Author: Reemberto@gmail.com

Welcome to MASI – Making America Small & Irrelevant 

President Donald J. Trump is making America small and irrelevant – MASI. And he is making America small and irrelevant not again; but rather for the first time.

Since it became a nation state 250 years ago, the United States of America has been a major player in world affairs. During that time – with all its warts, dysfunctions, and setbacks – America has (mostly) been a shining light for good governance, an aspirational democracy. It has expanded its influence in all fields; militarily, economically and culturally. The extreme, self-serving, chest-pumping ‘legend in its own mind’ idea of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny aside, this nationstate has a lot to be proud of, celebrate, and rejoice about. 

Even through its dark history of expanding its territory by displacing Indigenous People, growing its Southern cotton fields by enslaving Blacks, and to this day growing its economy by exploiting immigrants, America has accomplished a lot and become a bona-fide world leader which (until recently) spouse a values-driven world order based on principles, including the likes of mutual respect and the recognition of human dignity. Sure, there were a lot of missteps – atrocities even. Yet, the aspiration to do better – to be better – was always there.

No more. 

Adios diplomacy. Adios human rights. Adios alliance with like-minded nations. Adios coalitions of the willing. Adios academic excellence. Adios independent judiciary. Adios decision-making based on facts and science. Adios elections free of political manipulation. Adios independent public institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank or the Center for Disease Control. Adios a press without coercion. Adios art without government interference. Adios critical thinking in schools. Adios states rights. 

Everywhere you look America is becoming smaller.

• Welcome to an America of a small, ineffective bureaucracy that exists only to serve the whims of El Presidente and his oligarchy friends.
• Welcome to an America led by self-serving MAGAots that are willing to gift power to the El Presidente without a second thought.
• Welcome to an America that is increasingly becoming the butt of international jokes, with world leaders treating El Presidente like a bratty kid.

Everywhere you look America is becoming irrelevant.

• International travel has plummeted. People just do not want to come here.
• Global companies are increasingly doing business without counting on the US market, fed up with childish tariff threats.
• A recent gathering of nations representing 40% of the world’s population – led by China, India, and Russia – shunned America, literally laughing at the ineptitudes and increasing irrelevancy of this wacko of a President.
• At that meeting China displayed its military might, making a mockery of Trump’s wimpy and tiny attempt at a military parade.

And what is Trump’s response?

• Terrorize people that are powerless: round up the immigrants through ICE raids; victimize trans individuals with baseless allegations; run the homeless out of Washington, D.C.; and, defund Medicaid assistance for the elderly.
• Show military force by dropping one bomb on Iran’s nuclear facilities with questionable results, and destroy one alleged boat carrying drugs out of Venezuela. (Never mind that the drug problem is demand driven by Americans. Don’t want drugs coming into the US? Don’t create a demand for them!)
• Relentlessly gaslight messaging about how other world leaders love him – adulation at its worst; firing statisticians that dare demonstrate factually that the economy ain’t doing that well; and firing scientists that dare not follow the absurdities of a deranged Secretary of Health. (Oh yeah. Just in: Renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. So so so Orwellian!)

In less than a year Trump has managed to make America small and irrelevant. God knows where he will lead us to over the next three years. But it ain’t looking good. It ain’t looking good at all. 

What Trump is clearly miscalculating is the tenacity and fortitude of a good chunk of America. You can fool some of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. While there ain’t no doubt that 30%-40% of Americans are right there with him, agreeing with his draconian measures and applauding his every move, a majority of America has had enough. Some may be quietly taking it; others may be adjusting; and yet others may be simply going along to get along. But make no mistake about it: A good number of Americans are fed up. The day of reckoning is coming. Coming our way: larger protests, more wins in the courts, more international humiliation, and more ‘emperor-has-no-cloth’ moments.

America is bigger than Trump. America is infinitely more relevant than Trump.

Trump is nothing but a petty incompetent developer that has repeatedly failed at many of his warped ventures, is disliked by everyone he associates with, is vindictive, incapable of showing empathy, is a convicted felon, and is just an all around awful excuse for a human being. Yet, yes, I am praying for him and I have him and his family in my thoughts. But… But he is still making America small and irrelevant. 

Reemberto Rodriguez 

September 5, 2025

 

The Trump ghettos are on their way

We just got back from a wonderful vacation at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, a well deserved time off from the drudgery of work and the bad news cycles to spend time with family. It was quite a relief to be without television or internet. Yet it was impossible for my mind not to place the experience in the context of the current cultural realities that the Trump Administration is imposing on us all.

The geysers at Yellowstone are a perfect metaphor for today’s America. Some erupt only mildly; others are violent; and yet others are simply bubbling up as if in waiting. There is the story of one geyser in particular – let’s call it the MAGA geyser – that after many years of not erupting, it did so suddenly spewing out all sorts of trash, useless artifacts, and distractions. It was as if the penned up mess had been building up for decades and decided to violently erupt all at once.

