Aha…I got your attention! While one of my all-time favorite singing groups, I’m, unfortunately, not going to write about Diana Ross and the Supremes but, instead, visit the other Supremes, the nine justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) who have been the topic of much recent debate and notoriety. As I’ve been writing about Donald Trump for the past 16 months, I thought, at least for one week, I’d give him a break!

SCOTUS is the nation’s highest court, serving as the final arbiter of American law and the guardian of our Constitution. They usually hear opinions from lower District and circuit courts when things are in working order. My hypothetical ( a word lawyers often use) here is whether SCOTUS needs another look at, a re-do, a reassessment. Mind you, I’m not advocating for the overthrow of this austere body with its black robes, conservative majority and its ethnic diversity not exactly reflective of that of our country. I’m just questioning its recent decisions, abandonment of precedent and stare decisis and major reversals of settled law.

The members of the Court are lifetime appointees, hand picked by the Chief Executive of that moment, usually with a mind that his or her appointee will reflect presidential opinion and inclination. It is extremely rare that any of them has been removed from the bench, usually through retirement or death. The only Justice I can think of that had stepped down due to scandal was Abe Fortas in 1969 for accepting $20,000 annual fees from the Louis Wolfson Foundation when the latter was being investigated for federal crimes. One other Justice, Samuel Chase was impeached in 1804 but never convicted and who remained on the bench.

Today’s Justices have some dodgy conflicts such as Alito and Thomas who have been accused of accepting luxury trips from people with business before the court. Clarence Thomas’s wife, Ginny, a prominent conservative activist, was involved in questioning the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Likewise, Alito produced controversy by flying the American flag upside down, characteristic of the “Stop the Steal” movement and flying the pine tree flag that was symbolic of white Christian Nationalism. Justice Kavanaugh had a rough road to confirmation, having been accused of sexual impropriety while in high school (remember Christine Blasey Ford among others?).

It’s a fact that the loser of the popular vote for President got to select three lifetime SCOTUS Justices. Does this render a good argument for the elimination of the Electoral College? While a President serves for 4-8 years, a Supreme Court Justice’s “reign” can be multi-generational! Each of the nominees, during their confirmation hearings, carefully guarded their personal opinions about all sorts of matters, promising to be balanced in their opinions. Kavanaugh, for instance, refused to answer any questions about matters he considered hypothetical. He also had assured Sen. Susan Collins that he considered Roe v. Wade settled law. Goresuch, for his part, had an easier ride but it was marred by the fact that the Senate Judiciary Committee, evoking the “Biden Rule”, barred Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, from ever having a hearing no less appointments with the Committee members. Mitch McConnell stopped the nomination in its tracks as it was “an election year”. We later saw the same committee eschew the Biden Rule by sweeping Amy Coney Barrett into a seat on the bench at warp speed during an election year. Sidebar: My personal opinion is that, while Garland made an awful Attorney General, I think he would have made an excellent Supreme Court Justice.

So what am I getting at here? All of the above musings point to some of the worst and most horrific Supreme court rulings we’ve ever seen.

• The overturning of Roe V. Wade by Dobbs v. Jackson (6-3)

• The ruling that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts’ (6-3)

• Overruling a lower court’s prohibition on racial profiling in Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo (6-3)

• Weakening of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais (6-3) this was probably the last nail in the coffin for the historic voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon Johnson. So much for settled law!

• Chiles v. Salazar where it was decided that banning conversion therapy violates the First amendment. (8-1) My personal opinion is that conversion therapy is dangerous and has unproven scientific validation..

I’m anxiously awaiting their decision on the legality of birthright citizenship! How many people will be robbed of their citizenship if this decision goes the wrong way.

There are arguments to be made in favor of term limits on the court, imposing ethics codes and limiting “shadow docket” abuses where normal briefings and arguments are skipped, a practice this present court is known for. Other cases can be made for expanding the size of the court, and allowing cameras to broadcast oral arguments, thus increasing the transparency of the court.

I’ve written this, not as an attorney (which I’m not) but as an involved citizen watching out for justice…and injustice. As Gandhi inferred, the court of conscience is of the most import for our nation.

“It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gon’ come, oh yes it will”…..

A Sam Cooke song recorded by the Supremes during the Motown era.

Since the second inauguration of Donald Trump in January of 2025, I have been diligent in writing my personal point of view every week, of him and his administration. These views are neither complimentary or kind but well thought out and as objective as my writing allows. Now, according to Caroline Levitt, the astute and always truthful presidential Press Secretary, little snot that she is, I find I have engaged in demonizing the 47th President of the United States, my actions fomenting violence against the President. Ms.Levitt, all of 28 years of age, has unfortunately confused demonization with criticism and fact-finding. An attractive and blond young woman, she fits the phenotype of many of Donald Trump’s hires, as staff, legal team, diplomatic corps and cabinet.

She went on to blame “hateful” Democratic rhetoric for kindling the violence against her boss, calling on Americans to put an end to inflammatory critiques of him and his administration. To wit, I personally abhor violence as, I’m sure, most of my fellow Americans do, whether Democrat, Republican or Independent. In a nation where we have more guns than people, anger will often lead to lethal violence. Violence, as an entity, does not recognize political party, religion or ethnic background. It occurs when an individual or individuals see no way out to vent their ire and resorts to bloodshed. I may be way off base here and I invite the reader to disagree with me if you so chose.

I have lived through too many assassinations and attempts to know that, Lincoln’s aside, they rarely are plots but the act of a desperate man who has, somehow, reached his limit, cares little for his own survival, and is often socially isolated. When they leave behind a message, as did Cole Tomas Allen, it is usually an angry screed, accusatory and detailed. Why did he resort to such a violent act, requiring him to travel the width of the country, armed to the teeth? He had, obviously, reached his limit.

There are so many injustices occurring right now in our country that it is not surprising that the level of anger is so elevated. Just to name a few:

• The detention of thousands of immigrants, whether legal or illegal, most of whom have not committed a crime, and many of whom are seeking asylum.

• The murder of American citizens by federal agents, while protesting and exercising their First Amendment rights, going un-prosecuted.

• The weaponization of the Department of Justice as a personal legal implement of the president, attacking many of the guardrails of democracy while protecting those who seek its demise. Such can be seen in the indictments of the President’s political opponents as well as the investigation and challenge to the integrity of the Southern Poverty Law Center for its monitoring of hate groups, exposing extremist activity and advocating for civil rights, many of the guardrails this administration has tried to reverse.

• Initiating a war without approval by Congress and without a specific means to an end, resulting in American deaths and a global economic negative impact.

• Losing the trust and respect of our traditional allies around the world.

• Reversing any progress previously made to mitigate global warming and its deleterious effects.

• Choosing an HHS leader that has been instrumental in bringing back vaccine-preventable infections not seen in decades.

• Eschewing a law passed by Congress for the full release of the Epstein files, without redactions, leaving the victims of this horrendous pedophile without their day in court and many of the perpetrators free and escaping indictment.

• …And most of all, having a convicted felon living in the in the People’s House, feeding us a daily dose of lies and coverups, the same individual who several years ago, attempted the obstruction of a smooth transition of power, stole protected documents and tried to illegally influence a public official.

So, Ms. Levitt, if my criticism of the President and his ilk attains the level of demonization, mea culpa, I stand guilty as charged. I find your choice of word to be hyperbolic, but I will continue to call out grift and incompetence if and when I see it. After all, if you get your handy copy of the Constitution out, you’ll see Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.

I am certain I don’t speak for all Americans but I would posit a fair number of my fellow citizens: We are feeling the harm and the anxiety that the present administration has wrought. How did we ever get to this point in our history?

I have written in past articles about the rapid news cycles, ephemeral as they are, where events are occurring at such a shocking pace that we are unable to retain and ponder how much destruction and abuse is going on before our eyes. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. That, in fact, is what we’re doing! Of course, I am referring to the second, non-consecutive term of office for the present chief executive of our nation.

The first Trump administration, bad as it was, had actual guardrails that kept Mr. Trump in check. There were those in his administration who had the good sense to give him some guidance and advice. We had reasonable people in the Cabinet and military as well as a strong non-partisan bureaucracy staffed by experienced people, generally of good will, doing their jobs as they had done for years under many administrations.

How Trump got that first term is always puzzling to me as he was, essentially, a failed businessman, reinvented by television (The Apprentice), with a long history of questionable business and personal ethics. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, was done in by bad advice, elitism, James Comey and her ill-chosen characterization of “…a basket of deplorables”. While I think she would have been a good president, she unintentionally contributed to the evolution of MAGA alienating a demographic that needed some tender, loving care.

Mr. Trump prevailed despite his background, his inappropriate and brazen misogyny, his disrespect for Gold Star families, and his mocking of a reporter with disabilities. These behaviors did little to move the needle away from the support of his base, the same 30-35% then as now.

