Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes

Posted: January 10, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An “X” post by Katie Miller, White House staffer and wife of Stephen Miller Deputy Chief of Staff, regarding questions about the U.S. taking over Greenland.

The new year is only ten days old and already I am exhausted by all of the shenanigans pulled by the Trump regime. Trump and his advisers are dropping any pretense of trying to persuade us, as citizens, that their actions are in our best interests. From Venezuela to Minnesota we now know that they have only their own best interests guiding them. International, national or local laws are only guidelines. If the law is not convenient to get what they want, then damn the law, they will do it anyway. Am I exaggerating? No. Let Stephen Miller, the power behind Trump’s throne explain the world view of Trump and his advisers. In an interview earlier this week with Jake Tapper of CNN he explained (actually he shouted, as he does in every interview I have seen) how they will act towards Greenland.

“The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There’s no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you’re asking, of a military operation. Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.” Then he added more.“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

Will we really invade Greenland? I have no idea. There is no strategic reason to do so, despite the lies coming from the administration. Greenland is a semi-independent Danish territory. The Danes are, perhaps, our strongest and most supportive ally in NATO. There are treaties and agreements that go back to the early 1950’s about the use of Greenland for military activity. If the U.S. wanted to build another base there (we have one already called Pituffik Space Base formerly known as Thule Air Force Base) we could and the Danes and Greenlanders would welcome it. Greenland is on the western flank of the Greenland, Iceland, U.K. Gap (GIUK Gap). That gap is the avenue used by Russian naval forces, especially their ballistic missile submarines, to get from the ice free year-round port in Murmansk to the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. NATO has significant anti-submarine warfare (ASW) assets monitoring the gap. There is no military reason for the U.S. to occupy Greenland or to take it away from Denmark.

There is only one real reason and it is the same as for our incursion into Venezuela. Trump wants it. He wants to dominate the Western Hemisphere and he wants to demonstrate his domination. He also wants to make money off any endeavor that the U.S, undertakes, but that is almost a given after nearly a year of watching his policy decisions from tariffs to oil to the rare earth elements believed to be in large deposits in Greenland. Trump has no desire to be a part of, or abide by any international treaty. Last week he withdrew the U.S. from sixty-six international organizations.

Everything that Trump and his minions said about Venezuela were lies. Many of us knew it at the time, but now the whole world knows it. It was never about drugs, or democracy or giving Venezuelans a better life, it was simply another grab for money in the form of oil. We sent our sons and daughters and husbands and wives into full-fledged combat so that Trump can look tough and steal oil. Does that make our military forces mercenaries? Fighting for money? Of course, as usual, he did not know what he was talking about because either none of his Cabinet members did their homework, or because Trump did not listen, but the truth remains, U.S. oil companies have mostly moved on from Venezuela and have no intention of going back.

As usual, as multiple oil executives explained to him yesterday as to why they were not interested, Trump waved his hand and promised to make the real world problems go away. As one of my favorite sayings goes, “nothing is impossible for the person that doesn’t have to do it.” (I am no geologist or oil industry expert, but even I know that Venezuelan oil is hard to extract, hard to refine, the infrastructure would have to be rebuilt costing at least 100 billion dollars and the government and internal unrest are not conducive to safe operations any time in the near future. Not to mention that the cost of oil right now is low and therefore barely profitable and U.S. producers use a lot of U.S. and Canadian shale oil.)

Here is the real “tell.” At last count we have already seized five “ghost” tankers that are headed to the U.S. worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump announced that Venezuela will “give” us the oil now in storage in Venezuela because of the embargo. All together, that oil could be worth several billion dollars. Earlier he announced on Truth Social, “this oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” CNN reports that the money will not go into the U.S. Treasury. Instead it will “utilize a collection of international oil traders and offshore bank accounts to sell the oil and manage the resulting cash.” A billion dollar slush fund for Trump! What could go wrong? Does anyone still doubt what the real purpose of the incursion into Venezuela was all about? Does Congress remember that we have a Constitution? Article I gives control of the purse strings to Congress, but I have little hope of anything coming from them to check his power.

This same lawless exercise of raw power is evident in our domestic policies as well. One example is ignoring the law — not a request, not a subpoena, not a committee hearing — to turn over the Epstein files. They were to be turned over by 19 December and now the Department of Justice (DOJ) is saying that they have released less than one percent of the documents in the file. We should not expect to see any real progress on that front anytime soon, if at all. Stonewall. Deflect. Ignore. We know the routine by now.

More tragically are the efforts to remove immigrants from our country. Many, not all, that are being rounded up and hunted down are here legally, either through the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) program or because they followed the rules and officially applied for asylum. A mere fraction are “the worst of the worst.” As reported in the New Republic, on New Year’s Eve the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency announced a new 100 million dollar recruitment effort that ICE called “a wartime recruitment” strategy that will target people “who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear.” Starting last summer, they used social media to advertise the hiring of more agents as a chance to “Serve your country! Defend your culture! No undergraduate degree required!” Since then they have reportedly hired 12,000 new agents, more than doubling the size of the agency. I will not speculate on the quality of the hires, or the extremely shortened training they receive, but when it is all put together, there is a troubling theme to the recruitment effort. Think about the term “defend your culture.” Do you honestly believe that they are appealing to Jews, Muslims, Latinos or any other minority group in our country? There is a very specific type of person they are hiring and while the horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis has sparked protests around the country, we can probably expect more killing. Our highest government officials lied about the situation before her body was removed from the scene. The ICE agent that shot her is on tape after he shot her and as she crashed saying “f***ing b*itch.” As if she deserved to get shot in the face three times for trying to help her neighbors. There is a sense for those within this administration that they are untouchable. No one is held accountable. If there was any doubt that a cover-up would ensue, that doubt was erased when the FBI announced that no Minnesota or Minneapolis law enforcement agencies would be included in the investigation of the murder of Renee or be allowed access to evidence.

We need to protest, peacefully but clearly. This is not the America I love and served for twenty eight years. It is important to remain calm but resolute. My gut tells me that Trump is hoping that these various confrontations result in a major escalation of violence so that he can declare martial law and cancel the upcoming elections, or at least severely inhibit them, under the guise of national security, their go to explanation for everything illegal that they do. But, don’t take my word for it. Here is Trump talking to a gathering of Republicans. “You gotta win the midterms ’cause, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be – I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me, I’ll get impeached.”

He is weaponizing the government and his supporters. When his administration tells ICE and other instruments of repression that “we’ve got your backs” he is telling them that anything goes. For proof, look no further than pardoning all of those that tried to overthrow our government. Then, last week on 6 January, the fifth anniversary of the coup, an official website of the United States of America went up that repeated every lie ever told about that day. (You can find it here. Be ready to be disgusted.) According to the official government website, “peaceful patriots” were framed that day. The attempted coup was really staged by Democrats with the help of the law enforcement officers at the capitol.

There are no limits. Trump believes that he can do whatever he wants and take whatever he wants. Or as he said in response to a New York Times question about obeying international laws and treaties, “I don’t need international law, I’m not looking to hurt people.” He was asked if there were limits to what he could do and he replied, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

Stay vigilant.

That Was The Year That Was

Posted: December 30, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The plaque below an image of an autopen signing former President Joe Biden’s signature, displayed in place of a portrait on Trump’s “Walk of Fame” at the White House.  Apparently, he has nothing better to do than to mock his predecessors and to put his social media screeds in bronze. (picture by Jessica Koscielniak of Reuters)

“The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.”

J.D. Vance on 21 December 2025 at the “Turning Point USA” national rally. As usual, a member of the Trump regime ignores the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment. The founding fathers clearly spelled out that there was no religious foundation to the Constitution.

