Due to technical issues, my weekly appearance on Halitics (YouTube videocast) had me doing only audio, depriving America of my pretty face. But there was much to discuss. Ezra Klein’s lead story in the Sunday NY Times Opinion section advocated for the Democrats not funding the coming spending bill, giving the party a chance to stir things up and make some deals with the GOP, and with the public paying attention, talk about future Democratic Party policies.
Last March, Schumer gave in and received a lot of criticism. Hal and I agreed the Democrats should not be complicit with Trump and the GOP’s disastrous policies, and use the attention to make a deal as well as to make their case to the American people.
We also discussed a Thom Hartmann article about Trump blowing up a boat and killing 11 people in international waters near Venezuela. The Trump Administration claimed these men were bringing drugs to America. How do we know this? There is no evidence, no congressional approval, and no international authorization. This was murder, but Trump knows he won’t be held accountable because the Supreme Court has granted him immunity for crimes committed while in office, and there is no international court that will step in. This something fascist dictators can get away with. Let’s face it, everybody is afraid of Donald Trump, and no one can stop him from doing whatever he wants.
When the Court says Trump is above the law, who speaks for the eleven dead on that boat? Their lives ended not in a battlefield crossfire or a clash between nations, but at the whim of one man emboldened by six justices who declared him untouchable.
Trump simply ordered human beings erased, confident the Court had given him immunity from any consequence and the leaders of his military would obey an illegal order. Eleven souls were sacrificed not just to his cruelty, but to a judicial betrayal that transformed the presidency into a license to kill.
For most of our history, American presidents have at least gone through the motions of cloaking lethal force in some form of legal justification.
Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War but sought Congress’s approval. Franklin Roosevelt went to Congress for Lend-Lease before escalating aid to Britain, and sought a declaration of war against Japan. George W. Bush and Barack Obama leaned heavily on the post-9/11 Authorizations for Use of Military Force to justify everything from Afghanistan to drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia to killing Bin Laden.
The principle has always been that the United States does not simply kill people without some kind of legal process. It may be stretched, it may be abused, but it has been invoked.
What Donald Trump has now done with the strike on a small boat off Venezuela’s coast is to break that tradition in a way that is both lawless and unprecedented. He gave the order to kill eleven human beings with no congressional approval, no international authorization, and no visible evidence justifying it.
This was simply murder on the high seas. And the world knows it.
He did it in the full knowledge that six Republican appointees on the Supreme Court have granted him immunity for crimes committed while in office, even international crimes. That ruling opened the door to precisely this sort of extrajudicial killing and stripped away one of the last guardrails protecting both our law and our global standing.
The official claim is that the boat carried members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. But eleven people on a small vessel that couldn’t possibly travel as far as America doesn’t sound like a cartel’s drug shipment (typically there’s only one or two people manning such a boar); it sounds like desperate migrants fleeing a collapsing country.
That possibility makes the strike even more chilling when paired with a story Miles Taylor has told about Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller. Taylor recounts traveling with Miller and a Coast Guard admiral after a drug war event in Key West.
On that trip Stephen Miller asked the admiral if it would be legal to use a Predator drone to obliterate a boat full of migrants in international waters. Miller’s reasoning was that migrants weren’t covered by the Constitution, so what was to stop us from blowing them out of the water?
The admiral reportedly shot back that it would violate international law, that “you cannot kill unarmed civilians just because you want to.” At the time it was an alarming glimpse into the sadistic mind of a man who saw immigrants as less than human.
Now it looks like Trump has taken Miller’s reported hypothetical and turned it into policy. What was once an outrageous musing has become a bloody precedent.
This has profound legal and moral implications.
By attacking a vessel flying the flag of a sovereign state, Trump risked triggering a direct military confrontation. Venezuela could have fired back at American forces in the region. A firefight at sea can escalate quickly into a regional war, and Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro would have every incentive to turn to Russia and China for protection.
Leaders of both of those nations are eager to deepen their presence in our hemisphere, and this gives them an opening. It’s not inconceivable that Moscow or Beijing could send ships or aircraft to Venezuela in response.
