Warning to the governor of Florida - (I have no idea what his real name is) but stop fighting Mickey Mouse!

Hey Governor #DSantis #Desanctimonious (?) or whatever your name is.....guess what? Disney-bashing won’t work. Echo opinion letter published in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, in Florida:

Ron DeSantis (or whatever his name is) is at odds with who? You have got to be kidding! He is at war with Mickey Mouse?

Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump must give it up with the Disney-bashing. They are not hurting Disney. The parks here in Florida were crowded over the holiday weekend, even in the rain.

“The Little Mermaid” movie pulled in $117.5 million domestically during this weekend’s opening. We are assuming that includes Iowa.

And last year, I personally benefitted from the professionalism of the Disney medical staff and the Reedy Creek Improvement District Emergency Management Team that responded to my cardiac incident at Animal Kingdom. I survived to visit the parks another day.

Gentlemen, please turn your attention to the nation’s real problems and tell us how you would be handling those instead of bashing Mickey Mouse.

From Martha D. Clouse in Oviedo Florida

Ron DeSantis wants America to be like Florida? But Florida is sinking!

The Los Angeles Times echo opinion letter to the editor: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now officially a Republican presidential candidate. I understand that he wants to make America like Florida. (Maine Writer, does Ron D.Santis aka "Ron DeSantis", know that his state Florida is sinking?)

Florida’s Opportunity to Lead on
Climate is Running Out

Well, Gov. DeSantis, I say no thank you.

• I do not want to live in an America that bans books. 
• I do not want to live in an America that takes rights away from anyone, including women, LGBTQ+ people and ethnic minorities. 
• I do not want to live in an America that calls out successful businesses that speak up - using their right to free speech- about cultural issues.

You can keep your anger and vindictiveness in Florida. You can also keep your bugs, heat, humidity, hurricanes and traffic!

From Mike Reardon, Fallbrook, in San Diego County, California

Debt ceiling deadlines are politically and economically dangerous: End political brinkmanship

Opinion echo:  The New York Times Editorial Board

Pass the debt limit deal! Then figure out how to end the drama.  This echo opinion calls for a Constitutional Amendment to end this debt ceiling politically dangerous Kabuki dance.

No one walked away satisfied by the agreement reached late Saturday to raise the debt ceiling: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not win the most destructive cuts sought by the right, and the Democratic proposals to raise revenue never seriously entered the conversation. 

Yet, with the risk of ruinous economic default less than a week away, Congress should pass this agreement as quickly as possible.

The agreement reached by Mr. McCarthy and President Biden would suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. Mr. Biden can, as the nation should, feel relief over this outcome. He also should feel a sense of urgency to make sure such a partisan impasse never repeats itself.

President Biden had said he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling, which limits federal borrowing after money has been appropriated, and he had demanded that Congress raise it without conditions. The House responded by approving a bill to raise the ceiling for a year in exchange for stringent cutbacks on nondefense spending. That bill would have rolled back many of the president’s signature achievements and ended benefits for millions of people who get their health insurance through Medicaid, as well as those who rely on food and cash assistance.

As the deadline for the nation’s first credit default grew closer — the Treasury Department now says it will run out of money on June 5 — Mr. Biden set aside his earlier position and began closed-door negotiations with Mr. McCarthy over those demands.

The final agreement reflects this one-sided bargaining, with Mr. McCarthy refusing to truly entertain any of the Democrats’ proposals to raise revenue: None of the 2017, Trump tax cuts, which added $1.8 trillion to the deficit through 2029, for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy, will be rolled back. 😠

Republicans rejected the elimination of the carried-interest loophole, which benefits hedge-fund managers and private equity funds, and the end to fossil fuel tax subsidies that Mr. Biden proposed in his 2024, budget.

In fact, no measures to raise revenues were included ❗😠; the deal is entirely about cutting spending. 

Reducing the national debt is an important long-term goal. A much more responsible form of fiscal discipline is to collect the taxes that are owed, to make considered spending cuts where appropriate and to reverse tax cuts that solely benefit the wealthy.

The details of the agreement, released on Sunday, show that it is a watered-down version of the Republican wish list. Spending on most domestic programs in fiscal year 2024 will stay at about the same level as 2023 and grow by 1 percent in 2025. That is effectively a cut over both years, given the pace of inflation and the potential for an economic downturn hovering. (Medicare and Social Security would not be affected.)

Under the deal, the Pentagon would be allowed to grow, as well as veterans’ programs. The two-year cap would shortchange many important investments in education, housing, infrastructure and disease prevention. It is a significant improvement, however, from the drastic cuts proposed in Mr. McCarthy’s bill — $860 billion compared with $3.2 trillion over a decade — and is roughly in line with what might have been expected in regular budget negotiations with the House.

That price was likely inevitable when Democrats lost the chamber last year and failed to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling during the lame duck session.

The White House should have insisted that military and domestic spending be held at the same rate of change, following a pattern set during the Obama administration. At least the military budget in this agreement would be at roughly the same level that Mr. Biden proposed in his 2024 ,budget. The deal also includes a helpful mechanism that would make it difficult for Republicans to spend less on domestic programs or more on the military when the time comes to write appropriation bills this year.

