The Plan To Steal The Election
Posted: July 15, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2020 Election. Insurrection, Election Assistance Commission, Election Interference, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Iran War, Mail-in Ballots, The Epstein Class, Trump, United States Constitution, Voter Suppression, Voting Leave a comment
This “Iran War Participation Trophy” appeared on the National Mall near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The ten foot statue dedicated to Donald J. Trump was created by the satirical art group “Secret Handshake.” (Picture by Christine Kao for The Washington Post)
As usual, there is a lot going on in the world and in the United States. It is hard to keep up with it all as Trump tries to keep us all off balance with a long list of crazy shenanigans. He is ill. Unfortunately, people’s lives are at stake and real people are getting killed and injured. The Iran War is back with a frenzy as both sides carry out massive attacks and the Strait of Hormuz is closed for all practical purposes. It turns out that, as expected, a poorly worded Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) does not end wars. The U.S. has two choices. Invade Iran (a terribly foolish thing to do) or sit down for serious discussions with serious people involved (not two real estate investors that are more interested in their own gain).
Last week two innocent people were killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. One was in Texas, one was in Maine, and they were both hard-working fathers and husbands. It turns out that ICE had the wrong migrants, they were not the men that ICE thought they were. OOPS. That is about as much care as the administration has for killing two innocent men and then lying about it. We still do not have anyone held accountable for the killing of two American citizens in Minnesota earlier this year.
For Trump and his tech bros and other members of the Epstein Class, things go on as before. They continue to enrich themselves at our expense without giving it a second thought. The next project for them to make money from by using public land for private purposes is the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington DC on 22 and 23 August. It will be a motor car race on the streets of DC around the mall. The race is free for peons, but once again, there will be VIP areas for those willing to pay up. The Champions Club seats cost five thousand dollars and “sponsorships” can reach into the millions.
But wait! There’s more! And I think it will be the beginning of the end of our democratic republic.
On Thursday night 16 July, probably on every major television network, Trump will give an address to the nation. It is expected to be wide-ranging and reminiscent of his typical campaign style speeches. Trump’s greatest hits coming to you live from the White House. It would be easy to ignore or to laugh off. Very easy. We have heard it all countless times before. However, I worry that there will be a message hidden, or maybe in our face, that threatens our upcoming elections. News reports indicate that he will “declassify” information about the 2020 election that allegedly proves that the election was “rigged” or at least interfered with by outside entities. Nearly six years later it is suddenly found. Amazing. Here is the background.
As we know, the individual states, rather than the federal government, are responsible for elections. That alone makes it very difficult to rig or hijack an election. History shows that, especially in recent decades, the states take that responsibility very seriously and work hard to ensure that all eligible voters get to vote, that their ballot is secret, and that every valid ballot is counted. They keep the process transparent while ensuring the safety and security of the voters and the ballots. It works. Trump does not like it. Or at least he does not like it when he loses. (I find it ironic that the 2016 and 2024 elections were run under Democrat administrations and Trump won so they were free and fair. But the 2020 election, run under the Trump administration, was rigged so that Trump lost. How does that work?) Again, as ridiculous as all of this sounds, it is a serious threat. Some opine that Trump cannot tolerate losing and so he continues to whine about an election from six years ago. I think he is laying the ground work for something bigger.
Looking at the sequence of events, I find it disturbing that a plan is being executed step by step to interfere with elections, if indeed they take place as expected. Trump has long been pushing for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which would keep an estimated 20 million eligible voters from voting by among other things, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote using birth certificates or passports and such registration would have to be done in person. (There are already laws prohibiting non-citizens from voting. The instances of illegal voting are infinitesimally small.) Expect Trump to push it hard in his speech. For info, thirty-six states require some form of identification at the polling place. Usually, a REAL ID suffices. Those cards would not be sufficient under Trump’s proposal.
Earlier in his administration, Trump gutted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The agency was specifically chartered to ensure that there was no foreign or domestic election interference. It is now essentially unable to do its job.
Trump recently fired, or forced the resignation, of all four of the commissioners that run the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), This is a bipartisan agency created by Congress specifically to help states run free and fair elections. It aids in training poll workers, certifying voting machines, and other functions to ensure that state and local officials maintain the safety and security of our elections. They are now effectively neutered.
At the same time, Trump appointed William “Bill” Pulte as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Pulte has no intelligence experience whatsoever, despite the fact that the law requires it. You may recognize the name. He is the thirty-eight year old heir to Pulte Homes, the construction company founded by his grandfather — you may have seen their adds on television. He was doing such a great job, he was fired by the company’s Board of Directors. He is currently the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a job he still holds while also the acting Director of Intelligence. As head of the FHFA, he is the guy who is trying to dig up dirt on people on Trump’s enemies list and pushing for their convictions on fraud — where most experienced attorneys see no case. A good guy. But he does whatever dirty job Trump gives him. He is the one that “discovered” new evidence of election fraud that Trump will expose Thursday night.
Do you see a pattern here? The actions above are only a partial list of election developments.
Trump is especially attacking mail-in voting (although he always votes that way) and voting machines. According to the Encyclopedia of American Politics, all states allow for some form of absentee or mail-in voting. Thirteen states require voters to provide a valid excuse to vote absentee or by mail. Twenty-nine states allow any eligible voter to cast an absentee or mail-in ballot. Eight states have automatic mail-in ballot systems, also known as all-mail voting systems. Eliminating mail-in voting would create hardships for many voters and create long lines at polling stations (especially if they also eliminate early voting). The intent is to suppress the vote. Although both parties would be impacted by such measures, statistics show that Democrats tend to use these methods more than Republicans. Voting machines also vary in type and use, although every state uses them in some capacity. Trump wants only paper ballots to be used. The logistics and time delays by going to only paper ballots would be complicated. Especially so, since Trump tries to prevent ballots from being counted on any day except Election Day.
Never forget that Trump sent a mob to try and overthrow the 2020 election. He pardoned about 1500 people that defaced the capitol, threatened lawmakers and attacked law enforcement officers. He pardoned them all and is trying to set up a fund to pay them off. Last week the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter to the top election official in each state threatening to criminally prosecute them if any non-citizen casts a vote, among other things. He pardons those that do his bidding and threatens those that try to uphold the law.
So, what is Trump up to on Thursday? Hard to know. The best guess is that he will reveal that a foreign government — China and/or Venezuela (!) — interfered with voting machines or some other hairbrained scheme to throw the election to President Biden. It is part of his “shock and awe” campaign to confuse and discourage voters in order to suppress the vote. However, I doubt it stops there. It is possible that in order to defend the nation from foreign intervention, he will declare some sort of national emergency, nationalize the conduct of the election (under his rules) and otherwise prevent a free and fair election.
PBS reported on an existing draft Executive Order (E.O.) that would allow Trump to dictate how the election would be run. It matches fairly closely with proposals in the Project 2025 playbook which is the roadmap for this administration’s actions over the last eighteen months. The E.O. matches with the requirement for proof of citizenship, paper ballots, in person voting and hand counting of ballots. The justification would be a national emergency because of foreign interference.
Be ready. Although such an E.O. would be immediately challenged in court, its real purpose may be to create an actual national emergency. Certainly it would confuse and confound many voters and probably lead to a lower turnout than what is currently expected. A low turnout favors Trump.
Trump may be using the same old worn out script he uses year after year. It may be laughable, but it is dangerous. Whining is one thing. Action is another. Expect some kind of interference in the mid-terms. Trump is a crook, a liar, a grifter and cares only about himself. He knows that if the Democrats take control of Congress in the next election he and his grifting family will be held accountable. He cannot allow that to happen. A cornered animal fights back. Anything is possible with this administration.
I hope that I am wrong.
All Men Are Created Equal — Aren’t They?
