Category Archives: Americana

A Couple Of Political Thoughts On 2025 and 2026 So Far

July 16, 2026Americana, PoliticsPoliticsSteve Stern

The whole thing with Trump is so insane that people are waking up. Michele Stern

We are entering a new era of radical authenticity. Elysia Berman in an Instagram Thread about Rama Duwaji wearing Goth boots at her husband’s swearing-in ceremony.

We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. Zohran Kwame Mamdani in his mayoral acceptance speech.

Whether you love him or loathe him, it is easy to look back on the last year and get fixated on Donald Trump. At the beginning of 2025, like most people I know, I thought Trump’s being elected was a terrible thing. Even before he took office, he went into hyperdrive, seeming to jam change into the American psyche at a record pace. I thought it was the first step away from the ideals we were taught in school; the professed ideals that make America – or make the United States of America, if you prefer – the self-identified greatest nation on Earth. Today, a year later, I feel very different. Today, I think Trump’s reelection is not the primary problem; it’s a reaction to and an exposure of a problem that has been slowly growing.

The problem is that we, the American people, are not who we say we are; we are not what we teach our children; we are not President Reagan’s “shining city on a hill… teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace,” and we never have been. Still, for most of our history, and for almost all of my life, I thought we were moving closer together and closer to those ideals. But that has changed, and Trump’s election and reelection exposed that we have been moving away from those ideals for some time.

I like to think that the high point of that arc was just before Trump was elected, but that is not true. We first betrayed what we said we stood for with the Selective Service Act of 1948, which allowed full-time college students to defer their military obligation. That was our first overt step away from treating all our citizens equally (minorities, especially Indigenous and Black People, and, of course, Women, have never really been treated equally, but that’s baked into the Constitution). Twenty years later, when the Official Minimum Wage was decoupled from the actual cost of living, that inequality became even more obvious. Still, most of us either ignored or missed it – I probably did both- just as we ignored the growing unrest.

Either way, by then, the country was essentially ruled by a rich elite class because they had the money to control what we are still told is a government for all the people. We were no longer true to the supposedly self-evident truth that all men are created equal. Carpenters and factory workers and waitpeople and anybody doing manual labor were no longer as valuable – valuable as human beings – as people with lots of money. We were told that the less valuable should be sent into the meat grinder of war first. Soon, the less valuable didn’t even deserve a living wage or a home of their own.

Of course, this was never said out loud; we were told that riches were there for the picking if they just worked hard enough. Being rich became an outwardly visible sign of an inner worth that we all, pretty much, bought into, if not by our beliefs, by our acquiescence and actions.

Then came the Great Recession of 2008, brought on by the collapse of the housing bubble and the massive expansion of high-risk subprime mortgages that had sustained it. Nearly 10 million families lost their homes, and millions more lost their jobs. We, most of us, anyway, agreed that the poor, the homeless, were there only because they lacked that inner worth, and they should be kept out of sight so we, the valuable, wouldn’t be offended.

The country voted for Barack Obama and his promise of change. But we didn’t get that change. Nobody went to jail for the damage caused by the Great Recession; companies were bailed out, and rich people got their bonuses, but nobody got their homes back. Our costly wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, which Obama ran against, continued. President Obama wanted to improve our health care system and, in a way, he did. Under ObamaCare, health insurance companies grew larger, expanded to include more people, and some of the added expense was covered by the government, but the rising cost of premiums and deductibles still left most families with significant out-of-pocket expenses.

When they voted for Trump in 2016, we said that his voters were stupid, but they weren’t stupid; they were pissed. Well, some are probably stupid, and some are racist, and some are getting rich as they make Trump rich, but, most I believe, are pissed that the establishment – both Democraatic and Republican – for lack of a better word, wasn’t treating them as promised, pissed that we – and, if you are reading this, you, like me, are probably part of the establishment – didn’t even acknowledge they had a right to be pissed. I think most people voted for Trump out of that anger and desperation.

I want to stress that I don’t think a President Trump is the answer; to me, he clearly isn’t. Donald Trump is a selfish, nasty human being with the emotional maturity of a five-year-old and almost no intellectual understanding of the problems we really face. For me, he is impossible to like or admire. After that, I also want to point out that Trump brings a couple of qualities to the table that we need more of: he is authentic, and he looks for ways to make things happen rather than reasons they can’t.

That leaves us with President Trump doing a staggering amount of damage to the climate, to the economy, to the American people, while getting breathtakingly rich. And he is psychologically incapable of not bragging about it. But I want to be clear that I think Trump’s public display of arrogance is good; it is waking people up, and many of them are starting to vote for Democratic Socialists, something inconceivable when Trump was first elected.

