[photo montage courtesy of pixabay.com]
have committed one of the sins that enables fascism: I have obeyed in advance. Despite the fact that no-one has specifically threatened me, I have shut up. For the past few months, I have posted little (although I did post that: 1. Trump is a psychopath, 2. America is fast becoming a fascist state, and 3. Trump’s dementia is becoming obvious). I have only made one post a month lately.
I have lost what little audience I did have by not keeping you entertained. I am so sorry.
The only thing that has exceeded my fear of saying anything is my outrage at the surgical decapitation of the Venezuelan government. A brilliantly executed incursion and extraction of President Maduro by a highly trained military unit (for which the Biden administration should be given credit, as it was trained up by his DEI generals not Trump’s) was still done by unconstitutional order and constituted an illegal act under international law.
Mr. Trump has dropped all attempts at pretense, and has stated that he did it to grab the oil (not to stop narcotics trafficking, in which Venezuela plays a minor role). He has seized several million barrels conveniently stored in a number of large oil tankers that have been “sanctioned” for their involvement in the Iranian oil trade.
Trump has stated that he will take 30-50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, which represents three or four months of their production at current rates. Most of this confiscated oil is already in tankers on the high seas.
That oil will go to American refineries in the Gulf, which are suited for this heavy grade. A key factor in dealing with Venezuelan oil is that it is largely very heavy and “sour” (high in sulfur). Fortunately, many American refineries were built to use heavy oil. Unfortunately, most American crude oil is relatively light and sweet so much of it has to be exported to other countries that have the right type of refinery. (This is due to a decision made in building American refineries decades ago that is time-consuming to change.)
The more serious problem is that crude oil is selling for roughly $60 a barrel, and American companies have estimated that they need a price of $80 a barrel to profitably process and sell Venezuelan oil. So Trump’s delusion that he can lower American gasoline prices by importing that oil is sure to crash into reality soon. At yesterday’s meeting of oil executives at the White House, many sweet words were said, but no firm commitments were made.
The most serious problem is that Venezuela is rated as “uninvestable” due to its history of twice having expropriated multiple American oil company assets under socialist governments. The government theoretically owes the companies roughly $12 billion that is still being contested in court. So Trump’s suggestion that American oil companies should invest $100 billion over the next ten years to develop Venezuelan oil fields to the point at which they can more than double production is veritably a nonstarter (although they didn’t tell Trump that).
So, in the final analysis, this is just another Trump con job that will fall flat in a year or two. After a year, everyone will have forgotten Venezuela. Already we are obsessing about Greenland and the destruction of NATO.
Or are we obsessing about the killing of a 37 year old woman, an American citizen, who was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis less than half a mile from George Floyd’s five year old death site? There was a blizzard of lies about this shooting coming from every government-associated person with a microphone.
It was “snowed under” within days by the announcement that Trump demanded the end of $10 billion in child-care aid to five Democratic-led states because of his reaction to bogus fraud allegations from right-wing influencers. A federal judge has already enjoined this suspension. This was followed today by the suspension of $120 million in food stamps for Minnesota, again due to fraud allegations.
In the past few days, Trump (or his management team) has announced numerous scattered initiatives, including some that appear to gesture at reducing expenses for the middle class. For example, he demanded that credit card companies reduce their interest rates to 10 per cent. He also directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase a hundred billion dollars in mortgage-backed securities (this is the maneuver that precipitated the near-bankruptcy of the giant mortgage lenders back in 2008).
PS The publication of the “Epstein files” continues apace and hasn’t been mentioned in a week of breaking news. Are you distracted yet?
{numbers in this screed derived from multiple recent Atlantic articles– references available on request.}
As I said before, Enlightenment is the only answer.
It is necessary to explain to Trump that he can’t designate antifa as a “domestic terror group” because antifa is not any one organization– even if he could designate domestic terror groups, which he can’t, because the laws haven’t been developed yet, because Congress can’t agree on what a domestic terrorist looks like. It’s hard to sanction a group that doesn’t exist.
