AMillionCopies

/2 Comments/in /by

This letter is especially to you, specifically to you.

Today (Saturday, March 22, 2025) is the second day of Spring in Minnesota, and Day 61 of the first 100 days since the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States.

Today, it is increasingly evident that the citizenry of the U.S. is beginning to  act against what we are seeing happening at the highest levels in this country of ours.  So I’m scrapping most of what I planned to say, and will include some links which you may find useful.  Possibly I’ll include the rough draft of what I was going to say.  If so, it will be at the very end.

*

AMillionCopies?  “AMillionCopies” is a website I put up in March of 2008, which still exists with basic content unchanged; a tribute to two personal citizen heroes with a few links to groups I support.  It will take only a few seconds to scroll through.  Do take a look.  The site came to mind a week ago when I overheard two apparently old friends reconnecting at my coffee place.  They seemed in synch with me, and one of them was talking about what she heard was a “million postcard” campaign bubbling up somewhere.  It brought my website to mind. Here’s the song that motivated me then, and still does.

I have a second personal website which goes back to 2002 which has a peace and justice component: chez-nous.net/peace-justice. It, also, takes only seconds to scroll through, though there is more if you are interested.  Ironically, the first story on the page, written in 2005 was about Red Lake MN, and refers to the place and the tragic event that is the front page story in today’s Minnesota Star Tribune.

Pertinent recent blog posts:

Social Security March 13

Department of Education March 11

Back in 2008 I did a series of short essays I called “Uncomfortable Essays to the Peace, Justice… Communities“.   For you, if you wish.

*

The final item today is reference to a fascinating four-part program I saw on public television this week.

James J. Hill

The last few days I’ve had the good fortune of learning about and watching the four episodes on the life of James J. Hill.   HERE is the link to the four episodes.  The series is about four hours, so plan accordingly.  I think you’ll find it very engaging.

Hill was born 1838, a farm kid in what is now rural Guelph Ontario; and from 1856 till his death in 1916, St. Paul MN was his home.

If you have any interest in history, particularly if your personal history includes the midwest or northwest United States, you’ll want to carve out the time to watch this.

POSTNOTE: At the beginning of the 100 days on January 20, 2025, I doubt any of us could have accurately predicted the chaos and confusion that has followed.  There are 39 days to go.  I’m not sure if or how I’ll modify my habits at this space.  Absolutely I will stay in action, and I hope you will as well.  If we lose our democracy in any way, we have lost it all for our future.  Keep on, keeping on.

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Brad: thank you for the links.  I really enjoyed the “American Indian Story” on your Peace & Justice site. It is so true, and I have to agree.  I’ve recognized similar internal conflicts with a few of my Trump-based family members.  Unfortunately, losing contact and communication with one brother is the result.  I try to forgive but it is very hard to do.

The Jim Hill history doc was great too, and had a familiar Collette immigration feel/work ethic to it.  Another interesting fact was about Hill’s protestant and catholic mixed marriage, which along with divorce, were taboo to many Americans.  My father was born a Catholic Collette, my mother an Episcopalian, and both had family issues getting married in 1947.  Luckily, a compromise was made with their parents/in-laws requiring all children to be baptized in a Catholic church, and future upbringing would be in the Episcopal church.  There is hope, and glad that the good wolf was fed!

response from Dick:  Religion was not a neutral issue in the old days.  Today’s tension is an outgrowth of ages old even worse tensions, which we probably can all quite easily recite – at least our portions of them.  I recall a visit with an older woman who lived near my Busch relatives in LaMoure County ND.  She said she really didn’t know the family.  They were Catholic and hers were Lutheran.  The distance was intentional, she said.  The worry was both ways: what if one got interested in one from the other and they got married.  It was as much a market share as it was dogma, in my opinion.

from Remi: I recently finished watching “The Empire Builder” and found it fascinating. What an amazing man, full of contradictions; at times so kind and cruel at others. He accomplished so much. The first episode, focusing on St. Paul, particularly captivated me. I learned that Hill built the rail line between St. Paul and Duluth. The series served as an insightful crash course on unbridled, unregulated capitalism. I was impressed with his experiments concerning dry land farming, which my father, his father, and his grandfather practiced. Have you ever been to the James J. Hill Library?

response from Dick: I have been to Hill Library, but not a usual stop.  The Library is in downtown St. Paul very near the Ordway Center, Landmark Center and other very familiar places.  It is open to the public.

The Empire Builder

/0 Comments/in /by

UPDATED MARCH 22, 2025:

The last few days I’ve had the privilege of watching the four episodes on the life of James J. Hill.   HERE is the link to the four episodes. An earlier promotional link about the series can be read here.  The portion about the link to the series there is outdated, bu the other information remains consistent with the program that I saw.

He was born 1838 in what is now rural Guelph Ontario; and from 1856 till his death in 1916, St. Paul MN was his home.

If you have any interest in history, particularly if your personal history includes the midwest or northwest United States, you’ll want to carve out the time to watch this.

