Tag Archives: trump

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MORE THAN TWICE

Just yesterday, some idiot congresswoman from upstate New York proposed making Trump’s birthday a federal holiday.

The cult is strong with her.

It’s strong with a lot of them. Trump supporters see the chaos, anger and dysfunction taking place and love it. Like it’s a twist in a strange TV series and they’re eager to see what happens next.

One wishlist favorite of the people who go around telling everyone to read the Constitution is the idea that an 82-year-old Trump can run for president again in 2028. 

So I’ll start part two of my bottom-up “reading” of the Constitution with…

22nd Amendment: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

You don’t have to read past the first 14 words to know why the Constitution prohibits Trump from running for a third term. Maybe the proponents of such a stupid idea should, I guess, READ THE CONSTITUTION.

Now, I’ve been told that one way around this might be to have Trump run for vice president with some patsy at the top of the ticket. It could be Vance, whose photo alone would define “patsy” in a pictorial dictionary.

Then, the thinking goes, the chump would step aside and Trump legally gets his third term. 

I’m not sure that works – I’m not an legal expert or Constitutional scholar, but I would think there’s something problematic about that.

Actually, if Trump wants a third term, he’d just declare it, claiming Section II of the Constitution. We’ll get to that in time.

This amendment was enacted right after the death of Franklin Roosevelt shortly after he won a fourth term. Republicans were horrified by the idea of another wildly popular Democrat controlling the Oval Office until he wanted to leave. 

FDR broke a tradition, started famously by George Washington (See, going to see “Hamilton” would prove useful one day!) of only two terms.

Democrats supported the idea – maybe someone foresaw Reagan, who might have won a third term even with dementia, and Trump. But they made sure it didn’t apply to Harry Truman, the incumbent.

So forget the run-on second sentence – brevity is not a strong suit among legal types. Truman is the only person to whom that applied.

21st Amendment: The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

The only way you can get rid of a provision of the Constitution is by an amendment repealing that provision.

If what Trump has tried to do with birthright citizenship was legitimate, FDR would have ended Prohibition by executive order.

As it was, the 21st Amendment getting rid of the 18th Amendment was pretty popular after the abject failure of banning booze. So Roosevelt was on pretty firm ground to let this repeal go the right way. Amazingly, Utah – not known as a haven for “intoxicating liquors” – is the state that made repeal effective.

Besides the fact that Prohibition was less observed than any law other than the one stopping you from tearing off a mattress tag, the 21st Amendment allowed states to ban alcohol on their own. Mississippi was completely dry for another 30-plus years.

20th Amendment: The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

In 2020-21, there were 78 days between Election Day and the inauguration of Joe Biden . That gave Trump and his henchmen a little more than two months to conceive and execute the January 6 plot to overturn the election.

Imagine if they had another 43 days to put things in place.

Or, this year, given how quickly they moved to rend the fabric of American democracy, if they had another 78 days to organize their bullshit.

The 20th Amendment moved Inauguration Day to January 20 to March 4. It also decided to make being in Congress more of a real job by making sure it met every year and started to work on January 3.

This amendment also tries to relieve some of the hypothetical havoc of what if something happens to the president-elect, vice president-elect or both.

There’s something simplistic about it, though – as if Congress is going to rise to the crisis and agree on an acting president. 

Good luck with that.

19th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

American women did not fully have the right to vote until 105 years ago.

You would think it’s unthinkable to repeal the 19th. But some of the Againers in MAGA believe going back to a time before suffrage would create an American paradise.

Mark Robinson, the clown Trump supported to be governor of North Carolina last year, said in 2020, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” Then, Robinson posited, we could get the real change Americans need, which he believes is freedom from government.

Robinson’s not alone. There are several MAGA bros who think the women should shut up and let the guys decide how the world runs.

And while I concede that this is a distinctly small minority of the populace expressing such thoughts, I do notice that Trump won both his elections against highly more qualified women and lost to an exceedingly decent man.

The 19th Amendment might still be in effect. But the belittlement of thinking women continues uninterrupted.

18th Amendment: After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Apologizing to a liberal advocate for a scathing letter he sent her, former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, quoted a former Democratic colleague by saying “When I make a mistake, it’s a doozy.”

It’s hard for our times to conjure what a failure Prohibition was. It was an attempt by the center and bottom of the country to dictate morality to the rest of it.

The result was not a sober America. It was an America in which unregulated alcohol killed people. It was an America where people lost respect for the rule of law. It institutionalized organized crime. It destroyed honest family businesses that had been distilling or brewing for generations.

It should have served as a warning to future generations.

Instead, it seems that that America – a proven failure as shown by the 18th Amendment – wants to pull this kind of a stunt again. Banning abortion, or birth control, or IVF, or same-sex marriage, or recriminalizing marijuana will backfire in a godawful way.