That would put foreign military forces hostile to us within thirteen hundred miles of Miami. If shots were fired between American forces and Russian or Chinese deployments in the Caribbean, the slide toward a larger war would be real, very much like the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963 (except then we had a statesman as a president, instead of a corrupt buffoon).
World War I began with a simple assassination that pitted one nation against another and then the sinking of the civilian boat the Lusitania; this is how great power conflicts can begin. Trump’s reckless strike doesn’t just risk Venezuelan lives. It risks American troops, regional stability, and, in the most ominous scenario, world peace itself.
Meanwhile, at home, the timing is impossible to ignore. Authoritarians throughout history have turned to foreign crises to distract from domestic scandals.
Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia as Watergate began to close in. Reagan invaded Grenada days after hundreds of Marines were killed in Beirut. Trump has lived for decades under the shadow of allegations of sexual predation, including reports that Jeffrey Epstein recorded him with underage girls during the years he owned and ran Miss Teen USA.
If new evidence of that were to surface, Trump would need a distraction on a scale large enough to blot out the outrage. Creating a crisis with Venezuela, complete with martial language and threats of escalation while renaming the Department of Defense to Department of War, serves that purpose. It’s the oldest play in the authoritarian book: wag the dog.
Except this time the stakes are far higher. This time we’re dealing with a president who’s been told by six corrupted members of the highest court in the land that he’s above the law.
When Miles Taylor first revealed Miller’s macabre question about bombing migrant boats, some dismissed it as idle cruelty. It now looks like a glimpse into the inner workings of Trump’s policy mind. In this worldview, immigrants are vermin, human rights are optional, Democrats are “extremists,” and lethal force is just another tool of politics.
Combine that with the Supreme Court’s gift of immunity and you have a recipe for lawless violence on a scale America has never contemplated. The entire edifice of international law is designed to prevent precisely this sort of conduct.
Extrajudicial killings, violations of sovereignty, the targeting of civilians: these are the acts that international courts prosecute when they can, and that history condemns when courts cannot stop them.
And now we’re learning that Trump did something similar in 2019 when he was last president. He authorized a SEAL Team strike against North Korea, where they killedthree civilians in a boat who were simply out fishing.
If America embraces this new Putin-like assertion of America’s power to bomb anybody, anywhere, on the whim of the president, we’ll have abandoned any claim to moral leadership.
Worse, we will have normalized the authoritarian logic that anyone the president labels an enemy can be eliminated without trial, without evidence, without process. We’ll have handed Xi a rationale to attack Taiwan; all he has to do is claim that a non-governmental gang within that nation is importing drugs into China (or something similar).
The international reaction has already been severe. America’s allies are horrified, our adversaries have been emboldened, and human rights groups are openly appalled.
But the real test is here at home. Do we still believe in the principle, famously cited by our second President John Adams, that America is a nation of laws and not of men? Do we still insist that presidents cannot kill at will? If Trump can strike a boat off Venezuela today, what is to stop him from ordering lethal force against dissidents, protesters, or political opponents tomorrow?
Keep in mind, the same Stephen Miller — who reportedly wanted to blow up boats of immigrants to kill more brown people — just in the past week claimed that the Democratic Party is a “domestic extremist organization.”
The doctrine of immunity means there is no legal backstop. The only remaining check is political will. And Trump’s fascist toadies are all in on more extrajudicial killings.
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete “Kegger” Hegseth said:
“We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t stop with just this strike.”
Secretary of State “Little Marco” Rubio echoed the sentiment, saying during a speech in Mexico City yesterday that similar strikes “will happen again.”
This is why Democrats, independents, and every American who values the rule of law must call this out for what it is: an atrocity against eleven people, an assault on international norms, and a direct threat to American democracy.
Trump has shown us exactly how far he’s willing to go. He’s willing to risk a war in our hemisphere. He’s willing to put our troops in danger. He’s willing to risk drawing Putin and Xi into a confrontation with us that could spiral out of control. He’s willing to destroy lives to protect himself. And he’s doing it because six Republicans on the Supreme Court told him he could.
If Congress doesn’t act now to confront and contain this lawless behavior, if we don’t restore accountability to the presidency, then we’ll have surrendered not just our moral authority but our future.
The question is not whether Trump wants a distraction from his scandals; of course he does. The question is whether we’re willing to let Trump and his fascist toadies drag America and the world into catastrophe to get it.
