Category: Politics

What’s been happening since last week – Part II

Yesterday’s blog post (https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/06/04/whats-been-happening-since-last-week-part-i/) got to be too long, so I had to divide it.

Today’s blog post got even longer after the news broke about the removal of 900 scientific deep-sea instruments and Trump’s plans for the Lincoln Memorial.

Pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and settle in for a wild ride.

Golf Resort in Vietnam

Not satisfied just to destroy farmland and forests, etc. and rip people off in the United States, the Trumps are developing a $1.5 billion golf resort in the Hung Yen province in Vietnam.

Besides farmers being forced off their land for very little compensation, they are also having to exhume the bodies of their ancestors and bury them somewhere else.

It seems that Eric Trump is in charge of this project, which he says will be “the envy of all of Asia and of the entire world,” according The Daily Beast, which included a photo of Eric at the indoor ground-breaking ceremony.

Can Gaza be far behind?

Kushner’s Resort in Albania

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners firm is building a $4 billion luxury resort, including 10,000 hotel rooms in the Vjosa-Narta “protected” coast in southern Albania.

At the mouth of the Vjosa River, the land became a protected national park three years ago. Flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, loggerhead turtles, 200+ species of birds. Sounds like a beautiful place. No wonder it was given “protected” status.

But blatant corruption is not limited to Washington, DC. The Albanian Parliament conveniently changed the rules just weeks before Kushner submitted his resort plans. Would you believe the rules were changed to only allow five-star resorts? Surely that had nothing to do with Kushner’s father-in-law being the U.S. President.

You can’t make this stuff up!

Thousands of Albanians are protesting in the streets of the capital city of Tirana. They are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Power to the people!

CBS fires Scott Pelley

The Trump Administration did not fire Scott Pelley… directly. However, the current leadership at CBS has cow-towed to the Trump Administration on every turn.

“60 Minutes” was the longest running new magazine on TV. It was a highly-respected broadcast. CBS is destroying it. Bit by bit. Piece by piece. And with it goes a bastion of exceptional investigative journalism.

Long-time CBS journalist and regular “60 Minutes” contributor Scott Pelley dared to stand up to the CEO of CBS on Monday, so he was fired on Tuesday.

CBS fired one of its giants. I hope a more wise and honest television broadcast company will give him a job, if he wants it.

I include this news item in today’s blog because it is one more piece of evidence that Donald Trump’s campaign to rid our nation of truth in journalism and truth in history is trickling down into the corporations that for nearly 100 years stood for integrity. The example he sets as an alleged businessman now stands as the example the wealthy and influential capitalists in our country aspire to emulate.

Seeing the collapse of CBS in real time is sad. It is also infuriating, because it is being done on purpose by either short-sighted or evil people. I don’t know which.

Another thing that infuriates me

This month, the National Science Foundation will begin (or perhaps has begun) to bring up more than 900 deep-sea instruments that track the collapse of climate as we have enjoyed it.

The instruments, placed and monitored by the Ocean Observatories Initiative are off the coast of North Carolina (where the Gulf Stream famously collides with the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean), and off the coasts of Oregon and Alaska. They are also in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.

These instruments were collecting and transmitting data in real time about ocean temperatures, carbon absorption, chemicals, and geological and biological conditions.

But the Trump Administration is not interested in people knowing about trends in the climate or the conditions in the world’s oceans. After all, Trump hasn’t figured out yet how to build a money-making resort on the ocean floor.

He isn’t interested in people knowing about hurricanes until they hit. We saw that demonstrated in the Oval Office when Trump took a Sharpie pen and literally thought he could thereby change the path of a hurricane.

Congress tried twice to try to stop Trump from slashing the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s budget by 80%. By ordering the more than 900 climate measuring instruments to be hauled up from the oceans, he is essentially giving Congress the middle finger. Again.

“Threatened” Grizzly Bears are now threatened by U.S. Government

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were already officially “threatened,” but that did not satisfy the U.S. Government when it came to the grizzlies living in the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.

For decades, scientific research has proven that a female grizzly bear needs 2,500 acres of land that is free of roads and other human activity, but the U.S. Government has decided that in order to cut down part of the forest, a female grizzly in the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest only needs just one acre.

The 2,500-acre policy still stands elsewhere… for now.

That particular area is crucial to the healthy genetic exchange between the grizzlies in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Cut down the forest and squeeze a huge grizzly bear onto one acre of land surrounded by logging roads and see what you get. For starters… starving bears run over by logging trucks.

Maybe that’s the goal?

The “Greatest Show on Earth” invitation has a catch

Trump says he loves the military. He says he has done more for the military than any other U.S. President. (He also says he has done more for people of color, Puerto Ricans, children, the elderly, the poor, the middle class….)

He issued an invitation of sorts to our military personnel. He wants hundreds of them to come watch the display of men fighting on the White House grounds on his birthday. They must have a waist to height ratio of .55 or less. They must wear short sleeve dress uniforms. They cannot be stationed in the Washington, DC area, and … there’s just one other thing. They must pay for their own transportation.

Thank you for the invitation, Sir!

Too bad thousands of them were deployed to the War with Iran in March and April and won’t be able to make it to Washington on June 14. Of course, where they are, they’ll probably take a moment to remember that it is Flag Day.

“Rally to End all Rallies!”

I was ready to schedule this blog post last night when I read Trump’s announcement about his celebration of America’s 250th birthday has changed names. It is no longer “The Great American State Fair” or whatever he was calling it a few days ago. It is now, “the Greatest Rally, EVER! It will be special at every level – A Rally to end all Rallies!”

All I can say is, “I hope it is the rally to end all rallies. We don’t need any more Trump rallies.”

Trump said that Christopher Macchio will sing “Ave Maria”. I don’t know what “Ave Maia” has to do with the 4th of July. Am I missing something here?

There is no end to the tacky or the expense

It was revealed on Friday that without going out for competitive bids or getting permission from Congress or anyone, Trump had the two matching bronze statues of horses on either side of the street from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery… you guessed it… painted with 23.75 karat gold leaf. They and two other bronze statues were painted gold by a company in Maryland.

Want to know what we, the American taxpayers paid for this? A mere $5 million.

How does that sit with you?

They look like something one would see in China… or the Land of Oz.

This is the same Administration that created DOGE to rid the government of all waste. That was just a year ago. Thousands of medical and scientific researchers were fired and the USAID program was ended, but I don’t think we were ever told how much waste was identified by the teenagers Trump and Elon Musk hired to do the job.

The price for painting of the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue has increased from $13 million to $20 million.