Many of us prefer to look forward at the end of a year hoping that the new year will be better — regardless of whether the last year was personally good or bad. It is also a tradition to gather lists of key events, books, movies, songs and other notable achievements from the past year. I could not resist the temptation to do the same for the Trump regime and gather the ten worst things that they have done to our country. It was hard. Not because of a lack of anything to say. Rather, because there was so much to choose from. For example, Ron Filipkowski of Meidas+ posted the top 500 worst things that Trump did since taking office. There is a lot to choose from scanning the spectrum from trying to overturn the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship via an Executive Order (now before the Supreme Court) to turning the White House, the People’s House, into his own personal vision of Mar-A-Lago meets Versailles. In looking back, it is astounding how much our government has been corrupted in eleven months. I had forgotten some of his worst efforts because everyday we get more and more incredibly poor actions, decisions, and self-enriching “deals.” It is hard to keep track.

I am still at a loss as to how he got re-elected. The best analogy I have heard is to compare it to hurricane warnings and how people react. His first term was predicted to be a Category Five storm of destruction. For most people, it was only a Category Two. As they often due in the south, people evacuated for a “five” but would have ridden out a “two.” Predictions of a second Category Five storm are received skeptically since they survived and the predictions were wrong about the first one. No one believes the predictions. “It can’t be all that bad. We rode it out before.” And here we are.

Many of you may disagree with my list or the order of the rankings. Feel free to let me know where I went wrong. In order from bottom to top — the worst — is my list.

  • Destroyed Valued Institutions. The Trump administration is systematically destroying or changing our military, cultural, educational, and other institutions. For example, the Smithsonian Institution has been directed to remove from The African American History Museum, The Women’s History Museum and the American Art Museum any exhibits that promote “divisive narratives” (discrimination and slavery) or that promote “improper ideology” (does not conform to Project 2025). It also means firing senior military officers and other officials that are women or minorities. By the administration’s definition, they only got to where they were because they are “DEI hires.” A potent indicator of the racist and misogynistic tendencies of this administration.
  • Undermined the Rule of Law. Trump uses the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), two institutions that were the gold standard for justice and law and order throughout the world, as his personal tools of retribution. He has directed the prosecution of his perceived enemies from the former FBI Director Jim Comey to former President Barack Obama (yes, in order to prove the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” is really an ongoing conspiracy to rig elections.) On his first day in office he pardoned or commuted sentences for all of those involved in the January 6 attempted coup. Most of those pardoned had either pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial for breaking the law and attempting to overthrow the government. They also injured 174 law enforcement officers, four of whom later died. Every FBI agent and federal prosecutor that had anything to do with investigating and prosecuting J-6 was fired.
  • Used Grift and Graft to Enrich Himself. If you are a “crypto bro” or a billionaire, or a staunch defender of Trump and you broke the law, you have nothing to worry about. A “contribution” of a few million dollars and you can walk free. Pardoned of all crimes. Which also means you do not have to pay your victims the millions of dollars that you took from them in your schemes. They were all suckers anyway. Need approval from the government for a corporate merger? No problem. Just make a “contribution” to Trump’s PAC or ballroom or buy a few million of his meme coins. If you have a spare five million dollars you can get a Trump Gold Card and become a citizen.
  • Destroyed Our Health and the Environment. The two are interlinked. First, get rid of the scientists. Whether it be health care or climate change, like everything else (these folks have a limited vocabulary) it is a hoax. No need to spend money on research to keep people healthy. It is all waste, fraud and abuse. Fire most of the experts at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) and replace them with non-doctors and influencers. Vaccines? No need to worry about that even though diseases we thought we eradicated are making a come back. Polio anyone? It is just natural selection. Hey! Look at all that land in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (AWR) in Alaska. Perfect for drilling for oil and gas. Clean coal rules! Renewable energy is a hoax (again). Besides, wind turbines spoil the view. Deregulation is the way to go. Make toxic emissions great again!
  • Demonstrated Incompetence with Signalgate. Is there is any better symbol of the incompetence, abrasiveness and contemptuousness of the Secretary of Defense than putting out tactical attack information over an unclassified network hours before pilots and others were going in harms way to attack the Houthis in Yemen than the scandal surrounding Signalgate? Hegseth checks all the boxes for what is wrong with this administration. And no accountability.
  • Destroyed the Economy with Arbitrary Tariffs. The ups and downs and pure arbitrariness of this administration is fully on display with their policies around tariffs. Besides outright lies that the country of manufacture pays the extra money — they don’t, American companies and consumers pay the tax — it is the sheer lack of understanding or consistency that makes it worse. Trump seems to think that tariffs are some magic panacea to solve all of our problems. Recall that he earned his nickname of TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) because one phone call — good or bad — changed what a country or industry would be charged that day. Tomorrow it could be different. Good bye strategic planning and hello chaos.
  • Conducted Illegal Murders in the Caribbean Sea and East Pacific. Trump continues to murder people on boats at sea in international waters. Drug dealers or not, there are legal processes to deal with criminals. Extrajudicial executions where Trump is judge, jury and executioner is not how we, as Americans, roll. This is not about stopping drugs. As I have written before, this is not how the flow of drugs into the U.S. will stop. This is pure and simple a case of Trump throwing around his weight because he can and he wants to rule the Western Hemisphere. More money into his pockets and his buddies pockets from larger access to oil is a benefit. So far, the administration has provided no proof of anything that they are claiming is a justification. Indeed, the evidence points in other directions, especially when Trump pardons a convicted drug kingpin who is quoted as saying that he will “stuff the cocaine right up the noses of the gringos.”
  • Expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Raids. Trump and his minions continue to insist that they are only arresting and deporting the “worst of the worst” criminals who are not in the country legally. Somehow, as the publication ProPublica has been able to document, there are at least 170 U.S. citizens arrested in 2025 by ICE and the Border Patrol that we know about. Not arrested for interfering with legal arrests but swept up in raids because of the language they spoke or the way they looked. A year ago who among us would have thought we would have a paramilitary force on our streets, out of uniform with no identifying markings, driving unmarked cars, wearing masks, and that they would snatch people off the street without a warrant and spirit them away to a detention center in another state without legal representation? It seems to me that rhymes a lot with a form of national government that starts with an “f”.
  • Undermined Allies and Hindered Ukraine. It is astounding to witness the degree that Trump will go to assuage Putin’s every whim. Putin is determined to restore the Russian/Soviet Empire. Trump, apparently, wants to help him or at least stand by with admiration at how powerful he is. He continues to denigrate NATO and our other allies and takes Putin’s side in every way. We can speculate as to why, but Trump, and now his administration, stand by a dictator that invaded a democracy rather than supporting that democracy. He continually pushes Ukraine to end the war by giving in to Russian demands and expects Russia to do nothing. Threatening Denmark over Greenland does nothing to dissuade our allies from their increasing realization that the U.S. has the worst possible motives. It fits Trump’s world view that only three leaders matter in the world today, Trump, Putin and Xi. They are powerful and everyone else is weak and therefore unimportant. Eighty years of a generally stable world order is fading away. We may never get it back. Even if a new administration tries to renew and strengthen our ties to Europe, Canada and elsewhere, the damage is done. Two Trump terms taught the world not to trust us. We are no longer a reliable partner and therefore they are going to look elsewhere to strengthen their security and economies. We will become ever more isolated.
  • Shutdown US AID. In my view the shuttering of nearly every U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) program is the worst thing this administration has done on many different levels. It is amoral, it is un-American and it is short sighted. In practical terms thousands of people around the world have already died who could have been saved. Over the next few years hundreds of thousands will needlessly die from diseases and malnutrition that could have been prevented. Despicable. The U.S. has always been a force for good in the world. Now we are despised. It was also a symbol of soft power — giving people insight into America and its people and that we are basically kind. That can pay dividends in the geo-political world, the intelligence world and the peace keeping world. In a practical selfish sense, those programs also gave us access to and “eyes on” governments, movements and potential threats — natural, military or terrorist — around the world. That is lost. At home, thousands of people’s jobs depended on that aid as well. Farmers, truck drivers, shippers, dockworkers and others that depended on supplying those programs for their livelihoods. We should be ashamed.

