Trump's Mafia-Styled Operation

Trump's Mafia-Styled Operation March 6, 2025 Trump has brought a mafia-styled operation to the Presidency, not for the first time. There is no clearer way I can describe it. Five years ago, he was on the brink of being impeached. He told President Zelensky there would be no more aid for Ukraine until Zelensky agreed to dig deep into computer files to find evidence to impugn Hunter Biden. It is a tragedy that Republican Senators who knew better, didn’t stand up then to impeach him, thereby thwarting the possibility of his returning to office. Today, the beat goes on. Trump is holding Zelensky and Ukraine hostage again. In order to receive more military aid, they are going to have to confer a substantial amount of the country’s mineral rights to the United States without, so far, a guarantee joined by the US, of preserving Ukraine's independence. This mafia-style operation is nothing new for Trump. It is how he ran his businesses. Totally transactional. Bluffing. Following the mantra--"if I hold the stronger hand I win". No matter what happens to you. The mafia style leadership characterizes Trump's relationships with other nations. Trump is using tariffs as a bludgeon to force countries into agreements. He offers to extend the enforcement of the tariff or pull it back, depending on what the leader agrees to tomorrow or next week. As David Sanger of the NYT aptly describes it, he "is turning tariffs on and off like tap water". He is acting almost "on whim". Wang Li, China's foreign minister characterizes Trump's tariff actions as "the law of the jungle". This is sheer power politics. It is a commitment to “the mighty will rule over the weak.” As Thucydidis wrote centuries ago,"the strong do what they can and the week suffer what they must". These tariff actions are leading to some short term "concessions" but this bullying and whip lash approach will not end well for us. The abandonment of a rules-based and trust-based relationship with other nations, including our closest historic allies has been and will remain essential to living in the world we want to live in. Our network of allies has been a great strenth of our nation. Trump is decimating it, day by day, hour by hour. There is no sign to date that Trump’s appointments to his cabinet or to his Republican colleagues are going to stand up against this mafia-type operation. I think the only thing that will lead them to is what I fear what may well happen to our nation: economic decline and continued chaos unsettling and endangering the lives of millions and millions of people. This is happening right now. The mafia styled operation also characterizes the domestic actions of the Trump Administration. Trump and Musk are dismantling institutions which have served this country for decades. Not perfectly; every institution needs improvement, some significantly in their efficiency and quality. But we need to build them--not destroy them-- we need to make them stronger to serve the public better. What we are witnessing now is chaotic and often cruel destruction without strategic calculation of how to make them better. We are in a troubled time. Not for the first time, we are in search of a leader who can bring this country back to its highest values, practically and cogently. We faced this need many times before. We faced it with Abraham Lincoln. With Teddy Roosevelt, with Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Harry Truman and others. They brought this country back on course whether that be with our domestic institutions, race relationships or our relationships with other countries. In the meantime, we need to push back at what is happening here that is wrong. I am encouraged by what the courts are doing. But I believe we need a mass movement of the kind we witnessed with the suffragettes and Civil Rights leaders which will need to be led by a leader who has yet to clearly emerge but I am sure is there. Reply, Reply All or Forward

Trump's Mafia-Styled Operation

Trump has brought a mafia-styled operation to the Presidency, not for the first time. There is no clearer way I can describe it. Five years ago, he was on the brink of being impeached. He told President Zelensky there would be no more aid for Ukraine until Zelensky agreed to dig deep into computer files to find evidence to impugn Hunter Biden. It is a tragedy that Republican Senators who knew better, didn’t stand up then to impeach him, thereby thwarting the possibility of this man returning to office. Today, the beat goes on. Trump is holding Zelensky and Ukraine hostage again. In order to receive more military aid, they are going to have to confer a substantial amount of the country’s mineral rights to the United States without, so far, a guarantee joined by the US, of preserving Ukraine's independence. This mafia-style operation is nothing new for Trump. It is how he ran his businesses. Totally transactional. Bluffing. Following the mantra--"if I hold the stronger hand I win". No matter what happens to you. The mafia style leadership characterizes Trump's relationships with other nations. Trump is using tariffs as a bludgeon to force countries into agreements. He offers to extend the enforcement of the tariff or pull it back, depending on what the leader agrees to tomorrow or next week. As David Sanger of the NYT aptly describes it, he "is turning tariffs on and off like tap water". He is acting almost "on whim". Wang Li, China's foreign minister charactertizes Trump's tariff actions as "the law of the jungle". This is sheer power politics. It is a commitment to “the mighty will rule over the weak.” As Thucydidis wrote centuries ago,"the strong do what they can and the week suffer what they must". These tariff actions are leading to some short term "concessions" but this bullying and whip lash approach will not end well for us. The abandonment of a rules-based and trust-based relationship with other nations, including our closest historic allies has been and will remain essential to living in the world we want to live in. Our network of allies has been a great strenth of our nation. Trump is decimating it, day by day, hour by hour. There is no sign to date that Trump’s appointments to his cabinet or to his Republican colleagues are going to stand up against this mafia-type operation. I think the only thing that will lead them to is what I fear what may well happen to our nation: economic decline and continued chaos unsettling and endangering the lives of millions and millions of people. This is happening right now. The mafia styled operation also characterizes the domestic actions of the Trump Administration. Trump and Musk are dismantling institutions which have served this country for decades. Not perfectly; every institution needs improvement, some significantly in their efficiency and quality. But we need to build them--not destroy them-- we need to make them stronger to serve the public better. What we are witnessing now is chaotic and often crueldestruction, without strategic calculation of how to make them better. We are in a troubled time. We are in search of a leader who can bring this country back to its highest values, practically and cogently. We faced this need many times before. We faced it with Abraham Lincoln. With Teddy Roosevelt, with Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Harry Truman and others. They brought this country back on course whether that be with race relationships or in our relationships with other countries. In the meantime, we need to push back at what is happening here that is wrong. I am encouraged by what the courts are doing. But I believe we need a mass movement like we witnessed with the suffragetes and Civil Rights leaders that is going to have to be led by a leader who has yet to emerge but I am sure is there. Reply, Reply All or Forward