Walking around Yellowstone and the Grand Teton it was clearly evident that at least 2/3 of all visitors to these national parks are from other countries; lots of Chinese but also folks from other parts of Asia and from throughout Europe. I could not help but hypothesize that these folks had made their plans before this Administration took hold. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination to think that the number of foreign tourists will plummet in the months and years to come leaving the mostly seasonal workers of the parks to have to find other jobs. Maybe it is these national parks seasonal workers that the current Administration is looking to do the farm work, house cleaning or taking care of the elderly done today by mostly immigrants; the immigrants they are either sending back to their countries or frightening into hiding wherever they live.

Upon our return to the occupied territory of Washington DC we did not see any observable changes neither on the way home from the airport nor on our way to or from church the next day. It all seemed pretty normal. I did catch myself being extra careful to fully stop at stop signs and not go above the speed limit.

And then. 

And then our son tells us that our grandkids – who go to school in DC – will be starting school under a totally new protocol whereas parents are having to set up instant responses to the possibility of ICE raids. So he is having to have “the talk” with his incoming 4th grader son, akin to ‘the talk’ African-American have to have with their kids.

Then early this morning while sitting on the porch doing my morning meditation an unmarked van rolls up and parks in front of my house. I live among Salvadoran families. My heart skips a beat; but I was relieved to see that it was only the delivery of our Hello Fresh meals.

But then my friend who takes care of our dog when we are away comes over. He is a naturalized citizen originally from El Salvador. Both of his children were born in the US. Yet he tells me the story of how he has cocooned himself and his family in their house, going out only when it is indispensable to do so. The psychological and real impact of governing by fright is clearly evident everywhere. My professional friends in the first occupied City (Los Angeles) and the next occupied City (Chicago) are sharing similar stories – and much worse.

People are simply retreating to their own enclaves. Families are sending their US born relatives to the grocery store as if they had less to be concerned about. Folks are simply not going to restaurants. Apartment dwellers are finding neighbors to do their car oil changes and minor repairs. Medical appointments are going unfulfilled. People are gathering at their homes and apartments to celebrate birthdays and watch movies, literally afraid of going to public spaces. And folks have even stopped going to church. All of this is the Trump ghettos in the making.

Add to this fright the increasing presence of militarized policing – including National Guards with weapons – and it all becomes a complete and total recipe for disaster. It does not take a genius to predict what will happen sooner rather than later.

There will be an incident where through no fault of no one – or through the fault of many – someone will be shot. It may be a police shooting to stop a fight, it may be a sniper shooting a National Guard or police. It may be both. Things will then spiral out of control.

And of course the administration will blame the immigrants and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will wrench up the military presence in certain neighborhoods, and vola! – we have us a police state. With that will come increased fear in certain neighborhoods and the increased hesitation to leave the neighborhood for anything but the most essential needs. A life spiraling downwards. Neighborhoods becoming less safe. Cities existing in terror.

These neighborhoods where people are frightened to leave and frightened to call the police will create the demand for alternative policing and will be the ideal places for the growth of new gangs and alternative economies. These alternative economies will be mostly safe ways of accessing products in the grey or black market to meet most any need. However, this will be a cash economy and will be fueled by rampant illegal activity, including increasing drug dealing and mafia-like coercion of innocent people for things as simple as keeping your car safe or not having your windows broken; i.e.: a ghetto-like environment.

For the last 250 years the USA has been on an aspirational path towards a more just, equitable, and welcoming society. However, all along the vile hate (and insecurity) of a few in power who want to control those unlike them has always been part of America. Many a dark moment in American history have suppressed and abused – enslavement and exploited – minorities, immigrants, and women. All those dark moments have been overcome by enlightened people and leaders that have demonstrated the capacity to rally the vast majority of folks in the US seeking to continue on (an albeit imperfect) path towards the aspirational democracy that found this nation.

And so here we are again under the rule of a power elite controlled by white nationalist men whose rallying cry is a perversion of Christianity. We’ve been here before – most visibly in the backlash to Reconstruction in the late 1800s and through the first half of the 1900s; i.e.: until the emergence of the Civil Rights movement.

In today’s America, the geyser of hate has erupted again, this time with a MAGA banner. But the geyser of people of good will is a stronger, ever more powerful geyser. Our geyser is like Old Faithful, erupting often, sometimes early, sometimes late – but always quietly without making much noise, systematically and gracefully peaceful. 

May our journey through these turbulent times lead us to a better place.

Reemberto Rodriguez

August 26, 2025

 

Pray, yes. And protest.

Feeling not defeated but certainly with a sense that they are meaner than we are nice. Their callousness seems to be winning the day. Our hopes, prayers and protests seem to be falling short. And so it seems. 

Still finding joy in the natural beauty of life. Yet, it is challenging to gather the strength to counter the prevailing evil storm we are living through.

• Gaza’s death count of children continues to rise.
• Food meant to feed Africa is incinerated.
• Foreign camps to hold migrants in far-away places are overflowing.
• Kiev continues to be bombarded by drones.

And in the US?