If J.D. Vance thinks we are a “Christian nation” then he must be talking about a different Christianity than the one I know. This administration is perhaps the most un-Christian like in its policies concerning dealing with real human beings that I know about. What he really means are the principles outlined in their operating manual Project 2025. A white Christian nationalist nation ruled by powerful white men.

If asked on a scale of one to ten, with ten as doing great, how bad the administration has been to date, I would give it a three. It has been worse than I expected — not in what they have tried to do because they told us exactly what was coming — but because I did not think that they would be able to pull it off. I especially did not think that they would be able to do it as fast as they have. So, I give it a three because they are capable of doing even worse, more damaging things and I have to leave room to rank it. Call it the Trump Scale.

And yet. I believe in the United States of America. I believe that the majority of us see exactly what is going on, where we are headed and how bad it could be unless we raise our voices and register our dissatisfaction. I believe that Trump has built a house of fake gold gilded cards and that soon, it will come crashing down. How bad that crash will be is anyone’s guess, but from it we will restore our foundational values, put morality back in our policies and move forward as a renewed democratic republic.

Best wishes to all for a great 2026. As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus would say at the end of roll call on the television police drama Hill Street Blues, “Hey! Be careful out there!”

Morality Is the Issue

Posted: October 8, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

You’ll be back soon you’ll see
You’ll remember you belong to me
You’ll be back time will tell
You’ll remember that I served you well
Oceans rise, empire fall
We have seen each other through it all
And when push comes to shove
I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love

You’ll be back like before
I’ll fight the fight and win the war
For your love for your grace
And I’ll love you til my dying days
When you’re gone, I’ll go mad
So don’t throw away this thing we had
Cause when push comes to shove
I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love

— Part of the lyrics sung by King George III in the play Hamilton addressing the colonists during the American Revolution

Last week I was concerned about all of the un-American actions underway within the Trump Administration. My fears were not unfounded, and yet, this week promises to be even worse for those of us that believe our Constitutional Republic is worth saving. Like King George, wannabe king Trump is going to send in fully armed troops to remind us, not of his love, but of his quest for power.

It is only Wednesday and we had our Attorney General go before an oversight committee of the Senate and with full flair and drama, give the Senators the middle finger. She was insulting and her message was simple. We in the Trump Administration are in power and we do not care about your silly oversight, we are going to do whatever we want. We have the power. Try and stop us.

Today was the arraignment of the first Trump Director of the FBI. He is being charged in response to a direct order from the President of the United States as part of the president’s Revenge Tour. The case is so flimsy that no career prosecutor would touch it. Trump had to pull in a grossly inexperienced attorney with no background as a prosecutor to pursue the case. Today in the court room it looked like a clown show. And yet, the proceeding will continue, if only to humiliate and harass the former Director.

The extra-judicial murder of civilians in the Caribbean Sea continues. Trump brags about it. To date there is no evidence of any reason to kill people in small boats at sea. Again, it is merely a demonstration of pure power. It puts our military in a precarious position — if indeed it is our military that is carrying out the killings. It could be drones controlled from the U.S. or elsewhere by other federal agencies. Since the administration refuses to come clean, all we know is that our country is violating U.S. and international law.

The government shutdown continues. Whatever one thinks about this or any other shutdowns, the issue about healthcare is real. Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBBA) as the Republicans call it, or the Big Ugly Bill (BUG) as the Democrats call it, the impact on healthcare for over 20 million Americans is on the line. Republicans argue that the Democrats are holding the government “hostage” to give billions of dollars to illegal immigrants. It is a lie to say that undocumented immigrants will get free healthcare if the Democrats have their way. Restoring the cuts to Americans’ healthcare that are in the BBBA does not provide any federal money for undocumented immigrants. There are some limited available health care provisions for immigrants that are here lawfully. Additionally, a few states use state — not federal — funds for some health care for undocumented immigrants. Under U.S. law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals are required to treat anyone that presents to their Emergency Department with a medical emergency or in labor. Medicaid reimburses the hospital. The BBBA does not change that. However, it does reduce the amount of the reimbursement in states that have adopted expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA — “Obamacare”). That expansion, accepted or rejected by each individual state, helps American citizens to get healthcare they may not otherwise get. It also keeps hospitals and nursing homes open in rural areas of our country.

So, why care? Well, from a moral perspective when we say we care about human beings, it matters. But putting it in terms of dollars and cents, millions of Americans are going to see skyrocketing insurance premiums and some will lose their insurance. More voluntarily will drop their health insurance because they can no longer afford it and they consider themselves healthy, which means other people that want to keep their insurance — basically everyone else with insurance — will see their rates increase as well because the pool of healthy people with insurance will decrease. Much of the increased costs come with the failure to extend tax credits under the ACA which expire at the end of the year. On average, most calculations indicate that with the increase in premiums and the loss of tax credits, the average premium across the U.S. will increase by 136 percent. Some states will see much higher increases such as, for example, in Alaska the average premium will increase by 346 percent. In Mississippi it will be 314 percent. You can also expect your local emergency department to become far more crowded as people skip preventative care because of the lack of insurance and then present when they are in terrible condition. Democrats want to extend the credits, Republicans do not.

Oh by the way, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russ Vought — one of the primary architects of the Project 2025 playbook — wants to fire thousands of furloughed federal employees and has floated a proposal to not give back pay to those furloughed, despite the obligation to do so under a 2019 law enacted by Congress and signed into law by Trump.

Russ Vought is literally on a mission from God to remake the United States in his vision of a white Christian nationalist state. His co-ruler behind the Trump throne is Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, another Project 2025 devotee. These two unelected men are the real power in government right now. So let us take a look at Miller.

This week during an interview with CNN, Miller said “Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the president has plenary authority.” As I am not an attorney or legal scholar, I had to check what he was actually saying. It turns out that Miller has used that term before, usually in the context that Trump has the unlimited and absolute power to federalize the National Guard and use it as he sees fit. According to the Cornell University Legal Information Institute, plenary authority or power means “power that is wide-ranging, broadly construed, and often limitless for all practical purposes.”  In fact, the law limits the president’s use of the National Guard to narrow circumstances such as a rebellion or invasion. This is why you hear Trump, Miller and the other henchmen in the administration increasingly using the word “insurrection.” This is why Trump and others continue to call Portland Oregon and Chicago Illinois, among others, war zones where domestic terrorists reign supreme. Or as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week at an official briefing, “President Trump will end the radical left reign of terror in Portland once and for all.”

A federal judge, appointed by Trump, stopped the use of the National Guard in Portland for now with a jarring rebuke of the president and his legal standing to send in troops in what is otherwise a peaceful situation with peaceful protesters. So, Miller turned to Chicago. Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and other federal agencies attacked — and I use the word deliberately — an apartment building on the south side of Chicago by rappelling from a Black Hawk helicopter at night, using trucks to bring in other officers, breaking down doors, ransacking people’s homes and placing everyone — men, women and little children — in zip tie handcuffs and holding them incommunicado for hours. Many were American citizens. No warrant, probable cause or other emergent crisis was cited as the reason for the raid. (On a side note, why is the CBP operating in Chicago? They are supposed to only have jurisdiction within a “reasonable” distance from our borders. That distance is considered to be 100 miles from borders or coastlines. They consider Lake Michigan to be both a “border” with Canada and a coastline of the U.S.)

