GIERACH BLOGS

Opinion, Thought and Cross-Examination

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TRUMP’S BLOCKADE OF CUBA

by James E. Gierach

Why is President Trump blockading Cuba?

Why is Trump making the lives of Cubans miserable, and doing it in our name, the United States of America?

These questions occurred to me because of a social media post I read by Reina Magdariage Larduet, a Cuban journalist I met in Ecuador in 2015. We met at the invitation of Rodrigo Vélez, then drug-czar of Ecuador, who favored my draft of a proposed amendment of United Nations “drug-control” conventions.

I wrote and called for an amendment of those three UN drug conventions, because drug prohibition as a governmental policy, adopted by 186 nations since 1961, does not work. That truth is more evident to more people today than it was in 2015. I wrote the proposed amendment on behalf of an organization then-called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

Reina was in the audience of Spanish-speaking journalists who heard my presentation. My presentation addressed the need to amend United Nations “drug-control” conventions, conventions predicated on drug prohibition and banning the recreational use of all drugs. Reina became my friend, and her recent post spoke of the dire consequences faced by Cubans because of America’s blockade of Cuba. Her post prompts this piece.

Regularly, Cubans lack electricity, food, medicines, gasoline, and other necessities. Life is not easy for Cubans. But why does the president of the United States think our country’s mission should include adding to the miseries of the people of Cuba, our Western Hemisphere neighbors?

Most Americans are too preoccupied with other Trump-made crises, catastrophes, and bad news to spend their spare-time thinking about the people of Cuba.

Bad news, surprising news, shocking news — news outlets and social media daily broadcast and report on the bad consequences of a great nation led by a mediocre President Trump and his MAGA acolytes. Stories evidencing Trump audacities are as dependable as Old Faithful spouting water, as American-Trump debt exploding through existing debt ceilings, and as attention-grabbing as cage-fighting on White House grounds. Endless Trump spectacles and sex stories from the Trump-Epstein Era distract the attention of Americans from Cuba and the suffering of the Cuban people under Trump rule and attack.

Trump attacks constitutional principles (e.g. birth right citizenship, talk of Trump’s Third Term, Trump acceptance of really big foreign gifts without Congressional approval); Trump attacks the Rule of Law (e.g. No war without Congressional Declaration, and tariffs set by Congress) and American values and norms (e.g. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Religion); Trump waging his War on Iran, Trump’s befriending dictators like Putin and indicted war criminals like Netanyahu; Trump pardoning January 6th insurrectionists and multimillion-dollar fraudsters.

Evermore distracting stories shadow Trump about many topics: crypto currency market manipulation, growing millions of medically uninsured Americans, high prices for gasoline and food, global warming, pervasive flooding, and evermore violent storms. Then there’s American challenges to the sovereignty of Venezuela, Canada, Greenland, and Denmark, and challenges to the continued existence of the World Health Organization, NATO and the United Nations itself.

Trump appointees challenge the propriety of vaccinations and measles rebound, voting by mail, transformed a Department of Defense into a Department of War, and renamed the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, briefly.

Not finally, but additionally, there are stories about the destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the Rose Garden, and stories about the construction of a White House Ballroom with a big fence that Mexico will pay for, Trump might say. Some Trump stories are puzzlements: do unidentified flying objects fly, does Senator Mitch McConnell live, did vandals damage the Lincoln Reflecting Pool or was the damage done when a Trump motorcade drove across its freshly painted bottom like a golf cart crossing a Trump golf green.

Many distracting Trump stories!

But bad as a Trump America is, things are worse in Cuba. Trump intentionally makes life worse for Cubans. That’s not very American.

We must end the Trump nightmare as soon as possible. To that end, mark your calendars for the November, Midterm Elections. Anything that sounds like a Trump, looks like a Trump, acts like a Trump, or smells like a Trump — “Just Say NO.”

July 28, 2026, Chicago, Illinois USA

James Gierach is a former Cook County assistant state’s attorney and author of “The Silver Bullet Solution: Is it time to end the War on Drugs?”

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IMPORTANT, INSIGHTFUL, SALVATION

Ray McGovern: IRAN'S GULF SHOCKWAVE: How 'Precision' Strikes Just Collapsed the War Strategy

Support Me:Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/dialogueworksFollow me: Substack: https://substack.com/@dialogueworks?utm_campaign=prof

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10M views · 589K reactions | It’s a very star-studded banner with Stephen and Jimmy Fallon. #Colbert #NationalAnthem | The Late Show with S

It’s a very star-studded banner with Stephen and Jimmy Fallon. #Colbert #NationalAnthem

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JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS, U.S. SUPREME COURT LIAR

“Just walking.”

