Author: Joe Broadmeadow

The End of the World is Nigh

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

In one of the better examples of how failing to understand history can lead to repeating the same mistakes, we have this.

1960 The Catholics are Coming; The Catholics are Coming.

2025: The Muslims are Coming; the Muslims are Coming

This latest baseless hysteria arises from the election of Zohran Kwame Mamdani as Mayor of the City of New York.

In 1960, many saw John F. Kennedy as a threat to America because he was Catholic and would be subservient to the Pope. I’d love to hear Marilyn Monroe’s take on how strict a Catholic Mr. Kennedy was, but she is unavailable.

Before Kennedy there were other examples of hysterical fear based on race, national origin, or other unchangeable aspects of individuals.

No Irish Need Apply

Whites Only

And here we are amid an administration, set on widening the gaps between those who agree with their policies and those who are horrified by them, doing everything it can to fuel this raging inferno of ignorance and intolerance.

And the good ole’ evangelical Christians are right there leading the ‘moral’ charge. The “all men are created equal” line in the founding documents be damned,

I would venture to say much of this fear and loathing arises from those Christians who—having never actually read the Bible, or even a Cliff Notes version—fail to embrace the nuanced allegory of religious doctrines and went right to the inerrant word of God version. They are driven by the same religious hysteria that caused the Crusades, witch hunts, and the stoning of heretics.

And they add the finishing touch of wrapping themselves in the flag of patriotism.

That they cannot see the contradiction in their proclamations is astounding.

“Mamdani is a democratic socialist!” they scream, making the same mistake as those who embraced McCarthyism, lumping the propaganda-driven definitions of communism and socialism and bundling them into one. Given the challenge to define either term, they’d fail. Most would point to countries like Russia, China, or North Korea as examples of communist or socialist states.

They are not. In the history of the world, no true communist or socialist state has ever existed.

Communism is defined as,

“a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned, and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.”

Socialism is defined as,

“a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”

Some aspects of these systems sound attractive; the problem is that every form of government involves people, and they are not naturally inclined to live in such systems.

Democratic Socialism is defined as,

“Democratic socialism is a socialist economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers’ self-management within a market socialist, decentralised planned, or democratic centrally planned socialist economy.”

Not if you can set aside your fear-based revulsion of socialism, and take a step back, you would see we have a blended version of a socialist democracy. We have a free-market economy with many restrictions and controls in place. Just a brief look back in history at the abuse of labor by big businesses, the monopolies created in some industries, and the environmental damage done absent legislated controls will demonstrate the reality.

Whether Mr. Mandami is a Muslim, a Christian, or a non-believer does not, by our laws and practices, matter. All that matters is he follows the laws and rules of government in setting policies.

Whenever I hear the nonsense claims that “sharia” law is coming to New York, I find it hard to believe there are people who believe such idiocy.  Then again, many of these are the same people who would welcome a Christian-based government imposing Christian-based rules and morality on the nation.

They are blind to their own hypocrisy. But, just in case, they are investing some money in a Pakastani company that exports hijabs.

SNAP: Myths vs. Reality in Income Support

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In the wailing and gnashing of teeth over SNAP, reality and some interesting numbers are being ignored. The overwhelming majority of people eligible for SNAP are low-income families with children, the disabled, or those over 60 years of age with minimal income.  https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-provides-critical-benefits-to-workers-and-their-families

Some want to cast all SNAP beneficiaries as a drain on the economy by lazy grifters. Reality paints a different picture.

On average 28-48% of SNAP recipients report earnings in the prior month, 80% in the prior 12 months.

Wait, they’re working AND getting benefits? Yes, because they earn under the maximum income to qualify. For a family of 4 that is $2680/month take home pay. The poverty level in 2025 is,

Single: $15650

Married: $21150

Family of 4: $32150

Thus, the MAXIMUM amount they can earn to qualify is only $10.00 higher than the poverty level.

To put the minimum social security benefit in perspective (based on years of coverage rather than average earnings), a family would receive a monthly payment of $1642 if one worked thirty years.

This all relates to the decades’ long decline in lower wage earnings (with a corresponding rise in corporate and executive compensation) and, most recently, a decline in college-educated wage earnings, a first in history.

To put this in perspective, the current Federal minimum wage is $7.50. Working full time would earn $15,600 (lower than the Federally designated poverty level.)