• The government is building detention centers – in the US – where  men are held in shackles, forced to eat like dogs with their hands tied behind their backs from plates placed on the ground. (One site being considered was last used to intern Japanese Americans during WWII).
• Due process is a thing of the past as men continue to be sent to foreign gulags.
• Citizens are being threatened to have their citizenship taken away if they complain too loudly. (And, if you are a naturalized citizen – like many of us: Beware. Be very aware).
• The uber rich are getting a tax break at the expense of social programs to feed the poor and fund Medicaid.
• Academia is being coerced into submission by lawsuits.
• The media is being silenced unless they join the propaganda machine.

And what dominates the headlines in the good ol’ USA?

• The President slow walking the release of files that may implicate him in his relationship with a pedophile gangster.
• The President deflecting news by resurfacing a debunked conspiracy theory – debunked by his own first Administration – that a past president tried to illegally keep him from winning.
• The President mandating Coca Cola to put real sugar in Coke.
• The President dictating that Washington DC and Cleveland change the name of their sports team.
• The President causing a nighttime comedian to be fired.

The President rules the airways, sets the news cycle, defines what we talk about. And he certainly does not want to talk about the atrocities (genocide?) in Gaza, Putin playing him, or the cuts to Medicaid he has conveniently delayed till 2028.

The President. The President. The President. It’s all about the President. It is all about him. Yet we know he is full of himself, commanding attention and directing the conversations like a mad orchestra director.

In the meantime friends, family, and conventional wisdom tell us “let it go; get a grip; stop following the news; live life; live the moment; amuse yourself; watch sports, tv, and movies; take care of the house, the garden, the car; plan a vacation; enjoy retirement; etc., etc., etc.” 

Maybe. All of that is good and necessary. And yes, I am doing it 🙂

But. No, not but. And.

And I could not live with myself if I withdrew into a self-absorbed existence that is focused exclusively on me. Me without caring for others is not me. Me without thinking of others is not me. Me without taking action with others is not me. Me without accompanying others is not me. 

For God is in others – not just me. Focusing only on me is shallow, insufficient – and convenient theology.

Indeed, focusing only on me – in theological terms, seeking only my salvation – is a selfish, self-centered way to live. (Oops. Is saying that heretical?) Doing everything with the ‘eyes on the prize of personal salvation in getting to heaven’ is not how I want to live my old age. 

I seek to be compassionate, empathetic, loving, and caring not because it will get me saved, but because it is what we are created to do – or better yet, what we are created to be. It is about doing my part to make happen ‘thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’. 

Charity, rituals, prayers, meditation, and contemplation are indispensable practices to strengthen my true self, my inner self. But, if I stop there it remains short-sighted and incomplete. Lest I engage in relationships with those who are willing, accompany those in the margins, and collaborate to change systems of oppression and destruction – lest I grow in these actions – all the charity, rituals, prayers, meditation, and contemplation will be for naught. 

It is not either / or. It is both / and.

So I pray – and protest. 

Silly me. I thought we had separation of powers.

Silly me. I was taught in school that there is this thing called “separation of powers” among the three branches of the federal government: The Executive (President), the Legislative (Congress) and the Judiciary (Courts). Congress legislates (i.e.: creates departments and funds the government), the President executes the laws.

But geez, it seems we were wrong! Did you know that any President can rescind a program already funded as long as the majority of Congress says “never mind, we really didn’t mean it when we created that program or funded that initiative”? Think about that. Ultimately the President that has a near unanimous group of lackeys in Congress that agree with him on every whim can overturn any otherwise legally binding contractual appropriation of funds that were entered into before he came into office.

But hey, it’s been done before. Plenty of times. Clinton did it. So it must be okay, right? Well, no. This is just another incident – of many, many – of this President identifying weak spots and fault lines in the American democratic system and exploiting them all at the same time to exert a new-found Executive branch style, the new Imperial Presidency.

As long as this President has a complicit Congress and Supreme Court, the power of this Imperial President will only grow. And, it will culminate in him identifying weak spots and fault lines in the election process to ensure his party stays in power by winning elections in 2026 and 2028. Key examples of what’s to come:

[1] Erasing voters from voting rolls;

[2] Limiting voting locations and times of operation of polls;

[3] Extreme gerrymandering (drawing congressional districts to ensure perpetuity of his majority);

[4] Propaganda messaging with endless money; and,

[5] Instilling confusion, fear and hopelessness in communities that may vote against them.

Be on the lookout for these intentional dubious efforts. This is what we are up against. Of course we can (non-violently) fight these in the streets, the legal system, and the court of public opinion. And so we shall. 

Silence nor passivity – and much less complicity – are options. Onwards. 

Time to take it easy?

Some will say it is best to simply dial it down. Live your life. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. And be at peace with the fact that we now live in a country where persecution of individuals without due process is a real thing.

Mind you, there’s always been a little bit of this. Some people will try to throw false equivalencies at you, comparing apples and oranges or sharing one-offs of things that happened in the past with what’s become systemic and prevalent. I get it. In the past you worked for a company that provided for your livelihood, and you may have really disliked certain aspects of how it functioned. Yet you wouldn’t go online blasting its products or badmouthing its CEO. Or you live in a community where publicly expressing a different opinion from the majority opinion would sideline or ghost you in certain circles. We all make personal decisions regarding the extent to which we want to share our opinions, we all make decisions to the extent that we want to engage in collective action. And we all have to calculate the risks – mental and physical – of our actions.

