As the year comes to a close, advertisements for tax prep companies are already rolling in. And with them comes the reminder of income, something that too many Americans did not have enough of coming into 2023. And they likely still don’t have enough.

When the year started, the U.S. poverty rate was coming off its largest one-year increase in history. 12.4% of the population was now living below the poverty line. That’s 38 million Americans entering this year without the ability to afford to meet their basic needs, despite many of them working one or more jobs and paying their fair share of taxes.

This is unjust. It’s also an easy fix, one that we all should be pursuing at all costs. It’s simple: Tax the rich. But in order for that basic concept to come to fruition, Americans, particularly those on the right, must get their heads right as it concerns poverty.

Foremost, fixing poverty is possible. In research for his new book “Poverty by America,” Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond found that if the top 1% of Americans paid the taxes they owed, it would raise $175 billion each year. Using those tax dollars toward low-income Americans would be significant enough to ensure their basic needs are met and more.

Such a proposal should not offend the senses. Yet a number of people still take issue with using government aid to uplift the poor. That brings me to my next point. Poverty is not a personal failure; it is a societal one. As a member of our society, you should be entitled to basics like housing, food, healthcare, education, safety. Sweden and Norway seem to know how to make this work. These basics should not be deemed luxuries afforded only by those who can afford it.

Taking care of all of your citizens is not complicated, particularly when you’re wealthy enough to spend $877 billion on your military, right? We have the means, but we must make the way. That is, we need to update our mindsets. Those who are opposed to using government assistance for the poor may also need a wake-up call. Those high five and low and timid six-figure households are the biggest beneficiaries of government aid to begin with. Tax breaks on retirement accounts, wealth transfers, health insurance, college savings, mortgage interest, these are all economic benefits that the government gives back to the people. With these tax subsidies, the government is basically cutting a check back to Americans. On just homeowner base tax subsidies alone, for example, the United States spends an estimated $190 billion a year putting that amount back into the pockets of homeowners. How much does the US spend on housing assistance for low-income families? Around $50 billion a year. You can see the difference there, right?

Government aid is everywhere. But the vast majority of it doesn’t go to those who need it the most. And lastly, to fix poverty, what we need most is for Americans to uplift leaders who are willing to hold the 1% accountable. While not every leader on the left fits that bill, I can assure you no one on the right does. They’re just too busy protecting corporate greed rather than looking to meet constituents’ basic needs.

This is apparent in that what on average red states have long had higher rates of poverty than blue states. A vote for the red really keeps you in the red. Yet millions of those living in poverty in the United States continue to lean Republican. According to Pew Research, over 1/3 of those making $30,000 to $50,000 a year rock with the right, as do about one-third of those making less than $30,000 a year. The math ain’t mathin’ here. But hopefully, when it comes to tax season, all the math will line up. And when it comes to election season in November, the votes will, too.

Dating back all the way to the Viva Kennedy clubs of the 1960 presidential election, and those grainy black and white television ads showing Jacqueline Kennedy asking for Latinos to vote for her husband, Senator John F. Kennedy. Democrats have had a near stranglehold on the votes of Latinos. 

Over 15 presidential elections come hell or high water, the Democratic nominee captured the majority of Latino vote, even if the nominee didn’t ultimately win the White House. Sometimes those votes were easy for Latinos to cast. See Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama. Other times it was a real ask. See, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry. And on at least one occasion, Latinos voted for someone they didn’t really like, trust or connect with, because what they really wanted to do was vote against his opponent. Then as you might expect, a lot of them had buyer’s remorse. 

You see, in the 2020 election, 16.6 million Latinos cast ballots. According to the UCLA Latino policy and politics Institute, this represents an increase of 30.9% over the turnout for Latino voters in 2016. The overall increase across all voting groups was only about half as much. This means that after decades of not voting, Latinos have finally found their way to the polling place. 

But what are they going to do now that they’ve gotten there? It’s unpredictable. Latinos are not the slam dunk for Democrats they once were. In 2020, only 61% of Latinos voted for Joe Biden. That’s bad for a Democrat. In 1996, Bill Clinton got 72% of Latino vote. In 2012, Barack Obama got 71%. And Biden only got 61% running against then President Donald Trump, the most anti Latino commander in chief in US history. 

