Expect the next several months to be a gladiatorial to-the-death showstopper extravaganza where the part of imperial Commodus will be played by the once and future near-octogenarian de-facto fascismo nominee, Donald J. Trump.

Conventional wisdom would suggest the Mar-a-Lago Mussolini ought to be clearing his casting couch for swing state or youthful party leaders, who, like eight years ago, could help him coalesce the establishment wing of the GOP. Except it’s eight years later and the Donald (now a convicted lady-groin grabber) has transformed the party establishment into his own personal plaything. He does not need conventional. He needs a lickspittle lackey.

Mike Flynns and Ric Grenells of the world, rejoice. But in the event the great Orange God King does choose to humor the political class, he has a few limited options.

Trump will need every state he won in 2020, plus some combo of the six that swung away, namely: Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada. Of those, half elected Republicans in 2022, while the other three stayed the course and shut the GOP out entirely statewide.

Packers fans sent Republican Ron Johnson back to the U.S. Senate after narrowly delivering the Badger State for Joe Biden by fewer than 21,000 votes two years prior. Johnson has been a reliable shill for every “America First” initiative over the past eight years, voted twice to acquit the former president during his impeachment trials, and consistently promoted fringe conspiracy theories like “race replacement” at every opportunity.

Next, we can safely say that without Trump, Ohio’s J.D. Vance would be just another corpse collecting maggots on the landfill of political also-ran obscurity. Since eking out a bare plurality on the back of Trump’s endorsement in the 2022 Senate primary, Vance has manifested himself a staunch acolyte of MAGA eternal — refusing to acknowledge the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, and fanboying over Vladimir Putin.

Given his proximity to and shared roots with Appalachian Western Pennsylvania, Vance could prove a boost in a state Biden flipped by a little more than 1%.

Conversely, Govs. Joe Lombardo of Nevada and Georgia’s Brian Kemp have signaled such a vexingly stubborn allegiance to the Constitution that the frice indicted career kleptocrat has practically excommunicated both from his orbit.

There is one potential short-lister who ticks all the based boxes: former Hawaii congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard.

Unlike Q-Anon Ron and Surrender Vance, Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, was deployed to Iraq, is a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal, and the first Samoan-American to serve in Congress. She’s what the former “Apprentice” host would consider “good casting.”

No longer a Democrat, Gabbard has spoken at CPAC, voted “present” during Trump’s first impeachment, guest hosted what used to be “Tucker Carlson Tonight” where she vilified the Justice Department for its lawful raid on Mar-a-Lago, and, perhaps most telling, successfully rattled rival Kamala Harris during the July 30, 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate.

Checkmate, gin, and yahtzee.

While poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight pegs Biden’s approval rating at 39%, Harris rates shockingly worse, at 37.5% — coupled with her boss’s advanced age and the perception he could suffer a debilitating health crisis in a second term, the thought of a President Harris sends voters stampeding into the open sweaty embrace of the con man from Queens by an 8.5% margin, according to a Real Clear Politics average.

Oddly, pundits continue to popularize the forever thirsty Rep. Elise Stefanik and Gov. Kristi Noem as potential VP material. But why would Harvard Elise, who did debate prep for Paul Ryan after toiling away in the Bush globalist White House, who spent three years lambasting Trump before greasing herself up to be MAGA’s chief congressional sleaze, get anointed over true believers Johnson, Vance, or media maven Gabbard?

As for Noem, her preference for extra-marital intrigue effectively puts the kibosh on any vaulting ambition. However, none of these Falange Five can help buoy their Golden Pyrite Calf over his ever-mounting electoral hump.

Trump’s conscious effort to systematically shrink the GOP over the past eight years — especially, in must-win swing states, will end up caponizing any vice presidential vetting pool, and leave his already cash-strapped campaign threepeat starved for hyper-oxygenated political phosphodiesterase.

Brass tacks: Nov. 5 will be a referendum on Trump and Trump alone. Dictum factum.

Schiffbauer is a political consultant and served as deputy communications director for the New York Republican State Committee from 2014-16.

There’s a mismatch here between the reality and the response. Judging exclusively by the plan, one might imagine that the subways have descended into a Hobbesian state of chaos and disorder, with New Yorkers being constantly shot and stabbed as they simply try to take a train. If you actually venture down into the system, you’ll largely see normal people going about their days, grumbling more about service outages than violent criminals.

