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L’ETOILE DU NORD

When my wife and I visited Minneapolis in 2024, we loved it.

Of course, having close friends there doesn’t hurt. Or the fact that, as in every other trip I’ve taken to the state of Minnesota, the temperature never fell below 70°. That includes two trips in late September and early October, when New York was in the 40s. I have no idea what it’s like when the high is minus 10°.

But even putting those things aside, we noticed things about Minnesota that surprised our Gotham-centric eyes.

First, it’s a really beautiful place. The Mississippi River begins in Minnesota and it frames Minneapolis. It’s not as wide as it gets when you’re further downriver – in St. Louis, for example. It seems like you see life on both sides.

Not to mention Minnetonka Falls, a wonderful park that includes the impressive cascade on the outskirts of the city.

Second, we ate really well there. The idea of peanut butter on a hamburger would gross me out. Not in Minneapolis. Same with a stuffed hamburger. Or a tater tots casserole, aka hot dish.

We even ventured to an Italian restaurant. I never do that outside New York since it’s hard to believe any other city – except maybe Boston – has decent cuisine of my ancestral home. But it was wonderful – a great array of antipasti, pasta and carne that would be at home in Carroll Gardens or Arthur Avenue.

The Twin Cities don’t lack in culture. We attended a wonderful production of “The Lehman Trilogy” at the relatively new version of the Guthrie Theater. In a previous trip, we visited the beautiful Walker Art Center. There are independent bookstores all over the place.

And, of course, Minnesota is the home state of Prince and Bob Dylan.

You’ve heard that people in Minnesota are over-the-top nice and try at all costs to avoid hurting your feelings.. Let me give you an example:

On our last day in the area, we had lunch with friends at a pub in the south part of the city. It was a Monday, and I was somewhat distracted by the fact that the Mets needed to beat Atlanta to make it to the postseason.

I tried to avoid the game – my friends aren’t big baseball fans. But as were leaving the restaurant, I watched on the TV screen as Francisco Lindor homered to put the Mets ahead in the ninth inning.

I do not hide my feelings when I’m watching the Mets. I let out an enormous “Go, go, go, yes!” as the ball cleared the fence.

At which point a server in the restaurant, quite naturally for a Minnesotan, blurted “Who cares about the Mets?”

I was undaunted. I went out to the parking lot to catch the end of the game and say goodbye to my friends. At which point, the server came running out and apologized profusely for her outburst.

I mean, the rowdy New Yorker is the one who disturbed everyone’s lunch. But she was the one who expressed remorse. My wife and I laughed, because there was no way this ever happens in New York without somebody’s middle finger going up.

Minnesotans are nice. They look out for one another. There’s less crime and a genuine effort to alleviate poverty. They are culturally diverse, welcoming people from throughout the world to a place where a lot of immigrants from tropical areas are probably shocked by the climate.

It might seem like heresy for a native New Yorker, especially if you know how chauvinistic I am about the City that Never Sleeps. But I could live in Minnesota.

So why did Trump pick on Minnesota?

Exactly because of all of the above. And because Minnesota hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972 – and has only voted for a Republican (Eisenhower twice) three times since 1932, the first time it ever went Democratic.

The red states where Trump is beloved are generally failures. Crime is higher. Living standards are lower. And, of course, bigotry keeps anyone not white and Christian from thriving.

That won’t do as far as Trump and his minions are concerned. Their hatred for Tim Walz and Illan Omar and Amy Klobuchar and everyone else from Minnesota is based on the perception that the competence of Democratic leadership is a taunt rather than an example.

So Trump and Stephen Miller and the rest of the pond scum were determined to make life miserable in a place where it isn’t. The results are there. Hundreds of non-criminal immigrants – undocumented or otherwise – whisked away by secret police. Disruption of businesses, schools, houses of worship. And murder – at least two that we know of.

What Trump and Republicans didn’t count on was the fact that Minnesotans are fierce about their niceness. They mistook civility and kindness for complaisance and apathy, and ended up with exactly the opposite.

I love Minnesota. I love the Minnesotans I’ve met in my life. They are real Americans, the real patriots. And they deserve better than what January 2026 has given them.

It’s the North Star State, l’etoile du nord, because it’s a guiding light for the United States and the world. Never more than now.

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A SHOT IN THE FOOT

If you’re not aware of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech Tuesday at the World Economic Forum, learn about it fast.

It’s the future Trump bequeaths us. A world in which we, the people of the United States, no longer matter the way we have my entire 71-3/4 years. 

What Carney said, basically, is what we’ve been trying to point out since this country put Trump back in the White House a year ago. 

Basically, the world is tired of trying to figure out what this buffoon wants or doesn’t want. Of him proposing nonsensical actions and wondering if he really means it. Of criticizing and belittling our loyal partners while turning tyrants and murderers into role models and buddies.

Who the hell thinks one of our enemies is Canada? Or Denmark? Or Mexico? Or France?

Who the hell looks up to Putin? Or Xi? Or MBS? Or Netanyahu?

