donald trump WANTS YOU TO HATE. . .PART I: IMMIGRANTS

For the last 10 years, donald trump has been continually gaslighting the American people on immigration.  We’re being invaded!  We’ve had an OPEN BORDER!  Immigrants are Rapists!  Murders!  Thieves!  What’s more, “those countries” are sending us their rapists, murders, and thieves!  They’re emptying out their insane asylums!  They’re eating the cats and dogs!

We had an OPEN BORDER! AN OPEN BORDER for God’s sake!  Anyone could come in, no questions asked!  Anyone!  No one was stopped!  No one was sent back!

And all “those people” vote democratic!

If there’s any group of people that you need to fear, to avoid, to scapegoat, and more than anything else, to HATE, it’s immigrants.

These claims are, to be charitable, lies.  I could use a lot of other words here, some of which would begin with the letter “f,” but I won’t.

Trump learned a long time ago that if any single issue could get people enraged, fearful, hateful, and more likely vote for him, this would be it.

So if you’re someone who’s already made up your mind, someone who wants to marinate in your hate and shut off your brain, stop reading now.  Go back to facebook, X, or (gag) truth social, and immerse yourself in trumpisms.

And continue to hate.

For the rest of you who might actually be interested in a reasoned discussion on immigration, its impact today, and where we’re headed in the future, here we go.

America, of course, is a nation of immigrants.  We all came from somewhere.  The Protestant English hit town first, and established their own order.  Pretty much everyone else was denigrated, at least at first.

Germans were stinking kraut eaters.  Irish were illiterate.  Italians were diseased.  Chinese were good enough to build railroads, but then needed to go back.

Over time, all of these groups were able to amalgamate.  They learned English.  They worked.  They thrived.  They became successful.

But they all had to overcome enormous prejudice.  And many came from desperate circumstances.

The Irish arrived in the midst of the potato famine that obliterated their population.  For many, it was escape to America or starve.  For Italians, it was the political and economic upheaval around the turn of the twentieth century.  For Jews, Mennonites, Hutterites, and Amish, it was brutal repression.

Were they all model citizens?  Of course not.  Witness the organized crime elements that existed in every immigrant group.  But this was a decided minority.

Immigration to the U.S. peaked around 1920, fell off as racist laws were implemented aimed at non-whites, then picked back up in the 1960’s.  Along the southern border, people went back and forth to Mexico, regardless of citizenship, doing business (no, capitalism doesn’t recognize borders).  Through it all, though, non-Caucasians were subjected to a higher level of suspicion.  Enter the U.S. on a visitor’s visa and overstay?  No problem if you’re a European.  More significant if you’re not.

Along the way, the U.S. has established quotas for entering the country and legally becoming citizens.  The pathway can be long, arduous, sometimes impossible to understand, expensive, and frequently demanding of legal counsel.

U.S. policy has also long recognized that there will be those who face discrimination and death in their home country, and will seek political asylum in this country.  This has been the case for decades (look up the Cuban boat lift).  But no longer (unless you’re a white south African).

So what’s happening now?  Those seeking entrance to the U.S. are overwhelming confronted with an antiquated and dysfunctional immigration system.  As a result, more people are seeking entry without documentation.

Who’s fault is this?  Republicans blame Democrats for “letting too many get in” so they’ll presumably vote Democratic (evidence?). Democrats blame Republicans for refusing to reform an overwhelmed system because they’re looking for a cause célèbre to win elections, and an “invasion” of immigrants fills the bill.

So let’s look at some facts.

CLAIM:  WE HAD AN OPEN BORDER UNDER BIDEN!

FACT:  Nice try, but there was widespread apprehension of immigrants at the border from 2020 to 2024.  According to the Department of Homeland Security, trump deported 2 million undocumented non-residents during his first term.

Biden? 4,675,000.  Too many?  Too few?  Think whatever you want.  But it doesn’t spell “open border.”

To pacify trump supporters, I’ll even call them illegal, if you want.  It doesn’t change anything.  But if it makes you happy and you continue reading—fine.  Just so you’re also thinking.

CLAIM:  THIS IS AN INVASION!

FACT:  No.  Call immigrants whatever you want, but they aren’t invaders.  Look it up:  Invasion—“the incursion of an army for conquest or plunder.”  Looking for a better life may be something you disagree with, but doesn’t qualify as an invasion.  At its peak, immigrants may constitute 4 million per year—roughly 2 million documented and an estimated 2 million who are not.  Approximately another 2 million are apprehended at the border and sent back.   

Do the math.  In any year, that’s about 1 percent of our population.  It’s the main reason America is growing, and most Western countries aren’t.  At present, an estimated 11 million undocumented people live in the U.S.—barely 3 % of our population.  Hardly an invasion.

And despite the growth in our country’s overall population, the number of undocumented is lower now than it was in 2007, when it peaked at 12.3 million.

CLAIM:  BUT ILLEGALS ARE CRIMINALS!  THEY’RE VIOLENT!  Trump SAYS SO!

FACT:  Wrong again.  All authenticated data indicate that U.S citizens commit violent crimes more than twice as often as illegal immigrants, and property crimes more than 4 times as often.  Using this as a benchmark, in order to make America safer, we should deport all the citizens and keep the immigrants (Note: I tried to check these data on the U.S. Justice Department website, but the page that discussed this was listed as “unavailable.”  Gee, who would have thought?)

CLAIM:  OK, BUT THEY’RE STILL ILLEGAL!  AND TRUMP ONLY WANTS TO GET RID OF ILLEGALS!

FACT:  That’s not what Trump said.  He didn’t say illegal, he just said things like “invasion” “rapists, murders.”  He painted all immigrants with a broad brush.  Those immigrants he lied about and said were eating cats and dogs?  All legal. 

CLAIM:  FINE, BUT trump ONLY WANTS TO KICK OUT THE VIOLENT CRIMINALS!

FACT:  I wish.  So far masked, armor-wearing, rifle-toting ICE agents have arrested plenty of undocumented who have no criminal record in the U.S.  A U.S. citizen was arrested in California, his only “crime” seemed to be because he was Hispanic.  While in custody, he saw agents high-fiving and congratulating each other.  Right. Real tough guys.

Let’s get something straight.  An agency of the U.S. Executive branch has been weaponized in a way that allows it utter immunity.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, despite massive spending by their dog-killing leader Noem, have picked up darned few violent criminals.  But they’ve rounded up plenty of defenseless workers, along with anyone who tries to speak up and protest. We’ve never seen an internal threat to our freedom like this before.

White House staffer Stephen Miller, who’s made no bones about his openness to Great Replacement Theory, a racist idea that says only people of European ancestry should be citizens, has stated he wants to round-up and deport 3,000 people a day.  He’s nowhere close.  And he hates it.

What to do?  Change the rules.  Change who’s “really” an American.  500,000 refugees from such places as Afghanistan (some who served beside us in wartime), Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti have had their status revoked.   They’re hard-working and law abiding.  But now Miller sees them simply as red-meat for his 3,000 a day quota.  And if they’re killed when they’re sent back?  Miller doesn’t care, so why should you, right?

Miller, Noem, and company are demanding massive increases in funding for ICE.  More troops (that’s basically what they are, even though some attacked officers on 1/6), more weapons, more jails, more money.

And don’t get me started on Noem’s new jet.  Maybe should could get one from the Qataris.

SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?  WE JUST LET ANYONE IN?  OPEN BORDERS?

No.  I’m saying we deal with immigration logically and not stupidly (which is what the Trump is doing right now).  Reform immigration.  Establish realistic numbers for immigration, based on something other than “them Mexicans is gonna replace us!” 

I’m saying we need to identify and arrest violent criminals JUST LIKE WE WOULD CITIZEN VIOLENT CRIMINALS and deal with them.  Streamline and simplify the process for legal immigration. 

I’m saying don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Go after violent offenders, but leave workers alone.  Give them a chance to apply for citizenship through a more effective process.  Suddenly remove over 8 million workers?  The economic consequences are going to be enormous.  They already are.

Democrats need to recognize we need better border security.  Republicans need to understand that it will never be perfect.  Build all the ridiculous walls you want, and some will still get through.

Demilitarize ICE and return it to its proper role.  Get rid of this 3,000 a day bounty nonsense.  It’s cruel, and it accomplishes nothing.  If anything, its impact is negative, because it encourages agents to go after non-violent immigrants over the violent ones because they are easier targets, and it will boost ICE’s numbers. 

Get back to the work of nation building.  Work to boost trade with countries that immigrants are leaving.  Even far-right Italian President Meloni is working to boost African economies (the source of most of their illegal immigration) in an effort to reduce the number of people trying to flee.

Would that work here?  Not if we’re building trade barriers with the world.

So you’re really serious about immigration?  These are the steps we must take.  It will be hard.  But it will have a lasting effect, and be much more effective than a bunch of high-fiving ICE arrests.

This is what we need to deal with.  But it will be easy to look the other way.  We’re in the midst of going to war with Iran, pouring money into Isreal, erecting trade barriers, implementing tariffs that will skyrocket inflation and destroy jobs, destabilizing the world economy, and making the world much more dangerous than 6 months ago. 

But the immigrant issue will remain with us.  Before we can deal with it, though, we have to stop hating them.   

“Stupid is as stupid does.”—from the movie Forrest Gump, 1994

Charlie Munger, who along with his fellow Omaha, Nebraska native Warren Buffet built Berkshire Hathaway into a multibillion-dollar enterprise, was often asked about the secret of their success.  One question was particularly interesting.

“Are you and Warren just smarter than everybody else?”

“No,” Charlie replied.  “We aren’t smarter than everybody.  We’re just less stupid.”

Those words echo what Mama Gump taught young Forrest (hopefully you’ve all had a chance to see the movie by now).

Forrest wasn’t a bright kid.  Sometimes people called him stupid.  His Mother taught him how to respond to such an insult.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Mama Gump wanted Forrest to understand it wasn’t how much you know, how “smart” you are, that matters.  It’s not how high you score on a test.  It’s the things you do that make you stupid.

God, could the president ever use a big dose of Mama Gump right now.

