What Is Trump's Gaza Policy?

Outside of the Israeli government, perhaps, there is nobody who doubts that the situation in Gaza has deteriorated into a brutal humanitarian crisis. We could endeavor to describe it, but we don't have to, because reader D.E. in Lancaster, PA, helpfully wrote in with this, yesterday:

I'm going to say something that I'm sure will get a massive amount of blowback but I think it needs to be said. I just saw some of the pictures of the starving Palestinian children and all I could think was: How is this different from the emaciated Jews looking out between the barbed wire at one of the Nazi concentration camps? The circumstances might be slightly different but I can't see how the desired goal can be any different. Does any Israeli really believe that by breaking the Palestinian peoples this way, that if Benjamin Netanyahu ever decides to end this war, that the Palestinians will be so utterly tamed and defeated that they'll look on the Israelis as the "Good Guys?" This kind of deliberate cruelty is only radicalizing the survivors to perpetuate the cycle of violence. Unfortunately, I have to wonder what Bibi the Butcher's endgame is, because it seems like his goal is to wipe the Palestinians off the face of the Earth. If he has another destination, he certainly hasn't articulated it to the world.

I condemn, in the strongest of possible terms, the Palestinians who participated in the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, almost two years ago; but think about what I just said. It's been almost two years of almost non-stop violence, death, destruction, chaos and now starvation. I know of the Talmudic phrase, "An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth." With Netanyahu, it's become "your family for an eye and a village for a tooth." In the two years, we slid right past retribution and are now firmly in vendetta land. I think it is safe to say that the infants and children I saw in those photos had absolutely nothing to do with the horrible attacks of October 7, and reasonable people need to ask, why are they being punished and probably sentenced to an imminent death?

Before anyone accuses me of being an antisemite, be aware that I was raised to respect all religions and my grandmother made sure that I was exposed to different religions at an early age. Even though she was a Christian, she observed the Jewish High Holy Days. Nearly every year, my family sat down to a seder, which meant that as a finicky child, I munched only on matzahs until after the seder ended. I've been to services in a synagogue and attended B'nai B'rith meetings with my grandmother. Our neighbors, the Goldmans, taught me the meaning of Hanukkah and let me light their Menorah on the first night. Since I was old enough to understand it, I was taught about the Holocaust and am horrified that people to this day deny it. I remember the Israeli Seven Days War and have always believed that the Israelis have a fundamental right to exist; but since I believe that, I have to say the same for the Palestinians. Solutions for peace in the Middle East are way, way beyond my pay grade, but I do know what's a sure fire way to ensure that it never happens, and that's to bomb everything into rubble five times over and to starve the Palestinians into cruel submission. Remember, in 1967, Israel defended itself against Arab machinations by taking control of the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula in just 7 days without venturing into the territory of genocide. Bibi can't say the same. Enough is enough.

Thanks, D.E., that is more effective a job than we could have done.

If you would like to hear more about solutions for peace—the thing that is above D.E.'s pay grade—then you might want to listen to the latest episode of the Freakonomics podcast. The episode is given over entirely to a lengthy interview with Antony Blinken, who was not only Joe Biden's secretary of state, but also worked on the Middle East as part of the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton administrations.

In the interview, Blinken points out that both sides think they are right. And, more importantly, both sides ARE right. Israel, in particular during the Clinton years, has been on the precipice of agreeing to a two-state solution, only to have Hamas blow things up (literally and figuratively). Israel has also taken steps to pull back in Gaza in the past, only to see Hamas move into the vacuum that created. On the other side, the civilians in Gaza have lived under something akin to colonial conditions for decades, leading up to the absolutely deplorable conditions right now, which are almost entirely the responsibility of the current regime in Israel. If any reader wants to know more about the current situation, including widespread starvation, see here, here, and here.

Generally speaking, people who think they are in the right do not give up, particularly at the hands of opponents who are "in the wrong." On top of that, the conflict is not going to end until at least one side sees, and more likely until both sides see, more benefit in peace than in war. At the moment, neither side has reached that place. Hamas is getting attention for its cause (and lots of money from its supporters in the Middle East and elsewhere), and is also getting a big recruitment boost. Meanwhile, the moment the war ends, Netanyahu's governing coalition will collapse, and he'll end up on trial. Although, to be clear, it's not just one man who's making this happen; the PM has fairly broad support from the Israeli public. That includes many Israelis who do not like him personally, but who either generally support shaking up the status quo, or specifically support Netanyahu's goal of wiping out Hamas. A poll published by Haaretz at the end of May says that 82% of Israelis want to expel all Gazans, and 47% support killing all Palestinians in Gaza. That level of bloodlust is a bit hard to accept, but a poll from Pew Research, published a few days later, supports the conclusion (if not the support for violent means), finding that only 21% of Israelis think that Israel and a Palestinian state can coexist peacefully.

