Category Archives: Praying

More Thoughts On Yesterday’s Election

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It was clear from early last evening that the midterm elections were much favorable to the Democrats than anyone expect. So what happened? Well, many things but here are some of my thoughts.

It’s the economy stupid: Democratic consultant James Carville made this line famous during the 1992 Presidential campaign working for Bill Clinton. President Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran have raised prices on the things Americans need. Trump has attempted deny the damage he’s caused but that was unsuccessful. Funny how hearing how well the stock market is doing provides little comfort when you’re having to take a calculator to go shopping.

Many of us did what he asked: Even though he wasn’t on the ballot he asked voters to pretend I’m on the ballot. We did. Of course now he’s claiming the result isn’t his fault because he wasn’t on the ballot.

He didn’t keep his promises: When running for President in 2024 he criticized what he called forever wars and promised not not make the same mistake. Of course that’s before he invaded Iran.

So what happens now? I’m no better than anyone else at predicting the future, but expect a Republican bloodbath as members of his party attempt to shift the blame away from themselves.

Yes, I’m Back And Blogging On Election Night

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11:00 PM in California Not all the races are set but it’s clear it’s been a good night for the Democrats. This was hardly a surprise but President Trump has already begun to blame everyone else. For weeks he’s been calling voters to pretend he was on the ballot and it appeared we did. Tonight he posted on his social media: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” No doubt he will spend the next few days looking for scapegoats and he’s already turned on Fox News for not doing enough to help him.

10:00 PM in California Not long after I wrote the last hour, Susan Collins conceded. This comes as a surprise as she is one of the few Republicans who could attract Democratic voters. She insisted that she voted in the best interest of her constituents but for all her claims she voted as Trump told her and Maine just got fed up.

The polls in Alaska have just closed and we’re a long way from a final vote. The race is between Mary Petola and the incumbent Dan Sullivan. The wrinkle here is that there is another Dan Sullivan who is running as an independent. As you can imagine the Republicans are screaming that this is a conspiracy to confuse Alaskan voters into voting for the wrong Dan Sullivan. As a matter of fact, Trump has directed a lawsuit be filed and a criminal investigation opened against Mary. Again, this may change, but right now Mary is ahead of Senator Sullivan by more than votes for the other Dan. In other words, if you combine the votes of both Dan Sullivans, Mary still leads. Guess this takes the air out of the conspiracy.

9:00 PM in California It’s getting later but we’re still waiting to see if the Democrats will pick up Senate seats in Maine and Michigan. Both states normally take a while to report. We may need to wait a while on Alaska as they are in an hour behind the Pacific Time Zone.

Most of the energy in the race has been national, particularly with the House and the Senate. But the polls closed in California and it’s no surprise that our new governor will be Xavier Becerra who defeated Steve Hilton. Steve was never a threat to win and never really won the support of the national Republican party.

There will be much more of this written (some by me) but we need to talk about redistricting. I’ve spoke about this before but the Constitution mandates a census every 10 years and this be used to determine congressional districts. It’s been the custom that happen only then but Trump demanded some Republican states redistrict now in the hopes they could draw lines to add Republican seats in Congress. It appears to have failed. The problem with their strategy is that they couldn’t change the number of voters, only where the lines were drawn. Some Republicans found themselves in districts with more Democratic voters and this may have cost them.

8:00 PM in California As I write this it appears James Talarico has defeated Ken Paxton in the Texas senate race. That seat was previously held by John Cornyn who ran for reelection but was defeated in the primaries by Ken Paxton. President Trump backed Ken because he didn’t think John wasn’t loyal enough.

While we’re talking about Texas, the incumbent Governor Greg Abbott lost his reelection bid to Gina Hinojosa. It appears being a Republican in Texas is no longer a guarantee to win.

South Carolina also bears a look. Since 2003 Lindsey Graham served in the senate and had no reason to worry about being reelected. Tragically he died suddenly in July and President Trump asked his sister Darline to run for her brother’s seat. It was a nice sentiment but Darline simply lacked any experience and lost to Dr. Annie Andrews.

This is fast becoming an historic night for the Democrats and now let’s look at Ohio. Sherrod Brown served as senator from Ohio from 2007 to 2025 when he was defeated by Bernie Moreno. Sherrod then ran for the other Ohio seat and tonight beat Jon Husted.

