The Fire Down Below
What’s made America great? What’s made America different? Along with whatever else we do on July 4th and afterwards, let’s celebrate this:
We all came from somewhere else.
It’s something we sometimes take for granted. We shouldn’t.
Of the 40 nations I’ve been fortunate enough to visit for work and the many additional ones for play, I’ve never encountered one nearly as diverse as our own.
I never thanked them, but I’m blessed that my peasant grandparents took a leap of faith toward the promise of America, venturing across Europe and the Atlantic to flee persecution. They were but a few of the many millions, from all over the world, represented in the iconic Bruce Springsteen song, “American Land”:
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below
Indeed, and without disparaging any other nation, there’s something special to be said for one springing from souls who largely risked and suffered so much to get here, forming a melting pot of peoples and perspectives.
From Debate to Demagoguery
Sadly, as America turns 250, current immigrants and even our immigrant heritage are under attack.
To be fair, there is room for legitimate debate about this issue. That includes whether Joe Biden was initially too lax in addressing it – though much of the overheated anti-Biden rhetoric significantly overstates the number of illegal/undocumented (pick your politically loaded term) immigrants who entered across the Mexican border and were able to stay.
Furthermore, both sides have politicized the matter. I’ll get to the Republicans in a minute. But Democrats were driven not just by humanitarian values but by some of their pollsters’ misleading public opinion survey results. That research incorrectly indicated that Latino citizens don’t share their fellow Americans’ strong concerns about overly lenient border policies. As a result, Democrats’ political and policy miscalculations damaged their presidential election performances in 2016, 2020 and, especially and disastrously, in 2024.
But there’s a vast gulf between well-intentioned miscalculation and intentional demagoguery. Most of what Donald Trump is doing has nothing to do with removing “illegals” from the country and much to do with racism. He’s repeatedly expressed a preference for white potential immigrants such as Swedes and slurred nonwhites such as Somalis. (In the process, he’s duplicated the bigotry that has always befallen new arrivals here, including 1.3 million Swedes labeled stupid “Squareheads” over a century ago.)
Under Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has swept up people pursuing political asylum or other legitimate immigration claims. It isolates them in for-profit prisons far from their families, homes and legal help. It deports them to dangerous third countries with which they have no connections.
At the same time, Trump purges immigration judges and pressures others to deport detainees for fear of losing their jobs. He accordingly delays or prevents consideration of the detainees’ cases, or even in effect dictates the results.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs…they’re eating the cats.”
The depth and breadth of other abuses are too extensive to summarize. So, I’ll pick just one recent instance, since it illustrates how severely the anti-immigrant demagoguery is playing out.
It’s documented by Timothy Snyder, a leading historian who’s an expert on European and American fascism and Nazism. In a powerful online commentary, he describes how J.D. Vance and then Donald Trump stoked the flames of hatred and racism against (Black) Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
Most notably, building on a woman’s Facebook post about a missing cat, in September 2024 vice presidential candidate Vance spread groundless accusations about them: “…people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people [Haitians] who should not be in this country.” Trump amplified this to 67 million viewers in his presidential debate with Kamala Harris the next day, asserting “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.”
What’s more, Blood Tribe, a growing neo-Nazi group with chapters across the United States and a leader who worships Hitler as a deity, exploited various Vance anti-Haitian slurs to mount demonstrations in Springfield and otherwise spread this racist gospel.
Putting this in historical context, Snyder explains that such tactics echo Hitler’s and Stalin’s genocidal playbooks:
“In an urban or suburban setting, in which animals are companions, the idea that others mistreat animals can be the signal that they are not like us, barbarians, not fully human. Among the many other accelerating repressions, Jews in Nazi Germany were not allowed to keep pets at home.”
The Truth
Springfield’s conservative Republican mayor and Ohio’s conservative Republican governor disproved and decried these Vance, Trump and Blood Tribe claims, the governor calling them “garbage.”
The truth, in fact, as both officials have asserted, is that Haitians have greatly contributed to the revitalization of what had been an economically devastated Rust Belt town. Many have been there for over a decade, after having been granted temporary but renewable legal status in the wake of a devastating 2010 earthquake (which claimed roughly 200,000 lives) in Haiti and in view of widespread political chaos and gang violence there.
Despite these dangers, last month the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in ruling that the 350,000 Haitians immigrants across America can be deported – putting a million other immigrants with similar status and home country dangers in jeopardy.
In its ruling, the Court in effect ignored an April 2026 State Department travel advisory, which bluntly states, “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”
In addition to this being devastating news for the Haitians themselves, this could be devastating for Springfield and other communities across America who depend on them to fill jobs, run businesses, buy goods and services, and otherwise build or rebuild local economies.
That reflects a larger reality about current immigrants in America, no matter how they got here. Contrary to hostile claims, they actually commit crimes at lower rates than people born here do; do not take jobs from Americans; in fact, generate economic activity that aids employment creation; help hold down inflation; and contribute payments to Social Security and Medicare without (if they don’t have legal status) taking any payments from those programs.
It’s true that we can’t open our borders to everyone. There are legitimate housing, social services and other constraints to consider.
But it’s equally true that our immigration policies should not be driven by hate, lies and racism.
Honoring Our Immigrants
Even more to the point, today’s immigrants are contributing to this country in ways our parents, grandparents and ancestors did. And no matter the nation of origin, most of our predecessors faced the same kind of bigotry here that Haitians and other current immigrants today encounter. The only thing that’s different is the slurs being hurled at them.
Going forward from the Fourth of July, we should honor immigrants, past or present, for their hard work and their sacrifices in the face of so many challenges and so much hostility.
We should honor them for how they embody an American motto, E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.
We should honor them in the spirit of our better angels, rather than our darker demons.
