New Thinking • May 23, 2025 This video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1992. It will remain public for only one week.  What is the origin of individual behavior and personality? Stanislav Grof proposes that individuals have systems of condensed experience (COEX systems) which become anchored to aspects of the birth trauma. He describes four different basic stages of the birth process and shows how they relate to attitudes developed later in life. Stanislav Grof is author of LSD Psychotherapy, Beyond the Brain, and The Adventure of Self-Discovery and co-author of The Human Encounter with Death. A former professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, he was scholar in residence for fourteen years at the Esalen Institute. With his late wife, Christina Grof, he has developed a psychotherapeutic approach known as Holotropic Therapy. Now you can watch all of the programs from the original Thinking Allowed Video Collection, hosted by Jeffrey Mishlove. Subscribe to the new Streaming Channel (https://thinkingallowed.vhx.tv/) and watch more than 350 programs now, with more, previously unreleased titles added weekly. Free month of the classic Thinking Allowed streaming channel for New Thinking Allowed subscribers only. Use code THINKFREELY.

Google AI Overview

Stanislav Grof identified four Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs), which correspond to the four stages of biological birth: BPM I (pre-birth in the womb), BPM II (the start of labor, cervix not yet dilated), BPM III (the baby moving through the birth canal), and BPM IV (birth and being outside the womb). These matrices also have corresponding spiritual and psychological counterparts, and Grof believed they play a significant role in shaping our lives and experiences. 

Here’s a more detailed breakdown: 

• BPM I (Pre-birth in the Womb):.Opens in new tabThis stage is characterized by a sense of cosmic unity and peace, or a “good womb” experience.
• BPM II (Start of Labor, Cervix Not Yet Dilated):.Opens in new tabThis stage is associated with feelings of being pushed against a closed, unyielding barrier, potentially leading to experiences of fear, claustrophobia, or existential angst.
• BPM III (Baby Moving Through the Birth Canal):.Opens in new tabThis stage is characterized by a struggle or a “death-rebirth” experience, as the baby moves through the birth canal.
• BPM IV (Birth and Being Outside the Womb):.Opens in new tabThis stage represents the emergence into the world, often associated with a sense of ego death and rebirth.

AI responses may include mistakes.

New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove • May 24, 2025 Loyd Auerbach, MS, received his masters’ degree in parapsychology from John F. Kennedy University. He is author of Mind Over Matter; ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook;  Psychic Dreaming: Dreamworking, Reincarnation, Out-of-Body Experiences & Clairvoyance; and Ghost Hunting: How to Investigate the Paranormal. He is co-author (with Ed May, Joseph McMoneagle, and Victor Rubel) of ESP Wars: East and West. He is the Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Rhine Research Center. His website is https://loydauerbach.com/ In this interview, rebooted for 2019, he points out that disagreement still exists among researchers as to whether or not dreams are meaningful. Psychic dreams typically feel different than other dreams. They are frequently described as “more real than real”. Nuances concerning precognitive dreams are presented. Such dreams can be life-changing – usually, but not always, in positive ways. The discussion focuses on the relationship between dream states, hypnotic states, and meditative states – leading to questions about the nature of consciousness itself. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on June 11, 2019)

HISTORY • Jan 11, 2025 Colombus has an other-worldly experience as he traverses the Atlantic, in this scene from Season 2, “Ancient Close Encounters.”

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)

Here Stanislav Grof presents a useful model of the psyche, extended by his thirty years of studying non-ordinary states of consciousness. It is useful for understanding such phenomena as shamanism, mysticism, psychedelic states, spontaneous visionary experiences, and psychotic episodes. This book might have been entitled Beyond Drugs. The second part describes the principles and processes of the non-pharmacological technique developed by the author and his late wife, Christina, for self-exploration and psychotherapy. 

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Parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach shows you how to identify telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and other psi experiences as they occur through dreams. Discover dream incubation, lucid dreaming, and symbol interpretation to solve problems, relieve stress, confront your fears, and overcome nightmares. Use your dreams to create psychic connections with your loved ones, and explore other points in time and space to create a complete picture of the person you are, the person you have been, and the person you will be in the future.

