Op-Ed - Chestertown Spy

Rally to Support New Middle School Tuesday Oct. 7

October 6, 2025 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

If you care about public education and the future of our county, please consider showing your support of the new middle school project at a rally Kent County Public Schools is hosting on Tuesday evening. The rally will start at Garnet Elementary (320 Calvert St) at 5pm and participants will march to the County Commissioners office at 6. Signs and t-shirts will be handed out, but please also feel free to bring your own!

As it stands, the Commissioners still need to vote to approve the county’s portion of funding for the building. THIS IS NOT A DONE DEAL. Here is a summary of where things currently stand:

In October of 2023, after years of studies by the KCPS Facilities Strategic Planning Committee (which included numerous community meetings garnering input), the Kent County Board of Education passed the proposal to build a brand new middle school on the current KCMS property in Chestertown.
Commissioner Price has worked with County CFO Pat Merritt to find the funds necessary to pay the county’s share without raising taxes.
Commissioners Fithian and Nickerson have expressed reservations in supporting construction, in part because of a concern for finding ongoing funding for the Maryland Blueprint mandates, which require a higher investment in schools that they feel KC is able to handle. Commissioner Price believes this is a separate argument which is already being taken up with the state by many counties including Kent and should not be used as an argument to stop much-needed work on the Middle School project.
Commissioner Price believes further lobbying at the state level for a fairer funding formula for both the construction project and Blueprint mandates is still necessary (another thing to rally for in the future!)
The new middle school will add fifth grade, opening space in the elementary schools for additional programs (including the new 3-year-old preK program being piloted this year at the Presbyterian Church, who generously offered their space because there was no room at Garnet available) (this is exciting because it gives families greater opportunities because they would otherwise have to stay home or pay for childcare)
Studies have shown that school capital investments improve student outcomes and housing prices, with these investments having larger effects when they are directed toward students facing socioeconomic disadvantage (that’s us!)

For those arguing that the old Worton Elementary School building should be renovated and create a centralized Worton Campus for Middle and HS, the Strategic Planning Committee found that:
- The WES building requires very expensive upgrades to be suitable for middle schoolers
- Our buildings are so old that the state will not provide funding for renovations, only for new buildings (it is an inefficient use of funds to renovate)
- A large number of middle schoolers are walkers and the cost of bussing them out to Worton would be a higher recurring transportation cost
- A Middle and HS campus would require shared outdoor facilities, and studies have found that in those cases, the middle school students do not get priority and end up having fewer opportunities than if they had their own campus
- Many parents objected to having 5th graders share buses with high schoolers

All of which is to say, please come out and support our students and teachers by joining the KCPS rally for the Middle School on Tuesday. I personally have dedicated a lot of time to supporting kids in underfunded school systems—here in Kent County and across the country. I have seen how showing up for kids and teachers has a profound impact. The current Middle School says to everyone who enters the doors that we don’t care enough about you to fix this. Let’s start showing them we care. I hope to see you on Tuesday.

Robbi Behr

Chestertown

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Journalism Is Not a Crime, but Witness Intimidation Is by Will Fries

August 15, 2025 by Letter to Editor 1 Comment

A functioning democracy depends on people who are willing to speak up when they see wrongdoing. Sometimes those people testify in a courtroom. Sometimes they write an article. In either case, the principle is the same: the public deserves to know what happened, and those who share that knowledge must be free from retaliation.

When a journalist reports on possible violations of the law, that journalist is not simply telling a story. They are documenting facts that may become part of a civil or criminal case. Maryland Criminal law recognizes this reality. Sections 9-302, 9-303, and 9-305 of the Criminal Law Article make it illegal to harm, threaten, or intimidate a witness. That protection extends to anyone who reports misconduct that could reasonably lead to legal action. This includes journalists who investigate and publish credible accounts of official misdeeds.

Defamation, when used to falsely damage the credibility of such a journalist, can itself amount to an attempt to harm or retaliate against a witness. A baseless public accusation that a reporter has misrepresented facts does not just injure reputation; it can discourage future reporting, undermine the public record, and obstruct the flow of truthful information to the community.

Journalism has built-in processes to contest and resolve any items that may need correction or clarification. Reporters maintain detailed, dutiful records to support their assertions, and they follow rigorous standards to verify facts before publication. Disagreement with reporting is part of public debate, but false attacks that ignore these processes cross the line into intimidation.

History shows that attempts to silence reporters often fail. Journalists tend to be persistent, and they support one another when one of their own comes under attack. In newsrooms, at press associations, and through professional networks, reporters share resources, check each other’s work, and defend each other’s credibility. This solidarity is not just a matter of loyalty. It is a recognition that the integrity of the press is a shared resource, and when it is attacked, everyone in the profession has a stake in the defense.

Officials who try to discourage reporting by smearing those who do it misunderstand both the press and the public. Facts have staying power. Once published, they can be checked, confirmed, and preserved. Attempts to bury them often have the opposite effect, drawing more attention to the very information someone hoped to suppress.

