Category: political science

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC

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.

Photo of the White House, Washingon, D.C.
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.

Janet

Trump just keeps stepping in it deeper and deeper

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 of a fence on which three signs hang: Don't give up, You are not alone, and You matter.
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 of several people gathering produce in a field
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 of a person's gloved hands filling a hypodermic needle with clear liquid from a bottle
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 of the seal of the FBI
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.

Photo by Enayet Raheem on Unsplash

I will quote from https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/census-constitution.html, because it states the whys and wherefores of the census and the U.S. Constitution better than I could:

“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 of white percent symbols in all directions against a pastel green background
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.

Have a great weekend!

Janet

Dare to Speak Up for Justice!

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.

Janet

The Re-Writing of History

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 of a sign quoting Benjamin Franklin: "A Republic... If You Can Keep It"
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.”

Janet

#OnThisDay: 26th Amendment Ratified, 1971 – Part One

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.

Janet

Snippets of what’s happening to and in the US

Every time I think I won’t feel compelled to post on my blog multiple days a week, I am proven wrong. To live in the United States today is to live wondering what is going to happen next. Our new normal is to expect the unexpected. Every. Single. Day.

Our new normal is to expect things to get a lot worse before they will get better. Our new normal is to know that things are probably never going to return to what was normal for the last 80 years.

Last night, we learned that the Trump Administration, against a US District Court order, deported immigrants to South Sudan.

Photo of a person's head in the dark inside of an airplane peering out the window
Photo by kian on Unsplash

Apparently, Trump thinks it does not matter that it was against a court order. Apparently, Trump thinks it is okay to deport people to South Sudan where there is fighting between opposing forces and a civil war taking place in neighboring Sudan. He thinks it is all right to deport people to a country in Africa… even though at least two of those deportees were from Southeast Asia.

One of the individuals is from Vietnam and one is from Burma. The nationalities of the others – indeed, the total number of deportees on that flight – has not been revealed. Immigration attorneys say there are “likely” at least ten other immigrants on that deportation flight.

I apologize for referring to these two people as “deportees,” “immigrants,” and by their nationalities; however, I have not found their names. But they are human beings. They have names. They probably have families.

By living in the United States of America, they have had rights. They had a right to a hearing before a judge to determine if they could remain in this country or if they should be deported. That did not happen.

Common sense tells me that if a person is to be deported, they should be deported to their country of origin. They should not be deported to a country in which their language is not spoken. They should not be deported to a country in which their language is not spoken and in which a civil war is underway.

I have run out of words to express my horror at what the Trump Administration Regime is doing. My vocabulary is exhausted.

US District Court Judge Brian Murphy of Boston held an emergency hearing yesterday about this case and scheduled another hearing for today. In the meantime, according to The Wall Street Journal, the judge ordered the US to maintain custody of the deportees and ensure they are treated humanely.

I often pray that Donald Trump will accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and turn from his evil ways. I often pray those words. It would truly be a miracle, but I believe in miracles. We experienced a miracle in my family on Christmas morning in 1978. Miracles do happen.

Now, to what I had originally written for today’s blog post…

While some of us are still struggling to understand how the technicality of the Trump Administration saying the $400 million flying palace from Qatar is going to the US Department of Defense and not to President Trump, small bits and pieces of the “big, beautiful budge bill” are coming to light.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wants the bill passed by Memorial Day (May 26) or at least by July 3.

It’s almost impossible find out what is in the bill, since it is not available online for the public. Hey, it’s just our money, right?

I have read that this budget will add $150 billion to the Pentagon’s budget, pushing the Defense Department’s budget to more than $1 trillion.

Photo of a pile of US paper money
Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

I have read that this budget takes Medicaid healthcare coverage away from 13 million Americans. These are children, people living with disabilities, and the elderly.

This budget will give the wealthiest people in the United States additional tax breaks. It is those tax breaks and the increased defense budget that resulted in the politicians choosing to leave 13 million citizens without health coverage.

