Why Fox News viewers believe lies.

"Garbage in, garbage out."
     A computer science axiom

Democrats sometimes shake their heads in wonderment: How can Trump supporters possibly believe so many false things?

Answer: They are fed garbage.

Here is a current example.

Beginning Sunday afternoon, amid news of the manhunt for Vance Boelter, the chief suspect in the Minnesota shooting of Democratic legislators, I looked at how Trump-friendly media were handling its description of Boelter. 

U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R. Utah) went public quickly with a tweet positing an explanation/motive: 

“This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,”

He followed up suggesting that Democratic Governor Tim Walz was at fault, with a pun and movie allusion: "Nightmare on Waltz [sic] Street."

The shooter is a Marxist? Really? 

Lee's Senate colleagues complained, and social media erupted. calling Lee's comments false and a poor subject for humor. Senator Lee was wrong, but he was the vanguard of the MAGA media environment's frame of the shootings, even though he took some heat for it. 

Fox News and One America News Network took the same approach as Senator Lee. On air and in their digital platforms they said the shooter was a Trump opponent. After all, his car had contained fliers on the "No Kings" protests along with the names and home addresses of multiple additional Democrats. Fox and OANN noted that Walz had renewed the appointment of Boelter to a large citizen Workplace Advisory Board. So Democrats must be out shooting Democrats. 

The device each network used for blaming Democrats was the reaction of a former Minnesota Vikings football player, Jack Brewer who they made the local man-on-the-ground expert on Minnesota politics. He was central to their frame.

Here is Fox:

Here is OANN:

They asserted Brewer was enforcing orthodox politics on fellow Democrats.

Fox quotes Brewer:

On this Father’s Day, I wish Minnesota would focus on restoring fatherhood — protecting women, protecting families. Tim Walz is the example of a weak, emasculated leader. That is not what God made fathers to be. 

It’s pathetic. It’s terrible. The root cause of all of this is evil. When you’re willing to attack, ridicule, riot and protest anyone who believes something different — even in your own party — you’ve gone too far. The Democrats have gone so far left that if you’re not a raging liberal, you’re under attack. They are forcing everyone in the party to conform.

So in a news environment in which a man with an ample social media presence as an evangelical Christian and anti-abortion activist kills Democrats, the story in conservative media is that a too-liberal Democrat is killing Democrats because Governor Walz isn't masculine enough.

The Wall Street Journal, the Murdoch media outlet for people who read and invest, published a thought piece this morning. It is a "both sides do it" article that equated Trump praising January 6 rioters who tried to stop an election by attacking the U.S. Capitol, and their subsequent pardon by Trump, with young hooligans burning cars in Los Angeles, which Democratic leaders condemn and prosecute. 

He’s a buddy of Gov. Tim Walz who might have been motivated by some state-legislative chicanery over illegal immigration. No, he's a Trump-supporting Democrat-loathing, pro-life extremist. It seems likely as we learn more that the latter is a closer fit, but does it matter? The other side will surely get the villain it longs for next time.

Darned right the latter is a closer fit. One is true and the other false. They aren't equivalent. 

Does it matter? Yes, it does matter. One informs an electorate. The other misinforms it. 

Garbage in, garbage out.

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Protest in Medford. Deja vu for boomers

"Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!"

         Paul Simon, "Kodachrome," 1973

 

Thousands of people lined the sidewalks along McAndrews Road in Medford. People carried signs and waved at cars.  Nothing bad happened. 

I suppose, at age 75, I was older than the average person there on the sidewalk on Saturday. There was a woman who pointed out her teen-age children. There was a woman with a baby stroller. There were a few people in the 50s and 60s, and they seemed young to me.

But I cannot avoid observing the obvious: The Flag Day protest was primarily populated by people more or less my age. Not Gen Z. Not Millennials. Not even Gen X. There weren't any boisterous teenagers or rowdy young men looking for fun, adventure, or trouble. I didn't see young families.