The civilized world is through with this crap. Unlike the American Left, they can and will shake Trump off. They will treat us like the second-class power we’ve become. They’ll deal with us when it’s in their interest and ignore us when it’s not. And if we try to bully our way into what rightfully belongs to them, they will fight – even if they lose, they’ll make us bleed and hurt.

Since the end of World War II, we’ve claimed to be the moral and cultural compass of the world. We talk about freedom as if we are the best exemplars of it – as if other countries don’t have it as much as we do.

Because they thought we were trying to achieve a more perfect union, they gave us the benefit of the doubt. The civil rights movement, which Trump asininely proclaims hurt white men, made other nations believe that we were reckoning with centuries of racism and the legacy of slavery. We wanted emerging nations to embrace democracy and the electoral process – even as we tried to make it harder for some to cast a ballot.

Carney called BS on this. The United States has turned from paying lip service to ideals to not even trying. It remains a powerful nation, with a massive military and weapons enough to destroy the world. And, with this cetriolo seeking a dictatorship or absolute monarchy, the policy of this administration is to get what it wants by whatever means necessary – mores, alliances and tradition be damned.

The Greenland debacle is the epitome of it all. I mean, it has never crossed a rational mind that there should be any dispute. If you read a book, if you ever watched “Borgen” on Netflix (a great Danish TV show!), you know that Denmark and Greenland have an 800-year history that has worked itself out. 

The United States has as much access to Greenland as it could possibly need right now. And yet, we put our relationship with all of the European Union at risk because of some need to add territory.

Trump appeared to back down Wednesday after his debacle of a speech at Davos, giving the face-saving we’ve-agreed-to-talk-about-it he loves to use when he caves from his ridiculous demands.

But my guess is the world is fed up. It has more important things to do – there are real problems to solve involving climate change, global migration, technology and economic justice. If the United States wants to ignore this, that’s its problem.

Except that we’re Americans, so it’s our problem.

Here’s one way this will all manifest itself:

The United States dominated the automobile industry for much of the 20th century. It only ceded its leadership when it refused to innovate – and Japan and South Korea filled the void. That’s why Toyotas and Hyundais dominate the road – and Fords and Chevys get harder to find.

Now, just as the American carmakers figured it out and started down the path of non-gasoline powered vehicles, Trump is ending any incentives to keep going. He wants more oil – re: the Venezuelan tomfoolery. He wants to drill in parts of this country set aside for environmental protection.

That’s dumb. That’s also expensive – while gas isn’t as high as it was a few years ago, you still pay something between $2.50 and $3 a gallon for it.

Meanwhile, Europe and China have looked at the innovation in electric vehicle manufacturing and are betting big on it. The progress made in the last 10 years is phenomenal – imagine what it’ll be like in 2036.

Except here. The rest of the world will be running on sustainable, low-cost electricity while we putt-putt and need to fill the tank.

Joe Biden tried to fix this. Kamala Harris would have protected and expanded his gains. Instead, Trump is trying to erase it all.

It’ll be this way in everything else. Food and appliances. Airplanes and technology. The arts and sports.

The images of America that will guide the rest of the world won’t be F-16 flyovers and the Academy Awards. It will be watching goons terrorize the people of Minneapolis and sending people to countries they’ve never known. It’ll be the adoration society for a senile dingbat with no culture, no soul, no compassion and no intellect.

We’ve cast aside our empire. We ruled the world – and the world didn’t seem to mind.

Now it will. We shot ourselves in the foot. This time, the wound won’t heal as fast as Trump’s ear did – if it heals at all.

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COURAGE, NOT CHAOS

What to write about?

Just last week alone, Trump seemed to average more than one crisis a day. Iran. Venezuela. Greenland (imagine going back in time and trying to explain a crisis with Greenland), Minnesota, blue states in general, Ford workers, the Fed chairman, the environment, climate change treaties. I’m sure there’s more.

It’s part of his overall modus operandi: create distractions and poke the wound to keep your enemies – and it’s weird to think a President of the United States sees half the populace as his enemy instead of his boss – off guard.

So which of those topics am I focusing on this week? Which should get my attention?

The answer is none of the above.

Today would be the 97th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The nation officially celebrates it Monday, the 41st commemoration of King’s birth since President Ronald Reagan signed the law creating the holiday.

And instead of focusing on the crap Trump throws at us, imagine instead how Dr. King would handle it – and maybe learn from it.

It isn’t as if Dr. King would have been shocked by what Trump and his supporters are. He would have known that stench.

It’s the same garbage he faced at the Birmingham bus boycott, being sent to a notorious Georgia prison for violating the probation from a dubious traffic ticket, the violence inflicted on his supporters in Selma, the harassment he faced marching for fair housing in Chicago.

It’s the same garbage he dealt with as J. Edgar Hoover tapped his telephones and race-baiting Southern governors called him every name they could. 

We’re rightly horrified by what happened to Renee Nicole Goode, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman murdered by an ICE goon. In King’s time, he watched in horror as people got away with murdering civil rights workers like Viola Liuzzo, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. He never lived to see anyone held accountable for the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Church that killed four girls.

Through all of that, King stood unafraid. He understood that there might be a price to pay. He paid it on an April evening in Memphis. 

