Thoughts on the Pending Paramount/Skydance Merger

Is CBS, in pandering to the tender sensibilities of President Trump to gain administration approval of the merger of its owner Paramount with Skydance Media, diminishing the value of the property and making the transaction less attractive to Skydance?

Summer Memories

Last night, at Open Mic Night at Sulfur Books, I read my poem “Summer Pleasures.” That poem evokes various experiences of my childhood in New Orleans. Members of the audience had childhoods different from my own, of course, but I had hoped that my poem would inspire them to think of their own childhoods.

One woman told me that “Summer Pleasures” did indeed cause her to recall her own childhood memories. She raised the question of what sort of memories present-day children and teenagers will have to look back on when they become adults. Will they recall playing video games and texting friends on their cellphones? Or will they remember being driven by parents to organized activities like soccer practice and soccer games? Will their memories and, in fact, their childhoods be impoverished in comparison to those of their parents or grandparents? Or, perhaps the joys of a present-day childhood are merely different from those of a less technological age but somehow wonderful in their own right.

Bring the War to Russia

What if, on December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt had gone before Congress and asked for an increased military budget to build more weapons to defend against Japanese aggression, rather than asking for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan?

Would enhancing America’s defenses have been a reasonable action in 1941? Or did the nation do the right thing by mobilizing for total war against Japan?

If you believe that active military action against Japan was indeed the proper response to Pearl Harbor, then why do we limit military shipments to Ukraine to defensive armaments? Can the war in Ukraine possibly have a satisfactory resolution—not simply the “peace” that President Trump seems to desire, but a victory for the West and punishment of Russia for its aggressive expansionism—if the war is never seriously taken to the Russian homeland? Why are Russian civilians not experiencing the daily horrors being visited by Putin’s military upon the civilians and the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine?

It’s time to ensure a Ukrainian victory against Russia, not simply a holding action that can only result in Ukraine’s ultimate defeat and the country’s annexation by an expanding Russian empire.

The Texas Ten Commandments Law

In June, the Texas legislature passed a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in every public elementary and secondary school classroom. By any reasonable calculus, this law is unconstitutional. Whether it will eventually be declared such is to be determined. If the Supreme Court eventually gets to weigh in, the Republican justices will likely undermine the wall between church and state even more than they have weakened it already.

My essay The Texas Ten Commandments Law examines the details of the Texas legislation. I examine the source of the biblical text that must be on the mandated posters and consider why some people might think passing this law was a good idea.

Put Supreme Court Justices on Vacation

The Supreme Court has become the “No-Surprise Supreme Court.” The justices take cases seemingly adjudicated rationally and definitely in lower courts and deliver the most unlikely, far-right decisions that ignore the clear meaning and intention of the Constitution and statutory law but satisfy Donald Trump and his Republican sycophantic minions. Once a case is accepted by the court, a goofy, law-free decision is assured. The latest decision is a perfect example of a ruling that has a certain facial logic, but is guaranteed to have a devastating effect on the rule of law in this country.

Given that the court operates this way nearly always, why do we need the justices at all? Let them all go on their oligarch-funded 12-month vacations and save themselves the trouble of figuring out how to contort the law out of all recognition to reach the decision they want, in their heart of hearts, to reach. Journalists can, with 90% certainty, generate the democracy-killing decisions the court would hand down were the justices actually sitting. And they can do it without the long, anxiety-producing delays we typically endure. If the court is going to wreck our democracy, why not do it and get it over with?

Current Supreme Court Justices

A Mechanism for Better Poetry Reading

I often read poetry in public, usually my own, but sometimes the poetry of others. In particular, I have been reading poetry at Sulfur Books at its monthly Open Mic Night. Usually, reading a poem is straightforward, but not always. Sometimes a line, at least considered in isolation, can be read in more than one way.

Last night, I read my latest poem, “Lament for America,” at Open Mic Night. (Although it made no difference to me one way or another, for the first time, performers actually used a microphone, a helpful change in light of the larger audiences Open Mic Night has been attracting.) The poem does not rhyme, and its line lengths vary between 11 and 18 syllables. Every line, however, contains five metrical feet of varying meter. In other words, five syllables in each line are stressed. I thought it essential that this unifying characteristic of the poem be made as clear as possible in my recitation. A thoughtless reading of the poem could obscure its essential unity.

To assure a proper reading of the poem, I thought of annotating the text with accent marks to indicate stressed syllables. This seemed clumsy, however, and might even have obscured the words themselves. I then hit upon an idea that actually worked quite well. I rendered the stressed syllables in red. Well, technically, I used a red font to indicate each word or part of a word whose first syllable only is stressed. Coloring only individual syllables, I reasoned, threatened to encourage a choppy delivery.