Still, Biden’s poor showing with Latinos was no surprise to those of us who pay attention to how Latinos vote. Throughout the Democratic primaries, Biden hadn’t done well with Latinos. He wasn’t their first, second or third choice. The candidate they really wanted, the one they were excited about, was still Bernie, AKA Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who Biden defeated, in part because of Biden’s strong appeal among black voters. Instead of build on his poor showing with Latinos, Biden instead pretty much ignored them throughout his first term. Even worse, he broke a whole series of promises about how he was going to revoke, rescind and repeal all those draconian Trump immigration policies. Instead, Biden wound up keeping a bunch of them.

Just a few months ago, in fact, Biden who once promised on the campaign trail that he would not build, quote, “another foot of border wall,” announced that he was instead building about 23 miles of it. 

So what do Biden’s numbers with Latinos look like now? Well, as you can imagine, they went from bad to worse. In a recent poll for the New York Times and Siena College, only 50% of Latinos supported Biden, while 42% back Trump. This is no small and insignificant tribe that Biden decided to stab in the back and is now pissed off. 

The 62 million Latinos in the United States are the country’s largest minority, they make up one in five Americans. Latino voters also represent about 15% of the US electorate. Besides, those voters are strategically located. Latinos accounted for as much as 20% of the electorate in the two states that have the largest number of electoral votes, Texas and California. 

They also make up a big chunk of the electorate in two battleground states that’re expected to help decide next year’s election: Arizona and Nevada. These voters think for themselves, especially the young ones, and they’re not likely to show up for someone who doesn’t have their back. They don’t have to vote for Trump. In fact, they don’t have to vote at all. Anyway you spin it, Biden blew it. He lost the Latino vote, and now he could well lose the White House.

It is getting increasingly difficult for the Republican Party to argue that the economy is not doing well. This is something that is not currently in these hypothetical polls. That bodes well for Joe Biden, and not so well, for Republicans. And I want to talk about it a little bit. Now, I want to say up front, anybody who’s going to take issue with the metrics that I’m going to present by saying these metrics are incomplete, or they don’t tell the full picture, or there’s something missing from these metrics, it’s important to know that the very same people that were previously arguing the economy was bad based on these metrics now say they can’t be trusted. So let’s all agree for the purposes of this conversation, that no single metric. unemployment or the stock market or inflation, no single metric is perfect or tells you the whole story about the economy, but that in their sum total, especially if we track these metrics over decades, as we have, they do give us an idea of how the economy is doing. 

There are lots of Republicans arguing that the economy is a disaster under Joe Biden. It’s actually almost impossible to find any statistic that helps make that case. We recently learned that inflation in October was zero. Now, whenever I say this, people come back and go, have you been to the grocery store? Have you been there have you been here, we don’t measure inflation by what one person sees as the price of eggs in the grocery store. We use the consumer price index, a basket of goods adjusted to their nature, you know, if avocados get twice as big, but they cost twice as much, they’re not really more expensive in terms of what you get per dollar, right? You it’s actually quite a sophisticated metric. When you look at that metric, inflation was zero in October, and for the 12 month period, ending at the end of October, inflation was 3.2%. That is really close to what is considered the normal, desirable, typical amount of inflation, which is two to 3% per year. 

This doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been higher inflation. Previously, prices haven’t come down, they just have been going up much more slowly, which is expected. But the inflation case of out of control inflation, under Biden, inflation has reduced dramatically under President Joe Biden. We then have employment. We have a situation right now, where employment was so low, and I’m sorry, unemployment was so low, that some economists started to say we actually need unemployment to go up a little bit in order to provide some breathing room in the economy. And we’ve seen unemployment below 4% for the longest period in decades under Joe Biden. And it ticked up by like point one at the last report, and that was considered a good sign by economists. So we can’t say prices are rising out of control. We can’t say that people are out of work in any significant numbers because they’re not. 