But in today’s USA things are different. This Administration has masterfully identified every potential fault line – every seemingly weak point in the US Constitution, legal system, and established protocols – that has held this country together through the good will of most elected officials and people of wealth. They are determined to tear down the system and rebuild it in their own image without consideration of or empathy for those unlike them. Therefore:

• If you are an aspiring academician you think twice before authoring that paper criticizing the policies of this administration or even mentioning certain words like diversity, equity and inclusion lest you jeopardize your funding potential.
• If you are a business person, you think twice before you flat out tell your customers that the prices of your products are increasing due to these administration tariffs lest your government contracts may be in peril.
• If you are an aspiring professional, you think twice before indicating in your resume you’ve worked at certain nonprofits lest folks will know your  political opinions are different than the administration and it impacts your marketability.
• If you are a young person, you may think twice before posting on social media your disgust, dislike or disdain of what’s going on in Gaza lest you be the target of this administration’s thought police.

And if you are a naturalized citizen, for the first time in your life you are genuinely concerned about the possibility that your citizenship will be yanked from you because of this administration’s draconian actions on immigration.

Time to take it easy? I. Don’t. Think. So!

 

The trifecta of a dictatorship

Reemberto Rodriguez (June 25, 2025)

reemberto@gmail.com

Been there before. But this time is different – all times are different:

• A President who is above the law;
  • A Judiciary that buckles to political pressure; and
    • A Legislature that is coerced and numbed into inaction.

(Trivia question: Who said “When people are feeling secure, they’d rather have someone who is strong and wrong rather than somebody who is weak and right”? Google it. It’ll surprise you. We’ve been there before.)

All of this – or similar stuff – have happened before. Yet, that does not make it right. Here’s where we are:

But wait! There’s more:

• And then there is the President who approves of Federal agents rounding up people in unmarked cars and wearing masks – and hauling them off to unspecified places. And these are not ‘one-off’ events. This is happening everyday in today’s USA. This time there are plenty of videos to prove it. But, they ain’t been shown in the MAGA world, that’s for sure. (Remember when they used dogs to go after folks in the South?)
  • And a Supreme Court that has created an Imperial Presidency who is exploiting any and all ambiguity or crack in the law to solidify his power. (Remember when the Supreme Court ok’ed that Blacks are ⅗ human?) 
    • And a Congress that refuses to enact laws that affirm human dignity and voting rights. (Remember the first 100 years of this Nation’s history?)

Welcome back to the USA, version2025. The trifecta of a dictatorship.

And. It. Sucks.

Yet, here we are. Again.

The paradigm is now shifted – it has gone backwards.

Therefore we need no longer talk about what might be. We have to acknowledge what is, know where we stand, know ‘what is’, and charge forward with a clear vision of what can be. We need to reclaim the dream that ‘we the people’ have the power to reclaim aspirational democracy; that separation of power means something; that unchecked power leads to concentration of power. In essence: That it is all about power. 

It’s time for non-violent protests that lead to substantive change, change in who has the elected power, change in the role money plays in politics, change in the tone of dialogue and discourse, change in respect for the environment, and change in how the government can strive to be fair to all. 

I know I know. This ain’t gonna happen overnight. There’s still pain coming our way. There are still legal fights to fight, grassroots to organize, and fund-raising to be held. This is going to be a long fight. Must fight we must – non-violently, that is.

First we have to get past this nightmare of a one-party autocracy, trifecta of a dictatorship, led by a man who cares exclusively about himself and will go to any length to enrich himself and stay in power indefinitely. Any. Length. Manufacture war, exaggerate internal unrest, welcome ineptness into his administration, destroy the very system that got him elected, and worse.

It is time. 

Our power is non-violent protest. On the inside – and the outside. On the streets. On social – and traditional – media. In academia. In the arts. Every. Which. Where. Relentless. Small and large – but consistent – non-violent protest. 

Here we go.

Reemberto@gmail.com

 

Juneteenth (after) Thoughts for Action  Reemberto Rodriguez (June 19, 2025)    Link

It was not America’s chest pumping, boisterous bullshit that made America great. It was the aspirations of common folks throughout America to continuously improve upon past generations’ incomplete and imperfect strive for “a more perfect union”. It was Americans dreaming together to relentlessly work towards a more just world, knowing full well we’ll never get there that made America the aspirational democracy it was until January 19th, 2025.

When exactly was America great?

We recently celebrated Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. This commemoration specifically marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Just think about it, most of today’s African-Americans are the great-great grandchildren – and some are great grandchildren – of people that were born into slavery. (Do the math. Someone born in 1860 had a child who had a child in 1900 who had a child in 1940 who is 85 years old today). Let that sink in. Some of our neighbors and co-workers have great-great grandparents who grew up in slavery, in this America. They were forbidden from reading, writing, owning property, and of course, voting. They were forced to labor, housed in barracks and fed as pigs. No, those times were not great times for America. 