I didn't see people who looked like I would have looked back when I attended Vietnam War protests. I was having too much fun on Saturday to notice the lack of young people, but I notice it now as I look at the photos and it worries me.

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Easy Sunday: Muhammad Ali

For today, take a moment to look back.

Tomorrow I will show photos from the "No Kings" protest in Medford, Oregon. People two-and-three-deep lined both sides of the broad McAndrews Road sidewalks for over a half mile. It was a pleasant summer morning, a great feel-good event.

People wanted to show patriotic resistance to an unjust government.

Today, for a Fathers Day "Easy Sunday" post, let's refresh our memories, and take a bit of inspiration from another time and another example of patriotic resistance, that of Muhammad Ali. 

The year was 1967. He was the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He refused to be drafted into the army, claiming conscientious objector status and opposition to America's war in Vietnam. He was convicted of draft evasion. It was four years before the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. In the meantime, he was stripped of his boxing title. He lost the best four years of his boxing career.

He said his fight wasn't with the Vietcong. It was with oppression here at home:

"I'm not going to run away. I'm not going to burn any flags. I'm not going to Canada. I'm staying right here.

“You want to send me to jail? Fine. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for four or five more, but I’m not going to travel 10,000 miles to kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, fighting you if I need to. You’re my enemy, not the Chinese, not the Vietcong, not the Japanese. You’re my opponent when I want freedom. You’re my opponent when I want justice. You’re my opponent when I want equality.

“You want me to fight for you? But you won’t even defend my rights or my religious beliefs right here in America. You won’t even stand up for me at home."

Here is actor Will Smith in the role of Muhammad Ali in the movie "Ali."

Click: 39 seconds

We are at a perilous time for the country. President Trump is smashing through norm, laws, and the Constitution. He has supporters who applaud him doing this. The Congress isn't stopping him. The courts might. But the real bulwark against a lawless president is the people who make clear that they won't tolerate it. 

We may be the majority of Americans.

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June 14 Protests. Be careful out there.

Stay on the sidewalks.

Stay back from streets.

Don't block traffic.

There is an idea out there in MAGA-land that it is OK to kill Democrats accidently-on-purpose. 

Make it hard for them.

Democrats might be blind to it if they don't watch Fox News and other MAGA-friendly media. The Democrats-are-fair-game idea is openly praised by Florida officials who get lots of play on Fox. Florida passed a law protecting drivers claim to feel threatened by protesters. Just plow into them, Governor Ron DeSantis said. He presented drivers as being in peril. "You have a right to flee for safety," he said. "You don't have to sit there and just be a sitting duck and let the mob grab you out of our car and drag you through the streets."

President Trump validated political violence on behalf of MAGA when he pardoned and praised the January 6 capitol rioters. They were justified in attacking police. They were going after Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi -- a worthy cause for patriots.

Last night's assassination attempt of two Democratic legislators  exemplifies the new zeitgeist of political violence. Trump made light of the invasion of Nancy Pelosi's home by a man hoping to kidnap her, a man who fractured the skull of her husband.

Meanwhile, far right groups go back and forth about whether to attack today's protesters or, alternatively, to stay away from the protests lest they become a sympathetic optic for the protesters. That was the position of Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Kepers. Others advocate engagement with the protests. The Wall Street Journal reports on "a meme circulating on Telegram channels of groups affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys. 'Shoot a couple, the rest will go home.'" 

I don't know if local demonstrators in my Medford, Oregon home are at risk. I received one email that suggests that at least one person is looking for an excuse to "defend himself." I consider it more a warning than a threat:

The party is over for you progressive motherfuckers. I kind of hope that the grey-haired communist motherfuckers from Ashland would come into Medford and create a violent ruckus. Citizens will be ready for them, and will put them out of their misery. 

Citizens like that are out there. 

The law is no protection against them except, perhaps, after the fact, but I am choosing not to hide. The goal of authoritarian leaders and their MAGA supporters is to frighten people into obeying in advance and giving up one's rights voluntarily. We are allowed "peaceably to assemble" and to "petition government for a redress of grievances" and I will do so later this morning.   

