1.22.2026 – say yes, we will be

say yes, we will be
appreciative, or say no
we will remember

The Haiku is based on a quote from the leader of the free world [sic] speaking to the World Economic Forum, an international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.

According to Wikipedia, the forum’s stated mission is “improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.”

Leaders from across the world meet once a year in a conference organized by the World Economic Forum to talk about what might be done to improve the state of the world.

This feller currently in office gave a speech and Bret Stephens, an opinion columnist for the New York Times was there to hear it.

Mr. Stephens, a conservative of the pre-trump era, discussed the speech in a back-and-forth article with liberal opinion columnist, Frank Bruni.

Is this meeting of world leaders, coming together to discuss improving the state of the world, Mr. Stephens writes:

And then there was Trump’s speech, for which I was in the audience. It was like a geopolitical version of a Mafia shakedown. “You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no and we will remember.” That was Trump’s message to Denmark on the subject of ceding Greenland. It was like watching a scene from “The Sopranos.”

He also terrified. Going into the speech, I was almost sure that what he really wanted was to gain some control of Greenland’s mineral resources. Leaving the speech, I was absolutely sure he means to take the whole island, and that his negotiating tactic will be to tie Danish cession of the territory to America’s continued participation in NATO.

Mr. Stephens is younger than I am.

He referenced the TV Mafia show, The Soprano’s.

I had another thought from another Mafia movie.

And the line that came to my mind, as this feller stood in front of this meeting of world leaders, coming together to discuss improving the state of the world, was this feller was making the rest of the world … an offer they couldn’t refuse.

I like to tell the story of my first day in kindergarten at Grand Rapids Crestview Elementary class.

Another kid, and this was 60 years ago, I clearly remember it, came up to me in the play area of the classroom, introduced himself and then to establish the pecking order, slugged me in the ear.

This, I said to myself at age five, is upper education?

I didn’t know it at the time, but that is exactly what it was.

I was skinny, always about 20lbs under weight for a kid my age and wore glasses.

That was the fall of 1965.

For the next 11 years of public education, I waited everyday for someone to slug me in the head.

Sometimes I deserved it as I had a mouth but most of the time is was because someone could.

Not that they were always bigger than me but that they had that outlook.

They could slug me so they did.

My first weeks of junior high were absolute terror as this one little kid figured out he could slug me in the head and I wouldn’t retaliate.

Never found out why, but this kid was transferred to another class and the daily confrontations went away until the next year when another little kid found it he could hit me with impunity.

I had read by then, Roughing It, Mark Twain’s book on life in the Great American West after the Civil War and Mr. Twain wrote about shootings in Virginia City, Nevada, that:

The reason why there was so much slaughtering done, was, that in a new mining district the rough element predominates, and. a person is not respected until he has ‘‘killed his man.’’ That was the very expression used.

If an unknown individual arrived, they did not inquire if he was capable, honest, industrious, but— had he killed his man? If he had not, he gravitated to his natural and proper position, that of a man of small consequence; if he had, the cordiality of his reception was graduated according to the number of his dead. It was tedious work struggling up to a position of influence with bloodless hands; but when a man came with the blood of half a dozen men on his soul, his worth was recognized at once and his acquaintance sought.

Boy Howdy but I knew exactly what he was writing about.

In Grand Rapids Public Schools you were respected by the number of kids you slugged … or could slug.

Sad to say I have to admit I was not above this and I looked for my kid to slug but the ridiculousness getting slugged by me just added to the pathos of the moment.

Since getting slugged didn’t kill you, I was there as a mark for lots of other students who needed someone to slug.

It was what it was.

I tried to learn to keep my head down.

The only tool these guys had was a hammer and if I stood out, I would get hammered down.

Of course being me, I had a very hard time trying to stay quiet.

Then I got to Grand Rapids Creston High School.

It had three stories.

The bottom floor had the offices, some classrooms and the print shop, the metal shop and the wood shop.

Most of the other classes were on the 2nd and 3rd floor.

Not wanting to get into other discussions on life, but it didn’t take long to see a general sifting of the population.

The bullies in my life pretty much stayed on the first floor.

I entered the world of Latin and Physics and such and found refuge on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

I felt like I had arrived.

Or, I felt like I had escaped.

But that first year at Creston, my sophomore year, all the students had to take what was called ‘American Life‘ which was the new way to teach history.

This class was still on the first floor.

And as you had to take and pass the class, there was a certain element of students who were still taking this class in their senior year.

One day walking down the hall, two other students who had made my life what it was in junior high school were standing outside the classroom.

One of them was taking American Life for the 3rd, maybe the 4th time and the other was standing there with him to commiserate over the situation.

I looked down and tried to walk past them into the classroom and not be noticed and at the last minute the one kid who wasn’t in my class gave the door a shove so that it smacked into my shoulder hard, bounced me off the other side of the doorway and knocked my books my hand.

Before I could stop myself I looked him in the eye and called him an obscenity.

Then I stooped and gathered my books and got into class and sat down.

