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Zorro
Zorro's Journal
Zorro's Journal
June 19, 2025
This Fourth of July, as fireworks crackle across the sky and families gather for cookouts and parades, we’ll celebrate America’s founding. But amid the patriotic fanfare, we ought to pause — not just to reflect on what America is, but to reckon with what America could be. Because right now, the American experiment is at risk — daily from within.
Our democracy is fraying. Not because we disagree, but because we’ve forgotten how to disagree. We no longer assume good faith in our neighbors. We treat politics like a blood sport, and fellow citizens like enemies. We are being trained — by algorithms, cable news segments, and influencers — to see the country in binary terms: red or blue, rural or urban, patriotic or un-American. This mindset doesn’t just stall progress. It chips away at the very foundation of our self-government.
Democracy, after all, isn’t self-executing. It doesn’t run on autopilot. It survives only when citizens choose to uphold it — when we choose to show up, contribute, and serve. And that’s what we need to recover: a culture of service. Not just military service, although I’ve seen firsthand how profound and unifying that can be. I mean service in every form: teaching, caregiving, volunteering, mentoring, voting, working in public institutions, even simply being an engaged neighbor. These acts, humble and unglamorous, are what keep a pluralistic society functioning. They’re how trust is built, how divides are bridged, how a nation renews itself.
I’ve seen this spirit up close and personal. My grandfather was just 17 when he requested an age waiver from the Marine Corps so he could fight in World War II. He returned from the Pacific wounded, but with his conviction intact: that this country — flawed and unfinished — would always be worth defending. My father immigrated here from Venezuela with little money, no safety net, and few connections. But he had a work ethic forged in hardship and a belief in America’s promise. This country gave him a shot; and, in return, he has been able to save countless lives on the operating table. My mother has been a pediatrician for over thirty years. My stepmother served as a nurse. My wife has deployed to the Middle East a couple of times. My brother wakes up every morning prepared to take a bullet for his country. All of them serve in their own way not because of the perfection of this country — but the possibility.
That distinction matters. America was never meant to be a finished product. The founders did not declare the mission accomplished in 1776. They simply ignited the experiment — one that depends on every generation deciding whether or not to keep it going. We inherit not a conclusion, but a question: Will we rise to the occasion? Or let apathy, division, and cynicism do what no enemy has managed to do — unravel us from the inside out?
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2025/06/19/this-july-4-think-america-that-could-be-column/
On this July 4, think of the America that could be
Democracy isn’t self-executing. It doesn’t run on autopilot.This Fourth of July, as fireworks crackle across the sky and families gather for cookouts and parades, we’ll celebrate America’s founding. But amid the patriotic fanfare, we ought to pause — not just to reflect on what America is, but to reckon with what America could be. Because right now, the American experiment is at risk — daily from within.
Our democracy is fraying. Not because we disagree, but because we’ve forgotten how to disagree. We no longer assume good faith in our neighbors. We treat politics like a blood sport, and fellow citizens like enemies. We are being trained — by algorithms, cable news segments, and influencers — to see the country in binary terms: red or blue, rural or urban, patriotic or un-American. This mindset doesn’t just stall progress. It chips away at the very foundation of our self-government.
Democracy, after all, isn’t self-executing. It doesn’t run on autopilot. It survives only when citizens choose to uphold it — when we choose to show up, contribute, and serve. And that’s what we need to recover: a culture of service. Not just military service, although I’ve seen firsthand how profound and unifying that can be. I mean service in every form: teaching, caregiving, volunteering, mentoring, voting, working in public institutions, even simply being an engaged neighbor. These acts, humble and unglamorous, are what keep a pluralistic society functioning. They’re how trust is built, how divides are bridged, how a nation renews itself.
I’ve seen this spirit up close and personal. My grandfather was just 17 when he requested an age waiver from the Marine Corps so he could fight in World War II. He returned from the Pacific wounded, but with his conviction intact: that this country — flawed and unfinished — would always be worth defending. My father immigrated here from Venezuela with little money, no safety net, and few connections. But he had a work ethic forged in hardship and a belief in America’s promise. This country gave him a shot; and, in return, he has been able to save countless lives on the operating table. My mother has been a pediatrician for over thirty years. My stepmother served as a nurse. My wife has deployed to the Middle East a couple of times. My brother wakes up every morning prepared to take a bullet for his country. All of them serve in their own way not because of the perfection of this country — but the possibility.