So then we get to; Okay, well, what about some other metrics that we might look at? What about GDP? GDP numbers after experiencing some erratic ups and downs during the COVID era, have really settled and normalized at a very reasonable and good level. We’ve seen quarterly GDP annualized, right around that two to 4% range that is often expected or anticipated as normal and relatively healthy for an economy as mature as is the United States economy. When we look at things like exports versus imports, the United States has been in a similar trade deficit since the 70s for reasons that are far beyond the control of any one president. They are not remarkably bad numbers, it all seems completely and totally fine. 

Some folks will point to the labor participation rate when the unemployment numbers don’t give them what they want, they’ll point to the labor participation rate. The labor participation rate is completely unremarkable right now. It’s within the expected range that we would see, based on the age of the American population, it’s hard to make that case that the economy is doing poorly. And as far as the stock market is concerned, it’s doing fine. There have been some periods of shakiness up and down, up and down. But if you just look at the stock markets and stroke, Joe Biden became president, the stock market is doing fine. 

Now you can introduce other metrics, but what about wages? We have actually seen relatively healthy and historically high wage growth under President Joe Biden. Has it kept up with inflation going all the way back to this inflationary period? Maybe not, but to say wages are down nominally is not true, and we’ve actually seen some very relatively healthy wage growth. So the point here is if you are going to hang your hat on the economy, and your argument is that the Biden economy is terrible, you’re going to have to bring some data forward. And I’m simply not able to find that data. If you are, then certainly let me know what it is.

Reid: During an appearance on (of all days) Veterans Day, current Republican frontrunner Donald Trump referred to his detractors as “vermin.”

Vermin.

Sure, it’s just a word. Trump’s used worse ones, as we well know. But this particular semantic choice, in this particular context, speaks to something even more sinister than Trump’s usual blustery rhetoric.

So, why? Why is this particular statement so important to note, when nearly everything Trump says is cause for some degree of alarm?

Because Trump, in using this word, is pulling directly from the playbooks of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini, who use depersonalizing language, like this, to both instill fear in their followers and to make their detractors appear less than human and thus expendable.

During the same speech, Trump referred to the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea as “capable,” “competent,” “smart,” and “tough.” The greatest threat to our country, he said, comes from enemies within, from those vermin who must be rooted out.

Let me remind you that he is the leading candidate in the Republican Party and has a solid chance of becoming president again, at which point, he would be able to act on those promises that he has so clearly and so consistently made to exact revenge on those who he perceives to have wronged him, to eradicate those who oppose him, to purge the government of any and all but his most fervent supporters.

Trump has reportedly named specific individuals whom he wishes to investigate or prosecute should he return to the office of the presidency. He’s putting loyalists in place all around him, Trump Firsters for every position. He is telling us directly what he wants to do, and if reelected, he will have the machinery with which to do it. This isn’t hyperbole. These are words straight from the mouth of the man himself.

Even this—this, here, me, right—in a world where there is a second Trump presidency, I don’t know, I’m not entirely certain I would be able to publish these words without being silenced or without retribution. I would say them anyway, of course, but I don’t know what the outcome would be, what vengeance he would enact on any media who refuse to parrot his talking points. I know what he wants to do: Silence all of his critics. But as of yet, he hasn’t had the means, and soon, he just might.

If we take this man at his word, which I believe we should, that should scare us all, regardless of party affiliation.