What really should have stopped him in his tracks was his conduct on January 6, 2020. Inciting a mob to obstruct Congress and prevent the peaceful transition of power to a new administration This was beyond the pale. His crime was modulated by pure politics. Do you remember 57-43? That was the Senate vote during his second impeachment trial. The 57 was ten votes short of conviction which, had it succeeded, would have prevented Trump from ever holding a public office again, including municipal dog-catcher. So, if you look at it with hindsight, this second term occurred because of TEN VOTES! I’m sure, some day, my grandchildren will ask me, “Papa, how did a twice-impeached president get a second term?”!!!

There were so many crimes and misdemeanors around the 2019 presidential election, not the least of was a phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, with Mr. Trump asking him to find “11,780 votes”, the exact number he would have needed to win that state. I won’t even go into the fake elector slates or the stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

I don’t want to make today’s piece a book report but I am reading “Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department” by Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis. It is eye-opening and angering at the same time. It reveals the abject failure of the Department of Justice in prosecuting Mr. Trump and his associates. While a jurist of unimpeachable honor and intent, Merrick Garland, the Biden Attorney General, was obsessed with the absolute separation of politics and the law, eschewing the slightest hint of any integration between the DOJ and the administration. By the time Special Counsel Jack Smith was ready to pounce, it was too little, too late, aided by a Trump-appointed Federal Judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, who did all but throw Mr. Smith out of the courtroom to hinder his case.

I hope, today, I have refreshed your memory and aroused your curiosity with “how did this happen again?” This time around, there are no guardrails. There is an amateur and incompetent Cabinet, lessening in number by the hour. Many of the long-timers with institutional history have been eradicated by DOGE. Experienced battle-tested senior military officers have been let go. A charlatan at HHS has all but destroyed our national public health structure. The same, but older, more feeble Trump is at the helm for a second go-round. The problem is that he has been normalized by the GOP and by the media. This is not business as usual. It is not normal!

My poor little laptop is burning up every hour with a new piece of breaking news. Each post is more amoral and unbelievable than the previous one. Just now, this very minute: Trump is said to be in talks to send Afghans who aided U.S. forces to the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving them a choice to live there or return to Afghanistan and live under the Taliban! You can’t make this shit up!

Hang in there!

If you haven’t already seen this AI-generated picture above, you might have already missed it as it has been since taken down by the president, Donald J. Trump. Denying that he was not portraying Jesus but a doctor with healing powers, he got the message that this nonsensical rubbish was not being tolerated by his MAGA base, particularly those of an evangelical persuasion. This has been quite the “Holy Week” for Mr. Trump, starting off with his Easter morning threat to “destroy a civilization”, talking to little egg-rolling kids about the war and the autopens used by his presidential predecessor, and then, on the Orthodox Easter, posting himself in the tableau seen above.

Between the two Easters, he went after none other than Pope Leo XIV who, in my opinion, seems to be a rather kind and caring individual, knowledgeable in matters of faith and spirituality, very reasoned and careful in his use of words, somewhat diametrically the opposite of Mr. Trump. The Pope was not taking this without a smart retort. He answered: “I have no fear of the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel”. I’d say that put Donny in his presidential place!

The latest stunt the president pulled was a set up scenario/press conference where a real woman Door Dash deliverer was to ring the White House doorbell, deliver McDonalds to Mr. Trump and thank him for removing the tax on tips in HR1. Somehow, she was not fully vetted and was quite demure in answering his question about whether she voted for him during the last election. He then tried to engage her in his warfare against trans athletes, only to be told, thanks but no thanks, she was just there to thank him for the extra money she was able to make on tax-free tips for her husband’s cancer treatment. I don’t recall any comforting words about her husband from the president.

The other notable event of the week was J.D.Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner failing to achieve a deal with representatives from Iran after a marathon 21 hour negotiating effort. Where was Mr. Trump through this? In Florida with “Little Marco” attending a caged UFC bout, a sport fueled by total violence and dripping with testosterone. Trump plans on having a UFC battle on the White House lawn this summer to celebrate his birthday. Can’t wait!!

Back to tolerance: Why do we tolerate this moronic criminal leading our country?

While congressmen are resigning from Congress over their sexual misbehaviors with those with less power, Mr. Trump, mentioned thousands of times in the Epstein files hasn’t blinked an eye. I remember the John Profumo scandal in 1960’s England when Mr. Profumo, the Secretary of State for War (are you reading this, Whiskey Pete?), had an affair with the 19-year old model, Christine Keeler. It wove an awful web of deceit involving the Russians and other political figures of high-standing and, eventually, brought down the government of Harold MacMillan. Oh, how I wish we’d return to those days of ethical yesteryear when a hint of scandal resulted in immediate resignation. Mr. Trump has succeeded at diverting our attention away from the infamous evidence that is sitting before our courts and legislative branch.

Just so you know, the word, tolerance, is also a medical term. It refers to a decreased response to a medication or substance resulting from its repeated use, requiring higher doses to achieve the same initial effect. That is what we’re seeing with Mr. Trump and his acolytes. As each news cycle whizzes by us at warp speed, we forget the previous ones, and the next outrageous text or act has to be a “higher dose” for it to shock us. Eventually, our nation is in danger of dying of an overdose.

Mr. Trump is neither Jesus or a doctor and he has not been sent to us by God. When I see GOP Congress members just remaining silent or laughing Trump’s behavior off as a joke or locker room humor, I somehow feel we are in real danger. John F. Kennedy wrote a book, “Profiles in Courage” in which he celebrated the courageous acts that made us a great country. Today, those profiles are far and few between. Perhaps the next generation will be more intrepid. We can only hope.

It is 5pm on a cold and windy April afternoon. Three hours from now is the deadline that President Trump has set for the Iranians to cave to his demands, in a war that he, unnecessarily, began. Iran is under threat of, yet again, total obliteration. Are we facing the impossible and tragic advent of Armageddon or is this, yet, another empty hand of cards as we’ve seen so often with this president? Will it be “Trump always chickens out” or is this mentally deranged man for real?

This war really seems like a vanity project for Trump and his sidekick, “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth, the most unqualified individual to serve as the Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has fired the most experienced, battle-tested generals and admirals, many who are graduates of our top-notch service academies. Essentially, he has gotten rid of our military guardrails. One can only pray that those advisors remaining have the common sense and decency not to follow illegal orders; that is, those that incur destruction of civilian infrastructure as well as those that are infractions of the Geneva Convention, resulting in an actual genocide.

If Trump’s maniacal postings are to believed, something went very awry in his cerebral cortex starting with his ubiquitously published rant from Easter Sunday. I will assume everyone has seen it so no need to give it its due here other to say it is profanity-laced and full of ire. While other presidents have muttered similar expletives, this is in the written word. After posting this, he then went to the traditional Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn where many children, dressed in their Easter finest, were rolling eggs with wooden spoons. Gracious and delightful might be thoughts that now come to mind, a lovely bucolic scene… but he just couldn’t help himself. Even the humanoid Easter bunny looked dumbfounded. As he signed autographs for the kids, he pejoratively spoke of his predecessor’s inability to sign his name, having to use an autopen. He then turned to the war and the rescue of the two downed airmen and finally ended his speech, to the children, by going into full campaign mode by saying we are “the hottest country anywhere in the world” and are “respected by everyone”.

The above presidential comments morphed into a more frightening scenario today when he threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline, thus the 8pm target. I’ve tried to think this through: is he talking about boots on the ground or the use of a tactical nuclear weapon? Whatever he means, he’s indicating that he is willing to commit war crimes to achieve his desires, with many deaths on both sides being a real possibility.

Much like the Iraq War where no weapons of mass destruction were uncovered, this conflict is based on false information about the nuclear readiness of Iran as well as it is about Trump being egged on by Netanyahu to engage in this brinksmanship. It appears that Russia will benefit from all of this which is not surprising as Mr. Trump is beholden to Mr. Putin for many reasons that have been kept secret for many years.

With all of this going on, I see that the Epstein files have been put on a shelf as has any investigation of the murder of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. Distract and deflect!

NEWSFLASH: JUST AS I’M WRITING THIS, THE U.S. AND IRAN HAVE REACHED A TWO-WEEK CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT SUBJECT TO THE REOPENING OF THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ.

We can all now take a deep breath of relief. Eight pm will pass without fireworks and Trump will get “street cred” for ending a war he started, enabling him to demand the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. This ceasefire will certainly not comfort the parents of those 168 elementary schoolgirls in Minab, Iran who were killed by our “bombing our little hearts out”, to use Trump’s own words. Recent numbers indicates some 6-7,000 Iranian men, women and children have been killed. Trump had promised to free them and remove their oppressive regime. Regime change is not achieved by aerial bombardment.

