Over the weekend I finished, Silent Invasion; The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late, by Dr. Deborah Birx, who was the former White House coronavirus task force coordinator.   However, something else caught my attention and I decided to write about another, and I think more deadly virus that is threatening to take down or greatly alter the future political landscape of this country.

As you may or may not know, the American Conservative Political Action Conference just took place in Hungary.  Yes, you read that correctly – Hungary!  This is the first time it has ever been held outside of the United States and the country they chose, Hungary, is run by Viktor Orban, an authoritarian leader who seems to be the idol of Tucker Carlson and many on the far-right side of the GOP.  This conference was attended by former President Trump who has possible aspirations to run again in 2024.  Think about that.  A man who aspires to be the next president of the United States attended a conference where the keynote speaker, Viktor Orban, has been dismantling democracy in Hungary for the last 12 years!! 

Viktor Orban was the keynote speaker but there were other outrageous people on the stage.  “A notorious Hungarian racist who has called Jews “stinking excrement”, referred to Roma as “animals” and used racial epithets to describe Black people, was a featured speaker at a major gathering of US Republicans in Budapest.

Zsolt Bayer took the stage at the second day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Hungary, a convention that also featured speeches from Donald Trump, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.”² Isn’t that just great.  We have a former (and possibly future President) and his Chief of Staff speaking at the same event as these bigoted racists.  This truly boggles the mind.

According to Kim Scheppele, a Princeton sociologist who is an expert on Hungarian politics, “All of the international democracy rating agencies agree that Hungary is no longer a democracy”¹ So why the hell would the CPAC and Mr. ‘Make America Great Again” himself even associate with this thug?  “According to Matt Schlapp, the chairman of CPAC, says there’s a lot about Orban and Hungary for American conservatives to admire.  He has embraced their Christian heritage, and if Christian societies want to have their values reflected in government, that’s a good thing.”¹ So, there you have it.  The MAGA crowd and these ‘American conservatives’ basically are basically willing to undermine/destroy democracy so we can all live in an authoritarian theocracy.

Who is Viktor Orban and why should Americans care.?  Viktor Orban assumed his current position of Prime Minister in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014, 2018 and 2022.  He is the longest serving leader in the European Union. 

“Orban has been criticized as a white ethno-nationalist authoritarian. He’s restricted Muslim immigration and LGBTQ rights while building a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many American conservatives, however, see Orban’s Hungary as a kind of anti-woke paradise”.¹

According to Scheppele, “Right now, both American conservatism and Hungarian politics are driven by cultural issues — like immigration, gender identity and abortion.

“All the culture war campaigns have been used to disguise the fact that, by law, Orban has been limiting the democratic space. And he’s done that particularly by rigging the election laws and then capturing all of the independent agencies that could tell him no.”

Think about that last statement in the context of all of the States that have passed voter restriction laws and the ongoing gerrymandering which are simply efforts by conservatives in this country to ‘limit the democratic space’.  Trump tried very hard to install nothing but loyalists in Federal agencies regardless of the actual qualifications for the job.  The primary criteria were that they were 100 percent loyal to Trump and whatever he wanted to do – legal or illegal.  This is exactly what Orban has done in Hungary.

Orban has been so effective at dismantling democracy in Hungary that there are very serious conversations in the EU about kicking Hungary out of the union.³ Is this really the direction we want to take this country?  This kind of thinking by the MAGA movement and the Trump wing of the GOP should scare the hell out of any American who gives a damn about democracy.  Unless the moderate wing of the GOP can regain control of their party and if the MAGA Republicans regain control of the House and Senate in November, we will be yet another step closer to the United States following the path of Viktor Orban into the abyss of authoritarianism.

I’m sure there are already plans underway to hold the next CPAC event in Moscow – probably at a newly constructed Trump hotel!!

1. Here’s why American conservatives are holding a big conference in Hungary : NPR
2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/21/trump-shares-cpac-hungary-platform-racist-antisemite
3. https://theconversation.com/could-the-european-union-kick-out-hungary-165029

More states are following Texas’ lead with introducing ‘heartbeat’ abortion bills.  The latest and most draconian is Oklahoma which passed a law banning abortions from the ‘moment of fertilization’ and will allow private citizens to sue abortion providers who knowingly perform an abortion. The Texas law only allows citizens to sue abortion providers after the six-week point in a pregnancy so clearly, Oklahoma is trying to outdo Texas.  I wonder which state will try to outdo Oklahoma.  It’s probably not too far off that one of these red states will pass a law banning the use of the word ‘abortion’ and allow citizens to sue anyone who uses the word. 

