Women's Rights, Sat. Oct. 18 No Kings Rally #2

Women's Rights, No Kings Rally #2

Sat. Oct. 18 2025

I think you might like this book – "Tear Down the Lincoln Memorial?: The Terrifying Threat of Trump’s Project 2025 (Saving Democracy, Stopping Trump)" by David Balog.

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Tear Down the Lincoln Memorial? The Terrifying Threat of Trump's Project 2025

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The Twenty Worst Americans: What History Can Teach Us

"Thoughtful and Thought-provoking"

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023

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PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

At first glance, David Balog’s The Twenty Worst Americans may seem to be a simple laundry list of villainy. But this is no tirade of personal grievances; nor is it a whining screed against those who think differently than the author.

Instead, Balog has called upon his background in history writing to present the citizens whose behavior he sees as particularly heinous (Harvey Weinstein, Paul Castellano), ignorant (Phyllis Schlafly, Eddie Cicotte, Betsy DeVos), vicious (Dan White, Rupert Murdoch) or simple grifters (Henry Ford, Charles Coughlin, James A. Baker and Donald Trump). There are twenty short essays in all. Each is easy to read, pleasantly brief, but never glib or lightweight. Balog has something to say and he says it plainly.

Balog calls upon an encyclopedic knowledge of history to make his points, which he does not hide behind manipulative propaganda. No, we know where the author stands and he is transparent in his views. What surprises us is his gentle tact while discussing subjects that could infuriate readers if presented by a lesser writer.

"All of which makes some of his choices that much more challenging. Balog has personal knowledge of William Safire. As a fellow history writer, I have certainly read many of Safire’s books. Some are quite good. But his affairs—business and personal—seem to veer far from his written work. It is eye opening, and this begs the question that many of us must face sooner or later: at what point do we toss out the better work of creation because its creator was repulsive? We enjoy the distance of centuries between us and, say, a Caravaggio or Michelangelo. Those who are closer to our time strike us where we live.

There is much to take exception to, of course.

In just one example, I have published enough about the Roosevelts to have different views on FDR than Balog. This is as it should be. The moment we accept every word of any individual as inviolable, we start on the dangerous path that Balog decries in this book. Heated discussions are part of what make this kind of text interesting.

Balog occasionally digresses into information that is only tangentially related. This is when the author is at his best.

In my favorite example, in the chapter on Bill Maher, Balog provides eight fascinating pages on the physical and neurological aspects of gender, well supported by medical experts. As with his section on FDR, Balog demonstrates a rare talent for engendering discussion without badgering or patronizing.

I agree here, I disagree there; but by the time I was done, I had learned something and want to learn more. I can think of no higher compliment.

--David Bannon, author, historian

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Table of contents

Author’s Note………………..

Prologue……………………………

Chapter 1. Antonin Scalia – Supreme Court Justice Whose Personal Views Moved America Back to 1787…….

Chapter 2. Bill Maher – Quickly Moving from Progressive to Regressive……

Chapter 3. Elizabeth Holmes – Blood money and a Monumental Scam……

Chapter 4. Donald Trump – Enabling the Catastrophe of Covid-19……..

Chapter 5. Trump, The Early Years in New York City: Wilding Among the Powerful…..

Chapter 6. Rupert Murdoch – Power for Power’s Sake…….

Chapter 7. James A. Baker, III – Republican Fixer and Mastermind of Bush v Gore…….

Chapter 8. Phyllis Schlafly– Baking Cookies to Stop Equal Rights……

Chapter 9. Paul Castellano – Real-life Godfather…..

Chapter 10. Franklin D. Roosevelt – Allowed Incarceration Camps for Americans of Japanese Descent……….

Chapter 11. Betsy DeVos – The Education Secretary Clueless About Education…..

Chapter 12. Eddie Cicotte – Throwing Baseballs, Games and the National Pastime………

Chapter 13. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney – Author of the Worst Decision in Supreme Court History that Ignited the Civil War…….