I will be carrying an American flag.

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TACO-Trump wises up

Trump treats "TACO"-- Trump Always Chickens Out -- as an insult.

Trump wants to project strength and fortitude. 

In fact, his chickening out is a key part of Trump's political strength. He talks big and brave. Then caves, and does what is smart and popular. He is already in retreat on immigration.

Trump is bowing to simple reality -- and to mocking insults delivered by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Gavin Newsom blasted President Trump, saying he was a phony. Newsom said Trump projected "weakness --  weakness masquerading as strength." He criticized Trump for directing the priorities of ICE away from the criminals that he promised to target and toward the most vulnerable, easiest-to-catch people; children; pregnant women. Newsom attacked Trump's alpha-male, tough-guy brand.

But instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and people with final deportation orders – a strategy both parties have long supported – this administration is pushing mass deportations.

Indiscriminately targeting hard-working immigrant families, regardless of their roots or risk. . . .

On Saturday morning, when federal agents jumped out of an unmarked van near a Home Depot parking lot, they began grabbing people.

A deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb.

A similar scene also played out when a clothing company was raided downtown.

In other actions: a US citizen, 9 months pregnant – arrested. A four-year-old girl – taken.

Families separated. Friends disappearing.

His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses – That’s just weakness. Weakness, masquerading as strength.

That was Newsom's ultimate group on the list: seamstresses. Mister-Tough-Guy-Trump goes after harmless women sitting at sewing machines. 

Simultaneously, Trump was responding to the reality that undocumented workers are an essential part of the American economy. Employers were complaining. There was a mismatch between a popular political message and the reality of what Americans want and need. The idea is that the work of hard physical labor in agriculture, construction, and slaughterhouses would get done by native-born Americans at prices employers can pay. The reality is that crops won't get tended or picked, animals won't get slaughtered, landscaping won't get tended, hotel rooms won't get cleaned, and roofs won't get repaired.

Trump's message of America-for-Americans-immigrants-get-out appeals to the MAGA base, and his policy advisor Stephen Miller seems to believe it, but it conflicts with economic reality. It also conflicts with the perception of a majority of Americans. Those day laborers, farm workers, and men working with hot tar on hot roofs on hot afternoons don't look like villains to Americans. They look like people working their butts off doing unpleasant work in unpleasant conditions. They look like victims of circumstances. And that was who Trump is picking on.

Trump has manifest character and moral flaws, but he is not stupid or tone-deaf to the desire of a majority of the American public. 

We won't have mass deportation of immigrants because our economy cannot do without their labor. Trump is doing with immigration what he is doing with tariffs: making noise, disrupting the status quo, using the disruption to change a few things that were stuck in place out of inertia.

Democrats who hoped that Trump would self-destruct with trade-killing tariffs will be disappointed. The stock market already presumes that Trump will TACO-out, even if he claims he didn't and that he made some terrific one-sided deal. The same will happen with immigration. He is TACO-ing there, too. Crops will still get picked.

Newsom was smart to get ahead of this, and finally, finally!, a Democrat showed some street smarts. Trump was going to TACO-out on immigration anyway -- he has to -- but now Newsom has positioned himself as the guy who chased him in the direction he was going to go anyway.

Newsom needs to keep the message going that Trump isn't getting moderate and realistic. No, he is breaking his promise and chickening out because the tall, good-looking, tough-minded governor of California shamed him into it.

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The USA at war

The world just got much more dangerous.

I was worried about the U.S. becoming Germany in 1932-1933.

Maybe there is a more dangerous history to consider: August, 1914.

Timeline:

    ***Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone on Monday. Trump said the phone call “went very well, very smooth.” 

   *** Trump told reporters after the phone call that the U.S. negotiators would be meeting with Iran on Thursday (yesterday) and that “We’re trying to make a deal [with Iran] so that there’s no destruction and death." Trump said that the phone call included things Israel would not do to blindside the U.S. “They’re just asking for things that you can’t do.”