Refelctions on Religion from Twenty-Two Years Ago--I Feel the Same Way Today

I have found the past year to be a very difficult one in terms of reconciling the faith I had in a super-ordinate power of goodness and ultimate creator of what exists, and the reaffirmation of the terrible damage and injustice that can grow from the fanatical, even if misguided, pursuit of religious orthodoxy. The torturous and horrific acts committed by some in the name of Allah are only the most recent manifestation of where religious belief can carry. To say that religion is not the root cause of violence (and sadly I think that judgment in some cases cannot be supported) does not change the fact that religion has too often served as the justification and been used to broaden the reach of the pursuit of evil. We see throughout history innumerable cases where religion, like it or not, has led to such inhuman ends. The crusades led by the Christians. The battles between Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians. The battle between Jewish and Palestinian fanatics. The Hindus versus the Muslims and many more. What is one to make of this? Surely there is no denying the benefits that organized religion has brought to people in numbers far too great to count. I am among them. If I had not been brought up a Catholic, if I had not participated in the Episcopal Church, particularly in the opportunity it gave me for self-reflection and contact with members of the clergy who inspired me with their thoughts, I surely would not be the person I am today. However, I find it unsatisfying and intellectually dishonest to simply leave the matter accepting that, yes, organized religion does a lot of good, but it does a lot of harm, too. What is so ironical is that, if you take the thoughts of Jesus, pure and simple, you could hardly go wrong. You could almost sum up every book written about good living in the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. I am coming to a belief that the problem with organized religion is that it becomes fossilized and bureaucratized. Fossilized in the sense that it is slow or unwilling to change its views on what practices and behaviors are truly in accord with the root values of the great world religions. Those root values can be found in the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, in the admonition to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” If religion stopped there, and thought about what it meant to carry out these virtues faithfully in today’s world, we would not end up, I submit, with the exclusive “you are with us or you are against us” “only the faithful are worthy” attitude that have too often led to prejudice, violence and even war. The mistake of organized religions is to come to the belief that they have a unique interpretation of truth that extends beyond what is really the foundation of truth – being all one can be and honoring others as oneself. They become structured and bureaucratized and then work for their own self-perpetuation, knowing it or not, even if this is not in the furtherance of the few ultimate truths that really matter. Of course, religious institutions are not the only organizations that fall into this trap. All organizations do. The problem which religions face to a particular degree is that they don’t have built within them the adequate balance of power to adapt to the need to change rapidly. One need only think how long it has taken (and is still taking) for divorce to be accepted in certain religions. One thinks of all the artifice that has been used to get around this requirement, engaging in intellectual dishonesty in the extreme. What’s more, almost all religious organizations are self-appointed in their succession. Governments, too, can be slow to change, but their perpetuation (at least in a democracy) is determined by the electorate. It is not surprising that those societies which have not allowed the electorate to govern the succession have not, by and large, been successful over time. And even those, such as China today, which have continued to be ruled with a strong autocratic hand, have increasingly brought into the workings of society the individual choice in the economic and social spheres needed for the structure and operation of society to continue to evolve. What has led organized religion to change, it seems to me, often after an enormous length of time, is what has led other organizations to change, and that is survival. It is only as “the faithful” drop away from an organized church that the need for change will be truly embraced. And yet that need can come slowly for the power of organized religion is strong because the truth of its basic tenets remain, even as too often its rituals and practices become arcane, out of touch with modern society and honored more in the breach than in the practice. Moreover, for most of us, it is a fact that a church is far more conducive to reflection on the basic truths that make any religion of value than one’s living room. There have been a few members of the clergy whom I have met during my lifetime who have been able to articulate the simple truths of living a good life clearly and cogently. They have changed my life. I think all I can conclude from this difficult and in many ways unsettling line of thought is that the imperative is to try to adhere to these basic truths as well as one possibly can while seeking out individual(s) who can help bring them to light for me/us in a more meaningful way than we can do on our own. I have found such individuals in Bob Gerhard and Paula Jackson, among others. I need to hear from them more often. These thoughts led me to record these excerpts and reflections from the book Doubts and Loves by Richard Holloway: I would like to suggest that we should switch the emphasis in Christianity from belief to practice, from believing things about Jesus to the imitation of Jesus. There would be three challenging elements here: Resolution to love rather than condemn sinners. Seek to understand others rather than rush to judgment. Active pity for the disadvantaged of the earth, then work to change their lot. A mistrust of power and violence, both personal and institutional, and an act of opposition to them. I would like to suggest that worldlessness or identification with the powerless is the key to the mystery of Jesus. The paradox is that we have only heard of Jesus through an institution that has not experienced worldlessness for a very long time. The expendable Man of Nazareth is now represented by an institution that follows the logic of all worldly institutions the logic of expedience; the drive to survive; yet we would not even know about this paradox if it were not for the Church. The Sermon on the Mount is not exactly translatable into complete political practice, but it can act as a stimulus to aspiration; it can create the sort of discontent that leads to action. A transformed version of the Jesus tradition, adapted for our day, would lay less emphasis on believing things about Jesus and more emphasis on imitating Jesus. It would be a practice system rather than a belief system. What is left of Christianity should be the practice of the kind of love that subverts the selfishness of power, whether it is the subtle power of spiritual or the brutal power of political institutions. All concentrations of power justify their ascendancy with theory, as well as with more blatant methods. I would like to suggest that it is more important to open ourselves to the words that gave rise to the claim of divinity rather than to profess allegiance to the claim itself, but show little or no personal response to the words that precipitated it. The exciting thing about our history, the thing that helps to balance all the evil we have committed, is our passion for discovery, for beginning again. Christ’s teaching on forgiveness has already opened for us the possibility of a new politics that can even move us beyond great tragedy and start again. Young people are the way the world keeps on beginning again. For those who want to live the world, it must begin with attention. Intensity. Repentance. Forgiving others is a true win/win. For ourselves and for others. For those doing the forgiving and those forgiven.

The Challenge And Urgency of Standing Up to do What is Right

This challenge was illustrated in 1940 by the reluctance of people to face up to the horror of Hitler. Here is a petition signed by Potter Stewart, a future Supreme Court Justice, and Congressman Gerald Ford, a future President of the United States. “We demand the Congress refrain from war, even if England is on the verge of defeat.” Or, at the same time, this from William Coffin, as the Treasurer of Harvard talking to its President Conant: “Hitler is going to win. Let’s be friends with him.” This reminded Arthur Schlesinger of the challenge faced by the old Whig Party, the party of business in antebellum America. It did not confront the challenge of slavery. Yet slavery was as urgent a question in the 1850s as Nazism was in the 1940s. Everyone had to come to a decision on this. Just as everyone today must come to a decision on who holds the responsibility for Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Niebuhr presents the challenge of doing "what is right" by illuminating the mixed nature of man: “The plight of the self is that it cannot do the good it intends because man’s pretensions to reason and virtue,” he argued, “are eradicably tainted by self-interest and love. Original sin lies in man’s illusion that he can overcome his inherent finiteness and weakness". Over-weening self-pride permeates all human endeavor and brings evil into history, Niehbuhr argues. A second theme of Niebuhr is the relationship between history and eternity. The modern fallacy, he thought, was the idea that redemption is possible within the history. Man must understand the incompleteness of all historic good as well as the corruption of all historic achievement. Wisdom, he wrote, “is dependent upon a humble recognition of the limits of our knowledge and our power.” “Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime. Therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.” We are also saved, I have found, by the final form of love which is understanding and respecting another person’s reality as he or she sees it. I do not share Niebuhr’s thought that there is "corruption of all historic achievement.” I don’t buy this, not for a moment. There are historic achievements which do not become corrupt if carried out in the way that was embodied by that “historic achievement.” I think of a brilliant piece of art: a sculpture by Michelangelo or a timeless book by Tolstoy. I think of the development of the relationship of mutual understanding, true mutual understanding. That is not destined to become corrupt. There are things that are so right they stand the test of time. Above all, in my experience, works of art and personal relationships which are truly timeless.