Chapter 14. Herbert Hoover – The Great Humanitarian with Political Hands of Stone…….

Chapter 15. William Safire and the Death of Political Civility…….

Chapter 16. Walter O'Malley – Changed America's Pastime into a Cold Business…….

Chapter 17. Father Charles Coughlin – Pastor, Media King and Dangerous Anti-semite……

Chapter 18. Henry Ford – Pioneer of the Automobile and Hitler Ally……

Chapter 19. Harvey Weinstein – As a Movie, Rate Him X…….

Chapter 20. Dan White – The Politician Who Killed Two Political Icons –,,,…

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In Case You Missed It...9/24

American Carnage, Steve Bannon

TRUMP WORLD MADNESS

RELEASE THE SUBPOENAS 

PELOSI'S STRATEGY       

MAGA MASK MENACE

INVEST IN US

BIDEN PRESSES FELLOW DEMS: FIND YOUR WAY TO ‘YES’ AND GET IT DONE

PELOSI SIGNALS SHE WON’T MOVE RECONCILIATION BILL WITHOUT SENATE DEAL; WON’T BE SCREWED BY SENATE LIKE IN 2010

 

Your amazing brain in clear, everyday language

Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and Development

“Easy to read. Difficult to put down.”--Micheal J. Colucciello, Jr., NY State pharmaceutical researcher, retired.

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“David Balog takes a subject fraught with difficulty and makes it simple and accessible to everyone. The book goes a long way in helping one understand how and why and in what ways stress affects how we live and cope. Invaluable.”--Jessica Hudson, former president, National Association of Former Foster Children

ELIMINATE THE DEBT CEILING

OMB ISSUES SHUTDOWN INSTRUCTIONS (JUST IN CASE)

WHY BIDEN ISN’T HITTING THE PANIC BUTTON ON THE DEBT CEILING — YET

 

COVID CRISIS ROLLS ON

ICU CRISIS IN BILLINGS, MONTANA: WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF HALLWAY SPACE!

MICHAEL FLYNN SPREADS BIZARRE CONSPIRACY THEORY ABOUT VACCINES IN SALAD DRESSING

FLORIDA GOVERNOR DESANTIS SAYS PARENTS CAN SEND ASYMPTOMATIC KIDS EXPOSED TO COVID-19 BACK TO SCHOOL

AMERICA’S POLICING PROBLEMS
THE GEORGE FLOYD JUSTICE IN POLICING ACT IS DEAD

BIDEN, HARRIS CRITICIZE SENATE REPUBLICANS FOR TANKING BIPARTISAN POLICE REFORM TALKS

FROM THE ARCHIVES: WHAT THE “DEFUND THE POLICE” SLOGAN REALLY MEANS

WHAT THE REST OF AMERICA CAN LEARN FROM COLORADO’S POLICE REFORMS

FREE BOOK PREVIEW. Impeachment: A Presidency on the Line

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President Donald Trump has joined the company of a small group of presidents now that he is the subject of an official impeachment inquiry in the United States House of Representatives. Only three previous presidents experienced the impeachment process: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, who were found not guilty after trials in the Senate, and Richard Nixon, who resigned to avoid being impeached in the House and removed from office by the United States Senate.  Contrary to common knowledge, impeachment does not mean automatic removal from office. It is a much more complicated, considered process. Rarely used due to its irrevocable nature, impeachment, as defined in the U.S. Constitution, was a critical feature of the government created by the Founding Fathers. The new nation had just freed itself from rule by a tyrannical monarch and wanted nothing remotely similar in its newly created government. 

