Month: June 2026

Alternate Facts

I guess the caption on the photo of Trump shaking hands with Mayor Mamdani is an “alternate fact”.  What today’s headline (or, at least Saturday’s headline) should say is, “PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHAKES HANDS WITH ‘GODLESS COMMUNIST’ IN THE OVAL OFFICE!!!”

In the Democratic Primaries in New York City,  multiple Democratic Socialists defeated more “mainstream” Democrats.  They had the support of Mayor Mamdani and are the same kind of Democratic Socialists as Congressman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and, most of all Senator Bernie Sanders.  

Trump preached to the choir at the Faith and Freedom Annual Coalition Dinner Friday, held at the Hilton Ballroom in downtown Washington.  We all know the scene.  It’s the same place where a potential assassin broke through the outer security rings at the White House Press Corps dinner, causing evacuation and cutting Trump’s remarks.  Bet the Secret Service was better prepared this time.

Faith and Freedom

But there was no stopping Trump at the Faith and Freedom Dinner.  According to the President, the radical left; “…want to resume the transgender mutilation of children, they want to restart the war on Christians and churches, and as you saw with the communists elected in New York recently … they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life”(Guardian).  

As the old “Vegematic” commercial goes – “but there’s more”.   

Trump said of the Democratic Party; “They’re not smart enough or tough enough to fight the plague that is happening right before your very eyes … They are becoming a Communist party – not social Democrats. They are core communists.”  And Trump knows his Faith and Freedom audience.  The Democratic Socialists aren’t just a threat to America, they are direct threat to – Christians!! “All communists are godless. They do not believe in God … These ruthless communists attack all religions, but in particular Christianity. They always do. They’re after Christianity more than any other religion” (Guardian).

Whew – and I thought the Democratic Socialists just wanted universal healthcare,  paid for by taxing extreme wealth. 

Maps in Red

When I was a kid, they had these huge roll-up maps in our social studies classes.  There was a colorful one of the United States. (It was geographically inaccurate; Alaska looked about the size of Texas.  It’s actually two and a half times the size.  But, back then, Alaska had only been a state for a couple of years).  And then there was the world map, with huge swaths of RED:  the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam.  RED Communism, spreading like blood from an evil wound coming right from Moscow to control the world.

That map made it easy to teach American kids “their job”.  The United States had to contain Communism, stop the bleeding.  And we had alliance systems surrounding the RED all over the world.  The strategy was called “containment”, and was used to justify the Vietnam War.  Better to fight (Godless) Communism in Vietnam, rather than the streets of Des Moines or Columbus.  The fatal flaw was that Communism in the Soviet Union wasn’t the same as Communism in China or in Vietnam.  They were still Russians, Chinese, and Vietnamese, with nationalists loyalties.

Socialists

Socialists aren’t Communists, and have never been Communists.  And, Democratic Socialists aren’t even the committed socialists that many European countries have, or even part of the Socialist Party of the United States.  But, just like that map with the blood smear in the middle, it’s easy to “paint” them all the same.  (The US Socialist Party has a dismal record. I’m not usually a Wikipedia quoter, but look at their page on the Socialists. It shows their losing election record since 1976).

The people of Vermont re-elect Bernie Sanders like clockwork.  Vermont isn’t even considered a “radical state”, like California or Massachusetts.  In fact, the Governor of the state, elected statewide just like Sanders, is a Republican.   So how can the folks in the Green Mountains elect a “Godless Communist”, keeping him in the Senate for nearing twenty years?  Maybe that tells you everything you need to know about Democratic Socialists.  They are Democrats, Americans, who want to see the “wealth gap” start to narrow just a bit.

Have or Not

And maybe the Democratic Socialists have a good point.  Most Americans would say that living in our country is getting harder.  Costs are going up, money is getting tighter, and adults can no longer assume that their children will have a better economic life than themselves.  Yet, from a purely “capitalist” standpoint, America is exactly where Trump says it is, in a “Golden Age”.  The stock market seems to have no connection to everyday Americans, and is setting records daily.  

The United States is the home to 989 billionaires (Forbes), and the term “millionaire” is now required in many places for hope to buy a home or to have a retirement.  The economic divisions of America have never been so apparent.  The top one percent of Americans hold over thirty percent of American wealth.  Our country has never been so divided between the “haves” and the “have nots” (Inequality.org).

I’m not a Democratic “Socialist”, but I get exactly where they are coming from.  And I also get why they were successful in New York city elections. Some of the choices: a candidate committed to helping “the working person”, against an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune (Dan Goldman) or the Kennedy family (Jack Schlossberg).   All Democrats should take note.

There is a different division in the United States besides Democrats versus Republican.  It’s the division over having wealth or not having wealth, worrying about the stock market, or hoping the paycheck covers the bills.   And that’s a powerful motivation driving voters to the polls.

Politics

Look, in the end governing is about politics.  And politics is about winning elections.  If we want to change America, we have to win elections.  It’s as simple as that.

But, of course, it’s really not that simple at all.  Because as today’s Congress and the last three Presidential elections show, America is on an electoral razor’s edge.  Four Senate seats, five House seats, and about two percent of the overall votes, and Democrats control the Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court for the last decade.  The American “story” would be very different.

This is not “new news”.  But it does explain much of the current MAGA attacks on the vote.  

Their electoral math is pretty simple.  If MAGA can drive down the number of Democratic voters, they can win.  The theory is this:  MAGA Republicans are highly motivated voters. We’ll see if that’s still true after two years of the second Trump Administration and without Trump himself on the ballot.  But the expectation is that those stalwarts will show up.  Efforts to make voting more difficult:  stop mail-in voting, consolidate polling places into “warehouses”, make voting identification arduous, send ICE to the polls; all have a greater impact on Democratic leaning voters than on Republicans.

Just an aside:  the proper labeling is “Democratic voters” not “Democrat voters”.  The shortened version is a Republican talking point, designed to diminish the stature of Democrats and to emphasize the “rat”.  My suggestion might be in this “tit for tat” environment, call all Republicans “Pubs”, pronounced with a “long U”. But I happen to like “pubs” (short U), at least in the beer tap sense.  So, when motivated I replace my Dad’s Republican Party with the letters MAGA.  Sounds like maggot.

Make It Count

Another way to drive down the vote, is to make voting inconsequential.  The “Red Map” Gerrymandering scheme, which pre-dates Trump and MAGA, pushed both Red and Blue states to draw the least politically competitive districts possible, with pre-ordained political outcomes.  Who cares to vote, when you already know who your state legislators and Congressmen will be?  If, as Tip O’Neil, Democratic Speaker of the House in the 1980’s said, “All politics are local”; then if all local elections have pre-determined outcomes, fewer will come to vote.

We saw the extreme of that with Trump’s current demand of Red states to “push the envelope” of Gerrymandering, squeezing every possible MAGA House seat out.  Some Democratic states responded (unexpectedly).   The people of California “checked” the legislature of Texas, at least equaling the balance.   But other states, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee did their best to keep the House of Representatives in MAGA hands.  

Of note:  some states on both sides either chose or failed to respond.  New York, Virginia and Maryland did not change for the Blue, and Indiana and Nebraska for the Red. Ohio, as usual, pretended to “not Gerrymander”, but at least two more seats that were likely Democratic are now vulnerable. 

