WAPO, Your Bezos Is Showing

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It didn’t take long for the Washington Post to launch a hysterical attack on the choice of the voters in New York City who, apparently tired of the way things have been run, chose convincingly between the options presented to them by the democratic process there. Zohran Mamdani drops the mask  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/08/zohran-mamdani-class-warfare-new-york-mayor/  I suppose this is not surprising after Jeff Bezos stopped the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. Still, this is the Washington Post, once venerated as one of the leading independent (remember Watergate?) news sources in the country and, indeed, the world.

No more. It’s now apparent that its owner has completely coopted the so-called Editorial Board and revealed his and its acquiescence in the fascist model of government promoted by Donald Trump. Bezos has a lot of money, so he probably doesn’t care much what happens to the paper as it is abandoned by many of its leading thinkers and many also of its subscribers. It is interesting how individuals who amass vast fortunes become indifferent to the needs and wants of the people whose patronage created those fortunes.

Mr. Bezos has aligned himself, and his newspaper, with Donald Trump, a man who has no respect for the Constitution he swore to uphold, no respect for anything that does not serve his personal interests. The Post’s Editorial Board (EB) has now gone full Trump by attacking the choice made by the voters of New York City. The EB apparently no longer believes in democracy. Maybe it’s time for the Post to change its name to reflect what it now represents. The paper’s motto still says, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” But the lights are out at the Post now, and it is dark indeed.

Consider what the EB has said about the choice of New York City’s voters.

They opened by calling him “Generalissimo,” a reference typically applied (though not exclusively) to fascists and dictators. Donald Trump loves to call opponents names and the Post’s EB has apparently gone full in on Trump’s approach. The Post’s EB must be terrified. I watched the same acceptance speech that it did. I saw a young man relishing his hard-earned victory (you don’t win in New York politics the easy way but remember the wisdom of Sinatra: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere).

I am not going to waste a good Monday with chapter-and-verse discussion of the Post’s new-found discovery that less government is the solution to New York’s (and presumably everyone’s) problems. Note, however, that whoever watched the acceptance speech at the Post failed to note how often Mamdani smiled, how often he spoke of using the power of government to help the general population of the city. Now, suddenly, the Post’s EB has become the voice of the “small government is the best government” crowd while whining that Mamdani mentioned Donald Trump eight times but didn’t utter “growth” even once. The people at the Heritage Foundation must be ecstatic. And it is a fundamental mistake to believe that Donald Trump is an adherent of “small government.” Trump’s “philosophy” is that of the prototypical dictator: “the government is me.” Size is irrelevant.

It is a fundamental truth that humans often hear what they want to hear. That principle applied to the Post’s EB as it listened to Mamdani’s speech. What seems most clear in all this is that the Post editors are terrified that the people of New York City have chosen someone whom the editors don’t trust because they don’t know him. They apparently have not been paying enough attention and now that the people of New York City have spoken, the EB is panicked.

The ”observers” at the Post apparently missed the part of Mamdani’s acceptance speech in which he spoke eloquently about his election being a victory for those “so often forgotten by the politics of our city.” He spoke the importance of keeping hope alive, a vital tenet at a time when hungry people are being cut off from their daily bread by a hostile president who is now threatening the city and Mamdani personally. Trump threatens to punish NYC over Mamdani. Will he arrest new mayor and block funds? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/08/trump-threat-nyc-mayor-mamdani/87133111007/?utm_source=usatoday-newsalert-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_term=hero&utm_content=usat-mclean-nletter01

Trump’s blather aside, perhaps hope comes first and growth follows.

The only real alternative was former governor Andrew Cuomo. I happen to appreciate some aspects of Cuomo’s service as New York’s governor. I wrote about it here: https://shiningseausa.com/2020/05/01/governor-andrew-cuomo-presents/ but also here: https://shiningseausa.com/2023/06/04/appalling-failure-great-city/ It is also true that I was deeply disappointed to learn of the accusations against him from multiple women whose complaints I fully credit. It’s too bad, but it is what it is. Cuomo created his own trouble and paid the price. If the same principles were applied to Donald Trump, he would be sitting in a prison cell right now.

