The Abomination That is Facebook

Posted on October 5, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 5, 2021

My first career job was as an aerospace engineer at Grumman Aircraft (now Northrop-Grumman) working on America’s moon missions. Fresh with degrees in physics and engineering, very full of myself, certain that my prestigious education had prepared me for the real world, my first lesson in humility came quickly. My new boss told me to leave everything I’d learned in theoretical science and engineering at the front door. Practical engineering wasn’t about theories and computing precise solutions; it was about approximations. It wasn’t about error-free solutions; it was about constant vigilance keeping errors that inevitably creep into any project manageable.

That’s a pretty good description of how America grew to be a world power. In the late nineteenth century, science and technology were given free rein to grow and explore new possibilities. Engineers and business managers learned how to apply each new discovery to real life, but that process never was and never will be clean or free of problems. We mass produced cigarettes only to discover that they were killing us. We invented aerosol sprays without realizing they would destroy the ozone layer that protects us from deadly radiation. We built ever more powerful and reliable machines and were told that each new innovation heralded a new age of growth and prosperity, but each came with its own problems.

In most cases, engineering innovation and regulation were able to keep up with technological advances before they produced catastrophes. Science split the atom, releasing unfathomable amounts of energy, first in the form of weapons capable of destroying our planet, then as fuel for power plants. Two decades of living with nuclear weapons convinced our leaders that without strict controls in place, the next major war would likely destroy civilization. And failed nuclear power plants like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl combined with the need to safely dispose of nuclear waste put a quick end to the promise of unlimited, free power. Three different airliners (the DC-8, DC-10, and 737-Max) had to be pulled from production and re-engineered when they started crashing and killing people.

This is how technological progress is supposed to work: invent a concept, develop it into something people need or want enough to pay for it, test it, verify that it’s safe, and bring it to market. When glitches occur, (they always do,) use our highly vaunted American ingenuity to fix them before they kill too many people. Cars, planes, and trains get safer, food gets more nutritious, and with luck and perseverance, we may eventually figure out how to live without poisoning our planet. But information technology is different.

The development of computers and the Internet have enormously impacted our lives, mostly for the better. But IT has a built-in fatal flaw that’s more serious and far more dangerous than, say, faulty brakes on your new car. With IT, the most important of the steps to technological progress, verifying that a new development is safe, is often impossible. Every computer-based system is hackable, and with the proper skills, any determined group bent on mayhem or criminal activity will eventually find a way to work around security measures.

Futurists and science fiction writers have warned for decades about the impossibility of verifying information available to the public, the danger of unregulated access to deliberately misleading or false information, and the risk to young people and others from predatory entities trying to manipulate them. From its inception, many people who understood these risks viewed Facebook as a dangerous abomination with the potential to destroy us as surely as adversaries with nuclear weapons.

We saw how easily people were seduced by lies and misinformation during the 2016 election, but until now, such allegations have been largely anecdotal and easy for a public that is emotionally engaged with the product to ignore. The revelations of former Facebook manager Frances Haugen published by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times suggest Facebook is far more dangerous than we thought.

We always knew Facebook’s database of personal information on its two billion plus users was a prime target for scams, criminal activities, and marketers with no respect for individual privacy. We now appear to have clear evidence that data security and vetting of individual users are only the tip of the iceberg. Facebook’s policy of incentives and its need to grow exponentially have repeatedly prioritized increasing its profitability over the safety of its individual users and the stability of their societies. The unfortunate reality is that hate, fear, bigotry, greed, ignorance, and intellectual laziness make people vulnerable to being manipulated by anyone with the talent and intent to do so.

We don’t need Facebook in its massive worldwide form any more than we need monopolistic cartels that operate independent of government regulation. It’s too late to shut Facebook down completely, even if its senior executives are found criminally negligent, but it’s not too late to force it to operate in a safe, regulated environment.

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Overcoming the Blank Page: Reducing the Stress of Writing

Posted on September 30, 2021 by alanpzendell

Ed Carter, September 30, 2021

We met Ed Carter here on August 19, with his article on disabled parents starting small businesses. His first post was well received, earning forty-five Likes. He’s back now, helping writers get past their blocks.

Former columnist Charles Krauthammer once wrote: “I have a horror of the blank page. I simply cannot write on a blank page or screen. Because once I do I start to fix it, and I never get past the first sentence.” The tyranny of the blank page, the anxiety of writing, is a common fear among writers—where to start, how to begin, what voice to use, the enormity of the task at hand can be absolutely overwhelming. Writers claim that it causes a litany of physical responses, from fatigue to joint pain and irritability. Fortunately, as with any stress response, there are tactics that often help writers get the ball rolling and approach the work with vigor and optimism.