Insofar as there are people disturbing the peace, they’re often homeless New Yorkers with mental health issues who’ve suffered from a dearth of psychological and psychiatric care options and who need help, not troops. The governor understands this, which is an increase in so-called SOS teams — made up of social workers, medical specialists, and others that help homeless people in subways find bed placements and services — and is a welcome part of the effort. This is the type of targeted intervention that gets results, not just headlines.

None of this is to minimize the impact of the crimes that do occur on trains and platforms, and the ripple effects they have. While crime may be generally down in the subways, felony assault was up slightly and burglary up significantly in the last year. The headline-grabbing severity of these assaults — with straphangers hit with metal objects or tossed to the tracks — creates shock that obscures the sheer unlikelihood that someone will be harmed on the trains.

Last year, the NYPD reported 570 assaults on the subways, every one of them terrible for the victim and society, but that represents something like two million rides for every assault, or an assault likelihood of around 0.00005% per ride.

Yet these assaults can and do make the public afraid of riding, and anything that keeps riders away is a self-reinforcing problem as fewer people pay fares and occupy the stations and trains at all hours. If we’re going to get serious about stopping the upward trend, the solution is not untrained soldiers to gum up the works, perform invasive searches and increase the likelihood of altercations with the public. More real transit cops on the platforms and the trains are helpful, but that is also quite expensive.

Instead, Adams and Hochul should scrap the showy but ineffective Guardsmen plan and focus on targeted interventions. Don’t make the subway system feel more like the airport with bag searches, but put more NYPD transit officers specifically in known problem areas, and have them be visible but relatively unobtrusive.

Also, expand having social services staff develop relationships with those suffering from substance abuse and mental illness by offering placements and supports. The subways cannot serve as campsites, which is degrading for people living there and unsettling to those using the trains for their intended transportation purpose.

This approach will work better, cost less and help more people in the long run.

That she didn’t endorse him is a thin hope that she will withhold her backing — and her voters and donors and supporters will do likewise. Or maybe she will soon enough fall in line as Mitch McConnell did, and pledge loyalty to Trump.

Haley’s departure is bad for her and it’s bad for the party and it’s bad for the country, as Trump cruises towards a third consecutive nomination. No one wants a repeat of the awful 2020 contest between Trump and Joe Biden, but that’s what we are getting.

Biden said a while back that he is running to stop Trump, the same reason he ran last time. However, if there was no Trump, with his not-secret threats to democracy and constitutional norms, then maybe Biden could retire.

But Trump pushes on, perhaps to erase his 2020 loss (which really happened, fair and square) and take revenge on those he perceived betrayed him, perhaps to try to raise money for his costly legal defense and staggeringly high civil court judgments, perhaps to try to win in order to self-pardon himself from his federal indictments or perhaps for all those reasons.

Also packing it in yesterday was Congressman Dean Phillips, who quit the Democratic race. He liked Biden’s policies and he liked Biden, but argued that Biden couldn’t beat Trump. Democrats didn’t take up the offer from Phillips. And we will see in November if Phillips’ dire prediction is correct.

What this also means is that the April 2 New York presidential primary has no value to anyone and is a $25 million waste of taxpayers’ money, including eight days of early voting starting on Saturday, March 23. It’s not the normal nine days of early voting because March 31 is Easter Sunday. But instead of keeping the polls closed just for one day, we should cancel the whole presidential primary.

The Republican ballot lists Trump, Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie. They have all quit except for Trump. The Democratic ballot has Biden, Phillips and Marianne Williamson. The New Age guru/kook Williamson quit and then unquit. She may very well quit again. And on the part of the Democratic ballots that actually matters, delegates, only Biden offered a slate of delegates so Williamson isn’t competing for anything. (Republican ballots don’t list delegates in this state)

The two chairs of the Legislature’s election committees, Assemblymember Latrice Walker and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, should quickly pass a bill that requires presidential primary candidates to recertify their intention of running. When the quitters don’t respond, the state Board of Elections can then cancel the primary, as New York never runs primaries with single candidates.

There are no other public offices or party positions on the April ballot. Any absentee ballots that were already mailed out can be thrown away.

With the top of the two tickets settled, it’s going to be very long eight months until November. New York taxpayers should at least save $25 million and avoid a useless exercise.

Middletown, N.J.: I would like to acknowledge a woman who, in my opinion, is a true New Yorker! Her name is Sandra Roth Ruskin, she is an administrator for a Facebook group called “New York City Images 1850-1980.” It is a large group of people who celebrate NYC (all five boroughs) by posting images with photos and paintings of our fair city!

