Category Archives: politics

Funerals at CBS

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There are two funerals on tap this week at CBS, Inc., the company where I spent the first decade of my professional career. When I joined it in 1974, it had recently changed its name from the Columbia Broadcasting System to better reflect its position as a major media company, not just a broadcaster. Its four core lines of business were Broadcasting (TV and radio), Records (music), Publishing (books and magazines), and Musical Instruments/Toys.

One thing it did not change was its leadership. William S. Paley was the legendary media tycoon who built CBS from a small, struggling 16-station radio network into a multi-billion-dollar global broadcasting and entertainment empire. He is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern American broadcasting. Paley entered the picture in September 1928, when his wealthy family bought a majority stake a struggling radio company. He was subsequently named president at just 26 years old, going on to transform the then tiny network into a media empire. In 1974, he was firmly in control.

I can’t imagine what he would think of today’s CBS. Faced with a business climate which seems to value size over all else, CBS has gone from owner to owner in the post Paley years. Today it is owned by Paramount Skydance (formally known as Paramount, a Skydance Corporation). The network’s ownership structure underwent a massive shift when Skydance Media, led by tech heir and filmmaker David Ellison, officially completed an $8 billion merger with CBS’s previous parent company, Paramount Global, on August 7, 2025. Ellison’s takeover of the storied broadcasting was aided by a cash guarantee from his father Larry. Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, played the critical role of primary financial bankroller and majority equity owner in the Skydance acquisition of Paramount Global (and by extension, CBS).

Which brings us to this week’s funerals. Not unplanned deaths. These are self-inflicted executions.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

First to die will be The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It will air its final episode on May 21. The Late Show franchise originally began on August 30, 1993, when David Letterman launched the inaugural Late Show with David Letterman. It was a bold attempt for CBS to compete in the late-night hours, where NBC’s Tonight Show had reigned supreme seemingly since the beginning of time. I remember gathering with my dormmates around the communal television after a long day of classes and studying to relax with Johnny Carson. When Carson retired, Letterman, who had a program which followed Carson, seemed the heir apparent. NBC instead chose comedian Jay Leno, leaving Letterman free. CBS swooped in.

When Letterman retired in 2015, after hosting for 22 years, CBS selected Stephen Colbert, host of his own show on the Comedy Central channel, to succeed him. In the picture above you can see Letterman and Colbert, together last week to throw their own wake. What better way than by gleefully tossing CBS office furniture, including a desk chair and sofas, plus watermelons — a signature Letterman gag — off the side of the building, aimed at the target below: a giant CBS logo.

The official reason provided by CBS for canceling The Late Show is financial, though the decision is heavily shadowed by a massive corporate and political timing controversy. CBS did not reveal detailed financial information. For many the show’s cancellation carries the stench of suspected political interference. Publicly, media critics, industry insiders, and even former host Letterman have vehemently rejected the financial excuse, calling CBS executives “lying weasels” and accusing them of political cowardice.

In July 2025, Paramount paid a $16 million legal settlement to Donald Trump after he sued over how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris. Days later, Colbert ruthlessly mocked his own parent company on air, calling the payout a “big fat bribe”. At the exact moment Colbert made these comments, Paramount was desperately seeking crucial regulatory approval from the Trump administration’s FCC for its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Just days after Colbert’s monologue, CBS stunned the industry by canceling the show. Weeks later, the FCC approved the multibillion-dollar Skydance merger. Trump later gloated publicly on social media, bragging that Colbert had been “fired.”

CBS Radio News

The second funeral will be held at the end of the Friday. On that day CBS permanently shuts down CBS News Radio, brining a historic 99-year era of American broadcasting to a sudden end.

Sometime when I was in grade school, I set my clock radio to wake me up at 7AM Chicago time. The radio was tuned to WBBM, the CBS owned station. At that time, I heard The CBS World News Roundup. I have started my day with that broadcast most days since. That is something in the neighborhood of 65 years. But the CBS News Roundup, and the CBS News Hourly reports at the top of every hour of every day, can trace their history back to 1928. This shutdown, ordered by Larry Ellison’s pick as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss, completely dismantles the original foundation of William Paley’s media empire and eliminates all remaining jobs within the radio news division.

