Gov. Ron DeSantis for President….of his local Tallahassee School Board

Gov. Ron DeSantis for President….of his local Tallahassee School Board

Speculation abounds when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will toss his hood, I mean hat, into the ring of GOP presidential contenders.

But from his obsessive hyperventilating on one major issue, local schools, he may surprise us and run for President of his local school board.

He’s running around Florida with his slick, neatly coiffed hair on fire about Florida schools broaching LGBTQ issues. He’s even more incensed about teaching the true, tortured racial history of America. He’s legislating thru his subservient legislature, his version of Group Think, where any deviation that offends his followers will be subject to crippling lawsuits and other sanctions.

His goal? Degrade the vital educational mission into a weapon of submission for all but his idolatrous followers.

Look out if DeSantis does seek and wins the White House instead the school board. The first Cabinet department likely to be chopped will be Education. And say goodbye to Black History Month.

Charles Boyer ‘Gaslight Award’ goes to …Ron DeSantis

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis brought his ‘Gaslight American Society’ (GAS) Tour to Elmhurst, IL Monday. Using his best imitation Charles Boyer French accent, he addressed the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, telling them that everyone in Illinois is crazy, except, of course, the Boys and Girls in Blue, along with Governor DeSantis.

Nothing DeSantis seductively told the cheering crowd of 200 registered on the truth meter. But the gas meter needle shot into the crazy zone upon every utterance.

Without a shred of evidence DeSantis said Illinois pols are defunding the police and encouraging crime. His charged that crime is “massively up” in Chicago when murders and aggravated assaults declined in 2022. DeSantis compared Chicago to Florida, which he claimed, has a 50 year low. Tell that to the folks in Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando where murders have increased.

Former Illinois House member Rodney Davis joined Governor Ron’s Gaslight American Society Tour, charging Illinois does not appreciate its police officers, while Florida is a place “where they work can be appreciated.”

DeSantis wrapped up gaslighting talk wondering why Illinoisans keep electing the “craziest candidate in the Primary.”

Outside the Elmhurst Knights of Columbus, the boys in the white coats gathered to scoop up all those crazy Illinoisans who thought they were perfectly sane.

If they ever remake the 1943 flick ‘Gaslight’, Ron DeSantis is top pic to reprise Charles Boyer’s creepy gaslighter. No young beauty can replace Ingrid Bergman as the unfortunate nearly driven mad. That role is reserved for Lady Liberty.

On gun safety, Germans get it...Americans get killed

Civilians in America own 462 million guns of which 24 million are machine guns (rapid fire). Germans own 16 million guns, none of which are machine guns.

Any wonder the gun death rate for Americans is 10 and a half persons per 100,000, while in Germany its just nine/tenths of 1 person per 100,000.

Guess that's why when visiting family in Germany I feel a tad safer than when back home in the country where an NRA flag should replace Old Glory.

All rea

Russo Ukraine war at 1 year: No nukes yet

The only positive outcome of year 1 in the Russo Ukraine war is that it did not ignite WWIII.

That was not for lack of trying. At the start, President Biden warned nuclear war would likely occur if the US became directly involved. Then he spent the entire first year of the war going right up to the line of direct involvement with ever increasing weapons, direct intelligence assistance, and announcements this weaponry and other military aid would continue for however long it takes.

Unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 60 years ago, when most US, Russian interactions were negotiations, the US did not engage in a single negotiation with Russia to end the war. Worse, the US torpedoed substantive negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by Turkey that could have ended the war in the first two months, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and largescale destruction of Ukraine.

For obvious and now documented reasons, the US likely sabotaged the Russian Nord Stream Pipeline built to bring cheap energy to Germany. If so, that constituted a direct act of war on Russia that could have provoked a wider, possibly catastrophic war.

Former congressman Adam Kinzinger and others demanded we impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, likely triggering direct US Russia conflict.

Ukraine President Zelensky spent the entire first year demanding more weaponry to take the offensive inside Russia. He demolished a critical bridge to Crimea that could have triggered a Russian tactical nuclear response. His demanded direct NATO retaliation against Russia for an errant Ukraine missile that landed in NATO country Poland, killing two. He knew from the get-go the missile was Ukrainian, not Russian.