But wait! Minimum wage was never intended for adults, right, they argue. It’s for kids working part-time jobs. Okay, let’s double the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. Full-time employment generates $31.200 in income, still below the minimum poverty level for a family of four.

Adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage should be $26.00 an hour, putting these things in perspective. I’m not arguing it should be raised to that, but it should be considered when discussing why we have such a need for programs like SNAP to aid people who work. A need equal across all the states, red and blue, in a country with a Thirty Trillion-dollar GDP. The largest economy in history.

SNAP funding is not the problem. The fact that such need exists in this country with a government unwilling to face and address the real cause is the problem.

The real culprit is corporate greed.

Exploring Deep Space: The Dance of Light and Time

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Whenever the weather permits, which around here is quite infrequent, I try to take advantage and get some photos of Deep Space Objects (DSO) or the planets. One of the aspects I miss from Arizona was in the three years we were there, we might have had three nights where the weather prohibited being outside. But it is what it is.

As the weather now cools, one of the bonuses of our new location is a large gas fire pit. This offers two benefits. First, it keeps me warm while the cameras gather the light from millions of light-years away, and second, it offers a view of something humans have gazed at for eons, the plasma flame, to consider things.

Hidden within the flame is the essence of the universe.

Thus, I can be relatively comfortable while I wait to gather the images that produce these finished pictures.

It struck me that the fuel burning to produce the flame likely derived from the remains of dinosaurs that were alive when the light from some of these stars and objects first began their journey to end up captured by my camera.

I was literally enjoying both the beginning moment and end times of this light.

NGC 4631

This image of NGC 4631, taken over 50 minutes of 10-second exposures, shows the light from that galaxy that left around 50 million years ago during the Eocene epoch. This was when many of the predecessors of modern mammals thrived.

It was likely that I was converting the atoms of carbon and hydrogen, formed in the nuclear furnace of the first stars, that once were inside the cells of living creatures, alive when the light from this galaxy first left the system, and sending it back out into the universe as heat.

Or at least sending it out after it kept me warm.

Quite frankly, sitting under the stars renews my faith in the future. When one considers all the cataclysmic events that had to come together for the atoms within all of us to travel the immense distances they did and evolve into the beings we have all become, it would seem nature has better things in store for us than just some of the nonsense we seem to focus on daily.

We should all take a moment, on a dark, cloudless night, to look up at the stars and remember that is where we all came from and where we will all return.

Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return. Momento mori.

My Sarcasm ruffled some feathers

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A lightly sarcastic post on Facebook about the ineptness of certain members of the Trump administration, illustrated with an image of the Three Stooges, brought an unusually virulent torrent of criticism from those who blindly and enthusiastically support this administration.

Now I enjoy these moments, but I thought I should explain the facts and reasons behind the sarcasm and criticism of the administration.

These individuals rising to the defense of the President seem to be thrilled by the specter of the American military being tasked with blowing up boats, ostensibly trafficking in narcotics, with little evidence other than a few war whoops from the Secretary of War and similar chest pounding by Mr. Trump.

So, let’s play devil’s advocate here.

Assuming these boats are transporting drugs—and in all likelihood they are, but that is beside the point—how effective will this policy be in interdicting the flow of narcotics into the United States?

Here are some interesting facts from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to ICE, 95% of Fentanyl is seized at Points of Entry (P.O.E.). The overwhelming majority of which are land-based border crossings or airports.

Of the Sea-based routes, 75% are Pacific Marine Routes.

China plays an integral part in providing precursor chemicals to Mexico, where the majority of Fentanyl is produced and then smuggled into the US through P.O.E.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, 90 percent of heroin seized along the border, 88 percent of cocaine, 87 percent of methamphetamine, and 80 percent of fentanyl in the first 11 months of the 2018 fiscal year were caught trying to be smuggled in at legal crossing points, and that trend has continued.

While other means are certainly used, including boats offloading offshore and coming in under cover of darkness, the statistics are a good indication of the preferred methods of smuggling.

Because most fentanyl seizures occur at ports of entry, the majority of fentanyl is smuggled by people who can enter the United States legally. These individuals can evade detection by posing as normal travelers entering or re-entering the United States. As a result, transnational criminal organizations tend to recruit U.S. citizens, who receive the least scrutiny on entry.

