#38 5-16-2023 Two GOP Choices: Compare Asa Hutchinson & Donald Trump
#37 4-19-2023 SCOTUS + Citizens United = A Very Bad Decision
#36 3-31-2023 Narcissist Donald Trump Indicted For Paying Hush Money
To . . . Stormy Daniels
#35 3-10-2023 Justice Stevens' Dissent Shreds Citizens United Majority Opinion
#34 2-16-2023 Justices Clarify The Boundaries Between Church And State
#33 1-1--2023 SCOTUS Opinions On Juvenile Sentencing And Executions
- Cruel and unusual punishments for teenagers
- These several SCOTUS cases discussed are simple enough for most readers to understand and appreciate good work on the part of the Supreme Court.
#32 1-1-2023 SCOTUS Justices Decide The Contests In Our Game Of Democracy
- In this blog episode I explain more about how SCOTUS works.
- And I explain several abstract concepts which must be grasped to understand some SCOTUS behavior which, otherwise, looks quite odd. DON'T SKIP THIS BLOG.
#31 12-5-2022 I'm Taking A Vacation From Blogging
- In 2022 I published 31 posts, fulfilling the goals of powertomyvotes.com website. Lots of reading available.
- In future, after a rest, I'll be focusing on larger topics, beginning with Supreme Court.
- Thanks, readers, for giving me a gratifying readership and positive feedback.
#30 11-22-2022 Striking Incidents And Political Trends On 11-22-2022
- Disaster for Republicans
- Trump imitator loses governorship in AZ
- Many politicians and voters are "getting tired of Trump" and his many problems. Can't he just go away?
#29 11-10-2022 What Happened This Tuesday
And Where My Blog Is Headed Next
- Midterm Election
- Steve Bannon sentenced to jail.
- This Blog in future will be concentrating on the Supreme Court 's seriously questionable decisions since 2010.
#28 10-25-2022 Dept of Justice Stands Up To Trump
& He Backs Down Jan 3rd 2021
- Characters are DOJ attorneys AAG Rosen, Deputy AG Donoghue versus....
- Trump, Rep Scott Perry, lower level attorney Jeff Clark, Whitehouse Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
- DOJ tells Trump that if he fires Rosen and appoints Jeff Clark in his place then the DOJ attorneys will resign in mass. And things won't work out well for Trump.
- On January 3, 2021 the Department of Justice (DOJ) Acting AG and Deputy AG prevented Trump’s misuse of the DOJ for overturning Biden’s 2020 Election win using debunked conspiracy theories. The insurrection at the Capitol was three days later.
#27 10-14-2022 Activities On Break Before
Trump Collides With Rule Of Law
- After six years of Trump dysfunction, the endgame is imminent.
- I share some of my new research materials.
#26 10-2-2022 Seven Steps Ended Roe v. Wade
Abortion Rights 1973 - 2022.
- Dobbs overturns Roe
- Here are the nitty gritty details of why Roe was overturned.
- Good links for learning more how to make your vote count!
- This is a 1900 word blog and it's dense because there is a lot of information packed in. Take your time with it.
- The Dobbs decision was a harsh decision, but the SCOTUS job is to judge what the law is. States or Congress make laws--not SCOTUS. Once we understand this we can better settle into making the most of our voting power.
#25 9-22-2022 Striking Incidents and Political Trends
- State of New York civil suit against Trump filed for over 2M.
- Justice Department freed to inspect documents from Mar-A-Logo.
- Trump is said to be damaging to GOP.
#24 9-15-2022 Constitutional Scholar Criticizes SCOTUS
for Overturning Dobbs
- Lawrence Tribe is a professor at Harvard Law School. For years he has been one of the most highly regarded constitutional authorities.
- This blog gets us started understanding what happened to Roe v. Wade and why things turn out as they have.
#23 9-11-2022 Vote, Based On Objective Facts--
Not Favorite Personal Opinions
- Personal opinions and deeply held "gut instincts" mostly determine national voting patterns.
- Objective facts, however, are the roadway to casting votes which can actually have an effect on government.
- This blog episode defines and gives examples of OBJECTIVE FACTS contrasted to PERSONAL OPINIONS.
#22 9-1-2022 Biden's Success and
Trump's Pathetic Diminishing . . .
- Trump's thoroughly self-centered value system has not changed. Even after he took the oath of office as president to serve America, he only serves himself.
