26- The fifth anniversary of J62021

Groucho Marks has been credited with the line “Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?” to his wife. Of course this was after she caught him in bed with another woman.

Evening shift on January 6, 2021 started like they all did.

It was the 1st pandemic winter. There was good news. The vaccines were flowing into peoples’ arms. Schools in North Carolina were still mostly remote.

We were all masked. Even in the operating room core and the hallways.

Children under 14 were still not permitted to visit family members in the hospital.

However things were looking up. Most of the hospital had had at least 1 covid vaccine with a lucky few having both shots. There was talk of the expansion of the vaccines to those who were most vulnerable. The operating rooms had opened and were operating at a full capacity.

This means we were busy, busy, busy. As the fall into winter rush showed no signs of abatement.

The first Cookie Thursday is a Thing was set to happen the next day on January 7th. I was very proud of that month’s theme. The theme was Boozy Cookies. To celebrate us and the crap year we had just gone through.

Just an ordinary Wednesday.

A new president of the United States had been elected on November 3, 2020.

With the attendant denials and bluster from the current to the time president.

Rumblings of refusal to leave were being heard and drum beats filled the media and news stories. The far right was gathering their forces (the people who stormed the capital) by filling their heads with more lies.

January 6, 2021 was supposed to be the vote to certify the election. The best thing that Vice President Pence ever did was to stand by the Constitution and refuse to bow the knee.

Instead it was chaos as the supporters of the current to the time president stormed the capital.

They were high on the idea, carefully fed to them, that the election outcome had been a mistake, that their man could never be voted out. That there was a election theft happening right under their noses.

And they marched and rushed the capital. At least 2000 of them

It was chaos.

Around the same time I clocked in for my shift rioters were breaking the windows of the Capital and helping themselves to the inside.

More chaos.

They were stopped.

In the aftermath there was a protestor dead. A United States Capitol Police officer died later that day after being attacked and sprayed. There were four suicides of other USCP officers within the next year.

It happened.

No matter what the current White House and the current President would have you believe it happened.

There was violence at the capital.

Five years later the same President is back in office through a series of unfortunate events. And pardoned the nearly 1600 people who had been convicted of crimes related to January 6, 2021 on his first day back at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

And still causing chaos.

The most recent scapegoat on the White House’s newest sham website are the police. The violent protestors who broke windows and assaulted officers and smeared shit on the walls of the capital were “peaceful protestors”.

This is not correct. This is a LIE and we all know it.

Well, most of us are aware of the white washing of history going on in our very own White House.

The horrible events of this horrible day happened.

No matter what they are trying to cram down your throat.

We remember and do not fall for their lies.

Up the rebels.

FFS Friday 11/28/25- Feckless administration denies human trafficking concern for made up BS reason

Feckless is a fabulous word. It means incompetent.

In yet another broadside to others that the administration does not wish to recognize, on November 15th the “administration” removed a vital report on missing and/or dead Native Americans. This was a mandated report from the department of justice’s website.

This was a report that was mandated in 2020 by the Not Invisible Act.

They disappeared the report in FEBRUARY. After the debacle of the executive order declaring there are only 2 sexes. This was the DOJ’s way of complying with the order.

With a dash of also complying with the anti DEI executive order.

According to the Missing American Indian and Alaskan Native Persons Data 2024, there were ten thousand, two hundred forty eight entries of missing American Indians or Alaska Natives in 2024 into the data base. Of that 10,248, 233 cases are still active as of April 25, 2025. This data is pulled from the FBI Documents.

The vast majority of them are under 18. 7077 under 18, both female (4,179) and male (2,898) to 3,151 over 18. That is the only way the report marks age; over 18 and under 18.

Obviously human trafficking is a concern.

As well as violence.

The missing American Indian and Alaska Native persons has been simmer for a long time. Which is why the report was mandated in 2020. Finally.

Our media is more concerned with the white kids, you see. Especially if the perpetrator is not white.

More sensational.

More eyeballs means more money for the media company. We truly live in an attention economy.

More missing and exploited American Indians and Alaska Natives doesn’t have any juice, you see.

More missing kids that aren’t white or male, the government shrugs. The families are left to wonder why their loved one is gone. The families are left to wonder who took them. The families are left to wonder where their loved one is.

This is agony for them. And the government shrugs and obscures the report for BS made up reasons.

So many executive orders, each one a slap in the face of a woman or a minority or, to put plainly, anyone who isn’t a straight white man.

