DOOMSDAY TICKING: A WAKE UP CALL - 2.10.2026

This Sunday on Fareed Zakaria GPS we confront a sobering reality: global nuclear stability is unraveling at an alarming pace. The landmark New START treaty — which for over a decade capped U.S. and Russian deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 each and provided vital transparency measures — officially expired on February 5, 2026, leaving no binding limits on the world’s two largest arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years.

This lapse comes at a moment when great power competition is intensifying. Russia has modernized most of its strategic forces and deployed large numbers of tactical weapons outside previous limits. China’s arsenal, while smaller, is rapidly expanding and may approach parity with other powers within a decade. Efforts to bring Beijing into future arms control talks have so far stalled.

With the symbolic Doomsday Clock nearer to midnight than ever and fears of a new arms race rising, this GPS broadcast is essential viewing. The world needs urgent leadership to rebuild arms control frameworks and reduce the risk of miscalculation or catastrophe. The clock may not read “80 seconds to midnight,” but the trend is unmistakable: unchecked nuclear competition endangers us all. 

Settler Violence undermining Trump’s Peace Initiative - 2.10.2026

The Netanyahu government’s handling of the West Bank—particularly its tolerance of violent settlers—has reached a point of open recklessness. These actions not only endanger Palestinians on the ground but now openly jeopardize the Trump administration’s own stated peace initiative.

Senior figures within the Trump administration have expressed fury at continued violence against Palestinians, especially attacks by settlers that Israeli authorities fail to prevent or prosecute. Such lawlessness directly undermines any credible peace effort and exposes the initiative as unworkable so long as impunity prevails.

Encouraging or excusing settler violence does not enhance Israel’s security. It erodes the rule of law, fuels instability, and places unarmed civilians at risk. Worse, it cynically invokes Jewish identity while violating Judaism’s core moral teachings, which uphold the sanctity of life and explicitly forbid violence against the innocent.

Faith cannot be used as cover for brutality, and diplomacy cannot survive selective justice. If peace is to mean anything, it must begin with accountability, restraint, and equal protection under the law—without exception.

PBS NEWSHOUR INTERVIEW LACKED BALANCE AND RIGOR - 2.8.2026

I have long respected PBS NewsHour for thoughtful, rigorous journalism, which is why I was deeply disappointed by the recent interview conducted by co anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. The exchange presented a highly one sided narrative of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, highlighting the “victory” of rescuing trapped Israelis while entirely overlooking the catastrophic suffering of Palestinians.

Tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza have faced starvation, bombardment, and death, and Palestinians in the West Bank continue to endure violence and human rights abuses. Yet these realities went unaddressed in the interview. Allowing Ambassador Huckabee to speak without challenging critical points or exploring the broader humanitarian crisis was a failure of journalistic responsibility.

Public media must hold power to account and provide balanced, comprehensive reporting — especially on complex international conflicts. PBS NewsHour fell short in this instance, and its viewers deserve better.

AMERICA’S DEMOCRACY AT RISK - 2.6.2026

The Atlantic’s December cover story, “The Coming Election Mayhem,” highlighted on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, warns that Donald Trump reportedly plans to refuse conceding the midterm elections and may even interfere with ballot counts. This is not speculation—it is a clear threat to the integrity of our democracy.

The peaceful transfer of power is the cornerstone of our Constitution. Any attempt to subvert elections endangers every future vote and erodes public trust in our institutions.

Americans, the media, and civic leaders must act now. We must demand full transparency, robust oversight, and accountability to ensure elections are free, fair, and secure. Democracy cannot survive passively—it requires vigilance from every citizen.

Power Without Consequence: How Institutions Failed Epstein’s Victims - 2.5.2026

The Justice Department’s refusal to pursue new investigations into Jeffrey Epstein’s powerful co-conspirators is more than a legal failure—it is a profound moral betrayal. Representative Ro Khanna is right to demand accountability. Once again, the names and faces of victims are exposed, while those with wealth, influence, and status remain protected from jail cells and courtrooms.

Why does power still function as immunity? Why are the worst crimes imaginable—the rape and trafficking of children—treated with caution when the accused belong to elite circles? A justice system that shields the powerful while re-traumatizing survivors has lost its claim to legitimacy.

Even more disturbing is the silence of moral authorities. Where is the Pope’s voice? Where is the collective outrage of the Christian community, whose teachings demand protection of the vulnerable and justice for the abused? When churches remain quiet while predators walk free, their silence echoes louder than any sermon.

Faith without moral courage is empty. Justice without equality is a lie. Until every Epstein co-conspirator is fully investigated and prosecuted, our institutions—legal and religious alike—stand exposed as complicit in protecting the powerful at the expense of the innocent.

Israeli mass murder continues - 2.4.2026

The latest Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which killed at least 21 Palestinians on February 4, are not an isolated tragedy—they are part of a sustained campaign of terror against a trapped civilian population. Homes, neighborhoods, and families are being erased with chilling regularity, while the world is urged to look away or accept the violence as inevitable.

There is nothing inevitable about bombing civilians. There is nothing defensive about turning Gaza into a graveyard. These strikes come after months of mass death, displacement, and starvation inflicted on Palestinians who have nowhere to flee and no protection from the skies above them. Children, the elderly, and the wounded continue to pay the highest price for political decisions made far from the rubble.

International law is clear: collective punishment and indiscriminate attacks are war crimes. Yet accountability remains absent, replaced by hollow statements of “concern” and unconditional military support. Silence, in this moment, is not neutrality—it is complicity.

If the mass killing of Palestinians is allowed to continue without consequence, the very idea of human rights becomes meaningless. Justice delayed is justice denied, and Gaza cannot survive more delays.

