Month: January 2025

Knocked Down

I’m doing my best.  I’m trying to let the Trump outrages, from Guantanamo to Kash Patel to halting cancer research; wash over me. It’s like diving under a five foot swell coming into the beach.  But today, right now, he got me.  Sixty-four Americans lost their lives last night in a helicopter/plane crash in Washington, DC.  The investigation is underway.  Many of the bodies are still  strapped in their seats in the ice-cold Potomac.  The ultimate cause of the accident is still unknown.

Except, of course, to President Donald “F-kin’” Trump.  He just spent ten minutes denigrating the Federal Aviation Administration, and blaming “DEI” hires for the accident.  Trump spoke about mentally disabled controllers, and those with physical disabilities from paralysis to dwarfism.  He somehow claimed it was Pete Buttigieg’s fault, or Barack Obama’s fault, or, of course, Joe Biden’s fault.  

He made it clear that he blamed the Air Traffic Controller (whoever that person was) for the crash.  And he made it sound like America has unqualified, handicapped and disabled controllers killing our aircraft passengers, pilots, crew members, and military personnel. 

Then, after all of that reading of FAA hiring practices and the placing blame; Trump said, “Well, we really don’t know what happened”. 

Sycophants 

The new Transportation Secretary, the new Defense Secretary, and even JD Vance, Ohio’s addition to the Vice Presidency; backed Trump’s assertion.  They all paid obeisance to the President: “thank you for your leadership” (may I have another??).   And they all backed his “analysis” of the problem.  None of them gave the final, “Well we really don’t know…” after their statements.

So we now have a President doing his “level best” to tell us what happened in the Washington accident.  It’s as if he has some expertise in Air Traffic Control – which he doesn’t.  It’s as if he has some intelligence on this issue; which he doesn’t.  He’s just “spun” this problem into another Trump “triumph” of changing America.

It’s despicable.  It’s disgusting.  And it’s disrespectful to the living, and the dead.

And it’s the new era of Trump: a tidal wave of idiocy, racism, and hate.  This wave knocked me down; kicked the wind out of me; ground the sandy bottom into my face. But I will get to shore, and gather my wits, and head into the waves again.  

It reminds me:  how much I hate what America is becoming.

Just as every cop is a criminal (whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo)
And all the sinners saints (whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo)
As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer (whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo)
‘Cause I’m in need of some restraint (whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo)

The Rolling Stones –Sympathy for the Devil

Criminals

Let’s look at the definition of a criminal.   My Mother’s ultimate source, the Oxford English Dictionary, defines a “crime” as:  “An act or omission constituting an offence (usually a grave one) against an individual or state and punishable by law.”  So a “criminal” is one who commits such an “offence”.  (Mom was British, and so was her spelling, much to my demise in elementary school spelling tests. “That’s the way my MOM spells it!!!”). 

To split hairs just a bit, the key element in the definition is the undefined nature, “usually a grave one”, of crime.   Going 40 in a 35 MPH zone is an “offence”, but not necessarily a “crime”.  It’s not “grave”.  In legal terms they are called “civil” offenses;  violation of regulation (like traffic laws) but not “criminal” law.  The difference:  if I was driving 40 MPH in a 35 zone AND I was drunk was an alcohol level of .15, I’ve committed the civil offense of speeding, but the criminal offense of driving while intoxicated.  

Crossing the United States border illegally can be both a civil offense, and a criminal offense.  That’s a problem when the leaders of the Executive Branch of the United States say: “We are only going to deport criminals.”  Is the single act of crossing the US Border “without papers” (see the  essay from earlier this week) criminal?  Is it still criminal if you’re in a canoe in the border waters along the Minnesota/Canada border?  How about if you walk across the Rio Grande River (it’s pretty shallow in mid-summer) in Big Bend National Park in Texas?  Or finally, what about the Canadian border from Point Roberts, Washington?  Point Roberts is in the US, but its 1200 residents can only be accessed by land from Canada.

ICE Raids

So when the new “Immigration Czar”, Tom Homan, claims that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are “only designed to round-up criminals”, what does he really mean?  Look, pretty much all Americans are in favor of sending “murdering gang members” out of the country.   It’s an easy out:  instead of long trials and paying for prison sentences, just send them back to “where they come from”.  But Homan has made his definition clear:  if someone is undocumented, therefore in the US “illegally”, he considers them a criminal. 

The ICE raids of the last weekend show what he means.  Fully half of the immigrants rounded up were actual criminals, accused or convicted of committing felonies.  But that means that the other half were, in fact, only guilty of the civil offense of crossing the border “without papers”.  But those folks didn’t get a pass.   They too were loaded up on military air transports, and flown out of the country.  It makes the “numbers” look better on TV.

And that’s caused panic in the migrant community.  Many families live in “mixed status” households:  some US citizens, some legal migrants, some without papers.  What happens when a child goes to school, and Mom and Dad are picked up in an “ICE Raid” for being undocumented.  Who will pick the child up?   What if the child is a US citizen, is it still “OK” to deport the parents? 

Jobs 

And what about all of the job categories where the undocumented are employed?  Who will pick the “truck crops” in Florida and California, who will roof the houses damaged by hurricanes or fires, who will clean the hotel rooms, or butcher the chickens?  It’s easy for the Administration to say:  “That’s more jobs for Americans”.  But, to be brutally honest, Americans don’t want those jobs.  Undocumented workers are doing what the newest entries in American life have always done: the tough work, the brutal work in the sun, the bloody work at the processor. It’s the work that longer term Americans found a way to get out of.   

To put it bluntly (as my wife would say) “What about the eggs?”.  Egg prices went up during the post-covid inflation, and became a battle cry for the Trump forces in the 2024 election.  What about the eggs, when the cost of agriculture shoots up because we no longer have the migrant workers?  Forget about who gets sent back to Guatemala – what about the eggs?

It’s not just a problem for the undocumented.  It’s a problem for all Americans.

Uniter-in-Chief

When Joe Biden became the President of the United States, in the middle of the Covid pandemic and just days after an Insurrection led by his predecessor, he made a choice.  He could have appointed an aggressive Department of Justice, led by an avenging Attorney General.  He could have made sure that everyone who dared to contemplate overthrowing the Constitutional process, the world-admired “peaceful transition of power”, were brought to justice.  Joe Biden might have made the prime mission of his Presidency to hold the leaders of that criminal insurrection accountable, to the United States and the world.

He didn’t.  Instead of an avenger, he appointed a “neutral arbiter” as the Attorney General, Appellate Court Justice Merrick Garland.  The Judge was exactly what you’d want in a member of the court  (or a Supreme Court Justice nominee, which he was).  Garland was a dispassionate, apolitical enforcer of the law.  He was appointed to hold the Justice Department above politics, and re-new American’s faith in “blind justice”.

Biden made his choice with both eyes open.  He knew Garland:  who he was and what he believed.  Biden wanted, above all, to return America to “normalcy”.  He believed (believes) that the “job” of the Biden Administration was to restore order, norms, and values in American government, after the “chaos” Trump’s Presidency.  Justice under Trump’s Attorney Generals; Sessions, Whittaker and Barr, became an extension of Trump politics. It was a truly “weaponized” arm of the White House.  Biden saw himself as a “uniter-in-chief”, and could only see one way forward for the Nation.  

Weaponized

Neutrality was so important, the Biden allowed his only surviving son to remain in jeopardy, under investigation by Trump Justice.  Garland kept the Trump appointed US Attorney investigating Hunter on the job and, in fact, raised his status to Special Prosecutor, giving him increased investigatory power.   

Joe Biden thought he could heal the America’s political divide.  His Justice Department didn’t give the Insurrectionists a “pass”, but they did have a very, very, deliberate process.  It took years to start, and it took the Democratic House of Representatives and the January 6^th Committee hearings to approach the actual Insurrectionist leaders.  Maybe, Biden didn’t really want to have all that in the open, a clear public wedge against the MAGA world.  But he put Garland in charge, without a political check.  And it became, like many things involving Trump, “If we do something wrong, we’ll accuse you of the same thing”. The “MAGA mantra” was that the Biden “Democrat” (sic) Justice Department was politically “weaponized”, not theirs.