Richey: You know, recently, former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, wife of former President Jimmy Carter passed away. And I was struck by how much we’ve changed in our political leadership class, within a very short amount of time, Rosalynn Carter wanted to make the world a better place, not just for ourselves, but also for those who were, well, let’s say the least of these, as it says in Scripture. She was a mental health advocate and activist because of her life and legacy and what she did at the White House. She literally transformed federal laws as relates to mental health in the United States of America. She was the first First Lady, to establish an actual office, have a staff as she worked on behalf of you. We could say very similar things about former President Jimmy Carter. They want it to do it right. And we can agree and disagree, as relates to policy and execution of the policy. But we knew the heart of the individual, or at least we believed, we understood where they were coming from, even if at times, we disagreed. Rosalynn Carter represented the best among us, and 96 years of age. Remember, she was only First Lady for four years, that small window of time, came and went. What really stuck, what really stands out is what Mrs. Carter did before. And also what she did during and after she remained constant. And her character, or values were expressed, her faith was proclaimed. She did not compromise on trying to help others humanitarian and every sense of the word. And now, we have a leadership dynamic, especially, especially in our political class that says, You must be antithetical to humanitarian rights to be popular among us. If a conservative taught, like they had sense, if a conservative talked about diversity, the importance of racial tolerance. If a conservative talked about being an actual advocate and activist, for those who are mentally ill, in the United States of America, those who deserve affordable and yes, even free opportunities for healthcare, if a conservative talk like that, they could not pull above 1% at a national presidential election survey. But if you ridicule people, if you talk down to individuals, if you talk about the children of your political enemy, you become popular in a particular political party. The contrast could not be more evident. I submit this to you no longer believe that there’s actually a Republican Party. I think James Comey got it right. James Comey, who was a Republican, still considers himself a Republican. He said during an interview not too long ago, there is no Republican Party. What did he mean by that? Well, he means Republicans no longer have an identifiable values marker, there is no platform anymore. All you have now is Trump. You all have allowed each conservative stands by and let this happen. You all have allowed Trump a person to redefine an entire policy agenda, not only for you, but for your children and your children’s children. Shame on us for allowing personality to Trump policy.

President Biden recently met with Chinese leader Xi Jingping to talk about geopolitical issues. Among them, fentanyl — the opioid capable of being 100 times as potent as morphine.

Apparently China has a thriving chemical manufacturing industry that pumps out many of the compounds used to create fentanyl, and the U.S. has accused China of being a major player in the fentanyl trade itself.

Now, given that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died due to the drug, Biden wants China to crack down on its production of fentanyl and the manufacturing of the chemicals that make the drug.

As much as I value human life — and I fully appreciate Biden’s desire to curb the circulation of fentanyl — this approach really seems to seek to put a band aid on a bullet wound.

As the Chinese government has noted, the United States has a culture of drug use. So even if China were to cut its production and manufacturing, I think that Americans are going to find another way to get fentanyl or to simply get high addressing our drug culture.

More specifically, the underlying reasons for drug abuse is what Biden should be focused on not trying to shift the blame to China.

Let’s be real here. Every time the United States has a drug epidemic, purported or otherwise, it’s some other country’s fault: with cocaine, it was Colombia; opioids, Afghanistan; now, fentanyl, China.

I completely get that these drugs are cultivated in those regions, but at what point will the U.S. government appreciate that the common factor in all of these epidemics is Americans. In it’s 2022 report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that North Americans demand for cannabis, cocaine and amphetamine stimulants remains the highest in the world.

South Asia has beat on opioid use. But hey, we’re still showing out in that category with 11 million active opioid users. Columbia didn’t force blow up our nostrils and China isn’t forcing fentanyl down our throats.

It is we the people who are seeking narcotics. We want to escape our reality and why wouldn’t we?

More than 12% of Americans live below the federal poverty line, 70% of millennials say they can’t afford to buy a home, more than half of Americans are not prepared for retirement. The lowest 50% of earners only own 2.5% of the total wealth in the U.S. that I also mentioned the ongoing funding of wars retraction of abortion rights raging climate crisis need I go on.

Biden needs to leave other nations alone and mind his own. Our basic needs as Americans are not met and they must be consistently. We need adequate shelter and safety, food and clean water, jobs that pay livable wages, accessible health care for all and so on.

As the United Nations emphasized, countries needed to give greater priority to addressing mental health and efforts to prevent as well as treat drug use disorders.

And speaking of treatment, Biden should be engaged on the back end of drug abuse issues. Reduce if not eliminate legal sanctions and penalties that treat substance abuse like a crime rather than a disease.

Increase funding for an access to treatment centers, remove the social stigma that interferes with individuals seeking help, be realistic about what’s going on and why fentanyl is no joke. It’s contributing to high levels of overdoses, transforming drug markets across the United States.