President Biden negotiated the promise of a debt ceiling deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

The most unfortunate aspect of the agreement is the change to eligibility for nutrition assistance, popularly known as food stamps, and the cash welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Though virtually every study has shown that work requirements for these benefits are not effective inducements to employment, Republicans were willing to let the government default on its debt if they didn’t get them. During the talks, Mr. Biden rejected the strict new work requirements for people on Medicaid, but he agreed to changes in the other two programs.

Under this concession, people 50 to 54 years old without dependents would be limited to three months of food stamps every three years unless they meet new work requirements, which the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said would affect hundreds of thousands of older adults. State requirements for people who receive cash assistance from the TANF program will also be tightened. The only good news here is that, for the first time, the food stamp program would not subject homeless people, veterans or young adults formerly in foster care to time limits, under an agreement won by Mr. Biden.

One of the most nonsensical Republican demands was to cut $80 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service to hire investigators to reduce tax cheating. 

Infact, the I.R.S. expansion would have reduced the budget deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office, because it would bring in new tax revenue. Republicans refused to reduce the deficits by any means other than cutting spending. 

Mr. Biden agreed to reduce the new I.R.S. spending by about $21 billion over two years, though the money may be moved to the general fund to reduce the impact of the new spending caps.

The blunt instrument of the debt ceiling allowed this standoff and its concessions. With the Republicans in control of the House, Democrats in Congress have given up their path to change this for now. The president seemed to acknowledge that this month when he told reporters that he’d consider declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s debt clause and letting the courts decide whether he is right. “When we get by this, I’m thinking about taking a look at — months down the road — to see whether, what the court would say about whether or not the — it does work,” he said.

If Congress approves this agreement, the threat of default will be over for the next two years. At that point, Mr. Biden and his legal experts need to follow through on his interest in testing a constitutional solution and try to stop the debt crisis from returning in 2025, or thereafter.

This dangerous political brinkmanship must stop! 

"We cannot remain a free nation if we abandon the truth", Rep. Liz Cheney at Colorado College

By Alexander Gromko published by Colorado College:

(Check out the antiracist statement published on the College website. Nevertheless, regardless of the statement, some of the 2023, graduates chose to be ignorantly rude to one of the best known alumn, Rep. Liz Cheney, who is the daughter of the former Vice-President Dick Cheney)

Rep. Liz Cheney a Colorado College alumna

“Stand in truth and defend our democracy, we have never needed you more,” Cheney tells graduating Class of 2023

“It’s a fundamental fact. We cannot remain a free nation if we abandon the truth. As you go out to change the world, resolve to stand in truth,” former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney ’88 told a packed Ed Robson Arena filled with 512 graduates and several thousand family members and friends. The 149th Colorado College Commencement took place on a warm, sunny Sunday morning, May 28, 2023.

The Colorado College alumna and Vice Chair of the Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection recounted her experience being “asked to lie” about the 2020, election being “stolen,” and that the attack on January 6, 2021, “wasn’t a big deal.”

“I had to choose between lying and losing my position in House leadership,” Cheney said. “As I spoke to my colleagues on my last morning as chair of the Republican conference, I told them that if they wanted a leader who would lie, they should choose someone else.”

The arena erupted into applause at that moment. It was the courageous and bold action Cheney referenced that resonated with CC leadership and prompted them to invite her to speak at the liberal arts college’s Commencement ceremony.

“During your time here,” President L. Song Richardson shared in her address to graduates, “you learned to value the perspectives and experiences of people different than you, and in your collaborative class projects, you learned that great ideas come when we don’t all think the same way.”

In recognition of her “consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy,” Cheney was awarded the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 2022.

Despite this, many graduates turned their chairs around in protest of Cheney as Commencement speaker, however the ceremony was not disrupted. And the protest was not unexpected by college leadership, which supports the right of every student to protest and encourages peaceful participation in social activism and demonstration.

“The world needs your unique ways thinking, your courage, and your curiosity now more than ever,” says Richardson.

Cheney encouraged the graduates to “do good and be kind” as they head out into the world. Also, to be prepared for obstacles they don’t expect. She told them to do what is right even when it’s hard, when they’re alone, and when they’re afraid. “Especially when you’re afraid. That’s courage,” Cheney added.

With perseverance like none other, the Class of 2023, overcame the odds of a global pandemic that shaped their entire college experience, from start to finish, with each graduate having their own story to tell of how different their undergraduate college years were compared to most. From being dispersed and learning through Zoom classes, to enduring health scares and rallying for mental health services. If anyone knows courage, it’s them.

Cheney urged the graduates to get out and vote and be engaged, active, and thoughtful citizens. “This means listening and learning, including—especially—from those with whom we disagree.”

Colorado College conferred degrees upon 468 Bachelor of Arts candidates and seven Master of Arts in Teaching graduates, who marched along with 37 students who graduated last August and December.

