Jonathan P. Baird

I just wanted to announce that I have a forthcoming book, Defiance is beautiful, coming out soon in ebook form. Hard copy and audio book will be coming out later. Here is a little about the book:

Defiance is beautiful is a memoir about my three careers as an organizer, a legal aid lawyer and a judge. It is my story as a sixties’ activist who has tried to stay true to a vision of social change. The book
offers a hopeful perspective on overcoming adversities, personal failures and political disappointments. It critically evaluates career choices and the role of career in making social change. It also looks
at political lessons learned along the way. The book takes a hard look at failures of the left in the United States and offers a critique of why the left has been largely irrelevant as a political player. It
argues that the left needs to be less purist and far more welcoming as a movement.

Recognizing the fascist threat in America, the book argues for an aggressive, renewed democratic socialist politics that is both anti-racist and anti-sexist. The left needs a different approach that defends
multi-racial democracy, the rule of law and fights to improve the economic circumstances of all working people. Our history as a left dictates humility.

The book starts with early years growing up in the Philadelphia area. My sister, Lisa, was a mentor who played a key role in my left-wing political evolution. The anti-war movement, SDS and the
counter-culture changed me. The book traces my evolution through 9 years of labor and left organizing, a 25 year legal aid career and 16 years on the bench as a federal administrative law judge,

With a long view from the left, I advocate a Joe Hill-like “don’t mourn – organize” viewpoint. Fascism can be defeated in the United States and I have recommendations for how that will be done.

In my adult lifetime, I have lived through a number of major wars. Vietnam was the first big one. The major U.S.escalation was from 1965-1973. Then there was Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2011). There was also the first Persian Gulf war (1990-1991) and the various smaller interventions like Panama (1989), Somalia (1992-1995) and the Balkans (1995-1999).

In most of these military engagements our government tried to sell the American people on its mission. What is unique about the Iran War is the absence of any effort by the government before the war to persuade Americans of the rationale for fighting. I think this might be the first time that has happened.

President Trump campaigned on no more forever wars and yet here we are. War is usually about achieving an objective. It is not usually about killing people in another country because some of your people get killed. The Iran War is unique in having no clear purpose. This is undoubtedly the stupidest war of my lifetime.

The Trump regime is depending on the American people having no memory.. In June 2025 Trump repeatedly stated that his military “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. Obliteration was his favorite word. Trump aggressively criticized anyone who did not recognize the obliteration and when news media questioned the results he called the questioning “fake news”. For Trump the job was decisively done.

So what are we to make of the confusing hodge podge of reasons the Trump regime trots out now to justify this war? If Iran’s nuclear capability was obliterated in June 2025 how can that be a reason now, but it is what his regime falls back on.

Trump is depending on historical amnesia. He has also mentioned regime change, destroying military infrastructure and opening the Strait of Hormuz for oil traffic as possible reasons. He is obviously concerned about the political consequences of high gas prices sinking Republican fortunes.

The decision to start the war could seem like it was an impulse. Trump woke up one morning and based on his success in Venezuela decided he knew best regardless of what advisors told him. It has also been floated that he was swayed by the old war hawk Benjamin Netanyahu who has wanted this war for 40 years.

I would suggest an entirely different way of looking at the Iran War. The Iran War cannot be seen outside the broader goals of American imperialism. Since Trump came into office in his second term, there has been a sharp escalation of expansionist goals. These include a new version of the Monroe Doctrine over the Western hemisphere, the threatened annexation of Greenland, the military abduction of Venezuala’s President Nicholas Maduro with the U.S. exercising de facto control over Venezuala’s governance and oil industry and the tightened noose around Cuba.

At the same time we have the Department of Defense being renamed the Department of War. That is hardly an accident. Standing next to Trump in the Oval Office, God of War Pete Hegseth said:

“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct”.

Hegseth and MAGA see American military might sapped by wokeness. Hegseth said he inherited a “Woke Department” with “toxic ideological garbage”. He went on:

“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions, no more debris.”