Decapitation

/3 Comments/in /by

Why “Decapitation” as a title?  See end.  A dew days ago I responded to someone else’s post as follows: “Outstanding. Now if we all can really believe that we are the ones who will make the difference, one person, one action at a time“.  Barbara K, responded to my response: “Richard, I have posted this Marge Piercy poem here a couple of times, but seems fitting to do so again…thinking of “one person, one action at a time”: The Low Road“. It’s worth your time…

Other recent and related posts: 3/6 Aftermath; 3/7 Garrison Keillor; 3/11 Dept of Education; 3/13 Social Security; 3/15 Acquiesce

*

Today is St, Patrick’s Day.  Five years ago today, a friend and I were going to meet for breakfast, but the restaurant was unexpectedly closed.  I wrote a bit about it a few days ago in an update to the March 6 post, “Aftermath”.  Here’s what I said:

UPDATE March 9, 2025:  Five years ago, mid-March, 2020, my ‘world’ changed: I think it was March 18, 2020, that public functions in Minnesota closed by state order.  (I had planned to meet a friend for breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, but the restaurant closed early, and unexpectedly, the previous day.)  As any of us around at that time in history know,  mid-February to mid-March, 2020, was the time of reckoning about Covid-19, for even the most skeptical.  Death was loose among us.  It wasn’t until more than a year later, about May, 2021,  that there was some confidence that we were past the worst of the pandemic and life slowly returned to normal.

[emphasis added] This morning, March 9, 2025, I feel the same as I felt in mid-February, 2020.  Something ominous seems to be on the horizon, and slowly but surely the warning signals are being sent.  Will we listen, is the question I have.  Are we facing a self-imposed political and financial pandemic which will claim lots of victims?  I don’t know, neither do you, but I’m certainly paying attention.

Below is an opportunity to consider what we’re facing at this moment in our history.

Yesterday, a good friend of long-standing, a retired Professor, forwarded a post that came her way from Facebook about what I would call the “Musk faction” presently dominating the American government conversation.

The ‘meat’ of the post, begins at the paragraph which begins “Finally…”.  I have made it more easily readable in pdf form: Follow the Money Feb 9 2025.  I urge you to read this.  Make up your own mind.  Of course, your comments public or private are welcome.

(If you have a Facebook account the entire post from Feb 9, 2025 – one month ago – is likely still accessible here.)

*

Of course, all of our routines changed about March 17, 202o, and for a long period of time after.  Everyone has his or her own memories of the impacts of that awful time period which ultimately took over 1,000,000 lives and scarred us in assorted ways forever.

Today, March 17, 2025, I plan to have breakfast with the same friend at the same restaurant, five years later.  The hi-lited paragraph, above, will be on my mind as it has been for some time already, and will continue to be on my mind, by my count 56 days into “the first 100 days” of what is turning out to be the attempted reign of King Donald the First….

I headline this post Decapitation for a specific reason: The obvious intention, it seems to me, is for the Donald Cabal to behead the beast they fallaciously call “the Deep State”, which is everyone of us, and in so doing assume control of the enterprise (which will suddenly become a paradise built in their own image).

The best definition I’ve seen of what we are all facing today was shared with me by a former adversary, then colleague, in 1987.  It was a collection of tactics he had learned in a 1974 organizing workshop in Michigan.  Here it is, from his notes: “P.R. everything. – disrupt – confuse – challenge – display anger.”  There were more similar notes, in all on one side of a single sheet of paper,   The rest are here, if you wish: AFT Organizing Tactics001.  (Don’t get lost in the terminology.  This was about bargaining elections pitting one teachers union against another.  The two competing organizations merged in 1998 and are now known as Education Minnesota.)

I learned of these tactics 13 years after they were used against us.  Then, we saved our scalp by a “Hail Mary”.  We decided to go on the offense, rather than chase the bouncing ball of one charge after another.  In the end, we won a large election easily, but we were nervous till the votes were counted.

The solution today, it seems to me, is for us to exercise the immense power that we have – the 75 million of us who didn’t want the present alternative.  We are, after all, the body which the opposition is trying to kill.  We have a huge amount of unrealized potential, which only we, as individuals, can unleash, one action at a time.  The ball is in our court.  Period.

Have a good St. Patrick’s Day and go to work for a great future.

About as close as I can get to a Shamrock for St. Pat’s from the Busch farm early 1900s collection.

“Acquiesce”?

/0 Comments/in /by

The Saturday Minnesota Star Tribune main headline was clear enough: “Dems acquiesce to prevent shutdown“.

Anyone who follows national news has read/heard all about it, so no need to go into detail.

Elsewhere on the front page were other headlines “U approves limits on faculty speech…Resolution gives president broad control over communications”; “So why the big turnout on Tuesday” in a local legislative special election; “After Park Tavern crash, bills target DWI offenders“; “Witness doesn’t back high meal counts in fraud trial“.

All of these relate to “government”.  The only one I want to comment on is the first one, about the continuing resolution vote around the federal budget.

It is hardly secret that we in the U.S. are in a constant state of war these days.  It is not “war” in the traditional sense, such as WWII, or Iraq or such.  It is totally an internal matter, citizen versus citizen; who has the power, who has less; fights over strategy and tactics, most of which the general public doesn’t understand in any context, other than in casual conversation usually with people they agree with (in war, you don’t talk with the enemy).

To the immediate issue, the front page headline, I tend to empathize with Democratic leader Schumer and the 9 other Democrats who made a decision to back the C.R. vote.

Like everyone else, all I know is what I hear or read at a distance.  I’m not privy to the nuance of conversations among ‘combatants’ on the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ side.  It is a deadly serious game, with long-term consequences.  There is a need for a cool head who’s willing to take the heat, regardless of the risk.  And I give Senator Schumer that respect.

It is not unusual in our hierarchical human race for leaders to face such dilemmas.

At the end of WWII, Harry Truman became President coincident with the last weeks of the war in Europe; and was the one who had to make the decision about whether or not to use the Bomb against Japan in August 1945.  As the sign said on the Resolute Desk, “The Buck Stops Here”.

In June, 1944, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower was the one holding the bag on whether or not with respect to D-Day.  The outcome was not at all sure, to the extent that he penned a note prior to the invasion taking full responsibility in case it failed.    Here for more information.

