As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been avoiding paying attention recently to the chaos descending on the country I love as its system of government is being dismantled. I don’t see anything I can do about it at the moment, so why waste my time writing about it? And if I’m not writing, why dwell on it?
I used to believe I could help. I used to believe in ideas, and facts, and rational discussion. But then over the last few months I realized that almost nobody was interested in that, and that facts had no force in a country that was dazzled by the promise of magic beans and that actually, truly believed that they were entitled to their own facts. Maybe Daniel Patrick Moynihan could argue them out of that, but he’s not around anymore. So I’ve been biding my time, hoping that the fog of foolishness would dissipate enough that we could see each other again, and have a nice, long talk.
But news seeps in, when you subscribe to four or five newspapers and a couple of serious magazines (I haven’t dropped that habit, alas). And other people around me have been paying attention on purpose, and babbling about it within my hearing. And I try to be patient, but often fail, especially when people say something like, “Did you hear he did THIS? I can’t believe it! I never expected THAT…!”
To which I sometimes explode with some variation on, “You didn’t? What DID you expect? Have you not been paying attention at ALL for the past eight years? Did you really not notice? Did you really not believe anything he said (to the extent it was intelligible to an English speaker)? Did you not realize the first term was mild, compared with what he WANTED to do, because the grownups kept stopping him? What did you THINK it would be like this time, with no grownups?”
And so forth… but then I’d distract myself with something — a novel, or a history book, a long walk, or something bingeable on the Boob Tube — and calm down a bit.
But this time he got my attention:
President Trump declared on Tuesday that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years.
Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”…
Notice that nice, conservative language the folks at The New York Times used in that first graf. I refer to the phrase, “one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years.” I don’t know who chose those words for the lede — there are three names in the byline — but that writer and his or her editor was just too flummoxed, too blown away and rattled, to be any more precise than that.
So we get “one of the most” instead of “the most,” and “in years” rather than a particular date. This thing is so utterly wild that it’s impossible to place it clearly into the context of history.
As a longtime opinion writer, I have a bit more leeway to describe it. But I tend to want to stick with what I always say about this guy: We have never, ever before had anyone this crazy, unqualified and clueless in the White House, so we’ve never heard anything this wild. Oh, there were points when Nixon and George W. tried the strategy of convincing enemies and potential enemies that they were crazy to do anything, so you’d better not mess with the U.S. of A. But those gambits didn’t work out in the long run, and subsequent leaders went out of their way to convince frieds and adversaries they would never pull stuff like that. (The Obama national security team even had their own private guiding slogan for that.)
Basically, there is no precedent for this. But we can look back to things that have some degree of similarity. The first place I would point to would be the Indian Removal Act. Andy Jackson is a hero to the current fellow, to the extent he knows anything about him. You can say a lot of things for Jackson, and even more against, and I generally focus on the latter. He did get us through the Nullification Crisis, so good one there, but his most visible lasting effect on the nation was moving the Indians west of the Mississippi.
I mean, the Battle of New Orleans was still much celebrated when I lived there as a kid, but didn’t have the same lasting effect — and not just because it happened after the war was over.
But the removal of the descendants of the original human inhabitants of this hemisphere had an effect that we can look around us and see. Sure, I know we still technically have Indians in South Carolina — a fact reasserted and affirmed by our governor just yesterday — I basically grew up on this side of the Big Muddy without seeing people with noticeably Native American features. I fully realized this when I lived in Kansas in the mid-80s, in a city that was originally a major gathering place for pow-wows between tribes. I regularly saw people who looked something like this guy, and the impact of Jackson’s actions came home to me.
Well, this is kinda like that. An entire population forced to move out of their homes to an unknown destination. But that’s about it. That, after all, happened domestically. Here, we’re going to the oldest part of the Old World to empty a country — or a sort of country, when you consider the Strip’s unusual history — of its entire population. True, a lot of these folks consider their actual homes to be next door in Israel — some are quite insistent on that point (consider that to be my entry in the 2025 Understatement of the Year competition), but I suspect they’d pretty much rather be where they are than wherever Trump wants to put them.