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At its core, this work presents a refreshing synthesis of modern psychological theory and the enduring relevance of Swedenborg’s 18th-century spiritual philosophy. The authors skillfully demonstrate how IFS, a cutting-edge therapeutic model developed by Richard Schwartz, aligns with and is enriched by Swedenborg’s spiritual teachings. This unexpected pairing yields fresh insights into the nature of the human mind and spirit, providing readers with a comprehensive approach to understanding and nurturing their inner world.

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The Entity Letters describes a years-long sociological investigation of a sitter group that witnessed table movements, table levitations, poltergeist phenomena, earthquake effects, and other startling physical events. The group was known as the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), founded in 1961 by John G. Neihardt, the famous poet and author of the best-selling book Black Elk Speaks. 

The red-lipped batfish is a bottom dweller, and is usually found on the sandy bottom of reefs or on the ocean floor. They can be found in the Pacific Ocean around the Galapagos Islands. Although it is capable of swimming along the seabed in search of food, the batfish’s fins are better adapted to work as pseudo-legs. These ‘legs’ are used to walk and perch on while it surveys its surroundings.

Donald Trump, Mark Twain, and another Gilded Age

Trump called the former San Francisco writer a ‘hero.’ But he kind of missed the point

By JOEL SCHECHTER

MAY 23, 2025 (48hills.org)

I’ve begun to regard Mark Twain as a fellow San Franciscan who anticipated our era’s Gilded Age long ago.

He arrived in the city by stagecoach, and praised life here in Roughing It by noting: “After the sage-brush and alkali deserts of Washoe [Nevada], San Francisco was Paradise to me.” He spent time in other parts of California, too, but Twain wrote about theatre and politics for the San Francisco Dramatic Chroniclefrom 1865-66.

(That San Francisco publication was a forerunner of the Chronicle that still publishes here; Twain’s mostly unsigned contributions to it can be read in an online archive.) The writer, formerly known as Samuel Clemens, composed brief and often humorous reports on new plays and police corruption in San Francisco. Later in other locations he went on to write novels such as Huckleberry Finn, and some admirable speeches against imperialism, racism, and war.

I now find it necessary to defend my colleague, Mark, against the prospects that his life as a social critic, journalist and satirist will be defamed by Donald Trump or his new librarian of Congress. They are liable to contend that Twain promoted DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) in some writings featuring a diverse group of Americans, and I can see Trump’s staff announcing that Twain and his supporters are no longer eligible for government humanities grants. (Twain himself never applied for such a grant, of course, but history and reality are sometimes neglected by the White House these days.)

Trump started to reinterpret (or should I say undermine?) the achievements of Twain in a July 4, 2020 speech he delivered in Nebraska, not far from Mount Rushmore, where some of the president’s supporters now want to see his face sculpted in stone. During that 2020 speech defending Confederate monuments and other “great” American culture, Trump noted:

“We are the culture that put up the Hoover Dam, laid down the highways, and sculpted the skyline of Manhattan. We are the people who dreamed a spectacular dream — it was called: Las Vegas, in the Nevada desert; who built up Miami from the Florida marsh; and who carved our heroes into the face of Mount Rushmore. … We gave the world the poetry of Walt Whitman, the stories of Mark Twain, the songs of Irving Berlin, the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, the style of Frank Sinatra, the comedy of Bob Hope, the power of the Saturn V rocket, the toughness of the Ford F-150, and the awesome might of the American aircraft carriers.”

Perhaps other Americans gave the world such writers (although America kept most of the rockets and the aircraft carriers for itself), but Trump and his censorial accomplices are now taking away access to culture, cutting and withdrawing government funds for education, the arts and cultural subsidies that allow universities, libraries, and their readers to find Twain—or his books and lectures about him, among others. (I won’t mention the other budget cuts which are far more damaging to the health and welfare of the nation; Twain by is no means the only victim here.)

The plural “we” in Trump’s claim to be a culture producer now seems a little too inclusive, since the president has started taking away more than he’s giving the public, except in tax breaks for the wealthy. San Francisco Bay area artists are among the losers of grants from NEA and NEH that are part of Trump’s massive takeback.