Sandra is an expert in not only posting these images but also explaining in great detail who painted the portrait or who took the photo, and when and where it occurred! She loves the interaction of the members regarding all the images that are posted. She also keeps the members in line by not allowing any current politics to be involved. She is a consummate professional in all this. In my opinion, Sandra is a New Yorker at its best!

I would bet that many of you who use Facebook have joined this group. There are other administrators as well, but in my humble opinion, Sandra is the best of the best. She works for hours researching these images and posting them, and gets no compensation for the time she spends.

She is a true New Yorker who cares only that we members actually see New York City at its best and its worst (at times), and always at its most interesting moments. Please, if you have never been to that group, take a look at it, as I am sure you will be thrilled seeing all the images. Thank you, Sandra! Herbert Hanrahan

Holes in the system

Greenburgh, N.Y.: This is pothole season and many motorists are experiencing car damages due to potholes. New York State’s government treats itself differently than every town, village and city in the state. If you drive on a state-owned road or highway between Nov. 15 and May 1 and you go over a pothole, you are out of luck — even if someone reported the pothole to the state and it did nothing. They won’t give you a penny towards repairs that they caused. This is unfair. Every other government in the state is liable for pothole-related damages if they received written notice and did nothing about it. Why should the state be treated differently? Paul Feiner

Friendly territory

Las Vegas: Now that one of the only primaries (or caucuses) that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has won is Washington, D.C., maybe she should move to D.C. and run for mayor — as a Democrat. Arthur A. Ahr

Democrat dyslexia

Brooklyn: I have noticed that Republicans and their supporters in the right-wing media keep referring to the Democrats as the party of slavery and Jim Crow. While there is certainly some truth to this claim, I find it ironic that the Southern Democrats who embraced slavery and then Jim Crow laws are the revered and honored forbears of the current base of the GOP in the South, i.e. the whites who fly the Confederate flag, wear MAGA caps and go into conniptions when Confederate statues and monuments are torn down. Trump’s southern base worships those Democrats of yesteryear like Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart et al. Also, the Union could not have won the Civil War and ended slavery were it not for the mass participation of Northern Democrats in the Union army and navy. Indeed, some members of Lincoln’s cabinet were Democrats! Dennis Middlebrooks

Shell company shills

Edgewater, N.J.: It looks like a former president (not Jimmy Carter!) is trying to finesse his private media startup into a shell corporation to simplify his ability to take it public and collect more of his fans’ money. Haven’t we been listening to his friends in Congress for months sneer that the use of shell corporations is shifty and shady (because they think a member of the current president’s family may have used one)? Anybody hear similar sneering now on this latest shell game? With all the House oversight-committee talk disparaging shell corporations, I began to wonder who invented them anyway, and caused them to be viewed as devious: Financiers who’ve historically voted for the House’s current majority party, or advocates of working families who tended to vote otherwise? Jay K. Egelberg

Free to flee

Commack, L.I.: The gangs of Haiti have stormed a main prison in Port-au-Prince, releasing 4,000 prisoners. I would take a bet that they will be crossing our border within a week. John Flanagan

Around again

Hoosick Falls, N.Y.: As a Giants fan, I’m nervous that “wait until next year is almost here!” Jack Bakaitis

Solutions averted

Great Neck, L.I.: The excuse by MTA and NYC Transit that permanent improvements are on hold until congestion pricing is resolved (“MTA’s big overtime leak,” March 3) doesn’t hold water. The MTA has had three years to program funding that resolves this issue by allocating some of their $1.8 billion in annual Federal Transit Administration capital funding. Excessive overtime could have been avoided by assigning patrols to temporary, part-time or employees out on partial disability who were physically still able to walk around the bus depot. This is just one of many examples of MTA and NYC Transit waste, fraud and abuse. No wonder so many commuters, taxpayers, transit advocacy groups and elected officials have little faith in MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and NYC Transit President Richard Davey’s management abilities. Larry Penner

Not on their dime

Manhattan: The report that New York City paid out more than $500 million in NYPD settlements (“Not ready to settle,” editorial, March 4) is a worrisome sign that civil suits do not deter flawed policing. Against this backdrop, the NYPD should be required to tap into its asset forfeiture account to shoulder a significant portion of damage awards arising from wrongful convictions, settlements and trial verdicts, rather than NYC taxpayers. It does not appear that risk management is practiced by the police commissioner. Roger B. Adler

Push it through

Rye Brook, N.Y.: Ukraine is in desperate need of the military aid approved by the Senate, but Rep. Mike Johnson is preventing the bill from going to the House floor. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries needs to initiate a discharge petition to obtain the necessary signatures to force a vote on the bill. Demes Poulos