The public, too, has a role in this equation. When voters and readers refuse to accept intimidation as politics as usual, they reinforce the expectation that truth will be met with accountability, not retaliation. That expectation is the foundation of public trust, and it is worth guarding.

Maryland law is unambiguous: reporting wrongdoing is not a crime. Trying to punish or silence someone for doing it may be. Journalists, as witnesses to the public’s business, will keep reporting. Their work is backed by careful documentation and professional standards, and the law is on the side of those who refuse to be intimidated.

Will Fries is a writer in Salisbury, Maryland. Find more at Watershed Observer.

[This opinion is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.]

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Op-Ed: Anything Goes, but Pete Hegseth May Go First By Aubrey Sarvis

April 26, 2025 by Spy Desk 5 Comments

Springtime in Trump’s Washington is a mad, mad, mad world, one without humor, subtlety, or joy. Washington is now a dangerous and chaotic place to work and live. Just ask the senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, who has been among the few Republican senators with the courage to respectfully disagree with President Trump and vote against him when she believed he was wrong.

The Alaska Daily News first reported that while speaking in Anchorage this week Senator Murkowski told a startled audience, “We are all afraid.” The context involved her colleagues in the U. S. Senate and the President of the United States. After a few moments of silence and reflection, the senator elaborated, “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I have not been here before. I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not fair.”

In a few words, the senator went to the crux of what is happening in our nation’s capital and none of it is flattering to our unstable president, nor to many of Murkowski’s spineless senate colleagues.

Most of the madness and chaos and fear of the last 100 days began with and remains with our fickle president who flips and flops and is incapable of being honest and trusting the American people with the truth. I fear the president cannot trust himself with painful truths, something as elementary and factual as the Electoral College results of the Biden-Trump 2020 election.

Long before Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat and brazen scheme to remain in office, lying was the essence of Donald Trump’s character. Lying remains a cornerstone of how he manages, controls, and manipulates. President Trump admits he operates pretty much by instinct, acknowledging there is no overarching comprehensive plan in place. How he runs our country of 340 million people is mostly by the seat of his pants, and much of it is raw, offensive, often vulgar, and invariably presented as factual on social media.

So of course, lying and vulgarity are now part and parcel of business throughout Trump world, especially among those who serve at his beck and call or are out to curry favor with our transactional president. No surprise that among the first causalities in this Trump White House are truth and integrity.

Lies and liars consume a great deal of attention and time. Working for a serial liar is demanding, demeaning, and exhausting. Constantly the handmaidens show the needy boss how much they believe in his enterprise. Shamelessly some throw in “genius” and, “Wow, Mr. President!” This is about performance, demonstrating fierce loyalty. These toadies were not hired for their credentials, high IQs, or remarkable achievements. No Lincoln or Roosevelt team of rivals here.

You can catch several of them performing in the president’s staged press conferences in the ostentatious, redecorated gilded oval office. There, the not so esteemed and clueless Attorney General Pam Bondi on cue ignores the subject of due process, a man’s right to be heard in court before he is deported. Instead, Attorney General Bondi glibly asserts the United States is powerless to facilitate an imprisoned Maryland man’s return to the United States. The mighty United States and our all-powerful president cannot spring a man from a flea bag prison in a third-rate country. Really? Need more? Watch Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff, tell a whopper regarding Supreme Court language refusing to lift a lower court’s order directing the Administration to ‘facilitate” the return of a Maryland man jailed in El Salvador so he can be heard in a United States court. Rushing in to foolishly play lawyer, non-lawyer Miller declared a White House legal setback was in fact a victory for the president. Some victory, when the highest court in the land agrees with the lower court directing the White House to comply forthwith.

Trump itches for an immigration court showdown, lying and stalling to deflect and focus on “immigration” rather than his disastrous and costly on and off again tariff fights against most of the world that has cost American trillions of dollars in just a few weeks. Of course, Trump would prefer a noble fight between a dangerous immigrant and a heroic president battling the courts and overeducated liberal judges to keep America safe from a notorious gang member who robs our good men and does unspeakable bad things to our fine women.

The president picked this cabinet. This is his best and brightest. Unfortunately, they are also the folks who will guide and advise him when we face the next military threat to our security and well-being. They will be front and center managing any Russian-Iran-Chinese nuclear crisis.

The president’s favorite in his cabinet is the smug Pete Hegseth who has been tap dancing since he was nominated for and became Secretary of Defense, a critically important post for which Mr. Hegseth is uniquely unqualified for by intellect, temperament, experience, and judgement. Beware of the “warrior” who promotes his patriotism, bravery, and brand on and in the clothes he wears. The Hegseth wardrobe includes a bright stylized U. S. flag handkerchief, folded inside his front jacket pocket; a U.S. flag stitched on his socks, and the colors of our flag for the inside lining of his tightly tailored suit jacket. This is the same preening defense secretary who, according to The Washington Post, recently ordered a make-up studio near his office in the Pentagon be upgraded for his many TV appearances, but the secretary’s aides were quick to insist he does his own make-up. On that, I believe him. I suspect Mr. Hegseth does his make-up very well; he has had years of practice.