Democracy Under Federal Siege - 2.3.2026

Democracy in America is facing a grave and escalating threat. Fulton County’s decision to sue over the FBI’s seizure of election ballots is not just a local legal dispute—it is a national alarm. Federal power is being weaponized in a dangerous attempt to relitigate a settled election and undermine public faith in the vote.

Donald Trump, still unable to accept his 2020 defeat, is openly urging Republicans to “nationalize” elections, a move that would strip states and counties of their constitutional authority. This is not reform; it is centralization by force. It is an effort to place elections under partisan federal control after voters rejected him at the ballot box.
Even more troubling is the use of taxpayer funds to pursue this obsession. Instead of protecting election workers and strengthening democratic institutions, federal resources are being diverted to chase conspiracy theories and intimidate local officials who followed the law.

History teaches us that democracy rarely collapses overnight. It is eroded step by step—through pressure, intimidation, and the normalization of abuse of power. The events in Fulton County represent one such step.

If elections can be seized, second-guessed, or federally overruled to satisfy one man’s grievances, then no future election is truly secure. Defending democracy now is not optional—it is critical.

No ceasefire, more suffering - 2.2.2026

The partial reopening of the Rafah crossing is being presented as humanitarian progress. It is not. It is a rationed mercy imposed under occupation.

After two years of total closure, Israeli forces will allow Rafah to operate for just six hours a day, permitting only 150 Palestinians to leave Gaza and 50 to enter. This is not relief; it is triage under siege. Tens of thousands of critically ill and wounded Palestinians — many of them children — remain trapped, while Gaza health officials report that more than 1,200 people have already died waiting for medical transfer denied by this closure.

Across the border, Egypt has prepared thousands of medical staff, hundreds of hospitals, and fleets of ambulances. The capacity exists. What is missing is freedom of movement — deliberately withheld.

For families like Mohammed Mahdi’s, whose father was suddenly cleared to leave after hope had all but died, the system feels “like a dream.” But dreams rationed by force are not justice.

This cruelty is compounded by continued Israeli airstrikes that have killed at least 30 people this weekend alone, including six children, in clear violation of the ceasefire.

A humanitarian corridor that operates by quota, under bombs, is not a ceasefire. 

When Enforcement Becomes Lawlessness - 2.2.2026

Across the United States, seething anger is no longer simmering—it is erupting. More than 300 anti-ICE protests in a single day are not the work of agitators; they are the unmistakable signal of a public pushed past its limit.

What is unfolding under the banner of immigration enforcement bears the hallmarks of democratic erosion. Masked agents, unmarked vehicles, warrantless actions, and intimidation tactics have no place in a constitutional republic. When fear replaces due process, the law is no longer being enforced—it is being violated.

Chicago’s decision to order local law enforcement to investigate illegal activity by federal immigration agents is both necessary and overdue. Federal authority does not confer immunity from the law. It demands higher accountability, not exemption from it.

History is unambiguous: when the state treats communities as enemies, legitimacy collapses. Raids that terrorize families, destabilize neighborhoods, and bypass oversight do not make the country safer. They fracture trust and harden resistance.

Democracy does not survive by silence. It survives when people stand, protest, and insist that power answer to the law—not stand above it.

Democrats Stand Firm: Accountability Before Funding - 1.28.2026

Senate Democrats’ refusal to back the current federal funding bill stems from deep concerns about the Department of Homeland Security’s handling of recent events, especially the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents. Two agents involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave, a standard but limited action that many see as insufficient amid rising public outrage and demands for accountability.

This decision reflects a broader insistence that any appropriation for DHS — particularly the components that underwrite Immigration and Customs Enforcement — includes meaningful reforms. Democratic leaders are pushing for enforceable changes to how federal law enforcement conducts operations and addresses the use of force before they will support passage of DHS funding.

While the risk of a partial government shutdown looms as the January 30 deadline nears, many Democrats argue that funding without reform effectively gives a “blank check” to agencies whose recent actions have shaken public trust. This principled stand underscores the imperative of ensuring federal resources are tied to accountability and the protection of all Americans.

A Line Crossed - 1.27.2026

The detention of a two-year-old girl in Minnesota alongside her father by immigration agents is not law enforcement—it is moral failure. No nation that claims to value family, due process, or basic human dignity should place a toddler into the machinery of detention. This is not about borders; it is about boundaries of conscience.

A child that young cannot understand handcuffs, custody, or commands. She understands only fear, separation, and trauma. Dragging a child into an enforcement action violates not just international human-rights norms, but the most elemental instinct to protect the vulnerable. It shames us.

Officials will insist they were “following procedure.” History teaches us that procedure is often the last refuge of injustice. When rules produce cruelty, the rules—not the children—are what must be stopped.

Minnesota did not consent to becoming a testing ground for such excesses. Communities have the right to demand restraint, transparency, and accountability from federal agents operating in their neighborhoods.

Release the child. Reunite the family without coercion or intimidation. And end practices that treat children as collateral damage. A country reveals its character not by how it punishes, but by how it protects those who cannot protect themselves.

Mass Displacement Is a Crime - 1.27.2026

The United Nations reports that more than 37,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in the occupied West Bank in 2025. This is not an abstract statistic. It is the deliberate uprooting of families, the erasure of communities, and the normalization of collective punishment under military occupation.

Forced displacement is a grave breach of international law. Yet it continues openly, systematically, and with near-total impunity. Homes are demolished, land is seized, and entire villages are pressured to leave—often at gunpoint or through sustained harassment—while the world issues statements and moves on.

What is unfolding in the West Bank is not a temporary security measure. It is a sustained campaign to alter demographics and permanently entrench control. Silence and inaction do not preserve neutrality; they enable abuse.

If international law is to mean anything, it must apply to everyone. Accountability cannot be selective. Human rights cannot be conditional.

The displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians demands more than concern—it demands consequences, protection for civilians, and an end to policies that treat forced removal as governance.

