This week, following the verdict in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial in Sanford, Florida I’ve heard a plethora of commentary, both “official” and comments from listeners, as I drive around listening to “talk radio.”  Usually, due to an issue that I may share in this post, I’m listening to XM radio because the “progressive” station in my area was shut down.  (The closing of the progressive talk radio stations is part of the bigger picture that I see emanating from the verdict “exonerating” Zimmerman from murdering Martin)  However, what caught my attention was a short period I listened to a “conservative” station I happened on by accident (don’t know what program it was – I have to force myself to listen to their “stuff” occasionally so I have some idea of the latest set of “talking points” their minions are putting forth – not sure what I’m talking about?  Read one of my posts connecting the Goebbels’ “Big Lie Theory” to the republican [“conservative”] philosophy of media strategy).  To my surprise, a person claiming to be (and his conversation led me to believe him) an overseer of medical examiners in the state of Texas phoned in and broke down the evidence that is public record in a way that was astonishing to me.  Frankly, I was surprised the moderator (again, don’t know who it was) allowed this person to give his entire “testimony.”  In fact, he (the caller) pointed out the “expert witness” (medical examiner) that the Zimmerman defense relied on (and, which evidently helped sway the jury) was unprofessional and would be facing disciplinary action back in Texas due to his actions in this case.  Of course, the details of this all went over my head, but the point the man made was clear – there was no intention on the part of either the defense OR the PROSECUTION to get a guilty verdict for George Zimmerman.  Based on the information of this man, the trial was a sham designed to diffuse the negative national attention brought to their area due to the obvious racial profiling that led to the death of Mr. Martin.

According to what this person said, much of what Mr. Zimmerman’s defense relied on was not credible and there was EASILY evidence that would refute his claims of “self defense” that the prosecution chose not to use.  I don’t remember all of what was said in this particular phone conversation, but as I’ve listened to the blow-back from multiple sources since the end of the trial, it’s clear to me that justice was NOT carried out in this case and the issue of race, that I’ve been writing about since Barrack Obama won the presidency, is a MAJOR issue in America and we need to deal with it SOONER rather than later.  While this case was in progress I started and finished a very interesting book titled “Red Summer – The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America” which details the struggle of Blacks in America during the summer of 1919 as racial tensions exploded into mob violence leading to Blacks being murdered, tortured, and lynched in DROVES with little to no consequence for the violators of their civil rights.  In fact, many in America, at the time, didn’t believe African Americans should have civil rights.  As I read more about Black History in America (I have to mention that when I got the XM radio in my car I started listening to a program called “Make it Plain,” hosted by Mark Thompson, which is “progressive” talk from the perspective of those in the Black Community in America – it’s spurred me to read more about Black History including the biography of WEB DuBois who was one of the leaders of the NAACP as Blacks began to “fight back” during the “Red Summer”) the Zimmerman acquittal helps me to understand what must be extreme frustration from the Black perspective and a FEAR that the people I’ve been railing about for the past several years might be succeeding in pushing the “clock” back to the days prior to FDR and the “New Deal.”

The idea that the prosecution in this case had no intention of “winning” makes my stomach uneasy.  I’m really starting to question how deep is the infiltration of our justice system of the “loyalists” that were hired during the reign of George W Bush and Dick Cheney.  (Remember, it’s a FACT that new hires at the Justice Department, during the Bush/Cheney regime were forced to take a “republican” loyalty oath as a condition of employment – despite the FACT this would be a FELONY – and this went on until someone “leaked” the information to our “liberal media” and it was presumably stopped.  However, I’ve never seen evidence that one “impartial” member of the Justice Department who took that absurd oath was ever fired, the person administering the oath (and her superiors) never faced accountability, and also, all the lawyers who quit in protest of that policy are presumably working elsewhere.  The evidence that our “IMPARTIAL” Justice Department is tilted HEAVILY to the right seems to show its ugly head repeatedly.  Now, I realize that the prosecution in the case against Zimmerman was local, but I honestly have little faith that the Justice Department will intervene based on the very REAL probability that Trayvon Martin’s Civil Rights were PERMANENTLY violated.  This was such a “slam dunk” case against George Zimmerman that it has to raise eyebrows from anyone who believes in a fair justice system, and – from the perspective of Blacks in America – I can only surmise that the feeling would be more of a sense of deja vu all over again horror.

