Hal Brown's Substack (fomerly Hal Brown's Blog): National Guard shooting

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November 28, 2025

Half the country has a moral compass and thinks that Trump is the worst president in history. Half have no moral compass and think he is the greatest. By Hal M. Brown

You can watch the video from a link in the RawStory article here. It was their No. 1 trending story this morning. You can also watch it here:

Trump said these words at a time when a president should be calling for calm. Instead he is inflaming emotions and lasping into his malevolent mode, a psychological state he is only NOT in when he’s bragging about himself or being fawned over.

Trump and just about every other MAGA Republican is looking to make political hay over the shooting of the two members of the National Guard by an Afghani who was allowed to emigrate to the United States because he helped our country fight the Taliban when he wokded for an elite CIA unit.

As I wrote yesterday they are desperate to blame Biden because the shooter came here under his watch. They omit saying he was offcially granted permanent asylum during Trump’s presidency.

Trump’s kneejerk reaction, which includes the announced review of all green card holders from 19 countries, was the subject of a Wall Street Journal article summarized here: “‘Collective punishment’: WSJ warns MAGA panic over Afghans will hurt America.”

Basically it says what should be a no-brainer: The United States counts on citizens of foreign countries where we are engaged in military actions to help our fighters as Rahmanullah Lakanwal helped the CIA in Afghanistan. (See CNN article.) Being discussed on MSNOW as I write this is how Trump is saying he will order the ground invasion of Venezuela and that if this happens he will want some of their citizens to help us. Are they going to want to help us if they can’t believe any promises made to those who work closely with our side to get them out and relocate them to the United States?

Add this (my emphasis) - clicking will just enlarge image:

You can also read it here.

I want to write about the half of the country who are like Sam.

Here’s Sam’s X page:

According to their commercial website Sam and Donna live in Northern Decatur County in Southern Iowa. They post on their website:

We offer Spring Flower and Summer Flower Subscriptions.

Did you know, currently 80% of the flowers sold in the USA come from outside the country.
We are hoping to change that!

Okay, they are selling MAGA flowers, nothing much wrong with that.

What is wrong with them is embodied in what Sam posted on X.

What is terrifying is that half the country, a bit more or less, agree with Sam and probably Donna.

It is impossible for me not to compare our country today to Germany in the 1930’s.

I’m a Jew, but I hope everyone with a functional moral compass also thinks about this. A majority of Afghans, approximately 99.7%, practice Islam, with about 90% being Sunni Muslims and around 7% identifying as Shia Muslims. Most immigrants to the United States are Christian. They make up about 70% of the immigrant population. Other religious groups include Muslims (7%), Hindus (5%), Buddhists (3%), and Jews (1%). (Reference)

Obviously the Christians aren’t villainized because of their religion. Trump and MAGA will turn people into demons to be deported using whatever excuse they can find.

November 27, 2025

Thanksgiving wishes from Hal M. Brown. One of mine came true. I doubt that the Blame the Shooting on Biden strategy will work.

Yesterday the shooting in DC was all over the media, this morning Thanksgiving parades were major stories until the press conference with Jeanine Pirro and Kash Patel.

Scroll down for my thoughts about how the administration is spinning the shooting. This is what I wrote before the press conference and more news came out about the shooter.

While the parades across the country are celebratory, by chance when I decided to take a photo of what was on my TV screen as I wrote this the woman in the foreground was wearing a costume that reminded me of what many of the protesters against ICE have been wearing. These have been inspired by protestors in my hometown of Portland.

The above is from an article in the right-wing publication Breitbart.

As far as my own Thanksgiving goes, what I am thankful for today in addition to having a family and friends I love, is that the DC shooter not only didn’t turn out to be Hispanic, but that he

Read:

I am sure this is the worst news for Trump & Co. I have absolutely no doubt they hoped he would turn out to be an illegal Hispanic violent felon.

Here’s an excerpt from the above article:

The CIA said the suspect had worked for multiple U.S. government agencies in Afghanistan, including a CIA-backed unit in the southern province of Kandahar.
Afghan units trained by the CIA played an important role in the American evacuation in August 2021, and although many Afghan military units dissolved during the Taliban takeover, the agency’s partner units remained operational and helped transport U.S. citizens and Afghans who worked with U.S. forces to Kabul to be evacuated.
The president, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago resort during the Thanksgiving holiday week, called the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror” and blamed his presence in the U.S. on “those infamous flights.”

I’m sure we will learn more about the motivation of 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal. I doesn’t take a genius to speculate that in some way he believed he was wronged by the Trump administration. We can guess that he might have been enraged enough to do what he did. It could go beyond a denial of services to himself and involve family left back in Afghanistan left at the mercy of the Taliban. He may have been unable to get them moved to the United States. They could have already been murdered by them.

I hate to wish for such a horrible thing, but let’s face it, this is absolutely positively something the administration does not want to come out if it is true. They want to demonize this person. Such a story will make him a person many will see as deserving sympathy even as they condemn what he did.

Meanwhile Trump & Co. are not only making out that the shooter is a criminal, which of course he is, but blaming Biden for the program that brought him here. The current CIA director, John Radcliffe, said in a statement that the suspect “should have never been allowed to come here.”

This is from The NY Times (subscription)

Excerpt:

In July, the Trump administration withdrew humanitarian protections for Afghans who had resettled in the United States, citing Afghanistan’s “improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy.”
But many Afghans would see the situation in their country, now under Taliban rule, differently.

Other good news, minor as it is, comes with the news just announced by Jeanine Pirro, is as follows:

He lived in Bellingham, WA with his wife and five children.

He drove across the country, a Driving from Bellingham, a 2,776 mile drive, not armed to the teeth but with a 357 magnum revolver. These have no more than a six bullet capacity. (More about the gun > 1

Pirro in the press conference blamed the Biden program for allowing people to enter the country who are not properly vetted. She has no idea how this person was vetted.

Kash Patel came on TV with his first words praising Trump. I will post this now and add updates if they expand on the story.

FBI Director Kash Patel dodged a question about whether the suspected Washington, D.C., gunman was granted asylum during Donald Trump’s presidency.
“Question for Director Patel: Was the suspect granted asylum, and if so, when did that happen – under which administration?” a reporter asked Thursday morning during a news conference. “And did authorities miss any signs, either the asylum process or even back when he reportedly worked for the CIA, If you could talk about that?”
The FBI director avoided answering the question and continued blaming Biden-era policies.