Jonathan P. Baird

When our military blew up the girls’ elementary school in Iran, the reaction was telling. The President and his War Secretary denied responsibility. Shortly after, the New York Times reported that these murders were a result of an American tomahawk missile. That disclosure made no difference to the powers-that-be. They have moved on with no look back and no compulsion to return to an unwelcome subject.

It was not different than the boat strikes’ murders and the reaction to that. No legal case was presented to justify those many murders. The Trump regime wanted some people dead. Case closed. The expectation is that the public will not care and the story will disappear. As with the school girls’ murders, there is no accountability.

The pattern has been well-established. An awful government-generated crime is committed. Whatever the outcry and public reaction, nothing happens to the perpetrators. This is not just true with Republican administrations. It happens with Democrats too.

There are no shortage of examples. Just during my lifetime, I would cite the targeted assassination of Fred Hampton, the Phoenix program in South Vietnam, U.S. support for the death squads in Latin America during the 1970’s-1980’s, torture in Iraq at Abu Ghraib and other black sites, the drone killing of Anwar al-Alwaki and his 16 year old son, the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Freddie Gray and the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Certainly that list could be greatly expanded but there are commonalities. Lack of accountability is connected to class. Very wealthy people who commit crimes are often not charged or punished. The same cannot be said for working or poor people. The U.S. Supreme Court has shown much more forgiveness towards white collar criminals than blue collar defendants.

This form of injustice has accelerated under the Trump regime where it has reached its apogee. I am reminded of a quote from Eugene V. Debs:

“There is something wrong in this country; the judicial nets are so adjusted as to catch the minnows and let the whales slip through.”

Trump has made it his mission to free every white collar criminal he can, no matter how egregious the crimes committed. His abuse of the pardon power is legendary. Michael Milken, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, Changpeng Zhao, Steve Bannon, Trevor Milton, Todd and Julie Chrisley, David Gentile and Joseph Schwartz and the ex-Honduran president Juan Orlando Hemandez all received pardons.

He also pardoned his political allies like the more than 1500 January 6 rioters who trashed the Capitol and viciously attacked the police.

The outstanding example of lack of accountability is the failure to prosecute the circle of people around Jeffrey Epstein. The high flyers who inhabited the Epstein universe have for years escaped any prosecution or even questioning. Because of their status and position, police looked the other way. They were too big to prosecute.

It is undisputed that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were best friends for many years. To date, Trump has successfully covered up that extensive connection. No one knows exactly what secrets they shared. The Attorney General has covered for her boss. Withholding millions of files and protecting the identity of wealthy predators rather than the identity of victims has been her agenda.

The public deserves an explanation for the special treatment of Epstein collaborator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Even though she is a convicted child sex offender, the prison authorities moved her to a country club prison inconsistent with her sentence. This happened after her two day meeting with Trump’s former lawyer and now Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Logic would suggest that the more favorable prison conditions Maxwell received were in exchange for promised testimony absolving Trump of any Epstein-related crimes.

When I mentioned the bi-partisan failure of accountability I would particularly cite President Obama’s refusal to investigate or prosecute the torture that the George W. Bush administration inflicted on those deemed “enemy combatants” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama himself acknowledged that the U.S. “tortured some folks”. The torture included waterboarding, stress positions and sleep deprivation and that torture violated international law. The prohibition against torture is absolute. In justification, Obama argued we should look forward – not back.

I would say that ignoring past crimes hasn’t worked as a way to insure a more hopeful future. The failure of accountability in America has deep roots. It goes back to our societal failure to acknowledge our two great national sins – slavery and the genocide against Native Americans. All subsequent failures follow and were made possible by the larger failure.

In contrast to Germany where there has been a genuine societal soul-searching about the Holocaust, America avoids introspection. We have not had Truth and Reconciliations Commissions. Our monuments about slavery like Bryan Stevenson’s Legacy Museum and National Lynching Memorial are private affairs. The U.S. government has no memorials about its treatment of Native Americans. Our tendency is to bury dark chapters. If America was a psychiatric patient, these words from Carl Jung would apply:

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.”

If we continue the pattern of unaccountability it is hard to see how we will ever overcome the legacy which has led us to Trump’s fascist regime. Unless we get to the roots of what has led us to this debacle and offer a political alternative that speaks to the human needs of Americans, we will be likely to see a worse version of fascism in 2032 or 2036.

