Category: political science

“with liberty and justice for all”

I don’t know if the Pledge of Allegiance is still recited in public school classrooms like it was in the 1950s and 1960s.

Photo by Cris Constantin on Unsplash

I will be 73 years old this week, and I remember standing beside my desk in elementary school, facing the American flag that hung from a wooden dowel at an angle from the wall of the classroom, putting my right hand over my heart, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I did it even before I understood the words we were saying.

I pledged my allegiance to the flag and to the republic it represented.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

My generation learned from an early age to revere the flag and to revere the ideals the United States of America strives to attain and uphold.

We were born after World War II. Yes, we are the “boomers” who the Gen X-ers make fun of. We did not yet know or comprehend the horrors of war. We had no concept of liberty and justice. We were too young to know that our country was special and unlike any other country in the world.

We slowly learned those things. We learned that all American citizens did not enjoy the same rights and privileges that we in an all-white school took for granted. We learned about civil rights by living through the Civil Rights Movement and school desegregation. We learned that all people are the same, regardless of skin pigment.

Somehow, the 31 simple – yet profound – words of the Pledge of Allegiance settled into our bones and our minds and our souls.

I might not remember what I ate for breakfast this morning, but the words of the Pledge of Allegiance still easily roll off my tongue.

Did Donald Trump ever learn the words of the Pledge of Allegiance? Perhaps it was not taught and recited in the prestigious private schools he attended in New York. I don’t know.

Did James Donald Bowman recite the Pledge of Allegiance in his school in Ohio? My hunch is that he did, even though he seems to have forgotten. You probably know him as James David “J.D.” Vance. (I still think it is a stretch to call the northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati “Appalachia,” but I digress.)

What about Kristi Noem? Was she taught the Pledge of Allegiance in the school she attended in South Dakota? Surely, she was. I know nothing about the political science department at South Dakota State University, but I question the validity of her Bachelor’s degree.

And what about Gregory Bovino? Did he learn the Pledge of Allegiance as a young student in California? I am appalled to report that he graduated from Western Carolina University and received a Master’s degree from my alma mater, Appalachian State University. This sickens me. I don’t know what his degrees are in. I pray they are not in political science. His buzzcut, his olive-green uniform, his practice of hurling tear gas canisters at protesters have allowed him to become the poster child for the crackdown on illegal immigration that the Trump regime espouses. The cross body strap his uniform includes is reminiscent of Hitler’s “brown shirts.” This is not a look that we are accustomed to seeing in the United States. On Saturday, Bovino adamantly told us that the federal agents in Minneapolis had followed their training that morning when they killed Alex Pretti. Before Mr. Pretti’s bullet-riddled body was cold, Bovino claimed that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” That’s how afraid members of the Trump regime are of a Veterans Administration ICU nurse armed with a cell phone.

What about Stephen Miller? It is ironic that he allegedly campaigned to get the Pledge of Allegiance said in his high school in California. Most of the things he says about our rights as Americans call into question the political science education he received at Duke University.

Karoline Leavitt is of a younger generation, so perhaps she never learned the Pledge of Allegiance. She often wears a necklace from which hangs a cross – a symbol of Jesus Christ. It is offensive when people wear cross necklaces or verbally claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, yet the truth is not in them.

What has happened to these people? Did the Pledge of Allegiance not settle in their bones and their souls?

The Pledge of Allegiance does not mention telling lies. That comes from the Bible. The Eighth Commandment instructs us to “not bear false witness.’ In other words, it tells us not to lie.

When a person is raised in a home where the truth is always told, that commandment becomes second nature. It becomes a core value. Telling the truth is what you do. You don’t have to pause and decide whether to tell the truth. It’s just what you do.

When a person is exposed to lies in their home or in their work place, perhaps the telling of lies becomes second nature to them.

I don’t know much about the private lives of the people in the Trump Administration, but I know they are feeding the American people and the world a lot of lies about what transpired on Saturday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They are telling me not to believe my eyes and ears.

Two days after the murder, members of the Trump regime are still defiant. They will defend the actions of the ICE and Border Patrol Officers until the end. Until the end of our democracy. They told us weeks ago that Trump’s federal agents are above the law.

They seem to have lost sight of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Ten Commandments.

The United States is a country rooted in the rule of law and the ideals proclaimed in our founding documents. The political party to which Donald Trump and his regime belong claims to be rooted in the Bible. They don’t pay much attention to the New Testament, but they claim to love the Old Testament.

That’s where the Ten Commandments are found. It is in the Old Testament that we are instructed not to tell lies.

I suggest that Trump and the members of his regime take a few minutes to sit quietly and read the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Ten Commandments. All of this might be new literature for them, but I think taking time to read these documents and Bible verses might be beneficial for them and the nation they vowed to serve and protect.

My faith in what is being taught in the political science departments at the public and private universities in the United States is being shaken. I fear the students who were born after my college days are not being taught the tenets of democracy that I was taught in school and on the university level. I fear they are not being taught to serve the public with integrity and honesty.

I fear they were not taught that the government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

I would have much preferred to have written scene 43 in my historical novel this afternoon, but I’ve spent several hours contemplating and writing this blog post. And yet, people wonder why it is taking me so long to write my novel. My brain is being torn between 2026 and 1768.

The irony is not lost on me. The people I’m writing about who were living in North Carolina in 1768 were also rebelling against tyranny. That’s not what the novel is about, but the colonists’ patience with the English Crown was already growing thin.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

When will enough be enough?

I write this on Sunday afternoon during an ice storm. The worst of the storm is predicting over the next hours, but I will try to get this blog post written and posted before the power goes off. The events of this weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and my government’s official response to it/explanation of it compel me to speak out.

Photo of the cover of the book, We Will Not Be Silent
We Will Not Be Silent, by Russell Freedman

The fact that we have a United States President that is hellbent on destroying the very foundations of our democracy is not bad enough. We have American citizens who are not only applauding the wrecking ball he has taken to the people of Minnesota; they are justifying what he is doing.

I am appalled at the number of Americans who are saying that Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good “got what they deserved.”

I am appalled at the number of Americans who can watch the same videos I’m seeing of Saturday morning’s murder in Minneapolis and not see what I see.

The video shows that the gun Mr. Pretti was legally carrying had been removed from him by a federal agent. Then four or five federal agents were all over him while he was held on the ground. Then, more than 10 shots were fired at him, and Mr. Pretti lay there dead. It appears that one of the federal agents fired five shots at Mr. Pretti, who was already lying motionless on the ground. Then, all the federal officers scattered.