Mr. Cuomo lost the Democratic primary to Mr. Mamdani, ran against him as an independent, and lost again. The people of New York City made their choice in a free and fair election, something that should be respected. Instead, the Post’s EB chose to suck up to Jeff Bezos and, make no mistake, to Donald Trump whose last-minute endorsement of Cuomo failed badly. What the Post’s EB hopes to achieve from this hatchet job on the voters of New York (Mamdani was their clear choice), I can’t imagine.

Finally, compare the approach taken by the New York Times in an opinion piece more appropriately entitled: 6 Ways Mayor Mamdani Can Improve New York https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/opinion/mayor-mamdani-new-york-election.html

Anyone who has lived in New York City (I did for three glorious years [including the decidedly inglorious pandemic year 2020]) and who was paying attention understands the enormous challenges the city presents to anyone trying to engineer major changes. But change is possible if bold thinking is supported. It won’t be easy, but little worth the effort is easy. Instead of whining about Mamdani’s “class consciousness,” the Washington Post would do well to remove its collective head from Donald Trump’s hindquarters and join the parade that the Democratic victories on November 2 suggested were now within reach.

Which Side of the Boat Should We Run To?

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The Washington Post continues to be a national embarrassment. The latest example is the Editorial Board’s fall-all-over-itself to find ways to praise Donald Trump even as he continues to establish his fascist fantasy of a United States in which he is above the law, above the Constitution, free to deprive Americans of their liberty without risk and to enrich himself and his family by stealing from the public treasury.

On October 9, the Editorial Board took it upon itself to assume that Trump’s announced Gaza peace plan “may actually hold,” in which case, the Post says, “The president’s unorthodox deal-making style deserves credit.” Maybe. If, if, if….. But “ifs” are not enough. The paper goes on to address the peace “plan” on the eve of the Nobel Peace Prize award announcement and proclaims that “if the deal holds, Trump can legitimately bolster his claim to be a peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Wow.

Of course, we now know that the Nobel committee had better sense and awarded to prize to someone with a legitimate claim to it. And the Gaza so-called “peace plan” if unraveling faster than a defective yo-yo.

The Post article goes on with more both-sides-ing than I care to count. And if you’ve been following the news from Israel/Gaza, you know that there was yet another of the usual mutual declarations and denials of violations with the result that Israel killed more Palestinians and then said, yet again, “we’re done now … unless….”

In another story, also dated October 9, the Post said: “Details of the deal, the first phase of which both sides signed earlier Thursday, remain unclear, and Israeli strikes continued Thursday. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the hostages would be released Monday or Tuesday and that he would travel to Egypt for a signing of the plan.” Well, of course he would. Trump always, always needs to be at the center, claiming his brilliance as a negotiator is responsible for whatever good appears to be happening. Having reduced the federal government to a shambles, he is off on a multi-country tour where foreign leaders are fawning all over him with praise and gifts.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Trump, in his brilliance, has ordered the immediate resumption of nuclear weapons testing. How about that Washington Post? Here’s today’s report:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/29/trump-nuclear-test-plans/  Chaos reigns.

Elect a fool and this is what you get.

 

How Long Before the American Kristallnacht?

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For those not familiar with the term Kristallnacht, it is German and means the Night of Broken Glass, a pogrom against Jews executed by the Nazi Party’s paramilitary forces along with Hitler Youth and some German citizens in November, 1938. As described in the Wikipedia article:

Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked as attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Rioters destroyed over 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht]

This was in many ways the logical and inevitable step in resolving what Hitler and other Nazis thought of as the “Jewish question.”

In the United States now, we have a related spectacle developing. The stories are multiplying daily of ICE kidnappings and assaults on the streets in various cities. Masked and armed men appear and snatch people walking on the street or at work in various, generally low-level, jobs. The men travel in packs, refuse to identify themselves, and are sometimes aided by local law enforcement. The chain of command, if there is one, is entirely opaque, as are their orders. There is no due process for their victims.

Contrary to the public claims of the Trump administration, the victims are almost never the “hardened and violent criminals” that were supposed to be the targets of the forced deportation program. In fact, there are multiple instances of U.S. citizens being taken, snatched away from children and other dependents, taken to undisclosed locations and detained in extremely harsh conditions sometimes for weeks.