Hegseth has been on the warpath against beards and fat soldiers. He has moved on to High-T: he wants to screen male service members aged 30 and above for testosterone deficiencies. This is the pursuit of a supposedly evaporated masculinity.

Since his unexpected rise to power from FOX and Friends Weekend co-host, Hegseth has presided over the multiple boat strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific killing 221 people. Targeting civilian suspect boats outside an active armed conflict constitutes extrajudicial executions. All of Hegseth’s testosterone and machismo don’t make these murders less of a crime.

Hegseth also began the military campaign in Iran with an airstrike in February that hit a primary school killing over 120 children and 26 teachers, If he had a conscience, he would never be able to sleep again. Trump and Hegseth should be in the dock at The Hague for that war crime alone. Everyday of the Trump regime explaining its war policies is a contradiction of the day before.

The Iran war is part of a resurgent imperialism.It is like a revamped 19th century gunboat diplomacy where threats of military force coerce weaker nations into submission. Problem is, it is not working with Iran and we now have another forever war. I expect Trump advisors are telling him to declare victory and leave Iran. One can only pray he doesn’t deepen the quagmire and send troops into battle.

Listening to the Trump regime talk about the war reminds me of the old term from Vietnam – credibility gap. They lowered the recorded U.S. military deaths from 18 to 14. Military officials said the four recent deaths were removed because they happened after Trump had declared a ceasefire in April. I mean, really.

As a veteran of the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War, I think it is time for a new anti-war movement. The senselessness of the Iran War could not be more apparent.

After the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year, ICE adopted a lower profile. The agency was determined to continue its round-up of immigrants. They just wanted to do it more surreptitiously with less public drama. The fact that the Good and Pretti murders were not remotely justified caused no ICE soul searching.

President Trump replaced his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullin but the fundamental goals stayed the same. The goal has remained ramping-up mass deportations. Trump and his senior advisor Stephen Miller have placed unrelenting pressure on ICE officers to maximize their arrest numbers. ICE has been arresting roughly 2000 people a day. The overwhelming majority of those arrested have no criminal record. These arrests are about double the numbers they were arresting earlier this year.

Because they typically do not have search warrants for people’s homes, ICE has been relying on vehicle stops. The two recent killings by ICE agents in Texas and Maine need to be understood in this context. ICE is trying to meet the very high Trump/Miller quotas.

On July 7 in Houston, ICE officers shot and killed 52 year old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker and small business owner, who was stopped while he was on his way to work. He was driving his crew members to a job site. Salgado Araujo had lived in Houston for 35 years and he had no criminal record. He was in the process of trying to obtain legal status.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that Salgado Araujo was targeted by mistake and that ICE agents were searching for a different person. None of the agents involved were wearing body cameras at the time of Araujo’s killing.

ICE’s story about what happened in this incident is familiar. They said Salgado Araujo “attempted to ram an officer” with his truck. They said ICE shot the man in self-defense. This was the exact same story they used with Renee Good.

Three surviving passengers dispute ICE’s account, including the victim’s younger brother. They all said Salgado Araujo did not use his vehicle as a weapon. They also said no agent was positioned in front of Araujo’s car. The lawyer for two of the witnesses has been worried that ICE would pressure his clients into self-deporting.

It is impossible to know what was going through Lorenzo Araujo’s mind when this happened. He may have believed the armed men in unmarked vehicles who pursued him were criminals. Araujo’s family said they had discussed what to do if stopped by ICE: remain calm, sign nothing, and ask for his lawyer. When armed men in unmarked vehicles approach with no identification how is someone supposed to recognize they are law enforcement?

On July 13, ICE killed again. An ICE agent, David Brouillette, shot a 26 year old Colombian immigrant Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in the head, Guerrero worked two jobs to support his wife and his 3 year old daughter. Guerrero lived in Biddeford Maine, a small city south of Portland. He was in the United States legally and he was authorized to work. He had worked both as a food delivery driver and a late night cleaner at a veterinary clinic.