The U.S. Government says Mr. Pretti was holding a gun when he approached to try to rescue a woman who had been shoved backwards to the ground by a federal agent, but what he held was a cell phone. They sprayed him with pepper spray or some other chemical because he was trying to shield the woman. He was trying to film the incident with his cell phone. He was not reaching for his gun.

He had a permit to carry a firearm. That is a right that Republicans hold as the most sacred right an American can have. They value it above our right to vote, above our right to worship, and above our right to assemble.

These are the same people who called 17-year-old high school drop-out Kyle Rittenhouse a hero for openly carrying a high-powered rifled down the street in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 during civil unrest. Rittenhouse fatally shot three people. Trump invited Rittenhouse to the White House so he could honor him as an American hero. A real patriot, according to Trump and his ilk. Rittenhouse was acquitted, claiming “self-defense.” He is now a darling of the Trump regime.

However, these same people are saying that Alex Pretti deserved to be shot to death because he was legally carrying a firearm – a firearm that was not in his hand. It was in a holster.

The “weapon” in his hand was a cell phone, but the federal agents did not want their actions recorded. They had to do something.

The U.S. Government says the federal agents were being threatened.

A federal agent should never feel threatened by a cell phone, unless that agent is doing something illegal or immoral.

Mr. Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Veterans Administration hospital. He had apparently gone into the street with his cell phone to observe and record the protest.

The U.S. Government immediately accused Mr. Pretti of being a domestic terrorist. That’s also what they immediately called Renee Nicole Good after they shot her in the face as she drove away from the ICE agents.

This is now a U.S. Government that does not want us to believe our own eyes. This is now a U.S. Government that does not want us to believe our own ears. This is a U.S. Government that wants us to forget every word of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

But the thing that frightens me more than my government is my fellow American citizens who think this situation is just fine. They are the citizens who say, “Trump is just going after the worst of the worst. He is just going after the murderers and rapists. He is just going after the people who are here illegally.”

The people who say those things are the people who scare me. Those are the people who would say that Anne Frank got what she deserved. They are the ones who would have defended Hitler’s thugs and “brown shirts” in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. They are the ones who would have said the Jews “got what they deserved.”

They are the ones who today are saying, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti “got what they deserved.”

They are the ones who today are saying, “If you just do whatever an officer tells you to do, they won’t kill you.”

They are the ones who say, “The Holocaust never happened.”

They are the ones who will say, “Nothing happened in Minneapolis on January 24, 2025.”

Never in my first 72 years of life would I have thought this would be the state of things in the United States of America in 2026, but here we are. We have a segment of the population who truly believe, “If you just do whatever an officer tells you to do, they won’t kill you.”

My questions for them are as follows:

If an officer tells you to wear a yellow star on your clothing, would you willingly do that?

If an officer tells you to climb into a train boxcar, would you do that?

If an officer tells you to watch them abuse and arrest a peaceful protester and never say a word about it, would you stand idly by and never say a word?

If an officer uses your five-year-old child as bait to try to bring you out of your home so they can haul you and the child away to a detention center more than 1,000 miles away, would you be okay with that?

If an officer uses your neighbor’s five-year-old child as bait to try to bring your neighbor out of his or her home so they can haul them away to a detention center more than 1,000 miles away because they committed a misdemeanor, would you be okay with that?

Are you aware that it is a misdemeanor to be in the United States illegally?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for committing a misdemeanor?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for filming a peaceful protest?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for coming to the rescue of a fellow citizen who has been shoved to the ground by a federal officer?

And yet, we have a convicted felon “serving” as President of the United States.

We live in a country today that honors felons and murders American citizens for coming to the aid of another citizen being physically abused.

The U.S. Government says that Alex Pretti interfered with a federal operation.

It appears to me in the video that Alex Pretti saw an unarmed woman being pushed backwards to the concrete sidewalk in Minneapolis. Mr. Pretti tried to record the incident with one hand while trying to protect the woman with his body and his free hand.

If the federal agents were properly trained instead of being given $50,000 signing bonuses, they would not have murdered Alex Pretti.

Mr. Pretti, being a trained nurse and an American citizen, saw an abuse of power and tried to do what any law-abiding citizen should do.

God, help us.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Standard Operating Procedure

I was tempted to blog about this yesterday, but I thought it best not to have a knee jerk reaction. I thought I should wait twenty-four hours after the shooting in Minneapolis before I put my thoughts in writing.

I hoped someone in the Trump Administration would step forth and speak with restraint and a modicum of wisdom. I did not expect it, so I was not surprised when Wednesday’s lies, accusations, and name calling continued for a second day.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem showed up dressed appropriately yesterday for a news conference about the killing of a 37-year-old American citizen by an ICE Agent. That was refreshing after we had to see her in a cowgirl outfit – perhaps her Halloween costume – when she spoke from Brownsville, Texas, about the incident a couple of hours after it occurred on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Noem said the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday was “standard operating procedure.” She once again labeled Ms. Good “a domestic terrorist.”

Shooting the driver of a moving vehicle does not seem to me to ever be a wise choice, but I am not a trained law enforcement officer. Perhaps Ms. Good felt her life was threatened by the masked officer who approached her car using profanity, tried to open her car door, and then stuck his arm through the opened car window. We will never know what was in her mind, since she was shot in the face and killed.

A nearby physician requested access to Ms. Good as she bled out in her car, but he was denied the fulfilling of his obligation as a medical doctor by the ICE agents. It has been reported that she did not receive medical attention for more than ten minutes.

Secretary Noem said the officer who shot Ms. Good was following his training.

All this is being said by the Trump Administration before the incident is investigated. In fact, Noem said the officer was within his rights, was following his training, and the woman who was shot was the instigator. In other words, she got what she deserved.

Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance blamed the “left wing lunatic fringe” for the shooting of Renee Good. He said, “It was a tragedy of her own making.” He said the ICE agent was “just doing his job.” He hinted that Democrats are funding the peaceful protests. He verbally attacked journalists for falling for the lies of the “lunatic fringe” on the left.

It sounds like the Trump Administration sits as law enforcement, prosecutor, witness, judge, and jury in this case. This is unconstitutional.