Since taking office, trump has done plenty of things that could be considered spiteful, corrupt, heartless, and maybe even downright evil. Sending children with cancer off to countries where they’ve never lived.  Spending tax dollars to accept white South Africans, while sending Afhgans who fought beside us back to be killed.  Pardoning fraudsters, thieves, corrupt politicians, gang leaders, and even those who assaulted police officers, if it’s politically (or financially) expedient.  Aiding and abetting the most massive armed invasion since World War II, because he “believes” the invader.  Promoting the idea of building condos over the graves of children.  Cutting staff at Veterans’ Hospitals.  Suddenly and without warning cutting off aid that has led to starvation, disease, and death throughout the world (a Boston University researcher estimates this has already led to the deaths of over 300,00 children).  Hawking everything from cryptocurrency to Teslas, like a slick snake oil salesman.

And that’s just getting started.  I could go on and on.  And each of you could add plenty more.  But today I want to talk about something else.

The things that Mama Gump and Forrest would call stupid. 

THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL (BBB)–OR THE BIG STUPID BILL (BSB).  From massively increasing the deficit to denying Americans health care to shifting even more wealth from the middle class to the rich, this bill might just be the biggest smoke and mirrors exercise in Washington history.  Medicaid is viciously cut on the premise that having a work requirement will magically reduce costs.

Of course it makes no sense.  And historically, there’s no evidence either.  States that have established work requirements have seen no reduction in costs and no increase in employment.  Most everyone who’s on Medicaid and able to work is trying to do so.  All that these state efforts have done is make the process of signing up and getting benefits more difficult and complicated, for both parents and their children. Consequently, more coverage is lost.  And more people suffer.

Look, I practiced medicine for over 40 years.  I saw people from all walks of life.  Some had great employment, others had lousy jobs.  But I never saw anyone who basically wanted to sit on a couch in front of a TV all day stuffing potato chips in their mouths.  But that’s the imagine MAGA wants you to believe.

As I’ve said many times before, anyone who wants to “fix” Medicaid without fixing our entire failing health care system is wasting their time.  And our money.

The Big Stupid Bill (BSB) will skyrocket the deficit, harm rural and safety-net hospitals and nursing homes that depend on Medicaid, trigger legislative cuts in Medicare, increase the number of uninsured, and perhaps worst of all, widen the gap between the rich and poor, which threatens our homeland security far more than any batch of immigrants.

THE STUPID WAR ON SCIENCE EDUCATION.  Slashing research for purely political reasons will bite this country in ways we can’t even imagine (I’ve already written about this).  Attacking education, threatening students, and withholding research funding is simply a political knife in the back of our country’s future.

Where once we were a leader, we’re now not even in the game.  In the past, America trained and influenced scientists and leaders who improved the lives of millions, both here and abroad. 

But quit the World Health Organization, deny the effectiveness of vaccines, quit the Paris Climate accords, deny the reality of climate change, kick out non-American scientists and students?  Someday there will be those who ask, “why did the world turn its back on America?”  The answer, of course, will be that the world didn’t.  It was America who turned its back on the world.

THE PHONEY MAHA MOVEMENT.  You don’t have to have a PhD in microbiology to know that swimming in sewage can make you sick.  You don’t have to have a degree in immunology to understand that vaccines have saved the lives of millions. You don’t have to be a virologist to know that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus.  You don’t have to be a genius to know that research is important to new discoveries that will keep us safer in the future, and that these findings should be shared in an honest, transparent fashion.

But apparently rfk, jr. somehow didn’t get the memo. In addition to cutting funding, spreading wild theories and inaccurate information, and threatening medical journals that publish articles that don’t meet his personal approval, junior also feels qualified to make medical recommendations.

Researchers have been fired recklessly for seemingly no reason.  Important discoveries have ground to a halt.  HIV studies have been halted.  Monitoring diseases no longer happens.  Think none of this affects you?  Check your health by this time next year.

The most recent decision to not recommend the COVID vaccine to otherwise healthy mothers and babies was made without the input from the doctors who usually recommend such changes.  So much for the guy who says, “don’t take medical advice from me” and then proceeds to give you medical advice.

The rollout of the official MAHA policy has also been marred by the fact that some of the references supporting the program don’t even exist.  That’s right.  They appear to be simply made up.

Axing pollution standards will do us far more harm than any benefit gained from banning a few food dyes.  Supporting nutritional programs (which the Big Stupid Bill cuts) would do far more to make America healthy than promoting beef tallow over canola oil. 

Really serious about this stuff?  Then attack it at its source.  Make healthy food available, cut subsidies for high fructose corn syrup (which would hit Nebraska farmers hard), increase taxes on junk food, maybe even treat fast food entities like tobacco companies.

It would all be a step too far for many, but it would be a much more honest approach than what currently is being sold to us as “MAHA.”

THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY “DOGE”–OR THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT STUPIDITY “DOGS” Common sense should be enough to tell you that turning loose a ketamine, Adderall, psylocibin, and Ecstasy-addled narcissistic billionaire and a group of his twenty-something so-called geniuses with no real-world experience beyond a keyboard and video games, giving them unparallelled access to private information, and then expecting them to somehow make the government more efficient would be a really stupid idea.  But there you have it.

The DOGS fiasco was supposed to save trillions.  At last count, that claim had dropped to around a hundred billion, but most analysts say it’s actually much less.  More importantly, when you factor in lost services, firing and rehiring and firing again and then hiring replacements that need further training, along with the lost productivity that goes with the “Hey, this is Elon!  Stop what you’re doing right now and send me a list of 5 things you did last week, or you’re fired” memos, DOGS saved nothing, but rather added to the budget deficit.

A surgeon who uses a chainsaw instead of a scalpel isn’t going to be more efficient, nor will he do you any favors.  But that’s what dr. musk has brought you.

By now Elon has slinked off to Texas, where I’m sure he’ll be busy building rockets that blow up and cars that no one seems to want.  But in the meantime, we are left with a government that is no more efficient, far less effective, and actually more costly.

THE STUPIDITY OF STARVING REVENUE If you owned a business that was losing money, would your knee-jerk solution be to get rid of your billing department?  Hopefully you’d recognize that that would be a really stupid way to try to save money.

But that’s exactly the approach of this administration.

Despite a tax structure already rigged in favor of the very rich, and evidence of large-scale tax avoidance (remember when trump bragged about it himself?) if not downright criminality, Washington seems intent on shooting itself in the foot when it comes to revenue.  Cutting the IRS budget will ensure more corruption and fewer services to honest Americans who are trying to do the right thing by paying their taxes to support our military and other programs.  It will also worsen a deficit that has brought about a lowering of our credit rating and threatens worsening inflation. 

But that’s less important than who gets to own a bigger yacht.  Or build a new golf course.

THE STUPIDITY OF A TRADE WAR WHERE EVERYONE LOSES So much has been written about the sheer lunacy of the arbitrary, poorly conceived, ever changing trump tariffs that there’s not much point in talking about it.  Threaten tariffs, back off, then do it again, then talk about deals that never happen, all the while sending the stock market on a roller coaster ride.  It’s occurring so often that some investors have even given it a name.

TACO, short for trump Always Chickens Out.

Whether trump follows through with any of this is unknown, but let’s be clear.  For every job (if any) that’s created, there will be others that will be lost.  Trust in America will evaporate (it’s happening already), and the American taxpayer will pay for every penny.  If this were happening under a Democratic president, the Republicans would be screaming that this is basically an added tax.

And they’d be absolutely right.

I have to use the same analogy I used in my last post.  A trade war is like two people taking turns bashing one another over the head with a sledgehammer.  One may finally “win,” but in terms of damage, both of them come out huge losers.

THE STUPIDITY OF REJECTING THE IMPORTANCE OF SOFT POWER Since World War II, America has become unquestionably the strongest nation in the world (although that’s now in severe jeopardy).  But only a small part of it has been due to our military might.  Engaging other countries, fostering economic growth, building relationships, living our values, aiding countries in need, standing up to dictators—these have made America great.  Now, of course, in a transactionally driven administration, none of that matters.  Get rid of foreign students, disengage from any country not run by wealthy despots with throwaway 747s, and put a price on every human transaction seems to be the order of the day.

No matter how strong our military, we can’t fight our way out of this hole.  And increasing isolationism makes it likely that we won’t.

Of course, there’s a lot more than just this.  Our sell-out of our allies and catering to dictators.  And I haven’t even touched on immigration, which is an emotional flashpoint that desperately needs rational discussion.  More on that another time.

In the meantime, consider one more thing about Mama Gump.  Remember why she gave her son the name Forrest?  It was to remind him that (as best I can remember the movie) “sometimes even smart people can do things that don’t make no sense.”

Forrest was named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most disturbing figures in American history.

According to the historian Shelby Foote, the Civil War produced only two people who could be considered true geniuses.  One was Abraham Lincoln.

The other, Foote said, was Nathan Bedford Forrest.  He was the only person to enter the confederate army as a private and come out as a general.  His cavalry tactics have been described as brilliant.

He was also a vicious racist.

Prior to the war, he’d made himself into a millionaire in the slave trade.  He would later say this about the southern cause: “if we ain’t fightin’ this war to preserve slavery, then what the hell are we fightin’ it for?”  On the battlefield, he took captured white soldiers as prisoners and massacred the black ones.

And after the war, he helped start an organization that sadly lives to this day.  The Ku Klux Klan.

Despite this (or maybe because of it), Forrest had his name honored throughout the south well into the twentieth century.  It’s likely that the fictional Alabama town where the Gumps lived had a statue of Forrest somewhere.  Plenty of southern towns did.  It wasn’t until decades later that his legacy was confronted.

Which brings us back to today.  The trump administration is full of “smart” people.  They’ve graduated from all of those same fancy universities that trump now hates, and have all the connections those degrees can buy.  They’re smart enough to come up with all sorts of rationalizations for whatever they want to do.

But that hasn’t kept them from doing incredibly stupid things.  And we’ll all pay the price for this.  Especially the poorest among us. And especially our children and grandchildren.

Stupid is as stupid does.  And I’m afraid in the coming months we’re going to see just how much the wisdom of Mama Gump still holds true.

“When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.” -Lin Yutang, writer and translator (1895-1976)

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace turns into a circus.” -Old Turkish Proverb

In my last blog post Trump Supporters, Where is Your Red Line? I asked a pretty straightforward question of Trump supporters:  At what point would you be forced to say the president’s actions were so cruel, so wrong, so unamerican, that you could no longer support him?  I gave plenty of examples of actions to which decent folks should say “Enough!  No more.”

Since that time, many of those lines have already been crossed.

What have I heard from Trump supporters?  Nothing.

