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Vote Like Your Life AND Democracy Depend On It

Thank you to every single person who votes (or has already voted) regarding what’s on their November 4 ballot—and thank you to all the volunteers, including the poll workers. Perhaps now more than ever, it’s clear that elections matter and that even something as sacred as a working democracy can be threatened with subjugation. 

In California, hopefully every voter is voting for Proposition 50, the temporary redistricting measure, so here’s a shoutout to everyone who has put time and effort into helping the Yes on 50 campaign. If you have questions about Prop 50, a good place to visit is the campaign website, https://stopelectionrigging.com. If you have questions about how and where to vote, you can get answers at https://stopelectionrigging.com/how-to-vote-faq/. If you know anyone who simply wants to know what’s in it for them personally to vote for Prop 50, and you think you can make a final day appeal, you can find “ten selfish reasons” to vote Yes on 50, listed and briefly explained on the homepage of this blog/website, fightingfirewithfire.org.  And it only takes one reason, if it’s a good one.

With SNAP Benefits Endangered, Many People Are Stepping Forward To Help

There are countless people of good heart in this country. So many volunteers, non-profits, caring governmental offices, and involved businesses have been stepping forward to help out, especially when domineering vindictiveness is on the hunt.

Hopefully, a powerful message will be sent on Election Day, November 4, as has already happened on ‘No Kings’ days and through other protests. The great news is how so many people, including many of the same people taking part in campaigns and protests, are helping as volunteers and through donations, finding a way to ease the burden on others. 

This blog and website, Fighting Fire With Fire, welcomes story suggestions, photos, questions, and critiques. If you wish to share any ideas or info, including about valiant individuals, non-profits, etc., please feel free to send to info@fightingfirewithfire.org.

Too Cute By Half

According to CNN (November 3) and other media, the “Trump administration will only provide half of usual food stamp benefits in November.”

Maybe the Trump administration somehow believes this will remind voters of the Biblical wisdom of King Solomon. When the king was deciding what to do about two women claiming to be the mother of the same infant, he ordered that the baby be split in half, each woman to get a half. The one who surrendered her claim in order to keep the baby alive was the one who wise King Solomon realized was the true mother, and so she was who ended up back with child.

But that decision-making process, though it sounds cruel, shows true insight and compassion.  The Trump administration, by comparison, seems heartless and soulless, content with a half-off gimmick showcasing the cheap glint of the mean.

Trump’s ploy might instead have the resonance of the Souain Corporals Affair, which nowadays is best remembered because of the Stanley Kubrick World War I film, “Paths of Glory.” That amazing movie, see if it you haven’t already done so, is based on the novel of the same name, written by Humphrey Cobb, and inspired by the Souain Corporals Affair.  

French generals, all full of themselves—cynical, sanctimonious and infatuated with dreams of self glory—order an impossible attack straight into massive artillery, with French solders getting slaughtered right and left before they can get even a few feet forward from their own trenches into “No Man’s Land.” Never in a million years would any of them make it to the enemy lines. The French generals, who did not themselves lead the attack or participate in it, only care about covering their butts and distracting public attention away from the deadly horrors they inflicted on their French troops, and so they order that as many as 24 of their own soldiers be executed “as an example” to others who didn’t keep running into certain death. 

In the film, it’s initially to be 100 men to be court-martialed, which becomes each company in the attacking wave being told to pick one man, perhaps at random by lot: these are the mathematical abstractions of sadism, when one delves out hardship because one can, and with no quality of mercy. (The final outcome will not be shared, here.) 

The nasty, haughty, craven shallowness of the French generals depicted in Paths of Glory, including the ones who are somewhat clever—and how they use their authority to inflict undeserved punishment on others less fortunate because of status—may be be analogous to the spirit of the Trump administration’s actions. How the courts and Congress see it, we shall see.

 The Plane Truth

On the Sunday, November 2 episode of Face the Nation, Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy answered questions about the effect of the current government shutdown on the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic controllers.

Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan asked, “Well, I did see that the FAA said, up in New York, 80 percent of air traffic controllers were absent from New York area airports. And, that same day {Oct. 1}, there was a near miss at La Guardia Airport. One United plane clipped another. Was that pilot error or was that linked to some kind of shortage?”

Duffy answered, “I haven’t got the readout yet on whether that was pilot error. And usually, when these planes are—are traveling very close to each other, it’s their job to stay away from one another. That’s not controllers. It’s usually pilot error. But again, I will—I will have to look and see what directive was given by the air traffic controllers. But it’s normally the pilot’s responsibility to stay away from aircraft on the tarmac.”

Was Duffy throwing pilots under the bus (so to speak)? You decide. But just how long should it take—days?—for a U.S. Secretary of Transportation to get a readout about a minor collision between two planes (one of them stationary) on an airport taxiway? How long should it take to get that readout when people are asking if there might be major air safety vulnerabilities because of the shutdown—when the capacity of air traffic controllers is, well, up in the air? Maybe, instead of guesting on a Sunday taking heads program, Secretary Duffy should manage to get ahold of, and read the readout. 

Crown Of Thunes

Americans, like everyone else, need to be able to eat. That’s why Democrats are both compassionate and passionate about continuing the funding of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the federal government’s shutdown. For more than 40 million Americans, any loss or delay regarding SNAP benefits threatens to be a profound crisis involving health and well-being, perhaps even survival. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, put it this way: “It’s simple, it’s moral, it’s urgent,” to keep SNAP on track.  

Democrats in Congress (as well as Republican Senator Josh Hawley) have offered pertinent legislation, and governors and state attorneys general have swiftly filed suit for the sake of SNAP recipients. Judges have been weighing in, indicating that already established federal  “rainy day funds” and other sums should be devoted to keep SNAP going during shutdown. But more court deliberations loom, and the Trump administration hasn’t made clear what it will or won’t do, even while President Trump has found the time to remodel the Lincoln bathroom.

Republican Senate majority leader, South Dakota’s John Thune, might have used his leadership role to advocate for the 40 million+ in need, and to support solutions, but instead he denounced Democrats and their legislation, and even seemed indifferent to Republican Hawley’s bill to sustain SNAP funding during the shutdown. Thune instead angrily railed that ending the shutdown must come first. In other words, politics first.