Many students received awards of distinction, including the Just World Award recipient Chloe Brooks-Kistler ’23, who received the Adrienne Lanier Seward Bold and Courageous Actions Award, and Delaney Grant Kenyon ’23, who received the Margaret Liu Health Justice Award.

In addition, four people received Honorary Degrees, including Mike Edmonds, retiring senior vice president, who joined Colorado College in 1991. As acting co-president from 2020 to 2021, he led the campus community through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and became the first Black president in the college’s 147-year history.

Robert G. Moore, retiring senior vice president for Finance and Administration, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer, joined the college in 2009. His work improved CC’s physical campus, the compensation and benefits of employees, college finances, financial aid, and the student experience. Moore served as acting co-president of Colorado College from 2020 to 2021, navigating the difficulties of COVID-19.

Hilaree Nelson, Colorado College Class of 1995, North Face team captain, National Geographic Adventurer, first woman to climb Everest and Lhotse (both over 8,000 meters) in a single 24-hour push, and first to ski from the summit of Lhotse. Nelson was an all-time great in ski mountaineering, mentor to other women mountaineers, and an advocate for climate-change awareness. She died in September 2022 in a ski fall caused by an avalanche near the summit of Manaslu in Nepal.

Robin Wilson, professor emeritus, the Open University (UK), world‐renowned mathematician, historian of mathematics, and from 1982 to 2016, a frequent visiting professor at CC. He authored or co‐authored 50 books and 80+ articles on topics ranging from abstract algebra and graph theory to popularizations of mathematical ideas.

In closing, Cheney encouraged the graduates to achieve, invent, and create. “Class of 2023, go forth. Stand in truth. Do good and be kind. Always do the next right thing. Be heroes. Be incandescent with courage. Defend our democracy. Love and serve our country. She – and we – have never needed you more,” says Cheney.

Racism and the woman who echoed the Ron DeSantis book banning

In my opinion, the racist position made by Daily Salinas to have The Hill We Climb by Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman removed from an elementary library is an echo created by Ron DeSantis.

Florida parent who challenged Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb"* and other books says she only read parts of the material.

This echo article was published in USA Today reported by John Bacon:

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has three books forthcoming with Penguin Random House.

The Florida parent whose complaints about reading material prompted Amanda Gorman's acclaimed poem "The Hill We Climb" and other books to be restricted at a local elementary school admits she only read parts of the material she objected to.

Daily Salinas fueled a firestorm last week after the Bob Graham Educational Center, a public school in Miami-Dade County, agreed to restrict access to "The Hill We Climb" − which Gorman recited at President Joe Biden's inauguration −and three other books a school panel decided were better suited for middle-school students.

Salinas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JTA, she complained about Gorman's poem and the books because they did not support the curriculum. Gorman, 25, was the first person named the National Youth Poet Laureate.

“I’m not an expert,” she said. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”

Gorman rejected the school's defense that her poem was restricted not banned, and that it remained available for middle-school children.

"For those claiming my book wasn’t banned, just 'aged-up,' 'The Hill We Climb' is an inaugural poem for the world," Gorman posted on Twitter. "Relocating it to older age group library shelves by its nature bars younger and equally deserving generations from accessing said moment in history."

Developments:

• Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has invited Gorman to perform a reading of her poem in the county.
• Students at New Roads elementary, the California school Gorman once attended, read their own poetry at a rally in her name. "When our students see this book, they are reminded that they too are authors, thinkers, speakers, social justice advocates, champions for those who have been marginalized, and compassionate young people who want to listen and to be heard," the school said in an Instagram post.
• Salinas denies link to Proud Boys:  The advocacy group Miami Against Fascism posted photos of Salinas at rallies with member of Proud Boys and Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that has protested school curriculums that mention LGBTQ rights, critical race theory and other issues. Salinas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she was not a member of either group, saying she had merely attended rallies where their members were present.
• Salinas apologizes for an antisemitic post:  Salinas expressed regrets for sharing a Facebook post in March about “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a notoriously antisemitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The original post includes a line about "socialist rule, then communism, then despotism.” Salinas said she saw the word communism and did not read the rest before sharing.
  

*The Hill We Climb transcript:

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promised glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it

Beautiful Amanda Gorman has exposed Ron DeSantis - or D.Santis- as a failed politician

DeSantis’s shameless defense of the Amanda Gorman poetry fiasco is. revealing of a man who is pandering to a minority just because he can.

Beautiful poet Amanda Gorman read The Hill We Climb, a poem she wrote and read at President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Echo opinion published in The Washington Post by Greg Sargent.

At this point, it should be obvious that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s culture-war directives are designed to encourage parents to indulge in book purges for sport. Precisely because removals have become so easy, lone right-wing actors are feverishly hunting for offending titles, getting them pulled from school libraries on absurdly flimsy grounds, sometimes by the dozens.

A new turn in the explosive saga involving the poem that Amanda Gorman read at President Biden’s inauguration underscores the point. DeSantis is now defending a Florida school’s decision to restrict access to “The Hill We Climb” — a move that has become a national controversy.