- Trump's popularity statistics have been going down.
- Republican leaders are worried Trump will cause them to lose increasing numbers of elections.
- Although President Biden has not been as popular as Trump, he is a decent man and his administration is proving itself effective.
#21 8-23-2022 Overall, There’s Lots To Respect
About America’s Supreme Court
- The fundamental job of the Supreme Court.
- How the justices arrive at their decisions.
- What's admirable about the Supreme Court's work.
#20 8-10-2022 Trump Led The Republican Attack On
Critical Race Theory (CRT)
- The 1619 Project
- CRT & politics a bad mix
- Suppression of free speech
#19 8-2-2022 Eisenhower and Bill Clinton: 16 Years
of Inspiring Leadership
- Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton were excellent leaders and helped our country with quality legislation.
- The were skilled in politics and operating states, armies, countries.
- In my blog I list two books which beautifully describe their skill at handling very complex military or political circumstances.
#18 7-22-2022 New Evidence Shows Former Pres.
Trump Encouraged Jan. 6th Rioters
- The January 6th Committee found that Trump wasn't idle during the attempted insurrection. He was watching it unfold on TV and staff couldn't interest him in using his influence to stop it.
- A link to further information is included in this short post.
#17 7-16-2022 The 1619 Project Explores Racist
Lawmaking--Past to Present
- Big stories take big books. The 1619 Project book is 492 pages of extremely interesting American history which is essential for understanding today’s uniquely difficult politics concerning race. This book shows its historical and intellectual authority on every page.
- A full, revealing history of slavery in America.
- Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, and other authors created this unique and valuable book.
- I discuss the research showing how little young adults know so little about history they have little hope of correctly interpreting the critically important issues of current events.
- Ibram X. Kendi wrote one of the essays for the book. It's deep, very insightful, and should be studied by all looking for answers to our current racial tensions.
#16 7-8-2022 What's Coming Up On Our Journey
- I discuss the content of future blogs.
- The 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory .
- Bill Clinton and Dwight Eisenhower (very politically skilled politicians who were well-regarded by the public and history).
- Voter suppression (a negative of course, but it has been going on since the beginning of our country).
#15 6-26-2022 "These are the Times That Try Men's Souls..."
- This blog highlights both past and current tragic circumstances and the political leaders--both good and bad--who responded.
- Lyndon Johnson (LBJ), probably passed the most laws giving the most help to average Americans in the past 80 years.
- Donald Trump--his self-centered, random, crude and destructive behavior has never changed from the primaries to the present.
- Read about the insightful commentary from Paul Krugman in his book, Arguing With Zombies (2021).
#14 6-16-2022 Civil Rights, Gun Laws, & Why Shooters Kill Kids
- The good and the awful about the NRA.
- Here is a sizeable discussion about the 2nd Amendment.
- Read about the best, credible explanation of why mass shooters kill kids, from the work of author Louis Klarevas as found in his book, Rampage Nation.
- Other very good, readable books are listed in the blog.
- Two of the recommended books are written with high school kids in mind--so they can get politically active.
#13 6-6-2022 Airplanes Are Very Well Protected
But Not School Children
- The Parkland High School Mass Shooting
- Victims David and Lauren co-wrote a readable, emotionally touching, and inspiring book: #NEVERAGAIN: A NEW GENERATION DRAWS THE LINE in (2018).
- The 19 year old shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was arrested at the scene and has pled guilty.
- Myths and Facts about mass shooters.
- Learn how Australia solved their gun problem.
- Read about politicians who have UTTERLY FAILED to make American schools safe from mass shooters.
- Uvalde County, TX followed after Parkland.
- Read how many K-12 children were killed since 1970.
- The Parkland Manifesto
#12 5-28-2022 Roe v. Wade Worked For 50 Years But...
- Republican Politicians have set up the Supreme Court and many State Governments to impose Republican Theology on everyone.
- Politicians speak in slogans and I discuss why this is both necessary and perverted communication serving politicians and not "We the People."
- We discuss surveys showing what Americans want concerning abortion.
- We end with the question, "Why should the beliefs of one 50% of citizens forcefully rip from the other 50% the legal availability of abortion?"
#11 5-16-2022 Political High Impact Actions
From Sessions, Barr, McConnell
- Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr, and Mitch McConnell are Republican loyalists who at critical moments did not throw away their integrity in support of Trump's Big Election Lies. They told the straight-forward indisputable truth.
