Decade by Decade

Among my extended family and friends, there are many more people who work in non-profit organizations than in the private sector. They generally earn less than they could in the private sector, given their educational and skill levels, but they feel much more satisfied about their work lives than others because they feel they are making a difference.

During this pandemic, many also are losing their jobs. NGOs by their nature usually have far less resources than the mega-corporations that rule our economy like the feudal lords of yesteryear. They rely on donations from individuals and foundations that are now hurting financially themselves. Thus the non-profits may not have the reserves to weather this storm.

The tragedy when NGOs start failing goes beyond the economic impacts and job losses. They may only constitute about 5 percent of our GNP, but the non-profit sector accounts for 95 percent of the socially conscious GNP.

There are minuscule efforts by the Fortune 500 to contribute to social justice and environmental causes, given their vast financial empires. They make a lot of noise abut how much good they are doing, but it is the NGO sector that stands between the rest of us and an unfettered capitalism that would destroy the planet simply to beat analyst expectations quarter-by-quarter.

The non-profit groups set expectations decade-by-decade.

***

Our overnight summary of the news cycle contains many disturbing reports:

* The afore-mentioned non-profit sector is in trouble. According to the Times, "Even as the economic crisis creates new demand for their services, organizations with millions of workers are resorting to layoffs as revenues dry up."

* Apparently bowing to Trump's pressure, the CDC is calling for schools to re-open regardless of the risks to students, teachers and -- by extension -- the rest of us.

* As part of its hate campaign against minorities, the Trump administration is pushing forward with plans to roll back transgender rights and protections.

* The dangerous use of federal troops in American cities continues under the Trump administration's blatantly political "law and order" campaign. Besides Portland, Seattle is now a target.

* Trump administration has put DACA applications ‘on hold’ -- The Post.

* The Sinclair Broadcast Group is airing a nationwide program on a conspiracy theory that Dr. Fauci may have created the coronavirus strain that causes Covid-19.

Those developments are certainly enough to ruin anyone's breakfast, so the remainder of this essay will wander off in a different direction.

***

Part Two of our Welcome Guide to the Newly Elderly is a guide to the politically correct vocabulary to use around aged people. Today, we present the words and phrases that are best avoided.

* It's to die for.
* You're killing it.
* You're killing me.
* One foot in the grave.
* 'Til death do us part.
* Death warmed over.
* A stiff.
* Dead man walking.
* Pushing up daisies.
* DOA.
* Skin and bones.
* RIP.
* Heavenly peace.
* Paradise.
* Happy hunting grounds.
* Zion.
* Promised land.
* Afterlife.
* Hell.
* Purgatory.
* Corpse.
* Sunset.
* The end.

Okay, there are many more, but you get the idea. Our language is thick with references to death and dying. As you enter the realm of the newly elderly, it's best to avoid such references unless you wish to walk the high wire between outrageously funny and falling off (in which case, you're most definitely history).

The End.

-30-

Turn Bad to Good

Starting with the good news...The Imperial College of London reports that "The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50 percent between March and May 2020. This quiet period, likely caused by the total global effect of social distancing measures, closure of services and industry, and drops in tourism and travel, is the longest and most pronounced quiet period of seismic noise in recorded history."

It seems like the earth is trying to tell us something. Although the global Covid-19 pandemic is painful individually, collectively we are living lighter on our planet.

For the past 25 years, some of the brightest people in Silicon Valley have been telling me they want to help find solutions to our most serious problems.

Well, here is their chance. There is no problem more serious than global climate change. What are your ideas?

We need to turn this short term evil into a longer term good.

The political will is there. According to LinkTV: "More than 40 mayors of major cities from Montreal to Medellin pledged on Wednesday to push for a 'green and just' economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The mayors, part of a global network of cities fighting climate change, said they are committed to investing in green jobs and low-carbon transport as part of efforts to stimulate economies flattened by virus shutdowns. A green recovery would be good for business, as well as for cutting planet-heating emissions, said the members of the C40 network of cities."

***

Those of us who have paid close attention to the pandemic's dangers and how it is affecting our daily lives  have been puzzled by President Trump's apparent lack of awareness or concern, no matter how bad the public health news gets.

This week, however, he has changed. Now he advocates wearing masks and calls that a patriotic thing to do. Yesterday, he abruptly cancelled plans for an in-person convention in Jacksonville, Florida next month.