Back in February, 2025, Thune said, when speaking of Bible Studies for Senators, that “the truth in Scriptures is a powerful tool that helps people change their lives…it’s important for elected officials to be reminded that, ultimately, they must answer to God for their actions and the decisions they make.” Maybe, when SNAP and 40 million-plus Americans are involved, he should remember: 1 John 3:17-18, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

A Resolution Regarding Unsealing The Epstein/Maxwell Files And Seating Adelita Grijalva

Fighting Fire With Fire likes resolutions, those documents which are debated and possibly adopted to articulate an organization’s positions and principles. Resolutions might be submitted for consideration by an elected body, a political club, a county party organization, etc. Here’s the draft of one that may be discussed and conceivably voted on and adopted within a matter of days.  For better or worse this particular draft resolution adheres to one organization’s sometimes strange rules about style and word count,  etc. If you have any feedback you’d like to share about this draft, you can do so by emailing info@fightingfirewithfire.org. Ditto, if you want to share any resolution you might be working on, regarding this or any other topic. If you think this draft resolution is valid, you are free to use it with an organization you belong to, making changes if you wish to do so, and you can even contact info@fightingfirewithfire.org if you want to look into signing on to this resolution:

SUPPORTING EPSTEIN/MAXWELL SURVIVORS, AND ADELITA GRIJALVA

WHEREAS, the sexual trafficking criminal enterprise of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell harmed numerous innocent victims, and remains a terrible stain on the United States of America—that’s especially so because of the ongoing coverup of pertinent information and evidence:  the failure to unseal the Epstein/Maxwell files, including by people promising their release, is a tragic travesty that must be corrected: the U.S. House of Representatives is just one signature short of mandating a crucial vote;

WHEREAS, a discharge petition forcing a House of Representatives vote needs at least 218  House members’ signatures, and the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein/Maxwell files now has 217 signatures; Arizona Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva has said she’s ready to sign the petition as soon as she’s sworn into office, which would force that vote, but though she was elected on September 23, 2025, she has yet to be sworn in, and she’s had to wait longer than anyone in history following a special election win—House Speaker Mike Johnson has blamed the federal government shutdown, which began October 1, but others have been sworn in during pro forma sessions—many observers have concluded that Adelita Grijalva hasn’t been given the oath simply because Mike Johnson and others connected with him do not want the Epstein files unsealed:  Grijalva, joined by Arizona’s Secretary of State, has even sued the House for failure to swear her in;

WHEREAS, 22 Epstein/Maxwell survivors and family members issued a statement on Oct. 30, urging Speaker Johnson to immediately move forward with the swearing-in of Adelita Grijalva and end politic delays—they noted that she was duly elected, her constituents have spoken and deserve representation, and “the delay appears to be a deliberate attempt to block her participation in the discharge petition that would force a vote to unseal the Epstein/Maxwell files,” depriving the American public of transparency and accountability, and depriving survivors of needed justice, adding insult to trauma:

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the (name of organization) wholeheartedly supports the survivors’ call for Speaker Johnson to “stop using procedural tactics to protect the powerful and instead uphold the integrity of our democratic institutions,” by swearing in Representative Grijalva without delay, so that she might serve her constituents, and all of America by signing the discharge petition regarding the Epstein/Maxwell files.

America Foist

"Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804"--FIrst Barbary War. By Edward Moran. It depicts the USS Philadelphia, previously captured by theTripolitans, ablaze after she was boarded and set afire by a party from the ketch Intrepid led by Lieutenant Stephen Decatur. Painting in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.

According to the Associated Press, as of November 2, there have been at least 15 U.S. military strikes aimed at vessels (mostly small fishing boats) in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific since early September. They have killed at least 64 people. Some might say, “murdered.”

Even as the strikes continue, powerful U.S. naval assets have been directed toward that area, and there have been ominous attributions made by Trump et al against Venezuela.

The Trump administration (in this instance, Pete Hegseth) claims it’s because “narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home.” So far, they have provided the American public and its legislators with about as much evidence to back up their insinuations as Trump and Vance did back during the election campaign, when they blustered that immigrants were devouring people’s pets. In other words, evidence was lacking. There’s also the rather relevant matter of where the drugs in question that afflict this country actually originate from. Maybe such factors will be addressed if and when any purported legal foundation for these killing attacks is explored and approved or rejected by Congress and/or the courts.

But putting aside justice, truth, and the American Way, there’s the WTF aspect of how an ill-explained and seemingly manufactured brouhaha with Venezuela is deemed to be in the national interest, especially when deadly military force is involved, which is why it’s important to recognize, up front, just how incredibly dangerous, not just to THEM but to US, naval escapades historically can be, no matter who is at fault. Even ships at sea belonging to the biggest naval powers can become party to nasty international entanglements marked by surprising political crises, setbacks, and death, whether or not the U.S. ends up on the so-called “winning” side of this or that war:

The War of 1812 stemmed significantly from issues regarding maritime rights, the impressment of sailers belonging to a different nation’s ships, trade embargoes, and the HMS Leopard firing upon the U.S Navy’s Chesapeake. (The War of 1812 was the first time, and the last time until October 2025, that some or all of the White House was destroyed.) Also in the early 19th Century, the First and Second Barbary Wars were fought far from American shores, over systemic piracy and payments of tribute being demanded in exchange for safe passage: even such largely unknown American history was marked by real trauma, including the loss of the USS Philadelphia and the capture and enslavement of its crew. Decades later, in November, 1861, when a U.S. Naval ship stopped a British steamer and removed two Confederate representatives, the resultant crisis known as the Trent Affair verged on bringing the United Kingdom into the American Civil War against the U.S. (which certainly Lincoln feared), and harmed the American economy. The Civil War was fought over the calamity of slavery, but the literal start of that war, in 1861, was yet another land and sea territorial dispute over what did or didn’t belong where, in that instance Fort Sumter in Northern, Union hands, but in the waters off of South Carolina. In 1898, the explosive sinking of the U.S.Navy’s battleship Maine in Havana Harbor (the cause is still much debated) was a major rationale and rallying cry for starting the Spanish-American War.  

The German torpedoing in May 1915 of the RMS Lusitania—a British ocean liner that happened to be carrying more than 100 Americans and a controversial, oft-debated cargo of armament—did much to trigger U.S. entry into World War I. Two decades later, the American fleet at Pearl Harbor was obviously deemed by Japan to be a threat, hence the devastating surprise attack of Dec. 7, 1941 that brought the U.S. into WWII and the Pacific Front, but war had already come close to happening 4 years earlier, when Japanese aircraft attacked a U.S. Navy gun boat, Panay, and 3 Standard Oil tankers on the Yangtze River near China’s capital, Nanjing. The Panay was sunk with 3 Americans dead. Over on the Atlantic Front with WWII well underway, the U.S. had been testing the waters, and the limits of neutrality, by supplying various Allied countries via the Lend Lease, much of it provided by sea, and there were incendiary incidents that took place before U.S. entry into the war, including the sinking of USS Reuben James near Iceland by a German U-boat, more than a month prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, though American only became actively embroiled in the European Theatre of WWII when Germany joined its Axis ally, Japan, by declaring war on the U.S. following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. 

