Category: Politics

There’s no end to it

Before I get into the meat of today’s post, I must share a U.S. Postal Service incident. This might just be indicative of what’s wrong with our mail service today.

This afternoon, my sister took a large envelope to the post office for me along with my $20 bill. The postage was going to be $2.72. The clerk said she could not take the $20 bill as payment “because my computer says I don’t have change for it in my cash drawer.”

We will never know if the computer was correct. It seems like there should be a way for a postal clerk to open the drawer and see if the computer is correct. If the computer is correct, perhaps there should be a way for a postal clerk to get some cash from somewhere in the post office so he or she can sell a stamp and give a customer change for a $20 bill.

Without further ado, I will bring three things to your attention that are minor when taken alone; however, it is the relentless daily parade of such minor actions that are piling up.

Little-by-little, things are being done – or undone – behind the scenes. It feels like an out-of-control unraveling.

National Council on the Humanities

Trump has relieved 22 members of the 26-member National Council on the Humanities of their duties this week, leaving only four white men who were appointed by Trump. This council advises the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) about such things as grants to award.

The council was scheduled to meet next week “to submit nominations for the National Humanities Medal, consider three “sole source” grant applications and review statue proposals for Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes,” according to a report by The Washington Post.

Members of the council are appointed to serve six-year terms. Their only compensation is payment for travel and time spent in meetings.

The council needs a quorum of 14 to hold a meeting. Replacements must be approved by the U.S. Senate.

The acting chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Michael McDonald, informed members of the council in April that some NEA and NEH funds were being directed to Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes and the country’s semiquincentennial celebration in 2026.

Fewer grants than usual have been awarded since March; however, the agency’s largest ever grant of $10.4 million was awarded in September to Tikvah, “a think tank and education center that describes its mission as advancing ‘Jewish excellence and Western civilization through education and ideas,’” according to The Washington Post report.

What does this wholesale “firing” of nearly all members of the National Council on the Humanities mean for the future of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts?

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home

Library of Congress black-and-white photo of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

The director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home as resigned because First Lady Melania Trump wanted to take one of President Eisenhower’s swords from the museum and give it to King Charles.

The Eisenhower Museum houses three of the World War II U.S. Army General’s swords: a Sword of Honor from the City of London in 1947, an honor saber from The Netherlands in 1947, and his West Point officer saber.

In the end, West Point supplied the First Lady with a replica saber and the Eisenhower Museum director resigned.

Is this part of the larger Trump Administration’s attack on museums? I don’t know what the First Lady’s motivation was in her request to the Eisenhower Museum. It seems a stretch to think she had personal knowledge of the holdings of the museum in Abilene, Kansas.

Federal support for charter schools instead of public schools

I don’t know if every state got new federal money for charter schools or if it was only North Carolina, but North Carolina received a $53 million grant for charter schools.

Just imagine how much could have been accomplished if the Trump Administration had awarded each of the 115 public school systems in North Carolina $460,869.56 instead of handing it to charter schools!

According to wunc.org, “U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a $60 million increase in total funding for the Charter School Program Grant this fiscal year, making the announcement during National Charter Schools week this past May. It brings the department’s total investment into charter schools to more than $500 million over the next five years.”

The unc.org report also stated, “This additional federal investment in charter schools comes as the U.S. Department of Education has been rolling back competitive grants previously awarded under the Biden administration to public school districts. Notices from the department about revoked funding say that the grant projects do not fit the Trump administration’s priorities, often citing language in grant applications related to diversity, equity, inclusion or hiring practices that consider race.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, the North Carolina Legislature continues to pour tax money in the state budget to give vouchers to every family that wants to send their children to private school, even if they are wealthy and could do that without the vouchers.

This very public non-support of public education is taking us down a bad path. As long as the government does not support public education, the politicians can continue to criticize public schools and it will be a self-fulling prophecy.

In closing

It is getting increasingly more difficult to watch and listen to, but it is incumbent upon each American to pay attention.

It isn’t good for our mental health to concentrate on the news for hours on end every day, but if we all just turn off the news completely and refuse to keep up with what is being done – or undone – we will lose our democracy.

For as long as we have open and free elections, we each need to be informed about who we are voting for on all levels of government. If we do not make informed choices, we will cease to have open and free elections. We could go in the direction of Russia where they have elections but there is only one name on the ballot.

Meanwhile, the federal government shut down at midnight on Tuesday. I think the blame falls on the U.S. President; his hand-picked Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought (who helped write Project 2025); along with the Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress. None of them are upholding their oaths of office. None of them appear to take their jobs seriously and act on behalf of the American people.

This is an insane way to run a country. You can’t run a household like this, so why do they think they can operate the United States of America like this?

Janet

Running out of blog post titles

It is getting more difficult by the week to blog about the things going on in our federal government. I have just about run out of words.

I know I’m “preaching to the choir” because people who read my blog either already agree with me or I’m “spitting in the wind” if they don’t. None of you are going to change your minds at this point. You either acknowledge what has happened to our country or you don’t.

If you have not seen and heard enough since January 20, 2025, to join the Resistance, you never will.

Photo of brown wooden anagram letters spelling out Choose Your Words
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Violent rhetoric

In case you thought all the nasty people were “on the left,” I will just take a moment to point out that it was John Gillette, a Republican Arizona State Representative who posted a threatening statement on X in response to an old YouTube video clip from March in which Democrat U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal talked about preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.

Gillette’s post: “Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue.”