The administration doesn’t care. In fact, I believe it is fair to say that these incidents are the logical and inevitable step in resolving what Trump and other Republicans think of as the “immigrant question.” So what if U.S. citizens are mistakenly swept up in the dragnet? The key is to instill fear in the immigrant population, a goal immeasurably aided by the majority of the Supreme Court that has allowed the deportation to countries from which the deportees have no historical relationship and which in some cases are on “do not travel” lists issued by our own State Department.

There is an internal logic to this type of activity. The longer it is allowed to occur, the more we will see. You get what you tolerate. The history of ethnic cleansing in other countries as well as our own strongly supports the likelihood that the conduct we’re seeing from ICE is only going to get worse. At some point someone is going to react violently to their activity and that will become the pretext for a hyper-violent response. Once it starts, it will not stop by itself.

Democrats making denunciatory speeches in Congress or on podcasts won’t stop it. ICE’s budget under the new Republican budget just passed is many multiples of the budgets of the other federal law enforcement agencies and larger than the funding of the FBI, IRS, Secret Service, DEA, SEC, and ATF combined. ICE is preparing for the time when it has a sufficient excuse to unleash its full force against the country, to eliminate people Trump considers to be either his enemies or who don’t fit his conception of “proper Americans.”

The capper to my prediction is the two-fold cleansing operation reflected in (1) the due-process-free-rapid-arrest-and-deportation to foreign prisons of whomever ICE “decides” should be summarily removed from the United States, and (2) the building of domestic concentration camps like the one publicly relished by Trump/Noem in the Everglades. Add to that the use of the military to assist ICE and otherwise suppress dissent in places like California and you have the perfect storm.

When the United States establishes concentration camps and the federal government celebrates their creation, the country is in the deepest trouble. The problem is compounded by the remarkable behavior of the Supreme Court that is writing both due process and the separation of powers out of the Constitution. The John Roberts Court is doing just what the Republicans want – facilitating the rapid transition of the country to a dictatorship.

So, I ask how long, absent a game-changing intervention, it will be before Trump concludes: “I am no longer restrained by law or the courts, and, as I have said many times before, I can do whatever I want?”

Donald Trump – America’s Mussolini

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I have finished reading a series of books that purport to explain what has been happening in the politics of the United States and the larger world. The books are:

Age of Revolutions: Progress and backlash from 1600 to the present (2024) by Fareed Zakaria

Fortress America: How We Embraced Fear and Abandoned Democracy (2020) by Elaine Tyler May

Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World (2024) by Anne Applebaum

And, finally, the most recent is one I have just begun: Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (2021) by Ruth Ben-Ghiat. The book was published before Trump fully manifested as the malignant fascist that he has become, but it was after he had been elected the first time and gave his infamous “American Carnage” inaugural speech in 2017 that prompted former Republican President George W. Bush to exclaim: “That’s some weird sh*t.”

The compelling opening of Strongmen lies in the description of one “strongman” in particular, perhaps the model for those that would follow: Benito Mussolini. Ben-Ghiat writes:

The disaffection with conventional politics and politicians after a ruinous war created yearnings for a new kind of leader. The cults that rose up around Mussolini and Hitler in the early 1920s answered anxieties about the decline of male status, the waning of traditional religious authority, and the loss of moral clarity…. Out of the crucible of these years came the cults of victimhood that turned emotions like resentment and humiliation into positive elements of party platforms…. Mussolini prepared the script used by today’s authoritarians that casts the leader as a victim of his domestic enemies and of an international system that has cheated his country.

That is Trump’s and the Republican Party’s 2025 legislative and other agendas in a nutshell.

Aside from the parallels between Trump’s raison d’etre and Mussolini, one other thing caught my eye in the early going in Strongmen:

Two-thirds of dictators were removed by coups between 1950 and 2000.

Not all, of course; several remained in power for decades. Still, I was reminded of the line from Shakespeare’s Henry IV: “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”  While the line generally is taken to refer to the burdens of leadership, I have also seen it as a reference to the risks that the leader faces from those who would take his power by force. In that sense, it suggests the leader had best be a light sleeper if he wants to survive.