"It was a book of poems that was in an elementary school library,” DeSantis told a convention on Friday, though it was in fact one poem. DeSantis insisted the school district in question merely “moved it from the elementary school library to the middle school library,” and ripped “legacy media” for calling this a “ban,” complaining of a “poem hoax.”

That’s a shameless but revealing characterization of what happened. It’s true that Gorman’s poem was removed from the elementary school section of the library at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes and that access was preserved for middle school students. But this came in response to an objection from one parent.

That parent’s complaint, which was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, was that the poem has indirect “hate messages” and would “cause confusion and indoctrinate students.” 

In reality, Gorman’s poem calls for bridging our divides to enable our country to live up to its promise, declaring this an incomplete project. The idea that this represents hate and indoctrination is farcical.

If anything, the poem offers a dramatically different message from racial discourse the right usually objects to, i.e., that our white-supremacist past and continuing structural racism render our country irredeemable. The poem says our nation “isn’t broken but simply unfinished.”

DeSantis (or is it "D.Santis"❓ What is his name? 😏) objects to calling what happened a “ban.” But the book was placed beyond the reach of elementary school kids for no reason whatsoever. What message does it send that a school went along with the idea that the poem read by the young Black poet at Biden’s inauguration is inappropriate for children, on grounds that it constitutes hate and indoctrination?

It’s also important to note that in response to complaints from that same parent, the school removed two other titles about Black history: “Love to Langston” and “The ABCs of Black History.” Her main objection to these books? They are “CRT” — meaning critical race theory.

That’s preposterous❗ Those books were written expressly to introduce kids in lower grades to these topics. As Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of Florida Freedom to Read, told me: “The books celebrate Black history, culture and famous voices in a way that connects with elementary school students.” Isn’t that what we want?

Finally, it’s absurd that all this happened due to such specious objections from one person. The school’s rationale for removing the books is that they’re age-inappropriate, but it doesn’t even say why they’re inappropriate for elementary school kids. It’s obvious that the school tried to split the difference, not removing them entirely but still seeking to make this one parent happy.

This is happening all over Florida. In another county, a single right-wing activist persuaded officials to pull 20 books by Jodi Picoult and eight by Nora Roberts from school libraries, citing vague directives from the DeSantis administration as their rationale.

All this confirms that the fever-pitch climate created by DeSantis is maximizing the impact that lone parents can have. That’s because it has encouraged officials to err on the side of caution and remove targeted titles rather than brave right-wing anger, which incentivizes parents-turned-activists to sweep ever more broadly in their efforts to ban as many titles as possible.

This is what DeSantis wants. Rather than seriously consider whether one out-of-control parent drove the process off the rails in the Gorman case, he leapt at the chance to engage in more culture-warring, this time casting the “legacy media” as the cultural enemy. DeSantis’s obvious relish of this moment shows he believes having an army of lone parents out there stirring up cultural controversies wherever possible can only help him in the 2024, GOP presidential primaries.

In a little-noticed local interview this week, DeSantis’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz, defended the Gorman saga. “The process worked,” Diaz told WLRN, noting that “a parent has the right to make a complaint,” and as a result, the poem is now available only to the “right” grade levels.

Diaz is wrong. The poem — a historical document and a paean to unity — should be available to all grades. But he’s right in another sense: The fact that one parent could exercise her right to make this unhinged complaint, resulting effortlessly in such an absurd outcome, did show the process working exactly as DeSantis intends.

The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is

Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished

far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us

to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms

to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promised glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
ESERVED.

Saint Anselm College in Manchester New Hampshire was the back drop for Trump gun culture

Maine Writer:  As a Roman Catholic woman, the misuse of Saint Anselm College in Manchester New Hampshire, used as the venue for Donald Trump to spread his gun culture lies, is an example about how Catholicism continues erode the faith's responsibility to support moral leadership.

This essay is a salient exposure of the Saint Anselm's political misstep:

Guns, Trump, and Republicans: The GOP's right’s push to loosen restrictions is resulting in a judicial and legislative free-for-all that is intersecting, disastrously, with the 2024, U.S. presidential race. By Amy Davidson Sorkin published in The New Yorker.

Illustration in The New Yorker by João Fazenda

Some visions of how to live well in America are inextricably linked to owning a gun. Donald Trump certainly took that view recently, in a CNN town hall at Saint Anselm College, in New Hampshire, before an audience of Republicans and independents. 

Indeed, Trump presented guns as necessary for survival in a dark and violent landscape. “Remember, we have seven hundred million guns—seven hundred million. Many people, if they don’t have a gun, they’re not going to be very safe,” he said. “Many of them would not be alive today.” He condemned Chicago and New York for having tight gun restrictions, praised Brazil for loosening its laws, and called for arming teachers, many of whom, he claimed, are “soldiers, ex-soldiers, ex-policemen” who “really understand weapons.”