The teacher walked in and as class started the other kid slowly came in, glaring at me.

He came up behind me and stooped down and whispered in my ear, “He is going to kick your ass.”

I shrugged, been there done that.

And I waited.

When the class came to an end, I got my stuff together and went to door.

I looked out, looked left and right.

Just out the door was the back stairs to the upper floors and I ran for it.

And that was where it ended.

I don’t know what happened, most likely they just forgot, but I never got my ass kicked.

That stays in my mind as my last real clash with the jungle, with the world of the first floor.

Those feelings of dread and doom slowly went away from being a part of daily life.

That is …

Until now.

Bullies in high places.

The first floor is ruling the jungle once more.

And of late in these posts, I keep coming back to this.

Someone I know who defends the feller in office said that he supports him, “because he fights my battles for me.”

Gee whiz, what kind of battles did you need fighting?

Picking on Greenland?

To be a world leader in history, I guess that feller has to ‘kill his man.’

So everybody said, so everybody believed, and so they will always say and believe.

For myself, I like Greenland just as it is and there has to be a 2nd floor around here somewhere.

1.21.2026 – genuinely a

genuinely a
different reality
of no normal rules

Adapted from the article in the Atlantic by Anne Applebaum where she writes:

Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.

Think about where this is leading. One possibility, anticipated this morning by financial markets, is a damaging trade war. Another is an American military occupation of Greenland. Try to imagine it: The U.S. Marines arrive in Nuuk, the island’s capital. Perhaps they kill some Danes; perhaps some American soldiers die too. And then what? If the invaders were Russians, they would arrest all of the politicians, put gangsters in charge, shoot people on the street for speaking Danish, change school curricula, and carry out a fake referendum to rubber-stamp the conquest. Is that the American plan too? If not, then what is it? This would not be the occupation of Iraq, which was difficult enough. U.S. troops would need to force Greenlanders, citizens of a treaty ally, to become American against their will.

For the past year, American allies around the world have tried very hard to find a theory that explains Trump’s behavior. Isolationism, neo-imperialism, and patrimonialism are all words that have been thrown around. But in the end, the president himself defeats all attempts to describe a “Trump doctrine.” He is locked into a world of his own, determined to “win” every encounter, whether in an imaginary competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis. These contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy. And of course, the need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and well-being.

The people around Trump could find ways to stop him, as some did in his first term, but they seem too corrupt or too power-hungry to try. That leaves Republicans in Congress as the last barrier. They owe it to the American people, and to the world, to stop Trump from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American interests. He is at risk of alienating friends in not only Europe but also India, whose leader he also snubbed for failing to nominate him for a Nobel Prize, as well as South Korea, Japan, Australia. Years of careful diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, are now at risk because senators and representatives who know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him. Now is the time.

Try to imagine it.

An American military occupation of Greenland.

Years of careful diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, are now at risk.

Senators and representatives who know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him.

WHO KNOW BETTER!

Who know better have refused.

Now is the time.

Look at the first line that I use from the article.

Genuinely lives in a different reality.

Look at that first word.

Genuinely.

It is an adverb of the word genuine.

According to the online Merriam-Webster, genuine means sincerely and honestly felt or experienced or something that is actual or true.

Truly lives in a different reallity.

Truly.

It is TRUE.

In that movie My Cousin Vinnie, when the girlfriend takes the stand and delivers a statement on the car used in the crime, the District Attorney yells out an objection and demands clarification on whether her statement is an opinion or a fact.

The Judge looks at the girlfriend and asks, “Is this your opinion?”

The girlfriend replies in a voice that leaves no doubt, “It’s a FACT!”

Folks, the guy sitting at the desk in the oval office genuinely lives in a different reality.

It’s a FACT!

In God we trust?

Oh, I hope so!

As Thomas Jefferson said, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

1.20.2026 – were pinpoints somewhere

were pinpoints somewhere
as far away as the stars
and not part of now

Driving to work this morning, I was listening to the book, The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard.

Neither here nor there but Mr. Leonard’s step by step description of a breaking and entering of a Lake Huron beach house while every one is on the beach is truly terrifying in its normalness. No suspension of disbelief necessary to see it all happening, but I digress.

Driving over the bridge to the island, I heard this short passage:

In the darkness, but they were pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean – January 20th – 2026

That phrase stuck with me as I drove.

In the darkness, but they were pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

It was how I felt about current events.

Folks are saying this is not us, this is not how things should be in this country.

But who we used to be, who many want to be again is out there in the darkness, pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

Not part of now.

And what do we got now?

It was my wife who hit that nail on the head when she said it was like watching a reality TV show.

You have to watch to see what crazy thing they can come up with next.

We got a guy who sits at the desk of the president of the United States who gets upset over not getting an award and has the power to upend the world over the supposed slight.

Not to worry has this country is governed by a document that outlines three avenues of power and responsibility so that there are checks and balances in place.

Oh wait, two of other three branches of power have checked out and let that guy sitting at the desk run unchecked.

