Category Archives: government

Olympian Words

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Those whose undies quickly got into a knot when some of our Olympic athletes questioned their nation’s course seem to live by the motto, “My country right or wrong.”

They aren’t right—correction—they aren’t correct.

Those young people know what their country is experiencing and that knowledge will bode well for this country as their generation grows in experience and influence. National polls indicate a significant part of the citizenry agree with them.

The erroneous interpretation of that famous comment spiced up the first days of the Olympic games and led to some pretty tasteless retorts to the concerns expressed by those Olympians about the direction of our country.

Let’s begin by setting the record straight on this famous quotation. Should it be the guiding principle of our patriotism/ Or is it, as one source has put it, “a jingoistic war cry?”

There are various versions of this statement.

This is the original statement, from Commodore Stephen Decatur, a hero of the War of 1812, who reportedly offered a toast: “My Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong.”

Leaving out the words that precede the six words at the end short-changes the total message.

In 1871, one of Missouri’s U. S. Senators, Carl Schurz, got into a debate with fellow Senator Matthew Carpenter of Wisconsin, a power in Reconstruction America, who had quoted Decatur in one of his fiery orations.  Schurz told Carpenter the sentiment should be, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” Reports indicate his interpretation led to thunderous applause from the Senate gallery.

Olympic freestyle skier Hunter Hess told reporters, “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. I think it’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

Figure skater Amber Glenn referred to Trump policies against the LGBTQ community and said, “I hope I can use my voice and this platform to help people stay strong in these hard times.”

Snowboarder Chloe Kim, the daughter of immigrants, told interviewers, “I think in moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another for all that’s going on and I think that I’m really proud to represent the United States.”

They represent the best that American can be body.

Our President, of course, couldn’t stand it when the athletes exercised their free speech rights. He went on Untruth Social to call Hess “a real loser” and said it was “very hard to root for someone like this.”

Vice-President Vance added, ”You’re not here to pop off about politics. So when Olympic athletes enter the political arena, they should expect some pushback.”

I guess Vance is saying it would be just fine if these athletes “popped off’ at home although their comments would not be any less irritating to the constantly irritable—and irritation-producing—administration.

Republican Senator Jim Jordan, a Trumpian, called the remarks “ridiculous,” and said, “It’s an honor to get to represent the greatest country in history in the Olympic Games. That makes no sense to me. I haven’t seen some of the things they’ve said, but if they’re disparaging the country while representing it, that makes no sense.”

Sorry, Senator, It does make sense. The freedom to question power is inbred in the American character. It’s how we became an independent nation 250 years ago. Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware understands that. “There is nothing more patriotic than questioning your own country when its leadership makes decisions that are so sharply out of line with our values and traditions,” he said.

As far as “disparaging the country while representing it,” perhaps Jordan should consider the degrading things his President has said. They are far worse. John Stewart created a montage for his Daily Show to examine the hypocrisy of Jordan, Vance, and other defenders.  In the montage, President Trump proclaims, “Our country is now a cesspool.”

“We are a nation in decline.”

We’re in a failing country; we’re in a country that’s being laughed at.”

“We’re a dumping ground. We’re like a garbage can.”

“Our country is going to Hell.”

“We have blood, death, and suffering on a scale once untenable.”

“…a third world hell hole ruled by censors, perverts, criminals and thugs.”

I guess we could give him credit for speaking the truth (to himself although he doesn’t recognize it) on some of these points. His crude words and actions validate what our athletes voiced.

What our Olympians were saying is more closely attuned to something the great English statesman William Burke said in 1790:  To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”

A book written in 1958 that became a best seller was called “The Ugly American.”  It’ still in print.  The title has more than some relevance today. And there has been no reason for these Olympians to say so because—-

—-a lot of the rest of the world has the same impression of what our country has become—and our President seems to be the epitome of that book’s title.

They show us grace on the ice, courage on the ski jump and on the bobsled run, subtlety on the curling floor, and daring as they skate at frightening speeds on a small track.  They are in deeds as well as in words representatives not of the United States that unfortunately is, but of what the United States can be—and will be as their generation, having witnessed these times, become shapers of better times to come.

(photo credit: NPR)

George 

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I’ve written about George Will before in these entries, a conservative columnist I admired for his thinking in a time when many on both sides don’t, for his eloquence at a time when many merely shout and curse, his insight when many prefer not looking below an ugly surface. Earlier this week, he used something odd from FOX News as the springboard for a powerful essay about an obviously deteriorating, clearly fearful, increasingly worried about how he will be remembered and his efforts to erase history, particularly history of black people. George Will turns 85 on May 4 and unlike our President, he is very much still all there.

If you are a dyed in the wool Trump fan, you won’t make it to the end. If you are a Republican who still believes in service to the country rather than a country serving a President, you might find yourself surprised by how much you agree. If you are a Democrat, you’ll think George nailed it.

From our hilltop, we will not argue with him.  Even when we have disagreed with him, we would not want to debate him. Here’s George with our Friday bonus: (1800) 1 Minute Ago: Trump Falls Apart Staff Handling Him Legacy Panic & Black History Erasure |George Will – YouTube

(We just checked a few minutes ago and saw that the video has been taken down. However, Cockatoo has provided a transcript.  The video ran about 23 minutes.  We’ve adjusted some of the time cues in the interest of complete sentences.)

Something very unusual happened this week. Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting, the kind of organized event where he sits at a very long table, surrounded by people who just agree with everything he says. But this time, things went differently. In the middle of his unclear remarks about trade deals and made up economic wins, Fox News did something they almost never do. They stopped showing it. They just cut away, went to a commercial break, and came back talking about something else entirely.

0:38

When your own supportive news channel, the one that spent years defending everything you said, explaining away every mistake and cleaning up every power grab, decides they can no longer show you to their viewers. That tells you everything you need to know. This wasn’t Fox News protecting Trump. This was Fox News protecting their audience from Trump.

1:02

Because what they saw in that cabinet room was a man clearly falling apart mentally and physically. Even they knew there was no way to put a positive spin on what everyone could plainly see. Let’s look at what actually happened in that meeting, because the clips that got out are truly disturbing. Trump tried to explain recent economic numbers, and I say tried very generously. What he really did was throw out random figures, confuse countries with companies, and at one point completely forgot what he was saying in the middle of a sentence. He said, and these are his exact words, we’re bringing back $400 billion, maybe $500 billion, some say $600 billion from China, from Canada, from the European Union, which is basically Germany if you think about it. And nobody has ever seen numbers like this, the biggest numbers in history.

