Author: 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.

 

 

Welcome to MAGAmerica. We are here. 

So let me get this straight. The President can dictate Federal workers do stuff that are likely – or may be – illegal. If they don’t do it, they get fired. By the time an employee’s complaint works itself through the system, they’ve been replaced by a MAGA loyalist who willfully takes on the task. If months – or years – later the request of the President is deemed illegal, it’s too late; damage done. 

Exasperating this dire situation is the tactic by the President to make sure he edicts so many of these dictates at the same time that it becomes impossible for the workforce to complain through the proper channels. 

Exasperating it even more is what is happening to the legal system. The President is decapitating the legal system to ensure lawyers become increasingly hesitant to take on any case against him. “Do it at your own peril”, he is loudly saying.

Trump is simply using the good will of the system we’ve created to destroy that very system.

As long as there are enough MAGA loyalists work-a-bees willing to embrace his approach and not giving a second thought to the legality of it all, the damage being done, or the cruelty of how it is being done, there is truly not much anyone can do about it other than sporadic ‘mini-heroes’ shining a momentary light on a very dark reality, or – if there are any decent lawyers left – make a court case out it. As long as these MAGA work-a-bees are part of his self-serving dictatorial schemes, things will continue sliding fast down the road of autocracy. 

Welcome to MAGAmerica. We are here.

It’s time for the counter-revolution revolution 

What more proof do you want that they ARE coming after people that do not agree with them and refuse to blindly follow their dictates?!? This includes:

• Scientists
• Professors
• Journalists
• Lawyers
• Protesters
• Public officials
• Government employees 
• Wealth creators
• Corporate executives

Yes, I know. There’s been examples of similar attacks on individuals that oppose new administrations in the past. But nothing ever like this frontal attack on individuals, institutions and corporations. Nothing before like these blatant attacks with dictates of the President and selective enforcement – many of them which may be illegal – for the sole purpose of making examples of a particular situation to instill fear in the general population. It is governing – or rather dictating – by fear-mongering. All At once. Chaotic. Without regards to protocol or established law. 

All in the name of reversing the progress made in the last 150 years – and accelerating since the 1960’s – towards a more inclusive and equitable society welcoming the country’s increasingly diverse population. (Yep. Advancement in DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the stuff that Jesus guy kinda talked about. But it seems that is not their Jesus). They are hell-bent on reverting back to the days when political, financial, and institutional power was in the hands of heterosexual (self-proclaimed) Christian White men. (And a time when powerful nation-states could strike smaller nation-states to extract natural resources and expand territory without impunity). 

OK. So now we know. Yes, some folks warned us about it. But now we are here.

• Congress is either with him or maneuvering the political winds to secure useful idiots to go along with him.
• The press is timid.
• Corporations are chumming up to him lest they are black listed.
• Academia is increasingly buckling.
• Protesters are scared.
• Faith communities are mostly complicit.
• The military is eerily silent.
• The international community is deathly afraid they’ll be next on his perverse list of enemies.
• There are no heroes coming forward to stand up to him.
• There’s only token, unorganized, leader-less opposition and resistance.

The general population seems to be occupied with the drudgery of daily living, trying to simply survive, competing in the rat race that is consumerism, and all too willingly diverting to the diversion of entertainment and sports.

Diplomacy has been replaced with shouting matches, switching sides, and double-speak where surrender becomes peace a la George Orwell’s 1984.

This is a revolution, no doubt about it. A MAGA Revolution. The USA is transforming before our very eyes – and not for the better. 

And we know their end game: An oligarchy one party nation ruled exclusively by and for the benefit of heterosexual self-proclaimed Christian White men. 

I was yanked from the country of my childhood because of a revolution. Now in my old age I find myself in a country where this new revolution is destroying the society I’ve devoted my whole adult life to help build.

Call me foolish and idealistic. But I am too old not to speak my mind. I’ve lived too long not to want others to enjoy what I’ve enjoyed. I’ve worked too hard for my children and grandchildren to go back to the 1880’s. I am too mad not to fight back. I will join the counter-revolution, and resist however I can to put this evil “genie” back in the bottle.

 

Their “end-game”.  What and How. Substance and Style. Time for a counter-revolution.

It is not just what they are doing, it is also how they are doing it.

It is not just the substance of what they are trying to accomplish, it is also the style in which they are accomplishing it.