Biden’s good intentions were for naught.  By a slim margin (really, about 255,000 in the swing states) out of 152 million votes, Trump returned as President.  Not surprisingly, he returns with vengeance in mind.  He is creating a truly “weaponized” Justice Department, to be led by a truly partisan Attorney General, Pam Bondi.  The “point of the Justice spear”, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is to be headed by Kash Patel, and avowed partisan who has published an actual “hit list” of enemies to be prosecuted.  Already the axe is falling:  several Justice lawyers, non-partisan civil servants, were fired yesterday, for being a part of legal teams investigating Insurrectionists.   

Hindsight

One of Trump’s first acts as President, was to pardon nearly 1500 people convicted of crimes in the Insurrection.  His first order was to erase history, and re-write the narrative.  There wasn’t an “insurrection”, it was a peaceful protest with a few that got out of hand, provoked to violence by the police response.  They are all free now.

Of course, hindsight is perfect.  Looking back, Biden should have appointed a “Pam Bondi” and a “Kash Patel”.  He should have allowed for Justice to be done to all those in the Insurrection, from day one of his Presidency.  Of course it would have furthered the National abyss that is our political divide.  But what would be the difference; we are just as divided as ever today.

And Americans would not be facing the daily outrage of Trump on almost every front:  from migrants round-ups to grave threats to public health (Robert Kennedy Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services), to a MAGA-Justice Department seeking vengeance.  

Joe Biden was the right man, with the right idea.  

Unfortunately it was at the wrong time in American history.

For those who read these essays regularly, I have an apology.  It’s been a few days since I published, and some asked me if I’ve taken a “sabbatical” from our political world. Like many of us, I’m trying to adjust to the deluge of Trump’s actions, almost all abhorrent to what I believe America is about.  Every essay can’t just be a rant against Trump. (Well, it could but that would quickly get old).  So I am trying to pick my battles, as we all will be required to do.  

At the same time it’s the heart of indoor track season.  While I am no longer coaching, I am officiating track a lot.  This weekend, it was a clinic for officials on Friday, a clinic for coaches on Saturday morning, a collegiate pole vault competition on Saturday afternoon, and a high school shot competition on Sunday morning. (Why does everything in Indoor Track start at eight in the morning?) Oh, and there was a total of 320 miles of driving in between.  So that was a big part of my absence from “Our America” the past few days.  But it’s Monday morning, and here we go! 

SOE

My Mom was a spy for the British during World War II, a member of the “Special Operations Executive”, Churchill’s personal spy organization.  Mom was lucky:  the fatality rate in her unit was beyond 100% (not everyone died, but most did, and so did a lot of their replacements).   Mom survived, even though she was in and out of Nazi-occupied Europe; France, Belgium, and even Yugoslavia.  

SOE did everything they could to protect their agents.  The details mattered:  making sure the clothes were made in Paris factories, down to the underwear.  The cigarettes had to be local, and so did the accent.  Mom was successful in part, because of her years of “finishing school” at the Sacred Heart Convent in Liege, Belgium.  He French wasn’t “French”, it was “Belgian”, and so were her clothes.  That gave her some leeway in the inevitable interactions with authorities.

Papers

But most important was the “quality” of her forged documents.  Authoritarian governments remain in power, in part, by controlling the movements of citizens.  They do that through a series of documents that every citizen is required to carry.  Sure there were the “standard” identity documents; proof of birth, age, height, weight, nationality, religious belief, work status.  In addition, she needed “permissions”, identifying that she was allowed to “move” throughout the country:  “passes” prepared by local authorities allowing travel.  

Each document was on “special” paper, signed and stamped by the proper person.  Regular cops and the secret police didn’t need to ferret out differences in clothing or accent; they simply had to find an error in the documents.  That was enough to trigger detention, investigation, and for many members of the SOE, death.

Watch any World War II spy or escape movie.  For the undercover operative, the scariest time was when some low-level authority made the demand: “Your Papers!!”.  

Black Shirts

One of the hallmarks of a free society is the ability to move about without permission.  We don’t need “passes” to drive from town to town officiating track meets (though we do, reasonably, need a license to operate a car).  No one has to give us “permission” before we leave.  And while authorities can demand identity, they are required to have some “reason”, some probable cause of a criminal action, to move onto further detention or investigation. If you’re not driving your car at ninety miles an hour trying to make the warmup start of the college men’s pole vault, you can travel unencumbered by authority demanding “Your Papers Please”. Sometimes you can even drive that fast as well.

But those liberties are changing under the new administration.  Today it isn’t whether your cigarettes were made in North Carolina or your sweatshirt by the “Champion” company.  No, today, some of the American authorities, dressed in the black shirts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), are looking at one characteristic; skin.  Ask the Puerto Ricans taken in a Newark, New Jersey ICE “raid” of a workplace.  They were arrested by ICE as “undocumented migrants” because they looked Hispanic.  

Swept Up

Check out your own driver’s license.  It doesn’t list a citizenship status.  It doesn’t note that since some were born in Puerto Rico, they are AMERICAN CITIZENS, even eligible to vote for the President if they are residing in New Jersey (Puerto Rican residents cannot vote for President).  They just get swept up in the crowd, some legal, some not, all scrambling to give the ICE agents their “papers”.

If you drive south of Tucson, Arizona, there are checkpoints along I-19 approaching the border with Mexico. That’s one of the places where ICE Agents are stopping cars and demanding “Your Papers”.  Whether you’re an American citizen or legal resident, or a migrant “with out papers”, you must prove yourself.  And for those without, even those citizens without, there is a high risk of detention, and possible deportation to some country where you might not have even been.

It used to be, like two weeks ago, that there was a presumption that citizens could travel freely, even close to the Southern (and now Northern) borders.  Now, even in church, or in school, or in the hospital; there might well be the demand of  “your papers”. 

That’s the new reality in Our America.

For those of you not familiar with horse racing, the audience participation is based on gambling.  There are many ways to bet the horses, including pick the winner, or pick a horse to “win, place (2^nd) or show (3^rd). There are also all sorts of groupings of horses, some over multiple races.  All to attract the “gambler’s dollar”, where the real money is in the racing industry.

100 Days

The tradition started with Franklin Roosevelt.  Elected in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the nation wanted action.  About a quarter of the Nation’s citizens were out of work, desperately struggling to find the next meal for themselves and their families.  After FDR told the country there was, “Nothing to Fear, but Fear Itself”, he entered the White House with a mandate to get something, anything, done.

In his first 100 days in office, fifteen major bills passed Congress to try to alleviate the impact of the Depression.  On the list were many laws Americans are familiar with as the “alphabet soup” legislation:

• Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• Glass-Steagall Act (established the FDIC)
• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA).

It wasn’t just that FDR was making major changes in the American economy.  He was putting the American Government into action.  His predecessor waited for the economy to correct itself (laissez-faire economics), but it didn’t happen.  There was less to fear, because there was a President taking direct action to make things better.

Tradition

That began the American Presidential tradition of “the first 100 days”.  What used to be a time when the new President “eased into the job”, is now a flurry of activity.  It also made sense; it is the  time (other than when America is under military attack) that a President has the most political power.  Every President, from Roosevelt’s landslide victory to George W Bush’s Supreme Court triggered win, claimed a “mandate” from the American people.  Congress, fresh off elections themselves, wants to get things done as well.  And the President gets a “honeymoon” from the press and the people.  It’s the perfect time to exercise the powers of the executive office.

More recently, Presidents enter office with a whole range of “Executive Orders”.  Instead of introducing a plan for the Congress to enact into law, like the New Deal, they use their singular power to make all of the changes they can.  Trump, Biden, and now Trump again were well prepared on “Day ONE”, and part of Inauguration Day tradition has become the signing of a flurry of orders trying to redirect the executive branch. 

Project 2025

During the runup to the 2024 election, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, released their “Project 2025” document.  It was over 900 pages of changes that they saw as needed to alter the American government and align it with their own conservative views.  Many of those proposals outraged less ideologically inclined citizens, and the Trump campaign distanced itself from the plan.  Ultimately, Democratic warnings about Project 2025 fell on deaf ears when it came to the voters.  The Trump Administration is now using Project 2025 as their blueprint.

Part of the “Project” was a series of executive orders to be signed by an incoming Trump Presidency.  They were nicknamed “Shock and Awe”, after the US military strategy of the early 2000’s.  That was massive bombing attacks to obliterate enemy defensive positions.  Then Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld used the term over and over again at the beginning of the Second Persian Gulf War, as we watched the combat video from American warplanes.