1:59

None of that means anything. Those aren’t policy ideas. That’s not even a twisted version of the truth. That’s a man reaching for numbers he thinks sound impressive while having no clue what he’s actually talking about. But it’s not just what he said. Look at how he looked physically. The way he gripped the table. The way he leaned forward like he needed the furniture to hold himself up, the way his staff, Carolyn Levitt, Stephen Miller, whoever was there, watched him, the way nurses watch a patient ready to jump in if something went wrong. And afterward, he didn’t take any questions. He didn’t walk over to the reporters. His team rushed him out of there as fast as his weakening body could go. Because they know. Every single one of them knows. Here’s what has become completely obvious.

2:58

Donald Trump’s staff isn’t serving him anymore. They’re handling him. There’s a big difference. Compare how much he appears in public now to his first term. Back then, whether you liked him or not, the man was everywhere. Daily press briefings, hour-long unplanned rants. He would stand in front of his helicopter and just talk.

3:22

It was stream of consciousness, sure, but he was alert and present. Now he barely shows up. When he does, everything is carefully planned. He uses a teleprompter for remarks that he would have made off the top of his head in 2017. Only pre-approved questions are allowed. Media access is limited. And the moment anything goes off script, they pull him away.

3:50

Why? Because the people around him, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, JD Vance, are no longer working to advance Donald Trump’s goals. They’re pushing their own. While he falls apart in front of everyone.

4:06

There were recent reports that Miller runs a separate private communication line with Trump, feeding him information all day long, basically creating an unofficial power structure that goes around the official White House chain of command. That’s not loyal staff work. That’s a power grab. That’s someone making themselves the real decision-maker, while the president, in name only, gets worse and worse. Elon Musk has openly disagreed with Trump’s own policy statements.

4:44

J.D. Vance is already doing his own interviews, presenting himself as the calm, reliable leader of the administration. These people aren’t serving Trump. They’re using him. They’re getting rich, pushing their own plans, playing the stock market with inside information, and just waiting for the unavoidable moment when he’s too far gone to stop them. Donald Trump has become a figurehead in his own White House, and everyone around him knows it. But here’s where it gets really telling. Here’s where Trump’s mental state becomes impossible to look away from.

5:20 You may have heard about this already. Donald Trump is currently holding up federal infrastructure money, specifically funding for the Gateway Project, which is vital transportation infrastructure for the Northeast, unless he gets his name put on Dallas Airport and Penn Station in New York. Read that one more time. The President of the United States is using blackmail against a sitting senator, Chuck Schumer, to get public buildings renamed after himself. On the surface, this is just sad. It’s the behavior of a deeply insecure narcissist who never got enough attention growing up.

5:43

But it goes deeper than that. Because when you look at the pattern of what Trump has been doing over the past few months, a clear picture forms. And that picture is of a man in total panic about how he’ll be remembered. He renamed the Kennedy Center to include his own name, making it the John F. Kennedy and Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts. He couldn’t even let JFK have that one thing to himself. He’s ordered the construction of a huge arch in Washington DC, a literal monument to himself that historians have compared to the kind of ego-driven projects built by Saddam Hussein and Stalin in their final years. He’s trying to rename military bases, government buildings, any structure that has federal money attached to it. Why?

Why this sudden obsession with monuments? Because history shows us that when dictators sense the end is near, whether that’s political, physical, or both, they speed up their monument building. Saddam Hussein’s palace construction went into overdrive in the late 1990s when international sanctions had him isolated. Stalin’s worship of his own image grew stronger as his paranoia and health got worse in his last years. It’s a pattern. When authoritarian leaders know their time is running out, they try to lock themselves into stone because they understand something basic.

They’ve lost control of their own story. And Trump knows he’s lost control. You can see it in his social media posts. You can hear it in the way he’s been talking lately. He started this week, and I’m not making this up, talking about whether he’s going to get into heaven. He just posted it out of nowhere. He wrote something like, the nasty fake news keeps reporting that I said I’m not going to heaven. It was a joke, but they reported seriously because they’re terrible people who want to make me look bad. First of all, nobody was reporting that. He brought it up on his own. He’s the one who can’t stop thinking about it.

8:13

Second, Donald Trump, a man who never talked about God except to win over religious voters, who couldn’t name a single Bible verse when asked, who famously said he’s never asked God for forgiveness, is now fixated on whether God will judge him. That’s not politics. That’s psychology. That’s a man facing the reality of his own death and realizing that no amount of spin can change what’s coming. There are reports from inside Mar-a-Lago that he’s been having conversations about his funeral, about how people will remember him, about what will be said about him after he’s gone. He’s trying to negotiate with history in real time, and he’s losing that negotiation.

You want to know the most perfect symbol of Trump’s panic about his legacy? The Kennedy Center situation. After Trump forced his name onto the building, after he held a big renaming ceremony, after he stood there smiling like he’d done something meaningful, the Kennedy Center shut down. Just closed, with no set date to reopen.

Officially, they said it was for renovations and reorganization. But let’s be honest about what really happened. Donald Trump couldn’t stand the idea that his name would be next to the legacy of a real president. A president remembered for his vision, his way with words, and his sacrifice. So rather than let that comparison exist, rather than risk the building not getting the worship he demanded, he just closed it. He took his ball and went home. And here’s my prediction. Write it down and come back to it.

In 10 years, every monument Trump is building right now will be a source of embarrassment. Hotels will remove the Trump name to avoid being boycotted and some already have. Buildings will be given new names. The arch will be torn down or turned into something else. His own children will try to distance themselves from the brand and some already are. The monuments he’s so desperately trying to build won’t protect his legacy.

10:27

They’ll become places people visit to laugh. People will go see Trump’s folly, the way they visit Confederate monuments, not to honor them, but to remember what we got past. Donald Trump senses this. He knows this, and it’s destroying him inside.

10:46

But here’s the thing. This isn’t just about one aging man’s vanity. This obsession with monuments, this panic about his legacy, it’s connected to something much more dangerous. It’s connected to what his administration is trying to cover up. Because at the exact same time Trump is trying to build monuments to himself, his administration is systematically wiping out other people’s history, specifically black history.

