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Category: Politics

This is What Happens When a President Doesn’t Read

donald trump

It is well known that President Donald Trump doesn’t read books or daily briefings. When asked to say what the Declaration of Independence meant to him, Trump replied:

Well, it means, exactly what it says. It’s a declaration, it’s a declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot, and it’s something very special to our country.

Shouldn’t a president at least know the history behind the Declaration of Independence and what it means? Trump knows none of these things.

The Daily Show covered Trump’s intellectual largesse in the following video clip:

Video Link

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Trump Dump: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Vows to Investigate Fictional Chemtrails

donald trump dump truck

This series, titled Trump Dump, features outlandish, untrue quotes from Donald Trump, MAGA supporters, and Right Wing media. If you come across a quote for this series, please send it to me with a link to the news story that contains the relevant quote.

Toward the end of Dr. Phil’s town hall, an audience member said that she was most concerned about the constant “aerosol injections” of aluminum, strontium, and other purported toxins being sprayed into the skies—also known as “chemtrails.” Robert Kennedy, Jr. replied:

That is not happening in my agency. We don’t do that. It’s done, we think, by DARPA. And a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel—so those materials are put in jet fuel. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it. We’re bringing on somebody who’s going to think only about that, find out who’s doing it, and holding them accountable.

As reported by Gizmodo

chemtrails

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Why So Many American Children Don’t Know How to Read at Grade Level

illiteracy

By Robbie Sequeira, Used with Permission from Ohio Capital Journal

As states rush to address falling literacy scores, a new kind of education debate in state legislatures is taking hold: not whether reading instruction needs fixing, but how to fix it.

More than a dozen states have enacted laws banning public school educators from teaching youngsters to read using an approach that’s been popular for decades. The method, known as “three-cueing,” encourages kids to figure out unfamiliar words using context clues such as meaning, sentence structure, and visual hints.

In the past two years, several states have instead embraced instruction rooted in what’s known as the “science of reading.” That approach leans heavily on phonics — relying on letter and rhyming sounds to read words such as cat, hat, and rat.

The policy discussions on early literacy are unfolding against a backdrop of alarming national reading proficiency levels. The 2024 Nation’s Report Card revealed that 40% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders scored below the basic reading level — the highest percentages in decades.

No state improved in fourth- or eighth-grade reading in 2024. Eight states — Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah, and Vermont — scored worse than they did a year or two prior in eighth-grade reading.

Five states — Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Vermont — saw dips in their fourth-grade reading scores.

In response to these troubling trends, a growing number of states are moving beyond localized efforts and tackling literacy through statewide legislation.

New Jersey last year mandated universal K-3 literacy screenings. Indiana lawmakers this month passed a bill that would allow some students to retake required reading tests before being held back in third grade; that bill is en route to the governor’s desk.

Oregon and Washington are weighing statewide literacy coaching and training models, while lawmakers in Montana introduced a bill to allow literacy interventions to cover broader reading and academic skills, not just early reading basics.

Mississippi, a state seen as a model for turnaround in literacy rates over the past decade, seeks to expand and require evidence-based reading interventions, mandatory literacy screenings and targeted teacher training, and to explicitly ban the use of three-cueing methods in reading instruction in grades 4-8.

Together, these efforts signal a national shift: States are treating literacy not as a local initiative, but as the foundation of public education policy.

“Literacy is the lever,” said Tafshier Cosby, the senior director of the Center for Organizing and Partnerships at the National Parents Union, an advocacy group. “If states focus on that, we see bipartisan wins. But the challenge is making that a statewide priority, not just a district-by-district hope.”

Before he was even sworn in, first-term Georgia Democratic state Sen. RaShaun Kemp, a former teacher and principal, had already drafted a bill to end the use of the three-cueing system in Georgia classrooms.

This month, the final version passed the state legislature without a single “no” vote. GOP Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law Monday.

Sen. Kemp said his passion for literacy reform stretches back decades, shaped by experiences tutoring children at a local church as a college student in the early 2000s. It was there, he said, that he began noticing patterns in how students struggled with foundational reading.

“In my experience, I saw kids struggle to identify the word they were reading. I saw how some kids were guessing what the word was instead of decoding,” Kemp recalled. “And it’s not technology or screens that’s the problem. It’s what teachers are being instructed on how to teach reading. It’s the system that needs fixing, not the teachers.”

The new law requires the Professional Standards Commission — a state agency that oversees teacher prep and certification — to adopt rules mandating evidence-based reading instruction aligned with the science of reading, a set of practices rooted in decades of cognitive research on how children best learn to read.

