Category: Politics

How bad does it have to get before we use the 25th Amendment?

We have a Secretary of Health and Human Services who does not believe in science or medicine, including time-honored and scientifically-proven vaccines.

We have a Secretary of Defense who mixes a conservative evangelical religion with a statement that the U.S. will show “no quarter” as the war in Iran continues. “Giving no quarter” is in violation of international law. If the U.S. starts slaughtering its prisoners of war, we have surely lost our humanity.

The U.S. has an all-volunteer armed forces made up of people of various religions and no religious beliefs. It is not the Secretary’s place to inflict his religious beliefs on the troops. If the Secretary is a Christian, as he claims to be, I would like for him to tell me where in the Bible it quotes Jesus as advocating giving no quarter to anyone.

We have a Director of National Intelligence who said that only the U.S. President – and not the intelligence community — can determine when there is an imminent threat to our national security. It is ultimately the President’s call, but her answer on Capitol Hill yesterday made it sound like she and the intelligence community have no part to play in the process.

We have a chairman of the Federal Communications Commission who warned TV networks that they run the risk of not having their broadcast licenses renewed if they continue to report the full picture of the war in Iran. He also wants them to concentrate on “patriotic” programming this year.

We have a Secretary of Education who thinks so little of public education that she vowed to shut down the Department of Education. Perhaps she should go back to her former career in pro wrestling administration.

We have a Secretary of the Interior who is okay with opening national parks for extensive logging and oil drilling while taking down informational park displays that tell not only the good but also the bad and the ugly of our nation’s history.

We have an Attorney General who has difficulty answering questions in a way that might not align with what the President wants her to say. In fact, every Cabinet Secretary has that same problem.

All these people were hand-picked by Donald Trump to “serve” in those positions of power and influence. They also had almost 100% approval of the Republicans in Congress.

We have a U.S. President who announced on TV that a member of Congress “will be dead by June” as he took it upon himself to reveal that Congress member’s devastating diagnosis of terminal cancer without that Congressman’s permission. The fact that he turned to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and laughed was the icing on the cake! (Here’s a video clip, in case you missed it or don’t believe it: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-appears-to-confuse-who-is-president/vi-AA1YRwG1?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=69baf386c77447a397c28662c1c9bfb8&ei=22.)

We have a U.S. President who clearly has no filter. If a segment of a thought or fantasy pops in his head, it comes out of his mouth or gets splattered all over his Truth Social account in all capital letters.

We have a U.S. President who has repeatedly called the war in Iran an “excursion” instead of an “incursion.”

On Monday, Trump said, “The President of the United States, Gavin Newscom, said that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia, everything about him is dumb.” That statement is wrong on so many levels, in addition to the fact that Trump called Gavin Newsom “the President of the United States.”

We have a U.S. President who orders shoes for his rich Cabinet members. That would have been ludicrous and inappropriate even if he had bothered to ask them their shoe size… which he did not.

We have a U.S. President who has “decorated” the Oval Office like a house of horrors… which, come to think of it… that’s what it is now.

Our closest ally, Great Britain, is now in the awkward position of advising their King not to visit the White House in April because the U.S. President might embarrass him. (I think we can guarantee that Trump will embarrass King Charles. Belittle and embarrass others is what he does best.)

We have a U.S. President who started a war without the blessing of Congress or seeking the support of the American people. Then, in the middle of a sticky situation in the Strait of Hormuz and a worldwide oil crisis, he begged our NATO allies for their help.

When our allies said, “No,” Trump said, “We don’t need NATO…. We do not need the help of anyone.” What an arrogant and short-sighted thing to say!

He said this was a test to see if NATO would ever help us. How ill-informed he is if he is not aware of NATO’s response after September 11, 2001!

Donald Trump said, “I can take Cuba…  It’s a failed nation…. I can do whatever I want to with it.” What an arrogant and egotistical thing to say about a sovereign nation, even if it is on the verge of collapse!

In case you are not informed about Trump’s latest “pay-to-play” scheme, which promises to put our national security at risk like never before, please read my blog post from yesterday, https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/03/18/more-telling-things-about-trump-administration/.

I hope I never again hear Americans say, “We need a businessman in the White House.”

Just how bad does it have to get before we use the 25th Amendment?

If the 25th Amendment is not called for now, I shudder to think under what circumstances it would be put into force.

Part of Section 4, 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Of course, if we use the 25th Amendment now, we get J.D. Vance as our President. Vance was hand-picked by Donald Trump. Again, I shudder to think about that.

Perhaps that outcome is what is holding back everyone on both sides of the aisle from seriously pursuing the 25th Amendment.

Janet

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

More telling things about Trump Administration

Today’s blog post is a continuation of Sunday’s, Various telling things about Trump Administration, (which I meant to schedule for today but hit the “publish” button instead of the “schedule” button my mistake.)

As I said in Sunday’s blog, the nightly TV network news programs cannot cover everything in a half hour. Here are some things you might have missed hearing about.

Columns at what’s left of the White House

President Trump wants Corinthian columns on the new White House ballroom. Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., Trump’s appointee who chairs the Commission of Fine Arts, says there are Corinthian columns at the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court building, so he can’t imagine why the lowly Ionic columns were put on the White House 200 years ago.

The White House, Washington, DC. (Photo by Melo Liu on Unsplash)

Cook says he has not yet discussed with the President that the existing Ionic columns on the North Portico and South Portico of the White House should be replaced with Corinthian columns.

