BALLROOM PRANCING!!!

Published October 24, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Not only do we Americans finally get what we have been waiting for these past 150 years, a new 100,000 square foot ballroom, but we also get a new and viable revenue stream that will help to finance the government through future government shutdowns. The Administration has already received a staggering number of banquet reservations, promising to keep the new ball room booked through Trump’s third term.

The new White House East Wing Ballroom will feature a lavish interior with capacity for up to 1,000 people. Renderings show an interior that draws from the grand Baroque-style of the Palace of Versailles, with shining marble floors, intricate gold leaf designs, ornate orange marble columns (to match the color of Trump’s skin), 17 elaborate crystal chandeliers, and a bulletproof glass exterior. What better representative of this administration’s haute culture?

Who’s on board, you ask? The Daughters of the American Revolution were the first group to book the new East Wing Ballroom for their week-long Continental Congress held each June in Washington, D.C. The Convention will include daily tea parties (where they actually drink tea), seminars including Patriotism and Etiquette, and Tracing Your Genealogy back to the Mayflower. The girls are very excited about their new venue and have booked through 2035.

The National Rifle Association quickly jumped into the fray and announced that they will being holding their annual gun show at the new East Wing also for the next 10 years. This year’s theme is the “Keeping Assault Weapons Legal.” The NRA announced that Kid Rock and a case of Bud Lite will be performing at gun show during the event in 2026. Should be a blast!!!

The Proud Boys will convene their annual convention (think Coachella with fewer good vibes) at the new East Wing. The theme of the coming convention is “How to Lose the Battle and Still Declare Victory.” Dress code is camouflage with tactical vests. There will be seminars during the convention including Patriotism for Beginners, Beard Grooming for Intimidation, Techniques of Using a Flagpole as a Weapon, and Selling Tee-Shirts and Bumper Stickers.

The Oath Keepers have marched right down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House and also booked the new East Wing for their next five annual meetings. This year’s theme is “How to Break the Law and Still Get a Pardon.” Seminars include The Constitution for Dummies, Freedom and the Proper Use of Zip Ties, and How to Use Crypto Currency to Protect Your Assets. Should be a fun week for the Oath Keepers.

In addition to right-wing political groups, many corporations with large and lucrative contracts with the government or companies needing government approvals have lined-up to rent the East Wing for annual events or sales meetings. This includes, of course, all of the major military contractors, the large media conglomerates and the pharmaceuticals looking to extend government contracts. Oh and Tesla is back!!! Tesla announced that the annual Tesla sales meetings will now be held at the new East Wing. Trump has promised Musk that he will be allowed to display the full array of Tesla vehicles on the front lawn of the White House during the sales meeting.

Also, many foreign governments with close ties to the USA are also booking reservations at the new East Wing Ballroom. Saudi Arabia has committed to hold the next three weddings for MBS at the new East Wing Ballroom. Each wedding promises to be bigger and more elaborate than the previous one. Argentina has guaranteed to rent space each year for the next 10 years at the new Ballroom as this arrangement was tied to the $40 billion bailout of their currency by the USA. Israel has booked the Ballroom for the bar mitzvah of Netanyahu’s grandson and the Bris of his future great grandson. Israel agreed to book the Ballroom as part of the ceasefire negotiation. Pakistan has also booked the Ballroom for a week at a time over the next five years; although they do not have a specific event to host there, they just want to keep in Trump’s good favor.

In summary Trump thinks the new East Wing Ballroom will make Washington DC the center of high culture in the world just as Paris was in the 18th century and Vienna in the 19th century. The truth is, though, that all Trump has created is a gaudy, over-aggrandized renovated ballroom at the Holiday Inn in Washington, DC.

A DAY IN MAGA COUNTRY

Published July 9, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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As an introduction, I am a liberal person and don’t really have any prejudices. The fact is, though, I just don’t really know any MAGA people. That is to say, probably not coincidentally being a relatively progressive liberal, MAGA enthusiasts are not in my circle; they are not my friends. I did discover in my office, during the past election campaign, after having some heated political discussions, that I worked with a few of them. But despite our daily interactions, I was not friends with any of them outside of our work environment.