That distinction matters. America was never meant to be a finished product. The founders did not declare the mission accomplished in 1776. They simply ignited the experiment — one that depends on every generation deciding whether or not to keep it going. We inherit not a conclusion, but a question: Will we rise to the occasion? Or let apathy, division, and cynicism do what no enemy has managed to do — unravel us from the inside out?
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2025/06/19/this-july-4-think-america-that-could-be-column/
June 19, 2025
Melissa Decampos barely had time to grieve when her daughter took her life eight years ago.
Someone had to care for her granddaughter, Toriana Hayes, who has Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. The rare genetic disorder left her developmentally delayed and at risk from potentially deadly seizures.
Toriana is 19 but looks about 10. She needs medication every three hours to limit seizures and for painful gas. She cannot support her weight and expresses pain or distress by banging her hand repeatedly against her ear, which has left her mostly deaf.
Her food, drink and medicine must be given through a tube inserted into her stomach. At night, she wears a respiratory device to treat sleep apnea.
Unable to be left alone, she’s had 24-hour home nursing through Medicaid her entire life, Decampos said.
But in March, Sunshine Health, the company contracted to run Florida’s program for medically fragile children, determined that level of care was “not medically necessary.” It reduced Toriana’s nursing schedule by half.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2025/06/19/florida-disabled-medicaid-denial-sunshine-health/
Those execs gotta earn their bonuses, ya know...
Florida contractor cuts nursing care for 100 medically fragile children
In some cases, denial of care by Sunshine Health goes against medical recommendation.Melissa Decampos barely had time to grieve when her daughter took her life eight years ago.
Someone had to care for her granddaughter, Toriana Hayes, who has Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. The rare genetic disorder left her developmentally delayed and at risk from potentially deadly seizures.
Toriana is 19 but looks about 10. She needs medication every three hours to limit seizures and for painful gas. She cannot support her weight and expresses pain or distress by banging her hand repeatedly against her ear, which has left her mostly deaf.
Her food, drink and medicine must be given through a tube inserted into her stomach. At night, she wears a respiratory device to treat sleep apnea.
Unable to be left alone, she’s had 24-hour home nursing through Medicaid her entire life, Decampos said.
But in March, Sunshine Health, the company contracted to run Florida’s program for medically fragile children, determined that level of care was “not medically necessary.” It reduced Toriana’s nursing schedule by half.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2025/06/19/florida-disabled-medicaid-denial-sunshine-health/
Those execs gotta earn their bonuses, ya know...
June 18, 2025
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is handing authority on the escalating Middle East crisis to a general nicknamed “The Gorilla,” it emerged Wednesday.
Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief has come to rely heavily on four-star General Erik Kurilla, nicknamed “The Gorilla” for obvious rhyming reasons and for being “jacked,” Politico reported, saying that the Cabinet member’s apparent deference to the officer had been raising eyebrows in government. Kurilla, who received the Bronze Star for valor after continuing to command his troops despite being shot three times during action in Iraq, enjoys “an outsize role” due to the chaos and “instability” inside Hegseth’s department, a source added.
“He’s got the look of the general that both Hegseth and Trump are looking for,” one ex-officials said. “He’s a big dude, he’s jacked, he’s exactly this ‘lethality’ look they’re going for.”
Kurilla is the general in charge of Central Command, or CENTCOM, which organizes U.S. forces in the Middle East from Egypt in the west to Afghanistan in the east, giving him extraordinary influence over the world’s hottest zone.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hegseth-is-in-the-grip-of-jacked-general-gorilla-on-iran-insiders/
CENTCOM's headquarters is located in what's been called Tampastan...
Hegseth Is in the Grip of 'Jacked' General 'Gorilla' on Iran: Insiders
The Pentagon secretary is listening to a four-star with an extraordinary nickname.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is handing authority on the escalating Middle East crisis to a general nicknamed “The Gorilla,” it emerged Wednesday.
Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief has come to rely heavily on four-star General Erik Kurilla, nicknamed “The Gorilla” for obvious rhyming reasons and for being “jacked,” Politico reported, saying that the Cabinet member’s apparent deference to the officer had been raising eyebrows in government. Kurilla, who received the Bronze Star for valor after continuing to command his troops despite being shot three times during action in Iraq, enjoys “an outsize role” due to the chaos and “instability” inside Hegseth’s department, a source added.