Impeachment was considered extensively in The Federalist Papers, a collection of essays written in 1788 by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. These articles urged citizens of New York Statement to ratify the United States Constitution. They promoted the ideas and plans that had been debated and drafted at the Constitutional Convention the year before. The Federalist Papers is considered one of the most significant American contributions to definitive source for understanding the original intent of the framers of the Constitution.  In Federalist 51, James Madison argued for a watchdog system between the three branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial. Federalist 51 was entitled “The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments.” Madison, a future president, wrote that “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” The most practical way to keep the government in check, Madison argued, was to structure it so that politicians must compete with each other. “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” he wrote. During the Constitutional Convention, Madison also said about impeachment: “You need it because a president might betray his trust to foreign powers." 

Having said that, the Founders did not invent impeachment. The concept had its roots in British common law, and was used beginning in the 14th century. There the House of Commons served as prosecutor and the House of Lords as judge in an impeachment proceeding against a government official charged with a criminal offense. Conviction on impeachment could result in fines, imprisonment, and even execution. In the United States, the penalties extend no further than removal and disqualification from office. Possible criminal liabilities, however, remain for an impeached and removed official. In the early 1800s, an understanding that cabinet ministers were responsible to Parliament (rather than to the monarch) ended the use of impeachment in Great Britain. In the United States impeachment has rarely been used, largely because it is so potentially overwhelming to the political system. Impeachment can occupy Congress for a long period of time, involve substantial amounts of testimony, and bring about deep political conflict.  Attempts to amend the procedure, however, have not worked, partly because impeachment is regarded as a key part of the system of checks and balances in the U.S. government. These rules describe the intricate inter-relatedness of the three branches of government and their powers to hold each other accountable. The idea of impeaching and removing a president is the ultimate accountability of high officials to the land they swear a high oath to defend. The actual language on impeachment in the Constitution says that the president, vice-president and all civil officers of the United States "shall be removed from office on impeachment for conviction of treason, robbery or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” terms debated by politicians and historians to this day Congressman Gerald Ford, who became president as the result of an impeachment process, notably said that “an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” High crimes and misdemeanors can include obstruction of justice or perjury (lying under oath during a trial or investigation), violating an oath of office, or flouting the emoluments clause of the Constitution. This stricture prohibits members of the government from receiving gifts, offices, or titles from foreign states and monarchies without the consent of the United States Congress.

Previous impeachment proceedings: 2 acquittals, 1 resignation 

The nation's experience with presidential impeachment begins with Andrew Johnson, the 17th president, who assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.  During the U.S. Civil War, Johnson was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union and Lincoln chose him as vice president for Lincoln's second term. Six weeks after Johnson became vice president, Lincoln was assassinated. As president, Johnson took a moderate approach to restoring the South to the Union, and clashed with congressional Radical Republicans who wanted to ensure congressional rather than presidential control Reconstruction. Congress passed a number of measures to protect Southern blacks over Johnson’s veto.

Johnson wanted to quickly restore the Southern states to the Union. He granted amnesty to most former Confederates and allowed the rebel states to elect new governments. These governments, which often included ex-Confederate officials, soon enacted black codes...

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What childhood trauma does to the brain

What does PTSD look like in infants and children?

Animal models have taught us that stressing the mother in pregnancy can alter brain development in the offspring; and that prolonged separation of infant from mother impairs in the newborn other aspects of brain development and function. Furthermore, inconsistent maternal care and maternal anxiety, for example, from food insecurity, produce anxiety in offspring and contribute to the predisposition to diabetes, which itself has adverse effects on the brain.

Learn about the brain in clear language.

....Studies on children growing up in adversity have added to the information gained from animal research. Chaos in the home and inconsistent parenting impairs development of self regulatory behaviors, which can lead to substance abuse, earlier onset of sexual activity, bad decision making, and poor mood control.

School-aged children (ages 5-12)

These children may not have flashbacks or problems remembering parts of the trauma, the way adults with PTSD often do. Children, though, might put the events of the trauma in the wrong order. They might also think there were signs that the trauma was going to happen. As a result, they think that they will see these signs again before another trauma happens. They think that if they pay attention, they can avoid future traumas.