However, I do not believe Mr. Hegseth when he repeatedly lies and denies he put classified information about an upcoming dangerous military operation on the commercial Signal chat platform. We already know from whom and where Hegseth received that Yemen intelligence about Houthi targets. We know the reckless secretary’s actions could have put service members under him in harm’s way.

This is not just another Hegseth “rookie” mistake. He is now the leader of the most powerful military in the world, and he is exercising the judgement of a whining junior officer. I fear the entitled Hegseth expects a waiver from any rule or regulation that gets in his way or his priorities. This Signal Gate began with Hegseth determined to get around a Pentagon prohibition on cell phone use in his area of the building, a prohibition deemed necessary to protect our security and nation’s secrets.

Secretary Hegseth who served twenty-years of duty retired a major. When asked about that rank, Hegseth pointed to generals who didn’t know how to fight and lead in war, and Pentagon lawyers in air-condition offices who wouldn’t let him shine in combat for his not attainting a much higher rank. He played the victim card, blaming others, just as he is doing today, fingering his hand-picked aides and MAGA appointees in the Pentagon out to get him.

Secretary Hegseth fails to grasp that a warrior’s responsibility is to protect the men and women who serve under his command, not use them as props to show off before friends and family on a commercial chat platform. An investigation has been requested by the Senate Armed Services Committee. If it is a thorough investigation, Mr. Hegseth’s lying, and conduct will be exposed and neither President Trump nor his Defense Secretary will be able to withstand the heat. Mr. Hegseth will have to go.

Secretary Hegseth serves under a reckless president who craves attention and blames others. They have a lot in common. In a passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby one might easily substitute the president and the secretary for Tom and Daisy:

They were careless people, Tom and

Daisy – they smashed up things and

creatures and then retreated into

their money or their vast carelessness

or whatever it was that kept them

together, and let other people clean up

the mess they had made.

Aubrey Sarvis is an Army veteran and retired lawyer.

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OP-ED: Mayor and Council: Trust in you has evaporated By Robert Miller

March 3, 2025 by Spy Desk 4 Comments

The re-introduction of Chestertown Resolution 06-2023 is more than strange. The resolution is more insult after injury on the citizens of Chestertown inﬂicted by the Mayor and Council

This is the same resolution Mayor David Foster and council members Tom Herz, Jose Medrano and Meghan Eﬂand passed in bad faith in November 2023 to create a legal ﬁction that allowed then-Ward 1 council member Timothy O’Brien to remain in oﬃce illegally after he had moved to Ward 4.

On December 18, 2024, Judge Harris P. Murphy brought this “fast one” to an end, admonished the Mayor and Council for conduct the Court found “disturbing,” and ordered a special election for Ward 1.

Chestertown Charter Section 3(c) is unambiguous. If a councilmember moves from his/her ward, their term in oﬃce terminates automatically. The facts show that the Mayor and these three Council conspired together to deprive Ward 1 of lawful representation in order to allow Mr. O’Brien to remain in oﬃce.

But why? No adequate explanation has been oﬀered then or now.

The whole situation has created a new deﬁnition for S.T.U.P.I.D: Sanity Tripped Up, Preventing Intelligent Decision-making. It is diﬃcult to ﬁght against reasons and excuses that do not make sense.

Chestertown residents support democracy. The Ward 1 Special Election drew two candidates and over 200 voters who turned out on cold January day.

The Mayor and these three Council members have betrayed their oaths. They have not acknowledged their misconduct or oﬀered to reimburse the Town for the legal fees their actions forced the Town –using your tax dollars and mine – to incur.

Trust has evaporated in the Mayor and these three Council members.

Mayor Foster, Herz, Eﬂand and Medrano should resign and make way for a new Mayor and three new Council members now.

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Kent County and a serious healthcare hit? By Tom Timberman

February 28, 2025 by Tom Timberman 1 Comment

This article focuses on Kent County, but the possibly very damaging Federal legislation now being considered, if passed, will affect every US county, particularly those in rural areas. On 2/24/25, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution ( H Con Res 14, 119th Congress) that serves as their blueprint for the actual budget appropriations process. It has been passed on to the Senate.

Its major focus is to identify existing Federally financed programs that could be cut, to fund President Trump’s tax reduction priorities, but be deficit neutral. His agenda includes extending his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), but also further reducing corporate and high earner tax rates. Moreover, the approach includes increasing the standard deduction and family tax credits, eliminating personal exemptions and limiting deductions for state and local income and property taxes.

The Republicans in both Congressional Houses face a difficult challenge because the amount needed to support Mr. Trump’s tax plan, but not increase the deficit, is $4.5 Trillion. And directly related to this issue, is Congress’s looming duty to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the USG’s first ever debt default.