This year my family and I planned a summer beach vacation to North Carolina. We decided to break up the drive along the way by staying in small South Jersey shore town. As we entered the town, I was taken aback by all the TRUMP signs that were still adorning peoples’ lawns and the TRUMP flags that flew on so many balconies, six months or so after the election. I knew we were deep in MAGA Country.

The next morning we headed to the beach with our 53-foot Mayflower moving truck; necessary, of course, to carry a week’s worth of personal belongings for six adults and two children, plus enough meals and water to last us in case we were stranded on the beach for weeks. Also along was a tent nearly the size of a small circus tent that we just had to have in order to provide enough shade for a square mile of people. As the three adult men in our group struggled to assemble the humongous tent, two gentlemen jumped to our rescue from their own claimed beach spot and offered to help us, as they were familiar with the mechanics of this particular tent. Boom! The tent was up in three minutes! We were just floored by their kindness and hospitality. What nice guys! And with the American flag prominently displayed by their beach blanket, I was pretty sure they were MAGA.

A little while later we were sitting in our little base camp, and one of our kids was a little restless. Despite the large assortment of beach paraphernalia, we had forgotten the kite. A women sitting nearby, her boom box playing ‘Proud to be an American,’ overheard us lamenting our forgotten kite. She offered to give us her child’s currently up-and-flying kite since they were leaving the beach and no longer needed it. This likely MAGA woman refused to take any money for the kite.

We left the beach right before nap time, planning to return after naps and lunch. We decided to leave the tent and all of our other things at the beach to await our return. We left the beach around 1:00 and returned at 4:00. We were surprised that our tent was dismantled and neatly put away and all the chairs were collapsed and laid flat on the beach. We were a little perplexed, and when we asked a few nearby beach-goers if they knew what had happened, they told us the wind intensified for a while and they were concerned that our tent and chairs might be blown away. Of course, several people helped us to once again put up the tent. Later, when we decided to pack up all our things and head off the beach for the day, a mother of two teenage boys sent them to help us carry our stuff off the beach.

Now I don’t know if all these folks were really MAGA or not, but that was my hunch, and was really most likely the case, given the vibe of the area. I don’t need to remind anyone of MAGA’s position on the treatment of immigrants, or of the MAGA position on Medicaid, education, LGBQT rights, or women’s reproductive health. But I was genuinely surprised that on a personal level, people of the MAGA persuasion could be so caring, kind and accommodating. It may me wonder how we could translate these personal acts of human kindness and decency, you know, just folks caring about and helping each other, to a social and political awareness that is much more respectful and generous to people who are less fortunate more broadly. Where and when was the line drawn; at what point did we stop caring about each other and become enemies? And more importantly, how do we get back to the days when we loved our neighbor? That is the question.

COME TOGETHER RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Published June 10, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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People all over the country are mad and scared about many of the practices that are being initiated by this administration. ICE has arrested more than 100,000 people nationwide. Foreign students with appropriate visas watching these visas get cancelled. People are learning that close to 10 million people will be cut off of Medicaid. The SNAP program is being gutted. Funding for medical research has been cut. Many important government services have been eliminated. Our legal system has been politicized and the government is trying to control the press. Many of the personal liberties that people fought for years to attain are now being cancelled. And now we learn there are talks to cut Medicare, the healthcare system for close to 70 million Americans.

With all this disruption to our previous way of life, it is surprising that there is so little apparent resistance. One reason is, these government policies affect different isolated groups, and there is very little overlap between them. The ICE raids are a threat to the way of life for the Latino community. The cuts to Medicaid affect the poorer segments of the population. The cuts to Medicare affect the senior population. The squashing of the rights of the LGBT population has little impact on the rest of American life. As long as these issues and the groups these policies affect remain separate, it is hard to imagine a large, cohesive and motivated group coming forward to fight the disruption to all our lives.

