Volunteer in 2024

Be the change, volunteer and make the difference!

Let’s face it, the world is in turmoil, and divisive politics in our country is threatening our democracy. 2024 is our opportunity to set our nation on the right course. One of the best ways to do that is by volunteering in your community. Volunteers in every community in the nation are the fabric that strengthen communities.

A plethora of volunteer opportunities are available, no matter where you live. Open your heart and mind to reveal the possibilities that are all around you. Not only will volunteering help your community, it will also instill a sense of pride and self-satisfaction of your own.

I speak from experience. I have volunteered in the past as a coach in youth sports, on various community committees, on our Village Library Board, as a President of a youth council, running a teen center, Boy Scout Leader, and more.

I even dabbled in politics, running for office and losing, which also resulted in positive change. I got involved in campaigns and I was instrumental in forming a community organization that challenged our local private water company and the NYS Public Service Commission where we won our rate case, created a Water Authority, lowered rates, and won over $20 million dollars in refunds for ratepayers. That was a huge win for my community.

Now that I am retired and living in the North Country, I still answer the call to volunteer. I am a member of our Local Lions Club, I serve as President of our Senior Citizen Club and volunteer to drive their bus as well as maintain our building, and I also serve on the Parish Council of our local Church.

I don’t list things to brag, I am sharing that there is always time in our lives to make our communities stronger. When we make our communities stronger through volunteering it effectively blocks the negativity that threatens all of us.

Let’s face it the threats are at our village gate. Volunteering is as powerful as the Minutemen that fought so that we all could be free. Your ammunition is your time, talents and pride. Use them to your fullest.

Be the change, volunteer and make the difference!

Dog Whistling

Dog whistling is a political ploy used to communicate something insidiously to a target audience that is bent to react to your comment. When a political campaign uses the dog whistle strategy it is often without any basis of fact and is used only to get a visceral reaction to garner support.

Chris Christie accused Trump this weekend using the dog whistle when he used Hitleresque comments regarding immigrants. (more on that later). Christie’s comments were accompanied by his own dog whistling when he said the border is broken and the economy is failing. Both of these comments are blatantly untrue and were only meant to gather his own support for his failing campaign. He won’t talk about his own failures or his actions with Bridgegate that cost millions of dollars because he effectively shut down the George Washinton Bridge or when he shut down a local beach so he can enjoy it with his family. He has no foreign policy experience and had not revealed a platform for his potential presidency.

Living in the Adirondacks and a stone throw away from the Vermont border, our local television stations come from Vermont and are also broadcast in nearby New Hampshire. Because of this we have been inundated with political ads from Niki Haley this week. Her dog whistling this week reeks with ageism and outright falsehoods. She claims our cities and college campuses are in chaos, she outright said “Biden is too old and alludes to the fact that younger candidates should be elected. She even states in her ads that she wants competency tests without saying for who. Does she mean only elected officials based on age, or the public in general? How do you measure competency? Whose definition of competency is she willing to use? She too claims the economy is in shambles. 

We should talk about her competency as our Ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. She pushed Trump’s agenda that alienated our allies, almost destroyed NATO, abandoned our Kurdish allies and effectively handing them over to Putin controlled Assad’s Syrian forces. Not to mention abandoning Ukraine, while threatening the world to take down names that did not support Trump’s agenda.

Trump’s dog whistling this weekend mirrors Hitleresque propaganda that ran rampant in the 1930’s. Not only in Germany, but in this country as well. The Nazi Party tried to establish themselves here with many fascist loving individuals forming groups with names such as the “Silver Shirts” promoting antisemitism. Back then they often pointed towards individuals of means as the “Jewish enemy”. Much like Trump does today when he mentions George Soros.

When he mentions that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our nation, this dog whistle is clearly a message to those who thrive on hatred, another Hitleresque move. They forget that most of us have the immigrant blood in our veins from our own ancestors.

2024 will become a turning point for our nation. Do we fall for the dog whistle and run towards this hatred with our tails wagging and saliva dripping or do we as a nation ignore it and focus on what makes our nation the envy of the world. Do we move forward or do we retreat to the 1930’s? Don’t answer the call of the dog whistle!

Success explained.

Today I am going to repost a series of Tweets this morning from Simon Rosenberg. This is the news that we need to spread over and over until the message is clear. Bidenomics is a success.

Simon Rosenberg is President of the New Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington D.C. 

If you want to read more…check this out https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/the-economy-is-remarkably-strong

The Puppet Master

We must recognize that the Puppet Master has firm control of the Republican Party. Don’t assume that the Puppet Master is Trump. The real Puppet Master has a firm grip on Trump and in turn the MAGA Republican Party. Sometimes we need to step back and look behind the curtain.

