Friday, February 14, 2025

Will Harriet Tubman Be Trump's Next Target?

Donald Trump made news when he ordered the U. S. Treasury to stop minting pennies. But I’m wondering how long it will be before he quashes the planned makeover of the $20 bill that is to feature abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the front of the bill, moving slaveowner/president Andrew Jackson to the back side? The new $20 bill is not expected to be circulated until 2030. 


Trump is, after all, not only trying to erase all aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) initiated by prior Democratic administrations, he also is a big fan of Jackson who, folklore says, notoriously disregarded a Supreme Court ruling that rejected Georgia’s attempt to control activities on Native American soil. The court ruled Cherokees possessed sovereignty over their land. 


Eventually the Cherokee Nation sold its land and the tribe was forcibly relocated to Oklahoma Territory in a post-Jackson presidency action known as the “Trail of Tears” that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Cherokee (https://search.app/Zdft3AC4tjYRKERT6). 


Much like Marie Antoinette’s maligned but never spoken comment concerning starving French peasantry—“Let them eat cake”—Jackson’s reaction to the Supreme Court is probably apocryphal. He is often quoted as saying, “John Marshall (chief justice of the Supreme Court) has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” But the first citation of this admonition “appeared 20 years after Jackson’s death in newspaper publisher Horace Greeley’s 1865 history of the Civil War, The American Conflict,” according to Wikipedia. 


In earlier currency action upon taking office again, Trump partially cast aside the likeness of the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, by directing the U. S. Treasury to stop minting pennies because their value is significantly less than it costs to produce them. 


Lincoln’s visage has been on the penny since 1909, the centennial of his birth. Honest Abe remains on the $5 bill. The initiative to honor Tubman began during Barack Obama’s presidency. And we all know how fond Trump is of anything Obama-related, DEI-related or not. 

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Eggspectations, Expectations & Prognostications

Heard Wednesday night on CBS Evening News that if only one hen is found to have avian flu the whole flock must be euthanized and it would take eight months for replacement chicks to mature to egg-laying status. So, don’t expect the egg shortage with its resulting price escalation to go away soon. 


Unless … Dr. Trump brushes off his non-existent biology/medical degrees and decrees amnesty for chickens sentenced to death if only one sister is tainted. After all, you can trust his medical judgment. Recall Trump’s enthusiasm for swigging hydroxychloroquine and other pseudo remedies to combat Covid 19. 


According to CBS, “since the current strain of bird flu, H5N1, reached the United States in 2022, over 148 million birds have been ordered euthanized.” Here’s a look at how the bird flu has affected one family’s poultry businesshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-bird-flu-ravages-poultry-industry-the-damage-spreads/.



Drug Cartels Are Terrorists: I wonder how long after drug cartels are designated as terrorist organizations will they be targeted by American military strikes? Trump has already attacked terrorists in Somalia.


Cartels are based in Mexico, Colombia and other countries south of our border (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/state-dept-terrorist-designation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).


Don’t expect Trump to honor Mexican or Colombian sovereignty. With or without local government agreement, expect missile or air force attacks on suspected cartel strongholds. Ground troops would not be employed.



Hostage Release: Vladimir Putin couldn’t be happier. His useful idiot has returned to the White House. 


In exchange for releasing Americans innocent-but-found-guilty-in-Russian-courts on trumped up charges, Putin has secured the release of a Russian cybercrime kingpin. More importantly, he has suckered Trump into negotiating with him the future of Ukraine, with little if any interference from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.


Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have signaled Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia and not be a candidate for inclusion in NATO. It’s a win-win for Putin. With such a deal Trump is setting a precedent for a U.S. Big Power takeover of the Panama Canal, Greenland, and the Gaza Strip. 


 

Teach Your Children Well: As any Israeli, or student of the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict, would tell you if asked, rapprochement between the two sides will be a loooong time coming as long as Arab schools continue to teach Jews are bogeymen. Without a sea change in curriculum there will be no hope for lasting coexistence, much less peace. 


Closer to home, we in America are about to embark on an educational journey backward to a time when our ancestors could do no wrong. They could kill native people and their cultures with impunity and take their land. Blacks could be enslaved, for after all, their lives here would be better than in “uncivilized” Africa. And when they were freed, it was okay to keep them in squalor, for, again, they lacked the intelligence necessary for a civilized citizenry. 