When a law enforcement officer in the United States is involved in a shooting, it is standard operating procedure for that officer to be removed from on-the-street duties until a full investigation can be conducted by a separate law enforcement organization.

It has been my experience that even local law enforcement officials know that. It is very telling that the top level of law enforcement in the United States is thumbing its nose at that commonly accepted – and commonly expected – practice. What federal officials should be saying is, “We cannot comment on the details of the incident because it is under investigation.”

However, what Secretary Noem has said is that the dead victim is going to be investigated. Apparently, her ICE agent will not be investigated.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that the Trump Administration has denied the State of Minnesota the right to investigate the incident.

I believe the Trump Administration and, by association and blind allegiance, the Republican Party, have lost sight of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Americans have a constitutional right to peacefully protest. No one pays us to voice our opinions!

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

No one pays me to write my blog posts. I have a constitutional right to write my blog and express my opinions. It is beyond tragic that the Trump Administration and the Republican Party, which remains in lock-step with Trump, have completely lost sight of the First Amendment. They are obsessed with the Second Amendment, and they want us to forget the rest of them – especially the First one.

We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.

New Assistant U.S. Attorney General position

Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance announced we will have a new U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Fraud. This person has been guaranteed confirmation by the U.S. Senate by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this announcement was that this person will work in the White House and answer to the President and the Vice President.

That, my fellow citizens, is a dangerous precedent-setting action to blatantly announce that the U.S. Department of Justice is now officially a political arm of the U.S. President. It should send a chill down the spine of every American.

We have known since January 20, 2025, that Trump considers the U.S. Justice Department “his” Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his personal attorney. But what Vice President Vance did yesterday was announce to all the world that what they have in practice demonstrated for a year is exactly what they believe and they believe they have the right to control and dictate the actions of the U.S. Department of Justice.

If the U.S. Congress does not stop them, the U.S. Constitution be damned.

In conclusion

I am writing this blog post mid-afternoon on Thursday, January 8 to be posted on the morning of January 9.

I hope there will be a fair and honest investigation to the shooting in Minneapolis, but I do not expect one as long as Trump is President.

It bears repeating: We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.

Janet

P.S. I thank Pat, one of my blog readers for bring it to my attention that I gave the wrong date in my blog post yesterday (“Go fight, Johnny!” – historical short story) for the Battle of Kings Mountain. I stated that the battle occurred on October 17, 1780, but it actually took place on October 7, 1780. Much to my embarrassment, I then realized that I picked up the wrong date in my blog post because I have the incorrect date in Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. My apologies to my readers, and my thanks to Pat for having a sharp eye and for bringing this error to my attention. It just goes to show that even if you proofread a book’s manuscript eight times, you will still not catch all your errors.

J

Oh, Donald, what have you done?

Last week I wrote a blog post for today. As a result of what Trump did on Saturday, though, it no longer seemed appropriate to use it. I’ll save it for another day, because it is about one of the stories in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.

I have mentioned or alluded to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro before.

Flag of Venezuela
Photo by aboodi vesakaran on Unsplash

On August 28, 2025 in my blog, Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, I wrote that Trump was quietly stationing U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other military ships and planes off the coast of Venezuela. I wrote, “The official White House explanation is that it is an anti-illegal drug operation, but it is no secret that Trump wants to overthrow the Maduro regime.”

On December 10, 2025, in my blog, Trump’s National Security Strategy – The Western Hemisphere, I gave some details of Trump’s November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. Among other things, it talked about our use of lethal force and how American businesses would benefit. The NSS went so far as to state that any U.S. Government employee who interacts with countries in the Western Hemisphere must understand that it is “part of their job to help American companies compete and succeed.”

Now that Trump claims the U.S. will “run Venezuela” and we will “take back our oil,” I guess Trump and U.S. oil companies will be the beneficiaries of Saturday’s military action.

On December 31, 2025 in my A look back at 2025 blog post, I listed a few of  the things Trump did last year. One of my paragraphs read as follows: “He thinks he has the right to oust the dictator in a South American nation because that country sits on a lot of oil. He claims Venezuelans are bringing massive amounts of illegal drugs to the U.S. in those tiny boats. In his mind, though, it is easier to claim they’re transporting drugs and obliterate all the evidence along with the people in the boats.”

What Trump did in the wee hours on Saturday morning gives Putin the greenlight to take Ukraine and other European countries. It gives Xi the greenlight to take Taiwan.

Trump has left the United States without a moral leg to stand on when any other dictator in the world decides to go off half-cocked and overthrow a government or a leader they don’t like.

Trump says Maduro is a “bad person.” Just because a country has a “bad person” in charge does not give the United States or any other country the right to overthrow that person and their regime. After all, most of us think Donald Trump is a “bad person.”

The United States has overthrown foreign leaders before. It has never gone well. It goes against the Constitution of the United States of America. It overrides the authority of the U.S. Congress when a U.S. President launches a military attack on another country.

This is not rocket science; it’s just political science. It is the very foundation of our nation. It is not difficult to understand for those of us who have lived here for seven decades. We learned the tenets of American democracy from birth in our homes and at school in our formative years. We have continued to learn it throughout our lives just by having the privilege of being American citizens.

It is beyond unfortunate that we now have a U.S. President who was either never taught those things or has chosen to ignore them. He thumbs his nose at the law and those of us who love America. He believes he is above the law, and those of us who obey the law are “losers.”

And that, my friends, is how we arrived at Saturday morning, January 3, 2026.

Maduro and his wife are now being held in a prison in New York City. It is said that they will be charged with running illegal drugs to the United States.

This is all smoke and mirrors by the U.S. President, for just a few weeks ago he pardoned the former leader of Honduras for his running of drugs to the United States. So why spend an estimated $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to overthrow Maduro? And he is just getting started. The hard work comes after the overthrow, especially when you have no plan and the American people are not behind you.

In Trump World, it all depends on who you are and what Trump can get out of you.

The American people don’t want to run Venezuela. We don’t want to make Canada our 51st state. We don’t want to steal Greenland from Denmark. We don’t want a $400 million ballroom at the White House. We don’t want Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We don’t want a massive arch in Washington, DC. We don’t want masked federal officers snatching people off the streets. We don’t want Trump’s face on our money or our national park passes. We don’t want Trump’s name on anything.

