Tag: All

Get ready for the understatement of a lifetime. “What an interesting last couple of weeks”.  It’s not often we go from a presidential election that throws out an incumbent resoundingly, but then backs it up with a state election that would determine the balance of power in the Senate. January 5, 2021, Georgia elected not one, but two Democrat senators in a special runoff election. Is it rubbing it in to point out that one of the new senators is black and the other a Jew? I hope not, I’d hate to offend haters.

Speaking of religion I’d just like to point out that both sides were praying to their Gods for victory. From my point of view, I’d say that “the one true God” answered my prayers. I drag religion into the conversation because it seems that a lot of the unrest in our country is being fomented from the pulpits of “Christian” churches all across the country. Parishioners are being called out to ignore the laws of the United States and basically do whatever the preachers interpret the Bible to say, and to enforce those views on the rest of us.

These false prophets casually ignore history. They fail to relate to their followers how the Founding Fathers granted “freedom of religion” to ensure that people of faith would not have to be oppressed by a government sponsored church like the Church of England. The populace is free to practice any religion or no religion as is their choice. These modern day “holy men” are calling on the faithful to live just their conscience and not their citizenship.

Finally, a religion I can get behind. /s

Let’s start with taxes, I don’t want to pay them. I don’t see the need for licensing or registering births, marriages or deaths. All of that information could be used by an oppressive government to seek out followers for prosecution. While we’re at it, let’s do away with everything in Washington, D.C. Why should federal standards be applied to anything? If I don’t want my children to think they’re smarter than me, we can just stop educating them. If I don’t want to vaccinate my kids from polio, why should I? There’s a good chance they won’t get it.

If I’m ok with a coal burning power plant providing good jobs for the people in my area, why should North Carolina care if the smoke blows their way? What’s more, why I should I have to give up any of the Chattahoochee’s water to Alabama and Florida? Let them get their own water. If I want a peace treaty with Iran then Governor Brian Kemp can make it for me. There’s no reason to consider what the other forty nine states think, I believe in government close to home.

Just like those idiot insurrectionists ransacking the Speaker’s office, if I don’t believe in a law, I’m not going to do it. Oh, and I don’t want to go to jail for my civil disobedience. I just want to wrap myself up in my religious cloak of invisibility and move through society unnoticed. Like the churches do at tax time.

All kidding aside, I think there’s the possibility that the religious right has a problem comprehending a document with more than ten rules to live by. As we all know, most people have a problem running afoul of the Bible’s Basic Ten. I think the Donald just sees the Ten Commandments as a things to do list.

The U.S. Constitution currently has twenty seven amendments, or rules, all voted and ratified by each state. Has anyone ever taken their religion to all fifty states and asked for a straight up and down vote to see what the majority of the residents feel? I don’t think so.

To simplify things, I’d like to direct the congregation to the words of our main guy, Jesus. Jesus laid down the relationship between citizens and their government in Matthew 22:15-22. The phrase “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s” pretty much covers the subject for me.

Apparently, 2000 years ago Jesus recognized there would be conflicts between what the converted wanted to do and what their responsibility as citizens required. For you true believers out there, if your conscience won’t allow you to keep the law, do what Jesus said you should do, go to jail.

Some folks who claim they believe in Democracy and our American way of life, folks who are willing to spend our treasure and our youth to push our system on the other peoples of the world, have placed under attack one of the cornerstones of our Democracy, the 14th amendment.

For those of you unfamiliar, here is an excerpt:
Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The timing of the 14th goes back to post Civil War when the “back to Africa” crowd wanted to deny all rights to the recently freed slaves. To protect the blacks, and each succeeding generation, the 14th was adopted to determine that any baby born on U.S. soil was a U.S. citizen, and therefore entitled to all of the rights and privileges of a citizen. It didn’t matter where your parents came from, or how your parents got here, if you were born on American soil, you are an American citizen.

To double down on the concept, the amendment prohibited any state from making specific laws that would inhibit the enforcement of a citizen’s rights. This is the oft referred to “equal protection under the law” that comes in to play when a group/class of people have the expectation that an act permitted in one state should be allowed in another. Think gay rights or voting.

