I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
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.
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.
“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.
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 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.
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.
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.
It is time for President Trump’s diehard supporters to honestly listen to the way he talks, and then tell me if you think he is all right.
After being nearly an hour late arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, last Saturday to speak at the 250th birthday celebration of the United States Navy, President Trump rambled through a political and largely incoherent speech. I cringe to think how embarrassing the nation’s 250th birthday will be next year with Trump at the helm.
As far as I know, he is the first U.S. President to treat a gathering of military personnel like a political rally. Of course, this was not the first time he has done that. He does it on a regular basis, including his speech to 800 Generals and Admirals at Quantico, Virginia, on September 29, 2025.
Photo credit: Sven Piper on Unsplash.com
While making a flicking motion with his hand last Saturday, Trump said, “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats.” He said Democrats “want to give all our money to illegal aliens.” I imagine there were some Democrats in his audience that day. His name calling needs to stop. He is 79 years old, not seven years old.
Trump referred to sorties as “sortays.”
Photo credit: Sachin Nayak on Unsplash
He said we would have won the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan “but we got politically correct. We are not political correct any more. Now we win.”
He said the Navy blowing up drug cartel boats in the ocean “is an act of kindness.” He bragged that we’ve been so good at blowing up boats that there aren’t even any fishing boats out there anymore.
Trump told the sailors that he could have prevented the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. I’m quoting part of his speech verbatim, in case there is still any doubt in your mind that our President cannot make a coherent statement. On Saturday, he said,
“I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. I said, ‘You gotta watch Osama bin Laden. And the fake news would never let me get away with that statement unless it was truth but, I said one year before to Pete Hegseth, I said one year before, in the book, I wrote — whatever the hell the title, I can’t tell you, but I can tell you there’s a page in there devoted to the fact that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden, and I didn’t like it, and ‘You’ve gotta take care of him. They didn’t do it and a year later he blew up the World Trade Center. So we’ve got to take a little credit because nobody else is going to give it to me.'”
I find it hard to believe that Donald Trump discussed Osama bin Laden with the then 20-year-old Pete Hegseth in the year 2000, but that’s what he said last Saturday in Norfolk. Either that, or he thinks the World Trade Center was blow up this year and he talked to Pete Hegseth about Osama bin Laden last year.
Most of his speech last Saturday was inappropriate for a captive audience of U.S. Navy personnel.
Photo credit: Y S on unsplash
To the sailors’ credit, they were silent while the president waited in vain for booing from them when he asked if they had heard of President “Barack Hussein Obama.” He never misses a chance to include President Obama’s middle name as a blatant jab at the name which has roots in the Middle East. The insinuation is always that President Obama is a Muslim, which he is not.
It was jarring, though, to see the young sailors seated behind Trump react with laughter when he called Democrats “gnats.” It is troubling that they have not been trained in the military tradition demonstrated by their Admirals on September 29. Is their training lacking? Were they not reminded in preparation for Trump’s speech to not show approval or disapproval for political remarks he might make.
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
We have a U.S. President who regularly treats speeches to our military personnel as a political rally.
The United States military being non-political is a bedrock foundation of our country. If we lose that, the citizens of the United States will no longer trust our military to protect us.
He is abusing the National Guard by sending them from one state to perform law enforcement duties in another state. Surely, the Governor of Illinois and the Mayor of Chicago will win their lawsuit against Trump for sending the Texas National Guard to Chicago this week. If the courts let us down on this case, our democracy is surely doomed.
I’ve had a net loss of three of my 1,297 blog subscribers in the last two weeks. I don’t know why, but I have a hunch it is because I have either stepped on some toes with my criticisms of Trump, or perhaps the individuals who hit the “unsubscribe” button just did not want to read about Trump anymore.
I understand, if they left for either reason. If I thought Donald Trump hung the moon and the stars and was sent by God to save the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
If I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the rapid dismantling of democracy in the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.
I get it.
I don’t want to write about the Trump Administration every day. That’s why I took a break from it last week. I only blogged twice.
That break freed up time for me to work on the companion journal/diary I’m creating to go along with my I Need The Light! devotional book.
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
It gave me time to edit most of the historical short stories I plan to publish as a collection later this year.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
I needed to take time to do those things for my mental and physical well-being. I hope to have more weeks in which I only blog a couple of times.
When I started blogging more than a decade ago, I was encouraged over every subscriber milestone. The numbers are not that important to me now, but I noticed I was on the verge of having 1,400 subscribers. Then, my numbers started going down. I needed to evaluate the situation and determine if I was doing something wrong.
