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Posts Tagged ‘Trump’

To Persist, Resist

Posted in Poetry, Politics, tagged , , , , , , on 23 Oct 2025| Leave a Comment »

don’t give in to the maelstrom’s song
the downward spiral toward denial
of what your bones know is righteous or wrong

don’t let the harmonies that sing in your blood
go quiet and numb, muffled and choked
by the unfeeling actions of criminal hearts

there’s so much so much this onrushing tide
of gleeful cruelty and polished-brass venality that
to think of nothing to jettison hope can seem the softer path

but love dies when hearts go silent
and despair takes root when tears dry up
numbness saves no one not others not us

so let the feelings come seek them out
lean in and swim with the building wave
shout out rise up and take the beachhead

for this is a fight we dare not lose

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Dear Senator

Posted in Culture, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 27 Sep 2025| Leave a Comment »

I write to express my strong support for your recent vote to REJECT the continuing resolution to fund the government, and I beg you to hold fast and continue to fight for a negotiated bill that will undo some of the worst effects of the GOP’s efforts to strip American’s in need of their Medicaid and ACA assistance.

Moreover, I am also in support of the broader position that we cannot continue to fund the GOP’s efforts to dismantle the federal government, nor the administration’s obvious predisposition to limit, ignore, and outright deny American citizens their constitutionally-protected rights. A vote for the CR would make us all complicit in our own demise, and would be nothing less than appeasement of this the president’s growing autocracy.

I know that the president has threatened mass firings/layoffs should a shutdown come to pass, but I have two things to say about that.

First, he threatened this the last time, and Democrats blinked, wanting to avoid the unnecessary hardship that firings would cause to thousands of government employees. However, that concession, that concern, got Democrats nothing but a black eye and a reputation for not having the resolve to match their rhetoric.

Second, firing those employees would be the president’s choice, not a necessity, as he has the option of furloughing them instead. If he does fire thousands, yes, it will cause those employees harm, but how much harm will be caused by the loss of Medicaid and ACA subsidies? We must weigh the difference between employees losing their jobs and citizens losing their lives.

So it is with knowledge of the painful ramifications a shutdown would cause that I plead with you to stand your ground for as long as it takes to bring your GOP colleagues to the table, to push the president to take your meetings, and to force this administration to govern by negotiation and consensus, rather than by fiat.

Thank you for your past service to our state and to the nation.

In hope,

k

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Disappeared

Posted in Culture, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 17 Apr 2025| 1 Comment »

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”

More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down—and you’re just the man to do it—do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

Setting aside my opinions about the real Sir Thomas More, I have always found the above exchange (spoken by characters in Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for All Seasons) to be a powerful reminder on the importance of the rule of law.

It is a particularly relevant exchange, today, when we have this same argument playing out in America. Why allow a terrorist to defend himself? Why allow a criminal the benefit of the law?

You may have heard of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man from El Salvador who had been living in the United States. You may know that he entered the U.S. illegally after fleeing gang persecution in his native country. You may have heard that Mr. Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. You may have heard that his wife (a U.S. citizen) at one point received a Temporary Restraining Order against her husband. You may have heard Mr. Garcia referred to as a “terrorist.” You may also have heard that Mr. Garcia has always denied being affiliated with any gang, and that he has not been charged with any crime. And you may even have heard that the Trump administration admitted in court documents that Mr. Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error,” but that they don’t plan on doing anything about it. “Oopsie,” as the president of El Salvador said, with a nod and a wink.

You may have heard all of that. But all of that is irrelevant.

What is relevant is that Mr. Garcia was living within the jurisdiction of United States and was therefore subject to our laws—all of our laws—when he was taken into custody and deported without a hearing, without any charges filed, without a chance to challenge the assertions leveled against him. Based solely on an anonymous tip, he was designated a member of MS-13 (and thus a “terrorist”) and summarily sent to a notorious gulag in El Salvador.

So, why should we care if an alleged terrorist and gang-banger was “accidentally” deported to one of the worst prisons in the Western Hemisphere? Why should we care if Mr. Garcia didn’t get to mount a defense, to challenge the accusations made against him, to have his day in court?

Why should we care if our government has “cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

Consider this: It was only this February that the Trump administration designated MS-13 as a “terrorist organization,” making members subject (tenuously) to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Pursuant to that designation, in March, Mr. Garcia was picked up as an alleged member (and thus, a terrorist), and renditioned without charge or trial to the prison in El Salvador.

