Author: Barry Wallace

The Supreme Court: Trump’s Greatest Achievement

The oneJoe Biden has accomplished so much for Americans, the environment, and American’s renewed respect and standing in the eyes of the world. But the country, the democracy, may well be lost due to the one glaring mistake he made early on.

This one is a MUST read.

There is a VERY REAL possibility that Trump could end up owning this country, running it from the White House as the dictator he has always wanted to be, wiping out any chance of holding him responsible for his crimes and making MAGA and the Evangelistic American Taliban the law of the land.

And the Supreme Court of Donald Trump, carefully crafted by Trump himself to do exactly what we see them about to do, will make it happen.

And what happens then? a 2nd American Revolution led by the military? A 2nd Civil War? Concentration camps for Democrats and non-loyal “rinos,” and members of the media who dare to toe the line? And yes, the idea of incarcerating all who object to Trump has already been floated, by Trump himself.

Kari Lake’s “strap on a Glock” statement may end up being all too realistically the question facing all Americans who don’t wish to be governed the way Putin governs Russia.

The Supreme Court of Trump will give America’s wannabe dictator the opening, leading up to an election his Republican followers are already making plans to steal.

Joe Biden has accomplished so much for Americans, the environment, and American’s renewed respect and standing in the eyes of the world. But the country, the democracy, may well be lost due to the one glaring mistake he made early on. With control of the President and both houses of Congress, he refused to do one critical thing. He refused to add members to the Supreme Court to even it out.

One mistake in judgment. One step too far in avoiding controversy. One misstep in the name of maintaining a supposed harmony the right wing threw away years ago in their quest to own it all.

 

The Monster That We created is happily killing Just About Everything Including Us

It is apparently indestructible and impossible to slow down, much less stop; It’s like the Martians from “The War of the Worlds,” but it’s immune to the germs that saved us from them

Hi there. Welcome to the Wallace Element. I’m your host Barry Wallace. As I record this, it’s Monday, March 25th. My goal is to get two or three episodes out each week, and I’m running behind schedule, so let’s get things going.
First a humorous story and a new addition to the Wallace Element. According to the story, two women who attended college together met twenty years later. One of them had gone on to become a teacher, while the other had been born into money, married into more money, loved to tell everyone about her globe-trotting lifestyle, and was not above exaggerating. She immediately started telling the teacher about all the trips she had taken, the places she had seen and things she had done, while the other one just smiled and occasionally said, “Oh my.” Finally the first lady ran out of steam and asked her old friend why she kept saying “Oh my.” The other woman replied, “Well, you were having so much fun, I didn’t want to interrupt, and ‘Oh my’ is more polite to say than ‘bullshit.’ So the new addition to my show is the bullshit whistle. Any time you hear this whistle, you’ll know my reaction to something I just told you or a quote I shared. For those reading the blog, I’ll just insert (whistle).
And a quick update on Election 2024. I saw this morning that evidently some polls evidently show Trump with a slim lead over Biden. I’m sorry folks, but this is somewhere between insane and criminally insane. Two quick reasons: First, Biden’s age is not an issue! He’s sharp, and I dare any of you who righteously worry about his age to have a discussion with him on the key issues of the day. Second, Trump’s lying, thieving, narcissistic, destructive nature, incompetence, astounding ignorance about everything from international relations to how democracy works under our Constitution, total lack of conscience or compassion and his stated demand that he be given complete dictatorial powers, are all critical—many of them proven to be criminal— issues, You’d have to be an idiot, someone who literally hates our Constitution AND democracy, or else just like him, to even consider letting him worm his way back into the oval office. Come ON people! “I love America,” and “I prefer Trump,” are two phrases that are NOT compatible. You CAN. NOT. BE. Both. Take it to the bank. Come on folks, be smart, not dumb.
Now let’s get to our main topic. It’s the monster under our beds, in our beds, our refrigerators, our houses and cars; it’s in our clothes, our shampoo, our food, in or wrapped around everything we buy; it’s choking our oceans, rivers, lakes and ponds; it is killing our wildlife and sea-life, and it’s killing us; it is apparently indestructible and impossible to slow down, much less stop; It’s like the Martians from “The War of the Worlds,” but it’s immune to the germs that saved us from them. This monster is the Blob, Godzilla, Marvel’s Thanos, and every nightmare you ever had, magnified a hundred times; It’s as great a threat to our survival as the atom bomb, but it’s one that’s actually happening; it’s a monster of our own creation, of course, and it might just be the greatest example of man’s stupidity, arrogance, greed, and just not giving a damn. It may well be the end of all we know. It’s called plastics.
I don’t have to tell you how pervasive this stuff is. You can’t get away from it. The packaged food you buy, the fruits and vegetables you bag up, the toothpaste you use, virtually everything you do or use is in some way infected with this monster.
I won’t bother trying to list all of the exhaustive facts about this crisis here. You can do your own search on the Internet, by using phrases like “plastic crisis,” “plastic in the environment,” “Plastic in the oceans,” “is plastic being recycled,” etc. in the search bar. I’ll just give you a handful of examples.
Quoting from “The Plastic Crisis Finally Gets Emergency Status,” article by Matt Simon in Wired.com, May of 2023:
“We’re now churning out a trillion pounds of it a year—an altogether more stunning figure when you consider that the material is ultra-lightweight by design. Less than 10 percent of that is recycled, while the rest ends up in landfills, leaks into the environment, or is burned. And that dysfunctional relationship is getting exponentially worse, as plastic production could triple by 2060.”
Quoting from ““Earth faces plastic pollution disaster unless we take drastic action,” by Adam Vaughan in NewScientist.com, in July of 2020 :
“Plastic pollution is ubiquitous and growing, but knowing the best way to stop it has largely been a guessing game so far. Now, a study has found that if the world undertook every feasible action to cut plastic pollution, we would still only manage to get rid of 78 per cent of it by 2040, compared with a business-as-usual scenario.”
There is this about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as described in National Geographic:
“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, the garbage patch is actually two distinct collections of debris bounded by the massive North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.
“For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup.”