From FY 2018 through FY 2024, over 92 percent of all fentanyl was seized either at a port of entry or at a Border Patrol vehicle checkpoint.

Importantly, fentanyl seizures peaked in spring 2023 and have been declining since. CBP fentanyl seizures hit record levels in April 2023 at 3,220 pounds. Although the exact reason is not yet clear, seizures fell nearly every month after that, and by March 2025, had dropped to just 760 pounds. This drop in seizures occurred almost entirely at ports of entry, with nationwide Border Patrol fentanyl seizures in April 2025 (133 pounds) remaining at roughly the same levels as April 2024 (140 pounds) and April 2023 (137 pounds), despite dramatically fewer migrant crossings.

Evidence suggests that less fentanyl may be coming into the country because there is less demand for it in the U.S. as opioid overdoses fell dramatically in 2024, with official CDC data through November 2024 showing that overdose deaths dropped in all but two states (Arizona and Hawaii). Should these trends continue, it suggests the worst of the fentanyl crisis may be behind us.https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/fentanyl-smuggling/

This policy of targeting drug boats in international waters focuses on the least common method of smuggling drugs into the country. Perhaps, if one can believe the information from DEA and ICE, by not stripping resources away from P.O.E. and redirecting them to capturing Walmart shelf stockers and McDonald’s hamburger flippers, we could focus on the routes delivering the overwhelming majority of drugs to the US and, perhaps, catch more Americans who are active and willing participants.

Mr. Trump’s administration may lack many things, but creativity is not one of them. They crafted a convenient end run around domestic law and inconvenient principles like Posse Comitatus and designated organizations like Tren de Aqua as terrorist organizations and declared them as enemies engaged in attacks on US sovereignty.

In this particular instance, I agree with them. When Nixon declared drugs to be “public enemy number one” and started the War on Drugs campaign, it was anything but a war. Like other failed policies with good intentions, it lacked a clear purpose, a clear method of application, and a clear goal.

It was never a war.

Mr. Trump’s designating the issue as one of armed aggression against the United States is a wise one, but it shouldn’t be the basis for derailing our system of justice and, at the very least, should operate under the rules of war.

The United States, unlike many other nations, always weighs the value and purpose of a military action against the risk to innocent civilians. The history of the world reflects very few countries that do so. Yet even the United States resists some limits imposed by well-articulated international law.

One of those is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This defines the principle of self-defense in international waters. UNCLOS+ANNEXES+RES.+AGREEMENT

The principle of self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter only allows the use of force against an imminent threat. It is hard to see how a drug-laden speedboat in international waters hundreds of miles from U.S. territory posed an imminent threat to the United States. (Interestingly enough, the US Congress, despite decades of lobbying by other Presidents and supporters, refuses to ratify this treaty.)

With the level of surveillance sophistication available to the military, tracking these boats to our territorial waters, then interdicting them by whatever means necessary, including destruction, would not only be lawful but also offer the kind of proof needed to justify the actions.

And maybe, in our on-again off-again relationship with China, our on-again agreement on trade can be expanded to get the Chinese to cooperate in stopping the flow of precursor chemicals.

Thus, my criticism and sarcasm are based not on the method or goal of this policy, but that they are focusing on the least effective methods and areas at risk. And the process and willingness to ignore accepted military and civilian law enforcement protocols is clearly un-American.

Why, you might ask, should we care about some smugglers getting blasted out of the water when it is clear they are trafficking? Because if we are willing to accept that blurring of the lines, where does it end?

The Founding Fathers were wise in devising our form of government. Power is not concentrated in any one branch. If we allow one branch to ignore that balance, and subvert the equal parts of government, we face a reduction in our rights and an inexorable march toward totalitarianism.

In simplest terms, you can blow up all the boats you like, twelve miles off the coast, as long as you follow our laws.

“Fortunately, I keep my feather numbered for just such an occasion.”

Let’s Just Kill ‘em All, God Will Sort Them Out

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

The score so far is:

US Military 8 – Alleged Drug Boats 0

We’re off to an undefeated season.

Due process is such a woke thing. About time someone ignored it for a more expedient form of American Justice. Something those Central and South American countries apparently don’t remember, but we are reminding them.

Don’t make us come back there like we did before. Our CIA has a long memory and plenty of new tools. Nobody wants that again, do you?

But what do you expect by sending your poison to our country? And don’t give me that “we wouldn’t sell it if Americans weren’t buying it and making money” nonsense. You are doing this to yourselves.

