‘The defendant was angry he was being ignored,’ prosecutors said..police tracked the pings of her cellphone to the parking garage, where her body was discovered.” [“Student allegedly killed by man after catcalls ignored”; Julie Bosman; 11/28/19; N.Y. Times] The “problem:” Ruth’s killer was ENTITLED – to catcall her and not be ignored.

***”Rape is kinda like the weather. If it’s inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” [Clayton Williams; Republican, Texas]

This post is inspired by Kate Manne’s 2020 “Entitled. How Male Privilege Hurts Women.” Manne: “Misogyny..best conceptualized as the “law enforcement” branch of patriarchy – a system that functions to police and enforce gendered norms and expectations, and involves girls and women facing disproportionately or distinctively hostile treatment because of their gender, among other factors…In general, I think of misogyny as being a bit like the shock collar worn by dogs…it tends to discourage girls and women from venturing out of bounds. If we stray, or err, we know what we are in for..it is best to think of misogyny primarily as a property of the social environments girls and women navigate…”

***”In those days, it didn’t matter: you could be a Wimbledon champion, Phi Beta Kappa, Miss America, Nobel Peace Prize winner, but if they asked you about marriage and you didn’t at least have a hot prospect ready to go down on one knee, you knew you were considered to be no more than half a woman.” {Billy Jean King, 1982]

“A few weeks ago, as I was walking down the street to my car, a man stopped me to begin a conversation about my height. Here we go, I thought. He asked me the usual questions, prodding me about my basketball career, and then there it was: “Let’s play one-on-one. I bet I could beat you.”…I’m not going to play you one-on-one…I had to prove my skill in middle school..I had to prove my skill in high school..I had to prove it in college..I have nothing to prove.. Why can’t a man respect a woman at the top of her field?” [Devereaux Peters; 8/13/18; Wash. Post]
The “problem ” here: men are ENTITLED to challenge an WNBA player.

***”Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke.” [Gloria Steinem, “Ms”; l972]

Manne: “..I take sexism to be the theoretical and ideological branch of patriarchy: the beliefs, ideas, and assumptions that serve to rationalize and naturalize patriarchal norms and expectations – including a gendered division of labor, and men’s domination over women in areas of traditionally male power and authority.”

***”There never lived a woman who did not wish she were a man. There never lived a man who wished he were a woman.” [Edgar Watson Howe, 1911]

“To Sandberg, the move to Facebook..wasn’t..counterintuitive..she had hit a ceiling: there were several vice presidents at her level..Men who weren’t performing as well as she were getting recognized and receiving higher titles, former Google colleagues maintained.” [“An Ugly Truth”; S.Frenkel & C.Kang; Harper Collins, 2021]
The “problem”: they were ENTITLED – she wasn’t.

***If a woman has [the right to an abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t [in most cases] result in anyone’s death.”
[Lawrence Lockman, Republican, Maine]
***”If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” [Florynce Kennedy; “Ms”, March, 1973]

Manne: “..women are expected to give traditionally feminine goods [such as sex, care, nurturing, and reproductive labor] to designated, often more privileged men, and to refrain from taking traditionally masculine goods [such as power, authority, and claims to knowledge] away from them…These goods can..be understood as those which privileged men are tacitly deemed entitled..”

***”Women’s degradation is in man’s idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man.” [Elizabeth Cady Stanton letter; 6/14/1860]

“The Nancy Pelosi Problem. The first female speaker of the House has become the most effective congressional leader of modern times – and not coincidentally , the most vilified…Why is she so unpopular? Because powerful women politicians usually are. Nancy Pelosi does he job about as well as anyone could. But because she’s a woman, she may not be doing it well enough…By climbing to the top of the greasy pole..Pelosi has made her ambition visible. She has gained the power to tell her male colleagues what to do…The more successful Pelosi is – the more she outmaneuvers and dominates her male adversaries – the more threatening she becomes.” [The Atlantic; April, 2018]
The “problem” here: a woman ISN’T entitled to do this, to enjoy “male” goods.

***”If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that thing down.” [Todd Aikin, Republican, Missouri]

Manne: “..the phenomenon of “himpathy”: the way powerful and privileged boys and men commit acts of sexual violence or engage in misogynistic behavior often receive sympathy and concern over their female victims..understand “himpathy” as the flip side of misogyny..Himpathy goes hand in hand with blaming or erasing victims and targets of misogyny..she will often be subject to suspicion and aggression for drawing attention to his misdeeds. Her testimony may..fail to gain the proper uptake. Instead, those who are “himpathetic” find endless excuses for the perpetrator.”

***”Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.” [Rick Santorum, Republican, Pennsylvania]

“New Jersey judge rebuked for leniency in case of teen rape suspect “from good family”: the 16-year-old girl was visibly intoxicated, when a drunk 16-year-old boy..filmed himself penetrating her from behind..He later shared the cellphone video among friends..sent a text..’When your first time having sex was rape’..But a family court judge said it was not rape..also said the young man came ‘from a good family,” attended an excellent school, had terrific grades and was an Eagle Scout..pressing charges would destroy the boy’s life..” [Luis Ferre-Sadurni; 7/4/19; N.Y. Times] Question: does this outstanding young man now qualify for a “Rape Badge”? It would seem he’s definitely ENTITLED.
!!!!!???!!! News flash! – it just happened again [November, 2021] – a judge gave a young man 8 years of probation – instead of any jail time – for raping four [4!!!] young girls. The young man is from a wealthy family. The sexual assaults occurred in the family’s mansion. The poster boy of ENTITLEMENT?

*** “The problem that has no name – which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities – is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”{Betty Friedan, 1963]

Manne: “A paradigmatic act of “mansplaining” consists of a man presuming to “explain” something incorrectly to a more expert female speaker or set of speakers – and in an overly confidant, arrogant, or overbearing manner…”mansplaining” typically stems from an unwarranted sense of entitlement on the part of the mansplainer to occupy the conversational position of the knower by default…”

*** “In the East, women religiously conceal that they have faces; in the West, that they have legs. In both cases they make it evident they have but little brains.” [HenryDavid Thoreau; 1/31/1852]

“In more than a decade as a trial lawyer, I’ve watched in frustration as male attorneys rely on a range of courtroom tactics ..off-limits to women…90% of her courtroom opponents are male…they file a ‘no-crying’ as a matter of course. Judges deny them, but the damage is done…women in the courtroom face what she described as a “double standard and a double bind.” Women ..must avoid being seen as “too soft” or “too strident.’ “too aggressive” or “not aggressive enough.” ..Sexism infects every kind of courtroom encounter..women’s clothing choices..were subject of intense scrutiny…I was practicing law differently from many of my male colleagues…she often has to bring one of her male partners along – even if he knows little about the case. “That older man at the table carries some kind of credibility.” [Lara Bazelon; “May it Please the Court’: The Atlantic; September, 2018]. The “problem”: she WASN’T entitled to credibility.

*** “I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.” [John Adams; 2/12/1779 letter to Abagail]

Manne: “There is a certain kind of man who is unable or unwilling to cope with others expressing views that threaten his own sense of what has happened..Such men cannot abide girls and women, in particular, evincing their own, legitimate off the epistemic entitlement to state what is happening…They.. want to shut her up..denying her word has any meaning or merit whatsoever…”

“A self-described “anti-feminist lawyer..who received media attention..for lawsuits challenging perceived infringements of “men’s rights”…In writing posted online. Den Hollander derided the judge as having traded on her Hispanic heritage to get ahead..was best known previously for unsuccessful lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of “ladies night” promotions…In more than 2,000 of often misogynist..writings, Den Hollander criticized Salas’ life story..” [“Lawyer eyed in shooting of judge’s family”; M.Dale, M.Balsimo, M.Sisak; 7/21/20; Assoc. Press]

***”The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history.” [E.C. Stanton; 1881]

Manne: “..social psychologists have speculated that there’s something about women who seek the highest position of power and the most masculine-coded authority positions that people continue to find off-putting.”

“Megan Rapinoe isn’t here to make you comfortable. “It’s hard to keep count of all the polarizing ways that people describe Megan Rapinoe…a star..a pariah..fun-loving..annoying..exuberant..excessive..a necessary voice..an irreverent troublemaker.. delightful.. disgraceful..essential..inappropriate..”
“But her defiance exemplifies the U.S. women’s soccer tradition..it was built, through excellence, on combating prejudiced views of what’s possible and what’s proper for female athletes.” [Jerry Brewer; 6/30/19; Wash.Post Wkly]
The “problem” here; Megan Rapinoe ISN’T entitled to represent what America is.

***”The status quo protects itself by punishing all challengers, especially women whose rebellion strikes at the most fundamental social organization: the sex roles that convince half the population that its identity depends on being first in work and war, and the other half that it must serve as docile, unpaid, or underpaid labor.” [Gloria Steinem, “Ms”, 1972]

And then – there is the uplifting story of “Maiden,” the English sailboat with an all-female crew, that was. THE. story of the 1989-90 “Whitbread Round the World Race.” They won two of the first three legs, then suffered water damage and finished second in their class. When they returned to England – they were met by a fleet of boats out to greet them, and “a reception fit for a king” on land. Skipper/inspiration for this, Tracy Edwards, was declared “Yachtsman of the Year.”
The full story: they were openly derided before the race. Bets were made they wouldn’t even finish the first leg of the race. Only when they won the second and third legs in their class did things begin to change.
They WEREN’T entitled to respect because they were women.
Rent/buy the Sony Pictures DVD – “Maiden”. for a wonderful 97 minute s. Produced by Alex Holmes, with much commentary by Edward s and her crew.i

The most demoralizing, bewildering, incredulous phenomena of contemporary American life has been savagery, hatred, and meanness some “Americans” directed at innocents and people merely doing their jobs. At this rate, the Russians, Chinese and other anti-democratic forces should save their time, effort, and money. Just sit back and watch “Americans” destroy each other and the country.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Mount Rushmore plaque: “We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years; and shame and disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men.”

Symbolic Act #1: at a 2008 John McCain rally, a woman said she “knew” Barack Obama was not American-born. McCain said she was wrong. His “supporters” booed him. John McCain was a patriot. He’d been shot down in Vietnam, captured, hospitalized, tortured; refused early release because it wasn’t his turn. No person at that rally, few [if any[ Americans held his patriotic credentials. No matter.

Symbolic Act #2: frequent acts like this: a woman with a legal prescription goes to a pharmacy for contraceptives, often with her child. The pharmacist denies her, because it is against. HIS “religious beliefs.” Not only denied legal medicine, but humiliated. NO matter.

Symbolic Act #3: January 6, 2021 insurrection [the Pentagon states] by a mob believing a man who lost the election by 7 million votes was victimized by “fraud.” Election officials in every state said otherwise. No matter.

Symbolic Act #4: at a public Colorado meeting, a woman said: “I have a constitutional right to be mean to you guys.” In her mind, the U.S. Constitution allows her to be mean.

Symbolic Act #5: November, 2021 – self-appointed vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse acquitted. Parents of one man killed by Rittenhouse: the verdict “sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people on the street.” Supporters of the verdict: be careful for what you wish – this will not end well.

