This and That Out of Washington, DC This Week

It continues to feel like news items are coming out of Washington, DC like water from a fire hose. I can’t keep up. For my mental health, that’s a good thing.

Some things get more coverage by the media than others, so I try to include some things in my blog posts that might have missed your attention.

I thought about listing the following items in order of outrageousness or evilness, but I gave up. Here they are in random order.

I believe God is weeping

The Trump ~~Administration~~ Regime has ordered nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food that was intended for distribution in Africa and the Middle East through USAID to be burned. Let that sink in.

Photo of a fire — Photo by Caleb Kim on Unsplash

The $800,000 (You read that right: that’s $800 thousand) worth of food was specifically intended for children under five years old in war-torn and disaster-stricken countries. It would have fed 1.5 million children for a week. By the way, it will cost $130,000 to incinerate the food.

Since the Trump Regime shut down USAID, there was apparently no one in the Trump Government that had the authority, capability, or the moral courage to get the food distributed to anyone – not even here in the United States.

Another 60 metric tons of food already paid for by the American taxpayer sits in warehouses around the world. Without USAID workers, it is doubtful any of it will be distributed. Therefore, it will eventually have to be destroyed.

It seems to me on the political level alone this is a slap in the face of the American farmer. You know – that American farmer that Trump and MAGA folks claim to love so much. That farmer grew that food.

How dare Donald Trump accuse USAID or any current or former U.S. Government agency of being wasteful!

More deportations to third-world countries

CBS News reports that the Trump Regime admitted on Tuesday that a group of violent criminals had been deported to Eswatini. Eswatini used to be known as Swaziland. It is a tiny country in Africa.

Photo of a jet plan in the sky — Photo by John McArthur on Unsplash

The deportees were not from Eswatini. They were from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen.

The Trump Regime says they were deported to Eswatini because they were such violent people that their home countries refused to take them.

It has not been disclosed what Eswatini gets out of the deal. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security claims that the countries accepting our deportees promise not to persecute or torture them.

I suppose we can take them at their word on that. (By “them” I mean the United States and the countries accepting our deportees.)

The irony is that Trump has maintained for years that other countries were sending us their criminals and the worst scumbags of society. It appears he has learned from those countries, and now the United States is doing it. We’re just proudly announcing that we’re doing it. Somehow, this is supposedly making America great again.

Corn farmers will have to take one on the chin for Trump

Trump has decided he’d rather his Coca-Cola be sweetened with cane sugar (mostly imported, by the way) than from corn syrup made from corn grown in Iowa. I understand that’s the difference between the Coca-Cola recipe in Mexico and the one used in the U.S. Who knew Trump preferred Mexican Coca-Cola to American Coca-Cola?

Photo of corn growing in a field — Photo by Katherine Volkovski on Unsplash

The American Medical Association says there’s not much difference in the “nutritional” value of a Coke sweetened with corn syrup and a Coke sweetened with cane sugar. When you’re dealing with a beverage that has no nutritional redeeming value….

Anyway, Coca-Cola appears to be just the latest private corporation that Trump wants to strong-arm into submission to his whims. Some of us remember the last time Coca-Cola tried to tinker with its recipe in America things did not go well.

FICA Club World Cup Trophy

It was embarrassing enough that President Trump refused to get off the stage so the Chelsea 2025 FIFA Club World Cup tournament champions could celebrate their win on July 13, but he didn’t stop there. The 24-carat gold trophy designed by Tiffany and Company and valued at $230,000 is now in the Oval Office. The Chelsea team got to take home a replica.

You simply cannot make this stuff up. I thought it couldn’t be true – not even for Trump – but I verified it on snopes.com.

I saw online that the Chelsea team photoshopped Trump out of the picture of them receiving the trophy and celebrating on stage.

I shudder to think how much gold Trump will take from the 2028 Summer Olympics!

Covid-19

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has dropped a case against a doctor in Utah who was accused of falsifying Covid-19 vaccination certificates and destroying $28,000 worth of government-provided Covid-19 vaccines.

Decrease in workforce at State Department

More than 1,300 employees of the U.S. State Department were let go last week. Waste, I guess?

Don’t you just hate it when diplomacy, time-honored relationship, goodwill, and mutual understanding get in the way of hate and war?

Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship threatened

President Trump threatened to take Rosie O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship away from her because she spoke out against his policies.

I had no idea the President of the United States could take away someone’s citizenship. (I’m being facetious… He can’t.)

The Federal Reserve

Trump continues to be critical of Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve. One day he’s going to fire him. The next day he isn’t going to fire him. On Wednesday he said he was surprised that Powell was appointed to the position.

Well, duh! Trump appointed him in 2017. Now he says Powell is a terrible person and claims that he was appointed by President Biden.

Firings at Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi fired 20 employees of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The 20 people worked on investigations into Donald Trump and his first administration while Joe Biden was U.S. President. In Trump’s 2024 campaign and in Bondi’s confirmation hearings, they both vowed to get rid of everyone at the DOJ who participated in investigations against Trump. The political firings at DOJ last week were made to get rid of the weaponization of the Justice Department. (You can’t make this stuff up.)

She also fired Joseph Tirrell, the Justice Department’s senior ethics attorney. He is a military veteran and has served his country in one way or another for nearly 20 years.

It is a sad day when the U.S. Department of Justice fires the top person looking out for ethics.

The IRS and the Johnson Amendment

The IRS announced on Monday that churches can now endorse politicians and not lose their tax-free status as a religious organization. My Baptist preacher Congressman sees this as a tremendous victory for our First Amendment rights of free speech.

Photo of a government building with the words "Internal Revenue Service engraved in the stone — Photo by Sean Lee on Unsplash

I don’t see it as a victory for anyone except pastors and churches that want to dictate how their congregants vote. It’s a shame their church members cannot be trusted to think for themselves.

I heard a audio clip of President Trump saying he didn’t see anything wrong with it if there is a candidate they like whose beliefs align with theirs. That shows how little he knows about religious organizations or Christianity. This is a slippery slope.

The Johnson Amendment was named for then U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. It became part of the U.S. Tax Code in 1954. It prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organization from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

I’m a little puzzled over how the Internal Revenue Service can just wipe part of the U.S. Tax Code off the books, but apparently in the land of Trump it can.

Recission Bill – Cuts to Public Broadcasting Corporation & USAID

The U.S. Senate gave Trump a huge gift yesterday morning when they voted 51-48 (one Senator was in the hospital and missed the vote) to cut $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $8 billion from foreign aid programs, including what little was left of USAID.

Although Senators Collins and Murkowski voted with the Democrats, Thom Tillis of North Carolina chose to vote for the cuts while at the same time making a speech on the Senate floor in which he said passing the bill was a mistake that the Senate would have to fix later.

What?

The bill was then sent back to the House of Representatives for that Republican-dominated body to rubber stamp it by today.

I am going to miss “NOVA,” “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates,” “Nature,” “BBC News America,” “Amanpour and Company,” “BBC News,” “PBS News Hour,” “North Carolina Weekend,” “Cook’s Country,” “Antiques Roadshow,” “Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions,” “Rick Steves’ Europe,” “Doc Martin,” “My Music With Rhiannon Giddens,” every one of the Ken Burns documentaries, “Somewhere South,” “America’s Test Kitchen,” and “Lidia’s Kitchen.”

My sister will miss “Midsomer Murders” and “Death in Paradise.”

I’m sure others will miss “Sesame Street” and other children’s programming.

Others will miss “This Old House,” “Woodwright Shop,” “Austin City Limits,” “Grantchester on Masterpiece,” “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” and “Sit and Be Fit.”

I could go on, but you get the picture. I hope you took time to let your Senators and Representatives know that you did not want the federal government to end its support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I did. It just fell on their six deaf ears.