It is no big deal to them. Those 13 million people are not likely to raise a stink The ones under 18 years of age can’t even vote. They are America’s most vulnerable citizens and, hence, the easiest for the people in Congress to target.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Many, if not most, of the members of the US Congress claim to be Christians, so what about any of this follows the teachings of Jesus Christ? (At least, when they are running for office, they claim to be Christian. How many of them, when asked, “What the last book you read?” answer, “The Bible”?)

Why do so many Christians across this country think cutting Medicaid is wonderful. “It will save us money! Cuts must be made!”

Yes, it will save us money to spend on more weapons. It will save the richest among us money because they will pay less in income taxes.

Just like eliminating USAID will save us money because why would the richest country in the world want to send medical and food aid to the poorest countries in the world?

Just like cutting off the funding for medical research will save us money… but only in the short term.

The motive behind one “big, beautiful budget bill” is to overwhelm Congress and the public. Put everything in one bill, and it will be so long that nobody can read it.  That’s the point. At 1,116 pages, I would guess that very few members of Congress have read the entire thing.

Granted, there is wasteful spending in the federal government. Granted, if wasteful spending is not stopped, our national debt will continue to increase

My objection is with the manner in which the Trump Administration has chosen to address the problem. We hear example after example of worthwhile research and aid programs being slashed just because Elon Musk’s teenage employees with no knowledge or interest in the operation of government in a democracy were given free range to eliminate agencies and programs with the touch of a button on a keyboard.

Wholesale, sweeping cuts in government grants have resulted in the immediate loss of jobs, careers, and doctoral degree research studies. Those are just the instantaneous losses that are visible to the thousands of individuals affected.

The long-term effects will not be realized this year or next year. They will be identified in the coming decades when we learn that cures for various cancers would have been discovered in the 2020s if not for these budget cuts.

President Trump warned us that there could be short-term pain due to his single-handedly imposed global tariffs, but he is yet to even own up to the pain he has inflicted in the name of taking waste out of the government. He has yet to own up to the short-term losses in medical research, much less long-term losses we can only imagine.

And yet, his followers still say he is a “wonderful President.” Some of them still dare to say he was sent by God.

Under the Cover of Darkness

When a person or group is proud of what they are doing, they tend to do it in broad daylight. If that group is a legislative body, they definitely do it in broad daylight. If that legislative body is the United State Congress, they tend to do it at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time or later so the citizens in the Pacific Time zone will be awake to see it or hear it.

The US House of Representatives Committee on the Budget held a vote on Trump’s “big, beautiful budget bill” at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday. Who does that? Who meets late on a Sunday night to vote on something important?

Photo of the US Capitol building at night
Raphael Assouline on Unsplash

It gets worse. The House Rules Committee scheduled their next meeting for 1:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time this morning.

My erratic sleep habits almost guarantee that I am wide awake at 1:00 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, but I’m the exception to the rule.

Making America Healthy Again?

While politicians boast about money saved, they fail to mention the medical and social research being lost. What is the real cost in terms of lives?

We’ll never know what diseases could have been prevented, treated, or cured if the research Congress had approved had not been terminated by the Trump Administration.

We will have to pin our hopes on other countries picking up the slack and hiring the researchers the United States is losing.

Until my next blog post, which I hope won’t be until next week…

I hope you have a good book to read.

Value time with family and friends.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

That’s pretty much all I wanted

I majored in political science and minored in history in college. My Master’s degree is in public administration. I can’t just turn all that off, even though I graduated 50 years ago.

I used to not be a political person. I just wanted government on all levels to work at their highest and best purposes. I wanted honesty and transparency in government. I wanted the politicians to have as little influence as possible over the actual daily operations of the government.

I wanted government employees to be left alone by the politicians to guarantee the water was safe to drink.

I wanted government employees left alone by the politicians to make sure building permits were issued and followed up by trained and certified building inspectors to make sure houses and commercial buildings were built to meet construction standards and codes.