Donald Trump was sworn (hand on the Bible or not) on Monday.  It’s Wednesday morning, and there’s been an avalanche of executive orders released, many signed in front of 20,000 fans at the Capital Center on Inauguration Night.  They encompass changes to the Federal government, alterations to the US Constitution, and, most importantly, the Project 2025 determination to wipe out anything that the Biden Administration did in four years in office.

Winners

Some of these orders are serious, with serious consequences.  Like them or not, they are within the power of the President to act “alone” (remember Trump told us “I alone can fix this”).  Those are the “winners” for Project 2025 and their MAGA followers.  Others are “placers”, Trump can say it, but it will take a lot more than just his “say” to get them done.  And others are a flat “no”.  They are not within the power of the President to decide, and are simply smoke; part of the “shock and awe” strategy to overwhelm Democrats before the “loyal (or not so loyal) opposition” can get organized.

”Winners”:  most of  the Immigration changes that Trump is making, including closing the border, ending remote requests for asylum, and “rounding up” undocumented migrants, are fully within his power.   While there’s going to be lots of attempts at Judicial intervention, the Supreme Court has already placed most of those powers in the sole hand of the President, (absent an actual immigration law passed by Congress).  It’s one of his greatest powers, and one of the reasons he ordered the immigration proposal tanked by Republicans in Congress last year.  

More Winners

Another “winner”:  Trump rescinded Biden’s Executive Orders advancing racial equity, not asking for citizenship status on the census, combatting Covid, preventing discrimination based on gender identity, and requiring executive personnel to commit to an ethics agreement.  Trump also removed environmental protections, worker protections, including the right of Federal workers to organize in unions,  and eliminating privately run prisons. And Trump ended the taskforce to reunify families that his first Administration separated at the border.  Whatever Biden did by Executive Order, Trump can undo.  And he’s doing it.

And the saddest “winner”:  Trump pardoned 1600 some convicted felons from the January 6^th Insurrection, including those who physically attacked and injured policemen, and the organizers of much of the violence. 

Placers and No

A “Placer”:  Trump ordered all Federal employees to return to “work”.  He ordered the end of remote work from home.  And for those Federal employees at the management level, who are not under a union negotiated contract, they are going back to their offices.  But for the vast majority of Federal workers their contract protects them from the arbitrary whims of the President, and would require re-negotiation.

And, much to Trump’s and Project 2025’s dismay, the President of the United States cannot re-write the laws of Congress.  Trump wants to end the Affordable Care Act, but he can’t, even though he signed an Executive Order trying to do that.  He also wants to remove the $35 cap on insulin, also passed into law by Congress (as well as much of the Inflation Reduction Act, another Congressional Law).   And he wants to “impound” the money already allocated in the Infrastructure Law, perhaps to use to “build the Wall”.  That’s not within his power either.

Trump signed an Executive order changing the Constitutional mandate to grant citizenship to those born on US soil.  That’s Black Letter Law in the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution, and clearly is NOT in the purview of the President’s executive discretion.  Even with a Trump 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, it’s unlikely that will fly.  Rewriting the Constitution is a “hard NO”.

Shock and Awe

So many orders, so much paper, all of the headlines:  it looks like a President jumping into action.  But a lot of the paper is just that, paper without substance.  Americans need to weather the storm, and not be overwhelmed by the swirl of Project 2025 propaganda.  

There are real things that Donald Trump is doing; including providing cover for his flawed nominee for Defense Secretary.  But there is only so much outrage, and action, the “loyal opposition” can take.  And there is very real damage that Trump can do to America.  That’s where Democrats need to focus their opposition.  Let the noise, the flash, the nonsense, go by.  Democrats need to focus on defending the core essentials of the American Republic.  If it sounds like a war, it is, a political war to determine what kind of America we will have.  Like George Washington’s Army, Democrats lost a crucial battle in November. 

But the struggle goes on.

Trump Era

When High School American history teachers in thirty years (assuming we have high schools, and, assuming we still have teachers) look back, they will call this the “Trump Era”.  Right or wrong, he earned the distinction of having his name attached to a time in American history, just as much as the Roosevelts, or Jackson, or even Washington.  And, assuming those future teachers (I kind of have a “Jetson’s” image of the thing) are somewhat truthful, they will talk about the awful polarization of our time.  

We do that now when we teach about the Pre-Civil War period of the United States.  Starting with the aging “Great Compromisers” of the 1850’s Congress, the country found less to agree upon, and more to rail against.  By 1856, the compromising was over, and in five years the chasm over the issue of slavery drove us to Civil War.  When Lincoln intoned that a nation could not live “Half slave and half free,” he wasn’t saying something new.  He was just recognizing that all the other methods of conflict resolution had failed.

I’m not prophesizing a civil war now, but I am saying that most of our methods of conflict resolution have failed as well.  We used to depend on the Courts to balance our partisan conflicts.  But that is seldom the case anymore.  

North Carolina

Look at the current North Carolina Supreme Court election, where a majority of Republicans on the Court are still refusing to acknowledge the narrow victory of a Democrat, Allison Riggs for one of their seats.  After the original vote count, the Democrat won by 700 or so votes out of 5.5 million.  The Republican candidate, Jefferson Griffin, rightfully demanded a recount. And when that count didn’t change the outcome, he asked for a second hand recount.  Riggs gained a few votes, to a winning margin of 734.

Then, after all of that, Griffin went to court to demand that 60,000 ballots be thrown out due to “ineligibility”.  This is after the state ruled them eligible and allowed them to vote, an ex-post-facto argument.  And who will determine whether Griffin or Riggs will be on the North Carolina Supreme Court based on this “after the fact” eligibility decision?  Well, the Republican majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court. 

It used to be that we would still trust “the Court” to do the right thing.  Today, no one will be surprised if North Carolina’s highest judicial body does the “political” thing, and puts another Republican on the bench.  It would just be another “marker” in our age of division.

Enemies List

Much as some would tell us to deny “our lying ears”, we know that Donald Trump and his MAGA minions declared the intent to “punish” those who tried to hold them accountable for trying to steal the 2020 election and the Insurrection of January 6^th.  Those to be punished are literally on an “enemies list”, published by Trump’s candidate for FBI Director, Kash Patel.  

And they are ingrained in statement after statement, in public and on social media, made by the candidate himself as he ran for President in 2024.  The “LOCK HER UP” chant against Hillary Clinton in 2016, became “LOCK THEM UP”, to include the January 6^th Congressional Committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jack Smith of the Justice Department, General Milley, and others.  In fact, Trump thought that Milley ought to be executed for treason.

What They Think

It would be easy to say that it was all “rhetoric”, and that no one would use the Justice Department to exact some form of revenge against an “enemies list”.  But there’s one thing this “Trump Era” taught us.  From the early “Muslim Ban” to child separation at the border: if they can think it, they can do it.  No one should be surprised if members of the list; from Liz Cheney to Adam Kinzinger to Dr. Fauci to the good General; find themselves under criminal investigation. 

I guess we could hope that the “norms” hold, and that the Courts would toss such investigations out.  But there’s little we’ve seen in the American Court system, especially the United States Supreme Court, that should give us comfort.  The Supreme Court has gone so far as created a blanket immunity for the President of the United States for “official” criminal wrong-doing, taking the ancient concept of “sovereign immunity” and applying it to the Presidency as if he was what George Washington refused to be, a King.  

Injustice

Joe Biden, in the last morning of his Presidency, recognized that we live in “different” times.  He issued a Presidential pardon to the members of the January 6^th Congressional Committee, to those who testified before that Committee, to Dr. Anthony Fauci, and to General Milley.  They are pardoned for any “crime” they might have committed in that time. And, they are now immune from investigation and prosecution.  General Milley, now retired,  was “deeply grateful” for the pardon, stating:

“After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights. I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.”

There will be some, even some Democrats, who criticize President Biden.  They say that granting a pardon is conceding that there was in fact a “crime”, that needed pardoning.  Some will say that even if Patel’s FBI (if he gets appointed) did investigate, the Courts would protect justice and prove them innocent.