Currently we have a group of politicians that want to repeal the 14th amendment to improve the survivability of the Republican party, and to grease the wheels on the “back to Mexico” bus. If the “back to Mexico” crowd can deny the Hispanic children their birthright of American citizenship they can avoid one of the legal hurdles in rounding everyone up and sending them back over the Rio Grande. If this proposal succeeds, all of those naturalized Hispanics of voting age will have lost their right to make a difference in our leaders, their voice in our democracy.

Is it irony that the proposed changes to the 14th comes from those strict constructionist politicians that would have us all die in church at the hands of a madman rather than arrange one comma in the 2nd amendment? I hate a hypocrite worse than anything.

One would assume that any current Hispanic citizens by birthright would be grandfathered in to whatever these new “14th Amendment Freedom Fighters” are going to propose. These citizen’s votes should stay solidly in the Democratic party’s camp. It’s also likely that any “right leaning” Hispanics might have voted for the Democrats in this election out of fear for having some other indignity imposed on them in the future. If the “back to Mexico” bus leaves on time, then the “red states” with high Hispanic populations will likely go from purple back to solid red, for a while.

Modifying birthright citizenship probably doesn’t stop the inevitable, just delays it for another election cycle or two. I guess that would give The Donald or the next Republican president time to declare martial law and require all of us to have our immigration genealogy verified. But, where does the backward immigration verification stop? Is the Irish Immigration far enough or do we go all the way back to the Mayflower?

A new industry, Citizen Validation, is born, and a dying industry, bus travel, has a boon. All of those menial tasks now performed by immigrants hoping to make life better for their descendants will be filled by white anglo-saxon protestant losers who wouldn’t know democracy if it hit them over the head.

Sieg Heil, y’all, welcome to your new jobs.

In his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961, President Eisenhower counseled the nation:
“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

The Commander in Chief, the former Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and the first Supreme Commander of NATO, thought it was important to give a warning to the American public before he passed from the spotlight. What a warning it was! Simply put, be wary of those businesses that make armaments their livelihood.

In the 60 years passage of time since Eisenhower’s address we have seen the “total influence” be “felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government.” The military industrial complex has spread itself far and wide into as many communities as possible to ensure that every politician can “bring home the bacon” for his district. This proliferation makes it very hard for a representative to vote for defense budget cuts when it would possibly result in job losses for his constituency, not to mention the loss of contributions. No one seems to question if these government funded jobs could be for industries that raise the human condition, not destroy other humans.

We have observed the impact economically, politically, and most importantly, spiritually. As a nation, our moral center seems to be off kilter. Where America once went reluctantly to war, it seems that now we have adopted the gunslinger attitude of shoot first and ask questions later. Is the arrogant bully the image that peace loving Americans want to give to the world’s community? Do we raise our children to be used as cannon fodder, or as implements to sell more product for the munitions manufacturers?

We know the ice cream vendor can’t wait for the first day of summer, while the mitten maker prays for snow. Every business has its most opportune times to sell the most of their product. So it is with the arms maker, stir up a conflict and those assembly lines start humming. War is much better for the production line, and the bottom line, than just replacing worn out equipment. Of course replacing worn out equipment would come under the heading, “provide for the common defense”. The term “protecting our vital interests” is used to describe our current level of militarism.

There are over 800 U.S. military bases around the world, 800. Why? There are 6 bases in peace loving Italy. The largest physical base outside of the United States is located in Greenland. The largest accumulation of personnel is in Ramstein, Germany. Why? It’s been estimated that by closing the military bases in just Europe it would free up enough tax dollars to provide free kindergarten through graduate school education to all American citizens. If brought to a vote, would the American people vote for bases in Europe or college for their kids? Maybe I’m wrong, but I think most of us would vote for our kids.

I’ll save the proliferation of weapons in the homeland for another time. The images of the Capitol under siege are too fresh.

