Tag: news

Redistricting America

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It is one of those debates that has increased with America’s social division. It all deals with the US House of Representatives and the 435 seats contained within the House. A President is dependent on the house to pass legislation, budgets etc..It was one of the points the founding fathers had in creating a system of checks and balances. Redistricting occurs every 10 years in practice. Usually, the party in power in the House of Representatives redraws the map to its political advantage. For Republicans luck has been in their corner as they have controlled the House at these critical moments. In this day and age, where we can track votes by individual household, you can be very specific and exact in your drawing. As America has become more polarized and politicized this redrawing has become more important and more contentious.

Which brings us to Texas. We know the President is always watching the polls. In fact he is always watching the television. When poll numbers come out that make the November midterms look unfavorable. He knows without control of the House his agenda falls apart. He panics. He loves executive power, frankly just power. He calls Texas Governor Gregg Abbott. He says, let’s redraw Texas now. This way they can secure an additional 5 seats in Congress and secure Republican rule. Plain and simple this is power at work. Governor Abbott appearing very weak, simply rolls over and does the Presidents bidding.

The follow up will be felt in California and New York. California Governor Gavin Newsom has been quick to respond. Partly because he sees that he has to and partly because it affirms his own Presidential aspirations. This could also spill over to New York. The danger seems obvious. A domino effect of states redistricting to favor one party. We could rig a system of Blue only states and Red only states. It would be the beginning of the end to American democracy. Going by current electoral map it would put Blue at 276, so a razor thins margin. For those counting you need 270 to carry house. This however is not a world we would want to live in. It would lead to loss of freedoms. It is also the delicate balance of how much do you want to empower the states versus the federal government.

The ego of power has been a human weakness for centuries. At its roots has been the desire for a man to rule over the lives of others. To determine what there purpose shall be. What their opinions shall fall in line with. To determine their level of happiness. To determine their fate. To embolden the cult of personality. Yet time and time again someone or some group figures out how to manipulate the general population into complacency. Right now in the US it seems as if we are just watching. There are few protests. A lot of social outrage, but this has not led to any action. In America we are complacent. We are very individual. As long as something does not interfere with our daily lives, we take little notice. This is how dictatorship works. It loves silence. Enrage your supporters. Hitler did this to perfection in his run up to absolute power in Germany. Though those supporters may be in the minority, they seemingly capture the day.

This is a moment, frankly there have been many of late, of what do we stand for as a nation? The President takes an oath to the Constitution. Our military swears an oath to the Constitution. In our current environment there seem a strong desire to skirt the Constitution. In order to appear to get things done we bend the rules. In recent times that has been through the executive order. The effort to redistrict is not about democracy but a plain and simple power grab. Yet most of the public remains silent. Silence has consequences, I am not sure when the country will wake up to what is happening in America. If and when it does will it be too late? Redistricting used to be a procedural process but over time has become a political one. If we turn a blind eye, the America we wake up in will be very different. It will not be the one we have known.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann August 29th 2025

Epstein’s Political Inconvenience

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I guess I am a bit pissed that this Epstein controversy is even an issue. Not because I believe the sitting President was not involved, but because I believed he was involved. To bring everyone up to speed this has become a big issue over the past couple of weeks. Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, said she would release the list of Jeffrey Epstein clients. It was sitting on her desk. Then suddenly there was an about face and there is nothing to see here. No list and Epstein committed suicide back in 2019. To set the table I am going to focus on the former not the latter. I guess the question is we have known all about this for some time (like decades). Nothing was done, many stood on the sidelines and remained silent. Yet when political opportunity arises it is time for a inquest.

The crimes committed by Epstein were numerous and documented. There was an excellent series on Netflix and an even better book by Julie K Brown “Perversion of Justice”. We have a court case brought against his former lover, lead recruiter and best friend Ghislaine Maxwell. In the end leading to her conviction. What bugs me the most is the now of this all. We all know that Epstein was allowed to operate for years. Developing a system of recruiting young under aged girls to his predatory lair. We know he was busted in 2007 in a FBI led investigation. Only to have then Florida Attorney General Alexander Acosta agree to a plea deal. The victims were not notified of this plea deal. Why? We can only guess at this point. Epstein had been operating his recruitment of young, under aged girls for a decade. Based on flight records, we know he had been transporting these girls between multiple locations. These include his Island in the Caribbean, New York, South Florida, New Mexico, and Paris. Alexander Acosta would later be appointed Labor Secretary by Trump. He would resign less than two weeks after the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein. All I can remember was him standing at the podium during his press conference with his wife and two young daughters. What was he thinking?