Whatever the outcome of this conflict, Mr. Trump is suffering from some very serious mental health issues. He has no filter and seems to make decisions based on what he sees on FOX News. He has also surrounded himself by some of the most incompetent people that he relies on daily. He should not, at this point, be the chief executive. Many who voted for him are having buyer’s regret. When Marjorie Taylor Green is calling for enactment of the 25th amendment and Tucker Carlson is roasting Mr. Trump over a fire, I suspect that he is losing at least some of the support of his previously faithful followers, save for the spineless congressional Republicans.

He should be indicted by the International Criminal Court inasmuch as there is actually a Trump body count, due to bombings, attacks on boats in the Caribbean without evidence or due process, and, most of all, the shutting down of USAID resulting in many thousands of deaths due to starvation, HIV and malaria. While we are not a member state of the ICC, he could actually be arrested during a visit to a country that is a member.

If you still support him, that is your business… and what makes the U.S. such a great country. But please ask yourself, why? He is charismatic for many Americans in his base and has established a cult of personality, an effort to create an idealized and heroic image of an admirable leader through unquestioning flattery and praise. Just yesterday, as I was driving through the mountains of West Virginia, I spotted a large sign on top of a grassy knoll that could be seen for miles: TRUMP, next to a large wooden cross. Message received.

As I am on a brief vacation in South Carolina, this will be but a more condensed posting than usual. This short interlude gives me some time to ponder where we’re heading as a nation. I chose to drive down here from upstate New York, watching the car’s outdoor thermometer inch up with each segment of mileage, while seeing the beautiful countryside of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. I noted so many place names that go back to Civil War activity and appreciated the vastness of our country and its rich and somewhat sad history. It also reminded me of Ben Franklin’s cautionary quip when Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” His reply: “A republic, if you can keep it.", suggesting the fragility of the new government which, without civic participation, was endangered by a potential descent into tyranny or corruption.

If Ben were alive today, I daresay he’d respond to the same question in the very same way. We presently have descended into a near autocratic state witch, as I’ve written before, consists not only of a “trifecta” with one party controlling all three branches of government (yes, even SCOTUS), but a triumvirate which infers autocratic rule.

We’ve gotten to the point where, when we meet a new acquaintance, we reflexively assign them to either an us or a them, at least I do…mea culpa. Even here on vacation, I am fully aware of feeling like an outsider. Unlike many of the vacationers here, I do not have a southern accent. People are looking at me with the same kind of reflexive assignation. You’re either with us or against us. My wife told me, perhaps it was the baseball cap I was wearing that said: “Fund Healthcare, Not Warfare”. Was this the equivalent of me seeing someone with a red MAGA hat? Be honest with me, is this political paranoia, certainly not to be found anywhere in the DSM-5, the authoritative guide for diagnosing mental disorders?

As much as I’ve tried to swear off social media, particularly Facebook, it has been difficult. Though short of calling it an addiction, I’d say it is more of a FOMO thing, fear of missing out for the uninitiated. I really do want to see how friends and family are thinking about things. That is where the divide of today’s posting comes in to the equation. For example, while I was horrified at the Hamas massacre of October 7, killing 1200 Israeli men, women and children, I was equally saddened and angry at Israel’s bombing of Gaza, killing, by one estimate, over 70,000 Gazan men, women and children. Facebook friends and family often disagree with me. The same goes for the war we initiated against Iran. We went into this assault with few plans for an outcome and the risk of putting our young men and women in the military at risk for the euphemism, “dignified transfer” at Dover AFB. Again, differences of opinion pop up on my computer screen. Similar disagreements occur over detention of immigrants, vaccine safety, and about the grifting of the country by the chief executive himself. There’s no end to this.

Just today, I saw a posting on FB by a distant cousin questioning why anyone would waste their time protesting “No Kings” which, for her, has “no merit or value”. She added, as a former military officer, because Trump was the Commander-in-Chief, whether you like him or not, he deserves our respect. Eight million people in 3,000 locations around the world seemed to have disagreed, including myself. While I try not to engage in on-line arguments, I couldn’t help myself and reminded her that her oath was to defend the Constitution, not the President and his political party.

What is it that divides our differences of opinion about all things political? I do know that the conservative brain’s structure actually has some differences from the liberal brain’s, and the brain chemistry between the two also shows some divergency. I am certain that life experiences and upbringing also have a bearing on these differences. Education, locality where one grew up and military service might have some bearing on this but you’d be surprised that that is not a hard fast rule. I have friends, decorated veterans, who have tasted battle who share my opinions strongly. I married into a liberal rural family.

In closing, I’d say that our being quick to judgement of where others stand on the issues is divisive and harmful, warranting discussion and a calm meeting of minds. I will do all I can to break myself of this nasty habit! I should also promise to refrain from engaging digitally in political arguments as they don’t seem to get anyone to see things in a different light. I already put my baseball hat back in my suitcase. But I will stand up for what is right, protest, and do all I can to defend our democracy.

It has been quite a week for the President:

Insulting the Prime Minister of Japan by insinuating “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” (FYI: Trump was not yet born during the Day of Infamy).

Flip-flopping on the war with Iran, one day saying it’ll soon be over, the next threatening a massive bombing is to come. This seems to be directly correlated with the direction of the Dow Jones Index! TACO always backs off a little when the market is down.

Totally disrespecting the death of former FBI Director, war hero and veteran, Robert Mueller by writing on Truth Social: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead”. Trump definitely has a problem with death and, particularly, dead heroes. To be frank, if you’re a parent, which of these two men would you want to marry into your family? Again, I’ll remind the president, the children are listening. Disrespecting the dead, whether you liked them or not, is not a reason to celebrate and is a bad optic to teach our children.

Turning down any agreement with the Democrats on TSA funding, even when the bipartisan votes were there, saying “No deals with the Democrats”, holding Congress hostage to extort the passage of the Save America Act which would foment voter suppression for the November midterm elections. While I don’t consider myself an alarmist, my thoughts are that, if this bill is not passed by the Senate this week, Trump will find some reason in November to declare a national emergency.

Deploying armed ICE agents to domestic airports to assist the TSA in processing passengers. While there to ostensibly assist with the long security lines, they are not trained to do specialized work like screening passengers and running X-ray machines. Referring to ICE in a threat-tinged post, Trump wrote: “…they will do security like no one has ever seen before.”

As for the emperor being nude, anyone who witnessed his press conference yesterday on the tarmac at Palm Beach Airport (or is it now Donald J. Trump Airport…I can’t keep up) would have seen a meandering, unhinged president who made little sense other than using the word “deal” constantly. (“My life’s a deal”) Perhaps he got too much sun on the golf course over the weekend? He appeared to be trying out for the qualifying round for a 25th amendment enactment.

He took full credit for the conception of the “ICE in airports” plan by saying it was “mine” and then compared his ingenuous idea by comparing it to the invention of the paper clip as his own eureka moment. He laced into Democrats as being treasonous, their only goal being to encourage everyone to become transgender and keeping the border open. Attacks were fired off on even a reporter from the right-wing Newsmax, telling a female reporter her question was stupid, “sleepy Joe Biden”, Kamala, and his former Director of Counter-terrorism, Joe Kent. He mentioned how Kent had lost his wife at least five times and how consoling he was by getting him a job at the White House after he lost two campaigns for Congress…and the guy turned on him. Are you still with me?

He talked about new peace talks by his golfing buddy, Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who, by the way, has reportedly been trying to raise personal funding as he negotiates. Everyone seems to know about these talks except the Iranians. Where is the Secretary of State? Little Marco, anyone? Please don’t take my word for it…go on-line and see the presser for yourself. It’s a real head-scratcher.

Seriously, I think he’s lost it, which terrifies me. Either he’s running the government, his little fingers on the nuclear codes, or he has a contract with employees from “Rent-a-Government” where hired hands, many of whom are incompetent, are filling-in for him which, actually, on second thought, might be better.

I don’t recall, in all my years, having seen our country in such a state. At least four very respected non-partisan think tanks that actually measure, through established statistical data, the level of freedom and democracy in the world, have down-graded the U.S. by precipitous drops over the past year. These are the V-Dem Institute in Sweden, Bright Line Watch, Freedom House, and the Century Foundation. One of the interesting tidbits from this research related to the summary firing of 18 Inspectors General of federal agencies by Trump, without any justification. In other words, there is no oversight and no one’s watching the shop.

This coming Saturday is March 28th, another “No Kings Day”. This might be the largest national protest since the Viet Nam conflict era. While many of you might ask, “what good does it do?”. My answer is it sends a message that there is united opposition to this corrupt government and its leaders. It might just change the “king’s” mind about how to proceed. I seriously doubt it. It might keep our boots off the ground and, just maybe, make some GOP legislators sit up and take notice. They might have to make a choice of either being primaried or voted out of office. There has been some research on using stem-cell transplantation for spinal cord regeneration! Oh well, I guess I’m just doing some magical thinking.