We now know that that this isolation will not overcome the monster. We must join forces in this fight. There is strength in numbers. It is time to realize that we are all connected, “brothers looking out for each other.” If we fight for fairness for one group, we fight for fairness for all groups. It is time for all of us to “Come Together.” We must see and feel each others pain and suffering and hear each others grievances. We should support each other. Together we can bring about change because together we are the majority.

I am proposing that we all protest on July 4 of this year – “The Unity March.” The anti-Trump people around the country need to be energized and feel enabled. There will be protests of thousands and thousands of people marching in many cities all around the country all at the same time. There will be a million people in Washington DC, a million people in NYC, a million people in LA and Chicago. And there will hundreds of thousands of people in Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, etc. This one day, July 4, 2025 will mark the beginning of the end of the “evil empire.” What better day than on July 4th, the day we celebrate our independence from tyranny? This massive protest will give people hope that we have the support and backing of millions of people, and it will give us the strength to fight and will give the opposition political party the backbone to take on this political nightmare. We need this now…so let’s COME TOGETHER on July 4, 2025.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS DYING

Published June 6, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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How long can we keep this terminally ill patient on life-support? This patient that has suffered many self-inflicted wounds in the past few years and recently tried to commit suicide in the 2024 presidential election. How do we get the patient off life support?

The Democratic Party is the party that allowed for the continuation of the war in Afghanistan through eight years of the Obama administration while making no progress on the ground during this stretch. This is the party that allowed an estimated 10 million or more illegal immigrants into the country under the Biden administration. This is the party that failed to create a second nuclear treaty with Iran, worried that it might look soft compared to the hard right wing voters in the country. This the party that grew the deficit by almost $8 billion under Biden because they were scared to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy. This is the party that allowed inflation to grow out of control while ordinary Americans suffered from higher prices at the grocery stores and in the shopping centers. This is the party that crucified Al Franken for some petty sexual offense, or castigated a Congressman because he publicly stated that he did not wish his teenage daughter to play sports with transgender athletes. This is the party of old and tired politicians who did not have the guts to stand-up to Biden and confront his rapidly failing mental condition.

And this is the party that continues to recycle old ideas and policies as its once-solid majority drifts away. The Democratic Party has lost touch with blue collar America as it pushes for more and more extreme social programs. It has failed to develop a fair border and immigration policy which scared many voters off and surprisingly pushed away the traditionally Democratic Hispanic vote. Its programs of school and police reform have even forced the black voters to scale back their support for Democratic candidates. “Clean air and keeping democracy strong” does not resonate with voters who are concerned about putting food on the table and living in safe neighborhoods. Only 1.5% of the cars in America are electric vehicles so a $7,500 tax credit on new purchases of EVs will not have a wide appeal for the voting public. Forgiving college debt obligations does not excite a US population where less than two-thirds go to college.

So what is the political policy that has a very wide appeal and that cuts across economic levels and appeals to white, black and other minority populations? What political idea can appeal to a young white college educated couple living in the suburbs who just had their first child; or to a single black mom living in Alabama working two jobs with three children that are cared for her by her mom because there are no other options; or to a blue collar couple where the dad works long hours at a factory with the wife staying home because they cannot afford any child care options.

The answer is simple: free universal daycare for all children from birth to kindergarten. Anyone in America will be entitled to free daycare. We have free education in the USA from kindergarten through 12th grade. The Democrats should now propose to extending this free education from childbirth through to kindergarten. This proposal addresses many social problems in our country at the moment. First, the cost of daycare is prohibitive for families just starting out. Many young couples have to juggle jobs in order to afford childcare. One reason that the US birthrate is low is that the cost of childcare prohibits young families from affording to have several children in daycare at the same time. Also, many single moms cannot go to work because they cannot afford childcare and are forced on to welfare and Medicaid to pay their costs. Also, the US is falling behind in education relative to other industrial nations. I believe that starting kids in school at an earlier age will improve education results many years down the line. And jobs!!!! This program will create tens of thousands of jobs, from teachers to administrators to staff and to unskilled teacher aids. Another $1,000 tax credit is not going to pay the daycare bills. This is a program that will Make America Great Again. Paying for this program will be discussed in another post.

