Again

Maybe that convicted felon in the White House is right after all. Maybe we can't believe what we see with our own eyes.

Because I swear to you by all that's holy that I thought I saw guys pretending to be federal agents push a woman to the ground. And then I thought I saw a guy come to her rescue, first to help her back to her feet, and then to serve as a barrier to further assault.

And for this act of gallant honor, he was pepper sprayed by the collection of masked goons that was coming to the aggressor's aid. And then the guy was wrestled to the ground by four or five of the ill-trained knuckle draggers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who apparently don't understand the concept of de-escalation. Or the constitutionally protected right to free speech and assembly. They said it was obstruction, although they were the ones who were bull rushing him for attempting to help the woman. One of the pretenders took the gun the now subdued man legally owned under Minnesota's carry and conceal laws, which unarmed him.

Then they shot him. Five times. Some said it was 10 times.

His name was Alex Pretti, and he was a 37-year-old ICU nurse working for the Veterans' Administration and an American citizen. 

So, yeah, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 

Now here we are, two weeks after the murder of American citizen Renee Good by a federal agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), not believing what we are seeing with our own eyes. In America. In 2026.

I'm concerned to where all of this is heading. The Constitution is our (the citizens) protection from government overreach, but it only works if the government respects the law. Right now, that's an idea that's not easy to accept when the head of the government is a 34-time convicted felon who is also an adjudicated rapist. His chief subordinate is a wanna be anarchist named Steve Miller who idealogically resembles Heinrich Himmler, the head of Nazi Germany's horrific SS.

So, yeah, that's where we are if we're murdering our own countrymen. 

Under the convicted felon, we've become the country that attacks it's own house of government. We've become the country that ignores due process in order to disappear immigrants, both documented and undocumented. We're the country that tries to seize the territory of sovereign nations. The country that pirates oil shipping. The country that blows up suspected drug runners in the Caribbean without evidence, and then murders any survivors.

We're losing our allies.

We're losing our dignity. And our honor.

And when we murder our own, we're losing our country. 

 

 

(Inner) Peace Train

At first, I thought I had missed my opportunity.

We were in Winston-Salem Sunday morning trying to beat the wintry weather forecast and consequently, I resigned myself from any hope of seeing the 20 or so Buddhist monks come through Lexington during their incredible 2,300-mile Walk for Peace pilgrimage.

Monks walk for peace in Lexington.

 Somehow, their route from Ft. Worth, Texas, to Washington, DC, penciled its way through little ol' Lexington.

"Not a big deal," I rationalized to myself, figuring how could I feel bad about missing something that I'd never see in the first place?

But when we got back home a little after noon, we were astonished to see cars parked everywhere, especially near the J. Smith Young YMCA. It looked a bit like a mini barbecue festival. The monks were scheduled to take a rest break at First Lutheran Church next to the Y and to offer a message of peace, comfort and tranquility to the assembled. A fairly large crowd was milling around on State Street in front of the church. Several police vehicles were flashing their blue lights.

"They're still here," I said. "I'm going."

A half hour later, I was standing in front of the Army-Navy store on Main Street, along with thousands of others lining the way. Many folks were from out of town. 

An hour passed by as temperatures dipped to 38 degrees. Then another hour passed as a sporadic wintry mix of snow and rain fell from the clouds. As spectators, we'd become monks ourselves, exercising our own brand of patient discipline through the inclement weather.

Then, around 3 p.m. – "They're coming!"

 I made my way to the Square. The moment was indelible.

The monks, walking in single file – some carrying bouquets of flowers and wearing their signature orange robes – smiled or bowed their heads as they passed by. It might have been at this point where I remembered their mission and it sent a shiver of humility through me.

The monks follow the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition and are affiliated with the Huong Dao Temple in Ft. Worth. The mission of the Walk for Peace, inspired by the teachings of Gautama Buddha, is to raise awareness of "peace, loving kindness and compassion across America and the world."

There is also an emphasis on inner tranquility in their message. 

The walk has had its challenges. In November, several monks were injured when their support vehicle was struck by a truck, near Dayton, Texas The impact pushed the support vehicle into some of the walking monks, injuring three. One of them suffered a traumatic injury that ultimately required having his left leg amputated.