Children of this age might also show signs of PTSD in their play. They might keep repeating a part of the trauma. These games do not make their worry and distress go away. For example, a child might always want to play shooting games after he sees a school shooting. Children may also fit parts of the trauma into their daily lives. For example, a child might carry a gun to school after seeing a school shooting.

Trump: The only thing we have to fear

After shocking executive actions from the White House, fear is gripping the world. The new president Trump has unleashed immigration bans, a plan to build a wall across the Mexican border, plans to cut Obamacare and more. Fear comprises our most primal emotion and we talk about it in our book series, Healing the Brain

(Book excerpt.) New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D., and other neuroscientists have begun to examine the way the brain shapes our experience—and our memories—to generate the varied repertoire of human emotions. Specifically, as Dr. LeDoux explains, he chose to begin his inquiry by examining an emotion that is common to all living creatures: fear.

Wikimedia.com

Mice serve researchers well as animal models. These very distant relatives possess well over 90 per cent of the same genes as humans.

Years of research by many workers have given us extensive knowledge of the neural pathways involved in processing acoustic information, which is an excellent starting point for examining the neurological foundations of fear. The natural flow of auditory information—the way you hear music, speech, or anything else—is that the sound comes into the ear, enters the brain, goes up to a region called the auditory midbrain, then to the auditory thalamus, and ultimately to the auditory cortex. Thus, in the auditory pathway, as in other sensory systems, the cortex is the highest level of processing.

So the first question we asked when we began these studies of the fear system was: Does the sound have to go all the way to the auditory cortex in order for the rat to learn that the sound paired with the shock is dangerous? When we made lesions in the auditory cortex, we found that the animal could still make the association between the sound and the shock, and would still react with fear behavior to the sound alone. Since information from all our senses is processed in the cortex—which ultimately allows us to become conscious of seeing the predator or hearing the sound—the fact that the cortex didn’t seem to be necessary to fear conditioning was both intriguing and mystifying. We wanted to understand how something as important as the emotion of fear could be mediated by the brain if it wasn’t going into the cortex, where all the higher processes occur.

Some other area or areas of the brain must receive information from the thalamus and establish memories about experiences that stimulate a fear response.

So we next made lesions in the auditory thalamus and then in the auditory midbrain. The midbrain supplies the major sensory input to the thalamus, which in turn supplies the major sensory input to the cortex. What we found was that lesions in either of these subcortical areas completely eliminated the rat’s susceptibility to fear conditioning. If the lesions were made in an unconditioned rat, the animal could not learn to make the association between sound and shock, and if the lesions were made on a rat that had already been conditioned to fear the sound, it would no longer react to the sound. But if the stimulus didn’t have to reach the cortex, where was it going from the thalamus?

Some other area or areas of the brain must receive information from the thalamus and establish memories about experiences that stimulate a fear response. To find out, we made a tracer injection in the auditory thalamus (the part of the thalamus that processes sounds) and found that some cells in this structure projected axons into the amygdala. This is key, because the amygdala has for many years been known to be important in emotional responses. So it appeared that information went to the amygdala from the thalamus without going to the neocortex. We then did experiments with rats that had amygdala lesions, measuring freezing and blood pressure responses elicited by the sound after conditioning. We found that the amygdala lesion prevented conditioning from taking place. In fact, the responses are very similar to those of unconditioned animals that hear the sound for the first time, without getting the shock. So the amygdala is critical to this pathway.

It receives information about the outside world directly from the thalamus, and immediately sets in motion a variety of bodily responses. We call this thalamo-amygdala pathway the low road because it’s not taking advantage of all of the higher-level information processing that occurs in the neocortex, which also communicates with the amygdala.

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Even Ronald Reagan was depressed after he saw this movie.

 

Even Ronald Reagan was depressed after he saw the television movie, The Day After, which terrified Americans when it was show in November 1983.

More than 100 million people watched the program during its initial broadcast. It is currently the highest-rated television film in history. Now Putin and Trump want to increase nuclear arsenals.