There was an open seat in Iowa as Joni Ernst was retiring. Tonight the Democrat Josh Turek defeated Ashley Hinson. Again this was a state the Republicans never expected to have to fight for, let alone lose. Many Iowans farm for a living and they’ve been hurt by Trump’s tarriffs and the high price for diesel to run farm equipment and transport crops.

Of the states that nobody expected to be in play, Kansas has to rank the highest. They haven’t elected a Democratic Senator since George McGill in 1932. Like Iowa, farming is king in they’ve also been hurt by Trump’s policies. Incumbent Senator Roger Marshall lost to Adam Hamilton but there was an additional wrinkle. Senator Marshall is an OB-GYN and in a recent article it was revealed that he sued and jailed patients who either didn’t pay their bills or missed court dates. As a doctor he provided services to his patients and had reasonable expectations that he would be paid. But one of his patients , Meischa Zimmerman, asked the arresting officers to handcuff her out of sight of her 2 year old daughter.

7:00 PM in California As we all know, every two years we go to the polls for elections. All 435 members of the House of Representatives run, along with 1/3 of the Senate. Since the President runs every four years we won’t have that election, though President Trump has told us to pretend I’m on the ballot. Many of us have and it doesn’t look like it’s good news for him. After the 2016 Election I became a little jaded about polls and predictions and I’ve really held my breath until tonight. The President’s party normally loses seats in Congress on the “off year elections” and it’s been looking for a while that the Republicans may lose control of the House where they currently hold a 218 to 214 majority (with 1 independent and 2 seats vacant). In the Senate the Republicans currently hold 53 seats to 45 Democrats with 2 independents. For a long time it appeared the Republicans would hold because only 33 seats are up for election and the Democrats would have to flip four of them (the two independents caucus with the Democrats).

It’s still early but it appears clear that the Democrats will pick up enough seats and NBC News (the network I’m currently watching) projects that they will end up with 244 seats (to 187). It also appears they will pick up Senate seats in North Carolina and South Carolina; in addition, races in Texas, Kansas and Ohio are “leaning” Democrat. It’s too early to call but the path forward for the Republicans has significantly narrowed.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 184: This Is Exactly What He Promised He Wouldn’t Do

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For the past 5 months we have been at war with Iran. And President Trump has been promising the whole time that we are winning/have won/will win soon. There’s an exhaustive timeline on the Politifact website.

This would be bad enough but we all remember that Trump promised no new wars.

While we’re on that topic he also promised to tame inflation.

Now the case can be made that the attack on Iran was necessary and wars have consequences. But there is virtually no evidence that this is true.

In June of 2025 the United States destroyed nuclear sites in Iran and Trump promised that the nuclear threat was obliterated.

Posing a nuclear threat requires two steps: enriching uranium to weapons grade and developing a rocket that can carry the warhead hundreds or thousands of miles to its target. Nobody seriously believes Iran is close to this capability and Trump has refused to give any evidence of his claims. In fairness he’s also never given any proof that he won the 2020 Presidential election.

Face it America: we are a paying the price for a war that has no justification and we can’t trust anything our President says.

Thoughts On Our First 250 Years

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I am writing this essay on the day we celebrate the fact that 250 years ago today a group of men in Philadelphia made an incredible declaration. They asserted that 13 colonies in North America were no longer answerable to England’s King George III but were instead free to govern themselves. A few years later many of these same people wrote an owner’s manual that we call the Constitution.


Since then we’ve been governed by geniuses, heroes and scoundrels. We’ve always been a work in progress. Since our founding we’ve opened up voting to women, native Americans and former slaves. We’ve recognized that people from all over the world have found us and have come to our shores to join us. And we’ve recognized that we never stop learning what it means to be free.


And there are times when we’ve stumbled. We’ve not always lived up to our ideals and we’ve been slow to recognize that. But we haven’t given up.


Now on our 250th birthday we have an opportunity to look back and look forward. But it’s a hard time. Our current President is not a man who chooses to do either. He has, at best, a limited understanding of what it means to govern and no understanding of what it means to lead. He’s made this celebration of our nation an homage to himself.


But in the end we have proven ourselves to be stronger than just one man, regardless of his intent. We need to keep fighting but we need to avoid falling into despair. The recent Supreme Court ruling in Trump v Barbara reminds us that he doesn’t have the power to repeal a Constitutional Amendment by executive order.


