Sir, thank you for sharing your inner most feelings about your family and the debt you so deeply feel you owe to support democracy. Your essay is encouraging in these dark days. I agree with Mr. Carmichael: you have shown us your passion, and in doing so, have inspired us. God bless you and keep you.
Thank you for sharing your family's story. I am a Gold Star mother whose Latino son, adopted from Colombia and naturalized, died for this country. Now I live with the fear that ICE could snatch up his younger brother and detain him. My son did not die for a dictator, so I pester my MAGA congressman and attend every protest, hoping to regain our democracy.
My folks worked for the UN in China (Shanghai) in 1947 - 1949. Dad told mom that their son would be born in an American hospital in the United States. Had it not been for her departure to the states, she might well have suffered the same fate as my dad and I'd not be here today. I protest the inhumanity of ICE and this regime at every chance.
I put my flag out today and will display it all weekend. I will not let the fascist followers appropriate that symbol that has meant so much to me and my family over the generations.
I still expect students to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance, and I always raise my voice on the words "LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL", though I get choked up when I think of how much trouble our constitutional democracy is in right now.
Thanks for all you do to restore our rule of law. And thanks for that wonderful, apt adage from your parents. We must all continue to work hard and never surrender. Our country belongs to all of us.
ALL: The below link is to a gift article in the New York Times I thought everyone here might find interesting. Think ICE, but also the people Trump pardoned and wants to pay for their nefarious activities:
Here are a few comments from the comments section:
Sort by: Newest
Barnes commented May 19
“The worse an officer’s academic record had been at the military academy, the more likely he was to join Battalion 601. And once inside, the lowest performers were assigned to the most brutal units, carrying out the day-to-day tasks of torture and murder, work that was so morally repugnant that it carried a serious risk of both social stigma and psychological trauma.” Sounds like an ICE recruitment ad: Have you flunked out of police academy? Did the military boot you for being too erratic? Are you willing to commit crimes against humanity even when dozens of witnesses are recording your actions on video? If you can answer yes, Uncle Sam wants you on ICE! Come join forces with your like-minded, low-intellect, high-testosterone compatriots for morally bankrupt military cosplay with live ammo! Benefits include frequent travel, no accountability, a federal pension upon discharge and a lifetime of shameful silence about what you did in The Winter of ‘26.
Recommend 274
Dave commented May 19
Part of the strategy of DOGE was to purge the ranks of the federal government of the most intelligent, dedicated and motivated employees - leaving the "drones" and "time clock punchers" (i. e. those with meager career prospects outside of government) behind in fear of losing their jobs as well. Unless they enthusiastically "got with the (Project 2025) Plan". And it's working
.
Recommend 153
Chris commented May 19
Scary thing is, is that Republican voters don’t see this happening. Either it’s not reported on the news they watch, or it’s too detailed for the average person to absorb it.
Will it be seen in time for people to stop it? Or is the whole Republican Party those whom this article is writing about?
ADDENDUM to NYTimes article: I don't like it that the writers of this article refer to everyone in the "lower level" of the economic or even intelligent power structure as "losers," etc., though I'm sure there is some truth to that claim. Unlike Trumpian ideas, even the lesser intelligent or incapacitated among us have an equal place in the political order.
We can widen the lens, however, to understand that the article also EXPOSES A FUNDAMENTAL FLAW IN A CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY.
That is, many people the writers seem to bag together with real scum, are fundamentally good citizens neighbors, workers, professionals, and family members, but who still struggle to survive, feed their families, etc., or who just do work they like that doesn't pay well in a predatory-capitalist system. For MANY reasons, many are not "losers," but rather too easily get put in the position of making UNTENABLE CHOICES--between securing a reasonable financial base and giving up their integrity in order to access that base.
How about it folks (1) feed your kids, pay for doctors, fix your car, etc., OR (2) keep your integrity and sense of self-worth while you and yours sink below the poverty level and btw get called a "loser." So, you get a job that you can slip into easily, but that makes you cringe; but don't worry, your need to hold your nose while you work will wear down soon enough. <--that's the fundamental flaw in a hyper-capitalist culture.-
And BTW, it's not necessarily capitalism as such (or at least I don't think so), but rather capitalism that has a broader context of well-being for all involved and that is not rampant, predatory, greedy, or standing on one-horse transactional consciousness where all the power is in the hands of moral, political, and even spiritual (wait for it): LOSERS.