As Springsteen puts it in “American Land”:
They died building the railroads, they worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they’re still dying now
Their hands that built the country we’re always trying to keep out
We should honor them because they are all of us.
*To fully appreciate “American Land,” which explores both immigrants’ fantasies about America and the realities they’ve faced here, you need to hear the song itself:
**And to fully appreciate Springsteen, you need to see him perform the song in concert:
While living in the Philippines from 1987 to 1993, I knew about a half-dozen Filipinos who died from shootings in that wonderful but gun-plagued land. Most were just casual acquaintances of mine, yet each killing hit home. At the same time, though, I became grimly resigned to thinking, “That’s life (and death) in the Philippines.”
America’s own endless plethora of firearm fatalities may lead many of us to a similar conclusion: That’s life and death in the USA. And what with everything else going on these days, addressing gun violence has dropped off the national radar.
All the Empty Rooms, which won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film, reminds us why we should still deeply care and strive to staunch this bloody epidemic.
A Labor of Love and Pain
Available on Netflix, the intensely heartfelt masterpiece takes viewers to four homes, four kids’ bedrooms and four sets of parents whose children died in school shootings. The parents have maintained the kids’ rooms as they were on the days of their deaths, as sources of solace.
The film is a labor of love and pain. For years, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman, ironically best known for his feel-good reporting, was sometimes called upon by the network to offer reflections on mass shootings.
Hartman grew frustrated with his personal and our national numbness over the repeated massacres. He resolved to illuminate the lives of the victims, rather than their deaths.
The result is All the Empty Rooms. It’s about those rooms, those families and how Hartman and a photographer friend documented them for a multi-media essay, CBS programs such as 60 Minutes and the film itself. As he puts it, “I started to think about the bedrooms that the kids leave behind and what it would be like, how might we change as a country if all of America could stand in those bedrooms and feel the loss in that way?”
Piercing the Numbness
Standing in those bedrooms, visiting with those parents and seeing videos of those kids indeed pierces the numbness.
Much of the film comprises a cascade of images and memories..
One mom describes how her son’s room retains his scent…
Another interprets Hartman contacting her as a sign that she should help him tell her daughter’s story…
Her husband reads a letter that the girl wrote to her future self for her first day of high school, reminding herself to stay positive…
Another dad acknowledges that visiting his child’s room makes him sad, but that the sadness helps him connect with her…
Displaying her phone’s video of her daughter frolicking with the family dogs, a mother (who later spoke at the Oscars) relates how the nine-year-old knew she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up…
A most moving moment shows the silent, immensely mournful face of her husband recalling their daughter.
Showing and Sharing
The cold, hard facts of national trends hammer home the widespread severity of this trauma. Firearms are the leading cause of childhood and teenage death in the United States. A study published by the American Medical Association found that states enacting relatively permissive gun laws saw those death rates rise from 2011 to 2023, particularly where those laws are most permissive; several states with strict restrictions saw the rates drop.
I offer such findings for context; they’re by no means the film’s focus. Instead, All the Empty Rooms is all about people, not data. It’s a sober, somber and above all gentle reminder of the price so many families have paid for mass shootings. It aims to show and share, not harass or harangue.
Steve Kerr’s Trauma and Take on the Film
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr is an executive producer of the film, promoting but not profiting from it. When he was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Arizona in 1984, terrorists in Lebanon shot dead his father, American University of Beirut President Malcolm Kerr.
The trauma triggered Kerr’s fierce, lifelong dedication to combating gun violence. It’s to his great credit, and the Bay Area’s immense benefit, that this four-time NBA championship coach has brought compassion and inspiration to this and other issues.
Might the film be too hard to watch?
Here’s Kerr’s take: “Once I saw it, I was just blown away by the beauty, the sadness, the humanity, so poignantly done. And it’s important, given my advocacy for gun violence prevention, (that) you look for ways to touch everybody and avoid the political discourse that brings the issue down.
“The film perfectly threaded that needle. I’m trying to recommend everyone to watch it. It’s 35 minutes, but you should watch it. It’s hard to watch, but it’s unforgettable…
“A lot of people say to me, ‘This is hopeless.’ It’s not. We have [state and local] legislation that’s been passed frequently that is already saving lives. We know that statistically. But it’s really the movement that’s most important to me, the consensus of, ‘We have to get something done.’”
Count me among the many who watch TV, including Warriors games, partly to escape the world’s bitter realities these days. But an online Kerr interview moved me to watch the production, which in turn moved me way beyond expectations.
A Testament
The documentary is a testament to so many kids who left this world far too soon, to their folks’ strength in the face of enduring trauma and to our someday tackling gun violence on a national level.
That said, it’s just one small film. Clearly, the movement and consensus Kerr seeks are by no means ascendant.
But one thing that American and overseas experience teaches us is that any cause’s progress can take decades, including long stretches of defeat and despair. Along the way, we can keep the flame burning through efforts such as this.
Despite their unparalleled, unbearable loss, the parents opened up their homes and hearts to viewers, admirably hoping that we take away something positive.
I know I did. Along with all the grief and loss, these empty rooms are full of love.
]]>One of my favorite songs is “Humble and Kind,” popularized by country star Tim McGraw and composed by Lori McKenna (who herself performs a great version). I’ve been thinking longfully about it lately, as the tenor of our times cuts so deeply against the song’s spirit.