And neither is today great for America. Here we are: Goons in masks and unmarked cars yanking people from bus stops, hauling them away to unspecified locations and without providing for any access to contact families or legal recourse. Nope. This does not make America great.

All of this under a rotten orange for a leader, a man with evidently zero values or intent to empathetically reach out to the fragile, the down-and-out, the destitute, or the poor amongst us. Someone who refuses to dialogue with those who disagree with him, or refuses to try to bring Americans together, sticking to his MAGA cult and oligarch family and useful idiots as his sole constituents. Nope. He ain’t capable of making America great again. He is in it for himself. Nada mas. 

This corrupt, lying thief of a man is also the laughing stock of other worlds leaders. Having promised to end three different conflicts, he has instead exacerbated every situation. In the latest conflict (Iran), he is now sitting idly by, like a buffoon that doesn’t know what to do, being used by Israel who is dragging us into yet another worthless war. And then there is the Ukraine and Russia war, where he promised to end on day one, and has instead intensified exponentially. And in the situation in Gaza which he too promised to resolve? His solution? Promoting – and paying for – the weapons of war to ethnic cleanse Gaza via genocide to build his resorts on the Mediterranean coast. Nope. None of this makes America great again.

It is clearly evident that this sorry excuse for a President does not want to take America back to the 1950s. He wants to take us back to the 1890s, a time when barons ruled, when the bureaucracy existed mostly to keep Whites safe and be at the service of these barons to ensure they would profit from government policy.

And here we are. No, we’re not getting there. Here. We. Are. 

Members of the minority political party are being arrested in public and assassinated by fanatics emboldened by the rhetoric of this President. Yes, assassinated. Let THAT sink in also. Public expression is being suppressed. Law firms are being coerced. Academic freedom is being destroyed. And the creation of a propaganda machine is now complete, which includes private media enterprises and all government outlets spewing flagrant lies to their cult – those who have chosen self censorship. They keep going down a rabbit hole of – and adhering blindly to – the State’s message without any attempt to question it.

Here we are. So now what?

The ship has sunk. It ain’t about putting it back together again. That simply will not happen in the foreseeable future given the destruction of the imperfect but relatively reliable bureaucratic system we had created over the last century. We’ve gotta come up with another approach.

It is increasingly evident that now is the time for massive protesting and resisting with an ever-increasing number of regular folks coming out to the streets consistently and regularly with a message of nonviolent change, running the risk of yes, getting arrested and worse.

We can certainly do this, but we cannot do it in despair or desolation – or violence. Hope is our weapon. Non-violence our method. Persistence is our timeframe. We have to protest and resist to reinvent, reform, and reclaim what truly makes America great: 

• The aspiration to collectively work towards a more perfect union. Not because we are exceptional or better than anyone else; simply because it is the right thing to do for our children, grandchildren, great-great grandchildren – and the world.

Comments welcome. eMail Reemberto@gmail.com

Welcome to the 21st Century version of the 1880s

If they knew then – in the 1880’s – what we know now we would have never gotten past it. The last 150 years would have been theirs. The times would have been very different indeed. Nonetheless, they were relentless. They tried. They came up with clever and innovative ways of getting what they wanted: Political and capital power in the hands of heterosexual White self-proclaimed Christian men. They pretty much got what they wanted – and came across as the saviors of 20th century civilization. They knew that “we the people” was never meant to mean “all” the people. They knew perfectly well that “we the people” meant pretty exclusively their type.

The short experiment of the post Civil War Reconstruction era, where Black men could be elected to public office and aspirationally seek some degree – albeit limited – of equality came to an abrupt end with the repressive institutionalization of Jim Crow laws and the emergence of the KKK. The late 19th century also saw the coming of the strong-armed chest-pumping Jingoism foreign policy and the increasing concentration of capital power in the hands of a few industrialist barons (what today we would call oligarchs). Women still could not vote, civil rights was but a dream, social security was not on the agenda. Faith groups took care of the destitute, academia served the purpose of indoctrination, and the legal profession was nascent. 

Most critical:  The government as an institution was minimal and dysfunctional, existing mostly at the whims of those that held political and capital power. Corruption was rampant, coercion was the order of the day. Political and capital power was concentrated in the hands of a few who manipulated the economy to ensure their self preservation. 

And that world of the 1880s, my friends, is the world that today’s “they” – the MAGAs with their corporate and oligarchy leaders – want us to go back to. Except this time around they have the added tools of pervasive and ever present surveillance, the wherewithal to manipulate the media, and they are well on their way to decapitating the independent judiciary branch of government.

They have already frightened academia and law firms into complicity. They have already created a media ecosystem where people self censor by choice, giving credence only to the fountain of information hand-picked by their authoritarian leader. They have already relegated the application of due process to only those they deem worthy. They have already redefined science to appease their pseudo-science constituents. And, they have already begun to manipulate public data to show only what they want you to see.