All I can conclude is that they condone the actions that are causing millions to suffer, or maybe, just maybe, their buyer’s remorse is so great that they find it easier to just avoid the truth.  If it’s the latter, here’s something else they should keep in mind. 

Things are about to get a lot worse.  Just follow the downward trajectory.

As we speak, billions of dollars in additional taxes are slamming America.  But most people won’t see them, because they’re hidden.  But believe me, you’ll pay.

Let’s say you went to a store and picked up an item priced at $50, took it to the counter, and the clerk rang it up.  “$100,” she says.

“What?”  You’re outraged.  “It’s supposed to only be 50!”

“Yes,” the clerk says patiently.  “But the tax is 100%.  That brings the total to 100.”

Admit it.  You’d be mad as hell.  You’d call the mayor, your city council, your congressman, and whoever else you could get hold of.

This is exactly what happens with tariffs.  But it’s all hidden.

Tariffs can lead to what’s commonly called a “trade war.”  What’s a trade war?  Imagine two people standing toe to toe, each holding a sledgehammer.  They take turns bashing each other over the head.

Sooner or later, someone quits.  The other guy proclaims, “I’ve won!”

Maybe he has.  But that’s beside the point.  He’ll also have suffered an incredible amount of permanent damage along the way.  That’s a trade war in a nutshell.

But enough about that stuff.  We saw it coming and did nothing.  Let’s get back to what this post is really about.

What do I mean by a return to the Dark Ages?

I was a child of the cold war.  I was ten months old when America tested its first hydrogen bomb, a weapon so powerful it made Hiroshima look like child’s play.  It was supposed to make us secure for the next century.

It didn’t.  Nine months later, the Soviets exploded their own.  The United States was stunned.  Suddenly American technology wasn’t invulnerable.  In response, we poured money into education and research.

Barely 5 years later, a rocket suddenly launched from deep inside Kazakhstan.  The satellite Sputnik I had entered orbit.  Americans stood in their backyards and watched in awe as it passed overhead.  Suddenly, the most powerful nation in the world was losing its scientific advantage.

The Soviet scientific effort, however, had a significant flaw.  Despite possessing some brilliant scientists and outstanding facilities, the country was an ironclad dictatorship that allowed no dissent.  No matter how talented you were, you had to toe the Communist Party line.  Otherwise, your career was over.

Often, top scientific positions were dished out to party loyalists over those who were better qualified.  This meant that some of the very talent the Russians needed most was sidelined for purely political reasons, not unlike the Soviet military purges that nearly brought down the country in World War II     

America, of course, wasn’t completely free of this sort of political correctness.  Watch the movie “Oppenheimer” and see how some of our best and brightest were marginalized during the Red Scare of the 1950’s.  In addition, gay scientists had to stay rigidly closeted or lose their security clearances.  But for the most part, compared to the Russians, our scientific programs were free of rigid political orthodoxy.

This is why we didn’t just win the space race, but just about any other scientific “competition” you can think of, as well.  US scientists have blown the world away when it comes to Nobel Prizes.  Our discoveries have saved millions of lives and bettered the lives of billions more.

It didn’t happen by magic.  It took a concerted effort, a partnership between government, universities, and industry.  Basic research at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was carried forth in universities and private companies.  New discoveries were made.  New treatments were developed.  Diseases that had plagued the world for centuries were all but eliminated. 

And yes, despite what junior tries to tell you, vaccines played a significant role.

But it wasn’t just about medicine.  It was also water purification, crop development (the “Green Revolution, it was called), environmental science, a fuller understanding of the weather and predicting storms, the development of safer air travel.  And this just scratches the surface.

We didn’t view it as nanny state government over-reach.  It was an investment that was saving lives and making the world a better place.

And now all of this is collapsing.  Not unlike the onset of the Dark Ages.

Most of us learned about the Dark Ages somewhere in school, but here’s a brief refresher. Around 400 AD, the research and progress that had been occurring in Europe since the time of the Greeks and Romans collapsed.  It’s been described as a period of economic, cultural, and educational decline, with a healthy dose of superstition, bigotry, and cruelty also mixed in.

It lasted for 900 years.  Nearly a millennium of society moving backward.  It wasn’t until a turn-around we call the Renaissance that things began to improve.

It didn’t have to be this way.  Elsewhere, progress continued.  While Europeans were focused on burning witches, torturing Jews, and keeping the general population illiterate, science was flourishing in China, India, and throughout the Islamic World.  But in what we now proudly proclaim “the Western World” things were a mess.  It was a miserable time to be alive.

How far are we from those days returning?  During the Dark Ages, no learning could take place that contradicted The Church.  Teach that the Earth wasn’t at the center of the universe, and you could land in the slammer.

Before anyone gets rattled, I’m not saying the Catholic Church suppressed science, as many have claimed.  Rather, Science was delegated to a secondary role behind official orthodoxy.

Aren’t we seeing the same thing today?  Religious orthodoxy has now been replaced by far-right political orthodoxy.  Want to kill science?  Easy.  Smear it as “woke,” “leftist,” or “DEI.”

Cut off funding for cancer research at one of the world’s leading cancer research centers.  Make outrageous claims about vaccines.  Spread deliberate lies about infectious diseases, at a time when a virus that can kill a child or render her brain damaged spreads throughout the country.

Tell parents, don’t worry, just give your kid cod liver oil until it poisons their liver (don’t believe me?  Google Texas Vitamin A hepatotoxicity).  Ignore decades of progress, then say “do your own research.”  AIDS is a hoax.  Covid is a hoax.  No Covid isn’t a hoax, because it was caused by the Chinese.  No, it came from us and went to China.  No, it was all a pharmaceutical conspiracy to sell vaccines.  Vaccines are great if Operation Warp Speed developed them.  But no, don’t take them now.  Covid won’t kill you, but the vaccines will.  No, the vaccines won’t kill you if you decide to take them on your own, but the same vaccines will magically kill you if the government mandates that you take them.

That’s right.  Just pick your lie and call it “doing your own research.”

Today, Trump pulled his nomination of a FOX commentator for Surgeon General because his conspiracy theory advisor recommended it, and replaced her instead with someone WHO HAS NEVER EVEN PRACTICED MEDICINE (see, Trump isn’t the only one who can type in all caps).

What’s the qualification for this new, improved selection?  She’s an “Influencer.” 

You just can’t make this stuff up. 

If you’re a woman or a black researcher, you must be a DEI hire and have to go.  Doing any sort of environmental or atmospheric research?  You’re woke, and you’ll be shut down.  Protecting the environment?  You’re a hoax.  Especially if you could bring up any concerns about the Ketamine Kid himself, Elon Musk.

While scientists from all fields are being fired in droves, one area is untouchable—anything to do with SpaceX, Starlink, Tesla, or any other Musk owned entity.  Those are sacred.

This isn’t much different from the Dark Ages, when a privileged few controlled the resources.  The rich got richer.  Many of the rest simply disappeared. 

Whether you receive warning of an impending tornado, whether your home will be flooded during an ever-increasing “100-year event,” whether your air and water will be clean, and whether your food will be safe, are now at significant risk.

And no, none of that can somehow be outweighed by the fact that junior wants to get rid of a few food dyes.

New cures will be delayed, or simply not found.  Treatments will be politicized and withheld if they are deemed “woke.”  Precious resources will be squandered trying to disprove evidence that we’ve known for decades, if not centuries.  Quack cures will become mainstream. 

The superstition of “MAHA,” “anti-DEI,” and “anti-woke” will now trump science.

I’ll go out on a limb here, and say this:  Donald Trump hates science.  Anyone who feels they are beyond questioning, beyond even possibly making a mistake, and beyond being held accountable for anything they do, hates science.  Under Trump’s reign, science education and discovery will wither.  Opportunities will be missed.  Just like during the Dark Ages and the orthodoxic repression of the Soviet era. 

As American scientists flee to other countries, important research will continue elsewhere.  But unlike the Dark Ages, when science flourished outside Europe, the world is a much more connected place now.  Stifle research and science in our country, and it will impact similar work elsewhere.

So if you want to do your own research, go ahead.  But please check your sources.  Are they consistent?  Are they reliable? Are they science based and not politically focused?  Do they sound too good to be true?

And most of all, do they denigrate the very people who’ve spent their lives in labs, clinics, and research facilities, seeking out the actual truth?

This is about all we can do as the Dark Ages begin to return.  Speak up for the truth.

And hope a Renaissance comes soon.

On November 7, 1972, sometime between the hours of 5 and 8 PM Central Time, in a Weston, Missouri Ward I voting booth, my father, Ray Frey, proud union member, staunch supporter of organized labor, a man who never missed a day of work in over 30 years with the Burlington Railroad (though I can remember times when he picked up his lunch pail and trudged out to the car when he probably should have been in the hospital), someone who had known the personal hunger and humiliation of unemployment, a rough-hewn Midwesterner raised by a single mother at the peak of the depression and the dustbowl, an Army veteran of World War II who scratched out extra money on weekends on a tiny farm, and to top it all off, a guy who once rolled a 700 series at a Leavenworth, Kansas bowling alley, did something he otherwise would have considered unthinkable.

He actually voted for a Republican.

Not that he had any great fondness for Richard Nixon.  In fact, he would later describe Nixon using words that should not be repeated in any public forum.  But to him, George McGovern was simply a step too far.  Much to his chagrin, McGovern’s views were too far to the left for him to support.  They represented a red line he just couldn’t cross.

He put his values, his beliefs, and his electoral voice above his party affiliation.  He refused to cross his red line.

Today, with our country, our economy, and our very world spiraling into chaos, maybe it’s time for our nation to reflect on his decision.

To say the last three months of Trump 2.0 have been an immersion in chaos would be an understatement.  Health workers have been fired by the thousands, called back, then fired again.  Long time professionals have been fired (some illegally) simply because they were viewed as not “loyal enough” to Trump.  Law firms who investigated the lies of 2020 election fraud have endured retribution, for simply doing their job.

Those who violently attacked police officers and given years of prison time were immediately pardoned, along with internet drug dealers who caused untold deaths.

A convicted felon was named Ambassador to France.  He just happened to be Trump’s daughter’s father-in-law.  Just keep walking, no nepotism here.

Experienced former cabinet members, many who served under Trump previously, have had their security clearances revoked in Trumpian temper tantrums.  Inexperienced and arguably incompetent appointees have secured spots in government solely on the basis of blind loyalty.

The rule of law has been ignored.

