We have a mafia boss in charge

Here’s what it looks like to me….Trump is acting like a mafia boss trying to carve up the world with Putin the way heads of crime families operate. We can have Greenland, Canada, and Panama and Russia gets Ukraine and who knows what else. Russia can have the oil in the Arctic but in return I want all the minerals from Ukraine, so we are splitting the rare and valuable things that the earth has to offer.

Everything is for sale? Everything is a deal? Today’s news suggests that USA gets billions in mineral rights from Ukraine, and maybe (maybe?) we will provide some security. Trump doesn’t accept USAs traditional role helping the weak as the strongest partner, but now we are just trying to shake down the weak, and run a protection racket.

In today’s NYTimes column by Thomas Friedman (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/opinion/trump-putin-ukraine.html?smid=url-share) he recounts a news item about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his recent meeting with Zelensky, in Kyiv. Bessent presented Zelensky with an offer he couldn’t refuse – to sign over Ukrainian mineral rights to America, worth billions of dollars, to compensate for US aid. Friedman called it a scene right out of The Godfather. Bessent pushed the paper across the table, demanding that Zelensky sign it. Zelensky took a quick look and said he would discuss it with his team. Bessent then pushed the paper closer to Zelensky. “You really need to sign this,” the Treasury secretary said, telling Zelensky that “people back in Washington” would be very upset if he didn’t. Zelensky supposedly took the document but didn’t commit to signing.

Trump is no longer surrounded by people who can act as bumper cushions when he goes off the rails. He revenge reign has eliminated anyone who won’t declare fealty, and the replacements are incredibly, laughably, unqualified sycophants.

It makes me sick to my stomach and humiliated for my country.

James Baldwin famously said “I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

The Populist Assault

This is the title of one subsection of a chapter in Yuval Noah Harari’s latest book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.

The book was published last year, before the latest presidential election in the USA. However, this section about populism scares me….some excerpts from the book below:

First – “the term ‘populism‘ derives from the latin ‘populus‘ which means ‘the people’. In democracies, ‘the people’ is considered the sole legitimate source of political authority. Only representatives of the people should have the authority to declare wars, pass laws and raise taxes. Populists cherish this basic democratic principle, but somehow conclude from it that a single party of a single leader should monopolize all power. In a curious political alchemy, populists manage to base a totalitarian pursuit of unlimited power on a seemingly impeccable democratic principle.

The most novel claim populists make is that they alone truly represent the people.

Thus…

If some party other than the populists wins elections, it does not mean that this rival party won the people’s trust and is entitled to form a government. Rather it means that the elections were stolen or that the people were deceived to vote in a way that doesn’t express their true will.

It should be stressed that for many populists this is a genuinely held belief rather than a propoganda gambit. Even if they win just a small share of votes, populists may still believe they alone represent the the people.

An example is the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), which never won more than 0.4 percent of votes in a general election but was nevertheless adamant that it alone truly represented the working class. Millions of British workers, they claimed, were voting for the Labour Party or even for the Conservative Party rather than for the CPGB because of ‘false consciousness.’ Allegedly, through their control of the media, universities, and other institutions the capitalists managed to deceive the working class into voting against its true interests, and only the CPGB could see through this deception.

so….what turns someone into a populist is claiming that they alone represent the people and that anyone who disagrees with them – whether state bureaucrats, minority groups, or even the majority of voters – either suffers from false consciousness or isn’t really part of the people.

This is why populism poses a deadly threat to democracy. No group, including the majority group, is entitled to exclude other groups from membership in the people. This is what makes democracy a conversation. Holding a conversation pre-supposes the existence of several legitimate voices. If, however, the people has only one legitimate voice, there can be no conversation. Rather, the single voice dictates everything. Populism therefore may claim adherence to the democratic principle of people’s power, but it effectively empties democracy of meaning and seeks to establish a dictatorship.

Populism undermines democracy in another, more subtle, but equally dangerous way. Having claimed that they alone represent the people, populists argue that the people is not just the sole legitimate source of political authority but the sole legitimate source of all authority. Any institution that derives its authority from something other than the will of the people is antidemocratic. As the self -proclaimed representatives of the people, populists consequently seek to monopolize not just political authority but all types of authority and to take control of institutions such as media outlets, courts, and universities. By taking the democratic principle of ‘people’s power’ to its extreme, populists turn totalitarian.

