What is The Murk? Here, you will find snippets about the news of the day. Each segment is short and meant to be thought-provoking. The three main subjects of the Murk include: Animals, War and Politics. Although often discussed separately, it's actually the intersection of these three that I find fascinating. A children's book that I read with my daughter recently called PAX really brought these issues home for me. When we plant landmines, we're blowing up more than the humans on the other side. When human error leads to nuclear disaster, as in Chernobyl, the poison goes beyond humankind. We now know, for instance, that the wolves of Chernobyl, who prey on the elk, have varying levels of radiation poisoning to this day. The effect of human-caused war, fires and bombs is rarely talked about in the context of animals, but it should be, as they inhabit this world, too. The core idea behind the title, the Murk, is that many of the issues we face have become murky because of fake news, spin, disinformation, AI fakes and manipulation. At the Murk, the reader will hopefully find some clarity and a way of looking at the issues that is not a blend of truth and fabrication. The Murk, in essence, is about saying the truth and the truth only. It's a discussion of the actions of politicians, not their talking points. I also try to look at what led us to this point historically. What is it in our psyche that is causing us to turn against each other? For many years, politics has centered around six core issues: Taxes/Economy, Prisons/Crime, Immigration, Trade, Foreign Affairs, Healthcare. Environmental contamination (cancer, oceans, the rainforest), other species (animal rights, extinction), the indigenous, the poor, have taken a backseat for too long. May 9, 2022, Letter to Editor, Berkshire Eagle: https://www.berkshireeagle.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-stand-up-for-ukraine/article_b50dd07c-9bd9-11ec-95f5-534f9aba4426.html Late 2024: The pictures of 10-year-old Tala Abu Ajwa, killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli bomb this month, haunt all of us who have seen them. She was pronounced dead from shrapnel to the neck, still in her pink rollerskates. Is this what it looks like when “Israel defends itself?” Murder is still murder even if the government does it. It’s campaign season, and so, Kamala Harris has said she will help the middle class, and Donald Trump has said he will help the upper class and corporations. Notice how no one talks about helping the underclass—when they are the ones who need it most! The politics of self-interest has become a sickness in American culture. We could be talking about how to stop the wars that are raging or the need to stop poisoning the earth. Instead, politicians have to help you personally. When there’s a “homegrown” incident, and people get hurt, you never hear anyone saying: ‘Well, we need to send those people back to Europe.’ But somehow, when a minority or immigrant population is responsible, an entire race is implicated. There’s a big gap in how we discuss cancer, which is probably related to what types of studies industry groups sponsor. We often hear: genetics, diet and exercise are risk factors for cancer. Well, aren’t these risk factors for nearly every disease? We need to start talking about the real culprit, which is plastics production—PFAS chemicals and phthalates. EPA is going to take too long to regulate PFAS; that’s clear to see. But we have to try. Write and call your congressperson, EPA, state DEC or DEP and local water authority. Ask if they test for PFAS chemicals in the water. Researchers have even found PFAS chemicals in the livers of platypuses in Australia, to give you an idea of how widespread this problem is. We have alternatives that could be substituted for so many PFAS chemical uses. We don’t need firefighting foam--we have lots of ways to put out fires including water! We don’t need PFAS non-stick pans--we have ceramic alternatives, steel, cast iron. And, a quick look at the cosmetics and personal care industry shows many frivolous (or at least unnecessary) uses of PFAS chemicals. We need legislation now to remove these products from manufacturing processes and mandate alternatives. Or, hey, there’s nothing wrong with the government saying, "You can’t manufacture that product anymore" because of what science is telling us. When that happens, suddenly alternatives appear. (On the verge of an election) The New Republican Party The Republican Party has morphed over the last 25 years. It used to be the Party of fiscal conservatism, less government and basically letting corporations do whatever they wanted. Now they want to tell women what to do with their bodies and tell us which books to read. Doesn’t sound like less government anymore. Why do men even get a vote on abortion anyway? Why not let women exclusively vote on abortion? The new Republican Party says more government when it comes to legislating morality, but let’s still go with less government when it comes to regulating industry. Trump passed a massive tax cut for the wealthy and a hidden tax increase for the rest of us. So, out of pure self-interest, most of the corporate class will likely vote for him. Nevermind that his transactional approach ---- to basically everything -- doesn’t work well for so many government functions. For instance, a transactional approach to foreign policy could kill the very alliances that are keeping the peace in Europe. But in this close election, Trump knows he can’t sweep to power on just the shoulders of the corporate class, so he keeps trying to appeal to uneducated voters. He laments 2% inflation, as if he even shops for his own groceries. He sides with climate change deniers, trying to stoke anger among groups who have been displaced by technology change or deindustrialization. Americans desperately want it both ways. They want cheap products from China, but they want those jobs back, but they’re not really willing to work those jobs (the next generation has no interest in manufacturing and we have an aging population). Immigrants would do these jobs, but Republicans want immigrants out. So, where does that leave us? Start a trade war with China by increasing tariffs? Trump can’t be serious about reducing inflation if in the same breath he says that we need higher tariffs on China. The inclination towards fiscal conservatism, that Republicans used to have, was admirable. But now, both parties ring up the deficit. If our social safety net programs involved a tiered system, it would be more fair. By saying, if you make under $25,000 per year, you qualify for a whole host of free programs, but if you make $26,000—you qualify for nothing, we hurt the working poor. So Democrats don’t have it right either. At the deepest level, there is a culture war going on. White rural America, in particular, feels like their customs, traditions, language and culture are being usurped by immigrants. Meanwhile, educated liberals, mainly on the coasts, either don’t mind the cultural influence or perhaps welcome the culture change. They find diversity interesting and probably travel widely because of this ideal. But what’s really scary about JD Vance and Trump is that they go with the wind, they go with the money. Vance seemed to understand the plight of the immigrant, but now he thinks they’re a scourge. Trump’s experience of diversity and immigrants is basically as the hotel workers who clean the bathrooms or groom his golf courses. His entire background has been white elite, and so, he espouses all kinds of myths about immigrants. Will the uneducated and corporate classes out-vote the educated liberals? Who knows. They did it once before. According to the Times of Israel: According to data released by Israel National Council for the Child, 38 children were killed in Israel on October 7 during the Hamas-led terrorist onslaught. Unicef reports, Sept. 24, 2024, Beirut/Geneva:On Monday alone, at least 35 children were reportedly killed in Lebanon. This is more than the number of children killed in Lebanon in the past 11 months (previously 22). Why do we use terms like "food insecurity." The Palestinians are starving in the Gaza Strip, eating grass and twigs to survive. Say the truth. While an Iron Dome defends the Israelis with pinpoint accuracy, indiscriminate bombing in civilian centers is the method of war chosen by Netanyahu against the Palestinians-- a peasant population with no air defenses and no fighter planes. Anonymous Israeli pilots drop U.S.-made bombs from the clouds because Israel is safer when women and children are killed. The incredible images of children disfigured and burned in Lebanon and Gaza by Israel’s unfocused war still have not shaken Americans out of their slumber. Infants now wrapped in gauze who scream when a nurse comes to change their bandages. Babies sucking on pacifiers who were lit on fire. Teenagers now deformed. And yet, America continues to profess unwavering support for Israel. Tell Netanyahu that his war tactics carry no U.S. support—that we will not defend them, and certainly, we will not arm Israel. Proportionality is a legal tenet that Netanyahu disregards. Netanyahu is a war criminal. Say the truth. July 20, 2024 Letter to Editor, Berkshire Eagle https://www.berkshireeagle.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-the-parallels-between-putin-and-netanyahu/article_2a2d030a-451a-11ef-873f-5f0eff87973c.html Run-up to elections: It used to be that racism, sexism and xenophobia were disqualifying. For me, it’s disqualifying for a candidate to espouse these beliefs in code; for others, it’s disqualifying when overt. Here, with Trump, we have both coded and overt racism, sexism and xenophobia. It really says something about our society that nearly half of Americans now go along with these hateful messages. The immigrants I’ve known in my life have been hard-working, family oriented, good people. Meanwhile, we have quite a bit of “homegrown” white males being charged with school shootings, for instance. When Trump supporters say they can separate Trump’s beliefs from his policies -- that they’re voting for him because of his policies -- that is both remarkable and a kind of misdirection. Separating a candidate’s BELIEFS from their policies? Beliefs create policy. Beliefs are at the core of why I vote. Trump supporters know that the school they send their kids to, for instance, would never support racism, sexism or xenophobia so they have to hide their beliefs to an extent. They hide behind such claims as ‘the Democrats are Socialists’ (because Democrats want to help the poor) or ‘the Democrats ring up the deficit’ (Trump rang up the deficit big time). Don’t legitimize racism, sexism and xenophobia with a vote for Trump. It's interesting that Trump gained so much traction on the immigration issue. When he was president, he separated over 5,000 children and parents leading to lawsuits and reunification searches that lasted years. Here's an excerpt from USA Today: "Biden has kept in place a Trump-era public health order and expelled thousands of immigrant adults and families, but he declined to expel immigrant children without a parent after a federal appeals court in January cleared the way for him to do so. He also moved to speed up the reunification of hundreds of separated immigrant families." As Israel continues to block food aid bound for the Palestinians, the stories coming out of the Gaza Strip tear at one's soul. It was the eldest daughter's task to wait in the food lines for watered down lentil soup and bring it back to the family. She never returned, crushed to death by the swelling hungry mass. The father remarked, "I will never forgive myself." Early 2025: The sad truth is that humans want to be the only apex predator. Consider the massive decline in grizzly bears; gray wolves; pumas/great cats. Government removal. Hunting. Habitat loss. Poisoning. Trapping. All of this has taken its toll on carnivore populations. Given factory farming as the norm now, how valid is the idea that we must protect livestock from carnivores? Do we need more condos built over habitat? Isn’t it our own fear, when walking in the woods, that is killing carnivores? Our own fear of not being top predator--not being able to defend one’s self given the soft sheltered life we've created? It's not just a U.S. problem; it’s a world-wide problem. In Africa, hunters take the tusks from elephants to sell the ivory; for what, chess sets? Bathroom fixtures? Rhinos, turtles, snakes, seahorses killed for frivolity, because Chinese culture says it will improve one's sex life. Our old ways of thinking are not serving us well. It's time to wake up. The planet is waiting. Nothing is inevitable. It's high time that we open the cages, the many forms of animal jails that we've created and justified with lofty ideals like science and education. Open the cages. I asked my neighbor the other day, why she decided to take her kids to Panama for their last vacation. She said she wanted them to see the coral reefs before they are all bleached or gone. I really could relate to her statement. And yet, it was so sad. Is that where we are on the environment and ecology? Come and experience now because the next generation won't be able to. I was watching National Geographic the other day, which featured a beaver family. The father was outside of the lodge, patching holes using a mud-mixture while the mother was inside taking care of the little beavers. When people say that we are projecting human qualities onto animals, I'm really not so sure. I see love and ingenuity and planning. Corporate Takeover of Government The Democrats have some real soul searching to do. If you haven't seen it yet, check out Bernie Sanders’ response to Trump’s inauguration speech. It was wonderful. Yes, people are hurting. Housing. Healthcare. Cost of medications. Racial and environmental justice. We all know that Trump is not the answer to these things, but he gives a false hope.There was just another school shooting in Tennessee, but Trump isn’t interested in homegrown threats, unless it involves anarchist liberals perhaps. His target is immigrants. There are so many commonsense immigration reforms that could be made, without marching the army to the border. For immigrants who have been paying taxes, voluntarily, but do not have legal status, they should be allowed to file for permanent status. That is the complaint of conservatives, that they don’t pay into the system (what’s often left out, of course, is that they also don’t draw from that system). Well, here are people that have been paying in, for years in many cases, so why not give them the chance to earn permanent status? They are already part of the fabric of their communities, living, working and educating their children here. No liberals will argue with deporting immigrants who are criminals. But fighting a war on immigrants will end the same way our war on drugs ended, with failure.Democrats, in seeking to please everyone, and not offend anyone, taking a middle-ground on nearly all things, like we should help the Israelis and help the Palestinians, have alienated voters. Voters aren’t sure what Democrats stand for because their stances have become so moderate. Trump campaigned on a far right wing platform and won. Perhaps the left should look at that. There’s nothing wrong with saying that we stand for racial and environmental justice; fair housing; a healthcare system that doesn’t involve price gouging. There’s nothing wrong with saying that the benefits of technology and AI and automation should be shared by everyone, not just the ruling class. Sanders also speaks to this point. As I mentioned in the lead up to this election, the biggest problem with Trump is that he represents a corporate takeover of government and his own self-interest. Just look at how he’s using a catastrophe, that many say is linked to global warming (Trump is a climate change denier), to try and get California to implement crackdowns on immigrants. When a state is in crisis, the Federal government needs to send help, not try to strike a deal. But that’s what America voted for. So you got it, America. You got what you wanted. Where Are We Now