Congress member Jayapal in no way advocated for the overthrow of the American government. As far as I know, peaceful protests are still protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

No rule of law on international waters

Trump has put U.S. military personnel in violation of criminal and military law by ordering them to kill 17 people in boats in international waters. Just because Trump says those 17 people were smuggling drugs into the United States doesn’t make it true.

Traditionally, drug smugglers who are caught in the act are arrested and tried in a court of law. Trump’s tactic this year of ordering the military to blow up boats, the boats’ occupants, and all possible evidence of a crime is reckless and wrong.

What the meeting at Quantico cost us

It was a meeting that could have been securely held via Zoom. In an apparent show of power, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of Generals and Admirals to Quantico, Virginia, for a meeting yesterday.

They had to leave their command posts from all over the world with one week’s notice for what was reported to be a 71-minute meeting. Or, maybe that was how many minutes Trump rambled on about how he loves his signature, about President Obama and President Biden, and about the multitude of wars no one can identify that Trump claims to have ended this year.

The parts of his talk that I heard were incoherent ramblings. If anything, they were worse than his usual “weavings.”

I heard the cost of the meeting for taxpayers was $6 million, which is pocket change for Trump and his ilk. No big deal.

But the monetary cost of the meeting is the least of our worries.

If I get started writing about the remarks Secretary of Defense Hegseth said about women in the military, social justice, and climate change, I will say some things I should not put in print. I know some women in the military who could fight just as hard and effectively as Hegseth. Just sayin’.

Every American should be horrified by the words of Hegseth and Trump. When the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America announces to the world that we will no longer abide by “the rules of engagement,” it is indeed a dark day in our country and the world at large.

If the United States military is no longer going to abide by the international laws and norms for the conduct of war, then no one in the world is safe.

When a United States President thinks it is a good idea to send troops into our cities to train, it is a dark day for our country.

When a United States President cannot tell the difference between a live news report (i.e., reality) and an old video clip of a civil unrest and declares war on Portland, Oregon, we should all be very, very afraid.

When the United States President posts an AI-generated racially-doctored and derogatory meme of the Minority Leader of the United States Senate and the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives on social media, one is led to ask if he is 79 years old or 12 years old. (I apologize to all the 12-year-olds of the world. That was unfair to you.)

All this from this week, folks. And it was only Tuesday evening as I wrote this.

The Federal Government Shutdown

Here we go again. The United States Congress cannot figure out a budget for more than three months at a time. Regular people should be so lucky!

It is sad that so many of the members of Congress think this is a game. They are playing with peoples’ lives and livelihood. Trump glibly said he will just fire a lot of federal government employees. That’s a great attitude, isn’t it?

As if the National Park Service employees remaining in the mountains of North Carolina haven’t already taken it on the chin since Hurricane Helene twelve months ago… as if the basket weavers, glass blowers, quilters and other textile artists, potters, furniture makers, wood crafts persons, and jewelry artisans of the Southern Highland Craft Guild haven’t already nearly gone bankrupt… the United States Congress just shut down the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville as part of the federal government shutdown. At least, that’s what has happened during prior shutdowns.

So, Senators and Representatives, why did you choose to kick the people of western North Carolina when they were already down?

It is the very beginning of the fall tourist season in those mountains. Countless people have worked to reopen and reconstruction roads and businesses to serve tourists and residents alike. They have pinned their hopes on the 2025 fall tourist season to help them hang onto the businesses they lost or nearly lost to the hurricane.

Members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild greatly depend on selling their unique creations at the Folk Art Center. To say it is a shame that it will be closed for the duration of the government shutdown would be the understatement of the year.

The Folk Art Center is also the home of the 20,000-volume Robert W. Gray Library of “books, exhibition catalogs, video, and more relating to craft from around the world.”  (https://southernhighlandguild.org/folkartcenter/)

And this, America, is just one small victim of the federal government shutdown – all because Republicans and Democrats no longer talk to each other – and most of them on both sides of the aisle apparently couldn’t care less about you and me. They have forgotten who they work for, and they have forgotten their oaths of office.

In closing…

I think most of us in the United States are weary. The reckless attacks on our democracy are taking a toll on many of us. It’s like trying to stand up to the unrelenting force of a fire hose.

I am so old that I remember the decades when women and people of color almost had equal rights.

I remember when members of our military could be proud of their service and could have respect for their Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense, even if they did not agree with some of the decisions made and orders issued.

I remember when we could depend on the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court to protect us.

I remember when politicians had the skill and desire to compromise to make our 249-year-old experiment in democracy work.

It’s sad to feel like the best years of the United States America are behind us.

Janet

A Friday Wrap-Up

Some weeks I have blogged on Friday as sort of a catch-up or catch-all about what’s happened over the past week. I do not wish to fall into that as a routine or habit. Too much is happening. I don’t want that self-inflicted pressure.

However, I will take the opportunity today to comment about a few things that stood out to me this week. Most, you have heard about. Others, probably not. No one can read and hear it all. It is not humanly possible as we are traveling through a political and social world propelling us at warp speed whether we want to be propelled or not.

I will not take the blame

According to Trump, it is my fault and the fault of people like me who dare to be critical of the tactics of ICE who caused a snipper – who was a registered Independent — to murder two ICE detainees on Wednesday in Dallas, Texas.

I beg to differ. Is it not Trump who is sending ICE agents out in over-sized face masks, sunglasses, and riot gear without badges or any identification in unmarked vehicles to snatch people off the street?

Perhaps it is the pictures and videos of the ICE agents that have fueled anger in our country.

