The Human Cost of Bad Government

 Donald Trump, the current president, has been widely criticized and strongly disliked by many. Some of these reactions may stem from his behavior and rhetoric, which many view as insulting or inappropriate, while others may reflect broader differences in political worldview. Past Democratic presidents, such as Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have also faced intense criticism, though much of that opposition has often been rooted in differing political perspectives.

Whatever one’s political position, the gravest danger arises when power is concentrated in the hands of a single ruler, ruling party, or unaccountable regime. Absolute monarchies, one-party states, dictatorships, and tyrannical governments can strip away legal protections and leave citizens dependent on the will of those in power.

Unchecked Power and Its Risks

Unchecked power allows a ruler or ruling party to control law, punishment, property, and political life without meaningful restraint. When there are no independent courts, free institutions, or reliable checks and balances, political opponents, dissenters, advisers, and ordinary citizens can become vulnerable to imprisonment, exile, or death at the discretion of those in authority.

Historical Example: King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII of England is often cited as a historical example of out-of-control authoritarian power in practice. He ordered the deaths of political opponents, religious dissenters, trusted advisers such as Thomas More, and two of his wives. It is estimated that Henry had over 76,000 of his citizens put to death just at his whim. His reign shows how unchecked authority can transform personal, religious, or political conflict into matters of life and death.

Modern Examples of Authoritarian Rule

Modern authoritarian regimes continue to illustrate the dangers of concentrated power. Frequently cited examples include:

• North Korea: Kim Jong Un’s government has been accused of ordering executions, imprisonment, and severe punishment against officials and citizens who fall out of favor. Just recently Kim had a North Korean official executed just for falling asleep in a meeting.  Hyon Yong-chol: South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that North Korea's Defense Minister was executed in April 2015 for falling asleep at a military event attended by Kim Jong-un and for failing to follow instructions.  

•  Russia: Vladimir Putin’s government has been widely criticized for the persecution and deaths of political opponents, including Alexei Navalny who was killed while in prison.  Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former leader of the mercinary Wagner Group was killed in an airplane crash believed to have been intentionally sabotaged so it would crash. Very frequently we hear of certain people who have fallen out of favor with Putin fall out of apartment windows and killed.

• China: Critics argue that those who fall out of favor with the ruling party may face imprisonment, political prosecution, or severe punishment. Examples often mentioned include Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai.  Lai was imprisoned just for not bending to the will of the tyrant and defending truth. Military leaders Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, who have have been accused of corruption. This cannot be verified; they may have just fallen out of favor. In such systems, punishment can appear to depend less on independent legal judgment than on decisions made by those in power.
• Iran: As you may have heard, the tyrannical Iranian regime murdered over an estimated 40,000 peaceful protesters at the beginning of 2026. 

Together, these examples highlight a central concern: when political power is concentrated in one leader or ruling party, individual rights and personal safety depend less on impartial law and more on the preferences of those who control the state.

In the former Byzantine Empire, for example, an emperor could order the punishment or execution of anyone perceived as an opponent, whether the threat was real or imagined. Blinding was one especially notorious form of punishment. Again, the decision rested not with an independent judge or jury, but with the ruler’s will.  Byzantine emperors frequently blinded political rivals, rebels, and suspected usurpers. This brutal practice was used to neutralize threats to the throne while technically sparing their lives, as Byzantine religious and political laws strictly prohibited anyone with a physical defect or mutilation from ruling the empire.

In 11^th century Sicily, the conquering Normans introduced a feudal system in which the king claimed ultimate ownership of the land. Under this arrangement, ordinary people had limited property rights and depended on the ruler’s authority to determine who could use or lease land. This was basically a form of slavery, the lands were divided into large fiefs ruled by the upper-class barons, who ruled their fiefs with an iron hand. If a peasant hired by the baron wanted to improve the property he had to have permission from the baron.  If he needed a loan, the barons would force him to only borrow from them at exorbitant rates.  private bank loans were prohibited. 

