Ooh, Ooh, I'm so afraid Pres. Trump will be mean to me

A few hours after he announced that he was no longer running for re-election, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he was voting against Trump’s budget bill because of the cuts to Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of his constituents.  Trump then did his usual, hurling childish insults and calling Tillis names like the second grader he resembles.

This is why people like Susan Collins and many other Republican Senators are scared.  What if Trump and the MAGA crowd and Fox News and Truth Social and all the rest of the MAGA universe says mean things.  What if they are REALLY NASTY, IN ALL CAPS.  

Will the Senators be thrown into a Siberian gulag if they cross Trump?  Will their husbands and wives be dragged off to some underground jail?  Will they be sent to El Salvador?  No, they will be insulted and might lose their election, but they would at least retain some shred of integrity.  I never thought Republican Senators and Representatives would be such lickspittle cowards.  I am ashamed for them.

What Made America Strong

 This morning Fareed Zakaria had as his guest Jake Sullivan, national security advisor to President Biden.  Sullivan listed three reasons why America is the strongest nation on earth.  

1.  Government sponsored basic research.  The internet itself, the space program, medical advances, and so much more because of government-funded research.

2.  Universities that attracted the best scholars from all over the world.  The United States was a magnet for brilliant scientists from countries around the globe.

3.  A government of laws that rewarded people for their effort, not for their politics.

All three of those are being destroyed.  Instead of grants, we are giving tax cuts to billionaires.  We are deporting scientists and preventing foreign students from studying here.  And we are promoting people on the basis of their politics.  Is Trump an agent of a foreign government doing his best to weaken and destroy our country?  As far-fetched as that seems, it also would provide an explanation for his actions.

The 14th Amendment means different things in different states

Trump opposes the 14th Amendment’s clause that if you are born in the U.S. you are an American citizen.  He is not the first president to oppose it.  President Andrew Johnson complained that under the 14th Amendment, even Chinese born in the U.S. would be citizens.  Johnson was correct, but the President can’t veto amendments to the Constitution.

Trump, of course, thinks he can, and issued an executive order that “birthright citizenship,” as it is often called, is void.  Something like 21 states have now adopted policies following Trump’s lead.  A district court said they couldn’t do that.  The Supreme Court has now ruled that a district court can’t determine law for the entire country.  

So now, if I have this right, in some states, like Texas and Florida, even if you re born here, you won’t necessarily be an American citizen.  In other states, like Pennsylvania, you would be.  I don’t know how this will work in practice, but it has to be one of the worst interpretations of the U.S. Constitution since Plessey v. Ferguson. or the Dred Scot decision.

Zohran Mamdani's mom

She’s Mira Nair.  I would have voted for Mamdani just knowing that.  She directed “Mississippi Masala” starring Denzel Washington.  In the film the Indian girl, played by Sarita Choudhury, falls for Denzel, much to her mother’s dismay.  Sarita then says to her mother, “This is America, Ma.”  I love that line.  I’ve used it in many of my classes.  

So now we have a Muslim as the front-runner in a city with the most Jewish residents on the globe, more than Tel Aviv, more than Jerusalem.  Many of them voted for him.  So did Asians.  So did Latinos.  Blacks not so much, but he beat Cuomo rather soundly.  Keep in mind that this is only the primary.  Eric Adams is running in the general and Cuomo might also run in a third party. 

Nonetheless, a 33-year-old Muslim is now the front runner for the mayor’s seat in New York.  Did I mention he styles himself a democratic socialist.  This is America, Ma. 

A message to "pro-life" Trump supporters

At a Senate hearing today, Sen. Merkley from Oregon asked Russell Vought, Christian nationalist, what he felt about the closing down of foreign aid that has meant the death of approximately a quarter million children around the world from such causes as malaria, malnutrition, and a variety of childhood diseases.  Vought, of Project 2025 fame, denied this was happening.

It’s happening.  Of course it is happening.  Denying it won’t stop it.  Calling yourself a Christian and wearing a cross around your neck won’t stop it.  Of course, the children who are dying probably aren’t Christian and probably haven’t been baptized and probably aren’t white.  

We have never had such a collection of amoral people running our government.  Never.  And we are supposed to celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation with people like this in charge.  It should be a wake.

Am I on the spectrum?

An excellent article in today’s Times explains why autism seems to be increasing.  It’s the diagnosis that’s changed.  Our daughter, who often works with autistic children, explained this to me years ago.  

In the 1980 the 4th edition of the “bible of psychiatry,” the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, changed the definition of autism.  Prior to that, to be autistic meant that before the age of three you had severe cognitive, interpersonal, emotional, and behavioral problems.  

After 1980 if you had something called Asperger’s syndrome, which is more common and much milder, you were on the “Autism spectrum.”

In my high school graduating class we had a guy who doodled by drawing electrical circuits.  For his science project, he made a synthesizer that played music.  In 1959!  He was socially inept, and I don’t think he went to the prom.  We were sort of friends–I was also socially inept and didn’t go to the prom.  I lost touch with him after graduation, and he died before our fifth reunion in a traffic accident.  Was he autistic or just “on the spectrum?”  You can bet that today he would definitely be diagnosed; back then we just thought he was a genius, which I still believe.