This isn’t just about a boat off Venezuela. It’s about whether America will allow a president, blessed by the Court, to kill without evidence, without process, without even the pretense of law.
Eleven dead migrants are the proof of what immunity means in practice: impunity. If Trump can slaughter refugees today, what stops him from targeting dissidents, protesters, even political opponents tomorrow?
The answer, unless Congress and the people act, is nothing. And “nothing” is what those justices have left to protect us, our laws, and our humanity.
Is there a Democrat out there who can excite and motivate enough voters to knock off the MAGA GOP in 2028? A number of of them were discussed in a NY Times article, especially governors J.P.Pritzgar of Illinois, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and California’s Gavin Newsom. Hal Ginsberg and I looked at those and several others on Haitics,the daily YouTube videocast.
No one candidate stood out, and Hal felt there should have been more discussion of their policy differences. I was more satisfied with the article as I saw its purpose was to touch on the reasons and qualifications they had that would allow them to be in contention for the nomination.
We talked about President Trump thinking and acting like he owns every part of the federal government, even if he doesn’t have the law on his side. Hal and I were not happy about a Democratic group called Chorus, a liberal influencer marketing platform designed to raise money for elections, but with many strings attached for donors. I noted that billionaires like Elon Musk can overwhelm election results.
Hal mentioned statistics showing the public favors many Democratic Party policies (taxing the rich, more health insurance, higher minimum wage, etc) it hasn’t helped them win elections because big donors usually get their way. That is no way to function as a democracy, and to say we are is naive.
It’s not in the headlines, but the indicators tell us boys are going through a tough patch. On the YouTube videocast Halitics, Hal and I are aware that boys are going to college at a rate lower than girls, playing less sports, having more mental issues, feeling lonely, etc. When similar problems were noticed over a century ago, society stepped up to solve these problems, with youth organizations created and many men working with the boys to help them. Two writers in The NY Times urge more men to get involved like they did then. It would help not only young boys, it would be a good thing for men too.
Hal and I noted newer atrocities committed by the Israeli military, this time killing five journalists in Gaza, with no indications Netanyahu will ease up anytime soon. We noted how President Trump promoted Operation Warp Speed to successfully find vaccines for Covid-19, but now is doing the opposite in science and health, discouraging government/business cooperation in fixing health problems and medical research today. We also commented about the current administration discouraging progress that might help minorities in favor of policies favored by white southerners, including sending federal troops into big cities in Blue states, while ignoring the crime-ridden cities in Red states.
Many people, me included, don’t understand how Trump cultists and MAGAs worship the current president, even while he shows himself to be mentally challenged, a felon, a classic narcissist, morally weak, greedy, seriously vengeful and bitter, exploits women, lies and exaggerates every day, etc etc.–you know what I’m talking about.
Could it be that right-wing news sources (e.g. Fox “News”) hide and ignore many of his most outrageous actions and speeches., and most of his followers are oblivious to them.
The following tracks his many disturbing actions:
Vote of No Confidence in Our Current Federal Government (origin unclear):
“We, the People of the United States, declare a vote of no confidence in our current federal government.
We do so out of love for our country and our liberties and to defend our democracy from an autocratic regime that aims to destroy it. Our goal is to help speed the winds of democratic change.
Exercising our constitutional right to peaceful protest, we offer this petition as an online march on Washington.
DECLARATION OF GRIEVANCES
The President of the United States:
Has shredded the Rule of Law and violated his solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States;
Has attacked First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, and assembly by intimidating those who oppose him;
Has misused the military and federal law enforcement to create a climate of fear;
Has abused his power by pardoning those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and by dangling future pardons to encourage criminal conduct on his behalf;
Has violated the principle of no taxation without representation by imposing tariffs through executive orders alone and by threatening tariffs to advance his personal agenda;
Has violated the constitutional principles of due process and the equal protection of the laws by using masked agents to kidnap law-abiding refugees for expedited deportation without judicial hearings and by detaining them in unspeakable conditions;
Has fueled racism and white supremacy by scapegoating communities of color;
Has endangered lives and our planet by disregarding science;
Has sought to manipulate the results of the midterm elections by using the FBI and the Department of Justice to facilitate gerrymandering by States his party controls;
Has violated the Constitution by soliciting and accepting bribes;
Has undermined the judiciary by attacking judges who rule against him and by failing to comply with court orders; and
Has denied justice to those he disfavors by exercising unwarranted control over the Department of Justice.
