It’s been a bad day for New York City Mayors. Former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who recently was disbarred from practicing law in New York, is now disbarred from practicing Law in Washington, D.C.
Current Mayor Eric Adams was indicted today on charges of Fraud and Bribery, in a case where he is charged with accepting bribes from Turkish nationals. It is charged that he accepted plane trips and vacations in exchange for pressuring the New York City Fire Department to facilitate the opening of a new Turkish Consular building, which did not pass a safety inspection.
In a related story, former New York City Mayor, Bill De Blasio, who left office with an approval rating lower than the approval rating of the infamous New York City Pizza Rat, will be recording a cover version of Toby Keith’s song, “How do you like me now.”
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its landmark 7–2 decision in Roe v. Wade, protecting a woman’s constitutional right to choose.
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, made by the US Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and removed the constitutional right to abortion in the United States. The decision gave states the power to regulate abortion access, and it has led to significant changes in abortion access across the country.
In the case of Engel v. Vitale, The Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that school-sponsored prayer in public schools is unconstitutional.
I think that this will be the next thing that Evangelical Christians will use this Supreme Court to try to overturn.
Why? It’s the same reason that Evangelical Christians overthrew Roe v Wade. It’s because they’re losing, and they’re scared.
Losing? They’re winning, you might say. They got what they wanted, but I ask you, for how long?
We like to say that our country was founded by people who came here to promote religious freedom. That’s just not true. The country was founded by people who were not welcomed in Europe because their religious beliefs were not accepted by the ruling majority. The Pilgrims came here because Europe didn’t want them. They didn’t come here to promote all religious freedom. They came here for the freedom to practice their religion.
Other religious groups came here for the same reason, for the freedom to practice their religion, not to promote religious freedom for everyone. Some groups, like the Mormons, sprung up with new, unpopular religions, and they migrated to Utah, to have a place where they could freely practice a religion that the majority of the country thought was weird.
So, while many of the first settlers came here to be able to openly practice their religious beliefs, not all of their descendants continued to practice that religion. Some converted to other religions, and some even stopped believing in God. There are now dozens of different religions being practiced in the United States, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Baha’i, Wicca, Native American religions, and many others.
And then came Communism, an ideology that included Atheism. With that, came the Cold War. Good God-fearing people of the U.S. vs the godless Russians. We had to win the Cold War, because we had God on our side. We were, therefore, morally superior. To further our cause, the phrase “one nation under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States on June 14, 1954, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law.
On July 30, 1956, the 84th Congress passed a joint resolution “declaring ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ the national motto of the United States.” The resolution passed both the House and the Senate unanimously and without debate. It replaced E pluribus unum, (Out of many, one.) which had existed before as a de facto official motto. Take that you godless Ruskies. We had God on our side, and we could prove it. It said so right on our money.
Then The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991. We didn’t need to invoke the alliance of an almighty God to defeat the Russians, anymore. We won.
But like the song says, “Something’s lost when something’s gained.” When we faced the Soviet Union only 2% of Americans called themselves Atheists. Since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, however, those numbers are growing steadily. Today, about 28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion. A growing percentage of Americans want freedom of religion to now also include freedom from religion.
This is why religious organizations are getting scared. Church attendance is way down. 32% of Americans attended church weekly in 2000. Now, according to Gallup, only 20% of Americans attend church every week, while only 41% attend at least once a month. The percentage of Americans who never or seldom attend religious services is 57%. That translates to fewer people tossing their money into the collection plate, which is a major concern for all religions. God may be all-powerful, but He still needs money to carry on His work.
So, the Religious Right is leading the charge to bring back religion, but deep down they know it is a losing battle. While they still have the numbers, though, they are doing everything in their power to legislate religion. In Louisiana, they recently passed a law to display the Ten Commandments in every public school. They are threatening doctors who perform abortions with jail time, and they are screaming that all the school shootings are not caused by assault weapons, but by the assault on religion. They don’t want to get rid of the guns. Their answer is to bring back mandatory prayers in school.
White groups are also worried about losing their grip on America. With less than 61% of the population representing as White, they are afraid that soon they will be the minority. They’ve already seen the country elect a mixed-race President. So, they are trying to limit the number of non-whites who can enter this country and become citizens. They want to limit immigration to only the “good countries,” meaning, of course, the white countries.
White Nationalists and Christian Fundamentalists are combining in a futile effort to bring back “the good old days” when only white men became President and God was on our side. They won’t do anything about assault weapons in the schools, but they will be down on their knees praying for the overturning of Engel v. Vitale, and a return to the “good old days.”