Hearing U.S. Representative Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, interviewed yesterday, it became clear that some of the members of Congress don’t know what they are voting on. Fine justified the elimination of money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Corporation (CPB) from the federal budget because “we have broadband and streaming now.”

First of all, if the public television stations don’t have the money to produce programming, no amount of broadband internet service or streaming capabilities will make non-existent programming available to people with broadband and/or streaming. In order to stream a TV program, it is my understanding that the program has to exist. However, I’m just a citizen, so what do I know?

Second of all, Mr. Fine, everyone does not have broadband internet service and everyone does not have internet service that is strong enough to enable streaming. I know that, because I’m one of them. I don’t live in a remote area; however, I do live on a road that does not have a high enough population for Windstream to upgrade our service. I can barely get so-called high-speed internet. Streaming? Forget about it.

Trump doesn’t like the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) – “public TV” or National Public Radio (NPR). Therefore, Republicans in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate cannot like them. Congressman Fine repeated the Republican Party line yesterday about PBS and NPR: They are “woke left-wing radical propaganda.”

That’s what this week’s email from my Congressman, Mark Harris, said, too. I guess Trump, Fine, and Harris nailed it. After all, when I watch “Antiques Roadshow” or “This Old House,” all I see is “woke left-wing radical propaganda.”

Margaret Taylor Green’s new concern

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that U.S. Representative Margaret Taylor Green of Georgia is afraid that passage of the GENIUS Act – a crypto currency bill pushed by Trump – could be a sign of the “End Times” referenced in the Book of Revelation in the Bible (Revelation 13:16-17).

Photo of a loose pile of bitcoins — Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

She fears it will be “the sign of the beast.”

That’s hilarious! I thought the red MAGA baseball caps might already serve that purpose as “a mark on their foreheads.”

Just a few things we’ve lost since January 20, 2025

We won’t fully grasp what we’ve lost due to Executive Orders and legislation in the United States since January 20 until next year and the years thereafter.

We’ve lost the sanctity of our national parks to name just one.

We’ve lost an estimated 90,000 children in Third World countries who have died of starvation or disease since January 20 because the Trump Administration halted food and medical aid programs.

We’ve lost medical insurance coverage for millions of our fellow citizens.

We’ve lost after-school literacy programs for millions of our children.

We’re rapidly losing the separation of church and state that was so very important to the people who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

We’ve lost much of our civility and respect for our fellow Americans.

We’ve lost the simple elegance of the Oval Office and seen it turned into a gaudy gold frame shop.

We’ve lost the beauty of the White House Rose Garden.

We’ve lost our position of diplomatic influence in the world and replaced it with a stance of bullying, intimidation, black-mailing, and strong-arming.

Just a few things we’ve gained since January 20, 2025

Oh… but we’ve gained the disrespect of the rest of the world.

We’ve gained a para-military masked national police force.

We’ve gained a concentration camp in the Everglades.

We’ve gained an ability to disappear people.

We’ve gained an ability to deport immigrants to remote war-torn countries of questionable motives.

We’ve gained two obscenely gigantic U.S. flags on the White House lawn. They block the view of the beautiful White House, but Trump says they are the most beautiful flag poles in the world. Those new flags at the White House remind me of the one at a huge RV park near the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

By cutting $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that $1 billion saved can be used to start renovating the dilapidated prison on Alcatraz Island off the coast of California. To use Trump’s favorite adjective, what a beautiful use of that $1 billion instead of using it to support educational TV and non-commercial radio and the national and local emergency alerts those PBS and NPR stations send out – especially in the rural areas of the country!

We’ve gained the realization that our American democracy was as fragile as the paper the U.S. Constitution was written on almost 250 years ago.

Until my next blog post

Keep reading that book you checked out from the public library or purchased from an independent bookstore!

Remember the people of Ukraine, western North Carolina, and the Hill Country of Texas.

Janet

The Fate of the Space Shuttle Discovery

When a bill in the U.S. Congress is nearly 1,000 pages long, most of the details never get reported to the American taxpayers. After all, they are just footing the bill.

A few members of Congress even accidentally admitted they did not read the entire bill.

Over time… no doubt, over a very long time… more details of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will come to light. One such detail popped up on my computer screen last Friday. Since it has not received much attention, I will share it with you today.

Included in the OBBBA is $85 million to relocate the retired NASA space shutter Discovery. It belongs to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, and is housed in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar The Udvar-Hazy Center is an annex at Dulles International Airport.

According to https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/orbiter-space-shuttle-ov-103-discovery/nasm_A20120325000, “NASA transferred Discovery to the Smithsonian in April 2012 after a delivery flight over the nation’s capital.” It is “preserved as intact as possible as it last flew in 2011 on the 133^rd Space Shuttle mission.

Discovery weighs 161,325 pounds and measures 78 feet by 57 feet by 122 feet. It looks a little worse for the wear in the photographs on the Smithsonian’s Air and Space website, so one has to wonder what moving it would do to it. It flew nearly 150 million miles in its 28 years in service.

Photograph of the front of one side of Space Shuttle Discovery — Photo by Jay Labe on Unsplash

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican representing Texas, wrote the provision in the OBBBA which would relocate Discovery to Houston, Texas. Cornyn maintains that moving the space shuttle to Texas would right “this egregious wrong” because Texas has played such a big part in NASA’s space program.

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat representing Virginia, stated, “This ridiculous transfer would make Americans pay a $30 fee to view a shuttle that they can see for free right now in Chantilly.”

Kaine questions the message the relocation of the shuttle would send to Americans for them to pay $85 million to move the shuttle halfway across the country while Medicaid and nutrition assistance funding is being slashed by the same piece of legislation.

I agree with Senator Kaine. $85 million would pay a lot of medical bills for low-income Americans.

It seems to me that Texas could be given the next big piece of NASA equipment to be retired.

Until my next blog post

I hope you get to see Discovery for free before it is moved to Texas.

I hope you have a good book to read.

Remember the people of Ukraine, western North Carolina, and the Hill Country of Texas.

Janet

Just because I’m not blogging every day about politics…

Just because I’m not blogging every day about politics, don’t assume I’m no longer paying attention to current events and government actions in the United States. I suppose my post last Thursday night proved that, though. I can only hold it in for so long, folks!

After spending an inordinate amount of time taking notes, checking sources, and writing blog posts for the last six months, I have now made time for what I prefer to do with my time: getting my devotional book published and marketed, and getting my historical novel and historical short stories written so they can be published. Those works in progress are near and dear to my heart.

For what it’s worth, I continue to let my US Senators and US Representative know where I stand on the issues. Sometimes they respond. I almost wish they wouldn’t, because their responses just make me angrier.

I wrote about politics in my July 3 blog post, but I did not address specific Congressional votes, US Supreme Court rulings, or Presidential Executive Orders. Here are a few of the matters that have been on my radar lately. One or two of them might be news to you because, other than Alligator Alcatraz, they did not get a lot of press coverage.

Teaching reading: “radical left agenda”

This news came to light last Thursday: The White House wants to slash funding to states for literacy programs, English language instruction, and after-school programs because “they promote a radical left agenda”. If that is approved, it will cost North Carolina $168 million in lost funds.

Photo of a young boy reading a book in silouette with a beautiful sunset in the background — Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

This “radical left agenda” broken record is wearing thin with me. If teaching someone to read or teaching an immigrant English is “radical left agenda,” then call me a radical leftist! I’ll wear that badge proudly! Since when is teaching someone to read a radical idea? If it is, I guess I was radicalized in Mrs. Caldwell’s first grade classroom in 1959.

When did reading become “radical left agenda?” One of my college friends in the early 1970s had a 30-year career as a reading teacher. I don’t know where she stands politically now, but in the 1970s she supported Jesse Helms. You couldn’t get any more “right” on the political spectrum than that!