Their journey is funded through donations through platforms like Zelle or Zeffy, or directly to the Huong Dao Temple. Also, the Youth Peace and Justice Foundation is committed to sponsoring elements of the pilgrimage.

The monks tend to sleep outdoors in tents or in hosted venues such as temples or churches. Two of the monks practice the dhutanga discipline in which they do not lie down. They can assume only one of three postures:walking, standing or sitting – even when sleeping.

We live in precarious times and it could be easy to be cynical about the message propelling the Walk for Peace. I can't help but think we need a moment like this right now, to see the potential that lies within each of us to be better.

 

 

 

 

. 

Imagine that

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

                 Imagine - John Lennon, 1971

 

It was brought to my attention last week that perhaps the tragedy of Renee Good's murder in Minneapolis, MN, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent could have been avoided if only there hadn't been that thoughtless open borders policy under the Biden Administration.

I don't know. Open borders may or may not have been the case. Or at least a contributing factor.

Me in 1973 - a long-haired hippie.

 What I do know is that the issue of immigration has been problematic for every presidential administration dating back to Eisenhower – and probably longer. Eisenhower had his own deportation initiative horrendously stamped "Operation Wetback." About 250,000 people were "returned" to Mexico under the program.

Which got me to thinking. Back in my college days – back in the early 1970s – I pretty much embraced the idealism propelling the hippie movement of love and peace. Most of my thinking at the time was generated by the war in Vietnam, which was consuming the lives of America's youth at a prodigious cost.

I think it was around this time when I began thinking that if we lived in a truly righteous world there would be no countries. If there were no countries, perhaps there would be no wars. 

Like I said, idealistic. That was never going to happen. War, I think, is forever in our DNA.

Then "Star Trek" came out in the mid 1960s as a by-product of the hippie movement, showing us that Earthlings had solved their petty prejudices by the 23rd century. When former Beatle John Lennon imagined no countries in 1971, I thought I had found a fellow traveler.

No countries. It's still an intriguing concept. Why can't people move across the planet without restriction? Who's bright idea was borders anyway? If you're a believer, do you think borders is what God had in mind for us?

But as humans, we are separated by differences in languages, in cultures, in politics. I suppose those barriers are in our DNA, too.

But the war against immigration fluctuates over time. In some eras, it's almost invisible. In other eras, it's a political flash point. Most countries (countries!) have problems with immigration, but in the United States, over the course of the past 250 years, our white Anglo-Saxon forebears have shown discrimination against the Irish, Germans, Italians, Chinese (or Asians in general), Catholics, Jews and people with brown or black skin. Prove me wrong. Our history as a nation of immigrants is littered with this travesty.

In recent years, the demographics of this country are palpably shifting. There will be more brown-skinned people within our borders (borders!) than Whites. Right now, it's the policy of the current administration to remove (deport) non-Whites, both documented and undocumented.

It's a horrible policy that's hurting the country.

There's a bitter irony here. Undocumented immigrants legally pay billions of dollars in taxes (an estimated $96.7 billion in 2022, including $34 billion in social security), yet are ineligible for social security or Medicare benefits themselves. Don't forget to say thank you.

Deporting undocumented immigrants seems self-defeating to the economy to which they contribute as a whole.

And guess what? Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens. This flies in the face of the Trump administration, which preys on white fear that immigrants are rapists and criminals (the president himself is a convicted felon). Trump's promoting of immigrants as undesirables is more of a way to control the general population than it is to control the flow of immigration.

It's stupid policy.

Instead of funding ICE with a budget greater than most of the world's armies ($37 billion), perhaps we should be finding ways to better assist those seeking entry into the U.S., including those seeking asylum from their own oppressive governments.

Imagine that. 

 

 

Deadly ICE

Since Wednesday's news of the shooting and killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, both Kim and I find ourselves a bit distracted, a bit disturbed and fully appalled by what's happening in this country.

Armed and masked federal agents are shooting and killing the citizenry. 

By now, as you are probably aware of yourself, video of the incident has been analyzed relentlessly from numerous angles and you have already formed your own opinion. Those on the right of the political spectrum feel as though Good was trying to evade federal agents by using her vehicle as a weapon and thus caused her own death. Those on the left feel like she was murdered by an overzealous and troubled gunman who resorted to deadly force way too quickly.