Meanwhile, during the protests, the president might want to take a stroll, if he still does that sort of thing, and go over a few blocks to the Viet Nam Memorial. It might provoke a sobering thought that this country is more than just about him...and that it’s not a monarchy.

As I was starting to write my article today, I was considering, as I usually do in my writing, to add a little humor or sarcasm. I am finding it very difficult to find anything humorous about what’s been occurring in our country. Something, however, resonated with me. When I was growing up, one of my favorite TV shows, just to show how old I actually am, was Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour. The winners who competed earned cash prizes, scholarships, and even participation in a traveling stage show. I didn’t realize that some of the winners were Ann-Margaret, Gladys Knight, and Raul Julia among other names of note.

This got me thinking: what we are seeing today in our government is an actual amateur hour! Unfortunately, there are no winners, just a bunch of incompetent amateurs from the President on down. I seriously doubt, at this juncture, that Donald Trump is actually running the wheels of government. His nonsensical rantings and slurred words support my uncertainty. My suspicion is that the actual characters behind the curtain in the land of Oz are Stephen Miller and “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth. This gives me no comfort as both little men are serious haters with over-sized power.

The Amateur Hour is not the only show going on in Washington. There’s always Let’s Make a Deal, Big Brother, Family Feud, Jeopardy, and the short-lived show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? If you’re Kristi Noem, you’ve probably had a taste of The Apprentice where the host, now the actual president for two terms, tells you, “You’re Fired!” (except, the cowardly lion that he is, he did it on Truth Social!)

What we are seeing is life imitates art, if you can call this stuff art. Trump is living in another dimension, one in front of a TV camera, in a gold-adorned room, surrounded by his men-and-women-in-waiting. His wife, our First Lady is now a “visionary” and this month’s President of the UN Security Council who entered this country on a genius visa (EB-1), designed for individuals with “extraordinary ability” in sciences, arts educations, business or athletics, requiring proof of sustained national or international acclaim. Think Pulitzers, Oscars, Nobels and Olympic achievements. Hers was for being a model in the fashion industry. This started a chain-migration for the rest of her family. Is Barron Trump a “dreamer”? what if SCOTUS does away with birthright citizenship?

Ok, I’m being picky and nasty here…but, I’ve had it! We are now at a state of war that was started on a “feeling” of imminent danger, to be, eventually ended, when the president feels it “in his bones”. As Trump statements go in one direction, Hegseth’s go in the other, promising “violence of action” and “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies”, eschewing the long-honored codes of warfare in the Geneva Convention. To date, we have lost 11 young U.S. soldiers, the Iranians, thousands of deaths, including around 175 little girls who went to grade-school one day and never returned home. I cannot stop thinking and mourning about this unconscionable tragedy, met with totally false explanation by Trump and Hegseth. Now, I’ve learned that 2,500 to 5,000 U.S. Marines including an amphibian assault ship, have been deployed to the Middle East. this can only mean one thing: Boots on the Ground!…all this, without Congressional approval.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been watching Ken Burn’s excellent film series on Viet Nam. We never seemed to have learned our lessons about the futility of foreign war, particularly a land war where thousands of young lives in their prime are lost. Burns has a very timely message for us. Last night, I saw the episode on the massacre at My Lai and how there was almost no accountability for it. Tragedies like this can recur, particularly when our troops have no idea what they’re fighting for.

My point here is that, today, not even our president has a clue why we are fighting other than a feeling and lots of bad advice. As my illustration above shows, it’s about presidential character and the question of leadership, both of which I, personally, feel are seriously lacking and absent. I fear for the future of our nation.

This brings me back to the Amateur Hour. Thanks to AI, when I googled “Amateur Hour”, I expected to see something about old Ted Mack and his TV show. Instead, as I will share with you, I got:

“‘Amateur hour’ is an idiom describing a situation or activity that is poorly organized, unprofessional, or reveals an amazing lack of skill and sound judgement. It often implies that those involved are inexperienced, incompetent, or handling a situation as if they were untrained beginners.”

I think that says it all.

Maybe it’s just me, a life-long dog lover and owner but does Donald Trump have a bone to pick with canines? I take great umbrage at his using this animal as a whipping boy. He seems to invoke them, pejoratively, at every turn in describing his most vivid assertions. I realize he is not a pet-lover, being the first among his modern presidential predecessors not to have a White House dog or cat…perhaps, not even a goldfish, a species with the shortest memory and, probably the quickest to forgive.

Among his dog utterances:

• “He died like a dog…” on the killing of the ISIS leader, Abu Baker al-Baghdadi.

• “that dog!” in referring to former and fired aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.

• “fired like a dog” referring to former 4-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and other fired notables like newscaster David Gregory, his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski and political commentator Erick Erickson.

• “begging for money like a dog” meaning conservative activist Brent Bozell.

• “In Springfield, they are eating the dogs…” disparaging legal Haitian immigrants during the 2024 campaign.

• “cheated like a dog” when the actress Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattison.

• Trump has historically described women he finds unattractive or who oppose him as “dogs”.

There are many more dog references in his lexicon, too many to list here. In reality, the true characteristics of a dog are not found among them…nor are they found in his own personal traits.

For one, dogs generally do not lie. While Trump is probably among our most dishonest Presidents, dogs will fess up if they chewed up the couch or ate your homework by looking guilty and asking for forgiveness. Almost every statement out of Trump’s mouth is either misinformation or a bold lie; Just ask any fact-checker or go to the website of Snopes, a reliable litigator of true information. This week, he blamed the very tragic and non-strategic bombing of a girl’s elementary school in Iran with many deaths, on Iran by a weapon they don’t even have. It appears we are the guilty party in this.

Dogs are able to read human emotions, often exhibiting empathy. To my knowledge, Trump apparently doesn’t read anything, such as daily intelligence briefings, novels, or historical fiction. As for human emotions, he does seem to sense vulnerability in others and takes advantage of it. Remember what he said during his last campaign: “I am your retribution!” Obviously, enough voters were suckered in to vote him a second term.

Dogs are known for forming strong bonds with humans and loyalty. Sure, he might have had tight friendships with Jeffrey Epstein and, presently, his golfing buddy, the unsuccessful negotiator Steve Witkoff and his friend, Commerce Secretary Howie Lutnik, visitor with his kids to Epstein’s Little St. James Island but, have you ever seen him holding or playing with a grandchild or showing kindness to a child or even another adult? Cross him, whether it’s real or perceived, and he will throw you under the bus. This past week, he fired Kristi Noem, formerly of DHS, by a Truth Social posting, not because she had her ICE troops invade our cities, killing three American citizens who she described as domestic terrorists, or deceiving many immigrants into making appointments for green card updates or asylum proceedings and then detaining them in “detainment camps”. No, not for any of these. He couldn’t abide by her spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising by a dodgy PR firm to make her look better on a horse, wearing a Stetson at Mt.Rushmore that upstaged him.

Our dogs, otherwise known as canis lupus familiaris, are also known for their protectiveness, something lacking in our chief executive. Going to war on a hunch or a feeling does not sit well with the American people. As of today, we have already lost seven U.S. soldiers…for what? There is a risk for Americans everywhere in the world to be in danger for becoming victims of terrorism. While Trump and “Whiskey Pete” unleash death and destruction upon the people of Iran, putting out images known as “war porn” a la video games, Americans remain vulnerable to retribution. There are reports that Iran might have already activated covert operatives or “sleeper assets” in other countries, many of which are attractive to American tourists. In an interview with Time Magazine, when asked if he was worried about this, he replied “I guess. but I think they’re worried about it all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die”. Inspires reassurance, doesn’t it. At the least, he didn’t say “people will die like dogs!”

Trump is already taking about the how one moment, the war is almost over and “very complete” and, the next, that the U.S. has not “won enough” yet.. His plans to “pick” the next leader of Iran have gone awry as he killed off all the more acceptable candidates, leaving the hardcore Ayatollah’s son to reign! It remains to be seen how this’ll turn out as Maduro”s Vice-President in Venezuela is cooperating with Trump about the oil.

Without putting himself at risk, the president told the captains of the oil tankers to “show some guts” and sail through the perilous Stait of Hormuz. He also said online “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.” As with Venezuela, it’s all about the oil!

Our President is not at all about being protective, loyal, telling the truth, or being empathic. I’ll go with the “dog” any day!

In closing, I will now close my laptop, calm down, and take my favorite pooch on a nice long walk as warmer weather comes into Upstate New York.

As a Presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump promised an end to forever wars and, recently, a claim to have ended eight wars and described himself as “the president of peace”. Boy, he certainly had me fooled and, I’m sure, quite a number of you as well. But to be honest, he didn’t fool me one bit. He somewhat reminds me of myself when I was a little boy. I had hundreds of toy soldiers from all over the world, in different uniforms and from different eras. I would sit on the floor of my room for hours and stage massive and elaborate battles, knocking the little figurines over with cannon balls (wads of paper and other household projectiles), eventually choosing a victor. But there’s the rub, my friends: I was eight years old…not a grown man and, certainly, not the “leader of the free world”!…and no one died!