Posted: July 4, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Communist Party, Declaration of Independence, Donald Trump, history, MAGA, Sail4th 250, Save America Act, Trump v Barbara, U.S. Supreme Court, United States Constitution Leave a comment
Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota depicting Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. Trump gave a speech there on 3 July 2026 that laid out a playbook for his autocratic regime to remain in place for “one hundred years.” More on that below. Despite Trump’s desire to be added to the memorial, park officials explain that geologically, it is not possible. (Picture courtesy of the National Park Service)
This weekend we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence and we mark it as the founding of the United States of America. I hope that you were able to celebrate in your own way given that much of the eastern part of the country was suffering from temperatures in triple digits. I went to an early morning neighborhood parade of mostly young kids on their decorated bicycles. It was fun. I also enjoyed watching the Sail4th 250 parade of tall ships and the military aircraft flyover of the New York City harbor. Despite the heat it looked like participants and spectators alike thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings. It was a celebration in the fullest meaning of the word. I sensed joy, unity, pride and fun.
Sail4th 250 was a distinct contrast to the Trump arranged Freedom 250 that hijacked the national mall and celebrated Trump. Using Park Service money — money dearly needed to maintain and run our national parks — and money from the Congressionally approved non-partisan America250 celebration, Trump turned the event into an unpleasant, disagreeable, poorly attended disappointment. Congressional Democrats are investigating the entire operation, but as they put the story together, it appears that Trump entities and cronies may have received a lot of taxpayer money for a poorly executed public embarrassment.
The United States of America is founded on an idea. We should take seriously the words of the Preamble that read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.” Our nation is not based on a common religion, or ethnicity or allegiance to one person. We know that the Founding Fathers meant that “all men” were white men that owned property. However, those words have driven our country forward, sometimes with agonizing events and grinding slow speed, but forward to an ever inclusive society. As Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude, Jr explains in his most recent book America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries, our “storybook” history of our search for “a more perfect Union” has a major contradiction. We cannot be both a beacon of freedom to all the world and a white nationalist country run by rich white males.
Trump cannot or will not accept the fundamental ideals upon which our nation rests. In his Mount Rushmore speech he laid out a totally different vision of America. Our Founding Fathers, whatever their flaws, and there were many, were patriots. The people Trump reveres are nationalists. Patriotism and nationalism are not the same thing.
This is not a new position for Trump. In a wide ranging interview on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN show Late Edition in March 2004 Trump said, “But the phrase that ‘all men are created equal’ is a wonderful phrase, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. All men are not created equal. Some are born with a genius and some are born without. Now, you need that. If you don’t have that, you can forget it.” (In the same interview he also claimed “And it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn’t be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats.”)
Before the speech, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt promised that Trump would describe what it means to be an American. Instead, Trump announced that he was going to “exile” Americans that did not agree with his vision of America. He used the playbook of Authoritarianism 101. Roughly the first third of the speech was the usual politician’s speech on a national occasion, although he can never leave out his grievances and personal victimhood, Then he starts to build the case. He defines who belongs in America. He reflects on the divine power of God and the blessings bestowed on our country by God above all others. He emphasizes western European heritage without mentioning the contributions to our country from citizens from Africa or Latin America. He uses the words “breed,” “character” and “culture” countless times and always in the context of those that belong in America and have the right qualities as opposed to all of those that are in our country that do not.
Then he really got down to business. Using the same fear tactic that every fascist leader from around the globe has used since the beginning of the twentieth century, he went after “the communists.” Let him tell you in his own words:
“Yet, as we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack. A generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of communism, there is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. These are not mere political disagreements like differences over taxes or regulations. Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9-11. We’re not going to let this happen to us. Believe me, we’re not letting it happen. Because communism is the enemy of free people everywhere, everywhere in the world. Never works. It’s the enemy of the Constitution. Above all, it’s the enemy of July 4th, 1776. It is the enemy indeed.“
Who are these godless communists you may ask? Over the last few weeks, Trump has been building the case that the Democrat Party is really the Communist Party. Accordingly, Trump must think that roughly half of America’s citizens are communists and are a threat to our nation. Or more specifically according to Trump, “The Communist Party is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals, and everybody that doesn’t want to work. Communism is a loser. It always was, and it is right now. It’s a big loser. Look at the people that are promoting it.“
The solution? “We’re not going to let them take too long or too much of our time as they play their games and send them into exile. We will send them quickly away…” His vision of America on the eve of our 250th birthday — round up those that do not go along with the MAGA philosophy of a white male Christian nationalist country.
But just to make sure, Trump is going to arrange for his supporters to win every election for the next one hundred years. He declared, “We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms if we are foolish, stupid, and unwise. But if we terminate the filibuster as we should do and immediately vote for the Save America Act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years. We do that. We’re not going to lose an election for 100 years.” If you can’t win it, rig it.
I fear for our country. This man, a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser (the Supreme Court would not hear his appeal) who already tried to steal an election is not going to let a little thing like the will of the people get in his way. He will do whatever it takes. I am not putting my hope in the judicial system either. While district and appellate courts have been firm in stopping the wildest notions of the Trump regime, the Supreme Court seems ready to continue to give him as much power as he wants. Their decisions over the last two weeks confirms that in my mind. I take no solace in the fact that they voted 6-3 (!!! and if you look closely it was really 5-4) that the Constitution is constitutional. The idea that a president, through an Executive Order no less, can undo a key component of the Fourteenth Amendment and four of the Justices essentially agree with that is not very calming. (The case was Trump v Barbara and involved birthright citizenship, one of the key foundational ideals of our country. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.“)
Trump made over two billion dollars in profit in his first year in office. His cronies are also getting unbelievably rich. Elon Musk cut aid to dying people around the world through DOGE and he is now a trillionaire. Trump does not plan to go anywhere and those around him as advisers and friends don’t want him to go anywhere either. We are in for some tough times over the coming year.
At the same time our country has been through tough times before. I still have the belief that more and more people are going to catch on to what is happening to our country and they will not settle for it. Not everyone, but enough.
Happy birthday America!
“There’s A Bad Moon On The Rise”
Posted: May 22, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 6 January Insurrection, Evil, Founding Fathers, history, Income Taxes, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), news, The Anti-Weaponization Fund, United States Constitution, War Powers Act Leave a comment
Rioters clash with law enforcement officers as the insurrectionists try to force their way into the Capitol to assault elected officials and to overturn a free and fair election on January 6, 2020. They were acting with the encouragement of Donald J. Trump who now wants to pay them for their actions. (Getty)
I am beyond outraged. Beyond disgusted. I am at the point where if everyday Americans do not realize that there is a direct and sustained assault on our democracy then maybe they do not want to preserve the nation that we have spent nearly 250 years building “in order to create a more perfect union.” Apparently, the United States Constitution is about as valuable to some people as the “terms of service” are for those that want to get on a website. Check the box but do not bother to read or understand the words.
As I warned in my last post on 17 May, we are, without a doubt, experiencing the biggest assault on our values and cherished way of life. Trump and his henchman Acting Attorney General and General Trump Lackey Todd Blanche officially announced that they created a 1.776 billion dollar slush fund to pay off those that do his bidding — whatever it is, including violence like the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2020. According to Trump, these “patriots” have “suffered” enough from their “persecution” during the Biden administration. The very same ones convicted at trial by a jury of their peers.
This is the biggest, most corrupt attempt to date to destroy our democracy and to ensure that one man stays in power unconstrained by rules, regulations or laws. Not only is it unprecedented in our history, it sets a new precedent for the future that completely overrules the Constitution. The most obvious result of this assault is that it completely castrates Congress and the one power that they used to jealously guard — the power of the purse. Appropriations and authorizations for government spending come from the Congress and only the Congress. It is the one sure way that they have to check the power of the Executive Branch. With this move, Trump completely obliterates that process. If Trump gets away with this blatant disregard of the Constitution then there is nothing to stop him and other Cabinet members from declaring that they need money from the Treasury for whatever purpose they see fit. Congress be damned. It is open season on using taxpayer money for anything that the president wants.