People are wanting to ban books, it’s only logical that the next step will be to ban words.  That will save mommy and daddy from having to explain to little Johnny what ‘abortion’ is and we all know that ignorance is bliss.

However, once again, as 1984-ish as this all sounds, I think there might be a whole new set of opportunities to make the world a better and perhaps a safer place.  Just think, for example, if you and your friends are at a bar and you see the bartender serve someone who you believe has had a bit too much, there could be a way to deal with this issue.  The state legislatures can pass laws allowing anyone to sue the bar where this action takes place.   The mere threat of such a lawsuit should keep all bars and bartenders on the straight and narrow.    This individual may have a ride or a designated driver but it won’t matter.  If, in your opinion, the individual has had too much to drink, you can sue the bar.  It will cut down on alcohol use, make the populace healthier, might even put a little money in the litigant’s pocket and the litigant can go home with a smug feeling of self-satisfaction that they made the world a better place.

One would think that the gun industry is ripe for such citizen lawsuits.  Unfortunately, there is currently a federal law that shields gun manufacturers and gun stores from most liability if their products are misused.²   However, 9 families of the Sandy Hook shooting recently settled with the bankrupt firearm company, Remington, for $73 million.  Up until this recent settlement lawsuits against gun manufacturers and gun stores rarely get any traction given the federal law protecting them. “The X-factor in the Sandy Hook families’ case was their argument that Remington broke Connecticut’s unfair trade practices law by recklessly marketing the semi-automatic rifle to civilians.”   [And you can bet the NRA is trying to figure out how to plug this legal loophole to limit further lawsuits and settlements]

I personally find it a bit ironic that there is a federal law shielding gun manufacturers and gun store owners from most liability regardless of the number of people killed in a mass shooting, whereas, if a doctor performs an abortion, which involves generally one fetus at most, the doctor can be sued, and in some states accused of murder.  I’m not sure I understand the logic but that’s just me.

So, back to this concept of turning neighbor against neighbor as a way to enforce laws written by and supported by people who are convinced they have the moral high ground to tell everyone else how to live their lives. How far will this go?  If a neighbor objects to the way a family is raising their kids by perhaps exposing them to books and movies that someone deems inappropriate, will that person be able to sue to have the kids taken away from the parents and placed into a foster home that more closely aligns with the litigants’ moral values.  Surely that could never happen.  Or perhaps it could. 

Governor Abbott in Texas has been pushing for investigations into families of transgender children who are being treated with gender-affirming medical care.  The governor and others in the state claim this is child abuse whereas it is supported by most major medical groups.³ But, science be damned, the morality police are on the march.  This is an area that is absolutely ripe for neighbors to sue their neighbors and report such activities.  Perhaps they can put a $10,000 bounty on this just like reporting abortions. 

Given the current backlog of cases percolating through the legal system, I’m not sure how all of these new lawsuits are going to fare.  One thing is for sure though, more lawyers will make more money, and more tax dollars will be squandered on morality nonsense.   We are well on our way to having our own religious police just like Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations.  More irony.

On the plus side, however, yesterday I went to the grocery store and I saw someone who did not put the shopping cart back where it was supposed to go.  Not to worry, I got their license plate and have a call in to my attorney right now.  I’m going to make them pay.  Things like that shouldn’t happen in a civilized society and I feel like it is my job to make sure all of these scofflaws play by my rules and put the damned shopping carts back in the racks!!

1. Oklahoma Legislature passes bill banning abortions after ‘fertilization’ – CNNPolitics
2. CT lawyer who helped Sandy Hook families win $73M from Remington sees parallels in Buffalo massacre (stamfordadvocate.com)
3. Texas resuming abuse investigations into families of transgender children (msn.com)

This is another of those posts that might very well offend.  I don’t set out to offend people (like perhaps Tucker Carlson on Fox News) but my thoughts are my thoughts. Unlike Tucker Carlson and others of his ilk, I am not trying to cause division and hatred, I’m just trying to make some observations in hopes that people start to think about issues critically and realize what is really going on in this country.  Unfortunately, our country’s democracy is being dismantled brick by brick.  I think the ’that could never happen here’ mentality is all to prevalent and a lot of people will be shocked when ‘it happens here.’