"Letting Putin Off the Hook"

I have anticipated Trump would drive a settlement in the Russia-Ukraine war. But I did not imagine he would do so by letting Putin off the hook, doing so by giving a pass to Putin for his illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine and today blaming the Ukrainians and their leaders for the war and negotiating terms without Ukraine at the table. Yet that is what is happening as I write this. It would not be a big leap for President Ji of China to see this and conclude the mainland's claim to Taiwan is rooted in history and hence justified to be carried out by force. Here is an essay I wrote about 3 years ago, 2 months after Putin's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I talked about the importance of "human agency". We are seeing that play out in a way I never expected--with the President of the United States turning the responsibility for the war on its head, placing the blame squarely on Ukraine and absolving Putin of any responsibility. Who would have believed that!! In this essay I posited the need for a different Russian leader to emerge to achieve a lasting peace. I still think that is true. But I never anticipated that an American President would be the change agent to drive the peace process by denying Russia's culpability even while Putin remains in office. Trump has conceded Putin's key demands even before reaching the negotiation table.: no admission to NATO; Russia keeps the land it illegally conquered. We have utterly betrayed the Ukrainian nation, its people who have sacrificed to much and its leadership. We have betrayed the Russian people who have fought valiantly at the risk and sometimes cost of their lives against Putin's autocratic and immoral rule. This outcome, while substantively and realistically is about what I have expected for the last couple of years, BUT NEVER in the context of absolving Putin of the responsibility for acting illegally. This is unforgivable and constitutes a huge risk for the future. Now, the key is to establish critical support for Ukraine which even without NATO assures it--and makes it clear to Russia--that Ukraine's independence is guaranteed by the US and our allies, whom Trump and his administration have recently thrown under the bus. It remains to be seen if that will occur. It MUST. I include below a posting I made threee months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The themes and convictions I present still are relevant today. "I Never Felt I Would Live to See The Day, Yet There Remains Room for Hope" May 16, 2022 Like so many who have studied Russian and Ukrainian history, who have come to have many Russian and Ukrainian friends and admire Russian and Ukrainian culture, I never thought I would live to see the day when the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, would launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I thought Vladimir Putin was more prudent than that. I thought that he would see the risk as too high and the likely damage to his own country too great. That, of course, is not the way it has turned out. That brutal reality—and the resulting deaths, displacement of millions of lives and the economic devastation which has resulted from it—they are a source of unspeakable pain and regret. I never felt I would live to see this day. And yet…I am also reminded that I never thought I would live to see the day when the Soviet Union would peaceably dissolve as a collective body of nations committed to Communism and to the prosecution of a Cold War with the West. I never thought I’d live to see the day when I, then President of Procter & Gamble, along with thousands of others, played a role in creating a business and organization in Russia, not that long after I had chased Russian submarines around the North Atlantic as part of the U.S. Navy. No matter what the future brings, I will always be incredibly proud of what our P&G Russian men and women achieved. What do I hope to demonstrate with this sequence of events which I never thought I would have lived to experience? What perspective, if any, might it offer for the future? Several things, I believe. It forcefully underscores that history is not inevitable. That it does not proceed in a straight line. That it encounters unexpected dramatic changes. It cautions us to not give up hope. Situations that have looked borderline hopeless in the past have turned around, gotten better, more often than not in ways we did not anticipate. Above all, for me, it highlights the importance of individual agency. I do not believe that the peaceful demise of the Soviet Union, accomplished in the face of the great threat of it being violent, could possibly have happened if it were not for the person of Mikhail Gorbachev. To be sure, there were underlying factors, importantly economic and the openness of communication that allowed Russians to see what was happening to the West. These were foundational realities that helped prompt dramatic change in Russia. But the evolution of this change in the peaceful way in which it occurred was by no means certain. There were other Russian leaders, who I encountered first-hand, who would have fought the dissolution of the Soviet Union tooth and nail, with great loss of life. In much the same way, one can explain Vladimir Putin’s disastrous decision to invade Ukraine and trace it back to certain historical decisions, particularly the expansion of NATO and the failure to grasp the slim opportunity that existed at the turn of the century to bring Russia into a Pan-European security network. As I wrote in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, there is “enough blame to go around.” However, make no mistake. The decision on how to respond to the perceived (or actual as Russia saw it) risk that Russia’s security posed by NATO was singularly dependent on the decision by Vladimir Putin, as he called on his army to invade Ukraine. The decision to do this without even obtaining an even halfway accurate idea of how the Ukrainian people would react to this invasion also rests squarely on Vladimir Putin. So there we have two of the most unforgettable events in my entire 80+-year life that I never thought I would see the day to experience. This view of history leads me to the hope that there will again be a shift of power and belief system in Russia which this time will offer the opportunity for Russia to take its place within a broad European security network. For decades, I firmly believed this is where Russia belongs. Yes, bringing its own unique cultural history and belief systems but still part of Europe and the West. Having had the benefit of being close to Russia and Russian people for over 30 years and having studied its history and culture, I firmly believe that its natural place in this global spectrum we inhabit is part of a broader Europe. There are already major differences between countries in Europe: between Germany and Italy, France and the U.K., Poland and Spain. Russia, too, will have its own unique characteristics. But while it didn’t participate fully in The Enlightenment, all you need to do is read Russian literature and experience its music and its art and know its people to see the place it occupies in Western culture. The fact that this will not happen in my lifetime, with my now being over 80, is disappointing but it is not personally deflating. I know history is long. No set of experiences shows how it can change more than what we have experienced in Russia over my adult lifetime. I am conscious that achieving this end will not happen on automatic pilot. It will require many things which I cannot pretend to know, but three I can: 1. People in Russia, as many are right now, standing up bravely, at risk of their lives, to argue for and commit to advance as best they can, a liberal way of life. People who do not give up hope in a better future. 2. That the people of the world at large and of the West in particular not "blackballl" the Russian people generally as evil and as "enemies" but rather recognize that this tragic decision to invade Ukraine was very much the decision of its leadership. And recognize further that in the long run--and the short run too for that matter--that working with Russia, without expecting we will see everything alike, is in the interest of the United States, Russia and the entire world. 3.. Ultimately, the emergence of a Russian leader who can gain the confidence of the Russian people and play the positive role that Gorbachev did over 30 years ago, and Lech Walesa did in Poland, and Nelson Mandela did in South Africa, and Abraham Lincoln did in the United States and that this leader will be matched with leaders from the West who are prepared to work together to achieve common existential goals.