In our current day, we have one-party states such as in California, Vermont, Oregon, Washington and other states where one party has a majority in both houses and passes laws at will.  The minority has, basically, no voice. The main difference is that we have a judiciary that makes the ultimate rule, however, even the courts are skewed to the left such as the notorious 9^th Circuit Court which usually rubber stamps leftist laws. For decades, the court was known as a reliably liberal stronghold. The Supreme Court reverses the Ninth Circuit in approximately 79% to 80% of the cases it agrees to review, which historically amounts to roughly 10 to 14 reversals per term. This is one of the highest raw reversal rates and totals in the country. 

A Pilgrim's Story Version 2.0

 In the biblical story, God commands the prophet Jonah to preach repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh. Unwilling to go, Jonah boards a ship bound for Tarshish, fleeing in the opposite direction. Jonah despised the assignment; he hated the Ninevites and longed not for their redemption, but for their judgment.

 

My own story bears a faint resemblance to Jonah’s. When I first heard my parents speak of leaving my Sicily homeland for the United States, I was filled with dread. I wanted no part of such a journey.  I loved the life I knew—grazing sheep with my father in the Madonie Mountains of north-central Sicily, surrounded by the rugged beauty and familiar rhythms of home. But at twelve years old, I possessed no power to resist what had already been decided for me. When the day of departure finally came, my heart was broken. As we boarded the Italian Cruise ship, the Saturnia, at the Port of Palermo, I turned to my mother and pleaded with her to leave me behind. She refused. Our family consisted of six children and my parents.  The youngest was a mere 8 months old.

 

We left Palermo in mid-March1956 heading out of the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean.  The entire trip to New York Harbor took two weeks; the Atlantic was in a very bad mood; rough seas seem to have lasted the entire crossing.  Having never been on a ship before we were all seasick and hardly ever left our cabin.  I don’t remember ever eating in the ship’s cafeteria.

 

Upon arrival at the New York Harbor, we debarked and headed straight to the train station for our trip across the entire United States to Los Angeles with a stop in Chicago to change trains.  Not ever having had any American food such as mayonnaise or mustard we ate sparingly. As we arrived at Union Station Los Angeles, I noticed weather I had never seen, overcast skies.  Where we’re from it was either sunny or foggy, never overcast. My dad’s sponsor, his sister, met us at Union Station and took us to our rented one-bedroom duplex in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles. 

 

Los Angeles was a beautiful city in the mid 1950s, clean well-kept streets with Palm trees that reached for the sky.  We lived in a mixed neighborhood, black and white families living in total harmony.  This was the first time I had ever seen a black person.  I did not discover until later of the racial discrimination that was going on in other parts of the country.  Where we lived, however, I never saw discrimination.  My very first friend was Norman Aubry, a black kid down the block.  I adjusted quickly.  Our house was next to an empty lot.  With my two younger brothers we built a pigeon cage and raised fancy pigeons:  Tumblers, rollers and fantails.  We managed to recreate something of what we left behind in Sicily. Los Angeles was a very safe city.  We could ride the bus to anywhere without trouble.  I later managed to buy a used bike and rode around freely.  On one occasion, I rode my bike to Griffith Park which was about 14 miles from our house.  On my return trip heading south on Western Avenue, I was hit by a car and knocked down.  Luckily, I was unhurt.  A passing off-duty policeman who witnessed the accident, took me home with my broken bike.

 

My parents enrolled me into Angeles Mesa Elementary school which was two blocks from our house.  I was the only foreign student.  Not speaking a word of English, my teacher, Mr. Fox, just put me in the last row against the wall and left me alone.  This proved to be the best solution.  Within a few months I could speak English with my fellow students semi-fluently. Total immersion was a big success. 

 

I had my first Coca Cola at the vending machine of Van Ness Park. Ten cents would get you a cold bottle.  I also learned to play the carroms board game.  There we also met the park custodian who took us under his wing and looked after us. Within a year I got a job throwing the afternoon Los Angeles Mirror News newspaper. 

 

The traumatic events I experienced by the move have lasted to a small degree.  I still resent the fact that I was moved to an unknown place against my wishes.  I hold no animosity against my parents; however, they did what they believed was to be the best for us.  Sometimes God has a job for us that we do not like, like Jonah, but it is the right job for us.  Just do it.

Notorious U.S. Chemical and Radiation Experiments

 The saying, “you could be a PhD and still be an idiot,” is sometimes attributed to the American physicist Richard Feynman. Some U.S. chemical and radiation experiments were so shocking that they defy belief.