But he didn’t flinch – or at least not in the eyes of the people who admire him. When he died, he was fighting alongside Memphis sanitation workers seeking a living wage – King having realized that there wasn’t much chance of racial justice without financial justice.

One amazing thing about Dr. King is that he died at age 39. That’s about half an average American lifetime. It’s less than half Trump’s age. Because his life and times ended in the 1960s, there’s a perception of age and wisdom that just isn’t real. 

But we should know better. My generation tends to dismiss younger people as disinterested and apathetic. We hear about incels and bros and cluegys and other such terms of derision. 

My experience is different. When I taught at a New Jersey university a decade ago, the students were young people trying to advance themselves while holding down part-time or full-time jobs. Some of them served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Many were the first generation in their family ever to attend college.

Their world was made better by what Dr. King did in his life. And many, many of them are looking to return the favor, working in their communities, mentoring children, volunteering at hospitals and veterans centers.

In politics, we are seeing what inclusion means when we look at a Zohran Mamdani, who in his first weeks as mayor of New York has devoted himself to making life better and easier for all of the city’s citizens. Not just the ones who voted for him.

Young people deserve a chance to lead. Give them the chance, give them Martin Luther King as an example, and see how our country, our world can be better.

—

It’s a few days before the holiday, but you can bet the ranch that Trump will minimize it. His administration already has – Dr. King’s birthday was one of a few days a year during which national parks and monuments were free.

Not any more. Instead of King Day – and Juneteenth, the new holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States – you can now get into National Park Service-run sites on June 14. Which happens to be Trump’s birthday.

Trump mouthpiece Karoline Leavitt will talk about how it’s a normal workday at the White House – which doesn’t mean he won’t play 18 at his golf course in Florida. And I’m sure a lot of federal employees will report to the office if they know what’s good for them – some MAGA commissar taking attendance.

But you and I and anyone else who cherishes what this country is supposed to mean should take at least a moment on Monday to think about and reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Read one of his speeches. Glance through – or read for the first time – one of the excellent books about him and the civil rights movement. Watch “Selma” or “King: Montgomery to Memphis” or a wonderful HBO film called “Boycott” with Jeffrey Wright as Dr. King.

Remember Dr. King on his birthday. That’s why the holiday exists. And let us all try to channel his moral courage and intelligence as the fight to save our democracy grows fiercer amid the chaos Trump creates.

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BOARD GAME

I first became aware of Venezuela when I was about 6.

I received a board game for Christmas that involved moving cargo from one international port to another. It was a great way to learn about international ports, one of which was Maracaibo, from which the country exports its oil.

Then, of course, when I was a little older, I got Risk. Venezuela is one of the key locations in the game of global conquest, the gateway between North and South America. 

In later years, when I would play with family, my daughter and my brother would constantly battle over the spot, stacking the plastic soldiers in the country and on its borders. If I’m not mistaken, the last Risk winner got a small Venezuelan flag – i think my daughter has it now.

While we’re mentioning Risk, another key location is Greenland, the bridge between North America and Europe. Like Venezuela, it seems like a lot of the action in the game takes place on those two spots.

You would have hoped that grown adults, ranging in age from their 50s to just shy of 80, got their desire for world domination or massive cargo fortunes out of their system by the end of adolescence.

But then again, can you imagine a young Donald Trump playing a board game? Or a game of any kind, other than golf for status seeking? Like the guy in the Sheryl Crow song, Trump’s “never had a day of fun in his whole life.”

A lot has been made about why Trump decided that January 2026 was the time to go after Nicholas Maduro and get the oil he thinks he and his oil executive benefactors deserve. 

He’s trying to distract from the still unreleased Epstein files. He’s trying to distract from Jack Smith’s January 6 testimony before a House committee that puts him squarely at the center of a plot to overturn the 2020 election. He’s trying to distract from the disastrous impact on the economy of his idiotic tariffs. He’s trying to distract from his declining health.

All that stuff about distractions might be worth nothing. Except for one thing.

Real people die.

It’s estimated that 80 died in the attack. Some were Venezuelan military personnel. Some apparently were Cuban advisers, bringing another country into this tussle. And some were civilians who apparently were destroyed in order to save them.

As far as we know, no Americans were killed. It would have been a real botch job if there had been,

In the reaction to the raid, people in both parties have talked about how it’s good Maduro is no longer in power. I’m sick of hearing it.

Yeah, Maduro is a bad guy. So is Vladimir Putin. So is Muhammad Bin Salaam. So is Benjamin Netanyahu. So is Kim Jong Il. 

And so is Donald Trump. If you think he’s any better than Maduro, you’re deceiving yourself. If anything Trump is enabling other bad guys with his recklessness, his contempt for civility and his overwhelming greed.

People in both parties praised the U.S. military for its professionalism. That’s also crap.

The United States military was in about as much danger in the raid on Venezuela as your kid is playing “Call of Duty.” Somebody in Venezuela sold old Maduro and led the CIA and the military to him. 

If you’re a military member who participated in this, ask yourself if you think you warrant the same honor as somebody who defused an IED in Afghanistan or was rescued from a downed  helicopter in Iraq. The Venezuelan raid was like shooting fish in a barrel.