Just like Prohibition.

17th Amendment: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Until 1913, your state’s U.S. Senator was chosen by your state’s legislature. Marty Massachusetts did not cast a ballot for Daniel Webster. Kenny Kentucky did not check off the box for Henry Clay.

It was spelled out in Section I that senators weren’t directly elected. You could argue that your assemblyman voted in your interest when he (remember, our trip from bottom to top goes back in time, so the 19th Amendment hasn’t passed yet) cast his vote for senator.

But the problem was leaving it up to your assemblyman. He apparently didn’t agree with the guy your state senator wanted. And soon, Senate vacancies were taking an inordinate amount to fill, sometimes leaving states with no representation.

In addition, a Senate opening became an opportunity to make bank. Bribery and payoffs were widespread.

Of course, in the 21st century, we’ve evolved to the point at which money doesn’t control politics at all. Campaign spending is minimal. Ambassadorships and cabinet posts are awarded on merit, not on how much you contributed to a campaign.

And the moon is made of green cheese.

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Uncategorized

MAYBE THEY’RE THE ONES WHO SHOULD ACTUALLY READ IT

One of the tenets of MAGAism is that their opponents haven’t actually read the Constitution of the United States.

If they did, they “reason” (that’s not a word easy to apply to these people) that we’d all understand why women and people of color should be second-class citizens, immigrants have no business being here and everyone should arm to the teeth.

So, let’s take them up on the challenge. And because people tend to stop reading after the top of the page – especially when a document is started in 18th century English – let’s start from the bottom. With the last six amendments to the Constitution, numbers 28 to 23.

— 28th Amendment: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Here’s the first bone of contention.

What’s commonly known as the Equal Rights Amendment was supposed to have been approved by three-quarters of the state legislatures by 1982. It came up three states short by the deadline. But since 2017, three states – Nevada, Illinois and Virginia – have voted to ratify.

After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats pushed to have President Biden declare that the amendment was ratified. They were not acting without legal support – the American Bar Association agreed that the amendment could be enacted. Even after the deadline – and even after six states changed their mind and voted to rescind ratification.

Biden sort of said “Why the hell not?” and declared the amendment ratified, especially given the two-year clause for taking effect had passed.

He knew that the idea that men and women are equal under the Constitution – something not specifically spelled out in the 237+ years prior – would piss the hell out of Trump and the pet rocks who support him.

The idea of ignoring deratification has precedent. Southern legislatures tried to do that with the 13th and 14th Amendments, the ones that abolished slavery. For once, the Jim Crow types lost – those rescinding moves were ignored.

Ignoring the seven-year deadline for ratification is another matter. It isn’t part of the amendment’s text (READ THE CONSTITUTION!), so whether it has standing is in dispute.

My thought here is this: After all the unchecked actions taken by Trump in the first three weeks of this debacle, it’s pretty rich for the right to complain about something Biden declared following approval by the requisite 38 states. 

Best of all, if you happen to be a woman who disagrees with my position, your rights are protected under this 28th Amendment.

— 27th Amendment: No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

The only people I can imagine opposing this are those who sought Congressional seats to make bank from the public payroll.

Basically, nobody in the current Congress – the 119th – can collect on a vote to raise their pay until the 120th. And that’s after the people of their state or district have a chance to consider whether that pay raise is a good idea.

— 26th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

This amendment passed just in time for me – I turned 18 the year after its ratification and voted for the first time in the 1972 New York presidential primary.

No amendment has been ratified faster than the 26th. That’s surprising, because its adoption came at a particularly fraught time – in the midst of all the protests of the Vietnam War and during the administration of Richard M. Nixon, who was not perceived as the kids’ choice.

Opponents thought 18-year-olds were too immature to pass judgment on civic matters. There was just one problem with that – they certainly appeared to be mature enough to die in a Vietnamese rice patty.

The 26th passed with widespread support in both parties. There are many on the right who would like to take that back. 

Good luck with that.

— 25th Amendment: In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. 

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Troppe parole! They needed a lot of words to resolve what they saw as a complicated problem.

Here’s one simple thought:

Had Trump tried to stage the insurrection in December 2020 instead of January 6, 2021, there’s a good chance that last sentence would have been invoked by Trump’s cabinet. Starting with Mike Pence, who was the guy who the MAGAts wanted at the end of a rope.

It is clearly not going to be invoked by this bunch of pillbugs. And it certainly wouldn’t pass the muster of supplicants like House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

The dolts in this cabinet are loyal to Trump. Not to the Constitution. There’s no provision in the 25th for the people of the country to attempt removal of someone as clearly unfit as Trump.

— 24th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.

