Author Archives: Sheila

I Told You So…

I’ve fallen into a repetitive pattern; when friends or family members express horror at some new evidence of Trump’s ignorance, vanity or lunacy, I typically note that “he’s insane.” Rinse and repeat. On this platform, I have frequently offered the same opinion: in addition to stupidity and ignorance (not the same thing), Trump is clearly and increasingly mentally ill.

There is copious evidence of both his longstanding intellectual defects and his growing lunacy. The most recent–which actually managed to be startling–was the letter he wrote to the President of Norway, expanding on his fixation with Greenland.

That letter read in its entirely:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.

Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.

I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

Where to begin? Perhaps by pointing out that Greenland is part of Denmark, not Norway? That the Nobel Committee is a private entity, not part of Norway’s government? That there are plenty of “written documents” memorializing both Denmark’s ownership and the U.S. recognition of that ownership?  That his obsession with the prize is flat-out nuts, and his assertions of having stopped eight wars is –to be polite, let’s just say–fanciful?

Historian Anne Applebaum’s response (among many) is on point; this pathetic missive proves beyond a doubt that “Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize.” As blunt and undeniably correct as her assessment is, there’s little hope that the Republicans in Congress will respond to her plea to stop Trump from “doing permanent damage to American interests.”

Applebaum says that those Republican Congressmen “owe it to the American people, and to the world.” True. Unfortunately, however, most of them have already demonstrated their spineless subservience to a MAGA cult that is equally divorced from reality.

Paul Krugman has offered what may be the most accurate description of where we are with this madman at the helm of the ship of state. He compares Trump’s late-night social media posts and letters to his father’s “sundowning.” Sundowning is a particular type of mental illness that manifests at night–after the sun goes down. (On the other hand, as Krugman concedes, “This might not exactly be sundowning, since it’s not clear that Trump is lucid and rational at any time of the day. What is incontrovertible is that he’s deeply unwell and rapidly getting sicker.”)

Krugman points out that it is unfair to blame a mentally-ill person for his illness–that it is the people around him and the cowards in Congress who are genuinely responsible for enabling behavior that may well bring on the destruction of the world order. He concludes by asking the question so many of us have asked:

How did a great, sophisticated nation, one of the world’s longest-standing republics, end up so fragile that it can be undone by one man’s dementia? That’s an important question, the answer to which I believe lies in the straight line from Bush vs Gore and the Roberts Supreme Court, to January 6th, to the execution of Renee Good. However, what’s more important is that we realize where we are right now, that we don’t try to sugarcoat and sanewash what’s happening: A petulant, violent and deranged individual is running America.

We all know it. The clowns and sycophants in his cabinet and our spineless Senators and Representatives know it. As Krugman accurately notes, It would take only eight people — four Republican senators and four Republican representatives — to “switch sides and caucus with the Democrats” to end this nightmare.

But those people would need to be actual patriots–not self-protective cowards averting their eyes from Trump’s all-too-obvious lunacy and the existential global danger he poses.

And from where I sit, today’s GOP doesn’t have any patriots.

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Then And Now

A good friend with whom I lunch regularly used to be a high school history teacher. She is tormented by what she sees as clear parallels between Nazi Germany in the 1930s and America under Trump, and for anyone familiar with that history, it’s hard to disagree with her.

I thought about our conversations when I read a recent guest essay in the New York Times.

The author began by sharing his recollection of rooting through a pile of items in a flea market in the early 1940s, and finding an old diary–the product of a German soldier from WWII. As he wrote, he might have missed it, but being Jewish, books adorned with eagles perched on swastikas tended to catch his eye.

The diary was in German, which he couldn’t read, but it was the black-and-white photographs of the soldier’s life that interested him: the diarist’s photo in his sharp new uniform, pictures with his fellow soldiers, others with what appeared to be his family at a festive dinner, and several of the soldier with a pretty young woman–perhaps his wife or girlfriend.

What was most notable was what I didn’t find: There were no photos of death camps, or mass graves, or starving prisoners. Instead, there was one of him with his parents in front of their house. Proud.

The absence of any visual representation of the horrors being visited on Germany’s Jews (and gays and gypsies..) reminded the author of his family’s characterization of Germans. All Germans. His grandparents’ families had been murdered in the Holocaust, and to them, all Germans were “hateful, fascist murderers — fools who could be led by a fearmonger to commit atrocities he claimed were necessary and good.”