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Judge permanently blocks Trump EO requiring proof of citizenship to vote — ABC News

The judge ruled that the president lacks the authority to oversee elections.

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Truth

The Real Reason Colbert Got Fired | Inequality Media | 35 comments

I want to say thank you, and farewell, to Stephen Colbert before his final show this evening. But I also want to remind folks of the corrup

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IDPC joins global call to all states to stop facilitating US extrajudicial killings

A coalition of 125 organisations warns of human rights implications, as well as the risk of legal responsibility for States collaborating in

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The “Grow Five” Movement

by James E. Gierach

The so-called “War on Drugs” has raged for so long, done so much harm to so many people, so variedly, so unfairly, and so indiscriminately — it’s hard to succinctly draft a remedy in less than 532 pages (“the J.B. Pritzker Pot Reform Billl”), even just for marijuana.

Though difficult, drafting a reform bill can be simple.

If you think about it — at its core drug prohibition policy is built on intolerance, a human fault, and that intolerance, supported with the force of law and order, changes the economic value of products found in nature, radically. Radically!

Valueless ditchweed refined and fertilized with prohibition law can flower into an industry where a growing ticket might cost the lesser of $500,000, or 5 percent of sales. Imagine that. (Provision of Pritzker Reform bill in Illinois)

The exit from crazy, counterproductive drug prohibition may be just as simple as putting the car in reverse and backing up.

Let’s give marijuana a chance to help drug policy heal itself without “commercialization,” the concept prohibitionists have recently seized upon to protect their prohibition turf, consulting fees, grants and feeding.

What might a simple reform bill look like?

Let individuals grow up to five marijuana plants. No license, no fingerprints, no criminal background check or disqualification, no tax, no certification of a debilitating condition, no physician or counselor involvement. Just the ditch and some weed.

“The Grow Five Marijuana Movement” reform law can be written onto a page, maybe into a single, short paragraph.

But the power of “Grow Five” undermines commercialization of pot, a pot sin tax, a drug cartel staple, a street gang mainstay, the buracracy of pot regulation, law enforcement and its taxing cost. Nothing can better undercut the economic value of marijuana than allowing nature to regain control of its own.

Why would your neighbor buy pot from you when he has his own?

Let’s give it a try. “Grow Five!”

Palos Park, IL 60464 USA

20 May 2019

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Gierach Drug Policy Axioms

1. If drugs are bad, drug war is worse.

2. Drug prohibition is the most effective policy to put more drugs, uncontrolled and unregulated, everywhere.

3. We can have safe streets or drug prohibition, but not both.

4. UN Drug Treaties are the foundation and fountainhead for the World War on Drugs.

5. Everything in drug policy works in reverse; good drug policy is counter-intuitive.

6. The harder we try to suppress drugs, the more they flourish.

7. An anti-drug ad is first and foremost a drug ad.

8. Drug cartels and street gangs want us to burn their seized drugs which is very helpful in protecting their exclusive control over drugs, drug markets and persons addicted to drugs.

9. Outlawing drug products makes something that grows on a plant in the ditch having no value, the most valuable commodity on the face of the Earth.

10. The ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ are both on the same side of the line of scrimmage, both in favor of drug prohibition. (Capone, Brownfield, Escobar, Botticelli, ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, Fedatov, Hoover, Emanuel…)

11. The fatal weakness of drug demand reduction strategies: It’s easier to make a new addict than recover a confirmed one.

12. The fatal weakness of drug supply reduction strategies: The more we succeed, the more we fail. The more scarce the supply becomes, the higher the price and greater the incentive to produce. Prohibition engages laws of supply and demand, price and production, laws no less real or repealable than gravity.

13. Take the profit out of drugs; to take crime off our streets; and taxes off our backs.

14. Adult consensual behavior is not a crime; making it one is.

15. Freedom and self-discipline regarding substances is more powerful than any prohibition law, and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men.

16. Outlawing drugs is as effective as outlawing dandelions.

17. Protection from Fentanyl is a matter of drug labeling, a potential positive side-effect of drug legalization and regulation.

18. The best line of defense against opioid overdose is the drug user and a contents label. Legalization allows that; prohibition does not.

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Great news! My paperback edition has arrived! Official release date, March 26, 2026.

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1.1M views · 48K reactions | The day after leaving the White House, Harry Truman bought a train ticket home like any ordinary citizen. No pr

The day after leaving the White House, Harry Truman bought a train ticket home like any ordinary citizen. No private car, no guards—just him

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THE COLD-BLOODED ICE KILLING OF RENEE GOOD

by James E. Gierach

On Saturday, January 10, 2026, in broad daylight, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in her car as 2,000 federal agents, including ICE agents, descended upon Minneapolis and Minnesota to enforce immigration laws.