When the person who has the loudest microphone and biggest name recognition in the entire world uses his platform every single day to call individuals and groups of people ugly names, we have reached a dangerous place not just in the United States but worldwide.

When the President of the United States verbally, in writing, and on social media daily calls people names and makes baseless accusations, does he not need to bear part of the blame for the political violence in our country?

Special Education Grants Cancelled

As the Trump Administration’s ongoing war against diversity, equity, and inclusion, the U.S. Department of Education has cancelled a grant made to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the training of future preschool teachers who want to teach students with disabilities.

Since 2011, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the university has run the SCRIPT-NC program through which it has contributed to special education training for about 10,000 students taking classes in child care in the statewide community college system.

The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute announced in the fall of 2023 that it had received a $1 million five-year grant to help fund SCRIPT-NC. With last Friday night’s Department of Education announcement, UNC will lose $200,000 this year and apparently the funding for the remaining three years. The grant to UNC was one of 25 grants for special education teacher training programs that were abruptly cancelled by the Trump Administration last Friday night.

The cancellation notices all cited diversity, equity, inclusion, or race in the grant applications. Each of the cancellation notices concluded with the following words: “the project would be in conflict with agency policy and priorities, and so is not in the best interest of the Federal Government.”

The U.S. Department of Education claims those grants will be repurposed to support special education. Are we left to assume they will be repurposed to only help white children from wealthy families? I don’t know what else we are supposed to conclude.

The grant applications were filed while Joe Biden was President. His administration encouraged applicants to explain how grant money would be used to help underserved populations. The Trump Administration is not interested in the underserved citizens of our country.

How are any of us supposed to function when a new President comes into office and cancels everything the prior President’s administration supported and programs that the U.S. Congress funded? These grant and federal program cancellations are destroying everything from education to infrastructure to our economy.

When you can’t count on what is here today to be here tomorrow, how are you supposed to accomplish anything?

I’m glad Trump has no control over the sun or gravity. We can still count on them being here tomorrow.

My source for the information about the UNC grant: https://www.wunc.org/education.

Speak Up for Justice

Photo on Unsplash

I had the opportunity yesterday afternoon to watch and listen to another live presentation online from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. These monthly informational discussions are free to watch on Zoom.

Yesterday’s program was “Unprotected and Under Fire: State Judges at Risk as congress Weighs Action” and the panel was made up of judges from across the country.

If you aren’t aware, you need to be aware that more and more of the 30,000 judges in our country are receiving verifiable death threats. It is estimated that one-third of the state judges and their families have received such threats. This must stop!

If judges are forced out of fear to rule in a certain way on a case instead of ruling based on their interpretation of and respect for the rule of law, our democracy will crumble.

State judges do not have the protections that federal judges have. Senate Bill 2379 was introduced on July 22, 2025, to address this dangerous gap in protection of members of the state judiciaries. The short title is “Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act.”

Please urge your U.S. Senators to support this. If you wish to read the entire bill as it stands now, the text can be found at https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/2379/text/is.

Domestic Terrorism Memo

ABC News reported yesterday afternoon that “President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a promised presidential memorandum implementing an administration-wide effort aimed at alleged ‘domestic terrorism’ and ‘organized political violence.’

“He said it was directed to tackle what he claimed was a rise in ‘bad people’ and ‘anarchists’ from the left and groups that he said funded them.”

He is blatantly only going after “bad people” who oppose Republicans. He isn’t going after “bad people” on the right like the ones who assassinated Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, on June 14, 2025, after attempting to assassinate John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette earlier that morning. Elected officials who are Democrats plainly don’t count in Trump’s book.

Only the people on the left side are “bad people,” according to Trump as he daily refers to us as “left-wing lunatics.”

Free Speech

Photo of a young woman with blue tape across her mouth
Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash

It seems that when it comes down to it, Trump has a corner on the free speech market. Although freedom of speech is guaranteed in the United States by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, we have witnessed an assault on free speech for several weeks.

After a public outcry, ABC put “Jimmy Kimmel Live” back on the air. We won that battle, but the war is not over.

Trump will continue to push the limits of his power to try to quiet all voices that dare to speak out against him. The first group dictators go after are the comedians. We are seeing that play out here. Intimidation. Threats. Naming which comedians are next on his list on social media.

Trump continues to go after universities and journalists. He said this week that it ought to be against the law for a journalist to say anything bad about him. I’m sure writers are on that list. Comedians, writers, and intellectuals are always on such lists. Need I go on?

Now, Democrats are supposed to remain silent as Trump and his supporters spew their hate?

Weaponization of the U.S. Justice Department

The federal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey by a grand jury yesterday afternoon will stand as a stark reminder that Trump will leave no rock unturned as he instructs the U.S. Justice Department to go after his political enemies and people who criticize him.

Trump fired the federal prosecutor who refused to bring charges against Comey. This week he appointed an insurance lawyer who used to work for him and has never prosecuted anyone in her life to prosecute Comey. Reports indicate that she has never even been involved in the prosecution of a case.

Perhaps all this is just to embarrass Comey and cost him a lot of money. If I were pressing charges against a former FBI Director, I would want an experienced prosecutor on the case. But what do I know?

Trump has named Comey and numerous others he wants indicted or arrested and has announced that they are all guilty, corrupt, bad people who should go to prison.

He told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post on Saturday to go after Comey, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. As I stated in a blog post earlier this week, Trump hold grudges.