Investigations will provide some answers, although even that is suspect since the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by order of the Trump administration, is now the only agency charged with handling the matter. The state of Minnesota is currently blocked from sharing collected information with the FBI. This highly unusual action in itself stinks of a coverup and it's barely just begun. Pulling down the shades on transparency is an element of a fascist society. Truth is always the first victim.

Just for the record, according to WBAL-TV out of Baltimore, there have been 16 shootings by ICE agents since Trump began his second term as president last January. Four people have been killed and at least seven have been injured. And according to The Trace, an organization that tracks gun violence in America, there could be even more injuries since not all shootings are reported.

Three of the four deadly shootings have come in the last month. And here's something to think about: in December, an ICE agent shot at a man driving an SUV in St. Paul, Minnesota, after the driver struck two agents with his car. The driver was uninjured, but the incident, still fresh, may have put ICE agents in Minneapolis on edge – and perhaps made them trigger happy.

Which begs the question: what the hell is ICE doing in Minnesota anyway? What exactly is the mission when you have to shoot women in the head?

The Trump administration has given ICE a budget ($37.5 billion. Yes, billion) larger than the military of many countries in an effort to deport a million illegal aliens per year. That many deportations means quotas. That means innocent people, including native-born citizens, sometimes get caught in the net.

Consequently, ICE has been recruiting more agents – some who are former military, some who are former law enforcement and some with no training at all – to meet those quotas. Subsequently, in a rush to meet those government-sanctioned deportation numbers, training has suffered. Twenty-seven weeks weeks of training in some cases has dwindled to eight weeks. Here's your gun, Bucky, go get 'em.

Not too long ago, ICE agents wore blue windbreakers with ICE printed across the breast as an identifier. Now agents are masked (purportedly to protect them from doxing) and dressed out in full military gear, including body armor and automatic weapons. If masking is so crucial to ICE, then why aren't municipal cops wearing them as standard issue? I know why. ICE is in the business of intimidation. Local law enforcement is in the business of serving and protecting.

Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good, had been involved in a previous incident six months ago when he hooked his arm into a car window that was driven by an alleged fugitive who sped off. He was trying to unlock the door. Ross required multiple stitches in his arm and leg.

Which raises another question: was Ross suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) linked to his June incident or perhaps from his service in Iraq? Why was he even in the field just months after his June episode? 

One of the first things I thought was that perhaps he was a misogynist because it appeared so easy for him to put three bullets into her head. His own video of her just seconds before murdering her has her saying, with a smile on her face: "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you."

He was mad at her, though. She was in control of the moment. Damn woman.

Then he shot her. Three times. On a busy street clustered with surprised colleagues and spectators. While taking video of her with one hand and a gun in the other. What the hell? When did that become law enforcement procedure? It all seems pretty reckless. And arrogant.

It's quite possible he ignored correct law enforcement protocol when approaching Good's vehicle from the front, and there are any number of case histories that address this:

• Barnes v. Felix  (May 2025). Supreme Court rules 9-0 that courts can no longer excuse a police shooting just because the officer was "in danger of the moment" if the officer created that danger himself. If an officer puts himself in harm's way – like stepping in front of a car or jumping on to it – they cannot automatically claim deadly force was reasonable.

• Abraham v. Raso, 183 F.3d 279. An officer cannot rely on "split second" framing of their own actions.

• Kirby v. Duva, 530 F.3d 475. Deadly force may be unconstitutional (1) if the officer fired into a moving vehicle; (2) if the officer could have stepped aside and did not; (3) a fleeing car is not automatically a deadly threat.

•   •   •

One of the more disturbing outcomes from all of this is how Good – the victim – is being portrayed by some elements as a paid political agitator and a sorry parent who lost custody of two of her three children because of child abuse.

So far, there is no evidence of either. And yet, some elements are joyfully proclaiming that she "fucked around and found out." Or FAFO, in case you're seeing a lot of that lately and not sure what it means. FAFO has trickled down from the White House as its latest motto. It's even been used to describe the recent capture of Venezuelan president Nicholás Maduro. He FAFO.

I'm not sure how FAFO aligns with the Christian-Judeo principles that founded this country. I'm pretty sure FAFO is not in the Ten Commandments. But we sure are hearing it a lot these days.