Personal friendships with dictators who murder their own citizens have taken preference over world peace and security.  Aid that helped feed hungry black African children is now too expensive, but we have plenty to “resettle” rich white South Africans.

And of course, the economy.  Tariffs, threats, and tweets have sent a basic message to the world:  you’d have to be an idiot to trust America.  And through it all, a privileged billionaire has been given the keys to the U.S. Government.

Of course, all of this is somehow the fault of immigrants.

Although most Trump supporters would never admit it, they didn’t really think Trump would go this far.  “It’s all just talk.  Don’t take him literally.  He’ll just pardon ‘peaceful’ January 6^th rioters (an oxymoron, I know, but I heard it said quite often), he won’t pardon the violent ones.  Of course he won’t blow up all of our trade relationships, he’ll only impose tariffs judiciously.   He’ll only appoint qualified people.  He’ll only go after waste and fraud (right—one of his first acts was to fire auditors and inspector generals who seek out the fraud), not essential programs.”

Of course, he’s actually done all of this and more.  The only country he hasn’t ordered tariffs on is Russia.

And he’s just getting started.

The potential for economic collapse is real.  Relationships that took decades to build are being shattered.  Science has been denigrated.  Scientists have been fired.  Research has been gutted.  Free speech has been weaponized as an excuse to stifle dissent.  Misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies are tweeted out daily.

This isn’t the America you and I grew up in.  This isn’t making America great.  And if you’re a Trump supporter, down deep, you know this wasn’t what you signed up for.

And don’t give me the excuse of “well, he may be a jerk, but his policies are great.  Just give him some time.  Let this play out.” 

Sorry, In three months, his policies have already done immeasurable damage to our country and the world.

All rulers have adherents who are initially zealots.   The ruler can do no wrong.  We support them no matter what.  We stand behind them regardless of what they might do.

Until they cross our red lines.

So for Trump supporters I have a question.  What is your red line?  Maybe you should be thinking about it.

Will it be when your daughter loses her best teacher because he was fired for opening the wrong book?  When no financial aid is available for the college your son has always dreamed of attending, because the government didn’t like what someone said on campus?  When your kid’s expelled for asking the wrong question?

Will it be when the full impact of the tariffs kick in?  If you’re a farmer, will it be 2-dollar corn, or 5-dollar soybeans?  Canada, Argentina, and Brazil are already gearing up to take our place in the global market.

Or will it be when a tornado blows up without the weather warning that NOAA could have provided, flattening your home?  Can you afford homeowners insurance in such a scenario?  Could an insurer even afford to cover you?

Will it be when tariffs have doubled the price of your medications? When you can’t afford health insurance, and your employer can’t afford to offer it?  Don’t count on a weakened or systematically dismantled ACA to be there to help you out.

What happens when resistant TB hits our shores?  Worldwide, our TB treatment efforts have kept the disease at bay, but that’s ending.  TB today usually takes 9 months of treatment to cure.  Partially treat it, and it can mutate.  What happens when it does?  What happens when it’s someone in your town?

When the next pandemic hits, will we have the means to fight it?  Will we have a vaccine?  And if we do, will a gutted public health program be able to respond?

Will your red line be when the National Park you’ve always dreamed of visiting is closed to give Elon a tax break, or an oil company a spot to drill? 

When your neighbor who’s spent years in the U.S., served in the military, and is a legal resident, gets deported to El Salvador because of something he said?

Will it be when that neighbor kid, who’s really a decent person but sometimes hangs out with the wrong crowd, happens to be in the wrong place when a crime occurs, gets convicted, and sent to an El Salvador prison?  Sound far-fetched?  Trump has already said he’d consider sending Americans to foreign prisons, along with maintaining that the Supreme Court has no power to stop him.

Will it be when your veteran uncle can no longer receive care at an underfunded VA hospital?  When your rural hospital has to shut down because of Medicaid cuts, along with the local nursing home that cares for your aunt?

Or will it be when those wonderful tax cuts you were expecting are eaten up by the billionaire food chain long before they trickle down to you?  Will it be when the tariffs-inspired recession hits us? The one economists and business leaders are warning us about?

Will it be when we stab Ukraine in the back in favor of Russia (regardless of how many atrocities they commit) and call it a “peace treaty?”  Or maybe when Trump is building condos in Gaza over the bodies of dead children?

Will it be when journalists who are pursuing the truth are locked up, while corrupt politicians get off the hook by pledging loyalty to Trump, Eric Adams style?

Will it be when our civil rights are taken away by declaring martial law?  Sound improbable?  Trump is already using wartime rules to justify military occupation at the border.

Will it be when we realize that as a nation we’ve lost our collective soul?

My father served in India during the war.  He witnessed starvation and horrible suffering on the part of the Indian people.  It was gut-wrenching.

But only once did something shake him to his very core.  It was the morning he woke up, saw the horror that surrounded him, and realized it was no longer bothering him.

“My God,” he recalled thinking.  “Am I losing my sense of humanity?”

This from a man who was not highly educated, and certainly not religious.  He had no use for the idea of “souls.”  But he cared deeply for people.

He had his values, and he had his red lines.  And he knew the limits of who and what he would support.

Those on the MAGA bandwagon should think long and hard about all of this.  No matter how much you’d like to deny it, these things are indeed very possible. 

So where is your red line?

More importantly, where is America’s?

“God and History will Remember your Judgement.”—Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, in his appeal to the League of Nations for assistance against Mussolini’s invading forces who were using arial mustard gas on Ethiopian civilians, 1936.  His plea was ignored, and the world was soon plunged into World War II.

“This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally. . .”—French Senator Claude Malhuret, March 4, 2025.

When I was in Junior High (that’s Middle School, for those too young to remember) I bought a paperback at our School’s Book Fair titled “Great Speeches.”  From Pericles to John Kennedy, the historical speeches ranged from war to peace, education to freedom.  I read it cover to cover.

I still have it.  The oratory included Washington’s Inaugural speech and Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.  Churchill’s “Blood, Sweat, and Tears,” Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream,” and even Nebraska’s own William Jennings Bryant’s “Cross of Gold” were all in there.

Most of the others were from people I’d never heard of.  Some impressed me, others didn’t.  

Then I read Haile Selassie’s speech of 1936.  I remember being stunned.

Without going into a drawn-out history lesson, I’ll try to summarize.  Plenty of sources can give you more detail.  When Africa was carved up by European powers in the nineteenth century, Italy didn’t have much to show for itself.  It occupied what today is Libya, Somalia, and Eritrea.  In 1896, Italian forces had also tried to conquer what is now Ethiopia.  They got clobbered.  It was the first time an African nation had utterly defeated a European attempt at conquest.

For years, Ethiopia (or Abyssinia, as it was earlier named) remained the lone independent nation on the continent.  Then along came Mussolini, the father of modern-day fascism.

In 1935, Italian forces once again attacked the African nation.  Despite its technological superiority, Mussolini’s army failed to make much headway.  It was time to bring in a much harsher method.  Mustard Gas.

A horrific chemical agent that can choke, blind, and kill, the gas had been outlawed by the Geneva convention.  The Italians not only ignored the prohibition, but developed a shocking new delivery system that would have been unthinkable during the First World War.  They sprayed the gas from airplanes crisscrossing the landscape.

Ethiopians died by the thousands, as did cattle and most other living things.  One Italian General described it as “great sport.”

It was this reality Selassie brought to the League of Nations, a body formed after the First World War at the urging of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.  Predictably, the U.S. had never formally become a member due to the opposition of isolationists in the U.S. Senate.  But whether or not America would have supported Ethiopia is a moot point.  No one else did either.

Selassie’s plea fell on deaf ears.  The League did nothing.  The Ethiopeans somehow hung on until 1937 before finally falling.

Italy’s foray into Africa didn’t last long.  After the defeat of the Axis Powers, Ethiopia once again became a sovereign nation.  It was also one of the original members of United Nations.

Nearly 70 years after the gassing of Ethiopians, the U.N. was again confronted with another blatant invasion of a sovereign territory.  The Russian assault on Ukraine.  And much like in 1936, the U.N. was asked to hold the invader accountable.

This time, there was no doubt about America’s stance. They caved.  Along with Iran, North Korea, Israel, Hungary, Nicaragua, and a smattering of other countries on the Russian dole, the U.S. voted against the resolution identifying Russia as the invader.  It was a shameful mark in American history.

As I read of America’s capitulation, I couldn’t help but reflect on Selassie’s words in 1936: 

“Apart from the Kingdom of the Lord there is not on this earth any nation that is superior to any other. Should it happen that a strong Government finds it may with impunity destroy a weak people, then the hour strikes for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgement in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgement.“

But brave words can be spoken in all generations, and in all languages.  In response to America’s tacit approval of the Russian invasion, its indifference to world dictatorships, as well as the U.S. withdrawal from alliances around the world, French Senator Claude Malhuret delivered a thunderous speech that is worthy of standing next to Selassie’s.  His language was blunt. His message was clear.  I’ve reprinted it in its entirety.  We’d do well to read it.

And read it again.

Some MAGA supporters may try to dismiss the whole thing by saying, “Who cares?  He’s French!” If so, perhaps they’re falling right in line.

After all, there were plenty of people washing their hands of Selassie in 1936 by saying “Who cares?  He’s African.”

Here’s Malhuret’s speech, with a link to Selassie’s words below.

March 4, 2025

Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is slipping, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened.

Washington has become the court of Nero, an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a jester high on ketamine in charge of purging the civil service.

This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you.

The ‘king of the deal’ is showing what the art of the deal is on his stomach. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down in front of Putin, but Xi Jinping, seeing such a submissiveness, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.

Never in history has a US President capitulated to the enemy. Never has any one of them supported an aggressor against an ally … trampled on the US Constitution, issued so many illegal executive orders, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, dismissed the military senior staff in one fell swoop, weakened all checks and balances, and taken control of social media.

This is not an illiberal drift, it is the beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution.

I have faith in the strength of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.

Eight days ago, at the very moment that Trump was rubbing Macron’s back in the White House, the United States voted at the UN with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Two days later, in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to bend or resign.

Tonight, he took another step into infamy by stopping the delivery of weapons that had been promised. What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: confront it.

And first of all, let’s not be mistaken. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The countries of the South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe or whether they are now free to trample on it.

What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with as its first principle the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.

This idea is at the core of the United Nations, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the attacked, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin: a return to spheres of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries.