Comey is being charged with lying to Congress five years ago, but what about when Pam Bondi testified before Congress on January 15-16, 2025, that as U.S. Attorney General she would not weaponize the U.S. Justice Department, was that a lie?

In the United States today, we can only pray that the rule of law will prevail and ask God to continue to give us the strength to speak up for the Constitution.

The indictment of James Comey yesterday was shocking but not surprising. Whether Comey is guilty or not, I hope the countless accusations Trump has made in speeches and on social media against Comey will result in the unraveling of these indictments.

The United States Department of Justice is exactly what that says. It is the United States Department of Justice, not the President of the United States’ Department of Justice.

Our democracy cannot stand if we have a U.S. President who can dictate that the U.S. Department of Justice can and must go after his political adversaries. It cannot and will not stand if that is where we are.

At 8:00 p.m., Thursday night, September 25, 2025, as I write this, it feels like we are there.

Janet

Punching windmills

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that President Trump will sign an Executive Order banning ANTIFA.

ANTIFA is a catch word. ANTIFA does not exist. ANTIFA is not an organization. It is not an entity. That isn’t stopping Trump from going after “it.”

It reminded me of Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes – the only novel I ever read in Spanish. Don Quixote famously mistook windmills for giants and attempted to fight them.

Photo of three windmills in Holland
Photo by Enrique Jiménez on Unsplash

President Trump has mistaken ANTIFA for an organization that he can attack. He will probably try to take away ANTIFA’s license to broadcast. That’s his new favorite weapon. He will probably tell Attorney General Pam Bondi to arrest the ANTIFA CEO and Board of Directors so he can replace them with his rich friends.

Is anyone in Trump’s circle brave enough to tell him ANTIFA does not exist?

Here we are. We have a United States President going after entities that don’t exist. We have a U.S. President punching windmills.

Too bad there isn’t a Sancho Panza in Trump’s Cabinet or circle of advisors to offer common sense and wit.

All sarcasm aside… This is a serious matter.

“Antifa” means “anti-Fascist.”

Trump did sign the Executive Order on Monday. The fact that Antifa is not an entity did not deter Trump from labeling it as one. The title of his Executive Order is “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization.”

Here it is, as it was published on https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/designating-antifa-as-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/.

“Section 1.  Antifa as a Terrorist Threat.  Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.  It uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals.  This campaign involves coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal laws through armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violent assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers, and routine doxing of and other threats against political figures and activists.  Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity, then employs elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives, conceal its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement, and recruit additional members.  Individuals associated with and acting on behalf of Antifa further coordinate with other organizations and entities for the purpose of spreading, fomenting, and advancing political violence and suppressing lawful political speech.  This organized effort designed to achieve policy objectives by coercion and intimidation is domestic terrorism.

“Sec. 2.  Designation as a Domestic Terrorist Organization.  Because of the aforementioned pattern of political violence designed to suppress lawful political activity and obstruct the rule of law, I hereby designate Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization.”  All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa, or for which Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa provided material support, including necessary investigatory and prosecutorial actions against those who fund such operations. 

“Sec. 3.  General Provisions.  (a)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law.  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(b)  This order shall be published in the Federal Register.

                               DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    September 22, 2025.”

What this seems to say: Trump is directing any and all federal government agencies to go after anyone who participates in or contributes to any organization that is anti-Fascist. Am I wrong?

It leaves me to conclude: Trump is targeting any organization or individual that is anti-Trump. Am I wrong?

If that’s not the purpose of this Executive Order, I don’t know what is.

Once again, Antifa is not an organization. Antifa is not an entity. Antifa is a word created to mean “anti-Fascism.”

Antifa is all of us who are anti-Fascist.

Trump’s speech at the United Nations

There is much I could say about Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, but where would I start?

If you missed the speech live (as I did), you can find it online. It’s on YouTube and other places, I’m sure.

It was just another one of his braggadocious lists of how great he is and what he has accomplished all by himself. He lectured the UN member countries about how slack they are, how they have not only not helped him end wars but they have created many of the world’s problems.

Photo of the UN Building in New York City with flags of member nations at the base of it.
United Nations Headquarters in New York City
Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash

He criticized the 21st century renovation of the United Nations Headquarters and the materials used. He bragged that he bid on the job and would have built it better and grander. He would have “given you” marble floors.” He never forgets or forgives a slight. The fact that his company was not selected to renovate the UN Headquarters is at the root of his hatred from the UN. Make no mistake. He took the awarding of that construction contract in the early 2000s as a personal affront, and he will never put on his big boy pants and get over it. He holds grudges.

He bragged about how rich the United States is. He bragged about how we have the biggest, best, most powerful, and greatest weapons of war the world has ever seen.

He claimed grocery prices are going down. Just ask any middle- or low-income person in America about that. They will not say grocery prices are going down.

He said that climate change is the biggest con the world has ever seen. He had to punch at windmills. He couldn’t help himself.

He spoke for an hour, and the items I have mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg.

He cannot open his mouth without bragging about himself and berating someone else. It is who he is. It is unfortunate that he has access to the world stage.

Janet

Blaming mothers for Autism

Yesterday, President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – who has no education in medicine – announced that they had found the cause of autism: folate acid deficiency and mothers taking Tylenol.

Isn’t it amazing that hundreds, if not thousands, of researchers have not been able to find what causes autism over the last 60 years, but Bobby Kennedy, Jr. figured it out in a few months?

And what could be easier than blaming pregnant women? As if pregnant women don’t have enough to worry about, Bobby has now told them that it is their fault for their child’s autism if they took a Tylenol during pregnancy.