I concluded that after a decade I have started fearlessly speaking my mind. Perhaps some of my subscribers liked the old me – the me who just blogged once-a-week about the craft of writing or the books I read. The old me struggled to think of something to blog about once-a-week.
But that’s not me anymore. I’m older, but not necessarily wiser. I’m in a place in my life’s journey where I am no longer afraid that I will offend someone who sees politics or other major issues differently than I do.
I am no longer afraid that if I blog about politics I will alienate someone who would have otherwise purchased one of my books.
I blog because it has become part of my identity. I blog because I am deeply concerned about what is happening to and in the government of the United States. I cannot turn my back on my political science degrees and my sense of patriotism.
But most of all, I blog because I thoroughly enjoy forming online relationships with other bloggers and subscribers. Readers and subscribers will come and go. Perhaps I’m finally finding my voice and my niche, and I no longer attempt to reach the masses.
What I write about will not and cannot appeal to everyone. That is a good lesson for me to remember when I publish a book!
Photo by Luis Morera on Unsplash
In conclusion, it’s not really about the numbers. It’s about the relationships I have made and will continue to make through my blog. If my subscribers dwindle down to 100, it won’t bother me now because I have come to understand that it’s just about the relationships and exchange of ideas.
Here are some snippets of just a few of the things that have taken place in and around Washington, D.C. in the last ten days or so. Most of them aren’t getting much coverage by the mainstream news media.
I’m sorry this is so long. I’m only the messenger, and it’s only Wednesday night as I put the finishing touches on this. It just might be my longest blog post ever. That in itself is indicative of the state of things in America today.
The White House, Washington, D.C.
Another mass school shooting in America
Yesterday’s mass shooting at a school in Minnesota was met with “thoughts and prayers” and flags lowered to half-staff at the White House. Isn’t it a shame that is all politicians can do? Their “thoughts and prayers” are not stopping the bullets.
Cruelty at the highest level
I mentioned the mysterious influence that Laura Loomer has over President Trump in my August 19, 2025, blog post, Trump and one of his “advisors”.
It seems Loomer has not gone away or tamped down her hatred for certain groups of people. She was upset that a few severely injured Palestinian children from Gaza were being brought to the United States for medical care. Children who were missing arms and legs, children with severe burns, etc. Loomer called them a “national security threat” and “Islamic invaders.”
On Friday, August 15, Loomer spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the next day the State Department announced it was pausing all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza.
Guns for National Guard Troops in Washington, DC
Last Friday evening, U.S Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC to start carrying their weapons.
National Guard troops are trained for war, not for everyday crime control on the street of America.
Trump has turned our nation’s capital into a police state and his followers think it is a beautiful thing. To them, the ends always justify the means.
That’s how far we have moved away from understanding the Constitution of the United States of America, the law, and the spirit of the law. The “party of law and order” has lost its way and lost sight of the law and is only interested in their idea of “order.”
The Posse Comitatus Act limits the federal government in the use of U.S. military personnel in the enforcement of domestic policies within the United States. First signed into law in 1878, the bill has been updated in 1956, 1981, and 2021.
The Posse Comitatus Act does not prevent the Army or the Air National Guard from acting in a law enforcement capacity in its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor.
But, at the invitation from Trump, various state governors have fallen in line and sent their National Guard troops or promised/offered to send their National Guard troops to Washington, DC or wherever Trump chooses to send them. The letter of the law: “home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor” has fallen by the wayside.
In the meantime, National Guard personnel are being called upon to leave their families, their businesses, and their jobs to deploy to Washington, DC to do whatever Trump decides they should do.
The National Guard is being turned into a political pawn, which absolutely goes against the United States Constitution and all federal laws regarding the military.
I’ll have more about the National Guard and various other topics in my blog post tomorrow.
Hegseth fires more top military personnel
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. It just so happens that Gen. Kruse issued a report saying that the U.S. airstrikes against Iran several months ago only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. His report contradicted Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.”
This is proof once more that Trump does not want the truth. He wants unquestioning loyalty like he sees dictators in North Korea, China, and Russia getting.
Hegseth also fired Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore and Rear Admiral Milton Sands. Lacore was chief officer of the Navy Reserve. Sands oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command and was a Navy SEAL.
No reasons were given for the firings, and no public announcements were made by the Defense Department. They were just quietly done late on a Friday when the public is not supposed to be paying attention.