We lay this out because this is the situation Donald Trump now finds himself dealing with. Roughly 15 presidents before him have tried to solve this puzzle. All of those 15 were more skilled diplomatically than Trump is, and all 15 had more talented diplomats working under them than Trump does. Further, most of them were operating in circumstances that were less dire than the ones currently in effect.

We certainly understand what Trump's most basic goal is: He wants to declare that he "ended" the war, so that he can then demand a Nobel Peace Prize like the one Barack Obama has. Throughout the 2024 campaign, and through most of his time in office, he has framed Israel and Palestine as a trivially simple problem, one that could be resolved with just a few hours' attention from a "dealmaker" like him. Did Trump really and truly believe this, or was it just talk? We don't know, because he's not especially knowledgeable about complicated foreign affairs problems like this one, and he's also very good at deluding himself. Certainly, anyone who knows anything about foreign affairs, or the Middle East, knew that his claims were nothing more than hot air.

We always presumed that, when and if Trump concluded he was not going to be able to make a deal, he would just pander to his base and remove any and all American restraints on Israel. And it seemed that the President had reached that point over the weekend. He withdrew U.S. negotiators from the Middle East, and told reporters that Hamas has become so intractable, Israel was "gonna have to finish the job."

However, just yesterday, Trump did what we will call a 140, and said that Netanyahu is wrong when he claims there is "no starvation in Gaza." Trump added:

You know, you've seen the areas where they actually have food, and the people are screaming for the food in there. They're 35, 40 yards away, and they won't let them because they have lines that are set up, and whether they're set up by Hamas or whoever, but they're very strict lines, and we have to get rid of those lines.

But we're going to be getting some good, strong food. We can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids are—that's real starvation stuff. I see it, and you can't fake that.

So we're gonna be even more involved. We did some airlifts before, some airdrops, and the people are running for it. And the Prime Minister is going to help us. They're very effective with that. You've done that before and for many. They've done that for 100 years very well, so it's not very hard to do, actually.

It's hard to say how much of that is rooted in reality. In any case, we refer to it as a 140 because it's not technically a complete reversal of position. Trump ostensibly wants Hamas, but not the rest of the people of Gaza, bombed into submission. So, helping the starving people of Gaza is theoretically not incompatible with the violent destruction of Hamas. But in reality it is, because it's not like Hamas is in one place and the starving Gazans are in another, 20 miles to the south. If you bomb Hamas to smithereens, you're going to harm many non-Hamas people in Gaza. And if you feed the starving Gazans, some of that food is going to get to Hamas.

And just in case anyone needed a reminder that Trump takes a special-of-the-day approach to foreign policy, where today's dictums may well be forgotten or countermanded by tomorrow's dictums, he just announced that the 50-day deadline he gave Russia to make peace with Ukraine has been slashed by close to a month, and that Vladimir Putin now has just "10 or 12 days." A formal announcement is expected today, so the new deadline is theoretically somewhere around August 9.

Turning back to the Middle East for a moment, the latest CNN/SSRS poll makes clear that the domestic politics of the Israel-Gaza situation are evolving, and in a way that's not great for Trump. Only 23% of Americans now feel that Israel's actions are fully justified, which is a drop of 27 points from October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched the attacks that began the current war. A majority of Republicans (68%) still back Israel strongly, but independents have largely jumped ship, with only 14% of them saying that Israel is fully justified. Meanwhile, Democrats are coalescing around an Israel-skeptical position; only 7% of them now say that Israel is fully justified. With the images and reporting coming out of Gaza right now, these numbers do not figure to get better for the pro-Israel position.

So, the pro-Israel position is strong (but not overwhelming) in the Republican Party, and is increasingly off-putting to everyone else. Oh, and as the administration tries to deal with the Israel-Gaza situation, it also has an Israel-Iran situation. Ostensibly, ending arms sales to Israel is the biggest way the White House could put pressure on the current leadership of that nation. But doing so runs contrary to the goal of using Israel to keep Iran in check.