I was listening today to a caller (presumably a Zimmerman defender) on the Thom Hartman show complaining that in Texas two Black youths shot and killed a white person and there’s no national media following of this case.  Of course, I’m not familiar with the case, but Hartman suggested this was a case that was brought to the public via Sean Hannity – presumably suggesting that the “liberal media” is showing its bias by focusing on the Zimmerman case.  Again, I don’t know the details, and the reality was the caller to Hartman’s show was attempting, evidently, to suggest that the only reason there’s so much publicity in this case is because Zimmerman is white.  And, I don’t know the details of the other case, but I would suggest that if the caller’s information was correct and if two Black youth killed a White person in cold blood and then claimed to be innocent because they were acting in self defense (they felt their lives were in danger) there would be a lot of attention on the case – for example, if there was a “Stand your Ground” law defense – especially, if there was an all Black jury that acquitted them in the face of overwhelming evidence they were guilty. (as in the case of Zimmerman, there has never been any question that he shot Trayvon Martin right through his heart).  That kind of blow-back from the “right” (Hannity, Limbaugh, Fox “news,” Wall Street Journal, etc., etc.) is part of the LARGER picture that I see as the real PROBLEM here.

Of course, before I get to that, just take a moment and picture in your mind how this story would have unfolded had Zimmerman been Black and Martin White.  One more thing, I seem to remember when this case was unfolding that George Zimmerman, at the time of his arrest, had no visible marks on his head and/or face.  That was one of my curiosities as I tuned in to a small segment of the trial.  The defense was talking about all the wounds to his head as the result of Trayvon Martin’s violent attack.  I was wondering why the prosecution didn’t post the pictures I saw at the time that showed NO marks on Zimmerman’s head?  Back to this bigger problem – and, I believe it is what will keep the Justice Department from intervening in this case on behalf of Martin.  I’ve shared in previous posts that the local “progressive” talk radio show was shut down just days after Barrack Obama won his second term by defeating Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.  What I didn’t know until just recently is that “Clear Channel” – the station which was airing the “format” was bought out by Bain Capital (Romney’s Bain Capital) a year or two prior to the election and their claim was that KPOJ’s progressive format was losing too much money due to a .08 “market share” of the local radio market.  (This is in Portland, Oregon)  The progressive “voices” were replaced with a version of FOX in the form of a sports channel.  Since that time, it has been reported that the LIBERAL talk format had an audience almost TEN TIMES larger than the replacement.  I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that “evidence.”

Knowing this only confirmed my suspicions (and fears prior to the shutdown) that “conservatives” would be willing to “invest” in the closure of progressive talk radio as a way to cement their stranglehold on our “liberal media.”  As I read more about the demise of KPOJ I saw that several other cities have suffered the same fate.  Prior to this assault on LIBERAL talk on the radio airwaves the conservative point of view occupied over 90% of the air space.  Evidently, that wasn’t enough for them.  So, how does this connect with the Zimmerman/Martin case?  Well, I believe the politicians in Washington, including our president. are political creatures who just don’t want to take on this “liberal media” – you know, like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Lars Larsen, and the rest of the people who are willing carry the “torch” for the Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch, and all the other corporatists who pay for their message to dominate the air waves.  This brainwashing has been going on for so long that many Americans just assume it’s “news” because there’s very little “blow-back.”  Many in America’s unsuspecting public actually believes, for example, that Fox is “fair and balanced.”  So, for some reason, the “right” took up the cause of racist killer George Zimmerman and if the Justice Department attempts to “jump in” all hell will break out in the right wing – oops – “liberal media.”

