A Legacy of Lies and Insurrection

Posted on June 8, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 8, 2022

Last January, the Department of Justice indicted Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the leader of the far-right extremist group, The Oath Keepers, charging him with seditious conspiracy. Two days ago, DOJ indicted Henry Tarrio, leader of another far-right extremist group, The Proud Boys, on the same charge. The indictments included several other charges, and netted fourteen other Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The work of the Select House Committee on the January 6 Insurrection is providing a clear picture of how the two groups of all-male, anti-immigrant, heavily armed racists plotted to intimate Congress and prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Tomorrow, the Committee will begin presenting its findings based on evidence gathered over the past sixteen months. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, Committee member and former constitutional law professor at American University, a man I admire greatly, told America that the televised hearings will blow the lid off the January 6th attack on the Capitol. The crimes committed that day are extremely serious, but they represent only the tip of the iceberg of Donald Trump’s legacy.

There will be bipartisan cheering when the conspirators are convicted. Democrats will beat their chests in vindication, while Republicans will try to blame the insurrection on the two extremist groups and claim that the Trump White House and its most rabid supporters were merely innocent bystanders, and any attempt to connect them with the attack on the Capitol is purely political. For the rest of us who are sick of divisive politics and fear for the future of our country, the outcome will be bittersweet at best.

The timing of the hearings has a political component, as they will take aim directly at several House Republicans up for re-election who openly spread Trump’s Big Lie and incited the crowd gathered at the White House that morning to march on the Capitol. America and the world saw and heard them on live television. The primary season has already given us an indication of what we may see five months from now in the midterm elections, as Missouri Republicans sent Josh Hawley, the loudest lie-spreading Trumper in the Senate, packing after one term.

We’ll have to wait and see what Congressman Raskin meant by blowing the lid off, but leaks from the Committee and the reactions of Trump associates taking the fifth in or refusing to cooperate with the investigation give us a clue. Two prominent Trump advisors, Stephen K. Bannon and Peter Navarro, have been indicted by federal grand juries for contempt of Congress. Refusing to testify or using the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating themselves is surely their right under the Constitution, but We the People also have rights, among them the right to ask what those who refuse to accept a valid congressional subpoena are hiding.

We have strong indications that the conspiracy to undermine the 2020 election and replace valid slates of electors from battleground states extended high into the Trump administration. Whether the facts prove that Trump himself was directly involved must wait for another day, but we have already seen considerable evidence that the former president ignored appeals from supporters and his own family to order the rioters to cease and desist, and testimony from some of the people closest to Trump that he thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle of his people attacking the Capitol.

The January 6th insurrection was an attempt to undermine our Constitution. Had it succeeded, and had Vice President Pence had not withstood pressure from Trump to refuse to certify the election results, our country would today be in the midst of a crisis from which we might not emerge whole. Perhaps more important, January 6th was merely the logical extension of everything Donald Trump stands for. From the day he announced his candidacy for president seven years ago, he relentlessly attacked our democratic institutions and traditions.

Trump demonstrated a complete lack of respect for truth, morality, and the most fundamental right of Americans to choose their own leaders in free elections. He brazenly let his personal greed and lust for power usurp every standard of fairness and decency. Politics is always ugly, but until Fox News founder Roger Ailes convinced Trump that lies and racism were the keys to victory, it managed to function when it had to. Trump replaced the natural divisiveness between Conservative and Progressive agendas with a war between truth and lies. His legacy, that facts don’t matter, autocracy is preferable to democracy, and moral leadership is irrelevant is the precise opposite of the principles on which our country was founded.

In the final analysis, the list of who is convicted and sent to prison is far less important than rooting out those would undermine our way of life for their own benefit and assuring that they never serve in a position of power again.

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Ukrainian Brinksmanship

Posted on June 5, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 5, 2022

If history has taught us anything, it is that civilizations rise and fall. The ancient Mesopotanians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Incas, Aztecs, were all-powerful in their day. In the post-Christ era, the united Caliphate, the Vikings, the British, Spanish, and Japanese Empires, and the Fascist and Communist regimes of the twentieth century all appeared unstoppable for a time, yet they all eventually collapsed under the weight of their own decadence when their ambitions outpaced their reach. Nothing on Earth is permanent, perhaps not even Earth itself if we believe in the inevitability of an astronomical extinction event.

One theme of history is that while humanity is infinitely innovative and capable of huge philosophical, moral, and intellectual leaps and growth, every civilization seems to reach a point at which it loses its viability. They all gestate in the ashes of their predecessors, reach an impressive level of enlightenment and technological advancement, only to lose their way. They either destroy themselves from within or fall to some powerful adversary.

