We have tipped over the edge of a dystopian science fiction nightmare that used to be the stuff of hack literature…An army of masked government terrorist thugs with electrocution gloves roaming the streets, US Navy Sailors jumping off their air craft carrier to escape rancid food and rotten living conditions, POTUS golfing while we use up our stockpile of killing things on a stupid war far away from our shores, the law used to harass and intimidate administration political opponents, billionaire tech giants soaking up our water and energy to build humongous data centers to power AI cash machines, and rising temperatures literally setting the world on fire.

With the President’s popularity at an all-time low, food and gas prices surging, and complicit Republicans voting time and time again to support abhorrent policies, you would think Democratic victories in the fast-approaching mid-term elections are a slam dunk. Not so fast. Never has there been a political party so stunning in its ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Will internal Democratic Party divisions cause weary voters to simply stay home, dooming Democrat’s chances?

Recent headlines blare sensational stuff: “Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left… One moderate group (Third Way) says the progressive wins are “deeply troubling” and is planning a $15 million effort against democratic socialism.”

Or this from the progressive rag Salon: “As progressives and democratic socialists have notched recent wins across the country, (James) Carville has been there to tell the activist wing of the Democratic Party to pipe down and tack toward Republican stances on issues like transgender rights and police reform.” Telling Carville to “Sit down and shut up,” saying, “The strategist and other Third Way advocates think they have the answers for Trump. But they got us into this mess.”

Right wing media chortle over the internecine battle. For example, Fox News has smugly turned to Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former New York governor and failed New York City mayoral candidate, who lost to Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, for negative commentary on the Democratic Party’s ascendant progressive movement.

Across the board it appears that Democratic primary voters, usually the most active, the most engaged, have grown tired of the incrementalism and institutionalism of an elder generation of political leaders. In many states with significant races, surging “far-left” candidates, younger candidates, and new candidates with little or no political experience have won primary victories or have come close enough to make the establishment sweat.

Some of these candidates are either self-identified or cast by the media, as Democratic Socialists. Some are labeled Progressives. To Republicans, they’re all Communists. What’s behind the labeling? A recent Newsweek article dove in.

The line between Progressives and Democratic Socialists is “blurry,” and not necessarily one that most voters are thinking about, Adam Carlson, founding partner at Zenith Research, told Newsweek.

Carlson noted that some members of the CPC (Congressional Progressive Caucus) are also in the more centrist New Democratic Coalition and may not necessarily be viewed as true progressives by some in the party’s left flank.

“While I think they have fit a prior version of what progressivism is, like a prior progressive candidate, I think that in today’s context a lot of them would be considered the ideological middle of the party,” he said. “The party just moved left, especially with the new incoming crop of anti-establishment, progressive left candidates.”

Only the most engaged voters are likely to make the distinction between Democratic Socialists and Progressives, according to Carlson.

So, If the distinction between Democratic Socialists and Progressives is a blur to voters, what’s the fuss about?

One major difference is that most Progressives in Congress are capitalists. Some Democratic Socialists support transforming capitalism with increased public ownership of certain industries, while many Progressives prefer to regulate capitalism and oppose public ownership.

Even among progressives, there are policy differences. While many want to see a Medicare for All system, others have embraced a public option as an alternative healthcare system. Some want to see rent control and social housing, while others prefer to embrace stronger tenant protections.

One critical policy area which has riven the Democratic Party, is support for Israel and campaign contribution from AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). When I served in Congress, support for Israel and alliance with AIPAC was a bi-partisan affair. As the first Jewish Congressman from New Hampshire, I actively courted AIPAC and had the support of Jewish donors nationwide. Oh, how times have changed.

Driven by revulsion against the policies and practices of the State of Israel under the leadership of a crooked Trump-Like Netanyahu regime, US-Israel relations have become an earthquake fault line. Non-support for Israel and taking AIPAC contributions have become a litmus test for insurgent Democrats. Many young people only think of Israel as an occupying force, an oppressor of the Palestinians.

As “Left Voice” set out in a recent online posting:

“The questioning of the United States’ relationship with Israel is nothing other than a challenge to an ideological tenet of liberalism…For decades, the consensus around U.S. support for Israel allowed the Democratic Party to quietly accept massive sums from AIPAC in exchange for financial, political, military, and moral/ideological support for Israel, but those times are long gone. Similarly, the establishment’s refusal to fully oppose the war on Iran (beyond procedural questions) has further alienated voters and endeared them to populist candidates who openly oppose the war machine.”

Whether sympathy for the Palestinians plight and rejection of support for Israel will translate into election victory remains to be seen. For example, in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, whose anti-Israel stance propelled him to victory over a more moderate Democrat in the US Senate primary, is facing some backlash from Jewish voters according to the Washington Post:

“Candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s blistering criticism of Israel during the primary alarmed many Jewish voters in Michigan. His challenges run deep enough that three Democratic donors are hosting a fundraiser for his Republican opponent, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post.”

And in NH CD-1, weighing in on an upcoming primary, the NH Journal, a right-wing rag, has bashed front-running Democrat Stefany Shaheen for criticizing one of her opponent’s AIPAC contributions. Clearly, Republicans would rather have a weaker general election candidate than the progressive Shaheen who has eschewed corporate PAC and AIPAC money and built a powerful grass-roots organization through a huge base of local donors. So, their rag has labeled her “”pro-Hamas” and “anti-semitic”, equating refusing AIPAC money with anti-semitism. More than a stretch…simply false.

For my part, I and probably many other American Jews grieve the October 7 Hamas massacre of innocent Israelis and, at the same time, mourn the human suffering Netanyahu has imposed on the civilian population of Gaza. If I were running today, I would be hard pressed to accept AIPAC money, would strongly oppose the Netanyahu government’s policies and at the same time remain a strong supporter of Israel and its right to exist in peace. Where would that put me on the political spectrum? Would I be attacked from the Left as too “establishment”?

Is the Democratic Party just dealing with “same old, same old”? Are we simply staying true to the Will Rogers aphorism, “I am not a member of any organized party…I’m a Democrat”. Or is something deeper going on? Are we at a political inflection point, a real changing of the guard, a total reboot? Does the national and global situation demand nothing but radical political change? And if so, with less than one hundred days to a midterm election, which may hold the fate of our Republic in its clutches, how do Democrats present to voters? Are ascendant, insurgent left-wingers bent on burning down the house that Roosevelt built? Is the Left waiting to rise from the ashes to remake America as a collective?

Ken Martin, the Democratic Party chair, proclaims “We have conservative Democrats with centrists. We’ve got progressives like me. We’ve got leftists. All are welcome in this party — all voices. But don’t tell me there’s only one way to be a Democrat. Don’t tell me there’s only one stripe to wear”

But others sound alarmed. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a past DNC chairman, said the rifts within the party carry big risks in a year when Democrats hope to win back a majority in the House and possibly the Senate.

“Democrats are trashing fellow Democrats. I got a simple message for you: knock it off or get off the playing field. Because we have too much work to do..I’m a little tired of all of this stuff you hear every day about all of these labels … moderate, progressive, whatever, liberal.”

Given the unpopularity of Trump, Netanyahu’s war in Gaza, the war in Iran, the sagging economy, the excesses of ICE, mid-term 2026 may turn out to resemble 2006, a wave election year. I won in 2006 tying my opponent to then President George Bush and the Iraq war. If voters vote with their pocketbooks and their emotions, whatever policy differences divide the various factions among Democrats may not matter. It may be sufficient for candidates to call out Trump for crime family levels of corruption, to call out the unnecessary war in Iran, to call out ICE for murdering Americans and wanton lawlessness, and to condemn the actions of Netanyahu and his government. It may be enough to talk with the electorate about the tax cuts for billionaires, the cuts to Medicaid, the damage to our public health system, the closures of clinics and hospitals, the price of gas, and the cost of groceries.

The voters in our country have been divided fairly evenly of late, with elections hanging on slender threads of unaffiliated or independent voters and relatively small margins, (setting aside the electoral college Presidential results). The country has historically been “conservative” about major political change. I use “conservative” in the true sense of the word, to describe a nation that craves an efficient, effective, and honest government, a stable economy that fairly creates widespread opportunity for prosperity, a somewhat libertarian bent on social issues, and a strong national defense.

Trump has used and abused the Presidency to hollow out important government functions in order to allow the Mega Maga class of billionaires and his own crime family to amass obscene wealth unimpeded by the law or previous norms. It’s not surprising that opposition to the dangerously autocratic and corrupt administration should give rise to an opposition that tilts harder to the left. Nor is it surprising that a political party, some of whose visible elected leaders are octogenarians, should face a generational challenge. Are we in for a wholesale pendulum swing to the left or merely an old-fashioned course correction?

Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor of New York City, an avowed Democratic Socialist has lately pushed back on criticism of the Left, placing the movement in historical context and attempting to provide a unifying vision for Democrats. In recent interviews, including with the New York Times, Mamdani rejected the notion that his identity as a Democratic Socialist is a liability, instead characterizing democratic socialism as the modern embodiment of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vision for the Democratic Party. “We’re Going Back to What the Democratic Party Used to Be.”

Mamdani said he does not want to see his movement leave the Democratic Party, but instead return it to what he described as its historic roots. Referencing the working-class focus of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fiorello La Guardia and the role of the Federal Government in tangibly improving people’s lives in the New Deal, Mamdani argues that the Democratic party once represented a broader economic and social agenda. He said that if Democrats want to win, they should seek to rebuild the party around those principles.”

Public opinion generally holds Democrats in low regard. Democrats have succeeded in recent elections when they have had a clear villain to run against and Lord knows, we’ve got that today. But in order to achieve long-term electoral success, Democrats face a daunting challenge. If we win the mid-terms, if we can re-take the Presidency in 2028, we must be able to walk and chew gum at the same time… begin to repair the catastrophic damage done by Trump and the Trumpeters and deliver immediate, visible results for working Americans.

“We are not Trump” is not a clear vision and an emotionally resonant message for restoring the “American Dream” in the 21^st century. Whatever the labels one applies, a powerful, modern movement that returns to the roots that drove the reforms of the New Deal just may be a key to long term political success and an effective antidote to the poison which Trump and Maga have gleefully injected into our system.

Whatever the long-term way forward, Democrats must quickly find common ground, on a common sense reform agenda, clear language, and a cohesive unifying message. Let’s call it “Practical Progressivism.” Save the semantic jockeying and extreme language which give Republicans an opening where there should be none. Focus on how our government can deliver for working people in a runaway world. Bring traditional, American values back into focus. Speak to the issues that matter to people; Health care, housing, jobs, education, rule of law, the high cost of living. Go for the jugular. Don’t mince words. Be Bold, Be Brave. Be a warrior for truth and justice. Go for the heart, not the head, in messaging. The enemy is not other Democrats on some other part of the political spectrum.

This election is too important. The crisis our Republic faces is too extreme. The stakes are too high. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize. Voters don’t really care about whose politics are the more pure, the more perfect. Weary Americans need help. We need to appeal to a broad spectrum. We need to champion common sense and new thinking that reassembles and keeps a broad coalition focused on the needs of working Americans. We need to show that we can govern effectively now and for the long-term. Every vote counts and we need every one we can get.

Keep the Faith.