I’ve been pointing out on this site since the day Obama was elected that the racists in America were/are coming out from under their rocks in droves.  As long as we had White people in the “White House” it seemed as if the racial divide in this nation was diminishing.  I remember still getting tears in my eyes as I witnessed a Black (actually half Black) person winning the White House – as something that seemed inconceivable in my lifetime.  Well, that event has certainly “triggered” a reaction from the “right” that I really didn’t think would happen.  The overt racism on places like Fox and with the “talkers” like Limbaugh and Hannity has been over the edge for me.  I’m still wondering how they’re getting away with it.  For example, Limbaugh has made NUMEROUS comments much more offensive than Don Imus – Imus was FIRED but, evidently the entire world is afraid of Rush Limbaugh – because he just keeps spouting his hate and seemingly gets away with it. (I have heard that many sponsors are abandoning him, but whoever he works for obviously does not have the “stones” – in the words of Bill Clinton – to fire him as he deserves)  Hannity is the master with the “code words” along with other talkers and many of the leaders of the republican party.  Their “opinion” of Blacks in America, to be sure, is no secret to anyone paying attention.

So, what happened in Sanford, Florida didn’t surprise me all that much (although, in my mind is was a “slam dunk” case for a guilty verdict right from the start).  Florida is in the South and let us not deceive ourselves on what that means to persons of color.  Blacks are profiled ALL THE TIME (not just in the South) and the calls for immigration reform (from the right) want to extend that profiling to Hispanics.  I’ve only heard about what’s going on in Arizona, but it appears that if you’re of Latina descent you’d better be careful when around a police officer.  This case (Zimmerman/Martin)  should be (ANOTHER) wake up call to all progressives in America that there’s a WAR going on for the heart and soul of this great nation.  The Koch’s and their ilk have UNLIMITED funds and they will not stop – they can’t take NO for an answer.  (for example – the “Tea Party” controlled House this week made something like their 38th attempt to block the so-called “Obamacare”)  If they win we will get more right wing media, more right wing Court decisions (like Citizens United and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act), more fossil fuel welfare in Congress and less support for alternatives, more anti-Black and anti-Women legislation, and ULTIMATELY more CORPORATE control of America’s government.  The only people who could possibly make George Zimmerman out to be a “hero” are the “Tea Party” supporters of the republican party!  They shout REALLY loud!  It will take a ground swell of populist revolt to stop this right wing republican takeover of our government which includes this assault on Blacks and Women  – and, I hope and pray it happens SOONER rather than LATER.

Finally, just a reminder – the Supreme Court bludgeoned sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act and the longer it takes Congress to “fix” that decision (and remember, the Tea Party won’t be agreeable to fixing it) the more damage will be done in the form of disenfranchising voters who will be key to stopping this corporate takeover of our government.  We really DON’T want this Zimmerman verdict to somehow become “precedent” in our justice system.  Should that happen, I would advise you to read “Red Summer” to see how bad you want these people (the Koch’s, etc.)  to be able to take us back to the twenties!

I recently finished part one of a biography, written by Blanche Wiesen Cook, about the years of Eleanor Roosevelt’s life up to 1933.  I’ve read several biographies of FDR from that period on and was aware of the significance of Mrs. Roosevelt, but in this day and age of republicans attacking Women’s rights, this book has spurred me to write another – presumably – anti-republican post.  I was really wanting to show my “bi-partisanship” by writing about some of my disappointment with the democrats in general and President Obama in particular, but these republicans with their relentless attacks on what, essentially, Eleanor Roosevelt stood for and worked so hard (with many others) for simply keep me feeling a need to vent – in their direction.

Republicans, of course, have gained control of the Supreme Court which has led to some of – what I believe will go down in history as – the most abominable decisions in the history of this great republic.  Without going into detail I will remind you that this right wing court (albeit with a bit of a different make-up) chose George W Bush/Dick Cheney over the will of the people in 2000 (and, somehow got away with it – thanks in large part to that “liberal media” all the republicans seem to be constantly bashing) and that decision led to disasters of monumental proportions.  Then there was Citizens United – which I believe a majority of Americans continue to have NO CLUE as to the ramifications of what – I thought – at the time to be the worst decision in my lifetime – yes, even worse than Bush v Gore due to the long term effect on our electoral system.  And, just recently, the gutting of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 stands to be every bit as effective in the republican pursuit of TOTAL control of our system of government (ie, the so-called “permanent republican ‘majority'”) as Citizens United.  To me, these two unspeakable decisions by the court are simply more evidence that the republicans have their sights set on complete control of America’s government.