"Playing the Cards You Have...For the Future...For People

“Playing the Cards You Have…For the Future…For People” Sheila Jackson Lee was a Congresswoman who served in Houston for 30 years, from 1995 until her death in July 2024. I came to know her over the years through our joint association with Yale. I admired her enormously. How could I not? Sheila Jackson Lee’s life was celebrated with a glorious memorial service held at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Numerous luminaries spoke, including former President Bill Clinton. President Clinton delivered a memorable eulogy to Ms. Lee. It included a number of stirring stories, but there were two which I will never forget. Clinton recalled that when he was in the White House in the mid-1990s, he had what was called a “just say yes” list. On this list were only a handful of people who were so persistent and persuasive in their points of view, he came to believe “he might just as well say yes now” because you knew you would eventually. On this list, Clinton recounted, were long-term political leaders that you would expect, including Nancy Pelosi and Senator Ted Kennedy. Also on the list, surprisingly, I’m sure to many, was this Freshman Congresswoman, Sheila Jackson Lee. She earned the reputation even before she was a Congresswoman and, quickly when she became one, that she would persist in advocating what she thought was right, again and again. The second memory Clinton shared of Ms. Lee is one, which even more I will remember forever. He said quite simply: No matter what the situation, right up to the time of her passing, “Sheila Jackson Lee played the cards she had. She played them for the future,” Clinton remarked with passion and, I would add, “she played them for people.” I can’t overemphasize the importance I attach to this call to “play the cards you have, play for them for the future and, yes, play them for people.” Doing that at every stage of our life, including when we are most challenged, perhaps especially when we are challenged, is vital. Think of this metaphor. You are playing poker. You get seven cards. Two or three of them are great. Two mediocre. And two are, plain and simple, terrible. But this is your hand. There is no point in lamenting or grousing about it. You have to play it as best as you humanly can and, yes, play it for the future and play it for people. I can relate to this mantra “play the cards you have” to every phase of my life. There were times during my career at Procter & Gamble when I was faced with circumstances that I can only describe as having some “pretty bad cards.” But I knew I needed to make the most of them myself and with others. When I had cancer in 2005, and I was given a 50/50 chance to survive for five years, there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in my mind: I was going to play the cards I had, and I was going to play them for the future, and I did. I know that attitude helped me survive. I think of my wife, Francie, now battling cancer. She’s been doing it for four years. Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. She is certainly playing the cards she has, heroically, with the most positive spirit imaginable. Earlier, during my long association with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, I can remember the day when an advisor came into the room to tell us they had badly overestimated attendance and the need for us to raise money had almost tripled. This was an ugly hand. But I and all of us knew that the Freedom Center was vital; that we needed to make it survive; that we needed to play the cards we had. “Playing the cards you have” calls for imagination, calls for persistence, and calls for partners who can help win the hand. It is not a passive, “let’s see how it develops” frame of mind. It is an assertive vision “we are going to make the most of this situation” frame of mind. I think of the heroes that I admire most. Winston Churchill in 1941-1942. As he became Prime Minister, he was inheriting a really bad hand. Germans were marching through North Africa. Japan was capturing almost all of Southeast Asia. There was incessant bombing in London. But he took the hand he had, and he made the most of it. He rallied the British people. He strategically saw he needed to bring the United States into the war and that became his top priority. That was the “future” he was intended to achieve, and he was playing his hand, yes, for the “people.” The citizens of the United Kingdom, whom he rallied. Yes, “play the hand you have. Play it for the future. Play it for people.” The story Bill Clinton told about Sheila Jackson Lee will forever motivate me. Perhaps the story will also motivate you.

What Have I Learned From Caregivers Who Have supported Me and My Wife, Francie

What I have learned from the (mainly) women who have been caring for Francie and me over the past four years. ncoi As I think about what I have learned over the past four years by far the greatest amount has come from what I have learned from caregivers-- nurses and nurses’ aides in hospitals and the round-the-clock caregivers who have supported my wife, Francie, and me at home. What have I learned? I’ve learned the challenges that people are facing in making ends meet. I have experienced the determination and persistence of these women in pursuing their own education and supporting the education of their children to achieve ends that they never were able to meet. I’ve learned about the wisdom that these women have. Wisdom that goes well beyond what one would attribute to having a college education, which virtually all of these women do not have. I have learned how much we can learn from one another by knowing each other’s stories. I once not too long ago spent 40 minutes in the wee hours of the morning talking to a woman who was cleaning my hospital room. On another occasion, I spent time with a nurse's aide who had a quiet moment and shared stories with me about her life and her family, her challenges, her aspirations and what she is doing to meet them. These have been inspiring stories. I never would have met these remarkable women (and some men) if I had not been challenged medically or if Francie hadn’t been challenged. There is a lesson in this that is not new to me. We need to know the stories of people who are different than us. We don’t do that nearly enough today. The sense of community we had when I was growing up has been severely diminished. Fewer people are in the Scouts. Fewer people join the military service, which brings people who are different together. Fewer people are in social clubs. One would hope that religion would bring people together. And it does in terms of what is preached: treat your neighbor as yourself. But too often, at least in my experience, the church services I go to don’t provide a good opportunity for interaction, to get to know one another. One has to be intentional in doing this, but I have always found it informing and inspiring. Often, as in the case with many of our caregivers, in amazing ways. It is notably and correctly observed that the Democratic Party has lost touch with and support from the “working class.” And it has. And Trump and the MAGA movement have established that relationship with people who historically have formed the foundation of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has failed to show they understand the challenges and, yes, the grievance felt by the so-called working class; grievance not even so much economically, as grievance of being looked down on. Some of my own goals have been affected by this thinking. I have long been committed to the importance of everyone having a four-year college education. In recent years, it has become clear to me that desirable as it is, going to college should not be the signal of merit or achievement. Rather, the goal has to be helping people do what they need to achieve the life they want that will provide economic security and a sense of personal worth. That could be a two-year college, a trade school or an internship with a business. One of the sons of some of our best friends, Chris and Angela Schunk, is Crosley. He is completing four years at Miami and doing well. But that’s not his main interest. He is an entrepreneur. He is starting a landscape business. ************************************* All of this leads me to the pursuit of the governorship of Ohio by Amy Acton. My son, David, is helping her. It’s clear that Amy faces the major challenge of creating a message and establishing a voice that reflects her intention and ability to understand and support everyone, including those people who have felt disenfranchised, people living in rural areas, people who don’t have a college education. It starts with recognizing their worth and then identifying and implementing actions that promise to support the realization of their ambitions and personal goals. This is a noble undertaking. I believe Amy Acton has the temperament and the inner beliefs in her soul to do this. But it will need to be very intentional.