US mainstream media has devoted virtually all is news and editorial coverage to supporting ever increasing weapons till complete Ukraine victory. The possibility of nuclear war never enters their newsprint of digital pixels. When pro US involvement pundits weigh in on the war going nuclear, they simply reply, ‘We think it’s unlikely Russia will use nuclear weapons…keep our weapons coming.’

We in the peace community worry about the largely unreported destruction of Ukraine from a war the US could have easily prevented and easily ended early on. But that is secondary to our primary worry from Day One: The Russo Ukraine war, also a US proxy war against Russia, possibly moving the Doomsday Clock up 90 seconds to Midnight. At that point the discussion of how to end the war will become irrelevant

Gaetz gets it again: Get US out of Syria

Congressman Matt Gaetz stuck another stick in the eye of the US war party, demanding we end our 9 year long criminal war agaisnt Syria.

What war you might ask? It's not on the news like the US proxy war against Russia, possibly leading the world to nuclear war. That's because US media has a self imposed blackout on this US war responsible for tens, maybe a hundred thousand of the deaths in the Syrian civil war we entered on September 22, 2014.

To depose the hated Syrian president Assad, we even gave weapons to dedicated terrorists giving them a 'get out of war on terrorism' card so they'd use those weapons against Assad. Sure they did.

Like every other US perpetual war, our Syrian intervention has been a collossal failure. Nine years, thousands dead, and Assad still at the wheel in Syria. Yet, the US continues to defile Syria with 900 troops guarding the Syrian oil we stole from Syria to prevent its use to rebuild the country we helped destroy. Earthquake help? Fageddaboudit.

Gaetz has introduced a War Powers Resolution to end this senseless, perpetual war charging “Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Syria. The United States is currently not in a war with or against Syria, so why are we conducting dangerous military operations there? President Biden must remove all US Armed Forces from Syria. America First means actually putting the people of our country first — not the interests of the Military Industrial Complex,”

Gaetz chastised progressive Democrats who are all in for every cockamamie,

criminal US war worldwide. He called for a bipartisan antiwar coalition to end the Syrian and other US wars, saying, "This resolution will test who is truly an adherent to what I believe is America First Foreign Policy, and who continues to believe in Middle Eastern adventurism,”

Gaetz is correct on the Syrian war and need for a bipartisan antiwar coalition in Congress. Without it...we will continue to stumble down the road to worldwide war.

R. Kelly verdict sensible

Mary Mitchell’s Sun Times column lamenting singer R. Kelly’s having to serve only 31 years instead of 49 is not another slight against his victims. At 56, R. Kelly may well expire before his 30 year sentence expires when he would be 86.

Mitchell takes umbrage Federal Judge Harry Leinenweber ruled his additional 20 year sentence for child pornography be served concurrently, not consecutively, with his 30 year sentence on racketereering. This tacks on just one year instead of 19. Mitchell assumes, without evidence, that his victims will be outraged Kelly will not surely die in prison.

That is not justice. That is simply vengeance, however understandable a victim may feel that way. Yes, some will.

But Mitchell forgets the purpose of the criminal justice system is to provide justice to victims and all society by prosecuting evildoers; then ensuring they remain incarcerated until they are no longer a threat to society. It must also send a message to potential evildoers of the same monstrous crimes that such behavior will result in their long term removal from society.

The R. Kelly verdict achieved all 3 purposes. The victims know their abuser will have lost all of his remaining healthy years to a prison cell. Future young women will never by harmed by R. Kelly. No R. Kelly wannabe will view the verdict of 31 years as worth the risk of following his mentor’s path to engage his criminal sexual impulses.

There is one more consideration in the R. Kelly case…restorative justice. The criminal justice system should prepare R. Kelly for the rehabilitation he’ll need to possibly re-enter society many years from now. Every inmate, no matter how heinous their crimes, should not be squandering our precious tax dollars as a feeble octogenarian or older in a jail cell. That treasure should be used for rehabilitation for the hundreds of thousands of R. Kellys essentially serving life so they can eventually free up their prison cell for younger, infinitely more dangerous evildoers.

Is Ukraine the Vietnam Domino Theory of the 21st century?

As one who lived thru the Vietnam War, 1959-1975, I still shudder at the waste of life and land in Vietnam for 16 years.

Why did the US spend $168 billion (1 trillion today) to get a couple of million innocents killed in Vietnam, including over 58,000 US troops? The Domino Theory.