In our modern era, possessed with weapons capable of destroying everything humanity has ever achieved in a single burst of madness, we live daily on the brink. With countries that possess these weapons led by people driven to ever expand their influence, there is an accelerating spiral of trigger points, any of which can lead to catastrophe. Just in my lifetime, the Axis Powers nearly destroyed Europe and Asia, the two Koreas and Vietnams nearly destroyed each other, radical Islam declared an unending Jihad against the Judeo-Christian world, and we survived the nuclear brinksmanship of the Cold War.

We like to believe that we’re better than our antecedents. We’re smarter, we possess unprecedented technology, and we’ve learned from the past. We’d better have, because in the last thirty years, the cycle of threat and conflict has accelerated. China is determined to bring Taiwan under its influence; Iran supports terrorists all over the world; the madman in North Korea rattles his nuclear sabers whenever his ego needs a lift; and a paranoid, evil genius controls Russia and the world’s largest storehouse of nuclear weapons. We’ve managed to avoid pushing the nuclear buttons until now, and most people assume we’ll always find a way to survive, but history suggests that may be a delusion.

Science fiction writer Walter M. Miller addressed the inevitable-seeming self-destructive cycle in his award-winning dystopian novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz. Miller painted a chilling picture of a world in which every post-Hiroshima civilization reaches the same awful end. No matter how devastating the lessons of the past, each new group of deadly antagonists is unable to resist the ultimate test of overcoming their differences peacefully, and the world continually experiences nuclear destruction every few centuries. I was sixteen when it was published in 1959, and to this day, it is the most convincingly terrifying book I ever read.

Like everyone else, I watch Russia’s war in Ukraine every day. What I see is two forces that seem more rigid and intactable as time goes on. Russia is being driven by a paranoid autocrat who believes rebuilding the Soviet Union is an existential necessity, while the United States and our NATO allies believe exactly the same thing about stopping Russia’s expansionist vision. We want to believe our leaders can continue to live on the brink without falling into the nuclear abyss. We need desperately to believe that. But Vladimir Putin seems determined to push on until an immovable object stops his irresistible force, and surprisingly, the West seems ever more united in its determination to stop him. Where will the gradual, weekly expansion of the war stop?

This week, President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed to supply Ukraine with NATO’s most advanced short and medium range missile systems. Putin responded immediately by threatening to greatly expand his military target list. Today, the risk of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spilling over into both Russia and the NATO countries on Ukraine’s western border is considerably higher than it was last week. As a result, Walter Miller’s apocalyptic vision is a dangerous step closer.

If Miller is correct, it doesn’t matter how smart or dedicated our leaders are to avoiding a holocaust. There seems to be an irresistible human need to fight to the finish. I hate the idea, but history has already proved that once tensions and disagreements reach a critical level, there’s no way out. Sixty years ago, we managed to pull back from the edge during the Cuban missile crisis, but Ukraine is beginning to look far more ominous, and Vladimir Putin seems far less rational than Nikita Khrushchev was.

Remember the Doomsday Clock? It’s been sitting at 100 seconds before midnight since 2021. I check it every day.

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Trump’s Waning Fortunes

Posted on June 1, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 1, 2022

After predicting that there was no way an ignorant, immoral narcissist like Donald Trump could win the presidency in America, I don’t make predictions anymore. I clearly misread what is obvious in retrospect. Barack Obama’s two terms in office did not represent the maturation of the American electorate as I believed – it merely drove those motivated by bigotry, hate, and xenophobia underground to await the coming of their prophet.

Veni, vidi, vici! Like Caesar, he came, he saw, and he conquered, but while Caesar led a victorious army, Trump lied, did his utmost to undermine law and order, and pandered to anyone who would vote for him. Caesar was a self-appointed autocrat who wielded as much power as any leader ever did, yet he ultimately fell. Trump is only a wannabe dictator struggling to remain relevant in the party he shanghaied, in a nation with a deeply entrenched legal system and respect for law and the Constitution.

Sometimes we infer conclusions from exhaustive research and analysis. Others, we go with our guts, and mine has been telling me since January 6, 2021 that Trump’s influence is waning despite all the noise he makes. It’s a weird irony that while the McConnell wing of the Republican Party is engaged in a fight to the death with Trump’s faction, most of McConnell’s noise is an attempt to obstruct and defame everything President Biden attempts to do.

The result is that all their approval numbers suck. That tells me three things: Americans need to spend more time learning the truth instead of marching in lockstep to Facebook bots; America is susceptible to being swept off its feet by the next charismatic hero who pops up; and all three leaders are one bad incident away from becoming irrelevant. That’s especially true of Trump. His supporters are loud but far fewer in number than they used to be – after all, it takes quite a level of adrenaline-based anger and stupidity to continue to support someone who attempted to stage a coup on national (actually world-wide) television.

