The World As I Know It

Yesterday the American Taliban majority on the Supreme Court of the United State, in a shadow docket ruling, ruled that ICE can...without due process...detain American citizens who aren't white, speak a different language or where they work. Below is a letter sent to the contact pages of Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) and Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH). Yesterday, the Republican appointed majority on the Supreme Court of the United States made racial profiling legal in America again, based on the flimsiest of legal arguments as presented by Brett Kavanaugh. His only justification for this decision lies in ignoring the fact-finding of the District Court, ignoring the policies being pursued by Trump’s kakistocracy, and the unfounded assumption that the President is acting in good faith Now, ICE can detain American citizens who aren’t white, the language they speak, where they go, or where they work. All without due process. This ruling effectively guts the Fourth Amendment and is a...

The text of emails sent to Senators Jon Husted(R-OH) and Bernie Moreno(R-OH). In a letter signed by over 750 current and former employees of health agencies in the US, Secretary Kennedy and Congress were called on to end Kennedy’s campaign of misinformation and disinformation, characterizing him as an “existential threat to public health. He has NO medical training of any kind. He relies not on established best practices in medical science nor on data and peer-reviewed studies, which contradict his… quite frankly…insane narrative. Instead, he listens to those looking to make a quick buck peddling the modern equivalent of snake oil and the voices in his head. Earlier this August, Kennedy cut $500 MILLION in funding for research on mRNA vaccines, citing junk science and the voices in his head. He falsely stated that mRNA vaccines failed to protect against COVID-19 infection effectively and were “unsafe”. This, and other actions on Kennedy’s part, are going to lead to the needl...

We live in parlous times, here in America. We have an increasingly authoritarian, utterly corrupt, absolutely morally bankrupt administration busily undermining the Constitution and rule of law in Washington, DC. And, too many people are standing around, scratching their heads...feeling isolated and alone and uncertain of what to do next. Firstly, Donnie and his kakistocracy want you to feel isolated and alone. It is their route to absolute and unquestioned power. Secondly, there are things you can do to effect change. However, it will be a group effort. It will be a peaceful, non-violent effort on our part. And that is the key...non-violence. Non-violent resistance to authoritarian regimes is successful more than twice as often as violent opposition and can draw from a larger potential member base than any violent resistance can hope to. It is precisely this dynamic, drawing from the diversity of our population and its dynamism that, working together, can put a stop to the insanity ...

I wrote this to Husted's and Moreno's contact pages. Both are Trump tools, and both will vote in favor of this travesty of a budget bill. Any Republican voting for this bill should seek the political equivalent of a fallout shelter when the people who actuallvoted for their sorry asses begin losing their access to medical care and medications for themselves and/or their children. Bad as it is for the working poor, the disabled, the elderly and children, being stripped of access to healthcare for the benefit of the GOP's donor class, there is this... "An overlooked provision in the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the House of Representatives would strip the power of the courts to hold the executive branch in contempt, at least for current lawsuits against the Trump administration." ...

By the time I retired in February, I had been an RN for more than 25 years. Along the way, I earned my BSN and MSN. I had planned on retiring on January 1st, but after the election in November of 2024, I cancelled my retirement plans indefinitely. I thought I could keep going for another year or two, or until we decided it was time to get the fuck out of Trump's America. I thought I could do it, but...I just couldn't. Between hospital administration pretending everything was just peachy, the declining quality of nursing care coming from the floors and ICU's to our unit for procedures and, in the backgound of it all...the drive for revenue. From my end, this came in the form of tests...expensive and often inappropriate tests...being ordered by ED physicians. Too often, those tests were ordered in the total absence of any documentation justifying the order. There were no labs...no EKG's...no progress note documenting the rationale for the exam. And I worked for a large,...

With all the biblical literalist, or at least those claiming to be so, I have a question for them. If the Bible tells you that you should kill someone, would you...really? There are many such instance in the Bible, but let's get specific with Deuteronomy 13:6-11, which states... 6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people...

It can be said, with more than a little justification, that "Christian" nationalism is nothing more than white nationalism in Bible drag. But the issue is more complex than that, and starkly reveals exactly why the Founders erected a wall between church and state. While the term has been in use since the 1800's, it took on new significane in 2015 with the rise of Donald Trump, and the enthusiastic support of that rise by self-styled evangelical "Christians". I use "Christians" parenthetically as I find that these "Christians" pay little more than lip-service to the teachings of Christ. Their support for Trump is rooted in the mistaken assumption that...despite decades of debauchery and depravity...he somehow shares their values. Which leads me to question exactly what their values are. To support their claims that America is a Christian nation founded, not upon the historical records and writings of the Founders regarding the religiousity...

As a veteran, I am...in equal measure...dismayed and disgusted by the efforts of Donald Trump to subvert the Constitution and the rule of law since day one of his second term in office. In fact the only campaign promise he seems intent on keeping is to become a dictator. The silence of the GOP in regards to this utter lawlessness on Trump's part, is deafening. And it can only be construed as complicity in Trump's efforts to assume dictatorial powers. 47 years ago, my oath of enlistment in the US Navy required that I "support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic". It was not to the President or a political party, but to the Constitution...the bedrock of the Republic. Donald Trump is just such an enemy, and your oath of office...sirs...demands the same loyalty. Loyalty to the Constitution...not the dictator wannabe posing as President nor to the Republican Party which gives him such slavishly servile obedience. Do you job gentleme...

It was late in March when got the call at about 3:15 AM. It was a call we'd been expecting for over a week. The night nurse called to let us know that Mom was actively dying and the hospice nurse was with her. Mom had been decling before we got her moved to an assisted living facility back in August and the move only accelerated her cognitive decline. She tried to maintain some semblance of reason, but as time passed, those efforts simply vanished under the rising tide of her dementia. In January, it became necessary to move her to the Alzheimer's unit for continuous care. She was a force of nature, with a short temper and no tolerance for fools. She made use of Dad's GI Bill benefits and got her ADN in 1977, and worked as a Med/Surg RN until 1992, retiring a couple years after Dad died. She had frieds she traveled with...to Italy, Mexico and Central America, The Carribean. But,the years of pounding the floors as an RN had taken their toll. Arthritic pain to her legs, k...

Of all the disturbing things done by the Trump administration since it took office, the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is the most worrisome. He was taken into custody by ICE officers who failed to identify themselves and, essentially, “disappeared”. He was transported across state lines to Louisiana and incarcerated in the infamous Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center. These actions against a legal, resident alien, married to a US citizen, are no different from those taken by other nascent dictators in the 20th century and this first quarter of the 21st century as they sought to destroy the foundations of an open, democratic society. That I did not see the names of EVEY House and Senate Democrat signed alongside those of 14 other Democratic House members at the bottom of the letter sent to DHS demanding his release was…disappointing. To paraphrase Pastor Martin Niemöller… First, they came for the foreigner And I did not speak out Because I was not a foreigner… T...