Get real about workload

Sometimes, a massive workload with deadlines lined up seemingly every hour becomes so imposing that a writer may simply toss up her hands and decide it’s just not worth the mental stress and strain. One of the best ways around that is to get real with your workload. Assess your ability to complete projects based on a realistic and objective estimate of your personal productivity and the rate at which you normally write.

If possible, get in the habit of asking for more time before accepting an assignment. It’ll make life easier for your client or editor, and you’ll build trust by being honest with them. If you’re just having trouble getting through assignments on time, it’s probably time to cut back on the workload. It goes against the grain for most writers, especially freelancers who are paid on an assignment-by-assignment basis. Think of it as being fair with your client and with yourself. If you can do that, it’ll be a lot easier to face that first blank page each day.

Good personal habits

It’s hard to think clearly and write well if you’re feeling sluggish and lack energy. Rethink your eating habits, including when and what you’re eating. Follow a healthy diet featuring plenty of fruit and vegetables as well as whole grains and protein. A balanced diet provides the energy you need to keep going when you hit a creative brick wall and need to keep pushing. You’re a lot less likely to become apathetic if you have energy and are feeling good. And don’t skimp on breakfast so you have energy to get off to a good start in the morning. Try meditating or do yoga before you sit down to work. Set aside a quiet room at home for meditation, a refuge for focusing your thoughts. Also, make sure that this room is decluttered and tidy; a chaotic space can cause you to experience an increase in anxiety and stress, which will derail your efforts to relax.

Alter your daily agenda

Reassess how you organize your day. Many of the most successful writers prefer to rise early and get their work done during the morning hours when their brains are sharper and their creativity is at a peak. Some prefer to write late at night when everything’s quiet. Whichever you prefer, try organizing your work day based on when you’re most productive. If you’re a morning writer, make a point of not oversleeping, of getting up by 8 am and sticking with it until lunchtime, or until it’s time for a break.

Make a point of getting up and moving around for a few minutes to get the blood flowing and to prevent getting too stiff and uncomfortable. If you normally eat lunch at noon, don’t give in and wolf down leftover pizza at 10:30 because you’re struggling.

Hit the sack

Writers are sometimes tempted to burn the midnight oil, especially when the work gets really busy. It might work for a while, but if it means you’re not getting the sleep you need, it will catch up with you. Make a point of getting to bed at the same time every night and getting out of bed at the same time each morning so your body gets used to a regular sleeping/waking rhythm.  

Do yourself a favor and arrange your workday based on when you’re most productive. Remember that it’s important to keep working, to keep trying, because if you do, your creativity and experience will see you through in the end. The blank page may seem like an insurmountable hurdle; in reality, it’s little more than a temporary inconvenience. 

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

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Republican Senators Malign Our Military Commanders

Posted on September 29, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 29, 2021

I’ve never been a fan of Monday morning quarterbacking. Looking back at what happened in the past can be an important learning tool, but laying blame recklessly through twisted 20-20 hindsight is at best a cheap shot and at worst a disaster. In this era of hyper-partisan division, that seems to happen whenever an official involved in a significant incident is invited to testify before Congress. The divide in the Senate was never more apparent than during yesterday’s testimony by Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley.

General Milley’s prepared statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee laid out an orderly, chronological history of events associated with ending our mission in Afghanistan. It was fact-based, drawing on White House and Defense Department emails and memoranda. Had Republicans not been sniping at Milley for weeks prior to his testimony, his statement could have been read as simply an objective reporting of events. If it seemed defensive it was only because it addressed controversial subjects.

Milley, backed up by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and head of the U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, reported on the significant events leading up to our withdrawal and the circumstances of his calls to his Chinese counterpart to assure him that then President Trump had no intention of attacking China. With respect to the latter, Milley asserted that he was carrying out his responsibility under the law to assure that possible diplomatic misunderstandings would not result in unintended armed conflict, and that high level Trump officials were notified of his actions. The first of his two calls to China was actually placed by then Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

Discussing the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Milley reviewed the orders he’d received from Trump, the last of which was to remove all American military personnel and contractors from the country by January 15, 2021, five days before Biden’s inauguration. In the post-election chaos surrounding Trump’s attempts to overthrow the result of the November election, that didn’t happen, leaving the Biden administration holding a very unsavory bag. As to the final withdrawal itself, the Joint Chiefs were in unanimous agreement that a contingent of American and NATO forces should remain in country during the transition to a negotiated power-sharing agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

When Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country on August 16th, abandoning it to the Taliban two weeks before an orderly withdrawal of U. S. and NATO forces was to be completed, the Joint Chiefs re-evaluated their options. They concluded that leaving forces behind would result in massive casualties, and additional terrorist attacks were almost certain. They changed their recommendation to President Biden advising him to withdraw all troops by August 31st. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was always going to be somewhat of a cluster-f**k; the collapse of the Afghan government made it worse and more chaotic, making the performance of our military in executing the evacuation of 124,000 people all the more remarkable.