Since the Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights act we’ve seen the fringe “right” BOLT into action in several places around the nation as they attempt to reduce the number of  voters (the fulfillment of Paul Weyrich’s dream – from his famous quote to republican insiders, “As a matter of fact our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down“).   The result, of course, will be, if they get their way, far less democrats voting and a stranglehold on our system that will be EXTREMELY difficult to defeat.  (This is where much of my frustration with President Obama comes in; he continues to “pander” to these people – I can’t imagine his legacy if they succeed in their plans under his “watch”)  Additionally, we’ve seen republican legislatures around the nation feeling emboldened to go after female reproductive rights in a way that suggests they have every confidence this court will support their attempts to determine the most basic rights of women.  And, make no mistake, this is a play to energize their “base” because most of them must understand that the only women who will be affected by these efforts are poor women who won’t have the means to sidestep their legal roadblocks.

Now, I have to add here that I am not in favor of abortions.  I can’t imagine anyone being in favor of abortions.  This issue, to me, goes way deeper than the “abortion issue.”  In my mind, it is indisputable that when a female egg is fertilized and attaches to the womb, then requiring only food and oxygen to grow, it’s a living “thing.”  I’m a father and I believe it then becomes a fetus.  So, I’m not looking to get into that debate.  I once heard President Obama, when the topic of Roe v Wade came up saying that we should be focused on REDUCING the demand for abortions and I totally agree with that.  (My opinion on how you do that is a subject for much more than I’m going to write tonight)  What I find actually disgusting is watching a bunch of right wing MEN blustering over their success in sneaking anti-women provisions into their state budgets like what I saw with Governor Kasich in Ohio last week.  What it seems to me they will accomplish with their anti-women legislation – regarding women’s reproductive rights – will be creating MORE unsafe medical situations for women, especially those women without the ability to pay for needed medical procedures.  (Actually, what I HOPE they accomplish with this anti-woman strategy, is to energize women voters to help eliminate this right wing republican cabal FOREVER!)

I thought I would add, according to “AlterNet,” what they’re calling the “6 truly unbelievable ways Ohio has just eviscerated women’s rights.

“1. Places Limits on Rape Clinics

Rape clinics are no longer allowed to counsel victims on abortion options under the new budget. If clinics do undertake that counseling, public funding would be cut off.

2. Forced Ultrasounds

The bill requires any woman seeking an abortion to undergo a trans-abdominal ultrasound.

The legislation mandates “an obstetric ultrasound examination that portrays the entire body of the embryo or fetus.” The bill also requires an explanation of the what the ultrasound shows, and for the doctor to search for a heartbeat.

The main author of the bill, State Representative Ron Hood, told the website MediaTrackers.org that “if you talk to the pregnancy-center people across the state, they’ll all tell you that when a mother sees that ultrasound, she really realizes that, in most cases, the vast majority of cases, she doesn’t want to abort this baby.”

3. Cuts Funding to Planned Parenthood

The budget signed by the governor cuts off the reproductive rights group Planned Parenthood from $1.4 million in family-planning money.

Planned Parenthood provides abortion services to women, but also a number of other crucial reproductive rights services. These include STD testing and treatment, contraception services, cancer screening and treatment and more.

4. Restricts Clinics From Working With Public Hospitals

The anti-abortion legislation would end the practice of abortion clinics transferring patients to public hospitals. So if a woman has the ability to get an abortion–a big if considering all the restrictions–she would have to find a private hospital to get post-abortion care done.

5. More Money For ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers’

While abortion clinics will see their operations severely curtailed–potentially leading to their closures–more money will be given to “crisis pregnancy centers.” These centers, run by religious organizations, usually give inaccurate information to women who enter them. They also seek to dissuade women from getting abortions.

6. Gives Women Information on Fetus to Dissuade Them From Getting Abortions

The budget also requires doctors to inform women  “of the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics” of a fetus. This is done in order to dissuade women from getting an abortion if they’re able to get one. Doctors also have to give women information on adoption–another way of pressuring women not to get an abortion.”

Again, I have to emphasize here that I’m not arguing in favor of (or against) abortions.  I would hate to see either of my daughters faced with that decision, but I’m certainly not the one to make it for them, nor are politicians like Kasich.  What my point is (I realize that sometimes it takes me a while to get there) the hypocrisy of republicans who are constantly clamoring for “less government” while, at the same time, pushing government into places it clearly doesn’t belong – like between a woman and her family and doctor.  This is consistent with the republican efforts to prevent people from voting and, essentially, to do whatever it takes to further their privatizing corporate welfare state and thus gaining a stranglehold on POWER in America.

