Author: A.T.

Their execution of the mission in Iran has been extraordinary.

I think it was a mistake in 1953 overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran.

I think it was a mistake pulling out of the Iran Peace deal.

There are compelling arguments on both sides, but I’m not sure it was a mistake to join Israel in degrading Iran’s military capacity, as we have.

Either way, now that we’ve gone this far — since those in power there could hardly hate us more than they already do — I hope we do spend the next two or three weeks degrading it further . . . while doing all we can to avoid casualties.  (It should be noted that the Iranian regime purposely killed vastly more of its own citizens during this way than have we.)

THE KING’S SPEECH

I think it was appalling to see the wildly corrupt, vulgar egomaniac who is our president intersperse the good and hopeful things he had to say . . .

(it is good that the theocratic extremists’ military strength has been largely destroyed; it is to be hoped they will reopen the Strait in order to re-start their flow of oil revenue) . . .

. . . with wild lies

(“In one year, we’ve taken a dead and crippled country” — widely considered the envy of the world — “and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far” — China is cleaning our clock and job growth has been close to zero — “with no inflation” — inflation is heading back up) . . .

. . . and his trademark counterproductive, humiliating insults.

(Where was the part about the great majority of Iranian people, custodians of a proud 6,000-year culture, with whom we stand ready to build a respectful, prosperous peace?)

. . . the President’s pronouncement tonight, and prays for a durable peace (but how?):

Pete Buttigieg on Stephen Miller (80 seconds).

SEX PEST – 2

A direct link to the BBC report Andy Borowitz wrote about — without a paywall this time: Trump–Is the President a Sex Pest?”  (Thanks, John, K.!)

AN EPSTEIN HYPOTHESIS

Epstein Likely Wasn’t the Boss. So Who Was?

[When should we expect to see the complete Epstein files in which Trump is mentioned more than 38,000 times, unredacted except as necessary to protect the victims?  As was unanimously mandated by the House and Senate (save Clay Higgins R-Louisiana) and signed into law by Trump?  The deadline was December 19, 2025.]

BONUS

Job Creation — The Cups Don’t Lie (3 minutes).

A SEX PEST

While we wait for the release of the Epstein files, as required by a virtually unanimous vote in Congress and signed into law by the President, there’s this teaser:

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This BBC documentary has never aired in the USA, and probably never will. But, as Stephen Colbert recently proved with his James Talarico interview, Trump’s stooges at the FCC can’t prevent video clips from being shared online.  So please share.

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WILL HE WRECK THE WORLD ECONOMY AND THE U.S. DOLLAR?

Not if he’s to have any chance of making it to Mt. Rushmore.

Here are . . . All the Things Trump Has Put His Name and Face on as President . . . “from federal agency buildings to government programs to—soon—U.S. currency.”

The only problem being that . . . Everything Trump Touches Dies.

November 3 can’t come soon enough.

CHAPTER 7 . . .

. . . of John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate:  THOU SHALT NOT HATE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ABORTIONS. 

So much I didn’t know.  (Not least that there were abortions in Jesus’s day.)

It begins with a quote:  

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“I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from his mother that it became an individual person.” Wallie Amos Criswell, president of the Southern Baptist Church, 1973

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And continues:

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This is a well-intentioned chapter about how the most important issue in US Christianity has nothing to do with, well, Christ.

Number of times the Bible demands punishment for ending a pregnancy: Zero. 

These are two facts that politicians, media, and fundamentalists always overlook: the Bible never forbids it, and Jesus never mentions it.

He opposes the death penalty, directs us to love and forgive each other, commands individuals and nations to care for the poor and welcome the stranger. He instructs his followers to pay their taxes and put away their swords. But Jesus never once gets around to condemning women who terminate pregnancies, or the individuals who help them.

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And concludes:

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And if you still think the God of the Bible prioritizes the innocent lives of children, let me remind you Gentiles about Passover, when God killed all Egyptian firstborn children as punishment for the sins of grown-ups.