One trillion pounds by the way is five hundred million tons. Now, there are scientists who say there is some hope, if we start now—twenty years ago would have been better, but the now and the future are what we have to work with—we could make a sizeable reduction up to almost 80% as Mister Vaughan’s article states. But there is a two-fold problem, which to be honest, I don’t think we will solve. First of all, the 78% figure is a ‘best scenario’ guess.
The two-fold problem is that the world’s governments don’t seem to give a damn, and the world’s manufacturers care even less. You see, we keep getting told lies in the first place. Have you and I not been, for several years now, putting our plastics in the recycling bin? I, like many of us, have a big blue one that I set out for collection every week. We also take our plastic trash, in the form of plastic bags, plastic film, chip bags and candy wrappers, etc., to recycling centers. And that’s the big lie. The truth is that only about 10-15 percent of that is ever actually recycled, and it ought to be a crime.
We keep hearing the same two excuses; Since plastics are not all the same, we are told, and many are multi-layered, it is #1 too difficult or impossible to recycle them, and #2 too expensive, re: not cost effective. We are also told that the electronics and cables we want to turn in can’t be recycled, for the two same golden reasons. Too complicated and too expensive. A nation that has gone to the moon multiple times, sent exploration vehicles far into the galaxy; a nation that has technology that was nothing but a dream, if even that, in my childhood, a nation among several others that also possess incredible technology. . .finds it too difficult, and too expensive, to save ourselves and our planet from the trash we generate? (whistle)

I have long been incredulous that the supposedly intelligent human race has repeatedly gone along, creating toxic materials and items, with no thought whatsoever as to how to dispose of them when it—as is inevitable—becomes necessary. This is stupidity and arrogance on a level that boggles the mind. I was forced to reach the conclusion some time ago that humans are merely skilled, as any worker is skilled, while lacking any sort of foresight, morality, or concern that is necessary to be considered truly intelligent. We are a self-declared “intelligent” species that has always followed one simple manner of dealing with the trash and toxic materials we create. Just throw them away and forget about them.
Much of this, of course is the result of greed. Do you really think this crisis, and so many others, is beyond our scientific abilities? (whistle) The real truth here is that the billionaires of our world, the supposedly elite uber-wealthy among us, the ones who profit on unimaginable levels from the toxic plastic trash they create, are not willing to sacrifice any portion of their growing riches for the sake of the planet and all of its people. Obviously they do not care, here in America, and that greed may be surpassed by other countries. I experienced this first hand recently, when a bed I ordered for my cat arrived. It was made in China, shipped by Amazon, in plastic of course, and when I got the box itself open, the bed was literally swathed in layer upon layer of plastic. You might be prompted to think that God him/her self was personally ordering them to spread plastic around the world in the greatest amount possible.
There is also a third problem that will likely make it unlikely we will save ourselves from the plastic monster. Conservatives. As I said in the first episode, conservatives are terrified of change, prone to avoid it at all costs, and think only as far as their own front porch, or if you prefer, the tip of their nose. They already deny climate change, they denied the Covid-19 pandemic, and you can expect them to deny there is any environmental problem with plastics. Besides, they’re too busy trying to turn America over to Dictator Trump, who has already committed himself to completely trash the fight to save the environment.
But this problem is one that doesn’t apply only to conservatives. We humans always have been, and continue to be, so deliciously happy with any product that seems to entertain, comfort, or otherwise make our lives easier and more enjoyable, that we have never bothered to trouble ourselves with what George Orwell might call “ungood” thoughts like the harms and hazards that result.
Plastic in the ocean? Well, I don’t swim in the ocean, so it’s not a problem to me. Besides, it’s not my job. Plastic trash accumulating everywhere? I keep my own yard clean, so it’s not a problem. Besides, it’s not my job. The air becoming unbreathable from the toxic fumes of a trillion tons and more of plastic production every year? Sniff sniff. The air at my house seems to be fine, so I don’t see the problem. Besides, it’s not my job. Animals and fish dying due to plastic congestion and ingestion? They’re not my animals and fish, so I don’t feel responsible. Besides . . . .(whistle)


And that is the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Plastic, plastic everywhere, killing the air,, the waters, the animals, the sea life and birds. This job belongs to all of us, to recycle, spread awareness in a collective loud voice, and to pressure government and private industry—pressure them loud and hard—if we are to have any hope of saving ourselves from the monster we created. It is not a job we dare run away from, not just for animals and birds and fish, but for the future of our children, their children, their children and all the children beyond.
There are some things we can do individually. Here’s one of them. Stop using those flimsy plastic bags in the produce section of grocery stores. Instead, take those reusable bags you pay a dime for, and reuse them by putting your apples, bananas, tomatoes, and other produce in them instead of using the ones at the store. I’ll bet you can think of some other things, too. And this is a discussion we’ll be returning to from time to time.
I’m running over again. This may become a habit. This is the Wallace Element, I’m Wallace, and I’m outta here until next time. Ciao.

TWE Flash Report

This election is clearly not about parties, it’s about values. And just as clearly, the GOP has none.

Flash notes for March 9, 2024 by Barry Wallace

  • What the hell are news groups like the NY Times and CNN thinking? In their fervor to be ‘objective,’ in languishing about Biden’s age, they are missing a very important point. It’s not about whether an ‘old’ Joe Biden is perfect enough; it’s about whether an equally old Donald Trump gets another chance to take over America as its lunatic dictator and Fuhrer. The phrase “responsible journalism,” in this context means journalism that dares to identify a threat to our very democracy and use its voice to help combat that threat. I can just hear the heads of those two organizations, AFTER Trump has made himself America’s first dictator; AFTER he has ruthlessly and effectively dismissed the Congress and SCOTUS; AFTER he has made the DOJ his personal Gestapo; “Well,” they will say, between martinis, “we had this responsibility to consider all sides equally.” Somehow, I think the Americans under the thumb of Trump and his white supremacist, evangelical Christian cabal will see that as small solace.
  • Think you’re voting for a person? Think again. This election is about values; it’s about our very democracy; it’s about the very core of what America is and what it must be, as a country; it’s about a government that absolute must be, as Abe Lincoln said, “of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, and for the PEOPLE, and Lincoln meant, just as did our forefathers, a government that serves ALL of the people, not a cadre of self-involved, people who are determined to tear the country apart to get their own racist, white supremacist, cult-religion way. If the Republican party isn’t a full-on collection of idiots, crazies and wannabe Nazis, it’s sure doing one hell of a good job of acting like it. And that includes each and every person who supports them. This election is clearly not about parties; it’s about values. And just as clearly, the GOP has none. Don’t let them fool you.
  • Think Trump’s economy was better than Biden’s? Think again. The key to the whole 2019-2021 state of affairs was the Covid-19 pandemic, which Trump botched badly. The key to coming out of that period is the management of the economy by the Biden administration, which has raised jobs, employment, GDP growth, and lowered brought inflation back down.
  •  Think Biden’s too old? Don’t worry about Biden’s age. Quoting Yale Historian Timothy Snyder: “American newspapers tell us that Biden is old. If he’s old, he must be weak. But Biden is not weak. He is not running from prison or from anything else. He does not act from fear. He gets work done. His record is one of the strongest in the history of the American Presidency. And he went to Ukraine with zero military protection. That was courageous. No other President has ever done that.” And if you watched President Biden’s State of the Union address the other night, you saw very clearly that Biden is not weak.
  • In the meantime, news about another outstanding Republican who must have spent too long out standing in the rain. Mark Robinson has also
  • called Michelle Obama a man, quoted Hitler on Facebook, embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims about election fraud in 2020 and that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
  • And this reminder about Donald Trump from one of the competent, no-nonsense ex-Generals who worked with him: John Kelly: “The depth of his dishonesty is astounding to me. the dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”

That’s today’s flash 6. Keeping it short and to the point, I’m Barry Wallace.

