The Little Words Mean the Most

Where we are re: the assault on Roe v. Wade

 

The US Supreme Court will do what it will do. The majority of justices will prevail.

That's the battle.

The real war happens in November 2022, with America's mid-term elections.

If the usual soft turnout occurs >>> then anti-women, anti-women's healthcare, anti-women's freedom to choose GOP con-men and -women (sad but true) will likely win enough seats to rule as they see fit ... for quite awhile.

And 50 years of steady progress on women's (and other individual) rights will be lost overnight.

Everyone: vote.

The goal in any contested district? ZERO Republican victories.

It's attainable, studies show ... but ONLY if you vote.

Many local elections these days are decided by 500 votes or fewer.

DO VOTE! That's all you have to do ... to defeat America's extremists.

FUN FACT: When everyone in America votes, extremists DON'T win.

That's a good thing in your opinion, right?

 

 

New acronym? YSCF

 

YSCF

 

You

Supreme

Court

Fuckers

 

Roe v. Wade tossed? Going to war ... a war for a FULL voter turn-out

 

Simone predicted this would happen. I didn't believe it was possible, given decades of progress in women's rights.

And I was dead wrong.

But there is a remedy: EVERYONE votes in the US mid-terms.

That will send extremists back to their dark, echoing cupboards. Extremists thrive on low voter turn-out. Do your bit.

 

Class? In today's US democracy, is there a real reason for the Republican Party to any longer exist?

 

Or are Republicans the "past sell by" party?

 

The 2-party system kinda works, I think.

 

The "loyal opposition" is a lovely idea. I personally bow to this daily mantra: "What if everything I know is wrong?" A.k.a., whaddaIknow?

In the U.S., the worshipped balance of powers is practical genius: How else can a diverse society compromise and advance?

And then we have today's Republicans in America.

They're no longer sane nor intellectually trustworthy.

Instead, they're desperate. For a very obvious reason.

---

Demographic trends are showering urine on their parade ... and they don't have an answer.

"White" privilege will shift into "everybody" privilege ... within what, a decade? Maybe two?

I just don't think there's a marchable anthem here: "Woe is me because I happen to be white." Yeah, probably not....

I'm white. I know I had advantages because I slid out into a white-majority nation.

I got the benefit of the doubt loads of times (wasn't arrested when in fact I was breaking the f**ing law).

I squeaked into an Ivy League university ... thanks to a caring high school teacher who could tip the scales in my direction. But he would have, I'm sure, done the same thing, proudly, enthusiastically, for whomever he considered a-mind-with-potential ... whatever their complexion.

Or if not him (because we're all locked into our own generation's stereotypes and biases), then the next teacher of the same ilk.

Here was a wake-up call for me, just 2 years ago.

We were working with a client in the U.S. who helps the world's burgeoning census of refugees. This client does extraordinary work in tough circumstances ... around the world! And we surveyed their donors: about 90% were either Independents or Democrats. There were almost no Republicans chipping in.

I now feel like I hold a crystal ball.

The U.S. Republican party is simply too inflexible, too inbred, and too politically irrelevant to matter much longer. This party will end up like a sand bank with countless dying fish (its supporters) ... the sooner the better.

 

So political progress can begin again in America?

 

 

 

I did not want this turd anywhere on my lawn ... but this was so irresistibly true .....

 

Zelensky: 'Moral defeat' awaits West if it doesn't send more aid (CNN, Mar 18, 2022)

 

Zelensky is SO right

 

(history doesn't repeat... but it tends to rhyme: Mark Twain)

 

Here's the long-running ethical debate, intelligently argued in Forbes (try Googling):

Why It's Unethical To Go Back In Time And Kill Baby Hitler

...

Then there's this morning's shatteringly-awful news re: Baby Putin ~

Initial response, as I fumble my first weapon: "Tell me again: Which one's the safety and which one's the trigger? And where do I plug in these Putin-erasing projectiles?"

...

Is this Russia's top production export? World-class murdering monsters and genocide? "Have to ask, to match my yacht: Do they come in plaid (rhymes with Vlad)?"

...

For those of us just tuning into the planet's present political despair ... if you have Netflix, please watch (re-watch) the film "Munich: The Edge of War."

Putin (this latest Hitler wannabe; we've seen so many) is not a "reasonable fellow." Sociopath, psychopath, just fucked up beyond understanding? He's a true evil without values or limits or decency or morals, who stalks our world without a worry ... because the West is trying to fence him in with soft power, pretzels and phrasing; sad smiles, diplomacy and sanctions.

...

Fair question to "our world leaders who got safe C's in world history":

When do we set the clocks back to "No mercy, asswipe. Here's comes a bomb down the tallest chimney at Putin's Palace. Eat the world's contempt, Frat Boy." You're treating him like an adult. He's a lost child.

WW3 will NOT have to happen if we learn from WW2 ... and THAT particularly miserable planet-wide slippery slope.

It led to the deaths of an expert-estimated 70-85 million people (try to imagine the skulls alone) ... directly caused by an unnecessary, failed war and indirectly by starvation (at a time when the world's human population was half its 2022's scale; i.e., a lot more will die this time).

Long story short: accommodation did not work.