The “Blueprint” targets the House Energy and Commerce Committee which oversees health care and disability programs, to find $880 million in reductions (over the next 10 years). And the only program the Committee monitors that could offer that large a reduction, is MEDICAID/CHIP, which is a joint Federal/state program. It receives circa $ 600 Billion annually from the Federal Government and $14.6 Billion from Maryland’s.

Nearly, 80 million Americans, .6 million Maryland residents and some 6,200 in Kent County. are enrolled in MEDICAID/CHIP

The House Ways and Means Committee is reviewing how to achieve the $880 Million cut to MEDICAID/CHIP. The current thought is to reduce the standard percentage (90%) the Federal Government contributes to state costs for those who received coverage under the ACA (Obama Care) expansion provisions. The national total of these individuals is approximately 21 million people.

This approach would reduce the Federal match for the expansion population (90%) to what states receive for the traditional MEDICAID population: 50% for the rich states and 77% for the poorer. The options for states should this become law, are not easy.

The first is they could use their own money to make up the difference. Given Maryland’s current strained financial situation, that would be difficult unless additional larger state programs budgets (education) were reduced further. Another option is to scale back MEDICAID coverage for some groups, eliminate optional benefits or reduce provider payment rates. And then there is the 3^rd option: raise taxes.

Those Impacted:

Given the millions of Americans who currently benefit from MEDICAID, one could anticipate some millions will be affected negatively should the plan discussed above become law and be carried out. However, there is another category that relies on MEDICAID reimbursements that would also be be harmed: hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that in 2023, 32% of MEDICAID spending was for hospital based care. These facilities are generally underfunded, particularly in rural areas, and this potential loss of funding, could be expected to force more to close.

Recent White House policies beyond MEDICAID, have reduced care for the disabled. .It is estimated that some 20-25% of Americans are disabled: physically, psychologically or intellectually. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, required employers of more than 15 people, not to discriminate against otherwise qualified candidates because of their disability. It also required that reasonable accommodations be made for disabled workers

However a 1/20/25 Presidential Executive order directed all relevant government agencies to terminate “…all discriminatory programs, including diversity, equity, and accessibility. On 1/21/25 the President put federal accessibility employees on administrative leave.

It may just be me, but reducing or removing care for Americans needing help in order to reduce taxes on corporations and the wealthy, without the potential political cost of raising deficits and debt by noticeable billions/trillions with some political cost, strikes me as severely objectionable.

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Op-Ed: Making American Great Again?

February 19, 2025 by Spy Desk 3 Comments

The President and his henchmen, full of themselves, began implementing their agenda at breakneck speed on a freezing January afternoon to install, pardon, and enrich their devoted loyalists. The White House assured the American people their clever and smart disrupters were agents of change and among the very best in our country. They also promised these patriots would make America Great Again.

Pete Hegseth, now U.S. Secretary of Defense, couldn’t stop putting his foot in his mouth for four days last week in Germany while meeting with our closest allies and delivering key Putin talking points. The Defense Secretary’s blunders and bluster on the world stage were especially painful when he declared the days of the United States using its military power and treasure to protect Europe were over, suggesting thousands of American troops might well be pulling out of Europe soon. The Hegseth smackdown and threats were hardly in keeping with how most U.S. diplomats deliver a message to respected allies and partners who will surely be needed down the road. And while holding court, Mr. Hegseth informed Europeans leaders in no uncertain terms there would be no place for them or Ukraine at the table when President Trump sat down with Putin to decide terms and conditions for how that war would end, who would get what, and who would keep the peace and pay for keeping it.

The Secretary’s debut as leader of the U.S. armed forces and manager of a vast arsenal of mass destruction was so unsettling and off-putting that the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services, Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss, who had successfully steered Hegseth through committee and to confirmation, rushed in to do damage control, suggesting Hegseth’s hiccups were understandable “rookie mistakes” and no disrespect was intended. I suspect those “rookie mistakes” hardly reassured senators who believed Hegseth who had told them only days earlier he was smart enough to know what he didn’t know and would reach out for expertise. Maybe some were wondering why Hegseth, who can’t resist a TV camera or photo opportunity, was in the diplomatic lane reserved for the Secretary of State.

Last month the White House complained that several of their incredible nominee warriors had been wronged or looked down upon by educated elites. I wondered if they had in mind their gay cabinet members. Surely not the bright U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from rural Conway, South Carolina via Yale and Wall Street and the hedge fund billionaire world.