Of course, you have to hear it to truly appreciate it; even better, I urge you to view the McGraw version’s official video, which I share here (and which, with all due respect to country music, offers images not typical of that genre). For now, I’ll simply quote the composition and ask whether you could ever imagine the current White House occupant saying this:
Hold the door, say please, say thank you
Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie
I know you got mountains to climb but
Always stay humble and kind
Our national dialogue has strayed so far from such sentiments in this cruel, contentious age. The president promises his fans that “I am your retribution”; he broadcasts a steady stream of hateful messages. Yet, as the song shows, there’s hope despite the hate…
“Humble and Kind” is not about America, per se. But it’s still a reminder of the gentler sides of this country and our shared humanity. Though I’m not religious and my grandparents are long gone, I still find its homespun opening comforting:
You know there’s a light that glows by the front door
Don’t forget the key’s under the mat
When childhood stars shine
Always stay humble and kind
Go to church ’cause your momma says to
Visit grandpa every chance that you can
It won’t be wasted time
Always stay humble and kind
This is not to dismiss taking pride in who we are; pride and humility are not mutually exclusive.
Nor am I asserting that we shouldn’t be angry, even furious, about what each day’s headlines bring; we can in fact channel our anger into productive action.
And I’m certainly not claiming that humility, kindness, courtesy and compassion are always my own daily calling cards.
I’m instead saying that in these times we stay sane and positive partly by cherishing these qualities. While they’re always valuable, they become even more so when our national leadership is so coarse and corrupt.
In some ways, the song is simply a parent telling a kid about what’s really important in life. More generally, it’s about a generosity of spirit, particularly toward the less fortunate.
It’s also about humanity. Check out that McGraw video to get a full sense of that.
Finally, these final lines can remind our nation of immigrants of something to bear in mind in how we treat today’s newcomers…
Don’t take for granted the love this life gives you
When you get where you’re going, don’t forget, turn back around
And help the next one in line
Always stay humble and kind
January 6 marks the fifth anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Capitol as part of Donald Trump’s de facto coup attempt, which featured egging on insurrectionists as well as his less violent attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Contemplating that day, which will live in infamy as much as December 7, 1941, my thoughts turn to another assault on democracy that I witnessed, in the Philippines back in August 1987.
It was just 18 months after the country’s “People Power” revolution toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos and installed a fragile democracy headed by Cory Aquino. The widow of slain opposition leader Benigno Aquino, she’d recently beaten Marcos in an election he then stole to perpetuate his rule. People Power righted that wrong.
To rekindle those recollections, I dug up a letter I sent to friends days after the failed putsch. I quote parts of it here, and then offer some related reflections…
“A heart attack for the country…”
“I recall chatting on the phone with a friend the morning of the coup attempt, on August 28, shortly after getting to work…The reports were so fragmented and incomplete that we half-chuckled at “yet another mutiny,” unaware that this was not simply another hopeless grab for power [by small groups of military malcontents] (number five or six or eight since Cory came in, depending on which paper you read). This one almost succeeded…
“As the news reports grew increasingly bleak during the morning of the 28th, those of us who had made it to the office that day worked in a daze. The fall of the government was something most folks had not even dreamed could happen, at least not so soon, only 18 months after Aquino came to power. Yet the reports kept dribbling in: the rebels controlled part of Manila’s air force base, one [television] station after another fell into their hands, commanders in the field were turning their way. The occasional pro-government (?) tank or armored personnel carrier rumbled up the main drag that runs right by our office. The surreal became possible.
“Just the previous week, on the fourth anniversary of Benigno Aquino’s assassination, the papers had been full of proud advertisements and articles celebrating his memory and the subsequent revolution with which that memory is now intertwined…Efren, a fellow who works for the [Asia] Foundation [which had brought me to Manila to do democracy-assisting grant-giving a few months earlier], had [previously] told me how he had joined the “People Power” throngs that had blocked Marcos’ tanks from attacking Camp Aguinaldo [the military headquarters] in February 1986, when it was held by an earlier, more popular band of [pro-democracy] rebel soldiers. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Now, just a week after beaming about those very special days, Efren and everyone else in the office began to look broken. How had the dream unraveled so quickly?
““As you know, the dream is not completely gone…By the night of the 28th it was becoming apparent that the mutineers were going to lose. People were starting to say that maybe the revolt had been a good thing. One metaphor that I liked was offered by my boss, who saw this as a heart attack for the country, something that might make it change its diet and lifestyle, forcing it to address the corruption and irresolution that have increasingly characterized the government.”
Ups and downs…
Philippine democracy has seen volatile ups and downs since then. Fidel Ramos, the general who put down the rebellion, went on to win the election to succeed Aquino in 1992 and to arguably compile the best track record of any Philippine president.
The following decades saw the elections of a rather dim movie star, the corrupt daughter of a previous president, Aquino’s well-intentioned and somewhat impactful son, a brutal and quasi-authoritarian provincial politician and now Marcos’s son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. Though no prince, except in a dynastic sense, Bongbong’s record is at least better than those of his father and his own brutal predecessor, who is imprisoned and awaits trial by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
One relative footnote to all this is that the coup leader, former Colonel Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, was granted amnesty by then-President Ramos. Gringo – Filipinos love their nicknames – went on to be elected senator and serve in that role for over two decades.
Hmmm…A coup leader let off the legal hook and elected to high office. Does that sound familiar?
I’d decry the fact that the “heart attack” Honasan’s mutiny imposed on the country spurred little in terms of lessons, reforms and accountability, but…
Wagging the Venezuelan dog…
Who am I to judge the Philippines? America had our own heart attack on January 6, 2021. What with Trump’s assaults on our democracy, freedoms and rule of law, and his demagogic embrace of dictators everywhere, we’re suffering an even more threatening and extended illness right now. Looking back at the Philippine “corruption and irresolution” I condemned nearly 40 years ago, I can’t help ruing our own, far more recent history.
Don’t get me wrong: Despite this despair, I’m actually slightly optimistic about what 2026 may bring politically. This hope starts with tentative confidence about the Democrats taking back the House of Representatives, based on both Trump’s unpopularity and long-term trends of the party out of power usually winning the mid-term elections.