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But there’s much more, well worth reading (or listening to) in full.

CHAPTER 9 . . .

. . . THOU SHALT NOT HATE ON POOR PEOPLE begins with a quote from John Kenneth Galbraith:

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“The modern conservative is… engaged… in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” John Kenneth Galbraith, 1967

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And begins:

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America leads the world in Christians who believe Jesus wants us to help the poor by cutting programs that actually help the poor.

But the Bible has a lot to say about poverty, and its teachings may be surprising to many. This book bluntly commands generosity, justice, compassion, and fairness toward the poor and marginalized. And it doesn’t ask nicely.

> The Bible commands lending to the poor without expecting repayment or interest.

> The Law of Moses requires a “Year of Jubilee” every fifty years, when debts were to be forgiven, slaves freed, and land returned to its original owners, ensuring a reset of economic inequalities.

> Jesus commands individuals and nations to care for the poor and asserts that all will be judged by how well they did it.

> In the parable of the loaves and fishes, Jesus encourages everyone to give the food away instead of selling it, aka free guaranteed nutrition for everyone.

> In Mark 12:17, Jesus supports paying taxes the government will redistribute.

> The early church, in Acts of the Apostles, practiced a radical economic form of communal living where wealth and resources were shared.

> The Bible often depicts God directly identifying with the poor and oppressed, suggesting that how one treats the poor is indicative of their relationship with God: Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.”

Particularly since the early 1980s, the US has often pursued policies that favor the wealthy and increase economic inequality, which economists and theologians have come to label “the exact freaking opposite” of Jesus’s teachings about caring for the poor—and the dangers of wealth—as stated in Matthew 19:24 and Luke 16:19–31.

Christian America has been caught up in the long con of trickle-down economics, a rigged system that gives massive tax cuts to the wealthiest, who need them the least, and all too often punishes struggling people with cuts to social services, fare hikes, and a degrading minimum wage. Years of leadership (and media) demonizing the poor as worthless, lazy welfare cheats has helped millions of Christians make peace with the suffering of the least of us.

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Again: well worth reading (or listening!) in full.

JOHN WATERS’ SIGN

Just in case you know who he is.  It’s kind of perfect.

THE SIMPLER BILLBOARD

We’re 42% of the way there with this billboard.  (Thanks to those who’ve chipped in!)

I like this simpler version.

It seems less in-your-face; gentler and more welcoming.  Your thoughts?

I pre-ordered this on AppleTV . . .

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

. . . and then decided it was too important to wait.

Boy, was I right.

Watch the trailer here.

Last month I wrote:

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We need — urgently — to figure out (a) how to protect humanity from a superior species; (b) how to avoid economic catastrophe and, instead, harness A.I. for the benefit of all.

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This movie — which everyone will be talking about by next week — addresses (a).

[For thoughts on (b), please see that previous post.]

Fareed Zakaria: 

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Iran is exposing the limits of a presidency built on bluff, improvisation and submission rituals.

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Watch.

And hey — please chip in a small tax-deductible contribution for those LeavingMAGA billboards!  After just one weekend, we’re already 39% to goal.  THANK YOU!

The main thing, before we get to the robot, is to try to find time to listen to the “Give a Little Whistle” episode of This American Life.  One of my fellow protesters sent me the link yesterday and I was skeptical — who has an hour for a podcast?

But boy am I glad I dove in.

The first half is the story of a brave whistleblower ordered to instruct ICE recruits to ignore the Fourth Amendment. It is gripping.

The second half of the second half — Oscar’s story — would make even Carl gasp at what our country has become.  Which is why he won’t listen, but that shouldn’t stop you.

Both are stories from inside ICE, and they are (alert the pun police) chilling.