One of the things continually being talked about by Carlson and others is ‘white replacement theory.’  The continued propagation of this nonsense is just another chink in the armor of democracy.  The sad truth behind ‘white replacement theory’ which seems to be the motivation behind the recent shooting in Buffalo that left 10 people dead and other racially motivated mass shootings in recent years, is that it is just pure bigotry disguised with different words.  If people really believed what the Declaration of Independence says, i.e., “all men are created equal”, then it wouldn’t matter whether people were white or not.  The fact that there are those stoking fear that white people are being replaced, clearly do not believe that all men are created equal and, in fact, clearly believe that white people are superior to others.

The people who are pushing this theory, including Carlson, seem to have forgotten a very important history lesson.  White people are not native to the United States of America.  White colonialists came here and stole the country through violence and manipulation from the people who had lived here for thousands of years.  The Native Americans were the ones who were ‘replaced’.

That is, no doubt, one of the lessons that conservative Republicans probably do not want taught in school.  I’m sure the version of history many of those folks would like the schools to propagate is the version minimizing all of the bad things the whites did when they got to American and concentrate instead on their ‘benevolent’ actions to ‘civilize’ the natives.  This just helps to propagate the myth that the white race is better than all of the others.

Given the colonialization efforts by many European nations throughout history, perhaps the correct interpretation of ‘white replacement theory’ should be that white people feel like they are entitled to replace (and subjugate) various populations around the world with white people.  That was certainly the thrust behind Hitler’s Aryan race theory.  And it was certainly the thrust behind the violence that resulted in white settlers stealing the land of Native Americans. 

We might as well call a spade a spade.  Those espousing ‘white replacement theory’ and stoking fear and division are no different than Hitler’s followers who believed in the Aryan race theory.  What White Replacement Theory really means is ‘White Rule Totalitarianism’.  Those who espouse this theory are not afraid of diversity per se, they are afraid of losing the ability of white people to write all the rules!  It’s about power, like so many other things, just like Nazism.

“Nazism’s ideology was shaped by Hitler’s beliefs in German racial superiority and the dangers of communism. It rejected liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, stressing instead the subordination of the individual to the state and the necessity of strict obedience to leaders. It emphasized the inequality of individuals and “races” and the right of the strong to rule the weak.”¹

If that isn’t an accurate description of what some of the current right-wing Republican party are advocating, I don’t know what is.  Does the phrase, “necessity of strict obedience to leaders,” remind you of anyone you know? [As we all know, if Trump is re-elected in 2024, his top priority will not be foreign policy nor domestic policy.  His top priority will be revenge against all of those who were not obedient to him.  That you can bet on.]

In the era of desegregation many years ago, there was a phenomenon called ‘white flight’ which was the result of many white families leaving cities and moving to the suburbs to escape the impact of desegregation.  What seems to be happening now is that there is a ‘white flight’ to the Republican party, particularly to the Trump, evangelical wing of the Republican party (which seems to be the majority these days) with the hope of continuing to implement ‘White Rule Totalitarianism’.

Just take the above definition and make a few substitutions:

“White Rule Totalitarianism’s ideology was shaped by radical Republicans’ beliefs in white racial superiority and the dangers of socialism. It rejected liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, stressing instead the subordination of the individual to the state and the necessity of strict obedience to leaders. It emphasized the inequality of individuals and “races” and the right of the strong to rule the weak.”

If you think ‘it could never happen here,’ as I’ve said before, you’re not paying attention.   And if enough people are not paying attention, the fact is it can happen here.

1. The origins, principles, and ideology of Nazism | Britannica

I’ve posted enough negative commentary lately.  Yesterday Jordan made it official at Radio City Music Hall in New York.   It was a year late due to COVID, but she made the walk.  Close that chapter and move on to the next.   Celebrating this is a nice bright spot in the all the other insanity that is going on.  I’ll probably get back to ranting tomorrow.  There is no shortage of material!! But for today I’ll just enjoy being a proud father.

Today’s post will no doubt offend some, perhaps all.  That said, I will not apologize.  These are ugly times and we might as well tell it like it is.  We are way past the point when we can just sugar coat everything and hope that by some miracle everything will be OK. 