"I looked at my team and I said the timing for this event is not right. It's just not right," Trump said. "To have a big convention, it's not the right time.There's nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe," 

I've been quick to criticize the President many times during this crisis but today I applaud him. By taking these steps he will save lives.

***

Thursday and Friday are the only two back-to-back family birthdays all year. Yesterday one grandson turned 12; today another turns 11. These kids, like children everywhere, are getting used to virtual parties, and almost always staying at home as they grow up in the time of Covid-19.

Baseball season's Opening Day was yesterday. There were cardboard cutouts of fan's faces in the stands and piped-in crowd noise in lieu of the real thing.

Everything is so bizarre. Spitting is no longer allowed in baseball. It must be a bad time for the bubble gum, sunflower seed and chewing tobacco companies. The old-timers in the Hall of Fame wouldn't recognize the game today.

In the Giants-Dodgers game last night, a lone deflated balloon drifted onto the field. Where did that come from?

We're all a bit like that balloon by this point, unmoored and directionless, as we go wherever the  wind takes us.

Loving you
Isn't the right thing to do
How can I ever change things
That I feel

If I could
Maybe I'd give you my world
How can I
When you won't take it from me

You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day

--Fleetwood Mac

-30-

Ye Olde Guidebook

NOTE: This essay is based on real facts. Only the facts have been changed.

It's time someone wrote a common-sense guide to growing old, so this is addressed to the newly elderly. Before generalizing, let's be specific.

Medicare. It's one of those systems you've been paying into your whole life, and now you've reached the age you qualify for it. But beware because it's going to cost you a lot of money.

It's a system that is as simple to understand as as knowing your ABCs. The only catch is it doesn't work the way ABCs did. It's more like the "new math" in the good old days. It goes like this: A,B,D,F,C,N,G.

There's no E, or any of the old letters between G and N. They've all retired.

Got that? Well, whichever letters you end up with, they cover doctors, hospitals, drugs, etc. But not 100 percent. It's more like 80 percent. I think that's where the supplemental plans (F, C, G, N) may come into play but I'm not sure about that.

Supposedly these supplementals cover all those little extras, like co-pays, deductibles and whatever else shows up in your mailbox.

Or, and don't forget dental. You'll need a special policy for that.

Need eye surgery for cataract removal? Well the good news is that is probably covered but you'll have to pay for the surgeon to insert new lenses so you can see properly once the cataracts are gone.

The really perplexing thing about Medicare is that not all doctors accept patients who have it.

There's also the "out of network" problem that we thought Obamacare might have taken care of. And remember "pre-existing conditions?" I think they're back.

Seriously, if you can get through to the Medicare help line, usually you will get very polite and well-informed customer service agents to walk you through all this. They usually say to check with your local medical provider, who says to check back with them.

Meanwhile beware! If somebody calls you asking for your Medicare number, they aren't from Medicare. That's because the folks at Medicare already know your number. To be clear, they've got your number.

So another part of becoming newly elderly is you have to watch out for scam artists. These days they are robotically calling you to offer Covid-19 cures and super-duper masks, not to mention testing kits and protective equipment like authentic NASA spacesuits. Just don't give them your Medicare number.

Besides, you'll know you qualify as a space cadet once you buy into one of those anti-gravity schemes that are floating around in your inbox.

BTW, you can always join AARP, which seems to cost about $16/year. They offer you discounts in case you plan to travel a lot and do other "retired"-type things, but I'm not exactly sure what else they do. They too have nice people who answer the phones.

Okay that's all the specific information we can offer, because we don't even pretend to understand how Social Security works. That's another entitlement you pay in over your whole life only to discover that you're not going to get all that much back.

Around here, those SS payments place you way below the poverty line.

On to the generalizations.

* They say older is wiser but so far in my experience it can be a rather long wait for the "wiser" part to show up. The wise-cracker may show up, but that's a consolation prize.

* You may not actually be old. You're only as old as you feel, and of course on some days you do feel *really* old.

* People readily make fun of old people within your earshot, but luckily, being elderly, you can't really hear what they are saying. "What?" is the right answer whenever people ask you things. Say it loudly.

* Many young people say they think you are "cute." That doesn't mean they want to date you, Just nod vaguely and pretend you get their dialect.