I’m glad I learned to read when I did, before teaching reading was outlawed.

Trump v. Casa

I am terribly upset by the US Supreme Court 6-3 decision in Trump v. Casa on June 27, 2025. It gives President Trump the freedom to issue thousands more Executive Orders without having to worry that a US District Court judge will issue any injunctions. It is an alarming green light for Presidential power and abuse of power.

Job Corps

There are at least 21,000 students currently doing coursework and hands-on training through Job Corps. It was started as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960s as a career training program for low-income and at-risk youth.

Everyone does not need a college degree to prepare for a chosen job. Job Corps is a program that helps fill in the gap so low-income youth can get the training they need to get a better job.

Even though Job Corps directly puts young people on track to qualify for manufacturing and other jobs, the Trump Administration has “paused” the program because somebody up there thinks the program’s results are poor and we need to do something about budget deficits. (After all, Congress just added $3 trillion to our national debt last week and cuts have to be made somewhere. We certainly can’t make billionaires pay their fair share in taxes!)

The Job Corps program was abruptly stopped, as is typical of the Trump Administration. They didn’t take time to assess the program and to look at changes that could enhance it. And all this was done while the same Trump Administration is crying for trained workers to work all the “beautiful” factories the Trump Administration says it is bringing back to America.

Common sense would tell me as a former public administrator that if a program isn’t showing positive results, you need to look at it and see what needs to be fixed. Make those changes and try to get the program back on a positive note. If all that fails, then scrap the program.

It feels like we’re returning to “the good old days” of the 1950s and 1960s when in the southern piedmont of North Carolina, 16-year-old couldn’t wait to quit high school and go to work for Cannon Mills for minimum wage. With Trump attacking every level of education, is this the deja vu we have to look forward to?

Natasha Bertrand of CNN

A few days ago White House Press Secretary launched a barrage of verbal attacks on CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand. Criticizing reporters for reporting the “facts” manufactured by the Trump Administration which she represents was not becoming or professional.

But the Trump Administration is like a dog with a bone. Once they latch onto a person or a group of people to attack, they just can’t help themselves. They continue to go for the jugular.

Trump went off the rails in his Cabinet meeting on Monday as he, unprompted, dragged Natasha Bertrand’s name through the mud. As with Karoline Leavitt’s unprofessional and purely political attacks on the reporter last week, Trump followed suit in his Cabinet meeting and said Bertrand should be fired. It is beside the point that she reported an assessment made by the Trump Administration. He went on to attack the media in general and threatened that “I think changes are gonna be made to the media.” Since he oversees the Federal Communications Commission – which grants and renews (or does not renew) broadcast TV licenses, I think we can safely see that his words qualify as a threat to TV networks that do not report the news with the slant he wants.

Trump especially delights in criticizing intelligent and professional women. They intimidate him because he can’t do what they do. For one thing, they speak in complete sentences.

“Alligator Alcatraz”

The development of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz Detention Center in the Everglades would have been bad enough without President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth joking about the detainees needing to learn how to run in a zipzag motion while being chased by alligators. Not to mention the pythons.

Photo of an alligator — Photo by Kyaw Tun on Unsplash

These are human beings, and I don’t see anything funny about the entire immigration situation.

Over the last two or three days there have been reports of inhumane conditions at the facility, but I will withhold details until they are substantiated.

(A piece of advice for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: Women who refuse to dress in proper business attire will never be taken seriously by their male colleagues. Just sayin’.)

Jackie Kennedy’s White House Rose Garden is Gone

The iconic White House Rose Garden established in 1961 by First Lady Jacquelyn Kennedy is no more. Trump said the grass was always wet and wreaked havoc with high-heel shoes. (Don’t you just hate it when nature does that to you!)

Close-up photo of a red rose — Photo by Reanimated Man X on Unsplash

Trump had the entire rose garden and that stretch of lush, green lawn at the White House dug up and paved over.

For someone who calls random things like legislation “beautiful,” the man clearly doesn’t know beauty when he sees it. To him, only money, oil rigs, military tanks, detention centers, other man-made things, masked ICE agents, and an occasional nude model or porn star is beautiful.

Chickens in California

Photo of chickens in the grass — Photo by Thomas Iversen on Unsplash

Since Trump puts no value on life – human, animal, or plant – on Wednesday his administration sued California over its regulation of eggs and chicken farms. The reason? According to Reuters, because “the state’s anti-animal cruelty laws created ‘unnecessary red tape’ that had raised egg prices throughout the U.S.”

Let’s just blackmail another country

President Trump is clamping tariffs on Brazil, although Brazilians purchased $3 billion more in goods from the US in the first five months of 2025 than Americans bought from Brazil. There’s that, so we must look deeper into Trump’s “reasoning” for issuing this tariff. And, if you haven’t heard about it, you’re not going to believe it.

Instead of sending Brazil his usual tariff form letter, Trump sent a letter explaining that he is placing a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian goods because he thinks former president, Jair Bolsonaro, is being treated unfairly. Bolsonaro has been indicted for trying to overturn the 2022 election in Brazil.

I guess for Trump it just felt like “déjà vu all over again” and he feels compelled to come to his friend’s aid. In his tariff letter, Trump stated, “This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”

One headline I saw said that the letter looked like it was written by a fifth grader, but I think that’s unfair to fifth graders.

By the way, they speak English in Liberia

In one of a long line of embarrassing things Donald Trump has said, yesterday he put on his condescending voice and complimented President Joseph Boakai of Liberia for speaking such beautiful English. He asked President Boakai if he was educated. He asked him where he learned to speak such beautiful English. He told President Boakai that he spoke better English than some of the people around the table where they were sitting.

That last sentence was definitely true, for President Boakai speaks in complete sentences and President Trump does not.

By the way, President Trump, English is the official language of Liberia.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Ridiculous distractions in June

With the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial and the Jeff Bezos wedding over with, maybe journalists can get back to real life and reporting the news we need.

Until my next ~~rant~~ blog post

I’m glad I have more years behind me than I have in front of me.

I hope you have a good book to read.

Don’t take freedom for granted.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

(I have not forgotten and I’m not ignoring the flood victims in Texas; however, I will leave it to bloggers in that state to blog about the recovery in the coming months. Since I live in North Carolina, I will continue to give updates on the recovery in my state.)

Janet

Thoughts about the “Big, Beautiful Bill”

I didn’t plan to blog today, but the I received an email from my Congressional Representative. (I refer to him as “Representative” only because that is his title. He represents me in name only.)

My frustration and disgust with the way things are going in the United States this year builds up in me until I just have to rant. I tried to wait a whole week, but it didn’t work out. I really am trying to be a better person, but the powers that be are making it ever so difficult.

I originally titled today’s post, “Thoughts about Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” but then I realized that it’s not Trump’s bill any more. Both houses of Congress now own it. And every U.S. Representative seat and one-third of the U.S. Senate seats will be up for grabs in November 2026. It’s interesting how all but a handful of the Republicans gleefully voted for it.

Photo Credit: Andra C. Taylor Jr on unsplash.com

The Big, Beautiful Bill

The so-called Big, Beautiful Bill was narrowly passed by the House of Representatives and was sent to the Senate. The Senate made some changes to it and it passed by one vote only because Vice President J.D. Vance voted to break the tie after Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska caved in to pressure from her fellow Republicans.

At least in the end, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis decided to come down on the right side of history. He voted against the bill on the Senate’s final vote because he knew it would take Medicaid coverage away from probably more than 600,000 North Carolinians and possibly result in the closure of some rural hospitals.

The bill then returned to the House of Representatives where it was once again approved by a narrow margin. President Trump signed it into law on Friday with his big, beautiful black Sharpie pen while fighter jets flew over the White House. All his celebrations seem excessive, very expensive, and “in your face” to most Americans.