While reducing access to fentanyl definitely could be helpful, reducing the demand overall would be game changing. Biden should be investing his time there as opposed to pointing fingers toward the east.

Like a good neighbor, Mexico is there. And so as Canada, our two border bros protect their own national interests by helping protect the international borders of the United States. They do this by sharing intelligence, cooperating with us law enforcement agencies, and flagging would be border crossers, who raised suspicions. We Americans don’t realize or appreciate how good we have it, or how lucky we are, when it comes to the countries that border us in the same way that some of us take for granted things like freedom, or US citizenship, many of us also take for granted the concept of border security. For instance, Republican politicians loosely and irresponsibly throw around terms like invasion, to describe a phenomenon that’s been happening for more than 150 years, the movement of people across the US Mexico border in search of a better life. These people aren’t coming to do us harm. More often, they’re coming to do work that Americans won’t do. By the way, in light of current events, you would think that Republicans would be more careful with a word like invasion, seeing how we’ve recently witnessed a couple of real ones. First when the Russians attacked Ukraine in February 2022. And again, when Hamas attacked Israel several weeks ago on October 7,

which reminds me halfway around the world, Israel did not fare as well in the neighbor lottery. It’s not just that our friend has to contend with murderous attacks by Hamas terrorists who run the Gaza Strip next door. Israel is also surrounded by four Arab states that attacked it just 50 years ago,

during the 1973, Yom Kippur war, with the goal of wiping it off the map, see, 50 years is in the ancient timeline of the Middle East about 15 minutes. There’s Lebanon, which today serves as a base for the terror group Hezbollah to fire 1000s of rockets into northern Israel, their Syria, which is a messy hotbed for extremists after its civil war, even the supposedly friendly states, Egypt and Jordan, were quick to criticize Israel for defending itself against future attacks by Hamas. Meanwhile, back in this hemisphere, besides being our neighbor, friend, ally, and number two trading partner after Canada, Mexico also has a side hustle. It serves as a giant temp agency that provides workers to US employers who can’t get enough of those hard working Mexicans. That’s one group. They don’t have to worry it’s going to go out and participate in the great resignation so they can go find themselves. As for Canada, it does such a good job of keeping watch over our northern border that Americans often forget that the border is even there. Luckily, we have GOP presidential hopeful Rebecca Ramaswamy. To remind us at the recent GOP presidential debate in Miami, the entrepreneur got eyes rolling when he sounded the alarm against the woefully underreported Canadian invasion of the United States. See, anyone can build a wall on our southern border with Mexico. That’s easy. And really it’s so 2016 Donald Trump a Republican, build a piece of the wall. Now, Joe Biden, a Democrat is building another piece. Ramaswamy says he has seen the future and that’s covered with Moose, Mounties and Maple Leafs.

Quote, there was enough fentanyl that was captured just on the northern border last year to kill 3 million Americans, he said. So we’ve got to just skate to where the puck is going. Not just where the puck is. He said, quote, don’t just build the wall. Build both walls.

Get that Ramaswamy wants to build walls on both borders, the one with Mexico and the one with Canada. What a great idea. I bet we can even get the entire cost of construction covered by Mexico and Canada. You see our neighbors are watching all this play out and right about now. They’ve got to be eager to wall themselves off from the land of the crazy and the home of the absurd.

We are heading towards a historic event in American history. And this is going to be not just one or two or three, but the quadruple the simultaneous criminal prosecution of a former president of the United States, while that former president is also running to be once again, the Republican nominee, and to eventually be made president. Now I want to talk a little bit about this now that the trial dates are shaking out, and we’re sort of realizing that there’s going to be criminal trials going on as voting starts in the Republican primary. There will be criminal trials going on as the general election gets going over the summer, there will even likely be criminal trials into the next president’s term, which could be Trump, Trump could be president and still facing criminal trials. And what that will be like, I don’t even know what let’s take that one step at a time. First question.

