Veteran of four wars, four enlistments, four branches: Air Force, Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard. I am both an AF (Air Force) veteran and as Veteran AF (As Fuck)
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Friday, March 17, 2023
Big Conspiracy Theories in a Small Town
I was in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, today. A small town north of Lancaster. I wanted coffee and saw there were three coffee shops near the center of town. I went to Café 58 which my son Nigel suggested by looking at Google maps.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
A Brave Woman in Trumplandia
This morning I was riding east from Lancaster toward New Holland borough, one of the towns that ring the city of Lancaster. As I rode I passed several political signs, all of them were for Doug Mastriano, the Army officer who brought busloads of Pennsylvanians to Washington DC on January 6, 2020, to overthrow the government.
Then I saw the sign above. I first thought 'Oh, they have a 2024 sign.' Then I wondered why it had a hyphen. Then I saw the "years in prison." I turned around to take a picture of the sign. When I did, the woman who put the sign in the middle of her front yard on the south side of Pennsylvania Route 23, walked up and introduced herself.
Tracy is a smiling, blue-eyed, pretty woman in her mid-thirties. She was trimming the shrubs next to her house when I pulled up. I asked her about the sign. She said, "I can't just stay quiet."
Tracy said she knew it would cause trouble, but she thought it was important to stand up and say what is right. She has one child, a 13-year-old son. She knows her family and the house could be targets for insults or egging or something worse.
She said that a lot of people honk. Some wave and cheer, some make their disagreement well known. Three miles west of her house is The Worship Center, a prosperity gospel church of the kind that are the most likely to believe Trump was chosen by God to make America a Christian nation. Lots of true believers pass by Tracy's home.
I love meeting people who are truly brave and are willing to stand up for what they believe in a very public way. I have met people who are true heroes and I met another hero today.
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(I would not post a picture of Tracy or her home. Whatever trouble she brings on herself, I did not want to add to it.)
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Saturday, September 26, 2020
A Book Justifying Support for Trump by White Evangelicals
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Vote Trump to Support Israel? Not This American Jew!
I know Jews in America and Israel who support re-electing the current President based in part on his support for Israel. I can understand how an Israeli could have that opinion. Although I supported President Obama, I did not support his foreign policy in general and his relationship with Israel in particular.
While I understand Israeli support for Trump, I knew it was bad for America. Here is one of many Israeli rabbis who support Trump.
Then I read an article by a Taiwanese American justifying his plan to vote for Trump. He pointed out, correctly, that Trump has supported Taiwan more than any other recent President. And stood up to China more than any other recent President. He sounded very much like a Jew supporting Trump based on Israel. The article by Eric Chang begins:
“If you asked me to put money down on whether or not Donald Trump could point Taiwan out on a map, I would say you are out of your mind. However, if you asked me whether or not the Trump presidency has been good for Taiwan, I would be lying if I said it has not. To be clear, I am not talking about what might be better for the United States; I am strictly talking in terms of Taiwan’s geopolitics and from my personal opinion.
Growing up in the U.S. when I was younger, I never really understood why my progressive parents would sometimes vote Republican. But now, after living in Taiwan for more than 19 years, I can see the method behind the madness. The GOP has traditionally been more vocal in their support of Taiwan. And of course, a lot of that has to do with the massive arms purchases, but it is tangible, effective support nonetheless.”
As I read, I realized that the short-term benefits to Taiwan and Israel of a Trump re-election were based on the America continuing to be the richest and strongest country in the world, and on Trump keeping his word. It was a clear “Oh shit!” moment that was belied by everything that Trump has done in his life and particularly what he has done as President.
Trump’s deep concern for Israel came from his Evangelical advisors telling him how much the flocks they fleece love Israel. Trump needs Evangelical votes to be re-elected, but on November 4th, he will have no further need the religious rubes he scorns in private.
Taiwan will be useful to Trump until he trades away protection for the island nation in a deal with President Xi of China. He will sell out Taiwan and the island nation will follow Hong Kong into Chinese control and loss of independence.
Part of Trump caving in to Xi will be the real ruin of the American economy that will follow Trump’s re-election. Trump’s central failure of 2020 is his pathetic response to COVID-19. The United States is the plague nation of the world with the most infection and death in the world in absolute numbers and even worse relative to population. The debt and death we have accumulated in 2020 will leave China on top of the global economy as early as next year if we collapse suddenly.
Reading Eric Chang has made it clearer to me how important it is for Americans to vote as Americans.
Chang’s essay is, in part a response to an article a week before that began:
“A strong United States is crucial for a more secure and democratic Taiwan. Contrary to popular perception among the first generation in the Taiwanese American community, the Trump administration has weakened the United States’ economic, diplomatic, and moral standing in the world. This is detrimental to Taiwan’s long-term security and democracy. The authoritarian government of China continues to threaten military intervention, claim sovereignty over democratic Taiwan, and expand China’s military and economic power throughout the Asia Pacific region.
