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?

Reflections on the death of Sly Stone

I’m suffering from “old man’s syndrome.”  Everything was better when I was younger.  The music was definitely better.  News reporting was far better.  The clothes were more interesting.  The schools taught civics.  The Supreme Court followed the Constitution.  Congress took its duties seriously.  The Presidents–even Ronald Raegan and George Bush–definitely better.  No question there.

I suppose you could argue that medical care is better now, but give Robert Kennedy, Jr.,a few more months, and you will be nostalgic for 1970 when people routinely were vaccinated and there was no Facebook to spread conspiracy theories and no Fox News to amplify bullshit.

I do want to pass on some of the best advice I have heard.  It was in today’s editorial in the New York Times.  I am sure that many people are apprehensive about the “No Kings” demonstrations scheduled for Saturday.  Trump’s threats and the call-up of the military are certainly cause for alarm, but here is what the Times said:  “Those who want to live in a free country may be scared, but they shouldn’t be cowed.” 

See you Saturday.

Please Watch Gavin Newsom's speech

I just watched Gavin Newsom’s speech in response to federal troops in L.A.  He ran a a clinic on American government and the right to protest.  He called out Trump’s illegal actions and his attempt to foment violence.

You can get it on YouTube.  Watch it.  And then go out on Saturday and join one of the hundreds of protests.  Wear nice clothes.  Take an American Flag and a copy of the Constitution with you.  Make a good poster.  Something like “Hail to the Thief,” or “Trump named best U.S. President in Russian History,” or “Build a wall around Trump:  I’ll pay for it,” or “Trump:  That boy ain’t quite right.”  You can come up with something good.

I’ll be there.  I have a Trump mask.  My poster, which I must make, will say “Pardons:  $1 million dollars.”  That is Trump’s actual going rate.

Trump judges rule for Trump

Earlier this year a Federal District court judge ruled that Trump had to allow the Associated Press into his press briefings after he kicked out their reporters because they wouldn’t refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.  

Now the three-judge Court of Appeals for the District Court of Washington, D.C., ruled that he could limit what members of the press he spoke to, and it basically said he could pick the press that covered his events by their ideology.

The vote was 2-1.  The one was a judge who had been appointed by Obama.

The two Trump judges also ruled that it was ok to cut federal funding to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America.  That ruling was overturned by what is called an en banc hearing where all the District Court judges in that particular district rule one the issue.

Info for this post was taken from Zach Montague and Minho Kim, “Appeals Court Rules That Trump Can Restrict A.P.Journalists’ Access, New York Times, (June 8, 2025), p. 22. 

Trump incites violence in L.A.

Trump wants protestors killed.  This cowardly man, who paid a doctor to lie about “bone spurs” to avoid serving in Vietnam, advocated shooting people wading across the Rio Grande.  He thinks it will make him look tough to send Marines to L.A., even though the mayor of L.A. and the governor of California say those troops are not needed.

Remember that Trump encouraged an invasion of the Capitol in Jan. 2021.  When re-elected, he pardoned the whole mob, including the people who assaulted cops and demanded the death of his Vice President.  He and his followers even tried to re-write the script.  That wasn’t a mob–they were “tourists” peacefully entering the Capitol.  It won’t work with me–I saw it live on television, and that was no “deep fake.”

In 1970 I was teaching in Erie, Penna., 70 miles away from Kent State University where four students were killed by soldiers untrained on dealing with protestors.  The students weren’t even protesting.  Soldiers in L.A. will exacerbate the situation.  Angry people will throw rocks, perhaps Molotov cocktails.  Troops will fire.  People will die.  Trump will strut around like Mussolini, hero of the hour.  MAGA people will cheer.  

Welcome to my America, June 2025.

The Los Angeles "Riot"

In September 1957 Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the National Guard to prevent racial integration of Central High School in Little Rock.  President Dwight Eisenhower, who knew something about troops and national power, then federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered it to protect the black students who were facing screaming mobs.