What is going on in the USA today is nothing short of a revolution; a revolution from the inside out; a revolution instigated by those in power to stay in power. But a revolution nonetheless.

Quite a bit of what – on the surface – the Trump Administration’s revolution is seemingly seeking to accomplish is indeed laudible. Peace in Ukraine and the Middle East. Efficiency in government. Control immigration. Focus aid for the poor. All sounds good. Who can disagree?  If all the news you hear comes from the White House and it’s crony media (the new State media), and if then you listened to the President’s address to Congress, you would think that everything is going oh so well. Yet that address had by conservative estimates over one hundred right out lies and many more other distorted information.

And.

How they are going about – and their apparent end game – beyond their lies and distortions is, in a simple word: Evil.

Their evil is exasperated when they are pompous, self-righteous and arrogant in presenting their propaganda.

And it is evil. Dictating by fear, selective enforcement, creating chaos, disregarding established protocols – that is how they are getting things done. And that is mean-spirited, abusive, and cruel. And evil.

It is as if their enemies are the suppressed people of Gaza and Ukraine, the civil servants in the USA government, the undocumented, and the homeless. 

Their enemies also include the LGBTQ+ community. According to the MAGAs and  their perverse pseudo theology the LGBTQ+ community is “poisoning” the culture with the likes of drag shows and the talk of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Also their enemy? Science. Artists. And academia.

In a nutshell, their enemies are the defenseless and those who have heard the cry of the poor, the excluded, the sidelined, the bullied and all ‘others’. 

How to explain this madness? According to the MAGAs, it all started with the revolutions of the 60’s. 

It is those revolutions in the realm of politics, culture, governance and theology that they despise. It is the increasing participation of others in the political process they don’t like. It is the welcoming of more voices in the civic discourse they deplore. It is the expansion of empathetic government programs they want to eliminate. It is the theology that promotes preference for those in need they refuse to accept.

They clearly intend to revert back not to the 1950’s, but to the 1890’s. They seek to return to the times when philanthropy (very partially) took care of those in need, barons and oligarchs controlled the economy, labor was unorganized, expansion of empires was still a thing, faith was personal with no collective interests, and – most critical – power was the exclusive privilege of white, heterosexual  (self identified) Christian men. 

And that, my friends, is part of  their ultimate end game.

[Luckily, in a country where the majority of men are indeed white, heretosexual, and (at least culturally) Christian , not all adhere to the MAGA mentality. Many of these white non-MAGA men are people of goodwill, critical thinkers, and empathetic to those unlike them. They are our friends 🙂 And to you we shout: ¡GRACIAS!]

What a macabre of a man! Pure evil. That President Donald Trump. 

So he directs the USA government to radically stop providing life saving food and medicine to the poor throughout the world to starve and sicken them to death. After decades of building goodwill towards the USA with the provision of food and medicine for the poor, he is now killing the very people we have been helping. After decades of people looking to the USA as a beacon of hope he has turned the USA into an instrument of cruel, intentional desperation, and death. This time the killing not only by providing other government the war tools for the killing fields – unfortunately how the USA does so in many parts of the world and has also been doing for decades – but by yanking away food and medicine promised to the poor for meager survival. This is mean. This is cruel. This is evil.

This approach creates a new never seen hatred of the USA by people throughout the world. What was seen as a benevolent act of goodwill – in part countering the hatred instilled by the provision of the war machinery – has been turned into another despicable act of sheer evil: The intentional denial of life saving food and medicine for the poor for purely political gain.

Maybe his intent is to make sure the destitute throughout the world no longer sees the USA as that beacon of hope so they will not want to come here. 

(Ah! That’s it! The man is a genius!)

He is creating a new world order where people despise the USA to the point that they no longer want  to come here. And, he is dismantling the USA government to the point that it no longer works for the people already here. 

It seems he is making good on his promise to fix the immigration problem by making the USA a place where no one is proud to live here, a place where the government controls the media, a place where the government is ran by oligarchs, a place where only white heterosexual (self identified) Christian man have political and capital power. 

The end-game of their revolution?. A USA more similar to the likes of Russia than to the Western European nations. Gee, maybe we should be Russia’s friend now. Oh, wait, we already are? Yep. We are there. Their end-game is complete.

It is time to start the counter-revolution.

 

When did feeding the hungry and curing the sick become a worthless collective good?