"Why Religion?" An Inspiring Book Which Led to Deep Personal Reflection

I drew many meaningful insights from a book recommended to me one of my closest friends many ago titled "Why Religion? A Personal Story" by Elaine Pagels. How to go on? Pagels writes after a searing personal tragedy. She recalls Viktor Frankl's writing that when our lives or the world in which we find ourselves living turn out different from what we expect or would ever want, we have to do “what life expects of us”; "We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who are being questioned by life—daily and hourly…Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems, and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Pagels writes: "I was startled to realize that somehow I still wanted to believe that we live in a morally ordered universe, in which someone, or something—God or nature?—would keep track of what’s fair. Was this a relic of Western cultural tradition that moralizes history, like those old Bible stories I’d heard, that suggest that doing good ensures well-being and doing wrong brings disaster?" So, I ask myself, personally, do we live in a "morally ordered universe.” I believe the answer is "yes.” To be sure, I recognize that my response is an expression of faith. At almost the same time I was reading "Why Religion" I came upon a compelling statement bearing on the role of belief and faith in William James' "Essays in Pragmatism". James writes. "Belief, as measured by action, not only does but must outstrip scientific evidence. In such questions as God, immortality, absolute morality and free will, (one) can always doubt his creed but his intimate persuasion is that the odds in its favor are strong enough to warrant him acting all along on the assumption of its truth". We may in the end find we are wrong, I reflect, but I have found it better to act on the belief it is true than a belief it is not. This is how I have long felt about my faith in a Supreme Power, in there being an ultimate good.” William James uses a common sense example to illustrate his point. A rock climber finds himself in a life-threatening predicament: he has to make a leap to another distant ledge to have a chance of surviving. It is a longer leap than he has ever before attempted. He has no evidence he can do it. He is faced with a choice. On the one hand, he can be so consumed by doubt, debating and delaying his decision whether to jump, to the point he loses the strength to do it successfully when he does try. Alternatively, he can decide to act on the belief, with the "faith" that he can do it. Needless to say, he is far more likely to survive pursing the latter choice. Just so it was faith that led me to push to open up Eastern Europe aggressively with P&G in the early 1990s. So it was with faith that we set out raise 100+ million dollars to build the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. So it is with faith that I pray to God for the wisdom to know the right thing to do and the courage and determination to do it. I do so uncertain if God actually hears my prayer, but I know that reaching out to God helps me act in line with my best instincts. As James writes: "There are cases where faith creates its own verification.” I have discovered that again and again. Pagels goes on to shine a bright light on our commonality as people. She recognizes our common passage on the journey of life. Here is what she writes: In the Gospel of Thomas, the “good news” is not only about Jesus; it’s also about every one of us. For while we ordinarily identify ourselves by specifying how we differ, in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, background, family name, the call to recognize that we are “children of God” requires us to acknowledge how we are the same—members, so to speak, of the same family. These sayings suggest what later becomes a primary theme of Jewish mystical tradition: that the “image of God,” divine light given in creation, is hidden deep within each one of us, linking our fragile, limited selves to their divine source. Although we’re often unaware of that spiritual potential, the Thomas sayings urge us to keep on seeking until we find it: “Within a person of light, there is light. If illuminated, it lights up the whole world; if not, everything is dark.” Emerging from a time of unbearable grief, (Pagels had just lost her husband after earlier losing her son), "such sayings helped dispel isolation and turn me from despair, suggesting that every one of us is woven into the mysterious fabric of the universe, and into connection with each other, with all being, and with God." Believing this is a matter of faith. Many would argue we are all independent individuals with particular characteristics of race and ethnicity developed over a long period of evolution—and not interconnected as "children of God" nor members of the same family in a true familial sense. I, of course, cannot offer irrefutable evidence that we are all are indeed members of the same family. But I believe it. And I am sure that belief, or faith if you'd prefer it, has led me to act differently than I otherwise would. It leads me to try my best to put myself in the other person's shoes, to try to listen to others carefully, knowing I have a lot to learn and that it is the greatest demonstration of respect I can convey to another person. And it leads me to truly believe and act on the truth, "Everyone Counts.” Once again quoting William James: "There are cases where faith creates its own verification.” The Gospel of Thomas, then, is all about relationships—how, when we come to know ourselves, simultaneously we come to know God. Implicit in this relationship is the paradox of gnosis—not intellectual knowledge, but knowledge of the heart. What first we must come to know is that we cannot fully know God since that Source far transcends our understanding. But what we can know is that we’re intimately connected with that divine Source, since “in him we live and move and have our being.”

A Personal Examination and Expression of Faith

I drew many meaningful insights from a book recommended to me one of my closest friends many ago titled Why Religion? A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels. How to go on? Pagels writes after a searing personal tragedy. She recalls Viktor Frankl's writing that when our lives or the world in which we find ourselves living turn out different from what we expect or would ever want, we have to do “what life expects of us”; "We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who are being questioned by life—daily and hourly…Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems, and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Pagels writes: "I was startled to realize that somehow I still wanted to believe that we live in a morally ordered universe, in which someone, or something—God or nature?—would keep track of what’s fair. Was this a relic of Western cultural tradition that moralizes history, like those old Bible stories I’d heard, that suggest that doing good ensures well-being and doing wrong brings disaster?" So, I ask myself, personally, do we live in a "morally ordered universe.” I believe the answer is "yes.” To be sure, I recognize that my response is an expression of faith. At almost the same time I was reading Why Religion? I came upon a compelling statement bearing on the role of belief and faith in William James' Essays in Pragmatism. James writes. "Belief, as measured by action, not only does but must outstrip scientific evidence. In such questions as God, immortality, absolute morality and free will, (one) can always doubt his creed but his intimate persuasion is that the odds in its favor are strong enough to warrant him acting all along on the assumption of its truth". We may in the end find we are wrong, I reflect, but I have found it better to act on the belief it is true than a belief it is not. This is how I have long felt about my faith in a Supreme Power, in there being an ultimate good.” William James uses a common sense example to illustrate his point. A rock climber finds himself in a life-threatening predicament: he has to make a leap to another distant ledge to have a chance of surviving. It is a longer leap than he has ever before attempted. He has no evidence he can do it. He is faced with a choice. On the one hand, he can be so consumed by doubt, debating and delaying his decision whether to jump, to the point he loses the strength to do it successfully when he does try. Alternatively, he can decide to act on the belief, with the "faith" that he can do it. Needless to say, he is far more likely to survive pursing the latter choice. Just so it was faith that led me to push to open up Eastern Europe aggressively with P&G in the early 1990s. So it was with faith that we set out raise 100+ million dollars to build the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. So it is with faith that I pray to God for the wisdom to know the right thing to do and the courage and determination to do it. I do so uncertain if God actually hears my prayer, but I know that reaching out to God helps me act in line with my best instincts. As James writes: "There are cases where faith creates its own verification.” I have discovered that again and again. Pagels goes on to shine a bright light on our commonality as people. She recognizes our common passage on the journey of life. Here is what she writes: In the Gospel of Thomas, the “good news” is not only about Jesus; it’s also about every one of us. For while we ordinarily identify ourselves by specifying how we differ, in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, background, family name, the call to recognize that we are “children of God” requires us to acknowledge how we are the same—members, so to speak, of the same family. These sayings suggest what later becomes a primary theme of Jewish mystical tradition: that the “image of God,” divine light given in creation, is hidden deep within each one of us, linking our fragile, limited selves to their divine source. Although we’re often unaware of that spiritual potential, the Thomas sayings urge us to keep on seeking until we find it: “Within a person of light, there is light. If illuminated, it lights up the whole world; if not, everything is dark.” Emerging from a time of unbearable grief, (Pagels had just lost her husband after earlier losing her son), "such sayings helped dispel isolation and turn me from despair, suggesting that every one of us is woven into the mysterious fabric of the universe, and into connection with each other, with all being, and with God." Believing this is a matter of faith. Many would argue we are all independent individuals with particular characteristics of race and ethnicity developed over a long period of evolution—and not interconnected as "children of God" nor members of the same family in a true familial sense. I, of course, cannot offer irrefutable evidence that we are all are indeed members of the same family. But I believe it. And I am sure that belief, or faith if you'd prefer it, has led me to act differently than I otherwise would. It leads me to try my best to put myself in the other person's shoes, to try to listen to others carefully, knowing I have a lot to learn and that it is the greatest demonstration of respect I can convey to another person. And it leads me to truly believe and act on the truth, "Everyone Counts.” Once again quoting William James: "There are cases where faith creates its own verification.” The Gospel of Thomas, then, is all about relationships—how, when we come to know ourselves, simultaneously we come to know God. Implicit in this relationship is the paradox of gnosis—not intellectual knowledge, but knowledge of the heart. What first we must come to know is that we cannot fully know God since that Source far transcends our understanding. But what we can know is that we’re intimately connected with that divine Source, since “in him we live and move and have our being.”