It is not valor to fight someone who hasn’t fired a shot at you. 

That’s something every member of the military needs to keep in mind if stupidity’s reign goes unchecked and the forces of this country are used to capture Greenland. Or Cuba. Or Mexico. Or Canada. Or anywhere else. 

Doing so would be a war crime. You would be accountable to the civilized people of the world. And, if you believe, to your God.

People have lives. They have hopes. They have ambitions. They have love for their families.

They are not chips or squares or blocks or little figures on a game board. They are not incidental. This isn’t Risk or some shipping game.

It’s time for these sugar-hyped manchildren to grow up. Particularly the nearly 80-year-old one in the White House. 

It’s making everyone’s life miserable.

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THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL

Republican Matt Van Epps will end up winning the special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District by about 9 percentage points.

That might sound like a solid win. Except that Tennessee-7 is a solidly Republican district. Both Donald Trump and the representative whose resignation triggered the election carried the 7th by more than 20 percentage points.

Some polls close to the vote indicated that the Democrat, Aftyn Behn, was within 3 points of Van Epps. So those of you who read that – and little else – might believe that she didn’t do well.

Baloney. Behn took a cue from Zohran Mamdani in New York and ran on the affordability issue. It helped her wipe out more than half the usual margin in the district.

A district, I might add, that was totally rigged against her.

—-

I don’t remember Ken Burns’ outstanding “The American Revolution” series mentioning Founding Father Elbridge Gerry. He merely signed the Declaration of Independence and then helped supply the Patriot armies.

Unfortunately, in his old age, he became a staunch partisan. As governor of Massachusetts, he approved legislative boundaries that showed favoritism to his Democratic-Republican Party, leading to the term “gerrymandering.”

So Gerry figures prominently in the politics of the nation he helped create more than two centuries later.

Because Tennessee – once home to such noted Democrats as Estes Kefauver and the Gore family – is now a solid red state. And the reactionaries who funded the long game that is Republican politics have ensured the party’s success by making it almost impossible for Democrats to win Congressional seats. Thank you, Mr. Gerry.

So Behn’s 9-point loss, while not a win for the Democrats, is likely to make Republicans very nervous. If the Democrats wipe 12 points off Republican margins around the country next year, the House will almost certainly flip – and the Senate might as well.

That’s why you’re seeing all this nonsense with creating more Republican districts in states like Texas, Indiana and Missouri – and why California countered with Prop. 50, Gavin Newsome’s so-far successful effort to bolster Democrats.

As a believer in democracy, I think gerrymandering sucks. As President Obama often says, voters should pick legislators and not the other way around.

But unilateral disarmament is a problem. So, yeah, while it goes against my core belief, I think New York, Virginia and Illinois need to join California in reshaping legislative maps. I’ve given up on the idea of expecting Republicans to ever do what’s right.

—

Gerrymandering isn’t the only way the Republicans will try to hold onto power. They might also plan to give you money.

I think that sometime before November 3, 2026, the Republicans will try to buy your love with something they’ll call a tariff dividend – the money collected by tacking these ridiculous surcharges onto things we buy from countries that don’t kiss Trump’s butt.

Maybe it will be about $2,000. It will be a check and the biggest letters on it won’t be your name. They will be PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.

If you don’t throw it out thinking it’s a campaign mailing, make sure you cash it. But don’t, for a moment, think that you’re coming out ahead.

The tariffs and the inflation they’ve triggered have already cost you way more than whatever amount these putzes are going to send you.

Unfortunately, it will work somewhat. In 2024, many voters remembered those checks aimed at stemming economic disaster during COVID – checked they thought originated with Trump because he insisted that his name be put on them, even though the idea came from Democrats in the House.

You always think fondly of people who give you money. I wish I could say I’m going to take the money and put it toward an organization whose mission has suffered from the devastation Trump and his sycophants have wreaked on our country. 

But, like you, I’m going to be hurting financially. I’m a senior citizen, living on a fixed income. So I’ll cash the check. And I won’t forget why I’m in the spot I’ll be in.

I thank Aftyn Behn for running a strong, positive campaign. Some of the ideas she offered might not have been well received by Tennesseans a year ago. But now, with the real economy faltering and our country becoming a hermit, they got a fair hearing from those not completely swallowed up by MAGAdumb.

Maybe, in November, no amount of Republican connivance can change what will happen. That won’t be easy to achieve.

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THE WOMEN WHO REPORT

The 21st century is just about one-quarter over. And, in my mind, it’s a slam dunk as to what’s the most consequential piece of journalism of the last 25 years.

It’s the 2018 “Pervasion of Justice” series in the Miami Herald. The reporter was Julie K. Brown, and what she detailed – and detailed should be underlined and bolded there – was the sex trafficking ring maintained for the wealthy and powerful by financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In the series, Brown interviewed about 80 victims of Epstein, some who were as young as 13 when they were exploited. Those victims never knew the terms of Epstein’s two state charge convictions or that he made a deal that canceled federal charges. 

The stories also detailed how Epstein’s “incarceration” included frequent home visits and trips to New York and his Caribbean retreat.