Photo of construction workers on a high-rise building
Photo credit: Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

I wanted government employees left alone by the politicians to register the deeds for all real estate transactions within the county.

I wanted professional librarians left alone by the politicians to use their years of training to purchase age-appropriate materials to benefit all citizens.

Photo of a bookcase with a woman's hand reaching up to the books
Photo credit: Guzel Maksutova on Unsplash

I wanted the archivists at the State and National Archives to be left alone by the politicians and trusted to gather and preserve the articles of history for future generations.

I wanted governing licensing boards to be left alone by the politicians so that I could trust that a person with M.D. or R.N after their name had the knowledge and skill to treat me when I am sick or hurt.

I wanted government employees to be left alone by the politicians so they can regulate the insurance industry and speak up for a citizen when they believe they have been mistreated by an insurance company.

I wanted medical researches to be left alone by the politicians so they can work tirelessly to find causes and cures for diseases.

Photo of a man looking into a microscope
Photo credit: Lucas Vasques on Unsplash

I wanted university professors to be left alone by the politicians so they can teach from their knowledge of their chosen field without fear that they might say something that offends someone.

I wanted college and university students to be left alone by the politicians so they can take any course they want to take, read any book they want to read, and non-violently protest anything they want to protest without fear of being kicked out of school, arrested, or deported.

Photo of peaceful protestors
Photo by Duncan Shaffer on Unsplash

I wanted public school teachers to be left alone by the politicians so they can teach what their grade-level students need to learn so they can progress through the education system and be free thinkers.

I wanted park rangers to be left alone by the politicians who have absolutely no understanding of or appreciation for the natural world.

I wanted government employees to be left alone by the politicians so they can monitor air quality and prevent us from returning to the smog of the 1950s and 1960s.

Photo of a city enshrouded in smog
Photo by Nick van den Berg on Unsplash

I wanted our system of elections to be left alone by the politicians who are determined to make it more and more difficult for a person to vote… all in the name of preventing voter fraud, when fraud by politicians is a much bigger problem than voter fraud. (Case in point, my current US Representative, Mark Harris, who used to be a Baptist preacher, hired someone to go around marking absentee ballots for people in his 2018 run for the US House. His own son even testified against him. His operative was charged with several counts of obstructing justice and possession of absentee ballots, but he died before the case went to trial. Mr. Harris escaped being criminally charged, brushed the dirt off himself, and successfully ran from NC’s 8th District in 2024. In another case, Mark Meadows, who served as Chief of Staff for Trump in his first administration, claimed a home address in a remote area of the mountains and cast his vote in North Carolina in 2020. The address he gave as his residence was a dilapidated, vacant mobile home which he had probably never laid eyes on.) But somehow, it is the everyday citizens who cannot be trusted to vote.

I wanted the United States to continue the USAID program of distributing food and medical aid to the poorest people in the world.

Photo by Andrej Nihil on Unsplash

I wanted the United States to not only maintain but to strengthen its decades old (and in some cases, centuries old) international alliances.

I wanted to be allowed to be a Presbyterian and not have some right-wing conservative evangelical dogma forced on the public at-large that paints all American Christians with a broadbrush of misinformation.

I wanted the separation of church and state to remain a valued principle. I did not want a Presidential Administration to parade under the guise of being Christian while openly, as well as under the cover of darkness and behind closed doors, attacking everything from science to education to medical research to food safety to immigrants to museums to clean air to the arts to clean water to libraries to national parks to habeas corpus to national forests to the United States Constitution to our very sense of security.

I wanted a United States Government that did not operate through intimidation and threats to individuals, groups of people, and institutions.

I wanted our system of government, though flawed, to continue to generally work for the good of the whole.

Photo credit: Anthony Garand on unsplash.com

I wanted every citizen to have an equal opportunity to follow their dreams and be allowed to live in peace.

I wanted a President who did not embarrass me every time he opened his mouth.

That’s pretty much all I wanted.

I miss that America.