I am not sure which is worse. Is it Trump’s constant lying about the “stolen” 2020 election; the claim that those who attacked law enforcement officers were “peaceful protesters” who were framed by the Biden administration and became “political prisoners;” or the lie that the attack was orchestrated by “leftist ANTIFA” organizers in coordination with the FBI; or that the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” was designed to injure Trump? All are bogus claims that have been debunked over, and over, and over, and over again. Besides the fact that these events occurred during the Trump administration under people that he appointed and that many of the investigations included Republicans, as for example the report of the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Marco Rubio, now Trump’s Secretary of State.
In other words, the going in premise of Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is built entirely on lies. That may be the biggest insult of all. On top of that, the five commissioners will be appointed by his General Lackey Todd Blanche but can be fired for any reason or no reason by Trump. The payments and who receives them are kept from the public. Anyone can apply. The process for applying is unclear as of this writing.
I think the real reason that Trump keeps harping on these issues is not about the past — although there is an element of retribution against those who resisted him — it is actually about the future. In essence, he is declaring that going forward you can do anything, anything at all, if it is done in the name of Trump and advancing his agenda. Exhibit A will be the J-6 insurrectionists. They were pardoned, and now they are looking to get paid. It is totally transparent and transactional. One mission and one mission only, do Trump’s bidding and be rewarded. To go full circle, the implication is also that if you do act on Trump’s behalf and he loses power, you will be left hanging in the wind. Do not take the chance on somebody that will not treat you as well as Trump.
I am not an attorney. However, even the most casual observer can spot things in this agreement that are patently evil, immoral, and unlawful. First, it is being called a “settlement.” There was nothing to settle as Trump’s law suit never went to court. The judge involved expressed serious doubts that there was even a case and empowered a panel of esteemed lawyers to provide an opinion back to her as to their view. Nearly every knowledgeable law expert declared that the federal government (the president) cannot sue the federal government (the IRS) when both are in the Executive Branch. There may be an “agreement” between the parties but there is no settlement.
Hidden in the paperwork is an interesting twist. The day after the original agreement was announced, an addendum was released that says in part (with the all CAPS in the original), “the United States RELEASES, WAIVES, ACQUITS and FOREVER DISCHARGES each of the Plaintiffs from, and is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” just about everything for Trump, his extended family and every entity organization or subsidiary or really, anything he has ever touched. It is widely believed that Trump is already on the hook for 100 million dollars from past income tax filings. This agreement makes it clear that the IRS will not pursue that money and that “FOREVER” he is immune to any other investigations. In plain language, he, his family and a host of others associated with him will never have to pay a dime in income taxes. Even if he owes taxes, no one can prove it because he cannot be investigated. A ticket to fraud.
These provisions may violate the law. After the investigations into the Nixon White House, several provisions were enacted governing the IRS. The U.S. Code states explicitly that it is unlawful for the President, the Vice President, or any Executive Office employee to directly or indirectly request the IRS to conduct or terminate an audit of any specific taxpayer. Additionally, IRS regulations require an automatic audit of a sitting president’s tax returns. How these requirements will play out under the new agreement is beyond me. However, Trump regularly disregards any law, rule or regulation that he finds inconvenient.
There are already multiple lawsuits filed to stop this brazen looting of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, given the lack of anticipation that such a thing was possible, some legal experts speculate that it may be difficult to bring cases to court because of a lack of standing to do so. It may be wrong, it may be evil, but under current law it may not be illegal.
Yesterday several members of the House and Senate, Republican and Democrat, had their hair on fire over this agreement. They were outraged. Additionally, both houses of Congress were moving to invoke the War Powers Act to rein in Trump in Iran. Maybe, finally, some pushback against Trump’s excesses? We may never know because as things started to unwind yesterday, the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate abruptly adjourned their respective bodies and sent everyone home not to return until 2 June. Who knows what shenanigans will occur in the interim?
I am ever more convinced that we are in big trouble as a democratic republic. Many of our fellow citizens want to return to the “before times.” Let’s get back to where our country was before Trump, they argue. I increasingly disagree. We did that once with the Biden administration. Look what it got us. Trump 2.0 — an even worse situation. If we have learned nothing over the last few years, our Founding Fathers belief that given a chance, people of good will and the interests of the people in mind would do the right thing, was fundamentally wrong. They built in checks and balances but could not anticipate that Congress would abrogate their responsibilities and that an evil man would be aided and abetted by other evil men and women to take advantage of every conceivable loophole to enhance their own wealth and power. When given the chance — I still believe we will get the chance — we have to strengthen our laws to protect against a future Trump. We did not do it before, thinking that 2016 was a one off. We now know better.
With apologies to Creedence Clear Water Revival
I see the bad moon a-risin’
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin’
I see bad times today
Don’t go around tonight
Well it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
WILL JIM CROW RIDE AGAIN?
Posted: May 11, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Divisiveness, Elections, Gerrymander, gerrymandering, history, Jim Crow, Louisiana v Callais, Partisan, Politics, Poll Tax, Project 2025, United States Constitution, Voting Rights Act of 1965 Leave a comment
A receipt for $2.50 paid by a black man in Alabama for the poll tax during the Jim Crow era. When the average worker was making only about three hundred dollars a year, this was a significant amount. Additionally, black voters were often required to take a literacy test with questions such as reciting specific phrases in the Constitution or answering “how many windows are in the White House?” Other “tests” involved guessing specifically how many jelly beans were in a jar.
Last month the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down a 6-3 decision in the case of Louisiana v Callais. The decision eviscerates Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act created by Congress to protect minority voters from poll taxes, literacy tests or any other effort to undermine their ability to vote. The law was aimed at the parts of the country where racism was rampant and where there were concerted efforts to suppress or eliminate the vote of non-white citizens. The Voting Rights Act was renewed numerous times over the years with solid bi-partisan support. The last vote in Congress in 2006 renewed it for twenty five years with both the Senate (98-0) and the House (390-33) overwhelming voting for it. What happened since then to cause its effective demise? President Obama was twice elected president. The court severely weakened the Act in 2013 by eliminating a key provision of the law in the case of Shelby County v Holder which required states in certain areas to get permission from the Department of Justice before making changes to voting requirements. The most recent case finished off the effectiveness of the law by deciding that race could not be taken into account when drawing districts and that in fact, gerrymandering — altering the districts so that the political parties are choosing elected officials rather than the people choosing their representatives — was perfectly permissible. The provision protecting against gerrymandering designed to divide minority (non-white) voters in order to limit their ability to elect minority officials was deemed unconstitutional.
[Note: The word gerrymander comes from 1812 Massachusetts where Governor Elbridge Gerry approved a voting map with a salamander shaped district. The name stuck. It means purposely drawing voting district lines in anyway possible, even if the result on paper looks ridiculous, to give an incumbent or a particular group of people a significantly unfair advantage in determining the results of an election.]
An 1812 political cartoon demonstrating the appearance of the gerrymandered election district of South Essex in Massachusetts. Editors satirized the shape of the new district as that of a monster.
Republicans were jubilant over the new interpretation of the law. Take a look at the video of state legislators in Tennessee as they eliminated the only remaining minority-majority district in the state by dividing it into parts and reassigning them to strong Republican districts. They were giddy. To me, their reaction and subsequent actions demonstrates exactly why the Voting Rights Act is still needed. SCOTUS cherry-picked the Obama election results — and only those results — to declare that it proved that there were no longer impediments to minority voting. According to Justice Alito writing for the majority, racism in U.S. elections is gone.
Despite the claim that the provisions are no longer needed, the actions of several southern state legislatures show exactly why it is needed. Louisiana’s governor immediately canceled an election (the mid-term primaries) that was already underway. He declared a state of emergency and then canceled the election so that the map could be redrawn in an attempt to eliminate two districts that were represented by minorities. Absentee ballots and mail-in ballots had already been distributed and roughly 40,000 votes were already returned. Now the process is going to start again with new districts and new candidates in some areas. Surely no one will be confused by that. After the SCOTUS ruling, Tennessee acted immediately to redraw their map. Florida, North Carolina and Georgia are also gerrymandering the map to eliminate minority districts. Alabama, South Carolina and Missouri have plans to do the same. Texas gerrymandered their districts last summer at the direction of Trump.