In fact, antifa is a concept, not an organization, namely the concept of opposing fascism. So any sane person could declare, “I am antifa” and they’d be right. It’s sort of like in the movie “Spartacus”, where the survivors keep saying, one after another, “I am Spartacus.” Just because they all get crucified doesn’t seem to deter them.
I forgot to mention that Trump is not just authoritarian; he is a true fascist. The definition of fascism particularly includes government cooption of key industries and the monetary system. Trump has done this by demanding a portion of revenue from chipmakers and horning in on business deals. He is also planning to issue a $1 coin with his image on both sides.
The urgency of opposing fascism is increasing but the weight of encroaching fascism is also growing. Many people will feel the need to be organized; others claim that Trumpists are so incompetent that they will fail on their own… There exists the possibility of unpleasant results if Trumpian fascism is not resisted. The first result will be extreme enrichment of the Trump family. The second result could be another Great Depression.
There are a few people who already claim to be organized under the name of “antifa”– historically, they played defensive roles against Proud Boys in street brawls, particularly in Portland. Those people might be found and captured or killed. That doesn’t justify the denial of due process to such people, any more than anything justifies blowing up a small boat on the open ocean without giving the crew an opportunity to surrender. Or striking a second time to kill any survivors clinging to the wreckage.
So, resistance may be justified as self-defense if the alternative is being blown up by faceless attackers.
Antifa can claim the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk, and the perpetrator is willing to die for it (he considered killing himself). The death of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, by 3-D printed pistol, could also be blamed on the same group or at least a terror cell of one person. Even if antifa doesn’t actually exist. Someone calling himself “antifa” is likely to be a lone wolf.
These assassinations are not victories for a supposed anti-fascist movement. They are, in fact, tragic defeats for humanity. We are slipping further into chaos, horror, and death.
We feel helpless at the many blows that Trump has dealt: setting up punitive tariffs based on personal grudges that make no sense and damage the world economy, restarting oil drilling off the Pacific coast of the US, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, cutting off USAID so people in Africa are dying from starvation and AIDS (600,000 so far), harming the self-defense of the Ukrainian people against attacks by Russia, shutting off new wind power projects in the US, cutting off solar power credits, shutting down research at major US universities, changing vaccine websites to say that they can’t “prove” that vaccines don’t cause autism, changing websites to say that Tylenol can cause autism, attacking major law firms for representing clients Trump doesn’t like, prosecuting people who crossed Trump, deporting people willy-nilly and denying due process, pardoning the worst drug criminal ever sentenced by a US court (the former president of Honduras), blowing up small drug boats in the Caribbean and murdering their crews, and so on and on.
How can we possibly stop him? The appropriate response to these betrayals depends on how much each action personally damages your world. Unfortunately, those who are most likely to die as a result of Trump’s actions (such as the people of South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Democratic Republic of Congo) do not individually or even collectively have the power or authority to prevent them or retaliate for them.
You can see where this is going: no one will stop him.
Therefore, I pray for divine intervention: let the hand of G-d reach down and crush Donald John Trump.
Just kidding.
photo: Romanian mountains by David Mark courtesy of pixabay.com
Life During Wartime (2025)
I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. What should I tell you? Clearly the song “Life During Wartime” was just an ironic intellectual satirical piece that invoked a romantic image of occupied France during World War II or the TV series “The Walking Dead”.
On the other hand, today the words sound more like prophecies.
We already know what we are fighting. The thing to do now is to choose your weapons. You can chose violence or nonviolence. Nowadays, nonviolence is thought of as quaint and boring. In fact, a wide variety of nonlethal but highly effective weapons are available to those who abjure violence.
For example, the human voice, the printing press, musical instruments, movements of the body. Just lying down and dying can be an effective weapon. That last option is for one-time use only.
None of this is really practical.
It seems that, at times, we are fighting ignorance and stupidity. Enlightenment is the only answer.