Missed your point

Whiting, N.J.: Voicer Glenn B. Jacobi paints a scenario where “the Squad” lives in a country under authoritarian rule for a month and then seeks to get out and return to the U.S.A. as quickly as possible. I am not clear on the point he is trying to make — that the Squad should have more centrist views, or is it justifying the wave of migrants trying to escape despotic regimes? Bill McConnell

Bread and circuses

Jackson Heights: America is divided politically and racially. Wars are raging across the globe, and what concerns Americans most? Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, along with dancing to Beyoncé’s country song. What should be of concern is: Where is Melania? Michael Lawrence

Underfunded UI

Albany: Re “Union: hike jobless aid” (March 3): New York’s unemployment insurance (UI) benefits should not increase without a significant infusion of state resources to its fund, which is still more than $7 billion in debt from state-mandated COVID shutdowns. This includes expanded benefits for striking workers, who are already afforded easier access to UI benefits than most workers, who must be actively engaged in a work search. State-level unemployment insurance benefits are funded exclusively by taxes on employers, so any benefit increase results in increased taxes on them. While many states incurred UI debt during the pandemic, New York remains the only state to take no significant action to address the UI debt and its impact on employers. Any consideration of increased UI benefits needs to be done as part of a comprehensive plan to restore the state’s fund to financial stability and lower UI tax burdens on business. Ken Pokalsky, Business Council of New York State

Soon-to-be centurion

Middle Village: On a different note, let’s raise a glass to Eva Marie Saint, one of the last surviving actresses of the Golden Age, who turns 100 this July 4. May God bless! Robert Chirieleison

That was the fear amongst many conservatives, including myself, who saw in Trump a dangerous, ignorant, narcissistic, demagogue and grifter who was untethered from the thing that mattered most to us — conservatism.

We’d later learn he was untethered from other things, too — a moral compass, ethical standards, the United States Constitution, American law, and even reality at times.

We’d watch Trump convince previously principled conservatives to abandon their principles. We’d watch Republicans jettison policy for culture wars, democracy for division, political competence for conspiracy theories.

We’d watch Trump convince an angry mob to storm the U.S. Capitol in a brazen and violent attempt to overturn democracy. We’d watch him tempt the legal system to hold him accountable for dozens of alleged felonies, including fraud and obstruction.

And we’d watch his once mighty empire crumble as he faces hundreds of millions in legal fines and fees.

Now, years later, despite everything we’ve watched, Trump is poised to be the Republican nominee once again after nearly sweeping the primaries on Super Tuesday.

The one ray of hope inside the Republican Party, a party that Trump has wholly remade in his crooked image, was Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

After knocking out bigger spenders and buzzier candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, she became the last woman standing between Trump and the nomination. She impressively won 40% of the vote in numerous Republican primary and caucus states, and won outright Vermont and Washington, D.C., making her the first Republican woman ever to win a primary and the only Republican to beat him anywhere since 2016.

She wasn’t a perfect candidate, but she spoke to a growing number of Republicans, moderates, and independents who desperately wanted a Trump alternative.

She represented a return to normalcy, conservative principles, and problem-solving, and promised a new generation of leadership at a time where both frontrunners are noticeably old and slipping.

But just as Trump bragged about ridding the GOP of good conservatives like Sen. Mitt Romney, and reducing it to 100% MAGA, she’d ultimately suffer the fate of every other Republican since 2016 who has lost to Trump.

The Republican Party is, as Trump says, 100% MAGA now. There’s no going back. And with Haley’s departure, that becomes even clearer.

But Trump is wrong in one sense. The GOP may be condensed and purified of apostates. But Republican voters are not united around Trump.

No one losing 40% of the Republican vote in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina could claim voters are united.

In North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, less than 40% of Republican voters consider themselves MAGA. And a huge majority of Haley voters in North Carolina, South Carolina, and California say they won’t support Trump in the general, according to exit polling.

That makes Trump a considerably weak candidate in the general election — and Haley’s campaign has a lot to do with that.

Lucky for him, President Biden is just as weak, facing low approval numbers and increasing concerns over his age.

Unluckily for us, one thing is clear after Super Tuesday: we’ll end up with someone deeply unpopular no matter who wins.

As for Nikki Haley, her political future is unclear. Certainly, something could happen to Trump — you can fill in the blank. Her candidacy could be resurrected at some point.

But the Republican Party isn’t with Haley, it’s with Trump.

And there are some early indications she might end up returning to him after all of this.