A famous law professor once told his class, “We are here to protect the sheep from the wolves”. Further adding that the “wolves can take care of themselves, even against other wolves”.

As we ponder how the recent killings by police have resulted in no indictments, we wonder what can be done to tip the scales of power to where justice is blind and all men are treated fairly and equally by the court system.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. At the end of May 2020 the rate was 655 incarcerated per 100,000 population. Currently there are 2.3 million people in jail. Equally as important is the fact that 113 million, one third of the population, has been to jail or had a close family member incarcerated. Are we as a people really that immoral, or is our court system just extremely good at locking us up?

Roughly 52% of those incarcerated in state prisons were for violent crimes, and no one can make an argument for allowing those harming others the opportunity to walk free. What can be said about the other 48%? Can we explain why half of the prisons’ populations are made up of non-violent criminals? We already know it’s not the white-collar criminals who are guilty of insider trading off of the Covid crisis. To date none of them has even been charged, much less brought to trial.

From 1980 through 2003 prison populations quadrupled. Can we explain why such a tremendous surge during this period? As the old saying goes, “follow the money”. The two biggest factors, the war on drugs and for profit prisons. From 2000 to 2016 incarceration in private prisons increased by 47%. I guess the states couldn’t build as fast as they could lock them up.

The various U.S. federal and state governments spent over $47 billion dollars in 2018 on the War on Drugs. That’s right, one year, $47 billion dollars. The spending resulted in the incarceration of 1,654,282 offenders. Of these, 1,429,299 were for possession only, not Mafia kingpins. Although comprising only 13% of the general population, blacks made up 27% of the arrests.

In 2018, 67,367 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States.Two thirds of these deaths were due to opioid overdose. Of these deaths, two thirds were due to synthetic opioids. We all know now who the kingpins behind the synthetic opioid markets are.

Let’s ask ourselves a couple of basic questions:

1. Is the war on drugs working, are there less drugs available? Couldn’t you find anything you want on the street in an hour? So the answer is no, the war on drugs is not working.

2. Is incarceration a viable solution for drug offenses? California estimates to spend $47,000 a year to jail a person. Using $30,000 as an average for all states, the total comes to $2,694,000,000 (2.7 billion) each year to lock up just drug offenders.

3. Is the punishment being meted out fairly? In information compiled by the FBI, it shows that over a ten-year period, from 1995 to 2005, whites made up 68.9 percent of the total arrests and blacks made up 27.8 percent. Of the 2,131,200 incarcerated in all facilities in 2004, 42.7 percent are black, 18.5 percent are Hispanic, and 36.5 percent are white. It appears that while justice may be blind, it’s not color blind.

The beneficiaries of the “war on drugs” are obvious. It’s the same military industrial complex outfitting our excursions into other countries. If one couples the desire to have a country engaged in an endless, unwinnable “war”, to a desire to lock people up for profit, you’ve created an unstoppable juggernaut for filling prisons.

Time was my Daddy would come up with a witticism that would fit a situation perfectly. He might say my current situation put me, “between a rock and a hard place”. I might describe the situation to him as just being “common sense”, whereupon he would inevitably tell me that “common sense isn’t very common”.

After watching the news about two more police shootings of unarmed black men in Ohio, I went back to review what I thought was the most egregious police shooting ever recorded. As I watched the Youtube of the Tamir Rice shooting unfold on my TV, I have to say Daddy was right. Common sense seems to have no place in the events, or in the aftermath of the police shooting of a twelve year old black boy.

In case you are unfamiliar with the story, Tamir Rice was playing with a BB gun outside of a recreation center in Cleveland, Ohio. Possibly he was pointing the gun at passers by and going “pppeewww, pppeewww”, simulating the sounds of bullets. Possibly he was just pointing the gun at folks, or maybe he didn’t point the gun at anyone. In any event, someone dialed 911 and called the police on this black child who had scared them.