I mean, if it looks like a drug-carrying boat, operates like a drug-carrying boat, and is located on the common course of drug-carrying boats, what else could it be? A fishing boat? Come on, be serious.

Three strikes and we have every right to turn you into a thoroughly disassembled with extreme prejudice former drug carrying boat.

Right?

Sure, the unintended consequences may drive up the cost of fish in some areas of South America, but who cares? We can send our American fishing boats there to sell fish to them and we won’t make them pay any tariffs on it for the service.

Why should we wait to have incontrovertible evidence of their purpose?

Why should we have to wait for them to enter our jurisdictional waters before we use one of our very effective weapon systems and obliterate them?

What did you say? “What if we tried the same logic?” Is that some kind of threat? It’s a foolish one.

I can’t imagine you’d be so naïve as to target one of our commercial fishing vessels and blow them up. You must realize that would be a Trump-Hesgeth wet dream come true. They’ve been itching for a war of their own to prove the effectiveness of their concept of lethality.

But we know what you’ll do, nothing. You’ll just wail and gnash your teeth over the unfairness in the balance of power.

And now that we’ve found an effective deterrent, why stop there?

I mean, if we know somebody is dealing drugs and we know where they are and we know when they’ll be there, let’s dispense with the formalities of due process and just kill ‘em.

Come to think of it, what better way to decrease the prison population? I mean, with a recidivism rate of 66% (the highest in the world, woo-hoo! we’re number 1) and the highest incarceration rates (woo-hoo, we’re also number 1), our current get-tough approach to lock ‘em up ain’t working. We keep making the mistake of letting them go.

But wait, there’s more.

What if we made every felony a death penalty case, especially if we do it at the time of the arrest? Think of all the money and time we could save. Sure, there’ll be a lot of unemployed judges and correctional officers. Still, there’ll be plenty of jobs open on American fishing vessels plying the waters off Central and South America, or at companies building new boats for the Central and South Americans who actually want to fish.

And on the odd chance that we kill an innocent person (something that probably has happened with the death penalty, but doesn’t diminish its deterrent effect, right?) our faith as a Christian nation will soothe our troubled souls with the comforting thought they are safely in the hands of a loving American flag wrapped God.

After all, we are the real chosen people, as the Bible says.

I do wonder about something though.

We do have incontrovertible evidence that the Chinese, and perhaps some American companies, provide many of the precursor chemicals producing these drugs.

Haven’t seen us sink one Chinese freighter yet. Or send DEA or the FBI after those American companies, perhaps due to their largesse in political contributions. Or I guess the agents are too busy deporting the entire McDonald’s and Walmart workforce and making us safer. I certainly feel safer knowing it wasn’t me who couldn’t understand what the drive-up at McDonald’s was saying when I wanted a cheeseburger. Damn foreigners, speak English!

Or could it be something else?

It’s easier to pick on the ones who can’t fight back. It’s the favorite tactics of schoolyard bullies. Just out of curiosity, I wonder where the masks ICE agents wear are produced? The irony would be too much to bear if it’s China, but bringing those jobs home could balance the budget and help pay for the Trump Ball Room.

I say we go for broke and use all those expensive weapon systems at home (but far enough away so the left-wing media doesn’t start posting images of bodies with some reassembly required floating in the water) instead of giving them to other countries.

P.S. Speaking of the Trump Taj Mahal Ballroom and Bankers Banquet Facility, will the first dance between Donald and Melania be accompanied by the theme from Beauty and the Beast?

But it Says it in the Bible

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Of all the terrifying trends under the umbrella of Mr. Trump, the rise of Christian Nationalism is the most sinister and dangerous. It is a descent into the vortex of anti-science, anti-knowledge, anti-enlightenment leading to a society run by dominant males and subservient females.

In a country of 300 million people with access to modern medicine, terabytes of data, and instant worldwide communication, a significant number still believe in signs, astrology, magic, angels, and Biblical abiogenesis.

These fundamentalists, preying on these dark ages beliefs, would drag us back into the era of witchcraft and demons with their medieval philosophies.

Their authority for such a philosophy resides in a book translated from ancient languages to Greek, Latin, German, and English, with hundreds of versions and conflicting translations of the text. And keep in mind that for most of the period since the first written versions of the Bible were translated into Latin, the lingua franca of the church, it was a sin punishable by death to translate it into a language anyone outside the clergy could read.

