Sleepless this night because of Charlie Kirk, and thoughts by Gabe Alves

It's another one of those nights when sleep is a concept, not a reality. I'm sleepless this night because of Charlie Kirk. Some believe Facebook is essentially a waste of time and at times I have agreed. But tonight after spending the last hour scrolling through the posts of some very thoughtful people, and feeling compelled to add something that would somehow make a difference, i.e., have some sort of bell ringing significance, I decided I couldn't share my feelings any better, or more heartfelt, than many of you "out there" have already. So, here is just one Facebook post I stumbled across that says what I might say. But understand there are many more. Nancy Argenziano, Steve Dicks. There are so many more. But, here's one that hit home and I share it for your consideration. It's by a gay person. I am not gay, but to hear such pain with such a calm sense of bewilderment encased in such sincerity and wisdom at what is happening beyond Charlie Kirk, I was struck. Perhaps you will be, too. .... Sandspur

By Gabe Alves

(FB: https://www.facebook.com/grcalves)

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As an immigrant and a gay individual, I’ve been reflecting deeply on the reactions I’ve seen since the news of Charlie Kirk’s death. On one side, there are those mourning, honoring his work, and praising his efforts to shape political life in America. On the other, there are people who—because of the pain he inflicted through his words and actions—are celebrating his death or making light of it.

I’ll be honest: I’ve felt moments of rage seeing people praise a man whose rhetoric so often divided and caused harm for political gain. And I’ve also felt sadness seeing others treat his death as a punchline. Because no matter what he stood for, Charlie Kirk was still a human being. And no one—absolutely no one—deserves to die by gun violence in such a senseless, horrific way.

This post is my attempt to hold space for both realities: to mourn the loss of a life cut short, while not erasing the painful legacy his words left behind.

⸻

The news of Charlie Kirk’s death is undeniably tragic. A life cut short by violence is never something to celebrate. Death by such means leaves behind grief, pain, and unanswered questions—not only for his family and loved ones, but also for the communities who were touched, harmed, or alienated by his words.

As we reflect, it’s important to hold two truths together. On one hand, Charlie Kirk was a son, a friend, and a figure who inspired loyalty among many young conservatives. His passing is a human loss, and compassion must extend to those who are mourning him deeply. On the other hand, his public legacy cannot be divorced from the rhetoric that left many others—immigrants, racial minorities, LGBTQIA+ communities, people outside the Christian faith—feeling targeted, excluded, or diminished.

Some of his most divisive statements left scars:

• Suggesting that the “Great Replacement” is not a theory but a reality—a concept rooted in racist conspiracy.

• Calling Martin Luther King Jr. a “mythological anti-racist creation,” downplaying one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders.

• Claiming Jewish people “control Hollywood, the colleges, the nonprofits,” repeating dangerous antisemitic tropes.

• Declaring transgender identities to be “lies that hurt people and abuse kids,” while calling for nationwide bans on affirming care.

• Comparing abortion to the Holocaust, an analogy deeply painful and offensive to many.

These words were not harmless—they carried weight, they spread widely, and they hurt people. For those who felt dehumanized or erased by them, his death does not erase the wounds of his rhetoric.

Yet, as tragic as this moment is, we are left to imagine the better outcome—the one we do not get. A future where Charlie Kirk lived long enough to confront the pain his words caused. Where he might have chosen to say, “I’m sorry”—to immigrants who were painted as threats, to LGBTQIA+ people told their identities were lies, to minorities who felt erased, to communities of faith outside Christianity who felt excluded. A future where he could have used his powerful platform not to divide, but to heal.

We cannot rejoice in the silencing of any voice by violence. Violence deepens wounds; it never resolves them. The best outcome would have been transformation, growth, and a willingness to recognize the humanity of those he once spoke against. That is the loss beneath the loss—not just of a life, but of the possibility for change.

As we mourn this tragedy, let us hold space for those who are grieving his death and those who are grieving the harm of his legacy. May we commit ourselves, in his absence, to building the bridges he often tore down. May we resist the temptation to celebrate his passing, and instead rededicate ourselves to creating a world where words are used to uplift rather than divide, and where no life is lost to senseless violence.