And oh how rich they are becoming! Having turned foreign policy into a tool for self enrichment, their leader has made financial deals with other nations using the power of his authoritarian presidency to directly benefit himself and his family. He manipulates the stock market giving advance notice to the few he wants to ‘make a killing’ of the erratic ups and downs in the markets.

All of this in less than four months in power. Imagine what three and a half more years of this will do to America. What is next on their short-term agenda? Three ‘predictions’:

1. Massive distractions with irrelevant topics; i.e.: Completing a Greenland ‘deal’, proposing conducting a massive parade.
2. More outlandish disregard for existing laws; i.e.: Turning the Real I.D. into a national i.d., suspending due process, ‘whitening’ America through draconian expulsion of immigrants and selective importing of ‘persecuted’ Whites.
3. Bigger international financial deals and more market manipulation to benefit themselves; i.e.: Accessing Ukraine’s national resources, receiving the “gift” of a new Air Force One from Qatar, sharing inside knowledge of tariff announcements.

Of course, all of this is predicated on their increased Federal control of academia, the media, and law firms. And of course, all of this will lead to the inevitable rewrite of how the 2026 elections are conducted and certified to ensure they stay in power in perpetuity.

We are living through a dismantling of existing Federal institutions that they will then build back up in a much smaller infrastructure. But, that will be a governance infrastructure that is easily controlled and manipulated by the Executive Branch for the sole purpose of enriching the new oligarchy under the leadership of the one MAGA king, the one mafia boss. All in the name of ‘efficiency’. But the real purpose is singular: To cement minority rule in the US, owned and operated by heterosexual White self-proclaimed Christian men.

Welcome back to the 1880’s.

But don’t despair! 

Remember that it was those trying days that also sparked a revolution in the civic spaces, giving rise to many of the organizations that provided a place for the advancement of discourse and collaborative and communal goodwill. This included the likes of the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs and professional associations like the American Bar Association. It also included the rise of the labor movement and women’s suffrage movement. And later came the creation of the League of Nations (the first attempt at the United Nations), and the Civil Rights movement. We saw fit as a nation-state to pursue a safety net that includes Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. All of these advancements they want to destroy – and rebuild, but only to the extent they can control them. They see these advancements as the antithesis of where they want to take America; i.e.: back to the 1880s.

Those dark days of the 1880’s also saw the rise of new philosophical critical thinking and theological discourse. In a recent ‘in-the-news’ development that cannot be lost on us and is clearly a ‘sign of the times’ for aspirational inspiration, we now have Pope Leo XIV leading the Catholic Church. It was the last Pope Leo (the XIII) who in 1891 released Rerum Novarum, a papal encyclical that sparked an unparalleled age of Catholic social justice advancing the rights of workers, the dignity of immigrants, and preference for the poor. This was an encyclical that spoke truth to power. It’s time for major faiths to do the same again. May Pope Leo XIV take us there.

I realize that we of my generation – I am almost 68 years old as I write this – were lulled into believing that our work during our lifetime had laid the unbreakable foundation for continuing forward advancement towards the broader common good. But, oh, how foolish we were thinking that ours would be the generation that set forth a reversible trajectory towards a more egalitarian society where goodness prevailed! Well, it seems obvious that the foundation we helped build was not strong enough to withstand the vile, vindictive, plain old mean MAGA revolution and their oligarch funders. It seems obvious that a critical number of Americans were disgusted with a society that welcomed all and sought fairness. It seems that the White America many of them yearned for is simply not ready to yield to the inevitable demographic shift that will make them a minority. They were ok with some limited shared power. But no way were they going to transition power. They are hell bent on going to any length to ensure that political and capital power remains in the hands of heterosexual White, self proclaimed Christian men. (Oh sure they have their token – in their words – Oreo cookie, good hombre, and toy woman in position of power. But make no mistake about it. This is only tokenism at work).

 In conclusion, when it seems like we can not make sense of what President Trump is doing, just remember that there is only one metric by which he measures his actions. There is only one thing he cares about. Only one. Nada mas. Nothing else. 

His destruction of the sensible – if imperfect – governance model we’ve tried to build over the last century and a half is a first step. Next is rebuilding a much smaller, leaner bureaucracy, legal system, academic indoctrination machine, and media ecosystem that exists exclusively to enrich him and his type. Nada mas. End of story.

Therefore, fight we must. People power works. It has worked through the centuries. It will work again. 

I – for one – will not sit idly by and watch the dismantling of the aspirational democracy that has emerged over my lifetime. It was far from perfect. Boy, o boy, does it need plenty of tweaks and some redo! Maybe we did not move fast enough. Maybe we were too timid in accepting early signs of system failure. Maybe we should have done it differently. But we kept at it, making incremental progress and at times enlightened forward movement. How you do these tweaks and redos matter. Who benefits when you do these tweaks and redos matter. Who leads these tweaks and redos matters. To do it as they are doing it, chaotically, led by self-interest oligarchs, and without regards to the pain and suffering the process causes is cruel – and yes, ineffective and inefficient. 