Finances again are blamed. Legacy media has been heavily battered by years of declining advertising revenue and shifting listener habits as audiences steadily migrated toward podcasts, social media, and digital streaming platforms. But creative leadership could have explored options. The audio medium of radio is perfect for podcasts and streaming. The new bosses at CBS clearly had their eye only on the issue of paying down the Ellison’s debt. The shutdown functions as part of a larger 6% staff reduction across the entire CBS News workforce under the network’s new Paramount Skydance corporate ownership.

There was a time when the government insisted broadcasters devote time to news and public affairs. And they insisted content be fair and balanced and provide opportunities for differing viewpoints to be heard. This was the price one paid for the privilege of controlling one of the limited number of broadcast channels available, as the words of the Communications Act read, “In the public interest, convenience, and necessity.” There were also station owners who took that requirement to heart, desiring to serve their communities and their nation. Those visionaries are long gone.

The CBS Radio Network’s sudden exit leaves roughly 700 local affiliate stations nationwide without their primary hourly national news feeds. Major local all-news stations, like KNX in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, and WWJ in Detroit, had to immediately assure listeners that local reporting would continue while they frantically negotiated new contracts with national syndication competitors like ABC News, Fox News, or NBC News.

Media historians and former network legends have reacted with grief, with former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather lamenting, “It’s another piece of America that is gone”. Until this final week, CBS News Radio was the absolute last of the three original national U.S. radio networks (alongside NBC and the Mutual Broadcasting System) still operating under its original parent brand.

The World News Roundup was the longest-running continuous program in broadcast history. And the network famously invented modern wartime reporting with Edward R. Murrow’s London Blitz broadcasts.

I will have to find another way to start my day.

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Ted Turner 1938-2026

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Some people are visionaries. Some people are great leaders. Few people can do both at the same time. Ted Turner was one of those special people.

In the wake of his death on May 6 at the age of 87, much has been written about his brash in-your-face style. I never met or worked for him. But I have many friends and colleagues who did. To a person, they sing his praises as a tough but fair leader. That he was a visionary is clear when you consider his impact on media in general and journalism in particular.

I remember sitting in the WBBM-TV newsroom in Chicago in 1979, when Turner announced his plans for CNN, the Cable News Network. I was a writer and producer at the CBS owned station and most of the people in our newsroom though Turner’s idea was crazy. I thought otherwise.

Turner has already had a major impact on the media landscape. The 1970s saw the spread of cable television systems across the nation. These stations repeated the broadcasts of the TV stations in their markets, offering better TV pictures but little else. Turner saw an opportunity. That’s what visionaries do.

Operating out of Atlanta, in 1970 Turner bought WJRJ-TV, a struggling UHF station launched in 1967. He renamed it WTCG (Turner Communications Group), jokingly claiming it stood for “Watch This Channel Grow”. On December 17, 1976, Turner used a satellite to beam WTCG’s signal nationwide, creating the first nationally distributed independent station. He allowed the cable companies to use it for free. He made money selling what was now advertising for a nation-wide audience. In 1979, the call letters were changed to WTBS. Over the years, it used various brands like “SuperStation WTBS,” “TBS Superstation,” and finally just “TBS”.

That was just the start.

Turner’s defining achievement was CNN, the Cable News Network. which he launched in 1980. At a time when television news was confined to fixed evening broadcasts, he gambled that audiences would want a constant stream of reporting, and he was right. CNN’s live coverage of the Persian Gulf War made the network a global force and helped normalize the modern era of 24-hour news.

He was never content with one success. Turner expanded into entertainment with TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies after acquiring valuable film and animation libraries. He also bought the Atlanta Braves, giving the city a beloved team and tying his name to Atlanta’s rise as a major sports and media center.

Turner’s public image was as memorable as his business record. He was outspoken, impatient with convention, and comfortable being controversial. That directness earned him the nickname “The Mouth of the South,” but it also reflected a confidence that helped him bet on ideas others dismissed.

Beyond media, Turner devoted much of his later life to philanthropy and conservation. He gave about $1 billion to establish the United Nations Foundation, co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and used his land holdings to support wildlife restoration, especially bison conservation.

