Hate had no place in her heart or in her store when sixty-six- year-old Lauri Carleton was shot and killed at her place of business on Friday, August 18th., 2023 for her refusal to take down a gay Pride flag she flew outside her store in Lake Arrowhead, California every day. She will be celebrated by her family and friends as a brave ally of the LGBTQ+ community who gave her life in the outrageous act of believing love is love.
Rest in peace, Lauri, but know that the community you died for will never rest in peace as long as forces rage against equal justice for all.
Due to the writer’s strike across America, I have been asked by Fox News to lead a team of writers that will flush out their programming for the Republican presidential primary debate on August 23rd. Wise men say only fools rush in where political operatives fear to tread so I quickly accepted. My team consisted of campaign speech writers I designated Captains from all candidates who qualified for the debate not to be confused with all qualified candidates, and at our first meeting we met during cocktail hour somewhere.
I think we should begin with prayer, I said to the group, and Pence’s Captain immediately bowed his white head of perfectly coiffed hair. No, no, Pence Person – I meant prayer to start the debate, not a prayer for our meeting. Oh, he said as he swatted a fly swirling perilously close to his head. I sighed as everyone else in the room shifted uncomfortably. I made a note No Prayer, too controversial.
Moving on, I said. Does anyone have ideas for entertainment to pump the Nielsen ratings with a larger viewing audience for the debate, something to attract the Movable Middle which traditionally ignores all debates? Think out of the box on this one, I continued. To get us started, why don’t we come up with a new theme song?
I’ve got an idea, the Christie Captain said enthusiastically. How about a Stealers Wheel Tribute Band singing Stuck in the Middle with You? We could even ask band members to wear pink baseball caps with “I’m a Real Republican” logo.
Okay, I responded. Let’s take a look at the lyrics:
Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight, I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right. I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair, and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs. Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right. Here I am stuck in the Middle with you.
A buzz filled the room, heads nodded approval vigorously, and spontaneous applause erupted. One hand in the back of the room, however, was timidly raised during the clapping. Excuse me, the Ramaswamy Captain said, but what kind of band is a stealers wheel band, and do we really want to highlight stealers during a debate featuring the leading candidate who is currently facing 91 felony charges across his criminal indictments?
Suddenly the room got very quiet.
Heck, yeah, the Christie Captain answered, but I sensed a change in the atmosphere. Not so fast, my friends, I thought.
Hm. I made a note: No to Stealers Wheel band, Yes to new theme song; contact Kid Rock and Lil Wayne about performing.
Okay. Great work, group, I said. I’ll send my notes to Fox. That’s enough for today. Meeting adjourned.
(Cocktails and light hors d’oeuvres courtesy of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas if you can contribute $1,000 to his next Bahamas vacay. Hey, nothing from nothing leaves nothing.)
On Thursday, August 03, 2023 ABC News (and every other news organization in the world) reported that former President Donald J. Trump has been indicted in the special counsel’s investigation into his alleged plot to overthrow the 2020 election. Trump has been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
“Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false,” the indictment said.
I’m no mathematician, but my count is two years and nearly seven months for the indictment to be filed against Trump since the Insurrection on January 06, 2021. What have those busy bees at the Justice Department been up to during that considerable amount of time for this indictment to be issued? Hm. Let’s see. For one thing they’ve been tallying the actual losses to the buildings and grounds as well as costs to the City of Washington Police as of October 14, 2022: $2,881,360.20 per the 30-month report filed by the US Department of Justice.
This report goes on to say “More than 1,069 defendants have been charged across all 50 states and the District of Columbia… Approximately 561 federal defendants have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their criminal activity on Jan. 6. Approximately 335 have been sentenced to periods of incarceration. Approximately 119 defendants have been sentenced to a period of home detention, including approximately 19 who also were sentenced to a period of incarceration.”
And yet, the person who was in my mind the instigator of the coup attempt to overthrow our democracy on January 06, 2021 has been playing golf and allegedly showing classified documents from his presidency to random guests at his estate in Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Florida for the past thirty months. The level of difficulty to indict a former president must be mind-boggling while charging social media influencer Kai Cenat with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly in Union Square in New York City on Friday August 4th., just one day after Trump’s arraignment on criminal charges, took fewer than twenty-four hours. Apples to oranges, you say? Most assuredly, but the wheels of justice moved at warp speed against Cenat while similar wheels must have spun out of control for Trump’s criminal behavior to be charged.