Can you imagine a world where folks that are materially better off come together and decide to help the poor in a faraway land by sending them goods and medicine? Each of us could decide to do this individually, taking food and medicine ourselves. But that’s simply oftentimes impractical. 

Would it not be much better for us as a community to collect money to pay those among us that know how to grow food and those that produce the medicine, and then ship the goods to those far away places? There we could work with faith communities and volunteers – and of course the local folks – to get the food and medicine to those that need it most.

Of course we’d know that there are bad elements in each step in the process that are bound to abuse the good will of the community. There’d be those that overcharge for the production, others that would steal some of the goods along the way, and others that would resale the free goods to make a profit. 

But we would work to minimize these losses. We would do financial audits, we would analyze the process to identify inefficiencies, and we would constantly improve. However, we would never just dismantle the project and simply leave people to starve without food and die without medicine.

We would never do that because we as a community are people of good will, a generous people. We understand that helping others is a good thing, it pays dividends that are incalculable. It is, to those folks of faith, doing God’s work.

And that my friends, is exactly what we were doing when we as a nation decided to use a limited amount of our tax dollars (our collective chest) to pay our farmers in the heartland to grow certain food that we would buy from them and have it shipped to other parts of the world where we would contract with faith groups and locals to distribute. And that’s exactly what we did when the government partnered with major drug manufacturers to produce life-saving medication to distribute throughout the world.

We did this with the knowledge that it is an imperfect system. We know that some unscrupulous farmers would over charge, that some drug manufacturers may over charge, that some faith groups would take advantage of certain contractual loopholes, and that there would be inevitable graft at the local level. 

But we also knew that these ‘bad actors’ were the exception, not the rule. We knew that the vast majority of the folks in the supply chain of getting the food and medication to where it is most needed are honest folks proud to be part of projects that demonstrate our national collective good will. And the vast majority of taxpayers are happy that their elected officials and workers throughout the government, faith and private sector supply chain are honest people of good will trying to do their best to deliver on the collective decision that helping the poor in far away places is a good, humane value.

We know that helping the poor far away in no way negates our responsibility to help those nearer to us, in our local community. We can do both.

Do we have to address the waste and graft in the process? Of course! 

But to do what this new Administration is doing, taking a sledge hammer to a system that has generally worked for decades and has served the common good as decided by the general population through the policies adopted by elected representatives and implemented by competent agencies and partners is simply not the way to improve a good thing. Destroying agencies like USAID, which in turn decapitates the capacity of other agencies – many of which are faith based – to do their work, is just plain wrong. It is also shortsighted, as these programs create immense good will towards America and ferments relationships that change hearts and minds. Worse yet is how they are doing it! Dehumanizing the people served as well as the people that do the serving; being facetious and insulting to those that have given of their life and livelihood for years – decades! – committed to this public good; and providing no alternative, leaving people to literally die of hunger and die because their medication is no longer available.

When did feeding the hungry and curing the sick become a worthless collective good? What Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their accomplices are doing is nothing short of a moral crime against humanity. We have to hold them accountable. 

We do not have to let this stand. It is our collective money. It is our collective decision. Collectively we have decided that we are willing to contribute through taxation to this worthy cause of providing food and medicine to the needy of the world. Let’s not let this Administration take that away from us. 

Let’s not let their complete and total lack of compassion infect our collective will. We are a good people. We can come together to reverse this madness. Yes, we can do this!

Updated Version may be available

If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

Oh, how normal it feels! Super Bowl Sunday was surely fun. The weekend was restful. The grandkids offer such a relief from the madness around us. Looking forward – or not! – to the snow. Heading down to see family next weekend. All good.

Yet the madness of the moment is still very much with me. Hard as I try to avoid it, the anxiety of what is yet to come can be overwhelming. 

The doubts of the validity of our concerns emerge ever more poignant: Are we exaggerating things? Are we in our own bubble too much? Are we getting our information from ultra biased sources? Might it be that what is happening is nothing more than a fast paced change that will yield some corrective measures more so than radicalism, autocracy or oligarchy? Are we exaggerating things?

The initial rage has turned into sustained anger. How to turn that anger into action consumes my thinking. The inevitable thought of what others should be doing keeps entering my head, knowing full well that I can not control what others do – I can only control myself, what I do.

But, what can I do?

