Month: August 2025

Childhood Vaccination

It’s an underlying theme of America today:  “freedom” versus “the public good”.  The most obvious example is in our ongoing public health crisis about gun death.  One side correctly points out the Second Amendment. It states:  “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  They want to end the conversation right there.  (Of course, there’s the “magic …”, the horizontal ellipsis, implying that the amendment said more.  And it does. “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…”, implies that regulation and militia somehow temper “the right of the people”.)  

But this is not an argument about guns today.  It’s about an even more important public health issue, childhood vaccination.

Iron Lung

When I was a kid, back in the “dark old days” of the 1950’s and 60’s, we all ran the gauntlet of childhood diseases.  I had the mumps, measles, and scarlet fever.  Somehow I missed chicken pox, but that caught up with me in my early thirties.  There were no vaccines for those diseases then, and for most kids, it was a blip in a normal life.  But for some it was life altering, even life ending.  We all read about Helen Keller, blinded and deafened by childhood disease.  So while we “knew” we were likely to get sick, we (and our parents) could only hope we would be okay.

The great threat to us was polio, the “summer-time” disease. Some recovered from it, some were paralyzed or placed in “iron lungs”, and some died.  Our family’s luck was right down the street from our home in Cincinnati. Albert Sabin, who developed the oral vaccine, lived a couple of blocks away.  So while some of my sisters friends risked polio just a few years earlier, by the time I was at risk, I simply had to drink a cherry syrup, and be protected.

Eradication

And, since we travelled back to England to visit Mom’s family, we were also required to get smallpox vaccinations.  I still have the dime-sized scar on my left arm, the mark of “protection”.  Smallpox vaccinations were so successful that the disease was eradicated worldwide in 1980.   The scrouge of mankind for centuries, killing and scarring hundreds of millions without regard to status or financial standing, was wiped out, and no longer a risk.

Smallpox spread from one human to another.  It took a worldwide program of vaccination to disrupt the cycle of transmission. Once everyone was vaccinated (literally everyone) then there were no “transmitters” left, and the disease ended.

Weighing the Risks

It might sound hyperbolic, but getting a smallpox vaccination wasn’t just protecting yourself, it was protecting the entire human race.  And it worked so well, that kids today don’t even know what the “scar” looks like, or what it was for.

Today smallpox is “just” history.  And my generations gauntlet; measles, chicken pox, mumps, scarlet fever, rubella, whooping cough and the rest, are generally avoidable.  There are vaccines that can provide wide protection from all of those, and more.  In being vaccinated, children get personally protected. But they also protect other children whose conditions do not allow them to receive the medications.   If no one in a class gets measles, then, no one in the class risks measles.

The Public Good

There are risks in any medical procedure.  And it’s easy today for parents to get “scared away” from vaccination.  In our online world, it takes only a few keystrokes to find horror stories of measles (actually MMR) vaccine reaction.  Oddly, it difficult to find a reputable “scientific” site warning of those reactions. Instead, it’s someone’s blog, or opinion on Reddit, or some other personal account. Oh, and the law firms who will take your case of “for free” to sue if there is a vaccine reaction. (Free really means contingency fee based on collecting a settlement).

What does the “public good” require?  It requires that many assume the tiny risk of vaccine reaction, in order to protect all from the much greater risks of the diseases themselves.   It is the public duty, that our internet “informed” society is struggling to uphold.  And, it doesn’t help that the worm-damaged brain of the Secretary of Health and Human Services feeds the disinformation.

It took a vaccine to get our Nation back to work from the Covid pandemic.  That vaccination, and the, infamous “mask mandates”, helped us avoid the worst of Covid. In fact, it’s estimated that if everyone had followed the mandates, instead of taking “political stands” against them, another 220,000 Americans would have survived (NIH).  Their position was based on “Freedom”, but without regard for the public good.

To put it bluntly, some Americans were not only foolish, but selfish.  And they are now the ones running our public health systems today.  

America’s Problem

I resisted writing this essay.   With all of the craziness going on in American politics, for the Nation to actually come to grips with a “real” problem seems hopeless.  But the absolutely irony of what happened in Minneapolis this week is too great to ignore.

This is a far too familiar story, one unique to American life.  Children massed together, in school, at a church service.  A young, white person determines they are good “targets” for venting rage for whatever reason.   Shots fired:  children dead.

We struggle with the unfathomable grief of the parents and friends of the dead children.  We marvel at the stories:  the ten year-old whose best friend jumped on top of him to “take the hit”.  The fourteen year-old who marshaled his friends to safety under the pews.  The unlikely heroes who saved lives out of the strongest bond; the childhood duty of friendship.

Then, just like every other time for over a quarter of a century; we wring our hands, send out heartfelt thoughts and prayers, and go on about our lives.  This is an accepted part of our society, one that our Nation must condone.  How can that be?

Acceptance

Sure, you’re saying “It’s not accepted!  How dare I suggest such a thing?”  But if mass killing is not accepted, why aren’t we doing something about it?  Drunk driving, something that used to be “accepted” to the point that officers gave the offenders a ride home, now is seen as a heinous offense.  Need an example:  remember the Mayor of Columbus, Ohio, picked up “inspecting the city”?  That attitude changed, because a single group, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, made the loss of their loved ones to “accidents” unacceptable. Our national perception of the drunk behind the wheel went from a friendly ride, to opprobrium and jail.  

Marijuana use was “unacceptable”.  We arrested, jailed, and condemned the use of the drug for decades, ruining the users lives: “Reefer Madness”.  But now, twenty-four states have completely legalized its use, including here in Ohio.  What was a covert purchase in the shadows, now is a walk into an airy shop with different varieties of dope displayed on the shelves.  We changed our national perception of getting “high”.

And all of those “woke” things that MAGA-world rails against:  LGBTQ and DEI and the rest, were discriminated against and persecuted for generations.  In this same quarter century, we recognized that a free society should stop judging individual differences.  That’s up for question right now, as the current crowd tries to roll back those hard-won freedoms.  But, either way, we changed our perception of what individuals “can” be.

So, we can change.

Our Rights

The ultimate irony:  America sends its “Thoughts and Prayers” to those who were attacked while praying.  And when some made the suggestion that prayer wasn’t enough, the right wing media tried to make that the story:  “Minnesota bishop fires back after Mayor Frey knocks prayer…” (Fox News).  Of course, that’s just one more excuse, along with, “it’s too soon”, “we need to mourn the dead”, and “we HAVE OUR RIGHTS!!!”.

America has always been about balancing rights.  Justice Holmes made the point about the First Amendment; “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic” (Supreme Justia).  Justice Goldberg declared, “…for, while the Constitution protects against invasions of individual rights, it is not a suicide pact” (Supreme Justia).  So where does my “right” to own a high powered, multi-shot rifle get “tempered” by the blood of  8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, killed in prayer?

Oh, I know, this is a two-sided conversation.  Of course the shooter was mentally deranged.  This is the definition of derangement:  shooting through the stain-glassed window of a Catholic Church at children.  How we handle mental illness is one side of the “acceptance” argument.  Because it’s easier to get “physical ailments”, from broken bones to cancerous organs, diagnosed and treated, then it is to access mental health care.  That is part of the problem.

Their Blood

But the other part is simpler:  those guns are designed to kill humans.  Somehow, in our national psyche, they have become synonymous with “FREEDOM”, wrapped up with some Jeffersonian quote:  “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants” (Monticello.org).  These guns aren’t for hunting, or protection; they are symbolic of FREEDOM.

So those kids in Minneapolis, were they patriots or tyrants?  Because they paid the price of the so-called “liberty” for us to own the weapons.  Their blood watered “the tree” of gun FREEDOM.  And since we won’t do anything about either side of the “coin”, I guess we then must accept and condone the outrage.  We’ve done it over and over and over and over again.  When will it be enough?  

Essays on Mass Shootings

• Guns and Sadness    10/3/17
• A Teacher with a Gun   2/23/18
• Don’t Change the Subject    3/25/18
• Again    4/15/18
• Staying Small    5/3/19
• Saving Lives Is Not Politics   8/4/19
• The Pain Becomes too Great 8/5/19
• Who’s Your Daddy    8/21/19
• A Good Guy With a Gun   9/1/19
• Rights and Guns  5/17/20
• Pittsburgh  6/17/20
• Our Choice   12/1/21
• Toxic Mix    5/16/22
• Apple Pie    5/25/22
• Prairie Dogs   6/9/22
• The Will to Do It   7/6/22
• Hanging Together  8/12/22
• Swatted    9/23/22
• They Aren’t Pro-Life   9/23/22
• Motive, Means, Opportunity 1/25/23
• Accepted Losses  2/14/23
• German Rights   3/28/23
• Fear Itself   3/30/23
• The Gravel Pit    4/16/23
• Butcher’s Bill     5/8/23
• Right to Live        10/26/23
• On the List      9/5/24

Interstate Driving

Reverend Al Sharpton said it all on MSNBC this morning:   “They’re worried about the logo, when there’s nothing healthy on the menu”.  Yesterday I wrote about the month of August, “silly season” in the media world.  There’s not much silly in our current news, but here’s one.  It’s about a restaurant chain called “Cracker Barrel”.

Cracker Barrel found a niche in American life.  They were originally an Interstate stop, a restaurant that you’d pull off on a long trip, and depend on the menu and food quality.  And it worked. Their menu is based on what would have been served on Walton’s Mountain. (Remember the long-running TV show, the Walton’s, with John-Boy and Jim-Bob and the rest of the clan?)  Cracker Barrel décor is straight out of post-Depression America:  washboards and long timber saws, old metal signs advertising  tooth powder and Brylcreem, RC Cola and Goody’s Headache powder.

One proviso:  if you’re the driver, you need to be careful at Cracker Barrel.  The food is heavy on carbs; biscuits and gravy, fried chicken and mashed potatoes, country-fried steak and beans.  You might went to hold back a little bit, or find yourself yawning  fifteen miles down the road.  

Local Breakfast

And for locals who go to Cracker Barrel, well, I used to say that Jenn and I lowered the average age whenever we went.  Maybe, at sixty-eight about to be sixty-nine, I don’t do much lowering anymore, but Jenn still does!!!  It’s the Bob Evans crowd, and like that more local chain, both serve a mean breakfast, all day long.  At Bob Evans it’s called the “Homestead”, two eggs, bacon, ham, or sausage, biscuits and gravy, hash browns.  It takes two plates.  The similar meal at Cracker Barrel is called the “Old Timer’s”.  I’ve got both memorized.   If breakfast is your favorite meal, it’s the bomb. 

The final Cracker Barrel touch is the “old country store” in the lobby, and the rocking chairs on the front  porch.  That all works too. You can often find the elderly watching the world go by in the rockers as their biscuits settle.  And if you are looking for brand new versions of old LP records – why it’s at the Cracker Barrel.  And not just Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, I found Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced”, a brand new press, as well.