In short, in nearly every way—humanitarian concerns, geopolitics, domestic politics—it is a giant mess. And although we follow politics very closely, we really don't have the faintest idea how Trump will try to deal with it. (Z)

About That EU Trade Deal...

As long as we are on the subject of things we don't really understand, we don't really grasp how big the gap is between a "tentative" trade deal and a finished trade deal. What we do know is that there's gotta be at least some gap, though, and that means there is at least some possibility that the tentative deal with the EU, announced over the weekend, won't actually get across the finish line.

Not surprisingly, a lot of leaders of EU nations are upset, taking the view that Donald Trump took European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the cleaners. The fascist vote is actually split, as Italy's Giorgia Meloni likes the deal, while Hungary's Viktor Orbán hates it. Most of the rest of the far right agrees with Orbán, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the deal is bad, but better than no deal. French president Emmanuel Macron has been notably silent, but French PM François Bayrou has been all over social media with remarks like this one: "It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to assert their values and defend their interests, resigns itself to submission."

Could the angry nations somehow compel von der Leyen to back away from the deal? We don't know the dynamics of EU governance quite well enough to know how likely that is, but it's certainly more likely with a "tentative" deal than with one that has been signed, sealed and delivered.

There is also one other issue coming from the European side of the negotiations, and that is the "promise" to invest $600 billion in the United States. Yesterday, two senior European Commission officials made clear that the money, if it comes, would come entirely from private companies, and not from the public sector. Inasmuch as private companies do not spend $600 billion for charitable purposes, one has to imagine that means that the money would only be invested in the United States if those companies were going to do so anyway, and the trade deal is basically irrelevant here.

Meanwhile, although Trump and his team certainly appear to have gotten the upper hand on von der Leyen, $600 billion or no, there is at least one source of unhappiness in the United States, and that is the auto industry. Dealers who specialize in European stock are going to see their prices go up, even if it's by less than previously expected. Meanwhile, U.S. automakers, who manufacture many of their cars in Mexico, are still set to pay 25% tariffs, which means they are now at a disadvantage as compared to the Europeans and their 15% tariffs. It all adds up to fewer car sales for carmakers and car sellers.

Trump rightly declared victory in the latest trade battle. However, this trade war is far from over. First, we have to wait and see if this tentative deal becomes an actual deal. Then, if it does come to fruition, there will be many things to watch for: (1) Will Trump decide he wants more, and try to take another bite at the apple?; (2) Will the EU nations, once they've had a bit more time to consider things, find some way to retaliate against the deal? and (3) Will the deal have inflationary, or other economically deleterious, effects?

As we have noted many times, trade deals are tough. And often, even the experts who negotiate them don't know how things will turn out until the actual chips have fallen where they may. (Z)

The Epstein Files: Apparently, Ghislaine Maxwell Is the Real Victim Here

Yesterday was not an Epstein-free news day, but the focus on that particular story was reduced enough that it's only our third item, instead of the lead item. Progress?

Here are the main storylines:

• The Overton Window: Donald Trump continues to find excuses to casually mention that he could pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, and he just might do it. Meanwhile, Maxwell's lawyers filed a brief with the Supreme Court yesterday, in which they assert that Maxwell should not even be in prison, and that she should have been covered by the plea deal worked out by Jeffrey Epstein.
  
  This could not be more transparent; it's a two-pronged plan meant to create the narrative that pardoning Maxwell would not be shocking, would not be wrong, and would, in fact, undo a miscarriage of justice. We shall see if the public, and in particular the MAGA crowd, buy that.
  
  
• Media Wars: Speaking of the MAGA crowd and, in particular, the MAGA media, a clear and very interesting dynamic has developed. The more traditional right wing media—particularly the cable channels, and even more particularly Fox, have been trying to tote the administration's water as much as they can, both by ignoring the Epstein story, and also by latching on to the distractors the White House has been putting out. For example, since DNI Tulsi Gabbard released her "report" on the 2016 election, Fox has mentioned Barack Obama more than three times as frequently as it has mentioned Epstein.
  
  Meanwhile, the right wing media—particularly the podcasters, and even more particularly Joe Rogan, have been hammering on the Epstein story almost without interruption, and have bought into none of the distractors. We could be watching a very interesting test of which segment of the right-wing media is truly the king these days, and whether the old king (which has mostly old viewers) is dead.
  