Today is the 137^th day of the year.  To date this year, we have had over 200 mass shootings.  A mass shooting is defined as an incident where 4 or more people were shot or killed.  Clearly, we are experiencing MORE THAN ONE MASS SHOOTING PER DAY.  Unfortunately, we have pretty much become numb to these tragedies.  Every time, there will be the usual outcry.  Politicians will offer their respective condolences to the victims and their families, and there will be many sound bites about how we must do something to end this violence.  Of course, nothing gets done.  It becomes “express outrage, offer condolence, state that something must be done – rinse and repeat!

I have decided that since the politicians in this country can’t seem to do anything to stop this ridiculous nonsense, the government should take a different course.  They should try to capitalize on this as an opportunity.  We already have Powerball so why not set up a game kind of like a football pool where people could bet in which city the next mass shooting will occur and how many people will be killed.   If no one picks the correct city AND the correct number of fatalities then the jackpot will roll over until someone gets it correct. 

There are certainly some logistical things to work out.  For example, there would have to be some way from preventing a shooter or any of his/her beneficiaries from picking a city and number of victims and then going out and committing that crime.  There would have to be very strict protocols put in place to make sure no one could benefit in any way from a mass shooting that they themselves committed.

I’m sure this kind of betting would take some time to really resonant with the citizenry.  There will certainly be those who are squeamish about buying a ticket, the prize of which is dependent upon people getting shot and/or killed.  However, I think, over time, it will catch on.  I’m sure Fox News would be more than happy to have a segment of their nightly newscast devoted to announcing the winner. (No doubt they could get NRA sponsorship.)  Just think how excited Tucker Carlson would get, e.g. “There was a mass shooting in Peoria today in which 5 people died.  Our condolences go out to the family – and the winner is ….”! 

I’m sure that some of you reading this think this whole column is crass and in extremely bad taste.  I couldn’t agree more.  But let me ask you this, “If you think this is so disgusting, how is it any more disgusting that having politicians running this country who absolutely refuse to do anything about this epidemic of gun violence?  This blog post is far less obscene and disgusting that the lack of political courage and will to do anything to address this problem.  That is obscene.

Instead of trying to solve this problem, the Republicans are constantly trying to expand the number of weapons in this country and the places where people can carry them.  The Supreme Court is on the verge of striking down a New York state law restricting carrying concealed weapons.  This is the gist of some of the thinking on the Court.

“While a majority of the court seemed inclined to strike down the New York law, the justices suggested there could be limits to the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, specifically when it comes to “sensitive places” or heavily populated areas.

Roberts questioned whether a state or city can ban firearms on university campuses, in football stadiums or places where alcohol is served, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked whether Times Square on New Year’s Eve could be subject to limitations on the right to carry in public.”¹

Does anyone in their right mind think it is a good idea to allow concealed weapons to be legally carried by any Tom, Dick or Harry in New York City?  How comforting would it be to get on a subway car wondering how many people crammed into that car are carrying weapons? Lunacy!  No other industrialized nation even entertains this kind of discussion.

There are two problems that need to be addressed.  The first is the ease of obtaining weapons in this country.   This country is flooded in weapons.  There are more guns than people in the United States of America.  The second part of the problem is the proliferation of radical, hate-filled websites and TV programs which just stoke the fires.  Give people easy access to weapons and teach them to hate.  How the hell is that not a recipe for disaster?  But that is exactly what is happening.

This is why the entire ‘pro-life’ movement makes absolutely no logical sense to me.  Many of these people are just as adamant about their Second Amendment rights as they are about outlawing abortion.  All of these people are spending tremendous amounts of time and money to ensure more children are brought into the world, often into poverty, and seem to care squat about all of the people who are killed by guns on a daily basis.  I guess if you are a fetus, you are important and if you are real living and breathing human being, your life isn’t worth shit!

So, get out there and buy your Mass Shooting Lottery Ticket.  Nothing else will get done so you might as well see if you can win some money to allow you to move somewhere that seems a bit more civilized.  Try to stay safe in the meantime.

In previous posts, I mentioned how prescient George Orwell and Margaret Atwood were.  In order to be complete, I should add Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) to the mix.  We are well on our way to becoming the United States of Dystopia!!