The Sign

So what’s the news?  Well, Cracker Barrel’s original logo was the words “Cracker Barrel” in what looked like a pumpkin outline, beside a barrel.  And sitting by the barrel was an old guy in a straight-backed chair.  It was like if you came down from Walton’s Mountain to town for supplies.  The problem is the logo’s complicated: from afar, coming down the interstate with only seconds to decide whether to exit or not, you could read the words but the rest of the sign was too hard to decipher.

Last week, Cracker Barrel “corporate” decided to simplify things.  They announced they were going with just the words, and cutting out the old guy, the chair, and the barrel.  And MAGA world went nuts.

Why would corporate mess with what a pretty good thing?  It’s simple:  I made a  “Walton’s” reference at the beginning of this essay.  “The Walton’s” went off the air in 1981.  That’s forty-four years ago.  While the show went into syndication and reruns, you have to be in your fifties to even, maybe, have a memory of the original.  There’s a reason why I probably equal the average age in the restaurant. Management was looking to appeal to a younger generation.

But, MAGA-world saw the removal of the old guy and the barrel as, somehow, “WOKE”.  And WOKE, along with the “secret” initials “DEI”, are the worst possible insults.  Say that the hash browns are soggy, demand that the country-fried steak be more than hamburger, inquire what really is in the sawmill gravy:  but don’t call Cracker Barrel “WOKE”.  Even if the MAGA-world doesn’t really know what “Goody’s Headache Powder” or “RC Cola” was, they demanded the corporate Cracker Barrel rescind the changes.

Dying Off

And they did.  The wrath of MAGA-world is more than their restaurant chain can bear.  So the old guy is back, in the chair, beside the cracker barrel; telling a visual story far too complicated to understand.  And the corporate problem remains:  how to compete with the “cooler” restaurants down the road, from BW’s (wings) to Scramblers (breakfast).   The appeal of Cracker Barrel may still be strong, but their demographic is doing the absolute worst thing for their business – they’re dying.

And, as far as Reverend Al and MSNBC are concerned, they are getting their own “make-over” soon.  Comcast, decided to break off their cable business from their broadcast business.  So NBC remains with Comcast, but MSNBC (and CNBC) will now be in a company called Versant.  For the news side, the “NBC” has to go.  Soon, MSNBC will become MSNOW.  Even the MS (which was an original cooperation between Microsoft and NBC) will be rebranded as “My Source” – for “news, opinion, and the world”.  

But MSNBC is WOKE anyway. So other than a few of us “old” NBC-news fans, who remember Chet and David, John, Tom, Brian and Lester; no one else will care.

Little Dictator

Newspaper’s used to call it the “silly season”.  It’s August:  folks are on vacation, or finishing up Little League season, or getting ready to go back to school.  Congress is on recess (no, they don’t have swings or a giant slide).  The weather is hot, and humid; and as George Gershwin put it, “…the living is easy”.  

It used to be a time when odd stories about UFO’s, or crazy Amish mothers who try to kill their families, or lost French Bulldogs wandering the countryside led the headlines.  But this is the “Age of Trump”, and there’s no “oxygen” left in the room for Amish mothers or “Frenchies” (those are true, sad stories, by the way).  Instead, day after day, the President of the United States puts on his own “show”.  And he fills all the air time; all the time.

David Ignatius, a highly respected foreign affairs columnist for the Washington Post, made the point, after yesterday’s edition of the “Trump Show”.  Trump talked about everything.  He’s sending the National Guard into an unwilling Chicago. He’s criminalized US flag burning. And, Trump thinks he stopped “seven” wars in the last six months (it was six, maybe five, and if you ask the nations involved, maybe none).  Then, Trump hinted of a future visit to North Korea. As Ignatius said, “tune in again tomorrow to see Donald Trump with his friend Kim Jong Un!!”.  It’s not The Apprentice, it’s more like a modernized Little Dictator.  (Oh, yes, he did talk about becoming a dictator as well). 

Sitting on the Dock

It’s overwhelming, and it leaves little time for any other political news in the world. To keep the pressure on, last night Trump claimed to fire a Federal Reserve Governor, one of the board members who helps regulate the economy.  Because he “tweeted it” on Truth Social, why then it must be true, (even if he can’t).  Oh, and there was an executive order to banning cashless bail, another “law” the President doesn’t have the power to enforce.  But it makes a good headline.

It’s a tsunami of information, like drinking from a fire hose.  It’s a beer-boiled brats overflow of junk on a hot stove. And it’s hard to keep track of what happened, what’s going on, what’s real, and what’s coming up next.  We need summer time, “the living is easy”; some  “yacht rock” Christopher Cross Sailing, and a seat on the dock with feet dangling.  Instead we get this.

It’s not a coincidence, or a “happenstance”, that this is all happening right now.  Congress is really on recess, and so is the Supreme Court (and many other Federal judges).  There’s actually no one on “duty” to counter all of the executive action by Trump, clearly orchestrated by the person in the pale blue suit,  the “right hand man” of the President, Stephen Miller.  So, while Chris Cross croons in the background (you should have clicked the link!!), let’s look at what’s really important.

Democratic Cities

The President’s attempt to militarize law enforcement is more than scary.  We know that the National Guard in first Los Angeles, and now Washington, aren’t doing more than “appearing”.  Sure, there are armored vehicles outside of Union Station, and troops wandering Dupont Circle.  But they look more like sailors on shore leave than “police”, and don’t have the legal authority to take action anyway. 

So what are they doing?  The  armed forces on the streets of American cities, even if they can’t do much, is the image that the Trump team wants.  Those “crime-ridden cities”, run by not just Democrats, but invariably Black Democrats, “are out of control”, they say.  Except, they aren’t.  But the presence of Federalized troops in US cities is MAGA’s way of saying, “There will be no ‘Blue Bubbles’ of safety.   We, MAGA, will go anywhere, and do anything (ICE) to achieve our goal.”

Tiananmen Square

If the Democratic state governors and mayors won’t kowtow to Trump, then he will attempt to Federalize their cities.  It’s all highly extra-legal.  In any normal time, Federal judges up through the Supreme Court would stop this on a dime.  But, this is the age of Trump, and, while we can be sure there will be District Judges who will stand up, we cannot depend on the Supreme Court.  Maybe they will, eventually, but it might be two or three years down the road.  The damage will be done.

Maybe it’s time to pull a Tiananmen Square, and lay down in front of a military column moving into Chicago, or Baltimore, or some other city in a Democratic state with a Black mayor.  Direct action seems “right”, but it also is exactly what Mr. Miller wants.  To prove MAGA “manhood”, he’d order the column to roll right over the bodies, just like China in 1989.   

Or maybe it’s time for Governors to refuse nationalization of their Guards, like Wes Moore plans to do in Maryland.  And if Stephen Miller tries to use “Red State” Guards to enforce MAGA rule?  

Gee, what’s the definition of a Civil War??

One of the more forgotten aspects of Second World War history is the internment of foreign nationals and American citizens within the Lone Star State. These internment camps were located in five places: Crystal City, Seagoville, Kenedy, Dodd Field, and Fort Bliss. Through four Japanese American Confinement Sites Program (JACS) grants between 2009 and 2015 the Texas Historical Commission (THC) has worked to preserve the history of all five internment camps  (NPS.Gov).

Pearl Harbor

December 7^th, 1941, was, “…a day that shall live in infamy”.   A Japanese air assault caught the American forces at Pearl Harbor completely by surprise.  Five battleships, the pride of the US Navy, were sunk or severely damaged.  The USS Arizona went down in a huge explosion, with 1177 officers and crew killed.  The USS Oklahoma capsized, with 429 killed. And the USS California, Nevada, and West Virginia, damaged and sunk, were later re-floated to play a part in the Second World War.   Three other Battleships were also damaged.

The destruction of the US Pacific Fleet went far beyond the loss of the Battleships.  Eleven other ships were damaged, 348 aircraft destroyed or damaged, and 2,403 killed in the attack.  The one “saving grace” for Americans;  three aircraft carriers were out at sea at the time. 

Up until the moment of the attack, America was divided over World War II.  The battle in Europe had been going since September of 1939. While the United States gave material aid to Great Britain, generally Americans opposed getting directly involved in the battle.  Japan waged a war of conquest in China since 1937, and with Europe effectively removed from the Pacific front, the United States stood as the only blockade to Japanese expansion.  If they could take the US Navy “off the board”, their conquest of the Pacific could continue unfettered.

War with Japan

The attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything.  As President Franklin Roosevelt correctly pointed out in his address asking for a Declaration of War, “…the American People, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory”.   Congress declared war on Japan, and within days, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States.  America was fully “in” World War II.

There was a clear racial component to America’s reaction to war. While German Americans and Italian Americans looked like “everyone else”, Japanese Americans were easily recognized.  The state of California, left vulnerable by the loss of Pearl Harbor as an effective defense, viewed every Japanese-American; man, woman and child, as a threat.  That included those born in Japan, and the Nisei, American born citizens of Japanese descent.  Within months, Roosevelt issued Executive Order #9066. He authorized a forced removal from the West Coast “zone”, to be held in “relocation camps”. It didn’t matter their citizenship status:  Nisei or Japanese; they were rounded up.  Many were held for three years in camps scattered throughout the nation.

One of the early detention camps was located at Fort Bliss, just outside El Paso, Texas.  

Fort Bliss

El Paso, Texas, is a center of the migration “crisis” on the US Southern border.  While the city itself enjoys a warm and cooperative relationship with Ciudad Juarez across the border in Mexico, the pressures of migration influences both towns.  They are well aware of their location as a major border crossing for Central and South Americans’ trying to enter the US.  And when there is no legal method to cross, those migrants become prey to “coyotes” who send them out into the surrounding desert to “cross the line” illegally.

Nearby Fort Bliss has been used to house some of those migrants in the past.  The first Trump Administration temporarily housed “unaccompanied minors” there, and the Biden Administration used it as an “emergency intake center”.  Today, ICE is building a huge detention facility and bringing in detainees from all over the Nation.  Like Japanese-Americans, many were denied legal due-process, and simply swept off the streets and transported far from their homes.  

In 1944, the US Supreme Court ruled in Korematsu v United States that Executive Order #9066 and the internment process were a “legal exercise” of Presidential authority in time of war.  In fact, it took until 2018, in Trump v Hawaii, for the Supreme Court to repudiate that decision.  Congress took decades to apologize as well, in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

The Trump Administration

Donald Trump used the migrant issue as the single basis of his political rise to prominence.  It was the core of his introduction, the speech at the bottom of the “golden escalator” at Trump Tower in 2015.  But, during his first administration he ran into Congress and the Courts, “impeding” his desire to attack migrants here in the United States.  