Example of an Ionic column. (Photo by Maik Winnecke on unsplash.com.)

As reported by The Washington Post, “The Corinthian would be inappropriate for the Executive Residence,” said Steven Semes, a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in classical architecture, warning that it would ‘harm’ the original design of a building long known as the ‘People’s House.’

Example of a Corinthian column. (Photo by Ruben Hanssen on Unsplash)

“He added that the White House’s Ionic columns evoke ‘the character of dignity, grace and a kind of intimacy or domesticity,’ whereas Corinthian columns are ‘used to express the height of formality and monumentality’ for buildings such as the Capitol.”

The official White House response earlier this week was that there are no plans to replace the Ionic columns at the White House. How many times have we heard the Trump Administration say, “There are no plans,” only to see something like the East Wing of the White House become a pile of rubble?

The truth is not in these people.

Just you wait. We will wake up one morning to see piles of rubble where the Ionic columns now stand. Money is no object to the Trump Administration, unless you want to spend money to benefit human beings.

The wrecking ball being used at the White House is a metaphor for what the Trump Administration has done to our country and everything it stands/stood for.

Shoes

Perhaps the latest fiasco within Trump’s inner circle is that he decided to order wingtip shoes for each of the cabinet members (or, I’m assuming, only the male cabinet members), but he overlooked one detail. Shoe size.

 He (or one of his minions) guessed at what shoe size each person needed. It seems that Secretary of State Marco Rubio now must wear shoes several sizes too big. The pictures are laughable, but I doubt Secretary Rubio is laughing as he tries not to walk out of his gigantic shoes.

Do we not have one single department head in the Trump Administration who is brave enough to tell the President that they aren’t going to wear the shoes?

I read that he has also given these shoes to other VIPs and lawmakers he likes. I refuse to say the brand name and give the company any more free publicity.

It’s not enough that his people must mimic Trump’s every word; they must also wear the shoe brand he prefers, no matter what size they are.

It is more than a little jarring to know that in the middle of an illegal war, the U.S. President is thinking about buying shoes for his rich friends.

Has there ever been a more out-of-touch U.S. President?

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Since President Trump put his own name on The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year, numerous artists have cancelled their appearances in protest.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC. (Photo by MIKE STOLL on Unsplash)

As a result, Richard Grenell, Trump’s appointed director of the facility, has now lost his job.

Trump could not let us think that the cancellations were a result of his naming the building for himself. It had to be someone else’s fault. It just had to be.

The beautiful, iconic living memorial to President John F. Kennedy will close on July 5 for two years for “renovations” and “upgrades.” I doubt it will resemble its old self when Trump gets through with it.

I choose to remember it the way it was. Trump can put his name all over it in flashing neon lights if he wants to, but it will always be remembered as it was in its original elegant form, and it will NEVER be thought of as “The Trump Center.”

Another baseball cap faux pas

It wasn’t enough that President Trump wore a baseball cap to the Dignified Transfer of the remains of the first five Americans killed in the war in Iran. Even after receiving criticism – or perhaps because he received criticism – for his inappropriate choice of head gear, he then used a photo of himself at the somber event to launch a “pay-to-play” scheme.

It begs the question, “Was the white “USA” baseball cap all part of a grander money-raising plan?”

It is inappropriate and disrespectful to our fallen military personnel and their families to use photographs of one of their flag-draped coffins and his baseball cap adorned head to raise money, and it is beyond the pale that he is using this photograph to offer donors national security briefings.

You didn’t know that? Please keep reading.

The soldiers killed in the first day of Trump’s war were Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Sgt. 1stt Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Spotsylvania, Virginia.

Mr. President, they were human beings. They were part of our all-volunteer armed forces. They volunteered to put their lives on the line from the people of the United States of America. They swore to defend the United States Constitution. Unlike you, they took their pledge seriously.

And now, Mr. President, you use a photograph of yourself in a ridiculous baseball cap along with the top of one of their flag-draped coffins in a pay-to-play scheme.

The request was signed “President Donald J. Trump.” Never Surrender Inc. paid to send it out for him. By paying to play, donors were told they would have “National Security Briefing Membership.”

Let that sink in for a minute….

Here is part of the online report from Navy Times on https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/03/14/trump-fundraising-email-uses-photo-of-march-7-dignified-transfer-of-deceased-soldier/ which includes quotes from the pay-to-play scheme:

“’I’m the strong commander who stares down tyrants, obliterates terrorists, and never backs down,’ Trump states in the email. ‘This is for patriots ready to stand with that kind of unbreakable strength. Not for the weak or the wavering.’

“The email promises donors a series of private national security briefings and updates on ‘threats facing America… border invasions, foreign adversaries, deep state sabotage, and every danger the fake news hides.’

“’You’ll get the inside scoop DIRECT from me, President Trump,’ the email continues, ‘the leaders who’s rebuilt the greatest military in history, and put America First like no one else.’”

This scheme goes way beyond being inappropriate. What national security briefing details does Trump and/or Surrender Inc plan to share with donors? This goes beyond stupid and reckless.

Add this scheme to the trash pile of never-ending Trump money-making schemes. We can only hope this scheme fails like many of his other schemes. I mean, you have to be pretty inept to bankrupt a gambling casino, don’t you?

Janet

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

Various telling things about Trump Administration

I really try not to write about politics every day on my blog, but there are things happening that do not get coverage on the nightly news programs because there are just too many things for journalists to report on.