Two other states decided to do the same after the Texas effort. California redrew their map last fall and this spring, Virginia did the same. Both states did so after the voters approved the measures. After the votes were counted and the issue settled, the Virginia Supreme Court rendered the vote void on a technicality. It is unclear as I write whether the voice of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia will have their voices heard or have to live by the result of the 4-3 decision.
States with “blue” governors held elections to see if their citizens wanted to fight back against the attempts to rig the elections. “Red” states changed theirs by fiat from their MAGA dominated legislatures — no ordinary voters allowed. Normally voting maps — even gerrymandered ones — are drawn up after the census every ten years. To change them now is highly unusual if not downright outrageous.
Chief Justice John Roberts has been working to overturn the Voting Rights Act since he was a young lawyer in the Department of Justice during the Reagan Administration in the early 1980s. The intent of the 1965 law was to put in the mechanisms necessary to actually enforce the 15th Amendment to the Constitution which opened up voting beyond the white land owning men that controlled elections until the Civil War. Ratified in 1870, it prohibited the federal government or any state from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The now Chief Justice has been arguing for decades that some states are treated to far greater scrutiny than others under the law which he considered unfair under the concept of equal sovereignty. He also holds a strict interpretation of the Constitution and believes that the Voting Rights Act is not impartial. He has argued that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Unfortunately, that is not the reality of life for minorities in this country.
Now states can defend against virtually any claim of racially discriminatory map-drawing by claiming they instead discriminated based on political parties — even though race and partisanship are often intermingled.
I am against gerrymandering and voted against gerrymandered districts in my home state. There should be bi-partisan or non-partisan commissions to draw equitable voting districts. But unfortunately there are also no unicorns. Therefore “blue” states have an obligation to counter “red” states with gerrymandered districts to try and recoup the increased number of Republican districts.
This effort is only a part of a larger effort to restrict voter protections and the push to limit turnout in the 2026 and 2028 elections. The effort is already underway to protect MAGA Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures following the deeply unpopular policies and actions of the Trump regime. The SCOTUS decision provides a roadmap for states to return to pre-1965 race discrimination in redistricting, despite Congress’s repeated and overwhelming reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act for decades.
This is the same plan that gave us the Safeguard American Voters Eligibility (SAVE) Act which I have written about in this space before. Among other provisions, it comes dangerously close to mandating that U.S. citizens must show their papers in order to prove that they are citizens. To register to vote, one must produce a valid passport or birth certificate. If passed, as it already has in the House but is facing a fierce uphill battle in the Senate, millions of people will be disenfranchised. Allegedly, it is supposed to prevent voter fraud — a phantom menace that does not exist in any meaningful way. In practice, it is voter suppression. Yesterday Trump promised to deploy an “Election Integrity Army in every single State.” There have already been discussions about placing ICE and Border Patrol forces near polling places. These are the first steps in a larger plan to interfere with the upcoming elections.
Some of these efforts are reminiscent of post-Reconstruction days from the late 1890s to 1965 where Jim Crow efforts terrorized mainly black citizens. In particular the effort was aimed at preventing Black citizens from voting through systemic, state-level legal efforts in spite of the 15th Amendment. Literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and violence drastically reduced Black voter registration. For example, in Louisiana Black voter registration plummeted from 44% in 1896 to 4% by 1904. By 1940, only 3% of eligible African Americans in the South were registered to vote. There are legitimate fears in our minority communities that our country is headed back to the bad old days. Since the last campaign many voices have been raising the alarm about the blueprint for significant changes outlined and explained in detail in the Trump Administration’s Project 2025 designed to limit or intimidate voters. Additionally, earlier this spring, Trump signed an Executive Order that if allowed, (it is currently being litigated in court) would significantly alter elections. It is an attempt to federalize key elements of the process with an eye towards the federal government determining who is qualified to vote. The Constitution puts the mechanics of voting in the hands of the states.
In the short term there will be real battles over election results and who was or was not allowed to vote. Longer term Congress can pass laws that provide national protections against discrimination of any kind in determining voting districts. It is possible to craft those laws in ways that the current objections from certain SCOTUS justices — who will control the court for years to come — can be overcome. Additionally, states can pass laws that provide their own voting protections as a back up to ensure free and fair elections.
To date Trump has made no secret of his intent to interfere in multiple ways with the upcoming election. We should believe him. Do not ever forget that he already tried to overturn a free and fair election, including inciting violence. There is every reason to believe that he will do it again.
A War Without Leaders, Only Zealots
Posted: April 5, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Board of Peace, Christians, Crusades, Donald Trump, Easter, Iran, Israel, Leadership, Strait of Hormuz, Trump, Truth Social, United States Constitution, War Crimes Leave a comment
One of the pictures released by the government of Iran showing the remains of U.S. aircraft destroyed on the ground during rescue operations to recover a second crewmember from a USAF F-15E shot down by Iranian forces on Friday. A massive operation successfully recovered the missing crew member but the recovery force had to destroy two specialized C-130 aircraft and at least two Black Hawk helicopters on the ground. Thankfully, all participants reportedly were recovered without casualties.
This morning we received the following Easter greeting from the President of the United States who believes, as do others in our country, that he was chosen by God to lead our country and who some Evangelical pastors compare to Jesus Christ. (I apologize for the language, but I see no reason to clean up Trump’s preferred presidential language.)
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J TRUMP.”
This is not a joke or a hoax. These are the deranged postings of a sick man on his way to play golf at one of his courses in Northern Virginia. You know, the traditional way many Christians celebrate the holiest day of the liturgical year. It came on the heels of the previous day’s post.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them. Glory be to GOD! President DONALD J TRUMP”
If you ever thought that Iran might cave, those social media posts nearly guarantee that Iran will never give in and will work as hard as possible to make life hell for us, Israel and the Gulf states. Trump thinks he can bully anyone. To me, he sounds desperate. He is in over his head and does not know how to get out. Please note that the Iranians have yet to deploy one of their most deadly weapons — terrorist sleeper cells.
Oh, by the way, what he is threatening to do is, by the standards of international law, a war crime. But then he has been threatening Iran with promises to commit war crimes for quite some time now. His Secretary of Defense has also been promising that our troops will commit war crimes when he pledged at one of his “tough guy” press speeches on 15 March that there will be “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” Since our Civil War, our military has been taught that “no quarter” which means there will be no prisoners, everyone is to be massacred, is a war crime. It is also enshrined in the Hague and Geneva conventions. The U.S. Pentagon’s own war manual clearly states that it is a war crime. But then this is the same guy that vowed on 2 March that there would be “no stupid rules of engagement” and “no politically correct wars.” I do not know who is copying who with their blasphemous invocations of God and Jesus Christ, but at a recent prayer service in the Pentagon, Hegseth invoked both in his lust for killing. He is on record as saying that our troops need to continue dispensing death and violence in God’s name. It is a religious duty, according to his sick reasoning, in order to “save” western civilization, a belief he shares with many in Trump’s orbit. (Project 2025 anyone?) He actually pronounced a prayer that said in part, “let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our nation” and produce “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” In their own words, both Trump and Hegseth think that they are on some kind of Crusade against Islam. Shoot, Hegseth even has tattoos all over his body referencing the Crusades. To name a few, his arm has a tattoo reading “Deus Vult” which is Latin for “God will it” and is linked to the First Crusade as a battle cry. On his chest he has a large Jerusalem Cross, also a link to the Crusades and a popular symbol for today’s white Christian nationalists. Another tattoo on his arm is a cross with a sword referencing the New Testament verse Mathew 10:34 which reads “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword!” I have no problem with anyone’s private beliefs. I have a huge problem when our Secretary of Defense is trying to turn our military into an arm of his and Trump’s efforts to create a white Christian nationalist country of which they are in charge. An exaggeration? I think not when you look at the record. Hegseth has fired over twenty senior Admirals and Generals in order to put in place officers more “loyal” to Trump and Hegseth. Not to the Constitution. To them. Most recently it was the Chief of Staff of the Army. In the middle of a war. Rumor has it that he was fired because he argued against putting U.S. troops into Iran. Hegseth has tampered with the promotion process destroying an apolitical system based on merit and instead is promoting people ideologically and politically aligned with his beliefs. Most recently he pulled four officers off of the Army’s promotion list to Brigadier General (a one star rank) — something previously unheard of by a Secretary of Defense. Two of the officers were black and two were women.