I’ve tried talking with family members who voted for Trump, only to be scolded for not having understood their pain during the 8 years of Obama and 4 years of Biden. It is they who tell me “elections have consequences; you voted for them!” And they are blunt when they tell me “everything Trump and Musk are doing is exactly why we voted for them. Take a chill pill. This is only the beginning!” No response would break through their impenetrable shield to their fountain of information, to their self imposed censorship.

And this, my friends, is why a new ABC* poll yesterday had Trump at his highest approval rating, 53%. (*It is not lost on me that it is a strategic advantage for ABC to come out with such a poll. After all, they are the latest media organization that has buckled under Trump’s pressure by offering to settle his lawsuit and contribute millions to his future library).

The road ahead is not for the faint at heart. I totally understand anyone who decides to retreat from this conversation or decides to take only token action, contribute a few dollars here, write a letter to congress there. After all, we all have a life to live. After all, the vast majority of the world’s population live totally disengaged from their government. Of course they are all impacted monumentally by the actions of totalitarian, inefficient or ineffective governments. But, most folks are consumed with the day to day drudgery of making due (‘resolver’); not unlike us who are consumed by the day to day drudgery of consumerism, entertainment, health maintenance, and such.

Sometimes I wonder what our generation was thinking when we rejoiced on the progress made over the last few decades, expecting that direction to continue unfeather. Yet we see today across the globe, and across the cultural and faith spectrum, a fierce backlash to what we considered progress. For example, it seems to be in vogue in our Church to question Vatican II; the advancement of women is being reversed in many countries throughout the world; and, misguided nostalgia for traditionalism rules the day. 

And the experiment with democracy? It is dead too. Idealism is dead. 

There is not a single country in the world where democracy is seen as a viable option for governance. Indeed, democracy is losing at the ballot box only to give those that get elected the opportunity to use democratic principles against democracy itself and entrench themselves in power and destroy the very thing that got them elected.

How silly and naïve of us to think that we would be the generation to conclusively turn around centuries of society being controlled by the toxic marriage of self-serving political power with those that control the world’s capital? Isn’t that how it has been since the dawn of humankind? How insolent of us to think that we would live in the enlightened era – that moment in history – where common folks would work collaboratively for the common good to create the “beloved community”.

The realization that that was not meant to be, that our lifetime is but a blip in history. that there is a lot of work to be done by others in future generations – if future generations come to be, that is – that realization is sinking in. 

Next year the USA celebrates 250 years of what happened in 1776, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Surely it will be a dystopian celebration, one where those in power will claim that they are reclaiming the real intent of that ideal and aspirations. They will – in essence – steal our dream. (For those of us that are Cuban, this sounds all too familiar. Jose Marti was conveniently ‘repurposed’ to serve the purpose of the 1959 Revolution).

Yet, with all this ‘doom-and-gloom’, with all this coming at us, I can not fall into desolation. My faith won’t let me do that. I still believe in the constructive will of people, the power of relationships, and the spirit of goodness. 

I refuse to give the power to those in power to have power over me. 

Yes, I will pray. And yes, I will do contemplation. And yes, I will participate in our rituals and sacraments. And. And – not but – I will take independent and collective action. I don’t know what those actions will be. I do pray that, as St. Ignatius may or may not have said:

“I will do everything as if it all depended on me, knowing full well that it all depends on God.”

(Or, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta supposedly said: “Live ‘as if’ – as if you believe”).

And this, my friends, is why I must not fall into desolation, get discouraged, exhausted, or give up.

If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

GRACIAS (por nada) Señor Trump

NOTE: This thought-piece was inspired by having had a brutal day Saturday, February 1st, 2025. I went to the National Building Museum to see the Brutalism Exhibit and then later in the evening to watch the film The Brutalist at Silver Spring’s American Film Institute. A brutalist day indeed. Not unlike what we are experiencing in the USA at these times. Brutal. In Spanish: Brutál, with the accent appropriately enough in that last syllabus for extra emphasis.)

Gracias Señor Trump. Thank you!

Thank you for recognizing that the body of water touching the nations of the USA, Estados Unidos de Mexico, and Cuba rightfully belong to the people of this great Continent – (North) America – and should hereafter be known as The Gulf of America. As a Spanish speaker born and raised in North America (Cuba and USA, respectively) I thank you for your foresight to accept the reality that nations need to share natural resources, talents, and treasures to benefit all, not just the few that extract and exploit. (Oh, wait! That’s not why you did it? Then, gracias por nadaI – thank you for nothing).