History is watching, and excuses will not age well.

Trump Just Proved Carney’s Point - 1.27.2026

Donald Trump has once again demonstrated the very instability Mark Carney warned the world about: that the United States, under Trumpism, is no longer a reliable anchor of the global economic order. Carney’s argument was not ideological—it was structural. When economic power is wielded impulsively, norms collapse.

Trump’s renewed threats of tariffs, trade retaliation, and economic coercion confirm that point in real time. Markets depend on predictability, alliances depend on trust, and global finance depends on rules that outlast any single leader. Trump rejects all three. His approach treats the world economy as a zero-sum contest driven by grievance rather than cooperation.

The result is not American strength but accelerated fragmentation. Allies hedge. Rivals adapt. Capital flows elsewhere. Institutions designed to stabilize crises are weakened precisely when they are most needed.

Carney argued that leadership is about stewardship—protecting systems that benefit everyone, including the United States. Trump’s actions prove the opposite lesson: when a nation weaponizes uncertainty, it forfeits moral authority and economic influence.

In proving Carney right, Trump underscores a sobering truth: the danger is not global competition—it is global chaos, self-inflicted.

A Line Democrats Must Not Cross

Democrats are right to refuse support for a funding bill that props up a Department of Homeland Security increasingly divorced from law, accountability, and basic decency. This is not a routine budget dispute. It is a moral line being drawn.

DHS today is not merely underfunded or overstretched; it is empowered without restraint. From aggressive immigration enforcement to surveillance practices that erode civil liberties, the department has expanded its reach while evading meaningful oversight. Funding it blindly is not governance — it is complicity.

Republicans demand “security” funding with no conditions, no transparency, and no reforms. Democrats should reject that false choice. Public safety does not require abandoning constitutional principles, nor does border policy require the normalization of abuse and excess force. A funding bill that ignores these realities asks lawmakers to trade values for expediency.

Refusing to back this bill is not obstruction. It is leverage — the only tool available to force accountability and insist on guardrails. Democrats must use it.

Budgets reflect priorities. If Congress continues to bankroll DHS without limits or reform, it signals that power matters more than rights. Drawing a hard line now is not risky. What’s risky is pretending this is just another funding vote when it clearly is not.

Justice for Alex Pretti - 1.26.2026

We write with profound grief and outrage over the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and respected caregiver at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, who was fatally shot by federal immigration agents on January 24, 2026. Mr. Pretti, an American citizen with no serious criminal history, was widely described by friends, family, and colleagues as compassionate, dedicated, and committed to helping others.

Available video and witness accounts show Pretti was holding only a phone and attempting to assist a woman being shoved by agents when he was pepper-sprayed, tackled, and repeatedly shot at close range. These disturbing images have sparked massive protests in Minneapolis and across the country, with local officials, residents, and leaders demanding accountability, transparency, and an end to the unchecked deployment of federal immigration agents.

We urge an impartial federal investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Pretti’s death, full release of all evidence, and meaningful reforms to prevent further loss of life. American citizens must be able to exercise their rights without fear of lethal force from those sworn to protect them.

SEASIDE RESORT ON A MASS GRAVE - 1.25.2026

On January 2, as Israel killed four more Palestinians in Gaza, Jared Kushner delivered a speech that will live in infamy. With the cold confidence of a real estate pitch, he spoke of Gaza not as a place of human suffering, but as “valuable waterfront property” — a seaside opportunity waiting to be developed once the people are removed.

This was not ignorance. It was erasure.

While families bury their dead, while children starve under siege, Kushner reduced genocide to a redevelopment plan. He transformed the barbaric crimes inflicted by Israel, backed and armed by the United States, into a “practical” vision of profit. In doing so, he revealed the moral logic at work: Palestinian lives are an obstacle; their land is an asset.

Such language is not merely offensive — it is dangerous. It normalizes ethnic cleansing by framing it as inevitability. It launders mass death through the vocabulary of markets and resorts. It treats suffering as a temporary inconvenience on the path to luxury.

History will not remember this as strategy or realism. It will remember it as cruelty — calculated, mindless, and obscene. A disgraceful speech for a disgraceful moment, spoken while Gaza burns and the world is asked to look away. 

A MORAL LINE CROSSED - 1.23.2026

The detention of five-year-old Liam Ramos by ICE is not merely a bureaucratic failure—it is a moral collapse. A government that claims to uphold law and order has instead chosen fear over humanity, power over decency, and punishment over protection.

A child is not a threat. A child is not a case number. A child should never be handcuffed by a system that knows better but acts otherwise. Detaining a five-year-old sends a chilling message: that cruelty has become routine, and accountability optional.

This is not about immigration policy. It is about values. It is about whether we accept a nation where federal agents traumatize children in the name of enforcement, while leaders hide behind procedure and silence. History will not be kind to those who normalize this abuse.

If there are no consequences for detaining a kindergartener today, what line will be crossed tomorrow? Democracies do not erode all at once—they are hollowed out by moments like this, when outrage is met with shrugs.

Liam Ramos deserves safety, not a cell. And the public deserves answers, responsibility, and an immediate end to practices that shame us all.

A stark warning to Democrats - CHANGE COURSE OR LOSE THE COUNTRY - 1.23.2026

Democrats should stop pretending that 2028 is safely theirs. It isn’t. As Nicholas Kristof warns, voters aren’t just anxious — they’re deeply unhappy. And too often, Democrats sound like managers of decline rather than champions of dignity, security, and hope.

People don’t vote on charts alone. They vote on lived experience. When housing is unaffordable, health care feels punitive, education burdens rather than lifts, and work no longer guarantees stability, abstract achievements ring hollow. Telling voters the economy is “strong” while their lives feel fragile is political malpractice.