1961’s disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion targeting Cuba included a CIA “ghost” fleet that featured ships purchased from a Cuban-owned, U.S.-based company to give the U.S. plausible deniability. That did not go well. The Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, which was much misrepresented to the American public by the American government, contributed to the rapid escalation of the conflict in Vietnam into a full-fledged war. The 1968 capture of the USS Pueblo spy ship by North Korea became a huge international crisis that approached breaking out into heightened warfare.

This meandering trek through history was not meant to be a negative review of U.S. naval history, nor a critique, one way or the other, of what constitutes the appropriate use of naval power. The point, here, is to say it’s playing with fire, to use naval power flippantly, no matter the nature or size of foe. It’s just not as predictably unopposed as was knocking down the East Wing.

CNN In The News!!!

On CNN’s Inside Politics (October 30 edition),  Dana Bash interviewed “Mr. Unctuousness”—the Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson. He is a pesky totem of pretend earnestness, so it was a dozen minutes of cloying drivel.

When Bash asked if President Trump might do more to resolve the governmental shutdown, Speaker Johnson answered by touting Trump’s one belated meeting on the topic with Democratic leadership. That was the face-to-face where our nation’s chief executive did little but amuse himself with ‘Trump 2028’ hats scattered over a table like party decorations. Still, Johnson claimed, “the president was deeply involved, remember he brought in the Democrat leaders to meet with us in the White House, the Oval Office, before this all began, and he urged Schumer and Hakeem to keep the government open and they rejected it. The president has been involved and he has told them that he will talk about any issue under the sun as soon as they do the obvious thing to reopen the government first, that is our job here.” 

An obvious retort would have been, “Isn’t it the job of House Members to stay put in the Capitol Building and work on the problems of Americans, not head home for what amounts to a month’s paid vacation, like you’ve directed the Republican majority to do?" 

But CNN abhors the obvious, and so instead, Johnson spun on and on, his bargain basement glibness chock-full of palaver. 

Ten minutes into the interview, Dana Bush brought up that Arizona’s “Congresswoman-Elect Adelita Grijalva has not yet been sworn in, today’s her birthday, she was elected on Sept 23rd, she’s now the longest elected member of congress who has—she’s waited the longest to be sworn in, of anybody.  You say you’re going to swear her in when the government reopens, but you know you’ve sworn in Republicans during pro forma sessions before.”

Johnson responded with empty calorie potshots about Democrats and Nancy Pelosi, while also claiming Grijalva “has every ability to do everything that every other member is doing. She has keys to her office, she has 16 employees, an ID badge to get into the building, she can work on constituent services, she can do all those things, there’s no reason for her not to, and If she isn’t, then she’s the one who has to answer for that, not us…”

But if Adelita Grijalva can do EVERYTHING that sworn-in members can do, shouldn’t she be able to sign the House petition to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files? That would make hers the 218th signature, enough to force that crucial vote.

Dana Bash could have asked the obvious followup:  if Grijalva can do everything the others can do, can she sign the discharge petition without delay? But CNN eschews the obvious, and never raised any Epstein question in this interview.

Instead, Johnson was asked, “Just to put a button on it:  If she were a Republican, she would be in the same position, you would not be swearing her in?” To which he answered, “Absolutely, absolutely, because we’re not here in session, that’s the whole point, this has happened to Republicans and Democrats under Nancy Pelosi and now under Speaker Johnson this is the way the institution works.” The interview then ended with a "Thank you House Speaker Mike Johnson thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.”

Chickens Come Home To Roost 

Watching the Sunday morning news programs is not everyone’s favorite contact sport, but somebody’s gotta do it—even when it means enduring the grueling business of observing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sputter and stall over how the rising cost of groceries is causing economic grief for Americans.

On October 26, Kristen Welker, host of "Meet the Press,” played a video dating back from December 2025, showing President-Elect Trump mention the prices of eggs, apples, and bacon, then boast that “I started using the word, the groceries…I won an election based on that. We’re going to win an election based on that.” 

Back then, it was just plain weird, hearing Trump make it sound like he had invented something called “the groceries,” but by now, it should be obvious to everyone that his real concern was getting elected, and not what Americans pay for food. Welker noted to the Treasury Secretary, “Coffee prices are up 19% from a year ago. Beef is up almost 15% and bacon up almost 6%, just to name a few. So when are all grocery prices going to come down as President Trump promised?” 

Bessent sputtered: “Well, Kristen, it’s unfortunate, as much as I like you, you like to cherry-pick so, you know, when we came in, it was ‘egg-flation, egg-flation, egg-flation.’ You know, egg prices are down.” (Well, maybe they’re down now—prices were shooting up through the roof, a few months ago, under President Trump.) “Gasoline prices are down…So Kristen, you don’t get to cherry-pick. Inflation is a composite number, and I am confident that in the coming months, inflation is going to come down.”   

Hmm, talk of cherry picking. There was Bessert, picking away, trying to make for the TV audience a Sunday with a cherry on top, but not providing actual comfort or relief for people worried about how they can afford to pay for food. Bessert’s charge about cherry picking got us wondering whether the price of cherries is up or down. We went online and found out that the prices are volatile but doing OK, because of a bumper supply in Europe preventing product scarcity, but Oregon growers have been forced to leave more than 50% of their orchards unpicked, for which we can blame destruction caused by ice storms and wildfires, often due to climate change and policies made by climate change-deniers. 

Besides the cost of the groceries, there’s also the cost of the health care, and that’s a big concern Democrats are always raising. For example, back on the March 5 “Meet the Press," California Senator Adam Schiff said, “Democrats understand that millions and millions of their constituents are about to be priced out of their health care. I was in California last week in Oceanside and in Anaheim. Average families of four are going to see the premiums go up by $900 to $1,000 a month. No one can afford that, and that's going to happen all across the country…in a month or two millions of Americans are not going to be able to afford health care. So there is a crisis now that we didn't have then. The crisis is far worse now…” Of course, this is the main issue dividing Democrats and Republicans in Congress, over the budget and what needs addressing now with those costs about to soar.

In the future, Fighting Fire With Fire intends to do what others have done before—maybe somebody’s doing it now, if so, please let us know at info@fightingfirewithfire.org—watch pretty much all the Sunday morning shows and review the transcripts, to report back on the highlights and lowlights, including when “guests” are let off the hook and panels and guest rosters are ideologically and politically imbalanced, as often is the case because the “mainstream” networks still act like Republicans are more serious than the rest of humanity. 

She Should Have Left It Alone But We Can Put It Back Together

On October 16, when White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “the Democrat Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals,” she was attacking all of us. 

