I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
Last week, four reporters from the New York Times interviewed Trump in the Oval Office. One question and Trump’s answer to it have overshadowed the rest of the interview. In fact, knowing his answer to this question means we don’t need to know his answers to any of the other questions.
A reporter asked Trump, if there were any checks, any limits on his power on the world stage.
Trump answered: “There is one. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s a good thing.” A reporter asked a follow-up question: “What about international law?” Trump replied, “I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people.”
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
It is the answer to that first question that has stayed with me all weekend. “My own morality. My own mind.”
Trump has said some chilling and frightening things, but I think this is the most chilling and most frightening.
Here we are.
No one should be that self-assured.
No U.S. President should think or say that the only check or limit on his power is himself – his morality, his mind. A U.S. President should at least reference that the U.S. Constitution limits his power.
This is especially frightening, since Trump has no morals. Not to mention, the state of his mind is very much in question.
This is a man who hold grudges. This is a man who never forgets a slight. This is a man with no sense of humor. This is a man devoid of empathy. This is a man who makes fun of handicapped people. This is a man who calls people from Somalia “garbage.” This is a man who daily calls anyone who differs with him such things as “lunatic” and “low IQ” and “horrible person,” etc.
This is a convicted felon who never spent a minute in jail. This is a man who was found guilty of sexual abuse by a jury of nine people.
This is the man who ordered a mob to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to stop the confirmation that he had lost his bid for re-election to the Presidency and then watched it unfold for hours on TV before calling off the people doing his dirty work.
This is the man who pardoned more than 1,500 of the Capitol rioters who viciously participated in his attempted coup. (Now he says the Capitol Police started it!)
This is the man who has access to the U.S. nuclear weapons codes. Think about that, if you dare.
Have you ever known of anyone so completely devoid of morals?
He said only one thing could stop him, and then he named two things – his morality and his mind. They are not synonymous. They are not interchangeable. But his misunderstanding of the semantics is the least of our worries.
There are now 52 U.S. Senators (all 47 Democrats and five Republicans) willing to vote to at least talk about curbing Trump’s war powers in Venezuela. It was refreshing to finally have a majority vote on something positive in the Senate last week, but the flip side is that we have 48 U.S. Senators (all Republicans) who did not even have the guts to vote to have a discussion about it this week and a final vote on the war powers resolution. Not that Trump has ever been reeled in by a Congressional resolution.
If the shoe were on the other foot (i.e., a Democrat president had gone into Venezuela and taken its leader to a prison in the U.S.), the Republicans in the Senate would be up in arms. In their eyes, Trump can do no wrong. At least, that’s the way they vote. They are complicit in everything he does.
As you begin your week, remember the people of Ukraine, Iran, and Venezuela – especially since Trump posted on Truth Social that he is the “acting President of Venezuela.” If he believes that, the Venezuelans need our prayers.
I was tempted to blog about this yesterday, but I thought it best not to have a knee jerk reaction. I thought I should wait twenty-four hours after the shooting in Minneapolis before I put my thoughts in writing.
I hoped someone in the Trump Administration would step forth and speak with restraint and a modicum of wisdom. I did not expect it, so I was not surprised when Wednesday’s lies, accusations, and name calling continued for a second day.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem showed up dressed appropriately yesterday for a news conference about the killing of a 37-year-old American citizen by an ICE Agent. That was refreshing after we had to see her in a cowgirl outfit – perhaps her Halloween costume – when she spoke from Brownsville, Texas, about the incident a couple of hours after it occurred on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Noem said the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday was “standard operating procedure.” She once again labeled Ms. Good “a domestic terrorist.”
Shooting the driver of a moving vehicle does not seem to me to ever be a wise choice, but I am not a trained law enforcement officer. Perhaps Ms. Good felt her life was threatened by the masked officer who approached her car using profanity, tried to open her car door, and then stuck his arm through the opened car window. We will never know what was in her mind, since she was shot in the face and killed.
A nearby physician requested access to Ms. Good as she bled out in her car, but he was denied the fulfilling of his obligation as a medical doctor by the ICE agents. It has been reported that she did not receive medical attention for more than ten minutes.
Secretary Noem said the officer who shot Ms. Good was following his training.
All this is being said by the Trump Administration before the incident is investigated. In fact, Noem said the officer was within his rights, was following his training, and the woman who was shot was the instigator. In other words, she got what she deserved.
Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance blamed the “left wing lunatic fringe” for the shooting of Renee Good. He said, “It was a tragedy of her own making.” He said the ICE agent was “just doing his job.” He hinted that Democrats are funding the peaceful protests. He verbally attacked journalists for falling for the lies of the “lunatic fringe” on the left.
It sounds like the Trump Administration sits as law enforcement, prosecutor, witness, judge, and jury in this case. This is unconstitutional.
When a law enforcement officer in the United States is involved in a shooting, it is standard operating procedure for that officer to be removed from on-the-street duties until a full investigation can be conducted by a separate law enforcement organization.
It has been my experience that even local law enforcement officials know that. It is very telling that the top level of law enforcement in the United States is thumbing its nose at that commonly accepted – and commonly expected – practice. What federal officials should be saying is, “We cannot comment on the details of the incident because it is under investigation.”
However, what Secretary Noem has said is that the dead victim is going to be investigated. Apparently, her ICE agent will not be investigated.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that the Trump Administration has denied the State of Minnesota the right to investigate the incident.
I believe the Trump Administration and, by association and blind allegiance, the Republican Party, have lost sight of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Americans have a constitutional right to peacefully protest. No one pays us to voice our opinions!
