Friday, March 06, 2026

Who Are Heroes?

Sometimes when I am going through a rough patch, I remember something my father said to me numerous times when I was a boy.

“I just want you to be happy.”

While that sounded simple enough at the time, even as a boy I knew that happiness wasn’t going to be all that easy to attain.

Now, as I look back over a complicated life filled with many ups and downs, I know my Dad was expressing a wish, not necessarily an expectation. And over the years, I came to see that the cost of one person’s joy could often be another person’s misery.

So even happiness can be complicated.

Another, perhaps more relevant memory from my youth is one of those teenaged conversations with three of my male cousins, where we compared notes on the following question:

“If you had to die, how would it be?” 

We discussed accidents, sickness, old age — all the reasons people around us had died, but if memory serves, the consensus was that we would prefer to die a hero in war.

Young men’s fantasy: To be a hero in war.

Old men’s actions: To send them into war.

It’s a story as old as time.

The dramatic fall from power by Kristi Noem brings a small measure of justice to the brave people of Minneapolis who peacefully protested Noem’s ICE agents rounding up immigrants and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

I will always honor the brave men and women in our armed forces for their sacrifices overseas, regardless of whether the cause is justified, but the people at home standing up to an autocrat also are real American heroes

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Thursday, March 05, 2026

Trump's War at Home

While most of our attention is currently focused on the war in the Middle East, it is worth remembering that our would-be-autocrat, Donald Trump, continues to attack his perceived enemies at home, including the press.

Aggression abroad, repression at home — that is the authoritarian playbook. Trump’s war in Iran is illegal as it hasn’t been authorized by Congress. But he pursues it shamelessly, expanding the war zone to the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, a simple, legitimate question by CNN’s Kaitlin Collins set Trump’s press secretary Carolyn Leavitt off on an unprovoked, extended rant Wednesday against CNN’s coverage of the war, which in fact has been fair and balanced. 

Leavitt’s verbal assault was pathetic but dangerous. Trump labels unfriendly press as the “enemy,” and he tries to destroy all his enemies.

CNN’s future is already in doubt due to a pending corporate takeover by a Trump ally, and this is one battle that we must hope one bastion of our free press wins. We need CNN to remain free.

Otherwise our democracy may share the same fate as the Iranians.

These are dangerous times. We have an autocratically minded leader who is attempting to impose his will on the whole world. And that includes you and me.

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Wednesday, March 04, 2026

Why?

‘Why this war’ and ‘why now’ are two of the basic questions Donald Trump cannot answer. Or to be more precise, he will continue to provide a shifting set of answers, none of which or all of which may be partly true.

He can’t tell the difference.

The bottom line is Trump doesn’t know in a deep strategic sense what he is doing or why but he didn’t need answers to those basic questions to go to war on Iran. 

Maybe he just did it on a whim.

By contrast, while Trump provides the firepower and the fighting words, his self-described “junior partner,” Israel, knows exactly what it is doing as it systematically takes out layer after layer of Iran’s political and military leadership.

Israel’s goal is destroy Iran’s ability to threaten Israel’s existence for at least a generation.

So this is really Israel’s war. Trump is merely the “useful idiot.”

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Tuesday, March 03, 2026

The Oil Wars

If you are looking for one word to explain Trump’s decision for starting these wars, it would be “oil.”

“Energy dominance is a blueprint for rewiring the American economy for the age of AI before China can do the same,” explains Business Insider.

Other points made in this analysis include:

“(T)he plan boils down to three steps: maximize America's share of the world's energy supply, especially its fossil fuels; leverage the hell out of 'em; and then make rivals both foreign and domestic bend the knee.”

“American-controlled fossil fuels can now be used to try to push other countries into compliance with our petrostate.”

“But that dominance is not total, and the Trumpists see China as the biggest threat to it. Beijing's solar, wind, and battery tech has become so efficient and cheap that it's undercutting the appeal of US-controlled fossil fuels.”

“(The) Trumpists insist (that) energy dominance is more than simply an instrument of geopolitical leverage. It's a blueprint for rewiring the American economy for the age of AI before China can do the same. AI data centers require massive amounts of power, and the only way to reliably supply it at the scale required, the administration has claimed, is with fossil fuels. Wind and solar power are too susceptible to the elements.”