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

There’s the war in Iran. There are shootings and terrorist attacks. There’s Punch the monkey and his stuffed animal from IKEA in Tokyo. There’s the Kīlauea volcano blowing its stack in Hawaii. There are the women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and his rich friends who apparently are not going to face consequences in the United States like they are in Great Britain.

In a 30-minute news broadcast, minus eight to ten minutes of commercials, a host of happenings fall on the editor’s floor. Today I will touch on a few of those.

Trump’s attitude about the war in Iran

President Trump wants other countries to police the Strait of Hormuz. We’ll see how that goes. He also wants the crews on oil tankers to just be brave and go through the strait. Easy for him to say.

He wants China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and “others” to send warships there to secure the two-mile wide passage. He says things will go “well” with the U.S. coordinating things.

The President said the U.S. may hit Iran’s Kharg Island a few more times “just for fun.” His cavalier attitude over putting American military personnel is harm’s way and spending U.S. tax dollars is deplorable. This is not a video game.

President Trump says he will know when the war is over because he “will feel it in his bones.” He started the war because he “had a feeling.” As a student of history, I don’t recall any other U.S. President approaching a war based on “feelings.”

Can you imagine the misogynistic outcry there would be if a female U.S. President ever said such a thing? She would be the last female U.S. President!

One day he calls the war “a war.” The next day he calls it “an excursion.” The objectives of the war change hourly.

If we get to have a Presidential election in 2028, I hope voters will remember the ramifications when we elect a President who is unable to communicate their objectives or their dependence on facts.

The FCC

After President Trump accused the news media of “intentionally misleading” the public in their coverage of the war in Iran, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses.

We’ve heard these threats before from the Trump Administration, as they try to dictate news coverage.

This is an attack on the free press and a major foundation of our nation. Countries like Russia, China, and North Korea have state-controlled television. We cannot allow this to happen in the United States! If you want to watch and listen to state-controlled TV, you can watch Fox News.

Carr warned that a network’s coverage of the war in Iran will be taken into consideration when their broadcast licenses come up for renewal. In a social media post, Carr warned them that they still had a chance to “correct course” and stop broadcasting “fake news” and distortions of the war.

Carr wrote, “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

He accused broadcast networks of “running hoaxes.”

Carr doubled down on this in an interview with CBS News later on Saturday.

The trouble is that the law is left to interpretation now. Until recently, it was generally agreed that the news media should be free to report facts. Under the Trump Administration, they are being pressured to only report things that put Trump in a good light. This is what they have in autocracies like Russia, China, and North Korea.

Carr has encouraged broadcast networks to air “patriotic pro-America content” this year as we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But when a politically-appointed FCC Chair starts to dictate broadcast content, we and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are under attack.

When the politician in power gets to decide the definition of “public interest,” freedom of the press is in peril.

We have not heard the last of this. If push comes to shove, I imagine we will see a case going before the U.S. Supreme Court.

I only took one Constitutional Law course in college, so I’m no expert; however, I know under the First Amendment to the Constitution it is illegal for the government to censor free speech.

Print media

The President criticized The Wall Street Journal for reporting last Friday that Iran had damaged five U.S. Air Force tanker planes in Saudi Arabia. It seems he did not want that reported to the public. He insisted that four of those planes had “virtually no damage and are already back in service.”

He is so thin-skinned that he takes honest journalism as a personal affront.

He called The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal “Lowlife ‘Papers’ and accused them of wanting the U.S. to lose the war. He called journalists “sick and demented people.”

Janet

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

Are you tired of winning?

Donald Trump told us that if he was elected U.S. President, Americans would get tired of winning.

Trump wanted the Nobel Peace Prize so much that he invented “wars” around the world so he could claim he ended them. These were wars no one had heard of until he said he had ended them. Singlehandedly, of course. He was so desperate for a trophy that FIFA created a gold one just for him.

After ending all those wars and only receiving accolades from FIFA, I guess his patience ran out in February. The war in Iran has taken the glaring lights of public attention off the Epstein files. Great Britain is punishing British men who abused the girls in Epstein’s orbit, but the United States is tap dancing around the issue. The FBI has not even interviewed the hundreds of accusers, and one cannot help but conclude that is at the direction of Trump. I’m not saying he started a war to take our attention off the Epstein files, but I believe it is serving his purposes.

Americans are being told by Trump every day that we won the war in Iran in the first hour. He has been unable to give us a consistent answer for why he started this war.

In a speech this week, Trump bragged about how he got to name this war “Operation Epic Fury.” He claimed he was given 20 names to choose from and he really loved the way “Operation Epic Fury” sounded. He was telling it like he was leading a high school pep rally, egging on the audience to laugh and cheer at his excellent naming skills.

One day he calls it “a war.” The next day he calls it “an excursion. (I thought an excursion was a side trip you could take on land as part of your vacation cruise package.) The next day, he said it was “a war and an excursion.” How can anyone call what Trump ordered to be done in Iran since February 28 an excursion?

WAH! WAH! WAH! — like the teacher being ignored in a cartoon. It is getting more difficult by the day to keep paying attention, and that’s what Trump is counting on.

At a cost to Americans of nearly $1 billion per day just for the military price, that is staggering – especially from an administration that gutted money for cancer research and so many heretofore valued things we depended on the U.S. Government to support “for the good of all” not just for us but for the good of people around the world.