As she said when withdrawing: “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it, who did not support him. And I hope he does that.”

And I asked her campaign on Wednesday morning if there was a world in which she could eventually endorse him, and, alas, they implied that there was.

It’s disappointing, but predictable and probably politically smart if she wants a future in today’s GOP — there’s simply no surviving outside of Trump’s orbit.

So now we must accept that Trump will be the nominee and is still the standard bearer for the Republican Party, and everything that brings with it.

But for a brief, fleeting moment, there was the promise of Nikki Haley.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

Recent numbers show that fewer than five million students have submitted the 2024-25 FAFSA form so far while, in previous years, typically 17 million students submitted a FAFSA form. There is a lot of work to be done to ensure that students get all of the financial aid to which they’re entitled and we all need to play a role in getting it done.

The FAFSA mess has significant implications for the future of this country. Students from working class families will not likely be able to attend college next year if they do not file a FAFSA because that is the key to need-based aid, both institutional and federal (including the very important Pell grants).

This cohort will also be a group that experienced significant remote learning during the pandemic, and we know that many have suffered educationally and emotionally.

We also know that for most students, college is the key to higher earnings, increased job security, and better health outcomes.

So what should be done? I suggest a campaign in our communities to galvanize students and their families to file their FAFSAs. Perhaps not the most glamorous of causes, it is certainly one that could draw support from all parts of the political spectrum. Everyone can agree that young people should have all the information and resources available to them as possible as they and their families make critical decisions like whether or where to attend college.

Universities and colleges must be the first to step up to support our current and future students during this confusing and challenging time.

At Pace University, we’ve been working for years to prepare ourselves and our community for this change and have dramatically increased those efforts in the past few months. Regular and thorough communications have been provided to our current and prospective students about the changes and what they are required to do.

We’ve also identified many of the specific areas of difficulty that many students and families have been encountering and provided webinars with guidance on how to successfully navigate them. Finally, we’ve put our money where our mouth is and provided a $1,500 award to incoming freshman students who complete their FAFSA before March 15. These communal and individual supports have gone a long way toward increasing our prospective and current students’ filings.

One of the best positioned institutions to reach young people are their high schools. Teachers, guidance counselors, and principals not only have access to students and their families but also their trust that they are looking out for our young people’s best interests.

Daily reminders, workshops, and one-on-one advisements are all avenues for millions more FAFSA applications being submitted. Superintendents and school systems should make sure that high schools have all of the resources that they need to inform and support their students during this challenging period.

There are many other trusted institutions that can provide information and guidance. Community centers, after school groups, and religious organizations are all critical resources for their constituencies for services and information.

The federal government should work with these organizations to provide them with resources to assist students and their families with filing their FAFSAs. For families without available access to technology, for whom the FAFSA is particularly critical, these community resources could be invaluable in providing it. 

Finally, there is still much that the federal government can do to increase the number of FAFSA applications that have been filed. All of the institutions I previously mentioned have limited resources to do the work that they already do and need the federal government to help them help our students.

In addition to an information campaign about the importance of filing the FAFSA, the federal government needs to actively partner with institutions of higher education, high schools, and community organizations to share information and provide support and guidance. 

However we arrived at today’s challenges, it is in everyone’s shared interest to work together and help as many students and families submit their FAFSA as possible. That you can work hard and achieve your goals, no matter your background, is a fundamental part of the American dream and affordable access to higher education is a critical piece of that.

It is only through our collective efforts that we’ll achieve this goal and make sure all of our students and families have the information and resources that they need and deserve.

Krislov is president of Pace University.

Today, for the first time, I believe that this tradition must change. People, organizations, and countries who see themselves as friends of Israel must confront the Israeli government and pressure it to come to an agreement to free the 134 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and its allies.

For the love of Israel, our friends must consider what might have seemed unthinkable before Oct. 7: using your leverage to force Israel’s leaders to reach an agreement with Hamas. Taking off the gloves for the sake of our hostages could take many forms, including temporary suspension of specific projects and fundraising with Israel, explicit pressure in the international press, downscaling of official visits and other clear messages to the Israeli government that it must do all in its power to return all the hostages.

I know this kind of public confrontation will feel difficult and painful, but for the love of Israel and the hostages, we must.

My investment in this change is personal. My 35-year-old son, Sagui, is still imprisoned in Gaza. Of those hostages, 28 are from my home, Kibbutz Nir Oz. These men, women and children are members of my extended family. Hamas murdered 40 people in our community on Oct. 7, took 80 more as hostages, looted our property and destroyed our homes and communal buildings. Sagui’s young family miraculously survived the Nir Oz massacre, and his wife gave birth in mid-December to the youngest of their three daughters.