Of course, there are infinite other examples in the history of every society ever.

Fast forward to today, we are engaged in a Civil War within our own nation, where the weapons are words and division of citizens into warring camps.

We are seeing the results of division; and hopefully those who follow us will not reap the consequences of current actions.  What happens is up to us as individuals.  This is no time to stay on the sidelines.

 

Social Security A bit of history…et al

/0 Comments/in /by

PRENOTE: If you think what is happening, won’t happen, or can’t happen, read this at your leisure.

It seems a good time to remember Social Security by re-presenting some history through some brief personal recollections, as well as some documentary ‘evidence’ as provided to a covered worker – myself – in 1992 and 2001.

It will be a national tragedy if Social Security and other safety net federal initiatives, all of very long standing, are tampered with, as is the active threat presently on the table.  Resist.  (I’m talking about other programs as well, like Medicaid, education funding through the Department of Education, etc., etc., etc.  Taking a chain saw to government might be a fun conversation; watch it change if actually implemented, including by those who were cheerleaders for it.  Everybody will be a victim.

My grandfather Bernard turned 65 on Feb. 26, 1937.  The Act was passed in 1935; the first social security benefits were paid in 1937; the first actual social security monthly check was issued in 1940 (ironically, the year I was born).

Grandpa likely paid nothing into the fund, and drew on it till his death in 1957.  He had been chief engineer in a flour mill for many years, and by the standards of the time would have been middle class.  The Mill closed in 1927, and in the same month the bank in which the family had their savings went under (apparently the two events were not related) but so much for retirement benefits for the family.  It was a double whammy for my Dad, who graduated from high school the same month, and his plans to go to University went under as well.

Personally, my venture into the social security world began with (apparently) four hours of work at $1.00 an hour in the summer of 1958,  It was moving dirt by wheelbarrow for an under construction church.  It was there I decided to start summer school in college, which seemed a better deal than being common labor!  A photo of my original Social Security card is below.  If memory serves, it was then issued perhaps at age 18, similar to registering for the Military Draft.  A rite of passage, as it were.

Thereafter, as laid out in the linked documents (below), came a pretty normal work life with a couple of dips.  Later in my work life, my wages exceeded by a small amount the maximum on which social security and Medicare were withheld.  Which is to say, I was at the upper edge of normal at the time I retired in 2000.  “Normal” was not wealthy.

In all these many years, I have never had reason to find fault with the program or the administration of it.  Basically, the personal contact has simply been person-to-person.  The ‘hiccups’ have been minor and rare.

So, that’s my narrative.  The following sheets you may find of interest.

Social Security History from SSA website

Social Security Facts ca 2004 Actuary

Here are two documents of my personal history.  “Back in the day” each year we would receive in the U.S. mail these annual reports on the state of our account.  Today, everything is virtual, which is a caution in itself.  If you want a record, print it out.  How to access information is accessible here.

Social Security 1992

Social Security 2001

Department of Education

/0 Comments/in /by

PRENOTE: Most of this post was written before the forced evacuation of the Department of Education.  I knew no details.  At some point I will file a second, dated, postnote.

*

Today began the ritual “killing” of the U.S. Department of Education, established as a separate department of the Government in 1980, and now 65 years old.   Of course, the department is not yet officially dead, but has about the same status as USAID did a few weeks ago.

There is a great deal more to be said.  Public Education has been central to my entire life.  For the moment I just want to keep this day as a place holder for public education and all of the students, parents and educators it represents, many, many millions.

As of March 12, 2025, a quick internet search indicated that total enrollment in public schools though grade 12 was 49.6 million children.  This data from National Center for Educational Statistics, an official website of the United States Government.  Look quickly while you still have a chance….  The current population of the United States is estimated as just over 340,000,000.  About one of 7 Americans are students in public schools, almost 100% of them too young to vote and thus unable to choose their representatives.  Millions more are pre-school age.  They are in every nook and cranny of the United States of America.  Public Education is a legacy of our forefathers and mothers.

I have often identified myself as a literal child of public education from tiny towns in North Dakota.  My Junior Year in high school was in a school with two seniors.

Entire high School Antelope ND 1957, Richard front row center

The school photo was taken in a single classroom and grade 9-12 was less than 30 students.  There were two teachers: one was my Dad.

In eighth grade, Mom was my teacher, and my then 5 year old brother spent his day in the grade 7-8 classroom with us.  At least half of my school years we lived in a house called a teacherage, near the school.  I suppose it was a ‘fringe benefit’ – at least it was a place to live.  I have often called myself the child of migrant workers since we moved often.  Teachers had minimal rights.  My parents were excellent teachers.  In the current day, all five of their children have at minimum bachelors degrees, as did they.

Three aunts and two uncles were public school teachers.  I taught and represented teachers for 36 years.  Two daughters are teachers, one a long-time middle school principal; the other junior high age special education.

On and on….

In no way would I be considered a mover and shaker in public education.  The best I could say for myself is that I showed up.  I am like the vast majority of persons in the world.  The ones who make a civilized world possible.

My closest brush to fame, I suppose, was in January, 1980, when I was with a group of teacher reps in the Cabinet Room of President Carter in Washington DC.  There were fewer than ten of us, and we were there to be briefed on issues.  I wish I would have kept the folder.  A few months later Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet Level Department.  Previously it had been part of Health and Human Services.

Today it is in transition, possibly elimination.  Here is the current website as of today (I cannot guarantee that this will be unchanged tomorrow, next week, next month.  Take a quick look.

POSTNOTE:

Life goes on, of course.  For me, kids, step kids, grandkids, on and on.