It’s not just that she was spouting laughably absurd untruths that could provoke the dangerous and the unstable. It’s not just that she was in her own way defaming and threatening all Democrats. By implication, she was smearing anyone who happens to be their family, friend, lover, neighbor, acquaintance, workmate, teammate…or simply anyone who happens to live in the same city or state. Because from her perspective, and she’s literally a White House spokesperson so it’s also Donald Trump’s perspective, it’s supposed to be unacceptable, untenable, to have a city or state be Democrat. Which is why the Trump administration thinks it’s okay to harm blue areas, to tarnish them and deny them resources and programs, and to force troops on them. This does harm to all who live in these areas, and really nationwide, and that includes Democrats and non-Democrats alike. Instead of encouraging us to communicate and cooperate, such loathing and disregard encourages dissension and dismay, and teaches fear.  

Her comment was just a snapshot in time, and we can hope for better for her and from her. But we also know we cannot and should not accept disparaging harm to any of us. That’s especially true in this moment for anyone in blue cities and states, whether that particular person is a Democrat or not, because those regions and jurisdictions are being threatened and diminished, which in turn inevitably harms everyone who lives and/or works there. 

Donald Trump’s pushing “red” states to redistrict halfway before the next census is his scheme to get more power to turn against blue cities and states, and to avoid checks and balances. He’s already started canceling key projects and programs in blue states, regardless of who loses a job in the process or loses their health. We need our federal government to act responsibly and fairly, without upending standards every day just to suit one person’s angry ambition. Which is why, from Fighting Fire With Fire’s perspective, it’s so important that all people who are registered to vote in California vote for Proposition 50, the temporary redistricting measure that’s on the November 4 ballot. Please, if you haven’t yet voted but can, vote YES for Prop 50, and urge your family and friends to do the same. It is to unite us all. 

To You Who Are Concerned

The people of this country are tough and amazing. Why any of us should be suffering the absurd economic chaos and human duress inflicted on us by the current administration is beyond comprehension. 

This is about respect, responsibility, and decency, and there are Democrats, Republicans, independents, and others who are showing it, and there are those who are not. 

We are supposed to be able to debate, even argue, in good faith, and when that happens, our system of checks and balances, of divided government, can function capably. But we are in a time when bullying and steamrolling is happening on an unprecedented scale, targeting people and institutions and punishing those thought to be in the way. Some are simply caving, but others are not, sometimes at the cost of jobs and whole careers. 

The No Kings protests are a big way of saying, like the kid in the story about the Emperor’s New Clothes, we see you for what you are and we speak the truth. Whole states, cities, and communities—workplaces, friends, and neighborhoods—are likewise joining together to stand up for what’s right. Certainly, many in the political realm are stepping up and providing steadfast leadership and support, and deserve our votes. Please feel free to email info@fightingfirewithfire.org if you want to share a fact or point of view, or have an idea for a story, or can think of someone who would make a great interview, or if you have a complaint, correction, or question.

Trump’s Ballroom Is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down

Someday in the future, we will happily hear from potential Democratic presidential candidates regarding what they promise to do about Trump’s ballroom monstrosity.

In the meantime, a fun game for all Americans is to come up with suggestions. Simply leave it standing for a while, but rename it the “Jeffrey Epstein-Donald Trump Ballroom?” Bring the National Guard back to DC, to egg the calamitous ballroom on Halloween? Break Trump’s dancehall apart and dig to find buried Epstein files? Move the Spruce Goose and store it there? Stage biblical reenactments utilizing different parts of the Trump dump: one part for trumpets blowing the (ballroom) walls of Jericho down; one part Sodom and Gomorrah (collective ballroom); one part Tower of Babel (ballroom); one part the Philistines and the shaken, shattered walls of their (ballroom) temple of Dagon? (The Rose Garden Trump paved over could be brought back for Garden of Eden resonance.)

When a Democrat is back in the White House—and yes, a Democrat will be back in the White House, and yes, there will continue to be presidential elections in the future, because Americans will demand both things—the Trump dump will almost certainly get dumped, if God hasn’t already smitten it down with an earthquake or meteor or whatever. So it might just be a question of who gets helped by the funds raised through a garage sale of ballroom fragments, bric-a-brac, and other artifacts. Will it be survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell? Farmers devastated by Trump’s tariffs and side deals? 

What will replace the ballroom monstrosity, if outraged Americans continue to despise Trump’s abject display of dictatorial dickiness? That’s a question for another day, though many Americans will be happy if the East Wing (or some reasonable facsimile thereof) reappears back where it belongs. Hey, maybe it could then serve as the Capitol building of Washington, D.C., when DC rightfully becomes our nation’s 51st State.

The Rockets' Red Glare, The Bombs Bursting In Air 

View from I-5 of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located within the  Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

Thank you, California Governor Gavin Newsom, for stepping up yet again. You kept innocent people safe when you closed down a stretch of major freeway for a few hours on October 18, all because Beavis and Butt-Head replicants—we mean the Trump administration—proved to be dead set on firing live artillery ammo over Interstate 5—supposedly to celebrate the U.S. Marines’ 250th birthday (which actually occurs on November 10), but likely intended to distract public attention away from the Oct. 18 ‘No Kings’ protests. The Trump administration terminated their stupid, dangerous show of force when a shell exploded prematurely overhead, showering shrapnel on two parked JD Vance motorcade vehicles and close to nearby personnel. Take THAT, California!

Is A National Boycott Blowing In The Wind?

There are gifts, and there are grifts. 

Giant corporations and super-rich individuals are funding Trump’s humongous White House ballroom wet dream.  

We don’t yet know their expectations, and maybe we’ll never know.

What we do know is that anyone responsible for funding that new building is complicit in the wanton destruction of the East Wing, that long-treasured symbol of America which has now been obliterated to make way for Trump’s gaudy trinket. It is unlikely that such horrid stewardship of the public interest and American story will be treated lightly by the greater American public, or be easily forgotten or forgiven in history.

Chicago

This nation has its unparalleled greatness, but also has had times and moments of horror and shame. Tragedy is inevitable, but not willful malice and the terrorizing of others, even if it’s claimed to be for a righteous cause. 

When militarized personnel are unleashed on city streets—including personnel who might be totally untrained for the particular challenges of regular urban policing and peacekeeping—there’s bound to be unintended (or intended) negative consequences. Governors like JB Pritzker of Illinois, and mayors like Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, joined by other elected representatives and community leaders, serve jurisdictions where crime rates have been dropping because of community and governmental shared resolve and effective programs, and they don’t need soldiers sent to stir the pot. As best and as fast as they can, these tough but fair leaders are often mounting important legal and organizational efforts to challenge the kind of uncalled-for, imposed military presence that Americans have so often fiercely disliked—disliked from the very start of the American Revolution, which began significantly because unwanted British troops were stationed imperially in the colonies. 