Even tackier than that…

I didn’t know until yesterday that the tacky arch on the White House lawn over where the big birthday fights are going to be held has a name. It is “The Claw” and it holds the lights so the men can fight all night if they want to, I suppose.

“The Claw” is huge, tacky, and ugly. It dwarfs the White House and makes the place look like a poorly planned amusement park.

It prevents the Marine One helicopter from landing at the White House, which seems like a National Security issue to me. (The President must now be transported via motorcade to and from Andrews Joint Air Force Base for his weekly excursions to play golf.)

Lo and behold, Trump thinks it is so beautiful that maybe it will never be torn down. He even compared it to the Eiffel Tower, saying it was supposed to be there temporarily but the people liked it so much they left it up.

“The Claw,” Mr. President, is no Eifel Tower.

Comparing apples and oranges?

Was I the only one who found it bizarre that Trump displayed a large poster in the Oval Office on Wednesday to show us that the Reflecting Pool is longer than some skyscrapers are tall?

He also said it had never worked since it was built in 1922. Who knew? I’ve seen it several times. I didn’t realize it wasn’t working.

Trump takes aim at Lincoln Memorial

Photo of the Lincoln Memorial, apparently in the pre-Trump days when the reflecting part wasn’t working?
(Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash.)

Yesterday, in addition to claiming to know about numerous times someone attempted to build an arch in Washington, DC, Trump spilled the beans on his latest project: Corrections made to the Lincoln Memorial.

He claimed from the Oval Office yesterday afternoon that the Lincoln Memorial is facing the wrong direction and two streets were built that shouldn’t have been built so he is going to add a promenade to the Lincoln Memorial. He, of course, sneaked in his favorite phrase: “some are even calling it the Trump Promenade.”

At that point I was literally in tears. The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite building in Washington, DC. It is devastating to think of what it will look like when TACO gets through with it.

Will it resemble the current East Wing of the White House? (A big hole in the ground.)

Will it have gold paint poured all over it? (Like the bronze horses at the entrance to Memorial Bridge.)

Will it be 80 stories high? (So it can be a tall as the Reflecting Pool is long.)

Will the exquisite statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln be replace with a triumphal statue to Trump with his fist in the air and that ever-present scowl on his orange face?

Ending this post on three positive notes…

  1. On Friday, a federal judge ordered that Donald J. Trump’s name must be removed from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts because it is a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy!

          Trump’s minions have two weeks to remove his name from the building and all signage.

          The judge also called a halt to the two-year long “complete rebuilding” of the Kennedy Center that had been announced by Trump after he appointed himself as Director of the Board of the Center. That was set to begin after the 4th of July.

          Thank goodness parts of our judicial system are still working for the    American people and not for the sitting U.S. President!

          That was the best news I’d heard in a long time.

  • Then, on Monday, June 1, the White House announced that it will abide by the federal court ruling that paused Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund! He’s going to have to find another way to financially compensate his people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

          Of course, when asked by CNN’s Caitlin Collins on Wednesday if the fund is dead or just on hold, he said he did not know… he’ll have to ask his lawyers.

  • Also on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (215 to 208) to force Trump to end the war against Iran if he fails to get Congressional approval for the war he threw us into without Congressional approval. Will the Republicans in the Senate have as much courage?

Light at the end of the tunnel? It’s too early to tell whether it is the light of justice on the horizon or an on-coming train. I know one thing: this is exhausting.

Janet

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

What’s been happening since last week – Part I

The fire hose of corruption and trickery continues from the White House. I’m trying to keep up, but it’s impossible.

The New Acting Director of National Intelligence

Saying that Bill Pulte, who Trump named as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday has no intelligence experience is not a joke. It’s true.

When the position of Director of National Intelligence was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004, the law stated that the holder of that title “shall have extensive national security expertise.” That seems like a no-brainer, right?

So much for the law.

We learned during Trump’s first term in office that he prefers to have “acting” directors because “acting” directors and “acting” secretaries of departments of the Executive branch do not have to go through a Congressional confirmation process.

Pulte is the grandson of the Pulte Group’s founder. The company is the nation’s largest residential developer. (In fact, it is developing an 1,100-home development near my home.)

His genealogy and Mr. Pulte’s loyalty to Trump (such as a social media campaign to oust Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve and pushing to get Trump’s non-supporters like Lisa D. Cook, a Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, prosecuted for fraud – which hasn’t panned out) landed him his current position as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In other words, he oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

According to a June 2, 2026 New York Times report, Pulte will continue in that position while he also serves as Director of National Security.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Trump chose not to visit 14 veterans wounded in the Iran War

While Trump was at Walter Reed Medical Center last Tuesday for a physical examination, he chose not to visit 14 veterans who were wounded in the Iran War.

Trump has downplayed the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families. He still prefers to call the war “an excursion.”

To admit that 13 American military personnel have been killed and somewhere between 140 and 400 American military personnel have been wounded would be a negative reflection on him and his perfect deal making and war-ending prowess. It is such a distasteful admission from Trump or the Pentagon to make that the public cannot find out how many have been wounded. Hence, the 140 to 400 figure. Just try finding a definitive number in an online search.

I remember back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Pentagon released such information weekly. Some said later that those reports were inaccurate, but at least they made an effort to keep the American people informed about war casualties.

Then there’s the 250th Birthday of America Great American State Fair

For starters, Trump wouldn’t know a state fair if he fell into one. This 10-day or 16-day celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was organized by Donald Trump’s nonprofit Freedom 250.

(“Donald Trump’s nonprofit…,” sounds like an oxymoron to me, but that is how Freedom 250 is described.)

Many singers and artists were invited to perform. Some of them, like Martina McBride, signed on because they thought it was a nonpartisan event.

Most of them, including Trump’s buddy, Kid Rock, have announced they aren’t going to participate. It’s pretty bad if Kid Rock won’t even show up.

I guess it will just be Lee Greenwood singing “I’m Proud to Be an American” over and over and over and over….

Of course, now Trump is calling the performers who have cancelled “third rate.” He wrote on social media that they were “overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.” 

So why did his nonprofit organization invite them?

He now says he might just host the whole thing and turn it into a MAGA Rally… as if that wasn’t what he wanted all along. It’s all about him.

The 4th of July was a nonpartisan celebration of freedom for 249 years. Of course, Trump had to do everything imaginable to try to ruin it this year. Of all the years for him to be in office!

This year’s celebration of a week or two won’t hold a candle to our bicentennial celebration in 1976, which lasted all year – no matter how Trump claims otherwise.

Don’t let him ruin our nation’s 250th birthday for you!

I wonder who told Trump this was our nation’s 250th birthday. I wish they hadn’t told him.