He could remedy the situation somewhat by restoring jobs and funds at educational and cultural centers across the country, or increasing them. He could pay for that and much more by redirecting some of the gargantuan military budget and increasing tax rates on the wealth of his family and his fellow billionaires. 

In his 2020 Mount Rushmore speech, Trump claimed Twain was one of his American heroes. I could accept his speechwriter’s words more fully if the president had praised Twain’s comic critiques of bullies (as did Conan O’Brien when accepting the Mark Twain Prize for comedy at the Kennedy Center earlier this year), or cited the writer’s objections to empire, war, stock brokers and capitalism. I also would be happy to hear that Donald Trump recently read Twain’s first novel, The Gilded Age, which was co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner in 1873, since the book anticipates the political corruption of our own new gilded age. I would be pleased to hear the White House say that novel is still accurate in its description of corrupt Washington officials.  Although Twain and Warner may have exaggerated for the sake of humor, some of what they said remains persuasive. For example:

“One of the first and most startling things you find out [in Washington] is that every individual you encounter in the City of Washington almost—and certainly every separate and distinct individual in the public employment, from the highest bureau chief, clear down to the maid who scrubs Department halls … represents Political Influence. Unless you can get the ear of a Senator, or a Congressman, or a Chief of a Bureau or Department, and persuade him to use his ‘influence’ in your behalf, you cannot get an employment of the most trivial nature in Washington. Mere merit, fitness and capability, are useless baggage to you without ‘influence.’”

I suspect this situation remains the same or worse in Trump’s Washington, where getting the “ear” of a senator or a president often requires a sizable campaign contribution. If your name is Elon Musk, you give a PAC $290 million to win the White House. If you run Qatar, you can give the president a $400 million “flying palace.” If you are Trump, you throw a $45 million presidential birthday parade, now scheduled to include tanks and other military might rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue with jets flying overhead and Trump saluting himself on June 14.

The situation would have provided Mark Twain with considerable material for a new short story (“The Celebrated Jumping President”) and given the White House new reasons to remove his name from its list of American heroes.

Twain was not entirely sanguine about life in San Francisco, either, where he wrote a number of articles about police corruption and unpleasant theatre for the Chronicle. Still, there are a street and a plaza named after him in our city, and you could say that “we” San Franciscans gave the world Mark Twain, or at least a newspaper for which he wrote.

He also gave the city and its residents some praise, although not without reservations. In 1864, after Twain visited the Hall of the San Francisco Board of Brokers, where stocks were bought and sold, he reported he was “agreeably disappointed in those brokers; I expected to see a set of villains with the signs of total depravity hung out all over them, but now I am satisfied there is some good in them, that they are not entirely and irredeemably bad.”

Although he clearly had some qualms about San Francisco’s money-changers, Twain concluded that St. Peter might even admit a few of the city’s brokers into Paradise. (Remember Twain once thought San Francisco was Paradise!) In the 1864 report on stock brokers, Twain’s St. Peter sounds a lot like Mark Twain himself when Peter tells newly deceased brokers: “I think you’ll find it sort of lonesome in heaven, for if my judgment is sound, you’ll not find a good many of your stripe in there!”

Joel Schechter is the author of several books on satire.

Rebecca Solnit proposes we take the long way home

Feminist thought leader’s ‘No Straight Road Takes You There’ takes a measured approach in unhinged times.

By LOU FANCHER

MAY 21, 2025 (48hills.org)

At a book launch May 14 hosted by Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit read an excerpt from her new book, No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain (Haymarket Books, $16.95).

“How we see the world has everything to do with what we can do in the world,” Solnit shared. “Action is shaped by vision—the frameworks through which we understand the world—or so it has long seemed to me. This is why, in my writing of the past few decades, I’ve tried to offer not just my views but what I hope can serve as equipment for anyone considering history, power, change, and possibility.”

