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As the Trump presidency digs its claws into the country – winner take all! – I look on in terrified amazement as he begins arrogantly instituting what can only be called his plan to devolve America back to the good old days: back to the era of Jim Crow certainty and whatever that might mean.
We’re white, we’re Christian and we’re the best! Just ask Pete Hegseth.
This is the “Gulf of America”! It’s not Trump’s smugly renamed Gulf of Mexico; it’s the hole in the country’s collective consciousness, which Mr. President is hellbent on expanding. His plan is to make America safe for what it used to be and allow our old, beloved prejudices to return. Deport the illegals! Kill wokeness! Kill understanding and awareness!
All of which leaves a few glaring questions hovering over the daily news: How the hell did this guy win a majority of votes? Is he really aligned with the nation’s primary beliefs? And if he isn’t . . . uh, what happened last November? Was the election rigged? Was it stolen? And if so, how? Do we live in a publicly proclaimed – yet fake – democracy?
Our GREEP Zoom #209 begins with “Time” by our Poet Laureate MIMI GERMAN.
We hear the latest about Leonard Peltier from TATANKA BRICCA and LYDIA PONCE in concert with the Indigenous community supporting him: “I would like to be out of prison, but I am a free man.”
BARBARA WRIGHT reminds us to thank The Creator for the fact that Leonard is out of prison & with his people.
LIndsay Graham, Lisa Murkowsky & Susan Collins are summoned for praise by DANIELA GIOSEFFI.
Will Trump’s GOP wear itself out with a Rope-a-Dope of illegal acts, asks MYLA RESON.
We hear from MIMI S about the need to recognize what should have been with Bernie Sanders.
From Columbus, Ohio we hear from SANDY BOLZENIUS about the kinds of election fraud that turned the Buckeye State to Bush in 2004. .
From co-convenor MIKE HERSH we bemoan the Democrats’ lack of a backbone—except when disenfranchising people of color.
“How long can they keep this up?” wonders MELISSA HALL.
Massive disenfranchisement demands a class action case against the Democrats for failing to protect the vote, says DAVID SALTMAN.
During my sixteen years in Congress, I fought consistently for peace, accountability, and the protection of our nation’s core values. I understand the gravity of the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI)—a role essential to the security of our nation, where the person in charge must evaluate and interpret military intelligence that informs decisions affecting the lives of millions. That is why I fully support Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the Trump administration.
This critical position requires a person who understands the urgency of truth and the severe consequences of sending America’s sons and daughters into battle based on false or manipulated intelligence.
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The problem with political analysis is that it often lacks historical perspective and is mostly limited to recent events.
The current analysis of the Israeli war on Gaza falls victim to this narrow thinking. The ceasefire agreement, signed between Palestinian groups and Israel under Egyptian, Qatari, and US mediation in Doha on January 15, is one example.
Some analysts, including many from the region, insist on framing the outcome of the war as a direct result of Israel's political dynamics. They argue that Israel's political crisis is the main reason the country failed to achieve its declared and undeclared war objectives—namely, gaining total "security control" over Gaza and ethnically cleansing its population.
However, this analysis assumes that the decision to go to war or not is entirely in Israel's hands. It continues to elevate Israel's role as the only entity capable of shaping political outcomes in the region, even when those outcomes do not favor Israel.
The eminent Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus in a biography of his illustrious father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agrippa famously wrote “Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.” Which translates in the Loeb Classical Library edition as “To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.” Lord Byron, in his poem the Bride of Abydos, rendered the Tacitus Latin as “Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.” Per Tacitus’ no doubt second hand account , the words were originally spoken by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus who was addressing his assembled warriors concerning Rome’s insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain’s sentiment can be contrasted to pax in terra “peace on earth” which was sometimes inscribed on Roman medals (phalera) awarded to soldiers returning from the imperial wars.
Trump intended his second inaugural address to be uplifting and unifying, though
it is riddled with questionable claims, downright lies, and is hardly unifying. (See a
transcript of the address at: https://nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-
inaugural-speech.html.)
As of Jan. 20, his first day in office, he began implementing many of the policies to
which he referred in the address as well as in speeches during the presidential
campaign, and, in some cases, over many years. There are some issues that he
avoided discussing; for example, whether he will issue a federal ban on abortions.
By the end of his first days in office, he issued hundreds of “executive actions,”
many of which will be contested in courts (https://apnews.com/article/what-has-
trump-done-trump-executive-orders-f061fbe7f08c08d81509a6af20ef8fc0). Here
are some examples of Trump’s actions and anticipated actions and the effects.
They threaten to destroy the tenuous democracy that we know, and replace it with