Rotten Tomatoes just appeared in my in-box with a review and trailer about the new Superman movie.  I think I’ll take this one in.

Previous posts in the past week: July 4, 6 and 8, 2025.

*

By my count, today, July 12, 2025, is 173 days since the inauguration of the President.  2025 is more than half over.  Labor Day is about 50 days away and in my context, Labor Day more or less ends summer.  Kids are back in school; most vacations are completed….  Reality replaces recreation.  There is much to be done.

Thursday, July 17,  will be another major national demonstration organized through Indivisible, a group I’ve decided to affiliate with.  To find an event in your area, click here.  [postnote July 13:  New program announcement from Indivisible here],  It’s not necessary for there to be an event in your town.  Organize your own, or be in action by yourself, doing something about your particular passion, and then do something every day.  Margaret Mead said it best many years ago: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

There are a great plenty of “ain’t it awful” actions (which will play out that way even for those who think they’re great ideas if applied to somebody else.).

This is our country.  And resist the temptation to say to yourself, “I can’t do anything”.  Read Margaret Mead again.  There are endless issues, and there are 75,000,000 who apparently agreed with me to the extent of voting for the same candidate for President and Vice-President in November 2024.

I am not alone.

POSTNOTE:

The heading of this post, Tonton Macoutes, refers to a proposed column I’m submitting to the local Minnesota Star Tribune today.  At minimum, I want you to see it, as submitted.  If you wish, it follows:

“The recent show of force by ICE at Los Angeles MacArthur Park (Minnesota Star Tribune July 8) causes me to wonder: have we become what we despise?  I think back to personal memories in the “good old days” of 2003 and 2006.

In spring, 2003, I met a man who was putting together a study group which would culminate with six days in Haiti in mid-December.  I bit, and six of us spent the next few months learning about Haiti, arriving in Port-au-Prince on December 6, 2003.

Our six days were jam-packed with the reality of Port-au-Prince.  Ours was a study group, so we visited places and talked with many citizens in a variety of settings.  Our hosts were supporters of the Democracy movement in Haiti, supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  We witnessed the positive outcomes of a fledgling democracy in this impoverished nation.  There was justifiable pride.

But storm clouds were gathering.  Less than three months later, President Aristide and his family unceremoniously left Haiti to the Central African Republic on a U.S, plane. France and Canada seemed co-operators with the U.S.  A coup had been accomplished, in my opinion, by our democracy against another country learning and wishing to practice democracy.

In our one-week visit, we had no personal incidents, but we apparently had bad friends, at least in eyes of some.  During our week, one person we met was assassinated near the National Palace a day or two after we met him .  I think we heard the gunfire as we were driving past the area, completely unawares.  At the time of the coup itself, several of the people who had graciously hosted us were either imprisoned or fled the country.  Another died by poison, I learned a year or so later.

Haiti National Palace Dec, 2003 photo Dick Bernard

Early on I learned that my 63-year-old white face was not a benefit.  We were listeners at a very informative meeting with perhaps two dozen Haitian men and women who recalled human rights incidents in their own lives in the days of the Duvaliers.

At the end of the session, we went around the circle to thank each person for sharing their stories with us.  One man refused to shake my hand.  All I can imagine is that I reminded him of somebody he’d encountered, and not in a positive way.

Three years later I returned to Haiti on another study trip, this one facilitated by a highly respected Haiti organization.  This trip was to the interior of Haiti, once again rich in insights.

Enroute, in Miami, I was able to connect with the Catholic Priest who we had met on our first day in Haiti in 2003, who was imprisoned at the time of the coup.  After the coup he seemed to have been exiled to Little Haiti in Miami where I met him in person, in public, seemingly free as a bird, like the Aristides: just a different kind of prison.

The Haiti I visited both years was an impoverished but welcoming place.  This has changed.  Why?

The MacArthur Park incident fits into this story.

Now, ICE is flush with newfound authority and cash from the just-passed federal budget.  What happened in MacArthur Park is, in my opinion, a public threat to everyone everywhere in the United States in coming months.