But the bigger picture from the ICE episode seems to point to unchecked state power that appears to becoming even bolder by the day. Federal agents are working with little transparency or accountability. People have been swept up off the streets, placed in vans and taken to detention centers out of the country. No due process to be found. Unless we resist, we are slowly being driven into compliance by a president who says he can only be stopped by his own morality (I wonder if he meant mortality?). Maybe even martial law. How do the midterm elections look now?

Meanwhile, there's the Epstein files. Part of the bigger picture, I think.

 

 

 

Peace president strikes again

I'm trying to process how it feels to live in an aggressor nation.

Yeah, yeah, I know.  There was a time when President Obama bombed the poop out of Libya (March 2011) to pressure dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Obama then essentially did something similar when he ordered American military to fly over Pakistani airspace to kill Osama bin Laden (May 2011) as a response to the Al Qaeda leader's attacks of 9/11. Both actions were carried out without congressional approval, although Obama did have the cover of the Authorization for Use of Military Force, a joint resolution approved by congress in 2001 immediately after 9/11.

In June of 2025, convicted felon president Donald Trump bombed three Iranian nuclear sites without seeking congressional approval. No protection from AUMF on that one.

Later in the year, Trump began blowing up Venezuelan speedboats on the unproven accusation that they were carrying drugs to the United States. Again, there was no congressional approval for this action. More than 100 people have been killed in these strikes so far. Absurdly, all while this is unfolding Trump is publicly pining for a Nobel Peace Prize.

You can go back to 1989 and review the parallel capture of Panama president Manuel Noriega, who had declared war on the United States. That declaration gave American President George H. W. Bush the legal ground he needed to execute the operation.

Maybe I should be used to the United States being an aggressor nation. But when I woke up Saturday morning and turned on the television, the first thing I saw was images of Caracas, Venezuela, being bombed. The chyron running across the bottom of the screen told me that Venezuelan leader Nicholás Maduro and his wife had been captured and were being brought to the United States to face charges of cocaine trafficking and narco-terrorism.

Congress was taken by surprise. Extradition by force of will, if not by force of law. We are not at war with Venezuela, a significant difference from the Noriega affair. And yet, while no American lives were reportedly lost in the operation, perhaps as many as 40 Venezuelans were killed.

People keep dying under Trump.

And there's more.

Trump said in a news presser later in the day that the United States "would run the country (Venezuela) until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition."

Holy shit. Now we're taking over sovereign nations because we don't like their leaders? When did we start doing that? And what does he consider to be "proper" about all of this?

Oh, yeah. I forgot. Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserve. Trump alluded to that in his news presser, mentioning over and over the American oil companies that could help ignite the Venezuelan economy. So there it is, right out there in the daylight: oil. It's always been about the oil. He said it himself. It's never been about drugs. That's why he can pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was prosecuted in the U.S. on multiple counts of drug and arms trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Jeez. Maybe Maduro can get a pardon, too.

The corruption is astonishing. 

And wait. Wouldn't "running the country" require American boots on the ground? How's that going to pan out? Maduro is a very bad man, but a significant percentage of Venezuela still supports the Maduro regime. If the American military ends up in Venezuela, won't American lives be in jeopardy? At least the American military has gained critical experience in occupation after being sent to quell those non-existent riots in Los Angeles, Washington DC and other American cities. You know. Like they were a training ground.

Does this Venezuelan operation set a precedent for China to attack Taiwan? How about giving Russia's Vladimir Putin license to abduct Ukraine's Volodymir Zelenskyy? 

Suddenly the world seems less safe.

This entire Venezuelan operation reeks of distraction. It costs money to sail all those ships, fly all those helicopters and launch all that ordnance. I guess we paid for it with tariff monies. Or maybe Elon Musk chipped in. He's already promising to help fund Republicans in their midterm campaigns.

Congress returns to session on Tuesday, Jan. 6. Does J6 ring a bell? Think there might be some coverage there that a convicted felon president who pardoned all those J6 convicted felons might like to avoid? Oh, yeah. What about affordability? What about measles making a comeback? What about tanking poll numbers?

What about the Epstein files?

There's no better distraction from your failures than dropping bombs and shooting guns.

Process that.