Interesting fact: When Democrats won both congressional seats in New Hampshire in 2006, I followed the traditional campaign route. I ran twice. I raised as much as I could from whomever I could raise it from. I had a staff of motivated professionals. I had support from the “establishment”. In the other district, my colleague, Carol Shea Porter, built a largely grass-roots organization, eschewed the establishment route as Candidate and as a member of Congress. The lesson? Timing is everything. 2006 was an anti-Iraq war wave election. This mid-term might be similar. Best to not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by infighting among friends. Right now, we need all the friends we can get.

The new Republican mantra is that “Communism” is on the rise. We are being told and can expect to hear the tired drum beat relentlessly, that radical communists are poisoning our blood and treasure. Lest we forget, Roy Cohn, was Trump’s mentor. Given the surge of progressive candidates and Trump’s decline, it is predictable that the Republicans would trot out the tried and true playbook. Democrats who patiently and rationally explain the difference between Social Democrats and Communists miss the point. The Republicans understand the emotional, not rational, way that most voters make up their minds. Fear sells. The “hopey-changey” thing, much harder. So, expect more of the same. And, btw, Democrats, hone your emotionally resonant message about change, restoration, and “Making American Groceries Affordable… again. Maybe we co-opt MAGA. Picture the hats with, say, a carton of milk as the logo…just sayin’…

My adult children say “a pox on both your houses”. They say the system is rigged for rampant, unrestrained, crooked capitalism and both Parties play the game. Viz, the obscene transfer of wealth to the top .01%, the ascendance of the radical-white- supremacist -right and the Billionaire-Epstein class. A spate of so-called progressive candidates, mostly younger, the Mamdamis, AOCs, Platners are challenging the Democratic Party to be bolder, think bigger, act stronger, reassert traditional Democratic values of work over wealth, and standing up for the little guy against the rich and powerful. And, they’re succeeding in primaries around the country. This, in the face of some polling which suggests that most Americans favor “moderates”.

In my former home state of New Hampshire, both members of Congress joined ten other Democrats in signing a letter saying they were against “Socialism”. New Hampshire Democrats have traditionally hewed the “moderate” line. I did when I represented the State. But, that was an entirely different era in politics. I’m concerned that such letters give more power to the right than serve as effective rebuttal.

I think there is general agreement, however one views Platner’s run, its successes, and its demise, that a United States Senate race is not a good forum for litigating accusations of rape. Some have called foul, seething at a double standard, seeing as how we elected a crooked, convicted felon, with a history of inappropriate personal sexual behavior ranging from pedophilia to rape, as President of the United States. They see a double standard at work here. Was the Democratic “establishment” and “media” out to get Platner and piling on unfairly? Should we cancel our NYTimes subscriptions over their reporting? However one views the Platner campaign, he touched a big live wire nerve in Maine that cannot be ignored.

I hope Democrats avoid internecine warfare in Maine and nationally. People are hurting and Platner’s populist message resonated in Maine across party lines, even with disenchanted “conservative” Mainers. A record number of independent voters chose Democratic ballots and voted in the primary where Platner kicked the “establishment” candidate to the curb.

The National leadership at the Federal level has played the politics as usual game for a long time, with mixed results. They understand fundraising, polling, how the system works or doesn’t work. But perhaps “politics-as-usual” translates to relics in a broken system. My kids and many of the young people who fervently supported Platner’s campaign think so. In fact, and by design, our system is inherently inefficient. It is a system challenged by modern technology, media, and communication, where tweets and posts and a 24/7 news cycle overwhelm even the best-intentioned incremental policy and program agenda. We are now governed by the mad POTUS’ tweets,.or Xs…whatever. Can establishment Democrats find common ground with those further to the Left on policy and systemic reform? Isn’t alliance stronger than fracture?

In my view, we are witnessing a tide of impatience with incrementalism and a system which has failed to meet clear challenges. How else does one explain the rise of a Trump? Now, faced with the corruption of our institutions, broken promises, unobtainable dreams, we are exhausted by a changing world where human evolution can’t adapt fast enough to the pace of technological and social change. The smart phone information revolution is overtaken by AI. We are fed crumbs by a system co-opted for the benefit of the power and by the greed of the Oligarchs and their mega-corporations. The mid-terms are threatened by a Commander in Chief who reveres fascist dictators and already threatens to call out troops to intimidate voters.

Democrats need to cast a wide net. Candidates need to fit their district, their particular constituencies and talk common sense. They will fall all along the conventional political spectrum left to center. My experience tells me that most voters have no idea how our complex system actually works or doesn’t work. I can report that what I experienced in the Democratic caucus of 2006, a majority caucus which was back in power for the first time since 1994, was a thirst for consequential action, but not an appetite for consequential reform.

Running and governing are distinct challenges. Talking big is de rigeur in a campaign. Over promising is dangerous. But, knowing what you stand for and being able to articulate that is crucial. Voters respond to a clear sense of a candidates values and beliefs. Platner’s intensity and clarity captured the urgency of this moment. Times have changed. The challenges we face have grown. Is the Democratic Party in step with the necessary solutions and capable of broadly communicating, reassuring, and persuading voters to return us to power?

Can the Democratic Party accommodate varied and diverse approaches and policy prescriptions? Does the Party have goals beyond getting rid of Trump? How will we counter Trumpism? How will we turn the ship around and provide meaningful, broad-based opportunity and an economy that provides for basic human needs and dignity given the long-term repercussions that will follow Trump, the challenges of AI and catastrophic environmental degradation?

Voters may be tired of Trump. They’ve also not been so keen on the Democratic Party. When I served, The Democratic caucus featured a broad spectrum of views from far left to conservative center. These days, with the clear hunger in the country for bold action, real reform, effective governance, and a strong voice for working Americans, The Party would do well to cast a wide net and set a clear course for economic populism and a government that works for the people, not just for the rich and powerful. This isn’t just about messaging. It will take conscious Party soul-searching and cohesion. Will Rogers famously said “I ‘m not a member of any organized Party…I am a Democrat” Cute but too true.

I’ve signed up to serve as a Delegate to the Maine “hurry-up and come-as-you-are” July 25 nominating convention to replace Platner. Fingers crossed.

Keep the Faith

Reading through to the end, I talked about the importance of a 21^st century vision for the Democratic Party which is pretty clear about what it’s against but not so good at messaging what it’s for. In any case, I appreciate my readers and I’m delighted that anything I write promotes dialogue and discussion about politics because, let’s face it, thoughtful dialogue is at a premium in today’s politics. Today, in the wake of reporting about an alleged sexual assault and Graham Platner’s defiant withdrawal as a US Senate candidate in Maine, I’m revisiting the taste of Teflon. Fair to say, Teflon cuisine has its limits.

On July 4^th, I went with my spouse to the local traffic circle to attend an Independence day rally calling for a return to American democratic values and in opposition to the miasma of corruption and incompetence to which we are currently subjected. I felt muted on this Independence Day in light of the takeover of the levers of Federal power by an oligarchic cabal led by a would-be king. Celebrating American Independence in its 250^th anniversary year felt ironic, sobering, and just plain weird. But, to my surprise, I saw American flags waving and was delighted to be immersed in the audiosphere of honking horns and thumbs up from passing motorists. Pickup trucks are the thing around here and thumbs up from pickups were previously rare for “protests”. So, the experience suggested that maybe, just maybe, the emotional tide has turned and that support for the mad king is truly on the wane.

But as a sobering counter to that glimmer of hope, the Teflon coating has worn off Graham Platner, the angry populist candidate, leaving a pretty bad taste in our mouths. “The Graham cracker has crumbled” somebody said on the socials. Platner had, of course, either apologized for or denied all the various personal issues that have been reported since he began his run. In fact, before he withdrew, his poll numbers had been slipping against his opponent, the incumbent Senator Susan Collins and we now learn that the Platner campaign was not flush with campaign cash. Maybe the drip, drip, drip of personal issues, even absent the final revelation was taking a toll on the campaign which would have proved fatal to the goal of unseating Susan Collins. Even before the rape allegation, perhaps Platner’s personal issues were already sapping the power of Platner’s message: that he wanted to build not just a campaign but a movement to take back the country from the rich and powerful and honor the nation’s commitment to equality and opportunity for all, especially for working people left behind by the politics of both parties. Perhaps the Teflon coating was already flaking off. But, more likely, a rape accusation is a red line, even in today’s tawdry political arena.

Some of my close friends saw establishment conspiracies in the timing of the most recent allegation against Platner…as apparently did Platner himself. In his withdrawal video, he made no apology and angrily blamed the “establishment” for his withdrawal. In point of fact, both “Progressive” leaders and organizations, as well as “Establishment” leaders and organizations had rescinded support in light of the serious and credible allegations, timing of the reports of the latest allegation of sex assault notwithstanding. Many of his previous supporters were taken aback by the tone and substance of his 11 minute video rant, fearful that it would damage chances for unity in the wake of his campaign’s collapse, especially considering the challenges ahead for choosing a successor.

The Maine Democratic party and Maine Democrats have a short window to replace Platner. July 27^th is the drop-dead date. The Party quickly convened state leaders and it appears that there will be a mini-convention and voting by 500-600 delegates. Details to follow. Situation critical. Cluster-fuck inevitable? Who will be chosen? Losing state Gubernatorial candidates? Losing Senate Primary candidates? Business folks? Heather Cox Richardson? I’ll be honest, I spent 24 hours musing about throwing my hat in the ring…Former prosecutor and US Congressman, created the leading economic development agency for the State during my time in Congress, experienced fundraiser…but, I’m “from away”, as a lawyer and congressman I’d be pegged as too “establishment”, unknown, too old…OK. I’ll stick to writing substacks.

So, what’s the state of the race? And, whither go Democrats? Well, many believe that Democrats dodged a bullet. There was a sigh of relief in quarters where poll numbers and fundraising are believed to show the strength or weakness of a campaign. Despite Platner’s extraordinary grass-roots support and huge volunteer corps, there were concerns about the viability of the candidacy. Some, saw those concerns as the concerns of the “politics-as-usual” crowd and believe they miss the power of the populist grassroots juggernaut the Platner campaign created.

Before his withdrawal, Platner was reportedly holding out to put his thumb in the scale of the successor selection process, by reason of his overwhelming grassroots organization and support, to ensure a “Progressive” successor. The Maine Democratic Party pushed back hard about the process to be. The $64,000 question is whether the excitement and energy that convened around Platner will transition to a new candidate. Time will tell. Platner created a sense of hope for change that, hopefully, is bigger than any single individual. Maine Democrats, peering through the fog, may take some comfort in the grassroots energy that Platner galvanized. So, whatever the concerns and predictions are, whatever the fallout, jockeying, and finger-pointing by Democrats, local and national, the sense up here with an ear to the lobster traps is, there’s still a shot in November.

Maybe different party factions could bury their hatchets for a bit, just to get through the next couple of months. After all, both Progressives and more moderate “establishment” camps agree on some important basics…the right to vote, an effective government that works for people, a government that protects the people of this country against the excesses of the free market system, an economy that provides opportunity for all, healthcare that works for everyone, safe and affordable housing, good schools, the rule of law, fairly and justly applied, equality, dignity, inclusion, basic human rights and values, a strong and secure America which, through its words and deeds, is a beacon of hope, and a moral actor on the world and domestic stage. These, I believe are shared values. And, crucially, we the people need all of us at this moment. The times demand a response that is both urgent and patient. Urgent in moving through chaos to concerted action and patience with each other.