So when he returned in 2025, Trump successfully (at least, so far) overwhelmed opposition. He declared a “war” on Central and South American “gangs” as a predicate to action. He’s used Executive Orders, a Congress willing to relinquish authority, and an overwhelmed Federal Court system, to drive his program.  Billions of US dollars are going to finance an ICE “Army”, patrolling the streets looking for so-called “illegals”.  Trump’s co-conspirator, Stephen Miller, set a “quota” of 3000 arrests a day (Guardian). They have to go somewhere.

Mark Twain’s saying goes:  “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”.   Trump is trying to recreate the racial bias of 1941, by ginning up a crisis:  sending the National Guard to American cities, the ICE Army to snatch “brown people”, and now, detention centers.  They are even using some of the same locations. And, for the same reason; the isolation, and the hopelessness.  Fort Bliss isn’t the first, and it isn’t the biggest.  But it is symbolic.  From Nisei to migrants,  the camps are filled and the US Constitution be-damned.

How long will it take America to apologize for this atrocity?

Dirty Laundry

Politicians have to answer questions for the media all the time.  It’s a symbiotic relationship. The media wants to know what politicians think, especially if they say something that will generate headlines.  In the end, the media needs readers or viewers.  Like the “algorithms” that drive social media, the more outrageous the statement, the more the media meets their needs.  It’s a matter of their survival.

Politicians need the media, because, they need votes to stay in power.  There are lots of ways to contact voters, to let them know ideas and views.  But many of those methods are expensive, especially broadcast media.  So if a politician can get “free time”, it has actual cash value.  (Like him or not, Donald Trump is a master for getting “free time”.  He did it from the beginning in 2015, and continues to dominate the media landscape today.  The saying goes, “He takes all of the oxygen out of the room”.  Trump can dominate so effectively, that there is little time left for anyone else).

The Premise

So here’s the “formula”.  The media asks questions to generate headlines.  The politicians want answers that will generate headlines.  The key is, that the politicians want headlines that are beneficial to their efforts, “good” headlines, while the media really doesn’t care.  Their view, as the Don Henley song goes:  “Give us dirty laundry”. 

Somewhere behind a politician is an “operative”, a political strategist who helps him or her advance.  Before every encounter with the media, that “operative” (either apocryphally or physically) whispers in the politicians ear:  “Don’t accept the premise of the question”.   Many media questions are in black and white terms, even on issues that aren’t black and white at all.  The “over-simplification” of the question is designed to elicit a simple, headline generating answer.  

But if the answer is somewhere in the middle, even if the question doesn’t allow it; the politician needs to get “political”.  They need to rephrase the question in a way so that their answer addresses the complexity of the problem.  They can’t accept the premise.

Rahm

Rahm Emanuel is the former Democratic Mayor of Chicago and US Ambassador to Japan.  But before his political career as a candidate, Emanuel was an “operative” himself, leading candidates to success, including serving as Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff in the White House.  He’s now thinking of running for President in the 2028 Democratic Primaries, and is trying to get “his headlines” by appearing on right-wing media. (Other possible candidates, like Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg, are doing the same).  Emanuel is known for his abrasiveness, and also his political acuity.  So when he appeared on Megan Kelly’s show a few weeks ago, it’s not likely that he accidently accepted the premise of this question.

“Can a man become a woman?” Kelly asked Emanuel. 

“Can a man become a woman? Not — no,” the former Chicago mayor and Obama chief of staff replied.

“Thank you,” Kelly responded. (The Hill).

He accepted the premise of the question.  He looked at gender identity, a huge range of possibilities, and saw it only as black and white.  And he did it intentionally, to get the headline, and to put himself “apart” from most of the Democratic field.

The Answer

The answer could have reflected the reality of trans-genderism.  There are different measures of “man” and “woman”, besides just physical equipment.   “Brain identity” can and is more important than visual appearance.  And science recognizes multiple combinations of DNA and pre-birth changes that might have one physical result, but another “brain identity”.   

The answer should have been that a man doesn’t become a woman, but a person who has one set of physical characteristics might have other unseen changes that means they are a different gender.   Rahm could have taken his opportunity to explain all this to the MAGA world, and spoken “truth to power”.  

But he didn’t.  He wanted the headline.  He’s looking for “his place” in a Democratic Primary, the candidate in the center of the political spectrum.  His answer got the “lead”, and a thank you from Megan Kelly, as if Rahm acknowledged a “truth” that only MAGA-world really knows.

The Operative

I’m sure there’s a political operative behind Emanuel who did a “high five” for the answer.  Democrats were “burned” by the MAGA anti-transgendered campaign in 2024.  It certainly took Sherrod Brown down here in Ohio.  And some operatives have made a calculation:  Democrats must step away from “gender issues”, and stop supporting “trans” and other LGBTQ rights.  It’s kind of a, “Let’s ‘pretend’ we don’t support LGBTQ, so we can get back in power,” thing.  Instead of educating, and recognizing the real complexity of human gender and sexuality; some Democrats are “accepting the premise” of MAGA gender identity.  It’s simple and headline generating, even if it’s wrong.

Rahm could have said:  “No a man can’t become a woman – unless she already is”.  That would have gotten him just as many headlines.  

And there’s one more advantage – it would be right.

Beef

There are lots of reasons for rising costs.  And, some of those are completely out of everyone’s control.  For example:  beef prices are going up, because it’s been a “bad year” for cows.  Really, the actual number of beef cows in the United States is the lowest since 1951 (MarketWatch).  Sure, there are global reasons:  climate change, drought and such.  And we can talk about the political ramifications of that.  But the bottom (round) line is this:  there are fewer beef on the market, and the market is way, way bigger than it was seventy-four years ago.  

Supply and demand: that’s the central factor in determining cost.  If the supply is lower, and the demand is higher, then the cost (price) will go up.  There’s less beef, with a much greater demand today. So, Pataskala Kroger’s is charging $19.99 a pound for a ribeye, $6.99 a pound for 80/20 hamburger.   Remember how upset everyone was with the Covid meat price hike.  My goodness, 80/20 hamburger went up to $6.00 a pound.  We’re past that now.

Little Blue Vans

Here in Pataskala, we have a “micro-market” that sets the price for gasoline.  The demand for gas is higher here than in the neighboring communities.  That’s because of an Amazon distribution center (I think there’s seven giant buildings, including the “Fulfillment Center”).  And from one of those buildings, there’s a swarm of little blue vans that go out, every day.  

That’s Amazon fulfilling their bargain, swift product delivery to your door.  And all of those swarming little vans have to fill up at the local gas stations, BP, Kroger, UDF, Sheets, Shell, and the rest.  And because of that increase in “demand”, the cost of gas in Pataskala is often $0.20 higher than nearby Reynoldsburg or even closer Kirkersville.  Want to buy gas at UDF around the corner?  There’s a price to pay for the convenience.

Eating Taxes

And we can look forward to the impact of the Trump Tariff policies.  Like it or not, in the long run most businesses will find a way to distribute the new costs of tariffs (import taxes) to the consumer.  Sure, right now, some are absorbing the tax costs to avoid the political ramifications, but that’s not going to last.

Any business has a primary goal:  to make profit for their owners (usually the shareholders).  That’s what Capitalism is all about.  While in the short term, reducing profits by “eating” the additional taxes may make good business sense, in the final analysis, the “owners” are in it for the money.  The costs will get passed along to the consumer.  Tariffs are just another consumer tax, and, as often is the case, they will have a greater impact on those with lower incomes.

Energy

As for the rising cost of energy, it’s a good time to be an energy company shareholder.  The second quarter of 2025 AEP (American Electric Power) declared a $1.2 Billion profit, almost four times greater than 2024 (ABC).  And, as any AEP Ohio consumer can tell you, the price of electricity is going up.  It’s not just the actual cost of electricity, it’s all of the associated costs:  delivery fees, existing infrastructure upkeep, new infrastructure development.  That does make sense, at least, around here in Columbus, Ohio.  The whole region is expanding, and more and more power is needed to reach out to the developing industries and residences.

And it’s even more than that.  Unlike cows, there’s more energy generation going on in Central Ohio than ever.  But the demand is increasing far beyond the existing supply.  It’s not just the stalled Intel Chip plant a few miles north of here.  Industry is booming all through Central Ohio.  What used to be fields in Pataskala, or Ashville, or Marengo (all twenty plus miles outside of downtown); are now solar panel factories, or an advanced military drone plant, or giant distribution centers.  All of that means more power is needed.

Regulation

Back to supply and demand:  the demand for power is exponentially increasing, and the supply is far behind.  So the cost of electricity by the kilowatt is going to go up.   

Should the power companies “eat” that cost, especially with the incredible profits they’re making?  Maybe; they are publicly regulated monopolies here in Ohio.  While I can buy a different provider for my power, it’s still coming in on AEP’s lines.  The problem, of course, is the Public Utility Commission of Ohio, the “regulator”, is made up of five members all appointed by the energy industry friendly Governor, Mike DeWine. Some have long “experience” in the energy industry.  The foxes are in charge of the chicken coop.

The pressure is on the consumer.   Because if prices go up, either consumers find ways to cut (reduce the demand) or they find more income (increase their personal supply of money).  It’s a balancing act, especially for those with “fixed” incomes.  With all of the other political craziness in our world, this issue is still likely to be the most important factor in determining who gets elected.

So while many of us, including me, think that the Trump Administration represents an existential threat to the American Democracy, it might all still come down to the price of 80/20 hamburger, or kilowatt hours, or the price of eggs. Right now they’re $3.59 a dozen at your friendly, Pataskala Kroger’s.  By the way, Kroger made a 4% increase in profit over last year, $10.57 Billion in the first quarter of 2025.

Sycophant

Up front:  I think Donald Trump, and more importantly, the Heritage Foundation sponsored ideology behind him, is a real attack on the American experiment in Democracy.  If they get what they want, the America of 2030 will have little resemblance to the America we imagined in 2015.  The threat is real; and the outcome is in serious doubt.

I should add that I think Trump’s sycophantic display towards Russian dictator Vladimir Putin last week was ugly and degrading.  Trump literally invited Putin to the United States. He rolled out the “red carpet”, gave him a military display, invited him for a personal “ride” in the Presidential limousine, and even had a personal “award” created for him.  For all of that recognition, Putin’s “entre” back into world diplomacy, the United States seemed to get absolutely nothing.  

No deal, no agreement to work on a deal, no ceasefire in Ukraine, no bargaining: nothing happened.  Putin demanded that Ukraine give up territory, acknowledge Russian conquests, and be denied any protective alliances.  And when Trump wanted to continue discussions over lunch (and give the “award”), Putin just left.  He went to honor Russian airmen in an American military cemetery on base, paid cash for a refuel, and flew back to “Mother Russia”.  Trump, his aides, and the world was left holding an empty bag.

Back Door Leaders

Monday Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, and a full delegation of leaders from Europe.  Unlike the “red carpet” for Putin, these world leaders were met at the back door (really, the back door) of the White House by the “chief protocol officer”.   Each of the world leaders, including Zelenskyy, learned the lesson of Zelenskyy’s last White House meeting.  They all began their statements with paragraphs of praise for Trump’s diplomatic “acumen”, and complimented him on his fitness and dress.