Not withstanding his pedigree and smarts and vast experience, Bessent abandoned his Horry County common sense in early February, and approved turning over some IRS sensitive secured data to Trump political appointees at Treasury who are acting without congressional authority as they masquerade as so-called efficiency and waste experts. The seasoned Treasury Secretary in an effort to silence critics claimed he personally limited access to “read only access” to the government payment system, but his access to young White House flunkies alarmed several former Treasury Secretaries. Access is access, Mr. Secretary, and it can easily be manipulated and expanded in the wrong hands. The Bessent decision resulted in several former Treasury Secretaries taking the unusual step of publicly expressing their concerns. It appears the Secretary never risked challenging the Musk/Trump DOGE authority to obtain such documents. Bessent is now part of the Musk/Trump shenanigans, and he will come to regret his swift compliance. Of course it’s not too late for Secretary Scott Bessent to acknowledge he made a huge mistake and become the first Trump cabinet member to resign in protest. That course would require an extraordinary act of courage, and Bessent would pay a huge price for putting country above the Musk/Trump charade.

Fortunately this week the courageous Acting Secretary of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, refused a similar demand from the Musk lieutenants for sensitive data from her agency. She is not an Ivy League billionaire and part-time Ivy League professor like the Treasury Secretary. Commissioner King is, however, a cum laude graduate from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and when DOGE came after her she knew what was the lawful and right thing to do. Her decision to stand up to the richest man in the world acting without legal authority cost her the job she loves.

What we are now seeing weekly is the 2025 Musk/Trump version of the Nixon Saturday Night massacre, and, unfortunately, this costly and well- orchestrated massacre is going to continue for weeks, if not months, with few Trump appointees having the courage to stand up and say no.

Let me state the obvious. Musk and his squad are making much of this stuff up as they storm into government agencies and systems. This so-called government agency was never created, authorized, or funded by Congress. This faux DOGE concoction is a Musk/Trump White House invention designed to look and act like a federal agency created by Congress. It is no such thing. What is really going on is a bold illegal scheme operating in plain sight. Naturalized citizen Musk and Trump and their DOGE lapdogs are seizing secured government documents without Congressional authority, oversight, accountability, and safeguards, and doing so for illegal political purposes as they seriously undermine the independence and legitimacy of a critically important revenue collecting government agency as well as a government agency that pays out earned benefits. This is just to emphasize two legitimate federal agencies already harmed by the DOGE boys. Mr. Musk, in cahoots with President Trump, is daring Congress, the courts, and the American people — look, folks, I’m smarter than all of you; by the time you catch up or figure our what we’re doing in our DOGE White House operation we will have rewritten the meaning of democracy in the United States, changed and updated the software and program language for our purposes, and achieved most of our objectives to gut federal agencies without interference from Congress and the courts. Agencies like USAID will be dead or forgotten. Several federal agencies will only be shells by the time we curb and rewrite their programs and systems. Understand we are agents acting for the President of the United States in his official capacity carrying out his official responsibilities, and all federal systems and employees fall under the sole jurisdiction and control of President Trump.

Whoa! Not so fast, Musk/Trump. Did Chief Justice Roberts and the majority in Trump v.United States and other cases dealing with presidential powers decide what you have been claiming — unlimited and unchecked powers across the board for the President even if those acts are unlawful and beyond his official duties? I think not, but let’s find out and soon. Yes, the president is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces, and the SCOTUS gives great deference to recommendations coming from the pentagon, but the president is not the Commander in Chief of federal civilian employees nor does the President have total authority over all federal agencies.

What we are now seeing is the 2025 Musk/Trump version of the Nixon Saturday Night massacred, and, unfortunately, this costly and well-orchestrated massacre is going to continue for weeks, if not months, with few Trump appointees having the courage to stand up and say no. Nixon Dirty Tricks 1972 are back. Fifty three years ago that quaint young gang only manipulated primaries, our political system, and broke laws to achieve their political purposes. The initial dirty little tricks originated on the campaign trail and then some of the schemes became larger and were brought inside the Nixon White House at the highest levels and massaged by smart lawyers, but then a series of unexpected events happened and things spun out of control and over a couple of years nearly all the players, including the President of the United States, members of his cabinet, an Attorney General, a Commerce Secretary, the President’s Chiefs of Staff, and a cadre of younger bit players all went down in their lies, hubrus, petty ambitions, and illegal acts. Several went to jail for years, including two members of the Nixon cabinet. The disgraced outgoing President of the United States needed a pardon from the incoming President to stay out of jail.

What is happening today in the Trump/Musk White House and throughout this administration is a much more serious threat to our country than Watergate, but it will take time for the country to comprehend the scope of the power grab now unfolding, just as it did during Watergate. But time is not on our country’s side today. We must all get up and act smartly with a sense of urgency if we are to keep our democracy and country. It will take we the people acting if we are to stop this outrageous threat from Musk and Trump. We cannot count on corporate CEOs and other so-called leaders who have already capitulated in public and kissed the ring, nor can we count on those Members of Congress in both parties who are failing to protect our country and government, but if we the people act by insisting that what is happening under Musk/Trump must stop, Congress will listen; and Congress will follow us. And courts will take notice too.