Abraham Lincoln, 8/24/l855 letter: “When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read all men are created equal except Negroes, and foreigners and Catholics. When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of losing liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

A review of SOME. of the many arrogant cruelties inflicted on innocents:
1] Modern Typhoid Marys – the COVID-19 refusniks:
– “Mask, vaccine conflicts descend into violence and harassment” – doctors, nurses, public servants accused of being Nazis, Marxists, Taliban [8/22/21; Kelleher, Tang, Rodriguez; Assoc. Press]
-“More citing religion to avoid vaccination” – BUT, many major religions have no objections to COVID-19 vaccinations; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 1905, states may compel vaccinations necessary for public health; the U.S. Army granted no religious exemptions for COVID-19; the U.S. Navy hasn’t granted religious exemptions for ANY vaccine in 7 years [A.Horton, 10/31/21; Wash. post Wkly]; the U.S. Air Force granted NO COVID-19 exemptions [Rein, Duncan, Horton, 11/8/21; Wash. Post]
– Idaho hospitals rationing care because COVID patients filled beds [9/8/21]; a 3rd Alaskan hospital “instituted crisis protocols” so it can ration health care [10/3/21]
Republican Alabama Governor Ivey: “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, but not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.” T.Bella; 7/24/21; Wash. post]
– “Denied hospital bed, veteran dies..” stuck in rural health care due toCOVID; “doctors in both states blame..too many hospital beds..occupied by COVID patients who did not receive vaccinations..” [10/16/212; M.Henson; Forum News ]
-“Austria plans to confine unvaccinated” – the lockdown “..essentially aims to keep the estimated 2 million unvaccinated Austrians off the streets.” [11/15/21; N.Y. Times]
– solution offered: “Raise insurance rates to unvaccinated people.” Health insurance companies legally charge smokers 50% more than non-smokers. [St Louis Post Dispatch; 8/26/21]

2]. Incredulous, to most, Attacks on Doctors, Nurses, Public Health Workers
– “Once COVID heroes, hospital workers now live in fear.” “In Idaho, nurses say they are scared to go to the grocery store unless they changed out of their scrubs” {H.Hollingsworth, G.Schulte; 9/20/21; Assoc. Press]
-” “Threats, resignations, new laws hurt public health” “She must make sure nobody finds out where she lives…a staggering exodus of personnel..growing shortfalls..could have lasting impacts” {M.Baker, D.Ivory; 10/18/21; NYTimes]

3] “Across U.S., school board members saying “Enough’ – many ending terms early amid hostile meetings, threats, and bullying” “She has stepped up security at her home…escorted to their cars by officers..he considered suicide..” [C.Thompson; 8/30/21; Assoc.Press]
– “School board groups ask U.S. for help dealing with threats” “..could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes;” Arizona man arrested after he and two others brought zip ties to make “a citizen’s arrest of a school principal; California parent punched a teacher over mask rules [C.Thompson; 10/1/21; Assoc. Press}

4]. Attacks on Police and Firefighters; Elections Officials
– “Deputy killed in ambush at Houston bar; 3 deputies responding to suspected robbery ambushed by man with AR-15 style rifle [10/15/21]
– “hooks ladders, hoses, and now, ballistic gear” “..instances of rocks, bottlers, bricks thrown at firefighters [M.Gottfried; 7/1/20; Pioneer Press]
– “Burned-out elections officials retreat from hot seats” “..election administration has now become a political minefield thanks to baseless claims of widespread fraud..” [A.Izaguirre; 6/14/21; Assoc. Press]

5]”Murders, Road Rage, Carjacking, Domestic Assaults, Street Racing
– “Gun violence claiming young lives across U.S.” toddlers, teens killed in turf wars, drug deals, posting the wrong thng {J.Salter, C.Lauer; 10/12/21; Assoc.Press]
– “17-year-old charged in Grand Avenue carjacking”. he kicked the 53-year-old woman in the face, held a gun toher head – at 3PM [D.Weniger; 11/3/21; Pioneer Press]
– “Street racing spawned by pandemic is costing lives” [A.Selskey; 5/16/21; Assoc.Press]
– “Murder spike seen in 2020”. pandemics economic and social toll and sharp increase in gun purchases [N.MacFarquhar; 9/28/21; N.Y. Times]
“Pandemic pushes domestic violence deaths up 40% in state” {E.Nelson; 10/2/21; Mpls. Tribune]

6]. Attacks on Retail Workers
– Georgia cashier fatally shot after mask dispute” [6/16/21; Atlanta Journal-Constitution; AP]
” “First battered by pandemic, now by a rude clientele” verbal abuse so bad “some of their employees cried” irate man demanded breakfast before restaurant open!!! [N.Vigdor; 7/19/21; N.Y. Times]

7]. Attacks on Airlines Workers
– “Air rage boils over as planes fill up again”. 3,000 disruptive passengers cases since January; letter sent to Justice Department asking for help; 3,000 banned since May, 2020 [D.Koenig; 6/23/21; Assoc. Press]

8] Attacks on Ethnic Groups
– “Suni Lee victim of racist attack” [M.Kornfield; 11/12/21; Wash.Post]. – “America’s hero” now just another ‘Asian’????
– “Survey: 1 in 3 Jews hide faith at times” [J.Zauzmer; 10/27/21; Was. Post Wkly]
“Shootings leave some Latinos on edge” [R.Contreras, A.Snow; 8/12/19; Assoc. Press]

9]. Assorted Incidents
– Pharmacist pleads guilt to sabotaging COVID-19 vaccines” [T.Richmond; 2/10/21; Assoc. PressP
– “Brooklyn’s Irving dodges fan’s bottle in Boston” [J.Golen; 6/1/21; Assoc. Press]
– “More fan misbehavior in D.C. [H.Fendrich; 6/1/21; Assoc. Press]. tackled running onto court!!!

10]. The Attack on Young People, K – College
– “The school kids are not all right” “..elected officials seem more concerned about reopening bars and restaurants…the learning catastrophe that has befallen the country’s most vulnerable children will take longer than one academic year to remedy” [8/29/21; N.Y. Times]
– “U.S. kids face mental health struggles returning from isolation” “..a surge in teen suicide attempts…’The overwhelming demand for pediatric mental health services..”[L.Tanner; 6/30/21; Assoc. Press]
– “120,000 U.S. children have lost a parent, caregiver to virus” [D.Victor; 10/8/21; N.Y. Times]
– “Kids and long COVID: “This is really scary'” between 11-15% of infected youths might “end up with this long-term consequence'” [P.Belluck; 8/9/21; N.Y. Times]
– “CDC report On Teacher’s Mental Health” 53% are thinking of quitting {Nea Today; August, 2021}

Many groups, occupations have been severely impacted by COVID – BUT. – for long term health of America – two stand out: damage done to the entire American health profession; damage done to our young, K – college.

Public attacks on medical personnel will never be forgotten by them. The insanity of attacking the ONLY. people allowing America to withstand the pandemic demoralized them. For sheer stupidity – it is unrivaled in American history. Some committed suicide. Many have left.

The damage to America’s children and young adults is disastrous. Their entire lives impacted [for at least] 3 years – at extremely critical periods of life. Many suffering some sort of PTSD – diagnosed or not.
The saddest, the truly. EVIL. part of the victimization of America’s young: they’re innocent. They’ve been victimized by so-called “adults” who “had” to have a beer, a meal, attend a game, etc.
Unwilling to make sacrifices, ANY. sacrifices – America’s “adults” have now, collectively, sacrificed their own children.

Many American adults did “the right things” – social distancing, masks, vaccines – but. – their efforts SABOTAGED by that 25-30% arrogantly demanding their “rights.”

A dictionary definition of TREASON: to give aid and comfort to the enemy.

Vaccine REFUSNIKS are guilty of treason. They’ve sabotaged America just as much as if they were spies forRussia and China.

Neither America, nor any country, will “go back to normal” until COVID-19 is controlled – by. VACCINATIONS. Just like vaccinations all but eliminated small pox, measles, polio>

Our current situation [November, 2021] is. anarchy. We “have our rights.” Nobody can tell us what to do. We owe nobody anything. I know as much as [any expert – I learned it on the internet!!!]. If my conduct hurts you – “screw you.” And they have. We will continue to suffer if some “adults” continue to act like children.

“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” {Abraham Lincoln; l/27/1837]i

“It was decades ago, but SARA…remembers perfectly the panic she felt when she realized a car was following her as she ran along a country road at dusk..She desperately tore into a cornfield and listened as the vehicle stopped…I remember hiding in the cornfield and hearing them and then just running as fast as I could in the other direction and making it out of the cornfield and all the way to my house and being petrified..That experience has never left me, and it’s 25 years ago
“[She} often recalls that evening as she hears comments yelled by passing motorists when she trains along city streets…The killings raised alarms about how women can defend themselves and why they must be ready to fight off attackers in the first place.” [L.Meredith & S.McFetridge; 9/23/l8; Assoc. Press]

This post is inspired by Marilyn French”s 1992 book by the same title. French documents many of the ways “civilization” has treated women as second-class persons, and worse:
“..men-as-a-caste – elite and working class men – continue to seek ways to defeat feminism, by rescinding or gnawing away at its victories [legal abortion], confining women to lower employment levels [putting a “glass ceiling” over professional women], or founding movements aimed at returning them to fully subordinate status [“fundamentalism”].”

But society pays as well. On pages 162-177, French describes “War Against Women In Art” – only this isn’t against women alone: “expression is, and always has been in this and every state since patriarchy, subject to taboos. Taboos are political..exist to keep people from thinking independently, which might make them aware they are oppressed…aimed at precluding solidarity in groups that threaten the elite, mainly people oppressed by the elite. Taboos are enforced by power. In the United States, private expression is free, although small communities censor speech by pressure, shunning,.. harassing..unpopular views.”….
“However, public expression is censored everywhere: either directly [by laws..or by state terrorism] or indirectly, under the euphemism of “the market.” The United States uses both methods…the power of money usually suffices to censor public expression…In the United states, censorship is imposed…by corporations [Tv, print media].”
Creative people [books, TV, film] “..know what they cannot say…self-censorship is even more insidious: restraints have been internalized…America’s ruling class has found a solution to the problem of expression: it is not necessary to maintain a KGB and gulags when you can simply keep dissenting ideas from being diffused.”

Pages 170-172 describe the saga of “Ms” magazine, and the advertiser’s requirements for ads and locations; “to promote a certain kind of beauty, food, and fashion.” One major cosmetics firm refused “Ms” ads because it was selling “a kept-woman mentality.” The male exec said he knew his customers “and they would like to be kept women.” Another major advertiser demanded none of its ads in any issue mentioning gun control, abortion, occult, cults, or disparged religion.
Also: women must be happy all the time
The number one commandment: portraying men-as-a-caste as responsible for women’s problems is forbidden; if one man appears an oppressor, another man must be her savior. When this taboo is broken. “men protest. Primary example: “Thelma and Louise,” which “is radical; it breaks two major taboos: it shows men at war with women, and women retaliating against men.”
“Most films and television shows are produced by men for men. Their main purposes are to show white males triumphant, to each gender roles, and to cater to men’s delight in male predation and victimization of women, especially young, pretty, near-naked women…”

“For GOP Representative Mary Bono, the suggestive comments wouldn’t stop from one male colleague. He even approached her on the House floor to tell her he’d been thinking about her in the shower…”This is about power, said former California Senator Barbara Boxer, after describing an incident at a hearing in the 1980s where a male colleague made a sexually suggestive comment about her from the dais, which was met with general laughter and an approving second from the committee chairman…”When I was a very new member of Congress in my early 30s, there was a more senior member who outright propositioned me, who was married, and despite trying to laugh it off and brush it aside, it would repeat.” [Erica Werner & Juliet Linderman; 11/4/17; Assoc. Press]

French’s pages 181-207 discuss “Men’s Personal War Against Women.” “To be female is to walk the world in fear..” Male violence against women is epidemic because the entire social system [press, police, courts, legislatures, academia, welfare agencies, professions] cooperates.