As of last night, federalized troops from the Texas National Guard arrived in the Chicago area. They were not requested by the governor or mayor or any other official of the state of Illinois. There was no coordination or advanced information that they were coming. Red states policing blue states by using troops without regard for the citizens living there. This is not America.

Alarm bells should be going off in all of our heads. Trump, Hegseth, Bondi, Miller, Vought and the other Trump minions are out to consolidate their power in any and every way possible. They believe that they have the power to do anything. Anything. If you disagree, then stop them they all but taunt. If you do try to stop them, you are likely be to their next target. This fight is not over. It is, however, coming to a head. Trump and the MAGA crowd know that their policies are unpopular and un-Constitutional. Their goal is to stop any dissent and to control the elections — if indeed they take place. So far the courts have had some success in keeping them in check. I do not expect the MAGA crowd to continue to follow judicial orders. The guardrails that we have depended on in the past are the intelligence community, Department of Justice (DOJ) and the military. Two of those three have already been co-opted. They are working hard on getting the military to bend to their evil plans. So far I have not heard much out of the senior military leadership in reaffirming their loyalty to the Constitution and total disregard for illegal orders.

The Trump crowd is abusing our military and National Guard. Those soldiers from Texas do not want to be in Chicago. They are away from their real jobs and families on a deployment with unclear objectives that they are not trained to do.

It will hit the fan when Miller, oops, I mean Trump, invokes the Insurrection Act of 1807. In their minds, that Act, which would over ride the Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits troops from being used for law enforcement, would give them unlimited power to use the American military against American citizens. The Act does not fully outline or restrict how it can be utilized. Trump will undoubtedly declare that it gives him “plenary authority” to do whatever he wants. Remember in his first term he asked why the military couldn’t just shoot peaceful demonstrators in the legs to get them out of the way.

To me, we are past the “blue” versus “red” or Democrat versus Republican or Liberal versus Conservative or any of the other traditional ways we define policy differences. We are in the gravest danger to our Republic since at least the Civil War. And to me, it is about morality. It is now the moral versus the immoral. Do we treat human beings as we would want to be treated and not as scum or animals as Trump labels them? Do we act as judge, jury and executioner to murder people in small boats in the middle of the ocean or do the rules of the legal system apply? Do we care that millions of Americans are going to die because they no longer can afford basic healthcare or do we do our best to help them? Do we use the scientific method to prevent illness and the spread of disease or do we just wing it on the whims of one man that does not care about anyone else? Do we allow children around the world to die preventable deaths from illness and malnutrition or do we, the greatest nation on earth, help them?

The moral aspects of what is now happening cannot be ignored. It is not “just politics.” It is a fight to define who we are as a nation. We have not always gotten it right, but we have made progress over the last 249 years in our quest to “form a more perfect union.”

“NO KINGS DAY” is 18 October.

The MAGA Authoritarian Regime Is Growing

Posted: August 11, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess, but He’s pretty sure you’re f***ed.”

— “Stephen” the Irishman to William Wallace in the movie “Braveheart”

Sometimes it is the little things that tell you that events are unfolding in a negative way. Sometimes it is the big things. Sometimes it is both. However I look at, it seems that all of the evidence points in the direction of Trump and his MAGA acolytes converting our government into an authoritarian regime. I fear that we are further down that road than most of us realize.

Have you seen pictures of the Oval Office or the rest of the White House recently? It is as though Trump has some form of kenophobia. Every imaginable space is filled with gold gilt. Cherubs, medallions, swirls, and countless other embellishments fill the walls, ceiling, doors, and every other imaginable flat space. Meanwhile he has cornered the market on gold tchotchkes and proudly displays them everywhere. I think he was going for the Saudi prince model of decorating. He bulldozed the Rose Garden and paved it over with a patio that rivals any patio at a La Quinta Inn anywhere. He plans to build a 90,000 square foot ballroom by demolishing the East Wing of the White House and replacing it with his idea of glamour. Or most likely, as a monument to himself. For comparison, the ballroom will be almost twice as big as the existing main structure of the White House. It will totally distort the grace of the current White House and grounds with a tasteless monument to one man’s ego. So much for calling it the “Peoples House.” Besides being heartbroken by the destruction he is spreading — institutionalizing his disregard for the law, tradition and morals — I worry that he is remodeling the White House to suit his tastes because he does not plan to move out. Add to that the nearly one billion dollars that the Department of Defense (DOD) must redirect from modernizing our nuclear arsenal to rebuilding the “new” Air Force One with which the Qataris bribed him — talk about “pimp my ride”– and we have some serious indicators that the man does not think that the laws pertain to him. He is a guy planning to remain in power one way or another for the rest of his natural life.

Ahh, but what about elections you ask? You mean the ones that Trump and his MAGA henchmen are trying to rig? Here is all you need to know about where this is all heading. Look at Texas, already a state that has gerrymandered (drawn voting district lines to favor one party over another) its map for the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican majority there is attempting to draw the districts yet again to give more seats (five) to the MAGA party at the expense of Democrats in the House. Last week this is what Trump had to say about the ongoing effort.

“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”

“Entitled.”

That is Trump’s approach to everything and the approach that his administration takes — laws, tradition and morality be damned. If Trump wants it, he will get it. Oh, but there is more. Not content to get five seats from Texas, he is pushing Florida, Ohio, Indiana and other states to do the same thing. If that does not get the job done, he wants to hold a census, this year, and dictate who can and cannot be counted, specifically excluding people living in the country without legal status. The goal is to gain forty more seats for the MAGA party and make it a permanent majority. In other words, keep one party in power while denying power to half the country. But wait! There’s more! The 14th Amendment requires that the census include “the whole number of persons in each state.” It does not distinguish who those “persons” are. Just that they live there. The census determines how the representation in the House is distributed among the states as well as the number of presidential electors to the Electoral College. Additionally, Trump has tasked the Commerce Department which oversees the census, to “immediately” begin work on a new census applying modern technology to “the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.” I am not sure anyone knows exactly what that means, but I am betting that since he won that election the analysis will show that he is “entitled” to more representatives than he currently has.

One more little wrinkle. Not only the 14th Amendment addresses the census, but Article I of the Constitution gives the Congress control of the census. Currently Title 13 of the U.S. Code dictates a once a decade count. The last census was in 2020.

But why let a silly little thing like the Constitution stop the great man from rigging the election?

By the way, keep an eye on developments in Texas. Lots of threats have gone back and forth between the Republican majority and the Democrat minority. Currently most of the Democrat state representatives are out of state to prevent a quorum in the legislature (the minimum number of elected representatives needed under state law to conduct business) and thus to prevent a vote on the new districts. State officials are trying to get the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) involved to arrest the Democrats and haul them back to Texas. There is no law, state or federal, that would allow that. The missing Democrats have broken no laws. They are not criminals. If the president or any other administration official orders the FBI to get involved, then we know we are all in great danger. It will mean that the FBI has become another branch of the private army of the MAGA politicians. (Some may argue that the disguised undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] officials taking people off the street in unmarked vehicles are the other branch.)

The abuses are becoming bigger and they do not try to hide them or justify them anymore. Today in what I see as a test run for the rest of the country, Trump and his cronies took over the Washington D.C. police department, put FBI officers on the streets and began deploying National Guard troops in the city. Ostensibly, their actions are to fight crime, which comes as a surprise since the D.C. crime rate is at a thirty year low. In reality, I believe this is the first of many such moves to gradually take over the country’s “blue” cities with federal forces. They declared an “emergency” which allows such action. (Just like everything else that they are doing, be it the economy, immigration, deportations, tariffs, etc. etc. All of their actions utilize loopholes in the law that allow actions in “emergencies” that are not normally legal.)