1. Supreme Court hears New York concealed carry gun permit case (cbsnews.com)

I thought would start today by sharing the text of a letter I wrote to the Bozeman Chronicle over the weekend based upon an article I read in the paper Saturday.  This letter was based upon some of my thoughts previously posted on this blog last week.  I have no idea if they will publish it.  I have had a number of letters published but who knows.  I’ll keep you posted.

“Governor Gianforte is open to a special session of the legislature to address the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade.  As part of the justification for this stance he said, “Every life has to be protected.”  This, along with all of the talk about ‘freedom’ from Gianforte and the other Republicans is just another load of hypocrisy – some cattle ranchers use another term.  Montana has no helmet law for motorcycles – everyone must have their freedom.  There is the push to allow eighteen-year-olds to carry weapons on college campuses – everyone must have their freedom.  There was a huge push against mask and vaccine mandates – everyone must have their freedom.  And in this last case, people’s refusal to comply with health mandates because of exercising their freedom actually cost other people their lives.  The US is the ONLY industrialized nation that has no mandated parental leave.  The maternal mortality rate in the US is one of the worst in the industrialized world – and that’s without back-alley abortions which will surely occur.  Gun violence is now the leading killer of adolescents.  What the hell are Gianforte and the Republicans doing to address any of these issues?  Zero!   If Roe v. Wade is overturned and this country is flooded with tons of unwanted and unaffordable kids, will the government step in to provide economic support, healthcare and education.  Not if the likes of Gianforte and the Republicans get their way.  So, I guess the plan is to force more women to have more babies, which will surely result in more women dying (remember what I said about the maternal mortality rate in the US?) and then once these kids are born, it’s basically “You’re on your own!”   “Every life has to be protected” – my ass.

There were huge protests over the weekend regarding the Supreme Court’s potential decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.  Despite these protests and despite the polls showing that a majority of Americans support keeping Roe v. Wade in place, I am convinced that the Supreme Court will, in fact, overturn Roe v. Wade.  I think it is a given.  All one has to do, is look back at the direction the Supreme Court has taken under current Chief Justice John Roberts and the current very conservative makeup of the court.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act that was passed in 1965.  That section required states, in some cases, to get changes to their voting laws pre-approved by the Justice Department’s civil rights division or the D.C. federal court.¹ Immediately thereafter, states began enacting laws to restrict voting rights which, in most cases, affected poorer neighborhoods and people of color. 

Even more recently, the Court showed an increasing tendency to undermine Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in an emergency decision issued regarding a case in Wisconsin.  Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is “the most powerful provision of the law, which outlaws racially discriminatory voting practices.”²

In 2010, the Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, ruled in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) that political spending is a form of free speech protected under the First Amendment. “The controversial 5-4 decision effectively opened the door for corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money to support their chosen political candidates, provided they were technically independent of the campaigns themselves.”³ The massive amount of money spent on political campaigns these days, much of it from out-of-state SuperPACS, is nothing more than an assault on the basic concept of ‘one man, one vote’ which is one of the fundamental foundations of a true democracy. 

Given the recent history of the Supreme Court and the current very conservative makeup of the Court, people should not be at all surprised when Roe v. Wade is overturned.  If anyone thinks that is the end of decisions coming out of the Supreme Court that will continue to undermine basic democratic principles and strip away rights that people have fought decades to obtain, they are not paying attention.  Virtually all democracies that turned into authoritarian regimes, had courts that changed from supporting the populace to courts that supported the regime.  We are well on our way.  George Orwell and Margaret Atwood were more prescient than anyone could ever have imagined.

1. Supreme Court strikes down section of Voting Rights Act – CBS News
2. The US supreme court’s assault on voting rights hits a new low | US supreme court | The Guardian
3. Citizens United vs. FEC – HISTORY

I know that there is a lot of depressing and problematic news today.  There is no shortage of things to write about.  However, I wanted to take a break from my normal ranting today and pay tribute to my beautiful daughter, Jordan.  She just finished up her first year of graduate school at Boston University and next week, after a year delay due to COVID, she will be participating in her graduation from undergraduate school at New York University.  I couldn’t be prouder.  It’s been quite a journey and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. 