Thank you Norm. Going forward, we must do a better job of teaching our children about our history and our government. Let’s expand national service opportunities. Let’s make sure each state has a strong civics curriculum. Let the light in. Democracy, too, dies in darkness.
TRUMP OUTDOES HIMSELF IN DETONATING ANOTHER DISTRACTION FROM HIS CORRUPTION AND PERVERSIONS
Yesterday, Trump ordered the deportations of hundreds of thousands of people with jobs, homes and families in the U.S., who are awaiting the processing of their applications for Green Cards, to return to their countries of origin to apply for permanent visas. It is expected that ICE agents will be taking the lead in physically enforcing this order.
As cruel and bizarre as this action may be, it may not necessarily be attributed to Trump’s madness, viciousness and mental instability. On the contrary, it may fit his crafty pattern of creating a crisis as a strategy to deflect the public’s mind off of far more serious misconduct by Trump himself.
Trump’s action today to order his goons to eject hundreds of thousands of residents awaiting green cards appears to fit a pattern that we have been increasingly seeing ever since he first discovered how his initial surprise bombing of Iran almost totally distracted the American people from the utterly humiliating birthday military parade he threw for himself.
Trump thereafter deployed this strategy of distractions on occasions when he was faced with political setbacks, potentially humiliating disclosures, or other occasions when his poll ratings took a deep dive. His most blatant distractions have been during the Epstein hearings and disclosures and included his indiscriminate murders on the high seas of drug smugglers, whom he renamed “narco-terrorists” to make them more target justifiable, his invasion of Venezuela and the arrest of their President, his threats to seize Greenland, his second wave of bombing of Iran and this threats to destroy their civilization unless they submitted to his will.
It is not coincidental that Trump’s order today to eject these hundreds of thousands of residents from the U.S., comes within hours after Trump was thoroughly humiliated by the revelation that his own party has refused to fund his gold encrusted ball room and, more importantly, refused to support the plot he worked out with his Acting Attorney General to divert $1.7 billion dollars in taxpayer money to a slush fund for him to personally control and disburse, including payments to his co-conspirators who who were convicted after trial of storming the Capitol and leaving dead bodies in their wake.
There is, of course, the issue of whether Donald Trump, alone and unilaterally without the consent of Congress, has the sole right to arbitrarily order that these hundreds of thousands of residents awaiting green card be ejected from the United States. It’s inconceivable that Trump has this unilateral right.
For one thing, while not legally applicable, Trump’s order smacks of an ex post facto order or law. An ex post facto law, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, is a law that retroactively makes conduct criminal, increases punishment, or worsens the legal consequences of an act after it was committed. Simply put, the government can’t say, “That thing you did last year was legal then, but we now declare it criminal and punish you for it.” While, this doctrine may not literally apply to Trump’s order today, the principle does. These people have been here legally and awaiting the processing of their green card applications. They have jobs, homes and families here. It is simply unfair, un-American and so alien to our inherent sense of fairness to allow Trump’s unilateral order to be enforced.
But perhaps that is not Trump’s end game. Given Trump’s utter humiliation in being denounced for expecting the American taxpayers to pay $500 million for his gold-encrusted ballroom and another $1.7 billion taxpayer dollars for his personal slush fund to disburse as he pleases, Mr. 3-Card Monte needed an immediate shock-wave to get the American people to look the other way, and that’s what this is really all about.
Mr.Eisen, thank you for sharing your story. It is that of many of our immigrant;s children throughout our country's history. In spite of the current regime, let us not lose sight of the fact that immigrants and their families, in reality, built this nation. Were our factions to remember this, there would be a greater feeling of unity today - we built this. Now, why do we countenance its destruction today?
His next to the last paragraph as to how and why we should support and celebrate Memorial Day is clear advice and is an honorable way to do so. Again my thanks for your efforts, and please continue.
I’ve been in that place…many times…in the blazing sun, the drifting mist, and the pouring rain, tracing the names of friends, schoolmates, boy friends…and looking at the names from 1969-1970 wondering how many crossed my path and ended up etched here in front of me. I mourn them all, the names etched there and the names who are not, wondering why so many and what the hell for? I will for the rest of my life.
Quoting Pope Leo in the NYT, "When a reporter on the papal plane returning from a trip to Africa asked him about a controversy over the blessing of gay couples by priests, Leo said: “We tend to think that when the church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.” Combine that with the Great Society speech Richard Goodwin wrote for Johnson, we have a clear picture of where we need to return America starting this Nov.