“Current strategies used to teach literacy include methods that teach students to guess rather than read, preventing them from reaching their full potential,” Sen. Kemp said in a public statement following the bill’s legislative passage. “I know we can be better, and I’m proud to see our legislative body take much-needed steps to help make Georgia the number one state for literacy.”

In West Virginia, lawmakers have introduced similar bills that would require the state’s teachers to be certified in the science of reading.

Cosby, of the National Parents Union, said local policy changes can be driven by parents even before legislatures act.

“All politics are local,” Cosby said. “Parents don’t need to wait for statewide mandates — they can ask school boards for universal screeners and structured literacy now.”

Still, some parents worry their states are simply funding more studies on early literacy rather than taking direct action to address it.

A Portland, Oregon, parent of three — one of whom has dyslexia — sent written testimony this year urging lawmakers to skip further studies and immediately implement structured literacy statewide.

“We do not need another study to tell us what we already know — structured literacy is the most effective way to teach all children to read, particularly those with dyslexia and other reading challenges,” wrote Katherine Hoffman.

Unlike in Georgia, the “science of reading” has met resistance in other states.

In California, legislation that would require phonics-based reading instruction statewide has faced opposition from English learner advocates who argue that a one-size-fits-all approach may not effectively serve multilingual students.

In opposition to the bill, the California Teachers Association argued that by codifying a rigid definition of the “science of reading,” lawmakers ignore the evolving nature of reading research and undermine teachers’ ability to meet the diverse needs of their students.

“Placing a definition for ‘science of reading’ in statute is problematic,” wrote Seth Bramble, a legislative advocate for the California Teachers Association in a March letter addressed to the state’s Assembly Education Committee. “This bill would carve into stone scientific knowledge that by its very nature is constantly being tested, validated, refuted, revised, and improved.”

Similarly, in Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in March vetoed a bill that would have reversed changes to the state’s scoring system to align the state’s benchmarks with the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal assessment tool that has recently been hit with funding cuts and layoffs under the Trump administration. Evers said in his veto that Republican lawmakers were stepping on the state superintendent’s independence.

That veto is another step in the evolution of a broader constitutional fight over literacy policy and how literacy funds are appropriated and released. In 2023, Wisconsin lawmakers set aside $50 million for a new statewide literacy initiative, but disagreements over legislative versus executive control have stalled its disbursement.

Indiana’s legislature faced criticism from educators over a 2024 mandate requiring 80 hours of literacy training for pre-K to sixth-grade teachers before they can renew their licenses. Teachers argued that the additional requirements were burdensome and did not account for their professional expertise.

In Illinois, literacy struggles have been building for more than a decade, according to Mailee Smith, senior director of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. Today, only 3 in 10 Illinois third- and fourth-graders can read at grade level, based on state and national assessments.

Although Illinois lawmakers amended the school code in 2023 to create a state literacy plan, Smith noted the plan is only guidance and does not require districts to adopt evidence-based reading instruction. She urged local school boards to act on their own.

“If students can’t read by third grade, half of the fourth-grade curriculum becomes incomprehensible,” she said. “A student’s likelihood to graduate high school can be predicted by their reading skill at the end of third grade.”

Despite the challenges, Smith said even small steps can make a real difference.

“Screening, intervention, parental notice, science-based instruction, and thoughtful grade promotion — those are the five pillars, and Illinois and even local school districts can implement some of these steps right away,” she said.

“It doesn’t have to be daunting.”

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Trump Dump: Attorney General Pam Bondi Claims Trump Saved 258 Million Lives From Fentanyl

donald trump dump truck

This series, titled Trump Dump, features outlandish, untrue quotes from Donald Trump, MAGA supporters, and Right Wing media. If you come across a quote for this series, please send it to me with a link to the news story that contains the relevant quote.

President Donald Trump holds open cabinet meetings where attendees are expected to, in North Korean fashion, fawn over him and praise his every move.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi (does anyone really think Trump would have chosen her if she wasn’t an attractive white woman with blonde hair?) said:

3,400 kilos of fentanyl since you’ve been in your last 100 days, which saved, are you ready for this, media, 258 million lives.

Kids are dying every day because they’re taking this junk laced with something else.

They don’t know what they’re taking.

They think they’re buying a Tylenol or an Adderall and a Xanax.

And it’s laced with fentanyl, and they’re dropping dead.

And no longer because of you, what you’ve done.