The masked military in masks and very dark glasses remind me of what I learned about the infamous Tonton Macoutes who were the enforcers at the time of the Duvaliers in Haiti.  They used their official status and anonymity to terrorize and subdue the population.

ICE is a great threat to democracy in the United States, and we all need to actively resist however and wherever and whenever we can.  For absolute certainty the anonymity of law enforcement must end.

There are other threats too.  This is our country.  We citizens own the future, for good or ill.  But we must participate in the solution.”

COMMENTS (more at end of post)

from Sharrie: Thank you for writing and submitting this column, Dick. I agree that ICE has morphed into a paramilitary. I agree on the incompatibility of such an order-keeping force — one whose masked members wear uniforms without identifying insignias, do not show badges, bear military-style weapons, drive military vehicles, and do not have warrants but abuse and detain people without regard to due process — with the rights which belong to people in a democracy. I’ll watch for your commentary and participate in the discussion which will certainly follow on the STrib’s comment boards. Democracy is imperiled wherever we tolerate autocratic behavior. Peace and solidarity,

from Claude:  Thank you, Dick.. Some interesting history here.  Enjoy the rest of summer no matter what the world and Trump throws at us!

from Donna:  shared with persmssion:

My blog post for July 4 is here.

*

Today ends 4th of July weekend.  We’ll soon begin to see what it means to be in the trump era.

This is Sunday, and I like to go to Church and I did, this morning.  Today’s readings from scripture seemed to focus on evangelizing, and Fr. Tasto emphasized a single phrase in the Gospel, from Luke 10:1-9: “…The Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit….”   At the time Christianity was in its infancy, and Fr. Tasto pointed out the importance of pairs – relationships – of work groups of two, for reasons we all understand.

The way I interpreted the reading and message was that regardless of the circumstance or gender, two together provides another set of perspectives and support in whatever we happen to be working on.  Going it al0ne may seem to be convenient – you don’t have t0 deal with things like different points of view – but the outcome tends to be weaker than one resulting from working together to resolve differences.

(The other readings were IS66:10-14C and 2GAL6:14-18)

Two weeks ago in the same church a few feet away from where I was sitting today were two coffins, with Melissa and Mark Hortman, next to them their next of kin, and President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris and a church packed with mourners.  I wasn’t there.  It was invitation only – but nobody was wearing partisan id’s.  I watched it on TV, like most, and it was very sad but impressive.

Hortman funeral, Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis, June 28, 2025

O course, their death at the hands of a political assassin on June 14 was only an instant in time, as was the two hour funeral on June 28.   Life goes that way.  Appreciate the moment the you have.

Friday night, July 5, large numbers of lives were washed away in a tragic flood of the Guadalupe River in Texas.  As of Sunday afternoon July 6, the Texas death toll is 70, including 59, 21 of them children, in Kerr Country.  These  deaths were recognized by the Congregation, as were immigrants from all times and all places….  Basilica is a place that takes social justice seriously.

*

July 3 came what I think will ultimately be a Pyrrhic victory – the gigantic Federal Budget passed by a whisker and signed on July 4, then the President’s victory lap in Iowa where he emphatically said he “hated Democrats”.  And the day before inaugurated what is flippantly called the “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, itself subject to allowing, to be filled with suspected illegals chased down by a massively bulked up ICE enforcement apparatus.

Etc.  Etc.  Etc.

Looking at the present and future for our country, those church pews would look very different, divided in so many ways with hardly a common vision, lurching from one crisis to the next.  There are four rows of pews – imagine two on the left and two on the right in mortal combat and you have an image of what we seem to be becoming.

I really have no precise idea of what’s really ahead. except I fear it’s going to be downhill from here.

The advice in the gospel, to pair up, is appropriate and necessary.  And if you haven’t gotten to work, now is the time, and to carry on. day by day.

This post is being written Thursday morning July 3, 2025, before I’ve watched, read or listened to any news from or about Congress and the Budget.  The last data I have is from before evening of July 2.