Reminder, an executive order is a wish.

A wish to put women firmly back in their place.

A wish to roll back the years of hard won progress.

Not a law.

FFS Friday 11/21/25- Fidelity

As I am sure you are aware, a group of 6 Democratic lawmakers, both Senators and Representatives alike, released a video on Tuesday (November 18, 2025) advising military and intelligence communities to defy illegal orders they are given. 2 Senators and 4 Representatives made up the group. All of them had served either in the military or in intelligence work. There were 2 Navy (Senator Mark Kelly, Representative Chris Deluzio), 1 Air Force (Representative Chrissy Houlahan), 1 Army Ranger (Congressman Jason Crow), and 2 intelligence officers (Senator Elissa Slotkin, CIA, Congresswomen Maggie Goodlander).

The message is brief and stark. It is a reminder to the intelligence officers and military members of all services that their first duty is to the American citizens, not the current president.

Illegal orders must be disobeyed.

Their fidelity is owed to the constitution, not the current administration. Not the current Secretary of Defense, now named the SECRETARY OF WAR.

The CONSTITUTION that they have all sworn to uphold.

Not the self styled monarch that is drenching OUR house, the White House, in tacky spray painted shit.

Not the foreign leaders that hold their leashes.

Not the billionaires who bought the election for them. Because their loyalty is not to the Constitution.

The current members of the military and intelligence community owe their loyalty to the CONSTITUTION.

Their fidelity.

As the Marine Corps saying goes “Semper Fidelis”.

Always Faithful to the ideals of America, not the wanna be strong man ruler and his cronies.

The fight will be hard. Hell, it already has been hard. I cannot imagine the pressure that all current members of these institutions are facing.

I’ve written about the Officer Oath that I took at 19 to the Air Force.

I did not swear to Bill Clinton, who was the president at the time. I swore to uphold the Constitution. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

And neither did the current and past members of the military and intelligence community. Including the 6 that gave this powerful and timely message.

The current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue reacted, of course. Badly, like they always do. Like the big blowhard they are. And of course he reacted with the threat of treason. And death threats. Because that is the only play that they know.

His current press secretary came out with “All the president’s orders are legal.” Excuse me? The fuck they are.

And of course the members of the “right wing” media reacted as if they’d been scalded. Instead of sitting and thinking what the message of the 6 truly was.

Get the military off American streets. Stop threatening United States Citizens. Remember your oath to the Constitution.

And, for the love of America, put that back in your pants before you hurt yourself!

Tuesday Top of Mind 11/11/25-Raise a glass to a veteran

It is Veteran’s Day in the United States.

Not Victory Day for World War I as a certain recent occupant of the White House wanted to rename it.

It is not just a day for World War 1.

It is not just a day for World War II.

It is not just a day for the Korean War.

It is not just a day for Vietnam.

It is not just a day for Operation Desert Storm.

It is not just a day for any American’s who served in the military.

It is not just a day for any I hope this is the pathway to American citizenship for those who have served as non-citizens of the U.S.

It is not just a day for any non-citizens who died or bled for the U.S.

It is the day for to remember their sacrifices, both in terms of youth and blood and sanity.

But also to remember the debt we owe ALL of them.

I continue to have conflicted feelings of whether or not I am a veteran. I certainly don’t feel like it. I was certainly ready to sacrifice for my country. I certainly recited the officer’s oath and I learned for 2 years as an ROTC cadet.

But that is me.

And there are a lot of former and current service members who are not getting the care they deserve for their sacrifice. No matter how small.

Raise a glass, sponsor a dinner for a veteran’s association, wear a remembrance poppy, thank a veteran.

Hell, do all of it.

Just remember what they gave and what we took from them.

And don’t let anyone take anything else from them.

Like their healthcare.

Like needed support because we threw them to the dogs and didn’t bother to care for them properly when they limped home.

Tuesday Top of Mind 11/4/25- Did you vote?

Every election is important.

Every opportunity to flex your constitutionally given powers* is important.

I used an asterisk because in the constitution only white, male, Protestant land owners could vote.

Of course.

By 1830 most states had dropped the religious and land owning components.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment recognized African Americans as citizens, giving the males the right to vote.

Of course, this led to some states denial of this right.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. This amendment prohibited any state or local government from stopping them from voting.

But they still tried.

In 1890, Wyoming recognized a women’s right to vote. And they did so in the state constitution.

Go, Wyoming!