600+ cuts at CDC
More than 600 researchers and other employees of the Centers for Disease Control are expected to receive their notices of termination this week. This is all part of the Trump Administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
It is ironic that the entire CDC Division of Violence Prevention is being eliminated as part of this wave of firings just days after a gunman who thought the COVID vaccine had made him sick sprayed the campus of the CDC with more than 500 bullets.
New CDC Director fired
Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was fired yesterday just four weeks and one day after obtaining Congressional approval for the position. In her confirmation hearings she seemed to struggle to champion vaccines, knowing that was contradicting the long-held beliefs Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holds.
New CDC Director fired
Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was fired yesterday just four weeks and one day after obtaining Congressional approval for the position. In her confirmation hearings she seemed to struggle to champion vaccines, knowing that was contradicting the long-held beliefs Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holds.
Within minutes of Monarez’s firing, Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis, and Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases turned in their resignations.
Established on July 1, 1946, the Centers for Disease Control has saved countless lives around the world. It is truly a global tragedy to see what the Trump Administration has done to it.
Threats of ABC and NBC broadcast licenses revoked
On social media on Sunday, Trump all but called for ABC and NBC to lose their broadcast licenses. He said he would support that move by the Federal Communications Commission. He called the two TV networks arms of the Democratic Party and claimed that their reporting is 97% negative about him.
We are moving into extremely dangerous territory as Trump wants to eliminate the free press.
Meanwhile, my Congressman’s newsletters get more disgusting
My “Representative” in the U.S. House of Representatives is on a tear now to stop parents from taking their minor daughters across state lines to get an abortion. It is called the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. He says, “this should be the first of many steps Congress takes to end the tragedy of abortion and preying on the vulnerable.”
If he cared one iota for that pregnant minor child, he would work on legislation to go after the low life man who got that child pregnant. But no! He wants to go after her parents and he wants to force that child to have a baby.
In the same newsletter he claimed that Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will result in “annual wages in North Carolina rising by roughly $5,500 to $10,500 in the long term.” He does not explain how the “big, beautiful bill” will make that happen, nor does he define “long term.” Ten years? 45 years?
That probably sounds great to his constituents who hang on his every word and trust him since he is a Southern Baptist preacher.
This is the same man I could not email about the starving children in Gaza or any of my other concerns while Congress was on vacation the last week of July and the entire month of August because there was “no server available to receive your email.”
He disgusts me.
Russia bombs American manufacturing plant in Ukraine
Two Russian missiles hit an American-owned electronic manufacturing plan in Ukraine.
Ever the tough guy against Russia, Trump responded: “I told [Putin] I’m not happy about it.”
Wow! Putin will be afraid to do that again!
$4 billion wind farm halted by Trump Administration
Trump continues to spit in the face of sources of renewable energy.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited “national security interests” when it ordered the developers of Revolution Wind to “halt all ongoing activities” off the coast of Rhode Island.
The Department of the Interior does not recognize windmills as a “reasonable use of the exclusive economic zone.”
Plans to the 65-turbine windfarm were approved on November 17, 2023, and the project is 80% complete.
If the windfarm’s construction had been allowed completion, beginning in the spring of 2026 it would have generated enough electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Another crypto scheme
I use the word “scheme” in the true American use of the term. In the U.S., the word “scheme” carries negative connotations.
It seems that Trump keeps tricking his supporters into investing in crypto. I do not feel sorry for them. The pattern is that he promotes a new crypto investment, calling it a “crypto treasury” firm. People invest, Trump cashes out, and everyone else loses.
The Wall Street Journal commented that there is a pattern here.
Trump invests in corporate and government bonds
It has been reported that Trump has invested more than $100 million in corporate and government bonds since January 20. No wonder he keeps pressuring The Fed to lower interest rates. When that happens, he will make out like a bandit.
Can anyone say, “blackmail”?
Democrat Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, invited the President to came to Baltimore and join in a “public safety walk” with him and the city’s mayor and other law enforcement officials. In response, Trump said Moore needed to clean up the crime in the city or he would send in the National Guard and possibly withhold federal funds for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key bridge that was rammed and heavily damaged by a barge last year.
Trump quietly stations U.S. military off the coast of Venezuela
Three U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other military ships and planes have been sent to the coast of Venezuela. 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. After all, this month he issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s capture. Trump tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Maduro during his first term in office.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security in violation of the law
In violation of the Federal Records Act, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is not maintaining any text messages generated since April 9, 2025. All federal agencies are required to keep all records of government operations and transactions. So far, though, there are no ramifications.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wanted her own plane several months ago. Now she wants the department to have its own fleet of planes to use to deport people.
Alligator Alcatraz closing?