A lot of the MAGA types, when they tell us to READ THE CONSTITUTION, think that there’s some need to require voter ID to exercise your franchise.

The 24th Amendment can be construed as an answer to that. 

Poll taxes were imposed in the South as a way to restrict Black adults and less affluent whites from voting. There were also citizenship tests with really dopey questions aimed at frustrating people.

Can voter ID be construed as a poll tax? Yeah.

Voter ID is not free. It’s something like a driver’s license or a passport. You are requiring people to get these things whether they want them or not – and whether they can afford to pay for them or not. 

That applies to any other of the stupid rules being enforced by states like Texas, Georgia and Florida. They violate the 24th Amendment.

READ THE CONSTITUTION!

— 23rd Amendment: The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Remember that whole thing about taxation without representation? Well, welcome to Washington, D.C.

Living in the nation’s capital doesn’t afford you the same rights as someone living in Washington, Illinois. You don’t have senators or a representative in the House. Your local legislative body has no power to change the Constitution. So laws in this country are made without your input.

Thanks to the 23rd Amendment, Washingtonians have some say in who lives on one of the biggest pieces of property in town. But they didn’t get that right until 1961 – for 174 years, they were completely powerless.

There’s one big reason why Washingtonians won’t get any more rights anytime soon. It’s the fact that 62% of the population isn’t white. That scares the hell out of people in the red states – imagine two more senators and one representative voting in the interest of people of color.

MAGA types talk about feelings of helplessness against the system. They don’t seem too bothered by the idea that there are Americans who are Constitutionally helpless against the system.

Admitting D.C. as a state or amending the Constitution to require representation are the only ways to right this wrong. That ain’t happening.

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Economy

WE NEED A RAISE

The median monthly rent in the United States, as of 2023, is $1,348, according to the Census Bureau (assuming Musk and his rodents haven’t been screwing around with the data).

If you had a minimum wage job and devoted your entire paycheck – 100% we’re talking, sans vacation, and assuming no taxes are taken out – you’d be short $108 every month. 

Also: heat, electricity, food, transportation and clothing would have to appear magically, since you’d have no money left for anything besides your landlord.

The national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. It has not risen in 15-1/2 years. Remember all that inflation everyone complained about the past couple of years? It ain’t because people getting the minimum wage are getting rich – makes you wonder who actually is causing prices to rise.

In fact, they keep falling back, making their lives more difficult. In the process, because people getting the minimum wage aren’t getting raises, it allows employers to limit the raises they give workers making a little bit more. “You should be grateful you’re getting $10 an hour because I could be paying you $7.25” is the attitude we’re looking at here.

Somehow, most politicians forgot that the people doing the least desirable jobs in our country might be well-served getting a little more money for doing them.

Now, to be fair, a majority of states and territories have minimum wage rates above the national mandate – the highest being Washington, D.C.’s $17.50. But a lot of states have minimum wage rates at the national average, below the national average or even no minimum wage at all.

It fails to take into consideration the fact that people have lives outside their jobs. That they’re supporting themselves and want to build the kind of financial foundation that allows them to realize their dreams.

Businesses thinks that’s not their problem. Being successful is. But if a business can’t make it without paying the people powering it a living wage, maybe that business needs to rethink what it’s doing and how.

A living wage in 2025 America being something in the vicinity of $20 an hour.

Oh, my goodness, that’s inflationary. That’s what the conservatives – the so-called “job creators” – will say. But, again, we had inflation without anyone – especially getting in the minimum wage category – a raise. 

Not only should the minimum wage allow people to actually make a living earning it, but it should also be indexed according to inflation. In other words, a rise should come just about every year – not every 15-1/2 and counting.

This is not a radical concept. Twelve states and Washington, D.C., all have annual minimum wage adjustments. Three of those states – Alaska, Missouri and Montana – voted for Trump three months ago. We do it for Social Security – and employers seem to able to pass on price increases whether or not they raise workers’ wages.

Now a lot of you are thinking “With all the crap going on since TrumpMusk took over, it seems like raising the minimum wage is a low priority.”

Stop thinking like that.

We should have learned by now that you can’t beat something with nothing. Since the Reagan years, Democrats have had to come in and clean up messes left by Republican presidents.

Let’s stop doing that. Let’s advance an economic agenda that benefits the people who somehow vote against their interest and see Trump as a hero. Let’s offer a better path, actual help for the problems they need solved.

Americans – especially young people and those working the thankless jobs that pay the least – need to be able to afford to live. A program to raise the minimum wage and provide a universal basic income, as I suggested two weeks ago, might go a long way toward remedying the economic anxiety millions face.

It would have the added benefit of making the heads of Trump and the Republicans who enable him spin.

If you get a chance, call or write your representative, your senator, the White House and tell them Americans need a raise.