Putin is the real Puppet Master. He has firm control of the oligarchs that are running authoritarian regimes. He salivates at the prospect that we may be controlled by our own authoritarian regime. It is no secret that Putin wants Trump as President and will do anything to get him reelected. We all know he had a hand in Trump’s last term.

Remember when he shared classified information with Russia when the Russian Ambassador was in the Oval office?

Remember when Trump said he believed Putin over our own intelligence community?

Now we have Republicans in Congress that are doing Putin;s bidding. Today the passed a resolution to continue an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden. Yesterday they refused to fund Ukraine or Israel. Both of these refusals support Putin’s agenda. They were even applauded by a Putin back television show for their inaction. They are sewing doubt in our own government’s capabilities. They are complicit in Trump’s plan of insurrection. They are attacking our schools, and universities. They are beginning to question the resolve of NATO. Why just today Marjorie Trailerpark Greene said that if Trump wins, we will most likely withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Today this was the AP headline , Russia’s Putin is visiting the UAE and Saudi Arabia, seeking to bolster Moscow’s Mideast clout. Let’s not forget, Trump’s son in law, Jared, was given Billions of dollars as an investment by the Saudis immediately after Trump lost the election.

Last week Congressional Republicans met with Putin’s closest European ally, Hungary’s Orban. In a closed door meeting they discussed ending US support for Ukraine. Trump himself is calling for the end of the Ukraine war, saying he could settle it within 24 hours. We could only imagine how.

Let’s face it, Trump is Putin’s puppet, and I am starting to realize that MAGA Republicans are just too plain stupid to realize that Putin is pulling their strings as well. Just a couple of days ago, Trump admitted he will be a dictator if elected and yet he continues to get support. He is not covering up that he is Putin’s puppet.

The problem is a many of our neighbors have been fed raw meat that feeds into their wrongly held beliefs. They feel that their beliefs have been validated. Their hatred is encouraged even if there is no rationale reason for it. They have also become puppets of the Puppet Master.

I don’t know how long it will take us to cut those strings. But we must, otherwise our children and grandchildren will pay the price of being controlled by the Puppet Master.

Avoidance is Not an Answer

Avoidance is never a good choice, especially when there is much at risk. Our nation has seen the dangers of avoidance in the past. Appeasement before WWII, slavery, and Native American genocide, are 3 examples of how a large segment of our population looked the other way, buried their collective heads in the sand to avoid issues that demanded our attention. Not taking action always has consequences.

Today, our nation has a large segment of our population that is choosing to avoid important issues. Ukraine, Israel and the Palestinians, immigration reform are just a few examples. Hard Right Republicans want to avoid funding the war to preserve Ukraine, they ignore the need for a peaceful 2 state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, and they just think shutting the border is a solution.

Folk’s our democracy is in danger. We now have an avoidance movement that is spreading across our country. Many voters are now stating that they won’t vote for Trump or Biden. Some are choosing an alternate candidate that has no chance of winning. They wrongly think that their protest vote will accomplish something.

Let’s face it, unlike some other countries our elections provide generally two choices, Republican or Democrat. Voting for a fringe candidate, or not voting at all, is avoidance. It puts our democracy at risk, it is throwing your vote into the wind and hoping all will be well. That’s playing into the hands of those who thought appeasement is a good idea.

Biden is the clear-cut choice. Saying you won’t vote or voting for a fringe candidate only provides an opportunity for Trump. This is what happened in 2016. Clinton was a poor choice, and even though it was a small number of voters that refused to vote for her, it was enough to give Trump a win. And our nation paid dearly for that.

So, to you who claim you don’t have a choice, get your head out of the sand, or better yet get your head out of your arse!

Choices

As of today, we clearly have two separate and distinct choices. Do we support Trump and his MAGA movement towards authoritarianism or do we stay the course of slow and steady recovery from a life changing pandemic, an economic crisis, and a disastrous Trump presidency? The choice is clear to me.

I wish I was confident that our nation will stay the course. When I watch the news, read the paper, surf the Internet, or even talk about this with friends and family, my confidence wanes. It baffles me how so many think that there even is a choice.

The media has been harping on President Biden’s age when they should be pointing out his experience and accomplishments. The media continues to give Trump almost unlimited coverage of his rallies, interviews and outrageous Internet posts.

Trump has been indicted for Federal crimes, he has been found guilty of sexual assault and is about to lose his ability to do business in New York forever due to fraud. His actions as President affectively isolated us from the world as he aligned himself with Putin and other authoritarian dictators.