Yet, in the face of all this testimony and information, Republican Senators chose to attack Milley for allowing himself to be interviewed by authors of what Josh Hawley (R-MO) called Trump tell-all books. Hawley was referring to Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, and two other recently published books, all of which painted Donald Trump in very unfavorable lights. Hawley will long be remembered for helping to incite the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol from a podium outside the White House, angrily pumping his fist in the air, demanding that the right-wing crowd prevent Biden from being certified as president by the Congress. Yesterday, he suggested that General Milley was so focused on being portrayed as a hero in those books that he failed to pay attention to events in Afghanistan, and demanded that he resign.

Here’s what really happened. Hawley, Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and a few others who have tied their political futures to Trump were all enraged (more likely terrified) that the truth about Trump’s lies and instability would turn the public against him, and by extension, them. So they promulgated the notion that Milley was treasonously undercutting Trump’s authority and acting beyond his authority. Those are very serious accusations which evoke memories of the Nuremburg trials after World War II. One after another, high-ranking Nazis on trial for war crimes claimed they “were only following orders.” In the post-election chaos, with rumors flying in the journalistic and social media, Milley had the courage to make clear that he would not follow any illegal order, assuring adversaries with nuclear weapons that they had nothing to fear.

Unfortunately, Senator Hawley, who has distinguished himself as the most despicable, self-serving person in the Senate, was only interested in grandstanding.

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A Pox on Both Houses

Posted on September 27, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 27, 2021

This week will probably be the most difficult one this or any recent Congress has faced in years. The need for bipartisan agreement is more desperate now than at any time I can remember, but the likelihood of achieving it, even partially, is becoming vanishingly small. Republicans are marching in lockstep to obstruct everything the Biden administration wants to do, and Democrats seem intent on proving that they are incapable of compromising among themselves.

With budget reconciliation, having to keep the government functioning and raising the debt ceiling, infrastructure legislation on the table, and climate change and voting rights bills barely in their larval stages, even an eternal optimist like me can’t see much light at the end of this tunnel. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the Senate is languishing in the House because Democrats there can’t take “Yes” for an answer.

Democrats are like little children squabbling on a playground with no adult around to mediate. In a Congress run by septua- and octagenarians, it’s hard to find more than a handful willing to act like the adults in the room. No matter that majorities of sizes rarely seen in national opinion polls support the administration’s policy agenda, those who were elected to represent us seem hell-bent on ignoring public opinion in favor of what their deep-pocket donors want.

Republicans are willing to bring the country to the brink of financial disaster to preserve the Trump tax cuts and sit idly by while state legislatures turn their states into right-wing horror shows. And Democrats who seem to have never been taught to share, are split in factions, each of which demands the whole pie for itself. With all the talk about domestic and foreign threats to our democracy, Congress seems quite willing to simply let it die of neglect rather that put aside differences in the national interest.

With mid-term election season just a few months away, (in effect, it started the day this Congress was sworn in,) it’s difficult to imagine why voters on the fence would entrust Democrats with more power when they can’t even work together among themselves. It’s even more difficult to imagine giving power back to Republicans when the party appears to be totally intimidated by Trump’s base. If this were a sports or corporate misadventure, we could simply boycott them all until they felt the pain in their wallets, but boycotting the mid-term election isn’t an option.

What’s the average citizen to do? Frankly, I can’t thing of anything. Congress has chosen to be tone deaf to majority opinion, and with several critical things about to come to a head, we’re powerless to do anything but sit and watch, surviving on some combination of prayer, alcohol, tranquilizers, meditation and cannabis. The best thing to do is pay careful attention, take notes, and remember which members are guilty of the worst betrayals come election time.

Up first are the battles over keeping the government fiscally solvent so it can avoid a shutdown and raising the debt ceiling to avoid America going into default, which could have serious consequences for our credit rating. To any reasonable observer, both issues appear to be no-brainers. But Mitch McConnell has made two things clear: Republicans will only vote to keep the Government open if the enabling legislation does not mention the debt ceiling, and they intend to force Democrats to use their slim majority to raise it on their own.

Apparently, Republicans believe that will enable them to accuse Democrats of trying to bankrupt the country when it’s time to re-elect Congress. But it’s not clear that Democrats in states where Trump’s base could defeat them will allow themselves to be put in that position, despite the fact that failing to raise the debt limit could seriously damage both the economy and the financial markets. I see no reason to be optimistic about the chances of our dysfunctional Congress getting its act together.