In late September, as part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s—ICE’s—so-called Operation Midway Blitz, there was a shocking, if thankfully death-free, massive raid on a 5-story South Shore (Chicago) apartment building, with a Blackhawk helicopter used for the rappelling of heavily armed masked personnel down on the roof, while many others all but attacked the building from the street. Doors were smashed, windows were broken, little kids were terrified, and people with their hands zipped-tied were forced outside, and held for hours, before some were allowed to leave. Trump and ICE have claimed they’re only going after the worst of the worst, gang members and the like, but in this raid, while they arrested 37 immigrants, in the end it was said that just two were gang members. 

As it happens, dozens of apartments of U.S. citizens were among those targeted, with at least six such citizens among those held for hours (one of them ended up arrested for an outstanding warrant). According to NPR, one U.S. citizen, an Air Force veteran, had his door kicked in and guns aimed at him, then, with his hands zip-tied behind his back, he was taken out and held elsewhere for a lengthy period of time, as was an African American female citizen in her mid-60s: retired after working at a local university, she was zip-tied and taken first to a dirty apartment and then an unmarked van. Those who were eventually released physically were not released from trauma: humiliation and fear generally lasts and lasts. Those children may shudder and cry out for years. NPR said that the Department of Homeland Security, which encompasses ICE, didn’t respond to questions about warrants being sufficient in numbers and applicability, but DHS did swiftly produce and release a video for mass consumption, in order to publicize their mission.

This dynamic, on scales large and small, is occurring in numerous places across our nation, but mostly in blue cities and states. When bad situations arise, started or made worse by the actions of federal personnel, it’s mostly because of the policies and not the people involved, many of whom, if left to their own devices, would be generously performing good deeds, in roles that are meant to be helpful and even life-preserving, not unnecessary and divisive. 

When bad stuff happens, there may be a single victim, or many. The perpetrators might be criminals, or masked with the uniform of the law; they could be a pathological hater or just some schnook after too many drinks and with a gun in ready reach.

Which brings us to one last detail: the Trump administration keeps talking about (and exaggerating) the amount of crime and violence in Chicago, but what goes unmentioned is that according to studies, approximately 60% of Chicago’s gun violence is attributable to guns that come in from other states with weaker (and/or less enforced) gun laws than those of Chicago and Illinois.  If Trump really wanted to protect the people of Chicago, and all of Illinois, and everyone throughout the USA, he’d focus on gun safety laws and other ways of keeping people safe from our national epidemic of gun violence, instead of building up a force of armed men who knock down doors, one of which someday might be yours.

Here’s Your Answer, Judge Kavanaugh

The U.S. Supreme Court, or at least its majority (those appointed by Republican presidents), appears poised to dismantle the Voting Rights Act that has helped protect the voting power of racial minorities. The need for protection has been based on the recognition that death, terror, and all manner of threat, intimidation, and disqualification regarding voting has been imposed on racial minorities in this country. 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh has appeared potentially more nuanced, perhaps more open-minded about at least keeping some of the Act, than some of his seemingly dead-set-against majority colleagues. Justice Kavanaugh has basically asked how and when it should be understood that these protections are not so self-evidently needed, and have run their course. “They should have an end point,” Judge Kavanaugh pronounced during oral arguments that took place in October over Louisiana v. Callais. (The Court’s decision may arrive in June 2026.) 

Certain recent news stories give us a truthful answer, though it may not be one that factors into the Court’s reasoning and decision. You probably read and saw stories about vile racist and other hate-ridden texts exchanged by young (and not all that young) Republican officials (some of them elected) and other leading Republican activists from various states and Republican organizations with thousands of members.

There were 2,900 leaked pages of more than 28,000 messages that included racial slurs and other epithets, and chatter, joking or not, about Hitler, rape, death threats, and other threats and degrading insults. Because of their credentials and connections, many of these Republican activists, and others of their character, are likely well-positioned to oversee elections, draft statutes about voting, and/or draw jurisdictional boundaries—or already hold such posts and wield such influence. The hate of minorities is crystal clear in those leaked texts—in many ways it was the point of those texts. People with power who communicate that way and act that way are why protections for voting rights remain needed, and why they will continue to be needed for as long as overriding prejudice and hateful impulses are abundantly present in those political circles.

Disappearing Ink

As the October 18 “No Kings” rallies approached, we were so absorbed in the frenzy of personal sign-making that we barely looked at the NY Times. 

Of course, Saturday, October 18 proved to be a remarkable success—a massive, peaceful extravaganza involving impeccably managed D-DAY-scale logistics and exquisite operational coordination on the grand level, with wonderful esprit de corps on the ground. All of that being of massive significance with much to cover, given the protest movement’s peaceful boldness in response to the rapid expansion of militant autocracy in this land.

Having retired our handmade signs at least until another day, we wondered how The Times, in its post-event coverage, would convey the energy, dedication, and joy of the vast and exuberant political cavalcade that in one single day involved 7 million protesters at 2700 locations. (Making it an even bigger deal was that the president of the United States and rightwing media went way off their way to smear and ridicule the protesters, before,during, andafter the 18th.)

On the afternoon of the 19th, about 24 hours after most of the No Kings events had ended, we visited the home page of The Times, AKA the nation’s “newspaper of record.” Admittedly, it was a very quick look-see, but we were startled to see nothing at all about No Kings, among the more than 100 stories and other items listed on that extensive homepage. Links that are listed on the NYT homepage get moved around or replaced with some frequency, so we figured maybe we missed something, and looked again a couple of hours later. This time we noticed a couple of items listed about No Kings, though none of it was even close to top-billed. We looked again, hours later, and saw nothing, and for the next few days, on our random visits, we spotted maybe one, or two, or none—perhaps the most prominently featured, though not near the top of the page, was a strong piece by Jamelle Bouie—and then that seemed to be it, all done. But surely there might be more stories to uncover, and lasting or evolving themes to explore, unless one dismisses the importance of people massing in the streets, whether it be in the U.S., Iran, or anywhere else in the world.

Something that did happen more or less at the same time was the Louvre heist, resulting in a few NYT articles each day until finally it seemed to have its own mini-section on the home page—this was even before a suspect was apprehended a week later. Sure, it’s a great story—but so is that of 7 million people organizing peacefully in this country, while the president proudly posts an AI-generated video of himself, wearing a crown, bombing them with excrement.

We certainly don’t mean to begrudge the “Gray Lady” its regular features and sections, nor its devoting space to the Internet’s most famous pastry chef going full Wonka, or how a tower on billionaire row is full of cracks, or HBO getting rural America right, and have you seen a UFO in Brooklyn? (Etc., etc.) Any and all of which may well be enlightening; besides, The Times provides plenty of reporting on topical matters of the day, including plenty on politics, though much of it (not all) amounts to a bevy of negative critiques about how Democrats fail if they’re not satisfyingly centrist. 