Janet

More Trump Administration Shenanigans

I originally had most of today’s post included in yesterday’s, but at 2,500 words I was afraid no one would read it. Meanwhile, today’s post grew to 2,000 words. The sad and frightening part is that I am only learning about the tip of the iceberg.

As I get ready to publish this, President Trump is touring the Middle East. It remains to be seen how many “deals” he makes and how many promises he makes. It remains to be seen if he has kept the best interest of the United States or his own business interests as a priority.

Here are the items I salvaged from my draft of yesterday’s post to share with you today. They are in no particular order and cover and wide range of topics. None of this is good news, in my opinion.

US Department of Justice Attorney Richard Lawson said when questioned by US District Court Judge Loren AilKhan in federal court last Thursday that he has not seen any written agreements between President Trump and the nine big law firms that Trump claimed on Truth Social to have made agreements in which those firms will represent Trump’s pet projects pro bono. Do those agreements only exist in Trump’s mind?

Trump has fired all three Democrat-appointed US Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioners. They maintain their firings are illegal since Congress established the agency and, therefore, it is not under the President’s control. The agency has always been bipartisan, but I cannot imagine Trump will appoint anyone who isn’t one of his MAGA supporters. Maybe there are still some employees left at Fox News that he can draw from.

Fifty-nine white Afrikaners from South Africa were given refugee status in the United States on Monday. It is reported that up to 1,000 Afrikaners will be admitted as refugees in the US this year. The Trump Administration has closed America’s doors to all other refugees. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said it is a textbook case of how the refugee program is supposed to work.

A process that normally takes years only took the Afrikaners several months.

Just go ahead and read between the lines. That’s what I’m doing. (Be sure to read “Another bit of encouragement” below.)

The New York Times reports that 44 US Government contracts amounting to $220 million that Elon Musk and DOGE cancelled… have been restored. Don’t be fooled by any official DOGE reports or its website, though, because Musk is still listing them as cancelled. No surprise there.

According to the Associated Press, on Monday, “a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.” The irony is that they are paying federal income tax and now that fact is going to be used to track them down and make their deportation possible.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Relations has reported that 181 Mexican nationals have died between January and April 2025 while trying to illegally cross into the United States. That is twice as many as the 91 who died in the same period in 2024. The Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings is blamed, as people are trying to cross in more dangerous areas than before. I’m not in favor of people coming into the United States illegally, but I think this drastic increase in deaths is worth noting. Of course, the United States is not reporting any of this.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed into a law that had passed Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. The Digital Equity Act was designed to make sure seniors and all parts of the United States would have access to the internet.

President Trump heard about it. Calling is “racist” and “unconstitutional,” he ordered an immediate end to the funding that was mandated by the Act.

The funding provided for states and localities, including indigenous tribal councils and school districts, to come up with plans to best serve their citizens and then be eligible for funds to implement the infrastructure aspect.

Trump has suddenly ended the funding! This is nothing more than a ruse for Trump to appear to be anti-racist, constitutional, and saving taxpayers “billions of dollars.” Like he proudly said during his campaign, “I love the uneducated!”

Trump’s blatant attacks on public education, private education, universities, libraries, museums, and now the internet should be a wake-up call to all Americans, but it won’t be.

I mentioned in at least one earlier blog post the Trump Administration’s termination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) which provided some funding for local libraries and museums. Congress had appropriated the funds for this fiscal year, but Trump suddenly pulled the plug. More than 100 libraries on federally-recognized tribal lands lost their funding. Many of them are in remote areas where internet service is sparse. Those libraries are a lifeline for the indigenous communities.

Meanwhile… it is reported by various sources that Trump is prepared to accept an extravagant Boeing 747-8 luxury aircraft from the royal family of Qatar. I heard on Tuesday that the plane is already in the United States. It is reported that this plane will be used as Air Force One until Trump leaves office, at which time it will go to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation.

The Foreign Emoluments Clause in Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution prohibits anyone holding federal office or employment from accepting gifts, emoluments, office, or titles from foreign governments unless that get congressional approval. The purpose of this is to prevent undue external influence from outside the United States by decision-makers.