As reported by Crooks & Liars

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

The Myth of Anti-Christian Bias

anti-christian bias

Baby Christian Donald Trump — who spent Easter Sunday honoring the resurrected Jesus by golfing all day — and his feckless band of Evangelical and Roman Catholic gatekeepers, made it known that his administration will actively go after anti-Christian bias in the federal government. Question: is there anti-Christian bias in the government to start with? No evidence is provided for bias. Christians are absolutely FREE to worship God as they wish. Christian pastors are free to preach whatever they want from the pulpit. Outside of occasional skirmishes over building codes and the Johnson Amendment, Christian churches are left alone, free to preach superstition and nonsense.

Until the early 1960s, Christians ruled the cultural roost. Then came U.S. Supreme Court rulings that banned teacher-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools. Many Christians were outraged over these court rulings, saying that their religion was being persecuted. This, of course, is laughable. Public schools are secular institutions. The separation of church and state requires schools to refrain from promoting sectarian religions. When schools permit teacher-led Bible readings and prayers, they are promoting a sectarian religion — namely Christianity. Over the past five decades, Evangelical parachurch organizations have found ways to weaken the wall separating church and state by establishing student-led programs such as Lifewise Academy and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Non-Christian organizations are permitted to offer programs to students, but so far, few do so, and those who do — such as the Satanic Temple — face pushback from Christians who do not understand the freedom of religion, free speech, and the separation of church and state. These objectors wrongly think that only Christianity should be taught in public schools. However, as things currently stand, if Christian groups are given access to school children, non-Christian groups must be given the same access.

Sadly, many school administrators, either out of ignorance or bias, support and promote Christian organizations, giving them preferential access to students. Groups such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union spend countless hours writing letters to schools that think they can ignore the law, filing lawsuits against schools that ignore their demands. Most of the time, school districts back down and end discriminatory practices. If left unchecked, schools with Christian administrators would allow unfettered evangelization and indoctrination.

I live in rural northwest Ohio, home to God, guns, and Donald Trump. There are hundreds of Christian churches in a three-county area. I live in Ney, a town of about 356 people. There is at least seven churches within a few miles of my home. Countless local businesses have Christian kitsch hanging in their stores or tracts on their counters. Some businesses are decidedly evangelistic in their business model. One local barber claims his barber shop is a “ministry.” Get your hair cut by this barber, and you should expect to hear a sermon. Everywhere I look, I see Christianity. Maybe it is different in other places, but I don’t see anti-Christian bias anywhere.

As I type this post, I am listening to Matt Dillahunty’s Wednesday program on The Line. Matt talked about the difference between anti-Christian bias and anti-Christianity bias. Christians should be governed by the same laws as atheists. Government should be neutral when it comes to religion. Government = we the people. Not just people who meet certain political or religious standards, but all people. As citizens, however, we are free to have anti-Christianity bias. While I generally treat all religious people with respect (or with as much respect as they give me), when it comes to the organizations themselves, I am definitely anti-Christianity. I am anti-Evangelicalism, anti-Catholicism, anti-IFB church movement, and anti-any sect that causes harm to other people. I can respect my Evangelical neighbor while despising his religion at the same time. As a private person, I have the right to oppose, criticize, and condemn religious groups and their teachings. It is not anti-Christian bias if I speak out against particular sects. While it is often hard to separate the skunk from its smell — the Christian from his chosen sect — I do my best to distinguish between the two.

Donald Trump is using anti-Christian bias nonsense to curry favor with Evangelicals, Mormons, and conservative Roman Catholics. These followers of Jesus, however, are using the claim of anti-Christian bias to advance their theocratic agenda. Their goal is God rule; a nation state where Jesus rules supreme and the Bible (as interpreted by them) is the law of the land. Trump is a blowhard, but these theocratic Christians are an existential threat to our Republic. If left unchecked, the next thing we will be talking about is anti-non-Christian bias. And we already see this bias rearing its ugly head in government policies and statements made by Christian government officials.

Anti-Christian bias does not exist, but anti-religion bias does. As a secular state, the United States should not give any religion preferential treatment, but by setting up anti-Christian bias offices, the government is giving Christianity a preferred seat at the table. In a pluralistic society, every religion — including humanists, atheists, and pagans, to name a few — should be treated equally — not just Christians.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Did Donald Trump Deport the Easter Bunny?

easter bunny

President Donald Trump held a corporate-sponsored Easter egg roll at the White House. One prominent participant was a full-sized Easter bunny who walked on two legs. After the egg roll, the Easter Bunny was arrested by ICE agents dressed as white rabbits and deported to Easter Island.