A spelling lesson

It was so classy for the U.S. President to spell “dumb” for us last week. He was excited to point out that “most people” don’t’ know that “dumb” ends in a “b,” then he went on and to claim he had coined the word “dumocrat.” In fact, he went into detail to explain to us exactly what he did to transform “democrat” to “dumocrat,” as if it rocket science.

Mr. President, I’ve heard the word “dumocrat” before you so proudly said it and explained to us in detail how you came up with it. I even had a cousin call me and my grandfather dumocrats in an email to me during Trump’s first term after she found out that I did not support his policies.

To say that I found that offensive is a gross understatement. My grandfather (her great-grandfather) died in 1956 when I was three years old. Frankly, I had no idea of Grandpa’s political leanings, and I don’t know if my cousin knows what she’s talking about. It does not matter to me how Grandpa voted. He’s the only one of my four grandparents who was still alive when I was born. I have only faint memories of him. It brings tears to my eyes as I type these words. For anyone to call him a “dumocrat” when he was a farmer born in the 1870s is abhorrent.

Trump thinking it was cute, clever, funny, mean – whatever his motivation – last week in bringing the word “dumocrat” back to my attention was like pouring gasoline into an old wound and then striking a match. The saddest part, though, is that this example of Trump’s name calling is probably the least offensive one he’s ever used. He is normalizing bad behavior. The derogatory names he calls and things he says about women, for starters.

Microsoft Word is even offended, for it keeps automatically changing “dumocrat” to “democrat” every time I type it. It will be a miracle if I get this published on WordPress the way I’ve written it.

Words are weighty. Words can be used like daggers. The “leader of the free world” should choose his words carefully. They perhaps carry more weight than those of anyone else in the world. And the world is watching and listening.

I cringe to imagine what horrors loom in the 10 days until Trump’s birthday and then the remaining three weeks until the 4th of July.

By the way, we have troops who were sent to the Middle East with very little notice in March and more were sent on April 19 for the war in Iran. No one is talking about them, but they were deployed, and they have no idea when they’ll get to come home.

Trump says he is in no hurry to reach a peace agreement (which he incorrectly calls “a deal.) He keeps drawing a line in the sand. A few minutes later, he moves the line. A businessman conducting a war….

Janet

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

Is Mail-In Voting in Danger?

Maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t think thousands of illegal immigrants vote in the United States.

Maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t think thousands of dead people vote twice in every election.

As the Republicans get increasingly nervous about their loss of control over the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives if Democrats and Independents turn out to vote in the November mid-term elections, Trump issued an Executive Order to try to plant more doubt in American’s minds about the integrity of our elections.

Trump and his supporters do more than hint that he should run for a third term in 2028. (Oh, why not? Just because that is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution and just because in November 2028 he will be 82 years old?)

On March 31, 2026, he issued an Executive Order that puts onerous responsibilities on certain parts of our government regarding mail-in voting and introduces a whole new national database. It’s more than a bit Orwellian.

The irony is that Donald Trump usually mails in his ballot. He says there is a lot of fraud in the practice.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

A little history

Trump was shocked to learn in 2020 that in many states mail-in ballots are not tabulated until election night. This can result in an election that looks like it is going in favor of one candidate an hour after the polls close going in favor of the other candidate by the end of the night. He was appalled and called it corruption.

In some states, mail-in ballots are counted as long as they are postmarked by the date of the election. Trump doesn’t like that. He wants all 160 million+ votes in the nation to be tabulated instantaneously.

He has famously accused Fulton County, Georgia poll workers of cheating, and in the process has ruined peoples’ lives. All that because he didn’t have a clue that ballots are put into containers for safekeeping.

He famously called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find” him 11,780 votes on January 2, 2021. I can’t think of anything more corrupt than that in an election. Thank you, Mr. Raffensperger for not caving into the pressure of a sitting U.S. President!

And yet… even though every American has heard the recording of that phone call, 81 million of them voted for Trump to be their President again in 2024.

Trump thought he was going to beat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and it angered him when Biden defeated him. He quickly blamed voter fraud and mail-in voting. The irony is that many Republicans won their races in that election; however, somehow it was only Donald Trump who got cheated. How can that be?

The Executive Order titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” was issued by the President on March 31, 2026. It was met with opposition, but on Thursday, May 28, 2026, a federal judge declined to block it.

Although states hold the authority and responsibility to run elections and that trickles down to local election boards, this judge essentially ruled that the U.S. President has the right to tighten rules governing elections and necessitate new expenses and work for state and local governments.

The wording of Executive Order: “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections”

I was going to quote the entire Order, but it is 1,770 words long. If you want to read it in its entirety, it can be found on the White House website at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/ensuring-citizenship-verification-and-integrity-in-federal-elections/.

Excerpts:

“Sec. 2. Establishment and Transmission of State Citizenship Lists and Prioritization of Investigations and Prosecutions Related to Election Fraud. (a) To the extent feasible and consistent with applicable law, including but not limited to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), the Secretary of Homeland Security, through the Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and in coordination with the Commissioners of SSA, shall take appropriate action to compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State (State Citizenship List). The State Citizenship List shall be derived from Federal citizenship and naturalization records, SSA records, SAVE data, and other relevant Federal databases. The State Citizenship List shall be updated and transmitted to State election officials no fewer than 60 days before each regularly scheduled Federal election or promptly upon request by a State in connection with any special Federal election.”

“Sec. 3. United States Postal Service Rulemaking on Mail-In and Absentee Ballots” goes into great detail about the envelopes to be used.

“Sec. 4. Implementation.” spells out the responsibilities of the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration relating to this Executive Order. The Secretary of Homeland Security, for instance, “shall,within 90 days of the date of this order, establish the infrastructure necessary to compile, maintain, and transmit the State Citizenship List described in section 2(a) of this order and shall designate a point of contact within DHS to receive and process requests from individuals and State election officials regarding the relevant State Citizenship List. The Commissioners of SSA shall provide all necessary citizenship and identity data to the Secretary of Homeland Security in support of this requirement, consistent with applicable law, the Privacy Act, and all applicable use agreements.”

“Sec. 5. Enforcement.” spells out how “the Attorney General and the heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) with relevant authority shall take all lawful steps to deter and address noncompliance… including withholding Federal funds from noncompliant States and localities…. States or localities, including any instrumentalities thereof; contractors; individuals involved in the administration of Federal elections; or public or private entities engaged in the printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots may be referred to the Department of Justice for consideration of investigation or charges…. States and localities should preserve, for a 5-year period, all records and materials – excluding ballots cast – evidencing voter participation in any Federal election (e.g., ballot envelops, regardless of carrier).”

