Entries by siena

DHS- ICE: The Making of a Paramilitary Force Plain Sight

DHS/ICE: Inside the System Producing Volatile, Unaccountable Federal Agents Photo by Jim Vondruska/REUTERS/PBS If you wanted to design a hiring and training system that would produce the most psychologically volatile, constitutionally illiterate federal law enforcement officers possible, it would look almost exactly like what the Department of Homeland Security is building today When I was […]

Robert Mueller: A Hero Remembered, A Presidency Revealed

Donald Trump/Robert Mueller (CBS News) Robert Mueller stands out as a true American hero, a man devoted to country, public service, and the institutions that make the United States the world’s leading light. The Steady State joins a long list of other organizations and luminaries in rightly honoring Mueller and his legacy of service. In […]

From Caracas to Tehran: The Same Failed Playbook

Autocrats start wars for no better reason than consolidating their power at home, making follow-up incoherent. Donald Trump is no exception. In Venezuela, the unresolved ledger is substantial: no transition framework, no election timeline, a fragmented opposition, a consolidating regime, hundreds still imprisoned, and an extractive oil architecture with no democratic conditionality. By mid-March, U.S. […]

The Ice Gulag-Power, Surveillance, and Fear Undermine Our Democracy; Push Back.

Because the structure of the “Ice Gulag” is currently supported by all three branches of the Government, opposition must target all three aspects: apprehension, detention, and removal. The Ice Gulag series centered on how the Trump Administration led by DHS has created a vertically integrated structure that relies on a massive multi-year appropriation from Congress, […]

Leaving MAGA: Identity, Propaganda, and the Path Back

In this week’s episode of the Sentinel podcast, John Sipher speaks with Rich Logis, founder of Leaving MAGA, about his journey into—and out of—the movement. They explore how identity, belonging, and media ecosystems shape political belief, why leaving can be so difficult, and what ultimately breaks the cycle. Logis also shares insights on disinformation, “anger […]

Reckless Power: Steering America Toward a Deeper Middle East Quagmire

Ours are the unequalled machines of war, a military superiority that in the hands of an unbalanced president and a hormonal defense secretary are just begging to be used. Those machines now seem to be in the lead, dragging the politicians and administration figures behind, a military machine that virtually drives policy by itself, by […]

Threatening War Crimes: Has Trump Finally Crossed the Line?

(Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash) Donald Trump’s threats to “destroy” Iran’s energy structure, if carried out, is a potential war crime, implicating not only the president but all who carry out his mission. In a March 30, 2026, social media post, Donald Trump threatened that if a peace deal is not reached soon and […]

Trump Has Created a Strategy to Make U.S. Less Secure

As published below in the Pensacola News Journal Pensacola News Journal (Part of the USA Today Network) March 29 2026 Making sense of the shambolic actions of the Trump administration is a daunting, full-time task for American voters, whether MAGA, Democrat, Republican or Independent. Deliberate disruption at home metastasized internationally on Feb. 28 with the […]

Is Trump our George III?

Here we are, marking yet another “No Kings Day” here in our beloved America, once the world’s beacon of democracy. This “No King’s Day,” like its predecessors, is driven by growing popular concern of the Trump Administration’s authoritarianism across the range of political, economic, social, and international issues of importance to the nation. How best […]

Trump’s Gold Coin Caper

In having his name on official currency while in office, Trump can boast that he’s the only living American president in the small but very famous company of autocrats. You can buy a Julius Caesar Getty Roman Coin online (Getty Museum: $24.00). Or a Napoleon Emperor Coin Paris Mint, for $2,309. 1812 Gold France 40 […]