These men could kill you

These men could kill you

Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen are two folks who are stepping up through lawsuits to reign in the insanity being perpetrated by Trump and his perfect idiot, National health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Together, they are "determined to roll back decades of science and life-saving public health measures provided by vaccines across the nation."

Now, Trump-acolyte DeSantis and his dangerously incompetent Surgeon General Joseph Lodato, have decided that Florida kids will no longer be required to receive certain vaccines before being enrolled in public schools. Vaccines that for decades have prevented mass misery and death of millions.

It is absolute wrongheaded and irresponsible mindlessness , to purposely be putting young lives at such dangerous and needless risk. Please consider this article emailed to me this morning.

 ....Sandspur

___________________________

A few notes about polio, measles, and COVID:

• Polio used to kill or paralyze half a million people a year worldwide. If you weren’t alive then, ask your parents or grandparents, who may well have known someone who had to live inside a huge metal coffin-like contraption called an “iron lung.” A safe and effective vaccine eradicated polio from our country and nearly the entire planet.

• Measles has been and remains one of the deadliest vaccine-preventable causes of death in the world. But a safe and effective vaccine (had) basically eradicated measles in the United States.

• Just a few years ago, COVID-19 was killing Americans by the thousands every day. Donald Trump — who was president at the time — was telling us all to ingest an anti-parasitic compound commonly used in livestock and to inject bleach directly into our veins. But somehow his administration managed to get out of the way enough for the development of safe and effective vaccines that have saved millions and millions of lives.

Earlier this year — with votes from Republicans in the Senate who knew better and should have blocked the nomination — Trump installed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the federal government’s C

As we and others predicted, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on an absolute rampage to roll back decades of science and life-saving public health measures. It goes way beyond vaccines. RFK Jr. is defunding, downsizing, and dismantling essential agencies and programs in practically every area of public health.

It seems like RFK Jr. won’t be satisfied until he has undone many of the great achievements of modern medicine, even if that means taking us back to a time when people died by the millions from preventable and treatable diseases.

By the way, it’s not like modern medicine — or the private, for-profit health insurance regime we Americans are still forced to endure when it comes to paying for it — is without fault. And nobody has done more than Public Citizen over the past half century to fight Big Pharma, the health insurance corporations, and their political puppets in pursuit of affordable medicines and Medicare for All. But let’s not, you know, throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Whatever his weird intentions may be, Kennedy is in effect on a crusade of misery and death that could result in literally millions of Americans, not to mention millions of people throughout the rest of the world, getting sick or dying.

But if all Donald Trump really cares about is what’s good for him personally — which we know is the case — even he should be able to see that the American people will blame him when they and their loved ones get sick or die because of the stupid, retrograde, and inhumane things that RFK Jr. is doing in Trump’s name.

This week, Public Citizen and 60 other organizations sent a letter to Trump urging him to fire RFK Jr.

Add your name in support of our message to Donald Trump:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the most dangerous individual ever to hold the title of Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Trump and Senate Republicans made a grievous error when entrusting RFK Jr. with our nation’s health — with results both horrible and entirely predictable. It is far past time that Trump rectifies this error by firing RFK Jr. before more lives are unnecessarily put at risk by his anti-science views and gross mismanagement.

Click to add your name now.

Thanks for taking action.

For health and safety,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
 
 

Donate | Public Citizen | 1600 20th Street NW | Washington DC 20009 | Unsubscribe

Heather Cox Richardson

The following is from a post by Heather Cox Richardson. If you're not familiar with her or her writings, you need to be. 

"The image of National Guard troops, some of them from as far away as Louisiana and Mississippi, in Washington, D.C., spreading mulch around the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin and picking up trash, illustrates that President Donald J. Trump’s insistence that he needed troops to crack down on violent crime in the nation’s capital was always a cover for an authoritarian takeover."

Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian, professor, and author known for her insightful analysis of American history and contemporary politics, particularly through her popular newsletter "Letters from an American."

You will find her here: Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American <heathercoxrichardson@substack.com>

Her postings are insightful, thoughtful, direct, informative, truthful (she verifies everything), hard-hitting and refreshing in light of what Trump has brought to this country. You can sign up to get her "Letters from an American" for free. She is not to be compared with much of what you have on Facebook and lots of other sites that are just meanderings and irrational anger. 