Of course, Democrats need to support an Equal Rights Amendment, not just for women but for all Americans. Yes, the Dems need to keep fighting to make the environment clean and inhabitable for the next 100 years. The Dems absolutely need to develop a firm and enforceable border policy. They also need to end the fighting in the Middle East and develop a policy that includes an independent state for Palestinians. The US must give Ukraine the weapons they need to end the Russian aggression. And of course, the Dems need to offer a single payer program for healthcare that will cut costs and cover all US citizens.

In summary, the Dems now have a new and simple policy to lead them into the 2026 midterm elections – paid universal childcare for all kids from birth up through kindergarten.

MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN

Published April 1, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

April 1

Hegseth (11:44 am):

  • TEAM UPDATE. TIME NOW (1144): Weather is FUCKING COLD, still tons of snow everywhere and still dark in Greenland.  Why the fuck do we want to own Greenland!!  Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission “BRING GREENLAND HOME”.
  • 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package).  F-18 1st Strike Window Starts.  Target is 15 CROP DUSTERS which is also the Greenland Air Force.  SHOULD BE ON TIME
  • 1415: Strike Drones on Target of 8 tractors, 3 harvesters, 2 manure spreaders and a backhoe stored at the Greenland Armory. 
  • MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)
  • Godspeed to our Warriors…Thank them all for their service!!!

Vance (12.13pm ET):

  • I will say a prayer for victory.  Glod Bless America

Waltz (14.00pm ET):

  • The first target – 10 of the 15 crop dusters destroyed.  Greenland’s top boy scout leader– we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.

Vance (14.01pm ET):

  • Excellent.

Ratcliffe (14.36pm ET):

  • A good start.  God Bless America and Donald J. Trump.

Rubio (17:14pm ET):

  • Good Job Pete and your team!!  America is Great Again!!!!

Stephen Miller (17:18pm ET)

  • Great work all. Powerful start.  I love our President.

Hegseth (17:20pm ET):

  • CENTCOM was/is on point. Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight. There are small villages along the coast that must be destroyed and their fleets of fishing boats.

  Wiles (17:21pm ET)

  • Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless.  We are getting ready for Canada and then Panama. 

Steve Witkoff – Middle East special envoy (17:47pm ET)

  • USA, USA!!!!

Gabbard (18:35pm ET)

  • Great work and effects!  I can’t wait to Operation 51st State.  It will be just so easy.  Canada should be such a pushover. God Bless Donald Trump for giving me a job.
  •  

I AM MAD AS HELL AND I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!

Published February 15, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Yes, I am mad. I am really mad and I am not going to take it anymore.

I pay federal taxes and I expect to get certain benefits that have been promised to me through our representative form of government. I expect that the cars that we drive will be safe. I expect that the airplanes that we fly in will be safe and the skies that these planes travel through will be monitored and free from collisions. I expect that the water we drink and the air that we breath will be clean and pure and free from toxins. I expect that the meat that I eat will be inspected by qualified and independent food inspectors and will be deemed healthy to consume. I expect that scientific research will continue to seek to provide a cure for many of the still yet unsolved health issues that plague our country. I also expect scientific research to continue to improve the quality of our lives in so many areas. I expect that the next generation will receive an education that befits the wealthiest nation in the world and I expect that those that are less fortunate will receive the additional care and services that they need to maintain a dignified style of life.