In 1920, the 19th Amendment was added to the constitution. This gave women the right to vote.

In 1947, all states granted Native Americans the right to vote.

And then some of states, outraged by being outnumbered, instituted a poll tax in the 1880s and 90s. This meant that people, mostly black men, had to pay a tax in order to vote. Naughty naughty. Some people will cheat to win, won’t they.

In 1964, the 24th Amendment stated unequivocally that no-one should be denied the right to vote because of bullshit, made up “tax”.

The 1960s were hot because in 1965 there was an amendment to the Voting Rights Act, the very same one the 2020s Supreme Court has been chipping away at, that banned the use of literacy tests.

In 1971, the voting age was lowered to 18. I am not sure if this was because of the Vietnam War. Because of the draft teenagers and 20 year old were old enough to die in a senseless war, but not old enough to vote.

Today your mission was to have voted.

It is the only way to send a message that some people will understand.

Beyond the economic blackout that is being planned for the end of the month.

Someone else said it best. Perhaps we should have a non-corporation holiday season and focus on the small companies.

FFS Friday 8/8/25- Forced Removal is Fairness Denied

I have thought about this all day. I have thought about how to approach writing about it. I have thought about all the the F words I wanted to use. I have felt compassion for these individuals impacted. I have felt rage at those who deny those who have bled for this country and served it honorably.

I am referring to the announcement that the Air Force is early denying retirement to all of its transgender members who have between 15 and 18 years of military service. They are being forced out with no retirement benefits. According to a Guardian article even those who were approved for temporary early retirement has had the rug pulled out from under them.

And then I remembered that cruelty is the point with this bastards.

No matter that the enlisted swore to uphold the Constitution, and would obey the President and the officers above them. All they wanted to do was continue to serve their country.
No matter that the oath of office for officers (yes they are different) is that they will support and defend the Constitution, while bearing allegiance to the country.

No, these individuals served as trans members of the military, proudly, for YEARS. And then an ill wind appeared and blew it all to hell. Because the ill wind is a petty little bitch and must destroy what they don’t understand.

To recap, trans members of the Air Force who have served the country and upheld their oaths, enlisted and officer alike, have bled in service of the country, have died for their country, have continued to serve under those who do not understand, who have done their best for the Constitution and their country were targeted for attack under the current administration. Some held strong to get to their 20. Others opted to take early retirement, unable to bear the strain of the unrighteous attacks from those who should be supporting them.

To me, they were forced out. In fact they were told to leave, that they were an abomination.

All they wanted to do was serve.

In 1993, 18 year old me, newly graduated, newly moved across the country to Nebraska, newly a college student, newly dressed in uniform, stood proudly on the wool rug in my detachment’s captain’s office, raised my right hand, and swore the oath of office. I was determined to be a career officer, to study hard, to be the best nurse I could be, to protect and care for servicemen in my care. I was excited to be among other cadets as we all learned what it meant to be an officer and how to support the Constitution to the best of our abilities and with our lives if needed.

This was not to be as I suffered an Air Force career injury due to some ripped up dorm stairs the next year and I was invited to leave as I could no longer fulfill my part of the oral contract. I was weeks away from bootcamp.

What they are doing now is barbaric and is spitting on the graves of all who willingly served before.

Forced removal is fairness denied. No matter that they took the enlisted oath or the oath of office. No matter that they were under attack by those who should have cared for them. No matter that as they had the country’s back in war times, the country decided they were nothing and flicked them off like a cigarette butt when you are done smoking it.

Are you paying attention yet?

I fear that next target will be the women of child bearing age so that they can go home and have babies.

FFS Friday 7/4/2025- freedom*

Today is the 4th of July and our nation’s independence day.

The asterisk? Well, let’s talk about it.

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the asterisk is used as an indication of the omission of letters or words.

Independence through resolution in three parts: separation from the British Crown, a call to form foreign alliances, and a plan for confederation. Seems simple enough.

This means that we were separating from England and all that entailed, looking for friends that were not England, and grouping together. This grouping of people is also known as a confederacy.

No, not that one. The original one.

At the time the new country was a group of people who wanted to leave British rule and strike out on their own. With their own laws and their own ways of doing things. Where no king could wave his fat white hand and make nonsense rules for everyone.

Sound familiar? America just had a multi-million people nationwide protest on June 7, 2025 about it.

At the time to be a voting member of this new society you had to be a land owner, white, and male.

And that was it.

Women need not apply.

Slaves that were forcibly brought here from Africa and sold to these men need not apply.