Under Trump, education curricula and library literature will be wiped clean of any inference that America is anything less than God’s Manifest Destiny gift to humanity. That is, gifted to straight white men and, perhaps, straight white women. 



Charging Ahead: Elon Musk is about to get a payback windfall for the $250 million he spent to support Trump’s election. The State Department has plans to spend $400 million on Musk’s armored Tesla vehicles (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wk4.bQB1.yzF5URbn-dKX&smid=url-share). 


Aside from the obvious conflict of interest, the purchase is quizzical because Trump is negative on electric vehicles. Is he ok with spending taxpayer dollars on a fleet of electric cars? Are there enough recharging stations worldwide that accommodate Teslas? 

Breaking News: The State Dept. has suspended the plan to buy the armored Teslas.




Wednesday, February 12, 2025

The GOP Needs a Name Change

 It’s time to stop calling them Republicans.


They do not stand for traditional Republican values of the last 80 years. Ronald Reagan would not qualify as a MAGA mate. 


Correction. Actually, the Grand Old Party no longer reflects the even older values of Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century, nor the values of Abraham Lincoln during the prior most extreme time of contention among Americans.


So let’s stop the illusion and call their cult allegiance by a new, more accurate party name: The Trumped. Or maybe The Trumpster Party. We’ll call its adherents Trumpists. Or Trumpers. Or Trumpsters.

 

The Trumped share none of the values and achievements of past Republican presidents—Reagan, Bush I, Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln. Even Nixon left a positive policy legacy by creating the EPA, engaging China and the Soviet Union. 


I wonder how today’s Trumped U.S. senators sleep at night? Because they surely were sleeping through the nomination hearings. Sleepwalking through their responsibilities as U.S. senators to searchingly evaluate a president’s nominees. 


The Constitution empowers the Senate to “advise and consent” on all nominations (plus treaties and declarations of war), but as a New York Times headline recently blared,  “G.O.P. Senators Choose Consent.” 


“The party-line committee votes to send both nominees to the floor for confirmation next week provided the clearest evidence yet that Mr. Trump’s pressure tactics and the threat of a barrage of abuse by his allies against would-be defectors had sapped whatever remained of a G.O.P. impulse to balk. And they suggested a broader impulse among Republicans on Capitol Hill — even the few who have maintained some degree of independence from Mr. Trump — to shrink from confrontation with him and allow him to have his way at the dawn of his second term,” The Times wrote.


Trumped legislators are remaining silent about the massive butcher knife Elon Musk and his youthful posse are wielding upon workers at departments as diverse as the FBI, USAID, and the CIA.


Perhaps they are keeping quiet because as long as they toe the Trump/Musk line they can feel comfortable they will not be primaried and, perhaps more importantly, they will continue to rake in their annual federal salaries, benefits, pensions, and speaking fees even as thousands of dedicated civil servants lose their paychecks and millions of needy across America and the world lose sustenance and hope that the United States has provided for six decades. 


So much for caring about others as long as “I get mine.” 


It’s almost impossible to read all the commentary analyzing the impact Trump’s assault on federal programs will have on ordinary Americans, in blue states and red ones. My desire to keep my sanity limits my reading. 


Let’s consider the effects of cutting healthcare benefits and neutering clean energy project funding. 


As Aaron Carroll, president of the health policy organization AcademyHealth, wrote in The Times, it would be foolish for Republicans to gut programs that help their constituents find medical solutions. 


“We should be honest about these trade-offs: Families lose health insurance if we cut Medicaid or slash A.C.A. (Affordable Care Act) premium credits.” Children go without care. Clinics and hospitals in rural areas close. People suffer (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/opinion/medicaid-tax-cuts-republicans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).


Cutbacks in Biden-related projects have “put Republicans in the tricky position of defending a White House that deems money for clean energy a “waste of taxpayer dollars” while working behind the scenes to protect their towns from the loss of new manufacturing jobs, The Times reported.


“This is where we get a test of whether the Republican Party is a real political party serving its constituents, or a personality cult,” said Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental advocacy groups.


“I expect thousands of people to be laid off, I expect workers to be furloughed, and I expect construction projects to halt,” Mr. Walsh said.


Sadly, we have repeatedly witnessed Trumped legislators opt to bend their knees before their master rather than protect the best interests of their constituents and country. 