The Founders, whatever their flaws, knew this time would come, when a charismatic corrupt leader would come to power and lead the nation astray, abetted by sycophants and cowards. The rise of the dark underbelly of America has opened a gaping wound in the soul of the nation. The powerful white supremecists who defy the rule of law and the will of the people, must be met with all the strength of our convictions and the force of our joint efforts. Democrats, tawk amongst yourselves, but don’t demonize each other. Like it or not, we’re in this together. As we’ve seen in the world cup matches, When the goalie is moving right, you bend the ball to the left.

Keep the Faith.

I recently returned from a trip to the Southwestern desert of New Mexico. In the searing heat, I breathed in the arid air and viewed the largely brown landscape punctuated by occasional oases. Rivers and streams meander here and there with human habitation clustered near their banks. Driving along the desert highway, surprising ribbons of green, trees, and grass, bushes, shrubs and fields, stand out like a Georgia O’Keeffe modernist painting of the otherwise brown and beige desert.

We drove 13 miles up a dirt road, along the Chama River Valley into the Santa Fe National Forest. We wound our way, switchback after switchback, surrounded by multi-layer, riotously colored cliffs, following the green ribbon of the river. There were even pulloffs, spots to put kayaks and canoes into the river, which wound through the amazing landscape.

Our destination was a monastery, the most remote monastery in all of North America we were told, where 20 or so benedictine monks live, work, and pray. The Chapel’s nave hosts a huge window through which the incredibly beautiful cliffs and the extraordinarily blue sky reflect the work of a cosmic sculptor, a creator of unparalleled peace and tranquility seeming not to be of this world. The monks, we learn, spend 4 hours each day in manual labor, tending fields and animals, the balance of their day in prayer and reading scripture.

There was no mention of TV news, cell phone, internet scrolling, tik-tok, billionaires, global conflict. There was just the remove from life as we have come to know it. A remove from the transient ever-changing, ever-lasting, buzz and flurry of the western world. A remove from this brief moment in human history to focus on the eternal, the landscape sculpted over eons, the vast sky, the glorious beauty of creation. The colors of the earth, the green river valley, the brown desert, the rainbow cliffs. And, the quiet. No highway sound, no honking horns, no top forty, no road rage. The sound of the wind, a bell, occasional soft whispers.

Returning to our world, we were blasted by the ongoing saga of the meaning of green in our nation’s capitol. There is the empty green national mall, the site of the latest bizarre failure which is the Great American State Fair, the sorry excuse for yet another fantasy production of the repulsive narcissistic toad who is POTUS.

And then, of course, there is the true natural green. The green that gives green real meaning and inescapable purpose, the green of the algae which has taken over the Lincoln reflecting pool, the pool that once reflected in a quiet determined way, America’s national monuments. As Wikipedia tells us, “The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was designed by architect Henry Bacon and built between 1920 and 1923 on drained marshlands. Spanning over 2,000 feet, it was created as an optical illusion to reflect the sky, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. The historic basin is famous for hosting civil rights and anti-war demonstrations. Beyond its architectural role, the Reflecting Pool is a premier gathering space on the National Mall. It is most famously associated with the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech to crowds gathered along its banks. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, it continuously served as a backdrop for Vietnam War protests, Earth Day events, and national vigils.”

Today, thanks to our President, millions of our dollars have been spent on an inexperienced crony’s turn to destroy yet another feature of our National Capitol. Now, the reflecting pool is green with algae, surrounding by a chain link fence, patrolled by cops and soldiers, torn by conflict and incompetence. Instead of a national gathering place, it has become a national disgrace. It will live in infamy, at least for me, as a place where an American Olympian was arrested and indicted by the Administration for daring to dip an errant finger into the pool’s turgid waters.

I cannot help but contrast the green ribbons in the desert, the peace and tranquility of the Monastery at the end of the earth, with the green billions the would-be King of corruption and his family have socked away during his short time in office. How little surprised are we to learn that an incompetent greenhorn Trump loyalist was hired to renovate the pool, without any process. And, finally, we can all witness the vibrant green algae happily doing the backstroke under the watchful gaze of Abraham Lincoln, while the local hardware store shelves are emptied of peroxide in an attempt to cure the disaster.

It’s all happening in our world, at the same time, thousands of miles apart. I take odd comfort in that fact. I take comfort knowing there is a place of brown and green river ribbons where utter peace and tranquility are the order of the day, the order of every day. It’s not easy being green in the desert. It’s a testament to nature’s fortitude and resilience. The political craziness we now take for granted hopefully will ease. At some point, we pray, the stench of corruption will be cleansed from our temples of Democracy. We hope to look back and find the inspiration for renewal and redemption after the storm is over. So, I take comfort in remembering the monastery in the desert, the green river, the soaring cliffs, the blue sky, and lives spent in prayer and contemplation. That such a place exists gives me hope for our future.

The Maine/NH Seacoast is a pretty close community. The other day, after my band played a gig in Newmarket, New Hampshire, a member of the audience sat me down to ask me what I thought of Graham Platner. I was diplomatic in my response which she appreciated. Then she told me she was Graham Platner’s Aunt! Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Maine is a political wrecking ball. He’s breaking taboos. He’s bucking establishment expectations. He’s breaking some hearts. He’s also breaking records for apologies and explanations for his behavior.

The Right has stepped up attacks as Platner’s personal imbroglios have mounted and leaked into the public sphere. By now the current litany is pretty well known. Bad tattoo, stupid blunt offensive comments or terms used about women, a fellow service member, disabled people, gay people, sexting while married. He grew up privileged in a solidly middle-class family. His Dad was a lawyer and he went to private school but he’s campaigning as the friend of the working man..an oyster farmer, harbormaster, small business guy who blasts the millionaires and billionaires for America’s ills. As the Free Press recently reported “ Democratic voters in Maine didn’t care about Platner’s Reddit account, the tattoo, or complaints that he was a rich kid LARPing as working class.”

The Free Press

Why the Attacks on Graham Platner Don’t Work

It seems like there’s no end to the embarrassing news about Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine. This week, a former Platner campaign official revealed that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, discovered sexually explicit texts her husband had sent to several women, and reported them to his campaign shortly after he announced his run. Gertner has stood by her man since the news broke, and so have most Democrats. Yet Republicans see the story as yet another issue that could tarnish the troubled candidate in voters’ eyes and help reelect incumbent senator Susan Collins, who trails Platner by about nine points in most polls…

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3 months ago · 77 likes · 521 comments · River Page

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Maybe Dupont Teflon has become a traditional Maine thing like lobster rolls, coating Maine politicians left and right. Maybe Platner, who kicked his Democratic opponent, 78 year old Governor Janet Mills to the curb, has figured something out. The way our politics has changed, not only coats his Carhartt coat with Teflon, but gives him an advantage as a “real” person, a guy just like us with warts and flaws and issues like ours.

So the matchup is Teflon Collins vs. Teflon Platner. Platner was likely told before he entered the race that his life would be an open book. Just as likely he said “fuck it” and decided to run any way. Talking about changed politics,Let’s be fair. We’re being led or misled by a President who is a doddering, demented, pedophile, corrupt felon… a sweetheart of a guy who bragged about catching women by the pussy, serially cheated on his wives, doesn’t give a fig about the rule of law or political norms and was re-elected a second time! So, yeah, our politics has changed. None of the storm of controversy around Platner’s private life have much to do with his populist policies, which focus on the real challenges of our health care system, the unaffordability of our consumer society, the plight of a hollowed out working class. So, one might ask: Does Character matter in politics?

Republicans have seemingly paid little to no attention about personal peccadillos. Viz Ken Paxton and DJT. Democrats are different. We like to think we have higher standards of political behavior. We get all hung up on “character”. I suppose one could argue that Platner’s true character is revealed in his acknowledgement and acceptance of his personal flaws. The media, social and traditional, is having a field day with Platner. Nothing like the whiff of scandal to sell, papers, airtime, subscriptions, likes, whatever. That said, since Platner is an unknown political quantity and he’s blasted off so hot, it’s natural for media and the right wing political establishment to dig around, root up and in this case, use anything they have to try to stop the train. Will Maine care as little as Maine voters seem to care about personal “character” or behavior? Dunno. Platner is up 9 points over Collins in recent polling. Will Independent unaligned voters, a political force in Maine, and a few Republicans swing his way notwithstanding the personal turmoil?

Focusing on the Platner personal chaos allows the bad guys to argue that he’s unfit for office without ever having to defend the indefensible Susan Collins. Platner must have known or certainly was told that ALL his personal shit would be open book..the tattoo, the sexting...the off the cuff embarrassing comments...the diatribe against a fellow serviceman. Maybe In this day and age all that is simply is beside the point. Maybe voters are willing to forgive and accept Platner’s rolling redemption and the seriatum video apologies and explanations. Dems take note: Platner is staunchly against an assault weapons ban. Ah well, After all, he’s a Mainer who owns real flannel, not a red and black shirt-jac rented from LL Bean.

Friends, we’re not after perfection here. We’re after a Democrat in the United States Senate. There’s a long way between here and November. So far, Platner’s brash, blunt brand of politics harkens back to the populist agenda of the 1930’s. He’s been befriended by Bernie and Elizabeth while more “moderate” Democrats like Cory Booker have expressed “concern”. But National Democrats are faced with a conundrum. The Democrats convinced Mills to run only to see her run over by the Platner train. The rising stars of the Party, Mamdami, Platner, AOC, are pulling hard to the left. Young voters in particular are lining up in Maine behind Platner in droves. Yet, recent reporting suggest that on a national scale, voters are looking for representation that is more “moderate”. What does that even mean in the age of Trump?

Our country now faces an existential crisis. Can a nation where “All men are created equal” and Government is “Of the people, by the people and for the people” survive the corruption and chaos of an autocratic regime bent on undermining all we have held dear? What does recovery look like when the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise in the federal government is compounded by the normalization of totally abhorrent and abnormal behavior in political offices. Add to these challenges a cornucopia of climate change, AI, wealth disparity, global war and the 21^st century shapes up to be a corker.

Maybe Platner has a vision for America that overrides all else. Maybe telling it like it is and demanding a bold new politics which actually addresses the problems faced by ordinary Americans is the articulation of a new direction to reverse decades of regressive politics. The 21^st century challenges we face cry out for a comprehensive vision from our political leaders. We need more than a political agenda, more than a menu of policies, more than incrementalism from the political leadership of both parties. One could forcefully argue that the Republicans are clear about their vision…Autocracy, supremacy of the Executive, oligarchy, cronyism, survival of the most corrupt. Gobsmacked by Trump and Trumpism, and focused on his evils, I have yet to hear ANY Democrat articulate a forward-looking, comprehensive, and hopeful vision for our national future.

It just may be that for all his pecadillos, Graham Platner, warts and all, represents a new kind of old-fashioned Democrat. Perfectly imperfect, passionate, blunt, tough, big-hearted, and authentic. For better or worse, richer or poorer, Maine Democrats have their candidate. He has 2000 active volunteers in York County alone. He’s building a grassroots organization not seen since Obama. He’s working hard and drawing huge crowds. You may criticize him for his past but right now, he’s a teflon man on fire and Mainers are responding positively.