Polls showed that 60% of Americans were against the bill, but Donald Trump rules and 99% of the Republicans in the House and Senate fall in line without question. After all, they left their consciences at the door when they went in to cast their votes.

Speaking of the Big, Beautiful Bill, according to US Senator Ted Budd…

I received a newsletter from Ted Budd, one of the US Senators from North Carolina. This is how he explained how wonderful Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill is and why he voted for the bill that increased our national debt by more than $3 trillion:

“This week, the Senate amended and passed President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ which included major reforms to slow the ballooning cost of government programs and root out waste, fraud, and abuse.

“The bottom line is this – the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ lowers taxes for families, makes our country safer and more secure, and unleashes economic growth for the future.

“I voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act because the people of North Carolina deserve more of their hard-earned wages, a more secure border, a reinvigorated military, responsible spending reforms for government programs, and a thriving economy.

“Helping Americans keep more money in their pockets by extending key provisions of President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Preventing the largest tax increase in American history will save the average North Carolinian $2,474 in 2026.
“Working families will receive significant savings with the increase and permanence of the child tax credit, expanded tax credits for paid leave, enhanced 529 savings accounts, and additional childcare access.
“This legislation lowers taxes for seniors relying on Social Security.

“AND SO MUCH MORE …”

Yeah, right, Senator Budd. You just keep believing that.

Interesting that he forgot to mention what the bill did to Medicaid recipients in North Carolina and the national debt.

U.S. Representative Mark Harris’ email about the Big, Beautiful Bill

The icing on the cake for me was when I received a response on Tuesday from US Representative Mark Harris. I had emailed him (again… and again) imploring him to represent the people of the 8^th District of NC instead of Donald Trump.

Since he is (or was) a Baptist minister, I finally even pulled the Christianity card on him … to no avail. With the fraud that surrounded his campaign a few years ago in which his own son testified against him and which forced him to drop out of that race, I was not surprised that my words about “caring for the least of these” fell on deaf ears.

His response to me was, in part: “On July 3, 2025, I proudly voted in favor of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1 when it passed the House by a vote of 218 to 214. It was signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025. With this crucial reconciliation package across the finish line, President Trump will be empowered to continue leading America into a new golden age.

“First and foremost, this legislation unlocks President Trump’s America First agenda and will help keep our economy strong by lowering taxes for individuals, families, and small businesses.”

After listing a few of the wonderful ways the bill will make us all rich again in this “golden age” he wrote, “Additionally, the bill fulfills our promise to keep our communities safe and our country sovereign. It fully funds our border security by providing $175 billion to hire of thousands of new ICE agents, add detention beds, bring on more immigration judges to streamline the deportation of illegal aliens, and complete a strong and secure border wall.”

Jesus must be so proud of him!

Mr. Harris, I’m sure you will seek reelection in 2026, because you obviously have no shame and haven’t read the New Testament in a very long time. You are actually proud of voting for $175 billion to hire thousands of new ICE agents and add detention beds!

Mr. Harris, will the thousands of new ICE agents be as heartless and cowardly as the ones we already have who are afraid to show their faces? Will they be as sick as the officers who showed up in Los Angeles this week just to intimidate families enjoying an afternoon in a public park?

Everything about this “Big, Beautiful Bill” makes me sick. It reeks of turning America into a police state. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the sick get sicker, and no one but the wealthiest among us know who or what they can depend on.

Mr. Harris’ email sent me right over the edge last night. I’ve never felt so un-represented in my life.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Do what you can to give aid and comfort to the people affected by the flood in Texas.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

Two Other Books I Read in June 2025

After my blog post for yesterday got too long for anyone to want to read, I split it up into two posts.

The books I write about today will sound familiar to those of you who follow my blog, but I think both warrant a revisit.

White Hoods and Broken Badges, by Joe Moore

Photo of book cover for White Robes and Broken Badges by Joe Moore — *White Robes and Broken Badges*,
by Joe Moore

If this book sounds familiar, it might because I blogged about it on October 7, 2024, in What I Read Last Month & a Hurricane Helene Update . I read it again last month because on my recommendation it was the June book for the book club I’m in.

It was sobering the first time I read it, but it was even more chilling to read it during Donald Trump’s second term in the White House. All the things Moore anticipated and predicted about a second Trump term are coming to fruition right before our eyes.

We are in a bad place in the United States, and we have the 2024 voters to blame. I’m beyond mincing words about the people who brought authoritarianism down upon us when they put on their red MAGA baseball caps and voted last fall.

After reading White Hoods and Broken Badges, I have a better understanding of just how deeply embedded in our government and all levels of law enforcement the Ku Klux Klan and all the various allied white supremacy and white nationalist people are.

Moore says whereas the KKK and militia groups like the Proud Boys used to not mix or associate with each other, now they have joined forces under a common cause: the destruction of our democracy. Their goal is a second civil war in the US, and it has already started. All it needed was the blessing of a second Trump term as US President.

Moore says that whereas it used to be that white supremacist tried to infiltrate law enforcement, now there are people in law enforcement who recruit them. Therein lies the KKK’s power. He writes about the part white nationalist groups played in the January 6, 2021, insurrection and how they fueled the mob attack on the US Capitol.

He went so far as to state, “It’s estimated that somewhere between half and three quarters of all self-identifying Republicans either identify as white nationalists or hold white nationalist beliefs. That means as much as 30 percent of the United States population wants to see the country burn.”

He knows whereof he speaks. As a confidential informant for the FBI, he infiltrated the KKK twice over a ten-year period. He and his family are living under assumed names.

Please read this book. The statistics I’ve cited are in the opening pages of the book. The book itself is a well-written account of Moore’s time infiltrating the KKK and the things he witnessed. You won’t be able to be complacent after reading it.

How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, by Mariann Edgar Budde.

Photo of the cover of How We Learn to Be Brave by Mariann Edgar Budd — *How We Learn to Be Brave*: Decisive Moments in Live and Faith, by Mariann Edgar Budde

I blogged about the fourth chapter in this book in my June 20, 2025 blog post, Reacting to the Cards You Are Dealt. I invite you to read that book and the post I wrote in response to reading the fourth chapter. I hope to eventually read the entire book.

Until my next blog post

Get a good book to read. Your local public library has lots of them, and a library card is free!

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

A 4th of July like no other

Tomorrow marks the 249^th birthday of the United States of America. It was on July 4, 1776 that our national Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia.

Photo of dark clouds over the dome of the US Capitol Building — Photo by Kyle Mills on Unsplash

This has been a tough year so far. In the months leading up to July 4, I wasn’t sure how festive this year’s celebration would or could be. Many of us are embarrassed by the actions and words of the current US President, the US Congress, and the US Supreme Court.

Many of us are worried about the future of our country and its standing in the world. Many of us are worried about our financial security as individuals. Many of us are grieving for the rights and benefits we and the poorest of the poor in the world have lost at the hands of the Turmp Administration. People are starving and dying unnecessary of preventable diseases because the aid that the United States had funded and promised has been halted in the name of efficiency, waste, fraud, and diversity.

What should I blog about just hours before Independence Day?

A week or so ago, I decided to mark this Independence Day by posting “A Light and Lively Look at Independence Day in America.” I had the whole post written, illustrated, and scheduled for 5 a.m., July 4, 2025.

I included links to comedian Nate Bargatze’s skits on the iconic TV show, “Saturday Night Live” or “SNL.” Both skits featured Bargatze as General George Washington and four regular SNL cast members (Bowen Yang, Mikey Day, Kenan Thompson, and James Austin Johnson) as American soldiers under his command in 1776 and 1777.

Bargatze’s trademark deadpan delivery made the skits hilarious. I thought sharing links to video recordings of the skits would be a good way to remind Americans that we need to laugh at ourselves. We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.