Drowned in Paper

And then there’s the Save Act.  It’s a series of steps to “secure the voting” nationally.  The Act would establish difficult proof of citizenship requirements, some of which could potentially disenfranchise millions of women voting in this country (NWLC).  The goal of the Save Act is to keep non-citizens from voting in American elections.  That’s a solution without a problem. 

The conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation (author of Project 2025) has some of the best illegal voting information in their own database.  It shows the true extent of illegal voting in America.  In data for every state going back forty-four years, there is a total of 1,382 criminal convictions for voter fraud.  That’s an average of 31.4 a year (Heritage).  Just counting Presidential elections over that time, over 1.4 Billion votes were cast. The number of illegal votes is vanishingly small (about one 10 millionth of a percent).  

So why make voters jump through all of these hoops:  a paper trail of birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, legal name changes, and residency proofs to “solve” a non-existent illegal voting problem?  

For two reasons.  First, a MAGA  “fundamental truth” is that “Real America” would never have voted for Biden (or Harris, Clinton, or Obama).  So the elections must be “rigged”, and they must stop the “steal” (heard that before?). In order to maintain that fiction, MAGA political leaders MUST be seen trying to prevent the next “steal”.  

Second, all of this incessant paperwork will have the net effect of driving down the vote, by making voting even more difficult.  That’s especially true for those with less access or time to find that paperwork; minorities and poorer voters.  Some just won’t try.  And since a large proportion of them vote Democratic, the Save Act helps MAGA suppress the “Blue” vote.

Your Voice

So far, the Republican Senate has not succumbed to Trump’s pressure to pass the Save Act.  As Republican Senator Thom Tillis said, it’s far “late in the game” to change the voting rules for 2026.  But that doesn’t mean they still won’t try.  Save Act or not, Gerrymandering or not, it is essential that Democrats show up in November.  Even if their state legislative and Congressional seats are Gerrymandered, their votes for statewide office, including Senators are not.  And sometimes even the best laid Gerrymandering districts are flawed.  Texas, and even Ohio, may elect more Democrats than they planned.

The people’s voice has a way of overwhelming all opposition. November of 2026 is the time to start having a say.

Use your vote.

Someday, I hope you look back at the “Trump Era” as an aberration in our “Great American Experiment”.  I believe it will take a place in line with the other repugnant times in our history:  the Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears; the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott decision; the internment of Americans of Japanese descent and the lynching of the Jim Crow South.  Today, in this era, some of us are living with the same shame that many of our forbearers felt in those times.

Yesterday was a normal summer day.  In my house we rose early as my wife left on a trip.  I took care of the dogs, wrote an essay about corruption, and pulled weeds in the back yard.  But when I came in, I heard the word: over a million people living with permission (“with papers”) were denied protection by the highest Court in our Nation.  And, not surprisingly in this “Trump Era”, they were denied that protection based, to paraphrase Dr. King, not on the “content of their character, but on the color of their skin”.  

The majority of the Supreme Court went to great lengths to paper over the racism.  In fact, they denied it in the good old fashioned style, of firmly closing their own eyes.  The majority argues that none of the racist statements about Haitians made by the President, the Vice President, his highest Advisors and Cabinet officials, denotes a racist intent.   Their argument, essentially, is that Trump’s not racist, he simply hates immigrants.  And since Haitians are part of the “greater class” of immigrants, then Trump can hate them without “prejudice”.  Don’t point out the contradiction of white South Africans specifically invited to this country.

It’s that convoluted logic that America descends to in the “Trump Era”.   It’s “allowed” to use the tools of government and of the law, to pursue the racist goals of some for a “pure-Christian” America. We can talk about all of the historic trends.  The first Black President was elected eighteen years ago.  The statistical fact that the United States will be a majority/minority nation in less than fourteen years from now.  But today, we are seeing  the full force of American legal might weigh-in on a side.  In what I hope are the last death throes of a cult of white majority rule, they are struggling at every extreme to maintain their power. 

They’ve even go so far as to re-write American history.  Our government, by policy, has redacted the abuses of the past from its official record.  They have tried to delete the accomplishments of people of color, or women, or gay folks, from the narrative of American life.  They have to.  Because the America they espouse is one where only the white Christian European settlers  could succeed.  Any other contributions must be minimized.  Any other abuses must be ignored.

The America that Emma Lazarus (a Jewish woman) spoke about, engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty, is not the America of today.  They don’t want  “… Your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”  Her lamp lifted by the golden door is snuffed-out, and the door slammed shut (Poetry Foundation).  Just ask the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

Some say that Donald Trump himself is demented.  That he is living in a “different time” in his head.  Maybe he truly thinks that the history lessons (what, as a teacher I would call the “white history lessons”) he learned in the 1950’s were the only truth.  But those around him, Miller, Bannon, and the Project 2025 crowd, know better.  Even if Trump is incapable, they are making a conscious choice to deny American multi-culturalism in order to maintain their own political power.  

And they have found fellow-travelers in the “conservative” Justices of the Supreme Court.  Those judges have spent a lifetime harping about “activist liberals” and “strict constructionists”.  Now, with a majority at the conference, their power has overwhelmed their constructionism.  They are willing to use their six votes to “Make America Racist Again”.   

We, those of us who are ashamed, are doing more than just duck under.  Some of us are marching, some are speaking, some are writing, and some are dying.  I hope that when you look back at our time, the “hope that springs eternal” of America will be seen in the opposition, the Resistance.  Just as today we look back at the Abolitionists of the 19^th century and take heart that there was hope; perhaps in a future America our Resistance will be seen as a light in the darkness.

But the outcome is still uncertain.  To quote from Hamilton, the Musical, “Our odds are more than scary”.  Future America, when you read the history, remember it’s always easier to already know the end of the story. 

 I hope it’s a good one.

1929

The Ambassador Bridge connects Windsor, Canada with Detroit, Michigan.  It carries more than 25% of the total trade between the Canada and the United States.  2.3 million trucks crossed the bridge in 2024, at a toll rate of $15 to $20 per crossing.  The Ambassador Bridge was built in 1929, 97 years ago.  Perhaps, some things have changed a bit since the Detroit built Ford Model T Runabout trucks first started crossing (carrying moonshine in those Prohibition days, I’m sure).

And, the Ambassador Bridge is one of the few private international bridges in the United States.  The $60,000,000 in toll fees go to a company founded by the late Detroit billionaire, Manuel Maroun. That’s sixty to seventy percent of the total commercial traffic in the region.

2012

In 2012, the United States and Canada agreed to build a second bridge from Windsor to Detroit.  It  was a “sweet deal” for the US. Canada would build the bridge, pay for it, and give half to the United States upon completion.  It sounds like a “Trumpian” deal, like Mexico and THE WALL.  But unlike most Trump agreements, this was a real one with the Obama Administration.

The Gordie Howe Bridge was due open last week.  All six lanes are completed.   The direct connections to I-75 are built and ready to open, as are the direct connections to the Trans-Canada Highway.  All of the Customs stations on both sides are ready to go.  But the bridge remains closed.

There have been a series of court battles led by the Ambassador Bridge company.  After all, they’ve had a virtual monopoly over the Windsor-Detroit commercial crossing for nearly a century.  (Note:  there is a tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, one lane each way opened in 1930.  But it doesn’t allow for commercial trucks).   To get TO another bridge from the US to Canada, commercial trucks are forced to go to Port Huron, a sixty mile one-way trip.  