Meanwhile, The general state of the world is a major contributor to my constant level of anxiety and, I have little spiritual succor to ameliorate the condition. I’m a delicatessen Jew. Which means I don’t exactly worship pastrami but I don’t attend services and my spirituality is a diffuse blend of paganism, new age blah blah, and quantum mechanics.

Oh, that I was a reverent of some faith to give me comfort. But lo and behold..fortunately, I can turn to our great leaders for spiritual guidance. Not only are those in the present Administration the objects of the affection of the evangelical right, they are clearly, deeply and fervently religious or at least deeply religious adjacent.

For example, our President has led by example on many fronts. Who can forget the way he strode through crowds of protesters during his first term to hold aloft the holy scripture as a shield against non-believing, disloyal, snaggly-toothed, poorly-dressed protesting miscreants at odds with his policies. He was even moved to call forth his rod and his staff to smite, smote, smoke, and, yea, shoot the knees of that unruly mob. But, as we recall, his rod (the general) and somebody on his staff dissuaded him from full smiting as it might have reflected poorly on his political and legal fortunes. But, his point was clear. He and he alone, as the Supreme Leader, had been given divine authority to wield the Bible as a shield against Democrats and other evil-doers of the Left.

And just recently, our Supreme Leader cast himself as Jesus of the internet, floating ethereally in robes of many colors, healing the sick, dispensing alms to his followers, a beneficent smile on his face, every golden hair on his halo’d head shining, shining, shining. What joy did we feel to know that our Supreme Leader was not just a wise, compassionate, and generous political leader but, also, the very embodiment of the God-given teachings of the Christian faith. Healing the sick, blessing the poor, loving thy neighbors… well, except Canada, Greenland, Europe, Ukraine, Venezuela, Mexico, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan…most of the World actually, doing unto others as he would have done unto him…except, maybe, bombing the hell out of Iran and returning it to the stone age which, if done to him, would certainly threaten the fortunes he and his family have been able to mine out of the political garden of authoritarianism and blatant corruption. So, Ok. Bombing Iran is not what he wants done to the Trump criminal family. I better face it, Trump as Jesus of the Internet just didn’t hold up for too too long. But betcha’ bottom dollar, He still likes to see himself, in the wee hours of the True social dawn, as a spiritual light unto the world…

As for other Administration guiding lights…let us turn to our Secretary of War or Defense as it naively used to be called. For he, Peter Brian Hegseth, the former star of the Fox news network, has imbued the Pentagon with a newfound sense of spirituality, a vigorous, manly, religious fervor unmatched, unprecedented, unexpected, unforgiving, unrelenting, unbelievable, and unrestrained. He hath called upon the troops to celebrate war as the tool of the good and righteous White People against the heathen Arabs. By video, audio, in writing, and in cyberspace, he hath commanded the commanders to command the troops to pray together as Christians as he hath loosed the might of the terrible swift sword of American power. And, as an example of his leadership, he hath frequently invoked the holy scripture to guide his flock at regular prayer sessions.

For PBH, is not merely the Secretary in a terrestrial political cabinet…He clearly sees himself as the spiritual leader of a great flock. As if its not enough to lead the Pentagon and the American military, he should also preach! Preach brother Hegseth! Preach! Guide us and Tell it! Hallelujah! And so, recently he rapturously invoked scripture…scripture lifted from the film Pulp Fiction and emanating straight from the mind and script of the storied film director, Quentin Tarentino.

As reported in Variety, the Entertainment source, and I gotta admit, this is pretty entertaining in a twisted way, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meant to invoke holy scripture in discussing the rescue mission of an American fighter pilot stranded in Iran (BTW, maybe this happened, maybe not)— but he actually quoted Quentin Tarantino. In a prayer delivered by Hegseth during a Pentagon worship service (on Wednesday), he read a fake Bible verse from Tarantino’s 1994 “Pulp Fiction.” It was the altered version of Ezekiel 25:17 that is righteously delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the movie just before he shoots a man to death.”

Hegseth was soundly mocked in many circles for invoking a made-up biblical verse delivered by a cinematic hit man. I, for one, find it curiously appropriate. Hegseth was simply tapping into the streak of unbridled violence that he proudly struts. If there was an award for the Secretary of War/Defense with the greatest all-time penchant for violence, Hegseth trumps all. He is the G.O.A.T when it comes to an over the top approach to the use of force. He’s all about “lethality, lethality, lethality..not tepid lethality”. He hasn’t ruled out use of military troops for domestic law enforcement. He’s championed the pardon of US Service members accused of war crimes. He’s fine with bombing cultural sites, which are protected under the laws of war. He rails against “stupid” terms of engagement. He’s all about restoring a warrior ethos to the Pentagon. For sure, He’s a man’s man…a hyper-active alpha male whose jacked-up, take no prisoners approach to his job must play well with Supreme Leader. Together their brand of military leadership is immoral, myopic, incompetent, and profoundly dangerous.

Hegseth and Trump have put us between a rock and a hard place. We’re in the hands of a pair of hyper-male, bible thumping, incompetent morons who have us embroiled in a losing war with bad or no planning, relying on gut instincts, with constantly shifting goals and strategies, and complete disregard for America’s credibility and true strength. So, what, me worry? why am I anxious? Maybe if we had sane, competent, moral hands at the helm, I’d sleep better. Meanwhile, I’ve had a spiritual awakening and taken to prayer for our Country and for the World.

Oy Vey. Pass the pastrami. Keep the Faith.

“It’s not an ordinary rabbit; it’s the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on, a killer with a vicious streak…Run away!” In the department of “If the shoe fits”… when one contemplates the crazy sword-waving, smarmy sneering of POTUS, one might notice a foul, cruel, bad-tempered rodent like aspect to the feckless fellow, obsessed as he is with the size of his…ahem…ballroom See, e.g.

. The temptation is to run away before he leaps at your throat and bites your head off. But, alas, we are forced by the consequences of the election to stay and watch, and cringe.

My head spins. Humour is the refuge of those who would keep their sanity when the world has gone mad. The whole thing, the cabinet of clowns, the now dearly departed Noem and Bondi, the lying Bessent, the drunkard Hegseth, the monkey brained Kennedy, the whole pack of scoundrels, could be re-imagined as the wild knights, careening around the landscape on imaginary horses, following their supposed King. My apologies to Monty Python for the liberties I have taken with their dialogue

“I am your King!” quoth the Donald. (but the peasants reply wisely.)

Peasant Woman: Well, I didn’t vote for you.
King Donald: You don’t vote for kings. You vote for Presidents who act like Kings!
Peasant Woman: Well, how’d you become President so you could act like a King, then?
[Angelic music plays... ]
King Donald: It was simple really…First I became a Russian asset, love that Putin guy. Then they bailed me out with Russian Mob money when I was belly up. then I flew on airplanes with Jeffrey Epstein, who, by the way, I never met. Then I got into politics and, with a little help from my friends, waltzed into the White House, not once, but twice..but really, Melania, The Lady of the Epstein files, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Donald, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king… because I have figured out how to say the most outrageous things, totally disconnected from reality, but sounding great to the White supremacy crowd, that I have been ordained by the Evangelical White Right to carry the sword of revenge and retribution. And, oh, because when things get hot, I go to war.
Dennis the Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Donald: Be quiet! (Get him outta here!)
Dennis the Peasant: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ‘cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!”

We, who are so tempted and tried in these days of calamity and turmoil, recall the wise words spoken by the learned Captains of Comedy in a wheezing crawl towards sanity. I mean, we knew it would be bad. We braced ourselves. We held our noses. We prayed there would be reasonable supplicants surrounding the mad king who would ameliorate his worst tendencies. But alas, and alack we are left with the famous French Taunter, John Cleese ensconced high up above the Crusading knights on the parapets of an actual English Castle, leering and sneering at the ragtag assembly below…”I fart in your general direction!” and “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”.

Come to think of it, elderberry smelling Fred Trump probably takes a lot of the blame. The DFT we know and revile is an apple who fell from his father’s tree. Mary Trump, Donald’s niece and a trained clinical psychologist describes Fred Trump as a “high-functioning sociopath” and details his “bullying, antisemitism, racism, sexism and xenophobia” – all traits the president is regularly accused of. “The personality traits that resulted – displays of narcissism, bullying, grandiosity” –are worthy of only the following response from the French Taunter of Monty Python fame

I unclog my nose in your direction, sons of a window-dresser!” and “I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough wiper!”.

Keeping it short and sweet. Laughter is the best medicine.

Keep the Faith.

Family. Love the family. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. All of us come from a family. Like it or not. For better or worse, richer or poorer, till death do us part.

After I graduated from college with a degree in French-Drama, I headed home to New York to work as an actor. I had a manager. I got a role in a little off-off-Broadway musical, “What’s a Nice Country Like You Doing in a State Like This?”. I decided to live at home to save dough. (spoiler alert…big mistake.)

After the run ended, I tore all the ligaments in my ankle and was laid up in a cast, in my childhood bedroom, career on hold. A former friend of my father (that’s a whole other ball of wax) had bought a little town meeting hall in Jeffersonville, Vermont and one thing led to another. He offered me the building as a theater.

Laid up in bed, entrepreneurial spirit burgeoning, I concocted a summer festival of new American plays. I partnered up with the recently formed Ensemble Studio Theater, a nearby college, and a ski resort and worked out a scheme. I established an LLC. EST would put on a season of summer plays at the “Town Meeting Theatre Workshop”. They would teach at the college and live in dorms, and my girlfriend and I, the Executive Producer, would luxuriate in a donated condo at the resort. In the end it all worked. The EST website actually lists the plays and playwrights whose work was performed at a “Vermont Summer Festival” in 1972-1973. Along the way, things at home with the family were not smooth.

My father, a powerful Wall Street lawyer, had broken off relations with his best friend after a nasty tiff. Probably to spite my father, his former best friend had offered me his abandoned building for theatricals. So now, A far as my father was concerned, I was in cahoots with his enemy while enjoying the benefits of his free food and free rent. My parents whose view of my theatrical aspirations had been made known previously…”You’re no Laurence Olivier”…were not amused by my entrepreneurial aspirations.

One day, during the planning phase of my project, early winter 1973, my mother came into my room. I was lying abed, leg elevated. “I want to talk to you”

I limped into the living room where she sat, downcast, in an antique French blue suede armchair. My mother is now almost 100 and has lost some of her venom and voice. Back then, she was in full throttle. She spoke a dialect which I describe as “Assimilated New York”. Born in Brooklyn, she, nevertheless, spoke as if she was an actress in a 1940’s film. There were no “R’s” at the end of words. “Father” was “Fathuh”. “Party” was “Paahty”. You get the point.

“Your father and I were at a cocktail party the other night and someone asked him what you were doing with your life. He was mortified. He was too embarrassed to tell them anything. What are you doing with your life? Wasting it! Where did we go wrong? What did we do to deserve this?” She actually said those words. And, she meant it. She was disconsolate.

Ya gotta love family. Parents have a way of cutting to the quick of any matter. In the end, my ankle healed, I left home, pulled off the Festival, had eight careers in show business in three years, and went to law school.