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
No one pays me to write my blog posts. I have a constitutional right to write my blog and express my opinions. It is beyond tragic that the Trump Administration and the Republican Party, which remains in lock-step with Trump, have completely lost sight of the First Amendment. They are obsessed with the Second Amendment, and they want us to forget the rest of them – especially the First one.
We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.
New Assistant U.S. Attorney General position
Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance announced we will have a new U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Fraud. This person has been guaranteed confirmation by the U.S. Senate by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Perhaps the most frightening thing about this announcement was that this person will work in the White House and answer to the President and the Vice President.
That, my fellow citizens, is a dangerous precedent-setting action to blatantly announce that the U.S. Department of Justice is now officially a political arm of the U.S. President. It should send a chill down the spine of every American.
We have known since January 20, 2025, that Trump considers the U.S. Justice Department “his” Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his personal attorney. But what Vice President Vance did yesterday was announce to all the world that what they have in practice demonstrated for a year is exactly what they believe and they believe they have the right to control and dictate the actions of the U.S. Department of Justice.
If the U.S. Congress does not stop them, the U.S. Constitution be damned.
In conclusion
I am writing this blog post mid-afternoon on Thursday, January 8 to be posted on the morning of January 9.
I hope there will be a fair and honest investigation to the shooting in Minneapolis, but I do not expect one as long as Trump is President.
It bears repeating: We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.
Janet
P.S. I thank Pat, one of my blog readers for bring it to my attention that I gave the wrong date in my blog post yesterday (“Go fight, Johnny!” – historical short story) for the Battle of Kings Mountain. I stated that the battle occurred on October 17, 1780, but it actually took place on October 7, 1780. Much to my embarrassment, I then realized that I picked up the wrong date in my blog post because I have the incorrect date in Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. My apologies to my readers, and my thanks to Pat for having a sharp eye and for bringing this error to my attention. It just goes to show that even if you proofread a book’s manuscript eight times, you will still not catch all your errors.
Five years ago today, Trump and his MAGA followers attempted a coup in Washington, DC. To call it anything else would not serve the truth or history.
The White House website tells a much different story of that day. It is a narrative that Trump and his minions have espoused since that day. No matter what you do, as long as Donald Trump is in the White House, do not believe one word that is on WhiteHouse.gov.
Photo by Simon Ray on Unsplash
Trump and his followers think we will forget that Trump told the rioters on January 6, 2021, to march to the U.S. Capitol. He even claimed he was going with them. Of course, that was just part of the lie. They should have known that “President Bone Spurs” didn’t have the guts to enter the fray. He knew the Secret Service would never allow it. It was all bluster.
They think we will forget that Trump told the rioters, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
They think if they repeat the lies long enough and loud enough, the American people and the world will forget what they saw with their own eyes that day.
They think we will forget the Congressional testimony given under oath by witnesses, by the police officers who were beaten, crushed, and sprayed with bear spray and pepper spray that day.
They think we will doubt the words of the members of Congress who feared for their lives that day as they gathered to certify that Joe Biden had been lawfully elected United States President in November 2020.
Photo credit: alireza jalilian on unsplash.com
They think we will forget that the rioters built a gallows on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol that day and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” Trump had turned on Vice President Pence because Pence refused to call the election rigged.
They think we will forget that Trump called them wonderful people and expressed his praise for them.
I watched live TV in absolute horror on January 6, 2021, as the rioters broke the windows of the U.S. Capitol, broke down doors, destroyed all manner of public property in that sacred building, broke into the offices of members of Congress, broke into the U.S. House Chambers, and rifled through papers.
Raphael Assouline on Unsplash
It was a wholesale desecration of the seat of American democracy. The historian in me prays that history books will give a fair, true, and honest explanation of January 6, 2021.
More than 1,500 rioters were charged with breaking various laws on January 6, 2021.
Joe Biden was inaugurated U.S. President on a tense January 20, 2021.
Donald Trump was somehow elected U.S. President on November 5, 2024, with 51% of the popular vote,
Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025, and immediately pardoned the rioters.
After campaigning on “America First” and not involving the U.S. in foreign wars or regime topplings, on Saturday he ordered the U.S. military to physically remove the dictator of Venezuela. On Sunday, he hinted that Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico might be next.
Yesterday, Assistant White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller questioned Denmark’s legal claim over Greenland.
Today, the White House Press Secretary said talks are taking place on how the U.S. will “acquire” Greenland and military action is “not off the table.”
Today Trump joked about possibly cancelling the next national election.
Trump’s modis operandi is to try to make a joke, then see how people respond. He continues to feed that “joke” by bringing it up again… and again… and pretty soon… he doesn’t present it as a joke but a possibility… and pretty soon… masked agents are in the streets snatching people, and military personnel are in Venezuela.
I continue to work on that historical novel I’ve told you I’m writing. Distractions will, no doubt, continue to try to derail that process. I will continue to keep up with politics and share my thoughts on my blog in 2026, but I will also keep writing that novel. Escaping to the 1760s in Virginia and North Carolina just might be what keeps me sane.
Last week I wrote a blog post for today. As a result of what Trump did on Saturday, though, it no longer seemed appropriate to use it. I’ll save it for another day, because it is about one of the stories in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
I have mentioned or alluded to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro before.
Flag of Venezuela Photo by aboodi vesakaran on Unsplash
On August 28, 2025 in my blog, Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, I wrote that Trump was quietly stationing U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other military ships and planes off the coast of Venezuela. I wrote, “The official White House explanation is that it is an anti-illegal drug operation, but it is no secret that Trump wants to overthrow the Maduro regime.”