Heil Trump? Be careful what you wish for – part 2

March 3, 2024: Episode 1, part 2, edited on March 14, 2024

Hi there. Welcome to the Wallace Element. I’m your host Barry Wallace. This is episode number one, part two. Fair warning, this one is going to be a bit longer, because there is much to say, and a great deal to think about.

As Sherlock Holmes would say, the game’s afoot. And it’s an ugly, ugly game, an anti-America, treasonous game. As I write this, the Supreme Court has decided to accept the case about Donald Trump’s alleged immunity from prosecution for his crimes. But they won’t hear arguments until late in April. This virtually ensures that even if they make the decision that every Constitutional expert in the country says they must, which is that no, Trump has no immunity, the case itself cannot be tried and settled before the election on November fifth. If Trump wins, it all automatically goes away, and the SCOTUS will have effectively- ruled that yes, Trump can do whatever he wants.

Make no mistake, one of the things Trump is adept at is delaying and manipulating the courts. And now, with his loyal protégé Aileen Cannon in Florida violating every norm of procedure she can get away with to delay there, and the SCODT, the Supreme Court of Donald Trump, on which sits not just a Trump friendly super majority but a justice, Clarence Thomas, who is firmly in Trump’s retinue, along with that justice’s wife, an actual co-conspirator of the movement to steal the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and attack on our nation’s Capitol.

I won’t say America is lost, and about to fall right into the dictatorship Trump and his cronies want, but we’re two touchdowns behind, folks, it’s late in the fourth quarter. Those of us who want to keep America the home of the free, must do all we can to see that he is not elected, and to ensure that if he is, his first congress has a Democratic majority in both houses.

Before I get to just why the people who might welcome a Trump dictatorship are out of their feeble minds, the thing I struggle to understand, is how anyone of sound mind, anyone of good mind, anyone who cares genuinely about this country, can possibly with a clear conscience—oops, excuse me, I shouldn’t have used the word conscience in a discussion of Trumpites—support this egregious, despicable man who seems to possess neither compassion or morality, definitely has not the slightest trace of conscience, and who seeks one thing and one thing only: complete control of America resting in his soiled, itchy-fingered hands.

Evidently, evangelicals wouldn’t mind if Trump were dictator, and neither would many of those on the extreme right, not just the crazy Maga people and Neo-Nazis like the Proud Boys who have no idea what America is really about, and who would love to make Trump dictator so that they might reign supreme with their racism, antisemitism, and goal of white supremacy. I’m talking about the working men and women Trump lies to and manipulates with such ease every day, people one would think have good enough minds to see the absurdities of his lies and the naked ambition that is the only thing that drives him.

The millionaire and billionaire so-called elites I actually understand. They want Trump in office because he makes them richer while he makes the rest of the country poorer. They are driven by greed. Their motto might as well be the old saying, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”

But I am flummoxed by the Christian cultists who are prepared to be, who are insanely determined to be, an American Taliban, and most especially by any moderate, mainstream Americans who support Trump in spite of the fact that he obviously plans to be the dictator our parents warned us about.

Please, trust me on this. Anyone who is in one of these groups, and plans to let Trump take office through apathy or sour grapes about a particular gripe they might have, urgently needs to rethink what they’re doing. Rethink it twice, a dozen times, a hundred times; rethink it until some semblance of reason seeps back into their brain.

It’s a mind-boggling, alcohol, drug, or insanity induced nightmare, to even consider that Americans would like to make anyone dictator of this country. This country was founded to escape the rule of a king, and now these people want a Fuhrer? That’s virtually a textbook definition of insanity.

But okay, let’s play the game for just a minute. We’re going to make someone dictator of America. We are going to relinquish all of our rights, every single one of them, and put them in hands of a singular all-powerful ruler.

 Let me see, who shall we choose? How about Lincoln? He led the war to abolish slavery. Franklin Roosevelt? He gave us Social Security, the New Deal that saved the country from the great depression. He shepherded us through World War II. Eisenhower, maybe? He held together and led that delicate alliance that won the war in Europe. I know, how about John Kennedy? He and his brother Bobby and Lyndon Johnson spearheaded the drive to make Martin Luther King’s dream a reality. Of course Republicans might want Reagan, but Obama would be a much better choice, I think. After all, Reagan started both the war on unions and the trickle-down economics that have just about destroyed the middle class. So no, Reagan is out.

But wait. Those people are all too soft, aren’t they? The MAGA people wouldn’t want any of those ‘woke’ types. So, Atilla the Hun, maybe? Napoleon? Mussolini? Stalin? I’ve got it, Adolf Hitler! Yeah, that’d be great, right? On second thought, not so much. Not at all. Never that guy.

This is where I say I hope I have convinced any reader or listener that a dictator, ANY dictator would be a very – bad — terrible — horrible — stupid — thing for America. It would destroy every aspect of our democracy we have worked so hard on for the last two hundred and fifty years.

And that brings us to Donald Trump, a proven liar, conman, crook, serial sexual abuser, convicted fraudster, and liar who makes Nixon look like the world’s most honest man. And who literally idolizes Hitler. Donald Trump as America’s Fuhrer. That’s a full-on 3D Cinerama horror movie.

He exhibits no morality; he has no respect for anyone other than himself; he sees no VALUE in anybody but himself, other than what they can do for him, and how willing they are to give him their unquestioning fealty. His vision for America is a country that accepts him as unquestioned God and leader. He has said as much, and insisted that he can only do the job of President is if he has total control and complete immunity from crimes he commits, crimes he undoubtedly intends to commit.

There’s no doubt that Donald Trump wants this. He jokes about it. He makes cracks about it. He eludes to it off the cusp, as if it were just more of the famous locker room talk; you know, like saying if you’re a star or a celebrity you can grab women by their genitals, or making fun of a disabled reporter, or calling political rivals foul names, deriding women who oppose him as ugly, or dogs, because that seems to resonate with a lot of people who look up to Trump. I think the people who like to call other people names are the largest group of Trumpers. And it says a lot more about a lot of Americans than it does about Trump.

Trump is clever. He’s the consummate con man. He has identified the groups who, each for their own reasons, hate America or have a gripe because of its diversity, its progress into a more diverse and caring nation, and especially its failure to cater to them personally. He has cultivated those groups. He has convinced him he will give THEM what THEY want, and rule in THEIR favor. They’re ready and even anxious to give him his wish, and make him dictator because he’s fooled them into thinking he’s on THEIR side.

I have news for you. Anyone who, for whatever reason, wants to grant this individual the control over our country he so desperately wants, is a sucker and a tool, a stooge for Trump’s real agenda, which is total power vested in the fist he throws in the air much as the Germans threw their arm up to salute Hitler.

But here’s where you should pay very close attention. There are a couple of things you absolutely must understand about a dictator.