Black-and-white photo of a stethoscope
Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash

It was Dr. Trump who spilled the beans. What Kennedy had to say was anticlimactic Touting it in advance as the most important press conference of his career, Trump came out and in no uncertain terms gave medical advice to pregnant women.

I’m glad I don’t own stock in the company that makes Tylenol! It was obvious that Dr. Trump had never seen the word “acetaminophen” before. He stumbled over it horribly. I thought everyone knew about acetaminophen, but I guess not.

It seemed to be a new word for Dr. Trump, but that did not slow him down in warning pregnant women to just grin and bear it through pain and high fever. I guess like he would?

He said they can take a “small one” but only if they just can’t stand the pain or high fever. He went on and on, pronouncing “Tylenol” like it was a nasty word. Sort of like he says, “China.”

Nothing like terrorizing women who are currently pregnant by telling them that the Tylenol pill they took last week might cause the fetus they’re carrying to be born with autism.

Easy for Trump and Kennedy to say. It’s also easy for them to use their platforms to make sweeping proclamations based on junk science, which is the only “science” they know anything about. Isn’t it Trump who thinks windmills cause cancer?

Trump and Kennedy have put the Centers for Disease Control in shambles.

Kennedy loaded the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with known anti-vaccine activists and at least one mathematician with no medical training whatsoever so the committee could make dangerous recommendations last week. The committee did not disappoint Kennedy. It’s like people used to say about computers: “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Instead of listening to physicians and researchers who have dedicated their lives to immunology, we now have a U.S. Government giving citizens medical advice based on fiction and lies.

This is what we get when we have a Republican-dominated United States Senate confirming the nomination of an anti-vaxxer who admits he has a worm in his brain to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. We got what the U.S. President and the U.S. Senate think we deserve.

In the so-called memorial service for Charlie Kirk on Sunday, Trump quizzed the audience about what MAHA stands for. “Make America Healthy Again.” What should have been a reverent Christian memorial service for an assassinated conservative activist turned into a political rally as soon as Trump stepped on the stage with pyrotechnics and Lee Greenwood belting out “I’m Proud to be an American.”

That shocking display set the stage for what Trump was going to say. At least we were forewarned, and no one should have been surprised by it. The surprise would have been if Trump had walked up to the podium and calmly delivered words of peace and talked about Charlie Kirk instead of talking about himself. That would have been shocking!

How strange for Charlie Kirk’s young children to be subjected to fireworks and hate speech at their father’s memorial service! Was that supposed to give them comfort? Oh… I forgot… it wasn’t about Charlie Kirk or his children. It was about Donald Trump. It always is.

Trump is so far removed from Christianity, he has no clue how offensive his behavior and remarks yesterday were to real Christians. I guess he forgot to wear his MAGA baseball cap. He ranted about hating his opponents. He ranted about “left-wing liberal lunatics.” He bragged about the crowd size.

I have been to more funerals and memorial services in my 72 years than I can count, but I’ve never heard a speaker at one of them talk about hating people or call half the population of the United States “lunatics.”

People keep saying, “This is not who we are.” I used to say that. I’ve uttered those words in 2025, but I can’t say those words now. America, that’s who we are. It’s time to face the truth.

When the President of the United States can openly talk like that and no one in the United States Congress says one word of criticism, that’s who we are.

We need to admit it. As long as half of us are in denial, we cannot address the problem. Step 1: Admit there is a problem.

Janet

Lessons in Civics

It is not humanly possible for one person to keep up with more than a fraction of the bad things that have happened this week to the American way of life. I have blogged the last two days about the demise of freedom of speech under the Trump Administration.

I will just mention three other items of concern from the last seven days.

NATO, tariffs, Russia

Trump went on a rant on social media on Saturday morning in which he laid out how he is going to blackmail all the other NATO countries into not buying any oil from Russia. He said when they all agree to that, he will in turn place sanctions on Russia.

What a lame way to announce he has no intentions of sanctioning Russia! Any former U.S. President would not have had to wait on all other NATO nations to act before he could put tariffs on Russia.

U.S. Department of Education

One of the main things Trump ran on last year was the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. It is ironic that the more department employees they fire, the more new ideas they come up with for new programs.

Photo of a stack of books with a red apple on top, with pencils lying beside the books and ABC blocks.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

The illustrious U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a new idea this week. Since her background is in the wrestling industry, I really doubt it was her idea. I think any thinking person can figure out the source of the new plans she announced on Wednesday.

McMahon said not enough young Americans love America because they don’t have any knowledge of America. (That’s a paraphrase, but you get the point.) To remedy this, the U.S. Department of Education (I guess until it no longer exists, if we can trust Trump to eliminate it) is partnering with 40 conservative organizations to create The America 250 Civics Education Coalition.

Someone apparently slipped up and told McMahon that 2026 will be the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Who knew! She is scrambling as 2025 comes to an end to teach every American student some civics next year.

The Administration that has pledged to root out all vestiges of wokeness and all vestiges of indoctrination is now partnering with the most politically and religiously conservative organizations in the country (including Turning Point USA, Turning Point Education, Hillsdale College, the America First Policy Institute, and The Heritage Foundation) to “encourage” all students in the United States from elementary school through higher education to learn about “American history, values, and geography with an unbiased approach.”

I’m trying to get my head around how one would teach geography in a biased way. I thought geography was factual. Oh, I just smacked my forehead. I just remember that I was told for 72 years that the Gulf of Mexico was the Gulf of Mexico, but President Trump renamed it this year to the Gulf of America. I guess teaching children and college students that it is the Gulf of Mexico is now considered “biased.”