He also became one of the country’s great landowners and a passionate advocate for the natural world. His ranches, herds, and preservation efforts made him a larger-than-life figure in environmental circles, while projects like Captain Planet reflected his desire to teach younger generations about stewardship.

In his final years, Turner lived with Lewy body dementia, which he disclosed in 2018. Even as his health declined, his influence remained visible in the media world he helped create and in the institutions that grew from his philanthropy. He is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Turner had three wives, including the Oscar winning actress Jane Fonda. They all survive him.

Turner’s life was marked by audacity, reinvention, and outsized effect. He turned cable television into a global platform, made philanthropy part of his public identity, and left behind a media landscape that still bears his imprint. For better or worse, much of modern television carries the stamp of Ted Turner. He was one-of-a-kind.

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R.I.P. V.R.A.

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John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States, has achieved his life goal. With the Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, he has killed the Voting Rights Act. Roberts made the destruction of the VRA of 1965 his lifelong crusade. His opposition to the Act dates back to his days as a law clerk for then Associate Justice William Rehnquist. Rehnquist notoriously wrote a memo in 1952 stating, “I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be re-affirmed.” Plessy was the infamous “separate but equal” case institutionalizing racism in public schools. It was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Roberts first wrote, “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race” in 2007, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. Since then, the quote has become a defining slogan for his judicial philosophy on race, later appearing in other landmark rulings like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), which ended affirmative action in university admissions.

The record of the Roberts Court is clear:

  • Shelby County v. Holder (2013): Roberts authored the 5–4 majority opinion that effectively struck down Section 5, the “preclearance” requirement for states with a history of racial discrimination. He argued that the coverage formula was based on “decades-old data and eradicated practices” and that “our country has changed”.
  • Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021): Roberts joined Justice Alito’s majority opinion that made it harder for plaintiffs to win Section 2 “vote-denial” cases. The ruling introduced “guideposts,” such as the “usual burdens of voting,” that limit the Act’s ability to challenge neutral-looking rules like ballot-collection bans.
  • Allen v. Milligan (2023): In a surprise to many legal observers, Roberts authored a 5–4 opinion upholding Section 2 to strike down Alabama’s congressional map for underrepresenting Black voters. He reaffirmed the Gingles precedent, stating that the law remains a vital tool against discriminatory redistricting.
  • Louisiana v. Callais (2026): Most recently, the Court ruled 6–3 that creating two majority-Black districts in Louisiana violated the Equal Protection Clause. Critics argue this decision, supported by Roberts, may effectively signal the end of Section 2’s power to protect minority voting strength against partisan gerrymandering.

Roberts’s position is hard to argue with on its face. The problem is that his view of the world does not match reality. Roberts let Justice Samuel Alito do the dirty work of writing the opinion in Louisiana v. Callais. Alito used Roberts’s rose-colored glasses.

Alito wrote that “things have changed dramatically” in the South and used that as a basis for concluding that the relevant protections of the Voting Rights Act are no longer needed in the way they once were. Quite a stretch for someone who claims to be an “originalist.” The framing echoes language Roberts had used in Shelby County to gut Section 5 of the VRA — Roberts had written that “voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity” and that “blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare.” Research shows that ruling led to hundreds of new laws which had the effect of restricting voting.

This is reminiscent of a metaphor used by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissenting in Shelby County. Ginsburg called that decision equivalent to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

What is striking here is not this view of the current state of race relations in the country. It is that this view is being used as a justification for the Court’s action at all. The conservative majority is in full lawmaking mode here, a position it hypocritically denies it assumes. In fact, in the time since the 2022 Dobbs decision on abortion, the conservatives have been rewriting precedent with abandon and placing themselves in what is traditionally the role of the elected branches.

Justice Elena Kagan argued in her Louisiana v. Callais dissent that the majority opinion renders Section 2 of the VRA “all but a dead letter.” Kagan wrote that Section 2 had been “repeatedly, and overwhelmingly, reauthorized by the people’s representatives in Congress,” and that only Congress — not the Court — has the right to declare it no longer needed.

