Category: Ethics

Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

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Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

Editor: Well, if we wanted chaos, stupidity, and cruelty we’ve got it, in spades. All those folks who didn’t get enough of Trump the first time around and couldn’t wait to get his sick, narcissistic ass back in the White House are paying the price now, right along with the rest of us. And the folks who didn’t vote because they were taking some effin’ high road, shame on you. In a democracy there isn’t a lot to do, other than look at candidates and choose those candidates whose philosophy and policies come closest to match your individual hopes and desires; and that magic happens at the ballot box.   Cate and I agree about a lot of things and her thoughts on Joe Biden coincide with mine.  No one is perfect, but some are a lot more perfect than others; and yes I am comparing Joe Biden at his worst to Donald Trump at his best.  DSM

 

By Cate Rees-Hessel and D.S. Mitchell

  1. Joe Biden is a man of integrity, whose life long career of public service is still in effect – he’s still an advocate for the American people, despite dealing with cancer. Donald Trump has never advocated for anyone but himself.
  2. President Biden is a dedicated husband and father, not a cheating adulterer that once claimed he’d like to date his own daughter.
  3. Joe had, despite COVID-19 chauffeured the economy, to a place that perhaps still needed a bit of tweeking but was showing tremendous growth and high employment.  There were no insane, unnecessary, ill-advised tariffs that are in fact a direct tax on the American consumer.
  4. Joe Biden nor any other Democrat would never have even suggested such devastation, trauma, and cruelty as Trump’s Big Bad Bill. That bill is going to deliver big cuts to the social safety net, add trillions to the deficit and just incidentally give the richest 1% a huge tax cut.
  5. Joe capped insulin at $35 monthly, a real blessing for seniors; which Trump is talking about rescinding Joe’s policy so Donald can “help” the drug companies.
  6. Joe supported health insurance for all, while Trump policies are cutting Obama Care, Medicaid and Medicare. A healthy populace is a good thing for a country, and pays back in so many unimagined ways.
  7. Joe gave us a beautiful, progressive black woman of dignity and intelligence as our VP; Trump’s VP pick spends time courting White Supremacists & Neo-Nazi’s in Germany and other European capitals.
  8. Joe and the Democrats gave this country its first significant infrastructure bill in 70 years. Fixing roads, and bridges, bringing Wi-Wi to rural America while Trump tries to claw back promised federal money for many promised projects and offering nothing more than putrid pork in return.
  9. Joe Biden and his team gave us all time low unemployment, while Donnie Doodle’s employment reports are so bad he has to fire the civil servant giving the information; because of course like everything else he doesn’t like, “it’s a hoax or fake news.”
  10. Joe Biden was the savvy and supportive VP to our first black President, Barack Obama – they worked together beautifully. Donald Trump on the other hand is trying to intimidate and fight with duly elected black mayors and governors across the country. Racism is alive and well under Daddy Don.
  11. Joe gave us a classy First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden – not Donald’s immigrant wife with questionable legal status and a staple in her navel and a naked centerfold archived somewhere.
  12. Joe Biden treasures the privacy of the American people while Donnie Felon thought having Elon Musk chainsaw through the government was a good idea. What is the plan for all that information? Whatever it is, Joe Biden would never have been part of it.
  13. Joe Biden doesn’t intentionally go looking for a fight, while Trump is fighting with someone all the time. Sometimes just because he’s an ass and stupid as a trout and other times because he needs some nonsense vibrating the airways so he can hide, distract and deceive.
  14. Joe Biden used his time to get work done, not ride around in a golf cart demanding we change the  Gulf of Mexico, to the “Gulf of America,” “annex Canada as our 51st state,” or demand the “takeover of Greenland.”
  15. Joe Biden was not touring the world on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane or visiting Epstein Island. However, Donald Trump was flying around acting the big shot with old buddy  Jeff, but now he ‘barely knew him.’
  16. President Biden was an attorney who has a head for public administration and business, not a seven-time bankrupt reality show idiot who threatened his former school with big lawsuits if his grades were ever released.
  17. Joe Biden is a Democrat. Trump is head of some coalition faction that used to  proclaim to be Republicans but are now full MAGA and are likely to fall apart as a movement when Trump’s leaves center stage.
  18. Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed by Joe Biden, Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh
  19. Joe Biden is pro-labor, he was the first president to ever stand on a picket line, while Trump surrounds himself with extremist minority political fringe advocates and greedy 2 percenters running the country.
  20.  With Joe and Jill Biden, class and dignity returned to the White House – for a brief four year period, we had a break from the insanity of “The Donald” and his thug routine.
  21. Joe Biden followed the law when it came to immigrants and immigration. With Trump we now have the world’s best financed national police force (who wear masks, no name badges, and snatch people off the streets) arresting cooks, seamstresses and gardeners. The outlaws and criminals that Trump promised to arrest and deport have vanished right along with his promises of lower food prices.
  22. Joe Biden believes in science and he believes in funding research, Donald Trump hates science and wants us to be as dumb as an illiterate peasant in Medieval England.
  23. No one ever accused Joe of using the office of the presidency to fill his bank account, but that’s what we have going on now more than during Trump’s first term. Emoluments? Who cares about a word that most people have never heard of.
  24. Joe Biden would never have rolled out a red carpet welcome for War Criminal, Vlad Putin, but Trump did. Since when do we celebrate killers? Now, I guess.