Trump and his MAGA buddies always tout that “blue” cities are the most dangerous, crime ridden, awful places to live. By many accounts, that award should go to a “red” city — Memphis Tennessee. Which isn’t to say that crime is not a problem. One murder or rape is too many. But other cities in the top 15 according to the news outlet U.S. News and World Report, include St. Louis Missouri, Alexandria Louisiana, New Orleans Louisiana, Anniston Alabama, Little Rock Arkansas and Birmingham Alabama. New York City, Washington D.C. and other supposedly crime ridden cities are not on that list. According to data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2022 (the latest year available) the five states with the highest murder rates per capita were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico and Missouri. Interesting. Why isn’t the National Guard being called out to patrol their streets?

It’s all about power and suppressing political opposition. Crime is just an excuse.

Well, at least it isn’t all bad. At least Trump is bringing a war criminal who is a pariah who would be arrested in most countries in the world to Alaska so that he can give Russia Ukraine without the good people in Ukraine giving their consent. Well maybe it will fulfill his fantasy of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

I hope that the Almighty can get us all out of this mess.

Trump Hates Me (And Maybe You Too)

Posted: July 7, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.”

— Trump referring to Democrats at a “Salute to America” rally on 3 July 2025

I am still trying to figure out how I morphed from being a moderate, maybe slightly left of center on social issues, into a “lunatic” and a “radical left Democrat.” I don’t feel any different today than I did, say, a year ago. Maybe I am just not self aware. Or maybe the President of the United States does not care about half of the citizens of those same United States. Or worse. Perhaps he is radicalizing his followers into committing acts of political violence so that he can promote his own autocratic agenda.

Whether or not you believe this is “just Trump being Trump,” his increasingly violent language has consequences. He calls undocumented immigrants “scum” and “animals” and “people with bad genes” among many other, even worse, characterizations of other human beings. There is a long historical record of how words used to vilify “others” eventually always leads to violence. Increasingly, it is apparent that Trump has an agenda to depict our country as under attack from “within” by people that, as he says, “hate our country.” Apparently, eventually or tomorrow, I am one of those people. Imagine my surprise! He is only six months into his term. He has three and a half more years to continue to implement his autocratic plan. Am I fear mongering? I don’t think so — and I am certainly not doing it on purpose — but to me, the evidence is there.

Trump has figured out that all he has to do is demand that something happen and refuse to back off when dealing with our institutions. His cabinet, in my opinion, is filled primarily with sycophants that are too busy designing photo ops to impress the boss, rather than running their departments. There is no pushback. Other institutions seem to take the same approach, impress Trump by giving him what he wants and hopefully he will back off — which of course no bully ever does if they keep “winning.” Whether it is the party formerly known as the Republican Party, Congress, the Supreme Court, institutions of higher learning, corporations, tech bros, or countless other groups, they cave. If the guardrails are still there, they are hanging on by one slightly rusty bolt. Perhaps some state governors and legislatures continue to do the right thing and to follow the law, but it isn’t clear to me how long they can keep it up. When the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) goes to California for a photo op with the National Guard and combat Marines protecting Los Angeles from a non-existent threat, there are already warning signs. When she declares “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country” as she did on 12 June 2025, there is an imminent threat to our democracy. Like them or not, the governor of a state and the mayor of a city are duly elected representatives of their constituents. The DHS cannot implement a coup d’etat just because they disagree with an elected official’s legal policies.

Mass deportations are underway. When will they stop? Who knows, but given the pace of things and impotence of the Congress and the willingness of the Supreme Court to do Trump’s bidding, I expect them to continue to expand. When due process is not enforced, and apparently it isn’t really being enforced except in a few publicized cases, and masked men without identification can whisk anyone away off the streets with no restraints, we are already living in a police state. What is to stop it from expanding to others that merely disagree with this administration? When the president declares that he hates half of the country, what he is really saying is “fall in line or else.” I worry about the “or else” for the citizens of our great country.

With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Trump has a para-military force (ICE) that is bigger than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Agency, Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service combined. Add to that the use of the military in the form of federalized National Guard troops and combat Marines in Los Angeles. But why stop there? The Trump administration is deploying 200 Marines to Florida to “help” ICE and has approved plans for deploying up to 700 Marines in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. Think about that. They are gradually increasing the numbers and locations of combat Marines throughout the United States. I seriously doubt that that will be the end of it. Coming soon to a city near you! The U.S. Marines! We should be so thankful. Believe me when I tell you that the Marine Corps absolutely does not want to do this. It impedes their readiness and training for, you know, their actual duties (the Marines are an expeditionary force to, as they like to say, “kick open the door” for the other services in foreign combat — hopefully they will not soon be kicking open my door), not too mention it uses Department of Defense (DOD) money that could be better spent elsewhere and takes those Marines away from their families, when they already have precious little time to spend with them to begin with.

I do not have a good feeling about the 2026 elections when the president declares that Democrats are unpatriotic and hate their country, with increasing numbers of troops deployed around the country, with a Department of Justice (DOJ) that is Trump’s personal law firm, and other warning signs. Trump continually debases our country and rants about how dangerous it is. What assurances do we have that the 2028 election won’t include Trump? Here is my “canary in the coal mine” concern about upcoming elections. Neither Trump nor his MAGA supporters in Congress seem to care about the political damage the OBBBA and other policies are causing. In what might be considered normal elections, the “Republican” party would be likely to take heavy election losses turning Congress over to the Democrats. They seem totally unconcerned about that — especially Trump. Why?

As Trump and his cronies continue to dismantle the federal government, from the National Security Council to our health care institutions, to environmental agencies, to education agencies, to just about anything you can name, Trump and his fiercest loyalists are consolidating power under the Executive branch. He likes to say that he loves Article II (of the Constitution) because I have “the right to do whatever I want as president.” Constitutional experts would disagree, but let’s look at the evidence. The Supreme Court says the president is immune and only they can rule on whether what he does is Constitutional or not. His Project 2025 minders continually tell him that he is the ultimate decision maker on almost everything. Truthfully, who has stopped him?

Here is the kicker. The following is a peek into the future for us and the current mind set of this administration.

Remember Tik Tok? The scourge of the youth of America? The one that was banned by a bipartisan vote in Congress, signed into law by the president and upheld in a 9-0 decision by the Supreme Court? Trump continues to ignore the law. He continues to give Tik Tok extensions for its sale, even as he campaigned that it was a tool of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans. Stay with me, yes, who cares about Tik Tok, but here is where it gets scary.

Attorney General Pam “Whatever You Say Boss Barbie” Bondi declared that the president can decide which laws to enforce and further more, she declared that the companies carrying Tik Tok can continue to do so “without incurring any legal liability” and that DOJ was “irrevocably relinquishing” any legal claims against them for their actions.

How did she decide this? Quite simple actually. She declared that shutting down Tik Tok would impinge upon Trump’s “constitutional duties” because the law interfered with his “unique constitutional responsibility for the national security of the United States, the conduct of foreign policy, and other vital executive functions.” Hmm. If they will do this because Trump thinks Tik Tok helped him win the 2024 election, imagine what lawless lengths they will go to to do what they want, much less to interfere with any future elections.

I am sorry to be so negative. I see what is happening (and more) and worry greatly about the future of our democracy for our kids and grandkids. I see too many comments that “it can’t happen here.” It is already happening here and increasingly Trump and his loyalists are more and more brazen about it. I remember back in the fall when a voter focus group was asked if they were worried that we would lose our democracy under a Trump presidency. They all said “no.” Why? Because as long as we can vote we will have a democracy, they declared. To that I can only ask if they mean like in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), or like Russia, or like the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) or numerous other countries where the people vote, but they definitely do not have a democracy?