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Uncategorized

COME ONE, COME ALL

Trump promised his minions mass deportations. 

So why is anyone surprised that the topic of conversation in the United States this week is mass deportation?

The stories of ICE raids in schools and workplaces are heartbreaking and cruel. But just as important, what’s going on is totally in stupid territory and not in any way in the best interest of the United States.

There’s a feeling of screaming into the void. You can tell people their rights and protest all you want. But a plurality of Americans gave Trump a victory and he believes he has a mandate to do this crap.

So here’s what I think is the best way to respond to this BS:

To the people who want to come here from Guatemala and El Salvador, from Haiti and Cuba, from China and Myanmar, from Rwanda and Congo, from Syria and Somalia, there should be one word – albeit in a different language for each.

WELCOME!

The only people we should stop from coming into this country are the ones who want to avoid going through one of the legal doors – I’d be suspicious of their motive in coming here. But for everybody who comes to a border crossing – people fleeing gang violence, political oppression and/or crippling poverty – I think we should tell them to come on in.

I think that’s the right response to Trump.

That might seem crazy. The sentiment among his supporters is these are people leeching off American prosperity. 

They’ve been stoked into this sentiment by decades of xenophobia. There are strains throughout American history and they’ve been applied to all kinds of newcomers. They never seem to go completely away.

The latest strain cropped up around the turn of this century. It was stoked by people like Lou Dobbs, who spent every night on his CNN broadcast proclaiming that America’s borders were broken and that unwanted people were taking American jobs.

And, of course, the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, exacerbated fears that people were coming into this country to destroy it. Forget that the terrorists came into this country legally. Forget that their gang leader was a citizen of a supposed ally, Saudi Arabia. 

As far as the stokers were concerned, it was the woman trekking hundreds of miles in brutal conditions trying to get in via a boxcar in 110-degree weather or across desert land in the Southwest who was the “real” threat.

It was – and is – bullshit. Because we found ways to exploit them. We used their desperation to put them in jobs citizens didn’t want to do, pay them what we thought were miserable wages and hold the threat of deportation over their heads if they complained. And we did little to improve conditions in the homelands of these folks, forcing them to flee or die.

It was a situation that needed resolution – the “illegal” border crossings were a contrivance, because people felt the need to get here somehow. And there were people in both parties who understood that – who came up with ideas to help resolve the manufactured crisis.

But the gurus of right-wing power madness had other ideas. Immigration was a gift that kept on giving – fear-mongering as a recruitment tool. As a political strategy.

Trump and the Fox News klan latched onto this nonsense and exploited it brilliantly.

The people who believe in humanity – that would be us – always play this game on their turf. We seem to think that there’s a problem because they tell us there’s a problem. So we try to find a way to placate the radicals when all this is their way of gaining and maintaining power.

Here’s what we want:

We want everybody who wants to come here to come here. We want people who are willing to take the jobs Americans don’t want to do – fruit picking, meat packing, lawn mowing, burger frying – to take the jobs Americans don’t to do. If people are desperate to escape oppression and poverty – and are willing to do anything to make their lives better – we should be their champions.

It makes no sense to create this bizarre system that forces people to use desperate measures to get here. What Trump is doing now enables the coyotes – the people who extort the tired and poor, and make them indentured servants. He’s not hurting MS-13, he’s making it more powerful.

And instead of this nonsense of blackmailing Latin American countries into taking people rounded up by Gestapo wannabes on the streets of our cities, we should work with those countries to improve conditions and allow people to live their best lives in their own homeland.

But those who want to come help us – to make America truly great? Let ’em in. Let them help us build a better country. 

A strong country,  a country that calls itself the most powerful in the world, that calls itself the world’s beacon, isn’t afraid of Honduran 4-year-olds. It embraces them, it educates them and gives them comfort and safety. And then when they succeed, it’s our success as well.

I’m here because a century ago Benito Mussolini was a prick in Italy. My wife is here because 75 years ago Mao Zedong was a prick in China. There are millions of us who can tell that story, from every land on this planet. We’ve worked together to create a nation that – at its best – captures the world’s imagination. 

Because we’re not all the same. And a few more in our situation, wherever they’re from, can help.

That’s what we need to push for. Double down, not double over.

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Uncategorized

MAKE AMERICA GREATER

There are just four days left in the Biden administration and it is my intention to enjoy each one as a gift.

A decent, hard-working man – perhaps a bit too old for the job but still good at it anyway – graced us from noon ET on January 20, 2021 to this coming Monday at noon. Like every other presidency, Joe Biden’s wasn’t perfect. But it came as close as any in my lifetime.