Brown’s work led to new charges against Epstein in 2019 – charges that were pending when Epstein died in his New York jail cell, supposedly by his own hand.

Here it is, 2025, and we’re still amidst the reprecussions of Brown’s reporting. Largely because one of Epstein’s most prominent associates, Donald Trump, was president at the time of the publication and somehow managed to get elected again last year.

Brown is the Woodward and Bernstein of this generation. She should have a Pulitzer Prize to show for the incredible work she did.

That she doesn’t is possibly due to the machinations of attorney Alan Dershowitz, who knew Epstein and was implicated in Brown’s reporting. He complained loudly and publicly, and lobbied the Pulitzer committee against awarding Brown for her work.

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When I started my career, there were few women in newsrooms. When I retired, more than half the people in my newsroom were female.

That is a remarkable change and there’s only one reason for it. And it’s not because of affirmative action, DEI, wokeness or anything else detractors conjure.

The reason is that the women who go into journalism are very good at journalism.

It has been my privilege to work with, work for and to mentor women of exceptional talent. They put in the time, they put up with the frustrations, they deal with the vagaries of corporate capriciousness. Like all journalists, they don’t get paid as well as other professionals – and too many of them still don’t get paid as much as their male counterparts.

They also have to contend with a lot of crap. Which brings us to this week.

I once aspired to be a White House correspondent – that what’s I thought was the ultimate job in journalism. That viewpoint changed as I saw other uses for my abilities – and I saw the way people who cover the president never seem to stop working.

So when two women covering the mishegas known as Trump dared to ask questions that he didn’t want to answer, he lashed out in a way you kind of expect from a low-life grifter.

When a reporter for Bloomberg News asked why he didn’t just release the Epstein files instead of having Congress vote to subpoena them, he told her “Quiet, quiet piggy.” Implying that a woman looking for a simple answer was less than human.

When a reporter for ABC News confronted Trump about welcoming Mohammed bin Salman – the Saudi leader who allegedly masterminded the murder of a Washington Post journalist – he went into a diatribe against her and urged the FCC to take away the network’s broadcast license.

Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey and ABC’s Mary Bruce stood firm against an abusive old fart. Hopefully, their employers will have their back. They join a long line of female journalists – April Ryan and Abby Phillips, among others – who’ve had their professionalism and integrity challenged by someone with none of either.

What a lot of people are wondering is why other White House reporters, particularly male counterparts, didn’t come to the defense of Lucey and Bruce.

One reason is that a president’s feeble attempt to humiliate a reporter is not in the J-school playbook. If you want to know how far Trump is from what considered acceptable behavior from anyone in public life, think of any other president in our lifetime who would talk to a female reporter in that manner. Not even Richard Nixon – the standard for miserable presidents until now – would do that.

But there’s also the problem of fear. Other journalists aren’t brave enough to risk Trump’s wrath.

And there’s also the problem of sycophancy. This White House has brought more of those who suck up to Trump into the ranks of supposedly objective journalists

— 

So to Julie Brown and Catherine Lucey and Mary Bruce and all the American women working in newsrooms around the world, thanks for making journalism so much better. 

When you think about what makes America great, they should be among the first thoughts.

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DO KIDS WANTS KINGS?

If it accomplished nothing else, last Saturday’s No Kings Day of protests felt good.

An estimated 7 million Americans took time from their Saturday routines to march or gather. There were events in every state, about 2,700 of them in all, and they all seemed peaceful and boisterous.

That’s great. You know it had to put a bug up Trump’s ample rear. And the caterwauling that’s followed – that’s precious: We all got paid by George Soros. We’re all Hamas sympathizers. We hate America. We’re all antifa.

Actually, the antifa part is correct. The millions who marched are unapologetically, uninhibitedly, undeniably anti-fascist. That’s why the hell we were there. People railing against antifa should be taken to the nearest national cemetery – or one where someone in their family is buried – and see the OG. The guys who stormed Normandy and Iwo Jima are the Babe Ruths of antifa.

But one criticism that actually bothers me is that the people protesting are a bunch of aging hippies out of touch with the real America.

Because, at least at the protest I attended in Nanuet, New York, most of the 4,500 people standing alongside New York Route 59 were about my age, 71. Many were older. And there were very few people – other than the organizers – younger than 45.

Now, one reason that might be is that Rockland County, the suburban area where I live, is pretty devoid of younger people. Most of my neighbors are around my age. Most of the people I see in the supermarket or the post office are around my age.

In fact, I’m always a little startled when I go someplace – either in Manhattan or on our recent trip to Seattle – where there are so many people in their 20s and 30s. Other than having to accept that “Too Shy Shy” by Kajagoogoo was an actual song from when I was their age, I find hanging around younger people gives me a lift.

What I worry about is that I didn’t see high school students or young adults in the crowd. The people for whom the battle against totalitarianism is being waged.

Maybe they were busy. Saturday is a day for football games. It’s the day when many young people are working at the Shake Shack or the Panera Bread behind the rally in order to earn money for higher education. Apple picking. Pumpkin carving. Shopping at the outlets.

Or maybe they feel as though this doesn’t affect them. Younger people have a harder time seeing the stakes. They’re not used to this.