“Sec. 6. Severability.” says if any part of this order “is held to be invalid,” that won’t have any bearing on the rest of the order.

“Sec. 7. General Provisions.” addresses functions of the government that will not “be construed to” be impaired or otherwise affected by this Order.

What the opposition says

The arguments against the Executive Order maintained using the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to build “state citizenship lists” risks preventing some citizens from voting as data sources can contain errors and be out of date.

More worrisome is that at the direction of one person, individual states’ rights to regulate elections are being infringed upon. After all, according to the U.S. Constitution, states regulate elections.

The judge was asked to issue a preliminary injunction to block the Executive Order. It was reported that he seemed sympathetic to arguments against the Order on May 14; however, last Thursday he ruled that the Executive Order can go forward.

My take

Considering all the layers of data gathering, the detailed rules the United States Postal Service must follow, and the mere fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is the lead agency in this, what could possibly go wrong?

All one must do is remember that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is part of Homeland Security’s operations.

Since March 31, Trump kicked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to the curb and replaced her with former U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin, so I don’t know what that does to the Homeland Security chief’s directive in Section 4 which has a June 29, 2026 deadline.

I hope the judge’s decision on May 28 will be appealed. I hope when the case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, some common sense will prevail.

President Trump continues to claim that there was widespread organized voter fraud in the 2020 election. He still believes that he won that election, although it has been proven repeatedly that he lost. Nothing makes him angrier than to be known as a loser.

President Trump started saying the only way he could lose an election is if the opposition cheated. When he lost, he doubled down on his claims of voter fraud. He was never able to prove voter fraud in the courts.

Supporters of Trump like to claim that dead people voted in the 2020 election and, apparently, they all voted for Joe Biden.

What we have in the Executive Order highlighted in today’s blog post is another case of issuing a solution – a very cumbersome and expensive solution — for a problem that does not exist.

I’d rather see the overturning of the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision to take big business and billionaire supporters from buying our elections.

I’d rather see AI-generated political campaign TV ads outlawed.

I’d rather see our government try to block the ability of China and Russia to flood the internet and social media with bogus claims about political candidates and political parties.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress continues to roll over and play dead. That institution used to be a co-equal branch of the government. The U.S. Congress used to be a formidable balance against the power of the President.

On paper (the U.S. Constitution) it is legislative branch, but what we have now is rule by Executive Order instead of legislation debated and voted on by our Senators and Representatives.

I guess all my political science textbooks from the early 1970s are obsolete.

Janet

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

National Speak in Complete Sentences Day

I was tempted to illustrate today’s blog post with a picture of Donald Trump, but I can’t stand the thought of it.

Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash

With his self-described “weavings,” he could be the poster boy for National Speak in Complete Sentences Day.

It reminds me of the saying, “No life is wasted. You can always serve as a bad example.”

Janet

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

Bees, Apps, and Service Animals

Now that I have your attention….

Bees and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

The Trump Administration is closing the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

When 1.6 million bee colonies collapsed between June 2024 and March 2025, the scientists working there immediately looked into the situation. In six months, they determined that the cause was a virus spread by pesticide-resistant mites.

Photo by Simon Kadula on Unsplash

Would someone please tell Trump that 80% of the crops in the U.S. are pollinated by bees? Please tell him that food does not originate in the kitchens manned by his chefs. It comes from farms.

This is a man who marveled recently over the “old-fashioned” word “groceries” and didn’t know what a “corner store” was.

The safeguards for our nation’s health are falling like dominoes at Trump’s command. I guess he was serious last week when he said he might run for Prime Minister of Israel when he is through here – I guess when there is nothing left to break or destroy.

And some of y’all thought I was being overly dramatic when I accused Trump of hating nature.

A White House App

Government phones will now have a White House app installed per White House mandate. It includes a feed of the President’s social media posts and a button with a pre-written text message: “Greatest President Ever” to be sent to Trump.

The app reportedly also includes “Stuck in line at La Guardia? Blame a Democrat.”

The Hatch Act of 1939 is not being enforced. Perhaps it will be again after the mid-term elections.

U.S. Government is asking for Volunteers

With fears that the Ebola virus will enter the United States on someone entering the country via one of four major airports, yesterday the government asked for volunteers to screen people.

What could possibly go wrong?

This is what happens when your alleged-businessman President decimates the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health.

Nondisclosure Agreements

The Trump Administration is laying plans for all federal employees to be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Trump claims that his regime is the “most transparent” ever, so what is it that he does not want us to know?

The U.S. Government is not a business. People within the government who work with classified information already know that they are to never disclose state secrets, etc.

Trump wants to silence everyone who works in the government.

This is what you get when you elect a corrupt businessman.

The University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors goes off the rails!

All the crazies aren’t in Washington, DC.

The 24 members of the UNC Board of Governors are appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly (our state legislature).

Peter Hans. the President of the UNC System oversees 16 universities, a specialized high school (The NC School of the Arts), the UNC Healthcare system, and a statewide public TV network.

He has a lot of responsibility and, for all I know, he is doing a fine job.

His annual salary is $600,000. Apparently, Mr. Han is having trouble making ends meet – even as each of the member institutions of higher learning in the system he oversees are constantly having to tighten their belts, layoff underpaid professors, eliminate some vice-chancellor positions, slashing some degree program, and the UNC-TV network is reeling from Trump taking an ax to public TV.

This week, the UNC Board of Governors gave Mr. Han a bonus of $493,500.

I don’t know of any printable words to say to that.

Support animals and HUD

The New York Times obtained a memo sent out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development’s (HUD) Fair Housing Office last Friday.

HUD will immediately stop recognizing emotional support animals and will tighten its definition of what qualifies as a service animal for disable tenants.

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

The Trump Administration is hard at work protecting the American people… at least, that’s what Trump says.

We have a U.S. President who wants $1.776 billion for a slush fund to reward his minions who attempted a coup for him on January 6, 2021, and he wants $1 billion for a ballroom. He has gotten us into an endless war in Iran.

But the biggest problem we have in America today is apparently too many military veterans with PTSD are living in subsidized housing with a support dog?

Anything to draw our attention away from the Epstein Files.

How does anyone still defend and support this?

The Republican “talking heads” on TV still defend everything Trump says and everything he does.