One: Don’t think you can vote him out when you decide you have to. You can’t get rid of him. When he starts doing the things that harm YOU (as opposed to just harming the other people you don’t like)—and he will, you can count on it—you can’t stop him. It’s over, baby. He owns you, me, and everyone else. You thought he was ‘your guy,’ but he planned all along—he’s planning right now—for you to belong to him. Pay attention; With a dictator it doesn’t work any other way. And you’d better not make any noise about it, because there are plenty of tall buildings and boats for a dictator’s opponents to fall out of here in America, too. Joe Biden recently told an interviewer he knows two reporters who have said they will leave the country if Trump is re-elected, because he has said he would imprison them.

Two: Forget elections. Oh, they can be held, but like in Russia, only the guy in charge ever wins. As Robert Blake’s Baretta liked to say, “That’s the name of that tune, baby.” Once anybody who seeks to have total power gets it, he’s not going to give it up. Check your history books to see how many dictators have done that. The answer is none.

Three: So, no more free elections; a Congress and Supreme Court that have no power to get rid of the guy; the Department of Justice is run by his own cronies and henchmen. Trump has already promised to reshape the whole federal government into one that answers to and obeys only him; he plans fire thousands of competent career employees and replace them with people who are sworn their allegiance only to him. He might even rename the DOJ, the KGB, to honor his pal Vladimir Putin. Or maybe, the Department of Trump.

How then do get rid of the monster you’ve created and given your country to?

 There are basically two ways of getting rid of your King and Fuhrer, once he fully reveals himself and starts making your country, my country, into his country: Armed revolution, and military takeover. Without elections, an effective Congress, DOJ, and SCOTUS, those are the only choices, choices which would complete the destruction of democratic rule begun by Trump.

Once Americans select a dictator, American democracy is gone. Forever. The land of the free and the home of the brave will be nothing more than a memory, the Constitution burned and its ashes buried, probably never to be resurrected. The whole concept that IS America, a society in which all men are created equal, and all enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a country governed not by religion or tribal preferences, but by the rule of law, will have been trashed.

And anyone, everyone, who helped do that, will be remembered as villains. That’s a very simple fact. There is no way around it. Get over it. Deal with it. The people who helped destroy the democracy can only lie in the bed you made and cry along with the three hundred and thirty million or so Americans they took down with you. Oh yeah, baby, they sure would have showed those libs.

So as Rod Serling might write for a Twilight Zone intro: you had better think twice before you agree to give the office of the Presidency to any person who says they have the right to have all the power, unlimited power to do whatever they want, so they can shoot you on the street if they want to without consequences or can send their military to take over your town, your county, your state. If you think you want to give that power to ANYBODY, call your mom and ask her to come over and wash your mind out with soap.

 Donald Trump says, out loud, that that’s EXACTLY the kind of power he wants, the complete power he must be given. If he gets his second chance, the same second chance that Hitler was given, wave goodbye to American democracy. If you are one of the people who is so absorbed in your own personal complaints, or your insistence that everybody has to be like you, or have your same religion, that you are willing to destroy this country to get your petulant way, as Jesus would say, “you know not what you do.” You may not love Joe Biden, or the libs, but here’s a fun fact for you. A bad President is a hundred, make that a thousand times better than ANY dictator.

At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention on September 11th, 1787, Benjamin Franklin, in response to Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy,” replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin was not worried about foreign invaders. He was worried about a man who wouldn’t be born for another one hundred and fifty-nine years. He was warning her about Donald Trump.

 If, as I hope, you are not a Trumpite, please feel free to copy this and share it with the Trumpites you know.

That will do it, for now. The next episode will be along soon. In the meantime, venture away from your front door, look at the world around you, open your mind wide, and do some deep thinking. Those thoughts need to start with the realization that Donald Trump back in the White House would be America’s worst nightmare, envisioned by one of our country’s foremost founding fathers on the very day the Constitution was signed. As Robert Blake’s Baretta would say, “and dat’s the name of dat tune.”

This is the Wallace Element, I’m Wallace, and I’m outta here until next time. Ciao.

Heil Trump? Be careful what you wish for – part 1

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Sun. March 10

The Wallace Element Episode One, 2/28/24

Part One

Hi there. Welcome to the Wallace Element. I’m your host Barry Wallace.

As I record this, it’s Monday, March the 10th. Daylight Savings Time is upon us again, and America is on the edge of an apocalypse. Otherwise, it’s a normal day here. The Academy Awards were last night, and I’m ambivalent about the whole thing. Your local billionaire cares not one single damn about working Americans other than how we can make them richer. The Republican party still cares more about its guns than it does about its children, while the Christian right campaigns for the rights of the unborn, while not giving a damn about a mother’s life or health. And Donald Trump is still a crook who plans to become America’s Hitler, a dictator without morality, conscience, remorse, or compassion. The great tragedy—and threat—is that so many Americans seem to want this.

I want to keep these episode to around ten minutes for easy listening and reading, so this first episode is divided into two parts. And I should start by telling you a little bit about myself.

Who is this Barry Wallace? Well, I’ve been around a while. I was born in 1943, and raised in southeastern Missouri, in a little town called Desloge, population just under 2000. My little hometown was located about 50 miles southeast of St. Louis, in an area called the lead belt, because it was at one time the largest lead producing region in the country. I was raised with traditional values, things like respect for my elders, respect for authority, respect for the police, and perhaps most important kindness toward others. Honesty was highly valued in my home. And when I say highly valued, it was taught and practiced. I remember walking back and forth to school, as long as there wasn’t snow on the ground or it was raining too hard. It was about a mile one-way, and in those days as many of you will remember it was safe for a youngster of seven or eight or nine years old to walk the streets of their small town. In elementary school we frequently wrote with India ink, which was in a bottle, and we dipped into the bottle with our India ink pen which was usually wrapped in cork as I recall, with a removable metal tip. We could buy these tips at the local five and dime right across from the school, at the rate of two for a nickel. One day I bought two of those pin tips, paid my nickel, walked home, opened the little paper bag, which as I recall also contained some candy, and discovered that the clerk had accidentally given me not two pin tips for a nickel but three. I immediately walked back to that little store across the street from the school to return the extra tip. One of the things we were taught about honesty in my household, was that you didn’t practice honesty because you are afraid of punishment. You did it because it was the right thing to do. That’s the way things were in the Wallace family. As far as religion, I was raised Southern Baptist, then Methodist, then back to Baptist.

My upbringing was pretty average, and I had the good fortune to proceed from elementary school all the way through high school with the same group of friends. Elementary was followed by junior high, then high school, junior college, and the University of Missouri, from which I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education, and a major in speech and theater in 1966. Between 1966 and 2009, I taught high school for 40 years, specifically, writing, competitive speech and writing, debate, and particularly theater, including acting technical theater set construction and all the other things involved with creating and performing. During my college and career years, I also spent about 18 months as a radio news and sports director in Southwest Missouri, another 18 months as a manager in the hotel and motel industry, and part-time jobs that included professional movie projectionist and taxi driver, which I did in Kansas City, and am happy to say I survived.