The “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Florida was built and operated at a cost of $400 million. After being operational for two months, Gov. DeSantis says it isn’t needed any more because Homeland Security has done such a great job of deporting people.
I plan a blog post on Tuesday about one of those individuals who has been forced to leave the United States.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
On Monday, Trump attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors of the quasi-private Federal Reserve. She said she isn’t leaving her position and is suing the Trump Administration. Ms. Cook is the first African-American woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
FEMA employees put on administrative leave
A letter signed by 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Administration went to the FEMA Review Council and Congress on Monday. The letter sounded the alarm that recent cuts to FEMA staff and programs have greatly diminished the government’s capacity to respond to a major disaster.
On Tuesday night, at least two of the signers of the letter were placed on administrative leave indefinitely.
Still attacking Harvard University
On Tuesday, Trump instructed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to get $500 million from Harvard University and not to negotiate that figure.
Union Station in Washington, DC
A week after Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, and White House Assistant Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were booed at a photo op with National Guard troops at the train station in Washington, DC, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that the federal government is taking control of the train station.
White House Tours Suspended
Without any advance warning, all public tours of the White House have been halted indefinitely.
The White House tours webpage of the National Park Service has been taken down and replaced with, “We’re working on this page. Please check back later.”
This means that school groups and tourists will not be allowed inside the White House until further notice. It does not matter to Trump that these tours are usually schedule months in advance.
There is speculation this came about due to the start of construction of Trump’s 90,000-square-foot $200 million ballroom slated for September 1.
So, “The People’s House” is now closed to “The People.” I can’t help but wonder if it will ever be open to “the people” again. If Trump can figure out a way to charge admission, I’m sure he will.
Just when we thought the baseball caps couldn’t get worse…
Last Friday, Trump paraded around Washington and inside the Oval Office in front of TV cameras wearing a new edition of his baseball caps. “Make America Great Again” wasn’t bad enough.
Trump’s new bright red cap screams out in all capital letters, “Trump Was Right About Everything.”
How sad it is to see a U.S. President wearing a baseball cap so much of the time. Apparently, his wealthy up-bringing failed to tell him that men should not wear a hat inside a building… much less a baseball cap with a ridiculous falsehood on it – inside the Oval Office. I cannot un-see it.
This is the same man who publicly berated Ukrainian President Zelenskyy earlier this year for not wearing a suit to the White House. Yet, he thinks wearing a bright red baseball cap with a huge lie on it while wearing a navy blue suit and sitting behind his desk is appropriate attire for the U.S. President. The only thing that could make it worse would be a bright red suit.
There is apparently a new MAGA cap. It says, “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again.” MASGA. Please tell me this is a joke.
How embarrassing for those of us who see all this for the farce it is. This is tackiness on steroids.
My apologies for the things I forgot to mention, the things I don’t know about, and the things that happened since I scheduled this post last night.
President Trump just can’t help himself, and I’m going to keep talking about it on my blog as long as I can. The day may come when I don’t have the freedom to do that.
This week has been brutal!
Let’s stop training mental health counselors
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash
Even though every time there is a “lone wolf” terrorist attack or mass shooting in the U.S., there is an outcry for more mental health facilities and more mental health counselling.
So why did Trump stop a $10 million grant program to train mental health counselors?
Trump says he won’t run for a third term
Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution seems straightforward to me: “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.”
Trump announced on Tuesday that he does not plan to run for a third term as U.S. President.
That’s big of him!
It isn’t known whether he plans to move out of the White House at the end of his second term, or whether he plans to just never leave office.
Anti-Science Trump
Trump has ordered NASA to destroy two satellites that provide detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. Just because Trump thinks climate change is a hoax does not make it so.
Farmers, scientists, oil and gas companies, among others, depend on the data gathered by those two satellites.
The American taxpayers paid $750 million for those satellites.
Trump on human biology
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Trump was truly on a roll Tuesday. He appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and talked about how he believes undocumented immigrants are naturally made for farm work and people who live in inner cities can’t do it.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Here’s a quote from the show:
“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump added of undocumented farm laborers, primarily of Hispanic origin, who are being targeted for deportation by his Department of Homeland Security. “These [are] people that you can’t replace them very easily – you know, people that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work. And they’ve tried – we’ve tried, everybody tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally, naturally.”
I love how Rolling Stone summed up the incident: “It should go without saying that no group of people feels an intrinsic urge to cultivate the land for sub-livable wages and at constant risk of detainment and deportation, but the president doubled down.”
mRNA vaccine research cancelled
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced on Wednesday that the Trump Administration is cancelling $500 million in mRNA vaccine research. Kennedy, a lifelong vaccine-denier, claims there is a more high-tech way to develop vaccines. He also said there is no proof that mRNA vaccines work against respiratory viruses. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) beg to differ, saying the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine saved an estimated 14.4 million lives.