The road ahead is difficult. They are in power, we are not. They are supported by nearly half of voters in the County. They have the capital, we do not. They are consolidating control of information fountains, the schools, and the legal system. Still. Still fight we must. 

Learn from the past, yes. Repeat its failures, no. 

We will not go back to the 1880’s.

This is a response to a Facebook posting from Cubans in Miami that seem to cherish ridiculing those of us that disagree with them. The original posting – in Spanish – appears at the bottom of this posting.

I am responding to this comment trail in English because English, after all, is the official language of the United States. I also don’t want to be accused of posting subversive or conflicting or controversial messages in Spanish – and then having ICE come to my door and ship me off to some foreign gulag, without due process or recourse whatsoever even though I’ve been a bonafide naturalized citizen for over fifty five years. (But of course, you would not report me. Or would you? I hear that the State department is now “Chivatos” on steroids).

It is simply amazing how it is some of the very same people that reaped the benefits of the USA’s past history of benevolent attitude towards people coming from other countries that write the comments below.

It is perplexing and challenging to understand how, after being quiet in the old country in order to reap the benefits of a university education and avoiding the draft, some of these very same people are now screaming “rah rah USA” and slamming the door shut to others.

It is shameful that these very same people after being rescued by others that risked their lives to bring them to the United States, and living off the dole of family and friends for years – and benefiting from Medicaid to take care of old parents – now it is these very same people that want the drastic cuts without caring if others will suffer.

It is sad to see Christians – and more specifically Catholics – that choose to stay in the “eye for an eye” mentality of the Old Testament and simply avoid reading out loud the Beatitudes or Mary’s Magnificat.

Especially during this Holy Week, it is repulsive to see Catholics staying on the vertical post of the cross where everything is about the direct exclusive relationship between the individual and God, and totally avoid the horizontal post of the cross which embraces all of humanity with the love, tenderness, and hope – as our Pope exults. (Indeed, may I suggest you read his new book, Hope). (I am the first to fall way short in this endeavor; certainly a sin of omission and to that I confess).

In the last century and a half – and more specifically since World War II – humanity has advanced philosophically, theologically, and politically to the recognition that we are one global family; where one hurts everybody hurts. And yes, it is the responsibility of those of us that live in the materially wealthy and affluent world – particularly the mere 4% of us who make up the world’s population that live in the USA – to empathetically and compassionately help financially and accompany physically (and spiritually) those in the margins of society, victims of hate, and casualties of authoritarian dictatorships. 

Have we gotten it all right in my lifetime during the last seven decades? Absolutely not! Is there room for substantial improvement in the resulting economic globalization? Absolutely yes! Do we have to address the increasing and obscene wealth gap between the richest 5% in the world and the other 95% at the bottom? We must!

Make no mistake about it. The USA has been the primary benefactor of this global economic system. And yes: some of these benefits have been achieved through the exploitation of other people and the support of dubious governments and their cronies. We are not the victims. We are the instigator. 

Have we – the USA – been taken advantage of? Of course! Let’s correct that not by dismantling the system, but by addressing the root causes in sensible dialogue, not dictatorship.

Now we have a President and an Administration that wants to revert back to the “good old days” when the USA went at it alone. Except they want to do it overnight without regard to diplomacy, alliances or treaties.

Except they want to do it without Congressional approval, without regards to the exuberating pain caused throughout the world, including to farmers in the USA, and with the iron fist of cruelty.

Trump supporters choose to disparage, insult and silence – rather than argue the issues on the economic merit with – those of us that disagree. All is okay as long as they parrot their leader Trump. They don’t dare contradict him publicly, or at least offer constructive criticism to differentiate between the messenger and the message. 

Have you asked yourself: Who benefited from the recent stock market downturn? Who made the billions buying low and selling high? Is there any doubt in your mind – for real – that this was an orchestrated ploy to help his friends and family?

Have you asked yourself: What are seven billionaires doing in the President’s cabinet? Who are they looking after? You? I. Don’t. Think. So.

These folks are looking to create a capitalist oligarchy that benefits them, and use you and me – and the rest of the 95% of people in the US and the world – as pawns in their chess game, chasing profits by “whatever means necessary”.

What they are doing to dismantle the government has nothing to do with efficiency. It has everything to do with creating a bureaucracy that will be at their beckoning call; a bureaucracy small enough to control and frightened enough to never say no.

I thank you for the comment that sparked me to write this piece. 

And I pray – yes, I do that too (it’s supposedly to the same God as yours) – I pray that this discourse will not shatter friendships or family ties beyond repair. 

Indeed, if you’d rather not hide behind your written words and talk it through civically, let’s have a conversation. Send me a note and we will talk. 

 

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ORIGINAL FACEBOOK POSTING

El mundo está en shock: el dueño de la fiesta y sus camareros han decidido dejar de servir gratis

Durante décadas, Estados Unidos compró a todos, sostuvo déficits colosales y mantuvo a flote la economía global, mientras otros países disfrutaban de la comodidad de exportar sin restricciones y de ventajas injustas.