Americans want affordable healthcare and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) we can trust. We want our food inspected by a reliable U.S. Department of Agriculture. We want people to make a fair wage that will enable them to reach the American Dream of home ownership. We want religion left out of our public schools. We want university professors free to teach without government interference. We want our national parks preserved and not destroyed for the sake of gas and oil exploration. We want endangered species protected from extinction. We want a country where citizens are encouraged to vote without intimidation. We want a country where we are all just Americans and minorities are not labeled “other.”

We want a U.S. Congress with the guts to stop Trump’s power grab and overreach.

We want a U.S. Supreme Court that admits the error of their ways when they ruled that a sitting U.S. President cannot be held guilty of breaking a law.

We want a President who speaks and acts from a place of intelligence and empathy – not a gutter-mouth bully. Is it too much to ask that we have a President who speaks in complete sentences? Is it too much to ask for a President who honors the U.S. Constitution? Is it too much to ask for a President who does not call our citizens vicious names?

Janet

P.S. Don’t forget the brave people of Ukraine.

Trump’s National Security Strategy – The Eastern Hemisphere

Yesterday, I primarily blogged (https://janetswritingblog.com/2025/12/10/trumps-national-security-strategy-the-western-hemisphere/) about the Western Hemisphere portion of the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy which was released last Friday, although it bears a November 2025 date. It was quietly released and posted on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf. I encourage you to read the document and draw your own conclusions. Yours might not align with mine.

In addition to the Western Hemisphere, the document addresses Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – in that order.

Photo of a map of the Old World Eastern Hemisphere
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

Asia

As only a document coming out of the Trump White House can say, the Asia portion of the strategy begins with the words, “President Trump single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China: namely, that by opening our markets to China, encouraging American business to invest in China, and outsourcing our manufacturing to China, we would facilitate China’s entry into the so-called ‘rules based international order.’ This did not happen. China got rich and powerful, and used its wealth and power to its considerable advantage. American elites—over four successive administrations of both political parties—were either willing enablers of China’s strategy or in denial.”

That’s rich, coming from Trump who had so much of his Trump brand merchandise manufactured in China! And his daughter had her line of jewelry made in China! The Trump family took full advantage of the “mistakes” of precious U.S. Presidents and got richer and richer at the expense of the American factory worker.

The document goes on to state, “… the Indo-Pacific is already and will continue to be among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds. To thrive at home, we must successfully compete there—and we are. President Trump signed major agreements during his October 2025 travels that further deepen our powerful ties of commerce, culture, technology, and defense, and reaffirm our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. America retains tremendous assets—the world’s strongest economy and military, world-beating innovation, unrivaled “soft power,” and a historic record of benefiting our allies and partners—that enable us to compete successfully. President Trump is building alliances and strengthening partnerships in the Indo Pacific that will be the bedrock of security and prosperity long into the future.”

Several hundred words later, the Asia section of the document ends with, “We will also harden and strengthen our military presence in the Western Pacific, while in our dealings with Taiwan and Australia we maintain our determined rhetoric on increased defense spending. Preventing conflict requires a vigilant posture in the Indo-Pacific, a renewed defense industrial base, greater military investment from ourselves and from allies and partners, and winning the economic and technological competition over the long term.”

It appears that Australia was thrown into that last paragraph as an afterthought.

Europe

The European section of the National Security Strategy begins by throwing Europe under the bus, as Trump likes to do. He is critical of every country, including his own. Nothing is good enough. After laying out some supposed statistics (I say supposed because, sadly, I don’t believe anything the Trump Administration says), the document says if the current trend in Europe continues, “the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.”

The paper goes on to address the threat Russia poses with its nuclear weapons and the need to “reestablish conditions of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of conflict between Russia and European states.

I find the following statement in the NSS interesting, considering the Trump Administration’s propensity to make it more difficult for U.S. citizens to vote and its blatant efforts to prompt states to gerrymander Congressional district lines to assure him of retaining the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

That statement: “A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes. This is strategically important to the United States precisely because European states cannot reform themselves if they are trapped in political crisis…. Not only can we not afford to write Europe off—doing so would be self-defeating for what this strategy aims to achieve. American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history….  Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory. We will need a strong Europe to help us successfully compete, and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary from dominating Europe…. We want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.”

The document then addresses NATO and its future as “certain NATO members will become majority non-European.”

The Middle East

This section of the NSS begins by addressing energy and how the Middle East is not as important in that arena as it was for decades. It touts the fact that the U.S. is now an energy exporter. It also boasts that Trump has “revitalized” U.S. alliances in “the Gulf.” It says the threats to peace in the Middle East are not as strong as the news headlines indicate. It brags about the U.S. June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Africa

The NSS document starts this section by criticizing past American policy in Africa as spreading liberal ideology. Instead, the Trump Administration seeks to partner with “select countries” to create trade to replace the foreign aid of the past.

This section of the document ends with, “The United States should transition from an aid-focused relationship with Africa to a trade- and investment-focused relationship, favoring partnerships with capable, reliable states committed to opening their markets to U.S. goods and services. An immediate area for U.S. investment in Africa, with prospects for a good return on investment, include the energy sector and critical mineral development. Development of U.S.-backed nuclear energy, liquid petroleum gas, and liquified natural gas technologies can generate profits for U.S. businesses and help us in the competition for critical minerals and other resources.

In other words, what’s in it for Trump? He can only see the world through the lens of business. That lens only sees how he can personally benefit financially.

I hate to have such a distrust for and poor perspective of a U.S. President. I don’t enjoy writing any of this.

Janet

Trump’s National Security Strategy – The Western Hemisphere

What we have here in the United States is obviously a Wizard of Oz situation.

The White House quietly released the November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and posted it on the White House website. Since it is the announcement of the official U.S. foreign policy, there is usually a bit of fanfare with its release, but not this year.

Most Americans will never hear about it, much less read it.

It begins with a letter signed by Trump but obviously written by someone else. Probably Stephen Miller. Why do I say that? Simple. It is written in complete sentences.

The letter

That letter is enlightening because it does list the “eight raging conflicts” Trump claims to have put an end to in “just eight months” this year. In case you’re having trouble keeping up with the wars Trump has ended, here’s the list as found in this letter: Cambodia & Thailand, Kosovo & Serbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo & Rwanda, Pakistan & India, Israel & Iran, Egypt & Ethiopia, Armenia & Azerbaijan, and Israel & Gaza, although Israel is not named in the letter. (He wouldn’t want to show the government of Israel in a bad light, would he?)