Okay, so there we were, hundreds of us protesting joyfully, peacefully on Miami Beach — one of the hundreds of new locations that had not held protests for NO KINGS rallies before — the movement is growing — when down the sidewalk came one of those little delivery robots programmed to avoid hitting anything.  In a year or two, it will likely be able to leap over impediments or even organize a protest of his own — perhaps reason with the protesters — “I come to bury Caeser (and deliver this Caesar salad and a burger), not to praise him!” — but yesterday it was completely flummoxed, as various protesters tried to figure out how to get it to carry a protest sign for the rest of the day.

It was fun, as was the entire event.  My little group of five — one of whom, aged 60, had never in his life been to a protest before and rather enjoyed it — were talking economic gloom when a health-conscious solo guy near us lowered his mask and told us that Nero was also a terrible ruler, burning half of Rome, but that the empire bounced back just fine for a few hundred years and we will too.

He declaimed about Hadrian, as well, and seemed a little crazy, but not all that much, and, as he and my friends were going back and forth, I kept looking at him: I feel like I know this guy.  Finally there was a lull and I said — Do we know each other?  You look awfully familiar.  So we looked at each other for a while, and I said my name, and he said his first name — which began to bring my memory of him back into focus — and it turns out that he had stayed with me for a week or two when he first came to Florida 40 years ago.  We hadn’t seen each other since.  He now writes for the Daily Kos.

There’s no point to that story other than to say these protests are fun!  Everyone is in the mood to talk with whoever happens to be next to them, everyone is elated as passing cars honk in support, everyone is buoyed to realize that the movement will just build and build until we win.  And you just might run into an old friend or make some new ones.

THE BILLBOARD

Yesterday, I wrote about the billboard that Leaving MAGA will be erecting near Mar-A-Lago.  Thanks to those of you who chipped in!  And to those who offered suggestions. After 24 hours, we’re 30% of the way there. If you can chip in a few dollars — it doesn’t have to be much, and it can be anonymous if you prefer — please help.

Thanks, also, to Gloria who reminded me of this perfect SNL skit (6 minutes).

It pretty much says it all.

It’s hard leaving MAGA!

So it was exciting to see people around the country spreading the word:

DOUGLASVILLE, GEORGIA

DENVER, COLORADO

BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA

JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA

From Facebook:

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We had a Leaving Maga speaker in Southern Indiana! It was in Jeffersonville IN, a lady speaker but she also had a booth with information about your organization, mentioned Rich by name! And then we also had a local politician who has changed his political affiliation from GOP to independent, who ALSO referenced Leaving Maga! It’s spreading like wildfire in Hoosier territory!

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KINGWOOD, TEXAS

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

Of course, most of the signs people brought yesterday were not about Leaving MAGA.

You’ve doubtless seen a million by now, so I’ll just share this one I had not seen before being held up in 19º weather in Freeport, Maine:

CORRECTION

I want the less creative route, just buying a few, including this one:

I am only slightly embarrassed to report that Pope Leo likely never said that.

I say, “only slightly,” because I’m almost certain that, even if he never have said it, he’s thought it.

Still, I wanted to set the record straight.

Have a great Sunday — and try to find time to listen (and share?) that Give a Little Whistle episode from This American Life.

That’s just a rendering.

With your help, the first two REAL ones will be going up near Mar-a-Lago soon.

If it catches on, others will follow on highways across the country.

The message: A welcoming community awaits those who’ve become disillusioned.

It’s what led former MAGA podcaster Rich Logis to write his fascinating look into how a totally smart, sane person could get sucked into MAGA; how hard it is to get out; and how you might (gently!) help a friend or relative struggling with this problem:

> To find out more without reading the book, visit Leaving MAGA.

> To help launch the first billboards, I’d really appreciate your chipping in to the GoFundMe that went up a few hours ago.  It suggests a (TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!) donation of $200, so that’s what I did.  (And then — well, you know how enthusiastic I get — I did a bunch more.)  But you can contribute whatever feels right. Twenty bucks would be great.  I noticed one early contribution for $7.   I love it.  Truly: no amount is too small.