If Trump does not run, the other candidates clearly are no better choice. We cannot forget that when Haley was Secretary of state, she threated the world with the promise to take names of those countries that resisted Trump’s demands. She supported separating families kidnapping migrant children and locking them in cages. The other Republican candidates as of now are no better and clearly do not present a viable choice for us.

The old question is fitting here, are you better off than you were 4 years ago? Let’s not forget that 4 years ago we were using tractor trailers as temporary morgues, our supply chain was nonexistent. Many were unemployed, and not only our economy was shut down but the entire world’s economies were shut down as well. Trump threated to abandon NATO, imagine what would have happened if he succeeded with that. Do I really need to go on?

Biden is the clear choice. Instead of focusing on his age, let’s look at his experience that he has masterfully used to move our Nation towards a positive future. Let’s call out those media outlets that fail to tell us the total story. The total story of how the Biden administration is moving us forward.

The choice is clear, Biden’s experience outweighs MAGA bluster, failures and divisiveness.

Sounding the Alarm

I started this blog way back in 2011 as a way to bring attention to the threats of public education. Lately I have been writing about the threats from the hard Right politics that is about to destroy our democracy.

Those threats to public education, I wrote about, have fueled the threats from the hard Right we are experiencing today.

In 2001 President Bush enacted “No Child Left Behind” which was eventually replaced by the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (2015) which spawned the “Race to the Top” or what many teachers know is really a race to nowhere. Since 2001 an emphasis was placed on standardized testing but in 2015 standardized testing became a weapon by states to unfairly rate teachers and schools. Without any scientific data it was determined that all students no matter their individual situations must achieve proficiency on whatever the individual state decided on. Regardless of economic status, disabilities, emotional issues ,or anything that has an effect on student learning students will be standardized.,

As a result, states revamped their education standards, school districts narrowed the curriculum, and teachers were forced to teach to these standardized tests. Scores were published, teachers were rated, and districts were labeled. And most importantly, student learning was impaired.

When curriculum was narrowed due to these tests programs in the arts were reduced, Social Studies curriculum often took a back seat to Language Arts lessons, because Language Arts curriculum was the backbone of the standardized tests. This Race to the Test had the effect of preventing millions of kids from learning about history or to fully appreciate the arts or even to read for enjoyment. Their ability to learn how to work with others was disrupted.

Since I began to write this blog in 2011 my former 5th grade students are now in their mid 20’s and those that were in middle or high school are now approaching 30 years old. We are now seeing the real effects of this misguided standardization mindset.

Look where we find ourselves today.

The Trump and his followers are now feeding into the results of this mindset. We now have a huge percentage of our population in their 20’s-30’s who have limited knowledge of history. We have book banning, a misunderstanding of what democracy is, and we are repeating the mistakes of the past. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I have been ringing this alarm since 2011, it’s time to answer the call..

Don’t look at us!

Republicans have been engaged in a “look over there” strategy. They will do everything they can to distract us from the reality that they can not and will not govern. They throw out accusations in an effort drive a false narrative so that the media will report on their false accusations thereby cutting into coverage on what is the truth.

They do it everyday. Here are some of today’s examples.

They continue to attack Biden, when documentation reveals Hunter was paying back his dad for a truck loan his dad helped him with when he was on hard times, when Biden was NOT IN OFFICE.

Here is another one from Ted Cruz today.

According to AAA todays average gas price is $3.24.

And here is a classic..

Bidenomics has been a huge success. We see it everyday. Lower prices at the pump, less unemployment, restaurants booming, retail is up, the CPI is down, airline ticket costs are down, infrastructure projects are all around us, just to name a few.

So why do they try to make us look away??

They don’t want us to see Trump has been indicted for over 90 crimes, he has been rules by the courts as a rapist, his lawyers are heading to jail one by one, and his son in law is involved in a shady deal with the Saudi prince who had a journalist murdered and hacked to pieces.

They want us to forget when the country ran out of toilet paper, baby formula, and used semi trucks as morgues. They want us to not watch the Republican controlled House of Representatives fail to govern as they fight with each other and launch sophomoric attacks rather that actually govern.

“A sucker is born every minute” is often attributed to the showman P.T. Barnum, when actually a banker named David Hannum from Syracuse, New York said it in response to suckers being duped by P.T. Barnum.

Today’s lesson is don’t be that sucker, don’t look the other way. Follow the truth and don’t let them distract your view of political discourse.

Gagging Trump or Us?

Trump having to comply with a very limited gag order is only half of today’s story. The other half is how Trump’s allies in the Republican party are causing us all to gag as we witness their disgusting strategic lying.