Just as an aside, if one ever wanted to make sure that no one in the Middle East will give you the time of day, start talking about Crusades against Islam. It is the one thing that will unite Arabs and Persians.
I was out of the country for most of March which gave me a chance to reflect on events in our country and to look at things through the eyes of our (former) allies and friends. It scares me deeply. I have been of the opinion that we could recover from the rampaging MAGA crowd that are out to destroy everything that traditionally makes us Americans. Now I am not so sure. When I think about the fact that this guy is the person that the plurality of Americans wanted as their president despite all that he has done, I know that there are no limits to his depravity and willingness to do anything to stay in power. Trump is a convicted felon and an adjudicated sexual predator that is on tape saying that he can abuse women because “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…” This is the same guy that worked for months to overturn a free and fair election and when he failed, he unleashed a mob that attacked our seat of government and that was hell bent on killing the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. Why would anyone think that he would stop at anything, repeat, anything to get what he wants? Obviously I am not a physician, but anyone with half a brain can watch him speak and realize that he is ill — both physically and mentally. How desperate will he be to cement his legacy as the first autocrat to rule America and change our way of life? He is already busy slapping his name on anything around the District of Columbia that he can find and is planning to build monuments to himself all around the city. I am sure he knows more about the details of his proposed ballroom than he knows about the details of the war that he started. Meanwhile, his Cabinet, advisers and Republican (?) members of Congress let him do whatever pops into his sick mind.
Trump is only interested in his personal aggrandizement and wealth. Not in actually governing. Here are two examples of what he is doing with your tax dollars. The Department of State recently cut multiple programs to raise 1.2 billion dollars for Trump’s Board of Peace. All current members ante up one billion dollars each to join. Allegedly, the Board is formed to oversee the restoration of the Gaza Strip but let’s cut to the chase. The Chairman is Trump. For Life. Yes. The Chairman can override any vote of the rest of the Board. The Chairman controls the funds, exclusively. The Chairman decides who can or cannot be on the Board. Can you say slush fund?
Or how about this gambit? Trump is suing his Department of Justice for ten billion dollars. Ten billion of your tax dollars. He claims irreparable harm from the release of his tax returns by a contractor and from the lawful investigation into his theft of classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago. Gee. Let’s think about who controls the Department. As Trump said, “But isn’t that a strange position to be in? I’ve gotta make a deal. I negotiate with myself.” He might as well. Our paper money is now going to be signed by him rather than the Treasurer of the United States. Another “historic” moment (it’s never happened in our history) and a sure sign of an entrenched autocrat.
Everything that is happening in the war with Iran was predictable. Indeed, even I predicted it in this space on 25 February before the war began. Trump and Hegseth either ignored the warnings from their experts or were bound and determined to attack regardless. Now the world is in a mess and no one trusts us at all. Not our friends, not our Allies, not our enemies. No one is likely to trust us for a generation, if then. One “Trump” can be explained away. Two “Trumps” and the rest of the world has to understand that another “Trump” could come along at any time. Our country asked for this and from the rest of the world’s view point, there is nothing to stop it from happening again. I will also point out, that we still have not heard Trump or anyone in his cabinet articulate the strategic objectives for our assault on Iran. Mostly they talk in tactical terms (all Hegseth knows how to do) and even then, they change everything based on which way the wind is blowing. There is a huge leadership void at the top of the government. Very dangerous.
Life is hard but it is harder when you’re stupid. Unfortunately, their stupidity is leading to the needless deaths of thousands of civilians. And now they are advocating for war crimes against civilians by attacking infrastructure that has no real military value. Our military men and women deserve better.
The Autocrat’s Excuse
Posted: March 5, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AUMF, Autocracy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Mohammad Bin Salman, Operation Epic Fury, United States Constitution, War Aims, War Powers Act, World Liberty Financial 1 Comment
“Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make!” Lord Farquaad in the animated movie Shrek (2001).
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war.” Trump on 28 February announcing the attack on Iran. He later that day held a million dollar a plate dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
As I write, we are in day six of Operation Epstein Files Epic Fury, the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran. At this point, we still do not know why the war had to start right now and we still do not know the desired end state. As I explained in my post prior to the attack, without a stated end state, no one knows when we have “won”. So far, the Trump administration has posited multiple and often conflicting reasons for the attack and cannot seem to get their story straight. Key leaders such as the Secretary of Defense still talk in tactical terms rather than strategic. They cannot articulate what winning looks like and what the overall goal is for governing in Iran.
Before I go further let me say that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and those that supported his regime while suppressing the aspirations of everyday Iranians was an evil man. I do not defend him or his regime in anyway. They have been bad actors for decades. I also commend our women and men in uniform whose professionalism and expertise has again demonstrated that the U.S. military is the best of the best. Our service members have preformed admirably and courageously.
Neither of those facts, however, justify this attack on Iran.
Why not Russia, China and/or North Korea? Let’s look at the rationale behind the war — and I will return to that momentarily but the Trump administration is calling it a “war.” Comparing the reasons given for attacking Iran and comparing them to our relations with the Bush era defined “Axis of Evil” does not explain why Iran or why now. Stalled negotiations. Check. Might be pursuing a nuclear weapon. Check. Promotes terrorism. Check. Has ballistic missiles that threaten the U.S. and our allies. Check. Everything that Trump and his cabinet say are our reasons for launching the war is the same, or poses an even greater threat from Russia, China, and North Korea. No one is arguing that we attack them. Indeed, Russia’s assault on Ukraine is ongoing after four years and this administration barely acknowledges the atrocities committed by Russians. Russia invaded a democratic Ukraine and all that Trump does is berate the Ukrainian leadership and pester them into giving in to Russian demands. Nothing is asked of Russia.
Maybe we struck Iran because we could and Trump likes to act the part of the tough guy Commander-in-Chief. Or maybe it is because Trump is beholden to Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and to Mohammed bin Salman al Saud of Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu has been warning for thirty years that Iran was on the brink of obtaining a nuclear weapon “any day”. Maybe Trump believed him, because he certainly did not believe his own intelligence agencies that were telling Trump that there was no imminent threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon and that they had no means of weaponizing one. It is known that Mohammed (aka MBS) was calling Trump repeatedly over the last month telling him that Iran needed to be taken care of. Let’s speculate a bit. Netanyahu knows how to play Trump like a fiddle and Trump dances. But that may not be enough. It may be just a coincidence but when Trump left office after his first term, Jared Kushner his son-in-law got a two billion dollar investment from the Saudis. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the past year bought a 500 million dollar stake in the Trump family crypto venture called World Liberty Financial. Qatar gave Trump — personally, not as president — a luxury Boeing 747 with an estimated worth of 400 million dollars. Oman is working with the Trump family to develop properties in their country. Saudi Arabia is also working with the Trump family on developing real estate such as Trump Tower Jedda and Trump Plaza Riyadh and a 63 billion dollar project in Diriyah. All of these Arab countries have competing interests opposed to Persian Iran. Could that be why we took out Iran? Just asking.
I am not even sure that Trump knows why he ordered the operation. In a press gaggle at the White House he stated that he had a feeling that Iran would attack first so he got the jump on them. He decided instinctively that he should go to war rather than listen to advisers (he doesn’t) or believe the intelligence presented to him (he ignores it). In a way this fits with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s explanation of why now. It was convoluted as many of his statements are in trying to explain yet another poor decision. He claimed that the the Israelis were going to attack Iran anyway, and since the Iranians were going to respond across the region, then the U.S. had to strike first to stop Iran’s response to an Israeli attack. In other words, Israel can decide when the U.S. goes to war. Speaker of the House “Lil Mikey” Johnson gave the same explanation as did Rubio. Rubio later walked it back but it makes about as much sense as any other explanation the administration has offered.