11:17

It started right away, from day one of this administration. The rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The removal of materials from the Smithsonian. The changes to school curriculum, forcing schools to take out discussions of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the civil rights movement from American history classes. Remember the Enola Gay situation? They ran a computer search for the word gay in federal museum records and just started deleting things. They removed an entire exhibit about the plane that dropped the atomic bomb because the word gay appeared in its name. That’s the level of foolishness we’re dealing with. But it’s foolishness in service of a very specific goal, which is erasing history.

12:11

Now a lot of people rightly said, of course Trump wants to erase black history. He’s a racist. His administration is full of white supremacists. They don’t want those stories to be told. That’s true. But it’s not the whole truth. Because the reason they’re erasing black history isn’t just hatred.

12:32

It’s a deliberate strategy. Fascism needs people to forget history. Authoritarian rule cannot survive if people remember how it works, what it looks like, who it targets, and how it has been fought before. There was a podcast conversation recently between Andrew Schultz and Charlemagne the God that captured this perfectly. Schultz, who, let’s remember, defended Trump, made excuses for Trump, told people they were overreacting about Trump, was now expressing shock at what he was seeing. I never thought I’d see this in America, he said. People being shot in the streets by federal agents, families being ripped apart, armed thugs with badges hunting people down for no reason. And Charlemagne said something so simple, so obvious, and so powerful in response. He said, you never thought it would happen to white people. Because here’s the reality. This is American history. This has always been American history. Where do you think policing in America came from? Slave patrols. That’s it.

13:46

That’s the origin. Armed men given power by the government to hunt down black people, return them to slavery, and terrorize communities into obedience. That’s where American policing started.

14:01

The ICE raids happening right now—agents breaking into homes without warrants, tearing families apart, making people disappear into detention centers. That’s not new. That’s a copy of the Fugitive Slave Laws, where federal agents were given the power to hunt human beings across state lines and drag them back into bondage. The heavily armed police beating protesters in the streets, the government surveillance tracking activists, The criminalization of people helping each other. Black Americans have been living through this for 400 years. Indigenous Americans wrote the book on it with their own blood. What’s happening now isn’t Trump inventing American authoritarianism.

14:48

It’s American authoritarianism finally reaching everyone. And that’s exactly why they need to erase black history. Because if Americans knew that history, if they truly understood it, they would immediately recognize what’s happening right now. If we knew Frederick Douglass, we would know how to speak truth to power. If we knew Harriet Tubman, we would know how to build secret networks of resistance. If we knew Ida B. Wells, we would know how to document terrible acts and force the country to face them. If we knew Fannie Lou Hamer, we would know how to document terrible acts and force the country to face them. If we knew Fannie Lou Hamer, we would know how to organize at the local level and fight corrupt systems. If we knew about the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program, we would know how to build community support networks that make us less dependent on a government that wants us helpless.

15:44

If we knew about the labor movements led by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, we would know how to shut down the economy when those in power refuse to listen. They’re not erasing history because they hate the past. They’re erasing it because they’re afraid of a well-informed future. They’re terrified that if you knew how black Americans resisted slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration, you would know exactly how to resist them. That’s why Trump’s monument-building and history-erasing are two sides of the same authoritarian coin. Build monuments to the regime. Erase monuments to resistance. Control the past. Control the future. Except it’s not going to work. Because here’s what Donald Trump can’t seem to grasp. His legacy is already written. It’s done. It’s finished. No amount of marble or fancy stone or renamed airports is going to change it.

16:56

January 6th will be studies for centuries, not as a patriotic uprising, not as a protest that got out of hand, but as a fascist attempt to overthrow the government by a president who refused to accept that he lost an election. His face will be next to the word insurrection in history textbooks forever. His COVID response, telling people to inject bleach, holding packed rallies while hundreds of thousands of people died, tearing apart pandemic preparedness systems because Obama built them. That’s his legacy. His family separation policy, children locked in cages, toddlers forced to represent themselves in immigration court, thousands of families permanently broken apart. That’s his legacy.

17:46

His two impeachments, his 34 felony convictions, his being found liable for sexual assault, his fraud convictions, his theft of classified documents. That’s his legacy. Future generations aren’t going to ask, was Trump a great president? They’re going to ask, how on earth did Americans fall for this twice? His name isn’t going to stand for greatness.

18:14

It’s going to stand for American decline, the weakening of democracy, and the conman who nearly destroyed the republic. Every monument he builds is one more thing to tear down. Every name he puts on a building is one more name to scrub off. Every arch he orders is one more structure future generations will demolish. That’s his real legacy, and he can’t change it. But you wanna know what the real monument to this era will be? It’s not going to be his arch. It’s not going to be his renamed airport. It’s going to be the resistance. The millions of women who marched the day after his inauguration and kept marching. The sanctuary cities that refused to become part of his deportation machine, the election workers who protected democracy while he sent a mob after them, the journalists he called enemies of the people who kept reporting the truth anyway, the lawyers who filed lawsuit after lawsuit to block his worst actions, the mutual aid networks that fed people when his government shut down. The young people organizing climate protests while he gutted environmental protections.

19:35

The families torn apart by ice who are fighting to be brought back together. The trans kids he tried to erase who refused to disappear. That’s the monument. That’s what will be taught. Not his buildings, not his speeches, but the fact that millions of Americans looked at his authoritarianism and said, no, not here, not us, not ever. The monument to this era is every person who resisted.

20:06

And that monument is being built right now, in real time, by all of us. Which brings me back to Chuck Schumer and that airport naming deal. Senator Schumer, you have one job right now, one very simple job. Do not negotiate with someone using threats. Do not build monuments to tyrants. Do not give this man one more piece of legacy preservation while he’s actively tearing apart American democracy. The answer to Trump’s blackmail should be simple. No. Build the Gateway Project because it’s critical infrastructure and name it after the workers who built it, not the would-be dictator who held it hostage.

20:55

This is a test not just for Schumer, but for every Democrat who claims to be part of the opposition. Are you actually going to push back? Or are you going to make deals with fascism because it’s the easier path?

21:11

But more than that, this is a test for all of us, because Trump’s team is counting on us being worn out. They’re counting on us forgetting. They’re counting on us not remembering how we got here and who showed us the way out. So here’s what we do.

21:27

We write down everything. Every abuse, every lie, every crime. We create the record they’re trying to destroy. We learn the history they’re trying to hide. Read Frederick Douglass, read James Baldwin, read Ida B. Wells, read the scholars they’re removing from universities.