The anthology, the writer notes in its introduction, includes essays written “over the past few years, often in response to specific circumstances—the early days of the pandemic, the criminal conviction of a rapist, the aftermath of the 2020 election.” No Straight Road ends with a concise, two-page credo and an unambiguous warning of the damage being done to the environment, feminists and other activists, social justice protections, and civil rights.

Contending that everyone is under threat from power structures aligned in opposition to much of the book’s ideas and content, she acknowledges the urge to surrender. Repeatedly, the essays shift from cataclysmic facts to anecdotes both personal and global to rousing calls to action.

“There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good,” she writes. “Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.”

Solnit, an acclaimed writer, historian, and determined activist, knows firsthand the silencing agenda of the Trump administration. Marin Shakespeare Company was set to produce a new play with music by Lauren Gunderson based on Solnit’s children’s book Cinderella: Liberator. In May, the company received an email, versions of which had been sent to hundreds of artists and arts organizations nationwide. Its $20,000 NEA grant for the production had been terminated.

Although never stated explicitly during Solnit’s discussion at the Brower Center with Daniel Aldana Cohen, founding co-director of the Climate and Community Institute, the administration’s movements to undermine free expression ran like a dark undercurrent. Indeed, the event and her new book could have been all doom—but they aren’t. Instead, Solnit inspires hope, embracing the power of unpredictability, slowness, imperfection, and two terms she suggests we all adopt:

One is “longsighted,” which she writes is “the capacity to see patterns unfold over time.” The other, as alternative to “inevitable,” is the rarely used adjective “evitable.”

Both are indicative of a more measured path that Solnit believes often leads to revolutionary, dramatic breakthroughs, and eventual victory. Temporary uncertainty is a small price to pay for longterm successful movements. Examples and arguments for the tactic can be found in most, if not all, of No Straight Road‘s essays.

To whit, “Feminism Has Just Begun” speaks to longsightedness, with Solnit recalling being in Edinburgh when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. “I took the short walk to the old St. Pancras churchyard to visit the tombstone of the great feminist ancestor Mary Wollstonecraft, author of that first great feminist manifesto, A Vindication of the Rights of Women,” she writes. “To be there that day was to remember that feminism did not start recently—Wollstonecraft died in 1797—and it did not stop on June 24, 2022.”

“Changing the Climate Story” cites statistics, including the one that most Americans mistakenly believe only a minority (37 to 43 percent) of the public support government action on climate when in actuality, according to the scientific journal Nature, 66 to 80 percent support such intervention. “That gap between perceived and actual support undermines motivation and confidence. We need better stories—and sometimes better means more up to date,” she writes.

In the Berkeley conversation with Cohen, she said, “There’s a weird habit: a lot of people on the progressive left sphere are very fond of mourning things that aren’t dead. I think people can be that way about nature.”

Overarching themes from the discussion and her book’s essays are holding hope, preserving memory, resisting simple categorization of complex issues, and considering human beings as “always in one way or another in the middle of the story.” On the future as a creative, active space, she simply states, “Each of us must find our work and do it.”

Portraying memories as intergenerational power, she posits they are forceful reminders of victorious rebellions against tyranny in the past and “the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.” Categories, Solnit writes, “to often become where thought goes to die.”

Having authored more than 20 books (Orwell’s Roses; Hope in the Dark; Men Explain Things to Me; A Paradise Built in Hell: A Field Guide to Getting Lost, and more), Solnit also serves on the board of the climate group Oil Change International, and the advisory boards of Dayenu and Third Act. All of which is to say she is unlikely to stop thinking—and acting—upon these thoughts.

Even No Straight Road’s cover serves as an opportunity to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ and non-binary communities. It’s the sixth book in a series of Solnit’s book that began with 2014’s Men Explain Things To Me. All feature designer Abby Weintraub’s big white letters, flush left, against a solid background color. This latest missive joins previous books’ red, orange, green, blue, and violet to nearly complete the rainbow from Gilbert Baker Pride flag created in the late 1970s. Solnit said she was “incredibly proud” to add No Straight Road to the slowly forming rainbow, and considers it “the world’s slowest gesture of queer solidarity.”

Buy No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain here.