I don’t want to beat a dead horse over this, so I will just leave you with a quote from Linda McMahon. Keep in mind that she is the U.S. Secretary of Education. She said the following on Wednesday in an interview with Marisa Schultz, news editor for the Washington Examiner:

          “”I mean, when you have high school students that don’t know you know what those three departments of our government are for heaven sakes, they don’t know what even that you have to register to vote in different states. I mean, it is appalling the lack of knowledge that many of our students have. And so one of my initiatives is to make sure that patriotic education, even though the Department of Education does not control curriculum, we don’t hire teachers, we don’t buy books, we don’t do any of that. But let’s encourage, if we can.”

          Two things jumped out at me from that quote: (1) The U.S. Secretary of Education thinks we have three “departments” in the U.S. Government and (2) The U.S. Secretary of Education has trouble forming a complete sentence.

          We are doomed.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for the teaching of civics in our schools, but I’m not in favor of a lopsided, skewed right-wing white Christian view of government, history, and geography being taught.

          There is no courage, bravery, or integrity in our corporate institutions. There is no courage, bravery, or integrity in our three branches of government.

          By the way, Secretary McMahon, we have three branches of government, not three departments of government. Maybe you aren’t the best person to be in charge of the teaching of civics in our country. Just sayin’.

Trump and his entourage are royally treated by the King Charles

There were more cringe-worthy photographs and quotes from Trump’s trip to London this week. I cringed to see how inappropriately the First Lady and the White House Press Secretary were dressed for dinner on Wednesday night, but I also cringed to see how King Charles kowtowed to Trump.

The British Royal Family sets the bar high for decorum, and Trump trips over that bar every time he goes across the pond.

With the demise of free speech in America this week, I admit I did not pay much attention to Trump’s trip, but I understand that he announced in front of God and everybody that he was the first United States President to be invited to Great Britain.

Does he not remember that he was invited there in 2018? Is he so ignorant of history that he does not know that numerous United States Presidents have been invited to Great Britain over the centuries?

It is just one more in a long line of indications that everything is all about him. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone in the history of the world who had a bigger or more fragile ego than Donald John Trump, Sr.

What struck me this week above everything else about Trump’s trip to England was that not only do citizens of Great Britain have more freedom than American citizens to protest the U.S. President, but the press there has more freedom to ask the U.S. President pointed questions than American reporters and journalists. That alone should be what Americans are taking away from the trip.

Let that sink in.

Janet

The irony on Constitution Day

It has been a shocking 24 hours in America.

Yesterday, on the 238th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution, Brandon Carr, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) went on a podcast and showed his true MAGA colors. He did Trump’s bidding. Using the language of a mob boss, he threatened ABC if the network did not fire late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Meme states I saw the death of free speech in America in real time last night.
Meme created by Janet Morrison

Trump once again publicly announced his disdain for the ABC network before he left from Great Britain on Tuesday.

Instead of finally showing a backbone and not caving in to pressure from the Trump Regime, ABC kowtowed to Donald Trump and his minions once again. Trump’s minion du jour yesterday was Brandon Carr.

These people have no shame. Carr was wearing a U.S. Flag on his lapel as he did Trump’s work on that podcast. I’m surprised he wasn’t wearing a big cross necklace like so many of Trump’s people do as they spout hate.

Once you give in to a bully, that bully owns you. Most people learn that on the playground when they’re five years old. The executives of the large corporations, universities, museums, law firms, etc. in the United States did not learn that lesson as children or young adults. They are learning it in 2025, and it is a hideous thing to watch because it means the destruction of the Constitution of the United States.

Yesterday, on the 238th anniversary of the September 17, 1787, signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, the United States reverted to our colonial rule under King George when criticizing the king was against the law.

Here we are. Half the voters voted for this last November. When you vote for a person who has no understanding of right and wrong, no understanding of the Constitution of the United States, and only understands the power of money, this is what you get.

Half of you voted for it and the rest of us are getting slammed with it. Speaking to those of you who are happy about government censorship of free expression, I feel sorry for you because you have no appreciation for the incredible freedoms and opportunities you were handed at birth just by being born in the United States.

When a wannabe dictator tells you he is “going to be a dictator on Day One,” you should believe him.

In the coming days, we will either see Republicans in Congress grow a backbone and speak up for free speech and reel in the FCC, or we will see them continue to be complicit in the dismantling of the Bill of Rights.

Since the official responses from the White House and Trump and his family have been to celebrate, I am not hopeful. There is an old saying in America: “Monkey see, monkey do.”

I’ll keep sounding the alarm as long as I’m allowed to. This is not the country I knew from 1953 through 2024.

Every time I think things can’t get worse….

Janet

No interest in James Fenimore Cooper’s Birthday, 1789

Last fall and winter as I planned the topics for my blog for 2025, all I came up with to write about on Monday, September 15 was James Fenimore Cooper’s 236th birthday.

Last year, I was trying to blog about my journey as a writer, a history buff, and a reader. I planned to continue my routine of blogging every Monday. Even at that pace, I came up sorely lacking for a topic for today’s blog post.

Nevertheless, I left James Fenimore Cooper’s birthday on my editorial calendar for today.

Little did I know what 2025 held for all of us. Little did I know what last week held for us.

James Fennimore Cooper is one of most-celebrated Early American writers, but I will not blog about him today. His 236th birthday holds no interest for me.