Twenty-two different research projects are being halted, including those studying the possibility of using mRNA vaccines in the treatment of cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer.
Who put RFKjr in charge of vaccines? Oh yeah… Donald Trump and the United States Senate.
This decision could wreak havoc with our health and our economy.
Trump pulls United States out of UNESCO
The White House announced yesterday that Trump is withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Trump considers UNESCO to have a “woke” and politically divisive agenda.
This outrageous!
When I wrote The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina for Arcadia Publishing in 2014, I proudly included the following: “The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization named Grandfather Mountain a member of the international network of Biosphere Reserves in 1992 because it supported 42 rare and endangered species.”
If Trump thinks by pulling the United States out of UNESCO he can erase that, he is wrong. My book stands as is, and I will not edit Grandfather Mountain’s UNESCO designation out of it!
How can one person encapsulate such a level of hatred for the beauty and wonder of the world?
ICE having trouble with recruitment?
Photo by Logan Weaver |on Unsplash
It warms my heart to learn that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is having trouble recruiting people to be Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but Secretary Kristi Noem has come up with a solution. She announced the lifting of the maximum age cap and the lowering of the minimum age to 18.
Until this week a person could be no older than 40 years old to apply for the job. According to Noem, there is now no age limit and she welcomes teenagers to apply.
What could possibly go wrong with 18- and 80-year-old ICE agents?
Ex-Acting FBI Director Fired
Brian Driscoll was Acting Director of the FBI at the beginning of Trump’s second term, but Driscoll refused to give Trump a list of the FBI agents who worked on the January 6, 2021 attempted coup.
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash
Kash Patel was eventually named FBI Director, but Driscoll had returned to serve in the agency in another position. That was until yesterday when Trump fired him.
All federal employees take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. But Trump demands loyalty to Donald J. Trump alone. If you remain loyal to the U.S. Constitution, he will fire you.
This is not the way things are supposed to be. Will Americans wake up before it is too late?
Breaking the Constitution to have another census
To add a measure of legitimacy to the rigging of the 2026 mid-term elections, Trump is calling for a federal census to be taken this year in which only U.S. citizens will be counted.
Under the law, the census has been taken every 10 years since 1790 and everyone has been counted – not just U.S. citizens.
I guess I need to dust off my passport application and get it submitted as soon as possible, in case my birth certificate does not prove I’m a citizen.
You see, in Texas the Republicans are trying to redraw the U.S. House Districts before the 2026 Congressional election and gerrymander the map to take away five predominantly Democratic districts and convert them into predominantly Republican districts. The bottom line is that Trump does not want to lose the Republican majority currently in the U.S. House.
There has been quite a stir over this very issue in Texas this week, and the U.S. House of Representatives hangs in the balance.
“Why Jefferson, Madison and the Founders Enshrined the Census in our Constitution”
“The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in “such manner as they shall by Law direct” (Article I, Section 2). The Founders of our fledgling nation had a bold and ambitious plan to empower the people over their new government. The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress.
“Enshrining this invention in our Constitution marked a turning point in world history. Previously censuses had been used mainly to tax or confiscate property or to conscript youth into military service. The genius of the Founders was taking a tool of government and making it a tool of political empowerment for the governed over their government.
“They accomplished that goal in 1790 and our country has every 10 years since then. In 1954, Congress codified earlier census acts and all other statutes authorizing the decennial census as Title 13, U.S. Code. Title 13, U.S. Code, does not specify which subjects or questions are to be included in the decennial census. However, it does require the Census Bureau to notify Congress of general census subjects to be addressed 3 years before the decennial census and the actual questions to be asked 2 years before the decennial census.”
Also: “Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that an apportionment of representatives among the states must be carried out every 10 years. Therefore, apportionment is the original legal purpose of the decennial census, as intended by our Nation’s Founders. Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states, based on the state population counts that result from each decennial census. The apportionment results will be the first data published from the 2020 Census, and those results will determine the amount of political representation each state will have in Congress for the next 10 years.”
That’s a long explanation, but it is really rather simple that the census be taken every ten years. If Trump thinks it will be simple for every U.S. citizen to produce documented proof of citizenship, he is woefully mistaken.
Someone needs to tell him that the U.S. Congress controls the taking of the U.S. Census – not the temporary occupant of the White House.