Those legal cases are all but cleared (one exception, a case still percolating through the Canadian courts).   The new bridge could open.  The “cork” holding back trade in Detroit could come “out of the bottle”.

2026

That is:  until the Ambassador Bridge owners gave a $1 million donation to the Trump Campaign Fund.  Now, the beautiful new bridge remains closed, as the Trump Administration finds one reason or another to stall it. 

Looking for another example of the Trump Administration?  Is the now-green reflecting pool on the National Mall not enough?  How about the current proposal for the US Postal Service to “regulate” mail-in ballots, “vetting” whether they are going to and coming from US citizens?  Or the completely disastrous attack on Iran?  And then there’s Greenland.

Here’s one that’s “cut-and-dry”.  

How does a company keep it’s century old monopoly on the international trade in Detroit?  They buy it.  That’s the Trump Administration, whether it comes to bridges, or pardons, or broadcast licenses for television.  The actions of the executive branch of the United States government are, literally, for sale to the highest bidder.

Ante-Up

So why don’t the Gordie Howe Bridge folks just fall in line and ante-up?   Because that’s not how business is done, in Canada.  They seem to think that a deal is a deal.  This one was cut back in 2012.  And by the way, it’s a good deal for Canada, opening a whole new artery into the American market.  It’s a great deal for Detroit, bringing competition (some would call if capitalism) to the commercial traffic in the region.   And, of course, it’s a great deal for the United States.  It’s literally something for nothing. 

And there’s one other factor to consider.  One of Trump’s greatest goals is to tarnish every accomplishment made by the Obama Administration.  Whether it’s the Affordable Care Act, or the Reflecting Pool, the Iran Nuclear Deal or the Gordie Howe Bridge; if Obama made it, Trump wants to kill it.

Corruption in the White House is not a new concept to Americans.  Many cabinet members enriched themselves on the sale of US land in the Teapot Dome scandal back when the Ambassador Bridge was built in the 1920’s.  And while Ulysses Grant left the White House in bad financial shape, many  “carpetbaggers” and railroad magnates illicitly made it rich under his administration.  Even Bill Clinton left the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House open for big donors.

But it’s never been quite so flagrant, quite so “cost of doing business” as it is in the Trump Administration.  So don’t plan on driving the Gordie Howe Bridge (or walking on the free pedestrian path) anytime soon.   

That cork is “bought and paid for”.   and it remains firmly in the bottle.

The Room (where it happened) 

The Federal District  for the Nation’s Capital was created by the Constitution.  But exactly where it was to be located, was originally part of a “grand political bargain”.  This deal was memorialized on Broadway in Hamilton, the Musical.  Alexander Hamilton wanted to pass his large financial plan to stabilize the new Nation’s money and credit.  But to the “anti-Federalists”, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Hamilton’s plan smacked of Federal government expansion of power.

Hamilton’s plan was “dead”.  Madison was Speaker of the House and Anti-Federalists controlled the legislature.  Without the Speaker and Secretary of State Jefferson’s support, no plan would get through.  Hamilton needed to make a deal with “the South” to get what he needed.

You might remember the moment in Hamilton the Musical, when Aaron Burr laments that he wasn’t, “In the room where it happened.”  Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson pounded out a deal.  Hamilton got his financial plan.  But in return, the Constitution’s Federal District for the Nation’s capital would be located somewhere else, not in the biggest city of the new nation where they currently met, New York.  The political center of the United States would move South, while the financial center remained in the “Big Apple”.  

Our Nation’s Capital

Why would Maryland and Virginia give away a ten by ten mile square of land along the Potomac River?  It placed the capital squarely in the South, in an era when Northern and Southern culture already diverged.  It wasn’t just enslavement, even the accents of the two regions were completely different.  And the new capital was only a few days ride from almost anywhere in the South, versus the long journey required from New York, or Boston.

And besides, a lot of the “plot” for the District of Columbia was low land anyway, almost uninhabitable in the summer months due to swarms of mosquitos.  The new Federal District of Columbia was, in part, a swamp.

The center of that swamp was just beside the Potomac, across from Arlington, Virginia, and just south of where Rock Creek emptied into the River.  Today, we call that area the “National Mall”.  In the 1800’s it was the pasture for local flocks of sheep or herds of cattle.  During the Civil War it became a national encampment for Union soldiers, who suffered from mosquito borne diseases like malaria because of the location. But there were efforts to drain the swamp, and the area was used to build national memorials like the Washington Monument (1884) and the Lincoln Memorial (1922).

The Pool

As part of the Lincoln Memorial project, a reflecting pool was built.  It was designed to reflect the entire height of the Washington Monument  from one end, and the shiny new Lincoln Memorial from the other.   The idea was wonderful, but the 6.75 million gallons of water to fill it weighed in at 27,000 tons.  That load pressed into the old swamp, causing continual cracks and structural breaks in the pool “container”.  And, like any swampy land, algae growth was a constant problem.

In 2010, the Obama administration began a $34 million project to rebuild the pool.  Over the next two years they drove deep pilings into the old swamp, to keep the pool from “sinking”.  In addition, new circulation pipes and pumps were installed that pulled fresh water from the nearby Potomac River.  In two years the pool was back in shape, better than ever before.  But, like any giant swimming pool, there were still leaks, and algae growth was a constant problem.  

The Metaphor

In a metaphor for our current government, the Trump Administration decided to “clean up” the pool.  They did a “quick and dirty” job, spending $14 million to drain the pool, line the pool with a sealant, then paint it “American Flag Blue”.  But it took only weeks for the original algae to return, and soon the sealant was flaking to the surface in chunks.

And like many of America’s problems in the Trump era, their immediate response was to claim some form of sabotage.  Rumors were spread that “Antifa cut the liner”, and dumped chemicals into the pool to encourage algae growth.  But the reality of the Reflecting Pool is that it’s a body of water built on swamp land, and ultimately the swamp will have its say.

What’s the answer to the Reflecting Pool problem?  It’s going to be swampy, not a “crystal clear swimming pool” of 6.75 million gallons.  But even if that water’s murky (after all, look at the Potomac River it comes from) it still can reflect two of America’s greatest monuments.  And the more they try to “clean it”, the more the origins of the problem bring it right back to “normal”.  

Washington is a city created in compromise.  The Reflecting Pool is a pond built on a swamp.  America is a series of deals, when all sides have to search for some middle solution.  Neither extreme has all of the answers.  But today, we are so divided, we can’t even figure out the obvious.  

If you pump dirty river water into a pool, it’s going to be a pool of dirty river water.  And, sometimes, that needs to be enough.

War in Iran

On February 28^th, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.   Wednesday, June 17^th, 2026, President Donald Trump agreed to a “Memorandum of Understanding”.  That agreement calls for hostilities to end by all parties, while a further treaty is negotiated over the next sixty days.  But the “Memorandum” does more than just create another ceasefire. It also creates the foundation for an ultimate resolution of the conflict.

It’s been one hundred and thirteen days of war.  We have some idea of what the US casualties were:  13 Americans dead, and 381 wounded.  But US actions (along with our ally Israel and Iran’s responses) have killed over 7500 and injured over 40,000, mostly civilians caught in the crossfire of battle (Al Jazzira). 