Alito insists the Court did not completely strike down section 2. But the Court significantly reworked the 40-year-old framework established in Thornburg v. Gingles, making three changes that will collectively make it much harder for voters of color to bring cases under Section 2 of the VRA. First, illustrative maps submitted by plaintiffs must meet all of a jurisdiction’s political objectives, including partisan goals. Second, evidence of racially polarized voting must control for partisan preferences. Third, in the “totality of circumstances” phase, plaintiffs must present strong evidence of present-day intentional racial discrimination — historical evidence of past discrimination carries much less weight.

I came of age during the turbulent 1960s with protests, sometimes violent, over the issues of Civil Rights, Woman’s Rights, and the war in Vietnam. Only one of three Americans alive today was alive then. Still, I am surprised to find so many students have failed to learn from the history of those days. Apparently, the conservatives on the Supreme Court have never learned or forgotten that history as well.

The Voting Rights Act was a major victory. It provided a mechanism to remedy the nearly total lack of Black Americans serving in Congress from the southern states, which had significant Black populations. Congress determined that was due to what were called Jim Crow laws, enacted in southern states, making it difficult for Blacks to vote in spite of the Fifteenth Amendment. Congress reauthorized the Act in 2006, extending it until 2031, finding it was still necessary. The vote in Congress was nearly unanimous.

The Court now substitutes its wishes for those of Congress, a pure exercise of judicial activism. In the immediate aftermath, Louisiana suspended its May 16 primary to allow the legislature to draw a new map, and Alabama filed an emergency motion seeking to stay a court order that had required it to maintain two majority-Black districts. A new era, call it Jim Crow 2.0, has arrived.

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3 Down, 12 to Go

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When Donald Trump began his second term in the White House, there were fifteen original heads of executive departments like State, Defense and Treasury. There were seven additional cabinet-rank officials. Of the fifteen, Trump has fired three.

Trump’s first term saw a revolving door of cabinet-level officials. A newcomer to the Washington bureaucracy, Trump took advice from Republican insiders and appointed several department heads who had some experience in government. They stupidly put their oath to uphold the law and Constitution ahead of their loyalty to Trump. The Donald was not going to make that mistake again.

The second time around Trump followed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 gameplan closely. That’s the plan he swore he had never heard of during the election campaign. The plan mapped the transition of the American government into an authoritarian regime managed for the benefit of the moneyed elite, the billionaire class. The plan dictated that Trump install loyalists in these positions. That he did, putting into positions of power a motely group of the least qualified people ever entrusted to run the government of the United States.

Trump did not fire the three cabinet officers because of their incompetence. He fired them because they made him look bad.

Noem No More

Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary, was the first Trump cabinet secretary to walk the plank. Noem previously served at the governor of South Dakota and a member of the House of Representatives. She did have some experience in cybersecurity and state disaster management, but nothing at the national level.

The Republican controlled Congress showered Noem with money designed to turn the agency onto a super federal police force dedicated primarily to the mass deportation of immigrants. The scale was extraordinary. The reconciliation funding alone was nearly nine times DHS’s FY2024 budget. The list of Noem’s abuses of authority is long and cases suing her and the department are pending in scores of lawsuits from Los Angeles to Chicago to Minneapolis, all cities which her hastily hired and poorly training agents invaded and attacked people indiscriminately. In Minneapolis, two American citizens were killed by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol, both agencies reporting to Noem.

Noem also had a taste for luxury travel. In 2025, the Coast Guard (under DHS) signed a $172 million contract for two long-range Gulfstream G700 jets, marketed as having the “most spacious cabin in the industry.” DHS said the purchase was for safety reasons, noting the existing jet Noem used was over 20 years old and beyond operational limits. The jets were intended for official travel by Noem, the deputy secretary, Coast Guard commandant, and other top DHS officials.

Noem had intended to purchase a Boeing 737 Max 8 for personal and official travel. The plane was originally leased by her and her aide/Corey Lewandowski for domestic trips, including high-profile deportation missions, and also for Cabinet-level travel. It was equipped with a queen-size bed, showers, a kitchen, four flat-screen TVs, and a cocktail bar. ICE had initially bought it before Noem’s ouster, but after she was fired the White House took control of the purchase. The administration decided to keep the jet and make it available to Melania Trump and other cabinet secretaries.