What a poignant memoire! We in Canada keep cheering and praying for all democracy defenders like yourself. (My own father-in-law worked in the Dutch underground to help save Jews -- and disrupt Nazi occupation -- during World war II.)
I, too, am a child of free people, but free in mind. My mother, too, was transported in a cattle car to Auschwitz in the last year of the war and then marched on foot in wooden clogs to three slave-labor camps, where she, too, sabotaged the Nazi machine as she could. She was liberated by Soviet forces, some of whom, when the prisoners were being repatriated by the Red Cross, were eager to rape the women who had just come out of a most horrifying imprisonment. My father spoke his mind in Communist Romania, opposing Stalin's 5-year plan and other egregious economic policies that bankrupted a nation already teetering from the deprivations of WW2. He was imprisoned for a year, without due process, and when his case went to trial he, a man who was 6' tall, weighed around 90 lb. Not surprisingly, three years after his release and continued blackballing by the government, he died at 43. I came to this country as a teenager with my mother. We both endured the grueling eugenics-era repeated interrogations by the then INS under the 1928 law that limited the immigration of inferior "races" to the percent of those present in the U.S. in the 1890s. We came as legal UN refugees. After a couple of years of surveillance by the FBI, we were allowed to apply for a green card, finally becoming American citizens. As we celebrate those who fought and died for freedom, let us not turn away and let sink below our radar the new regulations imposed by the regime on green-card holders, who will be forced to go to their countries of origin and reapply there for their green-card renewal. What countries? The ones that forced them into exile? The ones they left so their children could be free? I'd like every American reading this to think of how a removal lasting at least a year, and only to a country that wouldn't immediately imprison or outright kill them, would affect their lives. Are we still deceiving ourselves that we're free people when such atrocities go largely unnoticed? FREE IN MIND, some of us always. In reality, we are stripped of human rights every single day.
Norm, thank you for sharing your story. It explains your passion beautifully but is also an inspiration in its own right.
Sir, thank you for sharing your inner most feelings about your family and the debt you so deeply feel you owe to support democracy. Your essay is encouraging in these dark days. I agree with Mr. Carmichael: you have shown us your passion, and in doing so, have inspired us. God bless you and keep you.
Thank you for sharing your family's story. I am a Gold Star mother whose Latino son, adopted from Colombia and naturalized, died for this country. Now I live with the fear that ICE could snatch up his younger brother and detain him. My son did not die for a dictator, so I pester my MAGA congressman and attend every protest, hoping to regain our democracy.
My folks worked for the UN in China (Shanghai) in 1947 - 1949. Dad told mom that their son would be born in an American hospital in the United States. Had it not been for her departure to the states, she might well have suffered the same fate as my dad and I'd not be here today. I protest the inhumanity of ICE and this regime at every chance.
"The children of the free" must do their part. Who will do it if we don't?
Remembering all those before us who did...
Thank you, Mr. Eisen, for sharing your story.
I put my flag out today and will display it all weekend. I will not let the fascist followers appropriate that symbol that has meant so much to me and my family over the generations.
I still expect students to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance, and I always raise my voice on the words "LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL", though I get choked up when I think of how much trouble our constitutional democracy is in right now.
Thanks for all you do to restore our rule of law. And thanks for that wonderful, apt adage from your parents. We must all continue to work hard and never surrender. Our country belongs to all of us.
ALL: The below link is to a gift article in the New York Times I thought everyone here might find interesting. Think ICE, but also the people Trump pardoned and wants to pay for their nefarious activities:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/world/americas/actually-democracy-dies-in-hr.html?unlocked_article_code=1.klA.R0Lc.It1FE-mz2uTE&smid=url-share
Here are a few comments from the comments section:
Sort by: Newest
Barnes commented May 19
“The worse an officer’s academic record had been at the military academy, the more likely he was to join Battalion 601. And once inside, the lowest performers were assigned to the most brutal units, carrying out the day-to-day tasks of torture and murder, work that was so morally repugnant that it carried a serious risk of both social stigma and psychological trauma.” Sounds like an ICE recruitment ad: Have you flunked out of police academy? Did the military boot you for being too erratic? Are you willing to commit crimes against humanity even when dozens of witnesses are recording your actions on video? If you can answer yes, Uncle Sam wants you on ICE! Come join forces with your like-minded, low-intellect, high-testosterone compatriots for morally bankrupt military cosplay with live ammo! Benefits include frequent travel, no accountability, a federal pension upon discharge and a lifetime of shameful silence about what you did in The Winter of ‘26.