The abuse-enabling members of the Congress of the United States:
Have abdicated their constitutional duty to be check on presidential excesses;
Have gutted essential federal functions by accepting budget cuts Congress has not approved, rescinding monies appropriated for public services, and permitting the demolition of agencies and departments established by law;
Have willfully ignored challenges in healthcare, education, employment, housing, climate change, public safety, campaign finance and the preservation of democracy;
Have reinforced income inequality by enacting legislation that redistributes wealth from the poor to the rich; and
In the case of the United States Senate, have repeatedly confirmed unfit presidential nominees.
A majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States:
Has placed the President and his acolytes above the law;
Has evaded ethical accountability by tolerating conflicts of interest by its justices
Has demonstrated subservience to the President by using the so-called shadow docket to overturn without explanation well-reasoned lower court orders; and
Has squandered centuries of respect for the Court by rendering decisions that undermine legislation protecting civil and voting rights and other laws enacted by Congress.
NOW THEREFORE, we, the citizens of the United States of America at least 18 years of age, cast a Vote of No Confidence in the current federal government of the United States. We call for the redress of the grievances declared here and oppose the current regime’s assault on the rule of law, just as the signers of the Declaration of Independence rejected the tyranny of “The Mad King,” George III.”
As always, much to talk about. The first order of business on Halitics (a daily YouTube videocast) was to talk about an old friend, KC Lynch, who passed away a few days ago in his apartment. He was a pioneer at the old KRXA, and liked by many. Then on to the tragic events in Gaza. Israeli president Netanyahu continues to kill too many civilians in Gaza. Hal and I talked about a column by Nicolas Kristof of The NY Times answering his pro-Israeli critics by pointing out that Israel has gone too far in answering the Oct 7, 2023 massacre, and should make more of an effort to achieve peace.
We also pointed out that so many positive attributes of our country are being eliminated by Trump and his allies. Progress in research, education, science, health, etc. are being swept away by Trump’s radical policies. Why can’t the Democratic Party take advantage of these losses? I believe Fox News and similar media are very popular, and their viewers don’t hear all the negative news about the president. These platforms allow viewers confirmation and permission for their prejudices and hate.
Can the fascist-styled dictatorial moves of President Trump be stopped? And if there is a way, how?, On Tuesday’s YouTube videocast, Halitics, Hal Ginsberg and I see the terrible danger, but have slightly different ways of fighting it. Hal has given up on the Democratic Party, and sees a better answer with a third party (Like the Green Party). I still see hope within the Democratic Party, but not without significant changes in the quality of candidates and their ability to find a way to express to the voters their strategies they will use to fight for the working classes.
Both of us are frustrated with the incessant, bloody attacks on civilians by Israel in Gaza. We are frustrated that there isn’t a strong reaction from our government or from both political parties. We also discussed the pros and cons of tariffs (a favorite of Hal) vs free trade, which seems to be endorsed by Fareed Zakaria.
There’s no sugarcoating the truth: As fascism‘s grip tightens under Trump and the GOP, America’s government no longer operates as a constitutional republic.
The ostensible oaths to “support and defend the Constitution” are hollow, a ghost script read aloud while the regime marches America toward authoritarian collapse in the mode of Russia and Hungary.
Every federal institution now performs in synchronous mimicry of Dear Orange Leader’s unraveling psyche: false justifications, lop-sided pretenses of accountability, cosplay theater designed more for emotional spectacle than legal legitimacy, accelerating escalation at every turn.
Nothing — literally nothing organized or passed by Republicans in the last 44 years — was built to uplift average Americans. It’s all been engineered for power consolidation, GOP single-party rule, the wealth of the morbidly rich, and narrative control.
Consider the Justice Department. Once the nation’s arbiter of lawful conduct, it’s now Trump’s personal legal hit squad. Pam Bondi, who claimed she would end “weaponization” of the DOJ, created the novel “special prosecutor” role and appointed Ed Martin — an extremist QAnon promoter and January 6th fan — to target political enemies like Letitia James and Adam Schiff under what appear to be bogus pretexts.