In addition, the Democrats seem to be recovering from their post-presidential election swoon; Trump remains determined to shoot himself in his political foot in manifold ways; and certain former loyalists are distancing themselves from him.
Of course, Trump is resorting to “wag the dog” actions to distract the press and public from his Epstein connection, the economy’s deterioration and assorted transgressions. Venezuela represents a case in point, though that misadventure-in-the-making is also about oil, greed, narcissism and other factors that may yet come to light. (A step toward attacking Cuba? Granting Russia’s abominable war on Ukraine some bizarre degree of equivalence? Dividing the world into American, Russian and Chinese spheres of influence? Fortifying his “might makes right” take on our nation and the world?) While such distractions may work in the short run – for instance, the media is largely ignoring the Department of Justice’s failure to produce a promised Epstein report due the day before the Venezuela attack – they may not be enough to fool enough of the people enough of the time.
A darker world…
I don’t want to draw too many lessons from and comparisons with the Philippines, given how different that former U.S. colony is from us. But still…
Could America’s military be used to in effect overthrow our own constitutional order here – albeit probably with a veneer of legality, such as to supposedly protect “election integrity” against “un-American” opposition? It’s unlikely, particularly in view of the armed forces’ apolitical culture and traditions.
But does anyone absolutely rule out such an attempt by Trump and by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other anti-democratic actors? Is anyone certain that our remarkably compliant Supreme Court would resist it? Going back in Philippine history, the first Marcos fomented instability and used claims about protecting the country against hostile forces (in his case, a communist insurgency) when he imposed martial law in 1972.
If our democracy survives the Trump years, will we return to “business as usual,” with our national governance operating in historically flawed ways that nonetheless preserve legitimate political competition and return us to some semblance of the rule of law? Possibly. But with Trump remaking the Republican political brand in his image and legitimizing far-right attitudes once considered beyond the pale, we may face a future in which one party continues to disdain democracy as it was once understood in America. In that regard, we may actually exceed the problems plaguing Philippine democracy.
The largest lesson..
On the other hand, the Philippines also demonstrates that when a dictator picks sycophantic lackeys over harsh realities in planning policies (as Marcos, Venezuela’s Maduro, Iraq’s Hussein and Russia’s Putin have done), or if he’s in cognitive and physical decline (a trait Trump and Marcos share), he’s more likely to make self-destructive mistakes. Trump’s Venezuela misadventure may yet become a miasma that shrouds his administration in worse and worse news, as he lurches forward without an apparent plan. And even if he doesn’t end up echoing George W. Bush’s short-lived, illusory “Mission Accomplished” victory in Iraq, Trump may fall victim to his own narcissism and deterioration in other ways.
Finally, there’s an even more positive lesson from Philippine history here: The fight for democracy may never end, but even major setbacks never mean it’s over. America traveled a bumpy democratic path long before Trump soiled the political scene. The Philippines did so as well before the first Marcos; it’s continued to stumble through hills and valleys ever since, but has not fallen to dictatorship.
Thus, the single largest lesson we can draw from the Philippines and from other countries beleaguered by authoritarianism is this: Don’t give up.
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Having lived and worked in the Philippines from 1987 to 1993, I experienced several Christmases in that predominantly Catholic country and exchanged countless “Maligayang Pasko!” (‘Merry Christmas” in Pilipino) greetings along the way. I often reflect on my time there, especially at this time of year…but also as America goes through some dark times.
Many of my holiday season memories of Manila, the capital, are positive. There were delightful celebrations, abundant Christmas decorations, lots of time off work and relatively mild (by Southeast Asian standards) weather during December.
On the other hand, the lead-up to New Years meant increasingly frequent, loud fireworks explosions throughout the month. Traffic congestion soared as shopping and partying put even more cars on Manila’s clustermuck of clogged streets.
A Christmas Spirit All Year Long
But what Maligayang Pasko means most to me is not about the holiday season itself, but how Filipinos display the Christmas spirit of joy, giving, cheerfulness and resilience throughout the year. I’ve never been in a place where so many people smiled and joked around so easily. (In a bit of culture shock, upon moving back to the States in 1993 I found that in meeting strangers I needed to tone down my Philippines-enhanced jocularity, even in the generally friendly Bay Area.)
Partly due to my grant-giving work over there for the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation, I was also lucky to come into contact with many Filipinos doing tremendous good for their country against great odds, including: the woman who founded the Philippines’ first battered women’s shelter; the courageous reporters who launched its first investigative journalism organization; and loads of young lawyers working with and for the poor in a land that, despite all its charms, was plagued by injustice.
Filipinos’ resilience in the face of that injustice and poverty was also striking. Many quite deservedly live comfortable, even affluent lives. But millions more work overseas for years at a time, typically in harsh or even inhumane settings in the Middle East or elsewhere, to ensure that their families back home get by and even prosper. Many other Filipinos endure working and living conditions in their homeland that would make most Americans blanch. The country also has a history of people putting their lives on the line for freedom and human rights throughout its spasms of corruption, repression and dictatorship.
Amidst all that, Filipinos push on in their lives. They display smiles, cheerfulness and sometimes amazing selflessness in their daily interactions. I still recall a security guard in my apartment building matter-of-factly tossing a rope over my fourteenth-floor balcony so he could rappel down to the unit below, in order to turn off the oven gas when the maid there had locked herself out.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The Philippines faces a plethora of problems. But this post is about learning from Filipinos’ spirit, not their society’s setbacks.
A Horrific Week
Thus, these reflections about a people coping with their country’s worst traits come to mind as I consider America’s most recent wave of violent news – and what we can do in its wake.