But we don’t live in a time of “innocence”.  We live in the Trump Era, where, injustice is not only possible, it’s likely.  It’s Inauguration Day, and dozens of Executive Orders will be issued this afternoon.  Many of them will highlight the injustice of our new leaders.  So for one last time, thank you Joe Biden, for everything you did, and for what you did today.  It was just.

I hope you don’t represent the end of justice in our Nation. 

Aware

I guess you could say I became politically “aware” in the summer of 1968.  I was always interested in politics; at four I was wearing a 1960 “Kennedy” button.  We went to see President Johnson speak in 1967, and I was shocked at the black turtle-necked protestors from Antioch College who dared to interrupt him.  And Dad introduced us to Vice President Humphrey on the tarmac at the Dayton Airport.  But in August of 1968, I broke my arm.  

The front wheel came off my bike in mid-pedal, and the bike flipped completely over on top of me.  I knew, right at that second, my right wrist was broken – bent in a direction I hadn’t seen before.  Dad took me to the orthopedic:  they had me hold a bar on the wall with my right hand and hang my elbow down from it.  I remember the nurse saying “I hate this sound”, and had just enough time to wonder what she meant.  Then the doctor grabbed my arm and set the bone – the snap – and the pain.  It was the 1960’s, no need for painkillers, just snap, pop, and it was in place.

I didn’t even have time to try out my new Second Class Scout profanity. 

Whole World Watching

They casted my arm, elbow locked at ninety degrees, and sent me home with orders to keep it elevated for a week.  I missed the Summer League Swim Meet, where I was scheduled to “clean up” at the top of the twelve year-old age group.  All I could do was sit on the family room couch, my arm on top of my painted Boy Scout beer box (where I kept clothes at Scout Camp), and watch TV.  It was the week of the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Back then it was gavel to gavel coverage, twenty-four hours of riots and disorder and verbal fights on the floor of the convention. The Democratic Party was without President Johnson, Bobby Kennedy shot dead in a Los Angeles hotel hallway, and a chasm between the Johnson war supporters, the Kennedy/McCarthy anti-war Democrats, and the students in the streets of Chicago chanting “The whole world is watching”.   

Math Class

Humphrey got the nomination, but was never able to unite the party.  Republican Richard Nixon promised a quick peace settlement in Vietnam, but we all knew he was lying (it wasn’t until five years later, that a deal was actually reached).  What we didn’t know was that his campaign was actively interfering with the ongoing peace talks in Paris.  They didn’t want an October “surprise” that might tip the election in Humphrey’s favor.

It was a close election on the first Tuesday of November in 1968.  It wasn’t until the middle of the next day that the votes were finalized enough to declare a winner.  I was sitting in Mr. Schnapp’s 7^th grade math class at Van Buren Junior High School in Kettering, Ohio, when the principal made the announcement:  Richard Nixon won.  It seemed like the whole school cheered:  Kettering was a very Republican suburb at the time.  I put my head down on my desk, near tears.  How could America survive four years of Richard Nixon, four years of division, four more years of war?

Close to 2 million Vietnamese died after Nixon won office, and over 58,000 Americans.  Elections have consequences.  

Faith

That was the first Presidential election that shook my faith in American decision making.  The second was twelve years later, when a glib actor turned Governor of California won an overwhelming victory over my former boss, Jimmy Carter.  Ronald Reagan used uplifting oratory, describing the United States as a “…Shining city on a hill”.  But his real agenda was to turn America over to private industry.  He sacked the air traffic controllers, he “freed education” from Federal interference by carving $10 billion out of the Federal funding, he ignored the AIDS epidemic because it was a “gay disease”.  

The third faith-shaking election for me was in 2000, when George W Bush won the Presidency by one vote (the Supreme Court ruled in his favor five Republican Justices to Four Democrats).  It seemed to me the “will of the people” didn’t matter anymore, it was simply who could more effectively pull the levers of power.  It didn’t hurt Bush that his brother was the Governor of Florida, the state in question.  

On September 11^th, 2001, I “united” under George Bush.  But a few years later, after the atrocities at Abu Gharib and the private profit-taking in the Iraq war and the Defense Department, my “first impression” of Bush was still the most accurate.

Head Down

And last night, I came face to face with the fourth time that my belief in America is shaken.  Yes, I know the 2024 election results have been well known for months.  But last night I watched President Biden’s “exit interview” with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC.  And right after, the ad came on about “gavel to gavel” Inauguration Day coverage on Monday.  And I realized, that now, at my advance age of sixty-eight, I am faced with four years of Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi, of Elon Musk and Steven Miller, of inhumanity at the border, and watching the rich get richer, especially if the rich is named Trump.  

Four years to a twelve year-old seemed like forever, a full third of a life.  But four years now (a nineteenth of my life) stills seems like forever; four years of “Making America Backward Again”.  At the end, if 2028 is the end; how much will we have to do to get America back on the “The Arc of the Moral Universe bending towards justice”. 

Can’t Watch

I don’t hate America.  But I hate the narrow decision that puts these oligarchs in control of our Nation.  President Biden last night, characterized his whole political career as fighting against “bullies”, like the those that bullied a scrawny stuttering kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania.  A slim margin of Americans have put the “bullies” in control now:  to bully  the migrants and minorities, the disabled and the disenfranchised, the queer and the quiet.  That’s the America of Donald Trump, now back for a second, more experienced, and more vindictive term in office.

I don’t hate America.  But it’s hard today to see the good, when we stand on the cusp of this awful period of darkness.  I want to go back to Mr. Schnapp’s math class, and put my head down on the desk. 

 I won’t write about this inauguration;  I can’t watch it.  

I listened to President Biden’s farewell address last night – an American tradition that runs all the way back to George Washington. Like Washington (avoid foreign entanglements) and Eisenhower (military/industrial complex) Biden warned us of a new threat – the power of billionaires and their influence on our government. Will we be a Republic, or an oligarchy?

Kennedy Button

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is one of my “original” heroes.  I was just four years-old when he was elected. But I proudly wore the Kennedy button that Mom pinned on my sweater.  One of my earliest memories is sitting in the hallway outside Aunt Leah and Uncle Howard’s apartment in the Vernon Manor Hotel in Cincinnati.  I was banned from the residence, unless I took my button off. I wouldn’t do it.  Eventually we reached a compromise;  Aunt Leah allowed me in, as long as I carried the lead elephant she presented to me.  That was American politics at its best!

Mom was a Kennedy fan, with direct connections to the clan.  Her roommate in college was Kathleen Kennedy, fourth in the line of Joe and Rose Kennedy’s children.  Kathleen tragically died in a plane crash in 1948, but Mom was still loyal to the family. And even though Mom was a British citizen, she remained a strong supporter of JFK’s career.

So I was a Kennedy fan, literally from birth.  I’m not so sure Dad was, he might have voted for Nixon back in 1960.  We never had that conversation, though I know he later converted to some Democratic candidates, including Jimmy Carter (after all, I was working for him) and Barack Obama.

Missile Gap

But as a college student and budding political operative in the 1970’s, I discovered that there were issues where the Kennedy’s played fast and loose with the facts.  One of those was a major issue in the 1960 campaign, the “missile gap”.  According to Democrats, the Soviet Union was building more nuclear missiles than the United States, and had created a “gap”.  It seemed to be an actual threat. If the USSR could blow up the US “more completely” then they might actually “win” a nuclear war.  That concept was later described by Herman Kahn, an academic, published in a paper called “Thinking the Unthinkable”.

Kennedy promised to close the “gap” when elected, and the US began to build hundreds of new missiles after he took office.  The fallacy: in 1960 there really wasn’t a “gap” at all.  The US actually had more missiles at the time, making the balance of “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD) especially effective.  Kennedy’s building program upset that balance even more.

But Kennedy’s programs poured a lot more money into the burgeoning defense industry. That’s the same “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower (also a General of the Army) warned about in his farewell address (*see below), just days before Kennedy’s inauguration (“…ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”).   And the American marriage to the Defense industry far out-lasted Kennedy.  The Vietnam War, and Reagan’s strategy to “win” the Cold War by out-spending the Soviet Union into the ground (it worked) continued the military-industrial complex growth.