And Trump responded in kind, with glowing words for the leaders of Germany, NATO, the European Union, Italy, the United Kingdom and especially Finland (they played golf together earlier this year).  He was a little less generous with Zelenskyy and Emanuel Macron, the President of France, but was at least cordial.  That certainly was an improvement over the “beat-down” Trump and Vice President Vance gave the Ukrainian in the Oval Office last February (The Beat Down).

Article Five

In that spat of “negotiations”, Trump promised US support for Ukraine, including being a part of an “Article Five” style alliance with the embittered nation.  “Article Five” is a section of the NATO treaty agreement (all of the nations at the table are in NATO except for Ukraine), that states simply, “An attack on one nation in the alliance, is an attack on all nations in the alliance”.  It’s been put into effect once, after the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11.  

Ukraine may not be admitted to NATO, but it may still get the benefits of NATO membership.  It’s hard to imagine Putin agreeing to any deal with that included.  

Another Beat Down

But one of Trump’s base demands seems to be a “tri-lateral” discussion among Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy. Macron wasn’t having that; it looks too much like the two-on-one Oval Office beat down of the past, with Putin taking Vance’s place. The odds of Zelenskyy actually going to Moscow for that discussion seem quite small. 

In the midst of all of this discussion on Monday, Trump abandoned the world leaders to make a forty-minute phone call to Putin.  From what we learned, it didn’t seem like Putin “gave” anything, but it did show Trump’s priority:  Putin over all.

So here we stand.  Despite Trump’s hopefulness, there doesn’t seem to be much movement, and the death and destruction continues along the stalled battle front, and as the result of the Russian attacks on civilians behind Ukrainian lines.  If Russia won’t move, Trump will be forced to take a stand WITH Ukraine. That’s something he’s been loath to do.  Or worse, Trump will allow Ukraine to “hang”, and just let the killing continue. 

Let Them Fight

As Trump himself said:
“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled…Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart. And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday. I said, ‘President, maybe you have to keep fighting and suffering a lot’ because both sides are suffering, before you pull them apart before they’re able to be pulled apart.”

Of course, those young children aren’t probably going to kill themselves, or the other kids on the playground.  

But I will give him this.  If the Trump Administration can find a way a negotiate any kind of settlement that stops the bloodshed, without selling-out the people of Ukraine, they’ve earned a prize.  And if giving Donald Trump “his” Nobel Peace Prize, makes him “equal” to President Obama, then so be it.  

He wins. And so will the world.

DC

Washington DC has more than twenty-two different law enforcement agencies with direct jurisdiction.  Just check out one famous spot in Washington, Dupont Circle.  It’s a “trendy” area on Massachusetts Avenue, where downtown meets Georgetown and Embassy Row.  The DC Metro Police has jurisdiction over the roads:  Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire Avenues (and P Street).  But the actual circle, the monument to Admiral Dupont, is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.  

More than seventy embassies and international organizations are festooned along Massachusetts Avenue and the side streets.  They are the “sovereign territory” of the nation that occupies the grounds, a great place for a walk and a game of “name that flag”.   The US Secret Service Uniformed Division is involved in policing those areas, as well as the DC Metro Police.   A simple thing like parking (definitely not so simple in DC) can become an international incident.  Diplomatic license plates confer “diplomatic immunity”.  They park where they want.

Underneath Dupont Circle is the DC Metro, the subway system.  One of its oldest stations is located there.  (Back when I lived in DC in the 1970’s, it was “the end of the line”, where I would catch the Metro for Capitol Hill).  The subway has its own police force, the Metro Transit Police Department.  

The point:  policing in Washington, DC is always complicated.

Federal District

Washington is a Federal District, bordered by Maryland and Virginia.  It’s a “tight fit”, the view from the Lincoln Memorial (in DC) across the Potomac to Arlington National Cemetery (in Virginia) spans the state border.  The White House is in DC, the Pentagon in Virginia.  And the “near suburbs” of Washington; Chevy Chase, Bethesda, and College Park, are all in Maryland. 

Washington DC is a US city with a population of over 700,000, 22^nd largest in the country.  It’s boundaries are absolutely landlocked, because the District of Columbia was defined by the Constitution of the United States as the Federal Capital for the Nation.   Until 1973 it was run by a commissioner appointed by the US Congress, and the laws, regulations, taxes and services were directly controlled by Congress.

Washington is 43% African-American, 39% White (including 3% Hispanic), 8% of multiple races, and 11% other races.  It is a “minority-majority” city.  The citizens of Washington didn’t even get the right to vote for President of the United States until 1961 (23^rd Amendment).  And it wasn’t until 1973 that Congress passed the District Home Rule Law, allowing for the direct election of a city council and mayor.

But, even then, Congress maintained a veto over the local government actions.  Over 37% of the municipal budget comes from the Federal Government.   Part of Home Rule includes the emergency “right” of the President of the United States to “intervene” and take control of law enforcement in the District.  And, unlike the “regular states”, the National Guard of Washington, DC is under command of the President.  As Governor Wes Moore of Maryland made clear last week,  state Governors command their own state’s National Guard.

Inside the Law

All of that means that the Trump Administration was acting “within the law” when they took control of the Metro Police and called out the National Guard.  The only  legally questionable area was the existence of an “emergency”, but, that will be a matter for Federal Courts to determine.  

Folks in the District are reasonably concerned.  Sure, actions that reduce crime are generally a “good thing”.  And perhaps all of the Federal police now concentrated in the “touristy” parts of the city might allow the Metro Police to concentrate on higher crime areas.  But the Federal “takeover” is another step taking away the local control of 700,000 Washingtonians.

The answer for the residents of Washington is to become a state.  That would give them autonomy over their own governance, as well as actual votes in the House and Senate. (Currently, they have a non-voting delegate in the House, and no representation in the Senate at all).  DC statehood has been a “local issue” for decades.  

But it is also a national political issue mired in partisan power.  DC statehood would likely mean another Democratic Congressman and two more Democratic Senators. And how the statehood process would work is just one more complexity in the Federal versus local governing process.  Who would police Dupont Circle then?

Outside the Law

When the Administration threatens to do more, and send in the National Guard or Federalize the police in New York, Chicago, Baltimore or other American cities (except, of course, cities that are in Republican states), there’s a big difference. The Governors of those states might be able to intervene. (Governor Hochul of New York sent the National Guard into the New York City subway). The Federal government doesn’t have that authority.

The ”legalities” haven’t stopped Trump from taking actions.  His “better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach is filling the Federal Courts with cases. All of which take longer to adjudicate then the actions themselves (like Federalizing the California National Guard). But it clearly is a part of the plan. “Normalize” Americans to the sight of armed military in the streets of our cities.  

Which, of course, leads to the question:  why does the President of the United States want Americans to think of troops in the street as normal?  The answer to that question is the real threat to American democracy.

Right Hand Man

Todd Blanche is the second most powerful prosecutor in the United States.  As Deputy Attorney General (DAG) in the Department of Justice, he is the “Chief Operating Officer”.  While Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, is in charge, it is Blanche who makes most of the day-to-day decisions.  Bondi sets the direction, Blanche steers the Department.  It’s a “big job” for whoever gets the role.  

Ask Rod Rosenstein, the DAG in the first Trump Administration.  While the Attorneys General changed, from Sessions, to Whittaker, to Barr; it was Rosenstein who bore the brunt of balancing a Department that was first investigating the newly elected President, then defending him, then investigating the investigators.  Whatever you think of the outcomes, Rosenstein was at the center of the storm.

Most DAG’s rise up through the Justice Department.  Some, like Rosenstein, come in as political appointments from US Attorney’s offices (Rosenstein in Baltimore).  But Mr. Blanche took a different route.  While he did serve as a line prosecutor in the Southern District of New York for nearly a decade, he left the Department to go into private practice.  It was in the course of that private work that he was hired by the client that made his career:  Donald Trump.

Blanche represented Trump in the 34 felony-count criminal indictment for falsifying business records regarding the Stormy Daniels payoff.  Trump was found guilty on all counts (as President-elect the penalties were dismissed).   Despite the loss, Blanche remained as one of Trump’s most trusted aides.  That confidence showed in Blanche’s elevation to the second highest office in the Justice Department.

Room Where it Happened

So when a similar situation from Donald Trump’s private life arose, he sent Blanche in to “put out the fire”.  Jeffrey Epstein, friend of Trump and purveyor of underage children for sexual exploitation by the rich and famous; died mysteriously in a Federal prison cell in New York.  Whatever he knew, went to the grave with him.  But Epstein’s own “chief operating officer”, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving twenty years in Federal prison.  And when the EPSTEIN FILES!! scandal broke last month, Trump needed to know what she would say.  Who else but Todd Blanche, the DAG, would talk to Maxwell for nine hours in a Tallahassee Federal Courthouse.

We don’t know what was said.  What we do know is one side of the “quid-pro-quo”.  Maxwell was soon moved from a medium security facility near Tallahassee, to a Federal prison “camp” in Bryan, Texas.  Department policy prevents convicted sex offenders from the more relaxed confinement in a “camp” type-facility, but Maxwell is there anyway.   Whatever the “other side” of the quid-pro-quo was, it must be enough to warrant a public exception for the “luxury” child sex-trafficker.

Elmendorf

President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.  Putin is under indictment for war crimes by the World Court, and is waging a war of aggression in Ukraine.   But Trump ignored all that, and invited Putin to the United States; Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. He literally rolled out the “red carpet” for him.  Putin even was given a private ride with Mr. Trump in the Presidential limousine, and an airshow featuring America’s most advance weapons, F-35 fighters and B-2 bombers. 

Trump invited Putin so he could discuss ending the war in Ukraine.  There were elaborate plans for a closed meeting, followed by a luncheon, and then talks between the aides from both sides, in hopes of hammering out an arrangement to end the three year conflict and to bring Russia back into the world economy. 

It didn’t happen.

Room Where it Happened

We don’t know fully what the private conversation between Putin and Trump was about.  In terms of Ukraine, Putin made it clear that he would not withdraw from any of the captured territory, and would only accept a ceasefire-in-place with several conditions that the Ukrainians would clearly reject.  That was a foreseeable result:  it’s clear that Putin is still set on conquering Ukraine and making it a part of Russia (again).  The longer the war lasts, the more to Putin’s advantage.  A ceasefire doesn’t help him.

Trump said that Putin affirmed all of Trump’s biggest domestic assertions:  that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 election, and would not dare invade Ukraine if Trump were in office in 2022.  The American President also said that Putin “knew” that the election of 2020 was rigged against him.  (Trump didn’t say that Putin knew Trump’s name wasn’t in the EPSTEIN FILES!!, but that might be next).