Trump’s presentation at Saint Anselm's was so riddled with falsehoods that it hardly registered that his seven-hundred-million figure was wrong. The actual number of guns in the United States is estimated to be close to four hundred million (more than ninety-five per cent of which are in civilian hands). Nevertheless, it’s still a huge number—the U.S. has both more guns and more gun deaths per capita than any other wealthy nation, according to the gun-safety advocacy group Giffords. 

One in every three firearm suicides on the planet occurs in this country.

Yet, in the town hall, when a member of the Saint Anselm College Republicans questioned Trump on the subject, the student asked not about stopping gun violence, but about his concern that, with all the gun violence and mass shootings in the news, politicians would act to “repress gun rights.” 

Moreover, the questioner also wanted to know how Trump would “restore rights that have been taken from us.” It was, oddly enough, one of the few moments when Trump appeared defensive, because the student seemed discontent with his decision, after a shooter killed fifty-eight people in Las Vegas, in 2017, to ban bump stocks, which can effectively allow semi-automatic firearms (which are readily available) to act like machine guns (the purchase of which is very highly restricted). 

Trump replied that he was aligned with the N.R.A. on bump stocks; in fact, the N.R.A. said that it was “disappointed” by the ban.

The exchange captured a number of factors that are converging to make this a particularly critical moment in the story of guns in America. One is judicial: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court decision from last summer that struck down New York’s permit requirements for carrying a concealed handgun, has set off a stream of litigation. The majority opinion, written by Clarence Thomas, holds that courts, when looking at gun laws, should begin by presuming that “ordinary, law abiding citizens” basically have the right to own whatever guns they want and to carry them wherever they choose. The burden would then be on the government to show that any limits on that right comport with Thomas’s highly selective sense of the nation’s “historical tradition.” Stephen Breyer, in a dissent, suggested that even the Justices in the majority might not know what laws could survive under the new standard. It’s looking like he was right.

For example, the Saint Anselm student may not need to worry much longer about anyone being deprived of a bump stock. In January, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban was unlawful—a decision that the Biden Administration is appealing to the Supreme Court—and the Sixth Circuit did the same last month. And, a few weeks ago, a district-court judge in Virginia, citing Bruen, threw out a federal minimum-age requirement of twenty-one to buy handguns, which would make it legal for people as young as eighteen to do so; several similar cases are being heard.

Gun-rights advocates have also been pressing for new laws to make it easier to be armed. The result is a judicial and legislative free-for-all, that is intersecting, disastrously, with the 2024, Presidential race. Last month, Governor Ron DeSantis, of Florida, who announced his campaign for the Republican nomination, signed a bill allowing most adults to carry concealed guns without a state permit. (Twenty-six other states now have similar laws.) “You don’t need a permission slip from the government to be able to exercise your constitutional rights,” DeSantis said, according to Politico. He was speaking at Adventure Outdoors, in Smyrna, Georgia, an establishment that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described as a “firearms superstore.” Georgia, of course, will be a battleground state in 2024. But even that reckless posturing wasn’t good enough for some gun advocates in Florida, who complained that DeSantis hadn’t done away with restrictions on openly brandishing a weapon.

The internal dynamics of the G.O.P. appear to be pushing Presidential contenders to increasingly extreme positions. Not that most of them need much prodding on guns: former Vice-President Mike Pence, who has indicated that he is considering running, has long been something of a Second Amendment fundamentalist. 

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and a declared candidate, recently said that focusing on guns as a means to reduce gun violence was “lazy.” And, as the town hall demonstrated, even Trump is not exempt from the pressure. The Bruen decision is part of his legacy—he appointed three of the six Justices who signed the majority opinion. From the perspective of Republican activists, expanding on that victory is now his task, or that of whoever else wants to be President.

Yet there may be a parallel here to the right’s overreach on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned. There is widespread revulsion at mass violence and the toll that it takes, particularly on children. 

A Gallup poll a few months ago showed that, although most G.O.P. voters don’t want stricter gun laws, a majority don’t want looser ones, either. In a number of blue states, there are efforts under way to pass gun-safety laws that supporters hope will pass scrutiny under Bruen. On Tuesday, for instance, Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, signed legislation restricting the places where people can bring guns—not to schools, hospitals, or polling stations. (The same day, the N.R.A. sued to block the law.)

In contrast, Jim Justice, the Republican governor of West Virginia, signed a “campus carry” bill in March that not only allows guns for those with permits on college and university grounds but directs administrators to provide gun-storage units in dorms. The gun-law terrain has rarely been more unsettled. What makes the impending fight over gun safety, amid an election, all the more hazardous is Trumpism itself, with its incessant invocation of the prospect of political violence, and its message for America: if you want to make your way in this country, make sure that you have a gun.

Christian Nationalists do not live by the Scriptures: Yes we are "Our Brother's Keeper"

Echo opinion: What Christian Nationalism Has Done to My State and My Faith Is a Sin  By Susan Stubson, published in The New York Times.

Ms. Stubson is a member of the Wyoming Republican Party.
Wyoming Attorney Says ‘Christian Nationalism’ Has ‘Highjacked’ Republican Party.