Economic Consequences

And as with any war, there were economic consequences.  The United States spent at least $150 Billion. It’s the cost of moving assets into and out of the region, keeping fleets of ships on station, and the enormous numbers of weapons used (and aircraft lost) in the battle.  The closing of the Strait of Hormuz created worldwide economic impact. It dramatically escalated the cost of oil and all petroleum products.  It’s not just the price of gasoline, but also fertilizer that has gone through the roof.  The world supply of glycol, a key component of plastics, is limited as well.

But wars aren’t fought to see who would spend the most.  They “winners” get what they want, the “losers” give up more than they got.  The war was started by the United States, as we now know, at the behest of Israel.  The question is, who won?

Failed Revolution

Clearly, the attacks on Iran did a significant amount of damage.  There is no replacing those killed in the “decapitation” strikes on Iranian leadership.  Instead, the replacements now in control of Iran seem to be even more entrenched in maintaining the theocratic autocracy that the US hoped to topple.  Their leader, the Ayatollah, was killed.  But his son, the new Ayatollah, is even more rigid than the father.  The budding internal revolution in Iran was snuffed out, in part by the work of the Republican Guard, and in part by the looming presence of the greater enemy, the US and Israel. 

So there is no hope for a “moderate state” takeover of Iran.  That’s one failed US goal of the war.

Unclear Nuclear

Almost a year ago, in June of 2025, the United States (again, along with Israel) launched a major attack against the Iranian nuclear development program.  We dropped some of the biggest non-nuclear bombs in existence, attempting to destroy the Iranian enrichment facilities.  Americans heard about the complexity of the operation, flying B-2 Stealth Bombers from Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri, 7000 miles one-way to Iran (Nuts and Bolts).  

Iran’s enriched uranium supply probably wasn’t “totally destroyed” as the Trump Administration then claimed.  But a whole lot of it was buried hundreds of feet underground.  

The number one expressed goal of the US in this current war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.  That is clearly written in the Memorandum.  But, as President Obama discovered in the two-year negotiations for the original nuclear limitation agreement, the JCPOA, the devil is truly in the details.  President Trump and Vice President Vance assure America they can get a “deal” done in sixty days.  

The jury is still out on this goal.  

Choked Economic Life

An unintended consequence of the Iran War was the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, throttling the economic life of the entire world.  Before the war, the Strait was “international waters”, with free passage for commerce.  During the hostilities, Iran managed to close the strait, in spite of the presence of the largest US Naval fleet assembled in history, and the destruction of most of Iran’s surface fleet.   Cheap drones, simple mines, and suicide speed boats can’t sink Naval ships, but can wreak havoc on the tankers and container ships trying to transit the Strait.

The memorandum implies that after sixty days, Iran will have a continuing administrative and financial stake in the controlling the Strait.  Before the war:  open waters.  Now, and perhaps from here on, Iran will “get a cut” of every ship passing through, millions of dollars in fees.

Iran wins that unexpected consequence of US actions.

Cash, Cash, Cash

And finally there’s the “bottom line” for Iran, money.  As Vice President Vance noted, Iran’s “Achilles Heel” is the weakness of their economy.  Certainly the destruction wreaked by the US bombings made things even worse.  But part of the Memorandum is that the United States will pay for damages, what in other eras would be called reparations.  The US is offering billions of dollars to “rebuild Iran”.  A couple of months ago, I wrote an essay about a book called The Mouse that Roared. It was about a mythical tiny country that invades the US in hopes of losing and getting economic help.

Iran must have read the book.  Trump is offering more money to Iran than the JPCOA promised.  And, unlike the Obama plan, the Memorandum offers continuing Iranian income, both at the Strait, and also with lifted sanctions on Iranian oil. After all, Trump needs to do something (anything) to restore the world’s oil supply.  As the President said, he doesn’t want to be another “Herbert Hoover” whose actions helped start the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Score another for Iran, the Ayatollah, and the Republican Guard.

So, Iran has suffered enormous damage.  Their first and second levels of leadership were killed.  Their economy is in deep trouble.  And they remain in conflict with the largest military power ever in the history of the world.  

And yet, so far, they seem to be the winners.  “Do you believe in miracles?” 

I’m sure, so far, the Iranian leaders do.

Payable in Blood

At the beginning of the American Civil War, the main sources of public communication were a combination of the telegraph and newspapers.  Reporters would send dispatches “from the front”, and newspapers would publish the military outcomes for the world to see.  At the beginning of the conflict, both sides waited for the “great victory”, that would signal the end.  But as the war dragged on for four long years, Americans, North and South, realized that victory had a price.

It was called “the butcher’s bill”:  the roster of the wounded, missing, and dead.  In the early battles, like Fort Sumter, Bull Run and Wilson’s Creek, the “bill” was relatively short. But after the two-day struggle at Shiloh in the spring of 1862 there were over 23,000 on the list.  Both North and South began to realize how high the cost would be.  And Shiloh was just the beginning.

Antietam in Maryland had just as many on the list, but lasted only one day  that fall.   Fredericksburg in December had “only” 18,000, but two-thirds of those were Union troops. And the next year, 1863, would be even worse.  

Americans on all sides no longer looked forward to “news from the front”.  Everyone knew of a father, son, friend, or colleague who was on the battle line.  The dispatches weren’t times for celebration, they were full of dread.  Almost 50,000 casualties in three days at Gettysburg in the summer of 1863.   Over 100,000 lost in the Overland Campaign in May and June in 1864.

The policies of the Federal government (and the Confederate one) had real consequences.  The Butcher’s Bill wasn’t just paid in taxes or laws, it was payable in blood.  

Consequences

There is an old political phrase:  elections have consequences.  In 2024, like it or not, the United States narrowly chose Donald Trump to be President.  (And for those who argue Trump had an election mandate – the numbers belie that.  Trump won by 1.3 million, or 1.5% of the vote.  That’s a “squeaker” in American election terms, not a “mandate”). 

There are very real consequences from Trump’s ascension to the Presidency for the second time, and it’s not just about putting his name on the Kennedy Center (or spending a night watching it come down). The President who put MMA on the White House lawn and Pete Hegseth in charge of America’s defense, has also adopted policies that have real consequences in the world.  Trump presented America with a war in Iran, and a militarized internal police within our borders.  Both of those include a “butcher’s bill”.  

The Iran War has cost Americans 13 dead, and 381 wounded so far.  But US actions (along with our ally Israel) started a war that has killed over 7500 and injured over 40,000, mostly civilians caught in the crossfire of battle. (Iran War – US – 13 dead, 381 wounded, totals – 7500 killed, almost 40000 wounded Al Jazzira).

Here at Home

ICE, Border Patrol and other Homeland Security actions (and protests against them) resulted in six dead.  And over forty have died in ICE custody, held in “warehouses” in conditions that are inhumane.   And the direct ravages to our traditional Constitutional rights, which always included those in the United States “without papers”, will continue to have a real price in terms of lives. (ICE custody – 40 dead  (ACLU), six dead during protests (NY Times).

And even more dramatically, the Trump/Musk/DOGE destruction of USAID, America’s exercise in soft diplomacy that influenced much of the third world, has a real “butcher’s bill”.  Harvard’s School of Public Health estimates 750,000 deaths, many of them children, from the sudden severing of American aid to the world in 2025 (Harvard).  