“He’s got the look of the general that both Hegseth and Trump are looking for,” one ex-officials said. “He’s a big dude, he’s jacked, he’s exactly this ‘lethality’ look they’re going for.”
Kurilla is the general in charge of Central Command, or CENTCOM, which organizes U.S. forces in the Middle East from Egypt in the west to Afghanistan in the east, giving him extraordinary influence over the world’s hottest zone.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hegseth-is-in-the-grip-of-jacked-general-gorilla-on-iran-insiders/
CENTCOM's headquarters is located in what's been called Tampastan...
June 18, 2025
Senate Republicans have added tax breaks and other subsidies for oil drillers to the GOP tax bill making its way through Congress, including a provision that would reward companies for using an emerging greenhouse-gas-fighting technology — capturing carbon from the atmosphere — to boost production of oil by billions of barrels a year.
The massive bill eliminates large swaths of federal funding for wind, solar and other green energy initiatives, reversing many of the Biden-era initiatives aimed at developing clean sources of fuel. At the same time, lobbying efforts by petroleum companies to win benefits from the oil-friendly administration and its allies appear to have paid off.
Several firms, including Occidental Petroleum, which is completing a large carbon-capture plant in the West Texas oil fields, sought expanded subsidies for using captured carbon dioxide to pressurize wells and draw more oil from the ground. The carbon-capture subsidy would push up the tax legislation’s price tag by what experts forecast will be billions of dollars.
It emerged after Occidental’s CEO said she personally lobbied President Donald Trump.
“President Trump knows the business case for this,” Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub told investors in February. “I’ve had several conversations with him.” She said subsidizing the technology will enable oil companies to pull 50 billion to 70 billion additional barrels of oil out of the ground that they would not otherwise be able to get at.
https://wapo.st/4n8Tshj
While cutting solar and wind, Senate GOP plans rewards for oil drillers
The budget plan carves out new and expanded subsidies for fossil fuel companies as GOP lawmakers say the nation can’t afford clean energy.Senate Republicans have added tax breaks and other subsidies for oil drillers to the GOP tax bill making its way through Congress, including a provision that would reward companies for using an emerging greenhouse-gas-fighting technology — capturing carbon from the atmosphere — to boost production of oil by billions of barrels a year.
The massive bill eliminates large swaths of federal funding for wind, solar and other green energy initiatives, reversing many of the Biden-era initiatives aimed at developing clean sources of fuel. At the same time, lobbying efforts by petroleum companies to win benefits from the oil-friendly administration and its allies appear to have paid off.
Several firms, including Occidental Petroleum, which is completing a large carbon-capture plant in the West Texas oil fields, sought expanded subsidies for using captured carbon dioxide to pressurize wells and draw more oil from the ground. The carbon-capture subsidy would push up the tax legislation’s price tag by what experts forecast will be billions of dollars.
It emerged after Occidental’s CEO said she personally lobbied President Donald Trump.
“President Trump knows the business case for this,” Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub told investors in February. “I’ve had several conversations with him.” She said subsidizing the technology will enable oil companies to pull 50 billion to 70 billion additional barrels of oil out of the ground that they would not otherwise be able to get at.
https://wapo.st/4n8Tshj
June 17, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status.
Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants, according to two people familiar with the call. The new instructions were shared in an 11 a.m. call to representatives from 30 field offices across the country.
ICE and HSI field office supervisors began learning about a likely reversal of the exemption policy Sunday after hearing from DHS leadership that the White House did not support it, according to one person with knowledge of the reversal.
An official from DHS had sent an email Thursday telling agents to “hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.” That message went out hours after Trump suggested he was sympathetic to concerns raised by farmers and hospitality executives about his deportation plan. The Washington Post spoke with four people who confirmed that a call was held Monday with the agency’s leadership.
https://wapo.st/43PPwus
Trump officials reverse guidance exempting farms, hotels from immigration raids
ICE agents have been told to continue conducting enforcement operations at agricultural businesses despite concerns about negative effects on the food industry.The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status.
Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants, according to two people familiar with the call. The new instructions were shared in an 11 a.m. call to representatives from 30 field offices across the country.
ICE and HSI field office supervisors began learning about a likely reversal of the exemption policy Sunday after hearing from DHS leadership that the White House did not support it, according to one person with knowledge of the reversal.