In the 911 call, the caller even mentioned they thought that the gun was a toy, but that fact didn’t strike the common sense part of the responding officer’s brain. Within three second of arriving on the scene, Tamir Rice was shot dead. As improbable as it sounds, it was death by firing squad, without arrest or trial. Click here to see the video, the shooting occurs at about the 1:03 mark, by 1:07, Tamir is dying. Continue to watch the video to its end and see if you see the officers trying to offer assistance to the child they had just gunned down. If these two officers are an example of Cleveland, Ohio’s “finest”, well, what can I say?

Common sense tells me the police involved in the shooting didn’t use standard procedure in this case. If this is police policy, then all of the folks that I’ve been describing as wackey-doodle for gathering up arms to oppose the impending “government takeover”, may be right. If police policy is for police to receive a 911 call describing a child with, “what could be a toy gun”, and to roll up in their car ten feet from the suspect with guns drawn, and immediately shoot the suspect, then I’d say we have reason to fear a “police state”, and, common sense has left town for good. 

The grand jury decided that the police men involved acted reasonably, and decided to not indict the officers for murder. This lack of compassion or sense of justice has led me to believe that common sense has left Cleveland, Ohio forever. Imagine how all of the parents and grandparents who gave their kids the latest look a like weapon toy must feel. A gift of a toy gun makes their children fair game for the police while real guns brandished by hate groups are ignored.

Common sense in Cleveland, Ohio is clearly different than what goes for common sense in Cleveland, Georgia.

Common sense says that if the police are overreacting because of a fear brought on by the proliferation of weapons in our society, we need to fix the proliferation, not shoot the children. Common sense says when you find out that you’ve got two officers so out of control from fear, or prejudice, that they’re shooting first and not even bothering to ask questions, that you need to prune those branches from the tree. Common sense tells us that the city will save money by firing bad officers rather than paying out awards in wrongful death suits.

Like my Daddy said, “common sense isn’t very common”, but my common sense says this child should still be walking among us.

This post is not yet published.

With all of the recent folderol about fraudulent elections and how we can just stomp our feet and make something not so, I watched with extra care the actions of our three new Trump appointed Supreme Court justices.

Amy Coney Barrett makes the 6th Supreme Court justice of the Catholic faith sitting on the highest court in our land. Catholics represent about 20 percent of the general population in the U.S. For some reason the Catholic faith is represented by two thirds of the judges on the Supreme Court bench. Talk about court-stacking.

While the courts, particularly the Supreme Court are suppose to cast personal opinions and beliefs aside to apply the law, it appears to be easier said than done. One of the most controversial issues facing the current set of justices is the movement from several states to abolish abortion for any reason.

The “no abortion for any reason” proposal doesn’t recognize the age of the woman, or cases of incest, rape or danger to the mother. If the woman (age 12 to 82) is able to conceive, she would be legally bound to deliver the baby and do “whatever” with it after birth. These lawsuits are always brought by conservative groups who want to shape the rest of the world to their way of thinking.

If we ignore the fairness of the policy for a second we can deal with the most obvious flaw as far as conservatism is concerned. The prisons are full of unloved, unwanted children who became society’s misfits. Why would Conservatives ever want to create future drains on society? The concept seems antithetical to Conservative views. It costs $31,000 a year to house a convict in the U.S.

To say that a woman (age 12 to 82) must give birth is so blatantly unfair to the woman that she might just as well live in Afghanistan where she could have her nose cut off for going to school. If we can’t see the folly of the policy for the financial implications on society alone, can we at least tap our internal empathy and agree that we don’t want the state to regulate our reproductive organs?

I always ask myself the question of how these ultra righteous Republicans like Brett Kavanaugh would react if the shoe was on their foot. What if he had a daughter that was raped or the victim of incest? What if she begged her daddy to not have the child, how would he respond? If his daughter begged to not have her options in life curtailed by an action that she had no control over, how would he respond? Would he send her to the Sisters of Magdalene to keep their little “secret” secret? Would he insist that they keep the child and raise it as their own?

Justice Kavanaugh might be a man of his convictions and force his daughter to give birth, if so, I give him points for not being a hypocrite. That said, I would also say he is one mean black-hearted son of a bitch. Children raising children is not a condition we should ever be faced with. Children born into homes where they are unwanted or unloved is not a condition we should ever be faced with.