The question has always been whether Trump, who throughout his life has been able get others to do his dirty work and keep his own hands clean, stepped in it this time. New York City has dropped its investigation of his business practices, falling victim to what most of Trump’s opponents have – it costs a fortune to defeat someone like Trump, and the Manhattan District Attorney doesn’t have one. The State of New York is continuing with its investigation, but even if it succeeds, its findings will likely produce civil liability rather than felony indictments. And the Justice Department? I believe Merrick Garland will act with dispatch and integrity, but if his actions depend on support from Congress, all we’re likely to see is useless theater in the mold of Trump’s two impeachments.

I have long believed that all it will take to finally derail Trump is one felony indictment. He may never spend a minute in prison, but either a plea bargain or a successful prosecution should convince all but Trump’s most diehard, racist supporters that he has no business ever holding office again. I have also believed, since the 2020 election, that the jurisdiction most likely to indict Trump was the State of Georgia, and that now appears to be the case. Assuming the recently convened grand jury recommends a criminal indictment against Trump, and the case actually goes to trial, I’d buy a ticket to watch the testimony of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Remember him? A staunch Republican deeply embedded in the administration of a red state, he was mercilessly attacked by Trump and his minions for failing to illegally overturn the presidential vote in Georgia. We all saw and heard him stand up to Trump’s attacks in defense of the most sacred part of our Constitution – the right to free and fair elections. The integrity Raffensperger demonstrated repeatedly in open, uncensored, television interviews and addresses was courageous and impressive. It’s not clear whether he was a party to the extreme gerrymandereing of Georgia’s electorate, but there’s no doubt that there’s a red line he won’t cross for political gain, much like John McCain casting the deciding vote to save Obamacare.

Georgia’s investigation into Trump’s overt attempts to steal the election results from Georgia voters was Round 1. Round 2 will be the grand jury deliberations. Since grand juries usually deliver whatever prosecutors ask for, and this one never would have been convened if investigators weren’t convinced Trump committed a felony, I am eagerly looking forward to Round 3.

Just when the future of democracy looks darkest, there may be enough good guys in white hats to save us.

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The Murder of Children

Posted on May 30, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 31, 2022

When I was a chld, my father bought me a fish tank. He taught me how to keep it clean and how the filter worked, how to feed the fish, and how to recognize when a fish was about to spawn babies. “That’s really important,” he impressed on me, “because you have to net the babies and get them out of the main tank before their parents eat them.”

Eat their own babies? I didn’t believe it until I saw it happening, and then I was horrified, my first lesson in how cruel the world could be. But as frightened and disgusted as I was at the idea of babies being eaten by their parents, that was nothing compared to my reaction to the murder of ten students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colotado.

That was twenty-three years ago, and the Washington Post reported that since then, more than 311,000 children have directly experienced gun violence in 331 schools in the United States. There were 42 such incidents in 2021 and 24 so far in 2022. Overall, “at least 185 children, educators and other people have been killed in assaults, and another 369 have been injured.”

They were all horrific, but the two we most recalled until last week’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas, were the Valentine’s Day, 2018 murders at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in which 17 students were killed and the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 in which tweny children between six and seven years old were killed along with six adults. After each one, there was a flurry of gun control activism, but in every case, Republicans in the Senate, threatened with losing millions in contributions from the National Rifle Association and other right wing organizations blocked every attempt at reasonable reform, even taking a step backward when they allowed a ban on sales of assault weapons to expire in 2004.

It’s happening again in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. Two days ago, we heard Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX) address the NRA convention and rail against all attempts to require unversal background checks and re-institute the ban on assault weapons. There’s a sense of inevitably born of experience that Congress will again do nothing, yet we, the people, continue to try to pressure them.

The Sandy Hook Foundation is dedicated to the Sandy Hook Promise that the fight against gun violence will never end until it is stopped. To that end, the foundation is circulating a petition around the internet. The objective is to get as many people as possible to sign on and register their support for sensible gun policies. Of course, it’s also a solicitation for donations, because the fight for gun control is essentially a battle of who has more money to buy the votes of Republican Senators, especial Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s. I signed it and donated, as did many of my family and friends. I urge you to click on the link and do likewise.

There’s another piece circulating on the internet that puts Republican resistance to gun control in perspective, compared to those same Senators’ undying efforts to prevent women from choosing to end pregnancies. Oddly, the same lawmakers who are unwilling to protect children from being murdered in schools, and who equate such murders with a woman’s right to end a pregnancy before a fetus matures, are willing to use police state tactics to restrict women’s ability to control their own bodies, although in both cases, large majorities of American voters oppose their actions.

I haven’t been able to identify the author, but it’s so right on, I will re-publish it here with an anonymous attribution:

“How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion – mandatory 48-hour waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, an ultrasound wand up the ass (just because). Let’s close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel huindreds of miles, take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun. Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun.

