Notes from a Disillusioned Democrat

Kilmar Abrego Garcia , an El Salvadoran national, was deported by the Trump administration and has been imprisoned in Cecot, a prison known as one of the worst in the world. Albrego Garcia has zero criminal convictions although he did have a restraining order filed against him by his wife. However, they got counseling for their issues, reconciled, and have a five-year-old son. Moreover, Abrego Garcia was granted temporary protective status by an immigration judge who believed his claims that he was at risk for violent assaults by gang members if he returned to El Salvador. Even the Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia's deportation was an administrative error but have refused to take steps to have him returned to the US.   The Trump administration has argued that Abrego Garcia had known gang affiliations. This accusation--and no charges were ever filed--has been described by the BBC: Officials argued that Mr Ábrego García was a member of an MS-13 gang in Ne...

People of all political persuasions should condemn Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, an action that included taking *infants*  and preschool children as hostages. It is possible to support the Palestinian cause while, at the same time, condemning actions taken by some Palestinians as the war crimes that they are.  At the same time, people of all political persuasions should condemn the March 8, 2025 arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University and a legal resident of the USA--he holds a green card--for his non-violent political activities. According to the Associated Press, no criminal charges have been filed against him.  Presumably, if Khalil had committed a crime, he would have been arrested and charged with those crimes. The lack of criminal charges implies that Khalil was arrested for his political views and for the vague charge of anti-Semitism. A statement from a Department of Homeland Security official substantiates this...

 A few days ago, I ran across an excellent article that lays out in detail who owns American media. Written by Michael Snyder on his website The Economic Collapse, it is must reading for everyone who wants a place to start to think about why the American media are such war-mongering elitists. The gist of Snyder's article is that only a very few conglomerates own nearly all the major media outlets--TV and print media--in the United States.  I encourage you to read the entire post  on his blog The Economic Collapse with the cheery subheading "Are you prepared for the Coming Economic Collapse and the Next Great Depression?" Even if you don't share Mr. Snyder's political views, this post is worth reading.  Here is his list of who owns what: Disney ABC Television Network Disney+ Pixar Disney Publishing Worldwide ESPN A&E Lifetime The History Channel Marvel Lucasfilm Buena Vista Home Entertainment Buena Vista Records Buena Vista Games Disney Records Hollywood Recor...

Donald Trump advocates abolishing birthright citizenship, the US policy enshrined in the constitution that all people born in the US have American citizenship. Presumably, the reason for this proposal is to discourage pregnant women from crossing the border to give birth and to make it easier to deport undocumented persons from other countries even if they have immediate family members born here. I believe that ending birthright citizenship is a mistake because it may create a permanent underclass of people who are born in America but who do not fully belong to Amerca.   In the mid-1980s, I spent six months backpacking around Europe and spent a considerable amount of time in Germany. Germany at the time had a guestworker program because it needed laborers. Germany does not have birthright citizenship and had, at the time, only a very cumbersome and difficult procedure for acquring citizenship although the laws have been liberalized since then. What that meant in practice i...

  Deus Vult: Onward, Trumpian Soldiers Many Americans have reacted with disbelief to Trump’s cabinet picks. Matthew Gaetz, a man under a congressional ethics investigation for sex trafficking as Attorney General?   RFK Jr, the man who accused an innocent African American man of murder, as Secretary of Health and Human Services?   Even worse than these picks, though, is the decision to appoint Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Both men have swallowed the potent Kool Aid of Christian Zionism, an ideology that blends ethnic nationalism (for Israelis) and religious fanaticism. This ideology, when combined with their total lack of relevant qualifications to hold these posts, threatens the world with an even wider war than the one already raging. In his book, American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free , Hegseth makes his disdain for Muslims clear. In the first chapter, he criticizes Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, hijab-wearing member of Co...

 The US Department of Justice announced that: 1. It has charged two employees of RT (formerly Russia Today) with planting media content designed to interfere in American elections. Did Russia do it? Probably. They would be stupid not to work in their own favor. Does the US government interfere in foreign elections? Do you even have to ask?  2. The DOJ also announced that it has shut down 32 websites that it believes are spreading Russian propaganda.  Thomas Knapp, a libertarian, has published an article about it on Counterpunch .  As he points out, the First Amendment does not contain an exception for ideas originating from countries we hate or for ideas that the government finds odious.  On the other hand, if I am reading Russian propaganda, I want to *know* it is Russsian propaganda.  I believe I have a solution to this dilemma: require any website, newspaper, or other journalistic medium not supported by personal or family money to disclose its funding s...