I can’t stand the news any more

I start my day looking at the news, both online and by reading the NYTimes, when I am home to get the physical paper (i still enjoy that), These days it just gets me upset. For a while it was just the first section, with all the incredible things coming from the White House. Now it’s all throughout the paper. What the fuck is happening to our country and what effect is this having on the world at large. Let’s take just today’s (2/20/25) articles as an example:

Front page: Trump calls Zelensky ‘Dictator’ as Feud Grows. Flood of false claims. Ukraine leader attacked for criticizing a ‘web of disinformation.’ Trump is rewriting history and turning Russia into our ally while isolating the Ukraine. unbelievable. the European leaders are aghast and clearly can no longer trust the US.

Front page: Trump aims to end congestion pricing plan in NYC. wtf? Why would he even want to cancel this program, and how is this legal (apparently its not). He even posts “congestion pricing is dead. Manhattan and all of new york is saved. LONG LIVE THE KING.” accompanies by a mockup of Time magazine with a picture of trump wearing a crown. the white house posted this!!

A two-page section is highlighted about how so many more people now own a gun.

Filings in court create window into Musk team. Arguing his work with DOGE provides maximum transparency while it clearly does not, legal filings begin to give this transparency.

The end of amends for a toxic offensive. The US dropped agent orange all over Vietnman during the war. A project funded by USAID has provided assistance to the many people irreparably harmed by this and now of course the support will end.

Arab leaders begin their own plan for Gaza’s future. Reacting to Trump’s idiotic plan to deport every Palestinian from Gaza and turn it into a beautiful beach community, the Arabs have decided to come up with their own plan.

Trump media sues a Brazilian judge weighing the arrest of Bolsonaro. Are you kidding me? Tump’s media company are accusing them of censoring right wing media. Bolsonaro is a criminal (of course, so is Trump!)

Migrants deported to Panama by US are taken to jungle camp. Conditions at the camp are primitive.

Environmental groups sue to block White House’s offshore drilling plan. Stop this shit! We are ruining the planet!

As they gush over each other….an article about the Fox news inteview of Trump and Musk together, by Sean Hannity. “I love the president.” Musk is “a great person.” and “a brilliant guy.” ugh.

Civil rights groups sue Trump administratin over over President’s DEI orders.

Justice department official suggests Mayor Eric Adams helping Trump outweighs prosecution over corruption.

On the Opinion pages, we have: 1. Imagining a US betrayal is surreal for Europeans, 2. Farewell, Justice Department independence, 3. A humiliating month to be an American, by Nicholas Kristof, the best piece of all. He wonders that most Americans won’t appreciate the monumental damage Trump is doing to the post-WWII order that is the wellspring of Amerian global leadership and influence. He’s shattering it. He’s making the world more dangerous. He’s siding with an alleged war criminal (Putin) and poisoning relationships with longtime US allies.

Hegseth orders plans to cut 8% of defense budget for each of next 5 years. However, he’s protecting the plan to pour troops to the southern border to protect it from migrants (who aren’t there).

Musk’s team seeks access to vast amounts of data. These DOGE idiots will have access to Social Security Administration info on medical info, bank accounts and other sensitive personal data.

Lutnick is confirmed at Secretary of Commerce. Let the tariff wars begin.

Right wing media praises peace talks with Russia. “Every day has kind of felt like Christmas, hasn’t it, ” says Kari Lake. The discussions with Russia are “a breath of fresh air.

i got a break during the Sports section, but then came the Arts:

Kennedy Center challenge. Trump has installed himself as Chairman of the Kennedy Center (why???). He purged the center’s board of all Biden appointees and ousted Davi Rubenstein, the center’s largest donor. they also fired the president and other senior staff…all to rid the center of “woke” influences and “anti-American propaganda” to reshape the programming to the president’s tastes. Good luck with that.

And then, in the Thursday Styles section of the paper: White House green space at risk. Trump wants to rip out the rose garden and lawn and replace it with cement patio like he has at Mar-a-lago.

All of the above before I even dared to catch up on social media (do i dare?). It makes me sick. His impact on democracy is potentially disastrous, at home and around the world.

What If We Get It Right?

I just finished this wonderful book by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. It caught my eye late last year given the vital importance of the impact of climate change, and all the hand-wringing over it. I bought a copy for my son, for Christmas. Last month, the President of Island Institute (Island Institute) sent me a copy, as she did for all the board members…so I had my own copy to read!

I cannot recommend it highly enough. Of course she discusses the challenges and the difficulties we have left ourselves by doing way less than required for so many years. However, the book encompasses interviews with a variety of experts, on the science, financials, cultural issues, legal and regulatory and community impacts. She even put little marks to highlight key passages.

It is meant to inspire, and it does. It is meant permit us not to give up hope, and it does. It is meant to educate us and it really does this!

Of course it was published before Trump was put back in the White House and withdrew (again) from the Paris accords and started thumping his chest about fossil fuels all over again….a horrifying turn of events, that dampens my hope and inflames my anger.