The party’s problem isn’t values — it’s credibility. Democrats must speak plainly about cost-of-living pain, confront corporate concentration with real teeth, and stop treating cultural fluency as a substitute for material progress. Moral clarity without economic courage will not defeat authoritarian populism.

If Democrats continue to prioritize donor comfort, technocratic language, and incrementalism in an era of emergency, they will forfeit the trust of working and middle-class voters. Elections are referendums on reality. Ignore that reality, and 2028 will not be a mystery — it will be a verdict.

Oxfam Speaks - 1.21.2026

As Donald Trump openly threatens to seize Greenland, Oxfam’s warning about rising authoritarianism and a booming billionaire class lands with chilling clarity. These are not separate stories. They are the same story told from different ends of power.

The hunger for territory, dominance, and spectacle is inseparable from an economic order that concentrates obscene wealth at the top while hollowing out democracy below. When billionaires multiply their fortunes amid global crises, politics becomes less about public good and more about private conquest. Strongmen thrive in this imbalance. They speak the language of nationalism while governing in the interests of oligarchy.

Greenland is not a chess piece. It is home to people, culture, and sovereignty. Treating it as a trophy exposes a worldview where might makes right and money shields ambition from accountability. This is the logic of authoritarianism: borders as bargaining chips, truth as propaganda, and democracy as an inconvenience.

Oxfam is right to sound the alarm. Extreme inequality is not a side effect of authoritarianism—it is its fuel. If this trajectory continues, today’s threats will become tomorrow’s precedents. The world must choose: rein in concentrated wealth and power, or accept an age where empires are rebuilt on the ruins of democratic restraint.

Modern David vs. Goliath - 1.21.2026

This month was not merely an enforcement action — it was a stark display of power used against the very people federal authorities are sworn to protect. On January 7, 2026, Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during “Operation Metro Surge,” a controversial federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.

Renée was more than a statistic. She was a neighbor, a mother, and a voice in her community — whose death has ignited righteous outrage from Minneapolis to cities across the nation. Thousands are rightly asking why a woman defending her home and loved ones had to die at the hands of agents whose presence has brought fear and chaos to our streets.

This agency, empowered to enforce the law, has instead become a Goliath — trampling civil liberties and terrorizing communities — and in the process turned Renée Good into a heroic symbol of resistance against unconstitutional force.

We owe her justice, accountability, and a reckoning with the unchecked authority now wielded in our neighborhoods.

Please Do Not Come to the US, It is No Longer Safe (video) - 1.21.2026

 

What Truly Matters - 1.19.2026

The world is being dragged into ruin by empty slogans and manufactured rivalries—MAGA versus anti MAGA, Israel versus its critics, China versus America, Russia’s “greatness” against everyone else’s decline. These are distractions, not solutions.

What truly matters is not whose flag dominates or whose ideology wins, but whether humanity aligns itself with universal spiritual laws: justice over domination, compassion over cruelty, truth over propaganda, and shared survival over tribal power.

No nation, movement, or leader is “great” if it is built on dehumanization, endless war, environmental destruction, or the worship of force. A world driven by grievance and supremacy—whether American, Russian, Chinese, or any other—will not endure.

The only path forward is a world made great by conscience, not conquest; by cooperation, not coercion; by moral restraint, not unchecked power. Without that alignment, collapse is not a threat—it is a certainty. 

Darkening the Lifelines: When Healing Is Treated as a Crime - 1.18.2026

The closure of Doctors Without Borders clinics in Gaza represents a grotesque moral inversion: some of the world’s finest humanitarian professionals being shut down by authorities overseeing mass civilian suffering.

Doctors Without Borders embodies the best of humanity—neutral, lifesaving, and guided solely by medical ethics. Forcing these doctors out in the midst of catastrophe is not a security measure. It is an act of cruelty. When doctors are expelled, patients die. When aid is blocked, starvation becomes policy rather than consequence.

Any state that claims to be a democracy bound by law and values cannot criminalize medicine, suffocate humanitarian relief, or dismantle the last remaining lifelines for wounded children. That behavior belongs to regimes history condemns, not those that claim moral legitimacy.

The systematic destruction of medical care is not collateral damage—it is strategy. It reflects contempt for international law, human life, and the most basic rules of warfare.

If the best of the best in humanitarian medicine are being driven out, responsibility lies squarely with the worst of the worst in power. Silence in the face of this is not neutrality—it is complicity. 

A RED LINE THAT MEANT NOTHING - 1.17.2026

History will record Donald Trump’s Iran policy as a study in reckless words and fatal inaction. He issued a dramatic “red line” to Iran’s leaders, echoing Barack Obama’s failed warning in Syria—then did nothing to enforce it. The result was not strength, but betrayal.

Trump went further. He openly encouraged the people of Iran to rise up, to challenge a brutal regime, to believe that the United States stood with them. When the moment came, he abandoned them. No protection. No meaningful pressure. No follow-through. Thousands of Iranians were killed. Thousands more were injured, imprisoned, or silenced. Courage was met with indifference.

This failure shattered U.S. credibility. Adversaries learned that American threats could be ignored. Allies learned that American promises were conditional and fleeting. And within Trump’s own political base, faith eroded. MAGA was promised toughness and resolve; instead, it witnessed chaos, contradiction, and retreat.

Leadership is not defined by slogans or social-media bravado. It is defined by responsibility when lives are at stake. By that standard, Trump failed—morally, strategically, and historically.

INSURRECTION BY DECREE - 1.17.2026

Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act against protesters is not about restoring order—it is about silencing dissent and shielding federal abuse from accountability. The Insurrection Act was designed for extraordinary circumstances, not as a blunt instrument to crush citizens who are protesting government misconduct. To wield it against the public is to turn the Constitution on its head.

Across the country, Americans are reacting to documented abuses by federal agents—violent raids, excessive force, and intimidation carried out in the name of “law and order.” Instead of addressing these grievances through transparency, investigation, and reform, Trump responds with threats of military-style repression. That is the reflex of an autocrat, not a democratic leader.