But as the days went by this week, I had a nagging feeling that I could not in good conscience go forward with that post tomorrow. It didn’t feel right. We have nothing to laugh about on this Independence Day.

Our country is in a precarious place. Our democracy and everything we thought we knew about our country are crumbling in front of our eyes.

This is my 73rd Independence Day. Until this year, it has always been a happy day – a day to be proud of my country, a day to pick wild blackberries, a night to hold a sparkler with close adult supervision when I was a young child, a day to go to a parade, a day to eat hotdogs and hamburgers, a day to watch a fireworks display, a day to sing patriotic songs, a day to wave the flag, a day to celebrate our freedoms.

Not this year. Now, none of that feels right. Oh, we still have some freedoms, but the current U.S. President and his minions have them in a vice grip. They are tightening the screws more each day. Those freedoms are being crushed and trampled on.

The last straw for me was seeing “Alligator Alcatraz” on TV and hearing some Republicans in high places of power making jokes about it. They’re making jokes about how the alligators and pythons will keep the detainees in line.

They joke about how the human beings detained there — and yes, although they are here illegally, they are human beings – will have to learn to run in a zigzag fashion while being chased by alligators. They joke about how security will be a small expense because the alligators and pythons work for free. They are human beings with names and families and very few of them are criminals. Coming into the United States without the proper paperwork is not a felony. It is a misdemeanor.

Even with all that “free” security provided by wildlife, we are told that “Alligator Alcatraz” will cost the American taxpayers $450 million-a-year. Florida will pay that upfront and then be reimbursed by FEMA. Personally, I don’t think that was why the Federal Emergency Management Administration was intended for. Even so, the cost in money is beside the point.

This “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center looks like a concentration camp. The human beings will be kept in cages – just like the first Trump Administration kept detainees in the first time. The wire cages are inside tents, and the Trump Administration claims these tents can survive a category 2 hurricane. We might find out over the next five months if that claim is valid.

While in Florida to visit “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, Trump was asked by a reporter how long individuals would be held there. He gave a long and typically incoherent response that did not address the question at all. He talked about how he lives in Florida and will spend “a lot of time here…” and how he has redecorated the Oval Office. It was a bizarre response to a simple question, but in its bizarre-ness it was one of his typical nonsensical “weaves”

Where are the people who called President Joe Biden incompetent? Where are they now that we have a U.S. President who is incapable of forming a complete sentence or staying on topic?

But that is not my main point.

My thoughts today and each day this week as I anticipated the 4^th of July are… disbelief and horror. I am horrified that the United States of America is constructing a concentration camp – just as it did during World War II. Then the camps were built to restrict the movement of people of Japanese descent. In 2025, they are for anyone with brown skin or a Spanish accent.

The photographs of the masked ICE agents are horrifying. They look exactly like the masked Boko Haram self-proclaimed jihadist militant group in Nigeria, except those thugs were black and most of the ICE agents are white. What they have in common in addition to their face coverings is a penchant for terrorizing people, including little children. What they appear to have in common is hate and a personal delight in inflicting pain and terror.

Police officers in the United States don’t wear face masks. People who are ashamed of what they are doing wear face masks. People who don’t want to be caught or recognized wear face masks. Have the dark face coverings of ICE agents in 2025 replaced the white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan? The sight of the masked ICE agents triggers that comparison in my mind, and the first word that comes to mind is “cowardice.”

What kind of person – mostly men – takes a job as an ICE agent? Who takes a job in which they have to trade their souls for a mask and a pair of handcuffs or wad of zip ties? Are they so filled with hate and racism that they enjoy terrorizing families and children?

And those ICE agents? They will, no doubt, say they were just following orders. If that lame excuse rings a bell, it is because that’s what Hitler’s henchmen cried at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945 and 1946.

I don’t recognize this America. I don’t understand this America. I cannot celebrate this America.

Janet

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

As I indicated in my blog post yesterday, #OnThisDay: 26^th Amendment Ratified, 1971 – Part One, when I started researching the history of the 1971 ratification of the 26^th Amendment, which lowered the voting age in federal elections in the US from 21 to 18 years of age, I got in over my head quickly and the blog post grew like topsy.

Therefore, I split the post into two posts. My post yesterday gives important background information which helps to put today’s post in perspective.

Starting with the beginning of America’s involvement in World War II, here is how the 26^th Amendment finally came about. As I said in yesterday’s blog post, the military draft and the setting of the voting age in the United States became intertwined decades ago.

World War II

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Congress gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt the authority to send US military personnel anywhere in the world. The distinctions between draftees, regular army, National Guardsmen, and Reservists were removed for the war. They were all part of the army.

Eleven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress lowered the draft age to 18 and raised the upper limit to the age of 37.

Also in 1942, West Virginia Congressman Jennings Randolph introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. That was the first of 11 times that Randolph would introduce such legislation in his political career which eventually found him in the US Senate.

It seems that Randolph had a particular faith in the youth of America. He is quoted as saying that American young people, “possess a great social conscience, are perplexed by the injustices in the world and are anxious to rectify those ills.”

What seems idiotic to us in 2025 is the fact that black men were not considered for the draft until 1943. The so-called reasoning for that was the assumption that white men and black men could not work together in a military setting and white racists believed that black men were not capable of serving in the military!

As a result, in 1943 a racial quota system was put in place under which black men were drafted in numbers to coincide with their percentage of the general population. At that time, just over ten percent of the US population was black.

But even with this new quota, black soldiers were restricted to serving in “labor units.” That changed, though, as World War II progressed and they were needed in combat positions.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the minimum age for the age to the age of 18 during World War II, but the minimum voting age held at the age of 21. At that time voting age was set by each state.

The slogan, “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” gained momentum in 1943, and George became the first state to lower voting age for state and local elections from 21 to 18.

By the end of World War II, of the 34 million men registered for the draft, 10 million had been inducted into the military.

Post-World War II until the Korean War

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman asked Congress to let the 1940 Selective Training and Service Act expire and recommended that the US military could rely on voluntary enlistments.

However, in 1948, the minimum number of military personnel was not reached, so Truman asks for the draft to be reinstated. The new act called for the drafting of men between 19 and 26 years old for twelve months of active service.

Korean War (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953)

Mean between 18½ and 35 were drafted for an average of two years. Men who had served in World War II were not required to sign up for the Korean War draft; however, I know a fighter pilot who served in World War II who was called back into active service during the Korean War. (By the way, he is 100 years old now.)

The Universal Military Training and Service Act passed in 1951. It required men from 18 to 26 years old to register. The next year, Congress enacted the Reserve Forces Act. It required every draftee and every enlisted man to an eight-year military service obligation. That obligation meant that after their term of active duty, they were assigned to standby reserve and knew they could be called back into active duty upon a declaration of war or a national emergency.

Post-Korean War until Vietnam War

In his 1954 State of the Union address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “For years our citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 have, in time of peril, been summoned to fight for America. They should participate in the political process that produces this fateful summons.”

Jennings Randolph (mentioned above in the US Congress in the 1940s) was a Democrat. As a US Army General, Dwight Eisenhower had led US forces in the European Theatre in World War II and was a Republican. So why did it take until 1971 for the 26^th Amendment to the US Constitution to come about?

Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and Voting Rights

The US provided military advisors in South Vietnam beginning in the early 1950. The war in North and South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos continued.

President Lyndon B. Johnson started pressuring Congress to let him send active-duty troops to Vietnam after a military incident in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2, 1964. The US was carrying out a covert amphibious operation near North Vietnamese territorial waters. North Vietnam responded, and then based on skewed intelligence the US falsely claimed that another incident occurred on August 4, 1964.

There was very little support in the US for America to send troops to fight in that war, but what a tangled web we weave once we set out to deceive!