ICE agent Ross fired three bullets in rapid succession at the Good vehicle. The first bullet punched a hole in the front windshield on the drivers’s side. The second two bullets passed through the open driver’s window from a range of about one-foot from Good’s head and body as she sat in her vehicle diver’s seat.

Good’s State of Mind

Good spoke to agent Ross who would moment’s later shoot her. She spoke to him in a pleasant tone of voice but wished him a “bad day.” Shortly before the shooting Good was listening to music and “dancing” in her car driver’s seat as her car sat perpendicular to traffic lanes but not completely blocking travel in either direction.

Ross’ State of Mind

About six months earlier, agent Ross was hit and dragged by a car in the performance of his ICE duties. His injury required more than 50 stitches to close his wound. Immediate after shooting Good, Ross profanely referring to her as a “fing bitch.”

The American Immigration Environment

Agent Ross is part of the Trump Administration heightened immigration enforcement efforts that have created a hostile environment in Minneapolis and across the country. Commonly, protesters place themselves at significant risk standing in front of vehicles driven by federal agents, even as agents begin to drive forward into protesters. Likewise, federal agents place themselves at significant risk standing in front of vehicles driven by protesters, even as peaceful protesters try to leave the presence of threatening federal agents, armed with badges, authority, guns, handcuffs, pepper stray and assorted other weapons.

Immigration enforcement tactics have put states and municipalities at loggerheads with the federal government, the latter objecting to “sanctuary cities,” and state and local governments objecting to federal enforcement actions resembling those of “Nazi Brownshirts.” Angry politicians addressing the issue, including the president of the United States and governors, exchange dialogue using four-letter words on television and other mass media outlets.

Following this example, ICE agents exchange four-letter epithets with protesters on the streets of America during the performance of their duties.

Animosity, Violence and Lawlessness Increase

The bitter agitation is escalating making everyone less safe. Since the Good killing, Trump has increased federal agents in Minneapolis to 3,000, and Minneapolis experienced a second ICE shooting Wednesday. Trump Administration officials are defending agent Ross’s misconduct. Vice President Vance even suggested Ross is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution. And now the federal government has cut Minneapolis investigative and prosecutorial agencies out of the investigation of the Good killing.

Minnesota Must Act

A single criminal act committed by a law enforcement officer can constitute the basis for criminal prosecution pursuant to federal statutes, state statutes, or both. Investigations and prosecutions of both can proceed concurrently.

Ordinarily in a criminal investigation the grand jury is a useful tool to collect evidence, issue subpoenas, and fix the testimony of critical witnesses under oath. However, the federal government is doing an excellent job frustrating normal state proceedings in the Renee Good homicide, claiming this is a “federal matter” and cutting out the Hennepin Attorney’s Office (Minneapolis area), the office that handles charging decisions in the county, including felonies like murder. This exclusion of local investigative and prosecutorial agencies portends delay, a protracted federal investigation, and effective paralyzation of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and Minnesota justice in this matter.

Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Should Indict Now

The Hennepin County State’s Attorney’s Office should immediately take the following actions: (a) convene a state grand jury concerning the Renee Good homicide and and Jonathan Ross shooting of her, (b) subpoena all news media agencies, organizations and individuals possessing videotape of, or relating to, the Renee Good homicide, (c) subpoena every eyewitness to, and every participant in, the Ross shooting and killing of Good, (d) collect all scientific, ballistic, and laboratory reports, (e) collect the autopsy and forensic protocol regarding Good, (f) subpoena all federal reports, documents and records of all federal agencies involved in these matters and the investigations of these matters, and (g) otherwise investigate.

After collection of all the available facts, reports, records and testimony, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office should seek the indictment of Jonathan Ross charging him with all applicable state charges, if any.

Time of the Essence

The prompt return of an indictment, or no bill, by a Hennepin grand jury is imperative to restore order and the confidence of the people of Minnesota and American in the rule of law, and the agencies charged with its pursuit. The message must go out, now, that the use of excessive force by federal agents will be promptly met with lawful action and accountability. Inaction or even delay here presents more opportunity for immediate and irreparable harm to the public at large than constrained immigration enforcement within the boundaries of the law.

James E. Gierach is a retired Illinois attorney, former Illinois Constitutional Convention delegate, and former Cook County, Illinois, assistant state’s attorney assigned to the Cook County Grand Jury Homicide Unit and Homicide Preliminary Hearing Court (Branch 66).

January 15, 2026, Venice, Florida USA