“Study: Many women report forced first sex..1 in 16 describe such experiences…it happened at age 15 on average and the man was often several years older.”
The results were often traumatic and lasting: “more sex partners, unwanted pregnancies and abortions..more reproductive health problems…Other studies have found..long-term effects of sexual assault may include social isolation, feelings of powerlessness, stigmatization, poor self-image and risky behavior.” Lindsey Tanner, 9/17/19, Assoc. Press]

“Mercy emergency room physician Tamara O’Neal had reportedly broken off her engagement with the gunman…a few months before he confronted her in the hospital parking lot Monday and shot her several times…Mary MacLaren..”That’s the most dangerous time, when the person tries to get out of” the relationship…”The Mercy shootings also highlight the high risk of violence at hospitals and other health care environments…The rate of nonfatal injuries sustained by nurses is three times higher than the average of all other private sector workers..” [“At work, women face most danger from partners, exes.”; Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz; 11/25/18; Chicago Tribune]

“Each year, roughly 125,000 rapes are reported across the United States [14 per hour]…But in 49 out of every 50 rape cases, the alleged assailant goes free…by far the easiest violent crime to get away with.”
“Usually only a certain type of victim will see her rapist prosecuted…We heard over and over detectives use the term”righteous victim”..A woman who didn’t know her assailant, who fought back, who has a clean record and hadn’t been drinking or offering sex for money or drugs – that woman will be taken seriously…In cases of acquaintance rape, detectives expressed doubt and blamed the woman..spoke skeptically of “party rapes,” in which women drank too much “and make bad choices.”
“Prosecutors, particularly elected ones, are measured by their wins and losses..”They only allow certain victims to goto trial…They’ve got to have the perfect victim, the perfect crime, the perfect witness – and anybody who deviates from that is not going to have their day in court.” [“An Epidemic of Disbelief. What new research reveals about sexual predators and why police fail to catch them”; Barbara Haggerty; August, 2019, The Atlantic]

The USA is the only industrialized nation without paid leave for new mothers; almost 1 in 5 families headed by single women are ‘food insecure’; the gender pay gap could cost women more than $430,000 lifetime; 67% of minimum wage earners are women; 35% of American women are living on the brink of poverty; the percentage of women on U.S. corporate boards is about 12%; only 27% of workers making over $100,000 are women; women college athletes receive $176 million less in annual scholarships; 19% of middle and high school girls said they had a hard time studying as a result of sexual harassment in school; women in the military were more likely to be rape victims than be killed in combat; one in 7 women [1 in 18 men] have been stalked to the point of fear; women are afraid to leave drinks unattended at a party for fear of being drugged; just 12% of engineers are women, the number of women in computing was 27% in 2013; the Google-Apple-Facebook-Twitter workforce is 10-20% women. [“79 examples of how women are still treated unequally”; American Association of University Women; circa 2015]

“Kentucky’s ‘child bride’ bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed Concerns focused on rights of parents to allow children to marry at younger age.”….Donna Pollard, a Louisville woman who said she was married at 16 to an older man who began sexually abusing her when she was 14, has advocated for the bill. She told Courier Journal that opponents included the Kentucky Family Foundation, a Lexington-based conservative group…” [Deborah Yetter; 3/4/18; Louisville Courier Journal; USA Today Network]

“Between 2000 and 2010, nearly 250,000 children in the USA under age 18 were married, including some as young as 13. Most of these children were girls; most of the people to whom they were married were much older men…Data show..most of these marriages have tragic consequences for girls on all levels: economic, psychological, physical, sexual. These girls endure poverty, abuse, untreated health crises including those arising from giving birth before their own physical maturation, and the near-certainty of passing on lives of poverty to their children.” [“Rape and Impunity Child marriage is a related example of entrenched injustice”; E.J.K.; 7/30/18; Mpls. Trib]

French: “Humans are the only species in which one sex consistently preys upon the other.” Women are also often treated as a “special interest group”!!!!! 51% of the human population is a “special interest group”. – on par with corporations?
Humanity’s problem is this: in 1992, a serious academic book with the title “The War Against Women”. could be written, with much documentation itself, and far more from other sources. – and NOTHING in the following 30 years is very much changed. Funny coincidence [?????] – similar to humans destroying the planet we live on.

As the top 1%, the corporations they own; right-wingers and their “think tanks”; and their Republican mouthpieces seek to blame Joe Biden for EVERYTHING happening during his first 10 months [they’d include disappearing polar bears, but “they’re not scientists], perspective is supplied by numerous newspaper articles.
REQUIREMENT: the Constitution’s Preamble states the purpose of American government is to “..promote the general Welfare..” What needs to be done – to solve inflation, vulnerable supply lines, “globalizing” the American economy – the benefits 100% of US? Have those opposing Biden offered ANYTHING [realistic] that will “promote the general Welfare? If not, they’re sabotaging America.

1] “Biden inherits economy damaged by pandemic” [Christopher Rugaber, 1/24/21, Assoc. Press]: “President Joe Biden has inherited a badly damaged economy pulverized by the pandemic, with 10 million fewer jobs than a year ago, and as many as one in 6 small businesses shut down.”

2] “Economic dip rattles Biden agenda” [J.Stein, R.Siegel, A.Van Dam; 5/16/21; Wash. Post Wkly]; “Price growth has accelerated every month starting in December..”

3] “Big ship in Suez is a very big problem” [David Lynch, 3/28/21, Wash. Post]: “What began in early 2020 with shortages of personal protective equipment..later morphed into semiconductor shortages that idled major General Motors and Ford plants..the canal incident..could cause global executives to rethink hyperefficient production strategies designed above all else to reduce costs. That “Just-in-Time” philosophy produced fatter profits but left companies vulnerable to unexpected events…”

4] “Just In Time Supplies Are Running Late” [P.Goodman, N.Chokshi; 6/3/21; N.Y. Times]: “..many businesses have combined a dedication to Just in Time with a reliance on suppliers in low-wage countries like China and India…No pandemic was required to reveal the risks of overreliance on Just in Time combined with global supply chains. Experts have warned about the consequences for decades.”

5] “Trade is Choking as U.S. Ports” [David Lynch, 9/25/21, Wash. Post]: “Trucking companies and warehouses complain they can’t find enough workers to keep freight moving…Analysts and industry executives said there is little chance the federal government can untangle the cargo snarl before the financially critical holiday shopping season…The mismatch between surging import volumes and an overwhelmed transport network id dogging the recovery.”

6] “Pandemic disrupts supply chain A to Z” [Peter Goodman, 10/24/21, N.Y. Times]: “The disruptions go back to early last year..Factories in parts of the world where a lot of the globe’s manufacturing capacity sits..China, South Korea..Taiwan..Vietnam..Germany – were hit by the spread of coronavirus cases…shipping companies cut their schedules…timing and quantity of consumer purchases swamped the system…finished products..piled up in warehouses and..ports throughout Asia…heavy influx of ships overwhelmed..availability of docks…came on top of decades of very lean inventories kept by companies to limit their costs…bonuses for executives…Monopolistic tendencies..help explain the shortages [meatpackers]..”

7]. “Annual consumer inflation hits 5%, highest since 2008” [Martin Crutsinger, 6/11/21, Assoc. Press]: “The increased consumer appetite is.. bumping up against a shortage of components, from lumber and steel to chemicals and semiconductors, that supply such key products as autos and computer equipment, all of which has forced up prices…a range of companies have been raising prices or plan to do so, in some cases to make up for higher wages they’re now paying to keep or attract workers.”

8]. “Inflation…The Hidden Meaning of hard-money politics” [Jacob Rosenberg, July/August, 2021, Mother Jones]: “For Michael O’Malley, a professor at George Mason University, the 19th-century arguments rhyme with the Reagan-era demagoguery about “welfare queens driving Cadillacs.” And they were used to similar effect…It was the project of 20th-century reactionaries to obscure the distributive struggles contained within inflation…Thus the austerity of the 1970s and beyond was offered as a technocratic fix..allowing bankers to make a killing…We are still living with the wreckage caused by the old consensus…It was never just about the money. Inflation hysteria is always class war of one kind or another, waged on behalf of the asset-holders against perceived forces of “social destabilization,” O’Malley said. “It’s about the wrong kind of people getting too much stuff.””

9] “Car prices expected to stay high” [Tom Krisher, 9/6/21, Assoc. Press]: “The global parts shortage involves not just computer chips,..beyond autos, vital components for goods ranging from farm equipment and industrial machinery to sportswear and kitchen accessories are also bottled up..”

10] “Worker Shortages Drive Up Food Costs” [E.Elkin, M.Ngoc Chau, A.De Sousa; 9/12/21; Blomberg News]: “Across the world, a dearth of workers is shaking up food supply chains…Shortages are hitting farms, processors and restaurants alike…the delta variant is spreading in places like Southeast Asia…the scramble for staff is compounded by local issues, such as difficult and dangerous farmwork conditions caused by a record U.S. heat wave…”

11] “Natural gas prices soar due to shortage” [John Kemp, 9/12/21, Reuters]: “Last year, volume-weighted global prices fell to their lowest annual level since 1995..the result was a sharp cutback in drilling and capital investment..leading to an unprecedented decline in worldwide output…in. an inevitable reaction, monthly prices have now climbed to their highest in real terms since mid-2014..:

12]. High oil prices are likely to remain” [John Kemp, 10/31/21, Reuters]: “Restrictive output policies from both OPEC Plus and U.S. shale producers have kept global production consistently below consumption since June, 2020. The result has been a sharp drawdown in global inventories, which has lifted prices…”

13] “Many industries Feel Chemical Shortage” [ P.Wiseman, T.Krisher; 10/1/21; Assoc. Press]: “As the economy sank into near-paralysis, manufacturers of all types, slashed production. So they were caught flat-footed..companies were scrambling..panic buying…In 2020, Hurricanes Laura and Zeta pounded Louisiana…Hurricane Ida struck…”The consumer is going to have to pay.”

14]. “Inflation hits economy in places we might not expect” [Neil Irwin, 10/12/21, N.Y. Times]: “Many types of businesses..have dealt with..problems..by taking steps that could give their customers a lesser experience..no daily room cleaning..limited restaurant service..receiving the wrong order or no drink at all..no hot breakfast…”

15] “Oat Shortage Looms” [M.Nicholson, M.Hirtzer; 10/12/21; Bloomberg]: bottom line: will YOU be able to buy your Cheerios?!?!?!?! “Wheat prices raise bread costs” [Megan Durison, 11/3/21, Bloomberg]: “Wheat prices are surging from the U.S. to Russia…The crop..was hit by droughts, frost, heavy rains this year..” Issues: dwindling stockpiles, protectionist measures, import needs, costlier fertilizer.

16] “Cost pressures for companies mean higher prices for consumers” [Thomas Mulier, 10/24/21, Bloomberg]: “Consumers around the world are about to get socked with even higher prices on everyday items…Companies are facing a dire mix of supply-chain challenges…”This is a story that’s consistent across the world..””