The letter is full of bluster and boasts of all the amazing things Trump has done and all the “weakness, extremism, and deadly failures” of the Biden Administration. As only Trump can boast, the letter states, “Over the past nine months, we have brought our nation — and the world – back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster.”

The NSS document

The NSS document itself contains 29 pages of details of what the United States wants and what the United States wants from the world.

Some of the introductory remarks would be laughable if they weren’t so sad. For instance, “We want to maintain the United States’ unrivaled ‘soft power’ through which we exercise positive influence throughout the world that furthers our interests” rings hollow considering the Trump Administration obliterated USAID.

The sudden obliteration of USAID not only resulted in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children but also their preventable deaths by the withholding of medical treatments – not to mention how the cessation of the food aid programs hurt the American farmer terribly.

The paragraph that really made me gag, though, was this one:

“Finally, we want the restoration and reinvigoration of American spiritual and cultural health, without which long-term security is impossible. We want an America that cherishes its past glories and its heroes, and that looks forward to a new golden age. We want a people who are proud, happy, and optimistic that they will leave their country to the next generation better than they found it. We want a gainfully employed citizenry – with no one sitting on the sidelines – who take satisfaction from knowing that their work is essential to the prosperity of our nation and to the well-being of individuals and families. This cannot be accomplished without growing numbers of strong, traditional families that raise healthy children.” (Notice the subtle reference to “traditional families.”)

Dear Leader Kim Jong Un of North Korea couldn’t have written that paragraph better! Delete the words “American spiritual” and I would swear I was reading a translation of a statement by Kim or Xi.

A paragraph that sent chills down my spine, though, was this one: “We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; …we want …; we want … ; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine;….”

It was “Trump Corollary” that got to me. Why does his name have to go on every cotton-picking thing?

The document goes on to delineate U.S. policy by region: The Western Hemisphere, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Introductory remarks that preface the regional details include, “The United States is by every measure the most generous nation in history – yet we cannot afford to be equally attentive to every region and every problem in the world.”

The Western Hemisphere

Photo of an Old World drawing of the western hemisphere
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

The so-called “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine involves making new partners and reconsidering our military presence in the Western Hemisphere. This seems to involve beefing up our Coast Guard and Navy presence “to control se lanes, to thwart illegal and other unwanted migration, to reduce human and drug trafficking, and to control key transit routes in a crisis.” It also includes “targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades.”

Also, “…as we prioritize commercial diplomacy, we will work to strengthen our security partnerships – from weapons sales to intelligence sharing to joint exercises.” This is in response to non-Western Hemisphere nations’ incursions of influence in recent years.

But the National Security Strategy goes on from there and seems to concentrate on the economy and what’s in it for United States companies. As a student of political science, it reads to me as a complete overhaul of the U.S. State Department and the responsibilities of our diplomats and State Department employees out in the field. This makes me cringe.

The U.S. “will reform our own system to expedite approvals and licensing – again, to make ourselves the partner of first choice. The choice all countries should face is whether they want to live in an American-led world of sovereign countries and free economies or in a parallel one in which they are influenced by countries on the other side of the world….

“All our embassies must be aware of major business opportunities in their country, especially major government contracts. Every U.S. Government official that interacts with these countries should understand that part of their job is to help American companies compete and succeed.

“The U.S. Government will identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for assessment by every U.S. Government financing program, including but not limited to those within the Departments of State, War, and Energy; the Small Business Administration; the International Development Finance Corporation; the Export-Import Bank; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

“We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access, and harden existing and future cyber communications networks that take full advantage of American encryption and security potential.

“The aforementioned U.S. Government entities should be used to finance some of the costs of purchasing U.S. goods abroad. The United States must also resist and reverse measures such as targeted taxation, unfair regulation, and expropriation that disadvantage U.S. businesses. The terms of our agreements, especially with those countries that depend on us most and therefore over which we have the most leverage, must be sole-source contracts for our companies. At the same time, we should make every effort to push out foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region.”

The part about U.S. State Department – or any other U.S. Government employee – who interacts with countries in the Western Hemisphere to understand that it is “part of their job to help American companies compete and succeed” is a 180-degree change in the purpose U.S. Government employees. It is not part of the job of a State Department employee to promote American companies! At least, it wasn’t part of their job until last Friday. That is absolutely not the job of the U.S. diplomatic corps!

I suppose this being put in writing by the Trump Administration should come as no surprise. After all, the U.S. State Department no longer makes “peace agreements;” it makes “deals” because Trump has an overwhelming lack of understanding or appreciation for the traditional functions of government in a democracy.

Western Hemisphere Command

It was not a coincidence that we learned on Thursday or Friday that two U.S. military command centers will be moving to Fort Bragg here in North Carolina over the next year as a new “Western Hemisphere Command” has been announced.

Possible blog post tomorrow

If I can recover from reading the Western Hemisphere portion of the National Security Strategy, I will blog tomorrow about how it addresses Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

I invite and encourage you to read the complete NSS document for yourself and not to take my word for it at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf.

Janet

When the BBC bends a knee to Donald Trump

When the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) bends a knee to Donald Trump, we should all sit up and take notice.

Photo of a cell phone displaying the letters BBC.
Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash

It came to my attention this afternoon that BBC Radio 4 censored a sentence out of a Reith Lectures presentation by Rutger Bregman. The BBC invited Mr. Bregman to give a series of lectures in the highly-touted Reith Lectures. The Reith Lectures have a 77-year history and have been known for being champions of free expression.

According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/v78MKsCWHxw0l0PwMn4R0R/bbc-reith-lectures-2025-moral-revolution, “The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John (later Lord) Reith, the corporation’s first director-general.

“John Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service which enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver a series of lectures on radio. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest.”

Writer and historian Rutger Bregman was invited to deliver a series of four lectures for the 2025 Reith Lectures in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and the United States. Under the umbrella theme of Moral Revolution, his four lectures were “A Time of Monsters,” “How To Start a Moral Revolution,” “A Conspiracy of Decency,” and “Fighting for Humanity in the Age of the Machine.”

On November 25, 2025, Mr. Bregman (@rutgerbregman) posted on Instagram his shock that BBC Radio 4 removed a sentence from the broadcast of a lecture he delivered a month ago.

I quote from @rutgerbregman on Instagram

Mr. Bregman wrote on @rutgerbregman on Instagram:  “The BBC has decided to censor the opening lecture of a series they invited me to deliver. They removed the sentence in which I describe Donald Trump as ‘the most openly corrupt president in American history.’