I’ve been listening to and reading some of the statements made by Republicans to justify their votes against the recent bill to codify Roe v. Wade to protect a woman’s right to abortion.  Most of these statements by the pro-life crowd and the Republicans who pander to them, argue that they need to stand up to protect the ’rights of the unborn child’.  

Our own Montana Republican senator, Steve Daines, when speaking on the senate floor stated that the proposed bill would leave a fetus with fewer legal protections than certain animal eggs. He went on to say:

“If you were to take or destroy the eggs of a sea turtle, the criminal penalties are severe,” he said. “Why do we have laws in place that protect the eggs of a sea turtle or the eggs of eagles? Because when you destroy an egg, you’re killing a preborn baby sea turtle or a preborn baby eagle.”

OK, I get it.  All of the Republicans want to overturn Roe v. Wade in order to protect the unborn fetus. So, here’s the question.  If all of these pro-life Republicans are so damned concerned about the welfare of an unborn fetus, why the hell don’t they care more about the mothers and children once they are born?

The United States is the only – repeat ONLY – country out of 41 industrialized nations surveyed that has no mandated paid parental leave policy.  Two thirds of these countries mandate 20 weeks or more of paid parental leave and the least amount in any of the 40 other countries is about two months.¹ The United States mandates ZERO!  The Republicans killed Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ plan when Joe Manchin, the pretend Democrat from West Virginia, objected to the 12 weeks of paid parental leave and voted against the bill even when that was dropped to 4 weeks. 

Not only is there no mandated parental leave in this country, everyone seems to be very aware there is also a child care crisis.  For many families, or single mothers, child care is a crippling expense, even if its available.  Once again, the United States is far behind the rest of the world, according to Barbara Risman, who has studied this for 40 years and is now a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.² Her belief based upon her studies is that the US suffers from a lingering myth that a woman’s place is in the home and men should be the breadwinner.   Whether or not you believe this, the fact remains, child care in the US is expensive and often not available.   However, I think there is something to her argument. 

Anu Partanen is a dual Finnish and US citizen who lived in the US but has since relocated back to Finland with her husband and young daughter.  She said that in Finland, women do not have to make a choice between working and childcare which is why a high percentage of Finnish women are employed.  “In the Nordic countries, there is more of the thinking that a child has rights independent of their parents, and it’s the society’s and the laws’ duty to give children those opportunities and those rights, regardless of their parents,” Partanen explained.² In this country, so often the success of a child and the access to opportunities is directly tied to the luck of who the child was born to. 

A recent study on healthcare in the United States compared healthcare in this country to that provided in 11 other high-income countries³.  The United States came in dead last. According to the study: “The top-performing countries overall are Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia. The United States ranks last overall, despite spending far more of its gross domestic product on health care. The U.S. ranks last on access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes, but second on measures of care process.” 

Of specific relevance to this whole overturning Roe v. Wade controversy is the issue of the maternity mortality rate in the US.  In another recent study when the maternity mortality rate in the US was compared to that in 11 other developed countries, the US ranked dead last.⁴ The US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the industrialized world.  And we are now going to force more women to have more babies so even without back-alley abortions the Republicans are condemning more women to die.  ‘Right to life’ my ass.

Firearms have taken over from automobile crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents (defined as 1 to 19).⁵ Every time anyone tries to enact any type of gun control legislation, the Republicans block it.  Gun violence in this country is worse than any other country in the world and yet there is zero effort by the Republicans to do anything to protect children from gun violence.

If the mothers and children survive long enough given all of the above, the next question is, “Who will educate them?”  It is a well-known fact that schools in this country are already overcrowded, class sizes are too large and there is a growing shortage of qualified teachers.  If Roe v. Wade is overturned, there will be a flood of additional kids to educate.  And where will the money come from to beef up the education system to handle this influx?  Given that the Republicans are loath to raises taxes, particularly on the wealthy, the burden will more than likely fall upon all of the middle-income tax payers and home owners, a significant majority of whom are against overturning Roe v. Wade.  Once again, the law of unintended consequences will emerge victorious.

 In summary, it seems that the Republicans and the pro-lifers are willing to sacrifice democracy for unborn fetuses but are unwilling to provide the resources to the mothers who give birth to these children to properly care for them.  And they are unwilling to fight to protect the lives of living, breathing children by providing basic healthcare, education, insurance and taking steps to stem the gun violence that has become a second epidemic in this country.