There is a great deal more I could say but in fifty years we will celebrate our Tricentennial and we will have learned from this chapter. This I believe.

Joe Kent: A Well Needed Breath Of Fresh Air

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I, like the majority of Americans, believe we shouldn’t be attacking Iran. We don’t feel Iran posed an immediate threat to our safety or the safety of our allies. We we believe this conflict will be long and costly and will hurt us in the long run. Today we found that Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned his position out of conscience. In a statement he said that he believed President Trump bowed to pressure from Israel.

As we expected, Trump said he barely knew Joe but thought he was weak on security. Of course that doesn’t explain why Trump nominated him. Joe is hardly a lightweight. He served 20 years in the army and was a Green Beret. Until today he was a Trump loyalist.

I’m most impressed that he resigned because he could no longer serve in good conscience. The existence of a moral compass has been noticeably absent in an administration that values loyalty over competence. Too often I’ve observed previously good and patriotic Americans trade their moral compasses for job security. Legions of MAGA voters cast their ballots on Trump’s promise to keep us out of “forever wars” only to now claim support for Trump. It’s hard to watch.

Trump values revenge almost as much as he values loyalty. Let’s see if he tries to interfere with Joe Kent the way he’s trying to punish Arizona Senator Mark Kelley.

It’s Official: ICE Has No Shame

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Many of us are troubled by the actions of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). I don’t think I need to list them, but I recently learned of one tactic that particularly bothers me.

You can read the article here on the web page of National Public Radio.

Turns out when they detain a pregnant unaccompanied minor she is automatically sent to a shelter in Texas (including those who are pregnant from a rape). At first glance this may make some sense: this population has special needs and keeping them together provides them a better opportunity for the care they need. But the reporters spoke to several members of the administration’s own health and child welfare officials who say this facility lacks the ability to give that care.

OK, so why send them to a place that doesn’t provide what they need? These officials (who aren’t identified over a well founded fear of retaliation) are convinced these girls and young women are in Texas because they can’t have abortions.

The Trump administration denies this but gives no justification over why this facility in Texas. Because of Texas’ near total ban on abortions many doctors who care for pregnant woman have left the state out of fear that treating a woman for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages will leave them vulnerable to criminal prosecution. Simply put, this means that these detainees may be at higher risk for complications to tragic results.

And in case you haven’t had enough, the shelter is run by a for profit company called Urban Strategies. While they claim that the health of their residents is their first priority, the first priority of any for profit company is profit.

Let me be clear: I’m pro life and see the death of any child, of any age, as a tragedy. But I’m also pro honesty and pro integrity. This is neither

By the way, it’s a good article and worth a read.

Attack in Iran: We’ve Seen This Before (Again And Again And Again)

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A few days ago forces from the United States and Israel attack targets in Iran. Leaders of both nations defend their decision by claiming self defense: they say Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program that endangers other nations. The US and Israel also claim that this operation will likely take 4 to 5 weeks but we have the capacity for a longer war. There are several problems, so let me start here:

Wars are always supposed to be quick. At the beginning of Civil War (1861-1865) the South believed that Northern States wouldn’t fight to keep the nation together. They felt that as the states voluntarily joined the Union they could voluntarily leave. Meanwhile the Northern States believed the South didn’t have the infrastructure (railroad connections, guns, bullets, etc.) and would run out of stuff in a few months. They were both wrong. Perhaps a better example is the 2003 invasion of Iraq. When President Bush announced the invasion members of his administration claimed it would be a cakewalk and it would be financed by Iraqi oil. Vice President Dick Cheney claimed the Iraqi people would see us as liberators. By the time our troops left in 2011 (with over 4000 US casualties) Iraq was still a mess.

Trump promised not to do this. He famously ran on a platform of not entering “forever wars”. This will end up costing him among his base.

Iran isn’t an immediate threat. Last June Trump ordered an air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and claimed that we “obliterated them.” He famously never admits a mistake and therefore can’t now claim it didn’t work. There’s no possibility that Iran has been able to rebuild its program fast enough to make it a threat now.

I’ll certainly be writing more about this later but when gas prices start to rise and the stock market declines it’s going to be hard for Trump to continue to claim victory.

Does Speaker Johnson Really Believe He Can Lecture Pope Leo XIV On Christian Teaching?