We were told by our parents about the Depression and World War II. Our not being able to talk about that first-hand makes the idea of Nazis and fascists abstract or curious to our kids – I can’t explain why so many younger people seem enamored with swastika tattoos. Either that or there’s been another periodic outbreak of one of the world’s oldest diseases, antisemitism.

There are indications that more younger people were drawn to Trump’s 2024 campaign than his past garbage spewing. They were bothered by the high cost of living over the past few years, triggered in large part by the supply chain problems resulting from the pandemic. 

Many were also bothered by the two wars that dragged on last year: Russia vs, Ukraine, Israel vs. Hamas. Death and destruction that the United States seemed powerless to stop.

And there’s this issue with gerontocracy. Everybody’s over 70 – hell, some of the leaders in this country are over 80. When are they going to give up power to another generation that has stopped waiting patiently?

For whatever reason, young people stayed away from Nanuet. And we could have used them.

What I hope younger people are finding out is that Trump is not their friend. He doesn’t even comprehend who they are or what they need. He’s joyless, artless and money-mad. He could care less about anyone other than himself and the toadies who suck up to him.

Trump is never going to be a real king, set upon putting one of his worthless offspring on the American throne. But unless there’s some hidden desire to not go through the rigamarole of elections, he’s looking for something a little more permanent for the rest of his miserable life.

I might be dead wrong about this. The kids might have marched in the cities where they feel at home. Where they can feel free to wear funny costumes and devise clever signs. Where this is all fast becoming a matter of quality of life – and even life-and-death for some of the people they care about.

And the younger people who are hip to Trump’s jive seem to be doing the best job fighting the tyranny of Trump’s slow-moving coup.

They instinctively know when to pull out the iPhone or Galaxy to record atrocities in neighborhoods and on city streets. They’re better equipped to throw their bodies in front of masked secret police in Chinatown and on State Street.

It would be nice to have millennials, Gen-Z and Gen Alpha on our side. This fight needs the generations that love Taylor Swift as much as it needs the generations that love James Taylor.

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KETCHUP WILL FLY

Donald J. Trump and his sycophants believe that he somehow warrants a Nobel Peace Prize.

(I’ll give you two minutes to roll on the floor laughing.)

Tomorrow, he finds out if that fantasy – about as far-fetched as the Yankees asking me to pinch-hit for Aaron Judge – becomes reality.

The announcement will be made before most of us in the USA get up, although I imagine Trump will be wide awake – breathless, partly in anticipation and partly because people of his girth get winded easily. Unlike the other Nobels, which are announced in Sweden, the peace prize is announced by Norway’s parliament, which votes for the winner shortly before the announcement.

It is possible that there is no winner. The last time that happened was 1972, which wasn’t a particularly good year for peace as I remember.

But that seems unlikely. The Nobel committee says there are 338 candidates for this year’s award, 52 more than last year. I didn’t notice the world becoming more peaceful in the past year, but maybe I missed something. There are 244 individuals and 94 organizations.

Last year, it went to an organization, Nihon Hidankyo, which calls attention to the devastation of nuclear weapons such as the ones used on its home country of Japan in 1945.

We will not know for sure who the winner beat. Let me rephrase that – I won’t ever know who the nominees were unless I somehow live to be 121 years old. That’s because the nominee list isn’t released for 50 years. So if you’re here in 2075 – if, given the state of the world, we survive to 2075 – you’ll find out who the winner beat and who else lost besides Trump.

Assuming he’s a nominee.

I know, there are people who have said they nominated Trump. Leaders of Pakistan and Cambodia say they’ve nominated him. So has U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, a Georgia Republican.

Which gets to the question: Can anybody nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize?

The answer is: almost.

World leaders and their ministers can nominate. Recognized international aid organizations can nominate. So can elected members of national legislative bodies – hence the Buddy Carter thing.

Also, college professors specializing in social sciences can nominate candidates. Which means I missed my chance when I taught journalism at William Paterson University in New Jersey before the pandemic. So, my apologies to Justin Trudeau, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Jon Stewart.

One other person has said they’ve nominated Trump for the Nobel: Benjamin Netanyahu. He said it in February, something about Trump having deserved it four times. Netanyahu’s chances of winning the Nobel himself are as far-fetched as my pinch-hitting for Judge and hitting a Mason Miller fastball all the way to Citi Field.

The thing is, we can’t be sure Bibi wasn’t blowing smoke up Trump’s oversized rear end. 

First, the two of them won’t be alive when the nominees are announced. Second, if Netanyahu nominated Trump just before the meeting, he won’t be eligible until 2026 – the nominations for this year’s prize had to be in by January 31.

Which isn’t much of a year, frankly.

But assuming there’s going to be a winner, and expecting that the Norwegians haven’t lost their minds, there are some potential laureates who would leave Trump not only disappointed but also apoplectic.

–PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Imagine giving the award to an organization vilified by Trump and MAGA. I would nominate the organization for its efforts to protect the health and freedom of American women in the wake of long-standing suppression and occasional terrorism.

–BLACK LIVES MATTER: This has become a global movement to recognize that Black people are not identity-less zombies – they are individuals with dreams, quirks, loved ones, enterprise, culture and, most important, worth. That will be quite the fit Trump throws if BLM wins.