Many of these excesses would be caught by the department’s Inspector General. But Trump learned his lesson about the IGs during his first term. In January 2025, Trump terminated at least 17 IGs at once via email, citing “changing priorities”. These officials, meant to be independent watchdogs over federal agencies, were widely described as part of a “purge,” with many removals occurring without the required 30-day notice to Congress. 

None of that had much to do with Trump’s decision to fire Noem. Trump fired Noem, a staunch loyalist, for violating the only rule the Trump administration cares about. The rule that says you don’t show up the boss.

In the end, it wasn’t the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis that cost Noem her job. Nor was it her immediate reaction to prematurely paint both the mom-of-three and the veterans’ nurse as wannabe terrorists and aspiring cop killers. It wasn’t the sexual relationship she allegedly had with Lewandowski (both are married and have denied the relationship), the exorbitant spending on executive jets, or the public messaging from her agency which was riddled with White nationalist dog whistles and error-prone descriptions of immigrants.

Before cameras and a packed audience at a Congressional hearing called to ask Noem how she was spending the money they had appropriated, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana asked a series of questions about the $220 million ad campaign Noem has executed, mostly for television ads featuring herself, and how that squared with Noem’s stated promise to root out waste from her agency. Kennedy had to ask more than once whether Trump approved that spending spree before Noem provided a direct answer: “Mmhmm, yes.”

That response, it turned out, was the embattled Cabinet secretary’s final straw. Kennedy got a call from Trump later that evening. The president, Kennedy told CNN, “Was pissed. Her version and the president’s version of whether the president, A) was informed and B) consented are decidedly different,” Kennedy said. (Trump told NBC News that he hadn’t known about the advertising campaign. “I wasn’t thrilled with it,” he said.)

Bye Bye, Bondi

Attorney General Pam Bondi was the next to bite the dust. Bondi, who had been one of Trump’s personal lawyers and the Attorney General of Florida, turned the Department of Justice into the primary instrument of Trump’s revenge on political opponents. She fired career attorneys who had worked on investigations into Trump during the Biden administration. And she allowed FBI Director Kash Patel to fire FBI agents who had worked on those investigations. These people are nonpartisans who are assigned by the top political officers. They are not in a position to pick and choose their cases. She also turned traditionally nonpartisan employees, including assistant U.S. Attorneys, Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and the Office of the Pardon Attorney into political hacks.

But that is not why Trump fired her. Pam Bondi was fired by President Trump due to dissatisfaction with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and perceived underperformance in pursuing investigations against his political adversaries. In other words, she didn’t cover-up enough, and her efforts to deliver of his promise of retribution against his perceived enemies fell short. Trump cannot understand why some lawyers and many judges take seriously their oath to uphold the law and the Constitution. Bondi was a true believer and completely loyal to her liege lord. But she couldn’t bend everyone in the judicial system to her will.

Lori Leaves

Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, appears to have left after a misconduct investigation, not simply for routine political reasons. Reports say the probe involved allegations of misconduct and possible abuse of power, including claims that led to senior staff being placed on leave or resigning.

One account says she had been under a watchdog probe, senior staff were placed on leave or quit, and her schedule was increasingly disrupted because the controversy had made her politically toxic. There were also related allegations involving her husband, which added to the turmoil around the department.

Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation was not announced by President Trump, unlike the other recent Cabinet firings, but by White House communications director Steven Cheung on social media. The moral here is don’t create a scandal that takes the focus off the president or he won’t know you. The White House framed her exit as a move to a private-sector role.

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Artemis II

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I held off on this. Didn’t want to jinx it. Now that the Artemis II crew is back, safe and sound after a near perfect mission, I can write about the thrill once again of seeing humans reach the moon for the first time in 53 years. With all the divisiveness and strife of today’s world, it is nice, even if just for a moment, to reflect that somethings can still be achieved in the name of all mankind.

I still remember asking my parents for permission to stay home and the watch the flight of the first living thing America sent into space. It was 1961. The passenger inside the Mercury capsule was Ham, a chimpanzee. I was in grade school. Ham paved the route. Alen Shappard followed. Eight years later Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

Eight years from first flight to the moon landing in 1969. Fifty-three years from the sixth and last moon landing, Apollo 17 in 1972, to Artemis II. How did we get so distracted, and jaded, and why did we take so long?