So far, I have not found any mention of the US Congress approving the transfer of this airplane. The acceptance of such an aircraft for any purpose – but especially for use by the US President – is wrong on more levels than I can enumerate.

During his first administration, Trump entered an agreement with Boeing that the company would modernize two Boeing 747s that would become two new Air Force One airplanes. The price tag on that contract has already gone more than $2 billion over budget and the planes aren’t scheduled to be ready until 2027 or later. In 2019 (the most recent year a price was made public), the cost of a new Boeing 747-800 series was around $400 million.

All the legal and ethical and common sense concerns aside… this flying palace from Qatar would have to be stripped down to nothing and rebuilt just to remove all the hidden listening devices. That alone will take years! But what do I know? I’m just a citizen. Maybe Qatari spying devices are not a concern of the Trump Administration.

The Washington Post reports that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two of the top officials on the National Intelligence Council. The council wrote a report that contradicted President Trump’s rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and the deporting of alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process. Apparently, an honest assessment by intelligence agents is not allow if it does not repeat what Donald Trump says.

Michael Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, were fired.

The Washington Post reports states: “The actions are the latest purge by Gabbard, who has said she is fighting politicization of the intelligence community but has removed or sidelined officials perceived to not support Trump’s political agenda.

“The NIC is the top U.S. intelligence community body for analyzing classified intelligence and providing secret assessments to the president and other top policymakers. Its reports include spy agencies’ annual global threat assessment and studies of the possible causes of anomalous health incidents, also known as Havana syndrome and the origins of the coronavirus that led to the pandemic in 2020.”

It has been reported that in his first 100+ days in office, President Trump has only had 12 “daily” briefings. That’s an even worse record than the first time he was President. They are called “daily briefings” for a reason. I can’t imagine being President of the United States and having no interest in what’s going on in the world.

According to the ACLU, members of Congress doing Trump’s bidding have snicked a provision into the “big, beautiful tax bill” still under consideration that would give the executive branch the power to shut down any nonprofit organization. The Trump Administration has no appreciation or patience for anyone or any organization that is not turning a profit.

The Trump Administration has cancelled a $6.7 million grant that would allow Dr. James Antaki, a professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University, to continue researching his PediaFlow device that could boost blood flow in infants with heart defects. He has been working on this device since 2003. It is designed to help infants survive until they can have a heart transplant.

His grant was withdrawn on April 8. It would have funded research over four years. His years of research are now in jeopardy, as well as the jobs of PhD students who were working with him.

The Trump Administration has shut down the office leading the Safe to Sleep campaign, which provided education on safe sleep practices for infants. Infant deaths decreased by 50 percent after the campaign launched in 1994. It is said that the campaign has saved thousands of infants’ lives.

This and the withdrawal of the PediaFlow device research both seem at odds with Trump’s plans to reward women who have more babies. It is sort of like the conservative’s “Pro-Life” motto. They are only interested in the baby being born. After it is born, they don’t want it to have adequate food or healthcare. They vote against all such support programs for children. They even threaten now to end the Head Start program which provides early childhood education and meals.

Go figure. I have no words for this level of evil in the richest country in the world.

Finally, the tiniest of tiny glimmers of hope from the US Senate

Finally! This has been a long time in coming, but on Tuesday the Republican US Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota sided with the Democrats in their fight to deny President Trump’s takeover of the Library of Congress!

As I reported in yesterday’s blog post, Trump fired Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress last week along with the head of the US Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter. Trump named US Department of Justice people with no library or copyright experience to assume those and other positions.

The Library of Congress is not a library in the commonly accepted understanding of the word. The Library of Congress goes way beyond that! The US Copyright Office is part of the Library of Congress. Within three months of any copyrightable work being published in the United States, two copies must be submitted to the US Copyright Office for inclusion in the collection at the Library of Congress.