“It makes more sense to do this with young men and guns than with women and health care, right? I mean, no woman getting an abortion has killed a room full of people in seconds, right?“

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Of the People, By the People, For the People

Posted on May 27, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 27, 2022,

Abraham Lincoln thus defined democratic government. The concept and the images it evoked were the central ideas of his political philosophy, to which he often returned, most notably in closing his Gettysburg Address: “we here highly resolve that these dead [referring to the carnage of the Civil War] shall not have died in vain…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The address was possibly the most powerful ever given by an American president. Only 278 words long, it asked whether a nation “conceived in Liberty” could endure, which became the mission statement of the fledgling Republican Party. In school, we were taught that the Civil War was fought over the right to own slaves. But slavery was merely a reflection of the battle between states’ rights (federalism) and governance by a central government which began in the 1770s and has reared its ugly head again with the appointment of Trump’s three reactionary Supreme Court Justices.

Brilliant writers like Friedrich Nietzsche and George Orwell have long warned how government leaders and politicians manipulate the meanings of words to subvert the will of the people. That kind of deception, supplemented by outright lies masquerading as facts, has become a serious weapon in the arsenal of today’s Republican Party. Despite the internecine war between the Trumpers and the McConnell wing of the party, make no mistake – when it comes to government by decree versus democracy, the two factions march in lockstep.

Republicans have launched a fight-to-the-death battle to reverse two centuries of court rulings that interpreted the Constitution on the side of uniform federal laws that applied to every state. In addition to reversing decisions they hate, Republicans, wherever they control state legislatures, are attempting to rig future elections to assure that once victorious in the states’ rights battle, they retain power to lock in those victories permanently.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution is one of the central battlefields of the states’ rights war. The amendment itself, a mere two sentences intended to assure that local citizens owned firearms in the event their state government needed to raise a militia, has become the victim of politicians’ wordsmanship. To right-wing extremists, its original intent has been distorted to mean every citizen may own as many firearms of any kind he or she desires, from dueling pistols to military assault weapons whose only purpose is to kill people in larger numbers.

At the forefront of this fight is Texas, led by its governor, Greg Abbott. My go-to historian, Heather Richardson noted in her Letters From an American newsletter this morning that when the bipartisan ban on assault weapons passed in 1994 by the Clinton administration expired in 2004, there were about 400,000 AR-15 style assault weapons in private hands in America. A shocking number in itself, that means there were twice as many privately owned military assault weapons in America in 2004 as there were military personnel in the Ukrainian army at the time Russia invaded. Today, there are fifty times more; twenty million assault weapons are privately owned in the United States.

As Professor Richarson pointed out, the post-Lincoln Republican Party was built in the idealized image of the American cowboy, who was white, (in reality, about a third weren’t,) self-reliant, resourceful, and fearless, living in a lawless frontier. That image is still championed by Texas Governor Abbott, who would have us believe every Texan has a responsibility to own a gun so he can protect his family.

The massacre of schoolchildren and teachers in Uvalde, Texas put the lie to that image. While much of what has been reported is yet to be verified, it seems clear that the local police, including their SWAT team, did little or nothing to stop or minimize the damage wrought by the shooter. A few police entered the school to rescue their own children, but fled when they came under fire by the single shooter. Unarmed parents also entered the school and exited with their kids, shooter or not.

But when a decision to breach the classroom in which the carnage was taking place had to be made, police decided to wait for a U.S. Border Patrol tactical squad to risk taking out the shooter. Where were those gun-toting Texans protecting their children against all threats? In Uvalde, the only effect of Texas laws that allow almost anyone over eighteen to own virtually any firearm(s), was a shooter murdering twenty-one children and teachers, while their armed protectors held back in fear of their own lives. Of course, Governor Abbott today said that gun control laws are not the solution.

Today, more than 80% of Americans want universal background checks on all gun sales, and two-thirds of Americans want the assault weapon ban restored. Yet, Republicans, whether those led by Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell will not even allow the Senate to debate those issues. So much for governing of the people, by the people, for the people.

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War (and other) Crimes

Posted on May 25, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 25, 2022,

Most of the civilized world is appalled by the unprovoked violence Russian soldiers have rained on Ukraine. The nonstop shelling of once beautiful, productive cities which Valdimir Putin considers legitimate targets has continued for three months. Whole cities have been virtually reduced to rubble, and civilians are being killed by the hundreds and thousands. President Biden was the first major leader to address these actions for what they are: war crimes.

Ukraine has already conducted one war crimes trial, the defendant being a Russian soldier who confessed to the wanton murder of an unarmed Ukrainian man. Twenty-one-year old Vadim Shishimarin apologized to the victim’s family, asking their forgiveness before being sentenced to life in prison. Whether it was genuine contrition or a legal ploy to influence the court, the admission of guilt and regret stands in stark contrast to the statements of his superiors, right up to Mr. Putin, who insists that Russian troops are behaving in accord with establish norms, which presumably, in his mind includes the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation.