Saying the quiet part out loud, I am of the opinion that this guy is crazy and I don’t mean like some sports fan fanatic crazy but crazy in the sense that he needs managed care and not allowed to work in food service, operate machinery or have sharp objects.

Instead this guy has the nuclear codes and can and would and will at some point fire off a nuclear weapon at someone.

For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone can support this guy.

In their hearts, where they are truly honest, those people have to know the wrong in all of this, but they have sold their souls and backed themselves out on a cliff and there is no going back.

As for his staff, the adults in the room, they are reaching out to William Shatner as they feel the most recent incantation of Star Trek has become too woke.

Not content with tearing the country apart, they are also worried about the state of things in a fictional world 1000 years from the current date.

Greenland.

Star Trek.

It’s been a year of this insanity.

I cannot imagine the next three years.

Not alone there as I cannot think of any science fiction novel or dystopian world where anyone dared come up with a plot where things could have gone so far off the rails.

Fiction is governed by that rule of suspension of disbeleif.

To get here, the amount of disbelief to be suspended was too much of lift.

Maybe Mr. Orwell got close in 1984 but I put it to you that the in the book, 1984, those in charge cared what the little people thought.

They cared so much that the book tells the story of the effort those in charge made to change the mind of just one man, Winston Adams, to bring him to the point that he would finally betray his closest friend and come to admit to himself that he did indeed, love Big Brother.

This group in Washington?

They could care less what anyone thinks.

They effort made to retrain the mind of Winston Adams to love Big Brother is far to much trouble.

They don’t want to win over anybody.

They want to run over everybody.

And if they don’t get their way?

If they don’t get the trophy?

Well.

They will piss in they pool everyone else is swimming in and go home.

I still feel America is out there.

Out there.

In the darkness.

Pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

1.19.206 – unpalatable

unpalatable
abhorrent nauseating
and contemptible

Yesterday, January 18th, was National Thesaurus Day and it honors Peter Mark Roget, the author of Roget’s Thesaurus, who was born on this day in 1779.

According to The National Day Calendar website:

In 1840, Roget retired from a successful career in medicine and spent the rest of his life working on Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. The work was the result of decades of collecting lists of words and categorizing them, much like a scientist would collect specimens. In Roget’s case, he collected words. He first published his thesaurus in 1852. And it was more than a book of synonyms – it was a complete categorization and organization of each word by meaning.

Since then, poets and writers have used the thesaurus to help make their writing come to life. However, the thesaurus also has its detractors. Some say the thesaurus weakens language and destroys it.

Whether you are looking for a more accurate word or trying to improve your writing, the thesaurus can be your best friend. Expanding your vocabulary increases both written and spoken communication skills, creative writing abilities, and can be helpful in advancing your career.

I have to mention that on their official BlueSky account, those good folks at Merriam Webster posted:

Today is National Thesaurus Day.

Personally, we find these made-up holidays contemptible, abhorrent, nauseating, repugnant, and unpalatable.

I loved that.

My only question?

Did those good folks at Merriam Webster use a thesaurus to find the words, contemptible, abhorrent, nauseating, repugnant, and unpalatable?

1.18.2026 – experience taught

experience taught
auxiliary precautions
a necessity

Adapted from the New York Times Opinion Piece, An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good, by David French where Mr. French writes:

We trusted that presidents would impose accountability on the executive branch. We trusted that presidents wouldn’t abuse their pardon power — or, if they did, then Congress could impeach and convict any offenders. And so we manufactured doctrine after doctrine, year after year, that insulated the executive branch from legal accountability.

It’s hard to overstate how much this web of immunities — combined with the failure of Congress to step up and fulfill its powerful constitutional role — has made the United States vulnerable to authoritarian abuse.

In Federalist No. 51, James Madison wrote some of the most famous words of the American founding. “If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” Madison wrote. “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

This is a version of the ancient question: Who will watch the watchers?

Madison’s next words were crucial. “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

I want to take just a moment to comment on the line, “… the failure of Congress to step up and fulfill its powerful constitutional role.”

My study of US History has been filled with the jealous, selfish and defiant protection of the power of Congress BY CONGRESS.

The question, “How will this play on the Hill?” has been asked by every Executive administration since 1787.

Jimmy Carter realized it was pretty much over for him when a Democratic Congress over road on his vetos.

Nixon claimed his loss of a congressional legislative base made it impossible to stay on as President.

Theodore Roosevelt said something along the lines of, “If I could only be President AND CONGRESS for 10 minutes.”

Today we watch the worst example of Congressional action and leadership in the history of this nation and the worst dreams of the founders are not dreams but fact.

We depended on Congress as representatives of the people.

We depended on congress because a dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.

But experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Sad to think about.

Sad to watch.

Sadder to live through.

Mr. French writes:

In the Trump era, those auxiliary precautions have utterly failed.

They’ve been undermined to the point where the reverse is now true.

Rather than providing additional precautions against the rise of authoritarian rule, American law and precedent seem to presume that angels govern men, and those angels would be free to do even more good if only they possessed a free hand.

We are witnesses to what authoritarian rule looks like.