There are advantages to being “on the spectrum” in school.  You can get special help.  It can explain bad behavior.  Unfortunately, guys like Robert Kennedy, Jr., are so dumb they think vaccines cause “autism.”  They do their own research.  And some of them are now in charge of our health care.

Ryan MacKenzie, one-term congressman

 At least I hope so.  I called his office to urge him to stand up to Trump.  A young woman answered the phone and took my message.  A few days letter I received a letter that began:

“Thank you for recently contacting my office.  I appreciate hearing from constituents like you because it helps me better represent our entire community.  

“As items move through the legislative process, I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind.”

What crap.  The letter went on to tell me how I could track legislation and how I could receive legislative updates.

I would rather get nothing than a form letter that is insulting to me.  What I really want to hear is that this enormously rich MAGA clone has resigned from the House.  Unfortunately, he will be in until the next Congressional election.  Then he’s toast.

Trump's triumph

Iran’s nuclear capability destroyed (most likely) with just three aircraft.  Iran’s top military officials killed by Israeli drones.  Iran and Israel now agreeing to a cease fire.

Trump and his MAGA minions will be difficult to be around as they preen and strut.  What I worry about is that this will all go to his head, and he will be ordering preparations for the invasion of Greenland.

‘

Hey, it could happen.  In fact, right now I’d say chances are fairly good.

When you can't sleep

Last night about 3 a.m. I woke up thinking about the problems we are facing because of Trump, and sleep would not return.  I got up and grabbed the new novel by Carol Hiaasen entitled Fever Beach.  Hiaasen writes satirical novels about life in Florida, usually with an environmental theme, and Fever Beach is one of his best.  

The book is populated with white supremacists who spell “holocaust” with a K, a congressman who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Gaetz, and a multi-millionaire couple who are starting a scam called “Wee Hammers” based on Habitat for Humanity, except little kids supposedly build the houses.  

I read about 75 pages and was living in Hiassen’s Florida when I fell asleep.  I’ve read that when you can’t fall asleep, get up, do something, take your mind off Trump.  I recommend Hiassen.  As a backup I have a text of European economic history.  That usually takes only five to ten pages. 

Just in case you forgot

Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution:

“The Congress shall have Power...

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.”

That clause still stands.  It has not been amended.

 

The Nashville Raids

It seems to me there are three kinds of people.  Some people, a minority probably, would hide Anne Frank.  Some people, one also hopes a minority, would call the Gestapo.  And a third group, probably a majority, would do their best not to get involved.  

ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol began pulling people over in the Latin section of Nashville on May 3.  In Nashville people and groups are fighting back.  

The Tennessee Immigrants and Refugee Rights Coalition is posting rights of immigrants on social media and how to respond when taken by ICE.

The American Muslim Advisory Council and the Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors offered a rights workshop for immigrants planning to travel.

The Southern Christian Coalition provides bystander training for how people can help when they see ICE taking people away.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has established the Belonging Fund to support agencies that give emergency assistance to families who are affected by ICE arrests.

One organizer said the immigrants who taken are the most visible.  They grow and process the food, stock the stores, wash the dishes in the restaurants where we eat.  They are the guys who pour the concrete, put up the drywall, lay down the roof shingles, clean the office buildings.

These are also the people about whom Trump said “No, they’re not humans.  They’re animals.”

Now some of you will argue “Well, we aren’t killing them.”  Do you know what happens to them?  What if they are put in a prison in El Salvador?  In many cases we don’t know what happens to them after the thugs in masks and unmarked vans speed off with them.  Perhaps you’d like to ask the ICE agents.

Some information for this post is from Margaret Renkl, “The Profound Inhumanity of the ICE Raids, New York Times, (May 23, 2025), p. A20.

Reading books

According to an article in the most recent issue of The Atlantic, a National Endowment for the Arts survey found that fewer than half of American adults read more than a a single book book in 2022.  Is the National Endowment for the Arts still a thing after DOGE?

Are schools still teaching reading?  Is the problem charter schools and home schooling?  This may be “old man syndrome,” but I think the population of this country is getting dumber and dumber.  You want proof?  Look who got a majority of the vote for President in 2024.

The reason we will go to war against Iran

Maybe we won’t go to war against Iran, but if we do it won’t be for strategic reasons, or because of a well thought-out strategy, or some grand plan to bolster American power.  Notice that I’m writing about it.  I could have written about other things–the crappy military parade, the diplomatic disaster in Canada, the proposed sale of U.S. public land, the troops in CA, the tariff debacle–but I’m writing about the possible war.

And that is the point.  This would be the first American war in history that was launched by a president who wanted a distraction from his declining poll numbers.  He is determined to appear strong, decisive, in charge.  In wars Americans tend to rally around the flag, at least initially.  

Would Trump actually launch a war to build his ego and distract us?  You don’t need to ask that question.  You already know the answer, don’t you?  Even the MAGA dupes know the answer to that one.

BTW, the Constitution says Congress shall declare war.  Let’s get back to that, and soon. 