Western countries have been nearly unanimous in condemning the targeting of civilians. Innocent people walking down the streets of cities under attack are being shot to death for no reason other than the Slavic equivalent of tribal hatred, although it’s not clear the great majority of Russian conscripts have any idea why they’re in Ukraine or what they’re fighting for. The issue of Russian war crimes has become a serious tool in our bag of diplomatic and propaganda tricks.

Considering that Congress has been unable to get past its own self-imposed gridlock since passing the emergency COVID stimulus package, isn’t it remarkable that they nearly approved $100 billion in military aid to Ukraine by acclamation? While I’m certain much of the righteous anger expressed by our leaders, including many in Congress is genuine, I wonder if the constant reminders of how Russians conduct war had the secondary purpose of rallying the support of the American people for an all-out commitment to defending Ukraine that includes risking a nuclear confrontation with Russia.

If you think I’m reaching, consider the reaction of many of the same Congress people who jumped in with both feet on Ukraine to the mass shootings of innocent Americans in Buffalo, New York, and a tiny town in Texas. A Russian soldier, likely an ignorant, poorly trained yokel from eight time zones away from the scene of the crime was convicted of what amounts to a hate crime, and almost everyone cheered and vowed to punish the entire Russian military who ordered or condoned it. Presumably, the theatrical chest-beating is also an attempt to influence future Russian decisions. Moral unity a beautiful thing to behold, isn’t it?

Except that it’s mostly BS. If we’re sufficiently horrified by the murder of innocent Ukrainians to risk nuclear war, why do we not direct the same level of anger and moral indignation to those in Congress who would rather pander to gun lobbies to assure their re-election than prevent further massacres of innocent school children and people whose only crime was not being born white? Where did all the righteous noise go when the same Congress people were asked to assess their own culpability in domestic terrorism?

Fully aware of the upcoming midterm elections, President Biden addressed our domestic war crimes with the same outrage and vigor he directed against Russia. Whichever party you’re aligned with, isn’t it most important to cast your vote for someone who values the lives of eight-year-old American children as much as those of Ukrainian children? The NRA and the rest of the drum-beating anti-gun control activists have no moral justification for placing their lust for power over the health and safety of ordinary Americans. Those who think furthering movement conservatism and the racist, isolationist MAGA agenda to stay in power is more important than standing up for their own citizens are simply craven cowards.

While most of them are just sheep bowing to their caucus’ political dictates, the bulk of the blame lies at the feet of one man. While loudly championing the bravery of Ukrainians and even putting on a show of visiting cities (kind of) under siege, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is totally silent today about the children and teachers murdered in Texas, yesterday. McConnell can change things overnight simply by allowing several gun control bills already passed by the House to be debated in the Senate. But he forces them to lie dormant, because his puppet masters decree it to be so.

Think about that. Is the murder of innocent Americans by lunatics with military grade weapons any less important an issue than protecting Ukraine? It’s up to us, the voters to explain that to the people we elect to represent us.

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Troubling Times

Posted on May 20, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 18, 2022

Sometimes, it pays to take a step back and widen our perspective. Recent polls indicate a majority of Americans, especially those who didn’t live through Watergate, Vietnam, or the Cold War, are seriously concerned about the direction the country is moving. a CNN poll published today put that number at 65% with another 23% reporting that they are scared for our future. Why? While most people in the poll cited the economy, the border with Mexico, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and losing focus on combating climate change, three of those things have been with us for decades, and Russia’s belligerent stance internationally has been a reality since 2014. We’ve experienced them before, and none of them send shivers down my spine the way Trumpism and what has been dubbed “Christian Nationalism” do.

What worries me is the nationwide push to restrict voting to favor right-wing candidates, the rise of evangelistic politics, the enabling if not outright encouragement of White Nationalist groups and hate crimes, and the brazen misrepresentation (which many characterize as perjury) of ideological views and intentions by Trump’s three Supreme Court justices during their confirmation hearings. Whether you view these issues as a re-fighting of states’ rights battles that began 250 years ago, or a deliberate attempt to undermine our Constitution, if the Trumpers and evangelists win, America will soon bear very little resemblance to the country I grew up in.

Blaming an incumbent president and Congress for rising inflation, supply chain problems, and energy and food shortages is standard fare approaching midterm elections. But negative campaigning is exacerbated by news and social networks that spread lies and misinformation, and enable bad foreign actors to manipulate our domestic politics. The failure of platforms like Facebook to responsibly manage their content and the impunity with which Fox News, Newsmax, and America One disregard the rules of professional journalism are the real threat to our future.