As someone who lived through the Vietnam War era, I always thought that war was exceptionally wrong-headed and pointless. Since Vietnam there has been a succession of American wars including the intervention in Panama, the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. I did not think there could be a stupider war than the Iraq War as that war was fought on entirely false pretenses but the Iran War is a new low. No war has had less rationale, justification or clear objective. They don’t know how to end the war either.

The Trump regime has failed to present any coherent narrative for why the Iran War is necessary. There are a laundry list of possible explanations but no one knows why this war must be fought. The war has demonstrated a disregard for civilian lives and has caused tremendous civilian casualties in Iran. Unlike George W. Bush, who at least tried to sell the Iraq War, the Trump regime doesn’t bother. This is after Trump ran for the presidency as opposing forever wars in the Middle East.

Murdering at least 170 innocent children at the Iranian girls’ elementary school is a war crime. It may have been a double tap attack. The New York Times has reported that the Tomahawk missile attack on the school was the result of a targeting mistake. Our god of war, Pete Hegseth, blesses maximum lethality. I don’t see it as different from the earlier lawless boat strikes except in Iran our military killed children. No sanitizing of this war can ever erase the sickening shame of these senseless murders.

The Trump regime is not normal. The crimes have piled up. Besides the Iran war, the January 6 insurrection, holding and deporting immigrants without due process, building gulags, killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti, wrecking our scientific/medical system, extorting universities and Big Law, using government office for personal financial gain, cash for clemency pardons and covering up the Epstein files are a start. The corruption is unprecedented. No president has cashed in on the presidency like the present occupant of the office.

In spite of that record of venality, criminality and imperialism, fight back by American elites has largely been weak and cowardly. Elites’ main goal has been protection of their money, power and status. They don’t want to rock the boat.

Right from the start of Trump 2.0, the billionaires threw in with the regime. This was a marked difference from the first Trump term when he was less embraced. Elon Musk led the way with his $277 million campaign contribution to back Trump and Republican candidates but Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg were on board too. They have been “pay to play”. And that is the stance of much of Big Business. They don’t want to lose government contracts, endanger money flow or get on Trump’s bad side. Corporate resisters are rare birds. You don’t hear criticism from the business community. They like the tax cuts.

Congress has played dead. Giving up any sense of independence, Senate leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson act like they are part of the Executive Branch. Republican leaders must be antsy about the coming deluge their Party will face in November but they are not scared or nervous enough to break from Dear Leader.

To me, the real disappointment is Democratic Party leadership, particularly Sen Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. They don’t know how to fight. They don’t call out the fascism. Loyal to their corporate funders, they want business as usual. Where is the anti-war message they should be screaming?

There are some Democrats like Bernie Sanders, AOC, Sen. Chris Murphy, Sen Chris Van Hollen and Zohran Mamdani who have stood up but so many in the Party remain silent.

The legal world has hardly distinguished itself. I would acknowledge the federal court judges who have bravely remained faithful to the rule of law but the Supreme Court is an embarrassment. John Roberts’ immunity decision will live in infamy. That was a blessing to fascism, American-style. Lawyers could be so much more forceful against the regime. Much of Big Law collaborated out of fear of losing business. When I read the NH Bar News, I look for recognition of the threat to democracy but, to date, I haven’t seen much. They too pretend normalcy.

Corporate media consolidates and threatens to eliminate dissenting voices. Stephen Colbert will be off CBS on May 21, his last show on that network. It looks like CNN will follow the example of CBS as that network looks doomed to become more Trump-friendly. The Paramount deal is an anti-trust travesty but the Trump regime doesn’t protect a competitive, diverse marketplace. They want to strangle free speech and silence voices critical of fascism and authoritarianism.

Similarly, universities like Columbia, Northwestern and Cornell caved and made deals to pay the government millions in exchange for stopping harassing investigations into DEI, admissions decisions and curriculum. There has never been a greater threat to academic freedom in the U.S. than the Trump regime. The leadership of universities made a calculation that the cost of opposition and fighting back was too great.

What has been shocking is the willingness of our elites to bend the knee to a fundamentally anti-democratic regime. They choose to accommodate in the interests of money, financial viability and continued privilege. With the creation of gulags by ICE and Border Patrol, I see no resistance or even criticism from our ruling class. They go along. In Nazi Germany, a significant segment of Big Business and conservatives thought they could control Hitler. There is no effort among elites in America to control Trump. As I write, there is speculation he may put boots on the ground in Iran, an absolutely frightening prospect.

March 28 is the next No Kings demonstrations. Organizers have said:

“The Trump Administration is trying to shred the Constitution. The No Kings movement is an unequivocal statement that we, the people, will not let that happen.”