Ah, where did they go? Bill Clinton striding on stage with a saxophone or Barack Obama hailing from neighborhood social activist roots. No longer does the farmer emerge from the field to do a rotation in government. Now it's Bezos and Zuckerberg and Musk. Celebrity status is a must to run for president now—from Citizens United and money is free speech to present day, the stage is set. Josh Shapiro is the only name that comes to mind, but a lot can happen in four years, so let’s see.We just watched Rick Steves’ documentary on PBS on fascism. Of course, there are stunning correlations to our times. Fascists offer simple solutions to complex problems (just build a wall). They are performers, think Hitler and Mussolini, launching into tirades, animated at the podium, holding big rallies. They also single out vulnerable groups and attack them, capitalizing on the conditions of the time, often economic.If all of this sounds familiar, then, yes, you are paying attention! Trump’s attack on immigrants obviously correlates here, but so does his rhetoric about trans people. Issues that used to be handled by parents, schools, psychologists and pediatricians, are now the subject of political attacks. It’s a dangerous slip. Why are politicians involved in these issues at all? On a personal level, I went to a bar the other day and the restroom was simply labelled “toilet.” It just said what it was. If you have to go, go ahead! Singling out groups in a discriminatory way is one of the hallmarks of the Trump presidency so far, and it’s what people voted for.So, we have a lot of work to do as a society. Bernie Sander’s approach of raising the minimum wage; offering free public college; universal healthcare, these notions don’t divide people into groups. These ideas say: ‘if you need help, we are a wealthy nation and we can provide it.’ Yes, poor rural white America, like Appalachia for instance, look at programs specifically to help minorities and feel it’s unfair. Who will help them? Coasters, the educated liberals, would do well to remember these folks if we are to win the next election. Trade school education; employment in the trades; light manufacturing; it used to be the Democrats were the party of the working class.Another aspect of fascism is that it despises trade unions, communism and actually, the field of Psychology generally. This was really fascinating to learn. Definitely check out the documentary as it has some remarkable footage and, for me, really shed some light on the times we’re living in. Reach For Peace Lobbying always had its problems. Lobbyists would insert one or two key sentences into a 200-page bill, and hope it didn’t attract too much attention. Sometimes legislators would rely on a synopsis from the legislative director and miss it. The influence game has been played far and wide, and, yes, the people with the most money, well, they made more money.But the ultimate lobbying move is to be appointed to watch, oversee and influence the very department that regulates your industry. Or, gut the department that is supposed to be watching you—make it ineffective. Bernie Sanders mentioned in his recent remarks how the techgods saw their personal worth rocket just because Trump won. Investors know that access means influence, which means profits. Trump also saw instant profits, launching his meme coin; nevermind that he creates the market conditions for cryptocurrency and can deregulate his own products.It is fairly common for someone to resign from government and become a consultant for industry, but to actively serve in both sectors opens the door to corruption. Congressmen are supposed to report private sector ties, investments and who is financing their re-election; still, this often turns into an ethics probe rather than real charges. Clarence Thomas clearly violated ethics rules, but apparently didn’t break the law. Many congressmen insist their investments are in blind trusts, that they don’t control them, but there is little oversight.Could a politician vote for war and hold a portfolio of weapons stocks? Yes. Could a president launch a cryptocurrency, and the market responds favorably simply because he has the power to regulate it? This has already happened. Could tech stocks go up because the techgods have been given direct government access? Absolutely. What’s at stake? Consumer protection, price gouging, monopolies, unfair marketing practices, selling our data, creating addicting algorithms for our kids and spreading misinformation.The logical extension of this setup is the formal creation of a corporate military. (Some would argue we already have this.) The U.S. military would essentially make it a stated goal to safeguard the capitalists and ruling class similar to how the police are mainly charged with protecting wealth. We would get involved in power grabs, such as Rwanda’s move against the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has loads of rare earth minerals (many believe this will power the economy of the future).It would also mean rolling back all kinds of environmental legislation, which is currently on Trump’s agenda. Trump’s bizarre focus on weakening California environmental law and creating new voter IDs is remarkable given the wildfires, not to mention the very real problems of homelessness and lack of affordable housing in many California cities. But like Sanders said, we don’t have to respond to every ridiculous thing Trump says. It’s an old playbook: Create distraction, then push through an extremely damaging proposal.The big picture is that our government is being recast to serve special interests directly and has taken on fascist characteristics. If Trump wins, the election was fair. If Trump loses, the election was rigged. This is a fascist perspective. Belarus just held “elections” where Lukashenko got 87% of the vote; with numbers like that, you know it’s a fascist regime. If you vote for the opposition candidate, your name ends up on a secret-police list. Trump has attacked and sued various liberal media outlets, showing his preference for propaganda instead of information—more fascist tendencies. Trump recently stated that Gaza should be abandoned by the Palestinians; let them (millions of people) just emigrate to Jordan or Egypt (but it’s fine for America to shut the door on immigrants). They should just abandon their homeland, he says. But what then? Gaza becomes a wasteland into perpetuity, or perhaps it’s left to the Israelis as the spoils of war? With no endgame envisioned for this war, the Israelis have shrugged and left Gaza in ruins. Israel has left behind the exact conditions that breed radicalism, hatred and extremism. No hopes. Your family and friends… dead. No jobs. Piles of rubble and poverty. Whatever international support Israel had, was certainly diminished by dropping bombs on civilian centers for over a year. They killed children who had nothing to do with October 7th and called it a war strategy. Meanwhile, politicians and regular people in the U.S. profited in portfolios and 401k accounts as America sold bombs and arms to Israel. Incredible wealth and incredible poverty is destabilizing. It’s poisoning our democracy, but there is a cure. Strengthen laws related to conflicts of interest; disallow serving in the private and public sector simultaneously; reform the campaign finance system; oversight to ensure all investments made by politicians are in blind trusts only. Internationally, we must recast our war machine for humanitarian missions, peacekeeping and self-defense. Ignore Trump’s smokescreen and focus on core issues like housing, homelessness, environmental protection and a foreign policy that always reaches for peace. Rising Cancer Rates: PVC and PFAS The manufacture and disposal (incineration/landfill) of PVC products has been poisoning the environment and our bodies for about 40 years. So when the Center for Biological Diversity sued the EPA in 2021, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that, at a minimum, PVC pipes used in construction would be classified as hazardous waste. Those pipes would then be pulled out prior to any demolition in the same way that asbestos, lead, etc. is diverted. But alas, EPA made a series of arguments (read: excuses), one of which actually amounted to them saying it's essentially too hard. Yes, we've put PVC into so many products, that it is "hard" now. Still, EPA is starting to regulate the amount of vinyl chloride used in these pipes (of course, contractors may source PVC pipes from all over the world, complicating this). The idea that DEP or DEC monitors at incinerators will make sure PVC pipes don't go up the stack, is a stretch. Data suggests that about half of incinerators operate outside of compliance, at least in NY state, for time periods that range from 30-90 days. And the DEC monitor in Cohoes, NY allowed for mass burnings of PFAS laden firefighting foam. More likely, incinerators take a quick pass with a magnet and the rest gets burned. What people don't talk about, is that the pollution control technology itself, loaded with chemicals, has to be shipped out to special hazardous waste landfills. The chemicals don't just magically go away. They often sit in lined landfills, covering the earth, as we hope that nothing leaks out. But this goes deeper than PVC pipes used in construction. PVC is in a whole host of products ranging from furniture to toys. The plastics industry makes all kinds of wild arguments like regulating PVC as hazardous waste would reduce recycling. News flash: hardly any PVC is getting recycled! Do you see a #7 with the recycling triangle stamped on any PVC products? Consumers do not know how or where to recycle PVC. Municipal programs would need to be revamped to allow for this. We need to stop producing the stuff.There’s really something broken within our capitalist system. Companies make products using chemicals which have not been tested thoroughly, resulting in contamination. Then, taxpayers pick up the bill, paying for it with future cancer treatments and brownfield remediation... superfund sites.We’ve known for a long time that burning PVC in incinerators creates dioxin, which causes cancer. You breath it, you eat it, you drink it. Given the many antique incinerators still functioning in the U.S., we know it remains in emissions and the landfilled toxic sludge (water is added to incinerator ash to make a kind of slurry so it doesn’t blow around).Metal, which can be recycled, is a great alternative to PVC piping, and we certainly don’t need to use PVC for kids toys or furniture.But it’s not just PVC. PFAS has hit New England hard. Here, in Western MA, wells have been contaminated in North Bennington, VT; Saint Gobain Plastics has an old plant there. The entire town of Hoosic Falls, NY had to implement filtration. In Maine, PFAS has contaminated agricultural fields, the culprit—municipal sludge blended into fertilizer and sprayed. We have TCE plumes in North Adams, MA left behind by Sprague Electric before they headed for Mexico. This is our industrial history, but it’s still going on!The lag time between a chemical raising suspicions among scientists/public health experts -- and the government regulating it -- is a key window of time. For PVC, it's 40 years and counting. For PFAS, industry studies in the 70s showed risks, but it didn’t start getting national attention until 10 or 12 years ago. In that lag time, where it was becoming obvious that PFAS would be designated as a hazardous waste (under RCRA), the DOD and various companies started unloading their stockpiles. The DOD, in particular, had tons of PFAS laced firefighting foam (timing: this was during Trump’s first time as president). It was about to become a massive liability. Environmental consulting outfits popped up, claiming they could help manage the liability. The DOD started shipping this fire retardant for incineration (sounds strange, I know, how well could it possible burn?). The Cohoes, NY incinerator took loads of it spraying it into the air; soil tests in the community show contamination. Of course, with incineration (and leaky landfills), the effect is diffuse. The winds carry it; the waters carry it.We need a better system for evaluating chemicals used in products BEFORE they go into production and enter the environment. Manufacturing has impacts; transport can have impacts; and, certainly, use and disposal have impacts. Imagine all of the tiny button batteries headed for landfills and incinerators right now. It’s not trackable.When a chemical is tested by independent scientists, and carcinogenic properties raise a red flag, there should be an immediate hold on all disposal. Government lag time, is actually a huge investor opportunity. Some, in the business world, count on the slowness of government and quantify their investments accordingly; or, they lobby to slow down regulation. Consider the Internet. Companies are constantly trying to throw off regulation, or elect politicians who will do this for them (act as their surrogates). But regulations safeguard ecosystems and human health. Biden’s executive order to save the coastal ecosystems of the U.S. was amazing. I hope it holds. Obama (check out his Our Oceans documentary) did something similar, on a smaller scale when he was in office, and it held up to court challenge, so there is hope. When Trump acted on this issue, he banned oil drilling off the Georgia and Florida coasts. Hmmm… why only that area Trump? Where do you live again?The cognitive mistake that Trumpers are making, regarding government, is that, yes, government is frustrating and slow and sometimes gets it wrong. But that doesn’t mean the department mission is wrong. Poor management is the issue. Programs need fixing not scrapping. We’ve all been frustrated by government. That doesn’t mean we need to dismantle it. (On a lighter note, I think the James Bond films give us a great view into the American psyche; look at who the villains were each year. Americans keep selecting different villains: the media, the Russians, terrorists or a former MI6 agent, one of their own, who becomes a cyber-threat, etc.).I know the media and Trump want to get us spinning on their issues. But we need to stay focused on the things that matter. Young people are increasingly getting cancer. The numbers are going up. While industry tells us that it’s genetics and lifestyle and obesity and smoking, all of which contribute, there’s something else going on here. Gutting the EPA is not the answer. We need oncologists and the public to sound the alarm. It’s our consumer society riddled with chemicals that is the problem. It's the pesticides, herbicides, oil based paints and solvents in Home Depot. There are alternatives; we could live differently, without so many consumer products. In many cases, we don’t need them at all. Recommended Reading: https://peer.org/cdc-punts-on-studying-pfas-cancer-risks/
Cancer Rates for U.S.—Source: Google AI OverviewYes, cancer rates in the United States have been increasing. In 2024, the American Cancer Society (ACS) projected that the US would see a record-breaking 2 million new cancer cases. Featured snippet from the webThe number of early onset cancer cases — those that occur in adults under age 50 — is rising by 1% to 2% annually, according to the American Cancer Society. (Aug 6, 2024)
NEPA The National Environmental Policy Act requires that federal agencies assess the impacts of the development proposals they are enacting. This could be mining, logging, building various structures, etc. The Government Accountability Office surveyed, in April 2014, how many projects actually initiated an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement. 95% of the Federal Government projects had declared a Categorical Exclusion, apparently there is no need to worry! Federal Government projects, 95% of the time, don't even have the potential to impact the environment. Whew! I feel better now. It's no wonder that so many of our airports landed in wetlands. But there's another problem with the EA and EIS process (aside from it not getting done). Developers hire consultants to complete these studies, and the consultants know the result that their client is hoping for, creating a built-in conflict of interest. The consultants want more work from these developers so they shy away from stating a given project will have "significant impacts" even if it does. The solution is probably to have local, county and state governments set up funds for environmental consulting. The developer floating a given project is required to pay into the fund (it can be a % of the value of the project, maybe 3% depending). The government administers the fund and hires the environmental consulting company. That way money is not flowing directly from developer to consultant; there is less contact and influence. Cruelty Embedded in Policy It’s odd to say, but I kind of miss the old debates on trickle-down economics. We used to have policy debates with Republicans. It’s not that the culture under Reagan was great, but it wasn’t poisonous. Now, as my wife reminds me, there is a kind of cruelty embedded in policy. If you want to cut USAID or delete AIDS medicine for Africa, this shows a real sickness in the American psyche. If you want to cut Medicaid, you obviously haven’t traveled to other countries where there is no social safety net.One of the things I really appreciate about my daughter’s school in Williamstown, MA is that she has had Social and Emotional Learning as a core course from very early on. This is great stuff and really shows how educators can look at what is hindering learning, and address it in creative ways. There are many adults I know who could benefit from these classes. In MA, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a bubble. The only Trump voters I saw in the lead-up to election were old angry white males driving around in pickup trucks with flags waving and diesel smoke gushing. But I know there is a silent group out there who I try to reach.Another thing about MA is that you really see the benefit of your tax money. Yes, taxes are high, but you get services. As Cathy pointed out, everything from water to sewer to plowing to schools to social programs for the elderly and poor, it’s all there. Many people haven’t experienced a world where government stops functioning. When you go to a wilderness area, that you used to enjoy, and see the mining trucks, or you go to a coastal area that you loved, and see the oil rigs, you will know it. You will feel it. So, going on like it doesn’t affect your life is a fool’s dream.The working class were really duped last election. I’m not sure it was their fault. We all knew corporate money was pouring in. Actually, about 6 or 8 months ago, I said to my brother-in-law, “We’re going to see if corporations control elections in this one.” And he replied, “Was there ever any doubt?” as if he knew what was coming. Cleverly, the corporate class held out promises to the working class and hid among them, masqueraded even, among them. Despite JD Vance’s blue silk suit at the debate (where he called global warming “weird science”) people bought it.I’ve talked to those on the other side. They post or send me articles. But when I drill down, and look at the source, it’s Betty and Jim in South Dakota, who got fed up with the media lying to them and decided to launch a website. The first thing you learn in college is to study sources; the second thing you learn is to distinguish opinion from fact. When RFK espouses his anti-vaccine position, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t trust the experts, I agree with him.’ But it’s a separate thing -- to travel -- and see the real effects of vaccine preventable diseases, and deny reality. (If we could just get Gupta in instead of RFK!)My wife is a physician and an immigrant. She has many MAGA patients who wear their little red hats and complain about eating less eggs. She looks at the hat; they look at the button on her lab coat that says “Proud Immigrant;” then she delivers the same care that she would to anyone. After seeing 20+ patients then going home, it has to feel pretty low to hear how immigrants are the problem with America. Her job, (as required by law) was advertised and open to all Americans. But there aren’t enough doctors, and there aren’t enough meat industry workers, and there aren’t enough trade or agricultural workers, and so we fill in those economic gaps with immigration. If an American wants to study until they are nearly 30-years old, make those sacrifices and apply to be a doctor, they can!My wife’s dad, when he was alive, had such a positive, even virtuous, view of Americans. It was really wonderful. After all, General MacArthur and his troop had saved the Philippines from the Japanese during WWII and he had lived through that. What does the world think of us now—as we saber rattle and enact large tariffs, even on allies, or seek to buy and rename (under threat) sovereign parts of the world? USAID, coming to the assistance of others, trade and diplomacy… these are all tools to avoid war, maintain peace and do the right thing.Democrats don’t have everything right. If I could, I would vote Green Party, and follow the lead of various European countries, though fascism is taking hold there, too. But I don’t see cruelty or misinformation or attacks on the poor embedded in the policy of Democrats. I don’t see them going after small vulnerable groups like trans people (or undocumented immigrants who don't have the money to mount a legal defense). Actually, it’s worth pointing out, DEI originated with Civil Rights. I find it really fascinating that Republicans won’t say that. Why not just say it? You want to roll back Civil Rights. No, that’s obviously racist. So, let’s go after small vulnerable groups like trans people. We’ll get to black people later. Micro-plastics A good start on microplastics would be to ban the dishwasher and detergent packets currently on the market (kids have also ingested them thinking it's candy). NYC introduced a bill to ban PVA pods; California and the EU have both developed a strategy to tackle the microplastics issue. We need to start moving away from plastics as a society, create alternatives and consider the full life cycle of our products, which ultimately become waste. Where are the Conflict of Interest Laws? When the Supreme Court ruled that money is speech, they forgot to mention that money is also silence. You can silence your foes directly (hush money) or indirectly (Republicans fear Musk's war chest; they dare not speak out). Trump and Musk can simply sue their way to the top; fire the employees that are supposed to regulate their industries; and shape policies favorable to their investments. Have You Noticed the Trend? Republicans go after people who don't have the resources to fight back in a legal system that requires money, and lots of it. Old people, veterans, immigrants, prisoners... it's a long list. With cuts to Social Security, the VA and Medicaid looming and threats to due process, their agenda is focused on ripping away the social safety net and taking away rights. You don't see Republicans cracking down on white collar crime, or talking about the cost of landlord or business loss tax write-offs. You don't see them condemning the legal and financial vehicles used to shield corporate responsibility. Because those things help their buddies! We have some serious problems in the U.S., which Trump is ignoring. No family should sink from medical bankruptcy. We have a home-grown gun problem and school shootings that are tearing communities apart, which have nothing to do with foreign enemies or minorities; and Republicans accuse Democrats of class warfare... Yahoo News 3/18/2025: Israel breaks cease fire… Of the Palestinians killed overnight, 174 were children and 89 were women, according to the ministry. See Through the Plastic Just watched The Story of Plastics on Amazon and wow, we have a lot of work to do. In Williamstown, MA, where I live, the town banned single use plastic bags some 10-years ago, and do you know, it was very simple, had a huge impact, and wasn't inconvenient at all. Next, we should really ban single use plastic water bottles. If stores want to put in a water dispenser, and sell 12 oz or 16 oz of cold filtered water, for folks with reusable water bottles, I say go ahead. Like so many things environmental, we did without these various "innovations" for decades, and survived. It wasn't that hard. Using mason jars to buy bulk food, isn't very hard. But it has a huge impact, on our oceans, our drinking water, our land, our forests, wildlife, climate change, it's a long long list. As the documentary showed, the only reason why plastics recycling functions (and it doesn't function very well), is because of poverty. Our trash is shipped to developing countries, or washes up there, and as a result of poverty, people try to make use of it. This has a huge impact on ecology and public health. Asthma rates, rises in leukemia due to plastics production and mining for petroleum to make petrochemicals, this post would be a book if I catalogued all of the impacts. Producer responsibility is the only way to stem the tide. We need to get rid of all of the wraps and film, which can not be recycled. In fact, as the documentary pointed out, plastics 1 and 2 are really the only ones that even have a chance at recycling, and the vast majority never gets recycled or goes around once. There's too many variations for effective recycling. Printed containers; combinations of resins; clear resins that are impossible to tell apart especially since bottles get crushed and you can't see the #. Then, in the oceans, the plastics slowly break off, become brittle and well, they don't quite disintegrate. Instead, the small particles end up in wildlife, as they choke on it, become tangled in a plastic mess or get sick. The manufacturing of the pellets and dust, used to make the plastic containers, also ends up in the area surrounding the factory. And guess where these factories tend to be? You guessed it. Along the coastal waters. It's a chemical soup. Rwanda, Germany, Sweden and Costa Rica are leading the way towards a sustainable future. We can ban polystyrene in stores and restaurants. We can pass a 10 cent bottle bill like Oregon did and create good incentives for collection and recycling of glass and tin. We can stop the massive subsidies for oil companies. We have been force fed plastics by large petrochemical companies. We've settled for their anti-litter campaigns or their one-day collections, placated by a few good deeds led by their marketing departments. See through this. See through the plastic. Well, you've probably noticed the trend. The Trump Administration threatens to cut federal funding, but when people stand up and push back, Trump realizes he doesn't have the legal ground to stand on. Harvard's administration pushed back, but perhaps more importantly, Jewish students at the University don't believe that cutting research is the way to address antisemitism. See excerpts from Yahoo! news article:Last week, the White House backed down from a multi-state legal fight over sweeping actions taken by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that potentially terminated the immigration status of thousands of international students studying in the US. ICE was in the process of reinstating the records of all the students who had been terminated in that process, according to a Justice Department attorney.“Using Jewish students to gut federal support for universities does not make us feel seen, valued, or safe. It turns us into pawns in a broader political agenda,” reads the letter, which was shared with CNN.Nitsan Machlis, an Israeli-American graduate student, said she thinks the government is using antisemitism “as a cover for this unrelated political agenda.” She’s worked alongside university officials over the past two years to tackle antisemitism and thinks their efforts have made progress on campus. Perhaps Trump can start a state sponsored TV and news service, and we can join the ranks of North Korea and Russia..."The executive order also directs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate NPR and PBS for possible employment discrimination, and it instructs the heads of all other federal agencies to “identify and terminate” any direct or indirect funding of the media organizations, as allowed by the law." I have never seen such blatant market manipulation and insider trading as the last six weeks of the Trump Administration. How much did Trump and his buddies profit from shorting stocks and the tariff game? Trump's Game: Attack the media; wage trade wars that increase prices for us and hurt companies/jobs; cut off aid to our allies which destroys diplomacy and is unethical, as we literally have the power to save lives; all of this makes us an unreliable ally. Then he reneges on academic grants and important research (medical, environmental, etc.); should we be surprised that measles is at an all-time high in Texas now? The result: Everyone has to kiss the ring and bargain with Trump or be left out in the cold. This opens the door to corruption and special deals. Who will be exempt from a given tariff? Who will get a subsidy? Who won't get sued in a legal system that rewards deep pockets? Lobbyists and lawyers rule. The average citizen can't play the game. This brings about instability, as the social safety net is whittled away and our allies, well, find other more reliable allies. "Strongmen" wannabes love this kind of thing. Because it sets the stage for assuming more power. The worse it gets, the better for a wannabe like Trump. Putin thrives on despair and poverty in Russia. Duterte used poverty and drugs to villainize people in the Philippines to take more power. Meanwhile, Republicans charge Democrats with waging class war? Eliminating USAID is global class war. I don't see Trump talking about corporate crime, environmental crime, white collar tax evasion. Instead, the focus is on the "foreigner," the farm worker, the immigrant who works in meat packing, who cleans your house or office, who serves your food, who takes care of your children. Yes, they really need to go. The brown people. I went to the Mariah Blake talk yesterday in Hoosick Falls, NY. Really stunning. Here are some highlights from the talk and her book, They Poisoned the World.The Federal Government knew that PFAS was dangerous in the 40s as it was developed during the Manhattan Project.Industry knew PFAS was toxic and posed environmental harm in the 70s as 3M and others quietly studied it and covered up findings.In West Virginia, a farmer leased land to Du Pont to create a landfill and soon after, all of his cows died. This was the first successful lawsuit (1999) against a manufacturer regarding PFOA.Michael Hickey’s father was a Saint Gobain plant worker, making Teflon and other products with PFAS. He died of kidney cancer. Michael Hickey, a Hoosick Falls, NY resident decided to pay $700 to test the water for PFOA, concerned there was a link between cancer and the plant (2013). He found it.It wasn’t the NY State DEC or the U.S. EPA. It was one resident who simply connected the dots.Fast forward to now. In my area, Hoosick Falls, Pownal, Bennington, all have contamination issues linked to Gobain, ChemFab and Warren Wire/General Cable. In the case of ChemFab, they left and went to Merrimack, NH, contaminating that area.Now, industry is moving towards other shorter chain PFAS chemicals because of the publicity around PFOA and PFOS in particular. Many of the other PFAS chemicals have not been studied as well. They also may not show up in analytical tests as well. One chemical, in particular, is called GenX. Watch this one closely as it evolves.Michael Hickey pointed to the core problem during this talk. He said, EPAs framework is “innocent until proven guilty” regarding chemicals. We need a more proactive regulatory approach. Although I admit that I’m looking at this from an American perspective, as long as Palestinians and Israelis are not coming to the table to form a representative local government for contested areas: parts of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, there will never be peace. As long as decisions about contested areas (access to holy sites, building of settlements, etc.) are made from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, exclusively by Israelis, there will always be war. Regardless of the images we see of Hamas, which fit our stereotype of a terrorist, Israel must find factions within the Palestinian leadership to empower and negotiate with--to revive diplomacy and stop the cycle. Because terrorism can also be conducted wearing a three-piece suit. Looking back, at the years leading up to this crisis, there were a number of close votes with regard to building settlements in contested areas and access of Palestinians to holy sites. It is a credit to the Israeli people that the votes were so close; there is a growing resistance to Netanyahu’s warmongering. Still, the final result was that many of these settlements were approved and access to various holy sites was limited for Palestinians. Everyone understands that the October 7th attack by Hamas against Israelis was wrong. But Israel’s disproportionate response, a nearly two-year campaign of starvation, bombing of civilian targets (including hospitals), tens of thousands of women and children killed and maimed, has been an outrage. The lack of focus on Hamas, the group that perpetuated the attack, and the humanitarian disaster that continues now, makes the Israeli leadership look like well-dressed terrorists. And the fact that the U.S. provided many of the bombs used on civilian targets in Palestine makes me wonder if anyone is even paying attention or if we’re too busy with the distractions that the American media and the Trump Administration are feeding us. As Netanyahu proudly declares that Israel owns Iran’s air space, then bombs their state television station, while supposedly maintaining that Israel is only concerned about Iran’s nuclear capability, it is clear people aren’t saying what they are thinking. The U.S. and Israel casually discuss assassinating Khamenei and perhaps using B-52 “bunker-busting” bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. What is rarely mentioned is that this would cause a massive radiation event, poisoning people and the environment for… let’s see, what’s the half-life of uranium again? Roughly 4.5 billion years?It's interesting how fear works. Fear becomes its own self-fulfilling prophesy. Israel is scared of Iran’s nuclear program. In fear, it strikes. This then creates the conditions whereby Iran would be more willing to use its weapons against Israel. It’s circular. There are many world leaders that we don’t like. It is only through nukes (think Russia and North Korea) that countries are able to avoid the aggression of Israel and the U.S. All that would happen if Iran became a nuclear power is that Israel would then have to negotiate in good faith with them. Most likely, Israel calculated that with Trump in power and Russia tied up with Ukraine, this is the time to strike. Palestine, Iran and others in the region need to be given agency, autonomy and the right to self-determination, plus free trade. We don’t have to agree with them (do we agree with China’s human rights practices?). But we do have to live alongside of them in peace. These old colonial land deals continue to stir up trouble in the modern world. While the U.S. and many other countries have thrown off those who would conquer our land and put our people in a subservient role, others have not. Let Iran and Palestine govern themselves. Mid-2025: You can’t bomb your way to peace. Peace is much harder than that. Religion and psychology can be found at the core of the current Middle East crisis. One of Pope Francis’ mantras was, “todos, todos,” that is, “let everybody come.” This is the starting point for peace. Putin was a child in Leningrad during WWII when the Nazis advanced, slaughtering everyone around him. Now, Putin says he wants to “deNazify” Ukraine.The Holocaust is always in the backdrop when Israeli politicians speak. Amnesty International has called the war in Gaza genocide.What we need is for leaders to come together and say: The past is still there, it will always be there, but today we start fresh, today we work together to break the cycle, today we both make sacrifices and yes, neither of us will fully get what we want. The victims of war are subjected to untold suffering, destruction and death, homelessness, starvation and maiming. Children blinded or without arms. The perpetrators are left with themselves and the mirror. There’s a trend I notice with Trump: He only goes after people who would have trouble fighting back. Cancel USAID, that affects poor countries. Push poor people out of D.C. Deport immigrants (some with no arrest record; and some to countries where they aren’t even from). But with D.C., he didn’t really want to takeover policing. What he wanted was to send a message, get local politicians to kiss the ring. It’s the same with tariffs. Tariffs may be a great way to raise money, but it’s also a great way to piss off our allies, which has other implications in other arenas.The tariff money will go to Trump’s rich buddies (not the deficit), via tax cuts. Though he’s talking of sending the average Joe a check to get votes for next time. Given our "me first" culture--it may work. At least our schools are at odds with Trump’s cultural messages.Is it theatre? Is it symbolic? Sure, it’s both, but there’s also some real damage. While our schools teach kindness, Trump attacks everyone, literally or through their pocketbooks. Trump cozies up to Putin, because that’s power. He yells at Zelenskyy.When I watched Michael Moore’s film, years ago, on gun violence, a key point was that local society mirrors the macro-society. If the Pentagon is shooting and bombing other countries, you can expect gun violence in city streets. It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but it’s a valid point. We don’t have to all love each other, but we do have to tolerate one another. The schools have it right: Kindness matters, it just makes life that much better, and our allies matter as well as the poor, the disenfranchised. There’s a disconnect in what we’re teaching, and what we’re doing. Trump appeals to the basest instincts within us. August 2025: A Population Being Erased