Published: May 23, 2025 (TheOnion.com)

Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning,the eighth installment in the series, is expected to be another box-office smash. The Onion shares everything you need to know about the film. 

Q: Who is directing?

A: Christopher McQuarrie with a gun pointed at his head by Tom Cruise.

Q: What stunts does Tom Cruise pull off in this one?

A: He manages to deliver several monologues about a computer villain called “the Entity” while maintaining a straight face.

Q: Isn’t Tom Cruise a Scientologist?

A: No. He’s Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt.

Q: Who is the movie for?

A. The Final Reckoning is great for everyone, whether you’re a male age 18 to 24 or a male age 25 to 40.

Q: What’s the mission this time?

A: To make $800 million at the box office.

Q: Why did the film have such a high budget?

A: McQuarrie insisted on using real innocent victims for each explosion.

Q: Is Clark Gable in it?

A: No, Clark Gable unfortunately continues to be dead. 

Q: What new vehicle have they decided to stage an elaborate chase sequence with?

A: Let’s just say that if fans aren’t ready for a recumbent bicycle, then they better get ready. 

Q: Should I ask Sara if she wants to go see it with me?

A: Yes. She might say no, but the pain of rejection will be nothing compared to the pain of not knowing.

Q: Is this the last Mission: Impossible film?

A: It’s the last one with non-CGI Tom Cruise.

Q: What’s Tom Cruise’s next project?

A: Based on probability, dying in a helicopter crash.

by JohnBAlexander

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday, May 19, 2025 (Dialykos.com)

Is there any level of corruption Republicans will not accept?  The existential issue facing America is whether or not we choose to become a corrupt nation. In a mere four months the nation has experienced corruption on a scale never contemplated in our nearly 250 years of existence.  At what point are we not like a cartel armed with nuclear weapons?

In March 2008, I was attending a conference at the U.S. Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership and giving a presentation on the Implications of Intelligence Scotomas. Much of the general discussion concerned the expansion and rising prevalence of transnational criminal organizations.  Based on the observed behavior and accumulation of personal wealth by Vladimir Putin, I asked the question, “How do we deal with a criminal country- (especially one with nuclear weapons)?” Never could I have imagined that less than two decades later, the same question might be raised of the U.S.

It has long and often been speculated that Donald Trump’s administration conducts business in the style of organized crime, and with him as the Mafia Don.  It is clear that extortion and coercion are his primary modes of intimidation.  During his first term it was the attempted extortion of Volodymir Zelenskyy that led to his first impeachment. That extortion continued in his second term when he coerced   Ukraine to sign over mineral rights in exchange for continued critical arms supplies and intelligence.  Under Trump, America no longer engages in security based on principles but rather transactional economic interests.

Currently, backed by Elon Musk’s personal wealth, Trump basically is extorting all Republican members of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.  As the AP reported early on, “Elon Musk said his powerful political action committee (PAC) would ‘play a significant role in primaries.’” This overt threat resonated and was effective.  One result was that the Senate knowingly confirmed a number of the most incompetent Cabinet members in recent history. Facing similar threats, the House passed the SAVE Act that requires documentation of citizenship to register to vote.  It is a thinly disguised bill that was really aimed at voter suppression and a solution to the nearly nonexistent problem of voter fraud.

Extortion is a way of life for Trump.  Consider his ruthless assault on lawyers and their firms. As The New Republic reported, “President Trump has completed his first successful shakedown of a major law firm. The organization Paul, Weiss has agreed to a ‘deal’ with Trump in which it gives the president major concessions in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his corrupt use of state power against the firm. Speaking about this to reporters, Trump essentially said straight out that firms like these have the option to make similar ‘deals’ with him if they want to avoid getting targeted.”

Then he began extorting colleges and universities.  Some, like Columbia quickly conceded to Trump’s demands, but still lost people.  Others, including Harvard, fought back.  The extortion plot was so severe that many colleges and universities banded together in preparation for a frontal assault by the U.S. Government.  Over 230 colleges and universities signed an agreement for mutual defense against “unprecedented government overreach.” Education in general, has much to fear from Trump.  After all, he did install a completely incompetent Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, with orders to dismantle the organization.  She’s the one who famously didn’t know the difference between AI (artificial intelligence) and A1 (Steak Sauce).