Photo of a hand holding a pencil poised on a blank writing tablet
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

We find ourselves in a volatile time not just in the United States but around the world.

There is inflamed political speech in the United States. It might not be worse than ever before, but it is being fueled like never before due to social media and around-the-clock television. (Yes, young people, the TV networks used to sign off at midnight or 1 a.m. The national anthem was played, and then a “test pattern” filled the screen until morning. I’m not making that up!)

Today I will follow up on a couple of things I included in my blog on Friday.

The murder of Iryna Zarutska

In my blog post on Friday, September 12, I shared a long list of things I am sick of. One of them was,” I’m sick of politicians like J.D. Vance blaming North Carolina Governor Josh Stein for the August 23 murder of Iryna Zarutska by Decarlos Brown, Jr. on a light rail train in Charlotte after Gov. Stein said we needed more law enforcement officers.”

If you somehow missed hearing about this case, Iryna Zarutska was a 23-year-old Ukrainian who fled the war there and settled in Charlotte. She got off work that night, boarded the Blue Line light rail in Southend, just south of uptown Charlotte, took an aisle seat, got out her cell phone, and had her earbuds in.

Ms. Zarutska had bought a car, but she couldn’t get an appointment with the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles to get her driver’s license until October. So she was taking the light rail to and from her job at a pizza parlor.

Mr. Brown was in the window seat on the row directly behind her, but no one was sitting in the aisle seat next to him.

Less than five minutes later, Mr. Brown unfolded a pocket knife, jumped up, and stabbed Ms. Zarutska in the neck without hesitation or warning.

Three weeks after Ms. Zarutska’s cold-blooded unprovoked murder, a reporter drew it to Trump’s attention. It immediately became a flashpoint and battle cry for the Trump Administration.

What I didn’t go on and say in Friday’s blog post was that Decarlos Brown, Jr. is suffering from Schizophrenia and his mother has tried to get him the treatment he needs. Mr. Brown is 34 years old. His mother cannot force him into treatment, and she should not be held responsible for his actions. That part of the story is not getting the attention it needs because, as a country, we don’t want to talk about mental illness – much less do anything about it.

It is the lack of a mental health system in the United States that meant that Decarlos Brown, Jr. was on the train that night and not in a treatment facility. He was convinced that Iryna Zarutska was “reading his mind,” according to his sister. He told police that he was controlled by things in his body. That is not Gov. Stein’s fault, so let’s just stop blaming Democratic governors and mayors for all our societal failures.

There was a case of Schizophrenia in my extended family. This family member’s father did everything humanly possible under the law to get his adult child help. The system prevented this adult from being kept in a mental health facility long enough for them to get the treatment that was needed.

If an adult is not seen as a threat to themselves or to someone else, they cannot be held in a mental health facility against their will. The irony is that people who need mental health care often do not know they need help.

The irony is that once a person with some mental health issues is treated and is on a medication that helps control their symptoms, they often conclude that they are cured or that nothing was wrong with them to begin with and they stop taking their medications.

How many times do we have to hear that? How many times do we have to see it with our own eyes?

I don’t know what the answer is but if there had been a law enforcement officer sitting in front of or near Ms. Zarutska, they probably could not have prevented her murder. It happened just that fast, and it happened from behind without warning. Just because Mr. Brown was restless and sometimes talking to himself, that’s not against the law.

President Trump has called for Mr. Brown to receive the death penalty. Since when is having Schizophrenia a capital offense?

Until our country finds the courage, will, compassion, and wisdom to address mental illness, this will not be the last tragic murder. We find the money to develop weapons to defend ourselves against other countries, but we don’t find the money or the will to truly care for our fellow Americans who are ill due to no fault of their own.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk

Another item on my list on Friday was, “I’m sick of Trump’s followers claiming that every Democrat is rejoicing in Wednesday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk and that they “should all burn in hell forever.” Some of the loudest conservative talking heads were quick on Wednesday afternoon to proclaim that “we are now at war.”

What I did not go on and say on Friday was that Charlie Kirk had extreme political views, but he had a right to those views and he had the right of free speech to voice his views – just like I have the right to write my views in my blog.

Political violence has no place in the United States, but it certainly is a part of our history. I don’t know that one political party has a monopoly on political assassinations and attempted assassinations. People are quick to point fingers and place blame.

Instead of speaking on television on Wednesday night to call for a lowering of political hate speech, Trump spoke of tracking down anyone and everyone who had anything to do with the assassination. He immediately blamed the “far Left” and the news media for spouting hateful rhetoric that caused this assassination.

The person or people involved in Charlie Kirk’s assassination do need to be brought to justice, but we need a U.S. President who has the wisdom and self-awareness to recognize that he is partly to blame for the vicious political rhetoric in our country today.

We should be able to voice our opinions on politics, religion, and anything else without fear of being murdered. A sign of an advanced society is the free exchange of ideas. I thought I was living in such a society, but maybe I have been naïve the first 72 years of my life.

I think we’re at a turning point, and the arrow is not pointing in a good direction.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 38 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, two state highways, and 31 state roads.

As I reported two weeks ago, the rebuilding of five miles of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge in North Carolina at the Tennessee line is expected to be completed by the end of 2028 at a cost of $1.3 billion. One lane in each direction at 35 miles-per-hour continues since the partial reopening.

As fall approaches, visitors are encouraged to plan trips to the mountains in western North Carolina. Just be aware that portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway and some other roads remain closed. Check routes online when planning your trip.