There is one advantage to being old. We, old farts, have been around long enough to have seen a lot. We can put things in perspective, because at some time in our life, we’ve probably been there, done that, and might even still have the commemorative t-shirt hanging in the back of our closet.
In 1626, a group of Native Americans sold Manhattan Island to the Dutch for approximately $24 in trinkets and jewelry. If they put that money in the bank and got an annual interest of 6.5% on their money, today that would amount to $1.8 trillion.
Ten years ago, it was estimated that the entire amount of the developable land on Manhattan Island was actually worth approximately $1.74 trillion. So, the Native Americans weren’t outsmarted, like we’ve been taught to believe. It was a fair deal for both sides. Well, it might have been a better deal for the natives, though, since they had no actual deed to the land they sold. It was like that line in Crocodile Dundy, The Aboriginal people believe that arguing over who owns the land, is like two fleas arguing over who owns the dog.
Many people today are wondering when prices will come down. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but the answer is, Never! Prices only go up. Real Estate values fluctuate, but, over the long haul, Real Estate has been going up approximately 6.5% a year since 1626. So, to keep pace, everything else winds up going up in price, too. That’s what inflation is. There may be a sale on some items occasionally, but over the years the price always goes up, unless the demand for an item goes down. I don’t imagine that the cost of buggy whips has risen as steeply as housing.
Real estate is the main driver of inflation. We all need someplace to live. We also all need food.
When I was a kid, my mom would tuck a one-dollar bill in my mitten and send me to the store for 3 quarts of milk and a loaf of bread. A Mom today would have to put a $20 bill in their child’s mitten to get that same grocery order, and she shouldn’t expect to get more than a few dollars back in change, either.
Workers get pay raises but companies insure their own profitability by raising their prices to cover the higher salaries and the higher cost of supplies, and maybe they even give themselves a big bonus for being so smart. It’s a vicious cycle that has been going on for centuries, and it isn’t going to stop no matter who’s in the White House.
Ten dollars doesn’t buy what it used to, but then again, 50 years ago the minimum wage was $2/hour, and it could take you 5 hours just to earn $10.
Are you better off than you were four years ago? That’s a trick question you hear very often during an election year. You nostalgically remember that four years ago everything was cheaper. You conveniently forget that wages were lower, and worse yet, wages have not been keeping up with the rate of inflation. So, in terms of spending money, you’re probably worse off. Companies have switched from honoring employees to honoring shareholders of their stock. Since the top executives at most companies often own stock in the company, they are far better off today than they were back then, while most of the employees are not.
The problem is not the rising prices. They’ve been going up in this country for 400 years and will continue to rise forever. The problem is that wages are not keeping up with rising prices. When you get a raise, you’re supposed to be able to get ahead, not just get caught up. You’re not getting the raises you deserve because, like I said, companies care about their shareholders far more than they care about their employees. To move our economy forward, we need workers to have more clout, and unionizing is how we can do that. Union Membership is down to only 6%. In the 50’s it was 35%. That’s what made those “good old days” so good. Rising wages for union members resulted in rising wages throughout the industries. A rising tide lifts all boats. That was a great time, but union membership declined, and workers lost their clout. Now, guys like Elon Musk and Donald Trump openly joke on “X” about firing employees who want to join a union. I don’t think that they know or even care that this is illegal. They just know that non-union employees are far easier to bully.
You’re never gonna lower the cost of living, but you can demand a living wage by joining a Union. Together we are very strong.
At the very beginning of the Debate Kamala Harris walked all the way across the stage to shake hands with Donald Trump. He went straight to his podium, but she went in for the handshake, like it was the beginning of a Heavyweight Fight. I think she just wanted to see if his tiny little hands were sweating. If they weren’t sweating then, they sure were over the course of the next 90 minutes as Kamala landed punch after punch, bringing up all the crimes for which he has been indicted or convicted, going all the way back to discrimination in housing when he worked with his father.
Trump told the viewers that he was proud when Viktor Orban told him that other world leaders feared him. I hate to tell you this, Donald, but you lost the 2020 Presidential election because 80 million Americans were also afraid of you. We were deeply worried that a madman, who would do anything to line his pockets and remain in power, had access to our nuclear codes. The whole world was afraid of Donald Trump, and Donald Trump still doesn’t realize that this wasn’t a good thing. It was a horrible thing. The world gasped a big sigh of relief when Joe Biden won the Presidency, but they held their breath on January 6th, when Trump tried to use a mob to reverse the results of that election.