And what did Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency accomplish last year, if the Department of Defense could spend $2 million of Alaskan king crab, $6.9 million on lobster tail, and more millions on rib-eye steaks in September alone? And the Department of Homeland Security could purchase more than 2,000 vehicles for Immigration and Customs Enforcement with “ICE” painted on the sides in huge letters… when everyone knows ICE vehicles display no identification?

The blood-thirsty rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration in the form of not just their words but the childish and extremely offensive way the White House has put out videos that make war look like a video game were a new low for Trump and his inner circle. Every time we think they can’t stoop lower… they hit a new low. There is no end to it.

Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash

Trump said he will accept nothing short of an unconditional surrender by Iran, but when his press secretary was questioned about that she said that complete surrender will be whatever Trump decides to define it as. It has been hinted that Trump can just say Iran has surrendered, whether Iran has surrendered or not. That is no surprise, since Trump has never been bothered or worried over facts or the truth.

When questioned about the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran, Trump said Iran bombed it. He said Iran isn’t very accurate with its bombs. With all the evidence indicating that it was a Tomahawk missile, Trump’s explanation doesn’t hold water. If you are waiting for him to admit that the United States made a horrible mistake, don’t hold your breath. Several explanations have surfaced over why the school was bombed by mistake, but we do not have President who knows how to admit error or apologize for anything.

Can you seriously imagine any former U.S. President wearing a white “USA” baseball cap to Dover Air Force Base to accept the flag-draped coffins of Americans killed in war? I watched the “Dignified Transfer” live on television last Saturday. It is called the Dignified Transfer for a reason.

Trump showed his true colors by wearing a white USA baseball cap – part of his own brand’s merchandise – to the ceremony. Wearing the cap wasn’t bad enough. He did not remove the cap as the flag-draped coffins were presented in front of him. It was shocking to see but, since it was Donald Trump, it was not surprising.

Trump cannot tolerate criticism, so after being criticized for wearing a baseball cap to the Dignified Transfer on Saturday, he did not attend the Dignified Transfer on Monday night for Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington.

Trump wants us to think that he has already moved on.

Yesterday, in yet another ludicrous attempt to make Americans think our attack on Iran was a fantastic idea and overwhelming success, Trump said on social media that America is going to make “a lot of money” since the price of oil has skyrocketed this week because we are the largest oil producer in the world. He is an insult to our intelligence… or at least to those of us who never voted for him.

Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan was attacked by a terrorist yesterday. A terrorist opened fire and killed the instructor in an ROTC classroom yesterday at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

There appears to have been a massive lack of foresight put into the decision to bomb Iran – and that just might be the biggest understatement of all time. Lack of foresight and lack of forethought are the hallmarks of the Trump Administration.

Who thinks you can poke a bear and not pay the consequences? Who thought we could poke the radical Islamists in the Middle East and not expect them to lash out at us and all their enemies?

Why didn’t Trump and his advisors consider that they might shut down the Strait of Hormuz?

Why didn’t Trump and his advisors consider that they had sleeper cells in the United States?

Why didn’t they take into account that the extremists who survive this war and the descendants of the extremists and innocent people killed in this war will dedicate themselves to terrorizing us?

The battle cry of Iran this week is “Death to America!” The battle cry of Iran has been “Death to America” for 47 years, so it is difficult to see what this war has accomplished.

Trump told us months ago that we had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear war capabilities, but some days this month we’re being told it was their nuclear war capabilities that necessitated the current war. And Trump doesn’t understand why we cannot believe a word he says?

If Trump thinks bombing Iran in 2026 will not result in Islamic extremists retaliating against the U.S. and Americans for the rest of time, he clearly knows nothing about ideological extremism.

Perhaps today he will stop bragging about defeating Iran and get back to talking about how easy it would be for him to take over Cuba and Greenland. We get up in the morning and brace ourselves for whatever he said or did overnight and what he will do or say next. He is exhausting.

Americans, are you tired of winning yet?

Janet

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

Puzzling banner at U.S. Department of Education

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Department of Education has chosen a questionable way to display its mindset. I suppose it accurately portrays the mindset of the Trump Administration, but one-third of the presentation seems odd, inappropriate, and partisan to me.

I did not find a photograph of the building including the banners I am referring to, so this picture will have to suffice. If you have not seen the banners I’m blogging about today, you can find various pictures by using a search engine.

U.S. Department of Education office in Washington, DC.
Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash

Keep in mind that Donald Trump promised in his campaign to abolish the Department of Education. As a first step toward doing that, his nominee to head the department was a woman whose administrative work experience was in the wrestling industry. Her job description was essentially: ‘Demolish the department you oversee.”

Since his inauguration in January 2025, Trump and his Department of Education have attacked education on every turn. But one of the three banners now hanging from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education headquarters in Washington, DC surely wins the prize for the most inappropriate way the department could have marked our country’s 250th birthday.

(I take that back. The most inappropriate banner would have been one of King George III of Great Britain.)

Two of the banners make sense. Booker T. Washington and Catharine Beecher had huge influence and impacts on education in the United States. But what did Charlie Kirk do for education?

Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization. Through Turning Point, Kirk held political debates on some college campuses. I do not see how that in any way qualified him for the third place in a total of three banners at the Department of Education. Surely there was someone else in American history who contributed more to public education than Charlie Kirk.

Julius Rosenwald readily comes to mind. Rosenwald was the financial and driving force behind the building of approximately 5,000 schools for black students when schools for non-white citizens were not supported by the government. I wrote a series of newspaper articles about Rosenwald Schools. (Those articles are included in my book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book One, available on Amazon.)