Almost eight years ago, on February 27, 2017, I deplored Republican legislators for being unwilling to challenge Trump’s nominees. History is repeating itself. So I will end with a paragraph from from that blog eight years ago:


“The bottom line is the public should not count on Republicans to counter any Trump initiative no matter how shameful it is, how obvious a conflict of interest it may be or how any nominee might lack the experience or credentials to effectively manage the people’s interests.”


Monday, February 10, 2025

Four More, or Even More, Years

 I took a two week vacation with Gilda to visit her sister in Tucson. Anything of interest happen during my silence? 


In advocating the absorption of Canada as our 51st state, the reoccupation and annexation of the Panama Canal, the forced takeover of Greenland and the seizure and development of Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” including the permanent muscular displacement of its Palestinian residents, Trump is telegraphing his intention to be more than a two-term president. 


These musings-turned-into-must-have policies are not turn-of-a-switch realities. They will take years to fulfill. Doubtful Trump the Magnificent would relinquish control of these projects despite a constitutional limit on his legal, electoral ability to serve beyond January 20, 2029. I recently wrote I thought Trump would designate his son Don Jr., not Vice President JD Vance, as his preferred, designated successor. Based on his recent pronouncements, I’m amending my prediction.


Don’t rely on the Supreme Court to muzzle Trump’s trumpeting. His presidential power enhanced by the Court during his hiatus from the Oval Office, Trump acts now with knowledge he cannot be chained by precedent or public outcry or legislative prohibition. Even if the Court rules against him there is no enforcement power to make Trump bend his knee to its judgement. 


Trump is immune from prosecution. Only an impeachment and Senate trial with a guilty verdict could unseat him. But don’t count on that happening anytime in the next few years.


The only recourse to stop his gutting of the American government may be to sue acolytes who carry out his directives as they would have no immunity from court orders. But these would be drawn out processes during which time programs affected would shrivel while federal workers and recipients of aid would have to make do for months, if not years, without federal funds. And besides, Trump would pardon them, so they have nothing to fear.


It’s a bleak picture, one that politicians and media are talking about (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/politics/trump-third-term.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare). 


No doubt, Trump’s opponents would demonstrate against any third term campaign. And that, dear friends, would play directly into Trump’s trump card—his ability to declare a national emergency to institute martial law. 


“Martial law,” according to Wikipedia, “is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties may be suspended for as long as martial law continues.”


“Or indefinitely.”


Oy!

Monday, January 27, 2025

Thoughts on Holocaust Remembrance Day

I’m a poor reader. A sleepy reader. Whereas Gilda can sit for hours curled up on the couch, propped up on a beach chair at the seashore, awake on a plane or at the breakfast table with tea near her hand reading books, magazines, newspapers, I have limited patience for the written word in volume, comical really, considering I made my fortune, slight as it is, pounding out or editing copy, the journalist’s jargon for the written word. 


I prefer visual storytelling. Films, mostly older ones carried by TCM (Turner Classic Movies) are my favorite escape from daily reading options. I have no evidence to back up a pet theory, but I suspect I am correct in believing that most people under 40 years old, perhaps even as high as 50, are similarly inclined to prefer viewing movies, playing video games or streaming Internet sites over reading books or intellectual magazines. 


That’s one reason I believe antisemitism has been able to flourish during the last three decades. Simply put, generations after mine have been insufficiently informed by mass media about the evils of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. They have, instead, been fed a never-ending diet of interplanetary villains who, in theory, might espouse bigotry and intolerance but who never actually say they hate Jews and desire their eradication.


Though there have been more than a handful of movies during the last 30 years concerning the horrors of Nazi Germany, the last widely seen picture depicting the depravity of the Holocaust was Steven Spielberg’s 1993 adaptation of Thomas Keneally’s “Schindler’s List” (a book I have read). 


How different these last years have been from the five decades before them, when through countless war movies Hollywood educated Americans to the mass murder of Jews and the oppression of “subhumans” by Nazis and their sympathizers. 


There was no ambiguity in who the victims were. 


Consider today’s cinematic collection of Star Wars- and superhero-inspired films. Is antisemitism ever part of a plot line? 


Today, January 27, the day the Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in 1945 by Russian soldiers, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Recent studies on the prevalence and knowledge of antisemitism have shown a disturbing, relentless increase in antisemitism, especially among younger generations.


Now, I am not advocating for a dedicated 24/7 Holocaust channel on every streaming service. But clearly as a nation we, as well as many European countries, have been negligent in fully teaching the subject of antisemitism. 