  
• Distractions: Trump tried out a Hail Mary pass this weekend, and tried to get the base furious, and got on his whiter-than-Jimmy-Buffett's-fanbase social media platform to try to cook up some "corrupt Democrats" talk:

  I'm looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election, and the fact that they admit to paying, probably illegally, Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!), Three Million Dollars for "expenses," to Oprah, Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to very low rated TV "anchor," Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!), and others to be named for doing, absolutely NOTHING! These ridiculous fees were incorrectly stated in the books and records. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO. Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out! Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

  Undoubtedly it's just a coincidence that of all the expenses the Harris campaign had in support of its Black candidate, the three problematic ones just so happened to involve Black celebrities.
  
  In any case, there is a rather large chasm between "illegally" and "probably illegally," especially when the person doing the evaluating is noted legal scholar Donald John Trump. These figures are all fantasies, and to the extent that payments were made to any of these people (for example, Beyoncé's management got a little over $100,000), those payments were for expenses related to convention appearances. Despite what you might have heard from noted legal scholar Donald John Trump, the Democrats have to pay for those expenses; allowing Beyoncé or any other artist to pay their own expenses would be an illegal contribution in kind.
  
  Anyhow, this particular trial balloon turned out to be made of lead, and so it landed with a thud. And Trump is now really running out of Black people to use as distractors.
  
  
• He Will Get It Right, Eventually!: Most people who have lied as frequently, and as long, as Donald Trump has are pretty good at getting their lies right the first time. It's that old problem that if you're lying, and you change your story, it's a pretty good clue that you are lying.
  
  Trump, however, usually needs a few revisions before he gets his stories down pat. And he spent much of the last 48 hours or so revising his Epstein narrative. Last week the President said he never does drawings; now he says he only draws buildings, and never nude women. Last week he said that he and Epstein had a falling out over a business deal, now he says the falling out was because Epstein kept poaching employees from Mar-a-Lago.
  
  Trump did stick with his claim that he never visited Epstein's island, where some significant portion of the sex trafficking apparently took place. However, he chose his words poorly, decreeing: "I never had the privilege of going to his island." Quite a few folks pounced on that, interested to learn that it is "a privilege" to visit an island where teenagers are being trafficked.
  
  
• Drip, Drip, Drip: No outlet seems to have uncovered any new, incriminating photos or documents. And so, yesterday's "drip, drip, drip" was a list of quotes from Trump, circulated via e-mail and social media, in which he said creepy things about his daughters over the years. For example, when Tiffany Trump was still an infant, he wondered how large her breasts would ultimately be. In 2003, when Ivanka was 22, Trump said: "My daughter, Ivanka. She's six feet tall, she's got the best body."
  
  There are a bunch of other quotes like those, and nearly all of them are verifiable. In fact, most of them were said on camera, so there's both video and audio footage. That said, the one that really gets people upset is also the one that may be spurious (Snopes looked, and concluded only that it was "unverified"): "Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?" That remark was reportedly made just after Ivanka had turned 13, to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Cohen eventually dropped the quote from his column, and the Post refuses to confirm or deny any part of the story.
  
  Also, The Wall Street Journal has reported that Bill Clinton also had a page inside the book of messages compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday. We'll see if either the White House, or supportive right-wing media, tries to find a way to release the Clinton portions of the book, without the Trump portions.

Who knows what today will bring? (Z)

Tone Deafness, Thy Name Is Ron DeSantis

There was a period of time where Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) really did seem like a rising star in the Republican Party. He won his reelection bid bigly in Florida, he was on Fox News more often than Sean Hannity, and it looked like Donald Trump's goose might be cooked and the MAGA base might be looking for a new Dear Leader.

But since those halcyon days, circa 2023, DeSantis kind of reminds us of that worm from the old logic puzzle. You know, "A worm is stuck in a 10-foot hole. He can climb 2 feet per day, but he slips back 1 foot when he rests at night. How long does it take him to get out of the hole?" Most people, realizing that the worm nets 1 foot per day, answer "10 days." However, the actual answer is "9 days," because after he does the 2 feet of climbing on Day 9, he's out, and doesn't slip back.