On December 10, 2025, in my blog, Trump’s National Security Strategy – The Western Hemisphere, I gave some details of Trump’s November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. Among other things, it talked about our use of lethal force and how American businesses would benefit. The NSS went so far as to state that any U.S. Government employee who interacts with countries in the Western Hemisphere must understand that it is “part of their job to help American companies compete and succeed.”
Now that Trump claims the U.S. will “run Venezuela” and we will “take back our oil,” I guess Trump and U.S. oil companies will be the beneficiaries of Saturday’s military action.
On December 31, 2025 in my A look back at 2025 blog post, I listed a few of the things Trump did last year. One of my paragraphs read as follows: “He thinks he has the right to oust the dictator in a South American nation because that country sits on a lot of oil. He claims Venezuelans are bringing massive amounts of illegal drugs to the U.S. in those tiny boats. In his mind, though, it is easier to claim they’re transporting drugs and obliterate all the evidence along with the people in the boats.”
What Trump did in the wee hours on Saturday morning gives Putin the greenlight to take Ukraine and other European countries. It gives Xi the greenlight to take Taiwan.
Trump has left the United States without a moral leg to stand on when any other dictator in the world decides to go off half-cocked and overthrow a government or a leader they don’t like.
Trump says Maduro is a “bad person.” Just because a country has a “bad person” in charge does not give the United States or any other country the right to overthrow that person and their regime. After all, most of us think Donald Trump is a “bad person.”
The United States has overthrown foreign leaders before. It has never gone well. It goes against the Constitution of the United States of America. It overrides the authority of the U.S. Congress when a U.S. President launches a military attack on another country.
This is not rocket science; it’s just political science. It is the very foundation of our nation. It is not difficult to understand for those of us who have lived here for seven decades. We learned the tenets of American democracy from birth in our homes and at school in our formative years. We have continued to learn it throughout our lives just by having the privilege of being American citizens.
It is beyond unfortunate that we now have a U.S. President who was either never taught those things or has chosen to ignore them. He thumbs his nose at the law and those of us who love America. He believes he is above the law, and those of us who obey the law are “losers.”
And that, my friends, is how we arrived at Saturday morning, January 3, 2026.
Maduro and his wife are now being held in a prison in New York City. It is said that they will be charged with running illegal drugs to the United States.
This is all smoke and mirrors by the U.S. President, for just a few weeks ago he pardoned the former leader of Honduras for his running of drugs to the United States. So why spend an estimated $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to overthrow Maduro? And he is just getting started. The hard work comes after the overthrow, especially when you have no plan and the American people are not behind you.
In Trump World, it all depends on who you are and what Trump can get out of you.
The American people don’t want to run Venezuela. We don’t want to make Canada our 51st state. We don’t want to steal Greenland from Denmark. We don’t want a $400 million ballroom at the White House. We don’t want Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We don’t want a massive arch in Washington, DC. We don’t want masked federal officers snatching people off the streets. We don’t want Trump’s face on our money or our national park passes. We don’t want Trump’s name on anything.
Americans want affordable healthcare and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) we can trust. We want our food inspected by a reliable U.S. Department of Agriculture. We want people to make a fair wage that will enable them to reach the American Dream of home ownership. We want religion left out of our public schools. We want university professors free to teach without government interference. We want our national parks preserved and not destroyed for the sake of gas and oil exploration. We want endangered species protected from extinction. We want a country where citizens are encouraged to vote without intimidation. We want a country where we are all just Americans and minorities are not labeled “other.”
We want a U.S. Congress with the guts to stop Trump’s power grab and overreach.
We want a U.S. Supreme Court that admits the error of their ways when they ruled that a sitting U.S. President cannot be held guilty of breaking a law.
We want a President who speaks and acts from a place of intelligence and empathy – not a gutter-mouth bully. Is it too much to ask that we have a President who speaks in complete sentences? Is it too much to ask for a President who honors the U.S. Constitution? Is it too much to ask for a President who does not call our citizens vicious names?
When I think back over 2025, the Thomas Paine quote that immediately comes to mind is, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
It is said that every generation thinks they are living in the worst of times – the most challenging times – of any previous generation.
If you’ve been reading my blog all year, you know I am not at all happy with the state of things in the United States. My political rants have pleased many of you and, no doubt, driven some readers away.
I majored in political science and minored in history in college. My Master’s degree is in Public Affairs/Public Administration. Although my early career in government is long ago in my past, I will forever be interested in the workings of government and the blessings of democracy.
The workings of the government and the blessings of democracy have been under attack in the United States since January 20, 2025, and there is no end in sight. In my wildest imagination, I couldn’t have anticipated what this year has been like.
The drama and trauma coming out of what’s left of the White House have been nonstop. The U.S. Congress has been a silent no-show. The U.S. Supreme Court has let us and the U.S. Constitution down repeatedly.
When I look back on 2025 in the future, it will fall in the category of one of the worst of my now 73 years. The years my parents died are in that category. The year that illness robbed me of my career and a way to make a living is in that category. The last four months of 2001 after September 11th fall into that category. That puts 2025 in the worst five years of my life. I don’t say that lightly.
The following paragraphs highlight the things that the U.S. President did in 2025. These are just the things that readily came to mind as I wrote this post. They are in no particular order.
We have a U.S. President who…
We have a U.S. President who is systematically plastering his name on everything from the U.S. Institute of Peace, to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, to a savings plan for infants, to a monstrous ballroom, to a new class of battleships that will lead us into the 19th century. It is traditionally known as an honor when a person has a building named for them; however, there is no honor in naming a building for oneself. Such an action only has negative connotations.