In Trump’s case, however, I doubt that he is restless out of concern for his health. The fears and anxieties that must ravage his mind every night likely relate more to his insecurities and lust for more money and power.

That aside, the parallels between Mussolini’s messaging and Trump’s are unmistakable. They lend compelling weight to the proposition that Trump is a fascist with a fascist message. Those who seek ways to resist Trump and separate his cultish followers from him might do well to study Mussolini’s rise to power and eventual downfall.

Trump’s Attack on Higher Education-Go on Offense

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I have made a habit through my adult life of, when possible, avoiding talking about my education. When asked where I went to college, I have usually just said, “in the east.” I did this because disclosing that I went to Yale would often lead to uncomfortable statements about things about which the inquirer usually knew little. I was certainly not ashamed of having attended Yale, but I also didn’t want to be seen as bragging about having an Ivy League education and conversations about it were often awkward.

The same was true of my law school experience at Harvard. Truth be told, my attendance at both Yale and Harvard were the product of teachers who cared enough to intervene on my behalf, to encourage me to reach high, to achieve way beyond what I imagined was possible for me. The result was an enriched life beyond anything I ever dreamed of. I became a life-long learner, driven perhaps beyond what was healthy at times, but determined not to fail. Yale, in particular, taught me that working hard, and harder still, was the key to success.

My Yale experience, in the early 1960s, was extraordinary in many ways. I will not detail them here. My purpose is different. The Yale of today is, I think, quite different and more imposing than the school I attended. I am certain that Harvard College has also evolved well beyond what was already back then a world-class education and research institution.

The current Trump administration’s attack on these and other major research and institutions of higher learning reflects a view of the world that is alien to everything these schools represent. I have just read that the President of the University of Virginia has resigned to avoid damaging conflict with the federal government under Trump. While the details of President Ryan’s situation at UVA are perhaps unique (he says he was doing to step down next year anyway), the fact remains that the Trump assault on higher education will have profoundly damaging consequences throughout our society.

Since I know Yale the best, I will focus on it. Yale has produced a website entitled Yale’s Impact on America. https://www.yale.edu/yales-impact-america

Did you know, for example, that “Yale’s large-scale clinical trials – 38,000 patients are currently enrolled in over 2,000 clinical trials – are yielding key discoveries that translate into life-saving therapies.” The health issues involve patients with heart issues, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes among other life-threatening maladies.

Did you know that chemotherapy was developed at Yale and is used to help about one million people each year? And the first insulin pump was developed at Yale as well, now helping 350,000 patients a year. The first U.S. artificial heart pump was also produced at Yale and helps six million people suffering from heart failure. And “Yale research led to the discovery of esketamine as a therapy for major depression, which the FDA approved in 2019 as the first new medication in decades for people suffering from treatment-resistant depression.”

I subscribe to Yale Today, a daily publication of the University. It is a rare day that some remarkable achievement in science, medicine or other discipline is not detailed there. On June 27:

Yale School of the Environment researchers have pioneered a novel method for measuring how urbanization is affecting biodiversity in cities, a tool that will help scientists and officials better manage human-wildlife interactions around the world.

On June 23:

Cutting-edge lab technique hints at new era for neuroscience

In a new study, Yale researchers unveil a more efficient method of simultaneously capturing the electrical activity of large numbers of neurons — an advance that opens doors to understanding and treating neurological diseases.

Yale is not alone in this. Harvard makes similar discoveries through original research constantly, as do the other major research universities. Trump and his goons don’t know and don’t care about the potential loss of these benefits as they attempt to reshape the country into a low-education, all-white society.

Yale needs to wake up to the reality that defensive posturing is not going to solve the real problem Trump poses. Yale, like Harvard, has massive resources, including obviously the law school’s cadre of brilliant lawyers. It needs to make clear to the administration that if it does not back off completely, Yale will lead/join a coalition of universities across the country to litigate the administration to death, including, I suggest, asserting personal liability against the perpetrators of these obviously unlawful actions.

