All right. I’ve written a few posts, and I finally realized that I should write an “About” page. You can congratulate me on my instantaneous grasp of the obvious.
Let me start out by telling you three facts about me.
1) My favorite piece of trivia goes like this:
Me: Do you know the name of President Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense?
You: (assuming you know anything about the Viet Nam War): Sure, it’s Robert S. McNamara
Me: Very good. Now tell me what the “S” stands for. What was his middle name?
You: Blank stare.
Me: I’ll give you a hint. It was a very strange middle name.
You: (Still no clue.)
Me: I’m not going to tell you. Look it up, and you will see it was a very strange middle name.
2) The most extreme of anything is inherently interesting. The biggest person in the world is interesting because they are the biggest. The smallest person in the world is interesting because they are the smallest. The smartest person in the world is interesting because they are the smartest.
Well, I’m the most boring person in the world. And being the most boring person in the world, I did not make up this little paradox. As best as I can tell, it was invented by Chris Rose in his short story, The Interesting Most Boring Person In The World.
3) I have a blog called themessinglink. I started it in May 2012, and its focus was on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the Iran nuclear deal. I was concerned that Israel was going to drag the United States into a war with Iran that was not in our interests. After all, Bibi Netanyahu was caught on a 2001 video explaining how he could get away with violating the hell out of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Oslo Accords, thus torpedoing an effort which could have led to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu explained how he would stretch Israel’s interpretation of ambiguities in the Accords to the breaking point, and then said, “America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in their way.”
Netanyahu also testified before Congress in September 2002 and urged us to attack Iraq to stop their development of Weapons of Mass Destruction. I am not sure how influential his testimony was in laying the groundwork for our disastrous war against Iraq about six months after his testimony, but it is hard to deny that his testimony contributed at least a little towards the fear that Saddam Hussein was acquiring WMDs.
If Netanyahu could get us to look the other way as he sabotaged the Oslo Accords, and if his push contributed even a little towards setting us on a path to war with Iraq, then he might try to drag us into a war with Iran as well. I started out my blog as a feeble attempt to slow our march towards war.
But something happened in 2016 that completely changed the focus of my blog. Donald Trump had announced his run for office in 2015, and it became more and more apparent to me that a Trump presidency could be a bigger disaster for the United States than a potential war with Iran. I stopped writing about the Middle East in May 2016 and started writing exclusively about the dangers Trump posed for our country. I wrote a column entitled “Donald Trump Is An Existential Threat To American Democracy” two weeks before the 2016 election, and I stand by that prediction.
I tend to post very long and detailed pieces on my blog with lots of links and embedded videos. If nothing else, slogging through them is a great cure for insomnia. I also tend to post infrequently—partly because my articles are long and detailed, and I am a slow writer, partly because I’m lazy, and partly because if I put everyone to sleep all the time, then nothing will ever get done. Well, I will continue to write long, detailed, and infrequent posts here, but I will may also post shorter ones recommending videos and articles that are essential for fighting against Trump’s attempt to frog march us into an authoritarian nightmare. So follow me here if your idea of a good time is listening to the melodious voice of MAGA star extraordinaire, Roseanne Barr, singing the Star-Spangled Banner.
I can also be found occasionally posting on Bluesky and regularly doing battle against the disinformation spread by the Trumpanzees on Twitter.