— ROSIE O’DONNELL: There’s not much chance that she’d win, although her philanthropic work makes her far more eligible for it thanTrump is. But the Truth Social rants would flow like diarrhea for hours.

— JOE BIDEN: Oh, that would be too much. There are probably lots of things Biden has done in his illustrious career to warrant consideration. But making Trump crazy would be enough reason for me.

— GRETA THUNBERG: Now we’re getting a little closer to reality. In fact, I would think she’s the betting favorite if there is one. This young woman has been sounding the alarm about climate change and environmental disaster since she was 15. Her effort to feed Gazans in the midst of Netanyahu’s starvation campaign would qualify her for next year’s prize. 

If she wins, you get a 2-for-1, pissing off both Trump and Netanyahu. Probably Putin, too, since Thunberg supports Ukraine. The idea of Trump in a straitjacket yelling Thunberg needs “anger management” is funny.

— JOSE ANDRES: The Spanish-born chef and noted Trump bête noire deserves this award for what he does when the world goes wrong. War, manmade or natural disaster and pestilence don’t seem to stop Andres and his World Central Kitchen team from feeding desperate people in need. Some cook getting his Nobel Peace Prize would drive Trump to eat an extra Big Mac on Friday morning.

— BARACK OBAMA: Yeah, I know he’s won it. Nobody has won the Nobel Peace Prize twice (although there are people who have won two Nobels in either the same or different categories). All the more reason to give it to him.

Let’s face it, Obama winning the prize is the reason Trump wants it. His Obama envy runs strong – it’s almost paralyzing. He’s on a rampage against democracy and civil order now. Yeah, maybe he’ll try harder, or maybe Obama’s win would crush his spirit and make him mutter his way into resignation.

It will at least spur a full-fledged ketchup attack on the gold-plated Oval Office walls. A guy can dream.

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GRAB ‘IM BY THE PUSSFACE

When Vladimir Putin sets his blood-stained werewolf claws on U.S. soil Friday, a massive contingent of the world’s peacekeepers should grab him and his henchmen.

After putting Putin and the lot in handcuffs, they should board a nonstop flight to The Hague. That’s where he could stand trial at the International Court of Justice – credibly accused of crimes against humanity in his country, Ukraine and throughout Europe.

I’m sorry. That was just my imagination, running away with me.

Alas, what’s going to happen is that Putin will be greeted by perhaps his most ardent admirer, Donald John Trump. Who, unfortunately, holds the title of President of the United States.

Trump believes he can help facilitate a peace agreement after three and a-half years of Russian aggression against Ukraine. He’s doing this without any legitimate representative of Ukraine any closer than the nearest McDonald’s.

So, basically, this is the excuse Trump needs to get face time with his dream boy, Vladdy P. 

Some people think he’s also looking for a diversion from the flap over the Jeffrey Epstein files. But if you’ve fallen for the idea that there’s something about the Epstein files that’s going to undo the Trump presidency, the Brooklyn Bridge is available for a small fee. 

We all know that Trump joined the debauchery of Epstein Island – we know because the girls, now young women, told us. It still hasn’t caused the MAGA pickup truck jockeys and frat boys to back away from the gold-plated demon.

As for Putin, it’s a chance to travel to another country and actually get welcomed.

This meeting is taking place at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, in part because Alaska doesn’t have a town named Munich. It’s also on the base, someplace you can’t imagine the leader of a world power going, because there’s no safe place in America for Putin other than where he can be protected by the U.S. military.

There are more than a million Americans of Ukrainian ancestry. And there’s more than a few, I imagine, who fantasize about doing something to Putin that would only partially make up for the horror he’s inflicted on extended family and friends.

Putin signed off on bombing hospitals. Housing projects. Water supplies. Electrical power grids.

He’s on board with kidnapping children. With torturing prisoners.

But despite overwhelming numbers and seemingly unlimited munitions, Putin hasn’t been able to take Ukraine – something he thought he’d do in three days. The Ukrainians lucked into one of the greatest leaders of my lifetime in Voldodymyr Zelenskyy and he has perservered.

So far.

Joe Biden recognized how important it was to support Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians. He did all he could, especially given the fact that the moronic Republicans controlled the House after the 2022 midterms.

Trump, on the other hand, clings to a bunch of fantasies.

One is that he is the equal to Putin. Another is that, if Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter could be Nobel laureates, so could he.

He’s bought into the smoke being blown up his massive ass from Benjamin Netanyahu and that Cambodian leader that he’s some sort of man of peace. As opposed to a demented tyrant who’s perfectly fine with kidnapping people off U.S. streets and hustling them to jungle jails outside the country or concentration camps inside.

(Note to those who cry foul when we call the places ICE takes its victims “concentration camps”: If you complain now, you’ll be considered complicit when history books call them concentration camps 50 years from now.)

And Trump’s idea of peace is that you have to let Russia have the land they’ve stolen from Ukraine in order for the fighting to stop. In other words, he’s the Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century.