“This line was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre.

“I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC.

“This has happened against my wishes, and I’m deeply troubled by it. Not because people can’t disagree with my words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump is threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us.

“This isn’t about left or right. It’s about the health of our democratic institutions. For decades the Reith Lectures have been one of the BBC’s most important platforms for open debate and free expression. That’s why this really matters.

“In this video, I explain what happened, why it’s important, and why we should remain calm but clear-eyed about the pressures facing our public institutions.

“I share this with respect for the many excellent journalists at the BBC. And with the hope that transparency helps strengthen, not weaken, our democratic culture.”

In Mr. Bregman’s Instagram video clip

In Mr. Bregman’s video on Instagram, he explains that the irony is that the title of his lecture was “A Time of Monsters.” The lecture was about the cowardice of today’s elites and elitist institutions – “bending the knee to authoritarianism.”

In the video on Instagram, Bregman said, “They deleted the sentence in which I said, ‘Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.’”

He said, “It was a defensible and plausible statement. It’s well known that Donald Trump and his family are personally profiting from the presidency to a degree we haven’t seen before. According to a major investigation in The New Yorker published last August, the total gain, the personal gains, already exceed roughly $3.5 billion from real estate deals to meme coins.”

Mr. Bregman went on to say that this isn’t about him – “It’s about something much bigger. When institutions start censoring themselves, because they’re scared of those in power, that is the moment we all need to pay attention. Democracies don’t collapse overnight. They gradually erode in acts of fear. Let’s not be afraid to name what’s happening, and let’s not be afraid to tell the truth.”

In closing

I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I’ll just leave it for you to draw your own conclusions about the state of the world.

I wish my fellow Americans a Happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow.

Janet

It’s been one of those weeks

Sometimes the best-laid plans just don’t pan out. Such is life.

This is Janet’s Writing Blog, so today I start my post with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into my life this week as a self-published writer.

If you read my blog on Tuesday, Traveling Through History is released today!, you know I was celebrating the release of the e-version of my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, but I mentioned that the paperback was not being released that day as planned.

Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison

I thought I had everything in place for the paperback’s release worldwide by Ingram-Spark.

I sent handwritten notes to various independent bookstores along with a detailed information sheet about the book. I told them they would be able to order the book from Ingram-Spark and have it in stock in their stores on November 4 or very shortly thereafter.

The e-book is available – and I’m over the moon about that! But as of today, I still don’t know what the hold-up is for the paperback. Perhaps I will learn something today.

I decided to go ahead and self-publish the paperback on Amazon in the United States, and I expect it to be available here on November 11. I hope Ingram-Spark will release it for worldwide distribution next week – which will include Amazon in countries other than the U.S. — but that remains to be seen. Bookstores will not order it from Amazon. I needed Ingram-Spark for that.

Such is the life of a self-published author! This glitch is not the end of the world. It was just something I had hoped to get checked off my to-do list on November 4.

Thank you to those of you who have congratulated me on the release of the e-book. And a huge thanks to those of you who have purchased the book! I understand that Ingram-Spark has distributed the e-book to Amazon.UK, so I assume it is also available on the worldwide e-markets of Amazon.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC…

The government shutdown continues as I write this on the night of November 6. One result of the shutdown is that the air traffic controllers and TSA agents who keep the flying public safe are not being paid. They are expected to show up for work and give their undivided attention to all the details their jobs entail… without pay.

To try to force Congress to do its job and pass a federal budget, the White House gave the airlines less than 24 hours’ notice that they had to start cancelling flights at the forty busiest airports in the country. A certain percentage of flights must be cancelled with each passing day beginning today.

But none of this will interfere with Trump’s weekly trip to play golf in Florida.

Since an alleged “businessman” is President of the United States, it baffles me that the order came from the White House (or what’s left of it) with no regard for the chaos such a sudden order will cause airlines, airports, passengers, and the employees of the airlines and airports.

It appears “President Marie Antoinette” knows no more about business than he knows about a democratic government. Throwing a Great Gatsby-themed party at his mansion in Florida last week while federal employees are not receiving paychecks is the height of being tone deaf. He is completely out-of-touch with the average American.

President Antoinette says commercial aviation in the U.S. is “100% safe,” even though air traffic controllers work without pay and some have had to take a second job and are working exhausted.

And why was a large “The Oval Office” sign installed at what’s left of the White House this week? Can President Antoinette not find his office?

Yesterday, the President announced that he will force the price of weight-loss drugs down because they are too expensive. Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs announced that Americans will lose 135 billion pounds before the mid-term elections next November. I’m not good at math, but the population of the United States is around 343 million. That means every American would have to lose 394 pounds to make Dr. Oz’s statement true.

Something is very, very wrong in Washington, DC, and it is being denied by the members of Congress and by what’s left of the White House.

A cheaper Thanksgiving Dinner?

Trump and various Republicans in Congress have bragged this week that they talked to the CEO of Walmart and he told them that everyone’s Thanksgiving Dinner will be 20% cheaper this year than it was last year while Joe Biden was US President.

What Trump and none of the Republicans have explained is that the Walmart CEO based that on the fact that this year Walmart decreased the number of items it considers to be a Thanksgiving dinner. Slick move, Walmart!

Of course, Trump has changed the 20% to 25% because that is what he does. He exaggerates or decreases statistics in whichever way serves his purpose.

The Walmart CEO’s hocus-pocus with the facts has led many Republican lawmakers who have never set foot in the grocery store to announce that grocery prices have plummeted since Trump took office on January 20, 2025. They really do think American citizens are stupid and will believe the politicians instead of their own wallets.

Until my next blog post

I will be caring for my sister as she recovers from surgery over the coming weeks, so I might not blog as often as I have in the recent past. We expect everything to go smoothly, but I will have added responsibilities vying for my time and attention.

The time you take to read my rants and blog posts is appreciated more than you know. Your “likes” and comments are what keep me going.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

I’m grateful that I still have the freedom of speech guaranteed to me by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I am very aware that some of the people reading my blog in other countries cannot imagine having the freedoms we have in America. Even though our form of government is under attack from within, I believe there are enough of us who love democracy to save our country and put things right someday.

Janet

More brazen attacks on the U.S. Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is a living, breathing document. It is at the same time sacred yet amendable.

However, we ignore it at our own peril.