Photo of the front cover of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison

Or perhaps a better choice than Charlie Kirk would have been a banner filled with the multi-racial, multi-ethnic faces representing the millions of teachers who have taught generations of Americans.

The banner displaying the stern and threatening face of Donald Trump hanging off the side of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters marking our 250th birthday is reminiscent of the images I have seen of dictators adorning buildings in China and North Korea, except the facial features of those dictators are not as menacing as the images of Trump.

It is the image of himself that Trump chose to represent his second term in office. His squinty eyes project a sense of foreboding. I imagine it scares children. There is nothing comforting or reassuring about it.

When I saw pictures of that banner of Trump at the Department of Justice, I do not recall mentioning it on my blog, but what has been done at the Department of Education caused that image to come back to mind.

I do not recall other U.S. Presidents hanging banners of their faces on government buildings. Much of this seems like a frivolous waste of money. Am I wrong about that? It seems un-American and creepy to me for a U.S. President to plaster his name and glaring face on so many things.

The Trump Administration turning our nation’s 250th birthday into a political prop and personal display should come as no surprise. It would have been a perfect opportunity for the administration to put politics aside and celebrate like we did our 200th birthday in 1976, but they just cannot do that.

That is unfortunate, especially for the children and young adults who could have learned so much from a year-long true celebration. An organized year-long celebration could have inspired patriotism. I just don’t see the boxing or wrestling match planned for what’s left of the White House lawn doing that, but I digress.

Meanwhile, every day the Trump Administration gives us a different explanation for why we bombed Iran on Saturday morning. They apparently expect the American people to get as excited as they are about this war without telling us the same story twice about why they started this war. In fact, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told us that we did not start it.

Janet

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

War in Iran and My Second DIY Writing Retreat

Donald Trump and Israel started a war with Iran just after midnight Eastern Time on Saturday.          I say “Donald Trump” and not “the United States” because Trump did this without the blessing of the U.S. Congress. He did this after telling the American people that, if elected, he would not start a war.

This is the man who was furious over not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

There must be “an imminent threat” against the American people for the U.S. President to take such an action. Democrat members of the U.S. Congress are furious and saying that intelligence reports indicated no such threat.

The U.S. Constitution gives the U.S. Congress the power to declare war. In this case, the Congress was not even informed that this was about to happen.

As I write this on Sunday night, Iran is retaliating by bombing numerous countries where the U.S. has military bases. Three U.S. military service members were killed and five seriously injured in a Iranian drone attack on a U.S. military base in Kuwait.

It has been reported that Lebanon has bombed Israel and Israel has bombed Lebanon.

No one knows what the near or far future holds as a result of this attack on Iran.

Trump says he joined Israel to take this action to save American lives – not today, but in the future. He expects the Iranian people, who are not organized and have few resources, to now waltz in and create a new government since the bombs have killed the supreme leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

I don’t see that happening. It would be wonderful if the Iranians, who have suffered under a brutal regime for 47 years could take control of their government, but I fear they do not have the wherewithal to do that.

I see the U.S. mired in another endless war started on a whim by a man who dodged the draft five times during the Vietnam War.

By the time this blog post “goes live” eight hours from now at 5:00 a.m. Monday, Eastern Time, there is no telling what will have happened.

I’m a “night owl,” so I was still awake after midnight last Friday night when I learned that Trump and Israel had started this war in Iran. I had already planned my second DIY (Do It Yourself) Writing Retreat for Saturday afternoon.

It was difficult to turn off the TV and distract my brain from current events and focus on 1768 in North Carolina, but I managed to do that.

I needed to make a major change in my historical novel’s plotline. Research last week had uncovered a fact that changed the course of the story somewhat. That necessitated deleting many paragraphs, rewriting others, and juggling some scenes.

It was tedious work, but I committed to it for around six hours. The result was a net gain of 2,200 words – one of my most productive writing days. My word count stands at 60,000. I’m aiming for 90,000 words.

After accepting the fact last week that I am a binge writer and I cannot force myself to set daily business hours to work on my novel, freed me to stop feeling guilty for not working on it every day. I plan to schedule more DIY Writing Retreats in the near future as I continue to find a writing process that suits me.

I plan to blog about the last story – which is more of an essay – in my latest book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, on Tuesday. I’ll just “wing it” after Tuesday, depending on what the coming days bring.

Janet

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

To tariff or not to tariff? That is the question.

I celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Friday in the Learning Resources, Inc v. Trump case! FINALLY! Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to rein in Donald Trump’s overreach of presidential powers!

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs Trump has inflicted on other nations (and, ultimately, the American consumer!) over the last 13 months under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were illegal. The Court ruled that the IEEPA cannot be used to impose tariffs.

The Court reminded Trump that tariffs are a form of taxation, and taxation is a power of the U.S. Congress – not the U.S. President.

Trump did not take the Court’s decision well, to put it lightly.

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

Trump responded by making one of his typically rambling, long statements, calling the U.S. Supreme Court Justices derogatory names including, “fools and lapdogs for RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only). He accused them of being anti-American and under the influence of foreigners. He said they should be ashamed of themselves and their families should be ashamed of them. It went on and on from there. I cannot quote his entire rant here.

Following his statement, he held a press conference in which he refused to answer a question from CNN (calling the news network “fake news” because he is offended by the truth) and answered the questions posed by other reporters and journalists as vaguely as he chose.