The chemical and radiation tests carried out by the U.S. government or military remain deeply disturbing. Their design and execution raise serious ethical questions, and their consequences were severe: thousands, and possibly millions, of people were exposed to harm, including long-term illnesses such as cancer.  Here are just a few:

 

1.        The burn pits during the Iraq War.  During the Iraq war, the U.S. military relied on open-air burn pits to dispose of waste at forward operating bases.  Millions of service members were exposed to toxic smoke from burning plastics, medical waste, batteries and tires and other.

 

2.        COVID.  Between 2014 and 2020, U.S. agencies, primarily the NIH and USAID distributed over $1.4 million in grants to the EcoHealth Alliance, which passed roughly $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China to study coronaviruses.  We all lived to see what happened.  In the United States alone over 1.23 million people died from Covid. As far as I know, the government has yet to admit to this partial financing of the WIV. They’ve been dancing around this issue since 2020.

3.       Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. As a Vietnam veteran myself this was so outrageous that it boggles the mind.  What were they thinking? Agent orange is a highly toxic chemical defoliant.  It was sprayed over forests and jungle cover and crops.  Its devastating legacy continues to cause severe, long-term health issues for both American servicemen and Vietnamese people. In the annals of bad war-time decisions this has to rank at the top.

 

4.      The Nevada nuclear test.  In the 1950s the U.S. conducted 97 atmospheric nuclear tests just 65 miles from Las Vegas. These tests were prominently featured as tourist attractions and used for military training.  They knowingly exposed thousands of civilians to dangerous radioactive fallout.  Again, what were they thinking?  This was not just a bunch of clueless teenagers doing a prank, they were done by the best scientific minds of the day.  As Forrest Gump would say “stupid is as stupid does.”  The radioactive cloud drifted far away, to Utah and other parts of the West.

 The Christian Crusades: How Religious Fervor Led to Catastrophe

Overview

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, historians commonly identify at least eight major Crusades between 1096 and 1270, while also recognizing related movements such as the People’s Crusade, the Children’s Crusade, and the Albigensian Crusade. These expeditions were launched by western European Christians for several overlapping reasons, including aiding Byzantium, checking Muslim expansion, and attempting to recover or defend territories regarded as Christian. Their history, however, is far more complex than a simple story of religious devotion or military success.

Main Argument

To put it plainly, the Crusades were, in the long run, a deeply costly and only partially successful movement. The First Crusade did achieve a remarkable short-term victory by capturing Jerusalem and establishing Crusader states in the Levant, but those gains proved difficult to maintain. Over time, the broader crusading effort failed to secure lasting control of the Holy Land and often produced destructive, unintended consequences for Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Byzantines alike.

 

The Crusades were frequently undermined by poor coordination, disease, harsh travel conditions, logistical strain, and conflicting political aims. The human cost was unquestionably severe, but exact casualty totals remain difficult to establish because medieval sources are incomplete, rhetorical, and often contradictory. For that reason, broad numerical claims should be treated cautiously even while acknowledging the scale of suffering involved.

Examples of Atrocities

Among the most notorious examples of Crusader violence were the following atrocities:

 

1.       The Rhineland massacres of 1096, carried out by forces associated with the People’s Crusade, devastated Jewish communities in cities such as Speyer, Worms, and Mainz.

2.       The capture of Jerusalem in 1099 was followed by the mass killing of many Muslim and Jewish inhabitants during the general slaughter that followed the Crusader victory.

3.       The sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade involved extensive looting, destruction, and desecration in one of the most important cities in Christendom, badly damaging the Byzantine Empire and deepening distrust between East and West.

Strategic Failures

The planning behind many Crusader campaigns showed a striking lack of long-term coherence. The First Crusade initially answered a Byzantine appeal for aid, but cooperation between crusaders and Byzantine authorities was often fragile and shaped by mutual suspicion. Rather than building a stable and lasting alliance, crusading leaders frequently pursued their own territorial ambitions and established vulnerable Crusader states that were difficult to defend over time.

 

There was also no consistent central command and no durable political structure capable of funding, coordinating, and stabilizing the movement over time. In many cases, crusading armies functioned as competing private forces rather than as a unified campaign with a coherent peace strategy. This helps explain why military success, when it occurred, so often failed to produce lasting political order.