Trump and his side-kick, “Champagne Pete” Hegseth are little boys, toying with massive weapons and lots of soldiers who, by the way, are the sons and daughters of American citizens, your neighbor’s kids. Let’s make Canada our 51st state. Let’s annex Greenland. Let’s bomb Nigeria under the false flag of their harming Christians. Let’s attack Venezuela and kidnap their head of state, keeping the same regime in place. And now, let’s start a war with Iran, endangering the whole Middle East and beyond.

Who really knows what went on at the negotiating table aside from what we’ve been told. Kushner and Witkoff? It sounds like a comedy team from the 1950’s Catskills…one the President’s son-in-law, the other, his golfing buddy. They were certainly not Henry Kissingers or George F. Kennans. We did have a nuclear treaty with Iran that Trump terminated during his first term. It seemed to be working well but, alas, as it was signed by Barak Obama, Trump could not abide by its terms. We did obliterate Iran’s nuclear program some months back but, apparently, this was another mistruth emanated from this White House.

Why this war, and, why now? No one seems to know and, particularly, those who are running the show. Regime change? Imminent danger of nuclear weapons, launched by Iran, against the U.S.? Trump told the Iranian people that they had a generational opportunity to install a constitutional democracy by overthrowing the remains of their government after the killing of the Ayatollah. Please explain HOW they’re going to do that, Mr. President. Without American boots on the ground, that is unlikely and highly undesirable, and a potential prelude to another Viet Nam-like conflict. As for the imminent nuclear danger, that is an outright lie.

My humble opinions for explaining what’s happening:

• Creation by Trump and the GOP of a litmus test for “patriotism” that would divide the moderate Democrats from the progressive wing of their party as the all-important mid-term elections approach. If you can’t beat them, divide them!

• Distract attention away from the Epstein files and the disappearance of the FBI papers investigating the alleged pedophilia of Mr. Trump. There is, at this time, far too much evidence implicating the President in all the horrors that took place with his BFF.

• Donald Trump has been played like a Steinway piano by Bibi Netanyahu. I quote from Steven Schmidt: “Two years ago, congressman Jerry Nadler called Netanyahu ‘the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabean king who invited the Romans into Jerusalem over 2,100 years ago’”… Again, another diversion tactic away from Mr. Netanyahu’s own corruption investigation by his own Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, “Trumpseth” and their friends are creating chaos around the world. We have already lost six young American soldiers, in the prime of their life and the pride of their families. Most sadly, for the pediatrician and humanist in me, is the attack on an elementary school in Minab, Iran by either Israeli or American military with the resulting deaths of 165 students and staff, most between 6 and 12 years of age. With all the warfare technology at hand to avoid targets such as these, this attack was unconscionable and amoral. While Sen. Marwayne Mullin (R) who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee says, “This isn’t a war”, I beg to differ with him.

Retributive attacks have been launched by Iran against our own military bases and other countries, not only throughout the Middle East but elsewhere. A number of years ago, I was in Cyprus, visiting family, and drove through the British military base there at Akrotiri which has now been bombed.

While domestic terrorism has, over the past few years, been our largest threat, we can, I’m sorry to say, expect more foreign terrorism on our own shores. Case in point: Last week, after his notable appearance at the Winter Olympics in the drinking competition, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents and staffers who had played a role in the classified document case against Donald Trump without evidence of their doing anything improper. It turns out, according to Carol Leoning, that the agents targeted were part of “an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran”. The group is known as Cl-12.

Call me naive or quixotic, I deeply hope that, some day, those leaders who have instigated this warfare will, some day, face justice, whether it’s in their own countries or before the International Criminal Court. Yes, the Ayatollah’s government was repressive and cruel, and I am satisfied he’s met his end, along with many of his acolytes, but to start a war that has the possibility of mushrooming (literally) into a world crisis is criminal.

As a high school student, my taste of reading was dystopian and the one book that left me with fear was Nevil Shute’s “On the Beach’ with the obliteration of the world from a WWIII that started as a small regional conflict much like we’re seeing today. I sincerely hope that a peace will soon be achieved by our better angels and better heads will prevail.

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Good morning…it’s Tuesday, the day of the State of the Union Address by the President of the United States. While I’m sure every writer on Substack is tackling this topic with predictions and probabilities, I’m going to save you the trouble of watching it, folks, by addressing the State of OUR Union, without subjecting you to all the lies and hyperbolic claims you would have heard had you tuned in. No “best ever”, “biggest in history”, or “ever before” claims, as I’m sure will occur… No gallery guests whose entire families or fortunes were wiped out by “illegal aliens”. And, certainly, no berating of the nine black-robed Justices sitting in the front row (should they choose to attend). I won’t even go to the president’s record-setting low approval ratings. I’ll just come out and say it: The state of OUR union is imperiled and the ship of state is sinking fast.

You can address just about any aspect of this government, its governance, and a fair assessment of the lack of checks and balances and come out with a college essay thoroughly marked with a red pencil. We’re in big trouble! I don’t mean to be a “Chicken Little” and tell you the sky is falling, but, while I wish I could be a harbinger of good news, the “chariot’s not coming”.

This administration is probably the most corrupt, abrasive and inefficacious group of toadies ever (whoops, there goes hyperbole) seen in the history of our nation.

This claim requires some factoids, some of which you know and some that might be new to you:

• We are led by a convicted felon (34 counts by a jury of his peers). How he was ever re-elected is beyond my pay grade.

• In almost every speech of late, he posits a revisionist theory of the 2020 election, one that resulted in an insurrection against our Capitol. He got away with this one.

• The public health of our country is endangered by an incompetent Secretary of HHS, “going wild” by destroying the long-held respect for the CDC, setting us back on vaccine-preventable infections through skepticism, and placing us all in extreme unpreparedness for another pandemic. Medication prices are through the roof and your average citizen is unable to absorb the inhuman rise in the costs of health care coverage.

• The environment is at risk for a “silent spring” by a total reversal of any progress made against global climate warming, the purification of the water we drink, and the pollution of the air we breathe, all this at the hands of an inexperienced Environmental Protection (?Destruction) Agency, Lee Zeldin. Laws against toxic chemicals have been reversed as has the all-important Endangerment Finding. Our preserved wetlands and forest are in danger of eradication.

• The willful and unlawful setting of tariffs by the Chief Executive, not Congress as constitutionally warranted, has harmed not only the economy of our country but the pocketbooks of its citizens. Trump’s spiteful reaction to a SCOTUS ruling on this resulted in his going ahead with a 15% global tariff. These tariffs not only alienate our trade partners but impose an undesirable tax on the consumer.

• The inhumane treatment of immigrants, documented or not, including those who have become US citizens, has resulted in the detainment of tens of thousands of people, children included, some with chronic illnesses, in detention centers, very reminiscent of concentration camps. The invasion of our cities by immigration authorities has resulted in the murder of at least three US citizens, the investigation of which is being blocked by our deferential Department of Justice led by a malicious Attorney General.

• Our standing in the community of nations is at its lowest point that I can remember. We are no longer the leaders of the Free World, having over the past year shown we can no longer be trusted as an ally, to even our closest neighbors, albeit nations far and wide. Out leader’s subservience to the President of Russia is well on display making me question whether our own president is an asset to the former Soviet Union. Trump has announced the possibility of an attack on Iran followed by a larger attack! Who does that??? He’s also still yearning to annex Greenland and who knows what’s to become of Venezuela?

• Those who represent us overseas in the non-professional sector of the diplomatic corps (appointed ambassadors) are a total embarrassment. Just this week, the Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, a convicted felon, himself, was denied access to the French government because he failed to show up at the foreign Ministry to answer questions about non-diplomatic interference in the domestic affairs of France. The same issue occurred with the Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White. Do these guys even speak French?

• Of course, the big elephant in the House chamber this evening will be the Epstein Files to which Trump will claim he’s been totally exonerated, even with the victims sitting in front of him and two believable claims against him in the files that have not yet been investigated. In other countries, the mention of names in these files is resulting in resignations and arrests but, back here in the good ole USA, the mice aren’t even stirring. These pedophilic billionaires are, essentially, getting away with rape and sexual abuse!

• One thing that will not be mentioned this evening is the abject corruption of this administration with the eschewing of the Emoluments Act and the billions of dollars that are going into the pockets of the president and his family through illegal business dealings while in office and extortive quid pro quos. And why is a federal judge in Florida permanently hiding the investigatory findings of the Trump documents case?

  I will stop here as I don’t want to lose your interest with too long a posting…shorter is always better. There is so much more, believe me. If you do watch the speech, let me know where I where I was right on and where I failed to hit the target. Meanwhile, tonight I think I’ll watch some Winter Olympic re-runs, they’re far more genuine and enjoyable.