The 2028 Presidential Election

Donald Trump started handing out “Trump 2028” baseball caps a few months ago. His supporters think things like that are hilarious. On Tuesday, he said on Air Force One that he might run again. He claimed he hadn’t thought about it, so what are the “Trump 2028” baseball caps about?

Trump and his supporters have a strange sense of humor. It would be unconstitutional for Trump to be elected three times. Keep in mind, they already think he has been elected three times. He and they are in denial that he lost the 2020 election.

When he took the oath of office on January 20, 2025, he swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, so running for a third term as President would break that oath.

The only ways Trump and his supporters knew to react to more than seven million Americans protesting in the streets on October 18 was the (1) call it “fake” news; (2) claim they were being paid to protest; (3) call them names like “left wing lunatics” and “ANTIFA”; and (4) support an AI-generated video put out by the White House in which a crown-wearing Donald Trump piloted a fighter jet that dumped feces on American protesters.

Photo of peaceful demonstrators carrying "No King" signs in Brooklyn, New York
“No Kings” protest in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Bradley Andrews on Unsplash

All that was easier than taking the protests seriously. All that was easier than giving just one day of respect for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. You know the one. It’s the one that gives U.S. citizens the right to exercise free speech. That includes peacefully assembling and protesting. It also guarantees that we have a free press, even though we no longer have a free press at The Pentagon. It also guarantees that we are free to practice any religion or no religion at all and our government will make no laws regulating religion.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Everything that’s being said and done is to distract us from the destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the fact that the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released

Then comes Steve Bannon

Last Thursday, Steve Bannon, who likes to think he is responsible for getting Trump elected in 2016, said that Trump will be elected President again in 2028 and will serve a third term. In other words, — the United States Constitution be damned. He said, “We have a plan.”

I guess he had plenty of time to think and make plans while he was in prison for Trump.

You remember Steve Bannon — the Steve Bannon who went to prison for defying a subpoena in the Congressional investigation of the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, and the Steve Bannon who misled thousands of Trump campaign donors into thinking they were paying for the wall along our border with Mexico. That’s not where their contributions went. Bannon got caught and charged, but Trump pardoned him.

That’s what Trump does. We’ve lost count of how many criminals Trump has pardoned and put back on the streets all while accusing other countries of emptying their prisons and sending their criminals to America.

No, Mr. Trump. A lot of those criminals are your friends, and you are a felon.

So now, what better way to get in the good graces of Trump but to start in 2025 proclaiming that he will be re-elected U.S. President in 2028 even though that’s unlawful.

The law means nothing to these people and it, apparently, means nothing to their supporters. Otherwise, their supporters would be up in arms. Otherwise, their supporters would have been demonstrating in the streets. Otherwise, their supporters would be doing something beside happily going along with everything and anything Trump and the likes of Steve Bannon do or say.

Everything that’s being said is to distract us from the fact that the East Wing of the House was demolished last week and the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released.

Then comes U.S. Representative Randy Fine of Florida

Congressman Randy Fine, who represents the 6th district of Florida is calling for the 22nd Amendment to be repealed for Donald Trump because he brokered a peace settlement in Gaza.

I guess any excuse will do.

Everything that’s being said and done is to distract us from the month-long federal government shutdown, the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, and fact that the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released.

Wording of the 22nd Amendment

Section 1 of the Twenty-Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is easy to understand. It reads as follows:

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.”

The Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified on February 27, 1951, so it has been the law of the land for nearly 75 years.

Where we are

So here we are. We have a sitting U.S. President talking about breaking the Constitution by running for a third term.

We have a sitting U.S. President who took a wrecking ball to the East Wing of the White House just because he wanted to destroy it.

Everything he destroys is a test. If he gets away with it, he destroys something bigger the next time.

Everything that’s being said and done is to distract us from the month-long federal government shutdown, the bombing of boats in international waters, the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, and fact that the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released. In other words, the men and women in charge of our government couldn’t care less about the trafficking of girls and women by the rich and famous for the purpose of sex.

They are all counting on us not paying attention. They are throwing so much at us every single day that they think we will stop watching and listening. Well, they don’t know me!

Trump is calculating, but he is also a loose cannon. No one knows what he’ll do or say next. It is all a game to him. It is the way he has conducted business all his life. He just runs over people. He makes empty promises.

He says he cares about the poor and the middle class as he laughs all the way to the bank. He says he cares about the American farmer as he slaps tariffs on foreign governments and overnight cut off the farmers’ markets and laughs all the way to the bank.

He sees no difference between business and government – and that, my friends, is the root of the problem. Too many American voters in 2016 and 2024 did not grasp the difference between business and government. They said, “We need a businessman in the White House.” How’s that working for you?

Business is profit driven. Government is not.

Business is by the owner, for the owner, of the owner.

Our government in the United States of America is by the people, for the people, of the people.

Anyone who does not see the difference between business and government in America is woefully uneducated. (Trump famously said, “I love the uneducated!”)

Anyone who thinks the federal government can operate like a business is shortsighted. Show me where in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution where it says the purpose of government is to make a profit.

Sadly, his followers also see it as a game. They have no respect for the 249 years it took our ancestors to build this nation. No respect.

They value nothing but the laughs Trump can supply them with today. They gleefully repost the ludicrous and disgusting AI-generated memes Trump and his minions post on social media, not caring for one minute the hurt and damage those memes are doing to their fellow Americans. They repeat his lies, never questioning the validity of anything he says.

Little-by-little, our rights are being eroded. Laws are ignored. We have a sitting U.S. President who believes and operates as if he is above the law, and his followers think that’s wonderful. No matter what he does or says, they stand by him.

How they have such little regard for their children and grandchildren is beyond my imagination but, since I have no children or grandchildren, I have been told more than once that I do not understand such things, I have no responsibilities, and I do not have a right to an opinion.

As a single woman with no children or grandchildren, I say the U.S. Constitution was nice while it lasted. I’m really going to miss the 22nd Amendment. I’m already missing the promise of The Preamble, most of the 1st Amendment, and many of the guarantees promised in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments.

And in my heart, I miss the East Wing of the White House even though CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson has been quoted as saying that CNN viewers like me are not interested in that story.

I have said it before and I will say it again: I used to wonder how Hitler brainwashed the people of Germany in the 1930s and accomplished what he did. I no longer wonder. I don’t say that lightly.

I don’t say any of this lightly.