That’s why Zelenskyy is warning Europe that Putin is pushing to take as much land as possible ahead of the Alaska meeting. “Wait, Donny, don’t forget this town we took last night in your ‘peace’ offer,” or the Russian version of that.

Whatever happens Friday, it will be another pathetic day in American history perpetrated by Donald Trump. January 6, 2021 tops the list obviously, but the Helsinki meeting with Putin will have a new challenger for second place in total humiliation.

That is, unless Trump is smarter than we all think and has the zipties and orange jumpsuits ready for Putin and his gang.

Fat chance.

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BEWARE THE SHINY OBJECT

This is THE thing.

Jeffrey Epstein. He’s Trump’s kryptonite.

His files – once and if they’re ever revealed – will show Trump’s mendacity to all his worshippers. The disclosures in there – about how Epstein procured Florida girls to provide companionship for his A-list clients. Including Donald J. Trump, who once referred to being best friends with Epstein.

This. This is what will make all the MAGA types sit up and take notice. This will show them what he really is, how he’s duped them for years about who he is.

If you watch TV or social media or just walk around and hear desperate Trump haters talk, you know what I’m talking about.

This is the scandal that won’t go away. His supporters won’t let this go away, despite his rantings on Truth Social and in the White House, where he is supposed to be working for us.

Yeah. Right. Sure.

It wasn’t that long ago that the fracture between Trump and Elon Mask was the event that would break MAGA fever. That without Musk’s financial support and with his opposition to the budget framework, the bill would fail to pass.

How’s that going?

There are people who think Trump is bothered by all this Epstein talk. They’re Charlie Brown believing Lucy is going to hold the football as he kicks it.

Jeffrey Epstein died at his own hand in a New York prison cell in 2019. He had been arrested once before – in 2005 – on child sex charges. But his punishment from Florida officials – including one who later became Trump’s Secretary of Labor – was beneath lenient, and many of the girls who were victims had no idea of the easy terms.

The Miami Herald, led by reporter Julie Brown, shed new light on the case in 2018 and that’s how Epstein came to face the federal charges that resulted in his suicide. 

When those stories were published, they were mandatory reading for the journalism class I taught at WIlliam Paterson University in New Jersey. I told students – when they would ask how long an assignment should – that it should be as long as it takes to tell the story well. Most often, that’s three paragraphs. In the case of “Perversion of Justice,” it was thousands of words.

It was a disgusting tale and, of course, it immediately attracted denial from Trump – who was president in 2018, not Joe Biden or Barack Obama. 

Was Trump somehow involved with Jeffrey Epstein’s cruel and disgusting business? Look at the pictures and then try to convince yourself otherwise.

If you have half a brain, that exercise won’t last long.

But like everything else with Trump, he has a way of rolling off these things that’s super- – or sub- – human. 

And the people who support him – the ones loudly proclaiming they’re through with him over his administration’s failure to “release the Epstein files” – are – I’d say – about 10 days away from doing a George Costanza. 

They’re going to act as if nothing happened.

Yes, MAGA people used Epstein as a centerpiece of their message that Washington elites – particularly Democrats – are pedophiles and belong locked away forever. Or rubbed out. It helped get Trump support that helped blind people to the things in his agenda that would harm them.

Let’s face it, next to child sex allegations, tariffs on Canadian lumber and penguins in the South Pacific aren’t nearly as salacious (well, maybe the penguins). The absolutely insane notion of attempting to fire the Federal Reserve chairman that Trump bandies about will probably decimate your stock portfolio – but isn’t the Ghislaine Maxwell stuff so much more titillating?

Epstein is yet another of Trump’s shiny objects aimed at distracting you from mass deportations and climate change failures. He’s right, actually, when he says there are more important things to worry about – like how Texas miserably failed to protect girls at a summer camp from flooding or how Netanyahu seems intent on setting the entire Middle East on fire.

In the end, I predict one of two things will happen.

One is that he “begrudgingly” releases the Epstein files (I know Pam Bondi is the name of the releaser, but independence is not a word she’s trained to understand). Lo and behold, there are no prominent names in there. Somehow. Or somehow they’re all people who’ve run afoul of Donald Trump over the past 79 years.

Two is that he stonewalls. At some point, his followers are led to the conclusion – probably by some pseudo-holy clown like Franklin Graham – that maybe certain “elders” should be allowed to partake of 15-year-old females. 

And then the MAGA crowd decides, hey, maybe that’s right. Shouldn’t our leader be infallible in his judgment of what’s proper?

Sounds far-fetched, huh? 

Think about this.

Donald John Trump was convicted by a jury of his peers of 34 felony counts of fraud.

A jury in a civil suit found he had raped E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Other women, including his ex-wife, sued him for various forms of sexual misconduct. He made the “Access Hollywood” tape bragging the free reign he thought he had with women. He’s accused of deliberately walking to the dressing room of teenage girls during a beauty pageant he ran.

If not of this stuff is bad enough to make people realize what a horrible piece of human excrement Trump is, what makes you think that anything he did with his buddy Jeffrey Epstein will change any MAGA moron’s mind?

Sure, let the Epstein thing play out. Justice should always be served.

Just don’t count of any consequences when it comes to the 47th presidency of the United States. They haven’t happened yet.

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