Thinking about that exchange brings me to the war in Iran. My question is…Where did we go wrong? What did we do to deserve this?

When the great orange Crookster was first elected we knew we were in trouble. We hoped that despite his clearly apparent tendencies, institutions would hold and that sane people around him would ameliorate his worst impulses. To a certain extent, that happened. Sane people came and went, a 2018 Democratic majority in the US House impeached him for the crazy shit he did and he was held somewhat at bay.

The second time around, we have not been so lucky. As he has aged, his brain has apparently shrunk to the size of a walnut. His worst tendencies…lack of empathy, sense of invulnerability, greed, impulsivity, retribution, corruption, stupidity, etc. are on full display, unchecked, unimpeded by a complicit Republican Congress, Supreme Court, and a cabal of sycophants and nutballs whose ambition and ideology match his.

One thing we have to give him credit for is his love and devotion to family. Who can deny the love he has shown his darling daughter Ivanka…recall those cute pictures of them cuddling close when she was a pubescent blonde teen. And, those beautiful boys…investing in drone companies and looking for US government contracts so as the war eats up our drones, they’re assured of a killing. Boots on the ground? Sadly, Barron’s too tall to fight. But, thank goodness nepotism rides again because who else but Ivanka’s husband, the fabulous, talented, Jared Kushner should negotiate with the Iranians over Nuclear proliferation. He’s an expert in…everything.

Never mind that Trump, spitefully, cast aside the Iran nuclear deal reached under the Obama Administration. At least we were talking to the Iranians. Clearly, brilliant son-in-law Jared and his travel buddy Steve Witkoff, as lead negotiator, were the right people to talk to the Iranians about nuclear matters. Not.

We may never fully know why we went to war with Iran. Sucking up to Netenyahu? Distract from Epstein revelations? It worked in Venezuela so why not Iran? Plan? Feh. Endgame? Dunno. Ever impulsive, Trump’s public statements strongly suggest that his war whimsy buttons were pushed by Israel and pressed in the end by son-in-law Jared and Witkoff. “Less than 48 hours before the U.S. and Israeli coordinated strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva for a third round of Omani-mediated talks aimed at reaching a nuclear agreement.

Despite Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi’s assessment that the United States and Iran made “substantial progress” toward a nuclear deal during the Feb. 26 talks and the agreement to meet again on March 2 for technical talks, Trump said he was “not happy” with the progress or the “way they’re negotiating.” The following day, the United States and Israel illegally attacked Iran, using Tehran’s nuclear program as one justification for the attack.” https://www.armscontrol.org/blog/2026-03-11/us-negotiators-were-ill-prepared-serious-nuclear-negotiations-iran. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html

As these articles make clear, US diplomacy was never serious. Kushner and Witkoff were way over their heads. Israel wanted war. And our President, impulsive and always right, followed his gut.

.

Where did we go wrong? What did we do to deserve this? Many of us feared Trump’s lack of impulse control, his inability to make rational decisions, his lust for personal aggrandizement and validation and, sadly, we were right. The world has become a far more dangerous place with Trump in office. Iranians have not risen up to end their regime, rather their nationalism has been solidified by Trump’s war of choice. Global energy prices are skyrocketing. The entire Middle East region is aflame. Iranians, Americans, Israelis, and others are dying.

The real answer to the question is that elections have consequences. Where did we go wrong? Many missteps along the way led to Trump’s election. While there is a trickle out there questioning the 2020 election results, it’s too dim and surely too late. Americans voted Trump into office. Assuming we have mid-term elections and we’re not kept from the polls by a fake national emergency, martial law, armed ICE thugs blocking our way, we have a chance to take back the House and perhaps even the Senate. Special elections are trending towards the Democrats.

If, by the grace of the Great Spirit, something good comes, and some check on the unchecked King and his Court can be put in place, the road to recovery will be long and hard. The World will not easily forgive us our trespasses. Even so, I am always hopeful. Our Republic has survived previous hardships and calamities. We will likely survive this. Perhaps the perfidy and betrayal of basic American values will unite the disparate American clans. Perhaps, new leaders will have a vision for effective government to address the now enhanced challenges of the 21^st century. Perhaps, we’ll go right instead of wrong and deserve better than we have chosen in the past.

So, when I’m feeling particularly down. When my head spins and my dreams keep me awake, I look back at the question my sainted Mother asked me for wisdom and guidance. I survived my parent’s fears. I overcame their despair. In the end, it worked out OK. I didn’t make a complete mess of the long and winding road of my life and I trust that, as a Nation, we can and will do better.

Keep The faith.

What strikes me is how much alike all the athletes are. Their victories are victories where the competitors are separated by fractions of seconds, hardly anything. Their tragedies and disappointments are felt by the entire watching world and the community of athletes. The performances are grand, the heartbreaks immense, the emotions high. Yes, the USA women’s hockey team won gold but the heartbreak written on the faces of the stricken Canadian team was touching. They are our neighbor to the North. The hockey rivalry is legendary. Our pro hockey leagues play in both countries. They are our friends! How could anyone not empathize with the losing team in a close match? How can we not empathize with all those who have done their best but fallen just ever so slightly short? These games are awash in both joy and empathy.

Women’s Gold in figure skating was won by Alysa Liu a young, mixed-race San Francisco skate. According to AI, “While she identifies as ethnically Chinese through her father, Arthur Liu—a Chinese immigrant and attorney—she was conceived via an anonymous white egg donor and a surrogate mother. Her father specifically chose this to give his children a multicultural heritage.”

A Chinese speed skater won the 1500 meter. Russians competed as non-aligned. These athletes did not compete as our enemies. The stands and the competing teams were filled with people of every nationality, heritage, color, gender, gender orientation. No one had cause to fear armed, masked men in blue jeans, hiking boots, and balaclavas rampaging through the stands grabbing non-white spectators. Instead, The Olympics showcased a world united, united by sport, by competition at the highest levels of achievement, a world where comraderie, hugs, love of sport, support for teammates, and consolation for competitors is the order of the day. A world where glory, compassion, empathy co-exist.

The Games are not without their controvery. USA athletes are faced with a terrible conundrum in this winter of disconnect. While we hear the chants of USA! USA! USA!, here at home the darkness of this winter is inescapable. A regime bent on fascist authoritarian dominance ignores court orders, flouts the rule of law, kills American citizens, lies, spins, and retaliates. They plan to spend billions on warehouse concentration camps to incarcerate who exactly? The legion of horribles is long and never far from mind. So, what do the chants of USA! at the Olympics stand for? What Country do our athletes represent? The land of hopes and dreams or the land of a drooling, demented dictator and his Nazi comrades blatantly declaring White Christian nationalism as their guiding star?

There is a disconnect, a yawning chasm between the glory team USA wins at these Olympics and the Country they will return to when the games are over. Will the winners be invited to the White House, now an ill-begotten zone of construction destruction, presided over by a doddering evil fool? Will they go? What words and thoughts will the President mangle if he is in their presence? How will he turn their glory into his alleged triumph? Surely he’ll find a way because that is his mad genius.

So, while our team soars in Italy, we resist. We celebrate their triumphs on behalf of the American people, not the American government. We celebrate their hard work, bravery , courage, determination, sense of fair play, honor, and integrity as the values we as Americans aspire to. We feel the disconnect keenly because we know what we have lost.

Perhaps the true metaphor for these games isn’t the medals won by Team USA, but rather the shattered tibia of the Queen of the skiing comeback. That is so because our American dream has been shattered. Our naïve assumption that the institutions of power could protect us against the wild excesses of authoritarianism have been dashed as we have skied far off course and crashed into the evil wall of powerful oligarchs, bent on remaking the world, crushing the dream of the common good beneath the boot of greed and terror.

The disconnect is real and is reinforced daily. The Stock market rises, we go about our daily routines. We shop for groceries, we go to work, to school, to meetings. But, all our conversation is punctuated by a discussion of the latest political indignity and an undercurrent of fear. What to do? How best to resist? Who to support? How to claw our way back to a Nation where Olympic chants of USA! are connected to our best selves and a Country we are proud of. What must the world be thinking about us? If we travel abroad do we spend all our time apologizing? Explaining? Lamenting?

I slipped and fell on the ice in my driveway…no triple toe loop…no point deduction. Just, a routine slip and fall. I lay there, looking up at the stars, assessing the damage. No one was there to watch except the dog who dropped his toy and licked my face. I wasn’t hurt..well maybe my pride a bit. I didn’t see the patch of black ice, refrozen after an almost tropical 38 degree sunny day. Yesterday was a harbinger of Spring. The Sun was strong. The Sky was blue. The Sea sparkled. Spring will come and bury winter as it does every year. We will celebrate the return of the warmth and pray to leave this winter of our disconnect, of our discontent, behind. We will pray and we will act. We will act because it will take a herculean, Olympian effort to turn things around. We don’t have coaches and training. We have each other. We have the certainty that this republic is worth whatever it takes to reclaim its soul, to keep our freedom and our liberty.

Keep the faith.

Charlie got a new truck this year, a gleaming Ford F 250, a monster truck with ginormous tires and one of those wing-tip menacing plows that come down the narrow country roads taking up more than their fair share of the lane so that you’ve got the feeling that you better pull over as you pass lest the plow take off the entire side of your car. But, boy oh boy, does it plow.

In the middle of the night, the dog starts barking and we hear Charlie at work, the new truck backing up, moving forward, scraping the asphalt with the sound that only a snow plow makes when it’s focused, mission driven… the engine revving with the effort of all those horses pushing, pushing, pushing the snow into a giant tower of once fluffy white, compacting like the Star Wars compacter. So that, in the morning, when we emerge from our snowy little burrow to confront the remains of the storm and our next few days of toil, our hearts flutter, contemplating the shoveling that will ensue.

We haven’t had snow like this in years. The snow was so insignificant last year that Charlie has yet to send us last year’s bill. When I called him up for our annual conversation enlisting his services, Charlie was completely on message…

“Hello Charlie. This is Paul at Goose Point”

“Ayuht”.

I’m calling to make sure you’re plowing this year”.

“Ayuht..I didn’t send a bill for last year”.

“I know, I didn’t see one”.

“Ayuht”.

“Well, Charlie, you know where to find me”.

“Ayuht”.

“Ok then, Thanks.”

“Ayuht”.

And so the snow came and so did Charlie. And now, it‘s snowing again. Global warming? It’s been wind chill 0 degrees and below for what feels like weeks. Down at the ocean on our daily perambulation, Scuppers the dog, the Commodore finishes his business without going all the way around the point and makes a dash for the parking lot, stopping only to look back at me expectantly, disappointed that I am still so far behind in the windchill that blows the sand sideways on its surfaces, creating hillocks and valleys in the seaweed covered sand that looks like the pictures of the lunar surface.

I imagine that down in DC, in the White House, they’re rubbing their hands with glee at the winter weather. “That’ll fix the fucking lib-tards and their global warming..They’re freezing their titties off and they keep on whining. They can fuck off with their global warming shit”.

Like the snow this year, the White House and its crew are irrepressible. They have covered the whole of the global landscape with their pogroms, their violent campaigns, their uniformed proud boy armies, their revenge and retribution, their insults, their regressive, infantile, untractable view of the world as a connivance to assuage the bottomless pit of the fearless leader’s insecure little ego. Unlike the snow, however, they don’t stop.