Anyhow, Governor worm's problem is that for every 1 foot he moves forward, he seems to slip about 4 feet back. That is definitely no way to get out of the hole. One of DeSantis' many enemies is Joe Gruters (R), who has been chair of the Florida Republican Party, and has also served as a state senator. The two men were once allies, which is how Gruters got the job running the Florida GOP in the first place. However, Gruters is very Trumpy and he saw which way the winds were blowing in 2024, and so endorsed Trump's reelection bid at a time when most Florida Republicans were at least pretending to be DeSantis backers. DeSantis responded to this by using his gubernatorial powers to cut all pork for Gruters' district out of the state budget.

On Thursday, DeSantis was making one of the many, many public appearances he makes in order to keep himself in the spotlight, and he launched into an extended harangue about Gruters, accusing him of betraying the state's voters. Now, there's a pretty good argument that a would-be leader of the MAGA base, like DeSantis, should hold his fire when it comes to ANY person who is closely allied with Donald Trump. On top of that, DeSantis might have taken note of the fact that RNC Chair Michael Whatley is about to step down, so he can run for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. If he was a really talented politician, the Governor might even have had his ear to the ground, listening for information about who might replace Whatley. Keep in mind that when the chair of the sitting president's party comes vacant, the sitting president, by custom, picks the replacement.

Undoubtedly, readers can see where this is headed. About half an hour after the Thursday harangue, Trump announced his pick to be the new RNC chair, and it's Gruters. So, not only has DeSantis once again poked the mighty Donald in the eye, but he's also managed to thoroughly alienate the fellow who will probably oversee the 2028 Republican primary process.

We do not know if DeSantis is still deluding himself that, after his disastrous 2024 "run," he can actually make a go of it in 2028. The fundamental problem, beyond his clear deficits when it comes to political skills, is that there is no lane for him. DeSantis cannot possibly run in the Trump MAGA lane, as he's aggravated too many Trump insiders. He could possibly run in what might be called the Epstein MAGA lane, on the message "Trump disappointed us, but I'll bring down the deep state," but that's a longshot approach, and even if it might work, DeSantis is just not the guy to sell that particular message. And the Governor certainly can't run in the "I'm a sane Republican who will return the party to its Reaganite roots" lane. He's cooked. (Z)

Never Forget: Budae Jjigae, Part I

We wonder how many readers know what budae jjigae is. If one lives just a few miles from Koreatown in Los Angeles, it's hard not to know. Beyond that, however, we are not sure. For those not in the know, it's Korean military stew. Soldiers (and, now, restaurants) toss a bunch of good things into a pot—kimchi, tofu, ramen, mushrooms, sausage, gochujang (chili paste), and a bunch of other stuff—and the result is something very substantive and very delicious.

When we put out a call for stories of those who served, and those who supported them, we got a fair number of responses that aren't quite long enough to run all by themselves. So, we thought we'd serve up a nice military stew today. Note that we've decided to leave them uncensored, so brace yourself for PG-13 language:

B.G. in Carpinteria, CA: In 1944, my 25-year-old father joined the U.S. Army medical corps and was shipped to Belgium, where he cared for U.S. and Allied troops that had been injured during the Battle of the Bulge, the Nazis' last major assault on Western Europe, and an attempt to retake the industrial port of Antwerp. Later in life, he told my sister and I about the horrors of fascism in Europe that he had witnessed or heard about from the wounded soldiers under his care.

Back in the U.S., he had a successful medical practice for 35 years, but never forgot what he had seen during World War II. As he was a political activist, our neighbors were questioned by the FBI during the McCarthy period about Dad's daily activities. My mother was scared shitless. One day at the hospital in Los Angeles where he had surgical privileges, the FBI came by to speak with the chief hospital administrator about my father's political activity and who he associated with. As dad told my sister and I, in no uncertain terms the administrator told the agents that my father was a good doctor and to FUCK OFF! Late in his life, my wife and I on occasion would see dad by himself on the sidewalk at the Saturday's farmers market in Santa Barbara, with Green Party sign in hand, talking to the shoppers.

---

B.A. in Astoria, OR: I met a real hero once. In 1968, Fort Ord hospital was filled with guys shot up in Vietnam. One had his legs operated on three times and they still didn't work quite right. His platoon tripped an ambush. He stood up in the middle of a firefight. He laid down enough fire that his platoon was able to cut their way out. He should have ended up dead, but only ended up with his legs shot up. The army gave him the Bronze Star with V device.