Putin walked out of the first meeting, made a statement to the press, and went home:  no lunch, no second meeting, no talks between aides.  Putin got what he wanted:  international acknowledgment as a “leader of a powerful nation”, not an indicted war criminal.  Trump served to legitimize Putin’s authority, even as the Russian dictator launched more attacks against civilians in Ukraine.

That was the “quid”, but there seems to be no “pro quo”.  Todd Blanche managed to silence Maxwell for the moment, but what did Trump get?  In terms of Ukraine, it seems like nothing.  But, was there something else that Putin “gave” Trump in return?  

We don’t know,  No one was in “the room where it happened”.

PS: credit where credit is due: “right hand man” and “in the room where it happens (happened) are from Hamilton, The Musical – which continues to reverberate in our household as we contend with the second Trump Administration. And, of course the “Tale of Two Deals” harkens back to Charles Dickens.

You Did It

We definitely live in the age of “what-about-ism”.  Rather than debate the specifics of an issue, the answer by “the other side” is almost always, “what-about?”  Then there’s the litany of statements about when “your side” did something similar to what the “other side” is doing.  It makes for a frustrating discussion, because it never really gets down to the merits of the issues.

A quick example:  the Trump ICE “gang” is going through American cities, rounding up folks who “look like” they might be undocumented migrants.  The take those folks, deny all due process, confine them, and for some, deport them out of the country.  When opponents raise questions about clear violations of Constitutional rights; instead of arguing the Constitution, the response is usually, “what-about”.  “What-about Obama and Biden, who did the exact same thing?”  Well, the answer is, they didn’t.  

On the Border

Both Democratic Presidents did remove newly arrived undocumented migrants at the border.  They gave them a choice, detention awaiting asylum hearings, or a bus ride back across the border without “prejudice”.  That meant those migrants could still wait in line to enter the United State legally.  It wasn’t the “round-up” in Los Angeles, or Chicago, or Columbus, Ohio; and it didn’t require “detention facilities” to be built throughout the nation.  It was literally a roadside decision for the migrants.  They got picked up, they decided what to do, and they either went to detention or went back across the border.  Regardless of MAGA what-about, it’s not the same thing as the inhumane treatment by ICE today.

What’s happening with migrants today is a serious question, one that strikes directly at the heart of the United States Constitution. (For more on that, see this earlier essay, Black Letter Law).  But there’s another issue, this most recent “what-about”, that is a little less traumatic.

Burn

Democrats, and all folks who find MAGA repugnant, are enjoying the current Administration crisis over the EPSTEIN FILES!!.  It’s not about the atrocious actions of Epstein and Maxwell and their wealthy compatriots. Everyone, at least, that I know, finds child molestation abhorrent.  So when I call out the Trump “gang” on the EPSTEIN FILES!!, instead of getting a reasonable discussion about the facts, my MAGA friends immediately resort to “what-about”.  “Well, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice had the EPSTEIN FILES!!. Why didn’t they reveal them?  What-about that?”  It’s an interesting argument, one with enough truth in it to bring a pause to the discussion. 

So here, just this once, is the answer.  Then I’m done with getting in the mud about Epstein.  To everyone involved in the Epstein bacchanals, to quote Hamilton, the Musical,  “I hope you burn”.

Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein was indicted (for the second time) by the FBI in July of 2019.  That was during the first Trump Administration.  There was a large amount of evidence amassed from searches of Epstein’s homes, both in the United States and overseas.  The case was more than solid, and Epstein was likely to spend the remainder of his life in jail.  But in August, only a month after his arrest, he was found dead in his cell in the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York.  It was ruled a suicide.

All of that was under the “watch” of Trump appointed Attorney General Bill Barr.  

A year later, in July of 2020, Epstein’s co-abuser, procurer, and groomer, Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested by the FBI.  That too, was under Trump’s Department of Justice.  Her Federal trial began in November of 2021, now under the Biden Justice Department, and she was found guilty of varying sex crimes in December of that year and sentenced to twenty years in prison.  No other criminal charges were brought in the cases around Epstein.  This was, in part, because most of the possible charges occurred almost two decades before, and Federal law carries a five to ten year statute of limitation.

Back to Normal

One of the avowed goals of the Biden Administration was to get “back to normal”.  This was particularly true when it came to the Department of Justice.  There was the huge controversy created by FBI Director James Comey’s “speech” announcing that Hillary Clinton was not going to be indicted. In it, he then blamed Clinton for actions that might have broken the law. That speech and his later letter to Congress, violated all past practice and procedure.  Some, including myself, believe that Comey’s statements were a pivotal reason that Trump won in 2016. 

So getting “back to normal” meant that Justice would either speak through indictments, or not speak at all. Since no one else around Epstein could be indicted, the Merrick Garland Justice Department had nothing more to say.

During the 2024 Presidential campaign, neither President Biden nor Vice President Harris even mentioned the EPSTEIN FILES!!  They wanted “normal”:  the Justice Department couldn’t indict, and that was all there was to say.

But one of the promises of the 2024 Trump Campaign was to “reveal” what was in the EPSTEIN FILES!!  They led many voters to believe that all sorts of “Democrats” were involved in Epstein’s sordid activities.  And they all promised: Trump, Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and most prominently, FBI Assistant Director Dan Borgino, to reveal the EPSTEIN FILES!!

Until they got in power.  Then, even after Bondi said she that the “files” were on her desk, they came back and said there was “nothing there”.   

This isn’t about Epstein or Joe Biden.  This is about lying to your own supporters.  It’s about the lack of integrity in the Trump Administration.  That’s what we should be arguing.

What about that?

(Remember that old song Feelings, by Morris Albert?)

Disruption

I guess, to some, it “felt” like a good idea.  Many Americans, fueled by the “Fake/Faux/Fox News” media onslaught, “felt” like billions of dollars were being “wasted”, or even worse, stolen.  That “feeling” helped get Donald Trump elected President, for a second time, despite thirty-four felony convictions.  Enough Americans felt, I guess, that it was time to put that “fox” in charge of the entire “chicken coop”.  

Elon Musk and his DOGE boys came in, and completely disrupted the government.  Finances were ripped from hundreds of programs that were mandated by Congress.  There were real-world consequences, programs that were life-saving, cut cold.  Real people died.  Almost every agency, from the Internal Revenue Service to the Veterans’ Administration to the National Park Service, was disrupted. And the rest of Americans, even the ones who didn’t share the “feelings” of waste and fraud, shared in that disruption, like it or not.

The end result “felt” kind of sad.  The DOGE boys (including their leader, Musk, and his lieutenant, “Big Balls”) spent a lot of money, ate a lot of pizza, and crunched an enormous amount of data.  But, in real terms (not feelings) they didn’t save much. DOGE claims to have saved $160 Billion, a big number.  But analysis shows they spent $135 Billion to do it (CBS).  $25 Billion is a “big number” too, but not so “big” in the scope of a  $5.35 Trillion annual budget.  

Big Balls’ Nose

Speaking of “Big Balls”; he intervened in a street crime in Washington, DC, and got beat up pretty badly.  The President said he was “near death”; but unless you can die from a broken nose Trump might have exaggerated a bit.  “Big Balls” may be big in the computer world, but in real world DC crime,  as the saying goes, he got his a$$ kicked.  And somehow, it “feels” like that’s generated an entire crisis in Washington.

President Trump was looking for something to do in August, besides talking about the EPSTEIN FILES.  He put massive tariffs on China (but he really didn’t), and he arranged to meet Putin in Alaska, in quest of “his” Nobel Peace Prize.  Hopefully, he doesn’t give away Ukraine, or Alaska, as part of the deal.  But when all of those things didn’t manage to change the subject from Trump’s good, deceased, child molesting friend; he decided to bring in the Federal Government to rescue “Big Balls”.

Retribution

“I am your retribution”.  That’s what Trump told the world would happen if he got elected.  And here he is, getting payback for “Big Balls’” broken nose.  He’s nationalized the police of Washington, DC, taking control from the duly elected local authorities.  Trump claimed that Washington was worse than varying war zones throughout the world, and “only he” could fix what the “Democrat” local government allowed to happen.  Just like  DOGE “fixed” the Federal Government, now Trump would “fix” Washington, DC.

So let’s get a couple of things straight, feelings aside.  Washington DC isn’t Baghdad, or some other war-torn foreign capital.  It isn’t even the “murder capital” of the United States.  That “honor” goes to Memphis, Tennessee, followed by St Louis and Baltimore.  DC is fourth on the list, which surprisingly doesn’t include Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, or any city in Ohio.  I guess “feelings” can be mistaken (USA Facts).   And while Washington’s homicide rate rose 15% in the Covid and post-Covid era, it actually fell 12% in the past year.   So while that doesn’t help “Big Balls’” nose, it is factual, versus anecdotal, evidence.  It’s not about feelings, unless we’re talking about “feeling” like talking about something other than the EPSTEIN FILES.

Real World

But there are real-world consequences.  Now the Federal Government is in-charge of the DC Metro Police, replacing the Mayor and the elected City Council.  DC is a complicated jurisdictional area.  It’s a Federal District, and many segments of the city are regulated by Federal Police anyway, including the Capitol area (the Capitol Police), the National Mall (US Park Police), the White House (US Secret Service), and, of course, ICE (they’re everywhere, everywhere)!

The Metro Police is still in action, but now, trained FBI agents are making arrests for loitering, and the Park Police are patrolling regular neighborhoods, as well as the “regular” cops.  Many will “feel” better.  But those “feelings” aren’t likely to be those of the regular folks who live in DC. More importantly, it’s another DOGE-type solution to the problem, one that disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians.  The Federal forces can go “tear up” in DC for a while, joined by the National Guard and perhaps even the regular military.  But, probably sooner rather than later, Washington will return to “regular order”, and the President’s band-aid solution will be over.  Nothing changes.  

Big Balls may feel vindicated.  And Trump will have his “retribution” on the town that stood up to him on January 6^th.  But the rest of us have to get over feelings, and look at the facts.  This is no solution to the real problems of Washington, DC.  It’s just another distraction.

And that’s too bad, for the real people who live in Washington.

Originalists

One of the most disconcerting “facts of life” in our new MAGA world, is the complete disregard for the Constitution of the United States.  For decades, even for centuries, we learned the meaning of the Constitution.  We KNEW what the authors of the Constitution and the Amendments  intended.  They were prolific writers, and felt the need in their Age of Enlightenment to explain their reasoning, and to have it examined by others.  Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and others put their thoughts to paper, and challenged others to debate and discuss.  

 The “founding fathers” of the Project 2025 playbook for the alteration of American society, all claim that they are “originalists”, following in “Black Letter” obedience the original intent of the Founding Authors.  But when that original intent somehow doesn’t “fit” their own warped interpretation of America, they go back and “alter” the original intent.  It’s historically fraudulent, an act that the Enlightened leaders would find academically abhorrent.  But that’s what’s happening.