Life During Wartime (1979)
Talking Heads
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some grave sites out by the highway
A place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire off in the distance
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in a ghetto
I’ve lived all over this town
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
This ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey
I ain’t got time for that now
Transmit the message to the receiver
Hope for an answer someday
I got three passports, a couple of visas
You don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading
Everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, and I work in the nightime
I might not ever get home
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
This ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or C.B.G.B.
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
To last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no headphones
Ain’t got no records to play
Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time?
Can’t write a letter, can’t send no postcard
I ain’t got time for that now
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock
We blended in with the crowd
We got computers, we’re tapping phone lines
I know that that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle so many times now
I don’t know what I look like
You make me shiver, I feel so tender
We make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving
You ought to get you some sleep
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
The burning keeps me alive
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: David Byrne / Tina Weymouth / Jerry Harrison / Chris Frantz
Be Here Now– photo by Harald Lepisk courtesy of pixabay.com
Notes From Underground
/
Cryptic note to those readers in the know goes here.
The predictions of the Cassandras of the Left before the 2024 election have been proven right in every respect. Trump has almost completely taken over the government. Clearly, he thinks that he is immune to prosecution and believes that he holds virtually unlimited power to harass and imprison those Americans he doesn’t like. His authority is God-like in foreign affairs according to his interpretation of the Constitution, so he feels free to open fire on vessels traveling in international waters without warning with the intent to blow them up and kill all the passengers, with only 17 known dead so far (all executed without trial or warning). Meanwhile, he has intimated that he has plans to attack sites within Venezuela without a declaration of war or Congressional approval.
The worst of all these things is his attitude towards global warming. His speech at the UN exemplifies his position– somehow, the worsening of the climate for the past 85 years (since the industrial boom after WW II) is all a scam, a hoax. The collective jaws of the climate scientists of the world dropped to the floor. According to Trump, the yearly increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is somehow a fake illusion perpetrated by scam artists.
It is obvious that Trump is in thrall to the oil and automobile (over 90% internal combustion engines) industries– after all, they have a $16 trillion combined yearly take, and money is his God. Remember that he offered the oil companies total loyalty for a $1 billion campaign contribution. He is parroting their line that global warming is not a serious nor an immediate problem. With typical Trumpian oversimplification of everything, this works out to Michael Mann being a scam artist and the whole thing being faked.
This deliberate destruction of US renewable energy, especially windmills, will delay reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, worsen global warming, and hurt our economy badly. Who knows how much worse things will be in ten years because of his actions– all we know is it’s big, and it’s bad.
Trump’s power and influence clearly peaked after January 20, but those who acted in anticipation of his victory in a clearly illegal way (for example, by accepting a cash bribe of $50,000 with action promised should Trump be elected) have already been exonerated by the fully suborned Justice Department. His pardons for the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists, delivered on his first day in office, were a deliberate shock to the system of law and order. When there wasn’t rioting in the streets over these pardons, he knew he had a clear road to taking over.
Since he has taken over the government and has full control of both houses of Congress along with a Supreme Court that has already pardoned him for any corrupt activity he should engage in as President– and since he has the presumptive support of 77 million voters (32 percent of those eligible to vote)– the only way to stop him now is for the other roughly 150 million eligible voters to actually come out and vote against him and his sycophants. We should start by protesting, as often and as loudly as we can– while scrupulously adhering to the letter of the law– and supporting comedy shows that skewer his administration and him personally.
At this point, it seems likely that he will lose control of the lower House of Congress in November 2026 and that he will be impeached come January 2027. That is a long time from now, and even if it happens, he is likely to be acquitted again unless a major scandal turns Senate Republicans against him. Perhaps if his link to Russia was proven, that might do it– or not.
I am concerned and disheartened by the recent statistics that show an upsurge in left-wing violence. While right-wing violent crime has constituted the largest proportion of political crime for years, just since the election left-wing incidents have surged to the point where they are now almost equal to right-wing incidents.
