Make Voting Easier, Not Harder

My latest to Senators Britt and Tuberville:

I oppose the SAVE Act and urge you to vote “No.”

In my 73 years, more than 50 as a voter, I’ve never seen reports of more than just a few fraudulent votes, never enough to swing an election, usually by U.S. citizens. The claim that non-citizens are stealing elections is absurd, as false as the president believing he won the 2020 election.

Alabama has a poor record of voting, even after the Jim Crow era. In the 2024 election, only 60% of those registered voted, with only 66% of eligible voters registered. That’s only 40% of Alabama’s eligible voters. We should be encouraging everyone who is legally eligible to vote, making it easier, not harder. The SAVE Act will only add friction, creating obstacles to dissuade voting.

Birth and marriage certificates may not be easy to obtain. My sister-in-law, a longtime resident of Texas, was required to prove her citizenship when she last renewed her driver license. It took New York, where she was born, several months to send an original birth certificate. That delay could have prevented her voting in an important election, denying a core right of citizenship.

As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it.” You’ll only break it more.

Stop the War

On Saturday, February 28, the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, killing Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other leaders. This followed negotiations to end Iran’s nuclear program, the last session just two days before the attack. (See Wikipedia’s coverage.)

The Trump administration has offered numerous and changing rationales to justify the war: ending the nuclear program, destroying Iran’s ballistic missile capability, stopping support of terrorist groups in the region, and regime change. Initially, regime change was framed as creating a democratic government; then it morphed to a Venezuelan style puppet government serving at the pleasure of Donald Trump.

Iran’s response to the surprise and ongoing attacks has stopped all shipping — oil and cargo — through the Strait of Hormuz, which will have a devastating impact on the world economy if not resumed. Seven American service men and women have been killed, some 140 injured.

A war powers resolution after the war started failed in Congress, the Republican majority largely supporting the president.

This morning, I voiced my opinion to Senators Britt and Tuberville and Representative Rogers:

On Sunday, I paid $2.99 a gallon for gas in Opelika, around $0.50 more per gallon than recent fillups. That dramatic jump is the most immediate financial impact from the president’s unnecessary war with Iran. The $1 billion per day the war is costing would have been better invested in extending the premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act policies.

I saw no compelling reason for the U.S. and Israel to start a war with Iran. Among the changing rationales, the idea of regime change is absurd. The president’s goal to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a puppet like Delcy Rodríguez has backfired. Khamenei’s son lost his mother, wife, and father in the Israeli attack and is unlikely to bow to the president and his sophomoric offer to Make Iran Great Again. Iran’s deep ideology will trump the president’s “art of the deal.”

Seven U.S. service members have been killed so far; some 150 have been injured. The president shows little concern for the loss of American life, even less for the death and destruction in Iran.

Please stop bowing to the president and demand an end to his warmongering madness.

My State of the Union Address

Last week, we heard President Donald Trump’s “State of the Union” address to Congress. I'd like to share my own view of the state of our union:

Cost of Living

Prices and inflation are still high.

I’m reminded every morning when I make coffee. Thanks to the president’s delusional tariffs, I’m paying $22 to $24 a bag for coffee beans from a small roaster here in Opelika. I used to pay $16 to $18. My friends who own this small business tell me their prices for green beans jumped with the tariffs and have not come down.

Health insurance premiums also jumped at the start of the year. Last year, my son’s ACA coverage was fully subsidized. This year, his same Bronze plan costs $484 per month. The premium for my wife’s Bronze plan jumped 27% to $1,144 per month.

Affordability is not fake news, Mr. President.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling against the president's unilateral tariffs, he is doubling down and pursuing ways to maintain them. Tariffs are a hammer he can use to threaten and bully countries and companies to accede to his wishes.

As waves of economic uncertainty ripple across the globe, Republicans in Congress remain stone faced rather than exercising their Constitutional responsibility.

Immigration

The president claimed his administration would target only criminals illegally in the country. Yet he sent invasions of masked ICE and CBP agents into Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and Minneapolis creating terror: Separating families. Detaining immigrants who are legally in the country. Deporting people without due process. Killing innocent Americans and labeling them domestic terrorists. Ignoring court orders.

Reuters reported that the administration unlawfully detained immigrants more than 4,400 times between October and mid-February.

In the case Anderson Jesus Urquilla-Ramos v. Donald J. Trump, et al., Judge Joseph R. Goodwin wrote

“Across the interior of the United States, agents of the federal government — masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind — are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process.”

Another example of DHS’ cruel and inhumane treatment was Nurul Amin Shah Alam, nearly blind, who froze to death in Buffalo after Border Patrol agents left him at a closed Tim Hortons, jail booties the only protection on his feet. True to form, DHS lied about the incident, claiming agents left him at “a warm, safe location.”

Despite these flagrant, cruel, and illegal violations of law — a white nationalist strategy to purge the country of people of color — Republicans in Congress show no interest in reforming immigration laws. The country needs immigrants for our high technology industries as well as farms, food processing, and hospitality.

Corruption

The President has been using his power to enrich himself, his family, and members of his cabinet. David Kirkpatrick estimates the president and his family have made some $3.4 billion from crypto, real estate, branding, and other ventures. The jet from Qatar is arguably the most visibly egregious.

The corruption trickles down, such as the Boeing 737 Max 8 executive jet that Secretary Noem has been leasing, claimed to be for immigrant deportation flights. Yet the interior includes a bedroom suite.

Nary a murmur from Republicans in Congress.

Epstein Files

Is the Justice department incompetent or protecting the president? Certainly incompetent and, I believe, covering for the president.

With all the examples of philandering throughout Donald Trump’s storied life, I think the charge that he raped a minor is plausible. That he is morally bereft is more than plausible.

Iran

Now the President has unilaterally started a war with Iran, ignoring the Constitution, Congress, and international law. There is no legal or moral justification for preemptively attacking another country and targeting its leaders, no matter how heinous those leaders are. Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S. Blatant and self-serving lies that Iran was close to having a nuclear bomb or had developed ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S.

We’ve now lost American lives, and the president predicts “there will likely be more.” For what end?

The state of the U.S.?

This administration and the Congressional Republicans supporting it do not reflect American values, the values outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We have an imperialist president who is attempting to rule the world, a narcissist dismembering our country and enabled by Republican robots in Congress. That’s the state of the union I see.

Hoping for Mercy

Update — On March 10, two days before Sonny Burton’s scheduled execution, Governor Ivey commuted his death sentence to life in prision without the option for parole.

I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not. — Governor Ivey

Thank you, Governor Ivey.

Original Post — Alabama and Texas have made industries of the death penalty, determined to use the punishment as retribution and a warning to the marginalized, particularly Black, population.

Sonny Burton’s case is quintessential. He is scheduled to be executed by Alabama on March 12. Can Governor Ivey see the injustice of executing Burton?

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Governor Ivey,

Since moving to Alabama four years ago, I have been jolted by the state government fostering a Calvinist Hell under the guise of what it calls “justice.”

The case of Sonny Burton is the latest example. Franz Kafka could have written the story. Yet sadly, tragically, it’s true.

No doubt you are familiar with the facts and, I hope, see the unfairness of sentencing a man to death for a murder he did not commit — he was not in the store when the shots that killed Doug Battle were fired — and the actual murderer was resentenced to life in prison. Doug Battle’s daughter and several of the jurors in Sonny Burton’s case support clemency. Mr. Burton, now 75, has expressed remorse for his involvement in the murder and is asking to be spared the death penalty.

Micah 6:8 calls on us to bring justice and mercy to this life.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

I urge you to show mercy and grant Sonny Burton clemency.