Instead of changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for purely racist reasons, wanting to change names of sports teams back to racist ones, wasting money on a military parade for his birthday, or wanting to be a king, President Biden was concerned with healthcare, infrastructure, and real world problems. Joe always had America’s best interest at heart, always thinking about the little guy in our society, a true patriot that took care of actual issues that we as Americans face. God bless President Joe Biden for his service.

Most Dangerous Group in Human History

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OPINION:

The Most Dangerous Group in Human History

OPINION:

The Most Dangerous Group in Human History

By Karen Tate

Not Since Eisenhower Has There Been an Ethical Republican President

I’ve often written in my published books and essays that knowledge is power.  Of course, I didn’t know that growing up in the South where our public school books barely scratched the surface on the evils of the Civil War, patriarchy, sexism, racism, or social justice.  Neither were we encouraged to be good citizens with a firm handle on civics and how the government worked.  Men and religious institutions were in charge and vital subjects like sex, power, religion and money were not talked about.  Taking a back seat and having babies was a woman’s role in life.  I had to move to California to begin to get an education and discover how stunted so many of our educations actually are depending on where we grow up and what our socio-economic  background might be.  Then I had to care enough to educate myself and leave my racist culture behind and become a feminist, or I think the more accurate word today is a womanist.

I’m reminded of all that in these last few years as I rub shoulders with those who would rather not know anything, critically think or choose instead to be apolitical and take a back seat and let someone else do their thinking for them.  I have to remember we don’t know what we don’t know.  Had I not left the South I doubt I’d ever have discovered the eminent scholar Noam Chomsky nor would I have taken the rare opportunity to interview him on my podcast.  I wouldn’t have known he considered the Republican Party the most dangerous organization in human history and though he was primarily talking about climate change at the time, he also said, “Has there ever been an organization in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on Earth?” And he had not yet experienced Donald Trump’s presidency, nor was Project 2025 fully fleshed out as we understand it today.

I believe Prof. Chomsky assessed the GOP as he does for more than their position on climate change by reminding readers we have not had a lawful and ethical Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Knowledge is power and it’s important to be armed with truthful information.  How many of us don’t know or were never taught the following facts about past Republican presidents and their administrations?   As my historical account below will attest, Republican Presidents have been guilty of war crimes, election interference, committing treason, sometimes  by conspiring with foreign governments, and much more, to acquire or hold power  for decades since Eisenhower.  Yes, there have been Republican traitors in the White House before Donald Trump even if you didn’t learn about it in school, discover it buried in the news or followed the headlines.

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NO KINGS PROTEST

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NO KINGS PROTEST

NO KINGS Protest

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

                                                                                                                              Steve Jobs

QUOTES ON COURAGE

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Quotes On Courage

QUOTES ON COURAGE

D. S. Mitchell

Research

As part of my job as Editor in Chief at Calamity Politics is that I get to do research. Research can be lots of fun. This week, I decided to look up quotes on courage. I believe that we are going to need strength and courage to see this political battle to it’s satisfactory progressive conclusion. The Trump machine can’t run without the power of the people. He’s losing his most basic supporters; my God, even Musk called him out.