His family often expressed thankfulness that “we were not like them.” Americans were different.

I recalled that certainty in recent days, reading about the murder of Renee Nicole Good. I read about how the Trump administration quickly labeled her a terrorist. About how federal officials blocked the investigation by the state of Minnesota. About how our leaders accused her of trying to ram an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent when the videos of the incident seemed to clearly show otherwise. “Who are you going to believe,” asked Chico Marx, “me or your own eyes?” I suppose, in the eyes of this administration, that makes me a Marxist now.

None of this surprised me. After all, the shooting was just one day after the administration published a propaganda website saying the Jan. 6 insurrection was the fault of the Democrats and the Capitol Police.

As the author then writes, any belief that “Americans are different” will be rebutted by a visit to social media.

On several social media platforms, he encountered Americans who believed the Trump administration without question, who repeated the government accusations that Good was a “paid agitator” who got what she deserved, that the armed agent was a hero, “defending his nation from undesirables.” 

Past or present, it’s not the leaders who disappoint me. It’s the led…

But I miss those days.

I miss the comfort of believing Germans were different.

I miss believing that we Americans could never be led by a fearmonger to commit atrocities he claimed were necessary and good.

I miss believing we are not like them.

I could have written that essay–or something similar. I too was raised in a family horrified by the atrocities of the holocaust, and convinced that there must be something twisted and different in the German psyche that allowed ordinary Germans to ignore the camps, the mass graves and smells from the crematoria, that allowed them to agree with their government that eradicating millions of people was for the good of the nation, that people who were different–people who worshipped differently or loved differently– were no better than vermin and that their extermination wasn’t cause for concern. 

There is one important difference between today’s America and Germany in the 1930s, and I cling to it. A huge percentage of Americans have seen the videos of Good’s murder, and the millions who aren’t substituting the administration’s propaganda for the evidence of their own eyes are taking to the streets. And Minnesota’s Governor made a magnificent speech in which he pulled no punches, praising the resistance in that state.

The country is being tested. And as I keep assuring my friend, I do believe a majority of Americans will prove to be different from the “good Germans” who closed their eyes and went along.

I sure hope I’m right…..

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The Car Conundrum

Today, let’s take a break from the continued insanity of our mad would-be King, and consider some of the issues that we policy nerds used to contend with before the nutcase descended on his tacky golden elevator. (Consider this a vacation from the daily hysteria…)

Let’s talk about cars. Automobiles.

I live in a city where the notion of public transportation is incomprehensible to a significant portion of our car-centric population. That love affair with automobiles, along with a flat, mostly open geography, largely explains the lack of density that makes provision of public transport in cities like Indianapolis challenging.

Policy folks who address the issues raised by a population that is massively dependent upon ownership of a working vehicle largely focus on the environmental impact and various public safety concerns, but studies raise numerous other negatives that should be taken into consideration.

A recent article in The Guardian, for example, focused on an aspect of our car-centric culture that most of us haven’t considered. It seems that excessive car dependency leads to unhappiness.

The article notes that the automobile is “the default, and often only, mode of transport for the vast majority of Americans.” More than nine in 10 households have at least one vehicle and 87% of people use their cars every day. In 2025 a record 290 million vehicles were operated on US streets and highways.

 However, this extreme car dependence is affecting Americans’ quality of life, with a new study finding there is a tipping point at which more driving leads to deeper unhappiness. It found that while having a car is better than not for overall life satisfaction, having to drive for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is linked to a decrease in life satisfaction.

The article noted that planning policies and parking construction have encouraged suburban sprawl, construction of strip malls that have more space for cars than people, and the accompanying erosion of shared “third places” where Americans can congregate. As most Americans know, even very short journeys outside the house require a car–the article says that half of all car trips are under three miles.

Even in cities with excellent public transportation, traffic congestion is often brutal. Paul Krugman recently discussed New York’s effort to address that congestion, which is an example of a “negative externality” — a cost people impose on other people. Krugman cites estimates that commuting into lower Manhattan on a weekday imposes $100 or more in costs on other drivers, delivery trucks, and so on. The congestion fee recently imposed on those driving into central Manhattan has vastly reduced that congestion –but as Krugman notes, even in New York, getting that fee imposed was a heavy lift, because a significant number of people evidently feel a “sense of control when driving that makes them reluctant to take mass transit.”