"A Race to the Bottom". Trump Is Tearing Up the Fabric of Trust Among Our Allies and Friends

An Editorial in "The Guardian" (see link below) calls for Europe to acquire a"dose of patriotism" to combat the threat of populist powers. I agree 100%. The ability to achieve what the author is calling for, of course, was severely weakened by Britain’s leaving the EU. In fact, Britain must be part of creating the vision, leadership, and governance of a united Europe, committed to common economic and diplomatic norms. The question that cries out from his article is, who is the leader that can muster the confidence, vision, and energy to make what the editorial argues for happen This is even more important in the world of "power makes right" which Trump has elevated and endorsed through his actions, including on tariffs He is using tariffs as a sledgehammer to brutally require other nations, in this case, particularly Canada and Mexico, a few weeks ago, Columbia, to make concessions to him. He promises to turn next to Europe. He is decimating the trust among allies. It may bring him a short term, political win, but it is terrible policy for the long-term. It will give license to other countries with power to use that power to sledgehammer other countries into doing what they want. I think of China. If it has some raw material that the United States needs, and no one else can provide, it can sledgehammer the US. A small country could do this too, if it has an exclusive access for essential raw material. Trump’s talking about taking over the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland, even making Canada a 51st state based on national security gives license to China to say it needs Taiwan for national security reasons. Putin can use it to justify the attack on Ukraine in order to avoid it becoming part of NATO. A rules based world is imperfect and it’s messy but history shows that in the long run, it is much better than one that simply relies on "power makes right". This is the attitude that leadsto war. Also, you don’t negotiate by bullying your best friends. They will turn against you in ways that will be hard to measure in the short term, but they will show up long-term. Our network of allies has long been a unique strategic advantage. The Trump administration is tearing it to ribbons as I write this. And iit not only the decimation of trust on the foreign policy front. Trust is being further eroded in our national institutions by Trump's appointment of unqualified people to lead them. ein https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/04/threatened-by-populist-superpowers-europe-too-needs-a-dose-of-patriotism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A Former Russian Foreign Policy Advisor Articulates the Reasons for My Revulsion to Trump's Lack of Character

The principal foreign policy advisor to Russia's late President, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anatoly Chernyaev, articulates the reasons for my revulsion to Trump's lack of character. In reading William Taubman's superb biography of Mikhail Gorbachevsome seven years ago he writes of Chernyaev: ***** Chernyaev’s family was particularly cultivated; he received music lessons, learned French and German from private teachers and fell in love with Gogol and Shakespeare in school. He studied history at Moscow University in the late ‘30s, fought heroically in World War II (part of the time on skis in an Alpine battalion), then got a Candidate’s Degree (roughly equivalent to an American PhD), writing his dissertation on the topic, “Britain’s Role During the First Years After World War I.” Unlike so many of his generation, he never worshipped Stalin. It wasn’t the repressions, he said, “about which we didn’t know much and which we thought might have been mistakes or even justified” or “the terrible losses early in World War II” or “in a revulsion against policies like the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact.” For Chernyaev, it was the sense that “a crude, ignorant, completely alien force” was ruling over a culture that cherished Tolstoy and Chekhov and admired foreign writers like Shakespeare and Anatole France.” So it is for me, as I wrote seven years ago at the outset of Trump's first term as President: My revulsion against Trump rests on his lack of values and his disrespect for other people, his lack of kindness, empathy and his disregard for the truth. He stands in opposition to the very values which, using his own term, have made America great. These are the qualities of this man which have repelled me from the start. We should not stop calling them out, but nor can we afford to wallow in them with a sense of superiority. Worse yet, we cannot fall into the trap of believing that our denunciation of Trump’s behaviors is sufficient to carry out our responsibility. We must also act proactively and positively in our own world, in our own way to live those values we hold dear and improve the lives of those whom we can touch.

Lincoln's Character Expressed In His Own Words So Utterly Opposed to Trump's Cruel Divisiveness

Of all the things that Lincoln said, none mean more to me than these:    “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”  (Cooper Union address, February 27, 1860) … and this, from his Second Inaugural:  “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

The "Flame of Passion"--A Poem I Wrote 25 Years Ago--Never More Timely

THE FLAME OF PASSION The flame of passion….. Never to lose it ourselves. Always to give it life in others. That inner spark, that inner drive, that mixture of faith and hope and confidence, that leads us to search and to risk, to discover and to achieve, to undertake what is most personal and sublime, and yet often most uncertain, too. Oh, how this is the way we learn and grow, and experience the joy of accomplishment beyond the norm. That flame of passion can be very vulnerable, even in the strong. Especially in one’s early years, subject to discouragement and scorn. But just as much it is in our power to give it life in those we know. How well I recall those who did that for me. Those who opened the door far and wide and set me free to pursue what I most believed. They fueled my flame of passion, of purpose, of confidence more than they will ever know. They made me a different person than I otherwise would have been. The flame of passion…. Never to lose it ourselves. Always to give it life in others.

A Plea for Unity

Bishop Budde’s sermon was an incredibly powerful and courageous call for moral leadership. Her focus on dignity, honesty, and humility as the foundations for unity is a timeless and profound message, especially in times of division. These values are critical for bridging divides and fostering a sense of shared humanity. It was inspiring how she used her platform at the National Cathedral to address President Trump, advocating for mercy and justice for the people who are frightened by what lies ahead. Contemptuously, he rebuked and dismissed her plea. Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

An Assault on Social Justice, Dignity and Truth

I have decided to post a message I sent to my family at about 2 AM this morning. Dear Family, I woke up a bit after midnight still trying to stomach and fathom President Trump‘s inaugural address. I dictated this quickly at 1:10 and I had ChatGPT clean it up. Let me just say this. As I ponder the uncertain future and what I can have confidence in and take great heart in it comes back to you and your children. I’m not sure what they’ll do, but I do know this. They are good people. They believe in social justice, dignity, and the pursuit of truth. And no matter what happens, no matter how long mom and I live, I know they like their parents will do their level best to do what they believe is right and make a positive contribution to the people whose lives they touch. I’m not sure you can imagine how good that makes me feel. Love, dad An assault on social justice, decency, and truth. Moments after President Trump finished his dystopian inaugural address, I wrote to my son: “So sad, so depressing, so dangerous.” Where are the leaders to respond? At the age of 86, statistics suggest I will not live to see another president inaugurated to office. It would be easy for me to dissect all the cruel and dangerous parts of Trump’s address. Perhaps none are more significant than the license he has given to land-seizing, land-coveting autocrats to take territory based on their perceived natural right, rather than adhering to the rule of law. Equally alarming are his steps to eradicate reasonable actions aimed at achieving social equity and dignity for all people. As his first repeated assault on truth. There are already numerous commentators analyzing and exposing the horrific and divisive elements of his speech. My question remains: where are the leaders to respond to this? Who will step up, reach the American public, and present a unifying vision for our future—one that supports the rule of law and human dignity? Where is the person who will acknowledge the mistakes we’ve made in failing to recognize the fears people face—fear of too many immigrants, fear of an overheating economy that leads to inflation, and concerns about value-based programs aimed at equity that have gone too far in implementation? Former and current Democratic leaders sat in the Rotunda yesterday, no doubt filled with a combination of disgust and dismay. President Biden, I’m sure, was biting his lip. I cannot imagine the feelings Vice President Kamala Harris must have had. My own reaction was summed up in the message I sent to my son. I am confident that eventually, a leader will emerge—someone who will express a unifying, humane, constructive, and forward-looking agenda with a set of values that we can all rally behind. Please, God, let it happen sooner rather than later.