One such article by the Editorial Board was titled “The Partisans Are Wrong: Moving to the Center is the Way to Win.” It said of Trump that “extreme as he is in many ways, he moved the Republican Party toward the center on several key issues,” citing Social Security, Medicare, global trade, and abortion…Really? How’s THAT going?

We were not the only ones to notice the dearth of follow-up Times’ coverage regarding No Kings. A NYT reader named “Catherine,” in a comment about a Times story, wrote, “On Saturday, 7 million people demonstrated peacefully across the United States. They came from all backgrounds. This is the biggest push to back off extremist policies in our country and return us to a land of laws and the Constitution. The Times did not even report it. How many people have to march in the streets demanding a return to what are now centrist ethics before you report it? Will you cover 10 million? Is 20 million enough?” A different reader, named Linda, commented that “The NY Times could do its part by reporting the news. The top story should have been the record-breaking crowds (mostly moderate and simply wanting relief from the ever-increasing harms done by this administration) demonstrating against Trump.”

As noted, there were 7 million No Kings participants at 2700 locations on Oct. 18; by comparison, the conservative Tea Party movement, which significantly influenced today’s Republican Party, had an estimated 311,460 attendees in 346 cities on its largest day of protest (4/15/2009), according to statistician Nate Silver, whose blog, FiveThirtyEight, was thought highly enough by the New York Times that the two ended up in a partnership the following year. It would be interesting to read a story comparing the media coverage of the two movements: maybe that’s already occurred; then again, maybe not.

The Tariffs Of A Clown

So let’s get this straight: Trump is cancelling trade talks with Canada, and is “increasing the tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” just because the government of Ontario has an ad that’s playing in the U.S. How petty, weak, and petulant can one president be? 

The ad features excerpts from a speech by Republican hero Ronald Reagan back in 1987. The ad doesn’t show the entire 5-minute speech, but the excerpts faithfully demonstrate Reagan’s intense disapproval of tariffs and his clear preference for free market practices and policies.

Reagan, who during his presidency did employ tariffs on occasion, issues strong words of warning in the ad: “When somebody says, ’let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs, and sometimes for a short while it works, but only for a short time. But over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. Then the worst happens, markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.”

Put aside how Trump’s tariffs cause murky chaos and pain for U.S. businesses, workers, and consumers. Let’s even put aside the existential calamity that’s only getting worse every day for American farmers, who in 2025 haven't been able to sell a single soybean to China because of Trump’s careening trade wars—whereas previously, China purchased 20% of the American soybean crop. Trump’s brouhaha over a TV ad illustrates how he has zero concern about compromise or solutions, just wants to get his way and squelch contrary views, even if it’s a perspective of his party’s greatest hero. Meanwhile, plenty of people and businesses on both sides of the border are stuck hurting, and are going to be hurting more, while Trump pisses on what may be our country’s closest and most productive international friendship, alliance, and trading relationship. 

As quoted in the NY Times, the president of a Canadian trade group commented thusly: “This is the latest in a series of unprovoked and unwarranted escalations in tariff policy with other sovereign nations. Lost in the accountability loop here is the president’s threat is really to charge American taxpayers billions of dollars because of a benign World Series ad he doesn’t like”—Flavio Volpe, Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.

San Francisco, America

On October 23, Trump posted that, at least for now, he’ll NOT be moving forward with his threatened, unwanted “surge” of federal troops into San Francisco. He attributed that decision to calls from “friends of mine who live in the area.” The two he mentioned by name were the CEOs of Nvidia and Salesforce, Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff.    

America’s misfortune is that we have a president who doesn’t believe in consulting with the actual elected representatives of the people. Instead, he is evidently swayed by those who are monied enough, and/or flattering enough, to be in his inner circle. 

That’s what’s also happened with Trump’s destruction of the East Wing of the White House, to make way for his cherished vision of a gilded ballroom. Congress has been kept out of the loop, and the typical review processes have likewise been ignored, and Trump certainly hasn’t asked the American public writ large (though recent polling shows that the American public detests what he’s doing). Instead, he’s reportedly shown architectural mockups only to those who happen to be near him, and asks which they prefer, the huge or the very largest.  

Dear President Trump

Dear President Donald J. Trump,

We can make the USA a safer place. Yay! The best way to make us very safe is “No Kings” events all the time, everywhere. Fun! “No Kings” events are incredible and successful, not just saying “YES, democracy” but also being fabulously safe, peaceful, and uniting. We found out on social media, made signs, showed up, and we are practically speaking nobodies, and no one paid us; we just came and joined in, like everybody else. HAPPY! On October Eighteen, AN AMAZING 7 MILLION PEOPLE took part in 2,700 cities and towns. Police departments reported PURE PEACEFUL PLEASURE at No Kings gatherings—no troubles, no violence, zero arrests. ZERO!!! Hooray! KUDOS!   

Sad, the same isn’t so when you send ICE and others to rile up and militarize America: people get kidnapped by masked men, children are traumatized, ICE somehow tear-gasses our very own local police, an ICE agent shoots a U.S. Marshal in L.A., an Australian journalist gets shot by an ICE rubber bullet, homes are invaded, citizens get detained for hours, a Chicago pastor praying by himself is shot in the head with a pepper ball fired from above by ICE agents on a rooftop. SAD!  NOT NICE! No more, BAD. Do new andmake safe. Cease and desist with ICE/Marines/National Guard, unless good governors and mayors invite. Do not play bad, be good…be a No Kings type guy! Watch out for dangerous escalators.

Thank you for your attention! Stay out of mischief! 

No Kings = the Mona Lisa

Speaking purely objectively: the Saturday, October 18 “No Kings” protest was even greater than Shohei Ohtani’s 3-homer, 10-strikeout playoff performance the night before. It was as good as the Mona Lisa, and as sprawling as Moby Dick, yet more succinct. (Not that the earlier, June 14 No Kings protest was small potatoes, no sir.)

How in God’s name did everyone involved pull this off, with such absolute success—one of the largest peaceful protests ever, held the same day in over 2,700 cities and towns, with more than 7 million people participating, demonstrating joy and resolve and without a hitch?

Think of the sheer logistics:  the complex decision-making regarding who-what-where-when; the permitting and relationships with local governments; the constant grassroots networking; the messaging to all kinds of media everywhere…Also, the zillion, hysterically funny and zestfully defiant homemade signs, worthy on their own of a dedicated museum.

These days, the simplest things can go wrong, nothing works, the easiest things go haywire, it’s nearly impossible to assemble anything out of the box, and mistakes occur all over the place. Incompetence rules. For example, the Trump administration tells you pompously that firing missiles over a busy highway won’t endanger anyone, and of course, an explosive shell they’ve propelled goes boom boom prematurely, proving how wrong the wrong can be.