This is what it seems like to me butt whadda i know:

1. The first goal of Western politicians seems to be to ignore as much as possible ... while sounding attentive; to keep voters calm. (Just-add-water solution? Send WAY more arms. There are plenty of itchy trigger fingers in Ukraine NOW ... but they'll be whittled down if the West doesn't hurry.)
2. The second goal is to keep various Western national economies in decent shape. Ditto, the calm voters. (Just-add-water solution? Send WAY more arms. There are plenty of itchy trigger fingers in Ukraine NOW ... but they'll be whittled down if the West doesn't hurry.)
3. The third goal (fingers crossed on this one) is to pay attention. Never again. How many exclamation points do you need?!?!? THIS is AGAIN!!! (Just-add-water solution? Send WAY more arms. There are plenty of itchy trigger fingers in Ukraine NOW ... but they'll be whittled down if the West doesn't hurry.)

But what do I know?

I'm just an old guy in rural America who can't see straight because of Ukraine ... and while I admire what the Biden White House has done so far (and I despise the GOP for their wobbly limp-spaghetti ankles, cling-to-power-ways,  hypocrisy [oh, why bother to even point it out anymore; the GOP is the party of the past, not any reasonable future ... and A. Lincoln would be ashamed of the flagrant, self-serving Quislings they've generally become] .... ummm ... and, oh yeah, P.S. >>> the GOP's sheer blatant treachery to a young nation's flawed but aspirational founding principles and progress) ... I also believe Americas could NOW [like TONIGHT!] do EVEN more, per, e.g., the Berlin Airlift ... that was a no-fly zone of sorts, right?

Repeat:

... do EVEN more, per,

e.g., the Berlin Airlift ...

that was a triumphant

no-fly zone

of sorts, right?

 

 

Manchin/Putin 2024: Better for America!

 

banner seen today on GOP headquarters

 

My 401(k) would like to say something sincerely to Prez Putin, Invader Monster::::

 

60 million hardworking, responsible US citizens

have firm, personal reasons now to despise you and your shocking recklessness in Ukraine; SO congratulations of a weird sort

 

I know: Your opponents don't vote for you.

Nor does any other honest number-cruncher. They can't know the REAL truth ... since you've murderously rigged the ballot box for a long time. In your clammy world, I'll bet that rigging elections makes you feel smart, even wise; in the shrunken empire on which you quietly fart daily, into cushions.

In fact, you're probably less smart than you'd prefer to be. Me, too. Trying to be helpful....

Yet, Vlad, you definitely ARE "next czar" material.

Question? In truth: a form of denial.

It's a form of quaking. It's a form of anxiety attack.

I'm on the field, with my high-school cheerleader pompoms lofted (thank you, Andy Card), SHOUTING at the top of my lungs from my obscure corner of the Internet: Putin is POO and TIN = nothing more than SHIT and a soft metal.

So I wrote the current president of all that's left of shrunken Russia...

Instead of a birthday gift, Vlad, I'm sending you wishes for a massive heart attack or stroke; your choice.

Tonight? Please be thoughtful ... before you kill any more pregnant Ukrainians or their newborns?

Here's my well-informed promise to you: you'll become a freak of history soon. Predictably. A bizarre not-quite-human person others can stare at and avoid.

No statues for you, Puttie. Planet Earth (for those desperate to save it) is a global enterprise now. Your border tantrum smells really bad ... for the future.

Grow ears for once.

Realize that even at their peaks Russian czars were small-timers globally. "Peter the Great" was really just "Peter, Better Than Many Other Second-Stringers ... and Yet Most of the World Never Noticed...." Same for the admirable Catherine.

------

So THAT was your nefarious plan, Vlad Pee?!?!?! To become some temp "leader" on whom massive millions of disgusted humans internationally can now happily urinate?

Wow. That's your business model?

What a goal.

What a sloppy, unplanned, I dunno, could-go-anywhere goal. A goal that effective leaders across the millennia and across continents would avoid.

Admired, effective leaders don't win (or survive long) by dropping bombs on innocents. Bomb-droppers might look like they're winning for a few weeks. BUT...

Maybe you're smarter than all of human history, Vlad Pee!!!

Still, someone neutral and analytical needs to check your military's adult diapers: the graveyard of history is full of idiots. (PS: Mr. President Vlad Pee has been nominated to the International Hall of Shame.)

China abstained, craving some temporary economic/political advantage. China waits and sees. Or maybe China and its leaders have grown too big to think straight.

Dear Vlad: Did you write about this originally in some 6th grade-essay labeled: "What do I want to be when I grow up?"

Young Putin's answer, I imagine:

"I hope to be boss of Russia one day [so stop picking on me, bullies, because I'm not THAT tall; and I promise I will destroy you years from now ... with pleasure (it's the Russian way). I'll also destroy your entire miserable family (again, the Russian way). And I want everyone living beyond my propaganda machine to hate my marrow, because they can't vote....]

"'Cause that will make my beloved Russia great again."

If you noticed a disconnect in "young Putin's" answer? Congratulations. Putin lies about everything, including his eye color.

Repulsed and despairingly yrs,

>>> tom

 

A fresh deep look at the Ukraine war crisis...

 

From The Guardian, March 8, 2022, quoting a Ukranian climate change scientist, Dr. Svitlana Krakovska:

“I started to think about the parallels between climate change and this war and it’s clear that the roots of both these threats to humanity are found in fossil fuels,” said Krakovska. “Burning oil, gas and coal is causing warming and impacts we need to adapt to. And Russia sells these resources and uses the money to buy weapons. Other countries are dependent upon these fossil fuels, they don’t make themselves free of them. This is a fossil fuel war. It’s clear we cannot continue to live this way, it will destroy our civilization.”

 

If Putin hailed his fellow Satan on the street...

 

... would Satan turn and walk away?