The Tuesday Science Section

Every Tuesday the New York Times has a science section.  The news in this section is always fascinating, at least to me.  Today, for example, I learned that there are huge portions of the ocean where the water is warming to the point where marine life is adversely affected.  I’m fairly sure it will also have an effect on the severity of hurricanes.  In the meantime, we have an administration that is doing its best to increase global warming by cutting back on green energy production, burning more coal and oil, and pushing bitcoin mining with its attendant energy suck.

Another article noted that North America had extensive farming in prehistoric times.  Aerial imaging has found all kinds of agricultural activity in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the ancestral home of the Menominee tribe.  Unfortunately, archaeological research is one of the fields that has been deeply cut by the Trump administration.

Finally, data shows that old people not only believe in the efficacy of vaccines, but will wait in line for flu and Covid shots.  Some studies have shown that the vaccine for shingles also may lessen the onset of dementia.  Robert F. Kennedy can discourage vaccines, but old people didn’t get old by being stupid.  And yes, I’ve got my shingles shot and I’m up-to-date on my Covid and flu shots.  I want to make to 83 at least.  (It will be in November.)

Camping out at Manzanar

One of Trump’s endless and bizarre Executive Orders mandated that National Parks and National Monuments say only positive things about the American past.  Trump believes in sugarcoating (or should I say “whitewashing”) any bad things in our history.  Somehow I guess he thinks that will make us more “patriotic.”  It just makes us ridiculous.

Our daughter was speculating on how the Manzanar internment camp for Japanese-Americans would handle this requirement.  We have visited Manzanar, and it is a bleak place in a dry area of California, hot and miserable in the summer; cold and miserable in the winter.  It will be a challenge, but here what she suggested Trump might use for interpretive material.

“Camping out in the desert”

“Fun times in the Sierras”

“Stay rent free in cabins”

I don’t know how they will handle Little Bighorn, or the Trail of Tears, or the war against the Modocs.  Who voted for this idiot?  

Did we reach 3.5%?

According to a recent study by two political scientists who looked at opposition to autocrats in a large number of countries, when the protests reach 3.5% of the population, that is the tipping point to ending the autocracy.

I know we didn’t reach that in Carbon County, PA.  We had about 250, but 3.5% of the population would be about 2100.

One problem is that Jim Thorpe is a tourist town, and parking is very difficult.  We would not have had room for even 1% of the population around the Courthouse where the rally took place.  We need a bigger venue.  (And maybe a food truck and a porta potty.)

The good news is that even with a cold rain, we had more people at the “No Kings” rally than at the “Hands off” rally.  

I don’t know how many people we had nation-wide, but given the size of the crowds in some of the bigger cities and given the fact that we had well over 2000 protests, we had to be close to the 3.5%.  And we will only grow.

I know one thing for damn sure.  The turnout at the Washington parade was abysmal.  Trump had to be disappointed.  He looked disappointed.  And all those tanks.  What a loser.

"No Kings" demonstration in Jim Thorpe

It rained.  It was cold.  Didn’t matter.  Over 200 people came out to let the world know that U.S. is not the place for kings or for presidents who want to act like kings.  We had well over 200 people (we counted), most of them with posters they made.  We had people in chicken costumes with chicken tacos, people in Trump masks, people in clown suits, old and young, and (I loved this), tourists who were visiting Jim Thorpe joining in the protest.  

Approximately fifty percent of passing motorists approved of the protest, honking their horns or giving us a thumbs up.  Approximately 40 percent did nothing.  Maybe 10% yelled nasty words or gave us a thumbs down.  Not bad for a deep red county. 

Fired up, ready to go

Today my cardiologist installed a new battery in my pacemaker.  The old one was about to run out of power.  I thought it was like a flashlight; they’d open me up and put a small battery into the box.  I found out the “box” is the battery.  The wires stayed where they were.

I’m not allowed to drive for 24 hours, but I will have a ride to the “No Kings” rally in Jim Thorpe.  Our daughter and grandson will be in a rally in Chico.  

Our group has a large chicken head mask and chicken feet for one of the demonstrators to wear.  The poster will refer to the TACO, or “Trump Always Chickens Out.”  He says he hates that phrase.

In the meantime that rally he held at Fort Bragg (biggest loser in the Confederate Army, and they name a base after him) was held in front of soldiers who had been vetted.  Only soldiers who voted for Trump were allowed to sit behind him.  

Did you ever think you would see such a great example of the reverse Midas touch.  Everything he touches....

Life on two tracks

On the surface my life seems so normal.  Today I learned that Brian Wilson died.  I loved the Beach Boys; I still listen to my “Pet Sounds” and “Endless Summer” albums.  Today I planted some hot pepper plants.  I edited a paper for a former colleague.  I saw the first fireflies of the summer this evening.  

On the other side I am well aware that my country is now an autocracy.  A Senator taken away in handcuffs.  A military parade with goose stepping soldiers planned.  Making my poster for the “No Kings” Rally on Saturday.  Watching a video of the American Gestapo chasing a farmworker in a field and taking him away.  

I feel like I am living in a world that isn’t real.  That I will wake up and it will go away.  But it won’t, will it?