Our Bill Too

Trump and the Republican majority of Congress has cut American health care as well.  Medicaid is already cut to millions of Americans, and plans are for future strictures. The high cost of insurance means that many of those left out, will be unable to access regular health care.  That also has a very real “price”, a “butcher’s bill”.  Yale’s school of Public Health estimates at least 1500 deaths, and possibly as many as 50,000 (Yale).

And it should be no surprise that the world is turning away from America.  Not only has Trump wrecked the world economy (price per gallon of gas in Germany $8.75, in the United Kingdom $8.10, Norway $10.37) with his “war of choice” in the Middle East.  He has turned a blind eye turned to our ally Israel’s actions there, and demonstrates his willingness to continue the “Butcher’s Bill” regardless of the price.  

I don’t believe, at least, I don’t want to believe, that these outcomes were the conscious choice of most America voters, even those who chose to give our fate to Donald Trump and his cohorts one more time.  I don’t believe they were willing to accept the “butcher’s bill” now presented, already paid in other’s blood.   

But in case you missed it, that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Laurel Sitting

There is an old political saw:  “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”.  It’s one of the basic definitions of politics.  It takes more than one to get anything done.  Cooperation is the essence of political activity.  That might sound confusing:  competition is also a political essence; competing candidates and views vying for the voter support.  Even within political parties, competitions are held to determine who will “win” the right to compete with the other party in the general election.  But once the competitions, the elections, are over; politicians aren’t just supposed to win and sit on their…laurels.  They are supposed to try to accomplish what they promised the voters to do.

And for most political activity, from school boards to the United States Congress, it takes cooperation to get anything done.

Now in some alternate Greek philosophic world, legislative bodies would discuss the pros and cons of a particular action, reach a consensus based on the “best idea”, and vote for it.  But in the real world, some folks will never be persuaded by “high falutin’ debates”.   They require persuasion of a different sort.  As opposed to Socratic debate in the Agora, these folks are more interested in the more mundane task of “horse trading”.   That’s a very basic idea:  you need my vote to pass your idea, and I need your vote to pass mine, let’s trade.  It’s “back scratching” in the most basic sense.

Cross the Aisle

One of the reasons that our current political life is so complicated, is that “back scratching” has become a political liability.   Our divisions are so deep and wide, that to cross the chasm to “make a deal” has become a mark of political treason.  Whatever you think of the “fence straddlers”, like Fetterman in the Senate, or Massie in the House, they both are paying a huge political price for taking positions with the other side.  Massie won’t be back in January,  and Democrats are lining up to challenge Fetterman in 2028. 

(Before you write Fetterman off as a “hulk” in a hoodie and gym shorts, here’s a fact.  He has two Masters degrees, an MBA from the University of Connecticut, and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard.  He ain’t dumb, at least not academically!!).

President Trump historically has been able to avoid the “back scratching” routine.  His indisputable power over the MAGA voter, the “controlling interest” in most Republican primaries, exempts him from returning favors.  His model is:  fall in line with me, or I’ll find someone else who will.  It’s been demonstrated over and over again this primary season. From the Indiana state Senators to Tom Massie in the House of Representatives, to Nancy Mace in the South Carolina Governor’s race, to Republican Senators Tillis, Cornyn, and Cassidy, Trump “primaried them”.   They  all opposed him at some point, and now they are all looking to the end of their political careers.

Narrow Margins

But there is a flaw in the authoritarian Trump model.  As much as he would like to govern by simple fiat (executive orders), there are still areas where the President needs to have Congress “pass a law”.  While both Republicans claim (and Democrats concede) that the GOP controls all three branches of government; the Republican hold on the Congress is tenuous.  Should five of 435 Congressmen, or four of 100 Senators, switch their vote from the Republican side to the Democratic side, Republican propositions will fail.  

For the remainder of 2026, there are (at least) the three Republican US Senators who have nothing left to lose.  Add to them Joni Ernst from Iowa, and “good old” Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, both retiring, and the “regular swing Republicans”, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski; and there may well be a clear majority against the President’s needs.

No one is scratching their backs.  

Gerrymander

So who do we blame for this – Donald Trump?  He is a big part of the national inability to get things done.  But there is an even greater reason for legislative inaction across the political spectrum:  Gerrymandering.  Legislative districts are drawn intentionally to include a greater preponderance of one political party (or the other). That results in less value in appealing to the “middle” of the political spectrum. Ohio’s 12^th Congressional District, my District and Congressman, is a clear example of this.  

Prior to the 2022 re-districting, the 12^th included a part of the City of Columbus, and the “purple trending” suburban areas of Delaware county; in addition to heavily Republican Licking and Muskingum counties.  It was Republican, but a “close” district.  In a 2018 special election, the Democrat came within 2000 votes of winning.  But re-districting carved the “Democrat” out of the 12^th, with Columbus and the Delaware suburbs moved into other Districts, and more Red rural counties added.  

Now, Republican Congressman Troy Balderson has no need to reach across the aisle.  In fact, he faces a great deal of pressure to “stay loyal” and “stay in-line”.  After all, there’s always a more “MAGA” candidate out there somewhere should he stray from the Trump line.  The city of Zanesville seems to have an endless supply.

Want to fix dis-functional legislatures?  It’s not about “Making America Great Again”.  The new slogan should be, “Make Elections Competitive Again”  (MECA – well that acronym might cause a stir!!).  Put political value back in problem solving and cooperation, and, politicians might problem solve and cooperate – who’d have “thunk” it?

It’s just takes a little scratching.

As Ohio Goes…

It was 2004.  George W Bush was President.  The controversy of the 2000 Presidential election, decided not by the American people, but by a five to four partisan vote of the US Supreme Court, was fresh.  And after that crisis, there was the attack on 9-11, war in Afghanistan, and a “war of choice” in Iraq.  The United States attacked with, as Vice President Cheney often said, “shock and awe”.  Iraqi defeat was swift, then Americans turned the country upside down looking for Saddam Hussein and nuclear bombs.  We found the former, and he was soon executed.  But the latter never existed.  The prime reason for invasion, nuclear weapons, was a fraud.

So in the election of 2004, Bush wasn’t a “sure thing”, despite his 9-11 leadership.  And one of the critical states for Bush to win was the then swing-state, Ohio.  “As Ohio goes, so goes the Nation”; just twenty years ago Ohio was generally one of the deciding factors in Presidential outcomes.  

Slam-Dunk

Ohio’s political divisions are pretty clear.  There are the Democratic strongholds – the cities in the Northeast corner, Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.  There are the less assured Democratic areas:  the urban centers of Columbus, Toledo, Dayton and Cincinnati, surrounded by heavily Republican suburbs. (In more recent times, some of those suburbs are trending “purple” rather than “red”, but not in 2004).   And then there’s the rest of the state (except, of course, for Athens) either Republican farmers, or the Appalachian southeast quarter, once Democratic, but now more Republican.  

In the final analysis, Ohio was then, and still is, an almost even split.  Which party gains control depends entirely in who turns out to cast their ballots.  In 2004, the Secretary of State was Ken Blackwell, a Cincinnati Republican.  His strategy:  put an issue on the ballot that would drive Republicans to the polls, even if the Bush record didn’t.  