First, there was the Brown University shooting, which took two students’ lives and critically injured numerous others. (The same murderer subsequently killed an MIT professor before committing suicide.)
With the help of financial aid and loans, I was lucky enough to attend Brown. I made lifelong friends and learned lifelong lessons there, including from classes that taught me that justice is about more than laws. Several months ago, I revisited the house I’d shared with several such friends during our senior year, just up the street from the murders. The assault accordingly hit home especially hard, as I pictured where it took place. But nowhere near as hard as it must have impacted the Brown student who survived not only this attack, but also a 2019 rampage at her Santa Clarita, California high school – during which she was shot in her abdomen.
(Sadly, as we know, such incidents do not occur in isolation. During the past month alone, the United States saw 18 other mass shootings in which at least four people were killed or injured. These totals could well increase between when I write this piece and when you read it.)
Barely after the figurative ink had dried on the Brown story, Australia’s beautiful Bondi Beach was the setting for the massacre of 15 Jews by radical Islamic State-inspired terrorists. My wife and I visited the sun-drenched spot a number of years ago; it’s the equivalent of any number of California communities’ beach-and-park scenes. The loathsome, metastasizing antisemitism the attack reflected added an abominable insult to the injury of the death toll itself.
Making matters even worse, some social media sources shamelessly sought to blame all of Islam and Muslim immigrants in general for the crime. The sad double irony here is that the hero who wrestled away a gun from one of the terrorists was himself one such immigrant, from Syria, and that Syrians were banned this week from entering the United States.
Two Murders, Two Remarkably Different Reactions
Then there were the murders of director Rob Reiner and his wonderful wife, apparently by their severely disturbed son. What did Reiner, who brought so much joy and light to the world – through such other films as This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men and The American President, as well as through his gay rights, political and humanitarian work – do to deserve his fate? Obviously, absolutely nothing. In fact, his comments on the September assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk reflected his compassion: “an absolute horror…That should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are.”
What a contrast with the President of the United States’ remarkably cruel, self-centered remarks about Reiner’s death, which he claimed was “reportedly due to the anger he caused by others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction … known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Given time later that day to reflect on those sentiments and perhaps pull back, he instead doubled down.
A Holiday Wish
With my attention to these attacks and their aftermaths, this isn’t a very happy holiday season post I’m sharing here, eh? What’s worse, 2025’s flood of bad news consistently reached beyond these violent events in all sorts of ways.
But these immense tragedies and tough times bring me back to what I learned from the wonderful people whose country I lived in for six years…
I recall the joy, the cheerfulness, the giving and the resilience that Filipinos repeatedly demonstrated during my time there, in the face of all their challenges. Their smiles and laughter, their grit and determination, even amidst their personal and political struggles.
My holiday wish is that we Americans can do the same this holiday season and beyond, with joy in what we have, cheerfulness toward others, giving to the less fortunate and the resilience to face and fight for the future, with hope.
So, despite these tragedies and the sorrows they entail, I want to wish everyone…
Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Hanukkah Sameach (Happy Hanukkah). Heri za Kwanzaa (Happy Kwanzaa).
And of course, Maligayang Pasko!
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As you may know, the new CBS editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, reportedly blocked a planned 60 Minutes segment on US deportation of Venezuelans to a notoriously cruel Salvadorn prison just three hours before it was to air in the United States yesterday. In closely related news, the CBS parent company, Paramount Skydance, bought both CBS and Weiss’s (ironically named) site The Free Press a few months ago and is seeking to curry favor with the Trump Administration as it pursues yet an additional huge merger with the media company Warner Brothers Discovery.
The segment was recorded and shared when it aired on Canada’s Global TV, which has the rights to broadcast 60 Minutes. Here’s the Substack post that in turn provides the video link:
Three things struck me about the segment:
1. As disturbing as it is, the reporting actually takes a milder tone than I expected. It doesn’t begin to cover all the ground about how horrible this Salvadoran detention center is and how horrible the other deportations (including to third countries the deportees have nothing to do with) are.
2. Some of the disturbing footage is that apparently provided by the detention facility itself.
3. The video is being circulated in ways analagous to how forbidden news might have been circulated behind the Iron Curtain from the mid-1940s through the 1980s – in other words, for Putin and Trump, the good old days.
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Stranger Than Fiction
The story could inspire a big-budget Hollywood political thriller. A cocaine kingpin – the corrupt president of a foreign country, no less – is convicted and jailed in the United States. But behind the scenes, right-wing tech billionaires persuade an equally corrupt American president to pardon the foreigner. In a violent side-story, the US president proudly orders illegal, lethal military attacks that kill scores of impoverished Venezuelan fishing villagers (some of whom may be small-scale traffickers) whose coke isn’t even destined for our shores and whose possible crimes pale in comparison with the kingpin’s.
In the hypothetical Hollywood version of this story, the truth comes out, the former president goes back to prison and his American counterpart resigns in shame.
In 2025, however, there is no shame and reality is stranger than fiction. Donald Trump publicly boasted of his planed pardon for former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández before then granting it. Lost in the swirl of Trump’s other transgressions, the story disappeared from the headlines soon after first surfacing.
The element of the hypothetical Hollywood version that hasn’t yet been proven in real life is the tech billionaires’ involvement. But, as reported in Mother Jones magazine, their backing for both Trump and VP JD Vance on the one hand and their proposed, Hernandez-backed state-within-a-state in Honduras on the other surely looks suspicious.
Even though in normal times such a story would be the stuff of massive scandal, it’s now business as usual when it comes to Trump’s pardons (not to mention so much else). And given that we’re now almost a decade into Trump’s reign of political terror, we must ask what’s normal anymore.