There are other factors at play here for sure, but the Business Insider analysis is one deserving of serious thought.

HEADLINES:

  • Drilled: How Trump's "energy dominance" plan helped fuel the new war in Iran (Business Insider)

  • Iran targets U.S. allies, hits American Embassy in Riyadh (Axios)

  • U.S. shuts embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait after drone attacks; Israeli troops stage incursion into Lebanon (NBC)

  • US nationals urged to leave Middle East as conflict spreads (BBC)

  • Cuba Is Next (Atlantic)

  • Secret talks, a firefight off Cuba and 72 hours of near silence from Trump (Miami Herald)

  • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination will likely backfire. Here is why (Al Jazeera)

  • Hegseth: ‘We didn’t start this war but under President Trump we’re finishing it’ (NPR)

  • Trump says Iran operations likely to last 4 to 5 weeks, but he’s prepared ‘to go far longer’ (AP)

  • Trump pursues Iranian decapitation without a plan for what comes next (WP)

  • Israel strikes Lebanon after Hezbollah rocket fire as Iran conflict widens (BBC)

  • Iran and allied armed groups fired missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets around the region on Monday, while Israel and the United States pounded Iran as the war expanded to several fronts. Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American warplanes over its skies, but the U.S. military said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition. However, the U.S. casualties of the war have risen as U.S. Central Command confirmed a fourth U.S. member succumbed to their injuries. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered zero guidance on to how long the war would last at his press conference. [AP]

  • War isn’t what it once was (Silver Bulletin)

  • How a pacemaker for the brain could help Parkinson’s patients (CNN)

  • When Does the AI Bubble Burst? (Counter Punch)

  • AI Will Never Be Conscious (Wired)

  • AI doing 75 per cent of office tasks, but employees have to work 5x more: Founder explains how automation increases workload (Economic Times)

  • AI saves me hours every week — here are the 9 ways I use it (Tom’s Guide)

  • China’s Parents Are Outsourcing the Homework Grind to A.I. (NYT)

  • Nation Forced To Eat 35 Million Canadians To Survive Harsh Winter (Onion)

 

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Monday, March 02, 2026

Domestic Consequences

If anyone is thinking that at least our would-be dictator is striking overseas instead of at home, think again.

Trump’s illegal wars, first in Venezuela, now Iran and apparently soon in Cuba are having and will have severe consequences here in the U.S.

These wars are illegal under the Constitution because only Congress can declare war.

Other presidents have challenged that fundamental clause but this one is shredding it before our eyes.

Over the last year his main assaults on our democratic way of life were domestic — mass deportations, taking revenge against his political enemies and demolishing federal agencies he doesn’t like.

But in most cases, the courts have tempered his actions, at least temporarily delaying some of his executive orders and stopping others altogether. Even the Supreme Court has stood up to him, a little bit.

Overseas, there is no such check, barring a global anti-U.S. movement led by our (former) allies, should they be able to muster that.

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Sunday, March 01, 2026

War in the Morning

With so much unknown at this point, the Times has a useful guide to the war in the Middle East this morning: “What to Know About the U.S. Attacks on Iran.”

But this all only makes sense as the action of a power-mad President in league. with a militaristic Israel.

Together, they’ve decapitated Iran’s senior leadership, and nobody knows what comes next.

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Saturday, February 28, 2026

Trump's War

A tyrant at home, a tyrant abroad. That sums up the authoritarian playbook guiding Trump as he launches his latest war, this one against Iran.

The U.S. has been consistently meddling in Iran’s affairs since joining with the British to overthrow democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeg in 1953.

I’m not defending Iran’s actions over the decades, which including kidnappings, assassinations, and acts of terrorism, but this is an illegal war of aggression by a man who claims to be about peace.

Back in the 50s, the Mossadeg coup was mainly about oil and the fear of communism; today it is about fear of a nuclear Iran, aligning the U.S. with Israel and an authoritarian’s reach for world power.

This bombing campaign risks world war. Those around the President counseling caution and restraint have lost. The “Masters of War” have prevailed.