Today, Twitter estimated that one in five of its accounts are fake. The constant din of negativity and outright lies combined with a growing trend among Americans toward intellectual laziness makes it nearly impossible to imagine a way out of America’s political gridlock. It’s even more difficult to imagine our government functioning at all if it continues.

I am shocked that Americans disapprove of President Biden’s administration at the same rate they disapproved of Trump’s. That is proof positive of the toxic effect of hate politics and irresponsible reporting. While his intentions in withdrawing from Afghanistan were good, and he was boxed in by agreements with the Taliban signed by President Trump, Biden must own the intelligence failures that made the withdrawal resemble a clown show. The death of thirteen American servicepeople in a terrorist attack that should have been stopped nullified the positive end of our misguided military involvement and the successful evacuation of more than 100,000 civilians from a perpetual war zone.

Unfortunately, in the minds of American voters, it also nullified Biden’s economic stimulus plan which put money in the pockets of millions of Americans who were left destitute by the COVID pandemic. Almost every dollar went straight back into our retail economy, reducing unemployment to fifty-year lows, beginning a new trend of rising wages, and sparking an unprecedented boom in financial markets.

The right-wing noise has blinded Americans to President Biden’s success rebuilding NATO, which history will likely show was the only thing standing in the way of Vladimir Putin’s attempt to reconstruct the Soviet Union and preventing his war in Ukraine from engulfing all of Europe and probably the world. The deafening chaos has also made it difficult for Americans to realize the importance of Biden’s stance on isolating Russia, particularly extracting Europe from dependence on Russia’s oil and natural gas. Both Europe and the United States have announced ambitious plans to expand the use of wind, solar and hydro power, which coould ultimately result in complete energy independence. Not incidentally, they are also the most effective ways to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Upset about inflation and shortages of critical items on store shelves? Recall that during the worldwide COVID lockdowns, farmers and ranchers could not bring products to market, resulting in crops and herds being destroyed. Agricultural spokespersons warned that although prices plummeted during the pandemic, there would be a huge price to pay when herds and crop productivity needed to be rebuilt. The sole cause of the inflation in the cost of energy is Russia’s attack on Ukraine is, and as it disrupts the production and export of food, the entire world will pay more to feed families and many countries are at risk of famine. That’s the reality, no matter what you see and hear in the media.

Trumpism’s most dangerous impact on our lives may have been encouraging hate and racism. Trump himself, far from exerting any trace of moral leadership, turned our nation into a selfish, uncaring parody of what it once was. You may disagree with Biden’s policies, but to my mind, having a decent, moral leader in the White House was the most important change resulting from the 2020 election.

As the midterms approach, will Americans succumb to hate rhetoric or wake up to the danger of enabling Trump’s candidates to dominate Congress?

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Servant of the People

Posted on May 8, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 9, 2022

By now, most of us know the remarkable story of Ukrainian President Володимир Зеленський (Volodymyr Zelensky) and how he found himself at the fulcrum of history. But knowing isn’t the same as seeing and feeling. Thus, as our nation continues to mobilize resources and inch ever closer to what could become a much wider conflict, helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, I urge every American to watch the Netflix series, Servant of the People.

I thought nothing would make feel more certain that defending Ukraine was right and necessary. I even bought four Ukrainian flags and my friends and I display them proudly. But this Netflix series gave me an entirely new and greater commitment to saving Ukraine, no matter the risk. What is at stake is all of our futures if we allow Ukraine to fall.

If you’re not aware of Zelensky’s history, I’ll summarize it briefly. The media enjoy the irony that Russian President Putin characterizes his invasion as the denazification of Ukraine, ignoring the fact that Zelensky is Jewish. But Zelensky’s religion, while it may have shaped his values and his heroic character, is only part of who he is. During the Bush and Obama years, Zelensky was one of the most popular and beloved comedian/actors in Ukraine. From 2015 to 2017, he starred in Servant of the People, playing the role of a Ukrainian high school teacher who loved his students and was equally loved by them. The show is not a Hollywood production; it was made in Ukraine in Russian, by and for Ukrainians and their neighbors.

During the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, Ukraine was still a country struggling to become a successful democracy following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. But the young nation suffered under the yoke of corruption, as powerful oligarchs lived high on the backs of its citizens, driving the country deeply into debt.

As fictional history teacher Vasyl Petrovich Holoborodko, Zelensky is outraged by the corruption and the neglect of public education. One day, he loses his cool in a profane rant against the system, not realizing that one of his students is filming him. The video is uploaded to You Tube, where it gets nine million views. Vasya (вася) Petrovich is an instant national hero who is drafted to run for president. Though he appears to have no chance to win, his students begin a nationwide campaign on social media that carries him to victory.

All that occurs in episode one, and there are fifty more in which Vasya fights corruption and the oligarchs. The series was intended as a dark comedy, and it’s very funny, but viewed in the light of current events, it’s amazingly portentous. It was so successful, and Zelensky was so convincing in the role, that life followed art. He was drafted to run for president, and in 2019 he defeated his corrupt opposition convincingly.