Religious Freedom

The biggest “lie” is that the United States was founded as a “Christian Nation” under Christian principles.  Here are the facts.  The authors of the Constitution were generally Christians.  But they were also the direct descendants of those who fled Europe searching for religious freedom.  John Adams, a very religious man, had great-grandparents who were original Puritan settlers in Massachusetts.   They fled religious tyranny of the Church of England.  Religious freedom was embedded in his heritage.  

Thomas Jefferson himself, while a “standard” Anglican, wrote about his departure from Christian theology.  His concepts, shared in the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, exalted the freedom of men to make up their own mind about religion, and called for government to stay out of religious affairs.  Jefferson created the concept of a “wall” between church and state, a “wall” that has been chipped away by recent Federalist Society Judges’ opinions.

But there are a lot of even clearer MAGA precepts that disregard the “black letter” intent of the Founders. 

We The People

The Founding Fathers had a clear concept of who was “part” of the United States.  There were “free people”, those not owned by others and not under a term of contract (indentured servitude, or contractual enslavement).   Within that class of “free people” were citizens: those who could vote in the state and national elections.  For example, an emancipated Black person would be a “free person”, but not qualify as a citizen in many states.  Women  may or may not be citizens, but they were “free people”.  

Then there were enslaved people, who were owned by others.  In a purely political compromise, they were considered three-fifths of a person for counting, and for taxation purposes.  But they were not “free” nor “three-fifths of a citizen”.  They were enslaved.

And finally there were Indians. They were not citizens, and not counted as “free people”,   because they were considered members of separate nations, the Indian nations.  That’s also why the United States would make treaties with Indian tribes (almost always broken). Indians were treated as Nations;  the United States often waged war against them.  When we see Palestinians starving in Gaza, keep in mind that the avowed US strategy against the Plains Indian tribes was to destroy the buffalo and create starvation. That forced the tribes onto government reservations. (This was the strategy of Ohio’s own General Phil Sheridan).  The Israelis aren’t the first to choose such a horrific path.

Census

Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution provides for an “enumeration” of the people of the United States, for the purpose of determining the number of seats in the House of Representatives each state will get.  That enumeration (the census) is clearly defined:

…which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.

Who gets counted?  It’s a simple math equation:  free persons (including indentured servants) and three fifths of other persons (enslaved folks).  Who doesn’t count – Indians.  So when the President, or the Heritage Society, claims that only “citizens” should be counted, that’s simply not what Mr. Madison and the Constitutional Convention said, or meant. 

Free persons are simply that, free.  They may or may not be “documented persons” in our current ICE-terrified world, but they are free.  Therefore, they are subject to being enumerated, and that enumeration is used to determine representation.  Don’t like it?  As the MAGA world is fond of saying about the Second Amendment (another mis-interpreted Madisonian concept) – then change it.  Article V of the Constitution lays out two separate paths to making those changes, called Amendments.

Free Persons

Once we get the concept of free persons versus citizens, there are several other Constitutional areas that become clear.  The Fourth Amendment, protecting against governmental search and seizures, states that it applies to “the people”.  That’s the same as “free persons”, and not the same as citizens.  So undocumented migrants in the United States aren’t citizens, but they are “free people” and therefore covered.

The same is true about the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments that create protections in criminal prosecutions.  Those again guarantee that “no persons” shall be denied their rights.   When the MAGA-world rejoices at the ICE “round-ups” and “detention centers”, they are in direct contradiction of the criminal rights of the Constitution – granted to persons, (not just citizens).

And then there’s the mighty Fourteenth Amendment, which starts with the phrase: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”  We already know what the phrase “all persons” means.  

And then the Fourteenth applied Federal law to the actions of the states: “… nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”  There’s that pesky “any person” thing again.  There’s no exception for the “undocumented”; those who might have entered the United States without permission.  They still remain “a person” under Constitutional definition.

Born in the USA

This doesn’t just apply to rights, but the concept of birthright citizenship.  The authors of the Fourteenth were well aware of what “all persons” meant, and knew what “born” meant as well. Arguing that immigration status (other than diplomatic status) could determine birth citizenship is totally foreign to the “black letter law” of the Constitution, as well as the intent of those that wrote the Fourteenth.

The Black Letter Law of the US Constitution is clear. What isn’t clear is whether we allow these so-called “Originalists” to change America’s origin story to fit their own nefarious plans. 

That’s un-American, and so are they.

Selling Jeans

The American Eagle clothing company is in a tough spot.  Selling blue jeans in the United States is an incredibly competitive market.  Think about it;  every kind of “jeans” has its niche.  Levi’s is still “the king”, but if you’re “a little bit country”, you’re probably wearing Wranglers or Carhartt.  But LL Bean and, my favorite, Land’s End have the “boomer market” (they make a short/fat pair for me – Grandpa jeans I guess!!). And the incredibly competitive youth market requires pre-shredded jeans that fit skin-tight, but still are comfortable. And while American Eagle had a great run as a hands-on retailer at the shopping mall, the world (including me) buys online now.  It’s been a while for almost anyone to say: “I went to the Mall today”.

Now Amazon will send you jeans to try on, some “name brands”, some made by companies whose names are an unpronounceable series of consonants.  Amazon can dress you inside and out, developing your “style and theme”, and you can send the rest back.  So, wearing American Eagle is no longer a stand-alone fashion statement.

Ad Campaign

The corporate answer:  let’s get a young movie star to model our jeans.  Sydney Sweeney was the “answer” to American Eagle’s prayers.  She’s a “star” in the “target” age group:  twenty-seven with twenty-four films already to her credit.  But she’s best known for her roles in streaming television, including “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “White Lotus”.  To point out the obvious, it really doesn’t matter that I haven’t heard of her or any of her movies or TV shows. American Eagle isn’t trying to sell jeans to me.

And the marketing department came up with a “catch-phrase” that would summarize the whole campaign: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans!!”  And in one of the actual ads, they had Sydney use the following line:

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color.” As the camera slowly pans upward and she turns her eyes toward the viewer, and Sweeney concludes, “My jeans are blue.”

Jeans or Genes

It’s cute.  It’s genetics mixed with fashionable clothing.  And it means nothing about “racism” or “eugenics”.  (For those who only vaguely remember reading Brave New World in high school, eugenics is the science of trying to breed humans to enhance or remove certain traits).  But in our hyper-political world, some jumped on both the dialog, and the sexuality of the blonde twenty-seven year old.   It’s “promoting” Caucasian, blue eyed-blonde GENES!!  It was, believe it, about a beautiful young woman, using her beauty to sell you jeans!!  And, and, it was kind of like an ad made by Brooke Shields (when she was fifteen) back in the day – sexualizing a child!!

Look, I’m as “woke” as the next Liberal, but this seems like, what my Mother would have called “A tempest in a teapot”.   The American Eagle writers were “cute”, using genes and jeans interchangeably.  They found a grown, adult, woman to model them (not a fifteen year-old child).  And, damn straight they sexualized the product.  I buy jeans for fit and comfort. My neighbors buy jeans that they wear to the rodeo (though the TV series Yellowstone featured mostly Levi’s). But the “target” age-group, adolescent to young adult, buy jeans to “look good”. 

Who are they trying to “look good” for (That’s a trap)?   Whoever they want to attract of whatever gender they are attracted to (that’s the way out)!!

‘Merica

Look, we live in a Nation where unidentifiable men round up folks of color in the streets.  In the US today, there are “detention sites” where folks are held without charges, in horrible conditions, and without access to courts or legal assistance.  After the passage of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, millions of Americans will lose their health care.  And we are seeing the rise of Christian Nationalism mixed with Government support altering the public education systems. 

Freedom of speech is being restricted, folks are supposed to “stay small” so that they aren’t “in trouble”, and Americans are “being careful” about who they talk to about the future of our Nation.

Do you think it’s a big deal that a beautiful woman is wearing a pair of jeans in an ad?  Should we really spend time, write essays (even this one), take up pages of Google citations, simply because American Eagle was “too cute”?    

We’ve got way bigger problems than that.  We’ve got a Nation to save.  And it really doesn’t matter what pair of jeans you’re wearing to do it.

Real World Problems

There are real world problems for the Trump Administration to deal with.  Not the crazy ones they made for themselves;  like creating an American Gestapo force to terrorize folks who might be migrants.  Or other “authoritarian” stuff:  like trying to rig the 2026 Congressional elections by stealing seats in Texas and other “Red” states; or, of course, the fumbled EPSTEIN FILES!!!

No, they are really blowing it, in the area that Donald Trump supposedly has the “most” authority.  The two world leaders who supposedly were Trump’s “best buddies”, are thumbing their nose at the United States. 

No Soul

Start with Vladimir Putin.  He’s perfectly happy to have the President of the United States fly to Moscow to have a “chat”.  But there’s a reason why Heads of State don’t just “chat”.  When the President goes to talk to another leader, there’s usually months of preparation and agreements beforehand so that both look good.  There needs to be a “deal” and a “handshake” that has some meaning.  And Trump sees himself as the “Great Deal Maker”.  But there’s no agreement.

That’s why Biden wouldn’t meet with Putin.  There was no “deal on the table”, nothing to shake hands about.   Biden didn’t need to do what George Bush did:  “…I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy – I was able to get a sense of his soul”. Biden knew Putin wasn’t straightforward or trustworthy; just a soul-less brutal dictator willing to kill his opponents and sacrifice his countrymen for his own dreams of power.

The meat grinder in Ukraine continues, with the gallant Ukrainians holding their own against the Russian machine. Hundreds of thousands have died on both sides (more Russian than Ukrainian), and Putin hasn’t demonstrated any interest in stopping.  Sham negotiations with Trump are useless, the United States needs to weigh back in on the Ukrainian side of the conflict.  Only then will Putin see the futility in his actions.  Despite George Bush’s observation, there is no “soul” in his eyes, just lust in his heart to re-build the Soviet Empire.

So Trump is going to Moscow, and Putin will use the trip to make himself looks “acceptable” to the world, and the mass killing in Ukraine will go on.  Trump will look like he did in Helsinki so many years ago:  used and abused by Putin.

Jared’s Godfather

And talk about a “buddy”.  Trump is so close to Netanyahu that the man is the godfather to his son-in-law, Jared.  Trump and Netanyahu shared the ultimate benefactor, billionaire Sheldon Adelson from Las Vegas.  And the two shared a similar problem; ongoing court actions that could put either one of them in jail.  

Netanyahu even named an illegal settlement (violating standing treaties) in the occupied Golan Heights after Trump, “Ramat Trump”.  He knows how to “schmooze” the American leader.  But he also knows how to ignore the Trump White House.  Today Israel is poised to send occupation troops back into Gaza, to ultimately take over the entire enclave.  It’s the end of the “two-state” solution, pursued by America for the past half-century, and a true “middle finger” to the United States efforts to establish a cease-fire in the region. That middle finger is going right in Trump’s eye.