A couple of months ago I asked my siblings, all younger than I, to send photos of their first post high school (adult) endeavors.  For us, the time range I chose was from my high school graduation (1958) through my youngest siblings college graduation (1970).  In other words, we hit the ground running in the 1960s, all of us.

Without going into detail: I spent my first two post-college years in the U.S. Army, Cuban Missile Crisis on my watch in 1962.  Then I became a junior high school teacher; Mary became a Nurse, and the 1960s included public health nursing in Washington DC, and two tours on the Hospital Ship Hope.  Flo gave two years to the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, thence a year of teaching, thence County Extension work (4-H and such).  Frank and John graduate college as Air Force officers, Southeast Asia on their plate.  They both retired as Air Force officers.

There you have it.  All of us were government employees in our younger days, a couple for long careers.  We were young, then.

It was the 1960s.  Is it time for a reprise?

POSTSCRIPT: I have noted earlier that there is an immense array of issues to be addressed, and the best I think any of us can do is to address a few and become cooperating activists with others on their issues.

Because of relevant background, Education is a big deal for me; so is Social Security and a few others.  These I can write about with more than small knowledge.  And I can share the thoughts with people like yourself.

Results come in small increments, often seemingly invisible, like the parable of grains of sand, or mustard seeds….  We’ll wait forever for the viral moments.  Best we use the time we have, productively.

Dick Bernard, January, 1980 White House, Washington DC.  A few months later a Cabinet level for Education was established.

POSTNOTE #2 added March 20, 2025:  This week  I sent a letter plus attachments to my local school board.  You can read it here: School Board from Dick 3 18 25  (The clip from the NEA Today newspaper is October, 1999)

An excellent, troubling, post from Joyce Vance on March 20, 2025, here.

 

Garrison Keillor

/1 Comment/in /by

This has been a very long week.  I want to give a prelude to my own summary, by offering some observations by Garrison Keillor, who I first became acquainted with in 1977.  Keillor’s two most recent columns are here and here.

I have a long affinity for Keillor’s work, beginning with the first time I saw him in person at a local college in the days before he became famous.  In those days, you could walk in off the street and there was plenty of seating, and the likes of the Powder Milk Biscuit band were just beginning to evolve.  I think he became a national item in about 1981, and the rest is history.

The first picture I have of him is at St. John’s University at the Swayed Pines Festival in 1979.  I took the photo.  He’s the long lanky guy and the dark beard.  (He talks about these years in the referenced columns)

Garrison Keillor at St. John’s University Swayed Pines Festival April, 1979

At some point I was searching for something else in the musty archival stacks of the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota and inadvertently came across a bunch of student literary magazines, The Ivory Tower.  Among the old publications were two, including two 1965 commentaries on hockey by Garrison Keillor, then a Senior at the UofM.  This week is hockey state tournament week in Minnesota, and in recognition, I offer the two essays by Keillor.  You’ll see the talent.  Keillor Ivory Tower 1965001.  Whether you’re a hockey nut or not, you’ll find these articles to be truly vintage Keillor.

October 23, 2010 University of Minnesota Garrison Keillor at center with daughter, attending talk by President Obama.

Please take time: “This has been a very long week.  I want to give a prelude to my own summary”  (post for March 6, 2025)

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Jeff: I always enjoy the yearly [Minnesota] State High School Hockey Tournament.  It remains the best high school tournament in any sport in the nation.  I also find the quality of the hockey at this level unparalleled in the USA, and it seems to get better every year.  (about 5 years ago I watched a game or two of the Wisconsin State High School tournament where the talent level paled in comparison to here, the winner was Superior High School, which is de facto part of Minnesota anyway)

Thanks for the Keillor articles, have to save and read later….and send to a friend.

from Larry: Thank you, Dick, for the GK piece. I read and l listen to his free columns but I see you subscribe. I should. Keillor has been a source of inspiration for me since his first MPR broadcast in 1974. That’s when I bought an FM radio for the living room. Listened each week and taped a sizable number of shows until I recorded them on CDs. He still hasn’t lost the touch. We were and still are contemporaries. He was at the U of M when I was there. I didn’t know him. He worked at KUOM, the student station, and I was the late night and all night on the weekends DJ at 50,000 watt KSTP. Had I known more about the Great American Songbook and life itself, I could have done a much better job at KSTP. I wasn’t experienced enough, in my own mind, but I earned a “voluntary quit” slip from Hubbard Broadcasting when I left in ’64 to get married and return to ND, turning to a different side of broadcasting. Which, as I write my history, was a good decision, although far less “glamorous” than staying with an on-air position I earned at a broadcast station in the 13th market nationally.  Thanks for the piece. Stimulated lots of memories, Dick.  LG

 

Aftermath

/3 Comments/in /by

Today was day 45 of the first 100 days….  The dump has just begun.  The perpetrators can say, “don’t blame us. You were warned”.  But the first reaction is like being dumped on by an avalanche, or mud slide, or hit by a tsunami, earthquake or wildfire.  Until it happens, you don’t really expect it, and when it hits, panic sets in and nobody knows what to do.  Those who voted for this, or didn’t vote at all, were fools.  And we’re all stuck with the results.

This is the unfortunate reality.  The fortunate part of that is that the vast majority of those in the path of this looming catastrophe are survivors thus far, and we can react and we can respond, and the only question is, will we get off our duffs and attack this head on as long as we need to.  The time for sitting back is over.

*

I watched the entirety of the “show” in Congress on Mardi Gras evening, and the 10 minutes response by Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin afterwards.  Then the snow began, and we were snowed in all of Ash Wednesday, not plowed out till Wednesday night.