Teaching took me to Kansas, back to Missouri, and finally to Southern California, where I spent my final 29 years, retiring from the profession in 2009. California also brought to me the pleasure of becoming one of the world-famous studio guides at Universal Studios in Hollywood. That was also a part-time occupation, and perhaps the most fun I ever had in a job, one which I spent about 10 years at, finally retiring in 2013.

I’ve taught almost 10,000 students, and directed around 150 plays., I’ve covered the news, and I’ve done sports play-by-play. I’ve directed and performed for community and regional theater, and had the honor of playing some of the best-known roles in theatre. But my life’s joy was teaching. During my forty years in the classroom, I was rewarded with the joy and rich memories of seeing my students perform and compete on a very high level, winning a number of awards in speech competition and theater performance; but the greatest reward was being able to help them all grow, achieve, and succeed in their lives; to always strive to be their very best and know in their heart that they could accomplish anything they wanted to.

As a teacher I applied the same values I was taught growing up; honesty, respect and consideration for others, whether human or animal, thoughtful consideration of issues, problem-solving, and always striving to be the best you can be. One of the first things I always told my students, was that I would never lie to them. And that’s the first thing that I’ll tell you. I may not always please you with what I say. I’ll probably do just the opposite. But you can trust that I will always tell you the truth and give you the facts as I have researched, evaluated, analyzed, and found them to be. And I’ll always be guided by the human values I was taught as I grew up in the little southeastern Missouri town.

So now that you know me better, let’s get to it.

I spent the first 30-40 ‘politically aware’ years of my life as a conservative, with some progressive leanings. I voted Republican and Democratic almost evenly. I voted Republican as recently as the elder George Bush, and the first term of George junior. I even voted for Nixon and, to my eternal regret, Reagan.

But from the 1980’s onward, I started moving farther and faster away from the right. By 2008 I had left conservatism completely and forever. I have learned that conservatives, even moderately open-minded ones, lack the ability to look forward, are generally opposed to any kind of change or intellectual growth. They are mired in destructive prejudices — some of which are religiously motivated — that include racism, sexism, hatred of people who are different from themselves, particularly those who are of different sexualities, and literally anything that requires them to think deeply or question and evaluate the beliefs and societal status they are already comfortable with. To put it all into a few words, conservatives tend to think only as far as their front porch, fear any significant change more than having a root canal without anesthetic, are quick to hate anything they do not immediately understand, and are loath to learn much less research to learn anything which might indicate they were previously mistaken. The survival of any species, depends on its ability and willingness to evolve and change. Conservatives are to varying degrees unwilling and incapable of that very thing.

Everything I just said is evidenced by conservatives’ support of the last person who should ever be President of the United States. The possibility that he might somehow be elected to the Oval Office a second time creates the most dangerous situation, the greatest threat to our democracy itself, that we have faced since the Civil War, and actually worse than that event.

Like some of you, I grew up in the aftermath of World War II, lived through the Korean War, the Vietnam war, the Cold War, Granada, operation desert storm, operation Iraqi freedom, Afghanistan. I watched the towers come down on 9/11. Now, as we approach the upcoming 2024 election, I’m terrified, as should we all be.

America’s democracy stands threatened by a uniquely evil but charismatic individual. His name is Donald Trump, and I am far from the only person sounding the warning about this.

An alarming number of Americans wish to re-elect this singularly destructive man who has been judged and found guilty of charity fraud, defamation of character, and banking crimes, resulting in fines of hundreds of millions of dollars; He has twice been impeached for misuse of the office of President and crimes against the Constitution. And at least eighteen women have accused him of sexual misconduct.

 There is ample evidence of these crimes, yet the Republican party—some of whom are as bad as himself and many others who are cowed by his violent base followers—and his band of radical supporters that includes Neo Nazis, white supremacists, and religious radicals who would like to take America back to the days of the Salem witch trials, continue to support him. He is currently about to go on trial for stealing and hiding classified government documents ,and sharing the contents of top-secret documents with foreign citizens, likely including enemies of America; and he is also about to go on trial for creating and encouraging an insurrection, coup, in order to steal the 2020 election. But as I said, he is also charismatic, just like the snake potion doctors who roamed our old west, selling toxicity in a bottle for fifty cents or a dollar to people who were primed and willing to be taken for his magic potion guaranteed to do everything from removing warts to healing hemorrhoids to curing cancer. And he has found his flock of acolytes, by promising to honor their prejudices, racism, sexism, hatred of foreigners, religious ignorance, and determination to turn America into an Afghanistan-like theocracy.

This is a man who insults our armed services and the men and women who serve in them, a man who admires dictators—Vladimir Putin; Xi Jining of China, Kim Jong Un of North Korea, and Adolf Hitler, the architect of World War II. He thinks he should be allowed to run America the way they run their countries, as a dictator, answerable to no constraint and no law, with total authority residing only in himself. If he succeeds, America loses, and our democracy, our grand experiment of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, will be lost. I’ll explain why in Part Two.

In the interest of keeping these episodes around ten minutes, that will do it for now. In the meantime, venture away from your front door, look at the world around you, open your mind wide, and do some deep thinking. Part two of this first episode will be along soon.

Before I go for now, there’s one last thing, the commercial. In retirement I’ve found a second pastime, as a writer. I’ve published several short stories, and my first novel is available at Amazon, in Kindle format. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can get a Kindle app for your computer, ,digital tablet, or phone, and it’s free.

 The book is titled IN THE MATTER OF HUMANS. It’s a story of alien arrival. They are millennia ahead of us, and they are not happy with humans. They have come to either reform us or destroy us, and the story revolves around the interactions and growing relationships between the commander of the alien fleet, an American columnist and author he chooses to be his “one honest man,” and the author’s beautiful next-door neighbor who is also a brilliant lawyer. Yes, there are sparks. The tale takes place over a course of only four days, and includes an unbalanced NSA director, an American President who is reminiscent of John F. Kennedy, a doomsday asteroid, a second alien race intent on destroying humans, and the threat of WWIII. As a purely objective observer, of course, I think the book is exciting and adventurous, with memorable characters, some nail-biting suspense, humor, a bit of romance, and surprises around several corners. I’d love to have you read it and send a good review back to Amazon. I’ll give you candy. Actually, I can’t give you candy. But I’ll hope that someone does.

This is the Wallace Element, I’m Wallace, and I’m outta here until next time. If you’d like to see a print version of this podcast, you can find it at The Wallace Element- the Blog: www.musingsbw.com.

Why Evangelists Love Donald Trump

If you needed one more reason to keep Donald Trump out of the White House at any cost, this is it. These demented people have replaced Jesus with him.

I saw this article this morning, on reprinted by Yahoo from the N. Y. Times:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-connecting-different-type-evangelical-131142387.html

I suppose I’m supposed to respect and have some empathy for these folks’ energetic sincerity in the pursuit of their faith .

I don’t.

I won’t.

I can’t.

I used to, even though I’ve always considered the extreme nature of their faith skewed.

But they want an American government that will run the country according to their faith.

This is beyond skewed.

This is bonkers.

This is national suicide.

Government by religion has always been disaster.