In a very practical sense, can trump continue being a candidate, while going between four different courtrooms, it’s unlikely to be all four at the same time, by the way, but at least theoretically, are between multiple courtrooms and potentially civil trials and campaign events and voting and all of these things. In some super limited practical sense, I guess that he can do it. He has a private plane. And sure, it’s certainly something that he can do. Is there potentially going to be a reaction from the Republican electorate that this is just too crazy, and we need to pick someone else? There is zero indication right now that that’s going to be the situation. Trump’s support has only increased in the Republican primary since the criminal charges started. At one point Trump was in the low 40s. Now he’s in the high 50s, approaching 60. There is really no indication right now that Republican voters are in any way overall, dissuaded from making Trump their nominee because he has trials and criminal allegations, or whatever the case may be. Once it starts. Is it possible that that will change? Absolutely. Now we’re talking about a predictive question to which I don’t have an answer. Is it conceivable that mean, if you look at how Trump has been flipping out every day that he goes to his civil trial, and there’s no prison time that that’s even being threatened? It’s a civil trial. And then you extrapolate and you say, if life in prison for someone of Trumps age is on the table at the criminal trials? How will trump be behaving every single day? And Could he be behaving in such a way that would absolutely dissuade people from voting for him? I think that that’s a real open question. I don’t know that it gets him from 60, all the way down to 20% support. But could he lose 15 points of support because of his behavior on the criminal trials? Sure. But by the time they get going, a whole bunch of the primary is going to be over. So again, unless Trump dies, or Nikki Haley does really well in New Hampshire. And then voters say, Hey, here’s someone who may be can do it. And then she does even better and further, maybe, maybe, but really, unless Trump dies, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else being the nominee. So then we get to do the indictments and the criminal trials help or hurt Trump in a general election. And here’s where I think this is potentially problematic. We know that Magga trumpets are more emboldened by Trump’s criminal charges. Republicans in general are a little bit more divided but not divided enough that Trump is likely to lose the Primary among non Republican voters, meaning Democrats who mostly wouldn’t be voting Trump anyway. And independents, roughly half of whom didn’t vote for Trump in 2020. The criminal trials and the indictments are not helping Donald Trump. And so my position has been for a while. And by the way, when I say my position has been for a while, it’s not that having the same position is objectively better if we get new information. We revise our positions, but nothing has changed my opinion for several months, that the indictments seem to be good for Trump in the primary, but seems to be radioactively bad for him. In the general election. Democrats already weren’t voting Trump, but you may see more Democratic turnout against Trump. If indeed Republicans make Him their nominee. Independents aren’t thrilled based on polling I’ve seen with the criminal charges. So for me the most likely scenario I’m not a betting man. But if you said David, even money, right, there’s no odds just even money. Trump becomes the nominee or doesn’t. Trump’s win wins the general election or

doesn’t I think the most likely scenario is Trump becomes the Republican nominee loses the general election as his criminal trials continue we’d love to hear from you what are your thoughts