Janet

They erased his words

In case you live in a so-called “Blue State” – one that is not controlled by the Republican Party – you might think that most of the authoritarianism exists on the federal government level.

I live in a state that elected a Democrat for Governor last year (thank goodness!), a Democrat for Lt. Governor (and, therefore, President of the State Senate), and a Democrat for State Attorney General, but our General Assembly – State Legislature – is dominated by Republicans.

Last week, to ensure that President Trump will endorse Phil Berger in the 2026 election, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to redraw/re-gerrymander the U.S. Congressional Districts in our State. Phil Berger is President Pro-Tempore of the N.C. State Senate. He represents the 26th District in the State Senate.

Photo of part of hte North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh
Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash

Before last week, North Carolina had 10 Congressional seats held by Republicans and four seats held by Democrats. That wasn’t good enough for Trump, even though he only received 50.86% of the popular vote in North Carolina on November 5, 2024. Trump and his supporters call 50.86% “a mandate.”

Before last week’s vote to blatantly gerrymander North Carolina “because California redrew its map in favor of the Democrats” Don Davis, who just happens to be one of only two black North Carolinians in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the new map, it will be nigh unto impossible for Don Davis to keep his seat in Congress in the 2026 election.

Before last week, I did not know who Michael Garrett was.

North Carolina State Senator Michael Garrett of Greensboro, who represents the 27th State Senate District in the General Assembly, made a speech on the floor of the Senate chambers. Since the Republicans in the North Carolina Senate voted to strike it from the record, it has been put on YouTube. I invite you to listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY8KNA-qTdg (Sen. Michael Garrett Delivers Powerful Speech Against Republican Rigged Maps.)

Senator Garrett’s response to his speech being stricken

In response to his speech being stricken from the official government record, I will share what Mr. Garrett wrote on his NC Senate Facebook page. I copied the following from https://www.democraticunderground.com/106913604. That website says it copied the following “from Michael Garrett NC Senate FB page on NC redistricting,” and I am bringing it to your attention today. Here it is:

“They Were So Afraid, They Erased the Words.”

“Yesterday, I stood on the Senate floor and spoke truth about what happened in North Carolina. About democracy being stolen in broad daylight. About rigged maps and broken promises. About betraying every sacrifice ever made for the right to vote.

“Then something extraordinary happened.

“Senator Grafstein moved that my remarks be spread upon the journal, entered into the permanent record of this body. This is routine. It happens constantly. It’s almost always done without objection, a simple courtesy extended across party lines for speeches on both sides.

“The Republicans immediately objected.

“They forced a vote. And on a straight party line, they voted to keep my words out of the permanent record.

“In my entire time in the Senate, I have never seen this happen.

“Let that sink in for a moment.

“They rigged the maps. Then they voted to erase any record of someone calling them out for it.


“This isn’t about me. This is about what their fear reveals.

“They weren’t afraid of my words because they were false, they were afraid because they were true. They weren’t blocking the record to protect themselves, they were doing it because they know history will judge them harshly for what they did yesterday.

“They stood on that floor, voted to rig our elections at Trump’s command, and then, in the very next breath, tried to memory-hole anyone who dared to say it out loud.

“That’s not the behavior of people confident in their principles. That’s the behavior of people ashamed of their actions.

“If what they did was righteous, they’d want it documented. If their cause was just, they’d welcome debate for the permanent record. If they believed they were serving North Carolina, they’d let history judge them on the merits.

“But they don’t believe any of that. They know what they did was wrong. They know they sold out democracy. They know they chose Trump over the people of North Carolina. They know they stole voices and rigged maps and betrayed their oaths.

“And they’re so ashamed, so terrified that future generations will read what was said and render judgment, that they won’t even let the words stand in the record.

“But you can’t erase truth by blocking it from a journal.

“You can’t make democracy’s defenders disappear by parliamentary procedure. You can’t memory-hole a movement by refusing to record it.

“Those words were said. Thousands watched online. The press reported it. North Carolinians heard it. And now millions more will hear about it, because their attempt to silence it only amplified the message.

“They tried to bury the truth. Instead, they proved it.

“Their fear is our proof. Their shame is our vindication.

“Because you don’t try to erase words from the record unless those words have power. You don’t vote on party lines to block routine motions unless you’re terrified of what they represent. You don’t abandon decades of Senate courtesy unless you know, deep in your bones, that history will not be kind.

“They are losing, and they know it.

“Not today’s vote, they won that. They got their rigged maps. They’ll steal their seats. They’ll cling to power for a few more years.

“But they’re losing the war that matters. The war for legitimacy. The war for history’s judgment. The war for the hearts and minds of the next generation watching this unfold.
“This weekend, millions marched saying “America has no kings.” Yesterday, North Carolina Republicans proved exactly why those marches were necessary. They rigged our elections, tried to erase any record of opposition, then went home thinking they’d won.

“They have no idea what’s coming.

“Because every time they silence a voice, ten more rise up. Every time they rig a map, a thousand more people organize. Every time they betray democracy, a million more Americans understand: this is the fight of our generation, and surrender is not an option.

“Their fear means we’re winning. Their desperation means our movement has power. Their need to erase us from the record means they hear us perfectly, and what they hear terrifies them.

“So we get louder. We organize harder. We fight fiercer.

“They can block words from a journal, but they cannot block the march of justice. They can erase speeches from the record, but they cannot erase the promise from the hearts of a people who refuse to bow to kings.

“They were so afraid of the truth, they voted to erase it from history.

“That tells you everything about the weakness of their cause and everything about the power of ours.

“Yesterday, truth was spoken. Today, they’re still trying to silence it. Tomorrow, we rise louder than before.

“The fight continues. The promise endures. And every desperate attempt they make to silence us only proves we’re saying exactly what they fear most:

“Their time is ending. Democracy’s reckoning is coming. And no rigged map, no stolen vote, no erased record can stop a people who refuse to be silent.

“We’re just getting started.

“#NoKings #NCPolitics #DefendDemocracy #TheyreAfraid #Democracy #WeAreWinning”

Take courage from Michael Garrett’s words

No matter where in the world you live, take courage from Michael Garrett’s words, even though the Republicans in the North Carolina State Senate did not want you to hear them.

As NC Senator Michael Garrett said, the politicians are choosing their voters instead of the voters choosing their politicians.

The wheels are falling off the bus rapidly.

Janet