> To suggest variations on the above, me-mail me and I’ll pass them on.  I like an even simpler, understated, all blue . . . no flags or logos . . .  just:

 ________________

  Having Doubts?
You Are Not Alone
   leavingMAGA.org

__________________

Imagine if this billboard campaign became enough of a thing that we could get Rich onto Joe Rogan.  He’d sway many thousands of listeners.

But first things first.  Can you help fund the launch?

Thanks!

Enjoy NO KINGS 3 today!  It’s not too late to find your event.

But first . . .

SATURDAY!

I’m excited about what promises to be the largest protest in American history.

I went to NO KINGS and NO KINGS 2 with one friend.

Tomorrow: four.

If all 7 million of us from the last one add, on average, just one more . . . imagine!

So I repeat:

You’re not a protester?  Neither was I.

Hate crowds?  Me, too.

But this is easy and fun . . . and you can always just stand on the edge of it all and leave whenever you want.

No sign?  No problem.  You’ll be welcome without one.

Or just write WE’RE BETTER THAN THIS on a piece of cardboard.

Or bring an American flag.

Or: SO BAD, EVEN THE INTROVERTS ARE HERE.

Find directions to your totally peaceful, joyful protest here (scroll down to see the map).

And now . . .

JESUS AGAIN

Pete Hegseth presides over monthly “Christian Prayer and Worship Services” at the Pentagon

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Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric has drawn renewed scrutiny, including his past defense of the Crusades, the brutal medieval wars that pitted Christians against Muslims.

Hegseth belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative network co-founded by the self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson. CREC pastors have appeared at Hegseth’s Pentagon services at least three times, including Wilson who preached there in February.

Hegseth often goes beyond standard calls for God to bless the country or its troops. Last week, he asked Americans to pray for service members “in the name of Jesus Christ.” On Wednesday, he again prayed in Jesus’ name.

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Which brings us back to John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate, the book I’ve been excerpting all week.

I just listened to Chapter 6, the “gay” chapter.  So fun.  So much I didn’t know!

(And, heck, I wrote a chapter of my own about this — Chapter 21 — and, I now see, barely scratched the surface.)

He starts his chapter with a quote from Jerry Falwell:

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“Homosexuals are brute beasts… part of a vile and satanic system that will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”

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I started mine with a quote from Queen Isabella:

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“I have caused great calamities. I have depopulated provinces and kingdoms. But I did it for the love of Christ and His Holy Mother.”

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. . . and made the case that Jesus — whom I much admire — was the best little boy in the history of the world.

My favorite Fugelsang line:

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BEING gay is natural; HATING gay is a lifestyle choice. And unlike being gay, homophobia is highly curable.

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Also:

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Any guy who tells you same-sex attraction is a “choice” to be resisted probably has some experience resisting it.

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Mainly, though, he offers a fascinating, rigorous explication, chapter and verse, that leaves zero doubt that Jesus — booed off the MAGA stage, as suggested yesterday — would have been all in for equal rights.

OH, AND WAIT . . .

Any word on those Epstein Files?

That could be your sign tomorrow:

WHAT ABOUT EPSTEIN?

DEATH!

I’m not sure I buy the premise that we’re all going to die.  But, yeah, well, maybe.  In any event, we should all be able to control how we go . . . choosing, if we want, to avoid suffering, to avoid undue strain on those who love us, and to avoid enormous health care costs to gain a few more days of pain and indignity.

Watch this superb 16-minute short (password, all lower case: mancini) and, if the spirit moves you, join Compassion and Choices and share widely.

THEFT!

Trump appeared to have business motive for stealing and concealing and lying about highly classified documents.

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The special counsel’s office found that Donald Trump held on to documents so secret that only six people could legally review them — and the team believed his reason for doing so was financial gain.

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But that’s okay, if you’re MAGA, because he gets you; he’s not some elite snob know-it-all.  He loves the poorly educated — and he loves . . .