What People Have Said About Courage:

People say some pretty inspiring things.  Here’s a brief collection of some pretty smart comments by some pretty smart people on the subject of gallantry and valor.

1.) “Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary,”  Gerard Way

2.)Courage leads starward, fear toward death,” Seneca

3.)“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen,” Winston Churchill

4.)“Courage conquers all things,”  Ovid

5.) “The strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is courage,“ Michel De Montaigne

6.) “Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion,”  President Calvin Coolidge

7.) “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage,” Anais Nin

I’m inspired. How about you? If you are even a little inspired, do something to fight this administration. Be brave. Be courageous. Write a letter, make a phone call, march in the upcoming anti-Trump “NO KINGS protest. Don’t be a bystander.

Join the New Resistance

More of Trump’s Atrocities, Part 3

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More of Trump’s Atrocities, Part 3

Trump is a destroyer not a builder

More of Trump’s Atrocities, Part 3

By Cate Rees-Hessel

 

More and more, day by day, “The Donald” is trying to destroy our nation with his selfish, chaotic  and self-serving behavior. Below are more of his narcissistic actions:

  1. Attacking SNAP, nutrition assistance needed by many families to put food on the table. He will single handedly cause a hunger crisis in America. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  2. Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices on food and many other items, cost of living increases are hurting middle class Americans, and destroying those in lower income brackets. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  3. Attacking Medicaid for those unable to afford health insurance. Necessary health care for millions, including preventive care, is under attack and potentially on the chopping block. This action can result in deaths for many people in our nation. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  4. He already reversed the $35.00 insulin cap for seniors – diabetics rely on this medication to stay alive and healthy. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  5. He has insulted the new Pope Leo XVI, as he also insulted our dearly departed Pope Francis, two Godly men of peace and inclusion. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  6. Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires that need to pay their fair share are completely unfair and unjustified. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  7. He pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, calling their daughter at Sam’s Club to announce his gesture. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  8. Trump “worked” at a McDonald’s during his campaign and is a Big Mac-aholic but can’t even spell the word hamburger. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  9. The orange imbecile thinks windmills cause cancer. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  10. Trump wants to spend an estimated $95 million on a dictator style military parade to celebrate and commemorate his birthday when the average American can barely afford to buy necessities. This money could save Medicare and SNAP benefits for those in need. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  11. Trump’s attack on Social Security. Seniors and disabled individuals rely on SS. I must point out Social Security is our money, not the governments. We earned it and paid into the system for our retirement. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  12. I will let Trump’s horrific 2025 Memorial Day “X” message speak volumes for itself here – this comes from the devil that called out military suckers and losers. The only monsters are Trump and his cronies. Ending his rant with God bless America is disgusting and blasphemous.

“OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN-ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND. WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL, BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN and HAPPY AGAIN  MEMORIAL DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA”

We must resist and impeach Trump…

Thoughts on 4/5/2025-HANDS OFF !! Protest

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Thoughts On 4/5/2025:

HANDS OFF!! Protest

 

Thoughts on 4/5/2025:

HANDS OFF !! Protest

 

By D. S. Mitchell

Making Signs

The alarm woke me at 4 a.m. I was up and out of bed in a flash. I was excited. The protest was scheduled to start at 11:30 and I still had signs to make.  “RESIST MAGA,” “HANDS OFF!! EVERYTHING,” “Radio Free America, 2025” and “Musk to Mars”. The “Musk to Mars” sign was quite distinctive;  big, bold letters on a field of white. It was definitely my favorite. All four signs only took me a couple of hours with poster board and project markers, but I thought they made a big statement.

A Lawless Operation

Despite all my frenzied activity I was still mad as hell. The Hands Off !! protest was my first protest march since 1968. A lot has happened since those days. I’m now grey-haired, and older than the Ten Commandments, but I’m pissed off. I’m so pissed off I’d even called a couple of friends and we agreed to do the protest together. Strength in numbers. The Trump Administration is running a lawless operation out of the White House and I wanted to let those a-holes know that me and a majority of Americans want it stopped. I  could spend the next 1,000 words ranting against the Musk/Trump policies, but I won’t. Instead I want to tell you about my Hands Off!! protest experience.