Here is the beginning of “Lament for America” as it appeared on the page from which I read my poem:

Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, has lost her luster,

And Lady Liberty weeps for want of freedom,

Her torch of enlightenment no longer a beacon to the world.

The Mother of Exiles no longer welcomes the masses,

And those who accepted her welcome find it withdrawn.

I was surprised that this mechanism not only assured that lines were read with proper emphasis, but also that it made reading the poem more fluid. My working theory is that concentrating on the red text maintained my concentration generally, leading to a better reading.

Lament for America

Many of us are concerned about the future of our country and worry that the grand experiment that is the United States of America may be coming to an end. It is important not to give up, not to give in to the administration that seeks to replace our democratic institutions with autocratic ones. Certainly, the myriad No Kings rallies across the country this past weekend offer some hope that the citizenry is getting fed up with Donald Trump and his minions and, ultimately, will insist on a return to sane democratic governance.

In my systematic reading of the Bible, I recently read the Book of Lamentations. It seemed fitting to lament the attacks visited upon the Republic by the Trump administration, just as Jeremiah (or whoever wrote the book) lamented the destruction of Jerusalem. The result of my musings is my new poem “Lament for America.” The poem may seem bleak, as do our current circumstances. But it may inspire us to elude the tragic destination to which the nation seems to be heading.

Another Burma-Shave–Inspired Poem

I’ve been looking through the stack of papers on my desk. On a church bulletin insert, I found the beginning of a poem I scribbled down during a service. I hadn’t remembered writing it at all, but I thought I might make something of it. It addressed the firing of scientists in the medical field who are being dismissed by the Trump (or is it the Musk) administration. Reflecting on what I had written, I realized that I could recast my proto-poem as a series of Burma-Shave–inspired demonstration signs. (See Protest Sign Lessons and Plans.) The product of my ruminations was the following:

Medical researchers
Sent away
No longer keep
Disease at bay.

Autocracy vs. Democracy

Widespread faith in democracy is on the decline. The autocrat, after all, can make needed changes quickly and without interference. Unfortunately, the autocrat can be wrong.

A democracy is slower to act and less prone to catastrophic mistakes.

Sadly, autocracy is sometimes the result of a terrible democratic failure.

What Laws Will Be Needed in 2029?

After major American upheavals, the country has perceived a need for new laws. New, sometimes transformational, laws were enacted after the Civil War, the 1929 stock market crash, World War II, Watergate, 9/11, and the 2008 financial crisis.

Assuming that Donald Trump’s presidency ends in a conventional election in which Republicans are decisively defeated—admittedly, not a sure thing—what new laws (and repeal of existing laws) will be necessary?

We Need More Democracy

I find it distressing that some people who feel that the government is not working for them believe that scrapping our democratic institutions and being ruled by a dictator is a rational alternative. It is not; it is a pact with the devil. Unfortunately, many of our so-called democratic institutions are not all that democratic. Read my suggestions for enhancing our democracy in my essay We Need More Democracy.

Identifying Movie Lovers

I made a list of my favorite movies the other day, and it struck me that it would be interesting to compare my list with movie lists of friends. I am calling friends with similar lists cinema companions. Actually, I don’t expect to find people with a very similar list, but comparing lists is a good way to identify serious movie lovers. You can find my own list and some thoughts about lists and comparing lists here.

Stalinist Tactics Come to America

What follows below is excerpted from Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography by Harlow Robinson. It describes the arrest of Lina Prokofiev, who was married to composer Sergei Prokofiev. Lina was not a spy, but she had been consulting with foreign diplomats in her attempt to escape Stalin’s Soviet Union.

This awful story is distressingly similar to what is happening in Trump’s America. (I learned only tonight that the administration has deported children who are American citizens.) ICE agents, sometimes masked and showing no identification or warrant, are grabbing people off the street and deporting or trying to deport them.

WAKE UP AMERICA! THE FATE OF THE REPUBLIC IS IN YOUR HANDS!

Lina’s arrest—“on suspicion of spying”—was tragically typical of thousands (perhaps even millions) of others that occurred during 1948.

On February 20, as she was lying in bed with a cold, Lina received a telephone call from a friend in Leningrad. The friend told Lina she had sent her a package via another friend who was arriving that day in Moscow by train. She asked if Lina could meet this person at the railroad station not far from Lina’s apartment. When Lina explained that she was sick, and asked if the person couldn’t come to the apartment with the package, her friend insisted that Lina needed to go herself. Reluctantly, Lina agreed. Since she thought she would return in a few minutes, she didn’t even bother to dress very warmly.