Resurrection of Confederate statues
Americans will never be able to move on from it’s 1861-1865 civil war as long as people like Donald Trump keep stoking the fire.
The National Park Service, which is operating with a skeleton crew after Trump eliminated thousands of park staff this year, apparently has enough employees left to reinstall the statue of a member of the Ku Klux Klan on the grounds of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department.
There had been requests made to Congress since 1992 to have the 11-foot statue of Confederate Army Gen. Albert Pike removed, but it stayed in place until the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Pike once wrote about the white race, “white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall.”
It sends a chilling message that the Trump Administration is having Pike’s statue put back in place. It sends a strong message to all people of color: Racism is alive and well in the White House.
But that’s not all…
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in response to Trump’s “Executive Order On Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is having a 32-foot bronze “Confederate Memorial” rebuilt and reinstalled in Arlington National Cemetery.
Sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue was installed in 1914 and depicts slaves supporting Confederate soldiers. The statue perpetuates the myth that slaves supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.
But Hegseth didn’t stop by just quietly having the Confederate Memorial reinstalled in Arlington National Cemetery. Apparently not knowing when to stop talking, Hegseth said, “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
That’s rich, coming the week after Trump’s two impeachments were removed from the Presidential Impeachments exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Price of prescription drugs
Photo by Ali Rezaei on Unsplash
If someone in my family or circle of friends said that the price of drugs will decrease by 1,500%, I would assume that person had either had a stroke or had some form of dementia.
So why is it that the President of the United States can say that he is decreasing the price of prescription drugs by 1,500% and no one blinks an eye? He has said this several times.
I fear we have become so accustomed to Trump’s lies and nonsensical proclamations and rantings that we just accept it as, “That’s just the way he is.”
This is not something an adult with any level of intelligence or mental capabilities would say. Any fourth grader knows a 1,500% drop in the cost of a candy bar is a mathematical impossibility.
In conclusion
That’s just eleven things the Trump Administration did this week that I thought you might not have heard about.
I’m sorry this post is so long. Don’t blame the messenger.
The justice system in the United States is under attack. This is not a totally silent assault.
Photo on Unsplash
President Trump and his minions freely call judges names. Calling federal judges such things as “leftist” or “radical” or “deranged” or “monsters” or “idiots” has been a Trump rallying cry.
I don’t know if Trump understands the danger in doing this or whether he is just following the lead of his people like Stephen Miller who know it is a basic way to erode confidence and ultimately destroy the rule of law in our country.
A federal judge takes a vow “to follow the rule of law without fear or favor.”
The unique U.S. judiciary
We have a unique judicial system in the United States. Judges are independent of politics – or they used to be. Our judicial system is the envy of other countries where a national leader can call a judge and dictate how they rule on a case. Law students in the former Soviet Union marvel at our independent judiciary.
Attack on Judge Salas’ family
In July 2020, Judge Esther Salas opened the front door of her home in New Jersey and was met with an angry young man with a gun. Salas’ husband was shot and her son, Daniel, was shot and killed.
The cowardly assailant then turned the gun on himself and was dead when police arrived.
But the killer didn’t just wake up one day and decide to try to murder Judge Salas or her family. He was spoon fed hate speech from the President of the United States. If the President says judges are terrible people, it must be true. Right?
But it did not stop there. Not only has it not stopped; it is escalating.
Intimidation by Pizza
After Daniel’s murder, federal judges across the nation started receiving pizza deliveries – pizzas they had not ordered. Pizzas were being delivered “from Daniel.”
The message was clear: “Judge _____, we know where you live.”
Some adult children of federal judges who don’t even live in the same state as their parents have received such pizzas “from Daniel.”
The message to judges is clear: “Judge ____, we know who your children are and we know where they live.”
At least 50 federal judges have received unwanted pizzas “from Daniel.”
It goes beyond Intimidation by Pizza
Federal Judge Jack McConnell has received six death threats. Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s unofficial advisors, and Elon Musk have launched verbal attacks on his daughter.
Judge McConnell has been wrongly accused of judicial misconduct. A member of Congress went so far as posting a “Wanted!” poster in the halls of the U.S. Capitol with Judge McConnell’s photograph. There are unfounded articles of impeachment pending against Judge McConnell.
Federal Judge Robert Lasnik is being asked by younger judges, “How can I keep my family safe?” Judge Lasnik and his adult children have received pizzas “from Daniel.”
Federal Judge John Coughenour says he signed up for this, but his family did not. A SWAT team was sent to his home when someone told police that the judge had murdered his wife. Of course, it was not true. He has been the victim of bomb threats.