I feel a sense of relief for Trump’s day of reckoning, his own judgment day to be on somebody’s calendar somewhere. Big wheel of justice keep on turning, please, but kick it into high gear. This guy is running for re-election in 2024.
Voting records on gun control legislation in Congress
Here’s how our South Carolina Congressmen have voted on loosening gun restrictions: Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott have consistently supported laws loosening gun restrictions (or against a measure adding restrictions) for as long as they have been in the Senate (Graham since 2002, Scott since 2013).
The only person in Congress from South Carolina who consistently supports laws to tighten gun restrictions is D-SC Jim Clyburn, a lone voice crying in the wilderness of lives lost to gun violence in this country.
The stats above are year-to-date numbers as of July 22, 2023 – which means we are on pace for nearly 50,000 gun-related deaths this year.
This is madness. This is insanity. No gun toting gun owner needs AR15-style rifles. Nobody. Period. We need to start somewhere. Ban the damn things.
By Nancy Pelosi, House speaker emerita (msnbc.com)
On this day [July 19, 1848] 175 years ago, in the small town of Seneca Falls, New York, a group of visionary women shook the world.
With their Declaration of Sentiments, they not only echoed but improved upon our founding charter — boldly asserting that “all men and women are created equal” and rallying women to “demand the equal station to which they are entitled.”
Imagine the courage that it took for those women at that time. Some had left home without their husband’s or father’s permission, and spoke openly about issues of discrimination and disenfranchisement and domestic violence.
The groundbreaking convention in Seneca Falls further energized what was a burgeoning women’s rights movement in America. And since then, generations of fearless women marching, mobilizing and demanding full equality for all have carried forth their torch.
Today, we stand on the shoulders of our courageous foremothers. Because they took a stand, at last we have a seat at the table.
For their audacity in blazing a path for progress, our nation owes a debt to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M’Clintock, Jane Hunt, Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and countless heroines of history, including those who were enslaved, abused or marginalized.
More than seven decades later, women won the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, although it would take many more decades before Black women could fully exercise this freedom everywhere. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 are both pieces of an ongoing effort to close the gender pay gap. In the 1990s, Congress secured expanded access to family and medical leave, as well as strong protections in the Violence Against Women Act.
Meanwhile, our coalition has only grown broader and stronger as we have fought for the rights and protections of transgender women and nonbinary Americans.
All this progress has made possible a woman as vice president, a woman as speaker — and someday soon, a woman as president.
Today, we stand on the shoulders of our courageous foremothers. Because they took a stand, at last we have a seat at the table.
Yet outrageously, our centuries-long march toward gender justice was abruptly halted last summer when the Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to women’s health freedom.
The monstrous decision overturningRoe v. Waderipped away long-held rights — and unleashed a flood of draconian policies denying access to the full spectrum of reproductive care, even in life-threatening circumstances.
For the first time in our history, girls growing up today have less reproductive freedom than their mothers. Democrats will not rest until the rights of Roe are restored for all.
At the same time, women still face too many barriers in the workplace.
Gender justice starts with finally achieving equal pay for equal work. And we must ease the burden of caregiving that falls disproportionately on women by investing in the expanded child tax credit, universal child care, paid family and medical leave, home health care services and more.
This is the imperative, ongoing work of the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in the Congress — and we are committed to finishing the job.
The story of America has always been one of ever-expanding freedoms, from abolishing the scourge of slavery, which was strongly supported at Seneca Falls, to ensuring all women and people of color are able to vote, to securing reproductive freedom, to achieving marriage equality.
These victories were made possible by everyday Americans participating in the highest form of patriotism: outside mobilization. This is the indelible legacy of Seneca Falls, stirring generations of women not to wait but to work for change.
So, on this momentous 175th anniversary, let us renew our pledge to continue the work of Seneca Falls. Because all of America’s mothers, wives, sisters and daughters must be able to enjoy the liberties and opportunities that they deserve.
When women succeed, America succeeds.
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 36 years. She served as the 52nd speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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