The one thing that may break through this love affair with our very own cars may be the issue of affordability. An article in the Washington Post has confirmed what transportation scholars have consistently preached: owning a car is incredibly expensive. The question isn’t whether to buy a new or used vehicle–the article says they are both debt traps. But as we all know, they are frequently required debt traps.  “For most Americans, a car isn’t a luxury; it’s a requirement to get to work and keep the lights on, food on the table and a roof over their heads.” For increasing numbers of Americans, vehicle costs are starting to rival rent or mortgage payments.

And thanks to America’s aging population, another problem is manifesting. When older folks can no longer drive, those who don’t live in walkable areas are increasingly immobilized and isolated. (Wealthier folks can access Uber or Lyft, but most older Americans cannot.)  

And speaking of affordability in a country where the gap between the rich and the rest continues to grow, the lack of transportation hits hardest on poor people who can’t find work because they can’t afford a car to get them there. (In urban policy and labor economics, this is often described as “spatial mismatch” or “transportation poverty.”) When people who can’t afford a car live in places with weak public transit, they face mutually reinforcing barriers to employment–barriers that are particularly acute in places like Indiana, where jobs are increasingly located in suburban areas, office parks and industrial zones near highways–places generally not served by our limited public transportation systems.

The question–as always–is “what should we do?” 

I look forward to the day when MAGA and Trump are gone, and normal Americans can turn our attention back to issues like this.

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A Summary And A Prescription

In today’s post, I’m citing  two commentaries that describe where we are– and one that outlines what we must do.

Last Monday, Simon Rosenberg’s post at “Hopium Chronicles” included a two-paragraph summary of Trump’s preceding week. I’m quoting both paragraphs in full, because they paint a very clear picture of the time and place we inhabit.

Just in the last few manic days Trump has launched a full out assault on the Fed (see Chairman Powell’s historic video, below). He is threatening to invade Greenland, bomb Iran, struck targets in Syria this weekend, and last night declared himself “Acting President of Venezuela.” He is now fighting with the oil companies over their reluctance to become part of his Venezuelan oil fantasy; threatened the credit card companies with a law that only exists in his mind; sanctioned the killing of Americans by his paramilitaries for dissent; threatened to veto the resumption of the ACA subsidies if passed by the Senate; and with another anemic jobs report on Friday received further confirmation of the failure of his tariffs to deliver for the country, or Republican candidates facing extinction over affordability. The lunatic HHS Secretary is returning America to a pre-modern health era, threatening the lives and health of tens of millions of Americans. Millions of people took to the streets this weekend, many in terrible weather. We are now more than a quarter of the way into the new federal fiscal year without a budget, and the government may run out of money again in 18 days.

Things are getting worse, not better, for Republicans and the country. Trump is threatening the fundamental security alliance that has kept us safe and free for 80 years. He is threatening the integrity of our financial system which has made us the wealthiest nation in history. He has walked away from the UN Charter which has created the basic governing rules for nations for 81 years. He snatched a foreign leader from his palace in the middle of the night, without Congressional approval. In the last few days he openly threatened both the oil companies, and the big banks, two powerful Republican-aligned industries who will be loudly complaining to Thune and Johnson today. Last night he declared himself the “Acting President of Venezuela.” He is encouraging his goons to kill Americans on the streets. His public performances and social media posts suggest he has completely lost his shit and it is time now for the keys to be taken away.

Rosenberg is a Democrat–a hated “progressive.” However, Charlie Sykes, was a rock-ribbed conservative pundit. 

Sykes began his post by sharing an editorial cartoon that’s been making the rounds–ICE agents standing over a fallen Statue of Liberty, polishing their guns and explaining that “She was brandishing a torch.” He then pivoted to discussion of “Judgement at Nuremberg” a film he found relevant to the times in which we find ourselves. He then quoted Joe Klein for the “critical parallel.”

Innocent people are being rounded up in the streets of America now. One was killed last week. Too many of our fellow citizens are okay with this.

But they don’t even have the “Good” Nazis’ excuse: they know it’s happening. They see it on tv every night. Their tolerance for this brutality is making our country, palpably, a place it never was before. It is becoming the sort of country that people used to flee… to come to America.

That’s where we are. The critical question, of course, is: where do we go? What must we do? Rick Wilson–another former Republican (and former GOP strategist) has weighed in on that pivotal question.

To stop the immediate crisis, we must weaponize the very “propositional nature” of America. This involves a tactical veto of civil society: a collective refusal by elected leaders, local governments, businesses, the legal community, and civic and religious leaders to facilitate the “will to power.”