“Give me Greenland, Panama, and Canada. You can get Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe. He can get Taiwan and the China Sea.”

In the dinners of the oligarchs of the Gulf of Mar-a-Lago, they call this “diplomatic realism.”

So we are now standing alone. But the idea that Putin cannot be confronted is false. Contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, Russia is in bad shape. In three years, the so-called second largest army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country three times less populated.

Interest rates at 25 percent, the collapse of foreign exchange and gold reserves, the demographic collapse, all show that [Russia] is on the brink of the abyss. The American helping hand to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made in a war.

The shock is violent, but it has a virtue. Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives.

Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that it holds out, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation.

This will be costly. It will be necessary to end the taboo of using frozen Russian assets [and] circumvent Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself by a coalition of only the willing countries, which includes, of course, the United Kingdom.

Second, demand that any agreement be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, prisoners and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally—and this is the most urgent because it is what will take the most time—we must build a European defense, too-long neglected to the benefit of the American umbrella since 1945 and scuttled since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or failure that the leaders of today’s democratic Europe will be judged in the history books.

Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is a way to recognize that France has been right for decades in arguing for strategic autonomy.

It remains to build it.

It will be necessary to invest massively, strengthen the European Defense Fund outside the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate the entry into the [European] Union of Ukraine, which is today the leading European army, rethink the place and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, relaunch the anti-missile defense and satellite programs.

The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And much more will be needed.

Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power again. In a word, the Draghi report will have to be implemented. For good.

But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.

We must convince public opinion against war weariness and fear, and especially in the face of Putin’s cronies, the far right and the far left.

They argued again yesterday in the National Assembly, Mr Prime Minister, before you, against European unity, against European defense.

They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of “de Gaulle Zelensky” by a “Ukrainian Pétain” at Putin’s beck and call. The peace of the collaborators who have refused any aid to the Ukrainians for three years.

Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great.

But in the last few days, the public humiliation of Zelensky and all the crazy decisions taken during the past month have finally made the Americans react.

Polls are falling. Republican lawmakers are being greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.

The Trumpists are no longer in their majesty. They control the executive, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social networks.

But in American history, the defenders of freedom have always prevailed. They are beginning to raise their heads.

The fate of Ukraine is being played out in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the US who want to defend democracy, and here on our ability to unite Europeans, find the means for their common defense, and make Europe the power it once was in history and that it hesitates to become again.

Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost.

The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century.

Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.

And the link to Selassie’s speech:

Haile Selassie and the League of Nations

“The fight is here.  I need ammunition, not a ride.”—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, February 22, 2022, when he refused an opportunity to evacuate Kyiv in the face of a massive Russian attack on his country.

Three years ago, I broke down and took one further step into the universe of superfluous, high-tech 21^st century crap and purchased an Apple Watch.  Alongside a plethora of ridiculous functions I’ll never use was one that actually seemed practical.  You could set the watch to an additional time zone.  Glance at the local time, and you could also see the time at another location in the world.

I set it to Eastern European Standard time—the time zone for Ukraine. 

Russia had just launched the largest European invasion in 80 years.  Everyone predicted the capital Kyiv, and ultimately the entire country, would quickly be crushed.

I’d look at the watch, note the time in the Ukraine, and wonder.  How many missile attacks had occurred during the night (when it was 10PM in the Midwest, and 6AM in Kyiv)?  How many homes had been bombed?  How many children had been killed?   How many were freezing in the winter?

Three years later, and I still haven’t changed the setting.

Despite overwhelming odds, the widely expected collapse of Ukraine hasn’t occurred.  Instead, Ukraine has held out against everything the Russians have thrown at them.  Beyond an initial surge during the war’s opening months, and despite emptying out their prisons, enlisting the criminal Wagner paramilitary group, co-opting North Koreans and Syrians, and franticly seeking out weapons from such places as Iran, the Russians have made little progress, other than causing pain and misery.

In village after captured village, independent media have verified reports of rape, torture, and murder of civilians.  At least 10,000 Ukrainian children have been stolen and shipped to Russia.  Hospitals, schools, and apartments have been deliberately bombed.

Not that any of this was new.  Russia used many of these same techniques when they intervened in the Syrian civil war, and propped up dictator Bashar Al-Assad.  It worked for a few years, but Assad eventually had to flee the country and is currently cooling his heels in—you guessed it—Russia.  

It certainly wasn’t the first time Russia had illegally attacked a sovereign nation.  In 2014, it invaded eastern Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula.  Earlier, Putin’s Russia attacked the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.  The invasion was universally condemned by democracies throughout the world.

Nobody really did much.  Then came February, 2022.  A wholesale, massive invasion of a sovereign nation.  This was a redline.  The world had seen enough.

But none of that matters now, according to the current American President.

Plenty of good words have been wasted trying to make excuses for what Putin has done.  Yes, Ukraine was seeking admission to NATO.  Yes, Ukrainian citizens rose up and overthrew a Russia-supporting/Eurosceptic regime that likely came to power through rigged elections, and instead installed a westward-leaning government.  But as a sovereign nation, that was within their rights.

The truth is much more basic.  Putin longs for a return to a Soviet-era empire.  As an up-and-coming KGB officer (remember them?), a 33-year-old Putin was assigned to Dresden, East Germany.  When the Iron Curtain fell, a frantic Putin had to talk down a mob ready to attack the city’s Soviet Ministry.  He called for backup, but nobody came.  It was then, Putin is reputed to have said, that I realized we no longer had a country.   

Putin would later claim that the downfall of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century.  To overlook the excesses of the Soviet dictatorship, the economic impact of communism, the planned starvation of at least 5 million citizens, and the deaths of 27 million others in the second world war (15% of its population), and instead focus on what amounted to a political realignment is shocking.  But apparently that’s Putin.

Let that sink in for a moment.

In addition to Russia, fourteen other current sovereign nations made up the Soviet Union.  All left the alliance.  None seem interested in coming back in.  One of those countries was Ukraine.

Putin’s excuse for military action is usually a mixture of fractured historical half-truths and contemporary lies.  Russian speakers are under threat.  Ethnic Russians are being attacked.  And of course, these lands were originally Russian.

Lebensraum, anyone?

The Russian dictator has also been ruthless to his own people.  Political opponents and journalists have been murdered.  A Russian-supplied BUK missile killed hundreds of passengers on a commercial airline.  A British citizen died when she picked up a container of nerve gas supplied by the Russian FSB which was intended for a dissident.

To date, Putin has offered no acknowledgement of any of these atrocities, much less an apology.  

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Georgia has been accompanied by growing threats against the rest of the world.  The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia have been threatened.  Sweden and Finland, two countries long famous for their neutrality, have beefed up their defense spending and joined NATO, vastly expanding the organization’s border with Russia.  If Putin thought his invasion would intimidate NATO, he was dead wrong.

But the strength of any alliance is derived from a willingness on the part of all partners to support one another.  And currently, one NATO member only seems willing to support the enemy.

Like billions of people around the world, I watched in absolute disgust as president trump labelled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator, later denied he had done so, then refused to acknowledge that Putin was indeed a dictator. 

I was nauseated when trump claimed Ukraine had “started it.”  It’s the comment I’d expect from a self-centered spoiled third grader.

I was appalled (but not particularly surprised) when trump lied through his teeth and claimed that the U.S. had spent $350 billion on support for Ukraine.  The actual figure is less than $120 billion.

I was enraged when trump tried to exploit the war into a mineral grab for a much wealthier nation.

And I can only shake my head as trump continues to make excuse after excuse after excuse for Putin

In a high stakes meeting at the White House, trump and j.d. (“Junior Dick”) vance alternatively berated, ridiculed and insulted Zelenskyy when he insisted on post-war security beyond “I believe what Putin says.”  In doing so, trump not only knifed Ukraine in the back, but also everything America stands for.

Those who shake their heads over any American support for Ukraine, insisting that they just want peace, are delusional.  This was how Hitler ended up with the Sudetenland, and set the stage for World War II.

Those who talk about the invasion as “an endless war” are being ridiculous.  After only three years, Russia is depleting its military hardware, losing its morale, and tanking its economy.  Their casualties have been massive and despite scrambling for allies, they’re running out of soldiers. 

And all of this despite not one American soldier (or other NATO soldiers) fighting in the war.  Yes, Ukraine has received military support, but most of that has been money that stayed in its home countries (including the U.S.) when arms were purchased.  The actual frontline battles have been fought solely by Ukrainians defending their nation.

As one former diplomat said, “after three years, we finally have Putin where we want him.  And trump is trying to let him off the hook.”  

Efforts to compare NATO support for Ukraine to U.S. involvement in Iraq, Viet Nam, and Afghanistan are absurd.  Right or wrong, good or bad, America sent troops into those countries for years (call it an invasion, if you like) and never enjoyed the full support of the people.  $2.3 trillion was spent in Afghanistan alone, before an idiotic, haphazard trump-sponsored “deal” with the Taliban was further bungled by his successor. 

The Russian invasion, on the other hand, has galvanized the people of the world in a show of support for Ukraine.  With military assistance, Ukraine has fought the Russians and North Koreans to what essentially is a draw.  At least for the time being.

Do we all want peace?  Of course we do.  But we also want a secure future for the children of the world.  Dropping support for Ukraine, while providing no assurances of security other than “trusting” the words of a documented liar, will bring neither peace nor security.  But I suppose it might bring a trump Resort to the Black Sea.

Today’s meeting at the White House was perhaps the most disgusting display of strategic ineptitude in the history of the American Presidency.  What trump calls peace amounts to a virtual surrender on the part of Ukraine.  And if that happens, Putin will be back with a vengeance.

The requirements for a just peace are so basic as to be scarcely negotiable.  Immediate ceasefire.  Withdrawal of forces to February 2022 borders, on the part of both Russian troops in Ukraine and Ukrainian forces in Kursk (Crimea and pre-2022 Russian land grabs are a separate issue.  Yes, they were blatantly illegal, but their adjudication must wait for another day).  A NATO enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine.  Security assurances for Ukraine, with peacekeepers from both NATO and the UN.

NATO membership for Ukraine?  One compromise could be no formal membership for a 5-year period, with revisiting the idea at that time.  Who knows?  By that time, Ukraine may not even care to join.  Or Russia might not have a paranoid leader secretly despised by most of his own people.  About anything is possible. 

But one thing is certain.  A U.S.-led capitulation to Putin would be a disaster for the world. 