Four days ago The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) released an eight-country study on “Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness.” Countries surveyed included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Among the  major findings: 


  • A majority of adults across almost all countries surveyed believe something like the Holocaust could happen again today. In the U.S., 76% shared that belief;
  • Holocaust revisionism and even denial are growing, especially among millennials;
  • For more details on the study, here’s a link: https://search.app/a5vAAJVsjyqYwy3M6



This being the day Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago, I’m re-posting a blog from 15 years ago on our family’s visit to the death camp and the ensuing saga of naming rights for the sports complex where the New York Giants and Jets play their home games:


“A Chain of One-Person Events


“I don’t usually engage in the practice of blowing my own horn. These blog postings from my life are mostly casual musings and remembrances, points of poignancy, interest, sometimes humor, that hopefully evoke in you similar memories and feelings from your earlier days.


“But an Op-Ed piece in Friday’s NY Times, titled “Out of Auschwitz” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/opinion/29pisar.html?ref=opinion), stirred me to recall one of my most cherished accomplishments—I prevented the new Giants-Jets Meadowlands football stadium from being named after the company that insured Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.


“Two summers ago my family traveled to Central Europe, visiting Vienna, Budapest, Krakow and Prague. In Krakow, we hired a local guide, a young man who, by coincidence, had grown up in the village of OÅ›wiÄ™cim, the Polish name for Auschwitz, some 30 miles outside the main city.


“There are two parts to the concentration camp. Auschwitz I sits on the site of a former military base. Its buildings are mostly brick. But as sturdy as its structures were, Auschwitz I did not provide the Nazis with sufficient scope to expeditiously carry out their mass murders. So they built Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau. Jews and other undesirables were contained in wooden barracks. Beyond the far end of a long train depot, the Nazis built gas chambers and crematoria.


“On a hot, sunny, late July afternoon as we walked in an open field towards the memorial near the ruins of the killing machines, we came across a small pool of water. I asked our guide what purpose it served. Holocaust deniers would tell you, he replied, that these and others like it were swimming pools the prisoners enjoyed, as if Auschwitz were just a little rougher than a regular summer camp. In truth, the water pools were part of a fire response system mandated by the camp’s insurance carrier because of the extensive wooden buildings. He identified the insurer as Allianz. I was incredulous, but given German fascination with efficiency, not too surprised they would go to the extreme of insuring their extermination property.


“Fast forward one month, to Labor Day. On the back page of SportsMonday in The Times I read a short marketing article by Richard Sandomir that the Giants and Jets were close to signing a naming rights deal with a German “financial services company,” Allianz.


“Whoa! I raced to the computer, checked it was indeed the same Allianz (on its Web site Allianz acknowledges its Nazi links), and sent off letters to The Times, the Giants and the Jets, informing them that far from being just a “financial services company,” Allianz had been the Nazi insurance company. “Surely the Giants and Jets,” I wrote in part, “in their ignoble pursuit of every last marketing dollar, do not need to affront their fans, many of whom lost family in the Holocaust, by placing the Allianz name on their stadium.”


“Not a word back. The Times says it won’t print a letter to the editor without first contacting the writer, so I was caught off-guard the following Sunday, September 7, when awakened by a caller saying he agreed with my letter. I rushed downstairs to find the paper but could not locate the letter in the Week in Review section. The caller, a Scarsdale doctor, said it was in the Sports section. There it was, under the headline, “Checkered History of Allianz.” A few friends called to congratulate me on getting published, but I was not prepared for the next chapter of the story.


“Three days later, Sandomir followed up with a long article, titled “Naming Rights and Historical Wrongs” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/sports/football/10sandomir.html?scp=4&sq=sandomir%20aLLIANZ&st=cse) and another one the next day (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/sports/football/12sandomir.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Allianz%20Sandomir&st=cse). Talk radio picked up the story, as did other newspapers. One tabloid ran a drawing of the new stadium topped with a swastika. By Friday, pressure had grown intense enough for the naming rights bid to be abandoned.


“Near the beginning of this piece I wrote I prevented the Allianz naming rights plan. In truth, two others played important roles, as well. First, the unknown editor who chose to print my letter to the editor. Second, Richard Sandomir, who, mutual friends have told me, learned of Allianz’s past from my letter and pursued the story. Of course, thousands more sent in their denouncements once the story became mainstream news.