* Old people don't need as much sleep. Just get up at 2 AM with the rest of us and do what old people do. Knit, bake bread or try to find your glasses.

* Wandering off may become an issue. If you find yourself doing this, it might be time for you to get one of those cognitive tests they gave Trump. I think they found him wandering off to a church.

* Take a recent photo of yourself. Label it "recent photo." Place it in plain sight somewhere in case you wander off. They'll make a poster like they do for lost dogs and cats. If you see yourself on a poster, you're halfway home.

* Follow your bliss. This might involve wandering off. Go wherever your bliss takes you. I don't know what bliss is; I think it's a supplemental that makes you wander.

* Never look in the mirror. My older sister taught me that one.

* Don't keep up with the latest styles. Everything old comes around again anyway, so just wait it out.

* If you get stopped by the cops just say you were confused. Works every time.

* If you feel compelled to get a job, apply for something cool, like "self-driving car operator."

* Call everyone you meet "dear" -- it's endearing.

* Never use the phrase " I bet it's to die for" -- we'll be getting around to that in the next chapter.

-30-

Where Hope Resides

The young climate activist Greta Thunberg says she will donate all of the $1.14 million she won this week for the Gulbenkian Prize to various causes, including to a group  fighting coronavirus in the Amazon. According to CNN,  "she'll donate $114,000 to SOS Amazônia, an environmental organization working to protect the rainforest that also works to fight the pandemic in indigenous territories of the Amazon through access to basic hygiene, food and health equipment."

I believe that the connection between the pandemic and global climate change may hold the key for overcoming the immediate crisis while we also formulate a coordinated strategy to address the larger existential threat facing us as a species.

One element of that strategy clearly will be converting our energy production system to green, sustainable technologies like wind and solar and away from diminishing fossil fuel reserves like oil and coal. Frankly, that is already long overdue. It will lead to new jobs that are needed given the severe economic damage wreaked by Covid-19.

In the process, as highlighted by Thunberg's Amazon gift, we urgently need to save the indigenous tribes that are being even harder hit by the new virus than the rest of us. Just as the common cold and the flu have wiped out native people in the past, the same tragedy is re-occurring in our time.

The good news is that this time we have a chance to get things right.

When we lose indigenous people, we lose centuries of knowledge about how to preserve critical parts of the ecosystem, such as the Amazon. Unless that vast rainforest is healthy, the planet will not be. So there is no choice in this matter.

The same goes for preserving and repairing the health of the oceans, including our coral reefs. We can't sustain life without them.

In this way, the environmental movement that started emerging in the 1960s in the U.S. with books by Rachael Carson, John Storer ("The Web of Life"), Wendell Berry,  Anne Morrow Lindbergh ("Gift From the Sea") and others, has been providing warnings for decades that all too often have gone unheeded. 

Now is the time for renewed action, as young leaders like Thunberg understand. And there are signs that big corporations are listening. Apple announced that its devices will be carbon-neutral by 2030. The company promised that “every Apple device sold will have net-zero climate impact.”

As to how it would accomplish this goal, Apple said it "aimed to reduce emissions by 75 percent in its manufacturing chain, including by recycling more of the components that go into each device and nudging its suppliers to use renewable energy. As for the remaining 25 percent of emissions, the company said it planned to balance them by funding reforestation projects. The company also said it planned to improve energy efficiency in its operations." (New York Times)

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are other big tech companies also announcing plans recently to cut their carbon footprints and engage in the battle for climate change. All of this is cause for hope, as are the reasons behind the changes.

It's just good business to be able to say they are eco-friendly, because that is the way they will be able to sell their products to the new generations that are gradually taking power.

Meanwhile, the old generation that is actually in power at the moment is splitting at the seams. Trump finally called on people to wear masks, roughly 140,000 deaths too late. Better late than never? Maybe.

But as his poll numbers tank, and Biden assumes a double-digit lead among registered voters, Trump's campaign is releasing dark ads depicting Democratic-run cities as dystopian nightmares. As a longtime resident of one of those cities, the one that has produced political leaders like Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown, I can attest that it hardly a nightmarish place to live. 

But Trump's campaign is desperate. He has failed to protect the country from Covid-19 and the economy is in ruins. Unemployment is at historic highs and there is no end in sight for the shrunken lifestyles Americans are being forced to endure.