Better than Yours

That’s all “ancient” history.  The Soviet Union fell over thirty years ago, and was replaced by Putin’s oligarchy in Russia.  They are struggling today to maintain a war against Ukraine. Russia is using up so many munitions that they are dragging tanks from the 1980’s back onto the battlefield, and borrowing troops from North Korea to help replace the hundreds of thousands of Russians lost in battle.   From time to time Russia puts an innovative weapon on “display”, like their new hypersonic (11x the speed of sound) missile, but most of their weapons are “old school”.  

Overall, the Russian military complex is the remnants of the Soviet Union. The flagship cruiser Moskva of the Russian Black Sea fleet sunk, and the only Russian aircraft carrier is unable to move without multiple tugs for steerage and towing.  The “Fifth Generation” Russian fighter jet, the Sukhoi 57, is ridiculed for radar-reflecting screws in its body, and for fuselage sections that don’t completely fit together.  There are currently 31 in service.

That’s opposed to the US F-35, a more sophisticated fifth generation fighter.  The US has 630 already deployed, with another 400 to US allied nations.  China also has a fifth generation fighter, the Shenyang J35-A, with over 300 deployed. The Chinese also have three conventional aircraft carriers with a fourth nuclear carrier under construction. The United States currently has eleven nuclear carriers.

The Complex

There is no weapons gap.  But there is a loyalty to the military-industrial complex, demonstrated in the nomination hearings for Pete Hegseth as Trump’s new Defense Secretary.  There’s lots of personal reasons why Hegseth isn’t appropriate for the post.  And the fact he’s never successfully run even a small organization, much less one the size of the Defense Department, should be a warning.  But, underneath all of the conversation about alcohol, womanizing and abuse, there is an even darker thread.  

Hegseth claims that we are “falling behind” in the arms development race. He promises to re-direct funding to make sure we are never “second place”.  Like Kennedy (who had his own personal issues with women) Hegseth is planning on closing another “weapons gap”.  And, like my original hero, he’s fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.  

The winner will continue to be what General Eisenhower warned us about:  the military-industrial complex. They have a huge financial stake in expansion, and get that accomplished by  supporting Republican politicians.  Perhaps that’s why the Hegseth nomination, which seemed almost as sunk as the lost Moskva, is now not only afloat, but seems destined for success.

Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

*Excerpt from Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1/17/1961)

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Towering Inferno

Southern California is an inferno.  Fires, driven by the incredibly powerful Santa Ana winds, are blowing out of the mountains, through the canyons, and into the suburbs of romantic cities:  Los Angeles (Beach Boys), Santa Monica (Everclear), Malibu (Miley Cyrus), Pasadena (Jan and Dean), and now, Ventura (America). There’s a California rock song about each of those places, because that’s where the  “rockers” were and are. 

Sure, there’s lots of “blame” to place – but the reality is that the Santa Ana winds are stronger than ever.  And they’re fueled by climate change – period.  Without the warming oceans, the winds don’t blow at tornadic force, and the embers from typical brush fires don’t travel miles to set new blazes.  It’s really that simple.  In the end, it’s hard to place blame on politicians for not “thinking the unthinkable”.  This kind of disaster was more the genre of the Hollywood studios, not Southern California politicians.

Action Hero

Speaking of Hollywood, there are Hollywood-like heroics going on daily.  As we watch the inferno clear neighborhood after neighborhood, with more than 12,000 homes, schools and businesses destroyed; we also are amazed by the efforts of the firefighters.  They are Heroes all: the crews with fire on all sides, desperately trying to save a single structure; and the amazing Canadian Scooper Planes, skimming the water at 70 miles an hour like pelicans to scoop up thousands of gallons to snuff out the closest blaze. Flying a helicopter is always a difficult task; “…like balancing a metal ball on a plate while on a unicycle”.  Now add the “gentle” winds (30 to 40 miles per hour) and the huge updrafts caused by blazing fires at the bottom of canyons, and it’s amazing they stay in the air, much less dump their water loads on target.

And there are the individual heroics of neighbor helping neighbor; fighting the fires, and aiding the elderly, sick and overwhelmed to evacuate before it’s too late.  Over 100,000 are out of their homes, and the greater community is taking care of them.  It is remarkable that the death toll (today 24) is so low.  It will be higher, but the videos look like there should be hundreds if not thousands gone.

Closer to Home

These fires are now striking close to home.  Our son lives in Ventura, a beach town up the coast from Malibu.  Last night, the “Auto Fire”, broke out on the east side of town, along a golf course.  It’s not far away.  He and his girlfriend and their two dogs (surprised?) are safe so far. 

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the was a lot of concern about the Federal response to the crisis.  Some of us remember “old Brownie”, the head of FEMA, getting atta-boys from President Bush, even as the crisis grew worse.  But, in the end, the Nation stepped up to rebuild.  When Hurricane Sandy flooded vast parts of New Jersey and New York, Democratic President Obama and Republican Governor Christie hugged, and went to work to help their citizens recover.  

The fires in Southern California aren’t under control.  The winds will whip back up tonight, and we simply don’t know where the next ember will land, and where it will ignite another conflagration.  It’s safe to say the cost for recovery is in the tens of billions of dollars, if not more.  And, just like the neighbors helping neighbors in Pacific Palisades, the Nation needs to “have the backs” of Southern Californians.

American Fiction

It’s already a political mess.  Disinformation (thanks to Joe Rogan and Alex Jones) from how the fire started to why there wasn’t enough water, is distracting from the very real crisis.  And now our Republican “leaders” in Congress, the “neighbors” who were more than happy to give aid to Florida and North Carolina just a few months ago, are demanding “strings attached” to help California recover.  

It doesn’t help that California’s Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, is a leading candidate for the 2028 Presidential election, and that the state is home to Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Kamala Harris.  So the MAGA campaign will begin, almost four years early, to “knock them off” before the election even gets started.

But that’s not how Americans are.  Here in Ohio, we help our neighbors when tornadoes ravage small towns, or when fire burns down a local home.  That’s what we do, without concern about political viewpoint or racial or gender identity.  We help folks in need.

California is going to need a lot of America’s help — no strings attached.  And we need to get to it.

Get In Line

Like it or not, the Nation elected Donald Trump as the President of the United States.  And, unlike Trump and his MAGA-followers in 2020, the Democrats got “in-line” and did their duty as American citizens.  They, we; accepted the election results.

That we (Americans) elected a man who supports fascist (that word!!) goals, programs, and ideas hasn’t changed.  Many of my friends believe we should just oppose everything that Trump tries to do, and I don’t blame them.  Working with a fascist, someone who puts a dagger to the throat of American democracy, is repugnant.  But…and this is what many “other” Democrats believe… perhaps we should oppose when we can, cooperate when possible to further our national goals, and prepare to win in 2026 and 2028, to save our country.  

Barack Obama talked to Trump at the Carter funeral.  That  wasn’t treason.  Kamala Harris and Joe Biden pointedly ignored Trump. That wasn’t wrong either.  Two opposite things can be true at the same time.

Norms

The American tradition, the “norm”, is that a newly elected President gets to choose his own staff.  That includes those staff members “consented” to by the United States Senate.   Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was a stern advocate of this “norm”.  He voted for Democratic appointed judges, cabinet secretaries, and agency heads, until he didn’t.  After the Kavanaugh hearings and the 2020 election, he opposed most of Biden’s appointments. 

But some Democrats are willing to give Trump his appointees.  In fact, they feel that they can give Trump the “rope to hang himself”, and are all-in for that.  

One of the valuable lessons we learned in the first Trump Administration, was not to get distracted by the “Shiny Balls” (an essay from 2017, no raunchy reference intended).  The first one was Matt Gaetz, who’s ill-fated appointment to Attorney General was doomed from the start (Flash/Bang).  Now that the side-show ended, we are “down” to the “real” Trump appointees.  Let’s take a look, divided into three categories:  the “normal”, the kind of “cray-cray”, and the “completely whack”.