No, not the game, tho the US does treat the world like one big war game. It refers to the post WWII US theory that no country could choose or simply become communist because then every other country in the region will fall into communism like cascading dominos, dooming the US. There was and is no truth to that cockamamie theory whatsoever. But it allowed the US war party to initiate regime change or outright invasion all over the world to maintain US global exceptionalism and fuel our now nearly trillion dollar military budget.

With Vietnam in the loss column and the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the Domino Theory went poof like a Chinese weather balloon over the Carolinas.

But Uncle Sam was not happy about losing his Domino Theory to dictate nations' choice of government. He spent 8 years beginning in 2014, with his support of a coup to oust pro-Russian Ukrainian President Yanukovych, to establish a new Domino Theory, this time in Europe. Can't have a pro-Russian guy running Ukraine because then other European countries might align with Russia to obtain cheap energy and other US made resources from nearby Russia. Doesn't matter US Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is 4 times higher. America needs the revenue.

US provocations led to the illegal Russian invasion with specifically limited aims: First: No NATO expansion in Ukraine with nukes right up to Russia's border. Second: independence for Russian leaning Ukrainians in Ukraine Donbas being slaughtered by their government after the US backed coup. 10,000 to 15,000 so far.

Once started, the US should have supported negotiations that could have ended it within the first 2 months. But that would have allowed Russia back into the European political economy, something unacceptable to US dominance in Europe. Enter the 21st century version of the Domino Theory, this one directed at Russia, the puny remnant of the old Soviet Union. The false US narrative proclaimed unless we totally defeat Russia in the Donbas, they'll gobble up the rest of Ukraine and then start nibbling at the rest of Europe.

The entire US mainstream media has wolfed down this new Domino Theory like a Domino's pizza. But those of us peaceniks who pushed back against last century's Domino Theory, find ourselves, 45 years on, having to push back again. Those who don't remember the Vietnam War Domino Theory should join us peace movement vets to form mass resistance to the Ukraine Domino Theory. Help us encourage our government to consign this century's Domino Theory to the dustbin of failed foreign policy war games.

What DiSantis really said at Disney takeover signing ceremony

Florida Governor Ron DiSantis proclaimed at the signing ceremonty for the bill ending Disney's self governing authority over its sprawing theme park: "There's a new sheriff in town, and accountability will be the order of the day."

DiSantis was punishing Disney for publically opposing his 'Don't Say Gay' bill to prevent LGBTQ issues on gender identity from being taught in Florida schools.

But this is what the 70 millioin Trump voters heard from the man seeking to replace Trump as the GOP '24 presidential candidate: "There's a new fascist in town, where authoritarianism will be the order of the day."

It’s the bottom of the 9th…and Biden shoots for extra innings

Looking more and more like Joe Biden will seek re-election to a second term next year.

He’ll be nearly 82 if re-elected and 86 and 2 months if he crosses the finish line.

I hope he retires.

He’s been decent on domestic issues, certainly better than any Republican.

On foreign affairs he’s been reckless; a threat to our survival pushing US perpetual wars and regime change worldwide. His provocations made the Russian invasion of Ukraine virtually inevitable. His refusal to negotiate; indeed his sabotaging negotiations that nearly ended the war early on, have made nuclear war a possibility every one of the 369 days of this war…and counting down.

But even if he retires, his replacement, regardless of sex, race or creed, will likely do the same. That’s the way American exceptionalism rolls. Can you say a trillion dollar offense budget next year?

What is more urgent is that his re-election makes it almost certain his VP will become acting or actual president after Biden’s likely disability or death within the next 6 years. That actuarial reality adds a whole nother layer to his likely re-election bid.

What does he do about current VP Kamala Harris? She’s glued to Biden on domestic policy (good), as well as US world dominance (horrible). Harris presents Biden a huge dilemma. She is unpopular and unlikeable, two qualities that have nothing to do with her competence and qualifications, which are substantial. But that’s politics.

It’s very difficult for a president to dump his VP for a better asset in the campaign. It looks unseemly. But keeping her will become an issue that may help the Republican challenger. It’s likely Biden will follow George H.W. Bush, who kept the unpopular Dan Quale as his re-election VP. Or, Harris might take one for the team and retire instead of Joe.