Aubrey Sarvis

Army veteran, retired lawyer, and former ED of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

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Op-Ed: Seoul Searching By Tom Timberman

December 9, 2024 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

President Yoon Suk Yeah of the Democratic Republic of Korea (ROK) was elected in 2022. And for the past two years his frustration has mounted as the Parliament continued to oppose his agenda and to defeat his legislation. The problem is not uncommon in other functioning democracies. His very conservative political party holds a small parliamentary minority, while the more liberal parties, have a strong majority.

The President’s anger at his inability to govern based on his political beliefs and priorities led him to search for ways to change this dysfunctional situation. His defense minister, since resigned, suggested a simple course of action.

Thus, at 1030PM on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Mr. Yoon in a formal address to the Korean nation, declared martial law, rarely used in the more recent of the 80 year history of the Republic.. The .

Constitution allows the president to use the military to maintain order, suspends civil Rights including freedom of the press and of assembly, limits the power of the courts as well as of the national government.

Despite the large presence of the police and the military, thousands of average citizens of various ages and backgrounds poured onto the streets loudly protesting the president’s actions. Hundreds of them also rushed to the Parliament building in Seoul (national capital) surrounded by the military, to prevent members from assembling. However, a crowd gathered at a back wall, which parliamentarians were attempting to climb over, to assemble a quorum and vote down the declaration of martial law (a constitutional legislative power). Circa 2AM, a quorum was present and unanimously voted, included 18 members of the president’s own party, to pass a law cancelling martial law. Three hours later, recognizing defeat, President Yoon, withdrew his declaration.

The powerful public outrage made itself known on social media, TV, radio and later in early editions of the print media. Moreover, very large crowds had gathered across Seoul, loudly demanding the president resign. Before dawn on Wednesday, 12/04/24, impeachment legislaton was being drafted. The vote is expected on Saturday, 12/07/24 and there is little doubt the president is toast.

There has been considerable punditry, editorial comment and expert opinion across America since the 12/03-04 events in South Korea. However, there has been a very delicate dance around the subject of what the US citizen response would be to some similar action. Would large crowds of Americans gather at the White House and the Capitol?. And what would their attitude be? Deep anger at or loud cheering for, the “emergency” assumption of central authority? Given the deep divisions among the 332 million Americans, it seems likely groups loudly supporting both attitudes, would be present. Hopefully, not violent. However, this assumes people would be sufficiently aroused, to actually take to the streets or mabe just stay home and use their phones, tablets to folow whatever was going on.

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A Modest Proposal: Seven Obvious Steps By Gren Whitman

October 17, 2024 by Spy Desk

You’re a former one-term president who’s been indicted by diverse federal and state prosecutors for — ah, let’s see — inciting an insurrection at the Capitol, or perhaps stealing classified documents, or maybe attempting to subvert an election, or possibly paying off a porn star, or perchance falsifying business records, or mayhap sexually attacking a female journalist, or all of them? So, what do you do?

Here’s a modest proposal in seven obvious steps:

Be smart enough to inherit $413 million from your father; this is key.
Announce, “I am a very innocent man.” Swear that “she is not my type.” Insist all the charges are “fake news.” Point out that the judges, judges’ staff, judges’ families, prosecutors, entire jury pools, and the media are corrupt and/or vindictive and/or racially prejudiced and/or “socialist lunatics.”
Engage a troupe of incompetent attorneys to blame after you’re convicted.
Run again for president of the United States so you can declare — however implausibly — that your sundry prosecutions constitute “election interference.”
Establish a political action committee to convert contributions from loyal members of your political base into payments for your pricey legal defense; hawk bits of your clothing.
After you’ve been duly convicted of 34 business fraud felonies and sexual assault and libel and assessed millions in damages and fined millions more, and you still face several other serious indictments and trials, instruct your lawyers to file appeal after appeal after appeal to delay, delay, delay, and delay.
To divert the voting public’s attention from your status as a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, serial fabulist, and defective candidate, accuse certain Ohio residents of “eating the dogs,” “eating the cats,” and “eating the pets” and declare, “if I don’t win this election, the Jewish people will really have a lot to do with that loss.”

Follow these steps to avoid prison and — believe it or not — possibly return to the Oval Office.

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America, Israel & the Violent Middle East Enigma By Tom Timberman

October 8, 2024 by Tom Timberman

Introduction:

It’s useful to have some understanding of what motivates Middle Eastern males to violence and war, before addressing the current Israel-Iran/HAMAS/Hezbollah conflict and US involvement. Prime Minister (PM) Netanyahu is a Jew, educated at MIT and Harvard and reasons quite differently.

Every male born to proletarian parents generally in the rural Middle-East-North-Africa Region (MENA), :population some 500 Million, will inherit 4 life-long identities from their dads: (1) family, (2) race, (3) religion and (4) native language. And some sons may also inherit generational hatred for specific families or males with different identity clusters or even a group that has harmed or disrespected his people. This alienation can descend through a man’s family and/or be personally experienced. Whatever the origin, all are laden with relatively easily aroused emotions,.