Normal

• Marco Rubio – Secretary of State
• Scott Bessent – Secretary of Treasury
• Doug Burgham – Secretary of Interior
• Brooke Rollins – Secretary of Agriculture
• Howard Lutnick – Secretary of Commerce
• Lori Chavez-DeRemer – Secretary of Labor
• Scott Turner – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Sean Duffy – Secretary of Transportation
  • Doug Collins – Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• • Susie Wiles – WH Chief of Staff
• • John Ratcliffe – CIA Director
• • Michael Waltz – National Security Advisor
  • Elise Stefanik – Ambassador to the United Nations

Cray-Cray

• Pam Bondi – Attorney General (2020 election denier)
  • Chris Wright –  Secretary of Energy (climate crisis denier)
• • Linda McMahon – Secretary of Education (Public Education Defunder)
• • Kristi Noem – Secretary of Homeland Security (Governor of South Dakota and confessed puppy killer)
• • Tom Homan – Border “Czar” (driving force behind the first Trump Administration’s child separation plan)        
• •  Russ Vought – Director of the Office of Management and Budget (a co-author of Project 2025)
• • Lee Zelden – Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency (opposed to environmental regulation)
  • Kelly Loeffler – Administrator Small Business Administration (no experience in small business – made her fortune in corporate investment firm)

Completely Whack

• Pete Hegseth – Secretary of Defense (potential sex offender and a man with drinking problem)
  • Robert Kennedy Jr – Secretary of Health and Human Services (leading anti-vaxxer)
• • Kash Patel – FBI Director (put a 60 person “political enemies list” for prosecution in his book)
  • Tulsi Gabbard – Director of National Intelligence (friend of deposed Syrian dictator Assad and Vladimir Putin admirer)

Shiny Balls

Clearly the “completely whack” list is a total distraction.  Who’s worse:  a drunk womanizer who has never run a large organization in his life (the DoD has 2.8 million employees), or a former Congressman who likes dictators?  Or how about Bobby, the leading anti-vaxxer in the Nation, a heroin addict with a worm in his brain?  Or good ‘ol Kash; who made his “bones” as Congressman Devin Nunes’ “hitman” in the early Trump years?

All four are uniquely unqualified.  But it will take three Republican Senators (along with all of the Democrats) to deny confirmation.  It’s simple politics:  maybe all three could vote against one, or even two.   The political ramification of voting (correctly) against all four is probably fatal.  Millions of dollars (thanks Elon) will be poured into a primary against the “offending” Senator.

 But the real point is, even if all four on the “Completely Whack” list were denied; it virtually guarantees the entire “Cray-Cray” list gets through intact.  And Trump couldn’t ask for anything better:  an election denier as Attorney General, a climate change denier at Energy, an anti-environmentalist at EPA, and a “administrative state” opponent at OMB.  Oh, and closer to my heart, a public education “de-funder” at Education.

Even the “normal” gang isn’t so great, but they’re the kind of appointments expected of a Trump administration.  They are likely to be, at least, competent in their area.  

Gibbs’ Rules 

NCIS has been a stalwart CBS television show for the past twenty-two years.  The lead character in the show (for the first twenty) was Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, who had a very special list of rules, both for investigations and for life.  Rule #39:  there is no such thing as a coincidence.  It isn’t coincidental that two former Democrats (Kennedy and Gabbard, both cult-like figures), and a Fox TV host (Hegseth) are on the “Whack” list.  Win, lose or draw; they are the Shiny Balls, the baubles  placed intentionally to keep our eyes off of the rest of the appointments.  

There is minimal “momentum” for Republicans to oppose any Trump appointee.  And the “whack” list will absorb almost all of that energy.  It’s easy to think the Trump people are stupid, or crazy, to put these names up.  In the end though, they’ll win however it goes:  lose one or lose all four.  The rest of the program will roll on. Regardless how you feel about the MAGA leaders: don’t underestimate them.

Bowling

So I’m not a bowler; I play about once a decade. I have some fun, drink a beer or two, and hope to have one game approaching 200, and no games under 100.  I haven’t tried to play since getting the “$6 million shoulder” (you need to be of a “certain age” to understand that reference).  My whole left arm might now detach and fly down the alley, or I might be a  candidate for the senior Professional Bowlers Association.  I haven’t had the chance to try.

If you aren’t a bowler (or played one on TV), you may not know the ultimate humiliation of bowling.  That’s when your ball falls off the side of the alley and into the gutter.  The gutter leads it to pass harmlessly by the pins.  That is the base minimum standard of bowling. If you can’t keep the ball in the alley, then you can’t score.  

But for beginners and little kids, some alleys have “gutter bumpers”; big blow up cushions that inflate in the gutter and keeps the ball from falling in.  With bumpers, you are almost guaranteed to knock some pins down, no matter how badly you bowl.  That is, unless your ball doesn’t have enough impetus, and stops halfway up the alley.  Or, you are so out of control you throw into the next lane!  With those guards in place, it’s called “bumper bowling”.  

Norms

American politics and government normally has bumpers, guards that protect the political process from going completely in the gutter.  Historically, we depended on those bumpers to knock the “American ball” back into the alley of “normal” government.  Some of those bumpers are actual laws. But most of the “guard rails” in American government are “norms”; accepted and historic practices and traditions, but not necessarily in “Black Letter Law”.  

I was listening to the wonderful funeral ceremony for Jimmy Carter yesterday.  Two of the eulogizers  were “proxies”; sons of fathers who promised Carter to speak, but didn’t live long enough to do so.  It was comforting to hear the words of Gerald Ford and Walter Mondale, praising the 39^th President.  In one of those speeches, it was mentioned how Carter shepherded laws through to protect Americans from the extreme abuses of the Watergate era.  They erected “bumpers”, to keep the Presidency, no matter who was elected, in the alley and out of the gutters.

The first Trump Administration ignored the norms, and violated the laws.  But for their own ineptness in governing (and in fomenting insurrection), they might have ended the American experiment in democracy right there.  But enough of the “bumpers” held, particularly in the Courts.  And when, on January 6^th 2021, Trump tried to throw his ball over the bumpers and into the next alley, the determination of the Congress to stay “in the lane” narrowly prevented what would have been a coup d’état.  

Too Soon for Normal

When Joe Biden became President, it was clear that one of his major goals was to return the Nation to “Normalcy”. He wanted an American government that respected the laws and norms that kept it “in the alley”.  He appointed a “neutral arbiter” as the Attorney General, Judge Merrick Garland, a man who, by definition, was straight down the middle.   Garland’s absolute adherence to the norms and laws would have been laudable, had it worked.  But instead, it allowed the MAGA adherents to “work the courts”. They delayed and denied justice, and convinced the American people that they were the “victims” rather than the perpetrators.  Biden did fix the laws he could, but was blocked from erecting bigger bumpers.  And so, here we are, ten days before a second Trump Administration takes over.

One of the biggest failures of the Biden/Garland Justice Department was failing to hold the leaders of the Insurrection accountable.  Justice was delayed (and as the saying goes, denied), both by the investigators themselves, and by the Federal Courts.  The biggest MAGA co-conspirators were the three Trump appointees on the Supreme Court, in conjunction with two (and sometimes three) other Justices.  They created a whole new American “norm”, a citizen who by elected office, is literally above the law:  the President of the United States.  With his absolute immunity for “official acts”, the bumpers are completely gone.  Under their standard, Richard Nixon leading a felony coverup would be “OK”.  It was shocking.

Accountable

If the Courts are no longer bumpers, than what is left to protect America?   The answer is, not much.

So here we are, ten days before the second Trump ascendancy, with no bumpers in place.  Where’s the hope?   Well, there is a glimmer, a faint possibility of “bumpers” being placed once again.  It’s not a sure thing by any means, but here it is.

Today, the President-Elect will be sentenced for committing thirty-four felonies in the State of New York.  There will be no prison sentence, no “perp-walk”, no handcuffs or orange jump suits.  But, for one shining moment, the American justice system will hold Donald Trump accountable.  For a hazy instant, all Americans will be equal in the eyes of the law.  

But the biggest surprise is that the US Supreme Court is allowed it.  After declaring the President immune from prosecution, after doing all that was possible to delay and deny Federal justice, after allowing one of their judges in Florida to put more than a thumb on the scale for Trump, five Justices said that Trump must answer in Manhattan Court today.  We are all anxiously awaiting his appearance, and for Judge Marchan to declare his guilt.

Bowl a Strike

Perhaps it’s simply a mirage of the past, the last gasp of the American “bumpers”.  Or maybe it’s a harbinger of the role American Courts will play in the future, even if they failed so desperately in the past four years.  The glass may be three-quarters empty, or one-quarter full.  