Trump and his drone followers (male and female) have shown that they believe they can act as they wish without consequence to themselves. It is no loss to them personally if they disregard the First and Fifth Amendments and other laws by demanding submission to their will and then lose in court. They’ll just come back with something else as bad or worse. The universities should test that, I think. Make the bastards work hard. Put them on defense.

It’s not good enough to talk or call Senators. Even if victorious today politically, Trump will be back tomorrow with another outrage. Having been attacked as Harvard has and as have all the others with tax increases on their endowments, the universities need to recognize this is not a one-off situation. Trump is coming for them. Prepare for the end game and go on offense. Trump and gang are not doing normal politics, and the defense must not be based on the premise that they are.

Democrats and others who believe in preserving democracy must wake up and fight the fight that’s in front of them, not some policy-based game of old-fashioned politics. Those days are over probably forever. Just look at the contents of the bill the House just passed by one vote. One of the two political parties is off the range. and we must fight the fight that is staring at us with dead eyes before it’s too late.

Take the offense and use the considerable communications resources of the universities to inform the public of what they stand to lose if Trump’s no-nothings succeed in suppressing the vital work that the universities perform in addition to teaching some of our best and brightest future leaders. Time is short.

A Legal Primer – It’s Not Complicated

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There has been much coverage of the arrest and immediate deportation of alleged “criminals” and “illegals” by the Trump administration. These actions are apparently part of the Republican plan to “make America white,” although in recent days Trump has pulled back the aggression as to certain workers. Why? Because he has realized that his shoot-first-think-later approach to domination may be offending some of his supporters whose businesses depend on immigrant labor. But from day-to-day Trump’s erratic approach to governance, largely made up on the fly, can change radically.

This primer is not, however, about our national immigration policy. It is instead about elementary constitutional and legal processes that are an essential part of our legal system. These principles apply to immigrants as well as citizens, and one day they might apply to you, as when Trump’s masked and armed men who refuse of identify themselves pull your car over or visit you at home or work.

First, the Constitution itself.

Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fifth Amendment:

….  nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Sixth Amendment:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. 

To keep this manageable, we’re going to focus on the text that I have bolded. But first we must include the function of magistrates. Virginia law is typical:

A principal function of a magistrate is to provide an independent, unbiased review of complaints of criminal conduct brought by law enforcement …. Magistrate duties include issuing various types of processes such as arrest warrants, summonses, search warrants, emergency protective orders, emergency custody orders, and certain civil warrants. Magistrates also conduct bail hearings in instances in which an individual is arrested to determine under what conditions the arrestee should be released from custody prior to trial.

Finally, there is the Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) that applied the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the arrest phase of a criminal case. The Court held that any person in custody must, before being interrogated, be informed of the right to remain silent and the right to assistance of an attorney.

One other thing –no evidence has been produced that the armed masked men working for ICE and conducting what amount to kidnappings for the government have any meaningful training in the legal principles that govern what they are doing.

Now, the facts: let’s say you’re in a park with your two young children. An unmarked van pulls up and several masked men jump out. They are heavily armed. They tell you that you are under arrest for violating you immigration status, and that you must come with them. Or maybe they don’t tell you anything except to get the van, NOW!

You protest that you are an American citizen. You demand they explain the basis for the charges and that they identify themselves. They refuse. You are then handcuffed and forced into the van. You protest that your children are with you and have no one to care for them because your spouse is away on business. The men ignore you.

The next thing you know, you are on an airplane headed to an unknown destination but that soon becomes clear is not in the United States.

In my hypothetical case, you are in fact an American citizen and the men are wrong about who you are. They have been misinformed by someone in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Your rights have been violated in multiple ways. No warrant for your arrest has been issued, you are not given your Miranda warnings, and you are not taken before a magistrate who determines whether your arrest is proper. You are given no opportunity to consult counsel who can present your defense that you are a U.S. citizen and not subject to deportation. Your right to a trial has been ignored. And you have been prevented from caring for your children who have been left in the hands of, hopefully, kind strangers.

This scenario has happened many times under the Trump administration’s “deport the criminal immigrants” policy. It is not complicated. The Constitution’s due process requirements refer to “persons,” not to “citizens.” It means what it says.