It would be unfair to blame Trump for the virus; he didn't create it, but his failure has been to not have been able to limit its impacts, as leaders in many other countries have done. If he loses in November, that failure will have done him in.

***

Tomorrow marks the beginning of baseball season. America's pastime is returning, allegedly, for an attenuated season -- 60 games rather than the customary 162. Not to worry, for sports fans this represents a bonanza. We are checking our cable packages to make sure we can watch as many games as possible, since the sport has devolved into a made-for-TV only mode.

The fabulous "Hunger Games" books and movies presented a future world where everything revolved around a television show. It's hard to resist the impression that what we like to call "real life" is following suit, and not just with baseball.

I've long considered the Hunger Games to be a metaphor for global climate change. After all, the young are pitted against each other in a fight to the death in a world where limited resources mean only the strongest (or richest) will survive.

The young competitors need sponsors to have any chance of winning. Think Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon selling their green products if you will indulge my drift.

If all of this computes, there is then one huge question hanging over us all. Where is our Katniss Everdeen?

Greta Thunberg?

-30-

The Final Act

When the President announced that he had "aced" his cognitive test, on July 10th, I jolted awake from a nap in my chair. Within minutes I had drafted an essay pointing out two things: The test is very easy to pass, and Trump's doctors had to have had a damn good reason to give him the test

Legitimate reasons could be that they feared he had had a stroke, or that they were concerned about signs of the onset of Alzheimer's. From a medical perspective, there had to be a concrete reason.

In the weeks since, various journalists have picked up on these two points -- that the test is simple and there has to be a valid reason to take it.

In the process, the content of the test has emerged for all to see. It is pathetically easy to score 100 percent on this test. Most first graders could probably ace it, save perhaps for this one question:

"Count backwards from 100 to zero by seven."

This should be an easy task for most adults, since you just subtract seven 14 times until you end up at two. Some neurologists might want you to bring it home and go all the way to -5, I suppose, but most say "that's enough" once you get to 44 or so.

Too bad for Trump that someone didn't explain to him that this is not the sort of accomplishment you brag about when you are running for elected office. It's rather like saying "I aced the weight test," i.e., you were able to step up on the scale and stay there long enough to yield a result.

But let's return to the likely reason Trump had to take the test at all. Doctors often use the test to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a state not necessarily serious enough to affect your daily life -- yet -- but a cause for concern.

The test is administered frequently to stroke patients and at least once a year to Alzheimer's patients, who tend to lose two to four points per year.

In Trump's case, we know he probably was given the test during a mysterious weekend visit to Walter Reed hospital earlier this year that has never been explained. One possibility is that his White House doctor saw that he was confused and wanted to rule out a stroke.

Until this mystery is cleared up, people like me are going to keep raising the question.

In the meantime, kudos to Chris Wallace of Fox News for pushing Trump on the test results. Chris is following in the footsteps of his dad, Mike Wallace, who BTW wrote the introduction to a book I co-authored with Dan Noyes called "Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story" in 1983.

The book didn't sell all that well, but it was used as a textbook by journalism professors for years. In it, we described the methodology behind eight of our early investigations at CIR and documented some of the impacts they had.

How reporters do the work we do is one of my main motivations for writing a memoir. Given the role we play in a democratic society, we need to bring as much transparency to our process as we can.

One of the trickiest aspects of our work is when we have to rely on confidential sources. When that happens, we have to have a good reason, such as the source's physical safety or job security.

When we do so, we are asking readers to trust us. But we understand that that can be very hard for readers to do. How can you tell we don't have an agenda or our sources don't have an agenda that remains hidden from view?

This is particularly difficult when the story focuses on a controversial public figure, such as the President. Our current one is dead certain that there are people out to get him and I'm sure he is right.

That's why a story about him has much greater credibility when it is based not on confidential sources but on his own words. And that is why he is in trouble on the cognitive test; he's brought it all on himself.

Psychoanalysts have many theoretical explanations for such self-destructive behavior, but they all remain unproven.

***

So on to the scariest threats facing us now, far worse than Covid-19.

(1) Trump is loudly claiming the election will be rigged and that he won't concede if he loses. Never before has a President lost and refused to concede. If this happens it will provoke the worst constitutional crisis in our history.