They laugh when other guests on talk shows express concern over the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, the $1.4 billion ballroom, the 250-foot tall Trump Arch, the $1.775 billion Trump slush fund, Trump’s face to go on the proposed $250 bill – although it is against the law for a living person’s likeness to be put on our currency, his weekly flights on Air Force One to Florida to play golf, his falling asleep regularly during Cabinet meetings, his vulgar mouth, his sweet deal that he and his family are forever immune from Internal Revenue Service audits, his more than 3,700 personal stock trades in the first quarter of 2026, his desecrating the grounds of the White House for pugilists to perform for his birthday, the cementing over of the White House Rose Garden, the tackying-up of the entire White House with gaudy gold doo-dahs, directing his personal law firm (formerly known as the United States Department of Justice) to go after anyone and everyone who has ever hurt his feelings (such as E. Jean Carroll), and his inability to speak in a complete sentence.

I could go on. The things I have listed off the top of my head are the tip of the iceberg.

I feel like we are on a ship of fools heading straight for that iceberg.

It is baffling. I will never understand it. Never.

Janet

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

Insidious tactics of politicians – Part II

If you missed Part I, here’s a link to it: https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/05/27/insidious-tactics-of-politicians-part-i/.

If you are a woman, you have been subjected to unwanted comments in a work environment and/or in public. You have had a man you did not know press himself up against you in an elevator. You have experienced other unwanted touching by a man.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

If you are a woman of a certain age… say 73 … you have probably experienced a man saying to you in a job interview, “I don’t think a woman can handle this job” even though you held a master’s degree in the field in which you were being interviewed.

Carefully read the words of Project 2025. Look at the policies being pushed by The Heritage Foundation. They are anti-female. In the Trump Era, it is becoming increasingly acceptable for men in high positions or those seeking positions of influence and responsibility to say that they don’t think women should have the right to vote.

Before you cast a vote in November for a U.S. Representative or U.S. Senator… or a Governor… or a city council member… or a county commissioner… or a school board member, find out where they stand on gender equality and racial equality.

Don’t blindly vote for a state’s constitutional amendment or for anyone of any political party without knowing their opinions on these things. Your future and the future of your descendants hang in the balance.

I hate to throw North Carolina under the bus again, but here we go.

Keith Kidwell represents the 79th State House District in eastern North Carolina. He is out to imprison a lot of women in the state.

Kidwell, who will be 65 years old in June, was born in Passaic, New Jersey. (I don’t want North Carolina to take all the blame for his existence.) He has represented the 79th State House District since January 1, 2019

Kidwell is a member of the Oath Keepers. Need I say more?

Even if that’s all you need to know about him, I’m going to tell you more.

He is a health and life insurance salesman. That seems a strange occupation for a member of the Oath Keepers but, for all I know, that’s what they all claim to do for a living. You know… taking care of people.

On May 14, 2026, Kidwell filed House Bill 1232 in Raleigh. It proposes an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that states that human life begins at the moment of fertilization – and that microscopic embryo is a person under the law.

Anyone doing anything to stop that embryo in its tracks will be charged with murder

It doesn’t stop there.

It goes on to legalize the “use of deadly force” against the woman or the person performing an abortion.

The wording is, “Any person has the right to defend… the life of another person, even by the use of deadly force… from willful destruction by another person. The State has an interest and a duty to defend innocent persons from willful destruction of their lives and to punish those who take the lives of persons, born or unborn, who have not committed any crime punishable by death.”

The bill makes no allowances for rape, incest, ectopic pregnancy, profound deformity of a fetus, or the mother’s age or health. The mother is fair game for anyone who wants to kill her.

Bottom line: The embryo has the right to live, but the mother does not have the right to live. In the split-second of its inception, an embryo has more rights than the woman carrying that embryo, regardless of the circumstances under which that embryo came into existence.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

If this bill is approved, it will be effective as of January 1, 2027, and an amendment to the Constitution of the State of North Carolina will be on the ballot on November 3, 2026.

Kidwell was defeated in the Republican Primary in March; however, he will serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives until his term expires in January 2027.

The State of North Carolina might soon codify that a one-second-old embryo is a person with all the rights of a person. The United States Supreme Court has already ruled that a business is a person.

The people making such laws and rulings apparently only see the world in terms of black or white. It must be nice to not be bothered by any gray areas or “spirit of the law” considerations. Or common sense. Or humanity.

It must be nice to be a defeated old white man in the state legislature proposing laws that have nothing to do with you or your body.

I’m merely advocating for women’s rights. The trend I’m seeing in America in 2025 and 2026 is a serious widespread effort to take our rights away from us. Men don’t seem to understand that women were also made in God’s image, and Jesus Christ never belittled or pushed women and their concerns off into a corner. So don’t start quoting the Bible to me to try to prove me wrong.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

If you would like to read NC House Bill 1232, here’s a link to it: https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2025/9070/0/DRH10579-NJy-55.

Trump brags that Republicans won in the Republican primaries

Did you catch it?

In yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump bragged that lots of Republicans won in the Republican primaries on Tuesday.

I guess he didn’t see that coming.

I have five questions

Why do we have to keep paying for new baseball caps for all the Cabinet members?

Why is Mount Rushmore gold on yesterday’s new baseball caps for the Cabinet members?

Does Trump plan to pour gold paint all over Mount Rushmore?

Why does a baseball cap sell for $55?

Who gets the money?

In what country were these caps made?

Asking for a friend. Nothing says redneck quite like a Trump baseball cap.

Janet

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

P.S.   My life would be so much simpler if I didn’t care.

Insidious tactics of politicians – Part I

It would be helpful for you to read my blog post from yesterday before you read today’s. Here’s the link to yesterday’s post: Public education is still under attack.

November 3, 2026 is Election Day in the United States. Political campaign ads will start any day now. We will be bombarded by hundreds of hours of smear campaigns

Photo by Cyrus Crossan on Unsplash

The GOP reportedly plans to spend $100 million to campaign against former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina as he runs for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Thom Tillis.

I think the right-wing conservatives have taken an ounce of misinformation and grotesquely twisted it to fit their agenda. What we have now are members of Congress making statements and laws denigrating public education. They probably don’t personally know a public-school teacher, a public-school administrator, or a public-school student.

That’s been part of the grand plan ever since the birth of the Tea Party. Day-by-day, these people chisel away at public education. We’ve certainly seen it played out by the North Carolina General Assembly!

I happen to know some public-school teachers. They are too busy trying to teach Johnny and Jane how to read and do basic math to spend time trying to force Johnny to become Jane or Jane to become Johnny.

It doesn’t help when we have a U.S. President who says that you send your son to school in the morning and he comes home that afternoon as a girl.

I know that transgenderism is an issue. I know that there are children and adults who feel trapped in a body with genitalia that does not feel right for them. My heart breaks for them. It has to be miserable to feel like you are not living in your authentic body.

Transgender people do not scare me, but right-wing regular folks and right-wing politicians who hate and fear transgender people do scare me.

