Worse than Neville Chamberlain

In an opinion piece today Thomas Friedman compared Donald Trump to Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister who went to Munich and gave Hitler a piece of Czechoslovakia, an act which led Hitler to believe he could get away with further aggression.  As Friedman pointed out, Chamberlain at least was trying to achieve peace.

Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine and Zelenskyy has a different purpose.  It is to lower diesel fuel to help a few Republican congress members win their elections.  It is the complete betrayal of a democratic ally, and harms a nation we were pledged to protect in return for it giving up its nuclear weapons.

It gets worse.  Just as Chamberlain led Hitler to an awareness of the weakness of Britain and France, Trump’s actions will encourage further aggression by Russian and perhaps China.  There is a term for giving “aid and comfort” to an enemy.

Has your life gotten better recently?

I’d like to ask all those MAGA people how the deportation by ICE of all those “illegals” has improved their lives.  I know that jobs have opened up in meat packing plants, in certain construction industries, in senior care homes, and in California lettuce fields, but I’m not sure how many MAGA types have rushed to fill them.

If inflation has gone down, or data center construction has been reduced, or the war with Iran has been won, or our alliances have been strengthened, or our mass shootings have been ended, I am unaware of that.  Are we a stronger country?  Are we a more decent country?  A more moral and just country?  No, and no, and no.

We have become a cruel and evil country.  One nation, under God, with cruelty for people who live among us.  

Today was a day for a rally urging people to vote.  That isn’t enough.  If you vote for enablers like Mackenzie or Susan Collins or any Republican Senate or House candidate, you are complicit with ICE and all it is doing.

Not on the front page

We all hear about Trump aiding Russia in its war against Ukraine, the Iranian debacle, the ballroom and the reflecting pond, the ICE murders, and the refusal to release the Epstein files.  What we may not read about are the hundreds and hundreds of decisions that take place by way of regulation changes or executive orders.  Here are just a few:

Home health care workers who help the elderly by preparing meals or administering medications or assisting with toilet use may now be paid below the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25.  (Times News, July 22, 2026, p. 7.)

English is now the official language of the U.S.  (New York Times, Mar. 4, 2025, p. A15.)

The military publication “Starts and Stripes” which since World War II has given troops information without censorship must now “focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY.”  (New York Times , Jan. 17, 2026, p. B-5.)

Millions of acres of national forest land, including forests in national parks, will now be open to off road vehicles.  (New York Times, June 9, 2026, p. A15.)

Logging will be expanded on old-growth woodlands.  (New York Times, Aug. 19, 2026, p. A20.)

The E.P.A. will eliminate its scientific research arm. (New York Times, July 20, 2025, p. A24.)

The E.P.A. removed the fact that human activity is driving climate change from its website.  (New York Times, Dec. 10, 2025, p. A11.)

Trump is asking for $152,000,000 to make Alcatraz a prison again.  (New York Times, Apr. 5, 2026, p. 15.)

And so many many more.

"Musk"

I am not planning to see the four-hour documentary on Elon Musk entitled, appropriately, “Musk.”  I don’t want to spend four hours of my remaining life watching a movie about that jerk.  

Evidently I’m not the only one who dislikes him.  In dealings with his first start-up, Zip2, he was given a $22 million buy out to leave the company.  Some years later Peter Thiel of PayPal dumped Musk from PayPal but gave hime $250 million in parting.  

Imagine a guy so unpopular that people will give you millions to send you away.  That says something, especially when you are sent away by a creep like Peter Thiel.

Mary Tsingou Menzel, 1928-2026

I never heard of her either, but she was a physicist who worked on MANIAC1 at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico.  MANIAC (“Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator and Computer”) was seven feet tall, 1000 pounds, and had 3,000 vacuum tubes.  It could also make 10,000 calculations per second.

Mary Tsingou Menzel was an early coder and her coding work led to the creation in 1955 of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem, named after the men who worked on a numerical experiment.  

She received some recognition in a 2008 article by a French physicist.  The article was entitled “Fermi, Pasta, Ulam, and a Mysterious Lady.”  Now the problem is entitled “Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou.”

Her parents were immigrants who spoke Greek at home.  Because of her poor English she was held back, but her abilities soon bounced her up to her grade level.  She got a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and a job at Los Alamos, where she was paid less than the men doing the same work.  She went back to school and got a Masters degree from the University of Michigan.

She later did research for thermonuclear devices and worked on the Strategic Defense Initiative.  