There is no pause to dig out from the preceding storm. There are no shovels to spend a few days chipping away at what they’ve left behind. There are mounds and mounds that won’t simply melt when the weather turns warmer. The wheels they’ve set in motion don’t simply recede when the plow job is done. Their plows scrape not only the asphalt of our driveways, but they also go deeper, as if they want to plow over every dream, every thought, every hope, every wish, every effort to move forward and use our human ingenuity and creativity to make the world over as a better, kinder, more cooperative, more peaceful, better place for us to live. It’s a plow job of the very soul of America and its ripples and repercussions echo in the dark night to every corner of the globe.

Spring will come, I am sure of it. The Sun will rise higher in the sky. The warmer weather will appear. The cycle of the seasons is something even they cannot plow under. There are already glimmers of the coming season. Here and there, a few brave buds might be tentatively sticking their heads out of the political blizzard…a vote here, an independent grumble there. I can’t wait for the American Spring.

Keep the Faith.

Given the wacky, highly saturated and competitive world of the modern music business, They’ve asked me to ask you for a little help.

In order to inspire the DSP’s (Digital Service Providers) to take note of our release and help it gain some “viral” traction, Please Click http://lnk.to/theheartland to listen to my new album at your favorite place for music. There you will get a link to your preferred DSP - Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, etc. Please click through and give it a listen so the Over Lords of the Streaming services take note! Much appreciated!

Also, Feel Free to forward the links to your friends, family, subscribers. etc.

And also the video is live at

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Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. I cannot escape the parallels. I have been feeling overwhelmed by grief, assaulted by the images of Jews and “others”, artists, gypsies, gays, heading to slaughter, exposed by their neighbors, indiscriminately murdered, shot, gassed, tortured. Millions of lives erased because of who they were. When I visited Yad Vashem as a Congressman, I saw graphic photographs of the Nazi killing pits in the city my Grandfather left in the Ukraine in the early part of the last century. There, but for the twist of history, I saw myself.

I was born soon after the end of WWII. I never knew its privations or personally felt its real impact. I am named after a cousin I never knew. My cousin, Paul, was a pilot who died in WWII. My Ukrainian born Grandpa Sam, who never lost his accent, was an avuncular character who plied me with dried figs and humor in the Brooklyn brownstone where seltzer was delivered weekly in blue glass bottles and the TV set was 8” wide, in black and white. It is the genius of America that as the grandson of immigrants, I could be elected to the United States Congress, to have the honor and opportunity to serve my country and to do my best to serve the higher ground of the common good.

I have been gifted a life of privilege in a Country of high ideals and values but which often has only offered lip service to those ideals and values. White supremacy, slavery, Jim Crow, hypocrisy, Government lies and corruption, anti-semitism, anti-immigrant, fascism, murder and violence are not just historical anecdotes. They are the dark underbelly of the story of America. The corruption of our ideals has been with us since the beginning. We are living the fears of the Founders.

We are living with the blatant expression and consequences of our dark underbelly, under a Federal Government which is the antithesis of every ideal and value we hold dear. The Mad King Trump and his henchmen have had their way with us. These are days when people are being murdered in the street, with seeming impunity, by masked, armed, gangs of thugs who sneer, smirk, and dance when the killing is done. These are days when the Government lies and covers up its crimes. No wonder that a corrupt and criminal President presides over such conduct.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, remember that only steadfast resistance against evil will suffice. There are parallels between then and now and, fortunately, there are significant differences. We are not going quietly into the dark night. We are not buying into the deranged fantasy peddled by the merchants of darkness. We are standing up and speaking out. We are taking to the streets. We are documenting the crimes being committed against us. We are shaming the spineless elected officials who are turning a blind eye to misdeeds and are complicit by their silence. Here, today, people are standing up and speaking out against the evil that has infected us.

We are, essentially, engaged in a civil war. One side uses violence, the other, the power of peaceful protest. Trump wants us to react violently He wants to have colorable reasons to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, and cancel the midterms. So far, we’re proving smarter than that.

I hold onto hope. It’s a four letter word that was in considerable fashion not so long ago when we enjoyed a leader of integrity and compassion. I imagine a world where the thirst for domination through power and violence is subdued, if not conquered. I know humans are capable of truth and beauty. I know technology can be harnessed for good. I know progress is possible. I know that inequality and division can be countered. I know decency can bloom if we water the garden of possibility. I know these terrible times will pass.

Still, the painful truth is that we brought this misery on ourselves and it is only we, who see with clear eyes, that can put an end to it. I joke sometimes that the little town where I now live isn’t really part of America. It’s a safe enclave I have been telling myself. But, ICE is here now. They’re transferring their “catch of the day” in the Town Hall parking lot. They’re brutalizing Sheriff’s trainees up the road. I realize, there is no safe enclave from hate.

I summon all the hope I can muster to carry on. And on this day of remembrance, I mourn all my unknown fellow travelers who shared this earthly journey. Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters…I honor all those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. I honor those who fought and now fight fascism, intolerance and hate. I will not give in to hate. I will shine a light as powerfully as I can to speak truth. I will stand up and speak out, whatever the cost. I will resist with every fibre of my being. Truth will out.

Keep the Faith.

“For What It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills, released in 1966 by Buffalo Springfield

“There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
A-telling me I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Are getting so much resistance from behind

Time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and a-carrying signs
Mostly say hooray for our side

It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down

This time around, what it is, sadly, is completely clear. Armed, untrained, Federal agent thugs are murdering innocents in the streets of Minneapolis, flouting the law countrywide while the fascist Administration boldly lies again and again and again. It’s sickening. It shocks the conscience when we naively believed that our collective American conscience was beyond shock.

Trump has assembled and armed a private army, a Gestapo, to sow chaos and fear. His administration has assured his Gestapo that they are immune. They have been unleashed in a show of domestic force, directed indiscriminately against immigrants, asylum seekers, American citizens and protesters, which mirror Trump’s deranged, tyrannical thirst to demonstrate his power on the world stage. Threats, Bombing, kidnapping, gulags, invasion, and murder are the tools of a fascist regime bent on power. Trump, his supporters, and enablers are out to remake this country as a white, Christian nationalist homeland and anyone they deem “other”, anyone who stands in their way is fair game. Now, it has come to murder and lies in Minnesota.

The videos of the latest murder by federal agents is explicit and clear. A bevy of Federal agents pepper spray and take down an American citizen, Alex Pretti an ICU nurse, and pump ten shots into him, gangland execution style, as he is restrained on the ground. The Government refuses to allow an investigation by local authorities. The Government refuses to identify the murderers. The Government spins and lies about the entire incident.

This is what the second American Civil war looks like. The Federal Government has essentially declared war on America and unleashed the forces of evil. Trumps dark underbelly is hanging out and he is proud of it.

Paranoia struck deep is perfectly justified. Here in Maine, ICE has invaded. They’re jacking people off the streets. In Kittery, Maine, the local Mexican restaurant has closed indefinitely fearful for their staff. Trump wants us all always afraid that the man is ‘gonna come and take us away. Well, there’s fear and paranoia and then, there’s reality. It’s happening right now.

Is this the turning point? Will 41% of Americans still “approve” of Trump? Will the US Senate stand up and refuse further funding for ICE? Will there be a push to hold those responsible for the tragic farce to account? Will we, the American People, sustain our resistance in the face of the clear and present danger arrayed against us?

Here’s what AI says about resistance to fascism:

“Resistance to fascism involves diverse movements, tactics, and ideologies opposing authoritarian nationalism, racism, and anti-democracy, ranging from historical armed struggles (like WWII Partisans) and political organizing (like Antifa) to nonviolent actions and building alternative visions for a more equitable society, utilizing strategies from street protest and direct action to social justice advocacy and election campaigns. Key elements include uniting diverse groups (left, center), defending democratic institutions, challenging fascist ideas with positive alternatives, and employing tactics like mutual aid, counter-protests, and systemic political action.”

Keep the Faith. Stay safe. Resist.

Back then, Trump wanted to use military force against nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd. And, as the Times reported “he repeatedly raised the idea of using troops to secure border states, and even proposed shooting both violent protesters and undocumented immigrants in the legs, former aides have said”. And, of course, just yesterday, ICE shot an undocumented immigrant in the legs…

And now, Trump wants to invoke the 1807 insurrection act to call out the military against protestors who oppose the ICE invasion and the murder of Renee Good.

The Insurrection Act of 1807 creates an exception to the legal prohibition against using federal military force for domestic law enforcement. The Act is vague in its definitions and confers extraordinary authority on the President. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/insurrection-act-explained.

Trump and the members of his Administration have shown little regard for the law or judicial command up until now. His threat to invoke the Insurrection act against protestors represents a dramatic escalation in his war on America. Trump craves the power that attends authoritarianism. He worships the gloves off power exerted by his handler, Vladimir Putin. He’s happy to show he belongs in the club of “strong” leaders, even if it means making war on Americans.

We now have conclusive evidence from Jack Smith that Trump paid for the anarchists who sacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as part of the conspiracy he led to steal the office of President. Trump was unafraid to use violence then. Now, emboldened by the lack of any restraints on his criminal behavior in office, thanks to the Supreme Court, his illegal campaign against Venezuela, bullying Denmark over Greenland, threats to Iran, and arming ICE as his private Gestapo, he is demonstrating behavior in terms of both domestic and international affairs that might be called unhinged, except that his conduct is totally consistent with statements made over the course of years. Simply put, Trump, Stephen Miller, their cabal and toadies, don’t give a shit about the law. They feel free to do whatever they want to whomever they want whenever they want.

In Trump’s first term in office, he was constrained by people around him who felt obligated to follow the law. His then defense Secretary Esper and General Milley prevented him from calling out Troops against protestors. They were both fired. Trump learned from his mistakesHe has been careful, in his second term, to surround himself with lawyers and advisors whose only role is to support his Dictatorial whims, whatever the cost to Americans, our allies, or the Nation. Using Troops against us has been the plan all along.

Generally, The Insurrection act has been invoked at the request of State Authorities. In 1992, the Governor or California and the Mayor of Los Angeles requested federal help to restore order during the riots which followed the acquittal of the police officers who were captured on video beating Rodney King. Parts of the Insurrection act were used during the Civil Rights era absent the request of State authorities when recalcitrant Southern governors defied court-ordered school desegregation. In Minnesota, the Governor has mobilized the National Guard to support police and public safety in the wake of the ICE invasion. So, are we left imagining National Guard troops and local police facing off against US military forces and ICE? Who’s on first? Who’s gonna’ steal second. Who’s calling the game?

Trump’s rhetoric has been entirely consistent with his plan to use the Insurrection act against protestors. He has railed against “crime” in cities and immigrants. Now, against the backdrop of the intentional provocation by ICE, a Federal agency which has evolved into an out-of-control paramilitary force, breaking down doors, smashing car windows, beating and gassing protesters, dragging US citizens off to Gulags and detention centers without probable cause or regard for the law, Trump is gleefully ready to pull the trigger (pun intended) on deploying Federal troops against us.

The ACLU and other groups have been preparing for this eventuality. Lawsuits have been drafted. Lawyers are ready. But make no mistake. The President of the United States has basically declared war against Americans. He will stop at nothing. Will nothing stop him?