21:48

Learn the strategies of resistance they don’t want you to know about. And we build the other side of the story right now while they’re still in power, so that when this era ends, and it will end, the history that gets taught is the true one. Not Trump’s fantasy, not his monuments, but the real story of what happened and how we made it through. They want us to forget. Our job is to remember everything. If you’ve read this far, you’re part of the resistance. You’re part of that counter-monument we’re building, and I hope you’ll keep building it with me.

Chuck Schumer, do the right thing. No airports, no monuments, no deals with autocrats. And to everyone else, keep fighting. Keep writing things down. Keep learning the history they’re trying to erase. Keep learning the history they’re trying to erase. They’re counting on your silence. Don’t give it to them.

 

The Great Religious President

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President Trump spoke at one of the two national prayer breakfasts held in Washington a few days ago and showed once again what a great Christian he is.

Except for the great Christian trait of modesty.  He’s never been very good about that.  “I’ve done more for religion than any other President,” he proclaimed.

I agree.  Wholeheartedly.

No other President has been able to have as many people shout the name of The Savior with more exclamation points than Donald Trump has.

No other President has said or done things that have had more people say, “Oh, My God!

No other President has ever had so many people praying.  For our country.

He displayed his high regard for prayer by telling of Speaker Mike Johnson saying when they’re having lunch, “Sir, may we pray?” to which our reverent President reported his answer was, “Excuse me? We’re having lunch.”

In his speech he showed Christian respect for others by calling a Congressman “a moron” and pondered how Christians could vote for Democrats.  The answer, as he might learn this fall, is: “very easily.”

He remarked that 2025 was a record year for Bible sales although he modestly didn’t proclaim that sales of the Trump Bible made anything more than a tiny drop in the sales bucket. The remark, however, was a rare stroke of truth in his long verbal ramble.*

This is the great Christian who told a group of religious leaders ten years ago or so, “I think if I do something wrong, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”

At least at the prayer breakfast he didn’t repeat something the man who worships the putter on Sunday mornings told at an earlier Turning Point USA meeting, “I love you Christians.”

Is he categorizing Christians the same way he has categorized immigrants in a 2024 speech: “The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals.”

This is the same guy who washed his hands of any responsibility for the weekend portrayal on social media of the Obamas as apes. The buck never stops at HIS desk. He blamed a White House staff member and professed ignorance of the portrayal. He didn’t say if the staff member still has a job.

He spoke for 75 or 85 minutes, depending on who was holding the clock. He made no references to any inspiring words from his “favorite book” and in fact has dodged citing any favorite verses—because he doesn’t know one that fits his religion (I differentiate religion from faith and as you’ve seen previously in this space have remarked that “nothing screws up faith more than religion.”)*

I wonder if he can pronounce “Beatitudes.” The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew says Jesus pronounced certain people as “blessed. Let’s see how many blessings our president qualifies for.

“Poor in spirit,” as in humble.  Can’t check that one.

“they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  He’s done a lot of thoughting and praying but that probably isn’t what Jesus was talking about.

“the meek.”  Meek, he is not.

“those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.’  His hungers and his thirsts have nothing to do with righteousness as far as we can tell.

“the merciful.”  Ask the people in Minneapolis about that one.

“clean in heart.”  Don’t get me started on that one.

“the peacemakers.”  I’ll stand with the Nobel Committee.

“those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.”  Again, the people of Minneapolis in particular among all of the occupied cities and cities to come most likely have a far different view of who is persecuted and who is righteous. But not Donald Trump.

Even if we give him the last one that makes him only one for eight. Somebody who does one for eight doesn’t last long in the major leagues of baseball, football, basketball or carpentry, where hitting the nail on the head once in eight tries won’t build much.

You remember, don’t you, who was a carpenter?  The one whose name Donald Trump prompts so many to say with such emphasis.

*To impress you with how important the Bible is to Donald Trump, go to the official Trump merchandise page where you will find, among other things, about sixteen versions of the Trump Bible. “The Day that God Intervened July 13, 2024” edition is sold out but there’s one on eBay for $129.99). Other editions range from $64.99 to $99.99 although one with a hand-signed (no autopen for him, remember?) for a thousand dollars. Don’t forget to read “Two Corinthians,” his favorite book.

(picture credit: Trump merch store)

Tantrum

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I am getting tired of Government by Tantrum.

Our Missouri Senate has been an unfortunate participant for several years, some years so badly that some recent legislative sessions were among the most unproductive in state history.

The latest tantrum was last week’s display of political pettiness not at all befitting a chamber that used to be known for its deliberative and far more collaborative approach to governing.

It seems that some senators were so upset because the Missouri Supreme Court had the audacity to rule that the Senate had passed an unconstitutional bill that they forced cancellation of the annual State of the Judiciary address by the Chief Justice W. Brent Powell.

That oughta teach that uppity court a lesson.

The State of the Judiciary address goes back to 1974 when Judge Robert T. Donnelly asked for the legislature’s support of modernizing the court system. It was the early days for widespread use of computers in government and the court needed more people to use this newer technology to produce a more efficient court system.

But some Republican Senators were filibustering, keeping senators from going to the House of Representatives for a joint session for this year’s speech.

In the past, the Senate (and the House) would just have gone to work writing a bill that didn’t violate the Constitution.  But Senator Rick Brattin ranted about “a runaway court” that he claimed was created to be the lesser of the three branches of government. And he threw in some other disrespectful comments not worth repeating here. Senator Adam Schnelting, whose is a licensed realtor and minister, complained of the court’s continued “usurpation of power.”  He charged the court had usurped the power of the Senate to pass laws that apparently are above review.

Senator Nick Shroer, who is a lawyer, accused the court of legislating from the bench, in effect vetoing a bill. Somehow he did not think the court should have the power to interpret the law and protect us from serious legislative mischief.

The court ruling, by the way, was 7-0, including three judges appointed by our immediate-past governor, Mike Parson.

State Representative Rudy Veit, a lawyer who practices in Jefferson City, suggested, accurately, that the Senate’s carrying-on was “immature.” He told a reporter that one of the court’s roles is to determine when the legislature doesn’t follow the constitution in writing laws.

He’s right. The Senators are wrong. The founders created three separate branches of government and set up a system of checks and balances that protects citizens from one branch rule.
The legislative branch passes a law. The President or governor can veto it or sign it. If it’s a bad law and arguments against it are sufficient to prove it so, the courts can void it. There is nothing that prohibits a legislative body from rewriting its proposal so that it fits within proper legal guidelines. A mature Senate would be doing that.