  

There are so many news cycles right now about the Epstein files, our relationship with Europe, Greenland, Venezuela, ICE enforcement, voting rights, and the politisation of the Department of Justice that, often, what is really affecting us, is under the radar. Our most valuable resource as a nation is our future, and, by that, I mean our children and our grandchildren. As physicians, we vowed, above all, to do no harm. Unfortunately, there is no similar vow when a new President takes office other than pledging to faithfully execute the office and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”. In my humble opinion, I don’t think the founders paid much heed to future generations so, this vow is a low bar. As low as that might be, I don’t regard the present occupant of the White House to even be keeping that promise.

There are two events that occurred this past week that got my interest as well as my ire.

The demise of the Endangerment Finding: Many of you might never have heard of this but, it was the legal basis that allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Back in 2009, the EPA published a science-based conclusion that emissions of six greenhouse gases, particularly from motor vehicles, endangered public health and welfare then and for future generations. In past writings on Substack, I have heavily criticized the administrator of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, as being a harbinger of, for want of better words, Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”. The repeal of this finding essentially erases the government’s power to fight climate change. This removes limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules making us less safe and less healthy for generations. You don’t have to be a physician to see an asthmatic struggle to breathe or a growing number of Boomers with COPD requiring oxygen. Our president is not a believer in climate change, despite all the science proving its reality, claiming it’s a hoax. Mind you, this repeal occurs after years of scientific analysis backing the finding. The impact is sweeping:

1. It will eradicate regulations for consumer vehicles, commercial vehicles and heavy duty trucks.

2. Loosen standards for coal-fired and natural gas power plants.

3. Remove sustainability requirements that shape government procurement and broader market behavior.

This is no small action…it is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. In reality, it is a victory in a “years-long fight by a small group of conservative activists as well as oil, gas, and coal interests” diverting the country from its trajectory towards solar, wind, and other non-polluting energy. Practically every health organization opposes the action as it will increase pediatric asthma, chronic illnesses, and risks from extreme heat, heatwaves and wildfires. It appears our president, just like his wife’s wardrobe says, just “doesn’t care”.

The loss of trust and confidence in our health systems and expertise: Many of you who follow me know of my extreme distaste for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It is most fitting that the quote at the beginning of today’s post were the words of his uncle. Besides quitting the World Health Organization, gutting USAID, eradicating the expertise of the ACIP, getting rid of over 10,000 HHS employees, shutting down the CMS and HHS offices that eliminate health disparities for underserved Americans, and seeding distrust in vaccine science, this week the FCA refused to review Moderna’s application for a new mRNA flu vaccine. Yes, this is the same Moderna whose Covid-19 vaccine technology saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, both Trump and Kennedy don’t believe in mRNA technology, one of the greatest scientific advancements in the past few years. It comes as no surprise that the studies were to proceed and supported by career scientists at the FDA but were overruled by Kennedy’s buddy, Vinay Prasad,the subject of a number of complaints at the FDA including “sexual harassment, retaliation against subordinates and verbally berating staff”. Nice guy! He lives in San Francisco and commutes every two weeks to the FDA at taxpayer cost of $65,000/year.

So why am I picking on Kennedy, Prasad, and Kennedy? In case you don’t know it, kids are dying at the highest rate this season of influenza, 60 children to date, mostly un-immunized, thanks to Kennedy. As for measles, one of the most contagious and infective viruses there is, while once almost eradicated in the US (pre-Kennedy), we have had, to date, 3,202 cases. These are not kitchen sink colds and sore throats, folks. Kids die from these.

In conclusion, the Trump administration is not a kid-friendly one. The next three years could see health hazards for our children and grandchildren on a scale never before seen in the modern era of science. Our children need clean water to drink and pure air to breathe. They need the benefits of evidence-based vaccine science. They need health insurance, rapidly being cut for our neediest citizens. They need nourishment without the loss of SNAP benefits. They need quality daycare and education. Whether they are citizens or immigrants, they need to be treated with care and respect, not to spend prolonged time in “containment camps”. They need love and support. I don’t see any of this coming from Mr. Trump.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the Winter Olympics this week, from the son et lumiere opening ceremonies, the four parades for the entrance of the athletes, and the marvelous sportsmanship on display in the early events. I’ve loved the uplifting flavor of seeing the pride of these young people in their nations.

I must confess to feeling very ambiguous about my own national pride and seeing the best and the worst of the United States all in the space of a few days. I was so proud to see our flag born in the processions by Erin Jackson, a historic speed skating gold medalist and a Black American and by Frank Del Duca, a bobsled pilot, first-time Olympian and a U.S. Army Sergeant. They carried our flag proudly and respectfully, this, the very same day that our President posted an ugly racist screed depicting former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Even Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate said this was probably the most racist message to come out of this White House. I’m beginning to think I know what might have happened had George Wallace won the Presidency back in 1968.

The Trump administration, in recent weeks, has shown more of its pejorative bent by removing the Underground Railroad plaque in Philadelphia and revising it to play down its origins emanating from slavery. They’ve removed pictures of Jackie Robinson as a soldier and the brave Tuskegee airmen. They’re re-named military bases, again, after Confederate generals. The latest insult to, perhaps one-tenth of all Americans and not a few Olympians, was the removal of the Pride Flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City by the Department of Interior. In effect, our own government is attacking and disregarding the history of a large proportion of our own citizens!

What can I say about our young Olympians? They persist…in speaking out for what they represent and not abiding by the criminality and prejudice of our own government. And for doing so, they are attacked personally by the so-called leader of the free world and his acolytes.

U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn received much vitriol and many threats on social media for her statement advocating for human rights, decency, and freedom of speech as well as respect for the LGBTQ+ community.

U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, said, “If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it… just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the United States.” He was quickly labeled “a real Loser” by his President.

Rich Ruohonen, a Team USA Curler and a Minnesota lawyer and the oldest member of American Olympians at 54, said “What’s happening in Minnesota is wrong. There’s no shades of grey. It’s clear”.

And from my own Rochester, NY, skier Chris Lillis said, among other things, “I feel heartbroken about what’s happened in the U.S. I think that as a country we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as as anybody with love and respect.”

Meanwhile, our own Vice-President, JD Vance was soundly booed when he was announced. Did he deserve it? He was the instigator of the Haitian cat and dog-eating myth during the last presidential campaign and puts the entire Haitian population of Springfield, Ohio in harm’s way. He is a purveyor of lies and mistruths. I’ll let you decide.

I am proud of our athletes for speaking up and showing the community of nations that we are not all in alignment with MAGA and the MAG-ots that run our government. True patriotism is alive and well in these outspoken young people and my hopes for the future remain somewhat bright.

And now a personal Olympic story. No, I was never an Olympian other than in my dreams. It’s the story of Estella Agsteribbe, probably someone you’ve never heard about. She was my third cousin and a winner of an Olympic Gold Medal in team gymnastics in Amsterdam in 1928. She represented the home country, the Netherlands, home to my dad’s family for centuries. Stella, as she was known, was a Dutch Jew as were four of her teammates. They were known collectively, after their win, as The Golden Girls. The competition was the first ever Olympic gymnastics event for women, so they were pioneers in the sport. Because they were “non-Aryan” Jews with superior physicality, when Hitler invaded the Netherlands, he purposefully sought out these women and their families. On September 17, 1943, Stella died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birenau at the age of 34 along with her two children, Alfred, age 2 and Nanny, age 6. I would like to think that cousin Stella would be one of the young Olympians, were it today, speaking out for justice and equality much the same as these winter Olympians above. They are the best representatives of the Olympic spirit.

Several years ago, I read a book, “What If…” by Robert Cowley, a collection of thought-provoking essays that asked the question: If history took a different turn, where would we be today?

We all have at least one “what if” moment. What if the South won the Civil War? What if the Allies lost WWII? What if JFK was never assassinated? I, personally, have always been fascinated by these questions among many others.

The events of the past year can be distilled, for me, into the last Presidential election, as a cogent argument for my most recent “what if”.

On November 4, 2024, I flew over to Brussels, Belgium to attend my 50th medical school reunion, a short 3-day jaunt to visit with old classmates. Realizing Nov. 5th was election day, I had voted by absentee ballot earlier in late October. (I have never missed voting in an election since I came of age.) On election day, after a few bourbons, chocolates, a lovely meal and a full day speaking only French, I retired to a charming bedroom in the rustic and modernized farmhouse in La Hulpe as a guest of my friend, Marc and his gracious wife, Christine.

I chose not to watch the election returns as my magical thinking gave me hope to see the first woman President of the United States as well as avoid another term with Donald Trump at the helm of our nation. And why not? There was Gold Meir, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and a whole new class of women leaders in New Zealand, Iceland and other countries.