Joe Biden guided us gently out of the gloom of the COVID-19 debacle inherited from the guy who’s replacing him. They might be a pain in the butt, but all those highway construction projects you see are making our roads – along with the rest of our infrastructure – more suited to the century we’re now a quarter of the way into.

He stood for Ukraine when Vladimir Putin got frustrated by waiting for his imperial dreams to come true. He combatted climate change and showed respect for people who have been traditionally belittled in American society.

The American economy is the strongest in the world. He managed to blast America’s way out of the pandemic-induced recession and then brought the growth lower with a brief spike in inflation.

That spike, however, did in both him and Kamala Harris. And so we get Trump again for four years – assuming the blowhard makes it to age 82.

—-

Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama spent way too much of their presidencies cleaning up the messes left by their predecessors.

Biden, of course, had the aftermath of the pandemic. Obama faced both the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and an American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I suspect just about everyone reading this and liking it agrees there will be an equal or worse clusterfuck to deal with four years from Monday.

And yet, that’s the mistake we make and the other side doesn’t.

We concentrate on fighting them. They fight us – don’t get me wrong – but they also develop new, crueler, stupider ideas to foist on both the left and the cucumbers who voted for them in November. 

There will be a lot of angst to go around. But part of their gameplan is to frustrate us – to make us concentrate on their latest perverse idea or vendetta.

Right now, you’re seeing it with the wildfires in Los Angeles. How California is a failed liberal experiment and the disaster is due to a combination of its godlessness, diversity and economic initiatives. Just check out some of the comments from Wyoming Sen. John Horsesasso.

It’s meant to drain our energy. And it has to, at least to some extent. You can’t claim to be a decent human being and then deny aid to Los Angeles, or just uproot millions of people living and working here peacefully because they didn’t get the documents you demand. Or tell women they risk prison or worse if they try in any way to end an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy.

But we need to be better this time. And the way to do that is to think about what we want to do to make America greater.

See, I think Peruvian restaurants and Hmong gymnasts and Somalian-born soldiers make this country great. Not McDonald’s or Walmart or Tesla – or not by themselves, anyway. 

And it certainly is not a hateful convicted felon who is absolutely clueless about what it takes to lead an amazing land.

So we need to advance our agenda. To come up with ideas we think will improve our country and, maybe with it, the world. 

They don’t have to be popular now. Some absolutely won’t be. But we need to advance the case so that we can sell them from conviction and evidence. And begin the process of educating and converting some of the just shy of 50% of American voters who actually chose Trump over a really smart, energetic woman.

Over the next five weeks, I’m going to put forward some ideas I’ve thought about as ways we can show how we’re looking toward 2100, not 1900.

The ideas:

— Universal basic income: This is what Andrew Yang promoted when he ran for president in 2000, and then got weird. 

Both liberals and conservatives have reasons to like this idea. But Trump and his supporters will see it as free money (that they don’t think they’re getting) and squawk.

— Police reform. I bristle every time I see a car with one of those black versions of the American flag and the blue stripe in the middle. As if policing in this country should go unquestioned and unfettered. 

But when you see three or four cops together, do you feel safer? Or nervous? And do the answers depend on what you look like? Frankly, few things are in more need of improvement in this country than how we police ourselves.

— Immigration reform. Trump and his minions don’t want to reform immigration. They want to abolish it – unless you can make a considerable donation to the GOP after you get here. The question of how we treat people coming here, for more than four centuries, is one of our greatest dilemmas. 

We should aspire to be better than that – this doesn’t seem like that intractable a problem if we come up with creative and humane solutions.

— Getting around. It’s believed one of Trump’s first executive orders will be to maximize oil production and end credits for electric vehicles – the short-sighted, idiotic “drill, baby, drill” mantra.

Let’s get past both those forms of transportation – there have been few innovations in creating new ways to go places compared with communication technology. Let’s encourage imagination.

— Kindness. Mean will be in power starting Monday. Mean will be the default approach of the White House, Congress and Supreme Court. Mean will drive the stories you see on the news and the attitude of the plurality. If you don’t believe that, explain why a house near me still flew its “Fuck Biden” and “Fuck Kamala Harris” flags as late as New Year’s Eve. 

We have to create new, innovative ways to be kind – to look out for people who are pariahs to the MAGAs. Kindness is our not-so-secret weapon for making America greater – a task that will be easier once we get past Trump and his ilk.

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DRY UP

Did you know there’s a whole array of coffee mugs on sale that purport to be holders of “liberal tears?”

I write this because I’m still hearing from friends and reading social media posts about how terrible life will be following last week’s election debacle.

With every transition announcement from Trump, every absolutely despicable person picked to help him run the country, there’s more caterwauling. More angst. More agitated talk about how this country is lost, how you don’t know how you’re going to make it to 2029 and how you need to think about the country to which you’re going to flee.

Stop it already.