Men who did not own property need not apply.

In the nearly two hundred and seventy five year history, these marginalized groups have fought and bled and died to be seen as a citizen. As a voter.

Strides were made. And the rich white men were not happy about it.

White men who were not property owners were granted the right to vote in 1787.

Slaves earned their ability not to be owned by another human with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

Black men earned the right to vote in 1870.

Women earned the right to vote in 1920.

Poll taxes that were just racism by another name were abolished in 1964. As was segregation.

America has a checkered past and those of us who were not thought of or dismissed as not a person in the original documents has fought for every single step along the way.

And those who don’t think women are people or black people are people or native Americans are people have fought tooth and nail to maintain their grip on control.

Inch by inch, legislation by legislation, the rights that were bled for and wept over and fought for are being taken away by rich old white men who remember the “good old days”. When non white people were property of the whites and women were kept under their husband’s thumb.

That is the meaning of the asterisk in today’s post title.

Freedom for old rich white male property owners.

Crickets for everyone else.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war

The title is a direct Shakespearian quote. It is a line spoken by Marc Antony in the play Julius Caesar. It is chaotic times like these that make me turn philosophical and remember that we’ve all been here before. Many, many, many times. In a call back to the June 13’s dispatch about too numerous to count. I was referring to cultures at the time but pretend war also fits.

There is a moment in Hannah Gadsby’s 2020 comic special “Douglas” when they are explaining that we don’t hold men accountable for their hormonal actions, instead society holds women accountable.

The audience claps and cheers that sentiment and they snap to the audience “It’s bait, you fucking idiots. It’s bait, leave it.”

This part of the bit is particularly genius.

It is at once acknowledging that society does women dirty by making us shoulder the entire weight of the world while at the same time cooing at the men and praising them for the fucking bare minimum. It is telling women that there is nothing wrong with how things are and if the women feel like there absolutely is, gaslighting women into toeing the line.

In the comedy special they go on “It’s not for you. Fuck. It’s not a rally.” To me this brings to mind all the political rallies that a certain president was giving, trying desperately to hold on to the job that he very much did not want, but enjoyed the special treatments that he got because of this. Also this was released in 2020, bringing that chaotic time specifically to mind.

This time with the same president is also chaotic as fuck. On purpose. Again.

The truest thing they said during the special is that “Confidence makes (Americans) stupid”.

And it truly does.

Individually we are not stupid, but collectively some of us are. Some of us know that the bombing of “nuclear” sites in Iran was bait. And some of us hang on every word that the president utters.

Why is it bait?

Well there were the dramatic “No Kings” protests on June 14th. Millions of Americans (I have heard estimates from 4 million to over 10 million) took to the streets to declare that America is not a place for Kings. No matter how the president wants to be made a king.

Making spurious and curious bombing decisions. A tanking economy that had been the envy of the world less than 6 months ago. A federal bank that won’t cut interest rates. Thousands of research projects that had the potential to save lives and relieve suffering wiped out by disastrous policies. Leaning in to the echo chamber about vaccines, regardless of them being wrong. A beyond catastrophic bill in the Senate that the House of Representatives passed only because 2 Democratic reps had died in the month before and were not yet replaced. Not to mention the tanking, and I mean tanking, approval ratings.

That same day there was a fairly disastrous military parade through the streets of the nation’s capital. Low turnout, sloppy marching, miserably huddled guest of honor.

He had to distract from last weekend somehow.

And what is the best distraction?

Millions of Americans being forthright about hating you.

What’s a president have to do to get the heat off? Bomb a sovereign county that your own intelligence head said had no nuclear bombs or capabilities.

Which is what the asshole did.

Remember this is how the then president got us into the Iraq War II. Lying about weapons of mass destruction? Where trillions of dollars were spent and thousands of American lives were lost? It feels very much like that. We were lied to then too.

Because we do.

The American public has been very outspoken about not wanting war.

We are very tired of war.

But you had to do something to change the narrative.

Too bad it was getting you out of the boiling pot and putting the rest of us in the fire.

See also Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”. I’ve written about this before. It is a poem about the atrocities of World War I and the agonies of the front line.

FFS Friday 5/30/25- F’in 5th circuit appeals court

Double F today.

Last week, the rage baiting 5th circuit appeals court. Yes, the same one that has been used as a basis for a Supreme Court judgement superhighway. You know, forum shopping. Also known as court shopping where the right judgement can be bought by choosing the right judge and getting on their calendar.