Ultimately, under that scenario, the Supreme Court would have to decide who won.

(2) Now Trump is threatening to unleash federal forces to more cities, beyond Portland. "We're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore and all of these, Oakland is a mess. We're not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats," Trump said.

Former Salon and Nation correspondent Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times quotes Yale historian Timothy Snyder: “'Be wary of paramilitaries. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.' In 2017, the idea of unidentified agents in camouflage snatching leftists off the streets without warrants might have seemed like a febrile Resistance fantasy. Now it’s happening.

"According to a lawsuit filed by Oregon’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, on Friday, federal agents “have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland, detain protesters, and place them into the officers’ unmarked vehicles” since at least last Tuesday. The protesters are neither arrested nor told why they’re being held.

"There’s no way to know the affiliation of all the agents — they’ve been wearing military fatigues with patches that just say “Police” — but The Times reported that some of them are part of a specialized Border Patrol group “that normally is tasked with investigating drug smuggling organizations.”

"The Trump administration has announced that it intends to send a similar force to other cities; on Monday, The Chicago Tribune reported on plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago. “I don’t need invitations by the state,” Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said on Fox News Monday, adding, "We’re going to do that whether they like us there or not."

"Rep. Joaquin Castro worries that since the agents are unidentified, far-right groups could easily masquerade as them to go after their enemies on the left. “It becomes more likely the more that this tactic is used,” he said. “I think it’s unconstitutional and dangerous and heading towards fascism.”"

***


I pray Trump will not do these terrible things. Because if he does, and this is no exaggeration, that will be the beginning of the end of our democracy. 

"Life As We Knew It"

Goodbye that's all there is to it
Life as we knew it ended today

-- Kathy Mattea 

-30-

Frozen in Place

Sometime in March, time came to a halt for almost all of us. Life stopped in its tracks.

For the great majority of people, the only concrete change was staying at home. But a smaller group of us, still numbering in the millions I'm sure, were caught between things -- jobs, places, homes. We were stopped while in motion.

In my case, I was suspended between two apartments. My possessions were spread over three cities. But I also was lucky because I had family members ready to help me move to a third location and settle in with them.

We had to develop new daily routines. Time slowed to a glacial pace. The past four months have felt like four years.

Around here, we've started talking about the early days of the pandemic with an almost nostalgic tone. 'Remember back then, when traffic was lighter and home deliveries were more of a novelty?' 'When we were excited by the discovery of ordinary, everyday items?'

It's become clear that we are a restless people bursting at the constraints that should be keeping the pandemic in check, according to public health experts. It is not surprising that Americans are among those having the hardest time staying put; our entire culture is rooted in freedom.

Meanwhile the country struggles with a lack of leadership. Of course Democrats are attacking President Trump; they sense an electoral victory in November. But lately, it is Republicans and conservative-leaning media driving the growing movement to expel the incumbent from the White House.

Liberals love to hate the Fox Network, but the most damaging interview of Trump to date was conducted by Fox Sunday anchor Chris Wallace. It's a must-see for anyone clinging to the idea that Trump knows what he is doing.

Among the many blows Wallace delivers as an interviewer, he debunks Trump's absurd claim that he "aced" his cognition test. He also shows Trump is lying that Joe Biden supports defunding the police (he doesn't), and that the President  remains in denial about the seriousness of the pandemic.

The Lincoln Project, a Republican group, has produced a devastating ad, which quotes Trump's press secretary's statement as if it were breaking news: "He can read!"

Numerous GOP leaders are contradicting the President's anti-mask position, and his blanket statement that all schools should reopen, regardless of whether it is safe for kids if they do so. Many despise his shameless attacks on his own leading health expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and a growing number say they won't vote for him this fall.

If Trump loses, it may be that Republicans of conscience will be the driving force behind his defeat. According to a Fox News poll, Biden leads Trump by eight points among registered voters. Other polls suggest a larger lead for the Democrat.

I don't know about you, but after what happened in 2016 I'll believe those numbers only when I see them as verified results. Until then, I have to assume that Trump will be in power until 2024.

***

Thinking back to the pre-lockdown days, what is striking is how much we did not yet know. We'd lived lifetimes of freedom, and the phrase "shelter-in-place" was familiar only from the scenes of mass shooting incidents.