Obliteration

And, of course, if thousands of Palestinians in Gaza starve to death along the way, it’s no problem for Netanyahu.  In fact, it seems like Israeli national policy, obliteration of the Palestinian state, and its people. The greatest achievement of the first Trump Administration was the vaunted Abrahamic Accords; getting the Arab states to reach full diplomatic relations with Israel.  Today, Netanyahu is obliterating that as well.  And there doesn’t seem like anything that Trump is willing to do about it.

The Trump administration is blowing it.  Sure, we dropped really, really, really big bombs on Iran.  And they certainly did some damage, though the “obliteration” standard Trump touted probably wasn’t achieved.   Those bombings probably served everyone’s interests:  the Israelis, the Saudis and the other Middle Eastern states, the United States and NATO.  But in the end, it simply put the Iranian nuclear question on the back burner for a while – nothing was finally solved.

Putin and Netanyahu will  continue to do exactly as they want  – because they don’t believe the Trump Administration will do anything about it. 

They’re both probably right.

Change

How do things normally change in our society?  We can all think of “radical changes” in politics and culture.  When Barack Obama ran and won the Presidency, it was a huge cultural shift.  Before Obama, I didn’t really see a Black President until the far future (that would have been about 2028, back then). 

Obama “called the future”, and changed America.  Many of those changes were foreseeable, and some were great.  An old coaching friend of mine was fond of quoting; “What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve”.  For every minority child in America, the election of Barack Obama allowed them to “conceive”, that they too could achieve.  The theme of the Obama 2008 campaign said it best:  hope.

That election also had some, perhaps inevitable, bad consequences.  The election of the first Black President created a backlash of American racism.  First the Tea Party, and now MAGA has a lot of its basis in that disbelief.  They thought America could NEVER elect a Black person as President (or a woman, or, for sure a Black woman!!).  Those movements are dedicated to replacing the glass ceiling where Hillary Clinton put millions of cracks with a steel storm shutter that could withstand any effort to open.  All of that isn’t Obama’s fault, but it is the reality we are facing today.

Step by Step

But most of our normal societal changes are incremental, rather than sudden.  It’s hard to even recall that “women” couldn’t get financial credit in the United States only fifty years ago, or that segregation laws existed well within my lifetime.   Even those incremental changes faced tremendous backlash.  And few foresaw the “post-truth” era we live in today.  We went from a common set of facts, with differing opinions, to completely different factual foundations.  Today, the political sides cannot argue and debate anymore, because we don’t share the same fundamental truths.

A quick example:  the “1619 Project” explained historic fact, that enslavement was an economic foundation of much of American success.  But, instead of arguing the impact of slavery, those who didn’t want to acknowledge America’s deep dependence on the “peculiar institution” decided to call the whole project a lie.  They turned the teaching of history back a half-a-century, when text books (remember them?) might talk about the contributions Black men like Booker T Washington and George Washington Carver, but said little else about Black contributions.  And, at least to date, those “alternative facts” are working. Several states have written this false narrative into mandated curriculum legislation.  It has become “fact”.

Governor Gerry

When I was learning American history for the first time, we were taught about Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts back in the early 1800’s.  He did many important things, including serving as the Vice President of the United States. But most of what we learned about him was considered “bad”.  You see, Gerry decided to redraw Congressional Districts in Massachusetts so that they favored his own political candidates.  The resulting district looked like a salamander, and the newspapers ran with the negative term:  Gerrymandering.  

For most of American history, gerrymandering was that “bad” thing.  Almost all of the political parties did it in one form or another, but it was all  “under the table”.  Everyone acknowledged that it wasn’t good for democracy.  But all continued redrawing political maps in their own favor.

It wasn’t until eighteen years ago that gerrymandering became more than just a good politician’s guess at how areas voted.  That’s when political district manipulation combined with high speed computers. It gave us the “Red Map” program sponsored by the Republican Party led by then-Chairman Michael Steele (the current MSNBC host).  They could determine voter identification of households by the street and the block, and used that information to draw narrowly defined districts with entirely predictable outcomes. 

Jordan-mandering

Ohio had its own “gerrymander” for a time, this District looked more like a duck, and was represented by Jim Jordan.  It stretched from the suburbs of Dayton, to the north towards suburban Toledo, the East to the Columbus suburbs, and even the Northeast towards Cleveland.  It carefully skirted most Democratic areas, and made sure that Chairman Jordan could face no realistic opposition in the general elections.  (Jordan’s district now looks a bit more normal, but he still wins by overwhelming margins.  Even the ongoing scandal of his Ohio State wrestlers getting molested with his knowledge, hasn’t touched his political base.)

Texas

Now in Texas, at President Trump’s direction, the Republican Governor and Legislature is “Red Mapping” (gerrymandering) on steroids.  In a state that is, at worst, 57% Republican and 43% Democrat, currently there are twenty-five Republican Congressmen and thirteen Democrats.  That’s 66% to 34%.  But, at the President’s “request”, the Texas legislature is re-drawing districts that were approved only four years ago.  Trump, Governor Abbott, and the rest of the Republicans believe that with careful computer-driven manipulation, they can “squeeze” five more Republican districts out for the 2026 election. That would make  Congressional representation in the Lone Star State 73% Republican to 27% Democrat.

Their goal:  protect the Republican Congressional majority in the House of Representatives, now with a five-seat margin of control.  

So what was a “bad thing for democracy”, Gerrymandering, that gave the old Governor a “bad name”; is now out in the open for all to see.   It’s no longer an “incremental” change.  And now with the Democratic members of the Texas legislature leaving the state to prevent a quorum from being present (to do business), Governor Abbott threatens felony charges, arrest by the Texas Rangers, and removal from office.  Trump has even mused that the FBI might be called in to drag Democratic legislators back to Texas.

From Gerry, to Steele, to Greg Abbott in Texas; incrementally the United States is headed towards something very different from the Democracy we once held so dear.   If the government, either of Texas or the United States, is allowed to dragoon the Democratic legislators back to Austin, well, we will have crossed another line on the way towards authoritarianism.    

Camp Night

Last night I drove out to the Watkins Cross Country team’s summer “camp”.  It’s a tradition, three decades old, that we started to “build a team”.  It  wasn’t just the workouts on the hilly dirt roads; it was spending time together, cut off from the rest of the distractions that day-to-day life brings.  It worked:  our teams learned about each other on the steep climbs, runs through wooded paths, playing “Marco Polo” in the pool, and cooking dinner in the dining hall.  The current coaches are carrying on the tradition.

My role now is the “ghost of cross country past”.  It’s actually kind of “deep”, to these kids I bring half-a-century (damn, we got old) of Watkins Cross Country history, lore, and stories. The kids are incredibly polite to the old man sitting in front of them, telling tales of their parents and their current coaches.  It’s good to let them see the threads that bind them to the teams of the past, the woods at Watkins, and the failures and successes of those who ran before.

It’s more than a trip down memory lane, though, as I turned into the camp road I was welcomed by a young buck deer, antlers sprouting, as if to say “Welcome back!”  It’s a chance to enjoy the ride, literally.  It was a beautiful August day, blue sky with temps in the low eighties.  The top and doors were off the Jeep – a perfect drive in the country.

Headed for Home

We ate dinner and talked; and I caught up with my old friends on the coaching staff.  The hardest part of the night is when my “bit” is over.  The kids and coaches went out to a campfire (it is a “camp” and ‘smores are involved) and I walked through the night back to the Jeep, headed for home.

The first half hour or so of the drive is on a winding two-lane highway, headlights on bright to watch for other young-bucks crossing the road.  The wind was blowing, cold enough for a sweatshirt.  But the chill I was feeling wasn’t from the breeze.  I switched on my radio to MSNBC and the “Rachel Maddow Show”.  And for the first fifteen minutes, she laid out a case for America that chilled me to the bone.

(I seriously considered just posting a transcript of her remarks.  She made the case for the reality of American Authoritarianism that was clear and damning.  But the transcriptions lag days behind the broadcast, and the emergency is now.  If you have the time, I strongly urge you to watch the first twenty minutes of  her broadcast – Rachel Maddow Show 8/4/25).

Her case was clear.  There are  more than “signs” of a democracy changing into an authoritarian regime.   It already happened.

Cartoon America

She explained, that if you imagined a “cartoon” version of an authoritarian America, it would have the following components:

1. A secret police, anonymous and unidentifiable, that could make arrest without warrants, detention without bail or counsel, and secret “black site” imprisonment.
2. A scapegoated minority which can be blamed for every wrong and failure (migrants).
3. Shows of maximum force (threat to feed migrants to alligators) made into a spectacle, “buy your Alligator Alcatraz T-shirt right here!!!”
4. Multiple prison camps to put the scapegoated “enemy” in.
5. Stripping “homegrown” Americans of their citizenship.

That’s all happening right now.

America Today

The military forces are turning inward against American citizens.  Military “zones” are being expanded beyond existing bases to put greater areas under military jurisdiction.  Plans are already in the works, to permanently integrate the military into immigration enforcement, and to put down protests against government actions.

The US in NOT building death camps.  But we are building huge “black site” concentration camps throughout the country.  The bids are already out for construction.  

• Our country has  “secret police”, prisons without rights, and scapegoats to fill those prisons.  

• The government criminalizes protest.  US leaders are intimidating or shutting down the media and universities who don’t comply or criticize (particularly the most prestigious).  

• Government departments stripped of experts, because they don’t tell leaders what they want to hear.   Generals required to pass a “personal loyalty” interview before rising to the highest ranks.

We are not in danger of becoming an authoritarian regime.  We are already living in one.

That was Rachel’s chilling message as I drove into the night.  

Dorm Wars

I turned twenty-one in 1977 during my senior year of college.  I lived at Denison University in a dorm full of guys, and the envy of the whole dorm was “Mario”, who owned the biggest, baddest, stereo system around. When he decided that the whole dorm was going to listen to “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd, we had no choice.  So, for my birthday, I gave myself the big gift I really wanted.  I bought a full scale “stereo” system, with a Pioneer turntable and receiver, a Technics amplifier and tape cassette deck, and two speakers big enough to use as end tables. 

Now the system I got couldn’t compete with Mario’s, but, if I closed the door and turned up the volume, I could at least listen to my Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) without interruption.  I later added a JVC equalizer and, when it came around, a Pioneer multi-disc CD player.  I had a great system…that today is completely out of date.

Choose My Music

Music isn’t “analog” anymore.  Sure, I still have most of the electronics, carefully stacked in the garage.  I can’t bear to get rid of them.  And there are 200 or more record albums holding down the bottom of the cabinet (even “Meet the Beatles”), underneath the new turntable (audio-technica) I bought during Covid.  But today’s music is digital.  When I want to listen to CSNY (never been a “Floyd” guy) I pull it up on Sonos, with wireless speakers spread throughout the house.  Or if I want to listen to Joni Mitchell, Jenn’s least favorite folk singer, I can dial it up on Sonos for “just” my office, and play something else in the rest of the house.