It always will be.

The American Constitution wants nothing to do with their kind.

What they want is nothing less than to run this country like an American Taliban.

No.

If I have to choose between a government run by greed and one run by religious zealots, give me greed.

Every time.

Give me a government run by the old-time Mafia over one controlled by religious extremists.

Every damn time.

Especially if those zealots see a psychopath like Donald Trump as any kind of savior.

This makes them far worse than just cultists.

It makes them stupid.

It makes them devoid of any level of rationality whatsoever.

It makes them dangerous beyond description.

It makes them members of a very notable group of historical groups and tyrants.

The aforementioned Taliban…

The Nazis…

Stalin…

Hitler…

Vlad the Impaler…

Idi Amin…

You get the idea.

If you needed one more reason to keep Donald Trump out of the White House at any cost, this is it. These demented people have replaced Jesus with him.

Some Reflections on Christmas

I’ve decided it’s because we are aware, at the deepest level of our hearts and souls, that all we do and spend and suffer—and surely know we will do again—in the name of this guy Santa Claus is done in order to make someone else happy.

Wowzer! I turned around twice and it’s already seven days after Christmas. Our earth has bid that happy occasion adieu without a second thought and already made seven journeys around the sun on its way to Christmas, 2024. It’s always a bit of a shock that after all of the preparation and anticipation, Christmas day comes and goes in the blink of an eye.
And here we are, already a full week later. A mere three hundred and fifty-eight revolutions from now, we will arrive once more, together, on the one day above all others that families seem to remember they are family. And an annoying collection of humans that includes myself are already saying, “Well, only three hundred and fifty-eight days until Christmas!” Forgive us. We can’t help it. We really do love Christmas that much.
Can it really, already be only seven days after we have survived the pressures, the frenetic, often frantic preparations, that accompany this happiest, warmest, most magical but also most demanding of holidays; a week that flew by so speedily we know it will be no time at all before we find ourselves, parents, spouses, siblings, grandparents, in-laws, each and every one of us, scurrying about again, decorating, shopping, balancing shrinking checking accounts and growing credit card balances, and fretting over whether this thing or that one is right for Uncle Lewis, Aunt Franny, Grandma and Grandpa, and where in the world they are going to find that electric train or video game or doll house that had somehow been forgotten ,and was now seemingly non-existent no matter how many stores they visited. And the cooking, oh my God the cooking, and cleaning up after the cooking, and making those oh so sincere vows to diet for a month afterward.
In no time at all, children will start to flex their fingers, in practice for ripping the bows and wrappings all the faster off of their rewards for being mostly, or at least somewhat, good enough—because they did after all try—to deserve the joyous things that will sit mocking them beneath the tree for days or even weeks inside their shiny wrappings glittering once again under the colored lights, tantalizing blinking and winking.
And in spite of it all, the hustle, the bustle, the stresses of wanting to make the day as perfect as possible or perhaps, just maybe, because of it all, Christmas remains the happiest day of the year for the vast majority of us who celebrate it. Oh, we will sweat and grouch, overspend, again, shop with increasingly frantic, breathless, anxiety-ridden angst as the day grows closer. We’ll scratch our head, grind our teeth, pray that this time we get it all right, and vow that after this one we will never succumb to the ‘demands’ of the season so deeply or readily. Who are we kidding? Every single time we vow it, knowing all the time that yes, or course we will.
I’ve decided it’s because we are aware, at the deepest level of our hearts and souls, that all we do and spend and suffer—and surely know we will do again—in the name of this guy Santa Claus, this famous, white-bearded, elusive old fat guy in his red suit and bottomless sleigh propelled at faster than light speeds throughout the world in a single night by magical reindeer, is done in order to make someone else happy. There is a special joy, a deep satisfaction, accompanying the smiles and appreciation of adults simply because they have been given something that didn’t really have to be given; it comes to us three-fold, nay, ten-fold, in the exclamations, laughter, and unbounded delight of children that we can only wish would be theirs all year-round. How, those of us driven by merciless and heartless logic always ask, did we get here?
The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best-known St. Nicholas stories is the time he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married.
Good old St. Nicholas has of course been commercialized in modern times more than anything except professional football. And yet the forever jolly old guy has never, that we know of, thrown, caught, kicked or hit a ball of any kind. He merely and happily delivers them. However, even as we may grouse about the commercializing of a ritual that, in its earliest days consisted, for most people, of exchanging gifts that were handmade at home, and bemoan the attaching of dollar signs to gifting which might often feel ‘required,’ we have deep within us an awareness that at the foundation it all is the desire to give of ourselves to others; we derive an indefinable and quietly overwhelming satisfaction from the warmth and fellowship, that passes between us and them. And there is this which I have learned; there is no happiness greater, no joy that fills the heart more, than contributing to the happiness of children.
Oh, I know some say they only go through all of the hassle of Christmas because they have to; it is expected of them. But even if that is somewhat of a factor for many, look me in the eye if you can, and tell me those same people don’t feel rewarded and perhaps a tiny bit larger at the happy gratefulness of those who receive a gift, and in return give one. Perhaps in some grander scheme, we need that little push to give something of ourselves. And I submit that is the rare individual who doesn’t feel better for having done it.
As the core of this Christmas tradition of ours is found in the caring and generosity of a spiritual individual, there is no denying that Christmas is also founded in the best aspects of religion, yet I have come to feel that there is perhaps a greater spirituality in the personage of St. Nick, Santa Claus, than any God of whom or which I am aware. To the best of my knowledge and research, no one has ever killed in the name of Santa, or pushed away a needy stranger, waged war, or committed genocide. Good old St. Nicholas has apparently never cared about gender or sexuality, politics or the accumulation of power. Santa cares for all the little children, not just the ones with an acceptable skin color or head covering. So I hope that no religion, including Christianity, which claims the holiday as its own, ever succeeds in dismissing Santa Claus as simply a representative of commerce. The old fellow is no less than the messenger who reminds us always of the traits that make us the best version of ourselves.
And so I say to you three hundred and fifty-eight days early, from the depths of my own heart and the fullness of my soul which still glows a bit from the most recent version, Merry Christmas to all, this year, next year, and through all the years that follow, and may we all, always, know our very best selves and the pure joy of giving and fellowship on each and every Christmas day.

BW

Curmudgeon Dispatch of 12-28-2023

Be careful what you wish for. We might all get it.

An Introduction and Some Political Advice for Confused Liberals

Hi there, I’m Barry Wallace.

I’ll start with some really good news. I intend to keep these episodes on the short side, between five and ten minutes. I’ll try to squeeze two or three different observations into that framework. In this episode I have a strong cautionary few words for the younger liberals who are threatening to not vote for Joe Biden, or perhaps not vote at all, in 2024; As we move beyond Christmas, 2023, I’ll offer some thoughts about Christmas, 2024; And the Curmudgeon’s sports wire has some words for the Kansas City Chiefs and their fans.