According to Merriam Webster, forum shopping is the “practice of choosing the court in which an action from among those courts that could properly exercise jurisdiction based on a determination of which court is likely to provide the most favorable outcome”.

The favorable outcome is, of course, a case to be adjudicated by the wildly biased and conservatively weighted Supreme Court. Then the Supreme Court can issue a for or against ruling, depending on the circumstances, that will warp this country to the will of the people who were court shopping.

We know their game. We have seen it in the relentless battering of some people against things THEY personally don’t like and don’t agree with. After all, why should people be allowed to love who they love. And marry them. I am looking at you people who want to overturn Obergefell. Or the shrill voices who pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed against Roe v. Wade for fifty years until they got the result they wanted.

Remember?

Yeah, so those same judge (forum) shoppers are also against books that they don’t like. We’ve seen it in the book bans. No matter that they don’t have to read the books, the book banners want no one to have to right to read whatever the reader wants. They bleat save the children when it really isn’t about the children, never has been. But that’s a rant for another time.

Book banning at schools has reached a fever pitch over the last forever. Well, at least, that’s what it feels like. They are a slow erosion of America’s rights. And I think contribute to the dumbing down that we’ve been experiencing in society.

Yeah, yeah, Kate, we know. But did you know the newest gambit?

Last week the 5th Circuit Appeals Court effectively said that books in schools were the purview of the government and not subject for 1st Amendment rights.

The government is arguing that the books are the property of the government and therefore are immune from 1st Amendment rights arguments.

That is not a typo. I just find it so outrageous that I had to type it twice.

The Fifth Circuit Appeals court has fired a missile against a citizen’s right to receive and have information. In fact, Judge Kyle Duncan wrote those very words in the judgement, “that the First Amendment of the US Constitution does not grant a right to receive information.”

Are they reading the same U.S. Constitution that I am? Or is it the thought that we can have free exchange of information uninfected by harmful rhetoric and without bias that they object to?

I am chilled by the idea that words are not freely expressed in a written format are not, in fact, free. And that I, as an American citizen born in this country, does not have the right to information that they might object to.

Do they know how words work? Or are they just a shill for their corporate overlords who want the book banners to control what is written and read by EVERYONE and is trusting in the slow drip of poison getting them their way.

After all, it worked against Roe.

This is screaming capitals DANGEROUS!

Trust me, I’m a woman and I’ve seen this before. I’ve watched my right to own my body be dismantled. Even though we could see the train wreck coming and tried warning against it. For literal years.

Listen to Uncle Steven (King) on the subject, kids. “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned.”

Happy Nurses Week 2025 5/7/25

It is Nurses’ Week once again.

Funny how that happens.

This is the week that nurses and nursing are being celebrated.

If 2020 was the Year of the Nurse and Midwife that marked 200 years since Florence Nightingale’s birth, then simple math makes this 205th year. You see what I did there.

There have been other notable nurses besides Florence Nightingale. Many, many, many. The nursing theorists whose work guide us. The original nurses who worked to provide us with structure.

Clara Barton and her work on the Civil War battlefield come to mind. As does her star achievement of the American Red Cross.

Dorothea Dix was a contemporary of Clara (can I call her that?) and advocated for mental healthcare of soldiers. She also was concerned with the mentally ill poor people and helped established mental hospitals.

Margaret Sanger who worked as a nurse in the tenements of New York and founded Planned Parenthood. She was also instrumental in the birth control pill development. She, too, was probably sick of women dying in childbirth.

Mary Seacole was a Jamaican-British nurse who was a contemporary of Florence (can I call her that?). She was the first Black woman who authored and published an autobiography in England.

Lilian Wald was a nurse whose passion was for safer living conditions for the poor in New York City. She also started community nursing and was an advocate of nurses in public schools.

Harriet Tubman was a nurse whose concern was for the Black soldiers of the Civil War and the newly freed slaves. She is best known for being a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

This is not a complete list. In fact, this is a living list and being added to constantly.

Giants all of them. Today’s nurses stand on their shoulders and fight many of the same battles. Hygiene might be better. There are better medications and treatments but at the heart, nurses remain the same.

Our reason for professional being are the people who need us. Not just the patients, but the doctors and surgeons and people on the street as well.

I have been a nurse for 24 years and I wouldn’t do anything else.

After all, I have big shoes to fill. My mom, the nurse I want to be when I grow up, is still working after 52 years.