The most famous Democratic Socialists are Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zohran Mamdani, but there are others. This year, the Democratic Socialists ran 150 candidates in the primaries, most of them in solid Democratic districts, of whom 35 either won their primaries or advanced to the general election without opposition. I expect that rather than three Democratic Socialists in Congress – Bernie, AOC, and Rashida Tlaib – there will be closer to 30, and that should make a big difference.

It won’t be easy, partially because the Democratic Socialists’ Platform calls for a complete end to all U.S. military and economic aid, as well as all weapon sales, to Israel. That means their opponents will be heavily financed by AIPAC. Although our relationship to Israel is changing too: according to polls, 41% of Americans say they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the Middle East versis 36% who sympathize more with the Israelis. That is a huge change from only three years ago, when it was 54% to 31% in favor of the Israelis.

Still, a bigger point of friction on a smooth path to thirty members of Congress being Democratic Socialists is what I’ll call the Democratic Establishment. The politicians and monied interests who consider themselves “moderates” and have a vested interest in the status quo. Keeping out what everybody, from Chuck Schumer to The New York Times, calls the “far-left” or “ultra-left” as if they were very unrealistic and, even, slightly wacky. But Zohran Mamdani, New York’s new mayor, is showing the world that his will to make needed change is making the “moderate” view look self-defeating. His post-election popularity has not only remained strong but has actually grown, defying the historical trend of post-election “honeymoon” periods.

That is why, as we navigate the rest of 2026, the old label of a “Chinese curse” feels so fitting. We are living in an interesting time; a time of immense friction, change, and chaos. Much of it is hard to watch: the ongoing political battles over our public lands, the constant threat of foreign conflict, and the massive global shift away from fossil fuels. But if this “interesting” era has taught us anything, it’s that the status quo is no longer an option. Change is coming, whether the establishment is ready for it or not, and for the first time in a long time, the public is wide awake.

ICE and Combat Uniforms

July 10, 2026AmericanaPoliticsSteve Stern

I need to say something that’s been bothering me for a while, and I’m saying it as a Marine Corps veteran who leans center-right. We’ve slow-faded into accepting militarized police as normal, and nobody seems to notice or care. I’ve worn the gear. The helmet, the tactical vest, the whole kit. And I can tell you from experience, it changes you. There’s a psychological shift that happens when you strap that stuff on. You feel different. You carry yourself different. James Tate, a Marine Corps veteran and self-described center-right commentator.

I want to preface this by saying that I started writing it last February and somehow didn’t post it. I’m posting it now because I just argued with a friend that Trump is too much of a buffoon to be a danger to our country, and, re-reading the post below, I realize how wrong I was.

The first time I remember seeing a cop in tactical gear was on February 28, 1993. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) was raiding the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the aforementioned cop was directing traffic away from a turnoff on Highway 84 about half a mile away. A lone cop who seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere, directing traffic, dressed like he was getting ready to go into Iraq during the Gulf War. He was even wearing a helmet. At the time, I thought it was ridiculous, pointless, and annoying, and up until very recently, I still felt that way.

I want to add that I wasn’t at Waco; I only saw it on television. I wasn’t in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7, 2026, either, when Renee Good was publicly executed by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross; I only saw it on my computer screen. This time, I didn’t see the wearing of a military combat uniform as ridiculous or pointless; I saw it as scary. Now, I realize that scaring people is the point. When Trump’s ICE thugs executed Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked in the ICU at a Minneapolis VA hospital, on January 24, 2026, I think terrifying people is a better descriptor than just scaring people.

This isn’t primarily about immigration; Obama deported a lot more people, about 1.59 million formal deportations in his first term, 600,000 more people than the first Trump administration. Wearing combat uniforms is about showing who is in control and, more importantly. sowing fear. The fact that the ICE thug called Renee Good a “fucking bitch” after he shot her three times is a red flag for all of us. ICE agents dressed in combat fatigues are not here to protect us; they are here to scare us.

It’s The Inequality, Stupid.

June 1, 2026Americana, Current Affairs, No categorySteve Stern

We live in a system that’s stealing from us. Graham Platner Tou Tube ad.

AOC is in the house now. So AOC, you don’t even need a name anymore. You can go anywhere in the world, you say AOC and they know who you are. David Axelrod, while introducing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a public interview in front of a packed house at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

They assume my ambition is positional. They assume my ambition is a title or a seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go, Senate and House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer health care is forever, a living wage is forever. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at that interview.

I heard that someone was flying a plane with a banner that said This is Trump country… It sure don’t look like it today. I don’t think this is Trump country. This is our country. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez just before her speech in Folsom, California.

We Liberals seem to have an all-purpose answer for why so many people voted for Donald Trump. “They’re stupid,” or “They only watch FOX News”, which sort of means the same thing. I don’t buy that generalization. Sure, some people are stupid, and some are not interested in politics or current events – as we used to call it. – enough to be informed, but most people know that most people are being screwed by the few the system is serving.