As a July 4 weekend suggestion, I’d like to recommend a long article in “The Weekly Sift” for June 19, 2025.   The Title” The Rot Goes Deeper than Trump”.  While you’re there, read the bio of the author, who I’ve followed for a long time.  Subscription is free, if you wish.  Always thoughtful.  Note: I’m just asking you to consider reading the most recent post, rather than the following ones also there.

*

The June 30, 2025, New York Times Had a very long article: “The Upshot”, entitled “A List of Nearly Everything in the Senate G.O.P Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save“.  This is a very long article (prints out at 25 pages) but is worth your time to look.  On pages one and two of the article is the below graphic which summarizes the Bill, probably to be voted on today:

The Upshot, NYT, June 30, 2025

I emphasize, the chart is as of June 30.  The article is being updated.  Nobody knows what will be in the final bill, or when it will finally be enacted and signed into Law, whether July 4 or some other date.

Printing the graphic is editorial enough.You know who benefits, and who doesn’t, and what the long term implications are.

Everyone of us, whether we think this is wonderful, or awful, is the ultimate target for what results.  The huge beneficiaries are the already hugely rich, most specifically the billionaires and the biggest corporations.  The losers are the rest of us, which is the vast majority of Americans.

I have always considered my self to be a moderate, pragmatic democrat.  I’ve had no reason to change that over the years.  It sits on this page to the right side. I have only a single recommendation.  If you voted for Harris/Walz in 2024 you may consider yourself to have no role in the ultimate outcome, but keep in mind that you are not alone.  A few months ago, you and over 75,000,000 other citizens actually cast a ballot for the alternative.  You have over a year to impact one of the others who either didn’t vote at all, or voted the alternative.  What happens going forward is in YOUR hands, not in anyone else’s.

*

I’ve given the vote totals before, as well as how I view the political ‘scrum’ that is the American citizenry.  Here are the numbers, as presented in this space before: Here is the “scrum” as I have seen it over the years.  I’ve indicated where I sit on the graphic.  Note for yourself, where you consider yourself to be.

The ball is in your court.  Period.

POSTNOTE July 3: Jennifer Rubin in the Contrarian has a very interesting perspective, which I just saw today.

POSTNOTE 2: The billionaires at Trumps Inauguration, per Forbes.

COMMENTS (more below):

from SAK in England:

Thanks for that – especially that chart which summarises the current “disaster’. It is a similar story in many lands.

I like this from a British politician, Aneurin Bevan, who is sadly no longer with us:

“The whole art of Conservative politics in the 20th century, is being deployed to enable wealth to persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power.”

Many have been swindled and/or bullied into supporting extremist policies that will hurt them. All we can do is wait for the enlightenment pendulum to swing & pray it happens sooner rather than later.

I enjoy your writings & feel that they are sort of left of centre – as my politics tend to be. There were decent centre-right politicians as well of course but where are they now?

Have a look at what is happening in the UK as well, not some illiterate backwater:

Reform by the way is basically the anti-immigration party supported by the Christian right.

Note how low the Conservatives have sunk. This is not peculiar to the UK, the centre-right is on the back foot, unexciting & too reasonable for these hooligan, (anti)social media, short-attention-span times.

How much chance has the Pope against a blustering buffoon issuing one-liners all day & night long!? The poor Pope issues an encyclical every few years – well studied & considered to withstand the test of time & scrutiny. Liars flood the zone constantly – as advised by Bannon & co of the Christian right.

According to Sam Freedman, this current trend is not exclusive to the UK:

“Just two G20 countries are led by representatives of their traditional centre-right parties: Friedrich Merz of Germany and Shigeru Ishiba of Japan. Neither has a majority, and Merz has already fallen behind the radical right AfD in some polls. Of course, Donald Trump is technically a Republican, but his takeover of the party has changed it completely. He and his entourage of comic-book villains are more extreme than most of Europe’s radical right parties.”

With the rise of the populists what was the centre-right to do? Shout against the populists as some did or take over some of the populists’s agenda as many have done? In either case the centre-right is diminished & moves away from its core principles or away from some (or many/most depending on the country & the situation) of its voters.