But Wait! There’s Much More…
As horrid as it is, the Hernandez story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump’s abuse of the presidential pardon power. It’s true that certain of his predecessors have also milked that constitutionally granted capacity for personal or political benefit. Bill Clinton’s 2001 pardon of disgraced financier Marc Rich, apparently in return for donations to the Clinton Library and the Democratic Party, is a case in point. But neither Clinton nor anyone else comes close to the breadth and depth of what Trump has done.
Trump established his exploitation of pardons at the very start of his presidency. As summarized by an excellent post by attorney Kim Wehle at The Unpopulist site, “One of his first acts on returning to office was to issue pardons to hundreds of rioters from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including those who had viciously assaulted police officers.” As Wehle further explains:
“It should be no surprise that some of these rioters, having been pardoned for one act of political violence, keep on plotting new acts of political violence. In February, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested at the Capitol (again) for assaulting a protester. In July, Edward Kelley, who was “the fourth person to unlawfully enter the Capitol building at the forefront of the mob” and attack an officer, was convicted for a new plot to assassinate “36 individual federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel” whom he blamed for his arrest on the Capitol riot charges. Christopher Moynihan was arrested in October for planning to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.”
In an equally valuable post at the same site, author Robert Tracinski summarizes some of Trump’s many egregious 2025 pardons:
“…from a corrupt sheriff convicted in a “cash for badges” scheme, to disgraced former Congressman George Santos, who may have diverted election funds to support his lavish lifestyle but “was 100% for Trump,” to the healthcare fraud conviction of the husband of Republican Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger, a Trump ally…
“Trump pardoned an executive convicted of tax fraud after the executive’s mother gave $1 million at a Trump fundraiser. The judge who sentenced him said: “there is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card for the rich.” Under Trump, there is…
“In October, he pardoned cryptocurrency fraudster Changpeng Zhao after Zhao’s company, Binance, made a deal to boost World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto venture.”
Legitimizing the Rule of Lawlessness
Ironically, however, the most significant pardon we’ve seen recently has not been issued by Trump, but in effect for Trump, by the Supreme Court. Though not literally a pardon, Wehle addresses the Court’s action quite well:
“Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s unconscionable [2024] decision in Trump v. United States, the so-called immunity ruling that essentially sanctioned American presidents using official power to commit crimes without any penalty, the legal perversions coming out of the White House have been legion. So far, Donald Trump’s actions, along with the Supreme Court’s endorsement of them, have effectively kneecapped the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments, the Appointments, Spending, and Emoluments Clauses, the 14th Amendment’s ban on holding office after having engaged in insurrection, Article I’s vesting of legislative power in Congress, and Congress’s power to lay and collect tariffs. Trump is acting this way because he no longer has any incentive not to.
“In that immunity ruling, a 6-3 majority held that the exercise of “core” powers under Article II of the Constitution is absolutely immune from legal oversight, even if used criminally, and that lesser “official actions” are presumptively immune unless prosecutors can show that criminally confining a presidential act would pose no “dangers on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.”
In other words, this was Trump’s own get-out-of-jail-free card, including for corruptly influenced pardons since they’re within the presidency’s “core” powers.
We’re accustomed to thinking that no one is above the law, at least in principle and hopefully in fact. The Supreme Court decided the opposite.
Of course, the immediate and history-shattering benefit of the Court’s egregious ruling wasn’t for President Trump in 2025 but for Indicted Trump in 2024: the decision so delayed and constrained Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election that Smith dropped the charges after Trump’s 2024 electoral victory.
A Larger Problem
An even larger problem we face, however, isn’t Trump’s legal transgressions but the fact that they apparently don’t dent his political and moral standing for large parts of the public. Yes, his approval numbers are dropping to about 40 percent or less in most surveys. And yes, the prospects of his suffering more political reversals are rising. This is evinced by everything from far-right-wing Majorie Taylor Greene’s declarations of independence to the Democrats’ increasing prospects for retaking the House of Representatives next year to the possibility of yet more sordid Jeffery Epstein revelations soiling Trump’s brand even among supporters.
But whatever happened to someone simply paying a penalty for cheating and lying, not least by blatantly exploiting a presidential power to pardon political and financial allies? Like so many of Trump’s disruptions, this is all going on in plain sight and is in effect pardoned, so to speak, by much of the public.
And while we certainly can understand folks prioritizing the damages he’s doing to our pocketbooks in assessing him, it doesn’t seem like his consistently egregious self-dealing makes much of a difference in his standing. It’s just another day at the Oval Office.
So, with great respect for everyone who’s fighting for democracy, national security and the rule of law, or who dread the crisis even as they simply try to get by during these tough times, certain words may sum up how history will judge many other Americans who condone or endorse what Trump is doing:
Really regrettable.
Perhaps understandable.
Or, just maybe, unpardonable.
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On the night of February 27, 1933, a massive fire – apparently set by a Dutch communist who confessed to the crime, though other accounts suspect other communists or even Nazis – severely damaged the German parliament building, the Reichstag. Arriving at the scene, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler declared, “If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist.”
Within a month, Hitler incinerated German democracy.
Step by Very Quick Step…
The short, catastrophic saga triggered by the fire featured German President Paul von Hindenburg, who had won re-election the previous year. Despite being 84 and in failing health, Hindenburg had run because he saw himself as the only candidate who could thwart Hitler, whose Nazi Party was then on the rise but not yet in power.
Nonetheless, on January 30, 1933 Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor – the head of day-to-day government, as opposed to the president’s more limited but still-pivotal oversight role. He did so out of an unfounded fear of a communist takeover and due to advisors’ assurances that the military and other institutions could keep the Nazis in line.