The MENA bourgeois and upper classes also inherit the same markers, but their identities and attitudes are framed by other factors: wealth, influence, education etc. Although, those among them who become MENA political leaders, recognize and use or subdue, the power these ID clashes can exert. The following chart shows the 3 possible ID elements beyond family, that can be combined and passed on by fathers to sons.

RACE RELIGION LANGUAGES

Egyptian	Islam (Sunni and Shia)	Over 60 – 5 principal:
Arab	Zoroastrianism	Arabic
Berber	Christianity	Farsi
Kurdish		Berber
Turkish		Kurdish
Persian (Indo-European)		Turkish

There is one category of Middle East “enemy” , not mentioned above, that can transcend, but aggravate these 4 personal triggers, generate mass male anger and lead to violence. And that is the intrusion of “outsiders”, e.,g. the Roman Empire, the European medieval crusaders and the French and British colonies. Why? Because they shared no recognizable identity with MENA men. And often, these strangers killed them, took their land, violated their culture, especially Islam and dominated their lives. .

And, the deepest, current regional “outsiders” antagonism , began in the 1880s with the settlement of European Jews on Palestinian tribal lands, then part of the Ottoman Empire[1]. And in 1897, an Austrian journalist launched the Zionist Political Movement. Its mission: to press for the creation of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. In 1917, the British Empire supported the Zionists; in 1922 the League of Nations granted Great Britain an international Palestinian Mandate and over the next 4 years, 75,000 mostly European, Jews emigrated to it.

Americans’ Early Contact with the MENA: During America’s colonial period, interaction with the MENA and its people was largely confined to missionaries, ships, their crews and the trading of goods. Until US independence, the British Navy protected our ships from 4 North African predators: 3 satraps (imperial territories) and the Kingdom of Morocco.

They captured Western ships & crews and demanded ransom from the owners or national governments could pay an annual tribute, to spare their ships. But, if neither were paid, the ships were sold and the crews sent to the slave markets. In 1801, desperate American ship owners appealed to President Jefferson for help. He had just refused to pay a $225,000 tribute ($10 Million today) and ordered Commodore Decatur and the US Navy to convince the 3 pashas and 1 king, to cease and desist and to sign a treaty with the US (done 1805).

By 1900, Americans had gained an international reputation for honesty and money-smarts. In 1911, following an Iranian revolution that led to a rough parliamentary democracy, William M. Shuster, an American lawyer, was appointed Treasurer General of Persia. He designed a modern tax system and hired 500 armed men to collect the taxes. However, the Imperial Russian Government overthrew the parliament and expelled Shuster.

US-Israel Relationship: The German & Japanese WWII surrenders were followed on 10/24/1945 by the creation of the United Nations, introducing a new international environment. The slowly emerging horrors of the Holocaust, led the UN to prioritize the partition of the British Mandate into two countries: one Jewish and one Arab (Palestinian). With the strong support of the US, the USSR and other WWII Allies, the partition plan was approved on 11/29/1947. The Arab negotiators refused to accept the territory offered, possibly because it was smaller than Israel’s designated slice.

The official relationship between the US and Israel began on its independence day, 5/14/1948, when President Truman was the first head of state to congratulate his new Israeli counterpart, Chaim Weizmann and to deliver US recognition of his government. Unmentioned, were the earlier ‘assaults on the Native Palestinians.

In April 1948, Zionist militias attacked and destroyed a number of Palestinian villages, killing hundreds of residents and occupying 78% of historical Palestine. Eventually, some 750,000 Native Palestinians were expelled. The descendants of those who remained in Israel, continue today without civil rights and are still subject to harsh martial law, enforced by the IDF. The seeds for hatred were sewn[2].

Over the next 76 years, the US provided Israel with military, political, financial and development support and informally, guaranteed its security and independence in MENA , that mostly wanted Israel to disappear. Israel is now a prosperous, modern – if challenged – democracy with the most powerful military in the Middle East.

Moreover, different US Administrations worked, with mixed results, to broker more stable, peaceful relationships between Israel and the Arab states and the Native Palestinians: 1978 Camp David Accords and 1993 Oslo Accord, both negotiated with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (PLO and Fatah Party head).

Arafat’s death in 2004 weakened PLO/Fatah, allowing the considerably more militant HAMAS, an Iranian proxy, linked back to the Muslim Brotherhood, to defeat Arafat’s more moderate Fatah governance of Gaza. HAMAS later, refused to accept any agreements Arafat had accepted in the 2 Accords.

HAMAS’ 10/07/23 brutal attack on south Israel, led to a massive IDF military assault on Gaza, now largely destroyed, driving residents South. Over 1.2 Million Palestinians now confront a catastrophic humanitarian disaster. After a year’s combat, some 44,000 Palestinians (civilian and military) have been killed. HAMAS’ ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, fired missiles into northern Iraq on 10/08/23, forcing some 60,000 Israelis to leave their homes. The IDF’s heavy air and recent ground counter assaults, killed Hezbollah’s long-time leader, Hassan Nasrallah, 6 of its 9 most senior military leaders; and caused substantial destruction in Beirut.