Today the partial gag order in Trump’s civil trial in New York was reinstated by New York’s Supreme Court. New York’s Supreme Court is an appellate court that heard Trump’s appeal on the original gag order. The question now is what will the consequences be when Trump ignores the gag order? We shall see.

The real news however in that most of us have been subjected to the repulsive actions and statements that have reached a fever peak rom Trump’s allies in the Republican Party. When we observe what our democracy is being subjected too it certainly makes me gag. Often these hard Right morons spew hatred, vitriol and vomit on the House floor or in committee meetings that makes us all want to retch.

Lindsey Graham directly called on Governor Abbott to send thousands of immigrants to the states of 10 Democratic Senators. https://twitter.com/i/status/1730047017886290267 Graham calls himself a Christian and yet wants too ship migrants that are legally seeking asylum as if they were cattle.

Josh Hawley is now saying the Biden Administration is using tactics straight out of the Chinese Communist Party’s playbook. Without any facts he is attacking Biden and calling him a Communist. Hawley has no idea what communism is, he is just vomiting hard Right talking points.

Clay Higgins is regurgitating talking points that the FBI was driving the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. He claims the FBI agents dressed up in Trump gear and incited the insurrection.

Moms4 Liberty has been attacking school Boards and school libraries over content. This news story broke today. Here is an except from Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/a-florida-gop-leader-a-moms-for-liberty-founder-and-allegations-of-group-sex-and-rape/

The investigative journalism outlet Florida Center for Government Accountability has a story today alleging that Christian Ziegler, the chair of the Florida GOP, sexually assaulted a woman. This would be enough to attract attention, but this woman was allegedly having a ménage à trois with him and his wife Bridget, the erstwhile crusading chair of the Sarasota school board and a co-founder of the parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty.

These are only a few examples of how low these Right Wing Morons are dragging our Nation. We need recognize their actions for what it is…pure vomit.

Let’s focus on today’s positive news, which is much easier to swallow.

New stats show annual inflation fell to its lowest level since March 2021 and that monthly inflation was zero. This comes after yesterday’s news that the U.S. economy grew by more than 5% last quarter. These are strong indicators that Biden’s economic vision is working.

All 4 National polls released this week have President Biden leading Donald Trump.

New reports show 52% of 18-29-year-olds say they will vote for Joe Biden over Trump. This is a higher percentage than any other age group. For all the stress about where Gen-Z sits, it should be noted that Biden drove record youth turnout in 2020 & will again in 2024.

813,000 student borrowers received an email Tuesday from President Biden saying their debt had been forgiven because of the Biden-Harris Administration’s loan forgiveness plans. This is a huge deal that will relieve a significant burden for countless Americans.

New economic analysis has been done and shows that shipping backlogs are now at a 25 year low. Most economists are attributing this success to President Biden’s insistence on creating a more resilient and sustainable economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rubbernecking and the Media

On this holiday weekend many of us take to the roads and eventually we all do it. We all have the tendency to want too see the accident, fire, or other emergency that has caught our attention. Even though we know we shouldn’t we rubberneck. On the road this often causes a traffic jam on the side of the road unaffected by the accident. Rubbernecking often results in another accident. When on the scene of another emergency our rubbernecking often mean that the first responders must divert some of their attention to the emergency at hand and safeguard the scene from us rubberneckers. Rubbernecking is often fed by our curiosity or desire to be a witness and often can create a problem for us as well.

So how does the media figure into rubbernecking? Let’s be honest, in this age of instant news, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, “X”, Facebook, Tik ToK and other forms available through the internet and cable TV, dramatic events drive viewers to seek more information. Lately when a Trump or his MAGA minions story hits the news cycle, many flock to see what this is all about. And just like the rubberneckers on the highway, those that flock to these media stories often get caught up in their own traffic jam of news that often blocks out the real news of the day.

When Trump or is MAGA minions actions get viewers to these media outlets it often drives their programming because it drives their revenues. Therefore, Trump’s words or actions actually help the revenues of these media outlets.

We saw this in 2016. Trump’s outrageous behavior was reported on all day, every day. Not only did it drive revenues , the constant exposure drove minions towards him. They heard someone who validated their most outrageous ideas everyday. The media’s constant coverage is what helped spawn the mass MAGA movement and all the evil baggage that came with it.

So just as rubbernecking on the road can cause problems for those who are on the other side of the guide rails, wanting to see what Trump has said today causes problems for those on the other side of his political spectrum.

Don’t “rubberneck” when Trump’s actions are shown over and over. Glance at it and move on, after all we still need too know. Perhaps these media outlets will realize that their viewers are not interested in wall to wall coverage of Trump and his MAGA minions and will no longer provide the means for us to get bogged down in Trump traffic.

We can only hope.