The day after the blaze (February 28), urged on by Hitler’s insistence that the fire reflected an imminent communist threat, Hindenburg issued a sweeping, repressive emergency decree. Hitler, aided by 50,000 Nazi paramilitary stormtroopers whom he had appointed as official auxiliary police a week earlier, viciously enforced the edict, which “abolished freedom of speech, assembly, privacy and the press; legalized phone tapping and interception of correspondence,” suspended any autonomy for the 17 states constituting the country and led to the arrest, imprisonment and torture of thousands.
Finally, on March 23, with many parliamentary members detained, imprisoned or intimidated from attending that day’s session, and with others sufficiently cowed, the legislature passed the Enabling Act. The new law “assigned all legislative power to Hitler and his ministers, thus securing their ability to control the political apparatus.” This completed the consolidation of his dictatorship.
Then There’s Trump
Which brings us to America, today. Shortly after the assassination of Trumpist political leader Charlier Kirk – which, like any other such act, was a heinous crime – Utah Governor Spencer Cox issued a call for civility and unity in the nation’s response. Some other Republican leaders have also pushed back against whole-hog retribution.
Then there is Donald Trump. His Oval Office video address hours after the assassination began in a moderate manner. But after two minutes (and many hours before the murder suspect had even been identified) he quickly segued into blaming “radical left” rhetoric for the death and vowed to go after “those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
In the days since then, the Trump Administration has doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on this tack and tone, including via attacks on actual and perceived opponents. The most prominent target so far has been late night host Jimmy Kimmel, suspended by ABC just hours after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr pressured it do so with his Sopranos-like “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” suggestion. Asserting that he would “go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” Vice President JD Vance has singled out the Ford and Open Societies Foundations and The Nation magazine as examples of nonprofit, media and other outlets under threat.
Then There Are the Facts
These attacks come from a president whose inaugural address promised to “immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.” A president who, speaking of attacks on democracy and on national legislative chambers like the Reichstag, praised and pardoned the January 6 insurrectionists who had violently ransacked the Capitol, injured dozens of police officers guarding it and arguably contributed to the deaths of several more. A president who has endorsed or tolerated violence on numerous other occasions.
Trump’s solely blaming the Left for political violence sorely conflicts with the facts. The Department of Justice’s own National Institute of Justice in fact produced a 2024 study – oddly (or perhaps not) removed from its site within three days of Kirk’s death – finding far higher degrees of far-right violence:
“Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists [though this calculation evidently excludes 9/11], including 227 events that took more than 520 lives…In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.”
The study was consistent with other expert research and opinion on the preponderance of right-wing violence.
Follow the Leader
In ignorance or denial of such realities, many of Trump’s leading followers have followed his lead in rabidly threatening ways, starting with Vance blaming “left-wing extremism” for Kirk’s death. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller similarly claims that left-leaning political organizations constitute “a vast domestic terror movement. He vows that “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.”
Countless others have piled on. For Elon Musk, “The Left is the party of murder.” Top Trump loyalist Laura Loomer, whose influence on the president apparently extends to his firing national security staff, claims that “The Left are terrorists” and that “We must shut these lunatic leftists down. Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat.” Many more MAGA types see the assassination as a declaration of war and vow retribution.
The comment that takes the rhetorical cake comes from right-wing agitator Matt Forney. In an X post that has garnered at least three million views, he actually casts the Reichstag fire’s aftermath as a favorable historical precedent:
“Charlie Kirk being assassinated is the American Reichstag fire. It is time for a complete crackdown on the left. Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned…”
I’m not equating Trump or his followers with Hitler or Nazi Germany here. I’m not saying that America could fall prey to such a degree of tyranny. But I am suggesting that similar political tactics may well be at play, echoing those of 90 years ago and featuring the exploitation of a repulsive, traumatic event.
Harking Back to 9/11
Contrast today’s Trump-fueled outrage with President George W. Bush’s words in the wake of 9/11. Visting the Islamic Center of Washington, DC, he directed his remarks to all of America:
“These acts of violence [the 9/11 attacks] against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that…America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country… And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”
To my mind, W got a lot more wrong than right in his presidency. But the important things he got right certainly included those vitally important remarks. At an intensely inflamatory point, prone to bitterness and bigotry, they sought to bring out the best in us.
It Starts with Hope…and Includes Redistricting…
Which brings us back to the state of American democracy today, how to save it and how to restore it. There’s painfully, obviously no comprehensive solution. But there is an assortment of partial approaches, only a few of which I’ll touch on right now.
It all starts with retaining, sharing and voicing hope, such as through the upcoming October 18 No Kings rallies across the country. Or participating in local events, such as the weekly, sign-carrying democracy vigils held in the City Park of my hometown, Benicia, California.
It similarly features doing what we can, where we can. With Election Day looming on November 4, those of us in California can campaign and vote for Proposition 50, aka the Election Rigging Response Act. An amendment to the California constitution, Prop 50 allows the Democratic-controlled California legislature to redraw its U.S. congressional districts in response to a similar step recently taken by Republican Texas. The California changes take effect from 2026 to 2030, after which such redistricting power returns to California’s independent, nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC).
Why is this so crucial? To help save democracy. One the few powerful ways of undercutting Trump’s multipronged attacks on our freedoms and institutions, attacks that have only accelerated in his Reichstag-like exploitation of Kirk’s assassination, is for the Democrats to take back control of the House of Representatives next year.
If they do so, they gain the power to block regressive, repressive legislation and influence the budget. Maybe even more importantly in the current context, control over the House also grants the Democrats the power to investigate and publicize his abuses.
But that’s all less likely to happen if Texas and other Republican-controlled states redraw congressional district lines so as to increase Republican representation in the House. Though the national redistricting fight may be stacked in Republican states’ favor, Prop 50 seeks to partly counterbalance that.