The event was a display by Trump unlike any other statement and press conference by any other U.S. President in history. He was a toddler whose parents had said, “No,” but whose parents had then left him to his own devices and allowed him to vent his anger and frustration on the world stage. There are no guardrails on his words and temper.

His remarks would have been embarrassing; however, after 13 months, I will not be embarrassed by anything Trump says or does. I did not vote for him. I have not been shy about expressing my opinions about Trump and his childish incompetence, hatefulness, racism, and disregard for the U.S. Constitution.

I watched his entire public statement and press conference on Friday afternoon. In a word, it was horrible. In other words, it was painfully indicative of how Trump believes he is above the law and can do anything he wants to do. He said, “I can do anything I want to do.” It wasn’t the first time he has said that.

In addition to lashing out at individual U.S. Supreme Court Justices who had been appointed to the Court by Trump himself and from whom he expects loyalty to him instead of loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, he then twisted the ruling into a pretzel by quoting at length the dissenting opinion of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Although a dissenting opinion in a U.S. Supreme Court decision is not law – it is part of the minority opinion, — Trump clung to Kavanaugh’s words and later said that Kavanaugh is his “new hero.” (I can’t help but think back to Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings in 2018 after Trump nominated him. All I can remember from the hearings is Kavanaugh’s repeated, angry defense, “I like beer!” Not exactly “hero” material in my book.)

In the press conference, Trump said nothing will change. He will continue to impose any tariffs he desires. He announced a new 10% global tariff on top of all the existing tariffs. On Saturday, he announced the new global tariff will 15% instead of 10%.

There’s no telling what that global tariff will be by the time this blog post goes live on Monday, February 23. (I am writing it on February 21.) This new global tariff is imposed using Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That Act allows the U.S. President to impose duties up to 15% for 150 days to deal with “large and serious” balance-of-payment issues. Friday and Saturday’s 15% global tariff takes effect today.

Trump indicated that he is exploring additional ways to get around the Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump ruling. His Commerce Department, headed by Howard Lutnick of Epstein file fame, is investigating Trump’s options.

Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, and motor vehicle imports were not affected by Friday’s Supreme Court ruling.

As only Trump can do, he portrays himself as the most pitiful victim in history and repeated on Friday that the United States is the most victimized country in history. As a 73-year-old American, I have never felt that the United States was a victim. I have counted it a privilege to have been born in and lived my entire life in the most blessed and prosperous country in the world.

For the first 72 years of my life, the United States was the “beacon on a hill.” It was the world’s symbol of freedom. It continues to be the world’s greatest experiment in democracy, but it is currently being tested from within like it has not been tested since the Civil War in the 1860s.

Just as people in the midst of a war or national crisis don’t know what the outcome will be, I don’t know how this greatest experiment in democracy will end. However, Friday’s 6-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court was the first ray of hope I have seen in 13 months.

Janet

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

Just another week in Trump World

For those of you who are sick and tired of my political rants in my blog posts, I regret that Donald Trump and his ilk have put you in that state of mind. I do not apologize for the tone or the content of my political postings. As an American citizen, I feel it is my duty and obligation to use my First Amendment freedom of speech right to voice my opinions.

As I have stated before, it was never my plan when I started blogging more than a decade ago to take my blog in a political direction. I feel strongly about the direction Donald Trump is taking my country, and I cannot keep silent. I am obligated to speak out as I see him governing from a Fascist playbook.

The FCC and Stephen Colbert

Trump’s FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, is the Pam Bondi of the Federal Communications Commission. He is only in that position to do Trump’s bidding.

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

On Monday, Stephen Colbert of CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was scheduled to interview James Talarico, a member of the Texas State House of Representatives. But there was a problem: Talarico is a Democrat.

Under the law, late night talk shows are not required to give equal time to Republican and Democrat politicians, but Trump and Carr are never bothered by laws they disagree with.

Colbert was told CBS would not air the interview. He said he was told he could not mention on his show on Monday night that the interview had been pulled. As only Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel can do, he talked about it and paid his respects Carr and the FCC.

This isn’t the first talk show to get in trouble for hosting Talarico. He appeared on “The View” on the ABC TV network a few weeks ago, and now “The View” is under investigation by the FCC.

I never have and never will watch Fox News, but from the little bit I’ve seen and heard of it I don’t think they abide by any equal-time rule. Perhaps Carr should turn his attention to Fox News even though it is Trump’s mouthpiece.

The appalling deportation case of Godfrey Wade

We have witnessed 13 months of abuses perpetrated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and many of those abuses victimized American citizens. Many of them were inflicted on immigrants who were going through all the proper channels to stay in the U.S. and/or seek citizenship.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Godfrey Wade legally immigrated to the United States as a teenager more than 50 years ago. He went on to serve overseas in the United States Army. He was pulled over in Conyers, Georgia last fall for failing to use a turn signal. It was discovered that he had failed to appear for an ICE hearing in 2014 because ICE sent the hearing notices to the wrong address and Mr. Wade was not aware of the hearing date.

After being held in a detention center for more than five months and filing an appeal for his deportation order, Mr. Wade was deported to Jamaica. His family is appealing his deportation.

Who knew failing to use a turn signal could get you stopped by the police? That’s certainly not a law I see enforced in North Carolina. I can’t help but wonder if Mr. Wade was pulled over since he was black. It irritates me when other drivers do not use their turn signals, but I didn’t know anyone was ever stopped by police for the infraction.