We spent some time in Paris and London recently. Each night, I would flip through BBC and Al Jazeera to see what was happening. Both news organizations carried stories, every single night, of the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza strip: Mass starvation, children dying, crush/trampling injuries, shootings.When I returned home, I saw that mainstream news outlets in the U.S. were barely covering the story. For four days, CBS Evening News didn’t run a single story on Gaza, then just last night they told us that Israel plans to takeover the entire Gaza Strip. On Yahoo! News, perhaps you could find a Gaza story with lots of scrolling.Before I left for the trip, U.S. news was dominated by the Jeffrey Epstein story, which broke years ago. About 20% of the news that I’ve seen since returning has been… wait for it… Weather. Yes, there are more wildfires now given global warming, and that’s a story. But to lead with Epstein and Weather during an ethnic cleansing (when Trump said, we should “clean out the whole thing,” that really gave Netanyahu a green light) and genocide in the Middle East, that’s propaganda by omission. We should also consider the dismantling of USAID while the Gaza crisis was unfolding.What I learned from European news: 83% of the Gaza Strip is now a “no-go” zone meaning Palestinians are being driven south into “concentration areas.” Israel is careful to use the word “area” as opposed to “camps.” Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, showed great leadership at a recent UN meeting on a two state solution for Palestine. Shortly after France recognized a separate and sovereign Palestinian state, Great Britain and Canada pledged the same. Meanwhile, the U.S. sends Steve Witkoff to Gaza, after two years of war, and we’re supposed to celebrate this momentous act by Trump? The U.S. has been more than complicit: We send bombs and ammunition to Israel which they use against a civilian population.The French minister discussed the problems on both sides. Yes, there is a need for the disarmament of Hamas, and yes, Israel has been encroaching on Palestine for years. We all know why Israel limits access to Al Jazeera News (recent journalist killings show how far Israel is willing to go) and restricts journalist access to the Gaza Strip. They are trying to control the story. Al Jazeera reports on the bombing of schools in Gaza where civilians shelter. Israel has engaged in a massive siege of Gaze leading to starvation, dehydration and dead children. Israel is also engaged in demolition/displacement in the West Bank. Aside from grabbing Gaza, Israel has attacked Iran and Syria. But they can only sustain all of these wars with support from the U.S..Historically, how did we get here? Following the Holocaust, Germany was destroyed and the survivors needed a new home. The British Mandate of the 20s, 30s and 40s along with the Balfour Declaration created the conditions for today. Globally, colonial land deals were commonplace then as indigenous populations were being displaced or fighting back or being enslaved, and their resources exploited. Google AI doesn’t come out and say it was a colonial land deal. AI states: These agreements had “colonial trappings and contributed to the displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians.” Okay. We get it.Jewish people began a long emigration to the Middle East. But they didn’t just emigrate, assimilate, join local government and live side-by-side—an American model (though Trump seems to think our model isn’t working). Insead, Jews formed their own state, with British and U.S. support—based on a Jewish national identity. It’s hard to find a correlation. This would be akin to Mormons taking over Utah, seceding from the U.S., declaring statehood and raising a military. Non-Mormons in Utah might not appreciate this. Certainly, the remaining indigenous in Utah wouldn’t understand the legal/political system that allowed it. Getting back to Israeli-statehood, the Jewish leadership engaged in clandestine operations that led to France transferring nuclear technologies to Israel. The CIA also turned a blind-eye to Israeli scientists training in nuclear science at American universities, then returning home. Now, we have a massive power imbalance in the region. We have radicalism. We have a population of indigenous Palestinians who are being erased. https://myfwc.com/hunting/bear/ Florida Fish and Wildlife vote to open up black bear hunting Terrible idea. Whenever a species starts making a comeback, people want to hunt them again. Black bears inhabit a fraction of their past range due to habitat loss, that is, human encroachment. Their numbers are roughly 1/3 of what they used to be. We have a few black bears who come into our backyard. They don't want to tangle with humans. They are just looking for food. My uncle told me how Fish and Wildlife Wisconsin smashed the eggs of the swans on their lake because they are "invasives." Fish and Wildlife is really into playing God. Apparently, they know the perfect balance for all living things though human population is not up for consideration. Animal populations must be reduced to accommodate our ever-expanding footprint on the earth. Tapping the Brakes on Racial Profiling With the recent Supreme Court decision, it seems that ICE can racially profile, which previously was considered discriminatory. So, if you’re a Canadian or Eastern European, I guess you’re much safer than someone with brown skin or those who speak Spanish in America. Hmmm… But I thought the goal was to kick out immigrants? Or is the goal to kick out certain immigrants?Probably Newsom and Shapiro, if they ever got together as a ticket, is the only hope for the Democratic Party, which has gone astray in recent years: Locking out a Palestinian speaker from the DNC; taking on fringe cultural issues that barely carry consensus even among their own party; and, of course, losing the working class vote to corporate Republicans who think capitalism will save the world. These items partly explain Democratic losses.The question becomes… when the Trump Administration shows so many characteristics that are consistent with fascism and authoritarianism, at what point does it fully become that which it is emulating? It’s an open question and one we will see play out, I’m sure.With people so dug-in, one might say, well, why post on social media at all? My answer to that is, even though people may not come around to your way of thinking, sometimes one or two things resonate which can cause that person to question the other assumptions.With a maelstrom swirling in front of us, where do we begin? Well, marching the National Guard into Democrat-run cities (when there are many examples of Republican-led cities with high crime) is obviously a political stunt and a setup. Giving them weapons, sets the stage for confrontation, which is what Trump wants. His hope is that the National Guard confronts a bad guy, perhaps shoots him, then Trump backs the police, the army, and the liberals back Black Lives Matter or whatever other movement that relates. Turning Ameircans against each other. Hmmm…Of course, if you march a bunch of guys in army fatigues into a city, yes, you will see a decline in crime while they are there. But the whole rhetoric of “We’re going in,” and then you see pictures of National Guard troops staring into space on street corners, is a bit disingenuous. Is this a good use of resources, or is it a Band-Aid, a blip in crime that will go back once they leave? We all know the real sources of crime—it’s primarily desperation, social reproduction (you need money to make money) and lowered aspirations.With racial profiling being legitimized by our high court, we know the outcome of creating a police state with ICE raids and a militarized police. The extrajudicial killing of supposed drug-runners on a boat in the Caribbean, most recently, points to how Trump is interested in symbolism more than long-term results. Good police work involves following leads, getting intel and sorting out the innocent from the guilty. It doesn’t involve summary executions of people we believe to be the bad guys.Worse, creating an expanded definition of “terrorism” and then applying it to gangs on our city streets or perhaps the anarchists of Seattle (I wouldn’t be surprised in Trump goes there) or even “radical liberals,” opens the door to the kinds of crackdowns and confrontations that Trump wants. Street gangs may be involved in any number of petty crimes including selling marijuana, graffiti, petty theft and so on. But now, with Trump, that all consitutes terror as a package, which means we can kill them.Similar to the immigration issue, what happened to due process? It’s a dangerous slide.As my wife likes to say, “if it acts like a duck, quacks like a duck… it probably is a duck,” and so, here we are, with a growing number of characteristics that match the fascists and authoritarians of the world. Summary executions. A militarized police/police-state. Racial profiling. An expanded definition of terror. And brewing controversy and strife, which then creates the need for a “strongman” to lead us to safety. Ultra Processed Food Conservatives like to point to Robert F. Kennedy’s critique of ultra processed foods as showing concern for regular every-day people, but what has RFK really done on this front? He’s released a report saying we should do various things, but there’s no plan or policy or action. The report can be thrown in the corner to collect dust.Meanwhile, he has rolled back science-based vaccine schedules, though he had to fire an entire panel of scientists to get it done. So, the vaccine protections against disease that we used to have, are no longer recommended, opening the door to insurance companies denying coverage and less access.We know the issue with ultra processed foods. The FDA basically allows the food industry to self-regulate through the “generally considered safe” rules, which let corporate scientists, obviously beholden to the folks who write their paycheck, decide what’s safe for you. Similar to environmental regulations, lots of things slip through.You don’t feel as full, as ultra processed foods bypass the mechanism in your brain that would say, ‘let’s stop eating.’ Worse, it’s empty calories. You’ve probably experienced opening a bag of chips and wanting to eat the whole bag. That’s not an accident. The foods are meant to be addictive, easily digested, leading to spikes in sugar.But diabetes isn’t the only health problem associated with ultra processed foods. There’s a whole host of health issues that go along with it.Any ingredient that you typically wouldn’t have in your kitchen already, that is, basically made in a lab, is probably not good for you. So, all of the fillers, artificial sweeteners, stabilizers, additives to extend shelf life (or save money), are junk. The less ingredients on a label—the better. My wife and I were marveling the other day about the shelf life of an ice cream we found being over one year. A dairy product that lasts 1+ years!But I see the allure. It’s cheaper. Actually, if you go GMO, it often gets even cheaper. There’s less spoilage. And, let’s face it, when you walk into Whole Foods and buy two bags of groceries, you have probably spent about $50. That’s pretty steep just to get plain fruits, vegetables and grains. If you were wondering why there’s a correlation between poverty and obesity, here’s your answer. Fast food. Cheap food. And expensive whole foods.But there’s a major cost, that isn’t money. It’s your health. Just as we’ve allowed for a proliferation of chemicals to be manufactured and used and disposed of into our waterways, air and soil, we’ve allowed labs to make our food. A slow poisoning? Yes, that’s probably not too dramatic, actually, if you really think about it.As one comedian remarked, why did we get the worst Kennedy? Yes, why did we? Let me know when his ideas about ultra processed food actually lead to banning an additive or a chemical or a stabilizer. For now, we just have talk. The Truth is Covered in Lies
After Trump won the last election, I have to admit that my first thought was self-interest: I can’t believe I’m going to have to listen to four years of this (the “Trump News”) each evening. Some say the last election was a referendum on the American media; that’s probably partly true.We’ve created a monster. How did women and Hispanics vote for Trump? Take notice of who’s under attack—it’s those with the least power. As my grandfather told me: “There’s nothing wrong with poor people, they’re just poor.” Wise words. We must have empathy for immigrants and the poor; after all, we don’t choose our parents or the country we’re born in or the neighborhood we grow up in.It’s easy to preach personal responsibility when you’ve been given everything. If you grew up with wealth, in a good school system, free of environmental contamination, why not preach “Every Man for Himself?” You can sustain yourself, so others should, too. But we understand that history, inheritance and structural inequality have dealt different hands to different folks.Where is the action on gun violence? This administration seems willing to flex their muscles on so many issues, ranging from cutting welfare to cutting healthcare subsidies to cutting international aid, but not guns? Hmmm… Oh, wait, we do have some Tweets from Trump about guns, (“It’s gotta stop,” or something like that) well, that should take care of it.Notice the issues we’re not tackling. We’re not moving forward on environmental issues. In fact, as we disassemble government, ask yourself, who does that benefit? The corporations who are regulated by government. If the government turns a blind eye to the meat industry, the tech industry, the chemical industry—that has a real effect on our health.Somehow, we could create a whole system of G, PG, PG-13 and rated R for cinema, but we can’t figure out how to do this for the Internet after all these years? What’s really troubling is—our existing regulations weren’t even doing the job on the environment. Our legal permit pollution system already causes cancer. Now, we’re gutting the EPA and denying climate change and that’s supposed to help?The rise of populism is part of the problem. Distrust of experts. Hints of this started during the Hillary Cinton campaign when she was labeled an “elite.” But don’t we want elite, smart, highly educated people making important decisions regarding our society? So, instead, we have a wide range of voices on the Internet, some with millions of followers, blasting out misinformation and mischaracterizations. While I applaud free speech, the New York Times’ old adage of “all of the news that’s fit to print” worked really well for a long time. At least people were fact-checking, and you knew the stories had been carefully reviewed before publication.By vilifying each other based on group membership, we open the door to extreme acts like the political violence we are seeing now. If I disagree with someone, I don’t hate them, I just disagree. Politics has bled into so many issues now, that it’s barely distinguishable from the political environment that I grew up with where taxes, the economy and foreign policy were the main issues, not race, ethnicity and gender.What’s wrong with a politician saying, “I don’t know, I’m really not sure,” when it comes to these various social issues, like gender. Why do Republicans feels so threatened by this? In my view, psychologists, pediatricians, schools and parents are doing a fine job on these issues already, so why do we need a white male politician weighing in on transgender issues? What do they know about it? Professional sports groups already have policies about steroid or testosterone use in athletes, so defer to them. If how to label a restroom is such a big issue, just put “toilet” on the sign and call it a day. By focusing on fringe cultural issues, it opens the door to Republicans first controlling the script, and second charging that Democrats are myopic. Democrats begin to look as if they are abandoning the rural vote; abandoning the working class vote; all because Democrats, in their wisdom, have decided to wade into issues that are really better left to professionals. Ah, there’s populism again, remember, the professionals don’t know what they’re doing, right?The entire university system is based on the idea that people will gain specialized knowledge in particular fields and help steer society in the right direction. If, on a populist wave, we reject these specialists—society will pay a heavy price. Trump just cancelled hundreds of wind and solar projects in states that voted for Kamala. Not based on science. Not based on highly specialized knowledge. Instead, based on political retribution. Absurd. Vaccines, which were always a scientific question, are now political. The jobs report that just came out demonstrates that hiring is not taking place. In fact, we’ve had a small loss in blue collar manufacturing jobs; so much for MAGA. This can be attributed to high tariffs on building materials; as the price tag increases, some developments get shelved. But also, as we deport immigrant labor, those people will, of course, not be showing up to work. The theory was that Americans would step up and take the blue collar jobs, according to Trump’s MAGA rhetoric. What Trump failed to understand is that Americans typically don’t want the jobs that immigrants were doing. Meat packing plants. Repetitive manual labor. Janitorial. Agricultural. Building. Unemployment has not dropped. But prices are higher. And, meanwhile, the American government is getting richer, but we’re not paying off our debt. So, where is all of this extra revenue going? All of the new fees on immigrants for visas; all of the laid off government workers (guess Trump won’t get their vote next time); the new tariff money? Who knows. Trump just keeps squeezing any group who can’t fight back in the courts which he’s stacked in his favor (notice, he’s not squeezing the white collar workers). We should all thank immigrants for their contribution to America. All of the varied jobs they do. Literally putting food