Not Normal Times…And No Alternative
In normal times, there would be no need for Prop 50. But, as you may have noticed, these are not normal times. Whether Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination ultimately proves to be America’s own horrific Reichstag fire, as Trump’s exploitation of his death seemingly intends, is on the line.
Which is why it is so urgent that Californians enact Prop 50. And why those of us based elsewhere do whatever you can to support analogous local or state actions.
These are all just pieces of the puzzle in striving to save our democracy. But sufficient pieces can come together to stave off the darkness and just maybe build a brighter future. There’s no alternative to trying.
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Strolling several years ago in Vancouver, Canada, I inadvertently crossed the street in front of a car after my light turned red but before the vehicle began moving. If you do this in the San Francisco Bay Area, the driver might toot and shout at you. In my native New York, you’d hear a loud honk and an even louder expletive.
The Vancouver motorist instead said, “Excuse me, did you know that you’re crossing against the light?”
Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Country
Canadians are among the nicest and most polite people on the planet. Americans are blessed to have them as neighbors.
Yet Donald Trump is spitting in these wonderful folks’ faces, on everything from fentanyl to immigration to tariffs to statehood. His spiteful barbs portend long-term damage to what once seemed our two nations’ unbreakable goodwill. This potential funeral for a friendship says much about America’s shrinking place in the world.
The insults reach back to Trump’s first term, when he called Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “very dishonest and weak,” as well as “two-faced.”
Who in the world says that to a steadfast friend? To a country whose long border with ours has been peaceful for well over a century? To a nation that helps protect ours through its partnership in the North American Aerospace Defense Command? To a people whose armed forces sent over 40,000 troops to fight in Afghanistan, with 158 dying and thousands more injured. (In contrast, Trump reportedly dodged the Vietnam-era draft due to a dodgy medical deferment facilitated by a doctor who was his father’s tenant.).
Second Time’s Not a Charm
In his second term, Typhoon Trump has proven even more catastrophic for our relationship with Canada. His attacks include his 25 percent tariffs (rising to 35 percent on August 1), which he justified in January based on allegedly huge fentanyl imports and illegal immigration from north of the border:
“They’ve [Canada and Mexico] allowed, both of them, Canada very much so, they’ve allowed millions and millions of people to come into our country that shouldn’t be here. They could’ve stopped them and they didn’t. And they’ve killed 300,000 people last year, my opinion, have been destroyed by drugs, by fentanyl. The fentanyl coming through Canada is massive. The fentanyl coming through Mexico is massive.”
So how many tons of fentanyl and millions of people have actually entered America illegally from Canada?
Seizures and arrests provide some sense of scale: From October 2023 through September 2024, 43 pounds (not tons) of fentanyl were seized at the Canadian border, in contrast with over ten tons from Mexico. During that same period, fewer than 28,000 people were apprehended entering illegally from Canada, compared with over 1.5 million down south.
Putting aside the complex calculation of America’s relationship with our neighbor and friend Mexico, those figures clearly don’t justify such Trumpian lies, hostility and trade barriers against Canada.
Adding national insult to economic injury, Trump has notoriously declared that this proud country should be our 51st state:
“We’re taking care of their military. We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives… We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.”
Boos for Our Booze
During a visit to Canada’s Nova Scotia province this month, I got a glimpse of the damage he’s quickly done to our two nations’ bonds. The first hint was alcoholic – by which I mean the disappearance of U.S. beer, wine and spirits from many restaurant menus and liquor stores. Another sign was the plethora of Canada’s national maple leaf flags flying everywhere – a rejection of Trump’s 51st state slap and other insults.
As usual, Canadians were unfailingly friendly and polite during my visit, blaming neither my friends nor me for Trump’s affronts. But their perspective on our country has changed.
The next president might conceivably restore some foreign faith in the United States if we demonstrate renewed faith in friendship and alliances. But after their being burned twice, could we blame Canadians for remaining wary?
The Tip of the Iceberg
Canada is by no means our only appalled ally. On a visit to Australia earlier this year, I heard rage about Trump’s tariffs; worry about American unreliability as China antagonizes our ally Down Under; and sympathy to the point that several Aussies said they feel sorry for us. Trump’s threats to take over Denmark’s territory, Greenland, is sparking similar ire by our loyal European partner (which, by the way, lost 52 soldiers fighting alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq).
With hundreds of thousands slaughtered by Russia’s invasion and bombardments, Ukraine endures Trump’s fickle promises of aid and his outrageous, dishonest Oval Office attack on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other European nations wonder if they’re next in line for American abandonment and Russian aggression.
Canada and other countries saw first-term Trump was as maybe an anomaly, something from which America could rebound. His even more adversarial second-term actions suggest that our allies must plan for a future in which they can no longer count on us. All the while, he cozies up to corrupt autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Just One Wish
If I could make just one wish for Trump supporters who are friends and neighbors, as well as for the many millions of other MAGA backers, it would be that they talk to Canadians about why so many are flying their country’s maple leaf flags these days. In their polite way, our northern neighbors might help Americans grasp how Trump’s words and actions hurt both them and us.
Even examining the matter in a cold-hearted manner, the biggest winner in such a dialogue would be the United States. In alienating so many allies, we toss aside the “soft power” flowing from our influence, example and friendship around the world. That power has protected, strengthened and enriched us for decades. We’d accordingly benefit if more of us could see our nation through the eyes of foreigners.
Just maybe, such chats might persuade some Americans of one more vital fact: Standing by our allies and shared values is not just a matter of friendship, as crucial as that is. What’s at stake, both here and abroad, is freedom. Let’s hope that our foreign friends have the patience and that we have the perseverance to see all this through and to help each other through the challenges ahead.
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