First, since this is episode one, a little bit about me. I’m a retired teacher of 40 years, I also spent time as a radio news and sports director, a manager in the hospital industry, professional movie projectionist, even a taxi cab driver in Kansas City; and at various times I’ve been a community level baseball umpire and basketball referee. I loved my ten years as a world-famous Universal studios tour guide, I have a fair handful of directing and acting credits and some awards, for both educational and community theater. During my forty years in high school classrooms, I taught theatre, acting, competitive speech and debate, and media. I’m especially proud of and grateful for the many amazing students I had the opportunity to know. I’ll just throw in a little thought here that the people in the arts, the poets, and the philosophers were the first people to study the human mind. Clinical psychiatry came somewhat later.

Now a quick commercial break. In retirement I have found a second pastime, as a writer. I’ve published several short stories, and my first novel is available at Amazon in Kindle format. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can get a Kindle app for your computer and most digital tablets, in fact you can also get one straight from Amazon. It’s free. The book is also free the first handful of days each month, and if you are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, you can read the book for free any time.

The book is titled IN THE MATTER OF HUMANS. It’s a story of alien arrival. They are millennia ahead of us, and they are not happy with humans. They have come to either reform us or destroy us, and the story revolves around the interactions and growing relationships between the commander of the alien fleet, an American columnist and author he chooses to be his “one honest man,” and the author’s beautiful next-door neighbor who is also a brilliant lawyer. Yes, there are sparks. The tale takes place over a course of only four days, and includes an unbalanced NSA director, an American President who is reminiscent of John F. Kennedy, a doomsday asteroid, a second alien race intent on destroying humans, and the threat of WWIII. The core of the story is the threat posed by humans to this planet, and to other worlds, should we achieve space travel, something these aliens do not intend to allow. As a purely objective observer, I think the book is exciting and adventurous, with memorable characters, some nail-biting suspense, humor, and surprises around several corners. Please read it and send a good review back to Amazon. I’ll give you candy.

Now let’s get to the meat of things. On December 19th, Bianca Seward of NBC News, published an article with the headline: “Young voters explain why they’re bailing on Biden — and whether they’d come back.”

I’ll quote just the opening paragraphs of that report: “Jayden Camarena, in Northern California, is contemplating blowing off the 2024 presidential election. Evan McKenzie, in battleground Wisconsin, is looking for any other candidate than the current front-runners. In Philadelphia, Pru Carmichael isn’t even convinced this race matters.

These young voters live in different cities, work different jobs and have varying political beliefs. But among the things they have in common: They voted for Joe Biden in 2020 — and now say the president can’t count on their support in 2024.

“I genuinely could not live with myself if I voted for someone who’s made the decisions that Biden has,” said McKenzie, a 23-year-old working at Starbucks and as a union organizer in Madison, Wisconsin. “I didn’t even feel great about” voting for Biden in 2020, he said.”

Jayden, Evan, and Pru, please listen to some advice from a progressive/liberal and teacher who has a few—make that a lot—more years of history and experience than the majority of you, one who used to frequently vote Republican. The 2024 election isn’t really about who becomes President of the United States; it’s about who absolutely, positively, cannot be allowed to become President.

There is an old saying: when a man tells you who he is, believe him. Donald Trump has told us, and displayed to us, time after time after time, who he is and why he must never be allowed back into office.

 So all young, and middle-aged, liberals who find fault with Joe Biden—and everyone else— I urge you to do three things:

 1- Please listen to me, and historians, and holocaust survivors, and psychiatrists and psychologists; listen to people like George W. Bush, the 43rd President, Dick Cheney, his Vice-President, Mike Pence, Trump’s own Vice President, William Barr, Attorney General under Trump, and countless other notables, ALL OF WHOM ARE REPUBLICANS and all of whom plead with you not to let Donald Trump become President again; You can find a complete article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?fulltext=1&search=List+of+Republicans+who+oppose+the+Donald+Trump+2024+presidential+campaign.&title=Special%3ASearch&ns0=1

Listen to the true patriots, military people, people who have put their lives on the line for us, 780 of which signed an open letter to the American people about their fervent opposition to Donald Trump being allowed back in the White House. You can find that article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/why-780-retired-generals-and-former-national-security-leaders-spoke-out-against-trump-204428356.html

2- Look carefully at the things Joe Biden has done that you don’t approve of. Find out why he made some decisions you don’t like. I have a few myself. But remember this, and this is why I want you to look closely, and find out why he made those decisions; the President is not all powerful in America, and was never meant to be. Biden has faced overwhelming pressure from Republicans, led by the GOP and its leader, Mitch McConnell, who have made a career of obstructing government led by any Democratic President. As President of the Senate, McConnell was, along with powerful insurance industry interests, instrumental in keeping Obama Care from being all that it could be, and refused for eight months to even hold hearings on Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, one of the biggest reasons the Court is so unbalanced today. Biden has also faced pressure and opposition at times from people in his own party who are financially beholden to immensely wealthy special interest—read that as greed and profit focused—groups. The names Sinema and Manchin are instrumental here. These are just a couple of examples of why the President often has to make compromises that even he does not like, but which are better than not getting anything done at all. While you’re at it, look at the impressive things that Biden HAS ACCOMPLISHED, for the American people, the economy, and the environment. “Well, he didn’t do as much as I wanted,” should be directed less at Joe Biden and more strongly at the GOP and the powerful corporate entities that hold sway over some Democratic representatives, and who have obstructed Biden at every opportunity. One of things I’ve learned along the way is that it’s not always about me, and what I want, but about what can be done, what can be accomplished against strong opposition.

3- Now it’s time to ask yourself the most important question of your life, my life, your children’s lives, and perhaps the lives of a few billion other people who inhabit this world. Ask yourself this: if Adolf Hitler were running for President of the United States in 2024, would you vote for him? Because given the opportunity, Donald Trump could well be an American Hitler. Everything we have seen of him and heard from him, suggests that as a distinct possibility. All of the individuals I pointed you toward above, believe that, even if they don’t use those exact words. During a Town Hall event in Iowa, Sean Hannity of Fox ‘News’ asked Donald Trump if he would be a dictator, should he be reelected. Trump said this:

 “Except for day one,” Trump responded. Trump said on the “day one” he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.

Trump then repeated his assertion. “I love this guy,” he said of the Fox News host. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”

There is both a truth and a lie in those statements, from a man whose record of lies makes Richard Nixon look like an amateur. The lie is the “…other than day one” part. Do you think Donald Trump really means that? His history tells us he has never wanted to be just President, but an all-powerful one; his actions and from 2016 through 2020, including his attempts to subvert the election and exercise a coup, prove that. I’m sure you remember him saying those famous words, “I’m President. I can do anything I want.” And now he claims that he has complete immunity for unlawful acts, crimes committed, during his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Does this sound like someone who really wouldn’t make every effort to be dictator? He’s already tried it once.

There is more than ample evidence to make us think that Donald Trump wants to be, not President, but ‘King.’