I had watched the Presidential debates and had no trouble deciding that Kamala Harris’s presentations outweighed the “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats…” of Donald Trump. It wasn’t even really a political decision but one of choosing somewhat who was sane and capable rather than a candidate who was totally unfit and nonsensical.

At 4am, Christine knocked on my door to inquire if I was all right as she turned on the television in my room and I saw the results. She, like all my Belgian friends, firm supporters of the EU, were in a state of shock….”How could this have happened again?” Not only had he won the popular vote but all the swing states! Was America not yet (or ever) ready for a female President? Did America want to shut itself off from the world?

So, my “what if’s”, since that fateful night, keep adding up on a daily basis, too numerous to elucidate in one posting. What if Kamala Harris had won the 2024 Presidential election? My guess is:

• We’d not have a President who didn’t obey the Emoluments Act by enriching themselves with foreign and illegal contributions.

• We’d not have a President who continually re-litigates the 2020 election.

• We’d not have a President with accusations of child molestation and sexual abuse hanging over their head.

• We’d not have a President who invades our cities with ICE, CBP, and National Guard Troops as a preferred policy to address illegal immigration and threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act.

• We’d not have a President who extorts colleges, universities, law firms and the media by threatening to withhold congressional-appropriated funding.

• We’d not have a President who disregards our traditionally close allies by threats to annex their territories, even to the point of invading another country and leaving in place its illegal government.

• We’d not have a President who talks of nationalizing our elections which are constitutionally endowed to the states.

• We’d not have a President who demolished USAID resulting in the deaths and starvation of hundreds of thousands of third world citizens.

• We’d not have a President who appointed a charlatan and gave him the responsibility of keeping our nation healthy using skepticism of evidence-based science and quitting the World Health Organization, leaving us ill-prepared to face another pandemic and loosing trust in the CDC.

• We’d not have a President who uses the Department of Justice and the FBI as his own personal attorney and police force.

• We’d not have a President who engages in extrajudicial bombings of boats in international waters resulting in well over 100 deaths without evidence of narco-trafficking, all the while, pardoning those who have been convicted of that crime.

• We’d not have a President who has reversed all the progress we’ve made in combatting global warming, impure waters and polluted air.

• We’d not have a President who defaced the “People’s House” and added his name to cultural icons that memorialize others.

• We’d not have a President that persecutes those in our Trans population and interferes with their medical management.

• We’d not have a President who has reversed the teaching of Black history in our schools and forbid the use of the words diversity, equity and inclusion in any publications receiving federal funding.

• We’d not have a President who is an embarrassment every time he addresses the world community.

• We’d not have a President who, for the first time in our history, is a convicted felon.

• We’d not have a President who creates chaos through threats and bullying, issuing tariffs and taking retribution against all who show him no loyalty.

Please feel free to add your own “what if’s” to this ever-growing list of felonious behaviors that is leading us away from Democracy towards autocracy. Do everything in your power to advocate for a fair and free election in 2026.

If you enjoy or benefit from my writing, please consider upgrading you subscription to a paid one. Many thanks in advance.

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Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions.

Go to Notes

How to join

Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Sanford Mayer, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!

You can also share notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of Sanford Mayer can share thoughts, ideas, and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.

Why Substack Notes

Fellow writers and readers are spending time in Notes for a variety of reasons.

Ted Gioia sees Notes as a forum for dialogue.

The idea behind Notes is simple. Millions of people now participate in Substack as writers and readers—but much of this is built on long articles and essays. We now have a forum for dialoguing and sharing shorter posts.

Chris Ryan is drawn to Substack as an alternative for legacy social media.

One of my main reasons for joining Substack was to wean myself off exploitative social media platforms. I’m hoping this is going to help move us along on that journey!

Sherman Alexie wants to create a kind and creative new space in Notes.

I’m going to focus on being positive, with my own thoughts and photos and by linking to songs, stories, poems from around the web and from other Substacks.

If you encounter any issues, you can always refer to the Notes FAQ for assistance. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Go to Notes

While many of my more erudite fellow Substackers have already jumped in on the recent tragic happenings in Minnesota, I’ve been given pause about expressing my thoughts from a different point of view. While meteorologically what is, perhaps, our coldest state save for Alaska, Minnesota is full of the warmth and caring of its citizens, almost to the point of satire….”Minnesota Nice”. The state is full of “helpers”, like Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, the first a dedicated son and skilled nurse in the VA hospital’s intensive care unit, the latter a beloved wife and mother of three, both US citizens trying their best to be helpers. Let us never forget their names.

So, why has Minnesota been the target of this cruel administration in Washington, DC? Other than it’s Somali and Hmong communities, it has one of the least number of immigrants in the US. /According to the Pew Research organization, most of the nation’s 51+ million immigrants, authorized or not, lived, in 2023, in just four states: California, Texas, Florida and New York. Minneapolis-St. Paul isn’t even one of the top 12 metropolitan areas with immigrants. Minnesota’s immigrant communities account for around 9% of its total population, and roughly 51% are naturalized American citizens. Most of its immigrants come from Mexico, Somalia, India, Laos, and Ethiopia. Their economic impact? Many are key entrepreneurs and workers , with high concentrations in service, production, and transportation. Their spending power is $17 billion, and their tax payments provide $6.2 billion.

Minnesota sounds like a setting in which to live an American Dream.

So, why has it become a battlefield, invaded by agents of the federal government and where American citizens have, extralegally, been executed? Why has this state been singled out for an amoral invasion by ICE and CBP?

The state has been politically targeted, in retaliation, as it’s a Democratic stronghold, a traditional midwestern outlier with a long history of modern American liberalism back to Hubert Humphrey and his fellow U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy. Today’s target is Gov.Tim Walz, the running mate of Kamala Harris. President Trump has called the state’s leaders “corrupt” in the face of fraud scandals, apparently linked to Somalis. Attorney General Pam Bondi is asking the state to hand over its voter roles to get access to information on immigrants and their families. What better a location for Operation Metro Surge than Minneapolis-St. Paul?

Back to the Helpers: Both Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good were executed in front of i-phone cameras with evidence that we can all judge for ourselves. Ms. Good was shot three times and Mr. Pretti 10 times. Neither appeared to be a threat to federal agents. However, Mr. Trump and his acolytes, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, and Greg Bovino, the nominal head of CBP in Minnesota were quick, within minutes, to air their opinions about the victims as “domestic terrorists, out to massacre federal agents, inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement, very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, a victim of left-wing ideology, etc.”

Mr. Pretti was shot ten times after being pummeled and completely disabled by 5-6 federal agents, as he had come to the aid of a woman who was pepper-sprayed and knocked down. The shooter then clapped. Ms. Good was shot three times , trying to avoid a federal officer who then called her a “f..k’in bitch” after filling her body with lead.

The author, Aldous Huxley, wrote: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”

We are being told by our federal government how to interpret what our eyes have seen and how to ignore facts. Please don’t be fooled by the President backing off to the negative press his administration is getting. He is removing the Nazi-wannabe Greg Bovino and replacing him with Border Tsar Tom Homan. This is akin, my fellow historians, to Hitler replacing Reinhard Heydrich, after his assassination, with Ernst Kaltenbruner who was hung by the Nuremberg Trials.

Probably the best comment I’ve read today was by fellow Substacker Andy Horowitz who satirically quoted an ersatz Stephen Miller replacing Bovino, saying: “Anyone who thinks this administration is going to run out of assholes any time soon better think again…We have a very deep bench.”

Please ask your Congress Members and Senators to insist on the investigation and prosecution of both these heinous murders, and to defund ICE.

Remember, there are still many Helpers left in Minnesota and in America!

If you enjoy my writing, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank You!

Today is the one-year mark of the second Trump administration. I won’t use the word “anniversary” as that usually has a celebratory ring to it. It’s been a hell of a year with the decline in our nation’s status, both domestically and internationally. Buckle up as we still have another 1,095 days remaining to suffer through this regime.

The title, “The Year of Living Dangerously” with an excellent film of the same name, refers to “Tahun Vivere Pericoloso” (Italian) that the dictator of Indonesia, President Sukarno, used in his National Day Address on Aug. 17, 1964, to describe the political instability and revolutionary tension his country was facing. It is notable that Sukarno was overthrown in a bloody military coup in late 1965.

Reviewing all that is going on, I must conclude, in my humble opinion, that the United States has “lived dangerously” through the past year and continues to follow this route into 2026.

I have avoided my regular habit of watching the news because it either angers me or puts me in a depressive state. Last night, I watched interviews of Republican congress members and Senators who thought, almost to a person, that Trump was doing a great job. “He’s doing what we elected him to do”. Of course they never mention the constant fear they live in of crossing their leader’s desires.

As a dual US/EU citizen, I have very mixed feelings right now…proud to be an American and what our country has stood for for 250 years…and ashamed of its present leadership. Having lived in Europe for eight years, I have a sense for what our European allies are feeling and, yes, I cheer them on for standing up against this tyrant. This all reminds me of the Age of Enlightenment and those who fought against its ideals. The United States is entering a very dark place in history.