This proposal has certainly made one guy happy — Benjamin Netanyahu. But he’s hardly alone; a lot of Israelis are with him. And one can understand why (unless one is among those college students who thought staging demonstrations to damage the Biden administration was a good move for improving the plight of Palestinians; but those folks are pretty thick). Assuming such a wild and improbably thing could be pulled off, nothing like the attacks of October 7, 2023 would ever happen again. And Israel would never again be forced to defend itself against an enemy that deliberately hides among a civilian population, thereby ensuring that the whole world would condemn Israel, and make anti-Semitism respectable again.
That’s how crazy this is — it has its tempting aspects.
Of course, aside from the various objections that will arise from folks who actually understand such things as international relations, diplomacy, war, and ethics, there’s the problem that such a thing happening is practically impossible.
Of course, our president doesn’t care about that. He cares about how it plays. If it boosts his popularity, why not?
And when he said it, the guy next to him was smiling, so… success!
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No one should be surprised by anything’s that’s happened or will happen. But many are, because they don’t pay much attention. Few read much or are interested in matters that don’t affect them directly. Many go with their gut, or with prevailing opinion in the circles they interact with, where their own opinions are reflected back to them. And I read that Trump’s voters are largely on board with what he’s up to.
There was likewise no reason not to expect something dramatic from Netanyahu’s visit. One could feel it coming. After all, thugs tend to thug together. And even though most of the world condemns Trump’s proposal, a plan that would make the United States accessory to ethnic cleansing, we now see reports that the IDF is preparing plans to “allow” Palestinians to “voluntarily” leave Gaza — a territory, we should recall, that is one third the size but with 4 times the population of Greenville County and which has been the target of such a level of concentrated destructive power that the debris there is estimated at 14 times that generated by all the other conflicts of this century combined.
And yet: Who says there’s nothing to be done — not only about criminal plans for Gaza, but about everything else that’s taken place since Jan. 20th and the more doubtless still to come. We cannot give in to “learned helplessness,” especially in times like these. So, what, at a minimum, can be done? Speak out, let your opinion be known, depending on the issue, to local, state or national officials. Talk back to opinion makers and public commentators. Let them at least know that you who do not agree with their Orange Fuehrer or his chief revolutionist, Elon Musk, and that you will remember what they said and did in the days and weeks to come. It takes time. It takes some effort. But it’s not without purpose.
I commented there briefly on the NYT’s word choice in that lede, but didn’t say a word about Trump’s. I did that because a newspaper’s choice of words is deliberate and the result of actual thought, and therefore means something.
Also, I was trying to be brief.
But I will offer one quick comment on the phrase, “…and we will do a job with it too.”
I know our new jefe is no reader, but maybe somebody mentioned to him this phrase that crops up repeatedly in The Godfather (I mean the book; I don’t recall whether it comes up in the movie.): “Do the job.”
Immediately after committing the act that converts him from an innocent civilian to a mobster, Michael finds himself reflecting on that phrase:
An irrelevant thing for him to dwell on at such a moment. But our current president inspires us to wonder about such things, too.
I read an article that said senior republicans in the house and senate had no idea about this idea at all- hadn’t heard a word about it – and of course you had the usual suspects interviewed immediately afterward saying that they “didn’t see the comments and would have to learn more about them before commenting.”
President Biden couldn’t fart into his bed sheets at 2am without these same Republicans knowing what it smelled like but they “didn’t see President Trump comments while standing next to Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House.
A few thoughts:
1) Politicians are bad liars. If anyone thinks that Republican House and Senate members didn’t see or listen to Trump’s comments live, they are lying to themselves. (We now know, reports say that house and senate members were gathered around televisions at the time of the speech and were astonished at what they were hearing.