So I say to the male members of the Supreme Court and the one female whose patriarchal religion clouds her vision, “Have You No Sense Of Decency, Sir, At Long Last?” Can we all agree that a women’s right to determine whether she is ready for motherhood resides with the woman?

Mothers are elevated to a deity status in the South. I don’t know when it started or what precluded taking the Mother worship to the next level, but there it is. It is an immutable fact of life in the South. Elvis Presley’s famous relationship with his Mother was the most public example I can remember of a powerful man becoming a little boy again when in the presence of his Mother.

Growing up in the 1950’s in the South, I remember that the important things in my life were sports and my friends. The emphasis on sports came from my Dad, who I think was trying to ensure that I didn’t become “light in my loafers”. That’s a story for another time.

My friends were a collection of kids from the neighborhood, all within four or five years of me. I was the youngest and smallest, but I tried extra hard. No one wanted to always be the last one chosen in our pickup games. We recognized two seasons, football and baseball, both to be played in a little park across the street from my house. The park was about forty yards long and twenty yards wide and was built on a slight grade. At age nine I remember the field being as big as Soldier Field and the grade being like Everest.

Offense always went uphill, whether we were batting or receiving a kickoff. We would take on the persona of our favorite athletes and we did the best we could to emulate Mickey Mantle or Johnny Unitas in our play. The games were always hard fought, for the “championship of the world”, and were only broken up by lunch or the inevitable sunset.

We were an isolated community, and it was quite shocking to have a group of black kids our age show up one fall day and ask to play in our pickup game. I think David Livingston aka Liberace, knew the eldest black kid, and that may have been the connection to this improbable scenario. As there were less of “them” than there were of “us”, we were forced to choose mixed teams, preventing the desired “whites vs. coloreds” called for by some of the older boys.

What transpired was my introduction into how a game could become a sport. The play was faster, the hitting was much harder and the intensity was at a level I had never experienced. There was blood, but there was athleticism and respect. I have no idea whether I was on the winning side or not. I just recall be called for lunch which was our cue for the end of the game. Both sides were dirty, sweaty and thirsty.

As I headed to my house, a bunch of the guys asked if they could get a drink of water before heading home. I said “sure” and was leading a procession through my front door when we were blockaded by my Mom. She promptly shooed us to the spigot on the side of the house. Since we did not have a hose on the spigot, you had to get on your knees and turn your head sideways under the spigot to get a drink.

Communally using the spigot while on hands and knees in the mud was not exactly an ideal situation. The gang demanded that I get a glass from the house. Once again I was blockaded by my mother who delivered the instructions loud enough for everyone to hear that I was to “get rid of everyone as soon as possible”.

When I returned inside I was berated for bringing coloreds into the house (stealing the family silver??) and asking for a glass (transmission of disease??). I was let known I was to never associate with those boys again. Furthermore, if I snuck off and associated with “that gang” again I’d get whipped.

I was given a racist anthropology lesson and confined to my room for the rest of the day. The confinement was fine because I was worn out. Unfortunately, the lesson started me down a wrong path that I continued to follow for a long time.

This racist world view was my dictum until 1967 when I made my first black friend. Fortunately for me the world was changing, and I was able to change with it.

Mom passed this past Saturday. RIP, Mom.

“To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Reflecting on the election of 2020 and the threat to our continued Independence, we have to acknowledge that 70 million of our fellow citizens are ok with totalitarianism. In spite of the sacrifices made by so many to ensure the freedoms we still enjoy, there are many of us who are willing to chuck those freedoms to follow a personality. While we watch armed militia members tromp around espousing their freedom to not wear a mask they seem to ignore the loss of many freedoms that they once enjoyed unfettered. Worse, these “saviors of freedom”, these “Patriots” fail to champion the rights of all groups to attain the basic freedoms.

