September 12, 2011
I wrote a piece on September 15, 2001, as downtown Manhattan was engulfed in flames, fear and dust, panicked about the notion of seeking revenge by targeting the wrong people. I was thinking of innocent Afghanistan citizens who were already targets of the Taliban, who would likely bear the brunt. I hadn’t even contemplated Iraq.
What changed for me permanently on 9/11 was magnitude. I couldn’t comprehend the damage or loss of life from the first tower as it was hit, and then the second, and then the collapse, of the first, and then the second. Sure there was Hiroshima, but that was before my time. And I didn’t watch it live on television.
By that point what happened to the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvanian field was almost collateral damage – a sideshow away from the main feature. The notion that a hijacked commercial plane flying into the Pentagon seemed trivial was simply a result of the magnitude of what had happened in Manhattan. That the apparent heroics of Mark Bingham and others who brought down Flight 93 could be so easily relegated to an afterthought unless I actively force myself to consider what happened, and what could have.
The article I wrote was a desperate plea to take a step back. A foreboding prediction of what might otherwise become, which came true far worse and much quicker than I had imagined.
Timing and our capacity to heal wounds – both physiological and psychological — plays a significant role in how we respond to tragedy and how we recalibrate our world view and human understanding. The notion of “too soon†applied to comedians that use humor or artists that use their craft to laugh or comment on something that is still raw is the first step in permission to heal.
On the first anniversary of 9/11, I produced a piece called “Things Go Better,†depicting the twin towers as giant Coca Cola bottles looming with vaguely comforting familiarly behind the Statue of Liberty. An unmistakable, globally recognized icon of American brand power and reach. Fused with the fallen symbols of America’s economic might. Fragile, vulnerable made of glass, easily crushed. The response from many – disgust, vitriolic messages and threatening warnings – was as much a response to the timing of the piece as it was to its content and message. The deeper truth was what proved more upsetting. That it was just a matter of time before 9/11 became a cheap, gaudy commoditization of tragedy to be packaged, wrapped in jingoism and paranoia, and exploited to feed our consumerist obsession and stoke our fear. A subconscious foreboding that the blatant message that Osama Bin Laden sought to visually depict as America’s economic downfall was not simply a metaphor, and would become, and since has, a reality.
On the second anniversary of 9/11 I produced a piece called Phoenix Rising, the identical landscape as the first, except that the Statue of Liberty wore a gas mask, her outstretched arm like a Sig Heil salute. The once proud towers morphed and twisted into a swastika. Perhaps more misunderstood than any piece I’ve done (and for which I bear responsibility) the image was a warning. We were already heading that way. Godwin’s law renders the reference of Nazis or Hitler out of bounds in the pursuit of consensus or intelligent debate, but when the comparisons are so stark, why not?
The passage of the newspeaky Patriot Act that made emergency powers commonplace and threatens the very tenets of democracy, that fundamental extremist terrorists abhor, which continue. The denial of habeus corpus and our extraordinary rendition program. An ironic exercise in which we “extradite†detainees to countries like Egypt (although that now remains to be seen), where they can be tortured legally, because we supposedly don’t. (And of course, when we do, we pretend we didn’t really, and “look forward†instead.) America doesn’t torture so how can we prosecute ourselves for it?
The conflation of the twin towers with a symbol so universally reviled (except for those who hate a black president more than they desire economic relief) produced the same vile, ugly, threatening response. The first year was “too soon†for any symbols, even proudly American ones. The second “too soon†for iconic associations like swastikas designed as a warning to refrain from becoming something different. Phoenix rising from the ashes was a call to remember what was once valued, not a comment on who we had already become — or were fast becoming.
And so now, ten years later, having seen a new generation, who were too young to experience 9/11, dance in the streets at the death of Bin Laden – orchestrated by a Commander in Chief who put an enormous amount at stake for only a momentary boost to his approval ratings, without any understanding as to what else we lost that day, or how similar the dancing in the streets looked on 9/11 in various parts of the Middle East.
America has become a very different place from that fateful Tuesday. The outrageous costs of life and treasury in two wars that have done nothing other than to give credence to Bin Laden’s ugly predictions have left our economy in ruins, our political system immobilized and useless and our moral standing lost in the ashes of the rubble at Ground Zero.
Thousands upon thousands of lives later, countless tortured confessions later, we are no safer nor better off than we were on September 11th. Only more universally reviled and just as likely to blame every Muslim that lives and breathes – or those killed on 9/11 – for the events of that fateful day. Millions of photos and tears later, we rage without introspection, still unable to separate our anger from our self-righteousness.