From the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government ministers have equivocated about prioritizing the return of our hostages — suggesting that military pressure is the key to freeing the hostages. They point to two cases in which the IDF successfully rescued a total of three hostages to make this case.

These operations are the exceptions that prove the rule: military action alone cannot return the majority of hostages alive. The three rescued hostages were held above ground and had not been moved since Oct. 7.

The 130-plus remaining hostages have been held in Hamas’ tunnel network for months, are moved frequently and many, perhaps all, are used as human shields for Hamas leaders. If somehow cornered by IDF troops, these terrorists will murder the hostages before themselves seeking “martyrdom” in battle.

Israel’s leaders must negotiate with Hamas to save the lives of our hostages. Any other course of action is a death sentence for them.

Instead of channeling its energy into preventing this fate, our government has pit Israeli society against one another by suggesting that hostage families and their supporters are harming the war effort.

This smear campaign is absurd. My patriotism and that of people in other border communities cannot be impugned. Since 2008, Hamas has fired rockets and mortar rounds into Nir Oz, dug terror tunnels across the border, flown incendiary kites meant to burn our farm fields and explosive balloons intended to maim our children.

Through all these threats, we raised children and grandchildren, proudly serving as Israel’s “bread basket” despite the immense risks to our safety. There is no justification for any government official questioning my commitment to Israel’s security and productivity. No one in Israel understands the necessity of eradicating Hamas more than these very same kibbutzim destroyed on Oct. 7.

Hamas’ attack should never have happened and would not have been so deadly if Israel’s government and army had done their jobs. The government must honor its sacred obligation to protect its citizens and must not sacrifice the hostages to redeem their shame from Oct. 7. If the hostages do not return home alive, together with the remains of those bodies Hamas holds, Israeli society will never heal and peace may never come to the region.

Sadly, domestic political worries deter our prime minister and his coalition partners from agreeing to any hostage agreement. This painful understanding brings me to ask this from all Jewish and non-Jewish friends of Israel: speak directly to the government of Israel; say that Israel’s legitimacy depends on its commitment to saving Jewish lives; tell them that you cannot support a government that prioritizes its own political survival.

I realize that answering my call might contradict what our parents told us about supporting Israel. But for the sake of Israel, I implore you to now prioritize the people of Israel over a government that evidently does not.

Dekel-Chen is the father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen.

As beneficial as this has proved for our species, it has pitfalls, most significantly the fact that we don’t see the really bad things coming, or tend to ignore them. The last two decades have been a masterclass in the dangers of this cognitive quirk — our hubristic campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic meltdown whose clear signs we collectively ignored, the surging devastation of climate change after many years of warnings were not heeded, the preventable loss of life as leaders waved away the threat of COVID.

Now, there’s Donald Trump. With Super Tuesday powering the former president forward towards the Republican nomination and dispelling any last remaining grains of doubt about his eventual candidacy, we are again hurtling to a showdown between Joe Biden and Trump. Yet despite the rematch, this is not the same situation we had four years ago.

We know much more about the lengths to which Trump is willing to go to secure his power and subvert the rule of law. We know about Jan. 6, about how close we came to having sitting members of Congress and the vice president violently attacked and perhaps hanged during a violent takeover of our halls of power. We know how hard Trump tried to nullify the voters’ choices, and how he’s lionized the insurrectionist shock troops of his attempted coup.

More importantly, we know about what he’s planning if he’s ever allowed presidential power again. We do not have to speculate, because Trump has said it himself, that he would implement the “termination” of parts of the Constitution, that he would be a “dictator” on his first day in office.

He has promised rather explicitly to utilize federal law enforcement to pursue his political enemies on spurious grounds, an approach already pioneered by his MAGA followers in Congress with sham impeachments. His closest allies have spelled out, in detail, plans to deploy the military widely across the country, for immigration enforcement and who knows what else.

At least, we should know. Some recent polling makes clear that far too much of the country remains unaware of some of Trump’s most authoritarian impulses and comments. There is the sense that he can’t be serious, or that these are politically-motivated attacks even when they’re direct quotes from Trump and his MAGA entourage. Normalcy bias again at work, threatening to lull us into false security.

When Trump talks about subverting our government and shaping it to his own image, we should take him at his word. Most voters are relatively casual politics observers, tuning in occasionally as elections near and developing their views on sporadic information. Between now and November, it’s imperative to put front and center the dominant political story of our lifetimes, that of Trump’s open authoritarianism. Only the American public can stop him.

Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy testified via Zoom. But he wasn’t speaking in favor of his own sound plan for NJT, but rather against congestion pricing backed by Gov. Hochul. Sorry, sir, we support both proposals and they both need to be adopted (and the way the gubernatorial-dominated NJT and MTA boards work, they both will be adopted.)

The higher NJT fares start on July 1, probably right after the MTA’s congestion pricing begins. We have spent a great deal of time on the benefits of congestion pricing to everyone (including Jerseyites who like to drive into Midtown and Downtown), so we will focus on the NJT fare hikes.

The fare, which has been held flat for far too long, must go up 15% and then there will be regular, annual inflation-based fare increases of 3%. We call that the Ravitch Rule, after Dick Ravitch, who repeatedly saved the subways, among other amazing accomplishments.

Murphy was an old friend of Ravitch, knowing him long before Murphy entered electoral politics with his first run in 2017, as the governor explained when he spoke at Ravitch’s funeral last summer.

Murphy also wants, for the first time, to have a dedicated and dependable revenue source for transit, with a proposed tax. That was also a Ravitch invention. Under Ravitch’s arm-twisting, the Legislature created a bunch of dedicated taxes for the MTA in 1981 when, as MTA chair, he saved the subways the first time.

And then Ravitch did it again with a dedicated payroll tax for transit that he successfully pushed for in 2009. And he kept at it, championing more financial support from Albany, which came last year, shortly before he died just shy of his 90th birthday.

The Ravitch Rule, of small and predictable fare increases, came in 2009, and with a few exceptions, the MTA has wisely stuck to the schedule.

Murphy, by catching up fares with the strong medicine of a 15% jump, and then setting a steady course with routine fare bumps and a dedicated tax stream, can do the same for NJT.

Murphy also knows well that Ravitch dearly wanted congestion pricing.

Ravitch agreed with us, as does everyone in New York, that it is unfair and bad policy for NJT to charge an extra, Manhattan-only fee for trips to and from Newark Airport’s rail station. The Manhattan-only surcharge began when the AirTrain debuted in 2001, with an added few bucks for only New York travelers. (Any knowledgeable rider can legitimately avoid the fee.)

We complained for years and in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie chopped the penalty to 25 cents, but refused to eliminate it. Now NJT is going to make the Manhattan fee 30 cents. Even though Penn Station is by far NJT’s busiest station, there are no fare hearings there this week.

Hochul should just tell Murphy to cut it out. Come on, sir, with these Ravitch-like moves, you are putting NJT on track. Now, just drop that unfair airport penalty.

Briarwood: Last week on one of the cable networks, there was a report concerning Trump fatigue or anti-Trump burnout. The report indicated that people were getting tired of hearing about Donald Trump. I disagree that this is fatigue or burnout. The problem is hopelessness caused by the concern of whether that the majority can have any meaningful say in our government.

To explain the lack of hope, look at what has happened since the protests, particularly by women, which occurred in 2017 after Trump was elected. Our reproductive freedom has been reduced, gay rights are threatened, and voting rights have been diminished.

Despite all our efforts, the majority have not been able to stop or discourage the minority from weakening our hard-earned rights. The minority already has total control of the Supreme Court and many state legislatures. My anticipation is that there will be further deterioration of all of our rights as the minority finds additional ways to take more control of our government.

We can protest and yell and scream all we want, but unless the people elect representatives who will represent the majority interests, there is no hope. Unfortunately, with our existing system, I’m not sure it is possible for the majority to ever have sufficient control of the government to make our lives truly better.

This is why there is hopelessness. Mary Elizabeth Ellis

Miles in their shoes

Jackson Heights: For an exciting new show, the producers of “Undercover Boss” could recruit the unhappy members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and arrange for them to live incognito in Cuba or Venezuela with regular people for 30 days. No personal security, no money. The last episode will be a nail-biter. If current events are representative, I’m thinking The Squad will do everything possible to scramble onto an overcrowded, leaking boat and try to escape. Stay tuned. Glenn B. Jacobi

Schedule change

Brooklyn: By any measure, early voting for nine days at sites different from a person’s regular polling site, some as far as a half-mile away, has been a failure. The turnouts have been nothing short of disgraceful. Your article on March 2 makes another argument against nine days in schools (“Early voting risks student safety,” op-ed). To ensure better turnout and limit challenges to school security, we should push for early voting to be limited to the weekend before Election Day and be held at regular sites. I believe this will increase voter participation and also save money for the city. Early voting has failed miserably. Robert Mascali