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Pope Leo XIV, and Pope Francis before him, have clearly emphasized the Catholic Church’s teaching on how we are to treat immigrants. Scripture brims with examples, but let me just give one, Leviticus 19:34: “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Unfortunately, many among us, including political leaders who identify as Christian, attempt to use Scripture to defend their xenophobia. Current House Speaker Mike Johnson recently said this (and I’m getting this from an article in The Christian Post):

“Borders and walls are biblical,” Johnson, a Southern Baptist, responded. “From the Old Testament to the New, God has allowed us to set up our civil societies and have separate nations.”

“Immigration is not something that’s frowned upon in Scripture,” he added. “We’re to welcome the sojourner and love our neighbor as ourself.”

The speaker continued: “What’s also important in the Bible is that assimilation is expected and anticipated and proper.”

“When someone comes into your country, comes into your nation, they do not have the right to change its laws or to change its society,” Johnson said. “They are expected to assimilate.”

“We haven’t had a lot of that going on,” he insisted.

He further states that when the Bible calls us to care for “the sojourner and the neighbor” it is “an admonition to individuals, not the civil authorities.”

Wow, it’s hard to know where to start, but let me give it a try:

  • Borders and walls are not biblical, they were (and are) reality. Borders and walls have been around as long as humanity and the fact that they are found in the Bible doesn’t mean we invented them. Likewise with separate nations. God did not make a map for us to follow.
  • There is nothing (NOTHING) in the Bible that demands assimilation. Much of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels describes the difficulty in maintaining Jewish identity during Roman occupation and at no time does Jesus command us to become Romans.
  • Here in the United States we live in a democracy. Civil authorities govern only with the consent of individuals and there is no “us vs. them.” We are all “us.” Because of that any admonition that binds individuals must also bind civil authorities. How dare he lecture the Pope on the Bible when he misunderstands even the basics of democracy.

Finally, Speaker Johnson uses something called proof texting. Rather than explore a Biblical passage to understand its meaning, a proof texter will begin with his own opinion and scour the Bible to find a passage that appears to back him up with no regard for original meaning or context.

Speaker Johnson, if you’re going to claim authority on either the Bible or democracy, get better at it.

I’m Back (Hopefully For Good)

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Nearly two years ago, in April of 2024, I finally threw in the towel on updating this blog. To be honest, at that time President Joe Biden was limping toward re-election and Donald Trump was running for a nonconsecutive 2nd term. It was getting harder and harder to watch this process and I just ran out of gas.

But since then Trump has once again become President and many of my worst fears have come true. Again and again I’ve asked myself what I can do as a member of the resistance and I’ve decided to start writing again. I tried to write at least one article per month and that just isn’t enough. I fell into the trap known as “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” I pressured myself into thinking each entry had to be stunning and they ended up just being time consuming.

My hope now is to write shorter, less ambitious articles. I’ll be frank that I think Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and if he succeeds in becoming a stand alone dictator it will only partially be the result of his supporters. To quote Dr. Martin Luther King, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” I have limited belief in my ability to convert true Trump supporters but I do hope to awaken those who oppose Trump but haven’t spoken up.

Stay Tuned.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

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On this day 82 years ago 2532 people woke up on the last day of their lives. In addition to 2,403 Americans, 129 Japanese also died at Pearl Harbor. With every passing year there are fewer and fewer survivors and it won’t be long until the last survivor dies.

It’s a reminder of many things, including the frailty of life and how life can change in an instant. I’ve been blessed to have met 2 survivors in my career in hospice; I’ve also listened to hours of people telling me where they were and what they were doing when they got the news over the radio or from a neighbor. Most had never heard of Pearl Harbor and had only a vague idea that Hawaii was somewhere in the ocean.

The next four years brought out the best and the worst of us as Americans. We kept President Roosevelt’s promise to defeat the fascist empires of Japan and Germany. After the war we rebuilt both of those nations and paid for the education of nearly 8 million of those who fought. On the other hand we allowed our prejudices to imprison over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry because of how they looked.

To quote Civil War General William T. Sherman, “war is hell.” On Pearl Harbor Day 2023 we see war in so many places (not just Ukraine and Gaza) and it’s a good time to recognize that decisions made today will reverberate for generations to come.

In meantime let us continue to pray for the dead and wounded and may we always strive to be a nation worthy of those who put on their uniform each morning with no guarantee that they will wake up tomorrow.