Trump's Own Words Will Condemn Him in History--Posted by My Son David

January 6: The Wanna-Be King's Speech Read It, Knowing What We Know Now David Pepper Jan 06, 2025 Today is the final January 6 we will have before Trump’s return to the White House, where he will use presidential power to erase his and others’ crimes against America from our collective memory and history books. Share Of course, they’ve been trying to whitewash it all ever since. And it’s worked to some degree. But once Trump re-assumes the Presidency, he and his minions will use their official powers and legal processes to go much further. This will include minimizing their own actions and complicity, pardoning those who attacked the Capitol and committed violence, and attempting to punish those who worked to expose the truth to the nation and bring accountability. The entire right-wing universe and political world will be part of this whitewashing and gaslighting project. Knowing that this is coming, I’m presenting below the heart of Trump’s infamous January 6 speech. (Some will remember that I did this a year ago). You’ll see why when you read it why it’s so important that every American takes the time to review the words involved in one of the lowest moments in our nation’s history. (Before my post last year, I had never read them that closely—my guess is most Americans haven’t either). Why? Because amid all the coming efforts to erase history, the words of the speech itself can not be erased. A foundational artifact that can’t be buried. And equally importantly, versus what we knew (and didn’t know) when we saw him giving the speech live, the words are far more damning now—in the light of all we’ve learned since the infamous day, including: that he was told by much of his staff and lawyers, as well as officials in states, that he had lost the election; that despite that, he had engaged in a weeks-long campaign to undermine confidence in the outcome in certain states, and was pursuing a variety strategies to overturn those outcomes based on the doubt he’d sowed; that with those conspiracy theories as a backdrop, he and his legal goon squad had concocted a rogue legal theory and phony fake elector scam to take place before and during the House vote on January 6; that with the help of lawyers, he had been bullying Vice President Pence to swing the outcome on January 6; that he had schemed with a number of House members and Senators to delay the January 6 vote, giving them all time to create even more chaos, sow even more doubt, and ultimately overturn the election. Now that we know about all those background actions and plans, the tone, tactics and strategy of his January 6 speech—which we at first might've dismissed (or not even paid attention to) as a typical Trump rant—carry a far different meaning. This was no protest. Or even riot. This was a deliberate and planned action to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and both in this speech and on Twitter, Trump was the ringleader and executor of the central act. Here are the essential excerpts of the speech, along with some additional context. Read the words closely: January 6, 1:00 a.m.: Trump tweets: 8:17 a.m: Trump again tweets about Pence: Several more tweets follow over the course of the morning: NOON: After a number of warm-up acts (including Rudy Giuliani calling for ”Trial by combat,”) Trump begins his speech: Well, thank you very much. This is incredible…. It's just a great honor to have this kind of crowd and to be before you and hundreds of thousands of American patriots who are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious republic. All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they're doing. And stolen by the fake news media. That's what they've done and what they're doing. We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that's what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal. Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election. You know, I say, sometimes jokingly, but there's no joke about it: I've been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first. OK. Almost 75 million people voted for our campaign, the most of any incumbent president by far in the history of our country, 12 million more people than four years ago…. We will not let them silence your voices. We're not going to let it happen, I'm not going to let it happen. (Audience chants: "Fight for Trump.") … Thank you very much, John [Eastman]. Fantastic job. I watched. That's a tough act to follow, those two. John is one of the most brilliant lawyers in the country, and he looked at this and he said, "What an absolute disgrace that this can be happening to our Constitution." And he looked at Mike Pence, and I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All he has to do, all this is, this is from the number one, or certainly one of the top, Constitutional lawyers in our country. He has the absolute right to do it. We're supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our Constitution, and protect our constitution. States want to revote. The states got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people. And I actually, I just spoke to Mike. I said: "Mike, that doesn't take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage." And then we're stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years. We're just not going to let that happen…. For years, Democrats have gotten away with election fraud and weak Republicans. And that's what they are. There's so many weak Republicans. And we have great ones. Jim Jordan and some of these guys, they're out there fighting. The House guys are fighting. But it's, it's incredible. Many of the Republicans, I helped them get in, I helped them get elected. I helped Mitch get elected. I helped. I could name 24 of them, let's say, I won't bore you with it. And then all of a sudden you have something like this. It's like, "Oh gee, maybe I'll talk to the president sometime later." No, it's amazing. They're weak Republicans, they're pathetic Republicans and that's what happens…. The weak Republicans, and that's it. I really believe it. I think I'm going to use the term, the weak Republicans. You've got a lot of them. And you got a lot of great ones. But you got a lot of weak ones. They've turned a blind eye, even as Democrats enacted policies that chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders and put America last. And you have to get your people to fight. And if they don't fight, we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don't fight. You primary them. We're going to. We're going to let you know who they are. I can already tell you, frankly. But this year, using the pretext of the China virus and the scam of mail-in ballots, Democrats attempted the most brazen and outrageous election theft and there's never been anything like this. So pure theft in American history. Everybody knows it. That election, our election was over at 10 o'clock in the evening. We're leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, by hundreds of thousands of votes. And then late in the evening, or early in the morning, boom, these explosions of bull****. And all of a sudden. All of a sudden it started to happen… Republicans are, Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn't, that will be a, a sad day for our country because you're sworn to uphold our Constitution. Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections…. Today we see a very important event though. Because right over there, right there, we see the event going to take place. And I'm going to be watching. Because history is going to be made. We're going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders, or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity they'll be ashamed. And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never, ever forget that they did. Never forget. We should never ever forget. With only three of the seven states in question, we win the presidency of the United States… I want to thank the more than 140 members of the House. Those are warriors. They're over there working like you've never seen before. Studying, talking, actually going all the way back, studying the roots of the Constitution, because they know we have the right to send a bad vote that was illegally gotten…. But I want to thank all of those congressmen and women. I also want to thank our 13, most courageous members of the U.S. Senate. Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Josh Hawley, Kelly Loeffler…. Today, for the sake of our democracy, for the sake of our Constitution, and for the sake of our children, we lay out the case for the entire world to hear. You want to hear it? In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats, made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures. That these changes paved a way for fraud on a scale never seen before. I think we go a long way outside of our country when I say that. [Trump details his conspiracy theories about Pennysylvania] Pennsylvania has now seen all of this. They didn't know because it was so quick. They had a vote. They voted. But now they see all this stuff, it's all come to light. Doesn't happen that fast. And they want to recertify their votes. They want to recertify. But the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it back. Mike Pence has to agree to send it back. (Audience chants: "Send it back.") And many people in Congress want it sent back. And think of what you're doing. Let's say you don't do it. Somebody says, "Well, we have to obey the Constitution." And you are, because you're protecting our country and you're protecting the Constitution. So you are…. And we got to remember, in a year from now, you're going to start working on Congress and we got to get rid of the weak Congress, people, the ones that aren't any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world. We got to get rid of them. We got to get rid… The radical left knows exactly what they're doing. They're ruthless and it's time that somebody did something about it. And Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I'm not hearing good stories…. So, I mean, I could go on and on about this fraud that took place in every state, and all of these legislatures want this back. I don't want to do it to you because I love you and it's freezing out here. But I could just go on forever. I can tell you this…. The Republicans have to get tougher. You're not going to have a Republican Party if you don't get tougher. They want to play so straight. They want to play so, sir, yes, the United States. The Constitution doesn't allow me to send them back to the States. Well, I say, yes it does, because the Constitution says you have to protect our country and you have to protect our Constitution, and you can't vote on fraud. And fraud breaks up everything, doesn't it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you're allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn't listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he's listening to…. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide. They said it's not American to challenge the election. This the most corrupt election in the history, maybe of the world…. This is not just a matter of domestic politics — this is a matter of national security. So today, in addition to challenging the certification of the election, I'm calling on Congress and the state legislatures to quickly pass sweeping election reforms, and you better do it before we have no country left. Today is not the end, it's just the beginning….[O]ur fight against the big donors, big media, big tech, and others is just getting started. This is the greatest in history. There's never been a movement like that… We must stop the steal and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again, can never be allowed to happen again… If we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country because it's illegal when the votes are illegal when the way they got there is illegal when the states that vote are given false and fraudulent information…But now, the caravans, I think Biden's getting in, the caravans are forming again. They want to come in again and rip off our country. Can't let it happen…. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore…. And I say this despite all that's happened. The best is yet to come. So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give. The Democrats are hopeless — they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God Bless America. Thank you all for being here. This is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you. The speech ends at 1:10 p.m. With Pence inside, the Capitol grounds had already been breached for 20 minutes by then (about 30 minutes after Trump had first told the crowd that they would be marching to the Capitol). 1:02 p.m.: Pence refuses to accede to Trump’s demands. 2:12 p.m.: the first rioter enters the Capitol building itself; Vice President Pence is evacuated, escaping only 40 feet from rioters who have breached the building. 2:24 p.m.: Trump, knowing about the breach and that Pence is sheltering to stay safe, tweets again: Immediately following this tweet, according to the House Jan. 6 committee, “the crowds both inside and outside of the Capitol building violently surged forward,” overrunning police lines that had previously held stable. You know the rest. Bottom line: as we watch Trump try to erase his actions on January 6—and punish those who uncovered all this evidence—NEVER FORGET this speech. Or the context in which it was given. It’s clear: He knew exactly what he was doing. It was a plan. He fired the starter’s pistol to launch it. He came damn close to succeeding. It is one of the great failures in American history that he was not held accountable for it. But that failure will only be made worse if we allow that history be erased. Be sure others see the speech in the same way…. Share Type your email... Subscribe Day 36 — January 5, 2025 Through posts and interviews, Trump and his political allies make clear that their plan on assuming office is “shock and awe”—rushing forward their plans into an immediate flurry of executive orders, followed by, as Trump put it, “one powerful Bill” combining all of his major policy proposals at once. As always, he promises to pay for the added costs with tariffs. 112 Likes ∙ 46 Restacks Discussion about this post Comments Restacks Write a comment... Diane E Bellard 2d The fact that Trump was not held accountable for the many crimes he committed following the 2020 election will forever be the gravest miscarriage of justice ever committed on the American people. We all watched that day in horror on live TV, but at least we felt reassurance that he would never be in power again. To watch him ascend to the presidency again, claiming that he supports the rule of law, and promising to pardon all the Jan 6 prisoners is infuriating beyond belief. I don't know what Americans were thinking when they cast their votes for him. I really fear for the next 4 years and pray every day that our republic can withstand all the assaults he has planned. I'm exhausted but still plan to be in the fight...there are way more of us than there are of them. Like (11) Reply Share 1 reply