Yeah, this sucks. A lot. All the horrible things we thought about prior to November 5 seem to be materializing. 

It might actually be worse – I didn’t have suspected pedophile and Botox frequent-sticker Matt Gaetz as an attorney general possibility. The biggest disappointment is that my imagination didn’t meet the moment.

But lamenting ain’t helpful. 

The most important reason is that one of the reasons some of these people voted to bring this felon back into our lives is, frankly, that he pisses us off. For some reason, their life gains meeting when they make people they don’t like angry.

I mean, I’ve always thought the rationale for being in politics was to get others to sign on to what you believe. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a landslide re-election, carrying all but one state and Washington, D.C. One of his supporters, Rep. Jack Kemp, went on TV and said he wanted the administration to work to get D.C.’s support, too.

And the election mandate Trump claims isn’t close to Reagan’s.

If you put 1,000 people in a room and then divided that room into people who voted for him and people who didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell at a quick glance which side was which. In that room, as of now, 502 people would have voted for Trump, 498 would have voted for Kamala Harris or someone else.

So the idea should be to get more of those 498 people to support you, to make your agenda more popular.

That’s not their idea. They’re playing into the idea that their base is the only thing that matters. 

But they won because people weren’t happy with our side. I’m not sure that was justified, but it is what it is – and we have to fix it. That’s how democracy flourishes.

They’re doubling down on the crazy. Not to do best by the American people. But to piss off the people who don’t support them.

They want you upset. They want you scared. They want you in despair.

Don’t give them what they want.

First, keep in mind that we are enjoying the final 65 or so days of the Biden administration. One of the best presidencies in our lifetime, maybe in American history.

Enjoy the strongest economy in the world as we celebrate the 2024 holiday season. Gather with your friends and family. Play in the snow or find the warm sun and bask in it.

Agonizing over the Trump administration can start at noon EST on January 20, 2025. Until then, Trump’s just a convicted felon and 4-time bankruptee. Why waste the time leading up to it in pain?

Second, the 65 days will give you time to figure out how best to make Trump’s presidency as difficult for him as possible.

Donate to the groups that will be in the front lines of fighting him. My first choices are ProPublica, the public interest news organization, and the Brennan Center for Justice. Donate. Find out what they stand for. Find other groups working on issues close to your heart: gun violence, women’s bodily autonomy, protecting migrants, and so on.

Thirdly, don’t be miserable.

They want that. They want, as they say, to drink liberal tears. 

Keep them thirsty. Challenge them. Confront them. Do whatever you can to frustrate their worst impulses.

As I said, we’ll figure this out. We’re the good guys. Let them bask in their cruelty and pettiness.

The MAGA folks hate the expression “We’ve got this.” It implies a “we” that works for the common good.

Yup. 

We’ve got this.

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I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

It was an incident after one of my happiest moments of 2024 – and it served as a warning that I didn’t see until now.

The New York Mets had just won the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies last month. Euphoric fans – including me – jammed the platform for the No. 7 train to Manhattan.

It originated at Main Street in Flushing and there were passengers aboard before the Citi Field stop. As joyous fans jammed the train, a young Hispanic man was standing by the opposite door.

He could tell the fans were happy, so he shouted “Let’s go Mets!” Which I thought was cute.

But for some reason that I’ve thought about since that moment, he shouted “Let’s go Donald Trump!”

Why the hell he would shout that-  at that moment – bewildered me. Not enough, however, to stop me from shouting back “Fuck Donald Trump!” – language I don’t use in public. (Although I suspect I’ll be using it more for awhile.)

What was going through his mind that he would shout his support of Trump in as unsuitable a moment as that?

Tonight, I found out. According to CNN’s exit polling, Latino men voted for Trump more than ever before – in some states, a majority of them voted for a guy who has belittled or diminished Hispanic Americans for decades. 

It’s amazing. He was first elected because of his racism toward Mexicans and Central Americans. And now some of those people are sending him back to the White House.

Why? 

Is it the phony toughness he projects? Like those wrestlers he admires and who seem to support him en masse. 

Were they suckered by “The Apprentice” into thinking that a guy who has claimed bankruptcy four times actually knows what it takes to make them more financially secure?

Can it be that they associate with his outlaw status? That they think he’s been railroaded they way some of them perceive themselves to be?

Do they, like some spoiled-brat white folks, believe there are people getting “free stuff” that they’re not getting- and either they want some, too, or no one should have whatever that stuff is?

And is the idea that a woman – and it doesn’t matter if she’s white or Black and South Asian – could be the most powerful person in the world so threatening and offensive to them that they’d put an incompetent male in the White House instead? Twice!

I’m angry and sad in a way I haven’t been in eight years. And what makes me most sad is seeing people voting against their own interest, taken in by a conman who is now going to avoid prison by claiming he’s above the law.