CASPER, Wyoming — I first saw it while working the rope line at a monster-truck rally during the 2016 campaign by my husband, Tim, for Wyoming’s lone congressional seat. As Tim and I and our boys made our way down the line, shaking hands and passing out campaign material, a burly man wearing a “God bless America” T-shirt and a cross around his neck said something like, “He’s got my vote if he keeps those [epithet] out of office,” using a racial slur. What followed was an uncomfortable master class in racism and xenophobia as the man decanted the reasons our country is going down the tubes. God bless America.

I now understand the ugliness I heard was part of a current of Christian nationalism fomenting beneath the surface. 

It had been there all the time. The rope line rant was a mission statement for the disaffected, the overlooked, the frightened. It was also an expression of solidarity with a candidate like Donald Trump who gave a name to a perceived enemy: people who do not look like us or share our beliefs. Immigrants are taking our guns. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. You are not safe in your home. Religious freedom is on the gallows. Vote for me.

(IOW, vote for me and I will protect you from all those "others"!)

The messages worked. And in large part, it’s my faith community — white, rural and conservative — that got them there. I am a white conservative woman in rural America. 

Raised as a Catholic, I found that my faith deepened after I married and joined an evangelical church. 

As my faith grew, so did Tim’s political career in the Wyoming Legislature. (He served in the House from 2008 to 2017.) I’ve straddled both worlds, faith and politics, my entire adult life. Often there was very little daylight between the two, one informing the other.

What’s changed is the rise of Christian nationalism — the belief, as recently described by the Georgetown University professor and author Paul D. Miller, that “America is a ‘Christian nation’ and that the government should keep it that way.” Gone are the days when a lawmaker might be circumspect about using his or her faith as a vehicle to garner votes. It’s been a drastic and destructive departure from the boring, substantive lawmaking to which I was accustomed. Christian nationalists have hijacked both my Republican Party and my faith community by blurring the lines between church and government and in the process rebranding our state’s identity.

Wyoming is a “you do you” state. When it’s a blinding snowstorm, the tractor’s in a ditch and we need a neighbor with a winch, our differences disappear. We don’t care what you look like or who you love. Keep a clean fence line and show up during calving season, and we’re good.

But new sheriffs in town are very much up in their neighbor’s beeswax. Legislation they have proposed seems intent on stripping us of our autonomy and our ability to make decisions for ourselves, all in the name of morality, the definition of which is unclear.

Rural states are particularly vulnerable to the promise of Christian nationalism. In Wyoming, we are white (more than 92 percent) and love God (71 percent identified as Christian in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center) and Mr. Trump (seven in 10 voters picked him in 2020). 

Message to right wing Christian Nationalists:  Jesus warned about the evils of idolatry.

The result is bad church and bad law. “God, guns and Trump” is an omnipresent bumper sticker here, the new trinity. The evangelical church has proved to be a supplicating audience for the Christian nationalist roadshow. Indeed, it is unclear to me many Sundays whether we are hearing a sermon or a stump speech.

Christians electing candidates who reflect godly values is a good thing. Tim, who ran against Liz Cheney in the 2016, Republican primary, has no doubt been a recipient of votes from our friends in the faith community. Yet Christian nationalism has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with control.

In last year’s (2022) elections, candidates running on a Christian nationalist platform used fear plus the promise of power to attract votes. Their ads warned about government overreach, religious persecution, mask mandates, threats from immigrants and election fraud. A candidate for secretary of state, an election denier named Chuck Gray, hosted at least one free screening in a church of the roundly debunked film “2,000 Mules,” about alleged voter fraud in the 2020, presidential election. (He won the general election unopposed and is now next in line to the governorship.)

None of those concerns were real. Our schools largely remained open during the pandemic. Businesses remained open. The border is an almost 1,000-mile drive from my home in Casper, and the foreign-born population in the state is only 3 percent. Wyoming’s violent crime rate is the lowest of any state in the West. Wyoming’s electoral process is incredibly safe. So what are we afraid of?

Yet fear (and loathing for Ms. Cheney, who voted to impeach Mr. Trump and dared to call him “unfit for office”) led to a record voter turnout in the August primary. The Trumpist candidate, Harriet Hageman, trounced Ms. Cheney. Almost half of the Wyoming House members were new. At least one-third of them align with the Freedom Caucus, a noisy group unafraid to manipulate Scripture for political gain under a banner of preserving a godly nation.

The impact of this new breed of lawmakers has been swift. Wyomingites got a very real preview this past legislative session of the hazards of one-size-fits-all nationalized policies that ignore the nuances of our state. ‌

Last year (2022), maternity wards closed in two sparsely populated communities, further expanding our maternity desert. 

Yet in debating a bill to provide some relief to new moms by extending Medicaid’s postpartum coverage, a freshman member of the State House, Jeanette Ward, invoked a brutally narrow view of the Bible. “Cain commented to God, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’” she said. “The obvious answer is no. No, I am not my brother’s keeper. But just don’t kill him.”