Within six weeks, that happened. Also in that time, Mr. Trump has referred to protesters against Elon Musk and Tesla as “domestic terrorists,” and has mused publicly that next he wants to send “home grown” criminals—meaning American citizens—to that same Salvadoran gulag. Do you think, with “the laws all being flat,” that you or I or our outspoken friend or our activist cousin would be allowed our right to due process if we were deemed “terrorists” by this Administration? If anyone—including an American citizen—can be falsely designated a terrorist, would there be any laws left to protect us? Even if that accusation was merely an “administrative error?”

Our Constitution, in its Fourteenth Amendment, guarantees everyone person living within our nation’s jurisdiction—that’s every person, not just every citizen—equal protection under our laws and equal access to due process of those laws.

If it does not apply to Mr. Garcia, the it does not apply to me, and it does not apply to you.

Now, Mr. Garcia may be all or none of the things he’s accused of being. Though I have an opinion, I do not know for sure (and neither do you), because Mr. Garcia has never had a chance to face his accusers to defend himself, and the government has never provided any evidence—inside a courtroom our outside—to prove their assertions.

Mr. Garcia may be the Devil the Trump administration says he is, but I would still give him the benefit of the law.

For my own sake.

k

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The Lesson

Posted in Creativity, Poetry, Politics, tagged , , , , , , on 31 Mar 2025| 2 Comments »

What you are trying to teach me?
To harm? To hurt? To hate?
That a worthy reputation
is only built through fear?
That honor is irrelevant,
an antiquated ideal?
That rules, golden or base,
apply only to governed
and not the government?

What do you want me to learn?
Cruelty +  Money = Power?
That everything, even a life,
has a market value?
That caring for others’ well-being
is a sucker’s game?
That discord and outrage
are the privilege of the rulers
and not the ruled?

Because that is not the lesson
your actions drive home.

The lesson I am learning,
the lesson that you teach, is
that bullies have no friends, only sycophants,
that predators prey on individuals, not unified fronts,
that small-minded men use power as a weapon, not as a tool,
that loyalty born of fear lasts only as long as the loyal are afraid,
that plans of destructive intent always birth unplanned consequences,
that masses move slowly, react slowly, but once in motion, stay in motion.

The herd now smells the wolves.
Tick-tock.

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Focal Points

Posted in Culture, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 05 Feb 2025| 3 Comments »

If you are anything like me, this last fortnight has felt like it was two years long. The constant barrage of cruel and often inept Executive Orders, the firehose of incompetent actions and rescissions, not to mention Congress’ total abdication of the “advise” portion of their role in “advise and consent,” has made the simple act of getting out of bed each morning a ponderous chore. And this, after I’ve already dramatically reduced my intake of current events. Frankly, there are times when I don’t know if I can make it through . . . however this is going to go on.

But then I remind myself: That is the entire point.

Proposing wholly unqualified candidates for high office, demolishing decades-long diplomatic agencies, purging competence and expertise from critical sectors, shuttering life-saving research and aid activities, starting a totally useless trade war with our closest allies, blaming every perceived woe on multiculturalism, threatening to invade/take over friendly nations, issuing pardons to persons who committed violence and riotous mayhem against the Capitol police and the seat of Congress, giving a wholly unreliable and arguably unhinged billionaire complete and unfettered access to the personal data of every single taxpayer in America (and more). Where to start? What to do? Where to look?

Take a step back, and you will see it. This is a blitzkrieg maneuver, a “shock and awe” tactic, to carpet bomb the Left into complete disarray, to start so many political wildfires that those who, like me, believe that our government should be by and for the people, become stunned into ineffectiveness simply because we do not know which fire we should fight first.

There is a famous quotation attributed to Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, who was by all accounts a brilliant military strategist. Translated and distilled over the centuries, it comes to us finally as this:

He who defends everything, defends nothing.

There is no hidden meaning to this quotation. It means what it says: if you run around trying to defend every inch of territory—political as well as physical—you will eventually lose; one must take small losses to focus on the primary points of contact.

And so must we, to counter this wholesale dismantling of systems that, though flawed, do provide safety and comfort to Americans. We must focus our efforts, concentrate our will, and do our best to “not sweat the small stuff.”

Pick two issues, maybe three. Read about those so you know what exactly is going on—you don’t want to get bogged down in conspiracies or tripped up by mis/disinformation—and then call your congress-critter, go to one of the town hall meetings they will be scheduling or, better yet, both. Register your concerns. If we all do that, our representatives and senators will have either (for Dems) data they can use to hone their focus or (for GOP) an idea of how upset their constituency truly is.