We know long lists of people who attended his parties, vacationed at his island. These are very wealthy and powerful individuals. Understandably who do not want their reputations ruined. The air around the ultra wealthy is thick with “I am successful and therefore should be perceived as good”. The fallacy of modern aged wealth, but maybe it has just always been that way. The list is made trick as it has no party affiliation just dollar and power affiliation. Names like Clinton, Trump, Gates, Decaprio, Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, etc…The thing about wealthy folks is they have PR people who are focused on maintaining their saintly image. Obviously association with Epstein goes against that image.

The current state of politics is to rip whoever is in power down. I find it like throwing darts at a board to see what sticks. In Trump’s world the Epstein issue has found the board and stuck. The MAGA supporters are even pissed about this. Democrats are weighing in saying, “release the files we need the truth”. It seems convenient. Trump says he his relationship with Epstein ended years ago. Which it did. Problem is by then he had spent too much time with Epstein. There is video evidence all over YouTube. If anyone had the guts they would have torn this down long ago. Instead we are left with vague requests and answers by a bunch of cowards. On both sides of the political aisle. We are a country who historically prides ourselves on the rule of law. The right for justice. It would seem it only goes so far.

Virginia Giuffre committed suicide this year on April 25, 2025. She was one of the leaders in the case against Jeffrey Epstein. She had the courage to try and take Epstein down. She originally was recruited while working at Mar-a-Lago. She would be trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell, which included the now famous photo with Prince Andrew. She would escape Epstein, fall in love, have three kids and live in Australia. In the end life’s horrific scars would be too much. Virginia is but one of many girls who were trafficked, who were raped, who were dehumanized. Many of their stories remain hidden for fear of coming forward. To a bunch of educated, wealthy elite they were merely toys. The only fear these elite have is for the broader public to know what they really are, pedophiles.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann July 22, 2025

The Erosion of Trust in Government

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It seems not a day goes by without some cry or anger over fiscal government responsibility. Concerns about government overreach and visions or delusions of a deep state are frequent. People seem to have lost faith in their federal and local governments. It’s interesting in that the US Constitution established our republic. It created the three branches of government. It allowed its citizens to vote for representation in the government. It revolutionized politics on a global scale. For many a decades their was a country enamored with its Constitution. At times it seemed more popular than the Bible. The preamble to the Constitution provided the foundation, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” This is arguably one of the most eloquent phrases in political history (though AI seems to think this is a long sentence and needs to be changed). Yet today this very concept of government seems under threat.

When Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980, it signified a shift in American politics. The conservative movement had found a home. A drumbeat beat of fiscal and social responsibility was heard loud and clear for decades. During the Reagan administration a key piece of legislation was put to rest. The fairness doctrine was allowed to expire in 1987. It was deemed not necessary anymore. The Fairness Doctrine was put in place by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1949. It was implemented for holders of broadcast licenses. When they presented controversial issues, it ensured that viewpoints of both sides were presented. Following its demise in 1987 a whole host of shows appeared expressing a singular point of view. Radio was the initial frontier. The early star of this new format was conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Rush would spend his entire career playing the oldest trick in the book. Your problems are not your fault they are someone else fault. In Nazi Germany it was the Jews. In modern America it was your government. He would be loud on radio. Then tell of the evils of the democratic party, sewing the seeds of division in America. When a national healthcare program was created by Barack Obama he could not have been angrier. A government program was a corrupt program in his view. He would be nationally syndicated on radio from 1988 until his death in 2021. His influence lives on,

The legacy of Rush, love him or hate him, is still being felt in this country. This has just metastasized in the current political environment. There among many is a loathing and hatred of government. The government wastes our tax dollars. It is inefficient. Federal and State bureaucrats simply punch the clock and collect a paycheck. They are deemed lazy by many in the public. Judgments are made about people that most people do not even know. It has gotten worse of late as we now have fear of a deep state. A government working against its people. In the decades of the internet one thing has become clear. If you can make a compelling conspiracy theory, the world wide web is a phenomenal platform to make your voice heard. These ideas, and some may have a shred of truth, have grown louder. As the old saying goes, “if you say something loud enough and long enough eventually it becomes truth”.