Americans saw him for the first time when Trump attempted to extort him into destroying the reputation of President Biden’s son Hunter. Our first view of him was a reflection of the character he played, as he stood up to and defied Trump. Watching Servant, I was first struck by the magnificent beauty of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. One look at this city, which is on display constantly, and all of the grand history and majesty of Ukrainian culture is obvious. Seeing life go on in this capital before Putin attempted to destroy it added a powerful emotional component to my support for Ukraine. And hearing the fictional Vasya voice the same sentiments and love for his country that the real President Zelensky does every day is inspiring in a way that’s difficult to describe. Vasya is incredibly courageous, taking on the entire system single-handedly, and the viewer is struck by how diminutive he is physically.

Zelensky is only five feet seven inches tall, and everyone else towers over him, but nothing stops him. It’s an apt metaphor for the real Zelensky, whose courage has stunned the world, as his relatively small nation fights off monolithic Russia.

Almost as an aside, it’s interesting to see how Ukrainians perceived other countries and world leaders in 2015. Servant was not made for American audiences, but it’s clear that our country dominated Ukrainians’ view of the world, when they weren’t consumed with hating Russia. Six episodes in, the world leaders who appear prominently are Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, and Chinese President Xi. Putin shows up, clearly the object of scorn and hatred, but by far, the most popular foreigner is Michelle Obama. That says as much about Ukrainian values as anything I could express.

If you’re not sure why Ukraine must be defended, watching this film will convince you.

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The Unraveling of Democracy

Posted on May 5, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 5, 2022

The heart of any democratic society is its judicial system and free elections. The extreme right wing of the Republican party has made it clear that it has no respect for either as democratic institutions. In their view, courts and elections are things to be manipulated for their own benefit. It’s perfectly clear that the vast majority of Americans want free, fair elections. It’s equally clear that they demand justice and integrity from our courts. Yet, we find ourselves in the very nasty situation that a venal minority who care only about their own power and wealth may soon be in full control of our future unless we awaken as a nation and fight back.

The battle between those who believe in our constitution and those who see it as a malleable thing that can be twisted and distorted into something unrecognizable for personal gain and ideologies began as the founders were drafting it. Throughout our history, there has always been a pattern of swinging toward one extreme or another as different voices arose and the needs of our country evolved. But there was always enough balance that before one group of extremists on either side could achieve ascendancy, the tide turned back the other way as dependably as the swing of a pendulum.

Americans of my generation who were born in the 1940s and 50s were raised to believe in the American dream of equal opportunity and fairness. We grew up in the shadow of Fascism and the Communist ideology of Joseph Stalin and the cultural revolution of Communist China. We grew up believing we were the good guys fighting the forces of oppression that ruled everywhere else. We more moral, we were better educated, and we were stronger – in the 1950s, the most prominent symbol of our culture was the fictional Superman who fought for “truth, justice, and the American way.”

In school, we were taught about how Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, but somehow our textbooks and teachers failed to underline the moral horror and degradation of our society that slavery represented. We were taught about the brave pioneers who settled our country and moved west, and how their lives were constantly threatened by savage Indian tribes, but our textbooks somehow forgot about our national sin of genocide as we systematically destroyed entire nations of native Americans and their beautiful cultural values. Oh, the self-righteous bullshit we grew up believing!

Most of us know better now. We are not the good guys of the world, and our relatively affluent way of life and freedoms that we took for granted are neither sacrosanct nor indestructible. We got lazy and fat as we turned from the need to defend our freedom to our fancy cars and ever more expensive toys. We thought we were special when we passed civil rights and social security laws. What a wonderful country we lived in, at least until Vietnam exposed a very dark side as dangerously narrow ideologies and greed guided our national policies.

How did we get here? It’s really pretty simple. America has become a nation characterized by intellectual laziness. Remember when we used to characterize other countries’ elections as rigged and their judicial systems as kangaroo courts? Of course, that could never happen here. When Barack Obama was elected, most Americans thought we had finally matured as a nation, putting our petty bigotries and prejudices behind us, but that too was merely illusion, as the forces of hate and ignorance went underground waiting for a leader who was as venal and immoral as they were to come along and release them.

And then Donald Trump entered the scene. Never in American history have we had someone come to power based almost entirely on being willing to pander to anyone, anywhere as long as they voted for him. A man without a shred of personal integrity, with no meaningful ideology of his own other than lust for power and greed managed to unite the most unholy coalition of racists, religious fanatics, and people down on their luck who were easily convinced by the lie that all their problems stemmed from a progressive agenda based on freedom and equal opportunity.