Invoking the Insurrection Act would blur the line between civilian governance and martial rule. It would normalize the idea that protest equals rebellion, that accountability equals chaos. History shows where this logic leads: once a president claims the power to deploy federal force against political opposition, no protest is safe, no right secure.

Democracy does not survive on fear. It survives on restraint, law, and the consent of the governed. Threatening to unleash the Insurrection Act to protect abusive agents is a confession of failure—and a warning. When leaders fear their own people, it is not the people who are in rebellion. It is power that has lost its legitimacy. 

America’s Unfinished Reckoning in Iran - 1.17.2026

Oh America, do you ever apologize for your monumental blunders?

Before threatening war yet again, let us confront the history you refuse to own. In 1953, the CIA and British MI6 overthrew Iran’s democratically elected government to steal its oil, installing the Shah as a puppet ruler. His SAVAK secret police tortured, killed, and disappeared Iranians—with full U.S. and British support.

That tyranny bred the 1979 revolution, replacing one despot with another: a theocratic regime enforcing religious law, silencing dissent, and brutalizing women for daring to live freely. When Iranians protest today, they are slaughtered by their own rulers—yet Washington is quick to posture, threaten invasion, and escalate militarily, as if it bears no responsibility for the nightmare, it helped create.

Now, as carrier strike groups move toward the Middle East, the same arrogance repeats. Talk of reinstalling the Shah’s son mirrors past crimes, not solutions. Meanwhile, U.S.-backed violence elsewhere—especially the mass killing and starvation of Palestinians—continues without accountability, in violation of every moral, Jewish, and Christian principle.

History is screaming. Will America finally listen?

Silent Partners in a Broken Ceasefire - 1.17.2026

Another U.S.-brokered “ceasefire” lies in ruins as Israeli forces kill ten more Palestinians—yet Washington and Brussels respond with a deafening silence. This is not an accident. It is policy.

A ceasefire that is violated with impunity is not peace; it is cover. While Palestinians bury their dead, the U.S. and EU continue shipping weapons, diplomatic protection, and political excuses to a rogue government led by Benjamin Netanyahu—already indicted by the International Criminal Court. Each new violation is met not with accountability, but with more arms, more funding, and more blank checks.

This complicity shreds the moral authority the West claims to defend. International law is not optional. Civilian lives are not expendable. When violations are ignored, they become authorized. When killers face no consequences, the killing accelerates.

The world sees the double standard: sanctions for some, immunity for others. The language of “rules-based order” rings hollow when the rules are enforced only against the weak.

If the U.S. and EU are serious about peace, they must stop arming violations, demand independent investigations, and enforce consequences—now. Silence is not neutrality. It is endorsement.

TRUTH, HUMOR, AND DEMOCRACY - 1.15.2026

I want to commend Jon Stewart and his guest Fareed Zakaria on their recent discussion on “The Daily Show”. Their conversation was a masterclass in balancing sharp wit with deep insight. Stewart’s humor, as always, cuts through the noise, while Zakaria provides a clear-eyed analysis of the threats and promises facing modern democracies.

Together, they explored how misinformation, political polarization, and the erosion of civic trust challenge the very foundations of democratic governance. What stood out most was their insistence that citizens must remain informed, engaged, and willing to hold leaders accountable—even when it’s uncomfortable. They reminded us that democracy is not a spectator sport; it requires active participation, critical thinking, and, occasionally, laughter to keep perspective.

In a media landscape often dominated by soundbites and outrage, this discussion was a breath of fresh air. Stewart and Zakaria demonstrated that you can be entertaining and enlightening at the same time, and that defending democracy is a serious task—but one that benefits from humor, honesty, and courage.

A CEASEFIRE IN NAME ONLY - 1.15.2026

Trump’s Middle East envoy claims the Gaza truce has entered a “second phase.” For Palestinians, this announcement rings hollow. A ceasefire that leaves hundreds dead, families starved, and an entire population trapped under siege is not peace—it is a public relations exercise masking ongoing atrocity.

If this truce were genuine, why does starvation persist as a weapon? Why are aid deliveries still throttled while children die of hunger and cold? Why are journalists barred from Gaza and the West Bank, if not to conceal the full scale of destruction? Silence from the United States and the European Union in the face of these questions is not neutrality—it is complicity.

Even more damning is the West’s continued political, military, and diplomatic support for Benjamin Netanyahu, a leader credibly accused by international bodies of war crimes. International law is invoked loudly against official enemies, yet conveniently ignored when violations are committed by allies. This double standard shatters any remaining claim to moral leadership.

A real ceasefire requires accountability, unrestricted humanitarian access, and an end to collective punishment. Anything less is not a second phase of peace—it is the continuation of war by other means.

BLINDED BY THE STATE - 1.15.2026

A protester in Santa Ana has been left permanently blind after a federal agent fired a so-called “less lethal” round. There is nothing “less” about a weapon that steals a human being’s sight forever. This is not crowd control; it is state violence, plain and brutal.

These munitions are marketed as humane, yet again and again they maim, cripple, and kill. When fired at the head or face—as happened here—they become instruments of irreversible harm. The result is a lifetime sentence imposed without trial, without charge, without accountability. A man went to a protest with his eyes open and left the streets of Santa Ana in darkness.

Federal agencies insist these weapons are used to keep the peace. But peace is not achieved by blinding citizens for exercising their constitutional rights. Peace is not enforced at the barrel of a launcher aimed at a protester’s face. This is what happens when militarized policing meets impunity.

There must be an independent investigation, public identification of the agent involved, and real consequences—not another internal review designed to bury the truth. Until federal agencies are held accountable, “less lethal” will remain a lie, and justice will remain out of sight. 

