It is as much in Putin’s interest as in Trump’s to keep up the illusion that serious negotiations about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are underway, even if a conclusion satisfactory to Zelenskyy and his nation will never be attained. Even unproductive talks keep US troops out of combat at the mere cost of Ukrainian disappointment; and it preserves an ineffective US leader for Russia’s adversary.

Neither American nor Russian true long-term national interests are bring served by this stalemate; but it prevents domestic opposition respectively to both Trump and Putin from reaching critical mass. Russian and American citizens are both victims of their own acquiescence to autocratic rule. Each nation is led by an autocrat who symbiotically depends on the other’s real or supposed aggressiveness to justify his own rule.

Only One member has publicly dissented from the fraudulently designated “unanimous” decision of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors to add Trump, aging and felonious sexual predator, to the name of that cultural institution. Apparently there also were other members of Trump’s hand-picked board who didn’t think it appropriate, much less dignified to make that change. Still, all but one of them reportedly made that move probably for reasons including the following:

1. They knew that sort of flattery is exactly what the Donald unsheepishly craves.
2.  Upon appointment, they all understood that it was only to massage Trump’s uncertain ego that they were named to the board in the first place.
3. In their shortsighted view, catering to such a childish desire for recognition really cost nothing but the erection of a new sign  
4. Finally, they’re convinced that this stunningly misplaced tribute to someone least deserving of it will surely be reversed by the anti-Trumpist Congress that inevitably will be elected no later than 2028.

What the whole episode shows is how meaningless has become much of what the U.S. Government does. And what that means is that only a thin thread separates us from a world in which the common interest matters not at all.

In her congressional testimony on 12/11/2025), Secretary of Homeland Security Noem effectively confessed that one of her agencies, ICE, had attacked and captured immigrants who did not qualify as either illegal, criminal, or otherwise unlawfully in this country.

As Professor Haque said on X, according to the 12/6/2025 NYT, the deadly 9/2/2025 attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat was nothing less than murder. In fact, the entire illegal bombing campaign on boats allegedly smuggling prohibited narcotics for importation into the U.S. is a criminal violation of both American and international law.

Many critical thinkers in the U.S. fear that Artificial Intelligence will replace much of the work that average people do, costing them much of their self-esteem. At the same time, those average people defensively resent immigrants, legal or not, because they compete with legacy job holders for the wages they earn.

This may be a stretch; but the Ken Burns film on The American Revolution can be interpreted as a lesson that the United States was formed because the colonies’ governing authority and loyalist sympathizers failed to recognize how different and independent thinking the colonists had become.   Today, the liberal democratic rationale of the U.S. government is being threatened by a reactionary cabal that resents the cultural changes that are the inevitable result of the humanistic policies on which the country was founded 250 years ago.

At that point, Great Britain did not realize that establishing a distant colony would encourage people to act independently.   Even in the eighteenth century, stubborn defenders of a right to enjoy the privileges of conquest were doomed to be left behind in the technological and intellectual development of man.  And so, the listless desire of the MAGA Crowd to abdicate personal responsibility for and participation in self-government will inevitably be defeated by the advance of the human spirit. 

Of course, realization of Mr. Burns’ optimistic expectation could take a long time unless a determined coalition, directed by a widely esteemed leader, renews the country's dedication to common values. Perhaps 250 years is not surprisingly long for us to have to reform our political system and recapture its purpose. 

Having been born into wealth, President Trump has never had to worry about tomorrow.  The people who voted for him desperately clutched onto his message that he would also make them carefree.  Now that he hasn’t, they are reluctantly abandoning him. 

How long will the sycophants in his administration continue to ignore reality and deny that Trump has been feeding his own ego and wealth at the expense of the MAGA crowd?  Unfortunately, they are foolish enough not to recognize that their boss is a snake oil salesman.  Any congressperson, who doesn’t acknowledge that, deserves to be summarily defeated at their next reelection bid