17]. “White House takes aim at supply chain” [David Lynch, 11/10/21, Wash. Post]: “..the private companies responsible for the ports, trucks, terminals and trains that make up the nation’s goods pipeline operate beyond easy federal direction…Mahir Rasheed of Oxford Economics: “The persistent mismatch between supply and demand will remain a principal driver of elevated inflation as capital and labor shortages improve only gradually heading into 2022″ he wrote in a client note.”

SO – if you want to blame Joe Biden for inflation and supply-chain problems, then you’re asking him to control the weather, asking him to force OPEC to pump more oil, blaming him for COVID-19, blaming him for the “Just-in-Time business model, blaming him for globalization [shifting U.S. jobs & manufacturing offshore since 1970], blaming him for rising world-wide commodity prices, blaming him for companies cutting back production during COVID, blaming him for workers getting paid living wages, blaming him for price increases that started in 2020

If you want President Biden to “do something.” The only thing he can do is nationalize the U.S. economy. – because it’s private companies that run the entire system. SO – if you want that – it means you’re advocating communism!!!

The real solution: bring back manufacturing and good union jobs to America. – like it was when our side won World War II, the Cold War, and built the greatest middle class prosperity in world history.

Sabotage…. The Founders attempted a “virtuous republic” a nation where people “did the right thing” because it was patriotic. Joe Biden, and America itself, are facing sabotage from the “right wing,” led by Republicans.
Think of America as a football team, with Biden the QB. No football team succeeds if all 11 players don’t work together. The “right wing,” financed by rogue billionaires, has grown increasingly radical, reactionary, and destructive since 1965.

Republican Senate leader mcConnell said in 2009, his major goal was to sabotage President Obama. He said the same thing about Joe Biden. He has, and is, doing everything to achieve that goal – even if it means sabotaging his own country. We all saw what Republicans did in justifying the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Symbolic of recent America is resistance to rational, medically sound science on COVID-19 – again by the right wing. Their refusal to vaccinate, wear masks, etc. means the COVID pandemic will not be easily brought under control. Immense damage has been done to our health care workers. Some have quit. Immense damage has been done to our children. Some have committed suicide. COVID refusniks are modern day “Typhoid Marys” only this time their number is in the millions – having listened to demagogues, media morons, internet idiots.

Because America didn’t invest in itself, we have fallen behind in infrastructure, in public health, in education [is YOUR child’s school equipped with modern heating/AC?], in equitable economic reward distribution – we have not taken care of ALL 331 million Americans. Much of this occurs because of greed – by the top 1%.
There are reasons why America is NOT the happiest place on earth – like we used to be, 1947-1973. Our title now belongs to the people of northern Europe. What do they do that we do not?

This post is inspired by: “The Economist,” September ll, 2021, “why nations that fail women fail;” and “The Atlantic,” January/February, 2019, “The Global Backlash Against Women.” Other information also included.

“What Sani went through was forced marriage at..age..12: something not unusual in [XYZ], where 43% of girls are married off before their 18th birthday. Terrified of her 25-year-old husband, she managed to avoid him for the first two years of marriage. Eventually..he had his friends tie her to the bed and raped her so violently..she had to be admitted tro the hospital for days.” [Population Connection, September, 2017]

The Economist: “Societies that oppress women are far more likely to be violent and unstable..There are several possible reasons..In many places girls are selectively aborted or fatally neglected. This has led to skewed sex ratios..millions of young men..doomed to remain single..more likely to commit violent crimes or join rebel groups. Recruiters for Boko Haram and Islamic State..promise them ‘wives’ as..spoils of war. Polygamy also creates a surplus of single young men..all of the 20 most turbulent countries on the Fragile States index practice polygamy.”
“Outside rich democracies, the male kinship group is still the basic unit of many societies..Societies based on male bonding tend to subjugate women..Dowries or bride prices are common in half the world’s countries.”
“Researchers at Texas A&M and Brigham Young..compiled a global index of pre-modern attitudes to women, including sexist family laws, unequal property rights, early marriage for girls, patrilocal marriage, polygamy, bride prices, son preference, violence against women and legal indulgence of it.. It turned out..highly correlated with violent instability..”
“Oppressing women is not only bad for women; it hurts men too. It makes societies poorer and less stable…patriarchy and poverty go hand in hand.”

“Qualified women in tech dropping out of the industry” [Tracey Lien, 3/8/15, L.A. Times]: “A Harvard Business Review study from 2008 found…as many as 50% of women working in science, engineering and technology will..leave because of hostile work environments…Tracy Chou..a well-known engineer..said she faced an ‘undercurrent of sexism’..that included being bypassed for projects and treated ‘like I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Women may get harassed off STEM career path in academia” [Ethan Baron, 7/22/18, Mercury News]: “In the report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine..researchers lay out three categories of sexual harassment: actions that ‘convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, or second-class status about members of one gender; unwanted sexual attention; sexual coercion that involves favorable treatment in exchange for sexual activity’…higher ed is structured in a ‘patriarchal’ fashion…”Even when they remain, their ability to contribute and advance in their field can be limited as a consequence of sexual harassment..'”

“By the time she was 17, the Dutch teenager had written a harrowing memoir recounting repeated sexual assaults and her subsequent .. post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia…when her sister announced the teenager..had died..’She had stopped eating and drinking,’ her relatives said..Her mother: ‘Noa doesn’t want this life anymore..She just longs for peace.'” [Iliana Magra, 6/7/19, N.Y. Times]

“Japanese medical school altered scores to limit women” [Mari Yamaguchi, 8/8/18, Associated Press]: “Tokyo Medical University manipulated all entrance exams starting in 2006 or even earlier..similar manipulations had occurred for years because the school wanted fewer female doctors since it anticipated they would shorten or halt their careers after becoming mothers..”

“Doctor says ‘women don’t work as hard’ [9/3/19 Associated Press]: “A Plano, Texas, doctor..told a medical publication..female physicians make less because: “Female physicians do not work as hard and do not see as many patients as male physicians..This is because they choose to, or they simply don’t want to be rushed, or they don’t want to work the long hours.”

“Women scientists get less funding” [4/14/19, Chicago Tribune]: “For many women, it will mean they don’t persist,” said Teresa Woodruff, professor of obstetrics and gynecology..and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute..”It’s impossible to measure what we’ve lost as a consequence of inequities.”

The Cost and Consequences of Sexism and Misogyny: We…will…NEVER…know…..

Consider what we DO. know:
-Margaret Kivelson, a physicist and planetary scientist transformed the course of space exploration, reshaping scientific understanding
-Marie Curie pioneered the study of radioactivity; winner of two Nobel Prizes: “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
-Rosalind Franklin played a pivotal role in one of scientific history’s greatest revolutions in genetics. Her work led to revealing the DNA mystery.
-Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” forced rethinking of pesticide effects, which founded the environmental movement.

“I listen to feminists and all the radical gals – most of them failures. They’ve blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go tom the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That’s all they need. Most of these feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they all blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men – that’s their problem.” [Reverend Jerry Falwell]

The Atlantic: “besides their hostility to liberal democracy, the right-wing autocrats taking power across the world share one big thing…..to subordinate women…for most of human history, leaders and their male subjects forged a social contract: ‘Men agreed to be ruled by other men in return for all men ruling over women.’ Trump and his evangelical backers [share] a common desire to constrain the behavior of women..Bolsonaro linked this counterrevolution to a counterrevolution against uppity women..Duterte’s antifeminist crusade..featured the ritualized humiliation of powerful women..Poland’s autocratic government has run ads urging Poles to “bred like rabbits”..
“The first [gender] difference individuals notice,” Valerie Hudson told me, “is the difference between sexes in one’s own home. That establishers the first political order, the nature of how things should be in the country.”….authoritarians often succeed when women – especially feminist women – threaten male dominance of public life in counties where men still reign in private.”
“Compare the U.S., Philippines, Brazil, Hungary, Poland with the countries of northern Europe, where women’s political power has become more normal.” Consider this: virtually every year, polls show “then happiest people on earth” live in northern Europe. This is “just a coincidence”?????????

“Inequality, for women, today, is not an abstraction, but something understood directly through their bodies, through legislative and regulatory efforts to deny them reproductive freedom, through the fear of assault and through the inequities built into our system, from bathrooms to medical research, that makes female bodies – which outnumber male bodies in the United States by several millions – the exception to the male-dominated norms and rules.” [Phillip Kennicott, 1/22/20, Washington Post]

“! in 3 women worldwide has suffered from abuse” [Maria Cheng, 6/21/13, Assoc.Press]: “Among the findings: 40% of women killed worldwide were slain by an intimate partner..According to the United Nations, more than 600 million women live in countries where domestic, violence is not considered a crime.”

“The deadly devaluation of a gender” [The Economist, 3/6/10]: “It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide. Women are missing in the millions..In 1990 an Indian economist, Amartya Sen, put the number at 100 million…The destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons; a modern desire for smaller families; and technologies that identify the sex of a fetus.”

“Pooping woes, gender inequality: Yup it’s a real thing” [Jessica Bennett, Amanda McCall, 9/28/19, N.Y. Times]: “Poop shame is real..disproportionately affects women…the patriarchy has seeped into women’s intestinal tracts…One unpublished study..found that a woman who excused herself to go to the bathroom was evaluated more negatively than one who excused herself to tend to “paperwork” – while there was no difference in the way participants viewed the men.”

“Things protective daughters never told their dads” [Monica Hesse, 10/8/18, Wash. Post]: “Two of my daughters have told me stories that I had never heard before about things that happened to them in high school,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace mused on air…To the father of the young woman..assaulted by the student athlete she was hired to tutor: She never told you because she didn’t want to break your heart…To the father of the junior high student who was pinned down and undressed at a gathering 30 years ago: She didn’t tell you because she didn’t want to see you cry…To the father of the teenager who was raped at a party: You don’t know about this, because she was certain if you knew, you would kill her attacker and go to jail, and it would be her fault….”

“The Price of Speaking UP” [Agata Boxe, August, Scientific American]: “..a 2018 report analyzed 46,210 Title VII sexual harassment discrimination charges filed..found..65% of women who filed such charges between 2012 and 2016 said they lost their jobs after making their complaints.”

“When it comes to sexual harassment, the courthouse doors slam shut” [Jean Boler, 11/21/17, Mpls. Trib.]: “…courts have put up more barriers to women seeking justice after harassment on the job…Conduct must be ‘extreme’ and ‘so intimidating, offensive or hostile that it poisoned the work environment’…three male judges dismissed the case of a woman who had experienced male coworkers standing extremely close tom her with obvious erections, blocking her exit from her cubicle and coming uninvited into her work station…the court acknowledged conduct was “vile or inappropriate,” the case was kicked out because it did not “rise to the level of actionable sexual harassment.”!!!!! The court justified the decision: they’d previously ruled asking a woman to watch porn flicks together and masturbate each other; suggesting a woman would professionally advance if she caused a male to orgasm, or if a male grabbed a woman’s body parts – none of this would be “actionable sexual harassment.” !!!!! What would ?????

“Character attack: Being Skyler White” [Anna Gunn, 8/27/13, N.Y. Times]: “My character..has become a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, nonsubmissive, ill-treated women. As the hatred for Skyler White blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of anger that, at first, simply bewildered me…Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or ‘stand by her man”? …It’s notable..viewers have expressed similar feelings feelings about other complex TV wives…I finally realized..most people’s hatred of Skyler had little tom do with me and a lot to do with their own perceptions of women and wives.”