And when these Christian Nationalists offer Mr. Trump as the one to battle the rise of this mythical Anti-Christ, it goes beyond the hysterical to tragic.

Trump is the least likely of any to be an example of Christian piety or defender of the faith. Even if he had the good fortune to be around during the time of Jesus Christ and heard him speak, his only chance at entering heaven would be to ride one of the crosses in the back row. Redemption by way of good timing rather than a shining paragon of the faith.

Which leads me to wonder why people fail to see the contradiction in that story. If we assume the circumstances of the crucifixion to be accurate, those two criminals on the crosses in the back row didn’t need to seek redemption, didn’t need to repent, didn’t need to do anything but have the good/bad fortune to be crucified at the same time as Jesus. Hmm.

But putting Mr. Trump and other contradictions aside for the moment—oh, that I wish that to be possible—let’s look at this authority.

The version of the Bible most people are familiar with, the King James Version (KJV), was a product of, wait for it, political intrigue. James, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, needed to shore up his power with the ardent Scots, who hated the English Catholics, and with the other various factions.

Meanwhile, the Protestants created their own version in the Geneva Bible. And in an interesting side note to the history of the Bible in America, it was the Geneva Bible that accompanied the Pilgrims to America.

Here’s the same passage in the KJV and Geneva Bible.

Isaiah 7:14 1599 Geneva Bible
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel.

KJV
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Not a lot of difference, but how can the inerrant word of God be different depending on who is doing the translation?

Just for fun, here’s a version from the Orthodox Jewish Bible.

Yeshayah 7:14
14 Therefore Hashem Himself shall give you an ot (sign); Hinei, HaAlmah (the unmarried young virgin) shall conceive, and bear Ben, and shall call Shmo Immanu El (God is with us)

Here’s the same verse in the New Revised Edition Anglicized Catholic Edition

Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

Now here is where it gets interesting. The whole virgin thing has a glitch. In the original Hebrew, the word in the verse is “alma” which means young woman. Other words represent “virgin” such as “betulah.” Why is “alma” translated as ‘virgin’ in most versions, you might ask? And why do we call him Jesus instead of Immanuel or Shmo Immanu El?

Again, the politics of power and control.

The Catholic Church in 451 A.D. was the dominant force in the known world. There were factions and disagreements, so a meeting was called to resolve and consolidate the faith into one doctrine. The Council of Chalcedon.

You may have heard about an earlier meeting, the Council of Nicaea, which resolved the issue of the dual nature of Jesus. At the time, some believed God to be eternal and Jesus to be created by God, also eternal but only from the point of his creation. The Council at Nicaea said nope. Jesus and God are the same; thus, the beginning of the Holy Trinity, or at least leading to more creative interpretations to concoct that myth.

By 451 A.D., more heretics began teaching conflicting doctrines, an intolerable situation to Rome, thus a more refined explanation arose from this new council.

1. God the Father almighty and in
2. Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord,
3. who was born of the holy Spirit and the virgin Mary.

“These three statements wreck the tricks of nearly every heretic. When God is believed to be both almighty and Father, the Son is clearly proved to be co-eternal with him, in no way different from the Father, since he was born God from God, almighty from the Almighty, co-eternal from the Eternal, not later in time, not lower in power, not unlike in glory, not distinct in being. The same eternal, only-begotten of the eternal begetter was born of the holy Spirit and the virgin Mary. His birth in time in no way subtracts from or adds to that divine and eternal birth of his: but its whole purpose is to restore humanity, who had been deceived, so that it might defeat death and, by its power, destroy the devil who held the power of death. Overcoming the originator of sin and death would be beyond us, had not he whom sin could not defile, nor could death hold down, taken up our nature and made it his own. He was conceived from the holy Spirit inside the womb of the virgin mother. Her virginity was as untouched in giving him birth as it was in conceiving him. ” The Council of Chalcedon – 451 A.D.

The reality of an eternal God and of Jesus —the key to everlasting life —was the source of the Church’s authority. John 14:6 (KJV) “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Her virginity was as untouched in giving him birth as it was in conceiving him.

The Council of Chalcedon – 451 A.D.

But some thought of Jesus and God as separate. The council put an end to this heresy. “Whilst remaining pre-existent, he begins to exist in time.” More illogical contortions to prove the impossible.