Recommend 274
Dave commented May 19
Part of the strategy of DOGE was to purge the ranks of the federal government of the most intelligent, dedicated and motivated employees - leaving the "drones" and "time clock punchers" (i. e. those with meager career prospects outside of government) behind in fear of losing their jobs as well. Unless they enthusiastically "got with the (Project 2025) Plan". And it's working
.
Recommend 153
Chris commented May 19
Scary thing is, is that Republican voters don’t see this happening. Either it’s not reported on the news they watch, or it’s too detailed for the average person to absorb it.
Will it be seen in time for people to stop it? Or is the whole Republican Party those whom this article is writing about?
Recommend 101
ADDENDUM to NYTimes article: I don't like it that the writers of this article refer to everyone in the "lower level" of the economic or even intelligent power structure as "losers," etc., though I'm sure there is some truth to that claim. Unlike Trumpian ideas, even the lesser intelligent or incapacitated among us have an equal place in the political order.
We can widen the lens, however, to understand that the article also EXPOSES A FUNDAMENTAL FLAW IN A CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY.
That is, many people the writers seem to bag together with real scum, are fundamentally good citizens neighbors, workers, professionals, and family members, but who still struggle to survive, feed their families, etc., or who just do work they like that doesn't pay well in a predatory-capitalist system. For MANY reasons, many are not "losers," but rather too easily get put in the position of making UNTENABLE CHOICES--between securing a reasonable financial base and giving up their integrity in order to access that base.
How about it folks (1) feed your kids, pay for doctors, fix your car, etc., OR (2) keep your integrity and sense of self-worth while you and yours sink below the poverty level and btw get called a "loser." So, you get a job that you can slip into easily, but that makes you cringe; but don't worry, your need to hold your nose while you work will wear down soon enough. <--that's the fundamental flaw in a hyper-capitalist culture.-
And BTW, it's not necessarily capitalism as such (or at least I don't think so), but rather capitalism that has a broader context of well-being for all involved and that is not rampant, predatory, greedy, or standing on one-horse transactional consciousness where all the power is in the hands of moral, political, and even spiritual (wait for it): LOSERS.
Thank you Norm. Going forward, we must do a better job of teaching our children about our history and our government. Let’s expand national service opportunities. Let’s make sure each state has a strong civics curriculum. Let the light in. Democracy, too, dies in darkness.
TRUMP OUTDOES HIMSELF IN DETONATING ANOTHER DISTRACTION FROM HIS CORRUPTION AND PERVERSIONS
Yesterday, Trump ordered the deportations of hundreds of thousands of people with jobs, homes and families in the U.S., who are awaiting the processing of their applications for Green Cards, to return to their countries of origin to apply for permanent visas. It is expected that ICE agents will be taking the lead in physically enforcing this order.
As cruel and bizarre as this action may be, it may not necessarily be attributed to Trump’s madness, viciousness and mental instability. On the contrary, it may fit his crafty pattern of creating a crisis as a strategy to deflect the public’s mind off of far more serious misconduct by Trump himself.
Trump’s action today to order his goons to eject hundreds of thousands of residents awaiting green cards appears to fit a pattern that we have been increasingly seeing ever since he first discovered how his initial surprise bombing of Iran almost totally distracted the American people from the utterly humiliating birthday military parade he threw for himself.
Trump thereafter deployed this strategy of distractions on occasions when he was faced with political setbacks, potentially humiliating disclosures, or other occasions when his poll ratings took a deep dive. His most blatant distractions have been during the Epstein hearings and disclosures and included his indiscriminate murders on the high seas of drug smugglers, whom he renamed “narco-terrorists” to make them more target justifiable, his invasion of Venezuela and the arrest of their President, his threats to seize Greenland, his second wave of bombing of Iran and this threats to destroy their civilization unless they submitted to his will.
It is not coincidental that Trump’s order today to eject these hundreds of thousands of residents from the U.S., comes within hours after Trump was thoroughly humiliated by the revelation that his own party has refused to fund his gold encrusted ball room and, more importantly, refused to support the plot he worked out with his Acting Attorney General to divert $1.7 billion dollars in taxpayer money to a slush fund for him to personally control and disburse, including payments to his co-conspirators who who were convicted after trial of storming the Capitol and leaving dead bodies in their wake.