He has desecrated what is left of the White House with the gaudiest gold knickknacks on the face of the earth. He has nailed plaques about former U.S. Presidents written with vitriol on the outside wall of the White House. He plans to build an arch in Washington, DC that is sure to dwarf that one in Paris because, after all, in his eyes bigger is always better – no matter how ugly or inappropriate. We in the South have a word for this: tacky.
He had the entire East Wing of the White House demolished to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom after claiming the ballroom’s construction would come close to the existing building (the East Wing) but would not touch it. Just one of his countless lies.
Two days before Christmas, his Secretary of Homeland Security declared an emergency at the new Homeland Security headquarters on the old St. Elizabeth’s Hospital West Campus at 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Southeast, in Washington, DC so she could demolish 17 historic buildings there, including an Army hospital built in 1855. Declaring an emergency is a way to bypass the laws regulating the National Register of Historic Places. (St. Elizabeth’s West Campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1990 due to its historical and architectural significance.)
He orders boats to be blown to bits and oil tankers to be seized as if he is living in a pirate movie. He sends wannabe federal officers throughout the country to grab anyone who doesn’t have blond hair and blue eyes.
He sends his prisoners “back” to countries they have never been to before. He begs Norwegians to come live in America where they can give up their healthcare, education, weeks of annual vacation, and the right to breathe clean air.
He berates journalists and the memories of beloved individuals like Rob Reiner whom he deems unworthy of respect and “enemies of the people.”
He threatens to cancel the broadcast licenses of major television networks if they dare to report the truth about him.
He continues to have a bee in his bonnet over Greenland. Last week he appointed the Governor of Louisiana to spearhead our stealing of that vast land from Denmark. He wants Greenland so he can control the Arctic along with Russia.
He bombs ISIS in Nigeria because Nigeria sits on a lot of oil and natural gas. He claims he is bombing ISIS because the terrorist organization is killing Christians, but they aren’t just killing Christians.
He gets on national TV and yells at the American people for 18 minutes just before Christmas without taking a breath and Congress does nothing – as if this is normal behavior for a U.S. President. “Nothing to see here.”
He has alienated all our 20th century allies.
He thinks he has the right to oust the dictator in a South American nation because that country sits on a lot of oil. He claims Venezuelans are bringing massive amounts of illegal drugs to the U.S. in those tiny boats. In his mind, though, it is easier to claim they’re transporting drugs and obliterate all the evidence along with the people in the boats.
He buddies up to Vladimir Putin and sends one of his buddies to Moscow to coach Putin in how to negotiate peace in Ukraine as he hangs Ukrainians out to dry to lose massive amounts of their land and, ultimately, probably their democracy. He only wants to have a hand in ending the war in Ukraine because he thinks it will ensure him of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He is jealous of President Barack Obama for receiving that honor. What he does not understand is that it is awarded for arms reduction, international cooperation, and human rights contributions. He fails on all counts.
He sits idly by as millions of Americans lose their affordable health insurance on January 1, 2026. It’s just a game to him and the Republican members of Congress who will never have to worry about their healthcare because they don’t have to pay for theirs. After all, they aren’t regular folks. Regular folks must pay for their own health insurance while also paying for the healthcare enjoyed by the President and members of Congress. The irony!
He repeatedly tells us that grocery prices have come down, months after he had an epiphany as he learned a new word: groceries. He called it an old-fashioned word, yet it was a new word for him. Never once in his life has he had to worry about where his next meal is coming from or who will prepare it for him.
He claims to “love the farmers,” but he pulled the financial rug out from under them when he ended the USAID program – not to mention the millions of children and adults who have and will starve to death or die of unnecessary illnesses due to the loss of American food stuffs and medicine.
He rips apart the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health in the name of saving money. He seems to delight in killing science and medical research and, as a result, anyone who benefits from medical or other scientific research. These evil-spirited actions by him and his administration have put the world’s health at risk and turned people from trusting tried-and-true vaccinations.
He punishes colleges and universities for welcoming immigrant and international students and for encouraging students to think for themselves and expose themselves to new ideas.
He has ended all federally-supported programs that encourage women or people of color to get an education and pursue careers. He has randomly said such professions as nursing and architecture are not professional careers and, therefore, people pursuing such careers will no longer be eligible for any federal loans/financial aid.
He calls the Department of Defense the Department of War because that apparently makes him feel like a big man. It shows how small a man he is. Remember how the Wizard of Oz projected his image so he would appear larger than he was? This is what is happening in the White House.
He shields himself and his friends from any punishment they might deserve for hanging out with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and underage girls. He changes his tune daily about his association with Epstein, and “his” Department of Justice redacts entire pages of the Epstein files while claiming they’re only redacting the names of the victims.
His Christmas Eve message on social media called for CBS to euthanize Stephen Colbert. He didn’t use that word because he has a limited vocabulary, but we got the point. He says Mr. Colbert is filled with hate. Just because Mr. Colbert calls him out every night with jokes that are only telling the truth, our dear leader can’t take it. He proved years ago at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that he can’t laugh at himself. Small-minded, self-absorbed people cannot laugh at themselves.
He randomly calls countries he doesn’t like “sh%th*le” countries. He calls people from Somalia “garbage.”
And yet this man courts evangelicals and they continue to believe with all their hearts that he is a Christian? They cling to him. He is their golden calf. He is their savior. That, my friends, is one of the greatest mysteries of life and the most frightening part of this entire disaster.
I will, no doubt, continue to call out the wrongs, mistakes, poor decisions, and bad judgment I see coming out of Washington, DC in the coming year. I pray the worst of the Trump Administration is over, but I know I might as well be whistling in the wind. I fear things will continue to get worse, and I shudder to contemplate that we are not quite one-fourth of the way through this attack on our democracy.