The November 2020 election is the Taiwanese American community’s opportunity to vote Trump out of office and support the election of former Vice President Joseph Biden and Senator Kamala Harris. The Biden-Harris administration will take actions to strengthen the U.S.’s relationships with our allies rather than continue our unilateralism.”
Trump is a vile liar who wants to be a dictator and re-election will grant him and his family the ability to plunder America and ruin the 240-year experiment in democracy that America is. Supporting Trump in or out of America means trusting the man of 20,000 lies to keep his word.
Israel and Taiwan are vastly outnumbered by foes who would destroy them. A strong and stable United States is the best chance for both countries to be safe in a dangerous world.
But for Americans of whatever background there is no choice. Every American should be a one-issue voter and that issue is “Defeat Trump.” We are currently the leading plague state in the world because of his failures and four more years will be beyond dismal. I plan to express my support for Israel and America and free people around the world by voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to replace the worst President in American history.
While advocates for Israel and Taiwan point to current reasons to support Trump, the long-term direction of a Trump presidency is to support dictators and betray democracies. At the time Trump betrayed the Kurds after one phone call from Turkey, Israelis expressed concern Trump could do the same to them. I said, "Will not Could." Whatever the weaknesses of Democratic foreign policy in the past, Biden and Harris are pro-democracy and believe America should support democracy around the world. That in itself is an infinite improvement over the dictator-wannabe we have now.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Wives and Mothers Will Rip Trump a New Asshole
Trump has dodged many bullets in his deplorable term as President, but he won't get out of this line of fire. Military wives and mothers and fathers are asking for answers about the Russians paying bounties for dead Americans. Trump can tell another hundred of his 20,000 lies denying he knew, but he now has an enemy that will not give up.
If I had deployed, I planned to blog every day if possible. And if I did, I knew that my main audience would be the wives and mothers and other family members of the soldiers in my unit.
When I deployed the first time and blogged every day, I thought my audience would my friends and family and maybe those who were curious about military service. They were my audience also, but most of the comments I got were from wives and mothers who heard little or nothing from their soldier. They really wanted to know what we ate, where we slept, what we did night and day.
Monday, March 9, 2020
Visit to the Museum at the Site of the Nuremberg Rallies
Monday, March 2, 2020
Visiting Ramallah--Trump Peace Plan Looks Ludicrous
During my visit to Israel, I was able to spend a day in Ramallah and the surrounding region. Ramallah is the largest city in the what would be a Palestinian state. It is close to Jerusalem in the region Israelis call Judea--the Judea part of Judea and Samaria.
T-Mobile deals with this ambiguity with a welcome message unlike the messages for any other border crossing. I wrote about that here.
I went from Old City Jerusalem on a scheduled city bus with my friend Cliff. The 9-mile trip took us about an hour. We were the only non-Arabs on the bus. There was a huge security area about halfway between the Old City and the central bus station in Ramallah. We did not have to stop there on the way over.
At the Ramallah bus station, Cliff's friend Michael picked us up. He lives in Ramallah and has a counseling practice for victims of domestic violence and trauma. He drove us around the city of Ramallah and the surrounding region.
He lives in the city with his wife and children. For him, a settlement of the question of Palestine could not come too soon. He is an Arab Christian. He wants to be an Israeli citizen. He hopes that can happen, but would like peace in almost any form.
He says that no one he knows takes the Trump plan seriously. The U.S. did not speak to anyone from Palestine. Michael thinks it does not take into account the reality on the ground. He drove us to an upscale shopping mall with an ice skating rink. A few miles from that mall are Israeli settlements and Arab villages.
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Vermin, Cockroaches, Human Scum: Words That Lead to Death
So far, in every case but America, calling the opposition vermin, cockroaches, enemies of the people and human scum has led to murder. America may take longer to go from words to murder than Germany or the Soviet Union, but Trump's words will eventually cause death.
This week I am leaving on a five-week trip that will include visits to some of the places where 20th century genocide was at its worst: Dachau and Flossenberg, Germany; Kiev, Ukraine; and Rwanda. Since the summer of 2017, I have been to most of the countries in which The Holocaust occurred, as well as the Yugoslav genocide. I want to see how countries recover from mass murder.
For me, The Holocaust is just as much about the 400 million Christians between the Pyrenees and the Urals who participated in or turned a blind eye to the slaughter of six million Jews. I am convinced that a Church with temporal power will eventually kill or condone killing.
Trump's Church of white Evangelical power seekers and idol worshippers will bless every outrage he commits. And when Trump's words lead to death, the false prophets like Graham and Falwell will say dead Americans are God's will.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Re-Reading "The Prince" for the 10th Time: So Different Under Trump
Since 1980 I have read and re-read The Prince every four years. I have been delighted anew each year as I read his advice to rulers. His central advice:
"A ruler must take power and keep power because without power the ruler can do nothing."
