“In the words of legal scholar Timothy Sandefur, the concept of law includes certain rational elements such as clear formal rules and procedures, without which a legislative enactment cannot be ‘law’ in any real sense. He explains it this way: ‘Law is the use of government’s coercive powers in the service of some general principle; that is, under some intelligible theoretical regularity, and not based on the mere ipse dixit of the legislative body. Law is the use of coercion for public purposes, not for the personal interest of the lawmaking authority.’ So understood the Trump administration’s disfigurement of both the letter and spirit of the law to fit the personal vanity and passing vendettas of the person who, let us remember, was originally appointed by the American founders to preside over the faithful execution of the law is itself a shameful repudiation of the elementary principles of American jurisprudence.” (01/08/26)
“The year is 1983. At 8pm sharp on 28 February, 106 million viewers tune in to watch the M*A*S*H finale. The next day, everyone from truck drivers to corporate attorneys had the same reference points. For years, M*A*S*H functioned as a national ritual, allowing families across the country to laugh at the same jokes and debate the same plot twists. Of course, it wasn’t just M*A*S*H. Everyone could assume that nearly everyone else had seen shows like Seinfeld or Dallas. … This anchored social life in common references and fostered a sense of collective identity. This logic could also be applied to cinema … music … video games … or even software … Today, that sense of shared cultural experience has eroded and been replaced by a landscape of personalised content that appeals to ever-diminishing niches.” (01/08/26)
“In the year since Donald Trump returned to power, the United States has become — as one of Trump’s supporters, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, admiringly put it on Wednesday — ‘the dominant predator’ in the Western Hemisphere. Trump has extorted Canada and Ukraine, threatened Panama and Colombia, invaded Venezuela, and deployed the American military to loot Venezuela’s oil. Now Trump is now circling back to a familiar target: Greenland. He doesn’t care that the island territory and its parent country, Denmark, have done nothing to deserve aggression. Nor does he care that they’re part of NATO. And he’s utterly indifferent — just as he’s always been with his abuse of women — to their requests to be left alone. He keeps threatening and harassing Greenland and Denmark, no matter how many times they ask him to stop.” (01/08/26)
“As for the estimated $8 billion in government (taxpayer) money stolen by crooks in Minnesota, people demand answers to many questions. But the 800-pound elephant/question goes unasked: Why is government in the business of welfare in the first place? Where in the Constitution does it permit the federal government to extract money from taxpayers for charity? Years ago, I worked full time one summer as a ‘loaned executive’ for the United Way of Cleveland. My job was to meet with CEOs of companies, tell them the story of the United Way and hopefully arrange for me to make a presentation to the company’s employees, take questions and then ask for donations. Through this process, the United Way raised and donated money to other nonprofits involved in community activities such as preschooling, counseling ‘at-risk’ youths, after-school academic programs, care for the sick and elderly and youth sports programs, among other local initiatives.” (01/08/25)
“Spheres of influence stem from the very nature of states and international relations. States will always seek to secure their interests by exerting influence over their neighbors, and the more powerful the state, the greater the influence that it will seek. That said, sphere of influence strategies vary greatly, on spectrums between relative moderation and excess, humanity and cruelty, discreet pressure and open intimidation, and intelligence and stupidity; and the present policies of the Trump administration in the Western Hemisphere show disturbing signs of inclining towards the latter.” (01/08/26)
“President Donald Trump’s military invasion of Venezuela to capture its president, Nicolás Maduro, was illegal and unconstitutional. There is no legal authority, in American or international law, for the United States, in Trump’s words, to be ‘running’ another country. And it is chilling that rather than acknowledging these legal issues, the president is instead talking about possible blatantly illegal military actions against Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, and Mexico. The fact that the United States has the ability to overpower other nations does not make its actions legal or just.” (01/08/26)
“The Trump administration believes you don’t have the right to record Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in public. This stance is both factually wrong and an attempt to chill free speech by conflating it with violence. … Recording government agents is one of the few tools citizens have to hold state power accountable. Any attempt to redefine observation as ‘violence’ is not only unconstitutional — it’s authoritarian gaslighting. When a government fears cameras more than crimes, it isn’t protecting the rule of law. It’s protecting itself.” (for publication 02/26)
“The president ordered a successful kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and he seems to be feeling his oats. After months of apparently forgetting about his deranged idea to conquer Greenland by force, it is now back under discussion, and Trump seems to be actually serious this time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that ‘a range of options’ are under consideration, including ‘utilizing the U.S. military.’ Last summer, I spent over a month reporting on Greenland, including visiting its capital, Nuuk, for over a week, where I talked to all kinds of folks. When I asked about Trump’s annexation threats, the overwhelming reaction was bafflement. What on earth could the point possibly be? What could America possibly get from invasion and annexation that it does not already have? The answer on any grounds (morality, self-interest, national security, or plain common sense) is: nothing.” (01/08/25)