Many of us have fathers, grandfathers or other loved ones who served in World War II. They fought the “war to end all wars” to stop the spread of Fascism and to keep America free for our generation and generations to come. Other loved ones have answered America’s call in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan, where the immediate threat to America’s security has been less clearly defined. What has the sacrifice of millions of lives and trillions of dollars bought for future generations? Shall we begin with the Patriot Act?

In the most glorious example of Orwellian doublethink, the Patriot Act was passed by Congress and signed into law as a response to 9/11. One presumes that the “Patriot” in this scenario is the citizen willing to give up all of their freedoms so that the writers of the bill, and those that they serve, can feel safe. Where American citizens were once “presumed innocent until proven guilty” we are now presumed guilty until we prove our innocence. Overstatement? Have you flown lately?

Placing a higher value on property over the individual is a hallmark of the corporate, and here I’ll use the F word, Fascist society. There are roughly 40,000 lives lost annually due to auto accidents. Annually, it would take roughly 200 terrorists successfully meeting their maker to achieve the same death toll for the airline industry.

Why is the rather continuous annual loss of life by one method of travel acceptable and the other so sacrosanct that we are subjected to illegal searches? Obviously, planes cost a lot to replace. Payouts by insurers for loss of life are much higher in a plane crash. But most importantly I suspect, there might be someone really special flying with us. Hope they’re wearing a mask.

“To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.”

When you know that under the Patriot Act, your phone can be tapped, your mail and email read, your bank accounts monitored without a valid warrant, do you feel independent? While being viewed naked by a TSA screener do you feel like you are being respected? With the ongoing destruction of the middle class and the greater and greater disparity of wealth do you feel a “oneness” with your fellow citizens? At the end of the day do you have the feeling that we’re all in the same boat together?

To return independence, self respect and a feeling of oneness to the American people we must eliminate the corporate influence and special interests in our campaign contributions. Public funded elections is a good place to start. Amending the Patriot Act to comply with the 4th amendment would be another. It’s what the founding fathers would want us to do.

Since the beginning of time, one religious leader or another has been predicting the “end of days” or the end of times. Despite thousands of predictions by thousands of prophets/ leaders, if you’re reading this, we’re still here.

One widely publicized revelation by a California prophet/radio show host that affected hundreds of believers, had “the rapture” set for May 21, 2011. The “seer”, Harold Camping, later revised his calculation, which, by the way, was a revision of a previous non-rapture. Camping’s personal rapture came two years later on December 15, 2013. He “entered the portal” alone.

How do these “prophets” get followers? How do they convince their followers to sell all of their belongings, tell their extended families goodbye and then wait patiently for the end?

Once thrown by the horse of sophism, why do these duped followers climb back on the horse again?

Try to get inside the mind of someone who believes that their higher power specifically waited for them to be born so that the higher power could then end the world for everyone. Think of the greats that have gone before, DaVinci, Einstein, Ghandhi, et al., and yet, for some reason, the timing was not right until that specific believer got here. To me, this is the height of narcissism.

This narcissistic world-view pervades everything for these followers of the “end of times” philosophy. Fortunately, the founding fathers of the United States left us with a document that draws a line strongly between church and state, between faith and government policy, between “I believe” and fact. Unfortunately, that line gets crossed way too much. Particularly of late.

During the 1980’s, James G. Watt was the United States Secretary of Interior to Ronald Reagan. While testifying before Congress, Watt said, “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns, whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations.” While he was speaking of a time of “future generations” he was also suggesting that all 80 million acres of undeveloped land in the United States be opened for drilling and mining. Sound familiar?

As a Pentecostal, Mr. Watt was a believer in the rapture. If one believes in the scripture that “no one knows the day or hour”, then one could believe the rapture would be in their time. Logically, if the righteous are all about to be called up to heaven, why not leave behind a world stripped of all of its resources?

I for one don’t believe the Donald has one religious bone in his body. He worships the dollar and what it will buy, particularly the power. The fact that the Donald doesn’t believe doesn’t mean he is above manipulating those that do. In fact, they’re his meat. If he can whip his cult into a frenzy he will say anything, deliver any cockamamie theory, tell any lie to stir up his minions.