January 20, 2026 has been called as a day of a general strike. The Bishop of New Hampshire has called on clergy to update their wills and put their affairs in order, given what may be a compelling need to put their bodies on the line. The murder of Renee Good was not an isolated act of violence by our government. Donald Trump fully intends to keep his word. Will the military accede to his illegal use of the insurrection act? Will they just follow orders? When this sorry episode in our history comes to an end and the trials are held, will the defense be “just following orders”?

A few days ago, we might have thought that Trump and his Gestapo were only coming after immigrants, or people whose skin was dark, or trans kids, or…Now, we know better. They’re coming after us. How will we respond? Will we have the courage to stand up against the fascists who have taken control of the levers of power? Will States stand up and take action against the violence? What will History say about how we responded to thuggery, criminality and violence? What side of History will we be on?

I suggest this substack post by my former Chief of Staff and podcast colleague Matt Robison titled “Can Anything be Done to Rein in This Violent Authoritarian ICE? Yes.” As usual, Matt brilliantly analyzes issues and comes up with practical solutions. I relied on his thinking as a Congressman and appreciate it now, more than ever.

Worth Knowing with Matt Robison

Can Anything Be Done to Rein in This Violent, Authoritarian ICE? Yes.

If you’re like me, you can’t get the image of Renee Good out of your head…

Read more

8 months ago · Matt Robison

Keep the Faith.

From the Administration and the President? Spin, Distortion, Slander, and Lies. Lies upon Lies upon Lies. Lies designed to make our heads spin. We’ve regressed to unhinged American Imperialism, ignoring Congress and ignoring the law, invading Venezuela for Oil. Leaving the corrupt regime in place while claiming we run Venezuela. It’s pure insanity. Trump is no longer merely cozying up to Putin, He’s overtly threatening our Nato allies with war. Putin must be ecstatic with how well his stooge is performing. It all goes beyond anything we’ve seen in this Country before. It is criminal. It is, arguably, treason. “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” (Article III, Section 3 of the US Constitution). Trump’s ICE is making war against us. Trump is adhering to our enemies (Putin) and giving aid and comfort, by taunting the end of Nato. Impeachment is a mild tonic for this conduct.

The President and his corrupt crime family are using the White House like a mafia enterprise…corruption, criminality and dementia at the very top., raking in the cyber dough and making sweetheart deals. Our country has descended into the black hole of authoritarianism. Truth, integrity, decency, respect, dignity, statesmanship, and dare I say, sanity, have been twisted to the ends of powerful oligarchs whose interests are aligned with those who consider Democracy an inconvenience.

The President is floating the idea of cancelling upcoming elections. He and his henchmen see that the American people have been wakened to the catastrophe inflicted upon the Nation. They don’t give a fig for the Constitution. To them, the Constitution is just a piece of paper, an old rag that has outlived its usefulness. Those in power will clearly stop at nothing to keep their power.

Is there hope for America? There are faint glimmers of resistance from a few elected Republicans, but only because they see that their re-election chances may be compromised by the possible toxicity of the President. Did anybody vote for this? Sadly, likely, yes. And the majority of the GOP in Congress, are happy to go along, reveling in power, whatever the cost to the Country.

Where are the patriots? Where are the Statesmen? Who speaks for the ideals and values we hold dear? Democrats are raising their voices but there is no white knight on a shining steed to ride in and save us. It’s up to us. Resist at every turn. Stand up. Speak out. Take to the streets. Organize. Vote. Channel anger into action. Every action counts.

Keep the Faith.

Seeing the pictures of Caracas bombed, I recall similar images during our invasion of Iraq. Then, as now, The United States military was capable of extraordinary feats of coordinated aggression. The images of orange flames and the sounds of explosions are hauntingly familiar and similar. Clearly, as with the invasion of Iraq, the Venezuelan operation was planned and orchestrated with precision. And what comes after? Time and again, the United States has asserted its power overseas, in the Middle East, in Central and South America, and we’ve suffered the consequences of reckless hubris. Arrogance, thy name is Trump. I mean, if Putin can do it, why not Trump? Besides, where’s the oil? We’re pretty good at blowing things up. History tells us we’re pretty bad at nation-building or dealing with what comes after we’ve blown up the bad guys. Perhaps Trump will send JD Vance to run Venezuela so at least we’ll be rid of him…

Ah well, yawn…but what about Congress? What about the authorization for the use of military force that resides in the Congress under the Constitution? Trump cannot, under our law, unilaterally invade a sovereign nation, even one controlled by a brutal dictator, without Congressional authority. https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/War-Powers/

The Venezuelan bragadacio is, of course, the latest illegal act by our elected self-declared monarch. The justification for the use of military force to cause regime change is so transparent as to be laughable. The Venezuelan action is the act of a rogue, criminal autocrat who thumbs his nose at the rule of law and has, so far, gotten away with murder. Why can’t he stick to invading golf courses, destroying federal property and building triumphant arches? I suppose that the Venezuelan operation, in his mind, puts him at #1 for the Nobel Peace prize.

Nobody is crying for Maduro. What we mourn is the death of the rule of law and the corrupt lawlessness of the President of United States. The international consequences of the Venezuelan operation will not likely play out favorably for our Nation. Meanwhile, we await reaction from Congress. I’m not holding my breath for anything but a mild peep here and there.

Keep the faith.

“In just a few hours, Earth will reach the closest point to one of the rarest visitors ever observed—interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Traveling through our solar system at an extraordinary speed, this object did not form around our Sun.

It originated in another star system and has been passing through interstellar space for millions of years before briefly crossing our path.” The President has renamed the Interstellar traveler “3I/Trump” in honor of his origination in another universe.

One of these things is true. One is partially true but not unimaginable. Here we are, just about having survived the first quarter of the twenty-first century, and the cavalcade of unimaginables boggles the collective conscious.

The wrecking ball that is the current administration is based on a denial of reality embodied in the corpus delecti of a demented but dangerous narcissist whose every action revolves, like the earth in its orbit, around elevating the ego of it progenitor and seeking to denigrate those who are its perceived foes.

So, rename the comet? Why not. Rename the Kennedy Center for the Arts? De rigeur. The Gulf of America? Post bronze plaques under the portraits or effigies of past Presidents, sniping at predecessors? Nanny Boo-Boo..wah, wah, wah. Suck my thumb. He’ll probably try to rename the San Andreas fault as Joe Biden’s fault..At least it answers the question, what the hell does Trump do all day while his minions and sycophants are brutalizing the Country in his name? He sits around tweeting nastiness and conjuring up new insults to the body politic.

So why then, in light of the obvious deficiencies, lies, insults, and failures of Trump and the Republicans are Democrats still at such a low ebb in popular opinion? Why hasn’t the clear proof of criminality, corruption, and chaos been enough to galvanize public opinion around the Democrats as the salvation of the Nation. Why aren’t Democrats seen as the knights in shining armor, leading the charge towards the glory of American promise and prosperity.

A few short days ago, the Democratic Party leadership, in its ineffable wisdom, announced that it was reneging on its intent to release the results of an after-election political autopsy. The leadership declared that releasing the study would just cause unnecessary conflict. A summary provided by the DNC’s Ken Martin focused on operational issues, such as outreach, canvassing, etc. Talk about denial of reality. There is something deeper than operational failure going on and the deeper issues are not new.

Democrats are riven by self-doubt. Democrats are engaged in a generational internecine conflict that is tantamount to political civil war. Theories and prognostication about the Party’s woes abound. “He was too old”, “She was too…”, “We weren’t….” “They were too…”

Perhaps the release of the report could have shed some light on the internal debates? Perhaps the release of the report would have, at least, shown that the Democratic Party leadership respects its constituents enough to trust their ability to suck it up and deal with whatever truth or reality check the report contained.

One thing seems clear to me. In failing to release the report, in derogation of its stated purpose and intent, the Party leadership has shown that it embodies the reasons for the ongoing failure of the Democratic Party. Can the Democratic Party face facts, refocus and fire the imagination of American voters and position itself as the political party capable of electoral success and governance over the long term. Can we recalibrate the American Dream and lead the Nation through challenging times to future peace and prosperity?

A few years ago after I left Congress, I convened a group and started an organization to deal with the very issues the Democratic Party faced then and now. Our policies are better, our thinking more rational, our hearts more open to opportunity for all, but why then are voters stuck in their perceptions of Democrats? Why are we at such a low ebb in public esteem?

At the time, we posited that what was necessary was a better approach to messaging. We recognized that Democrats convened in a broad, tumultuous tent. We saw the more modern, more “Madison Avenue” techniques that Republicans employed to deliver catchy, cohesive messaging and determined to employ a similar approach to developing a cohesive, emotionally resonant message for Democrats that would unite the various factions of the Party and provide a framework that could be employed at every level. We would engage ordinary voters, not Party insiders, staffers, and electeds, to hear what their views were. We would craft different messages and test them with both the latest neuro-science and focus groups. When the proper language and message emerged, we would employ polling to test the messaging. We would offer the narrative and messages to candidates and electeds to test prior to the upcoming Presidential election of 2016.

Our primary sponsor lost interest fairly quickly and rank and file Democrats declined to come onboard. As the Candidacy of Hillary Clinton took off our sponsor opined “I’m spending all my money on Hilary. If she doesn’t have a message than we’re cooked any”. In fact, we were cooked. Her message “Better Together” was not a winning formula. Contrast and compare, if you will with the recent Republican messaging in the last election.. “She is for they/them…President Trump is for YOU!”

Not to overstate the obvious, the Republicans are masters at galvanizing emotional responses around fear, loathing, and othering. They brilliantly use divisive social issues to reach voters on a visceral level, evoking emotional resonance that echoes in the voting booth. Democrats are thinkers. Republicans win because voters may not have the facts, but they know how they feel.

And so, here we are again. What do Democrats stand for? What bold, forward-looking policies coalesce into a policy agenda to meet the challenges of environmental degradation, gilded age greed, patriarchal power, AI, internet misinformation, income inequality, Corporate domination, etc. How do Democrats translate a policy agenda for the 21^st century into messaging that captures the hearts.

How do we meet fear with Hope? Combat lies with reality? Fight Autocracy with Imagination? Turn from the Darkness of othering to the light of the common good?

Democrats need not only an electoral autopsy focused on election operations, but a deep dive into the values and ideals we share as Americans and the way forward in a time of chaos and disillusion in a tumultuous century, to recover, reframe, and inspire an American Dream. Nothing less will suffice. It doesn’t appear that the Party leadership is up to the task..or even aware of the task. We’ll have to figure it out for ourselves.

Keep the faith.

Our fragile lives take on an otherworldly sense of disbelief when trying to deal with mayhem and tragedy. We are exhausted by the level of rhetoric and violence that has come to characterize the 21^st century. Antisemitic violence has escalated sharply since the October 7 attacks and the Netanyahu response in Gaza. Mass shootings in this country are cause for prayers but not action to control the readily available weapons of mass destruction. One powerful nation invades a smaller nation with seeming impunity. Political violence is fomented from the White House bully pulpit by a declining narcissist who lacks not only empathy and compassion, but any sense of the consequences of his words and conduct. Or, maybe that is too easy an excuse for the genuinely evil behavior we are suffering.