Federal Judge Esther Salas grieves that her dead son’s name is being weaponized by the people who hear Trump call judges names and take that as a call to action to intimidate and threaten the lives of judges. She says we need to recognize this for what it is: A real threat to our democracy.
Attacks from the White House are unprecedented
In the decade after the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954, some judges who tried to enforce the desegregation of public schools ruling were victims of verbal assault; however, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy supported the Supreme Court ruling.
For President Trump to now brazenly and proudly criticize court rulings and the judges who make them is unprecedented. Federal judges have never before been attacked by the U.S. President or White House staff.
This is serious. This is unacceptable.
This is a concerted attack on the independent judicial system in the United States of America.
What can we do?
We can educate ourselves about what is happening.
We can tell our friends and relatives what is happening, because this is more widespread than most of us realize.
We can explain to teens and young adults who are too young to know that attacks on judges is not normal that this is a direct result of the reckless behavior of President Trump and those who follow his lead.
We can speak up for justice and the rule of law every time we know it if being attacked.
“We the people” are the United States of America. It behooves each of us to defend the rule of law.
It is easy in the United States today to place all the blame for our current demise of democracy squarely on Donald J. Trump’s shoulders; however, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate and U.S. House are equally to blame now because both houses of Congress have supported every single thing Trump has done.
But to blame Trump and the U.S. Congress would be the easy way out.
You Voted or You Didn’t Bother to Vote
Photo by Mike Doherty on Unsplash
The American people voted. They elected Trump. In the 50 states, they elected the 100 U.S. Senators for staggered six-year terms. (One-third of the Senators are elected every two years.) In the 435 Congressional districts, they elected the 435 members of the House of Representatives last November. (They serve two-year terms.)
The American people voted for this, either by casting a vote last November or by not casting a vote last November.
This is on us, y’all.
Us.
The American people: those who either through a place of hate or through ignorance, voted for Trump and Republican Senators and Representatives AND those who were too lazy to cast a vote so they let those who did vote decide my future and yours.
If you voted for Trump and any other Republican, you are complicit. If you did not vote, you are complicit. You relinquished your vote and gave it to your crazy neighbor.
Perhaps you thought “my one vote won’t matter.” People have died to give YOU the right to vote. Don’t EVER take your right to vote for granted.
I say all this to get your attention so I can tell you how the way you voted or the fact that you didn’t bother to vote last November has real world ramifications.
Here’s One Example of Real-World Ramifications
The Trump Regime took control of the Smithsonian Institution in March. Trump claimed that some exhibits were “woke” and, in some instances, showed that the United States is not a perfect country.
Taking books off public school library shelves is not enough for Trump and his ilk. They are actively re-writing history.
The Removal of Trump’s Two Impeachments
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has now removed Trump’s name from the list of four U.S. Presidents who have been impeached. The reason? For aesthetic reasons. Museum officials say his name will be included in the list when the exhibit is redone.
Trump is the only U.S. President to have been impeached twice, but according to the Smithsonian Institution in August 2025, Trump was never impeached at all.
Let that sink in, my fellow Americans.
My Two Questions
If someone who lived in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s were here today, I would ask them the following question: Does this behavior sound familiar to you?
If you live in the United States of America today, I ask you the following question: How can we make it stop, since we have elected a complicit U.S. Congress?
Just to be clear
Donald J. Trump was impeached on December 18, 2019, on grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Donald J. Trump was impeached a second time on January 13, 2021, on grounds of inciting an insurrection.
But nothing happened to Trump. Nothing.
Trump ran for President again in 2024 and was elected to a second four-year term beginning January 20, 2025.
Trump signed an Executive Ordered called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” on March 27, 2025, in which he directed Vice President J.D. Vance to “remove improper ideology” from every place under the Smithsonian Institution — the museums, research centers, and the National Zoo.
I Have Two More Questions
Don’t you just hate it when the National Zoo includes “woke left-wing radical lunatic” animals?
And don’t you just hate it when the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History tells you the truth?
Next up?
We’ll probably get a new and improved jobs report for the month of July. Trump didn’t like the one issued by Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so he fired her. A clear case of “shoot the messenger.”
I can always remember the year the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It lowered the legal voting age in the United States from 21 years old to the age of 18.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
The argument that ultimately won the day and the ratification of the 26th Amendment was that if 18-year-olds were old enough to fight a war in Vietnam, they were old enough to vote.
I just happened to turn 18 years old in 1971. My high school male classmates were receiving draft notices (and at least two of the females in my senior class did, too, because their first names could also be the first names of males), so the argument made sense to me.