On the weekends, while recovering, he took up with some hippies living in the redwoods behind Santa Cruz. One Monday he just didn't come back. For 30 days he was listed as AWOL. On day 31 it was changed to deserter.

He'll never have a place in a military graveyard. No headstone with his name and rank. No one will ever place a flag over his grave. He is, after all, a deserter. But one with a Bronze Star and legs that don't work right. He deserves to be remembered.

---

F.L. in Allen, TX: I'm alive because of measles.

My father enlisted in the Army for World War II. He was sent to New York for boot camp.

He was, literally, on the boat to England, but they hadn't put to sea. Not feeling well, he went to the ship's doc. A cursory exam revealed a temperature, indicating something contagious—measles was the guess. Naturally, the doc ordered him back to base, and to report to the infirmary immediately.

Dad met his sergeant on the way out. There was, to put it mildly, a discussion. The sergeant quickly found out who's really God on a ship, and it ain't the cap. So, Dad missed the boat, so to speak.

He spent the rest of the war mining San Francisco harbor (yet nearly died when a mine dropped on the deck of a crane barge).

Seven kids and ten grandkids later...

---

D.E. in Ann Arbor, MI: I asked Dad what he remembered about being in the Army. He immediately replied that a ceasefire was signed in Korea shortly after he went in, which was a relief, as he'd assumed he would be going to the war there. He said few people who have been in the Army enjoyed it, because of all the "chickenshit" that goes on there day to day.

Dad remembered a live-fire training, where they had to crawl beneath live machine-gun fire, and if you stuck your head up above a certain level, you'd be killed. That impressed him as a very serious matter. They were also required to dig "tank-over" foxholes, which were narrow enough that a tank could advance over them without caving in the foxhole. They had to crouch in these foxholes as a tank passed over.

Dad said that after basic training, he was trained in military government. There he learned to direct traffic. Dad did a comic imitation of directing traffic, in which he gestured very slowly and widely with his arms and pointed with his hands, to show me how deeply he had learned his lessons.

---

T.B. in Leon County, FL: My wife once asked my dad why he enlisted. (Her father was a conscientious objector—CO—firefighter during World War II.) My dad's reply was: "Nobody wanted to go to war, but everybody was getting drafted. I figured my best chance for survival was as a naval officer." Growing up in an ethnic enclave of Detroit, "conscientious objector" was not a thing, but in college, his best friend, Julian, registered as a CO. My dad became a gunnery officer on an LST (landing ship, tank) and participated in D-Day (scheduled to be in the first wave of the aborted offensive, but part of the far-more-survivable third wave of the actual invasion); his CO friend Julian was a starvation experiment guinea pig in Florida (so authorities could learn how to help concentration camp survivors to survive).

After the European war ended, my dad was stationed in Washington, DC, and he boarded with Julian's parents, who lived right next door to my mom's parents, and my mom was living at home as she worked for the USGS there. Her father did radioactive nucleoid research (but not on uranium) for the War Department as they were the only folks paying for this kind of research, but as a would-be CO, he refused the salary. Drafted in World War II, he refused promotion to prevent his being put in the position to give anyone orders. Her mother was a war-time (civilian) code breaker, and accepted her government paycheck!

Me? My brother was an ROTC-scholarship Minuteman Missile Silo officer who simply said "Don't join; they'll beat you down." I "became" a CO a few years later after spending a half-hour in the Statue of Liberty Crown Observation Area—a possibility as there were very few tourists on that blustery cold February morning—thinking about my paternal grandfather who had been a political refugee from tsarist Russia, and who would have seen the Statue in 1907, and then later my viewing two particular exhibits in the all-but-deserted basement museum: one about the Quakers who helped mold the early American concept of religious liberty, and the other, the oath one takes when becoming an American citizen. I realized I couldn't take that oath. (I later learned that COs can actually become U.S. citizens, but the oath doesn't make it apparent.)

Thanks to all of you. (Z)

---

If you wish to contact us, please use one of these addresses. For the first two, please include your initials and city.

• questions@electoral-vote.com    For questions about politics, civics, history, etc. to be answered on a Saturday
• comments@electoral-vote.com   For "letters to the editor" for possible publication on a Sunday
• corrections@electoral-vote.com To tell us about typos or factual errors we should fix
• items@electoral-vote.com            For general suggestions, ideas, etc.

To download a poster about the site to hang up, please click here.

---

Email a link to a friend.

---The Votemaster and Zenger