Or worse, that he is the law.

I do not pretend to understand why anyone sees a hero in Trump. There is nothing admirable or compassionate about him. He has no respect for people other than himself and anyone who can help enrich him.

It’s bewildering that anyone thinks the guy whose pathetic mishandling of the COVID crisis contributed to the inflation endured between 2021 and 2023 is the guy to bring down the price of eggs.

And because he respects tyrants, this is a moment of triumph from a diverse set of the world’s rogues – from Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinpeng to Benjamin Netanyahu and Viktor Orban.

I suppose the people who voted for Trump would say I’m being paternalistic – that they can look out for their own self-interest without my help. 

Kamala Harris ran as good a campaign as I’ve seen in my lifetime – and she will have nothing to show for it. I’m certain that a key factor in her defeat is that, well, she’s a she. And that she’s also a Black she and a South Asian she.

But the loser in a democratic election concedes. With the grace that Trump refused to give Joe Biden four years ago.

I just hope she doesn’t congratulate him. He doesn’t deserve it. Neither do the people who voted for him. 

As I said at a moment when some jerk zapped my joy of a Met win, “Fuck Donald Trump!”

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TURN THAT DIAL

Because it evades my understanding, I’ve tried to imagine why anyone supports Donald Trump.

When he first announced his candidacy for President, back in 2015, I thought it was a joke. I brazenly told my brother that he’d lose all 50 states if he was the Republican nominee.

One reason for my stance was that Trump was a walking punchline in New York. His braggadocio wore thin when he filed for bankruptcy umpteen times. He was obviously not the business genius he claimed to be. 

But I should have gotten a hint when I went to a party and people were raving about “The Apprentice.” It gave him an image of strength and savvy that was, like everything else in his life, a fraud.

He built a following. Republican politicians didn’t take him seriously. Democrats didn’t take him seriously.

Nine years later, he’s still here. His sense of grievance struck a chord with millions of Americans. And, despite botching COVID, leading an attempted coup and being convicted on 34 counts of fraud, he stands a decent chance of becoming our 47th President.

Why? What’s the appeal?

TV. 

My generation – the baby boomers – are the first people to have grown up in a completely televised age. 

My parents used to talk about listening to Jack Benny and Bob Hope on the radio. That didn’t happen for us. We watched everything – I’m old enough to remember black-and-white – every night. 

And it was simple. There were three major networks. If you lived in a big city like New York, there were a couple of independent channels. There was no concept of the choices we face today.

So the TV you watched was pretty streamlined in the values and concepts it conveyed. Crime shows depicted a dangerous world that could only be preserved by steadfast law enforcers. Westerns showed the power of the good gunman. Game shows gave away dreamy prizes. All the people in sitcoms lived in houses that were much nicer than yours.

It was an aspirational world. And I think maybe my generation – and the generations that have followed – thought that. I can be a civilian and stop a criminal mastermind. I can be a factory worker and still have a 4-bedroom home. I can ride a horse into the sunset.

When our lives didn’t measure up to the ones we saw, it frustrated us. It’s not that easy to be Perry Mason or Dr. Kildare or Joe Friday. 

I think maybe Trump’s appeal is to that frustration that we didn’t get the lives we fantasized on TV. And if we did – if we did get the McMansion in Bergen County or the beach house in Hyannis – we know there are people out there who want it, too. 

And for both groups, there’s the perception that there are people who are newcomers or just different from us who are getting something for free – getting to that dream life we want – without the travail we endure.

When Trump talks about making America great again, he’s talking about that romanticized view of America and the disillusion that’s spreading from the boomers to those younger – and even to some who are not white, because they sense that they’re getting shut out, too.

Over the past days, I’ve tried to share my thoughts about Kamala Harris’ policies, particularly ones I believe show her aptitude and understanding of what America’s problems really are. They’re not magic cures. But they are ways to move the country forward.

She hasn’t been able to get her ideas heard because her opponent’s best chance is to manifest grievance. 

It’s cynical and sad. Giving Trump another chance will tear us apart. It will end with the demise of American greatness and consequences that are almost unimaginable.

There is no alternative to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. In the next few days, we’ll find out if we’ll make it.

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THE UNSOLVABLE SOLVABLE PROBLEM

Let me throw this out there: The immigration “crisis” is hardly that.

This is a solvable problem. It is one for which Americans should relatively easily find common ground.

If that sounds crazy to you, after the past 20 years of xenophobia and jingoism, do a reality check. Because this is the reality:

— Yes, there are lots of people trying to get into the United States through its southern border. Most of them are desperate to escape poverty and violence – in Central America, in the Caribbean, and even in Asia and Africa.