“Female patients: It’s not ‘all in your head'” [Emily Dwass, 8/3/17, L.A. Times]: “In my case, it took four years and several doctors…Even after my diagnosis I had to contend with dismissive, condescending doctors…”We don’t know what’s wrong with you – but we think this problem is all in your head.” is still amazingly common…the number one concern among women with autoimmune disease is..doctors don’t listen to them…elderly women have to contend with ageism on top of sexism.”

Consider what we know, II:
-Lianne Russell, a refugee from Nazi Germany, changed what we know about X-rays, embryos, Y chromosomes. The benchmark for study of mutations and genetic risk assessment.”
-Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton: treatment of wounded soldiers, the Red Cross
-Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson: African-American NASA workers- the brains behind astronaut John Glenn’s orbit, and more. [“Hidden Figures”. DVD]
-Odette Sansom, World War II’s most highly decorated spy; captured by Germans – survived without divulging locations of other Allied spies
-the “Code Girls,” 10,000 American WW II women who worked to break German and Japanese codes [Liza Mundy’s book by the same title]

BUT. – we will. NEVER know what women have NOT. done – because they weren’t allowed to try……

THE. BIG. QUESTION: can the human race expect to EVER. reach 100% success potential, if we continue to oppress 50% of US? because they were born as a member of the “wrong” gender???????????????????

In early 1972, a former Brooklyn Dodger teammate of Captain Pee Wee Reese explained he would not attend the funeral of teammate Gil Hodges. Nor did he attend the funeral of legendary Jackie Robinson six months later. The man told Pee Wee he wanted to remember the men as they had been in life.

His memories of Jackie Robinson would would be those of the lion, a player feared and respected by all; a man with the courage of ten, saddled with carrying a n entire race; who literally unnerved opponents by his presence on base; who could single-handedly win games any number of ways; who said a life is worth living only if devoted to serving others; who ranks among greatest Americans.

His memories of Gil Hodges would remain those of a gentle giant; the strongest man in baseball who used that strength to break up fights, not start or win them as he easily could; who would calmly walk away from the plate having been called out on a bad call, his teammates raging, place his helmet and bat down and sit calmly on the bench as if nothing happened; a man so secure and serene in his faith nothing ever seemed to bother him; a player so revered by fans everywhere he was never booed.

My father was a great 3-sport college athlete; a leader of people in World War II and his various education jobs; a star in any gathering; a man who shot his age on a golf course late in life; a devoted fisherman; a devoted husband of 5l years; family man who raised three children that all went to college; the best man I’ve ever known. He died from a heart attack driving himself and Mom to the hospital for tests. I did view his body in a Florida funeral home. His three children delivered memorable speeches in his honor. My memories of him are those of a life lived with vigor, participation, and great success.

My Mother was one of the toughest human beings I’ve ever known. She survived losing her mother in very early childhood; losing her father in her twenties; theGreat Depression; living as a single World War II parent; losing his first child at birth; gave birth to three children, the last a difficult birth; breast cancer; losing her soul-mate; and Parkinson’s Disease. Through it all, she maintained her dignity; taught her three kids nothing but love – best illustrated by the “Betty Principle” – the kid who cut the cake got the last piece; stretched out Dad’s early meager earnings; was a great cook; ran an efficient home. My memories of Mom are colored by her demise from Parkinson’s. The last time I saw her, she was struggling along with a walker – refusing to quit, her head tilted to one side. She had earlier said: “old age isn’t for sissies,” and proved it. After she broke her hip trying to use the bathroom by herself, we could no longer talk to her on the phone.

Memories of Mom’s step-mom are colored by the last time we saw her, waving at us through the window of the hospital where she was dying from cancer. I remember her white hair and smile. Lost to me is the life of vigor she led. She traveled to places I’ve never visited. We visited her many times at her elegant giant white house on the hill with the hidden circular staircase, across the road from Fredies farm. Grandma “Dano” still had an icebox, serviced a couple of times weekly. My mind’s eye has her in that hospital window.

Memories of my favorite aunt, Georgia, are colored by the last time I saw her, in a hospital bed, trying to defeat cancer. She lost. I didn’t get to attend her funeral because of a business commitment. Georgia had run an elegant ladies fashion store for about 30 years; she made annual Paris trips to bring back special clothing. My wife bought her wedding gown from Georgia. We once asked her, then in her 70s, why didn’t she retire? She looked at us and said: “What would I do?” End of discussion. Georgia traveled to places other women didn’t. She, was a star of every gathering, by force of her free and only partially repressed spirit. Yet, for all this, my memories remain of her in the hospital bed, vulnerable and largely helpless – which the real Georgia never was.

My memories of Grandma Hilda are colored by the last time I saw her, lying on her side, curled up in a fetal position, saying over and over: “I want to die, I want to die, I want to die.” That poor, small, weak, helpless person lying there wasn’t the real Hilda. The real Hilda made trips downtown on the bus; planned something different to do each day; regularly visited “the old people” in the same Home earlier in her 70s-80s. The real Hilda cooked huge Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts; went fishing with Grandpa; to the Wisconsin cabin; served at church.

Our family had a wonder dog, Rex, a purebred Samoyed, the white haired emperor of HIS back yard. No adult, other than the trusted milk man [they had a thing going] was ever allowed into the hallowed space without immediate loud, and ferocious challenge from a fang-showing, wild-eyed white monster lunging at his chain – which sometimes broke. They were driven to hasty retreat, to meekly ring the front door bell. The same fate, with teethmarks, awaited any dog foolishly invading the kingdom. Size didn’t matter – they all lost, retreated in defeat, never to be seen again.
Little kids, on the other hand, were free to climb all over Rex, pull his long hairs, pull his tail, and otherwise molest his tolerant form. They had a free pass – to a point, which when exceeded, Rex would get up, shake himself free, and walk away.

Rex went swimming with us, got ice cream, and always – demanded the price of exit from the back door – a medium sized Milk Bone. We were “trained” to provide this tribute. If we forgot, he demanded to know why – loudly. Rex hated thunderstorms, the 4th of July and the State Fair fireworks. On those days he would seek refuge in his house and cry. Sometimes we brought him into the back porch with us to comfort him. On one such night, Rex was sitting on the porch, when a huge thunderbolt crashed nearby. Rex jumped up, ran into the living room, jumped onto the couch, right between my sister and brother – and looked at us with – “What do you mean, I can’t sit here? Why not?”

In the mid-1960s, it became apparent Rex was aging. He was getting weaker, having trouble with his stools, and one could sneak up behind him from the rear. Life was becoming a struggle. In 1966, after Rex’s 15th birthday, while I was away on a Canadian fishing trip, Dad took Rex to the vet’s, and had him put to sleep. WhenI came back, Rex was gone. In my mind, the white emperor still rules our back yard; still prances royally; still a wild free spirit, who pulled my 200 pound Dad down the street; the dog who stamped his feet, demanding his Milk Bone tribute – every time, no excuses; the dog who loved everybody except foreign adults and dogs – a memory that will never die.

A QUESTION: – why did we, in an act of mercy, decide Rex, a beloved family member, DESERVED to have his suffering end, that it was cruel to make him continue living. We all loved him, we wanted him to live another 15 years. Life wasn’t the same without him patrolling the empire.
On the other hand – why did we, decide that Hilda, a beloved Grandma, did not deserve to die? She would be compelled to live, and suffer. We ignored her stated wish to die.

Some would say, “But, he’s only a dog. She was a person. She had more rights.” Rex was NEVER “only a dog.” He was a dog by genetics. He probably got more hugs and attention than all of us combined – every day.
Because Hilda “had more rights,” she was expected to suffer. There would be no mercy for her. She had to live by the expectations of others, to the demands of “civilized society.” The memories of her life of vigor, her service to others, her arguing with Bert over cards, her shrieks of laughter. She would not die on her terms, but on others.
In the end – only Rex died with real dignity. Mom, Dano, Georgia, Hilda – they were all compelled to suffer. They had been people of great strength and dignity. They were not allowed to die that way.

Why can’t. YOU. decide terms on how. YOUR. life will end? Why should “the state” decide. YOUR life-ending terms? OR – need we look behind “the state?” What forces/groups put THEIR terms into law on how YOU. die?

In 1641, the Massachusetts legal code’s top three capital offenses were: idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy. The code was based on “Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy>” The infamous 1692 Salem witchcraft trials were mostly prosecuted by ministers.
Since l973, religious war has been waged upon the American public by fundamentalist zealots, demanding THEIR interpretation of the Christian Bible be imposed on YOUo.

One aspect is refusal to honor people’s living wills/health care directives. Read Katherine Stewart’s “The Power Worshippers,” chapter 11 – “Controlling Bodies: What “Religious Liberty” Looks Like From the Stretcher.” Several women victimized by being patients in the wrong hospital. An elderly man dying from brain cancer. He repeatedly asked for information on medically assisted death, legal in his state.
He was repeatedly denied information. The reason: health care directive 61 of those running his hospice: “Patients experiencing suffering that cannot be alleviated should be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.”
A religious group decided the man MUST endure “redemptive suffering.” He would not die on his terms, but theirs. But – “Somehow, John managed to get a gun into the hospice. On the last day of his life, he climbed into a bathtub, put the barrel into his mouth, and shot himself to death.”

Amendment One: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..” The background, THE. CONTEXT, for this statement is in 1776-99 state constitutions. Look them up.

From Edwin S. Gaustad’s “Faith of the Founders Religion and the New Nation, 1776-1826,” pages 133-145, relevant parts for this discussion: Delaware, 1776, Article 29: “There shall be no establishment of any one religious sect in this state in preference to another..”; Kentucky, 1791, Article XII, Section 3: “..that no human authority can in any case whatever control or interfere with the rights of conscience..”; North Carolina, 1776, Articles XXXIV: “..neither shall any person, on any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judgment..”; Pennsylvania, 1776, Declaration of Rights, II: “That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences..”

If YOU. can’t control what happens to. YOUR. body, “according to the dictates of [YOUR] conscience” YOU have NO. RIGHTS.

If “the state,” pressured by certain fundamentalist churches, controls how. YOU die – then America has regressed back to the 1641 Massachusetts legal code, based on three books from a Christian Bible.
Amendment One was written – as per. the. CONTEXT. above – to prevent this. “no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..” MEANS; a church. YOU. don’t attend cannot tell. YOU on what terms YOU. WILL. DIE. That’s exactly what happened to John – in a state he was legally entitled to find means of death “according to [his] own conscience..”

Do. YOU “need”. “redemptive suffering?” Or – have YOU. the constitutional right to dignity in your death, like our family’s beloved dog? WHO. gets to decide for. YOU?

Thanks to the ethically challenged Roberts Supreme Court – America is on the verge of becoming, birth to death, a theocracy – enforced by “the established church” of far right zealots. Executions for witchcraft might soon occur.

Dante Alighieri: “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” His message to YOU: act, or lose YOUR. rights to decide the terms of YOUR life, and death.