Or maybe the Courts are sending us a message:  it’s up to Americans, not the Congress or the Courts or history teachers with their precedents and stories.  As Ben Franklin said: “It’s a republic, if you can keep it”.   That will certainly be put to the test in the next four years.  The American people will need to bowl a strike, without help of bumpers in the gutter.

Hosea 8:7: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

The Fire

Los Angeles is on fire.  “Santa Ana” winds, gusting up to 170 miles an hour (a force 5 Hurricane) with days of 100+ winds, are stoking the inferno raging through the hills and down to the sea.  The video looks like some big-budget disaster movie made just down the street in Hollywood: communities aflame, desperate residents trying to get out, heroic firefighters desperate to get to the front line, water running out, apocalyptic devastation.  

Wealth is of no consequence.  We know some of those who lost their homes:  comedian Billy Crystal, actor James Woods, celebrity Paris Hilton, along with thousands of others.  Who knew that three million gallons of water in Pacific Palisades wouldn’t be enough to quench the wind whipped flames – not even close.  

Disaster

It is a year of outsized disasters.  Florida devastated by back-to-back hurricanes.  The mountain region of North Carolina drowned in flash floods caused by that same “tropical storm”.  And now, the fires that are a way of life for Northern California forest residents, are in the city, at local addresses, storming across famous roads like Sunset Boulevard and the Pacific Coast Highway.  Like the folks in Lahaina (Hawaii), the only refuge for some was on the beach.

Hurricanes are more damaging, droughts more prolonged, snowstorms deeper, tornadoes more frequent, fires more intense:  what’s going on?  

We have sown the wind, and we are reaping the whirlwind.

Simple Science

Science shows us; we have, literally, poured gas on the fire.  The source of the hurricane winds that fan the flames, drive the rain, ignite the tornados, is the temperature of the oceans.  And that measurement has increased, due to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  We, civilization, are pumping that carbon dioxide into the air.  It is the prime bi-product of internal combustion engines, the singular way we use fossil fuels, and particularly, oil.

Somehow, like a pandemic disease, the United States has managed to make this a political issue.  It’s not – it’s simple science.  But just the effort of writing this essay will be seen as a partisan attack.  It’s simple:  one side of our political divide recognizes that we need to take control of our polluting actions, and the other side simply denies that the science is “real”.

Presidential Action

The outgoing President just banned the drilling for oil along our coastlines and in our National Parks and Landmarks.  The incoming President got elected, in part, by saying “…drill Baby, drill”.  The short term satisfaction of saving a few cents at the gas pump, has the long term effect of pouring more fuel into the “furnace” driving the rising ocean temperatures.  The rate of oceans warming up has doubled in the past twenty years, despite the best efforts of the Paris Accord (UNESCO).  That is because of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Since 1960, what was a “balanced” amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by a full third (NOAA).  That increase holds more heat in, just like a “warm blanket” wrapped around the earth and oceans.  So the earth and oceans heat up, creating more “heat energy” which is imparted to storms.  It also creates a greater differential between the sea and the land, causing the increased effect of winds like the “Santa Ana” that are driving the current California disaster.

Beholden

And that was in an era of mixed American Presidents.  Some showed concern for the environment, some were beholden to the polluters and loosed the reins of regulation.  But this and the next decade are the critical balancing point, beyond which the amount of carbon dioxide will irrevocably alter our world.  Perhaps we are already there:  turn on the TV and watch what happens.

But one thing we can be sure of:  the Trump Administration will do little to protect the environment, and everything it can to gain the short term economic advantages of polluting.  Why should they worry about the world in twenty years, when their biggest concern is winning the next election?  Their priorities are clear, win the present, and let the future deal with the fallout.

It doesn’t require a crystal ball to see what will happen.  It’s happening already, today, right now.  We are reaping the whirlwind, for we have sown the wind.

Jefferson Prayer

“Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.

Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of governments that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.” 

The Speaker

On Friday, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana won a second term as Speaker of the House of Representatives.   In his victory, he showed the political adroitness that past Republican Speakers, including Kevin McCarthy and John Boehner, were unable to muster.  Johnson needed 218 votes to win the office.  There are 219 Republicans currently in the Congress (215 Democrats), so Johnson could only lose one vote of his own party and still reach the requisite majority.  

That’s no easy task.  There are no “moderates” in the Republican Party anymore, not in the real sense.  There are “regular” conservatives (like my Congressman from the 12^th District of Ohio, Troy Balderson).  Then there are the “very” conservatives, like the Speaker himself.  Then there are the “extreme” conservatives, the members of the “Freedom Caucus”, who are willing to burn down the government (figuratively, I guess, on this day of the anniversary of the Insurrection of 2021).  Jim Jordan of Ohio’s 4^th District is a leader of that group, but he is often outflanked even farther to the right by his fellow “Caucusers”.  

Wrangling Cats

So Johnson had to “wrangle cats” to gain his majority, and at the end of the first roll call was two votes short.  A third vote, the “one” that Johnson could do without, was from Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He’s known for his family Christmas card with his wife and children all holding AR-15 style rifles pointed “carefully” away from the camera – Happy Holidays!!! (Forbes). He literally swore he would never vote for Johnson.

In the end, with the help of well-placed phone calls from the President-elect in Mar-A-Lago, the other two holdouts signed on.  Mike Johnson won the gavel, 218 Republican votes to 215 Democratic votes for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. (Massie voted for Tom Emmer, and the seat previously held by Matt Gaetz of Florida is now vacant).  It was a positive sign for the incoming Republicans, though the “devil will get his due”.  Trump now holds the cards against any Johnson aberrations from the MAGA plan.  On the other hand, he already had that influence, so the phone calls just emphasized his control.

The Speech

Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a gracious but pointed concession speech, and Johnson picked up the gavel to administer the oath of office to the 120^th Congress.  The newly minted Speaker then gave a speech full of the MAGA “talking points”: close the border, deconstruct  the “Deep State” (the bureaucracy of the United States government), and “return” Christian morals to American life.  Johnson takes his Christian role and duty seriously.  He sees his Speakership as a “mission” from God. In his first speech as Speaker last year, he intoned: “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority.”   He is raised up.

He concluded his speech by quoting the Jefferson Prayer, it’s full text in the sub-title of this essay.  It clearly defines Jefferson’s view of America as a gift from God, one that Americans can only continue to enjoy through their faith to God and his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.  As I listened to the prayer, it struck me.  Everything I know about Thomas Jefferson, from years of study in history and even more years of teaching history to students from sixth to twelfth grade, clashed with the “Jefferson Prayer”.  The Jefferson I know would NEVER have said it.

Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, and, as he himself worded for his tombstone, “ …author of the Declaration of American Independence (and) the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom…”.   He was, like many of the intellectuals of the Enlightenment Era, a Deist, who saw God as the great “watchmaker”, who created the world and then stepped back to watch it go.  Jefferson believed in the teachings of Jesus, but was unconvinced of his divinity.  

But most importantly of all, Jefferson believed that government and religion should not “mix”.  He specifically said:  “I consider the government of the US. as interdicted by the constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises” (Monticello).  The famous phrase “separation of church and state” is Jefferson’s own description of what the First Amendment to the US Constitution means.

Add to that the fact that Jefferson as President didn’t speak to the US Congress directly.  He even delivered his State of the Union messages by messenger (one was Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame), to be read by the Clerk of the House.  So he never stood at the familiar podium where Franklin Roosevelt said, “Yesterday, December, 7^th, 1941…”. 

Provenance

So what is the “Jefferson Prayer”?  It’s not a prayer by Thomas Jefferson.  In fact, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation says: “We have no evidence that this prayer was written or delivered by Thomas Jefferson. It appears in the 1928 United States Book of Common Prayer, and was first suggested for inclusion in a report published in 1919 (Monticello)”.

Mike Johnson’s staff are likely just as capable of doing internet research as I am, so why wrongfully attribute the prayer to Jefferson?  

This isn’t about governing; it’s about Christian Nationalism.  Mike Johnson believes the American “dream” is a Christian dream, founded in his Christian ideology.  We are, as Reagan said, the Biblical “ shining city on the hill”, with the shining faith that the “Jefferson Prayer” explains.  This ideology requires the re-writing of the faith of “our Fathers”, making them all high-priests in the founding of a Christian nation.  They were not.