In 2025, when a group of protestors took to the streets in Los Angeles to protest ICE raids, President Trump, who knows how to seize media attention and move the story from Elon Musk’s breakup, has decided to federalize the California National Guard.  From what I’ve seen, the protests have been mild.  The L.A. police could easily handle any potential trouble.  But using troops is dramatic.  It gets attention.  Even I am blogging about it.  

I have no doubt that the presence of troops will exacerbate the situation.  More hotheads will come out.  Shots will be fired.  Trump will proclaim the need for more troops.  Commander-in-Chief Bonespurs will finally get the military action he’s always wanted, and the Trump-Musk feud will be off the front pages.  

It will be interesting to see what he will do on the “No Kings” demonstration day when over 1000 demonstrations are held.

D-Day anniversary

 I was roughly one and a half years old on D-Day, so obviously I don’t remember it.  I have read about it, however, and now realize that it was a close thing.  There was no guarantee it would succeed, and, in fact, it took weeks for the Allied forces to break out of the Normandy area.  

I think the word “hero” is over used today.  It does apply to those men who landed on those beaches in France.  To wade ashore in the face of enemy fire and comrades dying all around you–that takes amazing courage.  

The fact that this administration now will hold a Soviet-style military parade on June 14 while Commander-in-Chief Bone Spurs sits on his golden throne in review is one of the most disgusting spectacles I can imagine.  How did we go from Omaha Beach to this travesty?

Schadenfreude

I don’t know about you, but I’m making popcorn.

Deleting Harvey Milk

You know how old people can remember where they were when they heard that President Kennedy was assassinated.  Younger people usually remember where they were when they heard about the planes hitting the World Trade Center.  

I remember where I was when I heard that Harvey Milk had been assassinated.  I was walking up the steps to my office in Business Tower at San José State when one of my students stopped me to tell me that Milk had been gunned down in San Francisco City Hall.  I did not believe him.

To liberals in the Bay Area, Harvey Milk was a hero.  Even in tolerant San Francisco, the first openly gay candidate to win an election was an amazing breakthrough.  If you haven’t seen the movie “Milk,” starring Sean Penn, I urge you to do watch it.  

Today Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that a ship named for Milk, a Korean War vet, would be stripped of his name.  I heard they also did the same thing with Medgar Evers.  

I always thought that men who hated gays were themselves unsure of their masculinity.  I heard that Hegseth exercises with soldiers.  I’ve seen pictures of his tattoos.  This is a guy with real problems with both sexuality and race.  We knew this before he was appointed.  Blame the Republican Senators.  They knew they were approving an incompetent jerk.

Lies about the budget bill

 Trump:  “We’re not doing any cutting of anything meaningful.  The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse.”  (May 20)

The Truth:  Over the next decade spending on Medicaid will be reduced by about $600 billion and approximately 10.3 million people will be dumped from the rolls.  That is according to the Congressional Budget Office.

and 

Karoline Leavitt (White House Press Secretary)  The bill “...also helps to get our fiscal house in order by carrying out the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years with $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings.” (May 22)

The Truth:  The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill will increase the federal deficit by well over $1 trillion. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, the Tax Foundation, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget all foresee an increase in the budget deficit of over $1 trillion.

As the conspiracy theorists often say:  Do your own research.  

If the Swiss village of Blatten were in the U.S.

Last week the village of Blatten in southern Switzerland was buried under a landslide resulting from a glacier melting at a rapid rate from global warming.  Not only were the people evacuated prior to the landslide, but so were 52 cattle along with sheep and even domestic rabbits.  The Swiss government is now sending in pumps and debris removal equipment.

Here is what would have happened if Blatten were in the U.S.

People would have rejected the whole idea that a glacier was melting because of global warming.  Even the president knows there is no such thing.

You’d hear comments like “I’ve lived here for 75 years, and I’ve never seen a landslide” and “I don’t believe anything the government puts out.  I read on Facebook that this whole thing is just a test to see if we will obey.”

No warning would have been given.  DOGE would have fired the people who monitor glaciers.

After the landslide, FEMA would have refused to authorize aid.

Note:  After a full week, my computer is fixed, and I have a new way to post thanks to my computer guru Debbie.  I am so sorry for a week’s absence.  I’m sure you missed me.