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Friday, February 27, 2026

First Amendment Trembles

Pretty much the only viable national news channel we have left in the U.S. is CNN. The news Thursday that its new corporate owner will be Trump’s crony David Ellison is potentially a death blow for our democracy.

Trump hates CNN, a fact he has made clear repeatedly.

The massive financial takeover putting Ellison in charge isn’t official yet. There are regulatory hurdles, especially in Europe that need to be surmounted. 

And a rival bidder, Netflix, could still revive its interest.

But for now, the future of a viable CNN would seem to be hanging by a thread.

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Thursday, February 26, 2026

Memory Consensus

Most of the time, I’m the oldest one in the room, so when it comes to memories, mine reach back the furthest. So except when I hang out with my sisters, who can remember things that I don’t, or a few very old friends, the past is up to me.

It is also nice to be just a character in the memory of others as opposed to the being an aged family patrician and the sole custodian of the distant past.

I was almost 30 when my first child was born, and almost 60 when my first grandchild was born. That’s a lot of rings in the tree for me to try and recall when my descendants ask me specific questions.

Besides, the way I tell a tale is my way, not necessarily with any higher quotient of accuracy than anyone else who was there at the time — yet most of the time I’m the only one around. And of course, the more distant in the past an event occurred, the more our individual versions are likely to diverge, which brings me to the phenomenon of memory consensus.

Within families, communities, countries, cultures — even on a species level — we ultimately tend to reach some sort of consensus about the past, although historians, ideologues, contrarians and poets will continue to debate

And as much as I enjoy telling my descendants stories about my youth, I’m acutely aware that for a more well-rounded narrative, other sources ought to be interviewed. My version is only that — mine.

So as the saying goes, there’s your version, my version and the truth — and none of us is lying.

(This is a rewrite of an essay from March 2022.)

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Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Morning Sickness

Not to ruin your morning but here are some of what the Post chose as “highlights” from Trump’s two-hour rant last night. 

The Times summed it up with this headline: “‘His Showman’s Energy Is Flagging.’”

The Trump Show is old, tired and yet so very dangerous. 

Here is a summary of his rambling speech.

The facts are simple. True is an autocrat. He also is the President. The only practical way to curb his excesses is for the Democrats to win back control of at least one, but ideally both, houses of Congress this fall.

If that does not come to pass, I shudder to think of the consequences.

There is good news potentially on the unlikeliest of horizons. Nate Silver is out with this: Could Republicans blow the Texas Senate race?.

When it comes to my opinions about all of this, I will always choose hope over despair.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Leadership

The culture wars that continue to shape many of our political conflicts are really just very old battles over an imagined past versus an imagined future. Or at least some people’s idealized versions of a past, i.e., the suburban 1950s, over other’s idealized visions of a future, i.e., 1960s Woodstock.

But of course the roots of the conflict are much older and deeper than that.

Every parent of a young child knows that for some reason, human babies fight over resources, seemingly out of instinct. Fighting between siblings, for example, seems to be natural and much of the socializing process involves teaching toddlers concepts like sharing and fairness.

Or if you prefer one word, it would be empathy. But it’s not entirely clear that empathy can be taught; some people naturally have it, others perhaps less so. Some, most unfortunately, not at all.

In any event, the underlying urge for each individual to take care of him or herself remains throughout life, balanced against the instinct to care for others. But sadly, we now once again find ourselves inside a culture seemingly interminably at war with itself over personal matters, like gender identity, sexual orientation and behavior, resource allocation, discrimination in its many forms, religious beliefs, the list is endless.

Actually, the list covers just about everything.

Regrettably, certain politicians seem to build almost their entire political identity by staking out one extreme slice of the culture war pie.

The problem with those on either extreme is they need to demonize the other side in order to prove their own worth. And in the process, they just make everything worse.

We don’t need extremists for leaders. We need people who bring us together. The past was never as good as those who idealize it would have us believe, and the future will never be either.

Like toddlers, we need to learn how to play and share together and to resolve our inevitable conflicts peacefully and with mutual respect. We don’t need to make each other into false enemies. We live neither in the past nor in the future. And we need leaders who recognize that.

Tonight is the annual State of the Union address. You be the judge.

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