As for their fear that a transgender person might enter a public restroom? That does not bother me as much as the time I was in a public women’s restroom when a man walked in and urinated in the sink.

The usage of keywords and catch phrases in campaign material should give you a clue where a candidate stands on a lot of issues.

I believe the Republican Party’s favorite word is indoctrination. Sadly, the “indoctrination” they seem most afraid of is that students might learn to be accepting of others.

They might learn that it is not right to bully others, even though the U.S. President does that daily.

They might learn that each individual should be allowed to aspire to and attain whatever occupation and level of achievement they strive for, even though daily the U.S. President berates journalists – especially those who are female and those who are female and of skin color other than white.

They might learn that girls have an equal opportunity to excel in education even though the U.S. President brags about grabbing women by their genitalia.

Politicians who spend their time worrying about non-existent problems while turning a blind eye to the horrendous corruption of the Trump Administration and its evil actions that cause the deaths of innocent people and animals do scare me.

All this right-wing broken record hoopla is pushed through the use of catch-words like “indoctrination,” “transparency,” and “parental rights.” But those hot-button words are not what’s behind this. They are just convenient ways the right-wing conservatives rely on to get our attention and try to scare us.

It will be tempting to turn off the TV from now until November 3 to avoid hearing the thousands of campaign ads. Don’t rely on what the ads say. Research a candidate’s track record. Look into the things they say when they think the microphones are muted. Look at their voting record if they’ve held public office before.

You owe it to yourself and everyone else living in the United States today and in the future.

Watch for my blog post tomorrow when I will write about a proposed anti-abortion bill under consideration in North Carolina.

Janet

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

Public education is still under attack

The right-wing conservatives are hell-bent on destroying public education through conspiracy theories.

My “representative” in the U.S. House of Representatives sent out an email last week that demonstrated how he has bought into all the lies being spread about public education. On May 20 he took to the House floor and waxed poetic about the indoctrination of “kids” in our public schools.

Are we talking about baby goats?

I’m sorry, but my mother was an English teacher and one of her pet peeves was people referring to children as “kids.” A “kid” is a baby goat.

I’m splitting hairs here, but our command of the English language has deteriorated to the point that Acts of Congress now use “Kids” instead of “Children.”

Last Wednesday, my congressman spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 2616, the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act. SIAPKA for short, I guess? (I was just trying to figure out a possible reason why “Kids” was used instead of “Children,” but the formation of a catchy acronym does not appear to fit the bill. Sorry for the pun.)

I find the wording irritating and indicative of the overall deterioration of the U.S. Congress as an institution. Why must they use slang when they name a piece of legislation?

But that’s not the point of my rant today.

Photo by John Cardamone on Unsplash

My congressman’s speech on May 20 & weekly newsletter

In his remarks, my congressman made the following indictment of public education in America:

“For far too long, our education system has prioritized activism over fundamentals. Parents want their kids to learn how to read, write, solve math problems, and reach their God-given potential. Unfortunately, schools across the country have abandoned biological realities in favor of curriculum that’s infused with gender ideology, sexual education, and transgenderism. This is not education, this is indoctrination. What is equally concerning is the effort schools have put into leaving parents out of important discussions regarding their children. Parents have the right to know what their kids are being taught and what is happening to their children in schools. That’s why I am proud to stand against the indoctrination of our kids and for parents’ rights and I strongly urge my colleagues to do the same by joining me in supporting this bill.”

In his weekly e-newsletter on Saturday, he stated the following:

“Ahead of its passage this week, I spoke on the House floor in support of the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act because our children deserve an education focused on academic excellence, not political indoctrination.

“This bill stands up for parents’ rights and reinforces a simple principle: classrooms should focus on teaching students how to read, write, think critically, and succeed in life—not pushing gender ideology, inappropriate sexual content, or radical left-wing activism.”

No doubt, Virginia Foxx will join him

Something I considered blogging about earlier this month but decided against is the written response U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx sent to a fourth grader in response to the essay he shared with her.

The boy’s mother, Emily Mango, of Greensboro, NC was furious about Ms. Foxx’s letter, so she went public with it. Her son’s school assignment was to write a persuasive essay about a topic of his choice. He wrote in favor of electric vehicles. He expressed his opinion that they were good for the environment.

In Ms. Foxx’s response to the ten-year-old, she wrote, in part, the following on May 9, 2026:

“Ask your teacher to explain propaganda to you. While I will never be able to know, my guess is that your teachers will not give you a good educational experience and help you learn to think as they are too interested in indoctrinating you. How sad.”

How dare she write that to a ten-year-old child!

My take

The right-wing conservations want to dictate what can and cannot be taught in our public schools. That’s what this comes down to. This proposed legislation falls in line with Trump’s Executive Orders 14168 and 14190 issued last year. That’s when he and his Department of Education went after schools and universities.

Federal grants disappeared if they supported DEI, science, or medical research. I won’t take time today to repeat those details.

It comes down to a few people who want to control what everyone studies and what everyone reads. They aren’t satisfied to control what their own children are exposed to. They want to control what your children are exposed to under the guise of “indoctrination” and “parental rights.”

Politicians who want to force their narrow-minded views on all of us? They scare me.

Politicians who were more interested in taking a couple of weeks away from Washington, DC on Friday than staying to address Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund? They scare me.

I’ll tell you how I really feel tomorrow

Tune in for how I really feel about this and some related topics in my blog post tomorrow.

Janet

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

Things I failed to mention earlier

With so much chaos being thrown at Americans every day, it is difficult to keep up. I have blogged four times already this week, but there are a few things I failed to mention. In fact, the first one of the items is from three weeks ago.

I started compiling the list for today’s post on Tuesday night. At first, I was going to blog about two items. As usual, though, the fire hose of egregious actions perpetrated by the Trump Regime continued to come at us. The result is seven items.

I could have added more.

White House Records

Every Presidential Administration is required to preserve all correspondence and documents and turn them over to the National Archives at the end of that President’s term.

The Trump Administration can’t be bothered with such evidence, so White House Counsel David Alan Warrington sent out a directive to the White House staff three weeks ago to alert them to major changes.

Those changes were not ordered by Congress or by the National Archives or by the U.S. Supreme Court. That leaves one source: The Trump Administration itself.

Mr. Warrington was quoted as saying the new guidelines are a “significant departure from historical practice.”

Maegan Vazquez of The Washington Post interviewed University of Maryland Professor Jason R. Baron about the policy change. Baron told the newspaper that there was nothing in the memo to prevent “the White House from directing the transfer or destruction of White House records, including tens of millions of e-mails, either before or after the end of the president’s second term in office.”