The shooting of Charlie Kirk appears to be a somewhat mixed incident. The reliably alleged shooter was romantically involved with a person who is said to be aspiring to be transgender. While the man apprehended was raised Mormon in a Republican household, it appears that he was “turned” by his involvement with this person. The “hate” to which he objected so strongly seems to have been directed precisely at the transgender person he was involved with. So, on balance, the motive for the shooting appears to be a personal one– he was directly threatened by Kirk’s statements about gays and transgender people. Who knows– the shooter may have agreed with Kirk on other issues.
To return to the point of this post, the only way to defeat Trump now is for the 2/3 of the people who didn’t vote for him in the first place to revolt peacefully against him. Our First Amendment right “peaceably to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances” is at stake.
I know a lot of people are desperate and willing to grab a rifle and go out and do something– but you’re sure to miss your target, and like the most recent shooting, hit an innocent bystander or three instead. Leave the violence to the professionals. Study the life of Gandhi– he was by no means perfect, but he was the most peaceable and accomplished man of his time (he was primarily responsible for the birth of modern India), and he was shot to death by a young political activist. Ironic.
The thing to do now is audibly complain and demonstrate at every opportunity. Make a noise. Remember when you speak to criticize the policies, not the people. It is especially tempting in the case of this administration to ridicule the incompetence and lampoon the absurdly arrogant pronunciations that this administration wallows in– for example, the cliche-ready person of the Secretary of War, who it was said had pledged not to touch a drop of liquor while he was Secretary (just the idea that he felt it was necessary to say this sent shivers down my spine). His opposition to women in the military, his misogyny and abuse of women (including his wife), his obsession with “war fighting”, and his thinly-disguised racism just round out his stereotypical personality.
In the long run, we will lose by adopting the same ethically-deficient behaviors that the MAGA crowd has adopted. We cannot allow ourselves to be outflanked by such tactics as hyper-gerrymandering– here we must fight fire with fire. But it is wrong to lie, cheat, and steal to stop an administration that lies, cheats, and steals. We must fight voter suppression with outreach and support– make sure that communities that don’t vote are registered and have their ID documents, and have a ride to the polls (we will win big by supporting ALL voters, regardless of their partisan position).
Bottom line– do what you do best: protest peaceably. Leave the violence to the professionals.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
This photo of Jeff Flake was taken just after he met with Trump in the Oval Office. The face of defeat in the fight against a mad king.
An article in The Guardian from January 29, 2021 presents the story of Yuri Shvets, a KGB operative in Washington in the 1980s, as told to Craig Unger, a British journalist. Apparently, Donald Trump first came on the radar of the KGB when he married his first wife Ivana in 1977. Her Czech origin allowed the Czech secret service to establish surveillance. From then on, he gradually spiraled into their orbit.
Trump was one of many susceptible Americans who were recruited by the KGB in those days (especially the 70s). Dozens of potentially influential Americans were subjected to charm offensives. Based on their observations, Trump was the perfect target for exploitation as a “useful idiot”.
The end result, as we know, was Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki in July 2018. Here is a Politico article from then cataloging both Republican and Democratic Congresspeople’s shocked reaction to Trump saying that he believed Putin’s denials of the Senate’s investigation showing Putin interfered in the 2016 election. Even Republican Senators were aghast at Trump’s adherence to Putin’s talking points (now they are shocked, shocked that anyone would claim the Russians did anything wrong).
This book, American Kompromat, came out more than four years ago– shortly after Trump left the presidency under a cloud. The assertions in that book are damning: Trump was drawn in by the lies and financial support of the Soviets and the Russians after them. I would like to see someone try to rebut the claims in that book– I find them highly credible.
As we all know, if Joe Biden’s attorney general had actively prosecuted Trump from the start– including an arrest shortly after he left office for inciting to riot on and before January 6, 2021 (surely that at least is a crime?)– things would be different today.
Instead of justice, the Department of Justice is investigating the special counsel who ran out of time trying to prosecute Trump. At the very least, this will cost the former prosecutor for a very expensive lawyer, no prospect of employment for a year, and extreme anxiety over the vindictive nitpicking of a highly motivated Republican acolyte.