Where is the resistance? Where are the checks and balances? And, yes, where are leaders who demonstrate a “Profile in Courage”? What are Schumer and Jeffries doing? While not part of the ruling “trifecta”, they appear weak and ill at ease. the only ones who seem to be stepping up are Federal and district court judges, even at the risk of being overruled by a politically lopsided SCOTUS.

This morning, I saw a survey in Axios that gave me pause: “Gen Z and millennial voters who back President Trump are an increasingly hard-line faction within his coalition, showing strong support for male leadership and religion in public life - and openness to political violence.” Pretty scary!

Trump is offering up a “Board of Peace” where members are invited, at an initiation fee of 1B$ each, to be controlled by the orange faced man as Chair with veto power. While first intended to limit itself to the rebuilding of Gaza, the idea has morphed into replacing the UN! It is his ruse to achieve world domination, in his own feeble-minded globalist intentions. Trump will only achieve his ill-fated goals if we let him!

Here’s the deal folks (to use a Biden-ism): We are at the brink of war…Iran, Venezuela, Greenland, and, yes, Canada and the rest of NATO. Having lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs, and the Viet Nam conflict, this is not a comforting thought. As usual, young soldiers from small towns and farmlands (not Trump’s kids) will die and be maimed. This, all at the cost of Trump’s sensitive ego about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize and his malignant narcissism. To read the letter he wrote to the Prime Minister of Norway, it is sheer idiocy. If our Congress and Supreme Court cannot recognize this for what it is, we are in grave danger of another year of “living dangerously”.

It’s been a week of despair, flooded by extrajudicial murders, retribution, self-aggrandizement and more lies, all emanating from our Chief Executive who sits in the People’s House. I was just buoyed by listening to our Governor in New York State give her State of the State message who brought the Empire State a breath of hope and resistance that, in fact, we do have certain unalienable rights that will see us through the current storm. Perhaps I’m naive but a good political speech is just what the doctor ordered.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the writings of my fellow Substack writers. We seem to all be writing about the same things. I think we’ve all come to a similar conclusion: We have officially become a banana republic under the present administration. We now have not only a President of the United States but an Acting President of Venezuela as seen by a fake Wikipedia page he posted on that oxymoronic social media of his, Truth Social. Who knew? When asked if he felt obligated to follow international law in his global aspirations, he responded he was guided only by “my own morality”. If such be the case, the world is in serious trouble. I believe there are very few Americans who are unfamiliar with the morality of Donald J. Trump.

Acting President or not, he has not been able to get American gas and oil corporations to take the bait and invest in his little project south of the border. But not to worry, this week Trump issued an Executive Order innocently titled: Safeguarding Venezuelan Oil Revenue for the Good of the American and Venezuelan People (I’m not kidding!) putting himself as the trusted guardian of all the oil reserves and their revenue. Reminds me of the “Willie Sutton Rule”…when asked why the notorious bank robber robbed banks, he responded “because that’s where the money is”!

He has also seemed to have gotten our European friends and allies all riled up by his talk of annexing, attacking or buying Greenland and adding a star to the American flag…saber-rattling on both sides of the Atlantic is never a good sign, one we haven’t seen since the War of 1812 when the British tried to reconstruct the White House by fire, no fancy ballroom in their plan. Essentially, an attack on Greenland is an attack on NATO! More morality there for you!

More retribution and weaponizing of the Department of Justice this week as well: Hey, let’s go after Jerome Powell for lying about cost overruns of the Fed! It is Trump’s opinion that the Fed is not independent of presidential control. If that wasn’t enough for one week, they keep trying to re-open the indictment of former FBI Director, James Comey. And just yesterday, the House Oversight Committee wants to subpoena the former President, First Lady and Secretary of State, the Clintons, to testify about their relationships to Jeffrey Epstein. At the same time, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi has yet to obey the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was nearly unanimously passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. All files were to be delivered to Congress by December 19th as she sits on them.

You might think we have the courts balancing the scales of justice on all the wrongdoing happening over the past 12 months. Just an FYI:

Trump-appointed Appeals Court Justices reversed lower District Court Judges 92% of the time. SCOTUS has ruled in Trump’s favor 88% of the time.

Let’s not think that Trump is biased in his media leanings. This week, he sat down for a two-hour interview with four excellent journalists from none other than the New York Times. I actually took the time to read the whole transcript and it was like something the writers for Saturday Night Live would have cooked up. Filled with the expected hyperbole, gobbledegook and word salads, it was like having a conversation with a fifth-grader albeit not a very bright one. There were plenty of lies and denials. You can read it for yourselves but I will just highlight one statement he made that stood out of the whole two hours for me. Quoted verbatim:

“I just hate dishonest people”. You can’t make this stuff up!

I will leave you today with one of my own favorite quotes from the great film, “Network” because it’s how I’m feeling right now:

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore”.

Have a great week!

Still basking in the introspective hours of a New Year, feeling strangely at peace, I had planned, for this weeks entry, on writing a rant-free essay that I had written some years ago, totally devoid of political musings, literally a Trump-free composition about the memories I have of growing up. However, the events of the first six days of this new year have upended my plan and, as I am want to do, literary license will not allow me to pursue this plan. After all, it is, today, the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6th insurrection, incited by Donald Trump to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Memories of that day included over-powered Capitol and DC Metro police, a hunt for Nancy Pelosi and a gallows constructed for the hanging of Mike Pence. The main perpetrator has never been convicted and, to my knowledge, is still on the loose, living in the White House.

I’m in a state of disbelief at the goings-on in our nation over such a short time where the conventions of presidential behavior have, indeed, put our country “dans la merde”.

My memories of previous presidents ( and I am old enough to have lived through 15 of them and 16 administrations) have, generally been mostly positive reviews except for Nixon and Trump who, in a list of U.S. Presidents, are probably last on the list, down there with Buchanan and Andrew Johnson. “Breaking News” popped up on my i-phone this week to inform me of the invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of its President and his wife, brought to a jail cell in Brooklyn. I wonder if they’re housed in the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Cell.

I try to avoid any news where Donny T. is speaking but, I couldn’t help myself inasmuch as this was truly big news. I was treated to a rambling, incoherent diatribe, where we were informed that the U.S. would be taking charge of Venezuela and that American oil companies would now make billions of dollars. His plan, apparently, is to run the country by a “team”. Of course, Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio were standing behind him, drooling at who could lick the President’s boots more. Visuals of the event showed Trump nodding off several times. While presented as a taking down of a narco-criminal Maduro (which, indeed he is), the message was about OIL and rare metals. We invaded another country for our own gains!

While Venezuela might not be the end of this land grab, Cuba, Columbia, Mexico and Greenland were mentioned as possible next targets. So what if Denmark is our NATO partner, we need Greenland’s rare metals for our “national security”.

Trump displayed his longstanding misogynistic self by threatening the Vice-President of Venezuela, Madura’s trusted lieutenant, Delcy Rodriguez and warning her that, if she didn’t cooperate with him, that she would fare “probably worse” than Maduro. He also referred to the rightful winner and opposition leader of the last Presidential election (before Maduro pulled a Trump-like “rigged election) and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Marina Corina Machado by saying “she doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country” to install her as President. By the way, Machado had actually won that election by a landslide! Sounds to me like “sour grapes” about his loss of the Peace Prize. Just to add on to his misogyny, he told Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s President, “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico”.

So, if we send troops to Venezuela, it is certain that American troops will get killed and wounded. Trump, a five-time draft dodger during the Viet Nam conflict and a graduate of a private military academy can rest rest assured that none of his family will be involved, serving in the military. I sincerely pity the poor parents, siblings and loved ones of any soldier who perishes in this tail-wags-the dog invasion.

This brings up the persecution of Sen. (and Captain) Mark Kelly, a veteran of real battles, an accomplished military pilot, an astronaut and, without any doubt in my mind, a patriot. Hegseth is planning on demoting him and docking him his retirement pay.

Just one more notice in these six days of January: The CDC, under the “expert” opinion of Bobby K., Jr., has deemed it unnecessary to recommend vaccines for children that include meningitis, Covid, Rotavirus, and Influenza. this is one of the worst flu seasons ever and, yes, children have died from it. I fear more children will now be maimed and will perish.

The last example of the craziness is a quote from Herr Stephen Miller, the resident Nazi in the White House when being interviewed by Jake Tapper: “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

As for memories, I’ll leave you with this photo taken in a local lunch place here in Rochester a few years back. The occasion was a surprise visit by the President of the United States, Barak Obama who, while a three year old is having a temper tantrum on the floor, is sitting at a neighboring table having a civil discussion, listening to the concerns of local college students. I really cannot imagine Trump having any meaningful conversation with any one.