For some, this may be “controversial,” for others difficult to accept. My challenge: do fact-based research in mainstream sources.
Following are various insights from Greek-Roman days forward, headlines and book excerpts DOCUMENTING the charge. No “reasonable” person, no real “patriot” will be able to deny a simple truth ; the very rich have sought throughout human history to hide their wealth, pay no taxes on it [because they “earned it all by themself!”], use it corrupting government and justice.
Very important: evidence herein is an exceedingly small portion of the mountains of proven documents about the corrosive, amoral, immoral, selfish greed of those acquiring great wealth. Obviously, not every wealthy person fits this, but millions do.
Much of the obscene wealth could possibly be “forgiven,” even accepted – except for one thing: their arrogant refusal to share any of it through taxes, accompanied by their amoral sabotage of ANY attempt to restrain their selfish destructive behaviors in rigging economies and governments.

Adam Smith: Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality…For one rich man, there must be at least 500 poor.”

“Top 1% of wealthy hold more assets than the entire middle class” [10/11/21, Blomberg – A.Tanzi, M.Dorning]. The middle 60% saw their combined assets drop to 26.6%; the super rich owned 27%. The middle class” share dropped in one generation.”

Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz: “American inequality didn’t just happen. It was created.” [“The Price of Inequality. page 35]

“Plutonomics’: ‘..in a 2006 memo to Citigroup’s wealthy clients, lead ‘strategist’ Ajay Kapur..’Our thesis is..the rich are the dominant drivers of demand’ in the U.S. and other ‘plutonomies.’ How does a country become a plutonomy? One essential factor.. is “favorable treatment by…market-friendly governments to allow the rich to prosper.’ Another is..have CEOs who ‘lead the charge’ on globalization and automation to transfer more of the nation’s wealth into corporate profits ‘at the expense of labor.’ {Mother Jones, March/April, 2011] [Note: this article, and others, calculated the ‘average’ 41-60% American family is ROBBED of $10-11,000 every year by the top 1%]

Abraham Lincoln: “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” [11/21/64 letter]

Kurt Andersen: “During the 20th century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more prosperous. A huge, secure, and contented middle class emerged. Incomes rose in sync. But then the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. Beginning in early 1970s, by means of a long war conceived of and executed by a confederacy of big business CEOs, the superrich, and right-wing zealots, the rules and norms that made the American middle class possible were undermined and dismantled. The clock was turned back on a century of economic progress, making greed good, workers powerless, and the market all powerful while weaponizing nostalgia, lifting up an oligarchy that served only its own interests..” [“Evil Geniuses]

Jesus: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven>” [Matthew 19: 24]
John D. Rockefeller: “God gave me my money.”
Plato: “Very rich and very good at the same time he cannot be.”

Propublica: “Wealthy avoided most U.S. taxes” [6/19/21] The richest 25 Americans paid relatively little, and sometimes nothing, in 2014-2018 taxes. They used various accounting tricks and loopholes [“campaign contributions” at work!]; and because America emphasizes taxing labor income [lower 90%] versus wealth [top l%]. The “true tax rate” for the ultrarich: 3.4% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oliver Goldsmith: “Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.” [1728-1774]

Washington Monthly: “..years-long assault by Republicans on the. internal Revenue Service” [July-August, 2021]. George Bush hired private contractors, who “..ended up COSTING the federal government money.” Republicans “slashed 20% of the IRS’s budget and 22% of its staff from 2010-2018. For people making over $1 million…tax audits dropped by 72% – money the IRS collects from audits fell..40%…Biden’s new IRS commissioner..told Congress the agency is leaving on the table $l trillion a year in uncollected taxes because it doesn’t have enough staff.”

Grover Cleveland: “Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil.”

“Tax firms find way to write the rules their workers leave for fed jobs, craft favorable policies, then return” {NY Times, 9/20/21 – J.Drucker, D.Hakim] “The largest U.S. accounting firms have perfected a remarkably effective behind-the-scenes system to promote their interests in Washington. Their tax lawyers take senior jobs at the Treasury Department, where they write policies…favorable to their former corporate clients, often with the expectation they will soon return to their old employers.”

Adam Smith: “The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respect different from, and even opposite to, that of the public…The proposal of any new law or regulation which comes from this order…ought never be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined..with the most suspicious attention…it comes from an order of men…who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public.”

Forthose thinking the January 6, 2021 insurrection to overturn results of the 2020 election was the first of its kind – you’re WRONG!!! The first occurred in 1933.
Jules Archer’s “The Plot to Seize the White House” states: “The crucial events of the plot to seize the White House unfolded between July and November, 1933, with hearings before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee begun…on November 20, 1934…On February, 1935, the committee submitted to the House of Representatives its final report, verifying completely the testimony of General Butler.”
A group of wealthy industrialists in league with groups like the KKK and American Liberty League planned a fascist coup. They wanted to turn unhappy war veterans into American “Brown Shirts” to depose President Roosevelt and stop the New Deal. The hero was General Smedley Butler, who rejected his proposed “American Caesar” role and revealed the plot to journalists and Congress.”

For perspective on the above, read Charles Higham’s “Trading With the Enemy. An Expose of the Nazi-American Money Plot. 1933-1949.” Declassified WW II documents reveal a long list of prominent “American” corporations supporting the Nazis, even during the war. Edwin Black’s “IBM and the Holocaust” reveals how IBM helped the Nazi war effort. James and Suzanne Pool’s “Who Financed Hitler” documents how. “American” citizens funded Hitler’s rise to power.

Paul Krugman: “We are on a road not just to a highly unequal society, but to ..oligarchy. A society of inherited wealth. When you have a few people who are so wealthy they can effectively buy the political system, the political system is going to tend to serve their interests…” [Dark Money”, page 10}
“…Jeffrey Winters, a professor..specializing in..comparative study of oligarchies, was one of a growing number of voices..beginning to argue..America was a ‘civil oligarchy’ in which a tiny and extremely wealthy slice of the population was able to use its vastly superior economic position to promote a brand of politics that served first and foremost itself.” [“Dark Money”, page 10]
“Let’s call the system..”Citizens United’ and other rulings and laws have created what it is: an oligarchy,’ declared McKinnon. “The system ids controlled by a handful of ultra-wealthy people, most of whom got rich from the system and who will get richer from the system.” [“Dark Money,” page 371]

Gaius Petronis Arbiter [27-66 AD]: “What power has law where only money rules?”

“Trump’s taxes illustrate how the game is rigged” [Jared Bernstein, 10/4/16] “If billionaires..don’t pay what they owe in taxes, there are only three unfortunate consequences: Those of us with less means make up the difference, we lack the revenue to meet challenges we face, or we borrow and run up the deficit.”

Abraham Lincoln: “These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people.” [1837]

CORRUPTION – I – “Leaked records show vast hidden wealth” [4/5/13 – R.Goldstein]. The files show how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy to avoid taxes, fueling corruption and economic woes.”
CORRUPTION II – April-June, 2016 – “Panama Papers show how U.S. citizens hid millions” [6/6/16. NY Times, E.Lipton, J.Cresell] “..Federal officials estimate..the government loses between $40 billion and $70 billion a year on unpaid taxes on offshore holdings.”
“Tax reform advocates say U.S. is a haven for evaders” [4/7/16 – P.Wiseman, M.Gordon] “The banking lobby has resisted changes in the law that would allow more sharing of data,” says Peter Cotorceanu, a Zurich-based lawyer who specializes in private banking.”
CORRUPTION III – “‘Pandora opens up calls for reform. Cache of documents shows how rich and famous hide wealth”[10/5/21 – P,\.Wiseman, M.Gordon]. “Hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have used shell companies or other tactics to hide their wealth and investments…according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.”

Adam Smith: “It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expenses, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

“Free Lunch” [David Cay Johnston]: “The rich and their lobbyists have taken firm control of the levers of power in Washington, and the state capitals while remaking the rules in their own interests…These same people also happen to be the primary source of campaign donations that put politicians in office and keep them there…Rules define a civilization…For more than a quarter century..our government has been adopting rules that tilt the playing field in favor of the rich, the powerful, and the politically connected.”

“Woe to them that make unjust laws.” Isaiah 10:1

CORRUPTION – Issues above discussed America as a “plutonomy” and an “oligarchy.” What must be stressed: this is all planned and organized. This is a documented 50-year project. Some recent studies documented corruption occurring. Several have witnessed foreign corruption, see it in America. If you care, read any/all below:
– Nancy MacLean – “Democracy in Chains. The Deep History of Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America” [2017]
– Jane Mayer – “Dark Money The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” [2016]
– Anne Applebaum – “Twilight of Democracy The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism” [2020]
– Zephyr Teachout – “Corruption in America From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United” [2014]
– Eric Weiner – “The Shadow Network How a Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominates the World” [2010]
– Anne Nelson – “Shadow Network. Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right” [20190
– Sarah Chayes – “On Corruption in America. and What is at Stake” [2020]

Chayes, pages 95-112, describes “the development of a U.S. integrated kleptocratic network like the ones that dominate so many developing countries. It is the most sophisticated, powerful, and threatening such organism to anchor itself in the United States since the Gilded Age.” Leaders of lucrative industries – fossil fuels, private investment firms, tobacco, Amway, HomeDepot, Coors are there. At the HYDRA’s center: Charles Koch. The Koch network includes “dozens” of non-profits, the Federalist Society, universities such as George Mason and many “law and economics” departments; “thousands” of public officials.

THE OBJECT OF MUCH OF THIS; CHANGING THE RULES by which America runs. The Koch network did this at state levels. Lobbyists do it in Washington. Nancy MacLean: “They want to protect their infinite wealth-accumulation from democracy. They WANT PERMANENT,, RADICAL RULES CHANGES that would shackle the majority’s ability to chart our collective future. Up to and INCLUDING CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION.”
The network wants to change HOW YOUNG AMERICANS THINK – at high school and university levels. An insider: “They want to imbue kids with MARKET-BASED MORALITY.” The notion that everything is worth, in moral terms, the price it can bring, that there is nom such thing as a sacred moral value.”

We end asking how a “reasonable person” would judge the Roberts Supreme Court. Examine the entire 2005-20xx. PATTERN. Look past sensational, emotional, threats to the Constitution. Mitch McConnell and the billionaire donors stress issues affecting how government and economy run. The Roberts Court is VERY BIG ON RULES CHANGES. They’ve defined away a number of restraints on business – probably WHY the Roberts Court is ranked THE MOST BUSINESS-FRIENDLY Court since 1945. [remember things discussed above – WHO wants the rules changed]
Look for cases about forced arbitration, limiting class action suits, impedes unions abilities, “free speech’ rulings giving rights to business, multiple rulings sharply reducing or eliminating limits of “free speech” spending of political campaign contributions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a 70% win rate in the Roberts Court.

If you do things suggested above, you’ll have learned why Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz said: “American inequality didn’t just happen. It was created.” and – most importantly, WHO the creators were.
You’ll have learned what Wendell Phillips meant: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty – power is ever stealing from the many to the few.”

YOU need to ACT – because as Dante Alighieri Said: “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”

Those of us whom lived during the peak of American civilization, the great 1947-73 middle class golden age, are now dying. Those of you younger have no clue – and you’re “not supposed to” – of what America was like then. Nothing is ever perfect, but this was as close to it as America has ever come.
As all the above has illustrated, for then very rich – 1947-73 America was “too good a deal” for the “undeserving’ lower 90%. The empire struck back – IT CHANGED THE RULES. The result is 2021 America: the planned DELIBERATE destruction conducted during then Reagan, Bush II, Trump years.