The senators’ filibuster that resulted in the cancellation of a speech traditionally short on drama but long on the business of the court system was disrespectful of the court and the constitution.

The courts are government’s referees. Their rulings at the higher levels sometime carry an unspoken message: “Try to do it better next time.”  Petulance in the face of such an admonition serves no purpose and delays getting down to work doing better.

The Missouri Senate would be well-served if some of its members demonstrated the kind of maturity that is expected from the deliberative body that senates at the national as well as state level are supposed to be.

Tiananmen Square in Minnesota

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When will President Trump send in the tanks?   He has 1500 soldiers trained in Arctic warfare on alert in Alaska, ready to make an increasingly tragic confrontation in Minneapolis even worse. He’s obsessed with the Insurrection Act and is ready to pull the string on it at almost any moment—probably with an overnight eruption on his unsocial media site.

(Missouri is safe from anything like this. We have insurance.  We have a Republican Governor.)

But a little soul-searching might be good for us here in safe Missouri. Suppose the ICE goons showed up in St. Louis or Kansas City and started “maintaining order” and cleansing those cities of immigrant populations—a lot of Bosnians in St. Louis and Kansas Cityhas its own Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The situation in Minneapolis shows no signs of easing, even as to-us intolerable weather conditions prevail. When people are angry enough to take to the streets in these conditions, it is easy to fear the confrontations will become more likely.  A Kent State waiting to happen, perhaps.  Or perhaps an American Tiananmen Square.

Is Minneapolis going to be America’s Tiananmen Square, a place where courageous people stand up to blunt force authority?

Thirty-seven years ago this June, more than two months of protests took place in Beijing, China. Negotiations between protestors and the Chinese government to reach a peaceful solution broke down, leading the government to send troops to occupy the square. The occupation turned into a massacre that is reported to have taken hundreds of lives.

The next day one man refused to get out of the way of the tanks. Who he was or what happened to him is buried in the secret government files.

Courage can be one man in front of a tank and it can be many citizens in front of an American agency unmatched in modern memory for its recklessness, cruelty, and lack of respect for freedom. From day one it seems to have gone far beyond our President’s announcement that it would seek out only the “worst of the worst.”  What is happening among the protestors in Minneapolis is part of the American character.  What is happening with ICE in Minneapolis is contrary to every principle of our founders that has guided us, albeit imperfectly at times, for 250 years.

We are likely to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our free country strikingly less free as a whole than at any time in our lifetimes. The thought that we would celebrate this significant anniversary under these continuing circumstances is beyond depressing.

There are only losers in America’s Tiananmen Square in frigid Minnesota today. But this is the United States of America.  The people will win.

We turn to the words of the great author, William Faulkner and his Nobel Laureate address in 1950 in which he spoke of the lasting power of the writer, of the poet. I believe what he said, not only about poets, but about the lasting power of a free people.

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures but because he has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”

The defiance of the people of Minneapolis should remind all of us of “the courage, and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of (our) past.”  I believe the people of Minneapolis, and the people of this nation, will prevail against those who ignore all of those basic values that have sustained us as a nation.

A New Phase Has Begun

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We haven’t heard anything like this since the Vietnam era protest songs.  Bruce Springsteen wrote a powerful protest song last weekend, recorded it at the start of this week, and it might be taking the Minnesota experience into a new socio-political realm.  It is hard for provocateurs to regain control when the public mood becomes part of a nation’s popular music culture, for music can be one of the greatest indicators of a generational shift in national attitude.

The song has the feel of the 60s because the momentum of the public mood in an increasing number of places is starting to be reminiscent of the early days of the Vietnam protests and the Civil Rights movement, a volatile combination that rewrote our country’s self-image. Will this song be the first of many protests songs of this generation?

Those who lived through those days can recognize that possibility. Today’s demonstrators are the children and the grandchildren of those who in the 1960s opposed military interventionism and advocated civil rights.

April will be the 61st anniversary of the first major antiwar rally, in Washington. It was there that Judy Collins sang a Bob Dylan song, “The Times They are A-Changin,’” followed by Joan Baez’s rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” the song considered the civil rights movement’s anthem.

English poet William Congreve wrote in 1697 that “Music can soothe the soul of the savage beast.”  It can. it also can motivate those standing against a savage beast.

For those who think Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” no longer fits the times, listen to Bruce Springsteen and “Streets of Minneapolis” the first major protest song or our times.

Bruce Springsteen – Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

If you want to sing along, here are the lyrics. We apologize if they do not translate from our edit page to the post in proper verse order; our computer does odd things we don’t understand.  But you will be able to follow the lyrics as you sing along

[Verse 1]
Through the winter’s ice and cold  Down Nicolett Avenue A city aflame fought fire and ice ‘Neath an occupier’s boots  King Trump’s private army from the DHS Guns belted to their coats  Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law Or so their story goes

[Verse 2]
Against smoke and rubber bullets  In the dawn’s early light  Citizens stood for Justice Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets  Alex Pretti and Renee Good

[Chorus]
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land  And the stranger in our midst  Here in our home, they killed and roamed In the winter of ’26    We’ll remember the names of those who died  On the Streets of Minneapolis

[Verse 3]
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest Then we heard the gunshots   And Alex Pretti lay in the snow dead. Their claim was self-defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes  It’s our blood and bones   And these whistles and phones  Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies

[Chorus]
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

[Bridge]
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown, my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In our chants of “ICE out now”    Our city’s heart and soul persists  Through broken glass and bloody tears On the Streets of Minneapolis.

[Chorus]
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26    We’ll take our stand for this land   And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

[Outro]
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out

(llyrics from genius.com)

An Epic Game; Kansas Questions; A Chiefs Shuffle

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZBB)—When they make a list of greatest Missouri basketball games, Saturday’s 88-87 double overtime win against Oklahoma will be on a short list. Neither team could build a lead greater than six. There were ten ties and 22 lead changes.

Missouri, one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the SEC, went 24 of 33 (73%) from the stripe. They were only 6 for 21 from the three-point line. But the last two were historic, the ball ripping through the net as the red light around the backboard flashed on to show the time left at 0:00.

Oklahoma was up by three with 5.6 seconds left when Missouri inbounded the ball in regulation and fed it to Trent Pierce, who had missed five threes in the game finally hit one from the top of the key as time expired in regulation to tie the game.

Oklahoma was up by two with four seconds left in overtime and Missouri inbounding the ball under the sooner basket. Mark Mitchell took the pass, dribbled just past half court and fired the 37-footer that will make the all-time Tiger highlight reel.