Guerrero was not the intended target of ICE’s arrest warrant. Homeland Security Secretary Mullin confirmed to Maine Senator Angus King that Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant. Brouillette fatally shot Guerrero through his windshield after claiming he feared for his life. He said Guerrero tried to flee. Witnesses said Guerrero’s final words were “I tried to stop”. Again ICE agents were not wearing body cameras.

Since the killing, information has come out about the shooter. He was an Army veteran who struggled with severe mental health issues. He had a history of extremely violent behavior including multiple attacks on women. His own family members told the Associated Press that he should never have been given a badge and gun. Somehow this individual made it through a vetting process.

Initially after these two murders, Homeland Security Secretary Mullins sent out a directive to ICE officers on the street telling them to no longer attempt to pull over suspects in cars. After a furious response from MAGA hardliners, Trump issued a retraction on his social media.

“We CANNOT give up one fo ICE’s most important and effective crime fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing into the criminal’s hands.”

Trump was afraid of looking weak to his base.

So just to clarify: ICE has acknowledged it shot two men dead. Neither man was their intended target. They hunted and racially profiled these men even though it was a case of mistaken identity. At the same time, they claim their agents are beyond prosecution. They show no interest in investigating any possibility of wrongdoing by their agents. Stephen Miller claims ICE officers have immunity no matter their crimes.

It is not clear that lawyers for the victims could make a case either criminally or civilly for the victims given the sad and racist state of the law. The Supreme Court has left it up to Congress to determine if federal officers like ICE can be held liable for constitutional violations. Maybe Congress could act to address the out-of-control nature of ICE but any action by our present do-nothing Congress seems beyond unlikely.

ICE is hardly normal law enforcement. ICE’s purpose is to terrorize brown-skinned immigrant communities. Their actions are more akin to a fascist gestapo than any kind of legitimate police force..They murder innocents with impunity.. They also disappear people with no due process. At least 52 immigrants have died in ICE custody since the start of Trump’s second term. Immigration officials have shot and killed 10 individuals since the crackdown began.

The track record of ICE is entirely inconsistent with rule of law. By its behavior, the agency has forfeited its right to continue. It must be abolished. If the Trump regime takes further actions against our democracy before the upcoming election, it is not far fetched to imagine that ICE could be used as a secret police for a totalitarian regime. The pieces are already in place for that.

After the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year, ICE adopted a lower profile. The agency was determined to continue its round-up of immigrants. They just wanted to do it more surreptitiously with less public drama. The fact that the Good and Pretti murders were not remotely justified caused no ICE soul searching.

President Trump replaced his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullin but the fundamental goals stayed the same. The goal has remained ramping-up mass deportations. Trump and his senior advisor Stephen Miller have placed unrelenting pressure on ICE officers to maximize their arrest numbers. ICE has been arresting roughly 2000 people a day. The overwhelming majority of those arrested have no criminal record. These arrests are about double the numbers they were arresting earlier this year.

Because they typically do not have search warrants for people’s homes, ICE has been relying on vehicle stops. The two recent killings by ICE agents in Texas and Maine need to be understood in this context. ICE is trying to meet the very high Trump/Miller quotas.

On July 7 in Houston, ICE officers shot and killed 52 year old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker and small business owner, who was stopped while he was on his way to work. He was driving his crew members to a job site. Salgado Araujo had lived in Houston for 35 years and he had no criminal record. He was in the process of trying to obtain legal status.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that Salgado Araujo was targeted by mistake and that ICE agents were searching for a different person. None of the agents involved were wearing body cameras at the time of Araujo’s killing.

ICE’s story about what happened in this incident is familiar. They said Salgado Araujo “attempted to ram an officer” with his truck. They said ICE shot the man in self-defense. This was the exact same story they used with Renee Good.

Three surviving passengers dispute ICE’s account, including the victim’s younger brother. They all said Salgado Araujo did not use his vehicle as a weapon. They also said no agent was positioned in front of Araujo’s car. The lawyer for two of the witnesses has been worried that ICE would pressure his clients into self-deporting.