We have gradually been drawn into the fever dreams of a psychotic. Donald J Trump is definitely a psychopath, one of the most dangerous mental derangements there is. To paraphrase Apocalypse Now, as the general referred to the mad Colonel Kurz, “And he is still in the field commanding troops”.
What if G-d was one of us?
This song has been running through my mind for a while. It first came out in 1995, sung by Joan Osborne, very sweet and devout. It was written by Eric Bazilian, who was a founding member of The Hooters.
According to Wikipedia, the song questions the anthropomorphic nature of God. The first four lines are a re-reading of a recording made in 1937 called “Heavenly Aeroplane” of American folkloric songs. Wikipedia states: “Paul Evans from Rolling Stone said it “imagines a God as hurt as any human”.”
Personally, I think the song presents tremendous devotion yet a very human questioning about whether G-d is as vulnerable as the rest of us. I usually use the spelling G-d to indicate that the very nature of god is unknown and perhaps unknowable.
Here it is:
… So one of these nights and about twelve o’clock
This old world’s gonna reel and rock
Saints will tremble and cry for pain
For the Lord’s gonna come, in his heavenly airplane
… Yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
… If God had a name, what would it be?
And would you call it to His face
If you were faced with Him in all His glory?
What would you ask if you had just one question?
… And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
… What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make His way home?
… If God had a face, what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like Heaven and in Jesus and the saints
And all the prophets?
… And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
… What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make His way home?
… Tryin’ to make His way home
Back up to Heaven all alone
Nobody callin’ on the phone
‘Cept for the Pope, maybe in Rome
… Yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
… What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make His way home?
… Just tryin’ to make His way home?
Like a holy rolling stone?
Back up to Heaven all alone
Just tryin’ to make His way home?
… Nobody callin’ on the phone
‘Cept for the Pope, maybe in Rome
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Eric Bazilian
It’s all over but the shootings.
dartboard photo by Engin Atyurk via Pixabay
Something has happened since November 5, 2024. A new government has hastily been assembled. A radical shift in policy (dictated by so-called Project 2025) has been implemented by executive fiat rather than Congressional approval. There is evidence that numerous executive orders were signed by a chief executive who had no idea what they contained because he hadn’t read them.
Traditionally, policy and procedures have been settled upon by enactment of laws, frequently proposed by the President, that are drafted in conference between the executive and legislative branches and then voted upon after open debate. So far, the new administration has not used the traditional procedure although it has offered ex post facto legislation to Congress.
Are you with me so far? I am glossing over some of the controversial aspects of this change.
In the wake of the election, some people argued that we were sliding into fascist autocracy, but just where we were on a scale of 1-10 free-unfree was debated. I am beginning to think that this is going to be an 11.
I could ramble on, but that is not the purpose today. I came to excuse the fact that I have not been posting much lately, and to admit that it is because of “an excess of caution”… … …
The fact is that I have become more and more confident in the proposition that we are already in a surveillance state and that technology is likely already being used to rate people on their loyalty levels. The databases they are developing right now are tying together all the information the federal government has about each and every person.
The Supreme Court has allowed DOGE to access information about everyone held in confidential government files. They will soon connect all the dots they have in the form of individual data points about nearly everyone– into a complete picture of each individual, useful for advertising as well as intrusive surveillance. We signed on for this when we allowed commercial exploitation of information collected in the course of the sale of everything from newspapers to houses.
I think that “they” could examine my writings on the public web with artificial intelligence and conclude that I was at least a subversive if not a mole for a hostile government, at least partly due to my respect for actual science. I’ve already condemned myself from my own lips. If I’m already on the list, why bother to shut up? They’ll come for me anyway when it’s time to round up the dissidents.
Thus emboldened by my own defeatism, I offer this warning: “they” have already taken over the government and it’s prompting a lot of dissent which may soon turn violent. Think burning Teslas.