   *** Then, on Thursday Israel bombed multiple sites in Iran, focusing on its presumed nuclear bomb production facilities. Surprise!

   *** Iran's foreign minister went on TV to announce, "Such acts of aggression by the Zionist regime against Iran could not have occurred without the coordination and authorization from the United States."

Iran is already saying it plans to retaliate by bombing American facilities in the region. Tit. Tat. National pride requires Iran do something. Perhaps it will be something "proportionate." Perhaps something a little extra. This isn't optional. Its defense credibility requires it. If a country is assaulted and does nothing, both friends and enemies know it can be pushed around, so enemies will do it again.

The risk of nuclear war involving the U.S. just got much higher. The deliberate war-gaming of the U.S. and USSR of the post-1962 Missile Crisis era is now passé. Now military leaders praise the surprise attack from out of nowhere, using a tool no one expects: Bin Laden’s 9-11 weaponization of airlines; Russian bots to influence American elections; Israel's exploding hand radios to attack Hezbollah; Ukraine's hidden drones to destroy Russian bombers. The new game is trickery and surprise.

I learned 45 years ago, as a new Jackson County commissioner, when I talked to our public safety leaders about what preparation the county had in place for a nuclear war, that even asking the question positioned me as a kook. I argued that we are the local authority on the ground tasked with taking charge, keeping order, keeping public facilities working. Citizens would look to us.

They told me the county has nothing. No shelters. No food or water. No radiation monitors. No plans even. They gave me political advice: Don't bring it up publicly or you will look unhinged. It is too big. We treat it as impossible.

We have been in a long period of continuity in the U.S. since 1865. That is unusual in modern history. Other countries have experienced near-total discontinuity, involving a remake of their people coming from war, revolution, or famine. Each had its turn: Germany. Japan. China. Jews. Poland. Ukraine. Russia/USSR. India/Pakistan. The Middle East. Multiple places in Africa. Not us. Not yet.

Since we cannot talk about what happens in and after nuclear war, I will let Tulsi Gabbard, the new director of the Office of National Intelligence do it. 

She just returned from visiting Hiroshima. She published a short video. 

[A]s we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers. Perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won’t have access to. So it’s up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness. We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust.

Our country's voters put our lives in the hands of Donald Trump, a "stable genius." Israel's put it into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu. The internal politics of Iran put it into the hands of the Ayatollah.

If it seems too weird to prepare for nuclear war, readers might instead make plans to survive a hurricane or earthquake, wherever you live. The preparations might come in handy, whatever happens. 

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Another tool to get foreigners out of the USA: tax remittances.

The attention is on immigration from Mexico. Roundups. Deportations. Entry bans.

Less visible are the things the Trump administration is attempting to do to make getting money from the U.S. to Mexico more complicated and expensive.

Trump proposes a 3.5 percent tax on remittances.

Mexico seemed inexpensive to me when I vacationed there in January. My dollars went a long way. Mexican nationals working in the U.S. and sending money home to family in Mexico get to enjoy that same arbitrage. Earn it in the U.S. Spend it in Mexico. Mexico received $67 billion in remittances last year. Remittances are 4% of Mexico’s GDP.

Erich Almasy is a college classmate. His guest posts here have been from the point of view of a retired American expat living well in Mexico, but today he writes from the point of view of Mexican workers in the U.S. who send money home. The remittance tax is an element of a broad policy effort to make life harder and riskier for Mexicans -- with or without legal status -- to be in the U.S.  If things get miserable enough for them, maybe they will self deport. As with others of Trump's policy shifts of the first months of this term, there are unintended consequences.