An official from DHS had sent an email Thursday telling agents to “hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.” That message went out hours after Trump suggested he was sympathetic to concerns raised by farmers and hospitality executives about his deportation plan. The Washington Post spoke with four people who confirmed that a call was held Monday with the agency’s leadership.
https://wapo.st/43PPwus
June 16, 2025
President Donald Trump is accelerating efforts to transform the federal workforce from a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service to a system that values loyalty to the president and to push policies that allow the administration to more easily dismiss career employees, according to federal workers, public service experts and employment attorneys.
The ongoing shift would erase decades of precedent in which federal hiring, retention and promotion are designed to be based largely on skills and experience, the workers, experts and attorneys say.
The House-passed budget proposal under consideration in the Senate would give new federal workers an ultimatum to accept “at-will” status — meaning they could be more easily fired — or pay a higher retirement contribution. The administration also unveiled a plan to require job applicants to write short essays describing how they plan to advance Trump’s priorities. And Trump has revived his previous efforts to reclassify thousands of federal employees and blur the line between political appointees and career professionals.
“These employees could be replaced with partisan loyalists — people who will obey any order, regardless of the Constitution,” said Joe Spielberger, senior policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight. “This elevates loyalty to an individual president over the oath of office and the best interests of the public.”
https://wapo.st/4l7nGiY
He is turning OUR government into HIS criminal enterprise, aided and abetted by the entire Republican party.
Trump accelerates push to reward loyalty in federal workforce
Many critics say the administration is scrapping a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service in favor of a biased, politicized system.President Donald Trump is accelerating efforts to transform the federal workforce from a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service to a system that values loyalty to the president and to push policies that allow the administration to more easily dismiss career employees, according to federal workers, public service experts and employment attorneys.
The ongoing shift would erase decades of precedent in which federal hiring, retention and promotion are designed to be based largely on skills and experience, the workers, experts and attorneys say.
The House-passed budget proposal under consideration in the Senate would give new federal workers an ultimatum to accept “at-will” status — meaning they could be more easily fired — or pay a higher retirement contribution. The administration also unveiled a plan to require job applicants to write short essays describing how they plan to advance Trump’s priorities. And Trump has revived his previous efforts to reclassify thousands of federal employees and blur the line between political appointees and career professionals.
“These employees could be replaced with partisan loyalists — people who will obey any order, regardless of the Constitution,” said Joe Spielberger, senior policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight. “This elevates loyalty to an individual president over the oath of office and the best interests of the public.”
https://wapo.st/4l7nGiY
He is turning OUR government into HIS criminal enterprise, aided and abetted by the entire Republican party.
June 15, 2025
'No Kings' organizers say protests drew large crowds: Here are their estimates
Organizers of the "No Kings" rallies that swept across the nation June 14 said the protests drew large crowds that marched against the Trump administration.
The American Civil Liberties Union, a part of the coalition that put on the demonstrations, said in a late Saturday, June 14 statement that more than five million people participated in over 2,100 rallies and protests.
Political organizing group Move On, who was a partner in the "No Kings" rallies, echoed the 5 million person estimate in a fundraising email.
Jeremy Pressman, the co-director of the Crowd Counting Consortium – a Harvard University and University of Connecticut project that estimates political crowds – told USA TODAY June 15 that it will take "some time" to complete an estimate on the "No Kings" rallies.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/15/how-many-people-attended-no-kings/84219725007/
An estimate of over 5 million people at the demonstrations and the NYT chose not to report it.
June 15, 2025
President Donald Trump is making his return to the Group of Seven this weekend having taken the global economy on a roller-coaster ride toward a singular destination: A world in which he is the ultimate arbiter of trade, security and power relationships, and America harvests the economic benefits.
As he does so, US tariffs are meeting growing opposition at home and abroad. From G-7 host Canada to China and the European Union, major US trading partners are mounting a firmer resistance than they did during his first term. US courts are threatening to invalidate many of the duties altogether.
The US economy faces the prospect of a summer of rising prices, slowing hiring and consumer discontent. Tariff threats are now near-daily market movers, this week sending the dollar tumbling even after the US and China brokered a tentative trade truce.