The article went on to describe the lackadaisical tenor of the memo as it told White House staffers they are “free to retain” previous policy. The article quotes Baron as saying, “The new guidance says such texts must be preserved only ‘when they are the sole record of official decision-making, government action, or contain unique information not available elsewhere. Staffers are ‘encouraged’ to memorialize the information in those exchanges ‘in a more accessible format, such as an email or memorandum,’ … rather than directly taking a screenshot or otherwise sharing the relevant exchange in its entirety.”

With Trump’s track record of the handling of government documents, what could we possibly have to worry about?

UPDATE: Federal Judge John Bates of the DC District Court ruled on May 20, 2026 that the White House must comply with the Presidential Records Act and preserve ALL presidential records. That includes text messages. It remains to be seen if Trump will comply or if there will be consequences if he doesn’t. It also isn’t known how many records have disappeared since Mr. Warrington’s memo was issued in April.

The $1.776 Billion Slush Fund & an Even Sweeter Deal

Surely you heard about it this week, unless you live in a cave.

Trump sues the IRS for $11 million.

Trump withdraws his suit against the government he leads.

The U.S. Department of (In)justice, formerly known as the Department of Justice, sets up a $1,776,000,000 slush fund for anyone who was treated unfairly by the Biden Administration to apply for compensation. This, of course, includes the MAGA rioters who assaulted police officers and trashed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, with the encouragement of Donald Trump.

These are the people who constructed a gallows on the U.S. Capitol property and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” These are the people who would have killed or severely wounded Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi if they had found her that day.

It wasn’t enough that Trump pardoned them. Now, he wants the American taxpayers to pay them $1.776 Billion for their “suffering.”

This is the same President who promised to bring prices down, promised to end inflation, and said a week or two ago that the United States can’t afford to pay for healthcare or childcare. I guess not. We have too many ballrooms, blue paint, and gold doo-dahs to pay for while giving money to the criminals who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

This week, Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney who is now the acting U.S. Attorney General drew up a sweet deal for not only Trump but his entire family. In a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, Blanche would not rule out a convicted felon being considered for the slush fund. I guess includes President Trump, since he is a convicted felon. Perhaps Trump will get the entire $1.776 billion. 

Is the 1776 figure supposed to make us feel patriotic about this ruse?

Two police officers who were assaulted in the attempted coup on January 6, 2021 have filed suit to try to stop this slush fund from being created.

Since Congress holds the federal purse strings (at least on paper/according to the Constitution), we can hope Congress will put a stop to this corruption before it can go forward.

In return for dropping the suit, Trump and his family and any and all of their businesses are immune to Internal Revenue audits. This is from the person who is head of the U.S. Justice Department.

Every single day gets worse.

Come to think of it, Trump never shared any of his tax returns with the public during his first term. He claimed he could not because he was under an IRS audit.

Hmmm… looks like he just lost that excuse, but somehow it won’t matter.

This slush fund for Trump to use to monetarily reward the rioters who trashed the U.S. Capitol, assaulted police officers, and tried to stop a peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021 coupled with the Trump family’s virtual “Get out of jail free” card from the IRS is without a doubt the most egregious (even by Trump standards) and blatant act of corruption to ever be perpetrated by a United States President.

And yet… he still has supporters. Go figure!

Trump’s Ballroom

The Republicans in Congress want to set aside $1 billion for Trump’s ballroom, which started out at $200,000 and was going to be completely paid for by Trump’s friends.

A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there… pretty soon we’ll be talking about some real money.

On Tuesday, Trump said the ballroom will have six stories underground. A few seconds later, he said it will have three stories underground.

Either way, I’m sure Putin knows more about it than the American people who are paying for it. Anything the Russians can’t see from their satellites; Trump is bound to tell them. Anything he knows, he announces, and if he doesn’t know it, he just makes it up. He’ll probably give Putin a tour when it’s finished.

Ebola Outbreak in Republic of Congo

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern.

You may recall that Trump pulled the United States out of WHO. He also ended USAID. He also decimated the Centers for Disease Control.

Not only can the United States not help Congo, we don’t have doctors or scientists to officially send there to analyze the current strain of Ebola. It is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. There are no approved drugs or vaccines to fight it.

Famine in much of Africa

Meanwhile, the worst famine in decades is spreading in Africa.

The United States Government won’t be there to offer aid, unless the famine outlasts the Trump Regime.

Cyanide bombs on public lands

The Bureau of Land Management has gone off the rails.

The Biden Administration banned the use of spring-loaded cyanide bombs to kill wildlife on public lands in 2023.

Of course, the Trump Regime has reinstated the practice on 245 million acres of public land. Animals are baited by the scent. When they pull on the scented bait, a sodium cyanide pellet is fired into the animal’s mouth. This results in convulsions, paralysis, and then death.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

It never ceases to baffle me at the joy this administration takes in killing any living thing.

More than 50 family dogs have been killed by these cyanide bombs since 1990. The bombs are an equal-opportunity killing machine. They can’t tell the difference between a coyote, an endangered species, or a child.

Way to go Trump!

Please contact your Representative in the U.S. House and ask them to vote for H.R. 4180 and you U.S. Senator and ask them to vote for S. 2179. Known as Canyon’s Law, passage of the bill would ban the use of M-44 cyanide bombs on public lands.

It is called Canyon’s law for 14-year-old Canyon Mansfield who was sprayed by a cyanide bomb along with his dog in 2017. The dog died, and Canyon was rushed to a hospital and survived. Canyon and his dog had gone for a walk in the hills behind his family’s Idaho home.

Netanyahu – Trump’s puppet

On Wednesday Trump said that Netanyahu “will do whatever I tell him to.” Actually, he said it twice.

Trump also said he has a 99% approval rating in Israel, so he might run for Prime Minister there.

Please! Go!

It seems that our Republic has slid right into a dictatorship. Trump can do anything he wants to do and there is no one to stop him. He promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC, but instead he has widened and deepened it. He has given “political corruption” a whole new meaning.

However, … “We the people….” Election day is November 3, 2026.

We the people can drain the swamp. We the people will drain the swamp. I have to believe that.

Janet


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

Attacks on Nature are Never-Ending

Some of my blog readers have dropped by the wayside. I suppose they got tired of my rants about the corruption in the Trump Administration. It’s a free country. Each individual is free to bury their head in the sand. Each individual is free to say, “I don’t watch the news any more. It upsets me.”

To that I say, “I’m glad it upsets you. It should upset you, but do you think that by ignoring it you are making things any better?” (If you are more than 90 years old, I will give you a pass. You have already done your part to try to preserve our democracy.)