However we can, in whatever ways we are able, American people must put a stop to this war and try and stop its funding. We also must fight the regime’s other depredations. Getting out in the street in massive numbers everywhere makes a powerful statement. This regime must be relentlessly criticized, voted out and overwhelmingly repudiated. We don’t want to see how much further down the fascist road they are willing to go.

Around twenty years ago, I had my first direct political interaction with the New Hampshire Libertarians. At the time, I was the State House lobbyist for New Hampshire Legal Assistance. Along with other consumer protection advocates, we were working on a bill which would impose a 36% APR loan cap on payday lenders. As lobbyists would do, we looked for support for the bill on the Republican side as well as the Democratic side.

To those unfamiliar with payday lending, it is a debt trap, essentially the modern form of usury. In 2003 our Legislature had approved the practice. Payday lenders offered short term loans at exorbitant interest rates.

In a typical loan, the consumer writes a personal check drawn on his or her bank account for the amount borrowed plus a fee. The fee, stated as a percentage of the check or of the loan, translates into triple-digit annual interest fees. The lender agrees not to deposit the check until the consumer’s next payday. If the consumer cannot pay in full on the next payday, the lender will rewrite a new loan with more fees attached. The Legislature then allowed lenders to roll over a loan eleven times if the consumer continues to be unable to pay the balance owed.

In 2008, the Legislature passed legislation to cap interest rates on payday and car title loans at 36% annually. New Hampshire libertarians opposed the legislation and opposed any cap. They supported usury because they considered government regulation “slow cancer”.

At the time, I was shocked that Libertarians would get behind a practice that was loan-sharking. They had no problem with someone getting ripped off. Upon further investigation, I found that position was consistent with their views opposing any interference with laissez faire capitalism. They also opposed Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps and public education.

While they pose as anti-government, the Libertarians are the best friends of the billionaire class. They are selective about opposing oppressors. If the oppressor is a public entity, they re all over it. If the oppressor is a private entity, they get a pass.

The Libertarians have been heavily funded by the the Kochs, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jeff Yass and Paul Singer. There is nothing remotely idealistic about the Libertarians. I am reminded of a quote from John Kenneth Galbraith:

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

That perfectly describes both the Libertarians and the Free State Project. They like to present as anarchists but they are conservatives devoted to their money. In running as Republicans they have been effective in hiding their true colors. Many voters don’t know they are voting for Libertarians. What percentage of House Republicans are in sync with the Libertarians? It is not a small grouping. The House Majority Leader is a Free Stater.

Among other things, the Free Staters have wanted to defund the state library, cut state aid to the State University system, eliminate the Council on the Arts and the Child Advocate office. They have promoted cutting the Department of Health and Human Services and programs that serve the poor.

They also have been trying to destroy public education. They have promoted a shadow system of education through the Education Freedom Accounts Program. The House Republican majority filed a bill that would have required public reporting of aggregate test scores of participants in the Education Freedom Accounts program. The program has siphoned off millions of dollars and it operates without accountability. The Legislature is also considering a bill that would do away with all regulation of home schooling. You have to wonder about the quality of that “learning”.

Sometimes you can tell about a political grouping by what it doesn’t say. Libertarians have nothing to say about the threat of fascism in Trump’s America, tech billionaire media consolidation, income inequality, racism, sexism and climate change. Hiding as Republicans, they ride the Trump train at a time when collaboration with that regime could not be more un-American.

More appalling is the recent statement of the NH Libertarian Party that political violence aimed at former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky and his proposal to introduce an income tax was “legitimate”. The Party actually wrote:

“..Volinsky is threatening the forced conscription of millions of hours of labor. Under libertarian ethical theory, it is perfectly permissible to kill him.”

In the fall of 2024, the Libertarian Party made posts endorsing the assassination of Vice President Kamala Harris who was then the Democratic presidential nominee.

As a democratic socialist, I am entirely at odds with the Libertarians but they have a right to their opinions. Their threat against Andru Volinsky is horrifying and they have the chutzpah to talk about it in the context of ethical theory. It makes a mockery of the word “libertarian”. Does libertarian mean we only accept our point of view? Maybe the Party needs a new name.

During the Trump years, I often have heard the phrase “the cruelty is the point”. I thought of that phrase when I heard the story of Nurul Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee who lived in Buffalo, New York. Shah Alam was found dead on the street on February 24, five days after he was left at a donut shop by Border Patrol agents.

Shah Alam was 56, nearly blind and non-English speaking. His family is Arakan Rohingya refugees. They had fled genocide in Burma (Myanmar) and came to the U.S. on Christmas Eve 2024 in search of safety and opportunity. Shah Alam was legally in the United States.