Deep Red

First of all, let me make it clear. I live in deep red, Trump country. More specifically, Grants Pass, Josephine County, Oregon. Josephine County hasn’t voted Democratic since 1930 something.; that’s nearly a 100 years, it’s that red.  However, over the last month, as the darkness of Trump’s agenda has emerged, I have seen fewer Trump yard signs, some of which have been in the ground since 2020. Furthermore, there is a significant drop in the pickup trucks with the giant American flags and mammoth Trump banners parading up and down the main street of our little town.. That boiling pot of MAGA outrage seems is cooling, while the Dems and the Independents are blue with rage.

Fingers Crossed

There were about 500 people at Oregon Senator(D) Jeff Merkley’s Town Hall a couple weeks ago. I hoped the Hands Off !! protest would draw at least as many. I had my fingers crossed. While I worried about attendance, I also fretted about parking. With one of my gang in a wheelchair and me using a walker; ease of parking was a priority. With that in mind, we headed out about 10 o’clock and easily found parking across the street from the courthouse.  I high-fived my comrades and with help unloaded first the rollator and next the wheelchair and headed to the front of the Josephine County Court House on 6th street.

Drum Roll, Please

I was surprised to see such a large crowd an hour and a half before the scheduled event. It looked like people were fired up. I could hear the sound of a cow bell, a chorus of drum beats, and a megaphone shouting encouraging chants. People were flowing in from all directions, waving signs. The diversity was striking. The grievances many. There was a sizeable group of boomers, many like us using walkers and wheelchairs. I was happy to see a large turnout of all age groups. Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z; everybody was there.  There was also a sizeable group of young folks flying the flag of many colors.

Too Many Problems

There were as many concerns as there were people. Women’s rights, Democracy, due process, Trump’s Imperial presidency, DOGE, corruption, the reckless gutting of essential government services like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Veterans benefits. complaints. Despite the anger and outrage all the participants I encountered were respectful and even smiling and good natured, happy to be with a group of supporters and proud to be speaking out.

Democracy in Action

Peaceful protest is Democracy in action. We as citizens of this great democracy are expected to dissent when we see injustice. It is our duty as thinking, caring human beings to speak out. Right now, our country’s government is working against the many for the benefit of the few.  The Trump administration is a disaster for the average working person. It is critical that the citizens of this country express their shared outrage over the direction Trump and his cronies are pushing the country. And people are speaking up. They are making signs, putting on their sneakers, and hitting the pavement. I hope the White House is listening. We want no kings here.

The Few Against the Many

The crowd stretched about three blocks up and down NW 6th Street. From my vantage point, it was hard to estimate the size of the crowd. With that said, I would guess that there were at least 1,200 Americans on the street making their voices heard. This was a very well-organized and well-attended event. Organizers repeatedly stressed that the 4/5/2025 Hands Off protests would be peaceful and non-violent. Respect and tolerance was the organizing message, and the crowd did not disappoint.  At no time did I see any confrontations or disputes of any kind between the 3 Trump supporters and the 1200 gathered in opposition to him.

There is nothing more inspiring than taking action against injustice. Resist MAGA.

Truth

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Truth

Truth

Editor: Another new writer joins the calamitypolitics.com family. Welcome, John Curran. In this piece John asks the same question that many are asking, is the lie going to win out over truth?