on our plates. Cleaning office buildings and schools. It’s a long list.The message of this administration is division based on group membership. It’s us against them. We need to free our minds from that nonsense. The best thing we could teach our children is that there is no us and them. I don’t hate the Chinese. Why do politicians and the media consistently demonize them? There are too many examples like this. Let’s refocus Democratic politics to reflect our true priorities. Don’t get caught up in the Trump whirlwind. We need environmental protection far beyond what we’re doing now. We need to protect animals from a human society that treats them as objects to be used as we see fit; we need to stop animal experimentation. We must get Trump to focus on gun violence at schools and churches. We must thank immigrants for what they do for America, not deport them or charge them giant visa fees or detain them. We have to step away from Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza and recognize that they’ve gone too far, that they used Oct. 7th as a pretext for ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. We need to stand with Ukraine. We absolutely have to steer away from fringe cultural and social issues that are losers politically and that our own party hasn’t even reached consensus on. Republicans use issues like this to drive a wedge between Democrats and their would-be voters. We need to get back to basics: Free or very inexpensive ungraduate education for all; free or very inexpensive basic healthcare for all; very inexpensive basic housing for all. Right now, we have a giant giveaway to corporations going on in the form of deregulation. Regulations are there to protect us, so when they are rolled back or regulators are fired, this directly impacts us. We have businessmen in charge of government, and they are raising revenue for themselves pulling various levers of government. There is wild insider trading; public policy is being manipulated so the chosen few can profit. America is involved in extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean (no trial, no investigation, killed on the spot without any evidence provided) and Trump is threatening to turn the military on Americans who are too liberal. This must stop. All of the alarm bells should be ringing. We can’t ignore it any longer. As much as I want to tune out and stop listening, stop watching, I can’t. Because we’re about to wake up to a world where the government has censored the media (the FCC chair has already threatened pulling broadcaster licenses if a station disparages the president), where the military is used against our own citizens, where our environment is traded for short-term profit and groups are demonized based on race and ethnicity. It’s a populist America where the truth is covered in lies. Let’s Leave Them Alone On Thursday, Sept. 25th, 2025 CBS News ran a story about Morgan Island, a colony of 4,000 “federally owned” rhesus monkeys who are destined for lab experiments. They will be taken from their home in nature and put into isolation, subjected to experimental drugs. Some will die and be disposed of later in the name of science.In a cruel twist of irony, as the reporter drifted up to the island with a representative from White Coat Waste, a nonprofit against the testing, the camera panned across to show a sign which read: “Do Not Molest, Feed, Approach or Injure Monkeys.” Yes, because the researchers apparently exclusively have that right! Do you think these monkeys know that they are “federally owned?” Proponents rarely discuss the fact that much animal research is directed towards highly marketable drugs, not necessarily life saving ones. The rage in new diet drugs being advanced to market came from lots of animal suffering. These drugs are often used electively in our society.There are many alternatives to animal tests, many of which have proven quite effective. Actually, voluntary human tests or clinical trials are very common and you don’t have to try and infer results across species. We should never sacrifice our ethics in the name of science. Let’s leave them alone. Netanyahu in One SentenceAll that you need to know about Netanyahu is that, at his hand, 20,000+ children were killed in Gaza and 30,000+ children were injured. October 31, 2025 Tomorrow, the lower class will lose SNAP benefits, (about 13 million children live in poverty in the U.S.), the middle class will wake up to much higher health insurance premiums on the ObamaCare marketplace (Republican non-renewal of subsidies) and the upper class will get deregulation across industries as the federal workforce is taken apart. One issue that the Democrats face, is that they’ve allowed Republicans to define them. In a world where millions of dollars gets pumped into dozens of digital channels, it’s easy to see how the wealthy can control the message.I got to know a lawyer at work, and we would chat sometimes. He told me that he was a conservative, at some point in our conversation, and I told him I wasn’t. We both laughed and continued to talk. That’s how it used to be.There’s actually lots of common ground. The division is being pronounced by both sides in order to serve certain goals. Strife and contentiousness leads to conflict which justifies more powers for the state. Here are some examples of common ground:If you want to examine entitlement programs and make sure those who are receiving benefits really need or deserve them, liberals are on board for that. We also don’t want waste or fraud.If you want to deport criminals who don’t have valid immigration status, yes, liberals agree that criminals should be deported!When the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was proposed, I was against. Why do we need yet another federal agency that doesn’t talk to the others? Why not just empower and add funding to the FBI and CIA instead? Yet, somehow, conservatives have plastered liberals with the image of always wanting more government. Not true.
November 5, 2025 While Trump builds marble and gold bathrooms, Mamdani puts forth a concrete solution to hunger and poverty: city-run grocery stores to bring nutrition and access to NYC communities. While Hegseth tells us that many women aren’t strong enough to serve in the military, an ex-CIA officer (Spanberger in Virginia) and an ex-U.S. Navy helicopter pilot (Sherrill in NJ) rise to power.There is a great debate among Democrats, whether to move towards a moderate approach (read: John Kerry) or embrace the core ideals of Democrats in a more aggressive progressive push (Sanders). Trump proves that moving towards the middle doesn’t always win elections. Perhaps would-be candidates like Newsom and Mamdani are onto something.The idea of a basic level of housing, food, education and medicine for all is widely accepted, even by many Republicans. The fact that Sanders had 17%-20% support of the U.S. vote as a candidate shows that about 1 in 5 people are firmly on board with this idea. So how do we execute this is the question?While Trump would have you focus on “Democrat-run cities” where crime is out of control, as he says, there are tons of examples to the contrary. If you look at Massachusetts, we are far ahead on providing these four basic elements to all. It’s an imperfect system, but our state shows that liberal policies can have great results in terms of workforce, education and overall enjoyment of life.There are three things standing in the way of fair education for all: 1) the alumni system, 2) the real estate tax funding system, and 3) the rating of public schools by the Department of Education which factors into the exclusion of A and B students from high level colleges, just because of where they grew up. Massachusetts has tried to sidestep this vast structural issue with school choice. Again, it’s imperfect, but it helps. Local communities will never agree to transferring their wealth to other communities (property taxes), but it is understood that on the state and federal level, money could flow more to communities in need. While some might call this redistribution, I call it needs-based funding and leveling the playing field. The government has always existed in order to direct us towards the common good, and that relates to education as well as markets. Reducing inequality is a common good.There isn’t time in a post like this to look at housing and medicine and food, but I think Mamdani’s approach of putting pressure on grocers to offer low-cost basic items, or to forfeit that market, is a good one. We know, for instance, that McDonald’s has historically targeted an African American market and that fast food, diabetes and poor nutrition is the result of dropping fast food places into food desert neighborhoods.On housing, we have to look at how zoning and yes, sometimes, environmental policies serve as a sneaky way to keep certain groups out, and ramp up real estate prices by creating scarcity. Suburban white neighborhoods often designate large swaths of land as unbuildable conservation (a good goal in theory, but it has exclusionary repercussions). Also, through zoning, they limit building up as in apartment buildings in order to maintain their “town character” and for “quality of life” reasons (Read: racism, xenophobia and not wanting those kinds of people in our town).Actually, this is linked to the education issue. With school choice here, it would be wonderful if principal and town surveys went out to parents ahead of the school year asking their intentions. How will the transportation issue be handled (perhaps a city bus run)? Could the property tax per pupil be sent to the neighboring high performing school where the student is transferring so they can expand on what's working? This creates an incentive for bad schools to shape up. Also, the Department of Education should really keep their metrics on schools internal, as a goalpost for their own funding mechanisms. That is, splashing it all around the Internet and to College Admissions that a school is under-performing is not the way forward. The way forward is to free up state and federal dollars to go to the under-performing schools. Yes, pedagogy is also a relevant topic, but paying more to get good teachers is key. A good teacher will find a way to bring real learning into the classroom.Medicine, again, a huge topic, but it’s clear that we need a basic level of care for all. When I was growing up there were HMOs. Many people have low to mid-level problems that are not costly, but they need care. There must be a way to provide basic clinic services to all, then, if the wider population wants to have a discussion about drugs that cost tens of thousands of dollars, or expensive high-tech surgery, we should have that conversation. But there’s no question that the U.S. could and should provide basic everyday healthcare to all.
Picking up on my last post, and because so many Americans are facing massive hikes in their health insurance, it’s worth considering some solutions. Massachusetts has a mandate and we all must prove that we are insured each tax year. If that’s a bridge too far politically for the nation, we could at least have a mandate for catastrophic coverage. This would knock out a number of issues leading to high prices.Having a mandate means that everyone is in the system, which generates a baseline of money for insurance companies, who then can lower regular premiums. We pay for it either way. If we don’t do it, then we pay for it each time a hospital closes (which is often, nowadays) and we pay for it in charity care costs—your federal or state tax money.The notion that a bill for care should be a different price depending on the payer is absurd, and yet, it’s a basic tenet of our capitalist economy which rewards economies of scale. Google or the government pay less for care because they have a big pool of buyers. Health insurance companies don’t care if Todd Fiorentino drops coverage; it’s nothing to them. Most employers are in the middle, with slightly reduced healthcare costs.When people say, let’s expand Medicare, what they are really acknowledging is that the government has clout, it has the numbers to get a decent rate, in the same way that government is able to lower your drug costs. A catastrophic coverage mandate across the nation means that the biggest bills, such as that of a car accident, are covered. That’s critical. Everyone pays in, at a reasonable rate, and society is protected as a whole.I say picking up on my last post, because in that, I mention how we need basic healthcare for all. Now you see how basic clinic-style healthcare matches up with catastrophic coverage. Yes, there’s still lots of stuff in the middle that’s not a sore throat and isn’t a car crash, but it’s a good starting point. In truth, the philanthropic sector; non-profits; drug company grant and research programs; government initiatives, do create a mosaic of coverage. Like most things, of course, in our society, you have to be “in the know” and have the literacy and resourcefulness to apply. But it’s a piece of the puzzle.When the Covid money came through, I found myself wondering how many homeless people were able to get checks. Did they log on to the computer, enter their address??, and their tax information??, and have the check mailed somewhere? Hmmm… I doubt it. But that’s true of so many things in our capitalist culture. Both the Democrats and Republicans talk about the middle class constantly. Everything seems to be for the middle class. Why?There’s a simple answer. The upper class wants to remain invisible. The less talk of them, the better. In fact, when class issues come up, somehow, the conversation always seems to get swept away by some bizarre statement that Trump makes, that even he isn’t serious about. The upper class prefers to work silently through thinktanks and lobbyists who insert a line or two here, write a report there, and so on. Next thing you know we have Project 2025. Or we have a big subsidy, some corporate welfare. Or we have public lands opened up for exploitation and clean energy projects canceled. And so it goes.The lower class, well, they have so little political power that no one even talks about them. When the SNAP benefits came up, there were interviews on the news of people decrying that they were about to lose a $42 benefit in some cases. That’s quite sad when you think about the size of our Pentagon budget, for instance. But yes, let’s cut that $42 payment to a poor person. We need to give some corporation the gift of no tax bill for 10 years because they leveraged our state against one of the others in a race to the bottom. Trump dismantled USAID, meanwhile, in Sudan: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162226 Jan. 6, 2026: Today, we nabbed Maduro in Venezuela. If this is our criterion for grabbing world leaders and invading the sovereignty of another country (that is, they are corrupt and may be involved in illicit activities) then it’s going to be a long list. Putin is a war criminal who we invite to the White House periodically for drinks and discussion. Netanyahu is certainly a war criminal who we treat the same. Colombia’s higher-ups are very likely involved in drug smuggling and corruption. Beyond these various arguments, it’s also worth pointing out that the U.S. manufactures lots of illegal drugs and sends them overseas. It’s Americans who are driving the demand for drugs. Until we address the raw economic decisions being made by poor farmers (grow rice or corn for pennies or Coca or poppy for mega money), the problem won’t go away. If you heard the NPR report interviewing fishermen in the Caribbean then you know just how terrifying our GBU-54s and whirring drones overhead can be for simple folk looking to feed their family. No due process; no Congressional oversight or involvement. Just a bunch of pundits saying, "I think that was illegal...."Finally, as I look at the past few weeks of Trumpism, one thing is salient: If you look hard enough for something, almost anything, in our world, you will find it. So, if Nigerians and Somalians in the U.S. are in the news for fraud, well, yes, I’m sure that goes on. But, on the bright side, we caught them, so they are being prosecuted. Will Trump be shining a bright spotlight on white collar corporate crime? Will there ever be an ICE raid at a Trump hotel to check the status of their housekeeping operation? No, of course not. So just realize, you're getting the news stories that Trump wants you to get. The investigations are directed in a specific way. Our news is highly curated. Jan. 7, 2026 Let’s recap:Move at least 8 military vessels including giant aircraft carriers off the coast of Venezuela (15,000 personnel)Murder, yes, murder Alleged drug-smugglers, terrorizing and intimidating local fishermen in the Caribbean with high tech undisclosed weaponry from the skiesInvade sovereignty of Venezuela and threaten more invasions, taking Maduro, causing blackouts, casualties unknown but we know people were shotClaim this is all related to drugs, ignoring the fact that the U.S. itself is a major drug producer and exporter; ignore that U.S. demand drives the drug trade; ignore that impoverished farmers competing with multinational agribusiness are choosing between growing corn or rice for pennies or poppies and coca for real moneyInsist that Venezuela “sell” their oil (or give U.S. corporations favorable terms for exploitation and extraction) to the U.S. instead of China, wait a minute, I thought this was about drugs… ah, yes, it was never about drugs, lots of foreign countries produce drugsDrop a bunch of CIA operatives in their sovereign country then claim we’re not involved in regime change, while criticizing foreign meddling in U.S. electionsAccept praise from Netanyahu (you know you're doing wrong if Netanyahu is clapping for you), wine and dine Putin, and generally, return to imperialism If our criteria for playing world-policeman is corruption (or drug producing), that's a very long list Of Note: CBS pulled their special report on the El Salvador prison where the Trump administration sent detainees from the U.S. We all understand the links between corporate CBS and Trump. Unfortunately, CBS bowed to pressure and pulled it.