I never dreamed I would one day see my country join Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Nicaragua, and others in denying the reality of a Russian invasion.  I never thought I would see an American President kiss up to a dictator.

I never imagined that an American president would so gleefully and haphazardly discard the mantle of “leader of the free world,” and not care one way or the other.

But here we are.  For the sake of our children and our children’s children, indeed the children of the world, I hope we can come to our senses.

WHO’S IN THE COCKPIT AND WHY IT MATTERS

Wait!  Before reading this, please take a look at the most recent post from Dr. Josh Freeman Concentration Camps: Is the US still the “savior” or will they happen here? Fascism on the rise in health and everything else.  It’s on his website Medicine and Social Justice.  I’ve written about Nuremberg and Dresden, but what Josh has to say about his visit to the Italian city of Trieste is even more urgent.  You’re certain to feel moved.

Now, back to our regular program.

It’s 5 AM and you’re headed to the airport for an early morning flight.  The wind is howling and rain is pounding your windshield faster than the wipers can keep up.  You lock your car, run into the terminal, and get through security just as your flight is called.  You settle into your seat, breathe a sigh of relief, and relax.

Well, not exactly relax.  The weather’s terrible.  You can see other passengers looking concerned, too.

The cabin attendant comes on the intercom and says, “Good morning, folks. My name’s Lucinda.  I’m assisted today by Randy, Susan, and Caleb.  We’re here to make your journey comfortable.  But more importantly, safety is our primary concern. I know the weather looks rough, but in the cockpit today we have Captain Anderson, assisted by her co-pilot Julian Smith.  They’re two of our most veteran pilots, and together have more than sixty years of flying experience.  They’re both Air Force veterans and very capable pilots.  You’re in good hands.”

You feel yourself relax, and can sense the tension easing in the rest of the plane, too.

The attendant continues, “we’re ready to close the cabin door, so please take your seat and fasten your seatbelt and… WHAT THE…?”

You look at the front of the plane just as a man pushes past the attendant and into the cockpit.  You hear a loud argument, then the two pilots storm off the plane.  The man emerges from the cockpit and grabs the microphone.  “We have a few changes starting today, so get used to it,” he says.  “I just bought this airline, and I’m the new CEO.  What I say goes.

“I’ve just fired the two clowns in the cockpit.  A woman and a black guy.  What do they know?  Probably DEI hires, anyway.  Time to get some real pilots.  Come here, guys.”

He motions and two teenage boys run onto the plane laughing and giving thumbs up signs.  Both are wearing T-shirts and have baseball caps on backwards.  “These are my nephews,” the man says.  “They’ve had their pilot’s licenses for 8 months now.  Never flown anything this big before, but that doesn’t matter.  They’re both geniuses.  Super-geniuses, actually.  They’ll do great.  And they’re loyal.  Super loyal.  I only hire the best.”

You watch as the pair cackle and jump into the cockpit, turning knobs and pulling levers at random.

“And you lame cabin attendants?  Out!  You’re old, slow, and ugly!  You’re all fired!”

One by one, the stunned attendants walk off the plane.  In their place, a group of twenty-somethings wander in, and start opening drawers and banging bottles around.  “These kids are so brilliant,” the man says.  “They know all about customer service, and that’s what you paid for, right?  You’ll all be taken care of.  You’ll be so much better taken care of.  So much better.”

The man leaves and a “flight attendant” in a pink tank-top slams the door shut, just as a couple of passengers jump up and start to run to the door.  “Too slow, Bro,” the attendant laughs.  “We’re on our way now!”  The pilots slam the throttles forward, and several passengers fumble with their seatbelts.

“Aw, don’t worry about it,” the attendant says.  “Those things are overrated, and probably don’t work anyway.  Just a way the old company tried to restrict you.  The only people who use those things are just suckers and losers.”

Not exactly convinced, you fasten yours anyway.  “Oh, what have we here?”  The attendant asks sarcastically, the intercom broadcasting her voice throughout the plane.   She walks over to your seat, holding an iPad.  “We don’t need disloyal customers like…” 

She glances at the iPad and proceeds to loudly read off your name, address, social security number, credit card numbers, and the names and ages of all your children, along with where they go to school.   You’re horrified.

“Any more disloyal customers who want to put on those wimpy seatbelts?”  The attendant asks while waving the iPad in the air.  No one moves.  The attendant smiles.  “I didn’t think so.”

By now the plane is picking up speed.  Galley doors are clanging and banging while the plane bounces down the runway. 

Someone in the back shouts, “have we received clearance for take-off?”

The attendant laughs.  “Clearance?  Who needs clearance?  These guys know what they’re doing.  All of those corrupt air traffic controllers have been fired, anyway.  Just a drain on air transportation.”

“But are you sure the plane’s OK?”  someone else calls out.

“Of course,” the attendant says.  “The boss fired all those lazy mechanics and ground crew a couple of  hours ago.  Anyone who’s worked on the plane since then may not be experienced, but they’re loyal to the boss, and that’s all that matters.”

“I wonder if those kids are in radio contact with anyone?” a woman behind you whispers.

The attendant overhears this.  “Radio contact?  Are you kidding?  We’ve turned off the radios.  Shut down all of the flight instruments, too.  They’re just a distraction.  The pilots know what they’re doing.  You just have to have a little faith, right?  Give ‘em some time!”

Someone else screams, “My God, isn’t there an Air Marshall on board?”

The attendant starts laughing even harder.  “We fired them all.  None of them could pass our loyalty test.  But we know some security guards who were fired by the old airline because they assaulted some previous customers.  As soon as we get them out of jail, we’ll have them back on the job.  Then we’ll be perfectly safe.”  

The attendant grabs a bottle from the liquor drawer, then shouts into the intercom.  “Welcome to Dolon Trusk Airlines!”

The cockpit door is open and you see the pilots do a high five.  One shouts “woo-hoo!”  The plane shudders violently as it barely lifts off, then banks sharply to the right.  You grip the armrests and feel sick.  How could this have happened?

How, indeed.  Welcome to Trump/Musk America, the 2.1 version, where safety standards are unnecessary, guardrails are red tape, being a professional makes you disloyal, government expenditures are corrupt (except expenditures going to Elon Musk), health care is irrelevant, bullies and liars are now the good guys, the constitution is simply a nuisance, fealty is more important than competence, the Supreme Court is a rubber stamp, and democracy is rapidly becoming a joke.

The juvenile techies known as the Muskrats have accessed government payment systems as well as personal data, despite having no authority to do so.  Agencies authorized by Congress are being dismantled, the law be damned.

The USAID, a program to aid developing countries for the past 60 years, is being axed.  Were some of those countries that received aid corrupt?  Almost certainly, but not unlike Russia, Hungary, or any number of other countries. And Tesla, perhaps?

For the uninformed, you can’t buy good will with bullets.  America transformed Europe through the Marshall plan, and engendered trust through other aid programs.  Disbanding USAID and destroying trust in America is the greatest gift Trump can give to Russia and China.  But we knew that already, right?

Any attempt to help the poor or marginalized is now labeled with the scarlet letters “DEI.”  Anyone seeking asylum or freedom is unwelcomed. 

The exception, of course, is if you are a wealthy white South African.  Then Trump promises to “resettle” you to the United States. Apparently, a rich white South African expat named Elon approves.

But hungry kids or threatened families?  Screw ‘em, right?  They’re probably all rapists and murderers, anyway.

So long Department of Education.  Who needs national standards?  Schools can teach whatever their state wishes, whether true or not.  States can mandate Christian instruction to the exclusion of other religions.  Exhibit A?  Oklahoma and Louisianna.

So long scientific research and medical progress.  So long health standards.   Good-bye critical thinking.

Hello raw milk, overpriced supplements, vaccine denial, and disproven treatments.

So long pollution standards.  Hello climate disasters.

And for anyone who says “gee, it’s only been a few weeks, let’s give it a chance,” remember this—being thrown off a skyscraper is no big deal either.  Just give it some time.  Give it a chance.

Sooner or later, the ground always comes up.

“FLOODING THE ZONE WITH

“The real opposition is the media.  The way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh*t.”—Steve Bannon, conspiracy-theorist, ex-Trump aide, and convicted criminal, describing his strategy to keep Americans from recognizing the truth by rapidly releasing massive amounts of misleading information.

Pssst!  Come here quick.  Don’t let anyone see you!  They don’t want you to hear this!

Did you know that the polio vaccine causes cancer?  Did you know that no vaccine has ever been properly tested?  Did you know HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, it’s actually lifestyle?

Did you know Lyme Disease is really a biological weapon developed by the military?  Did you know herbicides are making our kids transgender (why those damn farmers!)?  Did you know antidepressants cause school shootings?  And that antidepressants are harder to stop taking than heroin?  And didn’t you know that you could get better grades when you use heroin?

Did you know COVID was genetically engineered to make white people and Africans sick, but not those of Asian and Jewish ancestry?

Did you know those 5G waves coming into your cellphone give you cancer?  Did you know vaccines haven’t stopped infectious disease—it was all because of malnutrition?

What, you didn’t?  Good.  Because they’re all lies.

Before we talk about the title of this piece, let’s set the stage by talking about one of the most dangerous nominees put forth by the new President—Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., sometimes shortened to RFK, Jr.  For brevity, I’ll shorten again.

I’m just going to call him “Jr.”

Jr. was born into one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in America.  He traded on his last name in ways they rest of us can’t.  Despite being kicked out of some pretty cushy prep schools for drug use, he was accepted to Harvard (on what some call America’s connections-based affirmative action plan) and got a law degree from the University of Virginia.  He was heavily into drugs, and it’s likely that if he’d been born into the kind of families most of the rest of us came from, he’d still be strung out in a ditch somewhere.

This isn’t to downplay the horrors of drug addiction.  It’s an awful disease that takes many lives, and this country has ignored it for far too long.  But there’s a different accountability if you come from a powerful family.  There are different resources, and you don’t have to suffer like most Americans.  When Jr. was convicted of heroin possession in the early 1980’s, a crime that would have gotten the rest of us sent upriver, he received only a slap on the wrist and probation.  He was hired out of law school as a U.S. attorney but resigned when he failed the bar exam.

Eventually he got his life together.  He became an environmental lawyer, taking on polluters and big corporations.

Somewhere in there, he went off the rails again.  He plugged himself into the growing antivaccine movement. 