The Resistance is alive and well. In the words of Sky, a tiny little girl I know, we will persevere!
On a brighter note
This has been an extraordinarily busy and mentally-rewarding year for me as a writer. As my list of published books grows, I can scarcely believe what I accomplished in 2025.
In 2025, I finished writing and published I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter; I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary; and Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
Those three books are available on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, North Carolina, along with three of my earlier books: Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1; Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2; and the cookbook my sister and I compiled, The Aunts in the Kitchen: Southern Family Recipes.
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, a vintage postcard book I wrote in 2014 for Arcadia Publishing, is available on Amazon, from the publisher, and in some bookstores.
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison
In 1996, my sister and I compiled three Morrison genealogy books. Those are available through my website, https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com.
I haven’t made any New Year’s Resolutions. Have you? I’d love to know what you have resolved to do (or not do!) in 2026. Drop me a line in the comments below. Who knows? You might inspire me to adopt one of your resolutions!
There was a tragedy in Los Angeles last weekend. It was followed hours later by a tragic expression of hate on Truth Social.
I struggled over whether to blog about this. I concluded that if I remained silent, I was complicit. I concluded that if I did not speak out, I was giving the President of the United States permission to continue to demonstrate his lack of humanity.
I am aware that he does not need my permission to do anything. I am merely one citizen. One voter. He does not answer to me. He has proven repeatedly since January 20, 2025, that he does not answer to anyone. I hope that sometime in the next 37 months, he will be answerable to someone. If he will not be held accountable for his behavior by the United States Congress in the next 37 months, he will eventually be held accountable by our Creator.
His words about the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner were shocking but not surprising.
Rob and Michele Reiner were Hollywood icons. As far as I know, neither of them ever hurt anyone. They loved their son and had, no doubt, done everything in their power to help him with his addictions.
Photo by Sean Foster on Unsplash
But when “the leader of the free world,” “the most powerful man in the world” due to the political office he holds responded to the news the Reiners had been found murdered in their Los Angeles home with vitriol, I was shocked.
It is shocking that a human being can be so callous and devoid of empathy. It was shocking, but it was not surprising. (Yes, I’ve already said that, but it bears repeating.)
As the current President of the United States always does, he made light of these murders AND he made it all about him. Not only did he say despicable things about the Reiners, he said they were murdered because they had Trump Derangement Syndrome.
I find him so repulsive that I refuse to mention his name today except when I have to.
He more than insinuated in his social media post that the Reiners were murdered because they did not like him. (Can you spell narcissist?)
It turned out that they were apparently murdered by their son, who has a history of drug addiction. We might never know what triggered these acts of violence, but it is doubtful it had anything to do with the Reiners’ political opinions.
As everyone who knew Rob and Michele Reiner or appreciated their work has mourned their untimely deaths and the profound tragedy of the indications that they died at the hands of their son, we are also left to once again deal with the embarrassment caused by the words of the President of the United States.
The President of the United States is supposed to be a person of integrity and character. It is not spelled out in the job description, but in the 236 years we have had a President, it has been or at least evolved into a position in which we expect a level of respect, empathy, leadership, and encouragement. Until 2025. We would like to have it in 2025, but we no longer expect it.
What we expect from the current United States President is disrespect, ridicule, mean-spirited words and actions, name calling, belittling, racism, and a total lack of empathy for anyone in the nation or the world who is struggling, suffering, or grieving.
Therefore, what he said about the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner was shocking, but it was not surprising.
How many more despicable things must he say before someone in a position of authority does something?
How many more despicable things must he say before some people who claim to be Christians stop defending and supporting him?
His behavior would not be tolerated if he were an employee in any other job in America, so why is it tolerated when he has the job of United States President?
Then, the plaques about the former U.S. Presidents
Mr. President, the fact that this week you added plaques under the photographs of yourself and other former U.S. Presidents along that wall you’ve tackied-up at the White House, goes right along with the way you started the week by saying hateful things about Rob and Michele Reiner.
The little bits I’ve heard of what you said about President Biden and President Obama on their plaques are so far beneath the dignity of the office you hold, words fail me. Only a very tiny, insecure person does such a thing.
You have turned the wall beside an outdoor walkway leading to the Oval Office into a Wall of Horrors. We can only hope it and the Oval Office can be returned to their former simple elegance when you are gone.
Then, there was your nationally-televised yell-fest
Wednesday night, those of us who tuned in out of curiosity, heard and watched the U.S. President have a yell-fest. For 18 minutes, you talked yelled as fast as you could. It was a bizarre display, even for you, and you have set the bar incredibly low with your earlier speeches and “weavings” you are so proud of.
Considering the purpose of the yell-fest was apparently to tell us how great you think you are and how cheap groceries are thanks to your leadership, you certainly sounded angry.
If you were lucky enough to not hear Wednesday night’s tirade live, it is quoted in its entirety here: ttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/17/read-donald-trumps-speech/87820921007/. To really appreciate it, though, you needed to hear it live with all the anger his tone of voice showed. He was practically gritting his teeth at the end when he spit out, “To each and every one of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. God bless you all.” He was obviously too angry to even fake a smile.
You are not great, Mr. President. You are a sorry excuse. You are a profound embarrassment to all reasonable Americans.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Yesterday, Trump claimed to be “surprised” when the trustees he appointed to the board to which he named himself the chairman renamed The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center of the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Since he has been referring to it as the Trump-Kennedy Center for several weeks, claiming it was a slip of the tongue, why would he say it was a surprise yesterday? The truth just is not in him.