The reasons for the various “rules” and “principles” are straightforward and obvious when you think about it. The legal process, while slow, is designed to prevent mistakes. It is designed to assure that every person accused of a crime has a fair chance to understand the charges, to seek professional help, and to avoid mistakes that could impose criminal penalties on the wrong person. While Trump has complained by providing due process may require thousands of trials, that does not negate the rights of individuals to the protections of the Constitution.

The Trump administration’s unleashing of masked men who refuse to identify themselves and whose approach creates strong possibilities for mistaken arrests, and which imposes extreme penalties (removal to other states or, worse, deportation to foreign countries) with no opportunity to consult counsel, or to understand the charges, is certain to deny constitutional protections to the accused.

The idea that persons in the United States may be removed from the street or their home or a job, without notice, by unidentified armed men, transferred to other states and then removed from the country to a foreign prison without any opportunity to consult counsel, without any opportunity to protect family members including small children dependent on them, is unconstitutional, unlawful, and un-American. It is almost certainly a human rights violation and is unacceptable in the U.S. system of law.

And under the Trump administration it is happening every day.

No Kings

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Two by two, ones, groups of all sizes, young, old, Black, white, whatever, the full diversity of American life – they came to Market Square in Old Town Alexandria to answer the call to rally against Donald Trump’s ambition to be a dictator, a latter-day king of the United States. Alexandria’s City Hall was built in 1871-74. Market Square was built in the 1960s. For the unfamiliar, the center of the Square is a large water feature. Whatever its other benefits, it has the effect of confining attending rally-goes to the seats around the edge and elsewhere in the Square.

The mob overwhelmed the capacity of the Square, and when we made our way out after an hour, the streets leading to the Square were still packed with people carrying their homemade signs and moving toward the Square. Regrettably, the city has not expended enough money to equip the Square with an adequate sound system, so the speeches could only be heard by the people in front who must have arrived an hour before the addresses began.

In any case, the attendance was huge and enthusiastic. Many carried signs or flags and shouted slogans in sync with the people in front. The mood was boisterous but also serious. The people want no kings in this country.

Trump, like the dictators and autocrats after whom he has styled his presidency, pays no real attention to the people who assemble in Alexandria and the millions who participated in No Kings Day rallies across the country. He believes he is above the law, based in part on the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and in part on his belief that he is politically and constitutionally immune from any accountability.

The question will be called, apparently, during the 2026 midterms, assuming there are elections at that time. If, on the other hand, Trump tries to suspend those elections, I predict Trump’s presidency will be ended. I hope it does not come to that. It would be better if the will of the people continues to be expressed by voting and the President honors the results. There are reasons in the recent past to question whether Trump will honor the result, but one can hope that the people around him will insist. There are reasons to question that too.

In any case, the massive No Kings rallies are a strong and clear indication that the will of the people is fundamentally inconsistent with the way Trump has conducted his second presidency. He would make a grave mistake by ignoring that reality.

Pardon Me ….

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I have had a belly full of “journalists,” “pundits” and “opinion writers” whining about Joe Biden’s pardoning of family members in the closing hours of his presidential administration. I have not read Jake Tapper’s book and never will. But every time I see a reference to Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 insurrectionists he directed to attack the Capitol in pursuit of a false narrative about the 2020 election, I see a reference to Biden’s pardon and how “history” will judge him poorly for doing it. Virtually everyone who addresses the pardon issue (Trump has now pardoned over 1,500 people, I have read, and more are in the pipeline as the payoffs keep coming) seems to feel they have to compare Biden’s family pardons to what Trump is doing.

What did they expect Biden to do? It was a no-win situation. He knew that Trump had vowed revenge against him and his family for the investigations that Trump still whines about. Should Biden have left his family to their fate at the hands of a lunatic bent on revenge and any form of pay-back he could produce? I think not. If Biden had abandoned his family to Trump’s revenge, what would the pundits have said then?

And we see this playing out as could be expected. Reuters reports “Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, wrote in an email seen by Reuters that the investigation involves whether Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-justice-department-examining-pardons-issued-by-biden-2025-06-02/ This will ultimately be a futile quest to exact revenge on Biden and his family, but that has never stopped Trump from trying. Trump sees the Department of Justice as his personal law firm. The Supreme Court has essentially ratified that idea in its immunity decision.