The first US Marines landed in DaNang, South Vietnam on March 8, 1965. The first anti-war demonstrations took place in the US since the end of the Civil War. Ironically, that was the same day that the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in US v. Seeger, which broadened the definition of conscientious objection but it was still based on religious beliefs.

Although President Johnson appointed a study commission to come up with changes to the Selective Service system, the war raged on and thousands of young men left the US to avoid the draft.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 make discriminatory practices based on race illegal; however, some states continued to enforce poll taxes and literacy tests. That necessitated the adoption of the 24^th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1964 which outlawed poll taxes.

Some states still had literacy tests that had to be passed before a person could register to vote. It was seen as a way to prevent black people from voting. Therefore, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was necessary. It prohibits any racial discrimination in voting in the United States.

Photo of people -- mostly black people -- marching with signs demanding the right to vote. — Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

And yet, if you were under 21 years old, you could be drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam but you still could not vote.

In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon ordered a “random selection” lottery system for the draft in place of drafting men at the age of 19. In 1970, Nixon wanted Congress to end student deferments.

On June 15, 1970, in US v. Welsh, the US Supreme Court ruled that men holding ethical and moral beliefs against the war could be exempt as conscientious objectors.

The US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Oregon v. Mitchell (a case brought by Oregon, Arizona, Texas, and Idaho) on December 21, 1970. In a 5 to 4 decision, the Court ruled that the federal government can set voting age in federal elections but not on the state and local level. It also made it illegal for states to require passage of a literacy test in order for an individual to register to vote. Oregon v. Mitchell

There was no end in sight for the US sending troops, which included female nurses, to Vietnam, but they could not vote until they reached the age of 21. Sadly, many of the soldiers in all the wars up to and including most of the war in Vietnam never got the chance to vote because they died before the 26th Amendment was ratified.

Photo of a section of the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington, DC with flowers laid at the base — Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

Ratification of the 26^th Amendment

Under increasing pressure to lower the federal voting age to 18, on March 10, 1971, the US Senate unanimously voted in favor of the proposed 26^th Amendment. Thirteen days later, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. It went to the states for ratification, and in a record-setting two months, the required three-fourths of the state legislatures ratified the amendment. It went into effect on July 1, 1971, and President Nixon signed it into law on July 5, 1971.

Photo of a white banner with the letters V O T E in big black ink.

Post-Vietnam War (for a military and draft perspective)

A cease-fire was reached between the US and North Vietnam on January 27, 1973, and US prisoners-of-war began to return home. The last US combat troops left South Vietnam on March 29, 1973.

The 1967 Selective Service Act, which had been extended by Congressional action, was allowed to expire in 1973. Therefore, the draft ended.

The United States operates with an all-volunteer armed forces now; however, all male citizens between 18 and 26 years of age are required to register for the draft and are liable for training and service until they reach the age of 35.

Until my next blog post

Keep reading that novel or nonfiction book that has you captivated. We all need an escape from daily worries and current events.

Never take your family or friends for granted.

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

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

I can always remember the year the 26^th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It lowered the legal voting age in the United States from 21 years old to the age of 18.

The argument that ultimately won the day and the ratification of the 26^th Amendment was that if 18-year-olds were old enough to fight a war in Vietnam, they were old enough to vote.

I just happened to turn 18 years old in 1971. My high school male classmates were receiving draft notices (and at least two of the females in my senior class did, too, because their first names could also be the first names of males), so the argument made sense to me.

What puzzled me was the fact that 18-year-old males had been drafted and sent to war as early as 1778, so why did the voting age not get lowered to 18 before the last years of the Vietnam War?

To find the answer to that question, I went down a rabbit hole. When will I learn that nothing has a simple answer?

It turns out that the question of the draft and the question of at what age an American should be given the right to vote have been intertwined for a very long time and started coming to a head during World War II.

I found it impossible to address the voting age without addressing the age of conscription.

Keep in mind that until 1920 women could not vote in the United States, and black men were not drafted until 1943. And black men and women were not allowed to vote in various states until the 1960s despite the adoption of the 15^th Amendment in 1870 which gave black men the right to vote.

Depending upon your age, this might seem like ancient history, but I assure you it is not.

I have divided today’s post by wars or eras up to but not including World War II, in case you aren’t interested in the total progression of this and how the 26^th Amendment became part of the US Constitution in 1971.

Tomorrow’s post will pick up with World War II to the ratification of the 26^th Amendment.

Revolutionary War

A regular army (the Continental Army) was raised from 1775 until 1783 by men who enlisted given cash bonuses and a promise of land “on the western waters) when the war was over.

My great-great-great-great-grandfather Morrison’s youngest brother took advantage of that offer. After 84 months of service, he was awarded 640 acres of land “on the western waters”, i.e. in Tennessee. Six of his 11 children pulled up stakes in piedmont North Carolina and moved to that land approximately 400 miles away in Tennessee.

War of 1812

The US Government recruited men to serve for 13 months. They were given a $16 sign-up bonus and were promised three months’ pay and 160 acres of land after their service. The US Congress authorized President James Madison to call up 100,000 militiamen from the states, but some of the states refused to cooperate.

Mexican War (1846-1848)

One-year enlistment times for many troops expired and military operations had to wait for replacements to arrive.

Civil War

In the North, Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln to draft men from 20 to 45 years old. For $300, a rich man could hire another man to serve in his place. Draft riots occurred for four days in New York City on July 13, 1863, after Governor Horatio Seymour declared the conscription act unconstitutional. Government offices were burned, shops were looted, and black men and anyone else refusing to join the protest were tortured. Less than two weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, New York soldiers there were called home to put down the riot. Approximately 1,000 people died! Governor Seymour finally gave in and the draft in New York started again.

In the South, the Congress of the Confederate States of America passed a conscription law in April 1862. All white men ages 18 to 35 were required to serve for three years in the military. As in the North, substitutes were allowed which contributed to low morale and low number. That eventually resulted in conscription between the ages of 17 and 50. By 1865, slaves were being called into service.

Spanish-American War (1898)

The US Congress made all white men between the ages of 18 and 45 subject to the draft.

World War I

In May 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed by the US Congress. It established local, district, state, and territorial civilian boards to register white men between the ages of 21 and 30 to serve in World War I. There was widespread opposition to the Act which resulted in tens of thousands of men applying for exemptions. More than 250,000 men did not even register. Arrests were made, including one round-up of 16,000 men in New York City in 1918. In light of all that, all attempts to set up military training standards and service were defeated in Congress in the years immediately after the war.

The National Defense Act of 1920

That act established a system of voluntary military service. After all, World War I/The Great War was supposed to be “the war to end all wars.”

Leading up to World War II

The US was reticent to get involved militarily in World War II. The Burke-Wadsworth Act passed in both houses of the US Congress in September 1940. It imposed the first peacetime military draft in US history. In December 1940, all white men ages 21 to 36 were required to register for the draft. Although 20 million men fell into that category, half of them were rejected for military service during the first year due to either health reasons or illiteracy. (An astounding 20 percent of them were illiterate!)

Hurricane Helene Update

Surprise news: I-40 reopened on Friday, just two days after Tennessee Department of Transportation indicated they were trying to get it reopened by July 4.

More good news: Chimney Rock State Park has reopened after being closed for nine months due to hurricane damage to the park and the Town of Chimney Rock.

As of Friday, 62 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, nine state highways, and 48 state roads.

Like my report as of Friday, June 20 showed an increase in closures due to Hurricane Helene over the Friday before, this report is a slight increase in closures over the one for June 20. There is no explanation, just a chart showing each category of closures by NC DOT district. I assume some damages were longer showing up than others and/or some roads that were passable for the months immediately after the storm have now been closed for repairs.

Until my next blog post, which will be tomorrow

I hope you have a good book to read.