What did the Easter Bunny do to deserve deportation? He was an American citizen, born at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada. Surely, American citizens can’t be deported, right? Sadly, the Trump Administration is as averse to following the U.S. Constitution and settled law as a young boy is to soap and water on a Saturday night.

The only reason I can think of for the deportation of the Easter Bunny is that its fur is brown; and if there is one thing we know about Donald Trump, it is that he is not a fan of people of color. Yes, MAGA readers, your King, Lord, and Savior is a racist. Next year, perhaps the easter bunny should be a white snowshoe hare. Or better yet, maybe J.D. Vance could be the easter bunny.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Fact or Fiction: Donald Trump Thinks the United States was the Strongest from 1870 to 1913

trump tariff cartoon

“Hey, Trump voters! Yesterday, Trump had a press conference in the Oval Office. He said, ‘You know, our country was the strongest, believe it or not, from 1870 to 1913. You know why? It was all tariff-based. We had no income tax. Then in 1913, some genius came up with the idea of let’s charge the people of our country, not foreign countries that are ripping off our country. And the country was never relatively—was never that kind of wealth. We had so much wealth, we didn’t know what to do with our money. We had meetings. We had committees. And these committees worked tirelessly to study one subject. We have so much money. What are we going to do with it? Who are we going to give it to?’

Did you know that you know an actual expert on the period of 1870 to 1913?

It’s me. I am.

I’ve been studying this time period for two decades, and I don’t mean reading a Doris Kearns Goodwin book every few months. I am a trained scholar of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

There’s a lot of us who study this period. In fact, I was in a room with many of them over the weekend. We stared at Trump Tower in Chicago while we met. It was… motivating.

Do you know what happened between 1870 and 1913? There were two economic panics. Huge ones. Deep, scarring panics where many working people went hungry and jobless. Do you know who was ‘rich’ in that period? The Carnegies. The Vanderbilts. JP Morgan, who almost single-handedly controlled the nation’s money supply. Wild swings occurred in the stock market. Working people were paid pennies. Middle-class people made money, bought homes, and lost them with regularity. There was no economic stability.

There was no regulation. Between 1880 and 1905, there were well over 36,000 strikes involving 6 million workers. Do you know what they were striking for? The biggest ask was an 8-hour work day.

Do you know what Congress focused on instead? Passing obscenity laws, obsessing about sex, and white women’s purity. Creating instability in the Phillipines, the Caribbean, and Latin America via colonialist, eugenic-based projects. Enriching themselves on kickbacks from industries like the railroads. Rejecting appeals for women’s suffrage and anti-lynching laws. State governments doubled down on segregation laws and passed laws to try to control what was taught in classrooms.

Sound familiar?”

— Dr. Lauren Thompson, Historian, as posted on Facebook

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Texas Republicans Pushing Legislation That Permits High School Students to Carry Handguns

jesus gun control

Reform Austin reports:

Texas legislators are currently reviewing a series of firearm-related bills that, if passed, would mark a historic and controversial shift in U.S. gun policy. Among them are House Bill 2470 and House Bill 4201, which together would make Texas the first state in the nation to legally allow teenagers to carry handguns on school campuses.

….

“Instead of taking action against gun violence by strengthening our weak laws, our lawmakers are convinced that more guns in our communities is the answer,” said Molly Bursey, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Putting more guns into dangerous hands, and in more sensitive places, will only lead to more violence, more fear, and more loss,” as reported by Moms Demand Action.

HB 2470 proposes lowering the minimum age to possess and obtain a license to carry a handgun from 21 to 18, while HB 4201 would permit license holders to carry concealed firearms in locations currently designated as sensitive, such as schools, hospitals, airports, bars, and government buildings.

These proposals have drawn sharp criticism from gun safety advocates and student-led organizations who argue that such measures would worsen the state’s already significant gun violence problem. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, more than 4,300 people die by guns in Texas each year, and gun-related injuries total nearly 8,000 annually.

Hayden Presley, a student leader with the University of Texas at Austin’s Students Demand Action chapter, also spoke out. “It’s absolutely crazy that our lawmakers would think that putting more guns into the hands of young people—people younger than me—would make us safer. We know it won’t, and we demand better ‘solutions’ than that.”

In 2024 alone, Texas saw at least 17 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, highlighting concerns about the potential consequences of introducing more firearms into educational settings.