Congress named it as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy in 1964, so it is questionable that the Trump-appointed trustees have the authority to change the name. As long as there is a Republican majority in this do-nothing Congress, though, nothing will probably come of this.
This isn’t the first thing Trump has named for himself, of course.
Last week he renamed the United States Institute of Peace the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace and had his name chiseled into the entrance to the building.
The White House ballroom that originally was going to cost $200 million, he now says just months later, will cost $400 million. There is speculation that he will name it The Donald J. Trump Ballroom. Why wouldn’t he?
He’s going to build an arch in Washington, D.C. that will supposedly dwarf the one in Paris. After all, the bigger, the gaudier, the better in Trump World.
It is surprising he renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. I wonder why he didn’t name it the Gulf of Trump?
It will always be the Gulf of Mexico to me. And it will always be the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Anything he names for himself can be changed back to its rightful name when he is gone.
Only 37 more months? Unless he renames the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of Donald J. Trump. He said when he was campaigning that he thought the U.S. Constitution should be abolished.
Buckle up, folks, it’s going to continue to be a rough ride. We’re only 11 months in. It just seems like 11 years.
In addition to the Western Hemisphere, the document addresses Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – in that order.
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
Asia
As only a document coming out of the Trump White House can say, the Asia portion of the strategy begins with the words, “President Trump single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China: namely, that by opening our markets to China, encouraging American business to invest in China, and outsourcing our manufacturing to China, we would facilitate China’s entry into the so-called ‘rules based international order.’ This did not happen. China got rich and powerful, and used its wealth and power to its considerable advantage. American elites—over four successive administrations of both political parties—were either willing enablers of China’s strategy or in denial.”
That’s rich, coming from Trump who had so much of his Trump brand merchandise manufactured in China! And his daughter had her line of jewelry made in China! The Trump family took full advantage of the “mistakes” of precious U.S. Presidents and got richer and richer at the expense of the American factory worker.
The document goes on to state, “… the Indo-Pacific is already and will continue to be among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds. To thrive at home, we must successfully compete there—and we are. President Trump signed major agreements during his October 2025 travels that further deepen our powerful ties of commerce, culture, technology, and defense, and reaffirm our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. America retains tremendous assets—the world’s strongest economy and military, world-beating innovation, unrivaled “soft power,” and a historic record of benefiting our allies and partners—that enable us to compete successfully. President Trump is building alliances and strengthening partnerships in the Indo Pacific that will be the bedrock of security and prosperity long into the future.”
Several hundred words later, the Asia section of the document ends with, “We will also harden and strengthen our military presence in the Western Pacific, while in our dealings with Taiwan and Australia we maintain our determined rhetoric on increased defense spending. Preventing conflict requires a vigilant posture in the Indo-Pacific, a renewed defense industrial base, greater military investment from ourselves and from allies and partners, and winning the economic and technological competition over the long term.”
It appears that Australia was thrown into that last paragraph as an afterthought.
Europe
The European section of the National Security Strategy begins by throwing Europe under the bus, as Trump likes to do. He is critical of every country, including his own. Nothing is good enough. After laying out some supposed statistics (I say supposed because, sadly, I don’t believe anything the Trump Administration says), the document says if the current trend in Europe continues, “the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.”
The paper goes on to address the threat Russia poses with its nuclear weapons and the need to “reestablish conditions of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of conflict between Russia and European states.
I find the following statement in the NSS interesting, considering the Trump Administration’s propensity to make it more difficult for U.S. citizens to vote and its blatant efforts to prompt states to gerrymander Congressional district lines to assure him of retaining the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
That statement: “A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes. This is strategically important to the United States precisely because European states cannot reform themselves if they are trapped in political crisis…. Not only can we not afford to write Europe off—doing so would be self-defeating for what this strategy aims to achieve. American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history…. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory. We will need a strong Europe to help us successfully compete, and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary from dominating Europe…. We want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.”
The document then addresses NATO and its future as “certain NATO members will become majority non-European.”
The Middle East
This section of the NSS begins by addressing energy and how the Middle East is not as important in that arena as it was for decades. It touts the fact that the U.S. is now an energy exporter. It also boasts that Trump has “revitalized” U.S. alliances in “the Gulf.” It says the threats to peace in the Middle East are not as strong as the news headlines indicate. It brags about the U.S. June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
Africa
The NSS document starts this section by criticizing past American policy in Africa as spreading liberal ideology. Instead, the Trump Administration seeks to partner with “select countries” to create trade to replace the foreign aid of the past.
This section of the document ends with, “The United States should transition from an aid-focused relationship with Africa to a trade- and investment-focused relationship, favoring partnerships with capable, reliable states committed to opening their markets to U.S. goods and services. An immediate area for U.S. investment in Africa, with prospects for a good return on investment, include the energy sector and critical mineral development. Development of U.S.-backed nuclear energy, liquid petroleum gas, and liquified natural gas technologies can generate profits for U.S. businesses and help us in the competition for critical minerals and other resources.
In other words, what’s in it for Trump? He can only see the world through the lens of business. That lens only sees how he can personally benefit financially.
I hate to have such a distrust for and poor perspective of a U.S. President. I don’t enjoy writing any of this.
What we have here in the United States is obviously a Wizard of Oz situation.
The White House quietly released the November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and posted it on the White House website. Since it is the announcement of the official U.S. foreign policy, there is usually a bit of fanfare with its release, but not this year.
Most Americans will never hear about it, much less read it.
It begins with a letter signed by Trump but obviously written by someone else. Probably Stephen Miller. Why do I say that? Simple. It is written in complete sentences.