By John Curran

What I know is the truth. Now, Heavy D, saying something like that, if you’ve lived, and,  if you really think about it, is quite a statement. It’s like bragging on yourself or something. There are many ways to look at it, to consider a statement like that. Well, I do know it damn it, this blessing and this curse, and, I have known it all my life. Many times during that period I have had to shortchange that knowledge, play the game as were, the fake game, just to get on down the road. Yeah man we all know what that statement entails, just to get on down the road. We play it all the time-this charade, it’s number 1, the new monopoly. And the trick, the way I see it, is to never lose sight of what it actually is, it being often in fact so far from any Truth that it is a joke, an inside sort of job, that a lot of folks get lost in and never come out. One gets too deep, too comfy. It, so to speak, works. It’s when it doesn’t work that is when you can see a lot more clearly just what it really is, the real Hurly Burly and if ya like it Baby, like it really really is, then this becomes the funniest joke of all, the recognition, the admission of what really is Truth. It’s hard to look at. Truth hurts. So get on with that lie. It can be very effective. It can paint a picture that is so horrible that it could, metaphorically speaking of course, incite actual mob violence. Or, does that seem too strange, to be real; too strange to give credence to? Beware, I kid you not. So, the Truth, when it’s all ya got to save your ass, ya finally realize, this is one damn thing we just cannot lose.

Let’s Get Off the Couch

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Let’s Get Off the Couch

Let’s Get Off the Couch

By D. S. Mitchell 

 

One to the Solar Plexus

Trump’s 2024 election victory hit me like a Mac truck. I wasn’t just physically devastated; I was psychologically traumatized. All those rallies, all those meetings, all those phone calls, all those yard signs, all those donations; all for nothing. Quite truthfully, that first week after the election I huddled on the couch with my Teddy, a soft blankie, and a fifth of Johnnie Walker within easy reach. What now? I worried.

BS and Bluster

I didn’t have to wait long for my answer. It’s clear, Trump’s solution to high meat and egg prices is to seize Greenland, annex Canada, institute tariffs on our two biggest trading partners Mexico and Canada, send American troops to secure the Panama Canal, from what we are not sure of, and then Trump’s desire to take over Gaza from Israel. With billions in investment capital and an army of bulldozers Trump states he will turn the rubble of Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Of course the displacement of the 2.14 million Palestinians is illegal and Trump himself admits that  U.S. military intervention may be required. Before the uproar over that absurdity quieted down, Trump told Ukrainians that they needed to be ready to guarantee the supply of more rare earth metals in exchange for our continued support in their fight against Putin.

Google On

Until this week, lawmakers, even Democrats, have been telling us to please just relax, Trump won’t be able to do any of these things; it’s just the old guy hyping the unpredictable and outrageous to keep us all off balance and unsure of what to do in response to his reckless disregard for our laws and our institutions. Well, Google took him seriously, and so have the oligarchs in waiting. Google announced it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The richest people in the country are lining up to give financial support to the Orange One. Talk about bending the knee and kissing the ring. What I’d say, we have here is bending of the knee and kissing the ass. I don’t think we have time to sit back and wait, they are moving through the government departments with a wrecking ball.

Critical Action

Get up off the couch, drop the Teddy, put the bottle of Johnnie Walker down and start calling your friends and neighbors. It’s up to us to form an effective response to Trump’s lawless approach to government. Let’s get moving, we have a democracy to save.

25 Ways to Repurpose those Trump Tickets

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25 Ways to Repurpose . . .

                  those Trump Inaugural Tickets 

 

Trump’s Wooden Nickel Grift Continues 

Editor: Like with all things; Trump has sold a large group of Americans on his endless grift-Trump University, Trump Steaks, Mugshot T-shirts, Trump Bibles, and of course now the infamous ‘souvenir’ inaugural tickets. What follows are a few good ideas from our friend Cate Hessel on how to best deal with those commemorative tickets.

By Cate Rees-Hessel

Because the Trump inaugural was moved indoors the tickets for the much larger outdoor venue previously scheduled were not honored, and the Trump reps suggested that the holders of the cancelled event tickets should consider the worthless tickets as  “commemorative” souvenirs.  Well, well, well. No surprise there.  I have come up with a few ideas on how to utilize them, other than the obvious “stick them where the sun fails to shine.” Another example of how “The Donald” treats his followers. Just ask the cops how they feel about the pardoning of nearly 1600 January 6th rioters, many of whom had pleaded guilty to beating, tazing, and spraying the police with pepper spray and other noxious products. Back to the commemorative tickets, to be quite honest, I simply can’t understand why anyone would have wasted their money on those damn tickets; they were worthless to begin with, because who would want to attend this farce of inauguration. So read on if you possess one of these worthless mementos, or if you are just interested in various methods of repurposing them…

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