This country is in real and deepening trouble. It's like watching the Statue of Liberty being dismantled by blow-torches bit by bit while those we put in office enable the perpetrators continue to spew firehoses of untruths about what is happening and the looming consequences.

Real and unrelenting resistance is needed at all levels.     ----Sandspur

As a historian, Richardson advocates studying history to learn how to distill complex situations into something easier to understand. She does this through her newsletters, books, and podcasts.
Newsletter: Letters from an American.

The Bootlickers

I was reading a passage recently that went something like this:

"They knelt low, dutifully avoiding the eyes of their master, for such would be an act of defiance and bring forth a swift rebuke by his mighty sword. 

"So, one by one, they licked the boots of their King saying, 'Thank you, O Exalted One, 

"- for the protection you provide us from the false and irrational rants of those who seek to provide us adequate nourishment, 

"- for your brave defiance of those who would make our filthy and unworthy existence better, 

"-for insuring our deep debts to your imminence will only continue to rise, 

"- but most of all for your determined efforts to render truth mere fiction, and fiction the new truth, because truth is not veracity or honesty, it is only fiction that is believed. 

Hail to the King!"

  

Then I read in the Tampa Bay Times how the republicans all kneeled in pious devotion to Trump and, to a sorry every single one of them, they all voted for that despicable act that will do such disservice to America.

That's when I understood the point of the passage.

Sandspur

Rick Scott Demands More Cuts to Medicaid, Which His Company Allegedly Scammed

 Rick Scott Demands More Cuts to Medicaid, Which His Company Allegedly Scammed

Story by Andrew Perez
Rolling Stone

"Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who's famous for his former hospital company's record-setting Medicare fraud settlements, is currently leading an effort to make Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" even more painful for America's poor. "

"The legislation already cuts $930 billion from Medicaid, the nation's government health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, and would eliminate coverage for millions. Scott's amendment, expected to get a vote Monday, would take away another $313 billion in state Medicaid funds and force hundreds of thousands of additional people, at least, off the program."

"The senator resigned as CEO of the hospital chain known as HCA Healthcare in 1997 amid an ongoing federal probe and a series of whistleblower complaints. He has long faced attacks from Democrats over the $1.7 billion that HCA paid to resolve fraud allegations in the early 2000s. Some of the allegations involved Medicaid."

Read the full report here"

Rick Scott Demands More Cuts to Medicaid, Which His Company Allegedly Scammed

What has happened to the goodness I was brought up to believe was America?

I get the TBT on Wednesdays and Sundays but it’s the Sunday edition that gets to me more than the Wednesday edition, or any of the other daily online editions. By that I mean, Sunday has always been a day to relax and do “whatever”, right?  That’s the mental conditioning of having to work and worry for the six prior days for some 40 years or so and thus, when Sunday comes around, it’s time to be still and not worry about what’ll start all over again in the morning. Yes, you’re right. I haven’t held an 8-to-5 job in decades, so what’s going on?

For me, waking up, walking down to the gate to get the paper, having my first cup of coffee, and easing into my favorite chair, my mind automatically shirks any thought of tribulations the coming week may bring. I’m relaxed and ready to absorb my Sunday edition clearly and with open acceptance of what news it will offer about the world that day.

My thought for today is this, how is it that so many matters that were once considered proper guidance for becoming a morally good and healthy human are now, not. Personal behavioral guides that were widely instilled by churches, the Boy and Girl Scouts, grade and high school teachers and educators in general, civic clubs, doctors, parents and guardians, lawyers, public officials, sports and other celebrities and many others, are now considered to be … wrong. What happened?

Example, vaccines. Most people in this country of maybe 60 and older will remember the wave of certain diseases that spread universal fear because of what they could do to the human body. To name a few: German measles, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, mumps, hepatitis B, chicken pox. There are more.

If you’re 60 or older, there’s a 99% probability you either had, or knew someone who had, one or more of these diseases. And equally percentagewise, you were likely vaccinated to keep you from contracting many of these diseases and thus were proactively protected. There are people I know personally today, as you might, who are still alive and who have carried the impact of one of those diseases their entire lives, not because the vaccine didn’t work but because not everyone got them in time.