The Tigers made up for poor shooting from outside by outscoring Oklahoma 40-12 inside and outrebounding the Sooners 41=29.

Oklahoma took its sixth loss in a row. Missouri might have kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive after a couple of tough losses. They’re now 4-3 in the conference and in the top half of the standings. But the road ahead is hard starting with a road game against 17th-ranked Alabama Tuesday night.

Three guys scored 66 of Missouri’s 88 points—Mitchell with 25 (and 10 rebounds), T. O. Barrett, making his first start, had 21 and Jayden Stone had 20.

(LOOK WHO’S IN THE TOP 25)—-The St. Louis Billikens are 19-1, lead the Atlantic 10, and are 23rd and 24th in the polls. They hammered St. Bonaventure 97-62 Saturday for their thirteenth win in a row.  Their only loss was by one point, 78=71, to Stanford. The Billikens have six players averaging 10-12.7 points per game and a seventh player who’s averaging more than nine.

(BEARS)—-Missouri State forward Michael Osei-Bonsu is the school’s first Conference USA Basketball Player of the Week.  The Bears beat UTEP and New Mexico State last week with Osei-Bonsu hitting 14 of his 22 field goals, averaging 19 points, nine rebounds and a couple of assists. He hit the game-winning shot att UTEP with 12 seconds left. Bonsu, a 6-4 forward, has the best shooting average in the conference and ranks 29th in the country. He’s majoring in psychology.

Missouri State  (12-8) is in sole possession of second place in the conference, at 6-3.  Liberty, undefeated in nine games, leads.
(CHIEFS1)—It appears the Kansas City Chiefs’ move to Kansas is hardly a done deal. The big hangup is a big question:

Who would own the stadium?

Arrowhead Stadium is owned by the Jackson County Sports Authority and is leased by the Chiefs, who want the same kind of deal with Kansas. The Chiefs made that clear in a recent Kansas legislative committee hearing.

It has to do with taxes. Abhishek Sachin Sandikar, writing for Yahoo Sports on Google, says the issue is how money from the Kansas STAR (Sales Tax Revenue) Bonds would be used for a three-billion-dollar stadium.

The Chiefs do not want to own the stadium; they want it owned by a public entity as Arrowhead Stadium is owned by the Jackson County Sports Authority and is leased to the team through 2031. The Chiefs operate and maintain the stadium. The bonds used to built both stadiums in the Jackson County Sports Complex have been financed by a 3/8 cent sales tax. But last April, Jackson County voters went 58% against a new 3/8 sales tax to pay for renovations of Arrowhead and a downtown stadium for the Royals. The Chiefs found Kansas a willing suitor and the Royals are still looking at something on this side of the border although Kansas is courting them, too.

Chiefs lawyer Korb Maxwell says the Kansas stadium proposal does not make sense for the Chiefs unless a public entity owns the stadium. He argues that providing bond money for a privately-owned stadium would mean the funding would not be on a tax-exempt status and 45 percent of those dollars would be taken in federal taxes, thereby killing the project.

While the Kansas governor and the team have announced the move, the Kansas legislature has not yet approved the issuance of the STAR bonds—and the Chiefs don’t want to be their own landlord.

The deal hasn’t fallen through but Missourians shouldn’t think that the Chiefs will stay on this side of the line after all, though.

(CHIEFS2)—The Chiefs hope Eric Bienemy can be magic again for them. He’s back as offensive coordinator, a job he held for five years when the Chiefs offense was high-powered and exciting in Patrick Mahomes’ younger days.

Bienemy was the running backs coach for the Bears in their just-finished season. The Bears were third in the NFL in rushing yards, led by D’Andre Swift’s 1,087 yards and in average yards per carry. He was the Chiefs running backs coach for five years before moving up the OC.

Bienemy’s return has Travis Kelce sound more as if he’ll come back for another year. It’s just enthusiasm without commitment right now, though.

(ROOKIES)—The elimination of the Los Angeles Rams from the NFL playoffs allow us to look at the season three Tiger NFL rookies had.

Harrison Meavis emerged halfway through the year as the Rams’ place kicker and he showed he belongs in the NFL.  He hit all 39 of his extra points and was 12 of 13 in field goals.

Luther Burden III started five of the Bears’ 15 games, caught 47 passes out of 60 targets for 652 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Brady Cook finished the New York Jets’ season as the starting quarterback after two guys ahead of him went down within injuries. In four starts (and a fifth game he finished), Cook threw for two touchdowns but seven interceptions, 738 yards and a couple of touchdowns. He had a 55.43 rating.

(ROYALS)—The Royals continue to be quiet. They’ve signed several players to minor league contracts but have yet to sign a major free agent or make anything near a blockbuster trade. Speculation that former Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader would be a good fit for an outfield slot has been blown up by word that Bader has signed a two-year $20.5 million dollar deal with the Giants.

(CARDINALS)—The Redbird’s news is about who is still on the roster versus those who have left, those signed to minor league deals, or those who have/have not gone into arbitration.  Brendan Donovan and JoJo Romero are still on the roster although there’s more than enough speculation about St. Louis’ interest in trading them.

We’re two weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting.

Speeding along on track and in the court:

(DAYTONA)—The first major race of 2026 has lasted 24 hours at Daytona and ended with the winner just 1.5 seconds ahead of the runner up.

Roger Penske’s Porsche team has become the third team to win the race three years in a row, joining rival Chip Ganassi’s team and the Wayne Taylor team. Felipe Nasr has been the lead driver for all three of the wins. His co-drivers this year were Julien Landauer and Laurin Heinrich. Their car ran in the GTP class, the fastest of several classes in the race.

One of the drivers of the second-place Cadillac was NASCAR phenom Connor Zilisch. Indianapolis 500 winner Alex Palou was one of the drivers in the fifth place car. IndyCar driver Colton Herta was part of the team for the car in sixth. IndyCar’s Scott Dixon and NASCAR’s A. J. Allmendinger were half of the team that finished ninth.

IndyCar’s Nolan Siegel was part of the team that finished 12th overall and third in the LMP2 class. IndyCar’s Christian Rasmussen was part of the 5th place LMP2 team (14th overall). Kyffin Simpson, a driver for the Ganassi IndyCar team, was in the 17th place (8th in LMP2). Former 500 winner Will Power, driving in the GTD Pro class, helped his team to second in class and 20th overall. Former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe was in a Lamborghini that finished 24th overall, 6th in GTD.