It is impossible to know what was going through Lorenzo Araujo’s mind when this happened. He may have believed the armed men in unmarked vehicles who pursued him were criminals. Araujo’s family said they had discussed what to do if stopped by ICE: remain calm, sign nothing, and ask for his lawyer. When armed men in unmarked vehicles approach with no identification how is someone supposed to recognize they are law enforcement?

On July 13, ICE killed again. An ICE agent, David Brouillette, shot a 26 year old Colombian immigrant Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in the head, Guerrero worked two jobs to support his wife and his 3 year old daughter. Guerrero lived in Biddeford Maine, a small city south of Portland. He was in the United States legally and he was authorized to work. He had worked both as a food delivery driver and a late night cleaner at a veterinary clinic.

Guerrero was not the intended target of ICE’s arrest warrant. Homeland Security Secretary Mullin confirmed to Maine Senator Angus King that Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant. Brouillette fatally shot Guerrero through his windshield after claiming he feared for his life. He said Guerrero tried to flee. Witnesses said Guerrero’s final words were “I tried to stop”. Again ICE agents were not wearing body cameras.

Since the killing, information has come out about the shooter. He was an Army veteran who struggled with severe mental health issues. He had a history of extremely violent behavior including multiple attacks on women. His own family members told the Associated Press that he should never have been given a badge and gun. Somehow this individual made it through a vetting process.

Initially after these two murders, Homeland Security Secretary Mullins sent out a directive to ICE officers on the street telling them to no longer attempt to pull over suspects in cars. After a furious response from MAGA hardliners, Trump issued a retraction on his social media.

“We CANNOT give up one fo ICE’s most important and effective crime fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing into the criminal’s hands.”

Trump was afraid of looking weak to his base.

So just to clarify: ICE has acknowledged it shot two men dead. Neither man was their intended target. They hunted and racially profiled these men even though it was a case of mistaken identity. At the same time, they claim their agents are beyond prosecution. They show no interest in investigating any possibility of wrongdoing by their agents. Stephen Miller claims ICE officers have immunity no matter their crimes.

It is not clear that lawyers for the victims could make a case either criminally or civilly for the victims given the sad and racist state of the law. The Supreme Court has left it up to Congress to determine if federal officers like ICE can be held liable for constitutional violations. Maybe Congress could act to address the out-of-control nature of ICE but any action by our present do-nothing Congress seems beyond unlikely.

ICE is hardly normal law enforcement. ICE’s purpose is to terrorize brown-skinned immigrant communities. Their actions are more akin to a fascist gestapo than any kind of legitimate police force..They murder innocents with impunity.. They also disappear people with no due process. At least 52 immigrants have died in ICE custody since the start of Trump’s second term. Immigration officials have shot and killed 10 individuals since the crackdown began.

The track record of ICE is entirely inconsistent with rule of law. By its behavior, the agency has forfeited its right to continue. It must be abolished. If the Trump regime takes further actions against our democracy before the upcoming election, it is not far fetched to imagine that ICE could be used as a secret police for a totalitarian regime. The pieces are already in place for that.

When the Soviet Union and the Eastern European bloc countries collapsed between 1989 and 1991, most people believed it was near the end time for the communist regimes. Then there was still China and Cuba but China was moving in a capitalist direction (whatever it called itself) and Cuba was struggling to survive. I think it is fair to say the remaining remnants of communism were on the ropes.

After 9/11, for America, the threat of Al Qaeda and the Taliban replaced any communist threat. Over the last 20 years or so, a Middle East focus continued. We had the Iraq War and now the Iran War.

Cuba is a pale shadow of its former self during the Fidel Castro years with the country virtually on life support. Power outages are a regular fact of life there.

So what are we to make of Doanld Trump’s invoking the dangers of communism like it is the 1950’s? There is no regime out there remotely like the Soviets in the 1950’s but he has been calling everyone who disagrees with him a communist. For Trump that is like every Democrat. It doesn’t matter if you are Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders.