Billions of confiscated bottles later, we still wait barefoot in lines at airports, subject to radiation or molestation by the TSA. While our unsupervised railway lines, busses and uninspected ports remain just as vulnerable as they ever were, thanks to regulation loathing politicians who would sooner give a billionaire a tax break than a federal job that serves us all to someone who desperately needs it.
Thousands of gay bashings later, and concerted efforts to brand, scapegoat, marginalize and ensure or retain second-class citizens, far too many Americans still seek to deny rights to anyone who isn’t straight or part of an idealized nuclear family. The same rights they would deny Mark Bingham, or Father Mychel Judge as they weep over their memorials. The same ugly, dangerous, hate-filled vitriol vomited by the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell remains unchanged, other than that Jerry Falwell is now somewhere answering to his bitter, uncompromising God. As the Pamela Gellers and Michelle Malkins of the world fill the void in a sad, ironic salute to gender equality.
Millions of hypocritical musings and flag-draped, lip-serviced, patronizing mutterings later, the first responders hailed on Fox News and other right wing blogs and websites and radio stations, are the same people whose membership in unions have deemed them enemy number one, as America seeks to cut their wealth and weaken their collective bargaining rights to ensure greater profit and less accountability to anyone or anything other than the bottom line.
Millions of iPads and iPhones and smart this and smart that later, our incredible advances in technology come with very costly strings attached. Secret Apple “investigative units†acting in concert with the San Francisco Police Department, cell phone companies (that were aiding and abetting illegal secret wiretapping policies) and transportation agencies cutting off service to quell First Amendment rights of protestors against police brutality, fifty-four page intellectual property contracts and draconian digital rights management policies, and an unprecedented erosion of privacy that we complicity accept in the name of convenience, just like we do unconstitutional legislation under the guise of security.
Millions of underwater homes later – both from loan-sharking predators killing the lives and dreams of those seeking to better themselves, and literally underwater from an old, crumbling infrastructure – we continue to prop up banks and financial institutions that got us into this mess, while cutting vital services we expect from the government, such as the Federal Aviation Agency, so vitally important on September 11th.
Billions of carbon emissions later, we still choke our environment with shrieks for reduced “job-destroying†regulations that fly in the face of science, deny the realities of climate change, and allow giant corporations like BP to continue reckless drilling experiments at the expense of our oceans, marine life and livelihoods, while they “remedy†accidents by pouring toxic, inadequately tested dispersants to hide rather then fix the devastation.
It’s difficult to contemplate the almost irreparable, catastrophic damage exacted on the American people and rest of the world by a greedy, profit-only-at-any-cost-motivated, corrupt, dishonest, thieving, financial industry, dependent on a boated military industrial complex designed to make defense industry CEOs and Wall Street billionaires even richer at the expense of everyone else.  With the help of a complicit, empty joke of a puppet-controlled political system disguised as two-party to keep everyone divided and distracted.
Had so many of the victims not been regular, hard-working people going about their day, or homeless victims asleep in the subways below, or first responders rushing to help and save their fellow citizens, the symbolism of Bin Laden’s attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon might be a lot more readily understood, if not applauded, by Main Street — would it have happened today.
Ten years later, we are just as stupid, pathetic, unsafe, and deluded as we ever were, if not more. The only thing that’s changed is that we have grown older as the memories and potential lessons of 9/11 fade into the distance. And unless and until we do something about it, Osama Bin Laden won.
Clinton Fein is an internationally acclaimed author, artist, and First Amendment activist, best-​known for his 1997 First Amendment Supreme Court victory against United States Attorney General Janet Reno. Fein has also gained international recognition for his Annoy​.com site, and for his work as a political artist. Fein is on the Board of Directors of the First Amendment Project, “a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of information, expression, and petition.†Fein’s political and privacy activism have been widely covered around the world. His work also led him to be nominated for a 2001 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award.
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An increasingly “anxious” White House is lashing out at Democrats and the media, accusing them—without providing evidence—of blaming President Donald Trump for the catastrophic Texas floods that have killed over 90 people, including many children.
Critics are questioning whether cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) by the Trump administration hampered accurate forecasting and slowed emergency warnings. Others point to failures by local officials to communicate timely alerts to the flood-stricken area along the Guadalupe River.
“Former federal officials and outside experts have warned for months that President Donald Trump’s deep staffing cuts to the National Weather Service could endanger lives,” the Associated Press reported Monday afternoon. “The Trump administration has cut hundreds of jobs at NWS, with staffing down by at least 20% at nearly half of the 122 NWS field offices nationally and at least a half dozen no longer staffed 24 hours a day. Hundreds more experienced forecasters and senior managers were encouraged to retire early.”
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“The website for the NWS office for Austin/San Antonio, which covers the region that includes hard-hit Kerr County, shows six of 27 positions are listed as vacant,” the AP also reported, noting, however, that there were the usual number of staff members on hand the night of the flood.