Today she would be criticized by Vice President Vance for not being a “trad wife.”  Her parents, were they still alive, would be deported, probably to El Salvador.

All the information for this post except the speculation in the last paragraph is from an obituary by Ama Sarpomaa, “Mary Tsingou Menzel, a Physicist Credited After 50 Years, dies at 97,” New York Times, (Oct. 14, 2026), p. B-11. 

Rules for Voting

I should have gotten this out a week ago–many people have already voted, including me.  However, if you have not yet voted, here is how to cast your ballot.  

If the candidate has received some of the millions and millions of dollars Musk has poured into campaigns, don’t vote for that candidate.

If the candidate calls his or her opponent a socialist, don’t vote for that candidate even if the opposing candidate is a socialist.

If the candidate says, “I don’t agree with everything Trump has done, but he has stopped the flow of illegal immigrants,” don’t vote for that candidate.

If the candidate is a Republican, don’t vote for that candidate. 

In future elections, if the candidate is a Democrat and his name is Fetterman, don’t vote for that candidate. 

Investigating Ilhan Omar

Justice Department personnel conducted a search of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Washington apartment today.  This is about as dictatorial as you can get–using government agents to harass political opponents.  

Trump has hated Congresswoman Omar for years, questioning her citizenship, attacking her home country, calling her vile names.  The toady vice president has also questioned Ms. Omar’s status.  I don’t think this will hurt the Congresswoman’s re-election campaign, but it is further proof that we are not becoming an authoritarian state.  We are already an authoritarian state.  

If you really want to see immigration fraud, check out Mrs. Trump’s immigration status under the “Einstein visa” category.  What a giant pile of crap that was.

Putin, Zelenskyy, and Trump

Every day I wake up thinking “it can’t get any worse,” and every day it gets worse.  

Now Trump is openly aiding Russia and calling on Zelenskyy to step down as the leader of Ukraine. 

Vergangenheitsbewältigung

The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died in March of this year at age 96, said that Germans had to commit to the collective task of “working through the past,” which is what that title means.  (And yes, I can spell it, although I had to look up how to put in the umlaut.)

This is what we need to do, and what Trump and his followers dislike.  We need to keep working through the past–the way we treated and are treating our immigrants, the way we condoned slavery and racial discrimination, what we did and are doing to our Indians, and all the other blots on our nation’s history.  

One of the reasons we are allowing ICE to do the things those agents are doing (another person was shot in N.Y. two days ago) is because we don’t do our “working through the past.”   We have a shameful history of mistreatment of immigrants, although much of the earlier horrors was not supported by government agents.

Unacceptable religions

I know a guy who has come up with a test for religions he finds unacceptable. The test involves rules about clothing and appearance.  If the men and women are required to follow strict rules of dress that differ by gender, he rejects them.  He feels that morality and religiosity should have nothing to do with clothes or hair styles or veils or bonnets or underwear, and any religion that insists on those kinds of rules should be avoided.

A new question on the 1040 form

In the draft version the 1040 form will ask you to check a box either Yes or No to answer this question:  “At the time you file your return are you and your spouse if filing jointly, a U.S. citizen, U.S. National, or an alien lawfully authorized to work in the U.S.?”

I’m going to have some fun with that if the I.R.S. actually includes it.  I can think of all kinds of answers:

If I answer no, does that mean I don’t need to pay the tax.

I am, but I’m not sure about my spouse.

All of the above.

None of the above.

You need to talk to my attorney.

Who wants to know?

I am, but I am not a pedophile like the President.

Not sure which one I’ll use.

 

Trump bribe

My Social Security check is deposited directly to the bank, so I didn’t realize that the $90 Trump bribe has evidently been deposited to my account.  It doesn’t seem like a very effective bribe if people don’t even know why their accounts suddenly grew.  

What to do with the money?  I will be donating mine to the Carbon County Democratic Party.  Or as Republicans are fond of saying, the Carbon County Democrat Party.  Either way it gets the money.

A friend is sending hers to the Talarico campaign.  I hope if any of you received this check, you will put it to a similar good use.  

They clapped and cheered

When Trump invited Iran to “take out” L.A. and San Diego at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, the audience clapped and cheered.  I have been to Nebraska numerous times.  I don’t think that represents the people of Nebraska.  I think that represents the kind of people Trump attracts to his rallies.  Cruel people.  Ugly people.