Keep family and friends close in your thought, prayers, and activities.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

A little fascism here, a little fascism there…

I’ve read that some people who blindly voted for Donald Trump are having buyer’s remorse now. As far as I know, I don’t know any of them personally. If you now wish you had not voted for Trump, please tell me.

Not a day passes that we don’t learn of another fascist step the Trump regime has taken.

It is exhausting to watch the news. It is exhausting to try to digest it and condense it into a blog post. I refuse to stop. I love my country too much to give up or give in.

I love my four young adult great nieces too much to stop watching the news and scanning the internet for multiple reputable resources. I love them too much to leave them a tyrannical government in which they are commanded to march lockstep with the-power hungry freedom haters in charge.

I worked too hard to get an education and they have worked too hard to get an education for them to be doomed to a life of barefoot and pregnant, which is what the Trumpers apparently want for them.

Wannabe dictators don’t sweep in and convert a democracy into an authoritarian state overnight. They chip away at rights bit by bit. They ban a few books today, and they ban more books tomorrow. They institute laws that make it more difficult for citizens to register to vote.

They call the press “the enemy of the people.” They attack education. They push the envelope to see what they can get away with. They attack judges. They slowly but surely undermine the citizens’ confidence in everything until those citizens start questioning their own instincts.

They normalize lies and hate.

They exaggerate civil unrest so they can bypass a state governor and send in the National Guard. They overwhelming exaggerate civil unrest so they can deploy the United States Marines to a city.

They invent crises so they can declare martial law.

I am trying to sound the alarm bell out of a place of low and not anger.

Last Monday, June 16: Dr. Fiona Havers, a top scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resigned because she could not in good conscience stay with the agency after Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices on June 9.

Photo of a nurse giving a little girl a shot. — Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Huffpost.com (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cdc-vaccine-expert-resigns-warning_n_6853013ee4b0ed75e67535cd) quoted Dr. Havers as saying, “It is a very transparent, rigorous process, and they have just taken a sledgehammer to it in the last several weeks. “CDC processes are being corrupted in a way that I haven’t seen before.”

Reuters reported that Dr. Havers’ email to her colleagues said that she had lost of confidence that her team’s output would “be used objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions.”

Dr. Havers’ fear is that “a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases.”

She told The New York Times, “I could not be party to legitimizing this new committee.”

On June 11, Secretary Kennedy appointed eight new members to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. Several of them have questionable qualifications for developing vaccine policy for the United States.

If you wish to read about the backgrounds of the eight new members, here is a link: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2025/06/12/acip-members.

Last Wednesday, June 18: The Associated Press (https://www.npr.org/2025/06/19/g-s1-73572/us-resumes-visas-foreign-students-access-social-media) reported that the US State Department will restart the process of vetting foreigners who apply for student visas. The new restriction is that applicants will have to set their social media accounts to “public” so they can be reviewed by US officials.

The report said, “The department says consular officers will be looking for activity, posts and messages showing ‘any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States.’”

That would probably prevent me from coming here to study. So much for free speech.

Last Thursday, June 19: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem instituted a new policy (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/us/politics/ice-congress.html) that members of Congress must give 72 hours’ notice if they wish to fulfill their duty and responsibility to visit ICE Field Office. That is in direct violation of the annual appropriation act that states that members of Congress are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.”

The ICE Field Offices and detention centers house undocumented immigrants, sometimes legal immigrants, and sometimes American citizens because the ICE agents who are clothed in black glasses and face masks apparently cannot see or hear well enough through all their Gestapo-reminiscent garb to tell a citizen from a non-citizen. Why don’t they just wear white hoods like many of them probably do when they are off the clock?

What do they want to hide from the members of Congress?

This is another in a long line of cases in which Trump or one of his appointees decided they don’t have to obey the law.

Also on last Thursday, June 19: Trump put on social media that we have too many holidays in the United States. Posting that on Juneteenth was no accident. He posted that “the workers don’t want it [a holiday] either.”

Photo of a couple enjoying the beach with their toddler. The little boy is sitting on his father's shoulders and laughing. — Photo by CDC on Unsplash

If you work for the government, at a bank, or the stock market and don’t want a paid holiday, raise your hand. Go ahead. Raise your hand.

Last Friday, June 21: Axios reported that on June 12 Trump pulled the plug on the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement. The Biden Administration dedicated $1 billion through 2033 toward restoring salmon to the Columbia River Basin along with supporting tribal-led clean energy projects in the region. Trump called the agreement “radical environmentalism.”

It’s certainly not the first time the federal government has broken its promises to indigenous peoples, and it won’t be the last. Apparently, the hydroelectric industry, agriculture, and shipping had a stronger lobby at the White House than the Yakama Tribal Council. (https://apnews.com/article/columbia-river-snake-river-dams-tribes-salmon-745894c815e8951e9897b7a5a3544bfb) Money talks; salmon don’t.

Also last Friday, June 21: NBC News reported that on social media that day Trump called for a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 elections. That’s the one he lost. Despite a raft load of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign since then, no evidence of mass voter fraud has come to light. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-posts-social-media-calling-special-prosecutor-investigate-2020-e-rcna214099) Here we go again….

Also last Friday, June 21: It came to light on several media outlets that the US Ambassador to Senegal had denied visas for two representatives of the Senegalese basketball federation, the team doctor, a physiotherapist, five players, a steward, the general manager, and the ministerial delegate. They were scheduled to come to the United States for ten days to train for the biennial AfroBasket Tournament to be played July 26 – August 3 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. No reason was given for the visa denials.

This does not bode well for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In fact, nothing that has happened since January 20 bodes well for those games.

Also last Friday, June 21: I desperately look for signs of hope. I found one on Friday. It has been reported that the section in Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” that would make it almost impossible for the Trump Administration to be sued for dictatorial behavior or almost anything else in federal court – has been removed from the bill being considered by the US Senate. The US House of Representatives passed the bill, but a few Senators and the Senate Parliamentarian have removed some parts of it. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-parliamentarian-knocks-pieces-out-of-trump-s-megabill/ar-AA1H6dqB)

Last Saturday, June 22: In a statement that would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous, this was published by The Washington Post: “President Trump is restoring the integrity of the Executive Branch following four years of relentless abuse through weaponization, lawfare, and unelected bureaucrats running the nation via autopen,” [White House spokesperson] Harrison [Fields] said in a statement. “The President and his administration are the most transparent in American history, seamlessly executing the will of the American people in accordance with their constitutional authority.”

The article contrasted the post-Watergate actions the US Congress took to rein in the power of the president with the undoing of power of the legislative branch by Trump.

The article, written by Naftali Bendavid and which can be found at https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-undermines-watergate-laws-in-massive-shift-of-ethics-system/ar-AA1H8Xbx. The article includes this example: “Watergate-era lawmakers, furious at Nixon for refusing to spend money they had authorized, passed a law forbidding “impoundment.” Trump ignored that when he temporarily froze government grants, and he has all but dismantled an agency created by Congress, the U.S. Agency for International Development.”

It goes on to say, “In response to Nixon’s push to replace civil servants with political loyalists, Congress created the Merit Systems Protection Board in 1978 to hear cases of federal employees claiming unjust termination. Trump, who wants to force out thousands of workers, has dismissed a key member of the board and sought to neutralize it.”

On Monday, June 23: The US Supreme Court struck down a lower court ruling and said that it is perfectly find for the Trump Administration (and, therefore, all future administrations) to deport eight immigrants from various countries, including Vietnam and Cuba, to South Sudan even though none of them are from that country.

Photo of US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC — Photo by Brad Weaver on Unsplash

Imagine being deported to a country where you know no one and don’t speak that language! It turns out the eight people had already been deported to Djibouti before the US Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 ruling on Monday.

Until my next blog post

I will give you my weekly post-Hurricane Helene in North Carolina road update when I blog about my historical fiction writing and the little about the devotional book I’ve written but not yet published.

