Category Archives: commentary

From the Halls of Montezuma

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Take a good look at the picture above. We have never seen anything like it.

It comes from the web site of the British news service Reuters. It is a still image taken from about a minute of video. The video and the accompanying reporting should set off warning alarms across the United States. Read the Reuters article and see the full video here. I’m ready to nominate the Reuters’ team for a Pulitzer Prize.

Reuters says the video shows U.S. Marines deployed to Los Angeles detaining an American citizen. This, it is believed, has never happened before.

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Two Megalomaniacs Walk into a Bar……

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The bromance that brought Donald Trump and Elon Musk together seemed like an unlikely combination from the start. The real estate mogul turned politician, and the technology entrepreneur turned richest man on the planet both tended to absorb all the oxygen in any room they inhabited. It was hard to envision that both could occupy the same space at the same time for long.

Still, the speed and violence of the inevitable explosion of the relationship was breathtaking. In the space of a single day, the man who wreaked havoc on the federal government, and the man who encouraged him and gave him the authority to act in violation of law and Constitution were calling each other names on their respective social media sites and threatening retribution.

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Trump Transcripts

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The White House has decided to stop publishing transcripts of Trump’s public statements. They have also removed transcripts that were already posted and replaced complete videos of Trump speeches with excerpts, obviously edited. Why you might ask? The White House says the abridged video and audio provide a more complete representation of the president’s words and communication style. Yes, and I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.

While the political wags seem mesmerized by a book which contains the “shocking” revelation that President Joe Biden was showing his age as the 2024 election approached, I’ll have more on reporting that obvious after the fact revelation in a future blog, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to obscure the fact that their head man is “cognitively challenged” himself.

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President Musk II

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Elon Musk has been making the rounds of Washington, giving exit interviews as he steps back from his Trump ordained role of destroying as much of the federal government as possible in the shortest amount of time. No one, perhaps not even Elon, knows why he is leaving a role he so obviously relishes.

Who else would gleefully prance around a stage carrying a chainsaw and celebrating “feeding the United States Agency for International Development into the woodchipper?” That act alone left poor people around the world to starve while food already purchased by USAID from American famers rotted in warehouses. What kind of a monster does something like that and cheers about it?

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Hip hip for Harvard

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Whether it was a high school football game on a Friday night or a college matchup you have probably all participated in a roaring cheer at one time or another. Anyone who has been following these posts for a while knows that I earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton many years ago where I cheered on many a Princeton team. The college cheer was in fact heard for the first time at the famous first ever college football game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869.

I write that preamble so that you get the significance of my rousing cheer for Harvard, Princeton’s rival among rivals in the league of elite universities. It is special when a Princeton tiger is moved to compliment people who wear crimson robes. Harvard does have a mascot I am told. But it appears to be an inanimate statue of the school’s founder, which must look strange along the sidelines. I digress.

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Deer in the Headlights

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The expression “deer caught in the headlights” comes from the behavior of deer when they’re suddenly illuminated by a vehicle’s headlights at night. In such situations, deer often freeze in place, unable to move or make a decision, likely out of fear or confusion. Metaphorically, the phrase is used to describe someone who is paralyzed by surprise, fear, or panic, especially when they’re put on the spot or faced with an unexpected challenge. It is that moment of being visibly overwhelmed and unsure of how to respond. Much of the nation is caught in the headlights today.

Let’s start with the Republicans in Congress. The party of Lincoln has thrown in the towel. There are no Barry Goldwaters, Gerald Fords, or Nelson Rockefellers, Republicans who stood up to Richard Nixon. There are not even any Liz Chaneys or Adam Kinzingers, Republicans who stood up to Donald Trump after the January 6 insurrection. Today Republicans in Congress have abandoned their traditional legislative role, rubber-stamping actions taken by Donald Trump. This shift marks a significant departure from the principles of checks and balances that are foundational to the U.S. political system. The GOP is now the Trump-MAGA Party.

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John Adams Nightmare

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“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Adams, letter to the Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798

Our second president predicted that our republic, if it were to fail, would fall as a result of corruption from within. He was remarkably prescient. Many of his writings emphasized the idea that the government’s success relies on the moral integrity of its citizens.

“Liberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted, and if they are not virtuous.”

John Adams, “Thoughts on Government”, 1776.

We are living John Adams’ nightmare.

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