Those were the questions in my mind as I watched the splashdown in the Pacific off the coast of San Diego. And listened to the mostly mediocre coverage from the television networks. I thought of Walter Cronkite, Frank McGee, Roy Neal, and Jules Bergman. They had gravitas. This time around the reporters hadn’t even bothered to read the history, and they wouldn’t shut up.

Of course, they were not even born when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. I suppose they should be forgiven their ignorance. But it is hard to forgive their lack of homework.

If you follow this column, you know I frequently write about space. I’ve even published here what is thought to be the best-known photograph ever taken, the “Earthrise” photo, earth in color, taken by astronaut William Anders on the Apollo 8 mission. Apollo 8 went into lunar orbit but did not land. A copy of that photograph has hung in my office for decades.

Artemis II Commander Reis Wiseman paid homage to that historic picture with what is now being called, “Earthset.” Captured on April 6, 2026, at 6:41 p.m. EDT, the image shows a crescent Earth slipping behind the rugged lunar horizon as the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, flew over the Moon’s far side.

On the same day the Artemis II crew captured a historic total solar eclipse from a unique vantage point on the far side of the Moon. This event, lasting nearly 54 minutes, provided a perspective never before witnessed by humans, showing the Moon as a dark orb fully obscuring the Sun while revealing the solar corona and several distant planets. These are the awe-inspiring photos reproduced above.

Donald Trump made the traditional presidential call to the crew. There is an irony here. Richard Nixon, a Republican got to talk to the Apollo 11 crew after the first moon landing even though the entire program had been championed by Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Democrats. Nixon cancelled the last three Apollo flights.

Trump told the Artemis II crew, “Today, you’ve made history and made all America really proud”. He emphasized that the mission was a precursor to a permanent lunar presence, saying, “We’ll plant our flag once again… we’ll establish a permanent presence on the moon”.

Empty words in my book. Trump’s FY 2027 budget request proposes a 23% decrease in NASA’s overall funding, reducing it to $18.8 billion from its current level of $24.4 billion. Despite overall cuts, funding specifically for the Artemis moon missions would increase by nearly 10% to $8.5 billion. This is intended to fully fund lunar landers, spacesuits, and transportation to ensure astronauts return to the surface by 2028.

But the “Science Mission Directorate” faces a 47% cut, dropping from $7.25 billion to $3.9 billion. This would likely lead to the termination of over 40 missions, including those focused on Earth observation, climate research, and astrophysics. No need for those egghead scientists to continue to explore the cosmos. Or to use NASA’s unique ability to look down on the earth and monitor what we are doing to the environment, a topic Trump calls a “hoax.” Endangered projects include a follow on to the fantastic space telescopes and the mission to pick up and bring back to earth soil samples still being collected by the amazing Perseverance Rover, searching for signs of ancient microbial life since landing on Mars in 2020.

This request mirrors a similar proposal for the 2026 fiscal year that was soundly rejected by Congress, which ultimately restored NASA’s funding to roughly $24.4 billion. Space advocates, including The Planetary Society, have labeled the new 2027 proposal an “extinction-level event” for space science. The final budget will be determined by Congress later this year.

I wonder if Trump realized the hypocrisy of his conversation with the astronauts. I also wonder if he realized the crew included a woman, an African American, and a Canadian. Just the kind of diversity he decries as “woke” and undesirable.

There appears to be something about viewing the entire earth with one’s own eyes that changes a person. Earth, with all its people, seems so small and insignificant. Ruth Graham of The New York Times writes about the philosophical and theological aspects of that impact. She quotes from the Book of Psalms, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, theologian Andrew Davison of the University of Oxford, and actor William Shatner, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, among others.

My thoughts on this subject turn to Carl Sagan’s novel Contact. The alien making first contact with a human tells our protagonist, Eleanor Arroway, that humans are newcomers and technologically backward, yet promising, often referencing the vastness of the universe to put humanity in perspective. In his screenplay for the film (Contact, 1997), three different characters ask the same question, “Are we alone?” Three other characters give the same answer, “The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So, if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space.”

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Let’s See…..