Trump’s bid to upend the global trading system started in January 2017 when in his first few days in office, he abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiated by the Obama administration. With that, he ripped up a carefully constructed 12-nation economic alliance designed to help contain China and rewrite global trade rules in America’s favor, instead launching the US toward greater protectionism.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-06-13/trump-tariff-regime-could-cost-world-1-trillion-us-690-000-jobs?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1MDAyOTM1MywiZXhwIjoxNzUwNjM0MTUzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTWFNMWlVEV0xVNjgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.6s22uGsL5s7UVjJLxALS7NnxnX3LzX6hAejcH9pEK28
Trump Ripping Up the Free Trade Playbook Comes With $1 Trillion Cost
The ominous trajectory of the US president’s tariff overhaul looms over the G-7 gathering.President Donald Trump is making his return to the Group of Seven this weekend having taken the global economy on a roller-coaster ride toward a singular destination: A world in which he is the ultimate arbiter of trade, security and power relationships, and America harvests the economic benefits.
As he does so, US tariffs are meeting growing opposition at home and abroad. From G-7 host Canada to China and the European Union, major US trading partners are mounting a firmer resistance than they did during his first term. US courts are threatening to invalidate many of the duties altogether.
The US economy faces the prospect of a summer of rising prices, slowing hiring and consumer discontent. Tariff threats are now near-daily market movers, this week sending the dollar tumbling even after the US and China brokered a tentative trade truce.
Trump’s bid to upend the global trading system started in January 2017 when in his first few days in office, he abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiated by the Obama administration. With that, he ripped up a carefully constructed 12-nation economic alliance designed to help contain China and rewrite global trade rules in America’s favor, instead launching the US toward greater protectionism.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-06-13/trump-tariff-regime-could-cost-world-1-trillion-us-690-000-jobs?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1MDAyOTM1MywiZXhwIjoxNzUwNjM0MTUzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTWFNMWlVEV0xVNjgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.6s22uGsL5s7UVjJLxALS7NnxnX3LzX6hAejcH9pEK28
June 15, 2025
This was not inevitable. This is a war Israel chose. It could have been prevented. Diplomatic talks were ongoing when the bombers took off for Iran. Israel’s continuing, illegal, unjustified airstrikes are unlikely to achieve their stated aim – permanently ending Tehran’s presumed efforts to build nuclear weapons – and may accelerate it. They must stop now. Likewise, Iran must halt its retaliation immediately and drop its escalatory threats to attack US and UK bases.
This conflict is not limited, as was the case last year, to tit-for-tat exchanges and “precision strikes” on a narrow range of military targets. It’s reached a wholly different level. Potentially nothing is off the table. Civilians are being killed on both sides. Leaders are targets. The rhetoric is out of control. With Israel fighting on several fronts, and Iran’s battered regime backed against a wall, the Middle East is closer than ever to a disastrous conflagration.
Reasons can always be found to go to war. The roots of major conflicts often reach back decades – and this is true of the Israel-Iran vendetta, which dates to the 1979 Islamic revolution. The so-called “shadow war” between the two intensified in recent years. Yet all-out conflict had been avoided, until now. So who is principally to blame for this sudden, unprecedented explosion?
Answer: three angry old men whose behaviour raises serious doubts about their judgment, common sense, motives and even their sanity.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/15/trump-netanyahu-khamenei-three-angry-old-men
Trump, Netanyahu and Khamenei - three angry old men who could get us all killed
Whether inept, driven by survival or corrupt, they are unfit to lead their countries, let alone make decisions that imperil the whole worldThis was not inevitable. This is a war Israel chose. It could have been prevented. Diplomatic talks were ongoing when the bombers took off for Iran. Israel’s continuing, illegal, unjustified airstrikes are unlikely to achieve their stated aim – permanently ending Tehran’s presumed efforts to build nuclear weapons – and may accelerate it. They must stop now. Likewise, Iran must halt its retaliation immediately and drop its escalatory threats to attack US and UK bases.
This conflict is not limited, as was the case last year, to tit-for-tat exchanges and “precision strikes” on a narrow range of military targets. It’s reached a wholly different level. Potentially nothing is off the table. Civilians are being killed on both sides. Leaders are targets. The rhetoric is out of control. With Israel fighting on several fronts, and Iran’s battered regime backed against a wall, the Middle East is closer than ever to a disastrous conflagration.
Reasons can always be found to go to war. The roots of major conflicts often reach back decades – and this is true of the Israel-Iran vendetta, which dates to the 1979 Islamic revolution. The so-called “shadow war” between the two intensified in recent years. Yet all-out conflict had been avoided, until now. So who is principally to blame for this sudden, unprecedented explosion?
Answer: three angry old men whose behaviour raises serious doubts about their judgment, common sense, motives and even their sanity.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/15/trump-netanyahu-khamenei-three-angry-old-men
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