The news upsets me, but the people who choose to ignore it upset me more. But, like I said, it is a free country. You don’t have to participate. You don’t have to care about the rest of us. You don’t have to care about future generations. You don’t have to do your part.

Today, I will draw your attention – if you’re still with me – to just three things that you might not have heard about, if you have stopped watching the news. Even if you still watch the news, you probably did not hear about these actions.

Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management quietly removed “conservation” as a use for public lands. Let that sink it.

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

What uses are approved?

Grazing, mining, and energy development.

The Public Lands Rule (also known as the Conservation & Landscape Health Rule) was finalized in 2024 to conserve and restore federally-owned public lands that had been damaged by drought, development, wildfires, and invasive species.

It is beyond sad that the Trump Administration hates nature so much. We, the American people, own these lands. They were supposed to be held in trust for future generations – you know… like previous generations put them in trust for us. Ever hear of the National Park system? It did not happen by accident.

This is what you get when you put a New York City alleged-businessman in the White House, and then blindly approve everyone he nominates to Cabinet positions and judgeships.

In repealing the 2024 Rule, the Bureau of Land Management says that by removing conservation as a legitimate use of land, “balance” will be restored as grazing, mining, and energy development will be prioritized.

They really think we are stupid.

The EPA and toxic coal wastewater

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rolling back the rules governing the release of toxic wastewater from coal plants. In the old days, like April 2026, coal plants were required to treat wastewater before it could seep into rivers, lakes, and streams.

Why, you may ask?

Because those rivers, lakes, and streams eventually provide drinking water for millions of Americans. Also, beings like fish and salamanders also live in those waters. They are part of our ecosystem. They are not beings to be trashed.

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

Why do reasonable people not want coal waste in their drinking water?

Because it contains such things as arsenic, mercury, and lead.

The policy put in place by the Biden Administration to restrict coal wastewater release was projected to keep 660 million pounds of toxic waste from reaching our waterways per year.

Why is the Trump Administration pushing to end this policy?

The official reason is to “bolster the power grid.”

Trump likes to talk about “clean coal.” I’m not sure what “clean coal” is. Trump hates wind power and solar power, but he loves coal-burning plants. He loves toxic black coal and calls it “clean.” Calling it “clean” does not make it so.

Ever heard of Black Lung? Anyone in your family want to be a coal miner? Anyone in Trump’s family want to be a coal miner?

I knew Trump hated the natural world’s beauty. The concept that the world’s natural beauty holds value just by being, well, natural and beautiful, is a concept he was obviously not taught at home or in the expensive private schools he attended.

The natural world allows us to breathe clean air and drink clean water, but Trump’s hatred for such things for the American people is overwhelmingly complete. In his eyes, the natural world only holds value when a dollar sign can be attached to it.

What a sad man. He is to be pitied for his narrow-minded short-sightedness and worship of the almighty U.S. dollar. Oh… and gold. The tackier the better!

Trump’s Triumphal Arch

I have had the privilege of visiting Washington, DC several times. Those visits always left me awestruck and proud… and wanting to visit again.

One thing that never crossed my mind was, “What our nation’s capital needs is a 250-foot-tall arch to block the view of the Lincoln Memorial from parts of Arlington National Cemetery.”

View of Arlington National Cemetery and the Washington Monument
Photo by J. Amill Santiago on Unsplash

Never crossed my mind.

Trump is hellbent on building this monstrous arch. He brags that it will dwarf the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and will be 30 feet taller than the world’s tallest arch – the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City.

In the process, he is attempting to skip the permitting process and the competitive public bidding process (like he did when he gave one of his buddies the $7 million contract to paint the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue like a swimming pool.)

He bypassed the legal requirement of public competitive public bidding by claiming that painting the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue was “an emergency.”

The way the Reflecting Pool was designed and built, government buildings such as the Washington Monument were reflected in the water. The beautiful blue sky was reflected in the water.

Trump said in one speech that some people call it a pond. He thought it was funny and said it could be called many things. I’ve always heard it called the Reflecting Pool.

Trump has no respect for its name or purpose. He has a better idea.  Let’s paint it a gaudy bright blue so it will resemble a swimming pool! And while we’re at it, let’s not put the project out for competitive bids. I know a guy. He does not build pools, but I know a guy who might know how to paint. He can pocket $7 million and be beholding to me.

I’m glad I’m old and will never visit Washington, DC again. I want to remember it the way it was before Trump arrived. Before he tore down the East Wing of the White House without permission and lied about how “the ballroom will not touch the White House.” Surely you remember when he said, “It won’t touch the White House.” He failed to mention that he was going to demolish the East Wing.

I want to remember Washington, DC without a golden Trump arch.

To those of you who still worship Trump & his 20-foot Golden Statue at Doral Golf Club

I pray you will see the light before it’s too late and we lose everything.

I know your stock portfolio is brilliant. I’m sure your 401(k) is secure and soaring.

You preach the love of Trump from your church pulpits every Sunday and again on Wednesday night.

Do you really believe you and Trump are “doing the Lord’s work?”

Do you really believe Trump was “sent by God” to destroy the environment and break all our laws?

I pity you.

I hope your children and grandchildren will enjoy seeing all your money, because chances are they won’t ever see a national park, or breathe clean air, or drink clean water.

They are going to smell the waste that is dumped in our streams – like I smelled back in the 1950s and 1960s in the textile mill belt in the piedmont of North Carolina. They are going to breathe the dirty air in their cities like I saw first-hand in Charlotte in the early 1970s when I started working.

With the repeal of the laws and policies governing pollution, that’s what we are going back to. Young people don’t understand that, because they haven’t seen it. They didn’t smell Buffalo Creek in Concord, North Carolina before it was even in sight. They haven’t seen 20-story buildings shrouded in brown air.

To the rest of you

I wish I could ignore the rampant corruption in the Trump Administration and spend my time writing historical fiction. That’s what I would rather be doing instead of watching our beautiful environment and democracy crumble.

In my early adulthood, I worked for several city and county governments. Much of my job in each position was putting projects out for bid. It was… and is… the law. It was not up for debate or question. I just did it. I did it many times. I never considered trying to circumvent the law or the spirit of the law.

My upbringing and my education in political science and public administration grounded me in following the law. Those laws were there to protect the taxpayer. Those laws were there to protect our democracy.

Those laws are in place to protect the American taxpayer from the likes of Donald Trump, but the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have torn down the guardrails. Donald Trump has been left to ignore and trample such laws into the dirt.

The laws are still there, but Trump thinks he is above the law.

November 3, 2026 is election day for EVERY member of the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senators. Things could change with the November 3 election.

“We, the people….”

Photo by Larry Alger on Unsplash

Janet


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