Thank you for your military service, Mr. Wade, and Happy Black History Month.

Congressional Medal of Honor

Speaking of military service… yesterday in Rome, Georgia, Trump said he will “test the law” to award himself the Congressional Medal of Honor. It’s beside the point, I guess, that this is the nation’s award for military valor in action and Trump repeatedly dodged the draft during the Vietnam War, claiming bone spurs. He thinks he deserves it “for bravery” because he flew to Iraq once.

What a small, pitiful man. He tarnishes everything he touches.

According to https://www.cmohs.org/medal/design, “The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy have always had separate designs for their personnel. Until the U.S. Air Force introduced its design in 1965, all airmen received the Army design. The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard receive the U.S. Navy design.”

I wonder which design Trump will demand to hang around his own neck. It will be another in a long line of beautiful and honorable things he will tarnish.

Black History Month

At a Black History Month event, Trump went off topic and ranted about “illegal aliens” committing the vast majority of crimes in the U.S. Of course, that’s not true. The truth never has interfered with anything Trump wanted to say.

Most crimes in our country are committed by U.S.-born people, mainly men.

The Board of Peace

Trump appeared to fall asleep (again) at the inaugural Board of Peace, which he invented after he changed the name of the Institute of Peace to the Trump Institute of Peace.

I’ve never seen anyone so rabid to put their name on everything. There’s no end to it. I look forward to the day his name is removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump’s Arch of Triumph

I was encouraged yesterday to learn that Public Citizen, a watchdog organization has sued to try to stop construction of the 250-foot-tall Trump Arch of Triumph in Washington, DC because it will ruin the views of the Lincoln Memorial and other monuments as seen from Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump wants his arch to be the tallest in the world, of course. He operates under the illusion that bigger is always better, gold is never gaudy, and might is right.

Iran

Trump is itching to bomb Iran. I guess that’s what the Nobel Peace Prize Committee gets for not giving him that coveted prize. He’ll show them! He must take out his revenge on someone, and it’s not necessarily the person or people who slighted him.

The Epstein Files

As other countries, like Great Britain, show us that there is still such a thing as consequences for actions, here in the United States the U.S. Department of Justice seems incapable and uninterested in bringing charges against any of the men who abused little girls and teens. Trump feels sorry for former Prince Andrew for being arrested, but he cannot bring himself to express sorrow for the abused girls.

The U.S. Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche says the lurid and disgusting photographs in the Epstein files are not enough proof to file charges against anyone. The U.S. Department of Justice has managed to “investigate” the case without taking testimony from any of the victims.

This is akin to recently reassigned U.S. Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino stating that the victims in the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were the ICE officers who pulled the triggers.

The Trump Administration is following the fascist playbook in thinking if they just tell us enough lies enough times, we will doubt our lying eyes and ears.

Yesterday when asked about former Prince Andrew’s arrest, Trump replied, “I’m the expert in a way because I’ve been totally exonerated.” The definition of “exonerated” is “to clear from accusation or blame.” Did he just admit wrongdoing? I didn’t realize he had been exonerated.

I’m sure there were a dozen other things I could have included in today’s blog post, but I’ve been distracted by the Winter Olympics and failed to take notes on the things Trump was doing.

I hope to have something uplifting to blog about next week. I just never know. The daffodils in my yard are blooming. Spring must be coming!

Janet

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

Let’s have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, Dear Congressman

I have written about my Congressman before, and it has never been complimentary. It is not positive in today’s post. I try to keep an open mind, but I will be surprised if I ever have anything good to say about him.

What is my latest criticism of him? He doesn’t quite tell the truth when it comes to the SAVE America Act. The SAVE America Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and has gone to the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Capitol
Photo by Caleb Perez on Unsplash

When my Congressman and most of the champions of the SAVE America Act try to summarize it, they say it is “just” voter ID. There is more there than meets the eye, though.

The SAVE America Act, if passed by the U.S. Senate as written for the House and, subsequently, signed into law by the President (which is a given), will require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship.

My Congressman is proud to be a co-sponsor of the SAVE America Act. And now, to get to the title of today’s blog post, I will quote from Representative Mark Harris’ weekly email from February 14, 2026:

“Americans are required to show ID to board an airplane, open a bank account, and even enter Costco. So why are Democrats making a fuss over applying the same standard to federal elections?” He went on to call this “common sense.”

Photo by Marcus Reubenstein on Unsplash

There is simply something wrong with Mr. Harris’ paragraph: He is conflating a birth certificate with a Costco membership card. I have a Costco membership card, and I did not have to prove I was born in the United States to get it.

Mr. Harris made a serious mistake when he wrote, “applying the same standard to federal elections.” The examples he gave do not require the same standard (proof of U.S. citizenship) but we are heading toward a national requirement to have proof of citizenship in order to vote.

There is nothing wrong with that on the surface. I do not think non-citizens should vote. I also do not think more than a handful of non-citizens try to vote in the U.S. The proponents of the SAVE America Act are wielding it as a solution to a problem that does not exist.

The SAVE America Act is its proponents’ way of making it more difficult for poor and disabled people to vote. It adds unnecessary “hoops” for voters to jump through. For instance, if your current name does not match your birth certificate you must provide additional documentation to prove that you are the individual named on your birth certificate. If you don’t have easy access to transportation, gathering all your documentation and taking it to designated government offices is a burden.