The Republican platform seems to be to force women to have children that they don’t want or shouldn’t have, for whatever reason, and then basically tell them, “You’re on your own now!”  Franz Kafka could not have written anything more absurd.

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/16/u-s-lacks-mandated-paid-parental-leave/
2. https://crosscut.com/news/2022/01/why-child-care-us-lags-behind-much-world
3. Healthcare in the U.S. Compared to Other Countries in 2021 – APRA (americanpatient.org)
4. US Ranks Worst in Maternal Care, Mortality Compared With 10 Other Developed Nations (ajmc.com)
5. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2201761

It is clear that Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia, is really a Republican although he continues to claim to be a Democrat.  He has voted against almost everything that Biden has put forth on his agenda and most recently voted with the Republicans to defeat the bill on abortion 51 to 49.  Had Manchin voted with the Democrats, that he claims to align with, the vote would have been 50 to 50 and Vice President Kamala Harris would have cast the deciding vote to essentially codify Roe v. Wade into law.  I, personally, am tired of this charade by Senator Manchin and his cohort in crime, Kristen Sinema, of Arizona. 

It will come as no surprise to me when some time in the future, Joe Manchin actually switches parties probably followed by Sinema.  This will probably happen sometime after the 2022 elections if the Republicans retake control of the House and the Senate.  If so, they will have perpetrated one of the biggest scams in Congressional history, i.e., posing as Democrats and, at the same time, doing everything they can to undermine the Democratic legislative agenda.  I have zero respect for either of these people.

Susan Collins (R – Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R – Alaska) are two Republicans who support abortion rights but who voted against the bill today because ‘it went too far.’  That is the same argument Manchin used.  The bill ‘went too far’?  I wonder how they will feel when Roe v. Wade is overturned and the emboldened far-right continues down that path with prohibitions against birth control and/or IV procedures for couples having trouble conceiving?  The only thing that is ‘going too far,’ is a decision to overturn 50 years of legal precedent that the three most recently appointed Trump justices said was ‘settled law’ during their confirmation hearings.  Susan Collins cast a deciding vote to get Brett Cavanaugh confirmed.  Doesn’t she think that he has ‘gone too far’ by essentially reversing what he said under oath?

I have to believe that the other members of NATO are extremely worried about what they see going on in the United States with regard to this backsliding on women’s rights and rights in general.  You may recall that the United States, in the past, has often used ‘human rights’ as a bit of a cudgel against other countries during various negotiations.  How the hell will we have any credibility on the world stage to discuss ‘human rights’ when we are in the process of rolling back rights that United States citizens have had for decades?

Perhaps as we move farther down this path, the new slogan will be ‘Make America Irrelevant’.  Military might will only allow the United States to maintain its throne on the world stage for so long.    Respect is not something that can be forced by military power.  Military power might induce fear but it cannot force respect.  And the United States is rapidly losing respect on the world stage in every area except military power (and the Chinese are in rapid pursuit).

The healthcare system in the United States is worse than most of the other industrialized countries.  There are several other countries in which the K-12 education system is far superior to that in the U.S.   The wealth gap in the United States is greater than in many other industrialized nations and continues to widen.  The gun violence in this country far exceeds that in virtually every other country.   And now, the country that was once a beacon of freedom and democracy is busy stripping away rights of its citizens based upon the wishes of a minority of the electorate.  This does not paint a pretty picture looking toward the future.

When I was laid up with my knee, I read a book, Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail, by Ray Dalio.  I hate to say it, but what he wrote seems right on point.  Unless there are radical changes in this country, I frankly see a pretty bleak future.  When I am talking about radical changes, I am not talking about abortion, that is but a symptom.  I am talking about the continued and deepening polarization in the current political environment driven in part by the fundamentalist religious right, which has led to a complete breakdown in the ability of Congress to function and deal with real substantive issues as opposed to these ridiculous culture wars.

If there is not a radical change in the direction we are going as a country, we will begin to look more and more like Hungary and Belarus and less and less like the country envisioned by the Founding Fathers.  I know that sounds terrible, but I believe it is the truth.  And sometimes the truth is really ugly – but it’s still the truth.  I hope I am wrong.