CRT challenge

Bronx: To Voicer Eric Cavaballo Callvado: I’m wondering if you could explain critical race theory to me. Do you even know what it is or are you just repeating right-wing B.S.? Also, do you realize that it is not taught in school until college? W. Twirley

Humanitarian aid theater

Edinburgh, Scotland: Early in Benjamin Netanyahu’s collective punishment of the people of Gaza, I referred to the West’s lament for aid while refusing to call for the killing to stop as tantamount to a human grouse shoot. The West is simply keeping people alive long enough for the IDF to use them as target practice. There is something so deeply disgusting about whining for a bit of food to get through to terrified civilians trapped in a kill zone when you won’t help stop the killing. After the “most moral army in the world” gunned down the desperate queuing for aid, and now that the slaughter has topped 30,000, mainly women and children, there is something so deeply disturbing and disgusting about the latest announcements of air drops and the accompanying pat on the back the EU, U.K. and U.S. are giving themselves, that I feel physically sick and can find no words to describe this. Amanda Baker

Too many victims

Woodside: About 30,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, have died since the conflict started. Surprise: Israel doesn’t have many more deaths than they had after the Oct. 7 attack. I guess Gazan women and children are not the enemy, but they sure do die. This is wrong! Richard Tobiassen

Cynics in charge

Brooklyn: To Voicer George Nader: I agree with all of your points and want to answer most of your questions with one simple answer: Because it’s Israel! In politics, it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, no matter how barbaric. All that matters are how many votes you could gain or lose. Jim Carney

Intervene now

Hallandale, Fla.: Our government — complicit in Israel’s widespread destruction in Gaza, including the senseless killing of civilians, journalists and aid workers — can and must hasten a critically needed ceasefire with a direct and firm threat to withhold further money and armaments to their government. Whereas Israel’s leaders demand terms that appear to be rejected by Hamas, such as a complete list of remaining captives, the crisis in Gaza only intensifies. This includes growing starvation and malnutrition of 2 million civilians, along with mostly defunct or disabled hospitals unable to properly treat thousands of wounded civilians. This crisis demands a steadfast, resolute and unwavering response by the Biden administration. Sid Kurdis

Family affair

Woodside: So, the big tech companies will be sued because children are experiencing depression, sadness and suicidal tendencies. My question is where are the parents of these children? Oh, yeah — they’re too busy on their phones. Linda Carlson

Easy out

Medford, L.I.: To Judge Marva Brown: Thanks so much for releasing a repeat offender back onto the streets of Manhattan (“Woman busted in bottle bashing of cello player,” March 1). Amira Hunter had a long list of offenses before she clubbed a man in the subway station last month, and once again, she was released in your courtroom. What is wrong with you? What if it was you or one of your family members who was attacked or stolen from (she’s had several arrests for larceny)? You’re not the only person to blame — Gov. Hochul shares the guilt, as she’s the one who drafted legislation to release criminals because they can’t afford bail. Repeat offenders keep being released. New York is a toilet for criminality. Betty Miserendino

Condiment confusion

Bronx: To Voicer Mariann Tepedino: You are missing the point. It’s not about whether they taste good, it’s about where you put the condiments. Do you put mustard on your bagel? Ketchup on your pancakes? Syrup on your hotdogs? Cream cheese on your French fries? Mary Caggiano

Hearing without listening

Woodside: So they held public hearings concerning the upcoming congestion pricing. What is the point? It’s going to happen anyway, no matter what the public has to say. The cons of this pricing have apparently not been looked at. The MTA wants it, as do the transportation progressives, who say it will help clean the air, but only in Manhattan below 60th St. Never mind about the increased traffic in upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. And it will encourage people to use mass transit to get to the major tourist areas of Manhattan, although our system leaves a lot to be desired. The MTA set a goal of billions of dollars to be raised via the congestion toll, but we all know that they will still go to Albany, hat in hand, looking for funding because either not enough money was raised or the state needed it for another transportation issue somewhere else. Tom Rice

Honored institution

Staten Island: It was the late 1950s. Every weekday morning as I walked, Kings County Hospital was on my left, Downstate Hospital was being built on my right and Erasmus Hall High School had us freshmen spending our first year in the nearby public school. Years later, now a mom and registered nurse, Downstate Hospital’s kidney specialists would diagnose and save my son, who was suffering from an autoimmune condition. Personally and professionally, I hope this special hospital will remain to help other families for many years. Lynne Kessler