There is, of course, the issue of whether Donald Trump, alone and unilaterally without the consent of Congress, has the sole right to arbitrarily order that these hundreds of thousands of residents awaiting green card be ejected from the United States. It’s inconceivable that Trump has this unilateral right.
For one thing, while not legally applicable, Trump’s order smacks of an ex post facto order or law. An ex post facto law, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, is a law that retroactively makes conduct criminal, increases punishment, or worsens the legal consequences of an act after it was committed. Simply put, the government can’t say, “That thing you did last year was legal then, but we now declare it criminal and punish you for it.” While, this doctrine may not literally apply to Trump’s order today, the principle does. These people have been here legally and awaiting the processing of their green card applications. They have jobs, homes and families here. It is simply unfair, un-American and so alien to our inherent sense of fairness to allow Trump’s unilateral order to be enforced.
But perhaps that is not Trump’s end game. Given Trump’s utter humiliation in being denounced for expecting the American taxpayers to pay $500 million for his gold-encrusted ballroom and another $1.7 billion taxpayer dollars for his personal slush fund to disburse as he pleases, Mr. 3-Card Monte needed an immediate shock-wave to get the American people to look the other way, and that’s what this is really all about.
Mr.Eisen, thank you for sharing your story. It is that of many of our immigrant;s children throughout our country's history. In spite of the current regime, let us not lose sight of the fact that immigrants and their families, in reality, built this nation. Were our factions to remember this, there would be a greater feeling of unity today - we built this. Now, why do we countenance its destruction today?
His next to the last paragraph as to how and why we should support and celebrate Memorial Day is clear advice and is an honorable way to do so. Again my thanks for your efforts, and please continue.
Nice title!
Sharing: https://www.gramercyreview.com/war-memorial/.
I’ve been in that place…many times…in the blazing sun, the drifting mist, and the pouring rain, tracing the names of friends, schoolmates, boy friends…and looking at the names from 1969-1970 wondering how many crossed my path and ended up etched here in front of me. I mourn them all, the names etched there and the names who are not, wondering why so many and what the hell for? I will for the rest of my life.
Quoting Pope Leo in the NYT, "When a reporter on the papal plane returning from a trip to Africa asked him about a controversy over the blessing of gay couples by priests, Leo said: “We tend to think that when the church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.” Combine that with the Great Society speech Richard Goodwin wrote for Johnson, we have a clear picture of where we need to return America starting this Nov.
What a poignant memoire! We in Canada keep cheering and praying for all democracy defenders like yourself. (My own father-in-law worked in the Dutch underground to help save Jews -- and disrupt Nazi occupation -- during World war II.)
I, too, am a child of free people, but free in mind. My mother, too, was transported in a cattle car to Auschwitz in the last year of the war and then marched on foot in wooden clogs to three slave-labor camps, where she, too, sabotaged the Nazi machine as she could. She was liberated by Soviet forces, some of whom, when the prisoners were being repatriated by the Red Cross, were eager to rape the women who had just come out of a most horrifying imprisonment. My father spoke his mind in Communist Romania, opposing Stalin's 5-year plan and other egregious economic policies that bankrupted a nation already teetering from the deprivations of WW2. He was imprisoned for a year, without due process, and when his case went to trial he, a man who was 6' tall, weighed around 90 lb. Not surprisingly, three years after his release and continued blackballing by the government, he died at 43. I came to this country as a teenager with my mother. We both endured the grueling eugenics-era repeated interrogations by the then INS under the 1928 law that limited the immigration of inferior "races" to the percent of those present in the U.S. in the 1890s. We came as legal UN refugees. After a couple of years of surveillance by the FBI, we were allowed to apply for a green card, finally becoming American citizens. As we celebrate those who fought and died for freedom, let us not turn away and let sink below our radar the new regulations imposed by the regime on green-card holders, who will be forced to go to their countries of origin and reapply there for their green-card renewal. What countries? The ones that forced them into exile? The ones they left so their children could be free? I'd like every American reading this to think of how a removal lasting at least a year, and only to a country that wouldn't immediately imprison or outright kill them, would affect their lives. Are we still deceiving ourselves that we're free people when such atrocities go largely unnoticed? FREE IN MIND, some of us always. In reality, we are stripped of human rights every single day.
It is a good reminder that so many of us citizens are from immigrants.
actually, we all are...
We must do our part on preserving our democracy”
What an inspirational message! Thank you Norm!!