Donald Trump cares not one whit about the environment. The one truth in his statements to Hannity prove that: “…and, we’re drilling, drilling, drilling.” On that score alone, it would be a disaster of worldwide proportions to put him back in the Oval Office.

Trump’s behavior throughout his first term, his support of an insurrection, and everything that comes out of his mouth, including his “I’m President. I can do anything I want” mindset, indicates that he would love to be dictator. Look at those above sites again, and listen to those people. Listen to Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, whom Trump said should be executed. Listen to the psychologists and psychiatrists who have spoken to Trump’s likely psychosis. Listen to Trump’s own statements that he shoplifters and protesters to be shot, that he wants to be able to use America’s full military against civilians.

Check your history. In the mid 1930’s, Adolf Hitler deluded Germans and promised to address all of their complaints. They overlooked or closed their eyes to the warning signs of his power mania and gave him the total control he wanted, by which time it was too late to stop him. He then went on to lead the world into WWII and the holocaust. The entire world burned, millions upon millions died or were maimed, whole cities and countries were destroyed, all for due to the sick delusions and appetite for murder and destruction of Adolf Hitler. I can’t say that Trump would do the same, but I can say that many of the people I have referred to, Politicians, Military heroes, psychologists and psychiatrists, historians, holocaust survivors, even his fellow Republicans, are terrified at what he might be and what he might do, if he had the kind of power he seeks. The comparisons between Trump and Hitler have been cited by too many people to ignore.

 The world too late learned—or refused to look at— the horrible truth about Hitler. But we are well aware of Trump’s quest for total power. We have what the German people in the 1930’s did not, the light of history to show us and warn us. Would Trump be as bad as Hitler? Do you want to take that chance? Who among you really wants to give this man the opportunity to be as powerful that one was.

So again, the 2024 election is not about who is elected President of America. It’s about who cannot, ever, be allowed to have that office again. Those who vote to elect him, or help him get elected by proxy, by not voting at all, will very likely at some future point of being looked upon in history books and through very long memories as having helped him do whatever he chooses to do and wherever he takes us. Sacrifice democracy? Check. Sacrifice the environment? Check. Sacrifice civil rights? Check. Whatever he may be inclined to do, exercising the total power he so badly seeks, would be not just his responsibility, but of those who give him the power to do it.

I urge you, don’t let yourself be one of those people. Don’t allow your personal complaints give this man that opportunity. You and I have that responsibility. Whatever transpires after the election of 2024 will be either our salvation, or our fault.

And now, I see that I’m already over the word and time limit I said I would follow. So I’ll say goodbye for this first episode, and I promise I’ll be back in just a day or two with episode two, and discuss the other topics I promised.

Ciao, so long for now, and remember,

 critical thinking is the most powerful talent.

The demise of the American worker—hint, it’s no accident

What ‘they’ don’t want you to know about the American economy, and the average American’s place within it.

For over 50 years now, starting with the Reagan administration, corporate America has consciously and with cold-blooded premeditation, waged war against Americans. They doubled down in the 1990’s, by deciding the only way to respond to competition from overseas companies that profited by abusing workers and paying starvation wages, was to do the same here.


The steady erosion of the middle class is a direct result. Any time you hear a corporate CEO say something like, “It’s the only way we can stay in business,” what they really mean is, “It’s the only way we can maintain the level of profit demanded by our wealthiest investors.” The most effective way corporations have of ensuring profit levels that make people like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and their ultra wealthy investors happy, is to take an ever larger slice directly from the American worker.


Insane housing costs, and especially ridiculously out-of-reach apartment rental rates, work in exactly the same way. The next time some apartment manager or executive dares to use the phrase, “We’re just bringing rates up to market,”—or something similar—interpret that to actually mean, “We’re just taking every last possible penny out of your sorry ass in order to make our largest investors richer, and we’re doing it because we can.”


Never buy any lie about trying to benefit “all” investors, which implies they it’s for the “mom and pop” investors too. Small investors make up an infinitesimally small amount of overall investment. The stock market is about “the average American” in the same way as a war is about “the people in the fox holes.” When you read about the state of the “economy,” you are actually reading about what’s good for Wall Street, i.e. the wealthiest among us, the top 1-5%. It is as meaningless to the average American as those last few french fries you toss away are to you.


The truth about the American economy, and the well-being of its citizens lies in the earning power, things like the ability to live in a decent home, provide for their children, including sending them to college, have access to good, affordable health care, plan for retirement, etc. Every time you are told something about how many jobs were added to the economy, your response should not be “Oh, that’s good.” It should be, How much do those jobs pay? Are they full time? Are there health benefits? Can that person live comfortably with that pay and those benefits?


Simple fact: If wages had kept up with inflation and productivity since the 1970’s, the minimum wage paid American workers would be somewhere between $25 and $32 per hour (depending on which chart/source you get your information from). Why is it not?


Through the first three-fourths of the twentieth century, American workers could live in a decent house, provide for their children, including sending them to college, have access to affordable (not free) health care, take a vacation without having to indebt themselves to a credit card with a 20%+ interest rate.
That has changed, not as the result of a world-wide economy, but as the direct result of the response to a world-wide economy by the wealthiest 5% of Americans who are damned if they will make any adjustments to their own grand lifestyles. It is a response as cold-blooded as John Wick, to devalue the American worker across the spectrum.


Only we the people can decide what we intend to do about it.

Republicans Continue to Fight Against Equality in Voting Rights

Republicans are once again fighting tooth and nail against the John Lewis Voting Rights. Behind all of the outrage and hyperbole of their determination lies one simple, unavoidable truth. The Republican party sees people of color as second class citizens existing under the management of white supremacy. And they have a couple of powerful tools at their disposal, both given to them by Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, yes, the founders of the nation themselves.

It becomes increasingly obvious that the founding fathers (for whom my long-standing respect slowly but surely decreases) made two enormous gaffes that virtually eliminated the “..all men are created equal.” statement in the Declaration of Independence.

1. The Electoral Collage, which continues to this day providing the most racist and most hateful minority of Americans with the means to undermine—if not effectively eliminate—the rights of the majority, most notably those of people of color and non-evangelical “Christians.”

2. The assignment of federal election governance to the individual states. Certainly, states should have control over those elections held within and electing officials within that state and that state only. However, it is beyond any level of logic or legitimacy for federal elections, assigning seats within the national government’s executive and legislative branches, to be vulnerable to the prejudices and whims of individual states. …It is the very definition of insanity for national elections not to be run under rules, procedures and accountability set forth by the national government, and applied by the national government uniformly and equally within all states. If the first gaffe allowed democracy to be held hostage by a minority of the citizenry— as it did and does—the second was a virtual surrender by fiat of that democracy. One can only wonder why the intelligent, much adored and very nearly deified founders should make two such complementary and, potentially fatal, ( in terms of our democracy ), “mistakes” at the same time.I think we are well past the point of needing to question the real motivations of our revered founding “fathers.”

Was true democracy, and equal rights for all Americans, ever, really on the table? Or does Lady Liberty raise her torch of something that the founders never actually intended?