Younger folks just do not have the same confidence in vaccines because they have not lived, perhaps with the exception of covid-19, to see and experience the horror that’s possible when the values of vaccines are doubted. So, why are they doubted today? I believe it’s because the responsible public officials want us to focus on possible side effects rather than the enormous amount of greater suffering that is caused by avoiding vaccines altogether. It is a tragedy in the making, and so unwise.

Another example of a good “thing” that has been turned on its head, is this thought that a government that helps people who need help is automatically relegated to the likes of an anti-capitalist regime on a par with socialism and communism. Simply put, it is not socialism for a rich and vibrant country to lend a hand to its most needy. It is the right thing to do. Giving to a charity by an individual to help people in need is not communism nor socialism, it is doing the right thing. A functional health care system that will not bankrupt your family if you get sick and assuring the old do not have to want in their last years is not socialism. The fact that it comes from a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, could not be a more responsible and right thing to do.

By the same token, those who are not legitimately needy should certainly not be given enormous tax breaks and government handouts because they make huge donations to the coffers of certain elected party officials. You’ve been reading about this. The moral disparity of what’s happening in Congress as I write this is mind blowing.

Yet another example of “good” no longer thought to be so, is the concept that no one should be disproportionately prevented from being able to participate in the American Dream without undue governmental interference. These are the rights and protections afforded by the American Constitution, to wit: freedom of speech, religion, a free press, assembly, the right to petition our government, to bear arms, protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to due process, a fair trial, and protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

It would seem, as it used to be, that somewhere in all those “basic rights” is the right to be informed, educated, and aware of social injustices, including those related to race, gender, and environmental justice, and the commensurate right to be able to address and rectify any such injustices through activism and policy changes.

But today, sigh, such ideas are considered “Woke” and unamerican. How did we get to such a place as this where diversity is undesirable and equality and inclusion are available only for some? What has happened to all the moral goodness I was brought up to believe was America?

Thoughts from the periphery

Sandspur

The Republicans Will Pay The Price

 

Charlie Hunsicker - an extraordinary person and career

 

Manatee County's Robinson Preserve

Charlie Hunsicker serves as the Director of Manatee County's Natural Resources Department. In this role, he has been significantly involved in the development and restoration of Robinson's Preserve.

Here's what the internet indicates about his work relating to Manatee county's Robinson Preserve::

• Vision and Leadership: Hunsicker is credited with having a vision for the land, recognizing its potential as an "ecological gem" for the region.
• Acquisition: He was involved when Manatee County approached the owner about purchasing the land, which was acquired in January 2003.
• Restoration Oversight: Hunsicker's department has been responsible for the $5 million restoration project at Robinson Preserve. This includes removing invasive species and restoring native wetland and upland habitats.
• Innovative Features: He has overseen the incorporation of unique elements into the preserve, such as the artificial reefs created from Australian pine stumps and the Canopy Zone, an elevated playground built among the trees.
• Environmental Education: Hunsicker highlighted the creation of an environmental education center at Robinson Preserve.
• Partnerships: He acknowledges the numerous partners involved in making the restoration of Robinson Preserve possible, securing funding from various environmental agencies.
• Regional Significance: Hunsicker emphasizes the importance of Robinson Preserve on a regional conservation scale, contributing to a larger coastal preserve stretching along the bay.
• Accessibility: More recently, he announced the addition of an electric tram to make the preserve more accessible to visitors of all ages and abilities.

Overall, Charlie Hunsicker has played a key role in the transformation of Robinson's Preserve from a potential development site into a significantly restored natural park and recreational area for Manatee County.

How did it happen?

Manatee County acquired the majority of what is now Robinson's Preserve in January 2003. The county approached the landowner, Bill Robinson, with plans to purchase the 487-acre tract, which had been approved for a 400-home waterfront golf course community.

The purchase price for the initial 487 acres was $10 million. A significant portion of this was covered by a $6 million grant from the Florida Communities Trust. The remaining $4 million was contributed by Manatee County.

Over time, the preserve has expanded. For example, in 2012, Manatee County partnered with the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast to add another 150 acres to the preserve. The Conservation Foundation assisted in raising funds for this expansion and then conveyed the land to the county. The exact cost of this later expansion is not immediately clear in the provided search results, but the initial significant acquisition cost $10 million.

All of this reflects Charlie's even handed but determined efforts to bring it all together. Things like this always require a multitude of hands in the mix, but also always, there has to be one person with a singular purpose in mind to keep all the varied interests focused and on target. That was Charlie Hunsicker.