Kamala Harris revealed her plan for America, and Donald Trump revealed that he doesn’t have a plan. His cronies have a plan, it’s called Project 2025, but he denied ever reading it. That part might be the only honest thing he said all night. Donald Trump probably didn’t even read the books he is supposed to have written, so I’d have no problem believing that he never read the 900-plus-page report. The ideas contained in Project 2025 were certainly written with him in mind, though. It also came out that even though Trump tried to kill Obamacare 60 times, he never had a health plan to replace it, At the debate, Trump finally revealed that nine years later, he still doesn’t have a health plan. He still only has a “concept of a plan.”
What is his plan for anything? Probably to put his son-in-law Jared in charge of fixing it, while Trump plays another round of golf. Don’t let that happen. Vote for the Harris/Walz team in November.
My little brother, Kevin passed away this past week. Since 2016 he wrote a weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle. His death was not a surprise as he had stage 4 cancer. So, he had time to think about what he would say in his final column. In his honor, I would like to reprint his final column here.
“Time to say a final goodbye, and thanks”
By Kevin Fisher-Paulson, Columnist Sep 5, 2024
Editor’s note: Chronicle columnist Kevin Fisher-Paulson died early Thursday, Sept. 5, after a 15-month struggle with cancer. He wrote this column shortly before he died. An obituary for Kevin will be published soon.
“Almost a decade ago, this column began on a baseball diamond on a block in the Outer, Outer, Outer, Outer Excelsior. Excelsior. A Latin term for “ever upward.”
For all that time, it has been the tale of a typical family in the city of St. Francis: a deputy, a dancer, their spirited son with a taste for the wild side, their curious son, as well as the dogs who keep choosing them. In short, this has been about family.
We have told the story of the Fisher-Paulsons, warts and all. One of our sons went across the desert and over the mountains, and the four of us have found a way to save each other.
When the column first came out, a number of readers wrote to tell me that their family was not like my family. Brian and I are gay, having struggled for gay marriage when straight marriage was a fait accompli and had been for more than 2,000 years. We fostered triplets and after that we adopted our two sons, both of whom were born into circumstances that would always challenge us, always keep the Fisher-Paulsons a footstep away from normal.
But you readers came to embrace us. Moms wrote to tell us that their daughters had found new lives across the desert, grandsons had become granddaughters, sons had chosen recovery over the mountains and siblings had chosen forgiveness. If each of us has the courage to change, we all have the courage to hope.
Back in May of 2023, I told you that I had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer. My husband and I took up the struggle. We did immunotherapy. When that stopped working, we began radiation therapy. That helped a little and then we started chemo. That proved painful beyond words, and we moved back to radiation until we could stabilize.
In July, it all caught up. I was admitted to the hospital for tests and therapies. At last, on a recent Tuesday, my oncologist called with the results of my spinal tap and bone marrow analysis. The cancer had won the race, suffused throughout my body. It was, he concluded, time for home hospice. A few weeks to go.
This, therefore, is my final column.
Having said that, I would like to thank the family and friends who have made me the person I am, the community that shared the joy of the Blue Bungalow. That includes Brother X and Brother XX, SASB and DVR, Crazy Mike, Uncle Jon and Uncle Doya, Aunt JJ, Aunt Helene, Terry Asten-Bennett, Jill and Sarah. Nurse Vivian.
But it is my husband of 40 years and my sons who have made this life so worth living.
And also you, the readers. We have become friends over the years, sharing a cup of coffee every Wednesday morning. If you feel like it, have a good cry.
And now I go. So I’d like to ask that you be part of the leave taking. Raise a parting glass.
You could describe life as one long process of letting go, which makes death a process of holding on. What remains after death is the way I have changed Zane, Aidan and Brian. And you. We are all connected.
For me, I have my father’s faith in God, my mother’s faith in family, my grandmother’s secret for pie crust and my sixth-grade teacher’s love of French. From you I have my love of garlic French fries and the baseball stadium. Fog sliding down Sutro Tower. Dad jokes.
I hope I have brought you wonder, and I hope you now bring wonder to others. Teach your grandson to bake chocolate chip cookies. Take your niece to high tea at the Sheraton.
I stand on that baseball diamond, and I salute life. My journey is now over and yours must continue. Years ago, I asked you to believe in my family. And you did. You lit candles. You spread pixie dust. I am humbled. I am grateful.
And now I tell you that I believe in you. So go out there. And be kind.”
Kevin Fisher-Paulson’s weekly column has appeared in the Chronicle since May 2016.
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