In the end this question of government ineptitude is a question of trust. Can a republic survive in a nation where faith in government institutions has fallen? The recent creation of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has shown just not the largeness of government. It has shown the challenge of shedding government programs. Should it be done with a chainsaw or a scalpel? During the Clinton Administration the scalpel approach was tried. Then Vice President Al Gore was assigned the task of reducing government spend. The approach was simple. As people retired, a simple question was asked: “Do we need to replace their work? Or should we reassign their work?”. It was the last time the US Government had a surplus. In 2001 it was $128 billion. The scalpel approach was clearly not the sole reason for the surplus, but it helped. Fast forward to DOGE and we did the chainsaw approach. In some areas it is just cruel. Slashing foreign aid to African nations will result in millions of deaths. We have slashed agencies like FEMA with a desire to push recovery down to the states. That is hard to accept. You do not know when a catastrophe will strike. You also do not know how many billions will be needed to recover. Most states lack the girth and financial resources to handle these catastrophes. As we spiral downwards trust is being replaced with confusion which leads to anarchy.

One question we seem not to be able to address is “what do we want our government to be”? We know the four biggest ticket items on our government tab are as follow: 1) Defense Spending 2) Healthcare (Medicaid and Medicare) 3) Social Security 4) Interest on Debt. Government does a lot of other things for its citizens. One of the great achievements of the United States is our globally recognized university system. The federal government provides grants to universities who do research on areas like infectious diseases. This then eventually makes it into the private sector spurring economic growth. The PhD’s who lead this field work in conjunction with the CDC. A lot of knowledge is exchanged and shared. This would appear to be a good thing and it is. In today’s conspiracy world many find it wrong and so they look to defund. In the wake of the massive flooding in Texas we hear discussion around funding for the National Weather Service. In today’s climate fueled world I would argue that their importance is growing not shrinking. The US Government is responsible for the infrastructure in the United States. However we do a infrastructure bill which creates jobs and updates roads, bridges, waterways etc…many call it waste. It is hard to achieve greatness when the countries infrastructure is falling apart. This makes it resemble the third world more than the first world. These are just a few examples but their are dozens more agencies that do critical work on behalf of the American people.

I think in the end we all believe we want a more efficient government. We also believe we do not want our healthcare placed in the hands of the private sector. We want our veterans to be taken care of after having served. We do want retirement benefits. We want a strong defense. When tragedy occurs on a massive scale we want help from our government. We want to be able to have good roads to drive on. Everyone should have access to the internet, no matter where you live. We want research to create a cure for cancer. To help prevent the next COVID outbreak. To make sure everyone has equal access to a good education. We want a strong energy infrastructure so we all have access to basic amenities. To make sure whatever your faith you will not be persecuted. Government is a key partner in all of these areas.

We want our country to be a beacon of hope, a light on a hill. We were a brave new idea when the constitution was completed in 1783. We gave the people at the bottom a say in their government. A vote by a plumber was equal to a vote of the wealthiest American. We dared people to dream big. We dared people to fail. The American dream was built on the idea that one could achieve a better life. One could dream for their children that they would be educated. That each person had the right to pursue their own path to success no matter how they define it. The lights of the future shown brightly. If that light should ever go out, this country will be less, the world will be less.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann July 14, 2025

America’s Emotional Turmoil and Its Consequences

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America is a diseased nation. Seemingly stumbling through a belief in its own greatness, while tearing itself apart with internal strife. We have been on a journey to the least of human emotions, one built on anger, envy and greed, to name but a few. We find comfort in playing the victim, while holding others accountable for our failings. Rather then helping ourselves we find ourselves desiring punishment for those who have failed us, based more by perception than reality. We have turned on ourselves. That is a reason why many say in this day of age that the greatest threat to American democracy does not come from external forces but internal corrosion.