The clearest example of the Founders devotion to keeping government and religion separated is Thomas Jefferson.  So if you’re going to re-write history, you might as well “go big”.  And portraying Jefferson as humbly beseeching God and Jesus in front of the Congress is a big an historic lie as there is.  

It’s a clear signal of the kind of Speaker Mike Johnson intends to be.  It doesn’t matter what the past was, he is intent on changing our present into the “Godly Nation” he wants – come Hell or High Water.

Notes:

Jefferson – “Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” (National Archives).

What Jefferson believed:  Like other Founding Fathers, Jefferson was considered a Deist, subscribing to the liberal religious strand of Deism that values reason over revelation and rejects traditional Christian doctrines, including the Virgin Birth, original sin and the resurrection of Jesus. While he rejected orthodoxy, Jefferson was nevertheless a religious man  (PBS).

Tweets

After the massacre in the streets of New Orleans, Americans were desperate for information about what happened.  After all, there was also a bombing in Las Vegas, an explosion in Honolulu, and a mass shooting in New York City.  Were they all tied together?  Were we under a small scale 9-11 style attack?  And what about those large scale targets? There are big college football games scheduled, particularly the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans itself – can it go on?

 In the morning hours of New Year’s Day, Fox News put out a scoop via tweet on X  (formerly known as Twitter).  They identified the truck used in the massacre. It was one that crossed from Mexico two days before at Eagle Pass. And the terrorist driving it was an illegal migrant. 

That tweet was quickly echoed by a Trump statement on his own Truth Social. “When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in the country… it turned out to be true.”  We know where that was headed.  The attack was another result of Biden’s terrible, awful,”open-border” policy.  As Trump would say, “I alone can fix it”.  

In less than an hour, Fox deleted the tweet.  The FBI identified the driver/shooter as Shamsud-Dim Jabbar. He was a born American citizen of the great state of Texas. And he served honorably in the US Army and Army reserves in Afghanistan.  The truck didn’t come over the border, it was rented through a “rent my car” app called Turo a couple of months before in Texas.  Trump, of course, didn’t issue any correction.

Red Solo Cup

Soon after, there was a “grand” press conference in New Orleans.  Everyone was there: the Mayor, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, the Louisiana Head of Homeland Security, the Police Chief, the Governor of Louisiana, Senator John Kennedy, the Sugar Bowl Football Game organizers, and many, many more law enforcement officials.  Each official took a turn at the microphone, delineating what their task was in the investigation.  

Senator Kennedy (R) actually looked like he was a New Year’s Eve reveler himself. He was dressed in blue jeans and a “cowboy-style” shirt, and held a Red Solo cup in his hand.  He spoke about the horror of the attack, oddly saying it should trigger the “gag reflex” of every American (I guess fitting after a night of New Year’s celebration).  But then he went off on a rant. He spoke about how he would make sure that the public would know the “truth” about what happened.  And, after a few more words, it was clear that he was telling America that he would do all he could to reveal any coverup of the facts.

Except for one thing:  no one was covering up any facts.  John Kennedy wasn’t promising to get to the bottom of how dim-Jabbar was radicalized. And he wasn’t going to trace the attack back to Isis.  No, Kennedy was promising that the US Government wasn’t going to lie to the American people.  

The fix was in.

Information Silos

Americans get their information through “silos” slanted to their own political predilections.  Many are conditioned to ignore the “mainstream media”. That’s because, as one conservative Reddit commentator put it, “they use too many facts”.  A large segment of Americans get their “facts” in a silo of chosen Twitter, Truth Social and online sources.  So , don’t be surprised, in a few months, when the story of New Year’s in New Orleans gets rewritten.  The “source” is already there, the now-deleted Fox News tweet, backed by the future President himself. 

Senator Kennedy may have looked hung-over, but he was actually being very politically shrewd at that press conference on New Year’s Day.  He established himself as the “defender” of the “real truth” , no matter what the FBI or Homeland Security or NOLA Police or anyone else has to say about the matter.  He’ll be able to cite now deleted sources to “prove” that the somehow the government (the “deep state” intelligence agencies in particular) covered up something even more awful than the reality we see now:  an American soldier radicalized, willing to murder dozens of innocents for ISIS (the death count stands at fifteen today).  

And they’ll be thirty to forty percent of the nation who will believe the Senator, because that’s what America does right now.  It will further Kennedy’s career, and stoke the fire of the Project 2025 guys in the Trump Administration who want to replace everyone in the Federal Government with those that only drink their brand of Kool-Aid.  The real truth won’t matter, only the truth that furthers their interests.  

The Fix is In.

Bourbon Street

An ominous start to 2025:  a car drives into crowded Bourbon Street in the middle of the night on New Year’s Eve in New Orleans.  Ten killed, more than thirty injured, and the driver jumped out to exchange gun fire with police (two officers hit).  Maybe there’s bombs as well, maybe not.  Maybe the driver/shooter is dead by his own hand, or by the police, maybe not.  But the FBI says he’s dead, and it’s only 8 am.  

Bourbon Street – an iconic location in American “lore”.  Walking with the crowd on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve, or better yet, Mardi Gras, is on the  lifetime “bucket list” for many.   I’ve been there a couple of times, but only with high school teams along.  Bourbon Street is about music, and parties, and “show me your — beads”.  Walking there in the daytime doesn’t really give the true “feel”.  As one of my athletes found out when he stepped in the door of a “nude dancers” club at one in the afternoon; “When it’s family night we’ll let you know!!!”

Bourbon Street never really has a family night.  But, like New Year’s Eve in Times Square, or Key West, or on the Vegas Strip; it’s where Americans go to party the New Year in. Now, they’re blowing up suspected “bombs” on the streets.  Maybe they’re really bombs, maybe they’re packages left behind in the panic of the moment.   Better safe than sorry.

Lone Wolf

It’s a reminder that we live in a dangerous world.  What we used to worry about was planned terrorist attacks by Black September or Al Qaeda or Isis.  That’s changed.  It’s not organized anymore. It’s a crazed “lone wolf”, who may be radicalized on the internet, or may just be nuts, or both.  We’ve all got cars, a weapon of choice.  And, since it’s the United States of America, many of us, including those who have lost their minds, have guns as well.

So what should be the “mindset” for 2025?  Should we go back to the weeks after 9/11, when Americans avoided malls, stadiums, crowds and celebrations?  They were all “soft targets”.  And it took a while before we went back to those events, and stopped looking up at each jet in the sky as a weapon.  

There is a theory of avoidance:   stay “small”.  Don’t put yourself in a position when you could be at risk.  Stay away from all of the events, national ones like New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street, or local ones like the village festival.  But this violence can happen anywhere. It happened at a local school, a private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin.  Or at a place of worship, like the one in Sutherland Springs, Texas.  Or at local grocery stores, like the Tops Friendly in Buffalo, New York, or the King Soopers in Boulder, Colorado.  How “small” are you willing to be?

Kismet

There is an Islamic word, Kismet.  It is a word for fate, for the pure random chance that put those folks in the path of a vehicle in the wee hours of New Year’s Day on Bourbon Street.  We can take precautions: Times Square is ringed with barriers and trash trucks to prevent exactly such an attack.  They don’t even allow port-a-potties, a place where a bomb could be assembled and detonated.  (The great mystery of New Year’s Eve on Times Square –  where do those people go to go?).

Surely Bourbon Street will be closed to  vehicle traffic next year, concrete barriers and, maybe New Orleans trash trucks as well.  But in the end, you can choose to live life, or you can choose to live “small”, avoiding the unavoidable, try to hide from Kismet.  But, no matter what your religious beliefs (or lack thereof), in the end there’s no avoiding that.

Resolution

So here’s a New Year’s Resolution:  Live Life.  2025 is a new year, one that you will never experience again.  Don’t let fear stop you from experiencing everything that 2025 has to offer.  You don’t have to be reckless, but you don’t have to be “small” either.  Living is more than existing, it’s experiencing the world.  There’s an Chinese expression; “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos.”

As one with some experience with dogs, I can tell you that even in our times of chaos, they can be tranquil. And in tranquil times, they can create chaos.  We can’t control our world and our current times (the election of 2024 certainly proves that), but we can still strive to make it better, even with danger of other’s lunacy.   Kismet will find us when it does.  In the meantime, we can live, and experience, and find joy wherever we can. So live a Happy New Year!!!!