(NASCAR)—It appears NASCAR might be losing one of its road courser races. The fall Charlotte race had been held on its “Roval” for several years—the road course that’s also part of the oval track—but NASCAR reportedly is ready to move it back to the oval.  The event would be one of the ten-race championship chase series.

(NASCARHOF)—Three new names have been added to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina—Kurt Busch, Harry Gant, and Ray Hendrick. Busch won the NASCAR Cup championship in 2004. Concussion problems after a 2022 Pocono crash sent him into retirement.

Busch ran the 2014 Indianapolis 500, a one-off event, and finished a solid sixth. His hopes of completing the 500 and the 600-mile race at Charlotte that same day ended when his car dropped out after 273 laps.

“Handsome Harry” Gant had 18 wins in the Cup series and 21 in the second tier series. He’s the oldest driver to win a Cup race (52) and the oldest driver to win his first Cup race (42). He won four in a row in 1991 and ran his last NASCAR race in 1994 at the age of 54.

Ray Hendrick only ran 17 Cup races but he raced modified stocks for 36 years and won 700 races. He was 51 when he died in 1990

(MCLAREN VS. PALOU)—The long-running breach of contract lawsuit by McLaren against IndyCar champion Alex Palou is a win for McLaren, but the company isn’t satisfied with the $12 million judgment against him. McLaren wants reimbursement of its legal expenses plus interest.

In 2022, Palou agreed to drive for the McLaren IndyCar team then backed out to rejoin Chip Ganassi Racing where he has won four IndyCar championships and last year’s Indianapolis 500. He says McLaren’s offer included a role as a reserve driver for the McLaren Formula 1 team with the possibility of moving F1 and driving for McLaren’s IndyCar team until then. But he said he later learned the Formula 1 opportunity would not materialize so he walked away from the signed contract to stay with Ganassi. Palou says he’s meeting with his advisors and is considering his options.

He will continue to drive for Ganassi in the IndyCar series.

(Photo credits:  Billikens—Amazon; Palou (shown at the Daytona 24 Hours), Michael L. Levitt/ Lumen via Getty Images; Kurt Busch at Indianapolis 2019—Bob Priddy)

 

 

What’s the Matter With Missouri? 

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A century ago, Emporia Kansas newspaper editor William Allen White wrote an editorial called “What’s the Matter With Kansas,” a scathing column reacting to a populist takeover of Kansas government.

Here in Missouri, the pending loss of a third NFL team and the uncertainty about retention of one of our major league baseball teams, coupled with memories of other pro sports teams we’ve lost (two major league baseball teams and two NBA teams) have sparked some to think, “What’s the Matter with Missouri?

Let’s be clear at the outset of this discussion that there’s a lot that’s RIGHT about Missouri. There’s always something wrong about Missouri politically, depending on where you stand. But let’s not forget what is right as we look at what’s the matter with our state today.

One of Missouri’s biggest problem is that it’s too proud of our cheapness. Expecting the promotion that we are a low-tax state will produce steady economic development significant enough to make a major impact on our economy does not seem to be borne out by the realities.

If all of the tax cuts or eliminations we have seen in the past several years really worked, our metro areas would be economic giants in the Midwest. Our smaller cities would be centers for mid-corporate expansion and our even smallest communities might not be withering. Missouri would not be in danger of losing another seat in the U. S. House of Representatives, not because we are losing population (as is easy to say) but because other states are growing faster.

One of our biggest problems is that we are satisfied to be mediocre. But it can be argued that thinking economic growth springs from being a low tax state is questionable if low taxes are consistent with being the progressive state that excites potential investors.

US News’ most recent ranking of the states puts us 31st out of 50 in many categories. Our highest rankings are in fiscal stability and “opportunity,” where we are 11th (more on that in a minute).  We’re 18th in natural environment. Our economy ranks 25th.   After that—well…..

33rd in education

37th in infrastructure

43rd in health care

43rd in crime and corrections.

39th in teacher salaries, according to the MNEA.

World Health Review says we are among the states with the highest rates of homelessness—one dismaying factor that describes our economy, the numbers increasing 22% in the last five years, 39% more than in 2013 and 78% more than in 2018. People don’t flock to Missouri to become homeless.  This is a home-grown problem that includes many people with mental health issues. Speaking of which—

Mental Health America uses seventeen criteria to rank us 36th  in mental health and well-being—40th among adults.

Digging deeper into “opportunity,” US News ranks us 14th in equality and in affordability. But we are only 34th in economic opportunity.  And what does that mean? “It takes into account a state’s poverty rate, prevalence of food insecurity, and median household income as wellas he level of income inequality among residents… These four comprehensive metrics are indicators of more than just economic opportunity in a given state; they intersect with employment, stability and health – affecting the quality of life of a state’s population,” says the survey.

In health care, we are 28th in low obesity rate, 34th in low suicide rate, 39th in public health, 39th in low infant mortality rate and overall mortality rate and 44th in low smoking rate.

We don’t want to drag this out so we’ll let you read the 50 states report by US News and you can explore why its surveys do not rank us better.  Best States | U.S. News State Rankings and Analysis

States are far more than their sports teams. Once we look beyond the glitz and glamour of the coliseum and look at what should make us a great place to live, we find a grittier and less attractive view. To think that the things that drag us down will be improved by reducing the financial ability to lift them up seems to this layman’s eyes false economy.

We cannot escape the shortcomings that short-change ourselves if our big selling point is that we have low taxes. The exciting visuals of sports teams quickly fade when people look at the quality of real life and that quality is not improved by continued diminution of resources to improve it.

This is a campaign year and, of course, a tax cut is a favorite way of pleasing voters. Candidates, however, might want to focus on how income tax elimination will make Missouri better than 31st and how it will elevate our low standing in personal categories and whether paying sales taxes on a plumber’s visit makes us a place to which significant numbers of people and businesses want to move. Sooner or later, it will become clear that our drive to be a state known for its tight-fistedness won’t perform much economic magic.

Useless arguments about “tax and spend liberals” versus “don’t tax and can’t spend conservatives” won’t solve what’s wrong with Missouri, and as great as our state is in float streams and tourist attractions, there’s plenty the matter with it that we can overcome if all of us recognize that WE are responsible for being 31st or 43rd or—-pick a number as long as it’s in the 30s or 40s.