As long as we are in the renaming and reaffirming kick, I commit to – during the time that you are President – call this great Nation of which you are the duly elected leader “USA”. Just USA. For those of us that are fortunate enough to speak Spanish, this is quite fitting. You see, USA in Spanish means ‘use’. And that is exactly how you govern (or rather dictate). You ‘use’ people. You use people as commodities, as disposable goods, as transactional instruments. 

The chant USA! USA! USA! will have a totally new meaning under your tenure as President. Everytime I hear it, I will be reminded of your abuse of people; of how you, in Spanish “USA y abUSA nuestra gente” – how you use and abuse our people.

Every time I hear someone say (or sing) “I love the USA”, I will be reminded that to you this refers only to that part of USA that will bend their knees to and worship you. I will be reminded that to you “I love the USA” means loving a hyper-consumer society that all too often rapes your soul in the absurd competition to have more stuff. I will be reminded that to you “I love the USA” means love everyone except ⅓ of the folks living in USA, i.e.: many immigrants, federal workers, LBGTQIA+, or Blacks.

You see, when I say or sing “I love the USA” I am reminded of the amazing awesome people I have met in USA during my six decades here. I will be reminded that the vast majority of folks that live in this land are hard-working, empathetic, welcoming, and God-fearing people. I know. I’ve had the privilege of interacting with people from across the social, economic and political spectrum in nearly every State in this great – if incomplete and imperfect – Nation, USA. I have worked with those struggling in the streets of urban USA, those in the halls of political power, those in the ivory towers, those in the C suites, and those that control how capital works (for good and bad). I have seldom met the vile, mean, vulgar, and indecent persons that you so perfectly personify. I’ve certainly met a fair share of people I disagree with, people that I will argue with, people that I feel uncomfortable with. But like you? Very – very – few. It is not lost on me that those that you enticed to storm the Capitol – and later ‘forgave’ – may be like you. But, those are the rare exceptions to a USA full of common folks with common aspirations and common problems who want to live-and-let-live, and (mostly) respect each other – even if some have that sickness of racism and homophobia still in them.

May I remind you Sir, this month, Black History Month (and yes, BHM is still a thing to most of us), that the house in which you reside – the White House – was built by Blacks and is maintained by Latinos. May I remind you, Sir, that your wealth was greatly facilitated by multi-generational wealth, something that is structurally denied to many descendants of slaves and new immigrants. And, may I remind you, Sir, that as much as you’d like to not recognize it, you are in a privileged class of White people, you are a product of another type of DEI – Daddy’s Entitlement & Investments. (And please don’t talk to me about the token Jews in your family, your adoring Black friends, or your new-found Latino lovers, including Rubio and Co. These are all – not unlike you – opportunists; and they will turn on you on a dime when the day comes).

Señor Presidente, here I am to say “PRESENTE”. Present! Present to resist, organize against, and fight your divisive, disruptive, disgusting disarray of malicious dictates. You may have the power of the presidency and the power of the pulpit to misinform and create an impenetrable shield to your cult following who choose self-censorship over critical thinking. You may have conned many – as you would say – ‘good people’ to be swayed by your populist language about high inflation, being left behind, and other very real conditions of a system that is out of whack and in need of fixing. You may actually have some simplistic ideas that merit conversation, dialogue, and debate. But how you go about things, your pompous self-indulgent indecent style, how you dictate, how you are re-interpreting the Constitution and the laws of USA to impose your draconian will on the masses – that approach will not work. Will. Not. Work. The power of the people throughout these United States of America will reclaim USA for the – albeit aspirational – common, collective good sooner rather than later. Anger and rage will be turned into active resistance and practical and pragmatic action. 

Sir, you remain a pathetic old man surrounded by useful idiots and pathetic rich people whose adulation is shallow and temporary. You may be able to disrupt, but you will not destroy our determination to be USA – “The United States of America: Unidos Siempre Avanzando”). 

Reemberto Rodriguez

__________________

JANUARY 21 TUESDAY

And so it Begins: The Era of Governing by Fear Mongering and Selective Enforcement

My heart goes out to the families that today begin a life of government repression by fear if not practice. While our personal concern about this autocratic government is mostly philosophical, theoretical, and distant, for many families in our community, neighbors and friends the impacts of governance by fear mongering is real, with real daily practical negative consequences. This includes – among many others – people here from Central America, federal workers, and LGBTQ+ folks.