. . . JESUS!

Which brings us back to John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds.

It’s such a good read, I’m plugging it again.

Condensed from Chapter One:

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I’m here because two people broke a promise to God.

My mother was born during the Depression in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She entered the convent directly out of high school.

Before they sent her overseas to begin her new life, they briefly assigned her to Holy Family Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.

My father had been born in Brooklyn just a few months before her, and had become a Franciscan brother a year after graduating high school. He’d been working as a butcher at the Brooklyn fish market, and after losing half a finger, celibacy probably seemed like a step up. Upon entering the brotherhood, he became Brother Boniface. As a brother, he taught history to Catholic boys at St. Francis Prep, coached basketball, wore the robe and rope belt, and walked among the people like the Lost Jedi of Flatbush.

My father, the brother, met my mother, the sister, when he entered Holy Family for tuberculosis treatment. By all accounts, he was instantly smitten by this quiet, Southern girl in a nun’s habit, a woman he knew he couldn’t have, and had promised God he would never want.

But they became friends, and when the convent sent Sister Damien to Malawi, Brother Boniface took it upon himself to write her letters—many letters—to innocently keep her informed of what was going on in the states—civil rights, Vietnam, and US politics.

Her village had no TV or radio, so his letters became the de facto newspaper for the entire convent.

Eventually, she returned—briefly—to the US. After ten years of hiding his feelings, poorly, my father eventually convinced her to leave the convent and go on a date.

They were married two months later, in the chapel at Fort Story Army base in Virginia Beach. They soon settled on Long Island and tried to raise us to be progressive, free-thinking, sexually repressed Catholics. Which is why I would eventually turn to stand-up comedy.

We were an extremely Catholic family.  

My dad was a lector, Christian doctrine teacher, and eucharistic minister at church; my Uncle Louis in Brooklyn was a Catholic deacon; my brother an altar boy. And when my mother became head nurse at a convent nursing home for her former order, there was a steady multicultural flow of elderly nuns in and out of our house.

We said grace before every dinner and our prayers before bedtime. Whereas some kids were taught piano, my parents got me ORGAN lessons.

I was taught—relentlessly—that Christianity was about the things Jesus prioritized: Service to others. Forgiveness. Caring for the poor, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner. Fighting injustice with nonviolence. Love. Empathy. Compassion. And go wash your hands, we’re leaving for Mass in five minutes.

My parents presented as Republicans, identified as Independents, and lived like closeted Democrats.

Like most dads, mine was liberal in some ways and conservative in others. He maintained the same severely short haircut regardless of what decade he was in, flew the US flag outside our home, and believed God was love. His overall parenting strategy was to guarantee that I’d be way too liberal to ever fit in with Christians and far too Christian to ever blend with liberals.

And almost every therapist I’ve ever been able to afford has agreed that his plan worked perfectly. . . .

If you watched American TV news in the late twentieth century, you received a steady diet of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and all manner of ex-segregationists and blow-dried televangelists, all ranting about welfare queens, feminists, and AIDS patients.

These right-wing Christian media stars preached the virtue of forcing poor pregnant women to give birth against their will, that they might experience substantially greater poverty and greater risk to their health. They warned us that any government programs that actually helped the poor were “communist.”

They always punched down—always attacking the poor, the addicts, the migrants at the border, and a gay minority they assured me the Bible condemned, somewhere.

Zero teachings of Jesus. Only condemnation and propaganda, always seeking more power, and always needing more cash.

I didn’t have the words to express it, but it was awkward to be told I was the same religion as these men.

These were the fundamentalists, the power-hungry grifters who took advantage of the fact that most people don’t know the Bible all that well. They were charlatans, frauds, hypocrites, and villains. And they made for great TV.

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I’ll stop there except to say that the rest of the book tells you — in the most engaging way possible — what’s actually IN the Bible, and why, and how . . . and it’s fascinating.  And verifies everything James Talarico and others have long been saying:  There’s nothing Christian about Christian nationalism.  Were Jesus alive today, he’d be booed off the MAGA stage.