The current administration has promised up to 2 million job cuts throughout the federal government agencies seriously impacting many of the services that we expect and count on. Trump proposes massive personnel cuts in the the Department of Financial Protection which was established by Congress after the Great Recession to protect citizens from banks’ predatory lending. This administration proposes major cuts to the Center for Disease Control ignoring the lessons learned from the calamitous federal efforts to contain the recent Covid-19 pandemic. We all watch this president clumsily salute the American flag and awkwardly praise veterans as his administration now plans to make cuts in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump is cutting USAID which provides food and health services to many of the poorest people around the world.

Are we going to take this sitting down? Will voting against Tulsi Gabbard or RFK, Jr. get it done despite them being confirmed anyway? Will introducing a bill in the Senate to cap out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs get it done when this bill has no chance of passing? Will writing letters to Congress stop these abuses? Will boycotting your local Tesla dealership bring changes to this new administration?

I will tell you what we are going to do. We pay taxes to get certain government services. These services have been passed into law by previous Congresses and funding has been allocated for their execution for this year and subsequent years. We are not getting what we paid. We must not send money to the government which ignores its responsibilities to fund these projects. WE MUST STOP PAYING TAXES. We cannot do this individually. We need a massive protest and coordinated effort to end this current government. Let’s deny this government trillions of our hard earned dollars so they can no longer ignore established funding laws and do what they wish with our tax dollars.

Therefore, I propose WE STOP PAYING ALL TAXES BEGINNING APRIL 15, 2025. This is the Resistance Movement to this corrupt and illegal government. This only works if millions of Americans who oppose the current administration join forces and collectively stop paying taxes. One person stops paying taxes and they get fined. Several people stop paying taxes and they get rounded up. Millions stop paying taxes and we have a movement. We cheer for 250 years the Colonialists in Boston when threw the tea into the sea because they had no representation. Let future generations cheer us as they learn that we stopped paying taxes to a corrupt regime and brought them to their knees by refusing to pay our taxes until we were represented in this government.

Join the Resistance – DO NOT PAY TAXES ON APRIL 15, 2025.

LET THE RESISTANCE BEGIN

Published November 24, 2024 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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The time is now!!! No more sitting passively on the couch watching the news host tell us that our democracy is being stolen. No more getting angry as we learn of another Cabinet appointee with a conflict of interest or a history of sexual misconduct.

We don’t have the time to wait until the Democratic Party finds a platform that works for a broader segment of the population. We don’t have the luxury of waiting until the Democratic Party develops a new pool of charismatic candidates that can inspire a broader constituency to vote for their own interests.

We need action now. The easiest resistance program is to create an economic pressure on the ultra- wealthy magnates and their corporations that supported the far-right agenda in this past election. We need a national boycott of their products. So easy. First and foremost, no one who is a Democrat or progressive should buy a Tesla. Let’s put Tesla out of business. And that goes for “X”… no more tweets by the left on X, just delete the app and move to Bluesky or Substack.

Then, we should make the major advertisers on Fox News start feeling the pain for supporting right-wing media: Some of the biggest advertisers on Fox News include:

  • Procter & Gamble: Advertises consumer products like Venus razor blades and Secret deodorant 
  • Novo Nordisk: Advertises the medication Ozempic on Fox News 
  • Scotts Miracle-Gro: Advertises on Fox News during commercial breaks 
  • Balance of Nature: A supplement company that was a primary advertiser 

Other top Fox New Advertisers: GlaxoSmithKline, Liberty Mutual, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Intuit, NortonLifeLock, Nestle, Kraft Heinz, Progressive, Charles Schwab, Toyota, and Subaru.

This such an easy form of resistance that results in little to no hardship for the boycott supporters. The only groups who will feel the pain will be the corporations that lose sales, and Fox News, which will lose advertising dollars. We all need to be on the same page….

No Tesla, no “X”, no Balance of Nature and no Scotts Miracle-Gro. Spread the word.

WHERE’S THE BEEF….PRICING?