A massive campaign, 1865-2021, using fear and violence, divide-and-conquer, sophisticated propaganda and lies, has been conducted by then top 1% defending their obscene wealth and power. They’ve used religion, perverted economic “theories,’ twisted legal “theories” defending this. 1890s workers were threatened with if “the wrong man ” became president. 1970 forward its “campaign contributions” buying off elected officials, obtaining FAVORABLE RULES. They own a propaganda TV station, numerous reactionary talk radio and internet mouth pieces. They’ve succeeded in dividing a confused, often gullible, public – and laugh all the way to their banks.

Those of us who lived in 1947-73 America have memories of simple things – working over a summer for tuition money at a good private college; people with “just” a high school education supporting 2-3-4 kids on one salary; a government that actually car ed about ordinary people. This – and MUCH MORE – is what has been STOLEN from ordinary Americans, DELIBERATELY, starting in the 1970s, escalating in the 1980s.

It isn’t only memories. As this post has tried to show – it’s in the NUMBERS, the real, UNSPUN NUMBERS. IT’s NUMBERS that led people quoted above to say what they did. It’s NUMBERS that prove the eternal enemy is the GREEDY RICH.

Following are some samples from “What Does It Mean To Be Human,” compiled and edited by Fredrick Franck, Janis Roze, and Richard Connolly:

“Prologue:” “Albert Schweitzer’s life motto..Reverence for Life is the one principle on which a viable ethic can be founded. I saw him apply it in practice while serving on his medical staff in Lambarene..the guiding principle in everything he did. It was totally free from sentimentality. It was simply the avoidance of inflicting unnecessary suffering on any living being and the alleviation of suffering with all the medical and human means at his disposal. Reverence for the mystery of life was for him the basis not only of an ethic but also of all truly human relationships, not only with our fellow humans, but also with all that lives.”

Elie Wiesel: “To the homeless, the poor, the beggar, the victims of AIDS and Alzheimers, the old and the humble, the prisoners..the wanderers in their dreams, it is our sacred duty to stretch out a hand and say: “In spite of what separates us, what we have in common is our humanity. We cannot and must not live isolated from one another…God alone is alone. Our humanity is measured not by our solitude but by our attitude toward someone else’s.”

Mary Evelyn Tucker: “To be human means to take off the headphones and unplug virtual reality. We need to listen again and to relearn the multiple voices of the universe. From these voices will come the songs of healing and renewal…If we are to survive as humans, it is crucial that we learn once again to sing.”

Donella Meadows: “To be human is to be born with an enormous package of potentials, for hatred and suspicion, for love and trust, for greed, generosity, passion, apathy…born into a world that pulls out and pushes back the potentials inside us.. We do a dance, the world and I. Sometimes the world supports part of me. Sometimes it crushes part of me…So I need other people, who have sampled other parts of the world. Together we can make a more complete picture…and remember that the bit of truth I know is not anywhere near all the truth there is.”

Seyyed Hossein Nasr: “To be human means for of all to possess an intelligence which can know the truth and falsehood, beauty and ugliness, goodness and evil…to have free will to choose and, more specifically, the will to choose the true, the real, the beautiful, and the good and attach oneself to them…A human being can be a saint and a seer, a light onto the world, with goodness and charity which knows no bounds. He cab also be so evil that no creature can be compared to him in the degree of destruction and subversion that he brings about.”

Anne Wilson Schaef: “We are all one human family. All members are worthy of respect. We should never trod over others or their property just because we can. We are responsible for our behavior and our actions no matter how young we are or how innocent the motive. It is our responsibility to see how our actions affect others and to do what we can to right a wrong we have created. We are part of a larger whole..When we destroy or damage any part of God’s creation, we abuse and destroy ourselves. Being fully human means accepting the responsibility of knowing we are one with all things.”

Wilma Mankiller; “To be human is to understand our own insignificance in the totality of things. We are interdependent with plants, animals, waters, stars, the Moon, the sun to sustain our lives..To be human is to be concerned with spirituality, whether one expresses it through orthodox religion, ancient ceremonies, or simply by the way we live our lives.”

David Krieger: “To be human is to break the ties of cultural conformity and group-think and to use one’s own mind…to recognize good and evil and to choose good..to consider with the heart..to act with conscience..to be courageous..to choose the path of compassion…recognize our kinship with all forms of life..appreciate every drop of water..to open our eyes to the simple and extraordinary beauty all around us…to love.”

From You don’t Say,” by L.K. Hanson comes this from Frederick Douglass: “Mr. Lincoln was not only a great President, but a great man – too great to be small in anything. In his company I was never in any way reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color.”

From Paul Morgan’s “Impact Images,” comes “The Ten Indian Commandments;”
“Treat the earth and all that dwell thereon with respect. Remain close to the Great Spirit. Show respect for your fellow beings. Work together for the benefit of all mankind. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed. Do what you know to be right. Look after the well-being of mind and body. Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good. Be truthful and honest at all times. Take full responsibility for your actions.”

From Will Durant’s “The Story of Philosophy” comes a description of Aristotle’s ideal man:
“He does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer a kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive one is a mark of subordination…. He does not take part in public displays….He is open in his dislikes and preferences; he talks and acts frankly, because of his contempt for man and things….He is never fired with admiration, since there is nothing great in his eyes. He cannot live in complaisance with others, except it be a friend; complaisance is the characteristic of a slave… He never feels malice, and always forgets and passes over injuries… He is not fond of talking….It is of no concern of his that he should be praised, or that others should be blamed. He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves. His carriage is sedate, his voice deep, his speech measured; he is not given to hurry, for he is concerned about only a few things; he is not prone to vehemence, for he things nothing very important. A shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care…He bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of his circumstances, like a skillful general who marshals his limited forces with all the strategy of war….He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy, and is afraid of solitude>”

The inscription on Jackie Robinson’s tombstone: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

“Who is a wise man and endowed with knowledge among you? Let him show it with good conduct, in deeds done in meekness that comes from wisdom. If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, do not boast of it, and do not deny the truth. This so-called wisdom descends not from heaven, but is earthly, sensual, delish. For where envying and strife are, there is disorder and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
James 3: 13-17

Albert Einstein: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

The United States of America, once “the light of the world,” began death throes in 1980, not then appreciated. Warnings were ignored. The first, ironically, appeared in 1776: Gibbons” “The Decline and Fall of the Roman. Empire.” Tuchman’s “The March of Folly” ignored. Diamond’s “Collapse. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” obviously ignored.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis’ novel, “It Can’t Happen Here” had demagogue “Buzz” Windrip elected president. His campaign created fear; promised drastic reform; promoted patriotism and “traditional values.” In 2016, the outdated Electoral College allowed a Windrip clone to become president. He promoted fear with a divide-and-conquer campaign claiming America undermined by “others” not legitimate “Americans.” His kleptocracy enriched family and close associates, ran up national debt.

Windrip II significantly weakened unwritten “soft” rules underlying American democracy; corrupted language, engaging in word salad pronouncements saying nothing. He corrupted the very purpose of “democratic” government, appointing a cabinet of the rich hating departments they ran; ruled with openly authoritarian practices.

Windrip II capped this refusing to accept his 7 million vote defeat; plotted with inner circle to subvert the 2020 election. Some of this in plain sight, most infamously, January 6, 2021 insurrection. Other revelations became public in 2021, documenting the depth, breadth, depravity of his treason

Windrip II had help. Like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, he had enablers. “A Warning” by a senior administration official, described democratic “guardrails” systematically dismantled. Chapters included “Assault on Democracy.”
Truth-telling books about Windrip II continue being written, by award-winning authors, corroborating Windrip II’s amoral kleptocracy. His “true believers” refuse accepting overwhelming evidence.

There were earlier warnings. Former Nixon lawyer, John Dean’s “Broken Government..How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches” described and predicted what would happen if a Windrip II was elected. Highly respected Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein’s “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks..How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism”‘s conclusion: “The Republican Party..is an insurgent outlier..ideologically extreme; contemptuous of inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science;..dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition, all but declaring war on government.”
There were “confessionals by ex-Republican staffers. Stuart Stevens” “It Was All A Lie” said what was needed was “Burn it [Repub Party] to the ground..{Windrip II] didn’t hijack the GOP..the party had already become [Windrip II], and he or his like was inevitable.”

Windrip II primary victims are truth and language. Read Victor Klemperer’s “The Language of the Third Reich;” Michiko Kakutani’s “The Death of Truth;” Adam Hodges’ “When words Trump Politics..Resisting a Hostile Regime of Language;” “Language in the [Windrip II] Era.. Scandals and Emergencies,” edited by Janet McIntosh and Norma Mendoza-Denton.

1980-2021 pronouncements by authoritarians are word salad and code words. A “yes-no” question results in a 5 minute word barrage, spoken arrogantly and rapidly, at high volume, that says nothing. As Stevens said, most 1980-2021 far right positions and policies are “Al A Lie.” They have to cover up lies, otherwise never win elections. Their weapons: fear and anger, divide and conquer. Their messages delivered by extensive “alternative universe” of media propaganda outlets: one TV station, “talk radio” liars, and internet idiots. The coordinated conveyor belt pushes propaganda lies upward; repeat the lies often.

The propaganda is directed at vulnerable people. We were previously warned. Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer” analyzed the fanatic, compelled to join a cause. Hoffer: “Who is the True Believer? “He’s a guilt-ridden hitchhiker who thumbs a ride on every cause from Christianity to Communism. He’s a fanatic, needing a Stalin [or Christ] to worship and die for. He’s the mortal enemy of things-as-they-are, and he insists on sacrificing himself for a dream impossible to attain.”
Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” analyzed effects of electronic media. His premise: “The form in which ideas are expressed affects what those ideas will be.” We’ve paid a heavy price for printed ideas demise.

Jay Lifton’s “Losing Reality..On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry” discusses “..the cooperation between Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. C.A. ..was largely the creation of Steve Bannon and his billionaire sponsor, Robert Mercer. One former co-executive referred to C.A. as “Bannon’s arsenal of weaponry to wage a culture war on America using military strategies.'”
John Dean and Bob Altemeyer’s “Authoritarian Nightmare” studied why some people are vulnerable to a Windrip II. Altemeyer’s decades-long research, combined with current polling: an estimated 14% of American adults were double risk authoritarians, waiting for the next Windrip, Hitler, Stalin. Some were visible on January 6, 2021
For food for thought: Allen Frances’ 2017 “twilight of american sanity,” and Public Affairs Report’s “What Orwell Didn’t Know,” edited by Andras Szanto

Many believe America is an oligarchy. Start with the easy stuff: from 1947-73, America achieved its peak broad-based middle class golden age; top marginal tax rates averaged 81%; most rich restrained by social mores. Some didn’t like this. High taxes on them “HAD” to go – they did.
Oft-mentioned about the top 1%/corporate revolt, Lewis Powell’s 1970 speech and infamous 1971 “Memo.” Corporate lobbyists multiplied like rabbits. After 1980, election costs exploded. Those who had the play money – top 1% – wanted something; tax lobbying is 50% of D.C. activity; others eliminate labor rights and regulations – both protect the lower 95% – which explains why 2021 America is an oligarchy.
Gone from greatest mass prosperity to: hundreds of thousands of homeless; massive drug overdosing; extensive job “offshoring;” 50% struggling to survive; pervasive hunger; child care crisis….. This DID NOT. happen “naturally.” It was planned.