From Wikipedia: The Trauma

The film postulates a fictional war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several family farms situated near nuclear missile silos.

On its original broadcast (Sunday, November 20, 1983), John Cullum warned viewers before the film was premiered that the film contains graphic and disturbing scenes, and encourages parents who have young children watching, to watch together and discuss the issues of nuclear warfare.^[9] ABC and local TV affiliates opened 1-800 hotlines with counselors standing by. There weren't any commercial breaks after the nuclear attack. ABC then aired a live debate, hosted by Nightline's Ted Koppel, featuring scientist Carl Sagan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, General Brent Scowcroft and conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr.. Sagan argued against nuclear proliferation, while Buckley promoted the concept of nuclear deterrence. Sagan described the arms race in the following terms: "Imagine a room awash in gasoline, and there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has nine thousand matches, the other seven thousand matches. Each of them is concerned about who's ahead, who's stronger."

One psychotherapist counseled viewers at Shawnee Mission East High School in the Kansas City suburbs, and 1,000 others held candles at a peace vigil in Penn Valley Park. A discussion group called Let Lawrence Live was formed by the English Department at the university and dozens from the Humanities Department gathered on the campus in front of the Memorial Campanile and lit candles in a peace vigil. At Baker University, a private school in Baldwin City, Kansas, roughly 10 miles south of Lawrence, a number of students drove around the city, looking at sites depicted in the film as having been destroy^ed

LEARN ABOUT PAST AND FUTURE TRAUMAS AND THEIR EFFECT OUR OUR HEALTH.
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Schools Post-Trump: Slurs, Trauma, and Tension

The Southern Poverty Law Center has conducted an extensive survey of school tensions and climates after the election of Trump. Find out how stress and trauma impedes learning and leaves emotional scars in Healing the Brain, our new book.

In the first days after the 2016 presidential election, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project administered an online survey to K–12 educators from across the country. Over 10,000 teachers, counselors, administrators and others who work in schools have responded. The survey data indicate that the results of the election are having a profoundly negative impact on schools and students.

Schools In The Aftermath: Targeting, Trauma, and Tension

The election of Donald Trump is having a major impact on American schools, but how students are affected — and how educators are addressing the impact — depends largely on demographics. American schools are increasingly segregated along racial, ethnic and economic lines. Although individual experiences will vary, looking at the proportion of students who are African American, Hispanic and white is a generally dependable indicator of what each school is experiencing, regardless of whether it is located in a red or a blue state. We found that how a school reacted ultimately depended on whether it is a white-majority school, a "minority-majority" school, or a diverse school with no single group in the majority. This is a generalization, of course, and there are exceptions, which we discuss later.
Overall, our public schools serve mainly low-income students of color. But students are not evenly distributed among schools. Here are a few important facts:

• Total number of public schools: 98,454
  
• Percentage of students who are from low-income families: 51
  
• Percentage of students who are Hispanic: 25
  
• Percentage of students who are African American: 16
  
• Percentage of students who are students of color: 50
  
• Percentage of schools that are 70% or more minority: 26
  
• Percentage of schools that are 70% or more white: 42
  
• Percentage of schools with less than 70% of one racial group: 32
  

TARGETING AND RACIAL BIAS
The increase in targeting and harassment that began in the spring has, according to the teachers we surveyed, skyrocketed. It was most frequently reported by educators in schools with a majority of white students.
The behavior is directed against immigrants, Muslims, girls, LGBT students, kids with disabilities and anyone who was on the “wrong” side of the election. It ranges from frightening displays of white power to remarks that are passed off as “jokes.”
Here’s a small sampling of the thousands of stories teachers told us that illustrate post-election targeting.
“A group of white students held up a Confederate flag during the pledge of allegiance at a school-wide assembly.” — HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR, ARIZONA
“Since the election, every single secondary school in our district has had issues with racist, xenophobic or misogynistic comments cropping up. In the week since the election, I have personally had to deal with the following issues: 1) Boys inappropriately grabbing and touching girls, even after they said no (this never happened until after the election); 2) White students telling their friends who are Hispanic or of color that their parents are going to be deported and that they would be thrown out of school; 3) White students going up to students of color who are total strangers and hurling racial remarks at them, such as, ‘Trump is going [to] throw you back over the wall, you know?’ or ‘We can’t wait until you and the other brownies are gone’; 4) The use of the n-word by white students in my class and in the hallway. Never directed towards a student of color (that I’ve been told yet), but still being casually used in conversation.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, INDIANA
“The slurs have been written on assignments. ‘Send the Muslims back because they are responsible for 9/11.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, MINNESOTA
“’I hate Muslims.’ (Student blurted this while the class was learning about major religions.)” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, WASHINGTON