There is no amount of Geritol in the world to cure Joe Biden’s ‘tired blood’. As I’ve said before, Say it’s so, Joe, ‘I’m retiring.

All r

Cable news is the television National Enquirer

Turned on CNN and MSNBC to catch important news on Ukraine war, climate change, pending Trump indictments, corporate railroad malfeasance among other important issies deserving coverage.

Turned off quickly when simply offered wall to wall coverage of a bizarre murder trial, adding no important value to fosteing an informed electorate. Most folks watching likely now know more about the gothic Southern Low Country in South Carolina than they do about important matters in Washington DC or their state capital.

It has been the most coverage of a non important news story deserving minimal coverage since a football player was injured on national TV.

Cable news is an utter disgrace. Ownership shovels billions

to their bottom line by keeping us distracted and entertained. Americans may not be stupid...but most sure are ignorant. And it's not entirely their fault.

Women’s History Month Pick: Jeannette Rankin

Possibly my favorite woman in US history is Jeannette Rankin

Last December 8, marked the 81st anniversary of Congresswoman Rankin's sole vote against the Declaration of War against Japan. Facing hisses and calls for her to change her vote to make it unanimous, she said "I can't go to war (as a woman) so I can't send anyone else." Then she ran from a mob out for blood; hiding in a phone booth and calling the cops to save her.

If that was all she did in life she'd be a minor historical footnote. But Rankin, born in Montana, was a true groundbreaker. She got a BS in biology at a time few women attended college. Eschewing both a normal career and family, she joined the suffrage movement, organizing the NY Women's Suffrage Party and serving as lobbyist for the National American Women's Suffrage Association, facilitating suffrage victories in Montana and Washington. Improbably securing election as the first US Congresswomen ever (Montana), when women couldn't vote nationally, she cast the only female vote for universal suffrage. On April 7, 1917, Rankin was one of 50 members of Congress voting against President Wilson's Declaration of War against Germany in WWI. The majority vote for senseless war was one of the worst decisions in American history.

Her nay vote sealed her defeat in 1918 amid fanatical American nationalism. She spent the next 22 years working tirelessly for peace and the rights of women and children. In 1940, the cause of peace made her run for Congress again. She won and got the chance to vote against our last declared war. Bounced from Congress again in 1942, Rankin soldiered on for her causes of peace and justice for another 31 years.

To recognize her decades’ struggle for peace, we could honor Rankin by changing Veterans Day to Patriots Day. Then it will not only honor our military veterans and servicepersons, but all the patriots who have worked for peace, justice and human progress. Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, started by the Brits in 1919 to celebrate the pivot from war to peace. The US recognized this in 1926 to specifically to commemorate November 11 for “thanksgiving, prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

At the height of the Cold War in 1954, Congress pivoted from honoring peace to veterans as America geared up for possible world war with the Soviet Union. Sixty-nine years on, peace has been largely written out of Armistice / Veterans Day story. This Women’s History Month would be an appropriate time to correct that by changing November 11, once again; this time to Patriots Day. It would honor peace patriots such as Jeannette Rankin. It would allow the millions of us veterans of the peace movement a place in a truly inclusive day of honor.

Time for one big government railroad?

The environmental and societal railroad disaster in East Palestine, OH begs the question: Why do we allow rapacious railroad capitalists to put us all at grave risk with their gluttonous desire to turn their unearned millions into a billion or more?

Norfolk Southern CEO James Squires is worth nearly $30 million while President Alan Shaw has packed away nearly $11 million. While both proclaim their No. 1 priority is safety, their actions belie a greater interest in the bottom line. Indeed, the nation’s private railroad moguls are pushing to reduce the number of safety inspectors on haz mat trains from 2 to 1. Why? Save labor costs. In their view, one can do the job of 2, the public be damned. Saving labor cost is why they act like 19th century robber barons keeping essential crew from sick time which is essential for healthy, rested, alert crews.

What is really sickening is that we allow the vital national need for safe railroad service to remain hijacked by greedy individuals under the guise of another wonder of US capitalism. Meanwhile Congress is scurrying around like rats on the sinking ship of state proclaiming their new Railroad Safety Act of 2023 will solve a systemic problem. That’s not a case of the horse escaped from the barn before closing the door. It’s more like trying to put a band aid on 11 derailed hazardous material cars after 100,000 gallons of hazardous materials escaped to destroy our environment and put thousands at risk.