It is not a circulating library. People can obtain access to the collection for research purposes, but materials are not checked out. Members of the United States Congress have access to the materials held there. As the name indicates, it is the Library of Congress.

On Tuesday, May 13, 2025, Senator Thune reported that people from the Trump Administration met with the US Senate Rules Committee, and “we made it clear that there needs to be a consultation around this” and congressional “equities” must be respected and protected.

I would have liked to have seen much stronger language. In fact, there doesn’t need to be any “consultation” with the White House about the Library of Congress!

As the Democratic US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stated, “It’s the Library of Congress, not the library of the executive branch.”

We’ll have to wait and see how this shakes out but, personally, I would not trust anyone in Donald Trump’s realm of influence or friends with one single book or sheet of music in the Library of Congress. This whole mess started because Elon Musk wanted Dr. Carla Hayden to turn over a trove of books to him to use for Artificial Intelligence training and she refused!

Another bit of encouragement

I’m pleased to report that the Episcopal denomination has ended its decades-long partnership with the US Government to resettle refugees, citing this week’s plane load of 59 white Afrikaners brought into the United States as refugees from South Africa. The organization cited its ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Two weeks ago, the federal government informed the Episcopal Church that it was expected to resettle the white Afrikaners.

The request crossed a moral line for the Episcopal Church. The Most Reverend Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church explained that the denomination is part of the global Anglican Communion that boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated opponent of apartheid in South Africa.

Hurrah for the Episcopalians! Seeing individuals and groups standing up for their principles is a wonderful thing to see in 2025!

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina. Parts of the mountains in western North Carolina received more than five inches of rain in a couple of days earlier this week and experienced flooding and there was at least one mudslide on US-74 between Bat Cave and Gerton. These people can’t seem to get a break.

Janet

A blog post I never dreamed I’d have to write   

I’m embarrassed to be sharing old news today.

I’m even more embarrassed about the old news I’m blogging about today.

I learned a few days ago that CIVICUS Monitor, a global civil society alliance of local, national, regional, and international organization that monitors civil liberties in 198 countries, placed the United States of America on its Watchlist on March 10, 2025.

The Watchlist released on that date added Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan, Serbia, and the United States of America.

That beacon of freedom, that shining city on a hill, the United States of America is on a Watchlist for a “narrowing” of civil liberties.

Let that sink in for a few minutes.

No, let that sink in for a few days.

Photo by John Cardamone on Unsplash

What is the CIVICUS Monitor?

The CIVICUS Monitor website (https://monitor.civicus.org/) states, “The Watchlist draws attention to countries where there is a serious decline in respect for civic space, based on an assessment by CIVICUS Monitor research findings, our research partners and consultations with activists on the ground.”

Here is what the website (https://monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-march-2025/) reports about the United States of America, just as of March 10, 2025:

“The United States of America (USA) has been added to our Watchlist as the country faces increasing undue restrictions on civic freedoms under President Donald Trump’s second term. Gross abuses of executive power raise serious concerns over the freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and association.

Following his inauguration on 20 January 2025, Donald Trump has issued at least 125 executive orders, dismantling federal policies with profound implications for human rights and the rule of law. Some of these orders have eliminated federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, falsely framing them as discriminatory, and have introduced measures targeting undocumented migrants and transgender and non-conforming people.

“Since mid-January, many civil society organisations, both in the US and abroad, have been forced to terminate or scale back essential human rights and humanitarian programmes due to growing uncertainty caused by the arbitrary suspension of foreign aid and a broad freeze on federal funding. The lack of clear guidelines has sparked legal challenges at the national level.

“The administration has taken steps to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a decades-old institution, and laid off thousands of its employees. It has also withdrawn from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Human Rights Council, exited the Paris Climate Agreement, rejected the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, and announced sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), targeting its personnel as well as individuals and entities that cooperate with it. These actions could further undermine global efforts for climate justice, human rights, and civic freedoms.