The issue was “simple” back in 2004.  It made the state controlled power of marriage available to only “a man and a woman”, outlawing gay marriage in the state.  And while America has dramatically changed in the past twenty-two years, at the time banning same-sex marriage was a “slam-dunk” proposal, guaranteed to bring Republicans out to vote.  While they were there, they chose George W Bush for President.  

Bush won over Democrat John Kerry by 2%, and Ohio’s electoral votes put him in the White House for four more years.  

Thanks Trump

Since 2004, Ohio has been sliced and diced by re-districting.  Republicans have assured a massive majority in the State Legislatures.  And the Democratic Party has been enfeebled; without money, or candidates, or the spirit to even make a good fight in most statewide races.  

But it’s 2026, a prime moment for a Democratic resurgence in the state.  President Trump is trapped in the “forever war” he promised not to fight.  Gas prices, a huge issue in a state with little public transportation outside the urban centers, are higher than when Republicans were putting stickers on the pumps saying “Thanks Joe Biden”.  (As the cost approached $5 a gallon, I saw some “Thanks Trump” stickers appear!!).  Trump’s approval rating has never been lower.

While the legislative districts are drawn prohibitively to Republican specifications, statewide Democratic candidates have a real chance.  Republican John Husted was appointed to his US Senate seat, and is facing a well-financed challenge from former Senator Sherrod Brown.  And the improbable Amy Acton is running a strong Democratic race for governor, against billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.  Neither Ramaswamy or Husted are the kind of candidates that will drive Republicans to the polls.  And, here in Ohio and in the nation, Trump is reason enough for Democrats to come out and make their votes heard.

The Blackwell Maneuver

So Republicans are trying to replicate Blackwell’s strategy:  find a Constitutional issue that will bring their voters to the polls.  And they think they have it: Picture ID’s.  Yesterday the state legislature passed a resolution enshrining a picture ID requirement for voting into the state constitution.  It will be on the November ballot.

Now, Ohio has some of the highest standards for voting in the Nation already.  And a picture ID has been a part of those standards for a number of years.  So, like much of what this current legislature does, they are solving a problem that doesn’t actually exist.  But what they are really doing is searching for that issue that will get voters to the polls, when their candidates aren’t likely to do so.  This is  their “Blackwell maneuver”. 

You can hear the campaign now:  “Democrats want to cheat, that’s why they are against picture ID’s.  Vote for election integrity”.  

To be frank, this isn’t a strongly felt cultural issue.  If that’s the best Republicans got, then Democrats really do have a good shot at winning in November.  Most Ohioans will scratch their heads, and say, “We already do that. There’s no need to rush to the polls to protect what we already have.”

Rest assured, Republicans will do everything possible; legal, questionable, and even beyond the law, to maintain power in Ohio.  But in today’s political climate, even that might not be enough.  Picture ID surely won’t be the “magic motivator” of the Republican vote.   

Peculiar Institution

The United States fought a Civil War in the middle of the 19^th Century.  Now, over 160 years later, there are still arguments about the causes of that war.  So let’s make one thing clear, right now.  The Civil War was about enslaving a race for economic purposes.   There are a lot of moral failures in that “peculiar institution” of slavery, but the bottom line was this.  The Southern economy was largely based on cotton farming.  Cotton farming required huge amounts of hand labor.  

While Eli Whitney’s 1793 invention of the “cotton engine” did the job of removing seeds from the cotton bolls, ending hours of tedious hand labor, it also pulled the “cork from the bottle”.  If cotton could be cleaned quickly and efficiently, then more of it could be grown.  Rather than hire folks to pick that cotton, the South used the enslaved to do so.  And, since cotton ultimately wore out the land it was grown on, wealthy Southern cotton growers were constantly looking for more land.  That required expansion, from the Atlantic states to the Deep South, and from the Deep South over the Mississippi into Texas, and beyond.

Don’t tell John Wayne, but the Texas War of Independence, including the battle at the Alamo, was fought by Americans who wanted to grow cotton in Texas, owned by Mexico.  Mexico freed slaves in 1829.  So those famous Americans who fought for Texas Independence in 1836 were actually fighting to maintain their “right” to  enslavement.

Civil War

By the 1850’s the economic issue for the South was simple.  Either they could use their “peculiar institution” on more and more lands of the United States, or they faced ultimately economic failure when the existing grounds no longer supported the cotton plants.  All of the “compromises”, in the end, faced that ultimate limitation.  For cotton, it was either expand or die.  And for the South, cotton required enslavement.  An entire economic model, and culture, depended on it.

The Civil War forced change.  Over 600,000 Americans died in the fight that ultimately led to emancipation.  And, after the War, the Union (the North) maintained an occupation of many of the former rebellious states.  That was both to protect the freedmen, but also to keep their former owners from regaining political power.  In the economic vacuum created, Northerners came in to fill the void and make a profit.  They were named after their luggage, “carpetbaggers”.  That lasted for almost a decade.  

Corrupt Bargain

But ultimately the Nation grew tired of the effort and expense, and a political deal was cut between rival political factions:  the Republicans who had supported the war, and the Southern Democrats.  The Southern Democrats would allow a winning Northern Democrat to have the White House taken away, as long as the troops left the South.  New York Governor Sam Tilden won the election but lost the Presidency in the 1876 electoral vote, replaced by Ohio’s Rutherford Hayes.  Reconstruction was ended.

And that same Southern economic class, now joined by some of the carpetbaggers, found ways to put the cheap labor back in the fields.  Meager wages, share cropping, and planned indebtedness trapped the freedmen back on the land.  They may have switched cotton for soybeans, and they technically were “free”, but now they were economically enslaved to the land and the crops once again.

American Divide

Economic forces often drives history.  And our current governmental crisis is an example.  America is more divided than ever before, and it isn’t the “political divide”.  The richest 1% of Americans control 30% of the nation’s wealth.  The top 10% of Americans control almost 70% of the wealth.  And, the bottom 50% of Americans control 2.5% of the Nation’s wealth.   America is divided by income inequality more than ever before.

An even more telling statistic:  more than 10% of Americans have a negative total wealth.  They owe more than they have.  And 30% have a “zero net-worth”, not so different from the share-croppers of the post-Reconstruction South.

The Billionaires and Millionaires are taking more than just economic power.  The Supreme Court gave them “the right” to spend as much money as they want on political causes.  If money is “free speech” as the Robert’s Court ruled, then the concept of voting equality, “one person, one vote” just doesn’t make much difference anymore.  A billion dollar’s worth of “voices” can shout down a single dollar’s worth crying out.

For Sale

State legislatures seem “for sale”.  Sure, here in Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder went to jail for taking a $61,000,000 bribe to get the legislature to pay First Energy’s bills.  But here’s the real “tell” of our current climate.  The leaders of First Energy, the actual “bribers” are still walking the streets. Their criminal charges resulted in a mis-trial.  And the Ohio legislature is still under the thrall of private for-profit education, the power companies, and other high tech businesses.  When it all comes down, it’s about money, not what’s good for Ohio.

Wealth is taking the side of the current national  Administration as well.  Trump’s supporters, like David Ellison and Jeff Bezos, are buying up national information providers, in order to suppress opposition to Trump.  Ellison is in the process of purging CBS, and Bezos has already decimated the Washington Post.  

In Control

There was an old, scary television show, called The Outer Limits.  It started with the phrase, “We are controlling transmission.  We will control the horizontal.  We will control the vertical…”

We are in an economic era today where the wealthy class, like the 1960’s show, want to control all that we see, and hear, and do.  Artificial intelligence is just one more sign that a new battle of economic control is near.  And the wealthy class (as a whole) has already taken their side.  

Sure, it’s MAGA versus Progressive, Republican versus Democrat.  But it’s more the extremely wealthy versus the rest of America.  It took over 100 years to even begin to right the wrongs created by the end of Reconstruction.  I’m not sure what it will require to fix the growing inequities we have today.  But we can start by regaining some political power.  We need to “control the horizontal and the vertical”.   

 Then we can try to balance America’s wealth for the benefit of all Americans, not just the one  percent.

Meet the Press

Kristen Welker is the newest moderator of the longest running television program on-air, NBC’s Meet the Press.  Welker follows a long line of knowledgeable journalists on the show, from Lawrence Spivak to Bill Monroe to Garrick Utley.  Most famous was Tim Russert, who was the true voice of American political reporting in his seventeen years as the moderator.  “If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press”, and “Go Bills!!” were his watch words.  He guided us through the Clinton impeachment, the 2000 Presidential election turmoil, and 9-11, with Russert’s famous interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and the “undisclosed location”.

Russert was in the midst of getting ready for the 2008 election and Barack Obama, the first Black man to have a possibility of winning, when he died of a heart attack at his desk. For those Americans, like me, who depend on Meet the Press, the loss of Russert’s expertise (2000 – “It’s Florida, Florida, Florida”) was devastating. Retired network anchor Tom Brokaw took the chair for the remainder of that year, then reporter David Gregory took on the responsibility.  

Alternate Facts

But Gregory didn’t live up to the gravitas of Russert, nor did he have the personality.  After six years, Gregory was removed and NBC’s political director, Chuck Todd took the reins.  Todd was brought into the Meet the Press operation by Russert, and had the depth in political expertise for the job.  He held the seat for nine years, in an era when news broadcasting went from four major voices, to many dozens streaming every form of ideology.

Todd’s style was different.  He clearly believed that his viewers tuned in to hear his “guests” rather than himself, and he allowed them to speak.  Todd wasn’t often combative. He didn’t always counter his “guest’s” assertions.  It felt like he knew that his audience was smart enough to figure out “the spin” on their own.  

But Todd’s era on Meet the Press marked a sea change in American political journalism.  It occurred on January 22, 2017, the Sunday after Trump’s inauguration.  Todd pointed out the obvious to Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway, that the Trump White House was grossly overestimating the inaugural crowd.  Conway countered that Todd had his “facts”, and that she had ”alternate facts”.  

The Welker Era

Political  interviews were no longer a matter of trying to “spin” the facts to your benefit.  It now became a place where facts were created from “whole cloth”.  Todd’s intellectual approach often fell flat against the lies (alternate facts) of some of his “guests”.   The frustration seemed to wear on him, and he finally left in 2023, beginning the Kristen Welker era.

Welker, the former NBC Chief White House Correspondent and Sunday Today anchor, took a different approach.  When a “guest” used an alternate fact, Welker wouldn’t directly challenge them.  But, she would preface her next question with a “fact check”, giving her audience a choice of fiction versus fact without a direct argument on each point.  It was often frustrating to watch as she seemed to let guests go on with fictions.  But it did keep Meet the Press from just becoming a “shout fest” between one side and the other.

Today is a dangerous era for “facts”.  “The Right” is co-opting independent journalism by buying the corporations that run them, then demanding editorial control.  Bastions of independence:  The Washington Post, CBS News, CNN, and countless local stations are now directed to represent “alternate facts” as real.  And they’re doing it, or losing their jobs.  Some of the best political journalists of our time are on the streets.  Scott Pelley at CBS is only the most recent example.

Wisconsin

All of that is the background for Welker’s interview of Donald Trump in Wisconsin last week.  They met in a “barn” (it was a trip to reach out to farmers).  Old John Deere equipment was in the background as she sat across from the President of the United States.  It was a difficult situation. Heavy rain pounded on the tin roof, making it difficult to hear.  Sometimes what seemed like two people shouting at each other was simply both trying to hear each other. The microphones isolated their voices for the audience, but not for their own ears.  

And Welker did something that most journalists fail to do.  She fact-checked the President in real time, asking him over and over again where the evidence was for his claims of election fraud.  Whether Trump was unprepared for challenge, or simply to used to “softball interviews”, he got angry.  He lashed out at the media, and did what has become a MAGA trademark.  He claimed that the corporations, like NBC, CBS and ABC were out to get him.  In fact, the Right has made it a point to buy and demand the media favor him. 

He called the media, and Welker, either corrupt or stupid.  She countered that she was just a journalist, doing her job.  That inflamed his anger.

Mic Drop

But the ultimate turn around in the interview came when Trump claimed that the Insurrectionists deserved compensation for their losses after January 6^th.  He said that they were beaten by thugs, some committed suicide, and were directed to attack the Capitol by the FBI.  Welker corrected him.  The “thugs” weren’t the Capitol Police, but the insurrectionists themselves.  The suicides were among those same Police, devastated after hours of medieval-like battle on the steps.  

Donald Trump isn’t questioned, and he isn’t corrected.  He dramatically ended the interview, ripped off the microphone, stepped on it, then walked off the set.

Kudos to Kristen.  She refused to accept “alternate facts”.  Welker held Trump, the President, to a standard of truth he isn’t used to.  She did put herself and NBC in the crosshairs of potential government retribution.  But she held to a standard of journalism rapidly disappearing in our “post-truth” world. 

I’m sure Chuck Todd is proud.  And I’m sure, somewhere in Buffalo’s version of heaven, Tim Russert is too.

Marco

The Secretary of State has a full time job.  It’s not just running the “structure” of the State Department, embassies and offices scattered throughout the world, vetting and credentialing every US citizen who goes abroad, and controlling US aid (what little is left) to other countries.  The Secretary also has to advise the President about situations and strategies all over the world, from Antarctic resources (or Greenland’s) to suffering minorities (the Uyghurs in China) to the threat of expansionist nations like Russia and China.

And, of course, there’s a war in the Middle East.  It’s a lot for any one individual to cover.  

And then he was made Security Advisor to the President.  While those jobs seem “concurrent” in a sense, traditionally the Advisor has briefed the President directly on critical world issues, on a daily basis.  That’s something that Rubio, like most Secretaries of State, has some difficulty doing.  He’s constantly travelling the world, a key figure in the gathering of world leaders and trying to problem-solve world issues.  Hard to advise the President too.

But as the commercial says “Wait there’s more!!!”.

The Secretary of State is the “senior” cabinet official, and as such, has a role in the “documentation” of American government.  In the foundational Supreme Court case of Marbury v Madison, it was Madison’s duty as Secretary of State to deliver a document appointing Marbury to a judicial position.  Madison failed to do so, and thus became the named defendant in the court case.  Should a President resign, that letter is directed to the Secretary of State.

Over-Worked

But Secretary Rubio also has a much larger role in the “paperwork” trail.  He was appointed the “Archivist” of the United States, a wholly separate job as the leader of the National Archives.  All US documents are stored there, from the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, to the President’s secret emails.  The Archivist plays an important role in the Electoral College process, gathering the electoral votes from the states and transmitting them (in big wooden boxes) to the Congress for counting. 