Read, listen, share.

Okay, sorry.  I can’t resist.  One more passage:

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“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”

You’ve probably guessed that this is not going to end well for the goats.  But this is important—Jesus gives a clear mandate to all people and nations.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ ”

Then, Jesus addresses those who don’t think societies should care for poor and sick people, or incarcerated people, or immigrants. This part is like Jesus’s memo to the Heritage Foundation.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

It’s a happy story. I always wondered what the vibe in the room was like when Jesus finished that one.

But that’s it. That’s what Christianity was supposed to be about.

Not banning abortion, blocking care for trans kids, hating Muslims, fighting for tax cuts, or making people believe in a talking snake.

Jesus asserts that his true followers are the people and societies who care for the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the immigrants, and the incarcerated. And he tells you who his fake followers are—the ones who are openly religious but indifferent to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the immigrants, and the incarcerated, the lowest of the low. How we treat them is how we treat him.

I mean, we could end the book right here. You’ve got things to do. But there’s more.

Jesus emphasizes that nations will be judged based on their actions and treatment of the vulnerable—not their religious affiliations or beliefs. He’s not just commanding individuals—he’s calling on societies to commit to compassion, mercy, and kindness on a policy level. This means that Christians living in a democracy have the option to vote for—or against—Jesus’s very direct instructions.

Note that he doesn’t care how pious you are, how often you go to church, or how much money you donate. You get zero points with Jesus for being religiously observant. He’s giving instructions on exactly what a Christian nation should do, which is why conservative politicians never talk about it.

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TOUGH GUYS

For a Christian with a bone spur, Trump is one tough cookie.  Far from loving his enemies, he posts that he’s glad Robert Mueller is dead.

Pete Hegseth’s pastor goes a step further: he prays for James Talarico’s death.

Trump has a Talarico opinion, too:

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. . . saying on Truth Social: he “insults Jesus” and “may be the worst candidate I have ever seen” next to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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To which Talarico replied, “You want to know what insults Jesus? Kicking the sick off their healthcare. Bombing school children in Iran. Deporting moms and babies. Covering up the Epstein files.

Again I say unto you, patient reader:

There’s nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. 

Were Jesus alive today, he’d be booed off the MAGA stage.

Join today’s 3pm Indivisible call: What’s the Plan.

But first . . .

REPUBLICANS PROTECTING PEDOPHILES

Hey — any word on the Epstein Files?  The law requiring their release in full without unnecessary redactions passed by a vote of 427-1 in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate.  Shouldn’t Trump comply with it?

FIVE LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM ROBERT MUELLER

That’s the title Garrett Graff gives this remembrance — but it’s really a lot more than that.

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This was one of his favorite refrains: “Whatever we do, we must act with honesty and with integrity. There are no gray areas here; there should be no room for doubt. Regardless of your chosen career, you are only as good as your word. You can be smart, aggressive, articulate, and indeed persuasive. But if you are not honest, your reputation will suffer. And once lost, a good reputation can never, ever be regained. As the saying goes, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

It’s this last point that feels so poignant and important to me. Time and time again this past year, I’ve been thinking about the failure of our system of checks and balances. It turns out, in the end, that there’s only one check and balance that actually matters: Good character. Everything else in a constitutional system follows and relies on that simple foundation.

I’ve spent the last twenty years covering national security and have, over the years, interviewed or met almost every senior decision-maker in the intelligence community and federal law enforcement from the 21st century — FBI, CIA, NSA, and ICE directors, CBP commissioners, the directors of national intelligence, and most of this century’s attorneys general, DHS and defense secretaries and secretaries of state, not to mention dozens of sub-Cabinet officials — the deputies, under-secretaries, assistant secretaries, and deputy assistant secretaries who make up the day-to-day decision-making at most levels of government. Many I’ve gotten to know quite well. Some are good friends.