“These measures come amid a broader potential curb on the freedom of association. On 21 November 2024, the US House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of non-profits it deems to be supporting terrorism, without due process guarantees. This would grant the executive branch sweeping authority to financially cripple civil society organisations based on broad and vague criteria.

“The sustained onslaught on peaceful pro-Palestine solidarity at university campuses has seen students and faculty members increasingly subjected to harsh sanctions without justification. On 30 January 2025, President Donald Trump,signed an executive order purportedly aimed at combating antisemitism, which calls for the cancellation of visas and the deportation of non-citizen college students and others who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests. On the same day, reports alleged that a far-right group was compiling a list of pro-Palestine protesters for potential deportation.

“Authorities have also targeted climate justice activists protesting the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in Virginia and financial institutions supporting fossil fuel expansion. Another concern is the growing role of private corporations in suppressing environmental activism. Two key developments exemplify this: the USD 300 million lawsuit against Greenpeace by the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline; and research exposing the fossil fuel industry’s role in driving the proliferation of anti-protest laws.

“The first months of 2025 have seen an alarming legislative push in multiple states, further threatening restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly. At least 12 state-level bills introduced between January and February 2025 would impose new restrictions on protests. Notably, bills in Indiana (SB 286), Iowa (HF 25), Missouri (HB 601), New York (S 723), and North Dakota (HB 1240) seek to criminalise the use of masks during protests. They could also expose protesters to heightened surveillance technologies and intimidation tactics, as evidenced by the doxing attempts over the past year against pro-Palestine protesters.

“Meanwhile, Minnesota’s new bill (SF 1363) introduces new civil and criminal liabilities for those supporting protesters who engage peacefully in demonstrations on a critical public service facility, pipelines or other utility property. These restrictions show a broader trend since 2017 of escalating constraints on protests and could trigger a new wave of repression against those expressing dissenting views.

“There are also serious concerns about freedom of expression and access to information, particularly for journalists covering politically sensitive issues. On 11 February 2025, two journalists from the Associated Press (AP) were banned access to White House-related press briefings due to the agency’s editorial policy to continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally recognised denomination rather than the presidentially decreed “Gulf of America.” AP filed a lawsuit against administration officials, but a federal judge denied the agency’s request for the immediate restoration of full access to presidential events for its journalists, ruling that access to the president is at his discretion and not a constitutional right.

“Moreover, on 25 February, the White House press secretary announced that the administration will decide which media outlets can access the presidential press pool. These recent decisions raised concerns about unprecedented restrictions on public access to independent reporting on government affairs.”

What’s next?

CIVICUS Monitor will closely track developments in the United States of America, while calling on the United States Government “to do everything in their power to end the ongoing crackdowns immediately and ensure that perpetrators are held to account.”

What you can do

If you have information on civil liberty injustices in the United States of America, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan, or Serbia, you can send that information to monitor@civicus.org.

You can also make sure your US Senators and US Representative are aware of this. Ask them if this is a list they are proud for our country to be on. Ask them what they are going to do about it. Ask them when they are going to start holding the “perpetrators” accountable.

Photo by Chela B. on Unsplash

Until my next blog post tomorrow

Stop reading that novel!

Act on this now!

Spread the word. Contact your elected officials, not just in Washington, DC, but your state elected officials. Tell them to apply pressure in Washington.

That’s my plea to you today. This is your assignment this week.

Janet

“No less than 20,000 officers”

I had another blog post not only written, but scheduled to go live at 5:00 this morning. But it will have to wait until tomorrow.

At 11:30 last night, I learned that President Trump issued a Proclamation on Friday, May 9, 2025, titled “Establishing Project Homecoming.”

What a sweet-sounding name, but don’t be fooled. It’s not about a homecoming. It’s about a homegoing, or a “get-out-of-our-country-going.”

Some Americans will love this, but it makes me sick, and not just due to the obvious grammatical error.

Establishing Project Homecoming: A Proclamation, May 9, 2025

If you wish to read the entire proclamation, and I hope you will, you can find it on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/establishing-project-homecoming/.