The Cold War was in hindsight a world structured on order. You had two camps, the Soviet camp and the American camp. There is something to be said for order, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys. Identifying with one camp or the other. It provides a sense of belief a sense of purpose. When that order is disrupted a slow painful descent into chaos ensues, and it is not just the loser who spirals downward, the winner also struggles to define a new role, a new world order. Over time that leading position begins to erode and eventually as in all good stories a challenger arises. This sums up the American plight since the end of the Cold War.

Now in seemingly quick fashion things are quickly unraveling. We can point to several news items. We have the congressional hearings on January 6 and then the pardoning of everyone who was convicted of crimes on January 6th. White Nationalism now has a place in our political discourse. The Supreme court has acted out of vengeance. We have Russia and Ukraine at war now for three years. We now have Israel destroying Hamas while killing tens of thousands on Palestinians’ living in Gaza. Now Israel and Iran are at war, though as of this writing we have a “temporary” cease fire. As we watch a middle east that we ae worried is in danger of spiraling out of control. We have global economies that have been crippled as trade wars rage. We have a nations whose most compelling emotion is hatred. Hatred is not sustainable, it eventually has to burn everything in its path.

America was founded on an ideal. The rights of the individual. The right of self determination. We built a republic based on the constitution. We turned our backs on monarchies. We were one of the worlds’ first attempts in a democracy for the people, by the people. Along the way we stumbled. First not addressing one of humanities’ greatest crimes: slavery. Then addressing it in the bloodiest war in US History: The American Civil War. It however did not end there as it was followed by a century of Jim Crow laws, leading to the civil rights movement and the bloody images of Selma, Alabama. We also did tremendous things particularly in private industry creating some of the largest well known brands in the world from Standard Oil, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company to today’s Tech Titans like Microsoft, Apple Facebook etc..We launched men to the moon. We provided aid to third world countries combating some of the worlds greatest diseases such as AIDS. As much as Donald Trump detested COVID-19 it was the United States that came up with vaccines to stem the tide

Yet despite the great aspects of the US we have now decided to go down an isolationist path in our foreign policy and seek to solve our perceived problems by looking inward. One thing that seems clear in recent history is we have come to believe we are a burdened nation due to heavy handed tax policies. Even though among developed countries (OECD) we rank 31st out of 38, indicating a lower tax burden. But corporate America loves to cry and to pay lobbyists to get Washington DC to bend to their will. On the flip side the US has amassed a huge deficit (spending versus revenues). In 2024 the US deficit was $1.8 trillion. This is down from 2020 when it was over $3 trillion, but still I think many would say not sustainable. We are in the process of passing a bill that by all accounts will only increase the deficit. A bill designed to appease the very wealthy while conning the lower income and poor households into believing the bill is for their benefit while it strips away their healthcare. Rush Limbaugh must be smiling from hell.

America has dissolved, certainly in my lifetime, to one of outright hostility among its citizens. If you are on the right you are a fascist conjuring up name like Hitler and Mussolini and if you are on the left you are a communist conjuring up names like Stalin and Mao. I would probably say most who throw out these allegations are very poor students of history. At the turn of the century Fascism was coming into view. Beginning in 1922 with the rise of Benito Mussolini and the March on Rome. It would gain significant momentum with the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. I think we all know the rest of history. Communism would launch in 1917 in Russia with the Russian Revolution and the first attempt at a communist state in history. There are really two sides to communism. One was the economic policies where the state controlled all aspects of industry and set forth 5 year economic plans. The second was the Party as the one entity that controlled government. The first proved ineffective and was crushed by the free market policies of the west. The second is still practiced in China today and love it or hate the Chinese economy is performing very well. Many citizens have risen out of poverty. This name calling without historical context is rather vile and is in no way helpful to the political dialog in the US, Once you go down that rabbit hole it is hard to come back up. Columnist David Brooks calls this explosive distrust “It’s not that I think your ideas are wrong, I think your ideas are illegitimate”. When you are in this phase there is no conversation or intellectual thought to be had.