As she was waiting in front of the station, a dark-colored car suddenly drove up right in front of her. Someone got out and asked Lina whom she was waiting for.

“What business is that of yours?” she replied indignantly.

“Do you know that you’re waiting for a criminal?” the man asked her.

“You must have made a mistake,” Lina replied, beginning to feel uneasy. “You have the wrong person.”

The men in the car were very insistent that she was the person they wanted, however. Finally they instructed her to get into the car.

“Come with us and we’ll explain everything,” they said. “If we’ve made a mistake, you can go—we’ll even bring you back home.”

They forced Lina into the car and drove off. As they passed the apartment building on Chkalov Street, Lina was hoping desperately that Oleg or Sviatoslav [her two children] would appear. She asked where they were taking her.

“We’ll explain everything in a minute,” they said.

But there was no need to explain when the car passed through the gates of the Lubyanka, Moscow’s most infamous prison, on Dzherzhinsky Square across the street from the Children’s World Department Store. When they were inside, Lina immediately recognized a man sitting there as someone she had seen in the subway and on the streets. He had been following her. There had been a few other subtle signs that she was being watched, but Lina had failed—or refused—to take serious notice.

Lina was to spend years in the Gulag, only being released after the death of Stalin.

A Momentous Anniversary

Two hundred and fifty years ago, on April 19, 1775, Massachusetts colonists fired upon British soldiers at Lexington and Concord. We are now entering a period of commemorations of the American Revolution, of events 250 years ago. Last night, at Open Mic Night at Sulfur Books, I read Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.” That poem concludes with these lines:

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last, 

In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Are you awake and listening? 

Not Rich

Increasingly, I hear advertisements for financial services targeted at “high worth” individuals or families. “High worth” is the latest euphemism for “rich” or “wealthy,” each of which suggests a class difference that Americans are reluctant or embarrassed to acknowledge. Significantly, “rich” is often preceded by “filthy,” creating a phrase that clearly is a term of opprobrium. “Wealthy” is somewhat less objectionable—no one speaks of the “filthy wealthy”—but the class distinction is still uncomfortably present.

Our lives are increasingly influenced by the super wealthy whose net worth has been greatly expanded through government policies. Perhaps we should speak more often of the filthy wealthy.

Further Thoughts on DEI

Last month, I wrote a brief post about the meaning of “DEI,” and I asked how anyone could be against it. Below, I intend to offer something of an answer to that question. I don’t actually know why Donald Trump holds the detestable views that he does, but I can at least suggest what those views are.

When I first heard Donald Trump rail against DEI, I assumed he was opposing offices, whether in the government or the private sector, intended to promote a more diverse and fair workplace.

One can quibble about the utility of such offices. There surely is a danger that diversity, equality, and inclusion lead to fixed quotas for minority hires. One can make a case even for quotas, but it is clear that Americans are generally opposed to them.

My conception of DEI has little to do with Trump’s view of it. Trump apparently considers the very idea of diversity, of equality, and of inclusion as anathema. He tasked federal workers with removing even those words from government documents and Web sites. Trump wanted every program aimed in any way at promoting diversity, equality, or inclusion to be dismantled. Programs were indeed killed—or are in the process of being killed—and information involving race or extraordinary women or minority men have disappeared from public view.

To Trump, there is only one race of consequence, and it is White. People of other races cannot be real Americans and certainly deserve no special consideration, irrespective of their past treatment at the hands of the government.

Generously, Trump acknowledges that women exist—one of only two government-recognized sexes now—but they should not be serving in roles traditionally held by men. (Exceptions are made for women in the Trump cabinet.) Transgender, intersex, and gay people are beneath Trump’s notice. The undocumented of whatever race or sex are merely trash to be disposed of. Their children born in this country are freeloaders who should follow their parents wherever they came from.

Who is an American to this president? The real Americans are citizens who are married White, heterosexual, able-bodied Christian, Republican men doing manly jobs. American women of consequence have similar characteristics but are homemakers and mothers.

Why do we have a president who holds substantial numbers of citizens in contempt?

Another Argument Against Trump Tariffs

There are lots of good economic arguments for the insanity of Trump’s recent tariff increases. Trump believes that his tariffs will transfer economic activity from our trading partners to the United States. I won’t bother to repeat the usual arguments here. Instead, I propose a thought experiment.

Assume that the Trump tariffs do indeed lead to production moving to the U.S. We will resume making shoes, building ships, assembling cell phones and televisions, making textiles and apparel. Where are the workers needed to pursue these activities going to come from? The unemployment rate—in the non-governmental sector anyway—is already low. Moreover, Trump is limiting immigration and deporting immigrants already in the workforce. Many of the workers that will be needed require special skills. Where are those workers now? And, of course, there are some activities that just cannot be pursued at scale in the U.S. We cannot grow bananas, coffee, tea, or tropical spices. Tariffs will never allow our country to grow the nutmeg it needs. Perhaps some of the needed workers will come from those thrown out of work because the products they have been making have become too expensive for Americans to buy. For example, auto workers may be in this category. (The U.A.W. has mistakenly applauded the Trump tariffs. It will regret that.)

Alas, if the Trump tariffs are allowed to stand, America will be poorer. And the world will be poorer. A worldwide depression is not unthinkable.

My “New” Wall Calendar

Because it’s March 31, I began thinking about changing the month on the calendar hanging on my wall. Last year, I didn’t find a calendar that excited me, so I settled for a free AARP calendar with pleasant nature pictures and large, easily read dates. It was not a calendar that excited me, but it seemed adequate. Unfortunately, the paper on which it is printed is thin, and the top edges tend to curl.

For many years. I purchased railroad-themed calendars. Occasionally, I bought a calendar with another theme, such as my 2019 “Dance: The Art of Movement” calendar. I had kept more than a dozen such calendars with particularly attractive pictures. I decided to remove my calendar collection from its bookshelf and search for a calendar that would work for 2025.

I discovered two calendars with days numbered as my AARP calendar: a 1986 “Those Magnificent Trains” calendar and a 2003 “Ted Rose: Images of Railroading” calendar. I chose the Ted Rose calendar as my AARP replacement. (Ted Rose, 1940–2002, painted beautiful watercolor railroad-related scenes.) The year “2003” appears each month in relatively small type. Unlike my 1986 calendar, this one does not indicate moon phases, which I assume are different in 2025 from 1986. Many significant dates, such as St. Patrick’s Day, are properly marked in the 2003 calendar. I was surprised to see that the date of Easter is the same in 2003 and 2025. The date of the transition to Daylight Saving Time, which is noted on the Ted Rose calendar) occurred much later in 2003. The calendar, like all my purchased calendars, is printed on heavy paper.

I look forward to the month of April, in which a beautiful watercolor of an N&W Y6—probably a Y6b—will be staring down at my desk.

A Third Trump Term?

I was distressed, but not surprised, when I read the AP headline “Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president.” Donald Trump is quoted by the AP as saying, “There are methods which you could do it [sic].”

Actually, Trump will be lucky to complete his second term. He could be impeached, assassinated, or die from eating too many Big Macs. Moreover, it is increasingly unlikely that he could be elected again in a free and fair election. (Barring a free and fair election, who knows what could happen!) We should, in any case, take his declaration seriously.

The Twenty-second Amendment, enacted in 1951, clearly intends to prevent anyone from holding the office of president for three terms. Arguably, however, the wording of the amendment is less than air-tight. It prohibits anyone from being elected president more than twice. Section 1 of the amendment begins:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

The amendment does not explicitly prevent someone who has served two terms as president from becoming president by means other than election, thereby becoming a three-term president. For example, Trump could run as a vice-presidential candidate, say with JD Vance running for the top spot. After the inauguration, Vance could resign, and the vice president, Trump, would become president for virtually an entire third term.

This may or may not be Trump’s plan. My suggestion, while contrary to the intent of the Twenty-second Amendment, is not clearly unconstitutional. Of course, Trump has shown little concern for acting within the restrictions of the Constitution, so he may have a different plan.

Replacing the Frances Scott Key Bridge

The state of Maryland has announced plans to build a bridge to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge destroyed by a cargo ship a year ago. It is gratifying that plans to replace that vital span are moving along. Any new bridge will take years to put in place.

The proposed replacement bridge is to be a cable-stayed affair with a main span of at least 1600 feet. The main span of the former bridge was only about 1200 feet. Clearly, having a ship channel 400 feet wider would be a significant improvement. Whatever bridge is built, I assume its piers will be protected by substantial dolphins (no, not the marine mammals) and fenders.

After the Key Bridge fell, I suggested that a replacement bridge should be a suspension bridge. As fond as I am of cable-stayed bridges, both from an engineering and aesthetic point of view, a suspension bridge would allow an even wider channel for the ships of the next century. (Maryland wants a bridge with a 100-year lifespan.) A suspension bridge with a main span of 1600 feet would be considered short. In fact, a suspension bridge with towers on dry land would not be unreasonable. (Recall that the Golden Gate Bridge has a 4200-foot span, and newer bridges are being built with towers even farther apart.)

I suspect that cost was a major factor in the Maryland decision. I sincerely hope that the chosen alternative will prove to be an adequate one.