At first, vaccine skeptics were largely far-left granola types who wanted to pull their kids out of society and raise them in communes.  This put Jr. in good company.  He was pro-choice, pro-environment, pro-conservation, against corporations and wall street, and supportive of national health care. 

But later, as the Rush Limbaugh-led government conspiracy movement began, right wingers started gravitating to the antivax cause, as did many members of the religious far-right, who insisted vaccines were somehow an affront to the Almighty.

This strange blend of characters began to coalesce, and Jr. cashed in.  He’s made millions from an organization called the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), for writing and speaking the sort of nonsense listed at the beginning of this post.  Last year alone, he personally pulled in $10 million.

And Jr.’s slick.  He’s become adept at taking half-truths, cherry-picked and incomplete data, as well as downright disinformation, and putting it into chart and graph form that looks impressive.  Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, one of the country’s leading infectious disease specialists, calls Jr. someone who “has perfected the art of selling illusion as fact.”

Through it all, Jr. began to develop what can only be described as a cult following.  Growing ever richer, he and the CHD began to show up everywhere, hawking their antivaccine rhetoric.  When 2 children died in Samoa after receiving a vaccine that had been inappropriately mixed with a dangerous sedative, the CHD and Jr. dropped in, and helped turn the whole thing into a media circus.  Of course, he now denies that he encouraged vaccine refusal.  But somehow vaccination rates plummeted across the island.

The following year, disaster struck.  An unprecedented measles outbreak hit the largely unvaccinated island.  Dozens of children died.  Anyone who wants to learn firsthand details should read the comments of Hawaii’s Governor, Dr. Josh Green (I’m the Current Governor of Hawaii.  I’ve Seen what Vaccine Skepticism can Do ), who was one of the first responders to the deadly outbreak. (For insights, see below).

Jr. basically washed his hands of the whole thing, and instead tried to blame pretty much everyone else, not unlike that Orange Guy who’s trying to appoint him to the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).  But the tracks are easy to follow.

By 2023, Jr. saw another opportunity.  A lifelong Democrat, he announced himself as a candidate for his party’s nomination for president.  No one took him particularly seriously.

When it was apparent his attempt was going nowhere, he launched an independent bid for office.  Because the public wasn’t exactly thrilled by the likely nominees of the other two major parties, Jr. initially polled 22% of potential voters.  It soon fell off to around 5%.  It wouldn’t be nearly enough to get him to the oval office.

Undeterred, he sought a deal from the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamila Harris.  Promise to appoint me to your cabinet, Jr. said, and I’ll throw my support behind you.  Although welcoming the support, Harris said she could make no such promise.  So, despite his liberal background, Jr. decided to make a deal with the devil.

Would Trump have been elected without the votes Jr. pulled his way?  Frankly, I doubt it.  But that’s the way it turned out, and in short order, Trump announced Jr. as his nominee for Secretary of HHS, despite Jr. having no background in administration, and outside of vaccine denial, none in health care, either.  In gratitude for the nomination, Jr. suddenly caved on abortion rights, environmental protections, and conservation, to become a “drill baby drill, ban the EPA” Trumper.

Outside of the lies and conspiracy theories, other issues have been raised about the sort of person Jr. has become.  Family and close friends describe him as an abuser of women, a sexual predator, a bully, a sadist who tortured animals, along with other traits that border on sociopathy.  His second wife committed suicide, an act that allegedly was due in part to her own drug addiction that worsened during her marriage. 

I won’t go into any of that, because it’s frankly not much different than a number of other Trump nominees, although Jr. does have that brain worm excuse.  But he attracted votes to the President, and apparently that’s the only thing that matters.

At this point, some in the MAGA world would say, “but there’s more to it!  He wants us to be healthy!  He wants America to eat better, stay fit, and avoid chronic diseases!”

Right, like that’s going to happen in a Trump administration.  The first person in Washington who strongly advocated for a healthy diet and exercise was Michelle Obama.  Remember?

She was skewered by Republicans.  Sarah Palin declared that she was trying to take away children’s desserts!  Others said it was Big Government Nanny State Socialism at its worst (that term is thrown around so much, why don’t we just abbreviate it to BGNSS).

As a part of her effort to bring about self-improvement, Michelle encouraged Americans to grow small gardens, even on backyard plots of land.  To demonstrate this, she even personally planted a garden at the White House.

One of the first things Melania did when she and Trump moved in?  Invited reporters to film her and young Baron ripping the garden out.

Look, we know what interventions worked for tobacco.  They were adamantly opposed by conservatives, just as they would oppose similar efforts to improve diets today.  Drastically restricting advertising.  Taxing unhealthy foods, both to discourage intake and raise money for treatment.  Subsidizing healthy fast-food alternatives focused on food deserts, especially for those who are working two jobs, caring for children, and unable to take a three-transfer bus ride to Whole Foods, much less have the time to prepare a meal.

Would these be timely measures to improve diets and health? Or would they be trashed as BGNSS interference?  Looking at the current administration, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

The U.S. Senate has four physicians in its ranks.  Only Bill Cassidy of Louisiana has expressed any concern about Jr.  The other three, Paul, Barrosso, and Marshall, are basically Trump rubber stamps.

Who knows how all of this will end?  But with H5N1 looming on the horizons, it’s not hyperbole to say lives hang in the balance.

So what about the Bannon quote that began this piece?  We don’t have much time left, but the term “flood the zone” is familiar to football fans.  Send your eligible receivers sprinting into one corner of your opponent’s secondary—one defensive zone—with the idea that the defense will be so confused that at least one receiver will be open.

The past two weeks have seen this unfold.  A massive flood of executive orders, many of which are blatantly unconstitutional, but will nonetheless be upheld by our far-right Supreme Court.  All of it flying directly into the face of the American public.

More about this next time.  But in the meantime, know that government funds are now in the hands of Elon Musk, including your Medicare and Social Security.  Staff have been locked out or fired. 

All foreign aid except for (you guessed it) military aid to Egypt and Israel has been shut down.  As we speak, Malaria control programs in Uganda have ground to a halt, rehydration fluid-salts can no longer reach villages in Zambia, and in other underdeveloped countries, programs to prevent HIV and Tuberculosis have been stalled.

Even George W. Bush’s Malaria Initiative treatment program, the largest in the world, has been hit.  Nearly 70% of its staff has been fired.

Gee, Elon must be proud.

More on the Flood the Zone with Sh*t strategy next time.  We haven’t even gotten to tariffs, deportations, and military threats (among other things). But with the recent massive firings of FBI and other government officials, it’s clear the purge is on.  And for anyone who has time for any extra reading, take a glance back at my post Purge at your Own Risk  I was hoping it would turn out to be an exaggeration.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

See you next time.  Be careful out there.     

For further reading:

‘He’s a liar.’ Green outraged after Kennedy denies role in Samoa measles outbreak

RFK Jr. misled the US Senate on measles deaths, Samoa’s health chief says | AP News

WANDERING AMONG THE GHOSTS IN DRESDEN, SEARCHING FOR THE LETTER “L”

“I envy you lads,” the Englishman said.  “You lads are leaving this afternoon for Dresden—a beautiful city, so I’m told. . .you needn’t worry about bombs, by the way.  Dresden is an open city.  It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any sort.”—From the Novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969.

“There were so many corpses, that German soldiers gave up burying them and simply burned them on the spot with flame-throwers.”—Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), recalling the aftermath of the bombing of Dresden that he witnessed as a prisoner of war (POW), February 15, 1945.

Visit Dresden on an overcast winter day and the ghosts will be sure to find you.  Amidst some of the most formidable gothic structures in the world, buildings that once gave the city the title “Florence of the Elbe River,” you can almost feel Dresden groan under the strain of its history.

The massive Cathedrals and public buildings stood for decades. Then came February 13, 1945.

Throughout the war, the sophistication of bombing techniques had been evolving for both the Allies and the Nazis.  Bigger planes, more bombs, and greater casualties.  In Europe, at least, it reached its peak that winter day on the Elbe.

Years before I set foot in Dresden, I’d visited Coventry, England.  Located in the industrial north, it was best known for its local heroine, Lady Godiva, who supposedly rode through town in her birthday suit to protest high taxes.  The story also goes that an unlucky young chap (as the Brits would say) named Tom, ‘peeped’ at the naked figure too long, and either went blind or was struck dead, depending on who you want to believe.  His name has been associated with voyeurism ever since.

But Coventry later became known as the Detroit of England, manufacturing the nation’s automobiles.  By 1940 it had been converted to wartime production.  The Nazis, who’d been ruthlessly bombing London for months, were determined to take out Coventry’s capacity.  On the night of November 14, 1940, they launched Mondscheinsonate, Operation Moonlight Sonata.

515 German bombers crushed the city, leaving even the Cathedral of St. Michael in ruins.  Nearly seven hundred people perished, the number kept low only because thousands were able to hunker down in underground shelters.

The bombing was so complete, so utterly devastating, that the Nazi propaganda machine invented a new verb to describe it.  “Koventrieren,” or in English ‘to Coventrate’, meaning “to annihilate or reduce to rubble”.

Up to this point, the British had bombed primarily military targets.  But now the gloves came off for both sides.  Massive bombing, without regard to civilian populations, became the order of the day.

Which brings us to Dresden.

From a military perspective, Dresden was neither a troop center nor a manufacturing hub.  Arguably, it was at best a railroad cross roads, far removed from British or American fighting.  Most Germans thought it was the last place they’d experience a concentrated bombing. 

Of course they were wrong.  On the night of February 13, 1945, the first wave of British Lancaster bombers struck, over 700 in all.  By morning, the city was in flames.  Then came the Americans. 

Over 316 B-17 bombers hit the city on the 14^th.  They returned again on the 15^th.  By now Dresden was in ruins.

Over 4,000 tons of bombs struck the city.  Most German air defenses had been transferred elsewhere, and to say the city was a sitting duck would be an understatement.

No one knows how many were killed.  Estimates range from 20,000 to 100,000.  More than Coventry.  Probably fewer than Tokyo.  The city was packed with refugees.  The Russians were pushing rapidly from the east, and those fleeing the advance were pouring into the city.  Just how many is impossible to say.

Why Dresden?  Some say it was because of the city’s railroad access. Others claim intelligence indicated the Germans were going to establish a defensive bulwark in the city, and that the bombing could aid the Russian advance to the east.

Still others claim it was also meant to impress, and maybe even intimidate the Russians.  One Royal Air Force (RAF) memo issued to its airmen included in its justification for the bombing “…incidentally to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.”