Yet, after yesterday, I can’t give up hope. I live in Maryland, the home of the Baltimore Ravens, who trailing by one point late in the fourth period, had about a 0.01% chance of defeating the Detroit Lions with fourth down and nineteen yards to go and under ten seconds on the clock. Remarkably, their quarterback, Lamar Jackson, completed a first down pass leaving three seconds to play, which raised the Ravens’ win probability to about 0.1% Their field goal kicker, Justin Tucker, despite being the best in the league, had never kicked a field goal longer than 61 yards, and he was facing a 66 yard kick. By now, everyone now knows the kick landed on the crossbar of the goal posts and went over to win the game.

Maybe there’s still hope. We’ll see.

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It’s About Time

Posted on September 24, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 24, 2021

This isn’t about time travel, though the subject fascinates me. It’s about time as the enemy of progress, the antithesis of positive inertia for needed change. It’s about the basic truth that delay and procrastination are not neutral, but negative decisions that preclude action. Desperate times require the people we elected to represent us to either rise above their personal biases and do the right thing or step aside in favor of people of character and integrity.

It’s about time governors, county health officials, and mayors who have not fully engaged with the effort to vaccinate their populations against COVID step up to the plate. The cynical game of balancing public health concerns against perceived political gain simply must stop. It’s un-American, immoral, and inhumane, and an argument can be made that it’s criminally negligent. Moreover, failing to support vaccinations is beginning to resemble political suicide. Trump lost the 2020 election largely because pandering to ignorance, prejudice, and stupidity resulted in more than a half million preventable deaths. Politicians who put citizens at risk of severe illness and death always pay a heavy price, and that price will be even greater if they put children at risk.

It’s about time Republicans in Congress started showing the same courage their colleagues Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) exhibit on a daily basis. Agree or disagree with their ideology, but you cannot disagree with their commitment to principle and refusing to submit to political bullying and blackmail. It’s long past time to speak out against The Big Lie and acknowledge publicly that Joe Biden is the duly elected President. The latest in Trump’s sideshow acts, the Maricopa County “audit” in Arizona, should be the last nail the election fraud coffin. Even Trump’s pet auditors couldn’t find evidence of fraud, and they reported yesterday that Biden’s victory in Arizona was actually undercounted by 100 votes.

It’s about time Congress ignored lobbyists with cash-filled pockets who represent corporate interests that profit from the status quo, to wake up to the realities of Climate Change. Pandering to ignorance and greed will eventually backfire when it’s too late to remediate the damage resulting from inaction. How much more evidence do they need? Do sea levels have to rise enough to flood Miami, Tampa, New York and New Orleans? Does every acre of forest land have to go up in smoke? Will we allow the ever more unstable Gulf Stream, which is the only reason the major cities from Washington to down East Maine are not covered by glaciers, to stop flowing because of melting ice caps?

It’s about time the Democrats stopped squabbling and got their act together to pass needed legislation. Our infrastructure is desperately in need of repair and updating, and right-wing extremists are threatening every American’s right to vote. Progressives, especially younger ones like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with limited experience in Congress, need to grow up and learn the arts of compromise and when to stop arguing. At the same time, so-called Moderates like Joe Manchin (D-WV) need to stop grandstanding about bipartisan legislation and bite the same bullets Cheney and Kinzinger choke on every day. You made your point, Joe. So did Mitch McConnell, whose blanket obstructionism makes it clear that all you will accomplish by denying Senate Democrats their slim majority is allowing Republicans to scuttle the Biden administration’s agenda.

It’s about time Congress began representing the views of clear majorities of Americans on female reproductive issues. Reactionary religious views and prejudice have no place in laws and legal decisions that have global impact, and lawmakers who continue to ignore the views of their constituents will pay a price at the polls, as the COVID public health deniers did. Just glance at the latest nationwide Gallup poll on abortion – eighty percent of Americans oppose making abortion illegal. Our Constitution is clear; Congress is neither the moral advisor nor the religious conscience of the nation.

And finally, it’s about time the Bush family dynasty invested themselves in defending the principles of the party they profess to believe in. Remaining silent in the face of brutal, vicious personal attacks by Donald Trump may once have seemed like a classy thing to do, but refusing to behave like Donald Trump and engaging in public fits of rage is not the same thing as passivity in the face of danger. Trumpism is the most clear and present danger America’s future faces, and it will dominate Republican agendas and possibly our national agenda if principled Republicans don’t fight for their party.