Published October 10, 2024 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Not surprisingly, the economy takes center-stage this election year. Most of that focus, especially by the political party out-of-power, centers on the price of food and groceries. Based on Cato Institute report from earlier this, food prices increased 18% during the 11 years from 2010 to 2021. During the three plus years of the Biden administration, these same food prices have increased over 21%. Of course, we are all aware that the pandemic was the root cause of much of this inflation. The government began an aggressive monetary policy that put excess money in the bank accounts of many families. Many businesses shut down due to the pandemic reducing the supply of goods to all-time lows. When the economy finally re-opened, there was too much money chasing limited supplies. As we all know that prices rise when demand far exceeds supply.

Democrats are aware that prices are too high and Republicans are blaming the Democrats for these high prices. Some Democrats are suggesting that the next Congress pass legislation that punishes corporations for price gouging. This plan will be impossible to enforce and really has no chance of passing Congress. How do we look at price gouging? Does price gouging just apply to grocery stores or do we also look at the profits of the entire food supply chain including the producers of feedstock, the companies that produce the food for the grocery stores, the trucking industry that transports food to these stores, the companies that provided electricity to these stores, etc.? Are going to pass legislation to punish all these industries for price gouging?

There is a simple solution to attack this runup in food prices. Bring back competition. The federal government should create a web page that publishes the average price of foods in certain areas. The average price of ground beef in the Northeast is $5.50/lb while extra lean ground beef is $7.20/lb. The average price of a dozen eggs in Pennsylvania is $4.50 while the price of a dozen eggs in New York is $5.35. This web page can have a wide range of grocery pricing, from fruit and vegetable to all the various sources of protein that we consume, and can be updated regularly. This information will make us all smart shoppers and avoid over-spending at the grocery stores. As stores feel the pressures of high prices, they will begin to pressure on their suppliers to reduce costs and this pressure will continue down the food chain. This is a very simple solution to the high costs of food prices. Once this is established for the food industry, the same concept can be applied to many consumer goods and services.

A Little Bit of OJ

Published April 24, 2024 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

No it wasn’t a double homicide…..not even close, nothing nearly as exciting or riveting. But the recent death of OJ reminded me of an event that I participated in back in the early 2000s and still has me pondering the social and racial implications. Somehow back then, I found myself stuck on a jury in a federal courthouse. Of course, it wasn’t unusual for a fifty-something white Jewish male, who had to be a bleeding heart liberal, to make it to the jury of a minority being charged of a federal crime.

Here is a summary of the case. After many years and numerous incidents of rowdy, inappropriate and often lewd and dangerous behavior, the City of Philadelphia finally instituted a “zero tolerance” policy for South Street, its center of counter-culture and offbeat establishments that always drew big crowds until early in the morning. Anyone found with an open bottle of alcohol would immediately be seized and taken to jail….no ifs, ands or buts.

So as the story unravels, three police officers were walking the beat of South at 1:00 AM which was still very busy. One of the officers happened to look into a parked car and saw a young African American male sound asleep in the passenger side of the car with an open bottle of whiskey between his legs. The driver side of the car was empty. The officer immediately informed his fellow officers who then decided to act immediately. The officers banged on the window waking up the sleeping passenger and told him to come out of the car with his hands up in the air as he is under arrest. The passenger slowly nodded as if he understood and moved very slowly as he reached for the door handle. Suddenly, he jerked the door open very quickly and jammed it into the three unsuspecting officers, knockings two to the ground . The passenger then took off up the street pulled a gun out waving at the officers. Coincidently, two different officers happened to be approaching the car from the other direction, witness the event and to then surprise of the fleeing passenger grab him and tackle him to the ground. They called for back-up immediately which arrived in seconds. The passenger was then handcuffed and taken to jail and later charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest.

Which brings us to the trial of which I am a jury member. The prosecution told the story through the officers at the scene of the crime as well as a number of people who had witnessed the events and volunteered to testify at the trial. All collaborated the story. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and the defendant did not testify in his defense.