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Gay youth, health, and Trump

President Lyndon Johnson set up the Kerner Commission in the late 1960s to investigate the underlying causes of nationwide riots (Newark, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Detroit, etc.). The commission's stunning conclusion was that America was two societies, separate and unequal, increasingly moving apart. As I began to talk to varied audiences with A Thousand Moms, I realized that a similar gap existed today with the gay community. Despite important successes, e.g., marriage equality, mainstream America didn't know about the LGBT community and rather than learning from an increased public awareness of LGBT issues, they remained profoundly unaware of gay life and the severe and unique stresses that can attend it--except in extraordinary circumstances. 

A Thousand Moms' mission is to educate parents, teachers, social workers, counselors, clergy, and the concerned layperson so that in an optimum world, they can support LGBT youth with a deeper understanding of a group of people seemingly from a completely different world. I wrote Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and LGBT/Q Youth because I had the training to do it--15 years as an editor to the world's top neuroscientists at the Dana Foundation--and access to my partner Fred's experience in child development. I was also peeved that my previous employer, in its massive reference on the brain, mentioned gay people only once. The reference blithely said that people attracted to the same sex seem to commit suicide in larger numbers and we don't know why. (Or care.) 

So this book is about the brain, but really about surviving extraordinary stress and trauma and protecting our heath. I have been given many accolades for the book, the best one calling it pioneering. But kind words have not translated into wide interest and in this world of self-publishing, the task of getting the word out has been very difficult. Therefore I am now circulating sample chapters so people can get a feel for the book and make an informed decision about getting a copy. Many books on LGBT life get called reference books or "a contribution to the literature," which means being put on a book shelf to die quietly. I am determined not to let that soft bigotry stop this important information from reaching people who can help LGBT youth--and adults--and make a real difference in our lives. We have a public health crisis in the gay community, still and perhaps worsening. And come a new administration that promises rollbacks, not progress, we are going to need education, awareness, and support more than ever. Please take a look at this sample e-book and share it. 

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Trump's low road to the White House

The human brain has developed over millenia. Like a non-stop power plant, the brain added new structures to basic ones (controlling basic functions like breathing). The crowning achievement is the cortex, the largest brain structure, where higher thought and reasoning take place.

Scientists have learned that sensory input, e.g., sounds, do not have to travel to the cortex to induce fear. Impulses need only travel to a primitive brain structure called the amygdala. 

When FDR delivered his first inaugural address, he appealed to reasoning, though his topic was the fear of a nation shattered by the Great Depression. Like dictators and demagogues through history, Donald Trump goes straight for the lower brain with pointed, uncomplicated messages that require little thought. For example, his nicknamesl for nearly all of his opponents (Low Energy Jeb, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary) make for instant recognition and easy identification--and great ratings for cash-starved cable media. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Trump echoes right wing talk radio hosts, who offer short, immediate solutions that fit neatly into a brief format. No exhausting engagement of the thinking brain required. Fear is our most powerful emotion and when Donald Trump boasted he knew how to win this election, like ad men from Madison Avenue, he knew what worked: the low road to the White House. Hillary Clinton and the Democrats had a long, arduous path to the thinking brain to overcome the power of fear and other powerful emotions.

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