Former president George W. Bush, finally appears willing to take up the mantle of anti-Trump Republicans. He is publicly supporting Liz Cheney in her primary battle against a Trump no-name candidate, headlining fundraising events for her. Bush understands better than anyone how difficult it is to govern. Even when you have a supportive Congress and your head is in the right place, it’s easy to lead the country down the wrong path. When the forces of divisiveness are in control, we’re doomed to fail. Given the lack of courage shown by most Republicans these days, Bush, who is probably the most popular figure among traditional Republicans, is best positioned to play the role of savior.   

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Investigating January 6th and Presidential Privilege

Posted on September 23, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 23, 2021

Aside from occasionally exceeding the speed limit or failing to report a few gratuities to IRS, most Americans are law-abiding citizens. As one such citizen, ask yourself what you would do if you were wrongfully accused of a crime or some other act that might damage your reputation or cause you financial harm. If you knew you were innocent and evidence, both documentary and from testimony or deposition would support your innocence, would you fight disclosure? Would you assemble a high-priced legal team to fight every legally issued subpoena and request for information? Would you scream unfair persecution and fake news or spend millions filing lawsuits against your accusers on every frivolous thing you could think of to create diversions, or trust the legal process to exonerate you?

Most of us don’t have millions to waste on such nonsense, and if we did, would we drag the whole country through the mud and create unprecedented turmoil to obfuscate the truth if we knew we were innocent? Would we continue to file suits and accuse everyone else of lying despite months of having all our accusations debunked and losing every case we brought before a judge? In America, we’re not supposed to pre-judge the evidence, but most of us would call the fire department if we saw smoke pouring from our neighbor’s windows, even if we didn’t see flames. And if we saw thousands of people storming the Capitol in support of a losing presidential candidate’s lies, we sure as hell would want to know if the candidate himself was guilty of inciting the insurrection.

President Biden agrees, and as a result, is willing to wade into what promises to be a prolonged fight over presidential privilege to assure that all evidence related to the January 6th insurrection comes to light. Today’s Washington Post reports that “the president views the attack on the Capitol as ‘a dark stain on our country’s history’ and is ‘deeply committed to ensuring that something like that can never happen again, and he supports a thorough investigation.’”

The Select House Committee on the January 6th Attack is gathering all available evidence to determine who planned and executed it, and whether their motivation was to undermine the Constitution and/or stage a coup. Their targets of interest include right-wing activist groups, members of Congress, former President Trump, and members of his administration. Trump, following his typical pattern, cries unfair persecution by the media and political assassination. He is threatening to claim presidential privilege to prevent evidence from being released to the committee.

If this were an isolated incident, we might initially give Trump the benefit of the doubt – in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty. But it’s not isolated. Trump fought tooth and nail to prevent information about his taxes from being released, contravening a tradition that every president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama acceded to, and he launched a lawsuit against the New York Times and his niece, Mary Trump for publishing his legally obtained tax records. He also claimed presidential privilege when Robert Mueller attempted to interview people close to him and when testimony was sought about his dealings with Ukraine in his first impeachment.

The next ninety days will likely be consumed with legal arguments over presidential privilege. According to former U.S. federal judge, J. Michael Luttig, “With a few notable exceptions, the historical practice has been for Presidents to avoid asserting Executive Privilege to protect from disclosure information that suggests wrongdoing or potential wrongdoing by a President and/or his advisers.” Additionally, most legal scholars believe that presidential privilege does not apply to former presidents, and the final decision on whether privilege applies in the January 6th investigation will belong to the current president, Joe Biden. If they’re right, (it will likely be the courts that decide,) Biden would have the final say on whether information or testimony shedding light on Trump’s actions with respect to the insurrection are admissible.

Fasten your seatbelts. Congrressional rules may delay the final outcome of the presidential privilege debate until the end of 2021, but once it’s concluded, the nation will learn unequivocally whether its former president deliberately fomented the attack on the Capitol, and which members of Congress may have abetted the crime. The stain Biden referred to will only get bigger and more foul-smelling, but it is essential for the truth to come out. As Biden said, this (the insurrection) can never be allowed to happen again. People on all political sides ought to want to know the truth.

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Our Flawed Democracy is Hurting Our Diplomacy

Posted on September 21, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 21, 2021

In June, President Biden traveled to the U. K. to engage with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and attend his first G7 meeting. From there, he went to Belgium, where he attended the Brussels 2021 Summit. He also had one-on-one meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, after which he attended the E. U./U. S. summit. Then, he traveled to Geneva, where he met Swiss President Guy Parmelin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sounds like a busy week for anyone, much less a seventy-nine year-old president who critics claim isn’t physically or mentally up to the job.

Yesterday, he traveled to the United Nations in New York, were he met with Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and this morning, Biden delivered his first address to the General Assembly. Biden did what all American Presidents do, visiting foreign leaders, touching hands, and laying out his view of American foreign policy.