Concluion

The war comes at high human and economic costs to Israel, but Netanyahu continues deflecting President Biden’s and the UN’s repeated calls for a ceasefire, hostage/prisoner exchange and peace talks. Why? There are two overlapping reasons: (1) he believes there is a short term opportunity to continue fighting and crush or severely weaken Iran’s two proxy national security threats to Israel (HAMAS & Hezbollah) and (2). he wants to avoid the loss of political power and its negative aftermath. (His interrupted corruption trial). (1) Crush Enemies: The PM wants the considerable success of the IDF against HAMAS and Hezbollah to continue and joins others who believe Iran is in no condition to fight a war with Israel. And most important, Netanyahu’s public support is rising. Moreover, only the US can force Israel to stop the war, but days before a presidential election, the USG wouldn’t consider it until after 1-20-25. However, there is one possible US-related problem:America has helped build & strongly supports, Lebanon’s military and the IDF very recently engaged it.

(2) Political Power Loss: There are also domestic political reasons behind Netanyahu’s dogged determination to expand the war. His 6 party ultra conservative coalition (most conservative in Israel history) has to stay intact for him to continue the combat. However, several members have threatened to leave if he moves towards a ceasefire or peace talks. If that happened, his government would collapse and without his winning war-leader persona, he would lose the next election.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: 1 – Judaic religion began some 3500 years ago in Canaan, today’s Israel. Jewish diaspora followed Roman destruction of 2^nd Temple in 70AD. 1931 total Mandate population = 1,035,821, Muslim – 759,712, Jewish-174,610, Christian – 91,398.

2 – Zionist murders first of British officials began in 1944 and continued until Israel’s independence. But then 4 months later, they killed Count Folke Bernadotte, a UN peace negotiator and the Swedish King’s brother., they considered him too pro Arab.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Does the End Justify the Means? By Bob Moores

October 7, 2024 by Spy Desk

One of my puzzlements over the last eight years is why evangelicals prefer Donald Trump. Why do they support a man who is, by almost every measure, antithetical to the teaching of Jesus?

Evangelicals believe, I am told, that not only is the Bible the inspired and authoritative word of God, but also that it is their duty to spread the “good news” of Jesus’ message of salvation. Wouldn’t it follow, then, that evangelicals should find Trump’s disdain of Jesus’ counsel reprehensible?

Until recently, I had two evangelical friends with whom I, a humanist, could candidly discuss religion. Neither particularly liked Trump the man, though one admired his “strongman” authoritative persona. The other, when I asked who he was going to vote for in the 2016 election, said “I am going to hold my nose and vote for Trump.” That was a clue.

Last year, I took a course on artificial intelligence at Washington College’s WC-ALL (college for old folks) wherein I discovered the AI program called ChatGPT. The basic version is free and downloadable as an app on your phone or computer. You can ask any question (and I mean any question you can think of) and ChatGPT will give you a reasonably unbiased answer of usually less than one page. In other words, it’s a very succinct version of Wikipedia if all you want is a brief summary rather than the Full Monty.

I asked ChatGPT “Why do Evangelicals like Trump?” It responded with eight reasons, with this summary at the end:

Evangelicals’ support for Trump is not based on an alignment with his personal lifestyle or moral character, but rather on his policy positions, political pragmatism, cultural defense, and his administration’s actions in areas they deeply care about.

The principal reason was that Evangelicals view Trump as a “means to an end” who advocates for policies they favor. Putting it in my words, Evangelicals view Trump as a useful scoundrel.

Let’s explore the concept of “the end justifies the means”, a phrase attributed to Italian Renaissance political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, from whom the term “Machiavellian” has come to mean cunning and unscrupulous political behavior.

For you who believe that the end justifies the means, consider these questions:

In order to accomplish your goals (the end) is it worth creating distrust in our democratic institutions and Constitution (the means) which have served us well for more than two centuries?
Would you advocate for a person who falsely accuses his opponent of crimes he himself commits, repeatedly displays contempt for the law of our land, and lives only to enrich and empower himself?
Would you promote a person who intimidates election officials with threats if they do not illegally rig results in his favor, i.e., break the law for him?

“We end up becoming the thing we hate when we sacrifice our principles to achieve our goals.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“Love gained by lies is not true love. A victory obtained by cheating is no true victory. An outcome obtained illegally is illegitimate.” Philosopher James Bellerjeau

“If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.” Mohandas Gandhi

For evangelicals, Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul.”

I don’t believe the destination matters more than the road one travels. If you can do a little good along the way, isn’t that what life is about?

The end does not justify the means!

Bob Moores retired from Black & Decker/DeWalt in 1999 after 36 years. He was the Director of Cordless Product Development at the time. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

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