HIND’S VOICE, THE WORLD’S TEST - 1.12.2026

The Voice of Hind Rajab, now shortlisted for an Oscar, is not just another film — it is a record of conscience. Built around the real audio of a six-year-old girl pleading for help as she lay under fire in Gaza, it refuses to let us look away.

When this film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, the audience stood and applauded for more than twenty minutes — a rare, visceral reaction that spoke not to celebrity but to shared humanity. People wept, chanted, and refused to sit down, confronted by the honest, terrifying sound of a child’s last calls. That response is not praise for art alone — it is evidence that truth can still move us.

Hind did not survive. But her voice now echoes in hearts worldwide. If we allow that voice to be silenced again by indifference, then we have failed not just as citizens of the world, but as humans. Let this film be more than a moment of applause — let it be a turning point.

NETANYAHU’S HYPOCRISY - 1.12.2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sudden expressions of concern for Iranian protesters would be laughable if they were not so obscene. A leader presiding over the mass killing, starvation, and collective punishment of civilians in Gaza now claims moral outrage over the suffering of Iranian civilians. This is not solidarity—it is propaganda dressed up as compassion.

You cannot bomb refugee camps, flatten hospitals, impose siege, and starve an entire population, then shed crocodile tears for human rights elsewhere. You cannot invoke the language of freedom while practicing collective punishment and annihilation. History is unambiguous: leaders responsible for large-scale civilian death and humanitarian catastrophe forfeit any claim to moral authority.

Iranian protesters deserve genuine international support rooted in universal human rights—not exploitation by foreign leaders seeking to launder their own crimes. Their struggle is not a public-relations tool to be weaponized against political enemies while identical or worse abuses are carried out at home.

This grotesque double standard exposes a deeper truth: some lives are treated as sacred, others as disposable. That hierarchy fuels impunity and endless war. Until the same standards are applied to Gaza as to Tehran, such proclamations will remain what they are—cynical hypocrisy, plain and damning.

Betraying Our Allies: How Abandoning Afghan Refugees Undermines America’s Moral Authority and Security - 1.12.2026

Mr. Trump’s treatment of Afghan refugees is not only cruel—it is a profound moral failure that endangers America itself. These men, women, and children are not strangers. Many risked their lives assisting U.S. forces as translators, drivers, and partners in a 20-year war. To abandon them now is a betrayal of promises made and sacrifices honored.

Forcing Afghan families back into danger, stripping protections, and sowing fear among those who followed lawful pathways does not make America safer. It does the opposite. It signals to allies worldwide that U.S. commitments are disposable, undermining trust that is essential to national security. It also hands propaganda victories to extremist groups eager to portray America as faithless and vindictive.

America’s strength has never come from cruelty. It comes from moral leadership, from honoring our word, and from defending those who stood with us when it mattered most. Turning our backs on Afghan refugees stains our conscience and weakens our standing in the world.

We should be expanding protection, not slamming doors. Anything less is dishonorable—and dangerous.

Faith, Fear, and Freedom: How Iran’s Machinery of Repression Betrays the Moral Core of Islam - 1.12.2026

The rising death toll in Iran cannot be understood without confronting the history that produced today’s repression. This crackdown did not begin with recent protests. Its roots lie in the 1953 CIA–MI6 coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected government to secure Western control over Iranian oil. That act shattered Iran’s democracy and installed the Shah, whose reign depended on terror, censorship, and the SAVAK secret police.

Decades of torture, imprisonment, and the brutal silencing of dissent poisoned Iranian society and paved the way for a reactionary theocracy. The current regime inherited the machinery of repression and refined it, cloaking state violence in religious language while crushing its own people.

The cruelty inflicted on Iranian women exposes the moral bankruptcy of this system. Does God truly care what a woman wears on her head, while men face no such laws? If faith is reduced to policing women’s bodies, it ceases to be faith and becomes control. The core of Islam—like all moral traditions—is alignment with God through kindness, compassion, justice, and service to humanity. 

A LEGACY OF INTERVENTION AND RESENTMENT - 1.11.2026

For decades, U.S. military interventions have left deep scars and lasting resentment across the world. In 1953, the CIA helped overthrow Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, installing the Shah and sowing the seeds of the 1979 revolution. In Iraq, the 2003 invasion—based on false claims of weapons of mass destruction—destroyed the state, killed hundreds of thousands, and unleashed sectarian chaos that later gave rise to ISIS.

In Afghanistan (2001–2021), America’s longest war ended with the Taliban back in power after trillions spent and countless lives lost. Libya (2011) was reduced to a failed state after NATO intervention toppled Gaddafi, leaving militias, slavery markets, and permanent instability. Repeated U.S. actions in Latin America and the Middle East have followed the same pattern: intervention, collapse, resentment.

Yet today, the Trump-aligned agenda demands $1.5 trillion for an ever-expanding military budget—while U.S. citizens struggle with poverty, healthcare crises, crumbling infrastructure, and homelessness. This is not security; it is squandering national wealth while exporting suffering abroad and neglect at home.

Growing outrage over ICE raids - 1.9.2026

In the wake of the tragic events gripping our nation, we write with urgency and resolve. Across the country, communities are reeling from a federal immigration enforcement surge that has resulted in needless bloodshed and widespread outrage. Just days ago, a 37-year-old mother of three, Renée Nicole Good, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during an operation in Minneapolis—an incident that has ignited protests and calls for accountability nationwide.

Here in Portland, the crisis crossed our own streets when federal officers shot and wounded two local residents. In response, Mayor Keith Wilson has formally called on ICE to halt all operations in Portland until a full and independent investigation can be completed, citing the erosion of constitutional protections and mounting community harm.