CENTRAL AMERICANS

Many of our Central American neighbors will have to live with the uncertainty of not knowing whether their TPS (Temporary Protective Status) will be overturned. Others will have to be excruciatingly careful of being pulled over because their immigrant documentation is not in order. some of the 20-something Dreamers – brought to the US as small children – are thrown into the insecurity of not knowing what is next.

Can you possibly put yourself in their shoes? How would it feel to wake up in the morning not knowing if you, your parents, or your friend will face deportation today, next week, next month, or sometime over the next four years? How could you plan for the near future, much less plan for retirement, make that addition to the house, or simply plan a vacation? Even a visit to the hospital for a minor injury would bring angst and anxiety. You’d be living in fear, a fear mercilessly imposed by a mean-spirited government that dehumanized you and wants you outta here. What respect can you have for that government? What energy would you have for community involvement or civic engagement? You’d just want to get by without any incident, make sure you make no noise, hoping you get to see another day in this land.

FEDERAL WORKERS

Making federal workers the scapegoats of the exaggerated claim of government inefficiencies is another mean-spirited narrative of this Administration. Of course there are plenty of examples of the federal government bureaucratic blunders and mismanagement. Yet, to convey that federal workers are all a bunch of leeches abusing their government jobs is another fear mongering tactic. 

To impose on the federal workforce a real or implied allegiance requirement to the President is nothing short of the implementation of an autocratic State. To mess with the promised retirement plans and contractual commitments of these workers is a direct low blow to people that joined this workforce in good faith, many compromising the high salaries they could have gotten in the private sector for the privilege of working for the collective common good. (And yes: I know what I am talking about here – it is personal).

LGBTQ+

Imagine after years of a generally welcoming cultural environment to be fear-mongered into getting back in the closet. Imagine being happily married and being scared into thinking the unthinkable, that your legal marriage may be invalidated. Imagine being the parent of a child that expresses ambiguous sexual orientation and having to deal with elected officials that despise your family and want to make your child into what they are not. 

The attack of this Administration on the LGBTQ+ community is abhorrent. It is beyond the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy of the past. It is another example of their mean-spirited, self-righteous, misguided Christian principles. It is yet another example that they will govern without regards to the aspirations of those that disagree with them.

And so it begins: The era of governing by fear mongering and selective enforcement.

And so we will resist, we will protest, and we will be empathetic and in solidarity with our friends and neighbors that are being selectively abused by a government led by a convicted felon who is a useful idiot of the world’s richest man.

JANUARY 22 WEDNESDAY

THIS is a Christian Nation?!? In case you missed it, the Trump Administration has directed ICE to no longer respect schools and houses of worship as spaces off-limit to immigration raids. Early this morning Trump demanded an apology from the Episcopal Bishop that simply reminded us of our faith-based calling to be emphatic of all people, calling her – among other derogatory language – ‘nasty’. What did she say? Watch the video: 

https://youtu.be/mI4h4zbkNMU?si=_vQSaMmOidhXmTpb

JANUARY 23 THURSDAY

Today I began listening to Pope Francis’ new autobiography. It was simply jarring to listen to the first two chapters of his own immigration story while riding the F4 bus being the only white person on the bus, accompanied by people all evidently from somewhere else – mostly Central Americans – and others who are descendants of slaves – African Americans.

Keeping it real. This is what I overheard as the bus meandered its way through Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, Maryland:

 A conversation between two Latina women sitting on the seat in front of me: One nervously says to the other, “I don’t know what I will do with my children if my work is raided”. The other – equally nervously – responds, “My Jewish neighbors have offered to take in my kids in case something happens to me”. That, my friend, is the reality of Trump’s America. Thankfully, we live in the State where people of goodwill are empathetically standing up and accompanying and helping these victims of State sponsored violence. These arbitrary raids are instilling fear in the Latino community to the point of having to plan what families will do when they are rounded up and shipped away from their children as if they were disposable trash. Neither schools or churches are beyond the wrath of these raids. 

Want to do something but can’t figure out what? We are fortunate to have in our own backyard an organization that is at the front line of the resistance: CASA. Please donate. https://wearecasa.org/donate-2/