Long-Term Consequences

The Crusades also damaged relations within Christendom and intensified hostility toward Jewish communities. Violence against Jews during the People’s Crusade marked a grim turning point in medieval Jewish-Christian relations. The Fourth Crusade’s sack of Constantinople in 1204 further deepened the divide between the Roman Catholic West and the Orthodox East. Although the schism between Rome and Constantinople is conventionally dated to 1054, historians emphasize that the breach developed over centuries; the events of 1204 made reconciliation far more difficult and left a lasting scar on relations between the two churches.

For a compelling history of the Crusades Podcast see: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eva+schubert

For a terrific book on the Byzantine Empire see:  "Lost to the West" by Lars Brownworth, 2009,  Crown Publishers.  Brownworth has an engaging podcast on Byzantine history called: 12 Byzantine Rulers

Italy - Yugoslavia Conflict After WW II

The Devastation of World War I

War unleashes unimaginable destruction, turning landscapes into infernos of suffering. World War I exemplified this devastation, marking a turning point in the history of warfare. Over the course of four years, the conflict resulted in more deaths than any previous war, with an estimated 85 million people losing their lives. The introduction of poison gas added a new level of horror to the battlefield, causing massive casualties and creating killing fields that had never been seen before.

Italy: From Victory to Tragedy

As is often the case with war, there are both winners and losers. Although Italy was on the victorious side in World War I, the aftermath brought serious consequences that extended well into the mid-1950s. The rise of Benito Mussolini's tyrannical regime marked the beginning of a troubled era. Following World War II, Italy found itself in conflict with Yugoslavia over national territories. The damage inflicted by Mussolini's fascist rule from 1924 to 1943 fueled ongoing tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia, leading to warfare and ethnic cleansing in areas around Trieste, Fiume, and Istria.Communist forces led by Marshall Tito, a Yugoslavian dictator, carried out mass killings of civilians between 1943-1949 in these regions. Many victims were disposed of in large pits known as Foibe in Italian. Ultimately, Italy suffered further losses, as it lost the territories of Istria and the city of Fiume to the Yugoslavian communists.

Historical Background: Shifting Territories

After the collapse of the Austria-Hungary Empire following World War I, territories previously occupied by Austria in northern Italy—specifically the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia—were affected by the reshaping of borders and political power. 

When Italy entered World War I, it was promised territorial gains that were never delivered. Losing over 600,000 troops Italy felt betrayed, fueling tensions with the newly formed Yugoslavia—a state comprising Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, led by Tito. After Tito’s death in 1980, Yugoslavia’s member states sought independence, resulting in civil war from 1991 to 2001 marked by ethnic cleansing and conflict among Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics.

 

By all practical purposes, Italy was the loser in the Yugoslavia-Italy dispute.  Although winning the port city of Trieste, it lost the entire Istria peninsula and the cities of Fiume and Gorizia.  A loss that to this day stings the Italian soul.  To add insult to injury, Italians in these areas were forced to give up their homes and property and become refugees.  A national wound that cannot heal.  Between 1943 and 1960 350,000 Italians, mainly from Istria-Dalmatia were forced to evacuate.  One of these refugees was the famous auto racing driver, Mario Andretti, who eventually settled in the United States.

 

“Il Lungo Esodo,” by Raoul Pupo is a book, in Italian, describing the atrocities and the conflict. 

The Fog of War and Man's Inhumanity to Man

 The flight from Travis Air Force Base near Oakland, California, to Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam was one of the longest I had ever experienced. The journey lasted eighteen flight hours.  Our airplane was a Continental Airlines charter with a full load of U.S. soldiers (about 300).  Along the way, the plane made two scheduled stops: the first in Hawaii, and the second at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Bien Hoa Air Base is located about a half hour north of Saigon. 

 

As we were approaching our landing at Bien Hoa I could see flashes of what appeared to be artillery fire to the right of the airplane.  Soon after landing we were rushed into an Isuzu bus and driven to the St. George Hotel in the Cholon section of Saigon.  This was May of 1968 during the Viet Cong Tet Offensive.  Fighting on Saigon city streets was in progress as we approached Cholon.  The sound of helicopters overhead and the noise of combat was surreal.  As we were led into the hotel, I noticed a fellow soldier take out his cassette recorder and record the sound of battle.  I asked him what he was going to do with it and he said that he would send it to his parents. I did not ask any further questions.  As we settled in the hotel, Australian soldiers were drinking at the bar on the first floor of the hotel.  