— Many of these people are taking jobs in the United States. But whether they’re taking jobs away from Americans is highly doubtful. Most undocumented immigrants find work doing stuff that folks born here aren’t interested in doing: mowing lawns, picking crops, working in slaughterhouses and on mindless assembly line jobs.

— The trafficking of these people is a humanitarian nightmare. They are put in compromising positions by criminal gangs, extorted and exploited. 

— The borders do seem like a way for terrorists to penetrate our country – a country whose older citizens still hold dark memories of September 11, 2001. Not that the people who perpetrated that attack snuck in to the United States – the Al-Qaeda gang came here legally. But it’s understandable that people want vigilance on this matter.

There are multiple issues that concern liberals and conservatives. Republicans and Democrats. Responsible people in all 50 states.

But solving a problem means you can’t exploit it. And there seem to be a whole lot of people, mostly on the right, who much prefer making hay on an issue than eliminating or mitigating it.

Democrats and Republicans reached compromise on a bill earlier this year that would have addressed concerns on both sides. Increased security staffing. Guideposts for determining who should stay and who is too dangerous to stay. Fairness and humanity for families. A path to citizenship for those who are here without documentation.

It’s not as easy to scare people when you solve a problem. And that problem can’t be used as your gateway to exploit other issues.

I firmly a President Kamala Harris will not rest until she has some kind of deal that defuses and diminishes immigration as a flashpoint in American life. It would be her signature accomplishment if she succeeds. And with so many conservative Republicans signing on to her campaign, the opportunity to end the constant harping about this issue might never be more readily available.

Because otherwise, we’re going to hear about “caravans” every time wants to stymy a Democratic initiative. We’re going to hear about “broken borders” and “mules” and all the other crap.

Solve the damn problem. Show the world why America is so great,

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HOLDING THE COURSE IN CHOPPY SEAS

If you have a casual familiarity with world history, you know that empire building is a key part of it. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottomans, the British.

And now us. Like it or not – and, trust me, a lot of people don’t – the United States is the world’s most powerful nation. It has a fearsome military force, has its thumb on just about everybody’s economy and is the cultural touchstone of the planet.

It’s a privilege and a burden. The world’s lesser powers will either accept American leadership or see it as something to throw rocks at. 

Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-Un, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. All of them can’t stand the idea that the United States stands in the way of their designs for dominance. At the same time, responsible leaders around the world seek our help in securing their way of life amid peace and prosperity.

No one seems to have understood this better than the 46th President of the United States: Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Biden has always had a feel for global matters. He’s sought alliances and been a good partner throughout the world. He has led without dominating and reaffirmed American friendship.

He’s also stood up for what’s right.

Ukraine is the best example. Putin wanted this democracy nowhere near his turf. He did everything he could to undermine it. When it didn’t work – and the Ukrainians elected a comedian who turned out to be a real world leader – Putin launched a hideous war against people who just wanted to be left alone.

That Ukraine stands independent today – in what seemed like a considerable overmatch – is largely because of Volodymyr Zelinskyy’s leadership and the grit of its people. It also has a lot to do with Biden, the United States and the coalition of democratic powers that banded to give Ukraine the resources it needed to fight.

The situation in Gaza is a bit more complicated.

The United States has a long-standing and honorable commitment to the security of Israel. We recognized its independence in 1948 within minutes of its declaration. There are ancestral, social, economic and religious ties with the nation.

When Hamas launched the horrific terrorist attack on October 7 of last year, the Biden administration was obligated and inclined to support the Israelis. It has, for the most part, kept that commitment.

It’s kept that despite the fact that Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is probably more spiritually aligned with Putin than Biden. Keeping a nation at war – and putting the burden on non-combatants – is an evil in itself. What Netanyahu has done in Gaza is unforgivable.

Biden has needed to balance all his responsibilities in this crisis. And very few in the United States were going to be happy with whatever he did. That he owned up to the responsibility is a credit to his administration – amazingly, this crisis would be worse if he weren’t president.

It is hoped that Kamala Harris, who didn’t have particular international experience when she became vice president, has learned from Biden. And, because she’s learned for the professionals in this administration, she can be counted on to guide American foreign policy in a moral and protective direction.

She’ll have some freedom to change up a few things – dealing with Netanyahu, who is trying to stay one step ahead of the law in Israel. But she’s clear about her unbridled support for Zelinskyy and Ukraine, and will deal with bad actors directly and firmly.

What she won’t do is back down from American responsibility. She will not threaten NATO, or our partners in East Asia. She won’t talk tough about China before caving like a sandcastle in a tsunami. She’ll deal firmly and fairly with crises throughout the world.

She will not isolate us. She won’t bend under the weight of the power we wield on this planet and beyond.

You can’t say that about her opposition.

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