By creating friction in the gears of the state, we transform the grim anxiety of the populace into a functional resistance that protects the remaining guardrails of the Republic until the momentum of ICE can be broken at the ballot box.

Then, Wilson writes, we must create a National Commission on the Rule of Law to document every “butcher’s bill” and ensure that names like Renee Good are never forgotten. That Commission must then pursue the active prosecution of every functionary who used the machinery of the state to crush America–the  “American SS and people like Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, and Tom Homan, and the hundreds of lower-ranking DHS and ICE officials who executed these abuses.”

Wilson is right. We must return to an America in which “the rule of law is not a suggestion, but a binding commitment that carries a price for its betrayal.”

We the People can do that.

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Indiana’s Brain Drain

Indiana has long had a “brain drain.” College educated young people–even those who graduate from Hoosier colleges and universities–consistently leave the state. The reasons aren’t mysterious, and most aren’t economic, although we do have lower starting salaries and fewer large headquarters than other (mostly Bluer) states.

Indiana’s legislators recognize the existence of the problem, but overlook–or choose to ignore–the reasons for it. Our elected officials fail to recognize the importance of the quality of life issues that educated young folks (and plenty of us older ones) value: walkable neighborhoods, good public transit, a lively arts scene, and the cultural diversity that supports a wide variety of restaurants, cafes and nightlife– attributes of a vibrant urbanism that Indiana’s legislature not only doesn’t appreciate, but routinely tries to diminish.

Then, of course, there is social policy. Indiana’s abortion ban isn’t just a deal-breaker for many young women and their partners (ask some of our larger employers, who will confirm the effect of that ban on their efforts to hire). It is also negatively affecting the state’s ability to retain physicians, researchers, and even some of the employers who are experiencing those problems with recruitment.

Our Red state’s war on LGBTQ+ rights is another negative. Educated young people are repulsed by the bigotry that has prompted Indiana’s laws attacking the rights of trans children and their parents.  It isn’t only gay young people who find these and other anti-gay measures distasteful. These efforts to stigmatize gay folks join the legislature’s (and Governor’s) interference in higher education, the Trumpian attacks on DEI, and  politicization of university curricula. All of this is (quite accurately) seen as an unwelcoming environment for intellectual life.

And then there’s the recent prominence of the Hoosier state’s Christian nationalists.

Lest you dismiss my assertion that the rise of our “Christian warriors” has accelerated the departure of educated young people from the Hoosier state, allow me to quote a real economist. Michael Hicks is the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics and the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. In a recent column for the Indiana Citizen, Hicks expressly linked the rise of Indiana’s Christian nationalism to the outflow of educated young people. As he wrote,

Indiana is in the midst of what is possibly the most economically damaging period of outmigration in state history. This is because net migration from Indiana is concentrated among the best educated young people. A 2017 study by U.S. Senate Republicans reported Indiana’s ‘brain drain’ was among the worst  seven states nationwide – worse than West Virginia. Since then, the environment has worsened substantially. College enrollment in Indiana is in rapid, historically unequalled decline with more Hoosiers heading to out-of-state colleges than ever before.

The last thing a healthy and prosperous Indiana needs is anything that would repel young people wishing to make a life in our state. A Christian nationalist agenda that is hostile to Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists and Lutherans is a recipe for a more sluggish and moribund economy.

And just to be clear, a more sluggish economy is a feature, not a bug of the Christian nationalist movement. They seek an ideologically pure, small-sect Christian state, where students are consigned religious schools from pre-Kindergarten through college.  They want a poorer, less educated population, that is easier to control. They want a public workforce that sits quietly in the pews of one or two different denominations.

This is economically damaging to Indiana, deeply anti-Christian and un-American. It must be rejected by Hoosiers.

Our legislative overlords like to proclaim that low tax rates make Indiana “business friendly.” They don’t seem able to connect the dots between adequate investments in the state’s quality of life and a robust business environment. And they are obviously impervious to the negative economic consequences of support for social policies reminiscent of the 1800s.

And speaking of “connecting the dots”–the composition of Indiana’s legislature isn’t the result of a backward citizenry. It doesn’t reflect widespread public sentiment. A significant minority of our state’s citizens actually live in the twenty-first century, and understand and disapprove of the implications of our government’s backward approach. Those citizens just aren’t represented in the state legislature, thanks to Indiana’s extreme gerrymandering.

It’s frustrating to be a Hoosier…

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