I hope you are reading a book that has you so captivated you can’t put it down except long enough to read my blog!

Don’t take anything or anyone for granted.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

How do we get out of this mess?

Many of my blog posts this year have been about the mess we’re in. American democracy is being challenged like no other time in recent history, if ever.

Some people have been known to say in the last six months that we could have another civil war in the United States. Perhaps you’ve thought it yourself or heard someone else say those words.

Series of Webinars Sponsored by The Carter Center

Photo of President Jimmy Carter — President Jimmy Carter Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

This spring I watched a series of webinars sponsored by The Carter Center about our divided country. Panelists explored how we got to this place, how we can learn from other countries, what we can do to avoid what other countries have experienced, and where we can start.

The country that served as the example in the four webinars was Northern Ireland.

The facilitator for the webinars was the Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, a Methodist minister, peacemaker, and peacebuilder from Northern Ireland. Dr. Mason founded Rethinking Conflict in 2015. It seeks to model the principles of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement.

That agreement finally ended the conflict on Good Friday, April 10, 1998. Dr. Mason has taken this model to the Middle East and now, to the United States.

Dr. Mason spoke from personal experience growing up during “The Troubles.”

If you are interested in watching the four “Why are we divided?” webinars, here’s the link: https://georgiadrn.org/divided-webinar/.

What if “The Troubles” happened in the United States?

British troops occupied Northern Ireland in August 1969. Everyone thought it would be over before Christmas, but there was an amazing amount of violence over the next 30 years. It was the longest occupation by the British Army in history.

To give Americans some perspective on the amount of violence that took place in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles,” Dr. Mason gave the following statistics: At that time, Northern Ireland had a population of 1.5 million. During The Troubles, nearly 4,000 were killed, 47,000 were injured, there were 37,000 shootings, 30,000 people went through the penal system, there were 22,000 armed robberies, and 16,000 bombings.

He extrapolated that out to compare with the population of the United States over a 30-year conflict. If we had such a civil war in the US, we could see 800,000 killed, 9 million injuries, 7 million shootings, 6 million political prisoners, 4 million armed robberies, and 3 million bombings.

Imagine that level of carnage in America. I can’t.

An estimated 618,000 Americans died in our Civil War in the 1860s. To bring it “home,” I’ve studied the local losses in my own church in that war. Out of a membership of 400 white members and 200 black enslaved members, the congregation lost 74 men in the war. I cannot imagine that number of deaths in this community.

Just like it, undoubtedly, took decades for my community to recover from the war, 27 years after the Good Friday Agreement, Dr. Mason says in Northern Ireland “we are still wrestling with the legacy of the conflict. It’s really the one piece of unfinished business of the peace process.”

Indeed, in the United States we’re still wrestling with the legacy of our civil war. Confederate statues were taken down, but Trump wants them put back in place. Confederate names were removed from US military installations, but now the names are being restored, albeit technically they are not being renamed for the Confederates.

For example, Fort Bragg here in North Carolina was originally named for Braxton Bragg, a Confederate Army General who owned slaves. His name was removed, all the signs and letterhead replaced to say “Fort Liberty” in June 2023, and then in February 2025, Fort Liberty was renamed Fort Bragg but this time for a decorated Private in World War II, Roland X. Bragg.

We are still wrestling with the legacy of our Civil War, so it is not surprising that 27 years after the fact, the people of Northern Ireland are wrestling with theirs.

In Northern Ireland, People Hated Each Other

When peace talks began in Northern Ireland, the people in the room hated each other. No wonder it took so many years for them to develop a peace agreement.

Is that where we are today in the United States of America?

In polite society, we generally get along with each other. But, as I wrote about in my April 17, 2025, blog post, Is your family getting together during Holy Week? Brace yourself!, it only takes one person making an inflammatory remark and a heated argument can break out even among a group of friends or a family gathering.

Do Americans hate each other?

I don’t hate anyone, but I hate what some individuals and groups are doing to our country.

I hate that the US Congress has relinquished its legislative responsibilities to a US President who is legislating via Executive Orders.

I hate that thousands of federal employees have been fired or forced to take early retirement.

I hate that medical research funds and researchers have been eliminated.

I hate that people are being shipped off to a prison in El Salvador without due process.

I hate when people are shipped off to a prison El Salvador by mistake, the US President says he is powerless to do anything about it.

I hate that USAID was halted and will result in people starving.

I hate that universities, museums, and libraries are being targeted and punished.

I hate that Moms for Liberty think they have the right to dictate which books should not be read.

I hate that the Heritage Foundation was able to slide Project 2025 into the White House while the Republican Presidential nominee denied having anything to do with it.

I hate that many of the most vocally hateful voices in this country come from people who claim to be Christians. They give Christianity and Christians a bad name.

So how do we get out of this mess?

If we take the peacemaking and peacebuilding experience of Dr. Gary Mason into consideration, since he has lived through a civil war, we will open avenues of communication with people with whom we disagree.

The core advice from How to Have That Difficult Conversation in Uncivil Times, by Janet Givens is that we start by finding common ground to break the ice with people we need to have that difficult conversation with. Surely, there is something you and they have in common. (See my August 22, 2022, blog post, <em>L.E.A.P.F.R.O.G.: How to hold a civil conversation in an uncivil era</em>, <em>Third Edition, </em>by Janet Givens.)

Photo of cover of L.E.A.P.F.R.O.G.: How to hold a civil conversation in an uncivil era, by Janet Givens — *LEAPFROG: How to hold a civil conversation in an uncivil era*, by Janet Givens, M.A.

Taking Dr. Mason’s advice, we will then calmly and sincerely ask the person or persons why they feel the way they do about the topic with which we know we disagree with them, and then we will respectfully listen to their story.

Hopefully, they will be equally curious about our story and allow us to explain our position and why or how we arrived at it. Without honesty by both parties and a genuine curiosity by both parties, and a real listening by both parties… it won’t be a successful conversation.

Then, we move on to another person with whom we disagree and repeat the process.

Hmmm. Sounds easy on paper?

No, it doesn’t even sound easy on paper, much less in real life.

Bottom line is, I don’t know how we get out of this mess.

It has been my experience that people who stand on the opposite end of the political spectrum from where I stand, are not interested in hearing my story. They tend to be loud, rude, and condescending. They tend to call names and belittle, like their political leader on Pennsylvania Avenue.

So I really don’t know how we will get out of this mess. When I consider having “that difficult conversation” with anyone I know who supports Trump, I honestly cannot imagine that I would be able to have a productive conversation with them about politics. Our worldviews and core beliefs about democracy are just that far apart.

A chilling perspective

I just reread White Robes and Broken Badges: Infiltrating the KKK and Exposing the Evil Among Us, by Joe Moore. I blogged about that book on October 7, 2024, in What I Read Last Month & a Hurricane Helene Update, and I will blog about it again on July 7.

Speaking from the unique place of having infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan twice for the FBI, Moore stated in his book, “The radical right cares nothing about process, only outcome. They’re not interested in a civil discussion to work out differences, because they are so consumed by ideology that it has hijacked their civility. They have a clear vision of what they want the country to look like, and democracy itself is the only thing standing in their way.”

That leaves us in a hopeless situation. I don’t want to be hopeless, but I admit I don’t know how to have a productive conversation about politics with anyone who supports Donald Trump.

Even when Donald Trump is no longer in office, the people who agree with his tactics will still be with us. Our mess is bigger than an election or two can clean up.

Until my next blog post

How do you think we can get out of this mess?

What have you tried? Did it work?

It is going to take all of us to get our country out of this mess. The politicians certainly aren’t going to save us!

Remember the people of Northern Ireland, Ukraine, and western North Carolina.

Janet

P.S. I wrote and scheduled today’s blog post before the United States bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran on Saturday night, Eastern Time.

Janet's Writing Blog

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