January 18, 2026 How does one even respond to Trump’s desire for Greenland. “No.” I guess that’s the best way. But seriously, aside from this being a clear attempt to distract attention from his mismanaged and deadly immigration sweep, Denmark is a NATO ally. The idea that we need to take over Greenland for our national security is pure myth. We already have an alliance with them. Europe is staunchly behind Denmark. Of course they are! Trump is threatening tariffs on any European country who backs Denmark, which is nearly every country in Europe. All this will do is touch off a trade war. The Europeans will retaliate with their own U.S. tariffs. But there’s more at stake than this silly brinkmanship.Trump is following in the wake of Xi Jinping and Putin, both of whom threaten and occasionally carry out violations to the sovereignty of other countries. China has been making noise about Taiwan for decades and they have already moved into various islands, owned by the Philippines, in the South China Sea. Putin invaded Ukraine with the same pretense that Trump is claiming: it was a matter of national security. Whatever.As an aside, I just watched the Kim Jong Un documentary on National Geographic. Highly recommended. Stunning stuff. Trump had a real opportunity which he squandered (though he did get his photo ops). In the last Trump presidency, Kim Jong Un was really coming out, meeting with foreign leaders and expressed a willingness to deal. Unfortunately, Trump took a hard-line approach, all or nothing, that is, he wanted Kim Jong Un to dismantle North Korea’s entire nuclear program. Of course he would never do that. It’s his one point of leverage, that keeps foreign powers like the U.S. at the gates. But also, he’s committed years and tons of resources to building such an arsenal. Still, Kim Jong Un offered to dismantle a major nuclear plant, which is a starting point. Deals have to be made incrementally. We could have easily offered to lift part of the sanctions, those pertaining to food and medicine, for instance, in exchange for this concession. But no, both leaders walked and North Korea continues to be isolated, now building a massive nuclear sub that will be able to reach anywhere in the world. (By the way, will having Greenland stop a nuclear sub from popping up in the Pacific? Seems like a valid question.)So, I see Greenland as yet another Trump foreign policy blunder. And, a major distraction from the real news, which is that ICE is going door-to-door in Minneapolis, sweeping up law-abiding immigrants (despite the election campaign’s focus on immigrants involved in crime) in a style not dissimilar to what Hitler did. It’s worth asking the question: When there’s a church or school shooting, which is pretty often in America, and the culprit is white (also common), we don’t say, ‘okay, let’s crack down on white people.’ Consider that. So often, it’s a slow slide towards fascism and authoritarianism. If you’re not sure what that looks like, take a look at the state of our nation right now. January 19, 2026 “This is always a dangerous exercise in totalitarianism, since weeds and flowers are likely to change places in the blink of an autocrat’s eye.”- From Atwood’s introduction to Zamyatin’s book, WeFeeling Duped? Try Reinterpreting RealityIf I were a Trump voter, I would be feeling pretty duped right now. To be responsible for all of this stuff? Wow, that would weigh heavily on my conscience.Luxury brands are doing great, did you hear? Yes, payback for the millionaires and billionaires who supported Trump’s candidacy has been sweet.How has it been for the working class voters who got sucked in by the messages? Not that great. That populist wave: the salesmanship we saw from Trump strategists, hyper-powered by money, where did it lead us? Well, distrusting elites, a tenet of populism, may have great marketing appeal, but it’s generally not that smart. When someone seeks high levels of knowledge in a particular subject, spending 30 or 40 years in school, that tends to be a very positive thing for their community. Would you really rather go see a quack instead of a doctor? Do you really want “the common man” piloting your next flight? I think not. I agree there are problems with knowledge getting stuck in the Ivory Tower, or specialized conversations happening in small groups that never reach the public. Yes, there are some very smart people who we never hear from. And that’s too bad. But that doesn’t lead to the overall argument that elites are bad, and that we should trust everyday hacks with serious decisions that affect America. But people fell for it. Of course, it’s not all their fault. With algorithms, and all kind of high-tech ways to capture your data, they know exactly which buttons to push—and it worked! There’s just no question that Elon Musk or others like him can generate 10,000 votes with a quick signature on a check. That’s the world we live in.So, here we are, with buyer’s regret; how might someone respond psychologically? Double down, of course. And that’s what we’re seeing. Massive cognitive dissonance all around. Reality reinterpreted into a tailspin. (It’s hardly worth repeating the mythologies and giving them energy. We all already know them.)The single issue voters, the evangelicals, the fundamentalists… women who voted for Trump despite clear misogyny… Hispanics who voted for Trump because he was “a businessman,” the shining knight, the white man bringing prosperity to all—He will know how to drive the economy. So much foolishness. People couldn’t stomach a woman president. They couldn’t stomach a minority president. While I can’t help but worry about the next three years, wondering if something instantly catastrophic is coming, there’s also a high likelihood of this scenario: The slow chipping away of our rights, exploitation of the environment, a return to imperialism, the crackdown of dissent/free press and the continued Aryan mission of ICE. Just remember, the camera often spins with these regimes. As Atwood says, you may be raising your fist now, joining the chants, but it may not always be that way. January 21, 2026 Security is not based on might--it's based on treating your neighbors fairly. Knowing that nearly all of Europe is on our side in the case of major warfare is worth way more than whatever tariff money we could try to squeeze. Just think, the only reason why we didn't go into Syria during Obama was because Russia backed Syria. Trashing alliances to extract money is never smart. Have you seen any of the tariff money? January 22, 2026 There's no question we should catch and prosecute fraud, but 70 people, with one of the ringleaders (Bock) being a white woman, hardly justifies a massive ICE crackdown on minorities in Minneapolis. More likely, what we're seeing is Trump's hatred for Democrats and black people acted out. After all, you can be white and an immigrant, but those people don't get swept up or profiled. I've been to Minneapolis a couple of times and never felt threatened. It just seemed like a small Midwestern city with a vibrant downtown. As my wife said, "Is Minneapolis somehow the epicenter of the immigration issue?" For decades, Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Immigrants with valid claims (e.g. asylum, refugee status, etc.) should've had a path to citizenship that didn't involve paying a small fortune or waiting 5-10 years. Now, we're facing threats to our 4th amendment rights (ICE will enter houses without a judge's warrant according to recent memo leaked). January 30, 2026 NBC News Reports: Two federal law enforcement sources told NBC News that DHS would take the lead on investigating Pretti's shooting with the Justice Department and the FBI assisting. This is a departure from standard procedure and raises questions about whether there will be a criminal civil rights investigation; normally, the FBI would take the lead in a shooting involving a DHS officer. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is also investigating.Let's take this apart for a moment:DHS is in control of ICE, so saying that DHS will investigate is basically saying that we will investigate ourselves. Not acceptable.ICE claiming that people with cars and cell phones are a threat to them. That's basically all of us. Pretti had "unholstered" his cell phone and Good was driving away.We know what's going on. Don't believe the propaganda. ICE is tackling protesters to the ground then claiming they are "resisting arrest." Raising your hands because an ICE agent is punching you in the face is not resisting arrest. January 31, 2026 Google AI discussion of Trump's 10B lawsuit against the Department of Revenue. (Trump is mad that -- it was disclosed -- he paid a mere $750 in taxes for 2016 and 2017). If you need a clear definition of corruption, this should suffice:Based on reports surrounding the $10 billion lawsuit filed by Donald Trump against the IRS and Treasury Department in January 2026, it is reasonable to assume he will have significant influence over whether it settles. Direct Control of Involved Agencies: The lawsuit is against the Treasury Department and IRS, which are part of the Executive Branch that President Trump leads.Trump's Public Statements: Following the filing of the suit, Trump stated in October 2025 regarding similar litigation that “I’m the one that makes a decision. And, you know, that decision would have to go across my desk”."Paying Himself": Trump noted the unusual nature of the suit, stating, “It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself,” referring to the settlement funds coming from the government he heads.Likely Outcome: Observers, including reports from The Washington Post, suggest a likely outcome is a settlement with the Department of Justice, which Trump has indicated works for him. While the suit is filed in his personal capacity regarding tax leaks from 2018-2020, as the head of the executive branch, he effectively oversees the agencies that would decide to settle the case. February 3, 2026 If you have a NY Times subscription, I highly recommend the recent Editorial Board appraisal of just how much Trump has profited from the presidency in this one year. Here are the first three paragraphs:President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests.A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.A few notes of my own:It's worth thinking about a couple of presidents from the past for comparison. The NY Times article mentions how Truman didn't even have a car when he left office and lived off a small military pension for some time. I think of Carter, the peanut farmer. We've plunged headlong into a new multiverse where policy and profit are intimately connected.There are so many shells by which countries and foreign investors can get access to the U.S. and buy influence via Trump. When Trump is questioned on these shells (e.g. the Board of Peace where it takes a 1B payment to join, and has attracted the likes of Putin and Lukashanko, maybe not the first people you think of when you consider world peace...), he always says something to the extent of, 'I have no idea what x, y, z member of the Trump family is involved in' as if he never speaks to them. It's all extremely hard to believe.What's even more stunning, is that he swept to victory on yes, corporate money, but also working-class fury and populist beliefs. Did Trump bring coal back to the heartland as promised (as if that's even a worthy goal!)? He recently was trumpeting how robots will fill the jobs at car plants, so, in other words, don't worry that we're deporting a whole bunch of labor with ICE! Will these robots help the working class, the blue-collar worker? Mandatory Payouts to the Defense if Lawsuit is Baseless/Meritless As I’ve watched Musk and Trump sue countless individuals, non-profits, press organizations and companies for all kinds of “wrongs,” it’s increasingly clear that we need legal reform. If a suit is baseless and has been determined to have no merit by a judge, there should be an automatic payout to the defense based on a good faith estimate, created by the judge, of costs incurred regarding time/money.It turns out that 10B is the go-to figure for Trump. He has a few 10B cases pending now, although he did throw in a 5B one recently for good measure. Musk has also bankrupted and bullied his way to the top. Defendants often remark that being innocent is not enough; the time/money cost, not to mention mental anguish is enough to make them settle. In many cases, Trump and Musk already know they aren’t going to win. Winning is a nice bonus if it happens; perhaps they get a sympathetic judge (that comes easier when you’re the one appointing the judges). But the main goal is to exact punishment, to tie up the time and mind space of those who oppose you—to drain their bank accounts.Our current system allows countersuits (even more money, and now you stoop to their tactics) as well as civil suits, but perhaps that’s not enough anymore. In the present environment where mega wealth is dripping into everything, we need automatic payouts to the defense for baseless/meritless lawsuits. Trump has also used the appeal in order to slow everything down. Jack Smith had the goods on Trump—enough to exact major fines and up to 10 years in jail. But through appeals, Trump was able to slow down the process enough whereby eventually he won re-election then went to (his) Supreme Court for immunity. Staying in office is Trump’s way to avoid paying for his crimes. So, it’s no wonder he wants to “nationalize” the elections now.However, I also have to fault Jack Smith. He had two years to make that court case happen. If he fell prey to these tactics, and allowed the court case to go off the rails for two years, it’s his fault, too. And it’s the fault of the judge who didn’t bring it to trial fast enough. Trump ran out the clock.If Trump now wants to sue the Department of Revenue, any judge worth their salt should tell him that he must wait until he is no longer president. Our legal system, like our political system, has become a pawn for billionaires to command at will, exacting revenge on anyone who might oppose them. Just as it is (silently) understood that one must pay to curry favor with Trump, not playing the game has a cost as well. Trump’s pet projects await funding (Memorial Circle Arch, anyone?). Nothing really good for the country, but great for his ego. March 2, 2026 Thoughts on PeaceYou can’t bomb your way to peace.Peace is something you have to feel in your heart.We must exchange views with “our enemy,” debate, and consider their grievances.We must take every opportunity to prove them wrong about us.We can come together as a world.Perhaps we accept parts of their critique and they accept parts of ours.Is there cultural pollution and hyper-consumerism in the West? I think we could accept that. We must acknowledge the fallout of our lifestyle and habits. We must change. Should your sister and mother and daughter have access to education? Iran is waking up to this. They must acknowledge that the world has changed.Do you notice that human rights is not a pretense for war with China or Russia? Do you notice that it is a pretense in countries where we seek to fulfill our imperial objectives, where they do not have long-range missiles and nukes? The message of this war in Iran is that countries without nukes and long-range missiles are vulnerable--pursue it at all costs. You don’t see the U.S. invading North Korea.Some say that we’re all worshipping the same God, just by different names. This could be a way in to talking with other cultures about how to make a more peaceful world.War is no longer fought with tanks and machine guns. It’s fought with computers and sleeper cells and drones and sound weapons and chemical and biological agents. We may have a “strong” military now, but countries rise and fall. We could find ourselves on the other side of the equation one day. Will we then be a proponent of imperialism, of taking down governments we dislike, of invading sovereignty and violating international law? We must learn to connect with non-secular societies, with cultures that have organized in a way contrary to consumer capitalism. If broad sanctions were lifted, would socialist countries still fail? Is a spiritual basis for society always a bad foundation for politics? The idea that we can just drop some bombs and fix our relationships is foolish. In fact, quite the contrary. It creates enemies for life as we’ve seen in Gaza, and as we’re now seeing in Iran.
