In has been four months since I last blogged. Not because there is nothing going on, but because there is so much going on. Back in the not so halcyon days of Spring 2020, California, and much of the rational part of the United States was in lock down because of the pandemic that was killing people. A whopping 22,000 had died by the last time I blogged. We watched New York City struggle and hoped to avoid that carnage…

Twice I had the honor of being the San Diego AILA chapter chairman, or “chapter chair” as it has long been called, even before gender neutrality became mainstream (It still sounds horribly wrong to me when a speaker uses the plural pronoun “they” when they want to avoid a gendered single one like “he” or “she”). As the chair, I thought it was important to disseminate the local AILA/immigration news to the chapter by sending out a weekly email news…

While one encounters many definitions of Trumpism based on President Trump’s statements and actions, because of the contradiction in Trump’s statements and actions, I favor a less textual and policy-based definition. To me, Trumpism is believing things despite there being no basis in fact for them. As a necessary corollary, Trumpism requires ignoring obvious contradictions between accepted values and the racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-democratic, and immoral beliefs adopted by Trump and Trumpists. A Trumpist holds close to heart a belief…