This confusing ‌mash-up‌ of Scripture (Ms. Ward got it wrong: The answer is yes ❗, I am my brother’s keeper) is emblematic of a Christian nationalist who weaponizes God’s word to promote the agenda du jour. We should expect candidates who identify as followers of Christ to model some concern for other people.

Rhetoric like Ms. Ward’s can have devastating implications when it results in policy change. Even though the Medicaid bill became law, the hospital in Rawlins no longer delivers babies, meaning Wyomingites about to give birth must now travel 100 miles over one of the nation’s most treacherous stretches of Interstate. Woe to those with a winter due date.

I am adrift in this unnamed sea, untethered from both my faith community and my political party as I try to reconcile evangelicals’ repeated endorsements of candidates who thumb their noses at the least of us. Christians are called to serve God, not a political party, to put our faith in a higher power, not in human beings. We’re taught not to bow to false idols. Yet idolatry is increasingly prominent and our foundational principles — humility, kindness and compassion — in short supply.

“It was a great day!” one of our pastors proclaimed on social media last year when Mr. Trump came to town to campaign against Ms. Cheney. Though many agreed with him, some of his pastoral colleagues grieved, traumatized by the hard right turn in their congregations.

I recently attended a conference devoted to spiritual maturity. Of the attendees, a large percentage were pastors. Some had flown in, seeking anonymity for fear of job loss or reprisal. Many had dared to raise hard questions, challenging their congregation to think deeply about immigration, puzzle through the church’s treatment of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, to dive into Scripture and to find answers.

For some, just making the suggestion had put their neck on the line. One pastor was recently fired. Another, who was nearing the end of his career, lamented: Where did I go wrong in my teaching? Am I complicit in this movement? Have I created this monster? I have failed my flock.

I can think of no better illustration of the calamitous force of Christian nationalism than a room full of faith leaders, regret lined deep in their brows, expressing shame and disappointment in those they were called to lead.

In February, Gov. Mark Gordon hosted a prayer breakfast, a tradition in the Wyoming Legislature in which leaders come together, read Scripture and listen to an inspirational message. The breakfast came toward the end of the Legislature’s session, one pockmarked with ugly exchanges between the Freedom Caucus and other right-wing legislators and the moderates, a house more divided than ever.

The Senate president, Ogden Driskill, and the House speaker, Albert Sommers, were each invited to read a passage from the Bible. They carried the shrapnel of the session in their slumped shoulders as they approached the dais. They were tired. Weary. Both are veteran legislators, throwbacks to a time when lawmakers disagreed, then shared a drink at the end of the day. This session was different. Meaner.

Mr. Sommers is the quieter of the two. Before reading, he said he was not the best versed in the Bible but spoke of his experience finding faith and said he viewed his prayer and relationship with God as largely private. Mr. Driskill was equally humble: If anyone ever told me I would be in this position, standing in a room packed with political and business leaders, he said, I never would have believed it. And yet here I am.

Both leaders have deep roots in the state. Mr. Driskill and Mr. Sommers are the faces of my beloved Wyoming, a place so intent on preserving our live-and-let-live cowboy culture, we enshrined it in our state code, Section 8-3-123. They are earnest public servants who choose service over self, who love the state and are willing to make unpopular decisions at the risk of their political futures, who think nothing of leaving their homes to travel hundreds of miles across the state for a steak dinner and a reasoned discussion on carbon capture.

This is the state I cannot quit. I rely on those gritty and courageous leaders who hold tight to our rural values. They are the Davids in the fight against the Philistines. They are our brother’s keeper.

As a registered nurse I oppose mandated staffing ratios in health care facilities

I have been a registered nurse for my entire professional career since 1966. I have cared for many patients at all levels of acuity and recovery.  In my opinion, there is no reason to micro-manage nurse-patient care by implementing ratio laws.  

Nurses know how to manage patient care without mandated ratios. But, the nursing unions want to mandate patient ratios for the purpose of having leverage against health care management. Yet, there is no evidence that this regulatory interference in nursing care will improve patient outcomes. 

Hopefully, Maine legislators will also reject this needless initiative driven by the California Nurses Association in Maine doing business as the Maine State Nursing Association a member of the SEIU.

That bill has died': Staffing rules cut from Minnesota legislation.
Echo report published in Becker Hospital Review by Erica Carbajal:

Regulations that would have required Minnesota hospitals to form nurse staffing committees to establish staffing levels were cut from a controversial bill during final-hour negotiations May 22, the Star Tribune reported.

The Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act (euphemism: "ratios") would have required hospitals to create staffing committees of equal parts direct care workers and hospital leaders, and hospitals would have had to abide by the nurse staffing ratios set by their committee. With those staffing rules cut, the bill's authors renamed it to the Nurse and Patient Safety Act, which is mostly focused on workplace violence prevention and nurse burnout. It also includes student loan forgiveness programs for nurses.

"That bill has died," Mary Turner, RN, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said. "And I'm so heartbroken. For those nurses who choose to stay at the bedside, though, the language in this agreement will help them to feel safe in their jobs."

The Minnesota Hospital Association had argued the staffing regulations would harm patients' access to care through service cuts and decreased hospital capacity.