At the start of this discussion I mentioned the innate American belief in our greatness. America has always believed in its unique place in history. We have the largest economy in the world with only China being in the ball park in terms of size (US $30.5 Trillion, China $19.2 Trillion Germany $4.7 Trillion). We have the largest and most well funded military in the world. With all this going for us why are we playing the victim? Why do we have a campaign slogan called Make America Great Again? The slogan implies we are not great, so who is better than us? Every year we seem to slide on the happiness scale, the Scandinavian countries seem to be alternating first place every year. Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost confidence, not in the numbers (GDP) or our power (Military). We have lost confidence in our ability to achieve the American dream. Listening to younger generations the idea of owning a home already seems out of reach. The average age of first time home buyers had increased to 38. When I bought a house in 1995 the average age was 29 and at the time I was 29!

What comes next? Where do we go from here? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel or will we prefer to wade more into darkness? I cannot offer hope for a brighter future as I see the noose of technological progress tightening. Despite some rosy employment reports I view that as more a blip. We tend to view success by the performance of the stock market. It is apparent the market is just for the really wealthy who play in it. About 61% of Americans do not have a secondary education and jobs have fled the country and technology is automating manufacturing that it is pointless to try and bring it back. What happens when people get desperate? They become irrational, violent and susceptible to conspiracy theories (and we have some great ones such as QANON, Vaccine denial, etc…). We have heard whispers of civil war, though that still seems far fetched, the mere fact some our thinking along those lines is concerning. Can we ever have a government that acts like it is functioning? In the short term I do not see that happening. But in the long term I see a younger generation with a different set of values. One not so rooted in money and material items. One that believes the earth is suffering and want to help. We can cling our hope to them to restore a dialog and discourse that will be productive rather than vindictive. Lets hope for that

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann July 3, 2025

The ICE Age

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When the Trump campaign ran on the promise of fear and deporting every illegal immigrant back to wherever, I think most Americans had an idea the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) existed. I think they also knew that it could not handle the workload given to them. It should also be noted they do not just handle immigration. They also handle customs, trade and border control. All these tariffs are in their domain. By most current estimates there are between 11 to 13 million illegal immigrants in the United States. In this day and age you have to check every fact that is thrown your way. A number thrown out is 21 Million illegal immigrants came in under Biden. Which if you run through the numbers and do basic math is ridiculous. That would mean 17,123 illegal immigrants per day. Not to mention most of those would be on border states namely – Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. This would mean right across the border somewhere you would have a settlement of over 1 million people in some camp. I have yet to see that on the news. Year ago, during the George W Bush administration, I had a chance to talk with Washington State Congressman Dave Reichert (R). We discussed illegal immigration. He said the idea of removing every illegal immigrant was daunting. Specifically he said “it would take the entire National Guard and that would just handle Los Angeles”. As of this writing ICE is on top of many peoples minds, in the news especially if you are not white. We see the deportations being done ad hoc. More in line with meeting a quota than doing the actual due diligence to identify illegal immigrants.

Xenophobia is a common affliction among many people in America. The definition of xenophobia being a dislike of people from another country. A odd US fear given we are a country of immigrants. That being said it has always been a part of the American experience. There was discrimination when Italians started to come to America, the Irish, Polish etc…Some of that can be traced to basic demographics. We are all familiar with the knowledge that somewhere around 2050 the US population make up will tilt towards those that are non-white. This means there will be more Black People, Hispanic People, Asian People, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders than white people in America. Given our history of being immigrants this was inevitable. That does not mean some people are not pissed about it. In fact many are downright angry about it. When you campaign with fear the emotions that go along with it are anger, hate, loathing etc..all the poorest conditions of human nature.

History can cloud peoples views of the future. It is easy to reflect on the past and come to a conclusion that things were better at a different time and can we not go back to that place in time? That to me is the mystifying thing of Make America Great Again, it’s a nice marketing campaign with no details. I guess this should not be surprising given the source. That would require a basic knowledge of US History. We are good at highlighting our greatness, but in some circles do not like to discuss our dark past, Some would believe that, that is history and we have moved on. But at our core we know our history with slavery still haunts us to this day. America has been a giving nation, a nation many have looked to when in need, but never underestimate the darkness in our heart. Granted that last statement seems rooted in darkness which I am quite comfortable with (lets darken the light and play some Bauhaus). I would shed a more positive light on America by quoting the French political philosopher Alexis De Tocqueville. He said, “The great privilege of Americans does not simply consist in their being more enlightened than other nations, but in their being able to repair the faults they may commit.”

Because we have allowed illegal immigration for decades we have created a shadow economy. As consumers we receive huge benefits from that “illegal” economy. Like it or not those “illegals” contribute greatly to the US GDP. They also perform services such as being the maids at our hotels, picking our fruits and vegetables, construction sites have a Latin flair, landscaping etc.. and the list goes on. The impact is felt in taxes collected, labor force participation (estimate is 4.9% of US Labor is force consists of illegal immigrants), and economic growth. We have allowed a shadow economy to emerge and frankly it is one we can’t do without. There are thousands of construction jobs underway that would be delayed or simply not finished because the labor force relays on immigrants, legal and illegal. When was the last time you saw a white or black woman cleaning your hotel room? What would Las Vegas do? They literally have tens of thousands of rooms. What would a ICE raid look like in Vegas? How many people would have to be deployed? What would be the economic impact. I agree we need to strengthen border control. We also need to think through the consequences of our actions in both the short term and long term.

I think we tend to overlook how Latin culture has enriched the American experience. For all the talk of going back to a husband, wife, two kids, house, car etc..when I think of a family centric lifestyle, just look to the Hispanic community. The family is core to people south of the border. It defines loyalties. More importantly it defines love. If you cross America you will come across Latin communities everywhere, both small and large. Anyone who has visited Miami will find every country in the Caribbean and South America represented. Drive down highway 99 in the Central Valley of California and you would be hard pressed to NOT find Mexican food. Catholic Mass often has a Spanish mass, especially the further south you are. When I see the new fashion of food trucks I see a business designed for the Latin communities and there are plenty. FInd a soccer field and you will find an adult Mexican league with fans…likely family. Overtime the Latin culture has ingratiated itself into the America melting pot. I often like to say, “Show me an American who has not eaten Mexican food and I will show you someone who is not an American”. Probably the best write up on this comes from famed chef, author and travel host Anthony Bourdain title “Under the Volcano” He is a much better writer than I am and he is missed. RIP Anthony.

The above is not what ICE wants to hear. They are focused on violent criminals and gangs like MS-13. Though I understand the sentiment, to portray an entire community as belonging and having ties criminal organizations is wrong. It is what Trump campaigned on in 2016 and every campaign since and it has resonated. It shows that the big lie has a life and can prey upon the weaker minds. If you tell a lie often enough and loud enough eventually it is perceived as truth. There are criminal from Latin America in the US but the percentage is relative. Categorizing all illegal immigrants as the problem neglects the truth. It also ignores what the community provides to the citizens of the United Dates.

Finally there is the question that no one seems to want to ask where are they coming from and why? In Venezuela here is the travel advisory from the US Department of State “Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.  All U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately.” If this is for US residents what must life be like for Venezuelan citizens? One of the largest refugee camps for Venezuelans is across the border in Columbia. People are fleeing the Maduro dictatorship. In Mexico a number of states are known to be violent and for a family the fear is their children will be sucked into a life in the cartels. One which will likely lead to a violent death. They flee looking for a better life. Guatemala is in a similar state as Mexico as the country suffers from a high crime rate and lack of safety. Like Venezuela. Guatemala is also a Level 3 in terms of travel advisory. Immigrants are coming to seek a better life for themselves and their children. It is what the American dream was built on and when we let that go a large piece of America will go with it. We will then have to ask the question “Who is America?”

The most famous words of the Statue of Liberty are “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. If we turn our back on those words that built a nation who have we become? If we let xenophobia become the dominant faith are we still free? These cultures we fear enrich America. Mark Twain who traveled the world said about his experience “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness”. A large part of our nations fear is being consolidated into a isolationist political view. Isolationism is a failed policy. So I will ask again, “Who is America?”

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann June 25, 2025