2) Trump doesn’t brief House and Senate leadership because he knows whatever he says or does they will go along with it.
He could have said he’s selling the Capitol Building to Russia and leadership would put out a statement saying, “This is an interesting idea. We stand ready to fully support our President”
Worse, Conservatives all around would only have the guts to point their fingers at someone else, never at themselves or their own.
Well, you’re just not thinking this through. Selling the Capitol to the Russians? That would be just another example of brilliant Trumpian strategery. Here’s the way it works:
1. Trump sells the Capitol to the Russians.
2. They move it to the Kremlin. I’m not sure exactly where they put it. I can’t tell from the satellite images whether there’s enough room inside. Maybe they could just put it in Red Square — that looks like a lot of underutilized space to me.
3. The next time Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters decide to take over the Capitol, they have to take down the Kremlin to do it. Russia will lie helpless before these brave Americans, and we can force them to get out of Ukraine.
4. But Trump will say, “Just kidding, Vladi! Do whatever you want to Ukraine! Now may I bow down and kiss your feet?”
5. Finally, when the Spetznaz manage to dislodge the harmful protesters and lock them in the Lubyanka, Putin will generously pardon them — but he won’t do it as gracefully as Trump did, of course.
6. Meanwhile, back in Washington, Trump will replace the Capitol building with a beautiful new casino, staffed entirely by former residents of Gaza.
Everyone will be very happy. Believe me.
You just have to look at the big picture…
As I reflect on the political chaos unfolding in both the United States and the Philippines, I can’t help but notice the striking similarities between the two. Both countries are facing deep divides, with political factions growing more extreme, and the lines between policy and personal power becoming increasingly blurred. This chaos, while overwhelming at times, feels universal—something many of us can relate to, regardless of where we live. Having spent much of my life navigating chaos as a veteran, there are moments when it all feels too much, even for me. At times, stepping back and taking a breath is the best thing we can do to regain perspective.
For me, this political turmoil is personal. It’s tragic that my biological and marital families in the U.S. have failed me for various reasons. And while I’ve faced significant challenges in the U.S., I see how the political landscape mirrors the struggles I’ve experienced within my own relationships. The issues in both my personal life and in the larger political sphere are often tied to division, and many people can relate to the painful feeling of isolation that comes with it.
Despite these hardships, I’ve found a wonderful new family in the Philippines. My wife, Ana Liza, and I have been together for over 22 months. Our relationship has been tested by numerous obstacles, most notably immigration hurdles that have prevented her from joining me in the U.S. It hasn’t been easy, and we’ve been tempted to bypass the rules at times, but we’ve chosen to stay patient and committed to doing things the right way. We hope that in the next six months, Ana Liza and our daughter, Hope Abby Grace, will be able to join me in the U.S.
Ana Liza’s desire to come to the U.S. speaks to the hopes many Filipinos share for better opportunities and a brighter future. I understand why she wants to build a life here. Though the U.S. political landscape is chaotic, it still represents a land of potential for growth and opportunity. The Philippines is a beautiful country with a rich cultural history, but I can understand why many, like Ana Liza, see the U.S. as a place where dreams can be realized.
That said, even amidst these political storms, I’ve learned that family and connection are the most important things. In a world that often seems divided, my wife and I are working hard to build a future based on love and mutual respect. This commitment gives me hope in the face of all the chaos.
When I look at today’s political scene, I’m reminded of figures like Strom Thurmond, a politician who used his position to divide rather than unite. He was, in many ways, a bully puppet on a bully pulpit, amplifying fear and hate instead of striving for real progress. The legacy of figures like Thurmond shows how power can be used to manipulate people rather than serve them. This toxic approach to leadership is what we need to push back against—people in power using fear to maintain control, rather than looking for solutions that unite us all.
Yet, in the midst of this division, I believe there’s always room for hope. We need to focus on what really matters—family, connection, and striving to make meaningful change, even when it feels impossible. We are living through a time of immense transformation—not just politically, but also through technological and social changes. And these shifts demand that we act with intention, keeping our eyes on the things that matter most.