A large number of people voted for Trump because they were desperate. They hoped Trump might stop the economic screwing they were getting from powerful economic interests. They were so desperate that they had even voted for a black man with a Muslim name, Barrak Husain Obama. Obama was a Washington outsider, and, while the change he brought was real, it was minimal rather than substantial. When Trump ran in 2016, he said he was already rich and didn’t need any more money, so he could bring real change. Of course, that was a lie. The funny thing about money, not funny Ha Ha, but funny unexpected, is the more a person has, the more they want. Very few people get very rich and say, “I don’t need any more money”. Trump said it, but – obviously – Trump didn’t really mean it.

I thought that the voting public was still so desperate that they would be willing to try a woman, even a Latina woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now I’m not so sure. Now I think that the country is more sexist and, probably, more racist than I thought a couple of months ago, but that is not the main reason I’ve changed my mind. The main reason is that AOC – a handle I’ll use for the rest of this – is a fiscal populist, and the Democratic Party leadership, while socially liberal, is fiscally conservative. Even more importantly, the Liberal Media establishment, like the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times, and CBS, and NBC, and ad infinitum, are fiscally conservative. They are aligned with what they call the Centrists (as if that were a virtue). Politicians who think we should have a one-payer health system, or a fair Minimum Wage, are called Extremists by the so-called Liberal Media.

Since I started to write this post – way longer ago than I’m ready to admit – several things have happened that are starting to make me change my mind. A new poll by the highly regarded AtlasIntel has AOC leading a crowded, hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary field. In that poll, AOC narrowly edged out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for the top spot. Twenty-twenty-eight will be a good year to be a Democrat running for president, for what I think are obvious reasons, but getting the Democratic nomination for a woman, a Latina, and most importantly, a fiscal Liberal, will be hard.

I’m convinced, for two reasons, however, that AOC will try. First, when she was sworn into Congress in January 2019, she wore large hoop earrings and bright red lipstick. She said she was inspired by Jusyice Sotamayer and said: “Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman.” It was a badge of honor she was not going to change, but she toned down both her lipstick color and the size of her earrings.

Still, the biggest reason I think AOC will run for President is that she is campaigning outside of her district and, even, outside New York, although AOC is not calling it campaigning. Last year, AOC and Bernie Sanders went on the “Fighting Oligarchy” National Tour, during which they campaigned in 21 states (Los Angeles, Folsom, and Bakersfield in California; Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Bethlehem in Pennsylvania; Iowa City and Davenport in Iowa). This year, she has campaigned for Sam Forstag in Montana, Chriss Rab in Pennsylvania, and Analilia Mejia in New Jersey.

Nobody ever wins the first time they run for office. Nobody’s ever supposed to win their first bid for office. Nobody’s ever supposed to win without taking lobbyists’ money. No one’s ever supposed to defeat an incumbent. No one’s ever supposed to run a grassroots campaign without running any ads on television. We did all of those things. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

I’m At A Loss For Words

April 25, 2026Americana, Cactus & Succulents, Current Affairs, IsraelSteve Stern

I haven’t blogged in weeks, not because nothing has happened – it has, both to the world and me – but because I seem to be in a loop. Everything in my life and everything I want to blog about seems to be on repeat. We went to the Carizzo Plain some time ago, hoping to see a superbloom. It turns out that we were a little late, but it was still nice. But I’ve written about the Carizzo Plain’s Superbloom several times, and doing it again just seems superfluous.

One new thing: we went to the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek over Easter. Now, thinking back on it, I’m surprised I haven’t gone before. I have certainly heard of it for years. I was working as a Construction Manager only a few blocks away in the late 1960s, but it was still a farm in those days. Now it is primarily a cactus and suculent garden, beautifully laid out.

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again, President Donald Trump said, referring to what would happen to Iran if his demands were not met.

How deranged do you have to be to be upset with the Pope for preaching about peace and love in the spirit of Jesus Christ? Representative Ilhan Omar (who is a Muslim in case you didn’t know).

To change the subject to something which is actually sort of new, the Wall Street Journal – which I don’t read, but saw in Which Car – Reports from April 15, 2026, indicate that senior defense officials have held preliminary meetings with top executives from Ford, General Motors, GE Aerospace, and Oshkosh Corp. The goal of these talks is to determine how quickly the domestic auto industry could pivot to a “wartime footing” if needed.

We seem to be running out of munitions, especially anti-drone munitions, in our so-called war with Iran, and that doesn’t surprise me. I was stationed on a Hawk anti-aircraft site in the mid 1960s, and we had 18 missiles ready, or near ready, to fire with another 18 missiles in the onsite maintenance-storage facility. There were 16 HAWK batteries in Korea and China, alone had an estimated 3,000 planes, so it never seemed like we were very serious about protecting “Freedom’s Frontier”. It still doesn’t.