Janet

Why losing subscribers isn’t the end of the world

I’ve had a net loss of three of my 1,297 blog subscribers in the last two weeks. I don’t know why, but I have a hunch it is because I have either stepped on some toes with my criticisms of Trump, or perhaps the individuals who hit the “unsubscribe” button just did not want to read about Trump anymore.

I understand, if they left for either reason. If I thought Donald Trump hung the moon and the stars and was sent by God to save the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

If I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the rapid dismantling of democracy in the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.

I get it.

I don’t want to write about the Trump Administration every day. That’s why I took a break from it last week. I only blogged twice.

That break freed up time for me to work on the companion journal/diary I’m creating to go along with my I Need The Light! devotional book.

I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison

It gave me time to edit most of the historical short stories I plan to publish as a collection later this year.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I needed to take time to do those things for my mental and physical well-being. I hope to have more weeks in which I only blog a couple of times.

When I started blogging more than a decade ago, I was encouraged over every subscriber milestone. The numbers are not that important to me now, but I noticed I was on the verge of having 1,400 subscribers. Then, my numbers started going down. I needed to evaluate the situation and determine if I was doing something wrong.

I concluded that after a decade I have started fearlessly speaking my mind. Perhaps some of my subscribers liked the old me – the me who just blogged once-a-week about the craft of writing or the books I read. The old me struggled to think of something to blog about once-a-week.

But that’s not me anymore. I’m older, but not necessarily wiser. I’m in a place in my life’s journey where I am no longer afraid that I will offend someone who sees politics or other major issues differently than I do.

I am no longer afraid that if I blog about politics I will alienate someone who would have otherwise purchased one of my books.

I blog because it has become part of my identity. I blog because I am deeply concerned about what is happening to and in the government of the United States. I cannot turn my back on my political science degrees and my sense of patriotism.

But most of all, I blog because I thoroughly enjoy forming online relationships with other bloggers and subscribers. Readers and subscribers will come and go. Perhaps I’m finally finding my voice and my niche, and I no longer attempt to reach the masses.

What I write about will not and cannot appeal to everyone. That is a good lesson for me to remember when I publish a book!

Photo by Luis Morera on Unsplash

In conclusion, it’s not really about the numbers. It’s about the relationships I have made and will continue to make through my blog. If my subscribers dwindle down to 100, it won’t bother me now because I have come to understand that it’s just about the relationships and exchange of ideas.

Thank you for being my friends.

Janet

Let’s put a name on ICE detention: Allison Bustillo

This is a story I have been sitting on since last Tuesday. It is impossible to make sense of what has happened here locally.

I do not personally know the young woman or her family, but hearing this family’s story on WSOC-TV in Charlotte stopped me in my tracks. I have not been able to get the report off my mind.

Her family fled violence in Honduras in 2013 when Allison Bustillo was eight years old. They found a home in North Carolina. Allison studied hard. No one in the family ever broke the law, except for staying in the United States without proper documentation.

Allison wants to be a nurse. At 20 years old, she was studying nursing on a scholarship at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, until February 2025 – the day ICE agents showed up at her house. They were looking for someone who did not live there but, in the process, they took Allison from her home. This was traumatic for her family, which includes her brother who is on the autism spectrum.

Photo by Jennifer Grismer on Unsplash

Allison was taken 350 miles from her home to the ICE Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. She tried to get released. She had broken no laws. She had been brought into the United States as an eight-year-old child.

The Stewart Detention Center is operated by CoreCivic. CoreCivic contracted with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate the prison, which has an official capacity of 1,752 inmates.

The ICE agents who arrested Allison Bustillo did not have to identify themselves. They didn’t have to show a badge or an identification. They didn’t have to show their faces. But Allison Bustillo was not allowed those privileges, so without warning or due process she was taken from her home and placed in a federal detention center hundreds of miles from her family.

But no one in the Trump Administration cared. Not even after her family secured the services of an attorney.

One of the ironies is that Allison was not eligible for voluntary deportation, but she was stuck in that detention center for six months. Imagine! Six months!

Her attorney was finally able to get permission for her to leave the detention center and leave the country without a deportation order. She will board (or already has boarded) a commercial flight to Honduras. Alone.

A 20-year-old nursing student returning to the country she fled 12 years ago as a child whose family sought a safe life.

Allison’s mother said, “The only memory my daughter has of Honduras is when someone put a gun to our heads.”

Here is a link to the local news report I saw last Tuesday, in case it is still accessible: https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/shelby-woman-forced-leave-us-after-months-ice-custody/RLPE6QKWOVGLXC6KHNEXT2Q5OU/.

My thoughts

I am embarrassed to be an American in 2025.

Trump was elected partly because he promised to get the illegal alien criminals out of our country. Perhaps some of the people who voted for him thought he would use legal means to accomplish that. Perhaps they thought he would only remove the hardened criminals.

They were horribly mistaken.

He has repeatedly said that only “the worst of the worst criminals” will be arrested and deported. That is a lie. Plain and simple.

A case in point is the Guatemalan minor children he tried to deport in the middle of the night this weekend. Fortunately, a judge put a stop to that. Trump needs to understand that even an undocumented child from Guatemala has the right to due process in the United States of America.

What happened to “Give me your tired, your poor… your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that the high school chorus used to sing?

What happened to “the land of the free and the home of the brave” from our national anthem? We have failed our national anthem this year… or, I suppose we failed it on election day last November. I don’t think I can sing it anymore.

What happened to the Republican Party?

What happened to common decency?

What happened to my country?

God, help us!

Janet