Usually, these visits are intended to assure allies and other foreign leaders that there will be continuity from previous administrations. In diplomacy, stability and clearly communicated intentions are everything. But Biden had a more important theme. At each stop he reinforced his message that “America is Back” from the isolationism and America First policy of his predecessor.

For four years, Donald Trump consistently told our allies that they could no longer count on America the way they had in the past. He did so with a tone of rancor and disdain, accusing individual nations and NATO of ripping off the United States for decades, threatening to abandon them if they didn’t pay up. He publicly snubbed staunch allies like German Premier Angela Merkel, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. At the same time, he continually praised adversaries who ruled autocratically with little regard for human rights: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, China’s Xi Jinping, and Putin.

Biden’s mission was to inform the world that the United States was returning to normal diplomacy and restoring relations with its allies. It wasn’t an easy message, coming on the heels of our chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the recent kerfuffle with France over a nuclear submarine deal between The U. S., U. K., and Australia. The French described it as a betrayal since it resulted in the cancellation of a lucrative agreement between France and Australia. With other critical issues like COVID, climate change, and immigration on everyone’s front burner, this was going to be a difficult address.

Biden delivered his forward-looking message to more than polite applause from the General Assembly, but that had more to do with knowing and liking him personally than buying his message. Normally, when a president is involved in serious diplomacy outside our borders, political opponents at home turn down the rhetoric. Regardless of how you view the U. N., there’s an unwritten understanding that it’s important to create at least a façade of unity for the rest of the world. This year, that tradition was upheld by senior Republicans with strong views on foreign policy, even highly vocal opponents like Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

But this year there are two Republican parties, one led by Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, and one led by Donald Trump. As he demonstrated throughout his life, Trump cares only about himself. His thirst for power admits no exceptions, not our Constitution, our rule of law, our diplomacy, or the long-term interests of our country. As President Biden slogs through the messes he inherited and attempts to re-engage positively with the rest of the world, self-absorbed Trump continues to claim Biden is an illegitimate president, regardless of mountains of evidence and court decisions to the contrary. He behaves like a rabid attack dog who cares nothing about the potential consequences of his actions as long as he wins.

Trump’s detractors, who represent about two-thirds of all Americans, often accused him of treasonous acts: bribing foreign governments to help him win elections, trying to overturn an election he lost by eight million votes, and the act for which I believe he will most remembered, inciting the insurrection at the Capitol. Brazenly attempting to undercut our current president while he struggles to rebuild our international relationships is more treasonous than all the rest. What Trump is doing reminds our allies and adversaries alike that America cannot be trusted, because our democracy contains the seeds of its own destruction. Anything Biden promises could be reversed by the next election. Our allies may not like autocrats, but at least they know where they stand.

We preach free speech and human rights to the rest of the world, but when the political opposition at home pushes the envelope around those rights beyond reason and legal precedent, it’s time Americans woke up to the reality that Trump would rather burn everything down than accept defeat.

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Rules of Engagement

Posted on September 17, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 17, 2021

It’s almost a cliché, but historians and military leaders often criticize our defense strategy as investing America’s resources in figuring out how to re-fight the last war as opposed to realistically preparing for or trying to prevent the next one. Philosopher, novelist George Santayana coined another: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The thing about clichés is that they usually contain more than a grain of truth.

With all the emotions around memories of January 6th, those are the thoughts that dominate my anticipation of tomorrow’s planned rally at the Capitol. Some of the same people who attacked the Capitol eight months ago will be back in Washington to march in support of their friends who have been indicted or convicted of serious felonies as a result of actions committed during the insurrection.

The Department of Homeland Security, the National Guard, and the thirty-plus police forces that patrol the District of Columbia, notably the Capitol Police, are all feverishly working to avoid a repeat of January 6th, when they were caught woefully unprepared. In part, their failure was the result of politically motivated rules the Trump administration put in place that made it impossible for local forces like the Capitol Police to rapidly summon reinforcements. That’s like telling the fire department they can’t call in additonal units when a fire gets out of hand.

This time, protective fences were erected before tomorrow’s rally, instead of scrambling to fix our national barn door after the cows have left. This time, there will be no administrative barriers in place that prevent law enforcement agencies from coordinating their response to potential violence, and adequate reserves will be in place, ready to move. This time, the entire Congress will not be sitting ducks meeting in joint session under highly publicized and controversial circumstances. And this time, far fewer demonstrators are expected, both among right-wing extremist groups maintaining the Big Lie about the 2020 election and likely counter-protestors. So much for prevention and learning from past mistakes.