I have one recommendation: Give Senator Slotkin 10 minutes of your time.  Here is the YouTube link as recorded by Associated Press.  Here’s the link to two earlier posts on this topic.  [March 7, 2025: here is a crucial post received this morning, Thinking About by Timothy Snyder, “Antisemitism in the Oval Office”].

Here’s how I saw the speech, at least through the doodle on my note pad, which had scarcely any notes of the verbiage – there was nothing new.  Some psychologist can uncover some deep meaning – have at it.  Suffice to say I did not leave the speech feeling any optimism for the future, if this holds.

9-11-01 marked my entrance into the then-mysterious world of e-networks.  This post is 24 1/2 years after the first group e-mail, and over 4,000 posts at this space in this tiny corner of the internet.  I’m aware of the potential and largely unrealized ability of the 75 million of us who sought a different result on Nov. 5, 2024.

Here are the responses following the March 3 post.  Feel welcome to add yours.

from Flo: We watched the program from begining to end. Trump is a total jerk! Wish the DFL [Democrats] would have been more visible.

from Mary:  I am so in awe of those of you who had the stomach to watch from beginning to end.  24/7 TV and Radio being what they are I doubt that I will miss anything and that much exposure to highness would surely send me to a therapist.

BTW, making chili today, I casually inventoried my bean supply and it comes from Canada.  I also noted that the tomato sauces come from Canada.  The vegetables that I get at Aldis came from California and Mexico.  My peanut butter comes from-who knows- the label just admits to a distribution center in North Carolina.
My car was in for recall work today and the fuel pump which has been on order for 8 months finally arrived – from China!
As an aside, I was part of a discussion group last night at the local library and was uncomfortably appalled at a participant who stated that there was no poverty in America.
We have some serious work to do!
Have a good week!


from Carlo:  We do not need to act like frightened children. We have the power to stop this Chaos. It is time to ask our representatives to do their jobs.

Following are the things that a president can and cannot do:
The Constitution limits what a president can do in several ways, including:
Making laws:
Congress has the power to make laws, not the president.
Declaring war: Congress has the power to declare war, not the president.
Overturning laws: Congress has the power to overturn laws, not the president.
Taking over powers from other branches:
The president cannot take over powers from other branches, such as Congress or the courts.
Sidestepping checks and balances:
The president cannot use executive orders to sidestep checks and balances.
The Constitution also limits the president in other ways, including:
The president can veto specific legislative acts, but Congress can override vetoes with a two-thirds majority.
The Senate advises and consents on key executive and judicial appointments.
The Senate approves or ratifies treaties.
The president can be removed from office through impeachment and conviction for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Please share.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Republicans are again upsetting the American people with their Save ACT, where married women are going to be going to be required to produce their birth certificate to vote. THAT IS ABSOLUTE NONSENSE.

The 19th Amendment, passed on June 4, 1919, gave women the right to vote. No ifs, ands or buts, no conditions.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mr. Trump’s discussion about Canada becoming the 51st State is nonsense. The conditions regarding statehood are spelled out in the Admissions Clause of the US Constitution. Those conditions do not exist and are highly unlikely to exist anytime in the future.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One thing I do not understand is why our representatives didn’t start the process of amending the constitution regarding qualifications for a person to run for president in 2020. The constitution states that a person must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years of age, and have lived in the United States for 14 years. That’s it!  I feel some additional requirements are needed. For example, a person cannot be a felon, convicted of fraud, have bankruptcies, be indicted, participate in an insurrection, etc.

Amending the Constitution is not an easy process. It takes a 2/3 vote of the United States House of Representatives, a 2/3 vote of the US Senate, and a 3/4 vote of the states to ratify an amendment. The president is not involved at all except to sign it into law.

I remember debating whether 18-year-olds should have the right to vote when I was in the eighth grade, and I believe that was in 1958. It took until July 1, 1971, for the ratification of the 26th Amendment, when 18-year-olds gained the right to vote. I was told that that was the fastest-passing amendment in our history. I haven’t verified that, but that’s what I was told.

In my opinion, it’s time for us to update the constitution, and this is as good a time as any.

And I would like to state that we shouldn’t be afraid; we have the tools and just have to use them.


from John:  You guys are made of sterner stuff than I am. I watched exactly 0 minutes of it – I didn’t wanna watch another campaign rally diatribe– turns out it was apparently an hour and a half of disjointed discourse.

Not sure where we as a country go from here – I’m just hoping that there are at least four Republican moderate congressman, and at least two moderate Republican senators that will somehow grow the courage to stand up to the more obvious BS -and the undoubtedly worst stuff that is going on behind the scenes


from Jeff:  “To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!” Trump said Monday on social media.

Trump, and I suspect many of his advisors  have no idea whatsoever how the markets

are structured on agri products….that a huge portion of the production of soy and corn
is exported because there isnt a market for it here. Not to mention special crops like pulses like peas for instance…..or cotton, or sorghum…..not to mention that USAID/Food for Peace also is a big market for the above and their byproducts and milled products.
how will farmers be able to change planting plans and rotations….not to mention the falling market prices for just about everything then….
Farmers, most of whom voted for Trump, are in for some big surprises if this all goes thru.   At this point even I think none of it will…except the china stuff, as the stock markets are turning bearish mainly because of the chaos and uncertainty….
I suppose he could mandate all cars be made to accept 25% ethanol in gas…but that wont make his oil donors very happy….nor will it help mpg in any car,
deep thinkers. (Trump and MAGA, and the farmer voters who went for him)

from Dick:  Am I disappointed that only a few people shared responses?  Not at all.  I’m very much aware of how numbers work, from long experience.  If you didn’t respond, you know how you feel, and how you feel can be transplanted into action, which was the essence of Senator Slatkin’s 10 minute response to Tuesday night.