The anger and grief felt from coast to coast reflect deep disappointment with policies that prioritize force over fairness and fear over due process. Our constituents demand transparency, justice, and a reaffirmation of the values that unite us. It is time to pause these operations, ensure accountability, and work toward humane, community-centered solutions that protect all Americans. 

Terror in Minneapolis - 1.9.2026

The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis by an ICE agent during an immigration enforcement raid is not a tragedy in isolation—it is the predictable outcome of a system that treats human lives as collateral damage.

Immigration enforcement is not warfare. Yet increasingly, it is conducted with the tactics, weapons, and mindset of one. When armed agents storm homes and neighborhoods, fear replaces law, and death becomes a possibility long before any court weighs guilt or innocence. A mother is now dead. Her children will grow up without her. No bureaucratic justification can erase that.

We are told these raids are about “security.” But what security is created by killing a nonviolent parent? What rule of law is upheld when enforcement escalates into lethal force? This is not justice—it is state violence masquerading as policy.

A nation that claims to value family, due process, and human dignity cannot accept this as normal. Accountability must be immediate and transparent. More importantly, this approach to immigration must end.

Enforcement that kills mothers is not enforcement. It is a moral failure. 

BARBARISM IS NOT DIPLOMACY - 1.7.2026

When I read that Secretary of State Rubio told lawmakers President Trump wants to buy Greenland, I felt a chill. Not because the idea is absurd—though it is—but because of what it reveals: a worldview where sovereign nations are treated like real estate, and power justifies theft.

Threatening to seize or purchase another country for its wealth is not strength. It is barbarism dressed up as strategy. It tramples international law, mocks self-determination, and drags the United States backward into an age of imperial plunder we once claimed to reject.

This reckless posture does not stop at Greenland. It undermines Ukraine’s survival by signaling that borders are negotiable and conquest is rewarded. It tells Putin, and every would-be aggressor, that might makes right. And it threatens NATO itself, an alliance built on mutual defense, not mutual extortion.

Allies do not fear invasion from their friends. Democracies do not auction off other peoples’ homelands. If America abandons these principles, we lose far more than credibility—we lose the moral foundation that has kept alliances intact and wars contained.

The world is watching. So are our allies. And so are our enemies.

THIS IS HOW EMPIRES FALL - 1.7.2026

The claim that President Trump wants to buy Greenland is not just ridiculous—it is dangerous. It reduces sovereign nations to commodities and revives the language of conquest the modern world was built to reject. Threatening to seize another people’s land for wealth is not diplomacy. It is barbarism.

This mindset shreds international law and corrodes every alliance the United States depends on. If borders can be ignored when resources are attractive, then Ukraine’s survival is further imperiled. The message to Russia is unmistakable: invasion works. Power prevails. Law is optional.

And NATO? Its survival is directly threatened by this reckless posturing. An alliance cannot endure when one member toys with imperial fantasies against fellow democracies. Allies cannot trust a country that treats sovereignty as a bargaining chip.

America once led by example. Now it risks leading by intimidation. That shift does not make us safer—it makes the world more unstable and the United States more isolated.

History is clear on this point: nations that abandon principle for plunder lose both. What is being proposed is not strength. It is the language of decline, spoken loudly enough for the whole world to hear. 

Resource Theft Disguised as Diplomacy - 1.7.2026

I read President Trump’s claim that Venezuela will hand over up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States with disbelief and alarm. Framed as a deal, it sounds far more like a shakedown. When a powerful country uses pressure, force, or regime change and then announces control over another nation’s primary resource, the language of “agreement” rings hollow.

I have watched this pattern before. We saw it in Iraq, where talk of liberation masked a war driven by oil, chaos, and lies that cost millions of lives. We saw it in Iran in 1953, when the CIA and MI6 overthrew a democratically elected leader for nationalizing oil—an act that helped set the stage for decades of hostility and a theocracy that still brutalizes Iranian women today.

Now Venezuela appears to be next. Oil presented as payment, controlled by Washington, is not partnership; it is coercion. It undermines international law, fuels resentment, and confirms the worst fears many nations hold about U.S. intentions.

America should stand for sovereignty, fairness, and diplomacy—not extraction at gunpoint. History shows where this road leads, and it is never to peace.

Oil and the Ghosts of History - 1.6.2026

Watching the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, I feel a grim sense of déjà vu. As Mehdi Hasan has warned, this is not about democracy or justice. It is about oil — and about America’s refusal to learn from its own history.

In 1953, the CIA and Britain’s MI6 overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, because he dared to nationalize his country’s oil. That coup shattered Iranian democracy, installed decades of dictatorship, and ultimately ushered in a theocracy whose repression — especially of women — continues to this day. The result was not stability or gratitude, but generations of anger, mistrust, and resistance toward the United States.

We repeated the same crime in Iraq. That invasion, justified by lies, devastated a nation, fueled extremism, and stained America’s moral standing — all in pursuit of oil and power.

Now Venezuela risks becoming the next chapter in this tragic pattern. When the United States treats sovereignty as disposable and resources as prizes of war, it plants the seeds of long-term hostility and human suffering.

History is warning us. Again. We should listen this time. 

The Deliberate Starvation of Children - 1.4.2026

I write as a human being shaken by the story of Hoda Abu al-Naja, the Gazan child whose fragile body succumbed to extreme hunger. No amount of political language can soften what this is: a child starved in full view of the world.

Hoda did not die from a natural disaster. She died because the Israeli government has imposed policies that restrict food, medicine, and humanitarian access to Gaza, while simultaneously banning or expelling dozens of international aid charities whose sole mission is to keep civilians alive. When charities are barred and borders sealed, hunger is no accident—it is a foreseeable outcome.

Children do not choose wars. They do not draft policies or control checkpoints. Yet they are paying the highest price. To watch a child waste away because gluten-free food, protein, or medical care cannot enter Gaza is to witness suffering engineered by human decisions.