Getting back to the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, which spurred my thoughts as I pondered writing tonight.  The very people behind the attack on the voters who will be disenfranchised by the Court’s ruling on section 5 and the politicians who are seeking ways to prevent women from getting legal medical treatment and procedures are the same ilk who’ve been trying to reverse the effects of the New Deal which was the result of the administration of Franklin D Roosevelt.  And, as you read more about his wife, you realize the effect she, and those brave women she associated herself with in the 1920’s and on, had on the legislation that became the “New Deal.”  You have to remember that it wasn’t until 1920 that women even had the right to vote.  That was an enduring struggle in it’s own right that, as I look back, is an unbelievable blight on our history.  It’s not, at least to me, of the same magnitude as slavery and the subsequent evolution of minority rights that led to  the “Jim Crow” era and then the racism that still exists in America today, but the subjugation of women was carried out by the same male politicians who believe in White supremacy.  Obviously, as we’ve seen with the reaction of so many republicans to a Black president, and now with these attacks on women and minority voting rights, this faction of America is alive and well (and very powerful).  (Can you imagine how these people will react if Americans elect a woman president in 2016?  How do you spell apoplectic?)

Eleanor Roosevelt and many of the women she partnered with in various groups led the fight for the (at the time) 48 hour work week (which ultimately became the 40 hour work week – yea!), child labor laws, unemployment insurance, “old age” insurance (which, obviously, became Social Security), unionization of workers, bank regulations, and various other worker’s rights that evolved into key components of the New Deal legislation which ultimately, with a little stimulus from WW II, fostered the great American middle class that thrived until the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Since Reagan, the republican focus  has been  a systematic program of dismantling the “New Deal” piece by piece via people who always seem to be remnants of the “Reagan revolution” or further to the “right” – ie, Koch brothers and people of their ilk – John Birch Society-ish.  (Seriously, Google the JBS so you understand where these people are coming from)

Of course, after Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson further antagonized this right wing bunch with his “War on Poverty” and the “Great Society” which brought us Medicare (At the time, Ronald Reagan said, “Medicare will usher in federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country.” and, “All of us can see what happens once you establish the precedent that the government can determine a man’s working place and his working methods, determine his employment. From here it’s a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay….He will wait for the government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do.”) and ultimately Medicaid.  The great irony, as you examine the response to Medicare and Medicaid from the “right,” (including the aforementioned Reagan quotes – which came from ads sponsored by the AMA at the time – 1961 – as they attempted to stop this “socialized” medicine) is the stated fear of socialism by a group of people who are presently acting like authoritarian fascists.  Yikes!!!  And, as I realized that it was women’s groups, who had just gained “suffrage” who spurred on these great advances for ALL AMERICANS, it gave me pause, and hope, as I’ve been observing this misogynous and racist assault on our society from the fringe right.  (Actually, people like the Roosevelts were subject to the “Socialist,” “Bolshevik,” “Communist,” scare tactics that are still part of the republican “attack” arsenal today – J Edgar Hoover had a significant dossier on Eleanor Roosevelt while she was America’s “First Lady”)

People like the Koch Brothers (with BILLIONS to buy legislatures), Rush Limbaugh (an overt misogynist and racist radio “talker” with a large – but shrinking audience), Bill O’Reilly (and the others at Fox “news”), Mitch McConnell (in the Senate), John Boehner and Eric Cantor (in the House), and basically the republican party of today (that walks in “lock step” – which is the sign of any good AUTHORITARIAN organization) maybe have stepped in their own “you know what.”  As I thought about all the good that came from Eleanor Roosevelt and the other women of her era who fought for so many advances for working class people in America, it dawned on me that these attacks on women’s reproductive rights just might awaken a HUGE segment of our population that will lead the fight against this republican authoritarian corporatocracy.  Evidently, the “stakes” haven’t been high enough for the rest of us to get our attention.  I believe that not only the legislation republicans are cramming through (while they think no one’s watching), but also the way in which they’re doing it (no public comments, much of the legislation passed in “midnight” legislative sessions, etc.) is going to “backfire” on them.