Guest Post by Erich Almasy 

Note from México

Imagine you are a Mexican living and working in the U.S. You are your family’s breadwinner. Every month, you take your paycheck or cash to Western Union and, for a small fee, send the money home. You work 2,000 miles from your home in México, but you are a legal resident of the United States and have the right to work there. You get paid at or below minimum wage without overtime, perhaps in construction, agriculture, health care, or maintenance. In the Big Beautiful Bill now moving through Congress, a provision states that if you are not a citizen of the United States, an excise tax of 3.5 percent will be deducted from your remittance. Based on current projections, this will result in $2.6 billion less flowing to Mexican families. You can pull up stakes and come back home, but it took a while to gain legal status, and the jobs in México don’t pay as much. Ah, but there is a solution! Mexican cartels will bundle your cash and smuggle it across the border at a lower charge. This is similar to the medieval practices of “hawala” and “Hindi,” where both ends of the transaction agree to honor the transfer. And, just like that, the United States government has put the cartels into the banking business and probably bankrupted Western Union.

In El Paso, Texas Valuta, a money services and check-cashing business, is close to closing. Ashley Light, the third-generation owner of this 40-year-old business, must now report any transaction over $200. Previously, her business and any banking institution were required to report transactions of over $10,000, or smaller if deemed suspicious. The previous regulation was designed to expose money laundering, but the amount has not been adjusted upward for inflation and the general increase in corruption levels. The $200 level, going down instead of up, will supposedly catch cartel cash movements. LOL! Why move cash through banks when the Trump administration lets you buy real estate, private equity, and venture capital without revealing your name. A vindictive U.S. government is victimizing Valuta and small businesses like it to make life difficult for people along the border.

An estimated 1.6 million Americans live in Mexico, with some 900,000 Americans "expats," having permanent residence. Like my wife and me, they retired here for the lifestyle, cost, and weather. Just today, a major San Miguel de Allende bank announced that it can no longer accept United States bank checks. The reasoning is based on increased regulations and reporting requirements that they are unwilling or unable to comply with. Many, perhaps most, expats here use wire transfers to move money, but for non-profit organizations that receive medium-sized and large donations in check form for tax reasons, this will cause a serious burden. Courier services will benefit by hauling envelopes with checks to Laredo, Texas, to be mailed and deposited.

The exchange rate has dropped from 20.5 pesos to the dollar in the past two months to 19.1, a nearly seven percent decline in the U.S. dollar’s value. This drop is entirely due to Trump’s fiscal policies and Moody’s downgrading of the United States’ credit. The devaluation is an additional burden on the workers sending remittances since their dollars will buy less in México. So far, the on-again/off-again tariffs don’t seem to have caused layoffs for Mexican car (and associated) manufacturers. Labor costs are low enough that most companies don’t want to lose trained workers during such uncertainty. Similarly, agricultural workers are retaining their jobs because the United States imports 55 percent of its fresh produce from México, and there are no alternative sources of supply. Within the next month or two, the grocery prices will begin to climb, and not just for avocados. Broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, radishes, green onions, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, other beans, tomatoes, peppers, melons, grapes, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas will all become much more expensive. This morning I bought a fifteen-pound mixed bag of many of those items at my local “fruiteria.” It cost less than 300 pesos (i.e. $15), and they threw in a free bunch of bananas.

I don’t think things can stay this way. When (not if) the United States enters a recession, México will suffer along with it. The dollar-to-peso exchange rate will likely strengthen, and internally focused fiscal measures will depress the Mexican economy. China will be the biggest beneficiary as it moves manufacturing and exports into México even more.

Electric, very fast charging, nicely appointed: $28,000

The Chinese car maker BYD is now the 13th-largest car and the largest electric vehicle company in México, with 2024 sales of 40,000. It expects to sell 100,000 vehicles this year.

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June 14 protests. Request for ideas.

Sign at Medford "Hands off" protest, April 2025:

"SO MUCH WRONG. SO LITTLE CARDBOARD." 

I bought white poster board and bright marking pens for this Saturday's protest.

What should I write?