Is that enough to convince you we’re prepared this time? There’s another component of preparedness that you won’t hear discussed either in mainstream media or official press releases in advance of tomorrow’s rally, and it may be the most critical aspect of how we deal with angry mobs possibly bent on violence. Maybe cooler heads among the leaders of groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who are under tight scrutiny by the FBI, will decide to stay home, or at least leave their weapons behind. It’s possible that the rage of the protestors will flame out like a thunderstorm that’s out of energy. It’s also possible that it might not. What if the rally turns violent?

Whenever there is a potential for armed conflict, whether from civil unrest or military action, it’s critical to have clearly defined Rules of Engagement. Every commander, supervisor, and first responder must be clear about how to react in any situation that arises – when to use containment, when to attempt to break up dangerous-looking mobs, when to employ tear gas and flash-bang grenades, and most important, when to respond with mass arrests or lethal force. The only time the public will learn about those Rules is after the fact, if violence erupts.

There are undoubtedly some on the law enforcement side who advocate a forceful, zero tolerance response rather than a passive, wait-and-see defensive posture. It’s the age-old debate most of us have encountered at some point in our lives. How does one deal with bullies and aggressors? History has taught time and again that appeasement only encourages more violence. Those who would force their will on others by bullying invariably interpret passivity as weakness, which leads to ever increasingly aggressive actions. And if bullies are heavily armed with deadly weapons and even deadlier ignorance and the false belief that their cause is righteous – we all know where that leads.

Europeans learned it prior to World War II. The countries of Eastern Europe learned it facing Communist expansionism in its aftermath. Israel learned it every day of its first twenty years of its existence. No one will say this out loud before tomorrow, but the real issue is when preemptive action is justified. Extremist groups are spreading rumors that their rally is a setup for mass arrests and incarceration, maybe worse. I abhor violence, especially the kind that happens when mob mentality takes over. But I still have to ask – under what circumstances is it appropriate to use lethal force preventively? That is being debated behind closed doors today.

This is a very precarious moment, what President Biden might refer to as a critical inflection point in our history. It’s worsened by statements from our self-serving former president that the prosecution of the January 6th offenders is unfair persecution.

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Courage in Perilous Times

Posted on September 15, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 15, 2021

Yesterday, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) told Washington Post reporters, ”It is breathtaking to think of the lengths that [Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark] Milley and others went to to avert the disasters Trump was creating at the end of his presidency.” He was reacting to excerpts from Peril, a new book by Bob Woodward and reporter Robert Costa. The book describes the chaotic last months of the Trump administration, including the fears that many top administration figures had that Trump’s lust to retain power might drive him to irrational, dangerous actions.

Peril mentions Milley a number of times. He reportedly placed two secret calls to his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, to calm Chinese concerns that Trump was planning to attack China to save his presidency. That prompted former president Trump and sometime sycophant Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to accuse Milley of treason and demand his resignation. In response, President Biden said he had great confidence in Milley, whom he has come to know well and trust. Milley’s spokesperson, Colonel Dave Butler, said all of Milley’s actions were constitutional and within his designated responsibilities, and that Milley “continues to act and advise within his authority in the lawful tradition of civilian control of the military and his oath to the Constitution.”

Milley also reportedly ordered his military commanders to ignore any presidential orders to initiate hostilities against Iran, China, or any other country, including ordering a nuclear strike, without involving him in the conversation first. Though there is no legal requirement for a president to get approval for his actions from military officers, Milley was concerned that Trump, who he viewed as deranged, could trigger a nuclear war. I can barely imagine the courage that took. If Bush 43’s senior officers, Colin Powell, in particular, had demonstrated that kind of courage, we might have avoided twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking of heroic acts, many Americans, even some of his detractors, praised then Vice President Pence for refusing to follow Trump’s order that he delay or derail the Senate’s certification of Biden’ victory on January 6th, after which, according to Peril, Trump in typical vindictive fashion, told Pence, “I don’t want to be your friend any more. I made you. You were nothing.” But let us not heap too much praise on Mr. Pence, who spent four years as Trump’s chief lapdog and enabler. It turns out he wasn’t all that heroic.

Rather, he reportedly sought every possible means of overturning the election, and only did “the right thing” when it was clear there was none. The book reveals that as a last resort, VP Pence consulted Bush 43’s VP, Dan Quayle, who told him, “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away.” But even that wasn’t enough, as Pence continued to probe for ways to stay in Trump’s graces, hoping to be his successor. He only gave in when it was clear that appeasing Trump would expose him to criminal prosecution.