Now the election is over; more than half of the voters have demanded with their vote that the time for lunacy needs to come to an end. Nearly 80 million people voted in life threatening circumstances for a return to sanity, a return to decency, a return to rules and laws being followed and enforced.

The “prophet” Donald Trump, without benefit of medical degree, or probably any degree, has been demanding that his cult ignore sound medical advice in order to keep the DOW averages up.

“I just need you to drink this cup of Koolaid so my Kraft Heinz stock stays healthy.”

The majority of voters have demanded an end to the temper tantrums thrown by the cult leader that has resulted in the deaths of at least a quarter million of American lives. Some of these voters will have undoubtedly given their life by insisting that their voice be heard.

Believing that he alone can fix it has allowed the Donald to shout down, fire, harass and threaten the experts while he exhorts his followers to follow him into the emergency room carrying the deadly disease.

Is this obtuseness a campaign to infect us all a part of his “final solution” or just the height of narcissism?

From an early age we are all taught the pledge of allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. It’s unfortunate that at that early age we are also not taught that some in our society can afford to have more justice than the rest of us. In fact, I guess some could truly buy a Justice.

In the 2010 decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court took the position that campaign contributions are “free speech” and the legal entities known as corporations have rights guaranteed to them under the First Amendment.

In writing the majority opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy declared, “If the First Amendment has any force it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” Note that twice in that sentence Justice Kennedy used the word citizen. Merriam-Webster defines citizen as: “an inhabitant of a city or town; especially : one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman.” So we could conclude that Justice Kennedy was referring to an association of inhabitants in the phrase “associations of citizens”, not the legal entity know as corporations.

I’ve always been taught that for privileges there must be responsibilities. Some of the responsibilities of being a citizen are: obeying the laws, paying taxes, serving jury duty, serve as a witness, register for the draft and to vote. One could argue that voting is both a responsibility and a privilege, and I think most people the world over would think it’s a privilege. In a representative democracy, voting is how we elect the leaders who will watch out for the people’s interests and put the citizens’ interests above all other considerations.

When comparing how a corporation measures up to being a citizen using the responsibilities outlined above, what comparisons can be made?
1. Obeying the laws: While corporations are not setup to specifically break laws, they are setup to take advantage of a different set of laws, and in all cases these laws provide limited liability to the formers of the corporation.
2. Paying taxes: Avoiding taxes is a primary motivator for forming a corporation.
3. Serving jury duty: Have you ever seen a corporation or its representative in a jury pool?
4. Serve as a witness: see number 3.
5. Register for the draft: While multi-national corporations have required that our children go to war to “protect our vital interests abroad”, you’ll never see a corporation or CEO in basic training.
6. To vote: If you count pouring tons of money into campaigns of favorable politicians as voting, then yes. But then you would have the corporation exercising the highest privilege without any of the responsibilities.

Separating money from the election process is probably the most democratic action we could take as a nation. What if the elections were public funded? What if each candidate had a set budget that couldn’t be exceeded? What if each candidate had to gain an increase to their base the old fashion way, by knocking on doors? What if members of Congress didn’t spend 50 percent of their time raising money and instead did the people’s business? What if the election season began September 1 of the election year and ended October 31st? I know I for one would be happier seeing less ads.

This election cycle is supposed to have generated 14 billion dollars in campaign spending. What if public financing reduced that to 1 billion, divided equally to the parties based off of registration? The party with the most registered voters gets the most money. Want more money? Go convince voters that your message is better. Very simple.

I remember a time when rich kids bought their way out of service with a doctor’s note. Now the Supreme Court has given monied interests the ability to avoid all of the responsibilities of citizenship while using their influence to determine the outcome of elections. We as citizens know that the “founders” did not intend this perversion of the Declaration of Independence.

There’s an old saying, “if you lie down with dogs, you’re going to get up with fleas”. Maybe term limits for Justices of the Supreme Court is the answer. It would certainly lessen their exposure to the dogs. More importantly, it will make them more acutely aware that soon they’ll be walking again among the people who expect justice for all.