"We deeply appreciate the legislators' thoughtful consideration and their willingness to listen to our concerns regarding legislation impacting patient care," the group said in a statement.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic was granted an exemption from the bill after the health system's CEO said it was considering pulling billions in investments from the state over the original bill. That fueled further pushback from the state's hospital association, who said the exception "means the authors know that the underlying bill is flawed."

The Minnesota Nurses Association have been advocating for legislation to support staffing ratios since 2008.

Russians fighting against the Kremlin in Ukraine

Echo report published in The New York Times by Finbarr O'Reilly:

Attacks in southern Russia, close to the Ukrainian border, continued on Tuesday with an explosion reported at a defense factory and skirmishes at a border crossing, a day after anti-Kremlin fighters aligned with Ukraine appeared to have begun a rare ground assault inside Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday afternoon that it had pushed the pro-Ukrainian militants back across the border and was continuing to target them, adding that a number of “saboteurs” had been killed. Russia’s claim could not be verified, and people who claimed to represent the pro-Ukrainian fighters maintained that their attacks were ongoing.

The Free Russia Legion, a group of Russians who have taken up arms for Ukraine, has claimed responsibility for the incursion. A representative of the group said on Tuesday that Ukrainian officers were aware of the operation but had not directed it.

Texas is not a "pro life" state: Death by guns and domestic violence murders

Every year, millions of Americans report experiencing domestic violence. Although it disproportionately affects women, domestic violence touches people in every segment of our society.

An echo opinion published in The Washington Post by Karen Attiah*:

"Texas had 'the third highest number of intimate partner homicides in the last decade"....."

Forget about Texas being pro-life. When it comes to guns, abortion and the lives of women, Texas has chosen the path of death.

The effective overturn of abortion access for women in Texas means that women must now travel out of state to safely end their pregnancies. 

In addition to that burden, many advocates for women have feared that these barriers would increase the risk of women being trapped in abusive relationships — as carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth ties women more closely to abusers, via their shared children.

These fears became a fatal reality last week for 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez, who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, 22-year-old Harold Thompson, after returning to Dallas from Colorado, where she had obtained an abortion.

As if that weren’t enough, gun owners in Texas, including domestic abusers, have simultaneously become more empowered because of the state’s “permitless carry” laws — and because of a federal appeals court ruling striking down a law that prohibited people under domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. 

Advocates have hypothesized that pregnant women in Texas and their unborn children would be more likely to die at the hands of the men in their lives.

According to law enforcement, surveillance video from a parking lot shows Thompson trying to choke Gonzalez. Shortly afterward, officers have said, Thompson is seen pulling a gun and shooting Gonzalez in the head, then shooting her several more times after she hit the ground. Gonzalez died at the scene. Thompson was arrested and charged with murder. He is being held in the Dallas County jail without bond.

This is a tragedy that anyone who knows anything about domestic violence might have seen coming. Gonzalez’s family said they had previously reported Thompson’s controlling and violent behavior to the police. A May affidavit, in which Gonzalez is described as “the victim,” states that he had beaten his victim, given her a black eye and threatened to harm her and her family.

In an interview with Dallas’s NBC station, Gonzalez’s mother said that the family had filed a report about Thompson’s abuse with local police in March and made multiple attempts to reach authorities, but that the police never contacted them. 

Gonzalez’s sister, who witnessed the killing, said Thompson was “angry” that Gonzalez had “wanted to get away from him,” and that Gonzalez had “wanted to leave, but she couldn’t.”

According to research published in 2021 by the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, “homicide during pregnancy or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy exceeded all the leading causes of maternal mortality by more than twofold.” In a 2014 study published by BioMed Central, physical violence decreased when women had access to abortions and increased when women were denied them. There is not much definitive research into why men kill pregnant female partners, but common threads are that men feel jealous or less important to their partners, or fear loss of control in the relationship.

A review of data by the Texas Council on Family Violence found that in 2021, Texas had “the third highest number of intimate partner homicides in the last decade,” with 204 people killed; 169 of those victims, or more than 80 percent, were women, and 75 percent of those women were killed with a gun.

Proponents of relaxed gun laws like to argue that people, especially women, should carry firearms to protect themselves from violence. As an enthusiastic gun seller told me in Fort Worth last year, “You can’t rape a .38.”

Perhaps more women are buying this argument — gun sales to women have risen in recent years. But those who argue that guns are an effective self-defense mechanism rarely seem to imagine husbands and boyfriends as threats. Or men who rape their wives and girlfriends.

Are pro-gun advocates, especially men, going to tell pregnant and postpartum women that they have a God-given right to kill the men in their lives who abuse them? Never going to happen.

Men are allowed, even encouraged, to train to take others’ lives in the name of self-defense. But we punish women disproportionately for defending themselves against men. 

Women charged with killing their abusive male partners are subject to significantly longer prison sentences than men.

*Karen Attiah is a columnist for The Washington Post and writes a weekly newsletter. She writes on international affairs, culture and social issues.