In addition to HB 2470 and HB 4201, lawmakers are considering several other bills that critics say would further loosen gun restrictions across the state. These include:

HB 259, which would remove the prohibition on short-barreled rifles and shotguns;

HB 1128, which would allow election judges and early voting clerks to carry concealed handguns at polling places;

HB 1794, which would allow any licensed individual to carry concealed firearms at polling locations;

HB 2771, which would narrow the list of felonies that disqualify individuals from firearm ownership;

HB 3053, which would prohibit localities from organizing gun buyback programs;

HB 3428, which would limit which restaurants and bars can prohibit firearms;

HB 3924, which would allow school marshals to openly carry handguns on campuses

Just what Texas needs: high school students carrying handguns to school. What possibly could go wrong, right?

I know several Texans. Decent, thoughtful, caring people who, I know, without asking them, oppose allowing high school students to carry handguns to school. Why don’t I need to ask them? Unlike their Republican legislators, these Texans know that mixing handguns with immature brains is a recipe for disaster. They know more guns don’t make them safer and only lead to more violence, injury, and death.

For the life of me, I don’t understand how anyone could think that allowing teens with underdeveloped brains to carry firearms while attending classes is a good idea.

What do you think, readers? Should we arm high school students?

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Bruce’s Ten Hot Takes for April 16, 2025

hot takes

Object to calling the prison in El Salvador the Trump Administration is using to house undocumented immigrants a concentration camp? Consider: “What distinguishes a concentration camp from a prison (in the modern sense) is that it functions outside of a judicial system. The prisoners are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process.” (U.S. Holocaust Museum)

President Trump thinks executive orders are the equivalent of law. Unfortunately, Congress has done nothing to disabuse him of this false notion.

I saw a video of a Trump Cabinet meeting where the people seated at the table went around the room, one by one, giving praise to King Donald. Disgusting, to say the least. Trump is a petulant child who must be frequently praised lest he throw a tantrum.

When it comes to the Trump Administration, everything I see and hear reminds me of junior high. Well, except for the fact that these juveniles have a massive military and nuclear weapons. What could go wrong, right?

We are in the middle of a measles outbreak that has killed two children and sickened hundreds more, yet HHS director Robert “Worm Brain” Kennedy, Jr. is “investigating” the efficacy of vaccines. Just take Vitamin A, he says, and now we have children getting sick from vitamin poisoning. Kennedy is a threat to the health of the American people.

When Trump first appointed Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, I thought he was a decent pick. However. I noticed in a picture yesterday that Rubio has dark brown stains on his nose — the sure sign of someone who spends his days and nights kissing Trump’s ass. His behavior, so far, has been disgraceful.

President Trump wants to show the world he has a big dick. On his birthday in June, Trump plans to have a large military parade in Washington, D.C. Only authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un have dick-wagging parades.

Doubt that MAGA is a cult? Some Republican members of Congress want to chisel Trump’s likeness on the face of Mount Rushmore, rename Dulles International Airport with Trump’s name, put his face on the $100 bill, and print a new $250 bill with Trump’s face on the front of it. And then there’s the Marjorie Taylor Greene types who think Trump is the greatest president to ever sit in the Oval Office. Can’t fix that level of stupid.

It’s hard to believe Andrew Cuomo is running to be the next mayor of New York. What’s next, Anthony Weiner running for president? Hell, why not? Morals and ethics no longer matter.

Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people continues unabated. While Hamas is the stated target, it’s clear that it is the Palestinian people who are facing the brunt of Israel’s bloodlust. It will take decades to rebuild Gaza — that is, if Trump doesn’t turn Gaza into an amusement park for American billionaires.

Bonus: The Cincinnati Reds are one game above .500, having won four straight games. Dare I hope? Polly and I hope to attend several games this year.

Bonus Video: Do you have TRS — Tesla Regret Syndrome?

Video Link

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Are We Watching the Death of Our Republic?

trump's america

The United States is built on the rule of law. Our system only works if everyone plays by the same rules. When a president decides the rules don’t apply to him and he is immune from accountability, what should patriotic Americans do? Or maybe we should ask, what CAN we do?

The Supreme Court has largely given President Trump and his minions the freedom to do what they want. And even when the Court rules against him, Trump ignores their rulings and does what he wants. What do we do when the executive branch becomes lawless and is no longer accountable to Congress, the courts, and the American people? As MAGA supporters are quickly learning, Trump doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.

Congress, as long as it is controlled by Republicans will not restrain Trump’s base desire for authoritarian power and money. They want the same.

I weep as I ponder how in the hell we have come to this. Is this the end of this great country of ours? Trump alone is not to blame. He’s the full grown baby that was birthed forty years during the Reagan administration. So cute in 1980, but now this baby has morphed into a full-grown monster who will not rest until his perceived enemies are under the heels of his Nazi jack boots and fascism rules the land.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.