It’s clear to me at least that Biden foresaw correctly what Trump was likely to do. Rather than leave his family at the mercy of a revenge-obsessed Trump who is still rage-tweeting his claims to have won the 2020 election, Biden chose to protect his family. I see no fault in this. He had a difficult choice to make and made it. Surely the pundits can find something else to whine about.

 

Everything You Need to Know About Trump

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In an April 29, 2025, interview with Terry Morgan of ABC News, that can be seen here: https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1917381376111960380 Donald Trump, in his capacity as President of the United States, claimed that Abrego Garcia had the initials, MS 13, tattooed on his knuckles. On April 18, Trump had held up a photo purporting to show that Garcia’s knuckles bore those symbols. Since multiple other clear photos of Garcia’s knuckles showed other symbols but not the “MS 13,” fact checkers concluded, rightly, that the April 18 photo had been doctored. Trump had to know that.

When Trump brought up the subject with Morgan, the interviewer tried multiple times to move away from the subject, at one point noting in a kind of under-breath remark that Trump’s prior “photo” had been Photoshopped, Trump wasn’t having it. He persisted in his flagrant lie, attacked Morgan and refused to let the discussion move on. Trump knew he had lied but insisted that Morgan agree otherwise. To his credit, Morgan wasn’t going to do that and continued to try to move the conversation to another subject, ignoring the personal attacks from the President.

This incident as well as any other tells you everything you need to know about Trump. He is fully prepared to lie, insist the lie is “true” and refuse to move on until everyone agrees with him. It is not fanciful to imagine that this occurs all the time in the Cabinet meetings and elsewhere. Trump completely lacks a moral component and is thus able to make obviously false statements, demand that everyone agree that they are true, and refuse to permit the conversation to move on until they do.

This is the man that holds the highest political office in the country, dishonest to the core. Everything about him is driven by his lack of interest in and likely his inability to tell or even recognize the truth. For Trump the truth is whatever he wants it to be. In combination with his wealth, this practice has served him well in the one sense that it has supported his quest to accumulate more wealth and to live in a fantasy world of his own creation that also supports his quest for power.

I suspect this is what happens in Russia when Vladimir Putin says something that is blatantly false. Anyone who dares challenge him knows that Putin will not hesitate to order that person’s death and that there are plenty of fearful aides who will carry out such orders rather than put themselves at risk.

So far as we know, Trump has not ordered anyone killed, at least not directly. He is, of course, behind the federal government’s determination to deploy a force of armed men in masks and unmarked vehicles to arrest and deport to prisons in foreign countries, without opportunity to consult counsel or communicate with families, people of all ages and conditions who are “suspected” of certain crimes or merely affiliations. To support him in this quest, Trump has at his disposal a large gang of men, many suspected of being affiliated with the Proud Boys and other racist organizations, and a Press Secretary who is skilled, like Trump, at talking over anyone who questions her about the government’s practices.

Very little separates Trump from Putin. The Supreme Court has held that the President of the United States may commit crimes in office without punishment in the course of his “official duties” under Article II. Trump is keenly aware of this “freedom.” How long before he executes its ultimate logic? Who in his gang of sycophants will stop him?

Everyone is familiar with the famous quote: “”power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” When checking in Safari to confirm my recall of its origin, the Apple AI program produced this “overview:”

    • Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton):

The quote is widely attributed to him, an English historian and politician, who wrote it in 1887.

    • The Core Idea:

The saying posits that the exercise of power, regardless of the individual’s initial intentions, can lead to a decline in moral standards and a tendency to prioritize self-interest over the public good.

    • Absolute Power:

The phrase emphasizes that unchecked, absolute power amplifies this corrupting influence, potentially leading to complete moral decay.

    • Historical Context:

The quote has been used to analyze various historical figures and political systems, highlighting the potential for corruption in positions of power.

    • Relevance to Modern Politics:

The saying remains relevant in contemporary politics, where concerns about the abuse of power, unchecked authority, and the potential for corruption are ongoing.

Everything you need to know.