Over 1,500 "No Kings" protests are planned for June 14. I will be at one of these, in Medford, Oregon from 10 a.m. until noon, on the sidewalk on McAndrews Road between Crater Lake Avenue and Biddle Road. 

This could work out very well for Democrats and others who consider Trump's actions to be illegal, unwise, and dangerous. It could be a huge counterpoint to the military parade with many times the number of attendees. It could make the military parade look like a waste of money, a vanity show, and a show of military strength by a guy using the military to look "alpha."  And all the No Kings protests could be peaceful, colorful, and fun. It would show fellow Americans that there are a great many regular, law-abiding Americans who are deeply troubled by Trump. 

Or it could go very wrong. There are idiots out there, and people who want to start fights, and people who feel angry and are inspired to do something illegal. Somebody thought it was a good idea to set fire to a Waymo car. Five of them were torched in Los Angeles. How stupid. How counterproductive. This guy, preparing to torch this car, changed the news from the Trump-Musk fight, the deficit-busting Big Beautiful Bill, the cuts to Medicaid (which provides medical insurance to the working poor in red states and counties), and what the Epstein files reveal about Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein -- good subjects for slowing Trump's momentum -- into a story of burning cars in L.A.

A burning car is a great visual for TV, shown on a continuous loop on Fox. Trump used the scenes of disorder to say he needed to federalize the National Guard to save Los Angeles from "burning to the ground." Trump wants to show that Democratic mayors and governors cannot make you safe but he can. Trump wins with that message.

There are risks in organizing protest demonstrations. But if there were no demonstrations, people could conclude that everyone is happy with Trump's actions. Silence implies consent. The alternative is specifically mentioned in the Constitution, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." 

 I will be among the millions of people peacefully protesting on Saturday morning. There's a lot to protest.

     1. Expanding Article II, taking actions assigned to Congress.

     2. Using pretexts of war and invasion to assume emergency powers.

     3. Ignoring court orders.

     4. Pardons of January 6 rioters and the corrupt exchange of pardons to contributors and purchasers of $Trump cryptocurrency.

     5. Cruel and dangerous cuts of medical aid to Africa, endangering Americans through spread of disease.

     6. Short-sighted cuts to medical research.

     7. Interference with universities

     8. Chaotic, job-destroying, tariff policy.

     9. Damage to our relations with long term, reliable foreign allies.

    10. Cuts to Medicaid, a program of special value to my own congressional district, which uses it extensively.

    11. Broken promise on immigration. ICE is rounding up and deporting the easiest people to find  -- often taxpayers at work -- instead of criminals.

I could go on.  So much wrong. So little cardboard.

Here is a request to readers: Send me a good message to put on my sign.

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We are in a reality TV show.

The incidents in Los Angeles are part of a performance. 

Trump is producing it.

Democrats need to remember their role and stay in character. 

Pure gold for Trump

President Trump's supporting cast helps to define the roles. Trump claims to represent law and order. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the FBI identified a man who had thrown rocks at a police officer at a demonstration against ICE.

If you assault a police officer, if you rob a store, if you loot, if you spit on police officers, we’re coming after you. . . . As President Trump said: ‘You spit, we hit.’ Get ready. If you spit on a federal law enforcement officer, we are going to charge you with a crime federally. You are looking at up to five years maximum in prison.

This is from an attorney general who calls the January 6 rioters patriotic heroes. Irony is not dead. Nor is hypocrisy.

A natural reaction of Democrats, especially those who are preparing to attend the June 14 "No Kings" demonstrations, is to give in to nihilistic despair. Listen to Bondi: Up is down. Nothing is real. The idea of equal, impartial justice is a fantasy. But something is real. We are really in a performance being put on for the American public, and it will determine whether Trump will define the issues and carry out his policies, or whether Trump's popular support will wither.

Trump wants this confrontation in Los Angeles. He is the star. Los Angeles is the set. There are supporting actors -- Governor Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass -- but the real co-stars who are essential to the performance are the demonstrators. Trump needs an antagonist. They are it.