So they are likely to crack down on civil liberties of American citizens like they already did to foreign students. I don’t know how far they will go but in a way it depends on how much resistance there is. So far, I feel that there has been alarmingly little public dissent, which allows people to obey in anticipation (an historic maneuver which doesn’t save you) and minimizes the need for exemplary violence, or even collective punishment.
If, on the other hand, there is extensive, righteous indignation and public resistance, a disproportionate display of military force and cruelty may be the go-to response for these wannabe fascist dictators.
The riots in Los Angeles last weekend suggest there is some hostility to federal government policy among local residents. Tear gas and rubber bullets were deployed, and at least two ride-share cars were burned. We’ll see if they start a manhunt for the subversives who have been paying people to throw rocks at National Guard troops /s.
So keep your head down and try to maintain radio silence.
You may hear from me occasionally but remember that you may also hear from enemy units disguising themselves as me. Don’t take any action without double-checking.
You have insulted the wrong guy.
Judge Boasberg, in a NYT photo– he looks pretty stern to me.
(This essay was typed a week ago. On review, I had to enlarge the tale considerably and it is still not up to date. The bottom line is that Trump is a psychopath who is running amok with millions of followers in the United States. He has inspired deep alarm and revulsion in many parts of the world, recently provoking election losses by candidates sympathetic to him in Canada and Australia. On the other hand, Hungary is fully fascist and Germany is plagued by a neo-Nazi party that is extremely popular (and supported by our vice president). It reminds me of the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”)
Judge Boasberg has been trying to stop the Trump administration from deporting alleged Tren de Aragua members to a prison in El Salvador. This has been going on since Saturday, March 15. Five of the deportees managed to get ACLU representation and contested their removal in Judge Boasberg’s court. Unfortunately, by the time he issued his order to stop the removals temporarily until he could consider the arguments in the case, the deportees were apparently in the air headed for El Salvador.
So Judge Boasberg ordered the government to turn the planes around. This they did not do. Eventually, it was revealed that a detainee on the flight overheard the officers discussing an order they had received telling them to turn around during the flight. This detainee was only able to report this because she and several other females were refused in El Salvador and had to be returned to the US (apparently only males were eligible for imprisonment in El Salvador). It is not known what the El Salvadoran officials would have thought had they been informed that the entire flight(s) had been ordered to turn around by a US judge.
Trump’s reaction to this was to call the judge a number of childish names and to press for the judge’s impeachment. Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Roberts reacted by issuing a rare press release informing all and sundry that impeachment is not an appropriate response to rulings that one disagrees with. No, appealing to a higher court is the appropriate response. Justice Roberts pitched his press release as if he was speaking to a child.
Trump, of course, is the president who publicly thanked Justice Roberts for all he had done for him– he paused in the reception line after his first address to a joint session of Congress, and audibly thanked him “for all you have done for me.” He was referring to the decision rendered less than a year ago that conferred legal immunity on him for official acts. Trump has clearly misconstrued this decision as giving him carte blanche to do whatever he wants.
He hasn’t reckoned with the fact that the people he directs to do things can still be prosecuted for violating the law (although he can just pardon them). He also has mistakenly assumed that anything he proclaims is the law– not so, at all. The courts have retained the authority to tell him that his proclamations don’t have any effect if they are struck down, even if he’s not legally liable.
So Trump’s insults and the government’s stonewalling over the time the flight left and how many passengers there were, etc. have left a bad taste in Boasberg’s mouth. Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 is unlikely to stand in any case because there has been no declaration of war nor invasion of enemy soldiers to trigger its deportation provisions. Also, the last time the law was invoked (and supported by the court) the deportees were first given hearings and 30 days to contest the allegations that they were Nazis.
Judge Boasberg is a highly regarded individual in the court system. He is considered fair and impartial. He also has a hand in the top-secret Foreign Intelligence court that sits to approve warrants for wire taps and the like, so he’s comfortable with secret material. This is what makes the government’s invocation of the State Secrets gambit so laughable.
Another issue with this invocation is that most of the allegedly secret and sensitive facts that Judge Boasberg ordered the government to reveal are already public. We already know what time the planes left, how many people were under Alien Enemy authority (about 240), what time they arrived, and so on. We even know that they stopped to refuel several hours after the judge entered his written order.