I’ve had a long-time analogy about our body politic – all of us – generally, which increasingly been intentionally divided into ever more polarized appearing left and right ‘wings’.  I compare our body to a magnificent American Eagle, which to function at all has to have an entire functioning body.  An Eagle with only a right wing, is not an eagle in any sense of the word, regardless of the strength of the rest of the body and control of the head.  Eliminate or minimize the other wing or any of other parts or their effect, and the Eagle is dead.

 

Eagle at the Mississippi River near Hastings MN (at old Nininger) April 6, 2021 photo Dick Bernard


Even more important, now, is the fantasy of the bubble of, for instance, a divided Congress, executive and judicial such as we witness every day.  Using the same body analogy, let’s say the body has a serious malady of any sort invading other organs – a cancer as it were.  It is a fantasy world that, in the political example, a stronger Right (the winning body) can eliminate an apparently minority Left (cancer) (or vice versa), when there is a left wing everywhere in this nation and world.

We are all stuck in the world and country and state and town and neighborhood together.  What are we to do when faced with an endless array of issues clumped together to get a ‘shock and awe’ effect – far too much to handle?  My suggestion, which I’m trying to follow myself, pick the issues closest to you and do everything you can to make policy makers and others aware of them.  There are 75 million of us…an immense reserve of power IF we choose to exercise the power for good.

The earlier those who seek to control the other learn this, the better for all of us.  Will they learn?  The rest of us have to teach them the hard lesson by not acquiescing.

*
A final thought: there is absolutely no question in my mind that the current struggle for control is between the ultra wealthy and the vast majority who are the rest of us.  The primary legislative focus is to make permanent the tax cuts for the ultra wealthy who already control most of the wealth in our country.  What they demand is what they want, not what they need, and the expectation is that we pay the bill, through cuts in services we need, or through massive increases in debt which we will have to pay for in the long run.  It is a losing proposition for everyone.

A single example: a narrative is that Social Security is at risk.  Musk called it, recently and falsely, a “Ponzi scheme”.  Social Security is financed by withholding (paying premiums, in effect) by withholding a portion of earned income for Social Security and Medicare.  There is a ceiling on the obligation to pay premiums, which is very low for the very rich.   Here is the explanation of the obligation to the benefit by the rich.

This fits in with the obsession with “Woke”,  term endlessly and worthlessly thrown around.  I had occasion to come across a brief definition of “woke” not long ago.  It is presented here.Woke from Barbara Holmes.  Dr. Holmes is a person with credentials.  Read a bit about her here.

UPDATE March 9, 2025:  Five years ago, mid-March, 2020, my ‘world’ changed: I think it was March 18, 2020, that public functions in Minnesota closed by state order.  (I had planned to meet a friend for breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, but the restaurant closed early, and unexpectedly, the previous day.)  As any of us around at that time in history know,  mid-February to mid-March, 2020, was the time of reckoning about Covid-19, for even the most skeptical.  Death was loose among us.  It wasn’t until more than a year later, about May, 2021,  that there was some confidence that we were past the worst of the pandemic and life slowly returned to normal.

This morning, March 9, 2025, I feel the same as I felt in mid-February, 2020.  Something ominous seems to be on the horizon, and slowly but surely the warning signals are being sent.  Will we listen, is the question I have.  Are we facing a self-imposed political and financial pandemic which will claim lots of victims?  I don’t know, neither do you, but I’m certainly paying attention.

Below is an opportunity to consider what we’re facing at this moment in our history.

Yesterday, a good friend of long-standing, a retired Professor, forwarded a post that came her way from Facebook about what I would call the “Musk faction” presently dominating the American government conversation.

The ‘meat’ of the post, begins at the paragraph which begins “Finally…”.  I have made it more easily readable in pdf form: Follow the Money Feb 9 2025.  I urge you to read this.  Make up your own mind.  Of course, your comments public or private are welcome.

(If you have a Facebook account the entire post from Feb 9, 2025 – one month ago – is likely still accessible here.)

Respect and Perspective

/2 Comments/in /by

10:40 p.m. March 4, 2025: I watched it all, near two hours, of #47’s speech to Congress; and then the approximately 10 minute Democrat response of Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.  There is nothing new in the President’s script.  Sen. Slatkin’s response is on-line here, take the time to watch and listen, and especially make note of her three recommendations.

*

Also, March 1, here

Friday was the shameful ambush of Ukraine President Zelinskyy in the Oval Office at the White House.  It was a shameless rampage of bullies in my House but not in my name.  Nonetheless, all of us are tarnished by the spectacle of a few brutes.

Tomorrow night the President speaks to a joint session of the U.S. Congress and Senate.  I will write a short note to my Congresswoman and my two Senators today.  The message will be brief, and it is my position on this matter (FYI my Senators and Congresswoman are all Democrats):

“I strongly support Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people.  I also support freedom of speech, though a prime ethic learned almost from the cradle is to value the truth, a commodity in very short supply these days of mis- and dis-information.  I will do all I can as an individual; all I ask is your public witness in support of Ukraine.”

Here is a photo of the Ukraine student delegation as they arrived in Minneapolis in August 17, 2023.  I can’t attribute the source, someone sent it to me.   I saw these students at another setting on August 22 – they speak for themselves.

We will be absolutely awash in “information” this week, as always.  I put the word in quotations, since it is a fool’s errand to find truth among pious pronouncements.