Persisting with optimism and idealism in the face of the onslaught is a challenge. How do we hope to match the wanton darkness that destroys lives. Sustaining hope in the face of evil has never been easy. Humans seem attuned to the dark side of our nature. How are we to light candles that celebrate miracles when we are overcome by grief? Where do we turn to maintain the passion and purpose to overcome fear and hate and turn us towards a brighter future?

We are capable of creating beautiful, inspiring works of art and craft that represent our best and highest aspirations. We can turn on a dime to help a neighbor in need. We can come together in community to heal in times of natural disaster. We have had leaders in our past who speak from the heart and lift us up. We have enshrined worthy ideals and values in our Nation’s founding documents. Time and time again, however imperfectly, however flawed, we seek the path that honors those ideals and values. Time and time again, we have stood as a bulwark against the forces of fascism, intolerance and hate.

And so, we mourn. We grieve. We cry. We repair. We resist. We speak out. We stand ourselves up. We carry on. I hold to the hope that we will bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice. I know we are capable of bold righteous acts of courage. I know there is a universal yearning for freedom from oppression, freedom from fear, freedom to live and thrive. I know life is fragile and our time in earth is short. I know we can and must do better.

We are tiny specks in a vast universe, or maybe tiny specks in many vast universes. The scale of cosmic time stretching out behind us like a starry river dwarfs the span of life on Earth. So, if we are such an insignificant part of the fabric of the cosmos, what purpose do we serve? it’s been said many times in many ways. We are here to love, to forgive, to seek truth, to persist even in the face of the unspeakable. So, at this time, in the face of the unspeakable, I light candles for hope.

Keep the faith.

In popular music, Busses appear pretty often. Magic Bus, The Wheels on the Bus, Bus Stop. The Busses are benign, humorous even. In politics, a Bus is driven onto center stage whenever fault or blame needs to be shifted, hidden, covered up, deflected and/or distracted. So it is with the Trump/Hegseth campaign of drone terror in the Caribbean.

Using the flimsiest of pretexts for extra judicial killings, Trump and Hegseth have killed more than 80 non-combatants off Venzuela, while marshalling US forces for an apparent “who knows what comes next” military operation against Venezuela over purported concern for drug smuggling. After all, trafficking drugs is of such concern for the President, that he pardoned the President of Honduras, convicted in federal court of a drug smuggling scheme which brought 400 tons of Cocaine into the USA.

As Trump opined, the poor fellow was treated so “harshly and unfairly.” I’d retort that its harsh and unfair to blow up boats and kill all their occupants, violating law, custom, common sense and reason. Dead people don’t divulge any information. Dead drug smugglers in small boats are an endless supply for the Kingpins of the drug world. The point of all this is to show force with unmatched brutality. That’s the way Trump likes to roll.

Credible reporting revealed that Department of Defense Secretary Hegseth had issued a “Kill them all order” which, when carried out, resulted in targeting two survivors of a drone strike which blew up their boat. Clinging to the remains of the destroyed boat, the two were then blown to kingdom come. There were no denials of the killing of the two men, but the spin started immediately. The effort to distance from responsibility ramped up. The Bus, under which to throw someone, came out of the blame garage.

Were they or any of the 80 blown up by the United States military combatants? No. Has evidence been presented that any of them posed a direct threat to the United States or its security? No. Has the outcry about this entire operation been relatively muted until the two drone strike survivors were blown up while treading water? Yes. Why? Apparently, even for Republicans, whose boot-licking obeisance to Trump and his totally unqualified lap dog, Hegseth, have allowed the murderous campaign of terror to continue, only killing swimmers is over some fuzzy line.

An extra judicial “war” ordered by Trump and Hegseth based on a generalized concern about drug trafficking has been, for most Republicans, a “Ho-Hum”. Let’s face it, if they’re in a boat, then blowing them up is just fine. After all, maybe, there are drugs…maybe not. Maybe there are fish…maybe not. Who the hell knows? Who cares? If they’re swimming the backstroke, then Oh dear! Oh dear!

When Video and reporting about the survivors’ killing emerged, the White House rushed to make sure the Bus wasn’t parked on Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump said he had no idea about any of this. The White House, in a carefully worded statement of praise and support, pinned the blame, oh so subtly, oh so carefully, on the second Admiral, Admiral Bradley. You will recall gentle reader, that the first Admiral down there, Admiral Holsey resigned in protest over Hegseth’s illegal orders. “Fog of War” said Hegseth. “ No idea” said Trump. For Trumpeters “The Bus stops here” is not an operating concept.

As the Daily Beast reported recently:”

Hegseth has been dealing with the fallout from a report in The Washington Post that he was behind September’s “kill everybody” order.

Navy Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, said to have issued the actual order to fire again to wipe out the two survivors, but did so only under Hegseth’s authority.

On Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Hegseth said he watched the initial strike on the boat but claimed he did not “personally see survivors” clinging to the burning wreckage. He said he did not “stick around” for the second strike and, because he was busy, had already “moved on to my next meeting.”

“I did not personally see survivors,” Hegseth said. “That thing was on fire... This is called the fog of war.”

At a classified briefing today Admiral Bradley apparently told Senators that there was no “Kill Them All” order. How then, did the extra judicial, illegal killing of two men swimming for their lives and clinging to a destroyed boat, come to pass? Who gave the orders? What was said? What was written? Did Admiral Bradly, an experienced and long-serving officer with a distinguished military record, take it upon himself to violate the rules of war? Is he a war criminal? is Hegseth? is Trump? Why did it take killings #79 and 80 to launch an investigation?

We are a country whose Government is in the hands of amoral, unqualified, radical, right- wing extremists, like Hegseth. They are bent on exercising power without regard for the law. Even by their own standards, if this is “war”, then killing defenseless men in the water is a war crime. If it’s not a “war”, and there has been no action by Congress to say it is, then its plain old murder on the high seas. Who is the Bus running over now? How sticky for Republicans already on their heels over recent electoral pummeling.

I’m sure the Senators will parse the pictures, view the videos, puruse the papers…If any are produced. Meanwhile, in the meantime, while the wheels of the Capitol Hill Bus spin, what’s to stop the arrogant display of American power and the killings of people about whom we still know nothing. Will we ever? Rubbing out witnesses is de rigeur for the Mob. ‘Nuff said.

Keep the Faith.

As we march towards a celebration of the 250^th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from the monarchistic State which oppressed us, as optimistic idealists imbued with a sense of decency, we cling to the hope that a person holding the highest office in this land of ours would exhibit a modicum of decency and diplomacy in public remarks.

With Trump, however, such hope has been frustrated time and time again. Just when we thought “He can’t go lower…This really is the bottom of his barrel”, we are delivered from our naivety by a fusillade of ever more fulsome claptrap, a barrage of verbiage spewing from the twisted mind of a would-be king.

The most recent low-ball blizzard of babble emerged when Trump called for the execution of Democratic members of Congress, all veterans with military or intelligence service, who had put together a video reminding member of the military of the provisions of the Military Code of Justice which require refusal to follow unlawful or illegal orders. The military’s “highest obligation” is to the US Constitution and the rule of law, not to orders which are illegal or unlawful. It is no surprise, therefore, that Trump, who flagrantly flouts the rule of law and would establish a despotic government where loyalty to the despot displaces fealty to the Constitution as guiding light, would lash out.

To be precise, Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social on Thursday that those lawmakers engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He wrote, “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.” He then reposted “a post saying “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”

First, as to the charge of Sedition. Sedition involves “inciting insurrection against lawful authority”. The law defines sedition as an attempt to overthrow the government.

“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both,” the law on sedition reads.

The purportedly seditious video does not call for insurrection. Rather, it reminds members of the armed forces that they do not have to follow unlawful orders. Given the public musing by Trump about turning the armed forces loose against protestors, against cities where voters cast their votes for Democrats, and imposing an armed federal force which has committed blatantly illegal acts of terror in pursuit of immigration enforcement, the video is timely and accurate.

It goes without saying that Trump’s original post and subsequent repost calling for execution of Democratic members of Congress, is serious business, misstating the law, ignoring the Constitution, and constituting, at the very least reckless, destructive, and wrong stuff, and, at most, arguably criminal conduct.

Stoking the flames of political violence is de rigeur for this petty tyrant. From the inception of his political career, to Charlottsville, through January 6, and throughout his reign, the spectre of political violence has suffused the Presidency. He has celebrated dictators as “strong”. He casually defends murder orchestrated by Heads of State with whom he has business saying “things happen”. He orders unlawful drone strikes on fishermen in the Caribbean. It’s clearly a short step to calling for the execution of elected Democrats whom he has characterized as traitors.

Words have consequences. The words of a President carry tremendous weight. We live in a time of fractious politics and increasing political violence. On January 6, 2020, the President’s words incited a mob to sack the Capitol. His words are proven to incite his followers to violence.

In an appearance on CNN, Senator Mark Kelly, one of those who participated in the video, discussed threats of violence, pointing out that my former colleague, his wife, Gabby Giffords, was the victim of political violence. What then, of the dog whistle by the President of the United States calling for the execution of Democratic member of Congress? Are threats of violence protected speech? Do the President’s words constitute a crime?

Whether speech is protected requires a detailed, fact specific analysis. In general, the First Amendment does not protect individuals from engaging in violence, true threats, the incitement of violence and harassment.

Federal solicitation charges usually involve solicitations to commit acts of violence. Most violations are dealt with under 18 U.S. Code § 373, which explicitly concerns “solicitation to commit a crime of violence.”

Section 373 of Title 18 describes and penalizes the offense of solicitation to commit a federal crime of violence. This statute was enacted by Congress as part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 and stated:

• “any person who makes a serious effort to induce someone to commit a crime of violence is a dangerous person, and their act deserves criminal sanctions whether or not the crime of violence is committed.”

Under the solicitation statute, the Government has to prove two primary elements.

First, the prosecutor has to establish that the defendant had the intent that someone else engage in conduct constituting a felony crime of violence that violates federal law. The intent has to be shown to be serious by strongly corroborative circumstances.

Next, the prosecutor must prove that the defendant commanded, induced, or otherwise endeavored to persuade someone to commit the felony crime.

A prosecution for inciting violence clearly must meet a very high bar. And, given that the Supreme Court has given Trump immunity for committing crimes in his official capacity, the social media posts, his preferred method of communicating, whether criminal or not, are arguably official statements. There will be no prosecution.

We are left with the ugliest American in our history, sinking to a new low. Let’s hope that universal condemnation of the remarks is heard., Let’s hope that even MAGA and elected Republicans disavow the remarks in the strongest terms. Let’s hope that voices of reason stand up and speak out against the words.

As a member of Congress, one can request that another member be sanctioned for remarks that violate decorum. Most often, such remarks might include profanity or words that cast personal aspertions upon another member. When a request to “Take down the words” is made, the member against whom the request is directed must immediately be seated and await the ruling of the Speaker of the House. A member whose words have been ruled out of order may not speak again on the same day without express permission of the House.

If a member of Congress called for the death of a fellow member in debate, I suppose that would qualify as words that breach decorum. I suppose, common sense would require sanctions to be imposed. Would that I could request the words of the POTUS be taken down…day after day after day until the stain on the Presidency he represents is ended.

Keep The Faith.