The letter
That letter is enlightening because it does list the “eight raging conflicts” Trump claims to have put an end to in “just eight months” this year. In case you’re having trouble keeping up with the wars Trump has ended, here’s the list as found in this letter: Cambodia & Thailand, Kosovo & Serbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo & Rwanda, Pakistan & India, Israel & Iran, Egypt & Ethiopia, Armenia & Azerbaijan, and Israel & Gaza, although Israel is not named in the letter. (He wouldn’t want to show the government of Israel in a bad light, would he?)
The letter is full of bluster and boasts of all the amazing things Trump has done and all the “weakness, extremism, and deadly failures” of the Biden Administration. As only Trump can boast, the letter states, “Over the past nine months, we have brought our nation — and the world – back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster.”
The NSS document
The NSS document itself contains 29 pages of details of what the United States wants and what the United States wants from the world.
Some of the introductory remarks would be laughable if they weren’t so sad. For instance, “We want to maintain the United States’ unrivaled ‘soft power’ through which we exercise positive influence throughout the world that furthers our interests” rings hollow considering the Trump Administration obliterated USAID.
The sudden obliteration of USAID not only resulted in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children but also their preventable deaths by the withholding of medical treatments – not to mention how the cessation of the food aid programs hurt the American farmer terribly.
The paragraph that really made me gag, though, was this one:
“Finally, we want the restoration and reinvigoration of American spiritual and cultural health, without which long-term security is impossible. We want an America that cherishes its past glories and its heroes, and that looks forward to a new golden age. We want a people who are proud, happy, and optimistic that they will leave their country to the next generation better than they found it. We want a gainfully employed citizenry – with no one sitting on the sidelines – who take satisfaction from knowing that their work is essential to the prosperity of our nation and to the well-being of individuals and families. This cannot be accomplished without growing numbers of strong, traditional families that raise healthy children.” (Notice the subtle reference to “traditional families.”)
Dear Leader Kim Jong Un of North Korea couldn’t have written that paragraph better! Delete the words “American spiritual” and I would swear I was reading a translation of a statement by Kim or Xi.
A paragraph that sent chills down my spine, though, was this one: “We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; …we want …; we want … ; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine;….”
It was “Trump Corollary” that got to me. Why does his name have to go on every cotton-picking thing?
The document goes on to delineate U.S. policy by region: The Western Hemisphere, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Introductory remarks that preface the regional details include, “The United States is by every measure the most generous nation in history – yet we cannot afford to be equally attentive to every region and every problem in the world.”
The Western Hemisphere
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
The so-called “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine involves making new partners and reconsidering our military presence in the Western Hemisphere. This seems to involve beefing up our Coast Guard and Navy presence “to control se lanes, to thwart illegal and other unwanted migration, to reduce human and drug trafficking, and to control key transit routes in a crisis.” It also includes “targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades.”
Also, “…as we prioritize commercial diplomacy, we will work to strengthen our security partnerships – from weapons sales to intelligence sharing to joint exercises.” This is in response to non-Western Hemisphere nations’ incursions of influence in recent years.
But the National Security Strategy goes on from there and seems to concentrate on the economy and what’s in it for United States companies. As a student of political science, it reads to me as a complete overhaul of the U.S. State Department and the responsibilities of our diplomats and State Department employees out in the field. This makes me cringe.
The U.S. “will reform our own system to expedite approvals and licensing – again, to make ourselves the partner of first choice. The choice all countries should face is whether they want to live in an American-led world of sovereign countries and free economies or in a parallel one in which they are influenced by countries on the other side of the world….
“All our embassies must be aware of major business opportunities in their country, especially major government contracts. Every U.S. Government official that interacts with these countries should understand that part of their job is to help American companies compete and succeed.
“The U.S. Government will identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for assessment by every U.S. Government financing program, including but not limited to those within the Departments of State, War, and Energy; the Small Business Administration; the International Development Finance Corporation; the Export-Import Bank; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
“We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access, and harden existing and future cyber communications networks that take full advantage of American encryption and security potential.
“The aforementioned U.S. Government entities should be used to finance some of the costs of purchasing U.S. goods abroad. The United States must also resist and reverse measures such as targeted taxation, unfair regulation, and expropriation that disadvantage U.S. businesses. The terms of our agreements, especially with those countries that depend on us most and therefore over which we have the most leverage, must be sole-source contracts for our companies. At the same time, we should make every effort to push out foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region.”
The part about U.S. State Department – or any other U.S. Government employee – who interacts with countries in the Western Hemisphere to understand that it is “part of their job to help American companies compete and succeed” is a 180-degree change in the purpose U.S. Government employees. It is not part of the job of a State Department employee to promote American companies! At least, it wasn’t part of their job until last Friday. That is absolutely not the job of the U.S. diplomatic corps!
I suppose this being put in writing by the Trump Administration should come as no surprise. After all, the U.S. State Department no longer makes “peace agreements;” it makes “deals” because Trump has an overwhelming lack of understanding or appreciation for the traditional functions of government in a democracy.
Western Hemisphere Command
It was not a coincidence that we learned on Thursday or Friday that two U.S. military command centers will be moving to Fort Bragg here in North Carolina over the next year as a new “Western Hemisphere Command” has been announced.
Possible blog post tomorrow
If I can recover from reading the Western Hemisphere portion of the National Security Strategy, I will blog tomorrow about how it addresses Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The advisory committee on vaccinations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were hand-picked by notorious vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He just happens to be Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He received the blessings of and confirmation by the U.S. Senate to serve in that capacity.
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
There are things I would like to say to and about the Senators who voted to approve Kennedy for that Cabinet position, but I will temper my remarks here. To give a person who for decades has promoted conspiracy theories about vaccines to Secretary of Health and Human Services was a travesty.