I’m proud of the steps I’ve taken to make a positive impact, however small. My marriage to Ana Liza is a testament to my belief in multiculturalism and diversity. It’s a personal reflection of the world I want to see—one where connections are made across cultural divides. Additionally, my photography, with over a million views on Google Maps, has become a platform for influence, where I hope my reviews and experiences spark a positive change.
Though my last name is Amundson—a name tied to the explorer Roald Amundsen, who discovered the South Pole—I don’t seek the same kind of fame. He did something substantial, and yet, as history shows, it’s not about being remembered or recognized. The goal, for me, is to make a difference without needing recognition. Perhaps that’s the ultimate aim—to create change that outlasts our names and continues long after we’re gone. I’m content to let the world remember the difference, rather than the name.
We also need to remember that the chaos we’re witnessing is not unique to one country or group. It’s a global phenomenon, and though it can feel isolating, we are all part of something much bigger. The factions we see today, whether in the U.S., the Philippines, or elsewhere, are a reflection of the social and political divides that need healing. Our job is to look beyond the noise and focus on what connects us rather than what divides us. True progress comes from unity, not division.
In the end, I hope that my journey—and the lessons I’ve learned through my personal and political experiences—can help others see the power of unity, understanding, and patience. Change is possible, even if it doesn’t come quickly or easily. We can make a difference, one step at a time. And even if no one remembers our names, we can be proud of the changes we helped create. Let’s continue to push for something better, not just for ourselves, but for future generations.
Note: I haven’t been as active lately, as I’ve spent the holidays in the Philippines, and I’m currently focused on getting back there in the next month and a half or so. These transitions have kept me grounded, but I’m grateful for the perspective they’ve provided as I navigate this ever-changing world.
You’re not being entirely fair to ol’ Strom. You’re describing him as he was in the 40s and 50s and up through the early 60s. And he had another four decades to go in office.
During that time he did the opposite of dividing. He decided to serve everybody — in his own way.
One way to describe it is a sort of minimalism. Or passivism. He wasn’t in Washington to change the world. He was in Washington to stay in Washington, and among other things to have the use of the Senate gym, to help himself live a long life and remain a senator.
The admirable part of this is that he resolved to accomplish this by being a servant — to everyone. Another, less evocative term for it is constituent service. If you graduated from high school in South Carolina, you got a congratulatory letter from your senator (at least, that’s what I hear; I graduated in Hawaii, and I don’t recall any letters from Sen. Inouye.). If you were having trouble with your Social Security or the VA, Strom’s staff got to work on it. That’s why he HAD a staff. It wasn’t to draft or manage legislation. In all the years since I returned to SC in 1987, the only actual law I recall being enacted because of Strom was the one to put health warnings on beer and wine containers. That was his last impact on America. And it wasn’t divisive. A guy having a brew in a bar could look at it and think, “Strom’s not gonna arrest me for getting plastered and causing a disturbance here, or slapping my wife around when I get home. He’s not even gonna give me a ticket. He’s just giving me a heads-up, as a friend. He wants me to stay healthy and get old as Methuselah, just like him! That’s the kinda gummint I like!”
This was definitely a joining, not dividing, strategy. He was determined to make everyone like having Strom as their senator. And I mean everyone. He was serving his black constituents along with the whites. Haven’t you ever heard a story from a black voter whom Strom helped out? I have, more than once. And to most people — not old people like me or Strom; 1985 feels quite recent to me — four decades is a long time. So don’t wonder how he kept getting elected.
Not everyone noticed Strom’s formula for longevity in office. But some did. Floyd Spence, for instance. Look how long Floyd — my former representative, and my Dad’s former fellow Naval officer — stayed in office. And can you remember any significant legislation for which he was responsible? Maybe you can, but I’m guessing not.
There’s something else Strom and Floyd have in common, but I’ll get into that if I turn this into a separate post. It’s complicated.