One would hope that they have some strategic objective in mind as the war is beginning to spread out of the Middle East. A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka. Iran sent drones against a British base on Cyprus. The economic consequences are already being felt around the world. Where are we headed?
I am out of the prediction business, but here is what would not surprise me. One day, when it is clear that it is not going to be easy to clean up the mess he made in the Middle East, Trump will wake up and decide it’s over. Stop the fighting, go home and figure out the next country he wants to attack. (Cuba anyone? Earlier this week he raised the prospect of “a friendly take over” of Cuba.) Of course that will leave a huge vacuum in a volatile area of the world. It could leave behind the same conditions that led to the growth of ISIS and al-Qaeda in other areas of the region. It will also not rid us of Iranian meddling. They have a long history, a long memory and a willingness to retaliate on their own time and at a place of their choosing. Terrorism will not go away with a leaderless, devastated Iran. The threat may even increase if we just pack up and leave. So far, it doesn’t appear that he thinks much past day one of anything. Our assault on Venezuela was supposedly to eliminate the Maduro regime. The Maduro regime is still in power, still terrorizing their population and still making themselves rich. Nothing changed except that now Trump has access to Venezuelan oil. I surmise that he cares as much about the Iranian people as he does the Venezuelans or the populations of the other six countries he’s bombed in his second term.
Yesterday in the Senate, and soon in the House, Congress will again abdicate its power and responsibility under the Constitution and give in to the president by failing to pass a resolution under the War Powers Act. The two biggest responsibilities of the Congress are the power to declare war and to control the funding of the government. This Congress has shirked both obligations thus allowing a president that already acts like he can do whatever he wants, to, in fact, do whatever he wants, even starting a needless war. Many people point to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as precedents to Trump’s actions. That overlooks the fact that President George W. Bush built a case for war in both areas, went to Congress, explained the need, and acted in concert with the will of the American people at the time. Congress passed Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) acts for Afghanistan and Iraq. One can question whether that was wise and question whether it gave the president too much latitude. The point is, however, that he did consult with and get approval from, the Congress. Trump just ignores them. There is not any “wiggle room” either that this is just a “combat operation” or a “police action” or some other euphemism for “war.” Trump, his cabinet and others have specifically used the word war. I think they like the sound of it. However, contrary to his assertions, there was no imminent threat. He had time to build the case with the American people and to work with our representatives in Congress to justify his actions. He does not think that he has to do that or anything else that he perceives as limiting his power.
When things are going poorly, the aspiring autocrat looks outside of their national borders to create a new enemy and to turn the people’s attention away from what is happening at home.
Long live the king!
Watch Your Back
Posted: February 15, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Congress, Democracy, Gordie Howe Bridge, MAGA, REAL ID, Save Act, The Epstein Class, The Epstein Files, United States Constitution, Voting Rights Leave a comment
Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota showing the likenesses of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. 16 February is Presidents Day in the United States, a federal holiday.
We continue to see the attacks on democracy continue under the Trump administration as enabled by his fellow members of the “Epstein Class.” As more of the Epstein files are released and studied, it becomes increasingly clear that there is a class of people in the world who are rich, powerful, and seemingly untouchable that look out for each other. We have yet to fully discover all that is within the millions of documents that compile the files, but it is already clear that it was a giant world-wide web of corruption and child sex trafficking. Other countries are taking the revelations seriously — politicians and members of royal families in the U.K., Norway, France, Slovakia, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ireland have been forced to resign from important posts and/or are being investigated in their home countries for crimes — but in the U.S. the president and his cabinet are telling us to “move on.” Meanwhile, the survivors are traumatized over and over by the callous treatment they are receiving from their own government.
One case of how the Epstein Class operates — whether or not these people were involved in the sex trafficking, of which so far there is no proof — can be found in the curious case of the bridge that wouldn’t open. Canada built the Gordie Howe Bridge over the Detroit River to connect Detroit Michigan with Windsor Ontario. The bridge was built by Canada and is jointly owned and operated by Canada and Michigan. When opened, it will greatly improve traffic between Canada and Michigan, in particular, aiding in car manufacturing as parts, and partially completed vehicles, pass back and forth between the countries as they are partially built in each country. The current bridge, the Ambassador Bridge, is the busiest bridge anywhere along the U.S.-Canada border. It happens to be owned by Manuel Mouron, a billionaire that accrues tremendous income from the tolls charged to crossover. The new bridge would significantly cut into his revenue. The new bridge is complete, save for some engineering tests, and was set to open “soon.” Mouron called his good friend Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and complained about the Gordie Howe Bridge (earlier Mouron unsuccessfully tried to prevent it from being built) and asked for help. Lutnick (yes, the same Howard Lutnick that blatantly lied about his relationship to Epstein which continued even after Epstein’s conviction on sex charges) called the president. Last week Trump announced that he “would not allow” the bridge to open until Canada paid us everything they owe. Whatever that is. And it will not open until “Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.” It is uncertain when it will open. However, this is a clear and uncomplicated, if small, example of how the Epstein Class operates.
In order to keep the Epstein Class in power (the belief that a handful of rich, powerful white men should have control over the rest of us) the MAGA Party passed the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) in the House of Representatives. It now goes to the Senate where Democrats promise to filibuster it to keep it from becoming law. MAGA propaganda insists that the Act is required in order to ensure the integrity of the voting process by requiring voters to prove that they are indeed, U.S. citizens. Sounds logical on its surface, does it not? As with most such distractions, the devil is in the details. First and foremost, they are trying to solve a problem that does not exist. We already have laws that prevent non-citizens from voting and that punish people that vote illegally. This red herring of illegal voting throwing elections has been trotted out numerous times over the decades. Every study conducted on the issue, even by advocates of the new law, find miniscule amounts of illegal voting. For example, a study of the 2016 election across 42 jurisdictions found that of 23.5 million votes cast, only 30 were suspected — not proven — to be illegal, or about 0.0001 percent. No election has been decided by an illegal voter.
Under the SAVE Act, the primary way that the status of a legal voter is established is through presenting a passport or an original notarized birth certificate. The burden is on the voter to establish their eligibility rather than on the government to use existing data bases to establish their eligibility. Current statistics show that less than half of Americans own a valid passport. Should you want to get one, besides all the paperwork and pictures required, it will take 6-13 weeks to be processed, depending on seasonal volume, which does not include mailing time to and from the State Department. It will cost you: for a first time passport it is 165 dollars; to renew an existing passport it is 135 dollars; to get an official photo from the Post Office you will need 15 dollars.
Many people do not have an original birth certificate. They may have a copy, but if it is not the original it is not acceptable. Also, think about this. Married couples who have taken their spouse’s last name as their own would have to get new documentation because the name on the voter registration and the certification must match exactly. Other categories of citizens with perfectly reasonable circumstances to have a different or new name than that on a birth certificate would be disqualified.
Due to the need to verify one’s citizenship when voting, mail-in voting or drop boxes are prohibited. Allegedly, there are exceptions for active duty military and some categories of disabled Americans, but they still need to prove their citizenship and how that will be accomplished is unclear.
The new law would disenfranchise an estimated 20-25 million voters. Kansas instituted a similar law. An estimated 0.002 percent of registered voters were non-citizens. After the law was passed, 12 percent of voters were prevented from registering or about 31,000 U.S. citizens could not vote.
If the MAGA leaders were serious about proving that only U.S. citizens are voting, they would institute a phased approach where states can issue proof of citizenship through driver’s licenses or a national identity card that is free or only a nominal cost. One might ask about the REAL ID program which all of us were required to get as part of our drivers license or state ID card. Sorry folks, only five states — Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington — provide the opportunity (for an additional cost) to have your license indicate that you are a citizen. Idaho is working to include it. The rest of the United States and the District of Columbia do not currently comply with the proposed SAVE Act requirements. Here is the catch. Some states already require proof of your identity to vote. But those do not prove your citizenship. The real kicker is that under the law, we would all have to prove our citizenship to register to vote. Not just at the polling place. There are other provisions in the bill that would make individual states’ actions more complicated to carry out elections.