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Let’s see if I have this straight.

Donald Trump set a deadline of 8pm April 7 for Iran to stop attacking ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Over the Easter weekend, Trump posted an obscene threat to Iran promising Iranians will be “living in hell” if they do not comply by the deadline. On the morning of April 7, Trump posted another threat, promising, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

A little more than an hour before the deadline, with some reports saying that long-range bombers were already enroute to the Middle East from their bases in the United States, Trump announced an agreement for a two-week ceasefire.

Trump and his supporters see this as an example of superior deal-making. Keep your opponent under pressure and uncertain of your next step.

Critics see it as just another example of what they call Trump’s TACO tendency, as in, “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

The whiplash alone will kill us.

Trump justified his attack on Iran with the claim that the country was very close to having a nuclear warhead and the missiles to deliver it. Nothing has been released to back up that claim. Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman have reported in The New York Times details about Trump’s decision-making process. They say their information comes from reporting for their forthcoming book, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” The article indicates there was considerable skepticism from most of Trump’s national security staff about the decision. Strong support came only from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Hegseth has argued that the sole purpose of the military is “lethality,” specifically, the efficient killing of enemies to break their will. Hegseth has also characterized the conflict with Iran as a religious battle.

There is no mention of these arguments in Trump’s post announcing the cease fire. There is a reference to the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz….” From that it is clear Trump’s mind is now focused on the price of gasoline, soaring to well over four dollars a gallon on average and as high as five dollars a gallon in some parts of the United States.

It is the price at the pump that will have the greatest impact on voters in November. Trump clearly fears he and his Republican enablers will suffer. History says he will be right. So now, and only now, the closing of the shipping lane which transports twenty percent of the world’s energy supply is of concern. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor to President Barak Obama, observes that Trump’s newly announced deal is a move to “reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started”.

It is not clear that Trump’s two-week cease fire has even accomplished that goal. Iran’s response, which Trump himself posted, says “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.

Those “technical limitations” appear to include forcing ships to travel within Iran’s territorial waters and reportedly will include the payment of a toll to Iran. Trump has stated that perhaps the answer is for the United States and Iran to share that toll for passage.

In any event, Iran has kept the Strait closed, claiming it predicated opening the Strait on Israel ending its military action in Lebanon. Trump has denied any such promise was even discussed, let alone part of the agreement.

More negotiations are planned.

The Strait of Hormuz is not like the Suez Canal, or the Erie Canal, or the St. Lawrence Seaway. Those are manmade structures located completely within a sovereign nation. The Strait of Hormuz is a natural waterway, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. It is bordered not only by Iran, but also by Oman and the United Arab Emirates. As such it is an international waterway. There is an established route in its center. No tolls are charged and interfering with the right of passage violates international law.

Not that Iran cares about any of that. As for Trump, he has admitted that he “goes with his gut.” He doesn’t take advice because he believes he is always the smartest person in the room. He also knows or cares little about history or he would know Iran has blocked or threatened to block the Strait many times before. Only now, with his MAGA acolytes screaming to their congressmen, is he paying attention.

Who benefits from Trump’s actions? Believe it or not, Iran and Russia. In an attempt to push gas prices down, Trump is temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil that is currently at sea, allowing it to be shipped to buyers around the world. The sanctions were designed to pressure Russia into ending its military campaign in Ukraine. Oil and gas exports are Russia’s primary source of revenue. Russian will rake in the profits, which it will use to further the war it is fighting with Ukraine.

As incredible as that seems, for his next act Trump waived sanctions on Iranian oil purchases at sea for 30 days. This will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Iran’s treasury. Which they can use to buy and build more missiles, drones, and bombs to fire on America soldiers and bases in the region. And, naturally, at Israel. All to ease surging oil prices in the US.

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Mad as Hell

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I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. Great line from a great movie (Network, 1976) and a line which perfectly matches my mood.

I am sick and tired of getting into a rage each day, sometimes more than once a day, because of something the monster in the White House has done. I am halfway through writing about one expression of outrage when another matter comes up, and I start all over again. I don’t know who I am most angry with. Donald Trump or the 77 million people who voted for him. I have spent the better part of a month not writing at all. And trying not to pay much attention to the news either.

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