No one pays attention until they are impacted. By then it is too late.

Let Freedom Ring

Posted: July 3, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives.“

Abraham Lincoln in a speech to the One Hundred Sixty-Sixth Ohio Regiment –August 22, 1864

Tomorrow is the 249th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, a time to celebrate our nation and our heritage. On our way to our landmark 250th birthday, I cannot help but wonder what kind of nation we will be in a year.

As I write, the House is about to vote in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that incorporates provisions to rob the poor to pay the rich. Almost immediately, Trump and his Mar-A-Lago buddies will benefit. Their tax breaks and financial incentives will help to make billionaires and corporations richer. To pay for it, while still adding over three trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years, Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP — commonly referred to as food stamps) will be cut substantially, along with other programs. The Medicaid cuts alone impact 12 million Americans. Along with other changes to the Affordable Care Act, numerous projections all agree that about another four million Americans will lose their health insurance. Those 16 million Americans set to lose their health care are not the perpetrators of waste fraud and abuse as Trump constantly falsely claims. The OBBBA is devious. The bill has many critics — the aggregate of reliable polls show that only about 33 percent of Americans approve of the bill. Knowing that, MAGA Republicans wrote the bill so that the tax cuts for the rich take place in the near term, but cuts to social services don’t kick in until December 2026, after the mid-term elections. Digging deeper, it is apparent that more than those on Medicaid will be impacted. Medicaid funds are the main source of income in many rural hospitals and medical clinics, retirement homes and other institutions that take care of our poor and elderly. Without Medicaid, many will close. In those areas, whether or not you personally have insurance, where are you going to go to get healthcare even if you can afford it? Cutting back Medicaid by about a trillion dollars will also lead to the loss of jobs. Several studies calculate that 500,000 healthcare workers will lose their jobs over the next ten years as a result of these cuts.

The bill is about 900 pages long. I do not believe that as I write today, a single Senator or Representative knows everything that is in the bill. There so many other provisions installed to satisfy the many competing interests of MAGA Senators and Representatives that the impact — and surprises — from the bill will be felt well into the future. Some significant changes include, for example, increased financial rewards for fossil fuel companies while it penalizes clean energy companies to such an extent that experts are worried about the future viability of the programs. As a result, thousands of jobs will be lost in what is currently one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S.

With all of that, my biggest concern is the immediate impact on Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE). Over the next four years, spending for Trump’s border security and mass deportation plans will increase to a total of 150 billion dollars. For example, the bill allocates 45 billion dollars for adult and family detention centers. That is up from the current 8 billion dollars. Look for more punitive detention centers such as the newly minted “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp. Just this week Trump and his factotums joked about how much “fun” living in the Everglades in cages without air conditioning would be. There are also equally significant increases in spending for more masked, unidentified men grabbing people off the streets and putting them into unmarked cars and sending them to jail without due process, a warrant or any other legal justification. Some who have lived here for decades, raising families, working hard and paying taxes even though they are not eligible for social security or many other tax payer funded services. By this time next year most of us will know or know of someone taken away for wanting to have a better life. This worries me a lot. I do not just worry about those that are currently being rounded up. I also worry about the rest of us — what if we look “foreign”? Will we have to carry our passports proving our citizenship just to go to the grocery store? Where does it stop as the Trump Administration digs deeper and deeper into our society to remove those who they decide do not belong here? We already have National Guard troops and combat Marines deployed in a peaceful Los Angeles. What other demonstrations of unleashed power are we going to see?

To my surprise, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is helping him to change our societal norms. Last week it was a ruling on nation-wide injunctions and birthright citizenship. In Trump v CASA, Inc, the justices put serious restraints on the ability of a district federal judge to issue a national injunction. A good argument can be made that the practice of “judge shopping” and looking for an amenable judge to stop anything that a particular group opposes should be eliminated. Practically speaking, however, really? This was the case that they chose? A violation of the Constitution? (Trump issued an Executive Order ending birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.) Not to mention that the Biden Administration tried several times to get the SCOTUS to take up the issue and they never did. (According to the Congressional Research Service, 28 nation-wide injunctions were issued during President Biden’s term.) There are arguments for and against these injunctions. The system was beginning to be abused. However, it seems to me that a case involving a president trying to eliminate a Constitutional right by fiat should not be limited to the plaintiffs that brought the case. The Court did delay their decision for thirty days so that the plaintiffs could pursue other avenues to address the issue. Without going into the legalese, legal experts disagree on how effective those work-arounds might be. One, is to file a class action lawsuit, however this SCOTUS has been continually refining and narrowing what cases are allowed under a class action. No one knows what will happen going forward. The result? Probably chaos. Trump always takes advantage of the loopholes in any ruling or law and then lies about it. Right now twenty two states, and some immigrant rights groups, have sued to stop Trump’s Executive Order. Does that mean at the end of July Trump can start taking away the citizenship of those in the other 28 states that are citizens by birth? How do you or I prove we are a citizens? Trump is also threatening to denaturalize citizens that oppose him. Whether we agree with his critics or not, we do not kick citizens out of the country because of their political views. This is part of a larger administration effort to punish people for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. Trump is also threatening to send US citizens to “shithole” third countries because of their beliefs. He says he will only send hardened criminals (there are already laws to imprison criminals in the US) but he gets to define who is a criminal.

Congress is impotent and unwilling to challenge him in any way. I had hope that the judicial system would temper him and keep his wildest impulses in check, but now SCOTUS says only they can do so. Not district courts or appellate courts. So in one sense, those courts are now exhibition matches because only the SCOTUS has the authority to rule on Executive Branch actions. By the way, on this court are the same people that said Trump as president is immune for prosecution no matter what he does in an “official” capacity. (Trump v United States) He has already shown a willingness to pardon hardened criminals if they do his bidding. Scary.

While we were not paying attention because of all of the drama surrounding the OBBBA, this week the Trump Administration withheld 7 billion dollars in education funds the night before they were to be disbursed. Those funds were duly appropriated and authorized by Congress. Once again Trump is going against the law. As a result, tens of thousands of summer programs and adult education and other activities to help kids and adults are cancelled. In addition the teachers, counselors and others have lost their jobs. This is yet another test of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act that Trump and his Project 2025 henchmen unilaterally declare to be un-Constitutional. Their belief is that the Executive Branch has sole discretion on how to spend funds appropriated and authorized by Congress.

Also this week, while few were paying attention, Trump severely limited military aid to Ukraine even as Russia mounts a major offensive and continues the largest aerial attacks of the war. Why would any of our friends or allies trust us?

In every instance I see the increasing power of the Executive Branch as they ooze into areas that give them more and more power. Appease Trump (bribe him — I am looking at you Paramount Studios), you get what you want. Oppose him for any reason and you are vilified, investigated, shut down or otherwise pursued in retribution. (“I am your retribution.” — 2024 campaign slogan) As time goes by he feels untouchable and ever more powerful.

Looking back over our 249 year history, clearly our country has been in some tough spots before and survived. We will eventually get through Trump, but I fear that it could be at least a generation of hard work to get back to where we were just a year ago. I cannot predict how things will look a year from now. When I put together everything that is happening (and the above is only a part of what is happening right now), however, along with his continued claims that the 2020 election was stolen and therefore election “reform” is necessary, I do not think that those of us that care, about our freedoms, our rights and our fellow human beings, are going to like it.

It’s Starting

Posted: June 10, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“I tasted a little tear gas — tasted like fascism.”

An unidentified protester in Los Angeles in a street interview on CBS on 8 June 2025.