Remember that Trump wants to “nationalize” elections. Even as the Constitution gives that power to the states. The SAVE Act is part of a multi-pronged effort to impact the 2026 elections and to declare them invalid if he does not like the results. He is resurrecting his claims that the 2020 elections were rigged and stolen. Besides this being a personal thorn in his side, he is trying to create the conditions for another coup attempt following the mid-term elections.
Like so much with Trump and the MAGA crowd, logic plays no role in their arguments. I have always wondered how an outside source could alter ballots so that only Trump’s name was switched with President Biden’s on the same ballots where Republican and MAGA candidates won handily? Nor can I follow the logic as to why, if we are deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented people and if the border is “100 percent secure” as he so often claims, where are all these people coming from that are storming across the border to vote? And if all elections are rigged, how did he win in 2024? (Unless he is doing his usual projection and he rigged the election. Elon Musk claims he won the election for Trump. How? Just asking.)
Trump’s daily (hourly?) outbursts and Truth Social posts are outrageous. By design. He and his cohorts are desensitizing us and trying to distract and deflect and cover-up what is actually going on. The Epstein Class thinks it is in control and they intend to stay in control. So far no one in his administration, close advisers or influencers have been held accountable for their actions. I have no idea who may or may not have been involved in the abuse of little girls. I do know that they all ran in the same circles and socialized, conducted business and used their influence to help their friends, even after Epstein was first convicted.
They have each others back. We need to have the backs of our own families, friends and communities.
The Assault on Democracy Is Underway
Posted: February 1, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Access Hollywood Tape, Customs and Border Protection, Declaration of Independence, Director of National Intelligence, Donald Trump, FBI, Fulton County Georgia, history, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), Russia, The Epstein Files, United States Constitution Leave a comment
Demonstrators protest Immigration and Customs (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent actions in Minneapolis. (picture by Jaida Grey Eagle for NPR)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” An excerpt from the Declaration of Independence.
It is ironic that as we approach the 250th anniversary of our independence from Great Britain that our foundational beliefs are under attack from the government and its millions of supporters. The key members of the Trump regime, including the president himself, do not believe that it is “self-evident” that all of us are “created equal” just because we are all human beings and should be treated with respect. They do not believe that anyone other than themselves has “unalienable Rights.” Most certainly they do not believe that their power comes from the “consent of the governed.” Trump and his key supporters believe that they are in power because they deserve to be in power. It is not unlike white plantation owners in the period leading up to the civil war believing that they had a right to own slaves. They believed that humankind is naturally divided into classes. Some people are destined to be rich and powerful and others are destined to be workers, minions, slaves, tools of the powerful. This thinking is also a basic premise of the Project 2025 playbook which envisions a country run by white, rich, Christian men. Everyone else should know their place and that place is to serve and preserve the powerful. In that context, what is happening to our democracy right now should not be a surprise. They keep telling us what they are going to do and put into writing. This is their chance to “save” our country and their belief in a history of white heritage. Believe them.
Basic rights delineated in our Constitution are under ever increasing attacks. It is time to wake up. This is not a fever dream or a political statement or a scare tactic. Wishing it isn’t so is not going to stop what is happening.
In Minnesota and around the country, ICE and CBP agents continue to attack citizens and non-citizens alike. Peaceful demonstrators whose only “crime” is filming the agents attacking people are themselves being attacked with chemical weapons, beaten, arrested and, in two cases, murdered. Last week Tom “CAVA Man” Homan declared at a news conference that he planned to de-escalate the contentious interactions between the federal agents and citizens and to begin a drawdown of the 3,000 paramilitary forces in the state. At the time I wrote that it was a lie. His statements were a change in demeanor but not in policy, and it turns out he did lie. But don’t take my word for it. When asked by a reporter last Thursday if he was going to order a drawdown Trump responded “No, no, not at all.” Our civil rights will continue to be violated. If citizens are being treated like “domestic terrorists” I can only imagine what happens to the people taken into custody and placed in detention centers. From July 2025 to the end of January 2026 thirty-five people are known to have died in immigration centers. Those are the ones that the government reported.
The recent arrests of journalists in Los Angeles and Minnesota — all black, all independent — is meant to put a damper on reporting about the federal government. All were covering a protest at a church where an ICE agent was thought to be a leader. Whatever you say about the incursion, and in no way do I condone the interruption, religion is off limits under the Constitution, they were honestly covering it, not fomenting it. The Department of Justice (DOJ) went to two different judges, one at the appellate level, to get warrants. The judges refused. The DOJ then convened a grand jury to deliver an indictment. This is clearly a test case to see how far DOJ can go in prosecuting citizens for exercising their rights. Taken in conjunction with CBS and ABC paying Trump to stop lawsuits, Trump expressing his desire to get Jimmy Kimmel off the air (and he was for awhile), suing the New York Times and other media outlets and on and on, there is clearly an attempt to stifle reporters and to keep them from reporting what Trump does not want reported.
So much chaos all the time. It is easy to get overwhelmed or to give up. However, let’s not forget the Epstein files. Last Friday the DOJ released millions of documents and thousands of images. They admit that it is only half of it. Besides breaking the law, a law signed by Trump himself, purposely or carelessly the documents released identify some of the victims of the sexual abuse, but not the perpetrators. A multitude of reasons were given as to why the rest of the documents would not be released — can you spell cover up — but the most curious was that they would not release images depicting “death, physical abuse, or injury.” Well, that sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? For about half a second. Just saying that they would not release them in fact proves that such images exist. That raises a lot of questions. Who is in the pictures? What happened to them? Who killed, abused or injured the people in the pictures or videos? That such images are not released to the general public is not unreasonable, but who is investigating the circumstances surrounding them? We already know that we cannot trust the Trump DOJ to do a credible investigation that may implicate Trump or any of his well-heeled friends. Where is a credible third party to investigate them? The most recent release does not put the issue to rest. On top of all that, not only was Epstein running a child sex trafficking ring, there are plenty of hints in the documents released that he was probably also running a blackmail scheme. How can we trust that a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, instigator of an insurrection who is on tape bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent and saying “when you’re a star, they let you do it.” I for one, do not see how anything so far “exonerates” Trump.
Most disturbing of all, perhaps, is the FBI raid on the election headquarters in Fulton County Georgia. Fulton County is where most of Atlanta is located and where many Democrat voters live. As we all remember, it was the scene of many false, even ludicrous accusations about rigged elections. Is this part of Trump’s campaign to “prove” that he did not lose the 2020 election? Maybe. I see something worse at work.
This is clearly an effort to rig the mid-term elections this year and in 2028. It is both a trial run, and an attempt to keep Democrats from winning elections in Georgia. Most likely, the federal government will declare that they found illegalities perpetrated by the local election board and poll workers. This will cause the state-wide election board — packed with Republican supporters of Trump — to step in to ensure a “fair” election. Doubtless they will change the voting rules such as no mail-in ballots or early voting or whatever else they can come up with to disenfranchise as many potential voters as possible. An election interference wolf disguised as a free and fair election sheep. In my view, this is also a trial run for other Democrat heavy cities and states. Combine those actions with ever growing ICE and CBP agents in more blue cities and states near or around polling places acting like they currently are in Minneapolis. Intimidation leading to lower turnout. Maybe even using them to confiscate ballot boxes. The possibilities are endless. We now know the intricate, detailed and long standing plan for him to void the 2020 election that culminated in an attempt to overturn the government and planned to hang the Vice President and murder the Speaker of the House. He’s already done it once. Why would anyone think he won’t do it again? No one, including me, thought that he would try to overturn an election through violence. We were wrong. We cannot be wrong again. Last month in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times Trump said that “I should have” had the National Guard seize ballot boxes in 2020. This is a direct assault on all of us as a nation.