Yesterday, looking for something else, I found some newspaper items from June, 2023, a couple of months before these students arrived in Minneapolis. The pdf is a dozen pages and includes at least 7 letters to the editor by citizens with varied points of view.  Here it is: Ukraine Star Tribune June 2023.  I know several of the writers.  And I have had more than a casual acquaintance with one of the organizations mentioned.  It may assist you in your own personal positioning.

But that is irrelevant to this conversation.

About all I ask is that we demand that our democracy continues, rather than ends in a trash heap as is now becoming more and more apparent.  The task isn’t an easy one, but as I’ve said before, there are at least 75 million of us who marked our ballot for an alternative vision; and certainly among the 77 million who voted differently, and 90 million who didn’t vote at all, there are some who would feel differently if there was a do over of November 5, 2024.

August of 2023, I was invited to say a few words to the entire assembled group.  All that I recall. saying for certain was “Slava Ukraini“.  The kids understood.  Last night someone uttered the same during the annual Oscars program.

PERSONALLY, I have been more than moderately involved in issues of peace and justice for many years, most especially since the tragedy of 9-11-01 where I felt our countries reaction – essentially vengeance – was not in our long term interest.

My personal bent is towards peace and justice.  At the same time, I come from a very long background of military service, including my own, and a grandson who’s a present day Marine.  It would be nice to live in a perfect world of peace and justice, but this has never been part of the human condition.  There is always a new generation of despots who feel like they’ve figured out how to beat the system, which never works, but that makes no difference.  One leaves and another follows.  So the work is endless.  Democracy, which is messy, is far better that the varieties of dictatorship that inflict us, including in the present day.  I prefer the mess of Democracy, where people of differing points of view try to work things out.  That was helpful in my career representing public school teachers.

POSTSCRIPT: Check back at this space probably Thursday, March 6, for post-Tuesday evening thoughts.  I solicit yours as well.

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from an American for March 3 is important reading, I feel.  Also, Paul Krugman on Canada.

COMMENTS:

from Stephen: The Kremlin addresses Congress tonight

from Fred, from a conservative who went to Cuba in 1959:  In the end, I don’t want my tax money going to any foreign leader more deferential than Zelensky to high political mucketymucks who negotiate over his head with aggressors. The US needs fierce and fearless allies, not lackeys. If the Oval Office conference didn’t go as expected, where does the fault lie — with the master negotiator who wrote The Art of the Deal, or the comedian-turned-warrior who refused helicopter evacuation and demanded ammunition?

I’m glad I happen to be reading Russia just at the time of the Zelensky-Trump crisis.  It goes far to explain the world Z grew up in and inhabits, the relentlessness and inhumanity of the juggernaut he has been withstanding for three years now, and the difficulty or impossibility of getting business-oriented dealmaking Americans to understand it.  The incommensurability is summarized in the absurd numbers of people convicting Z of “disrespect” for coming to meet Trump wearing the green track suit that has been his trademark since February 24, 2022.  Sixty-five years ago Castro came to DC in his signature fatigues and nobody had a problem:

 

 .
Fidel Castro in Washington DC 65 years ago.  This was about the time of the Cuban Revolution, and before Castro became enemy of the U.S..  Note the dress.  Fred, who sent the above quote from his friend, made this comment about the photo: “You also might want to look at Fidel Castro in fatigues on his visit to the US. No hubbub for Fidel on clothing choice.“

In the junk at my grandparents North Dakota farm I found a college text, “A History of Latin America” by Prof Hubert Herring, Second Edition Revised, 1961, Alfred  Knopf.  The last paragraph of the chapter on Cuba said this at page 422: “Reflecting upon the sorry state of Cuba in 1960, the onlooker could say that two things are reasonably clear: Cuba was indeed overdue for a revolution, and revolutions are never mild and gentlemanly.”  Anyone with even a small interest in history and seniority in life, knows why Herring wrote that last sentence about the time preceding his revision; and what happened the next year and what we’ve caused to endure for the following 64 years….


from Jeff: the whole thing is like a performance… I mean the presidency…he trashes Zelensky, the Brits and French, tells Zelensky he has to make up somehow, now comes the news the mineral deal may be back on and Trump may be touting it tonight and of course telling the world his rude shit provoked the Zelensky kneeling….


Today the markets sell off again, wiping out all the gains since his election victory …and now comes the rumor that he is considering pausing or doing some carveouts on the 25% tariffs on Mex and Canada……its like crazytown….businesspeople cannot plan for this,
(I remain cynical that hedge fund billionaire donors were privy to the game from Donald and sold the market and have put the buys in already at the bottom as he announces some relief to Mexico and Canada…nothing repeat nothing would surprise me…Teapot Dome is penny ante compared to what he and Musk are doing)
Yes, the politics….the fundamental remains for me that nothing will change till his voters feel the pain….and still they haven’t…they are just enjoying the performance..the  tough guy.

from Stephen to President Zelenskyy: Dear President Zelenskyy,  I am a Vietnam Veteran who co founded Veterans for Peace in the 1980’s, and am now a member of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers who helped host a number of students from your country.  My wife and I have attended many events hearing speakers about your country, especially at the Ukrainian Center in Minneapolis.  We appreciate how our Senator Amy Klobuchar has strongly spoken on behalf of your country.  Having been in combat myself, I know bravery when I see it, and we certainly are witnessing that from your resistance to Putin….thank You …Steve

from Ruth, in Canada: Canadians are pretty angry right now and feeling very anti-American.  I had a Letter to the Editor of the Wpg Free Press saying we should retaliate against Red States and not punish the people who voted Democrat like Minnesota.  Most Canadians don’t know the difference between Red States and Blue States.  We will be retaliating on tariffs, and prices will go up, people lose their jobs and lots of Trump voters will be hurt.  It is so nunecessary.  We know it is hard on Democrats and Trump enemies.  I was disgusted what he did to President Zelenskyy last Friday.  I was watching the press conference in real time.  Mezmerizing!  Horrible!  I am sure you agree.  I think Trump wants to take over Canada and get our resources cheap.  He is damaging our economy and threatening our sovereignty.  Canadians are refusing to travel to the US, boycotting American goods and selling their US real estate.  Our PM said today that a lot of people on both sides of the border are going to get hurt.  It was all so avoidable!  I think he is a modern Hitler.

