Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
From The Contrarian
Donald Trump—who never saw anything he wouldn’t drench in gold and has acquired a fortune in questionable crypto-currency, now wants an Air Force One from Qatar that he can take with him when/if he leaves the White House. This man, who lives on multiple golf course estates and is as far removed from the realities of everyday Americans as he can be, refuses to stop telling other people what they “need.”
According to Trump, “baby” girls (which includes eleven-year-olds) do not need 30 dolls. They don’t need 250 pencils. Toy manufacturers, not to mention many children, beg to differ with his arbitrary caps on goods. He’s threatened to effectively ban Barbie dolls. The toy czar has spoken.
We have plunged far, far away from President Jimmy Carter, who was mocked for calling for the sacrifice of a couple of degrees on the thermostat. Kevin McCarthy, of all people, whined, “He told me that the best days were behind us, that as an American I had to accept less. That wasn’t how I was raised.” Instead of the party of capitalism, free markets, fiscal awareness, and abundance, the MAGA GOP has become stingy, Grinch-like commissars allocating rations to everybody who’s not a billionaire.
So much for Americans’ consumer-driven economy—and the entire retail industry. What Trump meant was: “Forget my ridiculous campaign promises. You all are going to suffer because my fixation with tariffs is going to make you poorer while I rake in billions.” Trump delights in turning victims of his unhinged policies into ingrates. That way, he can reclaim the mantle of being the victim of selfish, greedy Americans! Instead of the reality—that he is failing all of us—by his narrative, it is we who are failing the great leader.
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Trump has a peculiar view of what the United States “needs.” The U.S. does not need anything from Canada (the largest purchaser of U.S. goods). Incoherently, even for him, he huffed: “We don’t have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of their market.” (Narrator: The United States is the world’s second-largest exporter.) Latin America? “They need us much more than we need them. We don’t need them. They need us—everybody needs us.”
Trump thinks of “need” as a sign of weakness, vulnerability, or dependence; conditions he loathes. Like all bullies and egomaniacs, he claims that “I alone can fix it,” and simply cannot grasp the concept of an interdependent world, mutually beneficial bilateral partnerships, and/or enduring alliances.
On the other hand, he invents things the U.S. “needs,” such as…Greenland (!). In March, he declared, “We need Greenland for national security and international security.” What’s more, “the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland.” (Narrator: Denmark says the U.S. is never getting Greenland.) To NBC’s Kristen Welker, he repeated, “We need Greenland very badly. True, Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that,” Trump said. “But we need that for international security.” Strangely, this “need” never manifested in Trump’s first term, nor has it been identified in our National Security Strategy.
And in yet another vein, Trump insists he does not need experts. He knows more about everything than anyone. He actively does not want to hear from people who know what they are talking about, nor does he want to put competent people in his Cabinet lest they contradict his bizarre impulses, hunches, conspiracy theories, and wackadoodle ideas. Forget the “best people.” He needs the worst people, i.e., the sycophantic anti-experts who would never dream of correcting or countering his blather.
Unfortunately for Trump, reporters keep asking him about things he does not know. He’s not a government-conscious human, so how could he possibly know if he is obligated to uphold the Constitution? He is not a lawyer, so how could we expect him to know if noncitizens have due process rights? He’s apparently never had to shop for groceries, so how would he know that you don’t need ID to do so? Weirdly, the guy who knows more about anything than everyone doesn’t know such basics.
SubscribedDictionary.com tells us that “need” means “a requirement, necessary duty, or obligation.” In other words, people dying of starvation or AIDS in undeveloped countries need USAID. Cancer patients need life-saving medical advances. And anyone in public office needs to follow the Constitution.
When Trump uses the word, he does not mean any of that. Instead, he deploys “need” or “don’t need” to camouflage his failures (tariffs), to shift blame (greedy kids!), to assert dominance (forget foreign purchasers), to defy expertise (no scientists required) and to translate his ridiculous whims into national imperatives (Greenland!).
In each case, his word choice conveys his inadequacies and errors. He cannot deliver on painless tariffs. He cannot force trading partners to bend to his will. He cannot match wits with experts who are competent in their fields. (It’s no wonder why dim Fox News TV hosts populate the Cabinet.) And he has yet to convince sane Americans that personal, nonsensical impulses should translate into national policy.
Since “need” in Trump’s usage has lost all meaning, we should dispense with it for the time being. Like all autocrats, he wants to tell us what we can and cannot have. We are not about to put up with that.