The centre-right cannot deliver economic prosperity & growth any longer it seems – there was Covid, there is the rise of China and others, there is global warming, there is the debt overhang, there seem to be limits on productivity & resources . . . Thus proclaiming free markets ad nauseum or promising lower taxes simply no longer works. People have seen the free markets wreck lives and no government can lower taxes while providing care & servicing the debt etc. So the centre-right is resorting to other ways of capturing votes: inflaming anti-immigrant passions (the same immigrants who brought prosperity & accepted lower salaries and did work that many will not do) or by declaring war on “woke” & “multiculturalism”. Then, surprise surprise, the centre-right discovered that voters concerned about these issues tended to go for the far right & the Christian right.

Of course there are many wise, principled & capable people on the centre-right. Unfortunately many of them, instead of insisting on their beliefs & ideas that differentiate them from the far right & the centre-left, have been bullied by one big bully or another. They have been bullied remarkably easily which makes me wonder how attached to their principles they were in the first place!? A bit too willing to render unto to Caesar it seems . . . & Caesar is only too willing to receive. About the corruption of Caesar a lot can be said but that’s for another day.

Sources:

Voter intentions, UK: here

The party’s over: the Tory slump is part of a global conservative comedown: here

The week now passed has not been easy, and the weeks to come do not seem to be promising.

At home in Minnesota the week was dominated by the political assassination of a Minnesota political leader, Melissa Hortman, and her husband Mark; and the severe injuries of another legislator, John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette.  The alleged assailant shot all four victims in early morning shootings at their home in neighboring Brooklyn Park and Champlin, Minnesota.  The Hoffmans are recovering from multiple gunshot wounds; the Hortman’s were memorialized by thousands at the State Capitol on Friday, and funeral service in Minneapolis on Saturday (Photos below).  The alleged assailant is in jail and the news has been non-stop and easily accessible to anyone interested so I will not add to it here.

June 27, 2025, approaching the State Capitol. over 7,000 persons paid pair respects, photo by Dick Bernard.  Time on the walk was over an hour, slow but steady.

The Saturday funeral at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, my parish, was by invitation only.  Every seat was taken by about 1300 people.  There will be a private burial later.  The obituary in the Minnesota Star Tribune (June 25, 2025) for the Hortman’s included the below suggestion.  Here is entire obituary: Hortman obit June 25 2025.

Hortman Obituary Minnesota Star Tribune June 25, 2025

Basilica of St. Mary June 28, 2025

POSTNOTES:

This morning came a particularly pertinent commentary about happenings in the United States Congress, “as we speak”.  I would highly encourage you to also read this column, and to accompany the reading with action – since in the end analysis “we, the people” has to be all of us, reflected in our action or inaction in choosing who makes decisions impacting on our future.  This is no time to be sitting on the sidelines.

Here are some specific action ideas for this week from Indivisible.

Basilica of St. Mary is my Parish, and I was at Sunday Mass today.  There was no pre-notice of the funeral at Basilica, doubtless to have a reservations only attendance.  Fr. Gillespie, co-celebrant at the funeral, was the Priest this morning, and in addition he wrote a column for today’s newsletter.  I include the column here: Fr. Gillespie column June 28, 2025  It would have been written some weeks ago; nonetheless it seems particularly pertinent for today, and not only related to the Hortman’s.

COMMENTS (see also, end of post):

from John: Speaking, strictly for myself, I think it may be time to get worried.

Today is Juneteenth, nationally observed.

I can’t say I know much about Juneteenth, and this mornings Heather Cox Richardson Letters to An American gives a good brief historical seminar.

Here’s a history from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Scroll down at this site for more links.

It appears that the Twin Cities main observance is on West Broadway, Minneapolis, today.

Search “Juneteenth” for more.

This seems an appropriate time to present an interview with my friend, Melvin Giles, in 2014.  (at the link, scroll down to Melvin Giles video).  Melvin was very involved in peacemaking actions in his St. Paul neighborhood and elsewhere.  The video was made in St. Paul by two Pakistani Fulbright scholars at the University of Minnesota