What kind of country do you actually want to live in? Well, let me give you a Donald Trump country. And if you still agree that this is the type of country, you want to live in a Trump version of America Vote for the man. But according to the New York time, Donald Trump plans to create concentration camps, deportation camps, they will call them massive deportation throughout the United States of America, many obviously wouldn’t get caught in the whirlwind of this mistakes will be made, children will be separated, it will be a nightmare. Also, eliminating birthright citizenship is another plan. Clearly, a constitutional violation, ending refugee status, even for those who are refugees, because they allied with America, during American occupation, let’s say in Afghanistan. We have Afghan refugee refugees here, because we told them to trust us to work with us. And we will protect them. Well, we decided, under Trump’s administration, to negotiate with the Taliban, to then provide some level of cover to some of American allies. And now the threat is they’re going to be deported back to be executed, is basically what will happen. Let me go to the birthright citizenship 14th amendment. It’s very clear. If you’re born in the United States of America, if you’re born on the soil, of this country, you are in fact, an American. This is a simple notion. The fact that any administration will try to come against it provides a gateway to come against black people in America. Let me explain how this works. You see the 14th Amendment, the 14th amendment was codified in the Constitution. Because back then there was an argument. And the argument was, well, black people are descendants of Africans who were enslaved in America. Well, their descendants could never become citizens of this nation. Because their lineage would always trace back to the continent of Africa, according to them. So they utilize this ridiculous talking point. To say, we would like to give Black people citizenship, but we just can’t do it, because they’re not from here. Well, ironically, neither were the colonizers who said this, but I digress. The 14th amendment, cleared the way settled the debate, provided the constitutional construct required to overcome that ridiculous notion and basically protected anyone who was born on American soil and deemed them American citizens. If you touch that constitutional dynamic, you are in fact being unconstitutional. You’re violating law, you’re violating a great sentiment of this nation. We call it a melting pot. But Trump doesn’t care. According to The New York Times, the way the administration plans to do this, is to work around the rules work around the Constitution, and do it in a way that allows for the Supreme Court to rule later. But by the time the Supreme Court rules, damage would have already been done. What did they just ignore the Supreme Court? What’s to stop them from saying, we will ignore the Supreme Court ruling if the Supreme Court overturns our interpretation of the US Constitution? And what about the fact that you literally have a former president running for president again, front runner in the Republican Party, saying already what he will do in order to violate law and violate constitution? Isn’t that interesting? Now, if you elect him, why would he not do it? And this time is more than rhetoric. He actually has exacting policy plans. Is Trump the one making these policies? No, he’s the one saying them. He’s spewing the rhetoric he has people around him now who are disciplined, focused and yes, bigoted, who are working for him. Is that the America you Want the Trump version or is there a better way

The world is a tense place right now, to say the least, the Israeli Palestinian conflict is on all of our minds. And I wish I could say that our shared devastation was uniting us. But that’s decidedly not the case. It is especially apparent to me — to me, at least on social media or were — those who say nothing are attacked for their silence. Those who voiced support for Israel are decried as Islamophobic. And those who expressed support for the Palestinians are slammed as anti Israel anti semitic. 

So we all know by now that on October 7, Israel experience the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, and anti semitic attacks are at record highs all around the world. In Gaza, as of this recording, over 12,000 people have died, most of them civilians, and around half of them children. Babies are dying in hospitals without fuel or water. So there is understandably so much anger, and so much fear. And when it feels like there’s nothing tangible you can do to help those who are suffering. It’s easy to lash out at someone expressing a view that is different from your own, especially given that social media lends itself to bite sized points as opposed to nuanced perspectives. 

The thing is, I would suggest that when it comes down to it, most of us do agree on this one fundamental thing. We do not want civilians, any civilians, and certainly not the elderly, disabled children being killed. We want these horrors to stop. Netanyahu might not want a ceasefire, but I would venture that most thinking feeling human beings do. 

So here’s the problem. To my mind. So many of us seem to be conflating each region’s leadership with its citizenry. Netanyahu doesn’t speak for many or even most Israelis. Before the attacks, there were weeks of protests in the streets by those who want him out of power. Israelis are furious with their leadership’s failures to protect them furious at the funding. Yes, the funding that has been siphoned to Hamas in the past. And on the flip side, it is true that Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people. But that was back in 2006. There hasn’t been an election since. And during that time, Hamas was positioning itself as a party of resistance to peace talks with Israel, but also as a largely moderate centrist operation, certainly not as the terrorist faction that it is today. 

Punishing the Palestinian people for war crimes committed by a group that was elected 17 years ago. And by the way, Palestinian people don’t even largely believe that they have even the right to peaceful political protests. It just simply doesn’t make sense. Vast numbers of Palestinian people want a peaceful resolution and want Hamas out of power. Let’s add on to that the fact that over half of the citizens of Gaza are children who weren’t even born when Hamas came into power. 

This is intolerable. It is intolerable for Israelis to have to live in fear of a terrorist organization that will stop at nothing to exterminate them. It is intolerable for Gazam children to live in what’s called an open air prison and to go to sleep, wondering whether they’ll be alive in the morning, knowing that there is a serious chance that they won’t. So, as we have these incredibly complex conversations about unthinkably devastating events, let’s please remember, it is the power hungry men in charge that are creating this devastation, not the citizens and certainly not the children.