 

 

Decency

/1 Comment/in /by

Yesterday I planned to participate in the 24 hour vacation from American commerce.  I thought (and think) it a good idea, and publicized at least twice the ideas (listed in Feb 24 and 28 posts).  It’s now a day later and time for my personal report.

My wife would attest, I think, that if the American economy depended on my personal shopping we’d be in depression.  It’s not my thing.

I almost passed on my daily cup of coffee at Caribou yesterday, but didn’t.  I usually leave a dollar tip; yesterday it was $5.  American business to me is mostly young people who are servers, cashiers, and the like, and they make precious little.  In fact, they don’t know this, but they are an important part of my day, more so than just the coffee.

Service workers of any age are the first in line as victims of slashing ‘waste’, though without these largely low wage workers everyone’s quality of life would suffer.

Otherwise, I mostly stayed with the program yesterday, though all this practically meant was either doing the needed shopping the previous day, or the next….

Two things I was going to do yesterday, I deferred:  I was going to pick some “targets” for an excellent commentary about the Target chain, but why not just share again the column I shared in the Feb. 24 post: op ed on DEI.  One of my “targets” was going to be the local Target.  Why not just communicate with the corporate headquarters in Minneapolis?  I’ve known Target since the mid 1960s when I lived near one of the five original stores in suburban Minneapolis.  (Target today has 1600 stores nationwide. I note that a reader of yesterday’s post, Carlo, left a comment about Target.  See comments below.)

The second action, which I will do today, was to write four folks with a considerably larger ‘footprint’ than mine with some information from 1959 I think they will find useful about ‘the rule of law’, now so under attack in our country.  I last sent this around to this list on February 14, 2025 (scroll down).

Of course, there remains the remainder of February 28, 2025.

I published yesterdays post at 12:30 a.m., and after noon, was when I learned of the outrageous spectacle in the Oval Office which is front page news everywhere.  We have not heard the last about this outrage, and it is possible that the Bully Response to any difference of opinion  may have met its match this time, and in addition be an excellent teaching opportunity for those of us who believe that persons deserve decent treatment, and that bullies are losers and cowards.

We live in what has been, with all its many faults, a wonderful place, possessing only four percent of the world’s population, but controlling near one-fourth of the world’s wealth.  Wealth of UN Countries.  Another of the timeless sayings I remember from my youth is “being too big for your britches“.  This applies to countries too.

I try to keep in perspective that each of us is only one, and we all depend on each other regardless of how omnipotent we might feel.

If you’re a Minnesotan, here’s a listing of contact information for our elected state and national officials: Legislators 2025.  Exercise your franchise.  Here, from 1971, are some tips for effective communication with legislators: Political letter writing tips 1971.  (There are endless tip sheets on this topic, as you know, and 1971 is a long time ago, but the elements never change.  To communicate, you have to actually communicate, regardless of the medium or the message!)

The essential tip, as Michelle Obama so memorably said last summer, “Do something.”  Every day….

COMMENTS:

from Tim Snyder on yesterday at the White House: here about five minutes.  This came as a freebie from Tim’s “Thinking About” Substack.  I think it is accessible as a single use.  Tim is an outstanding resource.

from Paul:  I have been frustrated, depressed and angered by the dangerous actions unfolding in our nation and around the world.  It is shocking. I am wondering what I can do to stop what is happening to America.  There is an atmosphere of hate being fomented that will have long lasting consequences.  There is demonizing of the vulnerable that has happened elsewhere in history. Apathy, acquiescence, ignoring reality is not the remedy.

I received the link below from a good friend and am sending it to as many people that I can think of in hopes it and other positive messages will take hold and move us to some forms of action towards positive change grounded in kindness, respect, care for all.  There are leaders, organizations, groups, associations, even some companies that are committed to that better kind of world. They deserve our support – cash, volunteer help, emailing and phone calling, whatever we are willing to do.
This speech by the Governor of Illinois may offer some inspiration to you. It is well worth the time it takes to watch. Please take a look,


from Carlo: I took part in the Blackout. I enjoyed being home and not buying anything with the rest of the folks.

Then I saw online that Hobby Lobby was permanently closing one of its MN stores. I said, “Yes!” I decided years ago to boycott Hobby Lobby. I had my own personal boycott. Yesterday I spoke with a woman who had also decided to boycott Hobby Lobby years ago. That was surprising. I decided I will not spend my money where I and others are not treated with dignity and respect. I feel good about my decision about Hobby Lobby. And, I am never going back to Target.  Years ago,  I wrote their previous CEO after they publicly donated to the Republican Party and asked him, “Why do you want to tick off over half the people who walk through your doors with a donation to one party?”

With them rescinding DEI even though black women benefit the least from DEI, I have decided to permanently boycott them.


from Ellen: I saw the debacle of the Oval Office shakedown of Zelensky by Trump and Vance on the 28th.

from Remi: As I had feared, Zelensky was lured to Washington for this purpose. It was nothing less than a setup—an ambush meticulously orchestrated and executed by Vance, who had claimed that Ukraine was parading foreign leaders for propaganda tours. I could not be more disappointed and disgusted.