Those of us, especially those who grew up in or near New York, who understood what Trump was long before he turned to politics, knew the day he was elected where this was leading. We tried to warn everyone else, but our country had already slid too far into ennui and indifference – nothing mattered as long as we had our social media and fancy playthings.

We’re paying the price for that indifference now. Like any authoritarian, Trump has consistently attacked the integrity of our elections and our judiciary. Half our states are passing laws to restrict the ability of non-whites’ and the poor’s right to vote, and now we see proof of what we feared most. All three of Trump’s Supreme Court Justices lied to the Senators who confirmed them under oath, and those, like Susan Collins, who let her desperate need to be re-elected in a purple state silence whatever judgment she still possessed, let it happen.

That’s perjury, folks. Three supreme court justices very likely committed felonies in order to be confirmed by a corrupt Senate. It’s unlikely that the political will to impeach them exists in the Congress, but we have to take a stand somewhere, and that looks like a great place to start. The fight for our democracy is every bit as vital as the fight being waged by Ukrainians who are all putting their lives on the line to defend what we Americans have taken for granted far too long.

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The New Reality of Confronting Russia

Posted on April 29, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, April 29, 2022,

Today, CNN journalist Stephen Collinson published a compelling analysis of the current status of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It boiled down to two essential conclusions. One is that the fighting between Russian invaders and Ukrainian defenders could go on for many months, even years. It already has. Ever since Russia occupied Crimea and encouraged Russian-leaning agitators in the eastern Ukrainian provinces in the Donetsk Region to declare independence from Kyiv in 2014, a guerilla war has simmered in those regions.

Collinson’s other major point is that the Biden administration in concert with NATO and the EU has dropped its apparently cautious diplomatic approach to the invasion. During February and March, Biden resisted Ukrainian President Zelensky’s appeals for aircraft, sophisticated air defense weapons, and the imposition of a no-fly zone policed by NATO forces, because the risk of nuclear war that might result from direct confrontations between NATO and Russian forces was too great. A no-fly zone is still not in the cards, but virtually every other request for arms and training willow now be granted.

President Biden has had nearly fifty years of involvement in arms control, foreign policy and NATO matters. He understands full well that appeasing dictators is the worst possible response to aggression, and on Thursday, he dropped all pretense of caution. “Throughout our history, we’ve learned that when dictators do not pay the price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and engage in more aggression…And the costs, the threats to America and the world, keep rising. We can’t let this happen.”

There was ever little doubt after the debacle of allowing Russia to occupy and annex Crimea, that Russian President Putin was obsessed with securing the Black Sea ports along Ukraine’s southern coast and controlling a land bridge from southwestern Russian to Crimea. Whether or not the Obama administration’s reaction in 2014, relying on relatively mild sanctions and eschewing military assistance was a mistake, Biden, as Obama’s vice president had a front-row seat to the slowly metastasizing disaster it led to. He wasn’t about to make the same error on his watch, and as Putin has made it clear to the world that he will not cease his efforts to destroy Ukraine until he’s stopped by a united western alliance, it was time to take off the diplomatic gloves.

When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a NATO military summit in Germany this week, “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” diplomats around the world gasped. What was that, a senior official of the United States government telling the truth about our objective, even though it seemed to open the door to a conflict that might involve nuclear weapons? When the gap between what is said in the confines of the War Room and what is stated openly to the American people and the world is reduced to zero, something cataclysmic must have occurred.

The Biden administration has declared that it will do whatever is necessary to stop Russia from destroying Ukraine and discourage any further ambitions Putin has to rebuild the Soviet Union. With the exception of a few politicians looking to improve relations with their bases and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul making a fool of himself trying to explain that Putin’s ambitions make sense in the light of history in the region, that position has support from all over the political spectrum. Republicans eyeing the midterm elections will not desist in blaming Biden for the runaway inflation that is an unavoidable consequence of defending Ukraine, but that’s what politics in America has become.

Still, it’s worth noting that America and NATO’s position, while it is absolutely correct, is also shockingly bold. Because it is based in hard reality, it is quite different from the inflammatory rhetoric Donald Trump used in addressing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (before they fell in love.) Hardly anyone took the threats by either Trump or Kim seriously – it was all theater. But not this time. The world is now involved in a potentially deadly game of Truth or Dare.

Or is it? People like Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley are extremely conservative. When they speak publicly, they choose their words carefully. For Austin to proclaim to the world that NATO’s intent goes beyond Ukraine to dealing a major blow to Russia’s military, they must be working from information the rest of us don’t have. My guess is that US and British intelligence believe Putin is on extremely shaky ground at home, and when it becomes clear to the rest of Russia’s military and political leaders that he may be leading them down the path to financial and physical ruin, they will take him down themselves.

Fantasy, you say? Perhaps, but I find it difficult to believe that they would throw down so deadly a gauntlet if they didn’t know Putin was in an extremely vulnerable position.

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