Manifest Destiny on Steroids--President Trump is Dangerous--Plain and Simple

 

Manifest Destiny on Steroids

President Trump’s press conference yesterday, January 5th, can only be described as dangerous, outlandish, and frightening. In less than an hour, he announced emphatically that he intended to:

• Apply economic pressure to annex Canada,

•  Use force to take control of the Panama Canal if necessary, and

•Make Greenland part of the United States.

We’ve seen bold and unjustifiable actions under the banner of Manifest Destiny before, but never with such overt intent, openly breaking international law.

It’s hard to imagine a better excuse for President Xi of China to justify taking Taiwan under the mantra of national security—the reasoning Trump cited for acquiring Greenland, controlling the Panama Canal, and annexing Canada. And Vladimir Putin can claim the same rationale of National security as justifying his attempt to take over an Ukraine. 

It’s hard to believe a president would say such things—impossible, really. Yet here we are, with a president-elect making these claims.

This man is dangerous—plain and simple. He must be checked by the Senate, the House, the courts, the people around him, and the media.

I never thought I would live to see the day when a president—or in this case, a president-elect—would utter such words.

Why Bother to Commit Your Reflections and Memories to Paper?

 Anna Quindlen’s slim notebook, Write for your Life, contains many pearls of wisdom which relate to my motivation in writing my journal over more than 40 years and, above all, in my hope that my wife, Francie will continue to commit her remarkable stories to writing so that future generations can see them. Perhaps, these words will encourage you to record your stories.

 

Here are some of the pearls which Anna Quindlen offers us:

 

In reflecting on her motives for writing her books, shew writes:  “In these pages I hope my children would find me when I was gone.  The fact is, the books are only collections of words; there is a familiar motto:  ‘Actions, not words’ are what matter.  The fallacy in that quote is that words are actions.  They punch, tear, hurt, harm, soothe, amuse, educate, illuminate.  They express ideas and feelings, and they make people feel better and they move them to tears and they enrage them, and they define them.”

 

“Think of it this way:  if you could look down right now and see words on paper, from anyone on earth or anyone who has lifted, who would that be?  And don’t you, as do I, wish that person had left such a thing behind?  Doesn’t that argue for doing that yourself, no matter how terrifying or impossible writing may sometimes seem?  It doesn’t really matter what you say.  It matters that you said it.  The gift of your presence forever.”

 

“So what if your story of a small, unremarkable life is read only by you, in some quiet corner, or by one or two people you love and trust understand?  If those are people who can learn from and value it, isn’t that a notable achievement, a valuable audience?”

 

“When you write, you connect with yourself, past, present and future.”

 

“’Life is all memory,’ wrote Tennessee Williams.  ‘Except for the one present moment that goes by so quickly you hardly catch it going.’  The point is that writing is a net, catching memory and pinning it to the board like people sometimes do with butterflies, like the ones we hatched.  Writing is a hedge against forgetting, forgetting forever.”

 

“There are no journals written by my father.  If I could go back in time, I would ask him to keep one, but maybe, like so many busy people, he would think it was a waste of the scant hours in his day.  Why? you would ask.  What would I write about?  I would offer you the same answer I would have given him:  Nothing.  Everything.  He could have written a recollection of college days gone by, or an account of the morning’s fishing, getting skunked out by the secret spot…”