After a couple of days in Saigon, and duty at Tan Son Nhat Airport I finally reached my duty station, First Field Force, Headquarters II Corps in Nha Trang, on the central coast of South Vietnam just north of Cam Ran Bay.  Upon arriving at Camp McDermott, a U.S. Army base, I saw a sign that read:  “Even though I walk in the Valley of the shadow of evil, I fear no evil for I am the evilest son of a bitch in the valley “(a bad reference to Psalm 23).  Welcome to a new world, I thought, where there is a different moral compass.  As I discovered later, in some cases there was no compass at all. An example was the My Lai Massacre, where about 500 Vietnamese civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers.  Lieutenant William Calley was Court Martialed and convicted but spent less than three years of “house arrest” and his sentence commuted by President Nixon.  Wars do this to men in battle; some lose all contact with their moral compass.  In a recent book on the invasion of Sicily in 1943 called “Sicily ‘43” by James Holland, it describes at least two occasions when American soldier executed captured Italian prisoners.  None of the soldiers faced any discipline. 

 

In World War II, the Nazis and the Russians and perhaps the Japanese were the most brutal.  First prize would go to the Nazis and the Russians.  The Nazi invasion of Russia was murderous.  The Nazis just killed everyone they encountered and had no hesitation about it.  The Russians were brutal beyond belief.  They would kill their own soldiers who had been captured and managed to return.  Russian commanders would order suicidal frontal assaults, and any Russian soldier who hesitated, was shot by his own men.  Russian prisoners of war were killed or starved to death.  It is estimated that between 350,000 and 1,000,000 German prisoners of war died in captivity. Another estimated 50,000 Italian Russian prisoners of war died in captivity.  Man’s inhumanity to man has no bounds and war makes men abandon any moral compass.

 

For more reading on this and related topic, see the following:

1. Sicily ’43, James Holland

2. Leningrad State of Siege, Michael Jones

3. Kiev 1941, David Stahel

4. Stalingrad, Anthony Beevor

The Times They Are A-Changin

"Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'”

 

Bob Dylan wrote these words in his great song, The Times They Are A-Changin in 1964, when he was in his late teens.  Every generation has come up with some sort of the “Times They are a Changing.”  Nearly every generation thinks their ideas are superior to their parents.  Dylan’s song was a masterpiece as well as a big hit.  I love the song.  But let’s look at it a little closer.  Is change good?  Depends on what you want to change.  Certainly, the prejudice of Dylan's times against black Americans needed changing.  Prejudice against any group is always bad and needs changing.  Dylan did not say what the change was; he left it open and perhaps on purpose.  

 

If you grew up in the 1950s things were certainly different than today, but then nothing ever stays the same.  There was bad and there was good.  What was good?  The 1950s Los Angeles, for example, was Mayberry compared to today.  Very little crime, you could walk, take public transportation safely for the most part.  I do not remember any gangs, drive-by shootings, car-jackings, or the like. The above lyrics of the song admonishes parents about not criticizing what they don’t understand.  Really?  This is a very subjective point of view.  Perhaps they did understand.  Bill Maher has an interesting video on Instagram about the “Trad dad” the traditional dad who told you that “because I said so” is a good reason for you to do it.  Today, modern parenting has been reversed.  Children are in command.  Jordan Peterson also has a video on Instagram about not doing something for your kids that they could do for themselves.

 

In the 1950s, if you wanted a car, or a bicycle, for example, you got a job saved money and bought one yourself. Today, mom or dad will buy it for you.  Parents today are their kid’s friend, not necessarily their parent.  A friend of mine told me about what he told his two sons when they were young: “I’m your dad, not your friend.”  Both grew up self-reliant and very successful.  

 

In the 1960s we had changes for sure:  Drugs became rampant, rebellion was a right of passage, crime increased. We had the Vietnam War, riots in the major cities, three major assassinations, President Kennedy, Martin Luther king and Bobby Kennedy.  Was change good?