March 7, 2026 175 children were killed at a primary school in Minab, southern Iran in a U.S. airstrike. (AlJazeera and UNICEF reports) March 12, 2026 If it all sounds like a bad Hollywood plot, well, that’s because it is, but it’s also real life now: They killed his wife, his child, his father, mother and sister, now they want him. Yes, America and Israel assassinated Ali Khamenei in a broad attack that included 2,000+ targets (including Iranian ships in international waters in India, apparently), leaving his son, Mojtaba Khamenei behind to presumably—deal justice?That’s how war is. It’s a cycle. My take is this: Ali was in his mid-80s. He was going to die within the next 5 years. We could’ve let an organic revolution or movement take place, from the people of Iran, with his passing. But no. We let Israel basically pull our strings like a puppet. Now, the headlines about America, read much like the headlines we’ve been reading about Israel in Gaza. Only now, it’s the U.S. in Iran.If you didn’t get a chance to read the NY Times today, here’s a few salient points. The human toll is deeply troubling. The U.S., under Hegseth, used old intelligence when creating the target list. Even though the school was clearly marked (even low resolution satellites would pick up the signage out front, painted pavement with sporting equipment, children going to/from, etc.); yet, it was still targeted and hit by a Tomahawk missile. The result: 152 fatalities, including dozens of young girls, primary school age, dead in Minab.In Beirut, which was at a near cease-fire before we attacked Iran—now we see some 800,000 people displaced; Turkey is under incredible immigration pressure from Iranians fleeing. The NY Times also covered the price tag of this elective war. It’s about 1 billion per day. Cultural centers are being destroyed and Iranian history/artifacts are being erased. Since hitting the fuel depots, there has been black rain and choking smoke. The desalination plants have been hit leading to undrinkable water in various areas.If your point of view is that the Iranians want us there, you better think again. When you hit 2,000+ targets, many of which are in urban areas, you can bet we’re hitting all kinds of civilian targets and essential services. Human Rights Watch or the NY Times may tell us about a few civilian strikes, but we all know lots go unreported. Pete Hegseth sounds like a mad man when he talks. Have you noticed? How long will we follow him? March 17, 2026 I was just thinking about Steve Hartman’s All the Empty Rooms documentary about school shootings; so often, we talk about atrocities in terms of numbers. But art like this really makes it real.It’s hard not to make the connection to war. When people are killed in Israel, Gaza, Iran and now the U.S., too often we discount this as “the cost of war.” We talk about it in terms of, well, yes, that has to happen in order for us to… whatever.No, it doesn’t have to happen. I’m not a Utopian, but I am an idealist. There were wars in the past that were worth fighting. This elective war in Iran is certainly not one of them. And it begs, the all-important question: Who are we killing? Really think about that. Who is it that we’re killing? Do we know those children? Do we know those adults? Do we know their dreams, their hopes, what they loved, who they loved? March 19, 2026 Now the rhetoric has turned to "conquering Iran." Is that our goal?Yahoo News reports:The US-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) reported 3,114 people had been killed in Iran as of 17 March – including 1,138 military personnel and 1,354 civilians, of which at least 207 were children. Another 622 fatalities were "unclassified" (civilian/military).Status of oil tankers (Google AI):Over 100 tankers are idling or trapped. Based on reports surrounding the Iran-U.S. conflict in early 2026, around 15 to 20 oil tankers and energy-related vessels were attacked, damaged, or lost in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding Gulf waters within the first two weeks of March 2026. The U.S. didn't seem to anticipate this and is playing catch-up now... it's hard to know what the environmental impact will be of blowing up massive fuel depots and the widespread oil spills into the Indian Ocean.Civilian infrastructure is being targeted. Injury statistics are very high as we create a new generation of disabled young people. The only reason to hit civilian infrastructure like the energy sector, desalination plants, etc. is if the goal really is to conquer. But I've heard lots of mixed goals so it's difficult to know and it will be even harder to judge.After all of this, I guess we're going to cross our fingers and hope that a new regime that is friendly to Israel and America comes to be?? That is the most nonsensical thing I've ever heard. Countries don't have to love America. The hope is that we tolerate one another. Through trade and cultural transfer and travel and literacy (and the next generation), we can make great strides. Through bombs, we go back to the age of conquest, imperialism and barbarism. March 21, 2026 It’s happening again. During the Gaza war, I was in a Biopolitics graduate class at SUNY, Albany. I remember bringing in a quote from the Israeli Defense Minister saying, “We are fighting against animals.” Yesterday, on the news, Trump said we are fighting animals in Iran.There’s no way to explore this in full here, but this is obviously dehumanizing. It also calls into question hierarchical thinking, in general, with its roots going all the way back to the Bible where man is given dominion over the Earth and animals. Man is also given authority over women…It’s wildly convenient and wonderful that mankind finds itself at the top. It gives us the right to do whatever we like.What’s really happening in Iran? If you see a news clip and it has a handful of people chanting “death to America” or “death to Israel,” did you make the mental leap to: All Iranians hate Americans and Israelis? Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. That means that over half of America is in line with her politics. Countries are divided and diverse. We can’t leap to massive generalizations.When you look at the pictures of Gaza now—a wasteland of rubble and poverty; don’t you wonder how Iran will look after this war? An estimated 9,000 targets have been hit in Iran so far. What will be left behind? In Gaza, it’s abject poverty with no safety net. I’ve read reports of people boiling twigs or eating grass to survive. Yes, that’s right, living like “animals.” March 22, 2026 The Iranian people are guilty of allowing a false government to take the reins of power. Americans are guilty of the same thing. Change will have to come from within. A foreign power coming in and killing a mix of civilians and government officials, will not work, largely because the reformists or revolutionaries are being killed, too. With the destruction of that much infrastructure, what will the new government, presumably of young people, have to work with in Iran? Does a viable new party even exist? March 23, 2026 The U.S. has often jumped out against socialism and communism to protect corporate interests. Our current embargo on Cuba, where we stopped allowing Venezuelan oil to flow there, leading to massive power outages, is an example. Russia has filled the void, selling them oil, which helps to finance their war in Ukraine. We've funded Islamic fighters in Afghanistan (against the Russians), who then morphed into the Taliban. We've done some extremely questionable things on the global stage, no question. Now, regarding Iran, if we (the U.S. and Israel) turn Iran in rubble, like what happened in Gaza, all hope is lost. Either way, we've now created a mortal enemy probably for life. The jinni is out of the bottle regarding nukes, so what it really comes down to is diplomacy and negotiating in good faith. I believe that the deeper causes of war with Palestine/Gaza and Iran relate to the U.S. and Israel not wanting to negotiate in good faith with either country. Knocking them back to the stone age is our way of saying that. March 24, 2026 There was a shooting recently in Berkshire County, not far from us. The victim was scared that the police were going to come shoot him, and he even called the FBI to assert this. The police did come, as the victim was obviously having a mental break, and they did end up shooting him. Stories like this... very difficult to process. It does remind me of our war with Iran, in a sense. We're afraid-afraid-afraid that they're going to hit us, so we strike. And then, they really do try to kill us. In psychology, it's called the self-fulfilling prophecy. The U.S. and Israel, we're like that guy experiencing a mental break. Fear turning on itself. Fears given so much energy, they become reality.
March 27, 2026 I can only image that Kim Jong Un is thinking to himself, 'yes, I did it right,' looking at Iran. North Korea has poured money into long range ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. While its population desperately needs social programs: medicine, good housing, stable food, etc. they've pursued weapons to stave off the threat from the West. Kim Jong Un must really feel vindicated looking at Iran. April 4, 2026 Why are Republicans so pro state rights on certain issues, and not others? It's an interesting question. Trump is suing (surprised?) three states who have sought to regulate so-called "prediction markets" because he wants a federal body, that he controls, to oversee them. Oversee is perhaps not the right word... but you get the idea.Trump claims that although these sites allow betting, it's not gambling. Hmmm, I'll let the lawyers figure that one out.Add cryptocurrency to the mix and you get a system that lacks accountability. Add the fact that Trump's son in law is heavily involved in the industry and you get, well, not just the appearance of corruption, but corruption itself.This is all, not even to mention, the clearly immoral aspect of some of this betting. Would you like to place a wager on how many people starve to death in Sudan? That we will grab Maduro (there were big bets on that one)? That we will attack Iran? People have made a small fortune with the click of a mouse.In a society where we know that certain people have high access to information, and others have very little or have wonderful access to misinformation, we have to question this. If you want to bet $20 on your favorite sports team, that's one thing. If you want to bet $400,000 that we will attack Iran in the next three days, that's a whole different thing.Insider trading goes on, we know. Over drinks after the board meeting; in the sauna; perhaps even during a phone call to a second cousin. Hard to trace? Absolutely. Tell a friend. Tell a distant relative. Personally, I would ban prediction markets all together. But short of that, it at least has to be regulated. We need investigations to be fully funded and we need laws to prevent this. April 7, 2026 If we continue to hit infrastructure targets like bridges and power plants in Iran, we will create a failed state. This type of chaos and power vacuum in the Middle East (already destabilized by a power imbalance: Israel with nukes) will spell disaster. The U.S. and Israel have never wanted to deal fairly with Palestine or Iran. Trump's idea of a deal is "unconditional surrender." Of course, a non-starter and it's meant to be. Incursions into sovereign land was the norm for Israel, but that doesn't mean we need to join them. It was also the norm for the U.S. during colonialism, which apparently we haven't left in our rearview mirror. As Trump seeks to erase and revise history (e.g. failed attempt to remove slavery exhibits in Philadelphia), we see the broader context of his policies. Why the attack on cultural and educational institutions? Because they are upholding a truth that Trump seeks to undo. If we can deny racism and colonialism, that is, our past, then ICE's Aryan mission becomes simply enforcing the law; the travel bans become simply a matter of national security (why so many African countries?); and adventures in the Middle East become defending America (but wait, was Iran threatening America; are we to understand that their drones were going to fly over the ocean and explode in our cities? I think not.) Foreign adventurism. It's making for some odd bedfellows, that's for sure, as even Republicans start to wake up to this boondoggle. We already have an immigration crisis in Iran; soon, it appears, we will have a massive humanitarian problem created by us. May 16, 2026 Well, Trump's lawsuit against the IRS is progressing, seems like U.S. taxpayers may have to compensate Trump in the millions because his tax information was leaked (DOJ settled similar claims from others with a simple public apology and no payments; anyway, it used to be standard for presidential candidates to release this information). But don't worry, the money can be set aside as a slush fund for Trump loyalists to use, so he won't personally profit, we're told. In other news, the Big Beautiful Bill (ridiculous title) has allowed for massive ICE detention center expansion and apparently some sweet deals for Goldman Sachs and other sympathizers of Trump's regime. The federal government (read: your tax money) is paying sometimes double the assessed value for warehouse space, which is not really in hot demand right now. Not to mention that these deals typically lead to lawsuits between states that don't want the facilities, leading to even more wasted time and money for local governments already struggling. In one such deal, I a Roxbury, NJ (Morris County) warehouse to detain and imprison thousands of immigrants in the NYC/NJ area. May 17, 2026 Not only has Trump created an inflationary economy with his wars and tariffs, he is also adding costs for you by deporting labor. Trump’s immigration policies are costing you money. They are also destroying tourism in the U.S. because people don’t want to visit an unwelcoming country.In Western MA, we have an aging population. That’s probably true in many areas of the U.S. As such, we rely on immigrant labor for all kinds of important work—to create products and deliver services that people need. The trades are reliant on immigrants. Agriculture is reliant. Retail and stores are reliant. It’s a long list.The Berkshire Eagle just featured a story of two baristas in Pittsfield, one deported by ICE and the other self-deported. The coffeehouse in question had tried to sell, but there were no takers. The two African baristas were trying to keep it going. They were part of the community, doing a job that no American stepped forward to take.I fail to see how this deportation made us safer. I fail to see how it protected American jobs. Americans can step forward and get jobs, they just have to be willing to do manual labor and work hard. Clearly the manual labor part is the sticking point as the trades have been in decline for years with politicians constantly saying how we need more tradesmen.Well, I know lots of South American and Mexican tradesmen. Very talented. They work for a fair price. I watched an American carpenter, on my walks, complete a house renovation over the course of two years. He did a good job, but not very timely.Protectionism is bad for the consumer. Trapping consumers into using only U.S. born labor means high prices for us. I say let everyone compete in the economy. It’s bad enough that Trump has raised our gas prices (Iran) and raised the price of consumer goods (tariffs). The tourism industry has clearly taken a hit. On top of all this, we don’t need increases in construction and the trades. Not to mention that we’re mortgaging our future with massive spending on detention facilities.Didn’t people vote Trump into office because he was a businessman, because grocery prices were too high, because he was going to help the average American? Hmmm… May 21, 2026 Let’s see, I read a story about Cuba “stockpiling drones.” In actuality, buying drones is a very normal part of defense spending for most countries including our own. And 300 drones is not a very big spend. If another country was talking of invading my own, I might start boosting military spending, too.Then I see there’s an indictment for 94-year-old Castro regarding an incident that occurred some 30 years ago. Cuba shot down two Cessnas (originating from Miami) with members of Brothers to the Rescue in them; they had been involved in helping those fleeing Cuba on rafts in addition to dropping U.S. propaganda leaflets.The drone thing is obviously a wildly weak pretense. The incident from 30 years ago certainly constitutes a grievance. But it also begs the question: How would the U.S. respond to a Chinese plane on our coasts dropping Communist leaflets? Certainly the Cuban air force should've forced the planes to land and questioned the individuals if they were to do anything at all.In any event, it all sounds very much like the ridiculous “weapons of mass destruction” stuff we heard with Iraq--desperately searching for a pretense for war. Trump only threatens countries that are far weaker than us, even though we have huge grievances with Russia and China. We’ve already passed an embargo that has starved Cuba of energy, among other things, even imposing fines on foreign firms that trade with Cuba.I'm sure that months ago Trump was discussing his war ambitions with Jared Kushner, who is in a position to capitalize on such information. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Trump family was holding major stocks in Lockheed Martin. Normally, the FBI would be probing this type of activity. But with FBI agents who investigated Trump in the past being fired as retribution, what is the likelihood of this ever being examined?I write this to say: Don't fall for it again. We're drumming up wars because Trump wants to appear strong to the world. He wants his family to profit from the war machine. He wants a return to conquest and imperialism and colonialism. Recall how he wanted to take over Gaza, and build (God knows what, golf courses and hotels probably); in fact, he is still pitching the idea to his (failed?) Board of Peace.Trump has created so many opportunities for kickbacks and even direct payments to him and his family. The arch? Does anyone need or want this? It's just a reward for whatever builder and architect and designer who gets the project. A White House ballroom? And on and on. The corruption is deep. We have to stand firm. We must respect the sovereignty of other countries. We must allow for different political viewpoints. While we may think that capitalism has been wonderful, there is an underbelly. It involves the degradation of the environment. It involves turning nearly everything in our society into a commodity. We need a Blue Waters project that does the same thing we did with National Parks in the U.S., for the oceans. We must start with the coral reefs. AI is going to involve massive mining, heavy metal contamination and energy suck. We don't have the perfect society. We shouldn't be trying to takeover other countries to make them more like us. May 26, 2026 As part of the DOJ settlement agreement, Trump had them write-in that Trump and his whole family would be immune from prosecution into perpetuity. Let that sink in...The U.S. District judge, who ruled prior to this settlement, had it exactly right. She ruled that Trump could Not be both plaintiff and defendant (as head of the Executive branch, he directs the U.S. Treasury and DOJ). This raises the all-important question: Why would DOJ ever offer such a generous settlement (immunity forever, etc.) for a case in which they were told, could go no further? July 7, 2026 When you see white nationalists march on D.C.; random stops of African Americans at gas stations in Minnesota; and the Supreme Court formalize and accept racial profiling, we should all remember Elie Wiesel's book, Night, about the Holocaust. In this book, he chronicles how the Nazis gradually moved into neighborhoods and ultimately closed the noose. In one segment, a German officer visits the home of a Jewish community leader; the officer brings them chocolates as a gift. Later, the Nazis would liaise with these leaders in the ghettos. The far-right is banking on liberals going to sleep. It's a decent bet since liberals are often performative and passive, reading their books and hoping for a better future. Recognize the signs. Don't let them lull you into complacency. July 13, 2026 Similar to the children of Gaza, the children of Minab are slowly being forgotten. You can almost hear the pages of the history books brushing shut. 150 Iranian children killed by the U.S. when we mistakened their school for a military base. Prior to this, Hegseth had gutted the department that validated targets (Civilian Harm Mitigation and Target Development). It’s a wonder that AI wasn’t used (or was it, see below) to crunch this data. It’s also a wonder that no one has called for the resignation of Hegseth. That’s what happens when you hire a Fox news anchor to lead the now Department of War; why not just call it the Department of War and Conquest? Seems more accurate.Personally, I think that Trump and Hegseth should be flown to Iran to dig the graves for those children. Give them shovels and tell them to go talk to their parents. I’m serious about this. We could also join the International Criminal Court and really commit to stopping genocide, the killing of children, bombing business districts. We certainly are keeping interesting company by not joining (from Wikipedia):The seven countries that voted against the treaty were Iraq, Israel, Libya, China, Qatar, Yemen, and the United States.[8] From Google AI:• AI & Outdated Intelligence: Preliminary military investigations and reports from CNN indicate that senior commanders ignored warnings that their target database was years out of date. [1, 2]• Maven System Inquiry: Following the strike, lawmakers led by Representative Sara Jacobs pressed Hegseth on whether the U.S. used AI targeting systems like the Maven Smart System to identify the school, as covered by Defense News. [1, 2]• Congressional Pushback: Over 120 Democratic lawmakers demanded that Hegseth investigate whether faulty AI analysis or bypassed human verification led to the tragedy, according to NBC News. [1] July 17, 2026 So, Here We AreIt seems like only yesterday that I was posting, “Vote Kamala,” do it for your daughters, your mother, your niece. But alas, here we are. In most post-election analysis, we heard the refrain that an inflationary economy—grocery prices, etc. drove folks to Trump. So, I’ve got one question for ya: How do you like those grocery and gas prices now!?We’ve depleted our gas reserves as Trump desperately tries to keep prices down before the midterm elections. It’s an old saw, but it’s worth repeating: Wars are easy to start and hard to stop. We should call up the Swiss and ask just how they did it! Neutrality. Amazing. Even a perfunctory look at foreign relations shows that wars, today and yesterday, have been at least partly driven by alliances. That’s worth our consideration.So, we’re in an ‘us and them’ mentality. We sing our high-minded ideals, but behind it all is, once again, Oil. If we really were interested in political change in Iran, we would’ve moved in during their organic internal revolt when protesters were filling the streets, marching against the regime. (It’s the same in Venezuela. Have you noticed that now, we are primarily in talks with their leadership about oil. Not political change.) When the Trump administration was trying to explain the Iran war, they kept lobbing reasons, hoping one would stick. At the apex of this, I even heard that they were fighting for women’s rights in Iran. Oh, please. If you buy that one, I’ve got a glacier in Nevada to sell you.It’s worth pausing for a moment to take stock. So, here we are. But it didn’t happen overnight. This was years in the making and it took lots of cultural (and thinktank) work to install Trump again. When he landed in the White House for Trump 2.0, the policies had all been written, the executive orders were simply awaiting his signature. We need to take a page out of their book and do that same work, but on the side of justice, peace and equality.Now is the time to do cultural work, to fight oppression. Not art installations that no one understands, but teaching peace, no, waging peace. Cory Booker’s radical empathy approach is amazing. I love it. But, hey, I’m a kid from NJ, so for me, his message and way of being in the world, just makes sense to me. I understand that he probably doesn’t compute in the Midwest. We can always dream.There’s no question we’ve taken a step back culturally, as a society. It’s going to take a Mitt Romney type character to maybe deliver a Democratic win next election. A liberal with a conservative streak. You might think, no, we have to go radical, like the right wingers did, really lean into that, but I don’t think so. We have to (at least for the next election) go back to a white upper-class (do I even need to say this, it’s so obvious that you need extreme wealth to win in America) male politician. The names that come to mind are Gavin Newsom and Josh Shapiro. The fact that some people still say that Shapiro is “too Jewish,” shows just how much cultural work we need to do. I guess Cory Booker is too black then, too. What does that even mean? Anyway, Democrats, importantly, need to stop the foolishness regarding running mates. Tim Kaine barely delivered his own home state of Virginia in the Hillary Clinton election; meanwhile, Bernie Sanders had been polling at 17%! Can you imagine if Clinton chose Sanders as a VP. A VP who can deliver 17% of the vote! Incredible. But she didn’t for a whole host of reasons, nearly all of which were bad.The fact that both parties constantly talk about “the middle class” in their speeches shows a sickness at the heart of American Democracy. No one wants to talk about the rich because they are the ones pulling the strings, winning the elections for candidates, pouring the money in and getting favorable policy decisions for their companies. No one wants to talk about the poor because they have no power. So, everyone, is seemingly, middle class. The issues we need to tackle, as a society, are issues related to the middle class. Um… did we forget something? That wealth is dominating politics. That incredible wealth inequality is driving poverty. That inflation is eating your paycheck.Say what you will about Biden, but life was actually pretty boring when Biden was in. He had some public policy wins on infrastructure, the environment, research, inflation reduction, etc., but also, we weren’t at war. School children in Iran weren’t being blown up. We weren’t spending 1B per day on firing up our war machines and making the corporate dealers of death rich. Yes, boring was good, in my book.Anyway, are you excited now, with Trump? Isn’t it exciting how every day is a new scandal? The salacious duplicitous nature of everything he does and says? How the world is against him. How he is a shining knight riding out to save you. How he identifies with the blue-collar uneducated working class folks living a simple life in the country, who desperately want manufacturing to come back, while he surrounds himself with every luxury and plays golf with tycoons.All I can say is: the hangover is coming. After Trump has milked the office of president for all it’s worth; taken care of his vendettas; bombed innocents; broken up immigrant families; encriched the Trump family through insider knowledge and foreign deals; rolled back the gains of the Civil Rights movement; and filled the Supreme Court with numbskulls, he will be done, and American taxpayers will be left with a sick environment and a big bill. So get your checkbooks out. If you thought groceries and gas were expensive under Trump, the biggest bill has yet to come. July 29, 2026 When Trump comes on TV and tells you that wind energy is terrible and doesn’t work, you have to read the sub-text: ‘gas, oil and coal industries helped get me elected.’ It’s stunning that we have a climate denier in office, but we do. When I saw videos of the ancient glaciers in Antarctica melting, that was all it took to make me a believer. No pundits or scientific reports, just an artist making a trip to an area of the world that has been frozen for centuries. Europe is burning. Wildfires are out of control in Spain and raging in Italy, France and parts of Portugal now. It’s time to wake up to this fact. While Trump talks a lot about the disaster of Democratically run cities and towns across America, he rarely focuses on the Northeast. NYC has had dropping crime rates for years. Boston is a mecca of tech, education and finance. In Western MA, from Jiminy Peak to Florida Mountain there is wind energy cranking out clean power. Our roof is covered in solar panels, but the photovoltaics are sourced from China because the U.S. continues to champion mythologies about clean energy. Meanwhile, China is quietly rolling out great e-cars like BYD sold internationally, but not allowed into the U.S. Many believe the BYDs are better than Teslas.As Mulder said on the X-Files, “the truth is out there.” (My dad loves that one!) And it really is. But you have cut through a lot of bullshit to find it. August 3, 2026 Google AI responds to a question:Could U.S. offer free undergraduate education for one year for the price of the Iran war?Yes, the estimated $25 billion to $29 billion cost of the U.S. conflict with Iran is roughly comparable to or exceeds the total annual public undergraduate tuition in the United States, making a nationwide free year of community or public college mathematically plausible for that price. Cost Breakdown, Iran War Cost: Pentagon and policy estimates place the conflict's price tag around $25 billion to $29 billion. Public College Tuition: Total annual tuition for all full-time students across public two-year and four-year in-state institutions falls into a similar multi-billion-dollar range, as average in-state public university tuition is about $11,950 and community college is roughly $4,050 per year. Policy Comparisons: Advocacy groups and lawmakers have noted that this amount of military spending could alternatively fund targeted free college proposals, such as eliminating tuition for families making under $125,000 or providing two years of free community college nationwide. August 8, 2026 Do we want our country beholden to special interests and foreign governments? Do we want to spend resources on symbols and monuments when we have crushing social issues to contend with? Apparently, Trump’s answer is, yes.From the arch to the reflecting pool to the golden statues and planned ballroom in D.C., if you are interested in projects that do nothing for Americans, but might lend grandiosity or opulence to the capital, then I guess you picked the right guy!When Qatar “donates” a new Airforce One craft to Trump, you have to wonder, what are they expecting in return, at a future date? We have no idea what backroom deals are being made. Foreign policy related? Future investment? Favorable terms on an agreement? Rolling our war machines to their defense? How are journalists not able to accept gifts because it might skew their reporting, but our government can? How can we have homeless people freezing to death on park benches each winter or schoolteachers sending notes home asking for basic school supplies to be donated while we dump money into these projects?These no-bid fast track contracts are not only unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer money (that is, your money and my money!), but the projects are often awarded to Republic Party donor companies or buddies of Trump and the work is shoddy. Then when someone dips their hand in the reflecting pool to see what is floating to the surface (peeling coating from a crap job), we are supposed to believe that this person was a vandal responsible for the entire reflecting pool peeling up. Does anyone buy this stuff?Dipping statues in gold or building the highest arch might be fun, but it’s a major distraction from the very real problems our nation is facing. Not the least of which is political corruption. August 9, 2026 Does anyone else think it's odd that we have become so blase' about Elon Musk's rockets or boosters going astray, slamming into the moon or raining down debris on us? Is this just the tech billionaire's version of playing in the backyard with army men and firecrackers? Will outer space become a repeat of what we did with our oceans and rainforests? It's time for countries to come together and start signing some enforceable treaties on space junk. August 10, 2026 Two excerpts on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, widely considered a cause of the Great Depression. Interesting to think about this as Trump continues to push for aggressive tariffs on other countries:Government and International PoliciesThe Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 placed heavy taxes on imports, prompting foreign nations to retaliate and crushing global trade.(from Google)Smoot-Hawley contributed to the early loss of confidence on Wall Street and signaled U.S. isolationism. By raising the average tariff by some 20 percent, it also prompted retaliation from foreign governments, and many overseas banks began to fail. (Because the legislation set both specific and ad valorem tariff rates [i.e., rates based on the value of the product], determining the precise percentage increase in tariff levels is difficult and a subject of debate among economists.) Within two years some two dozen countries adopted similar “beggar-thy-neighbour” duties, making worse an already beleaguered world economy and reducing global trade. U.S. imports from and exports to Europe fell by some two-thirds between 1929 and 1932, while overall global trade declined by similar levels in the four years that the legislation was in effect.(from Brittanica) August 11, 2026 When you listen to the AI guru's talk, they tell us it's all about "truth" and giving people "super-powers." I guess they forgot to mention the 33 million tons of CO2 emitted from just one of these power plants. But, hey, at least we get to learn about this via Yahoo Scout, their AI tool!Yahoo News:Amazon’s new 7.65GW Texas AI data center power plant could become the largest source of CO₂ pollution in th...Etiido UkoSun, August 9, 2026 at 8:40 AM Amazon is building a natural gas power plant in Texas that is authorized to release 33 million tons of CO₂ annually, making it the largest source of environmental pollution in the U.S.First paragraph of Yahoo/NY Times article: A new Amazon data center is set to become the single largest source of environmental pollution in the U.S., according to a New York Times report on August 8. The tech giant — which already operates the most data centers worldwide — is reportedly building a natural gas power plant in Pecos County, Texas, to power its new data center at the same site. According to project permits, the plant would generate up to 7.65 gigawatts of power using 35 natural gas turbines. The new plant — which burns natural gas to generate electricity — has been authorized to release 33 million tons of CO₂ annually, more planet-warming gases than any other power plant in the country, says the NY Times report. Conversely, Amazon had pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across all its global business operations by 2040. August 12, 2026 Two headlines that are worth looking at together:1) CapitalOne closes Trump accounts for money laundering.2) Trump pushes for immunity from prosecution on all tax returns into perpetuity.