When the U.S. Senate approved the likes of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, and Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security… we get what they voted for: dangerous incompetence.
When people held their noses and voted for the likes of Donald J. Trump for U.S. President, we got what they voted for: dangerous incompetence and a colossal hatred for anyone who isn’t a rich, white male.
What we have now is a growing avalanche of physicians and other medical professions telling us not to trust anything that comes out of the CDC, the Federal Drug Administration, or Health and Human Services. Let that sink in!
On December 5, Trump said he supported the recommendations of the CDC vaccine advisory committee (many of whom are known vaccine deniers) in their recommendation that we abandon the 1991 CDC recommendation that all newborn babies in the U.S. receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
Apparently, Trump knows just as much about immunology as the quacks and Republicans on the advisory committee. Having a medical or any level of a health degree was not a prerequisite to be on the committee. Let’s just let any person off the street who supports Trump form new vaccinations policies and schedules for all Americans. What could possibly go wrong?
The hepatitis B vaccine decision flies in the face of medical data. In 1990, approximately 20,000 infants in the U.S. got hepatitis B. In 2020, twenty infants in the U.S. got hepatitis B. The vaccine not only prevents the liver damage caused by hepatitis B. It also prevents the liver cancer that can result from that liver damage.
It remains to be seen how this ill-advised new CDC policy will play out over the coming years. Will pharmaceutical companies limit production of the hepatitis B vaccine? Will parents who want their newborns to be protected from this highly-contagious disease be able to get the vaccine for their children? No one knows the answers to those questions.
A memo that Trump signed on Friday praised the new CDC recommendation and went on to endorse the new policy that instead of leading the world in health science, the CDC will now follow the lead of “peer, developed countries.”
I guess it’s fortunate that Trump’s children and grandchildren were all vaccinated as newborns before this 34-year-old mandate got scrapped last week. His future grandchildren and great-grandchildren might not be so fortunate.
When Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” we didn’t know he thought the CDC was part of the swamp.
We are left to wonder if the CDC will survive three more years of attacks by Trump and Kennedy.
Meanwhile, in Washington, DC last week…
In a move that is so blatantly racist and narcissistic, the Trump Administration removed Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth as days that all our national parks could be visited for free and replaced them with… you are not going to believe this… Trump’s Birthday!
This is not a joke. This is the truth. You can’t make this stuff up!
The United States of America used to be a nation of laws, or am I naïve?
I did not plan to blog today, but something came to my attention that I can’t let slide.
Amnesty International has issued a 48-page report. I thought it was going to be a report on the organization’s findings throughout the world but, no, it is a report on detention facilities in the State of Florida. 48 well-documented pages.
The U.S. Detention Center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” due to its location in the Everglades and the manner in which it was publicized by the Trump Administration and the early reports that came out of there, has completely fallen off the radars of news organizations. With Border Patrol and ICE activities in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis-St. Paul dominating the news cycles along with the Epstein Files and whether the United States is going to bomb Venezuela and force a regime change in that country… “Alligator Alcatraz” cannot compete for attention.
Thank goodness it hasn’t fallen off Amnesty International’s radar. The organization’s report this week paints a horrible picture of conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
I know there are Americans who glibly turn a blind eye to any reports that put the Trump Administration in a bad light. They seem to think it’s acceptable for the U.S. to bomb boats in international waters and launch multiple attacks to kill any survivors. They also tend to agree with Trump that anyone who ends up in a detention center is sub-human and deserves horrible treatment. Many of these people also claim to be Christians. This baffles me, but that isn’t the purpose of today’s blog post.
(And why is Trump’s good buddy, Steve Witkoff, giving Putin advice on how to negotiate with Trump? But I digress.)
Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash
I cannot easily summarize the report in this blog post, but here are a few highlights:
Lights are on around-the-clock;
Although the United Nations considers solitary confinement lasting more than 15 days to be torture, but at “Alligator Alcatraz,” some detainees have been in solitary confinement for more than 100 consecutive days;
Inadequate/ill-maintained plumbing results in toilets overflowing and flooding cells;
Detainees are allowed one five-minute shower per week;
Mold, insects, and rodents abound;
Food is often spoiled or maggot-infested;
Medical and mental health care are often withheld;
At least four detainees have died due to medical neglect;
Detainees are effectively dropped from the immigration court system because ICE and GEO Group refuse to report them to other government authorities;
Guards have used pepper spray in closed cells and then denied decontamination;
Sexual assault is occurring;
Detainees are punished if they complain about conditions;
Force-feeding has been used without proper medical oversight
There are 1,400 detainees being held there now at a facility built for 700;
ICE renewed GEO Group’s contract to operate the facility inspite of all the evidence that the company is not maintaining current standards of incarceration in the United States; and
The Department of Human Services Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has not inspected “Alligator Alcatraz” since July 2025.
My thoughts
Call me a “bleeding heart liberal” if you wish, but I would ask you if this is now the acceptable penal standard in the United States of America? Do we aspire to be a “Third World” country?
Is anything on the above list making “America Great Again” or did I misunderstand Trump’s campaign promise?
If you are all right with our country treating detainees horribly, then you and I have fundamental differences in how we interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the letter and spirit of the United States Constitution.
The sobering lines of Martin Niemoller’s much-quoted “First they came” statement/poem come to mind.
They haven’t come for me yet, but I feel compelled to speak up for the least of these among us and alleged atrocities committed by the United States Government or its private contractors such as GEO Group.
I love my country. That is why it hurts so much when we fall short of our potential and our history.
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