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Regime Change

First of all, that’s just not something you say out loud. That’s the kind of thing traditionally whispered in smoke-filled rooms, behind thick curtains, or under the cone of silence. It gets kicked around in backchannels and plotted out in three-letter agencies—not announced at press briefings or screamed into the void on some unhinged social media platform. It’s the kind of conversation that ends with everyone swearing it never happened. You don’t say— publicly , into a microphone—that you think it might be a good idea if a foreign leader were taken out. You don’t casually float the suggestion that maybe a world leader should be dead. And you especially don’t brag about how another head of state came to you, asked for the green light to kill someone, and you said no—but now, on second thought, maybe that wasn’t the right call. And you have the unmitigated gall to say it like it’s no big deal—like you just ordered DoorDash and now regret not double-dashing for a pint of Cherry Gar...
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We Dropped the Bomb, He Wore a Hat.

Okay… So the United States has just, in an act of war, dropped an arsenal of weapons on specified targets in Iraq. Americans are on edge. To reassure us of the awesome power of the U.S. presidency, they show us pictures of the national security team assembled in the Situation Room — a matter of all seriousness — and Donald Trump is wearing that stupid hat. WTF? Nobody else present is wearing a hat. There are generals and admirals, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines of various ranks and designations present — none of them wearing hats (primarily because it's indoors). There are other dignitaries assembled, but only one hat. So if you are the leader of the free world, and you decide to let the media take pictures of the sausage being made, and you think you need to be wearing a hat (even though no one else is), shouldn't that hat be something spectacular — like a crown (since you want to be king)? But no. You appear in that same stupid golf cap that could have been pr...
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ICE Agents Are Wearing Masks — and the Public Should Be Alarmed

 It has come to public attention that ICE agents are now wearing masks to conceal their identities during enforcement operations. According to ICE and DHS officials, this practice protects agents from retaliation. They cite threats of doxxing, harassment, and even physical targeting of agents and their families following immigration raids. ICE Director Todd Lyons defends the policy, claiming it shields agents from harassment and violence. But there’s a serious problem with this logic. ICE enforces civil immigration law—not criminal law—in public spaces, often without affording immigrants even a baseline concern for safety, privacy, or dignity. People are detained in front of children, coworkers, and neighbors. Families are torn apart with no warning. If safety is truly paramount, why does it only apply to those wearing badges, not to those being handcuffed and deported? And if the threat is real, use real words. Don’t hide behind internet slang like “doxxing” when lives, liberties ...
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Empathy, Apathy, or Idiocy: Pick Two, and Welcome Back the Felon

 So let me get this straight. You couldn’t bring yourself to support Joe Biden because you were outraged that he allowed Netanyahu to carry out what you call a genocide against Palestinians, never mind that they initiated the aggression. So instead of voting for Biden, you sat out, cast a protest vote, or shifted your energy elsewhere… and the result? A twice-impeached, adjudicated rapist and 34-count convicted felon who incited an insurrection because he couldn’t accept that he lost the 2020 election — is now back in power. And now here we are: On his very first day back in office, Trump pardoned 1,500 people who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Netanyahu didn’t just continue bombing Gaza — he bombed Iran. The region is teetering on the edge of all-out war, and Donald Trump is cheering from the sidelines. Let’s not forget: Trump torched the Iran nuclear deal, even though Iran was in full compliance. He replaced diplomacy with “maximum pressure” — a strategy that empowered hardliners, re...
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Mandates, Myths, and Manufactured Fear

With the current unrest in Los Angeles, most news reports have recently begun by implying in some way that Trump received a mandate to enact mass deportations. First and foremost, that is patently untrue, starting with the fact that Trump did not receive a mandate; he did not win by a simple majority, but rather a plurality. To define a plurality as a mandate is a distortion of the language, a betrayal of democratic clarity, and a dishonest political strategy to falsely claim broad public endorsement. Beyond that, Trump’s stated reason for mass deportation was supposed to be to “restore law and order,” and that he would only deport the most violent and dangerous criminals. According to The Daily Beast , Stephen Miller explicitly ordered “ICE to conduct raids targeting undocumented day laborers at Home Depot parking lots” and stressed arresting all undocumented individuals, not just criminals, setting quotas of about 3,000 arrests per day and threatening to fire officials who didn’t...
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Bookends in Presidential History

President Trump recently deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles. Although it is within his power as President to Federalize the National Guard, such action has not been taken in more than 60 years. The last president to invoke such power in domestic civil unrest was Lyndon Johnson, who did so not to intimidate but in his words.   “… to assure the rights of American citizens … to walk … peaceably and safely without injury or loss of life from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.”   Donald Trump's intent is just the opposite; He wants to suppress the civil rights of all those involved and those who may sympathize with them. Let us be clear: the so-called "dangerous criminals" swept up in these recent raids were looking for work in a Home Depot parking lot. Real criminals do not line up for day labor. Real criminals don’t show up hoping to earn a pittance doing backbreaking work in the shadows of society.   These moments are bookends in Presidential history; They...
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Reduce vocabulary, and you reduce the capacity for complex thought

A few years ago on Valentine’s Day, I sang in a Barbershop Quartet for a friend’s kindergarten class. When we finished, one of the children — without being prompted — exclaimed, “That was expensive.” We took it as a sincere and generous compliment. After all, this little girl had reached deep into the recesses of her vocabulary and offered us the highest praise she could muster, based on three years of socialization and maybe six months of formal education. That was acceptable — even touching — coming from a four-year-old. Unfortunately, the President of the United States seems to have only a slightly larger vocabulary than that kindergartener. At best, he speaks at a fourth-grade level. When confronted by a journalist or anyone he considers an adversary, his responses are rarely more nuanced than, “That was a nasty question,” or “You’re not being very nice.” How far away are we from "nanny nanny boo boo?" We've gone from "Ask not what your country can do for you...
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