The jury was then taken to a room and asked to decide the case. There were 7 white jury members and 5 African American jurors. We decided to take an immediate vote to see even if it was necessary to appoint a foreman. So we took the vote and we got the following results……7 guilty and 5 innocent. Not surprisingly, the vote coincided with the racial make-up of the jury.

How could this defendant be innocent? Where was the evidence? One juror claimed that she has a cousin that was falsely apprehended by the Philadelphia police and found guilty in a similar trail. Another juror has an uncle who was also falsely accused of a crime by the Philadelphia police and then sentenced to jail time. Another juror proclaimed, “All Philadelphia police are corrupt”. Another juror was positive that the police planted the gun on the passenger because she knew of another story where the same thing happened. The seven white jurors were all taken aback and had a hard time countering these arguments because none of them had to do with the facts of the trial. As time went on, more and more stories poured out about police corruption especially here in Philadelphia.

Needless to say, we were not out of there right away, or for that matter we were not out of there for the next two days. There was no countering these endless stories of police corruption. Finally, one of the jurors asked if we know who was the owner of the gun that the defendant was carrying when apprehended. After checking the records, we were told that it was registered under the name of the driver of the car. Bingo. That was the missing fact that allowed us to come to the conclusion that the defendant was in fact carrying a gun. We could not agree on the aggravated assault charge, but we were able to convict the defendant of illegally carrying a firearm as he was a previously convicted felon who had served time and was not permitted to carry a firearm. The crime carried a hefty prison sentence.

Of course, this is not nearly as juicy the OJ case. However, the experience really drives home how distrustful minorities are of law enforcement and how as members of the white middle class we do not understand and often doubt these feelings. This issue of racial profiling and and abuses of minorities by law enforcement slowly disappeared from front page news after the OJ case, until 2020 when a series of police misconduct cases came to the public attention including the George Floyd killing that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. I am not sure if we have made the changes necessary to regain the trust of law enforcement by minorities and I am not sure if those outside the minority community have come to realize the need for such dramatic changes in police conduct. The death of OJ reminded me again of these issues.

Letter to Mayor Woodfin of Birmingham, AL

Published March 16, 2024 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Dear Mr. Mayor,

For the past year or so, I have been pushing a strategy that I developed to end voter suppression primarily in the Southern states.  We have seen the gap between white participation and non-white participation in presidential elections widen since the Shelby v Holder decision in 2013.  My strategy to end such discrimination is to create a large, deafening public uproar that forces state legislatures to revoke the voter suppression laws.  How could we do this?  We would promote a boycott by top-tier and highly-recruited athletes.  They would refuse to attend universities and colleges in states with voter suppression laws.  The University of Alabama’s football team is comprised of approximately 80% minority players.  Imagine the outrage if historically highly-ranked football teams like Alabama, Auburn or Georgia fall to mediocracy because of their inability to attract top recruits to their schools or to keep established stars from leaving the school.

I recently saw in the news that you encouraged a similar boycott of universities and colleges in states that bar DEI programs taught in the public schools.  I believe that it would be easy to address both the issues of voter suppression and barring DEI programs with the same boycott program.  The boycott has the potential to bring about many changes in race relations.

I envision a small non-profit organization to promote the boycott.  The first and foremost responsibility of this organization would be to get national awareness and recognition of the boycott.  This would require enlisting a number of well-known national figures to support the boycott.  This organization would then reach out to the high-profile athletes and provide the support and advice they would need to help them matriculate to a different college or university than they had originally intended.

I have reached out to top athletes, sportscasters, politicians, and religious leaders trying to bring a big-name personality to the cause.  Unfortunately, I have not had any success up to this point.  I would like to have the chance to talk to you and outline how my boycott could be implemented.   I am in still in need of a big-name or a prominent politician to help give my program legitimacy.  I was hoping you might be interested in working with me on this boycott and could provide a contact to others who might join in the fight.

I appreciate your attention to this proposal and look forward to hearing from you.

Howard Feldman

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