De hecho, el ascenso económico del régimen comunista chino es, en gran medida, resultado directo de la política comercial estadounidense.

Ahora que Trump propone reciprocidad en los aranceles —una medida que busca reindustrializar el país y recuperar empleos—, el capital especulativo entra en pánico, las bolsas se desploman y los parásitos geoeconómicos se desesperan.

Pero, en el fondo, el pánico no se debe al supuesto “caos económico”.

Se debe al fin de la fiesta gratuita.

¿La mejor manera de explicarlo? Una caricatura:

Imagina una fiesta lujosa en un gran salón.

¿Los invitados? Los países del mundo.

¿El anfitrión y los camareros? Por supuesto, Estados Unidos.

Durante décadas, esos camareros sirvieron champán, caviar y exquisitos aperitivos —todo a crédito o incluso gratis.

Los invitados brindaban, bailaban, aplaudían la generosidad americana… y todavía se quejaban de la temperatura del vino.

Hasta que, un día, el dueño de la fiesta se cansó.

Ordenó a sus camareros cobrar un precio justo.

Se quitó el esmoquin, se puso una chaqueta de mezclilla, tomó el micrófono de la banda y anunció:

“A partir de ahora, cada quien paga lo que consume. Y si quieren vender aquí, también tendrán que comprar aquí.”

El salón quedó en silencio.

Los especuladores dejaron caer sus copas.

Los burócratas escupieron el foie gras.

La orquesta de los mercados financieros perdió el ritmo.

De pronto, el anfitrión y sus camareros pasaron a ser “los villanos”.

Pero en el fondo, todos sabían que la fiesta se había vuelto insostenible.

Solo que nadie quería ser el primero en marcharse.

La justicia, cuando llega, suele incomodar a quienes siempre vivieron del privilegio y a costa de otros.

Pero quizá ha llegado la hora de que el mundo aprenda a pagar su propia cuenta.

Y hay que decirlo: Trump fue honesto desde el inicio. Ya en su campaña anunciaba que esta fiesta a expensas de Estados Unidos se acabaría.

Lo más surrealista —y casi cómico— es ver a los ideólogos de izquierda amenazando con “represalias”.

Es como un mendigo que se queja porque su benefactor ha reducido las donaciones, debido a que su familia creció y sus gastos también.

El mendigo exclama indignado:

“¿Vas a hacer recortes… ¡con mi dinero?”

Ese es el nivel de cinismo que el mundo está presenciando hoy.

#tequierograndetosagua

I get it. But you are wrong.

(An open letter to Vice President Vance)

I get it. You think that my welcoming of minorities to share power – be it academic, scientific, political or financial – is self serving. I get that you don’t buy into the idea that their lived experiences are as valid as their test score on the biased tests you invented.

I get it. You abhor the thought of acknowledging that gays are ok and it is ok for them to pair up for a life of companionship and love in marriage. I get that your narrow interpretation of your faith tells you that to exclude gays is ok.

I get it. I get it that you can’t stand the thought of your children being exposed to critical thinking. I get that you don’t want them forming their own conscience by getting an education that includes a broad range of topics and access to different political and social thinking. 

I get it. I get it that to you “out of sight is out of mind”. I get it that since it may not impact you immediately and directly you don’t care if millions of poor people die of hunger and disease because our government won’t fund relief services. I get it that to you that is not the role of the government.

I get it. I get it that you place perceived personal safety above all else. I get it that if that means the government skirts due process and mercilessly sends people to foreign gulags that’s ok with you.

I get it. I get that to you life in the womb is sacred and women have to be coerced into giving birth. Yet you refuse to help them during pregnancy and you are ok with decimating Medicaid, which pays for over 40% of all births in the USA.

I get that it’s all about you, your personal “salvation” and your need to force others to join your tribe.

I get it.

And I so vehemently disagree with you.

I wish I had the patience to listen to your stories, understand your perceived pain, relate to your sense of victimhood. Well, it seems I don’t.  And it seems you don’t  care to reach out to the likes of me either. It seems you don’t care to hear our stories, feel our pain, or get our point of view. But hey, it ain’t about us. Frankly, we are fine, thank you. It seems we are irrevocably miles apart. 

It seems you have no empathy for the folks we care about: the unhoused in our neighborhood, the struggling in our community, the shut-ins in our town, the farmworkers in our state, the factory workers in our country, the poor in Africa, the displaced in Gaza, the suffering in Ukraine, the dying in the DRC and Haiti. Out of sight out of mind. Let them die, I hear you say. I hear you say it ain’t your problem or that you have your own problems and can’t care or much less help. 

Oh, but I see you are praying. And to that I say “prayer without action is self serving platitude”. Frankly, it seems your Jesus ain’t my Jesus.

Believe you me I get it.

But I am humbled knowing that I have been blessed to have lived a life alongside people that gave their lives for the good of the collective, in solidarity with the pain of others, and accompanying the destitute and discarded. And I ain’t  about to grow old watching you dismantle decades of human progress driven by compassion, welcoming all, and caring for the poor. And thus I will continue fighting, protesting, writing, – and yes, praying.