The resulting spectacle, the parade of propaganda on rightwing TV and the circumvention of norms are all unconstitutional fascist grandstanding.
Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., a carjacking narrative involving two Black minors and a neo‑Nazi hacker nicknamed “Big Balls,” boosted by Elon Musk and Fox, has been seized upon to manufacture a crime panic.
It’s strikingly defiant of DOJ data, which confirms a 30‑year low in violent crime in the capital city. Trump harnessed the stunt to justify mobilizing ICE, the FBI, and the National Guard, weaponizing fear and fabrications to execute a federal coup on the city’s civil fabric.
This isn’t safety, it’s occupation.
At the FBI, Kash Patel is purging anyone not MAGA‑approved: long‑serving agents loyal to the institution, or even just connected to cases that charged Trump or January 6th insurrectionists, are being run out.
Patel’s attack on federalism reached a chilling new level when the FBI agreed to hunt down Texas Democratic state lawmakers who had fled to prevent mid‑cycle gerrymandering. No federal crime was under investigation, just a brazen attempt to subvert state sovereignty and tilt an election.
This is not law enforcement; it’s authoritarians seizing our nation’s legal infrastructure.
And then the propaganda arm roars in lockstep. Jesse Watters didn’t even bother to murmur coded dog whistles. He publicly declared the GOP must “kick illegal aliens out of the census,” gerrymander “to the hilt,” and lock Democrats into a “permanent minority.”
It’s open advocacy for one‑party rule rooted in gaslighting and cultural hatred. There are no quiet parts anymore: every word is a confession.
Public health and science have also been hijacked. Bob Kennedy oversaw the cancellation of 22 federal mRNA vaccine projects — including promising research into cancer and bird flu — with half a billion dollars cut. mRNA vaccines have already saved millions: Stopping that research amid emergent threats isn’t policy, it’s mass eugenics masquerading as public health.
Within the military, Pete Hegseth, a Trump loyalist, is rewriting history and norms: he wants Confederate base names restored, monuments to the traitors resurrected, public prayer institutionalized, and the values of supremacist preacher Doug Wilson — who believes women don’t deserve the vote and empathy is Satanic — amplified throughout the military.
That this is being done under the flag of “service” is a grotesque betrayal of the constitutional order.
ICE is being transformed into Trump’s personal masked, unaccountable, violent paramilitary. Official tweets now celebrate postings that solicit thugs — no degree required, no age limit — and glorify sadistic enforcement. This isn’t border control; it’s paramilitary recruitment for a fascist secret police force.
And now come the arrests.
Yes, the political arrests have already begun. In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka attempted to participate in a congressional oversight visit to Delaney Hall, an ICE concentration camp. Federal agents arrested him. Charges were later dropped, and he is now suing for malicious prosecution and defamation, but the precedent was established.
At the same event, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was indicted on three counts of assaulting, impeding, and interfering with federal officers, charges that carry up to 17 years. Her crime? Trying to protect the mayor and uphold legislative oversight. Multiple lawmakers and faith leaders have condemned the prosecution as politically motivated intimidation.
At the same time, Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly detained — assaulted, handcuffed, and violently dragged out — after attempting to question DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. He identified himself as a sitting senator; no charges were filed. Still, the message was clear: dissent has been criminalized and there will be a next time.
Add to that the targeting of a Wisconsin judge, Hannah Dugan. The FBI arrested and indicted her after she tried to help an undocumented immigrant evade arrest. She’s been suspended by the state Supreme Court. This is a judge facing prison for expressing compassion.
And let’s not forget the investigations aimed at AG Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff. Trump’s federal authorities are now targeting elected officials over their political stances, without a shred of legal basis. These investigations are not about justice: they’re about vengeance, performative brutality, and raw power.
When institutional coercion becomes the norm, when political arrests replace constitutional rule, the democratic state has collapsed. Authoritarian regimes don’t wait until they hold 100% of power; they erode the system until the system can no longer resist them and democracy collapses. That’s exactly what we’re witnessing.
History echoes in every violation.