- Mueller Report
- Elie Honig book, Hatchet Man,
- Mitch McConnell body language and facial expressions cleverly, with cryptic words, announce no election fraud and January 6 Committee may find something interesting.
#10 5-5-2022 Useful Analysis of Abortion Issues From
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- In my blog I don't give any personal opinions pro or con about abortion. Blog #10 gives a link to Ginsberg's very insightful comments on Roe v. Wade.
- James Mumford writes on the abortion topic.
- Republican Richard Nixon showed his personal hypocrisy on abortion by switching his stance in campaigning to get himself reelected.
- Blog 10 also has a link to George Carlin's stellar 1996 clip about abortion hypocrisy.
- Reading the leaked draft Roe v. Wade is very worthwhile.
#9 Part 2 of 2: We the People MUST CARE to Supervise
Our Government
- In this blog I share new political activities in my life. I'm trying to keep up to date with local, state, and national politics.
- Dr. Hersh in Politics Is For Power emphasizes that we get more voting power by getting more involved socially and being helpful to people.
- One of my most important learnings, from many good books, is that the political Parties are not a useful pathway toward voting power.
#8 4-26-2022 Part 1 of 2: We The People MUST CARE
to Supervise Our Government
- When we the people allow ourselves to be uninformed about government, then the "fox is in the hen house" and begins killing and eating chickens!
- Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) passed many laws helping average citizens.
- But LBJ also failed us by lying to us and Congress and escalating involvement in the Vietnam war.
- This blog #8 tells how Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, and Nixon all perpetuated the Vietnam war.
- The WHOLE STORY is found only in the Daniel Ellsberg book, Secrets : a memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (Ellsberg, 2002).
#7 4-12-2022 Our Journey for Voting Power and
Accomplishments So Far
- This blog tells more about what motivated my creating a political blog.
- I got angry that we voters had so little power to prevent politicians abusing our trust. They got rich and we got screwed.
- Hersh's book told me why and how to get active politically and get more power to my votes.
- I like research and for the last nine months I've been learning how politics works and blogging to educate, wake voters up, and help us citizens better influence government.
- I attempt to find the good in both Republican and Democrat politicians.
#6 4-2-2022 Politicians & Citizens Living In
The Machinery Of Government (2)
- In Part 2 of 2 we learn what the Republican and Democrat Parties are actually about--what they are trying to do.
- We learn about money and corruption.
- We learn that, sadly, American voters don't have as much power over government as they could have. We all have to learn more about how "the rigged system" works. We can learn how to get more power to our votes!
#5 3-27-2022 Politicians & Citizens Living In
The Machinery Of Government (1)
- Part 1 of 2 begins to break down what American politics is about and how it actually works.
- Why is politics such serious business, money oriented, and crazy.
- I break politics down into five parts of a messy conglomeration.
- These parts operate differently. It makes politics confusing.
- I use President Bill Clinton to show how hard it was to get some very good legislation passed.
#4 3-11-2022 Don't Be Fooled By Political Parties
- Believe it or not, politicians herd us around like cattle.
- How politicians manipulate us voters.
- Politics defined
- Eitan Hersh book Politics Is For Power discussed.
- Robert Reich book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It discussed.
- Democrat vs Republican beliefs and strategies discussed.
#3 3-2-2022 Political Parties, a Trump Success,
and the 2017 Tax Cut
- Don't be fooled by political party deceptive slogans and platforms.
- Economists know that tax cuts for the rich DON'T stimulate the economy and make things better for 90% of Americans.
- But the Republican party continues to sneak in tax cuts for the rich.
- This blog explains why just voting for your Party gives you very, very little voting power.
#2 2-15-2022 Income Inequality in America
- How does it happen that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer?
- What is income inequality?
- It's getting worse.
- There's more inequality in America than the European Democracies.
- I wanted an example of a big American problem solved by American government and its citizens. I found one in the successful campaign that greatly reduced American smoking and cancer. Big changes in society ARE POSSIBLE.
#1 1-29-2022 First, We Must Actively Cope With Our
Biases and Prejudices
- All people have biases and prejudices. But most people aren't aware they have them.
- We must choose to discover our biases and prejudices because only then can we manage them. This prevents them from making trouble for ourselves and others.
- In this blog I talk about me, Ron Massey, PhD and my biases and prejudices and where they may have come from.
End of Entries But More Will Come