Now, veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen writes that the White House is “very anxious that administration/DOGE massive staffing cuts to national weather service and related agencies not be seen as connected to flooding deaths in Texas, inadequate warning.”
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday, in a letter to Roderick Anderson, the Commerce Department’s acting inspector general, urged him to immediately “open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding,” The Hill reported.
“He noted that The New York Times reported that key forecasting and coordination positions at the San Antonio and San Angelo offices of the NWS were vacant at the time of the Friday storm,” The Hill also reported. “Those local offices were missing a warning coordination meteorologist, a science officer and a senior hydrologist, among other ‘vital forecasting, meteorology and coordination roles.'”
Only once in Schumer’s letter does he mention Trump, and it is not to blame him for the flooding.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday strongly suggested Senator Schumer was indeed directly blaming Trump for the flooding.
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“Unfortunately, in the wake of this once in a generation natural disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and some members of the media. Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Leavitt told reporters (video below).
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Monday also falsely claimed that President Trump is being blamed for natural disasters, telling reporters, “you see that with a hurricane, with a tornado, with a wildfire, with this flooding, where people immediately say, ‘Well, the hurricane is Donald Trump’s fault.'”
Critics pushed back at the White House.
“Nobody is blaming Trump for the floods,” wrote journalist and environmentalist Michael Dominowski. “But he did decimate National Weather Service forecast offices, despite being told doing so would hamper the agency’s ability to accurately predict storms. He did it anyway. Look at what happened. Cause/effect is a thing.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Leavitt: Unfortunately in the wake of this once in a generation national disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats, such as Schumer and members of the media. Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie pic.twitter.com/eOB4tk3xSh
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 7, 2025
READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is under fire for remarks he made in the wake of deadly Texas flooding that has killed over 80 people, claiming that now is not the time to politicize—or even examine—the tragedy, while also defending President Donald Trump.
Some are asking if the Trump administration’s staffing cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and specifically, the National Weather Service (NWS), which provides local weather forecasts and warnings across the country, were to blame for a possibly stunted response to the flash flooding on the Guadalupe River.
“State and local officials are calling out federal forecasters amid deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country over the extended Fourth of July weekend,” Texas NBC affiliate KXAN reported on Friday. “The criticism comes, as funding cuts and staff shortages plague the National Weather Service and other emergency management agencies nationwide.”
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On Monday at Public Notice, Noah Berlatsky wrote: “Retired federal scientists warned that the cuts could hamstring forecasts and make extreme weather events less predictable and more dangerous.”
“The New York Times reported that ‘crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas … prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose,” Berlatsky added. “Did Trump’s cuts cause excess deaths in Texas? It will probably be some time before we have a definitive answer to that question, if we ever do at all.”
Meanwhile, Senator Cruz on Monday told reporters (video below), “I think any time you’re dealing with major rivers, there’s a risk of flooding, and there’s always been a risk of flooding, particularly on the Guadalupe River.”
“One of the things that’s predictable is that you see some people engaging in, I think partisan games, and trying to blame their political opponents for a natural disaster. And you see that with a hurricane, with a tornado, with a wildfire, with this flooding, where people immediately say, “Well, the hurricane is Donald Trump’s fault.”
Cruz also insisted that there’s an “ordering of things,” and that not until after the search and rescue and not until after rebuilding can there be a “retrospective” to determine what could have been done differently.
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Critics blasted Cruz, with one noting that he “was asked a non-partisan question about a safety/warning system. His response was to be defensive and political in defending Trump.”
Others noted that Americans aren’t blaming the President for natural disasters, but for what some see as a hampered response given the drastic cuts made to the National Weather Service.
“No one is saying Trump caused the storm, Ted,” wrote “On Democracy” podcaster Fred Wellman. “We are asking if more could have been done to warn people? They were literally relying on a system of upstream camps calling one’s further down. It’s 2025. They should have had sirens, cell coverage improvements, and more. The county posted the warning on Facebook. Your job is to ask those questions not gaslight.”
“OK,” wrote actress Morgan Fairchild, “but was it ever communicated to you that it was a priority to have [a] warning system? Especially since the area is called Flood Alley…”
“Ted Cruz slams people for ‘engaging in partisan games’ just minutes after he praised Donald Trump as in essence the greatest president and said Trump made it clear he would be there for Texas,” observed SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah.
Watch the videos below or at this link.
Q: Was it ever communicated to you that it was a priority to have a warning system, so people have a chance to escape something like this?