Remember Hitler writing Mein Kampf in prison, outlining Lebensraum, cloaking aggression as defense and reunification, always positioning himself as the reluctant warrior. He broke treaties, grabbed territory the way Trump is now threatening Greenland and Central America, and used the language of “peace” — always claiming that was his only goal — to mask aggression.
Churchill warned early in the 1930s, but was dismissed as a warmonger. Chamberlain chose to believe he could negotiate with a tyrant, and, as Churchill predicted, war followed.
Trump’s playbook is nearly identical: aggressive power grabs framed as patriotism, defenses against imaginary threats, mythmaking that declares “they made me do it.” And like in the 1930s, the enablers are eating it up.
But here’s the crucial difference: this fight isn’t a continent away; it’s in our towns, our courts, and our statehouses.
The Greatest Generation fought fascism overseas. Now we must fight it at home, in the institutions built on their sacrifice.
For that, we must act.
We can’t expect the courts to help: they’re stacked and the Trump administration has ignored roughly a third of the court orders that have gone against them.
We can’t expect Congress to help: they’re under the control of Republicans completely subservient to their billionaire overlords.
We can’t expect the media to save us: they folded under Trump‘s threats and even handed him tens of millions of dollars for his personal use. CBS has even installed a “bias monitor” to make sure they don’t offend Trump or his people.
We can’t expect our corporate overlords to rescue our republic: they’ve already sold out for tax breaks, subsidies, and an end to limitations on their monopoly power.
We must become this century’s Greatest Generation: no passive hope, no waiting for saviors. Organize, protest, support independent journalism, call your representatives incessantly, primary the handful of craven “problem solver” Democrats, and support those who are willing to fight.
In Blue states, support those governors and legislators who are willing to gerrymander and otherwise use partisan power, including voter purges in Republican areas, when that’s what it takes to rescue our country.
The Republicans never waited for fairness: democrats have to fight fire with fire.
When they go low, we mustn’t go high: we must fight ferociously, methodically, and effectively. Like the soldiers who landed on Normandy Beach and burned swastikas, we must disrupt, dismantle, and hold accountable every authoritarian ambition.
Trump is in collapse, his psyche fracturing, his infrastructure mirroring his breakdown, his institutions weaponized around his rage.
The rupture is real, and it’s here, now. There will be no more subtle signals. It’s confrontation or collapse.
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light they are trying to force upon us.
That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/donald-trumps…/)
That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, “That’s cool!” (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense.” (https://www.usatoday.com/…/what-trump-has…/1501321001/)
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!” (https://www.theatlantic.com/…/why-cant-trump…/567320/)
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That’s the way I want my President to be.” (https://www.huffpost.com/…/trump-insult-foreign…)
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they’re supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!” (https://www.politico.com/…/138-trump-policy-changes…)
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That’s smart!” (https://www.usnews.com/…/how-is-donald-trump-profiting…)
That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, “falling in love” with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That’s statesmanship!” (https://www.cnn.com/…/donald-trump-dictators…/index.html)
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas – he explains that they’re just “animals” – and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/…/more-5-400-children-split…)
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/…/confronting-cost…/)
What you don’t get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also… hear me… charitable.
Because if you’re NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.
On today’s YouTube videocast Halitics I try to convince a skeptical Hal Ginsberg that the world is finally taking notice of the famine conditions perpetuated by the Israeli military against the people of Gaza. I’m starting to see that Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump are feeling the pressure from the international community focused on the lack of food and unnecessary civilian deaths. Will that increased attention change the status quo? We’ll have to wait and see, but we do know the deaths in Gaza since October 2024 just passed 60,000 Palestinians, and now we have victims of starvation adding to that terrible total. The U.S. is supplying weapons and money that contribute to civilian deaths, yet President Trump and the GOP Congress look away. Meanwhile, Israeli and American Jews are uncomfortably divided between revenge and peace.
Hal expects more from the Democratic Party, whose approval ratings are in the tank. I point out that Democrats are weak because they have no power and are led by old, moderate leadership and little media exposure. We talk about the many institutions, like universities, law firms, and media companies that are capitulating to please Trump, just as Hungarians did when Viktor Alban consolidated his aristocracy.
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