The genocide against the Muslim Rohingya people is not well-known but it was a systematic process of killings, sexual violence and destruction of villages. In 2022, the U.S. government determined that the Myanmar military had committed genocide against the Rohingyas. Shah Alam had previously worked in construction in Malaysia where he lived for ten years after fleeing his home country. He had a wife and two sons, He could not read, write or use electronic devices.

Refugee status is not easy to achieve. Applicants must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution. They must be unable or unwilling to return to their home country due to this fear. They must pass strict security screenings. It was not easy for Shah Alam (or any refugee) to obtain refugee status.

Problems for Shah Alam in the United States started in February 2025. With his health challenges, he needed a walking stick to get around. He went to a nearby shop that sold curtain rods where he made a purchase. He used the rod for balance and to help him navigate the neighborhood. He had no vision in one eye and partial blurry vision in his other eye.

Apparently he got lost and was disoriented after he went for a walk February a year ago. He sat down on a porch just as the owner of the home was letting her dog out. According to Shah Alam’s legal aid lawyer, the dog freaked out and so did Shah Alam. He came from a place where people did not keep dogs. The owner called police and she told them there was an unidentified black man in her driveway.

When the police arrived, they ordered Shah Alam to drop his curtain rods but he did not understand them. When he didn’t comply, the two officers tasered him. They then tackled him and punched him in the head repeatedly. It would appear the whole incident was a misunderstanding with police officers.

The authorities indicted Shah Alam on felony assault, burglary and criminal mischief charges. The charges were absurd over-charging but they reflect a situation that is not unusual for disabled people of color who interact with the police. There was no effort by the police to understand Shah Alam.

Instead of getting bailed out, he spent a year in custody. Considering what he did, that alone was a disproportionate travesty. His lawyer said it took him that long to negotiate a plea deal where he was certain Shah Alam wouldn’t be deported by ICE when he was released. Shah Alam pled guilty to misdemeanor charges, trespassing and possession of a weapon (the curtain rod walking stick).

The Erie County District Attorney said his office reduced charges after considering Shah Alam’s medical condition, time served and the “significant collateral consequences that would result from a felony conviction – including mandatory deportation”.

The circumstances around what happened next are contested. At the time of his release from Buffalo police custody, a Border Patrol agent drove him to an ICE facility but ICE didn’t want him. They found out he was in the country legally and he couldn’t be deported. Border Patrol had no protocol for what to do with a disabled man who didn’t speak English and who was confused and lost. Border Patrol said that on February 19 Shah Alam accepted a “courtesy ride” to a Tim Horton’s coffee shop. They said it was “a warm safe location”.

Border Patrol’s story quickly fell apart. There was a video that showed except for the drive through, Tim Horton’s had closed before Border Patrol dropped Shah Alam off on the evening of the 19th. No one in authority called Shah Alam’s family or his lawyer to explain that he had been released. There was no coordinated pickup. Surveillance footage showed him wearing orange booties issued by the jail. He was wearing a hoodie with no overcoat, not appropriate attire for the dead of winter in Buffalo.

On February 24, Shah Alam’s body was discovered on a Buffalo street six miles from the Tim Horton’s where he had been left.

Shah Alam could not use a phone, didn’t know phone numbers, couldn’t communicate in English, could barely see and was mobility-impaired. There was no attempt to reckon with his disability, his language, or his mental state. Whether it was incompetence, indifference, malice, racism or xenophobia on the part of ICE and Border Patrol, a most vulnerable man is needlessly dead.

There has been a pattern of ICE and Border Patrol releasing those they have detained in a deliberately uncaring manner. They have often released people late at night and in unfamiliar locations far from their homes after they have flown people to distant detention locations. People are released with the clothes they were wearing when picked up but ICE does not return their phones, their cash or their personal ID. They don’t provide coats in frigid weather.

In Minneapolis, locals have created an organization, Haven Watch, to help those who were detained and then released at all times of day, often in freezing weather. Haven Watch estimates 60-70% of those detained and released are U.S. citizens. The organization monitors federal detention facilities. They provide coats, transport, burner phones and help in getting people who were detained back to their loved ones. ICE and Border Patrol have not allowed phone calls for those being released. Pick up drivers might be an hour or two away.

Shah Alam’s death was entirely preventable. To call it a government failure is not enough. A duty of care was breached. This is a case study in inhumanity. Members of Congress and New York’s Attorney General Letitia James have called for state and federal investigations into what happened.