Until this year, reading Machiavelli was an act of cultural translation as well as being translated from 16th Century Italian. I was reading advice to a monarch as a citizen of a republic.
That was then.
This year when I read The Prince I was reading as a citizen of a republic which is slouching slowly towards authoritarian government.
With Trump in office, I don't have to translate into democracy. His every instinct is authoritarian, so he grasps for power. He is limited only by his own willful ignorance and laziness. But that limitation is glaring.
Machiavelli said the leader should constantly study war. He recommends the leader go hunting to allow him to see his land up close and to know how it feels to live off the land. Trump could not be farther from this advice. He is soft, delicate with no exposure to hardship, so some of the pathetic errors he makes would be remedied if he were not a physical and moral coward.
Trump wants to control and close the southern border. If he spent time on the ground on that border, many of the issues would be clear to him. The blazingly stupid foreign policy of abandoning the Kurds would not have happened if he were capable of exposing himself to hardship.
Thankfully, he is a gelatinous coward. Many of my worst predictions of what Trump would do have not come true, overwhelmed by Trump's own aversion to actual hardship.
Machiavelli says people are cowards and fools for the most part. They will swear loyalty to the leader when times are good and desert him when times are bad.
Trump knows and believes this. There are things Trump does exceedingly well because he knows he is talking to fools. Machiavelli says the leader need not have actual religious faith, all that matters is the appearance. Despite bragging about breaking every commandment and being entitled to break every commandment, he draws thunderous applause from white Evangelical and conservative Catholic audiences. The gaggle of millionaire televangelist that gather around to worship Trump declare Trump's true faith.
Machiavelli says that the leader must never use half measures. He must either pamper people or destroy them. He also said if the leader has a choice either to be loved or feared, he should choose fear, because people will easily betray love but respect those who can hurt them. Within the Republican Party leadership, loyalty to Trump is based on fear of his twitter account. In a party where the primary is the election, a Trump tweet can end the career of any red state Republican.
Another glaring Trump failure from Day One has been his inner circle. Machiavelli says we can judge the quality of a leader by the quality of his inner circle. In this Trump is beyond pathetic. Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Betsy DeVos, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, the rogue's gallery is endless. Trump's deplorable quality is evident in those who surround him.
Chapter 23 of The Prince says the leader should avoid flatterers. This advice is pathetically funny. The vile chief of flatterers Mike Pence leads the worship of the Dear Leader. Kissing Trump's dumpy rump is a requirement for continued service in the administration.
Machiavelli ends his little book discussing fate and luck. America has been lucky for nearly two and a half centuries to avoid the incarnation of idiocy that is Trump, but now it's here. Trump has been lucky at every step of his improbable rise from failed casino owner to the Racist-in-Chief. Can his luck hold? I wish him and his minions nothing but failure, but the odds are with an incumbent, so I will fight until he is out of office. And I will look for other places to live that will accept Americans and re-read The Prince in 2024 from somewhere far away from Don Junior's 2024 campaign.
In the meantime, I am re-reading On Tyranny for how to handle the present.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Trump Leads Chickenhawk Nation
During the Viet Nam War, our nation had a military draft. If it worked, which it did not, anyone between 18 and 26 years old could be called to serve his country for two years.
Unlike World War 2 when many young men clamored to join the ranks, during Viet Nam most middle-class and rich kids from the northeast and the west coast avoided the draft through deferments. The Donald had five such deferments. Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney, Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and many other Conservative leaders decided not to serve.
And because the war was unpopular, they were barely making excuses. Cheney had better things to do. For others it was the "wrong war." Really? There are American soldiers fighting. Are you an American?
The draft is a zero-sum game so for every draft dodger who did not go, a poor kid who could not afford deferments went in his place. More than 50,000 soldiers died in Viet Nam. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded or afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Whoever took The Donald's place is as likely as not dead, wounded or suffering from PTSD.
When I bring this up, one reaction is Bill Clinton dodged the draft. He did. But he did not go on to urge more war. Many people I grew up with sang "give peace a chance" in the 60s and are still to the left of Bernie Sanders today. But the "peace people" who became Conservatives once their draft eligibility ended are simply cowards. They let someone else serve in their place and became Hawks once they were safe from actual service. I did not vote for Bill Clinton. I believed, as Conservatives used to say they believed, that character matters. Character is all that matters in a leader. I believe Bill Clinton damaged the Presidency badly enough that America could elect Trump.
I can understand why people who define their world by who they hate would love Trump. But how can people who have made the military their career vote for a guy who despises service. Trump thought people who served in Viet Nam were chumps when he got his five deferments. The glib way he dismissed John McCain says Trump thinks no better of soldiers now.
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