The bombing created what is commonly called a “firestorm.”  Flames so hot, so all consuming, they suck every oxygen molecule into the inferno.  Those who aren’t burned to death suffocate from breathing the dead air.

The heat was so intense that bomber crews 16,000 feet above the city were drenched in sweat as their planes were tossed about by the updrafts.

The firebombing of Dresden remains controversial to this day.  Some called it a war crime.  Some said it was justified.  It was war.  These things happen.

Walking around the city, I tried to ask the ghosts, but all I heard was silence.

Which brings us to Kurt Vonnegut.

A 22-year-old Army scout, Private Vonnegut was captured at the Battle of the Bulge, and ultimately sent to Dresden to labor as a POW.  He and his fellow captees were housed in a damp underground cavern that had previously been used to store butchered beef.

Schlacthof Funf, it was called.  Slaughterhouse Five.  The prisoners were confined there when the bombing started.  They didn’t emerge until the 15^th, and suddenly confronted the aftermath.  Vonnegut would later recall the landscape looked like the surface of the moon—except there were bodies everywhere.

Vonnegut, of course, later became a celebrated author, but it took him nearly twenty-five years and multiple shredded drafts to tell the story of Dresden.  For those who haven’t read it, it’s a disjointed, dizzying story of Vonnegut’s alter ego, Billy Pilgram, who also survives the bombing of Dresden, only to become “unstuck in time,” moving backward and forward, even reliving his own death years later.

There’s also flying saucers and alien abductions, but I won’t spoil it for you.  In short, it’s exactly the kind of book you’d expect from a gifted science fiction author, who almost certainly suffered from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Today, Coventry and Dresden consider themselves to be sister cities.  Both have been rebuilt.  Stone by stone.  Brick by brick.  And they share the same pain.

But neither will ever be the same.

Which brings us to the Drake Equation.  And the letter “L.”

Like most American kids, Frank Drake was fascinated with the thought of life on other planets.  Later, as an astrophysicist, he decided to try to calculate the odds that such planets existed, and whether they could ever communicate with those of us here on earth.

It became known as the Drake Equation.  For the benefit of any math geeks, you can find it at the bottom of this post.  The equation didn’t deal with UFOs or little green men, but rather with the likelihood that radio waves or some form of communication could reach us here on our planet.

The equation took all sorts of factors into consideration.  How many planets are out there?  How many can support life?  And what fraction of those go on to develop civilizations capable of transmitting messages into space?

Then Drake added one final question to the puzzle—what is the average length of time a civilization can actually transmit such messages (the letter “L” in his equation).  Is it forever?  Is it a million years?

Or does a civilization that reaches such a point only flourish for the blink of an eye before it destroys itself?

With radio telescopes and deep space probes that can map the known universe, we are just beginning to define most of variables in the Drake Equation.

All except one.  What is L?  We don’t have a clue.

An English veteran of the First World War once said that the only redeeming aspect of his time in the War was knowing that it had been so terrible, so utterly horrifying, that such a war could never happen again.  Of course it did.

The weapons of the Second World War put those of the First to shame.  High altitude bombing.  Massive tank warfare.  And of course, the atom bomb. 

The war also saw the world’s most highly sophisticated effort on the part of one group of people to exterminate another group of people from the face of the earth.

Since the war’s end, our civilization has seen many advances.  Miraculous medical discoveries.  The internet.  Global travel. 

But we’ve also developed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), hypersonic missiles, nerve gas, biological weapons.  And of course, the hydrogen bomb.

And in Rwanda and elsewhere, the determination of one group of people to utterly destroy another group of human beings, purely for the sake of who those people are, continues to play itself out.  We’ve even given it a name.  Genocide.

Which brings us back around to Dresden.

As 2025 looms, countries are again posturing, threatening, and arming themselves to the hilt.  Leaders are demonizing those within their own borders and beyond.  Nationalism of all stripes, with its ‘us against you’ extremism, is rapidly growing throughout the world.

How many of those extraterrestrial civilizations reached precisely this point before blowing themselves up?  How many reached this point, only to step back at the brink and move away from their destruction?

What direction will we take?  What will be the L variable in our own equation?

Who knows?  But these are the kinds of things a 73-year-old Midwesterner thinks about as he wanders the streets of Dresden.  Listening for the voices of ghosts. 

So it goes.

For additional viewing:

Coventry, England 1940

Dresden, Germany 1945

Private Kurt Vonnegut 1944

Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, years later

And (as promised) The Drake equation:  N = R_* x f_p x n_e x f_l x f_i x f_c x L

Where

N = the number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy with which communication might be possible

and

• R_∗ = the average rate of star formation in our Galaxy.
• f_p = the fraction of those stars that have planets.
• n_e = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets.
• f_l = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point.
• f_i = the fraction of planets with life that go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations).
• f_c = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.
• L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space.^[6][7]

Happy New Year, everyone.  Be careful out there.

CHRISTMAS 2024

“What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.”- George Santayana (1863-1952)

Like most rural Midwesterners, I was raised in an exclusively Christian community.  Christmas was as imbedded into the month of December as ice, snow, and the frozen Missouri River.

There were some pageants and sermons, some prayers and scripture readings, but for the most part it was candy, food, and celebrations. There wasn’t much thought given to what Jesus might actually be saying about the state of mankind.

Three years ago I wrote my first Christmas blog, featuring what I thought Jesus might have to say.  It was followed by one in 2022 and another last year.  This year won’t be an exception.  So with apologies to both Christians and non-Christians, this is what I think Jesus would probably be saying right now, based on what I was taught pretty much from the time I could walk.

Hello Everyone,

It’s me again.  I realize that some of you believe in me and some don’t, some worship me and some don’t, and some of you want to kill each other arguing about the whole thing.  That part’s pretty depressing.

So believe what you want.  But regardless, give a little thought to the things I said.

You all are probably in the midst of stringing up twinkling lights and gorging yourselves on outrageous food.  Some of you will get pretty hammered. 

And many of you will spend ridiculous amounts of money on crap that’ll be thrown away as soon as the wrapping paper’s off.  About all you’ll accomplish is to help Jeff Bezos make a few more billion.  I’m sure he’s just jealous as hell of Elon Musk (you can probably guess what I think of that little asshole).

Oh, yes, I can occasionally curse.  I was born in a stable, remember?  You don’t think I heard some rough language?  Of course, it was all in Aramaic.  Not many left who understand it these days.

This birthday stuff is pretty amusing, in a way.  You all have no idea when I was born.  You’ve arbitrarily selected a day around the winter solstice that originally was a tribute to both a Roman god and a Pagen German deity, whose symbol was a fir tree. 

That fact used to upset some people.  The Puritans even tried to ban the celebration during the 1600’s.  That didn’t last long though, probably because beer sales plummeted.  

But let’s get back to the basic message.  I didn’t spend my 33 years trying to jam religion down anyone’s throat.  I was a teacher.  I taught principles for people to live by.  Maybe it’s time to take a look at how well you’re doing.

You people have always had this thing about money, haven’t you?  I once told about a self-righteous rich man who threw a few coins to the poor and made a big display out of it.  I compared that to a widow who had next to nothing and gave it all away.  If you remember, I was pretty specific about which impressed me most.

But today, the powerful, the rich, and the self-righteously selfish are in positions of unprecedented power.  Those who are suffering the most are ignored at best, and at worst trampled down.  I’m not especially impressed by that.

The leaders you’ve chosen are often just images of your own vanity and selfishness.  But that’s up to you.  The way the universe works, you’ll get what you pay for.

So if you really believe that I have some sort of presence on earth today, where do you think I’ll be spending my birthday?

I’ll be somewhere in Gaza, hiding with a family while the bombs are falling.  I’ll be trying to find shelter with a family in the West Bank whose home was just destroyed by settlers.

I’ll be shivering with Syrian refugees in Europe as they ponder whether to try to stay, or make the perilous trip home to a nation still in turmoil.

I’ll be with a mother in the Ukraine praying that her son makes it home from the war.

I’ll be with a terrified Rohingya girl caught somewhere between Myanmar and Bangladesh.   

I’ll be with a Uygur boy crying in China because he hasn’t heard from his father in months.

I’ll be with hungry Afghan women who have nowhere to turn for their daughters’ education and safety.

I’ll be with an Israeli hostage who wonders if he’ll ever make it home.

I’ll be with a Pacific Island family whose home is slowly vanishing from rising sea levels.

I’ll be with an African family whose cattle are dying and fields are shrinking due to climate change.

I’ll be sweltering in a crowded building in Cite Soleil with a Haitian family, trying to not even whisper while men with machetes run past.

I’ll be with an immigrant family in Springfield, Ohio, afraid to stray from home because of some politician’s vicious lies.

I’ll be with thousands of others on either side of the Mexican border, uncertain of what the coming days will bring.

I’ll be with a father who’s just lost a daughter to an overdose.  A Mother who’s lost a son to suicide.

I’ll be with that gay kid who’s been humiliated and threatened.  I’ll be with the girl who’s just found out she’s pregnant, and has nowhere to turn.

I’ll be with thousands of families whose loved ones have been killed by a gun.

I’ll be with an exhausted young single Mother, crying at the kitchen table because her job as a waitress didn’t bring in enough tips on Christmas Eve to pay for her child’s present.

But I’ll tell you where I won’t be.  I won’t be with Elon, Peter, Jeff, J.D., Mark, Vivek, or any of the other tech-bros.  I won’t be with any of the Bitcoin pushers.  I won’t be living it up at Mar-a-Lago.

And as far as Matt Gaetz?  Do you really have to ask?

But you’ve probably guessed all of that by now.  The real question is where will you be?

Christmas and Hannukah this month. Ramadan in March, Diwali in October.  Times to celebrate.  Times to think about a lot more than just yourself.

And maybe time to not just pray for others.  Maybe time to do something.  Especially for someone who can do absolutely nothing for you in return.

My run lasted 33 years.  Most of you will make it a lot longer.  What will you do with yours?

So tomorrow, go ahead and string the lights, eat, drink, and celebrate.  And for crying out loud, don’t worry about whether you say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” or whatever else you’d like.  It’s not going to impress me one way or the other.  

And as always, go ahead and stand up during the “Hallelujah Chorus” if you want.  By that point, you’re going to be pretty tired of sitting anyway.

See you down the road.

Jesus