I’m glad I have found a way to be somewhat involved, via the Island Institute up in Maine. Everyone needs to find their own way, looking (as Johnson suggests) at the intersection between What Are You Good At, What Brings You Joy, and What Work Needs Doing.

Good luck to us all. Hope is not a strategy.

I can’t work with her!

…and she can’t work with me. And we have learned that this is okay. Let me explain…

Shortly after we were married we bought a house. Like many a young couple we thought getting a ‘fixer-upper’ would be a good investment and good fun for us. It was a good investment. It was not fun. Our learning lesson came when we tried to work together on wallpapering. It was a terrible fight, we both still remember it – 40 years later!

The lesson grew as our marriage did, and what we learned is that we can’t work together. We make decisions together, but when it comes time to work on something, we do better separately than together. We each need our own space – physically and virtually. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. My wife is more handy than I am around the house but I pitch in on cleaning, doing the dishes and I am a better communicator, both written and verbal, so she asks me to write the letters that need drafting. I must have other relevant skills, but who knows…

Our situation won’t apply to everyone for sure – some couples will enjoy working together. Not us. I can already see one of my kids learning that her situation is more like ours, though. Her fiance is doing the work to fix up the house (he’s better at this than me!) and he’s doing it himself. She does a lot of other things that are in her wheelhouse…and that’s okay. They don’t need to force the “why can’t we work together.” They can make decisions together, love each other and make a life together, but

Don’t work together! :-).

You think this is funny?

I had dinner with an old friend recently. Inevitably the subject of Trump came up, and I shook my head at the most recent noises out of the asshole’s mouth, about taking over a couple of independent countries – Panama and Greenland. My friend said he thought it was all just funny, not even a bad idea maybe and he gets a kick out of it.

I didn’t respond at that point, but the more I think about it, the more I want to call him up and ask “do you really think this is funny?” I think we are in for four years of horrible nightmares from this egotistical blowhard

Another friend recently said “well they are all liars.” Wait – do you really compare anyone else in the political sphere with the lies that Trump tells….every day?

Another friend (i do have some who are more grounded) asked if 20 years ago I thought we could have imagined we’d be looking at the political landscape we now have. In so many ways it is unimaginable.

More people in the US voted for Donald Trump than for his opponent! I am so embarassed by my country. Whatever you think of Joe Biden and/or Kamala Harris, it’s just awful to think that most of my fellow citizens would prefer Trump as the leader of our country.

I feel like I have election PTSD. I’m getting over it, but I have to blow through the US news each day to avoid what he’s doing – his appointments are nuts, the involvement of Elon Musk is dangerous and his Vice President is a boob.

Dry January is in serious danger at this point!

4 dogs

The above photo is of my wife (thankfully she never reads my blog so won’t yell at me for posting her photo) and two of our four dogs.

During Thanksgiving we adopted a new pup, Gracie. She’s the black and white one – maybe some corgi, maybe some jack russell, who knows, who cares. She needed a home and a single mom in Brunswick Maine was keen to find the right home for her. The other one in the photo is Gimli, our little terrier mix of some sort. We adopted him a couple years ago when an elderly lady decided that a 1 year old pup with a lot of energy was not the best idea. We got the DNA test done, just for fun and it came back with 17 breeds (is that a record?)

They are now the best of friends, playing all day long and sleeping together at night (in our bed, of course).

They join the other two – a couple of elderly rescue labs, one black (Surrey) and one yellow (Rooney). Here they are. They are about 13 years old now. We adopted Surrey first, from “Adopt-a-Lab” a now defunct rescue society. She was the sweetest, most perfect dog we had ever had. So we decided to adopt a second, from the same organization. so it figures….Rooney was the worst behaved dog we had ever had. It took a good two years for her to settle down and get over whatever trauma she had been through. Now they are old ladies. Surrey is about 6 months older, but Rooney is the one who looks oldest now. Last year, on January 4, 2023, our vet did an x-ray and found a tumor in her chest that was and is inoperable. He said she probably had 1-3 months to live. Rooney was ill-behaved when she was young, as I mentioned, but she grow to become a loving weirdo, a “kook” (as our vet calls her, and says she is their favorite). She is also stubborn. We watched her closely over the next few months and as I write this – December 12, 2024, she is still with us. She goes for at least one and sometimes two walks a day. We feed her 3x day now and she gets babied. She doesn’t seem to give a shit what the vet said almost a year ago.

We love them all. Gracie has fit into the pack and acts like she belongs and has always belonged here. My daughter was telling her friend the other day that we have adopted a 4th dog. Her friend asked “are they crazy?” and my daughter pointed out that we are retired now. “Oh, then they should get some more!”