TED CRUZ: Any time you’re dealing with major rivers, there’s a risk of flooding … you see people engaging in partisan games … people… pic.twitter.com/bVEBEXBLnd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 7, 2025
Ted Cruz: “Something went wrong … we’re got to have a better system of warning to get kids out of harm’s way.” pic.twitter.com/Ap3mc1pv1A
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 7, 2025
READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms
In what some critics describe as an example of “cancel culture,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—a high profile official in the Trump administration—is calling for an apology or the firing of a private citizen: Larry Summers, a Democrat who, coincidentally, once held Bessent’s current position and later served as president of Harvard University.
In remarks he made over the weekend, Summers likened the horrific Texas flooding fatalities—now over 80, with dozens reportedly still missing and more rain expected—to what experts say will be the result of President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” the GOP budget projected to lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans annually.
“A Yale and University of Pennsylvania study estimated that restricting Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage, the repeal of nursing home staffing regulations, and other adjustments in the bill could result in 51,000 preventable deaths each year across the country, making it a top 10 cause of death in the U.S.,” The Daily Beast reported over the weekend.
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Actually citing lower death projections, Summers on Sunday told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos (video below) that the GOP budget bill, signed into law in an Independence Day ceremony complete with fighter jets and B-2 bombers soaring overhead, “is the biggest cut in the American safety net in history.”
He cited “estimates that it will kill, over 10 years, 100,000 people.”
“That is 2,000 days of death like we’ve seen in Texas this weekend. In my 70 years, I’ve never been as embarrassed for my country on July 4th,” Summers lamented.
He went on to call it “a shameful act by our Congress and by our president that is going to set our country back.”
Secretary Bessent, reportedly under consideration to replace Jerome Powell as Trump calls for the Federal Reserve Chairman’s exit, lashed out.
Calling Summers’ appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” a “shockingly callous interview,” that portrayed “a lack of humanity and judgment,” Bessent charged, “Using the horrifying situation in Texas for cheap political gain is unfathomable.”
He offered no insight into what political advantage Summers hoped to gain, but alleged that Summers had “turned a human tragedy into a political cudgel,” characterized his remarks as “feckless and deeply offensive,” and demanded “a public apology for his toxic language.”
At no point did Secretary Bessent dispute the numbers Summers cited.
READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms
But he did demand an apology, and absent that, said his remarks should be “grounds for dismissal.”
“I hope the nonprofit and for-profit institutions with which he is affiliated will join me in this call. If he is unwilling or unable to acknowledge the cruelty of his remarks, they should consider Harvard’s example and make his unacceptable rhetoric grounds for dismissal,” the Treasury Secretary wrote.
Critics blasted Bessent.
“‘Shockingly callous’ isn’t pointing out the reality that Medicaid cuts will kill tens of thousands. Shockingly callous is cutting Medicaid without knowing this, or worse, cutting it despite knowing this,” wrote Professor of Economics and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Justin Wolfers. “Notice something else: Not once does Bessent refute the numbers that Summers offers. He just finds the language offensive. Some may find the reality more offensive.”
“Thank goodness we’ve gotten rid of cancel cult…,” Wolfers also snarked. “oh, wait, the secretary of the treasury is pressuring a private university to strip a professor of tenure because he highlighted numbers in a way the regime never refuted, but found offensive.”
“It’s truly pathetic that a Treasury Sec is using a public account to launch ad hominem attacks on a former Treasury Sec,” wrote Neera Tanden, former Biden Director of the Domestic Policy Council. “Clearly Bessent can’t counter @LHSummers facts. Clearly the WH is so worried BBB is a political disaster they forced their toady Treasury Sec to attack.”
“This is none of your business, Scott,” charged writer and historian Joshua Decter. “Stop trying to interfere and meddle with independent academic institutions. These are neo-Stalinist or neo-Maoist tactics. This is not what should happen in America.”
“Calling for a private citizen to be punished for disagreeing with the Administration from his official government account is classic authoritarianism,” observed Fred Wellman, a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School, a 22-year combat veteran who is now the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”
Civil liberties and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler charged: “Secretary: You ALL WERE WARNED. You were warned repeatedly about the deaths you were going to cause. You own them.”
Watch Summers’ remarks in the video below or at this link.
READ MORE: Trump Appeared Unaware His Budget Bill Cuts $1T From Medicaid: Report
Image via Reuters
‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
Ted Cruz Blasted for Defending Trump, Dodging Questions on Flood Warning System Failures
‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods
‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods
Ted Cruz Blasted for Defending Trump, Dodging Questions on Flood Warning System Failures
‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
‘What First Amendment?’: 140 EPA Workers Suspended After Opposing Trump Agenda
‘Stop Talking’: Johnson Suggests Jeffries Is Lying in Marathon Budget Speech
News15 hours ago‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
News12 hours agoTed Cruz Blasted for Defending Trump, Dodging Questions on Flood Warning System Failures
News10 hours ago‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods