This Atlantic piece sheds a lot of light on Stephen Miller’s hate-based advocacy and influence in the White House. What it doesn’t address is how he came to be the dangerous bigot he is today, and was at the age of 17. See the reference in the article to torture …
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/stephen-miller-trump-white-house/685516/
Enthusiastic turnout for ICE OUT rally in Ann Arbor this morning …
I am essentially at a loss for words about the killing of Reneé Nicole Good. This is a wrenching, grievous moment — of course especially for those close to Good, and for those who were eye witnesses, and for the citizens of Minneapolis, and also for all of us as Americans.
I do not want to use the word “tragedy,” which can imply unavoidable or “fated” catastrophe. It is very clear that this was avoidable and that nothing about this killing was fated.
“Atrocity” would be a better term. We have all had access to numerous videos and analyses. I am not going to rehearse the analyses or discuss the shooting as such, other than to say that I believe it is an atrocity.
I do want to say that what I have seen around this is a great deal of additional evil.
Increasingly, evil is the point of the Trump administration and its propaganda machine. Stephen Miller might “dress it up” as “power,” but none of this is exercise of power in any morally legitimate sense. We the people are under attack.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat has an excellent post on this, “Reneé Nicole Good, Enemy of the State.” She writes:
“Good could not be seen as a life worth saving. This is a blunt statement, but it is important to understand what we are dealing with. This is where dehumanization leads. It starts with those who are the targets of many autocrats, such as non-Whites, immigrants, Muslims, and members of the LGBTQ community, and extends in time to anyone who does not accept having their rights taken away and their free speech silenced.”
I also want to point to an article from June by Marilynne Robinson in the NYRB, “Notes from an Occupation.”
Shortly following Good’s killing, ICE moved on to a nearby high school, pepper-spraying people, breaking windows and dragging people into custody. This is indeed an occupation.
And the evil will, I fear, escalate. Part of the problem with evil is that, once you take the turn, you have a tendency to double down, because to admit the evil carries with it too much guilt. This seems to be the MO of quite a few people in the administration.
As Satan says at the key turning point in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, “Evil, be thou my Good.”
Opinion | Universities Need a New Defense https://share.google/uKToFompF8mG1QfcS
A developed, serious, and complex effort to rethink the case for the independence of universities based on their crucial role in our democracy. Traditional arguments (scientific knowledge, education of the young, places for freedom of thought) are correct but insufficient. Lee Bollinger is a rigorous thinker about the first amendment, the Constitution, and the role and values of the modern university in the US. This is part of a book that Bollinger is publishing this year.
Friends,
Gary Krenz is right in his most recent post “We”. We face a truly dangerous crisis in our country because of the impetuous, irrational, and narcissistic decisions being made by Donald Trump. At the moment the most volatile of these crises is the threat of the use of military force against our neighbors (for example, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, and Greenland). Given that Trump acts without regard to law or consequence, none of these actions can be considered unlikely.
I wonder if any of us can think of effective ways of waking up the Congress to the growing catastrophe that Trump is creating — in this case, for the collapse of alliances with trusted allies, for any sense of legitimacy about the motivations of the US government, and for the reputation of the US as a responsible member of the nations of the world? Trump has said what he would like to do in the coming months in terms of “remaking” the western hemisphere; it is up to us to find ways of saying “No! We will not wage war indiscriminately to complete Donald Trump’s incoherent dreams of imperial supremacy!”.
At the moment, the strongest possible form of resistance against reckless use of military force and renewed acts of capricious warfare, lies in the US Congress. Our senators and congressmen and women must stand up and take action to ensure that more military attacks (acts of war) will not occur due to the impetuous whims of our president.
I’ve sent a letter to Senators Slotkin and Peters and Congresswoman Dingell urging action. Here is the text of my letter.
Dear [elected official], I am writing to you with a sense of very great urgency. The attack against Venezuela a week ago undertaken by the Trump government was a violation of the United Nations Charter, a violation of US law, and a gesture of complete lawlessness and contempt towards our own Congress — the voice of the American people. Trump is now making threats of the use of military force against other countries in the hemisphere, including Columbia, Mexico, Cuba, and Greenland. Trump’s unhinged impulsiveness and the unthinking bellicosity of his administration make these threats highly dangerous. Even some of the closest allies of the United States have condemned the invasion of Venezuela as unjustified under international law and a violation of the non-aggression clause of the United Nations Charter. The fig leaf that this was a “law enforcement operation” is fundamentally unsupportable. Lethal force was used, at least 80 persons were killed in Venezuela during the action, and the seizure of the sitting president of Venezuela has no legal justification whatsoever.
It is pressingly urgent for the US Senate and House to take decisive action to prevent other acts of war in the coming weeks and months. The War Powers Act should be applied and strengthened, and the exclusive authority of the Congress to declare war should be asserted. The United States is now in the position of an outlaw nation, following the lead of Vladimir Putin in his attempt to seize Ukraine and likely encouraging China to take military action against Taiwan.
The brakes must be applied now. We face a current and pressing emergency. No president should be free to create conditions of war against other nations without powerful legal justification, and Trump’s actions have no such justification.
Please devote your considerable powers of persuasion to bring Democrat colleagues and those Republican elected officials who will still respond to rational and principled argument, into strong opposition to Trump’s reckless use of American military power.
Sincerely, Daniel Little, retired professor, University of Michigan-Dearborn and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
We — yes, we — are in an emergency situation.
We — yes, we — have illegally, according to our own laws, and in defiance of our UN agreements, invaded Venezuela and “arrested” President Maduro on charges that have no true legal rationale, his illegitimacy not withstanding. The Administration’s claims that this was a law enforcement action and not a military invasion are farcical. And it is clear that the real basis of this invasion has nothing to do with drugs: Venezuela is responsible for a relatively small percentage of opioids flowing into the US; Trump pardoned a far greater drug trafficker, Juan Hernandez, just a while ago; Trump contacted oil CEOs before the attack, but not Congress, as required by law.
We — yes we — are in this for the oligarchy, the oil-igarchy, and Trump’s id, nothing else.
We — yes, we — have now suspended child care benefits to five blue states, based on allegations of fraud in Minnesota, although those allegations are suspect according to Minnesota’s own investigations. Even if the allegations end up to be correct, leave it to the Trump Administration to trump up a local issue into an excuse to harm the underprivileged nationwide.
We — yes, we — are destroying the world order that we, yes we, helped build.
We — yes, we –are responsible for this. We elected Donald Trump; we — yes, we — are represented by him whether we like it or not.
We — yes, we — are the only recourse we have to reverse this, to end this tyranny, to live up to the ideals that our elected President has so trampled on.
We — yes, we.
Please.
More imperialistic daydreaming from our masters … this time from the wife of Stephen Miller, with a graphic plainly threatening a US takeover of Greenland. When will the imperialist swaggering, bullying, and threats end? Is this what we American citizens want of our Republic? It most emphatically is not! What we want is a constitutional, law-governed republic committed to fair treatment and non-aggression in international affairs.
Denmark reacts after wife of Trump aide Stephen Miller posts image of U.S. flag covering Greenland
The appointment of Marco Rubio as Viceroy of Venezuela (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/04/rubio-venezuela-maduro/) is another deranged step taken by Donald Trump’s regime. It must not stand. It is an inherently imperialistic and royalist title (vice king) representing an imperialistic and illegal seizure of power over a sovereign nation. And, as Trump has been quite explicit in saying, the purpose has to do with the mineral wealth of Venezuela. Trump’s action is a clear and fundamental violation is the United Nations Charter and make the United States an outlaw regime in the community of nations.
Here is a short history lesson from Gemini on the topic of “viceroy”.
FROM GEMINI:
PROMPT: Has the title of viceroy ever been used by the United States?
Officially, the United States has never used the title of “Viceroy” for any government position.
The term is fundamentally incompatible with the U.S. political system for two primary reasons:
While not an official title, the word “viceroy” has appeared in U.S. history in specific, non-governmental, or informal ways:
When the U.S. administers territories or oversees foreign transitions, it uses titles that carry similar administrative weight but fit within a republican framework:
END OF GEMINI TEXT
What world are our political masters living in? What nightmarish thoughts are driving their worldview? In what universe does it make sense for a democratic republic to take over a sovereign country by military force and appoint a “viceroy” to govern it? And when will the people speak? When will our Congress open its eyes to the unhinged plans and actions of this government and exert its constitutional powers of restraint? Where are Wayne Morse, Ernest Gruening, and J. William Fulbright when we most need them?
Now we have a motive for the crime against Venezuela. Its oil is Trump’s target. Forget about his babble about drugs and protecting Americans. This is how imperialism has worked in the Americas.
U.S. will be "very strongly involved" in Venezuela’s oil industry, Trump says https://share.google/csiRUegVBWWUDpuy8
Here is an excellent analysis of Trump’s unrestrained bellicosity against Venezuela by Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic …
Trump’s Risky War in Venezuela – The Atlantic https://share.google/3OR92FSMPwarfOB7Q
Affirming Democracy, Gathering Resistance 