I ask readers, and those in power, to confront this reality honestly. If governments deliberately block aid and ban life-saving organizations, they bear responsibility for the consequences. Silence in the face of such suffering is not neutrality—it is complicity.

Hoda’s name should haunt us. And it should demand change.

Criticizing Israel’s War Crimes Is Not Antisemitism - 1.4.2026

“Criticism of Israel’s policies of mass starvation and mass killing is not antisemitism; it is profoundly Jewish”

Attempts to smear Zohran Mamdani as antisemitic for opposing Israel’s mass killing and starvation of Palestinians is both dishonest and dangerous. Criticizing state violence, genocide, and collective punishment is not antisemitism. It is a moral obligation.

Judaism itself demands this clarity. The Torah commands, “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). The prophets repeatedly condemned rulers who abused power, seized land, and crushed the vulnerable. Isaiah warned that ritual and identity mean nothing when society is built on bloodshed and injustice. To speak against mass murder and forced starvation is not anti-Jewish—it is profoundly Jewish.

The deliberate conflation of Israel’s policies with Jewish identity weaponizes antisemitism to silence accountability. This cheapens real antisemitism while shielding policies that violate international law and basic human decency. Judaism does not sanctify siege warfare, collective punishment, or the killing of children. It does not bless the confiscation of land or the slow suffocation of an occupied people.

Even more appalling is Israel’s decision to bar some of the world’s most respected humanitarian charities—organizations devoted to feeding the hungry and healing the wounded. Blocking aid while civilians starve is not self-defense; it is cruelty. Jewish ethics teach pikuach nefesh—the saving of life above all else. These actions mock that sacred principle.

Americans should be outraged that our government continues to arm and finance this campaign of destruction. Sending weapons while civilians are starved and bombed makes the United States complicit in crimes that will stain our moral standing for generations.

Zohran Mamdani’s stance is not antisemitic. It is ethical, lawful, and deeply human. The real obscenity is the ongoing attempt to silence truth by falsely invoking antisemitism to excuse mass killing and dispossession.

History will judge who spoke up—and who looked away.

YOU BREAK IT, YOU OWN IT — A WARNING AMERICA IGNORED - 1.4.2026

U.S. policy toward Venezuela has repeated one of the gravest errors of modern American foreign policy. Before the invasion of Iraq, General Colin Powell warned President George W. Bush with chilling clarity: “You break it, you own it.” That warning was ignored then—and it has been ignored again.

Through sweeping sanctions, open calls for regime change, and the casual threat of force, the United States helped destabilize Venezuela’s economy without assuming responsibility for the human consequences. The result has not been democracy or stability, but deeper poverty, shortages, migration, and suffering borne almost entirely by ordinary Venezuelans—not by political elites.

Powell understood that power creates obligation. When a nation uses its economic and political might to fracture another country’s institutions, it inherits moral responsibility for the aftermath. Coercion without accountability is not strength; it is abandonment.

Foreign policy is not ideology, and it is not punishment for its own sake. Venezuela’s crisis demands diplomacy, humanitarian engagement, and respect for sovereignty—not blunt-force pressure detached from human cost.

America was warned once. Repeating the same mistake is not resolve—it is refusal to learn.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must resign - 1.4.2026

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must resign. He has no medical, scientific, or public-health credentials, yet he has been placed in a position of enormous influence over America’s health policy. From that platform, he has spread vaccine misinformation that puts lives at risk—especially children, the elderly, and people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

Measles is a stark example. Before vaccination, measles killed 1 to 3 children per 1,000 infections and caused severe complications including pneumonia and brain damage. Thanks to vaccines, measles was eliminated in the United States. Today, fueled by anti-vaccine rhetoric, it is returning—endangering the most vulnerable Americans who depend on community protection.

This is not an abstract debate. Public trust in science saves lives; misinformation kills. When someone without medical training undermines decades of evidence from a position of power, preventable deaths follow.

The nation’s health cannot be entrusted to conspiracy and ideology. Mr. Kennedy should step down—before more Americans pay with their lives.

A war criminal honored by President Trump - 1.2.2026

A war criminal honored by President Trump

It is an affront to human dignity and justice. inflicted immense suffering upon the Palestinian people, was honored at Mar-a-Lago. Benjamin Netanyahu, whose policies have led to the devastation in Gaza and the West Bank, stands as a symbol of the grave injustices faced by Palestinians. The celebration of such a figure only deepens the wound of injustice and compounds the suffering of countless innocent lives.

Furthermore, the recent actions to ban humanitarian aid agencies from Gaza only serve to intensify the humanitarian crisis, leaving countless families in desperate conditions. It is imperative that we stand for justice, compassion, and the protection of human rights.

We must not be silent in the face of such moral failures. 

GREED IS EATING THE SOUL OF DEMOCRACY - 1.2.2026

For the 16th straight year, the U.S. federal minimum wage remains frozen, while billionaire wealth explodes. This is not an accident. It is the result of relentless greed—a force that now poses an existential threat to democracy itself.

Extremely wealthy donors pour obscene sums into political campaigns, buying access, policy, and silence. Their money shields exploitation while working families fall deeper into poverty. When billionaires fund candidates who block wage increases, they are not investing in democracy—they are purchasing its decay.

Scripture asks: “What profiteth a man if he gaineth the whole world and loseth his soul?” What profit is record wealth if it is built on hunger, despair, and stolen dignity?

What profiteth Russia if it gains a sliver of land but loses its soul through endless bloodshed? What does Israel gain when it drives Palestinians from their homes, starves civilians, destroys crops, and forces families to endure bitter cold in unlivable conditions—losing its soul in the process?

A society that tolerates extreme wealth amid mass suffering is not prosperous. It is morally bankrupt. Justice delayed is justice denied—and wages denied are lives diminished.

Democracy cannot survive on greed. It survives on conscience.