I would welcome the dialogue on how we significantly reduce the demands for abortions in America.  I certainly would agree that there should be no public funding of abortions.  However, it really baffles me how politicians on the one hand seem gleeful (as in the case recently in Ohio – Kasich and a bunch of old men acting like they’d just gotten away with something) as they attack the right of women to “choose” and then with the “other hand” pull funds from programs that provide women with education and support should they choose to become mothers.   I no longer have access to the liberal “talker” Randi Rhodes, but she used to put it best – republicans seem to “love the fetus, but hate the child.”  As a sixth grade teacher in a high poverty school, I’ve seen the result of that attitude “up front and personal.”  This has been the republican “mantra” since the beginning of the “Reagan revolution” and it is leading the United States to second rate status in the world.

I realize the issues I’m discussing in this post, by themselves, don’t warrant the previous “accusation,” (that the US is headed for second rate status) but the mentality that would allow for this kind of collective attitude in one of our major political parties is what is leading us in that direction.  That is exactly why I’ve been lobbying for people to vote out all republicans for the past several years.  I still like to call myself an independent, but the republican party has moved so far to the right that the only solution is to vote against ALL of them – until we get republicans who will think for themselves and recognize that the function of the government is to work from the “bottom up” in their support for our society.  That “aint gonna happen” under the present republican leadership and, while I’ve got many issues with democrats, “we the people” CANNOT allow the so-called “permanent republican majority” to become a reality.  Instead of further dismantling the “New Deal” we the people should be RESTORING the key pieces of it – like Glass-Steagall, pro union legislation, single payer health care (OK, that’s an “add on”), repeal “free trade” agreements, re-regulate business (like doing away with all the off-shore tax havens for people like Mitt Romney and others who can’t seem to get rich enough), jobs programs, rebuild our infrastructure, un privatize health care, prisons, etc. and on and on.  (I could – and have- write several posts on the issue of, for example, the folly of privatizing prisons.  The corruption that it leads to is unbelievable – and why anyone would allow that is beyond me.  Just think about the motives of a “private prison.”  It certainly wouldn’t be rehabilitating the inmates.)

In my mind, the only way working class people (and remember, there’s more of us than there is of “them”) can support republican policies is as a result of the brainwashing we’ve endured for the past 30+ years.  Somehow Ronald Reagan convinced “we the people” that we could reduce the taxes of the wealthiest among us and “balance the budget.”  That, “Government is the problem, not the solution.” Reagan convinced too many Americans (workers included) that unions are bad and he was the stimulus behind this awful privatization of so many of the vital responsibilities of government.  That was the beginning of the “plan” that’s on the verge of “coming together.”  And, it’s frustrating to me that so many Americans watch outlets like Fox “news” (GOP TV) and listen to people like Limbaugh, Hannity, Lars Larsen, and the others who have convinced America’s middle class to vote for their own destruction.  They’re good at what they do, I just don’t understand how some of them can sleep at night.  (Actually, pathological liars, after a while, begin to believe their own lies as the words leave their mouths)

Since the day Reagan succeeded in selling the so-called “Trickle down economic” propaganda scheme we’ve been sinking further and further into debt and the working class (middle class) in America has been shrinking.  Many of the young people I talk to today have no idea what people like Eleanor Roosevelt were all about and they take many of the benefits resulting from the struggle she led for granted.  As stated above, my hope is that the republican “war on women” will “wake up” that MAJORITY of our population and there will be a severe price to pay for their (the republican) intrusion into the private affairs of these women – because it’s just a segment of the larger struggle.  Of course, if that wish comes true (women uniting against republicans), then the next step is to go after the democrats – many of whom are “feeding from the same trough” as the republicans.  It has been LIBERALS like Mrs. Roosevelt who’ve led the fight for so many rights we all enjoy (and, incidentally, she eventually was also a leader in the civil rights movement for African Americans) and, I look forward to the day when our “liberal media” no longer portrays the word LIBERAL in a derogatory manner!  It appears to me that, just as in the 1920’s, it will be women who play a significant role in stopping this republican assault on the foundation of our system of government.