What puzzled me was the fact that 18-year-old males had been drafted and sent to war as early as 1778, so why did the voting age not get lowered to 18 before the last years of the Vietnam War?
To find the answer to that question, I went down a rabbit hole. When will I learn that nothing has a simple answer?
It turns out that the question of the draft and the question of at what age an American should be given the right to vote have been intertwined for a very long time and started coming to a head during World War II.
I found it impossible to address the voting age without addressing the age of conscription.
Keep in mind that until 1920 women could not vote in the United States, and black men were not drafted until 1943. And black men and women were not allowed to vote in various states until the 1960s despite the adoption of the 15th Amendment in 1870 which gave black men the right to vote.
Depending upon your age, this might seem like ancient history, but I assure you it is not.
I have divided today’s post by wars or eras up to but not including World War II, in case you aren’t interested in the total progression of this and how the 26th Amendment became part of the US Constitution in 1971.
Tomorrow’s post will pick up with World War II to the ratification of the 26th Amendment.
Revolutionary War
A regular army (the Continental Army) was raised from 1775 until 1783 by men who enlisted given cash bonuses and a promise of land “on the western waters) when the war was over.
My great-great-great-great-grandfather Morrison’s youngest brother took advantage of that offer. After 84 months of service, he was awarded 640 acres of land “on the western waters”, i.e. in Tennessee. Six of his 11 children pulled up stakes in piedmont North Carolina and moved to that land approximately 400 miles away in Tennessee.
War of 1812
The US Government recruited men to serve for 13 months. They were given a $16 sign-up bonus and were promised three months’ pay and 160 acres of land after their service. The US Congress authorized President James Madison to call up 100,000 militiamen from the states, but some of the states refused to cooperate.
Mexican War (1846-1848)
One-year enlistment times for many troops expired and military operations had to wait for replacements to arrive.
Civil War
In the North, Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln to draft men from 20 to 45 years old. For $300, a rich man could hire another man to serve in his place. Draft riots occurred for four days in New York City on July 13, 1863, after Governor Horatio Seymour declared the conscription act unconstitutional. Government offices were burned, shops were looted, and black men and anyone else refusing to join the protest were tortured. Less than two weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, New York soldiers there were called home to put down the riot. Approximately 1,000 people died! Governor Seymour finally gave in and the draft in New York started again.
In the South, the Congress of the Confederate States of America passed a conscription law in April 1862. All white men ages 18 to 35 were required to serve for three years in the military. As in the North, substitutes were allowed which contributed to low morale and low number. That eventually resulted in conscription between the ages of 17 and 50. By 1865, slaves were being called into service.
Spanish-American War (1898)
The US Congress made all white men between the ages of 18 and 45 subject to the draft.
World War I
In May 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed by the US Congress. It established local, district, state, and territorial civilian boards to register white men between the ages of 21 and 30 to serve in World War I. There was widespread opposition to the Act which resulted in tens of thousands of men applying for exemptions. More than 250,000 men did not even register. Arrests were made, including one round-up of 16,000 men in New York City in 1918. In light of all that, all attempts to set up military training standards and service were defeated in Congress in the years immediately after the war.
The National Defense Act of 1920
That act established a system of voluntary military service. After all, World War I/The Great War was supposed to be “the war to end all wars.”
Leading up to World War II
The US was reticent to get involved militarily in World War II. The Burke-Wadsworth Act passed in both houses of the US Congress in September 1940. It imposed the first peacetime military draft in US history. In December 1940, all white men ages 21 to 36 were required to register for the draft. Although 20 million men fell into that category, half of them were rejected for military service during the first year due to either health reasons or illiteracy. (An astounding 20 percent of them were illiterate!)
Hurricane Helene Update
Surprise news: I-40 reopened on Friday, just two days after Tennessee Department of Transportation indicated they were trying to get it reopened by July 4.
More good news: Chimney Rock State Park has reopened after being closed for nine months due to hurricane damage to the park and the Town of Chimney Rock.
As of Friday, 62 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, nine state highways, and 48 state roads.
Like my report as of Friday, June 20 showed an increase in closures due to Hurricane Helene over the Friday before, this report is a slight increase in closures over the one for June 20. There is no explanation, just a chart showing each category of closures by NC DOT district. I assume some damages were longer showing up than others and/or some roads that were passable for the months immediately after the storm have now been closed for repairs.
Until my next blog post, which will be tomorrow
I hope you have a good book to read.
Keep family and friends close in your thought, prayers, and activities.
Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.
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