That’s three major roles Rubio holds, all three more than “full-time” jobs serving the American government and people.  Like Rubio or not, there’s no question that he is qualified – both as Secretary and Adviser.  But he’s not so prepared as an Archivist.   The Trump Administration is, once again, taking the “easy way out” to avoid having to confirm appointees through the Senate.

Temp Jobs

The issue is this.  Normally, senior Executive Branch appointments have to have Senate confirmation.  That includes the appointment process, hearings, debates, and final agreement.  To avoid the “official” process, Trump appoints “recess” or “temporary” appointees.  All they have to have as a prior Senate confirmation for another job.  That first imprimatur gives them the necessary qualification to serve as temporary in other positions.

The temporary appointment is limited (depending on the way it’s done, from 120 to 300 days).  But that’s OK in the merry-go-round of Trump’s executives.  When one temporary is done, another can be put in.  That completely avoids the “regular order” of Constitutionally mandated “advise and consent” clause (Article 2, Section 2, Part 2).  

And, from their standpoint, that’s a good thing.  Because, besides Rubio, now the President has appointed Bill Pulte as the “temporary” Director of National Intelligence.  Bill is the, Senate confirmed, Director of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency.  

Houses

Now Bill actually has some experience in the housing field.  He is the heir to a multi-million dollar business that built homes in Florida.  And, along with having a successful private-equity firm career, Bill created a charity that removes abandoned houses, and leaves clean lots instead.

Upon getting the Directorship, Bill immediately took over the leadership of the two Federal home mortgage agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  

And Pulte quickly used his powers for Trump’s ongoing retribution campaign.  He accused three prime Trump enemies:  Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Federal Reserve Board Member Lisa Cook of forms of mortgage fraud. 

Pulte will continue in his role at the Housing and Finance Agency.  But now, he’s also taking on the Director of National Intelligence role.  That job was created to consolidate the information gathering of the eighteen different intelligence agencies in the US government, to avoid the kind of failures that allowed 9-11 attacks to occur.  Essentially, the DNI is in charge of ALL US intelligence agencies, like the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, and fourteen others.

No Intelligence

Nowhere in his career does Pulte have any intelligence experience.  Nothing he has done prepares him for the chief intelligence officer role in the US government.  Nothing, that is, except for his proven loyalty to Trump, attested to by the accusations against Trump’s enemies list.  

America is a war, right now.  Many of our alliances, including the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing group (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom and the US) are teetering on the brink of collapse.  NATO is not far behind.  And, it seems like reliance on Israeli intelligence led the US into a complicated conflict with Iran.  All of this is supposed to be directed by the DNI, and that Director must explain it to the President.

Bill Pulte isn’t that guy.  His appointment leaves America even more vulnerable to attack, and to the kind of policy blunders we are seeing in the Straits of Hormuz.  That fact is apparent to everyone; the Senate, the American people, and the world.  But it’s not Bill’s fault. 

It’s the fault of the President that appointed him.

Sexts

I don’t get “sexting”.  It’s not that I’m against sex, that’s all well and good.  But “remote sex” just seems like a weird thing, especially in today’s age where anything placed “out there” is ultimately available to all.  Just like these essays:  if it goes “out” on the internet or the airwaves, it becomes a public record.  So if you don’t want some “things” made public, then don’t put them in a place they could be “aired out”.  Or, maybe I’m just too old to get the sexual thrill of risking your privates possibly appearing in public.

But, it’s also not my job to govern the semi-private actions of consenting adults.  So if they (adults) want to send or receive explicit texts, pictures, or videos; it’s not for me to judge.  And if, for example, a man cheats on his wife by sexting with another woman; well, it’s disreputable, but it’s not illegal.  The question in Maine, is should it be disqualifying for the Democratic candidate for Senate, Graham Platner.

The story goes like this.  Platner sent “sexts” to women other than his wife.  He and his wife dealt with this form of infidelity, including marriage counseling.  None of the recipients of those “sexts” have come forward to complain.  In fact, the only reason the world knows about any of this is that Platner’s wife came forward to the campaign staff, warning them of this impending risk to his political future.  But again, what started as a private conversation ends up on the public record.  This time, it was thanks to the New York Times.

Me Too

Democrats look back to 2018, the beginning of the first election cycle after the Presidency of Donald Trump.  Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, a comedian by trade, was found to have questionable photographs taken a decade earlier.  The pictures showed Franken on an aircraft, jokingly trying to touch the breasts of a female comedian asleep on the flight.  They were juvenile, and stupid, and exactly the kind of humor that Franken’s career was all about.

But it was at the same moment that Alabama was trying to decide whether to elect a Republican, Judge Roy Moore, with credible charges of child sex abuse, or Democrat Doug Jones.  And the Party in Washington wanted to make a strong point to the “ME TOO” movement and the good folks of Alabama, that Democrats were on the right side.  The Senate Democrats, led by New York Senator Kristin Gillibrand, demanded Franken resign, and he ultimately did. (I wrote a couple essays about this during that time, Al Franken Did the Right Thing, and, It’s Not for Me to Say).

The Line

Jones won. So in the short run, the strategy absolutely worked.  And it put Democrats in the position of holding to a higher moral and behavioral standard for their candidates than the Republicans, led by the “Grab them by the *****” President.   Other Democratic candidates have fallen to that standard, most recently Congressman Eric Swalwell, poised to win the California Gubernatorial race.  As much as Swalwell seemed like a “good guy”, it turned out he was a sleaze, using his political position to gain sexual favors from much younger staff women.  His withdrawal leaves today’s primary choice for the top job up in the air.

Swalwell abused the power of his office to gain sexual gratification – in spite of his wife and family.  He needed to go.  Franken was in the wrong place, with the wrong pictures, at the wrong time.  At that moment, he needed to go too, but that standard may have been too high.

Platner

So what about Grant Platner?

He’s a “rough” candidate.  The “sexts” aren’t his only problem.  But, the former oyster farmer and Marine has caught on in Maine, and he has created a stark contrast to the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins.  Maine Democrats had the opportunity to pick a more “mainstream” candidate, Governor Janet Mills.  But they did not – they chose Platner.  

Platner’s wife wasn’t “outing” the “sexts” to the public. She was trying to further his candidacy by warning the staff.  And, most importantly, no one is saying that they received the “sexts” unwillingly.  Other than showing the bad judgment of “sexting” (in my opinion), is their even a “foul” here?  Where should the Democratic line be?

In His Pocket

Republicans are going to call any Democratic candidate everything.  Ask Sherrod Brown here in Ohio, whose last campaign was defeated by bogus charges that Brown supported “men in women’s sports”.  And look at Texas, where impeached, indicted, and adultering Republican Senatorial candidate Ken Paxton claims that Democratic candidate James Talarico is gay, or trans, or, worse of all, a vegan (he’s none of the above).  

Democrats need to take a breath, swallow hard, and hope Platner doesn’t have too many more skeletons in the closet.  Because, the voters of Maine have decided that he is the best chance to oust Collins, and perhaps gain control of the Senate.  If Dems decide that the voters are wrong, and abandon Platner, that message would most assuredly re-elect Maine’s current “great vacillator” to return to support Donald Trump. 

Let’s just hope he can keep his phone in his pocket.