I think the name-calling is Trump’s way of changing the conversation away from his failure to address affordability and the economy. He ran on that. He said he was the only one who could fix the economy because he was supposedly such a great businessman.

As he has made clear, fixing the economy is not his priority. His mission is self-looting, not doing anything for working class Americans. The communism talk is a cover for him stealing the American people blind.

Probably his advisors told him that attacking communists plays well with his MAGA base. Clearly he believes this is a strong line of attack that has worked in the past. He added that the communists want to get rid of religion. The name-calling distracts from his refusal to release the Epsten files. Trump has been desperate to avoid any reckoning with that.

The use of the term “communist” reminds me of his attacks on Antifa. He is creating a boogeyman that doesn’t exist. Of course there are millions of people who participated in the No Kings demonstrations who identify as anti-fascists but no one I know is in any Antifa.

Fascism thrives on conspiracy theories and the communists, like Antifa, serve Trump’s purpose of distraction. There is nothing rational about what Trump is doing in creating an essentially mythological enemy.

I do think the communism accusation is related to the ascendance of democratic socialism in the Democratic Party as reflected in the victories of Zohran Mamdani and other progressive Democratic candidates. Trump is red-baiting Democrats who have an economic populist message because he finds that political tendency threatening.

For anyone who wants to have a serious conversation about democratic socialism, it is worth pointing out Trump’s guilt by association tactic. The differences between communism and democratic socialism are vast.

Democratic socialists oppose economic inequality but they believe in democracy, free elections and the rule of law. Communist societies have a history of degenerating into one-party dictatorships where a new party elite rules over the masses. Trump has his own agenda increasing confusion about such distinctions. He lies to smear democratic socialists.

It is hard not to think he is promoting a new McCarthyism where everyone on the left gets slandered. It has been almost 80 years since McCarthyism and there is value in recalling what happened then.

A demagogic senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, used unsubstantiated allegations to accuse citizens of being communists. He had no evidence but he savaged innocent people who leaned left and ruined the lives of thousands. He falsely claimed to hold a specific list of communists who worked in the State Department. He subjected witnesses to bullying interrogations before his Senate Committee. He replaced any presumption of innocence with a presumption of guilt that had to be disproven.

McCarthy aggressively pursued others in the federal government, Hollywood and academia. Getting called before his committee became a career-ending experience. Hundreds of school teachers and college professors were subjected to blacklisting and firing for allegedly being subversive. McCarthy chilled the entire academic world. People became afraid to voice any type of dissenting opinion for fear of adverse consequences.

Donald Trump’s mentor, Roy Cohn, was McCarthy’s chief counsel and a prime architect of that guilt by association witch-hunt. I expect Trump learned red-baiting from his mentor. He uses fear and lies to scare people away from popular democratic socialist ideas like Medicare for all and taxing the billionaire class.

Robert Reich says Trump is using the communist ploy because he has run out of cards to play. Trump’s schtick is tired after ten years on replay. Reich accurately writes:

“He can’t talk about the economy because prices continue to rise faster than wages, which means most Americans are getting poorer. He can’t talk about foreign policy because his war in Iran has become a debacle, his tariffs an utter failure and he obviously hasn’t settled the war in Ukraine on “day one”. He can’t talk about immigration because his raids and mass deportations have become so unpopular.”

Considering how vicious and damaging the original MaCarthyism was, there must be no repetition. Calling people communist is low but such lies are par for the Trump course. This time it is not going to work.

Any close observer of American elections has to note the frequent use of the allegation of voter fraud. In the Trump era, it has been a Republican staple. If Trump doesn’t win, the instant response on the Republican side is “the election was rigged”. Republicans are always asked to produce proof of the fraud and they never can. Extensive research reveals voter fraud is very rare.

The lack of proof never stops Republicans from repeating baseless charges. In 2020, the Republican Party filed more than 60 lawsuits in state and federal court challenging the election results. All the lawsuits were ultimately dismissed or rejected due to lack of credible evidence.