My main issues? Of the myriad choices, my two bugbears are:

  1. Giving Elon Musk and his JV Squad of tech-noobs my personal information and total access to petabytes of sensitive government data. Having worked in the health insurance industry, the concept of providing the “minimum necessary” amount of data is a standard precept; no one—especially a group of unvetted non-government employees—should have full read/write access to the entirety of any government database.
  2. The shutdown of USAID, which only takes up 0.7% of the national budget but which saves lives, promotes democracy, provides alternatives to growing drug crops, feeds starving kids, and has been the front line of our diplomatic “soft power” for over half a century. Shutting these efforts down is a huge gift to autocracies such as Putin’s and Xi’s, because who do you think is going to rush into the vacuum just created?

Those two might change as this sh!t show continues its run, but they’re what I will try to defend for now.

Find your focal points. Marshal you resources. Decide the issues that fire you up the most—personally, morally, legally, ethically—and defend those things. Then take a break. Then get back to it.

Onward.

k

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The Call

Posted in Creativity, Poetry, Politics, tagged , , , , , on 15 Jan 2025| 1 Comment »

Bow, ye Faithful! Bow!
For your Creation comes forward
Wrapped in the trappings of power
Wreathed in censorious brimstone
Flanked by slavering legions!

Genuflect! Bend the knee before Him!
This gold-plated god of hammered tin
Hear the sheet-metal thunder
Of empty pronouncements
And believe His words yet again!

Wail, thou dissenters, and lament!
As the paisley-clad dreams
Conceived in your Summer of Love
Are ground to dust and ash
Beneath His jackboot heel!

Kowtow, lick-spittle magnates!
Turn your fawning obsequiousness
And pettifogged morality
Up to Eleven
And pray you evade His notice!

Exalt, all, as Turpitude ascends!
Powered by the Voice of Millions
Who wanted nothing more
Than cheaper eggs and
Shelter from the storms.

Pray, you huddled masses!
Fellow citizens of the coming chaos!
Pray with every atom you possess
That we are all strong enough, in time,
To regret this thing we have done.

——————-

k

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Living Within the Margin of Error

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , , , , on 17 Oct 2024| Leave a Comment »

We are living within the margin of error, that mind-bending pseudo-Schrödingerian space where two things are simultaneously true: Trump is leading in the polls and Harris is leading in the polls. In a normal general election year, by this time—with fewer than 500 hours between now and election day—we passed through this phase a while back and are now in the mad dash to the finish line; the trailing candidate is doing everything possible to gain on the leader, and the much ballyhooed “October surprise” waits in the wings, preparing to strike. (Or not.)

This is not a normal general election year.

As baffled as I am that, with these two candidates and at this late point in the contest, the race is still so close, I have to understand that supporters of the opposition are most likely just as baffled. How could I possibly support a communist-fascist-socialist-Marxist radical-left-liberal who welcomes foreign murderers and rapists into our country and hands them cash and a ballot? How can I possibly want to elect such a person to the presidency?

I have similar questions about those who support the opposition.

One thing I try to remember, though, is this: supporters of the opposition do not hate this nation. They don’t. (Okay, a few probably do, but not many.) So their support of the opposition must come from a desire to better the nation that they love. Given that, we should be able to sit down and discuss our differing views on what in this nation can be improved, and how.

But we can’t, and we can’t because the discussion space has become so polluted with falsehoods that our two sides cannot even agree on what is true, what is factual, what is real.

“All politicians lie,” is the old adage, and to an extent it is true. Politicians may fudge the numbers to support their argument or leave out a salient fact that weakens their case, but there’s a big difference between picking the rosiest statistical outcome to support an economic agenda and telling outright (and completely disprovable) lies about conditions and populations in the country, fabrications designed not to bolster a policy stance but to sow division. distrust, and fear of “the other” among supporters. Sadly, once these emotionally manipulative lies have taken hold, it is not possible to counter them with the truth, as the truth, facts, and expertise have become irrelevant.

I don’t have solutions to this problem, and certainly nothing that could make a difference before Nov 5, but what I can do is assure you that if you’re feeling anxious, nervous, or desperate about the outcome of this election, you are definitely not alone. Many, many people are feeling the same, and we’re all probably getting a bit snippy because of it.

So let’s try to be patient and kind with each other, and if we discuss politics, let’s approach the discussions with the knowledge that we’re all on edge and emotions are riding high.

And vote. Vote early if you can, and if you can’t, make a plan as to how to cast your ballot and when.

It’s important.

 

 

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