I don’t see how we could live without them – they are great company and almost like ‘replacement kids,” but don’t tell my real kids that.

What is conservatism?

I was speaking with a friend of mine (who is still a friend) who asserted that he was planning to vote for Donald Trump “because he’s a conservative.” I decided not to explore what he meant by that but I ponder it now, assisted by Heather Cox Richardson’s book “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.” Her book was published in 2023, before the recent election. Chapter 1 discusses Conservatism in America.

Conservatism seems to be contrasted with Radicalism, so let’s think about that. Are conservatives focussed on maintaining the status quo? keeping to the rule of law? the constitution?

History may provide some guidance. During the days of slavery it was hard to tell what was conservative. President Franklin Pierce claimed in 1855 that the Founders had believed in a hierarchy of races, in which “free white men” ruled over The subject races….Indian and African.” The editor of the Chicago Tribune was outraged and claimed the word ‘conservative’ for the cause of equality – “…Pierce’s message cannot fail to arrest the attention and shock the feelings of the most conservative among us.”

Yet Stephen Douglas tried to portray his political opponent Abraham Lincoln as a “radical abolitionist.” Lincoln of course hammered that Douglas and his supporters were the radicals. Lincoln claimed to be fighting against slavery on “original principles.”

Isn’t conservatism about sticking to the old and tried, against the new and untried?

I fear that people are clinging to such labels to defend their political positions. Those who vote Republican do so thinking they are voting for conservative values, accusing their political opponents of radical liberalism. Yet the old values of “all men are created equal” and “give me your tired, your poor.” seem to be conservative values.

It seems to me that ‘conservative’ refers to a reluctance for change, and sticking to old values and ways. That’s not necessarily good or bad, it’s just sense of values. Radicals seem to want change, sometimes for the sake of change, and they challenge conservative values. Both labels have now taken on purely political meanings and those in the USA or UK who believe they are “conservative” use the lable to defend themselves against radical liberals.

It’s all so tiring. I am going to read on in Richardson’s book…

Why people vote for Trump

I am not voting for Donald Trump for President. I didn’t last time and wouldn’t consider it this time, for many reasons. I like nothing about this man. My reasons for not voting for Trump are not the subject of this post, however. I do know people who are voting for him and so I have spent time thinking about why they do so. I have come up with three basic reasons:

  1. They like his policies

A lot of people believe that his policies are more in line with their views, or more importantly, will benefit them personally. This might the belief that their taxes will go down, or the price of eggs and gas will go down, or something similar. This is usually a “what’s in it for me” reaction rather than ‘it’s good for all of us.”

2. They in fact love what he says

Most(?) people find what Trump says to be offensive, repulsive, amateurish, rude, pick any one of many adjectives. There are a lot of people who just love this about him. He says things that they may have been thinking (immigrants are bad for our country, or muslims are dangerous) but would not have thought acceptable in polite society until they listened to Trump. He in fact gives ‘permission’ for people to not just think this way, but to speak this way. They are not repulsed by his diatribe; they eat it up!

3. It’s my team and I have to vote for my team

This is the one that bothers me the most I think. Many people have conservative views and simply choose to vote for Trump because he is the leader of their ‘team.’ They believe they need to vote of the red team regardless of many things that my in fact repulse them about Donald Trump personally. He may be an asshole, in other words, but he’s ‘our asshole.’ I have friends in this category 3 and it disappoints me terribly. when I asked my friend why he would vote for this guy he said “I’m a conservative.” This is just “he’s on my team.” It ignores the fact that Trump is no conservative; he in all this for himself and that alone. You can admire conservatives – Liz Cheney is very conservative, as is Mitt Romney – but they are not irresponsible assholes. I shake my head when I think about my friend who is voting for Trump in this way.

Finally!

I turned 65 last month. I am now eligible for Medicare. Rather than being depressed about aging, I am thrilled. I cancelled my $1400/month Obamacare bill from Connecticare and signed up for medicare immediately.

It’s crazy that in this country you have to wait until you are 65 to get reasonably priced (certainly not free) health care insurance…unless you are eligible for medicaid, which I am not. We can argue about the quality of care in places like Canada, UK, Australia, etc. etc. but they have determined that all citizens are deserving of health care, and it is provided.

I had my appendix removed a few years ago when I was living in London. Fortunately, I was registered with the NHS there; I went to a local hospital and was there for several days until they removed the offending organ. The total bill was $0. Did they do everything right? Were they efficient? I don’t know, but I am sure I don’t feel like arguing about it. I remember looking to see what that would have cost in the USA and it was thousands of dollars.

I am now 65. I am lucky as I am healthy and in no need of a lot of prescription drugs or medical attention. I am active and happy. Again – I am lucky.