The widespread assertion of voter fraud is being used to justify voter suppression. It is aimed at undermining future elections. Trump wants to drive down the vote because of his own unpopularity which is demonstrated in every poll. It would appear he believes voter suppression is entirely to his political advantage. He must think that if he can hold the vote down, Republicans will be able to eke out a win in Congress.

While we must protect the integrity of elections, something else is going on here. I don’t think Donald Trump cares about any other Republican candidates but I do think he remains concerned about a future Democratic House and Senate investigating his criminal activities and his unprecedented corruption.

He has moved on multiple fronts to monkey with elections. His latest obsession has been passage of the SAVE America ACT (another Orwellian name). Trump refused to sign a bi-partisan housing bill because Congress hasn’t passed the SAVE Act. That Act has different versions but all feature drastic new proof-of-citizenship requirements. Trump doesn’t have the votes to pass it yet he tweets about it constantly on his social media.

Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in state and federal elections. It is a federal and state crime to do that. Yet MAGA floats endless conspiracy theories about non-citizen voting. The fuel behind these MAGA conspiracy theories is racism.

The U.S. Constitution gives the Executive Branch no authority over elections. The Founders wisely gave control to the states to run elections. Yet, early in his second term, Trump wanted the federal government to take over the running of elections. He signed an Executive Order in March 2025 seeking broad authority over elections. That Executive Order has been blocked by courts.

The Trump regime demanded voter files from states, including New Hampshire. Our New Hampshire Federal Court ruled the Department of Justice request for unredacted files was invalid. The Court found the DOJ failed to show any compelling need for the records. The DOJ has sued at least 30 states to try and obtain voter files. It has yet to win one of these cases. 16 states have voluntarily turned over their files.

The U.S. Postal Service actually has proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that did not turn over their voter rolls to the federal government. Almost immediately, a federal judge blocked the rule.

The Trump regime had sought to tighten voting restrictions through a Mississippi lawsuit that challenged the state’s policy of accepting mail and absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but arriving after. The Supreme Court ruled such ballots could be counted. Without evidence, Trump has asserted mail-in ballots are vulnerable to fraud. Statistics show late-arriving postal ballots skew Democratic. More than a dozen states allow mail-in ballots to be received after Election Day, including California, Texas, Nevada and Virginia.

There has also been the Republican initiative around mid-decade redistricting. Facing mid-term losses, the Trump regime pushed red states to re-draw congressional maps to try and save their majority. Both sides responded. Partisan gerrymandering undermines faith in any fair process. With an assist from the Supreme Court, partisan gerrymanders have been allowed even though this has been a thin cover for allowing racist gerrymanders.

Maybe most troubling is the MAGA refusal to accept election results. It is forgotten now but Trump created an Election Integrity Commission in 2016 when he won the election. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton but he claimed that was due to three million illegal voters. That commission disbanded finding no proof of wrongful voting.

Now Trump pursues a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election he lost. Earlier this year, we saw the FBI executing a search warrant and seizing materials from Fulton County Georgia with then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard looking on. Georgia had conducted a hand recount. According to MS NOW, the FBI leadership is putting resources into what it calls a “priority” investigation related to the 2020 Georgia election. FBI Director Kash Patel is ordering personnel from all field offices to participate.

This is madness. The 2020 election was the most scrutinized election in American history yet Trump remains determined to uncover fraud that doesn’t exist. He stocks his administration with election deniers and purges FBI agents and government lawyers who investigated January 6. We have the absurd spectacle of the DOJ and FBI wasting precious resources going after phantom crimes that exist only in the imagination of Donald Trump.

He remains the only president who has sought to overturn a decided election result. And, you have to ask, for what? He continues to sow doubt on all elections. None of this goes in a good direction. All the schemes are about Trump self-preservation in the face of a fed-up electorate.

It is hard to predict what is next but I think it is a safe bet we can expect more monkey wrenches in any normal election process. It would be out of character for the Republicans to abide by any process they expect to lose.