Trump's reality-TV drama is a showdown. The bad guys in this drama are the permissive, lawless Democrats who hate law and order, who tolerate a dangerous and disrespectful invasion of our country by millions of foreign-flag-carrying interlopers. The good guy in Trump's drama is Trump. He is fulfilling a campaign promise endorsed by the people of the United States to protect our citizens by ridding us of human vermin.

Trump has a mandate. Americans elected him because they had lost patience with Democratic failure to address the "asylum seeker" loophole; it led to mass uncontrolled immigration. Democrats can move ahead to a better future if they recognize that they erred in both immigration policy and message. They angered too many Americans. Democrats let a problem go unanswered, and had no good excuse. The public, including a great many Hispanic voters, wanted decisive action on immigration, so they voted for the guy who said he would do something. Americans entered this year frustrated enough that they aren't all that fussy about how Trump does it.

Now that it is happening, it turns out that Americans are a little bit fussy.

Sending Kilmar Abrego Garcia to an El Salvador hellhole by accident, and then openly defying the Supreme Court -- that was too much. Deporting little girls getting cancer treatment, no. Separating a mother from toddlers, no. Some of the cruelty and arbitrariness seems to be popular; it sends a message of unwelcomeness so that immigrants won't keep coming. The haphazard arrests -- especially if people risk being sent to Libya -- frighten people enough so they leave on their own. Americans possibly accept that. But when deportations are personalized to someone sympathetic, Americans think again. I thought he was deporting criminals, not good guys.

Fetterman is an unreliable source, but he seems to understand Pennsylvania voters.

Violence is Donald Trump's ace in the hole. Public opinion turns sharply toward Trump and against his antagonists when Trump can show scenes of violence or disorder. Scuffles with the police, graffiti, rock-throwing, looting, or generalized disorder are pure gold for Trump. In this reality-TV drama it absolves him of the over-reach when ICE is shown deporting a beloved 30-year cafe waitress at a small town cafe or a child with cancer. 

I assume there will continue to be some violence for Trump to exploit. Demonstration leaders can urge peace and order -- and they are doing so, decisively -- but there will always be a few idiots and hoodlums. If nothing else, we can expect Proud Boys looking for a fight and picking one. 

What demonstration leaders can control is what they say to the media about the inevitable instances of disorder. This will be hard for them and controversial, but they need to condemn it unequivocally. They need to sound as angry about disorder as does Bondi. They need to sound the way they wish Trump and other Republicans had sounded about the January 6 invasion of the Capitol. Welcome prosecution of bad actors.

The temptation for Democrats is to minimize disorder surrounding demonstrations, say it is just a few bad apples, say that a little graffiti isn't really bad, and just rocks, not gunfire.  I watched Mayor Bass do exactly that last night when she spoke with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. 

The immigration issue could turn into a big win for Democrats. Trump's style is destructive over-reach, whether it be tariffs, DOGE chainsaw cuts, or immigration enforcement. Trump is set up to lose. If mass deportation does not happen, he failed to fulfill his campaign promise. If he succeeds in getting a mass exit, he will destroy the agriculture, construction, and hospitality industries. Lose-lose. Moreover, if the whole thing seems sloppy and disorderly, Trump will look like he can promise but cannot govern.

But Trump wins if he is understood as the person who saved us from violence and disorder. He is a flawed messenger of this. He breaks the law to support his team. He pardons January 6 rioters, tax cheats, and crypto drug people, if they are Trump supporters. That is the brand Trump is trying to normalize.

The counterpoint to Trump is the rule of law: no violence and lawbreaking. And no excusing it, even it is for "a good cause." That is what kings and autocrats do. Not Democrats.

Democrats need to remember their role and stay in character. No kings.

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It's cruel not to get vaccinated.

"How can people be so heartless?
How can people be so cruel?
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no
You know it's e-
Easy to say no"

     Three Dog Night, Easy to be Hard, 1969

I realize the post title sounds harsh and judgmental.