What could have caused trouble for the No Kings event was that, leading up to Oct. 18, the bad guys in politics and their rightwing media cronies conducted a boorish, idiot smear campaign trying to tar No Kings. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, “We call it the ‘Hate America Rally’.” Perhaps they were trying to stir up mayhem in order to distract from the powerful messaging and numbers of No Kings. But city after city, town after town reported plentiful peaceful protesters, zero violent incidents or any other criminal conduct, and zero arrests. The only dismaying item that crossed our desks concerned a single vehicle in New Jersey being driven straight at No Kings protesters, striking one woman sitting on the grass, and then heading off: a vengeful hit-and-run aimed at (not by) No Kings, with the victim reportedly suffering a broken leg but at least nothing life-threatening.

Trump, in his usual twisted way, said of No Kings: “The demonstrations were very small, were very ineffective, and the people were whacked out. Would you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country.” Au contraire, No Kings was perfection. Thumbs up! 4 stars! May the next No Kings be as sublime and boosting, like a great feast by the best chefs in the world feeding the hungry.

Imagine King Kong Or Godzilla Rampaging Through The Nation’s Capital

During the Oct. 23 White House press briefing, CBS reporter Weijia Jiang did exactly what the press is supposed to do—she pressed for an answer, in this instance regarding the Trump administration’s demolishing of the East Wing without having submitted plans and seeking procedural oversight and approval.

Jiang asked White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, “Can the president tear anything down he wants, without oversight? Can he demolish this building, or say the Jefferson Memorial?”

Leavitt responded evasively: “There have been many presidents, in the past, who have made their mark on this beautiful White House complex.” More specifically, she claimed that a National Capital Planning Commission legal opinion supports that for “the tearing down of the current East Wing structure, a submission is not required legally for that—only for vertical construction will a submission be required.” Jiang said, “So it sounds like the answer is yes, he can tear down whatever he wants.”

So there you have it: the Trump administration apparently believes it can destroy whatever it wants without checking in with Congress or going through any procedural review, when it comes to tearing down American treasures like the Vietnam Memorial or the Lincoln Memorial. Next, they’ll be saying they can tear up the Constitution: oh, wait…

I Knew Claude Rains…Kash Patel, You’re No Claude Rains

As Captain Renault (Claude Rains) famously said, tongue in cheek, in Casablanca: “I'm shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here.”

FBI Director Kash Patel opened an October 23 press conference about indictments, sports, and gambling by saying, “We are here in New York to announce an historic arrest across a wide, sweeping criminal enterprise that envelopes both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra.” He added that the people with him at the podium “represent a small portion of the leadership team that brought profound justice in an era that needed it more than any other.”

WTF? Our current era needs “profound justice” more than any other era? More than during the Inquisition, or when folks were crucified or fed to lions, or tossed into fiery volcanoes, or were enslaved, beaten, and raped, or were exterminated en masse in gas chambers, or were taken away from their homes and forced to live in internment camps, or lived in an America in which lynchings were a frequent spectacle? 

It’s horrible when people get bilked, and we want bad guys caught, and of course online gambling is a big deal, but it’s not stunning news that poker games can be rigged or that competitive sports can be tainted by shady gambling schemes. Long ago, a World Series was fixed, supposedly by mob maven Arnold Rothstein (who was later bumped off in a dispute over a supposedly fixed poker game). Boxers have taken a fall, horses have been doped, baseball manager Leo Durocher and star pro football players were suspended, and back in 1951, 32 basketball players from 7 colleges were indicted…has any sport ever completely avoided criminal infamy? Maybe pickleball, but give it time.  

The innocence of America is damaged when sports are corrupted by the specter of illicit gambling, which is why Donald Trump so strenuously opposed and did not champion the pardoning of Pete Rose…Oh, wait.

Patel also said, “This FBI will leave no room for any perpetrator of crime across this country." Does that include a certain person of note who some allege was slipped $50,000 in a paper bag by an undercover FBI agent?

Patel delineated that “the fraud is mind-boggling, it’s not hundreds of dollars, it’s not thousands of dollars, it’s not tens of thousands of dollars, it’s not even millions of dollars, we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars…” Not millions, but tens of millions—who counts that way???

He said that, “under President Trump’s administration there is no room for any type of criminal behavior, be it on the world’s largest stage, or in backrooms of tiny parlors where card games are being played.”  In other words, they won’t pardon insurrectionists who assaulted law enforcement and vandalized the United States Capitol.

The FBI Director asserted “we will not deny any one due process, and that’s the brilliance of this system, that’s the brilliance of this administration…”  In other words, they are the ACLU.

Later in the press conference, Joseph Nocella, Jr. US Attorney, Eastern District of New York, listed cities and teams affected by questionable games. When he came to the “Toronto Rangers,” sports fans wondered if there was a new team to root for or gamble on, until they realized someone didn’t know what he was talking about.

Desecration/Travesty:  LOCK HIM UP!

Not that long ago—on October 3, 2025—Donald Trump posted, “From this point forward, anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison. You will be immediately arrested.” He cited his own August 25 executive order on flag desecration.

But why stop with the Flag? Mandate that anyone flagrantly damaging the White House be subject to immediate arrest and one year in prison. To determine culpability, lawmakers in Congress should identify and cite any historical and cultural preservation policies, planning code, and procedural reviews that Trump has skirted, bypassed, or otherwise undermined. He’s sinned by assaulting a transcendent symbol of American democracy, even if it’s not the Flag, which every now and then on stage he almost seems to want to hump.

 A Historian’s Perspective About East Wing Demolition

Speaking on CNN on Oct. 23, Edward Lengel, former Chief Historian of the White House Historical Association, predicted that Trump’s ballroom is “going to be more ostentatious and it’s going to turn the executive mansion into an annex to the party space…if you look at the executive mansion now, you see 225 years of history, even further back to the influence of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and the architect, James Hoban, and you see that history. Now your attention is going to be drawn to this giant ballroom, which really has one man’s name on it. It’s going to cast the executive mansion into the shade, and turn it much more into a presidential palace, and I just say as a founding fathers historian—spent most of my life with George Washington—I think all of the founders would have been disgusted by this…” 

“The issue is that this addition turns the White House and the executive mansion into something that it is not. It is no longer the people’s house, it is no longer in tune with what the Founders intended, and it is no longer in tune with the history of our country. It sends the wrong message.”

The world has been shocked by the hasty annihilation of the White House’s East Wing, undertaken without consulting review agencies or seeking feedback from the American people. Trump lied when he said his gargantuan ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building, it will be near it but not touching it, and pays total respect to the existing building which I’m the biggest fan of.” For Trump, total respect means never having to leave something unmolested. 