Aside from the inflammatory introductory remarks about our country being invaded by illegal aliens, the most troubling part is Section 3(b):

“No later than 60 days after the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall supplement existing enforcement and removal operations by deputizing and contracting with State and local law enforcement officers, former Federal officers, officers and personnel within other Federal agencies, and other individuals to increase the enforcement and removal operations force of the Department of Homeland Security by no less than 20,000 officers in order to conduct an intensive campaign to remove illegal aliens who have failed to depart voluntarily.”

“and other individuals” – That leaves the door open to just about anyone. As if the ICE officers we have already seen on video act like they have ever read the US Constitution or anything else.

What we have seen so far is men wearing sunglasses just above their masks. They appear to have no identification or warrants. They ride in unmarked vehicles. They show up in large numbers to arrest one individual. They slam the individual to the ground, face down, hand cuff/zip tie them, and shove them into the what sometimes resembles a SWAT armored vehicle. They drive off to an undisclosed location, leaving the person’s family members wondering where they are and what to do about it.

If animals were being treated like this, animal rights groups would be all over it. These are people, though, not animals.

Now, in addition to the 80,000 officers Homeland Security already has, they want “to increase the enforcement and removal operations force of the Department of Homeland Security by no less than 20,000 officers” by July 8.

How many more people will be picked up by mistake? How many more people will be shipped to a prison in a country not their own due to an “administrative error” or some such lame excuse?

I’m at a loss for words to convey how sick and frightening this is, and I am not an illegal alien.

I don’t recognize the United States of America. I don’t recognize the brutality with which the Trump Administration is attacking immigrants, freedom of speech, due process, education, libraries, museums, scientists, medical researchers, the environment, federal employees, farmers, and small businesses reliant on imported goods and materials.

This scorched earth approach to every facet of our government and economy doesn’t make sense to me…  but I guess that’s what you get when you put a businessman in the White House.

If you voted for Trump, did you realize you were voting for a police state?

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 56 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helen. That count includes five US highways, five state highways, and 46 state roads.

There is nothing new about the I-40 or Blue Ridge Parkway reconstruction project.

The nonprofit Orchard at Altapass opened this weekend! It is on a six-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway that is open near Little Switzerland. Put it on your itinerary. Hurricane Helene wiped out 400 of their apple trees, but they still have 2,500 and need people to support them this year.

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is underway in counties affected by Hurricane Helene. Under the program, as I understand it, property owners apply for consideration for acquisition, elevation, or land stabilization. Their property is evaluated for whichever category the owner prefers.

It is an effort to give homeowners the opportunity to secure their homes to mitigate damage from a future storm or to sell their land to be left vacant so there won’t be a structure there to be damaged or washed away if another major storm occurs. FEMA provides 75% of the funds and the State provides the remaining 25%. More than 400 property owners in five NC counties have submitted applications according to an online report by Karen Zatkulak of WLOS in Asheville on May 7. (I was not able to easily current statistics for the other 22 counties and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians/Qualla Boundary that sustained damage from the hurricane.)

A new machine manufactured by Tigercat is operating in Haywood County, NC to convert wood into biocarbon. Since Hurricane Helene, an abundance of trees are lying on the ground over hundreds of square miles in western NC.

Twenty tons of wood debris can be reduced to 2,000 tons of biochar, which is “a carbon fertilizer that can revitalize soil and conserve water for long periods. The amount already made is now going to local farmers who lost their land during Hurricane Helene,” according to an online WLOS report by Ed DiOrio on May 6.

Until my next blog post, tomorrow

Read what you can

Get your news from reliable sources.

Don’t stop paying attention. Our country and our way of life hang in the balance.

Please overlook any errors. Writing a blog post at 1:00 a.m. is never a good idea. I couldn’t find an appropriate image to illustrate this post. All the officers in the free law enforcement photos online are identified as “Police” on their uniforms and their vehicles say, “Police.” I couldn’t find any free photos of masked men riding around in unmarked vehicles arresting people.

Janet