We were used to commuting to work, and to having our kids go to schools. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops were a staple of urban and suburban life.

People of faith went to their houses of worship. Fitness buffs went to gyms. Theaters with plays and movies, lecture halls, music venues, dance performances were all available, as were bookstores, clubs, and gaming ventures.

Sports stadia filled up, drawing huge crowds, as did theme parks and amusement complexes.

Film companies set up shop all over the place; in California it was unusual to not see some sort of film crew every week of the year.

Shopping centers and malls drew many; beaches and parks were filled with locals and tourists.

Buses, trains, ferries and planes were packed with travelers.

There was an unending bustle to our pre-virus life. No one thought it would ever come to a grinding halt.

In Hollywood films, it is a common technique to stop the action with a freeze frame, usually to allow the audience to catch up with the action.

When our real lives were frozen in place last March, the action stopped for good. The people who would normally start up the cameras again are gone, sheltering-in-place like the rest of us.

"Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

"And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die."

-- Crosby, Stills & Nash

-30-

At Work

What is Right

Not one but two dogs are staying with us at the moment. Both are friendly. Betsy lives here, Jack is a visitor.

It seems nice to greet dogs when you see them by saying "Hi" -- but when you try that with "Jack" it sounds like a 9-1-1 call, so we've adopted a new greeting for him:

"Hey Jack!" Since we all prefer rhymes around here, my grandson has suggested, we use "Hey Jay" instead.

Of course we would never say "Hit the road, Jack." Because that would remind us of Ray Charles:

"Hit the road Jack and don't you come back
No more, no more, no more, no more
Hit the road Jack and don't you come back
No more"

That, naturally, leads us to remember Ray's rendition of "I'm Busted." Seems especially relevant now:
I went to my brother to ask for a loan 'cause I was busted I hate to beg like a dog without his bone, but I'm busted My brother said there ain't a thing I can do My wife and my kids are all down with the flu And I was just thinking about calling on you and I'm busted Well, I am no thief, but a man can go wrong when he's busted The food that we canned last summer is gone and I'm busted The fields are all bare and the cotton won't grow Me and my family got to pack up and go But I'll make a living, just where I don't know cause I'm busted

***

In contrast to the U.S., Canada is doing an impressive job of keeping its pandemic numbers low. The latest is that as major league baseball re-opens this week, the Toronto Blue Jays will not be allowed to host games on their home stadium.

Canadian authorities don't want planeloads of American ballplayers showing up, likely bringing the virus with them across the border.

So the Jays will relocate to one of two American sites, probably upstate New York, as their temporary home during this virus-shortened 60-game season. That means 30 games at their new home venue.

In most sports, including baseball, there is a presumed home-field advantage. But without real fans, just cardboard cutouts, holograms, and canned crowd noise, it's unclear that road teams will be at that much of a disadvantage this time around.

The bottom of the ninth inning will still belong to the home team, however, which represents a last chance to catch up if you're behind. Play ball!

***

You can get inured to the daily humdrum of news but this weekend one story stands out. What the armed federal agents are doing in Portland -- wearing camouflage and seizing citizens off the streets without probable cause -- is the most direct threat to date to democracy launched by the current administration.

No previous President to my knowledge has authorized this kind of undercover police operation against our fellow citizens. There was widespread government spying against civil rights and anti-war activists in the 60s that occasionally provoked internecine violence, and agent provocateur interventions, but nothing quite like this secret usurpation of the rule of law.

This is the type of behavior we are used to from dictators in banana republics. Not in Oregon.

Unless this rogue abuse of power is checked, our freedoms will begin to disappear one by one. It may be time for peaceful protestors to return to the streets and resist the rise of an authoritarian state.

This is the only rational conclusion of anyone who knows history, and observes events free of bias or an ideological bent.

If you are pro-American, and have stood up and fought for our core values and principles before, this sure ain't the time to stop doing that now. As usual, a country music song gets it right:

Now Daddy didn't like trouble, but if it came along 
Everyone that knew him knew which side that he'd be on 
He never was a hero, or this county's shinin' light 
But you could always find him standing up 
For what he thought was right 
He'd say you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything 
You've got to be your own man not a puppet on a string 
Never compromise what's right and uphold your family name 
You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything

-- Aaron Tippin