To make matters ever more unsettling, Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was there during the FBI raid in Fulton County. The DNI is responsible for all intelligence from throughout the government agencies and has no direct connection to the FBI. She is not empowered to oversee domestic law enforcement. She is, however, a known conspiracy theorist who believes all sorts of incredible falsehoods. She is also known to be a Russian sympathizer. Was she investigating Trump’s recent claim that Italian military satellites changed votes from Trump to Biden? Apparently, “China reportedly coordinated the whole operation,” one of his Truth Social posts reads. “The CIA oversaw it, the FBI covered it up, all to install Biden as a puppet.“? (I cannot make this up. This is where we are as a country.)
I am sick of politicians, political analysts and talking heads saying that Trump’s actions are very politically damaging to the Republican Party and to Trump. They opine that the Republicans will lose in a landslide to Democrats in the mid-term elections. The pundits wonder, therefore, as to why do the Trumpists keep doing unpopular things? Because, repeat after me, THEY DON’T CARE. They are in power, control the levers of power, and they do not plan to give up anything. Perhaps ever. Recall that 147 Republicans voted against certifying the 2020 election — even after the attack on the capital on 6 January when many of them ran for their lives. Now there are even more Trumpists in Congress. These folks are serious about taking over and holding all power in the country. We should not be limited in our imagination. If you can think of it, they already have. Autocracy rarely springs into being overnight. The institutions that hold up individual rights slowly erode until they are gone. They do not evaporate in one big push, but rather in lots of smaller, more manageable pushes until such actions are normalized and then its on to the next one. We are seeing it happen now.
These are dark days. More and more people are beginning to realize how serious the threat can be. Thankfully, we are also seeing more nationwide demonstrations as people begin to push back. I hope that they continue to grow. It isn’t too late, but we can all see big trouble on the horizon.
Show Me Your Papers!
Posted: January 14, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1984, Border Patrol, Department of Homeland Security, Donald Trump, Fascism, history, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), Operation Metro Surge, Propaganda, United States Constitution, White Nationalism Leave a comment
A 1938 German poster used throughout the country but especially in Austria after the Anschluss or the German annexation of Austria. It translates to “One People, One Nation, One Leader!” Last Saturday the United States Department of Labor posted a video that projected the slogans “One Homeland! One People! One Heritage! Remember Who You Are, American!“
A poster placed on “X” by the Department of Homeland Security. The caption read “Protect. Serve. Deport.” This is one of a series of such posters, all depicting white men in heroic and patriotic settings, as part of their “wartime recruitment” effort.
As events in Minnesota continue to spiral out of control, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and Border Patrol (BP) agents are escalating their response to the peaceful demonstrations protesting the occupation of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Rather than de-escalating the situation and attempting to restore calm, they are using ever stronger tactics that are clearly meant to intimidate and abuse American citizens. There are believed to now be more than 3,000 federal agents in the area. That is more than the entire police departments of the two cities combined. Technically, there are two federal operations under way. One is Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening) aimed at eliminating refugee fraud — in other words, directed at the Somali population in the region. (One might ask why there is not an army of accountants deployed to the city vice ICE.) The other is Operation Metro Surge aimed at combatting “illegal immigration and crime.” As a result, many American citizens are increasingly being assaulted (choke holds, knees to the back or neck, cars broken into and the occupants drug across the ground, not to mention the unprovoked killing of Renee Nicole Good). Yesterday, Trump posted on social media at the end of a long screed aimed at the citizens of Minnesota and the denunciation of President Joe Biden, “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!” (All caps in the original. Because, of course….) In fact, the post was meant to intimidate American citizens, not to calm their fears.
The 1930’s style posters I displayed above are only a fraction of those in use by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor. They have also taken famous paintings by Norman Rockwell, Thomas Kinkade, Morgan Weistling and other artists and used them, without permission, in posters with words and slogans not intended in the originals, despite protests and condemnation by the families and estates of the artists. It is pure propaganda promoting a vision of America that never existed except in the minds of those yearning for something they never experienced. The images and phrases clearly leave no room for the diverse society we now have in the United States. It subtly, or not so subtly, promotes a “pure” nation of white Christian nationalists with men clearly in charge. All “others” are not welcome. The message to those that protest the deportations and thug like tactics of federal agents is that such people are not true Americans and are in fact, enemies to be defeated, humiliated and brutalized — maybe even rounded up and imprisoned. It is no accident that Renee Good was immediately branded a “domestic terrorist.” There will be no investigation into the shooting by the Department of Justice (DOJ), only into the background of Renee Good and her widow who are accused of being part of a vast left-wing conspiracy to create an insurrection. As a result, at least six federal prosecutors in DOJ resigned in protest.
Wake up America! This is no accident or series of accidental events. This is a concerted effort to display the uninhibited power of the federal government to crush dissent. Support Trump and his policies or be trampled. In my view, the events in Minnesota are a dress rehearsal for ever greater repression leading up to the mid-term elections. Trump’s private para-military force on our streets is getting larger and larger everyday as they grow ever less inhibited in trying to intimidate all of us who do not support them. When they say that there will be no investigation of the shooting, when they pardon all of the January 6th insurrectionists, and they repeatedly tell the thugs in tactical gear that the administration “has their back” they are telling those agents that anything goes and that there will be no accountability. That should scare the bejesus out of all of us.
Recall that shortly after his second inauguration Trump posted on social media that “He who serves his Country does not violate any Law.” He also claimed that he would be a dictator, but “only for one day.” Last week in an interview with the New York Times he explained that he is not bound by international law or anything else. The only thing limiting his power is “my own mind.” Trump is asserting that he has unlimited authority which completely rejects the Constitution and our long political and legal traditions.
There is no law that requires U.S. citizens to always have some form of identification on them to prove that they are citizens. However, that is not stopping ICE and BP agents from demanding proof of citizenship. There are increasing numbers of videos and eyewitness accounts documenting that it is happening. If someone does not look “American” they are likely to be detained, questioned and told to provide proof of citizenship. If they do not have it in their possession at the time, they are arrested and taken away. It is happening with increasing frequency.
The “f word” has been overused in recent years — that is fascism. However, there are several examples in history that are eerily similar to what is happening in our country. Fascism is not some theoretical idea that academics debate. It is a specific political movement that prioritizes the nation over the individual and manifests through nationalism, militarism and the suppression of enemies of the state. Those enemies are particular ethnic groups, religious groups or opponents of the ruling regime. Fascism is a governing structure, it is more than just an idea. A self-declared small group of people claims ultimate authority to run the country. It disavows democratic norms and rejects equal rights under the law. Then the powerful leader fuses the power of the state with the power of big businesses and the military to run the country. The virtue of brute strength is idolized. It includes disdain for the role of women in positions of leadership and fears non-traditional sexual identities. By inventing enemies, declaring national emergencies or acting in the name of national security, their power is used to control the population. Elections are rigged and therefore of little meaning. The media is controlled to feed the population only the propaganda that serves those in power. Other “elites” — academics, journalists, opposition political parties, intellectuals and the rest — are used as targets to enrage the population by claiming that the average person has been tricked out of their share of the wealth and power by those elites.
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong.” “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” From Trump’s speech to his supporters on 6 January 2021.
I do not think it is inevitable that we will fall into the depths of a fascist society, but the Trump regime is sure trying to get there. Increasingly, everyday people are pushing back. I think that pushback will only grow, but it is not going to be easy to unseat the regime in power. Most importantly, that pushback must be peaceful, calm, but unyielding. The Trump regime is looking for an opportunity to crack down even more and in more areas. As the DHS army grows, more cities will be targeted. Do not be fooled by the propaganda. Thank goodness for cell phones — a statement I did not think I would make — because the videos and pictures are the easiest and best way to counter the propaganda. Stay safe out there.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” George Orwell in the novel 1984.
That Was The Year That Was
Posted: December 30, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Authoritarianism, DOJ, Donald Trump, FBI, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), NATO, Russia, Signalgate, Tariffs, Ukraine, United States Constitution, US AID 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!”
Tom
Into The Fray 
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