Starting last Friday, protests in Los Angeles have continued in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions to apprehend undocumented immigrants. The protests started small, but have grown in reaction to the federal government’s response to the unrest. It seems that Trump (aka TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out, a name given to him in an article about tariffs in the Financial Times) seized upon this development to embrace his attempts to try and show how tough he is. His poll numbers and national support are dropping sharply in all areas except immigration. Therefore, he wants to make immigration his central focus in order to drown out all the criticism of all of the other parts of his agenda that are failing.

While it is true that playing to his base is one of his main motivators, it is not all that he is doing, nor is it the most important. We as a nation are on the brink of losing our democracy to an autocratic regime that has no patience for criticism and is willing to take extreme measures to achieve their goals.

It is extremely ironic, not to mention hypocritical, that a man that is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual offender and well known draft dodger (“bone spurs”) who pardoned over 1500 people that brutally attacked law enforcement officers in an insurrection designed to keep him in power after he lost an election, is now screaming about law and order and pushing for the harshest punishments for anyone that even bumps into a law enforcement official. The leaders of the Trump regime are immune to feelings of hypocrisy and shame.

Let there be no doubt. Violence, looting, destruction of property are all crimes and people should be held accountable for any form of criminal activity, whatever “heroic” actions they may think that they are taking. However, the vast majority of the protesters are acting peacefully, if forcefully, to express their dissatisfaction and fears for their safety and the safety of their family, friends and neighbors. California is the fifth largest economy in the world — all by itself. Los Angeles is the biggest city in the state. It has a diverse, well integrated economy that relies on immigrants in every aspect of social and economic activity. It is a majority-minority city — meaning white people comprise less than half of the population. Estimates put the number of undocumented immigrants in the greater Los Angeles area as being about a million people. ICE and other Trump regime members claim that they are only going after hardened criminals. Yet another lie. Finding and arresting hardened criminals is difficult, time consuming and expensive. When Trump’s deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller (a white nativist) tells the ICE and other federal law enforcement officials that they must arrest 3,000 people a day or else they are fired (the bottom ten percent of field offices each month), those officials are going to go for the easy pickings. Day workers outside of Home Depot. Construction sites. People coming in for their immigration hearings or other appointments in accordance with our laws and their asylum or citizenship requests. As I and many others pointed out before Trump took office, many people now in the administration were saying that anyone that is here illegally is breaking the law and therefore is a criminal. We should not be surprised. They told us what they were going to do but no one believed them. That is what is happening in Los Angeles. ICE raided the parking lot of a Home Depot scooping up day workers and then raided the garment district. That is how the protests started.

According to NBC news, and other sources, Mr. Miller already directed 5,000 federal law enforcement officers to augment ICE and other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) efforts to round up immigrants. This includes FBI agents, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) personnel, U.S. Marshalls and many other agencies. First, none of those officers have been trained to apprehend immigrants. Second, their reassignment creates huge gaps in our ability to conduct anti-gang investigations, break up drug cartels, provide counter-intelligence and generally keep our country safe and secure. Instead we are arresting moms and high school kids and other long term, law abiding, tax paying members of our society. Their only focus is on immigration and looking “tough.”

Which brings us back to what I am afraid is really going on. The protests in Los Angeles and the sporadic violence that broke out was ably and effectively controlled and monitored by the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. They are trained, equipped and expert in handling protests bigger than what was happening in the beginning. They did not need outside help, and if they did, there were thousands of other area law enforcement officers available to help them under mutual aid agreements that most counties and cities have with jurisdictions in their areas.

Instead, the president mobilized two thousand National Guard troops. The desired result was achieved. Instead of calming things down — which any right minded leader would have as their objective — it exacerbated the situation and tensions increased. In my view, Trump was hoping for exactly what happened. Things got worse. When they got worse, his lackey in the Pentagon decided to send in a battalion from the U.S. Marine Corps base in Twenty-nine Palms California (about 700 Marines). Why do that? First, local law enforcement officials said that they could handle it. Second, 2,000 National Guard troops were there. Third, the California National Guard has about 18,000 members. If those on the ground needed help why not mobilize more National Guard personnel? He did it for many reasons — political, precedent, court tests and because Trump thinks that the U.S. military is his personal armed force. (He loves to play with “his” toys. There is a massive display of military power on tap for Saturday 14 June. It is the Army’s 250th birthday (happy birthday soldier!) and coincidentally Trumps 79th birthday. Washington DC is already closing down and Reagan National Airport will be closed during the parade. Totally disruptive. I will only note that the Navy (October) and Marine Corps (November) are also celebrating their 250th birthdays this year. No parades are scheduled.)

Here is why I think Trump and his henchmen and women are purposely escalating this situation. It is a dress rehearsal for bigger and better (in their minds) use of the military under the Insurrection Act of 1807, essentially martial law. Immigration enforcement is a political winner for this administration. It is also a fig leaf for trampling on the Constitution. It is no coincidence that Trump’s foray into this test case took place in California, a deeply blue state with a powerful governor that Trump happens to hate. If he can get away with it there, then he can go after other blue states that anger him (watch out Maine.)

California Governor Gavin Newsom did not request that the National Guard be activated and sent to Los Angeles. The president did so on his own, the first time since 1965 that a president has done so. (In that instance President Lyndon Baines Johnson activated the Alabama Guard to protect peaceful civil rights protesters being harassed and beaten by Alabama law enforcement officers. What a turn around today.) Of course in those 60 years the National Guard has been called out in a variety of circumstances, but always only upon request from the state’s governor.

I am not a Constitutional expert nor any kind of attorney, so I will not get into all of the U.S. codes covering the use of the military domestically. In brief, it is legal for the president to call up the National Guard and to deploy the Marines. However, under the law, they are only to be used for force protection (guarding buildings and the like) and support services (logistics, communications, transportation, and so on). Under a U.S. law known as the Posse Comitatus Act, federal military personnel cannot be used for civilian law enforcement purposes. (Ironically, if the governor had mobilized the Guard, they could be used in that way, but since now that they are federal military forces, they cannot.) I will vouch for the fact that the Marines being sent in have had absolutely no training in crowd dispersal, riot control or any other element of dealing with protesters, unless one or two were previously law enforcement officials. Probably the first time they had ever held a baton and shield in crowd control formation like the pictures show, was yesterday. What could go wrong? This is not the Marine’s mission. They are only there to show how “tough” the Trump regime can be. Some might say cruel, but then we know that when it comes to this administration, fear and cruelty is the point. One prays that an anxious young Marine or excited young protester doesn’t do anything stupid. It could all go down hill fast. Some of us remember what happened at Kent State University in Ohio when National Guard troops opened fire on unarmed war protesters in 1970.

Language is important, precision is important, especially when it comes to the law. Trump and his cohorts are aggressively using the word “insurrection” in their barrage of comments about the evil people of Los Angeles. They are not insurrectionists, of course. No one is trying to overthrow the government. However, there are several reasons for that. One, perhaps the least important, is an attempt to change the narrative and re-write history concerning the attack on the Capitol building on 6 January 2021. Those were insurrectionists, but Trump and the MAGA crowd want you to think otherwise which is why they continue to call them “patriots” — as if Trump even knows what that word means.

Second, the provisions of the Posse Comitatus Act allow for the military to be used in law enforcement under the provisions of the Insurrection Act of 1807. Remember that Trump wanted to invoke that law during the protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. He wanted to direct the military to shoot protesters in the legs. The then Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (CJCS) refused to implement his requests and true to his TACO form, he backed down. Thankfully. Who is there now telling him that what he has in mind is wrong? No one. SECDEF Pete (DUI Hire) Hegseth certainly will not. DHS Secretary Kristi (ICE Barbie) Noem certainly will not. Attorney General Pam (Police State Barbie) Bondi certainly will not. I don’t know about the current CJCS but I am worried that we have heard nothing from any source as to any mitigating recommendations senior uniformed officials are making. Crickets so far. Trump’s senior civilian officials seem to be competing amongst themselves to see who can impress the boss the most with their cruel and demeaning behavior.