Carl Linnaeus & The Ubiquitous Asparagi

March 17, 2026Americana, California, Joshua Tree Nat. ParkSteve Stern

I want to start with a story about buying a plant, a Dracenia, in, probably, February 1977. I remember it was about six months after Sam Berland and I had started bas Homes, and it was shortly after I got my first paycheck after six months of financial fasting. I wanted to buy something, almost anything, to break the fast. We were at a plant show at the Cow Palace, and a guy was selling really nice houseplants, including a large Dracena for something like fifty bucks (a lot of money for a plant in those days).

As an aside, I was in the South Bay Cactus and Succulent Society at the time, and referring to a plant without its proper Latin name was considered déclassé. Looking at a cylindrical cactus with a pattern of spines on the tubercles, one should say, “Nice Mammillaria” or “Nice Mammillaria rhodantha,” or “Is that a Mammillaria rhodantha?” not “Nice pinchusin cactus.” End aside.

The problem was that this plant’s tag had only one name, “Dracaena”, which is the Genus of the plant, and I wanted to know what species of Dracaena I was buying. I asked the guy what species of Dracaena the plant was, and he laughed, saying, “I know, if it doesn’t have a name, it doesn’t really exist…(long pause)…stricta?” He changed the tag to read “Dracaena stricta,” and I happily bought a plant that now had a full name tag, even though I knew stricta might not even be its real name.

If you want to blame or praise somebody for this foolishness, Carl Linnaeus is your guy. He is the founder of the modern system for naming and classifying plants and animals. He was a Swedish botanist, born in 1707, just in time to take part in what is now called The Age of Reason. It was a time of almost constant war, yet Europe’s population grew by almost 50%.

As an aside, the huge population explosion was primarily – not solely, but primarily – because of Solanum tuberosum (potatoes). Before the potato was imported from “The New World”, Northern European farmers relied on grains, such as rye and wheat, which were unreliable food sources and not very nutritious for the amount of cultivated land needed to grow them. The potato changed the “food economy” of the continent in a couple of ways. In addition to being easier to grow than grain, especially in poor, wet soils, potatoes have higher caloric density and better nutritional value – much better when combined with milk (or butter) – particularly in vitamin C, potassium, and vitamin B. End aside.

Linnaeus was a physician, zoologist, and, apparently, an admirer of women’s breasts who standardized and popularized the two-part naming system – genus and species – such as Homo sapiens or Dracaena stricta. Before Linnaeus, plants often had long, descriptive Latin names that were difficult to remember or descriptive names in the local language.

I say “admirer of women’s breasts” because Linnaeus named us Mammalia from the Latin word mamma, meaning “breast,” which implies that the defining feature of mammals is that the females have breasts rather than, say, live birth or hair. By defining the entire class of animals by the act of suckling young, Linnaeus reinforced his premise that breastfeeding was the fundamental difference between other animals, like frogs, and us. He also named a genus of cactus, Mammalarias, because its spines are on the ends of the nipple-like tubercles on the plant, and he promoted breastfeeding as a patriotic duty in an influential pamphlet titled Nutrix Noverca.

The reason is that we – and by we, I mean Cactus and Succulent Society members and, for lack of a better description, the “soft science” press – typically use only two names, like Homo sapiens, Dracaena stricta, or Yucca brevifolia – the “scientific name” for Joshua trees, because it is assumed that we know the larger groups that they are a part of. It would be very unusual to say Primates Simiiformes Homo sapiens.

But for plants, it’s a different story. I’ve been interested in plants for about 50 years, and I thought I had a pretty good handle on what plants were in what group. I knew that a Joshua Tree was a Yucca brevifolia, and was in the Agave group, or, if you are a lumper, which I am, the larger Lily family. But while looking for details on the trees, I found that they were reclassified in 2009 as members of the asparagus family. I am still sort of shocked.

As an aside, while this reclassification is not a particularly big deal, it reminded me that I am old enough to have seen two major shifts in our understanding of our physical world. The first was at the end of a college geology course in – probably – the spring of 1960, after being taught that as the Earth cooled from its molten beginnings, the crust crumpled into mountain ranges, much like the skin of a drying apple, the professor offhandedly mentioned that there were some nuts out there that thought the continents were floating around and banging into each other and that was the cause of mountain ranges. I only found out that the nuts were right years later, when I went on a reading binge about human evolution. By then, Plate Tectonics was so accepted that it was only mentioned obliquely as a given.

I didn’t miss the second shift, however, when the world went from thinking dinosaurs were cold-blooded and stupid to smart, warm-blooded animals – but, no breasts – that are the ancestors of birds. This second shift is almost entirely credited to Robert Bakker, and I read his book, The Dinosaur Heresies, and became an early convert to the theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded. End Aside.

Meanwhile, back with the aparagi, here are a couple of pictures of asparagus from our garden and more than a couple from the National Park.