Still, I agree with the final lines of today's guest post. It is a first person report on the practical effects of a policy decision by the state of Oregon to make it easy for people to not vaccinate their children against communicable diseases. The author says it is selfish not to get vaccinated.

Three weeks ago I posted the measles vaccination figures reported by the Oregon Health Authority. In right-coded religious communities there is widespread vaccination refusal, which shows up in vaccination rates for the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine of 66 and 78 percent in two local Christian schools. But the bigger problem is in the liberal, college-town of Ashland, the blue dot of Southern Oregon politics. The elementary and middle schools have only 84 and 87 percent vaccination rates, and the public high school, which serves the entire community, has an 82 percent vaccination rate. This is far below "herd immunity" levels, a 95 percent minimum rate. In Ashland, if someone gets measles, there are ample people to spread it to, and for them to spread it yet again.

So what? Isn't this on the unvaccinated? If they are hospitalized and die, well, their decision, their risk. 

Not quite. Vaccinations are both self-protection and then something akin to driving on public roads. I don't authorize body autonomy and personal freedom to for people to use their freedom to drive while intoxicated. An infected person and a drunk driver put others at risk.

Today's guest post puts a real-life name and face on victims of that risk. Mike Knox is a high school classmate.

1967

He is a 1972 graduate in psychology and music from Southern Oregon University and a 1976 graduate in social work from Michigan State University. His specialty in social work was geriatrics. He has been playing the tuba since he was a young boy and has been principal tuba of the Rogue Valley Symphony for 49 consecutive years, 54 overall.

He recently wrote his family and friends this bit of background on a disease that he was recently diagnosed as having:

Multiple Myeloma for a long time has been a short death sentence of 1-5 years. But thanks to the Obama Administration's "Cancer Moonshot" headed by (then) Vice President Biden, many new approaches to treatment have been developed. For example the standard for the last 10-15 years has been a bone marrow transplant. Stem cells were harvested from the bone marrow, reprogrammed to turn them into cells that would guide white blood cells to the cancerous cells. The white blood cells would then latch on to the cancer and kill it. But a very dangerous side effect was that the immune system would be so suppressed that many Myeloma patients would die from common infections. Then chemotherapy began to be available for Myeloma, so one chemo drug plus the transplant was tried. More patients survived. Then two drugs plus transplant. Then three drugs plus transplant. Each time more survived. Just last year four drug regimens were developed, and 95% of patients have survived five years or longer. This was better than the transplant method. Just one more reason to vote Democratic!

Recent

Guest Post by Mike Knox 

As a very young child, I had measles. I was probably 12-16 months old. My mother was pregnant, and I had to be kept away from her to protect the new baby. That was successful, but as can be understood, traumatizing for all who were involved, except for my new baby brother, who was born "normal", whatever that means. 

Now I am 76, and recently had a cancer called Multiple Myeloma. The advanced treatment I underwent at Oregon Health Sciences University is called Autologous Stem Cell Transplant. Skipping the total description, the germane part is that my immune system was killed off, because that is where the myeloma resides, in the blood platelets, which are the home of the immune system. 

As of today, I have the immune system of a 113-day-old infant. I cannot get the MMR vaccine or any other vaccines until September, when my new immune system is six months of age, and can tolerate the risk.

 I live in Ashland, a hot spot for anti-vaxxers. So much so that a congressional committee held an investigative hearing here a few years back. I am worried about attending any large gathering, such as the No Kings Demonstration planned for Saturday, June 14. Masks won't protect me. My family can't participate either, lest they become the vector that infects me. 

I am on anti-viral medications that protect me from Hepatitis B and Herpes Zoster, and an antibiotic that protects me from pneumonia, I still have to be hyper-vigilant. I worry every time I leave my house. 

I have to worry about molds, mildews, and fungi in addition to viruses and bacteria. When you lose your immune system, your world shrinks. Anti-vaxxers reject the best science available, and in my humble opinion are selfish.

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