Trump has also been extorting the media.  Unfortunately, ABC quickly caved in over concerns about image by their parent company, Disney, and that licenses needed to be renewed. He also sued CBS and 60 Minutes for two billion dollars because he didn’t like the way an interview was edited. The management response caused long-time executive producer, Bill Owens, to resign as he felt their integrity had been compromised.  Owens demonstrated, that unlike Shari Redstone, there still some people of moral character left in the media. The Des Moines Register was another target sued for “election interference.” That was simply because he did not like the results of a poll they published. The point of this media intimidation is to invoke fear of potential governmental suppression, especially in smaller media outlets that do not have the financial resources for extensive legal litigation.

Trump’s extortion proclivities have strategic implications as well. His dealings with NATO have nearly eliminated American credibility as well of that of NATO itself. As The Nation in February 2025 published, “Trump has broken with the bipartisan foreign policy consensus has been his belief that NATO and America’s other major alliances should be explicitly organized as protection rackets rather than as partnerships. For Trump, the function of NATO is to kick back money to the United States in terms of defense spending, deference on trade, and even outright control over member states’ natural resources. In addition, Trump wants NATO countries to kiss the ring ideologically by empowering far-right parties that share his worldview.”  They further stated, “Trump’s desire to run NATO like a Mafia boss has become undeniable.” As I indicated in an earlier article, such actions are an existential threat to all humanity.

Donald Trump’s obvious criminality goes well beyond extortion to intimidate the foundations of American democracy.  That is especially true with the blatant violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.  It states: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.  Of direct concern at the moment is that the country of Qatar offered Trump an extravagant Boeing 747 as a gift, one he would take with him on leaving office.

But that is just the beginning of Trump’s grifts and overt corruption.  Just before his inauguration, both Donald Trump and Melania created new crypto currencies. The incoming POTUS also created a meme coin that allowed anyone to invest, including foreigners. Using such assets he is enriching himself and his family by billions.  It allows for uncontrolled influence by anyone with the money and he has even sold private dinners.  It is known that there are foreign investors who have put large sums (billions of dollars) into Trump’s private enterprises.

Was that not enough, Trump has extensive private business dealings in many areas of the world. On his recent trip to the Middle East, it was noted that his sons were in the area dealing in each of the countries he visited, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. As AP reported, “The presidential visit to the region, as his children work the same part of the world for the family’s moneymaking opportunities, puts a spotlight on Trump’s willingness to embrace foreign dealmaking while in the White House, even in the face of growing concerns that doing so could tempt him to shape U.S. foreign policy in ways that benefit his family’s bottom line.”

While the Qatar airplane did evoke some limited response from Republicans, their silence on most of the grifts has been deafening. It was interesting that the Attorney General, Pam Bondi stated that keeping the airplane would be completely legal. Not widely reported was that Bondi previously was a registered foreign agent for Qatar and made millions for her efforts. Again, as I have asked my friends who are Trump supporters: “Is there any level of corruption you won’t support?”  The answer appears to be no. What should be more amazing is the response by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson who stated, “Whatever President Trump is doing is out in the open. They’re not trying to conceal anything. . . . President Trump has had nothing to hide. He’s very up front about it.”  By Congressional standards, you can be a criminal as long as you are open about it.  Of course, SCOTUS did make that true for POTUS, as long as it is an official crime. However, just being up front that you are committing an illegal act does not make it any less of a crime

Many people have noted the correlation between Trump and the Mafia.  On August 24, 2023, the New York Post headlines read La Maga Nostra. More recently Common Dreams La MAGA Nostra: Trump, the Mafia Metaphor, and the Corruption of Power. The Nation reported in a 2024 article, “just days before the presidential election, Donald Trump received an endorsement from a figure who doesn’t usually dabble in national politics: Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, former hitman and underboss for the Gambino crime family.”