I’d like to apologize for the last few posts.  They have been quite negative.  I believe that its much easier to complain about things than to offer solutions.  So, I decided to think about how to solve some of the problems that will be encountered if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.  There will be many issues that arise as a result of overturning 50 years of legal precedent and although most Republicans believe strongly in smaller government and States rights, I think the magnitude of these issues, some known and some unknown, will best be addressed at the Federal level.  After all, Mitch McConnell, the top-ranking Republican in the Senate, alluded to a national ban on abortion should the Republicans retake control of the House and Senate.  Therefore, I propose the creation of the U.S. Department of Uterine and Maternal Benefits (DUMB).

The purpose of DUMB will be to: 1) address the current disparity between the roughly 600,000 abortions performed every year and the number of adoptions, roughly 150,000 plus or minus; 2) enforce all of the abortion laws across the nation; 3) set up a special task force to deal with the inevitable rise in black markets (abortion pills, for example); 4)  develop U.S. policies designed to prohibit the traveling of expectant mothers out of the country to obtain abortions; and 5) develop metrics and issue an annual report on the effectiveness of the measures taken.

The new DUMB department will require a budget and I think perhaps $300 billion should do the trick.  The budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs is about $300 billion and the level of effort would seem to be on par with that so $300 billion seems like a reasonable number.  The conservatives have spent so much time and money over the last 50 years attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade, that it would seem only logical that they would get behind the necessary funding for DUMB.

I personally see the large difference between the number of abortions performed and the number of adoptions as an opportunity.    There will be an initial effort to dramatically increase the number of adoptions in this country although even with a well-funded advertising and media campaign it is unlikely that such a dramatic increase will take place quickly and be sustainable year after year.

Therein lies the opportunity.  The United States could become a major exporter of babies for adoption.  Now, many American families adopt children from abroad.  However, that will have to be outlawed in order to help take up the slack here and with the excess ‘crop’ we can start to become a world resource for babies.   Even if the domestic adoption rate is doubled that will still leave between 200,000 and 300,000 babies to deal with.  Conservatively, if we could export 200,000 babies a year at say $10,000/baby that would bring in $20 billion.  As you see, this whole thing of overturning Roe v. Wade could be quite lucrative.

There are other economic benefits.  Since existing hospitals will be overwhelmed by expectant mothers, it will be necessary to build dedicated DUMB hospitals to facilitate this huge increase in births.  There would be the initial boom in the construction industry to build these hospitals, a huge demand for additional nurses, midwives, OB/GYN doctors and support staff for all of these facilities.  These regional hospitals could be a real economic boom to virtually every part of the country.  A win-win!

The revenue brought in by adoption fees for babies sent abroad can be used to set up the enforcement arm of DUMB.  This unit would be akin to the ATF section of the Department of the Treasury.  This enforcement unit would set up a hotline where citizens could turn in their neighbors which would then trigger a response by a DUMB SWAT team to arrest the offending party.  The woman would be forced to carry the fetus to term at one of the regional DUMB hospitals or they would be prosecuted and imprisoned.  (Never mind that the US already incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country in the world.)

Further, in the spirit of certain governors of ‘red’ states who are busy passing laws to prosecute women who travel across state lines to obtain abortions, the Federal government, through the DUMB agency would enact legislation that would require all female passengers travelling out of the United States to take a pregnancy test at the airport to ensure no woman could bypass the abortion ban by travelling to another country.  (Given the already long lines at the TSA checkpoints and the often-long lines outside of women’s restrooms, they will have to work out the logistics of this to ensure flights could actually leave on time – perhaps getting to the airport 4 hours ahead of your flight will become the new norm!)

Whereas the United States used to be viewed by the world as the beacon of democracy and innovative thinking, the United States would strive to set an example for the world in hopes that others would establish their own DUMB agencies when they witness how successful the program is in this country.

Lastly, as an incentive to ensure that the DUMB agency works as efficiently and as effectively as the proponents of overturning Roe v. Wade hope, the agency would agree that for every woman who dies due to an illegal abortion, a conservative politician at the local, state or Federal level who supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, would be selected in a random drawing and that person would be castrated, if male, or given a hysterectomy if female.  I mean, since all of the proponents of overturning Roe v. Wade are absolutely convinced that controlling the reproductive health of all citizens is in the best interests of the country, I would think they would be perfectly willing to put their own reproductive health on the line.  Government accountability after all.

And they all lived happily ever after.  The End.