The Appeals Court already met on Monday, March 24, and they issued a 2-1 ruling upholding Judge Boasberg. The judge that Trump appointed sided with him, but the Obama judge and the W. Bush judge shot him down. I don’t know how Trump’s judge justified his dissent in this case, but I’m sure it would make amusing reading.
Most importantly, the government hasn’t released a list of the people sent to El Salvador. People who viewed a video put out by El Salvador of the arrival of the deportees were able to recognize some of them, but not all– and of course they are completely incommunicado once in the Salvadoran gulag, I mean, terrorist confinement center.
The Supreme Court has weighed in on its shadow docket and ordered Trump to “facilitate” the return of a deportee the government admitted (at least at first) it had sent to a notorious terror prison in El Salvador despite a court’s saying he could not be deported there because of a risk to his life from a gang. Now members of the administration are badmouthing him and calling him a terrorist.
By sheer luck of the draw, Boasberg now has been assigned the Signalgate case, and is issuing orders for the government to preserve the entire text chain to which JG (Jeffrey Goldberg) was inadvertently added. Michael Waltz has taken responsibility to adding JG but denies he has ever spoken to or telephoned Jeffrey Goldberg. This is necessary because JG is the guy who outed Trump for calling soldiers losers and suckers.
Being the editor of the Atlantic, Goldberg is one of the journalists Trump hates the most. Now Waltz is out as National Security advisor and is slated to get the UN Ambassador spot.
Michael Waltz spent most of his time after admitting he was on the chain talking about what a liar Jeffrey Goldberg is, even blaming him for signing on to the “Russia hoax.” If you’ll recall, that’s the “hoax” in which Trump knowingly and willingly accepted Russia’s help in the 2016 election. An important point to remember is that several Trump aides (who were convicted of various crimes, like lying to Congress) stonewalled the FBI on their communications with Russian figures, so Mueller was never able to expose the smoking gun.
In Michael Waltz’s dictionary, a “lie” is any fact that makes Trump look bad. Mr. Goldberg has been instrumental in exposing or spreading the news about a number of Trump’s faults, so he’s bottom scum if you believe Mr. Waltz. It’s impressive how many of Mr. Goldberg’s “lies” that Mr. Waltz can remember off the top of his head:
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia, hoax, gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president [of the] United States, and he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contact and then get sucked into this group…”
The simplest explanation of the error would be that there is a “JG” on Mr. Waltz’s contact list pointing to Mr. Goldberg’s phone number, suggesting that Mr. Goldberg was one of Mr. Waltz’s contacts. That’s impossible, since speaking to a member of the press is one of the lowest forms of treachery if you’re a Trump appointee. So Mr. Waltz was forced to deny ever speaking to or meeting Mr. Goldberg. That’s odd, considering how well Mr. Waltz knows Mr. Goldberg’s suite of “lies.”
These fulminations obscure the fact that there’s no excuse for revealing the time bombing planes are due to take of from their aircraft carrier to attack Houthis in Yemen on Signal. Sure, it’s encrypted, but Russian or Chinese state hackers could have compromised the phone on which the chat was going out. State hackers greatly prize the opportunity to take over the phone of a high level government official.
There’s more, much, much more. Trump has issued executive orders blacklisting law firms that have represented any of his enemies or employed anyone who worked for one of the special prosecutors who were on his case. Even Mueller associates are on the hook. These orders have been and will be struck down because they violate the First and Sixth Amendments (freedom of speech and effective representation by a lawyer when in court). Despite this, nine law firms have already surrendered to this extortion. If the others don’t band together to fight back immediately, they will soon all be under Trump’s thumb.
I suspect that the $900 million in pro bono law work that the submissive law firms have pledged will evaporate once it becomes apparent that the courts will not abide this naked abuse of power. Already, injunctions are enjoining these extortionate demands clearly made on the basis of personal animus, not policy, besides being impermissible retaliation for First and Sixth Amendment-protected behavior.