 It is as clear as a cloudless Florida spring day that Trump is following the Project 25 script with the accuracy of a GPS, but with sharper and sharper authoritarian turns and whispered guidance from his incompetent billionaire friends and behind-the-scenes henchmen as to how and when to get it done.

He lied when he claimed to know nothing about it. And with all the other lies he continues to spew, nothing he says can now be believed, even if he should stumble and say something truthful. 

Meanwhile, his incompetence is shredding our Country to pieces bit by growing bit and the Republicans are deeply complicit by their gutless enabling. It is time to stand.

 This morning, CNN reported:

"Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced his intention to end the Defense Department’s Women, Peace and Security program, which increases the participation of women at all levels of conflict prevention and resolution. Although Hegseth described it as a “woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative,” it was President Donald Trump who signed the Women, Peace and Security Act into law in 2017. The law was championed by his daughter, Ivanka, and backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he was a member of the Senate and by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when she was a member of the House. Experts say ending the WPS initiative will have significant consequences for women in the military."

HOW INCREDIBLY STUPID.

 

This is a post on Facebook by my friend Mike Tolbert that needs to be shared - Sandspur

Occupy Democrats 

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BREAKING: President Biden's former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says what we're all thinking and incinerates Donald Trump's first 100 days as an "unadulterated disaster."

(Jake Sullivan is  an American attorney who served as the U.S. National Security Advisor from 2021 to 2025 under president Joe Biden. See the podcast here:

 https://www.facebook.com/meidastouch/videos/1186768246266742)

And he was just getting warmed up...

"And it’s not just about the policy. It’s that President Trump and his team have gone at the core American advantages in the world and systematically tried to dismantle them,” Sullivan said on the MeidasTouch podcast.

who has been involved in one scandal after another and reportedly reduced the Pentagon to a state of total "chaos."

"Now, I’m one who believed … that Secretary Hegseth should never have been nominated and should never have been confirmed in the first place," said Sullivan.

"So all of this, in a way, wasn’t just predictable. It was predicted by a lot of people who said that putting a person like this into this role would result in disastrous leadership at the Pentagon, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen across the board," he continued.

"And we’ve seen other extraordinary statements from his former senior aides basically saying, we were fired for no good reason. We don’t get what’s going on, and if Secretary Hegseth can’t even run his front office, how can he possibly run the entire Pentagon?" he added.

Sullivan then took aim at Donald Trump's absurdly destructive domestic agenda of pointless tariffs, mass deportations, and the cutting of crucial research.

"Across all of the major dimensions of the things that have been America’s major advantages, in less than 100 days, President Trump has put them all at risk,"he said. "And that’s not even speaking about Ukraine or China or Gaza or the other issues that we could get into."

"This is about the core foundations of American power and purpose in the world and President Trump’s effort essentially to knock them out," he said.

He shredded Trump's claim made before the election that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours as "ridiculous."

"That is such a catastrophic misread of the situation, I don’t even know where to start. This war is Russia’s fault, and it’s ultimately President Putin’s to end,” said Sullivan, criticizing Trump's analysis of the conflict as "ass backwards."

He said that Trump's increasingly authoritarian posturing, particularly his imperialist demand that Greenland join the United States, could push our allies into the arms of China.

"Only the United States of America has this network of strong, capable, democratic allies, and now what President Trump is doing is China’s work for it," said Sullivan.

"He is single-handedly taking away this huge asset, and I would say that there are a number of costs to that, but one of the biggest ones is that for us to compete effectively with China in the future, we need to be flanked by strong allies, capable allies, and going it alone in this trade war and the broader competition with China is a weaker way to approach things than with the strength of having a lot of people standing with us," he stated.

Sullivan wasn't done there and went on to criticize Trump for gutting the federal government with the help of Elon Musk and their mass DOGE layoffs—

"They’re just sending young guys who know nothing into various agencies and slashing and burning in ways that they then have to go fix, like firing the folks responsible for our nuclear program," Sullivan said.

"I find this absolutely unacceptable, cruel, and the kind of thing that should shock the conscience of Americans, who, yes, want to see more efficiency, but also want to see decent public servants treated the way they deserve to be treated," he added.

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