The first gubernatorial inauguration I covered was that of Warren Hearnes when he became the first Missouri governor elected to two consecutive four-year terms. He said on that clear but chilly January day, “To do and be better is a goal few achieve. To do it, we are required to make sacrifices—not in the sense of shedding our blood or giving our lives or the lives of those we love,  but sacrifice in the sense of giving of a part of those material things which we enjoy in abundance. A great people will sacrifice part of that with which they have been blessed in order that their children might be better educated, their less fortunate more fortunate, their health better health, their state a better state.”

What’s the matter with Missouri?  When have any of our recent leaders laid down this kind of challenge to all of us?  Would we accept it if they did?

Failure to issue that challenge….and a failure to respond to it is what’s the matter with Missouri.

Who’s the S—hole Country Now? 

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It’s good to see ourselves through other eyes sometimes.

Newsweek reported a few days ago about a Norwegian’s response to President Trump’s plea for more immigrants from Scandinavia instead of so many from “s—hole countries” such as Somalia, his country of choice for his latest profanity-laced bowl of white supremacist sludge.

The response from Chris Lund, a Norwegian vocalist, has gone viral. We think he has some interesting points, namely that the Scandinavian countries are far superior to ours, especially Trump’s version of ours that Lund finds crude, cruel, and lacking civilized values.

One of the many puzzling things about Trump’s plea for more Scandinavians is that they come from a system he loves to pummel as socialism. But to hear Lund describe it, there are many things there more attractive there than here.

—once you get beyond the cold, dark winters.

Trump spoke last month (December 9) at Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania where he brought out his tired whine that the best people are not coming to the United States (the best people have NEVER flocked to the United States; they had and have good lives in the Old County). He appears to think his musings are humorous: “Why it is we only take people from s***hole countries…Why can’t we have some people form Norway, Sweden, just a few? Let’s have a few from Denmark…Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting,”

Lund told Newsweek he spoke out because of the “recurring irony of being told America is the ‘land of opportunity’ by someone who doesn’t seem to realize that, for Norwegians, moving there is a massive downgrade….When you compare five weeks of vacation and a year of maternity leave to the American system, the offer is a joke. I’m not trying to be mean. I’m just looking at the benefits package.”

On December 12, Lund took to his Threads account, @chrislundartist, where he wrote in a now-viral post: “Trump said he wants more immigrants from Norway. I have reviewed the offer, and I have to decline. The benefits package is terrible. You offer two weeks of vacation if we are lucky; we get five. Your maternity leave is ‘good luck,’ while we get a year. Your healthcare plan is GoFundMe, while ours is free. And your safety plan is just ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Moving to the US right now feels like leaving a spa to go work in a burning hot dog stand. Thanks, but we will stay in the snow.”

The Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority says all employees are entitled to at least 25 working days of holiday each year, and employers are duty-bound to make sure each employee uses all of their holiday allowance. The maternal leave policy there entitles new parents to a total of twelve months—or as much as three years if the parents go back part-time. The Commonwealth Fund says the country offers universal health coverage that is paid for by automatic taxes and payroll contributions.

Lund told Newsweek he has visited the States, and once thought of moving here. here. But now?

“The U.S. looks less like a dream destination and more like a cautionary tale. I’ve realized I much prefer free healthcare and a life that doesn’t revolve entirely around surviving the latest political crisis.”

Some accuse him of being “obsessed” with the United States. Not obsessed, he says, just observant. “The truth is, what happens in America affects everyone. A lot of Americans don’t seem to understand the impact their country has on the rest of the world. Your economy and your politics vibrate across the globe, so we have to pay attention.”

He suggests President Trump should be worried about what would happen if people from Norway moved here in big numbers. “If we actually moved to the U.S. and started voting, we most certainly wouldn’t be voting for him. We’d be voting for the very things he calls ‘socialism.’”

Photo Credit: Lund–//www.viberate.com/

Notes from the Minnesota War Zone II

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A warning—do not rise to the bait. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t get the memo.  They sent their own message.

This memo was sent to at least some state employees and people at the University of Minnesota last Thursday.

The Cedar Riverside area of Minneapolis is described as a historic “point of entry for immigrants since Swedes, Germans, and Bohemians began arriving in large numbers during the late 19th century.” Today it is sometimes called “Little Mogadishu” because it has become the largest concentration of Somali-born residents in the twin cities.

A key figure in the anti-Muslim protest was Jake Lang, a January 6th participant who served four years in prison before President Trump pardoned him. Some of his rally colleagues dragged him away from the scene at Minneapolis City Hall, bleeding from the back of his head.

Reports indicate he was leading the Americans Against Islamification’s “Crusader March on ‘Little Somalia.’” One report says he intended to burn a copy of the Quran during the rally. Lang was dragged away to safety by one of his group after about ninety minutes of yelling back and forth and when the chaos that he sought to stoke went after him.

Another report says a member of the group was chased into a parking garage and struck with a flagpole. During the chaos, one of those protesting the presence of Lang’s group noticed the man was bleeding from a head wound and was heard shouting into a megaphone, “This guy needs medical help. He needs mental help. The bleeding is natural for Nazis, but he needs mental help.” When another woman, a protestor, asked the man if he needed help, he replied, “No, I’m good. Thank you, though. I appreciate you.”

It’s not clear if the two reports are referring to Lang or if there was a second man. Later, Lang texted on X from a hospital that he “was just literally LYNCHED by anti-white mob of liberal and illegal immigrants…PRESIDENT TRUMP SEND IN THE NATIONAL GUARD They are lynching White Christian Americans!!!!!”

Some will say he asked for what he got. Some who have studied contemporary accounts of lynchings will say that what happened to him is nowhere near a lynching.  And some will question whether there is anything at all Christian in his words and actions and President Trump’s roundup up of Somalis there.   .

On one hand, the worst thing that can happen is for people to give the Langs of our country the attention and reaction they provoke. On the other hand, what happened at that rally is a clear statement that good people will not stand for Trump’s ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign.

We aren’t in Minneapolis but we all should wonder how we would react if it was OUR city and OUR state being put through these experiences because they didn’t vote for Trump and don’t kiss his political ring.

Sometime the best protest is a silent, glowering presence, bristling with danger for the provocateurs but not giving them the violence they want.

But it’s easy to say that when it’s not your city and it’s not your people, your neighbors, who are endangered by someone who is really, just a petty, pitiful vengeful little man who misguidedly believes he is more than just a President of the United States.

—when he is, in fact, so much less a President and a man, and a disgrace to the office.