Likewise, Columbia University has surrendered for fear that it will lose a billion dollars in yearly federal revenue (mostly for research). An article about the background of this case recently revealed that Trump is still angry because many years ago, Columbia refused to buy a plot of land in New York City from him. By some amazing coincidence, the asking price was 400 million dollars, which is the exact amount of money that Trump with-held from Columbia in his extortion demand– nowhere near the full billion that Columbia actually gets each year. Apparently, Columbia balked at buying Trump’s land because it was not contiguous with its campus and the price was too high. The land was sold to someone else a couple of years later.
The story of Harvard University is so broad as to defy depiction as it has careened from one outrage to the next, each worse than the last. The latest diktat from Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education is described as “deranged” and “barely literate.”
The story of the decimation of federal government and the elimination of entire departments by the unpopular Elon Musk has climaxed with the revelation that the Centers for Disease Control’s infection control committee has been shut down. The implications for infection control are staggering, at a time when the rate of whooping cough has doubled in a year and measles is breaking out again– all due to declining vaccination rates. The CDC, not to mention Health and Human Services, now run by worm in the brain RFK Jr, will do nothing to encourage vaccination– they’re too busy developing a database of autism patients.
So what is currently happening, if you’ve been keeping track, is that Trump is plunging at full tilt into the pages of the Project 2025 playbook (and adding his own revenge tour). This 900 page compendium or radical conservative wish list is looking more and more like a road map for much of Trump’s general policy. About half of his executive orders so far are ripped from its pages. In addition, in his revenge tour he has added extortion of his enemies in academia and the legal world to his radical deconstruction of the federal government.
It appears that Trump has blundered into a fascist dictator’s dream scenario. He has taken over the courts (he thinks), pushed the Legislature to the side, and has hired thousands of loyal apparatchiks to do his bidding. The nightmare for Trump is that Judge Boasberg does not look like a guy you want to mess with.
If the courts do not stop the weaponization of government, or if Trump ignores their strictures, we will be fully into a fascist state (fascism is essentially the takeover of government by a group of businesses that take direction from and support a charismatic leader whose whims dictate policy). The businesses in this case are easy to spot– the largest corporations in the world. They have remained entirely in the background, in part because they know large companies are resented by the typical Trump supporter.
We fought and over 400,000 Americans died to stop fascism in World War II. Sadly, we did not have the strength to take on communism then, but the capitalist world was able to outcompete the communist system by the end of the twentieth century.
Now, in the twenty-first century, we are confronted with the resurgence of fascism at a time of existential peril from climate change. Trump has proclaimed climate change to be a hoax, so in addition to destroying American civil society, he will be contributing to the destruction of world civilization. This is why I vacillate between thinking he’s a Russian asset and saying he’s just the AntiChrist. He is certainly a psychopath.
RIP Billy 2016-2025
Billy was a good dog.
Billy first came to us in July 2016 as a stray. He was big, but not full grown; I guessed he was six months old. He weighed 86 pounds when he was full grown.
On August 5, I had to go to San Francisco to have major surgery on my spine: laminectomy and fusion with internal fixation (rods) from L5 to T10.
At the beginning of September I came back and we started walking every day. At first he was on a leash, but that didn’t last long.
A few months later, a dog who lived on Leonard Avenue about a half mile from our house joined us and refused to leave. He was a black dog about 50 or 60 pounds. I found out later that he had been a stray as well and had been adopted at that house. I don’t know whether it was love for Billy or unhappiness with his “owner”, but Boris came to live with us too, for the rest of his life (he died about a year ago). After Boris died, Billy came inside to sleep at the foot of our bed every night.
Boris and Billy were inseparable and slept in the same dog house. They walked with me every day and I was fully rehabilitated after a couple of years. This grueling surgery and a $250,000 titanium rod were my reward for 27 years of being a doctor.
Billy was my reward for trying to be a good person. I know he loved me. Billy was a good dog.
Conrad Theodore Seitz 