Hazardous materials? The most hazardous are sitting in the corporate offices of Norfolk Southern and their greedy competitors. It’s time to sweep those offices clean to make way for a new entity: The American Public Railroad.

US arms and Ukrainian arms: one endless, one disappearing

 

US explosive arms push well past $100 billion with no end in sight. But Ukrainian human arms needed to hold US arms are rapidly disappearing.

Retired American Marine Troy Offenbecker, fighting with Ukraine military, told ABC News the war raging around Bakhmut in the Donbas “is meat grinder where Ukrainian life expectancy is around four hours on the frontline.”

Americans supporting fighting the Russo Ukraine war; also the US proxy war on Russia, to total victory, need to realize 2 things: Endless military arms for Ukraine ensure the end of Ukrainian human arms to hold them. Promoting negotiations instead of sabotaging negotiations a year ago which has prolonged the war for over a year…will save both.

On Cuba, the US tells whole world: “Go to hell”

The US first imposed an economic embargo against Cuba on October 19, 1960, and made it largely airtight on February 7, 1962.

After virtually controlling Cuba for 62 years upon grabbing it from Spain in the 1898 war, the US simply could not accept revolutionary leader Fidel Castro would put Cuba’s economic welfare ahead of greedy US capitalists and Mafia Dons.

After sixty-three years the embargo still stands, a monument to US cruelty against the Cuban people. Since it’s enshrined in US law, no president can overturn it, only Congress.

Even the nearly unanimous demand of the UN that it most go cannot move the US to stop defiling basic moral values the US should honor instinctively. The vote last November 3 was the most overwhelming repudiation of the American embargo since the UN campaign began 30 years ago. Only Israel joined the US in voting No while 182 countries told the US for the 30th consecutive vote to end it. Ukraine voted to abstain along with Brazil. Ukraine likely doesn’t want to upset the $100 billion US weapons gravy train, while Brazil’s vote will be lost next vote with the election of progressive president Luiz da Silva. Brazil will then join Columbia, which switched its previous abstention to Yes last year, in making Latin America unanimous against the US embargo.

There is a glimmer of hope in Congress. A bipartisan group of 5 senators has introduced the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act. If passed, it will end the embargo now in its 63rd year of utter failure, except of course, its diabolical degradation of the Cuban people. Every American should contact their senators and congressperson to support this bill. Besides uplifting the Cuban people, ending the embargo will help straighten out America’s damaged moral compass.

Historical birth date not widely known but should be

Most folks know the historical significance of anyone born June 6, 1944: D Day, the largest invasion in history, signaling the demise of Nazi Europe.

My birthdate, March 10, 1945, just 9 months, 4 days later, is also a significant day in world history. But it is virtually unknown by anyone not a serious student of WWII history.

That’s partly because the event, by itself, does not identify its place in history. But this Friday, as I awake on birthday 78, it will come to mind as it does every March 10.

As I was busy was busy being born in a clean, safe Chicago suburban hospital, a hundred thousand Japanese were being incinerated under 1,510 tons of napalm bombs dropped on Tokyo by 282 B-29s. A million were left homeless from the disappearance of 268,000 mostly wooden homes. American airmen donned their oxygen masks at low altitude to ward off the smell of burning flesh.

Its historical significance? It was the deadliest single day of human destruction from war in history. Ask anyone and they will likely answer that occurred from the Hiroshima or Nagasaki atomic bombings 5 months later. Not so.

It’s a dubious distinction I cannot separate from my entrance to life. Try as I might, it always emerges from my psyche upon awakening to mark another birthday. I learned about it around 1952, staring in horror at pictures of the man-made firestorm devouring one of the world's largest cities. The Cold War was raging. McCarthy was rampaging. I feared a similar fate awaited me from nuclear war, the current threat to mass destruction back then. Seventy-one years later it still is. Possible nuclear war against Russia and China is in the news daily. The Doomsday Clock is 90 tics from midnight, the closest in my life. That is not progress.

Our schools do a good job teaching kids about the significance of D Day. Not a word tho, about the deadliest day from war in man’s 2 million years waring on Earth. That is a shame. We need to put more focus on man's incessant penchant for war with its horrific death toll, and our obliviousness to its impending approach on a scale infinitely larger than my birthdate, March 10, 1945.