The mob boss persona has long been associated with Trump.  Consider the Congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, his onetime personal lawyer and consigliere), saying, Trump ran his operation “much like a mobster would do.”   The AP reported, “In Cohen’s scathing testimony at a House committee hearing, he repeatedly described Trump, the onetime head of a family business, like a mob boss minus the body count: quick to bully and expecting others to do his dirty work. Cohen described himself as a consigliere, telling lawmakers he did Trump’s bidding for years, intimidating maybe 500 people and lying to scores, including the first lady. But Trump never directly told him to do it, he said. “He doesn’t give you questions, he doesn’t give you orders,” Cohen said. “He speaks in a code, and I understand the code because I’ve been around him for a decade.” A problem for Republicans, and MAGA members, is that they are willing to take his lies literally (he was joking about being a dictator or ending war on day one) to avoid responsibility.

That manner of discourse is obvious today.  How many times has Trump told the press “I don’t know,” when he wants to avoid discussing an inconvenient topic? “I know nothing,” is his go-to excuse to avoid responsibility.  “I don’t know,” even extended to his response when asked if he would uphold the U.S. Constitution, which is part of the oath of office.

There have long been tales of Trump’s ties to organized crime.  As an Esquire magazine article stated, “But Trump’s main industries—development, casinos, and luxury real estate—were particularly infested with organized crime. And what makes him notable is that he sometimes appeared to do more business with the mafia than was strictly necessary.”  

The critical/existential issue for the country is who are we? We must decide whether or not we have become just the largest cartel with nuclear weapons, or a democracy based on laws. The MAGA base equate personal loyalty to Trump with patriotism. Previously I have addressed fundamental problems facing senior officers in the Department of Defense. The Republicans of the US Senate cast their ballots when they confirmed the completely incompetent Signalgate offender, Pete Hegseth, for Secretary of Defense. He has already initiated a purge of flag officers, and it is clear that the primary consideration for retention and promotion will be unquestioned fealty to Trump rather than the U.S. Constitution.  Most of them have the ability to choose whether to maintain their honor and integrity by retiring rather than submitting to potentially unconstitutional orders.  In most danger are the senior field grade officers who have committed over a decade of service, want to continue to serve, and for whom retirement is not an option.

Anyone remaining in DoD in a visible capacity should be aware that they are vulnerable to the whims of Trump’s advisers such as rightwing nutcase Laura Loomer.  While totally unqualified to make military judgements, it was Loomer who appears to have inflicted severe damage on the National Security Council (NSC) by suggesting certain people “weren’t loyal enough.”  Under Trump, sycophancy, not competency, has become the most required traits. It is likely that senior officials, and military officers will continue to be confronted with illegal orders.  

The high probability of senior officers being faced with illegal orders is not hypothetical. Remember, during his first term his first term, Trump wanted to shoot missiles into Mexico and have troops shoot protestors in the legs.  These events, and more, were documented by former Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, in his memoir, A Sacred Oath. To make matters worse, Trump has removed the traditional guardrails for DoD by firing the Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy, and Air Force who were responsible for providing commanders advice on the legality of military actions.

To date, Trump has signed 143 Executive Orders (EO) and they have generated hundreds of lawsuits.  Already, it is notable how many of the EOs that he has signed since 20 January have been blocked or found unconstitutional by federal judges and even SCOTUS. While many of the issues, such as budget constraints or firings, are open to litigation, use of lethal military force cannot be reversed.  As Trump never accepts accountability, and misapplication of force will be blamed on a military officer.

Yes, this is a harsh assessment. Rationalization (that you can make things better) is not a viable option.  Remember, in Trump’s first administration there were those talented and ethical senior officials who did provide guardrails for America.  For anyone so inclined, remember the experience and fate of General John Kelly, General Jim Mattis, and General Mark Milley.  The nation owes each of them a great debt of gratitude for preservation of our Democracy.

In closing, I will advocate General Stan McChrystal’s new book, On Character.  As he pointed out on Fareed Zakaria’s GSP program Sunday morning (18 May), Trump does not possess the positive character traits required for leadership.

So, are we the transactional, unethical nation Trump portrays?  Or will we become something better? Republicans in Congress have voted for immorality of the former choice.  Now it is up to the people to demand we find our better angels.