There’s much more in Peril, whose title clearly expresses what Woodward and Costa believe about the state of our nation from November thru January. There has been a lot published about Trump’s presidency, much by people who can reasonably be accused of having an ax to grind, not to mention hoping for a huge payday. Of all of them, Bob Woodward has spent five decades earning our national trust. Trump said as much when he agreed to be interviewed by Woodward. Let’s assume for the moment that Woodward’s conclusions, based largely on detailed interviews with senior administration official, are correct. Given his connection to the Post, (he’s an associate editor,) let’s see what their editorial board has to say.

They raised a number of pertinent questions today. One addressed the 25th Amendment by which an unfit or indisposed President can be removed from office. The amendment was intended to deal with a gravely ill president, a situation in which politics would not be an issue. But since the amendment requires agreement among the president’s political appointees, it’s extremely unlikely that it would ever be invoked in a politically charged situation, no matter how potentially dangerous it was. The Post suggests an urgent need for “statutory authorization and guidance on the 25th Amendment to lay out step-by-step instructions for the vice president and the Cabinet.”

More importantly, Post editors ask “what guarantees must be put in place to prevent an unstable president from setting off a nuclear war?” That’s a damn good question, and one that our politically gridlocked Congress in unlikely to be able to answer, which raises their final question: “How long will traditional Republicans who believe in the Constitution continue to support Trump as the leader of their party?”

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Voting in America

Posted on September 14, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 14, 2021

As we enter the home stretch of President Biden’s first year in office, the most important thing on his agenda is passing a federal voting rights bill. History will show that the legacy of Donald Trump was to attempt to change our country in two important ways, both of them fraught with peril for our future. When Roger Ailes of Fox News convinced Trump to run for president with his news channel’s full support, his argument was that there were millions of unheard Americans who desired a shift toward far-right politics, and the way to win was to create a sharp dividing line between them and everyone else.

The resulting divisiveness and ultra-partisanship that has paralyzed our Congress are even sharper today than when Trump began his campaign in 2015. One of the clearest indicators of that is attempts by red-state legislatures to tilt the scales in future elections in favor of right-wing extremists. Until now, they have succeeded in spite of the fact that new state laws which target minority and immigrant populations who traditionally vote Democratic represent only a minority view among those states’ residents. Polls taken throughout 2021 show that in most red states, legislators are much further to the right than the voters they represent.

Earlier this year, House Democrats, with no Republican support, passed the For the People Act, which would incontrovertibly establish voting rules in federal law that maximize access to voting for all American citizens. But the House bill had no chance of passing the Senate because of the filibuster rule which requires sixty votes to end debate and actually vote, and a few so-called Senate moderates led by Joe Manchin (D-WV) believe that the filibuster is a necessary stopgap to protect the rights of the minority party. With the Senate divided 50-50, this small group, which won’t entertain killing it or passing legislation with “carve-outs,” have the leverage to kill the bill.

Only time will tell whether Joe Manchin’s legacy will be the savior of bipartisan politics or the obstructionist who allowed Republicans to thwart efforts to protect voting rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Manchin was successful in getting ten Republicans to support the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that still must pass the House, and he has insisted that forcing legislation though via reconciliation, which bypasses the filibuster, is a destructive process that must be avoided in all but the most dire emergencies.

Most Senate Democrats believe red state attempts to restrict voting rights represent just such an emergency. They have spent months working with Manchin’s cohort of moderates to craft a bill they can all support, and yesterday announced they have reached agreement on a new legislative proposal. “The new bill would make it easier to register to vote, make Election Day a public holiday, ensure states have early voting for federal elections and allow all voters to request mail-in ballots. In addition, the measure would bolster security on voting systems, overhaul how House districts are redrawn and impose new disclosures on donations to outside groups active in political campaigns.”

Manchin succeeded in swaying his Democratic colleagues, though with only fifty votes, the bill would have no chance of being passed by the Senate. Still, Manchin refuses to support passing it with no Republican support. He insists that he will find the ten votes needed for bipartisan passage among his Republican friends in the Senate. Manchin is correct in principle. The question is what it would take to tip the balance from principle to pragmatism if no Republicans are willing to engage with him.

Another ominous attack on voting in America has surfaced in the recall election of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom’s principal challenger, right-wing radio host Larry Elder has fully endorsed the Trump playbook on elections. Elder announced that software used to detect fraud in third world countries’ elections has determined Newsom won due to fraud – two days before the election. Voters will let us know how they feel about false claims of election fraud, today, when they actually cast their votes.

Although most Americans have friends or family in California, the recall election has generally been viewed, nationally, as a media soap opera. But over the past century, California has been an excellent predictor of future trends in America. As Elder’s evidence-free claims come on the heels of Trump’s lawyers being thrown out of court more than sixty times alleging the same nonsense, we really ought to pay attention to the outcome. If California voters succumb to such crazy propaganda, we’re all in trouble.

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