Prior to January 2025, almost to a person I trusted that they took seriously the rule of law and their constitutional obligations under their oaths of office. I didn’t always agree with their decisions and sometimes debated with them the morality underlying their decisions, but never once doubted that there had been a robust discussion and debate about the legal and constitutional obligations behind the scenes before they made their decisions.

For generations, we have been protected from doubt, uncertain fates, and problems because voters chose leaders of both parties with good character who, in turn, appointed people of good character, who, in turn, were constrained by a professional, nonpartisan, and merit-based civil service of good character that took seriously their oaths to serve the Constitution and not an individual.

Once you elect or appoint someone who has no moral core — who then appoints people with no moral core and fires those who do — nothing else in the system of checks-and-balances turns out to matter.

Which brings me to the final topic I want to address today. Why America is struggling right now — it is no coincidence to me that this is all happening is exactly 80 years after the end of World War II.

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So worth reading in full — and so important that we all find our local NO KINGS protest and show up Saturday with friends.

Even if you’ve never protested before.  Indeed, especially if you’ve never protested before.

It’s fun!

Make plans for pizza or margaritas — or margherita pizzas — afterwards!

It’s one of the steps required to restore decency, competence, and integrity to our government.

Garrett Graff continues:

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The World War II generation uniquely understood that the natural state of the world and geopolitics was Hobbesian — freedom, democracy, and peace were not natural conditions of the world. They required active involvement, reinforcement, and hard, grinding, day-in, day-out effort to secure and extend.

Moreover, they knew intimately and up-close that the alternative to peace and freedom — fascism and war — was worse. America itself flirted with authoritarian fascism before. It’s easy to forget the model that Father Coughlin and other right-wing leaders of the 1930s offered Americans disenchanted with the Great Depression. But as fascism’s dark cloak descended across Europe — as secret police began demanding “papers, please” and kidnapping people off the streets and disappearing them to concentration camps, as Hitler’s government cracked down on free speech and expression, labeling critics “evil” enemies of the state, as they cut off access to science and education and demanded arts organizations fall in line, persecuted homosexuals, and closed borders to visitors — America made a different choice. It, along with a precious few allies like Great Britain, stood and fought for democracy when it counted most.

We now know that freedom and democracy prevailed, but for longer than we are comfortable to remember, it was a close-run thing. After, that generation of officials, policymakers, and veterans wanted to ensure that nothing like that ever happened again, and they devoted their entire working careers to that task. Building the postwar architecture that has secured the world and underpinned a tremendous economic boom and elevation of global standards of living was neither easy nor a foregone conclusion after the war.

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See you Saturday!

And now . . .

1984

I just watched Orwell: 2+2=5.  A little too leftist for me in a couple of places but in the main I agree with TIME Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek: “Brilliant. Exhilarating.  The boldest documentary anyone could make right now.” 

BONUS

Do you know who just won the House seat in Florida’s legislature that represents Donald Trump? 

A Democrat!

In a district the Republican won in 2024 by 19 points in 2024 and that Trump himself carried by 11.

The tide is turning.

David Jolly could be Florida’s next governor, Alex Vindman its next junior United States Senator.

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Jesus was a peaceful radically nonviolent revolutionary who wasn’t American and never spoke English; who hung around lepers, hookers, and crooks; never sought tax cuts for rich Nazarenes, was anti-wealth and anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer too (Matthew 6:5); never asked lepers for a co-pay, never called poor people “lazy,” never even slightly anti-gay, never mentioned abortion, supported paying taxes, and was a long-haired community-organizing authority-questioning anti-slut-shaming brown-skinned Palestinian unarmed homeless Jew.

But that’s only if you believe what’s actually in the bible.

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I’ve come to view Jesus the way I’ve come to view Elvis. I love the guy, but some of the fan clubs terrify me.

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“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

Jesus, Luke 6:46

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