“Aside from stopping what would have been an affront to decency, my Allianz story demonstrates that one person can make a difference, can start a chain of one-person events that builds on the enlightenment of those before, to right, or prevent, a wrong.


“Auschwitz was liberated 65 years ago, [now 80 years] on January 27. Let’s never forget to speak out and act so that it is always remembered and never allowed to happen again. To any people. Anywhere.”


Sunday, January 26, 2025

Taking Issue with Trump's Actions and Nastiness

Of all the actions, directives, executive orders Donald Trump has promulgated during his first six days in office, perhaps the cruelest and most inhumane one has been the order “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program.” The order, according to The New York Times, “suspended a resettlement program that brings thousands of legal refugees to the country each year.” It closed a legal route to the safety of America from the ravages of conflict and oppression in distant lands. 


Most telling in its cruelty and execution is its restriction on Afghanis who risked their lives to aid and assist America and its soldiers during our long war against the Taliban. We owe it to them to save them from the vengeance the Taliban seeks to inflict on them and their families. 


Many have filled out forms, been vetted, investigated and waited for years, often hiding from the Taliban, to secure a flight to America. All their hopes have been dashed by Trump’s cruel and inhumane obsession with painting all who want to come here as burdensome immigrants who would tax our systems, take our jobs, rob and rape us and even kill us ( https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/world/asia/trump-executive-order-immigration-afghanistan.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare). 


I cannot vouch for its authenticity, nor authorship, but the following defense of Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde to the verbal attack unleashed by Donald Trump is a well-written response, purported to be from the Episcopal Church of Washington (I have my doubts) as disseminated by something called Washington Press: 


“This is what the Episcopalian Church had to say about his tantrum on X:


“President Trump,


“1. Much like those who do not want you to be president, you do not get to decide whether a bishop’s office is legitimate. She was chosen by the people of her diocese to be their bishop. Then, she was granted consent to be a bishop by other bishops and standing committees of our church’s dioceses. Beginning by calling her a “so-called” bishop is an obvious low blow to discredit her as a person, rather than what she actually said that you disagree with. The Episcopal Church was legitimate enough to hold your third wedding, the funeral of Melania’s mother, and the baptism of your son, Barron. Barron also attended an Episcopal day school. Now you have an issue with how we do things when it doesn’t go your way?


“2. You didn’t have an issue with politics being brought into the church by the ministers who spoke at your inauguration, or by yourself for that matter. They were blatantly partisan, crediting God for your political success: ‘Mr. President, the last four years there were times I’m sure you thought it was pretty dark, but look what God has done,’ (Reverend Franklin) Graham said.


“3. She wasn’t nasty in tone, plain and simple. I can’t remember ever hearing a homily given in such a gracious manner and calm tone. If you disagree, listen to her speak. You may disagree with what she said, but her tone was in no way “nasty.” Additionally, insulting her intelligence, rather than quoting what you disagreed with, is a very typical play coming from a narcissist.


“4. The vast majority of people who have committed crimes in the U.S. are U.S. citizens. Defending yourself about being asked to have mercy on immigrants by saying a ‘large number of illegal migrants came into our country and killed people’ is a gross misrepresentation and does not make sense. By that logic, we should be locking up or deporting all Americans because the majority of crimes were committed by citizens. We do need to improve our immigration system, but scripture commands us as Christians to have mercy. Mercy is a central tenet of our faith. Matthew 5:7 says, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’ Leviticus 19: 33-34 says, ‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ If you have take issue with this, take it up with God.


“5. Saying the service was boring and uninspiring is a move to discredit the event, rather than what specifically was said. However, it’s worth mentioning that the purpose of a service is not to be ‘exciting.’ There are several purposes for our services, such as honoring God, bringing us closer to God, and being in community with one another. Being ‘exciting’ is not one of them. As far as inspiration goes, that is in the eye of the beholder. You get as much out of it as you put into it.


“6. The bishop does not owe you an apology. Our church does not owe you an apology. All you were asked to do is what scripture directly asks us to do. If you could quote one thing she asked of you that isn’t asked of us in scripture, we would apologize. Someone recently reminded me of something I often heard growing up in church. If you are offended by a minister’s sermon or feel that it was a personal attack, look to see if you can find anything they said that was out of line with scripture and the teachings of Jesus. If you can’t, that feeling is what we call, ‘being convicted of your sin.’  The fact you are so offended by what was said shows you know there is truth in it. To your supporters who also feel offended by it, the same goes.”