Instead, we need to vote his enablers out of office and begin to hold him accountable.
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Sunday, May 11, 2025
Honoring Mom
I have my mother to thank for my love of gardening.
Honoring her this day by sharing photos from my garden here in New Hampshire.
1940
At the Philadelphia Flower Show
In her last year of life.
1918-2013
Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Friday, May 9, 2025
A Shout Out to Wisconsin's Governor - Way to Go!
Undaunted officials smack down bullies
Wisconsin governor punctures autocrats’ aura of omnipotence; similar support for the rule of law was delivered by bipartisan judges
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Democratic Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin is a mild-mannered man, a former teacher and school superintendent, and increasingly in the thick of the fight against Donald Trump’s dictatorial ambitions.
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After the FBI recklessly arrested state Judge Hannah C. Dugan on a frivolous charge of impeding ICE agents’ arrest of a suspected undocumented person, Evers issued a written statement: “In this country, people who are suspected of criminal wrongdoing are innocent until their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt.” He continued:
“Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine the judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor.”
He concluded, “I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.” It was not long before his faith was tested once again.
Evers put out innocuous instructions to state officials directing them to call the state’s attorneys when confronted by immigration agents. “The five-point memo tells state employees to remain calm and immediately notify their supervisor. After asking agents to identify themselves and to present documentation of why they are there, the guidance says the state worker should contact their office's attorney,” CBS reported. “The memo advises state employees not to answer questions from agents, not to give them permission to enter non-public areas and not to give them access to paper files or computer systems without first talking with an attorney.” Telling state employees to talk to their boss or the appropriate lawyer should not be controversial.
However, Trump’s regime is in the business of hounding, threatening, and bullying officials who dare adhere to the rule of law. On May 1, Trump’s unhinged immigration czar Tom Homan reacted to the memo with an implicit threat: “Wait to see what’s coming.”
Tim Muth, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, later observed, “Calling a lawyer and getting advice about how to respond to a warrant is not illegal, and to the extent Tom Homan is claiming that that is some way obstruction, he is simply misinterpreting [the law] and intimidating state and local officials in a way that we should all be concerned about.”
Considering the FBI had arrested Dugan on April 25 and led her away in handcuffs, Evers released a video on May 2, making crystal clear he was not cowed by bullies:
Evers demure appearance and unemotional tone project a sense of maturity and calm, a stark contrast with Trump’s frothing thugs who struggle to bypass due process, misrepresent facts, and fan the flames of xenophobia.
Evers soberly recounted that “a Trump Administration official, in not so many words, apparently threatened to arrest me for distributing guidance that asked state agency employees to consult with an attorney if federal agents show up at state buildings with legal documents.” Without sounding defensive he explained, “I haven’t broken the law. I haven’t committed a crime. And I’ve never encouraged or directed anyone to break any laws or commit any crimes.” He then filled in some important context: When Trump or senior officials say these inflammatory things, MAGA forces come out the woodwork to amplify threats, thereby ratcheting up anger and resentment.
He recited the core principles that we call “the rule of law”:
We live in the United States of America, folks. We are a country of laws. The rule of law matters. Following the law matters.
In this country, the federal government doesn’t get to abuse its power to threaten everyday Americans. In this country, the federal government doesn’t get to arrest American citizens who have not committed a crime. In this country, we don’t threaten to persecute people just because they belong to a different political party.
These threats represent a concerning trajectory. We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official—or everyday American citizens—who have broken no laws, committed no crimes, and done nothing wrong.
To a regime that only recognizes strength, Evers retorted that MAGA thuggish behavior does not scare him. “I am not afraid. I have never once been discouraged from doing the right thing, and I will not start today.”
An extraordinary letter signed by more than 150 former judges from across the ideological spectrum echoed that message, vowing to uphold the rule of law and condemning her arrest. “This attempt to intimidate the judiciary will fail,” the signers vowed. “The American people understand that the Constitution of the United States has made the nation’s judicial officers the guardians of the rule of law in our country, not the President.”
Evers, followed by the retired judges, made a critical stand in defense of democracy. Show courage. Stand up to bullies. Invoke the Constitution. And under no circumstance give an inch.
Those undaunted patriots have followed this simple formula in the face of crude threats, and set an example for the rest of us. For that, they deserve our praise and gratitude. We salute them for reminding us how best to respond to MAGA menaces.
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