I’ll let you in on a little secret… this requirement that you need to prove why you no longer go by your birth name is primarily a problem for married women. How many married women do you know who did not change their name when they got married? How many married men do you know who changed their name when they got married? I rest my case.

This will also cause anyone who was adopted to have to produce additional documentation.

To quote one of my Facebook friends, “this fuss the Democrats are making about the SAVE America Act is much ado about nothing.”  She went on to explain that “it only costs $165 to get a passport.” She obviously trusts the Trump Regime. I don’t.

I was born in the United States to American citizens. At one time, I had a U.S. passport. A passport proves citizenship. I let my passport expire and have had no reason to spend $165 to apply for a new one. That amount of money is not easy for me to come by. I am not alone in that situation. It is impossible for wealthy members of Congress and wealthy citizens to imagine that.

I recently had to renew my driver’s license. To get a “Real ID,” I had to take my birth certificate, my expiring driver’s license, and two utility bills addressed to me at my current address to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

I tried to get an appointment at the DMV in October, but the first available appointment within 100 miles of my home was on December 31. True story. Perhaps it isn’t like that in your state, but that was my experience. My only option was to go to a DMV office, stand in line for hours, and be seen after everyone with an appointment had been seen – or be told to try again the next day. My health does not allow me to stand outside for hours, especially in the winter.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

It remains to be seen if my “Real ID” will suffice to prove that I am qualified to vote in November 2026 or November 2028. This is an issue every American needs to pay close attention to as it works its way through the legislative branch of our federal government.

Janet

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

Embarrassing Performance by U.S. Attorney General

In my blog post last Friday, I promised a near future post about U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

If you saw her performance last Wednesday in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, you probably do not want to be reminded of it. I saw all of it that was televised, and I wish I could unsee and unhear it.

The audacity of Pam Bondi to prance into The Capitol and call members of Congress names! It was a circus but not an entertaining one. It was an embarrassment. Her body language alone was abhorrent, not to mention her trash mouth.

Photo by Simon Ray on Unsplash

It was a performance meant for one person only: Donald Trump. I am sure he thought it was a brilliant display. Even when she was reminded that it is her job and sworn duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution and to represent the United States of America (i.e., the people!) in all her dealings as U.S. Attorney General, she continued to call members of Congress derogatory names and refuse to look the Democrats on the committee in the eyes.

The hearing was supposed to be for Bondi to give U.S. Representatives some answers about the Epstein files and the recent and current operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Instead, it was half pep rally for Trump and half demonstration of how sarcastic and snarky the current U.S. Attorney General can be when facing legitimate questions that make her squirm.

In case you missed the performance, when being asked questions by Republicans on the committee, Bondi smiled and gushed. She thanked them profusely for “asking that question.” When asked “a yes or no” question, she replied accordingly.

When asked questions by a Democrat on the committee, Bondi made a great show of shuffling the papers in front of her and looking down. She was suddenly busy, busy, busy. Instead of answering “yes or no” questions by Democrats, she deflected – usually by turning to that Congress member’s section in her three-ring binder so she could attack that Representative personally with a reference (true or not) to a vote that Representative made sometime in their career along with her editorial comments (true or false).

She repeatedly said, “Mr. Chairman, I refuse to get down in the gutter with these people.” She called one of them “a washed-up lawyer.” She hurled various insults at most of the Democrats. The fact that she had that three-ring binder at her fingertips was visible evidence of her disdain for every Democrat Congress member. She used the same binder when testifying before a U.S. Senate Committee.

She accused one member of the committee of being antisemitic, even though that member’s grandfather died in the Holocaust.

Even the BBC questioned why Bondi lost her temper in the hearing.

Early in the hearing, survivors of the sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his rich and political friends in high places were asked to stand where they were seated in the audience. Bondi never acknowledged their presence. Even when asked by at least one member of the committee to turn around and look at the survivors and family members of at least one victim who is now deceased, Bondi would not do it. She is apparently incapable of looking truth in the face.

Bondi cares not that she is now the U.S. Attorney General because she was confirmed for that position by the Congress of the United States. She has a particularly peculiar way of showing her appreciation for the misguided confidence they put in her after her shaky confirmation hearings last year in which she said she would not “weaponize” the U.S. Department of Justice. Yet, that is all she has done since assuming office. I have heard people who knew and respected her as the State Attorney General in Florida say they no longer recognize her as the person they used to know.

Her behavior was bizarre, to say the least. When asked a question about the Epstein files, she “answered” by touting the fact that the stock market reached and broke the 50,000 mark the day before, then bristled when a Democrat on the committee asked, “What does that have to do with the Epstein files?”

It was horrible to see and hear a U.S. Attorney General stoop to such childish and insulting behavior. Such behavior as demonstrated by Bondi would not be tolerated in a court of law, and it should not have been tolerated in the U.S. Capitol. She should have been held in contempt of Congress, but she wasn’t because the committee is chaired by a Republican – a very self-righteous Republican who does not have enough respect for the institution or his position in Congress to even wear a suit.

In “answering” one question, she waxed poetic about what a wonderful U.S. President Donald J. Trump is. It was gag-worthy and inappropriate.

The U.S. Attorney General is not supposed to be beholding to the U.S. President.

The person in that position is not supposed to be political.

The person in that position is not supposed to be a cheerleader or public relations representative for the U.S. President.

The U.S. Attorney General is not supposed to do the President’s bidding.

In just one year, Bondi has broken every time-honored rule – written and unwritten — governing her position.

Janet

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