Beginning of post-1980 theft and inequality comes from unspun IRS income data; March-April, 2011 “Mother Jones;” double Pulitzers Bartlett and Steele’s “The Betrayal of the American. Dream;” Pulitzer winner Hedrick Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?:” “The Cheating of America” by Charles Lewis, Bill Allison and the Center for Public Integrity; the “Panama” and “Pandora” Papers; Charles Ferguson”s Academy Award winner “Inside Job” and “Predator Nation;” Sept-Oct, 2021, stories of top 1% cheating America by $160 billion every year.

Further documentation: Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains..The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America:” Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money…the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right;” Anne Nelson’s “Shadow Network…Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right>”

Quotes from top 1% employee: “Only governments and..courts remained as sources of authority, if enacted Charles’ libertarian policies would eliminate these. “He was driven..to smash the one thing left in the world that could discipline him: the government.: Betsy DeVos [1997]: “Soft money was..hard-earned..dollars..Big Brother has yet to control…I have decided to stop taking offense at the suggestion we are buying influence. Now, I simply concede the point..We do expect something in return.” [IS THERE ANY DOUBT??????] Warren Buffett: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it is my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Republican Representative Fred Heineman: “WhenI see someone..making anywhere from $300-750,000 a year, that’s middle class.” [10/25/96]

The Founders’ #1 fear: corruption. Madison’s notes show “corruption” written 54 times in the 100 days of 1787. America now #24th best in honesty. Money decides elections; foreigners have DC lobbyists; white collar criminals rarely held accountable
Basic info: Teachout’s “Corruption in America.” Sarah Chayes’ foreign service experiences developed her corruption senses for “Corruption in America and What’s At Stake”‘s major message: 3rd world corruption IS. IN. AMERICA. Pulitzer winner Anne Applebaum’s “Twilight of Democracy,” discusses “the seductive lure of authoritarianism,” relating East European tendencies occurring in America.
1995-2021 Congressional corruption now so bad, issues formerly easily discussed and dealt with become “wedges” and “bargaining chips.” Major industries have people they “own” by “campaign contributions” and future jobs. [this from confessions]. Lobbyists write laws, infest Congress, pressure regulators, file lawsuits – whatever “necessary.”

Another major Founders’ fear: religion. Article VI and Amendment One were to prevent corruption – they’ve failed, because of Supreme Court rulings. The Rhenquist and Roberts Courts attacked then “establishment” clause with the “freedom of religion” clause; they’ve made the First Amendment say what Founders explicitly DID NOT say.
Documentation of this corruption can be found examining 1776-1799 state constitutions>. In great detail, those constitutions express an ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL “separation of church and state.” North Carolina, 1776: “..neither shall any person, ON. ANY. PRETENSE WHATSOEVER, be COMPELLED..” to support any church, attend any church, “..contrary to what he believes right.” [ ANY. DOUBT?]
Words from state constitutions, 1776-1799, appear in Article VI and Amendment one: no religious test, no “established [state, official] church., no person compelled to do anything against his will. My challenge to any doubter: look up the original state constitutions, 1776-1799. They have ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS. describing what the First Amendment has in a short phrase. – those constitutions are what Amendment One means
Reactionary religious zealots have very clear goals. “Schools are the battle grounds. The goal of 500,000 born-again Christians working inside the ‘system is to bring public education back under..control of the Christian community.” [Robert Simonds, 1991] 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..pluralism.”

Evidence cited herein, a minute part of 50 years’ evidence, leads a “reasonable person” in one direction: some “AmericanS are planning to end 1787-1980 America. Their goal”. theocratic plutocracy

The plutocratic part has already largely been created. The top 1% and corporations [they own] control the economy; since 1980, a hugely disproportionate share of national income goes to them. Major problems, like the cost and failures of American “health care” are maintained. Fossil fuel powers prevented meaningful action on global warming. There are two sets of”justice:” one for the rich, one for the bottom 95%.
The theocratic part – the voters the plutocrats need – might get their wishes fulfilled by the 2021 Supreme Court. Then far right wing legal “conveyor belt”shoveled Constitution altering cases for decision. Your health choices could be controlled by a church YOU. DON’T. attend. “Sincerely held religious beliefs” getting close to total “get out of jail free” cards for anything. We may have guns for all with little restraint.
One major party supports this – the Republicans. their own people admitted the crazies have taken over; once fringe fantasies now gospel. their 50 year attack on government legitimacy accepted by most Republican voters.

If “Buzz” Windrip II, or III, wins a future election, death of the American democratic republic will be complete – and final. A death allowed to occur; victims watched it happen, did little; some even cheered.
When everybody has “rights,” but no “responsibilities;” when everybody can march to their own drummer because of “rights”. – we have anarchy. When we have anarchy, ground is ripe for “Buzz” Windrip, II or III.

Then, government of the people, by the people, for the people – SHALL have perished from the earth – in the name of “rights.” The American democracy. SHALL. have ended – resulting in a royalty of the rich, a state church, a corporate economy – EVERYTHING the Founders tried to prevent. Madison, Lincoln, Lewis proved very, very, wrong.

This has been said many times: “more people are killed in the name of religion than anything else.”

Europe had religious wars, 1517-1648. The Indian subcontinent divided between Hindus and Muslims – often at war.
“Crusades” attempted to “take back” the “Holy Land” from muslims – committed many atrocities en route.
Muslims divided between Shiite and Sunni. Various “Inquisitions” occurred in Europe over centuries. Jews and Muslims argue over who should be there, in possessions of Palestinian holy sites. “Witch hunts” occurred in Europe over centuries – people accused of working with the Devil. Buddhists expelled Muslims from Myanmar. Anti-Semitism, centuries old, led to Nazi Holocaust. Genocide occurred in the Americas, often in the name of “Christianizing savages.” In World War I, Germans and their opponents both claimed “God is on our side.” Religion justified slavery, then segregation, now discrimination. 1692’s Salem “witch scare” occurred in an atmosphere dominated by fundamentalist religious outlook.

Professor of religion and Middle East religion expert, Charles Kimball’s 2002 “When Religion Becomes Evil” stated “The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion.” They are”. 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.”
Kimball put the American “religious right” and the Taliban on a continuum; condemns religious extremists of all kinds. He noted, in many ways, Osama bin Laden and Jerry Falwell “seemed to agree” on interpreting 9/11 events.
Kimball”. “Christians who say they take the Bible literally are either ignorant or self-deluded. No one takes the Bible literally.”

Stacy Schiff’s “The Witches” details the 1692 Salem witch scare. “When the colonists established a legal code, the first capital crime was idolatry. the second was witchcraft. ‘If any man or woman be a witch, that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death,’ read the 1641 body of laws, citing Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Blasphemy came next, followed by murder, poisoning, and bestiality.”

Founders were students of European and English history – well aware of destructive religious events. Some ancestors were refugees from religious persecution.
Founders had four major fears: abuse of power [corruption], slavery, religion, and mobs. The Constitution and Bill of Rights were to prevent these causing trouble.
England’s 1573 law required people in government taking an oath supporting the Church of England. Article VI of the Constitution: “..but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public trust under the United States.” To a “reasonable person” this is rather obvious and clear, right?????

Considerable effort has been made to distort the First Amendment; have it “say” what Founders explicitly denied. The most egregious of efforts to twist “freedom of speech” into an excuse for many things, including political corruption [the number one Founders concern]. The other most egregious falsehood: deny the Founders intended “separation of church and state.”

First Amendment language is very brief. Too brief to state what many Founding generations. DEMANDED. – TOTAL “separation of church and state.”

We have much the Founders said recorded on documents, speeches, letters, etc. Among the best summaries is Edwin S. Gaustad’s. “Faith of the Founders…Religion and the New Nation, 1776-1826.” On pages 134-145 Gaustad has excerpts from 1776-1799 state constitutions. Every American who questions “separation of church and state” needs to read the very exacting language. These state constitutions are THE explanation what the Founders meant by: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..”

Consider: 8 of 13 original states prohibited ministers serving in their government. Delaware, 1776, Article 29: “There shall be no establishment of any one religious sect in this State in preference to another; and no clergyman or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of holding any civil office in this State, or being a member of either of the branches of the legislature, while they continue in the exercise of the pastoral function.”

Some religious zealots want YOU to pay for their beliefs and churches. Consider North Carolina constitution, 1776, Article XXXIV: “That there shall be no establishment of anyone 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, or has. VOLUNTARILY any personally engaged to perform; but all persons shall be at liberty to exercise THEIR. OWN. MODE. OF. WORSHIP.” [my capitalizations]
Madison and others in the Founding Generations believed to require a person to support THE CHURCH HE HIMSELF attended – violated his religious freedom.

There is NO. doubt “whatsoever” Founders believed any and all recent “voucher” or “scholarship” schemes to get taxpayer support for churches and religious schools are all unConstitutional. All tax exemptions are also unConstitutional – why should YOU pay for a church YOU don’t attend, a church which might be violating YOUR religious rights?
The Founders didn’t believe you should – as above. If requiring YOU to support the church YOU attend was wrong, why should YOUR taxes go to a church possibly hostile to everything YOU believe in?????

Past gifts by American governments to churches have been done on the. ASSUMPTION all churches are “good” for the community. American churches have a long list of exemptions from laws others are required to obey – on the. ASSUMPTION all churches are positive forces for “good.” This is demonstrably untrue.

Note Founders’ language on many documents indicating without doubt – religion was a. PRIVATE. not. COLLECTIVE right. Part of the 1765-1800 American Revolution was against the Church of England – why replace that with another?
The American experiment was the first governed by the people – not royalty, not an official church.

The 1797 Treaty with the Barbary pirates stated America was not a Christian nation. Negotiated by the Washington Administration, signed by the Adams Administration, it sailed through a Congress full of Founders virtually without dissent.

II. The consequences of violating “separation of church and state>”

In 1980-2021 America, we’ve seen the Founders’ wisdom repeatedly proven – by violations of it; by constant attempts to blur the line between church and state.

The American Taliban, the “religious right,” has conducted religious war against mainstream America. They’ve murdered doctors, vandalized and blown ip medical facilities. They’ve conducted a war of suppression against women – demanding women run their reproductive lives according to fundamentalist demands.

In 2021 Texas, we have, so far, the ultimate in “the state” controlling people’s bodies. Texas law allows “private citizens” to become “bounty hunters” of other Americans. Texas now on par with Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, of neighbors turning in neighbors. Texas is on the continuum with Afghan Taliban thugs.

Much of 1980-2021 America is the result of violation of the Constitution’s Article VI, prohibiting a “religious test” for public offices. Republican governors and presidents repeatedly promised “pro-life judges.” The result is thenRoberts Supreme Court. All 6 Republican appointees were raised in one “conservative” church, vigorously anti-abortion.

Much of American politics is determined by candidate’s position on abortion and/or homosexuality. These are. RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES, supposedly forbidden from being enacted American laws.

Why should a church YOU DON’T. BELONG TO. control. YOOUR. life??? Why should this church have. ANY. SAY. on how. YOU run. YOUR. life???? The Constitutions says they can’t. The Founding generations were very clear. NO. NEVER. NOT. AT ALL, UNDER. NO. CIRCUMSTANCES. WHATSOEVER. would this happen. Yet it has.

Without full control over YOUR. body – YOU. have. no rights. If the government, pushed by a church, can dictate YOUR. SEX. and. REPRODUCTIVE. life. – YOU. have. no. privacy. The Puritans own YOU.

Welcome to 1621. – or is it. 1692. – ‘AMERICA”??????????????