But that wasn’t enough to satisfy the needs of religious abhorrence of earthly pleasures. Jesus could not be tainted by such things.

“By an unprecedented kind of birth, because it was inviolable virginity which supplied the material flesh without experiencing sexual desire. What was taken from the mother of the Lord was the nature without the guilt. And the fact that the birth was miraculous does not imply that in the lord Jesus Christ, born from the virgin’s womb, the nature is different from ours. The same one is true God and true man. … Her virginity was as untouched in giving him birth as it was in conceiving him. The Council of Chalcedon – 451 A.D.

And the subsequent translations of the Bible were molded to fit the doctrine.

If one wants to submit a document as evidence in court, one must prove both its origin and authenticity. We have hundreds of court cases trying to interpret the language of the Constitution, and that is in the original English.

Why would any modern nation, or world for that matter, choose to ignore science and enlightenment and base a society on a book of questionable origin, with myriad interpretations, and modified over the millennia by organizations with a stake in the results?

Because it’s in the Bible?

P.S. Another interesting tidbit. The American Standard Edition of 1952 used the words “young woman” instead of “Virgin.” It took the fundamentalists until 1978 to get it changed. Biblical politics? Who knew?

New Novel by Joe Broadmeadow

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Release Date: November 1, 2025

A captivating new novel by the author of Silenced Justice and A Change of Hate

East Providence Police Detective Lieutenant Josh Williams is back in a stunning new story. Josh faces everyone’s worst nightmare…he may not be who he thinks he is.

A gripping and multifaceted crime investigation unfolds, centered on a series of brutal murders involving dismembered victims in East Providence, Rhode Island.

The case intricately connects to a cold kidnapping and murder case from the 1970s, revealing deep personal, forensic, and institutional complexities.

Law enforcement officers, including state and local detectives and federal agents, collaborate to unravel the dark history, confront unimaginable horrors, while navigating political pressures, legal challenges, and psychological insights to bring justice to the victims.

Pre-order: Click here

All books by Joe Broadmeadow: Click here

To order signed copies, send an e-mail to Joseph.Broadmeadow@gmail.com

An Unforced Error

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

If Mr. Trump has a unique talent as President it is the ability to ruin moments of true statesmanship with pettiness and vindictiveness.

Mr. Trump’s bringing the Peace Agreement together in Gaza is a significant accomplishment. I dare say it may warrant a Nobel Peace Prize for ending, at least for the moment, the terrors rained on that land by Israel and Hamas.

Whether it lasts or not, and history doesn’t offer much hope in these matters, is immaterial.

Whether Biden deserves some credit for starting the process is meaningless.

Whether the success was more timing–with Netanyahu accomplishing his purpose of utter destruction of the area to render Hamas ineffective regardless of the cost in innocent lives–than anything else is academic. To argue that Israel’s response was appropriate is to ignore reality. To justify or excuse the attack by Hamas that triggered the response because of the treatment of Palestine is abhorrent.

The fact remains that President Trump cajoled, threatened, persuaded, and convinced Israel and Hamas that ending the war was in both their interests, no matter how diametrically opposed those interests are.

But Mr. Trump cannot help being Mr. Trump the serial complainer. At his speech following the signing of the agreement, when a statesman would have intuitively known it was a rare moment of agreement that this was a good thing, Mr. Trump could not stop himself from going from talking about ending the hostilities to complaining about Joe Biden and Barrack Obama.

Had Mr. Trump acknowledged, as anyone with an iota of common sense would know, that the previous administration crafted the basics of the agreement, it would have done two things. First, it would demonstrate some fundamental understanding of the decades-long complexities of the regions. And, secondly, it would silence his most ardent opponents who delight in pointing out a lack of such understanding.

But he didn’t.

There is little hope that this is the end of the cycle of violence in the area. Ever since the nitwits who created the artificial borders and took the land for the Jews after World War II, the situation has been like a volcano erupting when the pressure grows too powerful to be contained.

I am no fan of Mr. Trump. I have no doubt the damage he continues to wreak on this country and the rest of the world will far outweigh any good actions such as this agreement. But he deserves our respect for bringing this to fruition.

The tragic part is he will not build on this moment. He will not use this as a basis for further successful actions on domestic or foreign matters. He has surrounded himself with trained parrots whose only job is to agree with him on everything.