Projected costs have risen from $200 million to $350 million—big bucks that should pay for important stuff, not frill and strut. Jobs, health care, and nutritional assistance are going, going, gone, and the federal government he heads now has a case of long shutdown, but our president is enraptured with his dream of a massive, lavish hippodrome. In a nutshell, he’s Marie Antoinette well into “let them eat cake” reckless flippancy, but also coming to mind is Xanadu, Charles Foster Kane’s palatial home in Citizen Kane, a huge place turned loveless, stuffed as a substitute with expensive and often gaudy art and tchotchkes from all over: Make America Garishly Abnormal.

When the deed is complete and Trump wants a mighty celebration to mark the occasion, his administration might get ahold of the same gunnery folks and artillery that fired live explosives over the 405 freeway, sis boom bah.

Rinse And Repeat

MAGA = defund people’s health, give ever more generous tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, destroy representative government, fire dedicated public servants, get rid of checks and balances, eliminate helpful programs, take down the safety net, diminish the unions that serve working people, control judges and the Justice Department, build an armed force that can be sent anywhere in the U.S., intimidate and exclude the news media, demand corporate fealty, attack academia, make everyone you can contribute money, get rid of environmental and safety regulations, surround yourself with stooges, go after critics:   

HiKE! 

Red Rover Red Rover, Send Joe McCarthy Over 

When Donald Trump extemporaneously accuses this or that person of being a Communist, as he often enough does, it might be instructive if a good reporter asks him to define Communism.

Murderers Row

The American military has been shooting at fishing boats in the general vicinity of Venezuela like they’re, well, fish in a barrel, using what might be considered limited military might, such as an attack helicopter or a drone, but now we’re deploying surface warships and submarines, and moving fighter jets closer. Things are escalating, but President Trump is denying he wants regime change in Venezuela, which some might conclude can only mean one thing. 

Well, putting that aside…

Since the start of September 2025, ten U.S. military strikes have been launched at boats in the Caribbean. Eleven people perished when the first boat was destroyed on Sept. 2, and the toll of the dead has risen to 43 as of October 24 (from Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad, and Tobago). We the American public have been told the usual stuff by Trump and his administration, with fentanyl, gang cartels, and terrorism mentioned as justification, but fentanyl generally comes from Mexico, not South America, and the type of boats in question (fishing boats, speedboats, what have you) were all far, far away from U.S. shores: not all were even going in the right direction to head this way. The U.S. Navy did rescue two survivors and repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador, causing some to wonder why that would be allowed to happen, if the two really were part of some villainous cabal. About the living or the dead, photos and names haven’t been given, actual biographical information is not given, just videos of boats exploding.

Also causing questions were the apparent sizes of these boats, versus the claimed size of the alleged cargo of drugs plus the number of people on board, compounded by the huge numbers of American overdose deaths Trump has said each cargo of drugs might cause.  There’s been skepticism expressed publicly by people who probably have a lot more credibility and expertise than anyone speaking for the administration. It’s hard or impossible to find anyone, including members of Congress, who says they’ve been shown evidence of crime: hearing bombastic rhetoric alleging crime is not really the same thing as seeing evidence of it. We generally stop and board boats when we suspect drugs might be involved: historically, we don’t just blow ‘em up, or necessarily possess any legal right to do so. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has also noted that when the Coast Guard stops boats thought to be carrying drugs, it often enough turns out that they’re not. The administration has not sought Congressional approval, so far. Nor has it offered a legal theory in support of just going ahead and murdering drug dealers, not to mention far-away drug dealers in international waters, assuming they are really drug dealers. 

On Fox News, Senator Paul said these deaths were “extrajudicial killings” and wrong. Democrats are speaking up but don’t run the committees. On CNN, Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said, “the administration needs to give insight into Congress. That’s part of it. If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration, I’d be apoplectic.” Why he’d only be apoplectic about extrajudicial killings if certain administrations are in power is a question for the ages. 

Trump’s now saying, “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re going to kill them.” On whose word, on what basis exactly, can we know for sure the truth—the facts? If the administration doesn’t seek Congressional approval, and if Pete Hegseth continues to do everything he can to keep actual reporters away from the Pentagon, we might have to rely on Trump’s record and capacity for truth-telling, and he’s the guy who confuses one country with another, and who shrieked about people eating other people’s pets the way Orson Welles frightened people listening at home, with his radio production about Martians invading New Jersey. Regarding what’s happened in Venezuela, and what’s to come, we probably don’t know the exact truth, but maybe it’s time we start demanding it, especially if Congress won’t.

Boys Will Be Boys, They’ll Play With Toys

Bet you anything (well, not really) that when he was a little boy, and maybe when he got older, Donald Trump played in his bathtub with toy boats, maybe toy submarines, and gleefully did whatever he could to bomb and sink them. That’s just an uneducated guess. 

Birds of a Feather?

Putting aside their crimes—one can propose Trump’s have been far worse—both Donald Trump and a man he recently got out of jail (free?), George Santos, have lied about their names. Many people change names or use pseudonyms for one reason or another, and mostly it’s innocent enough or maybe even affirmative. Only sometimes is it to cheat others, perhaps flaunting or hiding a sick, hollow, existential void: a fraud by any other name, perhaps daring to be caught.

Trump was perceived to be using a fake name at least as far back as 1980, when reporters would speak on the phone with someone representing himself as a Trump Organization representative by the name of “John Barron” (or John Baron), but who was said to sound like Trump. This happened with such frequency that the actual identity of the Trump Organization spokesperson was considered an open secret. Names that have also been questioned for their Trump-related veracity include John Miller, Carolin Gallego, and David Dennison.  

Of course, we’ve now had several decades in which the Trump name is frequently and openly affixed on many businesses and buildings, as if that name conveys substance. Some went bankrupt.

Santos, who was elected to Congress after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street moneymaker, was freed from prison by Trump on October 17, after serving only seven months of a seven-year sentence for fraud and identity theft (Santos admitted to stealing the identities of 11 people, including family members). In explaining, Trump said Santos would “ALWAYS VOTE Republican.”

Santos had reportedly made up crap about his religion, his having a college degree, his supposed volleyball stardom, his work experience, his family and the Holocaust, his mother and the World Trade Center/9-11, his family business, a connection to victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, the location of his residency, his operating a legitimate non-profit animal rescue organization, and his own actual name, which was other than the name he forged on stolen checks. A sham is a sham is a sham. Santos says that he will not reimburse those victims (approximately $374,000 in restitution) unless he is required to do so. Does ANY American, of any political persuasion, honestly believe George Santos has said or done anything to deserve a pardon and/or clemency?

Congressmember-Elect Adelita Grijalva, Arizona's Seventh Congressional District