Immigration is a legitimate issue. The system has been broken for a long time. In 2024 there was a legitimate bi-partisan effort in Congress to try and untangle the mess in a fair, but practical way. Trump killed it during his campaign because he thought that it was his best issue to win re-election. It appears he was right. Now he can use it as a handy tool anytime anything else goes wrong in his administration. Think of all the things that he was going to change/solve/fix in his first 24 hours/month/100 days. None of them happened. But with actions such as he is taking in California, and pretty much around the country, he can say he is doing what the electorate wanted by cracking down on undocumented immigrants. He has a winning political issue and the enablers in his administration, the Project 2025 crowd, have a willing enforcer to Make America White Again.

Only about ten percent of his term has gone by. Stand by for what is coming. This is just the start.

Are You an Alien Enemy?

Posted: March 24, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Within political circles, in the news and among the talking heads on the television, there are ongoing discussions as to whether the actions of the 47th president will lead to a Constitutional crisis. Are we there yet or not? I believe that we are already there.

In our daily lives it is easy to lose track of all the chaotic actions taken by the president and his DOGE-bros to disrupt and destroy the federal government under the lie that they are eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Possibly, you have yet to personally feel anything different or to have experienced any changes to your daily life. Therefore, you may ask, why do I really care about any of it? You may even believe that you are apolitical or “tired” of all the discussions and drama and divisiveness so you just tune it out. Good luck. While you were not paying attention, you lost many of the rights we thought were guaranteed to us by our Constitution.

Too dramatic? Let’s take a closer look.

On 14 March 2025 Trump signed an Executive Order claiming to have the right under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (as amended in 1918) to declare that a group of undocumented immigrants from Venezuela are conducting “irregular warfare” against the United States and that they therefore fall under the provisions of the Act because they are perpetrating an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” into the U.S. Specifically, he claims that a Venezuelan based gang known as Tren de Aragua (or TdA) is acting in concert with the government of Venezuela to destabilize the U.S. by using drug trafficking as a “weapon” to attack U.S. citizens.

For context, the provisions of that 18th century law (USC 50 Sections 21-24) have been invoked three times. It was used during the War of 1812, World War I and, perhaps best well-known, for the shameful internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The law is generally considered to be relevant only in the context of a “declared war” which was used literally in the era in which it was written. The Trump Administration is trying to declare that the other language in the Act applies, specifically that illegal immigrants constitute an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” — although those terms are also used literally to mean large scale armed attacks by foreign forces as in a war or a step towards war. Throughout our history, the Act was understood to be a war time power only, not a hedge to get around the use of regular immigration law. Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war. However, to provide for emergency responses, a president can declare that an invasion or predatory incursion is underway.

In the public relations realm, the Trump Administration has a powerful story to tell. Let’s face it, no one defends TdA as a bunch of nice fellows. They are murderous drug dealers that have no mercy for anyone from outside of their gang. In a word, they are scum. This provides a means to attack those that criticize Trump’s actions as being outside the law and they continue to attack anyone, including federal judges, that would disallow their use of the Alien Enemies Act to arrest and deport them.

But that is not the issue. And they know it. No one in the U.S. thinks that TdA is a positive force in our lives. Anyone you ask would say that they should be arrested, tried, punished and deported. The courts and the critics of the Administration are not arguing about the nature of TdA. They are arguing that there are already effective laws that deal with criminals like this gang that can be used under the Constitution rather than ignoring the protections we all should have as basic rights. (Curiously, Trump declared last week that he never signed the Executive Order, which itself creates a whole new set of questions.)

What happened on the weekend of 15 March is that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers made 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans “disappear” into one of the world’s most cruel and dangerous prisons in El Salvador under the alleged provisions of the Alien Enemies Act. To date, our government refuses to release the names of those captured. However, the Hollywood style videos of the deportations and incarcerations have given friends and families of those abducted a chance to identify their loved ones that disappeared without a trace. Most have no criminal record. Some appeared for their regularly scheduled check-in appointments as they awaited an asylum hearing and were arrested and thrown into the Salvadoran jail. Note that the Venezuelans were not deported to their home country but to a jail in El Salvador. Oh, yeah. I forgot to add that the Trump Administration is paying the president of that country 6 million dollars to keep them.

The Constitution protects all people living in the U.S. regardless of their immigration status. Everyone has the right to due process under the law if accused of a crime. Everyone within the U.S. is eligible for a fair and impartial hearing by the government under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments before their life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is taken away from them. The Sixth Amendment provides for legal counsel for anyone accused of a crime. Given the nature of the arrests, it is worth noting that the Fourth Amendment protects all of us against unlawful entry and searches without a warrant or probable cause.

Here is where it gets interesting for you and me and why I think it is important for all of us to pay attention. The Trump Administration attorneys in the Department of Justice argue that under the Alien Enemies Act, the Fourth Amendment does not apply. In other words, if you are in the next group of people that Trump unilaterally declares are enemies of the state, the federal government can break down your door and come charging in without probable cause or a search warrant.

Additionally, in a sworn declaration during a court hearing on the use of the Act, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Robert Cerna argued that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.” He added that “while it is true that many of the TdA members removed under the AEA [Alien Enemies Act] do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat.”

Many of those arrested and accused of being members of the gang were targeted solely because they had tattoos. One of those individuals, a professional soccer player in Venezuela who had been tortured by the government regime and received permission to enter the U.S. awaiting an asylum hearing had a tattoo. Of his favorite soccer club. Real Madrid.

So, for those keeping score at home, the Trump Administration claims that they can enter your home for any reason without a court order and arrest you, even if you have no criminal record. Because, according to Mr. Cerna, you are even more dangerous because you don’t have a criminal record. And don’t have any strange looking tattoos in Spanish.

We are living in Bizzaro World.

The issue is now in the courts. As expected, Trump and his henchmen and women in the Administration are crying loud and strong that a single federal judge cannot thwart the will of the great and powerful king in the White House. Apparently, they slept through their civics class that discussed the three equal branches of the government under the Constitution. If they do not like what the district court judge did, then appeal it. Instead they are calling for his impeachment. (Which will go nowhere but will provide for a fund raising advertisement for the MAGA crowd.) Eventually, this issue should wend its way to the Supreme Court. In my mind, this is a no brainer in favor of the Constitution as we have understood it for nearly 250 years. However, nothing is “for sure” anymore. After all, the current Supreme Court is the same one that said the president is immune from prosecution for any act taken within his official duties. Maybe they say that the president can use the Alien Enemies Act in whatever way he wants.

Additionally, the Supreme Court is sometimes reluctant to rule on Constitutional issues when it comes to specific duties assigned to other branches of the government. In this case, Congress declares war under the Constitution and the president carries out the duties of Commander-in-Chief.

This will be a real test of our checks and balances of the three equal branches of government which is already under tremendous stress as the Trump administration continues the quest to turn Trump into the autocrat he so craves to be. He has already subdued the Congress that seems now to exist only to rubber stamp whatever Trump wants. MAGA Republicans bend the knee whenever required and the Democrats in Congress seem leaderless and impotent.

The attack on the judiciary is a direct frontal assault. Trump already silenced several major law firms that stood up to him in the past. They caved. Several news organizations caved to Trump’s extortion threats. So far the judicial branch is holding. I am not sure how long they can continue to hold out, especially as they come under increased threats to their well-being as well as threats to their families.

Please pay attention. We are in a Constitutional crisis. Trump and his supporters are about to decide to ignore or defy a judicial order, putting our cherished democratic republic in danger. It can happen here. It is happening here.