Since the 1970’s a lot has changed.  And some of the things we cherished most, like that stereo system, are obsolete.

Analog Politics

Sunday, I listened to a commentator on one of the news shows. He is a proud “independent”.  “I want the politicians I vote for to work together, regardless of their party, so I vote for the ‘person’, not the party,” was his comment.  I admire the sentiment.  But in our current era, he’s about as relevant as my stereo system, as up-to-date as my Technics dual cassette player.  He has an “analog” view of American politics, left behind by our current “digital” world.  And he’s dangerous.

Just like my nearly half-century old stereo system, he’s living in a world that doesn’t exist anymore.  We all know the old story:  arch-conservative Republican President Ronald Reagan and moderate Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil working together for the “good” of America.  And when we voted for a candidate back then, like Ohio’s John Glenn for Senate (Democrat) or Missouri’s John Danforth (Republican), we absolutely expected them to work together on a lot of issues.  We knew one thing for sure about them:  they were men of “honor”, who would stand for what they believed even if it was against their own party, and maybe their own political interests.

And they started to become obsolete about the time I bought my multi-CD player, in the 1990’s.

Mavericks

Today the “maverick” politicians are exiled from their parties, and the government.  Thom Tillis of North Carolina “chooses” not to run for re-election, because even he can’t stomach MAGA-ism.  And the two “maverick” Democrats in the Senate, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, left in 2024, rather than face defeat at the polls.  You might be “sad” that the mavericks are gone. But Joe Manchin prevented a lot of the Democratic reforms that might have stopped the second Trump Administration.  And Tillis is another in a long line of Republicans who couldn’t stand up to the MAGA world.  

So what’s left?  You can choose:  MAGA Republican, or Democrat.  And Democrats are still a “big tent” party. They include moderates like Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and Social-Democrats like good old Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.  But what you can’t do anymore is “vote for the ‘man’”.  

First of all, it’s not “men only” anymore.  Some of the most effective politicians in the nation are women and minorities.  But, more importantly, there really is no such thing as “independence” in our political world.  If you vote for a Republican, you are voting for a MAGA-supporter.  If you vote for a Democrat, you are voting against MAGA.  It’s really as simple, and as important, as that.

Our Digital World

Maybe, someday, we’ll get back to a government of individuals, choosing what’s best for the nation based on their own principles and beliefs.   But right now, THE LABEL IS THE CHOICE.  Looking for an Independent is really looking for someone who will have no say in what our government will become.  

The issues of today are too important for “unicorns”.  We need to “sign-up”,  and join together to make changes.  Declaring independence is abrogating responsibility for the anti-democratic actions of our Nation. And it’s giving away the future of the Republic.

It’s like plugging the turntable into a digital sound system.  It just doesn’t work.

In the Day

“Back in the Day”; before the era of texts, messages, Facebook, and all of the other instant communications applications, we had the “phone call”.  And, in those days, one of the rules was not to call someone while under the influence of alcohol.  That is, unless you were looking for a ride, or bail because you were caught drunk driving.  

We called it “drunk calling”, and it almost always turned out badly.   To state the obvious: being drunk often led to saying things that weren’t “thought out”.  This was especially true when the “drunk caller” was calling the “sleeping receiver”.  Not only did the drunk wake the answerer up. But, he then proceeded to say something that to him sounded heartfelt and profound, but to the annoyed-awakened one, sounded just stupid. 

The outcome of “drunk calls” were inevitably bad.  The caller didn’t really remember what they said, and the answerer was well aware that it was the “booze” talking, not the caller.  All in all, one of the last vestiges of reason and common sense beyond alcohol was to NOT make THAT call.  With any luck, the drinker might think about it, then pass out.  

Got the App

Today, it’s so much easier to “drunk text”, or “drunk message”.  And it’s not just about romance.  Now, it’s about politics, or the neighbor violating “weekend rules” and cutting grass before eight, or those “damn kids” riding their bikes in the street.  We have unlimited ways to issue a “stream of consciousness”, regardless of the state of mind and lack of frontal lobe restraint of the author.  We do it with a post, or a text or a message. And once it’s out, it never comes back. 

I’ve noticed this particularly on Facebook.  There are several commentators, capable of reasoned thoughts about local politics. But once the sun goes down, they become aggressive and virulent in their posts.  It’s like a switch flips. My guess is there’s a bottle beside the keyboard, and it’s open.  They are “drunk posters”. And they have little compunction about attacking others, using epithets, and acting just like a drunk about to be tossed out of the bar.   The problem is, there are no bouncers around the keyboard, and no bartenders to make “last call”.

Presidential Announcements

All of this is a long way to go to talk about nuclear war, but here we are.  In our era of the Trump Presidency, American policy is made on Trump’s chosen social media, Truth Social.  This weekend was a great example.  

The Department of Labor’s Commissioner of Labor Statistics got fired Friday on Truth Social.  Her fatal mistake:  publishing this month’s unemployment statistics report.  It showed that job growth was not only slow for July, but, as these reports often do, revised earlier reports to show that job growth was significantly slower than earlier reported for the months before July. 

Trump wants employment to increase.  He’s attacked Federal Reserve Chairman Powell over and over again for holding firm on interest rates, rather than lowering them to stimulate the economy as Trump demands.  But what the Commissioner did was a “mortal sin” in Trump world.  She told the truth.  

I’m not accusing Trump of “drunk texting”.  What I am saying is that he wields his executive authority as if he was a drunk.  The sad part is he’s probably not.

So Chairman Powell gets burned in post after post.  Now Commissioner Erika McEntarfer  learns that she no longer has a job via social media.  And while all of these seem to lack Trump’s “frontal lobe restraint”, they are now actions we expect.   But last week, there was a more sinister set of “posts”, ones that could have a more profound impact on our Nation, and the world.

Horseshoes, Hand Grenades, and Nuclear Bombs

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, messaged the following:

“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country…Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”

Medvedev, like Trump, is a “midnight message-er”.  And Trump won’t be upstaged by him, even if we’re talking about nuclear war.

“Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev … I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that…Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.”

Now, before “drunk texts” start a nuclear war, there are a couple of factors to consider.  The US still has nuclear ballistic missile submarines stationed throughout the world.  They are our “second strike” capability, our “Assured Mass Destruction” no matter what attack a nuclear foe might launch.  So those Nuclear Submarines (do we have any other kind?) were probably on station within range of Russia anyway.  But for the US President to “throw down” the nuclear word in a text “contest” with the former Russian President, seems a bit inflammatory (like, nuclear missile inflammatory). 

I don’t know if Medvedev is a drinker, and while Trump acts like one (a lot) he claims to abstain.  Either way, they are both “drunk messaging” in a way that makes our world much more dangerous. We get closer to war with each “messaged” saber rattle.

It’s a dangerous way to govern, sober or not.

One Term

I knew when Donald Trump won the Presidential election in November, that things would get bad.  It just made sense:  Trump would be a one-term President, with no real concern about running for a second term. (Yes, I know there’s a worry he might try to stay on for a third term.  If he is able to do that, we don’t really have much of a democracy, or Constitutional Republic, anymore).  The poll numbers that so controlled him in his first term, no longer matter.  People love him, people hate him:  he’s the President of the United States until January 20^th, 2029.  

And any threat that Trump could legally be held responsible for his actions as President went out the window with a US Supreme Court decision, granting him absolute immunity from prosecution for any of his “official” acts.  So, as long as he can claim “officiality”, then he’s home free.  And what’s more official than an “executive order”, signed with Trump’s signature Sharpie marker.  He’s issued 176 orders so far (Federal Register), including telling college athletes how they can earn money, “ending” crime and disorder, and preventing “Woke”; those in just the last two weeks.  It’s an “order”; that’s an official act.  Thanks, Supreme Court majority toadies!!

Guardrails

And, while Trump tried the “old school Republican” hiring plan in the first administration, with folks like Reince Priebus, Jim Mattis and Jeff Sessions; they turned out to be too frustrating for him.  So this time we get those tried and true MAGA followers; Bondi and Hegseth and WWE’s Linda McMahon.  They don’t know much about running their departments, but they sure as Hell know how to follow orders.  And Trump has his “boys”, Stephen Miller and Project 2025’s Russell Vought, issue those orders firmly from the West Wing.

“Guardrails?  We don’t need stinkin’ guardrails!”

There’s nothing to keep the Trump Presidency from doing whatever comes into their little heads.  Worried about “Great Replacement Theory” (people of color taking over “good old” white America)?  Then let Miller, Tom Hohman, and Kristi Noem (the height of Fascist Fashion) terrorize “brown people”, round them up and make them disappear, either in the US or overseas.  Don’t like the environmental restrictions?  Let MAGA Lee Zeldin, the new EPA Administrator, withdraw the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases impact climate change.  

And who knows what’s going to happen in the next election.  Most of the federal protections for voting are being dismantled, by both the Executive and the Judicial branches.

Billionaire

To be honest, my great hope was that the Trump Presidency would be mostly about aggrandizing Donald Trump, and he wouldn’t worry so much about the rest.  So it wasn’t a surprise that the whole “cryptocurrency” thing became a huge Trump family investment.  Whether he was a billionaire or not before the election, he’s definitely one now.  It was a simple plan:  buy Trump Bitcoin, and “invest” in the Presidency.  There are a few of us skeptics who might call that taking a bribe, buying influence without even the courtesy of hiding the transaction.  But it’s all legal now.

So when the Emirate of Qatar offered a $400 million jet for Trump’s “new” Air Force One, of course he took it.  And, it’s now part of the deal, that he gets to keep it after his Presidency.  A House Committee just confirmed it.  Let’s think that through for just a second.  If a Senator took a luxury car, say, a Mercedes, from a foreign nation, and kept it, we might think that was “crooked”.  At least, we thought that was true when former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey did it.  It’s part of the eleven year Federal sentence he’s serving now.  But for Trump, it’s all good.  I’m sure Menendez is being considered for a pardon:  it’s too close to home for the President.

The Worst

And what about Epstein?  Sure, Trump’s likely to be embarrassed by “the truth”, if “the truth” ever comes out.  But don’t expect more than that.  Even if we find out that Donald Trump (oh my) liked and abused young girls, don’t think the Congress will line up to impeach him.  Really, courage has never been a part of MAGA culture.  Those Republican Senators will simply claim “fake news”, or they just failed to hear about it.  

Trump has wiped out the Rose Garden, and built a gold-gilded ballroom in the East Wing of the White House. It’s all about the money, the “life of the rich and famous”, White House style.  And, of course, the Federal government, with our tax money, is paying for it, along with the weekly flights to golf courses, and the costs of his protection paying for hotel space in his hotels.

He’s the “thief in chief”. If that’s the worst of him, then the United States as we know it will survive. 

It’s the rest we need to worry about.