And I think we have been coarsened in the last 10 years by Trump.  From his comments on women, his friendship with Epstein, his lying about being at the 9/11 site and his celebrating that now his buildings were the tallest in New York...unfortunately people often take their cues from their leaders.

I would bet none of those people in that audience who are old enough to remember 9/11 cheered when that happened.  Just 12 years later I think at a Trump rally they might.

Hurricane breaches dam; returns Swannanoa River to natural state

My correspondent in North Carolina recently forwarded an article from the “Hickory Record.” newspaper.  In 2024 Hurricane Helene dumped so much rain in North Carolina that the Lake Craig Dam was breached.  This allowed fish to move upstream for the first time since the dam was built over 100 years ago.  

The city of Ashville has decided not to repair the dam.  The rest of the dam will be removed, eliminating a barrier to six fish species.  The wildlife commission didn’t need to reintroduce the fish–they swam upstream on their own.

As Shakespeare noted in his play Henry VI:  “Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.”  In this case the fish and the river profited. 

Writing is easy

I write a monthly essay for an online magazine edited by a friend who once worked for the Times News.  The assignment is open-ended; basically anything I want to write about as long as it is entertaining.  The word count is about 600.

You are thinking that shouldn’t be a problem.  After all, I usually post every night.  The problem is, after you’ve written about 150 of these essays you start to have problems coming up with a new topic.  I thought about the quote from an American journalist Gene Fowler who said,”Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

Maybe I’ll write about Gene Fowler, who not only was a friend of W. C. Fields, but had a successful career as a Hollywood screen writer.  All of this info is from Wikipedia, not AI.  AI can go to hell.  

Maybe I’ll write about being a Luddite.  Look it up in Wikipedia.

ICE agents arrest Pennsylvania poultry workers

That’s the headline in Lancaster Farming, Oct. 3, p. A3.  Remember how they were going to deport the drug dealers and the criminals.  17 poultry workers were arrested during traffic stops on three separate days in Lancaster.  How on earth does that Make America Great Again.

In the meantime Gov. Shapiro’s administration published an online guide for employers.  They have a right to view a copy of a search warrant before allowing federal agents into private areas of the premises, and they have the right to refuse consent in the absence of a valid warrant, probable cause, or exigent circumstances.

I’m not sure what “exigent circumstances” are.

I am sure what authoritarianism looks like.

Something wrong here

The developers of OpenAI and Anthropic have so far spent $55.7 million to influence elections this November.  Other democracies limit spending on elections.  Why can’t we have nice things?

Email to Fetterman

I received a three page email from Fetterman explaining his philosophy and why he couldn't allow socialism to corrupt the Democratic Party.  I sent him the following reply:

Dear Senator Fetterman,

     It is sad that a U.S. Senator does not know the difference between democratic socialists and communists.  You, sir, are a disgrace to Pennsylvanians of all parties.  If this is the result of the stroke, you should resign.  If it is a result of a lack of knowledge of political philosophies, you should also resign.

I am sure I'll hear back.

They're all crooks

No, they’re not.  I thought of this yesterday when I read the obituary of Byron Sher, a state legislator from the San Francisco peninsula.  I met Mr. Sher a number of times.  What I didn’t know was that he was the principal author of the Clean Air Act of 1988 and sponsored a waste management law that led the way to curbside recycling.  He passed legislation to remove dams on the McCloud and saved a redwood forest in Humboldt County.  In 1989 Republican governor George Deukmejian signed a bill sponsored by Sher to require the state to study the effects of global warming.

I worked as a field representative for CA state Senator Jerry Smith.  In my entire time in that office I never saw a scintilla of corruption or wrong-doing.  I was represented in Congress by Don Edwards and later represented by Norman Mineta.  Those were men of the highest moral standards.  

Do you think the men and women who run for borough councils or boards of supervisors or school boards are crooks?  Really?  They might not be the brightest people on the planet, and they often don’t get along with one another, but they are not crooks.

There are crooks in government.  The current occupant of the White House exudes corruption, and his entire family seems to be in on the grift.  But Carter, or Reagan, or George Bush (either one), or President Obama?  You might not agree with their policies, but they were not crooks.  

When you hear “they’re all crooks” you are dealing with someone who is too lazy to participate in self-government and democracy.  That person is both cynical and lazy.

the greatest deliberative body in the world

If you do an internet search for that, Google’s A.I. will tell you that particular phrase refers to the U.S.Senate.  If you have seen or heard about the Senators questioning Jack Smith today, you will be aware that you have just read what is commonly referred to as “A.I. slop.”