Even those in his cabinet smart enough to see the opportunity here, merely repeat the party line.

Lincoln had his team of rivals, and they served him and the country well. Trump has his carnival of perfect charlatans, and they remain silent in the face of each moment of success wasted by Presidential obstinacy.

The Most American Thing

/ Joe Broadmeadow / 3 Comments

“I hear a train a’comin’…”

By most estimates (except, of course, by those who routinely produce attendance numbers of the crowds at MAGA Events that are beyond believable), seven million Americans took to the streets all across the country to protest the abomination that is the Trump Administration.

And the reactions of those who support Mr. Trump were pathetically predictable.

Speaker Mike Johnson called them “unAmerican.”

Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins wrote on X,

“Good Morning to my fellow Americans who are celebrating No Kings Day today. While most of us celebrate this reality on July Fourth, you do you.”

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas Collins.

Note to Mr. Collins and Mr. Johnson.

The Fourth of July celebrates the end of the Revolutionary War where we fought to rid ourselves of a King. It was the culmination of decades of protests and resistance over unfair government policies and the use of military troops occupying the cities and towns in America. Actions that ultimately ended with troops firing upon protesting civilians under orders of this Monarch.

Perhaps you missed this in history class. Perhaps you prefer willful ignorance. Perhaps, since you enjoy the favor of this wannabe King, you long for a return to a monarchy.

Does any of this sound familiar? Could this be one of those moments of history that rhyme?

There is nothing more American than peacefully protesting the wrongful actions of the government. You’ll also notice the lack of violence by these millions of Americans and the low number of arrests. These protests are clearly anti-fascist in nature, yet none of these protests in any way resembled the actions of a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that calls for the overthrow of the U.S. government…” as Mr. Trump has designated them.

Mr. Trump sees opposition to his policies as anarchy, something to be suppressed by all means. Those of us who have actually read the Constitution and support it understand better that these disagreements are the very foundation of our success.

At least up to this point in history, the future is more precarious.

Perhaps Mr. Johnson would have preferred these protests take the form of violent storming of the US Capitol building and the threatened lynching of government officials? It is clear Mr. Trump, by pardoning the J6 insurrectionists, and Mr. Johnson, by supporting such actions, prefer that form of “American” protests.

Their concept of a patriot also has precedents in history, generally attired in brown shirts and particularly proficient at breaking glass.

We should take heart in the number of Americans peacefully voicing their open disgust at this march toward totalitarianism. Seven million Americans of courage and conviction took the most patriotic of actions and “petitioned their government for a redress of their grievances.” Something those patriots of the Revolutionary War gave their lives to obtain for future generations, Mr. Collins, but you’ll ignore that reality out of blind fealty to your dear leader.

Take heart, for this large gathering of Americans is the sign of hope rising.

Come this mid-term election, and, more importantly, the next Presidential election, the world we see that the American people can weather the worst of storms raging against us, even those we create ourselves, and restore these United States to the country our forebearers intended it to be.

Mr. Trump and his maniacal band of charlatans will become just another scab on a long history of self-inflicted wounds in this country, soon enough to heal and fade away.

Understanding the Implications of Political Indictments

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

Let Me Get This Straight

For the sake of argument, let’s assume the following statements are true and accurate. 

Using government resources to target political adversaries is antithetical to the Constitution.

The Biden Justice Department was weaponized against its political opponents.

These are the contentions of the current administration.

Then how does compelling the Justice Department, by firing anyone still there with a conscience and a grasp of constitutional law and the concept of separation of powers, to indict political adversaries differ?

If two wrongs do not make a right, will continuing to do the wrong thing eventually make it right?

The reality is this administration, and its supporting cast of sycophants who are without a shred of integrity or conscience, firmly believes that to be true. They also believe that if they think it, it is true, and if they say it, it is true, and demand that everyone accept this as true, without any dissent or resistance.

Resistance is not only futile, it is anti-American.

It will be a pleasure to watch the trial of Mr. Comey, if it ever comes to that point. I still have faith that a reasonable District Court Judge, when presented with the facts of this case, will take more time reaching for the pen to sign the order dismissing the case than they need to determine it should be dismissed with prejudice.

P.S. If you’d like to know what’s coming next, read Project 2025, as I have been saying since I first read it. To borrow a phrase from Churchill, “this isn’t the end, this isn’t the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning…”