Finally, you’ll notice Joe Wilson — Floyd’s successor — has followed that example, although he has been such a subfusc character (except for that one wildly uncharacteristic “You lie!” moment, which is what most people remember), and it has worked for him as it did for Strom and Floyd…
I thought that picture that keeps popping up on your page that looks like the man has his legs spread was Brad on lake Murray last summer.
Well, that sounds pretty funny, but what are you talking about? Is it one of the ads? Because you and I will see different ones. Give us a link to it next time you see it.
I’m thinking about ditching those Google ads. Occasionally they’re amusing, but they’ve become really obnoxious. They’ve added pop-ups, of all things. And they’ve started interrupting the text of posts to an outrageous degree.
There are three breaking in on this post I put up last night. They are extremely rude.
Oh, and by the way, they pay so close to zero money that I wouldn’t miss it…
My assessment of Trump hasn’t changed from 2015. He’s still an effing idiot. I named #45 presidency, The Apprentice: White House. For #47, I wanted to keep the same theme since he is incapable of learning. November 14, 2024, I decided to name #47 presidency, The Apprentice: White House – Wrecking Ball. Earlier this week, I was watching a YouTube video from MSNBC, and I heard the use of wrecking ball used. #47 is using a wrecking ball to destroy America.
The damage has been done. Does not matter if this was a delusion, part of a “madman” strategy, or a cynical opening for negotiation. does not matter if Trump really plans to go through with this or not. Every far-right party member in Israel is cheering this on, as is every ethno-nationalist in the world, and it is going to bite us in the end.
Speaking of nationalism gone amok, here is a nice takedown of his “Gulf of America” nonsense with a little geography lesson thrown in:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/the-gulf-of-america-is-an-admission-of-defeat/ar-AA1yZMHy?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=20e8a66ccd254c13b60519a907dd44cc&ei=78
Trump Plaza in New York is actually pretty nice.
I’ve walked in several times- even had a pretty good ice cream there.
It’s way over the top in the gold leaf trip and such. It looks rather silly but you get use to it.
I saw it once as I was walking by back in 2004, and the last thing you mention is all I remember. No, it was “Trump Tower.” I was just a couple of feet from the astoundingly tacky sign near the corner — the name in stand-up letters that just seemed to scream, “We are made of plastic with gold paint on it!”
I took a picture. Let me see if I can go back and find it.
If you had told me that one day this clown would be president, and would be busily destroying the best country the world has ever seen, from the inside, I would have laughed a lot louder. There were a lot of cops around Manhattan at the time (for the GOP convention), and I’d have been laughing so uncontrollably that they would have grabbed me and sent me over to Bellevue for evaluation…
Oh by the way — I meant to mention this earlier. I thought I had, but I just skimmed the above and didn’t see it…
Perhaps something is involved here other than Trump being barking mad. Maybe he’s being crafty, by his lights (if he has lights). You throw out something like this, and maybe the nearby Arab countries who don’t want the population of Gaza in THEIR territory suddenly get serious about coming up with more serious proposals, maybe even. something that leads to a good result. (This is related to the Nixon/Bush “make them afraid of your insanity” strategy, mentioned in the main post.)
I saw a suggestion, in an Israel paper right after this happened, suggesting that could be the outcome of the insanity. If this IS what he’s thinking, this is no doubt related to his “art of the deal” nonsense, in which he pictures himself as the craftiest negotator ever. In his narrow world, it’s something you try to see if some money flows your way. If it doesn’t, big deal — he can just declare bankruptcy again, screw over his investors, and maybe walk away with something… or, at worst, get a gig like “The Apprentice” so he doesn’t starve.
This kind of approach doesn’t consider the pain and/or bloodshed of thousands or millions or even billions of othere human beings, while you’re waiting to see what happens. But they are never a factor in his calculations. It’s all about him, and whether he can get someone else to think Donald Trump is a great man…