In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from the Munich Conference with Adolf Hitler after agreeing to what is called a policy of appeasement which means you give your opponent what they want so you don’t have to fight them. Chamberlain gave his reasoning in a radio address. “How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing…” He went on to say he felt sorry for  a small nation confronting a big, powerful neighbor, but we can’t help.

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For the past three weeks, Donald Trump and Elon Musk have blitzed through the federal government. Firing thousands of workers, closing down federal agencies, allowing Musk’s minions to have access to Americans’ personal data through the invasion of the Treasury Department, and on and on. Judges around the country have been called on to stop or at least slow down the madness. When Trump’s Justice Department tried to corrupt the legal system for blatant political reasons, Danielle Sassoon said, not on my watch. Sassoon was the thirty-eight year old US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. She was appointed three weeks earlier as an interim prosecutor until Trump’s pick for the office was confirmed by the Senate. Then it happened.

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If anyone else did what Trump has allowed Elon Musk to do, they’d be in federal prison on a variety of charges. Musk sent a gang of tech head twenty somethings into the Treasury Department to demand access to the private information of millions of people. They went into US Aid for International Development shut it down and turned what left over to the State Department. This agency helped millions of people around the world who need food to survive and all kinds of medical care. This, of course, on top the threat to two million federal workers. Take a buyout offer, or face termination. This is something that would shock us if it was happening in some third world country. This has never happened before in our history.

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The contrast and symbolism was stunning. It was just over four years ago that a mob of insurrectionists stormed through that scared place under the Capitol dome prompted by Donald Trump. He sat by for hours watching the mob desecrate the heart of the American government that called for the death of his own vice president. Today we allowed Trump to return to that place. One of his promises is to pardon hundreds of those rioters. The majority of us decided to give him back the power. Now we are getting what we deserve.

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There have been seven football games on TV since last Thursday starting with the College Football Playoffs. Those games were followed by five NFL Wildcard Weekend games. Oh, and there is one more tonight. A football feast, food for the hungriest fan. If you watched any football this year, you’ve seen the Uber Eats commercial showing some believe that football’s goal is to make you eat more. Actor Matthew McConaughey is sitting on a coach watching a game with 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey is eating fries from Uber Eats. McConaughey makes the argument that football is just a way to make you buy more food. McCaffrey doesn’t believe it. McConaughey points out football even has terms to suggest eating like “turnover” and “pancake blocks”. He mumbles that “Refrigerator Perry” wasn’t his real name. To prove his point Hall Famer Jerry Rice sits down next to him. Asked what he’s eating, Rice, of course, says rice. Proving McConaughey’s point.

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It was a reminder of the past and a freighting look into the future. Donald Trump’s bizarre news conference at Mar-a-Logo was like listening to someone raging on a street corner. Let’s start with Greenland. Apparently some one showed Trump where it is on a map. He repeated his plan to take Greenland from Denmark. He says it’s a matter of national security. He said there are a lot of Russian ships sailing around it. Greenland is an autonomous part of Denmark and has been since 1814. We have a military base there. Don Jr is there now for an unofficial visit. Denmark’s Prime Minister says Greenland is not for sale.

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New Years, 2025 started with death, terror, and fire in the two American cities noted for having a good time. The terror attacked in New Orleans may have been prevented if city officials listened to warnings five years ago. A study of security for the French Quarter showed the bollard system, those metal pillars we’ve all seen around buildings and streets, was in need of repair and the area was vulnerable to vehicle attacks. The warnings were ignored until recently. The city was starting to replace the system to get ready for the Super Bowl. There was no system in place for New Years Eve and the Sugar Bowl. The terrorist just drove around a police car. This was a failure of city officials to prioritize public safety and the failure to recognize the world we live in.

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As we get older, things start to fail, or at least slow us down. Notice I said “get older” as opposed to “old.” Older sounds more respectful. The word “old” usually has a negative connotation. “That old lady is holding up the line.” “That old man shouldn’t be in the fast lane.” “Get rid of those old clothes. No one wears that anymore.” Some of us age more gracefully with aches and pains that are tolerable, others suffer years of pain as their body rebels against them. I’ve been lucky. One thing that seems to go wrong for just about everyone is our eye sight. It seems every older person wears glasses, progressives, bifocals, or readers. We’re all wearing something. I started wearing glasses when I was in my thirties. They were not very strong. For years, everything was clear. Then they weren’t.

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It was a terribly hot in Philadelphia in September, 1787 when a roomful of men were trying to create the Constitution for the new country. Maybe the most important meeting in American history.  Eighty-one year old Ben Franklin was a delegate. One of his contributions was setting up the two houses of congress. The House of Representatives based on a state’s population and the Senate where every state gets equal representation. Every day he noticed a carved sun on the back of Constitutional Convention president George Washington’s chair. He wondered whether it was rising or setting as a foretelling of the country’s future. James Madison said at the close of the convention, Franklin told him, “I have looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now I know that it is a rising sun.”

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I’m sure you’ve all been waiting to hear the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year. Well it’s out. It’s actually two words, “Brain rot.” It was voted on by the public and Oxford lexicographers. The experts at Oxford claim the word gained new prominence in 2024. The frequentcy of use was up 230% over last year. I don’t know where I’ve been. I haven’t used it once and never heard anyone else use it. Oxford defines it as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging …It’s a word or expression that reflects a defining theme from the past twelve months.”

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